the national history of Ireland, inimitable, perennially
delightful, equally humorous and pathetic, holding up with shrewd wit
and keen perception, mingled with sympathetic indulgence, the follies
and vices that have caused, and in a modified degree still cause, no
small proportion of the social miseries that have afflicted and still
afflict that unhappy land.

Here are portrayed a series of Irish landlords with their odd
discrepancies and striking individualities, alternately drunken,
litigious, pugilistic, slovenly and densely ignorant; or else easy,
extravagant and good-natured to the point of vice; all, however, of one
mind in being profoundly indifferent to their own or their tenants'
welfare. The sharp contrasts of the magnificent and paltry that
characterized their state of living, with the mixed confidence in a
special Providence and their own good luck that distinguished their
muddle-headed mode of thought, is forcibly held up to view. No
conclusions are drawn; the narrative, which never flags or drags, is
rattled off with spirit, the abundant anecdotes are poured forth with
true Irish exuberance, while the humor of the story arises in great
measure from the sublime unconsciousness of the story-teller to the wit,
naivete or absurdity of his remarks. We are held spell-bound, we laugh
and weep in a breath, we are almost over-persuaded by loyal old Thady to
pardon the errors of the family, "one of the most ancient in the
kingdom, related to the kings of Ireland, but that was before my time."

If there was an ulterior end in view in this story beyond that of
recording national characteristics which she had had peculiarly good
opportunities for observing, and which she here reproduced from the life
with broad, full strokes, Miss Edgeworth has masked it so happily that
it does not obtrude itself. The society and manners of the Irish are
painted as equally provoking and endearing. The book is an epitome of
the Irish character, "fighting like devils for conciliation, and hating
one another for the love of God." Never did laughter and tears, sympathy
and repugnance, lie more closely together than in this tale. It is
curious to read the author's prefatory apology when there are still
alive, in every exasperated form, the very conditions she thinks belong
to a state of things rapidly passing away, "owing to the probable loss
of Irish identity after the union with England." The supposed "obsolete
prejudices and animositie