assurance from her wretched, but well known customer, Mrs. Hurley appeared satisfied; aware, from experience, that, in this instance, punctuality was guaranteed by self-interest.

"Break his fast?" repeated the Commodore: "what a mode of breaking fast!"

"As good as any," replied Mr. De Vere: "it all comes to the same thing in the end. Habit and circumstances determine the mode and means without our consent or will; and gin or glory

Leads but to the grave.'

The two travellers now followed their guide with difficulty through collected heaps of mud and filth. The very air they breathed was infected by noxious vapours, which the morning sun drew up from piles of putrid matter. The houses, between which they passed, were in ruins; the sashless windowswere stuffed with straw; the unhinged

doors exposed the dark and dirty stairs, which led to dens, still more dun and foul. Here, if " lonely misery retired to die," living wretchedness could scarcely nd a shelter. Yet many an haggard face, many an attenuated form, marked by the squalor of indigence, and the harshness of vice, EVEN HERE evinced a crowded and superabundant population.. The guide, who, as he proceeded through this disgusting suburb, saluted several among those whose idle curio sity had drawn them from their sties, betrayed a courtesy of manner curiously contrasted with his own appearance, and that of the persons he addressed. Every body was "Sir," or " Madam;"

and the children were either "

Miss," or "Master," or were saluted with epithets of endearment and famili arity.

"Morrow, Dennis, dear, how is it with you?" "Morrow, kindly, Mrs. Flanagan: I hope I see you well,

ma'am." "Oh, you're up with the day, Mr. Geratty. How's the woman that owns you ?" "Here's a fine morning, Miss Costello, God bless it is your mother bravely, miss?" "Eh! then Paddy, you little garlagh, why is'nt it after the cockles ye are the day, and the tide on the turn."

While, however, he seemed occupied with "an unwearied spirit of doing curtesies," he occasionally threw his shrewd, but sunken eye, over the persons he was conducting; and faithfully translating the expression of the Commodore's looks, he observed:

"Och! its a poor place, Sir, sure enough; and no poorer room-keepers, your honor, than the Ringsend's, God help 'em, not even in the vaults, Sir." "The vaults?"

"Och! yes, indeed, the vaults under the fine new streets, Sir, that is'nt built, where there's nothing to pay; only in respect of being mighty moist. Wait a

taste, your honor, till yez get an, Sir, and yez will see them swarm out in great style, the craturs!"

cer,

"And sure it is a most beautiful and sweet country," read aloud Mr. De Vere, who had now found out the passage he had hitherto vainly sought in Spenand was treading a clear pathway as they left the miserable outlets of Ringsend and Irishtown behind them. "A most beautiful and sweet country as any under heaven, being stored throughout with many goodly rivers, with all sorts of fish, most abundantly sprinkled with many very sweet islands, and goodly lakes, like little inland seas, that will carry even shippes upon their waters, adorned with goodly woods, even fit for building houses and shippes, so commodiously, as that if some princes in the world had them, they would soon hope to be lords of all the seas, and ere long, of all the world-also full of very good ports and havens,

opening into England, as inviting us to come into them, to see what excellent commodities that country can afford. Besides, the soyle itself, most fertile, fit to yield all kind of fruit that shall be committed there unto; and lastly, the heavens most mild, though somewhat more moist than the parts towards the west."

"So much for the Natural State of Ireland," said the Commodore, as the peripatetic student closed his book, to which the guide had given a very humorous attention. "So much for the natural state. Behold the first groupings of its social, its political condition." As he spoke, they entered one of those long-laid-out streets, whose houses, in the course of many years, have not advanced beyond the foundations. From the vaults, the thick smoke of burning straw or rubbish was emitted through holes, perforated in the pavement; while hordes of wretched and