whoever he was, our author seems not to be aware, that instead of panegyrising, he has satyrised him, most unmercifully. The orator has acknowledged that the object of his speeches was not to convince the House of the justice of his arguments, not to enforce the cause of truth, but to appeal to the passions of the gallery, ad captandum vulgus! This may be the trade of a Demagogue, but certainly is not the duty of a senator. A pretty compliment, too, Mr. Carr, or his informant, has paid to the Irish Senate, in ascribing to the galleries a superior power of appreciating and relishing the charms of eloquence! If the only effect of the "animating presence of numbers," in the House of Lords, were to be" energetic declamation," every friend to the dignity and respectability of that honourable assembly would seriously pray for a thin audience. In short, there is a great deal too much of this said declamation in both our Houses; and depraved, indeed, must that taste be, and most superficial that mind, which would not prefer a few lines of plain truth, and sober sense, to all the declamation of all the orators in the kingdom. As to the supposed" inherent right of the people" to hear the debates in Parliament, we wish our author had condescended to state in what part of our Constitution it is to be found. Has he forgotten, how very few years have elapsed, since the debates were only published under fictitious names; how very lately they first appeared in the newspapers; and how strictly they are prohibited by a standing order of either House, which puts it in the power of any one Member to clear the galleries? It was never the intention of those who framed our Constitution to render our Houses of Parliament popular assemblies; the wisdom and the consequence of the legislative character require not the meretricious support of popular applause; the discussions of a senate should be grave, solemn, and dignified, there should exist no motive, no temptation to sacrifice truth to popularity; and in all subjects of importance, levity and buffoonery should incur nothing but contempt. The people may judge of their representatives by their acts, by their laws; and the only thing essential to the preservation of their constitutional liberty, is their right of freely discussing the public conduct of public men. So long as that right remains inviolate, and the spirit to exercise it continues, were both Houses of Parliament closed, during the debates, and the publication of them positively forbidden, the liberty of the subject would be safe.

If we were to judge of the orator's eloquence by the curious spe cimen which is here exhibited of it, in the comparison of its soil to -earth in a garden-pot, we should say, the Irish public have assuredly no reason to deplore its loss. He seems not to know that the soil in a garden-pot is generally richer and more invigorating than other soil or that manure, instead of invigorating, would destroy some plants, which will only thrive in pure-bag earth.

Speaking of Swift, Mr. Carr observes, with equal justice and feeling," previous to the death of this great man, his servants used, to their eternal disgrace, to exhibit their wretched master, in his last moments of mental debility, to the populace of Dublin at two-pence a piece;" which Pope notices with horror, where he says

"And Swift expires a driv'ller and a show."

An instance of infamous rapacity, which had no imitation, till, to the eternal disgrace of the country, it was displayed under the dome of St. Paul's, by the exposure of the coffin of our immortal Nelson, after the solemn honours of a public funeral, to the vulgar eye, for one shilling a head *"

Such conduct was highly disgraceful; and we are astonished that the Chapter of the Cathedral should have allowed it !-The names of many places in Ireland begin with Kill; Mr. Carr recollects no less than forty-nine of which that word forms the first syllable.

"The name," he adds, produced the following ridiculous mistake: when some of our militia regiments were in Ireland during the rebellion, a soldier, a native of Devonshire, who was stationed at an outpost, stopped a countryman, and demanded who he was, whence he came, and whither he was going. The fellow replied, and my name, my dear honey, is Tullyhog; and, d'ye see, I am just been to Killmanny, and am going to Killmore. Upon which the centinel immediately seized him, expecting to receive a high reward for having apprehended a most sanguinary rebel, by confession, just come from murder, and going to a fresh banquet of blood!"

The following lipes, by Charles Leftley, Esq. a youth of genius, now no more, which occurred to our author's memory, as he was con→ templating the scenery of a beautiful part of the country, near Mr. Grattan's cottage, are poetically preity.

"Zephyr, whither art thou straying?
Tell me where:

With prankish girls in gardens playing
False as fair.

