ors--and to cherish his name with affection, when
he himself shall be freed forever from those cares and trials of life
which have hitherto been his portion.

In the following simple narrative of "The Broken Pledge," it was his
aim, without leading his readers out of the plain paths of every-day
life or into the improbable creations of Romance, to detail the
character of such an individual as almost every man must have often seen
and noticed within the society by which he is surrounded. He trusts that
the moral, as regards both husband and wife, is wholesome and good,
and calculated to warn those who would follow in the footsteps of "Art
Maguire."

Dubin, July 4, 1845.

It has been often observed, and as frequently inculcated, through the
medium of both press and pulpit, that there is scarcely any human being
who, how striking soever his virtues, or how numerous his good qualities
may be, does not carry in his moral constitution some particular
weakness or failing, or perhaps vice, to which he is especially subject,
and which may, if not properly watched and restrained, exercise an
injurious and evil influence over his whole life. Neither have the
admonitions of press or pulpit ended in merely laying down this obvious
and undeniable truth, but, on the contrary, very properly proceeded to
add, that one of the most pressing duties of man is to examine his own
heart, in order to ascertain what this particular vice or failing in his
case may be, in order that, when discovered, suitable means be taken to
remove or overcome it.

The man whose history we are about to detail for the reader's
instruction, was, especially during the latter years of his life, a
touching, but melancholy illustration of this indisputable truth; in
other words, he possessed the weakness or the vice, as the reader may
consider it, and found, when too late, that a yielding resolution, or,
to use a phrase perhaps better understood, a good intention, was but a
feeble and inefficient instrument with which to attempt its subjection.
Having made these few preliminary observations, as being suitable, in
our opinion, to the character of the incidents which follow, we proceed
at once to commence our narrative.

Arthur, or, as he was more familiarly called by the people, Art Maguire,
was the son of parents who felt and knew that they were descended from
higher and purer blood than could be boasted of by many of the families
in their neighborhood. Art'