DUBLIN, the metropolitan county of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, is bounded on the north by the county of Meath, on the east by the Irish Sea, on the south by the county of Wicklow, and on the west by those of Kildare and Meath. It is the smallest county in Ireland except Louth and Carlow, containing 248,631 acres, or 388∣ square miles, of which 237,819 acres are cultivable, the remaining 10,812 being bog or mountain. Its greatest length from north to south is thirty miles, it greatest breadth from west to east twenty-three. A small portion, detached from the rest, lies at a distance of between twenty-four and thirty miles from the city, and is surrounded by the counties of Wicklow and Kildare. In Ptolemy’s geography it is stated to be inhabited by the tribe of the Eblani. At the period of the English invasion, and for some time previously to that event, the city of Dublin and all the adjoining districts were in the possession of the Danes, from whom the tract to the north of the city was called Fingal, or the country of the White Strangers, a name given by the natives to those invaders on account of their fair hair and complexion; and that on the south was called Harold’s country, which name it retained long after it fell into the hands of the English. Of the nine baronies into which the county is divided, those of Balrothery, Castleknocķ, Coolock, and Nethercross, are on the north of the Liffey; those of Donore, Newcastle, Rathdown, St Sepulchre, and Uppercross, are on the south of the same river. The baronies are subdivided into seventy-eight parishes, besides four parts of parishes, the remainders of which are in the city. The ultimate subdivision of townlands is retained here, as in other counties, but is little used, because the county is divided in a differ- . ent manner for the purpose of collecting the local taxes; the whole surface being considered as broken up into 114,657 parts, a proportionate number of which is allocated to each barony.

The northern portion of the county is flat, and the soil good, particularly in the parts bordering on Meath; but, [7:8:234]on the southern side, the land soon rises into elevations of considerable height, which extend into the adjoining county of Wicklow. Of these, Kippure Head is 2527 feet above the level of the sea, and the Three Rock Mountain 1585 feet. The soil in these mountains is very poor, affording no encouragement for tillage, being chiefly covered with heath, except where a subsidence in the ground affords a nucleus for the formation of bog, with which about two thousand acres are covered. There are also a few small tracts of bog in the northern part of the county. This mountain district is well adapted for timber, to the growth of which much attention has lately been paid, and the labours of the improvers are already rewarded by some fine plantations equally ornamental and profitable. This range of mountain ground produces a very striking effect on the traveller proceeding to the metropolis from Wicklow county. On arriving at its brow, the whole of the plain, watered by the Li⅛ey, studded with villas, and enriched with groups of trees, spreads itself out before him, in the midst of which may be seen the spires and domes of the city rising through the dusky canopy of smoke that envelopes them; whilst beyond, the beautiful expanse of Dublin Bay, backed by the Hill of Howth, and the. islands of Lambay and Ireland’s Eyc, and still more remote the peaked summit of Slieve Donard towering above them all on the horizon’s verge, present a view of highly improved nature not often to be surpassed.

Though by much the greater part of the soil is inclined to clay, it is not of the deep and tenacious character so common in England; for scarcely any part is without a mixture of gravel; and due search will generally discover limestone or other beneficial substrata at no very great depth, attended with the further advantage, that the operation of draining generally raises a sufficiency of gravel to manure the whole surface. The position of the ground, usually more or less sloping, affords peculiar facilities for drainage; and the circumstance of-a great city in a central position furnishes large quantities of ashes and other species of refuse well calculated to conquer the natural stubbornness of such soils. Along the coast between Howth and Balbriggen arc salt marshes, but not of any extent. The only stream deserving the name of river is the Liffey, which, rising in the table-land of Wicklow, and precipitating itself over the fine cataract of Polaphuca, near which it is joined by the King’s River, traverses the level county of Kildare; on leaving which it rushes over another elevated ledge of rocks called the Salmon-leap at Leixlip, after which it resumes its tranquil character, and, passing through the centre of Dublin city, discharges itself into the bay of the same name. It is joined at its mouth by the Dodder, a mountain stream which, though too insignificant to afford depth sufficient for the smallest boat, supplies water for several mills of various description during its short course from Kippure Hill to the sea. The other streams, which are numerous, have all an eastern direction, but are too small to be noticed, except the Del-van and Braywater, and these only as forming the county boundaries to the north and south.

Dublin Bay, much admired by strangers who arrive by sea, and deemed inferior only to the Bay of Naples in scenic grandeur, is very unsafe for shipping. It is five and a half miles wide at the entrance between the Point of Howth and Dalkey Island, and six miles deep to the mouth of the Liffey at Ringsend.' It is dangerous to navigators, being exposed to a heavy sea from the east. To guard against wreck, a lighthouse has been erected at the Point or Bailey of Howth, another on a pier projecting from the mouth of the Liffey, and a third on the Kish Bank, outside the bay. Two artificial harbours have also been constructed, the smaller at Howth, occupying an area of fifty acres, at an expense of L.300,000. It is now little used. The other is at Dunleary or Kingstown, formed by two immense moles, including a space of 250 acres, from three to four fathoms deep at low water. Its entrance is marked by a revolving light. A small obelisk, surmounted by a regal crown, has been erected close to the pier, to point out the place where King George IV. took his departure from Dublin in 1821. The place of his previous landing at Howth has not been marked by any similar memorial. A rail-road from Kingstown to Dublin has been commenced. The only other harbours are those of Balbriggen and Skerries, to the north of Howth. Each of them has been improved by artificial piers, but both are dry at low water. The former admits vessels of some size, and enjoys a small coasting trade. The latter is little more than a fishing station. The sailors are considered as among the most skilful and hardy on the eastern coast. They fish in decked wherries, manned by a full crew of twelve or fourteen hands, all of whom have a share in the boat, and consequently an interest in the capture of fish.

The largest island on the coast is Lambay, to the north of Howth, comprehending somewhat more than 650 acres. A castle on it serves as the occasional residence of the proprietor. Shell-fish of every description is taken in abundance on the shore, and during the summer season it is frequently visited by fishing and pleasure parties from Dublin. To the north are the Skerries, consisting of the islets of Innispatrick, Colt, Shenex, and Red Island, the last named of which is connected to the mainland by the pier already noticed. Innispatrick is noted in the ecclesiastical annals of the country as being the place on which St Patrick first landed, and where he built a church. Between Lambay and Howth is Ireland’s Eye, or, as it should be named, Hirlandsie, a craggyrock, comprehending about thirty acres, and supposed by some geologists to be an insulated portion of the neighbouring peninsula. At the southern extremity of Dublin Bay is Dalkey Island, formerly called St Begnet’s or Bennet’s, and at present remarkable only for a martello tower erected on it. The channel which separates it from the mainland occasionally affords a good roadstead for shipping. It has been considered by some engineers as the most appropriate situation on which the public money could be laid out on a safety harbour with the greatest economy, and the most probable return of advantage to the trade of Dublin.

The greater part of the county is the eastern extremity of the great bed of floetz limestone that extends over the middle of the island, widening as it spreads westward. It rises in its southern part into a range of mountains, which forms the verge of an elevated district, extending thence for more than thirty miles to the south. Through this latter tract a large body of granite passes in a south-western direction, bounded on its eastern and western sides by incumbent rocks of great variety of structure and relations. Within the portion of this district included in the county of Dublin, and distinguished by its beautiful scenery, are veins of lead ore at Dalkey and near the Scalp. The country near Bray presents, within a small space, an instructive series of rocks; and at Killiney, schistoze beds are to be seen to a considerable extent, reposing on granite. Near Booterstown, in Dublin Bay, a mass of compact limestone is visible, within a few fathoms of the granite. The calp of Kirwan, a variety of limestone, is the prevailing rock in the immediate vicinity of Dublin, and is much used for building. The brown spar of Jameson is found in veins in the quarries of Dolphinsbarn, and beds of magnesia limestone in the Dodder. Petrifactions abound in many parts of the limestone country. In the peninsula of Howth gray ore of manganese, with brown iron stone, and brown iron ore, have been obtained in quantities[7:8:235]; and a variety of the earthy black cobalt of Werner has been found on the side of the hill, forming a crust of a rich blue colour, lining the fissures of a rock of clay slate nearly approaching to whet slate; a mineral found in great abundance at Killiney, and for some time considered as a nondescript species, is to be referred to the andalusite. It appears thickly on the surface of beds of mica slate, and seems to abound also imbedded in the substance of the same rock. White clay, potters’ clay, and yellow and brown ochre, are found in Howth, and at Rush and Skerries. Indications of lead show themselves at the commons of Kilmainham, near Castleknock, at Clontarf, and near Dalkey and Killiney. The copper mines at Lough Shinney have been badly wrought; the ore was of a rich quality, and apparently derived from contemporaneous veins of quartz of uncertain extent.

At Lucan, to the west of Dublin, there is a spring strongly impregnated with iron and sulphur; another exists at Goldenbridge, near Kilmainham; and both are much frequented by invalids. Chalybeate springs have been discovered in various places in the vicinity of Dublin city.

The population of the county, taken detached from that of the city, has until lately been calculated on very uncertain data, and the results are consequently very unsatisfactory. De Burgho, in his Hibernia Dominicana, published in 1762, estimates it at 211,674, including the city; but this is evidently too high. Beaufort, in 1792, estimates it at 64,000, which is probably too low. The subsequent parliamentary returns give the following results: In 1812 it amounted to 132,000, in 1821 to 150,011, in 1831 to 183,042.

The state of education has been ascertained by parliamentary returns to be as follows:
[table]

lhe numbers in the latter return are thus classified according to the religious persuasion and pecuniary capabilities of the pupils; Of Roman Catholics, 20,440; of the established church, 10,372; of dissenters, 465; of those whose religious persuasion was not ascertained, 1731. As to the mode of payments, there are stated to be 730 schools, fifty-four of which, containing 3301 pupils, are supported by grants of public money; 140 schools, containing 13,467 pupils, by voluntary contributions; while those in the remaining 535 schools, amounting to 16,605 pupils, are supported wholly by the fees paid for education by the parents and friends of the children.

Previously to the union the county returned ten representatives to parliament; two for the county, two for the city, two for the university, and two for each of the boroughs of Swords and Newcastle. The number was reduced to five by the act of union; the members for both boroughs being struck off, and one withdrawn from the university, but this latter has been restored to it by the reform act. The constituency at various periods, before, during, and since the alterations made in consequence of the Catholic relief bill, nresents the following results :—
[table]

From this table it appears that, though the constituency has been increased by the reform act beyond what it had been reduced to by the disfranchisement of the forty-shilling freeholders, it still amounts to but one half of what it had been before that period. The county court, in which the elections are held, the county business transacted, and the records kept, is at Kilmainham, a suburb of Dublin. When opened for legal proceedings, the chairman of the county, who is a barrister, nominated by the crown, but not allowed to practise as such, presides. In many points the jurisdiction of the city police, of which an account will be given in the description of the city, extends throughout a great part of the county.

