That was time between the toilette and the This lieve. My air-built castles vanishthis time a student at Lincoln's Inn, ed; I sate down to write letters, where the dinners are usually as but, when I got to the end of the cold as they are bad; and the li. first page of a sheet of letter-paper, brary as ill stored as it is ill at either the ink-bottle tumbled down tended and worse arranged. and spoiled it, or on re-perusing it, was in truth a dull life. I had few I discovered it was any thing but acquaintances beyond those my what I intended it should be. Well, pocket procured, or a large snuff. I now tried the library, procured box filled with Castlereagh, or resome of the newest books, one half fined Irish blackguard, enabled me of which being Scotch, I could not to gain. Now and then a man at understand; and the other half, bad Long's, who had fed on my claret, verses or ill-composed travels, I introduced me between twelve and cast aside with disgust. I thought one to a rout; but so little of heart a ride would be of service to me: was to be met there-such effort I set out, but the day rained so, was exhibited to the little pleasure and I was so unprepared to meet I saw around-that I sickened out it, that I vowed never, while I rean hour's existence there, and made mained in London, to mount a my exit without inquiry or regret. horse again; yet the animal was Sometimes I found myself little showy: the stable-keeper was civil, better than a statue in a quadrille, and recommended me to hire his or neglected in the coquette dance. horse by the week or month, as the Amid lights and beauty I perceived cheaper method. I liked this spice no soul; every thing seemed forced; of honesty, and the more so as I the lips moved by rule, and the did not expect it. Perhaps, sir,' bodies of men and women looked he added, you'd like a tilbury, if as if they were screwed up in you've been in the habit of driva vice for the occasion. The inh? In the habit of driving,' ladies who had not partners railed muttered I to myself- this looks Weeks passed over in the most at the bad figures and short pettilike doubting me,' and to prove I monotonous sameness; I was lite- coats of the creatures who were could drive, I ordered one to be rally dreaming out my existence. more fortunate; and the gentlemen with me next morning at eleven My life was so lazy, so pleasure-lined the walls, like mummies in a o'clock. It was punctually at the less, in short, so merely animal was glass case. They yawned out their door, and, glad to escape as if from it, that I had scarcely any sensa- expressions, and tortured themmyself, I mounted the vehicle, but tions beyond those of hunger or selves into the appearance of a puphad scarcely reached the turnpike cold, or the half-price play at Co- pyism they need not affect. In at Hyde-park-corner, Piccadilly, vent Garden. I now rose at eleven, truth, these routs are strange things, when I got entangled in the wheel breakfasted at half past twelve, and to avoid them has been no of a stage-coach, and in endeavour- dined between seven and eight, then small part of my exertions since. ing to unlock my tilbury, had one journeying to the theatre, but I was still at a loss for society. I of the shafts broken. Thus disas- could seldom prevail on myself to was musical-fond of the interters multiplied upon me, and my visit Drury Lane. It sometimes hap- course of friends-wished to give patience diminished as it became pened that this dull routine was and take a joke; but the misforrequisite I should muster its full varied by an occasional absence tune was, I knew not how to force to bear me up against so many from my own lone pillow, or a realize my wishes. I heaved many miseries. I gave up all riding for stolen visit to the Burton Ale a sigh to poor Ireland, thought of a week, I remained in bed till three Rooms-I call it stolen, for I dreadRooms-I call it stolen, for I dread- the life and spirit of our dance, of o'clock in the day, ate little, dranked it should be known I frequented the sprightly complaisance of our nothing but tea or water, but all to young men, and inviting affability no purpose; the blue devils inof our women! Yet why should creased. What was to be done? not these things be found in LonA change of residence suggested itdon? 'A little patience,' said I self, but I remembered the saying to myself, and I may obtain even of Horace, and gave that up. Well, more than I could covet;' but unI thought of paying more attention fortunately patience is not the chato my person, and dividing my racteristic of my countrymen. The a house where smoking was tole- greater number of my acquaintances led a life similar to mine, and I often wondered they never seemed❘ tito feel its dreariness, as I had done. They laughed at my fretfulness, while I pitied their want of feeling; and I should have lived in London like a man in a band-box, if it were not for a half-pay major, who seemed always in light spirits and well dressed, by whose advice I resolved to search for the agreeables of life in a boarding-house. HANS OF ICELAND.