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display all those natural advantages which inveterate prejudice has 

 long successfully decried. This were indeed an ennobling Mork, a fair 

 and everlasting monument, well worthy of that national patronage 

 which could alone enable an individual to perfect its researches. The 

 work of an Irishman, particularly where his own country is the theme, 

 has been too long an alien to public or private patronage ; they, who 

 should have been as his kindred, but raise their voices to detract from 

 his merits, and the stranger is almost warranted in disowning one who 

 would seek his notice with so inauspicious an introduction. — But I 

 have already trespassed too far in this my farewell ; and yet I take 

 leave of the subject with reluctance ; the parting 



' _ "is such sweet sorrow. 



That I could say good night ! till it were morrow." 



The work, which I now consign to the judgment of the public, 

 has beguiled some hours of leisure that might have been less profit- 

 ably employed ; and when I look back upon its pages, I own a heartfelt 

 satisfaction that it was not my lot to record any event, the memory of 

 which could make one Irishman unfriendly to another ; what I have 

 said, I have said in candour and impartiality. " I have insulted no 

 man's opinion ; I have blackened no man's character ; I have jostled 

 no creature in my way." I have sacrificed nothing to party spirit. 



" Tros Tyriusve mihi nullo discrimine habetur ;" 



and while I glory in the proud pre-eminence, that through my whole 

 life, I have ever kept myself beyond the electricity of factions, politi- 

 cal prejudices, and unholy bigotries, I fondly hope I have illustrated 

 a period, when they were not the Lares of an Irish home • 



