In the writer's serious accounts and remarks, however, we often find much to applaud; and though he be generally desultory, and frequently incorrect, his pen is guided by humanity, and by a desire of promoting the improvement of the country which he attempts to describe. Impressed with the conviction that the people of Ireland have laboured under the foulest misrepresentations and aspersions, he laudably exerts himself to render them justice; and he notices the hardships by which they are oppressed, and the defective policy of government, not for the purpose of irritating their feelings, but in order to advance the important object of their amelioration. If our gravity was disturbed by his recollections of stale jokes and anecdotes, we were made amends by his judicious concluding general remarks; some of which, in the course of this article, we shall transcribe.

North Wales having been the vestibule to Ireland on this occasion, the tourist first honours the land of Cambro-Britain with his remarks. The pencil indeed is not here employed, but he draws the landscape of the vale of Llangollen in prose, scattering the gayest colours from his pen. He also tells us an incredible anecdote of a man in the stage-coach; and he repeats another, which is said to have occurred at Paris, in which Mr. Bolton is made the victorious exhibitor, in a contest with a Frenchman for the superiority of British manufactures; though we apprehend that the story, whether a fact or a fiction, was in circulation long prior to Mr. Bolton's celebrated manufactures of Soho. Here likewise he met with a gentleman from Middlesex, who furnished him with the first bull; a commodity which, he assures us at the end of the volume, he never once discovered in Ireland, and which he believes is as scarce there as murders, though in our newspapers that island is celebrated for both. So desirous is he of exonerating the Irish from the imputation of bull-making, or at least of bringing other nations, both antient and modern, to participate with them in a propensity to blundering, that he attempts, on the following line,

"Moriamur, et in media arma ruamus,”

to convict Virgil of having made a bull: but we see none: a resolution is proposed, and then the mode of carrying that resolution into effect.

Ireland is entered by the Bay of Dublin; and to compensate for the absence of a bull, the author obliges us with a miracle, for he tells us that the vessel passed through two great sandbanks.' The scene is thus described:

As we entered the bay of Dublin, a brilliant sun, and almost cloudless sky, unfolded one of the finest land and sea prospects I ever L 4

beheld.

beheld. "The mountains shewed their grey heads, the blue face of Ocean smiled, the white wave was seen tumbling round the distant rock." On the right was the rugged hill of Howth, with its rocky bays, wanting only a volcano to afford to the surrounding scenery the strongest resemblance, as I was well informed, to the beautiful bay of Naples; whilst, nearer to the eye, at the extremity of a white line of masonry just fringing the sea, the light-house presented its alabaster front. On our left were the town of Dalkey, with its romantic rocks, mutilated castles, martello towers, with their gay little streamers, elegant villas, and the picturesque town of Dunleary: whilst behind was seen a line of parks and plantations, above which the mountains of Wicklow ascended with the greatest majesty. Whilst I stood enraptured with the richness of the scenery, a good humoured Irish sailor came up to me, and, with a smile of delight, said, "By Jasus, your honour! your're right there; it is God's own country;" nodding at the same time at me.’—

