THE FAREWELL TO THE DEAD.*. BY MRS. HEMANS. COME near!-ere yet the dust Soil the bright paleness of the settled brow, Come near! once more let kindred lips be press'd Look yet on this young face! What shall the beauty, from amongst us gone, -Dim grows the semblance, on man's thought impress'd; Ye weep, and it is well! For tears befit earth's partings!-Yesterday Where'er he moved-the welcome and the bless'd!-- Look yet on him, whose eye Meets yours no more, in sadness or in mirth! But not where Death has power, may Love be bless'd! How may the mother's heart Dwell on her son, and dare to hope again? Is he not gone, our brightest and our best? Look on him! is he laid To slumber from the harvest or the chase? Death will not hold unchanged his fairest guest: His voice of mirth hath ceased Amidst the vineyards! there is left no place Earth must take earth to moulder on her breast; Yet mourn ye not as they Whose spirit's light is quench'd!-For him the past His birthright's hope away! All is not here of our beloved and bless'd! -Leave ye the sleeper with his God to rest. These lines were suggested by a part of the Greek funeral service, which summons relatives and friends to bid their last adieu. During, and after the recitation of this service, they kiss the cheeks and forehead of the deceased, who is laid in an open coffin. See Christian Researches in the Mediterranean. STATE OF PARTIES IN DUBLIN. In a Letter to a Friend. You express your astonishment at the proceedings which have taken place in the Irish Metropolis, and ask me for a detail of what I have seen and felt amidst this incoherent and distracted people, who are so widely removed from our English habits of action and of thought, as to excite that sort of curiosity which attends an investigation of the manners of a remote and outlandish race. Ireland is, indeed, a kind of Terra del Fuego-the country of fire and passion, and almost at the extremity of the political world. I landed in Dublin shortly after the departure of the King. The factious feelings, which had been restrained by his presence, did not for a little time after his valedictory admonition, resume their undisguised and stormy force. They stood in awe before their sovereign, and were checked by his rebuke. It had been well if the promoters of division had not been merely censured, but chastised. The King paused at the "Quos ego," and directed less of his attention to the task of retribution than of peace. The vehement spirits retreated for an interval to their recesses. However indignant, they limited the expression of their anger to the walls of the Common Council. They were imprisoned, but grumbled round their den magno cum murmure mentis." When, however, they were relieved from the abashment which the presence of Majesty had inspired, the Eolus of this boisterous party impelled the ancient missiles over the boundaries within which their ferocity had been confined, and let them loose upon the community. "The glorious and immortal memory" was flung by the Lord Mayor from the civic throne against the barrier of decorum, by which the tempestuous fury of the Corporators had been reluctantly restrained. The insulting commemoration was hailed by the Orange faction with a sort of barbarous joy. Alderman James was accounted the regenerator of sound principle, and raised into an importance to which neither his station nor his wealth gave him any legitimate claim. Such is the miserable condition of this province, sheriffs and lord mayors are lifted into political consequence, and almost participate in the government of the country! The violation of the royal precept was considered as an achievement-a sort of chivalry was discovered by the Orangemen of Dublin in the offence which was offered at their orgies by the bacchanalians of the Common Council; and the opprobrious celebration of the disasters of their country was received by them as a pledge of the unendangered continuance of their old immunities of insult. Their pride, however, suddenly moulted its feathers, when the appointment of Lord Wellesley as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in room of the nobleman who had given countenance to this wanton contumely, was announced. The intelligence produced dismay among the Orange faction, and a feeling of proportionate gratification in the great body of the people. Yet, upon the entrance of Lord Wellesley into the city, a circumstance occurred which excited a general surprise. The Lord Mayor advanced to receive him in compliance with a mere customary form. It was anticipated that he would meet with any thing but a demonstration of favour. Judge, then, of the general astonishment, when the man who had given the obnoxious toast, was selected as the primary object of the viceregal partialities. Alderman James was touched by the talismanic sword, and started into "Sir Kingston." In making him a Baronet, I doubt not but Lord Wellesley imagined that he might conciliate the party to which he belonged. Yet the Marquis was sensible of the anomaly of his conduct, and cast upon his native air the blame