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enable him to resist the solicitations of the senses and the !
storms of passion. To teach him to govern his desires,
and to regulate his passions by prudence and in conformity
with the principles of reason, to exercise his moral cou-
rage and to strengthen his will, is the second object of
moral education. Children must be early accustomed to
resist their natural inclinations, to rule their passionate
desires, and to command their emotions. This habit can
only be acquired by exercise and constant effort. The
more we allow passion to rule over us, the more difficult
is it to overcome it, and the more we become its slave;
but strength of Will also increases with success. Hence
the importance of good habits acquired in infancy and
youth. Besides instruction, enlightening the conscience
and forming the moral judgment, the means to be em-
ployed to endow reason with the strength needful to sub-
due the passions and unlawful desires are the counsels
of prudence, a lively sense of the dignity of human nature,
and especially the voice of Religion. We shall elsewhere
see what discipline can effect with regard to this. Now
all such means are at the commond of teachers, seconded
by our pastors. It is especially in this latter task that
the intervention of Religion is indispensable to the cause
of Morality. Religiously educated, "our children will not
fail to walk in the ways of God, which are those of jus-
tice, truth, purity, and humanity. Let God, therefore,
be presented to them, not only as the Creator and Ruler
of the Universe, but as the Author and Guardian of that
Moral Law which He himself has written on our hearts.

Let the voice of conscience be to them what in reality it

is-the voice of God: it will not on that account be more binding, but it will be more imposing, more powerful, and more sacred. Above all, let them seek in prayer, in the habit of raising their minds to God, and of filling their souls with the thought of the Infinite, a refuge against misfortune, and, at the same time, strength to resist evil."

IRELAND AND THE IRISH.

We have received a number of books and pamphlets respecting the state of Ireland and the causes of the recent famine. If a country could be saved by the multitude of books, Ireland would be happy. There seems to have been quite a rage to write and publish regarding Ireland, on the part of many who did not consider acquaintance with the subject treated essential to authorship. are compelled to leave unnoticed many pamphlets which display prominently that characteristic, and many of even higher pretensions. We have, for example, "The Claim of Ireland," a sermon by Mr. Thom of Liverpool. It is a production at latest for the last century, and treats largely of the penal laws. We have a somewhat similar production by the Roman Catholic Bishop of New York; and indeed there is a very general notion that England oppresses Ireland most miserably, whereas, irrespective of the church which the peasantry do not attend, England is not guilty on this charge. Ireland oppresses Ireland. The superior distrains the serf. Insufficient tenure hampers the tenant; and a land untilled becomes a land of misery.

Another work not relating to the famine, but written before its time, by an eccentric lady, a native of New York, who left her home, crossed the Atlantic, travelled over a large portion of Ireland on foot and by car, slept in the cheapest lodging-houses often, did all the work as part of her special duty, and has written a The work is rather large, book for the same reason. but not more voluminous than interesting: and if any party, desirous of knowing more than he at present has been told of the Irish peasants, should order from his bookseller, "Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger''*—he will not be disappointed. The lady is a member of the Total Abstinence societies, not merely from intoxicating drinks-for which she deserves all praise—but also, as we learn incidentally, from tea, and from the flesh of animals, a degree of self-denial in which we cannot conveniently join. Her tour was undertaken in 1844 and 1845-the years when the Repeal agitation was in a crisis; and the precise objects in view when it was undertaken are thus described :—

"Remember, my children,' said my father, 'that the Irish are a suffering people; and when they come to your doors, never send them empty away.' It was in the garrets and cellars of New York that I first became acquainted with the Irish peasantry, and it was there I saw they were a suffering people. Their patience, their cheerfulness, their flow of blundering, hap-hazard, happy wit, made them to me a distinct people from all I had seen. Often, when seated at my fireside, have I said to those most dear to my heart, God will one day allow me to breathe the mountain air of the sea-girt coast of Ireland, to sit down in their cabins, and there learn what soil has nurtured, what hardships have disciplined, so hardy a race-so patient and so impetuous, so revengeful and so forgiving, so proud and so humble, so obstinate and so docile, so witty and so simple a people.'

