of the House ranged themselves in the ranks of
the voluntary corps which came forward to assist in the public defence,
and the fine metaphor which had once made the senate thunder with
applause--"The serpent's teeth, sown in the ground, sprang up armed
men,"--was now amply, but more fortunately, realized. The bitternesses and
schisms of public opinion were hidden in the earth, and the harvest was a
brave and spontaneous armament of men prepared to undergo all hazards for
the sake of their country.

"Happy," says the French wit, "the land which has nothing for history."
This happiness has never belonged to Ireland. Her annals are a romance.
But the period of which I speak exhibited her senatorial strength with an
energy, almost compensating for her popular misfortunes. While Parliament
in England languished, parliament in Ireland started into sudden power. It
was aroused by the visible presence of the public peril. Ireland was the
outpost, while England was the camp; there the skirmish was at its height,
while the great English brigade moved up slowly from the rear. The ardour
and activity of the national temperament were exercised in perpetual
conflict, and every conflict produced some new champion.

The actual construction of the senate house stimulated the national
propensity for display. The House of Commons was an immense circular hall,
surmounted with a lofty dome. A gallery supported by columns was formed
round the base of the dome, with seats for seven hundred persons, but on
crowded occasions capable of containing more; the whole highly ornamented,
and constituting a rotunda, uniting grandeur with remarkable architectural
elegance. Thus every member acted in the sight of a large audience,
however thin might be the assemblage below; for the curiosity attached to
the debates was so powerful, that the spacious gallery was generally full.
But the nature of that audience excited the still stronger temptation to
the bold extravagances of the Irish temperament. The chief portion of this
auditory were females, and those the most distinguished of Ireland; women
of wit, beauty, and title, the leaders of fashion, and often the most
vivid and zealous partizans in politics--of all audiences, the most
hazardous to the soberness of public deliberation. As if with the express
purpose of including every element adverse to the calmness of council, the
students of the neighbouring university possessed the privilege of
_entree_ to