and has chosen to exhibit his critical prowess in protection rather than attack. He is a conservative editor.

Nor are his merits less as an exegetical commentator, than as a verbal critic. He has an extraordinary power of entering not only into the mind, but into the spirit and feeling of his author-a power accompanied by, and, indeed, pre-supposing a familiar acquaintance with all the fine and delicate proprieties of that wonderful language, which is the vehicle of those thoughts and sentiments-a power of exactly perceiving the precise image, in all its shades and proportions, which the author meant to pourtray, and of enabling others to perceive it also. The glossary completes the exegetical apparatus of the notes, and completes it in the most desirable manner, keeping the mere philology apart from the interpretation-the explanation of single words from that of propositions. We extract an article from it, in which we think that he very satisfactorily combats a view of Buttman's which has met commonly with more favour than it deserves:

"wros, (the neut. äwrov, ró, is found only in Apoll. Rhod. and the later Ep. Homer leaves the gender undecided. In Pindar it is always masculine, as it is in Id. XIII. 27). The reputed ancient meaning was a blossom or flower, which Buttman conceives he has disproved in his Lexil. sub v., and for which he substitutes a lock of wool, as the original sense. "AwTos is the Lat. floccus. As this is derived from flo, so that comes from an; and both mean the light and airy locks of the sheep, or of the flax-plant.' But it appears most probable that the Schol. on Hom. II. XIII. 599, is correct in explaining οἰὸς ἀώτῳ as προβάτου ἄνθει ὅ ἐστιν ἐρίῳ. Το also our Schol., προβάτου ἄνθει, ἀντὶ τοῦ ἐρίῳ· a converse to which figurative mode of expression is found in comam-acanthi, Virg. Georg. Iv. 137, and 'sera comantem Narcissum,' ib. 122; comantes silvæ,' Val. Fl. 1. 429; comans humus,' Stat

Theb. v. 502; 'flore comantem purpureo,' Virg. En. XII. 413. In Pindar aros always denotes the fairest and best of its kind, as it does in Id. XIII. 27, εios äwToS 'Howw. Buttm. presents no convincing objection (Lexil. p. 185-87) to the translation he mentions, 'the bloom of the sheep,' which is that of the Schol. given above, for there is no weight whatsoever in the assertion, that in Od. Ix. 434, if this were its meaning, wros must have its genitive case after it,' as if the poet was bound to put in a word which no hearer or reader could be stupid enough to miss. Again, he quotes I. XIII. 599, where a sling is called εύστροφος οἶὸς ἄωτος, and asks, Now, is this the place, where the poet is speaking of a compact and hard-twisted sling, to introduce the idea of the finest, the softest, and the most beautiful wool?' To which it might be answered at once, that the best wool would make the best string. But, in fact, the ancient meaning renders the expression rather as equivalent to wool simply, which is Buttman's object also, with this difference, however, that by the old interpretation we approach this sense in a mode worthy of an Epic poet, while Buttman's method falls below the dignity of the common language of life: for when Telemachus, Od. 1. 443, is described as sleeping κακαλυμμένος οἶὸς ἀώτῳ, is it credible that this meant literally 'wrapped in a lock of wool of a sheep,' and so passed into 'wrapped in a fleece of a sheep?' And again, that Pindar, &c., used the word wros to describe the most exalted excellence in poetry, &c., just as the Latins did flos, from the word having passed from the sense of flock or down to mean 'the downy pile or nap of cloth ?' The editor is not only content to be classed with those who remain firm in their opinion that awros means the blossom in a metaphorical sense' (Buttm. Lexil. p. 183), but also imagines that it originally bore this meaning in a literal sense. may be added that such expressions as 'flocci instar' fall very foul of the transition of awros ('the Lat. floccus') from this sense to that of denoting the highest perfection."

It

Ir asked, what is the most striking characteristic by which the present social condition of Ireland is marked, we would say, the frequency of noonday murders, and the impunity which has hitherto attended the perpetration of that dreadful crime !

If further pressed for an explanation of this awful state of things, we should refer to a secret confederacy of organized assassins, who are bound together by a bond of blood, to be aiding and assisting, to the utmost of their power, in the extermination of such individuals as have rendered themselves obnoxious to their vengeance, either by political activity, by which the conspirators have been brought to justice, or proceedings respecting the holding of land.

