beverage, and one of the greatest comforts of life to the Irish farmer, his family, and domestics; it is their common drink at their meals, and when they are dry and weary.'

Bacon is well known to be a considerable article of Irish export. Mr. D. notices this fact, and informs us that, during the salting season of the year 1811, not fewer than 70,000 pigs, weighing at least 200lbs. each, were brought to Belfast for exportation.

From the produce of fields, orchards, dairies, and pig-styes, it is time that we pass to the prolific subject of Manufactures, which occupies many pages in the second volume. An inquiry into the origin and a compressed history of the progress of the linen-manufacture are presented to us, some particulars of which we shall transcribe. We are informed that it originated in the east; and the presumption is said to be strengthened by the fact that the word Indic signifies linen in the Irish language, to say nothing of many other words employed in this manufacture, which General Vallancey (see Vol. ii. p. 587.) attributes to an eastern root. From Asia it is traced by the aid of the Phonicians to Carthage and Spain, and thence to the Green Island, as the Irish call their native land: but we shall not vouch for the accuracy of this part of remote history. The fact, however, is that, by whatever means the Irish obtained a knowlege of the spindle and the loom, they have for a long period made such good use of them that the linen-manufacture is become as much the staple manufacture of Ireland as the woollen is that of England. It is stated that, in the beginning of the reign of King William, the value of linen exported was only to the amount of Goool. ; that in 1710 not less than 1,688,574 yards were sent abroad; that in 1778 the exportation was 21,945,729 yards; that in 1781 it fell to 14,947,265 yards; but that, after that period, it with some fluctuations advanced, and in the year 1809 amounted to 43,904,442 yards, the total value of which was 5,853,9171. In the year 1811, the exportation is said to have been only 36,846,971 yards, valued at 4,375,5771. We have extracted only a few items from a table which occupies three pages: but these will suffice to shew the progress of the linen-trade, from the beginning of the last century; which, though checked for a time by the American war, happily revived, and is now in a flourishing state. As we have remarked before, the individuals in this trade are not confined to a sedentary employment in unwholesome and crowded apartments, but live scattered over the country, combining rural with manufacturing occupations:

Many weavers have small farms, and only employ themselves in this way during the intervals of their farming occupations. Many of

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them are the sons of farmers, who assist in the work of the land, and then return to the loom; and most of those, who follow this trade, and live in the country, have gardens and ground allowed for setting potatoes; so that few are without some addition to their ostensible calling. These people, thus living dispersed in the country, are, in general, of a better description than those who live in towns; they are more out of the way of temptation and of bad example.'

This feature of the linen-trade affords us much pleasure; and we wish that the cotton-trade in Great Britain could be prosecuted on a similar system. Mr. D., however, speaks favourably of the cotton-trade in his country. In the list of manufactures which are making some progress in Ireland, mention is made of the casting, turning, and fluting of iron: but to descant on these processes would give no information to our ingenious artizans on this side of the water.

The section on Population exhibits a very considerable in

In 1788 the county of Antrim was reported to contain only 160,000 inhabitants: but the present amount is stated at 240,000.

We meet in these volumes with a long section, of a character unlike any that is to be found in the British county-reports, viz. on the Situation, Size, and Description of Towns and Villages. It is amusing, and will furnish much matter for the formation of an Irish Gazetteer: but we must restrain ourselves from making any other use of its contents than that of copying two extracts on the size and population of Belfast, and on the amount of its exports in 1810:

From a most accurate survey made by Mr. Arthur Thomson, ia 1807, the houses were 3514, the inhabitants 22,095, being in eighteen years an increase of 407 houses, and 3735 inhabitants. It has not been ascertained, what are the numbers of the present day; to all appearance, there has been a considerable addition within the last four years; the supposition is, they amount to 26,000, or thereabouts.

From the ancient plan, which accompanies this, (but in what year taken is uncertain,) the town then contained only six streets, and four rows of houses. From a survey made in 1808, it was found to contain squares, streets, quays, lanes, and entries, to the number of one hundred and fourteen. In 1791, their number was only seventyfive, being an increase, in seventeen years, of thirty-nine.'

Aggregate Account of the principal Exports from Belfast, of Irish Produce and Manufactures during the Year 1810.

Increase in value of Exports in one year, 537,249 15 9'

Of the ground on which the flourishing town of Belfast stands, the Marquis of Donegal is the sole proprietor.

Under the head of Antiquities, we meet with notices of Cairns, Cromlechs, Mounts, Forts, ecclesiastical and military Remains, Round Towers, &c.: but the greatest curiosity in this department of the work is an account (with a plate annexed) of a double -patera of gold, weighing 19 oz. 10 dwts., used, as General Vallancey supposes, by the Pagan Irish in libations to their deities, Budh and Paramon, and to the Sun and Moon. It is of a remarkable form; and we are glad that an engraving of it was taken, since the patera itself is probably gone to the crucible.'

