countryman, JOHN BANIM, Author of "THE TALES OF THE O'HARA FAMILY," and of many other literary productions of distinguished merit, has been reduced by the visitation of a painful and protracted malady, which, prohibiting the exertion of his intellectual powers, has deprived him of the means of support for himself and his family. Moved by Isaac Weld, Esq., and seconded by Morgan John O'Connell, Esq. :

Resolved-That we feel ourselves called upon, as Irishmen and admirers of genius, to use our best exertions towards the relief of an Author, whose writings have contributed largely to our intellectual enjoyments, and have elevated the character of our common country in the scale of literature.

Moved by Thomas Norton, Esq., and seconded by Charles Meara, Esq.:

Resolved-That a subscription be forthwith opened, towards forming a fund to relieve Mr. Banim's pecuniary privations; and that a Committee of the following Gentlemen be now appointed to carry this resolution into effect, and to superintend the management and disposal of the sum contributed:—

The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor; Mr. High Sheriff Lynar; Rev. Doctor Sadleir, F.T.C.D.; Colonel D'Aguilar, AdjutantGeneral; Rev. Charles Boyton, F.T.C.D.; Richard Lalor Sheil, Esq., M.P.; James Semple, Esq.; Morgan John O'Connell, Esq.; Patrick Curtis, Esq.; Joseph Burke, Esq.; Thomas Norton, Esq.; Charles Meara, Esq.; J. W. Calcraft, Esq.; George Howell, Esq.; Pierse Mahony, Esq.; Rev. Edward Groves; Frederick William Conway, Esq.; R. Sheehan, Esq.; Michael Staunton, Esq.; Patrick Lavelle, Esq.; Thomas Wright, Esq., M.D.; J. S. Close, Esq.; H. F. Wakeman, Esq.; Ross Cox, Esq.; William Cumming, Esq.; J. W. King, Esq.; J. S. Coyne, Esq.; W. Carleton, Esq; Thomas Kennedy, Esq.

Moved by Joseph Burke, Esq., and seconded by the Rev. Edward Groves :

Resolved-That Isaac Weld, Esq., be requested to act as Treasurer to this Committee.

Moved by Sheriff Lynar, and seconded by J. W. Calcraft, Esq. : Resolved That our best thanks are due to the conductors of the Times London Newspaper, for having brought into public notice the destitute situation of Mr. Banim, and for their continued exertions to direct attention to the most appropriate means of affording him relief.

Moved by J. S. Close, Esq., and seconded by William Kertland, Esq. : Resolved-That the thanks of this Meeting be given to Mr. Morrison, for his kindness in affording the accommodation of his rooms on the present occasion.

The Lord Mayor having left the Chair, and Richard Lalor Sheil, Esq., M.P., having been called to it, it was

Moved by Thomas Norton, Esq., and seconded by Joseph Burke, Esq. :

Resolved-That the thanks of this Meeting be given to the Lord Mayor for his dignified conduct in the Chair, and for the lively interest he has taken in promoting the objects of this meeting."

The Committee Rooms were at once opened at Morrison's Hotel, and a Kilkenny man, Patrick Costelloe, and Samuel Lover were nominated honorary secretaries. Referring to these efforts to relieve his brother's wants, Michael Banim. writes to us thus:

"Public meetings took place, and subscriptions were entered into, in London, Dublin, Kilkenny, and many other places; and from the result, the recipient was enabled to pay heavy debts long outstanding, and I believe unavoidedly contracted; and to remain in Paris for two years, while under the care of the principal members of the faculty then practising. His malady was, however, beyond the skill even of these.

Throughout the entire period of his embarrassments, and mental and bodily endurance, in France, no one could meet with more sympathy than did my brother. While resident in Boulogne, the English and Irish visitants were most attentive to him. In Paris, he met kindness and service from persons whom he was afterwards vain perhaps of naming as visitants. of the sick couch; for a while he was unable to rise without being borne by others. Two only of his visitors I will particularise, the venerable La Fayette and the illustrious Chateaubriand. Many distinguished English residents of the French metropolis were his friends and sustainers. One wealthy Irish lady in particular, he afterwards spoke of with gratitude and affection. I refrain from giving names-those so marked out might not relish the promulgation of their philanthropy."

By slow stages Banim proceeded, towards the end of 1833, from Boulogne to Paris. He had resolved to reside in the latter city, in the hope that, amongst its distinguished physi cians, some one might be found who could relieve his painracked and powerless limbs. He did indeed consult the most skilful and famous of the faculty, but all their efforts to restore him were unavailing, or worse, injurious.

That the reader may be enabled to comprehend Banim's condition at this period, we here subjoin a written opinion of his case, drawn up, after a careful personal examination of their patient, by two eminent physicians, one French, the other English, whose names the document bears. Banim preserved this opinion most carefully to the hour of his death; the painful remedies, and treatment recommended, and their woful results, seem to have had for him a terrible, gloomy fascination,

The opinion is as follows, but, for obvious reasons, we omit the names with which it is signed ::

"The affection under which Mr. Banim labours, appears to be chronic inflammation of the lower extremity of the spinal marrow. An attentive examination of its origin, progress, and actual state, has suggested to us the propriety of adopting the following treatment :

1st. Dry cupping, and scarifications with cupping on the lower part of the lumbar region, where the pain seems to originate. This treatment to be continued gradually along the spine to the neck: after two or three repetitions it is to be discontinued.