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down to the dust. The world was before me and all "Those who then laughed at my vagaries have all gone mankind, my brethren. I have made you desolate. I want you for other purposes. Go work in my vineyard,' was the word. I conferred not with flesh and blood.

No pope or priest, no minister or prelate, augmented my purse, to enable me to spy out the nakedness of the We land. I came a warfare at my own charges.' I came to gather no legends of fairies or banshees, to pull down no monarchies, or set up any democracies; but I came to glean after the reapers, to gather up the fragments, to see the poor peasant by wayside and in bog, in the field, and by his peat fire, and to read to him the story of Calvary. I came to linger with the women at the foot of the cross, and go with them early to the sepulchre. I have done so; and should the fastidious reader say that this condescending to men of low estate, this eating with publicans and sinners-above all, this lodging in a manger, is quite in bad odour if not in bad taste, he must be told it was because there was no rooin for me in the inn,' or because my pained feet could go no farther.

Upon this subject we cordially recommend 66 Six Weeks in Ireland, by William Bennett,"* a generous Englishman, a member of the Society of Friends, who visited Ireland to dispense the liberal bounty of that body. The work is cheap-full of daguerreotype drawings from life-not, of course, ordinary drawings, but plain pen-and-ink sketches; by which one may comprehend the whole matter that came under the writer's inspection.

* Londen: Charles Gilpin.

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"I had counted the cost. I knew there were professed Christians in the nineteenth century, who would be forgetful to entertain strangers, and would ask, where hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?' knew there were doorkeepers in the house of God' who would say, 'Sit thou here under my footstool,' if the gold ring and goodly apparel' were wanting; and I knew that she, whose delicate foot never treads the threshold of the poor, would scruple the propriety if not the reputation of her who does it. I have not dipped my pen in gall' towards any of those; I have mentioned no names where they could be readily avoided, and then, in most cases, where gratitude required me to do so.

*

"I ask no reward-I ask no sympathy. This sowing by

By A. Nicholson, of New York, London: Charles Gilpin.

the side of all waters has been abundantly paid by the 'God save ye kindly,' and the Fear not, I am with you.'

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'Reader, I would not be an egotist-I would not boast; but I would speak of that Almighty arm that sustained me, when, on a penny's worth of bread, I have walked over mountain and bog for twenty and twenty-three miles, resting upon a wall, by the side of a lake, or upon my basket, reading a chapter in the sweet Word of Life to some listening labourer; and when at night-fall, in some humble lodging-house, my potato and salt were taken, my feet bathed, then could I sing of mercy; then could I say, what lack I yet? I never had one fear by night or by day, nor ever cast a longing, lingering look behind, to my once-loved home across the ocean."

We should perhaps explain that Miss Nicholson acted not only as a traveller determined to see and record what she saw, but also as a missionary; and it may be right to say, that nowhere met she with molestation on account

of her principles, although they were often promulgated in the most forbidding places and circumstances.

There is little in her book to criticise, but much to interest. We have no right to quarrel with style when no pretensions to fine writing are made; and no means of dealing with an authoress who only relates facts not as they may always and absolutely be seen, but as she found them. With her passage to Liverpool and thence to Dublin we meddle not; but we join her at the head of Capel Street, in Bolton Street, Dublin, near by the Linen Hall.

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laugh, and the unfortunate wights were turned into the yard, in spite of all mediation on my part, as being the aggressor. But the loud laugh and buoyant leap of these boys testified that the loss of a dinner could not bring sadness into the hearts of these merry Irish lads.

"The most admirable arrangement was shown in the beds, which were made of straw, and emptied every month, and clean straw substituted. The straw taken out is cut up, and flung into a large pit. The suds from the laundry are then conveyed to it by a channel, and it is thus converted into a rich manure. The yearly profit from this plan is from £130 to £140: this is a great economy, besides the advantage of cleanliness to the in

mates. This manure is sold for the benefit of the institution, and a multitude of swine are fattened upon the offals of the food, and are sold for the same purpose. Twice a-week soup is given, and stirabout and buttermilk in the morning; the aged and the invalids have bread and tea when required."

