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Teffia, co. Westmeath; Tuites Pe

tits and Daltons. Thomond, co. Clare; O'Briens. Thawly, co Mayo; O'Hara.

From the French of Mainard.

Anacreontic.

Death, gueft unwelcome, keep away,
I hate thy coffin and thy clay;
When once within thy Womb we
dwell,

Joy, focial joy and wine farewell.
For far as in thy realms I fee,
There's not one drop to get from thee.

Marfbal Saxe:

THIS gallant officer, a few weeks after the brilliant campaign of 1745, ufed to drive out in the environs of Paris, without any friend or even attendant. On his return, one day, the coachman ftopt as ufual at one of the city gates, for the inspection of the gate-keeper, "N'avez vous rien a declarer Monfieur ?" Before the Marfhai could reply, the officer. inftantly recognifing his perfon, faid, "Excufez Monfieur, laurels pay no duty"

PURITANIC ZEAL:

The following Votes are extracted from the Journals of the House of Commons, dated July 23, 1645.

ORDERED that all fuch pictures and ftatues there (York House) as are

without any fuperftition, shall be forthwith fold, for the benefit of Ireland and the North.

Ordered, that all fuch pictures there, as have the reprefentation of the fecond perfon in the Triuity upon them, fhall be forthwith burnt.,

Ordered, that all fuch pictures there, as have the reprefentation of the Virgin Mary upon them, fhll be forthwith burnt.

Bertrand du Guesclin.

THE great Turenne lies in the abbey of Saint Denis, without any monumental infcription, owing, as it is faid, to the jealoufy of a monarch, by no means wanting, in other refpects, in magninimity. Bertrand du Guefclin, an hero of earlier tines, reposes in a monument unworthy of the facred depofit. This warrior, the pride of chivalry, and the glory of France, appears, by the diminutive figure on his tomb, to have been little fitted for the enterprises of war; yet cotemporary hiftorians represent him of an athletic and manly fize. The laft fcene of Guefclin's glorious career is fingularly remarkable.

The governor of Rendon, to which he had laid fiege. had capitulated, and engaged to give up the place, in ca fe no fuccour arrived within a certain number of days. Du Guefclin fell ill before this time, and died on the day preceding the expiration of the truce. On the morrow, the governor was fummoned to furrender; he kept his word; but as it was to Du Guefclin himfelf he had given it, he came out attended by the chief officers of the garrifon, and going directly to Guefclin's tent, he placed the keys of the town upon the coffin of the breathlefs hero.

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The Adventures of a Scholar.

Written by himself.

(Continued from page 16.)

SHE was indeed a truly pious woman-she had a soul of the tenderest sensibility, uncultivated and unpolished, but adorned with the sweetest simplicity, natures own and most pleasing dress. The lowliness of their circumstances was the only bar to their intentions and the continual source of their disquietude. How often, when the days toil and bustle was over, would they sit together in all the transport of conjugal endearment, with their little innocents hanging about their knees, to ease their loaded hearts and pour the balm of consolation into one another's breast.-My father would sometimes say, talking of me, "Ah Peggy (for that was my mother's "christian name) if God would give us means and the boy grace, "how happy should we be to de"vote him to his service.-But we "must be contented with what "heaven sends and not repine at "the will of God. Perhaps we "ought not to hold up our thoughts "so high. I'm but a poor carpen"ter and people would laugh at us "if they found so poor a man would "attempt to make his son a gentle"man. However let him take his "chance; I am in hopes that God "has something in store for him " and I'll give him schooling enough "at any rate." Such were my father's words, his sentiments and his hopes. His native pride, that pride which animates the humblest Irish peasant, inspired him with ambition. Already his ardent fancy placed me in a pulpit and my audience in tears. Already did he anticipate the triumphs which I might gain in theo

logical disputation, over the domineering bigotted ministers of the protestant church. His sanguine expectations were not a little raised by my mother's encouragement to persevere in his intentions, and by the exhortations of a host of aunts and uncles, all of whom expected masses innumerable to be said by me for their souls after their decease.— I was accordingly kept at school, and from continually hearing my parents talk of making me a priest, I imbibed the desire, and my young heart beat in unison with their wishes. I was always to be seen at the chapel

