known only by mingling with the busy crowd, or the workshop, or the loft of the manufacturer. Here, for example, we would gladly discuss a point, on which we painfully confess our inability to give an opinion, which has often occurred to our minds and grieved our hearts, and bewildered our understandings-namely, what is there in the air of Dublin, or in the temper of its inhabitants, or in the constitution of its University, or in the habits of its mechanics, or in the plans of its men of business, which has hitherto denied to us those printing and publishing propensities, that so distinguishingly and so profitably mark our English and Scottish fellow-subjects. Some writers have been censured for mingling traits of levity with most deeply impassioned expressions of emotion; the combination has been condemned as inconsistent and unnatural. Our feeling at this moment contradicts this criticism; our language may appear to have savoured of levity, and to be expressive of indifference; it proceeds from the mint of deep sorrow for the situation of our country. To adopt the words of a scholar, who keenly felt the injustice done to our country in this, as well as in many other respects "the Reviewers (English) are too much engaged, to notice the literature of unknown and unhappy Ireland. I do believe, indeed, that had the book* been published in Kamschatka, it would have bid much fairer for being circulated in England."

Edinburgh and Glasgow have both become distinguished by the numerous and valuable publications, which proceed from their presses. Now, in population, neither of them is equal to Dublin. They have their Universitiess-so have we. They have their learned men-so have we. As to any natural superiority in the intellect of one nation above that of another, such a notion we disclaim as groundless and absurd. We do not think Daniel O'Connell's "beautiful people," one drachm or one scruple more brilliant or more imaginative naturally, than the stiff square-shouldered sons of Caledonia; neither do we consider the Scotsman by nature more wary or more keenly alive to what he thinks his interest, than the most reckless Patlander. In natural powers we hold all nations to be alike. The Scotch can enterprize in business, it will be said, because they are wealthier; but Scotland was at one time as much marked by poverty as we; their present wealth is the reward of honourable industry; and there are circumstances in our situation, which should give us advantage in a competition with them: the poverty of our people and the remarkable lowness of our taxes, should operate to reduce the price of labour among us. In any other branch of business, so remarkable an inferiority in the price of labour, as the circumstances above stated should produce in the printing business, would occasion an influx of employment from the wealthier country-yet this is not the effect with us. In a country abounding with mechanics, who can live comfortably on wages low, compared with those given in England and Scotland, with a University graced with a body of learned men, who would

Livy edited by John Walker, formerly fellow of Trinity College Dublin.

shed brilliancy on any other land, with young men proceeding in regular and steady supply from our University, eager for employment, honourably desirous of distinction, simple in their habits, and anxious for the reputation of their father-land, with men in trade willing to risk their time and property in advancing the interests of literature with such a combination of circumstances, which theoretically, we should term irresistible-we have almost to the present moment depended on others even for our books in commonest use, and have suffered all our native genius to waste away in silent dejection and obscurity.

On the political causes of this unhappy state of things we shall not touch. Of other causes which might be mentioned, we shall select one, itself, is true relatively an effect, yet now operating powerfully in the discouragement of native literature and talentthe singular disregard of literary pursuits which marks, and we presume, not honourably-the country gentlemen of Ireland. Of thirty-two counties thirteen are represented as not having a bookseller's shop within their confines, and of the shops of that description, which are found in the remaining nineteen counties, some are of such a description as barely to save appearances by presenting the name of such a thing. Of a north western county we can state a fact which we deplore. A military gentleman, who had been quartered in one of its villages, was so much surprised and amused by the happy specimens of orthography and eloquence, presented by the billets received in official correspondence from several Magistrates of the county, that he pasted them on the walls of his guard-room for general inspection. This occurred not very long since. When those, whose happy position puts them in contact with all the enjoyments and advantages which literature can confer, are yet found perfectly indifferent to the acquirement, and insensible to the disgrace of ignorance, it should be no matter of surprise that our peasantry are ignorant.

