sorely.  Accordingly, he lost no time in circulating, and having it circulated by others, that the great Reformation Society would give, in a private way, five guineas a head to every convert, taking them either by the individual or the family, although the conversion of the latter, he said, was far more coveted than even a greater number of individuals, when they were not bound by the same ties of blood, inasmuch, as the bringing them over by families was an outpouring of grace which could not be withstood.  The consequence was, that all the profligate and unprincipled who had cold, and nakedness, and famine, in addition to their own utter want of all moral feeling to stimulate them, looked upon the new Reformation and its liberal promises as a complete windfall blown into their way by some unexpected piece of good fortune.  Five guineas a head!  And all for only going to church, and gaining for ever more the heart and affections of the good and kind Lord ------.  There was also another class, the simple and honest poor, who had no other way of avoiding all the rigors and privations of that terrible season, than a painful compliance with the only principle which could rescue themselves and their children, from a state of things worse than death itself—­and which might probably have terminated in death—­we mean the principle of the new Reformation.  There was, still, a third class—­which consisted of a set of thorough Irish wags, who looked upon the whole thing as an excellent joke—­and who, while they had not a rag to their backs, nor a morsel for their mouths, enjoyed the whole ceremony of reading their recantation, renouncing Popery, and all that, as a capital spree while it lasted, and a thing that ought by all means to be encouraged, until better times came.

In vain, therefore, did Father M’Cabe denounce and prophesy—­in vain did he launch all the dogmas of the church—­in vain did he warn, lecture, and threaten—­Darby’s private hint had gone abroad precisely a day or two before their encounter, and the consequence was what might be expected.  Darby, in fact, overreached him, a circumstance of which, at the period of their meeting, he was ignorant; but he had just learned how “the word,” as it was called, had spread, in so extraordinary a manner, maugre all his opposition a short time before they met; and our readers need not feel surprised at the tone and temper with which, after having heard such intelligence, he addressed Darby, nor at the treatment which that worthy personage received at his hands.  Had he known that it was Darby’s “word” which in point of fact had occasioned “the spread” we speak of, he would have made that worthy missionary exhibit a much greater degree of alacrity than he did.