plantation we have just noticed, opening a communica-
tion with the house at either end, and extending from
thence about one Irish mile around the capacious lawn
from which you take your survey. 'Tis true, the place
can boast no prospect, and is wholly indebted to art
for its little beauties, but these exhibit such symmetry
and elegance, and a^e so well united, as to constitute
Sterling a picturesque object to the spectator who in-
spects it on the spot.

After breakfasting with this amiable and respectable
family, Mr. Garnett had the politeness to offer a servant
,to attend me to Grange-farm, and to the seats wbich I
wished to visit in that neighbourhood, which having
accomplished, I returned the same evening to his house
at Summer-seat, where I lodged two nights, and" early on
the morning of the third day of my visit, proceeded in
the prosecution of my tour through several parts of the
county of Mealh. â– â– 

On the day of my departure from Summer-seat, I
called at the country residence of Lord Dunsaney, who,
after some conversation, took a copy of my first pub-
lication ; but finding nothing in the soil or scenery of
this place to induce description, I drove off without delay
to the Castle of Killeen, the seat of the Earl of Fingall.
Here it was not the extent or antiquity of the family
mansion, (to which, at the period of my visit, the Earl
was building a large addition,) wbich attracted my at-
lentioii, nor yet the scenery around it, otherwise than to
impress me with an idea of its barrenness-^it was the
observation of a master-piece of character, in comparisc||



The Irish Tourist. 229

risoni of which the beauties of inanimate nature are as
nothing.

I had formed such an antique opinion of Lord Fingall's
person and manners, and had given to the prejudices of
his sect such a rueful tinge, as to approach the castle of
Killeen with the utmost timidity. My admission, however,
without pomp or useless delay, began to produce a revo-
lution in my sentiments; nor was I many minutes in his
Lordship's company until the creature of my imagination
vanished, and I found him not only a gentleman of
modern appearance, but infinitely more mild and less
assuming in his manners, than the sons of several little
farmers, who by the acquisition of some cheap lands,
had found means to push themselves through the offices of
petit-juryman and collector of taxes to the commission
of the peace, when they became fully qualified to extort
even from the broad-cloth vulgar, no small measure of
astonishment and obsequious attention. I quarrel with
no man for not having it in his power to boas^ of a long
lifle of ancestors ; nor yet for endeavouring to elevate
himself to a station of respectability in his country —
but I quarrel with a man for being so far a fool as to'
forget his own origin ; and for manifesting his ignorance
of human nature, by endeavouring to draw men of
superior intellect (though of inferior property) into a
recognition of his new authority by a haughty or over-
weening carriage, or by revengeful schemes of persecu-
tion — a conduct, ihe direct contrast of this is that which
should be adopted by little upstart men who have been
newly appointed to power, as the best and most cficclual
method of procuring that esteem and approbation of
intellect, which forms no mean bulwark to the character



230 The Irish Tourist.

of men in office. With the vice and folly to which this
wise and politic conduct stands opposed, we have had
some painful intercourse, as no doubt many others have
had also in the retirement of private life, and we drop
this hint, derived from the errors of one or two tittle
men of whom we have intimate knowledge, as a useful
memento to all others of their rank and character.

Consequence is derived from one or other of the foU
lowing sources— virtue, learning, talent, office, wealth,
or rank. The three first qualifications are centered in
the viaiXf and by these alone can his character be exalted :
the three last are factitious ornaments — they may be con-
ferred upon wise men for the public good, or upon the
most arrant fools and rogues for sinister purposes — they
may be the reward of honourable service, or the price of
the vilest prostitution — they may, in the language of the

celebrated Pope, be *' the gifts of kings, or even w s

of kings," but they do not, neither can they, confer upon
the possessor any quality which the independent man of
merit will recognise as estimable — they are at best but
gifts of fortune, and as such can never bear any pro-
portion to the value of virtue and talents, which are the
gifts of God, although when accompanied by these latter
(but never without them) they are rendered useful, and
entitle the possessor to a double measure of respect.

