but were soon withdrawn by the priest's directions, as the establishment required the reading of the Bible-a necessary part of the course of educution. 'Ballyburn, for a whole year, continued the scene of rancorous animosity and dangerous prejudices. Father Kehoe preached against innovating sectarians, and the Methodist parson exposed the superstition of popery. Mr. Graham, stimulated by opposition, was unremitting in his endeavours to obtain proselytes; and he was aided by his sisters, who accompanied Bibles and religious tracts with presents that secured an acceptance of both. Sophia was more successful than any of them: her appearance and angelic countenance ensured her a willing audience from all she addressed; and, when she boasted a victory over prejudice and ignorance, it was only the pity of a steadfast papist, who was lamenting that one so good and lovely should be damned, which she mistook for conviction. The young are all enthusiasts: Sophia, deploring the errors of the Catholics, only wished to be instrumental in their conversion: for this purpose, she missed no opportunity of conversing with them on religious topics (the only thing she understood); and, as those she spoke to only lamented her infatuated credulity, she enjoyed an apparent triumph where there was no opposition. But the Misses Graham did not fare so well; for, in place of confiding ignorance, they found the Catholics sturdy defenders of their creed; and those who suppose they are deficient in theological information should converse with them to be convinced how erroneous that opinion is. On this occasion inquiry was forced upon them: Father Kehoe's preaching, like an unsatisfactory beverage, only increased their thirst for knowledge. The "Catholic Christian Instructor" was now read by all; "De Feller's Philosophical Catechism," translated into English, was in every man's hand in the village; and when the Misses Graham commenced a religious disputation they were generally defeated; for nothing can be more difficult than to argue with the lower order of the Irish, as they never answer a question but by asking another; and, as a child may puzzle a philosopher, there is no wonder that the shrewd papists of Ballyburn often confounded the Misses Graham. Watt Murphy joined the exertions of his fraternity; and so desirous was he to disseminate knowledge, that he papered his snuff and tobacco in religious tracts, and, in an emergency, once tore up a large Bible. His brethren applauded his zeal, and flattered themselves that the number of religious books disposed of by Watt must be ultimately beneficial; and they lived upon the hope, that, though their district school had then but a few pupils, yet, when the truths spread by Watt were properly understood, scholars would increase; but in this they were disappointed.' For the Catholics opened schools of their own, and taught the children of their own persuasion. This short detail of Ballyburn affairs will show the success which attends all endeavours to convert the peasantry of Ireland; for an attentive observer of the Irish Catholics will be compelled to acknowledge for truth the philosophical remarks of Johnson, who said: A man who is converted from Protestantism to Popery may be sincere. He parts with nothing; he is only superadding to what he already had. But to convert from Popery to Protestantism gives up so much of what he has held as sacred as any thing that he retains-there is so much laceration of mind in such a conversion-that it can hardly be sincere and lasting.' These two volumes contain sixteen Tales, most of them longer than that of Turncoat Watt, and all of them characterized by a just development of some point of Irish life. The genius of Cruikshank, too, has been employed on the right side; but his designs — six in number-must be seen to be appreciated. That of Protestant Bill returning from Parade is one of the most exquisite things I have ever seen. The original, arrogant, proud, hard-featured loyalist is to be met in every county in Ireland. Good feelings were beginning to return after the religious storm, and Graham and his sisters desisted from labour. ing where no profit ensued. The priest showed a settled content within by his exterior appearance, and "Turncoat Watt" was more sanctified than ever. An union between him and one of the Miss Grahams was spoken of, but no two could agree which of the ladies was to be the happy woman. Mr. Graham himself, it was whispered, had an eye to Sophia, who was now of age, and had a large fortune at her disposal; and, as religious people never forget temporalities, it was not pro bable that Graham would lose such valuable appendages of life as a beauteous wife and a splendid fortune. These conjectures were soon shown to be erroneous; for one morning the village was thrown into