the public. The Stranger in Ireland was, it seems, upon his arrival, bountifully fupplied, by the hofpitable Hibernians, with all the good things in which that convivial nation abounds. With a little more tafteand judgment, he might have arranged these so as to afford agreeable entertainment to his readers; but, to fave himself the trouble of thought or arrangement, he has emptied and overwhelmed us with his common-place book. For one beauty this work is indeed eminently distinguished, for the beauty of contraft; that species of contraft, which refults from want of order, where grave and gay, just and absurd, fine and vulgar, fublime and ludicrous, fucceed each other, fo as to create in the highest degree the pleasure of unexpectedness. This pleasure, indeed, gradually abates as we proceed; for we are at length taught to expect the recurrence of these ftrange figures, which come round and round again like the pictures in a Savoyard's magic-lantern; whilft the fame tone of a fhow-man, kept up inceffantly, muft at last weary the most enduring ear. Let no impatient reader of this volume refort to the index in hopes of fkipping with celerity and advantage. The table of contents will rather miflead than direct; it will entice him on, and leave him disappointed and provoked. The knack of giving good heads to chapters has been carried to a high and treacherous ftate of perfection. We are often cheated into reading a ftupid chapter, as we are entrapped in the newspapers by the beginning of fome paragraph, apparently about Newton or Buffon,-about fome new difcovery in optics, or natural history, which proves in the end nothing more than a lottery advertisement. Our Author's table of contents may be most inviting to the large tribe of anecdote-mongers and defultory_readers; but furely, numerous as they are, their tafte fhould not have been exclufively confulted, to the utter neglect of the interests of purchafers, who fet fome little value upon their money or their time. Befides being disappointed in the folid contents, we were dif gufted with the manner of this book. It is worfe written than of Mr Carr's former tours. The ftyle is both careless and affected, trivial and inflated; his fine fentences are fometimes without meaning, and often without grammar; and his high-flown defcriptions, which are neither profe nor poetry, frequently terminate in ftriking inftances of the bathos. For example, take the follow ing account of his arrival at Killarney. any The evening, fhrouded in black clouds charged with rain, rapidly fet in; the wind roared; and only the light-blue fmoke of the cabin relieved the univerfally deep embrowned fterility of the scene. In these and most other diftris the milk of fbeep is ufed." His defcription of Mucrofs-Abbey is not inferior. The graceful ruins of Mucross-Abbey on our right, half embofomed in in a group of luxuriant and ftately trees, influenced, as foon as feen, the bridles of our horfes.' It is a pity that our tourist, before he began to defcribe Killarney, had not attended to the monition of a celebrated author, who thus writeth: • I have at length feen what I have long wifhed to fee,—this won drous lake! To attempt to defcribe it, would require the ablest of the antient poets, or of modern poets; wherefore I fhall never attempt it.* Though we regret, that Mr Carr did not attend to this diffuafive paragraph, yet we do not accufe him of being ignorant of the merits of the performance in which it is contained; for his ftyle frequently reminds us of the manner of the author to whom it is attributed, the celebrated George Falkener. In his peculiar use of pronouns, in his heterogeneous anecdotes, and in his mode of dragging into a fentence a multitude of words and ideas foreign to the principal purpose, Mr Carr is not inferior to this great ori-. ginal; the refemblance of style is indeed fo ftriking, that we hould almost fufpect him of ftudied imitation. We fhall felect a few parallel paffages. 1 MR CARR fays, I cannot help gratifying my readers in this ftage of our tour with the refult of an active and anxious inquiry, which I made of the existence of a cuftom in fome parts of Ireland, equally cruel and impolitic, &c. It is with real pleasure that I have it in my power, upon the authority of feveral gentlemen of great refpectability refiding in various parts of Ireland, to ftate, that at this day the cuftom of ploughing and harrowing by the horse's tail does not exift. Long fince, it fhocked the humanity and excited the interference of the legislature; for I find that, in the year 1634, when Lord Strafford was lord-deputy, an act was paffed againft this cruel ufage.' MR FALKENER faid before him, The Irifh formerly ploughed by the tail with bullocks. But upon Dr Swift's voyage to the Houynhams being published, and his faying fo much in praife of horses, this barbarous, horrid, atrocious, fhocking, de' teftable, cruel, nefarious cuftom, was abolished by act of Parliament. See an abridgment of the Irish ftatues, sold by me in Parliament Street.' CARR informs 119, that Ceres bears a ftrong affinity to the Irish word Cuirim, or Cairim, to fow or plant; and that Treabtalamh, a plougher of the earth, is not unlike Triptolemus.' FALKENER *The Epiftle to Gorges Edmond Howard, Efq.,, with notes by George Falkener, Efq., was the production of Huffey Burgh Jephfon, and fome other wits, during the adminiftration of Lord Townfend in Ireland. FALKENER, more modeft than Carr in his pretenfions, claims only the-improvement of the plough for the Irish. • Ploughs are an inftrument for turning up the earth, first invented by Triptolemus, a near relation of the goddess Ceres, and afterwards much improved by Mr John Wynne, baker, of the Dublin Society.' Again, our authors have a coincidence of thought and expreffion on the happy fubject of bulls. CARR. • An Irishman and a bull form a twin thought in an Englishman's mind; long and inveterate prejudices have made them as infeparable in reflection as a bull and his horns. I went to France in the full perfuafion of seeing a race of lean men, and found them of the ordinary fize and ftature; and many of them of a bulk and vigour that an untravelled Englishman would reluctantly give credit to. I went to Ireland, expecting a bull to fly out of every Irishman's mouth every third time he fpoke. That the lower