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extract will' show. It also brings out the opinions of the structure was no more, and the assailants rushing forauthor, who seems to have been, if priest at all, a bad ward, completely filled the aperture. But the crisis had Roman Catholic-certainly a Universalist, and one who been foreseen; a pealing voice cried,Now.' A lurid holds by the most comfortable and convenient faith im-flash was seen, a bellowing report was heard, the mansion quivered, and all was still. Twenty human beings had aginable. passed into the eternity into which they were so ruthlessly about to thrust others, and the remaining few, destruction at their heels, fled in wild dismay.

"One day, it so fell out I entered a cabin by the hill-side just as the young master left it, and took part in the following discourse.

"And so, Michael, darling, you saw him; he went out just as you came in.'

I saw him,' was the reply. The Virgin be over us, and such a nice young boy!

continued the woman,

"What pity-heretic cub, spawn of Luther, already damned, or shortly to be,' growled the man. And here he crossed himself while the woman sighed.

"But you do not really think, do not mean to say, that one after God's image, so young, so innocent, shall incur this fearful doom?'

"Come, now, Michael dear,-and the man smiled incredulously I suppose you do not know what is before him.'

"As Christian man, or rather boy, then, I believe heart and soul, that it is the will and intent, as it is within the power, of Almighty God to save each wandering child of Adam-whether he be of Rome or Geneva, or whether he be neither.'

The future priest saved the future landowner, and the boys became much attached, although their forms of religion differed widely; and friendship, without conformity, is not common in Ireland. Afterwards, and only shortly after, he saved the manor-house and family from being destroyed in a midnight attack. The narrative of the conflict is worth transcribing, though we cannot remember of any Irish landlord having ever adopted this decisive mode of scorching his foes, and routing them by blowing out his own door.

"About midnight dark forms shot past the trees, portentous noises invaded the silence of the night. Finally, a crowd of men, with stunning execrations, discharged a volley, bringing down the panes with tingling crash. A simultaneous rush was now made against the doors, which withstood the shock.

"The pealing echoes had scarcely ceased ere the wickets were thrust aside, and destruction was scattered among the hooting crew. With yells of rage and pain, the fallen were dragged aside, while the rest sought shelter behind the trees.

"A somewhat anxious interval now ensued. It was uncertain whether the besiegers would adventure afresh or retire. Soon, however, sheaves of straw and piles of blazing brush were assiduously thrust forward. Buckets, emptied from above, somewhat abated the vigour of the flames; but this dangerous service entailed a degree of exposure, of which the assailants were not slow to avail themselves.

"The night wore on, but tedious was he progress of destruction. It was, therefore, proposed, and carried by acclamation, to batter in the entrance by means of a recently-felled tree which happened to lie about. While some proceeded with this, others stood with levelled pieces ready to discharge the deadly contents against any one who should interrupt the work.

It was morn when I approached. Already soldiers, with magistrates and police, attracted by the firing, and more especially the thunder of the explosion, came pouring in. Every one set to work, and in a space of time incredibly short almost every trace of that wild night had disappeared."

We cannot follow this tale through all its sinuosities. There is no little interest in the chapters respecting the studies at Maynooth, though they are short. The whole system is condemned as one likely to chill the heart and freeze the feelings and the affections. Maynooth has not produced many great scholars, but that was not its object. It was intended to produce earnest men, banded together in support of a system; and as high scholarships was not requisite on entering, so we believe the knowledge with which the pupils came into the seminary is not increased, except in the peculiarities of Roman theology, when they leave. The new colleges will probably enough make an improvement in this respect.

"A fragmentary knowledge of English, and knowledge still more fragmentary of the ancient classics, was all that realised. To these rude acquirements were now to be was expected, probably because it was all that could be added a little scholastic logic, a course of barren divinity, and some faint inklings of natural science. It was doing the young men scant justice in the first instance and in the last; it was but poorly qualifying them for the influence they were to exercise, and the posts they were to fill. The world, its errors and its excellences, were alike excluded. Associates they had none, beyond those as incult as themselves; or teachers who for the most part had run the same career.

