have formed of the sufferer. But should the sculptor, in placing before us the group, represent the forehead of Laocoon as bound with a turban, he would considerably weaken the effect for the forehead would be partially covered, and the forehead is the seat of expression.

THE SOULS OF THE JUST.

SOULS of the just! whose truth and love,
Like light and warmth, once lived below,
Where have ye ta'en your flight above,
Leaving life's vale in wintry woe?
God hath withdrawn you near his throne,
Centre and source of brightness all,
As o'er yon hills the evening sun

་ ་ ་ ་

Recalls his beams when shadows fall.

But there are wistful eyes that find
A loss in every parting ray ;

And there are exiled souls behind
That long with you to fly away.

Oh! happy hour, when ev'ry germ
Of captive spirit shall be free,

And shine with you, all bright and warm,

Around one glorious Deity!

T. D.

New Monthly Magazine.

MATCH-MAKING.

"An amorous thing is want."-HUDIBRAS.

In my early youth I made a voyage of enquiry to the Sister Isle the songs of Ossian inspired me with a wish to examine this warlike people on their own territory, and the fame of green Erin gave me an idea that I should find a rich superiority in her soil and produce, when contrasted with the Highlands of Scotland. Moreover, I had met with so many students in Edinburgh, and subalterns in the regiments occasionally quartered there, each of whom had five hundred a year and a park, that I counted on a hospitable reception, choice society, and much amusement in my tour. In the growth and numerical strength of the Hibernians I was not disappointed, nor as to their warlike appearance and disposition. I found the lower orders intrepid and irascible to a high degree; nor were they over nice about the cause or nature of the quarrel, nor the degree of provocation. I have very often seen Pat knock down his friend after spending his half-crown, and then sympathize with him for the wound which he had inflicted.-Nor was club-law confined to these classes alone; the higher ones possessed very gladiatorical habits, and were prone to indulge in liquor, love, and war. The fine Hibernian soil equally satisfied me that I was right in my expectations; but where the generous earth was most lavish, I observed poverty still fix her dire abode. The culture was out of

all proportion with the capabilities of the land; while education and civilization fell equally short of the strength and numbers of the people; nay, industry was paralized by distress, and emulation cramped for want of encouragement and pecuniary means. In my quality of examiner I have no right to talk to government on these subjects, but (Scotchman like) the less I said on this subject, the more I thought, and the more I was convinced that Caledonia was the happiest and best used Sister of the two. In vain I looked for the parks and five hundreds per annum of the O.'s and the Mac's, my studying and travelling acquaintances. The father of one of them tenanted a mud edifice upon a bog, and was ground to death by tithes, taxes, and a bad landlord. Perhaps these parks, renttolls, &c. were mere figures in speech, and as such let them rest. There was no lack of noble mansions and fine estates springing up amongst surrounding misery, the possessors of which were, even then, absentees; and whose stewards and land-agents were pounding the cattle of the indigent, and driving them to despair. This prefatory matter may, perchance, be considered superfluous by my reader; but I beg leave to assure him, or her, that it leads to the subject of MatchMaking.

In the course of my tour through a great part of the country, I sojourned for a short time in the Counties of Galway and Roscommon; from the former I was frightened away by the constant reports of pistols discharged in duels, sometimes fought in public; for the amateurs there would turn out to see a couple of gentlemen decide an affair of honour, with as much avidity

as the fancy resort to Moulsey Hurst, or Wormwood Scrubs, to witness two fellow-creatures half-murdering each other for a purse of gold and their colours, a silk handkerchief, of vulgar pattern, for the neck of a ruffian. How much more honourable would it be to bleed for their national flag! But there is knavery as well as barbarity in these contests, and we will leave the scrubs of all denominations to themselves. From the latter I was driven by the almost certainty (if I remained) of breaking my neck over the stone walls, which it was quite fashionable and almost necessary to leap over, in and out of the sporting field. In each of these counties there was a prodigious deal of Match-Making; the country gentlemen who really had some hundreds of pounds annually, dipped and mortgaged a little, had another drawback of their unemployed stock, in the form of fine-grown, smiling-eyed, affable young ladies: now the market being overstocked, and the price being much lowered by the over-produce of these fair and flourishing plants, the owners were obliged to part with these valuables (for such as wives and mothers, they generally were) at a very low rate indeed; since this was not a dead stock on hand, but one which consumed other articles which must come from, instead of going to, market. For these mighty reasons, parents were incessantly on the alert for sons-in-law; sisters helped each other off in the best manner they could; the brothers turned husband-hunters; and if a stranger came amongst them, he was not made game of in the vulgar ordinary way, but he was either ensnared by bright eyes and warm complexions, brought down by the long bow of

a brother, or taken by hook or by crook, by the angling, wiling, coursing, and heart-shooting of sisters and self, all of whom the happy man might be fortunate enough to have for six months in the year at his table. When these gamesome practices and pairings failed, the field was very often taken in another way; incautious birds were winged, and shy ones were now and then bagged by the undertaker, in punishment for their want of taste and feeling, and for their stubborn adherence to celibacy. It has erroneously and impolitely been advanced, that you could not look at an Irish woman at table without her saying, " Port, if you please:" this I never found; on the contrary, I always met with ladies of this country, who were as mild and temperate as any in the world; and I must say, that I consider them charming creatures at table and every where else; but although I deny the assertion of "Port, if you please," I must confess that I often trembled lest, by looking at a pretty girl in Galway or Roscommon, I should draw on me the question, from a big brother, or militia cousin, of, "Pray sir, are your views honourable towards MaryAnn, Eugenia, or Fanny? Which of them have you fixed your eye upon? I have perceived very markea (an observation worthy of a marksman!) attentions to the first, and she has much susceptibility, and shall not have her feelings sported with," &c. Right sporting language! thought I, to myself, so I kept much on my guard, and departed as soon as possible; for, be it observed, the questioning gentleinan is always a sporting character, and a good shot; the lady is usu ally the sister who has been longest on hand; no time