Drawing now near the gallows, the horses and hurdle were stayed; where the old limping minifter, who hath been mentioned before, fhewed him a huge and terrible fire, with a caldron boiling, fo hot and high, that no man was able to ftand near it; and he spake thus to him, look you Mr Rigby, for this was the name by which F. Arrowsmith was indicted,' what is provided for your death; will you conform yourfelf yet, and enjoy the mercy of the king? The blef. fed man looked mildly upon him, and faid good fir, tempt me no more? the mercy which I look for is in heaven, through the death and paffion of my Saviour Jefus ; and I moft hun bly befeech him to make me worthy of his death. They dragged hin then to the ladder's foot, where be ing untied he prayed about a quarter of an hour upon his knees; but the Theriff bidding him then make hafte, he replied, God's will be done, and fo kiffing the ladder he most undauntedly went up. During the time of his prayer at the ladder's foot, he often repeated the words, as he had alfo done upon the hurdle: I freely offer thee my death, O fweet Jefus, in fatisfaction for my fins; and I wish this little blood of mine may be a facrifice for them. The old minifter then took him fhort and faid, you attribute nothing to Chrift's merits and paffion. But he inftantly replied, Oh, fir, fay not fo: Chrift's merits and paffion are always pre-fuppofed. As he was afcending the ladder, he defired all catholics to pray both with him, and for him, in this laft conflict. The minifter untruely made anfwer, that there were none, and that he would But the bleffed man pray for him. replied thus, I neither defire your prayers, nor will pray with you; and if it be true what you fay, that there are no catholics here, I wish I might die as many deaths as there are people in this place, upon condition that they were all catholics. With that he prayed for his majesty, and commended to Almighty God the state of this kingdom, and especially all his perfecutors, whom he freely forgave, defiring alfo forgiveness of whomfoe ver he had offended. Then going up yet higher on the ladder, he farther fpoke to this effect You gentlemen, who are come hither to fee my end. bear witnefs with me that I die a con ftant Roman Catholic, and for Jefus hrift's fake: let not any death be a hindrance to your well doing, and going forward in the catholic religi on, but rather an encouragement therein; for Jefus' fake have a care of pour fouls, than which nothing is more precious; and become members of the true church, as you tender your falvation; for hereafter that alone will do you good. 1 befeech and requeft my brethren, for the fake of who redeemed us all, to be careful to fupply my want and infufficiency, as I hope they will. Nothing doth fo much grieve me as this England, which, I pray God foon convert. He prayed then a little while out of a paper, and fo pulled his cap over his eyes expecting to be turned off. But the tempter had not yet done with him Sir faid Mr. Lee, I pray you accept the king's mercy, conform yourself, and take the oath, and you all live; good fir, you fhall live; I would fain have you live.Here is one now came from the judge to offer you mercy; you fhall live if you will conform yourself to our religion. The valiant champion of Chrift, pulling up his cap from over 1 over his eyes, faid, O fir, how far am 1 from that? tempt me no more; I will not do it, in no cafe, on no condition. Then with undaunted courage he addressed himself to the the riff, perfuading him and all the reft to take care of their fouls; till fome minifters about him faid muttering by, as in the name of the reft, we shall look to ourselves well enough. Others who were farther off, interrupted him by crying out, no more of that, no more of that; away with him, away with him. So pulling his cap the fecond time over his eyes, and fixing himself in moft ferven prayer to God, he was caft off the ladder, and` fufferd to hang till he was dead. The laft words which were heard out of his mouth were Bona Jesu. Being dead he was cut down, bowelled and quartered. His head was fet upon a fake or pole amongst the pinnacles of the castle, and his quarters were hanged on four feveral places thereof. Divers protestants, beholders of this bloody fpectacle, wished their foul with his. Others wished they had never come there. Others faid, it was a barbarous act to use men fo for their religion, &c. The judge departing the next day out of the town, was obferved to pafs up and down, or rather prance his horfe, and looking towards the martyr's head, and not thinking it to be confpicuous enough, fent back a command to have it fet higher by fix yards than any of the pinnacles. -00 * ous men of the 17th cent.diftinguished himself by his repartees, & by his wit... He made himfelf known by the delicacy of his railleries, which were both innocent and agreeable. Card, Rich lieu gave him a pension. Card. Mazarine and the q. mother alfo gave hun marks of their efteem. His fonnet on Job, and that of Urania, compofed by Voiture, divided the court into two parties, of which one was called the Jobelins and the other the Uranians. A great prince was for Benferade; but madame de Longueville was for Voiture; which made fome fay in pleasant mood: Le Deftin de Job eft étrange. Benferade pleafed the court extremely with the ballads he made. He was an original in this kind, and no body furpiffed him in this fpecies of verfe. e accustomed himself to enliven his difcourfe with innocent railleries, which made him beloved and esteemed by every body. A young lady who had a very fine voice, but a very ftrong breath, finging in his prefence being asked his opinion, of her ⚫he faid, the words and voice were, fine, but the air worth nothing.' Benferade was received into the French academy, 1674, in the place of chaplain. Some time before his. death, he gave himself up to piety, taking no other amusement but to As account of Isaac De Benserade, a adorn his garden. he died October French Poet. Ifaac De Benferade, a French poet a ative of Lyons one of the most ingeni 19, 1690.