ever was in the country; it had to be brought home on a car, for it wasn't able to walk wid fat."

"The spots are on it. The last is Andy Cavanagh, of Lisbuy. Now do you see, I've dhrawn a line from place to place, so that you've nothing to do only to keep to it as you go. for Andy ?

What

"Andy! let us see. Andy! Pooh! -What's come over me that I've nothin for Andy? Aye! I have it.— He's a horse-jockey. Put down a grey mare I sould him about five years agone."

I'll put down a horse; but I can't make a grey mare wid black ink." "Well, make a mare of her, any way."

Faith, that puzzles me. Stop, I have it! I'll put a foal along wid her." As good as the bank. God bless you, Misther O'Flaherty; I think this ill keep me from mistakes. An' now, if you'll slip up to me afther dark, I'll send you down a couple of bottles and a flitch. Sure you desarve it, afther the trouble you tuck."

We feel convinced that after this extract, our readers will agree with us in our commendations of Mr. Carleton's powers as a writer: we should mention, that the above is not without foundation, according to our author, and it certainly affords an additional reason for believing "truth to be stranger than fiction.” In any of his sketches, where schoolmasters are introduced, Mr. Carleton shews great ability; he has evinced the most consummate skill in displaying their pedantry and supercilious ignorance. In the former series, however, he was more successful than in the present, in which he seems to have almost exhausted his materials on this subject, and been therefore obliged to have recourse to the overstrained and unnatural hyper-iriscisms which disfigure the composition of most of our writers, and from which we had supposed Mr. Carleton entirely free, until we came to the sketch of the schoolmaster, in the "Poor Scholar," which is quite unworthy of Mr. Carleton's pen, and of the admirable story in which it occurs; let any one read the speech in p. 160. vol. ii, and we are confident they will agree with us in our observations; we are at the same time ready to acknow

ledge, that it is almost the only defective writing in the book; it is also redeemed by the preceding sketch, in the same story, of Mr. Corcoran, which is redolent of humour, and in our author's best style. For the benefit of our College readers, we will give, in Mr. Corcoran's own words, the account of the prowess of his pupil, Tim Kearney, who "bate" them all in that "overgrown hedge-school called Thrinity College."

"Arrah, how was that, Masther?"

"Tim, you see, wint in to his Enthrance Examinayshuns, and one of the Fellows came to examin him, but divil a long it was 'till Tim sacked (puzzled) him." "Go back agin," says Tim, " and sind some one that's able to tache me, for you're not.”

"So another greater Scholar agin came to thry Tim, and did thry him, and Tim made a hare of him, before all that was in the place-five or six thousand ladies and gintlemin, at least!"

"The great larned Fellows thin began to look odd enough; so they picked out the best scholar among thim, but one, and slipped him at Tim: but well becomes Tim, the never a long it was 'till he had him, too, as dumb as a post. The Fellow went back."

"Gintlemin," says he to the rest, "we'll be disgraced all out," says he, "for except the Prowost sacks that Munsther Spalpeen, he'll bate us all, an' we'll never be able to hold up our heads afther."

"Accordingly, the Prowost attacks Tim, and such a meetin' as they had, never was seen in Trinity College since its establishment. At length when they had been nine hours and a half at it, the Prowost put one word to him that he couldn't expound, so he lost it by one word. For the last two hours the Prowost carried on an examinayshun in Hebrew, thinking, you see that he had Tim there; but he was mistaken, for Tim answered him in good Munster Irish, and so it happened that they understood each other, for the two languages are first cousins, or, at all events, close blood relations. Tim was thin pronounced to be the best scholar in Ireland except the Prowost; though among ourselves, they might have thought of the man that taught him. That, however, wasn't all. A young lady fell in love with Tim, and is to

:

make him a present of herself and her great fortune (three estates) the moment he becomes a counsellor and in the mean time she allows him thirty pounds a year to bear his expenses and live like a gentleman."

We must now hasten to conclude, and shall therefore pass on, to the third volume, which contains two sketches, "Denis O'Shaughnessy," and " Phelim O'Toole's courtship." We will not attempt any outline of these stories, having trespassed too long already on our readers' patience, and wishing not to lessen their interest in the perusal. We cannot, however, resist the temptation of giving the following specimen of a prayer at a Pattern, which excels even Mrs. Malaprop's orthodoxy.

"Queen o' Patriots pray for us! St. Abraham-go to the divil you bosthoon; is it crushin' my sore leg you are?-St. Abraham, pray for us! St. Isinglass, pray for us! St. Jonathan pray for us! Holy Niniveh, look down upon us wid compression an' resolution this day; Blessed Jerooslim, throw down compuncture an' meditation upon us Christyeens assembled here before you to offer up our sins! Oh! grant us, blessed Catastrophy, the holy virtues of timtation an' solitude, through the improvemint an' accommodation of St. Columbkill! To him I offer up this button, a bit o' the waistband o' my breeches, an' a taste o' my wife's petticoat, in rimimbrance of us havin' made this holy station; an' may they rise up in glory to prove it for us at the last day! Amin."

We must also for the instruction of any of our readers about to enter the bands of Holy Matrimony, give the following extract, containing the most valuable advice for the arranging of marriage articles, and assisting them in the almost incomprehensible business of settling entails, or bona fide property in stock, which parvis componere magna,' is most expeditiously and satisfactorily decided, without either the interference of the lawyer or his jackall, in the cabin of the Irish peasant; it is merely neces sary to premise that Phelim is heir at law to a fee simple estate of "half an acre," on which account his father is anxious he should marry and have an heir to keep up the family of the O'Tooles.

