Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 1, 3 May 1895, Page 11

Dublin Notes.

(From contemporaries.) Thb Rev 0. A. Magio, Oloofert Rectory, Newnmktt, Oonnty Cork, writes to «ay that he is preparing a memoir of his nncle, the late brilliant and witty Dr Magin, which he aopes will throw some fresh Hgbk on his life and character, hitherto so much misunderstood aod misrepresented, particularly by English writers in such publications m the " Dictionary of National Biography." He also contemplates gathering into a single moderate-sized volume the best fruits of Dr Magln's genius. This will be welcome news to all who are interested in Dr Magin's career. The lecture lately delivered in Dublin on that •abject by Mr Thomas Crosbie, president of the Institute of Journalists, has bean mucb discussed in literary circles. The Irish system of valuation is much stricter than the English. In Ireland the valuation of the country was carried out by a Government department, la Kng'and tbeassetssment for both the local taxes and the Income Tax is largely controlled by -he local authorities. Nor is this the oily point of difference. In the case of farms and farm buildings in Great Britain the whole are valued in the lump as • going concern. While in Great Britain the valuation has fallen since 1865 from forty-six millions to forty-one millions in constquence of the fall in prices and tbe increased cost of labour, in Ireland there has been no change. Mr Sexton'o cooduct of the Irish case is appreciated by all c aeses and parties in Ireland, who recognise that he is bravely fighting a good fight for the o mmon interest. In the course of his late lecture before tbe Irish Literary Bociety fn London, Sir Robert Ball said the first Irish astronomer was a Churchman named Fearghal, who, as St Virgilius, was canonised by Pope Gregory in 1233. Fearghal, who was Bishop of Saltsburg in 756, held, contrary to the then universal opinion, tbe rotundity of the earth. A monk named DuDgal was, bo to speak, the first Astrocomer Boyal of Ireland. In 811 the Emperor Charlemagne wrote to th« abbot of an Irish monastery asking for an explanation of the two eclipses which occurred in the preceding year, and Duopal offered what h» considered to be a full explanation of tbn phenomenon. In an Irish astronomical treatise written in 1415 there was an extraordinary amount of accurate knowledge. Tbe rotundity of tie earth, for example, was fully explained, and its diameter, as there assigned, was, according to bir Kobert Ball, astonishingly c ncordant with that which we now know it to have. A Tipperary f-rrner, fir Body Gleeson, was evicted from his farm by the landlord, Sir Jjhn Garden. He was not put out because he was an unskilful husbandman or s Lzy fellow, but simply because he could not pay an impossible rent, and keep a large family from starving. Gleeson was afterwards seen by a gamekeeper on the land, and he was straightway summoned for trep%ss and fined 2s 6J. This he naturally refused to pay, and w^s then sent to gaol for seven days. Now for some hard facts : The farm consisted of about twentythree acres of middling upland, ani of twelve acres of as bad moor as one could meet, and the rent was £G4 19 «, The father of Sir John Carden had purchased it from a former tenant for £600 six-and-thirty years ago, when the rent was £57 per year. It could not have deteriorated under hia cultivation since the rent was raised because of honest Rody Gleeion'd improvement, be had laid out £300 on drainage, sub soiling, etc. When tbe Itaso expired tbe rent was raised to £77 per annum— that is to say, a charge was exacted from the tenant for tbe rendering of the glebe more profitable. Tais was paid for thirteen years under natural protest, as we take it, and then the general depression maie it an outrageous tenure, and £4) was set down per annum as a fair demand, even from a landlord's p>int of view. Over £900, it was calculated, bad been wrested out of Body's pockets and his father's from the time they became occupiers of the farm by the hard-bargaining Baronet. But Sir John Carden must have bis increase, let Rody Gleeeon complain as he might. This is by no means an isolated case, and is a graphic illustration of the evils of a rotten land system. The Irish Feis movement progresses. Already it has attracted the attention of two of the London papers, the Globe and tbe Sunday Times, the latter of which says :— " The main obj^ot of this exce.lent project is to stir up the Irish people themselves to take a practical interest in the cultivation of their music. Celtic bardic music is rich in wild and tender melody, much of which is still in M 8., or preserved in the songs of the peasants in the remotest districts of the country. Of its artistic value there can be no doubt. Field (the moßt eminent of musicians hailing from Ireland) drew his inspiration from it when he Composed the musical lyrics which suggested the nr cturnee to Chopin, a fact which the Polish musician frankly admitted ; but who knows anjthing about Field's compositions in Ireland ? None outside the strictly professional musical classes. Perhaps after the inauguration of th« contemplated movement this will be so no longer, and Ireland will endeavour to encourage these precious artißtic gifts in her children which the has too long neglected, and becoms the Italy of the United ■Kingdom." Lady Fergnsson writes that " the cordially sympathise •

in the desire to awaken iatereat in Irish music, and wishes for their efforts the marked success which attended the gathering of h«rp performers of Irish melodies at Belfast a century ago, and would encourage tbem bj recalling the large gathering in the Rotunda at the concert given by Herr Sjodin, the Swedish harper, some twenty yean ago," Mr &. M. L«vey writes— 11 1 have played more national music than, I believe, any other individual. I had twelve nUional Irish overtures (full scores) burned in the conflagration of the old Royal, and I dare say on looking over my MS. I shall find some arrangements which may be useful in yonr performances. I am about to publish a third book of dance music, dedicated, as the first two, to the Society for the Preservation of the Iriah Language.' "