manner of Grattan or Chatham, "the fire | ceased to think for himself at all. "Keep which has so long lain in the lower region of in the Whigs-keep out the Tories-that is society, has burst at last from its frozen politics," was his whole political creed. summits." Sheil did not affect the power Of Mr. Sheil's "Sketches" of Irish barof improvisation. It is curious that the same risters, the best is an account of Bushe, seems to have been the case with Curran and Chief-Justice of Ireland. A more interestCicero. The remarkable passages of their ing account of Bushe is however given in speeches were not only previously well con- the last and best book upon our list,-Cursidered, but the very disposition of each ran's "Sketches of the Irish Bar." These, word was prearranged. like Sheil's sketches, were originally printed in the New Monthly Magazine, and are now reprinted with some additional matter not hitherto published, of which that likely to give most pleasure in Ireland, is a very beautifully written memoir of the late Chief Baron Woulfe. That from which however, if we had space for it, we should most wish to give extracts, is a narrative taken down at the time, of conversations with Bushe in the autumn of 1826, when Curran paid him a visit of a few days at his residence in the county of Kilkenny, where Bushe, then Chief Justice of Ireland, was enjoying the leisure of the long vacation. We give a few sentences. Bushe is the speaker in what

In the course of this year Sheil visited Paris, and made arrangements with the proprietor of a French journal for articles on Ireland. These regularly re-appeared, translated in the English newspapers, and, no doubt, produced a considerable effect on the public mind.

"GRATTAN loved old trees, and used to say,

After the general election of 1826, the Duke of York's health was proposed at some public dinner. Sheil had to speak in the course of the evening, and he declaimed vehemently against the Duke, ascribing his declaration, or rather oath, against the Catholics to insanity. Sheil's speech could scarcely be accounted for on any other supposition than that of having been delivered we first quote: under some strange excitement-probably of wine-so little meaning was there in any part of it. This speech however, and his Never cut down a tree for fashion's sake; the statement at some meeting of the Associa- tree has its roots in the earth, which the fashion tion that he had written articles in the French has not." journals, no doubt aided in determining the Government to prosecute him for an address in the Association in which he gave from Wolfe Tone's memoirs an account of Tone's negotiating with France for the invasion of Ireland. Reading the speech now, we do not think a conviction could have been possible. The prosecution, however, was fortunately interrupted, for before a trial was had Mr. Canning became Premier. At a meeting of the Cabinet, Canning read the speech aloud, desiring to be stopped at any passage for which, if delivered by a member of the House of Commons, he could be called to order. was no such passage in the speech, and the prosecution was discontinued.

There

Emancipation is at last passed, and we are at the third period of Sheil's life. It presents nothing which is not creditable to him, but the interest of the story flags. In Mr. M'Cullagh's book will be found most of his parliamentary speeches. If we have any fault to find with this book, it is that it gives us too little of his private life. Sheil himself we should like better if he were less of an advocate. Mere advocacy does well enough when the measures are originated or even adopted in thorough earnest by the person affirming or defending them. Sheil once attached to a party, seemed as if he

"Grattan said the most healthy exercise for elderly persons was indolent movement in the open air."

"The Chief Justice asked me [W. H. Curran] if Sheil had ever written any poetry besides his tragedies, and upon my answering that he had the richest in poetry and eloquence that I ever not, expressed his regret. His mind is one of met. For the purpose of producing an effect upon a popular audience in Ireland, I consider him as standing in the very first rank. In England it might be considered (though perhaps unjustly) that he attempted to impose upon his hearers by ornament. He seems to me to have high powers for didactic poetry. The rich poetical invecwould be fine satirical poetry.'" tives with which his speeches abound, if versified,

"I [W. H. Curran] said that Moore wished to tan's life is not to be written with a dove's be the biographer of Grattan. No, no; Gratquill."

"Grattan was utterly incapable of writing the simplest thing with rapidity. Upon one occasion he lost an important motion in the Irish House of Commons, by his defect in this respect. The commit his motion to writing. Four lines would House being with him, the Speaker asked him to have embraced it, but Grattan wrote and tore, and wrote and tore, till the House losing its patience, a ministerial member proposed, that instead of a formal resolution of the House, the

minister should give a verbal pledge, to which Grattan assented, and thus the motion was lost."