The manners, appearance, and dress of the lower classes differ less from what may be considered as being peculiarly characteristical of the rural population of remoter districts, than might be expected in the vicinity of a large metropolis. Even in the immediate neighbourhood of the city are to be seen groups of cabins, exhibiting, both in their external appearance and in the dress and manners of their inmates, much to remind the observer of the peasantry of the interior. The farms are in general small. Near .Dublin, particularly on the southern side, they are chiefly villas, with land attached to them, more for ornament and convenience than for agricultural profit. The rents are proportionally high, being rated rather from local circumstances than from the quality of the soil. Tillage, though not in a backward state, is by no means so far advanced as might be expected. Dairy farms, for the supply of the city with milk and butter, are much run upon. Vegetable gardens are numerous, particularly in the superior soil of the northern outlets of Dublin. Grazing farms for black cattle and horses are also frequent. The fences are generally of white thorn, close, and well kept. Manure of every kind is abundant; blue, brown, and white marl is extracted in many parts; fine shelly sand is drawn from the flat shores; and coal ashes, night soil, and other refuse of the metropolis, furnish abundant supplies of this important material, varying in quality according to the taste of the farmer and the peculiarity of the soil. The waste from gas works has also been beneficially used for the same purpose, when mixed with other substances.

Manufactures are carried on, but in a limited manner, in the country parts. At Balbriggen is a stocking manufactory of some extent. The Dodder furnishes sites for several paper-mills, a distillery, and some cotton and woollen factories. There is also an extensive woollen factory at Kilmainham, and a few smaller ones in the liberties of Dublin.

This county is distinguished for the superior quality of its eels; they are found in great abundance in Tullagheen river, where they are called silver eels, from their clear white colour, supposed to be derived from the superior purity of the water they inhabit. The mud eels are of a yellow tinge and less pleasant flavour. Sand eels are found in plenty along the coast. At Rush and Skerries the curing of cod and ling is carried on. Sturgeon has at times appeared in Dublin Bay; and the sprat is found in the Liffey, in which river there is also a profitable salmon fishery. There are oyster beds at Howth, Lambay, and Poolbeg; the fish was originally brought from Arklow. Porpoises are frequent on the Dublin coast. The principal supply of fish for the Dublin market is from Skerries and Howth.

Among the amusements of the lower classes, horse-racing and steeple chases are peculiarly attractive. Latterly a new direction has been given to the public taste for manly diversions by means of the new harbour at Kingstown. A regatta is annually held there, where prizes are distributed, by a club of noblemen and gentlemen, for races of yachts and row-boats. The annual assemblages occasioned thereby every summer give rise to much festivity in the neighbourhood. Formerly a club devoted to conviviality used to assemble once a year on the island of Dalkey, where, during the period of the meeting, a king of the island, elected for his superior qualifications, from among his boon companions, and who therefore might justly[7:8:236] be styled the king of good fellows, held his mimic court, with all the appendages of burlesque royalty. But, during the period subsequent to the first French revolution, the love of frolic, as was to have been expected, took a democratic bent. The good king of Dalkey was formally deposed. The events which followed were ill adapted for the indulgence of this species of sociability; the annual meetings were discontinued, and have never since been revived. At Finglas, a village to the north of Dublin, Mayday is celebrated by amusements of a different kind, yet not less grotesque, consisting of races of asses, men in sacks, pigs with soaped tails, and other feats of waggish skill and eccentricity. But of all places calculated to exhibit the peculiarities of Irish frolic in its wildest mood, Donnybrook bears the palm. A fair is held here annually in August, ostensibly for the sale of cattle; and there is generally a good show at it, particularly of horses; but its leading attraction is the great variety of diversions of every kind likely to draw to it the artizans and lower classes of Dublin. The festivities are kept up night and day for a week, and sometimes for a fortnight. Latterly, however, the irregularities it gave rise to have induced the civic authorities to restrain its duration, and it is consequently on the decline as a place of public amusement.

This county reckons , three round towers among its antiquities; one at Clondalkin in a high state of preservation; another at Swords, where also is the remains of a large monastic institution; a third at Lusk, forming one of the angles of the steeple. The church of St Doulaghs is worthy of note for the extreme antiquity of its architecture; it is covered with a double stone roof. A fine cromleach is still preserved near Cabinteely. The remains of a stone chair, and a rudely sculptured piece of granite, mark the former existence of an ancient temple near Killiney. At Old Connaught is a cross of considerable antiquity formed of granite. Its shaft is surmounted by a circle, on which the crucifixion is rudely sculptured. Among modern monuments may be noticed the Wellington memorial in the park; obelisks at Stiltorgan and on Killiney Hill, built by the proprietors of those demesnes, to supply employment during seasons of scarcity; and another also near Killiney, on the spot where the young Duke of Dorset was killed by a fall from his horse. This county can boast of no large town except the capital. Balbriggen, the second in size, contains a population of only 3016 souls.

Dublin, the capital city of Ireland, and the second in the united kingdom in magnitude and population, is situated nearly in the middle of the county of the same name, and at the mouth of the river Liffey. It was known as a place of importance as early as the time of Ptolemy, who notices it by the name of Eblana. By the Irish it is called Athcliath or Bally-Ath-CIiath, signifying the town of hurdles, and by that of Drom-Col-Choil, or the hill of the hazel wood, which latter name is supposed to have been more peculiarly applied to the hill on which the castle of Dublin now stands, a conjecture confirmed by the fact, that on removing the walls of the old castle chapel in 1806, they were found to have been laid on piles of hazel wood. Its modern name is said to be compounded of the Irish words Dubh and Linn, the black water or black bath, from the dark appearance of the river in the marshes near its mouth.

The city was in possession of the Ostmen at the close of the fifth century, who maintained themselves in it, and in the adjoining district, until the arrival of the English, by whom it was taken after a stubborn resistance, and Asculph Mactorkill, the Danish governor, made prisoner and put to death by the conquerors. When Henry II. landed in Ireland he made it his place of residence, and constructed a palace of wattles “after the country manner,” in which' he received the native chieftains who came to do homage to him. It is also said that he held a parliament here, but no records of it are now in existence. Before his departure for England he invited over a colony from Bristol, encouraged them to settle by the grant of a charter, the original of which is still to be seen in the archives of the city, conferring on them all the rights of citizens of Bristol. King John visited the city during his father’s lifetime, as Earl of Morton, and again in 1210, after he came to the throne, when upwards of twenty Irish chieftains swore allegiance to him, he on his part covenanting to establish the English laws and customs throughout the island, and consequently opening courts of justice according to the forms of the law of England. In 1216 Magna Charta was granted to the Irish by Henry III.; a copy of it is to be found in the Red Book of the Exchequer. In 1217 the city was granted to the citizens at200 marks per annum. In 1227 the same monarch confirmed the charter of John, fixing the city’s boundaries and the jurisdiction of its magistrates. During the invasion of Ireland by Edward Bruce, in the commencement of the reign of Edward II. some of the suburbs were burnt to prevent them from falling into his hands when besieging the city. Richard II. erected it into a marquisate for his favourite Robert de Vere, whom he also created Duke of Ireland. The same king visited it twice, first in 1394, on which occasion he bestowed the honour of knighthood on four Irish princes in Christ Church; and again in 1399, when his continuance there was cut short by the rebellion of the Duke of Lancaster. In 1404 the statutes of Kilkenny and Dublin were confirmed in a parliament held in the city by the Earl of Ormond. The attachment of the people of Dublin to the house of York induced them to acknowledge Lambert Simnel, who was crowned in Christ Church in 1486. The rash rebellion of Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, son of the Earl of Kildare, seriously endangered the city in 1534. On his appearing before the walls with a powerful force, the citizens were induced through fear to give admission to a detachment of his troops to besiege the castle; but, on hearing that he had met with a reverse in another quarter, they suddenly closed their gates and detained his men as prisoners. He then attacked the city itself; but finding it too strong to be seized by a coup de main, he raised the siege on condition of having his captured soldiers exchanged for the children of some of the principal citizens who had fallen into his hands. At the breaking out of the civil war in 1641, a conspiracy to seize on Dublin Castle was detected on the eve of the day in which it was to be effected, and the city was thus preserved for the king’s party. In 1646 it was besieged by the Irish army, but without success, as the Marquis of Ormond, then lord-licutenant, had put it into a respectable state of defence, in doing which he was aided by his wife and the other ladies of distinction residing there, who assisted in carrying baskets of earth to repair the fortifications. He was, however, compelled to surrender it on conditions the next year to Colonel Jones, commander of the parliamentary forces; and in 1649 he was totally defeated at Rathmencs in an attempt to recover possession of it. The same year Oliver Cromwell landed in Dublin, and proceeded thence on his career of conquest, which commenced with the capture of Drogheda by storm, and the subsequent massacre of its inhabitants. On the resignation of Richard Cromwell in 1659, the castle was surprised by a party of officers favourable to the royal cause; and though immediately retaken by Sir Hardress Waller, it was forced to surrender again in a few days. When James II. landed in Ireland in 1688, to assert his right to the British throne, he held a parliament in Dublin, and erected a mint there, in which a large quantity of base money was coined, in [7:8:237] the hope∙of relieving his financial difficulties. On his return thither, after the defeat of the Boyne, it is said that he refused to listen to a proposal to burn the city, in order to check his adversary’s pursuit. Such a step was, however, as unnecessary as it would have been flagitious; for William advanced by slow marches, and on his arrival encamped at Finglas, and did not enter the city till the ensuing day, when he went in state to St Patrick’s Cathedral to return thanks for his victory. In 1783 a convention of delegates from all the volunteer corps in Ireland assembled in Dublin for the purpose of procuring a reform in parliament; but the House of Commons refused to entertain the proposition, and the convention separated without coming to any practical result. In May 1798 the explosion of a conspiracy planned by the united Irishmen to seize the city was prevented by the capture of Lord Edward Fitzgerald and some of the other leaders. In 1800 the act of union between Great Britain and Ireland was passed in both parliaments, and on the 1st January following the imperial standard of the united kingdom was hoisted on Dublin Castle. In 1803 another insurrection, headed by Robert Emmett, a young barrister of great talents, broke out, but was immediately quelled with the loss of some lives in the tumult, and the death of its leaders on the scaffold. The only remarkable event in which Dublin was more peculiarly interested since that event, was the visit of George IV. to Ireland in 1821, when he spent several days in inspecting its public institutions and receiving the congratulations of his Irish subjects; and on quitting it left behind him a letter expressive of his feelings on the reception he had met with, and of his wishes for their welfare and prosperity.