If Miss Nicholson had visited the north of Ireland

she would have found the Linen Hall of Belfast a
different kind of place altogether from that of Dub-
lin. The rise of Belfast has taken that particular
trade from Dublin where, in point of fact, the linen
manufacturers of the north were wont to travel for the
In all quarters of Ireland
purpose of selling their wares.
she would have found the workhouses equally clean; and
as she uses neither tea nor tobacco, she would have had
no sympathy with the complaints of the paupers who, de-
barred from these comforts and luxuries, were wont grie-
vously to lament over days and nights departed.

Miss Nicholson did not find the cabins of the Irish poor distinguished by that universal filth which has been most untruly ascribed to them. We have also penetrated into the poorest homes of Ireland, and often seen a print of one or two saints, a daub resembling Father Mathew, and a repeal card, in clean neat cottages, put down in the returns of the population commissioners as hovels.

'Friday.-Visited the annual exhibition of the arts, and saw some specimens of taste beyond what I had anticipated. The bog oak of Ireland (which is found buried in the earth), when polished and made into many articles of taste, is a beautiful specimen, not only of the skill of the mechanic, but of the richness of this neglected island in its bowels as well as upon its surface. Here were chairs, and tables, small fancy articles, of the most exquisite beauty, which were made from this wood. Among its highest ornaments was a standing Father Mathew administering the "I went into cabins of filth, and I went into cabins of pledge to a peasant,' both as large as life; the peasant kneeling. The complacent look of the kind apostle of the greatest cleanliness, whose white-washed walls, and temperance is a happy illustration of the 'peace and good-nicely-scoured stools, said that She that looketh well to will to men' which mark the footsteps of this unassuming man, wherever they can be traced.

46

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Saturday.-Was introduced into the Linen Hall; here is a sad momento of Ireland's blighted prospects of her once proud manufacture of this useful article. The desolated hall, with its appendages, which once included two acres of ground, now and then in some dusty room, shows a sack or two of linen, and in some dark hall, a few piles of linsey woolsey. Here was the son of an old inheritor of some of these rooms, when, in its glory, its coffee-room was thronged with men of business, now standing almost alone in its midst, selling linen, to tell the inquirer what it once was.

"My next visit was to the Poor House, for I had heard much of their well-managed laws, from all but beggars, who gave them no share in their affections. The house contained one thousand seven hundred persons, of all ages, and all who were able were at work, or in school. The rooms were well ventilated, and the floors daily washed. The aged appeared as comfortable as care and attention could make them. One old lady was pointed out to us who was a hundred and six years old; she could read without glasses, and had the use of all her faculties. The dinner hour was near; three pounds and a-half of potatoes were poured from a net upon the table for each individual; fingers supplied the place of knives and forks; and the dexterity of a company of urchins, in divesting the potato of its coat, and dabbing it into the salt upon the table, caused me imprudently to say, 'I am happy, my lads, to see you so pleasantly employed.' Silence' was written upon the walls, but this unlucky remark of mine changed the suppressed titter into a

the ways of her household lives here.' All ages saluted me as the American stranger, and said one, Ye'r a wonderful body; and did you come alone? Oh! America is a beautiful country, and if I was there I would get the mate.' Secing a repeal button in the coat of a man standing by his car, I inquired, Do you find employment, sir?'

"But little, ma'am; I suffer much, and get little. O'Connell has worked hard for us, and is now in jail. I'm waitin' here for a job; and the thief of a fellow wont get on to my car, with my repeal button in sight. But I will wear it. Oh! the country's dyin'; it's starvin': it's kilt. And O'Connell wont let us fight, and I'spose that's the best way.'"'

Perhaps we can do no better than continue these sketches from the street.

;

'But

"A cleanly woman, knitting upon a wall, told me she
was English; had been in Dublin a year; her health
was poor, and she had come out for an airing.
oh! these miserable beggars. They think they shall get
free; but England is so grabbing they never will; and,
besides, there is an ancient prophecy that England is to
fight and conquer the whole world, and give them all the
gospel.'