* HERE is a treat for the lovers of the horrible, the supernatural, and the terrible. The title-page itself is worth more than the price charged for the work; for in the portrait of the demon, Hans, George Cruik shank has surpassed all his former efforts. He has given shape, and, I might almost say, substance to what was thought only conceivable; and drawn a demon half man, half devil, in a style that must please the lovers of the arts, and delight the admirers of the revolting and the wonderful. There are three other sketches by the same artist; but, independent of these embellishments, Hans of Iceland' is a work of considerable merit; and, whether viewed as a romance or a literary production, it is well calculated to give satisfaction to the reader. Hans, as far as I can collect from the work before me, was the son of an Iceland witch, begot by a demon. In the latter part of the sixteenth century he came-no one could tell how-to Denmark; and amused himself and his Bear, a great favourite of his, in murdering men and women, and drinking their blood, throwing rocks down upon villages, and other freaks of an equally innocent character. The Danes did not, of course, admire this harmless pastime; but, as Hans was supposed indestructible, his name became the terror of all Denmark. He lived in an unfre Hans of Iceland,' published by J. Robins and Co. Ivy Lane, London. quented wood; and, as the perpetuation of his race was one of his ruling passions, (for he had two,) he bewitched, as was supposed, a country girl, by whom he had a son. This youth, who promised to be a worthy successor of his father, being crossed in love, drowned himself, and was carried to the spladgest of Drontheim, a place similar to the morgue at Paris, where the corses of unknown persons are deposited until the cause of their death is investigated. The keeper of this melancholy asylum was called Spiagudry, and is made to perform a prominent part in this romance. I can't do better than introduce here a scene between himself and Hans : "As the night drew in the spectators had left the spladgest, and Oglypiglap closed the outer door, while his master, Spiagudry, sprinkled for the last time the bodies in his custody. They afterwards retired to their miserable apartment, where the subaltern, throwing himself upon his pallet, slept as profoundly as the corses; while the venerable principal, seated before a table strewed with old books, dried plants, and fleshless bones, was engaged in studies, which, though innocent in themselves, had given him among the common people a reputation for sorcery and dealing with the devil. His speculations were, however, soon interrupted by a loud voice which proceeded from the room where the bodies lay, and which made him tremble in every limb; not that he thought, as many other persons in his place would have done, that his melancholy guests were rising against their host, for he was quite wise enough to despise all imaginary terrors; but that he knew too well the voice which called upon him. Spiagudry!' it cried again, must I tear out your ears before I make you hear me?' 6 'St. Hospice, have mercy; not upon my soul, but upon my body!' said the terrified old man, as he took up his lamp, and proceeded through the side-door, already described, to the hall of the dead. "The lamp which he bore gave to view a scene whimsically hideous. On one side appeared the tall bent body of Spiagudry; on the other a little thickset man, clothed from head to foot in the undressed skins of animals, marked with dried blood-stains, stood near the body of Gill Stadt, which, with that of the girl and the captain, occupied the centre distance of the picture. The little man's features expressed a singular ferocity. His beard was red and very thick ; and all of his head that could be seen beneath his reindeer-skin cap was covered with bristling hair of the same colour: his mouth was very wide, his lips thick, his teeth white, long, sharp, and widely apart; his nose hooked like an eagle's beak; and his piercing grey eyes cast upon Spiagudry an oblique glance, in which the ferocity of the tiger was mingled with the spitefulness of the monkey. By his side hung a long sabre; a broad dagger without a scabbard was thrust through his girdle; and he leaned upon the long handle of a flint axe. His hands were covered with very large gloves made of blue fox-skin. The old spectre keeps me a long time here,' he murmured; and then he uttered a low growl like that of a wild beast, and of so frightful a tone that Spiagudry would have turned pale with terror if his dun complexion had not scorned all change. 