FATHER MATHEW.* WITH the opening sentence of Mr. Maguire's preface

we fully concur :—

"It would be a reproach to the country which he served, no less than to the age which he adorned, were there no record of the life of Theobald Mathew."

This tribute to his memory is due, not less on account of the strange phase of popular enthusiasm with which his name is associated, than on account of the excepional character of the man. Mr. Maguire has undertaken his task in a right spirit, and has executed it with fairness and with skill. If tempted occasionally to exalt his hero to a degree of perfection almost superhuman, it must be admitted that he has laboured diligently to place before his readers such a mass of details as may enable them to form for themselves an estimate of the character of Father Mathew only less exalted than his own.

The work is written in a truly liberal spirit. In its execution Mr. Maguire has laid aside his politics and forgotten his creed. The author of "Rome and its Ruler" is another man when he treats of the " Apostle of Temperance in Ireland." From a child he enjoyed the intimate friendship of Father Mathew. He watched with lively interest every incident of that remarkable career. With an admiration for his friend as unbounded as his affection for his memory, he set about the history of that friend's life, and the result is a book which bears at least the stamp of sincerity, and whose faults may well be pardoned as the offspring of a generous zeal.

Theobald Mathew was born at Thomastown, in Tipperary, about the year 1790. His father appears to have belonged to a "branch line" of the noble family of Llandaff. The exact degree of relationship is not stated, and Mr. Maguire admits that authentic particulars of the "immediate family are scanty in the extreme." This "branch line" espoused the Catholic faith, a circumstance which seems, however, not to have severed the inti- macy which existed between it and the representative line of the family. From his infancy Theobald was the especial prottgi of a Lady Elizabeth Mathewt daughter of the last Earl of Llandaff, • Father Mathew. A Biography. By John Francis Mazulra, 7LP. London: Long- man, Green, and Co. 180.

whose affection for him continued undiminished during her life. That the child was father to the man is evidenced as follows :-

mm From his earliest years the desire to afford pleasure to others, to be the means of conferring happiness on some one human creature, was his most marked characteristic. Even at this period of his life this desire had assumed the form of a confirmed habit, which, as years rolled on, became almost as uncontrollable as a passion."

His mother was a " pious Catholic," and cherished the hope that one of her sons should become a priest. The eldest had been "intended" for that office, but nature and inclination unfitting him, his younger brother Theobald, prompted, it would seem, by a desire to gratify his mother's earnest wish, volunteered to become a priest. In due time he entered Ma3rnooth, from which college, however, strange to say, the future "Apostle of Temperance" was expelled in less than a year, for holding a convivial meeting or commessatio in his rooms. Some time after quitting Maynooth he attached himself to the order of Capuchin Friars, at that time the lowest both in rank and influence of the regular orders in Ireland. The community to which he belonged had their mission in Kilkenny. Poor and obscure before he joined its ranks, it soon rose in importance and popularity after his arrival. In childhood, in boyhood, and in manhood the- influence of his personal character seems to have been equally unvarying :— "The fame of the young friar spread rapidly through that Catholic city, and his virtues were the theme of every tongue. His personal appearance was, of itself, sufficient to excite interest, and his manners quite harmonized with his outward form. In the first bloom and fresh- ness of early manhood, graceful and elegant in his figure and carriage, with a countenance of singular beauty of expression, even more than of feature, winning of speech, polished of address, modest and unobtrusive, the youthful priest was calculated to create the most favourable im- pression. Those who remember him at this period of his life speak of the extraordinary beauty of his countenance, and the indescribable sweetness of its expression, so good, so pure, so holy, 'something angelic,' reflecting faithfully the inward soul."

" Look, Sir! Here's my notion on the subject. If the streets of Cork were paved with gold, and if Father Mathew had entire control over them, and could do what he liked with them, there wouldn't be a paving- stone in Cork by the end of the year.'"

