A MARITIME county containing the metropolis of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, bounded N. by the county of Meath, E. by the Irish sea, S. by the county of Wicklow, W. by the counties of Kildare and Meath. Excepting Louth and Carlow, it is the smallest county in Ireland,—comprising, according to the ordnance survey, an area of 354 square miles, or 229,709 acres, of which 196,063 are arable, 19,312 uncultivated, 5519 in plantations, 170 under water, and, exclusive of the city of Dublin, 1820 in towns.

Ptolemy, the geographer, marks the district as being inhabited by the tribe of the Eblani; and owing to its situation, it was at an early period much exposed to the incursions of the Danes and Northmen, who, having taken possession of the Isle of Man, after their defeat at Stamford Bridge in England, subsequently established themselves in this neighbourhood. At the period of the English invasion, the city of Dublin and the adjoining districts were in the possession of those active and warlike seamen, from whom the tract of country north of the city was named Fingal, or the country of the White Strangers, a name given by the natives to the invaders on account of their fair hair and complexion. The inhabitants of this locality are chiefly of Danish or Anglo-Norman origin, and are described by the Rev. Caesar Otway, as "still a taller and fairer race than is seen in almost any other part of Ireland; and as you enter Lusk, Skerries, or Rush, you observe the men more athletic,

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1 The process termed hydriding is similar to that already noticed, as proposed by Sir Humphry Davy,—namely, steeping the timber in a solution of corrosive sublimate. This appears to be one of the best preservatives of wood in so far as dry-rot is produced by a fungus. Mr Bethell's method of preparing wood for fences, railway-sleepers, piles, etc., other woods are submerged in water, and for various similar purposes, is said to render timber of any description much tougher, and greatly to promote its durability. The process is as follows: The timber is placed in a strong closed tank, which is filled with a mixture of tar and other bituminous matters containing creosote, and with pyrolusite of iron; the air is then exhausted by powerful air-pumps; after which more of the saturating fluid is forced in by hydrostatic pressure. When the wood has been subjected for six or seven hours to a pressure of from 100 to 150 pounds on the square inch, the process is complete, and the wood is found to weigh from 8 to 12 pounds per cubic foot heavier than before. It also preserves from bolts driven into it from corrosion. Wood thus prepared has been used for sleepers on several of the great English railways, and is said to have proved extremely durable. (See Ure's Dict. of Arts, &c., vol. ii., p. 963.) the women better favoured, than the natives of the adjoining districts." Their descent from the Northmen is further exhibited by the character they have maintained, as being the hardiest and best sailors on the eastern coast of Ireland.

The district S. of the city was denominated Harold's country, a name which it long retained. After the arrival of the Anglo-Norman invaders, grants of land, confirmed by Henry II., were made by Strongbow to his followers, who introduced the feudal system into Ireland without those checks, which would have rendered it in those early times beneficial, or at least tolerable, and without having acquired that influence over the native population which was necessary to cement the power of the owners of the soil, and admit of some identity of interest. These extensive grants laid the foundations of the wealth of the chief families and religious houses in the county; and the possession of "these large scopes of land and great liberties, with the absolute power to make war and peace, did raise the English lords to that height of pride and ambition, as that they could not endure one another."

In 1210, King John formed this district and some of the adjoining neighbourhood into a county, comprising the chief portion of country within the English pale. The limits of the county were very uncertain, and have undergone many changes before they were fixed within the present boundaries. Although so near the seat of government, 67,142 acres of profitable land were forfeited in the Rebellion of 1641, and 34,536 acres in the Revolution of 1688.

The county of Dublin is now divided into nine baronies. Balrothery East and West, in the northern part of the county, are of level surface and productive soil, resting almost wholly upon a limestone foundation, and are principally used in tillage; within their limits are the village of Lusk, with its ancient round tower, the maritime village of Rush, enumerated by Holinshed among the chief haven towns of Ireland, but now decayed; the considerable fishing village and harbour of Skerries and Balbriggan, previous to 1700 a small fishing village, but raised by the late Baron Hamilton and his descendants to the position of a town of some importance with a harbour, which is the only place of shelter for vessels exposed to severe weather, between the bays of Dublin and Carlingford. Coolock barony, to the north of the city of Dublin, also rests upon limestone, excepting the remarkable promontory of Howth, which, like Bray Head in the adjoining county of Wicklow, is formed of quartz rock; within this barony are the sea-bathing villages of Clontarf, Howth, and Malahide, the islands of Lambay and Ireland's Eye, and the suburban villages of Artane, Coolock, Raheny, and Sandymount, &c. Nethercross, another northern barony, with a level surface resting entirely upon limestone, contains the ancient parliamentary borough of Swords, once a corporate town, and the most ancient place in the county, with a round tower, and the ruins of an archiepiscopal palace, the once classic village of Glasnevin, the residence of Dr Delany and Tickell the poet, and occasionally of Swift, Addison, Sheridan, Parnell, &c. It is now decayed, and chiefly known as giving name to the neighbouring Roman Catholic cemetery, and the Botanic Gardens of the Royal Dublin Society.

Newcastle barony is an undulating limestone district lying west of the city, watered by the Liffey and Dodder; comprising the western suburbs of the city of Dublin, the pleasantly situated and once frequented village of Lucan, and the small village of Newcastle, which formerly had a portrieve and burgesses under a charter of James I., and previous to the Union sent two members to the Irish parliament. Uppercross is a barony situated S. and S.W. of the city, extending from Dublin to the N.W. borders of the county of Wicklow, and containing Clondalkin, with its well-preserved and elegant round tower, and a large portion of the most frequented suburbs of the city. The half barony of Rathdown is bounded by the sea, and comprises the most picturesque and ornamented portion of the county S. of the city, including Dundrum, Blackrock, Kingstown, Dalkey, and Killiney. Castleknock barony, which includes the Phoenix Park, rests on a limestone foundation, and extends to the county of Meath. The barony of Dublin, erected by the act 5th and 6th Vict., cap. 96, consists entirely of the rural portions of the former county of the city of Dublin, comprising Ball's Bridge, with the botanic garden of the university, a portion of the parish of Monkstown, Sandymount, and the village of Donnybrook, remarkable only for its fair, originally granted by King John to be held for fifteen days, but now limited to one week in duration; and although still much frequented, gradually falling into decay as a pleasure fair.

These nine baronies, together with the city of Dublin, are subdivided into 83 parishes, comprised within the archdiocese of Dublin. The amount of property valued in the county, under the act 6th and 7th Vict., cap. 84 (Griffith's Valuation) is £533,616, and the net annual value of property rated to the poor in the county is £502,873. The only union workhouses, besides those in the city of Dublin, are those of Rathdown and Balrothery; but portions of the county are within the neighbouring unions of Celbridge, Naas, and Dunshaughlin. The county is the headquarters of the military district of Dublin, as well as of the commander-in-chief and staff of Ireland. The headquarters of the county militia are stationed at Lucan. The constabulary force, consisting of about 250 men and officers, has its headquarters at Ballybough, and district stations at Clontarf, Lucan, Swords, Rathfarnham, and Balbriggan. Excepting the metropolis, with its populous suburbs, and Kingstown, there are no places of magnitude within the county, the largest being the maritime town of Balbriggan, with 2310 inhabitants.

Previous to the union with Great Britain, this county returned ten representatives to the Irish parliament; two for the county, two for the city, two for the university, and two for each of the insignificant boroughs of Swords and Newcastle. The number of representatives was reduced to five by the act of Union, one member being withdrawn from the university, and the boroughs of Swords and Newcastle disfranchised. The Reform act restored the second member to the university, leaving the representation in other respects unchanged. The constituency of the county in 1852, under the act 13th and 14th Vict., cap. 69, was 6657, being a much larger number than during the existence of the forty-shilling freeholders before the Reform act.

The northern coast of the county from Drogheda to Howth has generally a sandy shore, and affords only the harbour of Balbriggan, which has been much improved of late years, and the small fishing harbour of Skerries. In the promontory of Howth, the coast suddenly assumes a higher aspect; and between the town of Howth and the picturesque rocky islet of Ireland's Eye, is the artificial harbour constructed in an injudicious locality, at an expense of above one-third of a million sterling, but now almost choked up with sand, and useful only to vessels of small burthen, fishing vessels, and to a few boats belonging to the place. Dublin Bay, which extends from the peninsula of Howth to Dalkey Island, is five miles in width at its entrance, and although eminently beautiful among the marine inlets of the United Kingdom, the attempt to place it in competition as regards scenic grandeur with the Bay of Naples, to which it bears little resemblance, and by comparison with which it suffers at every point, is very injudicious. On the southern shore of the bay is the harbour of Kingstown, one of the most splendid artificial ports in the United Kingdom, commenced in 1816, from designs by the late Mr Rennie, at an estimated cost of £801,159, nearly the entire of which amount has been expended in its construction. The eastern pier is 3500 feet in length, and the western pier extends 4950 feet from the shore, leaving an opening of 850 feet at the mouth of the harbour, the whole comprising an area of 260 acres, and varying in depth from 15 to 27 feet. Owing, however, to the width and erroneous position of its entrance, the anchorage within is so much exposed, that it has somewhat disappointed expectation, and requires an exterior breakwater to render it a secure anchorage at all times.

At the southern extremity of Dublin Bay is Dalkey Island, the channel between which and the mainland occasionally affords a good roadstead for shipping, and was considered by some engineers as the most appropriate situation on which the public money could have been expended on a harbour of refuge. The beautiful bay of Killiney, which is much exposed, extends from near Dalkey to the southern extremity of the county.

The largest island off the coast is the hilly cultivated island of Lambay, the property of Lord Talbot de Malahide, to the north of Howth, comprehending about 600 acres. Shell-fish, especially lobsters and crabs, are taken in abundance on the shore. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth it was granted to Archbishop Usher, and was his favourite residence during the composition of a considerable portion of his writings. To the north of Lambay are the Skerries, consisting of the islets of Innispatrick, Colt, Shenex, and Red Island, the latter of which is connected with the mainland by the pier of Skerries. Innispatrick is noted in the ecclesiastical annals of the country as being the place on which it is supposed St Patrick first landed in Ireland, and where he built a church. Between Lambay and Howth is the picturesque islet called Ireland's Eye, a craggy rock, comprehending about 54 acres, and supposed by geologists to be an insulated portion of the neighbouring peninsula. At the southern extremity of Dublin Bay is Dalkey Island with an area of 22 acres, affording good pasturage.

The only stream deserving the name of river is the Liffey, which, rising in the table-land of Wicklow, and precipitating itself over a ledge of rocks, forms the fine cataract of Poulaphouca, near which it is joined by the mountain rivulet called the King's River, and traverses the level county of Kildare; on leaving which it intersects the county Dublin, and after falling over another elevated ledge of rocks, called the Salmon-leap, at Leixlip, the Liffey resumes its tranquil character, and, passing through the centre of the city, discharges its waters into the Bay of Dublin. It is joined at its mouth by the Dodder, a mountain stream which, though too insignificant to afford depth sufficient for the smallest boat, supplies water for several mills of various description during its short course from Kippure Hill to its junction with the Liffey. The other streams which are numerous and very small, have all an eastern course.

The county is intersected in various parts by the Grand Royal canals running injudiciously parallel to each other; the Dublin and Drogheda, Midland, Great Western, Great Southern and Western, Dublin and Kingstown, and Dublin and Wicklow railways, affording great facilities for communication between different portions of the county, and with the interior and more distant ports of Ireland.

The population of the county, apart from that of the city of Dublin, and which had not previously been ascertained with any approach to accuracy, was returned in 1812 as amounting to 132,000; and subsequent parliamentary returns with greater accuracy have stated it as follows:—In 1821, 150,011; in 1831, 176,012; in 1841, 140,047, and in 1851, 146,731.

If these returns relate to the same area, it would appear that Dublin is the only county in Ireland the population of which decreased between 1831 and 1841, or increased in the subsequent decennial period.

The total number of children receiving education in 1824–26 was reported in a parliamentary return to be 33,008, of which number 20,440 were Roman Catholics, 10,372 belonged to the Established Church, 465 were Dissenters, and the persuasion of the remaining 1731 was not ascertained. In 1853, there were 159 national schools in operation, attended by 28,799 children, 13,321 males and 15,478 females.

The manners, appearance, and dress of the lower classes differ less from what may be considered as being peculiarly characteristic of the rural population of remoter districts, than might be expected in the vicinity of a large metropolis. Even in the immediate neighbourhood of the city are to be seen groups of cabins, exhibiting, both in their external appearance and in the dress and manners of their inmates, much to remind the observer of the peasantry of the interior.

