WYSE'S HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION.*

IT would have been wrong to have permitted this great body to pass away without honouring its memory with an historical 6loge. Its history will always form an important chanter in the annals of Ireland ; and it is proper for the contemporaries of its strtrzgles to register while it is yet time to collect the fading materials. Mr. Wysies work is highly creditable to its author : it indicates talents and accomplish- ments of an order which, at a future time, he will perhaps know better how to mould to his purpose ; for though the book is, as we have said, creditable to the writer, it is very insufficient when viewed in relation to its great subject. The author traces the Association as far back as the year 1760 ; and spending nearly the whole of his first volume on the early times of its existence, and occupying also nearly the whole of the second volume with an appendix of docu- ments, it may be supposed that he must have passed very slightly over the really vital period of its existence—the reign of King O'CONNELL. He has indeed so laid himself out to trace the course of the Associa- tion and to estimate its influence in early times, that, whether tired of his task, or, as he professes, feeling a delicacy in touching upon the character and motives of living persons, he has slurred over the latter part of his work with general remarks and political disquisi- tion. This is to play Hamlet, leaving out the part of Hamlet by par- ticular desire. When Mr. WYSE had once resolved to write the his- tory of the Association, he should have confined himself to a very cur- sory view of its previous state of existence ; and when he arrived at the late eventful stage in its history, when indeed the Association for the first time took root and expanded itself into a production of enormous

magnitude and power, he should have then gone into ample details re-

CHARACTERS OF LORDS FINGAL, GORMANSTOWN, TRIBILESTO.N; AND FFRENCH.

specting the progress of its influence and the means taken to secure it and to turn it to advantage. Every step should have been recorded and analysed, the exertions of each individual estimated, and his powers and services in the cause handled with an impartial but critical justice. That Mr. WYSE is fully capable of performing this task, is proved by many parts of the work as it stands. We may refer to his

characters and estimate of the different leaders of the Association in 1805, which is written with very considerable discrimination, and a great power of expression. Allowing a little for the ambitious style of pro- bably a young author, we may say we have not lately seen a better

specimen of historical composition. We particularly refer to the cha- racters of Mr. SCULLY and Mr. HUSSEY : but we shall quote here, as better adapted in point of subject and style for general perusal, Mr. Wysa's account of four Irish Catholic noblemen, who at that time took the lead on all questions of Catholic Emancipation.

"Lord Fingal, Lord Gormanstown, Lord Trimleston, and Lord Ffrench, with two or three of the Catholic baronetage, usually dignified the chair of their meetings, but for a considerable time left little or no impression on their deliberations. Their characters were singularly diverse. Lord Fingal had all the better peculiarities of his order, with qualities which had bor- rowed from the trials through which they had passed, only a stronger tinge of virtuous and steady indignation at the wrongs which still continued to oppress his country. From his placid lips there never burst an unworthy complaint : he boasted and promised little ; but neither what lie promised, did he ever fail to perform. His countenance, full of benignity, was a fit ex- pression of the interior man : he was mild and modest : but there was also in him the firmness and honour of a true gentleman, the spirit and perseverance of a true patriot. Through all the after vicissitudes of the body, Lord Fingal never deserted its banners : he screened by his individual character, pure even from the breath of calumny, the errors and offences of an easily-excited people : he often threw himself into the breach, and singly repelled by the weight of his own consideration the reproof and interference of the Govern- ment. Conciliating to all ; bearing all in patience ; sacrificing in nothing and to none his principle; after a series of the most contrasted events, exhi- biting the most opposite principles, he fully succeeded in producing a spirit of unanimity until then unknown in the Catholic community, and left to his son an inheritance, the brightest which a father can transmit to his children, the praise of having successfully done his duty in difficult times to his country, and the glory of sitting down in. the evening, frill of years and honours, under the shadow of that national happiness, to obtain which he had cheerfully spent the mornirr, and noon of his existence. " Lord Gormanstown possessed in some measure the cairn mind, and adopted in the entire the moderate and winning policy, of Lord Fingal. The temper and sobriety of both their characters placed in a still more striking and singular relief the bold and rudely-fashioned temperament of Lord Ffrench. There was nothing of the nobleman about this roan ; no grace ; no soothing ; no art ; his mind and body were in strict unison, and adapted with a sort of marvellous felicity to each other. To look at his sallow and furouche countenance, lit with the gleanings of habitual sarcasm ; to hear the deep whining, and the exaggerated roughness of his western accent ; to see the huge giant frame, the unpowdered hair, the long club cue, the loose and lum- bering coat, the slouching step, and the studious and somewhat savage neglect of this extraordinary personage—was to bring over the imagination loose recollections of a French Revolutionist, blended indeed with peculiarities es- sentially Irish ; a composition inexplicable, and sometimes alarming, for which you had no type or interpretation in either country. Every thing about him, mind or body, was energy. His action came coarse, and swing- ing, and negligent, but always with a certain conviction of mastery, on the * Historical Sketch of the late Catholic Association of Ireland. By Thomas Wyse, bsq. jun. 2 vols. London, W.D. Column. table. He thought vigorously and roughly; he spoke harshly; whatever was: the topic, he cast through all, grave, or lofty, or indignant, as it might be,

