When proud Napoleon, like the burning shield1
Whose light compell'd each wondering foe to yield,
With baleful lustre blinds the brave and free,
And dazzles Europe into slavery,-

That, in this hour, when patriot zeal should guide,
When Mind should rule, and-Fox should not have died,
All that devoted England can oppose

To enemies made fiends, and friends made foes,

Is the rank refuse, the despised remains

Of that unpitying power, whose whips and chains
Made Ireland first, in wild, adulterous trance,

Turn false to England's bed, and whore with France.
Those hack'd and tainted tools, so foully fit
For the grand artizan of mischief, P-tt,

So useless ever, but in vile employ,

So weak to save, so vigorous to destroy!

Such are the men that guard thy threaten'd shore,
O England! sinking England !2 boast no more.

INTOLERANCE.

A SATIRE.

"This clamour, which pretends to be raised for the safety of religion, has almost worn out the very appearance of it, and rendered us not only the most divided but the most immoral people upon the face of the earth.'-Addison, Freeholder, No. 37.

START not, my friend, nor think the muse will stain
Her classic fingers with the dust profane

Of Bulls, Decrees, and all those thundering scrolls,
That took such freedom once with royal souls,3

1 The magician's shield in Ariosto:
'E tolto per vertù dello splendore
La libertate a loro.'-Canto 2.

We are told that Cæsar's code of morality was
contained in the following lines of Euripides,
which that great man frequently repeated :—
Είπερ γαρ
αδικειν χρη τυραννίδος περι
Καλλιστον αδικειν τάλλα δ' ευσέβειν χρεων.
This is also, as it appears, the moral code of Na-
poleon.

The following prophetic remarks occur in a letter written by Sir Robert Talbot, who attended the Duke of Bedford to Paris in 1762. Talking of States which have grown powerful in commerce, he says, 'According to the nature and common course of things, there is a confederacy against them, and consequently, in the same proportion as they increase in riches, they approach to destruction. The address of our King William, in making all Europe take the alarm at France, has brought that country before us near that inevitable period. We must necessarily have our turn, and Great Britain will attain it as soon

as France shall have a declaimer with organs as proper for that political purpose as were those of our William the Third. Without doubt, my Lord, Great Britain must lower her flight. Europe will remind us of the balance of commerce, as she has reminded France of the balance of power. The address of our statesmen will immortalize them by contriving for us a descent which shall not be a fall, by making us rather resemble Holland than Carthage and Venice.'-Letters on the French Nation.

3 The king-deposing doctrine, notwithstanding its many mischievous absurdities, was of no little service to the cause of political liberty, by incul cating the right of resistance to tyrants, and asserting the will of the people to be the only true fountain of power. Bellarmine, the most violent of the advocates for papal authority, was one of the first to maintain (De Pontif., lib. i. cap. 7) that kings have not their authority or office immediately from God nor his law, but only from the law of nations; and in King James's 'Defence of the Rights of Kings against Cardinal Perron,' we find his Majesty expressing strong indignation against the Cardinal for having as

When heaven was yet the pope's exclusive trade,
And kings were damn'd as fast as now they're made.
No, no-let D-gen-n search the papal chair1
For fragrant treasures long forgotten there:
And, as the witch of sunless Lapland thinks
That little swarthy gnomes delight in stinks,
Let sallow P-rc-v-1 snuff up the gale
Which wizard D-gen-n's gather'd sweets exhale.
Enough for me, whose heart has learn'd to scorn
Bigots alike in Rome or England born,

Who loathe the venom, whencesoe'er it springs,
From popes or lawyers, pastry-cooks or kings,-
Enough for me to laugh and weep by turns,
As mirth provokes, or indignation burns,
As C-nn-ng vapours, or as France succeeds,
As H-wk-sb'ry proses, or as Ireland bleeds!
And thou, my friend, if, in these headlong days,
When bigot zeal her drunken antics plays

So near a precipice, that men the while

Look breathless on and shudder while they smile-
If, in such fearful days, thou'lt dare to look

To hapless Ireland, to this rankling nook

Which Heaven hath freed from poisonous things in vain,

While G-ff-rd's tongue and M-sgr-ve's pen remain-
If thou hast yet no golden blinkers got

To shade thine eyes from this devoted spot,

Whose wrongs, though blazon'd o'er the world they be,
Placemen alone are privileged not to see-

Oh! turn awhile, and, though the shamrock wreathes
My homely harp, yet shall the song it breathes
Of Ireland's slavery, and of Ireland's woes,
Live, when the memory of her tyrant foes
Shall but exist, all future knaves to warn,
Embalm'd in hate and canonized by scorn.
When C-stl-r-gh, in sleep still more profound
Than his own opiate tongue now deals around,
Shall wait th' impeachment of that awful day
Which even his practised hand can't bribe away.

