past conduct, and an assurance of his future favour and protection, as long as they continued in it. It is remarkable, that no trace of this transaction is to be found in the journals of the Commons."—Ibid.

7.-WHITEBOY INSURRECTION. See preceding chapter.

8.-ROMAN CATHOLIC LOYAL ADDRESSES.

"Amongst other delusive motives,

which at this time actuated the unwise

councils of Versailles, in hazarding this rash invasion of Ireland, were the false hopes holden out to them by some of the expatriated Irish in the service of France, that an invading army would have been immediately joined by the physical force of the country. On the first alarm, however, of invasion, Mr. O'Connor and Dr. Curry called a meeting of the Catholic Committee, for the purpose of making a tender of their allegiance to government. Mr. O'Connor drew up the form of an address on the 1st of December, 1759; and on the ensuing day, at a meeting of the most respectable merchants in Dublin, it was signed, by about 300 persons, and presented to the Speaker of the House of Commons, to be forwarded by

him to the Lord Lieutenant. It was received without observation, and laid on the table. No direct answer was given from the castle. Some days elapsed in mysterious silence; on the 10th of December, his Grace gave a most gracious answer to the address, which appeared in the Dublin Gazette, on the 15th December, 1759. The speaker sent for Mr. Anthony McDermott, as the delegate from the Catholic body, and having, by order, read the address, the speaker replied, that he counted it a favour done him to be put in the way of serving so respectable a body, as that of the gentlemen who had signed that loyal address. The acceptance of this address, was the re-admission of the Catholic body over the threshold of their constitutional rights. Immediately upon the circulation of the gracious acceptance of this address, the Catholics poured in addresses upon the Castle, from every quarter of the kingdom, expressive of their loyalty

and zeal for their king and country."Plowden, v. ii. pp. 128, 129.

We would not have it imagined that in adducing our proofs from Mr. Plowden, we are admitting his veracity as a historian. We believe that his writings are very often chargeable with the "suppressio veri," and not unfrequently characterised by the "suggestio falsi" also. But in every instance in which we have cited his authority in this chapter, we have found his statements corroborated by those of writers on whom we are justified in placing reliance, and we have made him our witness, because his political principles, and, we might add, his habits as an advocate, render the testimony he has borne for us, indisputable.

We give the reader now a month's respite, and entreat him in the meantime to cast a glance on the group of circumstances and incidents we have set before him, and to give it a passing reflection. Ireland, threatened with internal commotion by a disbanded army detained at home, but unemployed and unprovided for: Romanism, menaced by appearances which seemed to forbode the escape of the Irish people from her influence; France in a state in which her best hopes rested land by invasion or insurrection-the upon her being able to embarrass EngJesuits warned by the ruin which fell upon their body in Portugal, and by the menace, easily read in the signs of fatal disaster, to establish themselves or the times, of more general and more their principles, in some secure habitation, such is the aspect of things on which we beseech the reader to ponder.

What does it prognosticate?Agrarian outrage-political disaffection-religious intolerance-the subtle policy and accommodating morals taught in the schools of Loyola. At least, it menaces Ireland with these four scourges. In our next chapter we shall begin to unfold the incidents which show that these plagues have been sent among us.

I HAD scarcely seated myself to breakfast at Swinburn's Hotel in Limerick, when the waiter presented me with a letter. As my first glance at the address showed it to be in Colonel Carden's hand-writing, I felt not a little alarmed for the consequences of the rash step I had taken in leaving my detachment; and, while quickly thronging fancies of arrest and courtmartial flitted before me, I summoned resolution at last to break the seal, and read as follows:

"My dear Lorrequer," (" dear Lorrequer!" dear me, thought I; cool certainly, from one I have ever regarded as an open enemy)-" My dear Lorrequer, I have just accidentally heard of your arrival here, and haste to inform you, that, as it may not be impossible, your reasons for so abruptly leaving your detachment are known to me, I shall not visit your breach of discipline very heavily. My old and worthy friend, Lord Callonby, who passed through here yesterday, has so warmly interested himself in your behalf, that I feel disposed to do all in my power to serve you; independently of my desire to do so, on your own account. Come over here, then, as soon as possible, and let us talk over your plans together,

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Believe me, most truly yours,
"HENRY CARDEN.

