proportion of the population of Dublin was composed of Roman Catholics, who thought that by observing some of the forms prescribed by the church, a full dispensation might be claimed for these licentious practices.

After breakfast, we walked to Trinity College, to attend divine service in the chapel. It commenced at half past nine. Many students were present; attired in white surplices, and having the same caps which are worn by the members of English Universities. A black gown is the designating dress on week days. The service was the same with that in the cathedral churches in England: an excellent sermon was delivered by a gentleman, formerly a fellow in the college, and now settled in some country benefice. The chanting and singing pleased us very much. The chapel is large, and has an high vaulted ceiling. Its order is Ionic; two pilasters of this kind occupying the spaces between each window. The ceiling is finely stuccoed, and the whole is richly ornamented. In fact, the brilliant white of the walls, contrasted with the crimson curtains of the window, gave to the chapel an appearance, I thought, rather too gaudy for a place of christian worship.

Understanding that the anniversary sermon before the charitable orphan Institution was to be preached at St. Peter's church at twelve, and that the lord lieutenant was to be present, and, what is unusual, to come in state, we repaired there immediately on leaving the college chapel. The cavalcade of his excellency passed us, while on our walk and within a short distance of the church. A troop of cavalry preceded it; followed by three coaches in which were some of the officers of the lord lieutenant's household. Next come his own carriage drawn by six horses, superbly caparisoned.-Four powdered footmen in state liveries stood behind; who, with the driver and outriders, more resembled stage pageants than men in real life. The lord lieutenant was accompanied in his coach by his wife, (the dutchess of Dorset,) his chaplain, and an officer in full dress uniform whose name and rank we did not learn. Several other carriages closed the procession. A detachment of soldiers was drawn up to receive the lord lieutenant before the door of the church; and he alighted amidst a salute of arms, and the flourish of drums and trumpets. The ceremony was repeated when he returned from church: the guard keeping duty in the mean while at the door. We were fortunate in procuring a pass, and in getting good stations in the church. The lord lieutenant is a fine looking man, and appears about fifty-five. His person is tall and rather slender; but graceful and erect. His countenance possessed something which brought to mind very much that of the present governor of Massachusetts. The contour of the two faces is very like. The lord lieutenant was dressed in a splendid uniform of red and buff, and wore a star on his

*The Earl of Whitworth: late Ambassador to France.

left breast. His coat was faced with blue; and over it was a military frock coat of the same colour. The dress of the lady lieutenant was very rich, but there was nothing particular to mark it. It resembled that of any fashionable lady, on a parade occasion, in our simple republic. Her countenance was agreeable and indicative of benevolence: rather good humoured, than positively handsome. The lord lieutenant and the dutchess occupied front seats in the gallery, hung with crimson cloth fringed with gold. Their attendants waited behind. They gave great attention to the whole service; the former particularly: prayers were read for him under the title of His excellency the lord Lieutenant general and governor general of Ireland.'

The orphans, in number 200, occupied seats in an opposite gallery. They were neatly attired, and all appeared of an age between seven and fourteen. They accompanied the organ with their voices, and the music was uncommonly fine. The church of England service we had the pleasure to hear read by the ingenious Mr. Maturin, curate of St. Peter's, and an excellent discourse was preached by Mr. D.-from the words, The Lord is my Shepherd.' Mr. D. is a popular clergyman and deservedly so. In the course of the service, the orphans descended from the gallery, and entered, unobserved, the floor of the church by another passage, and walked slowly in review, two by two, singing a hymn prepared for the occasion. It was a most interesting, I had almost said, a painful spectacle, and was sufficient to draw a tear from every eye. The collection after the services were over, was liberal; it could not be otherwise.

