between eleven and twelve o'clock, two men were observed beating at the door of the Hare and Hounds, with large sticks; and in the next moment more than two hundred men and women, all armed with shilelaghs, crept out from the cellars and blind alleys in the neighbourhood, and a general battle ensued, in which poor Elcom, the landlord, who came out to see what was the matter, was knocked down and dreadfully beaten. He was dragged out of the affray, and carried into a neighbouring house by some of the less violent, in a state of complete insensibility, with the blood gushing from both his ears. The beadles alarmed at this tumult, fled to the church, the watch-house, &c. for assistance. When they returned, the battle was over, the Limerickers having been beaten ; and it was understood that they had retreated to Camel-buildings to beat up for reinforcements. It was of course expected that the fight would be renewed, and so it turned out; for about four o'clock, the same afternoon, Mr. Patrick Egan, "captain of the Limerickers," rushed out into the street in a sort of war dance, and flourishing his shilelagh over his head, uttered a shrill kind of fillalloo. At the moment, John Fitzpatrick, leader of the Galway people, issued from an opposite alley, in the same warlike manner, and in the next instant there were more than five hundred men, women, and children in the street. The Limerickers now rushed to the onslaught with the cry of " Garry Owen!" and broken heads, black eyes, and bloody were dealt about on all sides, without regard to sex or noses age. Women by dozens were on the roofs of the houses tearing down the parapet walls, and throwing the bricks on the combatants below; whilst others were as busily engaged in throwing pots de chambre, three-legged stool, &c. from the windows. The constables saw it would be highly dangerous to interfere, during the heat of the action, and therefore they very wisely waited till both parties were pretty well exhausted, when they made their appearance, and took the ringleaders into custody. Of the eleven prisoners at the bar, not one but had a pair of black eyes, or a broken head, besides minor scratches and bruises without number. The prisoners were called upon by the magistrate for their defence; but they all spoke at once, and it was impossible to ascertain the nature of it; except that none of them "knowed a ha'p'urth of it; and went along to the watch-house quite quiet and aisey." Eventually they were all ordered to give forty-eight hours notice of bail for entering into sureties to keep the peace towards all the king's subjects. It was stated in the course of the examination, that these rows would be neither so frequent nor so ferocious, if it was not for a man who keeps a large depot of shilelaghs, and hires them out at a penny a row! EMINENT QUALITIES. Sweetness and meekness that exclude all anger and passion. Modesty and manliness. The bearing of freedom of speech in other people. Not falling into the usual heats and zeal of wrangling sophists and reasoners. Not assuming an air of austerity, or that of a man of great business and importance. Reading with close attention, not being satisfied with taking a slight general view of the matter. Not being hasty in assenting to what is said by others. The power of being both very vehement and perfectly calm. The receiving of benefits, so as neither to be entirely overcome by them, and condescend to mean acknowledgments, nor let them pass without taking due notice of them. Gravity without affectation. Readiness to discover and supply the wants and wishes of our friends. Temper to bear with the rude and illiterate. Discretion, not to lose time in the perplexing and fruitless study of dark and doubtful things. The talent of talking to each man on the subject best liked and understood by him, with a weetness of conversation not inconsistent with the highest self respect. A disposition to speak well of people if possible; if not, to say little or nothing about them. Great and various learning without ostentation. Never using the plea of want of leisure. son apt to confide in the affection of friends than to mistrust them. EVILS OF EDUCATION. The clever writer who addresses Mr. Banks on the Evils of Education, furnishes us with the subsequent passage:" Generosity, pride, honour, and might are the distinguished attributes of nobility. None can be generous who is obliged to set any bounds to his bounty or his vengeance -none can display pride who is ever exposed to mortificationnone can exert the true grandeur of might who can possibly recoil in weakness. Characters thus endowed, are truly the Corinthian pillars of the state-men, thus magnificent, irresistible, untractable, are the glory of humanity. Is there in existence a being so gross and grovelling, as to think that water should always struggle through rocky masses, sneak round huge frag ments, or steal along the dull plain? Who delights not to see the dashing cataract and