All improvement should proceed from the rich and elevated; its regular progress is one of descent: from those above the impulse should propagate itself to those beneath. This is one of the duties inseparable from rank and wealth-and woe to the possessor of those most envied gifts, if, as they are distinguished by them, they do not distinguish themselves by acquirements also, and prove by their zeal to impart the blessings of instruction to others, that they have themselves a just and full idea of its worth!!

Amid the unpleasant circumstances of our times, however, some symptoms of amelioration may be perceived. The influential party of our country have, as a body, been grievously deficient in the important duty of promoting the improvement of their father-land. Many are paying the penalty of that neglect in various ways, and some most keenly smarting under the painful visitation; there was a time, and that not beyond the memory of man, when the landlord was all-powerful with his tenantry; he could have directed their attached and energetic hearts to any object he might propose; they would have followed him with clan-like fondness; they looked with reverence and respect and warm attachment to the descendent of an

illustrious line. But education, which would have chastened and guided their feelings, which would have enabled them to found those feelings on the base of wisdom, and to have discriminated their proper bounds and proper destination; that education was withheld on a mistaken principle from their creatures—their attachment was undervalued-they were treated with contempt and spurned-their kindly feelings uncherished and chilled. At length arose the men of evil minds, who taught them to see their state of degradation, and-painful thought!-that blessed opportunity of benefitting our country by improving the lower classes of our people, and binding them in the strongest affection to their superiors passed away-we may say, for ever. The peasantry have now begun to think that their interests and those of their landlords are irreconcileable-and what has been the result? riot, conspiracy, withholding of rents, assassinations, midnight-burnings, a goodly array!!

But amidst all the crash and ruin of the storm, a gleam of peace is seen to dawn. A few men have kept steadily in view the interests of their country; they have not withdrawn themselves to foreign countries, nor become absentees in mere heartless selfishness; they remain at their posts, and in the calmness and loving spirit of their minds they labour to pour out the oil on the troubled waters. Education sanctioned and sanctified by religion, they knew to be the only remedy for our troubles, and this they have perseveringly endeavoured to give to the people through evil report and good report. From the Kildare-place Society, the Hibernian School Society, the Association for the Discountenancing of Vice, &c. &c. a spirit has been infused into the people, which gives ground to hope for the greatest advantages, and from which it will not be surprising to find the impulse that should have proceeded from the higher orders, in a little time rushing from the lower classes into irresistible action, and either casting down their superiors at their feet, or imparting in the strong commotion part of their energy to those above, and by rousing them into action, helping them to maintain their place and station in society. The different Societies now in operation among us, testify with one accord, that a mighty desire for instruction has overspread the land in its length and breadth; that this desire is no whining wish, that proceeds no further, but that it has manifested itself in action, and has in many instances resisted even priestly authority.

From the controversial spirit of the times, some of this mental stir and exhibition of itself through the press has had its rise. Publishers have been allured to enterprize-presses have been employed-writers have been excited and have made their way to the public attention through the press, and having surmounted the great difficulty of a first appearance, they seek for employment of their time, talents and acquirements; this spirit has been for some time now at work among us. Within the few last years more books have issued from the Dublin press, than for many years before, and young adventurers have their first essays through that channel. Some of the students of our University have sought to distinguish themselves in furnishing assistance to their fellow-students by

various publications, of some of which, however, we may be allowed to remark, that they do more credit to the printer, than to either the editor or to the persons for whose use they are designed; we allude particularly to the translations of the Greek Classics into English; the ground of our objection is not so much the execution of the works, as the intention of them. Yet we might find abundant food for criticism in the errors of these translations, to say nothing of the grossly literal style in which they are executed, the effect of which cannot but be bad upon the classical taste of those who make use of them Such works must necessarily labour under the suspicion of being undertaken in the mean spirit of pecuniary emolument, and their obvious intention can confer no honour on the University. The editor may obtain the praise of cleverness, but the praise will be qualified by suspicon of his motives-and as the number of purchasers must be great to have encouraged the publication, the ready inference is unfavourable to the classical character of the University.

