LORD DUFFERIN.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR ") 8E14—Why is Lord Dufferin so emphatically called an Irish-
man ? Is it because his lineal male ancestor crossed from Scotland to Ulster in the seventeenth century, and that ancestor and his descendants carefully abstained from intermarrying with families of Irish descent ? Is it because he has a property in that country, or is it because he has a seat in its Peerage ? He may have been born in Ireland, and may have lived much on his estates ; but I cannot discover that he has any descent from any family of Irish origin. In the male line he is a Blackwood of a Scottish family which helped to colonise Ulster. His "Seize Quartiers " (i.e., his eight great-grandfathers and his eight great-grandmothers) are composed of the following per- sons, and among them I fail to trace the Irish names we might reasonably expect :—
1. Sir Robert Blackwood. 3. James Stevenson. }
2. Joyce Leeson. 3 4. Anne Price.
5. Robert Temple. 7. William Shirley. 6. Mehetabel Nelson. 3 8. Frances Barker.
9. Thomas Sheridan. ( 11. Thomas Linley. 10. Frances Chamberlaiue. t 12. •-•
I cannot discover the name of Mrs. Linley; as she lived at Bath, and was buried at Wells, she was more probabli of Somerset- shire than Irish descent :— 13. John Callender. 5- 15. Alexander MacDonnell (Earl of IA. Mary Livingstone. ) t 16. Anne Plaukttt. [Antrim).
Were the Sheridaus of Milesian origin? If so, we are not helped, for if we abandon Lord Dufferin's male descent, which is Scotch, we must be consistent and treat his mother's descent [On this principle, is anybody an Englishman ? Was there -ever an Irishman more distinctively Irish than Sheridan P—En. Spectator.]
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