surrounded, as it is well known to be, by a most formidably hostile neighbourhood; banded against tithes, and tainted by an hereditary enmity that only the healing stream of gospel love can ever wash away. Oh, what a field is this fair, ruined land! White to the harvest, but where are the labourers to gather it in? We are mocked, befooled by projects of amelioration; one man proposing to regenerate Ireland by building workhouses-another by establishing temperance societies-a third by giving up all political and local authority to the demagogues who clamour for it-and carrying on the spiritual work without visible means. All are alike futile. The first indispensable step is, indeed, to relieve the wretched poor from their intolerable destitution: therefore build workhouses. The evils of wide-spread intemperance must be checked; therefore declare war against the whiskey-shops; but unless you unloose the fetters of bigotry by means of religious instruction, your very workhouses will become barracks for a rebel army, and all the money saved, all the energy redeemed from the debasing habits of intoxication, will be devoted to the manufacture and the application of pikes. As to the political remedy—the Justiceto-Ireland municipal plan-it may very well be adopted if the resolution is come to of colonizing

some distant settlement with the exiled Protestants of Ireland; and making over the other portion of her inhabitants to the powers of darkness for ever.

It is in contemplating the scene presented within the walls of a scriptural school, that the . mind, oppressed and grieved by what passes without, can recover its elasticity, and rejoice in the dawnings of a better hope. Here, as I have before remarked, is the connecting link forged that alone on a large scale will bring into harmonious junction the divided portions of society. Nor is this the only, nor the most essential point to be gained; for the children of different persuasions, conning from the page of the same volume the same inspired lessons of love to God and to each other, will not, even humanly speaking, grow up in that state of estrangement naturally ripening into enmity, that must result from the one being taught to shun and to dread what to the other is a supreme rule of faith and of practice. This is so indisputable that no one attempts to deny it— the objection started is that the spiritual guides of one portion of the community, dreading such a result, will not permit it. But here I have ocular demonstration that with or without such permission the children will avail themselves of the advantage offered, even in the most hostile part of the country. It is only when the temptation is

held out to them of receiving instruction in this world's lore, not at the expence of abandoning, but with every facility for strengthening the bonds of spiritual error, and the virulence of party animosity, that they are drawn off from those green pastures, to a barren and envenomed track.

The children whom I have here seen have not, in general, the lively, intelligent look that usually characterizes the Irish poor. Indeed, a glance into the wretched hovels that sprinkle the road-side will not only account for the heavy aspect of those who burrow within their dark recesses, but must render it a matter of surprise that the faculties should be capable of such development as I have witnessed, under the hand of their kind teachers. Some admirable answering in the Scripture classes, with the progress made by others towards it, and the orderly, clean, contented appearance of the little learners, all gave promise, that if the benevolent efforts of my kind friend were seconded as they ought to be, and his hands strengthened by the help which it is disgraceful to withhold, the same means, applied co-extensively with the wants of the population, would ensure an abundant, an unspeakably precious harvest. On Sunday the school was attended by some pupils of more advanced age, and among them I found a knowledge of Scripture, an evident delight in its study,

truly heart-cheering. One of the best answerers in the Bible class that I took, was a Romanist; and I am assured it is generally the case here. From this we passed to the church, which, being under repair, presented a wretched and desolate aspect, not properly belonging to it; but the pastor knows his duty too well to allow the presence of bricks and mortar, beams and scaffolding, to interrupt the regular course of parochial ministrations.

The congregation was numerous, adapted to the size of the edifice, which is not large. This was my first sabbath in Ireland, for thirteen years; and when I reflected through what a fiery ordeal her persecuted Church had recently passed, and how fiercely it is still assailed by those whose incessant cry is, 'Down with it! Down with it!' mine eye affected my heart in no small degree. The clergyman here has been exempt from the cruel privations undergone by many of his brethren, not from the prevalence of a better spirit among the people, for a worse can nowhere be found, but by the possession of private means which rendered him independent of his clerical income for the comforts of life. I speak of external comforts; no one has more largely participated in the other ingredients of the general cup. All that factious malignity and unprovoked enmity could do, to distress, to insult,

and, if they could, to intimidate, has been put in force insomuch that at one time it was a matter of extreme personal danger to cross from the glebe-house to the church, for the purpose of the accustomed ministrations; but my friend was not to be daunted in the discharge of his sacred duties, and he can thankfully repeat," By the help of my God, I continue to this day."

The curate of the parish preached a most splendid sermon, suited to the occasion, which was the reading of the queen's proclamation: for it was on this spot, so replete with overpowering recollections and associations, that I first received the official call to allegiance on the part of my youthful sovereign. Oh, how earnestly did I pray, within the bounds of that little fold, surrounded by and exposed to the grievous wolf of Rome, that God would so dispose and turn the heart of the royal maiden, as to make her a nursing mother to the afflicted Church of Ireland! This was the second proclamation of the kind that had met me in this country: I was residing in it when good old George the Third exchanged his earthly for a heavenly crown. Then the nation lay basking in honour and security; we enjoyed the ripened fruits of a long reign of Christian truth and uprightness; and the blessings of a grateful people encircled the head of the monarch who had declared