If we do this, we must do more. We must also make statutes of labourers for these, persecutions will thin the artizans here as the great plague did formerly in Britain. Like birds of passage, no longer warmed by a genial sun, the instinct of their nature will warn them to depart. Unless restrained by bolts or penalties, they will flock together, even on the house tops, and take their flight no man knows where; not like the summer swallows for a season, and to return again; but like the vital breath, which, when it quits its earthly residence, leaves it for ever to decay and moulder, and returns

no more.

The avarice of the Patricians drove the people of Rome to the monssacer. Who is the people-hating Appius Claudius that would do so here? And if it be done, which of these sleek and pampered masters will it be, Mr. Corwin, or Mr. Minard, that will take upon him the office of Agrippa, to cajole them with a parable, how he is all belly, and they all members; how his vocation is to eat and répose, theirs to work and starve.

Let not these allusions be thought foreign to the point. It is by taking larger views of things that we master the little fidgeting spirit of circumstance. Such considerations are antidotes to those occasional spasmodic affections in the law, which it is important to cure in their insipiency, lest they turn, as in Great Britain, to a chronic malady.

The eulogium of the learned judge upon the common law is, to my judgment, something exaggerated, wben he likens it to the divine system of Providence. "It is in the volume of the common law," he says "that we are to seek for the far greater number, as well as the most important, of the cases that come before our tribunals. That valuable code has ascertained and distinguished with critical precision, and with a consistency that no fluctuating political body could or can attain,

not only the civil rights of property, but the nature of all crimes from trea son to trespass."

When such arguments are used to induce a conviction of a great portion of the American citizens, it is the duty of their advocate to speak out honestly. At the time the com.non law had its origin, no part of which time could be since the beginning of the reign of Richard I. called in law time of memory, and that is about six or seven hundred years ago, no property existed under any of the modifications which now regulate it. There was no commerce, few arts, and little circulation; so that if we were to look into " that volume" alone, we should not find a rule to square with any transaction of our lives. If, therefore, it be like divine Providence, divine Providence has long abandoned us. And were we now to adopt the usages of those times, we should be like masqueraders upon the present stage of society. Touching shoemakers certainly we should find no laws, for lord and lady, knight and esquire, all went barefooted; and, possibly, whoever lived in the days of the Druids, might have counted the ten toes of her majesty the queen. Therefore, if we can find no usages touching the matter nearer at hand, it is useless to look for them so far.

In the old volumes of the common law we find knight, service, value, and forfeiture of marriage, and ravishments of wards; aids to marry lords' daughters, and make lords' sons knights. We find primer seisins, escuage, and monstrans of right; we find feeds and subinfeudations, linking the whole community together in one graduated chaia of servile dependance; we find all the strange doctrine of tenures, down to abject state of villenage, and even that abject condition treated as a franchise. We find estates held by the blowing of a horn. In short, we find a jumble of rude andigested usages and maxims of successive hordes of semi-savages, who, from time to time, invaded and pros

trated

trated each other. The first of whom were pagans, and knew nothing of divine law; and the last of whom came upon the English soil towards the decay of the Roman empire, when long tyranny, and cruel ravages, had destroyed every vestige of ancient science, when the pandects which shed the truest light that ever shone upon the English code, lay still buried in the earth.

was

It is of this divine law that Lord Coke gravely and very quaintly says, "the common law was that which was in England before any statute enacted. It is grounded upon the general customs of the realm; it includes in it the law of God, and the principles and maxims of the law. It is founded upon reason, is the perfection of reason, acquired by long study and experience, and refined by learned men in all ages." It must be confessed, my Lord Coke did not tie himself down by too precise a definition. Such phrases are sooner made than comprehended, in which the teacher has the advantage of the learner. Blackstone says, "with regard to the aborigenes of our island, the Britons, we have so little handed down to us with certainty, that our inquiries muts be fruitless and defective. However, from Cæsar's account of the ancient Druids in Gaul, in whom centered all the wisdom of the western parts, and who were sent over to Britain (that is, to the island of Mona or Anglesea) to be instructed, we may collet a few points which bear a great affinity to some of the modern doctrines of our English law; particularly the very notion itself of an oral, unwritten law, delivered down from age to age by custom and tradition merely seems derived from the practice of the Druids, who never committed any of their instructions to writing, possibly for want of letters. Since it is remarkable, that in all the antiquities, unquestionably British, which the industry of the moderns has discovered, there is not, in any of them, the least trace of any character or letter to be found."

Thus was this divine system delivered down by the Druids, who, after possessing all the learning of the western parts, were sent to perfect their studies in Mona, and there became so learned that they could neither read nor write!

