ranged. Being sent for to visit her in the capacity of a clergyman, he went walking with a long pole in his hand; and when he came to the cabin, was shewn into a sort of a room where she lay. "What ails you, my good woman?" he said to her. "Oh, sir!" she answered, "there is a little woman with a red cloak and a black bonnet that haunts me night and day, wherever I go, and gives me no peace." "Where is she now?" he said to her, "Oh, sir! there" (pointing with her hand) " on the bed-post, looking straight in my face."-" Stand off all of you," he said to the people about him. Then he took the pole and whirling it round his head, hit the post a smart stroke with it, and made it crack again. "Where is she now?"-" Oh, sir! there, on that sod in the corner of the roof;" pointing to it. "Stand off," he said again; then whirling the pole as before, he hit the sod a harder blow with it, and knocked the greater part of it down on the floor. "Where is she now?"-" Sir, she is just on the cupboard there, looking at me."-" Stand off, all of you;" then he struck the cupboard with such force as to break the tea-cups on the shelves. "Where is she now?”—“ Oh, sir! she just flew out of the window." Thus he cured her of her delirium.

He was also sent for to visit a man in the same parish affected with a similar disorder. When he came into the room where he was, which happily had an earthen floor, he saw him sitting on it with the coals of the fire all about him in little heaps here and there, as if he were roasting potatoes. "What are you doing with the coals?" he said to him. "I am roasting devils," he answered. “You ought rather, man," said Skelton, "to get some water and duck them, for fire is their own element."-"I believe so," replied he. However, he humoured him so well, that before he left him he got him both to eat and sleep, which he had not done for some time before.

Having wrought these cures on persons disordered in their brain, he tried his skill upon a hypocritical enthusiast at Monaghan, a weaver, who, pretending a divine mission, set up to preach a new religion, and drew some of his people after him, chiefly by wearing a white hat. While a number of them were about him one day, Mr. Skelton came up to them and said, " David, why do you wear the

white hat?"-" Because, Philip," replied he, "I have no money to buy any other."-" Well, well, David," he said, "if I buy a new half-guinea black hat for you, will you wear it?" He returned no answer. "David, I say, will you wear it?" Still he continued silent. "My friends," Mr. Skelton said to the people, "you see all his religion is in the white hat; he'll not part with it; take away that mark of distinction, and then there will be no more virtue in his religion." The people being convinced by what he said, quitted their new teacher, who was forced to go home to his trade.

Though Mr. Skelton was usually employed in the serious business of his profession, he could now and then relax from such severity, and partake of innocent amusements and exercise. There were few, it appears, equal to him in the manly exercises; for in size, strength, and activity, he was superior to most men. He told me he has lifted up some huge weights, which no ordinary person could move. In the walks of the plantation at Monaghan, he threw the sledge and stone, played long-bullets on the public roads, and performed many other manly exercises. He could wind a fifty pound stone round his head without any difficulty, which shews the amazing strength of his arms. He found it requisite indeed, even then, to make use of his hands to chastise the insolent.

One Sunday, after church, riding along with a lady to a gentleman's seat some distance from Monaghan, he came up to a parcel of tinkers on the road, whom he heard uttering horrid oaths, for which he rebuked one of them in particular in these words, "Sirrah, it would be more fit you had been at divine service than be thus profaning the Lord's day." The fellow gave him a saucy answer, and continued cursing as before. He then threatened to correct him if he would not desist, which made him more profane and abusive. Skelton could bear no longer, but leaped off his horse and struck him; the rest took his part, but he soon beat him and the whole troop of tinkers. He thus made them sensible of their crime by the only argument of which a tinker could feel the force. Then mounting his horse, he rode hastily off with the lady to the gentleman's house to which he was going, that he might be there before they

should hear of it. But with all his speed the news travelled there before him, and on entering, they complimented him on his boxing and beating the tinkers.

He exerted his courage again on a similar occasion. A young officer, proud of his red coat, which he had just put on, came into the hall of an inn (while he, being then on a journey, happened to be in the parlour), and to shew his cleverness, began reproving the waiter, and uttered a volley of horrid oaths. The waiter retaliated, and thus they were going on, when Skelton coming out of the parlour, told the officer, that he was a clergyman, and that it was very offensive to him to hear such horrid swearing, and begged he would desist. The officer then said to him, "You scoundrel curate, what is it to you?" Skelton gravely replied, "Young man, this is not proper language to one of my profession, merely for giving you good advice." -"You puppy you (for he thought Skelton was afraid), you deserve to be kicked for your impertinence;" and then he uttered some blasphemous oaths. "Well sir," said Skelton, "since fair means will avail nothing, I'll try what foul can do." Upon this he fell to him with his fists, and cuffed him through the hall of the inn, and soon cooled the captain's courage, and made him quiet and submissive. Thus he chastised the military man for his profaneness, exerting his valour in the service of God and religion.

