Englishman has more courage; the American more spirit. The former would be better in defence, the latter in attack. A beaten Englishman is formidable still-A beaten American is good for nothing, for a time.

The countenance of the Englishman is florid: not sharply, but strongly marked; and full of amplitude, gravity, and breadth; that of an American has less breadth, less gravity, less amplitude, but more vivacity, and a more lively character. The expression of an Englishman's face is greater; that of the American, more intense.

In the self-satisfied, honest, hearty, and rather pompous expression of an English face, you will find, when it is not caricatured, a true indication of his character. Other people call him boastful, but he is not. He only shews, in every look and attitude, that he is an Englishman, one of that extraordinary people, who help to make up an empire that never had has not, and never will have, a parallel upon earth. But then, he never tells other men so, except in the way of a speech, or a patriotic newspaper essay:

And so, in the keen, spirited, sharp, intelligent, variable countenance of an American, you will find a correspondent indication of what he is. He is exceedingly vain, rash, and sensitive: he has not a higher opinion of his country, than the Englishman has of his; but then, he is less discreetmore talkative, and more presumptuous; less assured of the superiority, which he claims for his country; more watchful and jealous; and, of course, more waspish and quarrelsome, like diminutive men, who, if they pretend to be magnanimous, only make themselves ridiculous; and being aware of this, become the most techy and peevish creatures in the world.

The Englishman shews his high opinion of his country by silence; the American his, by talking: one, by his conduct; the other by words: one by arrogance, the other by supercilious

ness.

The Englishman. is, generally, a better, braver, and a nobler minded fellow, than you might be led to believe from his appearance. The face of an American, on the contrary, induces you to believe him, generally, a better man than you will find him.

But then, they are so much alike;

or rather there are individuals of both countries, so like each other, that I know many Americans who would pass everywhere for Englishmen ; and many Englishmen who would pass anywhere for Americans. In heart and head, they are much more alike, than in appearance or manners.

An Englishman, when abroad, is reserved, cautious, often quite insupportable, and, when frank, hardly ever talkative; not very hasty, but a little quarrelsome nevertheless: turbulent, and rather overbearing, particularly upon the continent. At home, he is hospitable, frank, generous, overflowing with honesty and cordiality, and given to a sort of substantial parade—a kind of old-fashioned family ostentation.

But the American is quite the reverse. Abroad, he is talkative, noisy, imperious; often excessively impertinent, capricious, troublesome, either in his familiarity, or in his untimely reserve; not quarrelsome,-but so hasty, nevertheless, that he is eternally in hot water. At home, he is more reserved; and, with all his hospitality, much given to ostentation of a lighter sort; substitute-finery and show.

An American is easily excited ; and of course, easily quieted. An Englishman is neither easily quieted, nor easily excited. It is harder to move the latter; but once in motion, it is harder to stop him.

One has more strength and substance; the other more activity and spirit. One has more mind, more wisdom, more judgment, and more perseverance, the other more genius, more quickness of perception, more adventurousness.

The

The Englishman's temper is more hardy and resolute; that of the American more intrepid and fiery. The former has more patience and fortitude, the latter more ardour. Englishman is never discouraged, though without resources: the American is never without resources, but is often disheartened. Just so is it with the female character.

An American woman is more childish, more attractive, and more perishable: the English woman is of a healthier mind, more dignified, and more durable. The former is a flower-the latter a plant. One sheds perfume; the

other sustenance. The English woman is better fitted for a friend, a counsellor, and a companion-for the mother of many children, and for the partnership of a long life. But the American woman, particularly of the south, is better fitted for love than counsel :child-bearing soon destroys her. A few summers, and she appears to have been born a whole generation before her husband. An Englishwoman has more wisdom; an American more wit. One has more good sense; the other more enthusiasm. Either would go to the scaffold with a beloved one: but the female American would go there in a delirium; the Englishwoman deliberately, like a martyr.

And so, too, is the American to be distinguished from the Irishman. The Irish are a gallant, warm-hearted, headlong people; eloquent, feeling, hasty, and thoughtful; great dealers in the superfluous. So are the Americans. But, then, the feeling of the Irish, like their eloquence, is rich, riotous, and florid; while that of the Americans is more vehement, argumentative, and concentrated. The declamation of the American is often solemn and affecting-often too dry for endurance; generally too cold and chaste for enthusiasm; and sometimes exquisitely extravagant.

