two fees, returned to my "domus et placens uxor."

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On the next circuit came two learned judges, whom I am anxious to introduce to the reader's notice. The name of the one is identified with literary repu. tation, splendid genius, and profound learning; the other, celebrated as the accomplished scholar, the delightful companion, the polished and graceful orator. The friend and correspondent of Edmund Burke, could not but be an individual of more than ordinary qualities; and the name of Sir W. C. Smith and the Right Hon. C. K. Bushe surely must not pass unheeded in my narrative. It happened, when I was in England, pupil to a barrister since elevated to the bench, that a case, which had been tried in Ireland before Sir W. Smith, was sent over to have English advice as to the grounds upon which a rule for a new trial could be most soundly supported. The notes of the trial and the report of the learned baron's charge, were, of course, copied in the case submitted to my learned preceptor. "This," said he to me, seems to be a very sensible, and certainly an eloquent charge of the judge; Baron Smith, I think, is his name; is he a man of any celebrity ?” My Irish pride boiled and bubbled: I swelled with national indignation. "If, Sir," said I, 66 you were as well versed in the literature, as you are in the laws of your country, you might, with as much propriety, have asked me, if Saunders's Reports was a work of any value." The habits of the Baron are peculiar; his appearance is grave and venerable, but it is as an evening star that he Ishines with brilliant lustre. When once fairly seated on the Bench, he scems peculiarly to enjoy the midnight lamp, and becomes the more vigorous as the shades of night close around. A case in which I was engaged for the prosecution was called on at eleven o'clock at night; the circuit Attorneygeneral already sketched was my colleague; there was also the regular array of crown prosecutors. At this late hour a messenger was sent to the bar-room, to order our attendance, and some of the counsel for the crown re

fused to obey the summons. My colleague and I thought it our duty to obey; the case proceeded, and at length a very technical discussion arose as to whether the persons were truly indicted VOL I.

for an unlawful assembling. The learned Baron again sent for the crown counsel, who again refused to attend ; and his lordship having animadverted somewhat severely upon the refusal, "My Lord," said my excellent colleague, with a waggish gravity, "most probably it may be the opinion of those learned gentlemen, that our present sitting in court partakes of the nature of an unlawful assembly." It was with considerable delight that I received an invitation to dine with his lordship, and unquestionably a more agreeable evening I never enjoyed. The Baron was refined and philosophical; the Lord Chief Justice brilliant and classical. The one instructed by the accuracy of his criticism, the other entertained with his fascinating anecdote and sparkling wit. I could not avoid contrasting them with their English compeers, and exulting with all an Irishman's ardour in the superior attainments of my learned hosts. It is reported of a very eminent English lawyer, that in the index of one of his numerous publications appeared the head, "great mind.", A learned judge, in casting his eye over the book, was startled at seeing such a title in the index. "Surely," said he,

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my friend Mr. C. has not commenced metaphysical studies." On turning to the page marked in the index, he found, "Lord Ellenborough had a great mind to non-suit the plaintiff." It was this gentleman who, on one occasion, on a motion in the King's Bench in England, was poring over and reading a quantity of voluminous affidavits, with an air of luxurious delight. "Quite irrelevant; wholly irrelevant," interrupted Mr. Brougham, who was counsel on the opposite side. "Softly, softly, Mr. Brougham," said Lord Tenterden, in a tone of grinding sarcasm, "You must make allowance for literary taste; many persons are partial to affidavit reading." I told the story of my introduction to criminal practice, which afforded considerable entertainment to the Chief Justice. "Indeed," said he, “I remember myself having been somewhat chagrined by the result of a case in which I was employed to defend a man who was indicted for wilful murder. It was on the Munster Circuit, before the Baron's father, Sir Michael Smith. thought I had the most satisfactory defence in the world, for I had in court, alive and well, the man who was al

