ing eye and
animated gesture, without remembering that _she_ knows nothing of the
associations at which her partner is, perhaps, smirking; he sees her
_vis-a-vis_ exchanging looks with his friend, that denote _their_
estimation of the music; and in very truth, so puzzled is he, he
begins to distrust his senses. The air ceases, and is succeeded by
another no less known, no less steeped in the same class of
associations, and so to the conclusion. These remembrances of past
wickedness go on "crescendo," till the _finale_ caps the whole with a
melody, to which even the restraints of society are scarcely able to
prevent a humming accompaniment of concurring voices, and--these are
the Irish Quadrilles! What can account for this? What special pleading
will find an argument in its favour? When Wesley objected to all the
good music being given to the devil, he only excused his adoption of
certain airs which, in their popular form, had never been connected
with religious words and feelings; and in his selection of them, was
rigidly mindful to take such only as in their character became easily
convertible to his purpose: he never enlisted those to which, by an
unhappy destiny, vulgarising and indelicate associations have been so
connected as to become inseparably identified; and although the object
is widely different, I cannot see how, for the purposes of social
enjoyment, we should have diverged from his example. If we wished a
set of Irish quadrilles, how many good and suitable airs had we not
ready at our hands? Is not our national music proverbially rich, and
in the very character of music that would suit us? Are there not airs
in hundreds, whose very names are linked with pleasing and poetic
memories, admirably adapted to the purpose? Why commit the choice, as
in this case, to a foreigner who knew nothing of them, nor of us? And
why permit him to introduce into our drawing-rooms, through the means
of a quadrille band, a class of reminiscences which suggest levity in
young men, and shame in old ones? No, no; if the Irish quadrilles are
to be fashionable, let it be in those classic precincts where their
merits are best appreciated, and let Monsieur Jullien's popularity be
great in Barrack-street!

A NUT FOR "ALL IRELAND."

From Carrickfergus to Cape Clear, the whole island is on the "_qui
vive_" as to whether her gracious majesty the queen will vouchsafe to
visit us in the ensuing summer. The hospitable and magnifice