"I asked the Chief Justice if Grattan had

pro

since that treatise was written. We cannot but hope and believe that other times have come at last. In everything by which the prosperity of a nation can be measured or posed to himself any particular speaker or prose-indicated, Ireland is now prosperous beyond writer as a model of style. He never, to my what its condition has been at any former knowledge, said that he had; but Milton was the period in its history. The people are congreat object of his imitation. He recited passa- tented and industrious; very large wages ges of Paradise Lost in a manner that no one are given for agricultural labour; a better else could." description of food, and more abundant, is As to insurreceverywhere introduced. tionary movements, prophecy is, of course, dangerous, and on it we will not venture; but there certainly never was a time in which it seems so wholly impossible that a plausible object could be suggested. The old sectarian and provincial discords will soon be entirely forgotten, or regarded, like soon be entirely forgotten, or regarded, like the wars of York and Lancaster, as the subjects of romance rather than of sober history. We have little doubt that Ireland, which has been so long the "difficulty" of successive administrations, will now become as tranquil and industrious as other portions of the British dominions, and equally with them a constituent element of the strength and glory of the Empire.

"Grattan was firmly persuaded, from the internal evidence of the style, that Burke was the author of Junius. Among other instances, he used to insist upon it that no living man but Burke could have written that passage, in one of the letters to the Duke of Grafton, You have now fairly travelled through every sign in the political zodiac, from the Scorpion in which you stung Lord Chatham, to the hopes of a virgin

in the house of Bloomsbury.""

"My last scene with Grattan was interesting beyond expression. It lasted an hour; and I have never ceased to regret that I did not commit the particulars to paper as I might have done. The details of that hour might have filled a volume."

We reluctantly close these interesting books from Ireland, and with one word more on the present, as compared with the past condition of that country. There is a passage often quoted from Spenser's "View of the State of Ireland," and almost always with a forgetfulness that the tract in which it occurs is in dialogue. One of the interlocutors is made to say, that "it is the fatal destiny of that land that no purposes whatever, which are meant for her good, will prosper, whether from the genius of the soil, or influence of the stars; or that Almighty God hath not yet appointed the time of her reformation; or that he reserveth in this unquiet state, still for some secret scourge which shall by her come unto England." This is usually quoted as if in it the poet's own fears and misgivings were embodied, instead of what is the real meaning of the passage, first, in the person of one of the imagined speakers, to express vague apprehensions, which are then powerfully answered by one of the wisest men and most careful observers who has ever discussed the circumstances of that unhappy country. The poet states in detail the causes which interrupted its prosperity, satisfied that every one of them was of a character which admitted of being removed. It is painful to think that, till within the last few years, there is no one of the evils which Spenser describes, as rendering social life insecure in Ireland, which did not in principle exist, and, though under other names, continue to exist, during the centuries which have passed

ART. V.-1. The City Mission Magazine.
Seeleys, London. 1836-1855.

2. The Million-peopled City. By JOHN
GARWOOD, M.A. London, Wertheim &
Macintosh. 1853.

3. The Dens of London. By R. W. VANDERKISTE. London, J. Nisbet & Co. 1854.

4. London Labour and the London Poor. By HENRY MAYHEW. London. 1851. 5. Country Towns Mission Record. London, Reid and Pardon. 1855.

6. Scripture Readers' Journal. London, Seeleys. 1855.

7. Reports of the Manchester, Edinburgh,

Glasgow, and Liverpool Town Missions;
The Church Pastoral Aid Society; The
Christian Instruction Society; The
Open Air Mission; The Weekly Tract
Society, &c., &c., &c.

8. The Ragged School Magazine. Lon-
don, Partridge & Oakey. 1849-1855.
9. Ragged Schools. By T. MACGREGOR.
London, Sampson Low. 1852.
10. The Dying Judge's Charge. By Rev.

T. C. MILLER. London, T. Hatchard. 1854.

11. Home Heathen. By Rev. T. C. MILLER. London, T. Hatchard. 1854. 12. The Church's Home-work among the

Home-heathen. By Rev. T. C. MILLER. Birmingham, B. Hall. 1855. 13. Assize Sermon. By Rev. T. M. Hou LAND, Senior Proctor of the University of Oxford. London, 1855.

The forms of both Houses were suspended, that nothing might impede the reconciliation of a repentant legislature and a justly indignant people. Satisfactory terms were soon concluded between the two orders of the

14. How shall we assist in Checking the Pro-State: the patricians were to retain unmogress of Crime? Two Sermons by Rev. T. S. POLEHAMPTON. London, Rivingtons. 1855.

lested their Sunday relaxations: the plebeians their Sunday disorder and their beer. So ended the famous secession to Hyde Park. 15. Sermon on the Death of Mr. Charles Menenius' false fable at last came true. Meredith. By Rev. Č. MARSHALL."This good belly" enjoyed its usual indulManchester, Kelly & Slater. 1855. gences at the West End; and every thrill of 16. Meliora. Edited by VISCOUNT INGES- its satisfaction tingled in the big toes at BerTRE. First and Second Series. Lon-mondsey and Whitechapel.

don, J. W. Parker. 1852, 1853. 17. Miall's British Churches in Relation to the British People. London, 1853. 18. Census of Religious Worship. 1853. 19. Census of Education. 1853.

