REMINISCENCES OF DUBLIN COLLEGE LIFE.-No. III.

BILLY SHERIDAN'S BREAKFAST TABLE.-THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY IN ITS DECLINE.

and would as soon have abjured her marriage vows as wash the venerable dust of ages from her brow. To students who were nice in their diet, her habits were not agreeable. With the same hand that

BESIDES the race of Skips, of which my good friend Foley was a bright example, the Irish University is singular, I believe, amongst colleges, in tolerating the use of female attendants. The "nice caution," however, employed in the selection, pre-patted the wet slack upon your fire, would she set cludes scandal. The candidates-fair candidates, down a loaf upon the table, or transfer a roll of shall I call them ?—for such appointments must be butter from the cabbage-leaf to the plate; and to of a certain age; and, in addition to that natural question her, during such ministrations, as to the fortyfication, must also have passed the inspection date of her last ablutions, was not at all times safe. of a Committee of Ugliness, of which the senior and If she was in good humour, she would refer you to junior deans are members ex officio. Little inquiry, the college-pump for the information you required: if any, is made about their character for temper--"Ax the pump." But if anything had occurred ance, sobriety, or those other parts of morality to ruffle her serenity, she would not hesitate to which are looked to for the protection of moveable send you somewhere else for an answer. property intrusted to servants. But they must be decidedly unhandsome in form and feature. That is a sine quâ non; and, so qualified, the handmaid who aspires to academic pickings and perquisites, may come and go at discretion, and pilfer and purloin till she is found out. As Doctor Daniel Mooney said of his one-eyed Xantippe, "She answers all ancillary purposes beautifully."

I know not if it be expressly contrary to the statute "De Moribus," for a college woman to expose, unmasked, those charms which are, with perfect propriety, uncovered elsewhere. But from their invariable concealment, under an encrustation of grime and ashes, of the natural complexion, it may be deemed that soap and water, though perhaps unnamed in the Dean's Tariff, are excluded by prescription.

The renowned Anne Horan flourished under the patronage and irregular payments of gentlemen from Tipperary, through many successive generations. She had great perfections, among which her native eloquence, in the racy idiom of "the sweet county," took the shine; and a slighting allusion to the honour of that bright particular spot in our green isle, or to any personal peculiarity about herself, or her chief patron Doctor Wall, was sure to draw it out in torrents. The fluency for which many eminent speakers at the bar and in the pulpit are to this day remarkable, was first developed in wordy encounters with her. The late lamented and indomitable member for Clonmel, Dominick Ronayne, was indebted for all his "saucy and audacious eloquence," to the daily tilts with which he seasoned his breakfast, while Anne brought up the milkman's scores, or wondered "where the next tay was to come from, when the grain at the bottom of the canister would be out?" Surgeon Porter also, the most mellifluous of lecturers, imbibed a great portion of his ready wit and sparkling flow of expression from Anne; and, to her dying day, it was her boast, which nobody thought of denying, as often as the oratorical fame of Mortimer O'Sullivan was alluded to in her presence, that she "taught that boy to praich."

She was dyed in grain with the esprit de corps, (which, by the by, was not the esprit de tarande;)

By such a Hebe was Billy Sheridan's supernacular apartment opened to my knocking, when, according to invitation, I went to breakfast with him, on the second morning after our meeting at the theatre.

To my inquiry, if Mr. Sheridan was stirring? her answer was brief and pithy.

"Faith, and that he is; and scowldin'. I wonder you didn't hear the roars of him in the coort-yard." "What's that you're saying, ye old trump?" said mine host, thrusting his well-lathered chin out from a crib eight feet by six, which was partitioned off his parlour; and grinning, at the same time, a gracious good morrow at me through the soap-suds. "No wonder I'd scold, when you took my shavingbrush to whitewash the hearth."

