Their ranks were full-their arms were at a call, [all." And he who touched one brother injured The humbug told-the story flew abroad, And fools were lulled, and cowards overawed; [spoke, Each club, each lodge, in awful menace And legislating idiots helped the joke: Yet here the veriest clown their course surveyed, [made : And smiled, half tickled by the stir they Here still he sees them try to prop the cheat, And laughs at all their swagger and conceit; [view, Here he beholds them stripped to public And as he passes coolly looks them through; [times, Views them as reptiles, reared in troubled Nursed upon blood, and cherished in their crimes; A lawless help for tyrant rulers made, With these still strong, but weak without such aid; Spoiled by indulgence, saucy in each right, And ever prompt (save when they ought) to fight; In low corruption's crawling hot-bed born, The scourge of weakness, but of strength the [own, Bound by no law but what the laws dis scorn; throne; forth; The people's pest, and dangerous to the Let oaths be sworn, or added marks be told, of old; hand of a Churchill, combined with he would furnish poetry for my all the elegance of a Pope. I wish 'Gazette.' My price is a guinea a line. ROCK. re ROCK TO THE EVANGELICALS. MOST potent, grave, and verend saints,-Captain Rock, the celebrated Irish Chieftain, begs to know whether you be more fools or knaves, or both? He could love an enthusiast, and pardon the indiscretions of mistaken zeal; but he must ever detest deliberate falsehood. In all your publications, when speaking of popery, he can find nothing else, and this leads him to suppose you are fools; for how can you expect to convert papists while you belie their creed ? Supposing that creed an erroneous one, you confirm its votaries by calumniating it; for men are never convinced by those who misrepresent their acts and opinions. But, probably, you wish not so much to attract papists as to prevent the attractions of popery; and certainly you adopt a capital plan for your purpose, and this brings me to believe that you are knaves. I am confirmed in this by the following passage in your Evangelical Magazine' for the present month: Not long since, a proselyting scene of a disgraceful nature was acted in the town of Galway. A very old man, who had been long a member of the Established Church, and a hearer of the excellent Mr. Daly, the Warden of Galway, was sick. On the afternoon of the day on which he died, Mr. D. visited him and administered the sacrament to him, and left him evidently near his end. He had not been There's something drowns that warning-long gone when the grand-daughter of the Let lodges curse the country and the town, Still, late or soon, the faction shall go down: [long, Yes! though connivance makes endurance Still Truth works onward, and her light is strong; [sion sure, Though sloth or dulness makes oppresNecessity itself must bring the cure; Though caution comes, and slowly cries Forbear," ['tis despair. Yes! if the dolts who rule their aid with. draw, [law; Man stands self-arm'd-tis nature's leading If those who govern still betray their trust, And will not act―a tortured people must.' In the foregoing there are truth and poetry-two things seldom united; and, had I room, I should extract Mr. Furlong's portraits of the Lord Lieutenant, Plunkett, O'Connell, and others, which he has delineated with the fearless person came running to inform him that the priest had got into her grandfather's room, and was going through his ceremonies. doing this, he overturned the holy candles which were lighted; this created a great bustle, when the rabble cried out to kill the clergyman; they tore part of his clothes. He continued to remonstrate with the priest on his unchristian intrusion, and called on him to desist; but he insisted on going on. Mr. D. then asked the dying man whether he wished to have the priest or his minister? He, with his dying breath, said, The Minister; and I believe died whilst this was going on. The priest and people were very violent; and, had not the sheriff been providentially passing at that very time, who entered and rescued the worthy clergyman, it is probable that he would have been murdered. The priest insisted that he should bury him, as would have taken the corpse by force, in he died a convert to the Romish faith; and order to make a grand procession, proclaiming that he died a Catholic. This was prevented by the interference of the police. In due time he was buried, Mr. D. reading the burial service. The following night the body was taken up, the coffin broken to pieces, and the naked corpse cast like a dead dog at the door of the mayor. These are the men who are crying out against proselyting, who are instructing the ignorant rabble to cry, No Bibles—No Bibles! Notwithstanding all this outcry by the Papists and nominal Protestants against proselyting, let all