See W-1l-ms next for laurels vie, The damn'd ill luck of whose petition, And all the Common Council ring, With loud acclaim and plumpers ftrong, ; (Though dubious long remained the fight,) Has guli'd the ridden committee: A well-known Methodist preacher, who was fome time ago obliged to retire to his native foil of America, to avoid the anger of feveral of his own congregation, who were, it feems, not pleafed at perhaps the too great faccefs of the divine in making converts of their wives; for Lorenzo, like the prefent Mr. Cooper, was extremely fuccesful in the inculcation of his creed among the Fair fex, which muft doubtless proceed from a pious defign of propagating the fpecies, and thereby increafing the flock. This gentleman, Mr H A. B-k-r, whole refolute and determined conduct in preferving the peace as Confervator in 1803. has recommended him to the Major's favor, now inipector general of the exhibition of Fine Arts; in which capacity he draws from the purfe of which he holds the strings, (for ae is alfo Treasurer to the Committee of Artifts) 1 25, 9d. per day, befides an unconscionable exaction of 20. from every poor devil of them that offers a picture for exhibition, the pretext for which is, to defray the expences of fitting up the room; he has now, by thefe nieans, collected fomething more than 60 or 70l. though the expences hardly amount to 10k Yet this is not in A 's opinion, a fufficient equivalent for his precious time confumed, and great generalfhip displayed in the grand array and pofition of the paintings; he allo pulls a dinner from the thin gutted fraternity, at which he facrifices fo profufely to the rely god, that he is often totally incapable of keeping himself upright, much less a picture, The check given to the outrageous progrefs of this petty Triumvirate's unlicenf-d abufe of powenia imprisoning an unoffending citizen by the latter's commencing a profecution against them in which the plaintiff's caufe was fo powerfully and eloquently pleaded by the erudite and learned Goold, as to thame the jury, which is almost competed of Aldermen, into a verdict of 200/ damages, is no fmall gratification to public feeling, fo often violated by the unconftitutional encroachments of this combination of audacions peculators, SOCIETY IN DUBLIN FOR THE PRESERVATION OF IRISH MUSIC AND THE IRISH HARP. THE national music of a country, being interesting in every view in which the patriot or scientific performer may take it, it very naturally follows that the instrument which preserves and transmits that music in its original character, ought to be cherished and upheld. The IRISH HARP stands eminently forward as the true organ of Irish Music. Time has nearly worn away this ancient and venerable instrument; its plaintive strains are sel dom heard by, and are quite unknown to many of the inhabitants this country. Belfast has with a degree of feeling aud spirit most honorable to it, established a school for the revival and preservation of Irish music and for the IRISH HARP. There the young blind pupil now receives instruction; and charity, taste, and patriotism are at once blended and promoted. Shall Dublin, the metropolis of Ireland, not profit by the example, and also stretch forth a hand, to misery, while the HARP of ERIN may be rescued from impending oblivion and decay. With the object, therefore, of teaching the IRISH HARP, instructing and supporting blind pupils, and saving what is venerable from ruin, an Annual Subscription is proposed for establishing a master skilled in that instrument, with twenty pupils. To forward the object of the Institution, Quinn, the harper, has been brought from Belfast to Dublin for the purpose of instructing the young Candidates. No man is better qualified. His taste for the music of his country is eminently conspicuous, and his execution breathes all the enthusiasm and spirit of Carolan. The revival of the IRISH HARP, and the plaintive powers it pos sesses, while it communicates it s divine enthusiasm in an Irish breast, must also create a spirit of contempt for the ferocious manners of those hordes of Normans and Welch vomited on our green shores, whose enmity to our music was as unrelentless as their avi. dity to plunder was boundless.→ But we are not surprised when we learn that the men who proscribed our beards and seized our lands, would destroy whatever recorded our afflictions or revived the remembrance of our wrongs. The bard and the harper, generally united in the same person, were the historians among a people deprived of education. The hands that shaved our upper lips and cut our long hair, broke our harps, and ages of silence and suffering succeeded. Some fugitive talents seeking refuge in caves and bogs, kept alive the taste and remembrance of Irish music. Proscribed for four centuries, it has been taken from its hiding places by the people of Belfast, at too distant a period of our history to excite any other feelings than the exercise of na tional genius and extensive benevo lence. THE IRISH MAGAZINE, OR Monthly Asylum FOR NEGLECTED BIOGRAPHY. FOR AUGUST, 1809. Memoirs of the Rev. Thomas Auguftine Clarke. THIS examplary and amiable young man, whofe premature death excited fuch an unusual and general fenfation in this great city was the fon of Captain Clarke an officer in his Majefty's fervice, The fubj &t of this memoir was born about the year 1774 near Lisburn, and at an early age was placed under the care of a Mr. Foley, a refpectable fchool inafter where he formed an intimacy with another youth of the name of Cunningham, which continued thro' life, and to this connexion is to be attributed the religious inquiries which formed the character of Thomas, and fubfequently led to his converfion, for Thomas's father was a member of the established church, and ftrongly prejudiced against the doctrines and practices of the Catho lic faith, this prejudice which operates confiderably among the higher ranks, has many caufes besides thofe merely, that arife from religious conAVGUST, 1809. viction to influence the mind against the unfafhionable and perfecuted ca. tholic faith. The legal reftrictions long impofed on the Catholics of this country, which excludes them from holding any places of truft or emolument, in any department civil or military, must tend in a very ferious degree to deter any man who feeks diftinction from embracing a fyftem of faith attired with fo many difadvantages and branded with fo many odiums. Captain Clarke defigned his fon for the military profeffion, never in the most di ant manner did he conjecture that this fon fhould reject all the flattering profpects which you: fl minds are influenced by, when the paths of pleafure are thrown open by the advantages of opulence, much lefs did Thomas's father forefee that his fon fhould one day appear as a Catholic paftor, preaching from the pulpit the duties of mortification and abftiU u nence, |