the meeting. He felt inadequate to the task he had undertaken, but he hoped the feelings which urged him forward would plead his pardon. He was an Englishman; when he reflected on the outrages that his countrymen had committed here for the last twenty years he confessed that he blushed for them. He had come to Ireland for the sole purpose of interesting himself in the misfortunes of this country, and impressed with a full conviction of the necessity of Catholic Emancipation, and of the baneful effects which the union with Great Britain had entailed upon Ireland. He had walked through the fields of the country and the streets of the city, and he had in both seen the miserable effects of that fatal step. He had seen that edifice which ought to have been the fane of their liberties converted to a temple of Mammon. Many of the crimes which are daily committed he could not avoid attributing to the effect of that measure, which had thrown numbers of people out of the employment they had in manufacture, and induced them to commit acts of the greatest desperation for the support of their existence.

He could not imagine that the religious opinion of a man should exclude him from the rights of society. The original founder of our religion taught no such doctrine. Equality in this respect was general in the American States, and why not here ? Did change of place change the nature of man? He would beg those in power to recollect the French Revolution : the suddenness, the violence with which it burst forth, and the causes which gave rise to it.

Both the measures of Emancipation and a Repeal of the Union should meet his decided support, but he hoped many years would not pass over his head when he

would make himself conspicuous at least by his zeal for them.1

III.

ARTICLE FROM "THE WEEKLY MESSENGER," DUBLIN, SATURDAY, 7 MARCH, 1812, RELATING TO SHELLEY'S SPEECH, AND HEADED "PIERCE BYSHE SHELLY, ESQ."2 The highly interesting appearance of this young gentleman at the late Aggregate Meeting of the Catholics of Ireland, has naturally excited a spirit of enquiry, as to his objects and views, in coming forward at such a meeting; and the publications which he has circulated with such uncommon industry, through the Metropolis, has set curiosity on the wing to ascertain who he is, from whence he comes, and what his pretensions are to the confidence he solicits, and the character he assumes. To those who have read the productions we have alluded to, we need bring forward no evidence of the cultivation of his mind the benignity of his principles-or the peculiar fascination with which he seems able to recommend them.

Of this gentleman's family we can say but little, but we can set down what we have heard from respectable authority. That his father is a member of the Imperial Parliament, and that this young gentleman, whom we

Mr. MacCarthy says that in an unpublished letter, dated "17, Grafton Street, Dublin, March 14, 1812." Shelley writes thus :

"My speech was misinterpreted. I spoke for more than an hour. The hisses with which they greeted me when I spoke of religion,

though in terms of respect, were mixed with applause when I avowed my mission. The newspapers have only noted that which did not excite disapprobation."

2 Given by Mr. MacCarthy as "the first public notice of Shelley."

have seen, is the immediate heir of one of the first fortunes in England. Of his principles and his manners we can say more, because we can collect from conversation, as well as from reading, that he seems devoted to the propagation of those divine and Christian feelings which purify the human heart, give shelter to the poor, and consolation to the unfortunate. That he is the bold and intrepid advocate of those principles which are calculated to give energy to truth, and to depose from their guilty eminence the bad and vicious passions of a corrupt community; that a universality of charity is his object, and a perfectibility of human society his end, which cannot be attained by the conflicting dogmas of religious sects, each priding itself on the extinction of the other, and all existing by the mutual misfortunes which flow from polemical warfare. The principles of this young gentleman embrace all sects and all persuasions. His doctrines, political and religious, may be accommodated to all; every friend to true Christianity will be his religious. friend, and every enemy to the liberties of Ireland will be his political enemy. The weapons he wields are those of reason, and the most social benevolence. He deprecates violence in the accomplishment of his views, and relies upon the mild and merciful spirit of toleration for the completion of all his designs, and the consummation of all his wishes. To the religious bigot such a missionary of truth is a formidable opponent, by the political monopolist he will be considered the child of Chimera, the creature of fancy, an imaginary legislator who presumes to make laws without reflecting upon his materials, and despises those considerations which have baffled the hopes of the most philanthropic and the efforts of the most wise. It is true. human nature may be too depraved for such a hand as

PROSE.-VOL. III.

BB

Mr. Shelly's to form to anything that is good, or liberal, or beneficent. Let him but take down one of the rotten pillars by which society is now propped, and substitute the purity of his own principles, and Mr. Shelly shall have done a great and lasting service to human nature. To this gentleman Ireland is much indebted, for selecting her as the theatre of his first attempts in this holy work of human regeneration; the Catholics of Ireland should listen to him with respect, because they will find that an enlightened Englishman has interposed between the treason of their own countrymen and the almost conquered spirit of their country; that Mr. Shelly has come to Ireland to demonstrate in his person that there are hearts in his own country not rendered callous by six hundred years of injustice; and that the genius of freedom, which has communicated comfort and content to the cottage of the Englishman, has found its way to the humble roof of the Irish peasant, and promises by its presence to dissipate the sorrows of past ages, to obliterate the remembrance of persecution, and close the long and wearisome scene of centuries of human depression. We extract from Mr. Shelly's last production, which he calls 'PROPOSALS FOR AN ASSOCIATION, &C.""1

*

We have but one word more to add. Mr. Shelly, commiserating the sufferings of our distinguished countryman Mr. Finerty, whose exertions in the cause of political freedom he much admired, wrote a very beautiful poem,"

1 It is not necessary to give the extract. The whole pamphlet is given in Vol. I.

2 Mr. MacCarthy's volume,

Shelley's Early Life, deals very minutely with the evidence of Shelley's having written such a

poem and put the proceeds of its sale to such a purpose. Peter Finnerty (not Finerty) was one of the victims of the libel prosecutions of the early part of this century; and there is much reason for believing that Shelley wrote, and

the profits of which we understand, from undoubted authority, Mr. Shelly remitted to Mr. Finerty; we have heard they amounted to nearly an hundred pounds. This fact speaks a volume in favour of our new friend.

IV.

OF

LETTER OF "AN ENGLISHMAN TO THE EDITOR "THE DUBLIN JOURNAL," RELATING TO SHELLEY'S SPEECH.1

SIR,

Saturday, March 7th, 1812,

Our public meetings now-a-days, instead of exhibiting the deliberations of men of acknowledged wisdom and experience, resemble mere debating societies, where unfledged candidates for national distinction rant out a few trite and commonplace observations with as much exultation and self-applause as if they possessed the talents or eloquence of a Saurin or a Burke. This remark is particularly applicable to almost the whole of the meetings which have been assembled within the last twelve months by the Catholics; at which young gentlemen of this description have constantly intruded themselves upon the public notice, and by the unseasonable and injudicious violence of their language, have not a little prejudiced the cause they attempted to support. Curiosity and the expected gratification of hearing a display of oratory by some of the leading members of the Catholic body led

published for Finnerty's benefit, a small book, A Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things, whereof no copy is known to be extant.

This is another result of Mr. MacCarthy's researches, and helps somewhat in forming a notion of the speech.