with his old political associates. On the social compact he reasoned with little regard to good sense-his first principles were infected with sophistry: he took the revolution of 1688, and to that standard would reduce all other revolutions-there could be nothing less consistent with logic. All agree in the justice of that revolution; for where the established liberties of a people are wantonly violated, the contract is no more. He made no distinction between the extension and vindication of liberty-to break a charter and make a charter are two very different things. The effect of his famous "Reflections is well known—perhaps no human work ever produced so rapid and extraordinary a result. In Ireland the contagion of French principles continued to spread wide and far, long after the fever had subsided in the sister country. Paine's "Rights of Man" was sent over in thousands by the London Corresponding Society, while the works of Burke were little read by the classes most susceptible of revolutionary impressions. The dogged resistance of the Irish Parliament to the smallest measure of right, rendered a people, naturally sensitive, open to any influences which promised improvement; and when that came in the brilliant shape of a great maritime republic, an opinion may be formed of the consequences. The poison of Paine, with his lofty ideas of abstract liberty, and the right of all nations to self-government, worked deep and well. Mr. Smith, who had only just returned from Oxford, where the renown of Burke assumed the character of worship from his suspicious eulogy of the Corinthian capitals, courageously took up arms against Paine, and endeavoured to curb the powerful spirit which was setting in fast against existing institutions. This political effusion was entitled the "Rights of Citizens," as a counterpoise to the "Rights of Man." The object was to recal to the minds of men, what they appeared to have forgotten, the necessity of maintaining their true social and political rights, and not to lose, in the momentary enthusiasm for abstract and theoretic doctrines, the principles on which they are founded-constitutional and individual happiness: he impressed on them the duty of substituting substantial for phantasmal good. There are a few of the judicial principles which he urges with great sense and eloquence. Deep constitutional knowledge arrests the attention at every page, and the whole is suffused with a well-tempered moderation, that flatters while it convinces. It was dedicated to Mr. Burke, as almost all works on the same subject had been, from whom Mr. Smith received at Spa, on his way to the continent, a very flattering letter, a passage or two of which it may not be inappropriate to extract. 6 "I have run too rapidly over your book, but in that rapid view I am able to estimate the honour which has been done me, by inscribing to my name the work of so agreeable a writer, and so deep a thinker, as well as so acute and distinguished a reasoner. Your work is indeed a very satisfactory refutation of that specious folly called the Rights of Man;' and I am not a little proud, that I have had the good fortune (as you will see some time or other) to coincide with some of your ideas in a piece which is just printed, but not yet published.* * Apology from the New to the Old Whigs. The points in which we happen to coincide, you have certainly handled much more fully, and much better. I have only touched on them. It was not my plan to go deeply into the abstract subject, because it was rather my desire to defend myself against the extraordinary attacks of some of my late political friends, than formally to set about the refutation of what you properly call visions-indeed they may be called delirious, feverish ravings. To refute such things required a capacity for such deep and enlarged views of society as you have shown; but the more clearly you refute them, the less you are comprehended by those whose distempered reasons you would cure. "With more of your approbation than I can presume to lay any claim to, I meet some of your censure, which I perhaps better deserve. You think that my view of treating these subjects is too much in the concrete. However, I console myself in this, because I think before you have done, you condemn the abstract mode as much as I do, and I am the less ashamed of being in the wrong when I am in such very good company. "On all this, however, I hope I shall have the pleasure of conversing with you more fully at Beaconsfield on your return, if you should go to the continent as early as you intend; but I hope something may detain you in London till I get to town. I shall be ambitious of improving the acquaintance with which you flatter me. "I have the honour to be, "With great respect, yours, &c. &c. The very characteristic and flattering acknowledgment of Mr. Smith's first movement* before the public eye, from one of the greatest men of any age or country, spurred him on to the accomplishment of new victories in that busy field of politics, where parties were pitted against each other in all the desperate acrimony of party contention. The Septembrizers were powerful-Parliament had not realised all the good the people had been led to expect from the pro In this laudable effort to breast the revolutionary