ous in the exercise of his religious duties, of a humane and generous disposition, and a liberal benefactor to the poor. James Blow was succeeded by Daniel Blow, probably

his son.

OUR EARLIEST NEWSPAPERS.

We now put on record, in Dr. Madden's own words, the inauguration of the Irish newspaper. Thus ran the title of the earliest :

"The Dublin News Letter. Printed for Thornton, Skinners' Row, by Ray, College Green, Dublin, 1685.❜

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In that great storehouse of information, relating to the Ancient History of the City of Dublin,' by my friend, J. T. Gilbert, Esq., we find valuable notices of the alleged earliest newspapers of our metropolis. Skinners' Row (now Christ Church Place), and Cork Hill, were the Paternoster Row of Dublin, upwards of a century and a half ago. 'Here,' Mr. Gilbert states, the first newspaper published in Dublin made its appearance in 1685. It was called 'The Dublin News Letter,' and was printed by Joseph Ray for Robert Thornton, at the 'Leather Bottle,' in Skinners' Row. The merit of the discovery of this, as the first Dublin newspaper, belongs to Mr. Gilbert. It was printed on a single leaf, of small folio size, on both sides, and addressed to the public in the form of a letter." Nineteen of these Newsletters are preserved in the Thorpe Collection, R.D. Society. After the letter of news, got from London, follow a couple of advertisements, and the reader is at the end.

The next paper issued was the "Dublin Intelligence," which was commenced, printed, and published by Andrew Crook, on Ormondquay, from 1690 to 1694, perhaps longer. It was the same size with the "News Letter," viz, eleven-anda-half inches in height, and six-anda-half in breadth, the first twenty numbers or so being printed on one

side only. Several numbers of it are preserved in a volume of the collection presented by Dr. Jasper R. Joly to the Royal Dublin Society; others, in the Thorpe Collection, belonging to the same body; but a volume in Trinity College contains the largest amount of the issue, viz., Nos. 5 to

192.

The third newspaper on our list, and of which unhappily no single number is known to be in existence, is, or rather was, the "Dublin Gazette," published in Dublin, by order of his Majesty, James II., 1689. The circulation of the paper in that year is certified by the following extract from a London broadside of the same year, purporting to be a letter from Dublin :- "There is no publick news-letter nor gazette suffered to be in any coffee-house, only the 'Dublin Gazette,' which is a legend of their own composition." John Cornelius O'Callaghan, quotes this London-letter manifesto in his notes to the Macaria Excidium (Destruction of Cyprus), a veiled history of the Jacobite wars in Ireland.

Now bidding farewell to the Irish newspapers of the seventeenth century, we return to the printed books. There was in the Charlemont Library a quarto volume, entitled,

"A Poem, addressed to Queen Catherine, Dowager Queen, on the Death of her dear Husband, King Charles II., by Mrs. Behn." Printed by Crook and Helsham, Castle Street, Dublin, 1685.

Cato was about as proper a person to be intrusted with a love tale as the frail Mrs. Behu to administer sympathy or consolation to a sorrowful widow. Why did she not address such crumbs of comfort as she could afford, to Mrs. Eleanor Gwynne or the Duchess of Portsmouth?

"King James's administration (we quote the text) issued printed sheets of military news in Dublin for the information of his Irish subjects, some of which sheets seem to have been sent to Scotland for the en

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couragement of his supporters, the Highlanders there. One of these, quoted by Macpherson, is headed, A Journal of the Most Remarkable Occurrences that happened between his Majesty's Army and the Forces under the command of the Mareschal de Schomberg, in Ireland, from the 12th of August to the 23rd of October, 1689. Faithfully collected by James Nihell, Esq., under-secretary to the Right Honourable the Earl of Melfort, his Majesty's Prime Secretary of State."

"James likewise issued one pamphlet at least, on the war in Ireland. Of this exceedingly rare production the writer of these lines was so fortunate as to meet with a copy, and to be allowed to transscribe it. It was entitled, "A Relation of what most remarkably happened during the last Campaign in Ireland, betwixt His Majesty's Army Royal and the Forces of the Prince of Orange, sent to join the Rebels under Count de Schomberg. Published by authority. Dublin: printed by Alderman James Malone, Bookseller in Skinners' Row, 1691."

When the wars were over poor Malone and his partner, Luke Dowling, were condemned to pay a fine of 300 marks for the offence of printing a Roman Catholic prayer-book. Oh, the good old times of forbearance and toleration!

Among Dr. Joly's books, placed at the disposal of the Royal Dublin Society, are the following:

A news letter account of the action fought at Castle Cuffe, the 4th of May 1691. Details given by Major Wood. Dublin: printed for Thomas Thornton. Dublin was then in the possession of the Williamite forces.

A letter of occasional news, dated the 8th of June, 1691, and headed "Account of the Taking of Bally

mone, within ten miles of Athlone."

But the most interesting of all is "A Particular and Full Account of the routing of the whole Irish Army at Aughrim, on Sunday, the 12th of July, 1691."

"A List also of the principal Persons Killed and Wounded on Both Sides. Published by Andrew Crook, on Ormond Quay, for Richard Thornton, of Capel Street."