-his poems make two vol. Some moft precious bequest. Know then, gentle readers! that Mr. Digrum, like Gil Blas' honest uncle, was fhort and thick, with a jolly face of tat contented ignorance, and a protuberance of paunch which befpoke a love of what ever good things of the world came within his reach. His love for Irifh cuftoms was fo extraor dinary, that even in his drefs, his origin was evident. He prefered wearing a toga of Irish frieze, or ra This diftinguished character, like many others of our countrymen, who have ornamented the bench and led the fenate, was born of very obfcure parents, and originally inftructed in the tenets of the Catholic church-en, Othou mufe, whofoever thou art, that prefideft over biography, come now with all thy influence, infpire us with a greatness of fentiment and beftow a fublimity of ftyle equal to the fubject, whole memons we have dared to write. And thou in part cular who diflilled genius into the pen of the immortal author of the the Irish Rogues and Rapparees, come to our aid. This invocation, fuitable to the hero we have before us, we have thought neceffery, after the manner of other illuftrious biogra phers who have gone before usPatricius, or Patrick,or Paddy Duigenan or Dignum, is defcended from the Dignum's of fome part of Ireland, but the particular place of refidence of this famous family, no hiftorian can difcover. Our Doctor's immediate progenitor was an itinerant diffeminator of knowledge vulgarly called a schoolmaster, who fettled at the village of Don ybrook, about two miles from Dublin, thro' the benevolent affiftance of a Mr. Daniel,father of an eminent merchant in this city. It is material that our readers fhould be acquainted with old Mr. Dignum (or this was the family name). Every little particular concerning the father of fo great a man as our hero, should be preferved with the most pious literary care, and handed down to pofteriy as the to the moft cofily or finely wrought English cloths. But for this fome fay he had other reafons. befides his zeal to promote our iadigenous manufacture. A tall cupo la of a bat with flappings of wide ex tent, that were brown and venerable with time, was, mounted on the feat of his reafon, and covered a perruque, of particoloured Camel's hair, refenibling quills of porcupineLike the fages of antient times, who peregrinated through, Greece, illus. minating the youth with their dif courfes on philofophy, with their di vine and immortal researches, cur graphic,&orthographic fage journeyd along, with his feet on funnier's day kifsing the flinty ftone, or imitating during winter's froft, the antique fandal, by the fubftitution of a modern Irifh pedal ornament, commonly known by the name of Brogue. We have been thus particular in the de'cription of the elder Mr. Dignum, for the ufe of all painters and flaturies who may enrich their collection of illustrious portraits, by giving a nich to fuch a figure. We hope that our hints will not be loft on Mefits. Comerford and Petrie Tho' M⭑Dignum's fame, not like that of his fon, may not have croffed the channel, and winged its flight to other climes, yet it travelled through every corner of our own ifland; it penetrated into every friany and convent, where he kindly kindly gave the holy men an opportunity of difplaying their benevolence; and extending their charitable hands. While he depended on the good. cffices of popish priefts for livelihood or recommendation in the refpective parishes through which he paffed. Mr. D. was as blood thirty a papt as any of thofe whom his fon has defcribed in fuch red and glowing colours in his learned par-. hamentary harangues. But, the day was near at hand when he was to become an addition to the established church. Donnybrook became his refidence for the truth of which we appeal to, the numerous coal and corn por ters which fwarm through this city, and who gratefully acknowledge that. it was from hini they received the firl rudiments of education. A feCentary now fucceeded to the active Ine which Mr. Daigenan led, no longet now was it his cullom to retire from the public eye to banquet on the contents of his pendant wallet, feated on a bed of verdant Sham-. rock, or under the fhade of an incumbent hawthorn, to mingle the cafeal produce of fome charitable dle with the generous ftream, that never was polluted with artifical and deleterious improvement. Thofe days of precarious fubfiftence are now over, and we may now be hold him comfortably lodged in Mr. Daniel's barn, the rightful and fole teacher of fpelling aud reading in the village. Happy for Mr. Dignum and for mankind, his extraordinary appearance attracted the appearance of