Dublin,
My dear ****,
A LETTER delivered last evening, introduced me to the family of *. ********, with whom I have spent most of this day, (the 11th,) which is the first of the week. There is but one meeting of Friends in this city, which I have twice attended, the first beginning at ten, and the second at two o'clock. Dinner is not taken till after the second meeting. About 120 families comprise the whole of the Society of Friends in Dublin. Their dress, manners, and general appearance remind me forcibly of Philadelphia. In intelligence,
12th. Every stranger must he impressed at his first arrival in Dublin, with the elegance of its principal streets and squares, and the magnificence of its public buildings. In respect to the latter, there are few towns in Europe that vie with it. It is not in the religious edifices, that the skill of the architect, and the funds of the nation, have been so liberally bestowed, but in those buildings which belong more immediately to the government. The post office, the parliament house, (now converted into the bank of Ireland,) and above all, the custom house, have not, I should presume to say, been surpassed in any city of Europe, in buildings of a similar kind.
Sackville-street is really the most spacious in point of width; and as it regards the buildings, hotels, shops, &c. which line it on each side, it is one of the noblest, in the British dominions. It contains the post office, a new edifice, and probably the most elegant and costly in the world, of those which have been erected for the same purpose. It is of beautiful granite, three stories high. The front is decorated with six Corinthian pillars, supporting a grand portico, under which is the front entrance to the different departments. From the court yard, there are arched passages into other streets, whence the mail coaches enter to receive their different bags. The cost of this building was £80,000 sterling. In Dublin, as well as in London and Paris, boxes are placed in different parts of the city, for receiving letters; producing a great convenience and saving of time, to those who live remote from the general office. The small
Nearly opposite the post office, in the middle of the street, is a pillar erected in honour of Lord Nelson. It is 144 feet high. A flight of 169 steps conducts to the top, whence the eye has a fine view of the city and bay. On the top is a gallery, and a statue of Nelson thirteen feet in height, leaning on the capstan of a ship. The pillar is surrounded by iron pallisades and lamps. But I am mistaken, if men of judgment do not, hereafter, pronounce that it was at least a bad taste which placed such a huge pile of materials in such a position, as to obstruct the view of one of the finest streets in the kingdom.
The linen hall in which the staple of Ireland is exhibited in all its varieties, is, as might be supposed, a very extensive building, comprehending numerous apartments appropriated to different divisions of this important trade.
The house of industry, or principal alms-house of Dublin is a very large establishment, and contains at present about 2500 paupers. Many of them are kept at work. The children are separated from the adults, and are regularly instructed in work and the elements of learning. The schools are conducted upon a plan composed of the systems of Bell and Lancaster. The sexes are taught in separate apartments. Each bed in the dormitory, the cleanliness of which is truly praise-worthy, is covered by a quilt made by the scholars. The children, though healthy, and in good condition, had a remarkable cast of countenance;
The ‘Dublin Institution’, to which I have been introduced to-day, consists of a library and newsroom, in Sackville-street, both well supplied. In the latter I found several files of recent New-York papers; which, at this distance of space and time from the place of my residence could not fail to afford an acceptable relish. The cup was not unmixed with bitter, from observing an account of the death of one or two intimate and valued friends.
13th. The Pauper Lunatic Asylum, which I have visited to-day, contains 230 patients , and such is the skill and judgment with which it is conducted, there is not one of this large family of mad people in close confinement. No irons are employed. The large leathern glove which confines the hands as in a close muff, but which is so made as to prevent the appearance of constraint, is the principal coercion employed; moral government supplies the rest; and this owes its perfection mainly to the personal qualifications of Grace, the present manager. The patients are divided into three classes, incurables, ordinary, and convalescent; each of which occupies distinct apartments. The building is a quadrangle, surrounding a large hollow square, which is divided by cross galleries into four courts, and on the outside
14th. At a breakfast this morning at the house of Dr. T*****, a good mineralogist, I met Drs. O**** and S*****, the latter of whom delivers lectures on natural history in Trinity College. Dr. T****** and his wife are natives of India, and the children of Hindoo mothers, their fathers being Europeans.
Their complexions are of an agreeable ruddy brunette, with eyes dark and sparkling, but expressive of much good nature and intelligence.
