his attorney narrowly escaped with his life, and was forced to fly by night to Dublin.

The pretended murder of Bridge was made the pretext for the judicial murder of some other individuals obnoxious to the aristocracy of Tipperary; but the effect produced by the dying declarations of these unhappy men, caused such a strong sensation of horror, that the persecutors were stopped short in the midst of their career.

The state of morals, during this unhappy time, was deplorable; the habits of the gentry were coarse and brutal; the peasant learned all the vices of the slave. The few Catholics who pretended to conform, neither were, nor affected to be, influenced by religious principle. A certificate of having received the sacrament in the church of England, was all that the law required to secure their property; and tradition records many instances of horrible profanation that took place when the test was administered to these insincere converts. But there were also some noble examples of virtue, which it is much more pleasing to contemplate. Many Catholics made fictitious conveyances of their estates to Protestants; and there were very few instances of the violation of this confidence. A poor Protestant barber held the title-deeds of all the Catholic estates in a southern county. He would accept from them neither present nor reward, but supported himself by the labour of his own hands. His only recompense was the testimony of his own conscience, and the gratitude of those whose estates he rescued from the rapacity of the discoverers:-But what more noble recompense could he have obtained?

The seats in the Irish Parliament were, at this time, held for life, except at the demise of the Crown, or when the King pleased to order a dissolution. The people had consequently little controul over their representatives; and by the ingenious contrivances used to close the corporations, the Irish House of Commons became a mere mockery of representation. The English reader will scarcely credit the reality of such an anomaly as the existence of cities and towns, containing several thousand inhabitants, where the elective franchise is confined to twelve or thirteen individuals. But some such still remain; and the populous towns of Clonmel, Cashel, and Belfast, have not a constituency much larger than that of Gatton or Old Sarum. If he asks why such an abuse is permitted to exist?—he will be told, that it is essential to the Protestant interest! If he asks for any explanation of the wicked nonsense of such a reply, he will get no answer. Where the towns contained a larger constituency, the corporations adopted an ingenious plan of selling themselves to an extensive dealer in boroughs, and, by bestowing the elective franchise on his friends, dependents, and servants, they soon outnumbered the resident freemen. This was very successfully practised in Youghal. The corporation party happened to be less numerous than the independents; but they contrived, by finesse, to hold an assembly of which the others were not aware, and created an overwhelming majority of non-residents. They then constituted the Earl of Shannon their patron, agreeing to return his nominees, and receiving, in return, appointments in the Customs and Excise-the Irish government having erected an immense number of useless places in both departments, for the special purpose of rewarding its dependents.

The proprietors of boroughs, or rather the proprietors of the Irish Parliament, for its cities and counties were virtually close boroughs, formed an

anomalous body called Undertakers. They entered into a bargain with the government to carry all its measures in Parliament, receiving, in return, places, pensions, and profitable jobs. Similiar transactions have occasionally taken place in England, where the parties had the grace to keep them secret. But, in Ireland, corruption stalked unblushingly abroad, and seemed to court the face of day. Honesty and patriotism were so lightly valued, that no one thought it worth while to lay claim to them. The two great objects of the undertakers were, to oppose the independence of the Crown, and the liberty of the people. The English ministry did not interfere with the oligarchy in their misgovernment of the unfortunate country, which "they insulted by their ignorance, plundered by their rapacity, and slandered by their malice." But factitious opposition to the power of the Crown was an evil of a different nature, which they determined to remove. For this purpose it was resolved, that the Lord Lieutenant, instead of visiting Ireland once in two years, and intrusting the government, in the interval, to Lords-Justices chosen from the undertakers, should, for the future, reside in Dublin, and manage in person the disposal of places, pensions, and preferments.

