period when the author had not procured access to several valuable literary collections, to which he subsequently got admission. Among these last, was the library of Trinity College, where, it would be ungrateful in him not to acknowledge, that he obtained every facility for prosecuting his researches, which could be expected from the politeness of gentlemen, and the liberality of scholars. Whatever may have been the spirit of exclusiveness formerly existing amongst those connected with that institution, he experienced none of the obstacles which were once presented to the enquiries of the man of letters; while it gives him still greater pleasure, than could be conferred by any favour he experienced, to be able to state, that, chiefly owing to the laudable interest taken in ancient Irish learning by the librarian, Doctor Todd, a society has been set on foot, on a principle similar to that of the Oriental Translation Fund Society in London, to give the world the benefit of the valuable and curious collections of native Irish literature in the archives of the Universityeach work issued by the society to contain both the original Irish text, and an exact translation of it in English. Such undertakings, in an intelligent age, must always be more productive of honour to an institution like the University 66 than any peculiar creed it may have been instituted to uphold. The liberal Protestant, who disagrees with, or is indifferent to, the religious tenets of the Benedictines and the Jesuits, is grateful to their memory for their many profound and interesting additions to general knowledge; and the learned Catholic, dismissing or forgetting the idea of any difference of creed existing between himself and the University, may, in like manner, at a future period, be able to say " At all events, that College deserves the praise of rescuing our old national literature from oblivion or obscurity!" Such pursuits, in their grand and expansive results, when compared with the insignificant and narrow squabbles of partizan theology, are calculated to put one in mind of Alexander the Great's observation, after the battle of Arbela, when, on receiving a dispatch from his viceroy Antipater announcing the defeat and destruction of a few thousand Lacedæmonians in Greece, and on contrasting that petty circumstance with the immense glory and importance of the battle which had just gained him the empire of Asia, he contemptuously exclaimed-" I hear there has been a battle of mice in Arcadia !" With respect to some expressions upon the Union, speaking of that measure, as if an English or provincializing government might be able to compensate this country for the loss of her legislative independence, the writer may be permitted to state, that those observations were made from a wish to avoid interrupting the chance of any beneficial measure of secondary utility likely to result from the truce on the subject of Repeal, then existing between the Whig administration and the Repealers, but not from the slightest idea, on his part, that Ireland and Irishmen can ever be "as they ought to be," till "Irish laws alone shall Ireland bind" with the crown existing, as "the only state-bond of each island." In conclusion, the author ventures to hope-he trusts without much presumption—that, whatever may be the literary merits of this miscellany, it will not be devoid of some interest in a political, and of even of some use in a historical, point of view. 'ERRATA. In p. 176, text, for "1529" read "1429"-p. 180, note, last line, and" omitted-p. 183, note, first line, after "See" read "in"-p. 197, note, for "between eight and nine millions," read" sixteen and eighteen millions"-p. 256, note, for "disgustful at hearing," read "disgusted"p. 336, text, after last line, in some copies, the following line is omitted by mistake "The remainder of the 29th, and the following day,"-p.346, text, for" to the left and right," read "to the right and left "-p. 355, text, for "above than all" read "more than all"-p. 375, note, for "before, p. 352," read" before, p. 359"-p 379, note, after 20, Colonel Belcassel's," supply" 21, Colonel Cambon's"-p. 415, text, for "had so careful to save," read "had been"-p. 438, note, for "grand capacite" read "grande capa cite"-p. 440, text, for " it reported" read "it was reported"-p. 450, text, for "Irish troops that forced them" read "faced them"-p. 458, text, for "pleas- to contrast" read "pleasing "-Other little mistakes or oversights, such as "recal" for "recall" at p. 29, and the omission of some accents over French words, are left to the correction of the reader. Several words have been purposely printed in figures, CONTENTS. Epigram on the weeping and laughing philosophers, The Temperance Society. A Song, Orrar and Muirnē. (From the Irish.) Epigram, on a wealthy and presuming upstart, Epistle from Dr. Southey, Poet Laureate and Author of the Book of the Church, to the Editor of the Parson's Impromptu, written at the time of the Anglesey Procla- mations, &c. Impromptu, on seeing a Reverend Dignitary of the Esta- d |