Letter from Lady Louisa Conolly in Castletown, Co. Kildare to her husband Thomas Conolly. Referring to a visit by Lord Cornwallis to her and her sister Lady Sarah Napier, she says - ‘…I find that Lord Castlereagh is a great favourite with him and General Hewett quite an old friend. I had a little talk with him about poor Edward [Lord Edward Fitzgerald] in which I find that the necessity of example has been urged to him, so that I do not know how it will go. But I can never think that upon any occasion where it has pleased God to close the scene by death that Man is called upon to do more, and I must ever consider it as a refinement of severity to call over in judgment a man’s actions who cannot defend himself. The business is put off till Friday. I wrote to Mr G. Ponsonby yesterday and sent him my Brother’s opinion, which is so mild and fair that if the council employed in the case approve of his mode of proceeding , I can hardly think that the justice of it won’t strike everybody. … How he [Lord Cornwallis] does hate being Lord Lieutenant! I do not wonder at him. He has made a bargain with us not to call him Excellency. What a good man he must be to undertake so horrid a situation for the sake of doing right.’ She also discusses their family finances and that she anticipates a visit to Dublin by the 2nd Duke of Leinster.