The greater part of this county, which presents various features of peculiar interest to the geologist, rests on the eastern extremity of the great bed of floetz limestone that extends over the middle of the island, widening as it spreads westward. It rises in its southern part into a range of mountains, which forms the verge of an elevated district, extending thence for more than thirty miles to the south through the county of Wicklow. Through this tract a large body of granite passes in a south-western direction, commencing at Blackrock and passing by Dunleer and Rathfarham, and forming the loftiest summit in this county; bounded on its eastern and western sides by incumbent rocks of great variety of structure and relations; the micaceous schist at Killiney and Rathfarham; argillaceous schist, on both sides of the granite and quartz rock, in the eastern side alone, forming the promontory of Bray Head, and reappearing in the more northern part of the county, where it forms the picturesque peninsula of Howth, and rises to the height of 567 feet above the level of the sea. Within the portion of this district included in the county of Dublin, and distinguished by its beautiful scenery, are veins of lead ore at Dalkey and near the Scalp. The country near Bray presents, within a small space, an instructive series of rocks; and at Killiney schistose beds are to be seen, of considerable extent, reposing on granite. Near Booterstown, in Dublin Bay, a mass of compact limestone is visible, within a few fathoms of the granite. The cap of Kirwan, a variety of limestone, is the prevailing rock in the immediate vicinity of Dublin, and is much used for building; and the granite of Dalkey and the neighbourhood is also much used for architectural purposes in the city and environs; quantities of it are even exported to England. Petrifications abound in many parts of the limestone country. In the peninsula of Howth gray ore of manganese, with brown ironstone, and brown iron-ore, have been obtained in abundance.

The northern portion of the county is flat, and the soil good, particularly in the parts bordering on Meath; but on the southern side, the land rises into elevations of considerable height, which extend into the adjoining county of Wicklow. The highest of these, Kippure Head, on the border of Wicklow, is 2473 feet above the level of the sea, and the Three Rock Mountain 1763 feet. The soil in these mountains is poor, affording no encouragement for tillage, chiefly covered with heath, except where a subsidence in the ground affords a nucleus for the formation of bog, with which about two thousand acres are covered. There are also a few small tracts of bog in the northern part of the county. The mountain district is well adapted for timber, to the growth of which much attention has lately been paid, and the labours of the improvers are already rewarded by some fine plantations equally ornamental and profitable. This range of mountain ground produces a very striking effect on the traveller proceeding to the metropolis from Wicklow county. On arriving at its brow, the whole of the plain watered by the Liffey spreads itself out before him, studded with villas, enriched with groups of trees, in the midst of which may be seen the few elevated buildings, spires, and domes of the city rising through the dusky canopy of smoke that envelopes them; whilst beyond, the beautiful County.

expanses of Dublin Bay, backed by the Hill of Howth, the island of Lambay, and Ireland's Eye, and, in clear weather, still more remote, the Mourne Mountains in the county of Down, towering above them all on the horizon's verge, present a view of highly cultivated nature seldom surpassed.

Though by much the greater part of the soil is inclined to clay, it is not of the deep and tenacious character so common in England; scarcely any part being without a mixture of gravel. Due search will generally discover limestone or other beneficial substrata at no great depth, and the operation of draining generally raises a sufficiency of gravel to manure the whole surface. The position of the ground, usually more or less undulating, affords peculiar facilities for drainage; and the circumstance of a great city being placed in a central position in the county, furnishes large quantities of ashes and other manure well calculated to conquer the natural stubbornness of such soils. Along the coast between Howth and Balbriggan are salt marshes, of small extent.

The farms are in general small. Near Dublin, particularly on the southern side of the city, a very considerable portion of the county is appropriated to the ornamental grounds of the gentry, and used more for convenience and enjoyment than with a view to agricultural profit. The rents are proportionately high, being calculated more with reference to these circumstances than the quality of the land. Although in comparison with other counties in Ireland tillage is not in a backward state, there is in some parts of the county more appearance of neglect than might have been expected so near the metropolis.

The number of holdings in 1833 amounted to 6741, viz.,

| Number of Holdings | Between 1 and 5 Acres | Between 5 and 10 Acres | Between 10 and 20 Acres | Between 20 and 50 Acres | Between 50 and 100 Acres | Above 100 Acres | |--------------------|----------------------|-----------------------|------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|---------------| | 2275 | 2084 | 1870 | 1028 | 623 | 622 | 376 | | | | | | | | 125 | | | | | | | | 13 |

The extent of land under crops in 1853 was 101,999 acres, divided as follows:

| Crop Type | Acres | |--------------------|-------------| | Corn, Beans, and Peas | 41,309 | | Potatoes | 7465 | | Turnips, Parsnips, Mangold-Warzel | 6009 | | Cabbages and other Green Crops | 3327 | | Flax | 2 | | Meadow Clover & Rape | 43,887 |

The produce of the crops in the county of Dublin is in every instance above the average production of all Ireland, and generally greater than in any other county; not so much on account of any natural superiority in the soil, as by reason of the facilities afforded by the neighbourhood of a large city, and the consequent greater expenditure of capital on the land. The result of an inquiry recently undertaken into the state of farm cultivation, and the condition of road-sides, &c., as to the growth of woods, places the county of Dublin at the head of the list, and therefore exhibits it as the most highly cultivated county in Ireland.

The live stock of the county in 1853 consisted of 19,448 horses, 3167 mules and asses, 44,063 cattle, 43,007 sheep, 19,041 pigs, 5229 goats, and 158,135 head of poultry. And the total value of stock was, in 1849, L484,078; in 1850, L520,720; in 1851, L503,904; in 1852, L518,857; and in 1853, L523,586, being an increase in value of L6729 over the previous year.

The fishery districts are Dublin and Malahide, together comprising 56 miles of maritime boundaries, with about 500 registered fishing vessels, employing 3000 men and boys. The chief stations are Howth and Skerries, the former of which is much used by the Manx and Cornish fishermen, who resort in considerable numbers to the harbour of Howth during the fishing season. Dublin Bay haddock and herrings have long been esteemed, and justly so, for their superior quality and flavour.

The manufactures of the county are mainly confined to the city of Dublin and its immediate neighbourhood. There is also at Balbriggan a manufactory of cotton hosiery in much repute.

Without leaving the county of Dublin, the antiquary would have no difficulty in finding numerous objects of interest and instruction, casting light upon the early history of the country. Among the ancient raths, duns, or forts constructed by the native Irish or the Danes, and more probably by both peoples, for defence or security in positions of natural strength, improved by art and labour, several remain in this county. One at Ratheny, although much reduced in its proportions, is still traceable; several yet more imperfect are faintly visible at Coolock; one near Lucas is furnished with the subterranean vaults and passages not unusually found in connection with the larger specimens; and another at Shankhill or Rathmichael, near the remarkable natural pass through the mountain called the Scalp, is of greater extent than the others, more commanding in position, and in close proximity to the ancient church, and supposed fragment of a round tower. Numerous sepulchral mounds of the same period also exist scattered throughout the county, occasionally somewhat similar in appearance to the raths, but generally smaller in extent, altogether artificial and of conical form. Among its most interesting antiquities this county reckons three of the ancient round towers almost peculiar to Ireland; one at Swords; another at Lusk, forming one of the angles of the church steeple; and a third in the highest state of preservation at Clondalkin. "Now who can see but once their beautiful, lofty, and slender shafts shooting up into the sky, and dominating in solemn grandeur the surrounding landscape—so strikingly resembling one another, and resembling nothing else—but must be struck with admiration, and curiosity of the liveliest kind;" and yet these primary feelings are but slight in degree when compared with those which are excited by the consideration of all the extraordinary circumstances involved in their history. That these towers have existed, or, at least, the majority of them, for upwards of 1000 years, is certain; that they may have existed twice or three times this period is far from improbable; but that the era of their origin and the object of their erection remain as secrets yet to be unfolded, are circumstances which only add to the mysterious interest which attaches to them."—(Memorandums made in Ireland by Sir John Forbes.) They however are probably not older than the introduction of Christianity; and seem of the same origin as the detached round towers of Abernethy in Perthshire, and of Egilsay in Orkney.

The little church of St Douloughs is worthy of note for the extreme antiquity of its architecture. It is 48 feet in length by 18 in width, and is covered by a double stone roof; and Dr Lidwick ascribes its construction to the Danes in the eleventh century, while other antiquaries suppose it to be of earlier date. A fine cromlech of six upright stones, supporting one of 15 feet by 15, and estimated to weigh above 25 tons, is still preserved near Cabinteely. The remains of a stone chair, and a rudely sculptured piece of granite, mark the former existence of an ancient temple near Killiney. At Old Connaught is a cross of considerable antiquity formed of granite, its shaft surmounted by a circle, on which the Crucifixion is rudely sculptured; and close by the church of St Douloughs are the remains of one of the crosses which once marked the crosses or lands of the cross, dedicated to and under the jurisdiction of the church. There are also the remains of many castles and fortified houses, and, as throughout the whole of Ireland, numerous ruins of the ancient parochial churches without architectural pretension, but picturesque in their decay. The adjoining ground is still used as a place of sepulture by the peasantry, the locality being otherwise entirely neglected; and even in the vicinity of the metropolis neither wall nor fence protects these burial-grounds from intrusion.—(Thom's Irish Almanac; D'Alton's History of the County of Dublin; Archer's Survey of the County of Dublin.)

metropolis of Ireland, in the county to which it gives name, and province of Leinster, ranking in importance as the second city in the United Kingdom. It is distant 292 miles W.N.W. from London, 138 miles west from Liverpool, and 60 miles west from Holyhead, in Lat. 53° 20'. 38', N., and Long. 6° 7'. 13', W., agreeably situate in the great central limestone district which reaches across the island from the Irish Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, on the river Liffey, and extending to the junction of that river with the Bay of Dublin, the waters of which wash its suburban shores.

Like almost every city of importance in the Old World, it is of very ancient origin; but of its first establishment no records exist, neither do any very ancient structures remain which could assist the researches of the antiquary. In the absence of tangible proof, conjecture has been busy at work, ingeniously constructing baseless stories of ancient grandeur belonging to the regions of pure romance, without a particle of historical foundation. Dublin is supposed to have been mentioned by Ptolemy the geographer, in the second century of the Christian era, as one of the chief places in Ireland, under the name Eblana; from a corruption of which word, or from the Irish Dubhlinn, the black or dark water, the present name of the city is conjectured to have derived its origin.

At the earliest period of which any records remain, Ireland was governed by numerous petty princes or chieftains constantly at strife with each other for the mastery, which none obtained. As a natural result of this state of affairs, the population must have been thinly scattered over the country, and the power of each prince of small extent. At the close of the fifth century and subsequently, the Danes, or Northmen, called in Ireland Ostmen, from their eastern origin as compared with that country, were enabled, with various success, to maintain themselves in the city and adjoining neighbourhood, occasionally making incursions into the interior, committing great ravages, more especially (as they were heathens) against the religious establishments. In the middle of the tenth century, the Danes had become converted to Christianity, but being always exposed to attack in retaliation of their former outrages, fortified the city of Dublin, and the oldest remains of building were of their construction. About the year 1014 the Danes were defeated by the united Irish forces under Brian Boromhaim, at the memorable battle of Clontarf, and were driven into the promontory of Howth, of which they retained possession until defeated by Sir Amoric Tristram, ancestor of the Earls of Howth, and Sir John de Courcy in 1177. They also, in diminished force, reoccupied the city, which was in their possession in 1170, when Dermot MacMorough and his English allies who had landed at Bannow in 1169 and reduced the Danish cities of Wexford and Waterford, marching their forces from the south of Ireland under the leadership of the Anglo-Normans Milo de Cogan, Raymond le Gros, and Strongbow Earl of Pembroke, besieged and took the city, or rather the government of the city, from them. The Hiberno-Danish king escaped, collected forces in the Orkneys, Hebrides, and Isle of Man, and in the following year made an attempt to recover possession of Dublin, but was taken prisoner and put to death by order of Milo de Cogan, the first Anglo-Norman governor of the city; and thus terminated the last of the persevering attempts made by the enterprising Northmen to establish themselves in a position of which they instinctively appreciated the commercial value. In succession to that rude, hardy, and maritime people came the more warlike yet polished Anglo-Normans. Soon after his landing in 1172 at Waterford, Henry II. arrived in Dublin, and held his court there in a pavilion of wicker-work made "after the country manner," where the Irish chiefs were entertained with great pomp, and alliances entered into with them; "the plenty of the English table and the goodly courtesy of the attendants" having done much to reconcile them to their new allies. Previous to his departure for England, Henry bestowed the government on Hugh de Lacy, having granted by charter "to his subjects of Bristol his city of Dublin to inhabit, and to hold of him and his heirs for ever, with all the liberties and free customs which his subjects of Bristol then enjoyed at Bristol and through all England." In 1177 Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, and the chief leader of the Anglo-Norman forces, died in Dublin of a mortification in one of his feet, and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral, where his monument still remains well preserved, probably because the rents of many of the tenants were made payable on Strongbow's tomb. A fresh charter was granted in 1207 by King John to the inhabitants, who had not yet made their peace with the neighbour-

bourhood, but, like the settlers in other towns, were at constant feud with the native Irish; so that two years after the date of this charter, whilst the citizens of Dublin were celebrating Easter at Cullenswood, they were set upon by the Irish of the neighbouring mountains and 500 of them killed. The scene of slaughter was afterwards called the Bloody Fields, and Easter Monday denominated Black Monday. On each succeeding anniversary of that day, with the desire unfortunately so prevalent of perpetuating a feud, the citizens marched out to Cullenswood with banners displayed—"a terror to the native Irish." In 1216 Magna Charta, a copy of which is to be found in the red book of the exchequer, was granted to the Irish by Henry III. In 1217 the fee farm of the city was granted to the citizens at a rent of 200 marks per annum; and about this period many monastic buildings were founded.

