or two faint attempts to assuage the tumult; as on the occasion of one of them, he was coolly treated to a boxing match between two half naked alumni, who, having cleared a ring, floored one another repeatedly, under his nose. All this while the exertions of the learned and religious rabble were sustained, and in some degree directed, by a dingy orange pocket-handkerchief hoisted on a pole; which, by way of the standard of the constitution, was kept fluttering in the front of their array. The spirited Secretary of the Admiralty had been so early in the field, and so characteristically active, that scarcely a hope was entertained of defeating him, even from the first; and he carried his election by a large majority. Quite confident, I suppose, of success, he seemed to mind very little the disgraceful, but impotent, fury by which he was assailed throughout the day. The business within the hall was over, if I remember right, by about four or five o'clock in the afternoon; and our loyal and pious protestants, of course, having no longer any person on whom to fling their constitutional Billingsgate; and having moreover, like good subjects, torn to pieces every thing upon which they could lay their hands; at last left the scene, in which they had for so many hours vociferated so manfully for the good cause. They concluded, however, by a renewal of their exertions in the streets at night; by which time many of them had, probably, got drunk with whiskey, as well as Orangeism;—though the latter is an intoxication, heaven knows, that needs no heightening.

To this extent is ultra-protestantism sometimes carried in Ireland, Those who wish to know more of it, may consult the reports of the Orange and Brunswick meetings for the last six months; or the columns of the Evening Mail, any week in the year. When history shall have to sketch the events of our time, she will do ample justice to the memory of those friends of civil and religious liberty, whose well-earned triumph is now on the eve of completion; if she will only describe their opponents in England as well as in Ireland, in Parliament as well as out of it, in the language in which they have described themselves ;—if she will but unfold their views, feelings, and reasonings, by as ample a collection of quotations as may be necessary, from their own speeches and writings. Let the arguments by which the concession of the Catholic claims has been opposed, be extracted from the Epistles general of our Newcastles, Bexleys, Kenyons, and Winchilseas; the orations of Lord Eldon, the Duke of Cumberland, the Reverend Mr. Horner, and Sir Robert Inglis; and the most eloquent of the pamphlets, petitions, and placards, by which it has been attempted within the last few weeks either to overcome the Parliament, or inflame the populace. Let the faction speak for themselves, let them do their best; only, I say again, let them write and talk with the fear of futurity before their eyes; for they may be assured that succeeding times will not look back upon Sir Robert Inglis as necessarily the ablest man of his day, simply on the ground of his having represented Oxford.

It is in Ireland chiefly, if not only, that we are to expect the continuance for some time of dissatisfaction among the Protestants, after Emancipation shall have been granted. Even now from any strong feeling of aversion the removal of the disabilities is confined to that

country. In England, there may be, among a certain class of the people, many vague fears as to the consequences of the measure,and, hence, a wish that things should rather, if possible, be allowed to remain as they are, than that the dangers apprehended should be risked. But these are honest fears, and will yield rapidly to the proofs of their groundlessness, which every day's experience will afford. In this way, I verily believe, will be converted the great body of the present opponents of the measure, before any considerable time shall have passed over our heads. It is true, that in addition to this class of persons, there are among us a few others whose opinions or prejudices are not likely to be quite so easily acted upon; -ingenious men, for instance, who have committed themselves to a particular view of the question, by preaching or writing in defence of it; and all other sorts of people, who having been long in the habit of considering a subject in one way, can never see it in another, under any light that may be thrown upon it. But these are too inconsiderable, in point of number, talents, and consideration, to draw to them the general sympathy necessary to keep up any degree of ferment in the popular feeling. Of course, I pass over altogether the downright dishonest portion of the present pack of clamourers; those who sign petitions, or exert themselves in getting them up, or assist in any other way in swelling the outcry, merely in order to please a patron, or to gain for themselves some other end with which the helotism of the Catholics has merely a temporary and accidental connection :they will be quiet when they have played their part, or will find some other equally profitable theme for the display of their servility. The important consideration is, that we have not in England any large class of people either actually interested in the continuance of the old order of things, or upon whose station and influence in the commonwealth the change, that is about to take place, will produce any real or perceptible effect. A portion of the clergy, to be sure, seem to apprehend some very dreadful results from the new system; some of them say the doubling of tithes, and others (what would certainly be a much greater calamity) the abolition of them altogether. And many old women, it would appear, in remote parts of the country, believe that the pope and all his cardinals are forthwith to be let loose among them, sword in hand, to do with them whatever they choose. But both parties will soon find they have been alarming themselves without the least necessity, and will recover their composure in due time. Their present fright, we dare say, will do them no very serious harm.

