ed, cruel, and barbarous desperadoes, were to commence their grand scheme, by a horrible deed-the assassination of the whole Imperial family!!! In the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, which is situated in the middle of the castle, repose the ashes of all the monarchs of Russia from the time of Peter the Great. On the 12th February every member of the dynasty of Románof makes a point of attending a religious ceremony, which is well described by, Holman in his Travels, in memory of Paul. While in the acts of devotion, or after their conclusion, the Imperial victims were to have been shut up in the church, and there murdered. The castle was then to have been seized, all the foreigners in the Residence were to have been murdered, and Petersburgh was to have been given up to the soldiers to be pillaged for three days.

In a proclamation which the Emperor issued after the insurrection, he made known many of the details of the conspiracy, which he ascribed at the same time to "a handful of factious persons.' That proclamation appeared in the London newspapers on the 23d January; and on the following day, Dr. Lyall made numerous comments upon the state of Russian affairs in the Morning Chronicle, among which is the following observation in allusion to the opinions of the Emperor Nicholas.

"These are not my opinions; I know, on the contrary, that the spirit of reform or revolution has spread far and wide, and that it exists among many of the officers of the army, and among some of the nobles of the highest and most ancient families of the empire."

This statement, alas! has already been but too fully verified. We learn from the journals of the day that the spirit of insurrection has manifested itself in the government of Kief, and even in Bessarabia, besides Petersburgh; and among the conspirators occur the standard Russian names Dolgorukii, Galítsin, Orlof, Lapuchin, Muravief, Trubetskoi, Demidof, Obolenskii, &c. &c. Two thousand officers have been arrested.

The late insurrection, however long prepared, and however well organized, was taken by surprise, and hurried into action by extraordinary events, and has been defeated for a time; but the Tsar and the Russians should recollect that the spark of revolution is not extinguished: on the contrary, the spirit of reform has extended from the borders of Poland to the walls of China, and from the Neva to the Araxes.

We should like to see Russia advance in the scale of nations; but the march of civilization cannot be forced; rude peasants cannot be transformed into civilized free citizens by revolution, by the cane, by the word of command, or by an Imperial Ukáz.

Like his brother the late Alexander, Nicholas goes about the city sometimes on foot, sometimes on horseback, to remark what is going forward, and is every where received with joy and enthusiasm. A short while ago he was in the square where the celebrated gigantic monument of Peter the Great is placed. Casting his eyes on the statue of the Tsar, he exclaimed to the great men by whom he was surrounded-" He also had many obstacles to overcome, but with perseverance and the aid of God, he succeeded in destroying the faction. I have the courage to desire what is good, and with that many difficulties vanish." It must be recollected, however, that Peter the Great possessed uncommon powers of mind, and that he had only a rude people and an ignorant army to govern, who had no ideas of liberty; whereas now, a portion, at least, of the general population is illuminated, and Russia having come into collision with the other states of Europe, has acquired a new train of sentiments.

Other anecdotes must be reserved for another occasion. Therefore to conclude, when we take into consideration the dangers which Nicholas the First has already incurred-that conspiracies have so early manifested themselves in various parts of the empire-that a revolutionary spirit widely prevails; and that, besides revolts, we already hear of incendiaries attempting to burn the Residence, we cannot but view Nicholas's situation as one of great danger, and congratulate ourselves that Providence has not made us Autocrats of Russia.

DIARY OF A BARRISTER DURING THE LAST WEXFORD

ASSIZES.

I AM an Irish Barrister, and go the Leinster Circuit. I keep a diary of extra-professional occurrences in this half-yearly round,- -a sort of sentimental note-book, which I preserve apart from the nisi prius adjudications of the going judges of assize. In reading over my journal of the last Circuit, I find much matter which with more leisure I could reduce into better shape. I shall content myself for the present with an account of the last assizes, or rather of myself during the last assizes of Wexford, presuming that I do little more than transcribe the record of my own feelings and observations from a diary, to which, as I have intimated, they were committed without any intention that they should be submitted to the public eye. This will account for the character of the incidents, and the want of classification in their. detail.

