Thick walls, or moated gate; Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned, Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. * Men who their duties know, But know their rights; and knowing, dare maintain; And crush the tyrant, while they rend the chain." Such a presentation of the case of the recent emigrant, addressed to individuals or societies in America, could not long be made in vain. British prejudices would fade before it, and while the Irish would become more American, on the disappearance of that hostile influence, America in temperament and policy would become insensibly more Irish. No people, not even the natives of New England, — have a greater interest in the preservation of the Union, than the Celts in America. What we never got from England, we have here, equal laws and equal justice. And now, if, as seems the fact, our ancient and implacable enemy, through the agencies of corruption and flattery, seeks to undermine this Union, our refuge, liberation, and relief, the Irish in America, as a mass, as one man, must choose their place under the Constitution. The Union gives us homes, suffrages, and wages; the Union gives us peace, plenty, and equality; the Union protects our altars, confers our lands, accepts our services in peace and war, and educates our children. The Union abolished the local persecutions of the Puritans and the Huguenot in Maryland and Massachusetts. The Union burns no convents, sacks no graves, outrages no rite of religion, nor does it insult any of its sacred teachers. By the Union, therefore, we, too, "stand or fall, survive or perish," and, with Andrew Jackson, our motto as American settlers is, "THE UNION, IT MUST BE PRESERVED." APPENDIX. No. I. THE TRADITION OF SAINT BRENDAN'S VOYAGE TO AMERICA. THE ancient and wide-spread European tradition of Saint Brendan's voyage is to be gathered from the various sources indicated in the first chapter; that is, from Irish, Danish and Ecclesiastical chronicles, from the popular poems of the middle ages, and the cotemporary legends of the saints. I have thought some illustra tions of the references in the text would be desirable: Colgan, in his Acta Sanctorum Hibernia, makes this mention of St. Brendan's youthful days: "When Brendan was a mere infant, he was placed under her care," (he is speaking of St. Ita, Abbess of Cluan-Credhuil, in Limerick,)" and remained with her five years, after which period he was led away by Bishop Ercus, in order to receive from him the more solid instruction necessary for his advancing years. Brendan retained always the greatest respect and affection for his foster mother; and he is represented after his seven years' voyage, as amusing St. Ita with an account of his adventures in the ocean."- Colgan Acta S. S., p. 68, Louvain, 1637. Unfortunately for our better information on this interesting subject, Colgan, who seems to have had the necessary Celtic materials, and who certainly had the requisite learning, did not live to finish his work. It extends only to the end of March, and the festival of St. Brendan being the 16th of May, his biography is not included in Colgan's Acta. He incidentally places the birth of St. Brendan in A. D. 485, and his voyage in 545. Dr. Lanigan thinks this latter date incorrect, as St. Brendan was then in his sixtieth year. But Columbus, we know, had passed his fiftieth when he undertook his voyage. St. Brendan, before his voyage, was Bishop or Abbot of Ardfert and Clonfert, in the present county of Kerry, where the remains of churches, bearing his name, are still visited by tourists. He is honored as the patron of the Diocese of Clonfert. The Rev. Cæsar Otway, an Irish Episcopalian clergyman and writer of some note, reports the local tradition of the voyage, existing in the west of Ireland, as follows: "We are informed that Brendan, hearing of the previous voyage of his cousin, Barinthus, in the western ocean, and obtaining an account from him of the happy isles he had landed on in the far west, determined, under the strong desire of winning heathen souls to Christ, to undertake a voyage of discovery himself. And aware that, all along the western coast of Ireland, there were many traditions respecting the existence of a western land, he proceeded to the islands of Arran, and there remained for some time, holding communication with the venerable St. Enda, and obtaining from him much information on what his mind was bent. There can be little doubt that he proceeded northward along the coast of Mayo, and made inquiry, among its bays and islands, of the remnants of the Tuatha Danaan people, that once were so expert in naval affairs, and who acquired from the Milesians, or Scots, that overcame them, the character of being magicians, for their superior knowledge. At Inniskea, then, and Innisgloria, Brendan set up his cross; and, in after times, in his honor were erected those curious remains that still exist. Having prosecuted his inquiries with all diligence, Brendan returned to his native Kerry; and from a bay sheltered by the lofty mountain that is now known by his name, he set sail for the Atlantic land; and, directing his course towards the southwest, in order to meet the summer solstice, or what we would call the tropic, after a long and rough voyage, his little bark being well