Drs. O. and T. accompanied me to Sir Patrick Dunn's hospital, a building recently erected on the borders of the city, and intended, in addition to the accommodation of 100 patients, or, if necessity requires, 130, as a supplement to the medical school of Trinity College. The building is rather an elegant structure, and cost £40,000. It contains, for the purpose of instruction, a lecture-room, and a medical library. The fever ward is remarkably well ventilated. I attended two lectures in succession on Materia Medica and Physiology, by Drs. Crampton and Boyton, both of whom confined themselves chiefly to the reading of their notes. At half past twelve we went to the
The other is the skeleton of a giant, who attained the height of seven feet in his sixteenth year. As the story goes, he was an orphan, that fell into the hands of Bishop Berkley, and who, with the view of making an experiment in physiology, trained the boy for the purpose of accelerating and extending his growth. His name was Magrath. He was carried through several parts of Europe, and exhibited as the Irish
Dr. Macartney is a man of superior attainments in his profession. Most of the articles on Physiology, in Rees's Cyclopedia, are from his pen.
Dr. Stokes conducted me through the museum of the college, a fine room 60 by 40 feet, and furnished with a good collection of natural curiosities, especially of Irish antiquities and fossils. Dr. S. has published a catalogue of the minerals in this museum, which occupies an octavo volume. Among the zoological articles is a cameleopard. Two Egyptian mummies, and a great variety of dresses, implements, &c. from China and the South Pacific, are also here collected.
The buildings of Trinity College make a plain and rather antiquated, but respectable appearance. They are almost all of brick, except the front which is of Portland stone. The general structure is that of a parallelogram 300 feet in front, and 600 deep, which is divided into two nearly equal squares. The south side of the inner square is entirely taken up by the library, the great room of which is 210 feet long, 40 wide, and 40 high. The galleries are ornamented with the busts of a number of ancient as well as modern philosophers, in white marble. The park attached to the college, contains about eight acres. The number of students resident in this university is generally about six or seven hundred; and instruction is given to at least an equal number who board in the town. The medical classes appeared to contain about seventy. There are, in the whole, twelve or
15th. Rising early, I had a delightful morning ride with my friend B*****, and two of his sons, to Dunleary, a promontory at the mouth of the Liffy. At this place the government is now constructing a pier of stone, designed to extend a great distance into the channel, for purposes similar to the breakwater of Plymouth, to protect vessels from the sweeping winds which drive across the Irish channel. It already extends 1500 feet from the shore, and is rapidly advancing. The granite of which it is composed, is blasted in the neighbourhood, and brought in low trucks upon iron railways, to the spot where it is to be added to the general mass. These rail roads afford such facilities to the transportation, that a single horse, and a very poor one too, will draw nine or ten tons. The stones are lifted on the trucks by large cranes. The design of this work, and the style of its execution, are very interesting, and quite in character with the
On returning to the city we stopped at the school and buildings of the Education Society, Kildare-street; a laudable and important institution for extending the blessings of education amongst the poor of Ireland. My friend B***** is an active and devoted manager; and with him, I believe, the concern originated. This society extends its patronage to schools in all parts of Ireland, without distinction of sect, except to such as refuse to conform to its prescribed regulations; one of which is, that the sacred Scriptures, without note or comment, shall be read in the schools. It has printed a great number of books for the use of schools, which it disposes of at a very cheap rate. The school supported by the society is justly styled a model school: it now contains 420 boys, and 190 girls, all of whom pay one penny per week. The principal school-room is 86 by 56 feet, with a ceiling of 20 feet, supported by two rows of cast iron pillars, all neatly painted. The floor is level, with a large platform at one end, four steps high, with ample book cases. Each school-room is furnished with a clock. It is conducted principally on the system of Lancaster, but with some useful modifications. The neatness and convenience of the buildings, and the good order and management which prevail in this school, render it altogether, in my estimation, the first of the kind in Europe. The society is supported by a government grant of £6000 a year,6 and by donations and subscriptions.
The buildings cost £12000, and the amount of business which the society is engaged in, requires the regular employment of three clerks. About 300,000 cheap books, comprising twenty different kinds, have been disposed of in different parts of the island.
In its labours to diffuse learning, it has to encounter a host of prejudice from the Catholic priests; but it has the satisfaction to find that these are gradually yielding to the progress of light and knowledge. The Irish language still prevails to such an extent, I am informed, that there are a million and a half of people in the kingdom that cannot hold a conversation in English.
