, 1877-10-28
ENGLISH TRAVELLERS IN IRE
LAND.
Why They Never Find Out Anything.

] Lnndon Times. Oct. II.
| 1t is great pity thnt few Of our summer
travellers, and fever still OF our writers and
politicians, visit ireland. We have often before
expressed our regret At this fact, AMI NC express
1t otce more. But Enslishmen must not he be-
gulcd across the Channel on false preteGses.
Ireland Is not perfect country to visit for mere
purposes Of pleasure. The climate is uncertain,
! and In j land where, above all other lands, the
traveller may count q shower for every
excursion lie makes. national vehicle
! hos been devised which is pre-
eminent above all natonal vehicles In
being defenscless against .the weather. The
native thinks nothing Of rain, and he is, hap
plly, unconscious Of the defects OF the outside
car; but the unhappy Saxon crossing dreary
wastes OF peat land, on what the driver calls
''soft y day, is very soon and painfully con-
scious that hc is vet through from top to toe.
Again, if the traveller is of an inQuiring DISPOSE
TO be, he is often put out In the prosecution of
his inquiries. His first difficulty is that the
good natured native, who is not too accurate at
the best Of tunes, always prefers to give
answers which he thinks will bc pleasant to the
inquirer. It is very hard that man should
coulc from England to be told disagrceablc
truths, SO the respondent gives guess at what
he believes the traveller would like to hear, and
taat ne lclls MIN. Even autcI thls preliminary
difficulty is got over, and sonnet hing approaching
real confidence is established, the serenity of
1hc curious Ensllsnmat IS apt to be often dis
turocG. lie somehow or other may come across
an 1rishman who tells him what he thinks, but
the thoughts thus revealed are in his Judgment |
SO invouscqueut, so disconnected, SO wrong
headcu-in word, SO unlike his own-that he is |
tempted to abandon as insoluble the problem Of |
estaGlishlhg L common understanding with his |
lntcrlocutor: Inc !oSea processes u tue two |
q 0rA f,ff hal
hardest problems Of real lie to establish any
mental relation between them. II, however,
our traveller Is a man Win head upon bis
shoulders, ne soon gets over ms feeling III YeS-
auon' anu recognizes the Tact III the
d'it'cnlty We Anvc described he IS going
through the very process ot education
Tor which he came. ne crossed over to
lrelaho TO undesstnna 1risn1nen, TO get used
70 thclr language anu Their thoughts, to scram-
nle Win them to thelr conclusions, to be With
them in their twists and turns OF fancy, to
1athoH, by participating in their life, the secret
Of their bates and their loves. Every one who
goes to France, to Italy, or to Germany ior any
other purpose than that of breathing new air
knows that he goes through processes like these
to learu how a Frcnchnan, Ill Italian, or 4 Ger
man thinks; it ought not to be incomprehensi-
bic that something similar has to be undertaken
aud achieved by those who would travel in Ire
easy, aud it is, perhaps, least OF all easy i'll q |
country where the identity OF language misleads
Tue wanderer ut The beginning by inducing
that men who speak the same
tong1c must think the same thoughts.
1t must be confessed also that there
ire many travellers who have by nature very lit
lie of that tezibility Of mind without which the
OF new country is almost unat-
ainahle- They may even be sedulous to correct
his natural defect, and yet they are found at
lie end stumbling over minute variations Of j
ife living outside their native experience. The
ute Mr.. Nassau Senior may, perhaps, be cited as
III Illustration OF these truths. lie was an cx-
client, a most worthy man; it is pity We hare
. few like. him. He was q keen observer
most ,iilyent inquirer; he had habit Of 1nl,,s
rs to put US all to shame, ard au ANALYTICAL
0yer Of rare distinction. lie wcns about year
ftcr wear, from country to country. anti ncnnIa