part, and which was actually at that moment taking complete military occupation of Ireland.  On what information they were acting, no one knew; but their preparations were for the worst.  During all this time nothing could exceed the tranquillity which prevailed in England.  None of these threatening appearances, these tremendous preparations, caused the least excitement or alarm; the funds did not vary a farthing per cent in consequence of them; and to what could all this be ascribed but to the strength of public confidence in the Government?  At length the harvest in Ireland had been got in; ships of war surrounded the coast; thirty thousand picked and chosen troops, ready for instant action, were disposed in the most masterly manner all over Ireland.  With an almost insane audacity, Mr O’Connell appointed his crowning monster meeting to take place at Clontarf, in the immediate vicinity of the residence and presence of the Queen’s representative, and of such a military force as rendered the bare possibility of encountering it appalling.  The critical moment, however, for the interference of Government had at length arrived, and it spoke out in a voice of thunder, prohibiting the monster meeting.  The rest is matter of history.  The monster demagogue fell prostrate and confounded among his panic-stricken confederates; and, in an agony of consternation, declared their implicit obedience to the proclamation, and set about dispersing the myriad dupes, as fast as they arrived to attend the prohibited meeting.  Thus was the Queen’s peace preserved, her crown and dignity vindicated, without one sword being drawn or one shot being fired.  Mr O’Connell had repeatedly “defied the Government to go to law with him.”  They have gone to law with him; and by this time we suspect that he finds himself in an infinitely more serious position than he has ever been in, during the whole of a long and prosperous career of agitation.  Here, however, we leave him and his fellow defendants.

We may, however, take this opportunity of expressing our opinion, that there is not a shadow of foundation for the charges of blundering and incompetency which have been so liberally brought against the Irish Attorney-General.  He certainly appears, in the earlier stages of the proceedings, to have evinced some little irritability—­but, only consider, under what unprecedented provocation!  His conduct has since, however, been characterised by calmness and dignity; and as for his legal capabilities, all competent judges who have attended to the case, will pronounce them to be first-rate; and we feel perfectly confident that his future conduct of the proceedings will convince the public of the justness of our eulogium.