following excerpts from his large detail will shew the component features of the character of these aborigines.

There is no mark by which the Irishman (always recollecting that by this I mean the original race of the country,) is more distinguished than inquisitiveness. He will walk miles with you to discover where you come from, where you are going, and what is your business; he will appear merry to make you frank, and perfectly untutored and simple, with a design constantly in view.' p. 26.

An inquisitive turn of mind is generally accompanied with some degree of thoughtfulness. A Highlander is both inquisitive and thoughtful, so is an Irishman; though I am inclined to think, that he has not got quite so much of the pensive philosopher in his nature. He can much more easily become jocular than a Highlander; nor is he so apt to make those moral reflexions on the common incidents of life. The latter has a degree of tender melancholy in his disposition which influences most of his habits of thinking; whereas the former, though far from being destitute of melancholy, is not subject in the same degree to its controul. p. 29.

Acuteness and shrewdness are also qualities which strongly mark the Irish character; and yet these valuable qualities are often concealed by that appearance of simplicity, and that blundering precipitancy which so mightily amuse every stranger. Indeed, these last dispositions seem not very compatible with any extraordinary quickness of apprehension, and might lead one to suppose, were it not for the most undeniable evidence to the contrary, that it really had no existence. But let any one converse with an Irishman on any subject that is not altogether beyond his understanding, and he will find him shrewd though unlettered, and not quite unintelligent, though on most subjects uninformed; possessing a wonderful facility of comprehension, and an equally singular talent for acute and original remark. These enduements when found in a person educated and polished, and when allied, as in his case they generally are, with a brilTiant playfulness of fancy, produce the happiest effect, and form a character at once pleasing and original.

Strong local attachment forms a very prominent part of this character. The Irishman like the Highlander must often go from home; he must go in search of that bread which his country denies him, but he can never forget the cottage of his early years: whether in the east or west, though even buried amid the ignorance and vice of St. Giles's, the lovely valley in which he first began to live, and the green hills of his native isle, with all the soft and endearing associations which they awaken, never cease to warm his imagination, nor, to his latest hour, do they depart from his memory. The wild and simple strains which first delighted him in the cabin, while they sooth his sorrows in a foreign clime, cherish his fondness for home, by exciting the tenderest and most delightful sympathies of the human heart.' p. 31.

This extreme warmth of affection, this strong attachment to kindred, is very compatible with some degree of turbulence or even ferocity. Of the truth of this remark, the following anecdote affords a beautiful illustration: it is recorded in Leland's History of Ireland, under the reign of Henry the Sixth. O'Connor, the turbulent Irish chieftain of O'Fally, had alarmed the deputy by an inroad inte

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the district of Kildare. He was surprised by Fitz-Eustace, and his troop put to the rout. The chieftain, in endeavouring to escape from his pursuers, fell from his horse; his son, the companion of his danger, stopped and remounted him; but unhappily the father fell a second time to the ground. A generous contest was now commenced between the father and son, which of them should be resigned to the mercy of the enemy. The youth urgently pressed his father to take his horse, to leave him to his fate, and to seize the present moment of providing for his own safety. The father obstinately refused commanded his son to fly, and was quickly made prisoner.' p. 35. *

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In this short sketch of the character of an Irishman, I cannot omit fidelity to friends as a component part. It is the more necessary to make this remark, since this quality has sometimes been denied him.’

It is also said, that the Irish are deceitful; that notwithstanding all their promises, they will betray a friend to serve themselves; and this is held forth as the general character of that people. No opinion can be more contrary to truth. Let them only be convinced, that you are their friend, and they will never forsake you; they will do their utmost to serve you. Were it necessary, I could refer to many instances in support of this assertion.' pp. 36. 37.