With regard to Lord Fiiigall, his manner and appear-
ance produced in me the most agreeable sensations of
surprise. I thought they spuke too phiiniy the language
of goodness, to be the tinsel robe of a heart without
virtue — and although several of my distinguished friends,
and even some of private fortune, have rendered me
more important services; yet I never had an interview



The Irish Tourist. 231

with any man of rank which afforded me superior satis-
faction, or whose manners left upon my mind a more
gratifying impression of private worth.

My visit to this nobleman being concluded, he kindly
accompanied me to the lawn before his castle, to the
latter of which, as I have already remarked, he was
then making a large addition. The gloomy aspect of
this immense edifice was by no means gratifying to my
imagination, and I confess I was a little surprised that
a Noble^an'-who had seen so much of the modern world,
should make the gloomy architecture of the ancients his
model. This I accounted for on the following princi-
ple — ^e Earl" resided for some time in Germany, a
country which I have never seen, but having formed a
crude idea that it abounds in castles, and that these
castles are the residences of ancient families ; I fancied
Lord Fingall's imagination, during his residence among
that people might have acquired an undue veneration for
the antique — I also reflected, that it has of late become
fashionable in our island, to rescue from the ruins of
modern improvement, the vestiges of our ancient state —
such as the names of our seats and towulands — our
music — the character of our heroes — the antiquity of
our arts and letters, and in a grand national portrait it
might be conceived necessary to introduce the ancient
architecture of the country, like the ancient religion,
into the foreground, to render the piece consistent.

When we consider that Lord Fingall's fortune would
enable him to maintain his rank in Germany, where he
had been educated, and where his religion would be no
obstacle to his acquiring political authority ; and when
instead of this we perceive him, under all political dis-



232 The Irish Tourist.

abilities, residing in his native country, and contributing
by his fortune and example to its improvement, I feel
an additional motive to the publication of this testimony
of my esteem, and offer it with pleasure in commoi>
with that portion of my countrymen, to whom his Lord-
ship, by ties of a religious and political character, Is
more intimately united.

Here we shall commit to writing a few moral and
political reflections to which the circumstances of this
visit gave birth. But first we shall solicit the indulgence
of our readers for that freedom of expression (but we
hope not licentious freedom) which characterizes them.

May we never sec the return of that day, when by
the restoration of terror, we and our posterity shall be
deprived of that wise and temperate exercise of our
native freedom which is conferred upon us by the British
constitution, and which is the deepest spring of gratu-
lation to the British subject.

It is freedom and equity of law which endears this
constitution to the people. It is the possession of free-
dom which animates them to defend it. It is freedoni
which encourages the. expansion of idea, and rewards
with public approbation and support the honourable
exercise of talent — but this freedom would be but ^
name, if within the bounds of temperance and charity,
we dare not speak our thoughts to each other. If the
honest reflection of my mind, shall deprive me of life,
of liberty, or even of the esteem of my countrymen ;
of what benefit is iL to me, that I live under the shade
of a boasted constitution — in an age of illumination—
in a country called christian— and among a people pro-
verbial for generosity and valour. Taking it for granted,



Tke Irish Tourist. 233

therefore, that the claim which we lay to these virtues
is well founded, I shall proceed without hesitation to
^nish the reflections suggested by this visit.

The people of Ireland are divided into two grand poli-
tical parties; one of which adhere to the antient religion
of Home, and the other professes, for the most part, a
liberal and tolerant system of religion called the Re-
formed—In the hands of this latter has been the govern-
ment of the country since the revolution of England ; an -
era which may be considered as the birth of liberty,
and consequently pregnant with the most important
blessings to every class of the community in these coun-
tries.. These two parties comJDOse what may be denomi-
nated the Irish community ; if we may apply this term
to the inhabitants of a country as yet not perfectly united,
â–  but which (notwithstanding its religious and political
feuds^ the lamentable poverty and ignorance of one half
of its members, and the superstitions and disorders
.which are the necessary offspring of ignorance) has
made considerable progress in arts, sciences, and civili-
zation, has distinguished itself at home by its generosity
to'strangers, and abroad, by its valour in the field. This
community lives under the shade of a constitution, erected
upon the ruins of a barbarous and intolerant system,
purchased by the blood of' those who fell martyrs to
truth and to the interests of posterity— acknowledged to
be now the best constitution in Europe, but which, ac-
cording to the common lot of all human productions,
has retained some errors of antiquity, and into which
^ome modern abuses have crept-This appears to be
an epitome of the country and constitution ; and it is
vvorth while considering the instruction which this state
pf things conveys to the car of reason.



