What age have you?-how old?" "Twenty-two."

"C'est ça," said the old consul, flinging the passport across the table, with the air of a man who thoroughly comprehended the applicant's preten sion to the designation of gentilhomme Anglais.

As I followed the worthy representative of Sevendials with my eye, another person had neared the table. She was a rather pretty young woman, with blue eyes, and brown hair braided quietly on her forehead, and wearing a plain close bonnet of a very coquettish plainness.

"Will you be seated, mam'selle?" said the polite old Frenchman, who had hitherto been more like a bear than a human being-" Ou allez vous done; where to, ma chere ?"

"No,sir, by Boulogne"-"c'est bon." "Quel age avez vous. What old, ma belle?"

"Nineteen, sir, in June."

“And you are alone, quite, eh ?” "No, sir, my little girl." "Ah! your letel girl-ces't fort bien -je m'apperçais; and your name ?" Fanny Linwood, sir."

"Ces't fini ma chere, Mademiselle Fanni Linwood," said the old man, as he wrote down the name.

"Oh, sir, I beg your pardon, but you have put me down Mademoiselle, and -and-you see, sir, I have my little girl."

"A c'est egal, mam'selle, they don't mind these things in France-au plaisir de vous voi. Adieu."

"They don't mind these things in France," said I to myself, repeating the old consul's phrase, which I could not help feeling as a whole chapter on his

nation.

My business was soon settled, for I spoke nothing but English-very little knowledge of the world teaching me that when we have any favor, how ever slight, to ask, it is always good policy to make the amende by gratifying

the amour propre of the granter-if, happily, there be an opportunity for so doing.

When I returned to Mivart's, I found a written answer to my letter of the morning, stating that his lordship of the Horse Guards was leaving town that afternoon, but would not delay my departure for the continent, to visit which a four months' leave was granted me, with a recommendation to study at Weimar.

The next day brought us to Dover, in time to stroll about the cliffs during the evening, when I again talked sentiments with the daughter till very late. The Madame herself was too tired to come out, so that we had our walk quite alone: It is strange enough how quickly this travelling together has shaken us into intimacy. Isabella says she feels as if I were her brother; and I begin myself to think she is not exactly like a sister. She has a marvellously pretty foot and ancle.

The climbing of cliffs is a very dangerous pastime. How true the French adage-" C'est plus facile de glaer sur la gazon que sur la glace." But still, nothing can come of it; for, if Lady Jane be not false, I must consider myself an engaged man.

"Well, but I hope," said I, rousing myself from a reverie of some minutes, and inadvertently pressing the arm which leaned upon me-" your mamma will not be alarmed at our long absence ?"

"Oh! not in the least; for she knows I'm with you."

And here I felt a return of the pressure-perhaps also inadvertently given, but which, whether or not, effectually set all my reasonings and calculations astray; and we returned to the ship hotel, silent on both sides.

The appearance of la chere mamma beside the hissing tea urn brought us both back to ourselves; and, after an hour's chatting, we wished good night, to start on the morrow for the continent.

BEFORE we enter upon the present state of the representation in Ireland, it may not be amiss to take a brief view of the circumstances which preceded, if they did not actually lead to, the passing of the reform bill. The first great change in the elective fran

chise in Ireland, was made by the act of 1793, which admitted Roman Catholics to vote for members of parliament. By this law the elective franchise was entrusted to a great number of persons whose feelings were adverse to all our institutions, and particularly

to those which gave us a close connection with England, a Protestant monarch, and a Protestant church establishment. The various and discordant feelings of the people were, in some measure, represented in the Irish House of Commons, by the variety of qualifications which existed for the franchise. The aristocracy, principally Protestant, were represented by a number of close boroughs. Close corporations, inheriting a strong Protestant feeling, and not unmindful of the purposes for which they had been originally established in Ireland, were the chief securities of the general Protestant interests here, while the counties were represented by those who obtained the suffrages of an ignorant rabble of forty-shilling freeholders, who were incapable of forming a judgment for themselves, but were led by any persons, generally their landlords, who took the trouble of directing, or ordering them, how to vote. The Roman Catholics, however, although the elective franchise was conceded to them, were still naturally discontented at being excluded from both houses of parliament, and all the great offices of the state, and symptoms of discontent appeared, that portended a fearful struggle of parties. Whatever the result might be, the consequences of the strife must be fatal to the pros perity of the country. If the Roman Catholics failed in the endeavour to obtain farther privileges, it could only be by a constant opposition between the county representatives and the members returned by close boroughs. The nominees of a few individuals could not long continue a contest against the great majority of the population. On the other hand, to admit the Roman Catholics to an equality, was to ensure them a certain and decided superiority, it was to commit the government of the country to the unprincipled and desperate nominees of an ignorant and bigoted populace. Scenes of confiscation and bloodshed would ensue, in comparison with which the darkest atrocities of the French revolution would appear insignificant. The Protestants of Ireland were placed in that situation that they could not maintain their civil superiority without a civil war, and they could not renounce it without ruin. In this state of things a more intimate union with England was the only resource. By this act of union, the Protestant Church was declared to be for ever the Established Church. in

