In South Carolina the government has not yet taken up the cause, but the following presentment was made by the grand jury of one of the districts, in the spring terin of last

year

Presentment of the grand jury, at Spring term, 1859.-We further present the free negroes of the district as a nuisance, and recommend that the legislature pass some law that will have the effect of relieving the community of this troublesome population.'

The Cherau Gazette,' in commenting upon the foregoing,

remarked

We are pleased at this act of the grand jury, and hope other grand juries will follow the example, and thus impress the matter upon our law-makers until they shall be forced to abate the nuisance.'

The Louisiana legislature has recently refused to pass the extreme measure, but the following law came into force in September last

All free persons of colour, arriving in port from abroad, must immediately be lodged in gaol, and remain there until the departure of the boat or vessel on which they came; masters of steamboats and ships must report to the chief of police all such persons belonging to their crews, or passengers, or incur severe penalties. It will be well for all masters of vessels and steamboats trading with this State to bear in mind the provisions of this law, as it will save them from much trouble, and perhaps pecuniary loss. The evils attending the increase of a free negro population, and more particularly the intercourse of free persons of colour from abroad with our slaves, caused the passage of this stringent law.'

The proceedings of the rest of the slave States do not vary greatly from the above. But independently of the high-handed conduct manifested towards the free negroes, the white inhabitants, and all travellers from the North, are subjected to a system of espionage which has no parallel in the most despotic countries on the continent of Europe. All discussion is interdicted, and the man who dares to express his antipathy of slavery, is soon in receipt of a castigation from the mobs of white trash' in the pay of the planters. In the higher classes of society, the question of freedom if introduced by some visiting friend, is quietly got rid of by changing the topic of conversation. The following extract from the democratic New York Herald,' of January 4th, this year, will give the reader an idea of the state of things in the slave States.

We are daily receiving information, from public and private sources, which shows that a reign of terror is approaching in this country pregnant with the most disastrous results to both North and South. Travellers from the northern sections of the Union are not only looked upon with suspicion in the southern States, but in many sections of that region they are stopped in their travels and obliged to give a satisfactory account of themselves and their business. If they have not some local acquaintance who can vouch for them, they are followed through all their in-goings and out-comings, and not unfrequently find themselves face to face with a vigilance committee, charged with the preservation of public order and the expurgation of the community from northern Abolitionists. This is particularly the case with the travelling agents of northern manufacturers and merchants, who, in consequence of the prevailing excitement, are looked upou with great suspicion. There are numerous concerns in this portion of the country which have sent out agents, and made great preparations to meet their orders from the South for goods, who already find themselves in pecuniary embarrassment, from the fact that their agents, instead of sending home orders for goods, write the most doleful letters in regard to their business prospects. Thus, the

commercial

Something must be done.

79

commercial connections between the north and the south are being gradually severed, under the growing influence of the terror that northern agents of the abolitionized black republican party are busily fomenting a servile war in the south, and every southern man feels that it is not slavery alone, but the lives of himself and his loved wife and children, that are involved. Our black republican contemporaries have been raising a lamentable hue and cry over the recent lynching of one James Power, at Columbia, South Carolina. Power is a native of Ireland, a stonecutter, and, with a number of other men of his trade, of different nationalities, was employed in the construction of the new State House at Columbia, when the pro-slavery committee of vigilance of the said town got wind of some remarks of Power of an abolition character. The results were, an unsuccessful attempt of Power to escape, his capture, the infliction of twentynine lashes upon his bare back, after which he was served with a coat of tar and feather, and in this condition was sent down by railroad to Charleston, where he was conducted to prison, and thence, after a confinement of several days, shipped to New York. Twelve families have been obliged to fly from Madison County. We have not space to spare for further extracts, but the following paragraph from the Star' of January 28th tells of a system of surveillance which puts the proceedings of the post-office officials at Paris into the shade.

6

'Slavery Question and Interception of Letters and Papers.-Newspapers from this country to the United States, being, we understand, under post-office surveillance in that country, in consequence of the slavery excitement at present existing there, it would be well that parties in transmitting letters to their friends, of marked name in the anti-slavery movement, should take precaution that their letters be received.'

en masse.

