breakfast over, and myself and the children dress'd for prayers, and fim bothers me for a button, or a string, or to draw up a hole in his stocking; and then we must run every foot of the way to chapel, and are often late after all; and then we are smothering in the crowd, after running so fast, so that we can't think of prayers. Then we hurry home to dress a bit of meat, for Tim likes a bit of meat of a Sunday; so I broil myself over that, and the children run wild when there is no school, and pester me looking for them. All the evening we do be roving here, and roving there. I lock the cabin; and many's the good cock and hen we lose on Sundays; and the children set the dog and cat to fight; so there's nothing but hubbub from morning till night†t, and Tim scolding us all by turns. If he went to walk or play, or drink like another man, and not stay watching us, it would be more to my liking. Dear me! but I hate a cross man! when he's of a hearty humour of a fine Sunday evening, I make him take us out, and treat us all to tea and cakes; then we're so tired we can hardly strip ourselves to go to bed, and can badly waken in the morning; nor indeed we don't care to work so soon after such diversion. "Rose. If you like, Nancy, I'll tell you how we pass our time on Sundays. We rise about as early as any other day, and ready up the place before breakfast, that we may have time to do as I'll tell you, all day. After breakfast, we have plenty of time to put on us, because our little clothes are mended, Every foot is not said as a measure of distance, but of velocity—as slow as foot can fall, or, as fast as foot can go, are common expressions Nancy's picture of the hurry and scramble on a Sunday morning to get the breakfast over, and herself and the children dressed for prayers; Tim bothering her for a button, or a string, or to draw up a hole in his stocking; the running to chapel; the hurry home to broil the bit of meat; the children running wild; the losing of the cocks and hens; the children setting the dog and cat to fight; and Tim scolding them all by turns, is a picture worthy the pencil of Morland, or Bird-worthy the pen of Goldsmith, or of Crabbe." "Hubbub is a Miltonic word.→→ A universal hubbub wild, Of stunning sounds, and voices all confused."" "To put on us-to put on our clothes; to take off us to take off our clothes. The editor was going to have explained these phrases by, to dress and to undress; but these words would, to fashionable readers, have conveyed the very teverse of the meaning intended." and laid out over night. Jem and I always think it a pleasant walk to the chapel, and do our endeavour to be in time for mass. We advise the children to mind what is said, and to attend to their duty while they stay there, because it is very bad to be diverting themselves, and thinking of other things, at the time when they say they go to worship. They know that we always took care of them, and listened to their little complaints, and eased them if we could, nor never was fond of crossing them; so they are for being after us, wherever we go; and if they teaze us sometimes, yet, on the whole, it is a great ease to know they are safe, and with them that won't ill advise them. As to our bit of dinner, we like to have a bit of meat too on Sundays. I dress it as comfortably as I can, and we always enjoy ourselves in quietness, over our clean, good victuals, for which we are very thankful, and advise the children to be so. If a bit is left, Jem always likes it to be sent to Molly, our old neighbour; indeed the children would sooner stint themselves, than let her be disappointed; and they all wish to carry it to her. Sometimes we take a bit of a walk in the evening, or sit at the door playing with the children, or call to see a neighbour; but we always read a good book out loud for an hour; and we have little books teaching goodness, that we lend to the children that can read. So our evening goes over in quietness; and I hope we are the better of it; for it is not good to be always thinking of work, no more than diversion, it mais us too worldly-minded: and as to feasting and drinking, it is neither good for soul nor body. “Nancy. I would fall asleep with so much reading. "Rose. If you gave your mind to it, you'd be sorry when it was done; and its often we cry with joy, when we read the sweet sayings of the dying, and all the joy they expect. We can't but pray to be like them. Nancy. Well, I would not be bound to spend such a Sunday for all that, it being the only day we have of our own. "Rose. It's the Lord's day, and we have a right to think of Him on it; so it is every day, but this in particular; and we ought to be proud that there is a day of rest for our bodies, and that we can prepare ourselves for hereafter." pp. 103-108. These extracts, we admit, are, as far as they go, very creditable to the author; and although they do not justify all that Miss Edgeworth has affirmed respecting the religious complexion of the work, yet it must be allowed that they have a right bearing. And this, indeed, is a sentence which we do not hesitate to proBounce on all that the author has here presented to the public. If the Irish peasant should derive from it little or no accession to his stock of religious knowledge; if the short and meagre references to