The work before us, which has been introduced by those miscellaneous observations, is free from this particular objection, and we are glad to be able to say, is in our opinion well executed.— We hail with pleasure any effort how humble soever, of which the object is to facilitate acquaintance with the illustrious historian of Rome. The exquisite structure of his sentences, the admirable choice and location of his words, the clearness of his descriptions, the perfection of his eloquence, constitute his work a ктñμa iç aɛì, the most delightful study of all those noble compositions embalmed in the language of classic Rome. His Latinity of phrase is interesting, as we may presume it to exhibit the style in which a welleducated Roman gentleman would have expressed himself, when desirous to clothe his thoughts in the genuine idiomatic phrase of his native land; and we hesitate not to prefer it to the diffuse and ornate style of Cicero on the one hand, and the dense, compressed, and almost enigmatic style of Tacitus, on the other. Possessing the happy medium between two writers of the highest reputation in the language, we consider him therefore to be worthy of indisputable pre-eminence over all its writers in prose.

A writer who has suffered so much by the injuries which time inflicts on all the works of man, and of whose works there are so few manuscripts existing, must of course require the commentator's aid. This has been given, and with good will, by many; and yet there is room for the willing labourer. Numerous passages yet remain for explanation or correction, which have not obtained elucidation from the extensive reading of Drakenborch, nor the taste and judgment of Crevier, nor the greater taste and judgment of one of whom we cannot think without mingled emotions of sorrow and regret. Notwithstanding the added elucidations (we select this.

* What a combination of painful recollections and deep regrets crowd on us here!! Him we remember, when we looked to him with pride as an ornament of our University, an able aid in the holy cause of religion, in whom every exertion gave promise of accelerating increase in power and ability, on whose

word to express our opinion and approbation of Mr. Prendeville's labors,) much is yet to be done; and perhaps the Editor on a review of his work will agree with us in this opinion. The work has on the whole our cordial approbation; it has been, as we think, contemplated and executed in the honourable and independent spirit of a man, who, while he would not reject the remuneration gained by his labours, would yet propose to himself a higher recompense, in character and fame. He shews a proper feeling for the character of Alma Mater, in rejecting the humble (we might term it the mean) task of furnishing go-carts for those who are too lazy or too idle to go alone; and we commend the vigour and spirit with which he has condemned these things. His work is precisely of the description which indicates that kind of intimate acquaintance with the style, structure, and meaning of a classic, which distinguishes the able classical scholar of our University, and which is indeed true learning.

Having thus fully expressed our approbation, we consider ourselves entitled to object to some things, demur at some others, and to add that we entirely dissent sometimes from the Editor. For this, it is presumed, he is prepared. It is but fair to add, that some of our objections may perhaps be on points that will allow a difference of opinion to be legitimately entertained. Many of the notes, we think, might be dispensed with; the superabundance of them we ascribe to an honourable anxiety in the editor, that his work should be as useful as possible. We would seriously urge a retrenchment of all those annotations which contain information, that may be had in the classical dictionary, or any treatise on classic antiquity; all students now are presumed to have such books; much in this way should be left to exercise the mind and attention of the pupil. The teacher who tells most will instruct his pupils least; many of the passages rendered into English, are in the original free from the degree of obscurity which should require an expositor: the meaning too, is occasionally extended into something more than Livy had intended to express. Ex. gr. in page 328, Audita, "Reports which they could not be certain of, as they only heard, and not saw them." The gloss, supposing it just or necessary, is awkwardly expressed; reports cannot be seen. But the gloss is neither just nor necessary-the people believed what they heard, and whether they should have been certain or not, were fully So. In their terror and alarm they did not allow themselves to investigate the reports, but took them as delivered and believed them. Audita means only "what has been heard;" whether they should

gifts and talents men reposed their hopes and confidence.

But for our in

struction doubtless-those abilities, by which he was qualified for efforts beyond the usual standard, perhaps excited in his mind an unfit and too confident spirit. through which he broke from the narrow way, to wander at large, and instead of guiding many by a steady and useful light, circumscribed lamentably his sphere of usefulness, and disappointed the hopes of his friends--the friends also of true religion. Those who knew John Walker, the object of these regrets, will, it is hoped, excuse this tribute to the character of a worthy, though mis