king Pippin. The proportions of O'Con- | for he rarely utters a word, he must be nell's mind are more colossal than a man of astonishing intellect: there he Holmes's, but the symmetry of the parts, sits immersed in an unfathomable stagnaperhaps, is not so perfect. O'Connell, tion, stupid, starch, and silent as Harpolike the Pentathletes of ancient Greece, is crates. A late judge, remarkable no less great in all the departments of intellect; for the elegance and variety of his knowa lawyer, an orator; first, the politician of ledge than the keen causticity of his wit, a party, then the statesman of a great em- once remarked to a judicial brother while pire. Holmes cannot boast the same flex- the worthy Smelfungus dosed, "Brother ibility of mind, although had he mingled Lazarus is not dead, he only sleepeth."* in the struggles of Ireland for the last Whether he snored too does not appear thirty years, and stood prominently in the on the record; but really one would think foreground instead of retiring into the his lordship had been in eternal commupeaceful shadow of private life, he would nion with the "brother of death," and that have now filled a more ample space in the though the old story of weeping into stones national heart, and given another great his- was a fable, that of sleeping into stones toric name to his country. was not at all inconsistent with human Of humour they are both great masters, belief; for whoever sees his lordship in but 'tis an accident in O'Connell, the ruling ermine on a "long cause day, will not quality in Holmes; in O'Connell an occa- argue against the possibility of the mar sional, though exceedingly brilliant flame vel, for he sits in a grave, stagnant, un-in Holmes, as it were, the central fire thinking abstraction, to which the prothat animates his being. O'Connell is the found inertness of Swift's sage philosoreal national humour, rich, broad, and ir- pher was activity itself-sometimes, howresistibly comic-sometimes pungent, al- ever, giving symptoms of returning aniways pleasing-that description of hu-mation, by looking at the lenses of his mour that makes you hold fast both sides, spectacles, for his lordship is a philosoor the small ribs will be likely to give way. pher, as though he had been meditating Holmes's approaches are more to wit, 'tis the discovery of a new "optic tube," with pointed and playful, always an auxiliary to which he could contemplate from his obhis argument, and sparkles with no more servatory the motions of the Limerick exertion than is necessary to throw it off: tithe rebels-again, propping his head with it approaches nearer to irony than O'Con- his hand to support the superincumbent nell's, and is oftener enveloped in a hard mass gravitating most naturally downcaustic rind. ward, and sometimes gazing with a Platonic intentness on his fingers, as if his mind had been involved in the mystical doctrine of the Quincunxes. He is in truth a worthy disciple of the sage who said, "Man was born to contemplate," for the intensity of his thoughts is never broken unless when the termination of a case compels him "to agree wholly with his brother such-a-one. This is a summary of his judicial oratory: he then relaxes into his wonted gravity, looking as severe and sage as a Reis Effendi, or perhaps he retires for a few moments after his important charge to cool the aridity of his larynx

I have never heard him without calling to mind that exquisite pencilling of Marcus Crassus, by Cicero. Quo," says the great orator, "nihil statuo fieri potuisse perfectius, erat, cum gravitate junctus, facetiarum et urbanitatis, oratorius, non scurrilis lepos, loquendi accurata, et sine molestiâ, diligens elegantia., in disserendo, mira explicatio cum de æquo et jure disputaretur argumentorum copia," &c. &c. There is one man against whom, whenever an opportunity occurs, Mr. Holmes never fails to level a broadside of mingled sarcasm and humour. He watches him with a falcon vigilance, pounces on his blunders, and is sure to set the court "in a roar," that is, Judge Smelfungus ; 'tis really a burlesque on justice to see Smelfungus in ermine, and Holmes in stuff, and sufficient, without further testimony, to render the administration of justice and the laws suspected in Ireland. Smelfungus was a party man, a violent Tory, remarkable for the paucity of his public or + In a revenue case some time past, in which professional good qualities, but like some Dr. B- professor of chemistry was examinplants having secret virtues, which are ed, his lordship in charging the jury, took a long discovered by chance, was found unex-sweep into the regions of chemical science. The pectedly liberal in 1829, voted for the professor observed to a witty barrister who sat Catholic Relief Bill, and was soon wrapped up in judicial ermine. He is a man of vast capacity, if the criterion laid down by a celebrated French writer be correct, "that 'tis the great point of capacity to be able to conceal one's capacity," and as Smelfungus conceals it most effectually,

