of England even now is, to use the words of " Coningsby," "the finest in Europe:"*

Stat fortuna domûs, et avi numerantur avorum."

The fortunes of exiled families is another feature on which I should have liked, had space permitted, to have dwelt, in the present volume :-the remarkable fortunes of those gallant and energetic men, who, driven from their own land, established themselves in foreign countries, and won distinction abroad.

"Quæ regio in terris nostri non plena cruoris ?" Everywhere in Europe, in every great war, and in almost every martial enterprise, our countrymen may be traced. Their fame is universal: France, Prussia, Holland, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Russia, and Belgium have all been served,

* Hear, too, what Jean Jacques Rousseau, anything but a flatterer of aristocracy, says of it :-" If you know the English nobility you must be aware that it is the most enlightened, the best taught, the wisest and the bravest in Europe. This being so, it is unnecessary to enquire if it be the most ancient, for, in speaking of what it is, no question arises as to what it has been. The peers of England are certainly not the slaves of the prince, but his friends; not the tyrants of the people, but its chiefs, its guarantees of liberty, sustainers of their country, and supporters of the throne, they form an invincible equilibrium between the people and the sovereign. Their first duty is to the nation, their second to him who governs it; it is not his will but his right that they consult; supreme administrators of the laws in the House of Lords, and sometimes law makers, they render justice equally to the people and the crown, and they allow no one to say 'God and my sword,' but only God and my right.'” -Nouvelle Heloise, Letter LXIII.

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and gallantly served too, by English, Scotch, and Irish prowess. The vicissitudes consequent on civil wars and attainders-which have driven good and brave men to thus devote to foreign lands those energies and abilities which under better auspices might have added lustre to the history of their own country-have affected the public weal almost as much as any other form of family suffering.

In two of the greatest victories ever achieved over the English, those of Beaugé and Almanza, the French were commanded, in the former by the famous Scotch General, John Stewart, Earl of Buchan, and in the latter, by the equally renowned English commander, James Duke of Berwick. Singularly enough, at Almanza, while the French were thus under an English General, the English army was led by a French officer, the Marquis de Ruvigny.

In more modern times there was scarcely one of the Marshals of Napoleon abler or more considered than Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum; and in our own day, Patrick MacMahon, Duke of Magenta, has given another illustrious addition to the roll of British names associated with

foreign renown. Under every nation's banner but their own the Irish fought with success, and some of them attained the highest rank.

Marshal Brown, who contended so ably against the great Frederick, De Lacy, who organized the Russian army, and the heroic Mahony, who saved Cremona, who gained immortal glory at Almanza, and became eventually Lieutenant-General and Commander of Castile, were Irishmen. "The Thirty Years' War" enlisted many a bold and adventurous Englishman and Scot in the army of

Sweden, and many an enthusiastic soldier from Ireland in that of Austria. Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein were the leaders of the antagonistic parties and religions, and the Protestant and Catholic had each his opportunity of

service.

The "Lion of the North" ranged under his colours the Hamiltons, and Douglases, and Gordons, and a host of others from Scotland: (who does not recall Captain Dugald Dalgety of Sir Walter Scott's Legend of Montrose ?) and during the period of religious persecution the protection of Austria and Spain seduced from home many a well-descended Catholic, many a Dormer, a Leslie,* an

* Walter Leslie, a younger son of the ancient family of Leslie of Balquhain, in Aberdeenshire, entered the service of the Emperor of Germany in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and rose to high distinction during the Thirty Years' War. He was devoted to the interests of the House of Austria; and the share which he had in the death of Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland, has been celebrated by the pen of Schiller. He was amply rewarded for his services by the Emperor of Germany, who created him Count of the Sacred Roman Empire, and bestowed upon him large estates in Bohemia and Styria. He married the Princess Anna Francesca, daughter of Prince Dietrichstein. This alliance is remarkable, insomuch as it shows the position in which a family of the untitled Scottish gentry stood in the scale of European nobility in the seventeenth century. Walter Leslie was the younger son of an Aberdeenshire laird of ancient and noble blood, but what we now-a-days would call a commoner. He was a younger branch of that family, which was subsequently raised to the peerage with the title of Rothes; and his highest dignity was that of being possessor of an estate that was a barony. He was a Scottish lesser Baron. Yet the second son of this untitled country gentleman was considered a fit and proper husband for the daughter of a German princely family.

b

O'Reilly, and an O'Donnell; while the attractions of a new world, where a greater freedom of thought existed, led across the Atlantic the Pilgrim Fathers to form a mighty nation on the western main.

My little work is now brought to an end, and will not, I trust, be deemed unworthy of a place in the student's library, as illustrating a peculiar and not uninteresting "endroit" in history. The Vicissitudes of Families have in

It is true, that he had previously been created a Count of the Empire, but that dignity would not alone have opened the door of the Dietrichstein palace to him in the relation of son-in-law if his birth had not been regarded as thoroughly noble. There can be no doubt that his sixteen quarters of pure nobility were curiously scanned before the Princess Anna Francesca was induced to bestow her hand upon this successful soldier of fortune.

* The rise of the O'Reillys in Spain forms an interesting anecdote:-At the close of the Seven Years' War (1762), forming, as it were, an episode of that great contest, hostilities commenced between Spain and Portugal. In the regiment of Ultonia, which fought on the Spanish side, was an Irish officer, whom, on being left for dead on the field of battle, the followers of the camp were, as usual, about to despoil, when he cried out that he was the Duc d'Arcos. The hope of a reward or ransom saved his life; but on his return to Madrid he was commanded into the presence of the Duke's widow, and interrogated why he had presumed to usurp her husband's name. "Madam," replied he, "if I had known a more illustrious one I would have sought its protection." The presence of mind evinced, both in assuming the name in the hour of danger, and in his apt reply to the haughty duchess, ensured him this lady's special favour, as her influence did his rapid advancement in public life. This officer was the celebrated Count O'Reilly, (youngest son of Thomas O'Reilly, Esq., of Baltrasna, Co. Meath), who commanded the African expedition under Charles III. of Spain, and was Governor of Louisiana, Ambassador to the Court of France, &c.

them a moral of infinite importance to coming generations, and they tell us, in exposing the weaknesses of human provision and forethought, that there is a guiding law, the law of the Spirit of life, beyond and above the control or reach of all worldly ambition. It is in vain in many cases to analyze the causes of the rapid downfall of mighty houses, and the striking contrasts in the most powerful. To use the eloquent expressions of the Earl of Carlisle, in one of his recent speeches—

"Changes so extensive, shocks so violent, defy all calculation, but they should not shake our confidence in Him who gives the sunshine as well as the storm, the fertilizing rain as well as the drought-the manna, the milk, and the honey, as well as the stony rock and the sandy desert-who from evil brings forth good, and in judgment remembers mercy."