The stain has

I set off from Dublin on the 17th of July, and on Sunday morning passed in the mail-coach through Ferns. In England, a barrister is not permitted to travel in a public vehicle, lest he should be placed in too endearing a juxta-position to an attorney. But in Ireland no such prohibition exists; and so little aristocracy prevails in our migrations from town to town, that a sort of connivance has been extended to the cheap and rapid jaunting-cars by which Signor Bianconi (an ingenious Italian) has opened a communication between almost all the towns in the South of Ireland. Be it, however, remembered, that it was not in an Irish vis-a-vis, that I passed through the ancient city of Ferns. Doctor Elrington, the present Bishop of Clogher, resides in its immediate vicinity; his palace is visible from the road. A word or two about the Doctor. He had been Provost of Trinity College, and was raised to this important office by Mr. Perceval, to whom he recommended himself by some mystical elucubrations upon the piety, poverty, and simplicity of the Irish Church. They were distinguished by a laborious flimsiness, and exhibited a perfect keeping between the understanding of the writer and his heart: they smelt of a lamp which was fed with rancid oil. The present Archbishop of Dublin had been the competitor of Elrington for the first station of the University. His eminent abilities gave him in his own opinion, and I should add in the judgment of the University, a paramount claim. But at that time he had the plague-spot of liberality in his character. been since effaced, but it was still apparent when he presented himself to the Minister. Doctor Magee used to give a somewhat amusing account of his reception by the flippant personage who was then at the head of the State. He threw out some broad hints as to the principles in which the Protestant youth of Ireland ought to be educated; and said that the office had been given away. "Let me see," (said Mr. Perceval, in the Doctor's description,) " let me see-yes, his name his Doctor Elrington, I have his pamphlets upon tithes ; he has demonstrated their divine origin. How much such men are wanted in these dangerous times!" The mistake made by the Minister in pronouncing the name of his successful rival, (which he hardly knew,) produced an increased secretion of gall in the Doctor, to which he used to give vent in many a virulent gibe. At this time he was Mr. Plunket's friend, and his own enemy. But Perceval's admonition was not lost upon him. ceived that he had taken a wrong course, and, selecting his competitor as his example, speedily improved upon his model. But let him pass. Doctor Elrington, while a fellow of the college, published an edition of Euclid. A schoolboy might have given it to the world. But such is the state of the Irish Protestant University, that by constituting an exception to the habits of intellectual sloth which prevail over that opulent and inglorious corporation, even an edition of Euclid confers upon a fellow of the university a comparative title to respect. When Provost, he was a rigid disciplinarian. He attracted public attention by two measures:-he suppressed the Historical Society, and issued a proclamation against witchcraft. Special orders were given by the Doctor against the raising of the Devil. The library of Trinity

He per

College is filled with books of necromancy; and, apprehending that the students might be reduced into a commerce with the Fiend, the Doctor gave peremptory directions, that the ponderous and worm-eaten repertories of the Black art should not be unclasped. A Scholar of the house, who appears to have had a peculiar predilection for the occult sciences, complained of the restraint which the Doctor had taken upon himself to put upon his intercourse with the "Prince of the Air," and called the former to account in a visitation, at which Lord Chief Justice Downes (not very appropriately) presided, as the representative of His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland. I do not recollect the decision of his Lordship upon this important question, but, if I may be allowed to conjecture from his intellectual habits, I cannot help suspecting that any appeal to the statutes of James the First must have been conclusive, in his mind, in favour of the injunction against sorcery. Shortly after this exploit against the Devil, the Doctor was raised to the see of Limerick; and upon the detection of his sanctimonious and detestable predecessor, he was promoted to the bishopric of Clogher. He resides in a noble palace, which arrests the attention of the traveller in his way to Wexford, and affords an illustration of that apostolic poverty, in which the teachers of the reformed religion embody it's holy precepts.

