and resolved to commenc a crusade against the bottle: he crossed the Rubicon, like Cæsar, and at a public meeting, in the month of April, in the same year, he put his signature to a document forswearing all intoxicating drinks for the future.

Sixty persons followed his example on that eventful night; in a week or two, he reckoned his adherents by hundreds; in three months, no less than 25,000 persons had joined his standard; and before the close of the year, we are assured that his followers had increased to 156,000. Early in 1839, the "movement" began to assume larger, and even formidable, proportions throughout the South and West of Ireland, and thousands upon thousands from the adjoining counties of Kerry, Waterford, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary, and even from far distant Galway, professed themselves "Rechabites indeed. But it does not appear that these warm and impulsive gentlemen were equally willing to sacrifice money for the "cause;" at all events, even before he started on his crusade abroad, he found himself involved in debt to the extent of £1,500., incurred mainly through feeding the hungry multitudes who flocked to his cottage door at Cork, and through a distribution of temperance medals, of silver and bronze, which he thoughtlessly ordered to be manufactured in thousands (like a genuine Irishman), although he had no money to pay for them. At last, the parlour in Cove street had to be exchanged for the Horse Bazaar, and soon even that became too limited an arena. The results of the "movement" began to tell on the Cork Police Courts and in the Poor Law Union, and the Celtic inhabitants of Waterford and Limerick in no doubtful terms desired the presence of the leader of the movement among them. The "Apostle" accordingly visited those cities in person, administeriug the pledge, and distributing medals as before, and his progress from place to place now became a perfect ovation. We have not space for details. At Borrisokane we read that in four days 150,000 disciples gave in their names and signed the pledge. At Dublin, at Parsonstown, at Carlow, the story was the same; as whole rivers, we ́are told, were dried up in their courses, exhausted by the countless host that followed the standard of Xerxes of old into Greece, so we learn that the great brewers and distillers of Ireland were all but ruined; and that Father Matthew had attained, at their expense, unsought by himself, the honours of Apostleship. He was now a public man, and his name had become the watch-word of millions.

During the next two or three years his successes were marvellous, and almost reminded one of the Apostolic age and miraculous gifts. Nor did he confine his exertions to his beloved Ireland. He visited Glasgow, York, Leeds, and London, and extended his tour to America, where he met with the same enthusiastic reception as he had experienced in Ireland. He reckoned his converts by millions. From every quarter, secular and religious, including the Protestant clergy and such men as Lords Lansdowne and Morpeth, he received the strongest testimonies of the importance of his work, and of his success in his laudable effort to reform the morals of his countrymen. The applause which greeted him everywhere was enough to have turned a strong man's head; and if it

did not turn that of Father Matthew, it was because his heart was too sincerely identified with the cause to allow him to give play to vanity.

If the term is applicable to the nineteenth century, and if results are a test of a heavenly mission, Father Matthew thus proved himself“ an Apostle indeed," by his rapid and effectual victories gained in the cause of human nature as exhtbited in the lower strata of Irish society. It destroys, no doubt, some part of the illusion of the halo that ought to surround an Apostle's brows, to find that in consequence of his reckless and thoughtless expenditure on medals, a man like Father Matthew was brought to the degradation of an arrest for debt by a Sheriff's officer; but even here the degradation is considerably diminished by the fact that the man whose duty it was to serve the writ upon him, knelt down to receive his blessing while executing his duty. Such a scene as this could never have occurred in any other part of Her Majesty's dominions but Ireland; and it does not say much for the real and solid generosity of his countrymen, and especially of the heads of the Roman Catholic Church, to have left him thus responsible for debts incurred in a cause, which, if it was calculated to benefit Protestant Ulster at all, could not fail to work ten times as much good among the Papists of Connaught and Munster.

The rest of the Apostle's story is soon told. In spite of his arrest for debt, all went on merrily and successfully on the whole for a few years, his creditors being secured the ultimate payment of their claims in full by heavy insurances on his life, the premiums on which were paid out of a wellearned pension bestowed upon him by the Government as a public benefactor. But the unhappy autumn of 1846, which brought with it the potatoe-blight and famine in its train, wrought sad mischief to the Temperance cause in Ireland. Hundreds, and perhaps thousands of those who had stood firm to the " pledge" in the summer of comparative prosperity, broke faith with the "cause" in the wintry day when famine and fever stalked across the land, and when the temptation to recur to strong drink in the face of death wrought in Paddy the same recklessness of consequences which (if we may believe Thucydides) marked the populace of Athens when the plague broke out in the city. Though very many of his converts stood firm and never wavered, yet Father Matthew could not look unmoved upon the partial overthrow of his work, and with the decay of the movement began the break up of his constitution. The work in which he had rejoiced so much now began to tell on him. In 1852 a premonitory attack of apoplexy gave the first sign of his approaching end. He rallied, and went abroad for change of scene and air; but he never afterwards was the same man that he had been. He recovered partially during a visit to Madeira in 1854 and the following year, but it was only a temporary improvement; the last bright flickering of the candle 'ere it burned down into the socket. He returned to Ireland only to sink into his grave. He died early in December 1855, and a public funeral at the cemetery at Cork reminded the world again of the wide popularity of the once familiar name of " Father Matthew."

