One of themselves, win a prophet of their own.' Paul to Titus, chap. i. ver. 12. DEAR Sawny! since I first began To strut my hour upon life's stage, From greenest boyhood up to man, I never turned a brighter page In Time's old book, than that which bade And preach the Gospel for my bread: My duty rough, and sailor's fare, And taste the rich provisions there! Than fight on ocean's foamy wave, On biscuit, beef, and meagre wine. 6 Now, Sawny, like the Geni's ring, Others there are which I can quote * Ver. 22. Corin. c. ix. v. 4. For our employers here can't see No matter what may be his creed. That the uncultivated mind Could ne'er the hidden mystries find, Concealed were from the sage's sight; And that is not for schoolboys suited, On which the wisest have disputed. Now, you must know that parliament Supports this school by many a grant; And that, like Hassan Baba's measure, The hands through which the guineas stray We met 'twas in the county court- To say the truth, my friend, I never But, thank my stars, those whom I sided 'Ye are bought at price, be ye not then Thus he went on to prove that men, Left to their own unguided reason, Would soon become as mad as, when, By incest, blasphemy, and treason, The Munster prophets tried to prove That 'twas the spirit of the dove, Acting upon a tender conscience, Urged this insane disgusting nonsense; Showed what fantastic tricks were played Before high Heaven,' when first 'twas made Imperious on the unlearned and lowly To understand those writings holy, Which Peter, in his exhortation,§ Proves beyond man's interpretation. And Paul himself says, Those who preach Have need of some one first to teach || The meaning of the word of God, Before they spread themselves abroad. He then supposed that every clown, Framing a comment of his own, Should make Saint Paul's epistles teach That goodly works were things unholy; That for the elect to think the breach Of law a crime was only folly; For, where the greater sins are found, Even there doth grace the more abound.'I He asked if every Gospel drone May thus, as history has shown, 'Wrest from the volume's page sublime His end of lust, and hate, and crime, Even like those bees of Trebozond, Who, from the sunniest flowers that glad With their pure smiles the gardens round, Draw venom forth that drives men mad?' For, if their own Reports were true, He ceased, the saints came to again, Though conquered, they can argue still;' Even like Anteus, every floorer To them is only a restorer; And, when you think their pride is humbled, The coming shades of night gave warning To fling the picture of the fight,' Scripture, as pat as you'd quote Burns! Finding an island far remote, To seize the land for Ge the Fourth, Is by the isle's men quick surrounded, When some strong battery, never thought on, The sons of Tweed, of Thames, and Shannon, Resign the Queen of Ocean's brag To Indians with the use of cannon :- With which the invaders slunk away, N--you don't know this young fellow ? Though deeply tinged with Bible-reading, To hear the sacred word proceeding Received the deuce's castigations; For this O'C-II, sir, let fly So thick, so quick, and, ah! so true, And teach my own sectarian factions Unless sustained by virtuous actions. And of young N-I he requested, When he his schoolboy course digested, That he'd take up his scrip, and then Sojourning in the land of Goshen, Amongst his virtuous countrymen, Give their poor souls a moral washing; So that the public prints no more Were all combined so strongly 'gainst us, That from the weary Greeks ascended Their homes, and hopes, and wishes bounded.* As those same stupid, senseless fellows, With workmen from our own dear nation. Adieu, dear boy!- destroy this letter- • Vide Zenophon. ROCK NOTICES. IRISH Characters, by Dennis O'Kavanagh, will be resumed in my next: and, if possible, I shall give one every week. The history of the Irish Charter Schools has been deferred until next week, in consequence of the space occupied by C― G-n's epistle. I trust my friend, O'L-, will transmit me the other letters. Address to the Itch has been received, and will probably be inserted next week. LONDON-J. Robins and Co. Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row; J. Robins, jun. and Co. 38, Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin; and all Booksellers, &c. No. 24. Or, The Chieftain's Weekly Gazette. PRIVATE MEMOIRS OF CHAPTER XIX. THE REVOLUTION OF EIGHTY TWO. SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1825. has enjoyed the glory of the transaction, merely because he was chosen, in consequence of his great and splendid talents, to head the Whigs in the Irish House of Commons. Fame, like fortune, is not unfrequently accidental. The name of Maria Louisa will be remembered as long as that of Napoleon, for no other reason but because she PRICE TWO PENCE. happened to be the wife of the French Emperor. In the preceding chapter I have shown the cause which first aroused the parliament from its lethargy, and occasioned something like an opposition. + Its voice, however, was feeble, and its efforts unavail. ing: but still it served to give something like character to the de bates, and honour to the members. Ambition was awakened, and corluxuries and elegancies of life had ruption followed. A taste for the been generated; and those who known, in the recesses of the counformerly lived, unknowing and un It has been well observed by Johnson, that reformation is seldom the work of pure virtue or unassisted reason." The history of the world proves that men, in a collective capacity, have never been forth the greatness of the land, and thereinfluenced by pure motives only; their pride; but more astonishing, that they fore it is astonishing they should preserve and whoever examines the various should proceed with a temper seldom found revolutions which have occurred in amongst the injured, and a success never the different nations of the earth, phies, but the liberty they transmit to their but with the virtuous. They have no tromust be convinced that success has posterity is more than trophy. What sets been owing more to circumstances one nation up above another, but the soultry, now ventured into town, and than to patriotic exertions. Differ- that dwells therein? for it is of no avail, helped to dissipate, in the fashionent forms of government are there.. that the arm be strong if the soul be not able frivolities of the day, the riches fore the result of chance; but it dred men in the House of Commons-what great. What signifies it, that three hun- which had been accumulating for does not follow by any means that signifies it that one hundred men in the years. A momentary impulse was every form is equally good: though House of Peers, assert their country's li thus given to trade and commerce; it would appear that free countries berty, if unsupported by the people? But lands and commodities increased in have no right to reproach those in there is not