SINGULAR CHARACTER NOW IN DUBLIN, The perfon whom we designate thus, is a Proteftant clergyman, of the name of K y. His paffion for feeing human nature in legal `mifery is fo extraordinary, that there is not a public execution either in the city or county he does not attend, not with an intention of adminiftering any profeffional affiftance to the departing culprit, but merely to gratify an infatiable tafle for infpecting the agitations and ftruggles of a human being in the most painful and degraded diftrefs. Perfons who are in habits of intimacy with him, declare, that he speaks in company of his favorite amusement, as a sportsman does of fhooting and hunting, a gambler of hazard or cards, a profligate of wenching, a Major of torturing or flogging, or as Jemmy O'Brien would of his knife or a bible. So unhappy is he, when the feafon of hanging is not productive in town, that he has correfpondents in the different aflize towns, who like mercantile agents, give him the earlieft information of bufinefs in his line of fpeculation in their different districts. He miffed of a confiderable fport, by the Lord Lieutenant's interference, who pardoned a covey of five malefactors, about fix months fince, No gentleman of the turf, who had been the dupe of a sharper, talks with more indignation or regret of his miffortune, than the Parfon does of this imprudent act of royal mercy; and to complete his difappointment, he had advice of an execution in Downpatrick, which he could have enjoyed, had not he relied on the regularity of the law in Dublin. He rents a window in Green-ftreef, that com mands the place of execution-and is at prefent on circuit, as he has lately received fome official information of a great harveft of Caravats in the county of Waterford. DECAY OF MENDICITY IN DUBLIN. It must be highly gratifying to the feeling mind, to know the various and fuccefsful fteps that have been taken to difcourage, and diminish the immenfe number of beggars, who fwarmed our ftreets, to the difgrace of civilization. To prevent a vice is more laudable, and easier effected, than to cure or punish it after it has fpread its contagion. For this great and national object, feveral inftitu tions, civil and military, have exiftence among us, that would not difhonor the molt polifhed ftate of fociety for the wildom and effect they are diftinguished by. As it is a Proteftant ftate, by law eftablished, handed down to us by our brave ancestors, whofe blood had been profufely fhed at the Boyne to obtain it, and by ourfelves again at Rofs, Vinegar-hill, &c.-it is in the first place our bounden duty to extend all the benefits of our establishments to thofe of our own communion; and if we cannot at once abolish begging, we should use all due means to dimi nish it. The American people are the only nation we know of, who are ftrangers to beggary; their trade being fo extenfive, every citizen is employed, and confequeatly enjoys abundance; but their method of preventing this great evil, has fuch objectionable features in its character, that no loyal people will ever fet it up as an example that could be fafely or rationally imitated; they rafhly rebelled, and are are now the vulgar victims of their own temerity; if they are not begging, they are worfe in the opinions of men of polished manners: they want a nobility, the Corinthian pillars of polished fociety; they have not a duke, an earl, a viscount, a baronet, or a knight among them, with the exception of a few broken nobles of French manufacture, who have taken refuge in that country. To return to our own happier ifland in Dublin, our Cuftom-houfe is one of the fineft afylums of the kind in Europe; though we have no trade, we have the image of it-and were it not preferved, what an incredible number of young and old gentlemen would this day be expofed to want and wretchednefs? The illegitimate children of our nobility, their old and faithful fervants and their children, are here handfomely provided for; the agents or love Caterers of our law-makers, are alfo on this great establishment, and are comfortably provided in food, raiment, horfes, and country houfes ;— the brieflefs lawyer, who loft his parliamentary profeffion by the tranfportation of our fenate to a place of greater fecurity, is rendered happy alfo, from the fame funds; in fact, this great hofpital is on the molt li beral footing for the protection of its numerous patients. The Stamp-office, in Euftaceftreet, affords another useful and ample provifion for fuch of our people as have equal claims to protection with thofe of the Cuftom-houfe; and, like the Custom house, by the additions annually made to the taxes, it provides with employment feveral new objects every feafon. How many dull lawyers, and broken tradefemen, are prevented from a courfe of mendicity, obfcurity, and even imprisonment for fmall fums, by the number of magiftrates added, by the military and fenatorial humanity of the hero of Talavera, to the Police eftablishment. This wife and effe&tive inftitution, unites in its operation two falutary defigns: it tends to promote juftice, and provides for the unfortunate; the poor man, whole intellect, or trade, refufed