The famous Mayo libel case of November 1833

by Anne Chambers

IN November 1833, one of the first publicly-recorded cases of libel was lodged in the Court of Common Pleas in Dublin by Howe Peter Browne, 2nd Marquess of Sligo from Westport House, against Frederick Cavendish, English-born editor of the Castlebar-based Telegraph and Connaught Ranger (later re-named The Connaught Telegraph).

The charge related to ‘the injury and stain which the defendant (Cavendish) has cast…on the plaintiff’s (Sligo’s) character'.

Formerly Cavendish was an avid supporter of Lord Sligo who, in an age not overly-endowed with improving Irish landlords, was an exception.

A passionate advocate of Catholic Emancipation, multi-denominational education (for which he was opposed by both the Catholic and Protestant archbishops), reform of the legal system and the abolition of the notorious ‘Church tithes’, Sligo was also to the fore in the development of manufacturing as an alternative to the over-dependence on agriculture.

In 1831, when the first potato famine engulfed the west of Ireland, in contrast to local landlords such as Lord Lucan in Castlebar and William Brabrazon in Swinford, Sligo sought to alleviate the desperate circumstances of his tenants by importing cargoes of grain and potatoes, building a hospital and dispensary in Westport to care for the sick, and raising additional funding from the government for public works.

His efforts on the ground in Westport received praise in the British and Irish press, including from Frederick Cavendish in the Telegraph and Connaught Ranger which, on 9 April 1831, noted 'the unbounded charity of the Marquess of Sligo…his money is now…the main source by which the destitute in the several parishes surrounding Westport have been kept alive…and without enquiring from whence they come’.

In the following years, however, the divergence of opinion that developed between Cavendish and Sligo became centered on their opposite positions on the emerging political issue of Repeal of the Union with Britain.

Like his father before him, Sligo’s opinion was that Ireland, in its then present state, could not survive economically outside the UK. It contrasted with that of Cavendish, who contended that ‘an English parliament never knew, never will know how to legislate for the advantage of Ireland'.

As parliamentary elections approached in 1832, to promote the pro-Repeal candidates running against Sligo’s nominees, in a series of articles in his newspaper, using the pen name Philodemus, Cavendish questioned Sligo’s image and reputation as a model landlord, and accused him of rack-renting, electioneering and of oppressing his tenants.

As the election approached his comments became more personal and antagonistic, depicting Sligo as being ‘rapacious and unjust’ and urged voters ‘to render asunder Browne chains in which you have been bound…’

In the event, Sligo’s two nominees were subsequently re-elected ‘indebted for their return', as Cavendish claimed in the Telegraph, ‘to the corrupt influence and power of the Marquess of Sligo’.

While elections at the time tended to be fraught and violent, Sligo considered that the editor of the Telegraph had gone beyond what was acceptable and in November 1833 instituted libel proceedings. In a packed Dublin courtroom, Cavendish was found guilty, fined £200 and sentenced to one month’s imprisonment.

The case was widely covered in both Irish and British newspapers. Collections were held among pro-Repeal organisations throughout Ireland to pay Cavendish’s fine, while Sligo donated his damages to charity.

On his release Cavendish continued his vendetta, denouncing the Mayo gentry as ‘cringing, servile adherents of a man for whose smiles and claret they sold their tenants and their country'.

Undeterred, Sligo resolved, as he wrote, to ‘go on conscientiously in the path I know to be correct…and the people who will see my conduct will know I have no object in it but my Country’s good'.

(Anne Chambers is author of From Rake to Radical, Howe Peter Browne, Marquess of Sligo, 1778-1845 (New Ireland Books).