provisioned, he came to summer seas, where he was carried along, without the aid of sail or oar, for many a long day. This, it is to be presumed, was the great gulf-stream, and which brought his vessel to shore somewhere about the Virginian capes, or where the American coast tends eastward, and forms the New England States. Here landing, he and his companions marched steadily into the interior for fifteen days, and then came to a large river, flowing from east to west; this, evidently, was the river Ohio. And this the holy adventurer was about to cross, when he was accosted by a person of noble presence, but whether a real or visionary man does not appear, who told him he had gone far enough; that further discoveries were reserved for other men, who would, in due time, come and Christianize all that pleasant land. The above, when tested by common sense, clearly shows that Brendan landed on a continent, and went a good way into the interior, met a great river running in a different direction from those he heretofore crossed; and here, from the difficulty of transit, or want of provisions, or deterred by increasing difficulties, he turned back; and, no doubt, in a dream, he saw some such vision which embodied his own previous thought, and satisfied him that it was expedient for him to return home. It is said he remained seven years away, and returned to set up a college of three thousand monks, at Clonfert, and he then died in the odor of sanctity."- Otway's Sketches in Erris and Tyrawley, note, pp. 98, 99. Dublin, 1845. The Codex Kilkeniensis, in Primate Marsh's Library, Dublin, contains a fragment of an ancient life of St. Brendan, of which, it is possible, the missing parts may be yet recovered by the Irish archeologists. In England, a version of the voyage was inserted by Capgrave, in his Nova Legenda, published in 1516. Wynkyn de Worde, the first English printer, (and a cotemporary of Christopher Columbus,) published the legend, with many adornments, of which we give a specimen : "Soon after, as God would, they saw a fair island, full of flowers, herbs, and trees, whereof they thanked God of his good grace; and anon they went on land, and when they had gone long in this, they found a full fayre well, and thereby stood a fair tree full of boughs, and on every bough sat a fayre bird, and they sat so thick on the tree, that uneath any leaf of the tree might be seen. The number of them was so great, and they sung so merrilie, that it was an heavenlike noise to hear. Whereupon St. Brandon kneeled down on his knees and wept for joy, and made his praises devoutlie to our Lord God, to know what these birds meant. And then anon one of the birds flew from the tree to St. Brandon, and he with the flickering of his wings made a full merrie noise like a fiddle, that him seemed he never heard so joyful a melodie. And then St. Brandon commanded the foule to tell him the cause why they sat so thick on the tree and sang so merrilie. And then the foule said, sometime we were angels in heaven, but when our master, Lucifer, fell down into hell for his high pride, and we fell with him for our offences, some higher and some lower, after the quality of the trespass. And because our trespasse is but little, therefore our Lord hath sent us here, out of all paine, in full great joy and mirthe, after his pleasing, here to serve him on this tree in the best manner we can. The Sundaie is a daie of rest from all worldly occupation, and therefore that daie all we be made as white as any snow, for to praise our Lorde in the best wise we may. And then all the birds began to sing even song so merrilie, that it was an heavenlie noise to hear; and, after supper, Saint Brandon and his fellows went to bed and slept well. And in the morn they arose by times, and then these foules began mattyns, prime, and hours, and all such service as Christian men used to sing; and St. Brandon, with his fellows, abode there seven weeks, until Trinity Sunday was passed." -The "Lyfe of Saynt Brandon" in the Golden Legend. Published by Wynkyn de Worde. 1483. Fol. 357. The voyage was a favorite theme with the early metrical romance writers, as was to be expected. It was precisely the subject for their school. "Two French versions, as well as the original Latin," says Mr. McCarthy, "have been published at Paris,' under the following title, "La Legende Latine de S. Brandaine's avec une traductione en prose et en poesie Romanes. Publiée par Achille Jubinal," 1836. An English translation of one of the early French romances, which appeared in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, vol. xxxix., contains the following fine lines: 66 Right toward the port their course they hold; Were there; before the gate keep guard He checked, and led them safely through, And now that fair youth leads them on, Where paradise in beauty shone; Of woods and rivers beautiful, And meadows large besprent with flowers, And scented shrubs in fadeless bowers, And trees with blossoms fair to see, Hung from the boughs; nor briar, nor thorn, With blackened leaf, was there,- for spring Held aye a year-long blossoming; And never shed their leaf the trees, Nor failed their fruit; and still the breeze Blew soft, scent-laden from the fields. Full were the woods of venison ; The rivers of good fish each one, |