10 LETTER FROM MY IRISH MANKINS. 



table ; you hazard suffocation for an hour in Rotten-row, anc 

 should you survive the dust, endure eternal dread of empale- 

 ment by a carriage-pole ; you shoot a score of rascally pigeons 

 within the enclosures of Battersea, or make a grand excursior 

 to slaughter pheasants in a preserve ; last and proudest feal 

 comes the batlu, when, with noble and honourable con- 

 federates, you exterminate a multitude of semi- civilized fowls, 

 manfully overcoming the fatigue of traversing an ornamented 

 park, and crossing a few acres of turnips. And is this ignoble 

 course befitting one of ' lith and limb' like thine ? You, the 

 best of your day in Trinity ; you, whose prowess is stil 

 recorded in the annals of the watchhouse, and whose hurling 

 is yet chronicled in the Park; you, whom no six-feet wal 

 could turn, whom no mountain-herd could tire in the dog- 

 days; you, who could swim with Byron, and walk with 

 Barclay, what are you become ? an elegant and fashionable 

 idler lolling life away, the morning in a club-house window, 

 the evening in the Park, and the night gallopading some scior 

 of nobility, who has discovered that you possess twelve thou- 

 sand pounds a year, and that her own funds are insufficient tc 

 satisfy the corset- maker in Regent-street. 



" Would that I could reform your taste and habits ! Could 

 I but induce you to pass one autumn here, your conversior 

 would be a certainty. Come to me, Frank ; ay, come to the 

 wilds of Connaught : avoid an atmosphere surcharged with 

 villanous impurities, and brace your relaxed nerves in the 

 waves of the Atlantic ; seek life and energy in the mountain - 

 breeze ; abandon the gymnasium to scriveners and shopmen ; 

 and leave Crockford's to ruined dupes and titled swindlers. 



" You have hitherto been a silent Member of the Honour- 

 able Commons, and St. Stephen's has never heard from you 

 ' the popular harangue, the tart reply/ Hast thou any 

 aspirations after fame ? any ' longing after immortality ? 

 Listen ; the means are simple. Indict the Red-house as % 

 nuisance, and propose a bill, making the being aiding 01 

 accessory to a battu, death without benefit of clergy. Thy 

 name will live when Joe Hume, that ready-reckoner, shall be 

 forgotten ; and Dick Martin's senatorial renown will fade 

 before the perennial glory of the present member for 

 bury !" 



Need I say how opportunely came this invitation ? "I 

 embraced his offer ;" and here I am fairly over the border, and 



