THE DUKE OF MONTAGUE.

THE first Duke of Montague, soon after the peace of 1748, observed that a middle-aged man, in something like a military dress, of which the lace was much tarnished, and the cloth was worn thread-bare appeared at a certain hour every day, in the park, walking to and fro with a kind of melancholy gait. This man the duke singled out as likely to be a fit object for a benevolent frolic. He began, therefore, by making some inquiry, and soon learnt that he was a poor, unfortunate creature, who having laid out his whole stock in the purchase of a commission, had behaved with great bravery in the late war, in hopes of promotion; but upon conclusion of the peace had been reduced to half-pay. He also learnt, upon further inquiry, that the captain, having a wife and several children, had been reduced to the necessity of sending them into Yorkshire, whither he regularly transmitted them the moiety of his half-pay, and reserved the other to keep himself upon the spot, where he alone could hope for an opportunity of obtaining some advantageous situation. After some time, when everything had been prepared, he watched an opportunity, as the captain was sitting alone, busied in thought, to send his valet to him, with his compliments, and an invitation to dinner the next day. The duke having placed himself at a convenient distance, saw his messenger approach the poor officer without being perceived ;-he saw him start from his reverie, like a man frightened out of a dream, without seeming to comprehend what he said. He was told that the captain returned thanks for the honour intended him, and would wait upon his Grace at the time appointed. When he came, the duke received him with particular marks of kindness and civility and taking him aside, with an air of secrecy and importance, told him that he had desired the favour of his company to dine with him, upon account of a lady who had long had a particular regard for him, and had experienced a great desire to be introduced to him, which her situation made it impossible to accomplish without the assistance of a friend. During this discourse, the duke enjoyed the profound astonishment, and the various changes that appeared in the poor captain's face; who, after he had recovered himself, began a speech with great solemnity, in which the duke could perceive that he was labouring in the best manner he could, to insinuate that he doubted whether he was not imposed upon; and therefore, to put an end to his difficulties at once, the duke laid his hand upon his breast, and swore that he told him nothing that he did not believe to be true. When notice was brought that dinner was served up, the captain entered the dining-room with curiosity and wonder: but how was his wonder increased, when he beheld at the table his own wife and children! -The duke had sent for them out of Yorkshire, and had astonished the lady as he had done her husband. It is more easy to conceive than describe the effect of a meeting so unexpected. The duke at length, with much difficulty, seated the family at his table, and persuaded them to eat. After dinner was over, a servant informed the duke that his lawyer attended by his Grace's order; and producing a deed which the duke was to sign, was directed to read it. The legal gentleman accordingly began to read aloud; when, to complete the astonishment of the poor captain and his wife, the deed proved to be a settlement, which his Grace had made upon them, of a genteel competency for life. Having gravely heard the instrument read, he signed and sealed it, and delivering it into the captain's hands, desired him to accept it without observation; "For I assure you,

Sir (said his Grace), that it is the last thing I would have if I had one, thought I could have employed my money, or my time more to my satisfaction, in any better way."

JUDGE JENKINS, THE ROYALIST.

David Jenkins, a Welsh judge in the reign of Charles the First, distinguished himself so strenuously in behalf of the royal cause, that on falling into the hands of the rebels in 1645, he was sent up to London, and committed first to the Tower, and next to Newgate. When he was brought to the bar of the House of Commons, he was reprimanded by old Lenthal, the Speaker, for refusing to kneel, on which he made this reply :

"In your speech, Mr. Speaker, you said the house was offended with my behaviour, in not making any obeisance to you on my coming here; and this was the more wondered at, because I pretended to be knowing in the laws of the land (having made it my study for these five-and-forty years); and because I am so, that was the reason of such my behaviour: for as long as you had the king's arms engraved on your mace, and acted under his authority, had I come here, I would have bowed my body in obedience to his authority, by which you were first called. But, Mr. Speaker, since you and this house have renouneed all your duty and allegiance to your sovereign and natural liege lord the king, and are become a den of thieves, should I bow myself in this house of Rimmon, the Lord would not pardon me in this thing."

This bold speech so irritated the house, that without any farther trial, they voted him and Sir Francis Butler, another royalist, guilty of high treason, and even fixed the day of their execution, but were diverted from it by a droll speech of Harry Marten, who said that this way of proceeding would do them mischief.

After this the house sent a committee to Newgate, offering the judge, that if he would own their power to be lawful, they would not only take off the sequestrations from his estate, which were about five hundred pounds a-year, but would also settle a yearly pension on him of one thousand pounds. To which he answered, "far be it from me to own rebellion to be lawful, because it is successful;" so he desired to see their backs.