"And a great harm was in that!" cried she, with an indignant toss of her head. "Lord save ushow grand we are, all of a suddent. There's Docthur Wall, a betther man than ever ye wor, or your father afore ye, and a Fellow of the College into the bargain, that never says again' the like. No, nor if I was to polish the bars of the grate, as often I did, with the clothes-brush, he wouldn't be the man to say-Ill ye did it, Anne Horan.' Agh! and there's nothing like the rale ginthry to dale with." Here she launched into a genealogical eulogium of the Walls of Coolnamuck, leaving her submissive master at liberty to proceed with the delicate abrasion of his chin, which the mixture of roach-lime with the usual softer application had rendered a tearful operation.

Anne, in the meantime, handy as she was homely, bestirred herself to set the breakfast gear to rights, dusting out the inside of the cups and saucers with the corner of an apron, the sight of which would almost excuse the wish that she had been born of the sect of the Pharisees. She then brought out what she was pleased to call "the crame," from a filthy shelf in the shoe-pantry, taking heed to grasp the jug by the spout, thumbwise, whereof she left a visible impress in semicircular wavy lines of black, about half-an-inch above high water-mark. The bread had been toasted before I came, (how toasted, I happily was ignorant,) and was laid on a plate to be kept warm, within the fender; upon which,

this considerate dame raked down with the poker such another cloud of ashes as never fell upon any man's breakfast, since that which alit upon Pliny's last muffin. "That's nothing at all," said she, dropping the Coolnamuck theme for an instant. "The toast isn't buttered;" and with three smart puffs of her spicy breath she dispersed the light embers through the room, leaving the plate with its contents as clean, to all appearance, as any other part of the entertainment.

It was to a meal, so prepared, that I first sat down with Billy Sheridan in his own castle; and to which, notwithstanding the unsavoury preliminaries I had been witness to, a fresh and not-easilyjealous appetite did ample justice; whilst mine host poured forth tea and criticism with an even hand. He had just seen in the London papers an account of Macready's début in Drury Lane; and, from what The Examiner said, was sure that "Macrady must be a great fellow." But he was not quite prepared to give up John Kemble for any new heresy.

The Cynthia of that minute, however, was not the atrical. Billy was ruminating a speech to be delivered in the Historical Society, on the revolutionary question:-"Was Brutus justified in conspiring against the life of Julius Cæsar?" The provost-Elrington --had expressed his disapproval of such a subject, as involving, by possible reflection upon recent events in France, the discussion of modern politics; and it was Billy's endeavour so to frame the argument as to give the fullest scope to his admiration of the king-killer, while he should avoid offence to the surly Head of our House. How he might have succeeded in so double an object, was never put to the test; for the provost proceeded from disapproving to interdict the question; and it was changed, accordingly, to a dry debate on the Wars of the Roses; a subject so entirely English, that my friend observed it was impossible to twist the smallest imaginable bit of Shamrock into it.

The war of the Heads of the University against the progress of polite literature and the practical study of eloquence had then begun. Upon the promotion of Provost Hall to a bishopric, which he did not live quite one week to enjoy, it was thought advisable by Spenser Perceval's government to check the Jacobinical spirit, which was supposed to be growing up in the university, by placing it under the rod of a hot and uncompromising Tory. For this purpose, Dr. Elrington was called up from his parish in Ulster; and almost his first act was a mortal blow aimed at the Historical Society.

He procured an order of the Board for excluding from the society all members who had withdrawn their names from the college books; and the immediate effect of that regulation was a separation of the youthful and inexperienced students from men of established reputation in the learned professions, with whom it was a point of duty, as well