From this interesting and well-conducted institution7 I went to the house of the Dublin Society. This is the simple but emphatic name of a company associated expressly for promoting scientific and
The lecture room is sufficiently large to accommodate 300 persons. I attended a lecture on optics by Professor Lynch. Among the apparatus, I had the pleasure of seeing the famous lens made by Parker of London, and which came into the hands of Richard Kirwan. Professor Griffith, who superintends the geological department, conducted me over the house. He has in hand, an immense geological map of Ireland, with a drawing of the causeway and adjacent strata. The Dublin Society comprehends about 500 members. The spirit and liberality with which its concerns appear to be managed, the elegance of its apartments, and the richness of its collections, are worthy of all praise. The society give premiums for improvements in agriculture, manufactures, chemistry, mechanics, and the fine arts, and on appointed days in each week, the museum may be seen without charge.
I dined with Dr. O****, with an agreeable and very intelligent party, consisting of several medical and other gentlemen of the city. The conversation turned incidentally on craniology, materialism, and a future state; and I had the satisfaction to find, that scepticism appeared to have no place in the minds of any individual of the company.
16th. In the possession of a young friend, J. P**, with whom I took breakfast this morning, I found a neat collection of philosophical apparatus, designed for his own instruction, and that of his intimate
The city of Dublin, until recently, has been noted for the disgusting numbers, and the hardy importunity of the beggars that infest its streets. The almost universal opinion of the necessity of applying some new remedy, to so wide spread and alarming an evil, led to the formation of a society, about eighteen months ago, for the suppression of mendicity in the metropolis. It was a truly formidable undertaking; but the evil had acquired such magnitude, that men were found who were willing to cope with the monster, and exert their utmost to accomplish his final overthrow. In the first report which the society published, for 1818, it is stated, that ‘The city presented a spectacle, at once afflicting and disgusting to the feelings of its inhabitants; the doors of carriages and shops, to the interruption of business, were beset by crowds of unfortunate and clamorous beggars, exhibiting misery and decrepitude in a variety of forms, and frequently carrying about in their persons and garments, the seeds of contagious disease: themselves the victims of idleness, their children were taught to look to begging, as affording the only means of subsistence; every artifice was resorted to by the practised beggar to extort alms, and refusal was frequently followed by imprecations and threats. The benevolent were imposed upon — the modest shocked — the reflecting grieved — the timid
To attempt, however, to cut off so numerous a class of people from their principal resource, without providing an adequate substitute, would have been a gross violation of humanity. The city was therefore divided into sixty walks, and two persons appointed to each walk, to collect subscriptions to a fund for furnishing employment for all who could work, and subsistence for those that could not support themselves. It was found, unfortunately, that no authority existed in the police for arresting the sturdy beggar, other than that of arraigning him as a vagrant, and subjecting him to the penalties of the law as a criminal; and none were willing to adopt so harsh a remedy. It was feared too, by many, who were otherwise friendly to the measure of an universal suppression of mendicity, that any mode which could be devised to obtain voluntary contributions, must terminate in establishing a compulsory tax in the shape of poor rates, and thus prove the means of bringing upon the city the accumulating disadvatages and evils of the English system. Many supposed it would be impossible to clear the streets of beggars; and others believed, that if means were systematically employed to furnish them with labour, it would tend to relax their dependence on their own foresight, and by interfering with the business of the industrious poor, eventually increase the number of dependents on public bounty. These objections and anticipations, greatly increased the difficulties which the society had to encounter, and at last they found themselves
Trusting to the gradual removal of these difficulties, and a more bountiful supply from the public, they entered upon their duties, gave extensive publicity to their plan, and succeeded in registering 7500 beggars, of whom 2251 were sent to their friends in England, Scotland, and the country parts of Ireland, and about 2800 were deemed proper objects of relief. The plan has been successful in clearing the streets; so far, that at present, one is less importuned here than in London or Manchester. But the committee of management continued to be so straitened for funds, that at one time they were obliged to resort to the measure of turning out the inmates of their workhouse, and moving them, in a quiet procession through the streets, to exhibit to the citizens the number and description of objects that were dependent on public charity. This excited a considerable sensation, produced some funds, and occasioned resolutions to be passed in various parishes, approving of the objects of the association. But in less than two months it became necessary to call a public meeting, and adopt more active measures of relief. These, together with public concerts, and some very liberal donations, have enabled the committee to struggle, with much difficulty, through a year's existence; and, whether the scheme is destined to a much longer duration, appears, at present, extremely uncertain. It is at least to be earnestly hoped, that the city will not allow the plan to be wholly given up; but, that at least the virtuous poor will continue to be so assisted, as to prevent
They support a school of 280 children, in which the elements of learning are alternated with knitting, and such other manual exercises as are found most useful. A large apartment, formerly the lecture-room of the Dublin Society, is appropriated to the female spinners; but a more miserable, turbulent, and uncouth assemblage of human beings I never saw, excepting, perhaps, in some of the lunatic hospitals of the continent. The society is obliged to employ collectors of the public charity, whom they send out as often as the state of their funds make it necessary; and to whom they have to allow two and a half per cent, of the amount collected, as the price of their exertions. They call on every body that is able to pay any thing. Such are the difficulties which have here presented themselves in the way of preventing public mendicity, and affording an adequate relief to the really necessitous poor, without resorting to a government tax. And such, it is probable, to a greater or less extent, will be the difficulty in every large city excepting in those places where the poor can be brought within the province of religious superintendence, and their wants supplied by contributions, made under the authority of religious societies.