"When Phelim had reached his twenty-fifth year, his father thought it was

high time for him to marry. The good man had, of course, his own motives for this. In the first place, Phelim, with all his gallantry and cleverness, had never contributed a shilling, either towards his own support, or that of the family. In the second place, he was never likely to do so. In the third place, the father found him a bad companion; for in good truth he had corrupted this good-man's morals so evidently, that his character was now little better than that of his son. In the fourth place, he never thought of Phelim that he did not see a gallows in the distance; and matrimony, he thought, might save him from hanging, as one poison neutralises another. In the fifth place, the "half acre" was but a shabby patch to meet the exigencies of the family, since Phelim grew up. "Bouncing Phelim,"-as he was called, for more reasons than one,—had the gift of good digestion, along with his other accomplishments; and with such energy was it exercised, that the "half acre" was frequently in hazard of leaving the family altogether. The father, therefore, felt quite willing, if Phelim married, to leave him the inheritance, and seek a new settlement for himself. Or if Phelim preferred leaving him, he agreed to give him one-half of it, together with an equal division of all his earthly goods; to wit: two goats, of which Phelim was to get one; six hens, and a cock, of which Phelim was to get three hens, and the chance of a toss-up for the cock; four stools, of which Phelim was to get two; two pots-a large one and a small onethe former to go with Phelim; three horn-spoons, of which Phelim was to get one, and the chance of a toss-up for the third. Phelim was to bring his own bed, provided he did not prefer getting a bottle of fresh straw as a connubial luxury.

The blanket was a tender subject; being fourteen years in employment, it entangled the father and Phelim, touching the propriety of the latter's claiming it at all. The son was at length compelled to give it up, at least in the character of an appendage to his marriage property. He feared that the wife, should he not be able to replace it by a new one, or should she herself not be able to bring him one, as part of her dowry, would find the honeymoon rather lively. Phelim's bedstead admitted of no disputes, the

floor of the cabin having served him in that capacity ever since he began to sleep in a separate bed. His pillow was his small-clothes, and his quilt his own coat, under which he slept snugly enough."

This is the last extract we are able to give from this most amusing and instructive book-instructive, as it acquaints us with the manners and feelings of a people but imperfectly understood and unduly appreciated; and though we have frequent occasion to laugh at their foibles or ridicule their errors, yet we should never forget the circumstances which have mainly contributed to keep them permanently in this state of degradation; which it seems the policy of their present rulers to perpetuate, by affording additional facilities to their greatest enemies for keeping them under the dominion of error and fanaticism, instead of endeavouring to repress violence and encourage education; still we have hopes, that the night of ignorance is drawing to a close, and that ere long the British Cabinet will see their real interests in legislating rather on principle than expediency. The story entitled " Tubber Derg," which we have been obliged to omit any notice of, also conveys a lesson to the landlord, as it clearly demonstrates, that something more than legal authority is required, to make this country what it ought to be, and proves that the interest of the owners of the soil is intimately connected with what we conceive to be their duty, namely, their personal attention to the necessities and wants of their tenantry. Whether any exertion on their part be not now too late is a question of a different nature, as we fear that the die is cast and the fate of Irish landlords almost decided; and unless some measures are had recourse to ere long, which will restore their legitimate powers to the landed proprietors in this country, we apprehend that the situation of keeper of their accounts, as far as the credit side of the book is concerned, will be a sinecure. But a truce to gloomy politics, and let us return to the author of Traits and Stories," to whom we give our most sincere thanks, for the relief we obtained by his stories from the painfully exciting discussions of VOL. I.

public affairs. We are fully aware of our inability sufficiently to praise these volumes, but were we to express what we feel on the subject, our praise might appear extravagant to those who have not read them, while to those who have it would be superfluous, as we are convinced that no one possessing the slightest knowledge of our country can fail to consider them as the best traits and stories connected with our native land that have ever issued from the press. We sincerely hope that Mr. Carleton may continue to work this valuable mine, in which he has discovered and partially wrought, a new and rich vein. As literary co-patriots, we trust that he will receive such encouragement at home as will obviate the necessity of our advocating the repeal of that literary union, which unlike the legislative,' draws from our shores our brothers of the quill, without giving their equivalent or allowing us a drawback on the export.

We cannot conclude our review of these admirable volumes without expressing the gratification we feel at being able, in the first number of a new literary enterprize, to bring before our readers a book, not merely meriting notice as the work of a fellow-countryman, but worthy of taking a high place in the literature of any nation; and we trust that it is an augury of success for ourselves, to find publishers not unwilling to risk capital in promoting literary exertion in this country, and purchasers ready to sanction the risk. Time was, when such an undertaking would be looked upon as a speculation, only to be paralleled in absurdity by the "South Sea Stock," or "Peruvian Bonds"-and though we cannot say, "nous avons change tout cela ;" yet, that such a change has taken place is undeniable; and books are published and publishing in Dublin, which, in our youthful days, could only have found purchasers and publishers at the other side of the channel: so that we trust ere long we will be able to say, with truth, what was said many years since without foundation in fact, but we hope in a prophetic spirit: "Les Irlandois, ne le cèdent plus aux Anglois, ni en industrie, ni en lumières.”

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