We have to notice an instance of this in the work before us; and what makes the matter worse, and gives an appearance of premeditated bitterness to the illustration, it is introduced with an appearance of being germane to the question.

In the chapter on "Mental Discipline " Mr. Warren enlarges on the necessity to the student of law of combining therewith the study of logic, and proceeds to recommend one or two writers on the art to the notice of the reader. Among these he mentions with a good deal of commendation, not alone his own, but gathered from eminent writers, William Chillingworth, and especially recommends the study of his book entitled "The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvation." Though a judicious man and one of considerate feelings, writing moreover for the instruction of young men of every religious denomination, would hardly have have recommended, and with enthusiastic praise too, this particular work to their general attention, we could have passed that by without notice, were it not that Mr. Warren proceeds with great minuteness to point out the peculiar force and beauty of the arguments with which Chillingworth overwhelmed and confounded his antagonist the (as Mr. Warren compassionately styles him,) "unhappy Jesuit." With which side lay the victory in this contest is a question we have no desire to discuss, nor have we any wish to detract in the slightest from the reputation which Chillingworth has left after him; but we can hardly conceive any proceeding adopted in worse taste than Mr. Warren's introduction of this book in the manner we have indicated.

Surely if his intense admiration of the work and its author would not suffer him to pass them without inention, he might have been content with a short notice of both, and left a minute examination to the research and inclination of the student. Could he not in the whole circle of British writers have found one other illustration of his text, and avoided what appears, at least, to be a gratuitous insult to the religion of a portion of his readers?

In spite too of his own and still more of the praise which those eminent men Locke and Clarendon have, as quoted by Mr. Warren, awarded to Chillingworth, many a champion might have been selected, who as a logician was as eminent as he, and the subject of whose reasoning could have been introduced without risk of offence.

It should also be borne in mind that this extraordinary paragon of logical excellence, while a fellow of Oxford College, owned himself convinced by what we must suppose was superior reasoning, and became a Catholic, and being about to write a vindication of his conduct was induced by Laud, Bishop of London, to reconsider the matter, the result of which was a return to his former profession of faith, and the production of his celebrated work, which Mr. Warren loads with so much commendation.

We find him subsequently refusing to subscribe to the Thirtynine Articles, owing to an objection to the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creed, and resisting until his promotion to the Chancellorship of Salisbury with the prebend of Brixworth annexed overcame his scruples.

Had Mr. Warren enlarged upon the Horse Pauline with the same enthusiasm that he has done on Chillingworth's book, he would have given no offence, and would have in our opinion more faithfully served his purpose of introducing to the student the work the most suitable, and the best (as he indeed himself admits it to be) for his particular purpose.

When we began this paper we had intended going rather fully into the subject, and fortifying the case which (to use legal parlance) we have attempted to make by reference to parliamentary and other papers and reports. We could indeed adduce an overwhelming mass of such, which one and all tend to the same end, and to prove irresistibly the absolute prudence and necessity of adopting some system of professional education for the profession of the attorney.

But we do not think that we can strengthen our position by any other aid than that of facts, and the evidence and conviction of common sense.

All classes, the public, the bar, the attorneys themselves, must be benefited by and must desire a change from the present system. The public for obvious reasons require an intelligent and well-informed body of attorneys; the bar, whose duties and responsibilities will be lightened by communication with men of acuteness and accuracy instead of blockheads, must rejoice in the improvement; and the attorneys themselves, too well know how a better system would elevate their condition and increase their emoluments, not to long for the introduction of an improved state of things.

We do not indulge the utopian idea of making every attorney an accomplished lawyer, or even so much of a lawyer as to

induce him to fancy or make him feel that he can dispense with the assistance of the barrister, on occasions such as the discriminating attorney now likes to consult him, but we wish to see him freed from the thraldom of ignorance, in which he is at present fast bound, and no longer running at every hand's turning to his "Counsel," pestering him with questions which he would have no need to ask had a proper training during his apprenticeship taught him all that as a professional man it is fitting and necessary he should know.