The Irishman is a hurrying, careless, open-hearted fellow, as likely to do wrong as right, in a moment of exultation. But nothing can be more tiresome than the pleasantry of an American, when he feels disposed to be very facetious. There is nothing of that voluble drollery, that uninterrupted flow of sentiment, fun, whim, and nonsense, in his talking, which we find in that of an Irishman at such a time.

The chivalry of an Irishman has a headlong fury in it which is irresistible. It is partly constitutional, and often miraculous. But it differs about as much from the chivalry of an American, as that does from the deep, constitutional, collected bravery of the Englishman, or the profound strange

fervour of the Scot.

An American would make a dozen fortunes while a Scot was making one; but then the American would often die a poor man, over head and ears in debt-the Scot never. An American finds it harder to keep a fortune, a Scot harder to make one.

A Scot would do the same thing over and over again all his life long, to obtain a competency for his children. An Irishman would sooner be shot at once a-week at the distance of ten paces. An American would do neither; but, if there were any new worlds to explore, or serpents to catch, that would pay well,' he would go to the bottom of the ocean after them in a contrivance of his own.

Everybody has read of Smollet's Irishman, who desired his companion, while he knelt down, and hammered the flint of his pistol, which had missed fire, to "fire away, and not be losing time;" and everybody has acknowledged, that, whether true or false, it was perfectly natural; but could only be believed of an Irishman.

So, too, it is told of an Englishman, that his house having taken fire-containing all that he was worth-finding that he could be of no use in putting it out, he went, and sat down upon a neighbouring hill, and took a drawing of it. Such a story would never have been invented of an American.

And so, too, the well-known anecdote of the young Scot, whose coolness in such an emergency, is a capital specimen of the moral sublime.-"Whare are ye gangin, lad?”—“ Back again." Nothing can be more absolutely Scotch. I would trust to it in the hottest fire of another Waterloo.

But I know something of an American quite as characteristic "Can you carry that battery, sir?" said an American general to Colonel Millar, in the heat of Battle." I'll try-" and the battery was immediately carried at the point of the bayonet.

But, in this answer, there was not a little of that affectation of Spartan dryness which I have often met with in the Americans. Commodores Perry and Macdonough gave a fine specimen of it in their official communications; probably thinking of Lord Nelson's dispatch from Trafalgar.

Not long since, I met with an amusing example of this national vanity of which I have been speaking in the Americans. General Jackson was one of the candidates for the presidency. The papers were ringing with his name; and, go where I would, in some parts of the country, I could hear nothing but what related to the "hero of New Orleans."

Among others, a German undertook

to convince me, that, if General Jackson should become President of the United States, his name alone was so terrible to the rest of the world, that they would have nothing to fear in America. I remember his very words. "So gross," said he, " ist der Ruf seines namens, durch die ganze zivilisirte welt, dass keine nation es wagen würde uns

zu beleidigen, wenn er am Ruder des staats stünde!!"

Let it be remembered, that, in drawing this parallel, I have only given the general character of an Englishman and American. Exceptions, of course, continually occur. X. Y. Z.

London, July 1, 1824.

We have heard it made frequently a matter of serious complaint, that Ire land has of late become a sort of standing dish in all our periodical works, on which we compel our readers to gorge themselves usque ad nauseam.

The

same complaint is heard regularly in Parliament, and, in truth, we do not wonder at it. Yet what does it, after all, prove, but that there must be something so out of joint in the affairs of that province, that men's minds are drawn from the consideration of the easy working of the machines of government in every other district of the country, to consider what can be the reason of so notorious an irregularity in that quarter. In truth, we have discovered that it is the opprobrium regni-the hair-suspended scimitar which troubles us in the else uninterrupted enjoyment of the fullest feast of prosperity ever vouchsafed to a nation.

Our Whig ancestors governed Ireland with the sword, and enforced peace and tranquillity by the severity of penal laws. In those days Ireland was no trouble to us. We never heard of its existence as a region of turbulence. The storm of the Pretender never disturbed the political atmosphere of the island; and the only precaution deemed necessary to keep her quiet during that hurricane was to send the legislator of bows and curtseys, the Prince of Carpet-knights, my Lord of Chesterfield, to do the amenities at the Castle of Dublin. Other times, however, soon came, and other agents, till then unheard of, were called into action. The fear of the Pretender vanished, and the revolution of the Ame

rican colonies called up new ideas of provincial importance. The question now was, not whether the sister kingdoms were to be united under the regal sceptre of a Stuart or of a Guelph, but whether they were to be united at all.

