serve the king's peace, and the peace of the county. I went to the ground in the morning, in good spirits and with a safe conscience. Harriot was in admiration of my lion-port:' to do her justice, she conducted herself with great coolness upon the occasion; but then it may be observed, that it was I who was to stand fire, and not she. I thought of poor Lawless a billion of times at least, as we were going to the ground; and I had my presentiments, and my confused notions of poetic justice :-but poetic justice, and all other sorts of justice, went clear out of my head, when I saw my antago nist and her friend actually pistol in hand, waiting for us: they were both in men's clothes.-I secretly called upon the name of Marriott with fervency, and I looked round with more anxiety than ever Bluebeard's wife, or Anne, sister Anne!' looked to see if any body was coming: nothing was to be seen, but the grass blown by the wind-No Marriott to throw herself toute éplorée between the combatants-no peace-officers to bind us over to our good behaviour -no deliverance at hand-and Mrs. Luttridge, by all the laws of honour, as challenged, was to have the first shot.-O, those laws of honour!-I was upon the point of making an apology, in spite of them all, when, to my inexpressible joy, I was relieved from the dreadful alternative of being shot through the head, or of becoming a laughingstock for life, by an incident, less heroic, I'll grant ye, than opportune.-But you shall have the whole scene, as well as I can recollect it-as well-for those who for the first time, go to a field of battle, do not, as I am credibly informed, and internally persuaded, always find the clearness of their memories improved by the novelty of their situation. Mrs. Luttridge, when we came up, was leaning with a truly martial negligence, against the wall of the barn, with her pistol, as I told you, in her hand. She spoke not a word, but her second, miss Honour O'Grady, advanced towards us immediately, and taking off her hat very manfully, addressed herself to my second. Mistriss Harriot Freke, I presume, if I mistake not.'Harriot bowed slightly, and answered - Miss Honour O'Grady, I presume, if I mistake not.' The same, at your service,' replied miss Honour. I have a few words to suggest, that may save a great deal of noise, and bloodshed, and ill will.'' As to noise,' said Harriot, it is a thing in which I delight, therefore, I beg that mayn't be spared on my account; as to bloodshed, I beg that may not be spared on lady Delacour's account, for her honour, I am sure, is dearer to her than her blood; and as to ill will, İ should be concerned to have that saved on Mrs. Luttridge's account, as we all know it is the thing in which she delights, even more than I do in noise, or lady Delacour in blood:-but pray proceed, miss Honour O'Grady, you have a few words to suggest. Yes, I would willingly observe, as it is my duty to my principal,' said Honour, that one, who is compelled to fire a pistol with her left hand, though ever so good a shot naturally, is by no means on a footing with one who has the advantage of her right hand.' Harriot rubbed my pistol with the sleeve of her coat, and I, recovering my wit with my hopes of being witty with impunity, answered• Unquestionably!-left-handed wisdom and left-handed courage are neither Bb z neither of them the very best of their kinds, but we must content ourselves with them, if we can have no other. That if' cried Honour O'Grady, is not, like most of the family of the ifs, a peace maker. My lady Delacour, I was going to observe, that my principal has met with an unfortunate accident in the shape of a whitlow on the fore finger of her right hand, which incapacitates her from drawing a trigger; but I am at your service, ladies, either of you, that can't put up with a disappointment with good humour.' -I never, during the whole course of my existence, was more disposed to bear a disappointment with good humour, to prove that I was incapable of bearing malice; and, to oblige the seconds, for form sake, I agreed that we should take our ground, and fire our pistols into the air-Mrs. Luttridge, with her left-handed wisdom, fired first-and I, with great magnanimity, followed her example.-I must do my adversary's second, miss Honour O'Grady, the justice to observe, that in this whole affair she conducted herself not only with the spirit, but with the good nature and generosity characteristic of her nation.-We met enemies and parted friends. Life is a tragicomedy !-Though the critics will allow of no such thing in their books, it is a true representation of what passes in the world; and of all lives, mine has been the most grotesque mixture, or alternation I should say, of tragedy and comedy.