of this inconsistent act. He said that he had committed a blunder, and a convenient gentleman took a portion of its discredit to himself. Mr. Blake, his lordship's intimate friend, attributed the mistake to his own inadvertence. "Sir Kingston," he intimated, resolutely rejected the inglorious notoriety of a knighthood, and demanded a Baronetcy as the only remuneration which was at all adequate to his services. "In the hurry of the moment," said Mr. Blake, "I could not avoid the gratifying his vanity; and my noble friend, at my instance, threw the thing away." By this expedient, a double object was secured by Mr. Blake-he relieved his patron from an embarrassment, and signified his own influence to the public. The history of this shrewd and ingenious gentleman is not a little singular, and affords an example of the felicitous combination of sagacity and good fortune, which is necessary to elevate a man, so suddenly, from a comparatively inferior condition to the enjoyment of consequence and power. He is, I have been informed by his friends, the younger son of a respectable family belonging to the county of Galway, with fully as many ancestors in their genealogy as acres in their estate. An ensigncy in the militia was his first grade in the ladder of success. His mind was active, and, although without the advantage of regular service in the line, he soon acquired so much skill and knowledge as to become adjutant to the regiment. The troops committed to his raw instructions were soon distinguished by their superiority over the rest of these pacific levies. Upon the exchange of militias, Mr. Blake went to England, and, with the accustomed good luck of his countrymen, formed a useful and happy matrimonial alliance. He was urged by his new connexions, and impelled by an instinctive consciousness of his abilities, to go to the Bar. He was well aware (for he not only possesses a knowledge of others, but the rarer science of knowing himself) that he had few of the qualifications necessary to distinguish himself as an advocate, and chose the less brilliant, but more certain path of equity pleading. Having studied mankind, as well as law, he speedily obtained employment. Professing the Roman Catholic religion, he engaged in the transactions of the London board of noblemen and gentlemen of that persuasion, who are associated for the attainment of their civil rights. In this body he soon gained an ascendancy. He was greatly superior in address to the devout patricians, whose noble blood had been so regularly interchanged among each other, from the pious and aristocratic fear of contaminating their faith in their descent, that it had meandered for centuries through a few virtuous and highly titled families, undisturbed by any violent infusion of vulgar intellect, and unsullied by a single intermixture of heterodox love. Circulating through the same channels, it began to stagnate at last. In an assembly so constituted, it was not unnatural that this intrepid barrister should speedily obtain a considerable sway. He became intimate with the chief Catholics of England, and was em ployed by them, in his professional capacity, in the management of their affairs. In effectuating various arrangements with their creditors, he displayed so much practical dexterity that his financial reputation was gradually diffused among the nobility:-through the medium of these useful accomplishments he was introduced to Lord Wellesley. Mr. Blake ingratiated himself into his favour, and was soon intrusted with his bosom thoughts. These circumstances, combined with his professional talents, which are considérable, accelerated his progress at the Bar. Lord Eldon could not but smile upon the prosperous associate of the nobles of the land; and he rose into full business. In Ireland, however, little had been heard of him; and when the approaching arrival of Lord Wellesley was announced, the paragraphs in the London papers which mentioned that his Lordship was accompanied by his friend Mr. Blake, and that he had set off from his house to prosecute his journey to this country excited a general curiosity. It was soon ascertained that he was among the dispensers of fortune. He furnished an early evidence of his influence over the new viceroy, in the instance which I have already specified; and succeeded to a certain extent in allaying the resentment of the people, at the distinction conferred upon the person who had been the first to impinge the injunctions of the King. The marked civilities which were paid him by Mr. Plunket, confirmed the general notion of his importance. The obsequious assiduity with which that learned gentleman courted the favourite of Lord Wellesley, stood in strong contrast with his habitual coldness and reserve. It was understood that Mr. Blake was consulted upon measures and upon men: he was known to be a puller of the wires in the political puppet-show. Another remarkable proof of his sway with the Lord Lieutenant occurred soon after his arrival: Lord Wellesley was invited by the Corporation to a public dinner. Mr. Blake was, of course, among