It will be a curious fact if the descendants of the Puritans, whose aversion to our establishment was one of the principal causes of their leaving England, should be the cherishers of that very church, which their progenitors regarded with so much hatred, while Puritanism, in alliance with Popery and Infidelity, is persecuting it at home; and that a place should be prepared for it, where it may at length take root and flourish, by the very men whose ancestors regarded it as an abomination.

When the Church has been disposed of, there will be nothing to interpose between the populace and the peerage. The House of Lords will become at once exposed to the whole violence of the Democracy. In France the revolution was precipitated by the union of the two Chambers; the popular thus completely over mastering the aristocratic branch of the Government. In England, we are very much inclined to believe that such an union would at present be useful. Every one must perceive, that it would be idle to expect, that the House of Lords should make an efficient resistance to the measures, whatever they may be, of the preponderating order. They are, it must be perceived, totally powerless, and must however reluctantly, or with however ill a grace, obey the behests of their domineering masters. But while, as a body, their functions are thus paralyzed, if they were eligible to seats in the House of Commons, as individuals they would be respected; and they would thus contribute to check and to moderate the violence of the lower house, and might even succeed in infusing some portion of wisdom into their deliberations.

It is very well known that the nu-
VOL. II.

merous creations, which, within the last half century, have taken place in the Peerage, have been the means of depriving the House of Commons of the presence of a class of persons, whose worth, whose ability, and whose property, rendered them most valuable members; and that their places were supplied out of the ranks of the second order of gentry, who by no means felt the same interest in upholding the institutions of the country. Thus, the Conservatives were placed where they can now be of no use, and the AntiConservatives were brought into that position where they can do most mischief. And what is the remedy ?That is, if any remedy can be found. The evil is, that the House of Lords, to a certain extent, became a House of Commons; the remedy would seem to be, that, to a similar extent at least, the House of Commons should become a House of Lords. The Duke of Wellington is powerless where he is. He would not be so if he rose in the House of Commons as plain Mr. Wellesley. Lord Eldon is powerless where he is. He would not be so if he rose in the House of Commons as plain Mr. Scott. The Conservative party still possess property and influence sufficient to command the return of a large proportion of the representation of the country, provided such a choice were offered to the people at large as would be presented in the case we have supposed. That is the only way in which, as it appears to us, they can contribute to avert impending evils; and it is for them to choose between the possession of substantial power, which may be turned to the best account, and the enjoyment of an idle privilege, which is, in reality, as valueless as it is invidious.

The House of Lords is at present nothing more than a medium for neutralizing all that worth and ability, which might be employed to good effect in the House of Commons. ONLY LET IT BE SO EMPLOYED, AND THE COUNTRY MAY YET BE SAVED.

But this will not be done. The age of chivalry is gone, and the Peerage of England have already proved their disregard of the maxim-"death before dishonour." While it contains individuals who will ever be an honour to their age and country, it also, unhappily, contains a preponderance of those

:

whose views of expediency led them to temporise with the present democratical mania, until it can be no longer resisted and nothing now remains, but concession after concession to the requirements of the demagogues, until their wildest wishes have been gratified-until the Church is destroyedthe colonies lost-the empire dismembered-until one stone is not left upon another in the fabric of our foreign or domestic policy,and that which constituted the envy and admiration of the world, becomes a bye-word and an astonishment to the surrounding nations.

France exhibited the spectacle of a nation exchanging servitude for licentiousness; England that of a nation, with the example of France before her eyes, taking licentiousness in exchange for regulated freedom.

We will, before we conclude, offer just one observation upon the proposal for swamping the House of Lords, which indeed, the more consistent and able of the revolutionary journals do not affect to patronise. The only effect of it would be to produce an artificial and constrained conformity between the two houses, with the certainty of rendering them in reality more opposed to each other than they are at present. For, if we suppose the new creation to be confined to such of the radical commoners as have the largest stake in the country, they must naturally be indisposed to go the extreme lengths of their party, and might, if left in their old position, operate as a check upon their more violent brethren in the House of Commons, while, immediately upon their removal, their places will be supplied by more

thorough-going partizans, who will exceed them in extravagance at least as much as they fall short of them in personal respectability. This will necessitate another collision between the two houses, which must give rise to another new creation; the one house becoming more and more violent, and the other less and less able to offer any effectual resistance; until the people become disgusted with the farce of bullying on the one hand, and pusillanimous and unprincipled concession on the other; until, in fact, dignity becomes degradation, and the hereditary legislators of England are extinguished with the universal consent of the whole nation.