46

Better, in truth, their books had been closed; better they had remained illiterate as the clod, even as the fishers and sail-makers of Christ! Better have cast scholastic lore aside; praying to God on bended knees; thanking him for the mighty gift of life, and abiding, with the soul's devotion, by his unalterable law for ever. Better far have braced their loins, and waiting on the sick and dying, comforted the unhappy, ministered to the sorrow-laden. Better even, laying hold of spade and plough, have taught the right culture of the soil, and remaining with the rude peasant, banished unthrift and intemperance. For man, after all, was their theme; with him they were to live, to die, to smile, to weep; he was to be their cross, their care, their condemnation, or their exceeding great reward.'"”'

When the gentleman who put powder to his own hall door, thereby discomfiting his enemies, died, the young man succeeded to the estates; followed the advice of the priest, and the dictates of his own warm heart; so that he became an excellent landlord; and he was shot dead by mistake while, visiting a neighbour who had with the peasantry an offensive character. The priest died early, wea

The question, What for Ireland?" that forms part of the title, finds no clear answer in the book; which is, however, very beautifully written, and quite deserves a careful reading. The profits of the work are to be given to the fund for the relief of the Irish poor-an additional and a strong recommendation in present circumstanes. Travels in Peru. By Dr. J. J. Von Tschudi, translated by Thomasina Ross. London: David Bogue. One vol. 8vo.

"It was but too evident that the door, though iron-ried with the struggle against his country's apparent doom. bound and clenched, must yield at last! It creaked and groaned beneath the ponderous blows, while the house itself reverberated from top to bottom. On the critical position of the inmates it was frightful to think. The proprietor's resources, however, were not exhausted. Barrels, filled with sand and clay, were piled across the hall, while between this barrier and the door, casks of powder lay in grim repose. An infliction, hardly less fearful than that which they contemplated, awaited the assailants. The misguided men, in fancied security, urged each other on, and but redoubled their rage and violence as bolt and bar gave way.

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"It was done! With one fell stroke the now frail

THIS German traveller left Havre De Grace in the spring of 1838 for Peru. His voyage out occupied more

than three months; but he passed a considerable time in Peru, and has collected such an amount of materials as

give a tolerably fair idea of the country and its prospects. The country itself seems destined for greatness, but its prospects are dark and miserable. The population of its leading towns is receding; and with the name of liberty there appears little of its substance. Doctor Tschudi throws a large portion of the responsibility for the condition of Peru on the priests.

"In the Sierra, as well as on the coast, the priests are usually the tyrants, rather than the guardians of their flocks; and they would frequently be the objects of hatred and vengeance, but for the deep-rooted, and almost idolatrous reverence, which the Indians cherish for priesteraft. It is disgusting to see the Peruvian priests, who usually treat the Indians like brutes, behaving with the most degrading servility when they want to get money from them. The love of the Indians for strong drinks, is a vice which the priests turn to their own advantage. For the sake of the fees, they frequently order religious festivals, which are joyfully hailed by the Indians, because they never fail to end in drinking bouts. "Added to the ill-treatment of the priests, the Indians are most unjustly oppressed by the civil authorities. In the frequent movements of troops from one place to another, they are exposed to great losses and vexations. They are compelled to perform the hardest duties without payment, and often the produce of their fields is laid under contribution, or their horses and mules are pressed into the service of the military. When intelligence is received of the march of a battalion, the natives convey their cattle to some remote place of concealment in the mountains, for they seldom recover possession of them if once they fall into the hands of the soldiery."

And yet, from the tenor of the following extract, we should judge that these same priests are actually endeavouring to recover her people from the erroneous practices of their predecessors. The details of Palm Sundays' and Good Fridays' observances say little, certainly, for the religion, or even the taste, of the Peruvians.

"In order to facilitate the conversion of the idolatrous Indians, the Spanish monks who accompanied Pizzaro's army sought to render the Christian religion as attractive as possible in the eyes of the heathen aborigines of Peru. With this view they conceived the idea of dramatising certain scenes in the life of Christ, and having them represented in the Churches. In the larger towns these performances have long since been discontinued; but they are still kept up in most of the villages of the Sierra. Indeed, the efforts made by enlightened ecclesiastics for their suppression have been met with violent opposition on the part of the Indians.

"On Palm Sunday, an image of the Saviour seated on an ass is paraded about the principal streets of the town or village. The Indians strew twigs of palm over the animal, and contend one with another for the honour of throwing their pouchos down on the ground, in order that the ass may walk over them. The animal employed in this ceremony is, when very young, singled out for the purpose, and is never suffered to carry any burden save the holy image. He is fed by the people, and at every door at which he stops, the inmates of the house pamper him up with the best fodder they can procure.

