another kingdom, which is against Magna Charta. Nay, even though Sir Richard had great tenures from the king, for that was said must be understood within the realms of England. And in Pilknegton's case aforementioned Fortescue declared that the land of Ireland is and at all times hath been a dominion separate and divided from England. How then can the realms of England and Ireland, being distinct kingdoms and separate dominions, be | imagined to have any superiority or jurisdic

by the parliament of Ireland. And the like statute was made the 29th of Henry the Sixth, and in the tenth year of Henry the Seventh, cap. xxiii., Irish statutes. The parliament which was held at Drogheda, before Sir Christopher Preston, deputy to Jasper, Duke of Bedford, lieutenant of Ireland, was declared void, for this reason amongst others, that there was no general summons of the said parliament to all the shires, but only to four. And if acts of parliament made in Ireland shall not bind that people, because some counties were omitted, | tion the one over the other? "Tis absurd to how much less shall either their persons or estates be bound by those acts made in England, whereat no one county or person of that kingdom is present. In the 25th of Edward the First, cap. vi., it was enacted by the parliament of England in these words, Moreover, from henceforth we shall take no manner of aid, taxes, or prizes, but by the common assent of the realm. And again in the statute of liberty by the same king it is enacted, No tollage or aid shall be taken or levied by us or our heirs in our realm, without the good-chief of these most certainly is the power of will and assent of archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, knights, burgesses, and other freeman of the land.

Fifthly, it is inconsistent with the royalties præeminence of a separate and distinct kingdom. That we are thus a distinct kingdom has been clearly made out before. Tis plain the nobility of Ireland are an order of peers clearly distinct from the peerage of England; privileges of the one extend not into the other kingdom; a lord of Ireland may be arrested by his body in England, and so may a lord of England in Ireland, whilst these persons remain sacred in their respective kingdoms. A voyage royal may be made into Ireland, as the year book and Lord Coke tell us, and King John, in the twelfth year of his reign of England, made a voyage royal into Ireland; and all his tenants in chief which did not attend him in that voyage did pay him escuage at the rate of two marks for every knight's fee which was imposed, as appears by the pipe roll, which shows that we are a complete kingdom within ourselves, and not little better than a province, as some are so extravagant as to assert, none of the properties of a Roman province agreeing in the least with our constitution. "Tis resolved in Sir Richard Pembrough's case, that Sir Richard might lawfully refuse the king to serve him as his deputy in Ireland, and that the king could not compel him thereto, for that were to banish him into

fancy that kingdoms are separate and distinct merely from the geographical distinction of territories. Kingdoms become distinct by distinct jurisdictions and authorities legislative and executive, and as a kingdom can have no supreme, it is in itself supreme within itself, and must have all jurisdictions, authorities, and præeminences to the royal state of a kingdom belonging, or else 'tis none. But that Ireland has all these is declared in the Irish statute 33 Henry the Eighth, cap. i. The

making and abrogating its own laws, and being bound only by such to which the community have given their consent.

To conclude all, I think it highly inconvenient for England to assume this authority over the kingdom of Ireland. I believe there will need no great arguments to convince the wise assembly of English senators how inconvenient it may be to England to do that which may make the lords and people of Ireland think that they are not well used, and may drive them into discontent. The laws and liberties of England were granted above five hundred years ago to the people of Ireland, upon their submission to the crown of England, with a design to make them easy to England, and to keep them in the allegiance of the King of England.

The rights of parliament should be preserved sacred and inviolable wherever they are found. This kind of government, once so universal all over Europe, is now almost banished from amongst the nations thereof. Our king's dominions are the only supporters of this noble Gothic constitution, save only what little remains may be found thereof in Poland. We should not, therefore, make so light of that sort of legislature, and as it were abolish it in one kingdom of the three, wherein it appears; but rather cherish and encourage it wherever we meet it.

EARL OF ROSCOMMON.

BORN 1633-DIED 1684.

Soon after his arrival in England Roscommon was made master of the horse to the Duchess of York, and about the same time married the eldest daughter of the Earl of Burlington. Verses began to flow from his pen, and were highly praised; and he and Dryden, who were close friends, projected a design for "fixing and refining the standard of our language." Johnson, in his life of Roscommon, expresses little hope of this project ever being of any real use; but anyhow all chance of carrying it out was destroyed by the turbulence of the times.

In January, 1684, Roscommon decided to remove to Rome, as he foresaw great troubles in the state, giving as his reason for so doing that "it was best to sit near the chimney when the chamber smoked." When about to make his move he was delayed by the gout, and being very impatient, both of the pain and its stoppage of his journey, he called in a French quack. This person dealt with the disease so that he drove it inwards, where it

the poet died, after the fervent utterance of two lines from his own version of "Dies Iræ."

[Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscommon, was born in 1633, and was the eldest son of Sir James Dillon, third Earl of Roscommon. His mother was Elizabeth Wentworth, sister to the Earl of Strafford, then Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, for which reason the poet was christened by the name of Wentworth. When Strafford returned to England he brought young Dillon with him, and placed the youth at his seat in Yorkshire, under the tuition of Dr. Hall, afterwards Bishop of Norwich. The poet soon learned to write Latin with elegance and correctness, though he could never remember a single rule of grammar. On the impeachment of Strafford his nephew was sent to Caen in Normandy, to finish his education under the learned Bochart. From Caen he, after some time, journeyed to Rome, where he busied himself assiduously in the study of antiquities, and in acquiring the Italian language, "which," says one of his biographers, "he spoke with so much grace and fluency that he was frequently mistaken for a native." After the Restoration he returned to Eng-soon became fatal. On the 17th of January land, where he was made captain of the band of pensioners by Charles II. There he indulged in gaming, and fought many duels, but before long he was obliged to go into Ireland, owing to some dispute with the lord privyseal about part of his estate. In Dublin he was looked upon as "certainly the most hopeful young nobleman in Ireland," and soon after a his arrival he was appointed captain of the guards. His vice of gaming clung to him, and involved him in many duels and dangerous adventures. One night he was attacked by three ruffians, but defended himself so well that he killed one, a gentleman coming to his help disarmed another, and the third ran away. Roscommon's ally turned out to be a disbanded officer of good family, but in such poor circumstances that he had not clothes fit to appear in at the castle. However, the grateful poet presented him to the Duke of Ormond, and obtained that nobleman's leave to resign his commission in favour of the officer, who at once became captain of the guards, and enjoyed the post till his death. Roscommon returned to London, drawn thither by the pleasures of the court and the many friendships he had made in that city.

"My God, my Father, and my Friend,
Do not forsake me in my end."

He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

His

Roscommon wrote little, but that little well, thing in which he might well be imitated by more than one of our modern poets. His best works are his Essay on Translated Verse and his translation of Horace's Art of Poetry. translation of the "Dies Ira" is vigorous, and many of his smaller pieces, such as his "Ode upon Solitude," are full of grace. Johnson says, "We must allow of Roscommon, what Fenton has not mentioned so distinctly as he ought, and what is yet very much to his honour, that he is perhaps the only correct writer in verse before Addison." Pope says of him in one place :—

"To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known,

And every author's merit but his own." In another place he gives him credit for morality in an age when every other poet was immoral:

"Unhappy Dryden! in all Charles's days Roscommon only boasts unspotted lays."

Nor is it for my solitude unfit,

For I am with my friend alone,

As if we were but one;

'Tis the polluted love that multiplies,

But friendship does two souls in one comprise.

Here in a full and constant tide doth flow
All blessings men can hope to know;
Here in a deep recess of thought we find
Pleasures which entertain and which exalt the
mind,

And with strict discipline instructed right,
Have learned to use your arms before you fight.
But since the press, the pulpit, and the stage,
Conspire to censure and expose our age,
Provok'd too far, we resolutely must,

To the few virtues that we have, be just,

For who have longed, or who have laboured more
To search the treasures of the Roman store;

Or dig in Grecian mines for purer ore? . . .

The first great work (a task perform'd by few) Is, that yourself may to yourself be true:

Pleasures which do from friendship and from No mask, no tricks, no favour, no reserve;

knowledge rise,

Which make us happy, as they make us wise;
Here may I always on this downy grass
Unknown, unseen, my easy minutes pass:
Till with a gentle force victorious death
My solitude invade,

And, stopping for a while my breath,
With ease convey me to a better shade.

IMITATION OF THE TWENTY-SECOND
ODE OF FIRST BOOK OF HORACE.

Virtue (dear friend) needs no defence,
No arms but its own innocence:
Quivers and bows, and poison'd darts,
Are only used by guilty hearts.

An honest mind safely alone
May travel through the burning zone;
Or through the deepest Scythian snows,
Or where the fam'd Hydaspes flows.
While, ruled by a resistless fire,
Our great Orinda I admire.
The hungry wolves, that see me stray,
Unarm'd and single, run away.
Set me in the remotest place
That ever Neptune did embrace;
When there her image fills my breast,
Helicon is not half so blest.

Leave me upon some Libyan plain,
So she my fancy entertain,
And when the thirsty monsters meet
They'll all pay homage to my feet.

The magic of Orinda's name,
Not only can their fierceness tame,
But, if that mighty word I once rehearse,
They seem submissively to war in verse.

ESSAY ON TRANSLATED VERSE.

Happy that author, whose correct essay
Repairs so well our old Horatian way:
And happy you, who (by propitious fate)
On great Apollo's sacred standard wait,

Dissect your mind, examine every nerve.
Whoever vainly on his strength depends,
Begins like Virgil, but like Mævius ends.
That wretch (in spite of his forgotten rhymes),
Condemned to live to all succeeding times,
With pompous nonsense and a bellowing sound
Sung lofty Ilium trembling to the ground,
And (if my Muse can through past ages see),
That noisy, nauseous, gaping fool was he;
Exploded, when with universal scorn,
The mountain labour'd and a mouse was born.
. . . Each poet with a different talent writes,
One praises, one instructs, another bites.
Horace did ne'er aspire to epic bays,
Nor lofty Maro stoop to lyric lays.
Examine how your humour is inclin'd,
And which the ruling passion of your mind;
Then seek a poet who your way does bend,
And choose an author as you choose a friend.
United by this sympathetic bond,

You grow familiar, intimate, and fond;

Your thoughts, your words, your styles, your souls

agree,

No longer his interpreter, but he . . .