confusion: some laughed, and others wept with indignation, when it was ascertained that "Turncoat Watt" had carried off the lovely Sophia, and made her his wife, and himself the lord of her purse and person. Watt was a sanctified hypocrite, and affected piety to ingratiate himself into the favour of Sophia; and no sooner did he acquire an intimacy with the phraseology of his new religion than he applied his knowledge to forward his designs. The pious, kind, and lovely Sophia, fell a victim to the villain's arts: he courted her in the language of religion, and persuaded her to wed him by theoloTHE LADIES' POCKET MAGAZINE. gical arguments. But no sooner did No. 4, for April, price Sixpence, is Watt incur the displeasure of his patrons, embellished with finely-engraved Views and secure all he could desire, than his of the Lying-in-Hospital and Rotunda, real character appeared: he renounced Dublin, and the Metropolitan Catholic the belief which he lately professed with Chapel, London, in addition to two Plates so much apparent zeal, and turned again of fashionable Female Costuine, beautito old popery! The Catholics rejoiced at fully coloured. This Work, unquestionthe recovery of the strayed lamb, and ably the cheapest publication extant, is Watt's house soon became the rendezvous continued monthly, and every number si of priests and monks. The arts of prac-milarly embellished.- ublished by J, tised argument were too powerful for the tender mind of the yielding Sophia: deserted by her friends, who reproached her conduct, she listened to her new acquaintance, and became a papist. She now shows the zeal of a convert, and none can be more attentive to the duties of her new religion. Graham, soon after this marriage, quitted the country, and his sisters concealed themselves in Dublin from the ridicule cast on them by the rudeness of wit and the malice of the thoughtless. Watt became a favourite in Ballyburn, and often relates the good fortune he had in incurring the anger of Father Kehoe; while all lament that Sophia was subjected to the rude embrace of an indecent clown,' although this amiable victim of hypocrisy, still the religious enthusiast, rejoices that her marriage with Watt introduced her to an infallible creed. Boswell's Life of Johnson. Robins and Co. of whom may also be had, MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF LORD BYRON, to be completed in ten or eleven Parts, at one Shilling; each Part embellished with four Engravings on wood, chiefly designed by George Cruikshank, and engraved by Bonner. THE NEWGATE CALENDAR, comprising the most interesting criminal Trials from the year 1700, by A. Knapp and W. Baldwin, Attorneys at Law. In Parts at one Shilling, each containing nearly 200 closely-printed columns, and embellished with six Illustrations, designed by Robert Cruikshank. LONDON:-J. Robins and Co. Ivy Lane, No. 6. Or, The Chieftain's Weekly Gazette. PRIVATE MEMOIRS OF CHAPTER V. SOME ACCOUNT OF MY ANCESTORS. 'The which possessed the extraordinary by the Eranites, a tribe of Jovirtue of pinching him unmercifully seph. whenever his decisions were con- Perhaps neither of these suppotrary to right. From the number sitions is right, as in all probabiTHE history of Ireland bears the use of this test of justice was of strangulations which took place, lity the name took its rise from the Rock on which for ages we contiample testimony to the antiquity of discontinued, and, for some cen-nued, in spite of the persecuting the Rocks; and it is even supposed turies, was supposed to be lost; spirit of the times. We flourished long before the but, to the great joy of the nation, Notwithstanding the quiescent Wrongheads were established in this Irish curiosity was lately found state of my ancestors during the England. Some think we are a by the Marquis Wellesley, and pre- reign of Ollam Fodlah and others, remnant of the Tuath de Dennans, sented to the Chief Justice of the there can be no doubt but that their a nation of necromancers, who Court of King's Bench, Lord Nor-disposition was unchanged. The could restore the dead to life, and bury and another judge having pru- great Frederic used to say bring into the field the warriors who dently declined its acceptance. My French fight for glory, the Spahad been slain the preceding day; Lord Bushe, however, I under- niards for religion, and the English though others think we are dc-stand, wears it with all imaginable for liberty; but the Irish always scended from the Firbolgs, who fight for fun.' This, at all events, emigrated two hundred and sixteen is true, as applied to the Rocks; years after the death of Nemedius. for, like the seal, we are never Father O'Meara, however, was of happy but in a tempest: discord is the former opinion, from the fact our natural element; and the Engthat our family has proved