the plunging cascade? The rolling flood, sweeping whole villages along in its proud career, is the grandest object in nature. Children may scream, mothers may lament, and the sensitive father may feel a moment's agony, as they are all borne away in the impetuosity of the generous element, but they only add to the noble interest of the scene. We feel not for the fish that rises, writhing on the hook; we sympathise not with the hare that drops palpitating at the foot of Not slighting the complaints of a friend, even though he should chance to complain without reabut endeavouring to set him right and restore him to his wonted temper. An habitual love of truth, and the "nobler hound." Contemplove of justice. A disposition more addicted to hope than to fear, and more tible, therefore, is Pythagorean compassion, for vulgar men, women, and children, terminating their laborious life by a momentary visitation of graceful sublimity. Yet, what, in point of sublimity and generous power, is the overflowing flood to the dash of cavalry among a linked multitude? What is the washing away of a village, to the instantaneous dispersion of one hundred thousand men, women, and children by a chivalrous corps of horse? What are the falls of Niagara to the onset of Birley? This is the order of nature still. The larger fishes feed upon the smaller; foxes live on chicken and lambs; cats devour mice. It is a senseless error to imagine all men to be of the same species. They are most distinctly two, the ruling and the ruled the consuming and the productive the noble and the vulgar-the gay and the sordid ;-and for the former to prey upon the latter is as natural, right, and conducive to the general good, as for a cock to peck at a worm : but the worm must not be educated. < Delenda est Carthago.' Mr. Banks is complimented with the epithets of most wise and worthy sir,' generous and mighty sir,' and is described as learnt and full of faith.' The conclusion is however, rather unfortunate; the worthy member is told that as a goose saved Rome, so his voice, if mortal voice is destined to avail, must give the alarm and save the state." UNCERTAINTY OF HUMAN TES TIMONY. A gentleman died possessed of a considerable fortune, which he left to his only daughter, and appointed his brother to be guardian and executor. The lady was then eighteen; and if she happened to die unmarried, or without children, her fortune was left to her guardian. As the interest of the uncle was now incompatible with the life of the niece, several other relations hinted, that it would not be proper for them to live together; the uncle, however, took his niece to his house, near Epping forest, and soon afterwards she disappeared. Inquiry was made after her, and it appeared that the day she was missing she went into the forest with her uncle, and that he returned without her. He was taken into custody, and underwent a long examination, in which he acknowledged that he went out with her, that she found means to loiter behind him, as they were returning home; that he sought her in the forest as soon as he missed her, and that he knew not where she was, or what was become of her. This was thought improbable, and his apparent interest in the death of his ward, raised and strengthened suspicions against him, and he was detained in custody. New circumstances were every day arising against him. It was found that the lady had been addressed by a neighbouring gentleman, who had, a few days before she was missing, set out on a journey to the north; and that she had declared she would marry him when he returned that her uncle had expressed his disapprobation of the match in very strong terms: that she had often wept and reproached him with unkindness, and abuse of his power. A woman, also swore that on the day the lady was missing, about eleven o'clock, in the forenoon, she was coming : through the forest, and heard a woman's voice expostulating with great eagerness, upon which she drew nearer the place, and, before she saw any person, heard the same voice say, "don't kill me, uncle, don't kill me ;" upon which she was greatly terrified, and immediately hearing the report of a gun very near, she made all the haste she could from the spot, but could not rest in her mind till she had told what had happened. On this evidence he was condemned and executed. About ten days after the execution the lady came home. It appeared, however, that what all the witnesses had sworn was true, and that the fact was thus circumstanced : The lady declared, that having previously agreed to go off with the gentleman that courted her, he had given out that he was going a journey to the north; but that he waited concealed at a little house near the skirts of the forest, till the time appointed, which was the day she disappeared. That he had horses ready for himself and her, and was attended by two servants also on horseback. That as she was walking with her uncle, he reproached her with persisting in her