England and Ireland, and its security was obtained by a provision which rendered it impossible to assail her except by the most flagrant breach of treaty. The Protestants also gained the advantage of being governed by the imperial legislature in which the majority was likely to have a feeling in their favour. On the other hand, they surrendered a superiority in Ireland which was no longer necessary to their protection. The number of representatives for Ireland, in the House of Commons, was reduced from 280 to 100. The reduction was caused chiefly by the disfranchisement of a number of close boroughs of which the members had been always nominated by Protestant noblemen, or Protestant corporations. Of the 100 members left to Ireland, 64 were returned by the counties in which the electors were principally Roman Catholics, and of the remaining 36, about half were returned by constituencies in which the Roman Catholics might easily procure a fair and equal influence. Before the reform bill Ireland possessed a more democratical constitution than England; there was a smaller proportion of close boroughs; the larger towns only had preserved their franchise at the union, insomuch, that by the reform bill not a single Irish borough was disfranchised, nor a single new one created; for, although Ireland obtained 5 additional members by the reform act, the addition was made by permitting 5 constituencies each to return 2 members, which formerly returned only one. Thus, by the act of union, the religious strife in Ireland, was rendered less formidable. The Protestants gained by it, since they were secured from most of the evils which would otherwise ensue, if the Roman Catholics succeeded in obtaining the equality in civil privileges for which they fought. The Roman Catholics also gained, as well by this, which diminished the inclination, or rather the necessity which the Protestants had of resisting them, as by the disfranchisement of so many close boroughs in the possession of which had principally consisted the superiority of their antagonists. The one made the Protestants less inclined, the other less able, to resist them. It was evident, that what was called Catholic emancipation must take place before the existing generation passed away, and, accordingly, in 12 years after the act of union, a very large

majority in the House of Commons, declared themselves in its favour. The majority against it in the House of Lords, was, at the same time, very small. It must have passed in a few years, if the violence of the Roman Catholic leaders, and some attacks then made, or menaced against the Established Church in Ireland, had not alarmed its friends to a resistance of the Roman Catholics. Nevertheless, the power of the Roman Catholics was steadily increasing. At the commencement of the struggle they possessed little power, owing to their deficiency in wealth and education, But in a country where education and the opportunities of successful industry, are within the reach of all, it must soon happen that wealth and education will, in proportion to their numbers, be more evenly diffused among the contending parties, and every year the Roman Catholics, a great number of whom were engaged in industrious occupations, acquired greater wealth; and the Protestants who possessed most were most liable to sustain losses. The quantity of wealth lost by any party is naturally proportioned to the amount which it possesses, the quantity to be gained will be more proportioned to the number of those by whose industry and economy it is to be accumulated. Nor did the Roman Catholics want active leaders to discipline and direct their multitudes. The power possessed by the priests, and their constant communication with the populace, provided every parish with a leader at a moment's notice, while the Roman Catholic bar, discontented at being deprived of their natural right to promotion according to their merit, became a band of agitators ready to adopt the most energetic measures to destroy a system by which they considered themselves oppressed. The Roman Catholics were united in their efforts to obtain Catholic Emancipation, the Protestants were divided in their resistance to it. Many were favorable to it-many were, indifferent. Even of those who opposed it, many considered other questions as of greater moment, and no Protestant opposed emancipation with the same energy with which every Roman Catholic contended for it. The populace, in whose hands the representation of Ireland existed, were in its favour, and were easily led by their priests and their lawyers to neglect every other criterion of merit among the candidates for their favour, and to

