poverished family survives,
will never suffer Ireland to yield to the stranger more than the 'mouth
honour' which fear compels.(3) I who have conversed viva voce et propria
persona with those whose recollections could run back so far as the
times previous to the confiscations which followed the Revolution of
1688--whose memory could repeople halls long roofless and desolate, and
point out the places where greatness once had been, may feel all this
more strongly, and with a more vivid interest, than can those whose
sympathies are awakened by the feebler influence of what may be called
the PICTURESQUE effects of ruin and decay.

(3) This passage serves (mirabile dictu) to corroborate a
statement of Mr. O'Connell's, which occurs in his evidence
given before the House of Commons, wherein he affirms that
the principles of the Irish priesthood 'ARE democratic, and
were those of Jacobinism.'--See digest of the evidence upon
the state of Ireland, given before the House of Commons.

There do, indeed, still exist some fragments of the ancient Catholic
families of Ireland; but, alas! what VERY fragments! They linger like
the remnants of her aboriginal forests, reft indeed of their strength
and greatness, but proud even in decay. Every winter thins their ranks,
and strews the ground with the wreck of their loftiest branches; they
are at best but tolerated in the land which gave them birth--objects of
curiosity, perhaps of pity, to one class, but of veneration to another.

The O'Connors, of Castle Connor, were an ancient Irish family. The name
recurs frequently in our history, and is generally to be found in a
prominent place whenever periods of tumult or of peril called forth
the courage and the enterprise of this country. After the accession of
William III., the storm of confiscation which swept over the land
made woeful havoc in their broad domains. Some fragments of property,
however, did remain to them, and with it the building which had for ages
formed the family residence.

About the year 17--, my uncle, a Catholic priest, became acquainted with
the inmates of Castle Connor, and after a time introduced me, then a lad
of about fifteen, full of spirits, and little dreaming that a profession
so grave as his should ever become mine.

The family at that time consisted of but two members, a widow lady and
her only son, a young man aged about eighteen. In our early days the
progress from acquai