discuss some political subject, the floor gave way, and many lives were unfortunately lost, besides several persons maimed for life.

The interior of the building remained in ruins for some time, until Mr. Owenson, the father of the celebrated Lady Morgan, a man of considerable talent in his profession as an actor, and great personal respectability of character in private life, fitted it up as a theatre for burlettas, farces, &c., under a civic license. His failure once more left it a desert, and so it remained until the committee of noblemen and gentlemen, appointed to conduct the affairs of this dramatic club, as it might fairly be termed, engaged it for a term of years, and fitted it up in a style of unequalled magnificence and splendour. During its pre paration the subscription list overflowed, although the difficulty of becoming a subscriber was great, owing to a regulation to which each candidate was obliged to submit, by his eligibility being made the subject of the ballot in which one black ball in

ten excluded.

The committee, having been composed of the very elite of fashion, took care to preserve the purity of their order. At the head of the committee stood the late Earl of Westmeath, a musician, man of taste, of humour, and quite a theatrical amateur. The stage-manager was Mr. Frederick Jones, the same gentleman who in after years succeeded to the patenteeship, and management of the Theatre Royal, Crow Street, and who, of course-but without the slightest blemish to his character -failed as all his predecessors had done before him; not, however, until he had exhausted some of the best years of his life, his entire private fortune, and that of many tradesmen who became involved in his misfortunes in this hopeless speculation.

All parts of this splendid temple of pleasure were fitted up with equal attention to elegance and comfort; the seats in the boxes and pit were considered the exclusive privilege of the fair sex of the graver age and character, while the gentlemen took their stations at the back of the boxes, or in those avenues which were left in the pit for entrance and egress, known at the Opera by the very well applied name of " Fops' Alley." In the gallery the ladies and gentlemen sat promiscuously, but in all parts of the house full dress was indispensable. In this gallery, towards the right hand of the principal entrance, a few rows from the front, the Lord Lieutenant took his seat, with his delightful friend Mrs. Stratford, encircled by a halo of the high and distinguished personages of the vice-regal court. In this galaxy of love and lustre, the observer might moralize on the innocent flirtations of the celebrated beauties of the day. Secure in the society by which they were encompassed,

all ceremony was banished; and, soon as the appearance of the drop scene announced the end of an act, every tongue was enfranchised, and lovely lips gave utterance to those sentiments which a tedious act had imprisoned. There was an admissible and perfectly innocent closeness of contact allowed in the gallery, which was always crowded,-which the etiquette of the lower circle rendered it impossible to indulge in without exciting observations "unpleasing to the married ear."

At the close of the entertainment, the whole audience, to the number of six or eight hundred, congregated in the grand saloon, where that unmeaning conversation, called fashionable, caused a continuous clatter of tongues until the call of carriages thinned the room. Then might be seen the courtly viceroy a willing captive in the train of the seducing Stratford; his secretary, Hobart, afterwards Earl of Buckinghamshire, leading out the gentle Adderly, on whom he bestowed his hand and title,-then the handsome Thurles, late Marquis of Ormonde, like another Antony ready to lose the world for the Cleopatra, Cl-e. The miniature Adonis C-v-nd-h B-d-w took possession of his future bride, the Countess of W-th. The gallant Cradock, of course, led out the_still beautiful Mrs. A. D-n; while the young and lovely Lady C, now Countess of G-g-11, was unfashionably gallanted by her husband! The Countess of Gl-d-e claimed the escort of the "first-turn-out" man of fashion who happened to be disengaged. Long Landaff, then Frank Mathew, six feet three, and handsome as Apollo, stooped to pour "soft nonsense" into the ready ear of his Honourable little friend Mrs. W-d; while his bluff brother Montague glowed under crimson smiles of the portly Lady Cl. Here, too, the beautiful Countess of E, late Miss B- -, though surrounded by a host of admirers, found none more fond, or more attractive in her eyes, than her own handsome Hercules, the gallant earl.

Seated in a snug corner, shrouded from observation, the insidious Donoughmore fixed his basilisk eyes on pretty little P―lk-g-n, (Tommy Moore's " lovely duodecimo,") and seemed to live but in her looks, and draw them all on himself; while in another the cautious Arthur Wellesley, then the corporal, now the GREAT CAPTAIN of the age! took post beside the wife of a citizen bottonier, who had seen too much of the world of fashion at a certain large house in College-Green to become quite reconciled to the shop. The world gave to this acquaintance the character of an intrigue, but it was generally discredited, because the report was grounded on the then major's supposed attachment: (Arthur Wellesley attached!!— ridiculous!)

Of the merits of the acting company little can be said in praise. Some of the operas and farces were tolerable. Cap-. tain Ashe, who was their Macheath, Hawthorn, and Giles, was a good bass singer, and was seconded by Captain French of the Carbineers, as well as by Captain Withrington of the 9th Dragoons; both tolerable vocalists. Frederick Faulkner, who made such a lamentable exit in Italy some few years since, was one of the fine gentlemen of the stage; and Frederick Jones, the manager, their chief Irishman. But he had nothing of the Sir Lucius or the O'Flaherty about him, but the broad shoulders, the calves, and the brogue. Humphrey Butler, of fourin-hand memory, was the "Fag," "Trip," and "Tom," of the company, and felt himself at home in livery. The selection of such parts for him was rather invidious, it must be confessed. The best actor by far amongst the amateur aspirants for dramatic fame was the late Earl of Westmeath, whose "Father Luke" in the Poor Soldier was the most perfect and finished picture of the Irish parish priest ever exhibited on any stage. His Lordship was a man of infinite humour, great good nature, and a talented musician. The orchestra fell under his control, and it was the best managed part of the entertainments.

