Of Mr. Perrin's successor, Mr. O'Loghlen, it is superfluous to speak here at any length. He has recently added to his high character, by an admirable speech on the Irish Corporations; in the reform of which, as well as in the several proper functions of his office, he treads wisely and worthily in the footsteps of his predecessor. His appointment was most acceptable to the people of Ireland; who received it as a farther pledge of the sincerity of the Government, and of its desire to administer the affairs of the country by men who had deserved its confidence and affection.

Mr. Blackburne had left a deputy behind him, in the law office, Sergeant Greene, who had cognizance and controul of all public' prosecutions. Applications also, and recommendations for pardons, and remissions of punishment; together with the reports of the judges on circuit, and all representations relating to the conduct of magistrates and police, went through the hands of Sergeant Greene. He was not precisely the person whom a Government, which meant all that Lord Mulgrave's Government professed, would choose to consult; nor would the friends of such a Government have desired him for a medium of unreserved communication on all those subjects. It was also deemed that the learned Sergeant's liability to be called on to act as a judge, (in point of fact, he had gone the previous circuit in the place of Judge Vandeleur,) was incompatible with his duties as a director of Crown prosecutions. With the full approbation, therefore, of the Lord-Lieutenant, Sergeant Greene was invited to retire from the law office; and his place was supplied by Mr. Maziere Brady, in whose character are combined, with the most sterling principles, a clear, vigorous, and well-informed understanding, and a perfect knowledge, acquired in the course of a successful practice, of his profession.

One more clearance was yet to be made, without which, all the reformation that had taken place, would have been as " the sweeping of the house with à fox's tail." Sir William Gosset,

Mr. Perrin is now a Judge of the Court of King's Bench; and of the manner in which he acquits himself in that situation, The Southern Reporter, a paper published in Cork, and conducted with singular ability and impartiality, gives the following

account:

Mr. Justice Perrin.—Mr. Justice Perrin came amongt us at the last assizes for the first time since his elevation to the Bench. His character för integrity and kindliness of disposition as a man, and for extensive and profound knowledge of his business as a lawyer, preceded him. Those attributes were fully exemplified in the progress of the public business. He treated the legal topics which arose with the sound judgment and acute perception for which he is distinguished. The criminal business was handled with patience, temper, and extreme humanity. The unhappy individuals who are now placed in such an awful predicament had all the advantages arising from a full, fair, and compassionate investigation of their case by scrupulous juries and a constitutional judge.

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was still the Under-Secretary. His office was the "Dilly" wherein all the "insides" about Dublin were wont to congregate; and from which it was both expedient and necessary to dislodge him, and them, with all decent and practicable dispatch. This, too, was accomplished, and in a manner the most kind and considerate: for, instead of leaving the worthy knight to the consolations of his pension, which might have been very well done, he was promoted to the office of Sergeant-at-Arms; which we wish him life and health long to fill, with that universal urbanity, which is perhaps better suited to such a situation, than manners of a rougher, though not less genuine, quality.

There is scarcely an office, under the Crown, which it is of greater importance to Ireland, to have filled by an able and honest man, than this one of the Under-Secretary. The present generation has never seen it so well filled as it now is. Mr. Drummond is too well known, by the valuable services rendered by him to the cause of Reform, to require any other testimonial of the truth and force of his attachment to popular Government. In Manchester, in Birmingham, in Leeds, Monumentum si quæras, circumspice. Wherever the franchise has been created, or extended, as long as the English Reform Bill endures, his devotion to that cardinal principle, will be defined by landmarks, which corruption cannot remove. We have heard Mr. Drummond praised by some persons, who thought they were complimenting him highly, when they spoke of him as "an excellent man of business." But without the primary and essential requisite, Principle, pure and decided, though he were gifted with all the man-of-business-like perfections that ever were imputed or imagined, throughout the whole recorded series of Under-Secretaries, he would have been unfit to conduct the practical details of Lord Mulgrave's Government. He does, indeed, possess such qualifications in excellent subordination to endowments of a much higher range and mark; and in him they are the more effective, and their results the more conspicuous, because the spirit goes along with the act, and diffuses itself, under his active and anxious superintendence, through every department of office, which is subject to his controul.*

The Irish people had often been deluded by professions; but here were acts, so decisive, that they could not be understood or interpreted, in any other sense, than as the earnest and pledge of substantial justice. The people received them as such, and, as a

Mr. Drummond's efforts are admirably supported and seconded by Mr. MacDonnell, the first Clerk in the Chief Secretary's Office, an Irishman of first-rate abilities, and wearing his heart in the right place, for whose appointment to that confidential situation, the Country and the Government owe much to Lord Morpeth, who placed him there.

necessary consequence, gave their confidence heartily, and without reserve, to the Government. The Tory scoff, was, from that time, exploded. They could no longer deride the Irish Government, or insult its destitute condition; for it had a party of, at least, six millions of living souls. The whole heart of Ireland was dedicated to its service and defence, and has continued so, with unabated fervour, to this day.

The Tories now teach their starlings another note. It is no longer "Where is the Government party?" and Echo answers "Where?" For the echo to such a question, should they venture to propose it, would be, not "Where;" but, "Everywhere!" It is not the paucity, but the multitude, of the friends of Government, which stings the souls, and points the satire, of its opponents; and the cry of "O'Connell! O'Connell !" is bandied between solemn senators and hackney scribblers, in their anxiety to mark with opprobrium a bond of strength, of which it would give them unmeasured delight to be able to deny the existence.