They who first agitated political matters under the new views opened to party, disclaimed, no doubt, such an intention. They clamoured but for free trade, which must have come when commercial principles were better un derstood in England-and coming spontaneously, would of course have been of more substantial benefit than when wrung from a reluctant and pluckless cabinet, by noisy defiance and irritating oratory. They, seated for rotten boroughs, and the creatures of a proud aristocracy, made tumultuous appeals for Parliamentary reform-not that they cared a farthing about it, but because it was at that time one of the most popular engines of discontent. They organized under false pretences, an armed force called the Volunteers, and summoned meetings of military delegates to bully Parliament with documents under the title of petitions, but in the tone and spirit of manifestoes. It is in vain to deny it, that many of the leaders of that day aimed at the then fresh glories of George Washington.

Their wishes were not destined to be gratified, but their intrigues had created a new power in Ireland. They mooted, among other topics, the question of Catholic Emancipation. Their education and political views are sufficient to convince us, that they had no affection for the dogmata of that reli

VOL. XVI.

N

gion, or any desire to extend the empire of the priesthood. No, but they flattered themselves, that when their own objects were accomplished, when they had set up a republic of their own, under whatever livery of motley it might please them to decorate it, they would be able to quell superstition in all the phases of the Christian worship. The prominent object of their hatred was of course the Established Church, and they cared not with what auxiliaries they linked themselves, so as to work it harm and overthrow. Hence, and hence only, were the Irish told of the majority which the Roman Catholics had in Ireland-of the vile monopoly of the church-of the hideous oppression of tythes-and the lower orders, who had formerly remained quiescent under the now so much stigmatized severity of the Whig Penal Code, were stimulated into murderous action against the clergy, their agents, and their friends. It required no ghost to tell us that a mob of savages let loose would not stop at the point desired by the original agitators. From waging war against tythes, they soon came to a resolution to wage war against the state; and the Whiteboys, Rightboys, Levellers, Defenders, &c. &c., were agents ready prepared for the actual insurgents of 1798.

In the midst of these events came the French Revolution; and with it, the principles which we can now so well appreciate. The hideous countenance of Jacobinism had not yet glowered out; and the future murderers, with a thirst of blood raging in their hearts, wore the mask of universal benevolence. Their fraternal offers found ready listeners in Ireland. The Whigs, it is true, recoiled terrified at "the sound themselves had made;" but their pupils were now trained and ready to spurn their former tutors. Theobald Wolfe Tone, who was afterwards one of the most sanguine and sanguinary rebel chiefs, in his very curious autobiography (which is the only readable article in Colburn's last New Monthly, a periodical which we perceive Mr Campbell's Irish correspondents have made the regular Whiteboy Gazette of London) informs us, that he was much assisted in his traitorous views by one of the very few honest men in the Irish HOUSE OF COMMONS." [A precious M. P. "It was he who

first turned my attention to this great question"-[that of separating Ireland from England" but I very soon ran far a-head of my master."—[N. M. Magazine, No. XLIII. p. 10. The new leaders called on the unhappy demi-civilized rabble of the country, and they plunged into war with all the improvidence of savages, and the diabolical zeal of intolerant fanatics. The result was of course what might have been expected. Had the rebellion succeeded, it would have been not more væ victis, than va victoribus. It would have been followed by the extirpation of heresy by sword and faggot. To use the words of a noted leader to one of the original Presbyterian United Irishmen in the north-" When the men of the Church had been gorged for dinner, the men of the Presbytery should serve for the next morning's breakfast." The Jacobins looked for democracy their savage allies for what they would have called a theocracy→→→ and, as one of the disappointed aspi rants for the independence of Ireland was afterwards in the habit of saying, in either case, the proper appellation for the government which must have resulted, would have been, whatever Greekish compound is used to express a government of the Devil.

