County of Cork, in the Kingdore of Ireland. And whereas we, the aforesaid petitioners, both by day and by night, and all night and all day, will come and go, and walk and ride, and take and bring, and send, and fetch, and carry; and say all, and more than all, of every thing, and nothing at all at all. And we, the aforesaid petitioners, at all times and at no time at all at all, will be present and absent, and backwards and forwards, and here and there, and every where, and no where at all at all. And we, the aforesaid petitioners, will come and inform, and give notice duly and truly, and honestly and wisely, ac row, sir," says I." Good inor-1 row to your holiness," he replied, with a degree of humour that immediately convinced me I had a curious fellow to deal with. Without any farther ceremony, his reply was followed by several quotations from Butler's Hudibras, upon which he made many shrewd remarks, that discovered very good sense and natural parts, with an extraordinarily retentive memory. We found by his conversation, and had it also confirmed by others in the house, that he had been well educated, read a good deal, and was well versed in most English authors, particularly our celebrated poets, out of which he repeated a great number of poems and pas-cording to the matters that we sages, some of considerable length. He informed us, that his grandfather was a man of learning, could calculate an eclipse, and understood the art of dialling; as also clock-making, at which business our drunken hero worked up and down the country, when he did any thing. He repeated a curious Irish petition, which pleased me so much, that I wrote it down. I hope that my dear countrymen will pardon me, for being so much pleased with an ingenious bull, though 1 am an Irishman by birth; and as there is something very characteristic in the following, I cannot re-than lies in our power, dead or frain from inserting it : know and don't know, by the knowledge of ourselves and every one of us, and no one of us at all at all; and will not cheat nor rob the king any more than what is lawfully practised. And we, the aforesaid petitioners, are gentlemen of reputation, and are Protestants. We love the king, and value him, and will fight for him, and run for him, and from him, and after him, and behind him, and before him, and on one side of him, and on the other side of him, to serve him or any of his acquaintances or relations, as far, and much farther alive, as long as we live, and longer too. Witness our several and separate hands in conjunction onè after another, two of us both to The humble Petition of BLARNEY BLARNEY O'BLEARY, 205 TWO PRINCES AND TWO PILLARS. (With an Engraving, representing the Plan of the colossal Columns of French Ordnance to be erected in Russia.) BONAPARTE's audacious invasion well) ...... no doubt, because, thanks to his horse, he had the good fortune to escape with a frost-bitten nose to the Berezyna. of the empire of the Czars, its disgraceful and destructive failure, and the fatal shock to his sway immediately resulting from it, are events of such momentous historical celebrity, that tradition alone will unquestionably hand down their remembrance to our latest posterity, without any additional memorial in aid of their perpetuation. Yet, while the fact stands indelibly recorded in blood, its leading features may need positive commemoration; and that, too, has been provided for in more than one manner, not only by the triumphant, but, oddly enough, even by the disgraced party. THE PRINCES. The immortal veteran KUTUSow, after delivering his country from the innumerable host of civilized barbarians that had insulted its soil, and after wielding with terrible hand the fatal scourge of divine vengeance, was, by his grateful monarch, created PRINCE OF SMOLENSKO; because at Smolensko his sword passed deadly muster on the famished wrecks of the hostile legions. The fugitive General NEY, after accompanying Napoleon to Moskwa, and (somewhat faster than he had come) back again to Smolensko, where he abandoned his corps of walking skeletons to the fury of Russian bayonets, or to bondage, was, by his infatuated monarch, created PRINCE OF MOSKWA; because....... (one cannot tell so No. LIX. Vol. X. So much for both sides of our commemoration-account by means of rank. Inasmuch, however, as (granting even to both parties a perpetuity of lineage), the duration of the princely title in one or the other, might, by some desponding genealogists, be deemed a subject of greater doubt, we feel pleasure in having it in our power to work with somewhat more solid materials. THE PILLARS. In their promenade to Russia, the French were, according to an official return since published, accompanied by 1195 pieces of brass ordnance: of these, a considerable number was, rather reluctantly, ceded by them to the Russians, against value received; and a much greater proportion was dropped, en passant, between Moskwa and the Niemen; so that, according to another official return*, 1131 remained in Russian possession on Christmas eve, 1812. The use to be made of this massy relic of the French invasion, is pointed out by an imperial decree of the Emperor Alexander. The captured cannon are to be employed in the construction of a colossal pillar, to be erected, in the first instance, in the city of Moskwa; and next-as there will be more than enough for two of a similar one which is to adorn * Vide Repository, No. LI. p. 172. NN St. Petersburg, the other capital of the Russian empire. wa pillar be of good homely French stone, one of the few articles that have not become scarcer in France since the reign of Napoleon. As to locality, some of our readers will, perhaps, expect, that, in imitation of the Russian Alexander, Bonaparte has fixed upon the ca city of Paris, as the fittest place for so important a monument.— They are far from the mark !-Na The French have, for ages, been remarkable for dictating in fashion, and leaving other nations to copy their inventive ingenuities. But, among the strange changes which the Russian campaign has worked in them, and is still likely to pro-pital of his empire, upon his good duce, the adoption of a reverse course, in some fashions at least, is not the least worthy of our curiosity. As soon as that campaignpoleon's thoughts soar much highhad produced a Russian prince, Napoleon thought he might as well have one of his own make; and he no sooner heard of the Moskwa pillar, than he determined (in a solemn imperial decree too!) to order one on his behalf. Whether this proceeded from some profound political motives, or from a persuasion, that, when the laugh is against you, it is best to join in it, we will not presume to decide; nor is it in our power to anticipate whether this decree, bearing date the 3d of May last, from the field of battle of Lützen, is one of those paper-decrees of his comprehensive mind, the execution of which remains confined to his vast comprehension alone. We will take his word, that he expects to have a pillar of his own one of these days, and as much à la Russe as circumstances will permit; for we must allow for difference of materials and of locality. To construct it of brass ord-above the clouds, surely may please nance would seem rather difficult, except it were with his own; and in that article too, his stores, after the Vittoria sweep, and the Katzbach and Dennewitz averages, may not be supposed quite so flush as to permit of architectural appropriation. Hence it has been wisely determined to let the Gallic Mosk er!-The very tip of Mount Cenis has been selected as the most appropriate spot; in order, as the decree states, that his French as well as his Italian subjects may behold that memorial of the famous Russian campaign. To our limited faculties, we confess, this situation at first appeared rather extraordinary: Mount Cenis, if we recollect rightly, boasts of an elevation of about 12,000 feet; a height at which the said pillar would be pretty nearly as visible as a candlestick on the top of Bow church, leaving atmospherical impediments out of the account. But if we further consider, that the summit of this mountain is almost all the year round enveloped in clouds, the good people of France and of Italy appear to us scarcely to have the chance of a peep at the pillar above the clouds!-But what of that?-He that has fought battles his fancy in having a monument in such exalted regions, be it even a monument not made to be seen, like razors not made to shave. Of this invisible pillar, the editor of the Repository made no small exertions to procure a plat, for the gratification of his readers. His enquiries, however, have proved |