those who had at the Revolution put themselves forward as the advocates of civil and religious liberty:

"When I sent you my former papers, I cannot say I intended you either good or hurt; and yet you have happened, through my means, to receive both. I pray God deliver you from any more of the latter, and increase the former. Your trade, particularly in this kingdom, is of all others the most unfortunately circumstantiated; for as you deal in the most worthless kind of trash, the penny productions of pennyless scriblers, so you often venture your liberty and sometimes your lives, for the purchase of half-a-crown, and, by your own ignorance, are punished for other men's actions. I am afraid, you, in particular, think you have reason to complain of me, for your own and your wife's confinement in prison, to your great expense as well as hardship, and for a prosecution still depending. But I will tell you, Mr. Harding, how that matter stands. Since the press hath lain under so strict an inspection, those who have a mind to inform the world are become so cautious, as to keep themselves, if possible, out of the way of danger. My custom, therefore, is to dictate to a 'prentice, who can write in a feigned hand, and what is written we send to your house by a black-guard* boy. But at the same time I do assure you, upon my reputation, that I never did send you any thing, for which I thought you could possibly be called to an account: and you will be my witness, that I always desired you, by a letter, to take some good advice before you ventured to print, because I knew the dexterity of dealers in the law, at finding out something to fasten on, where no evil is meant.

* A name generally applied at this period to shoe-blacks and messengers who plied for hire. A contemporary Dublin song mentions

"The little black guard who gets very hard

His halfpence for cleaning your shoes."

The manuscript of Drapier's letters was transcribed by Swift's butler, Robert Blakeley, and conveyed in a private manner to Molesworthcourt. "On the evening of that day in which the proclamation was issued, Blakely went abroad without leave, and there was reason to fear that he had betrayed his master for the reward, nevertheless the Dean ordered the doors to be locked at the accustomed hour; Blakely returned home the next day, and although he expressed much sorrow for the offence, the Dean, who remained inexorable, ordered him to put off his livery and leave the house; but, when the term of the information had expired, he was restored to his place. Some time after, Blakely was called up hastily by the Dean, who commanded him to strip off his livery, to put on his own clothes, and come up to him again; although astonished at this proceeding, he knew it was in vain to expostulate, and therefore did as he was ordered; as soon as he returned the Dean ordered the other servants to be called up likewise; he then began by announcing that Robert Blakely was no longer his servant; all supposed, therefore that he was ignominously discharged; but to their surprise Swift announced him to be virger of St. Patrick's cathedral, a place worth, at that time, about £30 or £40 per annum, which he declared was conferred upon him as a reward for his fidelity."

I am told, indeed, that you did accordingly consult several very able persons, and even some who afterwards appeared against you; to which I can only answer, that you must either change your advisers, or determine to print nothing that comes from a Drapier. I desire you will send the inclosed letter, directed To my Lord Viscount Molesworth, at his house at Brackdenstown, near Swords;' but I would have it sent printed, for the convenience of his Lordship's reading, because the counterfeit hand of my 'prentice is not very legible. And, if you think fit to publish it, I would have you first get it read over by some notable lawyer. I am assured you will find enough of them who are friends to the Drapier, and will do it without a fee, which I am afraid you can ill afford after all your expenses. For although I have taken so much care, that I think it impossible to find a topic out of the following papers for sending you again to prison, yet I will not venture to be your guarantee."

John Harding, the humble instrument of the saviour of his country, died from the effects of the treatment inflicted on him by the government officials. His widow, Sarah Harding, was ordered by the House of Lords to be taken into custody, in October, 1725, for having printed a poem named "Wisdom's Defeat." This production, commenting on some circumstances connected with the passing of the address to the king from the House of Lords, was by them declared to be "base, scandalous, and malicious, highly reflecting upon the honour of their House, and the Peerage of this Kingdom." The sheriffs of the city of Dublin were ordered to direct "the said scandalous pamphlet to be burnt by the hands of the

His fate has been chronicled in the poem entitled "Harding's Resurrection from Hell upon Earth," which tells us that

