of the soldiers, produced a brain fever, which left Lacy, in the course of a fortnight, to weep over the grave of her infant and herself. This was the sealing of his ruin. But it was not all : an ejectment was soon afterwards served upon him, and he found himself and three helpless children, whose prospects in life had been once respectable, the inmates of a poor hovel adjoining his own farm, almost without the means of subsistence. In this place he resided for some time, and the change which a few months produced in him was indeed appalling. The death of his wife, who was ever tender, faithful, and soothing, and of his child, who he hoped would have filled up the chasm left in his heart by the loss of his first son, broke the last remaining ties which bound him to mankind and to principle. He now entered with a desperate energy into all plans that were submitted to him, of what nature soever. He called his landlord a tyrant, and swore deadly vengeance against the excise officer, and every thing connected with the civil establishment of the country. He looked back upon life, and on considering the lot which had been apportioned to him in it, his heart withered at the ruinous situation to which he found himself reduced. His affliction, too, was the deeper because he found that every evil act and incident of life, was to be attributed more or less to himself-though he knew that his intentions and efforts had been always good. He was therefore at one time a sceptic, at another a predestinarian; but whether as a sceptic or predestinarian, he still considered himself reprobate, for in all his sufferings, both in mind and circumstances, he had not learned to ascertain the primary cause of his calamities. There is not, indeed, a situation more heart rending, than that in which a man is compelled to ascribe his evil destiny in life to his own errors, whilst he cannot accuse his heart of a fixed and voluntary predisposition to evil. Had he made this admission, however, he would have been right; for where is the heart which is not inclined to evil, until changed by the influence of grace? Lacy, with a heart benevolent and tender, met the fate of a villain, and, in some degree, deserved it.

Let those men who make light of religious truth pause here, and let such as mistake the natural impulses of an amiable disposition for the influence of religion look to themselves with caution. If they do not belong to the system which blind-folded the reason of this unhappy man, let them reflect, that while they should be doubly grateful, they are also doubly responsible. Lacy's life was a perpetual struggle against his passions and the circumstances wherein he was placed; but he was not a match for both. He was assailed within, and from without; his judgment was tainted from the beginning; like Paul before his conversion, he thought he saw correctly; but the scales were on his eyes without his knowing it. His life was spent in that warfare which never yet was successful to any-that of the natural man against sin; a warfare that resembles the pique of lovers who quarrel from the caprices of affection, that their reconciliations may be the sweeter, and their attachment more strong.

Most persons, in the situation to which Lacy was now reduced

by such means, would probably abandon all thoughts of religion; but those who are thoroughly acquainted with the lasting influence of the Romish Creed, or in other words, of superstitious forms, when early impressed on the mind, will not be surprised that he did not do so. The fact is, as I said before, their observance was a habit which he could scarcely overcome, even if he were inclined to it. There is an unholy unction in superstitious rites, which deeper plunges and a longer continuance in sin render more agreeable to the sinner. Where the individual rests upon his own works, the standard of duty must be erroneous; for as works can be done by the greatest sinner, they surely blind man to his real danger, when he depends upon no other principle of acceptance with God. The greater scope a man belonging to such a creed gives to sin, the greater necessity has he, according to his own notions, for practising a parallel course of external devotion. He thinks they neutralize each other, and that if his religious duties be equal to his crimes, he is safe. How happily has Christ himself condemned this pernicious opinion, in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, where the former, instead of acknowledging his iniquity, began to recount the nature and number of his works; and yet how vain were they all in the sight of God, notwithstanding the Pharisee's reliance upon them? "Cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter; that the outside of them may be clean also❞—that is, let the heart be regenerated by faith and then the conduct will be edifying, the life holy. "Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel :" alas how well is this epithet verified in the present day by those who boast of the exclusive holiness of their Church! Why, my Roman Catholic friends, will you not open your eyes and examine for yourselves?