6

An unexpected result followed this change. The condition of the people was gradually improved, as the authority of government was strengthened; and, save when the old oligarchy, by lending their odious. influence to a minister, contrived to gain back some portion of their old monopoly, no examples of wanton oppression, on the part of the supreme power, will be found in the rest of this history. It was, however, the misfortune of George the Third's reign, that most of the administrations formed in it felt afraid of the people; and that, in consequence, they entered into a new alliance with the Irish oligarchy, and intrusted that dangerous body with powers which they were afterwards unable to control. Every direct exertion of British power has been uniformly in favour of the people; and Ireland continued to be oppressed, not because the British minister had too much influence, but because he had too little; being checked, controlled, and fettered by the confederacy of the boroughmongers, which knavery called, and folly believed, to be "the Protestant interest."

This beneficial change was not effected without great expense, and was made the subject of more jokes, good and bad, than will bear to be recorded. Lord Townshend, the viceroy appointed to effect the revolution, possessed a large share of the convivial talents so highly appreciated in Ireland; he easily collected about the Castle the inferior dependents of the great boroughmonges, and purchased the transfer of their allegiance by the united influence of cash and claret. This was described as "an attempt to monopolize the manufacture of legislators, by purchasing up the raw material;" and the needy crowd that thronged the Upper Castle-yard, pacing the narrow precincts in hopes of reward, were said to be employed in" ploughing the half acre;" for so much did its area contain.'—vol. ii. pp. 260-273.

Thus we see from every page, that the history of Ireland is but an almost uninterrupted series of national misfortunes; that ever since she has been connected with England, she has been treated as a conquered country; that her people have been looked upon as the natural

enemies of the English; that her civil institutions have been recklessly trampled upon; that her altars have been constantly insulted, frequently overthrown; that her commerce has been fettered, her resources wasted, her interests despised or opposed, and her career, as a nation, embarrassed by all the impediments by which a powerful state can obstruct the progress of a weak one. It is, indeed, a heart-rending history to peruse. Evidence of misgovernment, of gross rapacity, and of the most cruel legislation, upon the part of England, flashes upon the eye at every line. We know not what Ireland might have done, had the island been a thousand miles further to the west, in the Atlantic; but placed as it is, it is unquestionably the most wretched spot upon the map of civilized Europe.

There are few, if any, exaggerations in the picture which Mr. O'Connell has drawn, of the natural advantages which that country possesses. In fertility of soil it is unrivalled; it is remarkably well circumstanced for general commerce, at the western extremity of Europe, with every facility for navigation to every part of the maritime world; it is indented by spacious roadsteads, bays, estuaries, and harbours; and many of the latter are open in all states of the tide, and sheltered from tempests. The interior of the country is intersected by numerous navigable rivers, and there is scarcely any part of it without the best materials for the construction of roads. Water-mill sites abound in most of the counties, where machinery might be erected for manufactories of every description. The climate is genial, equally free from the extremes of heat and cold. The people who inhabit that fine island, are patient of labour, exceedingly industrious, generous, cheerful, eminently intelligent, and, by temperament, attached to religion. How, then, has it happened, that a country thus blessed by nature with every good gift which nature can bestow, seems rather to be retrograding to the ages of barbarity, and poverty, than to be advancing in refinement, and in national wealth? These two volumes furnish a painful answer to this question,-the same answer which Mr. O'Connell has also given to it,-eternal domestic dissension, and English misgovernment.

Da

ART. V.—Memorie storico-gritighe della vita e delle opere di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, cappellano cantore, e quindi compositore della cappella pontificia, maestro di cappella della basilica vaticana, lateranense, e libreriana detto il principe della musica compilata. Giuseppe Baini sacerdote romano, cappellano cantore, e direttore della stessa cappella pontificia. Vols. I. II. Folio. Roma: dalla societa tipografica. 1828.

THE name of Palestrina is dear to all lovers of musical harmony. He was intimately conversant with all its rules, and both with its recondite and familiar artifices and beauties. He

was the first who introduced into it the charms of melody. We are, therefore, pleased to see an elaborate account of his life, his compositions, and their peculiar character.

