are now dashed by the painful recollection that death has broken up that once happy circle, and left all who were acquainted with it so many reasons for regret. I have met few men who possessed more genuine kindness of heart than poor Lord Blessington, or who was less indebted to his rank for the regard of those around him.

"I am indebted, dear Lady Blessington, to your kind note for this opportunity of assuring you I am not forgetful of the obligations I am under to you. I feel I might have remained to this day a very obscure son of Machaon in Naples had I not known your condescending notice at that period in early life, and at the outset of my career, when it was of most value to me.

"Yours, dear Lady Blessington, ever sincerely and gratefully,

"R. R. MADDEN."

"48 Sloane Square, Chelsea (1843).

"I thought you might like to see a work, and one that treats of the Eternal City, written by the grand-nephew of Father Nicholas Sheehy. The author is, I understand, a layman, now living in Rome, a secretary to the noble ecclesiastic of Scotch descent to whom his book is dedicated. I am very anxious to ascertain his address, and perhaps your ladyship's acquaintance with persons either resident there, or going thither from this country, might enable you to obtain some information for me on this point. The author of this book is represented to me as a man of refined taste, a scholar, and strongly attached to the faith of his fathers. But my informant knows nothing of his present abode.

"What relation could he be to Edmund Sheehy ?*

In the pedigree there is an unfortunate hiatus where the latter's father is referred to. It dees not mention whom he married, or how many children he had. Edmund alone is mentioned as his son.

"In the early part of next week I am going over to Ireland, and I am likely to be at Clonmel within eight or ten days. Can your ladyship give me the address of any person in that part of the country likely to assist me in my further inquiries there? I think the people of Ireland ought not to have left the graves of these martyred men without a monumental stone.

..

Your ladyship will perceive by the note in the fly-leaves of the volume that there is nothing of the kind. The note is written by a very distinguish

*The work above referred to is entitled "Reminiscences of Rome, by a Member of the Arcadian Academy," post 8vo, London, 1838. It is dedicated to his grace Charles Edward Drummond, Duke of Melfort and Earl of Perth, in Scotland, and domestic prelate of his holiness Gregory XVI., apostolical prothonotary. The work is the production of a man of refined taste, well stocked with recondite Italian lore. He was a layman when he published those "Reminiscences of Rome." He is now a member of the order of the Brothers of Charity, founded by the Count Rosmini, attached to the Roman Catholic College of Ratcliffe, in Leicestershire.

ed scholar; and as there are some curious remarks detailed in it regarding the deaths of the Tipperary persecutors, I took the liberty of sending it for your R. R. MADDEN." ladyship's perusal.

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO LADY BLESSINGTON ON LEAVING

IRELAND IN 1843. (Vide answer to letter dated 19th October, 1843.)

"London, October, 1843.

"If Ireland was governed on just, fair, impartial principles, all my experience of other countries would lead me to believe that greater happiness might be expected for its people than for the inhabitants of any other country in northern or western Europe. The people are naturally a joyous, sprightly, social, easily amused, and easily contented people. The middle classes and mercantile communities of the cities and large towns are generally tolerably well educated, and many of both have a dash of gentle blood in their veins. They enjoy life, and, having acquired a competency, they have no idea of slaving themselves to death for the purpose of leaving enormous wealth to their children or to distant relatives. They are not disposed to carry on business longer than is absolutely necessary to realize a comfortable subsistence for their families. I have never seen in any foreign country a state of society in middle life so good as that which existed in Dublin and Cork about thirty years ago, in the mercantile and manufacturing communities of those cities. The Irish people only want to be fairly ruled, and to be dealt with by their rulers irrespective of their creeds. They are a tolerant, equitable, largely trusting, simply acted on people, prone perhaps to indulge a little too much in their social tendencies. The system of government that had been long adopted had been one devised, not for improving them morally or intellectually, but for weakening the people, by separating them, by educating them so as to make them detest one another's religions, by incensing them against each other, by making religious discord an element of strength for governmental purposes, by giving one faction which it favored power, the faction that was small numerically, but important in point of wealth and position. This favored faction, which is called the Orange faction, was not only fierce and fanatical, but insatiably covetous, and continues to be greedy of power, ambitious, unscrupulous as to the means of attaining its ends, whether by blood, intimidation, hypocrisy, and cajolery, or by indirect back-door official influence, by corruption, subserviency, and imposition.

46

'The people of England are utterly in the dark about the magnitude of the evil of Orangeism, or, as they please to call it, Protestant ascendency, as the Roman Catholic people of Ireland, and especially the intellectual educated middle and upper classes, are affected by it. The magnitude of the evil is owing to the momentum and power long given to this intolerant system by the British government.

"With such governmental power and influence given to Orangeism under

any of its denominations, or Protestant ascendency in any of its forms, as it has been given for centuries past, with exceptions, few and far between, like those of the rule of Wellesley, Anglesey, and Normanby, it is positively a calamity for an intellectual, high-minded Roman Catholic, firmly believing in his religion, and sensible of the wanton and outrageous insults offered to it, to live in his own land without having his feelings exasperated. I therefore confess to you I am not sorry to leave it. There is nothing in this world so galling as the endurance of an asserted superiority, moral, intellectual, and religious, on the part of an overbearing and besotted spirit of intolerance, pretending to be enlightened and religious.

