78 Notes of the Month on QJuly, 



improvement been damped by the ravages of a trespasser, for want of a little 

 gate, which his finances could not compass the acquirement of? How hard is 

 it even for the wealthy to preserve their paling and young trees from the de- 

 predations of the shivering pauper, who infringes the law because necessity is 

 paramount to law." 



But it proceeds to make some animadversions which require an 

 answer : — 



" We have seen the Royal Dublin Society, established for the purpose of 

 promoting improvement in Ireland, not only in theArts, but inTrade,Manufac- 

 tures. Agriculture, and every branch of Rural Economy. It was nobly endowed ; 

 7,000/. a-year has been devoted to it from the taxes of the country, and what 

 advantages have the tax-payers derived from it commensurate with so great a 

 sacrifice .'' They have seen the Society impoverished by the vanity of the ma- 

 nagers, in buying a palace too large for their use — where the few members " 

 who reside in Dublin find a convenien.t news-room and a circulating library — 

 where twice-a-week the public are admitted, and nurses carry their children 

 up and down rooms, filled with cases of minerals, unavailable to the student, 

 from the confusion of their uncatalogued arrangement — ^where a few lectures 

 upon the elements of science are given to noisy school-boys — where the 

 greatest portion of the exertions of a National Society is devoted to the 

 encouragement of the limner and statuary." 



If this be true, the reforming hand would be of service. If it be true 

 that the Royal Dublin Society is fed upon by a regular staff of the old 

 job-work, which of old perverted and possessed every office and institu- 

 tion in Ireland, the matter ought to be inquired into. If the society have 

 a secretary at the moderate sum of £500 a year, a pair of librarians at 

 £300 and £200 a year, with not as many books to watch, as they have 

 pounds to receive ; if they have trebly-paid housekeepers, &c., and above 

 aU a palace, which, his grace of Leinster being paltry enough to sell, 

 they were fools enough to buy, and for the half of which they can find no 

 use ; we say let reform put itself into the next steam-boat, and take a 

 march through the apartments of this impugned and costly hospital for 

 decayed liter aturists, and lounging dawdlers over newspapers. But if 

 the truth be otherwise; if the society be an active, intelligent and 

 impartial agent of the public bounty, if it have no official locusts to 

 swallow up its rents and salaries ; then we say, and cordially too, let it 

 have £14,000 instead of the seven. 



The sex are fond of titles ; but we have seldom seen the propensity 

 pushed farther than in one of the late drawing-room lists — when was 

 presented ]\Irs. " Hcrbslrewer" Fellowes. It will be recollected that 

 she headed the flower-basket carriers at the coronation. Whether, how- 

 ever, she owes the title to the taste of the Court Circular, or her own 

 volition, remains to be shewn. But the titular rage is strong, even 

 where it may not have sprung up among the flowers of a coronation. 

 Thus we have the wives of officers calling themselves IMrs. Colonel, 

 Mrs. General, and so forth, names to which they have as much right as 

 the wife of an artilleryman is to be called Mrs. Bombardier. It even 

 stoops so low as IMrs. Captain ; and many an old vulgarian fights her 

 way through the Bath and Cheltenham cai'd-tables at this moment on 

 the strength of her having had " a gallant captain for her own" forty 

 years ago. All the world natiu'ally laugh at this jjaltry affectjition. 

 The thing, however, is French ; and in that badge-and-ribbon-loving 