as a pleasant relaxation from the toils of business, to frequent those meetings. Thus, at once, a most salutary control was removed, by which the wild excesses of temper had been restrained, and the judgment of young aspirants to fame disciplined and guided in the right path to distinction. The result was what the learned Vandals at the Board anticipated. The Society soon became a sort of rhetorical boxing-school, in which he who could utter the greatest quantity of sounding nonsense and personal abuse, without stop or impediment, was accounted the best orator. Party politics then crept in, and infused their poisonous influence in the election of officers, who had formerly been chosen, solely in reference to their rank and eminence in the various walks of liberal knowledge. The society was thus split into factions, and became the constant scene of wrangling and violence, which brought on new restrictions from the Board. Those restrictions were found intolerable; but remonstrance was treated with purposed contempt; and in a moment of irritation, which it had been the anxious wish of the constituted authorities to excite, the society heroically dissolved itself. The provost clapped a padlock upon the door in halfan-hour after the suicide was committed; taking possession of all the books, furniture, copper-kettles, cups, saucers, and other moveables, whereof we died possessed. The fine room in which this mimic parliament had been wont to sit, was turned into a draught-house, or something of the kind, for medical students to discuss the Pharmacopoeia in; and in their possession it remains, I believe, to this day.

The same year which witnessed the extinction of the Historical Society in Trinity College, saw an Orange Lodge established in the chambers of a student from the north of Ireland; and weekly orgies were celebrated therein, without the slightest intimation of displeasure from the provost or his obedient Sanhedrim, until the day of his departure to take possession of the Episcopal palace at Ferns.

My acquaintance with the Society commenced in the days of its decline. The old members had been turned out. North's visits, few and far between, were rudely interdicted. Finlay, honest John, no longer came to smile upon juvenile talent, and assist it with counsel ever friendly and ever welcome. Charles Phillips rolled his large dark eyes along the Dodder Bank, where he was obliged to spout his blank verse, instead of taking our wondering comprehension by surprise.* Wallace was gone to London; that Hotspur of the north, who had been called to the foot of the chair for telling a seedy antagonist that he must be answered out of Shakspere

"Froth and scum, thou liest." M'Ghee was even then waxing fanatical, (he had always been flighty,) and had seceded, leaving behind him a reputation for oratory, the fruit of a single speech of remarkable brilliancy and power,

One of this orator's most renowned and popular speeches, that made in the Crim. Con. case of Guthrie v. Sterne, was composed throughout in the Heroic measure. Take a sample :

"It might have been, that in the spring of Life, When Fancy waved its fairy wand around them, Till all above was sunshine, all beneath

Was flowers; when, to their clear and charmed vision,
Each tint they saw spoke Nature's loveliness,
And every breeze was but embodied fragrance," &c., &c.

"a name unknown to men,
But the gods knew and therefore loved him then."

Dublin, where he exhibited some of the old flashes | mind to get a fellowship; and to the amazement which made him so attractive an orator in the of everybody—the intruder himself not excepted— Historical Society, to all who could listen to him snatched the golden prize out of his very jaws. suâ sine parte pericli. He fell upon a Report of the This was Edward HincksNational Board of Education, with all the acharnement with which he had been wont to tear an Auditor's credentials to tatters. "It was," he said, "a series of the most infamous criticisms," composed in a "spirit of flippant impertinence and copious sophistry." The writer of it was "a wretch who knew the statements it contained to be false." He would call "the O'Connells and Sheils the vipers of society;" and as it was the "best way to take a viper by the tail," he would take a hold of that part of the Report, by which Sir Robert Peel had been influenced to adopt the National System of Education: thus, it may be presumed, implicating the Right Honourable Baronet as a portion of the viper O'Connell's tail.

Let these specimens suffice for the style of our Doctor in Divinity. His idea of charity is equally original. He is urging the good people present to give their money for the support of schools on the exclusive principles of the Established Church; "all other deeds," he says, "are doubtful in their results. bestow upon the poor, may be The food which you applied to the purposes of debauchery; the relief which you afford to the sick may chance to preserve the life of one whose disappearance from society might have been a blessing; but in this, and this alone, we are able to say there is upon it no spot nor blemish.”

What a chaplain Romney Robinson would make for a congregation of Irish Landlords!

One more extract, showing the personal identity of his politico-religious man-and that will be enough to prove that he is

"Old Cassius still."