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leged to have been murdered. When called on for the defence, I gave "oyer" of the man, and, with an air of calm complacency concluded the defence. The foreman of the jury looked sneeringly at me:" that counsel," said he, thinks himself a wonderful clever fellow; I'll teach him the difference. The prisoner stole a colt of mine, and if he produced the murdered man fifty times over, I'll find the prisoner guilty.", Despite of the judge's charge, despite of my display of the living body "of the murdered man," the prisoner was found guilty of murdering a living man, because he stole a horse; as pure a specimen of jury logic as ever as probably could be produced from any country. It was only by the Lord Lieutenant interfering that the life of the prisoner was spared." There is one circumstance which cannot fail to be observed by any one who has been in the society of Sir W. C. Smith, and that is, the accuracy of his knowledge on every subject on which he converses. Go with him into the recesses of ancient and modern classics, you will soon find that he will take the lamp out of your hand, and light you onward. Turn to metaphysical disquisition, and there he rides triumphant, foiling you with his acute analysis, and opening new and rich veins of thought and emotion. The Lord Chief Justice will always fascinate; he will attend you in your range through law and literature, and cheer and delight you on your journey; and if you wish to be an "auditor tantum,' you may calculate upon an agreeable repast of polished anecdote and didactic hilarity. This circuit proved more productive than the former; but the fee book for this year is truly indebted to the reform bill and the registry sessions for its most solid sustenance. My presence was demand

ed at several counties, to provide, as far as my humble talents would allow, that the constitution should not finally be rooted out, by any but bonâ fide ragamuffins. One scene only, and I have done. In the county of L, I enjoyed the pleasure of being the guest of a distinguished female personage. The two county deputies and I sojourned at her hospitable mansion for nearly a week. I would not intrude further into the privacy of domestic life than to say that we had the society of a hostess endowed with mental energies of extraordinary power, and intellectual cultivation of more than usual excellence. One of the deputies being an old married man, and the other a confirmed old bachelor, I considered myself, as the "youth" of the party, called upon to discharge the duties of gallantry, particularly as there was a very pleasing, animated, and artless young lady, then on a visit with our hostess, for whom I soon entertained a pure platonic affee tion. My wife might have been jealous, perhaps, if she had seen the simpering softness of my smiles at the dinner table; but as I made a full and fair confession of my true condition on the day of my arrival, I thought I was entitled to take a dance in fetters. My old romancings were revived by the quickening impulses of what may be designated an affectionate regard, (such as a lady entertains for a gentleman when she pens a refusal to the vexata questio, and then tells him she shall ever esteem him as as a friend); and on my leaving the hospitable roof, I became poetical in the extreme, that is, I intended to become so, but my muse, sly jade, traversed in prox., and I must only wait to bring her before the bar of public opinion for trial, and judgment, if convicted, next number.

We are inclined to believe, that among the feelings and passions incidental to human nature, there is not one which would be likely to form a more interesting subject for speculative inquiry, than the extreme solicitude which the majority of mankind have, in all ages, evinced for posthumous fame. It would be difficult to find a poet or historian of antiquity, who has not expressed himself to the same effect as the most intellectual and philosophical of his brethren in modern times, in calculating upon the honours which should be paid to his memory by the applause of posterity; and if we may so say, the degree of post-obit felicity which he could not fail to enjoy in the justice so rendered to his excellent deserts. We must certainly advance so much in commendation of the greater acumen and more polished taste evinced by that portion of creation usually entitled posterity, as to attribute to them the redeeming of many a gem of purest ray serene,' from the waters of oblivion, to which they had been unfeelingly consigned by the race, whose credit it should have been to appreciate, as it was a disgrace to reject them; as also the transplanting of many a flower born to blush unseen,' from the midst of rank, old weeds, that envied and obscured its beauty, to a more congenial soil, where its loveliness could no more be lost. None can deny to 'posterity' the merit of having accomplished these great desiderata; what have we not done in this relation, to those who went before? And what may not those, who are yet to come, now being fashioned in the womb of time, effect for us? Out upon the idle jest of the halfwitted mountebank, who refused to lend his aid for the benefit of future generations, unless they gave him an equivalent: Heaven knows, they have

more than repaid him since for his jokes, by unrestrained convulsions of laughter at the mere mention of his name. For ourselves, to prove with what different feelings our spirits are influenced, such is our fond desireour longing after the immortality of literary renown, that without meaning any offence to you, gentle reader, we only need capital to induce us to publish a magazine for posterity solely, content to be cheered by its clamorous approval, wafted upon the wings of echo to the beautiful Editor in the Elysian fields. Before we leave this part of our article, however, it may be prudent to state, that we are now writing, contrary to the advice of Thucydides, for the existing generation expressly, leaving it optional with futurity to reprint us, without fear of being entangled in the meshes of the law of copy-right; but as yet we have no subscribers for the year 1900.

