belonging to it, to attend upon the ministry of its most favoured teacher. Thus his great powers were brought to bear upon men in the aggregate; and the elemental truths of Christian morality were those upon which he chiefly insisted, to awaken them to a sense of their lost condition, and the evils, both temporal and eternal, which it involved. In this manner he called them to repentance; and may be said to have "prepared the way" for the righteousness that was afterwards to be revealed. And when theologians find fault with him for not dwelling more than he did upon the strictly evangelical doctrines of the gospel, they should remember that in moral, as in physical existences, warmth generally precedes flame; and that it was to the very ardour of the piety which he was instrumental in enkindling, men were indebted for the spiritual discernment which led them to rest satisfied with nothing short of the whole of that divine truth which our blessed Lord came to reveal, and which, when properly received and acted upon, is the power of God unto salvation. It would be well for those who pride themselves upon discovering spots in the sun, to remember that it is only by its own light they are rendered visible.

Up to the year 1800, he remained without any other preferment than the two small livings already mentioned; the one, the prebend of Howth, the value of which was about one hundred pounds per annum; the other, St. Nicholas Without, which was then worth three hundred; making his income altogether four hundred a-year. He was now presented, by Lord Cornwallis, to the deanery of Killala, which then brought in eight hundred a-year, and he immediately resigned into the archbishop's hands the prebend of Howth, the only mark of favour which he had ever received from that dignitary, of whose harshness and insolence towards him we have already given some examples.

This addition to his worldly means was seasonable; as, in 1798, he was joined in wedlock to Wilhelmina Richards, the youngest daughter of Goddard Richards, Esq., late of Grange, in the county of Wexford. By her he had issue, two sons and two daughters, for whom he must naturally have been solicitous to provide. But he had no anxious looking forward on their account. His heart was devoted to the cause of charity; and he who had done so much for the public, naturally thought, and often said, that the public would provide for his children. But, as was justly observed by Lord Plunket to one of his sons, on a late occasion, when the latter applied to his lordship to sign for him a public memorial, "Never was there a man who did so much for his country, while his country did so little for him."

Of his sensitive and excitable temperament, the incident already mentioned, of his rushing upon the scaffold to address a hardened culprit at the moment when about to be launched into eternity, is a striking example. We are tempted to give another, although it may be deemed below the dignity of the subject, and more related to the one alluded to in the way of contrast than of resemblance.

He was very fond of dogs, and generally was not without a favourite of that kind, who, in his walks, was his constant companion. One day, as he was walking with a friend in the part of Dame-street near the castle, they got involved in a crowd, and he suddenly missed his dog. His resolution was instinctive. He started from his friend's side, and before the latter could imagine what had possessed him, he was seen, to his great consternation, mounted upon the highest point of the balustrade which then fronted the Royal Exchange, and shouting in all directions, from the top of his voice, the name of his dog, "Friend, Friend, Friend!" When, by-and-bye, he had descended, his friend ventured to expostulate warmly with him for the strange exposure which he, such a man, made of himself in the most crowded thoroughfare of the city; and Kirwan seemed for the first time awakened to a sense of his impropriety, and to be for a moment abashed and confounded. "It is very true," said he, "very true; it was all very wrong. But," he added, turning with a look of affectionate satisfaction to his mute companion, who stood beside him, “I have my dog!"

This little anecdote, trifling though it be, we would be loath to omit, as, in the present sketch, we are desirous to present the man as well as the preacher. Of his rare disinterestedness, and lofty disdain of mere pecuniary consideration, we have a strong proof, in his refusal to accept the offer a wealthy relative who resided in London, to adopt and provide for his eldest son. This was a gentleman whose life was not according to godliness, and by whose society, he

had too many reasons to fear, his child's morals would not be improved. No earthly inducement, therefore, could reconcile him to the proposal; which was, accordingly, steadily, but courteously declined. He had, at that time, no provision himself to leave for his family; his health was, at best, precarious; and his earthly prospects such as not to encourage much of hope. But the one eternal motive, that which impelled him to take thought first for his son's spiritual welfare, overbalanced every other; and his determination was formed upon the single consideration, "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" "No," he said; "I will not for my child choose wealth before worth. 'Tis true, my life is uncertain. But my dependance is on God. And should I be taken suddenly away, the public will, I am persuaded, make a provision for my children."

The hour was at hand when the sincerity of this declaration was to be tested. In the year 1805, he was seized with fever. He felt that the hand of death was upon him; and calling Mrs. Kirwan to his bedside, he said to her, with great solemnity and impressiveness, "My dear, I fear that this illness may prove fatal; and if I am taken away, I am persuaded that the proposal from London will be pressed upon you again; but do not yield to it. Let nothing tempt you to peril our child's eternal happiness." His weeping wife, who was so soon to be a widow, gave the promise required; and before twelve hours elapsed he was no more!