From fidelity to friends, the transition is easy to hospitality. The hospitality of the Irish, like that of the Scottish highlanders, is proverbial; and never surely has a stranger visited the neighbouring isle, without having had satisfactory proofs of it. The poor labourer, who has only potatoes for himself and his children, will give the best in his pot to the guest, from whatever quarter he may come he bestows his simple fare with a kindness that has often delighted me. Unlike the peasants of some other countries, who frown at the wandering intruder, he seems to feel a real pleasure in giving food to the hungry; he gives the hearty welcome of his country to all who approach his humble cot, ceud mile failte duit*. At first I thought that this might be the form of salutation, on extraordinary occasions; but when I found that man, woman, and child, shouted ceud mile failte duit, to every visitant, and even to every beggar, 1 felt rather astonished.' p. 38.

I must advert to that susceptibility of gratitude and resentment, so observable in the Irish. They are rather prone to extremes in their prepossessions or their antipathies, their love or their hatred. They have no idea of the heartless neutrality of indifference, of the frigid torpor of insensibility; and it is with difficulty, they can maintain that equanimity of mind, which accords with the happy medium of moderation. They are ardent and high spirited; and though not so proud as Highlanders, they have got all their impetuosity. No people in the world can be made better friends, and it is not easy to conceive of worse enemies. They have got some vanity, and they may be flattered; they possess warm affections, and they may very easily be secured; but they have a degree of resentment that will not suffer them with impunity to be injured or insulted.' p. 41.

* A hundred thousand welcomes.

In his second chapter, Mr. Dewar draws an able comé parison between the Highlanders and the Irish, much to the advantage of the former, but only so in consequence of the greater privileges enjoyed by them under their native chieftains, and the abject state of bondage and wretchedness, in which the latter have been held by the oppression of their English lords. The Highlander and the Irishman are both of one stock, but the Irishman grew on the sunless side of the tree, and soured and hardened in the wind, while the Highlander ripened in the light and warmth of day. Of the degradation of the Irish under English tyranny, the fol lowing passage gives horrible and affecting proofs.

They, (the Irish) since the period in which their country was first invaded by the English, became subject to the perpetual annoyance of enemies, by whom they were viewed as an inferior order of beings, and by whom, therefore, they were treated with injustice and cruelty. They soon learned to exercise the same ferocity on a people by whom they were slain with impunity; at least, who paid a very inconsiderable fine as the price of their life. They adopted a mode of reasoning certainly not illogical, and which seems to have been followed by most other nations in their circumstances. They were oppressed and plundered by a band of adventurers, who rendered their superiority in military skill only subservient to the destruction of an inoffending people; they naturally concluded, therefore, that every means by which they could extirpate such tyrants, or by which they could inflict that justice which their crimes had merited, and for which the English laws made no provision, was not only lawful, but highly patriotic and expedient. Hence their judgment and feelings were in some degree perverted; hence the shocking atrocities and violations of solemn engagements with which, towards their enemies, they have been chargeable; and hence the ferocity which their character must necessarily have assumed, from the perpetual scenes of carnage and of blood, of murder and of perfidy, in which they were involved.' p. 65.

At page 75, there is a striking extract from Spenser's View of Ireland, written in the reign of Elizabeth, from which we shall copy the conclusion. Speaking of the Irish Bards, who in their strains exalted the banditti of their country into heroes, Spenser, himself a bard, who well knew how to sing the praises of heroes, says

"As for words to set forth such lewdness, it is not hard for them to give a goodly and painted shew thereunto, borrowed eves from the praises which are proper to virtue itself; as of a most notorious thief and outlaw, which had lived all his life-time upon spoils and robberies, one of their bards in his praise will say, that he was not one of the idle milk-sops that was brought up by the fire-side; and that most of his days he spent in arms and valiant enterprises: that he did never eat his meat, before he had won it with the sword: that he lay not all night slugging in a cabin under his mantle; but

used commonly to keep others waking to defend their lives; and did light his candle at the flames of their houses, to lead him in the darkness: that the day was his night, and the night his day: that he loved not to be long wooing of wenches to yield to him; but where he came he took by force the spoils of other men's love, and left but lamentation to their lovers: that his music was not the harp, nor lays of love, but the cries of people and clashing of armour: and finally, that he died, not bewailed of many, but made many wail when he died, that dearly bought his death."' p. 76.