"A butterfly's light back bestriding
Queen-bees to honeysuckles guiding,
Or in a swinging hair-bell riding,
Free from care. :

"Before Aurora's car you amble
High in air;

At noon, when Neptune's sea-nymphs gamtibol,
Braid their hair.

"When on the tumbling billows rolling,
Or on the smooth sands idly strolling,
Or in cool grottoes they lye lolling,
You sport there.

"To chase the moon-beams

up

the mountains

You prepare ;

*To more liberal enthusiasts the body was raised, so that the hand might touch the lid of the coffin; but half-a-crown was demanded of those who thus committed sacrilege out of veneration.'

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'Or

Or dance with elves on brinks of fountains,
Mirth to share.

"Now seen with love-lorn lillies weeping,
Now with a blushing rose-bud sleeping,
Whilst fays from forth their chamber peeping,
Cry, oh rare!"

A trifling objection may be raised to the second line of the last stanza, for, in strict propriety, Zephyr cannot be supposed to sleep. The lines, however, are beautiful, and the mind that produced them was evidently the favourite residence of genius. At the country seat of Mr. Latouche, at Belle-vuc, Mr. Carr found a great source of rational delight; and he speaks of it in terms of appropriate commendation.

"The first object worthy of being seen here, is an institution which does equal honour to the head and heart of Mrs. P. Latouche, a Lady who, in a country remarkable for its benevolence, has distinguished herself for the extent and variety of her goodness. A fresh little girl neatly dressed conducted us through a winding walk to an extensive house and offices, built upon the estate, in which eight-and-twenty girls, the daughters of the neighbouring peasants, are clothed, boarded, and educated, at the expence of this Lady. The education of the girls is confined to useful objects, under the direction of a governess, and they alternately attend to all the domestic economy and arrangements of the house. Since the commencement of the school, several of the girls, having completed their education, have been comfortably married; three of them, I learned, have been settled in ledges on the demesne, one of them in a shop established for the benefit of the neighbouring poor, in which every article of clothing, fuel, &c. bought at the best wholesale price, is sold to the poor at a very trifling advance, just sufficient to afford a little allowance to the young shopkeeper. Upon the whole, as the reader may well suppose, it is a losing trade to the fair patroness; but she well knows that in a concern of beneficence, those who have the numerical balance in their favour, will be doubly paid both here, and hereafter."

This is really an establishment worthy of a Prince: they richly deserve wealth who so employ it. Let the opulent sons and daughters of dissipation, who spend hundreds on a ball, and stake thousands on a die, cast their eyes ou Belle-vue, and not only blush for their own degeneracy, but tremble at their own danger! It may not be amiss to remind such persons, that wealth is not given for the sole and exclusive benefit of its possessor-not to be idly wasted, but wisely appropriated; it is a delegated trust to which a serious responsibility is attached, and for which a solemn account will one day be demanded by him who cannot err, and who has warned his creatures, that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." After witnessing this scene of benevolence, we view with greater pleasure the magnificent embellishments of this favoured spot.

"I believe

I believe in England and Ireland the green and hot-houses of Belle-vue are unrivalled. This palace of glass, which looks as if it had been raised by Aladdin's lamp, is six hundred and fifty feet in length, and includes an orange, a peach, a cherry-house and vinery, and is filled with the most precious and beautiful plants from the sultry regions of Asia, Africa, and America, which, tastefully arranged, and in the highest preservation, banquet the eye with their beautiful colours, and fill the air with the most voluptuous perfume.

"As I was roving through this delicious spot, some steps led me into the chapel; the area of this room is twenty feet square, exclusive of the circular recesses, which are on each side raised by two or three steps, festooned with Egyptian drapery, in one of which the reading desk is placed, and in the two others the seats for the family; the area is filled with accommodations for the children of the school I mentioned, and the servants of the family; the height of the chapel, to the top of the dome, is twenty-six feet; the seats are covered with scarlet cloth, the decora tions are in the highest style of appropriate elegance, and the entrance opens into the conservatory."

