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PERIODICAL LITERATURE OF IRELAND.

A WRITER, who appears to be well acquainted with the subject, observes in a recent number of the Dublin University Magazine, that while every gentleman's house in England has its library, very few of the Irish gentry possess a dozen volumes. This fact—which may be partially referred to the indolent and heedless habits of the people-will explain in a great degree the reason why Ireland has never, at any period of her history, maintained a periodical press of higher importance than the newspapers of the day. The Irish, emphatically, are not a reading people-all the world knows that they are not a thinking people-yet, strange as it may seem, they are unquestionably a literary people. They possess an extraordinary aptitude for letters -touch the surface of things with amazing rapidity-are either indifferent to, or incapable of amassing details, but exhibit a remarkable faculty for catching at principles, which their eloquence, wit, and invention enable them to employ, if not to the best advantage, at all events with surprising facility, tact, and adroitness. The education of good habits is wanted in Ireland to make the people turn these peculiar traits to account. The gentry are quite as reckless in their own way as the peasantry. The knowledge they acquire in the rapid examination of every novelty that comes within their reach, instead of being concentrated and dedicated to the production of useful results, is wasted upon the air. There are men, say's an Arabian proverb, who, instead of keeping their perfumes in cotton, allow them to evaporate in open bottles. An incapacity for the regular division and cultivation of time, and for the continuous pursuit of a settled object, render them at once various and capricious. And to this distraction of pursuits, and not to the want of ability, must be traced the failure of every attempt that has hitherto been made to establish, with success, that species of publication which is known in this country under the general name of Periodical Literature.

The primary cause of this perpetual diversion of the public mind is, no doubt, to be found in the political circumstances of VOL. X.-NO. IV.-APRIL, 1837

Ireland. Where there is an incessant warfare between religious sects and civil factions, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain a dispassionate and constant audience for those calm and abstract pleasures that are calculated to carry us out of the immediate business of life. In a country so much engrossed with daily feuds about passing affairs, it is not very likely that literature could take root ; or that, if it did, it could long survive in so uncongenial an atmosphere. But that is a view of the subject upon which we do not desire to enter here :-it is enough to indicate the influence which politics have exercised, without a single interval of relief, upon the destiny of Irish genius. With the exception of a few treatises upon science, got up generally in the immediate vicinity of the University, an occasional reprint of an old school-book, or an ardent pamphlet, theological or political, printed, published, and distributed at the author's expense, you rarely hear of a new publication from one end of the island to the other. Original works of fiction seldom appear, and when they do, it is almost invariably under the sanction of some London house; so that, in fact, they cannot be said to belong to the Irish press. Men of talent, finding no encouragement at home, naturally repair to the most profitable market. A very large proportion of what is called English literature, is well known to be written by Irishmen. Some of the most striking papers in Blackwood are of Irish birth; and it is only necessary to mention the names of Dr. Maginn, of the Rev. Mr. Mahony (Father Prout), of Crofton Croker, Lover, Croly, &c., to shew to what an extent the talent of Ireland is rendered available in our periodicals. Seven-eighths of the reporters engaged upon the newspaper press of London are Irishmen. This is natural enough. The nature of the reporter's occupation, laborious as it is, appears to be admirably adapted for men of an imaginative and restless temperament. It employs them intensely for a short time, drawing out in haste all the points of skill they possess, and exercising their superficial versatility in a way that is well suited

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to their discursive habits. The rest, and by far the larger portion of their time is open to the indulgence of idleness or pleasure; which is still more in conformity with their tastes, and in consideration of which they are not unwilling to compound for all that is irksome and toilsome in their duties. But we do not find them in any of the plodding professions, where unremitting attention is indispensable, and where industry and judgment are requisite for the attainment of eminence.

The country that produced an Usher (one of the most learned men of any age), a Swift, a Sterne, a Goldsmith, a Sheridan, a Flood, a Grattan, a Ponsonby, a Curran —has never been able to support a maga zine! A few magazines were attempted within the lasty fifty or sixty years; but they exhausted the pockets of their projectors, and were speedily abandoned. We will glance at them for the purpose of shewing the sort of materials of which those brief literary speculations were composed.