"The College," he speaks of Trinity College, Dublin, our only University for a population of eight millions, of whom three-fourths are Catholics "The College was a strictly Protestant establishment, from which Roman Catholics were excluded; but latterly, with that unwise liberality which sacrificed truth to conciliation, they were admitted." Yes, "admitted," as you say, Doctor, They are admitted to study in -but that is all. the classes, and to take such degrees as are open to laymen; but from any office on the Foundation they are still rigorously excluded. They cannot be Fellows, nor can they be admitted to the honour and emoluments of a Scholarship, which is now, and has been for upwards of a century, a mere prize for classical proficiency. Such is the "unwise (but not very extravagant) liberality" extended towards the Roman Catholic gentry of Ireland.

Plato, by gazing too intently upon the stars, found himself up to the chin in a ditch. Who then shall say that our Astronomer-Royal is out of his proper element, when we find him thus "wallowing in the mire"?

The Graces, however, (a common case,) were of a different way of thinking from The Gods. They shrank away from his gaunt figure and sheepish ways, which, in fact, operated to his disadvantage with many. Doctor Barrett alone seemed to appreciate him early, perhaps for the sake of those very singularities which made the rest of the world stare. "I have a great taste," he would say, But ere many months, "for Misthur Hincks." Mr. Hincks, by his uncouth waggeries, turned that great taste to a greater aversion, and there was no man whom the vice-provost more cordially detested.

Hincks is now planted as a country parson in the Black North, surrounded by Orangemen and a High Tory clergy, to whom he gives battle with indomitable constancy and talent, on the question of National Education, and other points in advance of this shovel-hatted age. Although frowned upon by his bishop, and single-handed in the fray-for not even Griffin stands by him-he holds his own against a diocese in arms; nor has any one attempted to put him down. Pour cela, he is still regarded as an ugly customer.

Hincks scarcely deserves a reminiscence in the records of a society where he was auditor tantum. He never essayed a speech. Once only I saw him on his legs, after he had been made a fellow, endeavouring to explain some matter in dispute between two of the members; but what he said, or wanted to say, nobody could well divine; for Robinson, who was in the chair, cut the thread of his eloquence extremely short, by declaring, with his mandarin-head shake, that he was "disposed to pay all possible respect to what fell from that gentleman, if he could only comprehend what it was he said." To see the two of them scowling at each a raial other through their opposite spectacles, during this brief colloquy, was, as Billy often said, thrate. It was as good as a play."

A rough diamond of another water was Fletcher, son of the truly honest and able judge of that name, whose bluff independence found a faithful representative in the youth. He was no show orator, nor aspired to any such distinction; but could express, in terse and vigorous language, the free thoughts of a bold and dauntless mind. He cared not much who was pleased or who was offended; so he said whatever came uppermost; dicenda tacenda locutus. He had considerable humour, of a Sardonic cast, which was admirably set off by an abrupt earnestness of manner, a loud, strong, and dissonant voice, and (pace dicam) a mighty grim visage. There was a grave fierceness in his fun, which gave it a two-fold effect.

There was one man, in particular, whom RomIt is to be regretted that Fletcher never went ney Robinson held in supreme contempt, for this excellent reason-it was thought—amongst others; into Parliament. He once tried his fortune at Kilthat he had presumed to walk into the Examina-kenny, but failed, and brought O'Connell's tongue tion Hall, one fine morning when Romney had a upon himself into the bargain, for

"Deeming that path he might pursue,
Without a pass from Roderick Dhu."

