368 RACING CAREER OF SIR W. H. GREGORY. 



that when, in 1855, he broke down financially, 

 and quitted the Turf for ever, it was the most 

 fortunate circumstance that ever happened to him 

 in a long and distinguished life. 



A few words are all that I need devote to Sir 

 William's parentage and station in life. Those 

 who desire to read his early political experiences, 

 as revealed by his own hand, have but to turn to the 

 April, 1889, number of ' The Nineteenth Century,' 

 where they will find an article from his pen, 

 headed, " A Few more Words on Daniel O'Connell." 

 In the autumn of the previous year there had ap- 

 peared a work in two volumes entitled ' The Cor- 

 respondence of Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator : 

 edited, with Notices of his Life and Times, by W. J. 

 Fitzpatrick, F.S.A.' There can be little doubt that 

 the two volumes in question constitute the most 

 remarkable work on Irish politics and history that 

 has seen the light since the publication in 1859 of 

 ' The Correspondence of Charles, First Marquis 

 Cornwallis,' edited by Mr Charles Koss. These 

 two books seem to have had a greater effect than 

 any others upon the sensitive mind of Mr Glad- 

 stone, in inducing him to attempt to bestow Home 

 Rule upon Ireland. What Mr Gladstone thought 

 of ' The Correspondence of Daniel O'Connell ' may 

 be gathered from his striking article in the January, 

 1889, number of 'The Nineteenth Century.' One 

 passage from it I will permit myself to quote : 

 " There cannot but be many," writes Mr Glad- 