Bible, Missionary, and Educational Societies, persevere with unabating ardour in the diffusion of Bible Christianity in Ireland, by the circulation of hundreds of thousands of Bibles by preaching against the errors of that apostate church-and by the formation of thousands of Bible Schools,-ever bearing in mind that Popery is not Christianity. In the Christian religion Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega; all things connected with the salvation of sinners are of Him, and through Him, and to Him. In Popery all things are of the priest, and through the priest, and to the priest. The prics is the poor, ignorant, degraded papist's god: at his girdle hang the keys of heaven and hell: he shuts, and no man openeth; and opens, and no man shutteth.' With the Christian charity and religious presumption of the foregoing I have nothing to do; but must, in justice to your stupid and credulous readers, assure them Mr. D. immediately hastened to the that there is in it not one word of house, and found the chamber filled by a truth. I should say this, even had low rabble, chiefly women, who, as is their custom, followed the priest on these occaI no communication with Dick sions, when they saw the candles and the Martin on the subject, from the host proceeding through the street. Mr. D. internal testimony of its falsehood; of course much displeased at this intrusion, forced his way to the bed-side of his for it is well known in Ireland parishioner, in order to preserve him from no person is allowed to accompany being disturbed in his last moments. In a priest when visiting the sick, nor is there such a thing known as candles and the host being openly carried through the streets. The whole article from which the above is extracted is a jumble of untruths and nonsense. I shall look to these things in future, and teach the people of England (all of whom read my Gazette) to distrust such writers as the uninspired evangelists who communicated the above falsehood for a fact. CATHOLICS IN OFFICE. I TAKE the following statement of offices in Ireland, and the number of Catholics employed, from a speech of Mr. Hume's, delivered in 1823: In the Irish post-office there were 466 persons holding offices, of whom only 25 were Roman Catholics. Under the Royal Dublin Society there were 17 persons, none of whom were Catholics. In the Bank of Ireland there were 127 persons, and of that number only 6 Catholics. In the board for paving-the board of commissioners for erecting fountains-for preserving the port of Dublin-for wide streets-amongst the trustees of the linen board-the Lord Lieutenant's household the city officers and common council the committees of the pipe and water establishment of the police, and many other public establishments, there was not one solitary Catholic to be found! In the office of customs there were 296 persons employed, and only 11 of them were Catholics. In the Excise there were 265 persons employed, and of that number only 6 were Catholics. Of coroners in counties there were 108, and only 14 of them Catholics. Of commissioners of af fidavit there were 262, and only 29 of them Catholics-of 71 officers under the linen board, 3 were Catholics! In fact, on an aggregate of the public establishments, the list of which he held in his band, there were 20,459 persons holding offices paid by the public money, and of that number only 106 were Catholics! To show that the exclusion was not solely in the inferior offices, but extended equally to them all, he would mention that there were 31 assistant barristers, but not one of them a Catholic. There were 106 offices in the law department of Ireland, which must be filled by barristers, the salaries and emoluments of which exceed 150,000l. a year, and Roman Catholics are admissible, since 1795, to 83 of these offices, producing an income of 50,000l. a year; but there was not one solitary instance of a Roman Catholic holding any such profitable and honourable appointment!'-(See Edinburgh Review, p. 362.) (Concluded from page 3.) WHEN SO agreeably interrupted last week, I was about telling my readers that Paddy, though blessed with a moral schoolmaster, would still have to rely upon human authority; for how else could he know that his Bible was written under the divine influence of the Holy Ghost? This is a fact which demonstrates the necessity of a visible church. Well, but Paddy is in mental chains; and, as liberating sentiments cannot reach him, he does not profit by the lessons of the moral schoolmasters; consequently, you have a population in Ireland,' says this sapient Scotchman, which is more ignorant and depraved, more vicious and criminal, than any other people in Europe.' Indeed! why you have fifty convicted felons in England for one in Ireland; and bastard children are very scarce there, those who filled the Foundling Hospital in Dublin having nearly all come from the Protestant North. In England, where the moral school. masters' meet with no obstruction from popish priests, how stands the scale of morality? But very so, so; and I shall adduce an authority that ought to satisfy, at least, this learned scribe. 