In 1227 the same monarch confirmed the charter of John fixing the city's boundaries and the jurisdiction of its magistrates. During the invasion of Ireland by Edward Bruce, who had landed at Carrickfergus with 6000 men, in the commencement of the reign of Edward II., some of the suburbs were burnt to prevent them from falling into his hands. The inroad of Bruce had been countenanced by the native Irish ecclesiastics, whose sentiments were recorded in the statement addressed to Pope Innocent XIII., by Donald O'Neill:—That a nation governed for four thousand years by its own princes, should by Adrian have been made over to a horde of tyrants, far more cruel than the teeth of wild beasts, who had seized all the best of the soil, and driven the rightful owners to the bogs and to the mountains—that instead of reforming the people, and extending the boundary of the church, its property had been plundered, its religious houses wasted, the native clergy persecuted, and Peter's pence had not been paid—that the simplicity of the people had by bad treatment been changed into the craft of the serpent—that the object of those he had sent over was the extermination of the Irish race—that no Irishman for any grievance however great could institute an action in the king's court; that if an Englishman murdered an Irishman, be he bishop or layman, the civil court could take no cognisance of the act; and that having often and vainly petitioned the English king for redress, they had offered the crown to Edward Bruce. The energetic preparations for defence made by the citizens induced the Scots to abandon their intention of besieging the city.

Richard II. erected Dublin into a marquisate in favour of Robert de Vere, whom he also created Duke of Ireland. The same weak monarch, "as full of valour as of royal blood," entered Dublin in 1394 with 30,000 bowmen and 4000 cavalry, bringing with him the crown jewels; but after holding a parliament and making much courtly display before the native chieftains, on several of whom he conferred knighthood, the king returned to England. Five years later, enriched with the spoils of his uncle, "Old John of Gaunt, time honour'd Lancaster," Richard returned to Ireland, landing at Waterford, whence he marched through the counties of Kilkenny and Wicklow, to—

"Supplant those rough rag-headed kerns Which live like venom, where no venoms else, But only they, hath privilege to live."

(Richard II. Act II. sc. I.)

and subsequently arrived in Dublin, where he remained a fortnight, sumptuously entertained by the provost, as the chief magistrate of the city was then called; until, receiving intelligence of the invasion of his kingdom by the Earl of Hereford, "banished Bolingbroke," he returned to England, having previously committed the youthful Lord Gloucester and Henry of Lancaster (afterwards Henry V.) to Trim Castle, in the county of Meath. In 1404 the statutes of Kilkenny and Dublin were confirmed in a parliament held in the city by the Earl of Ormond. The attachment of the people of Dublin to the house of York induced them to acknowledge the impostor, Lambert Simnel, who was crowned as Edward VI. in the presence of the lord deputy and other of the chief authorities in Christ Church Cathedral. In the next year, 1486, after having performed the part of a sovereign in Dublin, he sailed from the city with 2000 German troops who had arrived with Lords Loyal and Lincoln, together with some Irish auxiliaries, to invade England.

In 1534 Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, or Silken Thomas as he was called, a young man of rash courage and good abilities, son of the Lord Deputy Kildare, believing his father, who was imprisoned in the tower of London, to have been beheaded, organized a rebellion against the English government, and marched with his followers from the mansion of the Earls of Kildare in Thomas Court, through Dame's Gate to St Mary's Abbey, where, in the council chamber, he proclaimed himself a rebel. On his appearing before the walls with a powerful force, the citizens were induced through fear to give admission to a detachment of his troops to besiege the castle; but, on hearing that he had met with a reverse in another quarter, they suddenly closed their gates and detained his men as prisoners. He then attacked the city itself; but finding it too strong to be seized by a coup de main, raised the siege on condition of having his captured soldiers exchanged for the children of some of the principal citizens who had fallen into his hands. After much vicissitude of fortune, Lord Thomas Fitzgerald and some others concerned in this rebellion were executed at Tyburn in 1536. At the breaking out of the civil war in 1641, a conspiracy of the Irish septs, under the direction of Roger Moore, to seize on Dublin Castle, was disclosed by one Owen Connolly on the eve of the day on which the attempt was to have been made, and the city was thus preserved for the king's party; but the native Irish without commenced an indiscriminate extermination of the Protestant population. "In a few days," says Sir John Temple, "the city was filled with the most lamentable spectacles of sorrow, which in great numbers wandered up and down in all parts, desolate, forsaken, having no place to rest their heads, no clothing to cover their nakedness, nor food to fill their hungry bellies: those sad creatures appeared like living ghosts in every street. The greatest part of the women and children thus barbarously expelled out of their habitations, perished in the city of Dublin; and so great numbers were brought to their graves as all the churchyards within the whole town were of too narrow compass to contain them, so that the lords justices took order to have two large pieces of new ground, one on each side of the river, taken in upon the out-greens, and set apart as burying places." In 1646 it was besieged, but without success, by the Irish army of 16,000 foot and 1600 horse, under the guidance of the pope's nuncio Ripaccini and others, banded together "to restore and establish in Ireland the exercise of the Roman Catholic religion." The city had been put in an efficient state of defence by the Marquis of Ormond, then lord-lieutenant; but in the following year, to prevent it falling into the hands of the Irish, he surrendered it on conditions to Colonel Jones, commander of the parliamentary forces. In 1649 Ormond was totally defeated at the battle of Baggotrath, near Old Rathmines, in an attempt to recover possession. The same year Oliver Cromwell landed in Dublin, as commander-in-chief under the parliament, with 9000 foot and 4000 horse, and proceeded thence on his career of conquest, which commenced with the capture of Drogheda by storm, and the subsequent massacre of its inhabitants. After the resignation of the government into the hands of his brother Henry by Richard Cromwell, the castle was surprised by a party of officers favourable to the royal cause; and though immediately retaken by Sir Hardress Waller, it was forced to surrender again in a few days.

When James II. landed in Ireland in 1689, to assert his right to the British throne, he held a parliament in Dublin, which passed acts of attainder against upwards of 3000 Protestants. The governor of the city, Colonel Luttrell, at the same time issued a proclamation ordering all Protestants not housekeepers, excepting those following some trade, to depart from the city within 24 hours, under pain of death or imprisonment, and restricting those who were allowed to remain in various ways. In the hope of relieving his financial difficulties, the king erected a mint, where money was coined of the "worst kind of old brass, guns, and the refuse of metals, melted down together," of the nominal value of £1,556,800, with which his troops were paid, and tradesmen compelled to receive it under penalty of being hanged in case of refusal. Under these regulations the entire coinage was put into circulation. After his defeat at the battle of the Boyne, James returned to Dublin, but left it again before daybreak the next day; and William III., advancing by slow marches, on his arrival encamped at Finglas, with upwards of 30,000 men, and on the ensuing day the king proceeded in state to St Patrick's Cathedral, to return thanks for his victory. In 1783 a convention of delegates from all the volunteer corps in Ireland assembled in Dublin for the purpose of procuring a reform in parliament; but the House of Commons refused to entertain the proposition, and the convention separated without coming to any practical result. In May 1798 the explosion of a conspiracy planned by the United Irishmen to seize the city was prevented by the capture of Lord Edward Fitzgerald and other of the leaders. In 1800 the act of union between Great Britain and Ireland was passed in both parliaments, and on the 1st January following the imperial standard of the United Kingdom was hoisted on Dublin Castle. In 1803 another insurrection, headed by Robert Emmett, a young barrister of much promise, broke out, but was immediately quelled, with the loss of some lives in the tumult, and the death of its leaders on the scaffold.

The population of the city of Dublin was estimated by Rutter, in 1753, at 161,088; in 1798, by Whitelaw, at 182,037, and was ascertained by the census of 1821 to amount at that period to 185,881, and by the census of 1831 to 204,155. The population of the city, according to the most recent enumerations in 1841 and 1851, was as follows:

| Parishes | Area | Population in 1841 | Population in 1851 | |----------|------|-------------------|-------------------| | Christ Church (Liberties) | 1 2 19 | 15 | 35 | 14 | 50 | | Glasnevin, part of | 4 0 27 | | | | | | Grangegorman, part of | 368 0 8 | 4,557 | 1,821 | 2,449 | 4,330 | | St Andrew's, part of | 42 1 25 | 7,534 | 3,700 | 2,928 | 7,628 | | St Anne's | 70 3 17 | 8,806 | 3,901 | 4,783 | 8,584 | | St Andrew's | 29 3 18 | 3,956 | 1,798 | 2,257 | 4,063 | | St Bridget's | 37 1 38 | 10,620 | 4,828 | 5,857 | 10,685 | | St Catharine's, part of | 286 0 26 | 14,070 | 6,140 | 7,930 | 12,070 | | St George's, part of | 344 1 29 | 15,948 | 6,472 | 9,476 | 15,884 | | St James's, part of | 500 1 23 | 10,651 | 3,949 | 4,416 | 8,264 | | St John's | 11 3 16 | 3,931 | 1,831 | 1,902 | 3,833 | | St Luke's | 38 2 20 | 4,802 | 1,990 | 2,492 | 4,482 | | St Mark's, part of | 99 1 36 | 15,294 | 10,757 | 4,537 | 15,734 | | St Mary's | 159 1 36 | 20,504 | 10,881 | 10,623 | 21,504 | | St Michael's | 5 2 0 | 1,271 | 591 | 720 | 1,317 | | St Michan's | 122 2 6 | 22,738 | 10,656 | 12,482 | 23,130 | | St Nicholas Within | 5 0 11 | 1,694 | 942 | 1,057 | 1,999 | | St Nicholas Without | 58 1 9 | 11,955 | 5,734 | 6,004 | 12,338 | | St Patrick's (Liberties) | 9 0 4 | 2,044 | 850 | 1,037 | 1,887 | | St Paul's | 108 0 37 | 8,422 | 4,038 | 4,284 | 8,352 | | St Peter's, part of | 501 1 38 | 30,216 | 14,201 | 16,015 | 30,216 | | St Thomas's | 638 0 34 | 22,008 | 10,757 | 11,251 | 22,008 | | St Werburgh's | 15 2 32 | 1,578 | 737 | 1,553 | 2,528 | | Public Institutions | 3,592 3 23 | 232,726 | 113,132 | 133,979 | 247,111 | | Total | 3,592 3 23 | 232,726 | 119,183 | 139,178 | 258,361 |

Total | 3,592 3 23 | 232,726 | 119,183 | 139,178 | 258,361 | The city is divided into 15 municipal wards. In 1851 the poor-law valuation for the city amounted to £531,079, and the amount of Griffith's valuation, including property exempted from taxation, in £594,886.

