as it is called, in a matter of much greater consequence;
bat a superior people, on the whole. They will give you
a warm reception, will the Scotch. Your name will insure
that; and they are clannish; and another warm reception
will, I assure you, await you here, when, returning, you
again _Cross the Border_."




CHAPTER XV.

THE IRISH PREFACE.

Gentle reader,

If an Irishman were asked what a preface was, he would,
without hesitation reply, that it was the last chapter
of a book, and we should unquestionably pronounce that
answer to be a bull; for how can prefatory remarks be
valedictory ones? A few moments' consideration, however,
would induce us to withdraw such a hasty opinion, and
convince us that his idea is, after all, a correct one.
It is almost always the part that is last written, and
_we_ perpetrate the bull, by placing it at the beginning
instead of the end of the book, and denominating our
parting words introductory remarks.

The result of our arrangement is, that nobody reads it.
The public do not want to hear an apology or explanation,