explained. The ears are cut off the straw, and the straws sized as to length and thickness, and also colour. Thirteen straws are then taken and tied together at one end; they are then divided into a right angle, placing six straws on the left side, and seven on the right. The seventh, or outermost on the right, is to be turned down by the finger and thumb of the right hand, and brought up under two straws, over two, and under two, and thus seven straws will be placed again on the right side of the angle; and so on alternately, doubling and plaiting the outermost seventh straw from side to side, until it becomes too short to cross over so as to double on the other side of the angle; then another straw is to be taken, and put under the short end, at the point of the angle, in the middle of the plait; and by another straw coming under and over the joined one from both sides of the angle, in the operation of plaiting it will become fastened; the short end being then left out underneath the plait, and the newly fastened straw taking its place on that side of the angle to which the short straw was directed; and thus the plaiting is continued, until a piece of about twenty yards long is completed. The short ends which are left out are then cut off with scissors.-Scientific Gazette. O'CONNELL, COBBETT, ANDREWS, AND CAPTAIN ROCK. I HAVE often been amused by the prosing dulness of many of those who are called gentlemen of the press,' for the gravity of some men is quite as ridiculous as the affected eccentricities of others; but I have never laughed outright at stupidity until I read the Truth-teller' for October 15th, a fortnightly (I coin the word) pamphlet, printed, published, and edited by William Eusebius Andrews, at No. 3, Chapter-house Court, St. Paul's. This gentleman having no taste for wit or humour himself, cannot tolerate either in another; and, accordingly, he has written almost sixteen pages of closely-printed matter abusing of the writer of The Trial of Daniel O'Connell.' The great leader comes in for a share of his vituperation, and pour | Captain Rock, God help him! is the object of his most virulent attack. But notwithstanding the offensive parts of the article, it contains enough that is truly laughable. Like the cardinal who proposed sending missionaries to convert the imaginary natives of Utopia, Mr. Andrews mistakes a mere jeu d'esprit for a serious composition, and though it seems he did discover that 'O'Connell's Trial' was a mock one, he subsequently criticised it as if it had really taken place. Such a display of dullness as is contained in this leading article of The Truthteller,' would be unworthy of notice did it not contain much bad feeling, great falsehoods, ridiculous arguments, and erroneous logic. Mr. Andrews may rest assured that he has not made me angry: I have been too long his friend not to pardon an error into which the innate littleness of his soul has betrayed him; and though I despise the contemptible spirit of envy which dictated his attack on me and The Dublin and London Magazine,' I can feel for a man in his situation. But let that pass; I would not willingly hurt his feelings; for, whatever I may think of his abilities, I have long admired his zeal, without stopping to inquire from whence it originated. Mr. Andrews will understand me. most in the same breath he admits that there are grounds for the third, fourth, and seventh; and takes that opportunity of reading the great leader' a lecture, which O'Connell, I am sure, will profit by. Thirdly, that the answers he himself is made to give on the cross-examination, are almost all false; but, after much equivocation, he admits their truth with the exception of two- and these two are quite unimportant. They relate to his intimacy with Cobbett, and while he denies the existence of personal friendship, he declares himself ambitious of that HONOUR. He also denics having given Cobbett any books or papers, but acknowledges that application was made to him on the subject. I do not mean to vindicate the writer of The Trial,' for putting questions to Mr. Andrews on his private affairs; but the Truthteller' has now recorded of himself that he does hold the political opinions of Cobbett and Wooler and that he has lost a dozen (I pity the publisher who could be so accurate,) subscribers in conse quence of his attack on Mr. O'Connell. Fourthly, that he does not know the compiler of The Trial,' and soon after he declares it is a bantling of Captain Rock's. ; Further proofs of gross inconsistency must be unnecessary. Let us now turn to the falsehoods. First-He says the proprietor of the Dublin Morning and Weekly Register' was one of the persons