of which, the insurrection was arrested by the firm and calm administration of justice; crime dissolved before its influence, and for some time after the Crown Solicitor had not a single pro. secution for disturbance in that district. Some years after, similar disturbances broke out in Cork, Kerry, Waterford, and Kilkenny; these were rendered formidable by the existence of a war with France, then governed by the Emperor Napoleon, but they were all effectually checked by special commisions, and if again attacked by the moral contagion, I trust that this remedy will be found fully competent to subdue the disease.—Address of Chief Justice Bushe to the Grand Jury of the Queen's County, at the Special Commission in June, 1832. There is a strange coincidence between some sentences in the above passage and part of a charge delivered by Mr. Solicitor-General Bushe to the Grand Jury of Clonmel, at a special commission, in the year 1811, now upwards of twenty years ago! Alluding to the same subject, he says "I can speak from much experience upon this subject; my learned friend, Sergeant Moore, now at my side, whose services to the public upon such occasions can never be over-valued, has witnessed with me the memorable instances in which a faithful and vigorous execution of those laws has been attended with the fullest success. He remembers when the entire province of Connaught, with the exception of two counties in the North West Circuit, were over-run with the insurgents called Threshers. Upon that occasion the disturbance was so violent and general, that the King's Judges upon a special commission, could only move through the county under the escort of a troop of dragoons. The meetings of the people had been so frequent, numerous, and audacious, even in the open day, and the outrages so many, that it was doubted for a time, in the town of Castlebar, whether the execution of six convicts could with safety take place pending the commission; yet in the short space of less than a month that commission visited five counties, and by the firm administration of the laws, supported by the co-operation of the magistracy and gentry, such was the triumph of justice, that the insurrection dissolved before its influence; and from that period (the year 1806) until this hour, so perfect has been the tranquillity, that the Crown Solicitors for those counties have never had one case of public disturbance to prosecute. We remember the more recent instances of the western parts of the County of Limerick, which stretches along the Shannon, and the entire of the County of Kerry, having been convulsed by similar outrages, almost to insur. rection. Yet those laws, supposed now to be ineffectual here, were executed there under the auspices of one of the Learned Judges now presiding, and with such success, that those districts have ever since (a period of more than two years!!!) enjoyed perfect tranquillity." [Address of Mr. Solicitor-General Bushe, at the Clonmel Special Commission in February, 1811.] " Notwithstanding the boasted triumph of justice in the places above mentioned by Mr. Bushe, special commissions have subsequently revisited many of the scenes of their former "triumphs;" and if the condition of Ireland's wretched peasantry be not otherwise improved than by such applications, it is likely that in future they will be of more frequent occurrence. This ambulatory tribunal has been going its rounds in Ireland during the present and the past year, and when it seems to hunt disorder from one district, it has scarcely time to pack up its horrible parapharnalia until its services are demanded in another. ON HEARING THE FIRING AT THE REVIEW, ON THE 18TH JUNE, 1823. 1. Say, Britons, should this be a festal day, Or should ye spend it as a day of woe In mourning for the heroes you have lost? Say, was the blood so vile that day saw flow? Say, did that victory so little cost, That all should thus be joy, and triumph, and loud boast II. Oh! no-full dearly was that battle won- III. Oh, Erin!-Oh, my country! and dost thou Say, what are pomps, what triumphs, now to you? What would'st thou, slave, with trophies of the spear With pomp-when all in vain for bread her children sue? FION. VERSES IN REPLY TO DR. TEELING'S SONG OF THE IRISHMAN." I. But what avails fair nature's grace, If still oppression's steps we trace, II. And what avails that heaven bestows Wit that subdues severest woe- The kindred legions, man 'gainst man-- Be pointed at an Irishman. P. O'DOGGRELL. EPISTLE FROM O'TAFFRAIL. Revenge Cutter, at anchor off Tarbert, DEAR COMMODORE," Here I am, came into the Shannon the day before yesterday -up to Limerick, per steamer, yesterday, to procure stores and the June Magazine, which I have now just concluded. Fion is still with me. M'Finn, hearing of Tom Steele's heroic conduct in attending the cholera patients in Limerick, has taken his departure, per Kerry coach, for Cahirsiveen, there to await the approach of the disease, and lend his aid to the various patients; and O'Doggrell is quill-driving at my elbow, hammering out rhymes, which, when finished, he means to transmit you. It is something about a battle I calculate, as he has just been rattling out "bled, dead, and fled," to which I added a rhyme by threatening to "break his head" if he did not recite in a lower tone in future. As to No. II., I need not say that we were highly pleased with it. I admire particularly the tact of our poet laureate in the "Hall of Tara," who has put no rhymes into my mouth. In truth, they are an article I never admit if I can help it; and the only ones of my own I was ever guilty of, with the exception of the appeal just now to O'Doggrell's "sconce," were “biscuit" and mess kid," which I supplied for a wager while a reefer in the " Harda-weather." However, as all hands are turning to at poetry, I suppose I must even submit, and take to that trade, which Carolan (senior) tells us is so much surpassed by the "jingling of the glasses"-namely, "rhyming." By-the-bye, you belong to the Western Yacht Club: I send you a programme of the "Regatta,' which, of course, you will publish. I met our vice commodore yesterday in Limerick. Every thing in the yacht way there is in a state of active preparation, and lots of fun are expected. Of course, you will attend with as many of the brigade as possible, and put the "Revenge" into commission, as your flag-ship. More of this anon. The post goes out in half an hour, and I have yet to send this ashore. Come, O'Doggrell, hurry with the hod." There! your verses are "beautiful." Let me have a line from you in reply. Remembrances