Dublin is the seat of the executive government, consisting of the viceroy or lord lieutenant, assisted by a privy-council indefinite in number, appointed by the crown, and a member of the House of Commons as chief secretary. In the absence of the lord lieutenant, his place is supplied by lords justices, generally the primate or archbishop of Dublin, the lord chancellor, and the commander of the forces. The lord lieutenant resides chiefly at the Viceregal Lodge in the Phoenix Park, and occasionally at Dublin Castle, which is used on state occasions. The Castle of Dublin is situated on high ground, formerly at the eastern extremity, but now in the centre of the city, dividing the ancient from the modern town on the south side of the Liffey. The building was commenced in the reign of King John, by the Lord Justice Fitzthorpe, and completed in its original form by Henri de Londres, archbishop of Dublin. It was then a place of much strength, moated and flanked with towers; but the moat has been filled up, and most of the ancient structure removed at different periods to make way for the present patchwork palace, leaving as a memorial of the old castle the Record Tower, now used as the depository of the records of the office of arms, consisting of volumes of the pedigrees of the nobility and gentry of Ireland since the reign of Henry VIII., with records of their deaths, marriages, deserts, &c. The Birmingham Tower, formerly a place of confinement for state prisoners, which was taken down in 1775 and rebuilt in 1777, also contains an extensive collection of ancient historical records, the keeper of which formerly received £10 per annum, which sum was augmented to £500 in favour of Addison when secretary to the Earl of Wharton, then lord lieutenant. The records are now in the custody of the officer of arms.

The building, as it exists at present, was chiefly erected in the eighteenth century; it is of great magnitude, covering altogether an area of about ten acres, but destitute in its exterior of architectural beauty or regularity of form. It is within the town boundaries of the corporation, and the principal officers of state, and a very considerable portion occupied by the offices immediately connected with the administrative government, including those of the ordnance and metropolitan police. The chief objects of interest in the castle are the hall-room, 82 feet in length by 41 feet in breadth, and 33 feet in height, called St Patrick's Hall, since used as the place of investiture of the knights of St Patrick; the Castle Chapel, an elaborate Gothic building of the present century, erected at an expense of £42,000; and the Arsenal and Armoury, in the lower castle yard, containing arms for 60,000 men.

Dublin is also the seat of the Irish courts of law and equity, from which an appeal lies only to the House of Lords. The judicial functions are exercised by the lord chancellor, the master of the rolls, and four judges in each of the courts of Queen's bench, common pleas, and exchequer. There are also judges of the courts of prerogative and admiralty, two judges in the bankruptcy court, one in the insolvents' court, and a chairman of quarter sessions; besides a court of commissioners for the sale and transfer of encumbered estates in Ireland, a civil bill court presided over by the recorder, several minor courts, and a borough record court for the trial of all records where the debt shall amount to £20, and for the issuing of attachment against goods, &c.

The building called the Four Courts, in which the superior courts are held, stands on the site of the ancient Dominican monastery of St Saviour, on King's Inn Quay. It is an extensive and magnificent structure, erected after a design of Mr Thomas Cooley between the years 1786 and 1800, at the enormous cost of £200,000.

The prerogative, consistorial, and admiralty courts are held in the King's Inn, a massive imposing structure in the northern portion of the city, erected after a design of Mr Gandon, the architect of the Custom-House. Those parts of Dublin not under the civil magistrates are the manor of Grangegorman, which includes a district in the neighbourhood of Glasnevin and Mountjoy Square, of which the dean of Christ Church is the lord, and appoints a seneschal, who holds his court in a private house,—the manor of Thomas Court and Donore, granted to an ancestor of the Earl of Meath, on the dissolution of the manors to which it had been appended: its court was first established in the reign of King John, and still continues open for trial of petty debts and offences,—the manor of St Sepulchre, including the parishes of St Kevin and St Nicholas Without, of which the archbishop of Dublin is lord, with extensive powers now become obsolete. It has a court-house and prison attached to it. The grounds immediately adjoining the cathedrals of Christ Church and St Patrick were formerly exempt jurisdictions, subject to their respective deans, but their authority is now nominal.

The boards of commissioners having charge of the principal branches of revenue formerly sat in Dublin, but have been removed and merged in those sitting in London, the details here being superintended by subordinate officers. The offices of the boards of customs and excise were in the old Custom-House erected in 1707, and situated in Essex Street; the Stamp-Office was in a building in William Street, once the private mansion of the Earl of Powerscourt. The business of these departments, together with that of the Irish poor-law commission, is transacted in the present Customs-House, architecturally one of the chief ornaments of the city. It was erected at a cost of about £400,000, after a design of Mr James Gandon, and opened in 1791. This magnificent structure, which stands on the north side of the river below Carlisle Bridge, presents four fronts, three of which may be seen to advantage. The south front, facing the river, 375 feet in length, is built of Portland stone, finished in the Doric order, with an entablature and bold projecting cornice. The other three fronts are composed of granite, and from the centre rises a dome to the height of 125 feet, after the model of that of Greenwich Hospital, surmounted by a somewhat awkward figure intended as an emblem of Hope.

Previous to the operation of the Municipal Reform act, the municipal government of the city was vested in the lord mayor, two sheriffs, a board of twenty-four aldermen, and the common council elected every three years by the twenty-five guilds of trades, in numbers proportioned to the estimated importance of each guild; beside which, every person who had served the office of sheriff had a seat in the commons for life under the name of sheriffs' peer. In the city assembly, the sheriffs, who were chosen annually from among the representatives of guilds, presided. The aldermen were chosen by the common council, and held office during life. The lord mayor was elected annually by the aldermen, generally according to seniority, and approved and sworn in by the lord lieutenant at Michaelmas.

The chief magistrates were originally styled provosts and bailiffs, the former of which titles was changed for that of mayor in 1609, and the bailiffs transformed into sheriffs in 1547. In 1660 Charles II. granted to the mayor a golden collar, a company of foot, and the right of having a sword of state, a mace, and cap of dignity. In 1665 the title of lord mayor was conferred, and £500 per annum granted in lieu of the foot company. The Tholsel, a corruption of toll-stall, was built in 1682 as the place of assembly of the corporation, but was taken down in 1807, and the City Assembly House in William Street adopted in its stead.

Every third year, by virtue of an old charter, it was compulsory upon the lord mayor and twenty-four corporations to perambulate the city and its liberties for the purpose of maintaining the ancient boundaries. This ceremony was called riding the franchises, and fell into decay towards the close of the last century, all necessity for it having ceased.

"The vigilance of the Dubliners in ancient times was principally to be exercised against their ecclesiastical neighbours of St Mary's Abbey, Kilmainham, Thomas Court, and St Sepulchre's, the latter being the liberty of the Archbishop of Dublin. Various were the difficulties which arose in their respective boundaries, and numerous the charters and inquisitions defining them, which are still extant. To guard themselves from encroachment, the citizens from time immemorial perambulated the boundaries of their chartered district every third year, and this was termed 'riding their franchises,' corrupted into 'riding the fringes.' In ancient times, when the ecclesiastics were a powerful body, this was a very necessary ceremony, and in some measure a dangerous service. The worthy citizens went forth 'well horsed, armed, and in good array,' and so they are described in an account of this ceremony in 1488, still extant in the book of Christ Church. But when the power and possessions of their clerical neighbours passed away, there was no one with the will or the means to interfere with them. The citizens had long ceased to march out with a black standard before them—

City.

A great terror to the Irish enemies; and their military spirit having completely died away, the rising of the franchises became altogether a peaceful exhibition of civic pomp, consisting chiefly of the following emblematic personages, and display of craft:

Every one of the twenty-five corporations was preceded by a large vehicle, drawn by the most splendid horses that could be bought or borrowed; indeed all were eager to lend the best they had. On these carriages were borne the implements of the respective trades, at which the artisans worked as they advanced. The weavers fabricated ribbons of various gay colours, which were sent floating among the crowd; the printers struck off hand-bills, with songs and odes prepared for the occasion, which were sung throughout the town; some of the whoops blew their bellows harmonized on their pavilions, and formed various implements; and every corporation, as it passed, was seen in the exercise of its peculiar trade. They were accompanied by persons representing the various natures or personages of their crafts, mixing together saints and demi-gods, as they happened to be sacred or profane. Thus, the shoemakers had a person representing St Crispin with his last; the brewers, St Andrew with his cross; but the smiths, though patronized by St Loy, were accompanied by Vulcan and Venus, which last was the handsomest woman that could be procured for the occasion, and the most gaily attired. She was attended by a cupid who shot numerous darts, on passing whom the ladies crowded the windows. The magistrates who exist under the patronage of the Trinity would not without profanation attempt any personal representation; but they exhibited a huge shamrock as the emblem furnished by St Patrick himself, while they were also accompanied by a large ship on wheels navigated by real sailors.

The course of proceeding of this motley assembly was this: they drew up at the old custom-house, and passing along Temple Bar and Fleet Street, they came to the sea at Ringhead. They then proceeded to low-water mark, when a trumpet was sounded, a water bailiff advanced, and, riding into the water as far as he could, hurled a spear eastward. The mariners, on eastern coast, answered. They then crossed the Strand, and traversed the boundaries of the city and county, by Merchants' Quay, Dublin Bridge, &c., came by Stephen's Green to the division between the city and Liberties. Then traversing Kevin's Port, Bolson Lane, Bridge Street, Bull Alley, &c., they again emerged at Dolphin's Barn, from whence they took a round by Stonebatter, Finnsglass, Glasnevin, and Clontarf, ending a little beyond Raheny. In the course of this peregrination they passed through several houses, and threw down any fences that came in their way, particularly on the confines of the Liberties.—(Ireland Sixty Years Ago, 3d edition.)

For the purposes of police, the city was, previous to 1830, divided into four districts, in each of which there was an office, at which three magistrates, one an alderman, the second a common councillor, and the third a barrister, all appointed by the crown, sat daily. They had under them an armed force, consisting of 52 police officers, 39 mounted and 170 dismounted police, and 600 night-watchmen.

The first appointment ever of a permanent night-watch was in 1729, when a bill was passed under which the different parishes were required to appoint honest men and good Protestants to be night-watchmen. The utter inefficiency of the system must have been felt; and various improvements were from time to time attempted in it, every four or five years producing a new police act—with how little success every one can judge, who remembers the tattered somnambulists who represented the good Protestant watchmen a few years ago.

Somewhat more than half a century since, the city of Dublin was one of the most turbulent in Europe. Similar feuds to those which have occasionally sprung up in many other cities existed in Dublin, and, as was commonly the case elsewhere, the butchers formed one party, the other was formed by the Liberty boys, or tailors and weavers of the Coombe. The author of the interesting and graphic little book, entitled "Ireland Sixty Years Ago," states that—

It is in the memory of those now living that the streets, and particularly the quays and bridges, were impassable in consequence of the battles of these parties. The weavers, descending from the upper regions beyond Thomas Street, poured down on their opponents below; they were opposed by the butchers, and a contest commenced on the quays which extended from Essex to Island bridge. The shops were closed; all business suspended; the sober and peaceable compelled to keep their houses; and those whose occasions led them through the streets where the belligerents were engaged were stopped, while the war of stones and other missiles was carried across the river, and the bridges were taken and retaken by the hostile parties. It will hardly be believed that for whole days the intercourse of the city was interrupted by the feuds of these factions. The few miserable watchmen, insufficient for any purpose of protection, looked on in terror, and thought themselves well acquitted of their duty if they escaped from stick and stone.

These feuds terminated sometimes in frightful excesses. The butchers used their knives, not to stab their opponents, but for a purpose then common in the barbarous state of Irish society, to knock or cut the tendon of the leg, thereby rendering the person incurably lame for life. On one occasion, after a defeat of the Ormond boys, those of the Liberty retaliated in a manner still more barbarous and revolting. They dragged the persons they seized to their market, and, disembogging the meat they found there, hooked the men by their jaws, and retired, leaving the butchers hanging on their own stalls.

Recently, however, the vital importance of an efficient police has been recognized, and in 1836 the act 6th and 7th Will. IV., cap. 29, established the present metropolitan police force, consisting of about 11,500 officers and men, including seven divisional superintendents, altogether maintained at a cost of L74,000 per annum, paid out of funds arising from police rate, carriage and pawnbrokers' licences, &c., together with an annual parliamentary grant of L37,000. There are two police commissioners, whose salaries are paid out of the consolidated fund, and under whose control the police are placed, the corporation having no authority over them. There are three police courts, presided over by six magistrates, in Dublin; and a court with one magistrate is held in Kingstown, which is within the jurisdiction of the Dublin metropolitan police commissioners.