It is time, however, for us to close our account of this Survey; which is augmented by an Appendix, containing three valuable communications from Dr. Richardson; the first treating on the Zeolite, the second on the Basaltic Productions of Antrim, and the third an Itinerary, which will be useful to the curious traveller in exploring the natural riches of this district.

Mr. D. has certainly collected much valuable and amusing matter, and he has arranged it according to the plan with which he was furnished by the Dublin Society. His views are clear, and we are inclined to believe that his descriptions are faithful: but his language is not always correct, and he occasionally employs words that are not in common use on this side of the

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water. It is more important to remark that he evidently has the good of Ireland at heart: while he admits that much has been effected, he does not forget to observe that much yet remains to be done; and we shall conclude with this legitimate presumption, that a work such as that before us cannot be thrown away either on the government or on the people.

The volumes are illustrated by several engravings, of no great merit as specimens of art: but we have not a single representation of an Irish farming-implement. Several views are given of the Giants'-causeway; and a map of the county of Antrim is placed at the commencement of the first volume.

ART. V. The Tragedies of Maddalen, Agamemnon, Lady Macbeth, Antonia, and Clytemnestra. By John Galt. 8vo. 14s. Boards. Cadell and Davies. 1812.

"THESE dramas are the sketches of pastime, and as such are offered to the public.'-This is an ominous sentence, and it begins the author's preface. Surely he had not sufficiently considered the respect that was due to his readers when he wrote in this manner. In truth, we have a painful duty to perform in our present critique. We meet with speeches in every one of these plays which imply no common power of imagination; and we are therefore unfeignedly sorry to be compelled to observe that, with the exception of these bright spots, we never witnessed such extravagant deviations from good taste as occur in almost all the pages of this excentric volume. We really feel ourselves bound, at the present juncture, to hold it up as a beacon to all dramatic writers. Át the same time we shall quote, or refer to, the most successful passages; and, if they bear no proportion to the defects of the different pieces, we can only again say that we regret it.

In the first play, which, like the Don Carlos of Otway, turns on the love of a son for his father's second wife, (besides the gross indelicacy of such a plot,-intolerable, we are happy to say, at this period,) the faults are much more numerous than we can specify. Indeed, it is not singular in this respect : but, merely noticing what forces itself on us, we shall still have too much to condemn.

Valdini, (the father,) observing the gloominess of Lorenzo, (the son,) on the wedding-day, thus expresses himself:

Politeness might have taught

At least to feign a joy for the occasion.

I did expect a little more from

you.

'Tis true I am your father.

• Lorenzo.

<Lorenzo. Oh my Lord!

Valdini. And stepmothers are often bad enough;
But you are not a child,' &c. &c. &c.

We have a character in this play intitled a Dutchess, who really talks like a washerwoman. Her debut will be sufficient:

Joy, joy, my Lord! how does my Lady niece?
But why alone? True lovers, fresh like you,
Should be at other sport. Tut, musty parchments!
Go; go and rustle silks. Where's my sweetheart?"
Valdini. WHOM?'

The Count, it will be perceived, does not himself speak choicer English than the Dutchess. Indeed, in one of inferior rank it would scarcely have been decorous; and the dramatist, in course,

"Reddere persona scit convenientia cuique."

Thus, moreover, when the Lady Maddalen is in great agitation of mind, her husband cries out,

A doctor should be here,'

and Lorenzo, with an equally striking familiarity of expression, says to his aunt the Dutchess, on an occasion on which he has some reason to doubt her veracity, No fibs, good aunt.'

Maddalen, in her ravings, (and as ravings, perhaps, they are to be excused,) asks Lorenzo,

• Hast thou been at it? and would be before me?'

in killing himself, we presume the lady to mean; whose fancy is evidently rambling on the altered catastrophe of Romeo and Juliet:- but we forbear, and pass in equal silence all the strange epithets, (the begraced vexations,') &c. &c., which are so abundantly scattered throughout the drama. Will it be believed that he who could so fail could also succeed as he has done in the following passages?

Thy thoughts are like the yellow falling leaves,
That wildly rustle in the evening gale,
Dispers'd afar. Rude was the wintry blast,
That so untimely smote my blooming tree.
I thought to sit beneath the lovely shade,
Tending young lambs, all in the setting sun:
But now it waves a wild fantastic head,
And soon will lie before the feller low.

Oh! turn from me those pale heart-breaking eyes,' &c.

This (with the exception of the line in italics) is no ordinary description of the wild imaginations of insanity, and of the

grief of a tender friend in beholding them.

So,