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3 unusual facts about Montague James Mathew


Montague James Mathew

In politics, he was both a Whig and a supporter of Catholic Emancipation and other Roman Catholic causes, which brought him into conflict with many members of his class in Ireland.

In 1815 the parliamentary sketch-writer Thomas Barnes wrote of Mathew that he showed "...all the characteristic fervour of his countrymen in favour of the cause of the Catholics, but at the same time evinces a blindness of blundering greater than even foolish illiberality ever ascribed to his nation".

During the present session of parliament, the speaker, having addressed the latter as the former, Montagu Mathew observed, it was strange he should make such a mistake, as there was as great a difference between them as between a horse chesnut and a chesnut horse.



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