planter is humanity itself, is not to be spoken against; and the appalling mental, and bodily bondage, which the Romish Church spreads and perpetuates in the very vitals of the state, is not to be molested on any account. We boast of our constitution and laws -of our security in person and possession-and yet the loyal and wellprincipled country inhabitants of Ireland are continually exposed to robbery and butchery. We can shudder over the idols of the Hindoo, but the darker idolatry of the Irishman must be religiously respected; we must deluge the whole earth with Bibles and Prayer-Books, Ireland only excepted; and, while we regard it as a duty to endeavour to make proselytes to our religion everywhere while we are even, at great expense, providing religious instruction for the negroes, mereLy to make a Quixotic attempt to prepare them for freedom-we make it a matter of state policy to discourage attempts to teach the genuine truths of Christianity to the barbarous Irish peasantry, although they have actually incorporated pillage, devastation, and butchery, with their system of religion. If the Attorney-General, or the Society for the Suppression of Vice, prosecute a blasphemous work, the wrath of the whole nation is to be directed against them; but not a finger must be raised against those who prohibit the great body of the people of Ireland from reading the Scriptures, and almost all other useful publications. And while the state of Ireland is discussed without ceasing-while almost every day teems with projects for the benefit of that wretched country, the only bold, comprehensive, and decisive measure that is proposed, viz. Emancipation,is bottomed upon disputed abstract principles-is confessedly incapable of removing the evils of Ireland, and is demonstrably calculated to render the Romish Church still more powerful and active, and to aggravate and perpetuate the terrible mischiefs which this Church showers upon the great mass of the Irish people.* Shame alone, and not inability, restrains us from doubling the length of this appalling catalogue of inconsistencies; and yet, in committing them, we scorn the commands of interest, as well as those of character and duty. Here is a population of seven millions, which we have under a monopoly; it at present consumes comparatively nothing, and, by a little exertion, we might raise it to the rank of our best consumers;-here is a large portion of the empire, which at present pays comparatively nothing into the Treasury, we might, by a little exertion, make it pay additional millions annually,— and we seem loth to make this exertion, although we are constantly sighing for increase of trade, and lamenting the amount of our debt, and the weight of our taxes! We-" Fly from petty tyrants to the throne"-we turn with scorn from party leaders-men who can only think and speak of the crimes and sufferings of Ireland, to make them subservient to their own wretched ambition, and we address ourselves to the sober, disinterested, practical, sterling good sense of our country. The principal evils under which freland groans are visible, clearly defined, and even, with regard to their existence, free from controversy. We say that they are susceptible of remedy-that they may be not only palliated, but effectually removed. We say that the jobbers can be destroyed-that rents can be reduced-that farms can be increased in size that the surplus population can be drained off-that tithes can be commuted-and that the great body of the Irish people can be taught the genuine principles and practice of Christianity; and we say, moreover, that this can never be done by the system that is at present pursued. Can no Irish landlords be found among those who so loudly bewail the sufferings of their country, to stand forward and call their brethren together, to enlist them in the good cause? And can no honest, independent Member of Parliament be met with, to speak the "Excommunication had been one means whereby the Druids maintained their hierocracy; and it has been thought that, among nations of Keltic origin, the clergy, as succeeding to their influence, established more easily the portentous tyranny' which they exercised, not over the minds of men alone, but in all temporal concerns. Every community must possess the right of expelling those members who will not conform to its regulations: the Church, therefore, must have power to excommunicate a refractory member, as the State has to outlaw a bad subject, who will words of truth and common sense with regard to Ireland, and to propose plain, simple, natural, practical remedies for those evils, which, by the admission of all, really do exist and need remedy? If such men there be, let them shew themselves, and they will neither lack support, nor fail of triumph. A more favourable moment for their efforts could not be chosen; England, not this party, or that, but England as a nation, is most anxious to do almost anything for Ireland; and we must shut our eyes to her past achievements-to her wealth, wisdom, might, and greatness-to believe, that she cannot with her nod banish the ills of her criminal and distressed sister. Away then with this disgusting clamour against the Established Church and its clergy, Orangemen and Protestantism; and this vile cant concerning Conciliation, Catholic disabilities, and Catholicism! Let the Broughams, and Humes, and Burdetts, and O'Connells, be silenced by public indignation; and let nothing be said or done respecting Ireland, that is not meant for the good of Ireland. Let things be called by their right names-the wants of nature be supplied with the aliment that nature not answer to the laws. But there is reason to believe that no heathen priests ever abused this power so prodigiously as the Roman clergy; nor even if the ceremonies were borrowed, as is not improbable, from heathen superstition, could they originally have been so revolting, so horrible, as when a Christian minister called upon the Redeemer of mankind, to fulfil execrations which the Devil himself might seem to have inspired. In