The site of the city was long confined to the hill on the south side of the river of which LIigh Street forms the crest, and the castle the eastern declivity. The walls, which may still be traced on maps, though scarcely a vestige of them now remains, did not exceed a mile in length. From the north tower of the castle they were carried over Cork Hill, near which was s an entrance called Dame’s Gate, looking towards Hoggin’s, now College Green. Near Essex Bridge was another entrance called Essex Gate, erected on the site of Isod’s Tower. The wall was then carried westwards along the course of the river to the end of Fishamble Street. Here stood Fyan’s Castle, sometimes used as a state prison. Thence it continued along Wood Quay to Winetavern Street, where was another castle; and, still continuing parallel to the river, it joined a castle through which was one of the principal entrances, opposite to Bridge Street. Thence it was carried to New Row, and up the hill to Cutpurse Row, at the end of which was Newgate, also used as a prison. From Corn Market it passed along the rear of Back Lane to Nicholas Gate, thence between Ross Lane and Bride’s Alley to Pool Gate, afterwards Werburgh Gate, and thence in a straight line till it joined the castle at Birmingham Tower. The part of the city now called Dame Street and College Green was a low swampy plot, subject to inundations of the river, to the north of which were a Danish settlement, now called Oxmantown, a corruption from Ostmen’s Town, and the extensive monastery of St Mary’s, with its appendage the friary of St Saviour. The only passage across the river by land was by a bridge at the end of Bridge Street, formerly called Old Bridge, Dublin Bridge, and for some time Friars’ Bridge. It was taken down in 1815, and its place supplied by an elegant new erection of three arches called Whitworth Bridge. In sinking for a foundation the traces of two or three former ones were discovered, one of them of excellent workmanship, supposed to have been the original, laid in the reign of John, and which, having been swept away in 1385, was replaced by the Dominican friars, who repaid themselves by a toll. All the other monastic buildings were on the south side of the river. These were, the two cathedrals, to be described more minutely hereafter; the abbey of St Thomas the Martyr, since called Thomas Court; the priory of All Hallows, now Trinity College; the monastery of St Francis in Francis Street; the monastery of the Holy Trinity, on the site of the late theatre in Crow Street; the Carmelite or Whitefriars’ Monastery, lately restored, in Whitefriar Street; and the nunnery of St Mary de Hogges, on the ground where St Andrew’s Church now stands. The precise situations of the nunnery of St Mary des Dames, whence Dame Street has its name, of the abbey of St Olave, somewhere in Castle Street, of the monastery of Witeshan in thĉ west of Dublin, and of the priory of Knights Templars in Catgott, in the southern suburbs, are now unknown. The hospital of St Stephen occupied the site of Mercer’s Hospital; the Steyne Hospital stood on Lazar’s Hill, now Bank Street; and Alien’s Hospital lay between St Kevin Street and the bounds of the archbishop’s palace in St Sepulchre’s. Though the buildings spread themselves from an early period in all directions, the walls were never extended beyond their original limits. During the civil wars in 1641, indeed, entrenchments were thrown up between the castle and the college, from the river to the vicinity of St Patrick’s Cathedral; but being constructed of earth, they did not long survive the necessity to which they owed their origin.

In general it may be observed, that the progress of architectural improvement has taken an eastern direction. Most of the public buildings and new streets lie on that side of the castle, whilst those towards the west are rapidly falling into decay. Hence it is that the boundaries of the civic jurisdiction are in some parts strangely at variance with the arrangement of the buildings. In the north-eastern district the entire parish of St George is beyond the scope of the municipal authorities, whilst in the south-eastern they extend beyond the low-water mark on the South Bull, and to the Blackrock, a village five miles from the castle, including a large tract of arable and pasture land, and the villages of Ringsend, Irishtown, Sandymount, Merrion, Ballsbridge, and Donnybrook. About the year 1770 a road was carried round the city, so as to connect all the outlets ;út was called the Circular Road. The boundary thus formed measures somewhat less than nine miles. Latterly the lines of the Royal and Grand Canal on the north and south have afforded a boundary line still more comprehensive; but the entire of the included area is not covered with buildings. A circle, with Essex Bridge as a centre, and with a radius of one mile, will comprehend very nearly all the inhabited part of the city, exclusive of the outlying villages subject to municipal jurisdiction. The area within the limits of the Circular Road covers a space of 1264 acres, of which about 785 are on the southern side, and 478 on the northern side of the Liffey, or Anna Liffey, a name said to be derived from Awen Luiffa, the black river. This river, which, after traversing the city from west to east, through an extent of two miles and a half, reckoned from the King’s Bridge to the quay point, near Ringsend, discharges itself into the Bay of Dublin, forming a harbour singularly ill calculated for commercial purposes, in consequence of two sand-banks called the North and South Bulls, between which it flows. Attempts were made to diminish the dangers arising from them, and to deepen the bed of the river, particularly at the entrance, where a bar having but six or seven feet water at low tide prevents the entrance of ships of heavy burden, by carrying out two piers called the North and South Walls, into the sea. The former of these, which is much the shorter, is terminated by a small light-house; [7:8:238]the latter extends in the form of a broad road, a mile and a half in length, to the Pigeon House, a collection of buildings originally intended as a landing place for the Holyhead packet boats, but, since the removal of these to the Howth Harbour, converted into a military magazine. It is continued two miles farther as a solid wall, thirty-two feet broad at the bottom, to a light-house at the end of the South Bull. These walls have not had the desired effect of deepening the channel. Within them there is safe anchorage, and vessels not drawing more than fourteen feet water can moor at the quays near Carlisle Bridge. Beyond this point the river is navigable for lighters and rowboats only as far as Sarah Bridge, to the west of the city, where a weir thrown across it puts a stop to further navigation. Both sides of the river are cased by walls of granite, forming spacious quays. These are intersected by nine bridges; Carlisle Bridge, nearest the sea; Wellington Bridge, a single arch of east-iron, for foot passengers only; Essex Bridge; Richmond Bridge; Whitworth Bridge, formerly Dublin Bridge; Queen’s Bridge; Barrack, formerly Bloody Bridge; King’s Bridge; and Sarah Bridge. The two last named are each of a single arch, the first of them of iron, the other, a building peculiarly elegant in its proportions, of stone. All except Barraek Bridge are modern and beautiful.

Besides the splendid avenue from east to west formed by the quays, and combining elegance and convenience with health, there are several lines of communication formed of fine streets. The passage through the city from the great northern road is peculiarly striking, particularly at Sackville Street, on account of its great width, and the fine houses of which it is built. The entrance from Kingstown is equally imposing. Both these avenues meet in College Green, an opening surrounded by palaces, and having an equestrian statue of William III. in its centre; their continuance to Dublin Castle, through Dame Street, is also fine. But on deviating from these main lines, the decline of the bustle of business, and of the display of luxury, is immediately visible. Dublin can boast but of five squares; St Stephen’s Green, the largest, exhibits some fine mansions, but the houses are irregular, and of very unequal merit in their architectural structure. An equestrian statue of George II. is in its centre. Merrion Square, the next in size, is more uniform and modern. Fitzwilliam Square, the smallest in the city, pleases from its extreme neatness. All these are on the southern side, and nearly contiguous to each other. Rutland Square, also of very limited dimensions, is surrounded on three sides by ranges of splendid private mansions, the fine edifice of the Lying-in-Hospital forming the interior of its fourth side. Mountjoy Square resembles Fitzwilliam Square in its style of architecture, but on a larger scale. These two are in the north-eastern quarter. The streets are well paved, flagged, and lighted, and kept in a very respectable state of cleanliness.

The city, taking the word in its larger acceptation, is divided into nineteen parishes, fourteen in the south and five in the north. The southern are St Andrew’s, St Anne’s, St Audaen's, St Bridget’s, St John’s, St Luke’s, St Mark’s, St MichaeEs, St Nicholas’, within the walls, and St Werburgh’s within the civic boundaries; St Catherine’s, St James’s, and St Peter's, partly within them; and St Luke’s wholly without them. St Kevin’s parish is included in that of St Peter. Besides these, there are the extraparochial liberties of the deaneries of St Patrick’s and Christ Church. The northern parishes are St Mary’s, which originally embraced all those on the north side of the river; St Michan’s, St Paul’s, and Thomas’s within the city; St George’s in the county; and the late manor, but now the parish, of Grangegorman.

The population of the city is stated by Stanihurst, a native, to have been upwards of 300,000 in 1584. Porter, who wrote in 1680, computed it at the same amount. Though it is nearly certain that each of these estimates is far above the truth, it is impossible to account satisfactorily for the smallness of the numbers in 1645, particularly when compared with the sudden and enormous increase in the beginning of the subsequent century. The accounts, according to calculations at various periods and by different rules, some being merely conjectural, others expressing the number of houses, others that of souls, others again resting on actual enumeration, are given in the following table. In those cases in which the number of houses only is stated, the average of inhabitants is calculated at twelve and a half, that being nearly the amount ascertained in those estimates in which both houses and souls have been taken by actual enumeration.
[table]

In the parliamentary return of 1821 the population of the city has been given in three forms, the first containing the parishes and parts of parishes within the canals, and also within the corporate jurisdiction; the second containing the total area within the canals; the third the same area as the second, together with those parts of parishes beyond the canals. The brief extracts from the returns of 1831 as yet published by parliament give also a threefold view of the population, but whether the limits are the same as those of 1821, cannot be satisfactorily ascertained until the returns shall have been fully before the public. The three statements give the following result :—
[table]

Few large cities present a more striking picture of the extremes of splendour and destitution than Dublin. A line drawn from the King’s Inns in the north of Dublin, directly south, through Capel Street, the castle, and Aungier Street, will, together with the line of the Liffey, divide the whole area into four districts, materially differing from each other in appearance and character. The south-eastern district, which comprehends three of the great squares, is chiefly inhabited by the nobility, the landed gentry, and the liberal professions. The northeastern, which includes the two other squares, contains the residences chiefly of the mercantile and official classes. The post-office and custom-house are in this division. These two districts present every appearance of affluence and luxury. But on proceeding westward the scene suddenly changes. The south-western district, which includes the liberties of St Sepulehre’s and Thomascourt, and was formerly the seat of the silk and woollen manufactures, is in a state bordering on ruin, as is also the north-western [7:8:239]district, in which are the barracks, and the great market for cattle and hay.

Dublin is the seat of the local executive, consisting of the lord lieutenant and the privy council. It is also the seat of the supreme courts of judicature, from which an appeal lies only to the House of Lords in Westminster. The, lord lieutenant resides, for a few months during spring, in Dublin Castle, but spends most part of the year at an elegant villa in the Phoenix Park. The castle was built in 1205, by Henry de Loundres, archbishop of Dublin. It originally consisted of a single square flanked by towers at each angle, the two southern of which still remain. It contains a suite of apartments for the lord lieutenant, in which are two magnificent rooms, the audience chamber, and St Patrick’s hall, where balls are given on that saint’s day. The remainder of the buildings are appropriated to the privy council, the apartments of the state officers, and some of the public offices. Other buildings without the square have been successively attached to the castle. The principal of these is the chapel royal, projecting from one of the towers yet standing. It is a beautiful pile of highly finished florid Gothic architecture, of small proportions. Its interior has a fine painted window, and is ornamented v, ith the arms, carved in oak, of all the lord lieutenants of Ireland to the period of its erection. The treasury, the ordnance, the quarter-master’s office, and some other minor departments, occupy the remaining space. A guard of state of horse, foot, and artillery, is mounted here daily.

The judicial functions are committed to the lord chancellor, who presides in the court of chancery, the master of the rolls, who holds a subordinate court, and the three law courts, viz. the king’s bench, the common pleas, and the exchequer, over each of which four judges are placed. The building where the courts are held, on the King’s Inns quay, is a large and highly ornamented pile, consisting of a central part containing a circular hall of large size, in each angle of which one of the four principal courts is held, that of the master of the rolls being in a detached apartment. The wings, which form two small squares, are appropriated to the offices and record repositories belonging to the courts. The prerogative, consistorial, and admiralty courts, are held in the King’s Inns buildings, to be described hereafter.