indelish Government has consulted our structible-a proof that we are nedisposition, in ministering to our cromancers still. Certain it is that love of riot, during the last six centuries. Well might each successive Rock exclaim― we existed in Ireland anterior to the year 1,300 before Christ, when Heber and Heremon, the sons of Milesius, King of Spain, invaded the kingdom; and, though we had but little opportunity of distinguishing ourselves during the reigns ease and honour to himself. It was doubtless a poor time for the Rocks to live in, when a beautiful young lady, in the most costly dress, was allowed to travel, without molestation, from one end of the kingdom to the other, though she carried on the top of her wand a gold ring of inestimable value. Robbery and abductions, it seems, were then unknown, so excellent were our morals; though there remains no proof that Brian Boromhe ever enacted a Constabulary Bill, or put the Insurrection Act in force. Quæ regio in terris nostri non plena la- Or, as O'Flaherty translates it— Rock's the boy to make the fun stir! of such wise monarchs as Ollam The origin of the name of ROCK Fodlah, Dubhlachtha, Flabhertach, has puzzled antiquarians no less Soon after the arrival of the EngBrian Boromhe, &c., it is well than our descent. Some hint that lish in Ireland my family arose to known we made some noise pre- it foretells the future greatness of consequence. Our whiskers*, in vious to the memorable period Mr. Roger O'Connor, being com- spite of statute after statute, flouwhen Pope Adrian thought fit to posed of the initials of the follow-rished in a manner that would put make a present of Ireland to the ing awful words, Roger O'Connor a modern military exquisite to the crowned murderer of Thomas à King; while others are assured that blush; for Rowland's Macassar oil Becket. For the first one thousand it takes its rise from the saxum Ja. is not near so good a nourisher of one hundred years of the Christian cobi, or stone of Jacob, which was national beards as persecution. In era, however, there is little or no-brought from Egypt to Ireland* 1798 it required an army of thirty thing known of our family greatthousand men, and all Lord Cornwallis's good sense, to put down ness. The inglorious supineness of the Rocks during this period is easily accounted for. The Chief Judge, on all solemn occasions, had a kind of collar* placed round his neck, Called Moran's Collar,' from the name of a 'just judge.'' Even to the pre sent day,' says O'Halloran, in litigations ronation chair in Westminster Abbey, was descendant of Milesius sits upon it; and was very audible at the last coronationa proof that George the Fourth is the legi timate King of Ireland. In the twelfth, and succeeding centuries, if a man was found with his upper lip unshorn, he was held to be no true Englishman, and treated accordingly. the crops, although there was as little mercy then shown to a head that wanted a queue as in former ages to a lip that wanted a beard. In those times a mere Irishman could be killed with impunity ; and, even if naturalized, the penalty sel. dom exceeded five marks, so cheap was then considered the blood of a merus Hibernus. Under such laws my pugnacious ancestors began their career, which they have continued to the present time, under the different denominations of mere Irish, Rapparees, Levellers, Hearts of Steel, Peep-o'-Day Boys, Carders, Caravats, Whiteboys, &c. &c. &c.-Had the English usurpers (for mentators on Irish affairs, forgets that his countrymen were admitted by treaty into Leinster, and had not, until the time of Elizabeth, any right, jurisdiction, or power, out of the English pale, which extended only a small distance from Dublin. The English monarch was acknowledged lord of Ireland, but each Irish chieftain ruled with undisputed power in his respective province. This fact fully accounts for the length of time which elapsed before the introduction of English laws; and, though the sassanachs, or strangers, treated rudely their mere Irish neighbours, I dare say my countrymen were no way I must not here forget to men. tion, because it is intimately connected with the history of my family, that to our English intruders we are indebted for the blessed system of tithes the decimal part of the produce of the earth being the bribe given by Pope Adrian, through the synod of Cashel, to the clergy, to ensure their obedience to Henry II. Dr. Doyle has proved that in these happy times, when children were baptized in buttermilk*, tithes were unknown in Ireland, though O'Halloran asserts to the contrary, and assures us his countrymen were such good tithepayers that every tenth child was they were never conquerors) adopt-backward in returning the compli-thrown in as a tilly. This, doubt ed the policy of the Tartars, and given their