Mr. Dun thus describes his impression of O'Connell's personal appearance at this period:

"Mr. O'Connell, we understand, is now sixty-five years of age, but he really bears his years well, for we would have at once pronounced him ten or fifteen years younger. He has got a strongly knit, compact, and active muscular frame; and his face is extremely comely; the features being softly mellowed, yet determinedly manly. His noble countenance, which beams with national intelligence, has an expression of open frankness, accessibility, and inviting confidence; and we could trace nothing in it of that wily malignity imputed to him by the Tories. Indeed, his bright and sweet blue eyes, the most kindly and honest-looking that can be conceived, at once repel the hateful imputation."

The delays which occurred on the journey, prevented the arrival of O'Connell at Leeds until the day following the great Reform Meeting, to which he had been invited. Steele was O'Connell's sole travelling companion upon that occasion.

Some Tory journal, I forget its name, arraigned O'Connell for having sought to bring the judicial character into disrepute, because one of his speeches at Leeds contained the following commentary upon the judicial wig:

"The judges of the land, who come down to preside in your Courts with all their solemn gravity and antiquated harlequinade, astonish the people with their profusion of horse-hair and chalk! For must not every one think what a formidable, terrible fellow he is, that has got twenty-nine pounds' weight of an enormous powdered wig upon his head? This is all humbug of the old times, and I long to see it kicked away along with many other antiquated absurdities and abuses."

CHAPTER XXVI.

"Master Humphrey's Clock"-Charles II. and the Irish Colonel -Attack on George III.-Taaffe, the Historian-Private Plays-H-, the Portrait Painter-Martin Luther and the Reformation-Repeal in London--The Kerry Lad.

O'CONNELL was exceedingly fond of good novels. Among his favourites were the writings of Dickens. He was charmed with "Nickleby;" and he had regularly followed the fortunes of" Nell"—the heroine of " Master Humphrey's Clock." But on arriving at the heroine's death, he threw away the book with a gesture of angry impatience, exclaiming,

"I'll never read another line that Boz writes! The fellow hadn't talent enough to keep up Nell's adventures with interest and bring them to a happy issue, so he kills her to get rid of the difficulty."

The conversation turned on the knack some monarchs possessed of rewarding their enemies, and leaving their friends unprovided for. One of the party told a story of an Irish Colonel, who having

fought for the Stuarts under General Monk, was utterly neglected by Charles the Second. The discontent of the neglected officer was increased by his witnessing the favours bestowed by the king upon many who had opposed his restoration. Accordingly, he one day said to Charles, "Please your majesty, I have fought in your service and got nothing. An't please you, I can perhaps plead a merit that will find more favour in your royal eyes." "I pray you, friend, what is that?" demanded Charles.

Why, that I fought against your sacred majesty for two years in the service of Cromwell," responded the applicant. "Oddsfish, man, we'll look to it," answered the merry monarch, tickled with the oddity of the application; and the Irish Colonel was accordingly provided for. The narrator of this story proceeded to say that in times more recent, a man who had attacked George the Third, and forced himself into his majesty's carriage, in St. James's Street, had very shortly afterwards received a good appointment in Somerset House.

"Forced into his carriage!" cried O'Connell. "Et voilà justement comme on écrit l'histoire! I was witness to the whole transaction, and I can state that nobody forced into his carriage, although his life was certainly in imminent danger. It was in 1795-I was over here in London-Richard New

ton Bennet and I went down through St. James's Park to see the king returning from the House of Lords. On passing through Whitehall, there was a tumultuous crowd, and some person flung a penny at the king's carriage, and broke the glass. The dragoons immediately began to clear their way with drawn sabres through the crowd, advancing with great speed along the park, in front of the king's carriage. As the procession approached the place where I stood, I pressed forward to get a sight of the king, and one of the dragoons made a furious cut at me with his sabre, which deeply notched the tree about an inch or two over my head. The mob were all this while groaning and hooting his majesty; however, he got clear of them, and entered St. James's Palace, where he took off his robes in a wonderfully short time. He then came out at the opposite side of the palace, next Cleveland Row, and got into a coach drawn by two large black Hanoverian horses. He was then driven off towards Buckingham House, and just as he was passing the bottom of the Green Park, the mob tumultuously rushed about his carriage, and seizing the wheels, retarded it in spite of the postillion, who kept flogging the horses to no purpose. Whilst his majesty was thus detained, two fellows approached the door of the carriage-the hand of one was on the door