Int:tr.:v.:so, BY NIB, AND MRS. HALT.

THIS undertaking has all the promise of being useful, informing,

and agreeable. Useful, as tending to make the sister country better known to the British public, and so dissipating prejudice, attracting the tourist to Ireland, and, what is of much more importance, the capitanst : inflaming, as not merely acquaint- ing the Saxon, in a superior literarv style, with all that Guide- beoks and 'foilographies tell respecting a country, but mingling that curious knowledge with statistical and other facts throwing a strong light upon the pres,at comlition of the people: agreeable, for it will be interspersed, we i.'s ecture, with niany productions of that kind which are the elHf.,-(1.,,•,it-re of .1Irs. IIALL's genius— tales oh* Irish superstitions, or stories a the actual lift of the Irish peasantry. In addition to these at its typography is ele- gant ; and the illustrative maps, vignettes, and wood-euts, valuable as graphic accompaniments.

work is to be published in parts, and the subject arranged under the head of counties ; ('ink being the ‘115trict first described. As the part betbre us does not even finish the topo- graphy of the city ;Ind its environs, it furnishes no sufficient specimen of the general di sign we will therefore let the authors state in their own words the various topics they intend to embrace in their publication-

" The towers, the castles, and the remains of monastic etlifh.es, will be de- scribed 1:.‘ tla pcneil iti the page that la hues the more remaikable twents tit their several histories, and contrast', their present ruins with their former greatness The manners and customs: td tt•r Irish will also afford ample scope front which to draw both entettaihnient and infermation; the Baal tire uruu'rt- itus on :Midsummer eve ; the patrons; the courtships ; the weddings: the christenings; th, avake; the pilgrimages to holy wells ; the sp.trts on All- Hallow-eve, and the oh:wry:mews of t'i.ris•::,:ts; the prettliar and the

inti.ie of the peasantry : the mmdral ile-H-mtents. tewient and rat ; the

taetion-tight, (now happily !ant ti s-ui■•1,' :st• .7,y ■Ither nation:II [mints, usages, and ••. - it y 7' ••. :0!tsct,"11 of u.■.- -1 I' Is in- oh. seine ushi sr ea-the, spot : the , s are, Ti list srit.t uts itati 55 l 1, 1,1, sit 1, knel tare hill 51 intert-st, aad its supersti:. • d, tat rare to pa,,. mile w iticout • n.11,1.110114 tint 1011 is 11111111ell. Every hi% • rath and horeen, has it-, legendary tale : ti siSnSco;•k. . Banshee is the MIlower sf is err atl,h fans1::, . l'!..•ak.-s :and a.!

not to be seen, to he In ard ilf 111 Cyrli ike•e s !ho :authors trill collect in their way ; moi Ora a• „:. : tsir • karae,t. not- withstanding that so many labourer: :•', "sell 11,11V hut

partially gathered in. Fot this dep.:it:mot of th, t t,s. ::.•• st ruse's of

the artist is ill be put hi:0 requisition. Si w ith 't•s soul nj st Of the peasantry ; the artist %% id go hand-in-hatid with tin: ,t...thor in presenting them to the reader."

:1 tatty of these subjects, especially those peculiar to rural this- tricts, are not touched upon in this hi rat nunther; which. beyond a brief history and general description of Cork and its far-famed Cove, deals in matters of much more interest than the details of topography,—as the growing inquiwetnent visible it) Ireland, the increase of comfort ektusequent upon the decrease of drunkenness, the greater difficulty that %ill be timnd in agitating the masses through these causes. and various " °wet- true tales" descriptive of the deep feelings and fidelity of' the Irish women. Perhaps, in. deed, it might be well to restrain this class of stories rival swelling to. eXaberance in future numbers: not that they are too numerous in the present part—on the contrary, they are among the most in- teresting passages in it ; but there is a risk of overdoing what we do well, and illustrating the ne quid ninds. The work opens with a comparison between steaming and sailing—contrasting the former delays of the passage with the certainty and rapidity now enjoyed ; and points out the great advantage of the new medium, to the small farmer and the peasant, not only in conveying his little produce, or himself, to the best market, but the expansion of ideas which he must receive, and the notions a a better mode of living than his own, which must in his travels force themselves upon his mind whether he will or not. To this facility of locomotion our authors attribute great part of the improvement which has visibly taken place in Ireland within this year or two. Acquainted with the country from childhood, and having made five regular tours, with some eye to literary objects—and therefore, we may be sure, with the exercise of such observation as they possess—their testi- mony on this point is the more valuable.