That such a confederacy exists, is as notorious, as that it has hitherto baffled the vigour and the vigilance of the law; and we have selected the case of the unhappy man whose name is prefixed to this article, and who has expiated his offence upon the gallows, as well to exhibit the class of crimes to which we allude, as the peryerted state of public opinion, which in a large section of the community is found to prevail, and by which the punishment of the guilty is more than neutralized, for any purposes of warning or of example.

On the night of the 18th of November last, Sir Francis Hopkins was returning home, after having dined at the house of his friend and neighbour, Colonel Caulfield. Upon his arrival at his hall-door, and before it was opened for his admission, he was fired at, and the assassin, missing his aim, ran, and was pursued by Sir Francis; we give the sequel in his own words, as sworn to on the second trial of Seery

"I caught the man who had attacked me, by the throat, and I almost choked him. I immediately recognized a face that I knew, and I was so astonished, that I felt it difficult to express my surprise, that Seery was the man who assailed me. I forced his head into the air between me and the sky, to take his side face, and the man's countenance,

even if I had never seen him before, was indelibly fixed on my mind. I never had the least doubt of him; I have not now the slightest doubt of him. A hat and a coat were found at Rochford; my impression is, that the hat is the one he always wore, and it was the only hat of the kind amongst the tenantry of a large district. I also recognized the coat as one in which the prisoner paid me visits previously. Seery is a man of a peculiar cut; his hat and coat were a very shabby turn out, and from the position of the windows of my house, I have had opportunities of seeing him coming up to it.

Thus it appears, that not only Sir Francis distinctly identified the man, but that a hat and coat were found in the vicinity of the outrage, which belonged to him, and were recognized as his property by witnesses produced for the defence. Two or three years before, Seery held a farm from Sir Francis, which he was unable to stock or to cultivate, and received thirty pounds for the quiet surrender of the land, his landlord acting towards him in the kindliest spirit, and receiving from Seery many expressions of thankfulness for the consideration which he shewed him.

Such was the case for the crown. The defence was an alibi, which, if true, established the innocence of the prisoner; and some alleged omissions and discrepancies in the original information, and the subsequent swearing of the prosecutor.

It was sworn by Mr. French, the stipendiary magistrate, and a Roman Catholic, that Sir Francis did not mention Seery's name, when he took his informations. Sir Francis solemnly states that he did; and the editor of the Evening Mail avers, that he has seen letters from the crownsolicitor and his assistant, the subinspector of police, and the magistrates and gentlemen present, stating "in the most clear and distinct manner which language is capable of conveying, that Sir Francis Hopkins did name Seery as the perpetrator of the act, when the first informations were sworn, and his (Mr. French's) un

qualified admission that he had done

80.

Dr. Ferguson who was in attendance upon him an hour after the outrage, swore "that Sir Francis told him, the person who fired was a tenant of his," and that he "communicated the fact to Mr. Bookey of the police, and the prisoner was arrested."

It was sworn upon the trial by a constable of the Dysart police station, six miles distant from Mullingar, that he received a written order at five o'clock in the morning to arrest Seery; that is, five hours before the first informations were sworn, in which, it is now alleged, Sir Francis did not mention his name!

We are thus full and explicit upon this point; because the first jury before whom Seery was tried, could not come to an agreement respecting the verdict, two of them, being Roman Catholics, holding out for an acquittal against the remaining ten; and the grounds for this difference of opinion (for these things will come out) have been confidently stated to be, on the part of one of these dissentients, the alleged omission of Seery's name in the first informations, and on the part of the other, a general indisposition to subject any individual to capital punish

ment.

We are not for harshly pressing the letter of the law in any case against an unfortunate delinquent; and the cases are rare in which we would deem it justifiable to put an individual upon his trial for the same offence, within eight and forty hours after he had been tried by a jury, whose disagreement rendered the whole proceeding void. But we do think that in this case, the law-officers of the crown exercised a wise discretion, in braving the odium, whatever it might be, of a second and immediate prosecution. The guilt of the man was so fully proved the crime was so atrocious the confederacy out of which it arose was so secret, so formidable, and so extensive, that justice, if deferred, would have appeared to be baffled, and a system of miscreancy, by which that county is infected, would have had a signal triumph over the authority of the law. The case was one, in fact, in which trial by jury was itself upon its trial; and the question to be solved was, could the tremendous evil with

which the crown prosecutors had to grapple, be met effectually by the law, as ordinarily administered; or were increased powers necessary to arrest the progress of offences which threatened the subversion of social order?