It happened as he had apprehended. The offer from London was pressingly renewed; and the disconsolate widow, in her sudden desolation, was so little the mistress of her thoughts and actions, that she suffered the child to be removed thither a removal which was, indeed, accomplished almost without her knowledge; so utterly unconscious was she, in her state of woful bewilderment, of all that was passing around her. But as soon as ever she recovered the perfect use of her faculties, she remembered her dying husband's words, and her son was brought home to her again.

His death, after so short an illness, was felt like a shock, not only in Dublin, but throughout the whole country. So large was the space which he filled in the public eye, and so great was the influence he exerted, as the creator and sustainer of countless charities-so justly were his transcendent talents regarded with national pride and admiration, and so deeply was he revered for the unostentatious piety and simplicity of his domestic life-so Catholic was the spirit by which he was actuated, and so little had he ever said or done to provoke from any party angry polemical recriminations, that his removal was felt as a bereavement by society in general; and Ireland mourned over his loss, as if but one heart beat in the bosoms of all her children; and all sects and parties united to do honour to the memory of the great departed, who was felt as a common benefactor by them all.

His funeral was attended by all the good and all the great men of whom the country could boast; amongst whom Grattan was distinguished as the chief mourner. Between these great men the tenderest intimacy subsisted; and never was the patriot more afflicted, than when the unexpected tidings reached him that his friend had been summoned to another world. His immediate relatives became alarmed for his safety, and it was some time before he recovered from the transport of agonizing grief into which he was plunged; and, when taking a last look at the grave which closed upon the mortal remains of one whose genius and whose virtues he almost worshipped, he was heard to say, in his own peculiar manner, with an intense and passionate earnestness, "Thou greatest of preachers, and thou best of men-farewell!"

But, perhaps, the most touching parts of the procession were the long lines of charity children, arranged according to their respective schools, by which it was attended. The female orphans, in particular, who felt in his loss a second orphanage, drew a tearful notice from many an eye, as they proceeded, under the conduct of their gracious and benevolent patroness, Mrs. Peter La Touche, to pay the last tribute to their friend and their father. "Alas! who was now to be their advocate!" was the sad reflection of the beholders. Who was now to plead their cause, and guarantee to them a refuge and a protection from the miseries of the world? Truly, never was a private loss so felt like a public; and never was a public loss so felt like a private !

And yet, nothing has been since done worthily to mark their sense of his

unequalled merits, either by the government or the country. His family were but poorly provided for, and he himself is without a monument in Ireland! When, in 1806, "all the Talents" came into office, it was intended to settle a pension of six hundred a-year upon the widow, with reversion to her four children. But, before the arrangement could be completed, the Tories returned to power, and the sum was cut down to three hundred a-year to the widow and her two daughters, leaving the sons entirely unprovided, with an understanding, however, that they should be taken care of when they came of age to accept such provision of a public nature as government might have it in their power to bestow; an understanding, we may add, which still remains unfulfilled.

His eldest son, who is an accomplished scholar, a well-read divine, an excellent parochial clergyman, and a preacher who has brought strongly to the minds of many who have heard him a remembrance of his father's powers, would now be regarded by the Irish public as entitled, by a sort of inheritance, to the possession of those professional honours, which were so long, and so unjustly, withheld from the great apostle of charity. Lord Normanby, we believe, it was who conferred upon him the small deanery of Kilmacduagh; but that should be regarded rather as an acknowledgment than a satisfaction of his fair claims, from a government, for adherence to the principle of which (as far as they may be said to be identical with the principles of the Whigs in the days of Grattan and Fox) his father's vast services and transcendent merits were neglected. And, we must honestly say, that we do not see, amongst those who are looking to church patronage from Lord John Russell with any prospect of success, one upon whom it might be more fittingly and creditably bestowed than upon the son of him, whose word of power turned the streams, which otherwise would have swollen into torrents of profligacy, into the channels of charity-called down from heaven the holy fire by which the human heart was purified from its native corruptions caused men to feel benevolence as a luxury, which outweighed all the pleasures of sin-and a spring-tide of piety to set in, which has not since ceased to flow, and which cleansed society at that period, wherever it reached, from the foulest impurities and abominations. But, independent of any hereditary claims, the present Dean Kirwan has merits of his own which might well recommend him to the notice of any administration.

The following is Mr. Grattan's glowing panegyric upon the subject of this sketch, in the Irish House of Commons. It has already been partially alluded to; we now present it in full, from the best report, for the gratification of our readers :

"I congratulate the church on its alliance with the ministers of the crown; but let me assure them it will not serve their promotion. They live under an administration which has two principles of promotion for church, or law, or anything— English recommendation, and Irish corruption.