The boards of commissioners which had charge of the principal branches of the revenue all sat in Dublin until very lately. They are now removed to London, and the details here managed by inferior agents. The customs and excise offices were both held in the custom-house, which at first stood on the south side of the river, close to Essex Bridge, but on the erection of Carlisle Bridge they were removed to the magnificent structure erected for them on the north wall, a square building 375 feet by 209, with four fronts, each highly ornamented, and having a beautiful cupola rising from the centre, but recently consumed by fire. At present the officers of customs have little more to do than to collect the duty still levied on coal imported for the use of private families. The business of the stamp-office, which had been transacted in a separate building in William Street, once the private mansion of the Earl of Powcrseourt, has been transferred to some of the apartments of the custom-house, vacant since the removal of the boards to London; and the building in William Street has been sold to a mercantile establishment. The post-office, which on its first opening had been held in College Green, is carried on in a fine building in Sackville Street, under the care of a secretary acting under the postmaster-general in London.

A large military force has always been maintained in and near Dublin. The principal barracks are at the western extremity of the city. They consist of four large squares, capable of accommodating two thousand men, both infantry and cavalry. A temporary barrack, capable of containing a regiment of infantry, has been fitted up in some unfinished houses south of the castle. Richmond barrack, for infantry, on the banks of the Grand Canal, beyond Kilmainham, on an elevated and healthy situation, forms a fine and substantial fabric of great extent. Portobello barrack, for cavalry, is on the banks of the same canal, near Harold’s Cross. At Island Bridge, near Kilmainham, there is an artillery barrack; and another at the magazine at the Pigeon House.

The municipal government is vested in the lord mayor, two sheriffs, a board of aidermen, and an assembly consisting of ninety-six representatives from the twenty-five guilds of trade, together with an unlimited number of sheriffs’ peers. The charter of Henry II. already mentioned was confirmed and enlarged by John, and by numerous others from succeeding monarchs. The latest is that by James II. The chief magistrates were originally styled provost and bailiffs. The former title was changed to that of mayor in 1409, the latter to that of sheriff in 1547. In 1660 Charles II. granted the lord mayor a golden collar, a company of foot, and the right of having a sword of state, a mace, and a cap of dignity. ' In 1665 the title of lord mayor was conferred on him, and L.500 per annum granted in lieu of the foot company. In 1672 the Earl of Essex, then lord lieutenant, issued new rules for the regulation of the corporation. In 1682 the tholsel was built as its place of assembly; it was taken down in 1807, and the corporation since meets in a plain building in William Street.

The city assembly is formed of two bodies, the aldermen and commons. The latter consists, as already noticed, of representatives chosen every three years by the twenty-five guilds of trades, in numbers proportioned to the estimated importance of each; besides which, every person who has been elected to the office of sheriff has a seat in the commons for life, under the name of sheriffs’ peer. In this assembly the sheriffs preside; they are annually chosen from among the representatives of the guilds, by the common council. Each person elected must prove himself by oath worth L.2000∙ Those who please may decline to serve the office, on paying a sum of L.500. Such persons are said to fine, but are not therefore disqualified from sitting as sheriffs’ peers.

The aldermen, twenty-five in number, are chosen by the common council out of a list of four names sent down to them by the board of aidermen, which sits in a separate chamber, where the lord mayor presides. They hold office during life. The lord mayor is elected by the aldermen generally, according to seniority; he must be approved and sworn in by the lord lieutenant. This ceremony takes place at Michaelmas. He holds a court for the trial of petty offences and misdemeanours, and settles disputes between workmen, journeymen, and servants, and their employers. During the year subsequent to that of office he presides at the court of conscience, which takes summary and final cognizance of suits of debt under L.2 Irish. Every third year he perambulates the city bounds on horseback, attended by the civic authorities. The tour commences at low-water mark on the South Bull, where he determines the boundary of his jurisdiction by flinging a javelin into the sea. This.ceremony, called riding the franchises, was formerly made the occasion of a splendid procession of all the guilds dressed in uniform, and preceded by banners and appropriate emblems. The corporation appoints a recorder, treasurer, town-clerk, secretary, sword-bearer, and other inferior officers. It has also the regulation of the markets. The principal wholesale [7:8:240]markets are that of Smithfield for cattle, hay, and straw, ' and those near the new prison for fruit, potatoes, vegetables, eggs, and fish. There are ten retail meal markets, generally well supplied, but not remarkable for cleanliness, with the exception of the Northumberland market, lately opened in the neighbourhood of Sackville Street by a spirited individual as a private speculation. The custom of slaughtering cattle in private yards is carried on to an offensive extent. A small market for hay, straw, and butter is held beyond the jurisdiction of the corporation in Kevin Street, in the manor of St Sepulchre. The supply of fuel is also in some degree under the control of the corporation. It consists chiefly of coal from England, and some from Scotland; turf is brought in large quantities by both canals. Native coal is also sent to the city from Leitrim and Kilkenny, but not in quantities or at prices to do away with the demand for the imported article. The corporation has also the charge of supplying the city with water, which is brought from the canals into the reservoirs, whence, after having been forced through a filtering machine of excellent construction, it is conveyed by pipes through all parts, so that the inhabitants are copiously supplied with this necessary of life on moderate terms.. Fountains are also set up in several places in the poo££f parts of the town; but these are under the control of a special corporation.

Four distinct courts, besides the court of conscience, are held within the limits of the lord mayor’s jurisdiction; the quarter sessions, at which the recorder, aided by two aldermen at least, presides to try petty offences; the court of oyer and terminer, held by two of the puisne judges of the superior courts for crimes of a graver nature; the recorder’s court, which is held in January, April, July, and October, for actions of debt by civil bill process; and the lord mayor’s court already mentioned. All are held in the sessions’ house, a neat building of hewn stone in Green Street, erected in 1797. The records of the city are preserved in some of the apartments of this building.

For the purposes of police, the city is divided into four districts, nearly corresponding with those already described. In each there is an office, at which three magistrates, one an aiderman, the second a common council man, and the third a barrister, all appointed by the crown, sit every day. They have under them an armed force, consisting of fifty-two peace-officers, thirty mounted, and a hundred and seventy dismounted police, and six hundred and fifty watchmen, which last body remains on duty from an hour after sunset till an hour before sunrise. The police has the regulation of the public carriages plying in the city and its neighbourhood. These are chiefly-hackney coaches and jaunting cars, which latter are now distributed on convenient stands through most part of Dublin, like the former.

The criminal prison was formerly at Newgate, between Thomas Street and Cutpurse Row, but has been removed to a square building flanked with towers, built in Green Street for the purpose. Originally it was intended for prisoners of every description; but in consequence of arrangements lately made to diminish the numbers by which it was thronged, it is not now often overstocked. It is under the control of the corporation, which appoints all the officers, and has been annually reported by the inspectors-general as among the worst arranged prisons in Ireland. The Richmond General Penitentiary, an extensive pile of building in Grangegorman Lane, was erected to prevent the necessity of transportation, being intended for convicts sentenced to long periods of punishment. It was under the immediate control of the government, by whom the jailor and other officers were appointed. The experiment has not succeeded. An enquiry into its internal management disclosed several grave abuses, the jailor has been removed, and the building was used for a cholera hospital in 1832. Juvenile offenders are sent, on conviction, to a house of correction in Smithfield. The bridewell on the Circular Road for minor offences is under the city magistrates. It is well regulated. Useful works are carried on so far as to defray part of the expenditure. The treadmill has been introduced into it. The prisoners are also employed in cultivating a large garden for the use of the inmates. The prisons for debtors are four. The Four Courts’ Marshalsea receives prisoners both from the city and from all the counties in Ireland. It is in a healthy situation on a rising ground near Thomas Street, and well secured by a lofty wall, but badly ventilated. A plan proposed by an intelligent architect for correcting this defect without the risk of escapes, has not been carried into effect. The Sheriffs’ Prison in Green Street is intended for all cases of debt above L.10 contracted within the city. Previously to its erection in 1794, debtors were detained in the residences of the bailiffs, commonly called spunging-houses, a custom which occasioned many gross abuses. For some time also after the opening of this prison, the keeper was partly remunerated by the rents of the apartments. The abolition of prison fees has put an end to this abuse, and the only well-founded cause of complaint at present arises from the limited extent of its accommodations. The City Marshalsea, adjoining the Sheriffs’ Prison, receives debtors íòr sums less than L.10, under decrees of the lord mayor’s court and the court of conscience. The prisoners are generally of the poorest classes, and many of them have no resource but casual charity for the support of life; even a lodging in the common hall must be purchased at the rate of a penny a night. The state of the Dublin prisons in general, though considerably improved by the degree of attention lately paid to remedy the defects of their construction and their internal economy, still requires much amelioration, not only with respect to the classification and treatment of the prisoners, but also to the expenditure, which is much greater than what would be found to be necessary under a better arranged system.

Those parts of Dublin not under the civil magistrates are, the manor of Grangegorman, which includes a district in the neighbourhood of Glasnevin and Mountjoy Square, of which the dean of Christ Church is the lord, and appoints a seneschal, who holds his court in a private house. The manor of Thomascourt and Donore, granted to an ancestor of the Earl of Meath, on the dissolution of the monastery to which it had been appendant. Its court was first established in the reign of King John, and still continues open for trial of petty debts and offences. The manor of St Sepulchre, including the parishes of St Kevin and St Nicholas Without, of which the Archbishop of Dublin is lord, with extensive powers that have now nearly become obsolete. It has a court-house and prison attached to it. The ground immediately adjoining the cathedrals of Christ Church and St Patrick are also exempt jurisdictions, subject to their respective deans; but their authority is now little more than nominal.

