Miscellany: Lewis Tappan's Brooklyn Address: Extract

Father Matthew. - I also met a man who knew Father Matthew in Cork, and who was a temperance man and an abolitionist. He told me Father Matthew was pastor of a Catholic church in Cork. He appeared to be a good man. There was a man named William Martin residing in his neighborhood, who got him íq read some of the temperance papers, and subsequently to tnke the temperance pledge. He then commenced preaching temperance & gettingthe members of his fiock to take the pledge - which increased to other individuals, and in a short time it required all his time to administer the pledge. He went to Limerick, a short distance from Cork, for the pui-pose of administering the pledge, expecting to iind about five hundred people there, instead of which two hundred thousand had collected, all anxious to have the pledge administered to them. Father Matthew was overpowered with tho excessof his happy emotions. He said it was the Lord's doing, and there was no greater proof of it than His having selected such a humble individual as himself for the task. His Bishop went to him soon afterwarcls and remonstrated at his departing from the legitímate course of his religious duties. - He .said - "Dont you know that the publicans in the country do more to sustain our religión than any olhers?' "Yes" was the reply of Father Matthew, "I do; and I know also that your brpther is one of the largest distillers in the country." - Father Matthew, aware that he wouíd be the object of clerical censure, and perhaps removal, wrote to the Pope at Rome, and got a commission sent back to him as Vicar Apostolic, which took him out of the hands of the Bishop in Great Britain and Ireland. The Pope said to hun - 'You look to me and I will look to you,' so that we have to commend the Pope for one good thing at any rate. Father Matthew. now tra veis free wherever he choscs to go, as no one thinks of charging him any thing. He has been charged with parsimony in taking a shilling each for medals, but he is not amenabie to the censure, as the amount is not more than the cost. He is independent as to pecuniary circumstances, as he enjoys L900 a yearwhich he inherited from his father, and which for a single man, as from his situation he Jiecessarily is,furnishes an abundance for his support. I saw Father Matthew at Liverpool, and a little party was made up for himto dine with us. Dinner was waiting, hut he would not come, because he said if he did, twelve hundred persons would go away without taking the pledge. We went up to the Catholic ehapel and saw a number of men and boys crying out and selling Father Mntthew's temperance sermon of the last Sunday. On coming tö where Fathcr Matthew was, we found him administering tbe pledge to sixty and a hundred persons at a time. His mode of doing so was to make them knoei down and repeat the pledge as he pronounced it. I was introduced to him, as from the U. S. He took hold of both my hands, and said he was always glad to see any one from the United States, and asked me as to Mr. Delavan and olhers. In 1815, I gave the first pledgo in favor of Temperance, btit thought on this occasion I might as well renew it, and applied to Father Matthew to that effect. He said he would administr it to me alone, and did so, at the same time giving me his medal. The hair of Father Matthew is a little gray. He told me that he was about fifty-four years of age. He wears a long surtout which comes about half way between his knees and ancles, and old-fashioned boots over his pantaloons. He shakes hands with so many that his hands and face usually show the effects of it. - He is no "vvay particular - kissing the faces of the little children which the mothers hold up to him, whether clean or dirty. He administers the pledge to a large number at once. He then gives them what he calis the sign of the cross, which is a little dab in the forehead, and it is incredible how fast he gets through with them, completing probably thirty in a minute. By request, I then addressed the people - told them that my maternal ancestors belónged to Ireland. Hurrah for Ireland, was the loud applause. I then told them that if Father Matthew came to New York,' fifty thousand Irishmen would assemble with him in the Park to take the pledge. Hurrah for New York, was the reply. And thus they continued greeting in a good-humored manner what I ad vaneed.