234 The Irish Tourist.

And first, in relation to the people thus divided on
the ground of prejudice or principle, it proclaims the
necessity of mutual charity and forbearance — it instructs
them in the propriety of meeting at stated times for the
purpose of cultivating a common interest — of raising
from the ruins of poverty and dissention, the reason
and humanity of the country — and from the tortured
and insulted spirit of Christianity, a code of morals,
which all christians profess to admire ; but the flagrant
violation of which, has long made us offensive, even in
the eyes of infidel nations — I appeal to the reason of
the country whether a compact of this kind would not
be more glorious, and productive of better effects, than
our eternal contentions — whether it would not be the
best method of softening the prejudices of sect and
party j of uniting in affection, and in the practice of all
which is honorable and useful in life, the virtuous of
every name, of obtaining from the legislature the re-
moval of existing abuses, and of manifesting to infidel
nations the efficacy of that faith, of which the bigot
vainly boasts, while his heart is filled with enmity, his
tongue with taunts,, or his hands continue reeking with
the blood of liis dissenting brother.

Let us next consider what sort of instruction this state
of things conveys to the ear of tiie government or parent
power : and by a comparison of wh^it shall be said on
this subject with the slate of those enslaved nations,
where tlje midnight dirge has been long since chaunted
in sackcloth over the grave of freedom, may the supe-
rior virtue and gJory of the British constitution be re-
flected as in a mirror.

Power is delegated by the body politic to its head and



The. Irish Tourist. 235 ,

arms for the salutary purposes of legislation and defence
— In order to the exercise of those duties, it is neces-
sary that the parent power be invested with the virtues
of wisdom and fortitude, inflexible integrity, exemplary
humanity, and adequate physical force, to maintain these

virtues in constant and effectual operation Without

these it could neither redress the complaints of suffering
members, discern and suppress the machinations of cor-
rupt ones, legislate for the body, or protect it from fo-
reign enemies — Consistent with the faithful ekercise of
those functions, it will give operation to virtue and ta-
lents in every branch of the community, and as much as
possible in every individual of every branch — it will pu-
nish with exemplary severity every known abuse of in-
ferior authority, and by example and wholesome dis-
cipline it will discountenance vice and immorality — It
will leave every man to the exercise of his conscience,
in matters of religion, but conscious, that true and false
religion, must produce effects, bearing some proportion
to the character of their respective sources ; it will con-
sider it as one of the highest privileges of its delegated
authority, to pour light into the habitations of darkness,
and to open before the view of the people the origin c?"
those principles which have misled them.

It will not apply the public money to venal uses— It
will not punish crimes be3'ond the measure of their tur-
pitude, and thus render itself more guilty than the cri-
minal it condemns — It will not sport with the peace and
prosperity of the humble trader, by complex and op-
pressive laws, or by pouring upon him a race of watch-
men, with whom for the preservation of his trade and
family he must enter into an alliance of bribery and cor-



236 The Irish Tourist.

ruption — But it will render as simple as possible its excise
laws, and by levying the weight of its imposts upon fo-
reign productions, upon the exports of a country, upon
the raw materials of a trade, and upon those luxuries
and splendid appendages which are the concomitants of
wealth, it will render vigorous the sinews of industry,
and promote manufactures and internal commerce. It
will not set to sale places of trust and profit, but it will
search for integrity and talent to fill those places.

If an established system of religious instruction be ne-
cessary to the maintenance of social order, and no doubt
it is so ; then a public system of education is necessary
to qualify the people to understand this instruction ; and
to provide for both is the proper duty of the" parent
power.