"The fact of England lending its countenance to Irish Orangeism was always inexplicable to me on any ground of policy having for its ultimate object and its aim the promotion of British imperial interests. But I have no expectation that she will alter her course, though I am most firmly convinced that course will ultimately prove one of the main agencies that will contribute toward the decline and fall of her influence in the affairs of Europe.

"In the long run, however, all kinds of oppression are broken down; the laws of justice are not violated forever with impunity; whether the day of retribution come slow or fast, it will come surely. All history, ancient and modern, has this teaching for injustice and intolerance. The cry that is now 'væ victis,' will become, in due time, 'væ victoribus,' and perhaps the day is not far distant when the cry will come.

"But, in the mean time, of what avail is it to them to hear our brawling patriots-our newspaper Tells and Hofers-praising the fertility of our soil, the multiplicity of our havens, the loveliness of our rivers, valleys, and mountain scenery, the magnificence of our bays and estuaries, the beauty of the shores of Ireland! Would to heaven she were less beautiful, less fertile, less admirable for her havens and her shores, and more distant from all who will not be at peace with her religion or its professors! Would that she were more independent, better educated, more familiar with the history of other nations, and the evils in them of all connection between Church and state, and of all interference of the ministers of religion in temporal and political affairs! Would that she had more food for her people, and more force and union to employ against her foes! Ireland has its analogies with Italy, and the sighs of her children have their similitude with the aspirations of the poets and the people of Italy.

"You have written against Roman Catholic demagogues and agitators, but you never wrote a line against Orangeism and Protestant ascendency; you never wrote a line against the persecutors of your religion, who brought your grandfather to the scaffold.

"Do now, dear Lady Blessington-you to whom Nature has given noble gifts, use them for a new account in literary labor, for a better one than fashion, for the advantage of the country that gave you birth, and against those pernicious interests that have been so long inimical to its peace.

"By the influence of your opinions, the distinguished people you draw around you may be made serviceable to Ireland; and pardon me, Lady Blessington, if I remind you that Ireland has a claim on your pen, and a controversy with it. Your country is now entitled to other services at your hands than the production of political novels, pleasing to her enemies and painful to her friends to read. Employ some portion of your leisure in the reprobation of a system of government which administers its powers against the great bulk of the people of a country on account of their religion, and with a special view to the promotion of selfish purposes, pursued under the name and guise of Protestant zeal for the interests of true religion. R. R. MADDEN."

CHAPTER XVII.

B. SIMMONDS, ESQ.

THIS gentleman possessed talents of a higher order than are frequently found belonging to those who are known only in literature as contributors to Annuals. He was a man of considerable talent, refined taste, and cultivated mind; one of Lady Blessington's contributors, for some years, to the periodicals edited by her, and the author of several tales and sketches, and short poetical pieces, of a great deal of merit. Some of his stories, illustrative of Irish character, are extremely clever, and his descriptions graphic. Mr. Simmonds never pursued literature as a career. He held a lucrative appointment in the Inland Revenue department in London. In society, his quiet and reserved manners gave the impression of a man fond of retirement-peu demonstratif. But when he felt at ease in company, and found himself in the midst of those he knew and esteemed, and was drawn out by his friends, he was highly agreeable and effective in conversation, and exhibited talent and intelligence of a high order. Mr. Simmonds was certainly a man of more than ordinary ability, and deserving of being better known in the literary world than it was his fortune to have been hitherto.

A writer in the "Notes and Queries" (for April, 1854, page 397) thus refers to the subject of this notice: " Will you allow me to ask for a little information respecting B. Simmonds? I believe he was born in the county of Cork, for he has sung in most bewitching strains his return to his native home on the

banks of the Funcheon. He was the writer of that great poem on the Disinterment of Napoleon' which appeared in 'Blackwood' some years ago." The writer adds, "I believe he died in London, in July, 1852." But he is mistaken in the date. The public will be indebted to the inquiry for a search after information on the subject of it that has not been fruitless.

The following details are the result of extensive inquiries made of the early associates and townspeople of Bartholomew Simmonds: He was a native of the small town of Kilworth, in the county of Cork. His ancestry had connection with the aristocracy, but no relations save those of servant and master. His grandfather, Bartholomew Simmonds, had been the butler of the Earl of Mountcashel, whose seat of Moore Park lies near the town of Kilworth (which place gave the title to the eldest son of Lord Mountcashel). After Bartholomew Simmonds had retired from the service of the earl, he became proprietor of an inn in the town, which was the theatre of a frightful tragedy some thirty years ago-the death of Colonel Fitzgerald by the hand of the late Earl of Kingston. His lordship's sister had been the victim of an unhappy passion, and the person who was supposed to have wronged her was Colonel Fitzgerald, a cousin of the lady. He had gone down to Kilworth with the expectation of seeing her, and the Earl of Kingston, then staying at Moore Park, hearing of his arrival, proceeded immediately to Simmonds's hotel, where the colonel lodged. He rushed to the bedroom of Colonel Fitzgerald with a loaded pistol in his hand, burst into the room, and took deliberate aim at the colonel, who was in bed reading. Fitzgerald had only time to exclaim, " Fair play, at all events," and was in the act of springing on his feet, when Lord Kingston fired, and the unfortunate man fell dead on the floor.

The inn of Simmonds was patronized by the Kingston and Mountcashel families, and prospered accordingly. Old Bartholomew Simmonds left two sons; one succeeded his father in the business, the other was made a gauger. The latter married a Miss Cuddy, sister of a Dr. Stephen Cuddy, of the Royal Artillery. From that union there were three children, two sons and