suredly there are names among us not soon to be blotted out from the record of after days. We challenge no ridiculous comparison with our maternal soil the land of Newton, Shakspeare, Milton, Bacon, the unrivalled minds of Europe-such master-spirits are no the common produce of their time. We simply affirm our claim to no small catalogue of illustrious men; and we may add, that there is a constant though concealed stream of Irish talent flowing to swell the mass of English and Scottish literature. We might, indeed, on this head, point to the public arena of party strife, and ask who are the foremost on either side, the most effective in appeal, the most allowed in power, either for good or evil, all Irish, nearly to a man. It is an easy transition to imagine this overflow reduced within its channel, and spreading the light of civilization at home. We have said to imagine, because, in truth, many obstacles must be overcome, and time must have brought forth many changes before this desirable consummation is to be reached. But it lies within the fair scope of exertion, and, therefore, it is no vain or useless object to fix upon. It is to be looked for from enlightened effort; and we are disposed further to point it out as a result in the course of a progress which has actually set in. Already there is a change upon the spirit of the time. In the wildest burst of the storm there is a still small voice among the elements of wrath, and fury, and popular madness. A slow but grow ing sense of their delusion is stealing from rank to rank among the people so long abused-the false pledge, redeemed by accumulated lies, has grown almost too broad and black for infatuation's self to mistake for any thing divine or good. The language of truth and right have acquired an expansive and still expanding influence and authority; and there is among the higher and nobler class of spirits a trustful expectation of more congenial times, when the winter shall be past, the rain over and gone, and the flowers shall appear on the earth. Even amid the din of party there is a growing desire to revert to more permanent and standard thoughts and things; and in the waste of a depraved literature, a strong spirit of just and true criticism is beginning to indicate the approach of that spirit of refinement and severe good taste which is now wanting to correct, reduce, chasten, and harmonize the tumultuous and turbid exuberance of our unprincipled and random literature. There is a tendency in civilization, when it has reached a certain point, to advance onwards towards perfection, This may not be reached, because the distance is infinite, and the course interrupted. In observing this important principle, we must always make allowance for small indications, such as must seem trifling to unphilosophical understandings. This must be our apology for noticing the continued efforts and failures of the Dublin press for some years back, to produce periodical works. The vast and rapid increase of intellectual excitement, the spread of knowledge, and the coarse stimulus of political feeling and action among the middle classes, had the natural consequence of bringing more mind into action. The pressure of intellectual effort soon began to find or make channels for itself. As we have noticed already, England, and in a lesser degree Scotland afforded rapid outlets, and by absorbing, concealed the abundance of the production; but at the same time numerous literary productions of a more youthful, untrained, and therefore transient and obscure character, also began to spring up season after season, into an existence scarcely known beyond the writers themselves, who paid the cost, and with juvenile admiration exulted in their unfledged authorship; for they were for the most part boys, receiving their first bent from a spirit that was in the time. To these we have ground for adding, there was no small accession from the humblest walks of handicraft occupation. The books had no sale, and the writers no payment; it was a labour of love, and all seemed willing to contribute their share. The tinker's well-trained ear betrayed itself in the harmonious jingle of his rhyme; the tailor vindicated his goose by swan-like notes; printers' devils were evoked by most unheard-of incantations, and uttered strange responses. All Castle-street chimed together in "Kidderminster stuff," and Thomasstreet answered "from its misty shroud." Thus one gay swarm followed another, and was swept into the stream of oblivion. Experience pronounced their epitaph as they disappeared-tinker and tailor becaine sadder and wiser men-and it became perceptible that essays and poems were not altogether to be compassed by plain stitch and solder; and that even Lilly and Voster, Euclid and Murray must undergo some important transmutations in the mind, before they were likely to effloresce in the form of readable literature. The county of Kerry itself, famous time out of mind for its Latinity, could not support a literary effort which wanted the essential principle by which all successful effort thrives, the sinews of war and commerce, money. Nothing, in truth, had the effect of repressing for a single season, the laudable efforts thus begun; and as the youthful writers grew more ripe, they now and then exhibited transient gleams of higher pretension and even occasionally brought out flashes of very considerable power; but it was absolutely impossible they could have in the bulk a material success, beyond that we have described. Patriotism itself could not find heroism to read, still less pay for such callow literature. The mere desire of public good never has, or ought to retain the efforts of any marketable mind; and as it sprung up to maturity the effective talent of the country found its level and its price. It obtained from the profitable wisdom of our neighbours that value which all should seek who have any thing which they have the power and right to dispose of. The talent of the successful writer, is the result of much labour, and that of the severest kind it is the mature fruit of many trials, and often the result of a waste of the better years of life, and of many of the hap. pier sensibilities of our nature-melted down into that crucible over which the student broods in the fever of ambition, and the sorrow of hope deferred, for the visionary prize of some surviving fame, so hardly won, and so invidiously allowed. It was, therefore, an indispensible preliminary to the desirable object of calling home our scattered forces, and concentrating those lights which were so long losing