y, had become confounded with the
oppressed and suffering multitude. The Irish nation was practically
divided into a "Protestant garrison" and a pariah caste. It would have
been strange, therefore, if the faults incident to their position had not
been developed in each of these classes. And yet when the beautiful and
accomplished Mrs. Pendarves visited the island in 1731 she found social
life in the capital worthy of commendation. The generality of the people,
she said, were much the same as in England--a mixture of good and bad. All
she met behaved themselves very decently according to their rank. "Now and
then," she adds, "an oddity breaks out, but none so extraordinary but that
I could match them in England. There is a heartiness among them that is
more like _Cornwall_ than any I have known, and great sociableness."
Cornwall, it must be remembered, is largely Celtic. She writes, again,
that she has too much gratitude to find fault where she was treated
kindly, even if there were room for it, but declares that she was never in
a place that more deservedly claimed her good word than Ireland.

It was to the famous earl of Strafford that the viceregal court first owed
its brilliancy. When he came to Dublin as lord deputy he found the Castle
falling to ruins. He had it restored, and lived there in the manner
described by a traveled eye-witness, who says that a most splendid court
was kept there, and that he had seen nothing like it in Christendom except
that of the viceroy of Naples. In one point of grandeur the lord deputy
went beyond the Neapolitan, for he could confer honors and dub knights,
which that viceroy could not do, or indeed any other he knew of. This
splendor was interrupted by the civil wars, but burst forth anew under the
viceroyalty of the great duke of Ormond. Matters seem then to have been
somewhat irregularly managed. It was a time of great politico-religions
excitement, and "Papists" were forbidden to have residences in Dublin.
Nevertheless, complaints were made that several Catholic nobles and
gentlemen, among whom were Colonel Talbot and the earl of Clancarty, not
only took houses, but were received at the Castle, where they joined the
duke and the earl of Arran at play, which was often continued till three
o'clock in the morning. It was said that they then passed through the
gates with their coaches, and drew upon the guard if they attempted to
stop them. This good-fellowship did not serve to cement a