the sole foundation of an empire. Empires founded on trade alone must irresistibly crum

But the Empire that is sacred to me is sacred for this reason, that I believe it to be the noblest example yet known to mankind of free, adaptable, just government. If that was only your or my opinion it might perhaps be not very well worth having, but it derives singular confirmation from outside. When a community is in distress or under oppression, it always looks first to Great Britain; while in cases which are quite unsuspected, I think, by Great Britain at large, and which are, as a rule, only known to Ministers, they constantly express the wish in some form or other to be united to our country, and to enjoy our government. And, on the other hand, for the most part, in those territories which, for one reason or another, we have at various times ceded, we may, I think, in almost every case see signs of deterioration, and signs of regret on the part of the inhabitants for what they have lost. I ask you, then, gentlemen, to keep this motive before you of public duty and public service, for the sake of the Empire, and also on your own account. You will find it, I believe, the most ennobling human motive

that can guide your actions. And while you will help the country by observing it, you will also help yourselves. Life in itself is but a poor thing at best; it consists of only two certain parts, the beginning and the end-the birth and the grave. Between those two points lies the whole area of human choice and human opportunity. You may embellish and consecrate it if you will, or you may let it lie stagnant and dead. But if you choose the better part, I believe that nothing will give your life so high a complexion as to study to do something for your country. And with that inspiration I would ask you to blend some memory of this Edinburgh so sacred and so beautiful to us, not, perhaps, the Edinburgh of Cockburn or Jeffrey or Brougham, but an Edinburgh yet full of noble men and wise teachers, that you will bear away some kindling memory of this old grey city, which, though it be not the capital of the Empire, is yet, in the sense of the sacrifices that it has made, and the generations of men that it has given to the Empire, in the truest, the largest, and the highest sense an Imperial City.

ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES.

NOTE 1, p. 10.-The allusion is to the preliminary proceedings of the trial-in which some days were devoted to legal fencing about witnesses and challenged jurors.

NOTE 2, p. 12.-The gentleman thus elegantly arraigned was William Saurin (1757?-1839). Saurin was sprung from a French Huguenot family settled in Ireland. He was a lawyer of considerable ability, but one who had not risen rapidly. He seems to have been a fairly honest, bigoted Protestant; moreover, the duties he was called to perform during his long term (1807-1822) as Attorney-General were such as to bring him almost officially into sharp friction with the Catholic population. Consequently he was cordially hated by them. He was openly charged with using his position to repress Catholic agitation; and, later than this trial, it was publicly known that he had written to Lord Norbury, urging that as a Judge on circuit he should attempt to influence grand juries in favor of the Government. These are grounds palpable enough for a basis to O'Connell's accusations; but these were the ethics of the time. After a perusal of this speech, it will not surprise the reader to learn that before the Magee trial was over O'Connell had gone so far as to threaten the Attorney-General with personal violence.

NOTE 3, p. 21.—The Catholic Committee of Dublin was an organization for the purpose, so to speak, of agitation by resolution. These resolutions were framed and passed at meetings. The influences thus set in motion O'Connell had tried

to enlarge and make more national in their scope by adding to the Committee members from other parts of the country than Dublin. Now the Convention Act of 1793 had made representation by delegation, such as was here contemplated, illegal; and the Government was quick to avail itself of the statute. There was much trouble, and of course the question was had to the courts, where, in the test-case of Dr. Sheridan, O'Connell and the Committee lost. Chief-Justice Downes declared (1811) that the proposed reorganization of the Committee fell under the provisions of the Act. Thenceforward all agitation permissible was to be conducted by a non-delegated Catholic Board. In view of these facts O'Connell's statement in the text cannot be accepted literally. Perhaps it may be called rhetorically true.

NOTE 4, p. 29.-His Grace the Duke of Richmond and Lennox-fourth of that title, and descendant of Charles II. by the French mistress, La Kerouaille-was a personage more picturesque than the majority of the great in name who fill the pages of "Burke's Peerage." Throughout, his life (17641819) was romantically different from that of the average nobleman. As a youth he was notable duelist, and in 1789 had an encounter with the Duke of York wherein half-royal blood came near to shedding royal. So impetuous a temperament obviously led the Duke to the profession of arms, in which he attained some prominence. The Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland was his during the period 1807-1813; and in these years he had for chief secretary the then plain Colonel Wellesley. He left Ireland for the wars; and thus it was that on the eve of Waterloo the Duke and Duchess of Richmond gave at Brussels the historic ball before the battle-an event which has permanently linked the name of Richmond with history. For chance, doubly gracious, commemorated the occasion in the famous verses of Byron, and the enduring prose of "Vanity Fair." The next day the Duke was glad to