"The ass is looked upon as something almost sacred, and is never named by any other appellation than the Burro de Nuestro Senor (our Lord's ass). In some villages I have seen these animals so fat that they were scarcely able to walk.

"Good Friday is solemnised in a manner the effect of which, to the unprejudiced foreigner, is partly burlesque and partly seriously impressive. From the early dawn of morning the church is thronged with Indians, who spend the day in fasting and prayer. At two in the afternoon, a large image of the Saviour is brought from the sacristy, and laid down in front of the altar. Immediately all the persons in the church rush forward with pieces of cotton to touch the wounds. This gives rise

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to a struggle, in which angry words and blows are interchanged; in short, there ensues a disgraceful scene of uproar, which is only checked by the interposition of one is fixed on the cross by three very large silver nails, and of the priests. Order being restored, the sacred image the head is encircled by a rich silver crown. On each side are the crosses of the two thieves. Having gaped as this spectacle to their heart's content, the cholos retire from the church. At eight in the evening they reassemble to witness the solemn ceremony of taking down the Saviour from the cross. The church is then brilliantly lighted up. At the foot of the cross stand four white-robed priests, called los Santos Varones (the holy men), whose office it is to take down the image. little distance from them, on a sort of stage or platform, stands a figure representing the Virgin Mary. figure is dressed in black, with a white cap on its head. A priest, in a long discourse, explains the scene to the assembled people, and at the close of the address, turning to the Santos Varones, he says, Ye holy men ascend the ladders of the Cross, and bring down the body of the Redeemer.' Two of the Santos Varones mount, with hammers in their hands, and the priest then says, Ye holy man on the right of the Saviour, strike the first blow on the nail of the hand and take it out!' The command is obeyed, and no sooner is the stroke of the hammer heard, than deep groans and sounds of anguish resound through the church; whilst the cry of Misericordia! misericordia! repeated by a thousand imploring voices, produces an indescribable sensation of awe and melancholy. The nail is handed to one of the priests standing at the foot of the altar, who transfers it to another, and this one in his turn presents it to the figure of the Virgin. To that figure the priest then turns, and addresses himself, saying, "Thou afflicted mother, approach and receive the nail which pierced the right hand of thy holy son!" The priest steps forward a few paces, and the figure, by some concealed mechanism, advances to meet him, receives the nail with both hands, lays it on a silver plate, dries its eyes, and then returns to its place in the middle of the platform. The same ceremony is repeated when the two other nails are taken out. Throughout the whole performance of these solemnities, an uninterrupted groaning and howling is kept up by the Indians, who, at every stroke of the hammer, raise their cries of Misericordia! These sounds of anguish reach their climax when the priest consigns the body of the Saviour to the charge of the Virgin. The image is laid in a coffin tastefully adorned with flowers, which, together with the figure of the Virgin Mary, is paraded through the streets. Whilst this nocturnal procession, lighted by thousands of wax tapers, is making the circuit of the town, a party of Indians busy themselves in erecting before the church door twelve arches decorated with flowers. Between every two of the arches they lay flowers on the ground, arranging them in various figures and designs. These flower-carpets are singularly ingenious and pretty. Each one is the work of two cholos, neither of whom seems to bestow any attention to what his comrade is doing; and yet, with a wonderful harmony of operation, they create the most tasteful designs, arabesques, animals, and landscapes, which grow, as it were, by magic, under their hands. Whilst I was in Tarma, I was at once interested and astonished to observe, on one of these flower-carpets, the figure of the Austrian double eagle. On inquiry, I learned from an Indian that it had been copied from the quicksilver jars, exported from Idria to Peru. On the return of the procession to the church, a hymn, with harp accompaniment, is sung to the Vir gin, as the figure is carried under the arches of flowers. The bier of the Saviour is then deposited in the church, where it is watched throughout the night.

"On the following morning, at four o'clock, the ceremony of hanging Judas takes place in front of the church. A figure of Judas, the size of life, is filled with squibs and crackers, and is frequently made to bear a resemblance to some obnoxious inhabitant of the place. After the match is applied to the combustible figure, the cholos dance around it, and exult in the blowing up of their enemy."

the country. For Peru, Nature's bounteously favoured laud, let us hope that there is reserved a future, happier than either the past or the present."