Among the Irish prisoners of distinction was mentioned LieutenantColonel Edward Madden, probably an ancestor of our historian.

In the Charlemont Library, there was a Dublin reprint of "An Essay on the Memoir of the late Queen by Gilbert (Burnet) Bishop of Sarum. Reprinted by Joseph Ray, Dublin, 1695."

A news-letter, giving" An Account of the Dismal Ruine of Athlone," was printed at the Post-Office CoffeeHouse, Fishamble Street, 30th October, 1697. With the next work we conclude our catalogue of Irish printed books embracing the period, 1551-1699.

"The Chase of the Stag, a Descriptionary Poem. Dedicated to Her Grace the Duchess of Ormond. Written by George Wilkins, M.B., T.C.D., Dublin 1699."

This was one of the volumes of the Charlemont Library.1

Our readers must not infer from the paucity of the works published in the country in the latter half of the seventeenth century, that there were not many book-shops in Dublin, and that there were few readers. There were readers in abundance, and compared in a bulk with the readers of our days, they exhibited a greater relish for sound and serious literature. For every hundred of modern novel readers, the seven

teenth century could scarcely produce five. A young lady of 1689 or 1698 taking" Clelia," or the "Grand Cyrus," or " Astrea," each in one or more folio volumes, would come to the end in from three to five weeks. There were few, if any, circulating libraries, and the number of heavy fictions, chiefly translated from the French, was limited. There was this social advantage in the existing state of light (?) literature. The characters in the few voluminous works were well known, and appreciated by all romance-readers, and their dispositions, motives, and actions were canvassed in social meetings, as if they were creatures of flesh and blood. Such was the case also in the first thirty years of the present century. "Fergus Mac Ivor," 'Ivanhoe," "Baron Bradwardine," "Rebecca," "Belinda Portman," "Lady Delacour," "Soft Simon," and some of the Misses Porter's personages, were as objective to the minds of most intelligent people as Count D'Orsay, Beau Brummel, or the Fourth George. Who in this second half of the nineteenth century recollects the names of two characters in any novel three or four years published? Is not every library-keeper stunned with the ever-recurring complaint? "I had nothing to read yesterday evening. I read this abominable book about a quarter of a year since, and did not find my mistake till I got to the middle of the first volume."

Ladies and gentlemen from 1670 to 1710, having got through the few folio romances within their reach, would, for want of something more tempting, take up any book lying on table or shelf, and read it with more or less attention, and at the end, find his, or her, knowledge somewhat enlarged, or his, or her, judgment chastened or improved. If Dublin, in the closing years of the seventeenth century, were the literary howl ing wilderness which we might from our standpoint, suppose it to be,

John Dunton, citizen of London, would never have removed to the Irish metropolis to hold bookauctions, and in other respects to extend the boundary of the literature of his day.

JOHN DUNTON'S IRISH EXPERIENCES,

Oh, terrible John Dunton, London citizen, the persecuting and persecuted! What evil breeze wafted you across the Irish sea, to spy out and report on the nakedness of our land? If your delight was the comtemplation of unthrift, prodigality, slovenliness, and vice, could you not have found abundance of these qualities by the Thames? But the perverse and self-seeking Irishman, Pat Campbell, selfishly preferring his own interest to yours, interfered with your trade speculations, and you visited his offences on Campbell's countrymen and countrywomen, a few excepted, and even the climate and natural features of the country which gave Campbell birth. Dr. Madden

thus details the cause of war :

"A certain bookseller, named Pat Campbell, having been detected in a design to have a rival book-auction at the coffee-house in Skinners'row, in which Dunton had advertised his sale, the casus belli was established, of which the terrible result was the Dublin Scuffle' (a book subsequently published by Dunton). 'What dire events from trivial causes spring! Those in which the worthy bookseller and citizen of London involved himself, required no less than five hundred and fifty-four pages of closely-printed matter to be duly recorded in print.

"Dunton, though he could not. wreak his vengeance on the head of Pat Campbell (the irate auctioneer spelled the name Cambel, revenged himself a good deal on the soil, the sky, and the people of Ireland. As for the rain, John Dunton believed that it raineth every day on that unhappy land, and invariably all night long. Ireland (he remarks, more

in sorrow than anger) is the wateringpot of the planets-le pot de chambre du diable. The heavens in that country have sore eyes, and they are always weeping, dropping tears perpetually. But there is one good thing in Ireland,-the wind. That is generally westerly, which ensures a short passage from it. The towns and cities are thronged like hives, yet (the people) being for the most part thieves and drones, they rather diminish than increase the stock, and were it not for the honest English and strangers amongst them, they would be all starved in process of time.

"Mr. John Dunton, citizen of London, is not complimentary to the ladies of Ireland of any rank. 'The women,' he says, 'are very little beholden to Nature for their beauty, and less to Art. One may safely swear they use no paint or such-like auxiliary aid of Fucuses, being so adverse to that kind of curiosity, though they have as much need thereof as any I ever yet beheld, that one would think they never had their faces washed in their lives.'

