courses now lay open for the Catholics to adopt. The first was, should they confine themselves to the old practice of an annual petition to Parliament, while the Association should adopt such auxiliary steps as would be best calculated to ensure success? The second was, should they detach particulars of the most operative grievances, from the general catalogue, for the purpose of exposing them to the British nation and to the world? and the third contained a proposition, for the Catholics to act with the reformers of England in opposing the spirit of rapine and persecution which was upheld by their opponents? It would be (he said) the greatest absurdity, were they to continue the holiday farce of annually petitioning for general emancipation. It had become a mockery so repugnant to common sense, that latterly their cause was not able even to obtain that discussion in Parliament which had heretofore paralysed their exertions, and which had led to no other result than the adjournment of their hopes, and the consequent disunion amongst themselves. Why should they hesitate to bring forward such a grievance as the church rates by a particular petition? or, why should they delay to expose the vicious system which was contained in the mal-administration of justice, and the construction of juries, which placed so absolute a power in the hands of the sheriffs, who were mostly their relentless foes? He then proceeded to enjoin his auditors to put no trust in the intentions of the then administration, (the Liverpool,) which he designated as having a delusive power, by containing some persons whose reputation and character secured to them a certain degree of public confidence, which enabled them to effect their insidious designs. He enforced

the necessity of a junction with the Reformers of England, for the purpose of producing a change in the representative system, without which, he said, it would be in vain to overturn the oppression they had so long endured; and concluded by moving for a committee of eleven, to prepare a petition upon the administration of justice in Ireland.

The motion being passed, he then proposed that the petition should be forwarded to Mr. Brougham, for presentation in the House of Commons, and to Lord Donoughmore, in the Lords. Mr. Sheil suggested, as an amendment, that it should be confided to Lord Grey, in compliment to his advocacy of reform; which, after some desultory debating, was agreed to, and the meeting adjourned.

Thus terminated the first sitting for the dispatch of business of the Catholic Association. The history of England since that day presents many political alterations; and the men whose names occur in the foregoing pages, have also experienced some degree of change. Some amongst them may be yet found far advanced on that path upon whose course they had that day entered, and yet contending for the establishment of those principles to which they were pledged; while others followed on, until they arrived at a point where a deviation presented to them the means of some paltry personal advantage, against which their cupidity was not proof; and, in grasping it, they fell! But, perhaps amongst all of the latter class, the two senators selected to present the petition upon the administration of justice to the respective assemblies of which they were then distinguished mem

bers, present a more humiliating reverse in their own persons than the few political apostates which are to be counted amongst the seventyseven original members of the Association. Who would now propose in an Irish convention, that Lord Grey should be retained as an advocate to lay the wrongs of this country before an alien senate-that senate in which he has lately denounced and defamed those who then confided in his attachment to liberty?— ?-or who is there now so tame as to entrust our demand for freedom to the discretion of the author of the execrable coercive bill, whose apparent connexion with every liberal and enlightened principle, at that period, marked him as the fittest medium for exposing the injustice which we endured?

The Association again met on Thursday, the 10th of June, 1823; Laurence Clinch in the chair. The attendance of members was evidently on the increase, and the appearance of several new adherents indicated that the previous proceedings, had attracted public attention. Amongst the latter was Sir John Burke, of Marble Hill, and Mr. Lawless, of Belfast, who was then proprietor and editor of the Irishman, a weekly journal, which had been for some years established in that town. Mr. Sheil read the draft of the petition upon the administration of justice-a document displaying a vigour and an eloquence which made it quite a novelty in the composition of parliamentary forms. Its literary merits would entitle it to a place in this paper, were it not that its length renders it impossible to afford the necessary space. There are some passages, however, which I have selected from the case of national justice, which it so forcibly exposes, influenced as much by my admiration of the style, as by a wish to demonstrate how little the description of the grievances then endured differs in identity from the character of that which we complain of at present. "The administration of justice in Ireland is corrupted to its source. A faction deriving its power from the inequality of the law, sprung out of the system by which this unfortunate country has been, and continues to be, governed. From its ferocious antipathies the public tribunals afford us no refuge. The subjects of an absolute government are less exposed than we are to the violation of personal right. A simple despotism weighs with an equality of pressure upon every class of the community; but where a faction is invested with exclusive privilege and sway, the machinery of corruption is much more complicated, and its operation more extensive-a system of Helotism is established-the sense of masterdom intermingles itself in the ordinary familiarities of life-tyranny meets its object at every step-it assumes a character of much more immediate individuality, and is multiplied and varied into an infinitely greater diversity of shape."