The work extends to nearly five hundred pages; the statements made are very interesting, and. we believe, their accuracy may be relied upon. They are thus wound up: But of that, there is no immediate expectation, for all "The facts adduced in the course of this volume, rela-the hopes formed of the South American Republies have tive to the barbarous Colonization system of the Spaniard, must sufficiently prove how adverse was Spanish dominion led to miserable disappointments. to the improvement of the natives, and to the prosperity of

We believe the work to be well translated.

POLITICAL REGISTER.

RAILWAYS AND CURRENCY.

THE recent currency acts of Sir Robert Peel have come up at length for judgment before the public, and they are condemned. So long as the country is prosperous, they

do neither good nor harm; but whenever the tide of our affairs turn, they begin to accelerate its backward motion. The most remarkable thing connected with these laws, to us, is not that so many bankers and merchants oppose them, but that they are supported by any person engaged in the industrial pursuits of the country. Their operation, when prosperity does not suspend them, is the best illustration of lighting the candle at both ends ever afforded by the legislature. Whenever the goods imported into this country rise in price, and more money is required for the transactions, the circulation is made less by law; for at that time the exchanges will assuredly be against this country, and the balances must be paid in gold.

The avowed object of Sir Robert Peel, in all his currency acts, has been the prevention of speculation, and over-trading. Of over-trading we hear so much that, occasionally, we are tempted to ask whether the people

have been over-fed, over-housed, over-clothed, and overtaught, or if they have become over-rich.

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We rejoice that the railway speculation was of such an innocent character, as affects this country. It ruined some individuals, and embarassed others; but, on the whole, it came in good time to take up the surplus labourers that agriculture was throwing off, and manufaetures could not employ. The supporters of the present currency acts blame it, indeed, for the existing money panic. With this charge we have not the slightest reason to be surprised. Their support of these acts is judicial evidence that they have not studied this class of topics sufficiently. The railways have certainly little to say or do in the subject. They must have straitened individuals,

but they cannot have straitened the country. The money expended upon them passes from one man's bank account to another. In accomplishing this process, very little time is required. For a large part of the payments, the act is momentary. It is an affair of passing eheques. For the major part, some time is needed; but the money paid by labourers to shopkeepers and tradesmen falls

Over-trading in one sense there never can be. The rapidly into the hands of local and branch banks, or ulti

operative classes are more ambitious of leisure than of work. The contest for the Ten Hours Bill teaches that lesson. All the laws, often crude, sometimes injurious, adopted by trades-unions prove the existence of a check imposed by labour on "over-trading'' far more efficient than any currency act. We suspect that, if events were rightly named, politicians would find what they call "'over-trading" is the absence of "under-trading;" and that while the operatives have the management of these matters, so much in their own hands, there will never be any over-trading." They take care to make "over-trading," in the right meaning of the term, unprofitable, by exacting high prices for, and putting, in short, a scale of almost prohibitive duties upon extra hours.

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mately into those of the wholesale dealer, who seldom keeps cash on hand.

The railway expenditure does not go out of the country, and can only therefore affect the foreign exchanges to a very limited extent, and in no other way than house or ship-building-than draining or fencing, or any other process in the reclamation of waste lands. The only way in which it can affect the exchanges is, that, if railways were not in course of formation, a great number of the labouring population would be idle and the remainder would be working for smaller wages. Of course they would consume less tea and sugar, and, undoubtedly, also a smaller quantity of beer and spirits. There would be, consequently, a reduced consumpt of colonial products and grain, while the sums to be paid for these commodities would be proportionally reduced, and the exchanges

so far eased.

It is quite possible to make more goods than may be sold, only because bad laws intervene between the maker and his customer. It would be impossible to "over- Railways, however, share this tendency in common trade" in that way with the present disposition of our with house and ship-building, or with those beneficent operative classes in favour of short time, even with re-operations in draining land, undertaken through direct duced wages, if artificial obstacles were not thrown up to prevent the intercourse of nations, and preserve their present state of alienation.

