We have never known luck nor grace since we had dealings with you. Mr. Bull is too great a man; no fit connexion for us. Many and many an honest fellow has been ruined, and brought to a morsel of bread, by pretending to associate and claim kindred, and keep company with those above him. He is like a little cock boat, holding on by the painter, and trying to keep close to a big ship in the storm.

"I tell you what, the very best thing for poor Paddy would be, to make a child's bargain with the great Mr. Bull, let me alone, and I'll let you alone. I make it with all the veins of my heart. The time may come, when you shall be brought to agree to it; let us be civil strangers for the future, and that is the way to make us good friends."

"On the following day, the road led through a delightful country. Nature and art seemed to have conspired together to try which should beautify it the most. The projecting rock and deep glen, and venerable oak of the former were diversified with the swelling eminence, the sloping lawn and graceful planting of the latter. In the distant horizon, the brightness of the bleaching greens, the russet of the mountain top, and the verdure of its sides, shot into each other like the changing colours of a lutestring, while the rich purple of the sky, threw over the whole a kind of celestial brightness.

"I was now greatly amused with the conversation of an old Covenanter, who was going home from meeting, and overtook me as I was sauntering carelessly along. He had already walked three miles, and had five more to go. He seemed in raptures with the preacher he had travelled so far to hear.

"A bonnier discourse," said he, "was ne'er penned-spoke for twa gude hours and a half, and ne'er looked at book or paper-proved to us from aw authorities, both ancient and modern, that man was born to die."

"That is no difficult matter to prove," I said, "most people know that as well as the preacher."

"For what they know I canna say," answered he, "but I

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know what they do-there is the big man, now, that owns that pelace before us."

“Yes,” said I, “"he's a great lord."

"He's na great lord sur," said he "there's na great lord ava, but the great Lord of heaven-augh but man put himself in the place of his maker, and must be bowed down to, and worshipped like the golden calf of the Israelites."

"His lordship," I said, "is the head of an ancient family." "Alder than gude," said he, "I'll be bound for it—gin we are to jndge by what we hear o him-he leads a bra ranting life in London-gangs to plays and such like places, and then he comes over among us and brings his fine medems, like so many painted Jezabel's—but yough hough, the worm is their mother and sister, and when they are dead, what becomes of aa their pride and their airs? Lezurus will be in Abraham's bosom-I wunna say where they may chance to be."

"A well dressed and good-looking young woman was washing her feet by the road side. We stopped to have a few moments' conversation with her. She had walked some distance, and was going to a friend's house on a very particular errand; with true northern foresight, she had carried her shoes and stockings in a handkerchief, and was now washing her feet in order to put them on, that she might step in with all due smartness. When she had finished dressing herself, she proceeded on with us. She was very communicative, and told us the business she was coming on, which was to look after a stray sweetheart. As I walked a little behind, I overheard her tell my companion, who had a good deal the look of a diviner, the dream which pointed out the spot where she would find him.

"The old Covenanter and I continued conversing a good while after the young dreamer had left us. He was a shrewd and intelligent man. I was impressed as much with the singularity of his language, as the singular construction and independence of his mind. He never in speaking of persons, the most exalted in rank, or considerable wealth, said lady or

gentleman, but woman or man-lords, bishops, and even esquires, were not so much the objects of his hatred, as of his derision and contempt. "Na na, na," said he, "it wunna bear controversy, when there is na meerit, you would na surely gee a teetle, and when there is, it only disgrace-wha ever said Mr. Matthew, or Mr. Luke, or Mr. John ?"

"Were my opinions the same as his, and as far as transendent merit is concerned, they certainly are I should have given a similar, though probably, a less evangelical illustration. I should, probably, have asked who ever said Lord Verulam, or Mr. Milton, or Mr. Shakespeare?

"The Covenanters, it is hardly necessary to say, are the most rigid of Presbyterians, and the same who in Scotland, by their fatal opposition to the unfortunate Charles, led to the overthrow of the monarchy, and the inundation of these kingdoms with blood. They do not yet even pray for the king, because he has not taken the solemn league and covenant; nor do they pray by name for any person whatever. They are rigid maintainers of the ancient and now almost exploded doctrine of election and reprobation, and would not choose to waste their prayers on one, whom according to their benevolent system, the Almighty has perhaps pre-ordained to eternal misery before the world was:

"As wordlings do, giving their sum of more,

To that which has enough."

