sometimes Smihmer, Smitberg, or Nissen. When in Spain he had received money, through the interest of his wife, for the purpose of raising a German regiment, and had made away with the money. He had plundered people of all nations; and a Spanish gentlemen had just written over a terrible account of his chicaneries in that country.

But there can be no question of the little incidents in his Leghorn life, so lately as the year before, because they appeal to legal acts and documents. The whole, too, has a probable air, and is only a necessary incident in an adventurer's life. He had got indebted to the Leghorn banker Tabach for 515 pieces of eight. He was arrested at Cologne, put in the public gaol, caught a dreadful malady there, and was released on getting-with true adventurer's ingenuity-a small householder to be his bail; then getting back to Leghorn, continued this fatal document, appealing to a notary's Act of the date of 6th September-before one Jean Baptiste Gumano, of that city was consigned to the public hospital-the Bagno-like a common pauper.

He was then traced to Tunis, where he set up as a quack. But here, the Genoese admit that he contrived somehow to have secret interviews with the "chief of the Infidels," and had brought him over to give those supplies of arms and money. Then they pitilessly analyzed the "suite" which he brought over from Tunis, with a sort of accuracy which shows they must have had tolerably sure information.

The " chaplain' became a sort of disreputable priest, called Portoferraio, whom the missionaries at Tunis had turned out of their body; the colonels and captains were two young Leghorn runaways, named Attiman and Bondelli; and one of the three blacks was a certain Mahomed, who had been a galley slave at Tuscany. Thus were all King Theodore's theatricals -his gold-paper crowns, and glass jewels, and his hired supernumeraries, dressed up for the night, blown into the air. I say, again, the whole seems awkwardly probable, allowing even a wide margin for malicious magnifying. Of course it was all "lies"- "les choses les plus horrible," says Theodore's friends, telling the story.

"Scandalous falsehoods," ," "personalities," says his son. But these assertions were scattered through the island "so boldly," that they actually gained credit with the people "among whom," says the son, "credulity and ignorance were predominant"-symptoms which Theodore remarking, he found it necessary to make some answer to the Genoese document; and accordingly, a broad-sheet was scattered everywhere, commencing pompously

"THEODORE I.; first by the grace of the Holy Trinity, and secondly by the device of the true and glorious deliverers of the country, KING OF CORSICA." And he proceeds to refute each statement by a series of bitter tu quoques. Granting that he had brought three Blacks with him, "it was not with the design of plundering friends and enemies, as the Genoese of old had done." By this stroke he thought he had stayed the mischief; but it is said that confidence in him was a good deal shaken

rather it was the natural fickleness of a rude and excitable multitude.

Meanwhile, he had really made progress in the serious organization of the country. He carefully kept up the old state, and the semblance of a court. He was "The Baron de Neuhoff, Grandee of Spain,_Lord D'Angleterre, Peer of France, Baron and Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, and King of Corsica." As the first and most appreciable exercise of royal prerogative, he began to coin money, both silver and copper. These were but rude performances, and of the class called by the French, "Piéces de Necessité," and very clumsily struck. The silver pieces were very few in number; and such was the curiosity of the world looking on at every trick of this little pantomime, that all those pieces were greedily bought up at fabulous prices; and when the supply failed spurious ones were manufactured in numbers and found places in the cabinets of collectors. Mr. Boswell succeeded in picking up a copper five sous piece, with a crown and "T. R.," on one side, and " Pro bono publico, Re. Cor.," on the other. Another coin had a figure and inscription "Monstra te esse matrem," too. He even put together a small code of civil law, very simple, and suited

to their state. He himself used to administer justice personally, in the patriarchal manner, examining with great pains into the truth of the stories brought before him. He took particular care that criminal law should be administered fairly. He invited over trained officers to instruct his raw soldiers, he lightened the taxes. He actually got together a sort of army of nearly 15,000 men, and contrived to support it on the money he had brought with him. In short, every act of his in this little drama showed a sort of prudence and wisdom.

To make all complete he had his "great seal" of the kingdom, a crown surmounting a shield on which were a broken chain and a Black's head with two wild-looking figures carrying clubs for supporters, and the motto "IN TE DOMINI SPERAVI." Patents of nobility granted lavishly, exhibited this token of high authority. Giafferi and Paoli became thus counts and generalissimi, and were to be addressed as Excellences;" D'Costa was Chancellor and Keeper of the Seals. Another, Doctor Cafferio, was Secretary of State. Arighi, his soldier, was Secretary of War; Fabione, Vice-President, &c. This little Yvetôt was complete at all points. Surrounded by five hundred mounted soldiers, with drawn sabres, His Majesty rode about in state.