Government encouragement, and the road-destroying and most unprofitable expenditure, sanctioned by the Government in Ireland. Sir Charles Wood may, therefore, quite as wisely press resolutions to stop all public works in Ireland, and all house or bridge-building—all harbourmaking or dock-formation-all ship, boat, or steam vessel construction, and the cutting of the drains for which he lent the money—as resolutions to suspend railway legis

The object of Sir Robert Feel's late bills is, however, to prevent over-speculation. They were passed in 1844 | and 1845, and were followed by the most extensive speculation ever manifested in this country. Their friends, however, allege that they prevented that speculation from going much farther than it did. There is unques-lation and railway bills.

Nothing can be more evident than that if the labourers at railways, at iron works, and other establishments, whose wages have been enhanced, in consequence of the new lines, were to live soberly, and put the balance of their earnings into the savings bank instead of the whisky shops no harm could come to the country by the operation. Instead of funds being low in price they would be high. Whenever a capitalist wanted to sell consols to pay his calls the Government broker would be ready to buy on account of the savings banks, or the building societies, the benefit societies, and the various clubs would cheerfully pay for his stock. The consideration shows how intimately the prosperity of this country is dependent upon the morality of the labouring classes.

Some parties allege that railways were very commendable up to a certain extent, and so long as the shareholders could pay the calls from the savings of their incomes; but whenever they began to borrow money for the purpose of meeting calls, they raised the rate of interest, interfered with the ordinary pursuits of commerce, and have done thus all the mischief that has been accomplished. This argument may or may not be incorrect in its result, but it is inaccurate in its statements and suppositions. If railways be made at all, they must be formed by the savings of some persons. If the shareholders borrow money to pay the calls, they must borrow from the savings of some individuals. So far as the country is concerned, it matters nothing whether they are working on their own savings or those of others, for there is no other source of accumulation except economy. Then the effect of their proceedings on the rate of interest must have been the same, whether the shareholders used their own property or borrowed money. If a man saves money and does not put it out on railways he will expend or invest it in something else. If he saves without investing he will be able to lend. And if many persons who have been thus saving and lending continue to save but begin to invest, their accumulations are withdrawn from the lending market, and the result is the same on the value of money, as if they had borrowed a sum similar to that which they expend.

It is useless, therefore, to complicate the question by saying that while calls were paid from the accumulations of the shareholders, the railways were not injurious, but are rendered prejudicial whenever these calls are paid by borrowed money. The result on the money market, by either mode of transacting the business, would be the same.

not be foolish to have done once and for ever with their intermeddling.

ed with seeking Government intervention. Nothing can be Those who require a change in the currency laws are tauntmore false. The Voluntaries in religion might be with equal propriety accused of seeking Government interference with creeds and doctrines; because they invite Parliament to repeal some of its own acts. The opponents of the existing currency laws do precisely the same thing. They invoke not more, but less, government interference. They allege that the government are to a large extent trespassers on ground not their own; but the invitation to walk off is certainly not to be construed as a message with compliments, and the request of the parties concerned, that they would re-create themselves there, whenever their convenience served.

Sir Robert Peel, by his act of 1844, limited the circulation of the Bank of England to £14,000,000, on a basis of government securities, which is its fixed issue. The Bank may issue notes to any extent above that sum, but the currency must be based on gold. For every million of notes that it issues, it must have a million of sovereigns, or an equivalent to them in gold and silver on han‍d. Sir Robert Peel himself acknowledges that bullion currency is most expensive. There is-first, all its amount of capital sunk, and rendered into not fixed, but retrograding capital. Then, second, there are two processes of retrogression, for gold wears, and gold is lostlost or destroyed to the country, which never is or can be the case with a paper currency. The result of necessity that money is made dear, and labour or profit is proportionately reduced; while capitalists, whose trade is exclusively to lend money on tangible and mortgaged, or pawned securities, prosper.

The classes who lose by this arrangement are very numerous, because whenever bankers foresee a run for gold to export, they contract discounts, and raise the price of money. In the struggle to stand upright, the middle classes waste their strength. They cast away their property below its value; and those who watch and wait for the wrecks of society pick it up. The tendency of the present currency law is therefore to repress the middle classes for the profit of wealthy men, who are no engaged in industrial pursuits.