"As to their misshapen legs, their manners, morals, and behaviour, poor Dunton is disposed to say of such things as little as possible."

The Irish women having, through the goodness of Providence, established for themselves a reputation for good conduct equal-many say, superior to that of their sisters in any country of the world, we have a suspicion that good Mr. Dunton, during a moment of forgetfulness, held amorous language to some young Dublin matron, and was perhaps shown the outside of the door for his impudence. However, the sensitive auctioneer declares that such was not the case, and that he, John Dunton, was the tempted, not the tempter. Dr. Madden undertakes his defence in this wise:

"On the title-page of the book

above cited (the 'Dublin Scuffle ') he calls the attention of the public to a billet-doux sent to him by a citizen's wife, tempting him, which temptation he happily resisted, and reprehended severely the female devil, a woman, a citizen's wife,' for leading him into temptation. Poor Mr. Dunton thinks it necessary to inform his readers that he is a religious man, although a bookseller; and that though he travelled a great deal in that barbarous country, Ireland, in order to view the cabins, customs, and manners of the Wild Irish, yet in all his rambles he had endeavoured, though he had to fight hard for it, to preserve his virtue and his religious principles, a matter of no small difficulty."

Dunton was of a business-loving, mercurial spirit. Dr. Madden bears witness to his estimable qualities in this respect:

"He made a study of the circumstances, solvency, and extent of business of every Dublin bookseller. He studied, moreover, assiduously the intellectual condition of the people of the several provinces, and the state of the book-market in each. Having acquired the information needful for his projects, he instituted a series of book-auctions in Dublin, which proved successful, in 1689."

Some interesting information was furnished by the great Mr. Dunton, concerning the state of letters and the booksellers of Dublin in his day. These were not in Pat Cambel's category. Whether some deserved all the praise lavished on them by the London citizen, is a point liable to some doubt. Mr. Powell was represented as of prepossessing personal appearance-a man of great wit and humour. John Brocas, of Skinners'-row, was the first of Dublin printers in knowledge of the art and mystery of printing.

"Mr. Norman, the Dublin bookseller,' Dunton informs his readers, 'is an excellent florist, and has a garden that is a perfect paradise.

He sells his books by auction in his very spacious warehouse. He's a little squat man, that loves to live well, and has a spouse that understands preparing good things as well as the best lady in Ireland.

"Mr. Andrew Crook is a worthy and generous gentleman, whose word and meaning never shake hands (and separate, we suppose), and always go together. Though his circumstances are not so great as those of others, yet his soul is as large as if he were a prince, and scorns as much to do an unworthy action as any man. He is a great lover of printing, and has a great respect for all that are related to that noble mystery.

"Mr. Thornton, the king's stationer, is a very obliging person, has sense enough for a privy-counsellor, and good nature enough for a primitive Christian.""

A good trait of the worthy auctioneer was that he set a proper value on books, and the art which produced them. He styled himself "Citizen of London, bookseller by the grace of God, carrying on that noble calling of selling good English books, which are the best furniture of a house, and the very epitome of heaven."

His feelings running in this groove, and "learning being at a low ebb in Ireland, he went thither to disperse the liberal arts among

the Kerns."

Was Mr. Norman, who "sold his books by auction in his spacious warehouse," an ordinary auctioneer, or were the Dublin booksellers in the habit, when business was slack, of calling an auction to get rid of their dead stock? If the public in our day heard the crier at the door of one of our Lintots of Sackville or Grafton-street, that public, however charitably disposed, would connect the exhibition with some process in the Court of Bankruptcy. We must carefully examine Mr. Gilbert's "History of Dublin," for the locality

of Mr. Norman's flower - garden. Was it in Skinners'-row, or on Corkhill, the then Ave-Maria-lane and Paternoster-row of our old Danish city, but now destitute of a solitary shop of new books?

When we commenced this article, we entertained some hopes of dwelling on the rise and progress of the Irish newspapers of the last century, the character of some of the writers and proprietors whose memory still survives, including George Faulkner, and his relations with Swift and Foote; Henry Brooke, and the establishment of the "Freeman's Journal" Higgins, the "Sham Squire;" and other literary notabilities and literary topics of the eighteenth century. These, with a mighty mass of interesting information, are found in the second volume of Dr. Madden's comprehensive, most interesting, and most useful work, when considered either in a national. historical, or archæological sense.

Writers, such as Dr. Madden, Archdeacon Cotton, and Mr. Gilbert, who set before themselves to give information of the past condition of a locality, whether it be city, town, or country, or to give a view of the bygone state of literature of a provincial country, or of any portion of it, are sure of never getting but a small portion of the credit they merit. They expend much time, they incur an incalculable amount of mental and bodily fatigue in collecting information, and in making researches in likely and unlikely places, frequently discouraged by rebuffs and disappointments; they expend more or less money in the attainment of their object, often a much higher sum than they expect to be returned, even if the work should prove eminently successful; and after all, success is, in most instances, but the exceptional result of all their anxiety, labour, and expense. The number of people to whom such works are acceptable is but small. The mere general reader dreads a mass of dry