The meaning of this quotation did not seem a difficult attainment, even to those who had never previously seen a Latin word. It was generally construed by such persons, "Here he is; it is all right; he has come, as he promised, in August."
It was during the King's sojourn at the Viceregal Lodge in the Phœnix Park, that an anecdote became current of a question having been addressed by him to an Irish footman as to whether there was any person in the establishment who understood German? to which the interrogated domestic replied, "Please your Majesty, I don't know anyone who spakes Jarman, but I have a brother who plays the Jarman flate."
In 1849, when it became known that Queen Victoria would visit Dublin, a great influx of the nobility and gentry was reasonably expected. The city became also very attractive to persons of a different and objectionable description. Great numbers of mendicants arrived, and the increase of beggars on our streets became most disagreeably apparent. The Commissioners of Police immediately told off constables in plain clothes on the special duty of repressing the nuisance, and so vigilant and active were they, that our thoroughfares were less infested by beggars during the Royal visit than I ever knew them to be at any other period. The committals were generally for ten or fourteen days; and many of the vagrants were by no means slow in attributing their confinement to special orders from the Queen herself to have the beggars locked up while she was in Dublin. A woman, who was committed by me for a fortnight on a conviction for mendicancy, exclaimed, as she was leaving the police-court, "Mr. Porter is sending us to jail in hopes of getting himself made Sir Frank."
During the Queen's progress through the city on the 6th of August, the whole line of the procession was densely crowded, the windows were occupied, and banners, emblematic of respect and welcome, abundantly displayed; and she was universally hailed with enthusiastic shouts of applause. In the evening there was a general and most brilliant illumination. The whole day passed without the slightest tumult or accident, until about eleven o'clock at night, when the vast crowds were dispersed by the heaviest rain that I ever witnessed in Ireland. The shower lasted about an hour. During the succeeding four days, Her Majesty visited the principal public institutions, and held a levee in Dublin Castle, the most numerous and influential that had ever been assembled there, and a drawing-room which exhibited an unprecedented display of rank, fashion, and beauty. On the 10th of August, she embarked at Kingstown, amidst the acclamations of assembled thousands, and sailed for England. She afforded signal acknowledgments of her appreciation of the reception she had experienced from her Irish subjects, for on leaving the pier at Kingstown, she ordered the Royal standard to be lowered and raised again on board the Royal yacht, a mark of honor never before employed except for a Royal personage. In a short time after her visit of 1849, she created her eldest son Earl of Dublin.
SCOTCH SUPERIORITY STRONGLY ASSERTED.
Several months elapsed after the exciting and gratifying demonstrations to which I have last adverted, during which time we had profound quietude, and a total cessation of political turmoils. I cannot recollect any incident, public or official, which I would consider worth a reader's notice. I shall mention, however, that there was then here an individual character with whom I had occasional communication, and from whom I derived considerable amusement almost every time we met. He was a man of high military rank, holding an important garrison appointment. Kind, courteous, and affable, he had, nevertheless, some extraordinary prejudices, which I took every opportunity to induce him to express. He was a Scotchman, who insisted that his country and its people were superior to every other region and race, and who did not hesitate to disparage any attempt to assign even an equality with the Scotch to the natives of any other kingdom. His greatest explosions of indignation seemed specially reserved for a comparison, if at all favourable, of the Irish with the Scotch. Consequently, I boldly ascribed a manifest superiority to my countrymen over his in intelligence, integrity, diligence, neatness, promptitude of action, and all other estimable qualities which could be evinced in either peaceful or martial avocations; so that I was sure to produce a denial of all my statements, and a suggestion that I should never repeat them without blushing. Still I persevered, and enjoyed the excitement which my expressions elicited. A few days before he left Dublin we had a conference, and, as usual, I boasted of Burke, Grattan, Curran, Goldsmith, Moore, Sheridan, Wellington, Gough, &c. He insisted that Scotland could produce equal or perhaps superior characters, if she had the opportunity. I remarked that even when Irishmen engaged in nefarious criminal pursuits, they evinced superior dexterity, and that our thieves were peculiarly knowing and adroit. "Your thieves!" he exclaimed, "I'll be d——d if we haven't thieves in Edinburgh or Glasgow that your Dublin fellows couldn't hold a candle to."
A POLICE BILL STIGMATISED.
In the session of Parliament of 1850, a bill was brought in by the Government for the revision and consolidation of the acts regulating the Dublin Metropolitan Police. It was printed, and a considerable number of copies were circulated in Dublin. We regarded it as a most desirable measure, for it would, if passed, have substituted, a simplified code for an involved and complicated hotch-potch of seven statutes containing about four hundred sections. The police authorities were extremely anxious for the success of the proposed bill, but it was objected to by others, delayed, and ultimately, at the close of the session, became one of the sufferers in the "Massacre of the Innocents." Whilst it was pending, an alderman made it the subject, at a meeting of the Corporation, of a most condemnatory speech. He stigmatised it as unconstitutional and tyrannical, and dwelt at considerable length on a section which would impart power to a divisional magistrate, in case dealers in certain commodities neglected or refused to comply with a notice to produce any article in their possession, alleged to have been stolen, to inflict on the person so neglecting or refusing, a penalty of twenty pounds, and in default of payment of such penalty, to commit the offender for two months. He indignantly demanded from what region of despotism had such a tyrannical proposition been imported, and declared that it would disgrace any legislature to enact, or any executive to enforce, such unconstitutional severity. He was spared the mortification of seeing such power imparted to a police magistrate. The obnoxious bill was not passed, and the law remained unaltered. By it the tyrannical penalty is only fifty pounds, with an alternative imprisonment of merely six months. I do not believe, however, that there has ever been an instance of such a penalty being exacted or such imprisonment inflicted.
LEAVE OF ABSENCE.
In the year 1851 my magisterial duties, which did not indeed afford any incident worthy of being particularized, were interrupted by a severe attack of gastric fever; on my recovery from which, I was directed by my medical attendant to proceed to Wiesbaden, and take such baths and drink such mineral waters as should be prescribed by a certain English physician residing there, Dr. Lewis. I waited on the Chief Secretary, Sir William Somerville, who subsequently became Lord Athlumney, and requested leave of absence for a month or six weeks. He took a printed form of reply, directed it to me, and signed it. By this document I was granted "leave of absence for ——." On remarking to him that he had not specified the duration of the indulgence, the worthy gentleman was pleased to compliment me by saying, "I have left a blank for the time. Go, and stay until your health and strength are completely renovated, and fill up the blank at your return. You are deserving of the most favourable treatment." I record with gratitude and pride such an acknowledgment of my anxious endeavours to discharge my official duties with efficiency; but I must also say that kindness and benignity were amongst his prominent characteristics. I left Dublin at the latter end of May, and proceeded through London to Ostend, and from thence by railway to Bonn, where I commenced ascending "the wide and winding Rhine." Whilst waiting at the wharf for the steamer, and contemplating "The castled crag of Drachenfels," I thought of Byron's lines, in which he describes the scenery which appeared so enchanting to Childe Harold, and also how