points about Mr. Harpley's character which secured him a certain portion of respect: The Roonys were his favourites; and he was never known, during a long administration, to issue a warrant for the apprehension of a member of that formidable faction. They might batter and slay with impunity as long as they remained within the boundary of his jurisdiction; for the etiquette of the Irish magistracy did not permit any officious interference with each other's districts. His friendship, however, was not altogether disinterested, and the Roonys themselves regarded him in the light of an evil genius, whose propensity to mischief was to be neutralized by continual propitiations. These peace offerings, generally, assumed the shapes of sundry turkeys, ducks, and fowls, murkaans of butter, and baskets filled with fresh eggs. Some of the more desperate offenders purchased his forbearance by gifts of pigs and sheep, and all united in relieving him from the trouble of agricultural pursuits. On appointed days they met and sowed his grain, made and drew home his turf, and in due season cut down his crop. In return for such services they were permitted to drink potheen without fear of the excise, and to murder the Rossiters wherever they met them.

Though Mr. Harpley provided against aggression, he never undertook to guard against domestic feuds. From internal war he derived the largest part of his emoluments, and when Roony quarrelled with Roony, the adjustment of their difference led to summons and counter-summons, and for each of these the worthy magistrate received eighteen pence. It was surprising how much he pocketed annually for the exercise of his magisterial trade. The people are proverbially fickle, and Mr. Harpley's constituents, in the course of time, grew weary of his protection. They murmured at his exactions, and complained loudly of his refusal to have Red Paddy indicted for a sheep-stealer. His depredations were notorious; he was absolutely caught in the fact, but the impartial Justice, convinced, at first sight, of his innocence, discharged him without examination.

This rendered the magistrate somewhat unpopular; fewer turkeys smoked upon his board, and as his love of potheen and good eating continued, he quickly became embarrassed. A tinge of gall diffused itself over the vacant goodness of his rosy face, and he discovered for the first time that he had let his lands too cheap. Being a justice of peace, the remedy was in his own hands; he had a few of his principal tenants indicted for transportable offences, and the evidence of Red Paddy substantiated the charge. A few others were distrained for rent previously paid; and these things having given birth to the sons of Moll Doyle,' a petty insurrection enabled him to transport the boys' by wholesale. The popular ferment was at its height when the report of a pistol was heard on the common of Monabeg. In ten minutes after Harpley-hall was seen in flames, and loud shouting at that moment burst forth from an armed multitude around the rude and lonely cabin of Red Paddy. The brone was applied to the dried thatch, and as the flame ascended, the maddening shrieks of the unhappy inmates resounded from within. In that moment of inhumanity no hand was stretched forth to save them; none attempted to release them from their suffocating tenement. The ties of nature were forgotten in the emergency of the moment, and the wretched parents were seen to drag their offspring from the narrow casement. Red Paddy, who thrust the partner of his crimes from before the aperture, was bimself, with a fatal strength, dragged from the window by his children. In vain the struggle; the aperture was too narrow to allow of egress, and the relief it afforded, by the admission of air, was soon denied them, for the frail roof gave way, and a smothered cry of horror, and an upright column of flame and smoke, proclaimed that the atrocious purpose of vengeance had been accomplished. The hills around looked more than usually sombre in the dull light emitted by the yet ignited ruins, while the crowd, whose revenge had been satiated, seemed affected by the completion of their design, and slowly retired from the scene. On

their way they stumbled on the dead body of Justice Harpley, who had that evening heen shot on the common, and the sight of the remains of their persecutor aroused once more their bad passions. They raised the corpse from the ground, and having carried it a distance, pitched it, amidst shouts and yells, into a bog-hole. The next day it was removed to a more fitting place of interment, but his memory is still offensive to the peasantry of the neighbourhood.

No one has since attempted to restore the cottage on the common to a habitable condition, and good reason why, for an old woman, three months after its downfall, asserted that she saw the ghost of Red Paddy, like Marius at Carthage, sitting on the ruins of his dwelling. J. B.