Then the chief of them made him another proposal, saying, that he should have the same grants, if he would only permit them to put it in print, that he did own and acknowledge their power to be lawful, and would not gainsay it. To this he answered, "that he would not connive at their so doing, for all the money they had robbed the kingdom of; and should they be so imprudent as to print any such matter, he would sell his doublet and coat to buy pens, ink, and paper, and would set forth the commons house in their proper colours."

When they found him so firm, one of the committee used this motive: "You have a wife and nine children, who will all starve if you refuse this offer; so consider, for their sakes, they make up ten pressing arguments for your compliance.". '-"What," said the judge, "did they desire you to press me in this matter?"-"I will not say they did," replied the committee-man, "but I think they press you to it without speaking at all." With that the old man's anger was heightened to the utmost, and in a passion he said, "Had my wife and children petitioned you in this matter, I would have discarded them all.'

Upon this the committee departed, and the judge remained in confine

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ment, expecting nothing less than to be hanged; and he declared, that if he suffered, it should be with the Bible under one arm, and Magna Charta under the other.

He survived the Restoration, and died in 1663, aged upwards of eighty.

THE EARL OF LEICESTER.

THE Earl of Leicester was a prodigious beau; the number and expense of his robes, suits of clothes, &c. are inconceivable. In the account of the expenses of Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester, addressed to that nobleman by Mr. Cruttenden, his lordship's steward, in the time of Charles I., he states as follows:

"About the year 1584, your noble father departed this life, and immediately after it pleased God to take out of this life yor noble brother Sir Philipp Sidney whose executors vizt. the now Lady Clanrickard and Sir Francis Walsingham carried away in behalf of the heir general all the goods and moveables at Penshurst, as plate, jewells, hangings, and household stuffe, to the valewe of 20,000li.”

He then states the value of rents, fines, and other things taken from this estate, at 10,000li. and the income of it at per ann. 1090li.

Some of the outgoings, as traits of the times are curious.

"About the year 1538, yor Honor was sent ymbassidor into Scotland att wch tyme yor servants clokes lyned with hare cullered velvett and trymmed with hare-culler and gould lace: which Jorney was very chargeable to you.

"About 33 yeares agoe yor Honor was sent ymbassidor to Fraunce att wych tyme, you made you 12 sutes of apparell and had one cloke lynd with sables which cost 250li. also yor pages sutes and footemens came to att least 30Ɔli more; besides yor servants lyveries.

"Also att the marriage of the Earl of Darbie there was a maske of which yor Honor was one, which cost you 500li.”

Among the expenses of this nobleman, there is one for- The many great feasts yor Honor made for the Queen (Ann of Denmark) the Queen's brother, the states and divers of the Nobillitie, both att Baynard's Castle and at Penshurst," &c. &c.-the whole of which amounts to £1976.

"The Christmas after the King and Queene came in, yor Honor made you a sute of russet cloth of gould and lynd a cloke with the same, wch cloth of gould being 17 yds. cost 3li. 10s. a yard wch comes unto 59li. 10s. The panes of the hose were ymbrothered wch cost 30li. the ymbrotherer also had for ymbrothering two broad gards upon every seame of the doublet 20li. The outside of the cloke was of uncut velvett wch cost, being viij yards, 12li. 15s. The cloke was lacd with a gould lace to the very cape, every yard of it wayed an oz. at vjs the oz. and there was 36 dozen of lace upon it wch wth 20tie oz. of silke to sett on the lace came to 72li. Yr Honor had also to this sute a hatt ymbrothered wth gould, girdle, and hangers, ritch stockins, garters, roses, points, and shooes; wch with making upp of the sute came to so much that the whole charge of this sute came to at the least £220."

THE LATE THOMAS STEELE.

The following sketch of this lamented gentleman, is from the graceful pen of William J. O. Neill Daunt, Esq.

"Honest Tom Steele," as he was usually called, was born at Derrymore, in the county Clare, in the year 1778. His family went from Somersetshire in the reign of Charles the Second. Their name was then Champion, which they changed to that of Steele, for reasons now unknown. William Champion, the lineal ancestor of the Head Pacificator, was, I believe, an officer in Monmouth's regiment. He established himself near Nenagh in the county Tipperary. His first experiment as a settler was inauspicious, inasmuch as the Tipperary folk three times burned his house over his head-the proprietor on each occasion narrowly escaping with his life! Unwilling to incur the perils of a fourth combustion, he migrated to the more pacific county of Clare, where his posterity have ever since continued to reside.

"Steele received a University education at Cambridge, where he obtained distinction for his scientific acquirements.

"The death of an uncle placed him in possession of his family property in Clare, just at the time when the Spanish nation rose in insurrection against the tyrannical King Ferdinand the Seventh.