Mr. Dewar' adds, that the persons whom Spenser mentions' as thieves and outlaws, were no doubt those who gloried in resisting the English Government. It is highly probable, however, that in the progress of time the whole of his description may have been literally verified; and that the mere disturbers of the peace, the banditti of the woods and mountains, assumed the praise, which is the legitimate reward of patriotism and virtue.' We have no doubt that this was the case, and these poor barbarians were not less entitled to the praise they assumed for the virtue which they had not, than the Alexanders and Bonapartes, of ancient and modern times, who made kingdoms and empires, instead of woods and mountains, the scenes of their enormities.

In his chapter on the Irish language, Mr. Dewar informs us, that it is a dialect of the Celtic, between which and the Gaelic there is so little difference, that an Irishman and a Highlander can converse together easily. The number of people who speak this language, is said to amount to two millions, of whom all are incapable of understanding a continued discourse in English. This is an important fact, and much of the force of Mr. Dewar's arguments on the ignorance and misery of the Irish, as well as those that refer to the best means of enlightening their minds and ameliorating their conditions, depends on the establishment of it. The calculation was made, on the most accurate grounds that could be taken, by Dr. Stokes, the author of a pamphlet on the Necessity of publishing the Scriptures in the Irish language, but supposing it to be overrated by five hundred thousand, there still remain a million and a half of natives, who understand no tongue but the Irish. Now,' says Mr. Dewar, the established Church has made no provision whatever for this population; there is not one of its ministers who preaches in this language..... It is true most of these are Roman Catholics. Are they not forced, however, to remain in the bosom of the Roman Church? Their priests give them that instruction in the venerable tongue of their fathers, which the protestant teachers have always denied them.'

In his observations on some parts of the history of Ireland, Mr. Dewar shews, that she has been a great sufferer, since the conquest of the island by Henry II., from a series of wanton injuries, a continuance of studied neglect, and an accumulation of penal statutes, that fully account for the humiliated state of the people. Ireland has no history of her own, except the fire-side tales of her aggravated wrongs, and her impotent revenge. She has been a conquered and enslaved province of the British empire, not an incorporated part of it, enjoying its freedom, its triumphs, its glory and its welfare, though furnishing, in all ages, an abundant proportion of the soldiers, who acquired and secured by their blood those unparalleled blessings.

The Reformation, that did so much for other countries, to which it found way, has done little for Ireland. It was principally by the circulation of the scriptures among all classes of the people, that the primitive Reformers were enabled to triumph; it was by the word of God,' quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword', that they went forth from conquering to conquer.' In Ireland that sword of the Spirit has scarcely been wielded. To nearly one half of the population it is still in the Roman scabbard. The gospel itself, in Latin, to those who understand nothing but Irish, can never be the power of God to salvation.' It is not pretended, by the most zealous champions of the inspired scriptures, that the unintelligible letter can enlighten the mind, and quicken the heart; a revelation in an unknown tongue is no revelation to him that hears it; it is as the murmuring of the wind, or the sound of waters. On the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit himself gave utterance to his word, by the mouths of the first preachers, it was by hearing every man in their own tongue, wherein they were born," the wonderful works of God, that three thousand souls, of different kindreds and nations, were cut to the heart, and cried, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Since that day, wherever the same word has been preached to the understanding and to the affections, it has produced the same alarm in the hearts of sioners, and put the same cry into their mouths. So it did in England, and so in Scotland, at the period of the Reformation;-so it would have done in Ireland, had the poor native there heard," every man in his own tongue, wherein he was born", the wonderful works of God, revealed by his spirit in his word. Sir Henry Sidney, in the days of Elizabeth, pointed out to the Queen the necessity of pros curing ministers and teachers, to instruct the people of Ireland in useful and religious knowledge, through the natural medium of their own language. But though some