The seat of the archiepiscopal see is in this city. The palace was till lately in an old building in St Sepulchre’s, now converted into a police barrack. The archbishop resides in a house purchased for him in Stephen’s Green. He exerts spiritual jurisdiction over the two cathedrals of Christ Church and St Patrick. Of these the former claims the priority by right of antiquity; its foundation is attributed to the Danes in 1038. It stands nearly in the middle of the old city, on the northern declivity of the hill. Earl Strongbow, the invader of Ireland, is interred[7:8:241] here, and his tomb was long the place at which the tenants of the church were bound to pay their rents. The monument was much injured by the fall of one of the cathedral walls; but was repaired, and is still to be seen in good preservation, with a smaller tomb by its side, having on its top the representation of the superior extremities of a boy cut off at the waist, which circumstance tradition accounts for by informing us that the youth had been cut in two by his father for his cowardice in battle. Several fine monuments are in the aisle; and in the chancel is that of the nineteenth Earl of Kildare, father of the Duke of Leinster. Under the same roof with the cathedral is a small building called St Mary’s Chapel. The chapter consists of the dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, the three prebendaries of St Michael, St Michan, and St John, and four vicars choral. The cathedral is well endowed; its economy fund, amounting to L.2400 annually, is applied to the payment of the dignitaries and officers, and to the maintenance of the structure, which has lately undergone a thorough repair, both internally and externally. The deanery-house was in Fishamble Street, which being considered a situation unsuitable to a dignitary of the establishment, was sold, and it is now a merchant’s warehouse. The dean resides on some of the cathedral lands at Glasnevin, in one of the northern outlets. The cathedral of St Patrick was founded in 1190 by John Cornyn, archbishop of Dublin, in a very low situation, and therefore subject to the bad effects of floods, by which it is liable to be inundated. About a hundred years after its erection it was completely burnt, but was soon after raised from its ruins in increased splendour. At the reformation it was dissolved, and the building used for some of the purposes of the courts of justice. King Edward projected its change into a university; but in the succeeding reign of Mary it was restored to its primary destination, which it still retains. The installations of the knights of St Patrick, the first of which took place in 1783, are held here. Its walls have since been ornamented with the helmets, swords, and banners of the knights, those of the present members being suspended over their stalls in the chancel, whence they are removed on their decease into the aisle. This cathedral contains the monuments of several illustrious persons, among which the most celebrated, not so much for the execution of the sculpture, as for the more durable fame of the characters they commemorate, are those of Dean Swift; of Mrs Johnston, immortalized by him under the name of Stella; of Archbishop Marsh, who bequeathed a fine Iibrary to the public; of the first Earl of Cork; and of Duke Schomberg, who fell at the Boyne. The northern transept is used as the parochial church of the adjoining parish of St Nicholas Without. The chapter consists of the dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, the two archdeacons of Dublin and Glandalogh, nineteen prebendaries, four minor canons, and twelve vicars choral. The economy fund amounts to L.2050 per annum. The singing men of these cathedrals perform conjointly at both, and at the chapel of Trinity College, at different hours on Sundays; so that it may be said there is only one choir in Dublin; but that one, from the combination of musical talent, is excellent, although it is a question with many whether the amalgamation, by stifling emulation, does not injure rather than serve the cause of sacred music. The deanery house is in the immediate vicinity of the church. Sir James Ware, who wrote in the reign of Charles I., pronounces this cathedral to be superior to all others in Ireland for magnificence of structure and for extent. Some of the parish churches possess strong claims to admiration. St George’s is a fine insulated Grecian fabric, with a highly ornamented steeple and spire. St Andrew’s, commonly called the round church, from its elliptical form, is remarkable for a statue of its patron saint over its entrance; this being the only instance of a statue erected in such a place in Dublin. St Peter’s and St Michan’s are chiefly noted for their size. The cemetery of the former possesses the bones of the ambitious and arrogant Earl of Clare, who signalized himself in the stormy scenes of 1798. The piety of the inheritor of his title and fortune suffers the remains of him to whom he owes his rank to moulder under the undistinguishing protection of a plain grave-stone. The vaults of St Michan’s are remarkable for an antiseptic quality, which preserves the relics deposited there from decay. Among these are the bodies of the two Shears, brothers and barristers, who were among the first victims of the law on the breaking out of the rebellion just alluded to.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin also resides in the city. The metropolitan church, in Marlborough Street, is considered as more peculiarly under his charge. This is a building of great dimensions, highly ornamented internally in the Grecian style, but as yet unfinished on the outside, from the want of adequate funds. When complete it will be among the finest specimens of architecture which the city can boast of. The total number of Roman Catholic parish chapels is twelve, all large, but few externally elegant; a circumstance easily accounted for by the fact, that previously to the year 1745 the strict enforcement of the penal laws prohibited the public exercise of their forms of worship. The relaxation of the law was occasioned by the falling in of the floor of an upper apartment, where a Catholic congregation had assembled to celebrate mass secretly, and by which several lives were lost. On hearing of the accident, Lord Chesterfield, then lord lieutenant, nobly declared that he would no longer be accessory to the enforcement of a statute productive of a catastrophe so fatal. The Catholic places of worship have ever since been kept open without molestation; but the apprehension’s of their pastors, and the jealousy of the ruling powers, compelled them long after to select places of comparative privacy for their erection. The interior of the chapels in Anne Street and Exchange Street are highly worthy of inspection. Besides the parochial chapels, there are seven belonging to friaries of the Franciscans, the Calced and the Discalced Carmelites, the Capuchins, the Dominicans, the Augustinians, and the Jesuits, and nine belonging to nunneries, viz. two of Discalced Carmelites, two of Poor Clares, two of the Presentation, one of Dominicans, one of the Sisters of Mercy, and one of the Sisters of Charity; the ladies of which last-named order signalized themselves by their zealous and indefatigable attendance on the dying beds of the sufferers in the hospitals during the late awful visitation of the cholera.

Protestant dissenters are by no means numerous in Dublin. There are four congregations of Presbyterians, two of which profess the Trinitarian, and two the Unitarian doctrine; four congregations of Independents, six of Methodists, and of Quakers, Seceders, Baptists, Moravians, Kel-lyites, and German Lutherans, one each. The few Jews resident in Dublin have no synagogue. The following table will afford a concise view of the comparative numbers of the respective places of abode:
[table]
[7:8:242]

Each of the parish churches has a cemetery attached to it, in which the parishioners of every religious persuasion were interred, until the restraints imposed on Catholics by the law called the burial casement act, as to performing their burial service over the dead, obliged them to open two large cemeteries, the one at Golden Bridge, the other at Glasnevin, which, though but two years instituted, are both nearly full, to the serious diminution of burial fees to the Protestant functionaries. The profits of these cemeteries, which are considerable, though the fees are much less than what had been previously demanded, are devoted to educating the children of the poor. The vaults of the newly built Roman Catholic places of worship are also appropriated to the reception of the dead. The Jews, the Quakers, the French Calvinists, and the Moravians, have each a cemetery in or near the city.

Dublin has had its full share of the benefits arising from improvements in education. As early as the year 1311 a university was erected in it, under a bull of Clement V. in St Patrick’s Church; but it gradually declin-edi until it became virtually extinct at the close of Henry VII.’s reign. After the Reformation, Sir Henry Sidney and Sir John Perrot exerted themselves to convert that cathedral into a university; but they were overruled by Archbishop Loftus, who protested successfully against what he deemed an encroachment on the rights of the church. In lieu of it, however, he prevailed on the corporation of Dublin to apply the dissolved monastery of All Saints or All Hallows to the same purpose. Hence arose the university of Trinity College, which at first consisted only of a provost, three fellows, and three scholars; but now of a provost, seven senior fellows, who together form a board which has the regulation of all the concerns; eighteen junior fellows, and seventy scholars, besides several professors in various branches of science. The number of under graduates amounts to more than 1200. The buildings form three large squares, and are used partly as dwelling apartments, partly for the purposes of education. The library, consisting of more than 100,000 volumes, is deposited in a noble gallery 210 feet long, adorned with busts of distinguished literary and scientific characters from Homer to the present day. It is rich in modern English publications, in consequence of having the right to a copy of every book published under the copyright act, and also in theology. It likewise possesses some valuable manuscripts. Its greatest defect is a want of modern continental publications. The chapel and examination hall are also fine buildings; the latter contains a very fine monument of Dr Baldwin, one of the chief benefactors to the college, and some portraits of other remarkable personages. The dining-hall, a plain building, has also some similar portraits. The museum is not well stocked; but the botanic garden in the suburbs is maintained in a manner highly creditable to the college. The school of anatomy is of first-rate excellence. The regular course of studies for a batchelor’s degree continues for four years, during each of which the student is subjected to four examinations; and at the close of this period gold medals are awarded to the two best answerers in science and the classics. The college observatory is at Dunsink, about five miles north-west of Dublin. The revenues arise from lands to a large extent, and from the fees of pupils. The college has also the disposal of a number of valuable benefices, which, when vacant, are offered to each of the fellows successively, commencing with the senior. The acceptor consequently vacates his fellowship, which is filled up by election, after a severe public examination by the provost and senior fellows. During the short reign of James II. a college for Roman Catholics was opened in Back Lane, but was extinguished on his abdication.

The Inns of Court were intended for the instruction of law students. Collet’s Inn, the first appropriated to this purpose in the reign of Edward I., having been erected without the city walls, was destroyed, together with the king’s exchequer, by an incursion of the Irish from the Wicklow Mountains. The inns were revived during the reign of Edward III. in a building near the castle, given by Sir Robert Preston, chancellor of the exchequer, and thence called Preston’s Inns, where the institution was maintained for upwards of two centuries. But the society being dispossessed in consequence of a flaw in the title, the inns were removed to the dissolved monastery of St Saviour’s, where the four courts now stand, and there took the name of King’s Inns. These buildings having been suffered to fall to ruin, a new site was chosen in the northern extremity of Dublin, where they are now held. The principal apartments are the dining-hall and the library, which latter forms a detached building. Law students are obliged to attend terms here for two years previously to being allowed to practise as barristers; but as no arrangements have been made for literary instruction beyond the use of the library, punctuality of attendance is ascertained solely by their presence in the dining-hall, and therefore they are facetiously said “to eat their way to the bar.”

The school of medicine is partly under the control of the board of Trinity College, which nominates and maintains professors of anatomy, chemistry, and botany, and partly under that of the college of physicians, which nominates the professors of the practice of medicine, of the institutes of medicine, and of materia medica, who are paid by grants of public money; but the emoluments of all depend likewise on the fees of pupils. The college of physicians was first incorporated by Charles II., and renewed by William and Mary. It enjoys some important privileges; among others, the right of inspecting the shops and stores of apothecaries, druggists, and chemists, and of destroying drugs of bad quality. The college consists of fourteen fellows, on whom the management devolves; of honorary fellows, who are excluded from any interference with the financial arrangements; and of licentiates, who, though not entitled to take any part in the management of the collegiate concerns, are summoned on occasions of importance. Every physician practising in Dublin deems it necessary to take out a license, which is granted on examination. The college meets at an infirmary in the south of Dublin, founded by Sir Patrick Dun, who bequeathed a large estate to it, and to other uses connected with the advancement of medical knowledge.

Surgery was long considered in Ireland, as well as in England, as a trade, the practitioners being included in the worshipful corporation of barber-surgeons. Nor was it till 1784 that a charter, founding a college of surgery, put the practice of that inestimable art on a basis enabling it to advance in a manner suited to the wants and character of a civilized nation. Still, indeed, so much of the antiquated prejudice prevails as to require, though not of necessity, the servitude of an apprenticeship for five years. The college, which was at first held in an obscure building near Mercer’s Hospital, has been removed to an elegant range of buildings in St Stephen’s Green, where lectures on all the most important branches are delivered, a museum, dissecting-room, and library kept up, and examinations held for the admission of practitioners. The large amount of fees on a diploma has, however, deterred many from taking advantage of this arrangement, and obliged them to have recourse to London, where the low rates of fees more than compensate for the trouble and expense of the journey thither.

The apothecaries also have some share in the completion[7:8:243] of a medical education, by lectureships and examinations on chemistry and pharmacy at their hall in Mary Street. Their establishment consists of a governor, deputy-governor, treasurer, secretary, and thirteen directors.

There is in Dublin no classical school on a public foundation similar to the great grammar schools in London and Westminster; but the institutions for the literary instruction of the poor are numerous. According to the returns made in 1824-26, there were then nineteen parochial schools maintained partly by the incumbent and partly by subscriptions and charity sermons, eleven assisted by issues of public money through the Kildare Place Society, two assisted in a similar manner by the Association for discountenancing Vice, one by Erasmus Smith’s bequest, two by the Charter School Society, and fifìy-six by private contributions from charitable societies and individuals. The number of schools wholly maintained by the pupils’ fees is 323, making the total number 412.