'Forty years since an illegitimate child was scarcely ever born amidst your village population; now the parish officers declare that illegitimate children abound every where. What has caused this deplorable difference? Any change in your Constitution and laws? No! a change in morals a change in the laws of society. Forty years since the male, as well as the female, part of the country people, held a seducer in scorn; he was banished from all decent society; but now it is even thought an honour to be a seducer. If your men generally become seducers, rely upon it your women will become strumpets. Forty years since, if a girl happened to be with child, she durst not show herself for months after it was discovered; the public tongue Scourged her until it scarcely left her life; but now the community has liberally remitted the punishment-therefore the of fence prevails. Forty years since, your country labourers would not accept relief from the parish, if they could escape starving by any other means; in their quarrels, the most biting sarcasm that they could use was, You are, or you have been, beholden to the parish;' the parent con cluded his most serious admonition to the child with, If you disobey, you will come to the parish. This salutary feeling has vanished. Reader, if you are an Irishman, tell me which of the pictures, present or past, prevails at this moment in Ireland?-That of forty years ago, to be sure. But you doubt my authority, and fancy this extract was taken from a speech of O'Connell's? no: from a pamphlet of Dr. Doyle's? no: from 'Cobbett's Register?' no: and from what, then? Why, you blockhead, from the very article which contains all the unfounded calum.. nies on Ireland and her priesthood. This is not all; for the article concludes by proving, even according to their enemies, that the Catholics ought to be emanci pated: The British Protestants wish you (Catholics) to possess all that you ought to possess they wish you to enjoy all that themselves enjoy-they wish to make you their equals-but until you separate religion from politics, render to God the things that are God's, and to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's-make your priests your religious teachers only, instead of your religious and political tyrants-give religious freedom to the millions who fo low you-cease to war against Protestant freedom-break up the terrible tyranny which you have established in the land-and renounce those principles which are not less at variance with Christianity than with British rights and liberties;-until you do all this, you must not expect to be the legislators and ministers of Great Britain.' Now unless this scribe can prove (which he cannot) that Catholic priests are political tyrants, and that they teach doctrines at variance with Christianity, he admits that Catholics ought to enjoy as many privileges as Protestants. ROCK. Letters to Irish Landlords' in my next LONDON-J. Robins and Co. Ivy Lane; Paternoster Row; J. Robins, jun. and Co. 38, Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin; and all Booksellers, &c. No. 3. Or, The Chieftain's Weekly Gazette. THE PRIVATE MEMOIRS OF CHAPTER II. SCHOOL AN IRISH SCHOOL AND In the good old times no boy was tortured by that instrument of good manners, a pedagogue, until he had obtained, at least, his tenth year; though it was by no means unusual to see a raw-boned fellow, of six feet high, marching to school with a turf in one hand, and a Horn-book in the other. Per kind of forms of them, while their position served to illustrate every figure in Euclid, as they went across and along, angular and diagonal. Tables and desks were then con but gather flowers about the meadows of Rockglen, listen to the songs of my father's bard, and hear the predictions of my future greatness from each successive visitor. But this felicity, like peace in Ire-sidered an incumbrance in a schoolland, was too good to last long. room; the boys, and even Florence One morning in summer, as I himself, having a board, twelve stepped out of bed, I found a inches by eighteen, to write on, book and a clough* lying on the which, for want of a better place floor. I knew their meaning, and, to put it, was always laid on the without hesitation, I stooped for knees. Mr. Castairs and Mr. Lewis the book. In an instant my poor may laugh at this; but I have still father had me clasped in his arms, some writing executed by poor and with tears of gladness he ex- Florence, and I will wager one of claimed, I knew my Decimus my Gazettes' against their last haps our forefathers were right, had a natural pride about him, piece of penmanship that neither