Dear Eddie
LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD. By Patrick Byrne. (Staples, 12s. 6d.) The Wildes of Merrion Square revealed talent enough in Patrick Byrne to suggest he would make a worthy biographer of Lord Edward. The result is disappointing. Mr. Byrne has a lucid and vigorous narrative style; his knowledge of the period and of the Fitzgerald connection is considerable, and his judgements are in general sound (though to suggest that during the latter half of the eighteenth century the 'laws by which Ireland was governed were the work of Irishmen sitting in Dublin' indicates a complete mis- understanding of the nature of the Irish administration—which was, in fact, English). The weakness of the book is that the line between supposition and whimsy is never drawn. Mr. Byrne suggests, for example, that Castlereagh, when he stayed with Lord Edward, was.waiting to trap his hosts : 'Between smiles, he would estimate if there was sufficient evidence, as things stood, to send both his hosts to the gallows.' Is there any evidence of this? Or is Mr. Byrne simply translating Castlereagh's reputation into Castle- reagh's thoughts?
Again, Mr. Byrne says that Lord Edward was associated with Watty Cox. This Cox was the would-be Poujade of his day; the prototype of the Irish chancer—a man who, when he saw a reward was being offered by the authorities for information leading to the arrest of a rebel newspaper editor, went to them, demanded a safe-conduct (as well as the reward) in advance, and then revealed that the editor was himself. I do not know of any trustworthy evidence that Lord Edward was associated with him; and Mr. Byrne is sparing with his sources. The book too, is spattered with feeble obiter dicta. 'Whether women possess that intuition to which they lay claim,' Mr. Byrne informs us, 'is debatable; but there is much evidence that young men of genius have attracted the interest of women for reasons wholly unconnected with worldly prospects or physical attraction.' Only when Mr. Byrne is content to let the
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