"Steele, whose love of the cause of universal liberty had ever been associated with that total forgetfulness of self which the world calls imprudence, immediately resolved to assist with his hand and fortune the Spanish insurgents. Regardless of the results of his spirited enterprise upon a county Clare property, he fitted out and filled with arms a vessel which he brought to Cadiz. He accepted a commission from the Cortes, and distinguished himself by his valour in several engagements against the French, who had invaded the country as the allies of a despotic monarch, in order to perpetuate the bondage of the Spanish people,

"When the struggle against despotism proved vain, Steele quitted Spain and returned to Ireland. He constantly attended the meetings of the Catholic Association, and watched with anxious scrutiny the words and actions of O'Connell. So soon as his judgment convinced him that O'Connell was a trustworthy leader, he immediately proclaimed his adhesion to the cause, and worked with zeal to remove those disabilities from the Catholics which he, as a Protestant, felt were disgraceful only to the party by whom they were inflicted.

"Notwithstanding the military bent of Steele's ideas, and the constitutional bravery of the man, he highly appreciated the value of O'Connell's moral-force system of political warfare. Seeing clearly that the wild and illegal combinations of Whitefeet, Ribbonmen, Terry Alts, and other misguided parties assuming equally fantastic and absurd denominations, could only tend to embarrass the friends and injure the cause of rational liberty, he applied himself to the task of quelling disturbances in his native county, and of getting up arms from the misguided peasantry.

"There was in this occupation something peculiarly congenial to the wild and Ossianic spirit of Steele. He loved at night to traverse the mountain fastnesses of Cratloe; to watch the dark low clouds slowly sailing over the heavens as he wandered through the lonely ravine by the side of the swoln brook, in whose midnight waves stars shimmered as they broke through the mists. These scenes had for Steele a charm of magical potency, especially when associated with the function of Head Pacificator, which he discharged in the midst of them. His soul thrilled with an indefinable feeling, of which fancy, poetry, and patriotism were constituent parts, as he paused to hold communings with Nature in her sombre moods -to listen to the voice of the night-wind as it swept through the gloomy

woods, and to catch the inspiration of the hills in his solemn, thoughtful, and imaginative, yet energetic career. He spent many a night in the cottages of the insurgent peasantry, endeavouring to reclaim them from their driftless and mischievous conspiracies. In some of these nocturnal excursions O'Connell accompanied Steele. They got up a large quantity of Steele, by constant and familiar association with his peasant-countrymen, convinced himself that their crimes were principally, if not wholly, the fruits of oppression; whilst he proudly recognised the traits of high and virtuous feeling which often appeared in their conduct.

arms.

"In 1828, the Catholics resolved on opposing every member of the PeelWellington administration, whether personally hostile or friendly to their claims. That administration pretended to make the Catholic question an open' one; at the same time contriving that all substantial power should be placed in the hands of those who opposed it. To end this delusion, it was determined by the Catholics to start a candidate for Clare in opposition to Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, who had been nominated President of the Board of Trade by the Prime Minister. O'Connell conceived the idea of standing for the county. An unemancipated Catholic, chosen by the electors as their representative, yet disqualified by the existing laws from taking his seat, would present a striking impersonation of the Catholic grievances. O'Gormon Mahon proposed, and Thomas Steele seconded the nomination of O'Connell. The influence of this dexterous movement of the Agitator in accelerating emancipation is now matter of history. O'Connell presented himself at the table of the House of Commons to take his seat, but could not overleap the barrier of the Protestant oaths. Emancipation was hastily passed in the Spring of 1829; and O'Connell was immediately re-elected by his former constituents.

"Steele was an enthusiast, and like all enthusiasts, it was his fate to incur the censure of those who were totally incapable of appreciating, or even of comprehending, the intense fidelity to Ireland which actuated the man. The real truth is, that the very faults of Steele were merely the exaggeration of high and noble qualities. If (in the opinion of some persons) he partook of the extravagance of Don Quixote, he also partook of the Don's contempt for all baseness, perfidy, and cowardice. It is true that in Steele's language there was a strong and marked peculiarity; an occasional application of strong phrases to comparatively insignificant objects; a blending of the ideal and poetic in undue proportions with the real and practical; a disposition to seek illustrations of his views from sources too recondite for ordinary comprehension. But what of all that? The man loved Ireland, and would have died for her with more pleasure than even the selfish place-hunter who jeered at his verbal eccentricities could derive from personal aggrandizement. The people of Ireland gave Steele full credit for his pure and single-hearted patriotism; and shame to them if they did not recognise and duly honour the qualities of unsullied honesty and enthusiastic love of freedom which pre-eminently distinguished him!

"If we smile at the poetic temperament of the orator who could harangue the frieze-coated peasantry of Connaught about the Scandinavian EDDA, and deduce from Icelandic mythology, for the edification of the Connemara rustics, comparisons between O'Connell's policy, and the antagonist influences of the HRYMPTHUR and the MUSPELTHUR; if these illustrations evoke a passing smile, it is on the other hand perfectly impossible to deny that Steele had a vivid perception of all that is grand and beautiful