BY LADY MORGAN. "Les absens ont toujours tort." "You heare of a case as it were in a dreame, and feell not the smart that vexeth us."-Speech of the Earl of Kildare to Cardinal Wolsey. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1825. ΤΟ CHARLES BROWNLOW, ESQ. M. P. DEAR SIR, YOUR recent speech on the Catholic question, has been hailed as an event favourable to the best interests of Ireland by all who in sympathising with her sufferings, have sought for, and ascertained their master cause. All Irishmen are brave! it is scarce a national boast to say so! for the courage of nerve and sinew is, after all, a quality of pretty general distribution, "from Indus to the Pole." Man is every where a pugnacious animal; and les heros de circonstance-prompt to fight "for any God or King"-are always to be had for hire, be the cavalier pagante who he may. But there is a quality of courage, which has been found rare in all ages and in all regions, the peculiar endowment of high, free, and above all, of honest minds. This is the courage that sets at nought "The world's dread sneer, Which scarce the stern philosopher can scorn," which boldly opposes a startling truth to a received opinion, which frankly recants the cherished error of early associations, and avows the change operated by arduous inquiry and clear conviction, at the expense of all worldly interests, and the sacrifice of all private feelings. Such, Sir, is the courage which you have displayed upon a subject of vital importance to |