receive all emoluments and advantages from liberties, customs, turns, tolls, picages, stallages, to the said court and fairs appertaining.* The market at Laugharne is held on a Friday under the town hall of the lordship, which has a clock-tower, cage, &c. attached. Friday was probably the customary market day from the time of the first incorporation by the Brians. On that day, as there are no butcher's shops in the town, that necessary avocation being exercised chiefly by publicans and small farmers, the inhabitants supply themselves with provisions. Lansadornen, named in the record, is the hamlet and parish church of Llansadyrnin. The latter is seated on the high ground westward of Laugharne, and has its name from the apostolic pastor Sadyrnin, Bishop of St. David's, who died A.D. 832. One of the strongest and most irrefragable proofs that the Britons had a church quite independent of the bishop of Rome, is that both in Wales and Cornwall, many of their churches have derived their very names from the native pastors of the country. As Llan-Badrig, Llan-Deilo, Llan-Beulan, Llan-Elian, Llan-Jestin, LlanIdan, &c. &c. The Romanists, in establishing their supremacy at length over the British churches, frequently altered their designation, by affixing the names of saints from their own legendst. The parish of Llansadyrnin is a member of the borough of Laugharne, and both the churches are held by one incumbent. The number of corporators are, I believe, about sixty (on that point I speak from memory), as I do not find it specified in my notes. Some of these succeed in senior rotation to the possession, for life, of small portions of land on Hugdon, a boldly elevated tract westward of the town. This lasting memorial of Sir Guy Brian's judicious bounty is highly advantageous to the promotion of industrious habits, and Hugdon is yearly crowned with the golden honours of Ceres: a very early proof of the utility of the allotment system. The borough of Laugharne has had the good fortune to escape the quackery of innovation, which assumes that change must be good because it is change: too humble to invite ambition to seize upon their privileges--too equitable in their administration to afford grounds for impeachment-long may the burgesses of Laugharne cultivate their common fields, and toast in friendly commixture with their more elevated neighbours at the annual feast of their Portreeve, (from which hospitality a stranger was not excluded,) the ever-green memory of the bountiful Guido de Brian. A. J. K. (To be continued.) MR. URBAN, IN the account of the family of O'Connell, printed in Burke's History of the Commoners, there are several statements which seem to demand a critical notice. The details we are there told, in a note, were derived from family papers, confirmed by historical references, and verified by accurate dates, and from a work entitled "Mémoires Généalogiques de diverses familles qui pretendent aux honneurs de la Cour." It does not seem very manifest how family papers can be confirmed by historical references (unless by references is meant something extracted from, or confirmed by, public histories), nor by dates, which could be inserted as easily as "historical references." However, as the pedigree contains those "references" and dates, I shall presently examine them more particularly. In the mean time we may observe that the note goes on to state, that "the exclusion of Catholics from places of honour and emolument in their native land, forced the bold and aspiring among them to seek in foreign climes a more active and a more impartial sphere of action. Hence in foreign archives alone were to be found those vouchers of illustrious descent which at home would be memorials of spoliation and incentives to persecution." Here the existence of such vouchers in regard to the O'Connell * " Per brev. de privato sigillo, Westm. 21 anno reg. Will. III. nono. signed Pigot." (Muniments of the Corporation.) Counter † See the excellent Essay on the Welsh Saints by the late Rev. Rice Rees, M. A. and the writer's review of that work, in Gent. Mag. for Sept. 1837, p. 278. descent in foreign archives is only in sinuated. But, without presuming to doubt the fact, we may fairly wonder how the emigration of those aspiring persons should have commemorated in foreign archives minute facts which had previously occurred in Ireland. We may also be permitted to inquire where the before-mentioned work, entitled "Mémoires Généalogiques, &c." is to be found, and when and where it was printed? If the author belonged to a former generation he must have been a Kerry man, otherwise he could never have known that the O'Connells were so "pretending." The pedigree, after stating in general terms the original history of the O'Connells, commences the line with Hugh O'Connell, who, we are told, was joined with his sons in a commission issued by Edward III. anno 1337, empowering them to reduce some refractory tribes in the county of Limerick. This was some time after the royal authority had been utterly extinguished in Kerry, the abode of this family, and, indeed, in all Munster, except among a few families of English surname. Strange to say, too, the rolls of Chancery contain no mention of the fact, though it was usual to enroll all such commissions. The son of this Hugh we are next told was long at hostility with his neighbours, the Geraldines, in defence of his possessions. In other words, although the general history of Ireland and the topographical histories of the south, make no mention whatever of the deeds of this family, nevertheless this individual was at war with that mighty peer the Earl of Desmond, who successfully threw off the yoke of the kings of England. He married too a great lady, the daughter of O'Brien, prince of Thomond, yet this little fact is passed over in the elaborate account of the O'Briens published in Lodge's Peerage, which, doubtless, contains every authentic particular recorded of that great family. Jeffrey, his son, we are told, had an order on the Irish Exchequer for thirty marks. Now, though such orders were invariably enrolled, we find no trace of this one on the records. We are next told that Richard II. retained this Jeffrey near his person. This is really too bad. If we consider the manners of the native Irish at this time, we may be tempted to make the profane inquiry whether the king kept Jeffrey muzzled. Jeffrey's son Daniel, it appears, entered into a treaty with the Earl of Desmond, that is, with the lord and master of all Kerry, on whom even the lords Kerry and the M'Carthys were dependent. Perhaps some of your correspondents could favour us with a copy of this treaty. The succeeding particulars being of a similar character we shall pass them over, until the year 1550, when Edward VI. appointed Morgan O'Connell High Sheriff of the county of Kerry. It happens unluckily that the Earls of Desmond, as earls palatine, alone had power to appoint sheriffs. This is candidly