Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

PROTESTANT GRIEVANCES. 389
article, for the little man is a very great friend of
yours. It is he who franks my packets," says the
ungrateful and graceless critic. And he is continu-
ally suggesting renewed attacks upon " Little Jeff,"
upon Hazlitt, and others. Of Hazlitt he says, "You
have called him pimpled, affected, ignorant, a Cockney
scribbler, &c., but what is that to what he has
said of the most brilliant men of the age ? Hook-
nosed Wellington, vulture-beaked Southey, hangingbrowed
Croker, down - looking Jack Murray, and
Mudford fat as fleecy-hosiery." Certainly there was
no grace of elocution lost among these wranglers.
The following about the state of Ireland is interest-
ing, and throws a light unsuspected on Protestant
grievances :
—
Dr Maginn to W. Blackwood.
Cork, Uh Feb. 1823.
As for US, we are on the verge of a civil war. Cork has
always been distinguished for moderation, but Dublin is in a
flame. If the Marquis be continued to misgovern us, I do not
see how things can be at all accommodated. You would be
perfectly amazed at the rabid fury of both parties,—for, ac-
customed as I have always been to outrageous contests, I confess
I am a trifle flabbergasted. N'importe. If there be a civil war
I can lose nothing but my head, which is of use to no one but
the owner—and may pick up something in the scramble. Old
habits of authority have made it a fixed persuasion in Ireland
among the Protestants that one Protestant could beat five
Papists, and of course I have no fear for the result. Eeally,
without jest, we are woefully insulted. I don't mean as to
that buffoonery about the Italians, which you know I disapproved
: but our clergy are reviled and personally abused
our very private parties spied ; our toasts controlled by
authority ; our churches polluted ; the priests domineering,
swaggering, and libelling our faith, our conduct, and our
principles ; and, worst of all, if we dare to say a word in reply
;