Close to the church,* in a recess named "Deanery Court," stands the house of the Deans of Christ Church. This stately mansion, a fine specimen of the Dublin buildings of the early part of the eighteenth century, has long since been abandoned * A school of great reputation was kept in this street by John Gast, D.D., who became curate of St. John's in 1744. While officiating here, he published his Grecian history, a work highly approved of and recommended by the University of Dublin. In 1761, he was removed from St. John's to the parish of Arklow, to which was added the Archdeaconry of Glendalogh and the parish of Newcastle. He exchanged Arklow for the parish of St. Nicholas Without in 1775, and died in the year 1788. Gast was of French extraction: his father, Daniel Gast, was a Huguenot phy. sician of Saintonge, in Guienne, which he left in 1684, owing to the persecution, and settled in Dublin with his wife, Elizabeth Grenoilleau, who was a near relative of the great Montesquieu, author of "L'Esprit des Lois. Near St. John's church, was the school of Ninian Wallis, M.A., author of a work, published in 1707, entitled "Britannia Concors, a discourse in Latin, both prose and verse, concerning the advantages of the British union, for the security of the Protestant interest in Ireland." Saul's Court, in Fishamble-street, takes its name from Lawrence Saul, a wealthy Roman Catholic distiller, who resided there at the sign of the "Golden Key," in the early part of the last century. The family of Saul or Sall was located near Cashel early in the seventeenth century. James Sall, a learned jesuit, during the wars of 1642, protected and hospitably entertained Dr. Samuel Pullein, subsequently Archbishop of Tuam, who, during the Protectorate, discovered Dr. Sall preaching in England, under the disguise of a Puritan shoe-maker. Andrew Sall, a Jesuit" of the fourth vow," was professor in the Irish College of Salamanca, and afterwards at Pampeluna, Placentia, and Tudela. He was appointed Superior of his Order in 1673, and in 1674 publicly embraced the Protestant religion in Dublin. Sall, who is said to have been the first Irish Jesuit who renounced the Roman Catholic faith, obtained consi. derable preferment in the Established Church, and died in 1682, leaving behind him many controversial works. He was the intimate friend of Nicholas French, the celebrated titular Bishop of Ferns, who lamented his defalcation in a work entitled "The Doleful Fall of Andrew Sall," 1674. “I loved the man dearly,” says French, "for his amiable nature and excellent parts, and esteemed him both a pious person and learned, and so did all that knew him.' In the penal times, when persecution kept up a kindly feeling of mutual dependence among the Irish Roman Catholic families, a young lady, named Toole, retired, about the year 1759, to Lawrence Saul's house, to avoid being compelled by her friends to conform to the Established Church. Saul was prosecuted; the Lord Chancellor declared to him from the bench, that the law did not presume, that an Irish Papist existed in the kingdom. Charles O'Conor, of Balenagare, on this occasion wrote to Saul, and recommended him and others to call a meeting of the Roman Catholic Committee, for the purpose of making a tender of their service and allegiance to government. Saul, who was then far advanced in life, thought such a proceeding useless, and addressed a pathetic letter to O'Conor, explaining his reasons for not following his friends advice. "Since there is not," said he, "the least prospect of as a residence by the dignitaries for whom it was erected. It is, however, a singular fact, that in this house, in 1742, died Thomas Morecraft, who has been immortalized in the "Spectator" under the name of "Will Wimble." In 1770 the Exchequer Office was removed from Castle-street to this building, which, after passing through various changes, was in 1842 converted into a parochial school by the Rev. E. S. Abbott. such a relaxation of the penal laws, as would induce one Roman Catholic to tarry in this house of bondage, who can purchase a settlement in some other land, where freedom and security of property can be obtained, will you condemn me for saying, that if I cannot be one of the first, I will not be one of the last, to take flight from a country, where I have not the least expectation of encouragement, to enable me to carry on my manufactures, to any considerable extent? 'Heu fuge crudeles terras, fuge littus avarum !'