we never had an opportunity of becoming acquainted either with the captain or his officers. When forced to go into harbour, it was always for the shortest possible time; and he generally frequented a bay considered the least safe of any on this part of the coast, but from which there was least difficulty of egress. So determined was he in venturing out, during all weathers, that his vessel was continually exposed to great risk; and it is a melancholy circumstance respecting this loss, that his officers have been heard to express their anticipations of the sad fate which has overtaken them. Yet Captain Holmes had a wife and family, of whom he appears to have been remarkably fond, and of whom he was continually talking while ashore. His sense of duty was not to be controlled by social ties: though perhaps it might have been directed by greater prudence. At all events, we cannot help earnestly hoping that the fate of the unfortunate Arab may read a lesson of caution to the officers commanding on this rugged coast. I am sure you will not suspect me of being a friend to smugglers, yet, I confess, I am not so much their enemy that I could be reconciled to the loss of so many, and so valuable lives, for the sake of capturing one.

Poor Arab! I remember reading somewhere a

pretty description of the waves of a summer sea, rippling on the shore, so gentle and so smooth, that it was impossible to suppose their peaceful waters could ever have overwhelmed a fine vessel with destruction, and buried beneath their waves the bodies of her crew. This idea has sometimes occurred to me since, while watching such gentle waves creeping in on our sands, and thinking of the Arab's fate!

E.

LETTER XLIX.

DECEMBER.

THERE is something extremely affecting and animating in the interest which you continue so warmly to express, and which in truth seems to be generally excited, at the present moment, in England, in favour of unfortunate Ireland. It appears a natural result of that generous principle implanted in our breasts by the all-wise, all-merciful Parent of mankind, which leads us to love those whom we have benefited, and to love them in proportion to the greatness and the permanence of the benefit.

The friends of Ireland, even the least sanguine of her friends, cannot but contemplate this feeling with grateful hope, both as a happy omen, and an efficient cause of her future improvement and prosperity. The singular degree of ignorance, however, with respect to the causes of misery and the materials for happiness, in this suffering country, which has proved so sad a drawback upon the kindest intentions, and the most munificent exertions, on its

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behalf, necessarily appeared in a stronger light than ever, during the last summer when Britain was stretching forth the hand of charity to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. My sister, who was at that time in Hampshire, was struck on hearing a well-educated woman express her surprise that, if potatoes were scarce while wheat was cheap, the Irish poor would not be content to eat bread. "To be sure, they might like potatoes better; but, when potatoes were not to be had, why not eat bread rather than starve?" A proof of ignorance little less striking than the noted story of the empress Maria Theresa, who, on being told that many of her subjects were starving for want of bread, enquired why then they did not eat pie crust *. Nor can I excuse the Hampshire lady so readily as I would a country-woman of hers, in a lower rank of life, who did not wonder for her part that the Irish were starving she believed" they were always fighting, or burning, or murdering one another; so,

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* Our travelled readers will be fully aware that, on the Continent, it is the custom to eat only the contents of the pie, or paté, of which the paste is merely considered the vehicle; which, instead therefore of being ranked among the delicacies of the table, becomes, to borrow a botanical expression, the mere rejectamenta.

where was the wonder they could not provide food to eat." Among the lower and uninformed classes of society, such mistakes may be excusable; but among their enlightened superiors, among the intelligent and zealous friends of Ireland, they ought to exist no longer. Most earnestly are those friends entreated to make themselves thoroughly acquainted with her actual situation, her poverty, her resources, her good as well as evil qualities, her wrongs, and her capabilities of improvement. Such acquaintance indeed, to be perfectly satisfactory, should, if pos sible, be personal; the open hand should be directed by the observant eye and patient ear. A summer's tour through the country, in the course of which we might help you to spend a few weeks agreeably enough in Cunnemarra, would, I might venture to promise you, prove a pleasing, and I am sure it would be a really useful excursion. With such an object in view, your travelling expenses might almost be placed as, Miss Hannah More in one of her excellent publications tells us, some good housewife did her proportion of poor's rates, to the score of almsgiving. The hospitality of the Irish, so repeatedly celebrated, so repeatedly experienced, makes it scarcely necessary for me to add the assurance that, whatever kindness an English stranger might have