res of every circle, the
taste for gorgeous display exhibited within doors and without, threw a
glare of splendour over the scene, that served to illustrate, but not
eclipse the prouder glories of mind. The comparative narrowness of
the circle, and the total absence of English reserve, produced a more
intimate admixture of all the ranks which constitute good society
here than in London, and the advantages were evident; for while the
aristocrat gained immeasurably, from ready intercourse with men whose
pursuits were purely intellectual, so the latter acquired a greater
expansiveness, and a wider liberality in his views, from being divested
of all the trammels of mere professional habit, and threw off his
pedantry, as a garment unsuited to his position in society. But what
more than all else was the characteristic of the time, was the fact,
that social eminence--the "succes de salon"--was an object to every one.
From the proud peer, who aspired to rank and influence in the councils
of the state, to the rising barrister, ambitious of parliamentary
distinction--from the mere fashionable idler of the squares, to the deep
plotter of political intrigue--this was alike indispensable. The mere
admission into certain circles was nothing--the fact of mixing with the
hundred others who are announced, and bow, and smile, and slip away,
did not then serve to identify a man as belonging to a distinct class in
society; nor would the easy platitudes of the present day, in which the
fool or the fop can always have the ascendant, suffice for the absence
of conversational ability, ready wit, and sharp intelligence, which were
assembled around every dinner-table of the capital.

It is not our duty, still less our inclination, to inquire why have all
these goodly attractions left us, nor wherefore is it, that, Uke the art
of staining glass, social agreeability should be lost for ever. So it
would seem, however; we have fallen upon tiresome times, and he who is
old enough to remember pleasanter ones, has the sad solace of knowing
that he has seen the last of them.

Crowded as the capital was, with rank, wealth, and influence, the
arrival of Sir Marmaduke Travers was not without its "eclat." His vast
fortune was generally known; besides that, there was a singularity in
the fact of an Englishman, bound to Ireland by the very slender tie of
a small estate, without connexions or friends in the country, coming
to reside in Dublin, which gratified