A large military force is usually maintained in the city of Dublin, which is the headquarters of the military district of Dublin, and of the staff of Ireland, consisting of the commander of the forces, adjutant-general, and quartermaster-general. The troops are accommodated in several barracks, the most extensive of which is the Royal Barracks, erected in 1704, and subsequently enlarged, consisting of five squares, affording quarters for 10 field officers, 33 officers, 2000 non-commissioned officers and privates, and 460 horses, together with an hospital for 260 patients. Richmond Barracks, for infantry, occupies an elevated healthy situation, on the banks of the Grand Canal, beyond Kilmainham, forming a neat substantial fabric, with extensive courts and yards, covering altogether an area of 14 Irish acres, and furnishing accommodation for 76 officers and 1600 noncommissioned officers and privates, stabling for 25 horses, and an hospital for 100 patients. Portobello Barrack, for cavalry and artillery, is on the bank of the same canal, near Harold's Cross. At Island Bridge, near Kilmainham, there is an extensive artillery barrack, and one for artillery and infantry at the Pigeon House Fort in the bay. Besides these, there are barracks for infantry at Great Ship Street, near the castle, at Aldborough House, a fine massive building erected in 1765 at a cost of L45,000, on the North Circular Road and in the Linen Hall. The two latter were first used for military purposes in 1848. In the Phoenix Park is Mackenzie's Fort and magazine.

The prisons of Dublin, which were formerly ill conducted, badly managed, and stored with abuses calculated still further to debauch and harden their inmates, are now managed upon the improved principles in use at the present day. Besides the county gaol at Kilmainham, there are four convict prisons which are under the control of the Directors of Government Prisons, the Richmond Bridge well, and the Marshalsea of the Four Courts.

Mountjoy Government Prison, a model prison for the reformation of convicts, is conducted on the separate system, which admits of any amount of communication not considered directly evil, the only prohibition with respect to the intercourse of prisoners with their fellow men being that which cuts them off from association with other criminals. The number in custody is about 900 annually, who are principally drawn from the other convict depots, especially Richmond Bridge. A few directees from the county gaol, the average duration of the detention ensuing in this prison exceeds ten months, and they are afterwards removed to Spike Island, the Dublin depot, or by transport ships to convict stations abroad. Each prisoner being submitted previous to admission to a strict medical examination, there is not much disease prevalent since the opening of the prison. The annual cost of officers' salaries and maintenance of prisoners is slightly above L8000, which is reduced to about L7000 by the earnings of the inmates.

The prison of Newgate, in Great Street, was opened in 1781, having been built from a design of Mr Thomas Cooley, the architect of the Four Courts and the Exchange, at an expense of about L16,000. It was built to supply the place of the Old Gaol in the Corn Market which had fallen into decay, and is one of those dis- mal, heavy structures which were formerly considered as models of prison architecture, when no other method of discouraging crime was believed to exist but punishment and terror. It is not without its melancholy historical interest, several gentlemen having been executed there in expiation of the crime of high treason during the rebellion of 1798; in which year also the unfortunate Lord Edward Fitzgerald expired within its walls in a state of phreny, from the effects of wounds received on the occasion of his arrest by the late Major Sirr. Originally it was intended for prisoners of every description; but in consequence of the numbers by which it was thronged its use was circumscribed. It is now used as one of the government prisons for the reception of convicts; and notwithstanding the defects of its original construction, which cannot be wholly obviated, the arrangements are such as to secure constant and regular supervision, and the whole establishment is conducted with strict regard to discipline, and an efficient course of industrial training. The gross total annual cost of officers' salaries and maintenance of prisoners is about L5,000, and the number of prisoners in custody about 500 per annum.

The Richmond Penitentiary is an extensive pile of building in Grangegorman Lane, erected to prevent the necessity for transportation, being intended for convicts sentenced to long periods of punishment. It was under the immediate control of the government, by whom the gaoler and other officers were appointed. The experiment did not at first succeed. An inquiry into its internal management disclosed several grave abuses, which led to the dismissal of the gaoler. It was closed in 1806, the building was used for a cholera hospital, but is now again appropriated as a receptacle for female convicts, under the name of the Grangegorman Female Convict Depot; the prisoners being employed in washing for the other government prisons in Dublin, sewing, knitting, spinning, and embroidery.

Juvenile offenders were formerly sent on conviction to the house of correction in Smithfield, which is now, under the name of the Smithfield Government Prison, a convict depot. It is unfortunately situate in a densely crowded and low district, and affords very limited accommodation. The prisoners are furnished with employment; the principal trades carried on are shoemaking and mat-making, the work manufactured being disposed of for cash or appro- priated for prison use.

The Poor Courts' Marshalsea receives prisoners both from the city and from all Ireland. It is situated on a rising ground near Thomas Street, and was built to replace the wretched den on Merchants' Quay formerly appropriated to the same purpose.

The Old Sheriffs' Prison in Green Street is intended for all cases of debt above L10 contracted within the city. Previously to its erection in 1794, debtors were detained in the residences of the bailiffs, commonly called squandering-houses, a custom which sometimes caused great abuses. For some time after the opening of this prison, the keeper was partly remunerated by the rents of the apartments. The above named prison feet put an end to that abuse. It is not now used as a prison, having of late years been a branch of the North Dublin Union Workhouse, and more recently offered for sale to the government by the corporation of the city of Dublin.

The City Marshalsea, a mean building adjoining the Sheriffs' Prison, was appropriated to debtors in sums of less than L10, under decrees of the lord mayor's court and the court of conscience. The prisoners were generally of the poorest classes, and many of them had no resource but casual charity for the support of life; even lodging in the common hall had to be purchased at the rate of a penny a night. This and the Sheriffs' Prison are now happily extinct, leaving the Poor Courts' Marshalsea as the debtors' prison.

The County Gaol, a spacious and well-arranged prison, is at Kilmainham.

It is only of late years that any provision has been made by government for the relief of the poor of Ireland, and the penal enactments against mendicity were consequently of no effect. There were formerly houses of industry, mendicity institutions, and various substitutes for a national provision, but ultimately it was acknowledged that civilization might long exist on the surface of society without penetrating its depths, and that the only remedy for the existence of a well-ordered community was to be obtained by the formation of an organized system which could extract vice from poverty, and render life and vigour to the mass of the population. Shortly after the establishment of the new efficient system of police, and the national system of education, the law for the relief of the poor in Ireland came into operation, and the city was divided between the North and South Dublin Unions, which also include a portion of the county contiguous to the city. The North Dublin Union Workhouse in Brunswick Street was formerly a portion of the House of Industry which was opened in 1773, with a grant of L4,000 from parliament, but now supported as an hospital by subscriptions and occasional grants from parliament. The South Dublin Union Workhouse was formerly an asylum for the destitute and insane poor, and afterwards the Foundling Hospital until converted to its present use in 1840.

The city is within the ecclesiastical province and diocese of Dublin. The province includes the dioceses of Dublin, Kill- dare, Ferns, Leighlin, Ossory, Cashel, Emily, Waterford, Lis- more, Cork, Cloyne, Ross, Killaloe, Killfenora, Clonfert, Kil- maineagh, Limerick, Ardfert, and Aghadoe. The diocese of Dublin comprises the entire county, most of the county of Wicklow, part of the Queen's County, and of the counties of Kildare and Wexford. The archbishop exercises spiritual jurisdiction over the two cathedrals of Christ Church and St Patrick. Of these the former claims the priority by right of antiquity. Its foundation is attributed to the Danes in 1038, but it dated its erection as a church from 1038, and its elevation to a deanery and chapter from 1541. The entire length of the nave and choir is 260 feet, that of the transept 110 feet; the extreme breadth of either 80 feet. It stands nearly in the middle of the old city, on the northern declivity of the hill, in a favourable situation for effect if entirely freed from the neighbouring wretched habitations. This cathedral does not contain many monuments. Among the most interesting is that of Strongbow, the invader of Ireland, whose tomb was long the place at which the tenants of the church were accustomed to pay their rents. The monument was injured by the fall of one of the cathedral walls; but was afterwards repaired, and is still to be seen in good preservation, with a smaller tomb by his side, supposed to be that of Strongbow's son who was killed by his father. Several fine monuments are in the aisle; and in the chancel is that of the nineteenth Earl of Kildare, father of the first Duke of Leinster. Synods were occasionally held in this church, and parliaments also before the Commons' Hall was destroyed in 1590 by an explosion of 144 barrels of gunpowder which were arranged in Winetavern Street, before having been loaded on Wood Quay, and by some accident ignited. Here also the temporal Lambert Simnel was crowned. Under the same roof with the cathedral is a small building called St Mary's Chapel. The chapter consists of the dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, the three prebendaries of St Michael, St Michan, and St John, and six vicars choral. The cathedral is well endowed. Its economy fund is applied to the payment of the dignitaries and officers, and to the maintenance of the structure, which has undergone a thorough repair, both internally and externally. The deanery-house was in Fishamble Street, which, being considered a situation unsuitable to a dignitary of the establishment, was sold, and is now a merchant's warehouse. The cathedral of St Patrick was founded in 1190 by John Comyn, archbishop of Dublin, in a very low situation, subject to the bad effects of floods, by which it is liable to be inundated. About a hundred years after its first erection it was burnt, but was again raised from its ruins in increased splendour. At the Reformation it was dissolved, and the building used for some of the purposes of the courts of justice. King Edward projected its change into a university. Sir John Perrott, the lord deputy, having reported that there were two cathedrals in the city, "this one dedicated to St Patrick being had in more superstitious reputation than the other ought to be dissolved;" but the project was defeated, a university established elsewhere, and in the succeeding reign of Mary St Patrick's Cathedral was restored to its primary destination. The installations of the knights of St Patrick, the first of which took place in 1783, were originally held here, but now St Patrick's Hall in the castle is used for the investiture of the knights of that order. This cathedral contains the monuments of several illustrious persons, among which the most celebrated, not so much for the execution of the sculpture as for the more durable fame of the characters they commemorate, are those of Dean Swift, who left by will the following epitaph—"His deposition est corpus Jonathan Swift, S.T.D., hujus Ecclesiae Cathedralis Decani, ubi sevra indignatio ulterius cor lacerrae nequit; abd, viator, et impudicus si poteris, strenum pro virili libertatis vindicatores;" of Mrs Hester Johnson, immortalized under the name of Stella; of Archbishop Marsh, who bequeathed a fine library to the public; of the first Earl of Cork; and of Duke Schomberg, who fell at the battle of Boyne. The chapter consists of the dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, the two archdeaconesses of Dublin and Glandelagh, nineteen prebendaries, four minor canons, and twelve vicars choral. The singing men of these cathedrals perform conjointly at both, and at the chapel of Trinity College, at different hours on Sun- days; so that it may be said there is only one choir in Dublin; but that one, from the combination of musical talent, is excellent. The deanery house is in the immediate vicinity of the church. Sir James Ware, who wrote in the reign of Charles I., pronounces this cathedral to be superior to all others in Ireland for magnificence of structure and for extent. It is remarkable for its undeviating adherence to the early English pointed style of architecture, and the state of neglect into which it had been allowed to sink. "I never saw a church in such a discreditable state," says Sir John Forbes,—"one part of it may be literally said to be converted into a dovecot, as its roof is filled with pigeons, and its floor in a state not to be described." It is now undergoing repair with as much rapidity as the funds at command for the purpose will allow. Some of the parish churches possess strong claims to admiration. St George's is a fine insulated Grecian fabric, with a noble Ionic portico and highly ornamented spire, 200 feet in height, erected in 1802, from design of Francis Johnston, Esq., at a cost of L40,000. St Andrew's, commonly called the Round Church, from its elliptical form, is remarkable for a statue of its patron saint over the entrance; this being the only instance of a statue erected in such a locality in Dublin. St Michan's is of ancient foundation, being previous to 1709 the only parish church north of the Liffey, but rebuilt in 1676, in the pointed Gothic style, and since so much altered that nothing but the square tower of the older building remains. The vaults of St Michan's are remarkable for an antiscopic quality, which preserves the relics deposited there from decay.

St Thomas's Church in Marlborough Street is a singular specimen of compound architecture, erected in the middle of last century.

St Mary's Church, in Mary Street, built in 1607, has no architectural merit, and the other parish churches have few pretensions to notice.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin also resides in the city. The metropolitan church, in Marlborough Street, is considered as more peculiarly under his charge. This is a building of great dimensions, highly ornamented internally in the Grecian style, and having a fine Doric portico forming the principal front in Marlborough Street, but placed in a situation unworthy of its architectural merit. The building, which stands on the site of Anneley House, was commenced in 1816 at an estimated cost of L52,000. The number of Roman Catholic parish churches is twelve, all large, but few externally elegant; a circumstance easily accounted for by the fact, that previously to the year 1745 the strict enforcement of the penal laws prohibited the public exercise of their form of worship. The relaxation of the law was occasioned by the falling in of the floor of an upper apartment, where a Catholic congregation had assembled to celebrate mass secretly, and by which several lives were lost. After this accident, Lord Chesterfield, then lord lieutenant, declined further to enforce the statute, and the prohibition was removed.

