dare, and back to Dublin; and the Northern Toar, to Trim, Cavan, Enniskillen, Ballyshannon, Donegal, Coleraine, Giant's Causeway, Antrim, Belfast, Hillsborough, Newiy, Dundalk, Navan, and Dublin, about 1100 English miles, and his stay in Ireland was ten weeks.

In the Preface to this book the author says,

“The spirit and even the power of foreign travel is checked; we can no longer trace on the spot, those classical scenes described to us by the ancient poets and historians, and which in our younger days of study, we even read with enthusiasm; we can no longer in safety ascend the steps of the capitol, nor wander peacefully along the luxuriant shores of Baix or Misenum; even the frozen regions of Mont Blanc are interdicted to us by the ferocious decrees of a Corsican despot."

We shall conclude our account of this work with some extracts from the general remarks which are contained in the last sixty-two pages of the volume.

"Though the subterraneous temple cannot be said to be exclusively peculiar to this country, yet the sister kingdom cannot boast of any one either so large, or in such perfect preservation, as the one at New Grange, near Slane, which I have described in my journal, and which is one of the most curious monuments of antiquity remaining within the limits of the united kingdom."

Fifty-eight round towers are enumerated, from the best accounts which could be collected from the various authors who have recorded them.

"If Iam allowed to hazard a conjecture about these singular buildings, I should suppose

them to have been erected about the ninth
century. They seem, however, to have been
peculiar to Ireland, as there are none in Eng-
land or Wales, and ouly two in Scotland; these
are situated at Abernethy, in the county of
Murray; and at Brechin, in the county of
Angus;
each on the eastern coast of Scotland,

and far remote from Ireland."

The round towers in Scotland are on an average a hundred feet in height, sixteen in diameter, and the thickness of the walls is three feet and a half; thus the inside is only nine feet in diameter. Mr. Gordon in his "Stenerarium Septentrionalis" describes the towers in Scotland, and says, "At Abernethy I could discover nothing

except a stately hollow pillar, without a stair-case, so that when I entered within, and looked upward, I could scarce forbear imagining myself at the bottom of a deep draw-well."

The same author in describing the other. round tower at Brechin, says, “upon

it are evidences sufficient to demonstrate that it was a Christian work, for over the top of the door is the figure of our Saviour on the cross." This is no demonstration at all; any stone may be interpolated in a building, with inscriptions or basso-relievos at pleasure: on the Trajan column at Rome, a statue of St. Peter, and on the Antonine column, in the same city, another of St. Paul, were placed by Sixtus V. and these Saints have hitherto preserved their pedestals from mutilation, but nevertheless do not demonstrate that the columns are of Christian workmanship.

After having recapitulated the religious buildings, of which a minute detail had been given during the progress of the tour, Sir Richard says,

"But I should ill perform the duty I owe to my own feelings as a man of humanity, and as a citizen of that community which has so lately united each nation under the general appellation of Briton, were I to quit this subject without noticing more strongly than I have hitherto done during my journal, the disgraceful state in which several of the cemeteries are suffered to remain.

"From the earliest ages, and even by the most savage nations, the greatest respect has ever been paid to the bones and ashes of the deceased; but in Ireland, their sad relics, after a short abode in the clay-cold mansion, are again restored to light, and the floors of the once hallowed abbey become white with their thickly mouldering fragments. *

"The ruined abbies of Lislaghtin, Ardfert, Mucrus, and Buttevant, have come immediately under my own observation; and doubtless many others in Ireland present the same disgusting appearance.

"In a note on Mucrus (Journal), I presented to my readers Sir John Carr's warning to those strangers whose curiosity might lead them to examine the interior of this ruined abbey; and that I may endeavour to impress the reverend prelates to whom I have addressed myself with an idea of the disgraceful aud revolting state in which its cemetery is suffered to remain,

"I address myself to you, ye reverend guar- || simplicity, is seldom to be found in either dians of the church, and of the manes of your situation. fellow-citizens; to you it belongs to rescue "In travelling through Ireland, the attenthem from their present exposed and disgrace-tica is immediately and most forcibly arrested ful situation. Examine either personally, or by your rural deans (if such exist), the state of your churches and cemeteries. They are a disgrace to your country, a disgrace to huma- | nity; a field of battle only can equal the disgusting and desolated appearance which this Irish Golgotha presents to the astonished stranger: your task is easy and the burden will be light. A charnel-house of simple architecture, corresponding with that of the adjoining ruins, and placed under some aged yew-tree, with the plain and impressive motto of FUIMUS over its portal, would add both awe and interest to its hallowed scenery.

"Let us now turn our eyes towards the modern prospect which the capital and its provinces present to the Stranger in Ireland. A native writer has observed, that from the first view of Dublin, we must not judge of its provincial cities and villages; yet in some degree the comparison will hold good between the town and country. In the former, and particularly in the capital, we behold a city abounding with the most splendid works of architecture, extensive in their plans, and imposing in their effects; yet at every step, our feelings and senses are assailed by misery, filth, and beggary. *

"In the latter, the same magnificence of idca is extended to the nobleman and gentleman's demesne; we see splendid houses with inadequate establishments; extensive parks and pleasure-grounds, oftentimes neglected, and generally ill kept; in short, the plans both of the public and of the individual, seem in this country both to have been formed and executed on a scale beyond the powers of either; and the simplex munditiis, the neat and clean

I will add an extract from a still later publication, Illustrations of the Scenery of Killarney,' by Isaac Weld, Esq. In speaking of Mucrus abbey, the writer says: In a passage leading to the cloyster, I once found a head, with a considerable part of the flesh of the face, and nearly the entire hair upon it, literally rolling under my weet."