66

Wexford is a very ancient town. It was formerly surrounded by walls, a part of which continue standing. They are mantled with ivy, and are rapidly mouldering away; but must once have been of considerable strength. The remains of an old monastery are situate at the western gate. By a recent order of vestry, (at which Catholics are not permitted to vote,) a tax was laid on the inhabitants for the erection of a new church upon the site of the monastic ruin. Upon entering Wexford I missed a portion of the old building. I walked into its precincts, and found that some of the venerable arches of the ancient edifice had been thrown down, to make way for the modern structure. The work of devastation had been going on among the residences of the dead. A churchyard encompasses these remains of Christian antiquity; and I observed that many a grave had been torn up, in order to make a foundation for the new Protestant church. The masons who had been at work the preceding day, had left some of their implements behind them. To behold the line and the trowel in the grave, would be at any time a painful spectacle; but this violation of the departed becomes exasperating to our passions, as well as offensive to our religious sentiments, when it is occasioned by an invasion of the ancient and proper demesne of the almost universal faith of the people. Fragments of white bones had been thrown up, and lay mingled with black mould upon the green hillocks of the adjoining dead. Why should not that be the skull of an Abbot ?" I exclaimed, as I observed the fragments of a huge head which had been recently cast up: "little did he think, that, in the very sanctuary of his monastic splendour, he should ever be 'twitched about the sconce' by a rude heretical knave, and that a Protestant shovel should deal such profanation upon a head so deeply stored with the subtleties of Scotus and the mysteries of Aquinas!" After passing some minutes in "chewing the cud of these bitter fancies," I became weary of my meditations among the dead, and strolled towards the Quay of Wexford, upon which both church and chapel had poured out all their promiscuous contents. Here was a large gathering of young damsels, whọ after having gone through their spiritual duties, came to perform the temporal exercises of an Irish Sabbath. There was a great display of Wexfordian finery. The women of Wexford of the better class have, in general, a passion for dress, to which I have heard that they sacrifice many of their domestic eomforts. This little town is remarkable for a strange effort at saving and display. It is not uncommon to see ladies, who reside in small and indifferently furnished lodgings, issuing from dark and contracted lanes in all the splendour which millinery can supply. This tendency to extravagance in dress is the less excusable, because Nature has done so much for their faces and persons, as to render superfluous the efforts of March--VOL. XVI. NO. LXIII.

X

Art. The lower, as well as higher classes, are conspicuous for beauty. There are two baronies in this county, in one of which the town is situate, the inhabitants of which are descended from a colony planted by the first English settlers, who never having intermingled their blood with the coarser material of the country, have retained a perfectly characteristic physiognomy, and may be distinguished at a glance from the population of the adjoining districts. The Irish face, although full of shrewdness and vivacity, is deficient in proportion and grace. Before you arrive in Wexford, in traversing the craggy hills which overhang it, you meet with countenances at every step, which are marked by a rude energy and a barbarous strength. Through the cloud of smoke that rolls from the doors of a hovel of mud, you may observe the face of many an Hibernian damsel, glowing with a ruddy and almost too vigorous health, made up of features whose rudeness is redeemed by their flexibility and animation, with eyes full of mockery and of will, and lips that seem to provoke to an encounter in pleasantry, for which they are always prepared. The dress of the genuine Irish fair is just sufficient to conceal the more sacred of their symmetries, but leaves the greater portion of their persons in a state of brawny and formidable nudity. But when you descend from the hills to the eastern coast, you are immediately struck with a total dissimilarity of look, and cannot fail to notice a peculiarly English aspect. I am disposed to think the young women of the lower class in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, even more graceful and feminine than the most lively of the English peasantry, whom I have ever had occasion to notice. Their eyes are of deep and tender blue, their foreheads are high and smooth, their cheeks have a clear transparent colour, and a sweetness of expression sits on their full fresh lips, which is united with perfect modesty, and renders them objects of pure and respectful interest. They take a special care of their persons, and exhibit that tidiness and neatness in their attire, for which their English kindred are remarkable. I have often stopped to observe a girl from the barony of Forth, in the market of Wexford, with her basket of eggs or of chickens for sale, and wished that I were an artist, in order that I might preserve her face and figure. Her bonnet of bright and well-plaited straw just permitted a few bright ringlets to escape upon her oval cheek: over her head was thrown a kerchief of muslin to protect her complexion from the sun. Her cloak of blue cloth, trimmed with grey silk, hung gracefully from her shoulders. Her boddice was tightly laced round a graceful and symmetrical person. Her feet were compressed in smart and well-polished shoes; and as she held out her basket to allure you into a purchase of her commodities, her smile, with all its winningness, was still so pure, that you did not dare to wish that she should herself be thrown into the bargain. It is clear that the peasantry of these districts are a superior and better-ordered tribe. Industry and morality prevail amongst them. Crime is almost unknown in the baronies of Forth and Bargy. The English reader will probably imagine that they must be Protestants. On the contrary, the Roman Catholic religion is their only creed, and all efforts at proselytism have wholly failed. It has often been considered as singular, that the Irish rebellion should have raged with such fierceness among this moral and pacific peasantry. Some are disposed to refer the intensity of their political feelings to their attachment to the Catholic religion; but I believe that the main cause of the temporary ferocity into which they were excited, and in the indulgence of which they, for a while, threw off all their former habits, had its origin from the excesses of which a licentious soldiery were guilty, and that the dishonour of their wives and daughters impelled them to revenge and blood.