St Paul's Roman Catholic chapel on Arran Quay is an elegant building in the Ionic style. The church of St Francis Xavier was erected at a cost of L18,000 from a Roman Ionic design of the Rev. B. Esmoode. The Catholic places of worship have ever since been kept open without molestation; but the apprehensions of their pastors, and the jealousy of the ruling powers, induced them formerly to select places of comparative privacy for their erection. The interior of the chapels in Anne Street, Exchange Street, and Westland Row, are worthy of inspection. Besides the parochial chapels, there are seven belonging to friaries of the Franciscans, the Caled and the Discalced Carmelites, the Capuchins, the Dominicans, the Augustinians, and the Jesuits; and several belonging to monasteries,—viz. two of Discalced Carmelites, one of Poor Clares, two of the Presentation, one of the Sisters of St Dominic, one of the Sisters of Mercy, and three of the Sisters of Charity; besides various others in the neighbourhood of the city.

The Presbyterian meeting-house on Ormond Quay, in a prominent situation, is an elegant building in the Gothic style, erected in 1845, by means of a bequest for the purpose made by Mrs Murray. Protestant Dissenters are not numerous in Dublin. There are congregations of Presbyterians, Independents, Methodists, Quakers, Seceders, Baptists, and Moravians. The few Jews resident in Dublin have a synagogue in Mary's Abbey.

The centesimal proportion of the number of places of wor- ship is about 45 for the Episcopal churches, 35 Roman Catholics and 20 Dissenters. These figures do not give material for any accurate estimate of the number of each persuasion, on account of the very different size of the buildings and the number of services performed.

Each of the parish churches has a cemetery attached to it, in which the parishioners of every religious persuasion were interred, until the restraints imposed on Catholics by the law called the Burial Casement act, as to performing their burial service over the dead, obliged them to open two large cemeteries, the one at Golden Bridge, the other at Glasnevin. The vaults of the newly built Roman Catholic places of worship are also appropriated to the reception of the dead. The Protestants also have a cemetery at Harold's Cross, called Mount Jerome cemetery, comprising twenty-five acres of land laid out with a view to ornamental effect.

Dublin has had its full share of the benefits arising from improvements in education. As early as the year 1311 a university was erected in it, under a bull of Clement V. in St Patrick's Church; but it gradually declined, until it became virtually extinct at the close of Henry VII.'s reign. After the Reformation, Sir Henry Sidney and Sir John Perrott exerted themselves to convert that cathedral into a university; but they were overruled by Archbishop Loftus, who protested successfully against what he deemed an encroachment on the rights of the church. In lieu of it, however, he prevailed on the corporation of Dublin to apply the dissolved monastery of All Saints' or All Hallows, in Hoggs' Row College Green, to the same purpose. He procured the University of Dublin, which is still incorporated by charter or letters patent, 34 Eliz. (1591), as "The Mother of an University."

In the charter of foundation the Queen nominated one provost, three fellows, nomine pluribus, and three scholars, nomine pluribus, to constitute with their successors for ever a body corporate and politic, under the name of The Provost, Fellows, and Scholars of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth, near Dublin. The number of the corporation has been increased from time to time, and at present consists of a provost, seven senior fellows, twenty-eight junior fellows, and seventy scholars. The system of instruction is superintended by the fellows, both senior and junior, together with professors in the various departments of science and literature. A vacancy among the fellows is filled up by the provost and a select number of the fellows, after a strict examination for four days in metaphysics, mathematics, natural philosophy, ethics, history, chronology, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. They hold their situation during life, unless they choose to accept of the incumbency of one of the thirty-two benefices at the disposal of the college. Until the year 1840, all the fellows were bound to celibacy, but that restriction was then removed. The scholars are chosen from among the undergraduates, after an examination in Greek and Latin. They hold their situation till they can attain the degree of master of arts. Students, after an examination in Greek and Latin, are admitted as fellow-commoners, pensioners, or sirars; which last class is limited to thirty, and is partially maintained out of the College funds. Noblemen, gentlemen's sons, and baronets, have the privilege of forming a separate order with peculiar advantages, on the payment of additional charges. The course of general instruction extends over four years, the principal studies of each year being successively mathematics, logic, natural philosophy and astronomy, and ethics; and two commencements are held every year for the purpose of conferring degrees. A medical school has been long attached to the university, to which has lately been added a school of civil engineering; and diplomas in surgery and civil engineering are granted by the board on the completion of the prescribed courses. The library consists of about 160,000 printed volumes, and 1500 manuscripts; and the number is increased annually by about 1500 vols., which are partly purchased and partly obtained under the copyright act. There is also a botanical garden at Ball's Bridge, and a museum. The funds of the College, arising from lands and the fees of the students, are managed solely by the provost and seven senior fellows, who form a board, to whom the whole government of the university, both in its executive and, so far as the statutes permit, legislative branches, is committed. The buildings, which include a large extent of ground, now nearly in the middle of the city, consist of one very large and two smaller squares. these are the chapel, the theatre for examinations, the museum, the library, the dining hall, the printing office, and chambers for the fellows and students. Attached to the buildings is a large space planted for the recreation of the students, and a smaller inclosure for the provost and fellows. The provost's residence and the medical school are apart from the main body of the buildings.

The College Observatory is at Dunsink, about five miles N.W. of Dublin; it is amply furnished with astronomical instruments. It was endowed by Francis Andrews, Esq., LL.D., provost of Trinity College, erected in 1785, and placed in 1791 by statute under the management of the "Royal Astronomer of Ireland," an appointment first filled by Dr Henry Ussher, and subsequently by Dr Brinkley, Bishop of Cloyne. The Magnetic Observatory of Dublin was erected in the years 1857-8, in the gardens attached to Trinity College, and at the expense of the university. A regular series of observations was begun in 1838, and has been continued ever since.

By letters patent, dated 16th August 1850, a university called "The Queen's University in Ireland" was founded, with powers to grant degrees in the faculties of arts, medicine, and law, to students who have completed their studies in any one of the Queen's colleges of Belfast, Cork, or Galway. The university consists of a chancellor and senate, nominated by the crown, and to hold office during pleasure, to be a corporation with perpetual succession, with power to sue and be sued, to make bye-laws, to use a common seal, and to hold lands, the annual profits of which may amount to not more than £10,000. One or more visitors to be occasionally appointed by the crown. The senate meets at Dublin Castle, for holding examinations and granting degrees pursuant to such examinations; the examinations are appointed annually by the senate. The three Queen's colleges to be colleges of the university, and their professors to be professors of the same; but the college not to be under the jurisdiction of the senate, rather than as regards the regulations for degrees in the faculties above mentioned. The senate of the university held its first meeting in June 1851.

During the short reign of James II, a college for Roman Catholics was opened in Back Lane, but was extinguished on his abdication; and in 1854 the Roman Catholic University was established in Stephen's Green.

The Inns of Court were intended for the instruction of law students. Collet's Inn, the first appropriated to this purpose in the reign of Edward I., having been erected without the city walls, was destroyed, together with the king's exchequer, by an incursion of the Irish from the Wicklow Mountains. The inns were revived during the reign of Edward III., in a building near the castle, given by Sir Robert Preston, chancellor of the exchequer, and thence called Preston's Inns, where the institution was maintained for upwards of two centuries. But the society being dispossessed in consequence of a flaw in the title, the inns were removed to the dissolved monastery of St Saviour's, where the four courts now stand, and there took the name of King's Inns. These buildings having been suffered to fall to ruin, a new site was chosen in the northern extremity of Dublin, and a massive but elegant building erected from a design by Mr Gandon the architect of the Custom-House. The principal apartments are the dining-hall and the library, which latter forms a detached building, erected in 1827, at a cost of £20,000. Law students are obliged to attend terms here for two years previously to being allowed to practise as barristers; but no arrangements have been made for literary instruction beyond the use of the library, punctuality of attendance is ascertained solely by their presence in the dining-hall, and therefore they are facetiously said "to eat their way to the bar."

There is no classical school on a public foundation similar to the grammar schools of Westminster and London, but the city is not deficient in means of instruction, as private schools and institutions for the education of the poor are numerous.

In 1833 the grants of public money for the education of the poor were intrusted to the charge of the lord lieutenant, to be expended on the instruction of the children of every religious denomination under the superintendence of commissioners appointed by the crown, and named "The Commissioners of National Education." The principles on which the commissioners act are, that the schools shall be open alike to Christians of every denomination; that no pupil shall be required to attend any religious exercise, or to receive any religious instruction which his parents or guardians do not approve, and that sufficient opportunity shall be afforded to the pupils of each religious persuasion to receive separately, at appointed times, such religious instruction as their parents or guardians think proper. This system of united education is one which does not exclude children of any denomination, while it admits to a participation of its benefits those of every religious creed who may wish for instruction without interfering with any conscientious scruples.

In 1845 the commissioners were incorporated under the name of "The Commissioners of National Education in Ireland," with power to hold lands to the yearly value of £40,000, to purchase goods and chattels, to receive gifts and bequests to that amount, to erect and maintain schools where and as many as they shall think proper, to grant leases for three lives or 31 years, to sue and to be sued by their corporate name in all courts, and to have a common seal, a power being vested in the lord lieutenant to fill up vacancies, to appoint additional members provided the total number does not exceed 15, and to remove members at his pleasure.

The school of medicine is partly under the control of the board of Trinity College, which nominates and maintains professors of anatomy and surgery, chemistry, and botany, and partly under that of the College of Physicians, which nominates the professors of the practice of medicine, of the institutes of medicine, and of materia medica and pharmacy, which latter are on the foundation of Sir P. Dun. To these have been added by the universities a professorship of surgery, and by the King and Queen's College of Physicians professorships of midwifery and medical jurisprudence. The College of Physicians was first incorporated by charter of King Charles II., in 1667, and incorporated by William and Mary in 1692. It enjoys some important privileges; among others, the right of inspecting the shops and stores of apothecaries, druggists, and chemists, and of destroying drugs of bad quality. The college consists of thirty-six fellows, on whom the management devolves; of honorary fellows, who are excluded from any interference with the financial arrangements; and of licentiates, who, though not entitled to take any part in the management of the collegiate concerns, are summoned on occasions of importance. The College Hall is in Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital.

Surgery was long considered in Ireland, as well as in England, as a trade, the practitioners being included in the worshipful corporation of barber-surgeons. Nor was it till 1784 that a charter, founding a college of surgery, put the practice of that inestimable art on a basis enabling it to advance in a manner suited to the wants and character of a civilized nation. The college, which was at first held in an obscure building near Mercer's Hospital, has been removed to an elegant range of buildings in St Stephen's Green, commenced in 1806, and erected at a cost of £25,000. Under the direction of the Royal College of Surgeons is a school of surgery, where lectures on the different branches of the art are delivered by the professors. The college building contains a board room, an examination hall, a library, and three museums.

The governor and company of the Apothecaries' Hall, founded by act of parliament in 1791, also had some share in the completion of a medical education, by means of courses of lectures and examinations on chemistry and pharmacy at their school of medicine in Cedilla Street, now discontinued, and the building sold to the Roman Catholic University, to be applied hereafter to purposes of medical education. In Peter Street is the Dublin School of Medicine; the attendance on the lectures delivered here is as a qualification for examinations by the Queen's University in Ireland, the universities of London, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and St Andrews, by the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, England, Edinburgh, and Glasgow; by the Apothecaries' Halls Dublin and London, and by the army medical and navy boards. Practical anatomy, taught in this school with hourly attendance, constitutes an Annuus Medicus for the Edinburgh University. There are also the Carmichael School of Anatomy in North Great Brunswick Street, and the Original Theatre of Anatomy and School of Medicine and Surgery in Peter Street.

Hospitals or asylums for various cases of disease and classes of persons are numerous, and liberally supported. Lunatics are maintained in St Patrick's Hospital, founded in 1745, pursuant to the will of the celebrated Dean Swift, and conducted by governors appointed under the charter of incorporation. The General Lunatic Asylum, erected near the House of Industry, and placed under the care of officers appointed by government, originally received patients from all parts of the country; but, under an act of parliament, its use is now limited to a district consisting of the counties of Dublin, Louth, Meath, and Wicklow, each of these contributing towards its expenses in proportion to the number of patients sent in. Besides these public establishments for the recovery and safe custody of lunatics, there are in the vicinity of Dublin various private asylums for the insane.