Lacy with his little helpless family struggled on for some time longer, whilst remorse, sorrow, despair, and affection rent the very fibres of his heart asunder. He had been unfortunate without intending to be guilty; yet he had suffered more for error, he thought, than many had for guilt; he had also done every thing required by his religion. 'Tis true he had committed excesses; but then, had he not confessed and performed the necessary penances ? If he had failed in doing well, had he not endeavoured to act up to what he conceived was right. He could not, therefore, after so many confessions consider himself an unforgiven sinner; yet he felt the remorse the very gall of sin :-alas! he knew not. that in observing the traditions of his church, he had often violated the commandments of the law, and the precepts of the Gospel. These reflections produced in him a kind of irritable gloom, which made him consider his dispensation in life as unjust; but never was the tenderness of the father lost or banished for a moment from his heart. At last he became passive, and his features began to exhibit that character of hollowness and imbecility, which betrays in its possessor a wounded spirit and a broken heart. In this state his brother-in law came to him, one day, and asked him if he had heard any thing new lately. Lacy replied he had not. "Your farm," said the other, "is about to be set."

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"Well," said Lacy, who was now quite passive and low-spirited, "God grant my successor better prosperity than I enjoyed in it!" "Harry," enquired his brother-in-law, "would you wish to have your farm again ?" "Would I wish it? can you look at my poor children and ask me such a question ?" "Well, say no more, but meet me and them you know, on Saturday evening next, in Fagan's, and we'll talk more about it, at all events." "If it's any thing in the old way, Tom, I'll not go-I'll give up such connexions, and I wish I had never joined them." "Then say no more about it; but starve, and let your children starve; I wash my hands out of it; and perhaps when I plan any thing more to serve you, I'll get better thanks." "Why," said Lacy, "how could I stock it? How could I manage it, being, as I am, without either money or substance?" "Oh you never could do it," replied the other, with contemptuous sarcasm, never-drop the subject -let us say no more about it-good evening." 'Why, you're in a great hurry, Tom-don't be so much on your edge man! what o'clock will you meet at ?" "Sure if you don't intend to come, what need you enquire ?" Well perhaps I may go there can be no great harm in going: but remember, none of the old methods; for I'm sick of them." "I declare I hate a sqeamish person worse than I hate a heretic: be there at ten o'clock, and let us have no more qualms, for when you get into that strain, you'd sicken a man: why don't you turn swaddler at once, and then you'll get hypocrisy your fill?" "Spare me your villainous tongue, Tom; I'll go rather than bear it longer." "I'll tell you what Harry, if you don't get back to your farm, by a plan that's now in my head, it will lie waste on the villain's hands that owns it; or let him that dares to take it look to his health-at least there's no harm in threatening as much, not that we have any notion of putting it in execution, that is, except they dare us to it." “No,” said Lacy, "I will never consent to these measures, the man you talk of is not a villain, but an honest man, and an indulgent landlord-so I have found him-and who, let me ask, would allow my rent to run so far into arrear as he did-still with a hope that I might struggle through """ Well, let him pass; but who do you think is married to M'Dowal the rich baker's daughter ?"— "The guager is it? I've heard about that-he'll settle here I suppose ?" No doubt of it-and will come in for all M'Dowal's property-but I've more to tell you, he has proposed for your farm"- Tom, for God's sake, mention him not, if you do not wish to drive me distracted-for I cannot think of that man without a deadly hatred, although, after all what did he do but his duty; yet when a man is desperate his revenge will turn on something." "He murdered your wife."-"Leave me, I say, I cannot bear the subject." "He murdered your son."- "Yes, onebut who murdered the other ?" 66 'Ah, there you have given me a `double stab." Leave me, Tom, while my brain is calm-you madden me." "He left you without house or home, food or raiment, the very children that you love, that Margaret doted on, without food to eat, without clothes to cover them from the winds of heaven."-"I will hear no more, Tom."-" He's a government

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spy, too, and will, no doubt, trace us in another way that may bring our necks into the rope." "Now," said Lacy, checking himself with that strength of mind which he was known to possess upon cases of great emergency, "Let it satisfy you, when I say that I will attend on Saturday night-and what is more, will attend with willingness; for if I do not, I see that blood will be shed: but while I have breath to breathe I will never consent to this.""We have no such thing in view;" said the other, "and even if we had, I do not see the great sin of punishing a villain-but when the sin can be removed, as blessed be God, who has given that authority to his church, it can, there is nothing we might be afraid of, but the law of the land, and it might be so managed that that could not reach us." "Good night, Tom, for the present," said Lacy, "and keep down that spirit of revenge, for it is a bad compa

nion."

