WALKER's HIBERNIAN MAGAZINE: OR, Compendium of Entertaining Knowledge, Some Memoirs of the Rev. Father Edgeworth, Abbé de Ferment. (With an elegant whole length Portrait of that distinguished Clergyman.) WHILST multitudes of the French clergy renounced their allegiance to their fovereign, in breach of oaths they had frequently taken, the more confcientious of them preferred lofs of property and emigration to an acquiefcence with the command of a fanguinary fet of rulers. Very few among thofe who refused to take the civic oath (in contradiction to the oaths of fubmiffion to the laws, the king and the nation, ordered by the first national affembly) were either fuffered to remain in France; or chose to abide the dangers that hung every day more tremendous over their head. Amongst the intrepid few who braved all fears from a fenfe of duty, was the fubject of thofe memoirs and it will be ever the boaft of this country, that an Irish prieft alone ftood fearlefsly faithful to his duty; alone merited the confidence of a dying fovereign, who could not truft one of his natural born fubjects; and alone perfevered to the laft moment in this glorious conduct. Francis Edgeworth, was born in the county of Longford, about the year 1750, defcended from the highly refpectable family of the Edgeworth's; he was bred up in the eftablithed church of Ireland, but going over to France for education, he embraced the roman catholic faith; and his inclination moving him to a wish to enter into the priesthood, he ftudied for that purpofe in the feminary of St. Sulpice in Paris, and received the higheft clerical orders in 1776. Hib. Mag. May, 1793. His erudition, his piety, and his exemplary life foon introduced him to the notice of thofe who had not fuffered the new fangled doctrines of scepticism to banifh religion from their hearts, and philofophize away their God. As from the place of his birth he had imbibed a love of rational liberty, he faw with concern the unwarrantable ftretches of arbitrary power; and when the first fteps were taken to abridge defpotifm, his wifhes and prayers accompanied them. He cheerfully acquiefced with the happy reform that established a limited monarchy, leaving to the crown only the Godlike power of doing good, and taking away the diabolical privilege of doing harm: Had France continued under the conftitution of 1791, the worthy abbé, with all the real friends of freedom would have rejoiced; but, alas intoxicated with power whilft they inveighed conftantly against its abufe, the fucceeding National Convention, waded in blood to the fcene of horrors and diftraction which all good men muft lament. The abbé Edgeworth, was not univerfally known by that name, for being fettled in France, in conformity to the cuftom there, he added to his family name that of the place of his family property and was called the Abbé de Fermont; and having when in college obtained the fobriquet or nick name (from his early baldnefs) of Efcheveux, he was ufually called M. Efcheveux de Fermon, and by that name he was d mitre by Louis XVI. in the year 1789. haps for the laft time) of my refpect and However he never enjoyed the emolu- affection for you; which, I hope, even ments nor confequences of that dignity; death will not deftroy." for refufing to hold it from the national affembly, under their new mode of diocefan election, he continued to act only as a parish priest. After the king had been imprifoned it was eafily forefeen what the confequence would be; all who were his friends began to feek their own fafety in flight. But the dauntless Irish prieft thought himfelf reftrained by the noblest motives, and continued in Paris, regardless of the confequences, refolving as foon as the bloody republicans would permit him, to go and adminifter fpirituai confolation to his royal mafter. In this frame of mind he imagined nothing lefs than death would be his portion, yet like a true confeffor he remained firm to his duty; and expreffed fo much in the letter he wrote in the beginning of December laft to Father Maffey in London, who had been his fellow collegian. Which is as follows. requefted from the Convention, that the After the king was condemned, he abbé de Fermont might attend him, this being permited: the pious and worthy man him in prayer. He left him not but atwent to the Temple, confoled and joined tended to the foot of the fatal fcaffold, but was by unprecidented inhumanity prevented from afcending, by the ruthlefs Santerre-yet had the courage to call aloud to the dying monarch, as the neck-"O, fun of St. Louis! you afcend murdering inftrument was falling on his to heaven." ftruck prieft retired to vent his forrows in MR. S, a worthy gentleman of "You are undoubtedly furprised, my dear and honoured friend, that whilft the clergy of France are flocking to England, for chriftian fhelter and fupport, Ifhould remain here, amidst the ruins of this afflicted, perfecuted church —indeed, I have often wifhed to fly to that land of true liberty and folid peace and to fhare with others your hofpitable board, where, to be a ftranger, in diftrefs, is a fufficient title:—but Almighty God has baffled my measures, and ties me to this land of horrors, by chains which I have not the liberty to shake off!-The cafe is this:--the wretched Mafter charges me not to quit the country, as I am the perfon whom he intends to prepare him for death. And thould the iniquity of the nation commit that laft act of cruelty, I muft, alfo, prepare myself for death; as, I am convinced, the popular rage will not allow me to furvive an hour after the tragic fcene: but I am refigned; my life is of no confequence: the prefervation of it, or the fhedding of my blood, is not connected with the happinefs of millions-could my life fave him, I would willingly lay it down; and I fhould not die in vainting her station in life. Receive this unfeigned affurance (per- A fhort time fince, being at breakfast, a moderate fortune, but what was fufficient to fupport his family confifting of himself and one daughter (for he had buried his wife about eighteen months) with every comfort of a middling ftation. He was rather frugal in his own pocket expences that he might the more liberally provide every thing fitting for his daughter in a line of elegance that did not deftroy that fpecies of housewifery that ought to attend every female who would be a proper miftrefs of her own house. Whilft the father's fondness refused no indulgence in his power, the young lady's duty and good fenfe forbad her to require any thing that her father's fortune could not conveniently afford, or was unbefit the |