-All this is a-propos to something I have not told you yet. This comic duel ended tragically for me How-you say-Why, 'tis clear that I was not shot through the head; but it would have been better, a hundred times better for me, if I had; I should have been spared, in this life at least, the torments of the damned-I was not used to priming and loading-my pistol was overcharged - when I fired, it recoiled, and I received a blow on my breast, the consequences of which you have seen-or are to see. The pain was nothing at the moment compared with what I have since experienced-But I will not complain till I cannot avoid it-I had not, at the time I received the blow, much leisure for lamentation; for I had scarcely discharged my pistol, when we heard a loud shout on the other side of the barn, and a crowd of town's people, country people, and hay makers, came pouring down the lane towards us with rakes and pitch forks in their hands. -An English mob is really a formidable thing.-Marriot had mismanaged her business most strangely--she had, indeed, spread a report of a duel a female duel-but the untutored sense of propriety amongst these rusticks was so shocked at the idea of a duel fought by women in men's clothes, that I verily believe they would have thrown us into the river with all their hearts-Stupid blockheads! I am convinced that they would not have been half so much scandalised if we had boxed in petticoats-The want of these petticoats had nearly proved our destruction, or at least our disgrace-a peeress, after being duckcd, could never have held her head above water again with any grace. -The mob had just closed round us, crying shame shame! shame!-duck 'em, duck 'em - gentle or simple-duck 'em-duck 'em'-when their attention was suddenly turned towards a person,. who was driving up the lane a large herd of squeaking, grunting pigs. The person was clad in splendid regimentals, and he was armed with a long pole, to the end of which hung a bladder, and his pigs were frightened, and they ran squeaking from one side of the road to the other; and the pig driver in regimentals, in the midst of the noise, could not without difficulty make his voice heard; but at last he was understood to say, that a bet of a hun.: dred guineas depended upon his being able to keep these pigs ahead. of a flock of turkies that were following them, and he begged the mob to give him and his pigs fair play. At the news of this wager,. and at the sight of the gentleman turned pig driver, the mob were in raptures, and, at the sound of his voice, Harriot Freke immediately exclaimed- Clarence Hervey !-By all that's lucky!" - Clarence Hervey !" interrupted Belinda.-" Clarence Hervey, my dear," said lady Delacour, coolly" he can do every thing you know! even drive pigs better than any body else"-but let me go on. Harriot Freke shouted in a Stentorean voice, which actually made your pigdriver start: she explained to him in French our dis-: tress, and the cause of it. Clarence was, as I suppose you have: discovered long ago, that cleverest young man in England, who had written on the propriety and necessity of female duelling.'He answered Harriot in French-To attempt your rescue by. force would be vain-but I will do better, I will make a diversion in your favour.'-Immediately our hero, addressing himself to the sturdy fellow who held me in custody, exclaimed- Huzza, my boys Old England for ever! Yonder comes a Frenchman with a flock of turkies. My pigs will beat them for a hundred guineas. -Old England for ever, huzza!' As he spoke, the French officer, with whom Clarence Hervey: had laid the wager, appeared at the turn of the lane-his tur kies half flying, half hobbling up the road before him. The Frenchman waved a red streamer over the heads of his flockClarence shook a pole, from the top of which hung a bladder full of beans. The pigs grunted-the turkies gobbled, and the mob shouted eager for the fame of old England, the crowd followed Clarence with loud acclamations.-The French officer was followed with groans and hisses. So great was the confusion, and so great the zeal of the patriots, that even the pleasure of ducking the female. duellists was forgotten in the general enthusiasm. All eyes and all hearts were intent upon the race-and now the turkies got foremost --and now the pigs. But when we came within sight of the horsepond, I heard one man cry- don't forget the ducking.'-How I trembled but our knight shouted to his followers- For the love of old England, my brave boys, keep between my pigs and the pond if our pigs see the water they'll run to it, and England's undone.' - The whole attention of the mob was by this speech conducted away from us On, on my boys into town, to the market-place; whoever gains the market-place first, wins the day.'-Our general shook the rattling bladder in triumph, over the heads of the swinish multitude,' as we followed in perfect security in his train into the tewn. Eb3 • Men, Men, women, and children, crowded to the windows and doors. Retreat into the first place you can,' whispered Clarence to us ; we were close to him.