'Do you know,' continued the little man, addressing him, that come from the beach at Urchtal ? and do you wish to change your straw bed for one of those harder couches of black stone?' 'I implore your pardon, master,' said Spiagudry, as his teeth audibly rattled against each other, and he bent his gaunt carcass down to that of the little man : I was in a profound sleep.' If you do not wish that I should send you into one still more profound, give me Gill Stadt's clothes.' True,' said the little man, folding his arms: the wretched miners are like the eider swan; their nests are made only that they may be plundered with greater facility.' He then raised the body of the young miner in his arms, and, clasping it forcibly, he uttered wild cries of affection and grief like those of a bear caressing its cub, mingled with some words of an unintelligible jargon. He at length let fall the corpse, and, turning to Spiagudry, said, Accursed sorcerer, do you know the name of that soldier, born in an evil hour, whom this girl (kick. ing, as he spoke, the corpse of Guth Stasen) preferred to Gill?' "Spiagudry signified that he did Gill, did I destroy the mines of and sabre, took off the skull with singular dexterity. When he had finished the operation he handed the spoil to Spiagudry to be wash. ed; and growled out- When I die I shall not have the consola. tion of leaving an heir of the Ingulphus blood, who will drink the waters of the sea and the blood of men out of my skull.' He paused a moment, and then continuedThe hurricane is followed by the hurricane; the avalanche brings on the avalanche-I alone am the last of my race. Why did not Gill hate, like me, all mankind? What hostile demon urged him to these fatal mines in search of a wretched portion of gold?" 'I have them not, most excel-bour has been lost, and I shall lent signor; your Grace knows never see in the race of Iceland's that we are obliged to give up to sons the descendants of Ingulph the king's officers all their pro- the Exterminator perpetuated.— perty, which his Majesty takes as Thou shalt not inherit my axe of their heir and patron.' flint; but, the common doom reversed, thou hast bequeathed to me thy skull, from which in future I will drink the waters of the ocean, and the blood of men.'Spiagudry!' he cried, seizing the head of the body he had thus apostrophised, assist me!' He then pulled off his gloves, and his large hands appeared armed with long, hard, and curved nails, like the claws of a wild beast. Hans immediately employed him. 'Spiagudry saw that he was pre-self in taking revenge on the Monk. paring to cut off the head with his holm regiment, and the events of sabre, and cried out, in horror and the time aided his fell designs. A affright, Good Heaven, forbear! rebellion, similar to rebellions in Permit me to supplicate your Ireland, was got up by the ministers grace, to implore your excellency, of the crown, and afforded, in its not to profane Your serene progress, ample scope for the in. highness would not surely !'- genuity of the demon, who at length completed his savage purpose by immolating himself. In the course of the story many amusing and pleasing characters are introduced; but, as I have neither room for a lengthened analysis, or copious extracts, I can only recommend the volume to the perusal of my readers. not. 6 I "No matter,' continued the little man; I have sworn by the axe of Ingulph, the chief of my race, that I will exterminate all who wear this uniform,' pointing to the officer's body. He upon whom I seek to be revenged must be found among the number. will fire the whole forest that I may burn out the venomous shrub which it contains. I swore this on the day of Gill's death; and see, there lies by him already a companion, at whom his very corpse ought to rejoice. Oh, Gill, there thou liest lifeless, strengthless, and motionless; thou whose single arm could throttle the wild bears of Kole; thou who in one day couldst traverse all Drontheim, from the Orkel to the Cape of Simasen; climb the heights of Dofrefield as a squirrel climbs an oak; there mute thou licst, whose voice out-roared the thunder on the stormy top of Kogosberg. In vain for thee, Cease your prating: do I not know, without all these titles, the great respect you have for my sabre?' In the name of Saint Wladi. mir! by Saint Usuph's holy merit! for the sake of the good Saint Hospice!. 