for what proficiency can a child that would prefer being a scholar of these professors of the new under ten make? He may, indeed, to a clown; for, in these times, system will better it. learn to spell, as a parrot learns to parents ascertained the disposition speak; but nothing more, for his of their children by laying before ideas are incapable of being either them those things which indicated separated or combined. The gain learning and labour; and it deby early schooling is at least doubt-pended on which they preferred ful, while the loss of juvenile happiness is certain; for what greater misery can a boy suffer than that of going to school? Mrs. Trimmer, and other old women like her, whether in breeches or petticoats, may write nice little books to subdue the propensities of nature; but still the child will creep, like a snail, unwillingly to school,' and a boy himself must certainly know best what constitutes his immediate happiness. My father was not only a chieftain and lawgiver, but a philosopher. From him I inherit many orthodox as well as paradoxical opinions; and, perhaps, the reader will consider this, about school boys, as one of the latter species. If so, I shall adduce myself in proof of its truth and reasonableness; for I assure you that I was fifteen years old before a book was put into my hand; and I can safely aver that those fifteen years were the happiest of my long life. I did nothing all the time whether they were sent to school Poor Florence! I knew him well.' Tall, thin, and formal, he seemed made up of precision; every word being pronounced with as much care as he evinced in the pointing of a letter in a copy-piece, while his dress of decent frieze Having always had a prescience indicated the extreme neatness of of being a great man, I set off for the wearer. The village all dethe school of Florence M'Carthyclared how much he knew, and without shedding a single tear, he was not insensible of his own though my too-partial mother be- merit; for there is not a Fellow of dewed my cheeks with hers at this Trinity College could sit in his our first parting since my return curiously carved chair with more from nurse. About half an hour dignity than Florence when he brought me within sight of the called out 'Silence! Lessons now.' 'noisy mansion,' and my little I think I hear his voice at this mo. heart bounded against my side as I ment, and my ears ring with the entered it. The schoolmaster, Babel-like din that followed, for with a switch under his arm, wel. that boy was counted best which comed me with a smile, and placed shouted his lesson out loudest, and me on a seat near him; but so you may be sure the emulation thus intent was I on getting my lesson, excited made the school-house very that I did not raise my head for a unlike a Quakers' meeting. Goldfull half-hour. When I ventured smith must have been well aware at last to look up, good God! of this custom when he wrote what a sight met my eyes! A hundred boys, of all sizes, ages, and degrees, were arranged on boards, placed on large stones, that made a A long pole, with a sting in the end of it, used in place of a whip for driving the plough. noisy mansion,' a fact which proves, more than any other, that the scene of his Deserted Village' was laid in Ireland. The noise thus unnecessarily made had sometimes a singular effect on Florence himself; for, when the roar was at the highest, he would start up from his chair, and commence piercing the thatch with a long pole; and then, lowering it to the ground, he would run round the school, drawing it across the boys' legs, who always made the best preparation they could. when they saw the fit coming on him. 6 A country school-house at this period was, and even at the present day is, like a churchyard, the gathering-place of all conditions, for the poor scholar, who could not pay, was as welcome as the rich man's son, who could; and nothing is more erroneous than to suppose that education is not within the reach of all classes in the country parts of Ireland. The books usually made use of at this time have been objected to, but, I think, without reason, for I owe much of that patriotic heroism, and enthusiastic virtue, which have distinguished my career, to the early perusal of the hedge classics, The Seven Champions of Christendom,' and Guy Earl of Warwick.' I even read the History of Jane Shore,' and was the better for it, for since that time I have held despots and seducers in equal abhorrence. It is rather remarkable, that the great wish to engross works of such tendency to themselves; for, while they take their sons and daughters to see Rowe's tragedy, they would exclude the life of this unfortunate woman, which enforces an excellent moral lesson, from the daughters of Poverty, who stand in much need of such an example. all For three years I was regular in my attendance at school, and was making