political and military relations; and animated also by a little whiskey, ordered by Mr. Crawley to steep their colours in, they proceeded to oppose prejudice and ignorance, armed with power, to prejudice and ignorance in subjection; and, most probably (as is the usual case upon such occasions in Ireland,) to breed and foment the disturbance they were sent to anticipate or to quell, by tunes, colours, and speeches, long devoted to popular execration.

Mr. Crawley dismissed himself and his legion together; his clerk took his place at the window, and he retired to finish the duties of the toilette, which his military avocations had interrupted. Not so Miss Crawley: she indeed had retired, but retired only to return to her viranda with a green watering-pot and a sort of shepherdess's hat, added to the quaker-like simplicity of her dress. Her quick eye had lighted upon the Commodore, who stood mingled but not

confounded with the plebeian crowd; and she now returned, under the plea of watering her geraniums, to follow up her reconnoitre, with a tactical skill, better understood and practised than Lord Rosbrin's system by the NewTown Mount Crawley legion. Meantime, the Commodore, unconsciously

biding the keen encounter of the eye," walked towards the portico, and demanded of a servant, who stood lounging at the door, if Mr. Crawley was at home. The servant said he would "try;" and, after the delay of a few minutes, returned, not with a direct answer to the inquiry, but with, please to step in for a minute, I'll

my master's at home, Sir.

name, Sir, shall I say?”

"If you

try if

What

"My name is of no consequence: meerly say a gentleman, a stranger, requests the pleasure of seeing Mr. Crawley."

"I shall Sir. Walk this way if you please, Sir."

The unknown visitor followed the liveried cicerone through two spacious and splendidly furnished rooms, where the windows, closely blinded, and the hearth closely skreened, accounted for the chill and fusty atmosphere which pervaded them, and spoke the truth, that fresh air and good fires were rarely admitted into rooms kept exclusively for shew, and occupied but three or four times in the year for purposes of display. Two slovenly housemaids were uncovering the furniture of the drawing room; the butler was occupied in laying out a gorgeous sideboard of plate in the dining parlor; and the arrangements every were spoke preparations for a formal country dinner party, the epitome of all tedium, ennui, and competition.

In that official class of life in Ireland to which Mr. Crawley belonged, the acquisition of fortune, unpurchased by honest, prosperous industry, but accumulated by servile arts, political delin

quency, and fraudulent intrigue, is usually too rapid to admit of a gradual acquaintance with every-day comforts, found equally among the first and middling classes of society. A place under government, suddenly obtained, uniting wealth to influence, strikes the roots of ostentation deep, before the want of comfort and accommodation is felt by those whose original position was destitute of both. In such establishments penury combines with display, discomfort with expense; and while a competition is excited with those, to whom splendor is an inheritance and a habit, the less obvious, but more enjoyable elegances of life, are wanting and neglected. Of this, the cold, fine, formal apartments of Mount Crawley, like the habits of life of its occupants, were striking proofs.

This suite, intended to be imposing, terminated in a little room, into which the footman ushered the Commodore, and

then went out by an opposite door. Though close, unaired, and slovenly, this apartment had an air of pretension about it, that marked it out the retreat of some slip-shod muse. Soiled muslim draperies, vases of dead flowers, offensive to the sense they were meant to gratify, an unfinished drawing on an easel ; of New-Town Mount Crawley, with Dulce Domum written under it, together with much literary lumber, and traces of vulgar sentimentality in every direction, would have decided at once the vocation of its proprietor, if pious books, strewed upon the tables, and evangelical tracts covering the sophas, did not indicate another calling than that of the muse; for though here and there appeared much of the Sappho, there was also much of the saint. Piles of bibles, filling every corner, indicated that this coquettish boudoir, and holy oratory, belonged to one of those persons who give books where they should give bread,