shouldering a useless fire-lock, and drilling six hours a day, when there was so much more young and active blood to meet the advances of the haughty Gaul, or perhaps, he very sensibly reasoned, that it was high time to skewer the fellow when he came. That did not satisfy the lumber-troop. He must tie up his hair in a cue, and drag a five feet sabre. Integrity must be immolated, because Mr. Holmes scorned to put on the trappings of affected zeal. A motion was next carried, that no barrister would be permitted to remain a member of their bar without enrolment, either in the bar corps, or some other of these national bands. This manly resolution was forwarded to Mr. Holmes-he smiled, and kindly refused to comply with its request. For several years he absented himself from that circuit. His friends, at length, determined to set him free. Mr. Perrin was of the most effective of his advocates. Charles Ball-a venerated name-made a motion at a meeting of the north-easters, that the excluding resolution should be effaced from the books of the circuit. It was seconded by Mr. Perrin, and carried, and so the dastardly effort to drive an honourable man from his profession proved unsuccessful. The links of a permanent friendship now united them more closely. But though they generally fought in the same ranks they were once found in opposing lines. After an undisturbed sovereignty of many years in Chancery, Lord Manners heroically resolved on retirement. The strong ones and weak ones of Toryism could not permit their time-honoured Pontiff to leave the temple of Justice without a monument of their sublime gratification for that benign and complacent aspect which ever welcomed their appearance. The fire-cross was

sent out, and all, "whales and minnows as they were," came to do homage. An address from the bar was agreed. Mr. Holmes not only signed it, but canvassed others. His motive was a generous one. Lord Manners would be kind, only to the honest pertinacity of Mr. Holmes. That did not make the favour less worthy of requital. He treasured the good act of the Chancellor, and when the sole opportunity offered, in which he could exhibit elevated and grateful feeling, he acted with a stern pride. The whispers of party, from whatever quarter, he scorned, and signed the address. But Mr. Perrin was sensible of no personal favour, he had no obligation to requite, and, though gently importuned by his friend, he firmly refused. In the courts of law there were few cases of importance in which his services were not secured from 1820. "With you, Robert Holmes or Louis Perrin," graced three-fourths of the briefs in the King's Bench and Common Pleas. Either was almost indispensable. Mr. Perrin could at once get at the kernel. He drove for his object in a direct path, and, if difficulties intervened, he would rather under mine, and blow them up, than reach the citadel by a circuitous and more easy line. Mr. Holmes rarely bade the fortress surrender at once. He was equally skilful in springing a mine, but travelled more often the easy way, amusing the besieged with a jest or gambol, and rendering the distress of final assault less poignant by the good humour of his temper. Like him, Mr. P. never took part with any of the political bodies which sprang up in Ireland. I have heard he was an early member of the Catholic Association, and also heard its con

tradiction. But whether enrolled with its members or not, he felt for their cause all the high-toned fervour it deserved. He spoke in its favour with all the zealous energy of one of its strongest advocates. No address or petition emanated in Dublin from Protestant illumination to strike the fetters from the ulcerated limbs of Catholic suffering, which did not bear the signature of "Louis Perrin." At the bar, or without the bar-in whatever society he was called on to express political opinions, he stated his convictions with a warm firmness which proved the strong root which the love of liberty had taken in his heart. Mr. O'Connell and he were ever on the most intimate terms of friendship; and the former always expressed his belief that the history of Irish probity and honour-still a long and luminous one-did not contain a name more exalted than his. He was Mr. O'C.'s leading counsel in all matters of personal difficulty-he trusted to his advice and knowledge more than any other member of the bar; and his exertions were not disproportioned to the magnitude of the trust reposed in him. In Mr. O'Connell's Bolivar-speech, as it was called, in which his aspirations for Irish nationality certainly took a lofty range, Lord Plunkett, then attorney-general, deemed his language not unworthy an ex officio, and so preparatory steps were taken to subdue the rebellious energies of the moral Bolivar of Ireland. Mr. Perrin was instructed to defend-bills of enormous magnitude were prepared-counts without number, all breathing annihilationan admirable grand jury was supplied by the sheriff-all was smart and smooth-when, lo! the terrible bubble burst, the bills were thrown out, and many persons imagined that the jury were less influenced by kindness to Mr. O'Connell, or a conviction of his innocence, than by bitter animosity to the attorney-general. Since the bottle-conspiracy he was held in agonizing disesteem by the Blues. Mr. Perrin, however, had the satisfaction of seeing his great client free without the necessity of vindicating him in the King's Bench, which, no doubt, he would have done with the manliness and power which stamp the solidity of his intellect. But there was another occasion when he undertook the defence of Mr. O'Connell, when perhaps mightier and more absorbing interests were at stake, than in any other political trial that ever took place in Ireland. Mr. O'Connell's success in rousing the popular passions against the policy of ministers, excited their bitter hostility. The country was in a fearful ferment. The government was dared to a struggle. The land was filled with imprecations against their conduct. A body of a hundred and fifty thousand men bore Mr. O'Connell in a triumphal car from the Hill of Slowth to Merrion Square. Political meetings were declared unconstitutional. The tea parties, volunteers society, and all the other garbs which agitation assumed, were successively dissolved by proclamation. A falcon eye was kept on the great wizard. At length he seemed, in the estimation of the law-officers, to have acted without the law, and he was arrested with seven others. Considering the boiling state of the public mind-tumultuous almost to bursting-the step was a daring one. Mr. Perrin was selected by one of the ablest lawyers of the age to conduct his important defence. The interests involved were awful. Independently of the incarceration of Mr. Jan. 1838.-VOL. XXI.-NO. LXXXI.

