all species of sectarian bigotry. Such a man, at a time of national agitation, was likely to attract, and be attracted; and, accordingly, we find him, soon after the formation of the volunteers, a decided favourite with the people.

If Catholicity, as we are told, be favourable to despotism, how comes it that in Ireland-a land where despotism had grown plethoric-it has uniformly produced a spirit of resistance to bad laws and arbitrary power? Protestantism had there, at least, preached the doctrine of passive obedience; and, what's more, practised what it taught. The nation slept beneath an iron code, imposed by foreign domination, until the Catholic helots of the soil aroused her from her prostrate attitude, by the clanking of their chains. To their early efforts, and not, as has been generally supposed, to the volunteers, we are indebted for the growth of those liberal principles which, during the latter part of the last century, sprung up in such luxuriance throughout Ireland. O'Connor and Curry had vindicated Catholicity long before the American Revolt or the French Revolution; and, though much must be ascribed to these great events, let it never be forgotten that the principles of freedom had been previously promulgated in Catholic statements of grievances, remonstrances, and petitions. These were the instruments which first conveyed liberal opinions into Ireland. The bigots became alarmed; but more enlightened Protestants started, on discovering that they had for a century been acces sary to injustice and tyranny. This must have been the case. How else can we account for the sudden appearance of liberality in a kingdom then groaning under the penal laws? In less than ten years after the Catholics had made their first appeal, their cause became almost universally popular. The volunteers were nearly unanimous in reprobation of the Popery Laws; and all those who contemplated a national independence commenced their career by advocating Emancipation.

Among those who proved themselves at this period sincerely attached to the cause of Ireland, the subject

of our memoir stood conspicuous. His character, his fortune, and his undoubted courage, placed him above suspicion; and, whatever might have been ascribed to enthusiasm, nothing could possibly be attributed to unworthy motives. In 1792, we find Mr. Rowan a member of the club of United Irishmen--a society which then sought only a reform of parliament.

'I must do the society,' says the unfortunate Theobald Wolfe Tone, the justice to say, that I believe there never existed a political body which included for its members a greater portion of sincere uncorrupted patriotism, as well as a very respectable portion of talents. Their publications, mostly written by Dr. Drennan, and many of them admirably well done, began to draw the public attention, especially as they were evidently the production of a society utterly disclaiming all party views or motives, and acting on a broad original scale, not sparing those who called themselves patriots more than those who were the habitual slaves of the government→→→ a system in which I heartily concurred, having long entertained a more sincere contempt for what is called the Opposition, than for the common prostitutes of the treasury bench, who want, at least, the vice of hypocrisy. At length the Solicitor-general, in speaking of the Society, having made use of expressions in the House of Commons extremely offensive, an explanation was demanded of him by Simon Butler, chairman, and Tandy, secretary. Butler was satisfied; Tandy was not; and after several messages, which it is not my affair to detail, the Solicitor-general at length complained to the House of a breach of privilege, and Tandy was ordered in the first instance into custody. He was, in consequence, arrested by a messenger, from whom he found means to escape; and immediately a proclamation was issued, offering a reward for retaking him. The Society now was in difficult situation, and I thought myself called upon to make an effort, at all hazards to myself, to prevent its falling, by improper timidity, in the public opinion. We were, in fact, committed

with the House of Commons on the question of privilege; and, having fairly engaged in the contest, it was impossible to recede without a total forfeiture of character. Under these circumstances, I cast my eyes on Archibald Hamilton Rowan, a distinguished member of the Society, whose many virtues, public and private, had set his name above the reach of even the malevolence of party; whose situation in life was of the most respectable rank (if rank be indeed respectable); and, above all, whose personal courage was not to be shaken-a circumstance, in the actual situation of affairs, of the last importance. To Rowan, therefore, I applied. I showed him that the current of public opinion was rather setting against us in the business, and that it was necessary that some of us should step forward and expose themselves at all risks, to show the House of Commons, and the nation at large, that we were not to be intimidated or put down so easily; and I offered, if he would take the chair, that I would, with the Society's permission, act as secretary, and that we would give our signatures to such publications as circumstances might render necessary. Rowan instantly agreed; and accordingly, on the next night of meeting, he was chosen chairman and I secretary in the absence of Tandy; and the Society having agreed to the resolutions proposed, which were worded in a manner very offensive to the dignity of the House of Commons, and, in fact, amounted to a challenge of their authority, we inserted them in all the newspapers, and printed 5,000 copies with our names affixed. The least that Rowan and I expected in consequence of this step, (which under the circumstances was, I must say, rather a bold one,) was to be committed to Newgate for a breach of privilege; and, perhaps, exposed to personal discussion with some of the members of the House of Commons; for he proposed, and I agreed, that if any disrespectful language was applied to either of us in any debate which might arise on the business, we would attack the person, whoever he might be, immediately,

