Fifteen thousand pounds

July, 1789, and their return was celebrated by the lighting of bonfires through the city by the excited populace.t Whaley then “ produced such incontestable proofs of having accomplished his arduous undertaking ” that his friends were obliged reluctantly to pay him a sum of fifteen thousand pounds. This left him seven thousand pounds to the good after defraying the expenses of the expedition ; “ the only instance,” to use his own words, “ in all my life before in which any of my projects turned out to my advantage.”3 He remained in Dublin upwards of two years, engaged largely in gambling, only to find in the end that there was a considerable balance against him.

Speaking of these years, he says, “ It was at this period I happily formed an acquaintance with a lady of exquisite taste and sensibility, from whom I have never since separated. She has been a consolation to me in all my troubles, her persuasive mildness has been a constant check on the impetuosity of my temper, and at this moment constitutes, in my retirement, the principal source of all my felicity.” She was a Miss Courtney ;4 and she lived with Whaley up to the time of her death, which took place when he was resident in the Isle of Man.

Having gone the round of such amusements as Ireland could afford, he opened house in London, “ bought horses and carriages, subscribed to all the fashionable clubs, and was in a short time a complete man of the ton at the West End of the town.”

Knutsford: its Traditions and History, by Rev. Henry Green (Manchester, 1887), author of Shakspere and the Emblem Writers.

Dangerous time are highly interesting

A restless curiosity next led him to Paris, where the Revolution was then in progress. His experiences in the French capital at that dangerous time are highly interesting, and are detailed with his usual openness. From thence he returned to Dublin, but only for the purpose of selling an estate, which brought him twenty- five thousand pounds. “ Having paid some debts and made a few necessary urchases,” he went back to Paris with fourteen thousand pounds in his pocket, and again plunged into the old life.