Where did you find this prophecy?'
"They say it's in the Bible.'
"To what church do you belong?'
"To the Protestant.'

"You should read the Bible for yourself, and see if you can find such a prophecy.'

"I've a prayer-book.'

"Leaving this learned theologian, I found a woman

tting upon a stone, with a basket of gooseberries by her side, from which she had sold but three-halfpenceBirthing's worth since the preceding morning. fa" I have three children to feed,' said she, and God knows how I can do it; when they were babies around my feet I culd feed 'em, and put decent clothes on their bodies; but now I can get no work.'

"For a halfpenny she poured twice the value into my bag, which I refused; when, with the tear in her eye, she said, 'You would give more if you had it, and you speak a kind word to the poor; and what's a handful of gooseberries?' Turning to the old men who were breaking stones, I said to them, You are aged, and how much do you have for this labour?

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"Ah! that is better than idleness,' said the younger, and my wife gets a job now and then, which helps us a little.'

After Dublin, Miss Nicholson visited Tullamore, and, as usual, examined the prison-house, and the poor-house, which were in good order.

"In the afternoon I visited the jail, a building, with its appendages, including an acre and a half of land. It contained eighty-one prisoners; seventeen had been that morning sent to Dublin for transportation. They were all at work; some cracking stones, some making shoes, and others tailoring or weaving. Their food is one pound of stirabout and milk in the morning, and four pounds of potatoes for dinner. There are two hospitals, one for males, and the other for females. The drop where crimirals are executed is in front; four had suffered upon it within the last two years.

"From the prison I went to the poor-house, which was conducted on the same principle as that of Dublin; but the funds were so low that but three hundred could be accommodated, and multitudes of the poor were suffering upon the streets. A flourishing school was in operation, the specimens of writing doing honour to the teachers. The children are fed three times a day; they get a noggin of milk at each meal, with porridge in the morning, potatoes at noon, and bread at night."

The cabins may be poor but the prisons are always comfortable. It becomes quite a treat for a peasant to get into jail. But in the neighbourhod of Tullamore the lady found considerable comfort.

The American pilgrim next visited the county Wicklow, and we venture to say that a scene more fair she would not meet from the mouth of the Mississipi to that of the Columbia. Years may pass ere we see again the Wicklow mountains and all their wild scenery, even in these days of steam and railways, but we may not forget the rose-bound cottages and the prim next villages, with all the rich profusion of verdure round and round them, that should bespeak a happy land.

Miss Nicholson's experience was similar. She found comfort in many Wicklow homes. Sure we are that she also found warm hearts to share it with "the stranger."

"Following his guidance, I found myself at the gate. An open lane showed the placid sea, and the far-famed mountains of Wicklow. About the door were roses, a shrubbery, and lilies of the most beautiful kind. I entered, so fatigued with the day's excursion, that I cared but little whether smiles or frowns received me. A daughter met me in the hall, and presenting her the letter from a long absent brother, she invited me in. The mother was cailed, and though she gave me no Irish thousand welcomes, yet when she saw the letter from her son, and heard the sad tale of my coach ride, the loss of my carpet bag, and my walk through quagmire and ditch to her Loure, she invited me in to a well-furnished table, with every appendage of neatness and order. he party consisted of the mother, the ellest son, four Ganghters, a little nice, a young lady and her brother, who were

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After

lodgers, and two ladies on a visit. The vexations of the day and the embarrassments of a stranger were soon lost in the courtesy and flow of kindness manifested; and I felt as if seated at the dinner-table of an intelligent New England family, where familiar friends had assembled. dinner, the mother invited me to the garden, saying. We have made our arrangements for you to spend a week with us, and if we did not wish it we should not ask it; so this point is at once settled, and we will show you what we can of our country and people.' The kindness of this offer was greatly heightened, when I ascertained that the young gentleman who lodged with them had offered his room for my accommodation, and that he was to share the bed of the son of the mistress.

