r. The truth is," said he
rising, "we are in great difficulties in that quarter. The most
thoroughly English portion of the island is at this moment the most
disturbed. There are drillings, purchases of arms, midnight
musterings, and even something not far from prepared attacks upon the
king's troops. The papers among which you found me, contain a regular
and a very complete organization of an insurrectionary government. You
will require all the energy of the soldier and all the prudence of the
statesman."

"Let me add to them," said I, "what is essential to the success of
both in a country of generous hearts and quick conceptions, the
sincerity of a patriot."

"The experiment is worth trying," said he with a smile, "if it were
only for the sake of its novelty. But Ireland has qualities which,
like those of her soil, require only to be turned up to the light to
reward all the labours of wealth or wisdom." Before that evening
closed in, I was a hundred miles on my way to the Irish capital.

A rapid journey, and a tranquil passage over the sixty miles that lie
between Wales and Ireland, gave me what an old Roman would regard as
an omen of the peacefulness of my mission. On the dawn of one of the
finest mornings of the year, I came within sight of the Irish coast,
and was struck, as all travellers have been, by the beauty of the bold
and picturesque coast which rose from the waters before me. In front
was a province of mountains, touched by all the variety of colours,
which are painted in such richness by the summer sun, on groups of
pinnacles and cones, forest hills, and the fine diversities of
woodland and mountain scenery. On one side the eye glanced over a vast
sheet of water, shut in by headlands, and as blue and bright as a lake
under a serene sky. At the extremity of this noble estuary, a cloud,
unchanging and unmoving, showed where a city sent up the smoke of its
ten thousand fires; beyond this, all was purple confusion. My official
rank threw open all the _elite_ of Irish society to me at my first
step; and I found it, as it has been found by every one else,
animated, graceful, and hospitable. The nature of its government
tended to those qualifications. While the grave business of the state
was done in London, the lighter business of show was sedulously
sustained in the Irish capital. The lord-lieutenant was generally a
nobleman, selected more for his rank and his wealth than for his
statesmanship. A rich, sho