From St. Peter's we went to the Cathedral of St. Patrick, the service of which commenced at 3, P. M. and was conducted throughout in a most slovenly and careless manner as well by the officiating clergyman, as the congregation. The latter, particularly the ladies, were smiling and conversing in audible whispers with each other; or looking about with an air of non chalence during the whole of the exercises. Here however, as at the college chapel in the morning, the music was very good: and the organ was better played than I remember to have heard, except in the cathedral of Durham. The excellence of the music led me to notice the performers: and it struck me that they were the same who had borne a part in the chapel services. On inquiry I learnt that it was actually the same choir: and that it had sung intermediately at Christ's church, and was also to perform there in the evening. This is its stated Sabbath duty, and a pretty laborious one, too. It is sufficient however to say in commendation of this peripatetick band that it has had the honour of being led by sir John Stevenson.

St. Patrick's is no ways remarkable as a cathedral. It is a huge, cumbrous pile of building, erected in the old part of the city, and in one of the worst possible situations. The name of Swift, it is true, gives it interest. His ashes are interred beneath the pave

ment; and also those of Mrs. Hester Johnson, the 'Stella' of that whimsical poet. There is an appropriate inscription to the memory of the latter; in English, as it should be. That of Swift is in Latin and was written by himself. The concluding words impress a good moral:

“Abi, viator, et imitare si poteris,

"Strenuum pro virili libertatis Vindicatorem:"

which may be literally rendered;

Go passenger, and copy if you can,

Th' intrepid champion of the rights of man.

In a corner of the cathedral there is another monument which Swift erected, as an inscription declares, in acknowledgment of the meritorious and faithful deeds of a valued servant.

If our surprise on entering the city was great, to notice weekday occupations, it was increased, as might be supposed, by what we beheld afterwards in our walks. Almost every pastry cook's room, eating houses of various descriptions, druggists' shops, and many of other kinds, were open, and people were purchasing in them as freely as upon other days. Companies of boys were also seen in the streets, playing marbles and handball.

Passing along the college green early this morning, I had scarcely proceeded forty yards from my lodgings, when I was saluted by the cry of the American President's speech.' The hawker on proclaiming the notice, held out a newspaper which contained it, directly before me. I was amused with the coincidence; that in a city which is, or seems to be, much more detached from America than either London or Edinburgh, the very first cry which I heard should announce the inaugural speech of my sovereign; for sovereign in fact he may be called, notwithstanding the mildness of our revered CONSTITUTION.

The greater part of the day has been engrossed by the labour of presenting letters recommendatory. The result will hereafter appear. As the families to whom we were addressed live in different parts of the city, and some almost out of it, the employment has been productive of the additional advantage of giving us a bird's eye view of this metropolis. A second look at Rutland Square confirmed the opinion we had formed of its beauty on our entree into the city. Stephen's green disappointed expectation. It can boast of little else than its size; being a mile round, and probably therefore the largest square in Europe. The houses exhibit almost all the common, and some very uncommon shapes. They are ranged too with little attention to uniformity or elegance. Mount-Joy and Merion squares are each fine; though the latter is the better. The Liffey which flows through Dublin is a paltry stream, not one whit better in appearance than the river Passaick, just above the falls in New Jersey. It rises on the borders of Kildare, only a few miles distant, and, after pursuing a very meandering course, enters the city which it intersects in almost equal parts.

The labour and enterprise of the people here have succeeded happily in both widening and deepening its channel; and in constructing, too, some noble quays along its margin. Still however when the tide is out, its bed resembles more the artificial hollow of a moat, than the channel of a respectable stream. And here it may not be amiss to interpose a caveat in regard to the familiar use, in these Islands, of this term 'River. It generally has a great looseness of acceptance, and is sometimes applied with a latitude truly ridiculous. In the vocabulary of the American, the name imports dignity, and is given, par eminence, to the larger and more majestic streams of his native land; in the same way that the term, Lake, which here is arrogated by every pool, is there yielded as a tribute to those mighty expansions of water, the Caspians of the New World. Nor do I mean by this to disparage the rivers of Great Britain, by comparing them with the greater North American streams; the Missisippi and the Missouri. An inhabitant of the Atlantic states, though conscious that they are his property, has in fact as little concern with those kingly floods, as an Englishman with the Danube or the Rhone. And yet should he come here impressed simply with the recollection of what he has seen and known of his eastern, though second rate streams, he will require no little discipline to accede to the popular language which magnifies every brook into a river, and every river into a majestic current. Should he see the Granta, or Cam, at Cambridge, or the Isis at Oxford, he would readily pronounce them romantic and pretty streamlets, but no more like to rivers than he to Hercules. I remember one morning at Cheltenham last autumn, returning with a companion from a walk to the Spas, and crossing by a fairy little bridge, a gurgling sporting rivulet scarcely two yards over, the beauty of which I had several times previously remarked, I inquired in a tone of unaffected doubt, if there were any name to that pretty brook? 'Brook!' replied the other, with a countenance of mingled surprise and concern, it is the river Chelt!' I looked hastily again, and almost expected to see the indignant spirit of the stream, bending in misty semblance on the view, prepared to assert its honour, and avenge the affront.*

