is, to what they used to be."* Her affection for | prejudices to overcome, so I deserve no praise for Ireland was, if I may be allowed the term, philo- being without them." Miss Edgeworth never sophic; she saw clearly the perfections and the wrote that other people might practise, but she faults of the people; she admired the one and wrote what her and hers practised daily; it was knew the remedy for the other; her devotion to evident, from the children being constantly with the country was not blind, but it was earnest, pa- the family, that they still held by the opinion that tient, and of working, as well as of thinking power, intercourse betwen children and servants is injuriwithout the cant which has been the bane of one ous to the former. "We believe in it," said party, and the bigotry that has blinded the other; Miss Edgeworth; "but I have long learned how her religious and political faith were alike CHRIS-very impossible it is for others to practise it. My TIAN, in the most extended sense of that holy father made it easy; for not only his wife, but his word. These extended views and enlarged sympathies were beyond the comprehension of many; but even the squirearchy, who, I have heard, were enraged at the publication of “ Castle Rackrent," and the ladies, who fancied the picture of Mrs. O'Rafferty, in "The Absentee," an insult to the "ladies" of Dublin, forgave her for the sweet sake of "Gracey Nowlan," and the exquisite fidelity of "Old Thady." † I remember saying to her, how happy it was for Ireland that she had overcome every religious prejudice. "Ah!" she exclaimed, "I never had religious * On returning to Dublin from Edgeworthstown, I was convinced of the truth of this observation; while waiting for change of horses at Maynooth, the carriage was, as usual, surrounded by beggars, one after another; they begged for everything they could think of: "A little sixpence, yer honor, just for the honor of Ould Ireland and good luck." "It's only the half of that, or a fourpenny bit, I'd be axing, that you might n't dirty yer glove with them mane ha'pence." " May be ye 'd have a bit of bread, or anything, to stop the hunger of the children, my lady;" and, at last, when the horses were about to start, an old crone exclaimed, "Ah, then lave us the bit of a newspaper itself, to amuse us whin ye're gone!" children, knew all his affairs. Whatever business he had to do was done in the midst of his family, usually in the common sitting-room; so that we were intimately acquainted, not only with his general principles of conduct, but with the most minute details of their every-day application." Of this habit she spoke with the warmest feelings of approbation and gratitude, and it produced a rich fruitage. Mr. Edgeworth's daughter Honora, if she had lived, would have perhaps rivalled Maria in literary composition; and each of the family I have met was possessed of varied but most remarkable and well developed qualities. It is quite impossible to recall Edgeworthstown without recalling the memory of its FOUNDER, as Mr. Richard Lovell Edgeworth may be considered, though he was preceded by many rich in talent and high in station. While staying there, even I, as a stranger, felt what I may call "his pres ence" everywhere. She, of whom I write, had sat beneath his shadow while she labored, and imbibed much of his combined philosophy and activity; and the daughters of his house were remarkable for their strength and powers of mind, as for the beautiful womanliness of character, of which Maria Edgeworth was the perfection. as On looking back to Miss Edgeworth's letters (all of which are dated) I find in one, bearing date April 8, 1832, these few remarks about Ireland, which apply to the presMiss Edgeworth said, it was in 1778 that Mrs. ent, as well as the past:-"I fear we have much to go through in this country before we come to quiet, settled Honora Edgeworth, while teaching her first child life, and a ready obedience to the laws. There is literal- to read, found the want of something to follow Mrs. ly no rein of law at this moment to hold the Irish; and Barbauld's lessons, and felt the difficulty of exthrough the whole country, there is what I cannot justly call a spirit of REFORM, but a spirit of REVOLUTION, under plaining the language of the books for children the name of reform; a restless desire to overthrow what which were then in use. She imparted this diffiIs, and a hope, more than a hope, an expectation, of gaining liberty and wealth, or both, in the struggle; and if they culty to her husband, and they commenced for their do gain either, they will lose both again, and be worse own children the first part of " Harry and Lucy," off than ever-they will afterwards quarrel among themselves, destroy one another, and be again enslaved with or of " Practical Education," as I saw it called, on heavier chains. I am, and have been all my life, a sin- the title-page of one of the first copies, printed cere friend to moderate measures, as long as reason can literally for their own children. Mr. Edgeworth be heard; but there comes a time, at the actual commencement of uproar, when reason cannot be