Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/253

Lawless unwilling to hamper his administration during his second viceroyalty (1830-4), he declined to join O'Connell in his repeal campaign. His attitude exposed him to the misconstruction of his friends and the bitter reproaches of O'Connell. 'The three years,' he wrote (Personal Recollections, p. 416), 'that followed Lord Anglesey's return to Ireland, though full of excitement and action, was to me the most unhappy I had passed since my release from the Tower.' Nevertheless he took an active part in the anti-tithe agitation, and having been created an English peer and an Irish privy councillor in September 1831, he spoke for the first time in the House of Lords on 7 Dec. on that subject. In 1836 a temporary reconciliation was effected between him and O'Connell, but in 1840 a further estrangement took place owing to an attack made by O'Connell on Cloncurry's nephew, Lord Dunsany, a noted Orangeman. After the death of his second wife in 1841 Cloncurry ceased gradually to take any active interest in politics. The two following years he passed on the continent, but in 1843 he exerted his influence as a privy councillor to avert what he afterwards described as 'a projected massacre' by the government of Lord de Grey on the occasion of O'Connell's intended repeal demonstration at Clontarf. At the first appearance of the great famine in 1846 he urged upon government the necessity of taking extraordinary preventive measures, but finding his advice rejected he indignantly declined to attend any further meetings of the council. Nevertheless, as a member of the famine committee and a trustee of the ' Central Relief Committee,' he spared neither time nor money in endeavouring to relieve the general distress. He disapproved of the Young Ireland movement, believing that it would only retard the repeal of the union, but he testified his personal sympathy with John Mitchel, the editor of the 'United Irishman.' by subscribing 100l. for the support of his wife. In 1849 he published his 'Personal Reminiscences,' which, according to Mr. Fitzpatrick (Secret Service, p. 39), was revised and prepared for publication 'by a practised writer connected with the tory press of Dublin, who believed that Cloncurry had been wrongly judged in 1798.' This circumstance will probably account for the slight inaccuracies as to facts and dates which occur in it. In Ireland the work was well received, but in England it was severely criticised, especially by J. W. Croker in the 'Quarterly Review' (lxxxvi. 126). The publication of Lord Anglesey's correspondence gave that nobleman much offence, and there were others who considered themselves to have been aggrieved. The book is on the whole well and forcibly written, though the interest flags towards the end; but a careful perusal of it goes to confirm Mr. Fitzpatrick's statement that it was not written by Cloncurry himself. In 1851 Cloncurry showed signs of failing health, but he lived to see the great Irish Industrial Exhibition of 1853. On 24 Oct. he caught a cold, on Friday 28th he died, and on 1 Nov. his remains were removed from Maretimo to the family vault at Lyons. Despite his faults of judgment and a somewhat morbid craving for popularity, Cloncurry was a sincere patriot. His house at Lyons was noted for its hospitality; he was a generous landlord, a lover of the fine arts, and wherever he recognised talent in his countrymen he did his best to cultivate and reward it. He was, to quote O'Connell, 'the poor man's justice of the peace, the friend of reform, in private society — in the bosom of his family — the model of virtue, in public life worthy of the admiration and affection of the people.' By his first wife Cloncurry had a son, Valentine Anne (his godmother was Anne, duchess of Cumberland), who was born in 1805, and died unmarried in 1825; and a daughter, Mary Margaret, married, first, in 1820, to John Michael Henry, baron de Robeck, from whom she was divorced, and secondly, in 1828, to Lord Sussex Lennox. Cloncurry married secondly, in 1811, Emily, third daughter of Archibald Douglas, esq., of Dornock (cousin to Charles, third duke of Queensberry), relict of the Hon. Joseph Leeson, and mother of the fourth Earl of Milltown. By her, who died 15 June 1841, he had Edward, third baron Cloncurry, born 13 Sept. 1816, who married Elizabeth, only daughter of John Kirwan, esq., of Castlehacket, co. Galway; Cecil-John, M.P., born 1 Aug. 1820, who caught a cold at his father's funeral, and died 5 Nov. 1853; and Valentina Maria, who died young.  LAWLESS, WILLIAM (1772–1824), French general, was born at Dublin, 20 April 1772, joined the United Irishmen, was outlawed in the Fugitive Bill, and, having taken refuge in France, entered the army. He was placed on half-pay in 1800, but in 1803 was appointed captain of the Irish legion, and in July 1806 was ordered to Flushing, then besieged by the English, to command the 