to all hands, and, believe me, dear O'More, Thine until no more, P. O'TAFFRAIL AN EVENING IN THE COMMONS. "I will meet you in the lobby at four o'clock," is a common mode of parting promise amongst the Irish politicians in London. The place of rendezvous is the lobby of the House of Commons-a dark, confined, and unseemly hall, through which the Members must pass before they enter St. Stephen's chapel. It is indeed a vestry fit for such a church; but those who are its general occupants are not entitled to the credit of being designated as a "select" one. Every stranger who arrives in London has generally some preconceived idea of the scenes he is to behold, either from his experience in books or conversation. Some do not wait even to change their travelling gear, but rush to the Tower, to inspect the contents of that old fashioned show-box, whose description they have been reading from their infancy in the Universal Spelling Book; others having perused Addison's Reflections in Westminster Abbey, in the Spectator, rush to the Poet's Corner, to ascertain if the venerable scene will also produce the same sublimities in their mental organs. I was once amused by hearing my landlady laughing as she was giving directions to have some luggage carried up stairs; and upon inquiring the cause of her unusual risibility, she told me that she was so amused at the conduct of two gentlemen, who had at that moment driven into town in one of the northern coaches, and having deposited their trunks with her, they proceeded instanter to see the Park!-Going to see the Park was in itself a very harmless piece of curiosity; but every thing depended on the time, and as it was then eleven o'clock at night, and as the curious customers were all wet, from the showers they had encountered on the top of the Paul Pry during the day, my said landlady, whom I had never seen in the laughing mood before, could not maintain her gravity at their impatience to behold the Park. Like the artist who painted a battle enveloped in smoke, I suppose the aforesaid greenhorns were not much the wiser for seeing the Serpentine in the dark !-or whether they went farther than the Bird-cage Walk, in their nocturnal inspection, I never afterwards ascertained. Thus every visitor takes a different direction when he alights in the midst of the great metropolis; but I believe that there is one race of foreigners who invariably bend their course towards Westminster Hall, as soon as the fatigues of travelling will allow them, like Belcour, to make their appearance" in decent trim"-I mean my own countrymen, the Emeralders. If you want to see one of those birds of passage, an Irish Member of Parliament, during the migration season, to discover his abode would, perhaps, be a matter of some difficulty; the only way you are sure of pouncing upon him is by merging amongst the crowd upon the lobby, and watching him as he passes on to the house. When you see him coming along the narrow space which is kept clear by the peace-officers for the approach of the Members, you must dart from the spot in which you have been confined, and seize your man. Perhaps your business may be of sufficient importance to get you a moment's conversation--perhaps you may only require from your representative an order for admission to the gallery-or you may be induced to ask him for a frank, and then you will be brought aside to a closet called the vote office, where the conveniences of pen, ink, and paper are to be found, which are very necessary ingredients in the composition of those documents, which have an equal potency upon doorkeepers and postmasters, in persuading them that they are to be obeyed, and no questions asked or money demanded. However indifferent postmasters and postmen may be to that part of the members' privilege, which saves them the trouble of giving or receiving change, it would be very difficult to persuade Wright, the janitor of the gallery, that an order is as good as money. Those who are unfortunately without representatives are in every way taxed without redress, for they must pay the aforesaid Wright the sum of two shillings and six-pence for admission to hear the debates of the collective wisdom; but those who send a Knight, Citizen, or Burgess, into that house in their stead, can lawfully demand from him an order, which will be obeyed with a very bad grace by the said Wright, who thereupon concludes that he is minus by the visit in the sum of half a crown. I recollect one evening being very much amused by the adroitness of a Kerryman in gaining admittance to the gallery, notwithstanding the opposition of the janitor. I was on the lobby reading the orders of the day, which were posted on one of the pillars, when a young man accosted me in a strong Kerry accent, and asked me to direct him how he was to get into the gallery, at the same time shewing me a bit of crumpled paper signed W. Browne, which I saw was an order for his admission. I directed him where to go, and he thanked me and then departed. In about ten minutes afterwards I was coming down the steps into Westminster Hall, and I found the same person leisurely pacing about, instead of being, as I thought, gazing with open-mouthed wonder in St. Stephen's Chapel. "This is not the way I told you to reach the gallery," said I to him, as he recognised me with a smile. "Oh! no in troth, Sir, it is'nt; but I am only waiting a bit to be up to that big chap at the little cross door above; he tould me, Sir, that the gallery was quite full, and that he could not let me in, and returned me the order that Master William gave me; but na bocklish, I'll do him the next time." "How will you get in if the gallery is full ?" said I. “Oh, let me alone for that," was the only reply I received. I felt somewhat curious to see how this simple mountaineer would outwit the mercenary Jack in office, so I retraced my steps, and, being free of the gallery, I loitered on the upper lobby in expectation of witnessing the second attempt of the Kerryman to make an entrance. I had not been long there when I saw him coming up the passage, at the end of which stood the guardian of the entrance leaning over the half door, like a country barber resting from his labours, and looking out for more customers. The Kerryman came on at a hurried pace, one of his hands was in his pocket, and as he came up to the door the tingling sound of silver could be very distinctly heard in that quarter in which it was emerged. "Is there any room in the gallery ?" said he in an independent tone.— "Yes, there is," said the janitor, at the same time holding out his |