1830.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



343 



of their tears, and sotne of their affec- 

 tions. Pretty girls, indeed, are con- 

 stantly in his thoughts, and were the 

 perpetual object of his pursuit, and 

 Kissing stories abound ad nauseam. In 

 Wales he tells a graceless tale of bund- 

 ling with an innocent native, and fond- 

 ling with school girls occurs almost at 

 every turn. 



Of the provincial habits of both Eng- 

 lish and Irish, the author, in a very 

 aristocratic tone, professes he had but 

 little knowledge ; and the opportunities 

 such a tour, in such a disguise, were 

 likely to furnish for extending it, he 

 represents as a leading motive for the 

 undertaking. Nor was he disappointed. 

 He was of necessity thrown very much 

 among the lowest classes, because, to 

 keep up appearances, he was obliged to 

 take up his lodgings very frequently in 

 cheap public houses; and scenes of no- 

 velty, coarse and ludicrous, often pre- 

 sented themselves in all the naivete, of 

 simplicity. But often, however, the 

 warm S3 r mpathy felt for his supposed 

 sufferings in a patriotic cause, especially 

 in the middle ranks of life, ensured him 

 the kindest welcome, and the most com- 

 fortable accommodation. Money in con- 

 siderable sums was offered, which, be- 

 yond the demands for current ex- 

 pences, he steadily declined. In the 

 West of England, the lawyers and their 

 ladies were conspicuously his friends- 

 their hospitality was unbounded, they 

 were liberal of their purses, and fur- 

 nished him with introductions from 

 town to town. In Dublin, he was in 

 the same way recommended from fa- 

 mily to family, but there no money was 

 forthcoming ; the ladies were unreason- 

 able enough to think civil speeches were 

 compensation enough for playing, and 

 equivalents for bed and board. Hospi- 

 tality was cold among them, and he was 

 compelled at last to stipulate for pay- 

 ment no money, no music. He tells 

 all professedly to expose meanness ; 

 and one eminent lady, to whom we will 

 not farther allude, must feel no little 

 annoyance at the tale he tells ; he re- 

 presents her, no doubt, under some mis- 

 apprehension, as actually shirking the 

 payment of an evening's tweedle-dum- 

 ing. 



The sums collected on his tour, he 

 states, were finally handed over to the 

 funds for relieving Spanish emigrants. 



The concluding remarks of his book 

 are in a more elevated tone of sentiment 

 than any thing the rest of it furnishes, 

 and are creditable at once to his own 

 feelings, and the kind hearts he duped. 



Having now completed my romantic career, and 

 coolly taken a retrospective view of the various 

 incidents I have met with, I feel truly gratified, and 

 richly recompensed for the numerous difficulties 

 I encountered. In every respect have my origi- 



nal anticipations been realized ; nay, to a much 

 greater degree than I could have expected. Man- 

 kindIts intricate ways, its curious fabric, its 

 cunning machinations, as well as generous sen- 

 timents, have been widely laid open to me. I 

 have noticed its callousness in adversity, and ever 

 ready to ensnare the unwary for its own advan- 

 tage I have seen it recoil with horror at the 

 thought of dishonour I have seen it penurious 

 to excess, unwilling to part with a mite of its 

 superabundance for the joy of relieving a fellow 

 creature I have seen it, and I glory in saying 

 so, made up of generosity itself, and feel a pain 

 in the publicity of its virtuous deeds I have 

 seen it in all, or many of its raried shapes. Once 

 I thought, before I took this journey, that man 

 was principally selfish, and all his movements 

 were greatly actuated by egotistical feelings : that 

 pure sympathy was not in him. This opinion did 

 I entertain from the artificial society I had al- 

 ways been accustomed to move in where the 

 thoughts and feelings are regulated by rule, not 

 by nature where every one endeavours to make 

 himself appear as virtuous and amiable as possi- 

 ble, little attending to the practice : but now are 

 my opinions widely different. I have seen him 

 in the greatest retirement, as well as dissipa- 

 tion, where his true nature is displayed where 

 thoughts rise freely from every thing that sur- 

 rounds him where the heart sympathizes with 

 distress, without the mechanical reflection or sus- 

 picion of a dissipated town where the hand and 

 heart are ever ready to assist. This is man as / 

 have found him, when his real nature is allowed 

 volition ; and I am happy to say, that I have had 

 innumerable opportunities of witnessing and feel 

 ing the charms of pure, unsophisticated, hospit- 

 able, and benevolent deeds. 



Researches In Natural History, ~by John 

 Murray not the publisher but F.S.A., 

 F.L.S., F.H.S., F.G.S., $c. &c. Mr. 

 Murray is a zealous student or Natural 

 History. His notices of the Gossamer 

 Spider, some time ago, elicited some su- 

 percilious remarks from a Mr. Rennie 

 the author, it appears, of Insect Archi- 

 tecture -to which a second edition fur- 

 nishes Mr. Murray an opportunity of 

 replying. Mr. Murray stated, he had 

 seen with his own eyes one of these 

 spiders, by candle light, dart its thread 

 to the ceiling, at an angle of 80, eight 

 feet ; and at another time, on a warm 

 day, and in brilliant sunshine, had seen 

 the same insect, or perhaps another, we 

 do not quite recollect which, while in 

 the act of propelling its threads in all 

 directions, suddenly cast one towards 

 the door, which happened to be ajar, 

 quite horizontally, and in length full 

 ten feet. Round this same thread, too, 

 was distinctly perceptible an aura, which 

 Mr. M. concludes was electric. This 

 thread, moreover, thus electrified, con- 

 stitutes the spider's balloon, and enables 

 it to ascend into the air, which it is 

 known to do. On the other hand, Mr. 

 Rennie somewhat rudely affirms the 

 spider has no such power of projection ; 

 he does not believe it could propel a 