him bread, whofe scullor counter were rendered empty, either by the vifitation of God, or the caprice of fortune, can here be proud, full, and powerful. We provide for lawyers in every one of our national menageries; they are a difpofable force, from which every degree of talent can be had. The Houfe of Industry, in Channelrow, has taken lefs men of the profeffion than any other establishment; it has but one lawyer on its books. His abilities not being fitted for a fubordinate condition, he afpired to govern. This fpecies of ambition is fuch as Cæfar felt, when he said “he would rather be the first man in a country village, than the fecond in Rome." The legal monarch of Channel-row appears to imitate the generous grandeur of the Roman, or the fplenetic pride of Satan, defcribed by Milton: "Better to reign in hell than ferve in heaven." When we venture to give an opinion of fuch a foundation as the Houfe of Industry, we give it due credit from the wisdom of its adminiftration, for the judicious application of its funds; if it does not prevent mendicity, from the inadequate nature of its refources, it conceals a confiderable number of the undreffed paupers from public view; it is a grave that devours thofe, whofe rank in life, or religious opinions, rendered them unfit for the patronage intended for beggars of decent connex ions, ions; it is for the wfe of vulgar inha bitants, wretches accustomed to labour, rendered unfortunate by perfilting in unprofitable indultry. War has been defcribed as the greatest of evils; for our part, we in Ireland fee it in a contrary point of view, as it materially tends to prevent the great evil of beggary, the fubject of our fpeculation. were it not for the juft and frequent wars England is engaged in, our popula tion would be fo fuperabundant, we would be a nation of beggars; there weald be fcarcely a perfon of decent appearance among us, except the clergy and tax-gatherers, and the red gentlemen who have the care of our morals and villages. As war is the only branch of trade our miftrefs allows us an ample partnership in, we enter largely into it, because it requires no capital on our part in this firm; and as we have not any, it an fwers our fpeculations: we fight for want of work; and fo little idea have we of profit, that a great number of us do not care a fhilling which fide gains the victory. 1 hank God, there is a remedy for all things; we fight to avoid want and the difhonor of begging. Egypt, Corunna, Vimiera, and the Weft Indies, witneffed our valour and our fate: we had honor and graves in thofe warm regions. As we now fight to avoid want, fome Among us tried an experiment, on their own account, to avoid perfecution; but the plan failed, and Hell or Connaught" continues to scare them but the diminution of mendicity was effected, as the number of lead was confider. Me; for he that lies will neither fight or beg agun The will neither disturb the flate, nor burthen the community. So far has the wildom of our public works already operated, and the policy of war fo greatly controuted to it, that we rationally hope, in a few years, to have the country as clear of beggars as it is of commerce. THE VETO. This difficult fubject is taken up by our parliamentary friends, as they have been called and is used as a weapon to affift the claims of a particular part of the atholic body, who are folicitous to fhare corporation confequence and parliamentary dif tinction, in a country fo lately deprived of its independence. Any man who remembers even the mil.rable and. diminutive rank we enjoyed, while we were a nation, muft shrink at the folly and petty purfuits, that objects, in a country reduced to a could engage a man in fuch frivolous province: begging imaginary privileges from the very men who have perpetrated the injury, which has left the Proteftant and Catholic nearly in the fame condition! All men in power, or expectants for power, agree in the one opinion, that fome alteration in the appointment of the Heads of our Church, is now indifpenfable; and though they infift on fome arrangement, to fatisfy their demands and political fecurity, they have not in any inftance deigned to infinuate any political or other equivalent. Though we know they poffets no means of adequate compenfation for an act of herely, except the reitoration of our legislature; yet, the want of decency, where they make fo many frothy profeflions of attach ment, and acknowledged refpectabibetray fuch an evidence of infinceri lity, as they are pleafed to allow us, ty. that we defpair of any relief at this period, from a quarter, that du ring the nine years of our political extinction, has not given a folitary example of liberality, or even in its language language expreffed any thing but perfecution, if we are to take its opinion from e cigoned characters of Redesdale, Perceval, and other implied and avowed of his Majefty's minif, ters. The Head of the Church, our Sovereign Pontiff, is faid to be in a ftate of flavery, and confequently is rot mafter of himfelf. By being reduced from a flate of an independent potentate, and having become the fubjea of the French Imperor, he no longer poffeffes any will