"Reader, do you love domestic life, where plenty, order, and comfort reside? Then come to the garden of Ireland, the county of Wicklow, and I will introduce you to a family where all these rare qualifications may be found. This widow had been the mother of eleven children; one had been drowned, and his monument, with that of his father, was near the dwelling. A son was living in New York, and two in Ireland, four daughters were at home; the youngest had made a choice for herself, and was well settled near the family, in one of the tidy cottages that adorn the parish, where Lord Wickl☛ has lavished his good taste so profusely. Industry and economy were happily blended in this family; the daughters, unlike many in Ireland, with smaller incomes than they, were not unacquainted with all that appertained to the good management of a house. Their plentiful board was spread with wholesome food of their own preparing; and every apartment of the house testified to their han lywork. The morning and evening prayer ascended from the altar here; and though not in accordance with my own habits of extemporaneous prayer, yet never did I assemble for the family devotion, but I felt on retiring that my heart had been warmed, and my resolutions strengthened in serving my God. It may with propriety be averred, that when the morning and evening prayer are offered in a family circle, that family is generally the abode of peace and good order.

"Give me the sweet abode, however humble, where every child is taught to speak the name of God with reverence; where, morn and eve, the lowly knee is bent around the hallowed shrine of prayer and praise.

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The following morning the mother walked with me to Arklow; and there, to my great joy, was my carpet bag, left by the coachman on his return. I found that my aged companion had not lived in vain; for beside having, after her husband's death, paid some hundreds of pounds of debts that were in arrears, she reared eleven children in habits of industry, educated them for good society, and gave them all tolerable portions. She has a mind stored with interesting anecdote of the history of her country, especially that part belonging to the days of ninety-eight. The poetry with which all the narrations of the Irish peasantry are mingled, makes an observing for they spontaneously breathe out many of his sentezces, listener willing to give them Ossian for their countryman, without ever having known his book or his name.”

There is a little more of the better class of Irish life in

low places.

"When we left the tower, we visited the fishermen's settlement on the sea-shore. This consists of perhaps three hundred huts of a squalid appearance outside; but on entering one of them we were happily disappointed, for we had a cordial welcome to a neatly white-washed room: the cupboards in the kitchen and little parlour were neatly arranged, and the bed neatly curtained. This is quite common, even where the pig has a bed on a pile of straw in the coruer."

And we quote an angry mother's account of her child, because it shows, under an over-current of wrath, a stratum of decent habits.

"We entreated that she would allow us to speak to the child, and finally succeeded, the mother meanwhile taking an infant in her lap of eight weeks old, and giving a spontaneous history of her family, interlarding it with

progress which education was making, and, we trust, makes still, amongst that people.

principles that would do honour to the most cultivated woman. 'I have eleven children, ladies; six younger than the scrawl that has so provoked me, and she has not "At last the town of Youghal, with her noble bridge, done a hap'orth for me to-day. She has been on the met the eye. The drawbridge was raised for the steamer street since six o'clock. Laziness! laziness! ladies! to pass, and we saw the houses extended along the seaShouldn't she be bate? And when I got her in, and shore, on the vicinity of a hill, commanding a noble progave her a slap, she gave me impudence, and went into spect of the sea. The busy population in pursuit of gain that room, and fastened the door on me; and she would by their bartering and bantering, told us that self here not ask my forgiv'ness, ladies; and she would not ask was no important item, though not a beggar put out her God's pardon. I wish I could bate her, and not get into hand, invoking the blessing of the Virgin' for your a passion.' You must tell her priest,' said one of the penny. A ferry-boat put me safely on the other side, young ladies. And that I will; he'll hear of this.' leaving me a three miles' walk, partly upon the beach, But she's been petted at school, and it won't do to pet but mostly inland, and thus giving an opportunity of seesuch scrawls; and before she will be idle and filthy, I'lling a peasantry who speak English only when compelled kill her. She'd better be dead than lazy and dirty. I by necessity. Making inquiry from cabin to cabin, not sent to Dublin and got a piece of calico, and made them one bawled out, go along to such a place, and inquire;' all dacent. I saved a piece to mend 'em with, and you but each one left her work, sometimes accompanied by see here's a rent in this child's arm (holding up the arm two dogs and thrice the number of pigs, and led me a of a little girl), and that lazy girl won't put on the piece; distance on the way, with a kind God bless ye,' at partand she can sew well. I can't have my children ragged. ing. A troop of boys now came galloping at full speed, I can't have 'em dirty; it's a sin, ladies. Their father intent, one might suppose, on sport or mischief. toils, poor man, till dark night, to keep their clothes each had a book under his arin or in his hand, and I saw dacent, and keep 'em in school.' Here a shrivelled old they were returning from school; and, saluting them kindly, woman entered, saying, And what's all this? This they gathered around me, listened to the story of schools girl is as fine a slip as you'll find in all Wicklow-a fine in America, and earnestly asked such questions as to scholar. You see, ladies,' remarked the mother, them seemed important. At our parting, each was how she's petted; that's the trouble. They must be emulous to direct me my way, lest at the cross-road' I bate.'" should mistake. Now, ma'am, don't you take the left;" nor don't you go straight on,' said a second, but turn to the right,' &c. And when, like so many young deer, they bounded away, I blessed God that the dawn of education was breaking upon Ireland, and that the generation now rising shall feel its genial ray, and by her power have the independence to assert their country's heavenborn rights."