the guests, and his health was proposed in compliment to the Marquis. The representative of the King started up to return thanks. This excited universal astonishment. Mr. Blake sat beside him, and, interposing between his friendship and his dignity, superseded his viceregal proxy, and expressed his gratitude himself. I have dwelt upon the merits and good fortune of this prosperous barrister, because the distinction conferred upon him by Lord Wellesley made him a conspicuous feature in the political picture, and because the strength of friendship entertained for him by so illustrious an individual, throws a light upon the character of the latter, as it reflects honour upon the object of his regard. Lord Wellesley disclosed other traits of a peculiar mind at the civic banquet. He made many speeches, and in every one of them gave indications of a love for oratorical exhibition. He indulged in encomiastic expatiations upon the achievements of his family, which, in a man of questionable merit, would have excited something like a smile, and which, with all his talents, could not fail to produce amongst his most sincere admirers a feeling of mingled surprise and regret. The fire and nobleness of his manner, and the power of his diction, were thrown away upon such an audience. He flung his fine thoughts, like pearls, upon a porcine herd; while a certain peculiarity of character, and an overweening self-complacency, struck the dullest observer of them all. Of one fact, however, he apprised the assembly, which was not wholly unimportant-namely, that his illustrious relative was not ashamed of his country. This disclosure produced a strong concussion of tables, and large libations were offered up in celebration of the newly disclosed patriotism of his Grace. Upon the succeeding day, the orations of the Lord Lieutenant were the subject of general comment. It was admitted that he was a splendid luminary, but it was also observed that he had a rotation upon himself. There were some, however, who divined much policy in the indulgence of these egotistical propensities. By talking of himself he successfully avoided any treading upon topics which were full of smouldering fire. Whatever may have been his purpose, whether his praises of his family were the pourings out of natural vanity, or the glossing over and evasion of delicate and dangerous subjects, he escaped for some time any direct collision with the Orange party: and even when Mr. Saurin-the head of that party-was removed from the office of attorney-general, to make room for Mr. Plunket, Lord Wellesley was not so much the object of their indignation as the successor to their fallen and extinguished cynosure. This change in the law department was the first measure of a decisive character which distinguished Lord Wellesley's administration. Mr. Plunket was the chief advocate of the Catholics; and his promotion was, in some degree, an intimation of a sentiment in the British cabinet favourable to that body. The High-Churchmen, however, suppressed their vexation; and when the first levee was held at the Castle, it was attended by both parties. The concourse of Roman Catholics was considerable. Until Lord Wellesley's arrival, they had studiously avoided the gates of the Irish palace. They had been ill-used at court; and Lord Fingal himself, with all his disarming gentleness of demeanour, had been insulted by a cold and repulsive formality, which even his meek spirit could not calmly brook. A fungous trader or two might be seen there exhibiting their daughters in the vulgar sentimentality of a minuet, through which they were conducted by Sir Charles Vernon, with a mixture of official mockery and nonchalance ; but, with such exceptions, scarcely a single Roman Catholic debased himself by the unrequited servility of attending the provincial court. Upon the arrival of Lord Wellesley, however, both parties thronged at his levee, and seemed to vie with each other in the proffer of their emulative respect. He received the different factions with cordiality, and paid particular attention to Mr. O'Connel, who made his first appearance upon this occasion in the character of a courtier. It was said that Lord Wellesley requested his cooperation in his efforts to tranquillize Ireland. The flattery had a momentary operation. The infusion of oil allayed his turbulence for a little while; but Mr. O'Connel was too shrewd to be long deceived. He soon became aware that this was the mere language of courtesy, in the strict etymology of the word. He was never once invited to dine "with his Excellency;" and what was much more important, he, and every other Catholic, perceived that the patronage of the government, instead of being equally and indiscriminately distributed among the members of both religions, was confined to its former channels, and flowed exclusively among the professors of the opposite creed. The government of Lord Wellesley did not advance in popularity. The country was desolated by famine and insurgency. The measures adopted for the suppression of both were judicious, but lost |