His popularity rested solely on his personal qualities, and was in no way influenced by the favour of his superiors in the Catholic Church, or by the character of his sacred office ; at the same time his reputation as a preacher steadily increased, and a dozen years after his ordination he was one of the most popular preachers of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

The following sketch of his personal appearance is from one of a series of papers entitled "Sketches of the Cork Catholic Pulpit," published in 1826 :—

" He has the advantage (though he appears to make little we of the advantage) of possessing a finely-formed middle-sized person, of exquisite symmetry ; the head of admirable contour, and from which a finished model of the antique could be cast; the countenance intelligent, animated, and benevolent ; its complexion rather sallow, inclining to paleness ; eyes of dark lustre beaming with internal peace, and rich in concen- trated. sensibility rather than speaking or kindling with a superabun- dant fire ; the line of his mouth harmonizing so completely with his nose and chin is of peculiar grace ; the brow open, pale, broad, and polished, bears upon it not merely the impress of dignified thought but of nobility itself."

For several years before Father Mathew dreamed of taking part in it, a movement in the cause of total abstinence had been going on in Cork. That it had made but little way among the people is to be accounted for by the fact that the three chief founders and supporters of the movement were a Protestant clergyman, a Unitarian, and a Quaker. With the lower orders of the Irish people it was impossible that they could succeed.

The wide gap that a difference of religion makes in the inter- course of different classes in Ireland could not be bridged over by any amount of earnestness or energy on the part of the advo- cates of a came attempted to be made popular. To reach the heart it is necessary to have the ear of the people.

The teetotal triumvirate worked in vain. The Protestant clergyman was unheeded. The eloquent Unitarian exerted his talents with but feeble success. The honest Quaker was simply laughed at for his pains. It happened that this Quaker was a colleague of Father Mathew on the Board of Governors of the Cork Workhouse, and he never lost an opportunity of exciting the compassionate sympathy of the generous-hearted priest in the cause of temperance. The workhouse itself afforded examples numerous and painful enough of the evils of drunkenness. Father Mathew, in the exercise of hie calling,

"Possessed the key to open harder hearts and unlock closer breasts than theirs, and many a tale of folly and sin was whispered in his ear in accents of self-repaoach by the miserable inmates of that house."

Long and earnestly, according to his biographer, he deliberated before committing himself to the teetotal cause. His tender heart was touched by the baneful effects of drunkenness, and " drink" was at that time fast becoming the absorbing passion of the Irish peasantry. Poverty, degradation, disease, and crime, were the consequences of the fatal habit.

It is not for us in forming our estimate of the man to pronounce that the total abstinence movement in Ireland was a piece of visionary folly. It is enough that the cause was at least an honest attempt to rescue the people from the miserable con-

sequences of whiskey-drinking, and that Father Mathew espoused it with that generous energy and self-devotion that characterized every act of his life. Having made up his mind he acted with promptness. A meeting was held at which he presided, where having explained his doubts and fears, and the reasons that guided him in his decision, he took a pen, and saying, "Here goes in the name of God ! " signed his name to the teetotal pledge.

Henceforward, the name of Father Mathew is so closely con- neeted with the" temperance" or " teetotal " movement in Ire- land, that his personal history is to be found only in the narrative of that strange freak of popular enthusiasm. From the day on which he signed his name, the "cause," weak enough before, began to assume a different aspect. In Cork, the candidates for "the pledge" poured in by hundreds and by thousands. The excitement was contagious. Father Mathew found Limerick eager to emulate the conduct of Cork, and the excitement caused by his visit to the former town marks the singular influence that he seems everywhere to have exerted :—

" The people rushed towards him as if possessed by a frenzy. They struggled and fought their way through living masses, through every obstacle, until they found themselves at his feet, listening to his voice, receiving his blessing, repeating after him the words which emancipated them, as they felt, from sin, sorrow, and temptation."