The har

For want of towers and spires, the capital excites but little impression of its magritude and consequence at a distance. bour has been very much protected, on the south side of the river, by a prodigious mole or stone-wall, called the South Wall, formed of large blocks of mountain granite braced with hon, and strongly cemented. This wonderful monument of human ingenuity and enterprize, which may rank with some of the finest remains of Roman magnificence, extends nearly three iniles into the bay from Ringsend. From the King's Watch-house it runs to the Block-house, which is distant seven thousand nine hundred and thirty-eight feet; and from thence to the Light house, at the extremity of the wall, nine thousand eight hundred and sixteen feet It rises about five feet above high water, is nearly forty feet broad as far as the Bick-house, and from thence to the Light-house twenty-eight feet brad, narrowing from a base of about thirty-two feet broad. This upendous work was begun in 1748, and completed in seven years. As we turned the Light-house, I was much gratified by its appearance: it is a round tower of white hewn granite of three stories high, gradually tapering to the summit, on which is raised an octagonal lantern of eight win. dows, the powerful light of which is encreased by reflecting lenses. A stone staircase, with an iron ballustrade, winds round the building to the second story, where an iron gallery surrounds the whole. was commenced on the first of June 1762, in consequence of a statute of Queen Anne, called the Ballast Act. By depositing huge rocks in a vast caissoon which was sunk in the sea, the ingenious architect, Mr. Smyth, has been able to raise this beautiful structure, and to give it the consistency of rock, in a situation peculiarly exposed to the raging elements. As we sailed in smooth water on the inner side of the Mole, it strongly reminded me of passing by the wonderful embankments which I had seen on the sides of the Neva. Before I land, let me recommend the Union Packet as infinitely the swiftest sailing vessel in the service *. Our vessel was able to lie along side of the Pidgeon house, where we quitted that consumma

*Has the author sailed in all of them? Rev.

It

tion of human misery, a cabin after a short voyage; and, upon landing, after our luggage had again been submitted to search, and to an imposition of three shillings in the shape of a custom-house fee, we entered a long coach, drawn by four wretched horses, which attends upon the packets, and proceeded towards the capital, distant about three miles'

In this extract, for reflecting lenses, the tourist should have written magnifying lentes: a lens is a dioptric, and not a catoptric glass.

A visit to the Museum induces the author to display his knowlege and his amiability. We are informed that the Romans first constructed their boats from the shell of the nautilas, which is a siphon throughout;' (quere, were the Roman boats siphons throughout?) and when he approaches Venus's shell, he utters this apostrophe, which must electrify all the Ladies of the United Kingdom, from Devonshire to the Ultima Thule: If I pass over Venus's cockle, without paying my homage to the beautiful shell, may I never love or be loved!' 'Yet, not sure that this one exclamation would be sufficient to enthrone him in the good opinion of the ladies, he professes himself in the next page ready to swear on the altar of Cupid.' What a courteous knight !

When the author visits the cathedral of St. Patrick's, Dean Swift becomes of course the prominent object. His epitaph is copied; and the melancholy reverse of his brilliant genius is an unavoidable source of reflection with a man of letters: but Sir John Carr should have known that the line in which his fate is so feelingly described,

"And Swift expires a driv'ller and a show,"

occurs not in Pope's works, but in Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes.

We are apprehensive that the tourist was sometimes too inattentive to the accuracy of his information; for in his visit to the town of Black Rock, four miles from Dublin, he mentions land in its neighbourhood, so very rich and valuable as to let from ten to twenty-five pounds per acre.' Black Rock is compared to Clapham Common: but we question whether land at Clapham Common lets for half this price.

In treating of Dublin, the author makes many just observations on the deplorable state of the Irish coinage, the evils resulting from it, the circulation of paper-money, and the course of exchange between Ireland and this country; and to the instances already before the public, of the mischief occasioned to trade by the want of silver coin, he adds several which occurred within his own knowlege.-His discussion of this subject is too long for quotation.

One

One of Sir John's enecdotes occurs in mentioning a peculi arity in the names of places in Ireland, which may perhaps obtain a corner in a new edition of our jest books:-ex. gr.

"We passed through Dundrum, a very pretty village about three miles and a half from Dublin. Near the four mile stone is Moreen, a very picturesque situation: it is remarkable for a desperate battle which was fought some centuries since by two neighbouring families, who, having satiated their revenge, very piously erected a church in the valley where the battle was fought; but whether in expiation of their infuriated rage, or to perpetuate the history of it, antient story does not tell. Not far from Moreen, is the castle and church of Kilgobbin. The frequent recurrence of names of places beginning with kill, is not a little alarming to a stranger in Ireland, more especially if he be under the influence of those stupid prejudices which have been excited against that country. I have just enumerat ed, in my memory, no less (not fewer) than forty-nine of those kill places. The name produced the following ridiculous mistake; when some of our militia regiments were in Ireland during the rebellion, a soldier, a native of Devonshire, who was stationed at an out-post, stopped a countryman, and demanded who he was, whence he came from, and whither he was going: The fellow replied: "And my name, my dear honey, is Tullyhog; and, dy'e see, I am just been to Killmanny, and am going to Killmore." Upon which the sentinel immediately seized him, expecting to receive a high reward for having apprehended a most sanguinary rebel, by confession just come from murder, and going to a fresh banquet of blood.'