Hospitals or asylums for those reduced by age or other causes are also numerous, and liberally supported. The chief is the House of Industry, in North Brunswick Street, originally established in 1773, in the vain hope of abolishing mendicity. After an experience of forty-five years, it was found to be totally inadequate to attain its object, notwithstanding the great outlay in buildings, and the heavy annual charges for its maintenance. The buildings, therefore, instead of being, as before, open to mendicants of every description, now receive only the aged and disabled poor. The main edifice consists of a large square 265 feet by 230, attached to which are other ranges for workhouses, stores, and the like.

Lunatics are maintained in St Patrick’s Hospital, founded by the celebrated Dean Swift, and conducted by governors appointed under its charter. The unhappy inmates have every indulgence compatible with their situation. The General Lunatic Asylum, erected near the House of Industry, and placed under the care of officers appointed by government, originally received patients from all parts of the country; but, under a late act of parliament, it has been limited to a district consisting of the counties of Dublin, Louth, Meath, and Wicklow, each of these contributing towards its expenses in proportion to the number of patients sent in. The number in 1831 was 239, of which 101 were males and 138 females. A lunatic department is also attached to the FIouse of Industry, to which incurable and epileptic patients are periodically transferred from that just described. There were, in 1831,470 patients in it, namely, 179 males and 291 females, of whom 105 males were employed, chiefly in gardening, and 152 females in occupations suitable to their sex, and conducive to the economy of the institution. They are well and economically supported. Cases requiring severe corporeal restraints are uncommon; and the whole institution, notwithstanding the limited extent of accommodation, is conducted in a manner highly creditable. Besides these public establishments for the recovery and safe custody of lunatics, five others are maintained by private resources; one near Donnybrook, called the Retreat, by the Society of Friends, and four others by medical practitioners for their own emolument.

The principal institution for the blind is Simpson’s Hospital, founded by a merchant of Dublin, who had laboured under severe affections of the eyes, and under gout. The income is upwards of L.2500 per annum, by which fifty patients, either blind or gouty, are comfortably maintained, in a large plain edifice in the northern side of Dublin. The apartments can accommodate a hundred inmates. The Richmond National Institution in Sackville Street was founded in order to instruct the blind in some of the more useful handicraft occupations. The principal branches taught are weaving, netting, and basket-making. The number of inmates is about thirty-two, besides some externs, who, after having been taught, are allowed to work there, and to dispose of the produce of their industry for their own benefit. These two hospitals are for males only. The Molyneux Asylum, opened in Peter Street, in a large building which had been an amphitheatre for equestrian exhibitions, is confined to blind females, of whom those above the age of fifty have in it a permanent asylum, while those under that age are admitted to a temporary residence, until they can procure a permanent livelihood elsewhere. There are about twenty on the establishment; the building could accommodate fifty. The Retreat at Drumcondra was opened, and is supported, by some private individuals, to afford a temporary asylum to aged and indigent persons of respectability suffering under some sudden emergency. The Old Men’s Asylum, near Mountjoy Square, accommodates twenty-four inmates, who must be at least sixty years old on admission, and Protestants; servants and retailers of spirituous liquors are specially excluded. The Vintners’ Asylum, in Charlemont Street, affords a place of shelter for indigent persons of the last-named class. The Goldsmiths’ Jubilee, founded in the jubilee year by members of that corporation, affords a similar place of shelter fór reduced and superannuated artizans of the trade. An institution for the maintenance and education of children born deaf and dumb is maintained at Claremount, near Glasnevin. The plan of the Royal Hospital, for decayed and maimed soldiers, was first suggested by the Earl of Essex, when lord lieutenant, and was carried into effect through the repeated applications of the Duke of Ormond to Charles II. The site chosen for it had been the ancient priory of Kilmainham, founded by Strongbow for Knights Templars. Upon the extinction of that order, and the confiscation of its property, which was effected by a simultaneous and secret movement of all the crowned heads in Europe, this part of their possessions was transferred to the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, and it became an hospital for guests and strangers only, to the exclusion of the sick and maimed. On the dissolution of monasteries, it devolved to the crown, and so continued till applied to its present use by Charles II. The building, which is according to a plan of Sir Christopher Wren, is a square 306 feet by 288, three sides of which are dwelling-rooms, connected by covered corridors. The fourth contains the chapel, a venerable building, of limited size; the dining hall, in which the banners taken from the Spaniards at Gibraltar are suspended; and the apartments of the master, who is always the commander of the forces for the time being. Connected with the main building are several subordinate offices, a garden, and avenue bordered by rows of stately trees. The entrance from Dublin is through an embattled gateway on the south side of Barrack Bridge. The resident veterans wear the military costume of Charles II. Besides these, there is a great number of out-pensioncrs. The annual expenditure of the house is about L.20,000, that of the externs L.50,000. Of hospitals for reduced and aged women there are, 1. widows’ alms houses; thirteen of these are of Protestant foundation, the principal one being for clergymen’s widows, who are comfortably lodged and maintained in an asylum in Mercer Street; three are Roman Catholic, one Presbyterian, one Independent, one Moravian, and one Methodist; 2. an asylum for superannuated female servants, on Summer Füll: 3. two houses of refuge for young women of good character when out of service, one for Protestants, in Baggot Street, the other for Catholics, in Stanhope Street: 4. six female penitentiaries, four under the direction of Protestants, viz. the Magdalen Asylum, in Leeson Street, founded by Lady Arabella [7:8:244]Denny; the Female Penitentiary, on the North Circular ’ Road; another under the same name on the South Circular Road, near Baggot Street, and the Lock Penitentiary, for the special reception of penitents from the Lock Hospital; two under the management of Catholics, viz. the General Asylum, in Townshend Street, and the asylum in Bow Street. This latter has something romantic connected with its origin. The founder, a merchant of the name of Dillon, had been exposed, when an infant, at the door of a bricklayer, who preserved him, and taught him his trade. On arriving at years of maturity, he was accosted, while returning homewards, by an unfortunate streetwalker. Instead of yielding to her allurements, he persuaded her to relinquish her abandoned line of life, and engaged to provide her with the means of subsistence till a permanent asylum could be procured. While thus occupied he was recognised by his parents, and succeeded to a considerable estate, part of which he devoted to the endowment of this asylum. A penitentiary has also been opened on the South Circular Road, for females discharged from prison, until means of honest employment present themselves.

Among the asylums for destitute children, the Foundling Hospital was by much the most extensive. It was opened in 1730 for destitute children of every age, but afterwards limited to the reception of those under a year old, who are sent to nurse in the country until old enough to be instructed. When arrived at a suitable age, they are apprenticed. The institution was maintained partly by voluntary contributions, partly by a local tax on Dublin, but chiefly by large parliamentary grants, which have been gradually diminished for several years past, and restraints put on the admission of children. The average number of children admitted for twenty years up to 1825 was 2000. Dr Bell’s system of education is adopted in the schools. The buildings, with large gardens attached to them, arc situated in a healthy and elevated situation in the west of Dublin. The Blue Coat Hospital was originally intended as a place of refuge for all the poor in the city. This object being soon found impracticable, it was reduced to an asylum for aged citizens and their orphan sons, and ultimately confined to this last-named class. The buildings in Oxmantown originally covered a considerable space; and previously to the building of the parliament house in College Green the parliament held its sittings there. The present edifice is built nearly on the site of the former. It consists of an elegant centre, with detached wings, one used as a chapel. Of 120 boys it receives, fifty-eight are named by the corporation, fifty by the governors of Erasmus Smith’s schools, ten by the Bishop of Meath as trustee to a bequest, and two by the incumbent of St Werburghs on a similar title. They are educated in the tenets of the Protestant church, and apprenticed to Protestant masters. The Hibernian Nursery in the Park supports and educates the children of soldiers. A preference is given to those whose fathers have been killed, or died on foreign stations. The buildings, which are spacious, have gardens and exercising ground attached to them; and the boys, in addition to the usual routine of scholastic instruction, are trained to the rudiments of military tactics. On the southern quay, near Ringsend, is the Hibernian Marine School, instituted for sailors’ children. It consists of a centre building and two wings, the latter containing the school and chapel. The age of admission is six years, and the course of instruction nautical. Ata proper age the pupils arc placed in the royal navy, or apprenticed to merchants, who take them without fee. The number of boys was 180; but it has been contracted in consequence of the reduction of the parliamentary grant. The Bedford Asylum, for industrious children, is one of the existing branches of the House of Industry. It forms three sides of a square, and contains apartments for 390 children of both sexes, in which they are taught various kinds of useful works. The teachers are paid by a portion of the profits of the children’s labour in lieu of salary. The principal establishment for female orphans is that on the North Circular Road, originating with two benevolent ladies, who formed an institution for maintaining female orphans under ten years old. The funds were soon considerably augmented by the exertions of the celebrated Dean Kirwan, whose appeals from the pulpit for several years brought in a large additional income. It is now supported by subscriptions, charity sermons, and a grant of public money. It can accommodate 160 children, who are educated for servants, and apprenticed at a proper age. The freemasons of Ireland formed an institution in 1797 for the support of female orphans of the craft. It supports about twenty children. In Pleasants’ Asylum twenty female Protestant children are maintained and educated; and, when of age, receive a handsome portion on marrying conformably with the rules laid down in the founder’s will. Most of the places of religious worship have attached to them schools, in which a certain number of the destitute children of the parishioners, chiefly orphans, are maintained by the contributions of the benevolent part of the congregation.

The progress of disease is combated, and the sufferings from accidental injuries assuaged, by means of numerous infirmaries and dispensaries. Of the former, the most extensive of those which take in cases of all kinds, surgical and medical, is Stevens’ Hospital. It was founded by the bequest of a physician whose name it bears, and erected by his sister, who having been left a life interest in the property previously to its being applied to its final purpose, immediately devoted the greater part of it to fulfil her brother’s intentions, reserving to herself only L.120 per annum, and apartments in the hospital. In addition to the original estate, and to other contributions and bequests, it receives a grant of public money; through all which means, its income, amounting to L.2200 per annum, supports about 200 beds. The Meath Hospital, originally built on the Coombe, for the benefit of the liberties of Dublin, and afterwards converted into a county hospital by act of parliament, has been transferred from its former confined and low situation to another in the outlets, where a large building was erected for it, chiefly through the munificence of Mr Thomas Pleasants, who contributed L.6000 towards its building and maintenance. Its annual income exceeds L.1000. The medical officers at first received salaries of L.100 each, which they have resigned for the benefit of the institution. The hospital on the Coombe, after having been closed for some time, has been restored to its former purpose by voluntary subscriptions. The Charitable Infirmary, in Jarvis Street, the oldest in Dublin, and opened at first in Cook Street by the contributions and exertions of a few gentlemen of the medical profession, was transferred toits present situation in 1792. It is capable of accommodating fifty patients, but the state of its funds seldom admits of more than thirty. The Royal Military Infirmary in the Phoenix Park, near its entrance, is a general infirmary for the army. The edifice, though plain, is much admired for the elegance of its proportions. The interior is provided with everything requisite for such an institution. The total annual expense of each patient is estimated at L.33, which is defrayed by a public grant, and by stoppages of the soldiers’ pay while in hospital. Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital is appropriated exclusively to medical cases, for the instruction of the pupils attending the professors of the College of Physicians. The Richmond Hospital, a part of the House of Industry, and Mercer’s Hospital, founded by a benevolent [7:8:245]lady of that name in Stephen Street, on the site of the decayed hospital of St Stephen, are set apart for surgical cases and accidents. There are three fever hospitals. The House of Recovery in Cork Street, the first and largest, supported by subscriptions and public money, has contributed to check considerably the progress of low fever prevalent among the ill-fed artizans and paupers in that district. Its beneficial effects led to the opening of a second in the north of Dublin, on a smaller scale, called the Whitworth Hospital; the third, the Hardwick Hospital, is another of the appendages of the House of Industry. The Lock Hospital was opened in Townshend Street in 1792, for the reception of venereal patients of both sexes; but in 1820 male patients were excluded, and it has been ever since confined to females. The number of beds, originally 300, is now reduced to half that number. The building, of plain granite, consists of a centre containing apartments for the officers, and two wings in which are the patients’ wards. It is wholly under the control of a board appointed by the lord lieutenant.