The earliest of which we have been able to discover any trace is the "Gentleman's Magazine." Such of our readers as may happen to have seen any of our old repositories, in which wonderful voyages, strange anecdotes about dogs and bears, curious facts in natural history, letters upon the powder tax, and “ original poetry" are to be found, may form a tolerably correct notion of the contents of the "Gentleman's Magazine." It fairly represented the fictitious manners of the day, and was as vapid, maudlin, sentimental, and jejune as could be desired. Its good-natured readers were delighted every month with little engravings of lady T- and my lord Slooking at each other through two circles, intended to give the effect of locket-frames, their eyes staring out straight forward without a ray of thought or emotion, their hair combed and pomatumed back, and their regular features exhibiting the most placid tone of inanity. Underneath the ambiguous couple was printed some such mysterious announcement, as "The Delicate Intrigue," -or more probably, "The Conscious Lovers!' Occasionally the plates were varied by the introduct.on of a new muslin pattern spread over a whole sheet, the interest of which was usually heightened by some anecdote about the fashions, or an account of the reception of a certain macaroni at court. The slender

tales of love troubles were numerous, and it was customary to give them a sort of scandalous tendency, by suppressing, under initials, the supposed names of the chief actors, in order that the credulous and innocent public might be led to believe that the story was true, and that the editor had delicately concealed the personalities out of respect for the noble persons involved. All this, if course, only made pecple more curious, and, in proportion, increased the patronage of this sly old periodical. Then there were deaths, births, and marriages out of number; news of the fleet, in a couple of lines headed in huge capitals, that engrossed more space than the intelligence they introduced; elaborate accounts of street accidents, printed in large type,-picking pockets being at that time considered one of the black arts; and singular discoveries in geology, mineralogy, and astronomy, which sciences were then and there esteemed to be almost above the reach of the human intellect. The "Gentleman's Magazine" passed away like

a shadow-noiseless, and leaving no impression behind. How long it lived we know not; nor do we believe, unless by accident some copies may yet be found in the lumber rooms of family houses, that a single copy of the work is now in existence.

The next magazine in order of time was a miscellany entitled "Walker's Hibernian Magazine, or compendium of entertaining knowledge.". It is fifty years since this work flourished, and yet to this hour stray copies of it are to be met with in auction rooms, and in private houses; for, antiquated as it is in shape, in substance, and in style, the Irish people seem to regard it with a sort of lingering pleasure. It was published by the keeper of a lottery office, who, as appears by the following appropriate doggerel verses, dispensed alike the gifts of Fortune and the beauties of Literature. These stanzas afford a fair exemplar of the poetry which formed part of the staple of the work :

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Not only Entertainment flows,
In pleasing verse, instructive Prose,
But Wealth, from Fortune's store,
Descends to those who seek them all,
And for their friendly succour call
At Walker's lucky door.

In vain shall Envy curl each snake,
And raging Fury strive to break
The union that is found,
"Twixt sweet Amusement, and the charm
That every generous Heart can warm
In full Ten Thousand Pound!

A string of these verses is stitched up with an appendix to a volume of the magazine "for the year 1787." The reader will not fail to observe with what consummate ingenuity Walker contrived to make his two occupations assist each other; how the entertainment is blended with the wealth, and how the "sweet amusement," which he takes it for granted the reader must derive from his magazine, is connected with the "ten thousand pound," which is to be the certain prize of the purchaser of a ticket. In those days, primitive as the people were, they seem to have had a very clear conception of the art of puffing; and it is doubtful whether in later and more refined times, so palpable a method of forcing a sale either of books or of lottery tickets would have been attempted. We certainly can hardly associate any of our defunct lottery-office people with literature, except it be that of the many-coloured placards, with vignettes of fat boys blowing trumpets, and Fortune clapping her hands over a wheel. It would require a great stretch of imagination to suppose the existence of such a periodical as Sivewright's Universal Repertory," or Bish's Compendium of Entertaining Knowledge."

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An odd volume of Walker would be a treat to the lover of old magazines. It was filled with the usual varieties-crude suggestions in materia medica-cases of hydrophobia (at a time when they used to smother the patient between two feather beds) -original anecdotes,-essays, transcending Theophrastus, upon human character, prophecies, legends, epigrams, anagrams, and acrostics. But the most remarkable, and, perhaps, the most valuable part of the work, consisted in occasional criticisms on new works, with copious extracts, which furnish on the whole a tolerably satisfactory view of the state of literature in Ireland at the close of the last century. The results are not very flattering, but they prove that at that time a great number of books were published, and that there existed some encouragement, however slight, for the labours of authors. This fact, taken in connection with the domestic politics of the period, is worth consideration. We find that previously to the general agitation consequent upon the American war, works of fiction were frequently published in Ireland, and supported by a respectable reading population. The anniversaries of the revolution were at that time celebrated