The principal institution for the blind is Simpson's Hospital, founded by a merchant of Dublin, who had laboured under severe affections of the eyes and went. The income is upwards of £2,500 per annum, by which fifty patients, either blind or gouty, are maintained, in a large plain office, situate in Great Britain Street. The apartments also accommodate a hundred inmates. The Richmond National Institution in Sackville Street was founded in order to instruct the blind in some of the more useful handicraft occupations. The principal branches taught are weaving, netting, and basket-making. The Molyneux Asylum, opened in Peter Street, in a large building which has been an amphitheatre for equestrian exhibitions, is confined to blind females, of whom those above the age of fifty have in it a permanent asylum, while those under that age are admitted to a temporary residence, until they can procure a permanent livelihood elsewhere. There is a commodious Episcopal chapel attached to this establishment. An Institution for the maintenance and education of children born deaf and dumb is maintained at Claremont, near Glasnevin. The plan of the Royal Hospital, for decayed and maimed soldiers, was first suggested by the Earl of Essex, when lord lieutenant, and carried into effect through the repeated applications of the Duke of Ormond to Charles II. The site chosen for it had been the ancient priory of Kilmainham, founded by Strongbow for Knights Templars. Upon the extinction of that order, and the confiscation of its property, which was effected by a simultaneous and secret movement of all the crowned heads in Europe, this part of their possessions was transferred to the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, and it became an hospital for guests and strangers only, to the exclusion of the sick and maimed. On the dissolution of monasteries, it devolved to the crown, and so continued till applied to its present use by Charles II. The building, completed in 1684, according to a plan of Sir Christopher Wren, is an oblong 306 feet by 288, three sides of which are dwelling-rooms, connected by covered corridors. The fourth contains the chapel, a venerable building, of limited size; the dining hall, in which the banners taken from the Spaniards at Gibraltar are suspended; and the apartments of the master, who is always the commander of the forces for the time being. Connected with the main building are several subordinate offices, a garden, and an avenue bordered by rows of stately trees.

Among the asylums for destitute children, the Foundling Hospital was by far the most extensive. It was opened in 1730 for destitute children of every age, but afterwards limited to the reception of those under a year old. The institution was maintained partly by voluntary contributions, partly by a local tax on Dublin, but chiefly by large parliamentary grants and restraints put on the admission of children. The average number annually admitted for twenty years up to 1825 was 20,000. The buildings, with large gardens attached to them, are situated in a healthy and elevated situation in the west of Dublin, and are now converted to the use of the South Dublin Union. The Blue Coat Hospital was originally intended as a place of refuge for all the poor in the city. This object being soon found impracticable, it was reduced to an asylum for aged citizens and their orphan sons, and ultimately confined to this last-named class. The buildings in Oxmantown originally covered a considerable space; and previously to the building of the parliament house in College Green the parliament held its sittings there. The present edifice is built nearly on the site of the former. It consists of an elegant centre, with detached wings, one used as a chapel. Of the 120 boys it receives, 58 are named by the corporation, 50 by the governors of Erasmus Smith's schools, 10 by the Bishop of Meath as trustee to a bequest, and 2 by the incumbent of St Werburghs on a similar title. They are educated in the tenets of the Protestant church, and apprenticed to Protestant masters. The Hibernian School in the Park supports and educates the children of soldiers. A preference is given to those whose fathers have been killed, or died on foreign stations. The buildings, which are spacious, have gardens and exercising grounds attached to them; and the boys, in addition to the usual routine of scholastic instruction, are trained to the rudiments of military tactics. On the southern quay, near Ringsend, is the Hibernian Marine School, instituted for sailors' children. It consists of a centre building and two wings, the latter containing the school and chapel. At a proper age the pupils are placed in the royal navy, or apprenticed to merchants, who take them without fee. The number of boys was 150; but it has been contracted in consequence of the reduction of the parliamentary grant.

Besides these there are numerous institutions for the relief of various classes of the distressed or vicious portions of the population. The majority of these may be zealously and well managed; but whether a mass of small institutions, creating some evil, and failing to extend relief to much misery, are of substantial benefit to the public, may reasonably be doubted.

The progress of disease is combated, and the sufferings from accidental injuries assuaged, by means of numerous institutions; one of the most extensive of which is Stevens' Hospital. It was founded by the bequest of a physician whose name it bears, and erected by his sister, who having been left a life interest in the property previously to its being applied to its final purpose, immediately devoted the greater part of it to fulfil her brother's intentions, reserving to herself only £120 per annum, and apartments in the hospital. In addition to the original estate, and to other contributions and bequests, altogether amounting to £2,200 per annum, it receives a grant of public money. This hospital is capable of accommodating 300 patients, and is provided with distinct wards for diseases of children, diseases of the eye, &c. The City of Dublin Hospital, in Upper Baggot Street, was founded in the year 1832, for the purpose of affording additional hospital relief to the sick poor of the metropolis, and is supported by voluntary contributions. The Meath Hospital, originally built in the Coombe, for the benefit of the liberties of Dublin, and afterwards converted into a county hospital by act of parliament, has been transferred from its former confined and low situation to another in the outskirt, where a large building was erected for it, chiefly through the munificence of Mr Thomas Pleasant, who contributed £6,000 towards its building and maintenance. Its annual income exceeds £1,000. The medical officers at first received salaries of £100 each, which they have resigned for the benefit of the institution. The hospital on the Coombe is now the Coombe Lying-in Hospital. The Charitable Infirmary, in Jervis Street, the oldest in Dublin, and opened at first in Cook Street, a.d. 1721, by the contributions and exertions of a few gentlemen of the medical profession, was transferred to its present situation in 1792. It is capable of accommodating 50 patients, but the share of its funds seldom admits of more than 30. The General Military Hospital at the entrance of the Phoenix Park, standing on an eminence in a healthful situation, is a general infirmary for the army. The edifice, though plain, is much admired for the elegance of its proportions. Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, opened in 1810, is appropriated exclusively to medical cases, for the instruction of the pupils attending the professors of the College of Physicians. The Richmond Surgical Hospital in North Brunswick Street has attached to it the Talbot General Dispensary, and Mercer's Hospital, founded by a benevolent lady of that name, in Stephen Street, on the site of the decayed hospital of St Stephen, and are set apart for surgical cases and accidents. The House of Recovery, in Cork Street, the first and largest of the fever hospitals, is supported by subscriptions, the interest of donations, and a grant of public money; and has contributed to check considerably the progress of low fever prevalent among the ill-fed artizans and paupers in that district. It was opened in 1804, and between that date and October 1852, 165,913 patients had been admitted, of which number 154,035 were discharged cured, 11,764 died, and 114 remained in the house. Its beneficial effects led to the opening of a second in the north of Dublin, on a smaller scale, called the Whitworth Hospital, which is not now a fever hospital, but open for the reception of patients labouring under general medical and surgical complaints. The number of patients admitted annually to the Dublin Hospital averages above 4,500; of which number 94 out of every 100 have been discharged cured, a sufficient proof of skilful attendance. The Lock Hospital was opened in Townsend Street in 1792, for the reception of women real patients of both sexes; but in 1830 male patients were excluded, and it has been ever since confined to females. The number of beds, originally 300, is now reduced to half that number. The building, of plain granite, consists of a centre containing apartments for the officers, and two wings in which are the patient wards. It is wholly under the control of a board appointed by the lord lieutenant.

The formation of dispensaries was encouraged by a special act of parliament authorizing grand juries to present in aid of these sum equal to that subscribed by individuals. There are several dispensaries for particular complaints; but the district dispensaries which are attached to the different poor-law unions throughout Ireland, are placed under the control of the Poor-Law Commissioners by the Medical Charities act of 1851, which supersedes the provisions of former acts.

Most of the religious societies spring from kindred sources in England. The chief among them is the Hibernian Bible Society, founded in 1807. Several minor societies for the distribution of the Bible, and differing from one another chiefly as to the channel into which their labours should be directed, have arisen from it, some detached, others auxiliaries or branches of the parent association. The Irish Society was formed for promoting the religious instruction of the Irish through the medium of their own language, by publishing Bibles, Testaments, tracts, and rudimentary books in that tongue, and by sending itinerant teachers through the country for their instruction. The names of the Church Missionary, the Methodist Missionary Societies, &c., announce the origin and objects of each. The Religious Tract Society has an extensive store and sale-room in Sackville Street. The Continental Society professes generally to promote religious knowledge and sentiments throughout Europe.

Scientific and literary societies are few. The Royal Dublin Society is foremost in seniority and importance. It owes its origin to some literary gentlemen, who in 1731 formed an association for scientific purposes meeting in Trinity College. In 1750 it was incorporated by charter, and received an annual parliamentary grant of £500, which was gradually augmented until it amounted to £10,000, out of late years it has been reduced. The improvement of agriculture and rural economy is promoted by annual cattle shows, when prizes exceeding £300 are awarded. There is also an exhibition of farm and dairy produce in November, and an exhibition of manufactures takes place triennially. The professionships of mining and the veterinary art have been discontinued. A drawing school is established in which pupils of promising talents are instructed gratuitously in perspective, figure drawing, architecture, and modelling, and premiums are periodically awarded. The society is also provided with a good library, containing upwards of 12,000 volumes. It is particularly rich in works on botany, and in those relating to Ireland. It has likewise a gallery of statuary, in which are casts from the Elgin marbles. The museum and gallery are open to the public on particular days. The members, who are admitted by ballot, on payment of an admission fee of £1.20, which covers all subsequent expenses, have the exclusive advantage of the library, and of a reading-room well supplied with newspapers and periodicals. By a late bye-law, annual members are admissible to most of the advantages of the society on payment of a subscription of three guineas. The society held its meetings in Shaw's Court until 1767, when it removed to Grafton Street, and thence in 1796 to a building erected for it in Hawkins Street. In 1815 it purchased the splendid museum and grounds of the Duke of Leinster in Kildare Street, where it still continues. The Kirwanian Society, which takes its name from the celebrated chemist and mineralogist, was formed in 1812 for the advancement of chemistry, mineralogy, and natural history. It is supported wholly by individual subscription. The Zoological Society, formed in 1830, on the model of those in Dublin, has a garden on land granted to it by the lord lieutenant in the Phoenix Park, in which it has already collected a menagerie of living animals, which makes it an object of general attraction to the citizens of Dublin. It is supported by subscriptions, and by the money paid by the public for admission. The Royal Irish Academy was instituted by patent in 1786, to promote the study of polite literature, science, and antiquities. Its formation was chiefly owing to the exertions of its president, the first Earl of Charlemont. It holds its meetings in Dawson Street, where it has a library containing some valuable manuscripts. It occasionally publishes a volume of transactions. This society receives an annual parliamentary grant of £300.

Several attempts have been made to create a taste for the fine arts in Dublin. In 1764 an association of artists erected a neat building in William Street for their meetings, and for the exhibition of their works; but the profits of the scheme did not cover their expenses, and the building was consequently offered for sale, and purchased by the corporation of Dublin as an assembly-house. Exhibitions of pictures by native artists were afterwards opened in Hawkins Street, under the patronage of the Dublin Society. Being discontinued in consequence of the society's removal to Leinster House, which afforded no suitable room for exhibition, the artists attempted their revival in the Royal Arcade in 1821, but without success. These failures were attributable not merely to the indifference of the public, but to dissensions among the artists themselves. The want of a permanent place of exhibition has been supplied by the liberality of Mr Francis Johnston, an architect to whom Dublin is indebted for several of its modern buildings, particularly the new Castle Chapel, and the General Post-Office. He built an elegant and appropriate structure, at an expense of £10,000, which, when finished, he presented to the Society of Artists. Their exhibitions have been held in it since its opening in 1825. The society was incorporated in 1823, and receives an annual parliamentary grant of £300.

The principal library in Dublin, for the number and value of its books, is that of Trinity College. It is open of right only to such graduates of that university as take a strict oath relative to their conduct while in it, and to their treatment of its contents. Admission by special favour is attainable, but with some difficulty. It contains about 110,000 printed volumes, and 1500 manuscripts, the number of books being annually increased partly by purchase, and partly in consequence of the right conferred by the Copyright act of receiving a copy of every new publication. The King's Inn Library is next in value. The right of reading in it is confined to the members of the King's Inn Society; that is, to barristers, attorneys, and law students. Marsh's Library, attached to St Patrick's Cathedral by the magnificent bequest of Primate Marsh, archbishop of Armagh, and incorporated in 1707, contains a good collection of old books, and is open to the public on liberal terms; but, from the very small portion of its funds appropriated to the purchase of books, it is very deficient in modern publications. It possesses some valuable manuscripts. Steevens' Hospital, the Royal Hospital, Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, and the College of Surgeons, have each a small library attached to it, chiefly of medical books, for the use of the practitioners. The want of a public library easily accessible, and provided with the works most in request, was attempted to be supplied by a society, which, having been formed in 1791, has collected a large number of books in a handsome and well-arranged building in D'Olier Street. The institution is entitled the Dublin Library Society and Hibernian Athenaeum. Attached to it is a fine reading-room, well supplied with newspapers. But as the fund, arising solely from annual subscriptions, is not sufficient to stock the library with new publications, and to furnish a sufficient assortment of newspapers, the former of these demands has been made subordinate to the latter, and the library consequently impoverished.

