by their truly pious Pontiff, who had braved with the constancy and courage of a Christian martyr, the dungeons and persecution of a sanguinary tyrant. peared that a certain quarter of the Coun- | nection in unity and identity with that ty, lying, as I recollect between Moate and great and glorious nation; a connection Athlone, was disturbed by nocturnal ris-which, I trust in God, will continue imings and outrages of an atrocious charac-mortal as the foundations of both Islands, ter; that Lord Castlemaine, and other cannot be conveyed in more eloquent, imactive Magistrates of that district, had by pressive, and glowing language, than it has their intrepid and public spirited exertious, been by a high authority, which will not hunted down the insurgents, laid open and be suspected of partiality to England. I probed to the bottom a foul conspiracy, allude to the memorable letter addressed and brought to justice the principal pro-to the Roman Catholic Prelates of Ireland, moters and perpetrators of a cold-blooded, cruel murder. In consequence it became my duty to sentence no less than five atrocious convicts to expiate their guilt upon the gibbet-a painful duty, for which I Gentlemen, I am happy to seize any opconsoled myself by reflecting, that so awful and extreme an example would necessarily that important document, and of recomportunity of inviting public attention to produce a permanent effect upon this barbarous spiri-would teach the turbulent increased circulation of this liberal expresmending to every lover of good order, an and deluded, the infatuation, the fatal follysion of the Head of that Church, eulogisof those midnight Meetings; and, by restoring the County to its old tranquillity Benefactors of the World," the British peoing, in the most flattering terms "those and good order, would ultimately prove a work of mercy. I did hope that the Ma-tholics of Ireland the truly Christian virple, and inculcating upon the Roman Cagistrates, following up the effect of this tues of loyalty, subordination, and peace. most seasonable example, would watch and extinguish every spark as it arose, and, tion in the Capital, whom every respectaWhat, then, shall we say of that Associaby a systematic vigilance and activity, pre-ble Catholic has renounced and is ashamed vent the recurrence of so flagitious and frightful a state of civil society. But, Gentlemen, how delusive and visionary such hopes have been, how, fully and sadly this flattering anticipation has been falsified by the event, you best can tell. From this crowded and black muster-roll of crimes in my band, the Calendar of your Prisoners, it would seem as if all this blood had been shed in vain. It would seem as if Acts of Parliament, Prosecutions, and Gentlemen, under the present critical Punishments, had lost, among the malefac- circumstances of the country, rendered tors of your county, their usual and physi- still more serions and awful by the alarmcal effect upon the human mind-the ef- ing intelligence of this day, the escape of fect of controlling crime by examples; and Buonaparte, it behoves the Magistracy, that this malignant spirit, instead of sub- and every man of influence and authority siding, had acquired fresh ferocity and in every county, to be found firm at their strength as it advances. It is, in truth, posts, to step out manfully, and with an matter for most serious and sorrowful re-energy and courage proportioned to the flection, that a fierce and disorganizing crisis, to he prepared to meet and dissipate frenzy appears to spread around in all diany gathering storm. Men must not con rections, conteraptions of all government and law, in niter defiance and derison of every legislative effort to stem and subdue Crescit sub pondere crimen. The crimes of the country, the revolutionary flame (for to that point this spirit seems to be in full march) spreads only the wider under the weight and pressure of every new coercive Statute; a flame, which, in my conscience, I consider as originating in, and vomitted forth from the Dublin crater, at Aggregate and other Meetings, by separatists, and enemies to the British name and connection. The value of our conVOL. II. Lit. Pan. New Series. May 1815, - it. of who are permitted (I know not why), with impunity to vilify the English nation, and the most sacred of our Establishments to insult and dictate under colour of preparing a Petition to Parliament, and by the the very people whom they are so enjoined most irritating topics to inflame and excite to instruct in the duties and obligations of civil obedience! tent themselves, in the present disjointed state of civil society amongst us, with a cold performance of ordinary duties. If there be amongst you associations and conspiracies (I speak not now of seditious orators, but of associations amongst yourselves) linked together by the powerful bond of blasphemous oaths, parading the country at all hours of the night in arms, the fruit and means of plunder, and inflicting often most cruel torture upon his Majesty's peaceable and loyal subjects, it would become you well to meet them by counter associations. "When evil men conspire M (says the eloquent Burke,) the virtuous should associate." Several cases are known to us all, where Magistrates of public spirits, have enrolled, under their command, doniestics, tenants, and well selected neighbours-have formed local associations of all the well-affected spirit, loyalty, and courage in their several vicinities and by constantly scouring and patroling the country through the night in every direction, have maintained uninterrupted tranquillity and respect for the laws as far as their influence could extend. corn, when the tenant finds it difficult to convert his usual resources into cash, and every feeling and liberal landlord is making abatements in all recent lettings-at such a period of agricultural suffering, the Grand Juries also should abate of their usual demands-spare the struggling farmer, and load him only for works of absolute necessity. Nothing, perhaps, will more effectually contribute to compose the effervescent spirit which surrounds you.