the usual progress, when the crowded state of Florence's academy alarmed the government, lest the papists should learn to read the statutes they were bound to obey; for these sages were wiser than Heliogabalus, and, instead of hanging their edicts on high and inaccessible places, they at once disqualified the people from perusing them. Tyrants are always cowards; and, when information of Florence's existence was given at the castle of Dublin, the sensation produced was incredible ;-the courtiers ran to hiding-places, the ladies fled to the island of Dalky, and the Sir William Stammer of the day was commissioned to erect barriers at Cullen's Wood and Kilmainham, while the military force of the country was placed under arms, and the whole of the Dublin aldermen were apprehensive that they should rise some morning with their throats cut. When the panic had somewhat subsided a detachment of dragoons was sent down to arrest the great enemy of ignorance; and so unconscious was Florence of having given offence, that he had just taken his seat as the cavalry formed round the school-house, and, as usual, commanded Silence! now to your lessons.' The roar that instantly burst from a hundred lungs so terrified the soldiers, that, thinking Florence was prepared for their reception, they scampered off in different directions. The confusion thus caused brought us all running out, when, seeing what kind of enemies they had to contend with, the dragoons rallied, and soon made prisoner of poor Florence, who was instantly tied behind one of the men, and carried off, the remainder of the troop surrounding him with drawn swords. This was the first time I found myself imperiously called upon to take a leading part in public affairs; for, though then but eighteen, I longed to make myself useful. Seeing all the scholars staring at each other, I mounted upon the master's chair, and addressed my fellow-pupils. My harangue must have been very impressive; for even the smaller boys volunteered to assist me in attempting a rescue. No time was to be lost; and, as we formed a body of forty young too, were greatly increased; for Paddy then, as well as now, loved fighting, and hated oppression. Rivers and bog-holes were insufficient to cool our zeal; and in less than twenty minutes we had collected a score cows and horses in the road which the dragoons had to pass. Arranging ourselves in the fields, on each side, we awaited their approach; and when they came, a shot fired by me was the signal of attack. We made short work of it. About half a dozen troopers fell, when the command. er begged a truce, surrendered his prisoner, and made me a present of the sword and pistols which yet I wear.' The fame of this exploit spread far and near; and the whole coun try declared that I would one day be more famous than any of my predecessors-a prediction which has been literally fulfilled. It is but justice, however, to observe, that the law which hanged priests, and transported school. masters, was then very seldom enforced, thanks to the intervention of my family; but even the dread inspired by the heroes of Rockglen could not preserve such an innovator as Florence M'Carthy, who was obliged to leave that part of the country, and commence an attack upon ignorance elsewhere. (To be continued.) FAIRY TALES AND LEGENDS OF THE IRISH PEASANTRY.* I SUSPECT Mr. Crofton Croker, the author of the volume before me, is the young gentleman who paid a visit to Rockglen in the summer of 1820. His ostensible business was curiosity; but I, being then in open conflict with the legal authorities, regarded the young stranger in a light which, for fear of hurting Mr. Croker's feelings, I shall not now mention. It appears that my suspicions were unfounded; for, doubtless, my visitor was only collecting materials for the present work. Sorry I am that I had the misfortune to misunderstand his motives, otherwise I should have introduced him to O'Flaherty, the family bard, who could have enriched his portfolio with Tales and Legends somewhat more interesting than many of the silly ones he has introduced in his présent volume. As it was, Mr. Croker will, I believe, do me the justice to say that I had set before him all the delicacies of the season, in my best parlour. He praised the new potatoes, the ham of bacon, the chicken, and, above all, my potheen; to which, by-the-by, he seemed very partial, having dispatched the sixth tumbler before he took his departure. Should he keep the promise he then made, of again visiting Rockglen, he will find a more unreserved welcome, as I have written to my son on the subject; for Mr. Croker, in chronicling the superstition of the Irish peasantry, has not indulged in any sneers at either their morals or religion; and, as we are unaccustomed to candour, he has my thanks for his impartiality. Many of the Tales and Legends might have easily been made more