themselves in the full-orbed day of England and Scotland, into a native and home existence, that this operation should commence, where alone all that is permanent or effective can cominence, with the public-spirited and enterprizing trade. But the obstacles to be encountered were seemingly insurmountable. The name of Dublin on a title-page was a sufficient reason for neglect, and, in the case of periodical literature, it was too truly the indication of youthful incompe A tence, while many of the English pe riodicals had no unprofitable possession of the tables of the Irish gentry. strong prepossession of this nature, combined with the usual caprice of fashion to exclude every thing of home growth. Capital, enterprize, patience and no small portion of experience, were necessary to obtain even a chance of fair trial. A combination of accepted writers, who had already secured the voice of criticism and public notice, was to be secured at considerable cost; the loss attendant on such undertakings, under such circumstances, was to be sustained; and the risk of the more serious loss consequent on failure, where all had failed, to be dared. How we have entered upon and triumphed over these disadvantages needs not to be dwelt on. We trust that the bold experiment may be felt to be so far successful. Of this the public may rest secure; and this upon the strength of an obvious commercial principle, of which nothing but the most extreme infatuation can lose sight; that we have not one permanent contributor, who has not been received in the pages of our most successful cotemporary periodicals, and who has not met the undoubted testimony of public applause, or the approval of authorized criticism. To vouch for the merit of every article, or even of every monthly number, would be absurd; to such praise no periodical is entitled. Having taken the best steps to ensure the cooperation of mature and able men, we must abide by their inequalities and trust to the common sense of our readers. Let it be felt that, if indulgence were to be claimed in any case, it is in ours. Yet we ask no indulgence, though we are grateful for the justice which we cordially acknowledge to have received from the public. It is in truth among the best indications of these distracted times, that our country. should have produced her first successful attempt at native literature, and that a decided and uncompromising political tone has not had the effect of eliciting any respectable reproof among our radical contemporaries. We must conclude our summary, and we fear too meagre notice, by a brief enumeration of the public advan tages to be hoped for from this undertaking. To appreciate them by the mere success of a magazine, would be unjust. To retain at home, a large. portion of our native genius and learning is a first and obvious advantage; to give encouragement and hope to more; to awaken that literary toue which humanizes, polishes and adorns private life; to shed a civilized grace over the name of Ireland in foreign countries; to give a home direction to the sympathies of the better mind of our countrymen who spend fortune and talent abroad; to attract capital and enterprize to our shore; and, by shewing the way, awaken that life in the Irish publishing trade, which alone is wanting to raise us to the level of our neighbours. One successful adventure is but the step to another; and there is no reason, but those which arise from long-clinging prejudices, why Dublin should not be the centre of Irish cultivation, in all that improves and humanizes. An Irish press may, we trust, well supply the place which a native legislature once held a focus of talent, and a nursery for the production of eminent men. It would be absurd to suppose, that the tone of society, that taste, knowledge and every sentiment which belongs to cultivated society, does not gain power and influence by the intermixture of minds professedly devoted to polite literature. In the Scottish metropolis society, through all its circles, takes its impulses from a few individual centres; and these impulses are, by an insensible but sure process, communicated from rank to rank through many a widening circle, until they embrace the land. Such, as far as we can express it in a few words, is the benefit we propose, and the principle on which we depend. In throwing these reflections before our readers, we have studiously endeavoured to keep within the level of ordinary experience and observation, and to avoid tasking attention by any elaborate analysis of social causes or workings; nor have we aimed to lead the reader into detail, further than the distinct statement of our view absolutely required. The time is not yet arrived when we may securely launch into the depths of our moral and intellectual history; topics of more immediate interest engross the public ear, and the sense to which we would appeal, is yet but a consummation devoutly to be wished for." Yet, having begun and continued our labors, under a solenın sense of their importance to this country, we enter tain a sanguine assurance of their success, and it is our settled conviction, that when calmer and more prosperous days shall allow the public mind to look back on this troubled period, with a view undisturbed by party strife, that these efforts will be recollected as among the first favorable gleams of national amelioration, and that it will be deemed no trivial incident of an eventful time, that has brought so far towards maturity the first literary journal on the settled principles of commerce. Our valuable, extensive, and still extending circulation, with the unanimous voice of the public press, which has every where laid aside party feeling to cheer us on, may sufficiently attest that we do not overrate our success. Difference of opinion has not withheld the impartial approbation of our opponents; and they who from their position are most likely to appreciate the influence of public causes cannot be supposed to have erred, in thus setting their friendly stamp on our pretensions. Of our contributors we have already dropped some words. The well-known convention, which throws a transparent veil over the names of periodical writers, makes it impossible to allude to these gentlemen otherwise than collectively. But we cannot allow ourselves to speak doubtfully or equivocally of persons whose talents do honour to their country, and whose names are for the greater part to be recorded in her historic wreath We would not exchange our contributors for those of any other periodical in the empire; though the public may feel assured, that, in