converted! Alternately a ball-room and a conventicle-at night thẻ scene of waltzes, and at noon the theatre of prayers, it presents ostensibly different pictures to the imagination; but, after all, the occupations to which it is devoted, generally lead to the same result. Mr. Bankes, the pious and moral representative of the University of Cambridge. intending to say that he was favourable to a particular system of religion, because it led to an intercourse between the different sects, happened to speak the truth by mistake, and adopted a form of phrase which excited the risible dispositions of the house. He unconsciously did no more than give utterance to an opinion which David Hume has happily expressed in speaking of "the passions which so naturally insinuate themselves in the warm intimacies that arise between the devotees of the different sexes." In this view of the matter there is nothing very incongruous between the purposes to which the Rotunda is alternately devoted. The sigh at a quadrille is not more impassioned than the suspiration at a homily-the whisper of Lothario is not more perilous than the cadences of Cantwel-and the field-preacher has fully as much unction as the dragoon. While I am free to confess my belief, that many of the persons who frequent the assemblies to which I have been alluding are influenced by genuine and unadulterated enthusiasm, yet I could not help feeling, at one of the Biblical convocations held last week at the Rotunda, which a somewhat malicious curiosity induced me to attend, that there is as much real worldliness, under the disguise of spirituality, at these Scriptural gatherings, as is usually exhibited in places which are openly and avowedly dedicated to "Satan and his works." There was at the late assemblies a more numerous muster of "The Elect" than has for some time taken place. The pious of both sexes flocked together from all parts of the country. An ordinary observer must have been struck by the increase of Puritanical visages in the streets. I was tempted, by no very sympathetic feeling, to attend at one of their discussions; and if I saw much matter for disgust in the acrimonious, malevolent, and unrelenting spirit which was manifested towards the religion of the people, I could not at the same time help being amused at the solemn foppery, the serious vanity, the spiritual coquetry, the pious ogling, and the demure flirtation which were exhibited on the occasion. Upon entering the assembly, I found a gentleman delivering himself of certain conceptions, the purport of which I could not distinctly collect, except that occasionally the words "darkness and idolatry," with some references to Babylon, Anti-Christ, and the Pope, gave a tolerable intimation of the tendency of his discourse. He was not sufficiently frantic to be amusing-but seemed to be some dull impostor, without any other qualification than a disastrous physiognomy for his melancholy trade. My attention ot being roused by the dismal inediocrity of the crator, I turned to survey the congregation. It exhibited a great diversity of character. The majority of the male part of the audience had that lurid expression-that churchyard look which belongs to sectarian fanaticism, and is so distinct from the cheerful enthusiasm of the Catholic religion The class I am describing appeared to me to belong to the lower ord Protescants. There was a fierceness

about them that indicated that they had never been softened by the infiuences of education; for they exhibited an odious conjunction of the origi. nal savageness of their nature, with the artificial ferocity of a fanatical religion. The contrast between them and another class was striking. I allude to the glossy-faced, downy-cheeked, and ample-bellied of" the elect," who invest their lips with a perpetual simper, and cover their faces with an expression of elaborate meekness and ostentations humility. These are your prosperous traders in the commodities of this world and of the next-fellows who are free of Dublin and of "the new Jerusalem"-drapers in linen and religion-tailors who will cut you out with the same facility a creed and a surtout-vendors of Bibles and pasquinades, and all that tribe of canting, smirking, ejaculating citizens, to whose counters the devout sympathetically resort. Intermingled with them, and with some affinity of aspect, I observed divers preachers of the gospel, of inferior note, who wisely realise the blessings of the Old Testament, by enforcing the precepts of the New. Many of them had passed the meridian of life, and seemed to think it wiser to addict themselves to some ancient maiden with "a call," than to any other more interesting, but less hopeful speculation. But a more striking, and, let me add, enriable class, were the young, the graceful, and sweet-spirited lispers of the gospel, who teach the rigid doctrines of Calvin, with the imp.ssioned tenderness of Abelard; though they were attired in sables of the most studied simplicity of fashion, there was still a lurking foppery about them. Every proportion was brought as if carelessly and undesignedly out, and attaining the excellence of art by its disguise, they exhibited their healthful forms to the opulent and beautiful devotees, beside whom they were placed in a close and interesting contact. Whether the blush upon the faces of certain of those pious damsels arose from the heat which was produced by the compactness of the crowd, or had its origin in the holy whispers which were occasionally breathed into their ears, I will not take upon myself to aver, but I cannot avoid thinking, that many of the ardent inculcators of "gospel truth" who sat beside them. seemed to have fallen into the errors of Popery, and to be zealously and successfully engaged in the Invocation of Saints It must be acknowledged, that many of the objects of their spiritual admiration would have afforded models of celestial loveliness to a painter, and assisted his conceptions of the "beau ideal" of heaven. At all events he could not have been at a loss for a Magdalen amongst them. The ecstatic look of devotion is a great heightener of expression, and a woman's eyes are never so beautiful as when they are raised to heaven. When sublunary affections intermingle themselves with devotion, the compound produces a fine physical effect, and realizes the panegyric of a Protestant bishop upon a lady, when he exclaimed, "that she was the connecting link between the female and the angelic nature." The fair votaries at the Rotunda appeared to have apportioned their attachment between the love of God and of his creatures. Their eyes were occasionally lifted in adoration, but at intervals were tenderly and surreptitiously directed to their companions of the other sex, whose exhortations were, I presume, tinctured with the paraseology of the divine pastoral of Solomon, and