Among the various productions of his press may be mentioned an edition in quarto of the "History of the Lives and Reigns of the kings of Scotland from Fergus the first king, continued to the commencement of the union of the two kingdoms." This work, published in 1722, and dedicated to Lady Mountjoy, is a very creditable specimen of typography. A contemporary Dublin song, unknown to Swift's editors, and entitled "A Poem to the whole people of Ireland, relating to M. B. Drapier, by A. R. Hosier, printed on the Blind Key by Elizabeth Sadleir, 1726," contains some particulars relative to Harding's fate :

"To hearten him the Drapier sent to him in jail,
To tell him, he'd quickly get home to his wife;
But scarce could he find one to stand for his bail.
Which struck to his heart, and deprived him of life.

But, now for the widow; if some good man wou'd preach,
In her favour, a sermon, scarce one in the town;

But freely (in order to help her) wou'd reach,
Some, sixpence, a shilling, and some, half-a-crown."

common hangman; and that they see the same done to-morrow, between the hours of twelve and one, before the gate of the Parliament House, and also before the Tholsel of the said city." The persecuted distributrix of political satire survived her imprisonment, and, in 1728, published the "Intelligencer," a journal, conducted by Swift and Dr. Sheridan.

Cornelius Kelly, the best swordsman of his day, dwelt in Fishamble-street, in the early part of the last century. To him we indirectly owe Goldsmith's charming play of "She stoops to conquer;" the plot of which was suggested to the author by an occurrence, narrated as follows, by the Rev. J. Graham, of Lifford, at the meeting held at Ballymahon, in 1826:

"The scene of his celebrated comedy, The Mistakes of a Night, was laid in the town of Ardagh, in this immediate neighbourhood, as related in Otridge's splendid edition of his works, and confirmed to me by the late Sir Thomas Fetherston, Baronet, a short time before his death. Some friend had given the young poet a present of a guinea on his going from his mother's residence in this town, to a school in Edgeworthstown, where, it appears, he finished his education, of which he received the rudiments from the Reverend Mr. Hughes, vicar of this parish. He had diverted himself on the way the whole day, by viewing the gentlemen's seats on the road, until the fall of night, when he found himself a mile or two out of his direct road, in the middle of the street of Ardagh. Here he inquired for the best house in the place, meaning an inn; but being wilfully misunderstood by a wag, a fencing master, of the name of Kelly, who boasted of having been the instructor of the celebrated Marquis of Granby, he was directed to the large old-fashioned residence of Sir Ralph Fetherston, the landlord of the town, where he was shown into the parlour, when he found the hospitable master of the house sitting by a good fire. His mistake was imme. diately perceived by Sir Ralph, who, being a man of humour, and well acquainted with the poet's family, encouraged him in the deception. Goldsmith ordered a good supper, invited his host and the family to partake of it, treated them with a bottle or two of wine, and at going to bed ordered a hot cake to be prepared for his breakfast; nor was it till his departure, when he called for the bill, that he discovered that while he imagined that he was at an inn, he had been hospitably entertained in a private family of the first rank in the country."

In Fishamble-street, till the year 1753, was the residence of Counsellor James Grattan. He claims our notice as father of

"The gallant man, who led the van of

The Irish Volunteers:"

whose baptism is recorded in the registry of St. John's Church, on the 3rd of July, 1746. It is a curious coincidence that Henry Grattan* should have been born in the street whence issued the Drapier's letters, asserting those principles of Irish independence which he was destined to establish on a grander and more comprehensive scale than could have been anticipated by his father's friend, "M. B. Drapier;" whose memory he did not forget to apostrophize when, backed by eighty thousand armed volunteers, he rose in the Irish House of Commons, on the memorable 16th of April, 1782.