'Assist me, and talk not of your saints to the devil.' Then by your illustrious an. cestor, Saint Ingulph, I conjure you' 'He was like me, an outcast from men.' For Heaven's sake, pause!' said the old man, if you would not also be an outcast from Heaven.' "The little man became violently impatient; his grey eyes sparkled with fire. Assist me!' he roared, and flourished his sabre with so significant a gesture, that the old man, half dead with fear, sate down upon the black stone, and held, without further objection, the cold and humid head of Gill; while the little man, by the aid of his dagger IMPROMPTU Written at the Annual Meeting of the So- Here's a new trap to catch poor Pat, ROCK NOTICES. A review of Mr. Ensor's excellent Letter to Irish Landlords. LONDON:J. Robins and Co. Ivy Lane, Or, The Chieftain's Weekly Gazette. THE above engraving* represents the proud home of my ancestors before English treachery had despoiled the high-minded and gallant Irish Chieftains of their rights and possessions. Long, very long, did the Rocks cling to their hostile abode; and never yielded admission to the English authorities, until guaranteed their rights to the castle and surrounding domain.Domestic baseness, however, effected their ruin: but, before I enter upon the particulars of this transaction, so intimately connected with my own private memoir, I must give a complete history of those penal lawst which placed a bounty upon crime and a reward on filial disobedience. The original is to be seen in the rebellious collection of that notorious cognoscente -Major Sirr. + The reader is here presented with an-Rock. accurate history of the penal laws passed since the time of the Revolution, as well as a list of those penal laws which are still in force. The information contained in these few columns has hitherto been attainable only to such as could pay for an expensive PRICE TWO PENCE. countrymen. He had, however, scarcely landed in France,§ when the articles of capitulation were violated by the great and good King William, whose memory the idiot corporators of Dublin are so fond of toasting, though he was a decided enemy of Ireland. How it is possible,' says Sir Henry Parnell, to defend William and his ministers from the charge of having acted with perfidy towards the Ca. tholics, it is not easy to discover. That they were guilty of violating the treaty no one can deny. The excuse that has been made for William, that he was obliged to submit to the power of the Anti-Catholic party, may easily be proved to be a mere pretext.' Every thing demonstrates William's want of faith; and soon after we find, his Parliament passing acts to prevent Catholics from sitting in Parliamentpreventing them from educating their children at home or abroad ||preventing them from being guardians to their own or other persons' children-preventing Catholic schoolmasters from teaching-and preventing Catholic priests from residing in Ireland. As if these acts of wanton tyranny were not sufficient to oppress § The expatriated Irish, on their arrival in France, were taken into the service of Lewis; and signalized themselves so frequently, that it was the saying of an English minister that the Irish Brigade had cost them more money than the fee-simple of all their forfeited estates were worth. Whilst this restraint,' says Burke, upon foreign and domestic education was part of a horrible and impious system of servitude, the members were well fitted to the body. To render men patient, under a deprivation of all the rights of human' nature, every thing which could give them a knowledge or feeling of those rights was rationally forbidden. To render humanity' fit to be insulted, it was fit that it should be degraded. Indeed I have ever thought the prohibition of the means of improving our rational nature to be the worst species of tyranny that the insolence and perverseness of mankind ever dared to exercise. the Catholics, we find the following statutes passed in the reign of Anne.* 'On the 4th of March, 1704, the royal assent was given to the Act to prevent the further Growth of Popery; being the first of these two famous acts; which have most deservedly been termed, by Mr. The Rev. Arthur O'Leary, speaking of these statutes, says, In addition to our losses under the usurpation of Cromwell, and subsequent ones of the Revolution, our moet invaluable privileges were swept away at a political game of hazard, played by Whigs and Tories, under the last of the Stuarts, without the slightest provocation on our part; for the laws framed in Queen Anne's reign against the Catholics of Ireland are of so horrible a complexion, that it was never the intention of those who devised them to have them enacted; their very cruelty was the only motive for inventing them. Queen Anne, whose father had been a mendicant, supported by the generosity of a foreign king, was suspected of wishing that her brother, a Catholic prince, should succeed her. The party to whom her ministers were obnoxious intended to draw on them the odium of purposing to place the Pretender on the throne. With this view they framed a code of laws, authorizing the neighbour to plunder the neighbour-the brother to supplant the brother-and the profligate son to strip the father of his estate, and to make him tenant for life only, by taking an oath of abjura. tion, with a variety of penal clauses equally cruel and unjust. The very severity of Jaws clashing with those of