It is rare to see a man, in any station, manding a presence, a brow more majesti But had he a seat in the house just now, few men tenance so full of high thought and in could do more vigorous service in keeping the power, as O'Brien. His friend was cast small wits of the little Orange knot there in check. | ferent mould. Smaller in stature, in ma John O'Brien, now member for Limerick City, severe, of expression far more gentle and was one of those Roman Catholics whom the with scarcely less of "mind," but a g "unwise liberality" of the age admitted to dine at more of "music, breathing from his face,' the Fellows' table and to become a competitor (avery Dickinson was a youth, whose appeara successful one too) for the honours of the Undergra- address any nobleman might have been duate Course. He further encroached upon Pro- recognise in the heir of his house and lin testant privileges, by taking the medal awarded by our Society to the best speaker of his session. Then, as ever, he was an accomplished gentleman, well informed, well bred, unassuming and agreeable. People troubled themselves less at that time than they have done since about the religion of their neighbours; and for my part, I was not even aware, when I voted for O'Brien at an election for the Auditor's place, that his creed differed from my own. There was nothing in his speeches which could have marked him as dissenting from the Thirtynine Articles, either in the sublapsarian or the supralapsarian sense. He might have been a Calvinist or an Arminian, for aught I knew; yet when he lost that election by a small majority, a partisan of the successful side ran out into the streets and proclaimed to all of his acquaintance, in the words of the factious song

It was a fine thing, and a new thing in to see those two young men raising thems their own talents and virtue, to the high in a profession which, until very lately, sidered the exclusive heritage of those "born great." The honours of the Bar ha always open to men of low degree; beca many men of high degree can be got to w them, as they must be worked for. But th places of the Church were easy places, and to require the ornament of gentle blood t them pass in the eyes of the common pe true "Dignities." Down to a very recent the cadets of noble houses divided all t preferments among them; with the ex that, now and then, the provost of our uni was suffered to step into a cathedral; or wl more frequent still, some protégé of the m at the other side of the water, who was t

"The Protestant Boys have carried the day." So early was that leaven at work, which after-too bad for an English mitre, was sent o wards spread over the university, and has since diffused its poisonous influence through the whole frame of society.

. Amongst our silent members were two individuals who, if they spoke less than others, certainly thought to excellent purpose. They were Charles Dickinson and James O'Brien, class-fellows and bosom friends. I believe they occupied the same chambers; at all events they were inseparable, and associated with few others. O'Brien was incomparably the foremost man of his day; in classics, as well as in science, none could approach him. He carried off, without any apparent effort, everything that was to be had, as the reward of merit or proficiency; and although suffering from ill health, he had but to walk into the hall, and all competition shrank away before him.

Dickinson was second only to him; and a fellowship would have speedily crowned a very brilliant academical career, but that his affections became engaged; and he preferred a curacy, with the object of his choice, to the most assured prospect of collegiate preeminence.

These friends were sprung from the middle class. Dickinson's father was a hard-ware man in Cork; O'Brien's moved in no higher rank at New Ross. Yet upon both of them nature had imprinted her own visible stamp of aristocracy, to which, when it is maintained by corresponding mental qualities, all inferior men, the great vulgar as well as the little, must ever bow with respect.

maintain and improve the Protestant inter locating his sons and interspersing his dau amongst the squires and parsons of his dioce

Lord Fortescue, to his immortal honour, through the cordon bleu, which environe chief seats in our church, and made Dick bishop of Meath. It is the first instance v the memory of those now alive, of a simple priest having been advanced to the mitre wi the recommendations of title or family interes on the ground of merit alone,

O'Brien had gone through certain academi dations, which rendered his elevation to splendid preferment less striking. He had b Fellow of the university, and had gained 1 public notice and admiration by his lectures Professor of Theology, before Lord De Grey 1 him Bishop of Ossory. The appointment is creditable to the present government.

It has been objected, that this bishop is ho to the national system of education, of which Robert Peel is the reluctant patron. But the some truth in the saucy brag of Mr. Shaw, that government were reduced to a Hobson's choice u that point. For there are not, among their friends, any clergymen in Ireland fit to be "m into bishops," who are not hostile to that syst That the Tories should go amongst the rank their opponents, in search of a candidate for gorgeous a prize, is a little more virtue than co be reasonably expected of them. It is only W

* At the time I write of, the Irish Church could boast of three bishops of the name of Beresford, one Broderick, one Bour one Jocelyn, oue Tottenham, one St. Lawrence, one Trench, one Lindsay, one Alexander, one Knox, one Stuart; all of wh may be said to have been born with mitres on their heads,