EXCURSION III.

Through the Parish of St. Peter, the Deanery of St. Patrick, the Parishes of St. Bride and St. Nicholas Within, and the Deanery of Christ Church.

LEAVING Dawson-street for St. Stephen's Green, (already described,) and tracing its northern side with that of Merrion-row, we enter, by Baggot-street, the extensive, populous, and wealthy parish of St. Peter. Baggot-street is distinguished only for its humble and unpretending, but highly useful, "House of Refuge for Female Servants out of Place," where young women'suddenly deprived of their usual means of support, and incapable of adopting any other,' provided they can bring unquestionable testimonies of their modesty, honesty, and sobriety,' are permitted to reside, until other services can be procured for them; "and in the meantime are employed in washing and plain work, &c., receiving a small daily allowance to assist any deficiency in their earnings.' Another of these Houses of Refuge exists in Dublin; and those who consider the temptations to which unprotected females are exposed, upon becoming such temporary outcasts,' and 'the humane advantages afforded them by these establishments, can scarcely too highly appreciate them.

The modern-built Fitzwilliam-street conducts us hence to Merrion-square, the handsomest in Dublin, but indebted for a considerable portion of its fine effect to the vicinity of the Dublin-Society House, and the lawn in rear of that princely dwelling. The low wall attached to the

latter occupies nearly the whole extent of the square on its western side; the other three sides are adorned with lofty, well-built houses, not precisely uniform in their appearance, nor yet disagreeably contrasted. The northern foot-way is, on summer evenings, the fashionable lounge for all the gay and wealthy inhabitants of the neighbourhood. This square, though in extent some acres less than St. Stephen's Green, infinitely surpasses it in elegance, and is a principal ornament to the southeastern quarter of the city.

From Merrion-square our walk lies through Hollesstreet to the Artichoke Road, near the eastern extremity of which, and at the verge of St. Peter's parish, is Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, frequently called the Clinical Hospital from the lectures given there; the design of its institution being to afford instruction to pupils, connected with the various cases which come under their inspection, as well as to grant medical relief to the sick. There are six professors, (appointed by the act of 1800, in virtue of which the building was erected,) one of whom, twice in every week, remarks at large upon the cases of the patients, and explains to the students the principles of his method of cure. The hospital is a neat substantial edifice, consisting of a centre and two projecting wings, raised by a fund provided out of estates bequeathed by Sir Patrick for the establishment of professorships in the college of physicians: for, the executors having failed to perform his intentions, the trust was, by a decree of the Court of Chancery, awarded to the college, who, besides paying the professors' salaries, were enabled, by the increasing value of the estates, to found this extensive building. A good collection of books, likewise bequeathed by Sir Patrick, is attached to the institution.

Contiguous to this spot are the Grand Canal Docks, which, though properly in the environs of Dublin, we may not meet with a fitter opportunity to describe. These docks constitute a large artificial basin, capable

of receiving 600 vessels, which may enter it without obstructing the channel of the Liffey, with the mouth of which river it forms a junction by means of locks. This basin is in fact a large harbour, covering an extent of ground equal to 25 English acres, surrounded by noble wharfs, which are intended to be encircled by warehouses. Its entire length is 3300 feet, from its entrance by the Liffey to the commencement of the cut by which it communicates with the Grand Canal; its greatest width 360: it is not carried in a right line from the mouth of the river, but forms a direct angle, stretching to the southward, before it has quite completed half its length. Over the latter branch is a draw-bridge; and graving docks, three in number, for vessels of various sizes, are attached to the former. The cut of communication, after making a semicircular sweep of three miles round the entire southern district of the city, enters the Grand Canal at a short distance from its southwestern extremity, and is crossed by numerous bridges, one of which, called Magnay Bridge, and leading to the Artichoke Road, is in the vicinity of the Clinical Hospital.

Following the line of this cut by its northern bank, about 6 or 700 yards, an unfinished street will conduct us back to Fitzwilliam-street, and, on crossing it, to the square of the same name, possessing little to recommend it beyond its air of cheerful neatness. By another unfinished street, diverging from the south-western angle of this square, we reach Leeson-street, where is the Magdalene Asylum, the principal among the five establishments of its kind to be found in Dublin, and that first instituted, chiefly by the exertions of Lady Arabella Denny. A neat chapel is appended to the asylum, where contributions are every Sunday received from the numerous and fashionable congregations who constantly attend the service; and the amount of these donations is, we believe, the main support of the institution.

Westward of Leeson-street are the "Coburg Gardens," the entrance to which, in Harcourt-street, we arrive at by treading the walk skirted by the trees which form their southern boundary. These gardens, 12 acres in extent, were formerly the grounds of Lord Clonmel, but were opened to the public in May, 1817, under the above appellation, with a grand display of illuminations, fireworks, &c., in imitation of the London Vauxhall, but with a degree of success, we understand, far from equal to the sanguine expectations of the new proprie tors. In fact, amusements of this kind appear incongenial with the domestic turn of the Irishman's ideas of social happiness; society is his delight, but society with him is divested of its most endearing charm, unless enjoyed at his own home, or that of some one among the number of his visiting acquaintances.

From Harcourt-street we have once more a prospect of St. Stephen's Green; and proceeding by its western side as far as the corner of York-street, the Royal College of Surgeons, situated at this spot, arrests the attention. It is an elegant Doric structure, of Portland stone and native granite, erected at an expense of £40,000. The interior consists of a theatre, two museums, dissecting rooms, and other apartments, the whole extremely well adapted to the objects of the establishment; and the arrangements and conduct of the institution are such, as to afford advantages to pupils, not to be surpassed perhaps by those of any other of its kind.

By York-street we are conducted to Aungier-street, where is the parochial church, entirely wanting in external decoration, though respectable and convenient within. In the same street is the Incorporated Society House, the objects of which institution demand particular remark. The charter granted by George the Second expresses its "intent" to be "that the children of the popish, and other poor natives of the said kingdom (Ireland) may be instructed in the English tongue, and

the principles of true religion and loyalty;" the preamble having stated "that in many parts of the said kingdom, there are great tracts of land almost entirely inhabited by papists, who are kept by their clergy in great ignorance of the true religion, and bred up in great disaffection to the government;" and farther, "that the erecting of English protestant schools in those places was absolutely necessary for their conversion." The conversion of the children of popish parents to protestantism, being then the avowed object of these schools, the effects of their institution have been found, after the experience nearly of a century, to be precisely such as a liberal and enlightened spirit would from the first have predicted, as the natural consequences of a scheme fraught with such views, and directed by such means to their accomplishment. Wherever the charter schools have reared their intolerant heads, they have uniformly been regarded by the majority of the papists in their vicinity, as decoys to their children from the allegiance due to themselves, as well as from the revered faith of their ancestors; nothing can induce these poor people to believe that any other than political views were entertained in their erection; and the advantages to be derived from a system which combines the maintenance, clothing, and educating of their offspring, are overlooked or disregarded, while the bigotted and party designs of the founders are enlarged upon and exaggerated. Even should that sensibility to the benefits of instruction, so prevalent in Ireland, induce them to consent to this estrangement of the interests, habits, and ideas of the children from their own, every precaution is generally used by them, at every opportunity, to instil into their minds their own religious and political prejudices, and to fix in them an aversion to the establishments in which they are reared, and to the language by means of which they are instructed: so that instances daily occur of the youths' relapsing, on their