"I am now," said he, "to address a free people: ages have passed away, and this is the first moment in which you could be distinguished by that appellation."-"I found Ireland on her knees; I watched over her with an eternal solicitude; I have traced her progress from injuries to arms and from arms to liberty. Spirit of Swift! spirit of Molyneux! your

*His father was one of the seven sons of Dr. Patrick Grattan, Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin," a venerable and well beloved clergyman, who gave them all a liberal education: and at the same time, says an eminent Irish divine, "as I have often heard the old Bishop of Clogher declare, kept hospitality beyond both the lords who lived on either side of him; tho' both reputed hospitable. One of these brothers was an eminent physician, another an eminent merchant, who died Lord Mayor of the city of Dublin: the youngest was first a fellow of the college of Dublin, and after master of the great free School at Enniskillen. The eldest was a justice of the peace, who lived reputably upon his patrimony in the country. The three other brothers were clergymen of good characters, and competently provided for in the church. Two of them Swift found in his cathedral; nothing was more natural than that he should cultivate an acquaintance with them. A set of men, as generally acquainted, and as much beloved, as any one family in the nation. Nay to such a degree, that some of the most considerable men in the church desired, and thought it a favour to be adopted by them, and admitted Grattans."_"The Grattans had a little house, and their cousin Jackson another, near the city; where they cultivated good humour, and cheerfulness, with their trees, and fruits, and sallets: (for they were all well skilled in gardening and planting) and kept hospitality, after the example of their fathers. The opinion which Swift had of the Grattans will best be judged of by the following little memoir :-When Lord Carteret came to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant, Swift asked him, Pray, my Lord, have you the honour to be acquainted with the Grattans? Upon my Lord's answering that he had not that honour, Then, pray, my Lord, take care to obtain it, it is of great consequeace: the Grattans, my Lord, can raise ten thousand men. A Dublin wit of the last century has chronicled their hospitality in a poem commencing :

My time, O ye Grattans, was happily spent,
When Bacchus went with me, wherever I went ;
For then I did nothing but sing, laugh and jest;
Was ever a toper so merrily blest!

genius has prevailed! Ireland is now a nation! in that character I hail her! and, bowing to her august presence, I say, Esto perpetua. She is no longer a wretched colony, returning thanks to her governor for his rapine, and to her king for his oppression; nor is she now a squabbling, fretful sectary, perplexing her little wits, and firing her furious statutes with bigotry, sophistry, disabilities, and death, to transmit to posterity insignificance and war.'

The General Post Office of Dublin stood in Fishamble-street until the early part of the eighteenth century.

Post houses were first established throughout the chief towns of Ireland in the reign of Charles II. A writer in 1673 makes the following observations on this subject :-

"Though Dublin is not seated in the best and most convenient place, that is, the middle, yet it is seated in the second best, that is, over against the middle of Ireland; and directly opposite to the nearest passage into England, being Holyhead, twelve hours sail with a prosperous gale of wind, and about twenty leagues distant from this place. The first affords it an excellent conveniency for all manner of business to be transacted to and from this city (as well by water as land) into all parts of the kingdom, with as little delay as possibly may be. The other a rare advantage for the maintenance of traffic and commerce with England, and all other parts of the world, especially with the city of London, from whence (upon the least notice given) merchantable goods are soon despatched hither, or into any other parts of this realm, as occasion requires; and that with far more speed than formerly, by reason of the late erecting of post houses in all the principal towns and cities of this kingdom, which accommodates all persons with the conveniency of keeping good correspondency (by way of letters, and that most commonly twice a week) with any, even the remotest part of Ireland, at the charge of eight pence or twelve pence, which could not formerly be brought to pass under ten or twenty shillings, and that sometimes with so slow a despatch, as gave occasion many times of no small prejudice to the party concerned. All these conveniencies and advantages have so far contributed to the present splendour and great increase of this city, as that it now (1673) may be justly conceived to be grown (within this fifty or sixty years) twice as large, and for handsomeness of building, beyond all compare, of what it might any way pretend unto in any former age."

"

During the Irish wars of the Revolution, the letters were despatched to the camp of General Ginckell from the General Post Office at Dublin, on the nights of Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. After the removal of the Post Office, the