low; 'You have probably receive dsome account of my Journey to Archangel; of my movement thence in a north-easterly direction, to Mezen; of the distinguished reception I received from the Mayor of that highly-civilized city, who made me a speech in Russian, threequarters of an hour long; of my procuring there twelve rein-deer, and proceeding towards the Frozen Ocean, until I found a Samoid Camp in the desert between the rivers Mezen and Petchora: and of my ascertaining that that nation, which extends over almost all the North of Russia, remains still in a state of Paganism; a circumstance of which the Archbishop of the diocese was ignorant.'

"The description given in this work of the miserable condition of the Russian peasants, and of the scarcity of provisions, in the interior of the country, has been disputed. Let us now, therefore, see what Lord Royston has said upon this part of the subject. It is contained in a letter to Mr. Whittington, from Casan, dated May 16, 1807. I left Moscow on Tuesday the 5th of May; and the first town at which I arrived was Vladimir, formerly the capital of an independent sovereignty, and the residence of a Grand Duke. The accommodations are such as are alone to be met with all over Muscovy; one room, in which you sleep with the whole family, in the midst of a most suffo. cating heat and smell; no furniture to be found, but a bench and table; and an absolute dearth of provisions.'

"In the extracts added to the Notes, from Mr. Heber's Journal, there are certain observations which are said to be at variance with the remarks in the Text; but it is hardly necessary to add, that they were introduced for this especial reason. Some persons have also insinuated that the author has accused the Russians of want of hospitality; although the very reverse may be proved from his writings. In describing the reception which he experienced at Moscow, he lays particular stress upon the hospitality of the inhabitants, although,' to use his own words in the fourth chapter of the present volume, it was considered dangerous at the time to have the character of hospitality towards Englishmen.' He also cites a passage in the Notes, from a French work of celebrity, to prove, with reference to Moscow, that "l'hospitalité des Russes paroît ici dans tout son jour.' Another extract from Lord Royston's Letters will show that the same characteristic of the inhabitants was observed by his Lordship; although, as he expressly declares, it did not alter his general opinion' of the people. It is taken from a Letter to the Right Honourable Charles Yorke, dated Moscow, May 5th, 1807. Notwithstanding all the pleasure I promise myself from my tour, I shall be sorry to leave Moscow: the hospitality of the people is very great, and it is unpleasant to be always forming new and agreeable acquaintance, with the expectation of shortly leaving them, and the probability of never seeing them again. On leaving Petersburg, notwithstanding my general opinion, I felt very strongly how painful it is to quit for ever a place in which we have resided for some time; and believe it was solely that feeling which caused me to return thither from Moscow.'"

*So marked in the original.

FROM THE MONTHLY REVIEW.

Sketches of History, Politics, and Manners, taken in Dublin and the North of Ireland, in the Autumn of 1810. 8vo. 294. pp. 8s. Boards. Cradock & Joy, 1811.

OUR countrymen are, in general, so much less acquainted with Ireland than with the rest of the empire, that the production of a tourist who professes to enlighten them on its politics and manners' appears entitled to early attention. The obstacles to travelling on the continent, however deeply to be regretted on other accounts, have at least the advantage of inducing us to become more accurately acquainted with our own island; and though Scotland affords occupation to the greater proportion of our wanderers, the number of those who visit Ireland seems likewise to be on the increase. That the diffusion of accurate information regarding our sister isle, is most ardently to be desired, must be apparent to all who have observed the errors which prevail in respect to that country, in those assemblies on whose legislative acts it suffering or its well-being so materially depend; as long, therefore, as we are thus circumstanced, it is incumbent on us to receive information from the report even of second-rate travellers, and to affix a value on the book which exhibits a candid exposition of facts, though hastily put together, and seldom indicative of profundity of research.

.