"Barracks, 10 O'C."

However mysterious and difficult to nnravel have been some of the circumstances narrated in these "Confessions," I do not scruple to avow that the preceding letter was to me by far the most inexplicable piece of fortune I had hitherto met with. That Lord Callonby should have converted what I believed an implacable foe, into a most obliging friend, was intelligible enough, seeing that his lordship had through life been the patron of the colonel; but why he had so done, and what communications he could possibly have made with regard to me, that Colonel Carden should speak of "my

Father O'Callaghan.

plans," and proffer assistance in them, was a perfect riddle; and the only solution, one so ridiculously flattering that I dared not think of it. I read, and re-read the note; misplaced the stops; canvassed every expression; did all to detect a meaning different from the obvious one, fearful of a selfdeception where so much was at stake. Yet there it stood forth, a plain straightforward proffer of services, for some object evidently known to the writer; and my only conclusion, from all was this, that "my Lord Callonby was the gem of his order, and had a most remarkable talent for selecting a sonin-law."

I fell into a deep reverie upon my past life, and the prospects which I how felt were opening before me. Nothing seemed extravagant to hopes so well founded to expectations so brilliant-and, in my mind's eye, I beheld myself at one moment leading my young and beautiful bride through the crowded saloon of Devonshire House; and, at the next, I was contemplating the excellence and perfection of my stud arrangements at Melton, for I resolved not to give up hunting. While in this pleasurable exercise of my fancy, I was removing from before me some of the breakfast equipage, or, as I then believed it, breaking the trees into better groups upon my lawn, I was once more brought to the world and its dull reality, by the following passage which my eye fell upon in the newspaper before me" We understand that the 4-th are daily expecting the route from Cork, from whence they are to sail, early in the ensuing month for Halifax, to relieve the 88th." While it did not take a moment's consideration to show me that though the regiment there mentioned was the one I belonged to, I could have no possible interest in the announcement; it never coming into my calculation that I should submit to such expatriation; yet it gave me a salutary warning that there was no time to be lost in making my appli

cation for leave, which, once obtained, I should have ample time to manage an exchange into another corps. The wonderful revolution a few days had effected in all my tastes and desires, did not escape me at this moment. But a week or two before and I should have regarded an order for foreign service as anything rather than unpleasant-now the thought was insupportable. Then there would have been some charm to me in the very novelty of the locale, and the indulgence of that vagrant spirit I have ever possessed; for, like Justice Woodcock, I certainly should have been a vagabond if Providence had not made me a justice of the peace"-now, I could not even contemplate the thing as possible; and would have actually refused the command of a regiment, if the condition of its acceptance, were to sail for the colonies.

44

Besides, I tried-and how ingenious is self-deception-I tried to find arguments in support of my determination totally different from the reasons which governed me. I affected to fear climate, and to dread the effect of the tropics upon my health. It may do very well, thought I, for men totally destitute of better prospects; with neither talent, influence or powerful connexion, to roast their cheeks at Sierra Leone, or suck a sugar-cane at St. Lucia. But that you, Harry Lorrequer, should waste your sweetness upon planters' daughters-that have only to be known, to have the world at your feet! The thing is absurd, and not to be thought of! Yes, said I half aloud-we read in the army list, that Major A. is appointed to the 50th, and Capt. B. to the 12th; but how much more near the truth would it be, to say "That His Majesty, in consideration of the distinguished services of the one, has been graciously pleased to appoint him to a case of blue and collapsed cholera, in India; and also, for the bravery and gallant conduct of the other, in his late affair with the How-DOW-DALLAH INDIANS,' has promoted him to the yellow fever now devastating and desolating Jamaica." How far my zeal for the service might have carried on this point, I know not, for I was speedily aroused from my musings by the loud tramp of feet upon the stairs, and the sound of many well-known voices of my brother officers, who were coming to visit

me.

"So, Harry, my boy," said the fat

major as he entered; "is it true we are not to have the pleasure of your company to Jamaica this time?"

"He prefers a pale face, it seems, to a black one; and certainly, with thirty thousand in the same scale, the taste is excusable."

"we

"But, Lorrequer," said a third, heard that you had canvassed the county on the Callonby interest. Why, man, when do you mean to pull up? p?"

