where they went, or what had become of the young gentleman. "As I was telling you, Miss Retford, with her father and mother, were then lodging with us. She was a lively light-hearted Miss, and Melbourn, being a long lean defective-looking young man, was often a subject of her merriment between her and the squire. One day, after I had overheard her so scornfully lightlying him, I took occasion to let her know that tho' he couldna help his looks, yet that he was a man of more worth than many who were praised for their comeliness, and I told her the story of the honest sacrifice that had been made to pay our bill. But then she was boldhearted, and overly proud of her prospects and her pedigree. My words were as water spilt on the ground, and I couldna help telling her that I thought she was an ungracious damsel, that would rue the day she ever jeered the hidden grief of honest poverty. And so in the upshot of time this has surely come to pass, for she's the now, the very wedded wife of that same Mr Melbourn. “But I am not yet done with his story. Some time late in the summer after, me and Mr Winsom went to take a stroll in the fields; and strolling in the fields, we came at last to a pleasant tea-garden, which was then situate behind the Foundling Hospital, and we went in, and Mr Winsom thought, seeing we were by ourselves, that we would have a half a pint of wine, the which was brought in a cruet with two glasses, and while we were taking our wine, talking of the pleasures of the season, and making ourselves agreeable, who should come into the gardens and sit down in the alcove next to ours, but Mr Melbourn and his father. They didna see us, and we didna like to speak to them. But we could hear what they said to one another, and you may well guess what I thought when I heard the young gentleman rehearsing the diffi culties he had come through, after the money was all gone which had been received for the plate. But the dark does not endure for ever; while he was reduced to great need, the dawn began to appear. Providence brought him in the street to an old schoolfellow, whose father was a city merchant or alderman in a great way. Beset with his need, Melbourn told his old companion of his sad estate, and so, to make a long tale short, a place was found for him in a counting-house, and, by little and little, he grew to be the toppingest man of all the town. "It's true that he was not so at the time he came into the tea-garden, for he then had been but a few days in his situation. Nevertheless, the guileless old man, his father, was so transported with the change in his prospects, that had he been Lord Mayor of London, he couldna have been so overcome with a fulness of thankfulness. Indeed, he spoke in such a manner, that he filled my eyes with tears, and softened the heart of Mr Winsom to such a degree, that he called for a whole bottle of wine, and invited the two gentlemen to partake of it. "Out of this renewed acquaintance, a friendship began that has never since been broken. But I must now tell you how it was ordained that the saucy heart of that pert lassie Miss Retford came to be softened to the fulfilment of fate." (To be continued.) THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY. THE University of Dublin is the eldest daughter of the Reformation. Too frequently has that spirit, which revolted from the impurities of the church of Rome, been characterised by its opposition to exploded errors, rather than by an enlightened zeal for the substitution of what was more ac cordant with the spirit of the Gospel. It is, perhaps, true, that its ravages were as necessary for the purpose of dislodging superstition from her strong holds, as its calmer and more contemplative labours for giving form and permanency to true religion. But the mind dwells with a grateful complacency upon the one, while no conviction of the advantages conferred by the other, can altogether prevent a distressing sense of the havock and the barbarism by which it was attended. We admire and venerate the great and indomitable Scottish reformer. His zeal, his energy, his courage, his perseverance, his lofty eloquence, his fervid piety-all command attention and are entitled to praise; but he appears to most advantage, at least so we think, when we endeavour to view him alone, and disconnected from the proceedings to which he was accessary, and the circumstances by which he was surrounded. The mind requires to be excited, to an unnatural degree, either to partake in or to approve of devastation and ruin; and, when the causes which justified them have ceased to agitate us, the effects are always unsightly and painful. And therefore the work of reform was but half accomplished by the removal of ancient errors or abuses, until an esta blishment had been founded, and institutions arose, which were calculated to give, to the purified form in which Christianity had appeared, a station and a stability suitable to its dignity and commensurate with its import ance. Elizabeth revived the reformed religion from a state of almost total extinction, until she