Year: 1873

The ENGLISH ~ IRELAND IN THE 18TH
CENTURY.-Frym a combination of causes
-some creditable to them, some other
than crediiable-the Irish Celts possess
on their own soil power greater than any
other known family of mankind, of assimi-
!ating these who venture among them to
their own image. L'ght-hearted, humor-
Gus. imaginative, susceptible through the
entire range Of feeling. from the profound
est pathos to the most playful jest. if they
pos ,ess some real virtues they possess the
rou1terieits Of hundred more. Passion
ate in neutrality-suspicious. in their
patriotism. passionate in their religion,
passionately courageous, passionately loyal
and afflctionate-they are without the
manliness Nbich will give strength and
solidity to the sentimental part Of their
dispositions wDje the surface and show
is so seductive al 80 winning that only
experience Of its Instability can resist the
charm.


The Incompetence o. character is con-
spicuous in all that they do and have
done in their history. in their practical
habits, in their arts, and in them literature.
Their lyrical melodies are exquisite, their
epic poetry j. ridiculous bombasi Ia the
! liv, of their saints there Is a Wild intastic
splendor but they have no secular history.
for as nation they have done nothing
which posterity will not be anxious TO
forget and if they have never produced
a tolerabie drama, it is because imagins-
tion cannot outstrip reality. Ir the annals
of ten centuries there is not n character,
male or female, to be found b longing TO
them with sufficient hardness Of texture TO
be carved into dramatic outline. Their
temperaments are singularly Impression
able. Yet the impression IS inc, pable Of
taking shape. They have little architec-
ture of their owD, aud the forms ntroduc


ed from England have been robbed Of their
grace Their houses. from cabin % castle,
are the most hideou= in the word. No
lines of beauty soften anywhere the for
bidding harshness Of their provincial
town nor climbing rose or creeper dresses
the naked walls of farmh..use or cottage
The sun never shone on a loyeier country
as nature made it. They have pared its
forests to the stump. till it shivers in
damp and desolation. The perceptions Of
taste which belong to the higher orders Of
understanding are as completely absent as
truthfulness of spirit is absent or cleanli-
ness of person aud habit The Irish are
the spendthrift sister of the Arian race


Yet there is Notwithstanding fascination
about them in their old land and in the
= sad and strange associations of their
} singular destiny. They have power of
attraction which no one who has felt it can
; withstand. Brave to rashness, yet so in
, firm of purpose, that unless they are led
: by others their bravery IS useless to them !;
patriots, yet with history which they
must trick with falsehood to render it
tolerable even to themselves imaginative
and poetical, yet unable TO boast of one
/ single national work of art; attached
ardently to their country, yet 50 cuItivat-
ing it that they are the byword of Europe; /;
they appeal to sympathy in their very
) weakness and they possess aud have
always possessed some qualities the moral
worth Of which it is impossible to over
estimate, and which are rare in the choicest
races of mankind.