such means as in England they would be enlarged and improved. It is not easy gin upon. to explain the cause of this enlargement This, however, all tends to make the and improvement; there is no question people, if not respectable, at least piensent, that the trade of the city has declined. which time ish many he said emphatically Belfast and Cork have possessed themselves tbe. In society there is less coldness of a part of what did once belong to the and reserve and hunter than in England. ' capital; and minor sea-ports now corre I us here be understood to peak of' the, spond directly with London and Liverpool, middle classes; among which, in every and the foreign ports, with all of which country, the national character and peer- | they used formerly to have nothing to do. liarities are most visible. The upper ranks but to get commodities from the Dublin in Ireland, the great proprietees and nok, merchant. This is not a consequence of the ouch the same as individuals holding | Union, but of the progress of trade, and the sa ne station amongst us. On enter-general advancement of the country. ing society in Dublin, a stranger will be | There are in Dublin no houses vacant much struck by the animation of the party; none of the mansions of the nobility have the absence of-we were going to write gone to ruin; some have fallen into the manneris-honte; the haste which individuais | filchian hands of opulent lawyers and mermade to commit themselves, as it is termed ; | chants; many are converted into public the freedom with which every man gives institutions and schools, and a great prohis sentiment; and to speak the truth, the portion into hotels. By this transition the ten abili y and powers of clecution with | inhabitants of Dublin are naturally much which he defends and explains them. affected, and with many a bitter expression The polities of the inhabitants of Dublin | of serrow they point out to the stranger are very much provincial; indeed questions the former residences of the various noble immediately affueting the country are suf- families. The Irish are a vain people, and ficiently numerous and important to eccu- impressed with a reverence for lords and py attention. But what may be called; ladies of high degree, very different from Imperial policy is as little heeded or thought honest Blunt John Bull's sentiments of of as the approximation of two planets; an|that scere; and it may be fairly presumed • event probably affecting us, but in a degree that the loss of so much good company is so minute, and so remotely, as to occasion | feit as a considerable aggravation of the us scarce a passing thought. There docs | solid and substantial injury which the not prevail in Dublin that general acquain- Union occasioned the citizens of the Irish tance with the characters of public men, metropolis, or with the state of parties, which we fiid in this city. The press of Dublin is a subject too delicate and too much open to controversy, for us to enlarge upon; but we will remark, that the sweeping, slapdash, discursive, colloquial style common in the newspapers, is very characteristic. The writing is, in point of literary merit, greatly inferior to that of the London journals. Though newspapers are cheaper in Ireland than here, they have small circulation among the lower classes in Dublin; nor have we remarked in any of the alehouses any newspaper taken in here,' es is frequent in London. These people have certainly, as their superiors seem to think they too have, lost all political weight and consideration. The mechanics and tradesmen all unite, however else they may differ, in bewailing the Union, which they deem to have been fatal to Ireland, because injurious to them immediately, and to their city. It is certain, however, that since that measure, Dublin has been most considerably - The number of hotels in Dublin is pr digious. All the members of parliament, going and returning, pass a few days in Dublin: it was formerly a great capital, the seat of legislation; it is now a great place of passage. Dublin is now as great as it was at the Union; not as great had that Union not taken place. The aversion to the Union, as a measure of policy, has augmented and maintained that dislike of England, which was once so strong in Ire land, but which is rapidly vanishing. The highest sense of the value and merit of English sobriety, prudence, industry, and exactness, is general; but the coldness and reserve of the character is objected to.There is no doubt that the Irish are emulous of our virtues; and it would be well did we resolve to adopt the excellencies of their temper and good nature. There is one article, the improvement in respect of which we may condescend to notice, as (see Lord Londonderry's speech on the State of the Nation) one of his Majesty's It is not is much squalid misery, but it is more out "Here was not mingled in the city's pomp, * The first view of Dublin is prepossessing; Sackville-street, by which the traveller from Howth enters, is one of the finest streets in