give their votes to those who made the admission of Roman Catholics to parliament their only immediate object. Thus the power of the party in Ireland opposed to Catholic Emancipation was daily diminishing, and men of the largest properties and the greatest inЯuence in the their respective counties, were expelled from the representation on account of their hostility to this measure. Louth and Waterford were startling instances to prove how precarious was the tenure by which the opponents of this measure held their seats. At length the matter came to a crisis. A vote in favour of Enancipation was no longer to be sufficient: the popular member was pledged to oppose any ministry which would not make Catholic Emancipation a cabinet measure. The county of Clare afforded a fair field for the battle which was to to be fought on this point. The Right Honorable Vesey Fitzgerald, one of the members for the county, had accepted an office in the cabinet under the Duke of Wellington, and thereby vacated his seat, and applied to his constituents to be re-elected. Many circumstances appeared to favour him in the contest that was about to ensue. For many years he had been one of the representatives of the county, and it might be supposed that those who had supported him so often would be unwilling to desert him now. He was a cabinet minister, his popularity was extensive, his talents were universally acknowledged, and all the principal landlords of the county were anxious to re-elect them. Beside she had been a supporter of the Roman Catholic claims from his first entrance into public life, at a time too when such support was generally believed to involve some sacrifice on the part of him who gave it; and it appeared ungrateful to turn against him the entire strength of that party which he had assisted when it most required his support. It was obvious that to contest his return was (to use a vulgar phrase) to take the bull by the horns, and that a battle to be fought under such circumstances required no ordinary exertions to give his opponent a hope of success. On the other hand, exertions of no ordinary description had been made.. The priests and the ribbonmen had been indefatigable, and their exertions, judiciously combined, had been so successful that no man dared to disobey them, or to obey the laws of the land. They bad reduced the county to a state

of perfect discipline, and the effects are visible even to the present day. In no part of Ireland is life or property more insecure than in Clare. It is difficult to collect rent, and impossible to collect tithes there. The law is a dead letter. It would be vain to offer any opposition to the ribbon candidates. No country requires a stronger police force, in proportion to its extent and population, than Clare, to keep it from a premature declaration of war against Great Britain. In a word Clare rivals Tipperary itself in the unbounded confidence which it reposes in Lord Mulgraves government

Such were the preparations for the eventful contest; and a man was found in whose favour they were most suitably applicable. Mr. O'Connell himself came forward as a candidate to oppose Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald. A short time before, a private unprofessional gentleman, the present Sir Valentine Blake, of Menlo, in the county of Galway, discovered an unexpected point of law in favour of the Roman Catholics. It was this, that the declaration against transubstantiation, by which they were excluded from the House of Commons, need not be taken by a member until after his election, and when he entered the house to take his seat, upon which occasion, if he refuses to make the declaration, his seat is vacated, and a new writ issues. Thus a Roman Catholic might come forward as a candidate, and be elected for any constituency; although without taking the required oaths, no person could sit or vote. Mr. O'Connell availed himself of this point, and stood for Clare. Lest, however, the zeal of his support ers might be damped by a knowledge of his incapacity to sit, and the poorer farmers be found reluctant to make the necessary sacrifices for a man so circumstanced, he pledged himself as a lawyer that the necessity for taking the oath had been removed by the act of union; and he put forth the statement plausible in appearance, that the several acts of parliament prescribed oaths to be taken by members of the British House of Commons, at the bar of the house in Westminster, and by members of the Irish House of Commons, at the bar of the House of Commons in Dublin, but that no provision was made to require such oaths from a member of the imperial parliament, and that, therefore, his common-law eligibility remained untouched by any act of parliament. His argument was VOL. XII.

just abstruse enough to catch the taste of the populace without perplexing them too much; and those who were scarcely able to comprehend it thought they saw in its abstruseness sufficient to account for the fact that it had not been discovered before, even supposing the statement upon which it was founded to be correct. In point of fact, however, it was utterly destitute of foundation, and all disabilities to sit or vote in the Irish House of Commons had been extended to members of the imperial House of Commons by 41 Geo. III. c. 52, s. 3. Our opinion of Mr. O'Connell's veracity and of his legal knowledge equally forbid us to suppose that Mr. O'Connell himself believed the assertions which he pledged himself to on this point. The falsehood was too evident to deceive any lawyer, and he had a double interest in its promulgation. First, to encou rage his supporters, by leading them to believe they were about to vote for a man who could permanently represent them; and next, to suppress the point made by Sir V. Blake, and by appearing to rely upon a different one to deprive a rival candidate for popularity of the credit which he was entitled to from his ingenuity and research.