"Murders have been repeatedly perpetrated, and, though legal prosecutions have ensued, yet such has been the baneful consequence of those factious associations, that under their influence petty juries have declined to do their duty. It was sufficient to say, such a man displayed such a colour, to produce an utter disbelief of his testimony, and when another has stood with his hand at the bar, the display of his party badge has mitigated the murder into manslaughter.'

*

VOL. II. NO. XIII.

1

"A religious character will be still impressed upon the administration of justice-and religious antipathies will necessarily obey the suggestions of the law, and start out at every party question. The judges-the officers of the court-the king's counsel-and the sheriffs who impannel the jury, will still be Protestant: thus will the administration of justice be stamped as it were with sect."

"The nomination of sheriffs of corporate cities, depends upon associations of men who are peculiarly influenced by the fierceness of sectarian hate. Justice should be drawn out of pure fountains; and how can it fail to be stained and foul when it is derived from such a corrupt and fetid source? As long as sheriffs are appointed by men who derive their livelihood from their religion, it will be a mere mockery to tell the people of Ireland, that the law is equally dispensed."

From the spirit of the foregoing sentences it will be seen, how little redress the petitioners were able to procure by means of this bold and conclusive arraignment of the dispensation of justice-the same sectarian animosity pollutes the jury box at the present day, although the inequality of the law from which it sprung has been removed. Added to the preservation of all the old spirits, by which those factious tribunals were characterised, recent laws have given another feature to the system, which before it did not want, to complete its full extent of injustice. Religious ascendancy having fallen to the ground, "like a spent thunderbolt," and the faction by whose aid it had hitherto been supported, experiencing a great diminution of power, in consequence, the English Government has instituted a tribunal to supersede the functions of the failing faction. Having passed laws superseding the ordinary forms of civil justice, and abolishing the legal theory of the constitution, it was necessary to find instruments to enforce them, whose education and habits adapted them for the "particular service." Accordingly, eleven brevet Lieutenant-Colonels are beckoned from the crowd of half-pay idlers, advanced to full rank and double pay, to dispense the penalties of the Stanley statute. The history of the administration of Irish justice will be recorded in future in the columns of the War Office Gazette.

COMBAT OF THE VISCOUNT DE TURENNE AND THE
CHEVALIER D'AUMALE.

[Translated from Voltaire's Henriade, Canto X.]

THE trumpet sounds: lo! to the dangerous fight

Darts with impatient speed each noble knight :

Whate'er intrepid valour, pliant skill,

With veteran strength and firmness, can fulfil,
In every form this fiery onset shews ;-

At once they give, and ward, unnumbered blows-
Rush on by turns with well-dissembled rage-
Avoid the shock-wheel round-but still engage;
Now sternly close-now grappling they appear,
Thrilling the anxious heart with pleasing fear;

Yet cautiously anticipate surprise

Measure each coming stroke with watchful eyes ;

Swift bounding forwards, thrust, then, springing back,
Stand suddenly on guard against attack.

