Tho' the author of the following letter in a private note expreffed fome fears for its infertion, we have to inform him that we are too ambitious of decoration for our Magazine, to fuffer fuch an elegant fpecimen of the vituperative style in writing to appear before the public in any other publica

tion.

Now taking on ourselves all refponfibility for the paffage in our laft number's obituary, which has roufed his honeft indignation, we are fure he cannot complain of illiberal treatment, when we thus give apage or two to the flood of abuse which he pours on

We cannot blame this difconfolate mourner for efpoufing the cause of his friend and relative' fo vigorenfly; we only think that while he advocates the caufe of the departed fairt, he lules himfelf entirely in the contufion of his irritated feelings. The poor man is perhaps one of the conventicle, and why fhould he not be angry? Or fome good-natured clerk of the late alderman, who fcizes this opportunity of paying a tri bute of love to his mafter's memory. The zeal, breathing fire and burning through the whole letter, inclines us to the former opinion; but the neat round hand of the autograph, beautified by charming flourishes and a profusion of capitals greatly leads us to the latter. We wish we could prefent our readers with a fac fimile of our correfpondent's epiftle, and then they might fee with what grace a charge of inelegance comes from the writer. Tho' he tears every claffical feather from our brow, and putson our head the dirty cap of vulgarity; yet we have prefumption enough to think that he himfelf muft have spent a few hours in Pill-lane, from the Foiffardes of which place he certainly has learned the fweet-founding and genteel titles of villain, ruthan, affallin, &c. &c. Now vulgar as we are, we would not

apply to the God an ! illustrious de d Alderman' thefe naughty names; nor can we well imagine, how he, who can rhapfodize fo finely about " "plunging poignards into cold remains, and caufing second diffolutious,' could glide fo naturally into nick-names and fourrility. To be ferious, it is our intention always to unmask the hypocrite, to howl after the real bigot, and neither the titles of lord or alderman fhall ever fcreen any illustrious bad man from our cenfure. even aker death. If his maxim were univerfally followed, nil de mortuis nisi bonum dicere, the caufe of virtue would not this day be ferved by the abhorrence which mankind feel for the memory of a Nero; Irishmen could not execrate the infamous Elizabeth, nor could they multiply pofthumous curfes on Pitt, the union-maker. Without meaning a comparison between thefe great illustrious dead and our corref pondent's little illust ious dead, we will conclude, by giving him till a greater proof of our liberality, promifing him that if he writes a decent handsome elegy on his pious friend and relation, and takes care to finish his sentences, and to pay fome attention to grammatical exact ess, we shall give it a place just near our obituary.

yeu mult excufe my warmth, when you reflect on the outrage committed Dot only on the Feelings of a Friend and Relative; but alfo on the common Feelings of Humanity.

Political Differences, Sir, have too frequently in this unhappy Country, been the Caufe of Animofities among the Living: But the Writer of the Article alluded to, has with a Species of Barbarity peculiar to himfelf, carried his venomous Malice beyond the Grave, and Attempts to disturb the Repofe of the Good and Illuftrious Dead.

To Apply to this Writer the Terms of Villain or Affaffin does not in my Opinion Sufficiently Convey an adequate Idea of the Atrocity of his Guilt; And I believe he English Language is deficient in an Appopriate Term to beflow on the Sanguinary Spirit of an Anonymous Ruf fan, who after Death has feized its Victim, endeavours, to Caufe a Second Diffolution in the Hearts of Surviving Friends by plunging his Poignard into the Cold Remains of departed Honor, Worth and Vir

tue.

neglected Biography and the Wif dom of Rational Men will no doubt Confign both Author and Work to well-merited Contempt and Oblivion. . The Scholar and the Gentleman wil alike turn afide with Difgult from his Production: And the Chriftian will find Exercife for his Faith, and make it an Effert of Piety and Refignation, not to repine at Providence for permitting The Existence of fucha Reptile as the Writer.

Having occupied you longer than I intended in expreffing thofe Feelings of Abhorrence which in Common with all Man-kind I must feel at the Unmanlinefs and Cruelty of Attacking The Character of thofe that are no more; I fhall not dwell on the Virtues and good Qualities that adorned my good and highly refpeted Relative and Friend. His beloved memory is already Entombed in the Hearts of his numerous Friends; and in Spite of the Libel you have published, his very Name will Cónftantly recall to their Remembrance every Sentiment of real Virtue and unaffected Piety; I repeal it of Piety for It required little Penetration to difcover, That his Title to his Qualification alone, called forth the profane and Scurrilous Abuse Contained in your Magazine, and which tho' it profefles to uphold a particular System of Religion, It is Evident in one Department at leaft, receives the Af fiftance of a Writer of no Religion at all.