If the parent power should so far forget the objects of
its delegation, as to squander in schemes of conquest,
or in the maintenance of drones and idle offices, the
public property ; then its disposition and ability to pro-
mote the instruction and social comfort of the people,
being paralyzed and broken, the guilt of those disorders
which result from ignorance, poverty, and ill example,
will, by the severity of public judgment, be traced to it,
as to its source — If for the purpose of rendering religion
subservient to its own support, it applies to the aggran-
dizement of the superior clergy, who do little or nothing
for the people, such a portion of the public property, as
would, after the maintenance of this order in decent me-
diocrity, improve the circumstances of the inferior clergy,
and provide a fund for the education of the poor, then
it h^ecomes the parent of discontent, and forces upon
the heart of an injured people, a sentimeHt unfavourable
to its character.



TJie Irish lourist, 23^

If, in taxing the labours of the industrious farmer to
support the minister in affluence, it overlooks the
wealthy grazier who covers thousands of acres with his
flocks, then it appears guilty of an unequal distribution
of justice, and will be charged by the severity of public
judgment, with the crime of oppressing ihe industrious
citizen, and of sowing dissention between. the minister
and his people.

If the parent power from a multiplicity of cares, the
perplexities of war, the secret and open plots of its ene-
mies, or that innate corruption of nature, which insen-
sibly slides into all the operations of society If from

any one or. all of those causes, its original integrity
should become broken and impaired, the best exercise of
its remaining virtue would be: first, to consider the
purposes for which its authority was delegated — se-
condly, to turn its attention to the reformation of its
laws J and lastly, having removed all just causes of com-
plaint, to maintain with firmness, and enforce with -vi-
gour, the institutions of justice — by these methods it
will again cover itself with glory — ^^it will accomplish the
end of its delegation — it will have confidence in the su-
preme protection — and should an hour of danger come,
the aggregate virtue of a country will flock around its
standard and guard it from profanation, at the expence
of all which is held dear by man.*



* These are the requisitions of justice j but in a world, alas !
where innocence is oppre^ed — wliete the basest depravity
abounds, wliere the best of measures are liable to misrepre-
sentation, and the best of Governments are beset with enemies,
how hard to make them the invariable rule o( public conduct.



238 Tlie Irish Tourist,

And now to return to the people, with whom we shn.U
conclude these reflections.

If any portion of the people of a country are sus-
pected to entertain principles hostile to the rest, and in
consequence of this impression, are deemed ineligible to
the offices of trust and power, the best way in our hum-
ble judgment for such persons to remove this foul im-
pression of their character from the public mind, would
be, to call upon the aggregate virtue of a country to
unite with them in the common cause of reformation ; in
the illumination and improvement of the poor, in the
dissemination of charitable instead of damning doctrines,
and in the promotion of all natural and moral, as well as
political good ; and thus making their cause, not the
cause of a selfish and ambitious interest, but the cause of
human nature and of charity, they would soon cease to
be objects of suspicion ; and the steady evidences of
their virtue, with a common co-operation in their cause,
would raise them in due time, to the rank of their fellow-
citizens, for then it would cease to be the interest of
those citizens to withhold from their brethren, the exer-
cise of a privilege, which is the natural birth-right of
them all.

It was thus the Quakers of the seventeenth century
emancipated themselves from obloquy — it was thus they
convinced the parent power, that they were deserving of
toleration — it was thus the laws which cast them into
prison, deprived them of their estates, and banished
them from their country, were repealed ; and these re-
main to be the true methods of reflecting innocence, and
of impressing upon the pnblic mind the interests of an
injured people.



