AS the late judicial strictures on the conduct of the Catholics for their home conduct, have been very impressive, and as the rights, condition, and intelligence of Grand Jurors have been connected with the national question. We present to our numerous readers, the first steps of a Juryman's progress at the time he is put into the CITY CRADLE for education, in a handsome Engraving, which we will continue monthly in a regular series, until the young gentleman arrives to the highest city honours. THE HE city cradle has been more than a century in St. James's street, and in that period it has done more for the Protestant ascendancy, has given more magistrates, grand jurors, and other minor officers, to the support and credit of the state than any other machine in the British dominions. When a young student is introduced to the college, he is generally from two hours to two years of age. The ceremony of his introduction is done by ringing a bell, the handle of which 'hangs over the cradle, which the person who makes the human deposit, does in a very quick manner and departs. The porter, with whose lodge FOR JANUARY, 1812, VOL. V. the cradle communicates. takes up the child, and he is transferred to the head nurse and the brander, one strips him, and the other applies the hot seal which marks him in indelible characters, and the future hero is fed, washed, and dressed in the costume of the establishment, and given in care to one of the nurses, who is instructed to reconcile him by a meal of bread and milk to his destiny. Alderman Tony King, who weilded the city feck, and bore the Mayor's chain in the year 1779, declared to the Earl of Harcourt, at a corporation dinner, that he was so old when his mother had him shoved into the establishment, he remembered a flying stationer, one of the Luke White's White's of the day, crying the last speech of Rotten-nose Sweeny. The usages of the college have been revised very much since the days of Sir, Anthony, by the judicious care of Lady Ararella Deany, who would not allow any admittance to a child advanced in years, and to prevent any abuse of the regulation, had the cradle shortened to twenty inches When a lad arrives to ten or twelve years of age, if he evinces any superior ability in the church catechism, and particularly in the one used by the institution, which says an immeuse deal about the horrors of popery, and not one word of the name of God, he is transplanted to the Yellow-leg C 1 lege in Oxmantown, where he i nishes his studies. Shooting Season. On Sunday even, a Yeoman of the name of Hall, tuli of contiscated whiskey and loyalty, shot a boy of the rame of Byrne dead, in Aungier street. This man has been distinguished among his Orange friends for his burning zeal in the days of terror, as Counsellor Burrowes said of Major Bingham, he had laid in such a stock of loyalty that he thought he might occasionally draw on it, to b. nce any little percadilloes he may be guilty of on hooting amusements. We wish it could be convenient to the prevai ing liberality, to disappoint him in his murdering system of book-keeping, to deter his companions, who speculate m brood, for reviving their rule of practice in the metropolis. and that "the United Ermine" will give him such a recommendation about a future settleine it, as will adjust part of the debt me by his brethren of Eriskillen and Mountrath to the gal. lows. Shooting Season continued. Tynel, the Police-man, of Cloward, who wounded a poor man of the name of Kennedy by a pistol shot, and has been laughing at justice these three months, as the magistrates of the vici: ity would Hot grant dny warrant for his apprehension, was arrested on Tuesday, the 17th of December, in his house by Mr. Herbert, junior, of Clonard, who, without any assistance, conveyed the ruffian to Dublin, and lodged him in Newgate, having previously obtained a warrant from Mr. Justice Daly, one of the Judges of the King's Bench; for, as we said before, none of the magistrates ap plied to would sanction the arrest. If the gallows is not allowed to interfere between the mere Irish and the shooters, the French and the Orangemen, will kill off so many of the superabundant population, so alarming to Earl Grey, that they must inevitably be exterminated. Major Bingham. On the day when this magistrate was brought up to receive sentence, he produced many respectable witnesses to prove the loyalty of his character during the rebellion, in mitigation of punishment One gentleman, Sir Simon O'Maley, deposed, that Mr. Bingham's activity as a magistrate, and an officer, had contributed considerably to the safety of the County of Mayo That HE extirpated a very great number of an insubordinate peasantry, and compelled the remainder to seek refuge in the fastnesses of Cunnemara. In days of disturbance this defence of the worthy Major, or we might say, culogium on him, might have its due influence on the reigning ministers of terror; but we cannot be lieve it could be any apology for recent excesses before our DAYS, when the country is not disturbed by incendiaries of the lower ranks. However, the Major was sentenced for his brutal and wanton conduct towards an unoffending Catholic family to THREE MONTHS imprisonment. This af fair of the Major's, leaves a serious impression impression on our mind, and when considered, will affect the public mind also. It appears by the testimonies of Sir Simon O'Maley, and the Honor able Denis Browne, that they conceived the exterminating character they gave of their friend, would be an ample recommendation to the judges of the King's Bench, for the extension of mercy to the magisterial malefactor; that is, the Court would entertain a more favorable opinion of the culprit, because he extirpated some hundreds of Irish peasants, and frightened the remainder, to seek safety in the fastnesses of Cunnemara. We say, if the loyal witnesses imagined such atrocity of conduct would have influence on the