heard, and intended to have carried on the history of "Harwhen the ultimate law of force must be resorted to, to ry and Lucy" through every stage of childhood; prevent greater evils-that time was lost in the beginning to have diffused through an interesting story the of the French revolution-I hope it may not now he lost in Ireland. It is scarcely possible that this country can first principles of morality, with some of the elenow be tranquillized without military force to reestab-ments of science and literature, so as to show lish law; the people MUST be made to obey the laws, or they cannot be ruled after any concessions. Nor would parents how these may be taught, without wearythe mob be able to rule if they got all they desire; theying the pupil's attention. No writer of eminence, would only tear each other to pieces, and die DRUNK or except Dr. Watts and Mrs. Barbauld, had at that famish SOBER. The misfortune of this country has been, that England has always yielded to clamor what should time condescended to write for children. How have been granted to justice." With such sentiments, many have since rushed into so popular and lucrafounded on what Miss Edgeworth states in the "Memoirs tive a track, the multitude of juvenile books sup of her Father" to have been the result of observation and a companionship with him, from the time of his settling on his estate at Edgeworthstown, in 1782, until the time of his death, a period of nearly five-and-thirty years, no wonder that the grand agitator of Ireland so frequently regretted that Maria Edgeworth "could not be tempted to advocate repeal." ply evidence; but we may readily confess how much we have all fallen short of our great originator. It is curious to remember that Mr. Day, one of Mr. Edgeworth's oldest friends, designed "Sanford and Merton," as a short story to be in serted in "Harry and Lucy." The illness of Mrs. Honora Edgeworth interrupted the progress of that volume;" and after her death," Miss Edgeworth said," her father could not bear to continue it." Thus "Harry and Lucy" remained for more than twenty years with the first part printed, but not published. It was then given Maria Edgeworth for a part of "Early Lessons.” * Long as Mr. Edgeworth had been dead, he was constantly referred to by his family, as if he had only left the room, in the simplest and most touching manner; but when Miss Edgeworth spoke of him for any length of time, her eyes would fill with tears. His mind was so inventive that nothing seemed new at Edgeworthstown. He appears to have anticipated all modern improvements; "and yet," said Miss Edgeworth, "all his literary ambition, then and ever, was for me!" Some of the "unco good" have complained of what they call the want of religious, but what I should rather call sectarian, instruction, in Miss Edgeworth's juvenile works. "We wrote," she said to me, "for every sect, and did not, nor do I now, think it right to introduce the awful idea of God's superintendence upon puerile occasions. I hold religion in a more exalted view than as a subject of perpetual outward exhibition. Many dignitaries of the established church honored my father by their esteem and private friendship; this could not have been, had they believed him to be either an open or concealed enemy to Christianity." Certainly, as a magistrate, as a member of the Board of Education, as a member of Parliament, Mr. Edgeworth had public opportunities of recording his opinions; and there is no trace, that I could ever discover, of his desiring to found a system of morality exclusive of religion. Unfortunately, in Ireland, if you are not—I do not like the word, but I can find no other-bigotted, to one or the other party, you are marked and stigmatized as irreligious or worse-by both. I do not design to write a panegyric. Miss Edge As the interdict will prevent Miss Edgeworth's family from publishing her life and correspondence, I cannot but think that a new edition of her father's life, produced in a popular form, would be of the greatest value to all classes of the community; the second volume, written by Miss Edgeworth, is so unaffectedly herself, while she seeks to illus-worth's own WORKS will suffice for that; they are trate the character of her beloved father, that it should find a place on every table, and be of decided advantage to parents in training their children. I remember once her detailing to me the plot of a novel she intended writing, and telling me at the same time that she had destroyed seven hundred pages of a manuscript, because she did not think it good enough to publish. I remember how I regretted this, and found consolation in the hope that one day or other the publication of her letters would atone for the loss. I knew that she was incapable of keeping "a journal,"-a "pri-ing seclusion of a country house, in the midst of a vate" journal—intended, from the first page to the last, for the public; and that she was too honorable to keep letters which ought to be destroyed when read, but it seems like casting gold into a grave to destroy a line that she has left! † *"After Practical Education,' the next book which we published in