The formation of dispensaries is encouraged by a special act of parliament authorizing grand juries to present in aid of them a sum equal to that subscribed by individuals. Most of the infirmaries in Dublin have dispensaries attached to them, besides which there are several unattached. St Mary’s and St Thomas’s was the first established; the next in importance is the Dublin General Dispensary. The Meath Dispensary has connected with it a department for supplying food, from a conviction that much of the disease incident to the poor arises from or is augmented by unwholesome or deficient nutriment. A vaccine establishment is carried on extensively in Sackville Street; and a second, connected with a dispensary for the infant poor, in Clarendon Street; their efficacy is more highly appreciated every year. There are also several minor district or parochial dispensaries in various situations, for particular complaints.

The most remarkable charitable institution among those which do not undertake to supply lodging as well as maintenance, is the Mendicity Association, formed in 1818, and since supported solely by voluntary contributions. It originated in a well-founded conviction of the inefficacy of the attempt to prevent the practice of street-begging in Dublin, through the medium of the House of Industry, from which it differs in two important points; the one, in declining to provide the poor with lodging, but merely with food, and in obliging them to procure the means of lodging and clothing themselves by their own labour, for the exertion of which the society procures the means; the other, its total dependence on voluntary contributions, to the utter rejection of grants of public money. The manager’s committee publishes annual reports, which show that, though it has been more than once on the eve of dissolution through want of pecuniary resources, it still continues to exist in vigour sufficient to diminish considerably, though not wholly to suppress, the custom of street-begging. The Sick and Indigent Room Keepers’ Society originated in an effort made in 1790, by a few householders in the neighbourhood of Corn-market, to provide for the most urgent necessities of the poor in their neighbourhood, by affording a temporary weekly stipend in money for their lodging and maintenance. It has since extended itself throughout the whole city, and is managed by four committees for its four divisions, who ‘hold a joint meeting every month to receive reports and issue grants. The Strangers’ Friend Society somewhat resembles that just described, but is more particularly directed to the relief of strangers reduced to want during their temporary sojourn in the city. It was set on foot, and is chiefly supported, by the Methodists. The Charitable Association has for its object the relief of all paupers not street beggars, and the procuring of work for the industrious poor. Ano- l ther society, confined to the latter object alone, and established by the Society of Friends, meets at the House of Refuge in Dorset Street. The Dorset Institution in Abbey provides suitable work for industrious females; children are also taught in it to plait straw; and a wareroom is opened, in which wearing apparel, made up by the poor employed, is sold at reduced prices. The Debtors’ Friend Society is formed for the release of debtors confined for sums under L.5, and not contracted for spirituous liquors, or for other improper purposes. The Musical Fund, for the special relief of distressed musicians, was formed from the profits of concerts, and is supported by the annual subscriptions of the members, who have thereby a right to its benefits under certain restrictions. The Literary Teachers’ Society has the same object with respect to members of their own profession, by whom also it is chiefly supported. There are two associations for lending small sums to poor tradesmen, payable by instalments without interest; the one, the Meath Charitable Society, and the other, the Charitable Loan. They meet monthly in the vestry rooms of St Catherine’s and St Anne’s parishes. The system of Savings’ Banks was introduced into the city by an association, which had influence enough to procure an act of parliament, establishing them on provisions adapted to the country. The principal bank is in School Street, which now has several branch banks in various parts of the city. Another was afterwards opened in St Peter’s parish; but after continuing some time, its affairs fell into confusion, from which it is now endeavouring, it is hoped successfully, to extricate them.

Most of the religious societies spring from kindred sources in England. The chief among them is the Hibernian Bible Society, founded in 1807, and which has now a fine establishment in Sackville Street. Several minor societies for the distribution of the Bible, and differing from one another chiefly as to the channel into which their labours should be directed, have arisen from it, some detached, others auxiliaries or branches of the parent association. The Irish Society was formed for promoting the religious instruction of the Irish through the medium of their own language, by publishing Bibles, Testaments, tracts, and rudimental books in that tongue, and by sending itinerant teachers through the country for their instruction. The names of the Church Missionary, the Tartarian Missionary, and the Methodist Missionary Societies, announce the origin and objects or each. The Jews’ Society undertakes the conversion of that nation to the Christian faith. The Religious Tract Society has an extensive store and sale-room in Sackville Street. The Continental Society professes generally to promote religious knowledge and sentiments throughout Europe.

Scientific and literary societies are few. The Royal Dublin Society is foremost in seniority and importance. It owes its origin to some literary characters, who in 1731 formed an association for scientific purposes. In 1749 it was incorporated by charter, and received an annual parliamentary grant ofL.500, which was gradually augmented until it amounted to L.10,000, but latterly it has been reduced to L.7000. It embraces a variety of objects. The encouragement of agriculture and rural economy is attempted by shows of cattle, and by botanical lectures, for which the society maintains a fine garden near Glasnevin, containing upwards of twenty acres. The study of mineralogy is promoted by a professorship, and a museum classed according to the Wernerian system. It contains the Leskcan collection, which is peculiarly rich in shells, butterflies, beetles, and reptiles. Lectures are also delivered by professors of chemistry and natural philosophy.
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The professorships of mining and the veterinary art have been discontinued. A drawing school is established, in which pupils of promising talents are instructed gratuitously in landscape, figure drawing, architecture, and modelling, and premiums are periodically awarded. The society is also provided with a good library, containing upwards of 12,000 volumes. It is particularly rich in works on botany, and in those relating to Ireland. It has likewise a gallery of statuary, in which are casts from the Elgin marbles. The museum and gallery are open to the public on particular days. The members, who are admitted by ballot, on payment of an admission fee of L.30, which covers all subsequent expenses, have the exclusive advantage of the library, and of a reading-room well supplied with newspapers and periodicals. By a late bye-law, annual members are admissible to most of the advantages of the society on payment of a subscription of three guineas. The society held its meetings in Shaw’s Court until 1767, when it removed to Grafton Street, and thence in 1796 to a building erected for it in Hawkins Street. It 1815 it purchased the splendid museum and grounds of the Duke of Leinster in Kildare Street, where it still continues. The Farming Society was formed in 1800, and incorporated in 1815. It was maintained by grants of public money; but as the results were ultimately found not to be commensurate with the expenditure, the grants have been withdrawn, and the society has sunk into non-existence. The Kirwanian Society, which takes its name from the celebrated chemist and mineralogist, was formed in 1812 for the advancement of chemistry, mineralogy, and natural history. It is supported wholly by individual subscription. The Zoological Society, formed in 1830, on the model of those in Dublin, has a garden on land granted to it by the lord lieutenant in the Phoenix Park, in which it has already collected an assemblage of living animals, which makes it an object of general attraction to the citizens of Dublin. It is supported by subscriptions, and by the money paid by the public for admission. The Royal Irish Academy was instituted bypatent in 1786, topromote the study of polite literature, science, and antiquities. Its formation was chiefly owing to the exertions of its president, the first Earl of Charlemont. It holds its meetings in Grafton Street, where it has a small library containing some valuable manuscripts, and occasionally publishes a volume of transactions. This society receives an annual parliamentary grant of L.300. Several fruitless attempts have been made to excite a taste for Irish antiquities and literature, by societies under the names of the Gaelic, the Hibcrno-Celtic, and the Ar-chaeologian. Each has successively failed, but not until the two first named had sent forth some publications connected with the objects of their formation. The Dublin Institution, formed in 1811, in imitation of the London Institution for literary and scientific purposes, collected a literary and philosophical apparatus for the use of its members by means of a capital of L.1500 raised in L.50 shares. The society has been virtually dissolved this year (1833), by the sale of its books, and the announcement of its intention of disposing of its mansion in Sackville Street, on which a considerable sum had been expended for a lecture room and laboratory.

Several attempts have been made to excite a taste for the fine arts in Dublin. In 1764 an association of artists erected a neat building in William Street for their meetings, and for the exhibition of their works; but the profits of the scheme did not cover their expenses, and the building was consequently offered for sale, and purchased by the corporation of Dublin as an assembly-house. Exhibitions of pictures by native artists were afterwards opened in Hawkins Street, under the patronage of the Dublin Society. On their .discontinuance there, in consequence of the society’s removal to Leinster House, which afforded no suitable room for it, the artists attempted their revival in the Royal Arcade in 1821, but without success. These failures are attributable not merely to the indifference of the public to the subject, but to dissensions among the artists themselves. The want of a permanent place of exhibition has at length been supplied by the liberality of Mr Francis Johnston, an architect to whom Dublin is indebted for several of its modern buildings, particularly the new Castle Chapel. He built an elegant and appropriate structure, at an expense of L.10,000, which, when finished, he presented to the Society of Artists. Their exhibitions have been held in it since its opening in 1825. The society was incorporated in 1823. The progress of the arts has been still further promoted by an association of noblemen and gentlemen, who, under the name of the Royal Irish Association, have erected a building near College Green, in which an annual exhibition of pictures of the old masters, sent in for the occasion by their owners, is held, and premiums are occasionally offered to excite emulation among the young artists. This association also defrayed the expenses of procuring the patent for the Irish artists’ charter, amounting to L.350.

The principal library in Dublin for the number and value of its books is that of Trinity College. It is open of right only to such graduates of that university as take a strict oath relative to their conduct while in it, and to their treatment of its contents. Admission by special favour is attainable, but with some difficulty. The King’s Inns Library is next in value. The right of reading in it is confined to the members of the King’s Inns Society; that is, to barristers, attorneys, and law students. Each of these libraries is well supplied with modern English publications, in consequence of the right conferred on them by act of parliament, of receiving a copy of every new publication. Marsh’s Library, attached to St Patrick’s Cathedral by the munificent bequest of an archbishop of Dublin of that name, contains a good collection of old books, and is open to the public on liberal terms; but, from the very small portion of its funds appropriated to the purchase of books, it is very deficient in modern publications. It possesses some valuable manuscripts. Stevens’ Hospital, the Royal Hospital, Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital, and the College of Surgeons, have each a small library attached to it, chiefly of medical books, for the use of the practitioners. The want of a public library easily accessible, and provided with the works most in request, was attempted to be supplied by a society, which, having been formed in 1791, has collected a large number of books in a handsome and well-arranged building, raised for their reception inDolier Street. Attached to it is a fine reading-room, well supplied with newspapers. But as the fund, arising solely from annual subscriptions, is not sufficient to stock the library with new publications, and to furnish a sufficient assortment of newspapers, the former of these demands has been made subordinate to the latter, and the library consequently impoverished. The other public reading-rooms are that in the Commercial Buildings, to which members are admitted by ballot and the payment of an annual subscription; and the Northumberland Reading-room, opened by the proprietor of an hotel near the Custom House as a pecuniary speculation.

