182 Portugal illustrated. [A_ cust, 
maintenance of it. The faulty judgment of Mr. Kinsey’s style upon 
these last points, as well as on some others which we might mention, will 
preclude his work, therefore, as we have already stated, from taking any 
thing like that rank in literature which he seems to have proposed for it. 
Its chief value lies in the pictorial embellishments, which are numerous, 
and certainly admirably executed ; even the (wood cuts) vignettes— 
the tail pieces to the chapters—many of them highly lively and charac- 
teristic. Of the larger views—the landscapes—we have spoken already. 
The specimens of costume at the end of the volume, we do not like 
quite so well as the matters that precede them: they are drawn and 
engraved by eminent artists; and the costumes are accurately given ; 
but the expression of the countenances—especially in the figures of the 
peasantry—have not, as it strikes us, the genuine Portuguese character. 
We should add that the work contains a map of Portugal, corrected by 
Arrowsmith, from the map of General Foy, and an illustrated table of 
ali the coins of Portuguese currency ; and that, as far as the matter of 
typography, and book embellishment goes, it is one of the handsomest 
works that ever issued from the press. 
SIX WORDS ON THE LATE ELECTION IN IRELAND. 
The obtrusive and pernicious exhibition of the Clare “election” is 
over ; and Mr. O’Connell has assumed the title of a Member of Parliament, 
and, by that which seems a misplaced endurance on the part of the 
authorities, is exercising some of the privileges of one. The mere act of Mr. 
O’Connell’s being returned to Parliament, amounts only to an indecorous 
trick ; intruded (rather too much in the general taste of our Irish friends) 
upon that which ought to be a grave and serious proceeding ; but, the mea- 
sures by which that return has been accomplished, will have made a strong 
impression upon the advocates of Catholic claims in England. It would be 
a waste of the patience of our readers, and a work that at this late period of 
the month we have not room for, to enter into any argument upon the 
competency of the Catholics, under the existing law, to sit in Parliament; 
nor, shall we go over the ground, already familiar, through the medium 
‘of the newspapers, of the genuflexions, exhortations, excommunications, or 
other mummeries, which were used at Clare, to induce the forty shilling 
voters to support Mr. O’Connell. All we want—and we shall dwell even 
upon that very shortly—is the fact, that, either from their natural appetite 
for tumult, or from the power exercised over them by the “ Associations” 
and the priesthood—on the first display of the standard of rebellion, the 
freeholders did renounce their allegiance to their landlords, and came 
up to the poll in crowcs for the candidate of the opposition. 
Now, if there were any thing at all in this proceeding, even like an 
assertion of independence on the part of the Irish voters, we should 
rejoice at it: but it is a gross perversion of terms, to talk of the existence 
of any such manifestation. There is an exhibition of a state of moral 
principle and feeling, with which freedom disdains to be associated ; 
but nothing else. ‘“ Independence,” as the word is understood by the 
reputable part of society, implies the discharge of our debts and duties ; 
not their evasion or defiance. A person the other day in the Court of 
Requests, pleaded in answer to his creditor’s demand, that he was legally 
freed from all claims, by “ having been sentenced by the law to be 
hanged ;” but that individual has not yet been declared in any address 
from the English pulpit, to be a pre-eminently free, and independent man. 
The contract between the Irish landlord, and his “ forty shilling” 
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