institutions to the people among whom they intended to settle had they levelled all invidious distinctions that recalled the memory of their intrusion-in short, had they sown the seeds of good fellowship, instead of sitting down, like bags, beneath a plantation of night-shade-the family of the Rocks had remained in obscurity, and I had not now been publishing my Gazette in London' for the instruction of statesmen and the good of my country. But the English seem to have been adventurers for personal advantage, and not for national benefits; and filled their nets best in troubled waters. It was certainly,' says Sir John Davis, who, like most of his successors, acknowledged the misrule of every government but their own, ' a great defect in the civil policy of Ireland, that for the space of three hundred and fifty years, at least, after the conquest first attempted, the English laws were not communicated to its people, nor the benefit or protection thereof allowed; for, as long as they were out of the protection of the laws, so as every Englishman might op. press, spoil, and kill, without control, how was it possible they should be other than outlaws, and chemies to the crown of England ?' Sir John, like most other com ment. This was a glorious time for the Rocks; and, accordingly, they flourished amazingly. It might have been supposed that, previous to the Reformation, the game at which the Rocks and the Government have so indefatigably played would have lagged, for want of the stimulants of opposite creeds. But those who are inclined to quarrel will easily find apologies to begin; and, accordingly, we had two hostile altars set up in Ireland, at which people who believed in the same Pope knelt down to curse each other; with this difference only-the one cursed in English, and the other in Irish. Alas! said one of my ancestors, on seeing this phenomenon, if such is the mode in which these pious persons now agree, what sport shall we have when they differ! "The first difficult fact,' says Mr. William Parnell, those writers (who attribute Irish rebellion solely to the antipathy of Catholics to a Protestant government) have to encounter is, that rebellions were just as frequent while the government was Catholic as when it became Protestant; and that the most for midable rebellion which ever shook the English power in Ireland broke out thirty years before the Reformation, and continued, with little intermission, until the era of the Reformation.' less, is an exaggeration of the veracious historian, otherwise we should have heard more of the Rocks during the Milesian era, for it is principally to tithes they owe all their glory. Having now thrown all the light in my power on the origin of my ancestors, I shall, in the next chap ter or two, detail their proceedings during the six hundred years which British justice misgoverned Ireland. ROCK'S LETTERS TO IRISH LETTER III. LANDLORDS, -Before I enter into minute details respecting the state of agriculture in Ireland, allow me to observe that the history of husbandry, in every nation of Europe, condemns large farms, while it shows the utility of small I mean small ones such as those in the county of Wexford, ever exceed where they scarcely fifty acres, and are often under twenty. ones. con. The farms in Flanders,' says Shaw, are small, rarely exceed. ing fifty acres, and frequently tracted within a narrower bound. Set at a small distance from cach other in the centre of their respective farms, as is often the case here, the farm-houses, when seen from some eminence, present a continued * Dr. Miluer. in Haynault are more completely cultivated, the lands are not permitted to lie fallow, the country has become more populous, and the villages, increasing, draw nearer to each other. The States of Brabant and Namur meditate by a similar law to circumscribe the extent of farms in these provinces. That part of Brabant which is called the Walloon Brabant, is a country cast into large farms, and from that circumstance is less populous, and more imperfectly cultivated, than other parts of that province where the small farms obtain. A contrary practice has for some time past prevailed in England, where the number of small farms is diminished, and where the proprictors of estates have in frequent instances adopted the plan of laying village, and exhibit a picture of great population. The small extent of the farms has been thought, and not without reason, to have contributed much to the exact culture and populousness of Flanders. In a small farm, each part seen by the eye of the master has its due tillage: the work of husbandry is chiefly performed by the farmer and his family, who spare no pains to cultivate that field which assures their subsistence; and the glebe, subdued and manured with assiduous care, makes a large return to