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Although next to Antrim, Down, and the eastern and northern counties, as respects the people, and over them as regards scenery of one description, Dublin county and Wicklow may be considered the garden of Ireland, yet we cannot avoid quoting the impressions which the authoress says that she was induced to form of Wicklow and its people.

But

With all Miss Nicholson's good sense, she inherits the fault of her countrymen-continually reporting private conversations with private individuals; so that one requires to weigh warily words that are spoken to a travelling American. Miss Nicholson had heard that England was taking the liberty to break the seals of letters going from Ireland to America, and to retain such as did not suit her views of matters

"My visit to the county of Wicklow being finished, I What Miss Nicholson may mean by Heaven-born rights, am happy to say that both country and people exceeded and the independence of Ireland, we can scarcely see; my sanguine expectations. The natural scenery, the but we suppose that she became inoculated with the recultivation, but, most of all, the peasantry, possess a peal doctrines, to which Americans are generally so atkind of fascination which every unprejudiced traveller tached when applied to others, and so averse when promust confess. Many of the peasantry are cleanly, intel-posed in their own country, under the term nullification. ligent, and industrious, and an inviting charm hangs about their cottages, which says to the stranger there is peace and comfort within; and when you enter, you feel you are welcome. The Irish greeting cannot be misunderstood; and here the same kindness and the same order prevailed among Catholics as among Protestants. I called one Saturday evening at an humble cottage, where the children, to the number of five, all took their seats, unbidden, in a corner. Their neatness and good conduct caused me to look about more particularly, and there I saw the signs of a prudent wife and mother. You see,' said the young ladies, as we passed out, the management of this poor woman; she is always clean, always comfortable, and her children always tidy, though poor. They had been kept to school; and, by the strictest economy, the family had never been obliged to trouble their neighbours in sickness, ever having needful supplies for such exigencies, though possessing not a farthing but the daily labour of the father. They never partake of tea, coffee, or ardent spirits, or meat, except at Christmas.

"I must leave Wicklow with a grateful remembrance of undeserved kindness, for the last words I heard were, My house shall be welcome to you, whenever you come this way.'

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in these respects.

Economy and cleanliness are not the virtues for which in England and Scotland the Irish peasants have credit; but we know that before this sad famine desolated the land there were many striking improvements We cannot easily reckon all the grieVous consequences of the late judgment. It has bruised the heart and spirit of the people in a way that will not be easily healed, although those improvements to which it may ultimately lead will, we trust, compensate for this sorrowful break in the progress of Ireland.