Dublin owes its commercial rank chiefly to its political position as the metropolis of Ireland, and to its being the main pivot of communication with England. The natural impediments to the entrance of large vessels into the river, combined with the dangerous navigation of the bay, present serious checks to the ardour of mercantile speculation. The want of a communication with the interior by water is but imperfectly supplied by the two lines of [7:8:247]inland navigation proceeding from it. A particular account of these must be postponed to its appropriate place in the general account of Ireland. As far as Dublin is concerned, they are mainly serviceable in conveying to it bulky articles, such as stone, bricks, potatoes, grain, and turf. The increase of commercial transactions occasioned by a long continuance of domestic tranquillity after the revolution of 1688, excited a desire among the merchants to have a suitable place for transacting their public business with one another, and consequently the foundations of the Royal Exchange were in 1769 laid on Cork Hill, and the building was opened in ten years after, at an expense ofL.40,000, procured by subscriptions, lotteries, and grants of public money. It is one of the most admired structures in Dublin. Its principal front consists of a Corinthian porticoof six pillars. The interior is chiefly occupied by a magnificent circular hall lighted from above, with which several smaller apartments are connected. The progress of civic improvements already noticed gradually threw this fine building out of the more convenient channels of business. A more central position for mercantile transactions presented itself in College Green. Thither therefore the sagacity of speculation was directed, and a new building has been raised, principally by L.50 shares, with more numerous and suitable accommodations, under the name of the Commercial Buildings. The value of the Royal Exchange has consequently diminished. It is now little used except for public meetings, for which the reverberation of the voice from its lofty dome, and the intercolunmiations of the great hall, render it unfit. It is also a depository for the statues of celebrated characters, and has in it those of George HL, Henry Grattan, and Doctor Lucas. The Commercial Buildings form a small square of simple architecture fronting College Green. They contain a large saloon occupied as a news room, and a number of offices for merchants and brokers, together with an hotel and coffee-house. In order still further to promote the commercial interests of Dublin, an association was formed about thirty years ago, under the name of the Chamber of Commerce; but it soon died away. The idea was revived in 1820, when a number of merchants formed themselves into a society under the same name, which still exists. Its objects are the protection and promotion of the manufacturing and commercial interests of Dublin, and of the country in general. The business is transacted by a council, which is instructed to communicate with the officers of government on the subjects of the association. Their office is held in the Commercial Buildings. The Ouzel Galley is another voluntary association of merchants, for determining commercial differences by arbitration. It takes its name from that of a vessel, which was the occasion of a complicated and protracted suit, that was ultimately adjusted in an amicable manner by the interference of some of the most respectable merchants in Dublin. The effect of steam-navigation on the cross-channel trade has produced a great alteration in the state of commerce in Dublin. Most of the business formerly transacted through the merchants of this city is now carried on by letter with the English broker, and not unfrequently by a personal visit to the trading and manufacturing towns in England, to which access is obtained with extraordinary expedition and cheapness, by the steamers, and by the peculiar facilities for travelling which that country affords.

The Bank of Ireland was formed in 1783, in order to give security to commerce. It was opened at first in some old houses in Mary’s Abbey, with a capital of L.600,000, which was afterwards increased to L.3,000,000. In the year 1802 the parliament-house was purchased by the directors, and adapted to its present destination. This edifice was erected in 1729; and notwithstanding the changes made in it since it was diverted from its original purpose, the exterior has been but little altered. It consists of three fronts. The principal, towards College Green, a colonnade of the Ionic order, formed of a façade and two projecting wings, is much admired for the noble simplicity of its elevation. The western front, a porticoof four Ionic columns, was connected with the other by a colonnade of the same order, forming the quadrant of a circle. The eastern front, which was the entrance of the House of Lords, was, by their special order, a colonnade of the Corinthian order, which the architect found great difficulty in uniting with the other parts. The apartment for the Lords, a fine room, was hung with tapestry. That of the Commons having been burned in 1792, whether by accident or design has never been fully ascertained, was reconstructed after a more elegant design, in the form of a circle surrounded by pillars, between which was a gallery for hearers. This fine hall was taken down by the bank directors, and converted into a square room, now the cash-office. The bank possesses a very curious and complicated system of machinery, worked by steam, for printing the notes, whereby the number struck off can be ascertained at any moment without the chance of error. It has also an armory, containing small arms for all the clerks and servants, who were formed into a corps in 1798 and 1803. The building is still further secured from assault by embrasures and loopholes concealed in the walls. Tanks of great magnitude, and powerful forcing pumps, have been provided for guarding against casualties by fire. The private banking houses are those of Latouche and Company, which transacts the Dublin part of the business of the provincial bank, the Hibernian, Shaw’s, and Bali’s.

The silk, woollen, and cotton manufactures, have been carried on in Dublin. The first was introduced by some French refugees on the revolution of the edict of Nantz. It employed a number of hands, until the alteration in the duties in 1815 gave it a blow from which it has never recovered. It is now nearly extinct. The article most in demand was a mixed fabric of silk and worsted, called tabinet, or Irish poplin. The woollen manufacture gave employment for many years to the greater part of the population of the liberties. Their hall on the Coombe is embellished with a statue of George II. The process of tentering the cloth was long performed in the open air; but as the broken weather to which the country is subject frequently interrupted this part of the manufacture, or compelled the workmen to have recourse to public.houses to dry their webs, Mr Thomas Pleasants, whose name has been already more than once mentioned as a most munificent contributor to the benevolent institutions, erected a tenter-house in Cork Street, at an expense of L.13,000. This branch is also rapidly declining. The cotton trade has always been carried on to some extent in Dublin since its introduction into Ireland, but there is no public building especially connected with it. The board of trustees for the linen manufacture at first met in a room on Cork Hill, afterwards in an apartment in the castle, and ultimately in buildings erected for the promotion of the manufacture in the north of the city. These buildings occupy nearly three acres,' and consist of six courts, surrounded by stores communicating by piazzas and galleries. Part is used as a yarn hall. The trustees, who were nominated from among the leading personages in each of the four professions, were entrusted with the distribution of a large sum for premiums and other expenses. The board has been dissolved; but the buildings are still kept up as warerooms and stores, under the care of a chamberlain.
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The Corn-Exchange was built to obviate the inconveniences felt from the want of a well-situated mart. A charter was obtained in 1817, and a fund raised by shares, with which a large hall has been erected on Burgh Quay, in which grain is sold by sample. Attached to it are buildings intended for an hotel, and hall for public meetings, which latter was used as such by the Catholic Association, and since by the National Political Union.

There are few cities in which the pleasures of domestic society are more indulged in than in Dublin. A spirit of sociability pervades all ranks. One consequence of this peculiar feature is a disregard of public amusements. In Queen Elizabeth’s time plays were performed in the ballroom of the castle by the nobility and gentry. In 1635 Lord Strafford erected a theatre in Werburgh Street, for which Shirley wrote. It was closed in 1641. After the restoration a new theatre was opened in Orange Street, now Smock Alley, under the former patent. In 1733 there were three theatres; one in Bainsford Street, in the liberty of Thomascourt; another in George’s Lane; and the third in Smock Alley. In 1745 Mr Sheridan had a theatre in Aungier Street, which was destroyed in a riot in 1754. Smock Alley still continued open; and in 1758 another was opened in Crow Street, after which both continued, until, after a violent struggle for twenty-five years, the former was given up. On the expiration of the patent, about 1820, the new patentee, not being able to procure the building in Crow Street on what he deemed reasonable terms, purchased the Dublin Society’s premises in Hawkins Street, then used as the Mendicity Asylum, on which a large and elegant theatre has been constructed; but it is not well attended, unless during the extraordinary excitement of first-rate performers, particularly singers. A building called the Arena, set up in Abbey Street for equestrian performances, after having been closed for some years, was taken as their place of meeting by the Dublin Trades Political Union. Shortly after the opening of the Lying-Inn Hospital, an adjoining suite of rooms was splendidly fitted up for balls, concerts, and assemblies. The principal is a circular hall eighty feet in diameter, called the Rotunda; the others, of smaller dimensions, are used as music and supper-rooms. They communicate with the interior of Rutland Square, and were originally thrown open on Sunday evenings as a place of relaxation, where the respectable part of society met together to walk, to look at one another, and to take refreshments. These promenades, as they were called, were ultimately put down by the interference of the clergy. The rooms have since been used for concerts, public meetings, particularly of religious societies, and latterly for auction rooms. The gardens are opened two evenings in every week, and lighted with illuminated lamps, during the summer season. Military bands attend, and rope-dancers and tumblers occasionally exhibit. The attractions thus held out have been found sufficient to draw together occasionally a large concourse of company. The profits arising from the trifle paid for admission are applied to the use of the hospital.

The town residence of the Marquis of Wβterford, in Marlborough Street, and that of the Earl of Charlemont, in Rutland Square, are fine buildings. The latter contains a large and choice library, particularly rich in continental literature, some fine antiques and statues, and a good collection of pictures.

Steam navigation has considerably augmented the concourse of strangers to Dublin, and consequently increased the number of hotels, and improved their management. The Commercial Hotel, on Usher’s Quay, which forms part of a large pile of buildings, intended for a mart for native manufactures, is remarkable for a colonnade in front; and Gresham’s, in Sackville Street, is a splendid and well-appointed concern.

There are but two public monuments worthy of parti- 1 cular notice,—Nelson’s pillar in the centre of Sackville Street, which is 108 feet high, surmounted by a colossal statue of Nelson, and raised at an expense of L.6856; and the Wellington memorial in the Phoenix Park, near its entrance, a stupendous obelisk 205 feet in height, and not yet finished.

At the north-western extremity of the city, the Phoenix Park, an inclosure containing about 1000acres, belonging to the crown, is thrown open for the recreation of the citizens. Reviews of the garrison also take place in it. It contains the lord lieutenant’s lodge, and the residences of some of the public officers. The name is derived from one of the town-lands, of which it is formed. The communications from.Dublin to the interior are maintained by the mail coaches, thirteen of which leave the city every day; and by numerous stage-coaches, caravans, and public jaunting cars. These latter vehicles also afford a convenient and economical, though by no means elegant, mode of conveyance to visit the picturesque and romantic scenery that on all sides embellishes the outlets of this beautiful city. Dublin is situated in long. 6. 21. W. and lat. 53. 23. N., and is distant from London 300 miles in a direct line, 339 miles by Holyhead, and 350 by Liverpool in a direction nearly west-north-west.