for my favourite, I might say, my only study, is man.  I found these gentlemen much what I had anticipated, for this was not the first time that I had visited an English—­establishment in a foreign land.  They were full of amiability and courtesy to their heretic countryman, and though the advancement of their religion was with them an object of paramount importance, I soon found that, with ludicrous inconsistency, they cherished, to a wonderful degree, national prejudices almost extinct in the mother land, even to the disparagement of those of their own darling faith.  I spoke of the English -, of their high respectability, and of the loyalty which they had uniformly displayed to their sovereign, though of a different religion, and by whom they had been not unfrequently subjected to much oppression and injustice.

Rector.—­My dear Sir, I am rejoiced to hear you; I see that you are well acquainted with the great body of those of our faith in England.  They are as you have well described them, a most respectable and loyal body; from loyalty, indeed, they never swerved, and though they have been accused of plots and conspiracies, it is now well known that such had no real existence, but were merely calumnies invented by their religious enemies.  During the civil wars the English—­cheerfully shed their blood and squandered their fortunes in the cause of the unfortunate martyr, notwithstanding that he never favoured them, and invariably looked upon them with suspicion.  At present the English—­are the most devoted subjects to our gracious sovereign.  I should be happy if I could say as much for our Irish brethren; but their conduct has been—­oh! detestable.  Yet what can you expect?  The true—­blush for them.  A certain person is a disgrace to the church of which he pretends to be a servant.  Where does he find in our canons sanction for his proceedings, his undutiful expressions towards one who is his sovereign by divine right, and who can do no wrong?  And above all, where does he find authority for inflaming the passions of a vile mob against a nation intended by nature and by position to command them?

Myself.—­I believe there is an Irish college in this city?

Rector.—­I believe there is; but it does not flourish, there are few or no pupils.  Oh!

I looked through a window, at a great height, and saw about twenty or thirty fine lads sporting in a court below.  “This is as it should be,” said I; “those boys will not make worse priests from a little early devotion to trap-ball and cudgel playing.  I dislike a staid, serious, puritanic education, as I firmly believe that it encourages vice and hypocrisy.”

We then went into the Rector’s room, where, above a crucifix, was hanging a small portrait.

Myself.—­That was a great and portentous man, honest withal.  I believe the body of which he was the founder, and which has been so much decried, has effected infinitely more good than it has caused harm.