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O'Connell, which would be severe if he were found guilty, Ireland, its tranquillity and connexion with England, or a fierce outbreak to rebellion, and imperial dismemberment, hung trembling on his conviction. I have heard it stated, and I believe in the fact, that Mr. O'Connell's conviction would have been a fearful signal for the simultaneous rising of the whole Catholic population of Ireland. Vast would be the consumption of gold and blood! To subdue a single county cost England twenty thousand men, and nearly twenty millions of money-what would the suppression of this great struggle have reached? Such was the crisis which Mr. Perrin was called on to avert, and he discharged his duty on that day with noble firmness and intrepidity. He vindicated his client with more than the warmth of an advocate, and placed him within the law and the constitution; the speech had more than his usual fire-he weighed the solemn consequences. The trust was important, and he justified his power in one of the most masterly defences ever heard at the Irish bar. We must now fall back a few years to give a faint outline of his parliamentary career. After a succession of worse than "Lemnian horrors," Ireland arose from the pupilage of slavish contentment. The passionate ardour with which she arose to assert her right to justice calls to our mind the memorable saying of the Athenian, "Injustice is best banished from a commonwealth by making all men interested in the injustice done to each." Here is concentrated the whole energy of liberty. This was the key on which the association struck and succeeded. The Emancipation Act passed. The spirit of a glorious innovation now went forth, and institutions "covered with the hoar of centuries," sank in the dust. Reform, like the sound of an archangel's trumpet, shook the land, and Lord Grey passed the great charter. Mr. Perrin entered St. Stevens as member for Dublin. His election was a fierce contest. The anti-reform party was compact and powerful their arid abhorrence of reform rendered their opposition more pointed and effective; but popular enthusiasm burned round Mr. Perrin, and he triumphed. A petition was presented, and he was unseated. Monaghan next returned him-with the borough of Cashel he terminated his parliamentary career. His vigorous understanding, and the strong and distinct light in which he conveyed his opinions, and the grasp with which he could hold a subject, sifting it of superfluities, and setting out only the parts of importance, attracted the notice of ministers. They understood the value of his services as a crown-officer, and the great public confidence his appointment would generate in Ireland. Their calculations were not unfounded. Under him justice would stand with a high and fearless brow. No undue inclination of the balance-impartiality would mete out to every man his portion of right. But a mistaken policy operated on the ministerial mind-the silly principles of being just only by halves-evil neutralizing good-was the pivot on which their Irish administration moved. In an evil hour a Tory was attorney-general. Mr. Perrin at once saw the insidious lure. The ancient regime may still assert its pernicious influence, but he never would consent to be a fallacious guarantee that there should be no wrong. The Marquis of Wellesley sent for him, and in flattering

terms offered the solicitor-generalship. Firmly, but respectfully, he refused. "No, my lord, I feel in that office I could not serve the government or Ireland." Unconnected with the interests of his country he knew no ambition, and where his services could not be effective, he proudly refused to act; and he had a young and numerous family! Surely the man whose generous disdain could scorn such an elevated office, because it could not be for his country, deserves to stand high in the affections of men. In our history, or

