intend to discuss the merits of the question, but can readily conceive that many a good man might have advocated the measure, without earning for his motto, "Vendidit hic auro patriam." I am fully convinced, from what I know of the honorable cast of Mr. Bellew's mind, that he never did promote the measure from any sordid views to his own interest. Lord Castlereagh was well aware of the importance of securing the support of the leading Roman Catholic gentry, and the place of assistant-barrister was promised to Mr. Bellew. Whether the promise was made before or after the Union, I am not aware; nor is it of consequence excepting we adopt the scholastic distinction of Father Foigard, in his argumentative assault upon Cherry's virtue: "If it be before, it is a bribe; if it be after, it is only a gratification." At all events, I am convinced that Mr. Bellew did nothing at variance with honor and conscience from any mercenary consideration. The place of assistant-barrister became vacant: Lord Castlereagh was reminded of his engagement, when, behold! a petition, signed by the magistrates of the county to which Mr. Bellew was about to be nominated, is presented to the LordLieutenant, praying that a Roman Catholic should not be appointed to any judicial office, and intimating their determinasigned- -as it was made, with an impression on his mind, cunningly kept up by the King, that there would be no obstacle, on the part of Royalty, to admitting the Catholics within the pale of the Constitution.-Lord Cornwallis, mentioned in the text, was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland during the insurrection of 1798, and went as plenipotentiary to France, in 1801, in which capacity he signed the treaty of Amiens. His whole public course was distinguished. In 1770, he was one of the four young peers who joined Lord Camden in a protest against the taxation of America, which made Lord Mansfield sneeringly say, "Poor Camden! he could only get four boys to support him"-yet, as a military man, Lord Cornwallis had a command in the American war, where he concluded his operations by being out-generalled by Washington, to whom he surrendered himself and his army. In 1786, he went out to India, as Gov ernor-General and commander-in-chief, where he distinguished himself against Tippoo Saib. On his return, he was made a Marquis, in 1792. He was again sent to India in 1804, where he died, in 1805, aged sixty-seven. He was popular in Ireland, as well as in India, having certainly exerted himself to check the inhumanity of the triumphant royalists. He had no genius, but a great deal of common sense-which is more rare and valuable.-M. *He sold his country for gold.-- M. tion not to act with him. The government were a good deal embarrassed by this notification; and in order at once to fulfil the spirit of their contract, and not to give offence to the Protestant magistrates, a pension equivalent to the salary of a chairman was given to Mr. Bellew, and he was put in the enjoyment of the fruits of the office, without the labor of cultivation.* That it was reprehensible to tax the people with an additional pension on the part of the Irish government, out of the miserable dread of irritating a few Protestant gentlemen, can not, I think, be questioned: and but few persons will be inclined to attach any great blame to Mr. Bellew for having accepted of this compensation. It would be very idle, however, to enter into any explanation upon these subjects with the Roman Catholic body, among whom the very name of pensioner, connected as it is with all sorts of back door and postern services at the Castle, carries a deep stigma. No matter how well Mr. Bellew may argue a point at a Catholic assembly; no matter how cogent and convincing his arguments may *The County judges in Ireland, who virtually preside at Quarter Sessions, while they are supposed only to advise the justices of the peace who sit (ignorant of law) upon the Bench, are called Assistant-Barristers, an appellation which by no means indicates their position and duties. Richard Martin, formerly of the Irish and now of the English bar—a man of great legal acumen, clear and reasoning eloquence, ready wit, and vast personal weight-tells a good anecdote illustrative of this. Henry Deane Freeman, an eminent lawyer, was "Assistant Barrister" in one of the Connaught counties, and went the MunsterCircuit, as a practising lawyer. He was prosecuting a man accused of robbery, who produced as witness to his character, another worthy, instantly recognised by Mr. Freeman, as an old acquaintance. In cross-examination this man was asked, “Have not you stood in the dock, as a criminal ?"--The witness sulkily replied, "What's that to you?"-Mr. Freeman; "You must answer me. Were not you tried in Galway for robbery?" Well, if I was, I didn't do it." Mr. Freeman: "Of course not-the number of innocent culprits is immense. Were not you convicted and sent to jail for six months?"-By this time, the witness had recognised his examiner, who, as Assistant-Barrister in Galway, had tried and sentenced him. Turning to the judge, with a sidelong look of contempt at Mr. Freeman, he said, sotto voce, as if he were confidentially communicating valuable information, "My Lord! you must not mind what that fellow says. He's an imposter. He isn't a real barrister. He's only an Au-sistant Barrister, and not worth your notice."