Here, however, as in all similar cases, the evil sinks downwards to the lowest depths. Most undoubtedly, mills have been stopped in Lancashire aud Lanarkshire, or wrought on short time, not merely for want of orders, but because orders that were not to be paid in cash, or in very short bills, could not be executed, for the bills were not negotiable, or could have only been cashed at a price which would have swept away much more than profits.

If the expenditure on railways were to be taken as one course of the prevalent scarcity of money, still it could not account for the vast depreciation in almost every deseription of property that is now experienced. Adding In the humblest places that can be called homes, the expenditure on railways of the last two years to the where wasted strength was planning how a high exextra outlay for grain from foreign countries since har- penditure could be made to square with a low income, Sir vest, a sum considerably under forty-five millions ster- Robert Peel's acts came in and carried the earnings altoling will be produced. This vast sum does not account|gether away. The mill was stopped. The spindles stood for depreciation of property equivalent to from one hun- still. A long holiday of starvation was secured. To dred and fifty to five hundred millions. There is no com- maintain it, the home was emptied into the pawnshop; parison between the presumed cause and the ascertained and such deep losses incurred, as a good harvest and result; but we have already shown, so far as the country twelvemonthis busy work will scarcely retrieve. But if and its financial arrangements are concerned, that the the poor sunk, wealthier capitalits prospered, and trade to only part of railway expenditure that could have materi- them, amidst ruins, is a money-making process. ally effected them is that small portion which the labourers may expend on foreign products, over and above the sums which, in more straitened circumstances, would be devoted by them to that purpose.

To save this small sum-for that is all the saving the Legislature has been invited to suspend all railway works, although, in that case, the labourers and their families must come on the poor rates, and be supported for doing nothing. This plan of economising would be ruinously extravagant.

We have already seen that Sir Robert Peel's bills did not, in point of fact, stop speculation. We may also deny that the Government acts wisely in endeavouring to intermeddle with business. It is not likely that the Members of the Cabinet will generally have much practical acquaintance with commercial affairs; and the country has been often so well nigh ruined by theorists, that it would

The apology for Sir Robert Peel's adoption of what he calls the most expensive currency, is to secure the convertibility of paper currency. Does it make that secure? Most certainly not. The Bank of England has fourteen millions of a fixed currency that is unbacked by gold. The other banks in England, Scotland, and Ireland have a considerable currency in the same position. It is quite possible that all bullion might be drawn down to these points, and where is the convertibility?

Bankers must risk that matter. They promise to pay in bullion when required; but people do not take their notes on account of that promise. They pass current because they represent solid property; because they are parts of houses, of lands, of ships; and because they are fragments of the national debt.

The proper cure for these matters is to revert to the Scotch system of banking before 1845, and extend its

provisions to England. It is notorious that this scheme wrought well. The currency commanded the utmost confidence. All classes were satisfied with its soundness. The excellence of the system was strikingly manifested by the fact, that a small circulation was made to do a large business. There were no failures to pay-there was no repudiation-no broken faith with the public-no inconvenience experienced-and there should have been no legislative intermeddling.

There could be no difficulty in requiring bankers to found so much of their circulation on Government securities; although, where the Companies are numerous, such provisions are superfluous. Still they can effect evil; and the result is, that the country has, so far as that portion of the currency extends a circulation managed without any expenre.

The adoption of this system in England would be equivalent to an addition of £20,000,000 to the fleeting capit-"the small charge," as it has not been inaptly termed, of the country.

We know there is a feeling in its favour in Lancashire and the manufacturing districts. It would not unduly depreciate the value of money. It would carry the country away from the verge of bankruptcy. It would form, in a present and temporary relief, a large and important and permanent benefit.

One-half or one-fourth of the energy which repealed the Corn-law would revoke the Currency-law, and accomplish, at least, an equal triumph.

them all-the death of the Liberator.

When

Catholic emancipation. In conversation, Mr O'Connell
himself gave a satisfactory explanation of the matter.
"A man has energy," he said, "and his circumstances
"There is a
determine the use he is to make of it."
dumb war," he used to say, "always going on in
Ireland." He had energy and he gave it to the cause of
his race and his religion. The war did not make the
energy, which unquestionably made itself powerfully felt
in the battle and in the victory. There is always work
to be done demanding the greatest energy, and it waits
until the strong man rises to do it.

