MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 461 



TALES FOR THE BRITISH PEOPLE. RIDGWAY. 



THIS work is written by a gentleman from the " sister isle," and invites 

 attention by a dedication to the " MAN OF ALL PEOPLE ! !" a preface, intro- 

 duction, and an address to the British people. 



It is unfortunate that a gentleman who means well should have taken 

 this method of proving his patriotism. He appears to feel the pressure of 

 a cord about his wrist, and instead of endeavouring quietly to disencumber 

 himself of it, he holds it up with the triumph of a martyr, anxious before 

 all things to prove to the " united BRITISH PEOPLE" that the puny impedi- 

 diment is a manacle of torture. He stamps franticly about the stage to 

 the clank of massive fetters, and raves at his wrong with all the inco- 

 herence of a whipped bedlamite. Tales there are none, unless a few 

 scandalous anecdotes are intended as such ! and the strength of their nar- 

 rative consists in the notes of admiration, italics, and ill-judged epithets 

 with which they are so liberally illustrated. Dublin is stigmatized as the 

 vilest city upon earth the chosen abode of envy and slander; and yet our 

 author has benefitted so little by the hideous portraiture, that his book is 

 literally a " Scandalous Chronicle." While others are willing to admit the 

 merits of adversaries, the enemies of this gentleman seem to have not one 

 redeeming point. The only good word he gives is to the Kerry militia, 

 and that is of so singularly Irish a nature that the corps will have no 

 reason to thank him for his good word. Speaking of the " Kerry boys," 

 he gives a few touches of character such as the following : <f In many 

 respects nature is to that people most bountiful." " They are richly in- 

 dued with an innate civility, of sincerity, and kindness." " We have uni- 

 formly observed them gay, generous, confiding ;" "at the worst exhibiting 

 something amiable, attractive, respectable." " Surpassing all other people 

 in love of learning, love of kindred, natural politeness, and hospitality." 

 After such an eulogiiim we should know where to find a "perfect people;" 

 among the " Kerry boys" would we pitch our tent ; but unfortunately in 

 the next page, by way of illustration to the foregoing, he tells us of two 

 regiments of Irish militia quartered at Chatham, one called the " Northern 

 Redoubts," a most vile, infamous crew, who hardly can te stir out of their 

 barracks ;" while of the others, composed of these delightful Kerry boys, 

 so amiable, attractive, and respectable, surpassing all in love of learning and 

 natural politeness, he says : " In their walks they always kept the middle 

 of the street in groupes of six or seven, seldom fewer ; large athletic men, 

 with huge shilelas in their hands, shouting and brandishing." We must 

 confess that this proof of the love of learning and natural politeness of this 

 interesting race somewhat staggered us ; but the following exhibition of 

 these amiable, attractive, and respectable gentlemen warns us never to take 

 an Irishman's definition of innate civility in our common English sense :< 



" Accordingly at dusk, when Nox was preparing to spreading her sable 

 wings over the chickens of Chatham, and all other weary mortals, the 

 Kerry boys sallied forth to the number of fifty or sixty armed men, scoured 

 the streets, the highways and bye ways Wherever they paced, terror and 

 consternation preceded them / * * * They then rushed on, shouting, 

 menacing, hurraing, routing all before them. * * * Not a being was 

 to be seen ; the streets a desert : the frighted inhabitants rushed for safety 

 and for succour into their houses, which they barricadoed as if against the 

 common enemy" 



Such is the Irish illustration of innate civility and kindness. We cannot 

 be too grateful for the following advice: 



" To those who would sneer at the Kerry man, and through him at the 

 native Irish, of which he is so perfect a specimen. * * * To those we 

 say, and earnestly say, 'go you and do likewise, do as the true-born Irish- 



M.M. No. 106 3 O 