Europe; and as he passes through it, and over Carlisle-bridge, the Post-office and the Custom-house are seen, a glimpse of the Courts is obtained, and the Bank and College lie immediately in the way. But these are almost all that are to be seen; and the consequence is, that the first emotion of a stranger arriving in Dublin, is admiration; and that disappointment succeeds. The Bank was formerly the House of Parliament. It is of Grecian architecture, and for purity and elegance, stands, we believe, unrivalled in these isles. Its beauty has been somewhat impaired since it fell into the hands of the monied gentry. It was surrounded by a series of porticoes, the apt resort of Eloquence and the Muses; but the worthy Directors have erected in the interstices between the columns, a stout rampart of stone and mortar, thus adding to the security of their ministers vouchsafed to make it the subject of grave congratulation to the legislature. With such an authority, we run no risk of derogating from our dignity by adverting to it. We have the happiness of stating, that within the last fifty years the habits of the Irish people have improved, in point of cleanliness, in a degree almost inconceivable. They are still far from that martinet purity which we boast; but except in minor and trivial particulars, the inhabitants of Dublin are little less cleanly than those of London. Most of the hotels are kept in very excellent order. It is true we do not see the outer steps and window-stones of that dazzling and Cretan whiteness they exhibit in England; but it will be found, that wherever comfort demands that the brush and the scrubbing-block should be, hey have been. In the north of Ireland, strange as it will sound to English ears, may be found a perfect pattern of cleanliness: the houses of the people engaged in the linen manufacture, are many of them as scrupulously and fastidiously neat and pure as possible. These remarks, however, must be confined to the more comfortable and happy classes of the community. We will not speak of the peasantry; but directing ourselves alone to the population of Dublin, we must say, that it contains a large mass of human beings in the most squalid and wretched condition. An establishment for the relief and reception of mendicants does exist in Dublin: it is maintained by voluntary subscriptions, there being, as our readers are aware, no poor-laws in Ireland. But we mean to refer to a description of individuals who do not fall properly under the description of paupers, or constitute a fit object for alms, we speak of the inferior orders of trades-coffers and the spaciousness of the building, people and mechanics. There is a part of Dublin called the Liberty, almost wholly inhabited by these persons. St. Giles's, or the most wretched lane of London, is splendid compared with it. We are informed that the Earl of Meath, whose property it is, actually gets no rent; and that the old law dogtrine of General Occupancy prevails. The houses are most of them ruinous, but having been originally well built and of good materials, they hold together. The languishing state of the Woulen and silk trades in Ireland has had its cffect, but the evil is mainly attributable to the great mischief under which that country suffers, the smallness of the recompence of labour. In London, to there however they may have detracted from the beauty of the architecture. The Exchange is a handsome building, but unhappily stands at the head of a street of which it does not occupy the centre. A precisely similar fault in the site, it may be remarked, injures the effect of the Exchange at Liverpool. Dublin Castle, the town residence of the Viceroy, is situated upon a hill: it is well built, chiefly of stone, and has a very lordly and imposing appearance.The servant is better lodged than his master at St. James's. There are two large and handsome quadrangles, in the upper of which a stand of colours is always displayed. The entire of the building is not appropri uted to the use of the Lord Lieutenant; much of it is occupied by the Public Offices, the Treasury, the Ordinance Office, the Chief Secretary's Office, the Council Chamber, &c. &c. The apartments are handsome, and the audience and presence, chambers sufficiently spacious. The whole is surrounded by a wall of great height and strength. Some parts of the edifice are old. The Birmingham Tower, where the records are kept, derives its name from Sir William de Birmingham, one of the early settlers and deputies. Ireland, a comfort which does not belong to the same class in England. We are surprised that the jaunting-car has not been introduced into use in England. It is not well suited to a great town; but for the country it is admirably adapted. In regard to the travelling between Dublin and London, the Holyhead road is a perfect pattern; and the great bridge now erecting over the Menai at Bangor, must not be passed by without a word. It is a work of the most magnificent description. The span of the arch is 360 feet! It is scarcely possible to