Baltinglas, which confiscated the estates granted to the Eustaces in Ireland, although the young brother of lord Baltinglas had taken no part in the rebellion.' The latter days of Elizabeth were certainly impoverished and embittered by the long strife in Ireland; and if her sister declared, "that, when dead, Calais would be found written on her heart," Elizabeth had as much reason to affirm, that the burning cares connected with the state of Ireland had wasted her lamp of life. 'See the important document in Egerton Papers, published by the Camden Society, headed, "Royal Prerogative." The Rev. Charles Eustace, of Kildare, is the representative of this family, and the claimant of the Baltinglas peerage The illegal attainder, by which the last lord Baltinglas suffered, could not, in point of law or justice, affect the descendants of his brother, who never forfeited his allegiance. The restoration, by George IV., of the forfeited peerages to the descendants of some of the noblemen who suffered for their devotion to the cause of Stuart, was not only a generous but a politic measure, as it healed all ancient wounds, and for ever quenched the spirit of hereditary disaffection to the reigning family in many a noble heart, which, from that hour, glowed with loyal affection to the sovereign, in grateful acknowledgment of the royal act of grace. Surely the services which the father and brothers of the venerable claimant of the Baltinglas peerage have performed for England, have been sufficient to obliterate the offence of their collateral ancestor, the unfortunate but patriotic victim of the unconstitutional government of Elizabeth in Ireland. |