and thread. The character of the inhabitants is highly impetuous, warm, and ungovernable; they are unalterable in their attachment, and many beautiful tales have been selected of the readiness with which they have risked their lives to save those of others to whom they owed any obligation. They are extremely hospitable— the poorest peasant in Ireland will offer to the stranger an air of the fire, with potatoes and butter-milk, and minds no trouble in setting him right, if he have lost his way, even though it take him ten miles out of his own. They have a great fund of native humour-their wellknown blunders, entitled bulls, are a great characteristic in even the higher ranks of society. They possess a great fund of oratory, ingenuity, and strong good sense, but their inordinate love of whiskey, and their highly irritable characters, frequently occasion much bloodshed and confusion. The state of the peasantry in some parts of the country, is wretched in the extreme, but in others, it is greatly improved. The established religion is that of the Church of England, but the prevailing one is the Roman Catholic. Great rebellions have often taken place in Ireland, but the state of the people, to which they are reduced by the absenteeism of the nobility and gentry, and the oppression of the petty farmers, must, in some measure, plead their excuse. Great pains have lately been taken to ameliorate the condition of the peasantry; and we may hope that, ere long, Ireland will as firmly unite with her sister countries in every respect, as in the three divisions of the national emblem -the green and graceful shamrock. And perhaps I cannot better conclude this article, than with the lines from the pen of a highly celebrated poet, whose candour has given the generous and warm-hearted natives of the Emerald Isle their due. Hark! from yon stately ranks what laughter rings, His jest while each blithe comrade flings, And moves to death with military glee. Boast, Erin, boast them! tameless, frank, and free; Rough nature's children, humourous as she; EUGENIA. HYMNS AND POETICAL RECREATIONS. “When I remember thee upon my bed.”—Psalm Ixiii. 6. In the mid silence of the voiceless night, And if there seem a weight upon my breast, Or if it be such heaviness as comes My bosom takes no care for what it means, And oh in spite of past or future care, More tranquil than the bosom of the night, For what is there on earth that I desire RETIREMENT. THE bold adventurer, mid-way on his course And longs-aye, longs to hear the dashing wave To feel no baser interest interfere Between our spirit and the God of love? O yes, believe it-there does come an hour When spirits brave, and bold, and blithely fitted, Ardent to know, and panting to perform, Have had enough—and, sicken'd, or asham'd, Tire never of the shelter that receives them, And proved itself eternal-now we ask But time to count our treasures, and possess them, And live upon that rich celestial store Earth can add nothing too, nor all the waste Of time or of eternity exhaust: And hear-not earth's cold counsels or its fameBut, safer far, to list the harmony Of nature's musick; and by the lark, That sings ere day-light opens, be reminded Psalm cxlvii. 11. O LET me call thee Father-for to me Above all other names, that name is sweet; And if I am thy child, admit the plea, O look upon me in thy best beloved, I come to thee in Jesus' precious name; |