fanned it into a steady and lasting flame. Her measures were at the same time prudent and bold; and her whole reign characterised by a wisdom and sagacity, both in the planning and the conduct of her measures, of which history affords but few examples. After having established the reformed religion in England, and placed it upon a basis not likely to be speedily subverted, her attention was naturally, and most anxiously, directed to Ireland, in the hope of discovering some remedy for the manifold evils under which it laboured; and the University of Dublin was the ripest as well as the most permanent product of her enlightened enquiries. It was one advantage of the vigorous, and, we must say, somewhat despotic government of Elizabeth, that her ministers could venture to be statesmen, and shape their measures less according to the dictates of popular caprice, and more with reference to the general and lasting interests of the country. They could afford, politically, "to cast their bread upon the waters," in the sure and certain hope" of finding it after many days." The University of Dublin could serve no present purpose, and must involve a considerable expense. How much soever future generations might benefit by it, Elizabeth could have very little hope of seeing any pleasing or useful results from it in her day. But she and her ministers nobly looked beyond present interests and present exigencies, and resolved, in the midst of wars and rumours of wars, to give a beginning to an establishment for the encouragement of sound learning and true religion, for which unborn ages would have reason to bless their memories. The first hint for the establishment of an Irish University was received from Sir John Perrot-who was promoted by Elizabeth to the responsible office of Lord Deputy of Ireland. His plan was, "to dissolve the cathedral of St Patrick, and appropriate the revenues to the foundation and maintenance of two universities." proposal, which is described by Sir James Ware as being very laudable, had it not been founded on the ruin of so ancient a cathedral, was traversed, and, finally, frustrated, by Archbishop "History of the University of Dublin, by W. B. Taylor, page 16. This Loftus; who, naturally, felt some alarm at the contemplated invasion of church property, as well as personal annoyance at the probable loss of income and certain curtailment of patronage, which must have been one of the consequences of the meditated arrangement. But while the sacrifice of St Patrick's cathedral was arrested, the design which it was intended to answer was not lost sight of, and, "The Archbishop was given to understand that it would be an acceptable service to her Majesty, if he could devise any means of realizing at least some part of the design of Sir John Perrot, so as to confer the essential advantage of it upon the country, at the least possible expense to the public revenues. The affair was accordingly taken up by the Archbishop with the animated zeal that characterised his operations; and he soon found the means of accomplishing it without trespassing on the revenues of the church, in defending which he had lately evinced so much resolute alacrity. There was, at that time, in the hands of the corporation of Dublin, a piece of ground of no great value, which had formed the site, ambit, and precinct,' of the Augustinian monastery of All Saints, a priory of Aroasian canons, founded in the year 1166, by Dermot M'Murrough, King of Leinster. It had been one of those ecclesiastical endowments, which, in its day, possessed important privileges, as the Prior enjoyed a seat and suffrage in the House of Lords. Its patronage had been conferred by Pope Honorius the Third, upon Henry de Londres, Archbishop of Dublin, and his successors; but, at the suppression of monasteries by Henry VIII. the mayor and corporation of that city had become possessed of it by royal grant. The buildings were in ruins, but the ground on which they stood appeared to Loftus as calculated to form a most eligible site for the meditated University." The Archbishop is described as a most pathetic orator; and we have little reason to doubt the powers of his eloquence, when we find that they were sufficient to move the corporation of Dublin to make a formal sur render of their lands. This ancient corporation has ever been noted for its loyalty;-its benefactions to learning are not so generally known. And it is pleasing to record this instance of genuine liberality, on the part of Irish tradesmen and mechanics in the reign of Elizabeth; which is so strikingly contrasted with the mock liberality prevailing, at the present day, in much higher quarters; and to which whatever of patronage or encouragement was afterwards bestowed upon piety and learning is chiefly, if not wholely, ascribable. The principal difficulty having been thus overcome, Loftus deputed Henry Usher, afterwards the celebrated Archbishop of Armagh, to solicit the Queen for her royal charter, and also "to procure a license of mortmain, to enable the new corporation to hold the lands granted by the city. The prayer of the petition was, of course, graciously complied with; and a license of mortmain passed the seals by warrant, dated 29th of December, 1591, for the grant of the Abbey, which is recited to be of the yearly value of twenty pounds, and for the foundation of a college by way of corporation, with a power to accept such lands and contributions for the maintenance thereof, as any of her Majesty's subjects would be charitably moved to bestow to the value of four hundred pounds per annum.”