Here utility and magnificence are united; and an example is set to the wealthy, the universal imitation of which would produce a happy. reform in the manners, and morals of the age. Of the fair part of the Irish nation, Mr. Carr gives a very favourable, and we doubt not, a very true account.

"The ladies of Ireland possess a peculiarly pleasing frankness of man, ners, and a vivacity in conversation, which render highly interesting all they do, and all they say. In this open sweetness of deportment, the libertine finds no encouragement; for their modesty must be the subject of remark and culogy with every stranger. I have been speaking of the respectable class of female society; but the same virtue is to be found in the wretched mud cabin. The instances of connubial defection are fewer in Ireland, for its size, than any other country of equal civilization. The appeal of the injured husband to the tribunal of the laws, is rare.A distinguished Advocate at the Bar assured me, that for the last six years there have not been more than five actions of crim. con,, and not so many for the preceding twenty years. Two of these actions were between per sons of very unequal situations of life in point of fortune, and were by the Bar supposed to have originated in collusion for the hope of gain."

This is an honourable testimony to the virtue of the Irish women; but, when Mr. Carr tells us, that their modesty is not the effect of "any coldness in the organization of nature," we confess we do not understand him. The Sunday, in Ireland, seems to be passed by the peasantry much in the same way as it is in all countries where the Romish religion prevails.

"A Sunday with the peasantry in Ireland is not unlike the same day in France. After the hours of devotion, a spirit of gaiety shines upon every hour; the bagpipe is heard, and every foot is in motion. The cabin on this day is deserted; and families, in order to meet together, and enjoy the luxury of a social chit-chat, even in rain and snow, will walk

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three

three or four miles to a given spot. The same social disposition attaches them to a festive meeting, which owes its origin to the following cir, cumstance. In the provinces of Munster and Connaught, and other counties, there were several fountains and wells, which, in the early ages of Christianity, were dedicated to some favourite Saint, whose patronage was supposed to give such sanctity to the waters, that the invalids who were immersed in them, lost all their maladies. On the anniversary of each Saint, numbers flocked round these wells for the united purpose of devotion and amusement; tents and booths were pitched in the adjoining fields; erratic musicians, hawkers, and showmen, assembled from the neighbouring towns, and priests came to hear confessions; the devotees, after going round the holy wells several times on their bare knees, the laceration of which had a marvellous effect in expiating offences, closed the evening by dancing, and at their departure fastened a small piece of cloth round the branch of the trees, or bushes, growing near these consecrated waters, as a memorial of their having performed their penitential exercises.

"In the year 1780 the priests discontinued their attendance, but the patrons, as these meetings were called, still continued the same, and to this day attract all the country for ten or twenty miles round. At these assemblies many droll things are said, many engagements of friendship are made, and many heads are broken as the power of whiskey developes itself: but revenge rises not with the morning. Pat awakes, finds a hole in his head, which Nature, without confining the energies of the mind, seems to have formed," (quere the hole or the bead?) "in contemplation of the consequences of these festive associations; he no longer remembers the hand that gave the blow, and vigorous health, and a purity of blood very speedily fill up the fissure. I have before given instances of their native humour, and, as they occur, I shall give others. The follow. ing story is (exhibits) an instance of that quality united to considerable shrewdness. An Irishman, on having knocked at the door of a very low priest after one of these patrons, and requested a night's lodging; the priest told him that he could not accommodate him, because there were only two beds in the house, one for himself, and the other for his niece, pointing to their rooms. Pat begged permission to sit down, and, whilst the priest and his niece went out for something, he took the bellows and put it in the young lady's bed, and calling about five days afterwards found it there still."

If these frolics are common among the priests, it is very fortunate that plenary indulgences have, by the tender mercies of the considerate Corsican, been re-established in France; as they will, no doubt, be transplanted from thence, with other good things, into Ireland! But, we beg pardon, for a rigid Romanist has assured us, that the priests take a vow of celibacy only, and not of continence!!!

(To be concluded in our next.)

Memoirs