perhaps that of any other people, there are few such records of magnanimous self-denial. Neither is it irrational to infer that he would have spurned the first office in the state if its acceptance were charged with a single act of dishonour. The present Judge Crampton accepted the solicitor-generalship, and discharged his duties with zeal and firmness, rendered more pleasing from that habitual gentleness and urbanity which always softened and reconciled. At the close of 1834 Judge Jebb died. His name adorns Irish history as one of the few who drew the strongest and sharpest sword against the union. Mr. Blackburne gallantly refused a prime judgeship-many earnestly looked to Serjeant Perrin-ministers were in his debt--but Mr. Crampton could not well be passed over, and he was installed. His escape was a narrow one. He was sworn in only on the day when the first government of Lord Melbourne was ungenerously dissolved. The germs of old evil had still deep root in the land. Sir Robert Peel convoked a new parliament, and Sergeant Perrin was found in vigorous opposition; but ardour or notoriety never influenced him to depart from the language of well-balanced reason. He never gave way to the hollow vaunting and hostile imprecations of political vituperation. Another of those great changes took place, which of all others, attest the animation of free communities. Sir Robert gathered up his robe, and fell gracefully at the base of the constitution. The Whigs were again triumphant ; but observation and experience taught them the inutility of their old course; they resolved to make past reverses the standard of their future conduct. A wise and prudent course! Serjeant Perrin, and the present Master of the Rolls, filled the offices of attorney and solicitor-general, and universal brightness lit up the popular countenance. All was rejoicing, for the principle of good was triumphant. Ably was his duty discharged. The tree of justice put forth beautiful blossoms-we are now gathering the harvest. The hemlock and darnel, which choked up and poisoned its roots, were cleared away, and the vegetation has been wonderful. The vindictiveness of party has never ascribed to him one act derogatory to right-all came and partook of the banquet. While in office he effected great and lasting good: he inspected the grand jury system with microscopic minuteness, and, through him, it has been purged of much of its local oppression. Irishmen remember with delight his bold zeal in carrying the torch of truth into the loathsome recesses of the corporations; he laboured with indefatigable assiduity, till every foul lurking-place was explored, and the secrets of their dark monopolizing policy anatomized, and laid bare. His report on that subject was, certainly, one of the most clear and powerful docu

ments ever submitted to Parliament; and his speech, on the introduction of a bill for their amendment, was characterised by a great statesman "as a most solid and convincing piece of ratiocinative eloquence." His language was calm, strong-interlaced with a vast variety of important facts, and expressed with that brusquerie and honesty of manner which affects the judgment, when arguments often may not convince. The supporters of exclusive systems found no mercy at his hands. But one act of stringent legislation marred much of his laurelled popularity. He closed dram-shops at the incommodious hour of eleven o'clock at night! The retailers of eau de vie arose in a body with an heroism worthy of the old seceding Romans, and combated stoutly against legislative intrusion; but public morality was on his side unfortunately, and "Perrin's" illomened act was passed. Private interests suffered little—the addition to public order and morality has been great. The time was now arrived when the services of inflexible honour were to be repaid with judicial ease and dignity. Judge Vandaleur died, and "honest Louis Perrin," with the loud rejoicings of his friends, and the contented acquiescence of his opponents, was raised to the vacant seat in the King's Bench.

We have now decorated Judge Perrin with the ermine and its emoluments, and it may not be unsatisfactory to enter a little deeper into his character. The passages in which we alluded to his professional abilities were inseparably connected with the incidents through which we have traced his progress. We shall close, after a rapid survey of his career as a public man and distinguished lawyer. An era, consecrated by undying names and memorable deeds, alive in the immortality of history, had passed away; but the recollections of its glory still haunted the minds of Irishmen -the trace of its proud spirit, though fast vanishing, was still visible. All was not yet lost. At the crisis of this struggle between Arihmanes and Oromasdesthe principles of truth and error-he entered life, and with the light of a good mind, unpolluted by the numerous incentives to national dishonour, which then fell on Ireland like a "shower of snares," he boldly ranged himself under the rightful banner. Throughout all the subsequent changes-dark and inauspicious as they were-when not a moment of virtue illuminated the land-when change was no more than the alternations of wrong-when probity was a jest and patriotism a derision-he was firm. With the candour of a good heart, and the stern fidelity of a great one, he stood true to the principles and engagements of his youth. In the mournful aspect of Ireland there was much to shake the timid, and strengthen the traitor. The star of hope seemed blotted from her heaven-fanaticism and faction triumphed over her prostration. But he was of too unbending a heart, and too lofty an ambition, to harbour the thought of a momentary lapse from that elevated rectitude which habitually governed his conduct. Let others trample on the simple Cross, and bow before the gorgeous Crescent, he had not yet learned such servile apostasy. His nature should undergo a moral reconstitution before it could accomplish so extraordinary a change. He looked neither for rewards nor honours, when the price of their acquisition was to be the for