The plan of maintenance and superintendence suggested by Dr. Chalmers, is probably the least exceptionable, and the most effectual that ever has been devised; but it evidently requires the agency of a moral and religious community; and can only be practised
Notwithstanding the urgent necessity of such a reform as that undertaken in Dublin, there are not, I am informed, more than twenty persons who take an active interest in the concern. Under all circumstances of the case, it appears to me to be an important and unsolved problem in political economy, whether a poor tax, divested, as far as possible, of all liability of abuse, and unaccompanied by statutes which give the poor a legal and positive claim upon it, may not prove, upon the whole, the most equitable, moral, and efficient mode of relief Its numerous and vast abuses in England, or, in other words, the very injudicious administration of the law, may have been the means of bringing it under undeserved censure and reproach. This is a question which it is highly important for tlie United States to reflect and decide upon, with the utmost circumspection.8
Dr. O**** accompanied me to the Bank of Ireland, an elegant edifice, on one corner of the College green, and opposite to Trinity College. The Irish notes are executed in a superior style, and are all finished within the Bank, by an apparatus of singular ingenuity. A remarkably neat steam-engine, of eight horse power, is employed in printing the notes, and grinding the materials for the ink or paint. The printing press is a beautiful piece of mechanism. The notes are all numbered by machinery, and with a precision and rapidity that could not well be attained by mere manual dexterity. It is effected by boys. The numbers are all on the outside or circumference of wheels, contained in a box. There are two sets of them on the same axis, in order to impress two notes at the same time. The wheels project upwards through a cavity in the plates, which cover the box. The note is pressed down by a short lever, governed by the hand; and by the raising of the lever a ratchet is moved, which turns the wheels so as to bring the next number before the opening in the plate. In this manner, without unlocking the box, or touching the wheels, numbers, from one to ten thousand, are brought to bear with unerring regularity on the notes
The apartment of the late house of lords, now used as a court of proprietors, remains as it was left at the time of the union. A beautiful marble statue of the present king, clothed in his parliamentary robes, has been since erected here. It was executed by Bacon, junior, and cost £2000. There is also a fine bust of the Duke of Wellington.
The Custom-House of Dublin is another and still more extraordinary evidence of the taste and magnificence
Close to the eastern front is a broad wharf, and a wet dock, capable of containing forty sail of shipping.
The Royal Exchange, though built many years antecedent to the Custom-House, is also a noble and costly building, with a lofty dome, Corinthian columns, pilasters, and other architectural ornaments. Opposite one of the fronts is a brass statue of George III. on a white marble pedestal. Beside these, another edifice has been erected near the College green, called the Commercial Buildings, by a company of merchants for transacting some particular branches of business. It is spacious and neat, with an extensive coffee-room, broker's offices, stock exchange, &c. fitted up in good style. This edifice alone, must have cost more than all the public buildings in the most
The castle of Dublin, the residence of the lord lieutenant, is situated in a central part of the city. It is an ancient edifice, but is superior in beauty to the palace of St. James. It is divided into two courts or squares, an upper and lower. The castle is entirely surrounded by a wall. The lord lieutenant enjoys, by Act of Parliament, a salary of £30,000; more than five times the sum which the constitution of the United States allows to the President.
