SIR JONAH BARRINGTON'S CHARACTER OF THE After a lapse of more than twenty years from the publication of a considerable portion of the historic anecdotes of the Union, Sir Jonah Barrington has, at last, thrown it before the public in a complete form. Sir Jonah is a consistent anti-unionist, and this work is designed as much, perhaps, to forward the repeal agitation, as to provide the means of existence to its talented but unfortunate author. In the latter object, we shall be glad to learn that it has been successful. With the merits of the Union question it is not now our intention to meddle: on that head we have already expressed, and shall have many opportunities of repeating our decided convictions. Laying that irritating question aside for the present, we turn to the historic anecdotes for amusement, and, as in every other work of its author, find it not wanting in a reasonable store of that commodity. The work is indeed, take it altogether, a curious and characteristic one-possessing considerable ability, and not free from a proportioned share of blemish, of which the ambitious mannerism of the style is, perhaps, the most striking. Another obvious fault in the work is, that it is too much of a portrait gallery, in which the pictures, though often painted with a dexterous pencil, are frequently too meretricious in their colouring to please a refined taste, and too numerous not to fatigue the attention, even if they had been the productions of a greater master. But, as we have already hinted, our object is not to criticise a work which, with all its faults, has merits to entitle it to a place in every gentleman's Irish historic library, as furnishing details of a great national event which cannot as yet be obtained from any other source. We shall, there fore, proceed at once to lay before our readers one of Sir Jonah's sketches; and that they may be able to judge for themselves of its truth, we select one upon which they will find no difficulty in forming a correct opinion, for they are all more or less acquainted with the original. It is Sir Jonah's character of the Irish peasantry. "The Irish peasantry, who necessarily composed the great body of the population, combined in their character many of those singular and repugnant qualities which peculiarly designate the people of different nations; and this remarkable contrariety of characteristic traits pervaded almost the whole current of their natural dispositions. Laborious, yet lazy-domestic, but dissipated-accustomed to wants in the midst of plenty-they submit to hardships without repining, and bear the greatest privations with stoic fortitude. The sharpest wit, and the shrewdest subtilty, which abound in the character of the Irish peasant, generally lie concealed under the semblance of dulness, or the appearance of simplicity; and his language, replete with the keenest humour, possesses an idiom of equivocation, which never fails successfully to evade a direct answer to an unwelcome question. Inquisitive, artful, and penetrating, the Irish peasant learns mankind without extensive intercourse, and has an instinctive knowledge of the world, without mingling in its societies: and never, in any other instance, did there exist an illiterate and uncultivated people who could display so much address and so much talent in the ordinary transactions of life, as the Irish peasantry. Too hasty or too dilatory in the execution of their projects, they are sometimes frustrated by their impatience and impetuosity: at other times they fail through their indolence and procrastination; and, without possessing the extreme vivacity of the French or the cool phlegm of the English cha'racter, they feel all the inconvenience of the one, and experience the disadvantages of the other. Historic Memoirs of Ireland; comprising Secret Records of the National Convention, the Rebellion, and the Union. By Sir Jonah Barrington. 2 vols. 4to. London, 1833. In his anger, furious without revenge, and violent without animosityturbulent and fantastic in his dissipation-ebriety discloses the inmost recesses of the Irish peasants character. His temper irrascible, but good-natured-his mind coarse and vulgar, yet sympathetic and susceptible of every impression-he yields too suddenly to the paroxysms of momentary impulse, or the seduction of pernicious example; and an implicit confidence in the advice of a false friend, or the influence of an artful superior, not unfrequently leads him to perpetrate the enormities of vice, while he believes he is performing the exploits of virtue. The Irish peasant has, at all periods, been peculiarly distinguished for unbounded but indiscriminate hospitality, which, though naturally devoted to the necessities of a friend, is never denied by him even to the distresses of an enemy. To be in want or in misery, is the best recommendation to his dis. interested protection: his food, his bed, his raiment, are equally the stranger's and his own; and, the deeper the distress, the more welcome is the sufferer to the peasant's cottage. His attachment to his kindred and connexions are of the strongest nature. The social duties are intimately blended with the natural uncorrupted disposition of an Irish peasant; and though covered with rags, oppressed with poverty, and perhaps with hunger, the finest specimens of generosity and heroism are to