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redolent with the spirit of high and holy love. Far be it from me tʊ insinuate that any impurity of sentiment was mingled with those pious interchanges of the heart. True it is, that I did observe certain celebrated dames, who have occasioned "much joy in heaven," and whose charity is entitled to the full extent of Scriptural panegyric. The "Fair Penitents"-the Calistas of sixty, held a prominent place at the meeting. I do not, however, mean to impute any remnant of their youthful addictions to those pious matrons, in whom time has approved himself corrector of the passions; and with respect to the younger portion of the congregation, without disputing that excitement of the tempera ment which ill-directed enthusiasm is calculated to produce, I should be disposed to say, that no immoral results arise from the pious sympathies of the devout, and that their holy intimacies generally terminate in a permanent co-partnership of the heart. I have expatiated so much upon the fairer and more interesting portion of the congregation, that I shall not at present attempt any description of the other features in the assembly deserving of note. The lugubrious oratory of the speakers, and the spirit of Pharisaical imposture which characterised the declamation of the day, would furnish ample materials for comment. word upon the Chairman-Lord Roden presided. We have his own authority for stating, that, like the Apostle of the Gentiles, he received a special summons from the Lord. Whether what he takes for a ray from heaven may not be some stray moon-beam that has fallen upon his mind-whether his heart has been touched, or that pulp, of which the brain is compounded, has become diseased, I shall not stop to inquire. His religion, if it were unconnected with his politics, would merely excite derision; but when we find him infusing Orangeism into Christianity, we require a large portion of that charity, of which he is so ostentatious a professor, not to look at him with a feeling of a very acrimonious kind. The hatred which is manifested in this country to the propagators of the Scriptures, arises, in a great measure from political causes Is it wonderful that they should become the objects of our antipathy, and that our detestation for their politics should extend itself to their religion, when we find them arrayed in a systematic opposition to the liberties of our country?-the same sentiment prevails through every gradation of rank, and from Roden to Butterworth they are the foes of Ireland. How can it be matter of surprise, that when the spirit of tyranny and of fanaticism are allied, we should hate the fanatic when we cannot but detest the tyrant? Can we avoid looking with abhorrence upon the propagators of the Scriptures, who come to us with the Bible in one hand and with the penal code in the other?

SPEECH IN REPLY TO MR. M'CLINTOCK.

Mr. M'CLINTOCK, a Protestant Gentleman of rank and fortune in the county of Louth, naving attended a Roman Catholic Meeting, held in the chapel of Dundalk, and delivered a speech containing strictures on the Catholic religion.

Mr. SHEIL rose immediately after Mr. M'Clintock had concludo! and sid, The speech of Mr. M'Clintock (and a more singular exhibi

