abundance of wild animals required a corresponding extent of wooded country to afford them shelter. A few years later (1697) we find that wood was equally plentiful in Munster, for in that year a committee of the House of Commons estimated the injury done to Lord Kenmare's forests at £45,000, and that those of Lord Massey, in Cork, had suffered to the amount of £25,000.

The publications of the Irish Record Commission contain some curious information respecting former abundance of natural woods in Ireland. The trustees appointed for the sale of the estates forfeited in the rebellion of 1668, estimated the value of the woods standing upon such estates, at about £60,000. According to the same report, the woods upon the estate of Sir Valentine Brown, in Kerry, were cut down and wasted to the amount of £20,000; and on the late Earl of Clancarty's estate, now granted to Lord Woodstock, the waste of timber is estimated at £27,000. So hasty have several of the grantees and their agents been in the disposition of the forfeited woods, that vast numbers of trees have been cut down and sold for not above sixpence a-piece. The like waste is still continuing in many parts of this kingdom, and particularly in the lands of Fettrim, within six miles of Dublin, and the woods of Shagnessy, in the county of Galway, purchased by Toby Butler, Esq. for about £2,500, which were valued at above £12,000.*

But a better idea of the extent of the forest may be formed, when we examine the causes which lead to their destruction. Great quantities of wood were formerly exported from Ireland. When Boate published his work, the exportation of pipe staves was one of the ordinary branches of industry, so as a mighty trade was driven in them. Whole ship loads were sent into foreign countries yearly, which, as it brought great profit to the proprietaries, so the

felling of so many thousand trees every year did make a great destruction of the forest in tract of time. In the year 1669, the Earl of Strafford furnished Lawrence Wood of London with pipe staves to a great amount, at the rate of £10 per thousand.t

The exportation of wood for pipe staves had but an insignificant effect in accelerating the destruction of the Irish forests, when compared with the vast quantities of wood which were consuined in the reduction of iron ore. Many parts of Ireland contain a great abundance of iron ore, of the very best quality, which is now a useless and unavailing treasure, as there is unfortu nately no corresponding supply of mineral fuel. Formerly this want was less severely experienced, as the woods afforded a ready supply of charcoal; and when the iron works were situated near the coast, or had the advantage of water carriage, the iron trade could be conducted with great advantage. The iron trade appears to have commenced early in the seventeenth century, and to have been carried on with great spirit, till the unhappy events of 1641 suspended every branch of national industry.

On the restoration of tranquillity, the manufacture of iron was resumed with increased vigor. Sir William Petty, himself a manufacturer of iron, informs us, that there were no less than 6000 iron forges in Ireland, which gave occupation in various ways to no fewer than 25,000 persons, either in attending to the furnaces or in cutting down the trees and preparing charcoal. Before the rebellion of 1641, extensive iron works were established by the Earl of Cork in several places in the south of Ireland. Sir Charles Coote's iron works in Roscommon, Leitrim, and at Mountrath, in Queen's County, gave occupation to no fewer than twenty-five hundred people. There were similar establishments in Fermanagh, in King's County, and various

places throughout Ireland. Such was the spirit with which this branch of trade was carried on, that iron works were established on the sea coasts of Ulster and Munster; and as the land carriage of the ore was too expensive, when brought from the interior of the country, the necessary supplies were imported from England. The rate of profit of these undertakings varied with the locality, depending very much on the facility with which the materials could be transported by water. Boate, to whom we are indebted for most of these interesting details, states, that the manufactured iron cost Sir Charles Coote from ten to eleven pounds per ton, and was sold at the rate of seven teen pounds per ton.

"The Earl of Cork, whose iron works being seated in Munster, afforded him very good opportunity of sending his iron out of the land by shipping, did in this particular far surpass all others, so that he gained great treasures thereby; and knowing persons, who had a particular insight into his affairs, do assure me that he had profited above one hundred thousand pounds by his said iron works."