In two months from that day, Lacy, his brother-in-law, and three others, were lodged in the Goal of for the murder of the excise officer, who was the subject of the latter part of the foregoing conversation. Thus does crime proceed not only from evil communication; but from causes, that being clothed in the garb of religious ordinances, dispose those who are influenced by a belief in their authority and power, to guilt which the very law of nature looks upon with horror. Thus, too, are there some situations, in which mere ignorance is less dangerous than knowledge that is positively evil.

It was while in prison that the full proof of what Lacy might have been was first given. It was here that he exhibited that calm, but firm resignation to his fate, which excited general sympathy. He and the others were tried principally upon the evidence of his brother-in-law, who, to save his own neck, had turned approver. In preparing for his trial, he evinced a self-possession-a clearness of expression, and a capacity utterly unprecedented in a man of his education and opportunities. And when the awful day came, he stood at the bar with a face, whose expression was manly and intellectual-in which might be read firmness, resignation, and sorrow. But it was during his trial, when the skill of his eminent and able council, well versed in the surest and most ingenious methods of shaking a witness's testimony, had entirely failed, that a few questions, suggested by Lacy himself, did, with an irresistible destructiveness, crush a great part of the prosecutor's testimony to atoms. These suggestions were so condensed,, so cardinal and eliciting in their nature, that, had there been the slightest failure in the direct proof, he would have been saved. When the jury, after the judge's charge, returned from the room, there was a dead silence in the court; and when the verdict was declared, there was no visible change in his countenance, except simply an expression of deeper interest: but when the judge pronounced the final sentence of the law, and informed him that he had not the slightest ground of hope beyond that day fortnight, I noticed a slight paleness spread over his temples, and the natural red of his cheeks was contracted within two small spots of a more hectic hue than usual.

On the day after his trial, the Protestant chaplain of the gaol paid him a visit: I believe it was the first interview he had had with that gentleman. The conversation took the turn which the reader may suppose the solemn nature of his situation required. Whilst it lasted, Lacy kept his eye fixed on the countenance of the clergyman, as if he would look into his very soul; and when this minister of God felt it necessary to enter into any particular explanation respecting the terms of a sinner's acceptance with God, with what intuitive rapidity would this amiable, but unfortunate man, enter into his views, or anticipate his conclusions! He declared, on that occasion, that he had never read a Bible, nor even seen one, to the best of his recollection, except once, in the window of an inn. The chaplain then left him his own, which, from the occasional recurrence of scenes of the same melancholy nature, was marked and pencilled in those passages best adapted to his perusal. This interview lasted for nearly two hours; and I could easily perceive, from the serious interest which he took in it, that he was tremblingly anxious to save his soul. His own personal experience in religious matters, and in the corruption of the human heart, had been extensive, but unhappy; when, therefore, the error of his principles had been compared with the consequences they produced in his own life, when the great Scripture truth that he who is in Christ, must become a new creature-when the necessity of regeneration in the heart, shewing itself in the Christian character, not by an unmeaning routine of ceremonial works, of prayers, and of penances, but by holiness, charity, benevolence, and simplicity of life: when these, and many other necessary points were set clearly before him, I knew by the illustration, which, in additionto their intrinsic force of truth, these doctrines would receive from that experience, that he would, in a short time, guided by the light of God's own word, build on the faith and the merits of his Redeemer alone, casting behind him the rags of human righteousness and human merit.

I was not disappointed: from the moment he received the Bible he devoted the greater part of the night and day to its perusal. On the fourth day afterwards he had read the New Testament three times over. He also called for a Protestant prayer-book, which he

read with much seriousness and devotion.

A few days after his conviction, the priest, whose guilty assumption of authority had induced the confiding man to violate the sacred obligation of an oath, came to visit him. I was with Lacy when he arrived; and I must confess, that it was the only occasion, on which, after his trial, he shewed any signs of agitation. The sight of the priest produced a shock resembling that of electricity; his brow darkened, and his eye almost shot gleams of actual fire. His appearance revived a train of associations, which, in Lacy's situation at that moment, neither human fortitude, nor perhaps Christian patience could support.

He dated, in fact, the terrible fate which then awaited him, and the whole series of his past calamities, to that unjustifiable act of the priest, and the influence of confession; but most of all to the