" In the year 1S38," say they, "we made a tour in Ireland, and in 1840 an- other. The improvement, within these two years, was so extraordinary as al- most to exceed belief; during our previous visits we noted comparatively little alteration in the external aspect of the country or in the condition of its people, from what we bad known them twenty years ago; but, of late, the move forward ' has been wonderful; and if the future progress be in proportion, the serviceable results to the country cannot be estimated at too high a rate."

Formerly the passage across the Channel varied from three or four days to a month : practically, it was further off than America is now ; and this was the mode of voyaging—.

TI1E OLD IRISH SAILING-PACKET

Was a small trader, schooner or sloop ; the cabin, of very limited extent, was lined with " berths ;" a curtain portioned off those that were appropriated to ladies. In the centre was a table, seldom used, the formality of a dinner being a rare event, each passenger having laid in his own supply of" sea store," to which he resorted when hungered or athirst ; finding, however, very often, when his appetite returned, that his basket had been impoverished by the visits of unscrupulous voyagers who were proof against sea-sickness. The steward was almost invariably an awkward boy, whose only recommendation was the activity with which he answeled the calls of unhappy sufferers; and the voyage across was a kind of purgatory for the time being, to be endured only iii cases of absolute necessity.. It was not alone the miserable paucity of accommoda- tion and utter indifference to the comfort of the passengers, that made the voyage au intolerable evil.. Though it usually occupied but three or four days, frequently as many weeks were expended in making it. It was once our lot to pass a month between the ports of Bristol and Cork ; putting back, every now and then, to the wretched village of Pill, and not daring to leave it even fin an Lour, lest the wind should change and the packet weigh anchor. But with us, it was " bolyday time," and our case was far less dismal than that of an officer to whom we recently related it—his two mouths' leave of absence had expired the very day he reached his Irish home.

Now the general time is—from Bristol to Cork, twenty-four hours ; to Waterford, twenty hours ; from Liverpool to Dublin, twelve hours; from Holyhead to Dublin, six hours. The Irish Channel is virtually bridged across ; the two countries amalgamating slowly, but surely. And this is the time chosen to commence a " Repeal" agitation, which if it could succeed would turn Ireland into a colony. A Parliament at College Green, forsooth ! What has a Parliament been able to do at Kingston, Jamaica ? Ask the West India planters if they would not part with all their local Le- gislatures for twenty bold members at Westminster.

Greater facility of communication is not, however, the only source of the country's improvement. Our authors attribute much of it to the spread of temperance, and the exertions of Father MATHEW; which, in fact, seem to have worked a change little short of miraculous. Instead of the usual scenes of jovial ex- citement, this was the picture that greeted Mr. and Mrs. HALT.— " In reference to the extent to which sobriety has spread, it will he almost sufficient to state, that during our recent stay in Ireland, from the 10th ofJ tine to the fith of September 1840, we saw but six persons intoxicated; and that for the first thirty dasa we bad not eneountered ons. In the course of that month we had travelled from Cork to Killarney—round the coast ; returning by the Wand route ; not along mail-coach roads, but on a 'jaunting-car,' through byways as well as highways ; visiting small villages and populous towns ; driving through fairs, attending wakes and funerals (returning from one of which, between (Ilengariff and Kenmare, at nightfall, we met at least a hundred substant:al farmers, mounted); in short, wherever crowds were assembled, and we considered it likely we might gather information as to the state of the country and the character of its people. We repeat, we did not meet a single individual who appeared to have tasted spirits ; and we do not hesitate to ex- press oar conviction, that two years ago, in the same places and during the same time, we should have encountered many thousand drunken men. From first to last, we employed, perhaps, fifty car-drivers; we never found one to accept is drink; the boatmen of Killarney, proverbial fbr drunkenness, insub• ordination, and recklessness of life, declined the whisky we had taken with us for the Imgle-player, who was not pledged,' and after hours of hard labour, dipped a can into the lake and refreshed themselves front its waters. It was amusing as well as gratifying to hear their IICW reading of the address to the famous echo—' Paddy Blake, lase yer honour, the gintleman promises yo some coffee whin ye get home; ' and on the Blackwater, a nimbly river, as its name denotes, our boat's crew put into shore, midway between Youghal and Lismore, to visit a clear spring, with the whereabouts of which they were

familiar. The whisky-shops are closed or converted into coffee-houses; the distilleries have, for the most part, ceased to work; and the breweries are

barely able to maintain a trade sufficient to prevent entire stoppage. Of the extent of the change, therefore, we have had ample experience; and it is borne out by the 11Y$11TRIICCS of so many who live in towns as well its in the totintrv, that we can have no hesitation in describing sobriety to be almost universid throughout Ireland."