God and Nature gave them every room to believe that they would be opposed by the Court party from principles of humanity and justice; and thus they flattered themselves with the success of an expedient calculated to expose their opponents to the hatred entertained at the time against those who were deemed the friends of the Pope and the Pretender. The shrewd courtiers, aware of the design of their antagonists, and either willing to sacrifice justice and humanity to their personal interests, or flattering themselves that the laws would be of short duration in the event of the success of their plan, unexpectedly gave in to the measure, to remove the suspicion of their design. It was too late for the other party to recede; and thus in time of profound peace,in violation of a solemn compact sanctioned by the laws of nations, the Catholics of Ireland, like balls in a tennis-court, struck with the rackets of both parties, were thrown over the walls of the constitution of their country, against the original intention of the state gamesters.' I wish Dr. Doyle had read this extract before he admitted that there ever existed a necessity for the penal laws.-ROCK. Burke, the ferocious acts of tant heir, is to divided, share and Anne. By the third clause of this act, the Popish father, though he may have acquired his estate by descent from a long line of ancestors, or by his own purchase, is deprived of the power, in case his eldest son, or any other son, becomes a Protestant, to sell, mortgage, or otherwise dispose of it, or to leave out of it any portions or legacies. By the 4th clause, the Popish father is debarred, under a penalty of five hundred pounds, from being a guardian to, or from having the custody of, his own children: but if the child, though ever so young, pretends to be a Protestant, it is to be taken from its own father, and put into the hands of a Protestant relation. The 5th clause provides that no Protestant shall marry a Papist, having an estate in Ireland, either in or out of the kingdom. The 6th clause renders Papists incapable of purchasing any ma. nors, tenements, hereditaments, or any rents or profits arising out of the same; or of holding any lease of lives, or other lease whatever, for any term exceeding thirty-one years. Even with respect to this advantage, restrictions were imposed on them; one of which was, that, if a farm produced a profit greater than one-third of the amount of the rent, the right in it was immediately to cease, and to pass over entirely to the first Protestant who should discover the rate of profit. The 7th clause deprives Papists of such inheritance, devise, gift, remainder, or trust of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, of which any Protestant was or should be seized in fee simple, absolute or fee tail, which, by the death of such Protestant, or his wife, ought to have descended to his son or other issue in tail, being Papists; and makes them descend to the nearest Protestant relation, as if the Popish heir and other Popish relations were dead. By the 10th clause, the estate of a Papist, for want of a Protes share alike, among all his sons; for want of sons, among his daughters; and, for want of daughters, among the collateral kindred of the father. By the 15th clause, no person shall be exempt from the penalties of this act that shall not take and subscribe the oath and declaration required by this act to be taken. By the 16th clause, all persons whatsoever, who shall receive any office, civil and military, shall take and subscribe the oath and declaration required to be taken by the English act of third William and Mary; and also the oath of abju. ration required to be taken by another English act of first of Anne; and also shall receive the sacrament. The 23d clause provides, that no Papist, except under particular conditions, shall dwell in Limerick or Galway. The 24th, that no persons shall vote at elections without taking the oaths of allegiance and abjuration. And the 25th clause, that all advowsons possessed by Papists shall be vested in her majesty. Though the treaty of Limerick was now violated in every point, the spirit of persecution was still restless and unsatisfied. However great was the ingenuity of the legislators who produced that master-piece of oppression, the Act to prevent the farther Growth of Popery, it was found that another act was still wanting to explain and amend it. Such an act passed in the year 1709. + The 1st clause provides that no Papist shall be capable of taking any annuity for life. The following is the 3d clause, every word of which is of value, in order to show the cruelty with which the unfortunate Catholics of Ireland have been oppressed :"And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that where and as often as any child or children of any Popish parent or pårents hath or have heretofore pro8th Anne, c. 3. |