20. Census of Religious Worship and Edu

cation in Scotland.

21. The Glory and the Shame of Britain. First Prize Essay. London, Religious Tract Society.

Thus, so far as Parliament is concerned, the attempt at raising the condition of the masses has for the moment failed. One wave of the advancing flood of moral improvement has broken and retired; but the tide is still upon the flow. The lesson to be derived from this failure is obvious. We ought to have known beforehand, that no restriction can be placed upon the daily life of a free people, except by its own free-will. The restriction proposed was wise and good. It will be established, with many more like it, ere long. But it must rest either on a 23. Six Lectures to the Working Classes. vote by universal suffrage, or on an expresBy the Rev. W. G. BLAIKIE, A.M.sion of public opinion equally unanimous Edinburgh, Johnstone & Hunter. and decided. Our work, therefore, is to per1855. suade the people;-in the firm conviction, The West Port. By the Rev. WIL- that a people's reformation can be wrought LIAM HANNA, LL.D. Edinburgh, T. out by no hands except its own. Constable & Co. 1852.

22. The Operative Classes. Second Prize Essay. London, Religious Tract Society.

24.

25.

26.

27.

The object of our present article will be, The Missionary of Kilmany. By the to consider, so far as we are able, the means Rev. JOHN BAILLIE. 7th Edit. Edin- that earnest men have yet devised, or are burgh, T. Constable & Co. 1855. now devising, to remove, by moral and spiritA Place of Repentance. By SAMUEL ual influence and persuasion, that darkness MARTIN. London, J. Nisbet & Co. and vice and heathenry of our land, of which 1853. this insurrection of the people against moral Life of David Nasmith. By T. CAMP-restraint has been a single, but a very strikBELL, D.D. London, T. Snow. 1844.

On the two first Sundays in last July, Hyde Park was crowded by a mob, convened, by placards issued by the liquor interest, for the purpose of uttering a noisy protest against a well-intended measure of moral reform. The wives and daughters of our legislators were incommoded in their Sunday carriage airing: fears were entertained lest the penetralia of the clubs might be invaded; and squares of plate glass were actually broken in Belgravia. The crisis was one that demanded resolution and promptitude: nor were men wanting equal to the occasion. The senate took. extraordinary measures "ne quid detrimenti respublica caperit." It was resolved to abandon the obnoxious bill, and, in addition, to throw away another law, which had been working well for a year, and had already greatly diminished vice.

ing symptom. It is a vast and difficult subject, and we cannot hope, in our short space, and with our inadequate powers to treat it as it should be treated: but it is the pressing subject of the day. It calls for notice from every earnest periodical, such as we desire ours to be; and if our article has the effect of turning one additional mind to think earnestly upon it, we shall not have written in vain.

The basis of our article is, as our readers will have seen, a perfect mass of Philanthropic Literature. Yet our list, by no means, contains the whole of similar writings that are teeming from the press. During our consideration of these books, most diversified in tone and manner, but all very interesting, the terrible statistics and anecdotes on which we have been led to reflect, have often caused us to blush and even tremble for our country; but we thank God,

that we have risen from the perusal, with a generation at least, except splitting straws, strengthened conviction, that England stands is now at length being turned against our even now in the van of the philanthropy of real enemies. No praise can be too high the world, and is moving forward to a course for Mr. Miller's sermon on The Dying of peaceful conquests, greater than those that Judge's Charge, Short, simple, earnest, and have shed glory on our arms. Of all the spirit-stirring, a speech rather than a serphilanthropic schemes, whose records now mon,-it is just the address required by seload our table, there is not one that has pass-rious stirring times like ours. His examed its infancy. Each is the merest germ of ple has been followed, with good effect, by something greater and better. The evils that two other chaplains at assizes; one of whom, we have to attack are enormous, and the ef- and he a proctor of the University of Oxforts needed to conquer them gigantic; but ford, has had the noble daring to bid Godwe are ignorant of them no longer; we now speed to the non-episcopal City Mission. know the worst; and there are hearts and Thus the English, and even the Oxford, clerminds among us, sufficient both to attempt gy, are beginning to know the people, and to and to effect the cure. take the nearest and simplest way to their improvement. Nor is it an unhopeful symptom that a clergyman of the English Church has conferred on a humble agent of one of these un-aristocratic enterprises, our only Protestant canonization,—a funeral sermon. A slight and general notion of the philanthropic efforts of the day is furnished by "Meliora." But that little unpretending work has a higher aim, and deserves more decided praise. If its idea originated with Lord Ingestre, few men deserve greater credit than he. It contains a comparison of the views of all classes, on moral, and social, and material reformation. There are papers by lords and cobblers, by high-churchmen and low-churchmen, by clergymen and by unbelievers: its great merit is that it places the genuine thoughts and wishes of high and low side by side. Its noble editor has not

