THE

1835-6.

CONDUCTED BY PHILIP DIXON HARDY, M. R. I. A.

AUTHOR OF "THE NORTHERN TOURIST,"

PICTURE OF DUBLIN," &c. &c. &c.

DUBLIN: P. DIXON HARDY. LONDON: RICHARD GROOMBRIDGE.

TO OUR READERS.

In closing another, the Fourth Volume of our JOURNAL, we have to appear before our readers with feelings of pleasure mingled with pain. We had hoped, from the success which attended the undertaking, to have had the satisfaction for many years to come of annually meeting our friends with the language of gratulation and kind regard; but are now obliged to inform them, that while the Journal has prospered, and has attained a circulation very gratifying to our feelings, the hand of disease has so paralyzed our energies, and affected our general health, as to render it necessary that, for a considerable time to come, we should abstain from making any exertion in which the powers of the mind would be engaged, beyond what may be absolutely requisite in the management of a rather extensive printing and publishing establishment. With the present volume, therefore, must terminate the pleasant acquaintance which has been kept up with our very numerous body of readers during the last three years; and therefore it is that we appear before them with mingled feelings of pleasure and pain-pleasure, that we have been enabled to conduct our little work, so as in general to give them satisfaction; pain, that just at a time when it appeared to be getting on more to our mind than it ever before had been-our new machine having enabled us to work off the engravings in a better style, and other circumstances having also conduced to assist us-we should be reduced to the alternative of giving it up, or running the risk of sacrificing health, or a much more important and profitable department of our business. By some it may be thought, that we should have procured another person to carry on the Journal. To this we have a very definite reply at the commencement of the work, as we once before hinted, it was under the management of two very talented individuals-the one an antiquarian and first rate artist, the other a writer of acknowledged ability—and yet, at the close of the year, such was the state of the concern, that had we not taken it off the printer's hands, it would have made him a bankrupt, as it owed him at the time nearly £1700, with little prospect of getting any thing out of it. We mention this fact to show that it would be folly in us to risk a similar result, when we can now withdraw from the concern with a certain profit. For the information of those interested in such details we may here observe, that a publi cation of the kind, to succeed in this country, must be carried on by one individual, who will have the profits of Editor, Printer, and Publisher, to repay his trouble, and who can allow from £1500 to £2000 to remain in the concern. A circulation beyond 11,000 or 12,000 cannot be calculated on ; while the capital engaged is scattered over England, Scotland, and Ireland, in small sums, sometimes not very easily got in, even after the regular credit has expired.* As there is no alternative with us, it now

• We avail ourselves of this opportunity of stating, that should any individual think well of starting a similar publication, we can supply him on reasonable terms with a number of drawings taken expressly for the Journal by Mr. Nichol and Mr. Nelson; also several Irish stories similar to those which have appeared in the work. We had intended in the commencement of our fifth volume to have given a series of views in Belfast and its neighbourhood; these we shall publish separately, on fine paper, as soon as circumstances permit. We may also here state, that for a limited period any of the back Numbers of the Journal may be had at the office, or of any bookseller in town or country, after which the work will only be sold in Parts and Volumes,

only remains to offer our best acknowledgments, to our various correspondents, and to those who have so long patronised and supported us in our efforts. We certainly do feel considerable satisfaction in reflecting, that we have been able successfully to carry on a publication, in Ireland, altogether free from party and politics, and in which there was nothing at any time admitted which could injure the morals or hurt the feelings of any individual or party. Indeed, the greatest regret we feel in giving it up at present is, that it has been a means of affording employment to many industrious individuals, some of whom (especially the wood engravers and writers of stories) will find it difficult in this country to procure exercise for their talents in any other quarter. We trust, however, that an impetus has been given to the publishing trade in this city, and that other works requiring illustration will from time to time supply any little deficiency which may be created by the stopping of the Journal. That there is very considerable talent in the country there cannot be a doubt; what we want in Ireland is a little more national and public spirit. In closing our labours, as Editor, Printer, and Publisher of the Journal, we cannot but express our grateful acknowledgments to the literary press of England, from whom we have continued to receive the most flattering support; and we think it only just to state our conviction, that to the kind manner in which the work was recommended by the Editors of the Literary Gazette and Athenæum, we owe much of our success in the sister kingdom, as but for their friendly notices, it would scarcely have been known through England that such a publication as the Dublin Penny Journal had an existence; while even in our own land, their high recommendations induced many to look at it, who otherwise might have considered it beneath their notice.

PHILIP DIXON HARDY.

37, Stephen's Green, Dublin, June, 1836.

As considerable want of arrangement and order must have been evident in several of our latter numbers, we feel it but justice to ourselves to mention, that what was written or arranged for the Journal for some months past, ("Mr. Barrow's Tour round Ireland" not excepted,) has been written or arranged during partial or extreme ill health. We have been enabled, however, to complete the Volume, and presume to think, that the last will be found to be the best of any which has appeared. It contains much more valuable and useful information than any of the others; while the Stories, and various amusù. ↑ articles, are of a more interesting and better description than those previously given.