opinion, and am still, that they strongly marked his character; that a love of popular admiration pervades his mind, and blinds his judgment; and that nothing could more plainly indicate the bias of his mind than his reply at Calais. If I had had doubts of his having made it, his late words would remove them. "It was said in ancient times, that Cæsar had a friend, and Pompey had friends, but that the public had no friends; I shall never be of the party of Cæsar, nor of Pompey."

This denial of party, when he is at the head of a very active one, is another proof of that inordinate love of applause which has carried the respectable and amiable baronet into the impropriety of appearing to disavow a friend, or of putting his own party in the place of the English nation. Excessive flattery is bad for the people themselves; and, when applied in this manner by Sir Francis Burdett, is apt to lead them into an arrogant and monstrous estimation of their own value, to the prejudice of many patriotic and noble characters; who, though

they may be the friends of Cæsar, or of Pompey, (and how many illustrious and patriotic Romans ranged under the banners of each ?) may still be the enemies of the people; although they do still on public occasions, flatter their vanity, and receive, in return, peals and bursts of applause.

The town of Calais is a considerable one, containing from nine to eleven thousand inhabitants; it resembles an English town so much, that it reminded me of the period when it was annexed to England. The present change, however, is very great. Those dismembered parts of this kingdom, once attached to England, all re-united, and a great and astonishing accession of territory superadded-no longer that dangerous military ge nius existing in the English monarchs, which so often led them to successful invasion of their neighbours: their naval glory conducing rather to the acquisition of colonies, than to the subjugation of kingdoms; and their statesmen cultivating the interests, and bending to the views of commerce, instead of keeping the English, a martial, lofty, and independent.

race of men, as they were in their ancient and better days: these were features of the times very obviously presenting themselves to a young traveller's contemplation, upon his entrance into Calais. The moat and fortifications, once used against the inhabitants of the country, are become useless; and, as we passed through the gates on the morning of the 1st of August, the day after we had landed, I felt satisfaction that the inhabitants of France were relieved from vexation, and those of England from a burthensome and superfluous expense.

The country around Calais being destitute of interest and beauty, until we arrive on the borders of Flanders, there was at first, little to call forth observation, upon entering France. To me, however, as every thing was new, even this scene was entertainingthe dress of the peasantry being of various, and of the finest colours, such as crimson, pink, sky blue, and light green, struck me as adding greatly to their picturesque effect; and I believe the painter's eye would, in every scene of rural beauty, require the warm and

finer colours occasionally to intervene, to make that perfect harmony which delights and satisfies the eye in colouring.

St. Omer's is a large, and I thought, a melancholy-looking town. There is one very handsome, though injured, church, and several others, as well as convents, or rather ruined buildings, formerly convents. It seemed to be thinly peopled and dull. As this town had often afforded education to Irish young men, destined for that ecclesiastical situation which had long been, with more than Gothic proscription, denounced and persecuted in the native country of these unfortunate men, I suppressed a sigh, as we passed through, at the fate of my countrymen, so well deserving, yet so long debarred, of happiness. I hoped for enlightened times operating in their fayour; and I breathed the melancholy prayer, that if their misfortunes were to endure yet longer, I might close the last of my days among them; and, if possible, alleviate their miseries, by giving such counsel and consolation as limited powers would allow, and

E

by participating in those sorrows whose cause had not been removed. Mr. Fox, the

best pillar of the English constitution, in the genuine sense of the word, and the best friend to Ireland, whose genius and philanthropy gave grounds for hoping better things, was advancing in years. It was not even probable, then, that he would ever be minister in England. My melancholy foreboding did not anticipate his premature dissolution; but something told me, that Ireland was to suffer yet as much as she had done in those illiberal days, when her youth were driven to seek that education abroad which she had formerly herself afforded to foreigners; to the sons of nobles and kings, and to lovers of literature from every clime.