Now in all this the slaveholders are undoubtedly doing themTheir conduct towards selves and their cause infinite mischief. the white population will increase the number of their enemies, and decrease the number of their friends; and the severity exhibited towards the slaves and free negroes will have but one effect, viz., resistance. Though old Brown's Harper's Ferry expedition failed, the attempt will be renewed next time, on a larger scale. The negroes are only waiting for an opportunity to rise Would it not, therefore, be better for the slaveholders to make for themselves some way of escape? and instead of adding fuel to the combustible pile, seek for some means whereby a general conflagration may be prevented? That something must be done, and that before long, is certain. The number of slaves in the Union in 1850 was 3,200,000; for the previous twenty years the ratio of increase was about three per cent. per annum at the same rate of progress the slaves now number 4,165,000, and for the following periods will be, in round numbers, as follows; 1870, 5,410,000; 1880, 7,040,000; 1890, Of these three-fourths will be 9,150,000; 1900, 12,000,000!

concentrated in seven out of the fourteen slave States. If with 4,165,000 in 1860 it be found so difficult to keep down rebellion, what will be the state of affairs in twenty years from this, when there will be 7,040,000 (to say nothingof the 12,000,000 in twenty years later), and when intelligence, spite of all precaution, will be more widely diffused amongst the negroes than is the case now?

ART.

ART. VI.-1. Portrait Gallery. June 1849. Dublin. 2. MS. Notes of Recollections of Father Mathew, by Dowden Richard, Esq. Cork.

3. The Newspaper Press, 1839 to 1857.

Na

IN

a poor and neglected neighbourhood, where poverty and wretchedness abound, called Blackamoor Lane, in the city of Cork, there is a small Capuchin friary: a plain building, though fitted up with some taste, and known, after the name of its builder, as 'O'Leary's Chapel.' More than forty years since, a young Capuchin of handsome person, courteous manners, and earnest zeal joined the mission attached to this chapel. He speedily became popular. His natural refinement rendered him acceptable to the wealthy and educated, while his sympathetic kindness and judicious firmness endeared him to the humbler portion of his fellow-citizens. His influence rapidly increased, and no priest of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland was more sought after for religious assistance or consolation. The characteristic of his mind was devotion rather than superstition; and the individuality and original force of his character enabled him to acquire a moral ascendency over those who sought his aid or advice, as remarkable as it was useful. He was a sincere Catholic, but without bigotry; he was a true Christian-a Catholic of the school of Fénelon rather than of Bossuet.

The movement which originated in Preston in 1833 in favour of entire abstinence from all intoxicating liquors as the only cure for drunkenness soon spread to Ireland, and the pledge of total abstinence' was taken by a few members of the Society of Friendsin Cork. There, as elsewhere, the anti-whisky,' anti-spirits,' and moderation' pledges had been tried and had failed. Amid sneers and derision, Mr. William Martin, Mr. Dowden Richard, and a few others held weekly meetings in Cork, with but indifferent success, until, by means of deputations and personal solicitation, they enlisted the interest of the popular Capuchin friar.

We may suppose ourselves, on the 10th April 1838, at a small meeting of friends in the city of Cork. A respected priest rises, and, addressing those present, says: Gentlemen, I hope you will aid and give me such information as may be necessary for the formation of a new Total Abstinence Society;' and then, taking the pen in hand, pausing, and saying these remarkable words, 'If only one poor soul can be rescued from intemperance and destruction it will be doing a noble act and adding to the glory of God: here goes in the name of the Lord,' he signs his name, 'The Very Rev. Theobald Mathew, C.C., Cove Street, No. 1.' On the same evening he is elected president of the new society, and we hear

him commence the advocacy of temperance in an old schoolroom in Blackamoor Lane. We think him well meaning, but a little fanatical, and we smile at the notion that his ascetic doctrine can ever become powerful or popular.