partnership was, in 1803, the Essay on Irish Bulls;' the first design of this essay was his; under the semblance of attack he wished to show the English public the eloquence, wit, and talents of the lower classes of people in Ireland. Working zealously upon the ideas which he suggested, sometimes what was spoken by him, was afterwards written by me; or when I wrote my first thoughts, they were corrected and improved by him." This I quote from Miss Edgeworth's Life of her father, where her truthfulness flashes ever and anon, like diamonds in a rich setting-oh, how bright and beautiful it is! what a halo it sheds around her memory! On this same page, she says again, "All passages in which there are Latin quotations, or classical allusions, must be his exclusively, because I am entirely ignorant of the learned languages." What a reproof is this to lady-authors, who hunt out "learned quotations," that they may seem learned; in truth, justice, and generosity, she was without parallel. I could quote page after page of praise of cotemporary novelists from her letters, which show her mental generosity; and this is the true test of generosity, to praise the excellence that illumines our own path; the musician will praise the poet without a pang of envy, the poet the musician; but let musician praise musician, and poet poet, and painter painter, and author author-that is the test by which a reputation for genuine generosity ought to stand or fall. It seems, and perhaps is selfish, in this truly public calamity of Miss Edgeworth's death, to dwell on my own imperishable monuments of her usefulness and her " "good will," especially towards the country of her adoption and towards children. But even after a visit to Edgeworthstown, where a natural habit of observation, as well as a desire to read her rightly, made me more than usually awake to every word and every passing incident-bright days of rambling and sunshine, and dark days of rain and conversation with her and hers-seeing her thus away from the meretricious glare and false lights of London society, where I had first met her-in the try most mingled family-where her father's last wife was many years younger than herself, and the half foreign children and foreign wife of her youngest brother rendered the mingling still more extraordinary recalling all seen and known of other families, where children of the same parents too seldom live together in unity-I remember nothing that at bitter feelings at her loss. Her friendship and sympathy were as alive at eighty-two, as if she had been in what is called "the prime of life." Her praise had cheered, and her criticism guided me on my way. Public approbation is necessary to an author's living; but her sympathy and kindness seemed necessary to my literary fame. If "The Sketches of Irish Character" won her first attention, everything I since published seemed to freshen our correspondence; and I so grieve that she can never see the result of much she suggested in what I have been some time writing. Proud as I am of many of her letters, they relate so almost entirely to ourselves that I feel it would be egotism to publish them. Whenever a passage occurred in her letter, or indeed in any letter I wish to preserve, that ought to be kept secret, I am not content with refolding the letter and putting it by, I cut out and destroy the passage. This I consider it only honest to do, for we have no right to trust for a moment to others, here or hereafter, what is trusted only to ourselves. I am certain that it is the excess (if I may so call it) of this moral honesty which urged Miss Edgeworth's determination that her correspondence should not be published. I believe she intended to "cut it," to revise it herself, but as this was not done, she preferred consigning the whole to oblivion, rather than to running the risk of any feelings being wounded, or opinions intended only for her own eye being sent abroad to the world. morning till night, either to share her sorrows or enjoyments, and make up by unceasing love and pity, the one for the other, the heavy losses they both sustained, particularly within the last few years, by the death of Mrs. Edgeworth's beloved children-almost, if not quite, as dear to the one as to the other; but I can picture the mourning village when she was carried within that church, and laid in her father's tomb, beneath the shadow of the spire, which tells of his invention and perseverance, as well as his desire to add to the beauty of the Christian church of his own parish-I can fancy the wail of the weeping children of the schools, and the utter desolation which reigns in that once cheerful library. All that relates to this honored and honorable family is becoming matter of history; and in a short space of time, hundreds who have learned all the good that books can teach from those imperishable monuments of Maria Edgeworth's zeal and industry in every good cause, will make pilgrimages to her shrine-the neutral ground of Ireland-where all may worship, without idolatry, the ESSENCE of as pure, as high a nature, as ever ascended in the spirit of faith to the throne of the Supreme. this distance of time does not excite my admiration | lived in the house of happiness with THEM, can and increase my affection for this admirable woman, hardly imagine, much less describe, the lonely combining in her small self whatever we believe to blank that is left-more particularly in the heart of be most deserving of praise in her sex. She was the venerable lady, who must now feel the want of a literary woman, without vanity, affectation, or object, the want of counsel, the want of sympathy jealousy a very sunbeam of light, in a home ren--the want of one who filled her thoughts from dered historic by her genius-a perfect woman in her attention to those little offices of love and kindness which sanctify domestic life; a patriot, but not a political the champion of a country's virtues, without being blind either to its follies or its crimes. Honored wherever her name was heard during half a century of literary industry-idolized by a family composed as I have said of many members under one roof, yet tuned into matchless harmony by admirable management and right affection ;*-this woman, so loved, so honored, so cherished to the very last, was entirely unselfish. I have said this before, and repeating it cannot give strength to the fact; but I have so often felt benefit from her example and the consideration of her virtues, that I desire others, especially the young of my own sex, to do the same. During her last visit to London, I still thought her unchanged; like Scott, she was not seen to the same advantage in London crowds, as amid the home circle at Edgeworthstown. Our last meeting was at her beloved sister's, Mrs. Wilson, in North Audley street. She was there the centre of attraction amongst those of the highest standing in literature; the hot room and the presentations wearied her, and so her anxious sister thought; but she again, like Scott, was the gentlest of lions, and suffered to admiration. When I was going, she pressed my hand and whispered, "We will make up for this at Edgeworthstown." I certainly did not think I should see her no more in this world. I have imagined the half hour of her illness in that now desolate monument of so much that was great and good; a brother and sister-the brother nearly half a century younger than Maria Edgeworth-who were there when we were at Edgeworthstown, had been called away before her. The widow of her father, and the widow of her tenderly-loved brother knew that she had written a note to Dr. Marsh complaining of not being as well "I wish you would be so very kind as to give me as a as usual; yet had felt little alarm. In less than birthday present yours and Mr. Hall's third volume of half an hour after this letter was written, Mrs. Ireland. I have only one number of it, that which cost Edgeworth went into Miss Edgeworth's bed-room-ified me and my family so much, from the manner you you so much thought and care to word; and which gratthe little room that overlooked her flower-garden-mentioned us, saying nothing we could wish unsaid. stood by her bedside, became alarmed; and passing her arm under her head, turned it on her shoulder, so as to raise her up. After the lapse of a few minutes, she felt neither motion nor breath; and it was only the form of her long cherished and beloved friend that she pressed to her bosom. She died in her eighty-third year, it may be truly said full of years and honors.† I, who knew HER So long and so well, who have *It would seem that the family of Edgeworth were as united in 1844, when I visited them, as in 1796, when Mr. Edgeworth, in a letter to Doctor Darwin, wrote the following passage :-"I do not think one tear per month is shed in this house, nor the voice of reproof heard, nor the hand of restraint felt." I honored her birthday as I do my mother's, and managed she should receive the letter of congratulation, to which this is a reply, the 1st of last January, the day she completed her eighty-second birthday. It shows how bright and kind she was ever, and to the last :- 66 note, was the very pleasantest I received on my birthMy dear Mrs. Hall,-Your cordial, warm-hearted day, except those from my own family., "I am truly obliged to you for it, and quite touched by your kind remembrance. like "Mrs. Edgeworth felt it as I do, and so did a sister of mine, whom you do not know, but whom you would Harriette Edgeworth'-justly described in Sir Walter very much if you did know her, Mrs. Butler-the Scott's letters. "I hope you and Mr. Hall will revisit Ireland one of Edgeworthstown. You must not delay long if you mean these days, and that you will make your way again to to see me again; remember, you have just congratulated me on my eighty-second birthday. "I am ashamed to beg this volume from you, but I do so wish to have it from the kind author, that I cannot refrain from making this request. If there be any of mine that you would accept, or if your dear little girl would like to have a set of my little books, just now republished, let me know, and I will have them sent to you." My "little girl" rejoiced as much at this prospect as I should have done at her age; but the following little circumstance marks the