versations. Now, as we never wish to give currency to apocryphal statements, and as we took Father Prout's colloquial effusions, such as furnished by Frank Cresswell, and authenticated by his signature, to be what they profess to be, bonâ fide conversations of the departed worthy, not a whit more ideal than what my Lady Blessington has given to the world as the colloquies of Byron, we have sifted the matter of this " twopenny" letter; and the result is a full confidence in the fidelity of Frank's transcript of Prout's life and opinions. For the better understanding of the thing, as it is likely to become a quæstio vexata in other quarters, we may be allowed to bring to the recollection of the public that, in enumerating the many eminent men who had kissed the Blarney stone during Prout's residence in the parish-an experience extending itself over a period of nearly half a century-Doctor D. Lardner was triumphantly mentioned by the benevolent and simple-minded incumbent of Watergrasshill, as a proud and incontestable instance of the virtue and efficacy of the talisman, applied to the most ordinary materials with the most miraculous result. Instead of feeling a lingering remnant of gratitude towards the old parent-block for such supernatural interposition on his behalf, and looking back to that "kiss" with fond and filial recollection,-instead of allowing "the stone" to оссиру the greenest spot in the wilderness of his memory-" the stone" that first sharpened his intellect, and on which ought to be inscribed the line of Horace, Reddere quæ valeat ferrum, exsors ipsa secandi”instead of this praiseworthy expression of tributary acknowledgment, the Doctor writes to us denying all obligation in the quarter alluded to, and contradicting most flatly the "soft impeachment" of having kissed the stone at all. His note is couched in such peevish terms, and conceived in such fretful mood, that we protest we do not recognise the tame and usually unexcited tracings of his gentle pen; but rather suspect he has been induced, by some medical wag, to use a quill plucked from the membranous integument of that celebrated "man-porcupine" who has of late exhibited his hirsuteness at the Middlesex Hospital. "London University, May 8th. "SIR, "I owe it to the great cause of ' Useful Knowledge,' to which I have dedicated my past labours, to rebut temperately, yet firmly, the assertion reported to have been made by the late Rev. Mr. Prout (for whom I had a high regard), in conversing with the late Sir Walter Scott on the occasion alluded to in your ephemeral work; particularly as I find the statement reasserted by that widely circulated journal the Morning Herald, of yesterday's date. Were either the reverend clergyman or the distinguished baronet now living, I would appeal to their candour, and so shame the inventor of that tale. But as both are withdrawn by death from the literary world, I call on you, sir, to insert in your next Number this positive denial on my part of having ever kissed that stone; the supposed properties of which, I am ready to prove do not bear the test of chemical analysis. I do recollect having been solicited by the present Lord Chancellor of England (and also of the London University), whom I am proud to call my friend. (though you have given him the sobriquet of Bridlegoose, with your accustomed want of deference for great names), to join him, when, many years ago, he privately embarked on board a Westmoreland collier to perform his devotions at Blarney. That circumstance is of old date: it was about the year that Paris was taken by the allies, and certainly previous to the Queen's trial. But I did not accompany the then simple Harry Brougham, content with what nature had done for me in that particular depart ment. "You will please insert this disavowal from, 66 Sir, "Your occasional reader, "DIONYSIUS LARDNER, D.D." “P.S.—If you neglect me, I shall take care to state my own case in the Cyclopædia. I'll prove that the block at Blarney is an "Aerolithe," and that your statement as to its Phoenician origin is unsupported by historical evidence. Recollect, you have thrown the first stone." Now, to us, considering these things and much pondering on the Doctor's letter, it seemed advisable to refer the matter to our reporter, Frank Cresswell aforesaid; whose observations, we are glad to say, have given us perfect satisfaction. By him our attention was called, first, to the singular bashfulness of the learned man, in curtailing from his signature on this occasion the usual appendages that shed such lustre o'er his name. He lies before us in this epistle "We saw him charming; but we saw not half— 66 we Next as to dates: how redolent of my Uncle Toby "about the year Dendermonde was taken by the allies." The reminiscence was probably one of which he was unconscious, and we therefore shall not call him a plagiary; but how slily, how diabolically does he seek to shift the onus and gravamen of the whole business on the rickety shoulders of his learned friend Bridlegoose! This will not do, O sage Thaumaturgus! By implicating "Bridoison," you shall not extricate yourself—“ et vitulâ tu dignus, et hic ;” and Frank Cresswell has let us into a secret. Know then, all men, that among the "Prout Papers" (which we may as well consider as our own exclusive property, they being the gift of his executors, though we |