After touching upon other of their wise practices, such as burning their women for petty treason, our author continues: "The great variety of nations that successively broke in upon and destroyed both the British inhabitants and constitution, the Romans, the Picts, and after them the various clans of Saxons and Danes, must necessarily have caused great confusion and uncertainty in the laws and antiquities of the kingdom, as they were very soon blended and incorporated together; and, therefore, mutually communicated to each other their respective usages, so that it is impossible to trace, with any degree of accuracy, when the several mutations of the common law were made, or what was the original of those several customs we at present use, by any chemical resolution of them to their first and component principles. We can seldom pronounce that this custom was derived from the Britons; that was left behind by the Romans; this was a necessary precaution against the Picts; that was introduced by the Saxons, discontinued by the Danes, but afterwards restored by the Normans.

"A further reason may be also given for the variety and of course the uncertain original of our ancient established customs, even after the Saxon government was firmly established in this island, viz. the subdivision of the kingdom into a heptarchy, consisting of seven independent kingdoms, peopled and governed by different clans and colonies. This must necessarily create an infinite variety of laws, through all the colonies of Jutes, Angles, Saxons, and the like, originally sprang from the same mother country, the great northern hive which poured forth its

warlike

warlike progeny, and swarmed over Europe in the 6th and 7th century." Now here is from the pen of the most passionate and eloquent eulogist, who had a professor's chair and a salary for praising the common law, on account of the true ancestry of this divine system. All I can say of it is this, that the same panegyric will apply totidem verbis to the institutions of our red brethren, the Iroquois. The league of the five nations is similar to that of the heptarchy. Blackstone here tells us that the Saxon heptarchy was com posed of Jutes, Saxons, Angle-Saxons, and the like; all sprung from the great northern hive, that poured forth its warlike progeny. The historian of the five nations tells us, that they consisted of so many tribes, or nations joined together by a league or confederacy, like the united provinces, and without any superiority the one over the other. This union, he adds, has contiuued so long that the Christians know nothing of the original of it: the people in it are known by the Eng lish under the names of Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagoes, Cayugas and Senekas. Here, then, is an ancestry fairly worth that of the great northern hive. The one had their Michell-Synoth or Witena-Gemot; the other their sachems and counsels, of whom the historian thus speaks:

"Their great men, both sachems and captains, are generally poorer than the people, for they affect to give away and distribute all the presents or plunder they get in their treaties or war, so as to leave nothing to themselves. There is not a man in the ministry of the five nations who has gained his office otherwise than by inerit; there is not the least salary or any sort of profit annexed to any office, to tempt the covetous or sordid. Here we see the natural origin of all power and authority amongst a free people.

"The five nations think themselves, by nature, superior to the rest of mankind, and call themselves Ongue hon wee."

ONGUE HONWEE then say I, and away with your old barons, kings, monks, and druids, your Michell-Sy noth, and your Witena-Gemot. If we look to antiquity the red men have it. If we regard duration, they have it still more; for the Picts and the Britons have long ceased to dye themselves sky-ble. The Indian paints' himself for war even to this day. The one scalps the enemies of his tribe; the others burned their own women. The Saxons conveyed their lands by sod and twig; the. Tuskaroras by the more elegant symbols of beaver and a belt.

دو

The discomfiture of the
ANTI-CATHOLIC FACTION.

It is with great pleasure we have to announce the disappointment which has been felt by the desperate and contemptible faction which has been for years at work, to counteract the exertions of the true friends of Ireland, in their endeavours to emancipate their brethren from the disgraceful code of Penal Laws which dishonour our Statute Book. So soon as the death of Mr. Perceval was announced, Jack Keogh summoned a Council, in order to devise the best method to distract the proceedings of the Catholic Board; the members present, we are informed, were Lord Cheltenham, of the Little Dargle, William Murphy, Esq. the Salesmaster, Sylvester Costigan, Esq. Doctor Brennan, M. D. James B. Clinch, Esq. Francis Huddlestone, Esq. the Rev. Dr. Hamil, Rev. Mr. Byrne, (Confessor to old Jack) and Mr. Shepherd, who distinguished himself so highly on the trials of Doctor Sheridan and Mr. Kirwan. The

venerable old gentleman" addressed his friends in his usual concise manner; he detailed very shortly the various occasions since he had the good fortune to have had an interview of a very de

licate

licate nature, with that distinguished and upright Statesman, Lord Melville, wherein he exerted himself as a prudent Catholic, and a faithful keeper of his promises should have done, to perpetuate the sufferings of his Catholic brethren for the good of their future salvation; but on no occasion did he ever dread so immediate a death blow to his labours, as at the present crisis-he concluded by observing, that he was entirely inadequate to suggest any plan for their further adoption, but had no doubt, from the splendid talents and moral worth of his friends around him, some proper means would be de. vised to punish the impatient leaders of the Board. Lord C. immediately arose, and with his accustomed elo quence complimented his worthy and honest friend Jack, for the exertions he had made for the period alluded to, and that no one was a more universal admirer of his efforts than his Lordship was, which he had borne testimony to upon various occasions; and at one time, in particular, he trusted he had with true taste and delicacy commemorated his honourable friend's private and public virtues. He declared he would always continue to be, as he always had been, the warm and sincere supporter of his friend Jack. He conjured the meeting of all things to turn their thoughts to the suppression of a Member of the Board, of the name of Lawless. His Lordship assured them he had found every means which he had used for that purpose, totally insufficient but one, and that had it appeared but a temporary effect, by the most solemn promises of mercantile engagement, his Lordship succeeded in procuring the confidence of his family, and then at the moment when expectation was raised to the highest, his Lordship said, he had the most lucious gratification in destroying their hopes and blasting their future prospects. His Lordship acknowledged that he bore personal hostility against this Gentleman, because he had