fantastic fragments of Irish humour, which left surprise, and pain, and.

emotion, strangely jumbled together, in the mind even of the most habituate of his hearers. The field in which circumstances had placed him, it was•

quite obvious was by no means that which was the most fitted either for the man or his works. He was no orator, but he left you fearfully convincedt that he might he something more. He seemed to have been horn many cen. turies too late, and would have figured with far more effect as a general of the Kilkenny confederacy, than as a chairman of a small committee meeting in a hack room in Dublin. The very look and gesture of the man was proof

that there was hardly room enough in the existing state of the country and the laws for a fall development of his energies others talked of reasoning—

he seemed to think of nothing but of action. In the age in which he lived people gazed on him with a sort of stupor, as an anomaly in accord with no class or With no feeling of their body. He had little influence with any ; they heard him for his rank and for his strangeness, and when absent they turned round and willingly forgot that he had ever been amongst them-

" Nothing can be imagined more perfectly opposed to Lord Ffrench.,. than a nobleman with whose name the Catholics had long been familiar—T mean Lord Trimleston. The early years of his life had been passed in feudal France; his opinions, his feelings, his whole maniPre d'etre, had been characteristi- cally and indelibly affected by this sinister circumstance. The French Revo-

lution had burst on him in the middle of a circle of polished and chosen friends. Blinded by their sufferings and wrongs, he condemned every at- tempt, however limited or wise, for the attainment of their unquestionable. rights on the part of the people. He saw nothingin that awful regeneration,. but revolt against the best of institutions, insolent rebellion against the most sacred of titles, outrageous and detestable principles, unjustified by a single• grievance, unredeemed by.a single good. His person, his manners, his ac- cent, were disagreeably and extravagantly French. All that he said or did, belonged to a class unknown and unfelt in Ireland. It was an emigrant from the army of Cond6 you listened to, and not to an indignant Catholic peer, the natural protector of an aggrieved people, rousing and directing, on the just principles of constitutional freedom, the combined exertions of his Ca- tholic countrymen. If he addressed an assembly of rich merchants, or tur-

bulent and enthusiastic tradesmen, if he stood in the face of a crowding and anxious peasantry, it was of the patrician blood of the Barnwells' only

that lie deigned to speak, and not of the broad and embracing slavery of an entire country. Such a man had no clue to the popular mind. He bad little in common with Irishmen. They spoke different idioms. They could not understand each other. He occasionally appeared at public mectings—but his name more than his presence was sought after. Till the period of the total secession, resulting from the Veto quarre', he appeared to have some- thing like an influence over the aristocratic portion of the body ; but this was an imaginary power, a sort of title by courtesy, conceded goodnaturedly to the mere vanity of the individual. The real authority resided in the com- mittee and the sub-committees; and both were under the immediate control and direction of the men of business, the barristers."