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mised land. But we do not, on that account, faint in our hopes, nor slacken in our endeavours to promote the cause of loyalty and order; as we are satisfied that HE who appointed us our troubles, will in his own good time bring help and deliverance, and that his mercies will ever be nearest to those who have been most resigned to, and most purified by his more bitter dispensations. Let the Whigs, therefore, have their day. This is their hour of triumph.

They have triumphed over virtue, they
have triumphed over reason, they have
triumphed over prudence, they have
triumphed over common sense. But
a day of reckoning is at hand. Eternal
truths may be obscured, and put out of
sight; they cannot be destroyed by
the mists of error.
Time must gra-

dually dissolve the one, and, in the
same proportion, unveil the other.
"Opinionum commenta delet dies, na-
turæ judicia confirmat."

NOTE. The new tithe bill has come over, and we find, upon perusing it, that there is some provision made to cover the losses which we apprehended, from Mr. Littleton's speech, must be incurred by the clergyman from the expenses of collection. This, however, is so inadequate, and so much more than counterbalanced by the rise which must take place in the value of land, when the time comes for making purchases for the clergy, that our general impression of the tendency of the bill remains the same that it was before.

THE BLIGHTED HEART.

The blighted heart, the blighted hope
Cherished thro' long-long years,

'Tis past and gone, and the light that shone
So bright, is set in tears.

What boots it where I mingle now?

What boots it where I go?

This heart, once warm as the summer's breath,

Is chill as the winter's snow.

The sun's soft beam, with its joyous gleam

Can melt the snow away;

But my soul once bright, is wrapt in night
A night without a day.

From the realms above, no ray of love

May dispel this settled gloom,

Yet this wounded heart shall enjoy its part
Of rest-in the silent tomb!

There soft repose from earthly woes
Shall heal this aching breast;

For "the wicked cease from troubling there,”
And "there the weary rest!"

All-all is vain! and fraught with pain

The purest love is found

Then, ah! how deep shall be my sleep.
Unbroken in the ground.

J. G. P. A.

ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND.*

"Prætorian here, Prætorian there, I mind the bigging o't."—ANTIQUARY.

Some eminent writer of the present age, we think Campbell, remarks the calm tone of conscious power which elevates the opening lines of the Paradise Lost. If confidence be the mark of superior power, the work before us must stand unrivalled amongst books for the modest assurance which not only begins its beginning, but exults through every page. There are, we must acknowledge, a few illustrious benefactors of mankind, who prosecuted their sublime researches, and made discoveries as stupendous as Mr. O'Brien's, without seeming to be quite so competent to appreciate their worth, or to be the heralds of their own renown. These great men, it might invidiously be said, elevated by the contemplation of nature, and trusting to the force of truth, could not have descended to cabal for petty honours and slight remuneration, and by a magnanimous silence, consulted the dignity of their feelings. But the man who is insensible to his own merits, must be a fool; he who trusts his fame to the justice of mankind, will mostly be an egregious dupe. Newton was, we must admit, a man of no small understanding like Mr. O'Brien, he commenced his career with a powerful analysis, till then unknown within the compass of knowledge: and, like him, by means of this powerful instrument, he changed the whole face of human knowledge. In his marvellous researches, Mr. O'Brien has ascertained the fallacy of all recorded history, and the truth of all obsolete tradition. Armed with a more than magical command over those primary elements, the letters of the alphabet, and a most philosophic valour of assertion, he has, with a comprehensive grasp, seized, and resolved into absurdity, all that learned men have hitherto believed and in its place erected the Budhist theology and the round towers of Ireland !! Considering, then, this stupendous result as its importance

