een to the
North Pole; chemists who can extract ice from caloric; transatlantic
travellers and sedentary bookworms; some authors, who own to anonymous
publications they have never written; and others who are suspected of
those they deny; besides the usual quantum of young ladies and
gentlemen, who rest their claims to distinction upon the traditionary
deeds of their great grandfathers."

* * * * *

SOCIETY OF UNITED IRISHMEN.

At the head of the table, which occupied the centre of the apartment,
and in an arm-chair raised by a few steps from the floor, sat the
president of the society of United Irishmen. He alone was covered, and
though plainly dressed, there was an air of high breeding and
distinction about him; while in his bland smile were exhibited, the open
physiognomy of pleasantness, and love-winning mildness, which still mark
the descendants of the great Anglo-Norman Lords of the Pale, the Lords
of Ormond, Orrery, and Arran, the Mount Garrets, and Kilkennys,--in
former times, the great oligarchs of Ireland, and in times more recent,
the grace and ornament of the British court.

The president was the Honourable Simon Butler: beside him, on a lower
seat, sat the secretary. His uncovered head, and unshaded temples
received the full light of the suspended lamp. It was one of those
finely chiselled heads, which arrest the imagination, and seem to bear
incontrovertible evidence of the certainty of physiognomical science. A
dress particularly studied, was singularly contrasted with the athletic
figure and antique bearing of this interesting looking person. For
though unpowdered locks, and the partial uncovering of a muscular neck,
by the loose tie of the silk handkerchief had something of the
simplicity of republicanism, yet the fine diamond chat sparkled at the
shirt breast, and the glittering of two watch-chains (the foppery of the
day), exhibited an aristocracy of toilet, which did not exactly assort
with the Back-lane graces. The secretary of the United Irishmen, was
Archibald Hamilton Rowan.

On the opposite side sat a small, well-formed, and animated person, who
was talking with singular vivacity of look and gesture, to one of
extremely placid and even formal appearance. The first was the gay,
gallant, and patriotic founder of the society, Theobald Wolfe Tone, the
other was the celebrated and clever Doctor Drennan, a skilful physician,
and an elegant writer, who might have pas