Undoubtedly, had Seery been remanded for six months, it would have been deemed by his accomplices tantamount to an escape from justice. And even if a future jury found no difficulty in believing the evidence that had been given by the prosecutor—had the second trial been long delayed, means might have been taken by his confederates in iniquity by which any similar deposition would be prevented. When we state to our readers the fact, that a party were appointed to waylay Sir Francis Hopkins on his way to the assizes, and by whom, had he been met, he would have been murdered, they may imagine what plots and conspiracies would have been concocted for his taking-off, had such an interval been afforded, as must have elapsed before the next jail-delivery would have given him an opportunity of appearing in the witness-box against the prisoner. It may be confidently affirmed that, in the present state of Ireland, nothing would be left undone to accomplish his destruction.

Upon the second trial, the prisoner was convicted. The evidence was such as could leave no doubt of his guilt upon any rational mind; and the judge before whom he was tried-Chief Baron Brady is one of the ablest and most humane of his brethren upon the bench; and, although a Whig, and one who had been Lord Normanby's attorneygeneral, universally respected for his integrity and his discrimination. Any partizan feeling which he could have had, must have been rather against than for the government, which he would, no doubt, be very glad to see displaced; and if a shadow of incertitude rested upon his mind as to the conclusiveness of the evidence upon which the conviction took place, we may be perfectly satisfied that the unfortunate man would have had the benefit of it; for he would not have failed to make such a representation to the lord lieutenant as would have procured a mitigation, if not a reversal, of the sentence which had been pronounced upon him.

Thus, then, we have a jury of twenty-two individuals (for the firs

ten should be added to the last twelve), concurring in a verdict which was fully in accordance with the most direct and positive evidence, as well as with the charge of a most humane and enlightened judge; in a case in which it was most important to the well-being of society that the culprit, if guilty, should be made amenable to justice. And now commenced a course of proceedings unexampled, we believe, in any country making the least pretension to humanity or civilization.

Immediately upon the sentence being made known, the repeal party took up the case of the convict as that of a victim to foul and odious Orange prejudice. The Roman Catholic priesthood of the district joined in the cry. Addresses, minatory in their character, were directed to the lord lieutenant, demanding, rather than supplicating, a reversal of the sentence; and the people were universally instructed to believe that if it were carried into effect, it could be regarded in no other light than a legal murder!

Patience is too weak a word to characterise the cheerful equanimity with which these parties could witness victim after victim of the ribbon conspiracy passing to an untimely grave— while no trace of the murderers could be found by the constituted authorities, and no efforts on their parts were made for their apprehension. But the instant the government presume to touch the hair of the head of a convict like Seery, whose guilt may be said to have been as notorious as the sun at noonday, one universal shout of execration is raised, as though the most fiend-like barbarity was about to be perpetrated against an unfortunate sufferer, whose only crime was, that he was an Irishman and a Roman Catholic, and tried by a jury who were less solicitous for the discovery of the truth, than desirous of gratifying a thirst for vengeance.

Nor was it confined to a factious press thus to abuse public credulity upon this painfully momentous subject. The Roman Catholic priesthood of the district, with their bishop at their head, did all that in them lay to impress upon their people the conviction, that the culprit had been wrongfully condemned, and, if executed, must be considered as murdered!

The bishop, Dr. Cantwell, wrote to

the lord lieutenant on behalf of the convict; but, fortunately for the ends of justice, did not prevail upon his excellency to adopt his view of the case. The correspondence which took place on this occasion was to have been moved for in the House of Commons by Mr. O'Connell ; but we have no doubt that he exercised a wise discretion in withdrawing the notice which he had given to that effect. We only regret that it was not taken up and adopted by some Protestant member. And the priests, from the altars, declaimed at large, and with virulence, upon the cruelty and iniquity about to be perpetrated upon a most estimable and unoffending member of their communion, who had been all his life a most pious Catholic, and who, if executed, must be considered, not a culprit, but a martyr?

