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the Connaught Circuit, and had extensive practice in cases wherein 

 questions of title and pedigree had to be traced. He was retained in 

 the well-known cases of Malone v. O'Connor, Leany v. Smith, Jago v. 

 Hungerford, and others of that class. In 1834 he was appointed by 

 Government a Commissioner of the Loan Fund Board, and this is all I 

 deem it necessary to mention in reference to Mr. D 'Alton's professional 

 career. 



Mr. D' Alton's first production as an author was a poem of an ambi- 

 tious character, entitled, " Dermid, or Erin in the Days of Boru," pub- 

 lished in 1814. This bold attempt at fame, considering his success 

 while a member of the College Historical Society, was perhaps quite 

 natural. The literary taste of the age was poetry. The pulse of the 

 empire was quickened by the Peninsular "War, and the exciting mea- 

 sure of the inspired bard was more in unison with the prevailing temper 

 of the nation than tamer productions in prose. The demand was 

 promptly met. Never did more glorious stars shine in the poetical fir- 

 mament — Byron and Shelley, Coleridge and Southey, Wordsworth and 

 Crabbe, Campbell and Moore were enriching, in prodigal profusion, the 

 libraries with every species of poetical composition. Our National 

 Bard had already gained such renown, that, before a line of a 

 poem he meditated was composed, a London publisher — Longman — 

 agreed to pay him for it 3000 guineas. Then, amidst the snows 

 of a winter in Derbyshire, Moore was weaving the gorgeous tissue 

 of "Lalla Eookh," and by the light of his own brilliant imagination 

 conjuring up those sunny scenes of the Orient, which were afterwards 

 welcomed in India as indigenous to its clime. In Caledonia, a Scott by 

 name and Scot by nature — loving intensely the rugged land of his 

 birth, well read in her traditions — conceived the high and generous 

 purpose of displaying patriotism in song. We know the result. The 

 hills and dales, the lochs and mountains of Scotland have become fami- 

 liar in our homes as household words; and " The Lady of the Lake," 

 "Marmion," " The Lord of the Isles," and " The Lay of the Last Min- 

 strel," rendered their author famous before the wonderful tide of his 

 novels, which in later years almost rivalled wave following wave of the 

 sea, had commenced to flow. The success of "Walter Scott aroused the 

 ambition of John D'Alton ; he felt that Ireland had many interesting 

 epochs in her history, which afforded subjects for the muse; he consi- 

 dered the lakes and rivers, the hills and dales of Erin in no way inferior 

 in scenic beauty to these which the genius of Scott had invested with 

 another charm ; and thus it was that Mr. D'Alton composed his metrical 

 poem — " Dermid, or the Days of Boru." 



It is of the quarto size, then deemed the orthodox size in poetry, 

 and divided into twelve cantos. " The period of the following ro- 

 mance," he informs us, " is that interesting epoch in the history of 

 Ireland, when Danish oppression was driven from that country by the 

 check which it received in the memorable battle of Clontarf." He 

 paid particular attention to preserve faithful descriptions of the man- 

 ners and customs of the time ; and, while historic truth was adhered to, 