"As for me," lisped a large-eyed, white-haired ensign of three months' standing, " I think it devilish hard, old Carden didn't send me down there too, for I hear there are two girls in the family. Eh, Lorrequer ?"

Having, with all that peculiar bashfulness such occasions are sure to elicit, disclaimed the happiness my friends so clearly ascribed to me, I yet pretty plainly let it be understood that the more brilliant they supposed my present prospects to be, the more near were they to estimate them justly. One thing certainly gratified me throughout. All seemed rejoiced at my good fortune, and even the old Scotch paymaster made no more caustic remark than that he "wad na wonder if the chiel's black whiskers id get him made governor of Stirling Castle, afore he'd die."

Should any of my most patient listeners to these my humble confessions wonder either here, or elsewhere, upon what very slight foundations I built these my "Chateaux en Espagne," I have only one answer-" that from my boyhood I have had a taste for florid architecture, and would rather put up with any inconvenience of ground, than not build at all."

As it was growing late I hurriedly bade adieu to my friends, and hastened to Colonel Carden's quarters, where I found him waiting for me, in company with my old friend, Fitzgerald, our senior surgeon. Our first greet ings over, the colonel drew me aside into a window, and said that, from certain expressions Lord Callonby had made use of certain hints he had dropped-that he was perfectly aware of the delicate position in which I stood with respect to his lordship's family. "In fact, my dear Lorrequer," he continued, "without wishing in the least to obtrude myself upon your confidence, I must yet be permitted to say, you are the luckiest fellow in Europe, and I most sincerely congratulate you on the prospect before you."

"

"But, my dear Colonel, I assure you"Well, well, there- not a word more; don't blush now. I know there is always a kind of secresy thought necessary on these occasions, for the sake of other parties; so let us pass to your plans. From what I have collected, you have not yet proposed formally. Well, of course you desire a leave. You'll not quit the army, I trust; no necessity for that; such influence as yours can always appoint you to an unattached commission."

"Once more let me protest, sir, that though for certain reasons most desirous to obtain a leave of absence, I have not the most remote

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Now, Lorrequer," resumed the colonel, "let us proceed. You have, of course, heard that we are ordered abroad; mere newspaper report for the present; nevertheless, it is extremely difficult-almost impossible, without a sick certificate, to obtain a leave sufficiently long for your purpose."

And here he smirked, and I blushed, selon les regles.

"A sick certificate," said I, in some surprise.

The only thing for you," said Fitzgerald, taking a long pinch of snuff; and I grieve to say you have a most villainous look of good health about you."

"I must acknowledge I have seldom felt better."

"So much the worse-so much the worse," said Fitzgerald despondingly. "Is there no family complaint; no respectable heir-loom of infirmity, you can lay claim to from your kindred."

"None that I know of, except a very active performance on the several occasions of breakfast, dinner, and supper, with a tendency towards port, and an inclination to sleep ten in every twenty-four hours, be a sign of sickness; these symptoms I have known many of the family suffer for years,

without the slightest alleviation, though, strange as it may appear, they occasionally had medical advice."

Fitz. took no notice of my sneer at the faculty, but proceeded to strike my chest several times, with his finger tips. "Try a short cough now," said he. "Ah, that will never do!" "Do you ever flush. Before dinner I mean "

66

Occasionally, when I meet with a luncheon."

"I'm fairly puzzled," said poor Fitz. throwing himself into a chair; "gout is a very good thing; but, then, you see you are only a sub., and it is clearly against the articles of war, to have it before being a field-officer at least. Apoplexy is the best I can do for you; and, to say the truth, any one who witnesses your performance at mess, may put faith in the likelihood of it."

Apoplexy be it," said I impatiently; "so fill up the certificate, and give me all the necessary instructions how to conduct myself before their mightinesses of the medical board." For to that august body, then holding their sittings in an obscure house in Parliament-street, I was obliged to present myself previous to application at the Horse Guards.

Fitz. filled the document; the colonel strengthened it with a letter to old Doctor Camie, deploring the temporary loss of so promising a young officer, and bespeaking his services to obtain me as long an absence from duty as possible.

Fortified with these strong documents, and sustained by as sanguine a spirit as consisted with so much delicacy of health, I committed myself and portmanteau to the inside of his majesty's mail, and early on the following morning found myself once again in dear dirty Dublin."