We cannot think the comparatively recent legislation with reference to attorneys in this country has been originated and carried out with any great regard to the real interests of either the profession or the public, and in this respect, as in very many others, we think there is just reason to complain of the very different spirit in which Ireland is legislated for, from that in which England is dealt with.

In England every candidate for admission into the attorney profession is subjected to a preliminary examination conducted under the supervision of the Incorporated Law Society, sanctioned and recognized by act of Parliament, and a glance at the published questions from time to time proposed at these examinations sufficiently proves their searching character, and only serves to make more ridiculous and contemptible the farce which is acted here under the same

name.

In many other respects the legislature has provided for the ensuring the respectability and efficiency of the English practitioner. With us, what little safeguard existed in the heavy stamp duty on indenturing has been broken down by the reduction of that duty from £120 to £80; what object was proposed by this reduction we are at a loss to conceive. As to the annual certificate duty, it has nothing earthly to do with ensuring a respectable body of practitioners. The worst man at the profession may be the best able, and the best man the worst able to pay it, and the attorney who is both poor and disreputable knows a thousand plans to evade its payment and yet carry on his schemes. The real truth is, that such care as human skill and forethought could suggest should be used to admit to practice fit men only, and once admitted each man should be left to his own energy, ability, and probity to fight his way through the great battle of life.

Drawing to the close of this paper we are strongly tempted

to wish that we had not written it, for we fear the cause which we have endeavored to support may perhaps be not yet ripe for advocacy. This fear would be stronger within us, did we not feel assured that in every man of common sense, whom we number amongst our readers, we reckon a supporter of that which his own intellect, without aid from argument or precedent, will quickly tell him is right. In no city in Great Britain is to be found a body of men excelling in intelligence, acuteness and sound sense, the mercantile men of Dublin. In none is there greater discrimination in judging between the skilled practitioner and the quack, the man of merit and the pretender, and in none can the advocate, however weak, of a just measure of salutary reform meet with warmer supporters and firmer friends.

In them, then, we trust, confident that when they speak, they will be heard with attention and respect, and though perhaps, in this particular instance, the movement should beginin the profession itself, yet once begun it will assuredly derive its chiefest momentum from the honest and earnest support of the mercantile community.

ART. III.- IRISH POETRY.

1. Irish Popular Songs, with English Metrical Translations. By Edward Walsh. Dublin: James M'Glashan. 1854. 2. The Poets and Poetry of Munster: a Selection of Irish Songs by the Poets of the last century. With Poetical Translations. By the late James Clarence Mangan. Now for the first time published, with the Original Music, and Biographical Sketches of the Authors. By John O'Daly. Dublin: John O'Daly, 9 Anglesea Street. 1855.

We were much struck on reading the following passage concerning Scotland in the third volume of Macaulay's History of England:-"The Gaelic monuments, the Gaelic usages, the Gælic superstitions, the Gaelic verses, disdainfully neglected during many years, began to attract the attention of the learned from the moment at which the peculiarities of the Gaelic race began to disappear." How true, how sadly true! is this of Ireland: while the Irish was still a living language (which now, alas! it has almost ceased to be,) while it still had living pens and living lyres, while the air was still vocal with Irish song, while Irish verse was still composed, recited and remembered, while Irish monuments of antiquity were still in tolerable preservation, (comparatively speaking,) while Irish peculiarities, superstitions, national legends, and historical traditions, were still numerous and fresh; while all these treasures for the antiquarian, the philosopher, the historian, were still patent, they were disregarded and now, when they have almost passed away beyond our reach we are striving to collect the decaying fragments of all that had been so long neglected, nay! worse than neglected, utterly despised: not merely left to die a natural death, but hastened towards dissolution.

It were useless now to dwell upon the causes, and they were various, that tended to this disparagement; one of the principal, perhaps, was Fashion, that most unjust, most unreasonable, and most frivolous, as well as most tyrannic of despots. Queen Anne at one time seemed somewhat inclined to give the Irish tongue a fair hearing and a chance for existence: but some interested enemies of the vernacular repeated to her a sort of fictitious phrase composed of the harshest words that could be selected, and persuaded her that it was unfit for civilized lips or Long, long ago is it, that persons who knew not a