charming mind of the giver. The books came from the London publisher's, but Miss Edgeworth had enclosed him, written with her own hand, on slips of paper, "To Mrs. S. C. Hall's dear good little girl. From Maria Edgeworth, in her eighty-third year." And these were carefully pasted, by her direction, in each volume. In the same letter, the last but one I received from her, she asks, in a postscript, "Who translated Mademoiselle de Montpensier's Memoirs lately, and what proof of their authenticity? I believe I must write to Paris to get an answer satisfactory to this last question. The translation (?) reads like an original." She was so actively alive to whatever was going on. OBITUARY. From Tait's Magazine. THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON. other places in Italy. At Genoa, in 1823, Lady Blessington met Lord Byron for the first time, and afterwards saw him daily for a considerable period during her residence in that city. The readers of Moore's Life of Byron will remember the many occasions which he pays tribute to her AT Paris, of apoplexy, on the 4th of June, the Right Hon. Marguerite, Countess of Blessington, celebrated for her beauty, her accomplishments, intellectual and personal gifts and graces. One and her literary productions. The day previous to her death, she dined with the Duchess de Grammont, when she appeared in her usual health. Next morning, feeling ill, she sent for her medical attendant, Dr. Simon, the homeopathic doctor. A short time afterwards she expired in his presence. It is little more than two months since she gave up her splendid residence at Gore House, Kensington, to go and live at Paris; and only two days before her death, she got possession of her new house in the Rue de Cercle, where her delightful reünions, for which she was so highly famed, were eagerly looked forward to by the notables and litterateurs of Paris. Few names were better known in the world of literature than was that of Lady Blessington. She was a native of Ireland; born in 1789; the daughter of Edmund Power, Esq., of Curragheen, county of Waterford, and the half-sister of the late eminent actor, Tyrone Power, Esq., who was lost in the President steamer, on his return to this country, from America. At the age of 15, she was married to M. St. Leger Farmer, Esq., of Poplar Hall, county Kildare, captain in the 47th Regiment. After his death, she lived under the protection of an officer, and was also intimate with Lord Blessington, who was likewise in the army. In 1818, she was united to the latter, Charles John Gardiner, Earl of Blessington, Viscount and Baron Mountjoy, who died, without issue, in 1829, when his titles became extinct. After the earl's death, she fixed her residence in London, and long held a very distinguished place in the literary society of the metropolis. Her house became the centre-point of men of talent in almost all departments; and many of the literary celebrities of London were frequently found there as visitors. On more occasions than one she showed herself the friend of obscure but deserving genius. Of this, her notice of Thomas Miller, the basket-maker, author of " Royston Gower," affords a remarkable instance. As soon as he became known by his writings, Lady Blessington sent for him, recommended his book, and did him substantial service. "Often," Miller himself says, "have I been sitting in Lady Blessington's splendid drawing-room in the morning, talking and laughing as familiar as in the old house at home, and, in the same evening, I might have been seen standing on Westminster bridge, between an apple-vender and a baked-potato merchant, vending my baskets." or two copies of verses were addressed by the 66 Lady Blessington's contributions to literature were numerous. Her first work was entitled, we believe, "The Magic Lantern, or Scenes in the Metropolis," a small single volume of very modest pretensions, published by Longman, and Co., about twenty-five years ago. Her next publication was also a small volume, “A Tour in the Netherlands," of no great merit. Her "Conversations with Lord Byron," in one volume, commanded more attention. In her preface to this work, she states that "she was for a long time undecided as to publishing her Conversations with the noble poet, fearful that, by the invidious, it might be considered as a breach of confidence; but as Boswell's and Mrs. Piozzi's disclosures relative to Dr. Johnson were never viewed in this light, and as Lord Byron never gave or implied the slightest After their marriage, the earl and countess injunction to secresy, she expresses a hope that passed several years abroad. In August, 1822, she may equally escape such an imputation." they left England for the continent, and resided The work, on its appearance, was declared to be for about six years at Genoa and Naples, and the cleverest and one of the most interesting things that had been written on Lord Byron; un- | novel, in 3 volumes, full of sarcastic hits, written folding with all possible delicacy, consideration, in her pleasantest style. The same year, she and good nature, his true character-even to its inmost recesses. edited "Lionel Deerhurst," another novel, in 3 volumes. The Countess also wrote "Sketches In 1833, her ladyship published her first novel, and Fragments," and numerous magazine articles. "Grace Cassidy, or the Repealers," in three vol- Besides the works mentioned, she, for years, edumes. The object of this work was to show the ited "The Book of Beauty," the most fashionaartifices by which the agitation for repeal became ble of the annuals, and displayed fine taste, and popular in Ireland, and the circumstances in the the most discriminating judgment in the task. character of the people, and the condition of the To that and other illustrated publications she country, which render the Irish peasantry so contributed several short stories and poems of a peculiarly liable to be led away by it. With superior kind. In painting manners, her ladyship this it combined the delineation of modern fash-excelled. Her style is remarkable for its graceionable society, in certain of its aspects. The fulness. Her plots are, in general, simple; and work contains scarcely any plot, the greater part being occupied with dialogues, criticism, and reflections. Some of the scenes in fashionable life, however, are full of power and beauty; and the authoress has been very successful in painting the feelings, habits, and motives of the Irish peasantry. One female sketch, in particular-that of Lady Blessington was no less famed for her Grace Cassidy, a young Irish wife-is remarka- beauty than for her literary talents. Byron well bly well depicted. In the beginning of 1835, she described her as the "most gorgeous Lady Blespublished "The Two Friends," another novel, in sington." The engraved portrait of her, from three volumes, the chief merit of which is its the original, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, gives the lively and pleasant style, and truthful delineation best likeness of her ladyship, and conveys the best of manners and character. The scene is partly idea of her voluptuous beauty. Her sister was laid in France, at the period of the revolution of the late Lady Canterbury, previously the widow 1830, and the Parisian sketches are peculiarly in- of the son of the then Sir Alexander Purvis. A teresting. In this, as in others of her works, her younger sister was married, in 1832, to a French ladyship has made good use of her store of trav-nobleman. The Earl of Blessington, by his first elled recollections of the continent. wife, the widow of a brother officer, had a daugh of all her writings it may truly be said, that they were dictated by sound sense and right feeling. Her recollections of Italy and France are, perhaps, the best of her works, being full of personal anecdote, epigram, sentiment, and description. from whom she separated soon after. MADAME CATALANI. In 1836, her ladyship published a work, called ter, Lady Harriet Anne Frances, born in 1812, "Confessions of an Elderly Gentleman," illus-who, in 1827, married Alfred Count D'Orsay, trated with six portraits, &c., by E. Parris. It embodies, in six tales, the different love-passages and marriage disappointments, in the life of the elderly gentleman; and its principal merit is its truth and humor. She subsequently published "Confessions of an Elderly Lady," also an ably conceived and vividly-written imaginary memoir. She likewise wrote 66 Desultory Thoughts and Reflections," a work little known, but worthy of remembrance, for the philosophical, yet feminine, AT Paris, of cholera, after only 24 hours' illspirit in which it is conceived. It is in the styleness, the celebrated cantatrice, Madame Catalani, of the maxims of La Rochefaucauld, but presents in her 70th year. She was an Italian by birth, a much more cheering view of human nature. although, as in the case of Jenny Lind, there Her other works are "The Belle of the Season,' were not wanting, at various times, statements in "The Idler in Italy," 3 vols., 1839-40; "The the public prints, making her out to have been in Idler in France," 2 vols., 1841; "The Govern- reality a native of Ireland, but taken to Italy when ess;" "Meredith;" "The Lottery of Life;" very young, and educated there. The "Athe"Strathern;" and "The Victim of Society." næum" says that the late Lady Blessington, and This last work appeared in 1837, and both in its her sister, too, Lady Canterbury, both declared general scope and the artistic manner in which themselves in possession of evidence tending to its subject is treated, it has been said to be not in- establish a not very near relationship betwixt ferior to Miss Edgeworth's "Leonora." It is a Madame Catalani and themselves; their version tale of modern society, written in the form of let- of her parentage being that her mother was a ters, her ladyship being fond of the autobiograph-kinswoman of theirs, and that the child had been The ical and narrative style of telling a story. carried to Italy at an early age. There was certainly a resemblance among these three beautiful women strong enough to pass for a family likeness when attention had once been called to the subject. Previous to her coming to England she had obtained a high reputation on the continent as |