Of its continuance they speak hopefully. They do not of course mean it to be understood that numbers who have " taken the pledge " will not break it, or that tippling will cease in the land. 'lift they state that a great change has been effected in the national mind—a drunkard is now looked upon lightly, and has become a discreditable character : they place a still greater reliance on the experience which numbers have had of the practical benefits of temperance both as regards health and wealth. From the in- stances of this kind we select one or two ; observing that this kind of experience, however, must operate chiefly upon mechanics and the better class of peasantry, who are in the receipt of money.

" We entered one day a cottage in a suburb of Cork : a woman was knitting stockings at the door ; it was as neat and comfortable as any in the most pros- perous district of England. We tell her brief story in her own words, as nearly as we can recal them. ' My husband is a wheelwright, and always earned his guinea a week ; he was a good workman, and neither a bad man nor a bad husband, but the love for the drink was strong in him, and it wasn't often he brought me home more than five shillings out of his one-pound-one on a Satur- day night ; and it broke my heart to see the poor childre too ragged to semi to school, to say nothing of the starved look they had out of the little I could give them. Well, God be praised, he took the pledge ; and the next Saturday he laid twenty-one shillings upon the chair you sit upon. Oh ! didn't I give

Still, I was fearful it wouldn't last, thanks on my beaded knees that night ?

and I spent no more than the five shillings I was used to, saying to myself, Maybe the money will be more wanted than it is 110W. Well, the next week he brought me the Caine, and the next, and the next, until eight weeks passed; and, glory be to Cod ! there was no change for the bad in my husband ; and all the while he never asked me why there was nothing better for him out of his hard earnings: so I felt there wits no fear of him ; and the ninth week when he came home 10 tile, I had this table bought and these six chairs, one fiw myself, four for the children, and one for himself. And I was dressed in a new gown, and the childecn all had new clothes and shoes and stockings, and upon his own chair I put a bran-new suit ; and upon his plate I put the bill and resato for them all—just the eight sixteen shillings they cost that I'd saved out of his wages, not knowing what might happen, and that always before went for drink. And he cried, good lady and good gentleman, he cried like a hubby— but 'twas with thanks to God : and now where's the healthier man than my husband in the county Cork, or a happier wife than msself, or dacenter or better-fed children than our own four ?' It is most unlikely that such a family will again sink into poverty mid wmtcheibless. We might add largely to these cases, not only from what we have heard, but what we have seen."

FATHER MATHEW'S PUBLIC ROOM.

We may perhaps interest our readers by giving them some details of our visit to Mr. :Mathew. The mom in which members are received is large, and furnished with a desk and wooden 11CDCIICS. 1Vhen we entered it, " the Pres sitlent " was not there ; but there were men and women of all ages, waiting to take the pledge. Among them was a sturdy mountaineer from Kerry—a fine athletic fellow who had led his " faction" for a quarter of a century, whose bead was scarred in at least a dozen places, and who bail been renowned throughout the country for his prowess at every fair within twenty miles of his home. lie had long been a member of this society, and had brought a few of his " friends" to follow his example. Ile described to us, with natural and forcible eloquence, the effect of temperaece in producing peace between man and man, in his own immediate neighbourhood ; inn terminating the brutal fights between two notorious and numerous factions, the Cooleens and the Law- tors, whose names had figured in every criminal calendar for a century back. " No matter what was doing, it was left undone," he said, " if any one of either party chose to call up the rest. They'd leave the hay half cut, or the oats to be shelled by the four winds of heaven ; and, taking the hay-fork, the reaping- hook, and the scythe in their hands, they'd rush out to massacre each other. Tubs of potheen would be drunk hot from the mountain-stills; and then, whooping and hallooing like wild Indians, they'd mingle in the unnatural war of Irishman against Irishman. I've known them fight so on the sea-shore, that the sea has come in and drowned those that had fallen drunk in the fray. How is it now ? At the last fair at Tralee, there wasn't a stick lifted. There was peace between the factions; and the Cooleens and the Lawlors met, for the first time in the memory of man, without laving a dead boy to be aarried home to the widow's cabin."