I served the parish priest's mass attended him with his vestments at the stations-all the old men consulted me, though only eleven years old, about the fasts and holidays; and I always could tell two days before sunday whatever was to be cried on the altar. Good father O'Mealy used to stroke down my hair, look pleased in my face, and shake me by the hand, calling me one of the most promissing boys in the village. His venerable figure will be impres sed on my memory even as long as the remembrance of his kindness. He had as benign a soul as ever tenanted a happy bosom. He was the father of every orphan, and no houseless stranger ever passed his door without feeling the force of his generous hospitality. He was at this period in the sixtieth year of his age, and enjoyed a calm old age which made him some amends for the persecutions of his youth. He used to stand over me sometimes in one of his thinking moods, and laying his hand on one of my shoulders would bid me take courage: "I was like

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you, my child," he would say, "when young I had not perhaps so "much hopes, yet God did for me, I "suffered a great dale to be sure at"terwards, but it was in his service,

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"now I am happy as the day is long, "and I expect to be happier hereafter; be a good and virtuous boy " and who knows what yet may be "come of you." These and such like, expressions gave me some expectation that he intended to provide for me, and I was not much mistaken. An occurrence soon took place which entirely determined him to educate me for his own profession: He had a nephew, a beautiful boy, whom he supported at a Latin school; his beloved relative took ill and died -the news affected him deeply, but he bowed his head in pious resignation to the Almighty, adding a tear or two to the stream of his early sorrows. In a few days after this event he sent for my father, asked him several questions concerning me, and when with some bashful reluctance on the part of my father he came to know his extended views, he in stantly proposed to take me to himself and place me on the footing of his nephew; my father joyfully agreed; and henceforth behold me the inmate of a worthy clergyman and the chief object of all his assiduity. -We lived in the plainest manner, our table knew not what was splendour, but we enjoyed the luxury of content, and our thatched habitation could boast more happiness than the palace of royalty. The honest farmers were wont now and then to bring us a goose, a turkey, or a parcel of chickens; we lived on their generous contributions, and our simple meal was sweetened with the idea that it was the present and pledge of their love.

The good clergyman's affection for me every day grew strengthened; in his leisure hours his chief delight consisted in teaching me the rudi ments of the Latin tongue, and in enriching my mind with his useful remarks on religion and learning,

He made me also begin the French language in which he himself was competent to instruct me, having studied in the Irish college at Nantz. Father O'Mealy had qualities exclusive of his literary attainments that ranked him far above the generality of men. He had a soul that possessed the most exquisite feeling, the most noble pride, and the most unshaken independance. Educated at a court he would have been its ornament; as it was, he displayed amidst the narrow circle of his village acquaintance a politeness that diffused improvement amongst them. To him I owe that spirit of independence which has been at once my happiness and my ruin. My heart imbibed his strong lessons on the sufferings of our ancestors, and the tales of his youth breathing an atrocity in persecution that almost advanced them to fiction, inflamed my young breast with patriotic ardor, and animated me to anticipations of vengeance. I continued with him for nearly two years, at the end of which I was pretty well acquainted with the easiest of the classics; I read Cæsar, Sallust, and Virgil with the greatest facility; I knew something of church history, and the history of my own country; I got a few general ideas of geography and a slight tincture of the mathematics. With this little store of learning which I had acquired by labour and attention, Father O'Mealy considered me fit to enter on the course of studies which every poor Irishman who was intended for the ministry (and at that period they, like the apostles, were all poor) used to follow. I was consequently obliged to separate from my worthy patron and protector, I immediately set off for one of those rural academies in Munster, to which the hordes of young men, who are generally denominated

Invention of the Art of Printing.

IT is agreed on all hands that since the year 1440 different efforts were made for the discovery of this beautiful art, all of which were successless until 1457 when the first printed books made their appearance. There were indeed some works in the world a little carlier, but they cannot be said to be printed, the characters having been only engraved on wood, covered with ink, and then pressed on paper. The chief and inost perfect of those was a Latin Dictionary, entitled Catholicon, which John Trithemius informs us was edited about the year 1450. Joseph Scaliger possessed some books worked off in this manner which the Chinese even still practice. If we consider the difficulty of casting a sufficient number of alphabets necessary to print the immense volumes that came forth in 1457, and the five following years; if we bear in mind also that the first discoverers kept their own secret, and employed but a very small number of workmen lest it might go abroad, we must be astonished at the persevering spirit of the men, who, by their incessant labours in so short a period as 17 years, brought so difficult an art to perfec tion.