And oh my friend, wert thou but near me now,
To see the spring diffuse o'er Erin's brow
Smiles that shine out, unconquerably fair,

E'en through the blood-marks left by C-md-n3 there,—

serted that to the deposing of a king the consent of the people must be obtained' for by these words (says James) the people are exalted above the king, and made the judges of the king's deposing' (p. 424).

The Sella Stercoraria' of the popes.-The Right Honoural 1 and learned Doctor will find an engraving of this chair in Spanheim's 'Disquisitio istorica de Papâ Fominâ' (p. 118); and I recommend it as a model for the fashion of that seat which the Doctor is about to take in the privy-council of Ireland.

2 When Innocent X. was entreated to decide the controversy between the Jesuits and the Jansenists, he answered, that he had been bred a lawyer, and had therefore nothing to do with divinity. It were to be wished that some of our English pettifoggers knew their own fit element as well as Pope Innocent X.

3 Not the C-md-n who speaks thus of Ireland:

To wind up all, whether we regard the fruitfulness of the soil, the advantage of the sea, with so many commodious havens, or the natives

Couldst thou but see what verdure paints the sod
Which none but tyrants and their slaves have trod,
And didst thou know the spirit, kind and brave,
That warms the soul of each insulted slave,
Who, tired with struggling, sinks beneath his lot,
And seems by all but watchful France forgot'-
Thy heart would burn-yes, e'en thy Pittite heart
Would burn, to think that such a blooming part
Of the world's garden, rich in nature's charms,
And fill'd with social souls and vigorous arms,
Should be the victim of that canting crew,
So smooth, so godly,—yet so devilish too;

Who, arm'd at once with prayer-books and with whips,2
Blood on their hands and Scripture on their lips,
Tyrants by creed, and torturers by text,
Make this life hell, in honour of the next!

Your R-desd-les, P-rc-v-ls,-O gracious Heaven,
If I'm presumptuous, be my tongue forgiven,
When here I swear, by my soul's hope of rest,
I'd rather have been born ere man was blest
With the pure dawn of Revelation's light,
Yes,-rather plunge me back in Pagan night,3

themselves, who are warlike, ingenious, handsome and well-complexioned, soft-skinned and very nimble, by reason of the pliantness of their muscles, this island is in many respects so happy, that Giraldus might very well say, 'Nature had regarded with more favourable eyes than ordinary this Kingdom of Zephyr."

The example of toleration, which Bonaparte has held forth, will, I fear, produce no other effect than that of determining the British Government to persist, from the very spirit of opposition, in their own old system of intolerance and injustice; just as the Siamese blacken their teeth, because,' as they say, 'the devil has white

ones.

2 One of the unhappy results of the controversy between Protestants and Catholics, is the mutual exposure which their criminations and recriminations have produced. In vain do the Protestants charge the Papists with closing the door of salvation upon others, while many of their own writings and articles breathe the same uncharitable spirit. No canon of Constance or Lateran ever damned heretics more effectually than the eighth of the Thirty-nine Articles consigns to perdition every single member of the Greek Church; and I doubt whether a more sweep ing clause of damnation was ever proposed in the most bigoted council, than that which the Calvinistic theory of predestination in the seventeenth of these Articles exhibits. It is true that no liberal Protestant avows such exclusive opinions; that every honest clergyman must feel a pang while he subscribes to them; that some even assert the Athanasian Creed to be the forgery of one Vigilius Tapsensis, in the beginning of the sixth century, and that eminent divines, like Jortin, have not hesitated to say, 'There are

propositions contained in our Liturgy and Articles, which no man of common sense amongst us believes.' But while all this is freely conceded to Protestants, while nobody doubts their sincerity, when they declare that their articles are not essentials of faith, but a collection of opinions which have been promulgated by fallible men, and from many of which they feel themselves justified in dissenting,-while so much liberty of retractation is allowed to Protestants upon their own declared and subscribed articles of religion, is it not strange that a similar indulgence should be so obstinately refused to the Catholics, upon tenets which their Church has uniformly resisted and condemned, in every country where it has independently flourished? When the Catholies say,The decree of the Council of Lateran, which you object to us, has no claim whatever upon either our faith or our reason; it did not even profess to contain any doctrinal decision, but was merely a judicial proceeding of that assembly; and it would be as fair for us to impute a wife-killing doctrine to the Protestants, because their first pope, Henry VIII., was sanctioned in an indulgence of that propensity, as for you to conclude that we have inherited a king-deposing taste from the acts of the Council of Lateran, or the secular pretensions of our Popes.'