resolution to marry a man whom he disapproved; and after much altercation, she said with some heat, I have set my heart upon it; if I do not marry him, it will be my death; don't kill me, uncle, don't kill me;" that just as she had pronounced these words, she heard a gun discharged very near her, at which she startled, and immediately afterwards saw a man come forward from among the trees with a wood-pigeon in his hand, that he had just shot. Coming near the place appointed for their rendezvous, she formed a pretence to let her uncle go on before her, and her lover being waiting for her with a horse, she mounted, and immediately rode off. Instead of going into the north, they retired to a house, in which he had taken lodgings, near Windsor, where they were married the same day, and in about a week went a journey of pleasure to France, and when they returned, first heard of the misfortune inadvertently brought upon their uncle. ORIGIN OF ST. SWITHIN'S DAY. Mr. Editor, There is scarce an individual in the kingdom arrived at the age of adolescence, who has not heedfully noted the appearance of the atmosphere on St. Swithin's day, and has regarded it as certain as the best authenticated miracle of monkish days, that a forty days' deluge would take place if a single drop of rain descended from the clouds on the 15th of July. Notwithstanding the implicit faith placed in the influence of the good bishop of Winchester, perhaps as little of his history is handed down to posterity as of almost any saint in the calendar, your readers will, therefore, I trust not be displeased with the following particulars : Swithin, in the Saxon Swithum, received his clerical tonsure, and put on the monastic habit, in the old monastry at Winchester. He was of noble parentage, and passed his youth in the study of grammar, philosophy, and the Scriptures. Swithin was pro moted to holy orders by Helmstan, Bishop of Winchester, at whose death, in 852, King Ethelwolf granted him the see. In this he continued eleven years, and died in 868. Swithin desired that he might be buried in the open churchyard, and not in the chancel of the minister, as was usual with other bishops; and his request was complied with: but the monks, on his being canonized, considering it disgraceful for the saint to lie in a public cemetry, resolved to move his body into the choir, which was to have been done, with solemn procession, on the 15th of July. It rained, however, so violently for forty days succeeding, that the design was abandoned as heretical and blasphemous, and they honoured his memory by erecting a chapel over his grave, at which many miraculous cures of all kinds are said to have been wrought. To the above circumstances may be traced the origin of the old saying, "that if it rains on St. Swithin's, it will rain for forty days following." In Poor Robin's Almanack for 1697, are the following lines :In this month is St. Swithin's day; On which, if that it rain, they say Full forty days after it will, Or more or less, some rain distil. This Swithin was a saint, I trow, And Winchester's bishop also. Who in his time did many a feat, As popish legends do repeat: A woman having broke her eggs By stumbling at another's legs, For which she made a woful crySt. Swithin chanced to come by, Who made them all as sound, or more Than ever that they were before. But whether this were so or no, "Tis more than you or I do know. Better it is to rise betime, And to make hay while sun do shine, Than to believe in tales and lies Which evil monks and friars devise. It is evident from these lines that Poor Robin was not an orthodox believer in monkish miracles but maugre his incredulity, it is certain that St. Swithin's influence is great even to the present time: for if it is wet about the middle of the month, we generally have a continued succession of showers for several weeks afterwards, whatever may be the cause. LORD LYTTLETON. Mr. Editor, The death of the celebrated Thomas, Lord Lyttleton, from the singularity of the circumstances attending it, cannot fail to live in the memory of those who have heard it. He professed to have been warned of his death, and the time thereof, as follows: About a week before he died, he said he went to bed, pretty well, but restless; soon after his servant had left him, he heard a footstep at the bottom of the bed. he raised himself in order to see what it could be, when one of the most angelic female figures that imagination could possibly paint, presented itself before him, and, with a commanding voice and action, bade him attend, and prepare himself, for on such a night, and at the hour of twelve, he would surely die! He attempted to address the vision, but was unable, and the ghost vanished, and left him in a state more easily conceived than could be described. His valet found him in the morning more dead than alive, and it was some hours before his lordship could be recovered sufficiently to send for his friends, to whom he thought |