The author of the present work represents himself as leaving London under the pressure of sickness, in hopes of finding relief from pain in distant and rural scenes. He has concealed his

name: but he appears to have been born in the North of Ireland, to have studied medicine at Edinburgh, to have served some time in a medical capacity in the army, and to have re-visited his native country after an absence of several years. Liverpool being the place chosen by him to embark for Dublin, and a contrary wind having detained him there some time, his readers are favoured with a communication of his opinion of that bustling sea-port. Whether it was owing to the vexatious circumstance of detention, or to his habitual dislike of the scenes of maritime occupation, he discovers a much smaller share of good humour on this occasion than during the sequel of his journey. He terms Liverpool, very unjustly in our opinion, little better than a respectable Wapping or Rotherhithe;' and he goes the length of asserting that the smell of tar assails the passenger in Castlestreet and the squares, as well as in the docks.' Admitting that the part of the town adjoining the water is confined and irregular, and that the want of an original plan is too often apparent, it was

incumbent on him to have paid a warmer compliment to the appearance of the new streets to the eastward; and to have acknowledged the advantages, both for health and beauty of prospect, of the extent of rising ground on which a future city may be expected to stand. He omits, likewise, to take notice of the elegance and magnitude of the public rooms for the purposes of business, of literary recreation, and of civic meetings; accommodations in which Liverpool is second to no city in the kingdom.-The wind having at last become fair, the vessel in which he embarked passed quickly along the rocky and dangerous coast from Liv. erpool to Holyhead, and landed the passengers on Irish ground, in the space of twenty-six hours. Having been a sufferer from sea-sickness, the author appears anxious to contribute towards diminishing the inconvenience of it to others. He advises the novice in sailing to keep, as long as it is in his power, on deck;and, when compelled to quit it, to stretch himself as much at length as possible, with his head low and firmly pressed to the pillow, endeavouring to lose all motion of his own and to accommodate himself to that of the ship.'

After an account of the landing, and the conveyance of the passengers in the long-coach to Dublin, the traveller enters on a description of the city; which, as it is free from the fantastic effusions scattered through the greater part of the book, will afford a favourable specimen of his composition:

"There is something inexpressibly graceful in the appearance of this town to a stranger; he is forcibly struck with the strong likeness it bears to London. of which it is a beautiful copy-far more beautiful in miniature, than the gigantic original like a watch set in a ring, it charms with its fairy distinctness, its light and airy construction: the streets are wide and commodious, the houses uniform, lofty and elegant: Sackville street is a noble avenue, a hundred and twenty feet wide, terminated by the rotunda, and public gardens-nor do I know any square in London, that equals Merrion Square for beauty and uniformity of appearance: the river is open to the view, in the whole of its course through the city, and the quays, when properly embanked, will form a walk superior, perhaps, to any thing of the kind in the universe. The Liffy, however, is but an inconsiderable stream, and only remarkable for having the metropolis seated on its banks.

"Notwithstanding its antiquity, Dublin has few ancient edifices, either public or private; the massy labours of our fathers having given place to the lighter works of their sons: the houses have almost all the appearance of being built within the last century, and even the churches, with the exception of Christ Church and St Patrick's Cathedral, are of modern construction. The castle of Dublin, nominally an ancient, is in reality a modern building; it was formerly moated and flanked with towers, but the ditch has been long since filled up, and the old buildings rased: the chapel and wardrobe tower excepted, which still remain.

"Though Dublin Castle is pretty, and even magnificent in some of its parts, it is deficient as a whole; it has no uniformity of plan, and as it is so scattered that the eye can take little of it in at once, it has no dignity of appearance-it bears too evident marks of the various repairs it has undergone, and like Sir John Cutler's worsted stockings; so often darned with black silk that they changed their original nature, it has lost all traces of its venerable origin, in the grotesque embellishments of modern art.-The College Library, which I saw for the first time to day, struck me, as I think it must every stranger, with its superb and lofty magnificence.-It is built of hewn stone, with an elegant Corinthian entablature, crowned with a ballustrade and ornamented windows, and consists of an extensive centre and two advanced pavillions. In the western pavillion are the librarian's apartments, and the grand stair-case, from which, by folding doors, you enter the Library, by much the finest room in the three kingdoms, appropriated to such a purpose: the galleries are adorned with the busts of many illustrious writers and literary characters, executed in white marble, by the ablest masters; and on the shelves are to be found an admirable collection of the best writers on every subject, in number exceeding forty-six thousand volumes, which is also daily increasing."

