Many as are the political jealousies among the Irish, there are
few true natives of the soil who would not resent any
charge of coldness or indifference to the welfare of
their country, or of wilful ignorance upon the subject
of her history or antiquities, which might be urged against them. Yet
most of our travelled countrymen are better acquainted with the
appearance of the Rhine than with that of the Shannon; with the
windings of the Thames than with those of the Boyne; their
knowledge of these Irish rivers being probably just so much as may
be acquired out of a school geography, while they have steamed
down the Thames, and visited the chief points upon the Rhine.
few true natives of the soil who would not resent any
charge of coldness or indifference to the welfare of
their country, or of wilful ignorance upon the subject
of her history or antiquities, which might be urged against them. Yet
most of our travelled countrymen are better acquainted with the
appearance of the Rhine than with that of the Shannon; with the
windings of the Thames than with those of the Boyne; their
knowledge of these Irish rivers being probably just so much as may
be acquired out of a school geography, while they have steamed
down the Thames, and visited the chief points upon the Rhine.