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It was not likely that the new king, who had passed through what the French call "une vie orageuse," would be specially noted for sanctity. Yet it would have been expected that he might have learnt discretion enough, not to speak so freely and openly against the religion of the country as he was said to do. These speeches, reported to the Corsican priests, soon caused a feeling against him. Another false step was proclaiming liberty of conscience, which was meant to draw, and did draw, to the island, a disorderly miscellany of Jews, Greeks, and even Moors, to whom he gave ground for churches and cities, and who forthwith set to work to build. He long after saw

his mistake, and told the people that their only chance of liberty was in the Spanish saying-"Consejo pelago y Roma."

The people were, however, murmuring; and he even detected some conspiracies, and loud murmurs were heard through the island when it was said that he had summarily put to death three of the ringleaders.

However, he had now to take the field, and had actually laid siege to Bastia, sending a haughty summons to Rivarola, who was in command. The reply was a discharge of cannon, which compelled him to retreat precipitately. He then broke up his forces into divisions, and proceeded to besiege various small towns, with successful results. The capture of Bonza gave him the command of the navigation of the Gulf of St. Fiorenzo; then, flushed with success, he returned to Bastia, and, wasting the country about, began to blockade it. During these operations, he never forgot his stage business. He used to be seen on the top of hills, with a telescope, anxiously looking out towards the sea, as if for succour. Sometimes great official packets were brought over to him from the mainland, which he announced to be despatches from royal persons acknowledging his power, and promising aid.

Nor was the Republic idle. Troops were continually coming across. The admiral's galley was cruising in the waters, and they had set their ambassador in London at work, who had been so successful at the Court of St. James as to obtain a proclamation, published in the London Gazette, warning all British subjects against giving aid of any kind to "the rebellious Corsicans." And one of the odd rumours of the time which drifted over to the island was, that the English Captain Dick, who had brought over Theodore, had pistolled himself at Smyrna, from fear of being arrested and punished.

A very welcome piece of news, however, now reached the Genoese.

ples to retain their old creeds, customs, and forins of faith, even when antagonistic, on their consenting nominally to acknowledge the Papal supremacy. One body and knot of persons after another, accordingly, was brought into an ostensible union with the National system; and the extraordinary measures adopted to secure their alliance betrayed the consciousness of an inherent weakness. Under the circumstances, the new adherents could add no strength to the scheme, and the only effect of the pains taken to satisfy their exactions was to institute a rivalry, under which the advantages obtained by one religious denomination constituted a basis for aggressions by another. Every privilege accorded to one section was resented instantly by the representatives of jealous and opposing parties in the Commission; and in that game, naturally, the most powerful in numbers, the subtlest in organization, and the least scrupulous in means, came ever off victorious in the highest degree. So that, now, the whole undertaking seems about to fall to pieces, after all the possibilities of compromise and concession have been exhausted, because there is nothing more to be given, in the way of special favours, to buy the good-will of the dominant party, unless the management of the institution in all its branches, and for all its recipients, be simply handed over to Ultramontanism.

Against the last "modification of the Rules," which all but effects this revolution, numerous and indignant protests have been made by those finally worsted in the competition just described; but all dispassionate observers perceive that there is in this ultimate result of the working of the National Board nothing that has not flowed directly from the original and essential faultiness of the plan. It has required a longer time to work the scheme out to the inevitable issue than its early opponents supposed, but their prophecies have proved to the letter true. We are called on now, in fact, to record their fulfilment to officiate at the obsequies of a system that, in becoming ultramontane, has lost whatever title it possessed to the respect of the enlightened portion of the community.