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deserves, it must be acknowledged that it would be at best bad taste to quarrel invidiously with the tone of unrestrained exultation which, like the gigantic harmony of some prodigious mind, runs with the eloquence of lofty self-encomium through every page. We feel it to be the more our duty to impress this upon our readers, lest any one might be deterred from reading this great work, by misconceiving the flourish of trumpets, in its commencement, to be the empty puff of empirical pretension. Having dipped a little amongst the stupendous discoveries which it unfolds at every page, we paused for a moment to rub our astonished eyes, and looked round to see if we yet survived in a world of reality. At this moment our glance was arrested by the inscription, in which our author dedicates his great work to all the academiest and literary communities in the four quarters of the terraqueous globe, past, present, and to come. His words are :

"To the Learned of Europe, to the Heads of its several Universities, to the Teachers of Religion and the Lovers of History, more especially to the Alibenistic Order of Freemasons, to the Fellows of the Royal Society, to the Members of the Royal Asiatic Society, to the Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries, to the Editors of the Archæologia Scotica, to the Committees of the Societies for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and to the Court of the Honourable the East India Company, this volume is inscribed, as a novel exposition of literary inquiries in which they are severally interested, and as an intimation of respect from the author."

As we read this portentous page, we could not help being forcibly reminded of that no less wondrous worthy, who stood in the highway to Saragossa, proclaiming in the very self same tone and spirit, the beauty and chastity of his

The Round Towers of Ireland, or the Mysteries of Freemasonry, of Sabaism and of Budhism, for the first time unveiled. By Henry O'Brien, Esq. A. B. London: Whittaker & Co. &c. &e. Except the Royal Ir'sh Academy.

peerless Dulcinea. The objects of Mr. O'Brien's admiration are obliged to be content with half the compliment. Neither will his fair countrywomen, to whom he pays some trite compliments on antiquarian authority, or the numerous antagonists on whom he showers all sorts of defiance, be likely to praise him as the "pink of courtesy." But that illustrious model, the flower and mirror of chivalry, who could change castles into inns, and windmills into giants, can scarcely stand in the same historic parallel with him who has converted the pyramids of Egypt and the tower of Babel into the round towers of Ireland. The helmet of Mambrino, conjured out of a barber's bason, may be laughed to scorn by the discoverer of the "mouthpiece of the oracle of Dodona."

Notwithstanding these great pretensions, we are, after all, not quite sure that we should not have left this great work to the eloquent praises of its author: we should have left Mr. O'B. "alone with his glory," were it not for two circumstances which more especially claim our notice, as the guardians and watchmen of the press. Great men may sometimes commit great errors; and our author has unfortunately confused with the licentious laws of word-clipping etymology, that more strict morality of assertion which is understood to regulate the commerce of gentlemen, however learned. He has also carried his zeal for demolition into the province of Sacred truth: and though we are convinced there is in the tone and spirit of the volume, enough to neutralize the most pernicious affirmations and comments which its author could devise; yet there is, in detraction and profanity, an incalculable celerity of propagation which soon outstrips its authority; and finding a low way of its own into notice, appears armed with its mischief, and stripped of its counteracting absurdity. We must therefore claim the indulgence of our readers for laying aside the more appropriate levity of these preliminary remarks, and assuming a seriousness more adapted to these grave subjects, than to the ridiculous and revolting pages of the work before us.

In reviewing Mr. O'Brien's attack upon the Royal Irish Academy, we will give him the benefit of his own statement. Though, incorrect or false

in every particular, it scarcely needs. the corrections with which we shall follow it up, to establish its dishonesty. In December, 1830, the Royal Irish Academy proposed a prize of £50, with a gold medal, to be given to the author of an approved essay upon the Round Towers of Ireland. The conditions of this proposal not being satisfied within the allotted time: (on Feb. 21, 1832,) the same subject was readvertised, with an extension of time to the 1st of June following. A few days before this, Mr. O'Brien represents himself to have framed his design "for the development of "this mystery," and executed a very refined manœuvre, to ascertain whether the academy had yet decided or not. In a conversation with Dr. M'Donnell, he ascertained that competition was yet open, but qualified with a hint, dexterously wrung from the Doctor's language, that the academy had already formed their opinion on the subject. This is one of those incidents upon which the weight of Mr. O'Brien's charges rest. Immediately after, on the appearance of the advertisement already mentioned, Mr. O'B. sat down, full of anticipations of all unfairness, and, by his own account, wrote an essay, substantially containing the theory of his book, and sent it in to await its chance. No sooner had he done so, than the Royal Academy, alarmed for the success of their own theory; and through an impulse of affection unprecedented in public bodies, for some unknown friend; in utter disregard, too, of all the principles usually recognised by gentlemen, had the audacity, without a blush, to look each other in the face, and admit that the merit of Mr. O'Brien could only be eclipsed by allowing their friend to take back his essay and make it more perfect. This strange, and, we may add, inefficient concession, was, however, followed by an advertisement, re-opening the lists for a certain time to new candidates. Mr. O'Brien also availed himself of this extension, to improve his own essay, though he modestly forbears to inform us to what extent.