I have extended my description of the inhabitants of these two Saxon districts (for they may be so called) beyond the limits I had proposed. But I write in a desultory fashion, matters which are in themselves somewhat unlinked together. While was wandering up and down the Quay of Wexford, and, after having fed my eyes to satiety, was beginning to yield to

upon

the spirit of oscitation which is apt to creep upon a lawyer on the sabbath, a gentleman had the goodness to invite me to accompany him up the river Slaney, to a fine wood upon the banks of the stream, where he proposed that his party should dine upon the refreshments with which his barge was copiously stored. I gladly took advantage of this very polite invitation; the wind was favourable, and wafted us along the smooth and glassy stream with a rapid.and delightful motion. The banks are remarkable for their beauty. On the right hand, as you proceed up the river, the seat of the La Hunt family offers a series of acclivities covered with thick and venerable wood. The tem→ perature of the air is so soft, and the aspect so much open to the mid-day sun, that shrubs which are proper to southern latitudes, grow in abundance in these noble plantations. At every turn of the stream, which winds in a sheet of silver through a cultivated valley, landscapes worthy of the pencil of Gainsborough or of Wilson are disclosed. Castles, old Danish Forts, the ruins of Monasteries, and, I should add, the falling halls of absentees, appear in a long succession upon both sides of the stream. I was a good deal struck with a little nook, in which a beautiful cottage rose out of green trees; and asked who was the proprietor. It had been built, it seems, by Sir H. Bate Dudley, the former proprietor of the Morning Herald, who resided for some time upon a living given to him in this diocese. I was informed that he was respected by all classes, and beloved by the poor. His departure was greatly regretted. Not far from Sir H. Bate Dudley's cottage, is the residence of Mr. Devereux, of Carrick Nana. He is said to be descended from a brother of William the Conqueror, and certainly belongs to one of the most ancient families in Ireland. The political race of this gentleman is so honourably ardent, that he has gone to the expense of collecting portraits of all the parliamentary friends of Emancipation, and devoted a gallery to the purpose. After passing his seat, we saw Mount Leinster, towering in all its glory before us, with the sun descending upon its peak. Having reached the point of our destination, we landed in a deep and tangled wood, and sat down to dinner in a cave which overhangs the stream. While we were sitting in this spot, which I may justly call a romantic one, a sweet voice rose from the banks beneath, in the music of a melancholy air. It was what I once heard a poor harper call a lonesome air.' I do not know whether certain potations compounded of a liquor which, in our love of the figurative, we have called "mountain dew," might not have added to the inspiration of the melody. When it ceased, we proceeded to discover the fair vocalist who had uttered such dulcet notes, and whom one of us compared to the Lady in Comus. What was our disappointment, when, upon approaching the spot from which the music had proceeded, we found an assembly of Sabbatarian wassailers, who gave vent to a loud and honest laugh, as we arrived. The echoes took up their boisterous merriment, which reverberated through the woods and hills. The songstress who had so enchanted us, was little better than a peasant girl. These good people, who were sitting in a circle round a huge jug of punch, had resolved to participate in the beauty of Nature, of which we are all tenants in common, and, like ourselves, had roved out from the town to dine in the wood. They entered their boat at the same time that we pushed off from the bank, and accompanied us. It was now evening. The broad water was without a ripple. The sun had gone down behind Mount Leinster, and a rich vermilion was spread over the vast range of lofty and precipitous hills that bound the western horizon. The night was advancing from the east, towards which our boats were rapidly gliding. The woods which hang upon the banks, had thrown their broad shadows across the stream. We reached the narrow pass where the remains of a palace of King John, which is still called "Shaun's Court," stand upon the river, while the Tower of Fitzstephen rises upon the other bank. This was the first hold raised by the English upon their landing. It is built on a rock, and commands the gorge in which the Slaney is at this point narrowly compressed. While our barge was carried along the dark water, the fair vocalist, who was