^6 



reception. Or, perhaps he indulges in frequent violations of estahlished 

 principles, which, though they may "make the unthinking laugh," cannot 

 but "make the judicious grieve." Thus, a writer whom we shall call X, 

 professes to be a describer of Irish manners, yet he can only be regarded 

 as such by those to whom Irish manners are totally unknown. His 

 battle scenes can be recognised as taken in almost every instance 

 from "Napier's History of the Peninsular War;" the events in the 

 life of a hero are such as could not be crowded into any one brief 

 existence ; the lovers are such as would find small favour with any 

 lady of spirit or intelligence; and the facts contain the most obvious 

 anachronisms, the manners of a period seventy years past being inter- 

 woven with the occurrences of yesterday. Another, whom we may 

 denominate Y, is the author of a book that may be called " the novel 

 of the moment," for it was written without previous intention or plan, or 

 almost without effort. A single paper which appeared in the pages 

 of a montlily magazine, stating the blunders and mistakes of an Irish 

 gossoon, was so relished by newspaper and other readers, that several 

 remarked, " We are quite impatient to see the continuation." Now, far 

 from the paper requiring a continuation, it was complete in itself ; but 

 such flattering invitations were not to be resisted, and a second part 

 appeared. It was a continuation, but on the whole an injurious one ; it 

 was humorous, however, and that was enough for the multitude who 

 desire to " laugh to be fat." The writer was tempted too by a new 

 system of publication in shilling numbers, at irregular intervals ; new 

 characters were introduced to form new and intermediate chapters ; yet 

 nearly six chapters were written, before the two sets of characters came to 

 be related to each other, or before the mechanical combination exhibited 

 fusion into one homogeneous mass. Even then, the writer seemed to 

 continue the narrative, as his countrymen say, " from hand to mouth ;" 

 and at almost any point, the termination of the story might have been 

 three volumes distant, or only three pages. 



Another writer, deservedly popular, is Z ; yet he, too, sometimes takes 

 liberties with his subject and his readers, which we are scarcely prepared 

 to admit. His errors are of two kinds, some arising from the piecemeal 

 system of publication which he was the first to introduce, and some that 

 are specially his own. An example of the former occurred in his first 

 great work, the style of which was changed, and its whole tone and 

 character altered, after the first few numbers were published. Yet so 

 long was it in the course of publication that his readers had forgot the 

 point at which they commenced, and few would have noticed the transi- 

 tion had the writer not pointed it out in the preface. In one of his 

 ablest productions, the Homeric distinctness of character is carried to 



