exciting the envy, gained the unanimous approval, of the diocesan
clergy. During the horrors of the general landlord persecution of the
Irish Catholics, (for it is nothing else than a persecution of
Catholics,) the O'Clerys found their name on the roll of the proscribed,
and got notice to quit the homestead of their fathers. The principal
cause for this proscription by the landlord was, that Dr. O'Clery, in
the newspapers, exposed the system of cruel and barbarous extermination
which took place on the extensive estates of Lord Mandemon--a gentleman
who said he thought it far more honorable, as well as profitable, to
have his princely estates in Munster tenanted by fat cattle than by
Irish Papists. His lordship had also the mortification to learn that all
the meat, money, and clothing he had employed for the last five years
could not make one single sincere convert to his rich "law
establishment." When the "praties" were dear, and the crops failed,
there were a few, to be sure, who would profess themselves ready to "ate
the mate" on Friday; but as soon as plenty returned, the "new lights"
went out, or returned to ask pardon of God, the priest, and the people;
and Lord Mandemon and his soup were pitched to the "seventy-nine
devils." This failure, this result, so often before seen and felt, and
so certain to follow, was, in his zeal for proselytism, attributed by
his lordship to Dr. O'Clery's zeal and learning. For, whenever or
wherever he went among the peasantry to preach to them in their own
sweet and loved dialect, the "jumpers, the new lights, and the soupers"
disappeared like the locusts from Egypt when exorcised by the magic rod
of Moses. Hence the hatred with which the O'Clerys were persecuted.
Hence, also, the oath of Lord Mandemon, that he would never return to
his home in England till every Papist on his estates was rooted out.
This oath was kept by his lordship, probably the only true one he ever
swore; for in less than a fortnight he fell a victim to the cholera, and
expired on board the Princess Royal steamboat on her return to