-But how I will be able to bear, at this time of life, when nature is far advanced in its decline, and my constitution, by con stant exercise of mind, very much impaired, the fatal necessity of quitting for ever, friends, relatives, an ancient patrimony, my natale solum, to retire perhaps to some dreary inauspicious clime, there to play the schoolboy again, to learn the language, laws, and institutions of the country; to make new friends and acquaintances; in short, to begin the world anew. How this separation, I say, from every thing dear in this sublunary world, would afflict me, I cannot say, but with an agitated and throbbing heart. But when religion dictates, and prudence points out the only way, to preserve posterity from temptation and perdition, I feel this consideration predominating over all others. I am resolved, as soon as possible, to sell out, and to expatriate; and I must content myself with the melancholy satisfaction, of treasuring up in my memory, the kindnesses and affection of my friends." Saul soon after quitted his native land and retired to France, where he died in 1768. This is but one of the innumerable cases of individual suffering during the penal times when, exasperated by the shortsighted policy of bigoted religionists, many of the bravest and wealthiest of Ireland's sons resign'd The green hills of their youth, among strangers to find Early in the present century, a suite of rooms in Saul's-court was occupied by the "Gaelic Society." This body was founded in December 1806, for the preservation and publication of ancient Irish historical and literary documents, which it was proposed to effect by the subscriptions of members. The principal persons connected with the move. ment were Theophilus O'Flanagan, of Trinity College, Dublin, an excellent classical scholar; Denis Taaffe, author of the History of Ireland, written as a continuation to Keating, and published in four volumes; Edward O'Reilly, compiler of the most complete Irish Dictionary yet published; William Halliday, author of a "Grammar of the Gaelic language," published in 1808, and translator of the first portion of Keating's History of Ireland; Rev. Paul O'Brien, author of an Irish Grammar; and Patrick Lynch, author of a Life of St. Patrick, and of a short Grammar of the Irish language. The Gaelic Society was only able to affect the publication of a single The large house on the immediate right of the entrance into "Deanery Court" was, towards the middle of the last century, the residence of an apothecary named Johnson, whose two sons, Robert and William, were successively elevated to the Irish Bench. To keep pace with their advancement, the old man, in his sixtieth year, took out a degree and practised as a physician. Robert Johnson, called to the Irish Bar in 1779, early became a Parliamentary supporter of government, whence he obtained several lucrative sinecures, in allusion to which, during the debates in the Irish House of Commons, 'Curran was wont to style him "the learned barrack-master." The support which he gave the ministers in carrying the measure of the Legislative Union, procured him the rank of Justice of the Common Pleas in the year 1800, which he held till 1805, when he became "the subject of prosecution for a seditious libel, under the strange circumstance of his holding, at the time, a seat upon the Bench, and of there being," says Lord Cloncurry, "absolutely no evidence of his authorship beyond a sort of general conviction that he was a likely person to do an act of the kind. The article alleged to be libellous was an attack upon Lord Hardwicke, in his capacity of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. It was published in Cobbett's Register' under the signature of Juverna, and was, in fact, composed by the Judge. Never volume, which was edited by their Secretary, O'Flanagan, and contained, among other interesting documents, the ancient historic tale of the "Death of the Children of Usnagh," which furnished Moore with the subject of his ballad "Avenging and bright fall the swift sword of Erin." Another portion of the same book supplied the theme of the no less exquisite poem :— Silent, oh Moyle, be the roar of thy water." "Whatever may be thought of those sanguine claims to antiquity which Mr. O'Flanagan and others advance for the literature of Ireland, it would be a lasting reproach," says Moore, "upon our nationality, if the Gaelic researches of this gentleman did not meet with the liberal encouragement they so well merit." Justice, however, obliges us to add, that O'Flanagan was comparatively ignorant of the more cbscure Celtic dialects; necessitous circumstances unhappily induced him to accommodate his interpretation of certain ancient Irish documents to suit the purposes of Vallancey and other theorists of his day. Although the Gaelic Society published but a single volume, it called forth the talents of scholars who achieved much when we consider the spirit of their time; they therefore demand our respect for having exerted themselves for the preservation of Irish literature at a period when it was generally neglected. theless, the manuscript, although sworn by a crown-witness