It is easy to conceive the havoc such an extensive iron trade must have caused in our forests, and the rapid change which the aspect of the country must have suffered, and how much of what was beautiful in its mountain scenery effaced. Smith, in his history of Kerry, when speaking of the iron works of Glencara, states that all or the greater part of the hills and mountains hereabouts, were formerly covered with trees which have been destroyed by the iron works erected near the river Carra, by Sir William Petty, and carried on till a few years ago, when the workmen were obliged to stop working for want of charcoal. Such was the fate of the forests, and finally of the iron furnaces; they

ceased together, although some of the latter survived till after 1745.*

Although the iron works yielded very large profits to their owners, motives of a different but no less pow. erful nature operated in stimulating the trade. It was desirable to cut down the forests which afforded shelter to the turbulent, and also to bring as much land as possible under cultivation. Smith, in his history of Waterford, says, that the destruction of the woods was chiefly intended in the erecting of iron furnaces.

"The English formerly considered this kingdom much in the same light as our planters do America at present, a place overgrown with woods, although all methods were to be taken to clear the country of timber, to which these works much contributed."

The consequence of this idea was, that in those places where one was not to be had, or the amount of land earriage rendered the smelting unprofit able, the trees were cut down and allowed to rot or used as fuel. Hence in many places throughout the country, the tenant was bound by the terms of his lease to cut down a given number of trees every year. Such was the fate of the woods of Ireland; and although the destruction of a vast quantity of timber was necessary for the progress of agriculture and the general prosperity of the country, we cannot but regret that the warfare was carried on to utter extermination, and that the beauty of the scenery has suffered such injury. But mankind are ever apt to run to extremes, and the former neglect of planting in this country admitted of the same apology as has been urged in defence of the same neglect in America at present. What pleasure can those take in planting whose lives are employed in cutting down trees?

The forests of Ireland consisted chiefly of the Scotch fir, the oak, and the yew; but the ash and the elm were probably rare. A few of the ancient patriarchs of our forests still survive, whose magnitude and beauty established the fact that there is nothing in the soil or climate of Ireland unfavorable to the growth of timber. The splendid oak of Portmore in the county of Antrim, which was cut down only a few years ago, measured forty two feet in circumference. This was only six feet less than the circumference of the celebrated Cawthorpe oak, the finest tree of the kind in England.

Ireland can boast of several magnificent specimens of the ash and the elm, the most of which still subsist, or at least did so till a very recent period. At St. Wolstans, in the county of Kildare, there was an elm, perhaps the finest of the kind in this or any country. The diameter of its head, taken from the extremities of its lower branches, exceeded 34 yards, and the stem was 38 feet 6 inches in circumference. This noble tree was prostrated by a storm in 1776. The age of this tree is unknown, but tradition supposes it to have been planted by the monks of St. Wolstans, before the dissolution of that monastery, which happened in 1538.+ Several beautiful specimens of the ash occur in Ireland. The old ash of Donerey has a circumference of 42 feet. The trunk, as is the case with many old trees, is hollow, and formerly served as a school. Near Kennely church, in King's County, there is an ash, cele brated for its great dimensions, and for certain religious ceremonies, which have for many years been observed respecting it. The lower people, when passing by with a funeral, lay the corpse down for a few minutes, say a prayer, and then throw a stone to increase the number which have been accumulating for ages around the root. The circumference of this tree is nearly 22 feet. The finest tree of the kind in the empire, is the ash of Sein, in Queen's County.

"This celebrated piece of antiquity," says Mr. Hayes, "stands on the high road between Monasteriven and Portarlington, and though it has long ceased to have any pretensions to beauty, is still

one of the most picturesque objects of the kind I have ever met with. One foot from the ground it was 40 feet 6 inches round. This massive stem is full nine feet high, and some of the branches extend full 70 feet."

The yew tree was formerly very common in Ireland, and many fine specimens of this beautiful but sombre tree still subsist. Smith informs us that it formerly grew in prodigious quantities in the south of Ireland, until they were cut down to afford fuel for the iron furnaces. One of the finest yews in the country, formerly grew near the Seven Churches, in the county of Wicklow. It had a circumference of 16 feet, and was justly esteemed one of the ornaments of that romantic spot, where its great age, and the feelings of sadness which this tree is so apt to excite, rendered it an appropriate accompaniment of the ruined buildings and gloomy solitude of the place. About fifty years ago, the principal branches were sawed off, by the agent for the see, and sold for the value of the timber.