that subject, should be but little adapted to excite and animate his devotional feelings; he will at least meet with nothing which is at variance with the pure principles and the elevated practice of the Gospel; while every page will furnish him with im portant instruction of a moral, prudential, and economical kind. We hail Mrs. Leadbeater, therefore, as an able and useful auxiliary; for in such a warfare as that which she wages-a war with indolence, improvidence, and vice-" he that is not against us is on our part." Those who, like this lady, without introducing false principles of religion, or sanctioning false maxims of morality, labour, though by the application of inferior yet allowable motives, to diminish the sum of vice and misery in the world, deserve, and shall ever obtain, our grateful approbation. We should rejoice indeed, for their own sakes, and that of those who may be influenced by their admonitions, to hear them strike a higher note; to observe them bearing in mind, in every line "There are the rights of things as well as of persons. The house had a right to come down; was it not a hundred years old? That stool had a right to know me, for I made it every inch. That saw had a right to be a good one, for I paid a great price, and twice as much as ever it was worth any how.'" * Ilibernice, we ought to rejoice. they penned, that man is a dying creature; that heaven and hell, judgment and eternity, are awful realities; and that every rule of life and manners is substantially valuable, only as it may be made subservient to what ought to be the supreme aim of rational and accountable beings, the attainment of a blissful immortality. We are much more disposed, however, to praise Mrs. Leadbeater for what she has done, than to blame her for what she has omitted to do. What she has done, she has done well, and we would gladly incite her to persevere in her benevolent and patriotic labours. The machinery of the present work is extremely simple. We are first introduced to Nancy and Rose, while they are yet young girls in the houses of their respective parents; and we hear them confer, as they grow up, on the attention to be paid to the younger children entrusted to their care, on learning to sew, on the dangers of fairs and wakes, and on the reserve becoming young women. After they have engaged in service, several Dialogues follow, which have a reference to their con dition, and their duties in that state of life. In due time, Nancy is married to Tim, and Rose to Jem, and both have families of children. The various ordinary occurrences of domestic life furnish the subjects of conversation, between Tim and Jem, or between Nancy and Rose, or between Rose and her children; in the course of which the different effects produced on domestic comfort and happiness, by a different mode of management in the two families, are well contrasted. It would swell this article to a very disproportionate size, if we were to extract all the passages in the work which appear to us to merit notice. Indeed,there is no part of it which does not reflect credit on the accurate observation and just views of the author. And so well adapted do we think it to do good among the lower Irish, for whose use it is expressly designed, that we hope to see it printed in a 1811.] Review of Mrs. Leadbeater's Cottage Dialogues. cheap form, and widely circulated among them. The rich could scarcely make a more beneficial application of their bounty. They would be conveying to the cottages of the poor, in a shape which could hardly fail to fix their attention, lessons of industry, frugality and virtue, which might produce far happier effects on their domestic enjoyments, than a direct gift of twenty times the sum which it would cost to do this. But we wish to give our readers an opportunity of judging whether we over-rate the value of Mrs. Leadbeater's labours. The tendency of the 38th Dialogue, between Nancy and Rose, is excellent. It is called " Forecast." "Nancy. How, in the name of wonder, do you keep such good clothes on yourself, and the children; and it is not Sunday you're drest, but every day? "Rose. We don't pretend to much dress; but we strive to be clean, indeed, and always to have a little change apiece. "Nancy. If all of us had one suit apiece, I'd be very proud; but, indeed, now the finen and every thing is so dear, I could not keep a tack upon the children, but for Mrs. Nesbitt*; and what the quality gives us, lasts no time. "Rose. For service they don't, but for a change for the small children they are very useful. However, if you take my advice, you'll always keep a bit of wool, and flax, spinning in the house, and according as it is ready, give it to the weaver; and you won't miss the price of it, as you do when you go to the shops; there's few poor man can get a new shirt now. “* A tøck—as much clothes as could be kept on by a single tack or stitch. The editor lately heard a nursery-maid in a gentleman's faaily call a child to be dressed, with this eloquent apostrophe, "Miss Susy! Miss Susy! come and put on ge; there's the five-minute-bell, and you won't have a tatter on ye by the time din.ner's up.' “A tatter was in this case used merely for the pleasure of employing a figurative term, as the child's clothes were not in tatters; and the child, not having been used either to the word or the thing, could comprebend only that it was a new name for a clean frock." 