proportion as our means increase with our circulation, no effort shall be wanting to secure whatever power of talent, or weight of name, the best mind of the day affords. This is but the natural operation of that commercial process which is the basis of every rational undertaking. One fact, connected with this topic, may be stated as serving to exhibit, in part, the natural underworking of a literary establishment of this description. The enormous mass of clever manuscripts of every kind poetry, essays, reviews, tales, critical dissertations, without measure or respitewhich flow monthly on our hands, so as to make the task of selection impossible to ordinary diligence; and insertion-had we a number for every day in the year,-quite out of the question: from this, we say, it will at once appear to what an extent the faculties of ļ the national mind are set to work. We have made no allusion to our that we would shut ourselves out from a fair and manly use of the weapons of party controversy, which are flashing and circling round our ears wherever we turn. Such dastardly discretion never gains its cowardly object; it cannot serve our friends, or gain the respect of our honourable adversaries; "to be weak is miserable, doing or suffering." We are conservative; and no feeble vacillation shall dishonor our steady and upright strength. We cannot assent to the suspicious friendship that would counsel an impotent moderation, where vigor and intrepid activity prompt to rough collision; we laugh to scorn the silly repreach of newspaper politics. We assert and shall not relinquish our right to fling aside our literary tiaraour jewelled wand, with which we sit pointing oracularly to the destinies of the nation, and leaping down into the thronged arena, to lay about us among our friends of the press, as long and as stoutly as our spirit impels. Our friends of the daily press are, we contend, excellent companions, and we do not shrink from the comparison. But, this point being saved, there is another consideration of much importance, which we shall keep in view, so far as our purposes and duties admit, “ exceptis excipiendis," as the worthy prior of Jorvaulx Abbey is recorded to have said upon a very similar occasion. In our column the inflammatory topics of the month will mostly be found to appear through the softening medium of afterthought, and when they have already in some degree undergone the sifting of public opinion. They may thus be expected, so far as may be, to appear comparatively divested of the rancorous tone, and of the irritating, degrading and disgusting personality which is offensive to the mind of a gentleman, to whatever party he may be attached. So far as the topic before our notice shall admit of it, we shall endeavour to take our stand on the high ground of principle, and to enlarge the compass of political discussion by historical and philosophical views. Thus may we hope to supply a momentous desideratum in the state-craft of the day, which is not less remarkable for its ability in the labyrinth of small details and expediencies which fill our eyes and ears on every side, than for its near-sightedness, as to directions and results, the natural effect of superficial and narrow views. THE parliamentary campaign has commenced, and commenced exactly as we could have desired. The ministry provoked a discussion on the state of Ireland, and have been signally defeated. In one respect, it has made us think better of them than we did before. It is hard to believe that they could have been fully aware of "the fantastic tricks" of their Irish Chief Governor, or of the insults and injuries to which the Protestant population of this country have been exposed, since his arrival, when they boldly volunteered to share the responsibilities of his misgovernment, and even to demand praise for the wisdom and the impartiality of his administration. And it is also but justice to them to acknowledge, that no men could have seemed more overwhelmed by a sense of condemnation, than they appeared, when the astounding array of facts, which were deployed against them by the skill and the ability of Sergeant Jackson, routed, and threw into irretrievable confusion, their presumptuous anticipations. And is it possible, we ask ourselves, that they could have been so grossly ignorant as they seemed, of the doings in Ireland? It is difficult to believe, that men, charged with the concerns of this mighty empire, could have been either so miserably incompetent, or so culpably negligent, as not to be aware of the tendency, at least, of almost every one of Lord Mulgrave's measures, to foster the insolence and the sedition of one portion of the people, and to chill the loyalty, outrage the feelings, and destroy the property of the other. And yet, either such ignorance or such negligence can alone account for the astonishing confidence with which Lord John Russell threw down the gauntlet VOL. IX. to the Irish Conservatives, and challenged them to point out a single instance by which the most captious impugners of the measures of the Lord Lieutenant could prove the justice of their accusations. He instanced, as deserving of particular commendation, the resolution of the Irish Attorney-General, not to avail himself of the privilege of the crown in the challenge of jurors; and more than insinuated, that former law-officers abused that prerogative of office, to the oppression of the subject, and the perversion of justice. With respect to the latter assertion, we must always believe, that a gentleman does not, knowingly, state a deliberate falsehood; and, therefore, we ascribe to gross ignorance the statement by which his Lordship had been deceived; but, with respect to the former, never did an unfortunate advocate experience confutation more confounding. The debate is too recent to justify us in referring at any length to Sergeant Jackson's powerful exposure of this part of the ministerial case. Suffice it to say, that the English members were astounded. The case to which he alluded was simply this :-A Protestant family, named Carter, resident in the Queen's County, were tenants of Lord Maryborough, for a piece of land, for which they paid rent, and to which they were justly entitled. They proceeded to fence it; but this exercise of their legal rights gave the agrarian depredators offence, and one of the family was so severely beaten, that he lost his senses, and is, we believe, at this moment, the inmate of a lunatic asylum. The elder member of the family they murdered. Nor was this appalling outrage done in a corner.— 2 c |