and oblige him either to recant his words or give battle. All our determinations, however, came to nothing. The House of Commons, either content with their victory over Tandy, who was obliged to conceal himself for some time, or not thinking Rowan and myself objects sufficiently important to attract their notice; or, perhaps, (which I rather believe,) not wishing just then to em. broil themselves with a man of Rowan's firmness and courage, not to speak of his great and justly merited popularity, took no notice whatsoever of our resolutions; and in this manner he and I had the good fortune, or, if I may say, the merit, to rescue the Society from a situation of considerable difficulty, without any actual suffering, though certainly with some personal hazard, on our parts. We had, likewise, the satisfaction to see the Society, instead of losing ground, rise rapidly in the public opinion by their firmness on the occasion. Shortly after, on the last day of the session, Tandy appeared in public, and was taken into custody, the whole Society attending in a body to the House of Commons. He was ordered by the Speaker to be committed to Newgate, whither he was conveyed, the Society attending him as before; and the Parliament being prorogued in half an hour after, he was liberated immediately, and escorted in triumph to his own house. On this occasion Rowan and I attended, of course, and were in the gallery of the House of Commons. As we were not sure but we might be attacked ourselves, we took pains to place ourselves in a conspicuous situation, and to wear our Whig-club uniforms, which were rather gaudy, in order to signify to all whom it might concern, that there we were. A good many of the members, we observed, remarked us, but no farther notice was taken; our names were never mentioned; the whole business passed over quietly, and I resigned my pro-secretaryship, being the only office I ever held in the Society, into the hands of Tandy, who resumed his functions.'

On Tandy's quitting Ireland, Mr. Rowan became secretary to the so

rapidly taking place, he was obliged to fly. At this time he escaped by rowing himself down the Seine, in a wherry, and answered the challenges of the military placed on each side with so much address, that he was allowed to pass unmolested. From France he went to America, and resided on the banks of the Delaware. By the advice of some friends, in the hope of lessening the anxieties of exile, he was induced to embark in a cotton concern; but,knowing nothing of commerce, he soon abandoned all manufacturing pursuits. At length, political convulsions having subsided in Ireland, Mr. Rowan, after an absence of several years, was restored by an act of royal clemency to his home, where he has since lived sur rounded by domestic love. The Amor Patria, however, is not yet dead within him; when the late Catholic Association erected an altar to Liberty, Hamilton Rowan approached it with his offering, and, though his character was assailed for doing so, like gold in the furnace, it has shone brighter and purer from the ordeal it has recently gone through.

'It is not now,' says the subject of our memoir, in a letter addressed to his children, my intention to vindicate the express act which caused my then exiled situation. I was sensible that I had been concerned in a transaction, for which the law of my country would have separated me from the world; and though I found a strong self-justification in my being conscious, that if I had erred, it had been in concert with some of the most virtuous and patriotic characters in Ireland; yet I felt a degree of gratitude to the existing powers of the country from which I had fled, for the protection which my family experienced, after my escape from prison.

your mother's prudent conduct during my absence, not only enabled her to pay the fine of 5001. which had been laid on me, but also facilitated my return to Ireland.

I am convinced that no modification of my civil existence would have taken place, if Lord Castlereagh had opposed it. But I am bound in gratitude to the memory of Lord Clare to say, that I am equally certain that my family retained my property, after my outlawry; and that I owe my pardon, after his decease, to his previous interference in my behalf.

However, although he did not afford me any previous assistance, Lord Castlereagh was very attentive to my different applications to him during two years nearly that I remained in London, while the scruples of the Lord Chancellor delayed the ratification of my pardon.

In that interval he offered to place one of my sons in the College of Marlow, and give him a commission in the East India Company's service. These were attentions, which, though not accepted, ought not to be forgotten."

Mr. Hamilton Rowan is now in his seventy-fifth year. Age has not yet impaired any of his faculties; and his noble countenance indicates what he has been-a man of a truly energetic mind, firm and decided. Lavater, would have doated on his portrait; for it is a correct index of an open, sincere, and manly, disposition. The accompanying engraving is a most correct likeness.

If Mr. Hamilton Rowan's political life has been without reproach, his private life defies calumny, His manners are of the most amiable and fascinating kind; and the best proof that can be adduced of the respect in which he is held by all classes is to be found in the burst of indignation which followed the attack lately made on him by some members of the House of Commons.