235 Nancy. It's no sign by Jem*; he can get it, and all your children too. "Rose. We made all that linen, as I told you, and bleached it ourselves; it's not a good colour by the bought linen, but it is piece in the loom now, and will have more not a bad colour neither; and we have a yarn ready shortly. afford to buy the flax; it's hard enough to Nancy. I tell you, Rose, we couldn't keep a bit in our mouths. enough; and only for our bit of land, we "Rose. The times are very hard, sure could not have the flax either. 46 Nancy. Some people have more luck than others. "Rose. We would not have such luck, only we waited till Jem could gather enough bit of land that he took; and to be sure of his earnings to build this house, on this many a one thought we'd never marry if we waited for that; but Jem was mighty indusspending, never wasted his time smoking, trious entirely, and was on his guard against nor wore out his clothes fighting, or the like; thing worth talking of. so you'd wonder how soon he gathered some Nancy. And did you gather nothing yourself? Rose. I was at service, and my wages were not so high as to let me save much money; but as I had a liking for Jem all along, I still thought of making a little provision for housekeeping, and bought wool, and had it spun, and wove for blankets; more times I bought flax, and got linen made; and whenever I had a bit of spare time, I was patching a quilt, I was saving a little clothes too: so that when we were married, I had plenty of linen, and woollen; and you may be sure it never went astray with us, either old or new. Jem, you know, had but middling health for a long time after his heavy sickness; and it would not answer us turn, either for food or clothes, to be running to the shops, at every hand's happy for your family, that you took such "Nancy. It's happy for you, Ruse, and a sober turn early; for myself, I was always fond of a bit of dress, and Tim (though he is such a saving, steady man now,) ioved company, though he was no drinker; but he, nor I either, were ever the people to have a thing, and want it. They were the plea sant times when we met at the dance, or that in Jem-or, by Jen's appearance, I "More times-ofttimes-poctical, Plain "Rose. And yet when you were sick, Tommy walked every foot to Carlow, to get the medicines the good Doctor ordered, that saved your life, I believe. "Betty. I know he did; and he's a goodnatur'd boy, but he thinks girls are no good. "Rose. You know people must praise the ford as they find it. Now, it you were pleasant with Tommy, and did not take huff, but passed over what he said in a joke, he'd soon leave off teasing you; but while you go on scolding him, he'll be apt to think you are ill-humoured, and then, to be sure, he'll think you are no good. "Beity. No good! what do I mend his stockings, and knit them, and spin his shirts, and make and mend them for? "Rose. Betty, honey, we must help one another. You are a good working girl, and you do a deal for Tommy; then, again, he plants potatoes, and digs them for you. Now I am always afraid, when I see a sister thwarting, and comparing with her brother, that she'll make a cross husband of him, it makes him get into the way of being snappish. So Betty, do strive to alter, and let us have peace and quietness in the house." pp. 197-199. "Rose, and her Son Tommy. "Rose. Tommy, I am not pleased with you! You behave to your sister as if she was not good enough to wipe your shoes. What pleasure can she have in making and mend ing for you, and ironing your shirt so neatly for Sundays, when all the thanks she gets is snapping at her every now and then? Tommy. O, Mother, Betty vexes me so when I come in, and think to sit down quietly; she has always something to find fault with.-I did not do this, and I did not do that. If I was ever so pleasant, she teases me till she makes me cross. "Rose. Now, Tommy, consider, that whether she is old or young, a woman has a deal to do, and so many little things to think of, from morning till night, thatshe expects some patience from the men; they have but the one big thing to do and to think of; and when the women are doing their best to have all right in the cabin, I must say it is a man's duty to try to be pleased with it, and to shew that he is pleased, or he may spoil the best woman in the world, with always finding fault; for tread upon a worm, and it will turn.' So, Tommy, do strive to alter, and let us have peace and quietness in the house." pp. 200 -202. "Rose, and her Daughter Betty. "Rose. Welcome, my dear Betty. I see by what you have brought with you, that you have won the premium for spinning, at Belmour Hall; and I am as rejoiced as you can he, for your life. I wish your father was come in. " Betty. O, mother, how I'm obliged to you! and, Tommy, I'm obliged to you for carrying the wheel home for me. I hope I'll spin you a shirt on it. «Tommy. I don't doubt your goodness, Betty, and I am sorry ever I vexed you. If I could carry twenty wheels, it would not be enough for what you do for me. "Rose. O, that's better than all the rest, to see my children love one another! Now, Betty, let us hear all about the spinningmatch. " Betty. I'm sure it was a fine sight, to