The scene is changed to Youghal, far in the south; and the short subjoined note affords not merely justice to the kind heartedness of the Irish peasantry, but also to the

relative to the country." Miss Nicholson had paid
postage on a package of letters more than three
months without receiving an answer; and so the good,
innocent damsel supposed that Sir James Graham must
have had his eye on her- have “Grahamed," and
suppressed her correspondence. In the uneasiness
natural after this fiight of the imagination she was advised
by some wag, probably, to apply to Sir Richard Mus-
grave, a country gentleman, for information as to the pro-
bability of England opening and detaining Miss Nichol-
son's correspondence. She accordingly obtained a letter
to Sir Richard Musgrave, although from whom, or with
what contents, is not stated; yet these elements must have
entered largely into the question of its value, and away
she went on an additional pilgrimage of eighteen
miles to make the inquiry. She received a high charac-
ter of Sir Richard Musgrave. One man told her that
heart, a true friend of Ireland and O'Connell, and de-
he was "condescending in manner, peculiarly kind of
lights in doing good to Catholics, though himself a Pro-
sider your case.
testant." Another said, "Sir Richard will sartainly con-
He is a good man, and his wife is a
kind woman." These observations, by-the-bye, should
not be recorded in books, regarding persons of some
It is an exhibition of bad taste,
standing in the world.
of which American writers should free their style. What
follows is worse.

"The sea was dashing against the gravelly beach at the front of the dwelling; an air of comfort was shed around; and when the porter responded to

for England. He had been a father, indeed, she said, and the care of the house was entrusted to her.

"When I was comfortably prepared in my lodging-room, with a fire and clean bed, and contrasted it with the preceding night, in what extremes do I find myself, from cabin to castle, tossed like a 'rolling thing before a whirlwind,' yet never destroyed. I slept in peace, and thanked God that in Ireland one rich godly man could be found, who called all mankind his brethren.

"In the morning, I took my breakfast, was kindly invited to come when Mr. S should be at home, and went out, and called at the lodge-house, where was a godly woman, poor in this world, but rich in faith. A pleasant hour was passed with her, for, with such, lessonS

my knock, and had gone to present my card, I looked about the hall, and seeing no false appendages of greatness, and being soon invited into the parlour by the gentleman himself, I felt as much at ease as when eating my potatoes in the cabin. I introduced myself, and the object of my errand, while he peered at me over his spectacles, and seemed to listen with attention. He read my letter of introduction, and returned it without note or comment. I stated the exigencies of my case, as a stranger in a strange land, and asked if he could give any information as to whether the English government had really taken the liberty to open and retain letters. He looked silently upon me, with a gaze which seemed to say, 'I wish this insignificant woman could finish her story, and let me return to my lunch.' 'I may be keep-are to be learned which the rich cannot teach. The rain ing you from dinner, sir.' 'I was taking lunch, madam; my dinner hour is five.' Do you know, sir, and will you tell me, whether you think this report true or false?' No answer he took out his watch; I understood the signal, and rose to depart. I can give you no advice on this subject.' As I was going into the hall he said, 'Maybe you would take something to eat.' 'I am not hungry, sir,' replied I. My heart rejected this coldlyproffered bread. Then did the cabin woman's potato look doubly valuable, and I blessed God that he had left some poor in the world, that every vestige of humanity and kind feeling might not be swept from the earth. The heart of a stranger was emphatically mine. I had travelled a distance of twenty miles for the privilege of being treated with the coldest indifference by a titled gentleman.

"Yet I was not sorry. I at least learned something, This man was celebrated for his urbanity of manners and kindness of heart; the well-intentioned friends who advised me to apply to him were certain that he would solve my difficulties; and I had gone more in complaisance to their good feelings, than from a favourable opinion of the undertaking on my part. I had visited Ireland to see the poor, to learn its manners and customs, and how they would treat American strangers in any and every condition. I was placed in peculiar circumstances, and a few kind words, if they would not have helped me out of my dilemma, would have cost him but little, and have been grateful to me. But not even a generous look could be gained, and I hoped my friends would see that this boasting of the benevolence of great men is often but boasting, and whoever follows them to get good, will generally find himself in pursuit of an ignis fatuus, which, perchance, may land him in a quagmire." We doubt very much whether many gentlemen would have been more civil to a lady travelling on foot, without introduction probably of an unexceptionable character; and travelling alone. Miss Nicholson may prefer American manners; but, of course, when in Ireland, she should judge actions of this kind by an Irish standard, and remember that she went to Sir Richard Musgrave on the most absurd errand.

