APPENDIX.]

ORDER OF SAINT PATRICK.

xi

nothing but force should remove him from it. It is unnecessary to add, that such a measure was notresorted to in a place so sacred.’

‘ Mansion House, Friday, September 7, 1821.

‘ I have read with much surprise in this day’s Freeman’s Journal, the annexed paragraph, repub-lished, as I presume by the direction or under the authority of the King at Arms, and as I feel myselfcalled upon, under the circumstance, to reply to so invidious and unmerited a publication, I request youwill have the goodness to say, whether or not the situation which I and the Sheriffs occupied on the dayof the Installation in the Cathedral, had not been on the day previous thereto pointed out by you tome, as the one which had been theretofore occupied by our predecessors in Office, and particularly inthe year 1819 (which was since the appointment of the present King at Arms as Attendant on theOrder), by the Lord Mayor. It was my intention to have treated the paragraph to which I allude withsilent contempt, but its re-appearance calls on me to reply to it, and which will best plead my excusefor troubling you upon the subject. I cannot conclude without expressing my sincere thanks to youfor the polite and kind attention which not only myself, but every Member of the Corporation has atall times, and upon all occasions, received from you.

‘ I have the honour to be, my dear Sir,

‘ Your sincere and faithful humble Servant,

‘ Abraham Bradley King.

‘ The Very Rev. and Hon. the Dean ofSaint Patrick’s, Dublin.’

‘ Deanery House, September 8.

‘ MY DEAR LORD,

‘ I have just had the honour of receiving your letter, in which you express some anxiety to beinformed whether I had not pointed out the situation occupied by your Lordship and the Sheriffs, uponthe day of the Installation, as the one which had been allotted to you and their predecessors in Officeupon a former similar occasion. In reply, I beg leave to assure you, that I can have no hesitation tostate my perfect recollection of having done so—in the year 1819, the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs wereplaced in that part of the Cathedral to which you allude, and I confess I am at a loss to understandwhat necessity there existed for departing from the arrangement then adopted. I am not prepared toassert into whose hands the power of disposing of seats ought to have been committed; to say the truth,it was a privilege of which I was not very ambitious: it was exercised, I am told, by the King at Arms,and I presume in a way which he considered proper, but with respect to your Lordship and theSheriffs, in a manner different from what I should have conceived it my duty to exercise it—inde-pendent of the gratification which I should have felt in paying the attention justly due to yourLordship’s private character and worth, I should have considered myself bound to evince my respectfor your Official station, and to have marked, in the presence of His Majesty, whose condescension andkindness you had so recently and deservedly experienced, the distinguished estimation in which youare held by all classes of your fellow citizens. Permit me to request your acceptance of my sincerethanks for your kind expressions as to any attention it may have fallen to my lot to shew to you andthe Members of the Corporation, and to assure you that I feel it has been infinitely overrated.

‘ I have the honour to remain

* Your Lordship’s very faithful humble Servant,

‘Richard Ponsonby.

‘ The Right Hon. Sir Ab. Bradley King, Bart.

Lord Mayor of Dublin.”