1831.] L 73 ] 



NOTES OF THE MONTH ON AFFAIBS IN GENEKAL. 



Any noble lord who takes upon himself the weight of an English go- 

 vernment must expect to be encumbered with a vast deal of correspon- 

 dence — silly and impudent, officious and self-sufficient. Of this kind 

 Lord Grey has just enjoyed a finely diversified specimen, in a letter, 

 signed by a personage who describes himself as the Right Reverend Dr. 

 Machale, a popish priest, who has taken it upon his own brains to lec- 

 ture his lordship on the art of government — habeas corpus, Irish poli- 

 tics, boroughmongery, and " all that sort of thing," in the Dr. Doyle 

 style, and " all that sort of way." We give a sentence or two of this 

 shewy miscellany. The first instance is what Cobbett calls a strong 

 hint. The Right Reverend Dr. has been talking of " contagious mutiny," 

 and other fine things of that species of verbiage, when he thus fondly 

 touches on the popular mode of rectifying wrongs : — 



" Yes, my lord, I was alarmed lest they should learn the recent mode of 

 tracing their distress with the spade — a style which .surpasses all the ancient 

 specimens of the art in the boldness of its characters, as well as the ingenuity 

 of the invention. ' Nay, it throws all the rules of rhetoric into the shade regard- 

 ing the powerful effects of writing." 



It is in this gay metaphor that the Dr. treats of the utter ruin of pro- 

 perty by the brute vengeance of the populace. The destruction of 

 thousands of acres by a furious mob, is a " style surpassing all the an- 

 cient specimens of the art of writing" by its " boldness and ingenuity !" 

 Well done, priest. The concluding sentence is merely barbarism, equally 

 defying common sense and grammar, but is not the less a proud speci- 

 men of the Doctoi-'s best penmanship. " It throws all the rules of 

 rhetoric into the shade, regarding the powerful effects of writing." 

 Blockhead ! Why did he not confine himself to his native Irish ? 



We have then, after a long tirade of stuff, a sample of the Right 

 Reverend Doctor's politics mixed with his potatoes : — " The borough- 

 raongering parliament no longer exists. It has paid the just forfeit of 

 its want of a kindred feeling with the people, in the speediness of its 

 dissolution." — What possible connection boroughmongering has with 

 petitions for alms, no man can tell. But the subject was tempting, the 

 doctor was scribbling to a minister, and in his condescension he wished 

 to shew him how closely a priest could imitate a brawler at an election. 

 But the conclusion is prodigious ! quite a peroration. Ciceronian to an 

 immense degree. Says the Doctor : — 



" I have done my duty to the government by seasonable and repeated warn- 

 ings of their state. The hopes of the people are wound to a high pitch. The 

 chord may snap by the rigour of the tension. The seasonableness of a boon adds 

 considerably to its value. Human lives are too precious to be sacrificed to 

 procrastination. The prompt measures of a day may preserve what the tardy 

 deliberations of years could not retrieve. — I have the honour to remain, your 

 Lordship's obedient servant, 



" -|- JouN Macuale." 



The self-importance of this remote and utterly unheard-of personage 

 is incomparable. But let Lord Grey look to it. He here learns, on the 

 oracular authority of the doctor, that others, even first lords of the trea- 

 sury, must do their duty, now that tlie right reverend prelate has shewn 

 them the way ; if they let the em])ire fall to pieces, history, impartial 



]\I. IM. New Series.— Yin.. XII. No. 07. L 