persuade oneself that the passage will be safe: and we cannot answer for what might not have been our vulgar scepticism on that point, had we not been, in a most piteous voice, assured by our host, whose little inn at the Ferry will be deserted when the avenue to the bridge shall be opened, that there is not the remotest fear (hope we would have said) of a failure in the project. Camden, in his Britannia, takes notice of an attempt made by Edward the First to throw a bridge over the straits, that his army might pass by it into Anglesey. The monarch was unsuccessful. How would he wonder at the feats of Mr. Wyatt, the engineer! Not certainly, more however, than would the mariner of his day at a voyage of six hours and a half from Holyhead to Howth. What a contrast does the expedition and celerity of the passage of the steam-boat present to the doubt and difficulty of the seamen of early times, anxiously straining his eyes to discover, in the dark horison, the summit of some headland, by which to conjecture his course!-If the The neighbourhood of Dublin is very delightful. Both sides of the Bay are trowded with handsome villas. The mountains of Wicklow occupy the south; the Phoenix Park lies to the west, and beyond it opens the rich county of Kildare. The Glen of the Downs, the Dargle, the Devil's Glen, the vale of Obrca, Luggelaw, all the most charming scenery of Wicklow, is within a morning's drive of Dublin on the other side, beyond the park, only a few miles from town, lies Lucan and Celbridge. Their vicinity to all these places leads the inhabitants of Dublin to make frequent Country excursions; and cach Sunday, every jaded citizen who can muster a horse and car has his wife and children apparelled in their gayest attire, and sallies forth to enjoy the pure fresh air, and cheer his sight with the view of the delicious country around him. Every house is deserted immediately after breakfast-The service of the Catholic Church is brief; it stays the eager citizen but a short time, and the roads about the metropolis present early on the Sunday morning, a concourse of all sexes, ages, and conditions, hurrying to enjoy themselves. The Irish are particu-homeliness and common-sense nature of larly fortunate in the possession of their jaunting-car, as it is called. It is a vehicle drawn by one horse; the carriage of it is like that of a gig; the driver sits on a small raised seat behind the horse, and on each side, their feet supported by footboards covering the wheels, sit two, or sometimes three persons, those on one side having their backs to those on the other. Thus may five, or six, or seven people be carried with little more inconvenience to a horse than a gig would occasion. This sort of vehicle is cheap; it enables people of humble fortune to move about; it places them nearly on a levelwith the wealthy, in respect of that sole remaining article in which the latter enjoy a real and substantial superiority in the goods of life; and it is perhaps the only instance in which the middle last possess, in | these remarks on the route to Holyhead through North Wales, should give umbrage to any sentimental reader, who expected to hear of peaks lost in the clouds, of horrific precipices, of eternal snows, of sequestered vales, of goats perched on fear. ful crags, of the screaming of eagles, or the flight of wild geese, with all the addenda of torrents, and caves, we can only recommend, that he visit the place in his proper person, and content ourselves with referring him to the narrative of a journey to Brundusium, given by the first lyric poet of the Augustian age. He will find, that strong as is the precedent afforded by Horace's notice of the " gritty bread" and bad water, we have not condescended to drop a single hint, that even in Wales, small mutton is not necessarily delicious, in as much as it is often young: and that A Welsh rabbit, even in Wales, is sometimes made of bad cheese. NARRATIVE OF A - tries. The expediency of an yearly trip At length the day dawned that was to light me to the boudoir of the farfamed Madame de Genlis, the most accomplished woman of her age, the friend of Egalite, the benefactress of youth, the preceptress of Pamela, and the adulatress of the powers that be. I happened to be exceedingly unwell, from a heavy cold caught among the marbles of the Salle de Sculpture of the Louvre, where I had spent five hours, shivering, admiring, sneezing & drawing, the day before, when the weather was so intensely hot, that every body foretold a thunderstorm, though,, Il n'a pas ete question d'hommage; there was not a cloud visible. I got to je le lui ai vendu. Je l'aurais pu venthe Rue de Pigalle, about three o'clock, dre plus cher, si j'avois voulu l'envoyer and was directed to the entre-sol, where chez l'etranger; mais j'ai mieux aime I found Madame de Genlis sitting on en etre moins bien payee, et le savoir a littered sofa, in great deshabille, and dans la possession du Roi de France: a young lady of pleasing appearance, il me l'a paye mille francs." This