The first place, in our catalogue, must be accorded to the publications of the London City Mission. These consist of a Monthly Magazine, and of various occasional papers; to which must be added the work of Mr. Garwood, for nearly twenty years their secretary, and the deeply interesting narrative of his own experience, by one of their missionaries, Mr. Vanderkiste. The object of all these is to make known to the rich the condition of the poor. The facts and statistics, published by this institution, were the first thing that drew the attention of the large body of the public to the heathenry of our towns. The present great authority on the condition of the masses, Mr. Henry Mayhew, though himself a man of different spirit, and looking but little to religion as the hoped-for cure of the evils of those classes, whom he so deeply pities, and so well de-only published the philanthropic notions of scribes, obtained much of his information the upper class; but he has asked the people from their missionaries. A similar, and not what they think and wish for, and has given inferior work, though very recently com- us the result. We pass from amiable unmenced, is the Journal of the Church of Eng- practical Lord Lewisham, and amiable unland Scripture Reader's Society; and these practical Lord Carlisle, and (let us add with are followed by a cloud of narratives of pleasure) amiable and very practical Lord kindred labours in progress in our large Ingestre, to an uneducated labourer, dealing towns. The publications of the Ragged out from his garret plain suggestions for the School Union, which also deal largely in use- amendment of his real ills; and a cobbler, ful statistics, describe to us an important dyspeptic with stooping to his last, disconkindred enterprise, which is both the first- tentedly poring over his poor estate; and an born child, and the most efficient ally, of uneducated thinker, grappling, as by the first the City Missions. Next follows the litera- effort of a Hercules in his cradle, with the ture of Penitentiaries and Reformatory In- deepest theorems of philosophy and religion. stitutions, amongst which the first place We hope this work may be continued, for must be given to Mr. Nash's Institution, de- it has certainly hit on the right idea, and scribed as 66 A Place for Repentance;"- that idea is capable of indefinite development. one of the noblest instances of stedfast inde- Let "Meliora" become a periodical, with the pendent effort, and at last of great success, lords and cobblers, &c. &c., engaged as its that our times have seen. We have admit permanent contributors, and we believe it ted, with very great satisfaction, a conside- will prove very popular, and are certain rable number of pulpit addresses, bearing that it will do much good. The classes of most gratifying testimony, that that power-society already wish each other well, and ful engine, long so pitiably misused, is at last beginning to do some good. The sword of the spirit, that has done nothing, for a

what they want is to understand each other. Each must speak to the other its real mind, with good temper, but without reserve. To

The excess in foreign cities, is however, in some part due to the existence of Foundling Hospitals, which serve to attract and receive illegitimate children upon a very large scale.

The City Mission, the great machine for evangelizing London, has very few supporters among the aristocracy. Nearly all our great societies rest on the middle class. The statistics of the Christian Instruction Society, which is congregationalist, and thoroughly middle-class, and worked by voluntary labourers, is as follows:-Number of Associations, 70; families visited, about 54,000; visitors, 1600. This is confined to London, and is but one of a multitude.

"He had ascertained from minute inquiries, that the whole number of children in London, who were actually in a course of training for a life of fraud, theft, and violence, did not much exceed 3000. Further inquiry brought him to the conclusion that the whole number of the professional thieves of London, (he meant those who entirely depended for their subsistence on robbery,) did not exceed 6000."-Speech of Lord Shaftesbury at the Meeting at Birmingham on Juvenile Delinquency, December 20, 1853.

§ Mr. Nash of the Westminster Reformatory Institution, receives on an average eighty applications per week-yet the beginning of his reformatory course is a fortnight's probation on bread and water. See A Place for Repentance, p. 141. See Mr. Mayhew's account of a Meeting of Thieves. "You might have thought a roving life a pleasant thing at first, but you know that a vagabond's life is full of suffering, care, peril, and privation; you are not so happy as you thought you would be, and are tired and disgusted with your present course. That is what I hear from you all. Am I not stating the fact?" [Renewed cries of "yes, yes, yes!" and a voice:-"The fact of it is, we don't see our folly till it is too late."] London Labour, vol. i. p. 421.