-Harriot Freke pushed her way into a milliner's shop-I could not get in after her, for a frightened pig turned back suddenly, and almost threw me down. Clarence Hervey caught me, and favoured my retreat into the shop. But poor Clarence lost his bet by his gallantry. Whilst he was maneuvering in my favour, the turkies got several yards ahead of the pigs, and reaching the market-place first, won the race.' The drawing of the character of Lady Delacour certainly possesses great merit, in several respects; and that of Clarence Harvey claims praise for a considerable degree of novelty and force. To speak in detail of the other persons introduced would carry us too far. The good Dr. X- is a counterpart of Miss Burney's Dr. Lister in Cecilia: but we are too much pleased with such a man, to murmur at second introduction to his acquaintance. Merit, of various kinds, is undoubtedly displayed in the different parts of this work: but, if we describe it generally, and consider it relatively to Miss Edgeworth's former productions, we shall rather be inclined to give the opinion that here she is sibi dispar. A second edition of these volumes has appeared, which is said in the title page to be corrected and improved :' but, as no particular alterations are specified, and as we had read the former impression, we could not discover the corrections and improvements without perusing the work a second time; and this our leisure will seldom permit, even where our inclination would prompt. Some other publications by Miss Edgeworth, on the subject of education, are on our table, and will call for our future attention. O.W. ART. V History of the Rebellion in Ireland, in the Fear 1798, &c, 9s, IN our last Number, we furnished our readers with an account of Sir Richard Musgrave's ponderous history of the Irish Rebellions; and we stated that we should shortly bring before them another work on the same subject, but possessing some very different characteristics. We now sit down to the performance of this duty; and in presenting Mr. Gordon to their notice, we we think that we introduce to them an upright and an honorable man, an impartial author, a loyal subject, and a true friend to the constitution; who is superior to the views and purposes of a faction; whose patriotism does not lead him to widen breaches and inflame animosities; and who does not consider it as decent to expose to persecution the victims of past delusion, in open opposition as well to the decrees of public authority and the unanimous voice of the empire, as to the clearest dictates of wisdom and the unvarying decisions of experience. In his pages, whole orders and entire bodies of men are not set on a level with miscreants who not only disgrace them, but our common nature itself: though a protestant, he does not confound times, places, and characters, in order to identify catholics with monsters whom individuals are to avoid, and whom the state is to hunt down; he distinguishes between the guilty few, and the innocent many, among the Romish priests: he is the advocate of the latter, and records many instances of their meritorious conduct; and he recommends it to government to provide education for their successors at home, to relieve this respectable body from that dependence on their flocks in which they live, and to render them objects of consideration by adequate public stipends. Mr. Gordon was a witness to many of the horrid scenes which he describes; he has passed his life among catholics; he is an Irishman, and a divine of our establishment. Differing most widely as we do from Sir Richard Musgrave, we are happy in the concurrence of all these circumstances; which induce us to recommend to our readers a rival author whose temper, views, and opinions reflect so much credit on himself, and so happily (in our judgment) consist with the genuine interests of the united kingdom. Highly, however, as we think of the matter of this volume, we are convinced that its general want of method, and the omission of those reasonable divisions into books and chapters which so much relieve the attention and assist the memory, will considerably depreciate its value. Some farther labour on the composition and style seems wanting to render it that complete narrative which the subject demanded, and which might have been expected from a writer who is so well qualified as Mr. Gordon appears to be: but defective as his work undoubtedly is in these respects, it still intitles him to public thanks on grounds of higher consideration. It offers an useful lesson to governments and subjects; and we think that it cannot be perused attentively without convincing the reader of the absolute necessity of that great measure, which has since been happily accomplished, the Union of the two Kingdoms. Bb4 Much |