33C NOTES OF THE MONTH. 



powers of man, but the elements of nature also, were subject to the will 

 of royalty. We find an interesting elucidation of this, in the reply of the 

 courtier to the Spanish Princess who inquired the hour of the day "Any 

 hour your majesty pleases" was the answer. So again, in the case of our 

 own excellent and beloved ruler, Henry VIII., whose decapitation of his 

 wives was never impugned during his life-time by any save the unfortu- 

 nate victims. We may borrow another illustration from the Turks, a very 

 wise and grave-minded people, and who attach a proper importance to 

 the monarchic institution. A fleet sailing from Constantinople, was 

 wrecked on one of the Grecian isles, and the Divan, with great justice, 

 determined to enforce the inhabitants of the island to make good the 

 damage sustained by the ships j since, as they acutely reasoned, if the 

 island had not been there, the accident would not have happened ! The 

 Greeks were, of course, convicted in full costs. We will not pursue this 

 subject further. A careful and dispassionate observer, upon comparing 

 the facts adduced, will, we think, have no hesitation in considering, 

 with us, the report alluded to at the commencement of this note, to be 

 a fiction. Supposing his Majesty to have been so situated, we are quite 

 certain that the lane would have made way for the carriage to pass, 

 seeing that it must be more fitting for the lane to gi\ e place to the King, 

 than the .King to the lane. 



ASSAULT ON A TITHE PROCTOR. The advocates of " things as they 

 are" in Ireland, have good reason to fear that, unless precautions be 

 taken to levy their tithes in a somewhat more secure and satisfactory 

 manner, certain dreadful things may come to their ears, for which they 

 were not previously prepared, as the following extract from the Cork 

 Constitution will testify. 



" On Wednesday last, the proctor of the Rev. Mr. Grant, who had been en- 

 gaged in valuing in the neighbourhood of Fermoy, was seized by an immense 

 concourse of women, who placed him on his knees, and were about cutting off 

 his ears with their sickles, when some persons interfered, and dissuaded them 

 from such an act." 



It is ever thus, when an impracticable system is virtually abandoned 

 to the violent correction of those who suffer most under it. Without 

 stopping to insist upon the fact, that these tithe proctors usually execute 

 their functions in the most hateful and oppressive manner, it is sufficient 

 to observe, that, even if no better argument could be urged against 

 tithes in Ireland, than the odiousness of the mode of their collection, it 

 ought to be sufficient for their extinction. These women doubtless 

 thought, that, as the party had been so long deaf to the voice of their 

 distresses, he could have no further occasion for the outward symbol of 

 a faculty he no longer enjoyed ; and they were about to ply their sickles 

 accordingly, on a reciprocity principle namely, that of taking his ears 

 in exchange for their own not, indeed, ears of corn. This, certainly, 

 was a species of the " auri sacra fames" not contemplated by Virgil. 



What, we should like to ask, were the ministers about last session, 

 that they did not extinguish tithes in Ireland ? We heard, indeed, of 

 remedies being applied ; but were told that the authority of the law 

 must be vindicated in the mean time. Let Mr. Stanley look to the ex- 

 tinction of this vile system ; for upon his head a responsibility and a 