that labour which is bestowed on its culture. A vast population springs up, and the land is covered with the dwellings of a multitude of cultivators, who find cach, in the produce of that small farm which he tills, a decent and comfortable maintenance. It hap-many small farms into one large pens otherwise in a country where the farms are of a wide extent. In a large farm, many parts are overlooked or neglected, and a more negligent culture is bestowed by hired labourers, more remiss and less interested in the crop. The great farmer is placed in a state of higher plenty, and his dwelling, his furniture, and table, express his opulence; but while he enjoys this affluence, and while luxury gains admittance among a rank of men to whose condition it is ill suited, the populousness of the country decays, the number of industrious cultivators is diminished, and extreme indigence is often found in the dwellings of the cot. tagers that inhabit around. The other provinces have remarked the advantages which Flanders has derived from the small extent of the farms, and have imitated that example. The States of Haynault have, by an express law, limited the extent of the farms iu that province, and have ordained that no farm shall contain a larger space than a hundred and fifty acres. The good effects of this regulation, which was made about thirty years ago, have been sensibly. found. Since that time, the fields farm. Agriculture has not profited by this alteration. The glebe, stinted in its tillage where a single master grasps a large extent of fields, has not yielded more abundant harvests; and the markets, less amply provided in some important articles, miss that supply which they were accustomed to draw from the small farms. The populousness of the country has fallen. While the mansion of the great farmer has risen more ostentatiously, those numer. ous tenements, that were scattered through the fields, or that encircled the cheerful green, have disappearcd, and the deserted village has furnished a theme for the poet's song. The ancient tenant, finding no occupation in the fields where he has spent his youth, and not caring, as a mercenary, to plough that land which he formerly rented, forsakes his native shore, and seeks, with his family, another climate, where his industry may be better requited. Other disadvantages may be numbered that have flowed from this practice. Let it be remarked, as an article of some moment, that the firm and independent spirit of a bold peasantry is better nourished among that rank of men by whom small farms are occupied, than among servile labourers who perform the tasks of husbandry in large farms. The country of Wass, a district lying along the northern bank of the Scheldt, below Ghent (the scene anciently of wars between the Counts of Flanders and of Holland, and through which, in latter times, the Prince of Parma, in the memorable siege of Antwerp, drew a canal, that still remains), is the pride of Flanders, in respect of culture and population. Yet the soil of the country of Wass is in many parts ungrateful, and equals not, in general, the goodness of soil of other parts of Flanders; but, divided into slender heritages, and parcelled out into small farms, that often do not exceed twenty acres, fertilized by rich manure, and subdued by the unceasing labour of the peasant, who here, imitating the gardener's skill, applies the spade and the hoe, no less than the plough, to the culture of his narrow field, this district surpasses all the tracts of this fruitful region in the abun dance of its crops. A vast population is found in this territory, whose villages are equal to large cities. St. Nicholas, and Lockeren, villages of the county of Wass, contain each not less than 10,000 inhabitants. 'Agriculture,' continues the same author, whilst it supplies materials to commerce and manufacture, is also more permanent than either, and affords a more solid basis of national prosperity. The manufactures of Louvain have failed, and the trade of Antwerp is fallen; but the fields of Flanders keep a constant fertility. Agriculture also, entertains a race of men, temperate, hardy, simple, that withstand the attacks of luxury, and among whom virtue lingers long, when corruption has gained the other ranks of the state. Even in the improved state which husbandry has attained in this island, England has still cause to make it a reproach to her inhabitants that they have not enough respected agriculture, and that, intent on colonies and foreign possessions, they have neglected the due improvement of her soil, the best source of wealth. Hence, while a defective tillage is found in many places, and while in other parts vast tracts of ground are yet unsubdued by the plough, her natives have passed into foreign climes, where themselves, with their industry, have