At length, all the essays having been re-committed, the Royal Irish Academy, having taken half a year more to read Mr. O'Brien's essay, and deliberate on a decision already made, agreed

that he was the successful candidate ; that he had solved to their satisfaction a question which puzzled the learning of ages: but in the enthusiasm and surprize naturally attendant on such a startling discovery, they seem to have forgotten themselves; for again they looked one another gravely in the face, and admitting their own friend to be quite wrong, unanimously gave him the prize* and medal; awarding a paltry sum of £20 to the confessedly successful Mr. O'Brien. This award was the more marvellous, as being not merely an act of most consummate injustice; but as implying an evident provision for the publication of their own unjust act, as it ensured the insertion of both the rival essays in their own transactions thus proclaiming to the public their injustice, or ignorance, or both. Such is the consistent narrative of Mr. O'Brien, as marvellous as the rest of his book-establishing, on the authority of imperfect hints and absurd surmises, a series of facts totally inconsistent with all that has been hitherto known of the conduct of learned societies, composed as they usually are, of gentlemen of great public respectability and ascertained private worth. If the charge of corruption, of the influence of rank, or the interference of power, could have been fastened, we doubt not that Mr. O'Brien would have made out a case plausible to that class of persons to which the authors of such charges usually belong. But even if the Royal Academy had not been above such imputations, no room for them exists; the author of the successful essay has no pretensions or means to distinguish him from Mr. O'Brien, unless that peculiar influence which always surrounds real talent, when accompanied by moral worth and the manners and sentiments of a gentleman; an influence, the operation of which is not adapted to corrupt, or even to be felt by mean minds.

So far we have followed the authority of Mr. O'Brien, and feel quite willing to allow him the full benefit of any inference it will bear. Nunc audi alleram partem: let us see whether the cycles and epicycles of his morality

can be replaced by more consistent facts.

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On reading the strangely inconsistent narrative from which we have drawn the above statement, we immediately made strict inquiry, and discovered, from the proper sources, that all its facts are either false or misrepresentations. The reader must observe that the whole stress of Mr. O'Brien's inferences rests on the assertion, that the favoured essay had been already some time (two years+) before the notice of the academy. One sentence, therefore, demolishes this whole fabric of unprincipled and impudent surmise. Petrie's essay was given in together with that of Mr. O'Brien's, and in consequence of the same extension; and was as little known to any of the members. The request for this extension of time, which was subsequently made through Dr. Singer, and granted, implies nothing; neither does the expression, our friend, for whom we all have a regard," support the comment of Mr. O'Brien: if it could, it would not, under the circumstances, have been used by the gentleman to whom it is (whether truly or falsely) attributed. Mr. O'Brien was preferring a charge, and it would be a strange absurdity to oppose it by the direct admission of its truth. To any one but Mr. O'Brien it would have been felt that this is a common way of speaking, when circumstances impose the suppression of a name. One of the candidates applied to Dr. Singer to obtain an extension of the time, which was too short for the entire transcription of his essay. (This could not, by the way, have been the essay which was two years in.) But there is in this no reason for the insolent assumption that he revea ed more than Mr. O'Brien did, when he declared himself to be the author of one of the essays, "which I would not further particularise." Thus vanishes into thin air the matter of fact part of this flimsy structure of oversight and audacity. Let us now disperse the "mystery which overhangs" the remainder of these facts, and see what actually did take place. In the anxious progress of his proceedings; to which we abstain

• Mr. Petrie's essay had every vote but one-Mr. Dalton's-who, to use his own words, "stood alone."