I shall not stop here to narrate the particulars of my visit to the worthies of the medical board; the rather, as some of my "confessions to come" have reference to Dublin, and some of those that dwell therein. I shall, therefore, content myself here with stating that, without any difficulty I obtained a six months' leave, and having received much advice and more sympathy, from many members of that body, I took a respectful leave of them, and adjourned to Bilton's, where I had ordered dinner, and, as I was advised to live low, a bottle of Sneyd's claret. My hours in Dublin were

numbered; at eight o'clock on the evening of my arrival I hastened to the Pigeon-House pier, to take my berth in the packet for Liverpool; and here, gentle reader, let me implore you, if you have bowels of compassion, to commiserate the condition of a sorry mortal like myself. In the days of which I now speak, steam-packets were not-men knew not, then, of the pleasure of going to a comfortable bed at Kingstown harbour, and wakening on the morning after, in the Clarence Dock at Liverpool, with the only addition of a little sharper appetite for breakfast, before they set out on an excursion of forty miles per hour through the air.

In the time I have now to commemorate, the intercourse between the two countries was maintained by two sailing vessels of small tonnage, and still scantier accommodation. Of the one now in question I well recollect the name she was called the “ALERT,” and certainly a more unfortunate misnomer, there could scarcely be conceived. Well, there was no choice; so I took my place upon the crowded deck of the little craft, and, in a drizzling shower of chilly rain, and amid more noise, confusion and bustle, than would prelude the launch of a line-of-battle ship, we sailed, goosefashion, from the shore, and began our voyage towards England.

It is not my intention, in the present stage of "my Confessions," to delay on the road, towards an event which influenced so powerfully, and so permanently, my after life. Yet I cannot refrain from chronicling a slight incident which occurred on board the packet, and which I have no doubt may be remembered by some of those who throw their eyes on these pages. One of my fellow-passengers was a gentleman holding a high official appointment in the viceregal court; either comptroller of the household, master of the horse, or something else equally magnificent; however, whatever the nature of the situation, one thing is certain-one possessed of more courtly manners, and more polished address, cannot be conceived; to which he added all the attractions of a very handsome person, and a most prepossessing countenance. The only thing the most scrupulous critic could possibly detect as faulty, in his whole air and bearing, was a certain ultra-refinement and fastidiousness, which, in a man of acknowledged family and connections,

was somewhat unaccountable, and certainly unnecessary. The fastidiousness I speak of extended to everything round and about him; he never eat of the wrong dish, nor spoke to the wrong man in his life, and that consciousness gave him a kind of horror of chance acquaintances, which made him shrink within himself from persons in every respect his equals. Those who knew him, Sir Stewart Moore, will know I do not exaggerate in either my praise or censure, and to those who have not had that pleasure, I have only to say, their's was the loss, and they must take my word for the facts.

The very antithesis to the person just mentioned, was another passenger then or board. She, for even in sex they were different-she was a short, squat, red-faced, vulgar-looking woman, of about fifty, possessed of a most garrulous tendency, and talking indiscriminately with every one about her, careless what reception her addresses met with, and quite indifferent to the many rebuffs she momentarily encountered. To me, by what impulses driven, Heaven knows, this amorphous piece of womanhood seemed determined to attach herself. Whether in the smoky and almost impenetrable recesses of the cabin, or braving the cold and penetrating rain on deck, it mattered not; she was ever at my side, and not only. martyring me by the insufferable annoyance of her vulgar loquacity, but actually, from the appearance of acquaintanceship such constant association gave rise, frightening any one else from conversing with me, and rendering me, ere many hours, a perfect Paria among the passengers. By no one were we-for alas, we had become Siamese-so thoroughly dreaded as by the refined baronet I have mentioned; he appeared to shrink from our very approach, and avoided us as though we had the plague of Egypt about us. I saw this I felt it deeply, and as deeply and resolutely I vowed to be revenged, and the time was not long distant in affording me the opportunity.

The interesting Mrs. Mulrooney, for such was my fair companion called, was, on the present occasion, making her debut on what she was pleased to call the "says;" she was proceeding to the Liverpool market as proprietor and supercargo over some legion of swine that occupied the hold of the vessel, and whose mellifluous tones