→ Amongst the works which pre-eminently claim your attention are the great Circuit Such is the case of that excelleut Noble- Roads, and all immediate and direct comman Lord Desart, in the county of Kil- munications between market and market, kenny, so also Lord Donoughmore and his which, in truth, and the sound construction patrole, in the heart of that phocus of al! of the Statute, are the only legitimate subcrime and wickedness, the County of Tip jects for road presentment. So also the perary. Other analogous instances, no County Infirmary, the House of Industry, doubt, are familiar to yourselves. Look the Fever Hospital, the Dispensaries; in a also at the City and County of Dublin; word, every public Institution allowed by there we see an energetic and intelligent Parliament for the benefit of the Poor, or Magistracy effecting by an active and vigi-in which the landholder, who alone pays lant patrole the general peace and good the tax, has an immediate and personal order of a large and licentious metropolis, interest. Gentlemen, I have detained you and of a wealthy and populous county. Let too long. me earnestly, Gentlemen, recommend for your adoption, that wise and constitutional measure of local association and patrole, HINTS, PLANS, and PROCEEDINGS acting together for the purpose of defending your several districts. Amidst the prescut disgraceful riots of London, this system has been resorted to with great effect, and found to be no less vigorous and successful than honourable to the parishes who have adopted it. OF Benevolence. Homo sum: Humanum nihil d me alienum puto. But if, after all, such temperate measures prove insufficient for the emergency, if even the Peace Preservation Bill, through A Society has lately been formed in the the sapineness and corruption of Magistrate, prove a mere misomer, and an in- Metropolis for the purpose of conveying inadequate remedy for the high state of in- struction to the native Irish, by means of flamation and fever amongst us, the Legis- their own language. Hitherto, the estalature has not left you without resource.blishments for instructing that people have If balf-measures and palliatives serve but to irritate the disease, and every other been restricted to the use of the English course shal fail,the Government oftheCoun-language. In furtherance of the views of try, when duly authorised, pursuant to the Statute, will see that the Commonwealth shall receive no detriment." The safety of the people is the supreme law; and the freest people in history, when called upon by the crisis, often sought a vigour beyond the law; and suspended, for a time, their Constitution, the better to maintain and preserve it for ever!! Gentlemen, it is needless, I am sure, for me to press upon you, in taxing the landholders for the exigencies of your county, the necessity of the strictest moderation and forbearance. At this time of fallen markets and depressed prices for cattle and this society, a tract has within these few days been published by Rev. Christopher Anderson, of Edinburgh, from which the following are excerpta. The work is entituled, "Memorial on behalf of the Native Irish, with a view to their Improvement in Moral and Religious Knowledge, through the medium of their own Language." Within the United Kingdom four of these dialects are spoken, viz. the Irish, the Welsh, the Gaelic, and the Manks: the Coruish, which was a fifth, is now extinct. According to the latest computation, the | appointed that Parochial English Schools proportion is as follows: of the New Testament. As for the Old Testament, there has not been any edition of the Irish Bible published for more than a hundred and twenty years; so that the whole Scriptures in their vernacular tongue, are scarcely to be found, even in the cabinet of the Antiquarian. As early as the fourteenth century, there existed at least a part of the Sacred volume, the New Testament, in the Irish Language, by Richard Fitzralph or Fitzrauf. He was first Archdeacon of Lichfield, then made Chancellor of Oxford, and finally, in the year 1847, promoted to be Archbishop of Armagh. About eleven years after this, a translation of the New Testament in Irish, said to have been made by himself, was in his possession. According to the information of Balæus, quoted by Archbishop Usher, this copy was concealed by him in a certain wall of his church, with the following note: "When this book is found, truth will be revealed to the world; or Christ will shortly appear." Fitzrauf died in 1960; and one hundred and seventy years afterwards, about 1530, when the church at Armagh was repairing, his book was found; but no vestige of this translation is supposed to remain. Before the middle of the sixteenth century, the English language was spoken in Ireland, but to a very limited extent; and in those days, also, a number of the old inhabitants, who had acquired the English, on intermarrying with the native irish, returned to the Irish customs and language. It was with express relation to this state of things, that, under Henry the Eighth, in 1537, an act of Parliament was passed, entitled," An Act for the English Order, Habit, and Language;" by which it was should be established in the country. Every person was enjoined to "use and speake commonly the English tongue and language,"-" to cause and procure his childe and children" to do so; and it further enacted, that "spiritual promotions should