-- M. Witness: 66 be in favor of a more calm and moderate tone of proceedings; the moment Mr. O'Connell lifts up his strong arm, and with an ejaculation of integrity "thanks his God that he is not a pensioner!" all the Douay syllogisms of Mr. Bellew vanish at the exclamation, and yells and shouts assail the retainer of government from every side. Had he the eloquence of De mosthenes, the clinking of the gold would be heard amid the thunder. His Yet I entertain no doubt that Mr. Bellew has not, in his political conduct, been actuated by any mean and dishonest motive. I utterly dissent from him in his views, principles, and opinions; but I believe that he is only acting in conformity with impressions received at a very early period, which his education and habits tended not a little to confirm. first opinions were formed at a period when the Roman Catholic aristocracy was actuated by a spirit very different from that which it has lately evinced. Much condemnation has been attached to that body for their want of vigor in the conduct of Catholic affairs. But allowances ought to be made for them. The penal code had, after a few years, ground the gentry almost to powder. They lived in a state of equal terror and humiliation. From their infancy they were instructed to look upon every Protestant with alarm; for it was in the power of the meanest member of that privileged class to file a bill of discovery, and strip them of their estates, At their ordinary meals, they must have regarded their own children with awe, and felt that they were at their mercy. Swift represents the whole body as little better than hewers of wood and drawers of water. The complication of indignities to which they were exposed must necessarily have generated bad moral influences; and accordingly we find in their petitions and remonstrances a tone of subserviency at which their descendants would blush. Even after the penal code was relaxed, and they were restored to the rank of citizens, they preserved the attitude of humility to which they had been accustomed; and when the load which they had carried so long was taken off, they retained a stoop. At length, however, they stand erect in their country; and, with very few exceptions, exhibit the same spirit as the great mass of the people. Lord Fingall, though prevented by his health from taking an active part in public affairs, gives evidence of his assent to the bold and vigorous course of measures adopted by the body, of which he is the hereditary head, by the presence of his son. The latter, Lord Killeen, manifests as much energy and determination, as he does sound sense and admirable dis cretion.* Lord Gormanstown has thrown himself with enthusiasm into the national cause, and feels the injuries of his country with a deep and indignant sensibility;† and even Lord Kenmare, whose love of retirement excludes him from the bustle of public meetings, lends to the Catholic Association the authority of his name, and shows that the spirit of patriotism has penetrated the deep woods of Killarney, in which his lordship and his excellent lady (the sister of Mr. Wilmot Horton) are connubially embowered. I should not omit to add, *The late Earl of Fingall was the Catholic Peer who, at the Royal visit to Ireland in 1821, was made a Knight of St Patrick by George IV. In the poem called "The Irish Avatara," in ridicule of the servility of all ranks and creeds on this occasion, Byron asks "Will thy yard of blue riband, poor Fingall, recall The fetters from millions of Catholic limbs ?" The barony of Killeen dates as early as 1181. The Earldom was created in 1628, and Lord Fingall was made a peer of the United Kingdom in 1831. He died in July, 1826. His son, Lord Killeen, who is Lord Lieutenant of Meath, represented that county in 1831, and took a prominent part in politics, before the Catholic Relief Bill was passed, in 1829. He is a Privy Counsellor of Ireland.-M. An ancestor of Viscount Gormanstown sided with James II., in Ireland, and after his death William's government passed an outlawry against him for high treason. The title ceased to be legally recognised, but in August, 1800, on proceedings taken in the Court of King's Bench, by consent of the Crown, the outlawry was reversed, and Jenico Preston received a writ of summons as a peer, and is the twelfth Viscount. He took part with O'Connell in the agitation preceding Emancipation.-- M. The ancestor of the Earl of Kenmare received a peerage from James II. which was not recognised, as it was conferred after that Monarch had lost the throne. In 1800, the Earldom was created anew. In 1841, Lord Kenmare was made a British peer. After Emancipation, he took little part in politics, but was a Catholic and a Whig. He died in the autumn of 1853. The Ken that Sir Edward Bellew and his son, who is a young man of very considerable abilities, and likely to make a distinguished figure, displayed during the late election for the county of Louth great public spirit, energy, and determination. But amid this almost universal change in the general temperature of the country, amid this general ascent of the mercurial spirit of the people, Mr. William Bellew remains at zero. Not the smallest influence is perceptible in the cold rigidity of his opinions. True to the doctrine of non-resistance, he brings up in its support the whole barbarous array of syllogistic forms with which his recollections of Douay can supply him. It is in vain that the rapid progress of the Catholic cause is urged against him: you appeal in vain to the firmness, union, and organization of the people, which have been effected through the Catholic Association: the insurrection of the peasantry against their landlords, and the consequent sense of their own rights with which they have begun to be impressed, are treated with utter scorn by this able dialectician, who meets you at every step with his major drawn from religion, and his minor derived from passive obedience, and disperses your harangue with his peremptory conclusion. Nor is it to speculation that he confines his innate reverence for the powers that be; for after the dissolution of the old Roman Catholic Association by an act of Parliament, when an effort was making to raise another body out of its ruins, of his own accord Mr. Bellew gratuitously published a letter, in the public journals, to demonstrate to the Attorney-General that it would be legal to put it down. In this view Mr. Plunket does not appear to have concurred. mare estates include some of the finest parts of Killarney scenery, and the Earl, who was not an absentee, was an excellent landlord.— Sir Robert Wilmot Horton, who assumed the latter name on marriage with an heiress · -a very lovely woman, upon whom Lord Byron wrote the lines commencing "She walks in beauty-like the light Of cloudless climes and stormy skies, was an earnest advocate for Emigration, went to Ceylon as Governor, and died in 1841.-M. |