This is but a specimen of his labours for several succeeding years. He made the tour of Ireland, everywhere received by men of all classes and creeds with the same enthusiastic wel- come. The man who but a few months previously was the mere hard-working curate of a parish in Cork, was now, as if by magic, the directing influence over half a million of his country- men, the honoured guest of the noblest and wealthiest in the country, for the time the foremost man in Ireland. His name, before unknown le3yond his parish, became a watchword. Con- gratulations and encouragement poured in on all sides. The late Duke of Devonshire, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the present Earl of Carlisle, were amongst hie earliest supporters. The names of Cardinal Wiseman, Dr. Clituaning, Miss Edg,worth, and others, all testifying equally to his wonderful influence, show how truly catholic his popularity at this time was in the sense of being apart from.any consideration of party or creed. Even O'Connell trembled for his laurels. For the moment the "Cause " of Repeal was eclipsed by the " Cause " of Temperance, and the self-styled " Liberator " bent the knee to his more peaceful rival, and re- ceived the pledge at his hands. His work was not confined to Ireland ; Scotland and England were visited with the same success. Everywhere he was greeted with the same enthu- siasm. He reached London in the height of the season. As a matter of course, he was the " lion " of the day, and his table was piled with invitations. Here, again, we ob- tain a glimpse of the real character of the man. Father Mathew was a gentleman by birth and in feeling. Working hard at his missionary labour all day in the poorest haunts of the metropolis, he yet took his place with ease and grace as the guest of the rich and great. They who expected the gaucherie of an Irish

friar found the courteous manners of an accomplished gentle- man.

It must not be forgotten that the period during which he laboured in the cause of temperance was the very time that O'Connell fought for repeal, and the masses of the people were maddened by political excitement. Gladly would the "Libera- tor" have availed himself of Father Mathew's eloquence and great personal influence ; but we do not find that in a single in- stance he interfered in politics or swerved from the course he had laid down for himself

Justum at tenacem propositi virum Non civium ardor prava jubentium, Non vultus instantis tyranui Meats quatit solida."

An institution based on so rickety a foundation as mere popular excitement could be but of temporary duration. So vast an undertaking as the teetotal cause in Ireland could not be carried on without funds. If Father Mathew had a fault it was improvidence, and when poverty came in at the door, and the "Apostle of Temperance" was arrested at the suit of the die- sinker whose medals he had so lavishly distributed among the people, their enthusiasm began to fly out at the window. Then came the terrible famine, and Father Mathew's occupation was well nigh gone. It was idle to make men pledge themselves not to drink whiskey when they had not a crust of bread to eat, nor the means of procuring it. With untiring zeal and self- denying energy Father Mathew threw himself into the work of alleviating the misery of the starving poor. To his last shilling he contributed to their relief. To the serious detriment of his health and constitution he worked night and day throughout that awful crisis. S3011 afterwards he was attacked with paralysis, and though he recovered sufficiently to visit America and con- tinue his labours with as much energy as his shattered health permitted, he had seen his best days. Ile lingered for some years, and died" on the 8th December, 1856.

We cannot go as far as Mr. Maguire in believing that the good that Father Mathew did lives after him. The heading of one of the last chapters in the book is, "Has Father Mathew's work survived him ? The spirit lives."

If by "the spirit" Mr. Maguire means whiskey it certainly does live. Facts are stubborn things, and a reference to the statistics of Ireland shows that with an excise duty more than doubled and a population much diminished by emigration, the number of gallons of Irish spirits consumed in 1859 remained almost the same as in 1849. The people, it is true, are improved in moral tone and condition, but by other "causes " than that of teetotalism. At the same time we must admit that, if untiring energy in toiling for the good of his countrymen by honest, straightforward conduct, great self-denial, and upright example be the qualities that mark an Irish patriot, Theobald Mathew was one of the few who have ever deserved the title. "Patriotism," said Dr. Johnson, "is the last resource of a scoundrel." There is truth in the burly doctor's wit; but if there exists the base imposture there is sometimes also to be found the noble reality.