*** We are in the city of Limerick. It is the 2nd of Dec. 1839. As we entered the city we were astonished at the dense crowds extending for two miles along the road, and now we find the streets absolutely impassable from the masses which throng them. We are told that accommodation for the night cannot be obtained at any cost, that the public buildings have all been thrown open, and that with every effort more than 5,000 persons must lie in the street. We endeavour to obtain refreshment, and find that a penny loaf has risen in price to threepence, and that we cannot purchase a quart of milk for less than sixpence. At last, weary and footsore, we are compelled to be content to pay two shillings each for liberty to stand in a crowded cellar so as to escape the inclemency of the December night. Our amazement is redoubled when, in answer to our inquiries, we learn that this ingathering of all the tribes arises simply from the fact that Father Mathew is expected to visit Limerick on the morrow, for the purpose of administering the temperance pledge to the people. We remember the little room in Cork, and we stand abashed at the recognition of the fact that the despised fanaticism has become a national regeneration. The grain of mustard seed has grown into a mighty tree.

It is the 7th December, and we cannot leave the city. The crowds pouring in prevent egress. We are carried with the pressure along one of the streets; and over the heads of the people we are able to distinguish on the steps of a house, a simple priest, the cause of all this excitement. After four days' incessant exertion his voice is gone, but he is administering the pledge to the enthusiastic multitude. What a sight! Twenty thousand persons simultaneously kneel, and with tears and sobs declare themselves resolved to abandon the tempting drink and lead amended lives.

We are lifted from our feet, and as we are helplessly borne along, we see mounted soldiers in attendance to preserve order, in like manner carried away: at last, having succeeded in extricating ourselves, we hear that the pressure has been so great as to break down the iron railings and precipitate the crowd into the Shannon, happily without serious results; and we further ascertain that while we have been in Limerick at least 150,000 persons have taken the pledge.

*** There is no limit to the power of the imagination, and we may now, therefore, fancy ourselves seated, in the year 1845, quietly in our study, with a pile of papers before us consisting of parliamentary returns and copies of the public journals. We have heard, during the past six years, that the scene at which we were Vol. 3.-No. 9. accidentally

G

accidentally present in Limerick was repeated in various parts of the country, but until now we have not cared to inquire further of the matter. Now, however, our eye is caught by a statement in a Waterford newspaper of 1839, which informs us that only five prisoners were on the assize calendar for that year, although in the previous year's list there had been 159. Turning over the newspapers still further, we gather that in 1839, 3,202 persons were confined in Richmond Bridewell, Dublin, while in 1840 they numbered 2,108, and in 1841 only 1,604. The same source, after a little troublesome search, affords the information that in 1838 the. Dublin Savings Bank numbered 7,264 depositors, but increased to 9,585 in 1841.

Turning to the criminal and assize reports which form so large a proportion of the news of the journals, we read words spoken by Justice Burton at Down Assizes in 1842, and corroborated by Baron Pennefather at Meath, congratulating the grand jury on the absence of crime, 'evidently the effect of temperance.' And we are not surprised that the judges should congratulate the magistracy, when we learn that at Cork, during the eight months intervening between the Autumn assizes of 1844 and the Spring of 1845 only one prisoner had been committed for trial.

Unable, even yet, to comprehend the vast change in national habit and character, we turn to our parliamentary blue books, and the only explanation we can find, is contained in returns moved for by Sir R. Ferguson, which tell us that in 1838 the consumption of whisky in Ireland was twelve and a quarter millions of gallons, while in 1841 it was only six and a half millions; and that within two years there had been a decrease in the revenue from spirits of at least half a million pounds sterling.

*** And now, in 1860, we seek for traces of the mighty influence wielded by Father Mathew and we find but few. Enthusiasm has cooled, temptation has proved stronger than principle, and with the exception of some few spots which the untiring efforts of a few earnest and devoted men have saved, the whole country is again flooded by intemperance. Father Mathew is dead, without a memorial, without a memoir.

It is certainly strange that none of the able and sympathetic men who were associated with Father Mathew in his great enterprise have preserved, or have collected and given to the public a sufficient biography of the great Irish patriot. No man's life was better worth writing; no man had friends more capable for the task. It may be that the self-abandonment of the man during his life has fixed public attention less on himself than on his work. The individuality of the hero of social and moral conquests, even more than of him who has struggled for liberty in the field or the senate, sinks in his public triumphs. What he has produced, is