It is true, O'Connell is a supporter of the Government; and the support it receives from him is among the strongest assurances which the country has of its vitality. But what of that? Does the support which Mr. O'Connell gives to the Government-his unbought and powerful support-prove the Government to be his creature? We think Sir Robert Peel will hardly affirm such a proposition, whilst he glories in the alliance of Lord Stanley; and whilst the hot blood of the Græmes transfuses itself through the veins of his party. Surely he is not Stanley's servant, nor is Sir James "of the Bright Sword" the breath of his nostrils. They have joined him of their own free will, because they admire his principles, and concur in his plans and projects. But his plans and projects are not theirs, because they approve of them. This is the fair rule of interpretation, in the case of that union; a rule sanctioned alike by candour and common sense. But neither common sense nor candour is admitted as interpreter of the union between O'Connell and the Government, because it would be more convenient for the purposes of a faction, if the world could be induced to believe that every act of the Government, which is approved of by Mr. O'Connell, must of necessity have been dictated by him also.

That charge has been a hundred times advanced; and, notwithstanding its flagrant absurdity, it is still constantly reiterated, by persons who are well aware of its untruth. The Irish appointments, if there were no other evidence to expose the falsehood, would be its sufficient confutation. These were the most important acts of the Government, with respect to Ireland; for, upon them, all its subsequent policy and the execution of all its

intended improvements turned; and they were all made without consulting O'Connell. Had he been required to nominate persons to the several offices which have been filled in Ireland, scarcely one of their present occupants, from the Lord-Lieutenant down to the Chief Clerk, would have been advanced to them. Some he would not have recommended, because he did not know them; some he would have passed by, because he knew, or liked, others better. He would not have thought of Lord Mulgrave for a Chief Governor; Lord Morpeth for a Secretary; and, least of all, Lord Plunket for a Chancellor. He would have given Mr. Drummond's place to an Irishman. He would have bestowed all the law appointments differently from the manner in which they were distributed. To every one of them he would have named another, perhaps not a less eligible, person; and yet the Tories have the effrontery to assert, that these were all of his picking and choosing!

That he approved of those appointments, when made, is quite true; and the readiness with which he acquiesced in them is to be mentioned to his honour. But he could not have done less. Neither he nor any honest man had the slightest grounds for objecting; nor could he have refused his confidence and strenuous support to a Government so constituted. No; powerful as O'Connell is, and implicit as the reliance which the Irish People place in him, yet, had he attempted to resist an Administration framed of materials so unquestionably sound and honest, he would have soon found his opposition futile, and his influence like the efforts of a strong swimmer against the tide. His power, as he has himself often declared, is maintained by the oppression or hypocrisy of bad governments, or by the struggles of a faction ambitious of governing ill. Against a system of justice, and measures substantially beneficent and wise, he can have no power at all.

Lord Mulgrave found the Conservative party fierce and impracticable. A man of nerves less firm, or of patience not so well disciplined, might have despaired of them, as indomitable. They had been lately in the ascendant. The Irish dictatorship of Shaw, who really exercised the power now falsely attributed to O'Connell, had filled them with the most extravagant expectations: and the promotion of Colonel Perceval, and other Orange leaders, to office, among the first acts of Sir Robert Peel's reforming Administration, brought back very excusable visions of glory to their imaginations. Such events were enough to turn stronger heads. For our part, we own that we were as much terrified at them as the Tories were elated. Their joy was, indeed, unbridled; none but those who witnessed their conduct,

at the contested elections of that brief period, can form an idea of the ferocious exultation, and the threats of vengeance, to which, in their moment of fancied triumph, they gave loose. They were actually drunk with the delusion and the insolence which possessed them; nor did the intoxication leave them for many a month after the bursting of their bubble. A firm persuasion prevailed, that the days of the new Administration were numbered, and that it could not possibly last beyond three months. "Then," said they, "the reaction will be complete; the Whigs will bid their last long adieu to power; we shall be replaced upon an immovable basis; and then main basse sur l'étranger'-wo to the wretch who shall speak of reform or popular government in those days!"

Such-so insolent, so vain-glorious, so confident-were the Tory leaders, when Lord Mulgrave took the reins of government in Ireland. They tried to bully him. It was an old trick with the party, when they had a refractory Government to deal with; and they had often found it successful. But, on this occasion, they reckoned without the host. They even descended, in some instances, (if such individuals could descend,) to acts of vulgar personal rudeness. Lord Mulgrave, however, had come to Ireland bent upon a nobler conquest than that of the hollow affections and interested respect of such as they. Their rudeness, therefore, gave him no uneasiness. He took no notice of it; but the country did: and the contempt and disgust which it excited, operated in calling forth an early and most decided expression of public feeling in his favour. The opulent, intelligent, and independent middle classes, came forward to repudiate the imputation cast upon the national character; and, while curates and attornies were running about from house to house, begging signatures to tributes of condolence to Peel, County Meetings were called, in several parts of Ireland, to assure the Lord-Lieutenant of the cordial support of The People.

Much affected contempt has been flung upon those meetings, because the "aristocracy," for the most part, declined to assist at them. In some counties, the High Sheriffs refused to convene such meetings, alleging that they could not concur in their proposed object. This strange assumption of discretionary power is peculiar, we believe, to Irish Sheriffs, who appear to view a County Meeting as an assemblage of the posse comitatus, and absolutely under their control. Such an opinion, which is almost universal in that class, speaks volumes for the state of their political knowledge, and not less emphatically for the kind of constitutional spirit which animates them. Their impediment, however, could not restrain the generous ardour of The People. Meetings, compris