Such must be the inevitable effect of the swamping system. Conservativeism will be neutralized, and radicalism rendered more and more powerful. How much better what we propose. Instead of sending whatever might be conservative in the House of Commons into the House of Lords, where it will be placed, in a manner "hors de loi," we would obtain for whatever is conservative in the House of Lords admission into the House of Commons, where wealth, and rank, and personal respectability would not be without their due importance. In this case, if the evil spirit was not cast out of that assembly, its temper might be mitigated and its rage controuled. In the other case, by the withdrawal of those who would be sent to the House of Lords, it would only be "empty, swept and garnished" to invite the entrance of other spirits worse than they, so that its last state would be worse than its first."

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It was at the commencement of spring; her green luxuriance was scarcely yet seen on field or forest, when a single personage journeyed through the southern parts of Wexford. Though well mounted, his appearance was of that dubious character, which leaves the rank of the individual vaccillating, as it were, between the grades of society more distinctly marked. He was little past the prime of life, and it was evident that his powers mental and physical, had been more taxed by exertion than time.

His features were well formed, their expression shrewd and caustic, which, joined to an air of cold and deep calculation, permanently seated there, rendered their general character disagreeable, and if viewed with a penetrating eye, seldom failed to create feelings of distrust and caution.

His travelling garb bore considerable tokens of his recent journey, and the manner in which he scanned the surrounding country seemed to indicate impatience of protracted travel. The chilling evening was drawing on, when his road passed near our humble farmhouse, which had, however, all the accompaniments of rustic comfort; he turned from the high-road towards the winding "boheen," which, sweeping round an enclosure of goodly cornstacks, and other tokens of agricultural wealth, led to the dwelling. Ere he reached it, the sounds of his approach disturbed a pair who had been hitherto screened from his view by a high straggling hedge of briar. With hurrying footsteps a maiden passed upon the other side. Neither the coarseness of her rustic garb, nor the precipitancy of her retreat, caused those attractions to pass unnoticed, which labour and penury generally render very transient to the rank to which she belonged. From beneath the shelter of the hedge a young man also came, of open countenance, and herculean proportions; with national courtesy, he touched his hat, (or in default of such appurte

nance, the locks upon his embrowned forehead) in salutation to the stranger, who accosted him in a tone that conveyed two-fold enquiry.

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Can you point out to me, friend, the residence of Father Mahony ?” The young man's countenance at once brightened into cordiality.

"May be thin ye'er honour's the gintleman he bid us be lookin' for, iv so be, myself'ill be proud to show ye'er road."

He vaulted over the hedge which separated them, and took the traveller's bridle-rein.

"But wud'nt ye just come beyant to the farm-house, an' taste somethin' to keep out the could, an' get a feed for the baste; the honest man 'ill thank any, goin' to Fadther Mahony, for bein' friendly enough to do the like.

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No, my good fellow, 'tis too late to delay, and before we start, tell me how I shall call you, for I like to know every one by the names their gossips gave them?"

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My name, is it? troth, Sir, Jim Redmond O'Riley, at ye'er sarvice," replied the peasant, leading the horse through the intricacies of the "boheen" back to the road, where he continued to run, at an even pace, by the side of the stranger, who seemed willing to improve their acquaintance.

"A pretty girl that, who started from the hedge, I am afraid you owe me the loss of her company."

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It was Mary M'Daniel," said Redmond, with a peculiar consciousness upon his visage, turning his head slowly toward the farm-house, which they had left behind;-" Mary McDaniel, ye'er honour. she just stipped out a bit from the milkin', an' was tellin' me of the weddin' at the Masther's."

"You mean your Landlord's, Sir Frederick Jerningham ?"

