“

his glass of ale, not because he never touched
malt," but, because, as he told the servant,
"he
preferred his porther out of a pewther pot, after the
ould fashion." French cookery has made but slow
progress among the " mere Irish," in the remote
provinces; and "the jug-day" at Bogmore (far
below the original from which it was copied) is
still to be found in nearly all its details among the
hospitable festivities of the genuine and unmixed
descendants of Milesius.

The science of cookery is the science of civilization; and considering the effect which the material, raw or cooked, has upon the digestion, and the digestion on the brain, it is a science of quite as much importance, as any other in the great scale of utility and consideration. When Lord Byron took to vegetable diet, he used to say to one, from whom I had the anecdote, "When you eat beefsteaks, a'n't you afraid of committing murder?"

IRISH BEGGARS.

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"Souhaiter les bonnes fêtes was thought provincial and old fashioned, even in the time of Louis the Fourteenth in Ireland the custom is as fresh as ever. 66 Many happy Christmas's, Easters, and Patrick's days," is the wish of the lower orders, and particularly of the mendicity of Dublin. The Irish beggars are perpetual calendars of days appointed by the church to be kept holy. The resources of their eloquence are indeed infinite, and their keen sense of the influence of pathos and humour on the feelings, (beyond the power of words or even facts to express,) is among the many proofs of the shrewdness and innate perceptions of the people, even in the very lowest state of human degradation for what, on the scale of human wretchedness and prostration, is so low as the Irish beggar!

A book might be written on the mendicity of Dublin; which, like the history of the country,

would be at once tragical and farcical. The prevalence of a religion which makes charity (uncalculated charity, the most mistaken and frequently the most selfish virtue,) a leading dogma, combines with the poverty of the people, to render beggary an order, almost as much tolerated and respected in Ireland as in India. Every quarter, and every street of the capital, had, some twenty years back, its established and privileged female beggar; who, known to the great, and maintained by their servants (for services given), was permitted to exercise the immunity of the court fools of old, and to address their superiors on the occasions of their ingress and egress, with a sort of servile familiarity, often seasoned by humour or tinctured by sarcasm. Generally half mad, and always more than half drunk, their folly or their inebriety was deemed an excuse for their impertinence. Lady M-n-rs, descending the steps of her house to get into her carriage, was addressed by a well known beggar of her neighbourhood in the usual tone of supplication.

"Go away," said her ladyship, "I will give you nothing."

"Och! then long life to your ladyship; and it's often you gave us that, God bless you!" was the reply, in the same tone of imploring misery, as the charity was asked.

The beggar, who frequents Kildare-street, loitering about the portico of its club house, at two or three in the morning, observed the Rev. Mr. reel forth, and, before she could lend him her assistance, find his level in the kennel. In that state herself, in which "ladies wish to be who love their " glass, and unable to extricate the reverend gentleman, who

"All inspired lay beside a sink,

And to mere mortals seemed a priest in drink,"

she sat herself in the mud beside him, and began to "keen" over him thus:

"Jemmy

Jemmy; there you lie, machrée, this blessed morning in the gutter, an honour to your cloth and calling; and where are yez all, now, that has'nt left the likes of yez behind, only the Reverend Jemmy in the gutter here. God be wid yez, Denis Bowes! and Charley Ormesby! and rest your souls! for it's

little the likes of you, now, we'll see again!" Thus sung the modern Bragela!

"The mighty are dispersed at Temora ! there is none in Cormac's hall. Bragela will not hope for She has the arms of him who is no your return. more."

This sort of apostrophe to old friendships or connexions, is a very common art in the eloquence of Irish mendicity to awaken your feelings, to seize on your imagination by a sudden reference to some friend, once the daily visitant of your house, or known partizan of your opinions, is a mode of influence frequently resorted to. It was so the other day in my own instance, and by the very Bragela of the Rev. Jemmy.

"Ye have nothing for me the day, my lady? Well, sure you won't be so, plaze God; and God be with Counsellor Bpoor * He took the could

*The deceased friend here alluded to, partook largely of the wit and intellect of a family, to whose members, male and female, it is the fashion in Ireland to apply "l'esprit de Mortimar,” as a distinction. It is saying nothing, to say of Mr. B—, that he was one of the few surviving conservators of the peculiar wit, humour, and national information which once distinguished "the order of gentlemen" in Ireland! I not only lost in him " mon meilleur