favour. He delivered a charge to the clergy of his diocess of Ossory, which is, perhaps, unexampled in point of pastoral simplicity and apostolic doctrine. He candidly admitted the obscurity of his birth, and made a solemn declaration, that, in the ecclesiastical promotions, which were at his disposal, he should be influenced by the merits of the candidates only. He instituted monthly lectures, on topics of religious controversy and subjects selected from the History of the Church, while chapters from the New Testament were occasionally translated, and the most approved commentators and expositors were carefully consulted. It was not uncommon, during these lectures, to see them attended by clergymen, from a distance of twenty or thirty miles, who probably had not, for twenty or thirty years, looked into the original text. Butwhile he exacted a punctual attention to duties, peculiarly necessary in a country where the sophistry of the church of Rome was either thought unworthy of the honour of a contest, or was allowed to triumph, without opposition, over the blind credulity of her disciples, and the frequent ignorance of her opponents, he constantly distinguished himself by his attention to the interests of the clergy under his jurisdiction. His house and table were always open to them, particularly to those of the inferior order; and he has never been reproached with neglecting any opportunity to reward the claims of merit, however destitute of recommendation.

As a preacher, Dr. O'Beirne ranks in the first class. His sermons seldom relate to the thorny points of controversial theology, which are more calculated to confound than to enlighten. He is generally satisfied with expatiating on the grand and essential doctrines of Christianity, and his diction is perspicuous, animated, and nervous. He is occasionally sublime, frequently pathetic, and always intelligible to his auditors. Though gifted with considerable powers of imagination, he studiously checks them, when they seem to interfere in the pure fervency of devotion. He appears to have made it his great object,

He

"To discipline his fancy, to command
The heart; and, by familiar accents, move

The Christian soul."

The conduct of his lordship, in private life, has been ever distinguished for that liberality of heart and urbanity of manners which evince a just knowledge of the duties of society. Several of his sermons have been published.

His person is of the middle size, slight, and indicating an age of about sixty years. His face is thin, and expressive of the qualities which form his character. But, it is remarkable, that, not-' withstanding the great variety of life which he has seen, the greater part of which has occurred out of Ireland, and in the most exalted situations' among men not Irish, his countenance is yet strongly characterized by those peculiar traits which, to a good physiognomist, are supposed to mark the Irish Catholic.

THE

THE REV. WILLIAM FARISH

WAS son to a clergyman of Carlisle; at the grammar-school of which place he was educated, previously to his removal to the university. He did not display, in this early part of life, any of that ability which afterwards marked his progress in mathematical science. Though naturally endowed with a clear discriminating mind and capacious memory, yet, whether from want of any peculiar bent of genius, or the circumstance of his studies being more particularly adapted to those of Cambridge, he was never remarkable for any great proficiency in classical knowledge.

From this, it would not be proper to infer, that. he did not possess a mind susceptible of those fine impressions, which the charms of composition are calculated to produce. Taste, for any particular branch of study, is partly natural and partly acquired. The nice discrimination of beauty, on which it is founded, is soon injured by neglect; and what we cease to cultivate loses, in time, the power to please. This accounts for that indifference with which Mr. Farish passed through the flowery regions of classical literature. His mind was chiefly conversant with distinct and accurate ideas, not exercised on sentiments and feelings, but on the number, weight, extent, and capacity, of things. This science, in proportion as he comprehended

prehended it, became the object of his peculiar taste; and appeared to exceed all others, as much in importance, as it did in clear and demonstrative evidence the indistinct beauty, therefore, and undefined grace, of the Muses, were ever after thrown aside, or but partially attended to by him.

With this strong bias to mathematics, Mr. Farish, at the age of sixteen, entered sizer at MagdalenCollege, Cambridge; and, during his under-graduateship, was an example of subordination, sobriety, and close application to his studies, to all his fellow-collegians.

No person perhaps is always consistent with himself; sometimes the timid are bold, and the bold timid. When Mr. Farish took his bachelor's degree, owing to his modest unassuming manner, he was in danger of being placed in a situation below his merit. Perceiving this, he challenged the whole senate-house to a trial of mathematical skill; and, by this spirited but unusual expedient, he attained the first honour of his year, that of being senior wrangler.

When an under-graduate, to preserve himself free from every thing which might seduce his mind from study, it was Mr. Farish's uniform practice never to associate familiarly with the gay, the idle, or dissolute. His companions were men of stu dious habits like his own; and who, like himself, have since arrived at respectability and preferment. This is the best proof that can be given of the soundness of his early judgement.

In the success and advancement of a whole society of young men, as in the instance before us, is seen the importance of good and constitutional principles; their effects are not arbitrary, but uniform; not casual, but certain. Among his collegefriends were numbered, Dr. Jowett, the present professor of laws, remarkable, as well for his deep researches in Roman and English jurisprudence, as for the purity of his Latin diction; also the Rev. Mr. Miles Atkinson, of Leeds, respectable, as the founder of an institution for gratuitously educating young men of promising abilities at both our universities; and the Rev. Mr. Venn, the present learned and worthy rector of Clapham.

These, with a few others, formed a kind of defensive league against surrounding dissipation; and for that reason were branded with the name of Methodists. Their future lives, however, have borne testimony to the sincerity of their intentions, and stamped their characters with the seal of virtuous and persistive constancy.

A short time after taking his degree, Mr. Farish was chosen fellow and tutor of his college. For the classical part of education he chose an assistant. The lectures in mathematics he conducted in a manner which has done credit to himself, and considerably raised the reputation of the college; since its numbers have, of late years, considerably increased.

Few persons are more conscientious in the discharge of their duty than Mr. Farish. This, those

who