Judges in favor of Bingham, that the persons guilty of so foul an asper. sion on the administration of justice, would deserve the severest reprehension. The feelings of the Court on the business, gave the lie to such insinuation, as they sentenced Major Bingham to pay three hundred pounds to the King, and to be imprisoned three months in Kilmainham gaol. Letter from Kilkenny, As I am at present about to perform a tour of this country, a few observations respecting the place in which I am now stationed may not be unacceptable. On Monday evening I arrived at Kilkenny, a city deservedly celebrated in the annals of Ireland. Its wholesome situation is not inferior to its elegance, to which nature and art have. sensibly lent their respective contribu tions. There are several fine monuments of Irish catholicity dispersed in different quarters of the town; but they are now in ruins, a singular in stance of unhallowed usurpation! The Cathedral, now a reformed Church and the Castle, once the residence of the Ormond family, are now most retchedly deserted; the former, on account of the scarcity of the faithful, and the latter, because the aster of the Castle getting disgusted with the inferior refinement of his country. men, thought it adviseable to retire to England. But with respect to this species of voluntary barishment I shall treat extensively at another time, A traveller on catering an extensive and populous city, expects to find every thing corresponding with the dignity of the place; of consequence, every real and sensible imperfection, pay, even that which seems to have a tendency to it, must serve in some re spects to impede the progress of his expectations. Trade, and particu larly that species which regards architecture, is in my opinion the most solid cement of society, it is the surest proof of the advancing improvement of a community. Now this great and national blessing is unreasonably ne glected in Kilkenny. glected in Kilkenny. During the lapse of six years, there have not been three buildings of any note erect ed in the city; nay, I am creditably informed, that several tradesmen were obliged to leave their families, and to seek that sustenance in other quarters, which their native city was unable to afford. This city is subject to another disadvantage, which, if not speedily obviated, must necessarily end in undesirable consequences. What I mean, is an absolute neglect of the mediums calculated for the promotion of science, An intelligent writer observes, that the principal channels through which knowledge is conveyed to man kind are public libraries, public lectures, tures, and periodical publications." Now these channels are in this city most unwarrantal ly aridated. I shall decline from making any remarks on the two former, as their de ficiency is in some respects supplied by many literary establishments; the lat ter, however, is an object of equal significance, and is still more criminal ly neglected. In the city of Kil-' A 2 kenny kenny there is but one periodical publication, which its directors term the Leinster Journal!! This wretched production is entrusted to the care of two Protestant ministers, who, it is to be supposed, are tinctured in some degree with modern virulence, and are therefore determined to insert nothing but what may suit their professional taste. What sort of a paper can be expected from such jobbers? Cer. tainly it must be a mass of fictitious nonsense, or an accumulation of vicious plagiary. I should be justly censurable, were I to pass over in silence the consumptive state of Methodism in this city. This sect (which is nothing else than the old reformed Church, reformed according to a modern plan), is incapable of existing in the pure atmosphere of Kilkenny. There are, indeed, a few swaddling families in the town, but for the want of a peculiar guide, their faith is becoming languid, and it is universally believed, that in a short time they will be heartily satisfied to re-unite themselves to the Mother Church. The fact is, that the missioners meet with a very inhospitable reception from the natives; and though they acknowledge the insults of the rabble, as the choicest favours of heaven, nevertheless experience evinces that such treatment is the surest remedy for keeping such nuisance at a distance. Kilkenny possesses many other peculiar advantages, which tender it superior to many of the larger cities of Ireland-they shall be the subject of a future chap. suant to a notice that appeared in that Chronicle of Liberty, the Leinster Journal. The object of the meeting was, to give a young attorney of the name of Nowlan, an opportunity to explain the particulars of a Bill, which he intended to have presented to Parliament at the opening of the ensuing Session. Colonel Weyms TOOK the chair. Mr. Nowlan, after making the usual declaration of his own incapacity, and assuring his audience he would not trespass long on their patience.-He then began to analize his Bill, and after snuffling for three hours in the most ungracious manner, he lamented he had not time (after spending many nights at it) to conclude his lucubra tion, which contained only 153 sheets, a very unusual quantity of paper for an attorney to cover, from motives purely philanthropic. When Mr Now. lan concluded, the citizens expressed their feeling by a universal hiss, which, in all probability, had condemned the Bill to repose in the tomb of oblivion that awaits its owner; had it not been rescused for a time from the fangs of obscurity by a man whose name is held in too high veneration by the inhabitants of Kilkenny, to treat any mea sure seconded by him with contemptte gentleman is Sheriff Harty. When Mr. Harty next visits his native city, I beg leave to tell him he will render a more substantial service to the peo ple of Kilkenny, by imparting his invaluable secret of impannelling honest juries, to our worthy sheriff, honest Iago, than by seconding this young adventurer. |