This piece of wit was originally Burke's; seeing his political antagonist, Lord North, asleep, (a parliamentary indecorum of which his lordship what I again and again said, government, if not "Behold was frequently guilty,) he exclaimed, defunct, at least slumbers. Brother Lazarus is not dead, but sleepeth."

near him, "I know little of the laws of the country, but I have some knowledge of chemistry, and I assure you his lordship is ignorant of its commonest principles." To which the barrister subjoined, "I know little of the laws of chemistry, but I have some knowledge of the laws of my country, and I assure you his lordship is ignorant of their commonest prinples."

with two or three glasses of brown sherry, | me here." One day, I remember, during or put down the devil of hunger with a por- the last Trinity-term, a learned judge and tion of a delicious lobster, for Smelfungus Smelfungus were on the bench hearing is a man of very Sybaritic habits, and motions; the former had occasion to leave particularly addicted to shell-fish. His the court for a short time, Smelfungus reblunders are numerous and admirable:mained. Holmes rose to make a motion, sometimes in the teeth of the most direct of course; Smelfungus made a rush to the testimony, he will charge the jury, and, on door. "My lord, will you hear a motion? remonstrance by counsel, like a hog in a 'tis a very easy one." The red curtain nalter, will pull a different way. The fol- dropped. Smelfungus was off, the trilowing story, generally current through umph of the sarcasm was complete. the Four Courts, will partially illustrate Mr. Holmes is now in his seventy-third this admirable trait in his character. In year, with faculties still unclouded, and the summer assizes of 1832, in Limerick, energies still undiminished, and exhibits several persons were indicted for a riot in his person all that quickness and simand assault; Smelfungus was the criminal piicity which characterise his mind. He judge; in the course of examination, the commands the unabated respect of all prosecutor distinctly swore, "that man," with whom he comes in contact or conpointing to one of the prisoners at the bar, flict, and if he is ever hurried beyond the came up while the other prisoners were boundary of that severe and strict propriassaulting me, gave me a wipe of a cleh-al- ety, to which his actions are generally conpeen, and laid me down nately." "The de- formed, the commonest observer could fence having closed, his lordship address- not fail to perceive that his passion or zeal ed the jury. "Gentlemen of the jnry, the was no more than a strong anxiety for his prisoners at the bar are indicted for a vio- client, and never pointed at his antagolent riot and assault, and the prosecutor nist; his errors are at once explained by has clearly sworn to the joint perpetration a reference to the situation in which he of the offence by all save one, and in his has been placed; they are never sought favour there are circumstances of very out, they lay in his way, and could not be great extenuation, indeed, facts on which avoided. In person he is a remarkable you will consider it your duty to acquit man; if you stroll down Ormond Quay him." Here the jury were completely at about ten o'clock during term, you may check, absolutely confounded; some were see a man of the middle size hastening to inclined to think that his lordship had de- the Four Courts as though his spirit was scended from his usual "mystery of the content to rest nowhere but in that_scene body," to indulge in the sallies of an un- of tumult and litigation,-that is Robert usual pleasantry, from which every quali- Holmes. You may distinguish him by ty of his mind was before accustomed to the additional marks of a countenance shrink; in sooth, they did not well know which, in more ancient times, must have what he was driving at. However, he selected him, like Sophocles, to lead the proceeded, "Tis pleasing after so many procession of the handsomest and most years of agrarian tumult and disorder, to accomplished youth of Athens to the temsee an incipient humanity developing it- ple of Minerva; it still exhibits many traself among the lower classes, and so am-ces of its earlier fascination, still graceful, ply and generously exhibited in the case florid, and manly; had you seen it in a of that man," naming one of the prison- crowd, you must have asked the name of ers; "he came up while the prosecutor the possessor. If you cannot yet trace was bleeding from the effect of his wounds, him out among the throng "thither bendas it has been sworn by the prosecutor ing," look for a fine old Irish gentleman, himself I have taken a note of it-gave witn a rich beaver hat slightly perked up him a wipe of a clean napkin, and laid behind, and a few fine silvery locks peerhim, to use his own characteristic phrase, ing out underneath a suit of black ranately on the ground."" Here the court ther tastefully made, black gaiters, an umbecame convulsed in an uproar of laugh-brella, which, like the laureate's, is his ter, all except Smelfungus, who had re- companion in all seasons, and no outward laxed into a stagnant abstraction; he ad- covering even in the very rigour of windressed the sheriff, who mentioned the ter. Again, if you steer at noon into the mistake his lordship committed. Smelfungus frowned.