the forms of malediction appointed for this blasphemous service, a curse was pronounced against the obnoxious persons in soul and body, and in all their limbs and joints and members, every part being specified with a bitterness which seemed to delight in dwelling on the sufferings that it imprecated. They were curst with pleonastic specification, at home and abroad, in their goings out and their comings in, in towns and in castles, in fields and in meadows, in streets and in public ways, by land and by water, sleeping and waking, standing and sitting and lying, eating and drinking, in their food and in their excrement, speaking or holding their peace, by day and by night, and every hour, in all places and at all times, everywhere and always. The heavens were adjured to be as brass to them, and the earth as iron; the one to reject their bodies, and the other their souls. God was invoked, in this accursed service, to afflict them with hunger and thirst, with poverty and want, with cold and with fever, with scabs and ulcers and itch, with blindness and madness-to eject them from their homes, and consume their substance-to make their wives widows, and their children orphans and beggars; all things belonging to them were cursed, the dog which guarded them, and the cock which wakened them. None was to compassionate their sufferings, nor to relieve or visit them in sickness. Prayers and benedictions, instead of availing them, were to operate as farther curses. Finally, their dead bodies were to be cast aside for dogs and wolves, and their souls to be eternally tormented with Korah, Dathan and Abiram, Judas and Pilate, Ananias and Sapphira, Nero and Decius, and Herod, and Julian, and Simon Magus, in fire everlasting. "If the individual, upon whom such curses were imprecated, felt only an apprehension that it was possible they might be efficient, the mere thought of such a possibility might have brought about one of the maledictions, by driving him mad. But the reasonable doubt which the subject himself must have entertained, and endeavoured to strengthen, was opposed by the general belief, and by the conduct of all about him; for whosoever associated with one thus marked for perdition, and delivered over judicially to the Devil and his angels, placed himself thereby under the same tremendous penalties. The condition of a leper was more tolerable than that of an excommunicated person. The leper, though excluded from the community, was still within the pale of the Church and of human charity: they who avoided his dangerous presence, assisted him with alms; and he had companions enough in affliction to form a society of their own-a miserable one indeed, but still a society, in which the sense of suffering was alleviated by resignation, the comforts of religion, and the prospect of death and of the life to come. But the excommunicated man was cut off from consolation and hope; it remained for him only to despair and die, or to obtain absolution by entire submission to the Church." SOUTHEY'S Book of the Church, vol. I. p. 189. STILL that same aspect-placid, cold, and bright!— For life consumed by many a poisonous blight, That might have yielded else immortal flowers!- How speaks thy solemn silence to the heart! II. Though changeful, yet unchanged-thou art the same, III. Yes there are SCORN and MOCKERY in that gaze! Thou tell'st of hopes that will revive no more Of sunny hours and aye-departed days Of beauteous forms that smiled and bloom'd of yore! To brood on recollection's mournful store; Let visions triumph o'er this present scene, And that shall seem to be, which once has been! G. This fragment is the commencement of a poem in 100 stanzas, containing remembrances from the author's own life. THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDar. Class V. THE LASSES. GREAT have been the conquests, and grievous' the deray wrought in the human heart by some of these mountain nymphs. The confusion that particular ones have sometimes occasioned for a year or two almost exceeds credibility. Every young man in the bounds was sure either to be in love with her, or believed himself to be so; and as all these would be running on a Friday's evening to woo her, of course the pride and vanity of the fair was raised to such a height that she would rarely yield a preference to any, but was sure to put them all off with gibes and jeers. This shyness, instead of allaying, never fails to increase the fervour of the flame; an emulation, if not a rivalship, is excited among the younkers, until the getting a single word exchanged with the reigning beauty becomes a matter of thrilling interest to many a tender-hearted swain; but, generally speaking, none of these admired beauties are married till they settle into the more quiet vale of life, and the current of admiration has turned toward others. Then do they betake themselves to sober reflection, listen to the most rational, though not the most youthful of their lovers, and sit down, contented through life to share the toils, sorrows, and joys of the married life, and the humble cot. I am not now writing of ladies, nor of "farmers' bonny daughters ;' but merely of country maidens, such as ewe-milkers, hay-workers, harʼstshearers, the healthy and comely daughters of shepherds, hinds, country tradesmen, and small tenants; in short, all the rosy, romping, and lighthearted dames that handle the sickle, the hoe, the hay-raik, and the fleece. And of these I can say, to their credit, that there is rarely an instance happens of a celebrated beauty among them turning out a bad, or even an indifferent wife. Whether it is owing to the circumstance of their never marrying very young, (for a youthful marriage of a pair who have nought but their experience and a good name to depend on for the support of a family, is far from being a prudent, or highly commendable step,) or whether it be that these belles having had too much experience in the follies and flippancies of youthful love, and youthful lovers, make their choice at last on principles of reason, suffice it, that the