it must be considered as necessary in no common degree.

One of the charitable institutions most important to the welfare of a civilized state, is that which provides an asylum for destitute female orphans. Whether we consider it in a religious, a philanthropic, or a political point of view, it calls equally loud on us for its support: the feelings of the man, the prin ciples of the christian, and the prudence of the statesman, are alike interested. In the city of Dublin this truth had long been felt and neglected or if attended to, it was but by the inadequate patronage of a few benevolent individuals. Amongst these god-like few it would be ingratitude to the cause of humanity not to distinguish the name of Latouche, a name that at once conveys to our imagination every thing that is benevolent and respectable.

The plan however could only, in any considerable degree, be efficient by becoming an object of public bounty, and Mr. Kirwan was determined to endea vour it should be so. With talents, the display of which at once gratified the imagination, convinced the judgment, and melted the heart, he took up their cause. The effect was almost magical. Congregations, whose crowds nearly amounted to suffocation, and brought back to the imagination the throngs that attended the first promulgators of the gospel, flocked to listen and to contribute. The grasp of avarice was relaxed; the sensualist was taught to purchase the till then untasted luxury-of benevolence; and the worldling to feel for others

beside himself. To the softer sex the appeal could not but be irresistible. Females of the highest rank and most splendid fortunes, not content with their own large contributions, were beheld exerting every fascination of manner and charm of entreaty to induce the co-operation of all ranks: and sums were collected within the walls of a church, which appear almost incredible.* The narrow dwelling, where before a few destitute young women had with scanty and precarious support been rescued from the miseries of want, the arts of seduction, and the horrors of vice, was suddenly expanded into an extensive and ample asylum, increasing alike in its inhahitants and funds. Fresh claimants were daily applying; nor were they rejected; and the benevolent author of this happiness (a happiness not confined to the objects of the charity alone, but extended on all sides to their relations, friends, and connexions,) has the delightful consciousness of having, by the exertions of his transcendant eloquence, contributed more to the benefit of his native country than if he himself had been gifted with a superabundance of wealth.

Mr. Kirwan's exertions, however, have not been confined to the patronage of the asylum for female orphans. Occasionally many other of the charitable

* In St. Anne's church alone, at one sermon for this institution, the sum of fifteen hundred pounds was received; a larger contribution than ever before was offered, perhaps, at one time on the altar of charity by a christian congregation.

institutions

institutions of the city of Dublin have gratefully acknowledged the success of his appeals to the public in their favour. The school of his own parish has not a little benefited by them. From being a receptacle for a few wretched children, the offspring of the most populous spot in the metropolis, it has grown to a respectable and comfortable seminary for a district particularly in want of such an institution.

We may readily believe that abilities such as we have described, the exercise of which has at length become a national benefit, could not be overlooked by those who have the distribution of church preferment. By the late Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Fowler, Mr. Kirwan was presented to the living of St. Nicholas Without, in the city of Dublin, and by Marquis Cornwallis recommended to the deanery of Killala; both of which he now holds and if talents and virtue are a claim to the mitre, we may expect to find him at no distant period shedding a lustre on the episcopal bench.

If ever a philanthropist has had reason to be gratified by the success of his exertions, it is the subject of these memoirs. During a period of seventeen years he has been destined to address audiences literally overflowing in number and mercy. Considerably more than fifty thousand pounds, applied chiefly to one of the most important concerns of nations, and the very first in the catalogue of humanity, namely, the protection and education of friendless children, is the happy and glorious fruit of these appeals to say nothing of a spirit universally

awakened

awakened through the land, that will long, it is to be hoped, continue to be the resource of every species of calamity, and the powerful means of diminishing the public evils and disgrace of a most wretched and untutored people.

Of Dean Kirwan, as a private individual, it may be necessary to say a few words. In person he is rather thin, but tall and graceful, and possessing, from long residence on the continent, somewhat the look of a foreigner. Mr. Addison has justly observed, that dress has a considerable influence on the sentiments of mankind in general. In this respect therefore the subject of these pages is not ambitious of following the example of certain great men, who affect to gain celebrity by a slovenly contempt for even the decencies of external appearance; for he is invariably attired with uncommon neatness and propriety.

In his conversation is strongly displayed that brilliant imagination and happy diction which characterise his public discourses, joined to a very considerable degree of amiable affability. His countenance, particularly his eye, is forcibly expressive of energy of intellect. Delicate health is visible in his appearance. This however he endeavours to counteract by rigid temperance and exercise; so that he is but seldom prevented by illness from exerting himself as a preacher in the cause of humanity. He has however been known to carry these exertions to an extreme, dangerous even to his life; and the writer of this was present when the effort has been so oppres

sive to a delicate frame as to leave nothing to humaHis audience, nity but his wishes and his tears. however, more than participated in his feelings, and bestowed a larger bounty than perhaps his most eloquent address could have obtained.

In his domestic life our preacher has himself experienced that happiness which he has been the instrument of procuring to so many thousands of his fellow-creatures. In the year 1798 he married a amiable and accomplished young woman, the very daughter of Goddard Richards, Esq. of Grange in the county of Wexford: who has presented him with two girls and a boy. Thus in the bosom of domestic happiness, and amid the admiration and respect of a most extensive circle of friends, Dean Kirwan continues a brilliant example of the incalculable benefits the talents and benevolent zeal of a single pastor of the christian church can confer on his native country and posterity.

SIR HOME RIGGS POPHAM,

K. M. AND A CAPTAIN IN THE ROYAL NAVY,

THE cross of St. George which now waves triumphant on every sea, and is known and respected in the remotest regions of the habitable world, was but a few centuries since confined to far humbler limits. Genoa, Pisa, and Venice, the greatness and independence of which have passed away like a dream, nąvigated