At Birr she met with a rich gentleman of her own eccentric caste, but gentlemen of his character are rarities in Ireland.

"I set off in the heavy rain to find the house or castle of a rich man, who was considered a great eccentric. He was owner of three domains, but had divested them of all their frippery, had put on a frieze coat and brogues, and literally condescended to men of low estate in dress and equipage. He had taken many orphans into his house, and provided them food and clothing. When I reached his dwelling, my clothes were profusely drenched. Mr. S was not at home. I asked the housekeeper if I might step in till the rain should abate, and dry my clothes. She allowed me to do so; and I followed her through a long gangway of desolated halls, to a kitchen, and found a company about to dine in the same way, and on the same materials, as the cabin people do. The rain continued; and an invitation to stop over night was not needed a second time. A fire was made in a parlour, where no carpets or supernumeraries met the eye. Tea, bread, and butter were offered, and the housekeeper made everything pleasant. She had embraced the principles of her master, who had taken her when but two years old, begging her from a widowed mother, who was embarking

had deluged the country the preceding night; and many a poor cabin was swept away, with the miserable furniture, and the affrighted inmates had fled, with their children in their arms, naked as they were, from their beds of straw.

"The lawn containing the telescope of Lord Rosse was open, and passing the gate, the old lady who presided in the lodge asked me to go through the grounds, which were free to all. Much did I regret that clouds obscured the sky the whole time I was in Birr, so that not one gaze could I have through that magnificent instrument. The pipe is fifty-two feet in length, and six and a-half in diameter. The Earl is mentioned as a man of great philanthropy, and much beloved by the gentry and the poor."

Miss Nicholson treats the late Mr. O'Connell's housekeeper much after the way in which she dealt with Sir Richard Musgrave. We cannot suppose that Mr. Maurice O'Connell was to go in search of every adventurous damsel who travelled from New York to see Darrynane; and the housekeeper would probably set down the authoress as "a forward, impudent hussy." Such is the difference of standard by which actions are judged in different countries.

"When I reached the summit of the mountain, and the sea with its wild shore, islands, and dashing waves, broke upon my view, I knew the abode of the wonderful man, O'Connell, was near, and I paused to take a full view Here then did the keen, deep of the wildness around. meaning, and nondescript eye of this never-tiring agitator seek out an abode; here were the principles, the agitations, of the ever-stirring mind nurtured and fed; and as here, wave after wave dashes against the rock, so has agitation after agitation dashed with impetuosity against the Gibraltar of England, as yet impregnable. But hush! a woman must walk softly on political pavements. A circuitous well-made road winds down the mountain, and you see not the indescribable mansion that is embosomed in rock and tree, till within a few paces of the spot. Here no walls or surly porter, demanding a pass, hedge up the entrance; but a path like that to a New England farmhouse leads you on, and you may take your choice of entrance into the heterogeneous abode, by kitchen, chapel, or hall; choosing the latter, I rang the bell, an old man answered, saying, I am only a stranger, and will inquire if you can have admittance.' A waiter came next, and ushered me into the parlour, saying, all were from home, but Maurice O'Connell and the house-keeper. countenance of the latter was to me better fitted to drive away the enemy than to invite the friend; and the sequel proved more than I dreaded, when I met her cold penurious look and manner. She showed me into the library, which presented a tolerable assortment of Encylopaedias, Lives of Saints, Waverley Novels, Law Books, &o. The drawing-room contained all that is needed for ornament or The portrait of O'Connell, engraved to the life, taken while in the penitentiary, and one taken some years before, are not the least objects of interest in the room. The portraits of his wife, daughters, grand-daughters, and sons, form the most important ornaments in the house. Among the family group, are a brother and sister, the sister in the act of swinging, sitting in a rope; the little brother with a roguish smile, holding the rope, and a little dog looking on, enjoying the sport. It is the happiest touch of nature, in portrait painting, I ever saw. chapel, not finished, is attached to one end of the house.

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