be found in his singular but unequalled character. A martial spirit and a love of desultory warfare is indigenous to the Irish people. Battle is their pastime :whole parishes and districts form them selves into parties, which they denominate factions they meet, by appointment, at their country fairs ;-there they quarrel without a cause, and fight without an object and, having indulged their propensity and bound up their wounds, they return satisfied to their own homes, generally without anger, and frequently in perfect friendship with each other. It is a melancholy reflection, that the successive governments of Ireland should have been so long and so obstinately blind to the real interest of the country, as to conceive it more expedient to attempt the fruitless task of suppressing the national spirit by legal severity, than to adopt a system of national In general, the Irish are rather im- An enthusiastic attachment to the place of their nativity is another striking trait of the Irish character, which neither time nor absence, prosperity. nor adversity can obliterate or di minish. Wherever an Irish peasant was born, there he wishes to die; and, however successful in acquiring wealth or rank in distant places, he returns with fond affection to renew his intercourse with the friends and companions of his youth and his obscurity. Illiterate and ignorant as the Irish peasantry are, they cannot be expected to understand the complicated theory and fundamental principles of civil government, and therefore are too easily im posed upon by the fallacious reasoning of insinuating agitators: but their natural political disposition is evidently aristocratic. From the traditionary history of their ancient kings, their minds early imbibe a warm love of monarchy ; while their courteous, civil, and humble demeanour to the higher orders of society proves their ready deference to rank, and their voluntary submission to superiority: and, when the rough and independent, if not insolent, address of the English farmer to his superiors is compared with the native humble cour tesy of the Irish peasant, it would be the highest injustice to charge the latter with a natural disposition toward the principles of democracy. An innate spirit of insubordination to the laws has been strongly charged upon the Irish peasantry: but an illiterate people to whom the punishment of crimes appears rather as a sacrifice to revenge than a measure of prevention can never have the same defe. rence to the law, as those who are instructed in the principles of justice, and taught to recognise its equality. It has, however, been uniformly admitted by every impartial writer on the affairs of Ireland, that a spirit of strict justice has ever characterised the Irish peasant. Convince him, by plain and impartial reasoning, that he is wrong; and he generally withdraws from the judgment-seat, if not with cheerfulness, at least with submission: but, to make him respect the laws, he must be satisfied that they are impartial; and, with that conviction on his mind, the Irish peasant is as perfectly tractable, as the native of any other country in the world. An attachment to, and a respect for females is another marked characteristic of the Irish peasant. The wife partakes of all her husband's vicissitudes, and accompanies him on all his occasions-they are almost inseparable. She watches over him in his dissipation: she shares his labour and his miseries, with constancy and with affection. At all the sports and meetings of the Irish peasantry, the women are always of the company: they have a great influence; and, in his smoky cottage, the Irish peasant, surrounded by his family, seems to forget all his privations. The natural cheerfulness of his disposition banishes reflection, and he experiences a simple happiness, which even the highest ranks of society might justly envy. The miscellaneous qualities of the Irish character are marked and various. Peculiarly polite-passionately fond of noise and merriment-superstitiousbigoted-they are always in extremes ; and, as Giraldus Cambrensis described them in the twelth century, so they still continue," If an Irishman be a good man, there is no better: if he be a bad man, there is no worse." Upon the whole, this will probably not be regarded as an unfaithful portrait, though perhaps a lectle flattering. So its author himself considered it, shortly after it was written. We re member-alas! it is twenty years since -to have been at a cattle fair at Bangor Ferry with Sir Jonah, when two Irish jobbers, not having at the time much business on hand, were anxious for a little amusement pour passer le temps and challenged not six, nor twenty, nor an hundred, but the whole fair to fight them; and the invitation not being accepted, they literally drove the said whole fair before them, making the peaceable and orderly Welshmen fly before their cudgels in all directions. Need we say that Sir Jonah was in raptures ?He swore that they were a noble pair of Irish blackguards, and with the characteristic generosity of our country, gave each of them a half crown for keeping up the honour of ould Ireland. On that occasion he observed,—“ I have painted the character of those fellows, in my historic anecdotes, with a great deal of truth, though I believe a little too flatteringly-but that I could not help, for I love the rascals in my heart." And so we are sure he did, and we honour him for so doing, for we too were born Arcadians, and we despise the man who has not a slight leaning towards the children of his native country. At all events, it would ill become Sir Jonah to want it, being himself as genuine a specimen of an Irishman as (using our own dear figurative idiom) ever stood in shoe leather. We shall never forget the very commendable avowal of this proper feeling, which we read a few years since, as a postscript to a newspaper advertisement from a tailor in Dorset-street. After recommending his goods, and his extraordinary skill, in the usual modest way, he added, "Nota-bene.