It appears that he was fond of paying visits, and, among others, he sometimes visited Dr. Maul, that worthy prelate, who, when bishop of Dromore, lived in the old see-house at Maheralin.* He once borrowed a horse from a Mr. Wrightsome of Monaghan to go thither. This horse being slipped in the back by the carelessness of some of his lordship's servants, the bishop gave him another one in exchange which was not quite so good. But afterward, as a recompense to the man, he bestowed on him his sermons.

Mr. Skelton set out in his ministry in the character of an avowed champion of the orthodox faith. Deriving his religious principles from the pure source of information, the Holy Scriptures themselves, he could find in these no real ground for the opinions of our modern refiners. Consequently he declared open war against all Arians, SociA small village in the county of Down.

nians, and the like, considering it his duty to attack boldly these adversaries to truth; and he published several anonymous pieces against them. He found leisure, he said, amidst all the duties of his profession, "to switch the Arians now and then." These little productions, and others of his on different subjects, were published by a printer's widow in Dublin, who having a just sense of honour, would on no account discover his name. She had, therefore, the talent of secret-keeping, for which some persons will allow the sex no credit.

Some of his productions were of a temporary nature, and consequently were not republished by himself in his works; of these it cannot be expected I should take a regular notice.

In 1736, he published a pamphlet, the title of which is "A Vindication of the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Winchester," &c. A book entitled "A Plain Account of the Nature and End of the Lord's Supper," was ascribed to his lordship. In this he asserts, that consecration of the elements is without Scriptural precept or example, and that this sacrament is intended merely to commemorate our Lord's death. Here he insinuates, that no previous preparation, or resolution of amendment of life, is necessary for receiving the sacrament worthily.

Skelton, under a pretence of defending his character, exposes him. "It is very unjust," he says, " to suspect that a right reverend prelate, who is more pious, judicious, orthodox, and learned, than any that ever was, or ever will be, who has sworn and subscribed to all our articles, and has so tender a conscience, should be capable of writing so bad a book. It is a scandalous age, that ascribes such a work of darkness to such an apostolical messenger of light." Then he answers all the arguments produced by the author in such a manner as to satisfy any reasonable reader.

This production was very pleasing, it seems, to Dr. Sterne, the bishop of Clogher. When he read it, he sent for him, and said to him, "Did you write this, Mr. Skelton?" shewing him the little piece. Skelton gave him an evasive answer. "Well, well," he said, "'tis a clever thing, you're a young man of no fortune, take these ten guineas,

you may want them." "I took the money (he observed to me) and said nothing, for I was then a poor curate."

He published in the same year "Some Proposals for the Revival of Christianity." The design of this piece is to ridicule the infidels and enemies of our church. The great objection, as they think, which many have to the Christian religion in this country is paying tithes to support the clergy, who do not deserve them. He therefore comes into their scheme. The church must be destroyed, the clergy turned out, hanged or banished, or if any remain they must live without food or clothes; the Bible is then to be burnt, and Magna Charta of course. Then a pure Christianity, free from any low, temporal motives, will take its place. This scheme might possibly suit the refined notions of the present day. His ridicule, however, is in general too clumsy to have much effect.

Some one of Swift's friends carried this pamphlet to the Dean in Dublin, to find out if he wrote it, every anonymous production at that time, of any tolerable merit, being attributed to him. Yet he formed a determination, to which he strictly adhered, not to acknowledge or disavow any anonymous performance, on his being asked if he wrote it; and, therefore, when Skelton's piece was brought to him, he only said, after reading it over, "the author of this has not continued the irony to the end."

In 1737, he published a Dissertation on the Constitution and Effects of a Petty Jury. Trial by a petty jury, according to the present mode, is, as he imagines, a temptation to perjury, and the chief cause of the general corruption of manners which prevailed in these kingdoms. He therefore advises, that a curious sort of ballot should be substituted in its place, which he thinks would produce most happy effects, and recommends it to parliament to have his scheme made a part of our constitution; the members who would be active in effecting this should, he says, be justly called the preservers of their country. This piece is written with sufficient sense and perspicuity; the inconvenience that attends forcing people by hunger and other uneasy sensations to be of one opinion is clearly pointed out. Yet I doubt if the chief corruptions, of which he com