A Review of the whole Publication opens its Objects and Views: It is unneceffary for me to enter into them; I have done with the Author of your Obituary; I leave him to his own Reflections, with this Admonition, That Repentance is never too late. I need not add that I am proud of

To the Editor of the Irish Magazine.

I promised you, Sir, in my laft, to fend a few remarks on the prefent ftyle of preaching, and my ideas on the preachers of the metropolis.-Tho' at firft it was my intention to fpeak of the Catholic preachers only, I intend at a future period to offer you my obfervations on the pulpit oratory of the other churches in Dublin.

Amongst the many clergymen of the Catholic perfuafion who have by their talents raised themselves to public notice the two Vicars-general of the Diocese, Drs. Hamil and Betagh ftand prominently forwards. They are both now in the wane of life, the formar has been forced into retirement from the labours of the miffion, by the feebleness and afflictions of age; but the other gifted with a better conAitation, fights in the caule of religion and human happiness, even at the very goal of mortality. The individual merits of thefe great men might perhaps be beft developed by inftituting a comparifon between them. With the fame great end in view, the honor of their God and the falvation of their fellow men, they have travelled different ways, but both ferve to shew the various capabilities of the human mind. Dr. Hamil feemed to have from nature a finer imagination, a more exuberant fancy, a more correct judgment, and confequently a more exquifite tafte for the beauties of compofition. He cultivated his knowledge of the English language with more labour, and thereby rendered his fermons complete models of claffical elegance aed melodious diction. Dr. Beagh on the other hand, defpifes the ornament of studied and brilliant language. The dry fubjects of controverfy, we muft allow, do not afford fuch a wide field for oratorical difplay and the flyle of the controverfial writers with whom Dr. Betagh muft

neceffarily have spent his nights and his days, was fo very depraved, that he could borrow nothing from them but mere naked argument. His difcourfes are therefore more remarkable for folidity, for point, for hiftorical illuftration than any of thofe graces of eloquence which adorn the fermons of the claffical Hamil. The af fiducus attendance at Francis-ftreet, of thofe great ornaments of our country, Grattan and Curran, whenever Dr. Hamil preached, is not the least praile which his talents have extorted from the public. Grattan was heard to fay, that there exifted in his fermons, a fel city of compofition and atrangement which even Kirwan did not poffefs. Kirwan fpoke in thuhder, but the mild angel of the gospel breathed peace and inftruction to mankind, in the voice and language of Dr. Hamil. I will venture to fay that if this good man could be prevailed on to give his difcourfes to the public, that Tillotfon would be do longer the ftandard of pulpiteloquence with the young preacher.

The next preachers who challenge our attention, are the Rev. Drs. Molloy and D'Arcy. Both those clergymen are univerfally known, tho' the latter, on account of his abfence in England, has not appeared fo often before the public as the former'Tis not very eafy to form one's judgment of Mr. Molloy; his fermons are always unequal, alternately fablime and affecting-low and heavy

He learned his rhetoric in the Italian school, and he gives his fancy all the fcope and flight of an Italian poet. Depending on the refources of his great talents, he feems to have neglected ftudy, and not to have improved his judgment by fober, midnight reflection. If he had left his Taffo and his Arioflo in Italy, and burned the ftudent's lamp over the correct and fimple Addifon, 'tis pro

bable

bable that Mír, Molloy would be at this day she greatest preacher the empire could boast. He has all the requities of a great orator.-Nature has done every thing he could for A fine perfon, a voice poffeffing all the force of thunder, and all the tones of weeping, a genius equal to the highest foarings of the fublime, and a foul with more than the fenfibility of a woman. Thefe energies, if brought into action by refined tafte and fooer judgment, would have railed him, indeed, to an enviable fituation amongst the eloquent. Unfortunately however, Mr. Molloy does not feem to value much his oratorical powers, and accordingly we hear from him thofe hurried effufions, which, tho' they bear the stamp of fterling genius, yet are often filled with fuftian and bombaft. thoughts by their naked force harrow up my feelings and extort my tears; but then I immediately fmile at fome puerile fancy, at fome wiid metaphor fying far beyond nature. Not fo the Rev. Mr. D'Arcy. This gentleman according to my conception of the perfect pulpit ftyle, advances near to the perfect preacher. He has the fire of Molloy with the correctness of Ha mil Equal to any reach of the fublime, he keeps the mind wound up to atenfion of greatnefs, and he never degenerates into the pompous on one extreme, or into flatness on the other.

read or heard. You almoft faw the half-farved child of famine, the emaciated famifhing manufacturer ftalking before you. You heard the orphan's cry of hunger calling for affiftance to the corpfe of its departed mother, whom death had juft fnatched from the anguish of be holding her little one perish. You found yourfelf in the room of fickness, in the habitation of difeafe, and your foul fickened at the diftreffing fcene, until the orator thought proper to remove thefe af. fecting objects from before you.