He is in sad terror when Mr. Holmes enters the court, particularly on Nisi Prius day, for he is sure to belabour him. You may see plainly written in Holmes's countenance, Your political profligacy placed you there-my patriotism keeps

66

* A long club, largely knotted on the striking end, and so heavy as to be wielded with both hands-'tis of frequent use among the peasantry of the south, in their desperate encounters.

hall, you may see him in a well-powdered mass of horse-hair, minus the tail, which after a "thirty years' war," has given way to the incessant attacks of his coat collar, a new stuff gown, which has lately superseded the old, and which he has stoically preferred to the richest silk, thinking, no doubt, that government act on the same principle as Eutrapelus, who gave fine

clothes gratuitously to the persons he most wished to injure; and, to complete the portrait, an enormous bag, which, like the mass of stone taken up by Hector, two degenerate lawyers of the present day could with difficulty raise, or get cause to raise, but whose weight habit has reconciled to him. If the clue be still imperfect, wait a few minutes, and you are sure to hear the Praecones of the different courts crying out in full chorus, "Robert Holmes, Esquire," then you may see him hurrying to the field of argument, and when you once have seen him you cannot easily forget him.

of the hypocrite, and accommodate his conduct to the wishes of those in power, but from such prospects, however brilliant and seducing, he turned loathingly away, and preferred the fatigue and drudgery of a laborious profession. rather than "be what he was not." With the spirit of the intrepid and manly Roman, who looked calmly and disdainfully on the gold of Pyrrhus, he scorned the largesses and honours which successive governments were anxious and ready to heap on him, and continued inflexible; the memory of his old freedom was too dear to him, the memory of that illustrious family with which he had In religion he is a Dissenter, and a mem- connected himself, the Irish Metelli, who ber, I believe, of the seceding congrega- had given three glorious citizens to Iretion which separated from the Synod of land, and might have given many more, Ulster. On a late occasion, in the Court had not a melancholy fatality haunted of Exchequer, in the case of Dill and their career, and sacrificed them too soon Matson, or the Synod of Ulster against on the altar of liberty and their country; the Presbytery of Antrim, in which points their memory was too dear, too soul-felt, of religious doctrine were incidentally in- to merge in the dazzling and delusive glare troduced, Mr. Holmes was counsel for the of honour and power; his principles emadefendants, and delivered, on that occa-nated from the depth of his heart; amidst sion, a beautiful exposition of his own all the changes of circumstances, and principles in a speech, which, in soundness of argument, truth, and elegance, was declared by all who heard it one of the finest pieces of forensic oratory ever delivered within the walls of the Four Courts. His clients "testified their gratitude for his exertions, by presenting him with an address, containing a request, that they should be permitted to publish his beautiful oration, to which he assented.

threatening dangers, there was no, not even a momentary surrender, no partial compromise, no trace of weakness in his feelings and convictions. He has long retired from public life; with the death of Robert Emmett he gave up the torch, which has passed successfully into the hands of others. Since that period, Censure, which arraigns the public acts and private motives of men, has left his life without a stain, and his noble and sober wisdom, though unrewarded with the ermine of the bench, finds an ample reward in the universal veneration of the Bar.