The chapter which includes Arklow notices the battle fought there during the late rebellion, and the subsequent simplicity of an Irish peasant; to which the author adds an instance of his own simplicity, by relating, as an event of yesterday, a story long since invented to ridicule a country clown:

A whimsical circumstance happened here during the rebellion. A soldier, who was on guard, got into conversation with a raw countryman, and taking advantage of his simplicity, agreed with him for the sale of his sentry-box: the simple clown paid the amount of the purchase, and came the next morning with his car and horse for it. What are you doing there?" said a fresh sentinel. And, by Jasus, I'm come to remove this little bit of shelter, and plaze you," said the boor. The same spirit of simplicity is displayed in the fol lowing instance, which occurred not long since: A letter was received at the General Post-office, London, directed, "To my son in London the next morning a gawky thumped at the Post-office window, and said, "has my mother sent me a letter?" of course the letter received was immediately delivered to him.'

In like manner, the farmer's reply to the man who reproved him for tying his plough to the horses' tails, "they are used to it," reminds this facetious gentleman of a similar answer from

a rat

arat-catcher respecting the sowing up of the mouths of his ferrets; and we are surprized that he had not also retailed the same remark of the poissarde when skinning eels.

On the road to Wicklow, the traveller passes some moun, tains containing copper ore; and in these were observed several hollow squares, like baths, partly filled with divisions, in which plates of iron were deposited; the vitriolic particles of which are attracted by a stream strongly impregnated with vi triolic water which flows into them, and leaves a sediment of copper. The fact is correct: but the operation is not per formed by vitriolic particles being attracted by vitriolic water, The elective attraction, which takes place by placing iron in copper streams, has often been explained.

As it would be impossible for us regularly to attend this rambler to the numerous places inceded in his route, or to notice the multitude of objects on which he descants, we shall deem it sufficient to specify that, besides the capital, he visited the considerable towns of Limerick and Cork; that he enjoyed the scenery of the Dargle and of the Upper and Lower lake of Killarney; that he describes the nature of the country and the state of society; and that with national institutions he sketches national manners.

From the visit to the lake of Killarney, we expected some gratification: but the writer dismisses his account of this beautiful spot in the following unsatisfactory manner:

The morning after our return from Dunlow castle, we set off for the upper lake: it was still and serene, and the vapours hung upon the summits of the mountains in the most fantastic shapes. Below, every thing was clear and tranquil: I never before saw reflexion in the water 60 perfect: and the echoes, upon the bugle being blown, were remarkably distinct. We passed O'Donahue's prison, an insulated rock, which has been much fretted by the waves: tradition says that the prince of that name used to chain his rebellious subjects to it. I saw several rocks which had been so eaten through by the action of the air and water, that they presented the appearance of dissected vertebræ.

In Mucruss lake there is a rock exactly resembling a horse in the act of drinking. As every island in these lakes has some traditionary history attached to it, and as there are no less [not fewer] than thirty four islands, I will spare my reader the labour of attending to them. We doubled the point of Ross Island, and, at a distance, saw the machines for working the copper-mines lately discovered there.

Glenaa, always the great object of the lakes, and whom I had never contemplated before so closely, notwithstanding his spoliation, rose with uncommon majesty before us: upon his rocky and indented shores, the finest arbutus, or strawberry trees, were in berry and blossóm too; whilst its southern side presented a varied covering of the tops of oak, ash, pine, birch-trees, and alder; white-thorn, yew, and

holly,