counsellor Fitzgibbon, then an inhabitant of Donnybrook, father of the late Lord Chancellor Clare. And here we muft ftop to confider the wonderful changes in human affairs, and how many and great events arife from trivial and fortuitous begin nings. If the religion of the father had been ftubborn enough not to yie'd to the temptation held out for embracing another creed, Mr. Per ceval would have this day loft fuch an able coadjutor to stand by him in fupport of the poor church in danger. O that we should forget a nice paffage in Salluft, which ought be here quoted with great propriety and dignity, and which would make this fame fpecimen. of biography worthy of our right honourable subjec. But to proceed, Mr. Dignum hav-` ing read his recantation was, by the affiftance and intereft of the counfellor, (an apoftate himself) appointed to the high office of clerk and fchoolmafter to Bride's Church, in which Proteftant feminary Mr. Dignum cor tinued the first profeffor to his death. His friend the counsellor, thinking it! a pity, to let the progeny of fuch a man mix with the herd of mankind, or commingle with the mafs of mob and matter for which nature has face proved the defigned him, had: young Paddy entered a fervitor or fizer at Trinity College. The Doctor's College years would have perhaps pafled away unnoticed, and he would afterwards have found his proper level in fociety, had not an extraordinary, circumstance him into not ce. A fatirical production under the title of Lachryme Academice appeared in College, and attracted very univerfal attention Paddy fathered the production, tho' no one who knew him, would have fo far belied his talents as to impute. the child to him, were it not for his pofitive affertions. Some ill naturede people fay that our right honourable doctor received a handfome douceurs to take the whole blame to himself, and yet we cannot credit fuch an unnatural calumny when we confider his brilliant labours in the Houfe, where every voice has been raf.d in the praife of his genius-certainly his greatest enemies must allow, after raifed what he has at different times ad vanced concerning his Catholic coun trymen, that he p flefles the most prolific prolific powers of fiction, for inftance, can it be any thing else than poetic licenfe or poetic madness which could authorife fuch an af sertion as, that the whole landed property of the Irish Catholics, did not amount to £.40,000 a year.' Let no one then deny that the Lachryma Academica were not an effulion of his early genius, and the fubftratum of his future fortune. The Doctor now ran his race of greatness like a foaming courfer, the profelyte to Proteftantifm difplayed all the rancour and virulence of a convert who is not fatisfied to love the religion he has embraced, but must hate and perfecute the followers of that which he has deferted. No one could appear a greater enemy to popery and papifts, the temper of the tunes and the diffention of party, favoured his ambition, he had common fenfe füfficient to take advartage of both, and he accordingly railed him felf to the eminence' which he now enjoys. The Doctor's character is not very difficult to be defcribed by the mannerift. A fameness of low rancour and ftupid bigotry pervade every public act of his life, an audacity in advancing ridiculous and wild affertions, concerning the religion and loyalty of the Catholics, gives a brazen font to all his parliamentary fpeeches.-As a fpeaker, he aims at a kind of reflected fame, for whenever Ireland is the fubject of debate, he makes it a point to fpeak after Mr. Grattan. His folly in oppoûtion to the Catholics is fo evident, that even his own party are often afhamed of him. There are many fenfible men who who are of opinion that Dr. Duigenan is at bottom a friend to the religion of his forefathers, and it is not improbable, if we confider that whenever he speaks in the houfe, not a particle of the vrai femblable appears in his orations, not one fentence which is not an antidote to its own poifon, and which does not injure the caufe which he undertakes to fupport. The light in which he is held by the men of talents and confideration in the fenate will appear from the late motion of Mr. Barham to exclude him from a feat in the Privy Council, and from the fpeech of Mr. Tierny, by whom the learned Doctor's merits have been better appreciated than by any other member of Parliament, The Doctor of both laws has twice made his offerings at the altar of Hymen. His first wife was a Mifs Cufack, a Catholic lady of very amiable and accomplished manners, and for whofe convenience it is but juft to inform our readers that the Doctor kept a chaplain in his houfe. His prefent lady was the widow of a Mr. Hepenftall, the brother of a *man well known in our laft civil war by the name of the WALKING GALLOWS. O An account of Doctor Walker's new explanation of the Faith, A religious fect now in exiflence three years, have commenced regular fitings on every Tuesday, at a large loft in Stafford-ftreet, they have not increafed as yet to any confiderable numbers, not having more in brother ly affection acknowledged as real members, than thirteen perfons, including the new apostle, a man of the name of Walker, who we learn, resigned a fellowship in the Dublin University, that he might, with lefs reftraint apply himfelt to the functi ons of his new miffion. |