Not to dwell too long upon this portion of history, the election came on, Mr. O'Connell was returned, and deferred taking his seat for several months, thus proving that he relied upon Sir V. Blake's arguments, not upon his own. The state of excitement in which the Irish populace was thrown by this contest contributed more than any other event to convince the Duke of Wellington of the impossibility or the impolicy of withholding emancipation any longer. Under these circumstances, he resolved to grant the Roman Catholics a fuller measure of emancipation than any of their advocates had ventured to demand. The measure itself was, perhaps, a wise one, but the mode in which he carried it created distrust in a number of his friends who had always opposed the measure. It broke the strength of the Conservative party, by dividing it, and it gave vigour and courage to the friends of revolution by giving an example of a great public change effected by a system of agitation which was little short of treason. revived a desire for parliamentary reform, which, for many years, had been dormant, and seemed extinguished in the minds of the people of England.

It also

I

Catholic emancipation was certainly carried contrary to the wishes of a large portion, if not an actual majority of the people of England, and its enemies asserted and believed that it would not have passed if the House of Commons had been a fair representation of the people. Sir Robt. Peel, too, in support of Catholic emancipation, relied very much upon the fact that the constituencies which returned members favourable to the measure were much larger than those which returned its enemies. This argument naturally suggested the propriety of a parliamentary reform. A measure which passed at the same time contributed to strengthen this feeling in favor of reform, viz. the disfranchisement of the 40s. freeholders, which, in itself, was a kind of parliamentary reform, and familiarized the public mind to the principle of disfranchisement without compensation. Two events happened while the Conservatives were divided, and a great body of them disheartened and without a leader, which completed the triumph of the radical reformers. The first of these was the death of King George the Fourth and the elevation of his successor. The second was the revolution in France and the three glorious days which led to the deposition and exile of Charles. At the general election which took place on the death of George the Fourth the ministerial candidates sustained many defeats. The opponents of emancipation now opposed the Duke of Wellington, who obtained, in exchange, only the hollow support of a small number of its friends. The cry for reform, which, for many years, had been disregarded, was now raised with effect, and its success was shewn in a marked instance by the return of its great advocate, Mr. Brougham, for Yorkshire. This was the first instance of a mere practising barrister being returned for an English county. The two parties most opposed to each other in the state agreed only in their opposition to the Duke of Wellington's cabinet, and compelled him to retire from power. Earl Grey's ministry succeeded, and the French revolution, and the high state of excitement it produced in the British people, induced him to propose a larger measure of reform and a more democratic constitution than any member of his cabinet had ever advocated. We have not room in this article to expose the frauds and misrepresenta

tions, the violence and falsehoods by means of which this measure obtained the support of such triumphant majorities in England. Our present business is with the measure itself as it affected Ireland. The general principle was to make the constitution more democratical; but its details were conducted so as to reduce as much as possible the strength of the opponents of the Whigs, and to increase the power of their supporters. The Roman Catholics supported the measure, which they saw must add immensely to their influence; and, in return, their interests were not neglected in the details. This was made manifest by various instances. Thus, before the reform act, clergymen were permitted, without registration, to vote for the counties in which they held their livings. As the number of livings in a county was fixed, and admitted neither of increase nor of diminution, and were all sufficient to qualify an elector, and as, from the nature of the interest, it never could be transferred for the purpose of making a fictitious claim to vote, it was considered that all the objects of registration were already obtained, and that, to compel a clergyman to register was to impose a useless and vexatious trouble upon him. However, the Roman Catholics, who saw an advantage in every impediment thrown in the way of a clergyman's vote, and who never omit the slightest point that can increase their influence, easily prevailed upon the Whigs to insert a clause compelling clergymen to register.

But, among the instances of unfairness shown by the Whigs in the details of this measure, we shall select one which may not have come within the knowledge of many of our readers. In consequence of the reform bill, it became necessary to ascertain the proper boundaries of the boroughs; as, in many cases, the ancient boundaries were in no manner connected with the elective franchise, and might be found inconvenient if the new rights given by the reform bill were to be dependent on them. For this purpose, commissioners were appointed to inquire into the size and probable number of the constituencies under the new bill, and to fix the boundaries of the boroughs according to the natural present and probable future boundaries of the respective towns. These were the public instructions, in conformity to which was the public report; but it appears that private instructions were given to