claffes make bulls, I believe, because I have been well informed that they do, and because the lower claffes of other countries make them alfo. George Falkener, who was as tender upon the subject of blundering, and as zealous for the honour of the Irish as Mr Carr feems to be, volunteered in their defence; and, as Mr Carr jumbles together the French and Irish in his vindication, Mr Falkener, with equal propriety, drags the Germans and Irish into the fame exculpatory paragraph.. The Germans are, in general, fuppofed to be a proud people. Julius Cæfar and Mr Nugent give them this character; but the Irish are very unjustly charged with a talent of blundering; but it is well known that the people exprefs themfelves in their native tongue, the English, with more perfpicuity and precifion. The Dean of St Patrick was of this opinion, who, though born and bred in England, always declared himself, when fober, to be an Irishman.' At Cork we expected some good jokes; because Mr Falkener, to whose authority we may refer with implicit confidence, informs us, that Attica was called the Cork of Greece. Accordingly, we find that our traveller's taste for wit improved as he approached Cork. As he was going up a hill, having: humanely helped a carrier to reload his car, the witty native thanked him in the following attic manner. Ah, may your Honour live long, very long! The brilliancy of this repartee is to be equalled only by the Kerry postillion's wit, thus recorded page 175. • Your Honour '-faid our driver, upon our obferving that one of his horfes plunged that mare is always very unafy in going down hill. ' From these bon-mots, and from the various anecdotes of King Donahue-Lord Castlereagh and his young friend Sturrock-the immaculate immaculate St Bridget-Carrolan and Miss Bridget Cruise-that celebrated antiquarian Mr Grose and the butcher-Lord Avonmore and the calf-from these and a thousand more, Ah, dread the thousand still unnamed behind! we are convinced that Mr Carr has the same indefatigable taste for collecting anecdotes of celebrated characters, for which Mr Falkener was distinguished. In zeal, Mr Carr is equal to his master, but not in prudence, nor in that first and greatest art, the art to blot,' as will appear by the following. FALKENER. I undertook a journey to London to collect materials for the life of Mr John Dryden, a poet well known in the reign of Charles the Second; but, after remaining there three months for this purpose, I could only learn that he was accuftomed to fit in a big chair among the wits at Button's; and this, my friends telling me, not being fufficient for a life of faid poet, I accordingly difcontinued it. I also begun a life of the Dean of St Patrick's, in a ftyle which was much admired, and equal to the fine fimplicity of the Greeks, and the Dean himfelf, which I began in this manner Dean Swift was a man who had wax in his -I am in poffeffion of many other anecdotes known to no perfon now living; and when they are completed, it will be published by me and my executors in Parliament-Street. ' ears. In Mr Carr's eagerness to introduce specimens of the poetical talents of his friends, and in the judgment with which he selects, we must admit that he is superior even to his prototype. Allowing, however, for the difference between the tragic and comic muses, they may be fairly set in competition with each other. CARR. The following beautiful lines from the pen of that diftinguished man, whose versatility of genius is the aftonishment and admiration of all who have been within the range of it, Curran, will prove how the mourning muse can affect in Ireland. On seeing the Funeral of the Rev. Alexander Lamelliere. For fee, beneath that fable pall, Extended on that bier, Lie the remains, the earthly all Of youthful Lamelliere. But none, oh Death! thy pow'r can fly In vain we fhed the tear; We know 'tis vain; yet every eye So will we think on Lamelliere; His name fhall to our hearts be dear, There There are eleven more of these mortuary stanzas, of equal merit with the above. FALKENER. • The Reverend Dr Clarke, Vice-Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, hath a very fine taste for poetry, which plainly appeareth by the specimen annexed, as it was first published.' On a Lady's forgetting her Riding Hat. By the Rev. Dr. Clarke, when Vice-Provost, &c. So left her head behind. Bright Mina, on whofe fmiles I live, Was not by half so kind. Both head and heart fhe with her brought, And both fhe took away, And with her carried all the caught, That's all that gazed that day. Mr Carr is not merely the eulogist of wits and poets every man he meets is well-bred, witty, eloquent, generous, admired, or at least well-known; every lady, of course, is fair and elegant, accomplished, amiable, graceful, enchanting, perfectly well informed or distinguished for talents. He is the most courteous, and the most fortunate of travellers; he wins his easy way from house to house, and leaves, at every hospitable mansion, according to the custom of ancient Irish bards, a planxty, celebrating the virtues, charms, or high descent of the hostess. Far be it from us to censure the generous overflowings of gratitude: but we must own, that our author has, on some occasions, startled our Scottish notions of economy, by the profuseness of his remuneration for trifling civilities. For instance, is he not, even at his first setting out, rather too lavish in payment for a few slices. of broiled mutton, when he vows upon the cabin-table of the Holyhead Packet, to tell every one, who might ever read him, that he was relieved from the " gloomy dilemma" (of hunger) by a lady of fashion, an Irish woman, and a poetess, the accomplished and elegant authoress of several charming poems, and particularly some beautiful well-known lines '-which we forbear to quote. As it is easy, on every occasion, to pour forth, fresh from the mint, supplies of the aerial coin' of praise, there can be no danger of a bankruptcy in the complimentary line of business; but is there not reason to apprehend that an immoderate issue may depreciate the value of the coin, and destroy the currency of the tokens? Indiscriminate praise, like indiscriminate satire, destroys its own purpose. In Mr Carr's tour, there are no less. than 88 pages of quotation, one sixth of the whole quarto: these quotations |