608 IRKLAKD AND HEll COMMENTATORS. 



so long, but give Jack Murray an opportunity to finish that yarn he 

 has promised us for the last four or five nights." 



" Ay, lad, very \vell, you finish your yarn ; and, then Jack, you'll 

 finish yours, won't you ? and I'll give you a twister !' said Will Gib- 

 bon, not very well pleased at having been a listener so long. 



" Very well, lad, you shall hear all about Zuthea to-morrow 

 night." 



I despaired of hearing any more that night, so quitted the galley, 

 expecting Jack's yarn on the following night nor was I disap- 

 pointed. 



IRELAND AND HER COMMENTATORS.* 



THE Americans justly complain that our knowledge of their social 

 system is derived from sources that for the most part should be re- 

 garded with scepticism. Of all the authors whose elaborations on the 

 New World have found a market in London, how few have suc- 

 ceeded in conveying anything pertaining to a faithful portraiture of 

 things as they really are in the United States. Runaway shop- 

 keepers, deliberative as their own counters, and refugee lawyers, 

 whose heads and brief-bags were equally well-furnished, have been 

 the principal concoctors of " American Tours," and " Years in Phila- 

 delphia." When less questionable authorities have vouchsafed the 

 fruits of their experience, it has rarely orcurred that some accom- 

 panying contingencies, as in the case of Basil Hall, Mrs. Trollope, 

 and others, have not in a great measure been sufficient to invalidate 

 the importance of the novel truths. But with how much greater 

 reason have the seekers for information on all things connected with 

 Ireland to lament the total absence of any tribunal for the adjudica- 

 tion of disputed facts. There is hardly a single assertion, however 

 well authenticated, made respecting Ireland, that cannot be gainsaid 

 with success, owing to the facility of procuring adverse testimony, 

 almost equally entitled to the credence of a third party. Hence arises 

 the apathy of Englishmen to enlist their feelings on either side the 

 contentions that are incessantly convulsing the sister kingdom. We 

 do not mean that that portion of the British community whose in- 

 terests are best promoted by the feud? of the Irish, ever allow their 

 energies to become dormant in the advancement of disorder. It is of 

 the last importance to the wreck of corruptionists in this country, 

 that the vices of the old system be perpetuated in Ireland; and on no 

 ally can they reckon with more confidence, than on the ignorance 

 that unfortunately is but too prevalent throughout England respect- 

 ing the goings-on across the Channel. Hitherto, correct intelligence 

 could only be gathered at the sacrifice of much time and patient 

 dispassionate investigation of conflicting evidence ; and even then the 

 chances were anything but numerous of arriving at the truth. Re- 



* A Journey throughout Ireland during the Spring, Summer, and Autumn of 

 1834, By H. D. Inglis, Author of " Spain in 1830," &c. &c. London : Whit- 

 taker and Co. 