At this period, amongst other whims of the day, several noblemen and gentlemen of the young and sportive time of life established a club called the "CHEROKEES." The members were selected from the most dashing and care-driving members of Daly's and the Kildare Street clubs; and the qualifications were, I believe, being hard-drinkers, free-thinkers— men who knew every body and cared for nobody.

The dress of the members was black from head to foot; scarlet silk covered buttons, and bunches of the same coloured riband at the knees of the breeches and in the shoes. The costume was an improvement on the black and yellow flame coloured uniform of the old "HELLFIRE CLUB," which flourished a quarter of a century before, and which became extinguished as its members, one by one, WENT HOME!

The new club, which ran its little day in whim and pleasantry, did not practise any of those profane and atrocious ceremonies which fame attributed to its infernal predecessor. The late Marquis of Ormonde, his brother Wandesford Butler, Lord Landaff, Montague Mathew, James Butler, present Marquis Ormonde, then captain in the 14th Dragoons, Lord Conyngham, his brother Burton, Cavendish Bradshaw, Thomas, commonly called Jerusalem, Whaley, his brother John, all the Beresfords, Lord Errol, Frederick Faulkner, &c., were the prompters and supporters of the club, which dwindled into nonentity when the war afforded more honourable employment to its members.

Amongst the staff of Lord Westmoreland, at this period, was a fine young man, scarcely seventeen, just then entering into life, whose subsequent career fully confirmed the high expectations his youth promised. This individual was the present Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Fane, G. C. B., then captainlieutenant of the Royal Irish Dragoon Guards. He was the nephew and aide-de-camp of the Lord Lieutenant: in person, magnificent for his age, and his face a picture of manly beauty, he, of course, soon became a favourite with ladies of a certain age, always the serious admirers of such promising manhood. But not all the pleasures the gay Irish court afforded had the power to withdraw him from the duties of a profession to which his talents, united to the most splendid courage, have done honour.

When, after a lapse of fifteen years, I saw him at Vimeiro, gallantly cheering on his brave brigade to victory, "seeking the bubble reputation, even at the cannon's mouth," joining the undaunted spirit of the British grenadier to the judgment of the British general, memory brought before me the tall, slim youth of 1793; and I dwelt with sensations of pleasure on the recollection, when, at the close of that glorious day, I felt the kind pressure of his hand, and beheld him attending to the necessities and wants of the wounded and disabled of his renowned "little brigade," kindly cheering those brave fellows who under his gallant example had so nobly sustained the honour of the British arms.

CHAPTER XIII.

"And every turf beneath their feet
Shall be a soldier's sepulchre."

As the year 1793 advanced, the most active preparations for war were on foot in every department. A force of ten thousand men, selected from the troops serving in the Irish establishment, was ordered to rendezvous at Cork, where a fleet of transports had been for some time collecting to convey them to the West Indies.

This force was composed of six regiments of infantry, the 39th, 40th, 43rd, 58th, 64th, and 70th, together with the flank

companies of all the other regiments then serving in Ireland: a finer body of men for their numbers was possibly never assembled.

The brigade of grenadiers was placed under the command of that gallant officer, Colonel Cradock, now General Lord Howden, who resigned his post of Quarter-Master General, in Ireland, to embrace a command fraught with every danger. To his partner in peril, the late Colonel Freemantle, the command of the light brigade was intrusted. Three regiments of dismounted cavalry, the 14th, 17th, and 18th Light Dragoons, were at the same time embarked for this distant service; an unnecessary sacrifice, as subsequent events but too painfully demonstrated.

To this scene of bustle I was invited by a friend, who, without any previous experience of its duties, undertook the office of temporary commissary-general to the troops ordered for embarkation, which, in fact, implied no more than clerk of delivery of stores and money; but it was, like all other Irish affairs, a lucrative job! To this gentleman, who held a civil office in the Ordnance department, I offered my services as one of his assistants.

Arrived at the cove of Cork, in the autumn of 1793, I had an opportunity of observing the confusion attendant on an extensive and ill-arranged embarkation of a large expeditionary force. To add to it, a sudden order arrived to the Commanderin-chief, to despatch, with all possible haste, a brigade of heavy, and another of light cavalry, to re-enforce the army under the Duke of York on the continent. The latter service was performed in such a precipitous and incautious manner, that nearly one-fifth of the horses were either killed or disabled in the slings.

The loss would have been even more severe, but for the always valuable services of the navy. There was then at Cove a fifty gua-ship, the Medusa, guard-ship; the Magicienne frigate, Captain Martin; the Rose, Captain Riou, who having distinguished himself by his unparalleled firmness and constancy under the most awful circumstances, when shut up in ice, in the Guardian frigate; nobly fell in battle, many years after, in the moment of victory; sustaining, to the last moment of his life, the honour of an unsullied name, and the character of that noble service to which he had ever been an ornament; the Pearl, Captain Drury; the Sphynx, Captain Lucas; (the three latter were the convoy appointed for the West Indies; with other vessels of war of inferior strength. There were, also, under detention, or conditional capture, six large and valuable Dutch East Indiamen, which our cruisers had picked up and detained on their way from Batavia to Holland.

VOL. I.

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