Now here, now there, quick-aimed, now low, now high,
With rapid art that mocks th' astonished eye-
Crossed and recrossed-withdrawn or dashed away-
The glittering weapons flash in beauteous fray :
Thus, when th' unclouded sun's meridian beams
Break on the surface of the limpid streams,
From the clear floating crystal widely plays
The dancing lustre of the dazzling rays.
With keen suspense and eager wonder filled,
The breathless crowd in deep attention stilled,
Oft as in air the brandished steel impends,
Deem in each blow" the fatal stroke descends."
Aumale with fierce presumptuous ardour glows,
Fired with the pride unequalled strength bestows;
Turenne, superior skill and temper shews-
Cool and collected all his might exerts,

And the worst fury of his foe averts,

Whose arm no more his dauntless soul obeys,

While every charge his lessening strength betrays.
Turenne the chief's increasing weakness views,
Then with redoubled force the fight renews—

No stop to rally-no delay allows-
Confounds and stuns him with a storm of blows-
Plunges the mortal falchion in his side,—
Aumale is fallen! in gory torrents dyed:
"He falls!" th' indignant fiends despairing cry,

In mournful accents echoing o'er the sky

"He falls!-oh League, thy throne's o'erturned at last;
"Bourbon! thou'rt victor now-our reign is past.”
With answering cries the crowd proclaim their grief,
While stretched in dust they view their conquered chief.
In vain he threats Turenne: see! gasp on gasp
Life ebbs away-his sword forsakes his grasp;
Rage at defeat-convulsive horror-shame-
Burn on his cheeks, and in his eyeballs flame.
He rises--sinks-yet struggles still to rise,
Opes with a last wild glare his rolling eyes ;·
Views Paris' fading walls, and, groaning, dies.
Mayenne! thou see'st thy champion's awful end,
And from his fate thy angry thoughts portend
Th' approaching downfall of thy lawless power-
Too surely witnessed in the chief's last hour!

CONLA.

SUMMER RAMBLES AND SKETCHES.-NO. V.

A FAILURE-INCHIQUIN-LIMERICK-KILFENORA-LISDOON-VARNA.

"how should he at wicked chance repine,
Who feels from every change amusement flow?
Even now his eyes with smiles of rapture glow,
As on he wanders through the scenes of morn,
Where the fresh flowers in living lustre blow,
Where thousand pearls the dewy lawns adorn,
A thousand notes of joy on every breeze are borne."

IMPOSSIBLE! there is something in a fine morning that has not been yet said or sung, capable of soothing any heart that is not altogether wrecked. If there be a single string unbroken, no matter how it may have ached all night, I defy it to resist the opiate balm that is shaken from the saffron tresses of morn. The gifted with unearthly genius, who, maugre their rich endowments and ethereal sensibilities, are obliged to waste those moments that might be consecrated to fame in the admeasurement of tape or such like paltry avocations, may look askance, through well-stocked windows, at Aurora's roseate curtains, nor feel their aspirings soberised, nor cease to despise a world that will not discern, through dangling bobbins and bundles of taffety, the intellect that is "cabined, cribbed, confined," within their own earthly tabernacles; but there are privileged wretches, and, like the idol of their idolatry, the immortal Byron, must not be exasperated by peace-offerings. I was always of a different cast of mind. To "grasp the pleasure that's flying" is a precept that I must make it a point to fulfil, if possible; and from a pretty long experience of the beneficial effects, I can recommend it most cordially to my juvenile readers, and, with especial urgency, to such of them as may be cursed with talent. Even now, while Boreas is bellowing at my window, I am suffused in most delectable--what shall I call them? sensations is too vivid a term; recollections, too vague; Moore had, I think, some notion of what I mean, when he spoke of Glimpses of glory, ne'er forgot,

"That tell, like gleams on a sunset sea, "What once hath been, what now is not,"

and perhaps these lines are the best excuse I could offer for my inability to define the evanescent shadows that are fluttering around me, while I retrace on "memory's mellowing glass" my pleasant wanderings on that summer-day. I never felt so oddly before. Can it be that they are poetic visions? I am not surely in that state of mind which members of Temperance Societies are wont to call the moon; yet, nathless, I do feel strongly, strangely tempted, nor would I pledge myself, spite of my perfect sobriety, to "bridle in my struggling muse," could I indulge in her freak with a safe conscience, And that depends upon the question, whether I made a pact, explicit or implied,