shower of rain, in quest of the high-constable, in order to quicken his exertions for a supply of wagons for the next morning's march, a duty which I found some difficulty in performing; but at length found this functionary regaling himself amidst a merry party of theatrical gentry, in the select room behind the bar of the Talbot Inn, where a good song or two induced me to remain nearly an hour.

During this time I arranged all matters with the constable. But although I took to myself no small credit for my perseverance in following up the clew given to me of the constable's beat, my reception by my captain was any thing but flattering; in fact he rumbled out a severe scolding at my delay, and concluded by dismissing me at nearly midnight, and ordering the sergeant-major, who was obsequiously waiting, "whip in hand," for orders for the march, to parade the detachment at six next morning. At that hour the baggage carts having been loaded chiefly with women and children, we marched off to Prescot, and were overtaken at that town by two more of our officers, who arrived that morning at Liverpool by the Dublin packet. We now formed a mess of four: proceeding next day to Warrington, we embarked in the passage boat for Manchester, and enjoyed a very agreeable voyage of some hours on the Bridgewater canal. On entering a tunnel the wives of the poor Irish recruits uttered the national howl, believing themselves destined for the regions below; an apprehension from which they did not feel themselves perfectly free until our boat once more emerged from the tunnel into the full light of day.

I do not know that I ever received more gratification in any journey than that which I experienced this day in the contemplation of this vast monument of individual enterprise. I considered this canal as one of the great boasts of Great Britain; and one which conferred more true nobility on the illustrious nobleman who projected and completed that stupendous work, than the dukedom with which his patriotic devotion of time and fortune was rewarded, but who unfortunately left no inheritor to that civic crown which so deservedly adorned his brow. Among the passengers were two young ladies, daughters of Mr. Lord, a banker at Halifax, then on their return from their bathing trip to Runcorn. An annual general immersion in the sea seems to be one of those operations which all British ladies from fifteen to fifty deem indispensable.

These ladies being not only what may be called handsome women, but unreserved and agreeable in manners, with the usual gallantry of Irishmen my commander and his subs paid them all those attentions which are ever acceptable to the fair sex. But those of the captain were too oppressive to afford

them any gratification; and they rather offended him by their kind anticipations of what he intended to say, by replying before he could deliver himself of some long-laboured compliment: of my other companions they could not complain. One was a light-hearted Killarney man, named Harrington, who, full of the recollection of his lovely lakes and glens, enlivened the conversation by descriptions of them, which proved him to be a lover of nature, and an enthusiastic panegyrist of the unrivalled beauties of his native home. The other was one of those quiet kind of characters, who, conscious of their own deficiencies, have the good sense never to attempt any display of talent, but acquiesce in every commendation bestowed by those who are more fortunate in speech; to all he heard, and all he saw, had one word of assent," iss" (yes.) This worthy, Johnny Chapman, had been a shop-keeper in Limerick Old Town, and having a few spare hundreds, which Colonel Sir Verity Frank-free, M. P., did him the favour to accept as a lone for an indefinite period, he in return was honoured with an ensigncy, and the prospect of the paymastership of the Garryone regiment.

What could possibly have induced this humble Hibernian to abandon his shop with all its advantages for the empty honour of the red coat, was for some time a mystery to me, but I found out that he had an ailing old wife; and although he was at the shady side of forty, and with every disadvantage of person and address, he was not without hopes of supplying in a short time the old lady's place by some young and wealthy English heiress; for, with all the humility he felt in other respects, he had all his country's vanity on this point to a most ludicrous degree.

When he understood that our fair fellow-passengers were the daughters of a banker, he so far overcame his natural habits as to launch out a voluntary strain in praise of the superior beauty of the English as compared to the Irish ladies. The stuttering captain opened upon him a rolling volley of remonstrance, although he admitted the justice of the compliment, as far as the present company were concerned; but before he even got out, "comparisons are odious," the attention of all was drawn to the distant shouts of thousands of voices, mixed with the crash of broken windows, the sounding of trumpets, and the beating of drums. We were already at the end of our voyage, the boat was alongside the wharf, when our worst fears were confirmed by the report that a mob, to the amount of nearly forty thousand, had during the whole of that day preserved its reign of terror throughout Manchester; breaking open corn warehouses, demolishing flour stores, plundering

bakers' shops, and helping themselves to whatever came within their grasp in the way of provisions.

The civil authorities, as usual, taken by surprise, were completely paralyzed. A troop or two of the 28th light dragoons, at that time raising (but not completed) by Sir Robert Laurie, and the various recruiting parties, which might possibly muster one hundred proper men at arms, were all the military force in the town. This, however, was called out; and small and inefficient as was that force, it sufficed to quell the insurgents, and silence the cry of "bread! bread! bread!" the more especially as our arrival caused a report to be immediately circulated that a body of troops from Liverpool had arrived by express in canal boats. It was my lot to be again put on duty by my captain, who pleaded his anxiety for the care of the ladies for putting me into the breach: there was, however, no great danger. I passed through the scattered parties of the mob unmolested, and made my way to the New Bailey, when, viewing the magnitude of the town and its immense population, to my surprise I found no such civic officer as mayor: there was only a chief constable, called Boroughreeve, who seemed to possess something like authority. On hearing what description of soldiers our party consisted of, he discreetly hurried me off with one of his myrmidons to procure carts to convey not only the baggage, but the soldiers also to Oldham with all possible expedition, in order, I suppose, to keep up the farce of our being a re-enforcement from Liverpool. The minor mob of Oldham was then playing the same pranks in the evening that the grand one had been performing at Manchester all the former part of the day. Our awkward squad of recruits, with their wives and children, were piled up on the carts, and driven off in rather quick time through the suburbs towards the Oldham road. The banker's daughters with their servant, a female by the by, took chaise for Rochdale, and parted company at six P. M., leaving their Irish acquaintances to their reflections.