It may not be now amiss to state the bearing of our preceding observations, and show how they are connected with the present subject. It has been our good fortune to have lighted accidentally upon a mine of Irish poetry, from which we shall gather occasionally a few brilliants, and submit to an amazed public some exquisite specimens of a mere precious than oriental lustre; in other words, we discovered upon a lofty shelf, no matter where, some dozen tomes of various size and quality, and contents in all metres, crusted with the most venerable dust, and evidently intended to be concealed from the curious, by a curtain of cobwebs, which did infinite honour to the skill and industry of a tribe of Arachnes. One glance convinced us that they never were designed for the use and purposes of modern times; some of them, it is quite plain, were meant to be valued by, and others to be un

derstood by future, and more distant ages, an object which, we must confess, they deservedly despaired of seeing accomplished in the present infancy of knowledge and taste. The fact is, we are really now spoon-fed, and, to speak gravely, we are in the childishness of dotage, with regard to our literary caprices; the intellect has long spurned the strong aliment by which it was nourished and invigorated; Shakespeare and Milton are almost forgotten, and the enervated and effeminated fancy luxuriates to satiety upon the hot-spiced confections, which emanate from the pen of passion, under the guidance of folly and bombast, and in utter defiance of the dictates of modesty as well as reason. The sun has gone down upon the poetic art; those who wielded the sceptre over all nature are no more; and by whom are they succeeded? The primrose poets; those who can wrap up their souls in a rose-bud—the defamers of botany, who would appear but to study it for the purpose of racking it upon the wheel of their nauseous and abominable rhymes. Heaven help the flower that will jingle in couplets or triplets; should it escape one Annual-it will probably be snared in another, and should it outwit them all, it may still be overtaken by a Magazine.

A considerable portion of that species of composition to which we allude we are under compliment for, to fairer hands and more enthusiastic hearts than fall to the lot of man. Woman is in the field. Would she were so armed, as to defend her rights. We may wrong, but it is an impression which we have long entertained, that there is no foundation whatever for the presumed inferiority of the female intellect. The stuff which we are aware our opponents would adduce in their support about 'weaker vessels,' and so forth, we could answer at once by insisting it was not a moral weakness which the expression was intended to convey; that the greater delicacy of her frame and the pliant softness of her feelings should incline her to depend on man for her support we do not mean to deny, but to assert that she is inferior in soul, or its qualities, is taking a good step towards the Mahometanism that would deprive them of any soul at all, and convert them into a species of mechanical

apparatus as indispensable to the arrangement of domestic economy as the fly-wheel of a jack, and just as unconscious of its own evolutions. Why should not a part, if not the whole range of the sciences be made available for the purpose of female education? Is it that woman is deficient in capacity? In truth we know of instances where the pupil outran her master. Why should she be kept in the darkness of ignorance upon the beauties of classic literature, which are still more easy of attainment, and could not but be studied to good purposes under the influence of the most refined and exquisite taste? Let any take but a hasty glance at the honoured names upon the scroll of authorship, and although he may find the proportion of female writers to be but small, he cannot for a moment with justice believe that they do not sustain with spirit and talent the part which genius has induced them to enact upon the literary stage. Of the various departments of composition we should be inclined to point out the poetical as peculiarly adapted for the expression of feminine feeling, of course when that feeling has submitted to the correction of its exuberance or excessive enthusiasm by the standards of a well-informed mind, and a well-regulated judgment. Further, is not woman the absolute essence of two-thirds of the poetry that has been written since the creation? Why then may she not look into the mirror of her own heart and become the medium of its dictates; we do not expect, nor in sooth do we desire that she should go so far back as to retaliate upon our sex for our odes and sonnets To Caroline,'

To Maria,' and so on, by indicting versicles To Henry,'' Charles,' or even Antony Poplar' who, in a parenthesis, is quite vain enough; no-but if poetry be nature harmonized' we assert that the subject could not find an apter minstrel-one who could clothe more adequately, in the expressive language of the soul's emotions, the fair scenes with whose beauty and inartificial loveliness the senses are wont to be impressed, than woman. With what peculiar and yet forcible imagery has one whom it now were idle to com. mend, pourtrayed in one of his most favourite pictures, the out-beaming of female intellect in the words

"The mind, the music breathing from her facc."