HANDY ANDY:

A TALE OF IRISH LIFE.

BY

SAMUEL LOVER, ESQ.

AUTHOR OF

"RORY O'MORE," "THE GRIDIRON," "BARNY O'REIRDON," &c. &c.

WITH

Awenty-Four Illustrations on Steel.

BY THE AUTHOR

LONDON:

HENRY LEA, 22, WARWICK-LANE. PATERNOSTER ROW.

ADDRESS

I HAVE been accused, in certain quarters, of giving flattering portraits of my countrymen. Against this charge, I may plead that, being a portrait-painter by profession, the habit of taking the best view of my subject, so long prevalent in my eye, has gone deeper, and influenced my mind:-and if to paint one's country in its gracious aspect has been a weakness, at least, to use the words of an illustrious compatriot,

I am disinclined, however, to believe myself an offender in this particular. That I love my country dearly, I acknowledge, and I am sure every Englishman will respect me the more for loving mine, when he is, with justice, so proud of his-but I repeat my disbelief that I overrate my own.

The present volume, I hope, will disarm any cavil from old quarters on the score of national prejudice. The hero is a blundering servant. No English or any other gentleman would like him in his service; but still he has some redeeming natural traits he is not made either a brute or a villain, yet his "twelve months' character," given in the successive numbers of this volume, would not get him a place upon advertisement, either in "The Times" or "The Chronicle." So far am I clear of the charge of national prejudice as regards the hero of the following pages.

In the subordinate personages, the reader will see two "Squires" of a different type-good and bad: there are such in all countries. And, as a tale cannot get on without villains,