to be in Mr. Johnson's handwriting, was actually written by his daughter. This circumstance he might have proved; but as he could not do so without compromising his amanuensis, the jury were obliged to return a verdict of guilty. Between the termination of the trial, however, and the time for pronouncing judgment, there was a change of ministry, as a result of which a nolle prosequi was entered, in the year 1806, and Mr. Johnson was allowed to retire from the Bench with a pension. The manuscript of the obnoxious article was given up by Mr. Cobbett, in order that he might escape the consequences of a verdict of guilty found against himself for the publication." Curran's last speech at the Bar was made on this occasion in defence of his former parliamentary opponent, and in it he introduced the brilliant episode, addressed to Lord Avonmore, recalling the recollection of the meetings of the "Monks of the Screw," of which celebrated fraternity Johnson had been Sacristan. In 1828 appeared a remarkable pamphlet, published at Paris, dedicated "to all the blockheads, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, in the service of His Britannic Majesty," and entitled, "Á Commentary upon the Memoirs of Theobald Wolfe Tone, in which the moral and physical force of Ireland to support national independence, is discussed and examined, from authentic documents, by Colonel Philip Roche Fermoy." This was immediately recognized as the production of Johnson, and in it the author supported and applauded the very doctrines which thirty years before he had violently assailed in the Irish House of Commons. The work created a great sensation at the eventful period of its appearance, as it supplied the deficiency of Tone's book, and completely refuted the arguments adduced, at the time of the Union, to show Ireland's incompetence for separate independence. We are told that "those who hitherto had been the constant asserters of the overwhelming power of England and the comparative feebleness of Ireland, were startled at the novelty and daring of its views, and the force of its arguments and conclusions." The promised second part never appeared, and Johnson died in 1833, aged 85 years. During the latter part of his life he had resided at his seat, called the "Derries," in the Queen's County. Barrington describes him as "a well-read, entertaining man, extremely acute, an excellent writer, and a trustworthy, agreeable companion; but there was something tart in his look and address, and he was neither good-natured in his manner nor gentlemanly in his appearance, which circumstances altogether, combined with his public habits to render him extremely unpopular." Lord Cloncurry tells us, that "the ex-judge had a most unprofessional turn for military affairs, in connexion with which he held some theories that would probably startle modern professors of the art of war. Among them was a notion, which he lost no opportunity of putting forward, that pikes and arrows were much better weapons than muskets and bayonets; and he prided himself greatly upon the invention of a pike provided with a hollow staff capable of containing arrows, and having a leg to support the weapon, and side-braces to unite it with others, so as to form a chevaux-de-frise." "Indeed the camp," says a late writer, "rather than the courts, seems to have been the sphere in which his inclinations would have induced him to distinguish himself; and even in his mode of dress his military taste was remarkable, as he constantly wore a blue frock coat, buttoned up to the chin, a close black stock, and a foraging cap, while a firm and rapid tread, resembling a quick step, gave to his figure more the air of a general officer than an ex-judge." "In person, Mr. Johnson was slight, and rather below the middle stature-his countenance expressive of habitual thought, and rather severe in its expression, except when lighted up by the good humour which usually animated it, when he found himself in the society of those whom he liked to meet, then, too, his conversation abounded with anecdote and profound observations, characterised by the epigrammatic style in which they were delivered. The times through which he had lived abounded with interest, and these he was wont to recal with such identity of description, that the illustrious individuals connected with them seemed to live again in the vividness of his sketches." "From the spirit and tendency of his latter acts, and the evident sincerity which dictated them, we can," adds the same writer," arrive at no other conclusion than that the old man, impressed with the consciousness of the positive evil which he contributed to do to his countrymen during the period of his public life, devoted the little strength he could command, in the solitude of his latter days, to instruct them |