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rigid impartiality of demeanour. He has lived in an atmosphere always more or less highly charged with political electricity, and yet not a single breath from such infectious vapour has ever sullied the purity of his official conduct. By such high-mindedness and equity he has had his share in maintaining the dignity of the Viceregal Court in Ireland. Genial, unaffected, and courtly, Sir Bernard is the true gentleman of winning manners; an indefatigable student, an accomplished writer, and an unostentatious friend. Underneath the intellectual portrait we have rather feebly drawn of Sir Bernard, may truly be inscribed the words of an incomparable critic of human nature and polished life :FACTUS HOMO.-AD UNGuem.

NOTE.-Literary men in Ireland do not as a rule devote themselves to Sir Bernard Burke's branch of study. In his "Landed Gentry," however, we understand, he derived considerable assistance from an accomplished gentleman who has made considerable acquisitions in this special department-we refer to John Ribton Garsten, Esq., F.S.A., and Treasurer of the Royal Irish Academy.

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ONCE on a time, there were, old legends say,
Hamlets twain, Macrandon and Ageray;
Which being distant but a league or two,
A single priest for both was made to do,
Who, as each holyday and feast came round,
Said Mass at both, as in strict duty bound.
It chanced a villager, on pleasure bent,
From Macrandon to Ageray there went;
He reached the church as Mass was being said,
Paused, doffed his hat, passed in with gentle tread,

And kneeling at the threshold told his beads,
Praying to God for all his various needs.

Judge the surprise of the indignant wight,

About the middle of the sacred rite,
When he distinctly heard the curé say,

"Nos tibi semper gratias ageré ; ”*

From the preface of the Mass.

Then straightway with the Mass go quietly on,
Giving no thanks at all to Macrandon.
"Ungrateful priest!" he mutter'd to himself,
"Is it for this you yearly tithe our pelf,
As if we did not pay you dues and fees,
And more too than those boors of Agerése?
You grow too rich and fat, that's pretty sure,
You grinder of the faces of the poor!

Well you illustrate, in your swelling pride,
An adage old my father used to cite,

Which one upon your stable door might write,
'Beggars on horseback will teach kings to ride.'"
He rose in wrath, and forthwith hastened back,
Exclaiming as he went, "Alack! alack!"
Arrived, he summon'd all the village powers,
And said, "What think ye of this priest of ours?
We ever deemed he made his thankful prayer
To Ageray when here, and for us there;
But now our graceless priest, 'tis very clear,
Prays for those Agerese both there and here.
And so, not thanking us in either church,
He leaves Macrandon always in the lurch."
Forthwith the angry villagers decree

That none should pay the priest nor tithe nor fee;
Who, seeing soon his income waxing low,
Sent for his faithful sacristan, to know

If he could anyway find out the cause
His people thus defied the canon laws;
Who said, "The reason, father, I discern,
It is because at Macrandon, they learn,
Upon each festival, at Mass, you say,
Nos tibi semper gratias ageré,'

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But take no thought of Macrandon at all;

And thus it is this evil doth befall."

"If that be so," replied the priest, "my son,

'Tis easily mended, and henceforth you'll hear

Me there sing out, with voice both loud and clear,

'Nos tibi semper gratias Macrandon,'

While here, as is my wont, I still will say,
Nos tibi semper gratias ageré!'"

GEORGE LAmér.

HISTORY OF THE MUNSTER CIRCUIT.

BY J. RODERICK O'FLANAGAN, BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

CHAPTER IX.

BEFORE we proceed further in the History of the Munster Circuit during the present century, it may be well to take a glance at the mode of travelling used formerly, and at the various towns visited by the judges of assize.

Previously to the year 1760 there was no conveyance open to public use between the cities and towns of Ireland. The country was so thickly wooded, the roads so badly made, travelling was very insecure; and this was rendered still more dangerous by the numbers of rogues and ruffians who infested any which promised a chance of plunder. To avert this last danger persons usually travelled in parties; and we are informed it was the custom for persons about to journey, say from Cork or Limerick to Dublin, to post in a conspicuous place, as over the mantelpiece of the principal inn, their names and the date of their intended departures. In Limerick this place of rendezvous was the Coffee Room in Quay Lane; and here the adventurous pilgrims met, taking care to be well armed for the road. The journey to Dublin usually occupied five days. The same horses went the whole way. The bar, on horseback, usually formed the escort of the judges, who were met on the confines of the

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respective counties by the high sheriff's of each county, attended by a guard bearing javelins. A witty judge was once asked, Of what use are these javelin men?" replied, "I suppose they are to help me to charge the grand jury."

He

About the year 1760 a coach, called the "Fly," was started to run between Limerick and Dublin. It performed the journey, about 100 miles, in four days. The "Fly" was large and heavy in construction, which, indeed, was indispensable; as the roads were so uneven, a lighter vehicle would be jolted to pieces. The road-makers, going on the axiom, a straight line is the shortest between two points, ran their roads as straight as an arrow, heedless of such impediments as hills or bogs; the traveller had no choice but to climb the one and to wade the other. As the strongbuilt coach required stout harness to move it, the accoutrements of the four sturdy horses were of a most elaborate and complicated character. We can well suppose the time it took to harness the relays of horses, from the circumstance that the same harness was used throughout the four days' journey. But time and the march of intellect worked changes for the better. The slowgoing "Fly" was replaced by a coach of lighter build, called the "Balloon," and it was a decided improve ment to find the relays of horses