only be given to such persons as could speake English, unless, after four proclamations, made in the next market town, such could not be had." Notwithstanding these enactments, in the subsequent. reign, "even within the English pale, the Irish language was predominant, and in those tracts of Irish territory which intersected the English Settlements, no other language was known. In the mean time, the Romish Clergy found a ready admission into those districts," where those who understood English only "could neither be regarded nor understood," The former" spoke to their own countrymen and kinsmen in their own language, and were heard with attention, favour, and affection." King Edward the Sixth, 1551, made several attempts to enlighten the inhabitants of Ireland, by printing and circulating the Book of Common Prayer, in English; and the liturgy in that language was read by several of the Clergy. Nevertheless Queen Elizabeth sent over English Bibles and Prayer Books; but to no advantage, the public worship being no more intelligible to the natives than it was before. Yet rather than use the vernacular tongue in the church, the prayers were to be read in Latin, by the Irish Clergyman! About 1571, the Queen provided, at her own expence, a printing press, with a fount of Irish types, " in hope that God in mercy would raise up some to translate the New Testament into their mother tongue. It was then ordered, that the prayers of the Church should be printed in the Irish language and character, and that a church should be set apart in the chief town of every diocese where they were to be read, and Sermons preached to the people in their own language. Mr. Kearney, to whose charge the Irish types were committed, began by composing a Catechism in Irish, which was the first book printed in Ireland in that character. Chancellor Walsh, afterwards Bishop of Ossory, began a translation of the New Testament, but did not live to finish it. Mr. Kearney, and N. Donellan, Archbishop of Tuam, then undertook the work; but at their death the translation was still incomplete. It was, however, afterwards finished, and published in the year_1602 by William Daniel, Archbishop of Tuam; the Province of Connaught and Sir William | views in Ireland, through the medium of Usher, Clerk of the Council, defraying the the Irish language. expence of this first edition. A new set of Irish types being therefore The Book of Common Prayer was also required, before any thing further could translated into Irish, and printed by J. be accomplished, the generous spirit of the Frankton at the expence of this Arch-Hon. Robert Boyle was most providentially bishop. A. D. 1608-9; and by these means, many of the Natives were greatly benefited. James the First was not indifferent to the subject; after a Report on the state of Ireland, he ordered, "that the New Testament, and Book of Common Prayer, translated into Irish, be hereafter frequently used in the parishes of the Irishrie; and that every non-resident there do constantly keep and continue one to read service in the Irish tongue." directed to this object. About the year 1680, he ordered a fount of Irish types to be cast, and having procured the former edition of New Testament, he sent it to the Provost of Trinity College, that, with the assistance of learned Natives, he might make such corrections as were thought requisite. It was published, with a large Preface, in 1681. published through Mr. Boyle's vigilance In the year 1685, the Old Testament was and bounty. Many copies of it were immediately transmitted to Ireland, and above 200 of them were sent down from London to the Highlands of Scotland; some of which I have had occasion to know, remain in the Highland parishes to the present day. For some years after this, there must have been a considerable demand for the Irish Scriptures, as, in the year 1690, two editions were printed in London; one of which was in the Roman, and the other in the Irish character. This design was repeatedly taken up by Government, especially in 1710, but was as repeatedly set aside by various incidents. For the translation of the Old Testament, we are indebted to the Christian zeal of the excellent and venerable Bishop Bedell. It was in 1627, four years after the order of King James, above mentioned, that he was appointed Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and in 1629, he was advanced to the Bishopric of Kilmore and Ardagh. Though an Englishman by birth, who had never resided in Ireland, but had spent a considerable part of his time on the Continent, he, at the age of fifty-seven, acquired the Irish, and soon became such a pro. ficient, that he composed a Grammar in that language. By the advice of the Primate, Usher, "he pitched on one Mr. King, then about seventy years of age, put him in orders, gave him a benefice, and set him to work, in order to translating the Old Testament into Irish, which he was to do from the English translation, since there were none of the Natives to be found that knew the original. (Mr. Dennis Sheridan seems to have been joined with Mr. King.) Bishop Bedell used to tell a passage of a Sermon that he heard at Venice, with which he was much pleased. It was on these words of Christ, Have ye not read in the Scriptures? and so the Preacher took occasion to tell the Auditory that if Christ were now to ask this question, Have ye not read, &c. all the answer which they could make to it was-No, for they were not suf-is fered to do i Bedell published several small tracts, particularly a Catechism, having English and Irish in paralell columns, which was well received by the Natives. Upon the termination of these efforts, the Irish types, which had been used for the printing of the New Testament and other books, were procured by the