in common by Protestants and Catholics. The yeomanry of the day-or, more properly, the militia, who were domiciliated in the villages, and mixed up with the people, from amongst whom they were drawn without distinction of creed-discharged their annual feu de joie over the sculptured figure of William III., to the great delight of the populace; and as they stood in their gay uniforms, side by side, making military holiday, they never paused over their firelocks to inquire into the nature of the triumph they celebrated, or how far their interests were concerned in its results. With discussion, however, came dissention; and, after nearly a century of tacit acquiescence in forms which neither of them understood, the Catholic began to think that he was cheated of his rights by violated treaties and unredeemed pledges; and the Protestant to assert an ascendency which rendered the positive advantages of his position at once invidious and insecure. The doctrines proclaimed by the Americans were rapidly spread amongst the people; popular writers compared the situations of America and Ireland in relation to the mother country, drawing deductions favourable to the establishment of national independence; and the whole frame of society was soon convulsed by civil feuds. England, alarmed at the growing disaffection of the Irish, which was not wholly confined to the Catholics, but which was shared by some members of the Established Church, and by almost all the Presbyterians, consented to make concessions. The Free Trade had been already procured by the indefatigable perseverance of Grattan, and the elective franchise was now bestowed upon the Catholic population. A measure that conferred political rights upon the uneducated classes, who were the most likely to abuse them, while it excluded the educated who would have been the most likely to exercise them with discretion, could hardly fail to increase the discontent of the people. To grant to the Catholics the power of chooseing representatives, and, at the same time, to refuse them the privilege of representing themselves, was to begin conciliation at the wrong end. The Catholics were dissatisfied with the imperfect amount and vexatious nature of the concession; while the Protestants were just as much exasperated at it as if it included the whole boon of civil and political equality. Enjoying by prescription the whole patronage of the

government, and controlling hitherto all the constituencies, they regarded every favour extended to the Catholics as an encroachment upon their own privileges. In the North, where the Protestant interest is strongest, these demonstrations of resistance to the tardy policy of the English Cabinet broke out with the fiercest fury; and here it was that the Orange association was originated. As this fact-which we treat historically-has been wholly overlooked in the investigations that have, of late years, been instituted in reference to the Orange system, it may be as well to state it circumstantially. Numerous parties of Protestants assembled, from day to day, in the North, and, assailing the Catholics wherever they were to be found at wakes, patterns, and festivals, frequent conflicts took place; on which occasions the Protestants, being better armed, practised, and organised, were usually victorious. In the county of Armagh, one of these petty battles, called the Battle of the Diamond, occurred; and such was the severity of the onslaught, and so bravely was the triumph contested, that the Protestants formed themselves into an association upon the spot, in commemoration of the event, selecting William, Prince of Orange, as their " patron," in opposition to the St. Patrick of the Papists. This was the first Orange lodge that was ever formed; it was held on the day of the fight, the 21st of September, 1795, and was the nucleus of that powerful confederation which subsequently expanded itself over the whole island. It would be hardly worth while to enter into these particulars, were it not that scarcely one Orangeman in every hundred is cognisant of the circumstance, that it is generally believed that the Orange association dates its origin from a much earlier period, and that the fact itself, trifling as it is, proves that the Orange league sprang out of an accident, and was at first intended to celebrate only a particular occurrence, instead of being, as it has been asserted, a deliberate union of individuals associated for the protection of the national interests and the defence of the king's government. What the memory of the Prince of Orange had to do in the matter, or how his principles of religious freedom, which he came over to this country to vindicate upon the invitation of the people, after having successfully maintained them in Holland against Louis XIV., is more than we can conjecture. But certain it is, that the Tory

party in England opposed the "glorious revolution" as long as there existed a hope of the restoration of the Stuarts, and that they did not adopt the political faith of the adherents of the House of Orange, until they had driven the Whigs from office, and found it expedient to take up with the Revolution. There is, therefore, no historical continuity in the profession of belief : and the Orange Society was no more than an after-thought, and had as little right to the title it assumed, as the Whigs of the present day have to be considered as the descendants of the Whigs of the reigns of Queen Anne and George I. Indeed both parties changed sides, and the retention of their old names is a palpable blunder. These circumstances, however, deeply affected the interests of literature in Ireland. Before the excitement produced by the American war, and the sanguinary example of the French revolution, books were frequently published, and had a remunerating sale. After that time, the publication of original works almost wholly ceased, and when any did appear, their circulation was languid and disheartening.

Walker's

But revenons à nos moutons. miscellany was, for its day, a clever and spirited work. Its classification was not destitute of utility, and its subjects were various, exhibiting an amusing diversity of styles. Some of the writers emulated the well-poised, redundant, and antithetical pomp of Johnson, which was then the fashion; while others, struggling out of the mode, attempted new flights of the most fantastic description. The most curious trait in the magazine was the absence of a presiding mind and uniform manner. It was evidently working between two tides. It marks the period of a transition in the prevailing taste, without embodying the full spirit of the change. The poetical department was, as it is in almost all magazines, the worst. The Sylvias, and Delias, and Chloes, exhibited their usual tinsel and morbid finery in its columns, and with the exception of a few extracts from the ribald and sarcastic muse of Peter Pindar, imported fresh from London, the rhyming corner was thoroughly unreadable. The most popular division of the magazine was dedicated to legendary tales and romances, which appear to have formed its chief stock in trade. These pieces describe themselves the horrors of the Radcliffe school, the mysteries, the profuse euphuism of

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