named on the supposed jury-and that is a falsehood; Miles Staunton being as little of a literary character as any man in Europe: this is well known in the Commercial Buildings. The Truth-teller' mistook Miles for Michael. Secondly-That Captain Rock is the author of The Trial of Daniel O'Connell'-and that is a falsehood. I always thought that a Truthteller' was consistent. If I have been right, Mr. Andrews's title is a misnomer, for in almost every page of this article he has contradicted himself. In the first place, he says 'The Trial' was written for the purpose of gilding the pocket of the author, and soon after he as gravely tells us that it was got up with Thirdly-That Captain Rock is the design of diverting public atten- the creature of a party favourable tion from the defection of certain to O'Connell, in opposition to the leaders. Secondly, that the counts interests of Ireland-and that is a of the indictment have nothing to falsehood, which the readers of this do with O'Connell's offence; yet al-Gazette will readily acknowledge. Fourthly-That Captain Rock is a self-denied but palpable flatterer -and that is a palpable falsehood. Let us now turn from facts to nonsense. Mr. Andrews, like a captious critic, finds fault with the jury and counsel, on the supposed Trial of O'Connell,' just as if it signified a fig who were the persons selected. The jury, however, are merchants of the first distinction every man of them a Catholic, and not one of them, that I know of, a personal friend of O'Connell. Another piece of absurdity,' cries the sapient Truth-teller,' is, that three of the counsel on the part of Mr. O'Connell are implicated with him in the offence for which he ought to have been placed on trial.' Good Mr. Andrews, were Mr. O'Connell really on his trial, pray would he not be likely to select the very men who had a personal interest in his acquittal ? ' I know not where to select a few specimens of Mr. Andrews's logic and arguments. Had I room I should willingly insert the whole article, for it is a tissue of absurdity. Facts,' says he, speaking of 'The Trial," are extracted from my paper which cannot be disproved, and my cross-examination has nothing to do with the charges;' ergo, the writer of the trial is favourable to O'Connell. Again, he exclaims, Thefacts, the facts, good learned gentlemen, which Mr. North, in his opening speech, said would be proved against 'the defendant, which have been proved, and not the least attempt, that we have seen, been made to disprove them." The logical conclusion here, according to Mr. Andrews, is, that the writer of the trial favoured O'Connell. Dryden wrote against the Catholic religion, and so has Cobbett. Dryden subsequently became a Catholic, and wrote the Hind and Punther. Cobbett continues a Protestant, and is writing the history of the Protestant Reformation; ergo, their cases are de cidedly similar. disagreeable task of dissecting this flatter himself that he is in the right; but let me tell him, that his opposition to O'Connell will prove of no avail. It has injured Mr. Andrews in the estimation of thousands already; it may serve to oppose Catholic to Catholic, but it cannot prevent O'Connell from being leader. There is no man in Ireland possessing the necessary qualifications to supply his place. Prudence, there fore, as well as patriotism, would dictate a line of conduct different I have said that O'Connell's Trial from that pursued by the Truthwould seal Cobbett's popularity in teller.' I say this in a spirit of kindIreland. I believe that it has nearly ness. I am not an enemy of Mr.Andone so already, and I pledge my-drews; and he will find it his inself to assist in the work. Next terest not to cross my path again. week I shall prove-mind, I say He is welcome to say what he likes prove-that Cobbett is not a man of O'Connell's Trial,' or of any to be trusted, and that he is likely other work which comes from the in the end to prove more injurious office of my publishers; but, if he to the cause of Ireland, than the be wise, he will avoid provoking writings of the greatest bigots who my anger. I forgive him for his ever calumniated that unhappy mean and insidious attack; but, if country. I have all along dissented he be foolish enough to enter from Mr. O'Connell's conduct, the lists with me, he may rest in approving of the wings; and I assured that he will encounter no must now say, that the great common opponent in leader' would have acted more consistently, and more like the man of the people, if he had at first acknowledged the affirmative of Cobbett's charge respecting the patent of precedency. That he was promised it I do believe; and where was the crime