I must now conclude, Sir, with a promife to continue the fubject in your next number. LAICUS.

He leads you where he pleafes, and you are aftonished at his tranfitions from the most impaffioned flow of oratory to the level of fober inftruction. Mr. D'Arcy poffeffes a particular at triftion for an Irish audience. He is all heart, you feel that he has a congeniality of foul with yourfelf, and you are imperceptibly led by him into a perfuafion of whatever he wishes to enforce. I was prefent at his laft charity fermon, and I think his defcription of the fufferings of the Irifh pour equal to any thing 1 have either

TION.

000

To the Editor of the Irish Magazine.

SIR,

This great question which has occupied the public mind for fo many years, appears to be a fubje&t no longer entertained by Minifters, they have fairly refifted it in power; having gained that power by a candid and uniform avowal of their principles.-They have not grafped the helm of the state by profefling attachments, or political doctrines which they recanted in office. "No Fopery," was the watchword that drove their antagonists from the royal prefence, and this fame, N Popery, continues to fecure them the confidence of the religious people of England and their conscientious fovereign. There is a refpect which the moft rigid virtue pays to undifguifed and confiftent villany; its frankness is is not calculated to teal your confir dence, to betray your interefts it boldly and openly infults, but it never

meanly

meanly defcends under the guife of friendship, to impofe on the underftanding, to worm itself through public credulity, into public good opinion, fill keeping within its coil the poifon of intended treachery.

For my part, fir, as a member of the catholic community, I am not fufficiently inftrued in the immediate advantage and utility of catholic emancipation. If it will contribute to the extenfion of our trade; if it will give a ftimules to industry; if it will take even a fcanty portion from the load of poverty and wretchednefs which bears down the peafant; if it adds the Juxury of a little comfort to his meal of falt and potatoes; if it decreafes the number of abfentees, who fpend in the imperial city, the produce of that land which is nurtured by our fweat and wetted with our tears; i. it will do any of thefe fervices, let us never ceafe crying for this emancipation 'till we obtain it.-But fuppofe that thefe evils I have mentioned fhould remain after emancipation, fuppofe the union act should not be repealedwhat is it to me or to the peafant, to fee Lord Fingal in the fenate, where he might fell his vote for a place, to fee Mr. Byrne ride in a coach with a coronet and get a bow or a falute from Lord This-one or That-oneto hear Mr. Randle Mac Donell mump a fpeech very full of manicipal wifdom, at William-ftreet, or fee him grow fatter than he is, by eating turtle with grofs-feeding Aldermen. I have had always my fears of the fair intentions of the Dublin catholic arif tocracy, and I am by recent occur. rences, fully perfuaded that they are only fruggling hard with each other to try who can bring us first to market, 'Tis a bad fign too not to behold the Patriot Keogh amongst our now lead

ers.

In fact, the natural representa thus of the people by their felt-appoint tent, their infolent affumption of an

exelufiue right of leadership ought to excite our indignation and make us caft them from our confidence, The catholics must be fadly debafed if they fuffer themfelves to be thus bartered by an affociation between the haughtinefs and vanity of birth and vulgar opulence, that has no one qualification but the accidental one of wealth. The fenfe, the letters, the industry, the peafantry, the hierarchy of Ireland, are all about to be brought to a British market; there like any other Smithfield bargain, the fellers are to have the profits, and the catholic cattle are filent'y and tamely like good beafts as they are, conveyed over in exchange for foolish honours and empty power.

If we are to look for emancipation, let us feek for it like men; let the country act for itself-let them follow the example of the county and city of Kilkenny where the independance of the people has manifested itself, unfhackled by Natural Reprefentatives "But if we are to be fold, let us be brought to the minifterial hammer by our Old Reprefentatives-let the legitimate chapmien have the exclufive right of offering the national commodity for purchase; but for heaven's fake, let us not fuffer ourfelves to be gagged and bound by the Hero of Tara and his compeers, and four millions as we are, be driven like a heard of fwine to St. James's.Perhaps I have run my metaphor too far, my with is that the people whom the Lord, the Orator, and the Grocer defpife, should understand me; that my fellow citizens of Dublin fhould know themfelves, and the petty tyrants of public oppinion, who have taken advantage of the convention act, to delegate themfelves for the catholic body.

Though thefe ideas may not meet yours on the fubject of catholic emancipation, I hope you will have libera<