he could not sit in an English
Parliament, he remembered that he had a peerage in Ireland, as Earl of
Rathfernhame and Marquis of Catherlogh, and off he set to see if the
Milesians would stand upon somewhat less ceremony. He was not
disappointed there. 'His brilliant parts,' we are told by contemporary
writers, but rather, we should think, his reputation for wit and
eccentricity, 'found favour in the eyes of Hibernian quicksilvers, and
in spite of his years, he was admitted to the Irish House of Lords.'

When a friend had reproached him, before he left France, with infidelity
to the principles so long espoused by his family, he is reported to have
replied, characteristically enough, that 'he had pawned his principles
to Gordon, the Chevalier's banker, for a considerable sum, and, till he
could repay him, he must be a Jacobite; but when that was done, he would
again return to the Whigs.' It is as likely as not that he borrowed from
Gordon on the strength of the Chevalier's favour, for though a marquis
in his own right, he was even at this period always in want of cash; and
on the other hand, the speech, exhibiting the grossest want of any sense
of honour, is in thorough keeping with his after-life. But whether he
paid Gordon on his return to England--which is highly improbable--or
whether he had not honour enough to keep his compact--which is extremely
likely--there is no doubt that my lord marquis began, at this period, to
qualify himself for the post of parish-weathercock to St. Stephens.

His early defection to a man who, whether rightful heir or not, had that
of romance in his history which is even now sufficient to make our young
ladies 'thorough Jacobites' at heart, was easily to be excused, on the
plea of youth and high spirit. The same excuse does not explain his
rapid return to Whiggery--in which there is no romance at all--the
moment he took his seat in the Irish House of Lords. There is only one
way to explain the zeal with which he now advocated the Orange cause:
he must have been either a very designing knave, or a very unprincipled
fool. As he gained nothing by the change but a dukedom for which he did
not care, and as he cared for little else that the government could give
him, we may acquit him of any very deep motives. On the other hand, his
life and some of his letters show that, with a vast amount of bravado,
he was sufficiently a coward. When supplicated, he was always obstinate;
when neglected, alway