Immodest words admit of no defence;
For want of decency is want of sense.

Yet 'tis not all to have a subject good,
It must delight as when 'tis understood.
He that brings fulsome objects to my view
(As many old have done and many new),
With nauseous images my fancy fills,
And all goes down like oxymel of squills.

On sure foundations let your fabric rise,
And with attractive majesty surprise,
Not by affected meretricious arts,
But strict harmonious symmetry of parts;
Which through the whole insensibly must pass,
With vital heat to animate the mass.

Pride (of all others the most dangerous fault)
Proceeds from want of sense or want of thought.
The men who labour and digest things most,
Will be much apter to despond than boast;
For if your author be profoundly good,
'Twill cost you dear before he's understood.
How many ages since has Virgil writ!
How few there are who understand him yet!
.. Words in one language elegantly us'd,
Will hardly in another be excus'd.

And some that Rome admir'd in Cæsar's time,
May neither suit our genius nor our clime.
The genuine sense, intelligibly told,
Shows a translator both discreet and bold.
I pity from my soul, unhappy men,
Compell'd by want to prostitute their pen;
Who must, like lawyers, either starve or plead,
And follow, right or wrong, where guineas lead!
But you, Pompilian, wealthy, pamper'd heirs,
Who to your country owe your swords and cares,
Let no vain hope your easy mind seduce,
For rich ill poets are without excuse.

Of many faults rhyme is perhaps the cause;
Too strict to rhyme we slight more useful laws,
For that, in Greece or Rome, was never known,
Till by barbarian deluges o'erflown:
Subdued, undone, they did at last obey,
And change their own for their invaders' way.
. . . Oh may I live to hail the glorious day,
And sing loud pæans through the crowded way,
When in triumphant state the British Muse,
True to herself, shall barbarous aid refuse,
And in the Roman majesty appear,

Which none know better, and none come so near.

THE HON. ROBERT BOYLE.

BORN 1626 DIED 1691.

history and acquiring the language. After a sight of Rome he and his brother visited several other places, and in May, 1642, they reached Marseilles. Here they had letters from their father, telling of the outbreak of the Irish rebellion, and saying how hard put to he had been to procure the £250 he sent to carry them home. The money never reached their hands, and they were forced to accompany their tutor to Geneva, where, after a time, some money was raised on jewels, by means of which they continued their journey to England. When they arrived in 1644 they found their father dead.

[Robert Boyle, "a most distinguished philo- | where he spent his time in reading Italian sopher and chemist, and an exceedingly good man," was seventh son of Richard, "the great Earl of Cork," and brother of Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery, of whom we have already spoken. He was born at Lismore, in the south of Ireland, on the 25th January, 1626, and was early committed to the care of a country nurse, with instructions to bring him up as hardy as if he had been her own son. When about three years old he lost his mother, and shortly after had a narrow escape from being drowned. A little later, while in his fourth year, he was sent to Eton, and placed in charge of the provost, Sir Henry Wootton, an old friend and intimate acquaintance of his father. At Eton he remained for three or four years, when his father took him to his own house at Stalbridge in Dorsetshire, where he had for tutor the minister of the place. In 1638 he went with his father to London, and at the end of October in the same year he and his brother Francis were sent abroad on their travels under the charge of a Mr. Marcombes. At Geneva, where their tutor had his family, they halted and pursued their studies quietly for a time, and there Robert renewed and made more perfect his acquaintance with mathematics. A writer in the National Encyclopædia says, "At Geneva the occurrence of an awful thunderstorm awakened religious feelings which actuated him greatly in after life."

Towards the end of 1641 he quitted Geneva, and passing through Switzerland visited most of the principal cities and towns in Italy. During the winter he stayed at Florence,

In 1646 Boyle retired to his manor of Stalbridge, left him by his father, and there applied himself with great industry to studies of various kinds, but chiefly to those of chemistry and natural philosophy. About this time, too, he formed one of the little band of men who held weekly meetings for the promotion of philosophy and science under the title of the Philosophical College, which, on the Restoration, burst into full bloom as the Royal Society. In 1652 he went over to Ireland to look after his property, and after a second visit in 1654 he went to live at Oxford, where he stayed chiefly till 1668. At Oxford he found most of the members of the Philosophical College, and while there he invented the air-pump.

After the Restoration he was treated with great respect by the king and those in authority; but he resolutely refused their request that he should enter into holy orders, thinking that he could be of more benefit to religion as a layman. In 1660 he published his New Ex