No man ever loved constitutional liberty with more sincerity and ardour, and no man ever more nobly conformed his life to his doctrines, and illustrated his principles by his conduct; the first eminence at the bar was at his feet, if he could per- We do not agree with the principles and suade himself to abandon the cherished opinions expressed in this spirited article. notions of his youth, to put on the mask' —ED.

THE LAST TRIAL.

BY MRS. ABDY.

A GENTLE lady, young and fair, upon her death-bed lay,
She had walked from early childhood in Religion's holy way;
But fearfully and gaspingly she drew her failing breath,
And mournfully she shuddered at the near approach of death.

It was not that the Tempter to subvert her faith and power,
That precious stay forsook her not in nature's trying hour,
She felt that for her Saviour's sake, and through her Saviour's love,
She should meet with pardon for her sins, and join the saints above.

But peacefully and happily had past her even life,
She had been blest and blessing as a mother and a wife;
Nor could she lift her feeble heart to joys of heavenly birth,
That heart too fondly lingered on the fleeting joys of earth.

"Soon, soon," she murmured heavily, "neglect shall be my lot, My memory shall pass from earth, my course shall be forgot;

These lofty hills, these gllding streams, these trees with foliage green, Shall still remain, but I must quit each dear familiar scene.

"The flowers that bloom so freshly now must shortly fade away,

But new ones shall supply their loss, as bright, as sweet as they;
And so when I have ceased to rank amid a living race,
Others shall speedily come forth and fill my vacant place.

"The friends who in my listening ear soft words of kindness poured,
Shall welcome other guests ere long around their cheerful board;
The lute I used to touch, they will to stranger hands consign,
And deem perchance those melodies are sweeter far than mine.

"The husband of my fervent love, so cherished and so dear,
His heart awhile shall thrill with grief, his home awhile seem drear;
But soon his hopes shall be renewed, his lingering tears be dried,
And his deserted halls shall greet a fair triumphant bride.

"My only son, my treasured boy, there most my trial lies,
How will he miss my ceaseless care, my fond approving eyes!
And when he enters on a world where evil roams unchecked,
Who with a mother's watchful love his footsteps shall direct?

"I feel 'tis sinful thus to dread the awful summons nigh,
But when I think upon these things, I fear and grieve to die;
O Lord, forgive me that I thus should prize a world of strife,
Vouchsafe to grant me at my prayer a few short years of life.”

These thoughts within the lady's breast a weary conflict kept,
She on her pillow turned her head, and bitterly she wept,
But the Lord that she had served of her tears took timely heed,
And sent a gracious messenger to help her in her need.

Unheard by all around save her, arose a heavenly voice:
"O! daughter of the earth," it cried, "be thankful, and rejoice;
Thou art bursting the dark prison-house of sorrow and of sin,
And angels wait at Heaven's bright gate to bid thee enter in.

Though fair may be thy earthly home, though blest thy earthly love,
How valueless such gifts appear to those dispensed above:
Eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard, nor mortal tongue can tell,
The joys thy Father hath in store for those that love him well.

Thy friends-oh! wish not selfishly to cloud their days on earth,
Their minds shall often dwell on thee in scenes of social mirth,
And when they feel the pains and cares of life's uncertain track,
If they be Christian friends indeed, they will not wish thee back.

"Thoughts of thy virtues and thy faith shall constantly arise
In thy fond husband's tender heart, whate'er his future ties;
Who can he love like her who owned his early vows of truth,
The mother of his first-born child, the chosen of his youth?

"And though thou leav'st thy helpless boy in childhood's opening bloom,
A pious mother's influence may reach beyond the tomb;
The offspring of the wicked in their parent's shame must share,
But the children of the righteous are the Lord's peculiar care.

"Of all the good and bounteous gifts of which thou art possest,
Thy dear Redeemer's sacrifice is held by thee the best;
Oh! then, resist this sinful grief, put off this mortal leaven,
He who was pierced for thee on earth, awaits thee now in heaven.”