Jesuits, and by them carried over to Douay, for the express purpose of promoting their own Exactly one hundred years after this, in the year 1810, the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, regarding with the same wisdom and benignity every class of men, took into consideration the state of the Native Irish; and, mentioned their determination to print a version of the New Testament in the Irish language. The number of Irish readers has of late greatly increased, chiefly, I believe, owing to the patriotic exertions of several Irish Gentlemen, as well as by means of what is called the Irish Class, in some of the Schools belonging to the London Hibernian Society, and probably also in consequence of the attention which is paid to the Language in Maynooth College, where M'Curten's Grammar, is used, the Irish Testament explained, and fragments are translated into English. In the year 1799, two thousand, copies of the Gospel of St. Luke, and the Acts of Apostles, in parallel columns of English and Irish, in the Roman Character, were printed at the charge of Dr. Stokes, Trinity College, Dublin, which have been all circulated some time since. These were followed, in 1806, by an impression of the four Gospels and the Acts, printed in a similar way, Irish and English. lin. Within these few years, no less than port of public institutions. His Royal three Grammars of the Language have Highness the Duke of Kent has often been been published; and at the present seen on such occasions; and has frequently moment there are two Irish Dictionaries advocated the cause of his unfortunate ready for the press, if not printing, in Dub-countrymen. On the fourth of May, he is to preside at the Anniversary Meeting of A Society is formed in London, the Com- the Literary Fund: and as he will be supmittee of which, in July last, unanimously ported by several distinguished noblemen resolved, "That in the Schools to be and gentlemen, it is expected that some established by this Society, the Irish Lan-effective measures will be adopted in beguage be exclusively taught; and that such Schools be on the Circulating or Ambulatory plan." Mr. Anderson meets and answers several objections which might be made to this proposal; and shews the advantages political and national, as well as individual, with which it is pregnant. The plan of CIRCULATING SCHOOLS, seems to bid fairest for utility; and is sanctioned by the advantages which have attended those insitutions in Wales. Treasurer, William Burls, Esq. No. 56, Lothbury; Secretary, Rev. Joseph Ivemay, No. 20, Harpur Street, Red-Liou Square; Thomas Clark, Esq. Bury-place, Bloomsbury, London; or Rev. Mr. Anderson, No. 5, Merchant Street, Edinburgh. In Dublin, William Allen, Esq. Dame Street, or John Purser, jun. Esq. James's Gate. The following is one of those appeals to humanity, for which there is but too much occasion; it is one of the consequences attending a liberal and enlightened age; it concerns those who are themselves liberal and enlightened, and indeed, stands in the first rank of Benevolence to Literature and Genius, no less than to Humanity and Distress. The LITERARY FUND is one of those laudable and benevolent establishments, of the British metropolis, which astonishes a foreigner, and honors the country. In England alone are the sick-the infant the aged-and the distressed assisted by public charities, supported by public funds, and protected and cherished by the unknown stranger. Humanity and liberality are the dignified and proud features of Englishmen though often reproached by the envious foreigner as a mercenary and money-getting people, they are complete spendthrifts in benevolence, and active in works of charity. Here only is to be seen emulation between the nobility and gentry in being first on the lists of humanity, and in contending for pre-eminence in the sup half of that truly laud ble and useful been formed in the days of Chatterton, that establishment. Had such an institution unfortunate youth might have been saved: and were its principles and practice now generally understood, many humane persent limited funds; and thus be instrumensons would contribute to augment its pretal in releasing genius from penury. POLITICAL PERISCOPE. Panorama Office, April 26, 1815. Extract from the Morning Chronicle of April 8th, 1814: “We most sincerely rejoice in his (Buonaparte's) downfal, because he abused the trust which was conferred upon him. Every Tyrant ought to be hurled from his throne, and we only lament that the people of France had not spirit to vindicate their own rights and do it for themselves. We glory in the reverses that Buonaparte has suffered, and we trust that such will ever be the result of insatiate ambition." -And so they may be yet! "Insatiate ambition has o'er leaped itself;" and if it has not already "fallen on t'other side," it may be much nearer to that catastrophe than those engaged in its service will easily be persuaded to believe. Buonaparte has taken his measures well, but calculated his time badly. He should have staid till all the Sovereigns had separated; till each had arrived in his metropolis, and had been closely engaged in the business of his high station. This is his first failing: he took his resolution suddenly; and has acted in haste, to repent at leisure. A second failing is evident in the miscarriage of his plot for transporting the Roi de Rome from Vienna to Paris. He has now neither wife nor child; for his wife refused to follow him before; and his child is now beyond his reach. Hence the main spring of his proceedings is broken. His intention was, so far as we can gather it, to waive his Emperorship, and to seat his wife as Regent on the throne, in the name of his son. He knew that the Powers of Europe would never |
