486 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



office of Bailiff, the well known politician, Sir John Blaquiere,^ then 

 Secretary in Lord Harcourt's administration, had procured for himself 

 the appointment to this humble berth, and had, atthe same time, obtained 

 a lease of a plot of land adjacent to the Bailiff's lodge, which he 

 proceeded to enclose, and on which a handsome house was thereupon 

 erected at the public expense. Blaquiere being at the time unpopular, 

 the job created a great outcry ; and the Opposition fastening on the 

 transaction as a convenient weapon for attacking the Government, the 

 enclosure of the groimd granted to Blaquiere was represented as an 

 aKenation to private aggrandisement of lands dedicated to the public 

 use. Proceedings were taken to test his title, ^ and the Grand Jiuy of 

 the County Dublin presented for the removal of the wall round the 

 ground of the new Lodge "as an encroachment on the public and a 

 nuisance to His Majesty's subjects, who have been accustomed to pass 

 on horseback from time whereof the memory of man is not to the 

 contrary." Thereupon the Crown was obliged to defend the exercise 

 of the prerogative in the grant to Blaquiere, and application was 

 made to the King's Bench to quash the presentment.^ The appKcation 

 was at first refused by the Court, but an issue being directed to ascertain 

 the question of the title of the Crown, a trial at bar ensued at Green - 

 street in which the circumstances under which the Park was formed 

 were put in evidence ; when the jury, finding in favour of the 

 traverser, the character of the Park as the property of the Crown was 

 established, and the presentment was quashed.* Sir John Blaquiere 

 remained in the enjoyment of the lodge until 1782, several years 

 after he had ceased to be Secretary, when he was so fortunate as to 

 receive £7000 from the Government, as the price of the surrender of 

 a lease for three lives, under which he held the house which the State 

 had built for him. Telverton, who was one of the counsel in support 

 of the presentment, made the captxu'e by Blaquiere of the petty em- 

 ployment of Bailiff, the target for much legitimate ridicule, and the 

 nickname of "the King's Cowboy," which he applied to him, stuck 

 to the Secretary for a long time. Some mock heroic verses, entitled 

 " Blaquiere's Triumph," appeared in the Freeman'' s Journal,^ and a less 



1 Howard's Parliamentary History of Ireland, 3rd Eep. of Hist. MSS. Comm. 

 App., p. 433.^ 



^Affidavit of John Morrison, Dec. 19, 1774, Crown Office, King's Bench. 



2 The King •z;. Bradshaw, Crown Office Records, King's Bench, Feb. 6, 1775, 

 " Exshaw's Monthly Chronologer for 1775," p. 213. 



^ " The Freeman's Journal," Feb. 7, 1775. 

 = Feb. 10, 1775. 