been lost to the parent country, or where, with impaired health, and too often with impaired virtue, they have acquired Indian gold, returning to advance the reign of luxury at home, and extend the corruption of a sliding age.' Коск. ALL FOOLS' DAY. April 2. THE world of fools was in motion through the entire of yesterday some of the tricks played off were serious; others of them were of quite a harmless character. I have heard of a good many of them, and I cannot occupy this corner of my Gazette' better than by setting down a few of the most remarkable ones, for the amusement of my friends : The Reverend Tighe Gregory was requested to give an evening lecture before an audience that had ears, and some knowledge of English grammar.-No congregation! Elia, and the brotherhood of the London Magazine,' having been crippled by the Pillory' article of the last month, hobbled off in a body, to search for a spark of wit, or half a grain of originality.Lost labour ! My cousin, O'Kavanagh, gave nine white hogs for Campbell's Theodric,' expecting some poetry for his money he turned the leaves one by one, and exclaimed, in the expressive language of Shakspeare "Oh! cursed luck, To be so stuck!' NEW LIGHTS. THE puppyism of the northern philosophers is absolutely sickenSir Thomas Lethbridge set outing: they are getting confirmed in for Ireland, to bring home the horns and the tail of a Jesuit.-A fool's errand! Mr. Plunkett was invited to call and try on the robe and wig of the Irish Lord Chancellor!! Desired to wait a wee while. Daniel O'Connell was dispatched for London a second time, carrying the forty-shilling freholders in one pocket, and the clergy in the other, with strict orders to bring back the bill for emancipation. 'Time's a Tell-tale.' Sir Abraham King, the new candidate for Dublin, His head in foolscap, gaudily array'd, Mingled with items DOUBLY paid,' waited upon a brother stationer to solicit his vote and interest: promised, by all means; an introductory letter to a friend given at the same time, ending as usual-'Send the fool farther!' 6 swers; but come, mon, come, give me your favourite answer. Why Scotland has little more than two millions of inhabitants, and see how happy the country is.' This, then, is the secret; Scotland is deficient in population; and so should all the world be. What is actually the disgrace of the soil, the proof of its sterility, is here dexterously turned into a subject of national pride. After this the itch may be eulogized !!! Hear these wiseacres on another question. Mark the scribes from beyond the Tweed, how eagerly they join in crying down the forty. shilling freeholders of Ireland.The Review,' the Scotsman,' and the Scottified 'Morning Chronicle,' are quite eloquent on this subject: they are the advocates of freedom, and yet they wish to limit the elec. tive franchise. And for what reafine country; the privilege of voting son? Why Scotland is a mighty for members of parliament is there confined to a few, and it ought to be so every where else. When these blockheads speak of Ireland they go altogether beyond their depth: they hear of an imtheir theoretical impudence; and, if mense population, and a small they are allowed to go on, they will island; they look once more at soon persuade the public that the home; and, estimating matters, as 'Land of Cakes' is in reality what usual, by that standard, starvation a true Scot in Blackwood' some stares them in the face. They cry time ago styled it, the most virtuout' Irish misery!' and they know ous, the most intellectual, and the not what they talk of. Did the most high-minded nation that the creatures consult me, I could set world had ever yet looked upon.' them right. Did they look to Mr. They will soon, at this rate, make Curwen's Letters' they might see us all believe that an Aberdeen di- what the Irish soil is capable of: it ploma is an evidence of professional could support twice its present potalent; that a kilt or short petti-pulation. And to hear Scotchmen coats are decent and becoming; or talking of Irish misery! Why the that broad Scotch was truly the pot of small potatoes that Paddy their own beggarly country as the language of Paradise. They set up lays by twice a week, for the use of his grunters, would be the feast of standard of perfection; and to this a fortnight in many of the miserable standard, in all their reasonings, and huts that are scattered through Sawin all their sophisms, they conney's far-famed islands ! stantly refer. Mark their system of political economy-"; creasing population is a monstrous evil.' Why, Sawney? I know two or three, or more, of your an an in ROCK. THE SOLDIER AND THE POET. It is odd enough,' said Lord Byron, 'that Stanhope, the soldier, is all for writing down the Turks; and I, the writer, am all for fighting them down!' |