314 



Monthly Review of Literature. 



[MARCH, 



collections; by supplying some new tables, . 

 ami simplifying the practical rules, several 

 very laborious processes have been rendered 

 more simple and precise, while the requisite 

 accuracy for the nicest purposes has been 

 strictly preserved." Such is the statement 

 with which Mr. Galbraith has submitted 

 this most useful work to the public ; and 

 from a close examination of the tables it 

 contains, as well as the preliminary arid 

 accompanying matter, we feel much plea- 

 sure in declaring that the expectations 

 it holds out are amply fulfilled ; and \ve 

 recommend it to every person engaged in 

 practical science, ns a collection of tables 

 supplying a gap, which, from the serious in- 

 convenience that has hitherto arisen, they 

 alone can appreciate. 



Holland- Tide. or Munster Popular Tales ; 

 J827. We have here apparently a new can- 

 didate for the laurel of Iri>h novelist, and 

 one of no common pretensions evidently 

 familiar with the features of the country, 

 and the habits of the people, and capable of 

 exhibiting their peculiarities with truth and 

 vigour. u Holland-Tide," or " November- 

 Eve,'* is a season of enjoyment, the usual 

 festivities of which, though no longer pur- 

 sued to the same extent as in other days, are 

 still not neglected in Ireland. One of the 

 amusements consists in story telling, and the 

 volume before us contains the tales supposed 

 to be told on one of these cheering anniver- 

 saries. 



The principal tale occupying two-thirds 

 of the volume has little or no Munster pecu- 

 liarity, except its scenery, about it. The 

 same combination of events might have suited 

 any province in Ireland, or any county in 

 England. The story, we suppose, originates 

 in a local tradition, anjj thus is entitled to 

 the name of a Munster tale. Ayimer, of 

 Bally- Aylmer, meets with his death on board 

 a smuggling boat, at ,a time, when no one 

 is on deck but his friend Fitz-maurice. Fitz- 

 maurice is suspected of the murder, and is 

 brought to trial on the suspicion, but ac- 

 quitted fur want of evidence. The degrading 

 event changes the character of Fitz-maurice, 

 and he becomes morose and melancholy. He 

 adopts, however, the son of his dead friend ; 

 educates him at his own expense, and by ge- 

 nerosity and good management eventually 

 clears off the incumbrances on the father's 

 estate. When the narrative begins, young 

 Aylmer is returning from Dublin College, 

 nnd crossing the Kerry mountains, where he 

 encounters some perils from storms and 

 sbeep-stealers, on his way to Fitz-maurice's. 

 On his arrival after an absence of some 

 years his suspicions arts in a variety of 

 ways, awakened against his guardian as the 

 murderer of his father. He is enamoured of 

 the daughter; but his filial remembrances 

 and duties stimulate him to clear up tiie mys- 

 tery. The spirit or the substance of his fa- 

 ther appears by the bedside, and seems just on 

 the point of denouncing Fitz-maurice a* the 



murderer, when an interruption occurs. Ayl- 

 mer wrings from bis guardian a confession of 

 guilt, and brings him eventually again to trial. 

 At the trial, young Aylmer deposes to the 

 confession of his guardian, and the imperfect 

 declaration of the ghost. To confirm this 

 evidence, the ghost is summoned by the crier 

 of the court, in behalf of our lord the king, 

 and the elder Aylmer the supposed murdered 

 person forthwith appears in proprid per- 

 sond. Aylmer had actually been dashed into 

 the water by his friend; but had escaped 

 drowning. He had, however, found it ne- 

 cessary to withdraw, from the fear of being 

 himself implicated in a charge of murdering a 

 king's officer in a smuggling affair. His, 

 however, had not been the hand that dealt 

 the blow. The peril of his ancient friend 

 now prompted him to run all hazards. Dan- 

 ger, however, (here was now none the evi- 

 dence against him was lost. The. friends are 

 reconciled ; Aylmer is restored to his home, 

 and the young people are of course made 

 happy. 



The next best tale is the " Hand and 

 Word' 1 extremely well told ; but entitled to 

 the epithet of Munster only on (he same 

 grounds as the former. The remaining four 

 or five bear more upon the extraordinary 

 the prevailing belief in the existence of 

 fairies their obliging or mischievous qua- 

 lities : and, though less attractive as stories, 

 are more characteristic of the habits and pre- 

 judices of the province. 



Truckleborough Hall: 3 vols. 12mo. ; 

 1827. This is a political tale, and the object 

 blending the intemperate terms of conflict- 

 ing parties to shew how readily a red-hot 

 radical is transmutable into a treasury-tool. 

 The scene is thrown back into the French 

 Revolution, and jacobins are substituted for 

 radicals being, we suppose, somewhat more 

 assailable. The aim of the writer- no no- 

 vice as a scribbler manifestly is to hold up to 

 ridicule every species of opposition to the 

 existing government. Extremes tell best ; 

 and the ridicule, which extremes will always 

 furnish, is easily thrown over whatever can 

 be twisted into alliance with them, however 

 foreign it in reality may be. There is no 

 fierceness about -him. The days, indeed, of 

 anti-jacobin truculence are gone by ; but the 

 tory contempt, which has taken its place, for 

 all pretensions to public spirit, and zeal for 

 public welfare, is scarcely less intolerable, or 

 less to be lamented. Through the whole 

 volumes runs a tone of h irdened levity, ex- 

 ceedingly revolting, and political profligacy is 

 treated as universal. Low and contemptible 

 as are the sentiments, and worthless as is 

 the tale itself, the book will be relished by 

 the tories particularly tories in the country, 

 always in arrear and will be referred to by 

 them as a rich treasury of detractive abuse 

 and insinuation, against the pretensions and 

 the purity of reformers of all kinds. It will 

 answer its base purpose to a certain extent. 



Truckleborough Hall is the residence of a 