the audacity to tell his Lordship he was a scoundrel, (a term his Lordship said was not tasteful or delicate,) and afterwards was not deterred from his menaces by the assurance that his Lordship would complain to Judge Downes. His Lordship concluded by begging his eloquent friends who were to succeed him in the debate, would bear in mind the late Address, written by Mr. Lawless, and hoping they would endeavour to have them rescinded by the Board. Mr. Billy Murphy next arose, and addressed his noble friend, that he had not as yet forgotten his Lordship's amiable qualities, which he had wit nessed so frequently at Liverpool, when his venerable friend Jack and himself, were out of harm's way in the year 1798; that he was determined to op.. pose the forwarding of Mr. Lawless Address to Lord Donoughmore and Mr. Grattan, as they were neither written classically or grammatically, Mr. Costigan, in great warmth, concurred in the observations of his learn. ed friend Billy, and assured Lord Cheltenham that he would so expose the unlearned fabrication of Lawless's Addresses, that the Board would be ashamed to adopt them. Doctor Ha mill very gravely, and with his usual comely coutenance, assured the venerable old gentleman that he and his learned friend Mr. Clinch, were then engaged in the compilation of a Polemical work, which he had no doubt would rouse the fears and alarms of all good Protestants; and if the other Members of the Council would but do their duty until it should appear, he had no doubt emancipation would be rendered hopeless. Captain Huddle. stone, considering himself most particularly called upon by the speech of the learned Doctor, assured the meeting he was ready to swear what would be useful to the party. The Wrestling Doctor most indignantly started up, and accused the gallant Captain with a disposition to monopolize the Swearing Trade, and appealed to his assembled

TA

friends

friends if he was not as entitled as the Captain to appear on the table of a Court of Justice. Lord Cheltenham immediately got up, in order to reconcile his friends, and assured them, that if they should not have a sufficiency of swearing against the Catholics, he would have employment enough for them against his brothers and relations. This promise reconciled the informing Members, "but the venerable Gentieman," wishing to retire, stood up, and shortly said, that he now thought the case hopeless, but recommended an endeavour to rescind the Addresses to Lord Donoughmore and Mr. Grattan, as the offer would be sure to bring disgrace upon the Board; that he would take the liberty to summon them so soon as he would receive a communication from his friends, and the enemies of the Catholics who were in the secret in London. The Meeting broke up with the determination of obeying the orders of their Master, but they all considered it would be wise to put some good natured blockhead in the foreground of their proceedings, in order to accomplish their object. We shall give the particulars of their future proceedings.

Athy, 26th of May.

MR. COX.

A very ridiculous circumstance took place in a Church in the neighbourhood of Ballylinan, near this town, on Sunday last. The Parish Clerk, who it since appeared, had spent the entire of the preceding night at cards, an amusement to which his spare hours from divine a fairs are usually devoted, and as every Irishman would do in si milar cases, he took a very copious share of our national liquid, which so fuddled him, that he was not able to restore himself to the necessary equilibrium which the dignity of the clerical

functions require; which was observ e by the Rector, as soon as our neighbour entered the vestry, who spoke very handsomely of the sin of appearing half drunk to assist at divine service. However, as there was no person to officiate in his place, the Clerk was ordered to his post, and after fumbling out a few. Amens, fell in a good sound sleep. As soon as his Master discovered the condition of his Clerk, which could not be avoided, as the snoring he made might have challenged the church bell for distinctness, an attempt was made to awaken him, but it was not done, until the sleeper: who was dreaming not of his duty, but of the cards, called out "What's Trumps?" You may easily form some picture to yourself of the confusion of the Clergyman at the indecency of his deputy, particularly when you understand that the drunken gentleman had been so great a favourite with the incumbent for his loyalty, (Mountrath loyalty,) that he frequently discharged · him for similar improprieties, and as frequently restored him.

ANGLO-IRISH JUSTICE.

On Thursday, the 28th of May, two young and fashionable Ladies of the name of Carroll, were tried before several shops in this city, and was sen the Recorder and convicted of robbing teneed to one year's imprisonment; at the same time a wretched, ragged female

was convicted of stealing a shawl, value two shillings, and receiv ed sentence to be transported for seven years. We hope, with Lord Melhereafter deter the poor from acts of ville, that such salutary example will dishonesty.