Many attempts have been made to investigate the music of Greece and Rome. Hitherto they have not been very successful. Something has been done to discover and explain the mathematical principles by which it was regulated, but its practical rules are little known: it is even doubtful whether either the Greeks or the Romans performed music in different parts. It is admitted that the Grecian music was divided into three scales, the Diatonic, the Chromatic, and the Enharmonic. The former consisted of whole tones and semitones, the second of semitones, and the third of quarter-tones. But whether all, or more than one, of these were admitted into one air, is uncertain. The Roman music was less complex, but its general nature is as little known. Sir John Hawkins and Dr. Burney, in their several histories of music, have entered upon the subject and discussed it at length. Sir John Hawkins always writes with a leaden pen; Dr. Burney is generally entertaining, and often ingenious, but is too frequently flimsy. We wish some writer would favour us with a new history of music, which should contain all that is interesting in each of these works. It might, we think, be compressed into two octavo volumes..

We are next carried to the Gregorian chaunt. It has generally been supposed that this was derived from the Greek. The cele brated Jean Jacques Rousseau denies this; and, after much examination of the point, we incline to his system. We observed that Mr. Butler, in his letter upon music, inserted in the first volume of his Reminiscences, adopts this opinion, and we think the reasons which he gives fcr it are plausible. Many learned treatises on the Gregorian chaunt have been published, but some points in it still remain to be cleared up. The melody of the Gregorian chaunt, and particularly its psalmody, are very pleasing. The accompaniment of the organ adds to its beauties, but necessarily detracts something from its peculiar nature.

The Gregorian Chaunt was superseded by the Hexachords of Guido Aretinus, and this introduced modern harmony. It first appeared in the Netherlands. It was extremely complicated and learned, and is music rather to the eye, than to the ear. Still it may be heard with pleasure by scientific ears. Palestrina was the first who simplified its harmony; he increased its general melody, and greatly delivered it from the heavy superstructure with which it was loaded. His alterations gave rise to the Italian Madrigal, the parent of the modern English glee, but not surpassed by it. We do not know a greater musical treat than an Italian Madrigal, scientifically and feelingly performed.

Dr. Burney inserted in the third volume of his History of Music, a good account of Palestrina and his works. The publication before us collects many other particulars respecting them; but these are

of little consequence to general readers. It appears that Palestrina was born in 1529, in a city of that name in Italy, called, in ancient times, Pranéste; that, about 1555, he was admitted into the Pope's chapel at Rome; that in 1562, he was elected Maestro di Capella of Santa Maria Maggiore, in the same city; that, in 1571, he was honoured with a similar appointment at St. Peter's; and lastly, that having brought choral harmony to great perfection, he died in the year 1594, at the age of sixty-five.

The only event of importance in his history which his biographers have related, is, that florid song had been so much introduced into the church-music of Italy, as to excite the displeasure and disgust of Marcellus the Second, the then reigning Pope. It had before his time attracted the attention of Pope John the Twentysecond. The wish of that Pope was, to banish it entirely from the churches, and that the music sung in them should be of the simplest kind; that it should be in unison, and that more than one note should never be assigned to one syllable. His Holiness published two bulls to this effect. He afterwards relaxed so far as to allow that a more complex or refined music should be sung on feasts of particular solemnity. But the wishes of his Holiness were not complied with, so that at the time of Marcellus the Second, the Roman church-music was of the lightest kind. To induce the Pope to allow in the churches the performance of modern music, Palestrina requested permission, that a mass to be composed by himself should be performed in the Pope's chapel. It was accordingly composed and performed, and gave the greatest satisfaction to his Holiness and all others who beard it. From that time Palestrina was the favourite composer of ecclesiastical music. His works are very numerous, and we understand that it is very difficult to procure a complete collection of them, but that a great proportion of them may be easily obtained. The composition, by which Palestrina is most known in England, is his Exaltabo, a sublime and elegant motet. But if the species of music which the works of Palestrina superseded, was too trifling and familiar, we think that which he introduced was too cumbrous and complicated; and that a simpler style is more proper for churches and chapels. Is there not reason to suppose, that one cause of the prevalence of the evangelical chapels, is the superior simplicity of their music? To a connoisseur nothing can be more beautiful than many of the anthems which are performed in the cathedral service of the established church of England; but, to the public in general, the simple strains of the evangelical choirs, will always be much more acceptable.