Leaving this "interesting stranger" to amuse the admirers of the Catholic Drama by puffing at "the meteors" of his own creation, "which play over the loathsome pool" of his own pantomimic invention, I will ask you, sir, what has the Protestant cause, and what has that consummation of political wisdom the British constitution, to fear from a party which has to shelter in the shade of such paltry and unmeaning bombast? The Philanthropist talks bigly of "blossoms to be matured by the summer sun of improved intellect and progressive virtue," -but if his root be rotten his blossoms will be dust. From such corrections and such apologists, and from the machinations of all pseudo-philanthropists, may the good Lord deliver us! I have the honour to be, Sir, Yours, &c., A DISSENTER. VI. OFFICIAL PAPERS CONNECTED WITH SHELLEY'S VISIT TO IRELAND.' 1. Letter from Harriet Shelley to Eliza Hitchener, 2. Letter from the Surveyor of Customs, Holyhead, to the 3. Two Letters from the Post Office Agent at Holyhead 4. Letter from the Postmaster General to the Secretary of 1. Letter from Harriet Shelley to Eliza Hitchener.? Dublin, March 18th [1812.] MY DEAR PORTIA, As Percy has sent you such a large Box so full of inflammable matter, I think I may be allowed to send a little but not such a nature as his. I sent you two letters in a newspaper, which I hope you received safe from the intrusion of Post masters. I sent one of the Pamphlets to my Father in a newspaper, which was opened and charged, but which was very trifling when compared to what you and Godwin paid. I believe I have mentioned a new acquaintance of These have appeared in Shelley's Early Life. 2 The original letter and that from the Surveyor of Customs in which it was forwarded to the Home Secretary, are in the Public Record Office, marked "Ireland, January to April, 1812, No. 655." One of the three known copies of the Broadside Declaration of Rights is in these papers. Miss Hitchener is the lady who figures in Hogg's Life of Shelley as "the brown demon." ours, a Mrs. Nugent, who is sitting in the room now and talking to Percy about Virtue. You see how little I stand upon ceremony. I have seen her but twice before, and I find her a very greeable, sensible woman. She has felt most severely the miseries of her country in which she has been a very active member. She visited all the Prisons in the time of the Rebellion to exhort the people to have courage and hope. She says it was a most dreadful task; but it was her duty, and she would not shrink from the performance of it. This excellent woman, with all her notions of Philanthropy and justice, is obliged to work for her subsistence-to work in a shop which is a furrier's; there she is every day confined to her needle. Is it not a thousand pities that such a woman should be so dependent upon others? She has visited us this evening for about three hours, and is now returned home. The evening is the only time she can get out in the week; but Sunday is her own, and then we are to see her. She told Percy that her country was her only love, when he asked her if she was married. She called herself Mrs. I suppose on account of her age, as she looks rather old for a Miss. She has never been out of her own country, and has no wish to leave it. This is St. Patrick's night, and the Irish always get very tipsy on such a night as this. The Horse Guards are pacing the streets and will be so all the night, so fearful are they of disturbances, the poor people being very much that way inclined, as Provisions are very scarce in the southern counties. Poor Irish People, how much I feel for them. Do you know, such is their ignorance that when there is a drawing-room held they go from some distance to see the people who keep them starving to get their luxuries; they will crowd round the state carriages in great glee to see those within who have stripped them of their rights, and who wantonly revel in a profusion of ill-gotten luxury whilst so many of those harmless people are wanting Bread for their wives and children. What a spectacle! People talk of the fiery spirit of these distressed creatures, but that spirit is very much broken and ground down by the oppressors of this poor country. I may with truth say there are more Beggars in this city than any other in the world. They are so poor they have hardly a rag to cover their naked limbs, and such is their passion for drink that when you relieve them one day you see them in the same deplorable situation the next. Poor creatures, they live more on whiskey than anything, for meat is so dear they cannot afford to purchase any. If they had the means I do not know that they would, whiskey being so much cheaper and to their palates so much more desirable. Yet how often do we hear people say that Poverty is no evil. I think if they had experienced it they would soon alter their tone. To my idea it is the worst of all evils, as the miseries that flow from it are certainly very great; the many crimes we hear of daily are the consequences of Poverty, and that, to a very great degree; I think, the Laws are extremely unjust-they condemn a person to Death for stealing 13 shillings and 4 pence. Disperse the Declarations. Percy says the farmers are very fond of having something posted upon their walls. Percy has sent you all his Pamphlets with the Declaration of Rights, which you will disperse to advantage. He has not many of his first Address, having taken great pains to circulate them through this city. All thoughts of an Association are given up as impracticable. We shall leave this noisy town on the 7th of April, unless the Habeas Corpus Act should be suspended, and then we shall be obliged to leave here as soon as possible. Adieu. 2. Letter from the Surveyor of Customs, Holyhead, to the Home Secretary, enclosing Harriet's letter. Confidential. SIR, Holyhead, March 30th, 1812. The important contents of the enclosed letter, with a Pamphlet and a Declaration of rights (forming part of the contents of a box detained by me), which I feel it my duty to transmit to you, will, I trust, be a sufficient apology for addressing myself to you in the first instance. Holding as I do an official situation under the Board of Customs, it would perhaps have been more strictly regular to have first communicated them to my own Board, and if the not having done it should appear to you to be informal, I must trust to your candour in not implicating me for my zealous intentions. Some days since a large deal box, directed to Miss Hitchener, Hurstpierpoint, Brighton, England, was landed from on board one of the Holyhead Packets, and brought to the Custom House, where, as Surveyor and Searcher of the Customs, I opened it, and found the enclosed open letter -the tendency of which at this moment I need not point out; and it still remains in my custody. If it should be your desire to have them transmitted to |