1826,] Ireland in 1826. 583, 
small) number. of individuals, who, being Protestants and English, by. 
birth.on connexion, are entitled to that aristocratic distinction which 
belongs, to, the, master caste, but who, as emancipators, are under the 
anathema of Irish bon ton. It is curious to observe, in the varying re+ 
_ ceptions of this class, as in the rising and falling of a barometer, the 
varying weight,and pressure of the, rival factions. The appearance 
or, omission of certain, names in the cards of imvitation of the Irish. 
grandees, , shews,,;.to a certainty, the tone of Orange confidence. or. 
distrust ;,,and every shade of acknowledgment, from the cordial 
squeeze, of the hand to the cut direct, has a close reference to the. 
reigning opinion respecting the strength of the Canning-ites, the con-. 
tinuance in office of Lord Wellesley, or the elevation of Saurin or 
Plunkett to the office of Chancellor. I shall not readily forget, on the. 
night. of Lady Wellesley’s first party after her marriage, when many, 
_ Catholies, who had shewn civility to her as Mrs. Patterson, were 
received with marked attention and politeness in the circle, what a dis- 
cordant jar, of feelings was provoked in the assembly. Here, an dme 
damnée of the exclusionists vented his vexation at the profanation of the 
drawing-rooms of the Phoenix in sly sarcasms on the personal appearance 
of the parvenus ; there a political trimmer, mistaking the matter for 
a proof of the approaching triumph of liberalism, proclaimed, in a 
newly awakened burst of enthusiasm, his desire to take the whole 
Catholic Association in one mystic embrace. Many a party-giving par- 
tizan of ascendancy, who had for years passed her political opponents 
with a stare of strangeness or a flash of defiance, now pressed forward to 
solicit, an introduction ; and the regenerating waters of the Vice-regal 
tea-pots seemed to have quite washed away the old Adam of centuries 
of Cathelicity. But, alas! for human nature, 
 “Allthat’s'bright must fade, the brightest still the fleetest ;”’ 
a.Tumour was spread that Lord Wellesley was recalled, and an Eldonite 
ppointed to his. office; and the relapsed Papists, driven once more 
from fashionable society to the « Hell or Connaught” of their own 
assemblies, were visited with a heavier note of reprobation for the sin 
of their transient, orthodoxy. 
_Among the other signs of the times must be noted the rising imper- 
tinence of the Dublin Corporation, and the renewed éclat with which 
they yociferated that toast which the King in person had endeavoured to 
sohbet. Let not the sound of this word « Corporation” stir up in the 
imagination of the English reader any notion of the Waithmans, the 
Woods, or even of the Curtises, of London civism. The Dublin Cor- 
poration is not a society “ where merchants most do congregate ;” it is 
teunion of all that. is most respectable in commerce, or influential upon 
Change s but, for the most part, a nest of pauper loyalists, trading on the 
sacramental cup, and fattening upon the test-oaths. Among these wor- 
hice the sberitt s wand has scarcely escaped from their grasp ere, not 
pnireguently, their shoulders are doomed to feel the pressure of the 
baili. "s heayy hand; and the distance from the civic chair to the Insol- 
yent Court is scarcely more than astep. The alderman’s gown is chiefly 
puree as a,preliminary to the police magistracy ; and while the 
Latouchés and the Guinnesses keep aloof from such distinctions, the 
ie liberal, and enlightened M’Kenna is a black swan on the bench. 
he only gate of entrance to this junta is through the temple of Pro- 