The news of a company of soldiers being on the road soon drove the Oldham rioters to their homes; and when we, who so ill deserved that honourable title, arrived in the dusk of the evening, there was no enemy to quell. Darkness followed our footsteps, so that whether we were soldiers or "ragamuffins in red," the miserable gang which we really were, the late rioters knew not. However, the arrival in the course of the night of a company of the Wiltshire militia and Rochdale volunteers, saved us from being pelted out of town next morning; a fate, which in all probability might have been ours when our contemptible array had become better known.

CHAPTER IV.

"If I am not ashamed of my soldiers, then am I a soused gurnet!"

AT Rochdale we were once more destined to meet the young ladies in whose company we had passed some agreeable hours on board the canal boat. The riots, on account of the scanty supply and high price of bread, having pervaded the whole of the manufacturing towns during the last few days, our late fellow-voyagers prolonged their stay at Rochdale until the country became more tranquil. Having strolled out after dinner, we found ourselves in front of the theatre, and were led into the extravagance of expending three shillings each for a box admission into the very neat little theatre of that town.

The appearance of an officer of the army in this humble temple of Thespis, was the signal for "God save the King!" Not content with a compliment which we had no right to think ourselves personally entitled to, our peevish captain, on unhatting himself, roared out- "aw-aw-off hats!" I ventured to remonstrate, submitting that our standing up uncovered was as much as we ought to do, by way of example, without attempting to bully the unwashed flannel weavers into the same demonstration of loyalty and respect; but the captain was pertinacious, and repeated this "aw-aw-aw," until the whole audience of the masculine gender showed their naked greasy sconces. I was heartily ashamed of our conduct; for, much against our will, I became a “particeps criminis,” in a very important outrage upon taste and good manners. But this was not all the mortification I was doomed to suffer. fiddlers, two, and violincello, had just rested their elbows, after a double encore of the national anthem, and silence being procured, after many noisy efforts to effect it, when the Munster shopman whined out in that peculiar lachrymose tone of voice which is the characteristic of his province, "Aagh, gentlemen, if you please play Rule Brittan-ny-yagh.'" The supplicating manner in which the whole sentence (particularly the last words) was pronounced, was irresistible: no beggar at a chapel door could crave a farthing from the charitable and humane Christian in a more pitiable pitch of voice. The obedient leader, with fresh resined bow and elevated elbow, gave the signal stamp of the foot; and off the band once more set "fortissimo" with RULE BRITANNIA. A dreadful horror seized my

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mind that the captain was going to indulge the audience with a verse or two of his favourite chant; but his better genius prevailed.

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The curtain drew up for the second piece, The Purse, or the Benevolent Tar,' which was tolerably well enacted. At the end of its first act I discovered our fair voyagers taking an occasional peep at our box, and, I verily believe, very much afraid of recognition by some of our party. I was not to be put off, however; but, taking leave of my comrades, I whispered to the lively Harrington where and to whom I was going, and he was soon at my heels. Perceiving that the back row of their box, one of those near the stage, was partly unoccupied, we had ourselves ushered in, and were instantly and most kindly greeted by the banker's daughters, by whom we were introduced to the remainder of the party. There was barely room for the captain, who had followed us, to squeeze in at the back row; but in order to accommodate him, the ladies in the front made room for me, who was the slightest in form of the party, and I was delighted to find myself seated between Miss Lavinia Lord, who would have been the beauty of her circle wherever she went, and a married lady not above twenty; she was introduced to me as Mrs. Charles William Spencer, and her agreeable manners, pretty petite face, and arch laughing eyes, soon convinced me that the race of Lancashire witches was not extinct.

My hum-drum captain was sickening the second row with his prosy observations on all that was not germane to the scene before them; whilst with spirits now unchained after their late horrid imprisonment, I tried to enliven the front by saying all the lively nonsensical things I could think of to amuse my party. Harrington, being for the first time in his life in an English playhouse, was all attention to the drama, which in some parts was rendered effective by the good acting of the late J. Edwin, Jun., in the Tar, and a young lady of the name of Robinson, who sustained the character of the boy. The performance all together would have been creditable to a more enlightened audience than the spinners and weavers of Rochdale, which might be classed among the sixth-rate towns. Animal Magnetism,' that rare piece of broad farce, concluded the entertainment, and sent all our party away in spirits to the house of Mrs. Charles William Spencer, (I like to give all her pretty names to that more than pretty little woman) where we were kindly invited to supper. Our fourth man, after his ebullition of loyalty sank first into a doze, then into a sleep so profound, that even magnetism itself could not rouse him; and the gay and kind Harrington had to dislodge him previously to our sortie. Politeness suggested to our fair entertainer to include the sleeping VOL. II.

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