RELATIVE TO THE TOWN OF BELFAST: FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE UNION WITH GREAT BRITAIN. BELFAST: PRINTED AND SOLD BY GEORGE BERWICK, NO I. NORTH STREET. 1 PREFACE. A THE literary age in which we live has been eminently fruitful in productions that tend to elucidate the history and antiquities of our towns and counties. General history appears to be completely exhausted, and the mine of topographical inquiry will, for many years to come, exercise the constant assiduity of the literary world. In fact, there appear to be no limits to inquiries of this description and even seven folio volumes have been found scarcely, adequate to illustrate the history of a single county It may, however, admit of a serious doubt, whether the result of such stupendous labours will prove of any real advantage to the cause of truth, or tend materially to the advancement of our national history. The object of their compilers, who are in general, of the tribe emphatically called Antiquaries, a race, partial, narrow-minded, and blind to the real interests of mankind,-is, for the most part, confined to the deci phering of dilapidated tombstones and worm-eaten charters, the restoring of heraldic shields and obsolete genealogies, and other matters of equal importance; while the great oruse of historic truth is thrown contemptuously into the shade. But while we thus presume to exercise a rigorous criticism on the labours of these men, and maintain that they are, with few exceptions, devoid of general interest, we must at the same time confess, that they are replete with infor mation highly interesting to those who live within the circle of their *The History and Antiquities of Leicestershire have been lately completed in seven folio volumes, by John Nichols, F. A. S.; and an Account of Yorkshire, equally ponderous, by the Rev. Thomas Whitaker, is announced to the public |