axiom is a true one. But there is another reason which must not be lost sight of. That class of young men never flock about, or make love to a girl who is not noted for activity as well as beauty. Cleverness is always the first recommendation; and consequently, when such a one chooses to marry, it is natural to suppose that her good qualities will then be exerted to the utmost, which before were only occasionally called into exercise. Experience is indeed the great teacher among the labouring class, and her maxims are carried down from father to son in all their pristine strength. Seldom are they violated in anything, and never in this. No young man will court a beautiful daw, unless he be either a booby, or a rake, who does it for some selfish purpose, not to be mentioned nor thought of in the annals of virtuous love. In detailing the ravages of country beauty, I will be obliged to take fictitious or bynames to illustrate true stories, on account of many circumstances that have occurred at periods subsequent to the incidents related. Not the least of these is the great change that time has effected in every one of those pinks of rustic admiration. How would it look if ODoherty or yourself, at your annual visit here, were to desire me to introduce you to one of these by her name and sirname, and I were to take you to see a reverend grannie; or at best, a russet dame far advanced in life, with wrinkles instead of roses, and looks of maternal concern instead of the dimpling smile, and glance of liquid beauty? Ah, no, dear sir! let us not watch the loveliest of all earthly flowers till it becomes degraded in our eyes by a decay which it was born to undergo. Let it be a dream in our philosophy that it still remains in all its prime, and that so it will remain in some purer clime through all the vicissitudes of future ages. As I have not been an eye-witness to many of the scenes I mean to detail, I judge it best to give them as the relation of the first person, in the same manner as they have been rehearsed to me, whether that person chanced to be the principal or not. Without this mode I might make a more perfect arrangement in my little love stories, but could not give them any degree of the interest they appeared to me to possess, or define the characters by letting them speak for themselves. "Wat, what was the matter wi' you, that ye never keepit your face to the minister the last Sabbath day? Yon's an unco unreverend gate in a kirk, man. I hae seen you keep a good ee on the preacher, an' take good tent o' what was gaun too; and troth I'm wae to see ye altered to the waur." "I kenna how I might chance to be lookin', but I hope I was listening as weel as you, or ony that was there. Heighow! It's a weary warld this!" "What has made it siccan a weary warld to poor Wat? I'm sure it wasna about the ills o' life that the minister was preachin' that day, that has gart ye change sae sair? Now, Wat, I tentit ye weel a' the day, an' I'll be in your debt for a toop lamb at Michaelsmass, gin ye'll just tell me ae distinct sentence o' the sermon on Sabbath last." "Hout, Jock, man! ye ken I dinna want to make a jest about ony saucred or religious thing; an' as for your paulie toop lamb, what care I for it?" "Ye needna think to win aff that gate, callant. Just confess the truth, that ye never yet heard a word the good man said, for that baith your heart an' your ee was fixed on some object in the contrair direction. An' I may be mistaen, but I think I could guess what it was.' "Whisht, lad, an' let us alane o' your sinfu' surmeeses. I might turn my back on the minister during the time o' the prayer, but that was for getting a lean on the seat, an' what ill was in that?" Ay, an' ye might likewise hirsel yoursel up to the corner o' the seat a' the time o' baith the sermons, an' lean your head on your hand, an' look through your fingers too. Can ye deny this? Or that your een were fixed the hale day on ae particular place?" Aweel, I winna gie a friend the lee to his face. But an ye had lookit as weel at a' the rest as at me, ye wad hae seen that a' the men in the kirk were lookin' the same gate." "An' a' at the same object too? An' a' as deeply interested in it as you? Isna that what ye're thinkin? Ah, Wat, Wat! love winna hide! I saw a pair o' slae-black een that threw some gayan saucy disdainfu' looks up the kirk, an' I soon saw the havoc they were makin', an' had made, i' your simple honest heart. Wow, man! but I fear me you are in a bad predickiment.' "Ay, ay. Between twa friends, Jock, there never was a lad in sic a predickiment as I am. I needna keep ought frae you; but for the life that's i' your bouk dinna let a pater about it escape frae atween your lips. I wadna that it were kend how deeply I am in love, an' how little it is like to be requited, for the hale warld. But I am this day as miserable a man as breathes the breath o' life. For I like yon lass as man never likit another, an' a' that I get is scorn, an' gibes, an' mockery in return. O Jock, I wish I was dead in an honest natural way, an' that my burial day were the morn!" "Weel, after a', I daresay that is the best way o' winding up a hopeless love scene. But only it ought surely to be the last resource. Now, will ye be candid, and tell me gin ye hae tried all lawful endeavours to preserve your ain life, as the commandment requires us to do, ye ken? Hae ye courtit the lass as a man ought to hae courtit her who is in every respect her equal?" "Oh, yes, I have! I have told her a' my love, an' a' my sufferings; but it has been only to be mockit, an' sent about my business." "An' ye wad whine, an' make wry faces, as you are doing just now? Na, na, Wat, that's no the gate o't;-a maid maun just be wooed in the same. spirit that she shews, an' when she shews sauciness, there's naething for it but taking a step higher than her in the same humour, letting her always ken, an' always see, that you are naturally her superior, an' that you are even stooping from your dignity when you condescend to ask her to become your equal. If she refuse to be your |