-Particular attention paid to northern gentlemen, being one himself!" And so too, might Sir Jonah very properly add, particular attention paid to Irish characters-being one himself. Nor did the jobbers at the cattle fair more astonish the humbler natives by their wild-Irish characteristics than did Sir Jonah himself the Cambrian gentry, by his equally national, though more refined peculiarities. We met Sir Jonah a few days afterwards, at a dinner of the Beaumaris Hunt, at which, but for him, the entertainments would have passed off as quiet and grave as the Bangor fair in the absence of the jobbers; for of all men under the sun, the Welshmen have the least fun in themselves, though, as we found, they can laugh at it in others. Sir Jonah, however, contrived by his singular mirth, wit, and humour, to break down all their gentlemanly gravity and solemn taciturnity, and kicked up such a row of outrageous merriment as we will venture to swear the Welshmen never enjoyed before or since. "Who is this extraordinary and delightful fellow ?" the astonished Cambrians enquired of us-and their wonder was in no degree diminished when we answered Sir Jonah Barrington-an Irish judge!" Nor was our own astonishment much less than theirs, when, after the Welsh Nimrods had been boasting (in their cups) to Sir Jonah of the rare merits of their dogs and horses, he proposed a wager of five pounds, that his own man Pat would in the hunt on the following day keep the lead of all their Wont dogs and horses on foot, and whip up HENRI ARNAUD AND THE VAUDOIS AT THE PASS OF SALABERTRAND. (GILLY'S NARRATIVE.) Courage, oh! friends-we are not quite alone, Is one sound music from a single chord But more to us than all the stars of heaven- Oh! noblest phalanx!-We were faint of heart; Pure, dazzling, dauntless in the fiery hour- E. M. H. MY UNCLE'S MSS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE. September, 1833. MY DEAR SIR-I had an uncle, who was a man of strong and refined feeling. He was in the habit of noting down and commenting upon matters which from time to time affected him, and when he died, the MSS. fell into my = hands. I may, perhaps, at some future time give you a further account of him, for he was a singular and excellent character. I have not touched the following notes which I found among his papers, more than in one place to add a few particulars, learned from other sources, and which serve, in some degree, to give a connected form to the whole. They bear this substantial recommendation, that they present a picture of real life. Under necessary disguise, the story is true. Hundreds can attest the accuracy of the leading facts. I myself can answer for some of them; and I send you the melancholy recital for the same reason that my uncle wrote it, viz. the hope that it may be productive of good to others. I shall no longer occupy your time with any preliminary observations of mine, but at once subscribe myself, My dear Sir, sincerely yours, ADVENA. No man inveigh against the wither'd flower, With mens' abuses! these proud lords, to blame, SHAKESPEARE. April, 18 I cannot account for the Autumnal effect which opening Spring has upon my mind. I no sooner see nature rearing itself up from its wintry torpor; animals vivifying and quickening into gladness; vegetation bursting, as it were, from every pore; the blast relaxing into the breeze, and the fountains of waters loosed, and once more at large o'er the plain, than it begins to droop-to close upon itself like an evening flower, and to assume all the morbid hues of melancholy. As I stroll out into the genial sun at this time of year, I am unconsciously drawn from scenes which might tend to cheer and enliven, away to the most retired recesses, where there is yet some gloom lurking, and towards some sequestered nook, or through the shade of the thickening wood, or, it may be, past VOL. II. the deepening green of the upland towards the bare hill beyond, do I bend my steps, my mind sinking under the weight of feelings almost undefinable to myself, and wholly indescribable to others. They may be compared to the exhaustion of heart produced by the presence of a companion, whose spirits are in a state of excitation unattainable by one's self, and may, perhaps, be similarly accounted for. It is in vain that every thing laughs around me; I cannot participate in the universal rejuvenescence of nature. Man is not clothed again with the freshness of youth, as the grass upon which he treads heavier every year. The sun has come round and once more looked kindly upon all things, and has seen no change upon him, but the slow, scarce perceptible, deepening of the furrow on his brow 3 U |