2nd. Small moxas, to the parts where the scarifications were made, and these moxas to be continued, at proper intervals, up to the neck; with the moxas may be used frictions of tartar emetic ointment, along the spine, until pimples appear, the extremities to be rubbed morning and evening with stimulating liniments.

3rd. An actual cautery, applied gently from the lower part of the back to the neck at the interval of two or three inches, would even be preferable to the moxas.

4th. When this treatment has been used for some time, vapour baths, particularly sulphureous, will be of the greatest possible service.

5th. The cure will be tedious, but the good constitution of Mr. Banim gives strong hope that he will eventually triumph over his present malady.

Signed,

Paris, le 25th Avril, 1834."

Thus was he treated; "the cupping," writes Michael, to us, "the moxas, the scarifications, the lubrications, et cetera, were all performed, as I suppose, very scientifically, and when the body thus experimentalised on, left the hands of the operators, the limbs hung useless from the trunk, from that time forward. Worse than useless, I would say they were to their owner: their appendage only felt, when they were nightly, and often daily as well as nightly, set quivering by racking pains that made the sufferer writhe and scream from excess of agony; this constant endurance of torture continued without alleviation to the period of his death."

Thus, broken in body, and with one child dead in his home, Banim was declared by his physicians incurable. He was

drawn in his bath-chair through the various places of interest in Paris; his daily pleasures were few, and when the day was fortunately painless, the night came on, and with it agony. Often, as he writhed beneath his tortures, he thrust sharp pointed pins through his thighs, as if, by counter tortures, he hoped to check the pangs that came involuntarily upon him.

Still he attempted, even whilst in this state, to contribute to the Newspapers and Magazines, and he felt now as he had felt eleven years before, when he wrote gaily, and so bravely, to Michael By the life of Pharaoh, sir, if I did not ply and teaze the brain, as wool-combers teaze wool, the fire should go out, and the spit could not turn."*

Of the various pieces, in verse and prose, contributed by him at this period to the press, the following is a fair specimen, and first appeared in The Times :—

TO THE COLOSSAL ELEPHANT,

ON THE SITE OF THE BASTILE.

I know not why they've based thee here-
But unto me thou art a thought,
With pity, doubt, and sorrow fraught-
For now, and future, far and near,

Because no warning they are taught,
Can make the careless-cruel fear.
O'erawing thought! of a giant strength,
Who out of love and reason took

From a pigmy keeper blows and spurns,
And slight that chills, and scorn that burns,
And bore all gently, till at length,

Love died, and reason could not brook

Friends gathered around him in Paris, and he was happy as his state of health would permit; but his continued prostration alarmed Michael, who tells us-"In 1834, I wrote to the brother from whom I had been so long separated, urging him to return home; and I did so with the hope, that tranquillity, his native air, and the attentions of his kindred, might be more beneficial than excitement and a foreign climate."

When Banim received this letter, to which Michael here refers, he was happy in the society of some of the most distinguished literary men, French and foreign, resident in Paris; but there was no certain rest or ease from his bodily sufferings, and the "si gravis, brevis si longus, levis" of Cicero was not a true axiom in his case. He felt his health becoming each day more weak, and thus he wrote to his brother, in reply to the letter advising him to come home once more to his native place:

:

* See IRISH QUarterly Review, Vol. IV. No. 14, p. 844.

"Paris, January 19, 1835.

Michael, long enough ago,
Nothing but the want of

I got your letter, my dearest to have replied to it before now. power has kept me so many weeks silent.-How could I be willingly silent to it?

I will go home to you, and to the grave of-another still, I cannot do so, so directly as you propose.

Besides, spring will be better than the present season, better than the biting January, for poor cold I."

Poor fellow he was not, however, to leave France until he had passed through another and a most bitter sorrow. He had two children, a girl and a boy, surviving at the date of the last letter. He loved them dearly, and none knew better than he the tender, holy truth expressed in those lines of Martin Tupper which teach that,

"A babe in a house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love;

A talent of trust a loan to be rendered back with interest ;"

and the faces, the voices, the laughter of his boy and girl had cheered him in many a weary hour, and now his boy was about to be snatched from his arms for ever. "Tell us," we said to Michael," of this death, and how your brother withstood the shock:" and Michael wrote to us thus :

"His daughter was now (1835) in her eighth year, his son. beyond four. That dreadful and dangerous malady, the croup, attacked his boy, and he fell a sacrifice to it. I have listened to him for hours of an evening, after his return home, describing the noble qualities, and the affection of this child to him. I have heard him tell how the little fellow would come in from his play, steal gently to the back of the father's sick sofa, and press his soft lips on the hand that lay listlessly hanging over. The first intimation of the child's presence would be this affectionate salutation. And when the father turned his eyes to greet the saluter, then there was a spring into the parent's arms, and a fond, lengthened embrace between them. Other and various excellencies he would repeat, when he lay helplessly and discoursed of his affections. Immediately after the date of the last letter, this attached, fond boy was taken from him. He did not write himself, his wife announced to me the fatality.