corn and meal which the unhappy mother, with the assistance of her female domestics, had secreted, to feed, in the hour of calamity, her houseless and unprotected children; and yet the perpetrator of this disgraceful outrage was promoted to high honours and emolument in the churcha just reward for his humanity and moral virtues. The bad effects from uniting the magisterial with the sacerdotal character, have, independent of the present, been conspicuous on too many occasions, and particularly where party dissensions prevailed, or litigated cases of tithe have come before this lay ecclesiastical tribunal.

It was my fortune, more than once, to witness the zeal with which the church militant performed its civil and military functions. On one occasion, the pious rector, W, escorted a party of military to the house of a friend, who had sheltered me from the licensed assassins that were laying waste the neighbourhood, and committing the most unprovoked and wanton excesses; my person was known to this meek minister of peace, and he came in the garb of a friend, the better to betray. I eluded, however, his search, for being apprised by an honest peasant of the situation in which he had posted his party, I escaped the snare; but unfortunately for my kind and hospitable host, in

retaliation he was made prisoner, escorted to the next military provost, stripped of his clothes, and in the presence of his distracted wife, tied up to the bloody triangles!!!

Having been imperceptibly led into a long digression, I return to that period of my narrative painfully interesting, and combining but too much of domestic with national misfortune. As yet the system of free quarters had not commenced; great and shameful acts of atrocity had been perpetrated, but so far, the army had not been generally let loose on the people; there was still some little effort to uphold a show of legislative authority, and in the execution of those acts which deprived the citizen of life, and his children of bread, several of the more humane amongst the British officers refused to bear a part, without the co-operation of the civil magistrate, whose presence alone was deemed sufficient guarantee for the violation of every law of humanity and justice. Some were not influenced by feelings of so delicate a nature; and others, even outstepping, if possible, the bounds of ministerial depravity, seemed only to experience delight in proportion to the misery they inflicted on their fellow-men. Amongst this class of monsters was the corps of Ancient Britons; humanity shudders in re

viewing their acts, while the pen of the historian would be polluted in recording the disgusting scenes.

When the life of a virtuous individual had escaped the sword of the assassin, or his unassailable conduct and character formed a shield against the informer's malice, his property was doomed a prey to lawless outrage, and an hour has transferred him from independence to ruin. Many were the occurrences of this nature; one will be sufficient to illustrate the temper of the times, and the injustice of the government that sanctioned the perpetration of acts which no law of expedience or necessity could justify.

My father, whose open and manly character afforded so little room for calumny or misrepresentation, that even the hired informer stopped in his career of infamy, and more than once refused the proferred price for his impeachment, was now the marked victim of ministerial vengeance. In the blush of open day, within the immediate vicinity of two garrisoned towns, an active magistracy, and an armed police, his property was assailed, the most deliberate devastation committed, and his entire establishment, in the course of a few hours, was left a desolate ruin. My mother, with my sisters, was received with much kindness and hospi

tality by her brother, a gentleman of considerable fortune, on the borders of Meath, a man of warm heart, gentle disposition, and courteous manners; and, though imbued with the sentiments of that portion of the Catholic aristocracy who were opposed to the system of union, he was not deficient in personal courage, nor insensible to the feelings of fraternal regard, and his house afforded an asylum to his female relations, whilst the male branches of the family were almost universally proscribed.

CHAPTER VIII.

Prison scene-Petition to the throne for dismissal of ministers.

It was about this period that my father received permission, for the first time, to visit me in my prison. Our meeting was not without deep interest to both. I was conversing with two of my fellow prisoners, Nelson and M'Cracken, on the subject of the late occurrence, when my father entered my cell. We looked for a moment on each other without uttering a word. His fine form and features appeared to have undergone some change since we parted, and perhaps the unwholesome restraint of a prison had not improved my external appearance. "Thank God!" he exclaimed, folding me in his arms, "the tyranny of man cannot fetter the mind, nor sever the tie that unites the kindred soul." Turning to my companions, he saluted them with a feeling which was heightened by the peculiar situation in which we were relatively placed:-then addressing my friend Nelson and