But, besides, the Protestant yeomanry of the South did not answer for those grasping landlords who insisted on pocketing the utmost penny their estates could produce. The Protestant may not venture to promise what he knows he cannot perform-he dare not undertake the high rent that his Roman Catholic competitor binds himself to; he cannot bring himself to the lazy contentedness of living on dry potatoes; he cannot bear to feed on an equality with his hog-without the comfort of a bed to lie on, or shoe to walk with, or a coat to cover him-the decencies of a man, and a Christian man, whose immortal soul is above a world's value in the sight of God and his angels: these he feels himself entitled to, and claims as his heritage; and therefore it is that when a proprietor cants away his farms to the highest bidder, the Romanist is sure to get the land, and the Protestant is forced to emigrate. Besides, the poor Protestant lies under other disadvantages, to a serious and religious mind abundantly distressing. It may be, for

the greater part of the year the comforts and consolations of religion are denied him. Possibly he may be seven or ten miles from his parish church; possibly through the long winter he is never able to bring his family to public worship; and what is he, thus circumstanced, to do? Why, pray to God to put it into the hearts of those having authority, to place good men in the ministry of such parishes; men who are not merely content to go when called for, but go about uncalled; who are instant in season and out of season; who are anxious and prepared to bring Gospel truth and the word of life, home to the cottage hearth; by whose example and exhortations the power of religion is revived, and a spirit of prayer is excited-and thus that Holy Being who heareth prayer,

"In some cottage far apart,

May hear well pleased the language of the soul,
And in his book of life the inmates poor enroll."

Rejoice, then with me, you that delight in the spread of the Gospel truth more than in your necessary food, when I tell you that

such are the men selected to serve the district over which I now am travelling; and they are sowing the immortal seed, and fruit is bearing unto holiness; and if the cottage cannot be brought to the church, the church is brought to the cottage. And lo! it is a beautiful thing, when, on the mountain-side, of a fine still winter's night, men are seen walking along in light, each individual carrying in hand a blazing rod of bog fir, as a lamp to their feet, to guide them to some central house, where social worship is begun, and the book of life is opened;

"And kneeling down to Heaven's Eternal King,
The saint, the father, and the husband prays;

Hope springs exulting on triumphant wing,

That thus they all shall meet in future days."

And now homeward they all take their several ways. Not brighter the fir torches in their hands, than the joy and consolation they have acquired in communing together on the truths and promises that are in the Lord Jesus.

The road from Dunmanus Bay brings you

over another parallel mountain-ridge; and after a tedious ascent, you crown the summit, and at once see the whole panorama of Bantry Bay under your feet; I challenge the British Empire to show such a harbour, or such fine land and sea scenery. Nothing I have as yet seen in Wales, or England, or Ireland, is at all comparable to it; perhaps Lough Swilly comes near it but it must yield the palm. It is inferior in climate, mountain outline, and expanse of harbour. Besides, Bantry Bay holds that beautiful gem, Glengariff, within the setting of its wide and gorgeous ring.

As I stood on the southern ridge of mountain, and looked across on a fine clear March day-to the east, in the far blue distance, rose Mangerton, in dark and lofty massiveness to the left of it, M'Gillicuddy's Reeks, their points piercing the "cumulo stratus" of the clouds, and leaving you to guess at their mysterious altitudes; nearer still to the north-west, Hungry Mountain rising like an embattled wall before you, and down

T

the mural descent, as relieved from its black ground, fell the cataract of Adrigoll, in a perpendicular silver column of 800 feet!nearer still, facing the north, the Sugar-loaf mountain, almost as white in its silicious quartzose formation, as if it were chrystallized sugar; directly under my feet was the inner harbour of Bantry, protected and divided from the outer bay by the green Island of Whiddy; and up and down on that placid water were studded isles and islets, one crested with an ancient castle, another crowned with a modern battery-here a Martello tower, there the ruins of a fishing palace; and to finish the setting of this rich jewel, the trees, woods, hills, and fine mansion-house of Lord Bantry, his green and highly dressed lawn, sweeping down in easy undulations to the very water's edge. I cannot say how much I was struck with this delightful tout ensemble. And certainly, as was exemplified here, any thing that is admi

*

Fishing palaces, as they were called, were large establishments on the coast, where they used to cure pilchards.