Prince of Wales and Chifney, the Jockey-O'Leary un- contaminated by his Associations-Contrasted with the celebrated Dr. Alexander Geddes-Sketch of Geddes-His "Modest Apology”—O'Leary is requested by Lord Petre to review it-Which he does-Lord Petre's severe Letter O'Leary's "Address to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the Parliament of Great Britain; to which is added, an Account of Sir Henry Mildmay's Bill relative to Nuns". Extracts from the Address-His Hopes of what the Union would Effect for Ireland-Two Dangerous Papists-Two Thousand Servant-maids Converted in London by French Priests in one Year!-Father O'Leary cannot Convert One --He is Attacked by Sir Richard Musgrave-Collects Father O'Leary's Health declines still more-He proceeds to France for Change of Air-Shocked by the Changes re- sulting from the Revolution, he returns-The Ship driven to Ramsgate-He proceeds to London-His Death-His Obsequies and Interment-Eulogies of bim in the Press- The Author's visit to St. Pancras' Churchyard-Account of the Present State of Father O'Leary's Tomb-The "Sham LIFE AND WRITINGS OF REV. ARTHUR O'LEARY. CHAPTER I. His Birth-Anecdote of his Childhood-Denied Education at Home, he seeks it Abroad-Sketch of the Penal Laws, as background of the Picture-O'Leary at St. Maloe's-His Probity Tested and Triumphant-Returns to Cork-Builds the "Little Friary"-His Controversy with Blair. ARTHUR O'LEARY was born in the year 1729, of obscure parents, at a place called Acres, a townland in the parish of Fanlobbus, near Dunmanway, in the county of Cork. It has been stated that his birth-place was Iveleary, a picturesque district in the western part of the county. But this is not so. The error may have arisen from the fact, that a considerable portion of his early life was spent amongst his friends and relatives in that parish. Iveleary (1bh-Laoghaire), when interpreted, means the country or territory of the O'Learies, once a powerful Irish sept; and humble as was the birth of the subject of these memoirs, it is an uncontested fact that his ancestors were the veritable chieftains, who, in days of yore, gave laws and a name to this wild and romantic region.* Of the history of his childhood, document or tradition has scarcely preserved a trace; and * 66 ‘O'Laoghaire or O'Leary-chiefs of Hy-Laoghaire or Iveleary, possessed in ancient times the city of Ross-carbery and its environs; and, according to Smith and Windele, Iveleary or O'Leary's country lay between Macroom and Inchegeelah, where they had several B even if they had, we may easily imagine it would have very little interest for the reader; for what charm could possibly attach to the history of a peasant lad, roving wild among his native mountains, sequestered from all society, and forced, by the very exigency of his position, to aid in the unromantic offices of an humble farmer's household. O'Leary himself was wont, in convivial moments, to descant with playful humour on many scenes of his early boyhood; but amongst the records. of such narrations, even if they existed, his biographer would search in vain for reliable information, for such was the exuberance of the friar's wit, and such the general brilliance of his conversation, that it was frequently impossible for his hearers to define the exact boundaries of fact and fiction-to distinguish the lineaments of truth. amid the rich and various adornments of fancy. One anecdote, however, has been preserved, which indicates in a striking manner the bent of his mind in childhood as well as in after years. A poor woman, living in a cabin on the road-side, eked out a wretched livelihood by huckstering small wares, such as bread, butter, tobacco, snuff, and other petty articles of merchandize. Owing to certain peculiarities of manner, probably because she was what is commonly described as "an old fret," she became a butt for all the boyish castles, viz., Carrigafooka, Carriganeelah, Carrignacurra, Dundarirk, and Drumcurragh.”—Note, Annals of the Four Masters, p. 177. "The O'Learies are of the Ithian race, and despite all the wars and revolutions of which this family were the repeated victims, its lineal representative, the O'Leary, until lately, supported the antique style of profuse hospitality within the district of his fathers. The name is still frequent here amongst the peasantry, but a sod of the fee-simple property belongs not to one of the clan. The governor and company for making hollow sword-blades in England, long since disposed of that. Fame, however, has been more partial to individuals of this race, and Ireland claims amongst her most eminent worthies the name of the pious, the enlightened, and facetious Father Arthur O'Leary."-See Bolsters' Magazine, Cork, Art. "Gougane Barra," vol. ii. No. 7. mirth of the neighbourhood, and young O'Leary was amongst the ringleaders in sports designed for her annoyance. On one occasion, after some transgression of rare enormity, the old lady complained of our young hero to his mother, who administered due correction for his fault. Arthur was determined to have his revenge, and his mode of gratifying that strong passion evinced his ingenuity of mind as well as his capacity for mischief. He gathered into an old cloth all the snails and worms he could find, one dewy evening; and just before the venerable dame had retired to rest, deposited his slimy burden inside her door. Devious and intricate was the silent wandering of the cabin-guests that night, and when morning dawned, great was the horror of the poor woman to discover herself and her house given over to a host of such loathsome intruders. The snails were everywhere-crawling over her bed-clothes, entangled in her hair, climbing up her three-legged stool, and tortuously twisting through her bread-rolls and butterpats. Young O'Leary had his eye through a chink in the door, and exulted in the triumph of his vengeance. But he had nearly killed his poor victim. She screamed and roared with true womanly vigour, and at length went off in hysterics, the invariable culmination of feminine fright. She recovered, but with difficulty, from the shock, and lived in health to a great old age. But the heart of her young torturer had grown contrite, and he resolved, if it should ever be in his power, to compensate her for the injury he had inflicted. And faithfully he kept his resolution; for, from the first moment he came to possess money, until the day of the old beldam's death, he allowed her a pension of £5 a year, as a solace to the feelings he had so wantonly and cruelly wounded.* * This anecdote I had from the Very Reverend Canon O'Brien, P.P., Bandon, a grand-nephew of Arthur O'Leary, who states that it has been a tradition in his family for the last hundred years. To Canon O'Brien I am also indebted for the truth as to O'Leary's birth-place. One thing may be assumed as certain, namely, that the wild beauty of the region of his birth, and of the scenes of his early visitings, was not lost on a boy like O'Leary, but that his mind, "expanded by the genius of the spot, grew colossal," and that it is to his early association with spectacles of such surpassing grandeur, that we must, in some measure, attribute the loftiness of conception and splendour of imagery that mark the productions of his pen. Indeed, it would be impossible for a youth like him—for, if the boy be the father of the man, O'Leary was no ordinary boy-to gaze without profitable emotion on those scenes so familiar to modern tourists—to view, without a throb of poetic rapture, the sinuous Lee, expanding beneath the hills into a series of broad and placid lakes-or to behold unmoved the terrible majesty of Kemineigh, and the awe-inspiring loneliness of Gougane Barra. But, alas! at the period of his birth, and long after, nature was the only tutoress of Irish Catholic youth; for a narrow-minded bigotry, fostered by long indulgence, and rendered furious because so persistently thwarted, guided the councils of our rulers, and culminated in an atrocity of hatred and persecution, unparalleled by any development of barbarism recorded in the darkest page of history. The penal laws, which were in full force at the time of O'Leary's boyhood, rendered it impossible for him to receive any education whatever, except at the hands of a Protestant teacher; but as he aspired to the clerical profession, to a propagation rather than a renunciation of his religion, he was obliged to be content with such crumbs of learning as could be doled out by the hedge schoolmaster, or the itinerant priest, who plied their teaching craft with stealthy zeal, despite the rigor of the law. In the eighteenth year of his age, he pro |