† Pref. p. 14.

from affixing an appropriate epithet; Mr. O'Brien made too many confidants to allow of any secrecy upon the real nature of his proceedings. It was known to all who took any interest in the subject what his theory was: and to many how he came by it. The occasion of his writing was, in fact, the accidental discovery of the opinion of another person-the most unprincipled piracy of an essay not his own. It matters not how worthless was the theft; the dupe may be consistently combined with the knave: he thought the mare's nest of poor Mr. Rn to be a treasure, and stole it accordingly. It is not necessary to dwell on the additional fact, that he was assisted by another, who ransacked libraries for illustrations, while he was himself assiduously engaged in the dignified toil of purloining matter from a rival essay; the means by which his precious compound of piracy, plagiarism, and vicarious labor was amalgamated. Mr. O'Brien has since made it his own, in more than Shakespeare's sense, he stole the "trash," but has added so much of the congenial coinage of his own brain, that its author can scarcely claim it.

But we have not yet quite done with this revolting affair. It is a question which may reasonably be asked-how the Royal Academy could have been duped by a production so signally ridiculous, as to have awarded the liberal gratuity which Mr. O'Brien has tortured into a prize? We can inform Mr. O'Brien, the Academy was not duped. For (not to say that the essay now before the public exceeds that which the Academy received, by many added sheets of absurdity for countenancing which, this learned body are not therefore chargeable) there is a yet stronger reason which really actuated their conduct. Mr. O'Brien was known as the author of an essay; and the style and manner left no doubt of which. The overflowing fanaticism which fills the volume could not be successfully confined within the little recess of the author's breastit was recognised by some, and pointed out to others. Mr. O'Brien, in his terror of stratagems, forgot to notice that he was manoeuvring himself. With this was known the crazed and morbid enthusiasm the sickly frame, worn with recent effort; while the piratical nature of these efforts was concealed.

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But in addition to all this-and the information may be a useful sedative to Mr. O'Brien's presumption-this gratuity was with some difficulty won from the Royal Academy by the eloquent urgency of one member, who, with the above circumstances, dwelt on his poverty. This person he has also repaid in slander: the sure way to attract the malice of some persons, is to confer a benefit upon them. Such were the real circumstances; which only produced their natural and intelligible effect when they betrayed the Royal Academy into that benevolent act, which has been so handsomely repaid by its undeserving object.

Mr. O'Brien quickly availed himself, in his own way, of this amiable and humane oversight. He interpreted it, as we regret to say he has done the first chapter of Genesis, by a theory of his own. He wrested it into an admission of his own merits, and presumed accordingly. He thought that the victory over all the previous knowledge of mankind should place the Royal Irish Academy under his feet, and at once assumed the insolent and impe rious tone of a privileged usurper. He insisted on his triumphant merit-the sanction of their own vote-and the equivocal inference drawn from a few words attributed to Sir W. Betham, which, if designed for praise, had, by some misfortune, the manner and expression of ridicule. With these credentials, and a fabricated story, he attempted to bully the Academy into the concession of £50 and a medal. The Academy, it is needless to say, turned a deaf ear to such attempts: yet, with a moderation that was ill deserved, for a long time bore with the most disrespectful language. In addition to the pecuniary claim, he insisted also upon their printing all his additional matter, amounting to two-thirds of the original essay. On this point they were willing to make large concessions, but with some reserve, on the fair ground that his new matter would place their decision in an altered character, before the public. At these restrictions Mr. O'Brien forgot all moderation, and charged the Academy with corrupt motives and factious intrigue.

We have no spare room to add a variety of hints and surmises, which swell the charges of Mr. O'Brien.

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