3 In a singular work, written by one Franciscus Collius, 'Upon the Souls of the Pagans,' the author discusses, with much coolness and erudition, all the probable chances of salvation upon which a heathen philosopher might calculate. Consigning to perdition, without much difficulty, Plato, Socrates, &c., the only sage at whose fate he seems to hesitate is Pythagoras, in consideration of his golden thigh, and the many miracles which he performed. But, having balanced a little his

And take my chance with Socrates for bliss,
Than be the Christian of a faith like this,
Which builds on heavenly cant its earthly sway,
And in a convert mourns to lose a prey;
Which, binding policy in spiritual chains,
And tainting piety with temporal stains,1
Corrupts both state and church, and makes an oath
The knave and atheist's passport into both;
Which, while it dooms dissenting souls to know
Nor bliss above nor liberty below,

Adds the slave's suffering to the sinner's fear,
And, lest he 'scape hereafter, racks him here !2
But no-far other faith, far milder beams

Of heavenly justice warm the Christian's dreams;
His creed is writ on Mercy's page above,
By the pure hands of all-atoning Love;
He weeps to see his soul's religion twine
The tyrant's sceptre with her wreath divine,
And he, while round him sects and nations raise
To the one God their varying notes of praise,
Blesses each voice, whate'er its tone may be,
That serves to swell the general harmony."

Such was the spirit, grandly, gently bright,
That fill'd, O Fox! thy peaceful soul with light.
While blandly spreading like that orb of air
Which folds our planet in its circling care,
The mighty sphere of thy transparent mind
Embraced the world, and breathed for all mankind.
Last of the great, farewell!-yet not the last--
Though Britain's sunshine hour with thee be past
Ierne still one gleam of glory gives,

And feels but half thy loss while Grattan lives.

APPENDIX.

THE following is part of a Preface which was intended by a friend and countryman of mine for a collection of Irish airs, to which he has adapted English words. As it has never been published, and is not inapplicable to my subject, I shall take the liberty of subjoining it here.

Our history, for many centuries past, is creditable neither to our neighbours nor ourselves, and ought not to be read by any Irishman who wishes either to love England or to feel proud of Ireland. The loss of independence very early debased our character; and our feuds and rebellions, though frequent and ferocious, but seldom displayed that generous spirit of enterprise with which the pride of an independent monarchy so long dignified the struggles of Scotland. It is true this island has given birth to heroes who, under more favourable circumstances, might have left in the hearts of their countrymen recollections as dear as those of a Bruce or a Wallace; but success was wanting to consecrate resistance, their cause was branded with the disheartening name of treason, and their oppressed country was such a blank among nations, that, like the adventures of those woods which Rinaldo wished to explore, the fame of their actions was lost in the obscurity of the place where they achieved them.

Errando in quelli boschi

Trovar potria strane avventure e molte,
Ma come i luoghi i fatti ancor son foschi,
Che non se n' ha notizia le più volte.1

Hence is it that the annals of Ireland, through a lapse of six hundred years, exhibit not one of those shining names, not one of those themes of national pride, from which poetry borrows her noblest inspiration; and that history, which ought to be the richest garden of the Muse, yields nothing to her but weeds and cypress. In truth, the poet who would embellish his songs with allusions to Irish names and events, must be contented to seek them in those early periods when our character was yet unalloyed and original, before the impolitic craft of our conquerors had divided, weakened, and disgraced us; and the only traits of heroism, indeed, which he can venture at this day to commemorate, with safety to himself, or perhaps with honour to his country, are to be looked for in those times when the native monarchs of Ireland dis

able pour le moins que l'uniformité d'une seule voix.'- Bayle, Commentaire Philosophique, &c., part ii. chap. vi. Both Bayle and Locke would have treated the subject of Toleration in a man

ner much more worthy of themselves and of the cause, if they had written in an age less distracted by religious prejudices.

1 Ariosto, canto iv.