Zbc jFtt3WtlUams 271 



ing on the subject of Catholic Emancipation, of which 

 he was a strong supporter, he found himself unable to 

 retain office under Pitt, and sent in his resignation. The 

 news was received with the profoundest regret all over 

 Ireland. 'The day of his departure from Dublin,' says 

 Lord Stanhope, in his Lz/e of Pitt, ' was one of general 

 gloom : the shops were shut ; no business of any kind 

 was transacted ; and the greater part of the citizens 

 put on mourning ; while some of the most respectable 

 among them drew his coach down to the water side.' 

 Although at one time, about 1812, he was spoken of as 

 a possible Whig Premier, his name did not again come 

 very prominently before the public, until his violent 

 denunciation of the conduct of the magistrates who 

 ordered the charge of Yeomanry which dispersed the 

 Manchester Reform Meeting on the i6th of August, 

 1 8 19, and resulted in the deplorable and shameful 

 Peterloo Massacre. So strong was Lord Fitzwilliam's 

 language that the Government felt compelled to take 

 notice of it, and he was removed from the Lord-Lieu- 

 tenancy of the West Riding of Yorkshire. 



Thenceforward he devoted himself, with more zest 

 than ever, to the pleasures of the Chase. In 1821 addi- 

 tional lustre was shed on the Fitzwilliam Hunt at Milton, 

 by the presence of Tom Sebright, who in that year 

 became huntsman, and for forty years carried the 

 horn ' with credit and renown.' As Tom is undoubtedly 

 the one great heroic figure in the history of the Fitz- 

 william hounds, I shall make no apology for giving a 

 brief sketch of his career. 



His father, also Tom, had been entered to hounds 

 under that fine sportsman, Mr Corbet of Shropshire, and 

 had as his brother whip the immortal Tom Moody, 