of his own; and in fuch circumftances, we are advised to transfer the appointment of our hierarchy from the Pope, be caule he is faid to be the fervant, to Mr. Perceval, who is a mafter; from an old friend in misfortune, to an avowed enemy in the plenitude of power; from the College of Cardinals, to the Privy Council and Doctor i'uigenan. All this is to be done on prefumptive evidence, which we know to be as erroneous as the bufy authors are malignant. to afk the advocate of Catholic rights to what part of the French Emperor's life we are to attribute any act or defign to prove the truth of this affertion? or has any part of his antiCatholic purfuits fhewed fuch a difpofition to eradicate Catholicity, as the erection and endowment of Proteftant Charter Schools in Ireland, and the laws paffed in the reign of William and Anne, against the Catholic clergy and against education,, or any of the fimpleft of the whole barbarous code of penal ftatutes, enacted against the unfortunate conquered and plundered Catholics ?— on the contrary, Europe has witnesfed Buonaparte erecting the proftrate altars of revolutionary France, at the very hour and period that Orange loyalty was burning Catholic altars n Ireland, and immolating Catholic Priests in Mountrath and Bandonand this fame fovereign has not only reftored the Catholic faith in Holland, Saxony and Hanover, bu has given it an influence and prepon. derance in the affairs of the Conti nent, that promife it will refume the venerable attitude its character is fo eminently entitled to in the civilized world. TION. The Hon Denis Browne, in a letter, dated the fixth of March, directed to the petitioning Catholics of the county of Mavo, expreffes great aurachment to his Popith friends, and much painful anxiety for the manner they thou'd adopt for the regulation DUCKING AND DIVING FOR SALVAand happiness of the Irish Church. He feels fo much for the captivity and degradation of the Pope, that he reafonably apprehends a new head, properly dreffed and qualified, may he had nearer home. The Honble. (entleman, to hurry us into this conftitutional measure, affures us, that Buonaparte has done more to destroy the Catholic faith, than any other has done fince the days of Luther and Calvin. Denis has made a confiderable and private difcovery, hitherto in great obfcurity. We would venture During the last froft at Sunderland, fome difciples of adult baptifm and total immersion, having to go through the ceremony, on approaching the water, did not altogether like its appearance, it being covered with ice; upon a little confultation the objection was foon obviated, by obtain. ing an indulgence from their paftor, to thaw the ice with a quantity of comfortably warm water.-This is what Dean Swift called " ducking and diving for falvation. ' IMPOR IMPORTANT EXTRACTS FROM THE NEWSPAPERS. at Laft month, the Farming Society, faithful to the object of their inftitution, attempted to mislead the public curiofity, by another exhibition, at their houfe on Summer-hill; but the trick failed in its effect, as the people have detected the artifice, and th tendant inhumanity, that fatten hogs and starve men, that house the chearful brute, and encamp in horrid huts with contemptuous indifference the population of the country. The confequence was, the fhow was neglec ted, the favourite affemblage and their titled owners were the only company. Mr. Grierlon handled his fteers and flags to empty benches; and the reverend part of the house of Beresford lectured to the defert air, on the wisdom of applying the public patronage to the comfort and education of the rifing generation of hogs and fheep. On Tuesday, at the aflizes of a very humane and enligh tened charge was delivered, by the judge to the grand jury. He recommended, in ftrong and eloquent language, the policy, if not the humani. ty, of taking more care of the public roads; and requested the gentlemen, who as yet condefcended to live in the country, to take fome immediate fteps to put a better face on the highways. His Lordship remarked, that be did not mean literally that their attention fhould be exclufively direct ted to ftones and gravel, to picks and wheelbarrows; but to the living materials, in human shape, who fringe the highways-whole cabins, food, and rain.ent, difgull the man of tafte, and give reasonable caule of a arm to the fome arrangement politician! As there can be little real pleafure, to a feeling mind, at an exhibition of mifery, nor a certainty of fecurity when mifery is exceflive and oppreffion inexorable, he advised that would be adopted, that might allow a fhare of the food raifed, to the wretches who contributed to its production. As much as we justly admire the high character of our English brethren of Birmingham, Stafford and Manchester, fome allowance of our food should be shared among ourselves. On Sunday, Mr. Val. Dulcimer, of the Ivory and Card office, Palace, ftreet, surprised a party of idle boys profaning the Sabbath, by playing marbles under his office windows.Val, with the affiftance of Biblemouth and Corporal Firethatch, had the entire party, their chalk and halfpence, fecured and committed by the Major. |