"He's the best man in the country," observed O'Riley emphatically.

He took the wrong side, however, last election,” said the traveller drily. "Oh, it's not in the matther o' that I

spake," rejoined his guide, "but it's respectin' the poor an' his tinants I mane; an' who bud a poor man, an' a tinant shud spake to that?"

"You hold under him then ?" "Aye, undther himself" replied Redmond exultingly, "there's no middle man to come atune him an' thim that tills his ground, no black-guard Agint to wring the rack-rint from the famishin' an' fatten upon the sweat of their brow."

"Then there's probably little distress among ye?"-observed the traveller, who seemed to hear, with little satisfaction, the statements of the pea

sant.

"Troth, ye'er honor, less than may be seen elsewhere, bud there's more discontent than there shud be, I can't, for the sowl o' me tell what they'd be at, bud there's more goin' on among the boys than they carry upon their faces." I thought the country had been tolerably quiet?"

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"An' that's one rason makes me suspict them; that, an' their bein' so willin to sware before the magistrates, an' makin' a sham o' givin' up arms; did'nt Jim Tracy the other day bring a musket wid a crack'd barrel, an' surrender it wid a mighty gud face, whin iv it was gud for any thin' it id never have left his keepin; bud he might as well get a bit o' credit on the head of it; an' for one that used to kneel by Fadther Mahony's knee, there's three does now; so it's asy seen, there's somethin' upon their minds, forbye that they're not like thimselves at all; shure at the last fair o' Kilscommon, there wasn't a bit of sport, no more nor iv we were all black Protestants, an' bible-min, barin' one man that carried home a broken head, an' myself that just broke a neighbour's bones to make him aminds for a grudge that was

atune us.

"What wedding has there been in your landlord's family?" interrupted the stranger.

"It's the young lady that was married the day bud one afore yestherday -she's gone to the other side of the country, but we've a right to remimber her here, one time or another most of us felt her gudeness; an' Mary, that's the young woman beyant, ye'er honour, many a gud guinea's worth she left her on goin' away, and whin she was sick last spring, myself saw Miss Isabel

crossin' thim very fields, bringing her one thing or another, an' it's often I blessed her as she wint; bud there's thim on the land wudn't spake as I do,"

"Have they reason," asked the stranger, with more interest than he had shown in the grateful volubility of his guide.

"Why, it's not asy to make things even to every one, bud he never gave right rason to any to say an ill word o' him, only a little time agone, there was a bit of land out of lase, an' myself an' Pierce Fagan bid for it, an' to be shure Pierce ran me down fairly, bud his honour said, "Redmond," says he, ye'er Fadther was an honest man, an' I minded him on the land whin I was a boy, and ye shall have the bit o' ground. Then seein' how black Pierce tuk it, he tould him as how I'd soon have more to do nor myself needed, so by the same token, his daughter left Mary what 'ill stock it bravely."

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But as I reckon, ye got little blessing with his bounty," observed the traveller.

"Oh faith there was more nor that atune Fagan an' I; he was mighty fond o' goin' to M'Daniel's, an' houldin' the ould people in discoorse, braggin' o' what he cud rise at his trade, whinever he chose to turn to it, forbye what the ould man left him; bud he found it a dale asier to talk thim over nor herself, a purty fellow he was to thrust himself in her eye."

"If she had set it upon you, he had but little chance," said the traveller, surveying the stalwart form of his open hearted guide.

"Widout a bit o' boastin', she'd have tuk me an' the wide world afore us, sooner nor him, an' all his people to back him," said Redmond with a triumphant chuckle," bud his honour's gudness has made all smooth for us, an' iv yeerself Sir, stays any time, afore ye lave the country, ye'll be like to see Mary M'Daniel standin' on her own floor,-Mrs. O'Riley; an' iv I might make bould to say it, there's one thing I'd like to be thankin' yeer honour for. It's to-night Mary was tellin' me, that Pierce Fagan, like a resintful blackguard is strivin' to cross it. I'd scorn to vally his ill-will-didn't I give the spalpeen a maulin' last fair o' Kilscommon, I'm thinkin the twist's still in his