"They pray (generally) for all under the influence of the election of grace, or for whom there are purposes of salvation or mercy, absent or present from the highest to the lowest, and from the nearest to the remotest, throughout the immensity of created space.

"The number of their congregations in this country, is about twenty. They have now public worship, pretty generally in houses; formerly it was almost universally performed in the open fields. Their ancestors were driven by persecution to wilds and glens, where only they could worship their maker by stealth and in secrecv. and by a natural association, more

pleasurable than otherwise, they retained the custom long after the original cause was removed. I recollect being at one of those meetings, when I was a very little boy, it is present to my recollection as fresh, as if it were only yesterday. I see it now as if it were before my eyes; the bright sun and clear sky-the wild glen, and dark woods, and foaming torrent-the thin dapper figure-the sharp face and keen visage of the preacher, as he projected his head from the little pulpit, covered with canvass, placed on the verge of the hill; the immense multitude of all ages and sexes, in scarlet cloaks and grey mantles, and blue and russet-coloured, and heathdyed-coats in hoods and bonnets, and mob caps, and old fashioned hats, standing, sitting, and lying around.".

It has been alleged, though falsely, against Mr. O'Connell, that he cannot discover any virtue in a Protestant; it is, however, one of those opinions which the illiberal minded have adopted, without any other ground for its support than hatred and prejudice. It is, therefore, pleasant to represent him in those situations, where he is seen in his real character, divested of the partiality of friendship, or blackened by the malice of enmity. Wherever Mr. O'Connell, in his short tour in the north of Ireland, met with an individual, with whom he entered into any of the common relations of human society, he asked not first of himself, whether he was Protestant or Catholic? it was enough for him to know that he was a good and virtuous man; and that being ascertained, all other considerations vanished before him. Not a stronger proof can be given of the truth of the foregoing remarks, than the general tenour of his conduct during the whole of his northern tour, when he was thrown chiefly into the society of Protestants, and many of them ministers of the established church. That the mind of Mr. O'Connell was open to the reception of every general truth, cannot be denied, but by those, whose obliquity of vision would not allow them to look direct into the attributes of his character, and who, hood-vinked by prejudice, could see nothing in his actions, but self-interest and personal aggrandizement. A universal religion is incompatible and inconsis

tent with the political and physical state of the world, and on the same principle, it is difficult to say, whether a universal truth can be established; at all events, if one set of men take up an opinion that they are in the possession of any universal truth, and that it is their business to procure for that truth a universal reception, they become, of necessity, intolerant members of society. If another set of men, either participate with the former, in the persuasion of the reality of this supposed universal truth, and of the duty of its propagation, or are simply absorbed with the consideration of the motives, laudable in the abstract, of the band first described, and not regardful of the practical operation of these motives; these, in their turn, necessarily become abettors, defenders, and encouragers of the intolerance and persecution, of which the others are the actors.

But, among the political public in England, as also among that of other countries, there are also a number of persons, who are prepared to play, at least, this second part; mistaking now religion, and now philosophy for politics; forgetful of the limits, which on every side belong to things political, and thinking only of the universality, which belongs truly to things religious, or philosophical alone. Mr. O'Connell in all his judgments, and it may be added, with the strictest adherence to truth, in all his actions also, separated philosophy from politics, and consistently with that mode of action, he admitted that upon almost any subject proposed to human inquiry, there should be room for a diversity of opinion, and that the preachers of any doctrine should be honoured with followers; these things are no other than to be expected, and when of the class of things not affecting human affairs, they are always of, comparatively, slight concern. But where the effect of our opinions must be immediately discovered in our actions, then the importance of this justice becomes invaluable, and this in proportion to the sphere within which our actions are to operate. If those actions have reference to the welfare of a whole people, and still more, if they refer to that of a whole world; then their importance is obviously great, indeed!