India, and who was married to a relation of my wife. Having established his fame in the battle of Plassey and several other actions, he seated himself at Johnstown in the centre of an inveterate bog, but the soil, such as it was, had the recommendation to him of being his native soil, and all its deformities vanished from his sight.

"I had more than once the amusement of dining at the house of that most singular being George Faulkner, where I found myself in a company so miscellaneously and whimsically classed, that it looked more like a fortuitous concourse of oddities, jumbled together from all ranks, orders and descriptions, than the effect of invitation and design. Description must fall short in the attempt to convey any sketch of that eccentric being to those, who have not read him in the notes of Jephson,' or seen him in the mimickry of Foote, who in his portraits of Faulkner found the only sitter, whom his extravagant pencil could not caricature; for he had a solemn intrepidity of egotism, and a daring contempt of absurdity, that fairly outfaced imitation, and like Garrrick's Ode on Shakspeare, which Johnson said defied criticism,' so did George in the original spirit of his own perfect buffoonery defy caricature. He never deigned to join in the laugh he had raised, nor seemed to have a feeling of the ridicule he had provoked: at the same time that he was pre-eminently and by preference the butt and buffoon of the company,

he could find openings and opportunities for hits of retaliation, which were such left-handed thrusts as few could parry: nobody could foresee where they would fall, nobody of course was fore-armed, and as there was in his calculation but one supereminent character in the kingdom of Ireland, and he the printer of the Dublin Journal, rank was no shield against George's arrows, which flew where he listed, and fixed or missed as chance directed, he cared not about consequences. He gave good

meat and excellent claret in abundance; I sate at his table once from dinner till two in the morning, whilst George swallowed immense potations with one solitary sodden strawberry at the bottom of the glass, which he said was recommended to him by his doctor for its cooling properties. He never lost his recollection or equilibrium the whole time, and was in excellent foolery; it was a singular coincidence, that there was a person in company, who had received his reprieve at the gallows, and the very judge, who had passed sentence of death upon him. This did not in the least disturb the harmony of the society, nor embarrass any human creature present. All went off perfectly smooth, and George, adverting to an original portrait of Dean Swift, which hung in his room, told us abundance of excellent and interesting anecdotes of the Dean and himself with minute precision and an importance irresistibly ludicrous. There was also a portrait of his late lady Mrs. Faulkner,

which either made the painter or George a liar, for it was frightfully ugly, whilst he swore she was the most divine object in creation. In the mean time he took credit to himself for a few deviations in point of gallantry, and asserted that he broke his leg in flying from the fury of an enraged husband, whilst Foote constantly maintained that he fell down an area with a tray of meat upon his shoulder, when he was journeyman to a butcher: I believe neither of them spoke the truth. George prosecuted Foote for lampooning him on the stage of Dublin; his counsel the prime serjeant com. pared him to Socrates and his libeller to Aristophanes; this I believe was all that George got by his course of law; but he was told he had the best of the bargain in the comparison, and sate down contented under the shadow of his laurels. process of time he became an alderman; I paid my court to him in that character, but I thought he was rather marred than mended by his dignity. George grew grave and sentimental, and sentiment and gravity sate as ill upon George, as a gown and square cap would upon a monkey."

In

A short time previously to the departure of Lord Halifax from Ireland (in the government of which he was succeeded by the Duke of Northumberland,) a vacancy happened in the bench of bishops, and Cumberland's father was promoted to the see of Clonfert. This vacancy occurred so imme diately before the expiration of his lordship's go

vernment, that the right of nomination seemed almost to belong to his successor, and many and vigorous efforts were made to wrest it from Lord Halifax. But he firmly resisted the attempt, and bestowed the mitre upon one whose whole life did honour to his appointment, service to the church, and glory to God.

But it was an advancement which he had not taught himself to expect, and the news of it came upon him with that suddenness of surprise which sometimes gives an additional zest to joy. He had returned to his vicarage of Fulham, contented with the issue of his expedition, and prepared to wear out the remainder of his life in the discharge of its duties. When his son first apprised him of the vacancy, he listened to the probability of his promotion with a calm mind, observing that he did not think himself much adapted for public life, and that if he were presented to the vacant see, he should feel himself bound by conscience to use his patronage for the benefit of the clergy of his own diocese, to the utter exclusion of his English friends. This resolution he afterwards adopted, with a firmness of conscious rectitude which did him the highest honour. In the anticipation of his promotion, also, he expressed his determination to follow the illustrious example of his grandfather in the appropriation of his episcopal revenue, observing that though he despaired of imitating him in the loftier features of his character, he hoped he

should be able to escape degeneracy in the humbler course of his virtues. He manifested

no avidity, however, to urge his suit, and absolutely forbad his son to importune Lord Halifax on the subject: "you have shewn your moderation," added he, "in declining the title that was offered you; let me, at least, betray no eagerness in courting that which may, or may not, devolve upon me. Had it not been for you it would never have come under my contemplation: I should still have remained parson of Stanwick; but the same circumstances which have drawn you from your studies, have taken me from my solitude, and if you are thus zealous to transport me and your mother into another kingdom, I hope you will be not less solicitous to visit and console us with the sight of you, when we are there."

This affectionate and paternal wish Cumberland amply gratified, and it must have been among the happiest reflections of his life that he had thus piously contributed to the comfort of such pa

rents.

The reluctance which his father felt to importune Lord Halifax upon the subject, did not delay the appointment; and it was the joyful office of his son to announce to him his promotion to the see of Clonfert. He soon arranged his affairs and departed for Ireland with his wife and daughter; took possession of his bishopric, and there remained, faithfully attentive to its duties till anL