The Irish Tourist, 239

Having, by the preservation of those reflections, dis-
charged what I conceived to be a debt due to society, I
proceeded in the prosecution of my tour through the
County of Meath, by Swainstown and the Abbey of
Bective, the ruins of which latter place are still extant.
Here the soil begins to improve, and the traveller ap-
proaches a country, which by the river Boyne and some
beautiful improvements on its banks, as well as by its in-
teresting ruins, presents him with new sources of enter-
tainment. Swainstown was the first seat, on the direct
road from Dublin to Trim, which had the power to inte-
rest my imagination— It is small, but enriched by a quan-
tity of elm trees of great age, and very beautifully dis-
tributed ; the solemn influence of those aged elms upon
a demesne well watered, and beautified by a gentle ele-
vation, which approaches to the road, and is seen to
advantage from the hall-door of Swainstown-house, con-
stituted this, in my view, one of the prettiest objects on
the public road from thence to the metropolis.

A little farther on in the County of Meath, is Bellinter,
the seat of Lord Tara, which on the ground of variety,
prospect, and extent, far exceeds the villa last noticed—
Bellinter may be considered as the flower of that neigh-
bourhood, and, in a country undistinguished by the
grand operations of nature, combines a suflacient num-
ber of advantages to call into exercise the descriptive ta-
Icnts of the poet.

The river Boyne, in its progress to Drogheda, winds
its majestic flood through a beautiful glen, which at the
rere of this mansion-house, is an object rather interesting
and grand, while the plantations on the banks of the
river, spread a charming shade over those walks, which



240 The Irish Tourist.

Lord and Lady Tara have formed with much judgment,
ill lines parallel with the river — The view from the front
of the mansion-house, is equally interesting, and much
more extensive — the eye reaches over a capacious lawn
to a chain of hills which completely top the improve-
ments, and form a kind of semicircle around the con-
cerns — The plantations open a proper view to several old
castles on the summit of those hills, which at the distance
of several miles from Bellinter-house, constitute good
objects in that view. The beholder, in the contem-
plation of this scene, is led to admire the judgment with
which art has adapted her improvements to the ground-
work of nature — The gardens and pleasure-grounds,
through which Lord Tara had the politeness to conduct
mc, were well worth visiting, more particularly his lord-
ship's glass-works, which are tolerably extensive, and
well stocked with those fruits and exotics, which enrich
the tables and perfume the habitations of the great.

The soil in this neighbourhood is composed for the
most part, (according to my information) of a light
clay, on a substratum of black gravel — it is tolerably
grassy and good for wheat, perhaps somewhat superior
to that in the neighbourhood of Dunboyne, which I have
already attempted to describe.

In my progress from Bellintcr to Navan, 1 dined at
the pretty villa of Captain Mitge, a gentleman of liberal
character — his seat stands on the banks of the Boyne,
within about two English miles of the town, of which
it commands a very interesting view along the water — In
the evening I drove to Navan, and before my final de-
parture, walked through the town, which I found dis-
graced by a number of shabby cr.bins in 'its fiuburhs,



The Irish Tourist. 241

and made a few observations on its trade and buildings,
as also upon those of Trim, in my visii to that place, the
substance of which I shall introduce after relating the
following anecdote.

Before my departure from Dublin, while rambling
through one of its dirty streets, in the prosecution of my
business, I happened to meet with a good Carmelite, who

had for a long time thirsted for my conversion He

put into my hands the confessions of St. Augustine,
with an exhortation to read them with prayer for illumi-
nation. I carried this book with me to the County of
Wicklow, and in one night had nearly read it through,
when, according to my usual absence of mind, I forgot
to pack it up with my baggage, when preparing to de-
part next morning — I intended writing to the good Car-
melite to apologize for my negligence,* and to inform
him, that I had found Augustine much less of a papist
than I had expected, for that instead of arguments for
masses, wax^candles, reliques, prayers for the dead, and
those other things which constitute the essence of po-
pery, I found many good solid reflections in his book,
and wondered how he a gr od and sensible Carmelite
could think of stumbling upon St. Augustine, as the in-
strument of converting any thinking Protestant to his

order Soon after 1 had looked over the confessions of

Augustine, I met with another Catholic book at the
house of a lady of that profession in the County of my
residence, called the Spiritual Combat, which I read with
tears — On opening this little volume at an early hour ia
tlie morning, I happenning of cotton,
at a place called Stack Allen, the property of a Mr.