The increase of commercial transactions occasioned by a long continuance of domestic tranquillity after the revolution of 1688, excited a desire among the merchants to have a suitable place for transacting their public business; and consequently the foundations of the Royal Exchange were in 1769 laid on Cork Hill, and the building was opened ten years after—at an expense of £40,000, procured by subscriptions, lotteries, and grants of public money. It is one of the most admired structures in Dublin. Its principal front consists of a Corinthian portico of six columns. The interior is chiefly occupied by a magnificent circular hall lighted from above, with which several smaller apartments are connected. The progress of civic improvements gradually threw this fine building out of the more convenient channels of business. A more central position for mercantile transactions presented itself in Dame Street. Thither therefore the sagacity of speculation was directed, and a new building has been raised, principally by £50 shares, with more extensive and suitable accommodation, under the name of the Commercial Buildings. The value of the Royal Exchange has consequently diminished. It is now wholly appropriated to the municipal business of the city. It is also a depository for the statues of celebrated characters, and has in it those of George III., Henry Grattan, Doctor Lucas, Daniel O'Connell, and Thomas Drummond. The Commercial Buildings form a small square of simple architecture fronting Dame Street. They contain a large saloon occupied as a news-room, and offices for merchants and brokers, together with an hotel and coffee-house, over which is the Stock Exchange. In order still further to promote the commercial interests of Dublin, an association was formed about thirty years ago, under the name of the Chamber of Commerce, which soon decayed; but the idea was revived in 1820, when a number of merchants formed themselves into a society under the same name, which still exists. Its objects are the protection and promotion of the manufacturing and commercial interests of Dublin, and of the country in general. The business is transacted by a president, vice-presidents, and committee, instructed to communicate with the officers of government on the subjects of the association. Their office is held in the Commercial Buildings. The Orzel Galley is another voluntary association of merchants, for determining commercial differences by arbitration. It takes its name from that of a vessel, which was the occasion of a complicated and protracted suit, that was ultimately adjusted in an amicable manner by the interference of some of the most respectable merchants in Dublin. The effect of steam navigation on the cross-channel trade has produced a great alteration in the state of commerce in Dublin.

The Bank of Ireland was formed in 1783, in order to give security to commerce. It was opened at first in some old houses in Mary's Abbey, with a capital of £600,000, which was afterwards increased to £3,000,000. In the year 1802 the parliament house was purchased by the directors, and adapted to its present destination. This edifice was erected in 1729; and notwithstanding the changes made in it since it was diverted from its original purpose, the exterior has been but little altered. It consists of three stories, the principal, towards College Green, a colonnade of the Ionic order, formed of a façade and two projecting wings, is much admired for the noble simplicity of its elevation. The western front, a porico of four Ionic columns, was connected with the other by a colonnade of the same order, forming the quadrant of a circle. The eastern front, which was the entrance of the House of Lords, was, by their special order, a colonnade of the Corinthian order, which the architect found great difficulty in uniting with the other parts. The apartment for the lords, a fine room, was hung with tapestry. That of the commons having been burned in 1792 (whether by accident or design has never been fully ascertained), was reconstructed after a more elegant design, in the form of a circle surrounded by pillars, between which was a gallery for hearers. This fine hall was taken down by the bank directors, and converted into a square room, now the cash-office.

The commerce of the Port of Dublin had increased so much towards the close of the last century, that the accommodation afforded in the river for shipping was found insufficient, and the Irish parliament granted £15,000 for forming docks on both sides of it. The Floating and Graving Docks, communicating with the Grand Canal on the south side, including a basin covering 40 statute acres, with a fine quay and store frontage of 7,500 feet, were opened in 1796; and St George's, the latest of the Custom-House Docks, in 1821. These latter cover an area of 8 acres, have 16 feet depth of water, and 1200 yards of quay; they are capable of accommodating 40,000 tons of shipping, and the stores have space for 5000 casks of sugar and tobacco, and 20,000 chests of tea, with cellarge for 12,000 pipes of wine. The docks on the south side afford commodious wharfage for 100 sail of merchantmen and colliers, exclusive of that supplied by the river-quays. The formation of the avylles-harbour at Kingstown, then Dunleary, which was commenced in 1817, gave additional aid to the commerce of the port, by the increased protection it afforded to shipping. The improvements made on the bar, in the erection of the great northern wall or breakwater, and the steam dredging of the bed of the Liffey by the ballast board, by rendering the channel sufficiently deep for the navigation of vessels of 1400 tons, has also contributed greatly to the same effect.

There were in 1852 belonging to the port, including steamers, 454 vessels, of every size, from 15 to 1200 tons; the registered burdon amounting to 39,814 tons. Most of these vessels were employed in the coasting or cross-channel trade, there having been but 6 or 8 in that of the West India, the same number in that of France and the Spanish Peninsula, and 20 or 30 in the North American timber trade. The amount of customs collected averages about £950,000, and has not varied much during the last twelve years, the reduction of duties having more than balanced the increase in the quantity of articles imported.

The site of the city of Dublin was long confined to the hill on the south side of the river of which High Street forms the crest, and the castle the eastern declivity. The walls, which may be traced now only on maps, did not exceed a mile in length. From the north tower of the castle they were carried over Cork Hill, near which was an entrance called Dame's Gate, looking towards Hoggin's, now College Green. Near Essex Bridge was another entrance called Essex Gate, erected on the site of Isol'd Tower. The wall was then carried westwards along the course of the river to the end of Fishamble-Street. Here stood Ryan's Castle, sometimes used as a state prison. Thence it continued along Wood Quay to Vine-stavern Street, where was another castle; and, still continuing parallel to the river, it joined a castle through which was one of the principal entrances opposite to Bridge Street. Thence it was carried to New Row, and up the hill to Cutpurse Row, at the end of which was Newgate, also used as a prison. From Corn Market it passed along the rear of Back Lane to Nicholas Gate, thence between Ross Lane and Britie's Alley to Pool Gate, afterwards Werburgh Gate, and thence in a straight line till it joined the castle at Bermingham Tower. The part of the city now called Dame Street and College Green was a low swampy plot, subject to inundations of the river, to the north of which were a Danish settlement, now called Oxmantown, a corruption from Ostmen's Town, and the extensive monastery of St Mary's, with its appendage the priory of St Saviour. The only passage across the river by land was by a bridge at the end of Bridge Street—formerly called Old Bridge, Dublin Bridge, Ormond Bridge—for some time Fingal Bridge. It was taken down in 1815, and its place supplied by an elegant structure of three arches called Whitworth Bridge. All the monastic buildings, except the Dominican Friary, were on the south side of the river. These were the two cathedrals, the abbey of St Thomas the Martyr, since called Thomas Court; the priory of All Hallows, now Trinity College; the monastery of St Francis, in Francis Street; the monastery of the Holy Trinity, on the site of the late theatre in Crow Street; the Carmellite or Whitefriars Monastery lately restored, in Whitefriar Street; and the nunnery of St Mary de Haggis, on the ground where St Andrew's Church now stands. The precise situations of the nunnery of St Mary des Dames, whence Dame Street has its name, of the abbey of St Olave, somewhere in Castle Street, of the monastery of Witchenor in the west of Dublin, and of the priory of Knights Templars in Cattgott, in the southern suburbs, are now unknown. The abbeys of the Cistercians of St Mary's Abbey, and of the Augustinians of St Thomas the Martyr, were united, and with the priors of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem at Kilmahon, of the Augustinians of the Holy Trinity or Christ Church, and of the Augustinians of All Saints (now Trinity College), sat in the Irish parliament as spiritual peers. The hospital of St Stephen occupied the site of Mercer's Hospital; the Steyne Hospital stood on Lazar's Hill, now Bank Street; and Allen's Hospital lay between St Kevin Street and the bounds of the archbishop's palace in St Sepulchre's. Though the buildings spread themselves from an early period in all directions, the walls were never extended beyond their original limits.

In general it may be observed, that the progress of architectural improvement has taken an eastern direction. Most of the public buildings and new streets lie on that side of the castle, whilst those towards the west are rapidly falling into decay. About the year 1770 a road was carried round the city, so as to connect all the outlets; it was called the Circular Road. The boundary thus formed measures somewhat less than nine miles, and comprises an area within its limits of 1264 acres, intersected by the Liffey, which has 478 acres of the entire area on its northern, and 788 on its southern side. Latterly the lines of the Royal and Grand Canal on the north and south have afforded a boundary line still more comprehensive; but the entire of the included area is not covered with buildings. A circle, with Essex Bridge as a centre, and with a radius of one mile, will comprehend very nearly all the inhabited part of the city, exclusive of the outlying villages. Both sides of the river are closed by walls of granite, forming spacious quays. These are intersected by nine bridges; Carrible Bridge, nearest to the sea; Wellington, or the Metal Bridge, a single arch of cast iron, erected in 1816, for foot passengers only; Essex Bridge, of five arches; Richmond Bridge, also of five arches; Whitworth Bridge, formerly Dublin Bridge; Queen's Bridge; King's Bridge; and Sarah Bridge. The two last-named are each of a single arch; the first of them of iron, the other, a building peculiarly elegant in its proportions, of stone. All these bridges are of modern erection, and elegant in construction.

First impressions of Dublin, says Inglis, "are decidedly favourable." Dublin, for its size, is a handsomer city than London. Sackville Street will compare with any street in Europe; Merrion Square and St Stephen's Green surpass in extent any of the squares in the British metropolis. There are points of view in Dublin, the quays, and some of the finest public edifices, more striking, I think, than any that are to be found in London; and although the Irish capital can boast of no St Paul's, yet, in the architectural beauty of some of her public buildings, she has just reason for pride. I need but name the Custom-House, and the Bank of Ireland with its magnificent yet classically chaste colonnades, in proof of this assertion." There is much truth in this description, yet the chief advantage which Dublin has in picturesque beauty lies in the concentration of the objects of interest within a small compass, and further examination does not confirm the first favourable impression. Sir John Forbes, who visited Ireland in 1832, says—"I own myself to have been a good deal disappointed with Dublin as a city. To say nothing of its extent, it is greatly inferior in many other respects, not only to London, but to several towns in England, and some in Scotland. Its site is flat and monotonous, and its streets and squares possess no architectural beauty. The former, to be sure, are often very wide, and some of the latter, as Merrion Square and Stephen's Green, are of immense extent, but there is throughout a general want of elegance and grandeur. Most of the streets seem to want dignity, and the majority of the houses are common-looking, and even mean and dingy. While denying both beauty and grandeur to Dublin as a city, I must join in the universal judgment as to the splendour of many of its public buildings, as the Bank of Ireland—formerly the Parliament House, the Custom-House, the Post-Office, the Royal Exchange, &c."

Few cities present a more striking picture of the extremes of splendour and destitution than Dublin. A line drawn from the King's Inn in the north of Dublin, directly south, through Capel Street, the castle, and Angleterre Street, will, together with the line of the Liffey, divide the whole area into four districts, materially differing from each other in appearance and character. The south-eastern district, which comprehends three of the great squares, and the north-eastern, which includes the two remaining squares, are chiefly inhabited by the nobility, the landed gentry, and the liberal professions. These two districts present many symptoms of affluence and luxury. But on proceeding westward the scene suddenly changes. A considerable portion of the south-western district, which includes the liberties of St Sepulchre's and Thomas Court, and was formerly the seat of the silk and woollen manufactures, and also of the north-western portion of the city, are in a state of almost hopeless decay. The squalid misery visible in the rainmost portions of the city is relieved to the eye by the beauty of the environs of the city; and in its immediate vicinity is the Phoenix Park, of which the citizens are justly proud. It comprises an area of 1753 acres, within which are contained the Viceregal Lodge, the usual residence of the lord lieutenant, with 160 acres of demesne and gardens, the chief and under secretary's lodges, and the lodges of the park rangers and their assistants, with their respective inclosed grounds, the Hibernian school for soldiers' children, the military magazine, the military infirmary, the zoological gardens, the constabulary barracks, &c. Inglis, a good authority on such subjects, pronounced this park as superior, both in extent and diversity of surface, to any public park, promenade, prater, or prado, belonging to any other European city.—(Whitelaw and Walsh's History of Dublin; Thom's Irish Almanac; Gilbert's History of the City of Dublin, 1834.)