Around the gentle lady's lip a placid smile now played,

She knelt, she clasped her wasted hands, and fervently she said,"Lord, I have clung to human ties; but at thy gracious call, Behold I come to thee with joy, content to leave them all."

Then she sank upon her pillow in a slumber still and deep,
But she never woke on earth again, that trance was death's own sleep;
The smile yet rested on her lip, her aspect calm and fair
Had never worn so bright a look as then was beaming there.

Her kindred gazed upon her face with mingled awe and love,
It spoke of peace enjoyed below, and peace prepared above;
Her earthly trials had been few, their bitterness had past,

For her God had brought her safely through the sorest and the last.

PARIS IN LIGHT AND SHADE.*-No. III. | duced annually in London, there are ten,

PLACES OF PUBLIC AMUSEMENT.

and ten times ten, in Paris.

The appliances and means of the stage are brought, too, to the highest perfection. PARIS may be regarded as the capital of The French are essentially a dramatic dramatic Europe: its dozen theatres, and nation. They possess as much taste in twelve dozen dramatic authors,-being superficial matters, as perception of the incessantly at work to furnish prototypes vivid and impressive in scenic effect; and for the stage management of London, and it is now as much a matter of course for all other cities of the civilised world. a new manager of one of our theatres to Opera, tragedy, comedy, farce, and melo- fly to Paris for fresh ideas of decoration, drama, have fixed their thrones on the dress, and what are technically termed shores of the Seine; and with rare, though effects, as it would have been in former honourable exceptions, the successful times to form an engagement for a new plays of every modern language may be piece with Farquhar or Congreve. Much traced to some Parisian model. Many of of this superiority may be traced in Paris these originals have been fairly and frank- (as at Vienna or Berlin) to the gratuity ly imitated; but a far greater number sto- granted by government for the maintelen, and, after the fashion decried in the nance of the national drama and national Critic, disfigured like gipsy foundlings for opera. The French, feeling their opera the purpose of disguise. For the last hundred years, indeed, the custom has prevailed. It is not alone the avowed translators of the last century, such as Arthur Murphy and Aaron Hill, who were indebted to the French stage; but most of the favourite comedies of that date, which now pass under the name of legitimate The superiority of their dramatic aunational plays-such as "The Confedera- thorship, on the other hand, may be ascricy"-" The Hypocrite "-" The man of bed, in the first instance, to the vast pecuthe World"-besides faces innumerable, niary advantages enjoyed by their dramanow dignified as belonging to the school tic authors; which naturally produces of "good old English farce," were "ta-zealous ardour and active competition. ken," à la mode de Dick Turpin, from the Scribe, for example, obtains an income of French. In our own times, the thing has become a matter of avowed speculation. The moment a successful piece appears in Paris, a dozen translators are in the field running the race of blunder-headed precipitancy, 1or the benefit of the English managers, at a rate of remuneration fatal to the interests of the original dramatists of the day.

to be bonâ fide their property, the manager is assailed by the press with as much indignation on the day following the representation of any opera or ballet, of which the scenery and decorations are of an inferior order, as if he had been detected in picking their pockets.

five thousand a year from the nightly representation of his own pieces throughout the kingdom, a sum enormous in France, and quadrupling, at least, the gains of any French author of the times in any other department of literature. The vocation of the dramatic author, is consequently a profession. The hundred English writers of fiction, who inundate our circulating That the French possess, in a far higher libraries, and of whom twenty might be degree than ourselves, the tact of drama- cited as possessing sterling merit, would, tic composition, is however undeniable. in France, consecrate their talents to the There is something in the construction of stage, and secure for themselves and their a Frenchman's mind peculiarly favoura- children a permanent source of profit. In ble to the creation of theatrical plots and stage intrigues-a faculty wholly wanting in the English; and we are forced to admit, that, for one good play or farce pro

• Continued from p. 276.

England, notwithstanding the opening created by the dramatic copyright bill of Mr. Bulwer, the difficulty of collecting the tax imposed upon the stage, must, till better provisions are made, prove fatal to the rights of authors. In France, the droits d'auteur are levied by the administration