The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-04-13 00:00:00

what was to be done

in a strang,

streng

change of hor

but hearing, from ' mine host,' of the
ni in which two of his countrymen were placed,
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fiber d the patient ; and presel:ibed

for him so

desperate remedy, in the success of which,
ssured the anxious uncle, lay the only hope of his
There was no alternative ; the advice was

recovery

eagerly tollowed ; and the result, under Uod, issued in the
preservation of Mr. M'Neile's valuable life. A few years
ago, after Mr. M'Neile had concluded his sermon, in the
Rev. Robert Lovet's Chapel of Mar beeuf, Paris, Lord
Roden entered the vestry, accompanied by Lord Brough-
am, who, after some conversation with Mr. M'Neile upon
the subject of the sermon, and after expressing his de-
light, especially at the accuracy of an illustration bor-
rowed from naturally philosophy, adverted to the scene

the Air

The circumstances which led Mr. M`Neile to more se-
rious thoughts, and to the adoption of the church as a

profession we also give entire :
"The late Lord Byron occupied, at that time, his
own villa, at the opposite side of the Lake of Geneva, and
Was frequently to be met with in the same circle in which
Mr. M'Neile and his uncle moved. In short, few young
men ever enjoyed the opportunity of seeing continental

society, in Paris and else Where, under circumstances more
favourable, and few can be said to have turned their op-
portunities to better purpose ; inasmuch as, even then,
the impression left on his mind was rather a wholesome
dread of the fascinations, than an ardent attraction (as
might have been apprehended) towards the elegancies with
which it abounded. His first insight into fashionable life
may be said to have been at this time, and under tne
auspices just mentioned ; and his mind, happily recoiling
from the frivolous amusements and worse morality of con-
tinental life, seems, for the first time, to have discovered
to itself the latent seeds of that principle and piety which
have since been so signally developed, as well as the de •
sire after that truth, of which ever since he has been such

to which we would wish to see young men generally ex-
posed ; but in the case of Mr. M'Neile the undesigned

experiment was eminently successful

"The next three years were passed principally at Bath,
during the course of which, the good principle seems to
have been silently at work within him. Still, he mixed
in society as before, and was much courted and admired
in it. Meanwhile, the study of the law was becoming
more and more irksome ; and theology gradually took firm
hold of his attention. Justinian was succeeded by the
Bible, and the reasoning of Butler, or the eloquence of
Barrow, drew forth a more cordial response from his soul

than the learned lore of Blackstone or Coke. And thus
matters went on till the year 1819, when his uncle was
astounded by the first intimation from his nephew, that he

to all General M'Neile's fondly and reasonably cherished
hopes and plans for his nephew's advancement. His
avowed object all along had been, that Mr. M'Neile
should make the bar a stepping-stone into parliament,
when his wealth and influence would easily have procured
him a seat, and where his own talent and assiduity must

as certainly have ensured his success. Such being his in-
tentions, he naturally discountenanced, in every way, Mr.
M'Neile's entrance into the Church. But the young man
had already counted the cost; he clearly foresaw the pro-
bable consequences of the resolution that was gradually,
but powerfully, assuming form and reality within him ;
his high resolve had not been rashly adopted, nor was it
lightly to be abandoned, and at last he firmly, but re-
spectfully communicated to his uncle his fixed determi-
nation to pursue that profession, of which only, in his
conscience, he approved. Without going so far as to
affirm, that for this Mr. M'Neile sunk in his uncle's af-
fection, for which he must have risen in his esteem, since
the cordial intimacy between them never suffered a
moment's interruption, we are borne out in stating, that
for this he lost the bulk of his uncle's fortune, which
otherwise, in all human probability, had been his. Of
the likelihood of this moreover, he could not have been
unaware, since many friends reasoned with him, he had
-IQ time to reflect, and the door of return was open to

him to the last ; nevertheless he persevered, thereliy sig-
nally marking- the disinterestedness and singleness of
mind with which, from the very outset, he devoted him-
self to his holy calling, characteristics, for which every
step of his course had been as remarkable up to the
present hour. His resolution being once determined,
Mr. M'Neile's course of life and study was influenccd
1, accordingly. Even then he appears to have commenced
f visiting the poor in their cottages, reading to them.

instructing them in matters of the deepest moment. In
the early part of the year 1.820, Mr. M'Neile was ap-
pointed to the curacy of Stranorlar, a village about seven
miles from the episcopal town of Raphoe, on the banks

gent Protestant population, was the scene of his first
labours as &parochial minister."

The career of the reverend gentleman since his entry
into the church is familiar to most of our readers. Those
to whom it is not so well known we must refer to the
pages of the Dublin University Magazine.

ANECDOTES OF FERGUSON OF PITFOUR.—There are
some men, whom no position can render ridiculous, and

Ferguson of Piffour. Ferguson's notion of the essential
quality of a Lord Advocate was tallness. "We Scotch
members," said he, " always vote with the Lord Advo-
cate, and we therefore require to. see him in a division.
Now I can see Mr. Pitt, and I can see Mr. Addington,
but I cannot see the Lord Advocate." His lordship evi-
dently not rising to Ferguson's regulation size of a states-
man. One evening, as Ferguson was taking his dinner
in the coffee-room, some one ran in, to say, that " Pitt
was on his legs." Every one rose to leave the room, ex-
cept Ferguson. " What !" said they, " won't you go to
hear Mr. Pitt ?" " No," he replied, " Why should I ?
do you think Mr. Pitt would go to hear me ?"
REPEAL AND FAMINE.—The famine has taught the
empire an important lesson as to Irish repeal. For many
years past that country has been convulsed and the empire
harassed by the loud and threatening demand for the re-
peal of the union, and the incessant outcry that the Irish

and ttat all their: distresses have been owing to the
oppression of the Saxon. The wind of adversity has
blown, and where are these menaces now ? Had Provi-
dence punished them by granting their prayer—had En-
gland cut the rope, as Mr. Roebuck said, and let them go,
where would Ireland have been at this moment ? Drift-
ing away on the ocean of starvation. Let this teach them
their dependence upon their neighbours, and let another
fact open their eyes to what those neighbours are. En-
gland has replied to this senseless clamour, this disgrace-
ful ingratitude, by voting £10,000.000 sterling in a single
year, to relieve the distresses which the heedlessness and
indolence of the Irish had brought upon themselves. We
say advisedly, brought upon themselves. For mark-
worthy circumstance ! the destruction of the potato crop
has been just as complete, and the food of the people has
been just as entirely swept away in the West Highlands
of Scotland as in Ireland, but there has been no grant of
public money to Scotland. The cruel Anglo-Saxons have
given it all to the discontented untaxed Gael in Emerald
Isle.—Blackwood's Magazine.