In England, therefore, it may fairly be assumed that the good sense and generous temper of the people will soon get the better of their fears, and that many months shall not have gone by before we shall find the whole country, if not positively rejoicing in the blessings of the new state of things, at least resting quite satisfied that it has done them and can do them no mischief. In Ireland, however, the case may be expected to be somewhat different. There, a protestant minority have hitherto been in the actual enjoyment of an ascendancy both in station and in real power over their Catholic brethren-which is now to be taken from them for ever by this bill. Not a protestant journeyman, or apprentice, or sweeper of the streets, in Dublin, but has, till

now, felt himself to be superior in the eye of the law to his Catholic fellow, or, we should rather say, to any Catholic in the land. Is even such a mere feeling as this nothing, that it should be relinquished by men in general, as they are at present constituted, without a pang? I fear this were more than we can well expect. It is, I acknowledge, a detestable spirit which would thus lead one man to resist the raising of another, who has heretofore stood below him, to a level with himself, although he is thereby to be deprived of nothing except some one to look down upon;-but it is in the present case a spirit which the law itself has done its best to implant and nourish for a century and a half; and no wonder that it should be found in some strength in the bosoms of a large proportion of those who have been exposed to the unhappy influences of such a state of things. But when we add to this the other consideration that the handful of Protestants in Ireland have, till now, been almost the sole depositories of all the political power of the country, the holders, distributors, and employers of nearly all the state patronage, the only candidates for the honours, and salaries, and jobs that were going; in short the exclusive heirs and privileged monopolists of whatever was most worth possessing or dealing in, which it was in the power of the government to bestow, we shall wonder still less that they should not at once be able to reconcile themselves to an innovation which is to strip them of all these unfair advantages, to open the avenues to emolument and distinction to all classes of the community equally, and to permit those, whom for their sakes the state has hitherto treated as aliens, to share with themselves the rights of children and the affections of their common parent. It will be some time before the old regime will be forgotten by those who are to be thus forced to surrender the posts of preference in which it was wont to maintain them. Not that in the long run even they will be losers, or other than great gainers by the change; for, to say nothing of the invaluable blessings of tranquillity and general harmony which it will substitute in place of the discord, agitation, and perpetual insecurity of person and property, which have hitherto been the curse of the country, and rendered it hardly fit to live in, notwithstanding all the lavish bounties of nature,-the prosperity of every department of its industry will soon, I doubt not, be such as to afford a much greater abundance for all its inhabitants than it has ever yet yielded to the one favoured portion of them, and thus eventually amply to repay even these last for whatever may in the mean time be taken from them. It is not to be expected, however, that these benefits should begin to be generally felt immediately-or that they should indeed for some time to come be nearly so obvious to the understandings of most of the members of the old ascendancy, as will be the memory of what they have lost. Still, it is to be hoped that even they will not always remain blind to the advance of the happiness and prosperity of their country;-but that, by degrees, the spirit of bitterness shall become exchanged for that of amity, brotherhood, and

peace.

APRIL FOOLS.

"passim

Palantes error certo de tramite pellit;

Ille sinistrorsum, hic dextrorsum abit."-HOR.

This day, beyond all contradiction,
This day is all thine own, Queen Fiction!
And thou art building castles boundless
Of groundless joys, and griefs as groundless;
Assuring beauties that the border

Of their new dress is out of order;

And schoolboys that their shoes want tying;
And babies that their dolls are dying.
Lend me, lend me, some disguise;
I will tell prodigious lies;
All who care for what I say
Shall be April fools to-day.

First I relate how all the nation
Is ruined by Emancipation;

How honest men are sadly thwarted;
How beads and faggots are imported;
How every parish church looks thinner;
How Peel has asked the Pope to dinner;
And how the Duke, who fought the duel,
Keeps good King George on water-gruel.
Thus I waken doubts and fears
In the Commons and the Peers;
If they care for what I say,
They are April fools to-day.

Next I announce to hall and hovel
Lord Asterisk's unwritten novel.
It's full of wit, and full of fashion,
And full of taste, and full of passion;
It tells some very curious histories,
Elucidates some charming mysteries,
And mingles sketches of society
With precepts of the soundest piety.
Thus I babble to the host

Who adore the 'Morning Post; '
If they care for what I say,
They are April fools to-day.

Then to the artist of my raiment

I hint his bankers have stopped payment;

And just suggest to Lady Locket

That somebody has picked her pocket;

And scare Sir Thomas from the city,

By murmuring, in a tone of pity,

That I am sure I saw my Lady

Drive through the Park with Captain Grady.
Off my troubled victims go,
Very pale and very low;
If they care for what I say,
They are April fools to-day.

I've sent the learned Doctor Trepan
To feel Sir Hubert's broken kneepan;
"Twill rout the doctor's seven senses
To find Sir Hubert charging fences!
I've sent a sallow parchment scraper
To put Miss Trim's last will on paper;
He'll see her, silent as a mummy,
At whist with her two maids and dummy.
Man of brief, and man of pill,
They will take it very ill;
If they care for what I say,
They are April fools to-day.

And then to her, whose smile shed light on
My weary lot last year at Brighton,

I talk of happiness and marriage,

St. George's, and a travelling carriage.
I trifle with my rosy fetters,

I rave about her 'witching letters,
And swear my heart shall do no treason
Before the closing of the season.

Thus I whisper in the ear
Of Louisa Windermere ;
If she cares for what I say,
She's an April fool to-day.

And to the world I publish gaily
That all things are improving daily;

That suns grow warmer, streamlets clearer,

And faith more firm, and love sincerer ;
That children grow extremely clever;
That sin is seldom known, or never;
That gas, and steam, and education,
Are killing sorrow and starvation!

Pleasant visions,-but, alas!
How those pleasant visions pass!
If you care for what I say,
You're an April fool to-day.

Last, to myself, when night comes round me,
And the soft chain of thought has bound me,
I whisper, "Sir, your eyes are killing ;
You owe no mortal man a shilling;
You never cringe for star or garter,
You're much too wise to be a martyr;
And since you must be food for vermin,
You don't feel much desire for ermine!"
Wisdom is a mine, no doubt,
If one can but find it out;
But whate'er I think or say,
I'm an April fool to-day.