The Sun.
London, England, 1835-02-03 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THE EXILE OF ERIN
Or the Sorrows of a Bashful Irishman. In 2 Vols.
London: Whittaker and Co. 1835.
thls is the only novel which has issued from the
Press for many years, the perusal of which forcibly re-
minded us of the humorous tales of Cervantes, Field
ng' and Smollett ; with occasional touches of that
atiplieity of detail—that tracing of effects to the
causes Which Soonest present themselves—which forms
ne of the finest features in that unexampled transcript
of
nature, the Vicar of Wakefield. From the title of
this book, as well as from the peculiar characteristics
f
, the country which the author has chosen for the
birthplace_. of his hero, the public may be led to con-
:der the
"Sorrows of a Bashful Irishman" as a noisy
travaganza, in which the principal personage is dis-
tinguished by a love of fun, frolic, fighting ; who
sinuses himself by carding guagers, immersing tithe-
proctors, and cropping the ears off unfortunate in-
formers and under-bailiffs. This, however, is a very
erroneous conception of the whole tenor of these vo-
lumes, than which nothing can be more quiet, orderly,
rat, humorous, and true to nature—not exactly as
attire exhibits herself in certain temperaments,
but in
t mankind. The author of the " Bashful
Irishman" has not madehis hero what is corn-
Ic
alled a wit ; that is, he iS not an inveteratepun-
:terxtorting, nor does he utter smart things for the purpose of
a laugh ; but lie has humour in abundance—
quaint original humour enough to make enintaining
ZMPanions of a dozen dull men of business. Ms
thiliuour is the humour of character, association, and
cught—not of expression; and this he has in common
with the heroes of all the great satirists and wits, whose
Works are handed down to us as models of genius, and
which continue to form the standard of our literature.
The story of the " Bashful Irishman" is simple,
Yet full of incident, and written in the form of an auto-
ofg,raPhY. The presumed narrator is born in the bogs
ae Connemara, in the West of Ireland, and after
ti elti,iring the first rudiments of learning, is appren-
ticed by his father—a shrewd compound of the farmer
the smuggler—to an apothecary in the neighbour-
..ood• He our hero learns as much of the medical
art
as Gil Bias could boast of, after his residence with
the celebrated Sangrado, besides a taste for theatrical
entertainments which clung to him through life
1113 master being a critic of the first water,
nd a patron of the Galway stage. This eminent
ti iseiPle of Esculapius dying before young O'Blar-
tcY*--the name of our hero—had completed his
st
lv,lidles, he goes to reside with a Catholic priest, from
Whom he takes lessons in a knowledge of the world,
a 'L
Punch la, morever, initiated in the art of mixing whiskey
nchand drinking it. He falls in love, gets tossed
Inali blanket for his pains, and in a fit of rage, disap-
P°"ittnent, and disgust, sets off from his father's humble
r °°f, and makes his debut in life in a barn, as one of
a and of strolling players. His next step promises
t u
1° he more fortunate : he makes love to an heiress ;
a arrres her despite of an old uncle, and carries her
and her fortune off in triumph to Italy, where he
Was
himself as clever in squandering money as he
as
obtaining it. His wife remonstrates—scolds—
aliuses--insults him for his extravagance ; and in a fit
of
ungovernable passion he quits her and Naples, and
flees to London. For a time he suffers some privations,
and more uneasiness in the Metropolis, not being cer-
tain of any
means by which he could support himself ;
but at last he bethinks himself of the press, and is so
Bilecessful as to produce a fashionable novel, and obtain
the Editorship
fof a low Sunday Sporting Journal. So
gallgoes on pretty smoothly. But unfortunately he gets
ti Patron inyolved in a case of libel, and in self-
ciente quits London for the editorship of a country
PaPer. Here he commences politician in right ear-
nest
: persuades a Tory Alderman that he is a Liberal,
induces him to offer himself for the representation of
the boron 1,
and has the mortification to witness the
defeat of his patron, who is ill-natured enough to
send our hero to prison, merely because lie could not
give a particular account of the disposal of certain
ini_°nies placed in his hands to defray the expense of
the election. His incarceration takes place previous
i
° the passing of the Corn Law Act, and on the
sanction of that measure by the LegislatuTe, our hero
unexpectedly liberated by the kindness of the la-
uourers, who take it into their heads to burn the p; 1-
as a species of revenge for the conduct of the
Government. The next trip of O'Blarney is to Wales,
Where he manages to domesticate himself as a phy-
4clan, marries the widowed sister of one, and lives
verY happily till a commercial traveller discovers some
14f his previous exploits to the Welch villagers. His
nest flight is to Ireland, and there once more he ob-
tains the editorship of a newspaper--commences agi-
tator--makes love to a beautiful innocent girl—and
dust as he is on the eve of success, is pounced upon
by his first wife—tried for bigamy, and is sentenced
'0 transportation for life.