tion of gratuitous eloquence I have never heard) calls for a prompt aud mmediate expression of gratitude. He has had the goodness to advise as (for he has our interests at heart) to depute certain emissaries from the new Order of Liberators to his Holiness at Rome, for the purpose of procuring a repeal of certain obnoxious canons of the Council of Lateran. If Mr. M'Clintock had not assured us that he was serious, and was not actuated by an anxiety to throw ridicule upon the religion and proceedings of those whom he has taken under his spiritual tutelage, I should have been disposed to consider him an insidious fanatic, who, under the hypocritical pretence of giving us a salutary admonition, had come here with no other end than to fling vilification upon our creed, and to throw contumely upon the persons who take the most active part in the conduct of our cause. But knowing him to be a per son of high rank and large fortune, and believing him to possess the feelings as well as the station of a gentleman, I am willing to acquit him of any such unworthy purpose, and do not believe that his object in addressing us, was to offer a deliberate and premeditated insult. He did not, I am sure, (for it would be inconsistent with the character which I have ascribed to him) enter this meeting for the purpose of venting his bile into our faces, and voiding upon his auditory the foul calumnies against the religion of his countrymen, which furnish the ordinary materials of rhetoric in the Bible Societies, of which he is so renowned a member. He did not come here to talk of the Pope's golden stirrups to a mass of ignorant and unenlightened people, and to turn their belief into ridicule with his lugubrious derision. The topics which he selected were, indeed, singularly chosen, and when he talked of the Order of Liberators, I was disposed to take him for a wag.But I raised my eyes and looked him in the face, and perceiving a person, whose countenance would furnish Cruikshank with a frontispiece to the Spiritual Quixotte, I at once acquitted him of all propensities to humour, and could not bring myself to believe it possible that Mr. M'Clintock had ever intended to be droll. At one moment I confess I was in pain for him, for I was apprehensive that the language in which he expressed himself in regard to our clergy, and the forms and habitudes of Popery, would be apt to excite the indignation of a portion of this immense auditory; but the spirit of courtesy prevailed over the feelings of the people, and so far from having heen treated with disrespect, he was listened to with more than ordinary indulgence. He excited less of our anger than of our commiseration. I am upon this account rejoiced that he should have undertaken an exploit of this kind We have given him evidence, at all events, that however intolerant the theory of our religion may appear to him, we are practically forbearing and indulgent. We allowed him to inveigh against the bridle and saddle of the Pope, without a remonstrance; we permitted him to indulge in his dismal merriment, and his melancholy ridicule, without a mur nur; he will therefore have derived a useful lesson from his experiment upon the public patience, and when he shall recount to his confederates of the Bible zociety his achievements amongst us, he will have an opportanity of telling them that we are far more tolerant of a difference of

opmn.on than the pious auditory which Mr. M'Clintock is in the habit on addressing. I have occasionally attended meetings of the Bible Society, and observed that whoever ventured to remonstrate against the use of the Apocalypse as a Spelling Book, incurred the indignation of the assembly. I remember to have heard it suggested, that the amatory pictures which are offered to the imagination in the Canticle of Canticles, were not exactly fitted to the private meditation of young ladier when the countenances of the fair auditors immediately assumed a expression of beautiful ferocity, and they looked like angels in a passion Henceforth, however, Mr. M'Clintock may be able to refer to the example of his Roman Catholic auditors in recommending to his pretty votaries at the Bible Society, that meekness and forbearance of which the Roman Catholic ladies have this day afforded a model. In this view the exhibition of Mr. M'Clintock may be considered as likely to be productive of some utility. But, after having thus endeavoured to convey to him an expression of the gratitude which we feel for this interposition of his advice, it is right that I should, after giving him every credit for the benevolent sincerity of his motives, examine into the details of his admonition, and endeavour to ascertain how far it is judicious upon our part to follow the course which he has taken on himself to point out; let me, however, be allowed to make one preliminary remark. On rising he informed us, that he merely obeyed the impulse of the moment and yielded to the sudden suggestions of the Spirit, in communicating his advice. I was not a little surprised that he immediately afterwards produced a series of voluminous extracts from the theological history of the Catholic Church, which, together with certain facetious references to the Cardinals, constituted the substance of his discourse. In any other man should take this elaborate accumulation of ecclesiastical learning as evidence that he had made some preparation for a somewhat adventurous enterprise, and that he had come furnished with a panoply from the armoury of heaven. I should have supposed that he had taken some time in collecting so many weapons of celestial temper. But Mr. M'Clintock is a peculiar favourite above; he was supplied, no doubt, with these valuable notes by a preternatural means; some angelic influ ence must have been exercised in his favour, and a hand invisible to Jur profaner eyes, furnished him on the instant with those large extracts from the Canons of the Council of Lateran.

[Here Mr. M'CLINTOCK rose with some appearance of displeasure, and said that Mr. Sheil A misrepresenting him. He had stated that he had the notes for some time in his pocket. Mr. SHEIL-I certainly had understood that Mr. M'Clintock intimated that he had come without preparation to this meeting. I am now, how. ever, to understand that he is not indebted for his recondite erudition to any sudden irradiation from heaven, but that he previously accumulated this mass of citations against Popery. Indeed, the external aspect of the document sustains his present allegation, for the "Sybilline leaves" which were produced by him, seemed a little sear and faded. I perceive that Mr. M Clintock does not take the remarks which I have presumed to make in very good part. In the Evangelical Societies where he makes so conspicuous a figure. he has it all his own way. He is not much accus