the project was driven as far as the verge of civil war; there it was stopped; and this was the first signal triumph of the virtue of the people in Ireland.

If, notwithstanding the impenetrable cloud in which she seemed buried for ever, she has yet broke forth with renovated splendour, and again kindled the spirit of the people, surely it is a grand fact, overbearing at once the efforts of thousands of corrupt cavillers, who cry out that this is not a nation capable of political virtue or steady exertion.

INTERVIEWS WITH BUONAPARTE.

(EXTRACTS FROM TONE'S JOURNAL, DECEMBER, 1797.)

General Desaix brought Lewines and me this morning and introduced us to Buonaparte, at his house in the Rue Chanteraine. He lives in the greatest simplicity; his house is small, but neat, and all the furniture and ornaments in the most classical taste. He is about five feet six inches high, slender, and well made, but stoops considerably; he looks at least ten years older than he is, owing to the great fatigues he underwent in his immortal cam

In one of his inimitable letters on the subject of Wood's halfpence, Swift, with a daring and a generous indignation worthy of a better age and country, had touched on the imaginary dependence of Ireland on England. The bare mention of a doubt on the subject had an instantaneous effect on the nerves of the English government here. A proclamation was issued offering £300 for the author; the printer was thrown into jail; the grand-jury were tampered with to present the letter, and, on their refusing to do so, were dissolved in a rage by the chief-justice, a step without a precedent, save one, which happened in the time of James II., and was followed by an immediate censure of the House of Commons of England. Yet all that Swift had said was that, "under God, he could be content to depend only on the king his sovereign, and the laws of his own country; that the Parliament of England had sometimes enacted laws binding Ireland, but that obedi-paign of Italy. His face is that of a profound ence to them was but the result of necessity, inasmuch as eleven men well armed will certainly subdue one man in his shirt, be his cause ever so righteous, and that, by the laws of God, of nature, and of nations, Irishmen were, and ought to be, as free as their brethren in England." We, who live at this day, see nothing like sedition, privy conspiracy, or rebellion in all this; and we may bless God for it; but in 1724 the case was very different. The printer was prosecuted, and died in jail; Swift escaped, because it was impossible to bring it home to him; and so little were the minds of men prepared for such opinions, that, in a paper addressed to the grand-jury who were to sit on the bills of indictment, Swift is obliged to take shelter under past services, and admit that the words which were taken up by government as offensive were the result of inadvertency and unwariness.

The famous act of the 6th of George I., Swift, with all his intrepidity, does no more than obscurely hint at, a crying testimony to the miserable depression of spirit in this country, when the last rivet, driven into her fetters and clenched, as England hoped, for ever could not excite more than an indistinct and half-suppressed murmur.

From this brief sketch it appears that no prospect could be more hopeless than that the star of liberty should again arise in Ireland.

thinker, but bears no mark of that great enthusiasm and unceasing activity by which he has been so much distinguished. It is rather, to my mind, the countenance of a mathematician than of a general. He has a fine eye, and a great firmness about his mouth; he speaks low and hollow. So much for his manner and figure. We had not much discourse with him, and what little there was, was between him and Lewines, to whom, as our ambassador, I gave the pas. We told him that Tennant was about to depart for Ireland, and was ready to charge himself with his orders if he had any to give. He desired us to bring him the same evening, and so we took our leave. In the evening we returned with Tennant, and Lewines had a good deal of conversation with him; that is to say, he insensed him a good deal into Irish affairs, of which he appears a good deal uninformed; for example, he seems convinced that our population is not more than two millions, which is nonsense. Buonaparte listened, but said very little. When all this was finished, he desired that Tennant might put off his departure for a few days, and then, turning to me, asked whether I was not an adjutantgeneral. To which I answered, that I had the honour to be attached to General Hoche in that capacity. He then asked me where I had learned to speak French. To which I

replied, that I had learned the little that I knew since my arrival in France, about twenty months ago. He then desired us to return the next evening but one, at the same hour, and so we parted. As to my French I am ignorant whether it was the purity or barbarism of my diction which drew his attention, and as I shall never inquire it must remain as an historical doubt, to be investigated by the learned of future ages.

expedition to Bantry Bay. Well, the third time, they say, is the charm. My next chance, I hope, will be with the Armée d'Angleterre.— Allons! Vive la République!