Our readers will be anxious to know whether it is the opinion of his

biographer that the work which the "Apostle" was raised up to perform is likely to be permanent. This question, Mr. Maguire, in his biography, answers in the affirmative. "Father Matthew," he writes, " taught his generation this great lesson, that, as a rule, alcoholic stimulants are not only unnecessary, but also injurious to man; that drunkenness is an odious and disgusting vice; that poverty and misery, and disease and crime, are its offspring; that the man who altogether abstains from strong drink is safer than the man who is moderate in his enjoyment of that which is so full of risk and danger; and that not only is there no possible safety for those liable to excess and unable to resist temptation save in abstinence, but that there is social, moral, and physical redemption to be found in the pledge, for the most confirmed and abandoned drunkard. This is a grand lesson to have taught, and this lesson, which has become part of the world's wisdom and experience, cannot be obliterated-certainly not from the memory of the Irish people."

It is our hearty wish, and doubtless that of every honest Englishman, that this estimate of the results of Father Matthew's mission may not prove to be exaggerated. But when we reflect on the fickle and capricious character of the inhabitants of the sister isle, we are disposed to be somewhat sceptical, or at all events, we desire to see the expected fruits borne out by the test of experience, more especially when we see that in spite of his apparently strong conviction to the contrary, a latent doubt on the subject appears here and there to crop out in the interesting work of Mr. Macguire, on which we have drawn so much for our materials-a man who is singularly qualified by his antecedents to form a sound judgment on social questions affecting Ireland. If permanent good should result, none will rejoice more sincerely than ourselves: and we could only desire that an Apostle, as great and as good, might spring up in each of our large cities, both in England and Scotland, and attempt to bring about a similar achievement.

Never dare the question ask,

66

Why to me this weary task ?"
These same little hands may prove
Messengers of light and love.

Mother, watch the little tongue
Prattling, eloquent and wild;
What is said and what is sung,
By the happy, joyous child.
Catch the word while yet unspoken;
Stop the vow before 'tis broken :
This same tougue may yet proclaim
Blessings in a Saviour's name.

Mother, watch the little heart

Beating soft aud warm for you;
Wholesome lessons now impart ;

Keep, oh keep that young heart true;
Extricating every weed,

Sowing good and precious seed:

Harvest rich you then may see,

Ripening for eternity.

A DYING BOY'S REQUEST.

"A man noted for his ungovernable temper and proneness to dissipation," says an intelligent professional gentleman, " employed me as his attorney. He was a good paymaster, but exceedingly disagreeable in his deportment, often drunk, and most profane in his language. He called one day, and seemed much subdued-much altered from his usual deportment. After stating his wants, he was about to leave my office. I asked what was the matter with him, he seemed so changed. He stopped, hesitated, but made no reply. I asked him again what could have occurred to make such an alteration in his whole demeanour. 'Squire,' said he, 'something has occurred; I am indeed an altered man. I had a little son, about nine years old; he was dear to me as the apple of my eye, and, at times, when I went home intoxicated, I abused my wife, drove her and the children from the house, broke the furniture, and did all in my power to render my family as miserable as myself. This little boy, when I was at the height of my anger, would watch me, and when I would sit down, would steal up to my knee, climb up on my lap, pass his little hand through my hair, and tame me down irresistibly: when my wife and children would fearlessly come in, knowing from experience that my little son had subdued me, and I was in his power. Well, squire, my son took sick; it was evident to me he would not recover. I sat by his bed-side; he was in a doze; the tears gushed from

my eyes as I watched him; my heart was sad indeed! He awoke, he turned his face towards me.

"Father, you are crying.

What is the matter?'

"I am afraid, my son, I am going to lose you-you are going to die.' "Well, father, I know I am going to die; but I am not afraid to die, for I shall go to Jesus.'

""To Jesus! Why, what do you know about Jesus?'

“Why, father, you know mother used to send me to the Sabbath school at the corner, and the teachers told me all about Jesus, and taught me how to pray; and for this reason, father, I was never afraid of you when you came home drunk, and abused poor mother and the children; I saw that you could not injure me. Now, father, I am going to die, and should die quite happy if you would promise me to do two things.'

666

"Well, my son, what are they? If it is in my power, I will do them.' 'Father, promise me you will drink no more whiskey; this is the cause of all poor mother's distress; and if you would not drink you would be a good man, and mother and the children would be so happy. Well, father, now promise me that you will pray !'

"Pray! why I don't know how to pray !'

666

Father, kneel down by my bed, and I will teach you how to pray! 'Squire, I knelt down; he prayed; I followed, repeating his wordsmy heart was broken; he led me, I know not where, or how, or how long; but this I know, that light, comfort, peace, and joy filled my soul as I rejoiced in a sin-pardoning God. My wife came in, the children followed, and all fell on their knees around the bed; we all rejoiced, and when I raised my head to bless the instrument of my conversion, he was, dead! His spirit had been wafted away with the glad news of my repentance to heaven; he was an eye-witness to that joy which is among the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. His hands were clasped as if in prayer, and a sweet smile sealed his lips in death."

DO YOUR DUTY.

By E. J. OLIVER.

On the 20th of October in the year 1805, England gained the battle of Trafalgar, a victory which will never be forgotten till history itself has passed away. The principal figure in the engagement, and the one which is so inseparably connected with it, that we cannot think of the one without the other, is that of Lord Nelson. About 12 o'clock on that memorable day he gave the signal for action, in a sentence that has never been surpassed for expressing so much in so few words, “England expects every man will do his duty." The effect upon the sailors was electrical, and well were the expectations of their country realized. We can imagine the cheerful and hearty response which the gallant fellows gave to those words. Each man seemed nerved with super-human energy. The enemy,