ready harnessed when the stage was reached. The "Balloon" reached Dublin from Limerick in three days, and some twenty years later the route was changed. Instead of proceeding over Thomond Bridge and by Killaloe, the coach went by Clare Street, and viá Nenagh, to Dublin. This shortened the journey to two days; and when I travelled by coach, before the railroads banished the stage, we reached Limerick from Dublin in a day. Towards the close of the eighteenth century the extent of the Munster Circuit was considerably changed. In 1796 the counties of Waterford and Tipperary were joined to the Leinster Circuit,and since thenClare, Limerick, Kerry, and Cork counties form the Munster. The usual route is for the judges of assize to open the commission first in Clare, then in Limerick, next in Kerry, and lastly in Cork; but this rule has been departed from, as in the year 1816, when the Summer Assizes commenced in Cork, whence the judges proceeded to Ennis, thence to Limerick and Tralee. Owing to the heavy criminal calendar, they had to return to discharge the gaol at Cork. Ennis, the assize town and capital of the county of Clare, at the commencement of the present century, presented a very different aspect to its present improved one. The streets were narrow, irregular, badly paved, and not over clean at any time. It is called Ennis from Inis, an island, being built on an insulated ground situate in the river Fergus. Two of the chief streets form a continuous line along the banks of the river, while a third branches off from the old courthouse towards Limerick. This court-house witnessed the displays of Curran, Hoare, Quin, and the other leaders of the Munster Circuit in olden times, and the old hostel of the "Gridiron" could tell, had it a

tongue, many amusing stories. The landlady, Honor O'Loghlan, must have had a ready wit. Happening to enter the bar-room after dinner, Curran proposed her health. "I give you, gentlemen," he said, "Honor and Honesty." Possibly the worthy landlady did not feel complimented, for she readily rejoined, "Your absent friends, Mr. Curran.' Ennis College, at the time we refer to, was in great repute. It is one of the four classical schools of Erasmus Smith's foundation, and at this time accommodated a hundred boarders and about half the number of day pupils. The ruin of the Franciscan Abbey, where the Court of Assize was attempted to be held, mentioned in my first chapter, still forms a picturesque object near the town. This abbey owed its foundation to the kingly race of Thomond, and many of the descendants of Brian Borvichme tranquilly rest beneath its crumbling walls. The great eastern window, thirty feet in height, divided by five stone mullions, lancet-headed, display great beauty of design and skill in execution. The abbot's chair, in the chancel, and the high altar, are richly sculptured, and several ancient tombs show traces of pristine beauty, though now sadly defaced by time.

For many years the demon of discord lurked among the people of Clare, and faction fighting extensively prevailed. Scarcely an assize took place in which the calendar did not present an imposing array of names of prisoners indicted for assaults more or less murderous. These continued until the O'Connell election in 1828, when the Roman Catholic clergy prevailed on the heads of factions to become reconciled. John Banim wrote some spirited lines describing this event, which he recited to me, and I here present them to my readers under

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"An old man knelt at the altar, His enemy's hand to take;

And at first his voice did falter,

And his feeble hands did shake.
For his only brave boy-his glory,

Had been stretch'd at the old man's feet,

A corpse, all so cold and gory,
By the hand that he now must greet.

“The old man soon stopp'd speaking,
For rage, that had not gone by,
From under his brows came breaking,
Up into his enemy's eye.

And now his hands are not shaking,
But, clench'd, on his breast are cross'd;
And he looks a wild wish to be taking
Revenge for the son he has lost.

"But the old man look'd around him, And thought of the place he was in, And thought of the vow that bound him,

And thought that revenge is sin;
And then, crying tears like a woman,
Your hand,' he cried-aye, that hand,
And I do forgive you, foeman,
For the sake of our bleeding land.'

Years afterwards some lingering sparks of the old faction feuds brought several Clare boys into the dock at Eunis. They were tried, and the judges were taking a walk along the banks of the Fergus before repairing to their respective courts, the next morning. They were the late Baron Greene and the late Judge Crampton. Their persons were unknown to a crowd of men who advanced towards Ennis. When about to pass the judges, one of the group, civilly taking off his hat, said,

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cating his brother judge, “may know all about them."

To him the interrogatory was

put.

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They were all acquitted," replied Judge Crampton.

"Then, by the powers," shouted 66 they must have the countryman, had great interest intirely."

When the crowd were lost in the distance, the baron jocularly said, "Oh, Crampton, how well that fellow knew you."

Few men under a grave visage enjoyed a joke more than Baron Greene. He often entertained me with excellent anecdotes, especially of Lord Norbury. I dined with him one day, when we happened to speak of a breach of promise of marriage case on the list of records for trial, and he told the following of Lord Norbury: "When charging the jury in a breach case the letters of the faithless defendant had been so long in the plaintiff's pocket, or so often shown to her sympathizing friends, they were greatly frayed at the folds, and almost in tatters. 'Gentlemen,' said Lord Norbury, carefully holding up one of the epistles to the gaze of the jury, 'it's easy to see these are loveletters, because they're so mighty tender.' In a case wherein the plaintiff's attorney's name was Norman, he seemed quite jubilant, as though anticipating a verdict. The Chief Justice said, 'Take care, it is not the Norman conquest yet.'"

The baron's father, Sir Jonahı Greene, had been recorder of Dublin.

When sentencing for the tenth time some hardened female criminal he said, "There was no use in committing her to a prison in this country; he would transport her for seven years; and he hoped in a new country she would endeavour, with the blessing of God, to regain the character she had tarnished by her career of vice in this." Haying ceased his admonition, he was

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