April 1st.-Lewines waited yesterday on Merlin, who is President of the Directory for this Trimestre, and presented him a letter of introduction from Talleyrand. Merlin received him with great civility and attention. Lewines pressed him as far as he could with propriety on the necessity of sending succours to Ireland the earliest possible moment, especially on account of the late arrestations; and he took that occasion to impress him with a sense of the merit and services of the men for whom he interested himself so much on every account, public and personal. Merlin replied that, as to the time or place of succour he could tell him nothing, it being the secret of the state; that, as to the danger of his friends, he was sincerely sorry for the situation of so many brave and virtuous patriots; that, how

January 6th.--Saw Buonaparte this evening with Lewines, who delivered him a whole sheaf of papers relative to Ireland, including my two memorials of 1795, great part of which stands good yet. After Lewines had had a good deal of discourse with him, I mentioned the affair of M'Kenna, who desires to be employed as secretary. Buonaparte observed that he believed the world thought he had fifty secretaries, whereas he had but one; of course there was an end of that business; however, he bid me see what the man was fit for, and let him know. I took this oppor-ever, though he could not enter into the details tunity to mention the desire all the refugee United Irishmen, now in Paris, had to bear a part in the expedition, and the utility they would be of in case of a landing in Ireland. He answered that they would all be undoubtedly, and desired me to give him in, for that purpose, a list of their names. Finally, I spoke of myself, telling him that General Desaix had informed me that I was carried on the tableau of the Armée d'Angleterre; he said I

was.

I then observed that I did not pretend to be of the smallest use to him whilst we were in France, but that I hoped to be serviceable to him on the other side of the water; that I did not give myself at all to him for a military man, having neither the knowledge nor the experience that would justify me in charging myself with any function. "Mais vous êtes brave," said he, interrupting me. I replied that, when the occasion presented itself, that would appear. "Eh bien," said he, "cela suffit." We then took our leave. . . .

We have now seen the greatest man in Europe three times, and I am astonished to think how little I have to record about him. I am sure I wrote ten times as much about my first interview with Charles de la Croix, but then I was a greenhorn; I am now a little used to see great men, and great statesmen, and great generals, and that has, in some degree, broke down my admiration. Yet, after all, it is a droll thing that I should become acquainted with Buonaparte. This time twelve months I arrived in Brest from my

of the intended expedition, he would tell him thus much to comfort him, "That France never would grant a peace to England on any terms short of the independence of Ireland." This is grand news. It is far more direct and explicit than any assurance we have yet got. Lewines made the proper acknowledgments, and then ran off to me to communicate the news. The fact is, whatever the rest of our countrymen here may think, Lewines is doing his business here fair and well, and like a man of honour. I wish others of them whom I could name had half as good principles.

May 20th.-During my stay in Paris I read in the English papers a long account from the Dublin Journal of a visitation held by the chancellor in Trinity College, the result of which was the expulsion of nineteen students, and the suspension for three years of my friend Whitley Stokes. His crime was, having communicated to Sampson, who communicated to Lord Moira, a paper which he had previously transmitted to the lord-lieutenant, and which contained the account of some atrocious enormities committed by the British troops in the south of Ireland. Far less than that would suffice to destroy him in the chancellor's opinion, who, by-the-by, has had an eye upon him this long time; for I remember he summoned Stokes before the secret committee long before I left Ireland. I do not know whether to be vexed or pleased at this event, as it regards Whitley; I only wish he had taken his part more decidedly; for, as it is, he is destroyed

with one party, and I am by no means clear | in times like ours. They must be with the that he is saved with the other. He, like people or against them, and that for the whole, Parsons and Moira, have either their consci- or they must be content to go down without ences too scrupulous, or their minds too little the satisfaction of serving or pleasing any enlarged, to embrace the only line of conduct | party.

CHARLES JOHNSTON E.

BORN 1719 DIED 1800.

[Charles Johnstone, a satirist of such power | only moderately successful, Johnstone deteras to be called by Sir Walter Scott "a prose mined to try his fortune in another part Juvenal," was born in the county of Limerick of the world, and accordingly in 1782 started in the year 1719, and is said to have been for India. On his way thither he was shipdescended from the Johnstones of Annandale wrecked, but his life was saved, and he finally in Scotland. Of his early career little is reached Bengal. In India, as at home, he still known, except that he had the benefit of a continued to write, but there his work was classical education, that he studied for the chiefly for newspapers, and appeared over the bar, and that on being called he chose to prac- signature of "Onciropolos.” In a short time tise in England. Being affected with a degree he became one of the joint proprietors of a of deafness he was principally engaged as a Bengal paper, and acquired a considerable forchamber counsel, and was comparatively suc- tune before his death, which occurred in 1800. cessful. Notwithstanding his defect of hearing, in general society he was welcomed as a lively and companionable man.

About 1759, while on a visit to Lord Mount Edgecumbe in Devonshire, Johnstone amused his leisure hours by the production of a rude sketch of his first work. This appeared in 1760 under the title of Chrysal; or, The Adventures of a Guinea, and is a political romance not unlike the Diable Boiteux. As it set forth in strong colours the secret history of some political intrigues on the Continent, and contained piquant sketches of celebrated living characters, it became at once a success, and a second edition, with additions, was produced and disposed of almost immediately. In 1761 a third edition, with such further additions as increased the work to four volumes, was issued and disposed of.