even if he had accepted the proposed offer of Plunkett? He merited it, and had a right to it, and might possess it without being less serviceable to the Catholic cause. His only crime if crime it be-consists in his endeavour to obviate a charge-which would have proved harmless, had he at first disarmed Cobbett by admitting that he was promised a patent of precedency. Leaving Cobbett to live another week, let me ask Mr. Andrews if he be an honest advocate of Ireland, who labours to sow disunion among the people? Is he a friend to that country who endeavours to blast the reputation of a man who has advanced her cause by his eloquence, zeal, and public Ilaving now gone through the spirit? TheTruth-teller' may Rock. MOORE'S LIFE OF SHERIDAN. (Concluded.) CHARACTER OF SHERIDAN. His political character stands out so fully in these pages, that it is needless, by any comments, to attempt to raise it into stronger relief. If to watch over the rights of the subject, and guard them against the encroachments of power, be, even in safe and ordinary times, a task full of usefulness and honour, how much more glorious to have stood sentinel over the same sacred trust, through a period so trying as that with which Sheridan had to struggle-when liberty itself had become suspected and unpopularwhen authority had succeeded in identifying patriotism with treason, and when the few remaining and deserted friends of freedom were reduced to take their stand on a narrowing isthmus, between anarchy on one side, and the angry incursions of power on the other. How manfully he maintained his ground in a position so critical, the | annals of England and of the cham him. It was indeed in the upper part of his face that the spirit of the man chiefly reigned; the dominion of the world and the senses being rather strongly marked out in the lower. In his person he was above the middle size, and his general make was, as I have already said, robust and well proportioned. It is remarkable that his arms, though of powerful strength, were thin, and appeared by no means muscu pions of her constitution will long His social qualities were, unluckily for himself, but too attractive. In addition to his powers of conversation, there was a well-bred good-nature in his manner, as well as a deference to the remarks and opinions of others, the want of which very often, in distinguished wits, offends the self-love of their hearers, and makes even the dues of admiration that they levy a sort of "droit de seigneur," paid with unwillingness and distaste. His hands were small and de- - (in the words of the prophet)" to But the stage-his glory and his ruin-opened upon him; and the property of which it made him mas ter was exactly of that treacherous kind, which not only deceives a man himself, but enables him to de. ceive others, and thus combined all Among his habits, it may not that a person of his carelessness and be uninteresting to know, that his ambition had most to dread. An hours of composition, as long as he uncertain income, which, by eludcontinued to be an author, were ing calculation, gives an excuse for at night, and that he required a at night, and that he required a improvidence, and, still more fatal, profusion of lights around him a facility of raising money, by while he wrote. Wine, too, was one which the lesson that the pressure ofhis favourite helps to inspiration; of distress brings with it, is evaded —" If the thought (he would say) till it comes too late to be of use— is slow to come, a glass of good such was the dangerous power put wine encourages it, and, when it into his hands, in his six-and-twendoes come, a glass of good wine|tieth year, and amidst the intoxicarewards it." tion of as deep and quick draughts of fame as ever young author quaffed. Scarcely had the zest of this excitement begun to wear off, when he was suddenly transported into another sphere, where successes still more flattering to his vanity awaited him. Without any increase of means, he became the companion and friend of the first nobles and princes, and paid the usual tax of such unequal friendships, by, in the end, losing them and ruining himself. The vicissitudes of a political life, and those deceitful vistas into office that were for ever opening on his party, made his hopes as fluctuating and uncertain as his means, and encouraged the same delusive calculations on both. He seemed, at every new turn of affairs, to be on the point of redeeming himself; and the confidence of others in his resources was no less fatal to him than his own, as it but increased the facilities of ruin that surrounded him. 