TO A LADY,

ON HER LEAVING SOME DEAD LEAVES IN A MAGAZINE.

THESE leaves, though faded, still can tell,
Had they but power to speak the truth,
They once were blooming, green, and well,
Flourishing in pride of youth.

They seem to say, while mouldering fast,
How dry and withered are we now ;
And so, ere many years are past,
Will you be in the tomb below.

Delay not, then, thy peace to make
With Him, who died upon the cross,
With whom, if living, while awake,
To die is gain, to live is loss.

If, while on earth, sweet Jesus deign
To wipe thy tears, and check thy sighs,
How great beyond compare thy gain,
To taste his glory in the skies!
Palmer House, Islington.

F. P.

FEMALE EXCESS.

SEVERAL most extraordinary and scarcely credible examples of the burning of the human body by habitual drunkenness, are given in the history of intoxicating liquors contained in the third volume of Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia. In these cases the body became so saturated with spirits, that it took fire, either spontaneously, or by the proximity of flame, which otherwise could have produced no injury. We extract the following instances, which are related of females, in whom intoxication, disgusting as it is in either sex, is doubly repulsive. We presume they would not have been admitted as facts into so respectable a publication, had not their authenticity been unquestionable.

Mary Clues, aged fifty, was much addicted to intoxication. Her propensity to this was such, that for about a year scarcely a day passed in which she did not drink at least half a pint of rum, or aniseed water. Her health gradually declined; she was attacked with jaundice, and was confined to her bed. She still continued her old habit of drinking. One morning she fell on the floor; and her weakness having prevented her getting up, she remained so till some one entered and put her to bed. The following night she wished to be left alone. A woman, on quitting her, had put coal on the fire, and placed a light on the chair at the head of the bed. At five in the morning a smoke was seen issuing through the window; and the door being broken open, some flames which were in the room were soon extinguished. Between the bed and the chimney were found the remains of the unfortunate Clues. One leg and a thigh were still entire; but there remained nothing of the skin, the muscles, or the viscera. The bones of the cranium, the breast, the spine, and the upper extremities, were entirely calcined. The furniture had sustained little injury. The side of the bed next the chimney had suffered most: the wood of it was slightly burnt; but the feathers, clothes, and covering were safe. Nothing except the body exhibited any strong traces of fire.

Grace Pitt, aged about 60, had a habit of coming down from her bed room, half-dressed, to smoke a pipe. One night she came down as usual. Her daughter, who slept with her, did not perceive she was absent till next morning, when she went down to the kitchen, and found her mother stretched out on the right side, with her head near the grate, having the appearance of a log of wood consumed by fire, without an apparent flame. The fetid odor and smoke which exhaled from the body almost suffocated some of the neighbours, who hastened to the girl's assistance. The trunk was in some measure incinerated, and resembled a heap of coals covered with white ashes. The head, the arms, the legs, and the thighs, had also participated in the burning. This woman had drank a large quantity of spirituous liquor. There was no fire in the grate, and the candle had burned entirely out in the candlestick, which was close to her Besides, there were found near the consumed body the clothes of a child and a paper screen, which had sustained no injury. The dress of this woman consisted of a cotton gown.

Le Cat relates another instance, which occurred in 1749. Madame de Boiseon, eighty years of age, exceedingly meagre, who had drank nothing but spirits for several years, was sitting in her elbow-chair before the fire, while her waiting-maid went out of the room for a few minutes On her return, seeing her mistress on fire, she immediately gave an alarm, and some people having come to her assistance, one of them endeavoured to extinguish the flames with his hand, but they adhered to it, as if it had been dipped in brandy. Water was thrown on the lady in abundance, yet the fire appeared more violent, and was not extinguished till the whole flesh had been consumed. Her skeleton, exceedingly black, remained entire in the chair, which was only a little scorched.

The combustion is almost always general, but sometimes it is partial: the feet, hands, and top of the head are the only parts that have been preserved. Although a very large quantity of wood is necessary for burn