The Sun.
London, England, 1838-05-17 00:00:00

MISS EDGEWORTI-I,

" Though Miss Edgeworth's excellent understanding' may have
been in Ireland, we much doubt whether her heart has ever accompanied
it. In the ` Absentee,' of all her works the one which displays the
most sympathy with Ireland, although she tells many useful truths, and
ably exposes the short-sighted selfishness of absenteeism, there is still
no warmth of indignant patriotism, no identification of self with the
country, liqle more, in ghost, than the cold and half-contemptuous pity
of a shrewd and right-minded stranger. When Miss Edgeworth had
attained the full maturity of her genius and her fame, the Irish Catho-
lic was still degraded by unjust laws—the Irish Protestant snore degraded
by an unnatural ascendancy. Did she lend her powerful aid to forward
the.good cause of the oppressed ?—Did she record her protest against
the monopoly of those whom the laws made oppressors ? Alas, no.
Nor can there be a stronger proof of her want of national feeling —of
the slight hold her country has always had open her affections—than
the circumstance of her writings being totally silent on a subject of
such overpowering interest to Ireland.

A critical examination of the works of Miss Edgeworth would, at
this time of day, be as tedious as a twice-told tale. We shall, there-
fore, confine ourselves to a tew general remarks. Of Castle Itackrent,'
we believe the earliest of Miss Edgeworth's works, we are not inclined
to think very favourably. It professes to be a picture of the manners of
a past age and generation, of which we know but little; but we have
reason to believe that it Is highly overcharged in its details, and the
characters are certainly crudely and coarsely drawn ; whilst the story, if
' era,' is anything but vraisonslable,' and its revolting unpleasant.
ness is unredeemed by any sparkles of wit and humour. This, indeed,
is a common Emit with our author; her description of the condition,

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manners, and customs of the Irish peasantry is generally
her•hands their quick and racy humour degenerates into\
lug, whilst the deep well-spring of fec:ing that gushes
is to h,2r a fountain sealed. But If her Irish peasants
ape king, but vapid caricatures, we must allow that she
successful in drawing the characters of a higher class ; her Vilt‘h....
and Sir Ulick O'Shane in Orrnm d,' aro perhap; the most finished'
portraits she has ever traced, and as the representatives of two widely'
different, but still both genuinely Irish classes, can scarcely be surpassed."

LADY MO RG AN.
" tier novels arr, indeed, thoroughly Irish in matter, in character
in their dry humour, and cutting sarcasm ; no less than their vein!,
mence and impetuosity of feeling. It should never be forgotten that-
although writing, at a period when, if it was not actually considered
' treason to love Ireland,' to defend her was to incur suspicion, Lady
Morgan never hesitated to express her indignation at the wrongs of her.
country—that she continued to expose its misgovernment, and to win
sympathy for its suffnings, and that she pursued this con rr,e regardies:
of the obloquy it entailed upon her, and careless that she has thus pro-
voked the enmity of those, high In station, whose good-will and power-
ful patronage a different line of conduct would have speedily com.-
manded. Lady Morgan has powerfully advanced the cause of her
country ; she has been its unbought and unpurchasable servant;• and
we, therefore, in common with the Irish public, consider that the pre_
sent government, in bestowing upon her a pension, has dune itself high
honour, and to her but a tardy act of justice. Would that such names
alone were to be found upon the Pension List, and it would soon cease to
be a bye-word and a stumbling block to the people:"

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