torrent, Mr. Smith almost stood alone. "All my cotemporaries," to use his own words, "were wild reformists at the commencement of those days. But young as I was-I reflect on this with some surprise-I could not prevail on myself to join the sentiment or the cry. I presume that in the balanced constitution of my brain, the organs of caution and causality countervailed the enthusiasm from which my character is not free, and that their deliberations kept me aloof. Be 'this as it may, I looked with little admiration on the carriage of the French nobleman, on the panels of which his escutcheon, with its supporters, were most emblematically turned upside down, and the motto, Cara dignitas, carior libertas,' substituted for the aristocratic device under the ancien régime. Events soon justified my coldness and reserve; and I asked my enthusiastic friends, whether, amidst massacre and pillage-anarchy and desolation-the desperate fury of a tyrannic mob, and more desperate cruelty of a political inquisition, the Liberty they worshipped could have selected her abode? that liberty, which, while heroic antiquity adored, it invested with no attributes subversive of moral order, or incompatible with reason and social duty." mising movement of 1782. If the administration had any solicitude to promote the national interests by the introduction of necessary and useful laws, a question we should decide in the negative, that solicitude was checked by the rapid spread of the new doctrines, which served as a happy pretext to substitute arbitrary for generous legislation. They stood still, while the people pressed forward. The volunteers, whose hopes were once buoyed up by brilliant dreams of reform that had never been realised, and whose dissatisfaction hourly increased since they lost their dignity—the Catholic population, whose manifold wrongs and complaints formed ample grounds for embarking in any scheme which promised to advance their deplorable cause,― all these turbulent and varied elements were at work. The scheme of the rebellion was not yet devised by government to bring into awful maturity the savage spirit of discontent. Mr. Smith's work was well received by the peaceful party-ponderous compliments were showered on him from every official quarter: his genius, his knowledge, the depth and masculine energy of his thoughts-the classic elegance of his language, were the subject of extravagant admiration. In addition to the "Rights of Citizens," he also published, about the same time, a beautiful and picturesque paper, called the "Skill of Government," shaped into one of those oriental visions which were once so fashionable a mode of conveying moral instruction. He appeals, however, to a higher authority than the visions of Hassan or Mirza— he appeals to the dozings of Homer, and the celestial visions of Jove, recorded by Longinus. He lands on the soil of Liberty, where he is received by the Goddess of Freedom, holding in one hand a spear pointed with a purple flame, and in the other the Great Charter and the Bill of Rights; she is accompanied by the good genius, Rebuk, (Burke,) and a troop of negroes, wearing pilei, or caps, the ancient symbols of acquired liberty. An evil spirit, in the guise of Faction, had been convulsing her territories. She recommends him to the care of Rebuk, who, with the dreamer, ascends the Hill of Government. Great was the multitude wending from all points of the island to the hill-some to level it, some to defend it. The evil genius Ainep, (Paine,) is also discerned, marshalling his legions in the rebel camp. Rebuk addresses the dreamer in some very eloquent observations about the nature of government. Liberty in the mean while arrives. Ainep and his rebellious rout disperse on beholding the glory of her countenance, and the affairs of the island are once more administered by the three delegates-Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy. Heaven knows how long he may have prolonged his vision, had he not been startled from sleep and the conversation of Rebuk by the cry of "The dome's on fire!"-(alluding to the dome of the Irish Parliament House, which at that time had taken, or been intentionally set on, fire)—when lifting his head, he discovered his hair in a blaze, and his valet, though a Frenchman, quenching the flame. With this valet there is an incident of a romantic character connected, and of the most melancholy interest. It shows with what a pure spirit of humanity and generosity Baron Smith was imbued. In a publication of that day, the anecdote is alluded to in the following lines: "So when thy wretched boy, by youth misled, But While travelling through the Canton of Berne in Switzerland, the unfortunate subject of the preceding lines, Lambert Le Maistre, attracted his attention, and he brought him over to Ireland. with the loss of his native air poor Le Maistre also lost his virtues— his morals degenerated, and he soon displeased by his habitual intoxication. He was repeatedly discharged, but as often did his good master relent: he left his own home to follow his fortunes, and to abandon him in a strange land was a crime which his affectionate heart could not well sanction. His thorough depravity at length left no excuse, and he was dismissed. The mountains of Wicklow were then infested