"From that time to the present," says Mr. Hayes, "the poor remains have been in a constant state of decay, and it has scarcely put out a branch. The bark has fallen off, and a large holly has grown up through the fissures of the stem."

conse

It is not improbable that this Yew was formerly planted in the vi cinity of the church-yard, in confor have prevailed throughout the country. mity with a custom which appears to If we calculate its age by the number of lines in its diameter, we may infer that it was planted sometime during the ninth century, and was quently one of the oldest trees in the country. The yew appears formerly to have been held in great estimation, from religious feelings, as well as from the uses to which it was applied. The Abbey of Newry has derived its name from the yew trees which grew in its vicinity; hence it was called, in the monkish Latin of the time, Monasterium de viride ligno; in Irish, Na Jur, or the newries, or yew trees-an appellation still applied to the town of Newry by the country people. The seal of the abbey was a mitred abbot, sitting in a chair, supported by two yew trees.‡

king. To connect these changes with the topic before us, requires but few words. Sheridan's prospects rose and sunk with his friends, and as their intervals of power were thus transient, they can be supposed to have had little immediate connexion with the events of his life, further than the continued occasion which political vicissitude affords, for the exertion of talent. The names of those great men who have stamped the opinions and controversies of the day in which they lived, with the permanency of their genius, are still standing topics of earnest and sometimes inflamed dissension among those who have occasion to revert to their period. Nor is it possible to touch its history without, in some degree, affirming the standard by which we would characterize them and their actions. However we may settle with our Whig opponents the precise limits within which the balancing powers of the constitution should be severally advanced or restrained, we must assert, that in their struggle for supremacy, the Whigs of that reign went unjustifiable lengths and maintained dangerous principles. The time also was itself pregnant with the elements of revolution; a power was abroad which demanded rather

a counteraction than an impulse. At a time when kingly power was beginning to be menaced from abroad: a combination of ability such as was not known before or since was engaged in an illtimed if not unconstitutional design to reduce the power of the crown. The ambition of individuals and the spirit excited by concert and opposition precipitated their actions. And but for the firmness of George III. the sagacity of Mr. Burke, and the providential accession of the Pitt administration the crown might have been trampled under foot, and the tempest of revolution would have broken in half a century sooner over the ruins of the constitution. Such was the state of parties, when the history of the Prince of Wales becomes so intimately connected with the fortunes of the subject of this sketch, that we must enter somewhat more largely into its particulars.

The Prince of Wales had become intimately acquainted with the great Whig leaders at Devonshire house, where the Whiggism of the day appears to have established its head quarters, and doubtless to have gained proselytes by the magnificence and luxury of its attire, as well as by the splendid

concentration of its genius. He was for a time dazzled by a combination of wit, wisdom, knowledge, and genius, unparalleled in English history; and was at the same time impelled on the other side, by a harshness, which, while we pronounce it justifiable, we admit to have been extreme, and therefore doubt to have been judicious on the part of his father.

George III, an eminent example of all the domestic virtues, had devoted himself with firm and uncompromising fervor to reform the excessively libertine spirit of his reign. The most disgraceful and disgusting vices seem to have basked in the noonday, unreproved by public feeling, and were not considered to detract from the reputation of eminent public men. It will be sufficient authority on this head to quote one sentence from a very able and we believe honest Whig writer :

"It is indisputably true, that his connection with the Whig party and its illustrious chief, which now began, favored his own bias to dissipation. They were almost all persons who indulged in horseracing, gaming, social pleasures. In short, tered vices of high life, which, far from those fashionable irregularities and charlustre to their talents, public services, and debasing their characters, gave relief and patriotism."

We shall not stay to discuss the delicate question, as to the worth, sincerity, and genuineness of the public virtues and services which were set off by so portentous a lustre; we should fear to join in a part similar to that acted by the wives of a middle-aged man of whom we are told by the fabulist, that while the younger pulled out all the grey hairs, the elder, with equal industry, eradicated the black; so that between them the poor man was put to the cost of a wig. George III, whose feelings as a man, a father, and a king, were equally outraged by the conduct of the Prince, and by his friends, was zealous to arrest a course so ruinous and offensive to decency and religion, by taking a decided course of resistance and opposition. It was not merely his wish to control extravagant expenditure, or to restrain dissolute courses by the natural counteraction of the domestic affections. The compromise to the Prince's reputation; the danger to his future peace; the seeming unconstrained lavishness of his expenditure; the fatal sanction to all that was contemptible, profligate,