The seat of public justice in Dublin is a large pile of buildings, called the Four Courts, on the margin of the Liffey, which is here only a wide canal. In the middle is a circular hall 64 feet in diameter, the crowded resort of lawyers, loungers, and occasionally of light-fingered gentry, notwithstanding the imposing terrors of judge and jury immediately within their notice. The whole length of the four courts is 433 feet. I had not an opportunity to attend to any of the pleadings.
I went to see, in one of the public buildings, (the Rotunda) an exhibition of flowers under the direction of the Horticultural society. The gifts of Flora, prepared by the emulous skill of gardiners and gentlemen in the city and neighbourhood, are arranged on this occasion with singular taste and effect. Prizes are adjudged to the finest specimens. Such a procedure excites competition, and doubtless tends to the progress of horticultural improvement.
Dr. Cleghorn, the state physician, to whom I was introduced by a friend in Edinburgh, accompanied
We went from this place to the Foundling Hospital, an institution of more than a hundred years standing. It is appropriated to the same purpose as the Enfans trouvés of Paris and other cities of the continent, and is, I presume, the only hospital in Great Britain devoted to this object. It is a large and well supported establishment, although its tendency, in relation to public morals, is considered, I believe, by most people, as of no dubious character. The sum of at least £10,000, is collected annually from the citizens of Dublin, for the support of this hospital. A cradle was formerly kept at the gate, as at Milan, into which children were placed from without, and received into the house without any questions. But this has been wisely abandoned, and strict inquiry is now made into the parentage of the children and their
‘For the benefit of infants protected by this hospital, lady Arabella Denny presents this clock, to mark, that, as children who are fed by the spoon, must have but a small quantity of food at a time, it must be offered frequently. For which purpose this clock strikes every twenty minutes, at which notice all the infants that are not asleep must be directly fed.’
It was not until within about four years, that the governors of this hospital, were empowered by act of parliament to exclude the admission of infants at any season of the year, and to require that every admission should be accompanied by a certificate from the minister and churchwardens of the parish, stating that they had not been able to discover the parents, or either of them; or, that the parent or parents, were not in circumstances sufficient to maintain such child.
The whole number of infants admitted during the first four months of 1812, 1813, and 1814, and the proportion of them which died in the nursery, are as follows:
| Infants admitted | Died in nursery | |
|---|---|---|
| 1812 | 1011 | 437 |
| 1813 | 850 | 428 |
| 1814 | 818 | 406 |
This shows a mortality of nearly one half, arising, in a great measure, from the enfeebled and destitute condition of the little sufferers, from the disgraceful manner in which they are sent to the hospital; and it appears to afford a most ample justification of the restriction adopted by the governors. Hence it would appear evident that notwithstanding the great attention that is paid to the health, and instruction, of the children received into this charity, its general influence on the community must be regarded as decidedly unfavourable to morals and humanity. The governors have not found, upon the strictest investigation, that the removal of the cradle, and the closing of their gates during the inclement months, and the requiring of a certificaate as indispensable to admission, have given rise to any considerable number of authenticated cases of infanticide. But even if this did occur much more frequently than is alleged by the supporters of the institution, they fall very far short of the deaths that are occasioned by depriving the infants of the natural and congenial sympathies of the mother.
There are six or eight hospitals in this city, in addition to those I have mentioned, some of which were founded, and are still supported, by the munificence of individuals. A house of recovery for persons afflicted with fever was erected in 1802, which has proved to be of extensive benefit. The only conditions of admission are fever and poverty. The patients are
A school for the deaf and dumb is about to be established in the neighbourhood of the city.9
Few cities are superior to Dublin in the elegance of its public squares. Two of them, St. Stephen's Green, and Merrion Square, may vie with any of the public squares of London, or of any other city that I have seen. The former contains seventeen acres, and the houses around it are generally handsome. It is neatly enclosed, and improved by spacious gravel walks. In the centre is an equestrian statue, in bronze, of George II.
Having secured a passage in the Pelham packet for Holyhead, I left Dublin in a long coach for Howth, the place whence the packets for England depart, seven miles from the city. The packets are small, but their accommodations are pretty good. It was near night when we got on board, and I had but just time before retiring to the birth assigned me, to ascertain that there were several very gentlemanly and polite persons on board, among whom was Hans Hamilton, member of parliament for Dublin, and the Bishop of Drumore.