by a desperate gang of outlaws; Le Maistre joined them, and his boldness and sagacity soon raised him to the dignity of captain. Various were his exploits, and various were his escapes from the officers of justice. One night, in a fit of drunkenness, he stabbed an old man in whose house he was rioting with some of his companions. The old man died; Le Maistre was apprehended for the murder, and hanged! Baron Smith was an almost constant attendant in his dungeon, consoling him for the afflictions of the present with the hopes of the future, instilling into his mind the sweet lessons of repentance. He prayed with him he wept with him. Never was an elevated humanity more beautifully illustrated than in this melting prisonpicture! Even in the last years of the baron, whenever he talked of this subject, he did it always with deep melancholy, and a feeling of regret that he should have brought the poor son of misfortune from his native country to fulfil so terrible a destiny. In the year 1792 he showered down essay after essay: pamphlet after pamphlet went forth to stay the increase of the new frenzy, all written with peculiar force and elegance, and overflowing with constitutional knowledge, and a maturity of wisdom extraordinary for his years. It was observed before, that Mr. Smith was on his way to the continent when he received Mr. Burke's letter. How he spent his time on that fashionable sojourn I have been unable to ascertain, although it may be conjectured that he acquired a deeper insight into the history, institutions, and literature of the countries through which he passed than the ordinary throng of travellers. I heard he has left a very amusing and interesting journal, full of acute observations and humorous facts, which, it is to be hoped, will one day emerge into light. On his return, in compliance with Mr. Burke's invitation, he proceeded to Butler's Court, where he was received with all that cordiality and bienséance which characterised his illustrious host. He has described his first appearance in the mansion of his hospitable friend -it is agreeable and graphic, and gives the reader an insight into the delightful society at Butler's Court, of which the owner was, of course, the radiating centre, scattering around the gorgeous produce of his profound and varied intellect. In his reminiscences Mr. Smith has had the modesty to speak of himself in the third person, for which, without any other alteration, the first should be substituted, as it identifies the writer more warmly with the subject than the cold and alienating introduction of the third. "There was company in the house at the time, and when I arrived from town they had already set down to dinner. I entered the drawing-room in some manner unobserved, but found a seat at the foot of the table beside Mr. Richard Burke the younger, whose premature death a no very long time after plunged his father into such deep affliction, and between whom and me nearer advances to intimacy were made during the evening than the short period of our acquaintance might give room to expect. The guests present were rather numerous. Among them was M. Cazales, a distinguished member of the first National Assembly of France, and vicomte before the abolition of titles, and M. Dillon, reputed a favourite of the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, and commonly called "Le Beau Dillon." These, at least the former particularly, appeared to speak or even to understand English very imperfectly. Mr. Burke consequently addressed much of his conversation to them in French; he did not seem to pronounce or speak it well, but was perfectly able to express himself intelligibly, and with reasonably fluency. “During dinner a servant whispered to him my arrival, on which he rose from the head of the table where he had been sitting, walked down, shook my hand and welcomed me, and then returned to his seat. In the manner in which this was done there appeared to me to be a mixture of something resembling formality, or it should be called vieille-cour stateliness, with hospitable feeling and frank good-nature, of which I could not find it easy to convey an adequate idea to the reader. When the ladies appeared about to leave the room, Mr. Burke stopped them, and went himself. On his return in a minute or two, they retired. He had in the mean time been examining the degrees of heat of their drawing-room, where the thermometers were placed for the purpose of ascertaining the temperature with precision, in consequence of the delicate state of Mrs. Burke's health. "In the course of the evening M. Cazales, in his attempts to express himself in English, made more and greater blunders than I could have expected. Some of these I think I can recollect; but as they would be more vrais than vraisembables, I think it as well not to record them. He seemed to have a desire to excite laughter, and he succeeded.* M. Cazales, a good-natured man, and with all the inclination to please and be pleased, which is often characteristic of his country, had picked up the air and some of the words of the strange and not very intelligible or elegant old song, called, "Peas upon a trencher." The words seemed to tickle his imagination, but not knowing them accurately, he asked Mr. Smith to give them. This he was |