celebrated their first secular day, when the provost, Dr. Ashe, now bishop of Clogher, preached, and made a notable entertainment for the lords justices, lord mayor, and aldermen of Dublin. The sermon preached by the provost was on the subject of the foundation of the college; and his text was, Matt. xxvi. 13, 'Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her ;' which in this sermon the provost applied to queen Elizabeth, the foundress of the college. The sermon was learned and ingenious, and afterwards printed by Mr. Ray, and dedicated to the lords justices. In the afternoon, there were several orations in Latin, spoke by the scholars in praise of queen Elizabeth and the succeeding princes; and an ode made by Mr. Tate, (the Poet Laureate,) who was bred up in this college. Part of the ode was this following:

Great parent, hail! all hail to thee;
Who hast the last distress surviv'd,
To see this joyful day arrived;

The Muses' second jubilee.

Another century commencing,
No decay in thee can trace;

Time with his own law dispensing,

Adds new charms to every grace

That adorns thy youthful face.

After war's alarms repeated,
And a circling age completed,

Numerous offspring thou dost raise,
Such as to Juverna's praise

Shall Liffey make as proud a name,
As that of Isis or of Cam.

Awful matron, take thy seat
To celebrate this festival;

The learn'd assembly well to treat,
Bless'd Eliza's days recall;

The wonders of her reign recount,
In strains that Phoebus may surmount,
Songs for Phoebus to repeat.

She 'twas that did at first inspire,
And tune the mute Hibernian lyre.

Succeeding princes next recite;
With never-dying verse requite

Those favours they did shower.
"Tis this alone can do them right
To save them from oblivion's night,
Is only in the Muse's power.

But chiefly recommend to Fame,
Maria and great William's name,

Whose isle to him her freedom owes ;

And surely no Hibernian Muse
Can her restorer's praise refuse,
While Boyne or Shannon flows.

"After this ode had been sung by the principal gentlemen of the kingdom, there was a very diverting speech made in English by the Terra Filius. The night concluded with illuminations, not only in the college, but in other places."

Thus was celebrated the "first secular day," or hundredth anniversary, of the Dublin University. The same informant, speaking of the viceregal court, says of the lords justices, "When they go to church, the streets, from the castle-gate to the church-door, as also the great aisle of the church, to the foot of the stairs by which they ascend to the place where they sit, are lined with soldiers. They are preceded by the pursuivants of the councilchamber, two maces, and, on state-days, by the king and pursuivant-at-arms, their chaplains,

and gentlemen of the household, with pages and footmen bare-headed. When they alight from their coach, in which commonly the lord chancellor and one of the prime nobility sit. with them, the sword of state is delivered to some lord to carry before them. And in the like manner they return back to the castle, where the several courses at dinner are ushered in by kettle-drums and trumpets."

Upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, many French Protestants came over to Ireland. Their numbers were increased by the officers and men of a Huguenot regiment which served under William the Third, and, on being disbanded, remained in the country. Their principal location was Portarlington, in the Queen's County, where they formed so large and influential a proportion of the inhabitants, that French became the common language of the place. Not a few of them, however, settled in the metropolis, and proved an important accession to its general intelligence, refinement, industry, and moral worth. The names of French-street, Digges-street, Aungier-street, etc., tell their origin, and those of La Touche and other respectable families indicate their descent. These refugees, in 1695, formed three congregations; two of them Calvinistic, who worshipped in Peter-street and Lucas-lane, and the other, consisting of persons who preferred a liturgical service, had the use of a chapel in St. Patrick's cathedral. A German regiment had also been engaged in Ireland under William.

On the war of the revolution being ended, this corps went to the continent, but when it was disbanded at the peace of Ryswick, portions belonging to it came over to Dublin with their chaplain, and formed a German Lutheran congregation, which had a place of worship in Marlborough-street. The government of that period greatly encouraged the settlement of foreign Protestants in Ireland. The Non

conformists also had obtained comparative security and freedom. Under the general name of "Protestant Dissenters," they had in Dublin seven congregations, four Presbyterians, two Independent or Congregational, and one Baptist.

Dr. Narcissus Marsh had been archbishop of Dublin from 1694 to 1702, in which year he was translated to Armagh. He died in 1713. "While he governed the church in Dublin," writes Harris, "he built a noble library, near the palace of St. Sepulchre's, which he enlarged after his translation to Armagh, and filled it with a choice collection of books, having for that purpose bought the library of doctor Edward Stillingfleet, formerly bishop of Worcester, to which he added his own collection. And to make it more useful to the public, he plentifully endowed a librarian and sub-librarian to attend to it at certain prescribed hours. is estimated that, besides the endowment, which amounted to two hundred and fifty pounds a year, he expended more than four thousand pounds in the building and books; and to

It

make everything secure to perpetuity, he obtained an Act of Parliament for the settling and preserving it." Harris adds, "I am under the necessity of acknowledging from a long experience that this is the only useful library in the kingdom, being open to all strangers, and at all reasonable times." This library is chiefly valuable for works published prior to its founder's death, only ten pounds annually being available for providing additions except what are obtained by donation. Harris wrote in 1739. Marsh's library, though a most munificent boon to the city, has long ceased to be "the only useful library in the kingdom." It is not at present resorted to as it once was, partly from its locality and from its worth not being known, but principally from other libraries in the city, including those of the University and the Dublin Royal Society, being made nearly as accessible.

The reign of William III., many as were its advantages to the empire, was not, in all its measures, an unmixed good to Ireland. The fault, however, lay with a portion of his subjects, rather than with the king himself, who seems to have acted, in the case we are about to allude to, more from compulsion than from choice. In Henry the Third's time, and afterwards, the woollen manufactures of Ireland were much sought after in England, and were admitted there duty free. Their excellence was such that the Irish serges won for themselves the epithet of "noble" in Italy; and in 1482,