mind of man is a strange compound of opposite passions. I had everything to apprehend from the poor friar's preaching; yet, strange as it may appear, I was almost willing to have all my bright schemes overturned, provided I could have the pleasure to see and hear the celebrated Father O'Leary. He opposed our designs, disapproved of our motives, and censured our intentions; yet without having ever seen him, we loved-almost adored him. Fame had wafted his name even to Rockglen; and how could we but venerate a man who had exalted the character of Irishmen, vindicated our oppressed country, and obtained from the ranks of Protestantism friends for our insulted creed.

'Besides, he was peculiarly adapted to our taste. He made the world laugh at the foibles of our enemies, and put us in good humour with ourselves. It was not, therefore, without some slight satisfaction that we were informed from the altar that the good friar meant to address us on our manifold transgressions. Never did men manifest such eagerness to receive reproof. At the sound of his name, there was a general rush towards the altar. The old women, for the first time in their lives, ceased coughing, and the old men desisted from spitting. The short people were elevated on their toes, and the tall people suffered their hats (felt ones) to be crushed as flat as pancakes, sooner than incommode their neighbours a degree of politeness seldom practised in more polished assemblies. All breathed short and thick; and much as we venerated our good priest, we fancied he was particularly tedious in the lecture he thought fit to read us on our neglecting to go to confession, and on our dilatoriness in paying the last Easter dues. At length he concluded by announcing Father O'Leary.

"The venerable friar made his appearance-looked calmly but inquisitively on the congregation, and after a pause blessed himself. His words were solemn and

affecting, and as he proceeded he seemed to glow with a pious fervor. Our hearts were irresistibly yielded up to him when he described the afflictions which had befallen our poor country; but when he adverted to our recent outrages, characterized our proceedings, and painted our folly in expecting a remedy from illegal means, the whole congregation seemed abashed, the people looked as if they were all guilty, and one individual afterwards said to me: 'I know I was never very good; but until I heard Father O'Leary, I had no idea that I was such a wicked reprobate.'

"When the preacher had shown the enormity of our offences, he ‘begat a calmness,' proceeded to persuasion, and concluded by calling upon us, if we loved our country, and believed in the truths of our holy religion, to listen to the advice of one who had our interests at heart-who had come amongst us only to save us from destruction, and who would leave us with regret if we did not promise before the altar of our God to amend our lives.

"There is no resisting eloquence from the lips of a beloved preacher. The tears of the congregation convinced Father Arthur that he had not spoken in vain, and when the sermon was over, nearly every man present came forward, one after another, to promise that he would surrender up his arms."

It is interesting to learn that the sentiments entertained by the Bishop of Cloyne on the character and influence of the Catholic clergy of Ireland, subsequently to this controversy, underwent a change, which does equal credit to his honesty and judgment, and vindicates for him the title to wisdom, established by the dictum of Cicero, who has said, “sapientis est mutare consilium." In a charge delivered by his lordship to his clergy, on the 3rd of July, 1793, we read with pleasure the following words:"It is incumbent on

you (the clergy of his diocese) to keep up the most cordial intercourse with the Roman Catholic clergy of your respective parishes, the better to effect the great object which you have in common-the promotion of piety, good morals, and public order and charity; and by that example to lead your parishioners to meet their Roman Catholic neighbours, in the various departments into which they are now introduced, without discontent or jealousy, for the better execution of the several branches of our internal policy. You should exhort them to do credit to their profession by liberality of mind, allowing to the votaries of the Romish Church the same privilege of private judgment which the founders of Protestantism asserted for themselves when they separated from that communion. You should exhort them to contend with the Roman Catholics, not for enmity, but emulation; to aim at superiority, not by reviling or undervaluing, but by excelling them, by being better citizens and better Christians. In this glorious contest, they who are thus contending for the prize, will not only improve themselves, but learn to love and esteem each other."

Dr. Woodward died in the year 1794. A mural monument in the Cloyne Cathedral commemorates the event, on which it is also recorded that deceased had been, during life, in his place in the House of Peers, "a warm advocate for Catholic emancipation."

The champions of this famous controversy are now no more; but, unhappily, the battle they fought has not yet terminated, though eighty long years have passed since the date of their encounter. During those eighty years, the Whiteboys have risen more than once -rebellion has broken out periodically, like a virus in the constitution-tenants and landlords are on the same terms of antagonism as of old-Orangeism in the north, and Catholicism in the south, typify our pro

verbial national discord-the Protestant ascendancy banner still flaunts from the pinnacle of the Established Church. When will those evils cease? God only knows. But their final destruction will, no doubt, be accelerated by the clergy at least, of all religions, acting in accordance with the spirit that prompted the Bishop of Cloyne when he exhorted the ministers of his diocese to "keep up a most cordial intercourse with the Roman Catholic clergy, the better to effect the great object they have in common with them-the promotion of piety, good morals, public order, and charity.”

CHAPTER VIII.

Character of Father O'Leary-His Personal Appearance-Anecdote of O'Leary and Lord Avonmore-Novel method of finding out where one is to dine-O'Leary at Lady Morgan's Christening-Her Ladyship's opinion of him-Curious issue of a Religious Controversy -O'Leary's Charities-Young Murphy (afterwards Bishop of Cork) reads the Bible for him-Anecdotes-St. Patrick's New Coat-The Quaker and the Guinea-Sir Jonah Barrington's Account of O'Leary -A string of Anecdotes-O'Leary and Michael Kelly, the Composer-O'Leary and Curran-Amusing Introduction to Dr. Johnson-The Irish Language-O'Leary's Tendency to Fits of GloomApprehensions of his Future.

HERETOFORE we have viewed Father O'Leary only in his character of a public man, as a priest and a citizen, enforcing, in this double capacity, the principles of religion, morality, loyalty, and social order; it is time that we should see what manner of man he was in private life. And, first, with regard to his personal style and appearance, a contemporary writer,* who knew him well, and esteemed him even to enthusiasm, tells us that "he was nearly six feet high-a perfect perpendicular, with a kind of rigor in his muscles that seemed to suffer from bending-there was a formality in his bows, which, in some measure, extended to his address. He discovered the cloister in his dress and deportment, not that he exhibited his gown of coarse serge, his cord, or his rosary, but that his out-of-fashion suit of sables hung upon him somewhat monastically, and was stately and inflexible enough to have characterized a fellow of one of our colleges. An original vein of humour and quaint jocularity rendered him gay with the sprightly,

* Pratt, the author of a novel entitled Family Secrets.