FRANCIS PATRICK KENRICK. CHAPTER I. HABITAT OF THE KENRICK FAMILY: POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND LITERARY ENVIRONMENT. "Such men live forever. In the history of the Church of the United States the chapter which records the life of Archbishop Kenrick will adorn one of its brightest pages. His spirit has been breathed into it, his life has been impressed upon it. Centuries could not efface the mark. They will, let us trust, only develop it in its true character, and, above all, in that spirit of true faith which was the distinguishing trait of his life."-Rev. M. O'Connor, S. J., at Philadelphia Academy of Music, January 17, 1867. It was in the old portion of the Irish capital, known for centuries of warfare as "the Pale," that the Kenrick family had their habitation. This was in earlier times the part of the city which was enclosed within embattled walls, with fortified gateways, and loopholed towers, designed to repel the "wild Irishrie," camped often enough on the opposite bank of the Liffey, in threatening design and formidable force. Circumscribed by the military cincture, the citizens were obliged to restrain their taste for wide streets, if they had any, and so all around the central fortress, known as "the Castle," there spread a network of narrow, crooked and dingy thoroughfares, many of which might be easily spanned by a man's extended arms, some by much less. It was in one of these, which was called Chancery lane, that the family of the Kenricks had their abode. The thoroughfare, which a few years ago was condemned to demolition for street improvement, ran from Bride street to Golden lane, and was in early times quite an aristocratic part of the city. Here, indeed, was kept the Court of Chancery, from whence it derived its title, and here lived in great state some of the high officials connected with that important department of the State, as well as some of the great legal lights of succeeding eras. The Chancery Court was in the evolution of the city transferred to the central building across the river, known as the Four Courts—the first stately pile which compels the admiration of all travelers driving along the Dublin quays from the western side. Not one in a thousand explorers in old Dublin could realize, from the present condition of such ancient thoroughfares, it is safe to say, what was their estate in the more prosperous period before the Act of Union despoiled Ireland of her Parliament and Dublin of her resident notables. No one could ever dream that such forlorn and dilapidated and foul-smelling places as Chancery lane was one of the most fashionable thoroughfares in the city, or that crowds of beaux in court suits and powdered periwigs, and dainty ladies à la Watteau as to attire, borne in sedan chairs, might be found there, on the way to Christ Church or St. Patrick's on Sundays, or mayhap to the Fishamble street or Smock alley theatre, close by, on week nights, with the link-boys running before them to light the way. Yet such indeed was the position of the whole interesting neighborhood. Across the street layand still lies a little pocket of old rookeries called Derby Square, the entrance to which is a passage little more than a yard in width, yet in its time this was the abode of a number of the Irish nobility and a place of the most exclusive haut ton. Crossing the thoroughfare called Skinners' alley, just outside the opening of Bride street (which was originally "St. Bride's"), one came to an archway which spanned an arcade running alongside the southern wall of Christ Church Cathedral. Above this THE LEGAL PROFESSION AND “HELL.” 3 archway stood a carved wooden effigy of Satan, and the arcade itself, as if in cynical mockery of its proximity to a consecrated edifice, bore the awesome name of "Hell.” The arcade so named was a warren of lawyers' offices; perhaps this circumstance may be explanatory, to some extent, of the strange title, for in Ireland there is some traditional connection between the gentleman in black and the black-robed gentlemen who plead in the law courts-a connection which they themselves, in that age, did not repudiate, since we know from O'Connell's biographies that the corps of volunteers formed from the members of the Bar, and of which he for some time was one, was known as "the Devil's Own." The presence of these lawyers' offices in the sulphurously-named arcade was explained by the fact that in a sort of annex of Christ Church Cathedral was held the Court of Exchequer, which was also originally located near Chancery lane, in another dingy thoroughfare called Exchequer street. Interspersed with the lawyers' dens were several of the more congenial resorts known at the time as chop houses, some famous coffee houses and some equally celebrated taverns. Night-time at all these establishments found them crowded with the wits of the Irish Bar and the idle class of Dublin-men of the stamp of John Philpot Curran, Ned Lysaght and Jonah Barrington; and mirth and repartee prolonged far into the small hours gave a colorable base for a theory of "happiness in Hell." Only separated by the width of St. Werburgh's Church-where the Irish Viceregal Court worships when residing in "the Castle" from Chancery lane ran Hoey's court, another constricted avenue to the Castle region, made immortal by its connection with the great Dean of St. Patrick's. It was in this now squalid and fever-laden purlieu that Jonathan Swift first assumed his "heritage of woe;" and if the house in which he was born is still allowed to lurch and |