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Never perhaps has any man lived and acted whose life has equalled that of Daniel O'Connell in consistency of agitation. If this be a virtue, he is the perfection of it. Though the horrors of the French Revolution almost made him a Tory when a boy, as soon as he made up his mind in early manhood his opinions and purposes at twenty-five were very nearly what they were at seventy. We have somewhere seen in one extract, the earliest expressions of his mind forty years ago, a list of the reforms he pledged himself to effect. There was no mincing He said, "support me modesty or timidity in this list. and I will do them." The Parliament in College Green" was a late promise which every now and then was modified by an "or"-" Repeal or justice for Ireland." Writers who make much of the differences of race-a theme about which there is much nonsense in voguewill be pleased to explain why this chief of the Celtsthe Irish Celts-the mercurial, impracticable, versatile, talkative, unsteady Celts-has been for five-and-forty years a leading politician in the three kingdoms. The Saxon DANIEL O'CONNELL died at Genoa on Saturday the 15th drifting iceberg, the half-Scotch half-English Brougham Peel has been a teetotum, the Anglo-Irish Wellesley a instant. He had reached the allotted threescore and ten years, and passed them by three to four years. a" Will-o'-the-wisp" compared with this doggish, steady, obstinate Celt, O'Connell. His principles and purposes, the Irish people shall be recounting to their children in future generations the dire calamities of the year of fa-his views and aims, and all his modes of carrying them mine, they will not omit the crown (in their estimate) of out, have been the same for half a century. The greatest example of the Saxon qualities of steadiness and practicaThere will be many disputes, before the page of history lity in these days has been this great Celt. O'Connell had none of the imaginative genius of the Anglo-Irish, which records the character which shall finally prevail respecting displays itself in the splendour of the eloquence of Burke, this man-the greatest political personage of these times. Mr. O'Connell used to say he was the best abused Curran, Grattan, and Shiel. Compared with theirs, his Ilis rhetoric was all man in Europe." was the eloquence of business. This was true; and a truth significant of his importance in Europe. Since Napoleon, he has had no equal in the political power which he has wielded. People do not abuse a man without a purpose; and the amount of abuse may, therefore, be the measure of fear of the assailants for their interests. O'Connell effected a revolution in Ireland; and the signs of it were manifest in his own history, within the last twenty years. member when the forms of the constitution would not permit him to take his seat as a simple member of parliament. We knew him when, as the chief of a compact band of from forty to sixty members of the House of Commons, exercising the dominancy of a superior will and intellect over his inferiors. In mind and purpose, he was the most powerful man in British affairs-the master successively of the Melbourne and the Russell cabinets. Merle D'Aubigne says, the only man of these times like Martin Luther, in the power he wielded, was Daniel O'Connell; he was constantly acting on public opinion, by his pen and tongue, by letters and speeches, as a journalist and an orator. But Luther was never master of cabinets, and never, therefore, the most powerful personality concerned in the government of an empire. Of course, there is a difference between the greatness of a man's qualities, and the goodness of his position. There may have been a concurrence of circumstances which gave his greatness to O'Connell, but the weakest theory we have seen of it, is the one which refers it to the obstinacy of George the III. on refusing

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second-hand. He convulsed his audience at Covent Garden by describing the Corn-Law Dukes as fellows whose shadows were afraid to follow them. O'Connell, we said, friend interrupted us, saying-It is taken from Hudican produce a good and witty joke of his own, when a bras, whose couplet is

A man he was so ghastly and so grim, His very shadow feared to follow him."" There was no original Irish wit in this greatest of the Irish. O'Connell had Saxon steadiness, and was destitute of Irish fancy; and to this curious fact must be ascribed the consequence that, while the florid orators of Ireland were weak and beautiful as flags on a ship of war, he was powerful and terrible as the guns within her port-holes.

O'Connell was the most kingly man of these days. His crown was indeed a cap, but his power was not ceremonial but real. He was the hero of his countrymen. In the eyes of the Liberals of Europe he was the august voice of an oppressed nation. Roman Catholic Europe revered him as the sainted champion of religion.

We might have given a detailed narrative of the life of this extraordinary man; but so far as this can be accomplished in limited space, it has been done, and well done, in the daily press.

To enter more minutely on his history, which is Ireland's history, is unnecessary with the knowledge that his biography will be written by his son.

PRINTED BY GEORGE TROUP, 29, DUNLOP STREET, GLASGOW.

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