as the fruitful mother of arts and arms. Having learned to read and write at an English school, he was placed under the instruction of the celebrated Doctor Dunkin, who at the time presided over the free school of Enniskillen, which may well be called the Eton of the sister kingdom. The Doctor paid the greatest attention to our young pupil, as he soon found that he was not born under the laggard orb of Saturn." Having acquitted himself to the satisfaction of a teacher," zealous for desert," he was removed from this seminary to Trinity College, Dublin, where he was entered as a pensioner.

"

It does not appear that he wasted a great deal of the midnight oil in the prosecution of the studies prescribed by the statutes of that university; he seems to have been content with the ordinary acquisition of them. If his academic exercises, however, did not sparkle with genius, they shone with solidity. His prospects in life having been clouded by the death of a friend, he graduated, and entered into holy orders, and matrimony, within a few months of each other. He married Miss Hughes, daughter of the Rev. Mr. Hughes, a beneficed clergyman. As she was an only child, the father spared no pains on her education; so that she was considered as one of the most accomplished young women in that part of the country; where, it is but justice to

say, the cultivation of the female mind is properly considered as an object of the first importance. When the writer of this knew Mr. Montgomery first (in the year 1780), he was curate of the parish of Scrabby, near Granard, in the county of Longford. Disappointments, the prospect of a family, &e. seemed to have depressed his spirits, for he was naturally of a cheerful disposition, communicative, and could discourse on any subject almost, with facility and felicity.

If he is living, I hope he will excuse the liberty I have taken, by introducing him to public notice; perhaps, the very last thing in the world. his modest diffidence would submit to: if he is dead, it is a debt I owe to the living, not to withhold from them so fine a specimen of chaste and pathetic poetry. The following lines would seem to have been written at a period when his sensibility had been roused by being overlooked in the humble and necessitous situation of a curate. Indeed, ingenious and susceptible minds must needs be hurt by reflecting, that they who do all the work nearly in the Christian vineyard, have scarcely daily bread for their painsscarcely the crumbs that fall from their masters' table, whilst others of their brethren roll in chariots, and riot in periodic luxury.

Ar fam'd Bethesda's pool, near Salem's gate,
While Salem flourish'd in her regal state,

Still crowds of cripples in arrangement lay,
Impatient waiting the restoring day;
Where, at set times, as we recorded find,
An angel, in compassion to mankind,
By tinge divine, such efficacy gave,

Who first immerg'd, was rescu'd from the grave,
And, quite forgetful of his former pain,
View'd his less happy brothers with disdain;
Yet still but one at one immersion cur'd,
The rest their pains another year endur'd;
Whilst he who no kind aid had hardly got,
In sight of health, might on the margin rot.
A cripple here for years neglected lay,
Still hoping ev'ry turn to get away;
But friends in town, still otherwise employ'd,
Forgot his pains as they their health enjoy'd;
Not so they promis'd, when they left him there,
But words are wind, and vanish into air!

The blest Redeemer at the pool appear'd,
The lazar's tale of woe he knew ere heard;
"Take up thy bed and walk," the Saviour cries;
Lo! strength through all his limbs like lightning flies,
Elate and wond'ring, on his feet he stood,

Burst into tears, and glorified his God.
So, when death's angel, with a cold embrace,
Welcomes a rector to the throne of Grace,
Each lazar curate, in his fortune lame,
Strives to immerge into preferment's stream ;
Each has his friend to aid him on the way;
They plunge, emerge, then cast the crutch away,
Forget their cot, small beer, and rusty gown,
Get taste for wine, and residence in town,

Grow dull and ruddy, insolent and chuff,
And think their quondam brethren have enough
Whilst cripple I, of interest bereft,

Still on the clay-cold margin here am left,
No friendly hand its timely aid supplies,
And still I totter, as I strive to rise.

Yet, twelve long years have I this station kept,
Of all the joys of social life bereft ;

Banish'd from friends, from town, and all most dear,

To starve genteel, on forty pounds a year;
Three helpless babes, a sister, and a wife,
To furnish with the requisites of life;

A purse-proud upstart sneering on my farm,
Who'd pledge his soul to do a gownsman harm.
Of fam'd Astrea here no trace is found,
Her feet so tender, and so hard the ground!
Thou, who in time couldst to the cripple send,
By all deserted, so divine a friend';

Who by a word could former health restore,
And break those bands that fetter'd him before;
With pity touch thy lov'd apostle's breast,

To ease my wants, or take me to thy rest;
Small's my request, as little I deserve,
'Tis only that I may not preach and starve;
Since sacred writings these directions give,
Who at the altar serve, shall by it live.

i ..

CONFESSION.

ACOSTA, in his History of the Indies, 1. v. cap. 25, relates a strange mode of confession,

observed

observed by the Pagans in Japan: "There are," saith he," in Ocaca, very high and steep rocks, which have spikes in them, above two hundred fathom high, one of which surmounted the rest for height, and to the Xambuses (a kind of pilgrims, or pretended religious men of that country), terrible to behold: upon the top thereof there is a great rod of iron, three fathom long, placed there artificially; at the end of which is tied a balance, the scales whereof are so big that a man may sit in one of them; and the Coquis (the devils in human shape, whom they worship) will often command one of the said Xambuses to enter into one of them, and there sit: forthwith by an engine, the rod springs forth, and is pendent in the air, and the empty scale mounts up, and the pilgrim sinks proportionably in the other; then the Coquis telleth him, that he must confess all the sins that he can remember he ever committed, with an audible voice; at the recital of which, some of the heathens ((who assemble in great numbers to the ceremony) laugh, and others sigh. At every sin mentioned, the other empty scale falls a little, till, having told all, it remains equal with the other, wherein the sorrowful penitent sits: the Coquis turns the wheel, and draws the rod and balance to him, and the pilgrim, empty from all his sins, and clear as the child unborn, comes forth; but if any sin be concealed,

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