the attack I looked forward to: and I should rather have changed into the
Cape Rifle Corps, or any other army of martyrs, than meet my mess with
all the ridicule my late proceedings exposed me to. Having disburthened
my conscience of this dread, I finished my breakfast, and set out on a
stroll through the town.

I believe it is Coleridge who somewhere says, that to transmit the first
bright and early impressions of our youth, fresh and uninjured to a
remote period of life, constitutes one of the loftiest prerogatives of
genius. If this be true, and I am not disposed to dispute it--what a
gifted people must be the worthy inhabitants of Dublin; for I scruple not
to affirm, that of all cities of which we have any record in history,
sacred or profane, there is not one so little likely to disturb the
tranquil current of such reminiscences. "As it was of old, so is it
now," enjoying a delightful permanency in all its habits and customs,
which no changes elsewhere disturb or affect; and in this respect I defy
O'Connell and all the tail to refuse it the epithet of "Conservative."

Had the excellent Rip Van Winkle, instead of seeking his repose upon the
cold and barren acclivities of the Kaatskills--as we are veritably
informed by Irving--but betaken himself to a comfortable bed at
Morrison's or the Bilton, not only would he have enjoyed a more agreeable
siesta, but, what the event showed of more consequence, the pleasing
satisfaction of not being disconcerted by novelty on his awakening. It
is possible that the waiter who brought him the water to shave, for Rip's
beard, we are told, had grown uncommonly long--might exhibit a little of
that wear and tear to which humanity is liable from time; but had he
questioned him as to the ruling topics--the proper amusements of the day
--he would have heard, as he might have done twenty years before, that
there was a meeting to convert Jews at the Rotunda; another to rob