It is idle for the apologists of this enormous failure to pretend that present circumstances do not furnish a complete justification of the course pursued by nine-tenths of the clergy of the Established Church in Ireland. The sincerity of their opposition to the National system has been tested by a quarter of a century of proscription and persecution, of pains, penalties, and perpetual calumny. The convictions must have been deep which survive a trial so fiery and protracted. They must have been intelligent, also; for had the position of the clergy been logically weak, it would have been surrendered long ago to the pressure of argument or the force of ridicule. In our political history there is no parallel for the tenacity of opinion here exhibited, accompanied by a readiness at all times to break a lance with the adversary which spoke the abiding and vigorous consciousness of an unassailable position. The leading minds among the Irish clergy and laity saw, not only that the scheme was wrong in principle which made the State, and the Protestant patron of a school, active and responsible agents in withdrawing the Scriptures from a people not unwilling to receive them, but also that the political effect of the System would be to foster the extremest and most dangerous form of foreign influence in our domestic affairs. During the controversy that has raged without intermission for so many years, the former, as the more palpable and more grave objection, has been well-nigh exclusively insisted upon; but it is worthy of remark that the first and keenest opponents of the National Board discovered afar off the political consequences now upon us, and warned the Ministers of their day that the eventual result would be to commit to a priesthood without native sympathies in the superior grades, a power that would be found more than inconvenient, and to blot out the liberties of the Roman Catholic laity, in addition, in favour of aspirations and intrigues paralleled only in the times immediately preceding the Revolution of 1688.

When some years ago a movement in favour of the National system suddenly arose among certain Churchmen in Ulster, and the late Lord

Primate, impressed too deeply with the difficulty of maintaining Scriptural schools in localities where the Protestant gentry were sparsely resident, stated it as his opinion that the clergyman who could not support his school would do better to accept the State's conditions than to close its doors, it was thought by superficial observers that the contest was at an end, and that the Established Church clergy were about to attach themselves to the Board in a body, as the Presbyterians and Methodists had done before. A number of the clergy of the diocese of Down did announce their adhesion, and several individuals of eminent position among Scriptural educationists, with a strange felicity in the choice of their time of conversion, followed their example. The Government, dazzled for a moment by the prospect of an imminent adoption of their principles by the Irish Church, rewarded those prudent proselytes with bishoprics and other substantial marks of favour. That movement did not fail, therefore, for lack of patronage. The encouragement supplied to it was so ostentatious, indeed, as hardly to be covert bribery. And still, the new advocacy of the System made little way. Articles appeared daily in praise of the liberal-minded converts, and in abuse of those who preferred principle to promotion. Pamphlets rained upon the public, the composition of persons of all classes, from ex-chancellors to expectant prelates. For some six months the Government zealots pressed their case with earnestness, and among other things contrived to foment dissension among the friends they had quitted and betrayed. Yet not more than thirty clergymen in all joined the Board during that crisis. This fact offered as strong a proof as it is possible to conceive, that the scheme had not, in its working, conciliated the most educated and independent portion of the Irish public.

Events soon proved that this section of the community had again judged wisely. Not long after, in perfect accordance with the principle of competition among the negotiating sects before adverted to, the Roman Catholic hierarchy, making conces sions supposed to have been granted to the few Churchmen recently intro

duced a ground of complaint, professed dissatisfaction with the constitution of the Commission. Their organs throughout the country, with the simultaneousness customary among them, so plainly indicating organization, clamoured this grievance in the ears of the timid and shortsighted official then in the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland. Mr. Cardwell in due course succumbed, probably under the special influence of the Resident Commissioner-the evil genius of the scheme-and the Board was enlarged to the number of twenty, ten to be Roman Catholics, and the other ten distributed among Churchmen, Presbyterians, and Unitarians. By this constitution the first-named obtained a continual ascendancy. In any Board where the number of Roman Catholic representatives and of Protestants are equal, the former will enjoy a practical majority, their Church's control over the personal action of her lay delegates never failing to secure zealous and constant service; but in this instance the Ultramontane hierarchy had not to trust to a majority of that nature, for the "modification" of Mr. Cardwell secured for them an absolute numerical preponderance upon every question of administration affecting their ecclesiastical interests. A glance at the list of Commissioners proved this. Abstracting from it the votes of those whose position and antecedents showed that they might be depended upon to take an independent course, there remained on the side of the Ultramontane episcopacy fully thirteen votes. At all events they could always count upon two in addition to their own men "Chancellor Brady and Alexander MacDonnell." indicate the character of Mr. Cardwell's "reform" in the constitution of the Board, it is enough to say, that of the eight persons added in 1861, six were Roman Catholics, all of the more pronounced character; one an official, in this instance, as it chances, a lawyer of constitutional bias; and the other a young Presbyterian clergyman. That Board was not long in making itself felt. It had been selected, really, by the Roman Catholic episcopacy, for a special purpose, and in due course, this purpose began to be put in train for accom

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