† The letters patent passed on the 3d of March following; and we find even in the original design a kind of anticipatory provision for its extension. It is appointed that a college shall be erected, to be the mother of a university; that this college be called “ Collegium sanctæ et individuæ Trinitatis, juxta Dublin, a serenissima regina Elizabetha fundatum;" that it consist of a provost and three fellows, in the name of more, and of three scholars, in the name of more. Loftus, who was at that time both Archbishop of Dublin and Chancellor of Ireland, was nominated the first provost. Henry Usher, Luke Chaloner, and Launcelot Mayne, were appointed the three first fellows; and Henry Lee, William Daniel, and Stephen White, were appointed the three first • Taylor's History of the University of Dublin. + Ibid. scholars. They and their successors for ever were constituted a body politic and corporate, with the usual powers and privileges. The provostship was made elective, as were also the fellowships and scholarships; and the provost, fellows, and scholars, were empowered to make and constitute laws from time to time, for the better government of their body; a power of conferring degrees was also granted; and it was provided, that when the fellows should have completed seven years in their office, from the time of their taking the degree of Master of Arts, they should be displaced from their fellowship, and others elected in their room, for the benefit of the church and the kingdom. Lord Burleigh was the first Chancellor and that office was also declared thenceforth elective; the provost and the major part of the fellows being the electors. The Chancellor, the Vice Chancellor, the Archbishop of Dublin, the Bishop of Meath, the Treasurer at War, the Chief Justice, and the Mayor of the city of Dublin, were the visitors, with power to correct and punish all the graviora crimina, and to determine all such strifes, actions, and controversies, as the provost and major part of the fellows could not compose. Individuals were permitted and encouraged to make donations and confer aids upon the new establishment; and its property was declared to be perpetually exempt from all public burdens. Of a public subscription, which was set on foot by the Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam, the amount does not appear; "but it may be inferred that it was not very considerable, from the returns of Robert Taaffe, one of the persons delegated on that embassy of solicitation, who complains of the prevalent inability which he found, even amongst those who were well disposed to the British government, to afford a liberal compliance with his request." " But not on that account was the good work retarded. On the 13th of March, 1591, the first stone of the building was laid, with great solemnity, by Thomas Smith, mayor of the city; and on the 9th of January, 1593, the first students were admitted. Then came a calamity by which the infant establishment was wellnigh extinguished. It seemed doomed to experience the fate of Marcellus, and to be born only to die. "The endowments of which it had become possess. ed by the munificence of its illustrious founder, lay in the province of Ulster, where the rebellion of Tyrone now raged with implacable fury; and where were seen all the circumstances of armed contention, except discipline and the laws of war. In such a state of things, when the fierceness of party breathed nothing but ravage and desolation, the revenues of the college were rendered nugatory; and the foundation must have been as effectually dissolved as if its charter had been rescinded, were it not for the anxious interest which Archbishop Loftus evinced towards its welfare. That spirited prelate happened to be, at that time, one of the Lords Justices, on whom the civil government of Ireland devolved; and the authority of his high station enabled him, without much delay, to realize his benevolent intentions. He made the necessities of the University a consideration of state, and the urgency of the crisis was met by a prompt application of relief, which secured it from the immediate shock of perilous events." The relief consisted in the grant of a "concordatum of forty pounds per annum, and an allowance of six dead payes, (morte payes) out of such checques as should be imposed on her Majesty's army." The forty pounds were ordered to be paid quarterly; and the dead payes, which amounted to seventy pounds ayear, to be paid every month.