minated in Ireland poor scholars, usually flocked. The reverend hoBest father whom I left gave me cre.. dentials to the parish priest of the place and to the neighbouring far mers; on his and their hospitality I was to live, and it therefore was of advantage to me to be well recommended to their generosity. In the county of Tipperary, at the foot of the mountain known by the name of the Devil's Bit, was situated the Washbin, the name of the seminary to which I now repaired. It consisted of five or six seperate colleges otherwise hovels, each of which had an indefinite number of students and over which a common master presided. I will be particular in my description of the manner in which I was educated, because the opportunities of learning which the rulers of Ireland in these times allowed to the Catholic clergy, were so very few and are even at this day so little known by the world. England ut that time waged war against both our liberties and our religion. The unfortunate Catholic, on account of his creed, was too profane to enter into the sanctuary of the British constitution; to embitter the unjust privation he saw its blessings lavishly enjoyed before him by the lowest, the most depraved, and the most worthless of the pot-walloping comnity: the son was hooted against the father, by the "benign and wholesome laws" of English governors, made for the propagation and preser. vation of protestant ascendancyBy desertion from his religion he could dispossess of all his estates the very being who gave him birth.Education was entirely proscribed, and the wretched Irishman had no alternative but to remain in that ig. norance which was necessary for his continuance in slavery, or to fly for it to a foreign land.

(1o be continued.)

Those who have written of the place where this art was invented and of the persons who had the honour of its discovery, do not generally agree in their relations. The Dutch writers claim it for their own country and tell us that it was first discovered at Harlem, by Laurence Coster and his son-in-law Thomas Pieterse; over Coster's house at Harlem is still to be seen his portrait, with two Latin inscriptions. In the first 'tis said that, in this house printing was first discovered in the year 1440. In the other, which is in ho

nor

our of Coster, he is said to have invented it in 1430, ten years before he made it known to the world

Hadrian Junius, a learned Dutchman in his Batavia, 17th chapter, speaking of Harlem, has touched on this matter, and accuses John Faustis, one of Coster's workmen, with having stolen some of his characters and brought them to Mayence, and there passing for the inventor himself.

Others, amongst whom Jacob Carme in particular, in his book on the true origin of printing, and James Mentel, give this honour, on the authority of the Chronicle of Strasbourg, to John Mentel, and also affix the period of its discovery to the 40th year of the fifteenth age.

Mattaire rejects both these opinions and concurs with Trithemius whom he quotes as living with the nephew of the inventor. His opinion is, that they were citizens of Mayence; their names Peter Opilio, John Guttenberger, and John Faustus. That they lived together, and that even to this day their house goes by the name of the Printing

house.

After the first inventors of printing are to be ranked Peter Schoeffer who lived also at Mayence: Nicholas Janson, a Frenchman, who lived, in Venice. This latter is particularly celebrated for his very beautiful editions in the Roman character, and one book of his is preserved with a Latin and Italian title, Decor Puellarum, or Honore delle Donzelle, the beauty of which shews that ne very soon carried the newly discovered art to the highest pitch of perfection. For a considerable time no one attempted to print the Greek character; very few understood the language, and if a Greek sentence occurred in any of the Latin works its place was supplied by a blank line. There are extant some early editions of Cicero in which this defect is to

be seen; the first book in which the Greek characters were legibly printed was Aulus Gellius in the year 1469, by Conrard Sweinheim and Arnold Punnaris, two German printers who had settled themselves at Rome. Andrew Bishop of Aleria in the island of Corsica, rendered great services to the art of printing by lending his manuscripts to those printers, and even superintending them in the execution. He edited Aulus Gellius (mentioned above) in which Theodore Gaza, a very learned Grecian of those days assisted him. The two German printers growing poor altho' by their joint labours they had printed 12415 volumes, addressed Pope Sixtus the fourth for pensions to support their families, which he granted to them. Amongst those were the works of Lactantius, St. Austin's city of God, the epistles of St. Jerome, and the commentaries of Nicholas of Lira on the Bible. The first Prince to whom the art of printing owed its greatest progress was Louis the XI; he particularly favoured it, established royal printing houses at Paris, from whence it soon spread through the provinces. It was in 1486 that Hebrew books began first to be printed at Venice, Milan and Florence. For the last ten years of the 15th age the most famous printers were John Froben of Bale, Üldric Gering of Paris, and Aldus Manutius of Venice; the labours of the last of those surpassed all that went before him, and to him we owe the most correct editions of the Classics which have ever reached us. In the year 1500 printing became universally known, and curiosity cannot be gratified by a further detail of its chief professors after that period.

Curious

What was meant by a volume in those times, was one large sheet rolled up.

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