"What is the case of Dr. Kirwan? This man preferred our country and our religion, and brought to both genius superior to what he found in either; he drew forth the latent virtues of the human heart, and taught men to discover in themselves that mine of charity, of which the proprietors had been unconscious. In feeding the lamp of charity, he had almost exhausted the lamp of life He came to interrupt the repose of the pulpit, and shake one world with the thunders of the other. The preacher's desk has now become the throne of light; around him a train, not such as crouch and swagger at the levee of princes-not such as attend the processions of the viceroy (horse, foot, and dragoon)-but that wherewith a great genius peoples his own state-charity in extacy, and vice in humiliation; vanity, arrogance, and saucy, empty pride, appalled by the rebuke of the preacher, and cheated for a moment of their native improbity and insolence. And what reward? St. Nicholas Within, or St. Nicholas Without!! The curse of Swift is upon him; he was born an Irishman, and a man of genius, and he used it for the good of his country! Had this man, instead of being the brightest of preachers, been the dullest of lawyers; had he added to dulness venality, and sold to the government his vote, he had been a judge: or had he been born a blockhead, bred a slave, and trained up in a great English family, and handed over as a household circumstance to the Irish viceroy, he would have been an Irish bishop and an Irish peer, with a great patronage-perhaps a borough-and had returned members to vote against Ireland; and the Irish parochial clergy must have adored his stupidity, and deified his dulness. But, under the present system, Ireland is not the climate in which a native genius can rise, unless he sells that genius to the court, and atones by the apostacy of his conduct for the crime of his nativity!”

VOL. XXXII.-NO. CLXXXVII.

D

CHINA AND THE CHINESE.

CHAPTER I.-DESCRIPTION OF MACAO, ITS CHURCHES AND PUBLIC BUILDINGSVISIT TO CAMOENS' CAVE, AND ENGLISH BURIAL-GROUND.*

The following chapters were written in 1846.

submitted to, and become suppliants and submissive, when met with a firm and unflinching resistance. The local government is now compelled to yield, being alike destitute of energy, a military force, and funds. The Portuguese population is about 7,000, and the Chinese far exceeds that number. The Roman Catholic churches in Macao are numerous and splendid; the finest edifice among them was the Jesuits' Church, which was burned down a few years since. Some estimate may be formed of what it must have been, from the front, which remains entire and uninjured.

This is richly carved and ornamented. Statues of various saints, as large as life, occupy the numerous niches. Situated at the summit of a broad and noble flight of steps, it presents the aspect only of departed grandeur-would that we could add also, of departed superstition.

Besides those churches, there are three monasteries and a convent, together with a college, a grammar and other schools, a female orphan, and several other charitable institutions. The town is defended by several well-constructed forts. The senate-house is a remarkably fine building, whose roof is supported by columns, on some of which is inscribed in the Chinese and Portuguese language, the emperor's grant of Macao to the Portuguese crown. The customhouse, which faces the inner harbour, is a very extensive building; but little business appeared to be carried on while I was there now, I suppose, it is next to useless, since Macao has wisely been made a free port. This measure will, no doubt, benefit the town, by an increase of trade; and the wealthy inhabitants will be considerably augmented, by an influx of our own merchants and their establishments, driven by injudicious enactments from Hong-Kong.

the streets, generally speaking, wide, and the public buildings of no despicable character, yet on all sides, and at every winding, the symptons of decay and departing prosperity were too apparent. There was a noble mansion unrepaired-here another fallen into ruin-grass grew unchecked in the pavements of the most frequented streets, and even on the steps of the churches.

Amongst the Portuguese, indolence and inactivity were but too evident, while the Chinese were occupied with their usual energy. The majority

of the lower orders of the Portuguese inhabitants are natives of Goa, whose European blood has become almost extinct, from the intermarriages of many generations with natives and half-castes. The extreme ugliness of these degenerate representatives of Portugal, scarcely admits of description. They are of low stature, and broad, with amazingly large hands and splay feet. They have coarse, curly, and woolly, black hair, dingy black skin, with large, goggle, black eyes, and eye-lids red with ophthalmia, no eye-lashes, bushy eye-brows, low, scowling brows, flat noses, half the width of their faces, wide mouths, and enormously thick lips. Hideous as the men are, I fear I must be ungallant enough to say, the women are ten times worse; or, as a French gentleman said to me," Vraiment elles sont laides

à fait peur." The fair sex, by courtesy, amongst this lower class, dress themselves in exceedingly gaudy-coloured cotton dresses. Over their heads and shoulders they throw a Spanish mantilla or scarf, made of highly-glazed cotton, and of colours equally showy with their gowns. The patterns and glazing of these mantillas remind one forcibly of English bedcurtains. They cross and re-cross their mantillas over their black busts, which are unprovided with corsets, roll about their goggle eyes, and, in short, perform all the airs and graces of a Spanish beauty in a most ludicrously caricature manner. men of this class dress in European fashion. There are some Portuguese families of high respectability residing in Macao; and the upper classes observe, as in Portugal, the European style of dress; the personal appearance of many of them is as distinguished for Although the houses are capacious, beauty as in Europe.

The

annoyances experienced at this customhouse were very great, as the officers insisted upon opening every article, and duty was charged upon the most trivial, such as a quarter of a pound of tea the surplus of our sea-store. Frequent complaints were also made of various things which were constantly extracted from luggage or goods. It was found to be but lost labour to seek for any redress.

The