In the course of his perambulations through Dublin, the author represents himself as accidentally meeting with Mr. Curran, of whom he speaks with little favour, in regard either to the moral or the physique. Of Mr. Grattan, whom he is next said (p. 34,) to observe in the street, he gives a very different report, pronouncing him to be a steady and inflexible patriot; who, regardless of ephemeral and evanescent popularity, has held, during a period of thirty years, "the even tenour of his way.' Although the eulogy on Mr. Grattan's oratory, which follows this cordial testimony to his loyalty, is somewhat highly coloured, it contains an admission that he is neither a fluent nor a frequent debater on the common business and details of parliament. It is on a grand question of justice or morality,-a question involving the happiness of the present and of succeeding generations,-that the powers of Mr. Grattan become conspicuous, and display with effect that capacity of generalizing which is possessed by so few of his brother members. The author is evidently an Anti-Pittite, and by no means satisfied with the course of policy observed, either in the present or in former ages, by England towards her sister Kingdom: but he approves of the Union, and ridicules the gloomy predictions of those who alleged that it would tend to the depo-pulation of Dublin.

Having traversed the interior of the Irish metropolis, the traveller availed himself of the opportunity afforded by Palmerston fair, for observing the amusements of the lower orders belonging fo Dublin and its neighbourhood. Tired of the jingling of the wheel-cars along the streets, he proceeded to the scene of enter

tainment by the Phoenix park. In his way, he passed the barracks, which are esteemed the largest and most commodious in Europe', consisting of four squares, situated at the west end of the town, on the north side of the river. On the occasion of so numerous and so miscellaneous an assemblage as the fair collected, he could hardly fail to experience considerable annoyance from the beggars who were seated in crowds along the road-side :

"The address of an Irish beggar is much more poetical and animated than that of an.English one; his phraseology is as peculiar as the recitative in which it is delivered: he conjures you, for the love and honour of God, to throw something to the poor famished sinner, -by your father and mother's soul, to cast an eye of pity on his sufferings; he is equally liberal in his good wishes, whether you give him any thing or not; "may you live a hundred years, may you pass unhurt through fire and water, may the gates of Paradise be ever open to receive you;" are common modes of expression, which he utters with a volubility that is inconceivable.-The men and women at the fair in general were decen:ly dressed; the women in stuff and flowered cotton gowns, with ribbands and mob caps: They almost universally wore white thread stockings: when a poor Irish woman wears shoes and stockings, she is always dressed; worsted ones, therefore, are seldom used. The men wore coarse coats of a blue or brown colour; several danced in great coats of gray cloth or frize; though the weather was unusually warm, they did not seem inconvenienced either by them or the exercise they were taking.-The lower Irish are spare and thin-they are generally dark complexioned, with black hair, and often with thick bushy eye-brows; this gives an expression of countenance very different from that of an English peasant.-There is an air of vivacity and restlessness, of intelligence, and, perhaps, of mischief in the former, totally unlike the fat, contented ignorance of the latter-though not more so than his harsh and disagreeable tones in speaking, to the soft and musical ones of a London accent. We staid about an hour longer, and then went away-the scene which pleased at first by its novelty, lost all its charms along with it; we were kindly pressed to stay dinner by the good lady of the tent where we were sitting-" We should have a hot loin of mutton (she said,) with a cut of salmon, and a rite pudding along with it, in half an hour."-[ was anxious to see the kitchen from whence the roast mutton and rice pudding were to issue;-it was a large hole made in the ground, directly behind the tent-there was a blazing turf fire large enough to roast an ox, covered with pots, and several spits before it.-I am assured, had we stayed, we should have got an excellent dinner; but as there is often in the evening a course of fighting, the dessert might not have been so agreeable.The custom of fighting, however, is not near so universal as it was-it is now pretty much confined to single combats with the fist, and does not, as formerly, involve the whole field in a general battle with Shillalahs, made of their native oak: