A new attempt to raise a fund of 70001. in
order to purchase an annuity of 8001. a year for the Reverend Theobald Mathew, is advertised in our columns; and we are asked to support the effort. Donatives are suspi- cious things in Ireland. How can we avoid applying our own rules, and how will they fit this claim? In Booth, we confess that we are not dis- posed to apply them too strictly here. It is not clear what definite and stable results have followed Mr. Mathew's exertions; and there was no lack of inducement to the service, in the idolizing homage which the missionary of Temperance has received. On the other hand, it is certain that a real and great service has been rendered : Mr. Mathew may not have created a well-informed and deliberate opinion against drunkenness; but he has enlisted the affections of an ardent people on the side of temperance, and he has broken the long reign of , debauch. He has removed one obstacle from the material improvement of the Irish people. His personal sacrifices have been very great, unstinted, stretched to the extent of his whole means. There is a generous trusting ness in that devotion, which in itself deserves acknowledgment. Fees for future service are of doubtful expediency; but assuredly a free gift to in- demnify Theobald Mathew, to repay his generous trust, and to endow a good and benevolent man with the means of ease for the remainder of his life, would in this case be a merited, a graceful, and a pious tribute to virtue.
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