Encouraged by this success Johnstone continued to use his pen, and in 1762 published another satire entitled The Reverie, or a Flight to the Paradise of Fools. This was followed in 1774 by The History of Arsaces, Prince of Betlis, a sort of political romance. In 1775 appeared The Pilgrim, or a Picture of Life; and in 1781, The History of John Juniper, Esquire, alias Juniper Jack, a romance of low life, as its name would almost indicate.

By this time, as was to be expected, the interest in his satirical works had somewhat subsided, and his other works having been

In a comparison of Johnstone and Le Sage Sir Walter Scott has the following remarks:"As Le Sage renders vice ludicrous, Johnstone seems to paint even folly as detestable as well as ludicrous. His Herald and Auctioneer are among his lightest characters, but their determined roguery and greediness render them hateful even while they are comic." In another place Scott says of Johnstone: "His language is firm and energetic, his power of personifying character striking and forcible, and the persons of his narrative move, breathe, and speak in all the freshness of life. His sentiments are in general those of the bold, high-minded, and indignant censor of a loose and corrupted age; yet it cannot be denied that Johnstone, in his hatred and contempt for the more degenerate vices of ingratitude, avarice, and baseness of every kind, shows but too much disposition to favour Churchill and other libertines, who thought fit to practise open looseness of manners, because, they said, it was better than hypocrisy."]

POET AND PUBLISHER.'

My new master was one of those aspiring geniuses whom desperate circumstances drive to push at everything, and court consequences

1 This and the next extract are from Chrysal.

hundred lines! Such a thing was never heard country from what it is with us, that it requires of in the trade."a particular description to be made intelligible

"Confound your trade, and you together! to you. Here, waiter! what is to pay?"—

"But, dear sir! why will you be in such a hurry? can you not give yourself and me time to consider a little? Perhaps we might come nearer to each other!"

"I have told you before, and I repeat it again, that I will have so much, and that without more words."

"You are very peremptory, sir, but you know your own value, and therefore in hopes you will let me have more for my money next time, I will venture to give you your price now, though really if it was not for your name I could not possibly do it, but to be sure that is worth a shilling extraordinary, I own."

"Which is twelve pence more than yours ever will be, unless to the ordinary of Newgate. But come! give me the money, I want to go to my company."

"Well, sir, this is a hasty bargain, but I take it upon your word, and don't doubt but there is merit in it, to answer such a price. Satire, sir! keen satire, and so plain that he who runs may read, as the saying is, is the thing now o' days. Where there is any doubt or difficulty in the application it takes off the pleasure from the generality of readers, who will scarce be satisfied with less than the very name. That, sir, is your great merit. Satire must be personal, or it will never do."—

"Personal! that mine never shall be. Vices, not persons, are the objects of my satire; though, where I find the former, I never spare the latter, be the rank and character in life what it will."

My master had by this time counted out his money (among which I was), which the author took without telling over, and then went to his company, leaving the bookseller scarcely more pleased with his bargain than mortified at the cavalier treatment he had met in making it.

MILITARY FOPPERY.

The last of the professions called liberal, and justly so ranked, though it arrogates the precedence to itself, is the military, a profession whose first effect is to overturn all the others, however the future establishment of them in greater safety may be its pretended end.

This profession is so totally different in this

War is here a trade learned regularly at home, and the conduct of it studied upon principles which pretend to demonstration.

That impetuous courage in assault, which chiefly determines the matter with us, is reprobated here. An intrepid firmness in the face of danger and cool obedience to command are the only qualifications required in a soldier where myriads are slain without the stroke of a sword, and the victory gained by firearms, the use of which they have brought to a perfection truly dreadful.

In this cool intrepidity, this power over nature to stand to be shot at, the soldiers of this country are said to exceed all others. Indeed they seldom have been vanquished in the field, where the fault has not been evidently in their commander, whereas by their resolution they have often remedied that fault, and snatched the victory against rule.

Nor is their manner of fighting more different from ours than the other operations of their warfare. Before a war is undertaken the expense of it is calculated and provided for, and every kind of military store laid in readiness for use in the places where they shall be wanted before the armies take the field, where they have no other hardships or difficulties to encounter but what are opposed to them by the immediate efforts of their enemies; for which reason they exert all their art in making various movements in order to gain the advantage of situation, the ultimate object of their aim, and that on which victory almost always depends, without feeling any of those wants and inconveniences which make our unprovided armies seek the instant decision of a battle.

In such a kind of warfare it is evident that personal strength is of little avail to the leaders, who enter not into personal conflict with the sword, nor encumber themselves with armour of defence, which cannot avail against the force of the cannon. It is therefore held in no respect. An officer here rather affects infirmity of body to enhance the merit of the strength of his mind. And this is the reason of that effeminacy in their behaviour which appears so inconsistent with their profession, and gives such just offence. While they fear not man in war they think they have a right to all the fears and foibles of woman in peace.

I went yesterday morning to return the visit of a military officer whom I had known in