apwriting at a little table opposite, which peared to me a very trifling sum for a with her chair, the only one in the series of original paintings, by so celeroom, filled up the whole width of the brated a hand. I observed, that the apartment, long, narrow, and lighted British Museum possessed the Insects by one window at the end, in face of of Surinam, painted by Madame Merithe door by which I entered. The an, for which three thousand guineas young lady rose, gave me her chair, had been paid. Madame de Genlis and disappeared; Madame de Genlis observed, that it was not difficult to also rose, seemed very much discon-paint as well as Madame Merian, and certed at being taken by surprise, made that she had been offered 15,000 me a thousand apologies for receiving francs for the work in question. She me in her study, instead of her salon, told me she had just completed a boand asked me "what o'clock it was?" tanical work, on rather a fanciful plans I replied, "three." She assured me, La Managerie de Flore, a collection she had thought it was only one. We of portraits of all the flowers that bear soon got into conversation, but the the names of animals-fox-glove, orsubjects were not very interesting.-eille d'ours, patte de grue, &c. &c.The advantages of the climate of France over that of England.--The insalubriousness of coal fires.-The subject of fuel treated a fond.-The facility of communication between the two coun She is now engaged in a work of Emblems; (her great talent seems to lie in elegant and fanciful associations of sentiment with material objects;) each page contains the portrait of a flower Medor, un homme de rien, whom no "Medor est le vainqueur ! possessing some property which makes the subject of the motto, or ame de la devise; puns on the names of the flowers, such as les soucis, les perisees, les immortelles, are not admissible.A great acquaintance with botany has I had made un mechant pas, mais il enabled Madame de Genlis to discov-n'y avait pas moyen de reculer, so I Johnson's speech to a lady: "Madam, consider what your praise is worth, before you cram me with it." I said that I had adopted from the Souvenir de Felicie the practice of committing to paper the account of whatever conversations and events in terested me, without keeping a regu er more than 300 specimens of plants, went on talking about Mr. Day and each possessing a peculiarity which Dr. Darwin with steady composure, may be likened to a thought or a sen- though I felt myself color a little, timent. I fear I do not explain clear- which never happens to me a propos ly what I do but half understand.-- of nothing. We spoke of Madame I did not say to Madame de Gentis de Genlis' own works:-I never praise what Napoleon said to the Persian an author, except by showing, by brief ambassador, when his Eastern Excell-quotations from the least prominent ency began to compliment him in the parts of his book, how attentively I oriental style, with a long string of have read him remembering Dr. floral siniles "tenez:--parlons d'affaires, je n'aime pas beaucoup les fleurs." I do love flowers very much, but I do not know how to talk scientifically about them, and am aware how easily a practised eye distinguishes the silence of ignorance from the silence of modesty, and how unsatisfactory it is for those who talk well, to speak onlar journal. Madame de Genlis obany subject to an uninitiated audience. served, that such a habit was laudable We entered the republic of letters and useful, if people kept to truth, not via Dr. Darwin's Loves of the Plants. if they write like Lady I mentioned some peculiarities of the has filled her book with ridiculous and author's character and habits, which improbable falsehoods, concerning alk seemed to amuse Madame de Genlis; the people she mentions;" For in and had occasion to name Mr. Day, stance, she has made me say a number whom I characterised as a man who of things which I never uttered, and had devoted great talents to the im- for the sake of antithesis; and in order provement of youth" un de vos to make a piquant melange of elegance, confreres, Madame." Madame de luxury, and devotion, she has given an Genlis was as little gratified as Louis account of the room in which I receiv the Fifteenth, when Voltaire ventured ed her, all according to her own lively. to say to him, in his box at the Thea- imagination; she speaks of the ele tre Français," Trajan est-il content?" gance of my bed-allow me to describe With much vivacity of manner, not it to you. There are no curtains, for unmixed with asperity, she demanded, since my childhood I have never slept "Comment cela?-je ne le connais with any, nor allowed any of my pupils pas, qu'a-t-il donc ecrit ?"-and seem-to do so; the bedstead is of very or ed as much surprised at being brought dinary mahogany, without any orna into a parallel with Mr. Day, as ments; the counterpane is of blua Roland le Furieux, when he hears silk, very old and shabby, not torn inthat Angelique has fallen in love with deed, but extremely faded; my room who |