The Union followed the Rebellion. No measure could be more necessary in every point of view. We certainly shall not stop to discuss the policy or the impolicy of such a measure now, with such a reasoner as Mr Thomas Moore, the biographer of Captain Rock. It is open to the same obloquy as the Union with Scotland formerly was, and from the same class of people. Local importance was affronted

day-dreams of imperial independence marred for ever. Is it wonderful that people, whose arena for political discussion, which was at the same time the passport to political importance, was taken away, should feel sore at the dissolution of the Irish Parliament-that most intolerable of nuisances? Is it wonderful that the canaille, full of the recollection of the misty grandeur, cast over the aboriginal savages who held their sceptres by lying chroniclers, and also taught by the successors of the said chroniclers to look forward in abounding hope to the day when the total separation of the insular governments should restore not only the natural splendour,

but the cherished faith of her "millions"-should look with jealousy or indignation on a measure which put a final extinguisher on such hopes? Nor shall we omit, in forming a catalogue of the reasons which continue the sorrow for the Union through Ireland-the patriotic exertions of such eminent and respectable characters as the poet of the Fudge family, and the novelist of the Wild Irish Girl-to pass by some score less noted, though not less active, poisoners of the public mind.

As long as the war, and the high prices consequent on it, continued, the flame of discontent did not blaze forth. When Ireland, in common with all the empire, felt the depression arising from the change of war to peace, then it was visible. Ireland could bear depression worse than any part of the empire. The improvidence of her gentry had made them imagine that the war would last for ever, and on the strength of this, they had plunged themselves into contracts, impossible to perform without ruin. The lower orders, dependant on the lowest quality of food, could not descend in the scale without starvation. Hence followed bankruptcy of the upper classes-famine among the lower-and thence arose Captain Rock. His name marks the feeling with which the insurrec tion originated. Moore, with that bad faith which has at all times characterized him, pretends to be dubious as to its derivation. He well knows that the class of people from whose ranks the Captain is drawn, look on the Roman Catholic Church, as the Rock of the Christian faith, and set up their leader as its champion. With the ignorance of poor deluded peasants, they attributed their actual depression to the tythes, well remembering the lessons taught them by their old Whig landlords, and the false and intemperate speeches of Mr Grattan and his associates. By attacking the property of the clergy, they were not only ministering to their own wants, as they imagined, but doing some thing vastly heroic towards extirpating heresy.

Behind the curtain were, and are, some men of higher rank than the miserable agents who spread brutal and unmanly murder over some of the fairest provinces of Ireland: but the mere Captain Rock is as unpoetical a

savage as can be conceived. A low, skulking, cowardly, and sanguinary vagabond, crouching from the gallows, and flying at the presence of an armed policeman, unless backed in something of the ratio of a hundred to one. They are poor wretches, on whom the soldiery, when called out against them, deem it a pity to waste powder, and whom the magistrates who try them endeavour to save from the punishment due to their crimes by law, by taking hold of every quirk in their power, out of sheer compassion. Such, however, are the heroes of Mr Moore;

and for the tremendous heartlessness with which he advocates their cause, he gets deserved and heightened rebuke in one of the most excellent works that we have ever seen on the subject of the unhappy disturbances of Ireland—we mean “ Captain Rock detected by a Munster Farmer." We copy from his eleventh chapter-headed, Amusements of the Irish Peasants—

Through Connaught, Leinster, Munster,
Ulster,
Rock's the boy to make the fun stir.~~

Thomas Moore.

"There is, I am told, a genius for happiness; and there are men who can find satisfaction even in the atrocities at which the

generality of mankind are grievously shocked. One writer of our days, in stately phrase and philosophical calmness of temperament, pronounces our disturbances to be a war! and invests pillage, and treachery, and murder, in the dignity of military stratagem and martial achievement. Another writer, the missionary, finds Captain Rock and his followers to be men after his own heart, and over their glorious exploits—the prudence of their retreats where they are opposed, and the heroism with which they massacre the unarmed and unresistinghas sported amiably. Bless his merry heart, it fits him well for his employment. The missionary is Captain Rock's favoured laureat. I have not the genius, or the kindred spirit by which one must qualify for such a post. I am but the humble and faithful historian; and as such, I am to describe the character of the exploits which have animated the missionary into such an enthusiasm of admiration.

"I will not dwell upon such glorious feats as were performed in my neighbourhood the other day, when a daring multitude seized upon an individual whose cousin had offended, and slew him in fair fight; and when, before life was quite extinct, one of the dauntless train lifted the body from the earth, carried it to a little distance,