Such is the outline of this humorous tale, which
bears throughout an impress of genius, and nice dis-
cernment, such as we have not met with for years in an
Unpretending work of fiction. The characters are
`lravrri with admirable skill ; most of them hit off, as it
Were, at a single stroke. Their peculiarities are given
With the most vivid distinctness ; and so well do they
stand apart from each other, that the mind is never
taXed with keeping an inventory of the place which
they are intended to occupy. Once introduced, and
We know them again the moment our ear catches the
sound of their approaching footsteps. Some of the
characters, too, are as original in their way as any
drawn by Cervantes, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne.
We defy the most ardent admirers of these authors to
find in their works a greater original than our hero's
first master, Doctor Killquick, whom he thus intro-
"uces to his readers :

" The history of all childhood is pretty nearly the same ; I
3411, therefore, pass it by, and come at once to the period
'W,llen I attained my seventeenth year. At this epoch I was
Pieced in the shop of a certain village doctor, by name Kill-
quick, a waggish, good-humoured
ish, little fellow, who was famous
thY h * •
°li out t e istrict for the invention of divers specifics, by
thete he 1p of which he wrought the most surprising cures. As
doctor in his personal appearance passed the verge of the
ettraordinary, and approached to the miraculous, I must pause
g'ive a sketch of him. He had the head of a giant fixed
1 IPon tie shoulders of a dwarf. His eyes were of a goose-
"en'Y ; his nose was gathered up in a bunch in the
middle, just as if dame Nature in a frolicsome mood, had tied
in a double-kffit ; his teeth were tusks in shape and size ;
e had a split in hiti
upper-lip, which enabled him to give a
„ and perfect develo;•ment to the broadest grin that ever
threw' a stranger into hysteri:e ; his mouth was not so much a
mouth, as a huge gash scored at random across his face ; and
I° had two big red ears, which proje,"ted from either side his
'lead like the lamplights of a mail-coach.
" Next to the doctor, the greatest curiosity- in the county
its
the doctor's horse, which, having long been the subject of
"8 master's experiments, had been physicked into a most °r°-
11tising state of atrophy. The very leanest hackney-coach-
11°ree that ever crawled, would have blushed to be seen in corn-
Pl.lll with such a prodigy of attenuation. It was just the sort
7 animal you would expect to see grazing on the Great
Of course the doctor was proud of such an evidence
Ix his medical skill, and it was as rich a treat as eyes could
hive, to see him mounted on its back, swaying too and fro like
4 ecincrow in a steady wind, while every ragged urchin for
miles wind, would take flight at his approach, as if only to
were in be physicked."
We stop short in the history of the worthy Doctor,
satisfied that he has already established claims to be
ranked with Parson Adams, Uncle Toby, and Don
Quixote, as far as regards originality and individual
Identity. The Doctor's horse is superior to any qua-
druped we have ever had—certainly a much greater
curiosity than either Rosinante or Dapple.
We had marked two or three very interesting pas-