Such were the efforts made to deprive the last appalling scene in the life of this unfortunate malefactor of all efficacy as an example! Such are the uses and purposes to which the Romish priesthood put their spiritual influence in Ireland!

The day of execution arrived. The public were warned by their spiritual advisers to absent themselves from the dreadful spectacle. The houses of all Roman Catholics, in the town of Mullingar, were closed, and all business suspended, to mark the horror with which they regarded this outrage upon justice and humanity. The culprit was introduced upon the scaffold, where he made the strongest and the most solemn declaration of his innocence. He was then (a thing, we believe, unheard of in any other instance) permitted to retire, and remain with his spiritual adviser for an hour and a quarter, before he was launched into eternity!

Never, we believe, was there so deliberate, so systematic, and, we must add, so successful an attempt to defeat the efficacy of legal punishment as a terror to evil doers. All the offices of religion were made to conspire with all the organs and instruments of faction, to represent this malefactor as the most innocent and the most in

jured of men. His remains were deposited in the Romish chapel, and a solemn high mass performed for the repose of his soul. A countless multitude attended at his funeral, each

bearing some token indicative of their respect and sorrow for the departed; and a subscription was set on foot for the relief of his family, the amount of which we have had no means of ascertaining, but which, we have no doubt, has been abundantly sufficient to raise them above the indigent con. dition in which they must have remained, had not Seery signalized himself by a deed which, in any other country, would have consigned his memory to execration!

But the convict denied his guilt upon the gallows, and how can we believe that, at such an awful moment, he could utter a falsehood? Alas! that is but another painful aspect of the case! There are few, we believe, upon whom such declarations impose in Ireland. They are perfectly understood by the witnesses for the "alibi" (the defence most usually resorted to in such cases), all of whom would be branded as perjurers, if the convict died confessing his guilt.

It is not, our readers may be well assured, with any view to aggravate the obloquy with which the crime of this misguided man must be regarded by every well regulated mind, that we have brought his case so fully before our readers; but because it appears to us most strikingly to illustrate the present most unhappy condition of Ireland. Here we have that sympathy with miscreancy and with guilt which is, in itself, one of the most effective causes of the perpetration of crime; and also that marked antipathy to any legal procedure by which their offences might be brought home to the individuals concerned in agrarian outrages and disturbances, which renders it utterly impossible that the law, as it at present stands, could be made available as a protection against them.

enjoys a sort of enviable notoriety amongst his associates, and no contrivance of force or fraud will be neglected which may secure his impunity, and there are no honours which will not be lavished upon his memory, should he, by any accident, become amenable to the law. This it is, we say emphatically, which constitutes the frightful anomaly of the present state of Ireland.

Now, we ask our dispassionate readers, can any measures which merely contemplate the prevention or the detection of crime, be efficacious in repressing the outrages which prevail, while this perverted state of public opinion, and the causes which have led to it, are disregarded? As well might the physician attempt, by topical applications, to cure sores which appeared upon the surface of the body, without any attempt to correct the humours to which they owed their origin, and by which they must continue to be generated, as long as such humours continue to infect the system. Let no wise man, therefore, express surprise that the treatment of Irish disorders hitherto pursued has been unsuccessful.

But as no general description could possibly convey to our English readers an adequate idea of a state of society of which it may be truly said, that "the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint," we subjoin the evidence of an approver upon one of the late trials at Nenagh, in the county of Tipperary, and that less with a view to the frightful detail of his enormities, than to the nonchalance with which they are nar rated, as though he were very little conscious of any thing atrocious, or even extraordinary, in his revelations :

66

TIPERARY NORTH RIDING ASSIZE.

("Saturday, March 20.)

"RECORD COURT.

("Before the Lord Chief Baron.)

"Edward Ryan and John Conway were yesterday (Friday) indicted for assaulting the habitation of Pat Hogan, of Bawn, and firing into it a loaded gun. The offence took place on the 28th of July last, and in addition to the direct swearing of the approver, James Darmody, there was also circumstantial proof against the prisoners.

"HORRIFYING DETAILS OF CRIME. "The following is the cross-examination of the approver, Darmody, who, in