interesting, as I have frequently heard most of them related with circumstances possessed of much Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland. Murray, London, 1825, more attraction than in the present form; but, as Mr. Croker's intercourse with the multitude must have been limited, he was obliged to take many of the tales at what may be called second-hand, without having any access to the originals: but, notwithstanding these and other defects of the work, it is highly amusing; and I trust Mr. North-the lady lawyer-will bring a bill into Parliament for making it a class-book in the Kildare. street schools, vice Irish Rogues and Rapparees' discarded. Most of the Tales and Legends would appear to be only verbatim reports of a collough's fire-side story; and this method, though not without objections, is somewhat amusing.-Daniel O'Rourke, for instance, is inimitably droll and humorous; but, when Mr. Croker attempts any thing higher, he evidently fails; for both the legends of the Banshee' are very inferior to an article, on the same subject, in the Dublin and London Magazine,' to the author of which this volume leaves ample room and verge enough ;' for a tithe of the Fairy Legends has not been collected by Mr. Croker. following Legend of Knockgrafton' being one of the best, 1 extract it for the amusement of my English readers, it being already well known to every man in Ireland: The The There was once a poor man who lived in the fertile glen of Aherlow, at the foot of the gloomy Galtee mountains, and he had a great hump on his hack: he looked just as if his body had been rolled up and placed upon his shoulders; and his head was pressed down with the weight so much that his chin, when he was sitting, used to rest upon his knees for support. country people were rather shy of meeting him in any lonesome place; for though, poor creature, he was as harmless and as inoffensive as a new-born infant, yet his deformity was so great, that he scarcely ap peared to be a human creature, and some ill-minded persons had set strange stories about him afloat. He was said to have a great knowledge of herbs and charms; but certain it was that he had a mighty skilful hand in plaiting straw and rushes into hats and baskets, which was the way he made his livelihood. 'Lusmore (for that was the nickname put upon him by reason of his always wearing a sprig of the fairy-cap, or lasmore, in his little straw hat) would ever get a higher penny for his plaited work than any one else; and perhaps that was the reason why some one, out of envy, had circulated the strange stories about him. Be that as it may, it happened that he was returning one evening from the pretty town of Cahir towards Cappagh; and as little Lusmore walked very slowly, on account of the great hump upon his back, it was quite dark when he came to the old moat of Knockgrafton, which stood on the right hand side of his road. Tired and weary was he, and no way comfortable in his own mind at thinking how much further he had to travel, and that he should be walking all the night; so he sat down under the moat to rest himself, and began looking mourn fully enough upon the moon, which, "Rising in clouded majesty, at length, Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light, [threw, O'er the dark heaven her silver mantle And in her pale dominion checked the night." Presently there rose a wild strain of unearthly melody upon the ear of little Lus more he listened, and he thought that he had never heard such ravishing music before. It was like the sound of many voices, each mingling and blending with the other so strangely, that they seemed to be one, though all singing different strains, and the words of the song were these: a Da Luan, Da Mort, Da Luan, Da Mort, Da Luan, Da Mort, when there would be moment's pause, and then the round of melody went on again. Lusmore listened attentively, scarcely drawing his breath lest he might lose the slightest note. He now plainly perceived that the singing was within the moat; and though at first it had charmed him so much, he began to get tired of hearing the same sound sung over and over so often without any change; so, availing himself of the pause when the Da Luan, Da Mort, had been sung three times, he took up the tune and raised it with the words augus Da Cadine, and then went on singing with the voices inside of the moat, Da Luan, Da Mort, finishing the melody, when the pause again came, with augus Da Cadine. The fairies within Knockgrafton, (for the song was a fairy melody), when they heard this addition to their tune, were so much delighted, that with instant resolve it was determined to bring the mortal among them whose musical skill so far exceeded theirs, and little Lusmore was conveyed into their company with the eddying speed of a whirlwind. Glorious to behold was the sight that burst upon him as he came down through |