† Nor did the fostering liberality of Elizabeth's government stop here. Other aids were granted, as the exigencies required, and the cradle of learning and the arts was only rocked by the earthquake, by which every other establishment in the country was almost shaken to its foundation. James the First endowed it with large estates in the province of Ulster, and also settled on it a pension of four hundred pounds, payable out of the Exchequer. The origin of the library is curious and interesting, and we should not do the subject justice, if we did not give it in the words of the able and ingenious writer from whom we have already quoted so largely. • Taylor's History of the University of Dublin. † Ibid. "The library, which forms so splendid a part of the collegiate establishment, was commenced in the year 1603, and originated in a circumstance to which, in the history of no other nation, is there any thing similar. In that year, the affairs of Ireland having been somewhat composed, by the suppression of Tyrone's rebellion, and the expulsion of the Spaniards from Kinsale, the army determined upon doing some notable act, which might be a continual memorial of the gallantry of military men, and at the same time expressive of their own respect for the interests of learning and religion. With such a view, they raised among themselves the sum of L.1800, in those days a very great subscription, and then resolved that Dr Chaloner and Mr James Usher should have the said sum paid into their hands, for the purchase of such books as they might think most suitable to the formation of a library, to be annexed for ever to the newly created University of Dub lin, as a testimony of their esteem for literature, and regard for the improvement of the youth of Ireland. The learned persons who were delegated on so honourable a mission, undertook it with pleasure, and performed it with that talent and assiduity which justified the selection. They came over to England for the purpose of better discharging their trust, where they obtained the best works that were to be met with, in the most important departments of knowledge; and procuring others of a valuable charac ter from other countries, laid the foundation of that long-accumulated and magnificent pile of various literature, which has given to the University the most useful and admirable of its at tractions. It is worthy of observation, that, at the same juncture, Sir Tho mas Bodley was in London, making similar purchases for his newly instituted library at Oxford; between him and the Irish gentlemen a friendly intercourse took place, by which the objects of both were reciprocally promoted; so that the famous Bodleian library, and that of the University of Dublin, the two most superb monuments of learning in the empire, commenced at the same time, and under the auspicious circumstance of enlightened co-operation. When we recollect how much literature suffered from the barbarous spirit with which an cient war was waged, or from the casualties which have attended it at all times;-when we call to mind the many instances of all that is sacred or venerable, being involved in the promiscuous ruin of its course, whether impelled by ferocity or a more disciplined ambition ;-and when we consider how often the agents of its evils partake of its character, and become regardless of the arts of peace, from habits of inhuman excitation, we shall view, with a peculiar sentiment, this act of the Irish army, who consecrated the offerings of victory to the humanizing spirit of improvement. The long-collected and stupendous mass of Alexandrian knowledge, representing the various intellect and genius of civilized man, was as fatally visited by the fortunes of the accomplished Julius, as by the exterminating ignorance of a barbarian caliph; while the military origin of the library of Dublin college forms a singular and beautiful contrast with those events of war, which history has viewed through unaffected tears, and with indignant remembrance.' In the year 1614, the University obtained the important privilege of sending two members to Parliament. We will not venture, at present, to enquire how far the interests of learning have been advanced by this addition to its corporate respectability. The individuals who, from time to time, have been thought worthy of representing the college of Dublin, have, doubtless, been distinguished by intellect and learning in no ordinary degree. But the intrigue and the turmoil of a contested election are little congenial to the seat of science and the muses; and the privilege was, we believe, conferred more with reference to court than to academic interests. It was part of the policy by which James succeeded in establishing a borough interest in the Irish parliament, which was found necessary to enable him to carry into effect his bold projects of tentative legislation. It is chiefly memorable, therefore, as being the first instance in which the government endeavoured to turn to any political account the corporate importance of the new University. It was unfortunate that, in the original charter, the office of provost was made elective. While the Fellows continued few in number, no sensible |