'No one was so ready and cheerful in promoting the amusements of a country-house; and on a rural excursion he was always the soul of the party. His talent at dressing a little dish was often put in 'Having taken a cursory view requisition on such occasions, and of his literary, political, and social an Irish stew was that on which qualities, it remains for me to say a he particularly plumed himself. few words upon that most important Some friends of his recall with de-point of all, his moral character. fight a day of this kind which they passed with him, when he made the whole party act over the battle of the Pyramids on Marsden Moor, and ordered "Captain" Creevey and others upon various services, against the cows and donkeys entrenched in the ditches. Being of so playful a disposition himself, it was not wonderful that he should take such pleasure in the society of children. I have been told, as doubly characteristic of him, that he has often, at Mr. Monckton's, kept a chaise and four waiting half the day for him at the door, while he romped with the children. There are few persons, as we have seen, to whose kind and affectionate conduct, in some of the most interesting relations of domestic life, so many strong and honourable testimonies remain. To claim an exemption for frailties and irregularities on the score of genius, while there are such names as Milton and Newton on record, were to be blind to the example which these and other great men have left, of the grandest intellectual powers combined with the most virtuous lives. But, for the bias given early to the mind by education and circumstances, even the least charitaWhen young, he was generally ble may be inclined to make large aceounted handsome; but in later allowances. We have seen how years his eyes were the only testi-idly the young days of Sheridan monials of beauty that remained to were wasted-how soon he was left · one 'Such a career as this-so shaped towards wrong, so inevitably devious-it is impossible to regard otherwise than with the most charitable allowances. It was long paroxysm of excitement-no pause for thought-no inducements to prudence the attractions all drawing the wrong way, and a voice, like that which Bossuet de. scribes, crying inexorably from behind him, "On, On!" Instead of wondering at the wreck that followed all this, our only surprise should be, that so much remained uninjured through the trial,-that his natural good feelings should have struggled to the last with his habits, and his sense of all that was right in conduct so long survived his ability to practise it. Numerous, however, as were the causes that concurred to disorganize his moral character, in his pecuniary embarrassment lay the source of those blemishes that discredited him most in the eyes of the world. He might have indulged his vanity and his passions, like others, with but little loss of reputation, if the consequence of these indulgences had not been obtruded upon observation in the forbidden form of debts and distresses. In the course however of the inquiries which my task of biographer imposed upon me, I have found all who were ever engaged in pecuniary dealings with him, not excepting those who suffered most severely by his irregularities (among which class I may cite the respected name of Mr. Hammersley), unanimous in expressing their conviction that he always meant fairly and honouraably; and that to the inevitable pressure of circumstances alone, any failure that occurred in his engagements was to be imputed. paying ;-but in such a careless circumstances into account, by no means considerable. Two years after his death it appeared by a list made up by his solicitor, from claims sent in to him, in consequence of an advertisement in the newspapers, that the bona fide debts amounted to about five thousand five hundred pounds. "Notwithstanding all this, however, his debts were by no means so considerable as has been supposed. 'If, therefore, we consider his In the year 1806, he empowered pecuniary irregularities in reference Sir R. Berkely, Mr. Peter Moore, to the injury that they inflicted and Mr. Frederick Homan, to exa. upon others, the quantum of eril mine into his pecuniary affairs, for which he is responsible becomes, and take measures for the dis- after all, not so great. There are charge of all claims upon him. many persons in the enjoyment of These gentlemen found that his fair characters in the world, who bona fide debts were about ten would be happy to have no deeper thousand pounds, while his appa- encroachment upon the property of rent debts amounted to five or six others to answer for; and who may times as much. Whether from con- well wonder by what unlucky mascientiousness or from pride, how-nagement Sheridan could contrive ever, he would not suffer any of the to found so extensive a reputation claims to be contested, but said for bad pay upon so small an that the demands were all fair, and amount of debt. must be paid just as they were stated;-though it was well known that many of them had been satisfied more than once. These gen. tlemen, accordingly, declined to proceed any further with their commission. 