As the work is not of a nature to admit of a very frequent return to during its periodical appearance, we will draw upon these its early pages for a few more specimens.

CHARACTERISTICS OF IRISH BEGGARS.

The beggars in the various towns have their distinctive characters, and they differ essentially from those who beg in the country. In the towns it is usually

" profession ;" the Caine faces are always encountered in the same places; and they are very jealous of interlopers, unless good cause be shown for addi- tions to " the craft." In Dublin, they KM exceedingly insolent and repulsive; in Cork, merry and good-humoured, but most provokingly clamorous; in Wa- terford, their petitions were preferred more by looks than words, anal a refusal was at once taken ; in Clonmel, we were there during a season of frightful want—they appeared too thoroughly depressed and heart-broken to utter even a sentence of appeal ; in Killarney, they seemed trusting to their utter wretch- edness and filth of apparel, as a contrast to the surpassing grace and beauty of nature all around them, to extort charity from the visiters; and in Wicklow, where we encountered thr fewer than we expected, (always excepting Glenda- lough,) they laboured to earn money by tendering something like advice as to the route that should be taken by those who were in search 4,1' the picturesque. One had fialoweil a friend of ours, to his great annoyance, for upwards of a mile, and on bidding him good-by had the modesty to ask the a little sixpence. " For what ? " inquired the gentleman; " what have you done for nte ? " then, sure haven't I been keeping yer honour in discoorse ? " In the country, where passers by are not !numerous, the aged or bed-ridden beggar is frequently placed in a sort of hand-barrow, and laid tit morning by the road-side, to excite compassion and procure Mats : not unfrequently their business is conducted on flue backs of donkeys ; and often they are drawn about by MOO neighbour's child.

IRISH GLASSES OF THE OLDEN TIME.

A manifest improvement had of late years taken place among the higher chases. We are ourselves old enough to recollect when a host would have been scouted as Mean :111d inhospitable, who bad suffered one of' his guests to leave his table sober. Ingenious devices were invented for comiwIling intoxication! glasses and bottles so finnied that they could not stand, and must be ululated before they could be laid upon the talde--the object being to pass the wine rapidly round—were in frequent use. We dined once with a huge party where the teit-kettle—from which the tumblers were supplied—had been filled truth heated whisky ; the partakers of' the " cheer " being too far gone " to per- ceive they were strengthening their punch instead of making it weaker.. If n guest were able to mount his horse without assistance in the " gold old tunes," fie was presented with u " deoch mm, iltirrass" glass, which he was forced, seldom against his will, to " drink at the door." This glass usually held is quart ; it was terminated by a globe, which of itself' contained a " drop " sufficient to complete the business of the night. The degradation wits looked upon as a distinction : a,u Irishman drunk was an Irislimaii " all in his glory ; " and a " strong head " was considered ail enviable possession. Many years ago we were acquainted with a gentleman at Itoss-Carbery, whose daily " stint wag five-and-twenty tumblers of whisky-punch of the ordinary strength; and we knew another whose frequent boast it was, that in a long life lie had drunk enough to float a seventy-four gun ship.

EVASIONS OF PLEDGES.

All attempts to check tin, progress of intemperance were fruitless : it had long been customary, indeed, to take oaths to abstain from drink for a season ; but if kept they produced no permanent good, and the tricks and shifts to evade them were generally successful. We recollect a man swearing be would not drink for a month—be soaked bread in spirits and ate it ; another, who swore he would not touch liquor while he stood "on earth," got drunk amid the branches of a tree ; another, who vowed not to touch a drop " in doors or out," strode across his threshold, placing one leg inside and the other outside, and so, persuading himself he did not break his oath, drank until he fell; ano- ther, who bound himself not to " touch liquor in the parish," brought a sod of turf from a distance, and placed his feet upon it when he resolved to drink. We knew one who was kept sober thus : he was always willing to take an oath against whisky for six weeks, but no longer ; his master invariably watched the day on which "his time" expired, and compelled him to repeat his oath ; which he would readily do after swallowing two glasses. To make the Irish abstain, even to a moderate extent, was therefore considered a hopeless task; and lie would have been a visionary indeed who foretold a time when a drunken Irishman would be a far greater rarity than a sober one.

The pictorial illustrations are of various kinds and degrees of merit ; being contributed by a host of persons, mostly natives of Ireland, and including amateurs as well as artists : but they all possess character, and are so introduced as to form component parts of the text in which they are embedded, presenting scenes and images that no verbal description can so distinctly convey.