see twenty wheels settled in the lawn, in a half round, all going at once. There was a table in the middle, that the spools were laid upon to be judged; and an active, sensible, knowing woman, sate by it to judge. The premiums were set out before us. First, there was this fire new cloak, and wheel, and rock of flax, and this cap hanging on the rockstick. The second was a wheel, with it's rock of flax, a cap, and an apron. The third, a wheel, rock of flax, cap and shawl. The fourth, a wheel, rock of flax, and cap. The fifth, a wheel, rock of flax, and ribband; and that was the last. "Rose. And a great many; and enough to encourage all to take pains. "Betty. Mrs. Belmour herself came out, and walked round by the spinners, and spoke to every one there, so free, and so pleasant; and, O, how beautiful she looked, when she stood by Cicely Brennan, who is so lame of one hand, that she was almost afraid to venture at all, till Mrs. Belmour told her it was not who spun fastest, but who spun best, was to be looked to; and sure enough she got a premium. But when we had spun two hours, end laid our spools on the table, O, how our hearts beat! I know mine did, when Mrs. Belmour called us up; and I could not tell you how her fine black eyes danced in her head; and the tears stood in them for all that, and she smiled so sweetly, and looked as if she was the happiest creature in the world. "Rose. O, Betty, I never wish to be rich, but when I see such ladies as her, that can make so many people happy, and are so willing to do it. "Betty. We stood before Mrs. Belmour, whilethe judge examined the thread; and when she called me to her, and gave me the wheel, and the cloak, and the cap, with her own hand, sure I did not know where I was standing, nor what I said! but I know she wished me joy, and bid me use my wheel well; and she was so pleased at every premium she gave! and the encouraged those that lost, and said they might win another time, that they seemed happy too, and all were pleasant and goodhumoured; and bowls of syllabub and cakes were handed round to us; and I hardly felt tay feet coming home. “Rose. Well, my dear Betty, I must wish you joy too, though I can't do it so genteelly as Mrs. Belmour. ་་ Betty. O, mother, honey, I think more of your commendation, than the lady's itself, though she is so grand, and so beautiful, and so good; and it is you I am obliged to for my cloak, my wheel, and my cap. If you had not taught me to spin, and watched to make me spin an even thread, I might have come off with no premium, or might have been ashamed to go at all." pp. 204-206. "Rose. Don't you know, Nancy, that she will never have the small-pox, after she has this? and she has this only on her arm, and in a few days she will be well. She was not much sick at all; and they never die of this pock. Sure it is the finest thing in the world to escape that dreadful disorder, the small-pox; and we ought to pray day and night for the man that found out the cow-pock. I hope you will get your two youngest little boys done. Mr. Goodwill inoculated Winny with it, and he will do your children from her, I am sure. Shall I ask him? for the small-pox is all about the neighbourhood. Nancy. O, no; I'll let them run their chance, and take a disorder from a christian, and not from a cow. "Rose. Nancy, dear, don't talk so silly. How glad poor Terry Hogan would be now, if he had travelled forty miles to have his two fine girls done, sooner than let them have taken that nasty small-pox; and now they lie in Killellan, by one another; and och, how all the neighbours cried for the good girls, that kept their mother and themselves decent with making listing shoes. O, Nancy, don't he positive, but do your duty to your children, and save their lives if you can! Nancy. I'll think of it; but sure there's no hurry.. 64 "Rose. Yes, but there is, though! In little bit of time Winny's arm will be past taking it from; and may be there's no more in the country, and when you'd want to get it done, you could not; and then you would be sorry, and never forgive yourself, if any thing happened. Don't you know, that al that's said against the cow-pock now, was said against inoculation for the small pox, when it was first found out? yet even that was a great blessing, in comparison to taking it the natural way. Believe what your true friend says, and don't listen to the nonsense of people that never had a child in their lives, and don't care about the matter any farther than to have the pleasure of find. We perfectly agree with Missing fault." pp. 223-226. Edgeworth, that these Dialogues are excellent in their kind, and that the simple account given of the Spinning-Match, is exquisitely affectionate, natural, and touching." The Dialogue on the Cow-Pock should be hung up in every cottage in the kingdom. * Nancy. Nów, Rose, I wonder at you, to give your own christian child the disorder of a beast. CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 112, Dialogue introduces Nancy, overAs might be expected, the next whelmed with sorrow at the loss of her little Pat, and lamenting that she had not followed the counsel which might have preserved him. One more extract, and we have done. It is from the 47th Dialogue "on Politicks," and is well adapted to the meridian of the village poli tician. 2 I |