'Let it never, too, be forgotten, in estimating this part of his character, that had he been less consistent and disinterested in his public conduct, he might have commanded the means of being independent and respectable in private. On the same false feeling he He might have died a rich apostate, acted in 1813.14, when the balance instead of closing a life of patriotism due on the sale of his theatrical pro- in beggary. He might (to use a perty was paid him, in a certain fine expression of his own) have number of shares. When applied"hid his head in a coronet," instead to by any creditor, he would give him one of these shares, and allow. ing his claim entirely on his own showing, leave him to pay himself out of it, and refund the balance. Thus irregular at all times, even when most wishing to be right, he deprived honesty itself of its merit and advantages; and, where he happened to be just, left it doubtful (as Locke says of those religious people, who believe right by chance, without examination,) " whether even the luckiness of the accident excused the irregularity of the proceeding." There cannot, indeed, be a stronger exemplification of the truth, that a want of regularity be comes itself a vice, from the manifold evils to which it leads, than the The consequence, however, of whole history of Mr. Sheridan's this continual paying was, that the transactions. So far from never number of his creditors gradually paying his debts, as is often assert-diminished, and that ultimately the ed of him, he was, in fact, always amount of his debts was, taking all of earning for it but the barren wreath of public gratitude. While, therefore, we admire the great sa. crifice that he made, let us be tole rant to the errors and imprudences which it entailed upon him; and, recollecting how vain it is to look for any thing unalloyed in this world, rest satisfied with the Mar. tyr, without requiring also the Saint.' ROCK NOTICE. THE address to the Irish peasantry next week. It should have been inserted in this Gazette, but that I am in expectation of important information from home. LONDON-J. Robins and Co. Ivy Lane. THE CATHOLIC METROPOLITAN CHURCH. WE live, thank God! notwithstanding the bigotry of the Magees, the Phelans, and the O'Sullivans, in a tolerant age. Sixty years have scarcely elapsed since the Catholic chapels in Dublin were closed by government. Burke, in his Hibernia Dominicana,' relates the particulars of a persecution so late as 1764, when George II. filled the throne. During this time, and for many years previous, theCatholic clergy performed divine service, by stealth, in stables and warehouses; and happy were those who could afford to keep a concealed chaplain. There was then no permanent altar. The priest, whom persecution could not scare from his flock,* removed from house to It's a great wonder,' says Spencer, 'to see the odds, which is between the zeal of popish priests and the ministers of the gospel. For they spare not to come out of Spain, from Rome, and from Rheims, by a long toil and dangerous travelling bi The Catholic Metropolitan Church, Dublin. Au anonymous author, speaking of than others, ventured on opening chapels in retired places; which chapels, however, were always closed during the sittings of parliament. At length an accident awakened better feelings in the Protestant mind. A Roman Catholic clergyman, on St. Patrick's day, 1745, was performing divine service on a loft in an old house, in Ulster ; as also Felimy O'Hara, a lay brother; so was Eneas Penny, parish priest of Killagh, slain at the altar in his parish church there; Cahall M'Goran, Rory O'Donnellan, Peter O'Quillan, Patrick O'Kenna, George Power, vicar-general of the diocese of Ossory, Andrew Stretch, of Limerick, Bryan O'Murihirtagh, vicargeneral of the diocese of Clonfert, Dorogof Louth, Ste. Patrick, of Annaly, John how O'Molowny, of Thomond, John Kelty, Pillis, friar, Rory M'Heulea, Tirrilagh M'Inisky, a lay brother. All those that come after Eneas Penny, together with Walter Fernan, priest, died in the castle of Dublin, either through hard usage and restraint, or the violence of torture.-theatre of Catholic and Protestant Religion, p. 592. In country parts persecution was nothing compared to what it was in cities and towns. |