*In the state of New Hampshire, I would here add, there is a fine sheet of water, equal in size, and little inferiour in native beauty, to Loch Lomond, the queen of the Scotish lakes, which the honest residents around its borders have never thought of dignifying by any higher name than that of pond. It might be wished however that its distinguishing epithet, (Winipisoegee,) was a little softened and reduced, as well for the convenience of daily use, as the euphony of language.

In the saine state also, there is a towering ridge of mountains, modestly termed the white Hills; each of whose peaks is double the height of either Ben Lomond or Helvellyn. There is still another mountain called by the Indians Moselote, which since the settlement of the whites has undergone a whimsical transformation into Moose-Hillock. Its altitude exceeds 5000 feet; in other words, it is nearly 1000 feet higher than Ben Nevis, the tallest of the British mountains.

But to return from this digression to the Liffey; what this stream has wanted in natural advantages, has been supplied, as far as might be, by the hand of man. Not only has great labour been expended in improving its channel, and thereby facilitating navigation, and not only has great taste been displayed in the quays along its sides, there have also some noble bridges been erected over it, two or three of which are of elegant workmanship. One which is a single arch, is of cast iron. But the greatest work which we have yet seen here, and the most stupendous of its kind perhaps in the world, is the mole. The harbour of Dublin was formerly very much exposed to the south easterly winds: and to remedy this, an immense wall, composed of huge masses of stone strongly rivetted and cemented, has been built into the open bay or sea, with incredible labour. This mole is nearly three miles in length, and is raised from four to six feet above high water. Its average breadth at the surface is thirty-five feet; though it is somewhat less than this at the lower extremity, being there, if I mistake not, twenty-eight. A work of this kind is sufficient to illustrate the public spirit and persevering enterprize of the citizens of this great metropolis. The shipping at the mouth of the river makes a fine display: literally presenting a forest of masts.

Dublin, April 22d.

The difference between Irish and British coin, and the nominal value of the currency in the two countries gave me at first some embarrassment. Thirteen pence Irish, are equal to one shilling English, or twelve pence sterling. A pound sterling, or twenty shillings is of course equal to twenty-one shiliings Irish. English shillings, sixpences and half crowns with bank of England notes, rarely circulate in this country. The most common coins are bank of Ireland tokens of five-penny, ten-penny and half-crown pieces. At Belfast where I had to take the change of a pretty large bank of England note, a handful of silver pieces was returned, not one of which I had before seen, except in museums, or the cabinets of the curious.

The Irish women, at least those in Dublin, so far as I have had an opportunity of seeing, are far inferiour in beauty, particularly in freshness and ruddiness of complexion, to either the English or Scotch. Their figures are seldom good; and there is a disagreeable coarseness in their features. I have hardly seen a pretty woman since landing at Donaghadee.

Dublin exhibits a deplorable spectacle at night in the numbers of females abroad, who are abandoned to infamy. They may seem. more numerous to one who has just come from Scotland, and who has been accustomed to the orderly appearance at evening of the

This fact stated without comment, is enough to induce a foreigner to conclude, that in America, in computing the magnitude of natural objects, the people em ploy a Brobdignag mensuration, indeed.