as convenient. My success here has been quite
triumphant.
'Yours very truly,
'SAMUEL LOVER.'


We have heard it said (though without having
inquired into the truth of the tradition) that
'Shamus O'Brien' was the result of a match at
pseudo-national ballad writing made between Le
Fanu and several of the most brilliant of his
young literary confreres at T. C. D. But
however this may be, Le Fanu undoubtedly was no
young Irelander; indeed he did the stoutest
service as a press writer in the Conservative
interest, and was no doubt provoked as well as
amused at the unexpected popularity to which
his poem attained amongst the Irish Nationalists.
And here it should be remembered that the ballad
was written some eleven years before the outbreak
of '48, and at a time when a '98 subject might
fairly have been regarded as legitimate literary
property amongst the most loyal.

We left Le Fanu as editor of the 'Warder.'
He afterwards purchased the 'Dublin Evening
Packet,' and much later the half-proprietorship
of the 'Dublin Evening Mail.' Eleven or twelve
years ago he also became the owner and editor
of the 'Dublin University Magazine,' in which