a man in Ireland-there is not price; and the country began to a grand jury-there is not an association— bondage, since the condition of there is not a corps of volunteers-there is assume an appearance of prospeboth is the consequence of events not a meeting of their delegates, which does rity, when the British ministers, in brought about by human agents, constitution, and pledge themselves to sup- under an embargo, which not maintain the independence of the Irish 1776, laid the commerce of Ireland though not by human designs.port the parliament in fixing that constitu- tinued for three years. ‡ America succeeded because France tion on its rightful basis. Gentlemen will was jealous of England; and the perceive that I allude to the transaction at Irish revolution of Eighty-two Dungannon; not long ago the meeting at was brought about by the corrup- alarming measure; but I thought otherwise Dungannon was considered as a very tion of the legislature, and the dis--I approved of it, and considered the tresses of Great Britain. Grattan meeting of Dungannon as an original transonly echoed the public voice, and action. As such only it was matter of In his speech on moving the declaration of independence, he acknowledges this. Fortunately for us,' said he, England did not take the lead; her minister did not take the lead in the restoration of our rights; if she had, we should have sunk under the obligation, and given back in sheepish gratitude the whole advantage; but the virtue, the pride of the people was our resource, and it is right that people should have a lofty conception of them selves; though it is wonderful they should preserve their ancient pride, not having amongst them any of those outward and visible signs of glory, those monuments of their heroic ancestors, such as were wont to animate the ancient Greeks and Romans, and rouse them in their country's cause.They had nothing, such as these, to call con It has been found by experience that no part of man is half so sensail his head or heart for ages withYou may assitive as his pocket. out effect; but, once you encroach upon his purse, he is all feeling surprise. What more extraordinary trans- uncon other side on account of the thinness of their ranks, was heard one night, when the minority was going into the lobby on a division, to exclaim, The Lord increase your questions! the Lord increase your numbers! I shall never be a commissioner of the revenues, or any thing else, at this rate!' In consequence of the war with America, it was apprehended that Irish provisions would find their way to the enemy. all sympathy. This was peculiarly the case in the present instance: for, in consequence of the embargo, the merchants became embarrassed, the price of farm produce deelined in value, and rents could not be paid. Distress soon reached the gentry; and, as their misfortunes were attributable to the English government, it was astonishing how soon the advocates of Protestant ascendency and foreign domination became liberals and patriots. Free trade and national independence were now familiar as household words, and the Irish parliament, for once, seemed to act for the good of the country. Government be. came more and more embarrassed. Conciliation was the order of the day; and, lest the people should imitate the conduct of America, every measure calculated to banish anger and ensure gratitude was no sooner proposed than it was ac quiesced in. This course was held peculiarly politic, to prevent emigration, if not revolt: and it was considered quite as necessary to provide against one as the other; for it was then asserted, in the British parliament, that the ranks of the American army were filled with expatriated Irishmen, to whose valour success was mainly attri buted. The more difficult the lords of the soil found it to collect their rents, the more patriotic they became. Their expensive habits threatened them with new difficul. ties; and, as they knew not how to retrench, they willingly supported any and every measure which promised to replenish their exhausted purses. The good of Ireland was the ostensible motive-the benefit of themselves the real one. The consequence of this was the six months' money bill, which procured Ireland a free trade. Another and a more pleasing circumstance which contributed to the independence of Ireland was her volunteers. For the first time during seventy years, the Protestants and Catholics were brought together, and had no sooner dis- That we hold the right of pri- Unhappily the political leaders of the day were inaccessible to such sentiments as these, otherwise the Catholics had not now to ask from a British senate what they had a right to receive from an Irish parliament. Charlemont-the pedantic Charlemont-who was a wit among lords, and a lord among wits -who was equally deficient in taste and talents, though he made pretensions to both-was an enemy to Catholic emancipation, and, I believe, died one, notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary. Grattan, who was Charlemont's protegé, held, or affected to hold, opinions in accordance with those of his patron; and thus there re * A correspondent of the Dublin and London Magazine' has attacked the character of Mr. Grattan, and attributes the existence of the penal laws to the circumstance of his being then a leader in the Irish parliament. It is certainly true that Gratan at this time was not a zealous supporter mained no one in the senate to se cond the public declarations of Protestants in favour of the oppressed Catholics. The selfishness of some, and the public spirit of others, would in all probability have proved unavailing, had it not been for the politi cal events which now took place. The Tories were turned out of office in England, and the For party turned in. Carlisle was every thing but kicked out of the Irish Viceroyship, and the Duke of Portland sent to fill the situation. Whig principles prevailed: and, without acting in direct opposition to their own repeated declarations, the ministers could not refuse to acknowledge the Irish parliament independent of that of Great Britain; and this was all the Irish patriots demanded, though five-sixths of the people groaned in worse than Egyptian bondage. The go. vernment, however, deserves little praise for the part it acted on this occasion; for, had they opposed Grattan's address, they must have been left in a minority. The sense of the country was decidedly in favour of the measure, and nearly all the old courtiers who had been displaced were resolved to vote with Grattan, not from any regard to Ireland, or to independence, but for the sole purpose of embarrassing the new administration.— The secretary of state saw this, and disappointed them. Thus corruption had no small share in bringing about the revolution of Eightytwo. I remember well the 16th of April, 1782. I arose that morning with feelings which I cannot de of the Catholic claims, and subsequently e H |