*"So badly regulated is the police of Dublin, that (as I was credibly informed) dead bodies are frequently exposed in the streets to procure, by charity, the means of burying them; and I was also told, that a mother had carried about the streets her infant who died of the small-pox, in order to excite the compassion of those she met."

by the situation of the labouring poor; and both the eye and the mind are in a certain degree compelled to dwell upon this distressing object, by the general want of interest which the country affords. They are seldom relieved by picturesque scenery, or by improved agriculture; but the poor man's hovel every where presents itself, and encourages a train of thought most galling to humanity. In describing the state of the poor throughout the different provinces, the authors of the statistical surveys, have performed both their duty to the public and to themselves, as men of feeling, in painting the miseries of the poor in the strongest colours. As their own words need no comment, and will speak more emphatically than from the mouth of a stranger, I shall make use of them on this occasion.

"Mr. Tighe, in his Survey of the County of Kilkenny,' says, 'The peasants are most miserably lodged; there are numbers who have not a bedstead, nor even what is called a truckle-bed frame; a pallet to sleep on is a comfort unknown to them; a wad of straw, or perhaps heath laid on a damp clay floor, forms their resting place; but very few of them have any thing like sheets; their blankets are wretchedly bad; in short, their bed-clothes are ragged and scanty; they put their coats and petticoats over them in aid of blankets in cold weather: too often these are stili damp, having been but imperfectly dried by a miserable fire, after they were worn at work in the rain. Even through the scanty thatch, the rain sometimes descends upon their beds, and bringing down the sooty substance lodged there by the smoke of the cabin, wets and stains the bed itself, and those who are stretched upon it.'

"Neither are the habitations of the poor, except in the immediate neighbourhood of some man of feeling, who has looked on them with an eye of pity (and few indeed are these examples), at all more comfortable in other provinces: in short, the above may serve as a general and just description of the poor man's hovel. I shall however subjoin a few more extracts from other county surveys."

"CAVAN.-In civilization they have made no proficiency, for the very wealthiest of these mountaineers have no better bed than straw, nor is a bedstead to be seen amongst them; but they indiscriminately herd together with the hogs, and all the domestic animals of their hovel. In more minutely examining the con

"MONAGHAN.-A bare recital of the state of this class of the community, has been considered as an unmerited satire on the country, and those who have endeavoured to call the attention of the public to the amelioration of their situation, have been stigmatized as in-duced in any other part of Europe. We

TRAVELS THROUGH THE CANADAS..

ART. V.-Travels through the Canadas; containing a Description of the Picturesque Scenery on some of the Ricers and Lakes: with an Account of the Productions, Commerce, and Inhabitants of those Provinces; to which is subjoined a Comparative View of the Manners and Customs of several of the Indian Nations of North and South America. By George Heriot, Esq. Deputy Postmaster-General of British North America. Ilustrated with Maps and numerous Engravings, from Drawings made at the several places by the Author. Richard Phillips. 1807.

should gratify us with their reveries, or the memorandums in their pocket-books whilst journeying a few miles from their own homes. It is true that they are too fond of increasing the general stock of knowledge to confine their remarks to the spots they have visited, and the customs of their inhabitants, but kindiy impose upon themselves the arduous task of gathering from the works of others as much information as will enable them to extend their mental peregrinations farther, and produce a tour through countries, the soil of which they have never trodden. That this is the case with many of our modern writers, a reflecting mind will easily discover whilst perusing their performances, and comparing them with those of their predecessors. The more we are disposed to expose to deserved contempt such liter

THE spirit of science is now abroad; I it quickens the motions of every human soul, and awakens in every breast that sort of curiosity which is equally useful to society and honourable for those who feel its impulse. The most convincing proof of this general love for information, is the flourishing state of that part of literature which gives us an insight into the manners of other nations. This part is inexhaustibly fertile, the changes which years, a succession of rulers, and the vicissitudes of power and weakness produce in them, render the former descriptions that may have appeared, faithful pictures of the past, but bearing little resemblance to the present. The overflowing of a revolution, like that of the Nile, may, and generally does, after its tide has subsided, spread fertility over the most barren land. But in such a case the very face of nature wears a different ap-ary swindlers, the more do we feel inclined pearance, new descriptions therefore are required, a new field unfolds itself before the traveller, and his works, though giving an account of a country which has perhaps been twenty times described before, may still possess the charms and merits of novelty. If this part of literature be inexhaustibly teeming, it is not less varied and interesting; it supplies the legislator with intances of juridical wisdom in foreign lands, and offers a rich harvest to the moral and natural philosopher. It is not astonishing therefore that travels should crowd upon travels, to satisfy the thirst after information, and that mistaking their own talents, or blinded by the aviditywith which the public hails the appearance of such productions, many deep observers of men and manners

to praise those who lavish upon us the riches they have laboriously and honourably acquired; who do not clothe the ob servations of others in different language, but spread to our sight the fair fruits of experience, and display a degree of talent, . penetration, and accuracy equal to the importance of the subject of which they treat.

Imagination banished from the pages of history, where truth alone must dwell, finds a refuge in those of the traveller. Her ornaments, too splendid for the former, ought to be allowed to shed a softened lustre over the works of the latter : his style ought to vary with the object it describes, and ease and elegance to form its chief characteristics. The first requisites,

Pico, the first of which contains the follow-places the sulphureons vapours issue with