Renounc'd each meed of honourable toil? Each youthful hope, that keeps the life-blood warm, And, like the pebbly current, murmur there? And other Autumns blush with livelier stain: Of founts, whose bosom drinks the Persian beam- GOD's temples, social worship's holy light- • COWLEY! I mourn, (if such thy strange desire!) By heaven inspir'd, should lull the studious breast, "My desire has been for some years past, and does still vehemently continue, to retire myself to some of our American plantations, not to seek for gold, or to enrich myself with the traffic of those parts, but to forfake this world for ever, with all the vanities and vexations of it, and to bury myself there in some obscure retreat, (but not without the consolation of letters and philosophy.) "Oblitusque meorum, obliviscendus et illis." MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 28. Part of a Letter to a Noble Earl; containing a very short Comment on the Doctrines and Facts of Sir Richard Musgrave's Quarto ; Quarto; and vindicatory of the Yeomanry and Catholics of the City of Cork. By Thomas Townshend, Esq. Barrister at Law, and a Member of the Irish Parliament. Svo. Is. 6d. Booker. 1801. This pamphlet did not fall into our hands till we had finished our review of Sir R. Musgrave's History; and we must not dissemble the pleasure which we felt, on finding our observations corroborated by so able and well-informed a writer as Mr. Townsend. Instead of giving an abstract of these pages, we imagine that we shall render greater service in this conflict between genuine policy and Christian forbearance on one hand, and selfish views and bigotry on the other, if we let the author speak for himself. His claim to attention is thus briefly but strongly stated: I have my information from my own personal observation; the Author of the Quarto from prejudiced rumour.' The following passages support the above assertion, while they afford a testimony highly honourable to the objects of the writer's praise : Immediately on the breaking out of the rebellion, I was appointed Counsel to the General who commanded in the southern district, and who resided at Cork. The peculiar features which distinguished the last, from all former rebellions; the mixture of conspiracy and conflict, of mysterious initiations, and of open array, made it justly supposed by the government that legal assistance was necessary in searching after those more tranquil and concealed, though not less dangerous and wicked characteristics of the treason. His Majesty's General, with whom I had the honour to act during the whole of that unfortunate period, ought not to be lightly passed by. He exercised a discretion so sound; a temper so moderate, and yet so firm; a regard to the shedding of blood so scrupulous; and a force of decision in dealing with guilt so effectual and exemplary; and was withal so unbiassed by his prejudices, so unadvised by his passions, and so patient in his investigations between guilt and innocence, that a man better fitted for the awful duties committed to him could not be selected from any class in the community. It would be injustice not to say that his successor, to this day, has fully emulated so noble an example. To advise and confer with the General on all occasions, to examine informers, digest their informations, and investigate and arrange concurrently with him, was an important share of my duty.' We fully concur in this equally just and spirited remark; That any man can be found, who, in the present mind of Europe, looks for the causes of popular disquiet in the theological fustian of the thirteenth century, is not less than a miracle! In this triumphant day of a shameless and presumptuous Atheism, to impeach the most general profession of Christianity, the religion of all the crowns and cabinets of all the kingdoms of the continent of Europe, as the cause of blood and treason in Ireland, is, to my humble mind, an intellectual irregularity beyond the adjustment of reason.' The subsequent piece of information is as interesting as it is satisfactory: • Take Take the real state of the ministers of the Romish church into consideration, and their merit, as a body of men, must wring at least approbation from the most unwilling. Until very lately, indeed, the total interdiction of a Romish seminary in Ireland, drove the students in divinity into foreign colleges, where they could pursue unpersecuted their education and the ceremonials incident on the assumption of the sacred character. This process was a conflict with poverty, or at best with very narrow means, which their occasional exile rendered less competent; and it was seldom, that to enlarge and liberalise the course of education, by mixing general knowledge with theological studies, was within the power of the candidate for holy orders. Whatever may be the unprofitable boast of blood or ancestry, the Irish, in the foreign seminaries, were, for the most part, of poor parents; the heraldry of antient lineage having given way to the severities of fortune. On their return to their native country, this patrimonial poverty was not much diminished by those who had even the success of an immediate revenue from their priesthood. They, of all men, do not eat the bread of idleness. Their parishes are extensive, their parishioners numerous. Their religion is full of rituals; and their perpetual employment, in going from place to place, as they are summoned by the incidental calls of devotion, added to the regular celebration of religious rites, commonly gives a parish priest in Ireland a life of restless occupation. Yet among men so helplessly circumstanced, whose early life has been vexed by the enmity of the laws, and whose maturer time is so unrequited by the little pittance picked up from a scattered and impoverished flock-men who have been accustomed to see their order opulent and venerated in other countries, poor and despised in their own, the Romish pastors exhibit the invariable tenor of propriety, decorum, and moral conduct.' We strongly recommend this little tract to the readers of Sir R. Musgrave's work. It is written in a lively and energetic manner: but we cannot compliment the author as manifesting that chaste simplicity of style, which is the last attainment of refined and cultivated genius. His pretensions, however, are of a higher kind than those which are merely literary; they are connected with social happiness, and with the welfare and prosperity of this great empire; and these are pretensions which no wellwisher to either will dispute. Art. 29. The Reply of the Right Rev. Doctor Caulfield, Roman Cotholic Bishop, and of the Roman Catholic Clergy of Wexford, to the Misrepresentations of Sir Richard Musgrave, Bart. with a Preface and Appendix. Svo. Pamphlet, Dublin.- Keating, Lon We congratulate these reverend Gentlemen on the satisfactory vindication of themselves which they here submit to the public. It is able, temperate, and becoming. Their professions are loyal, and their sentiments constitutional: we are not disposed to call either in question, nor do we see any reason for so doing. The observations made in the extract underneath we regard as just, and the declarations as deserving of credit : • Wex Wexford, May 12, 1901. At a meeting of the Roman Catholic Clergymen residing in the Convent of Wexford, a book entitled, "A History of the Rebellions, &c." published in the name of, and said to be written by, Sir Richard Musgrave, Bart. being taken into consideration, the following Declarations were unanimously adopted: • We most solemnly declare in the face of heaven and in the awful presence of God, that we disclaim and disavow the horrid principles in said book attributed to us, as Roman Catholics; principles, which though often disavowed with horror and detestation, we are sorry to find unrelenting bigotry and prejudice still labour to attach to us: and we can consider the unfounded and malicious assertions with which said publication is replete, as tending only to sever the bonds of society, to irritate one part of the community against the other, and to perpetuate those deplorable animosities that would disgrace even savages, and have too long distracted this country. We mcst solemnly declare, that far from promoting or conniving at the horrid and atrocious murder of Protestants in the late detestable rebellion, we have on the contrary used every effort in our power (often at the risk of our own lives amidst a drunken and infuriated rabble) to save both their persons and property-that we flew to their assistance when called on-that we furnished them with every suecour, and every means of safety our limited abilities enabled us to do, during that melancholy period. We most solemnly declare, that it is a vile and cruel calumny to assert that we had any authority over the rebels, except what prayers, supplications, and entreaties could obtain; and which, we are sorry to say, were generally ineffectual.' The Appendix contains various documents. Art. 30. A Sketch of the Character of the late most Noble Francis Duke of Bedford. By the Hon. Charles James Fox, as delivered in his Introductory Speech to a Motion for a new Writ for Tavistock, (in the Room of Lord John Russell, now Duke of Bedford,) 16th March 1802. 8vo. 6d. Ridgway. This tribute to the memory of a really Noble' character, from the Tips of a truly eminent man and discriminating judge of men, will be read with much sympathy by all whom great public worth and the loss of that worth can interest. This is, indeed, laudari à laudata viro! If it manifests some of the redundancies which often attend Mr. Fox's eloquence, and some of that want of method which usually marks a public speech, it displays the feeling which characterizes the HEART, and the simple pathos which denotes the taste, of him who pronounced it.-The plain and obvious remark, that the Duke died unmarried, was thus beautifully turned and illustrated: If his condition was that of celibacy, it was only so in one sense, namely, that he has left behind him no children to lament his untimely end, and to imitate his brilliant example. But if all those are to be considered as our children whom we cherished and protected, whom we have rendered happy by our good offices, and whom we have bound to us by all the ties of affection and gratitude, no man ever had a family more numerous, or was more piously mourned ; for he he watched over the cares, and administered to the wants of those who came within the sphere of his benevolence, whether they were his relations, his friends, or his attendants, with all the providence and all the feelings of a father.' The speech appears here to be copied from the report given in the Morning Chronicle.-Lest there should be any inaccuracy or deficiency in it, (which however we do not suspect,) we wish that Mr. Fox had himself presented it to the world from the press. Of a charaçter, of which the grand feature is here truly said to have been an unbounded zeal for UTILITY, too impressive a delineation cannot be formed, nor can such a portrait be too widely contemplated. This additional trouble from Mr. Fox would be perfectly consistent with the principle of his apology to the House, for taking so unusual an opportunity of strewing a few flowers over the grave' of his lamented friend: It is (said he) for the sake of impressing his great example on the public; it is that men may see it, that they may feel it, that they may talk of it in their domestic circles, and hold it up, wherever it can be imitated, to the imitation of their children, and of posterity." We wish the most unbounded operation to such an example, and the complete support of that sanction to it which must be derived from the great name of the Eulogist. Art. 31. A Memoir of Transactions that took place in St. Domingo in. the Spring of 1799; affording an Idea of the present State of that Country, the real Character of its Black Governor, Toussaint: l'Ouverture, and the Safety of our West India Islands from Attack. or Revolt; including the Rescue of a British Officer under Sentence of Death. By Captain Rainsford, twenty-four Years an Officer in his Majesty's Army. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Egerton. 18oz. At the present moment, this tract is calculated to excite and in some degree to gratify public curiosity. Capt. Rainsford says that from the pen of a soldier very little will be expected, but that little is his own.'-The Captain was taken prisoner in his passage to join his regiment at Martinique, and was not only civilly treated by Toussaint, but was afterward saved by that singular man from death, to which he was sentenced in consequence of subsequent suspicions that he was a spy. Of Toussaint, therefore, the Captain speaks with gratitude, and he represents him in a very respectable light. A few particulars may be acceptable to our readers: I retired to the American hotel, and was introduced to the table d'hote-to behold for the first time a perfect system of equality! Here were officers and privates, the general and the fifer, at the same table indiscriminately. Here also Toussaint dined, but did not take the head of the table, from the idea (I was informed) that no man should be invested with superiority but in the field. In the evening I went to the billiard table, where Toussaint also came. Much hilarity prevailed, and his affability highly increased the satisfaction of the company. I played with him, and found nothing to dissipate the pleasure which the novelty of the scene inspired. There were several tables in the same room, at which all played with the same familiarity with which they dined. . I was |