remarked in a note by the compiler; but the only inference he draws from it is that "the royal appointment was of course the superior dignity." It seems never to have struck him that the statement must be a fiction. We cannot, indeed, distinctly state it to be such, as the Chancery rolls of this period have not been printed; and we are left to speculate on the probable degree of harmony which prevailed between the two sheriffs, especially in their military capacity, at that time the most prominent in the office of sheriff. I shall not occupy your columns with any remarks on the rest of the pedigree, which is of the same character throughout. There is one note, however, which must not be passed over. It states that a particular part of Mr. O'Connell's property is "free from all chief imposts or crown charge, a very unusual circumstance, and demonstrative of the antiquity of possession." I do not understand the force of this last passage. It strikes me that one of the O'Connell family, or any other person possessed of sufficient cash, might have purchased such a property if it were to be sold. Candour requires that facts should be directly stated if they be facts. The name of O'Connell or Connell is very widely diffused in the south of Ireland, and it is worthy of remark that the same christian names, such as Jeffrey, Daniel, &c. are very prevalent among all of the name. A similar remark may be made of other Irish 1839.] Goethe's Table Talk. surnames, such as Callaghan or O'Callaghan, which seems much attached to the Christian name Cornelius. These names appear in conjunction, not only in the peerage book under the title of Lismore, but over many a whiskey shop in the county of Cork. It is possible that the local bards may have preserved a list of the names of the chiefs of the sept of O'Connell; and that these names may agree with those given in the earlier part of the pedigree. Nevertheless, it is certain that the O'Connells were one of the most obscure of the Irish septs, at least since their expulsion from the county of Limerick at the first con If it were quest by the English.* wished to connect any modern family of the name with the ancient line, it would be most easy to do so, by assuming the identity of two Daniels or two Jeffreys. I do not mean to say that this has been done; I leave the probabilities to be judged of by the general character of the account published, and the general repute in the south of Ireland among all parties respecting the O'Connell family; though, indeed, I place little reliance on the latter, so prevalent is exaggeration wherever the smallest ground exists Yours, &c. VERAX. for detraction and disparagement. GOETHE'S TABLE TALK. [Derived from M. Eckerman's work, published in Germany in 1837.] THE admiration which Goethe has acquired, and the fame he has merited from the emanations of his genius, have fully entitled him to be distinguished as the "prince of modern poets." He differs from the poets of the present day in the physical strength which embodies all his creations; he has no recourse to the subterfuge of sympathy where the authority of the judgment claims to be exercised. He, in truth, has held "the mirror up to nature," in which man is justly reflected; his artifices, vices, and coquetry are fully exposed, while all his noble qualities are as evidently developed. There are perhaps but few poets who enjoyed such an expansive conception, connected with all the richness of expression. His characters are in all instances living, and the magic wand of his imagination creates dramatic action in all its delineations; from theme to theme the reader is led on in rapid succession, till at last his fancy is absorbed in ecstasy of delight. As Schiller is the great master-poet of the ideal German school, so is Goethe on the other hand equally distinguished as a realist. We are not carried up into the heaven of heavens by the mere furor of poetical combinations, but we find we have to do with men, and not angels. This great painter of the actual world, enriches all his characters with the attributes of men living and moving in a world of action, Goethe is no less remarkable for his prose compositions, which display great weight of thought, correct reasoning, and an enlarged knowledge of human nature, combined with reading of the most extensive description. In some instances it is true that his views and remarks may be deemed by some injudicious; but at the same time we should recollect that a man who honestly gives his opinion, is more commendable than one who, under the mask of candour, suppresses his real sentiments. In whatever light we view him, whether as a philosopher, poet, or dramatist, we always find him great, and always Goethe. That the society of such a man should be courted, and that his sayings should be deemed important, is a matter of no astonishment; and as Johnson had his Boswell, so did Goethe have his Eckerman. To this * Smith, in his History of Kerry, makes no mention of them whatever beyond this, that Derrynane was, in his time, farmed from the Earl of Cork by Mr. Daniel Connell. (P. 49.) GENT. MAG. VOL. XII. 3 A a distinguished writer we are indebted for many relations of Goethe, which would otherwise have perished. He possessed the entire confidence of this truly great man, and he commissioned him with the entire revision of his complete works. Such labour brought him continually into the presence of Goethe, and produced confidential conferences; and M. Eckerman therefore penned down all that he deemed valuable, from the lips of Goethe himself. These conversations acquire additional importance, as they have in most instances for their objects the circumstances, characters, and works of contemporary writers. In order that the reader may form a correct judgment of the private sentiments of Goethe, we propose in the subsequent pages to make extracts from his writings of such portions as appear to be the most popular and interesting to an English reader. Goethe's Conversations, as collected by Eckerman, form a supplement to his other published Works. In our selections we shall generally give the preference to his opinions on men and things, instead of selecting his maxims and literary theories, to be found among his other writings. It is an old remark, that truth has many faces, but this is more in appearance than in fact. It must be borne in mind that Goethe, in these conversations, throws off his character as a public man.* It is also to be recollected that they are opinions advanced by an octogenarian; and they display she astonishing strength of his mental faculties, even at that advanced period of life. Prose and Verse.-" In order to write prose well, the individual must have something to advance; but he who on the other hand has but little to state, may, notwithstanding, construct verses; for one word creeps as it were into the other; the end is atchieved, and a work completed, which in fact has no solid basis, although it seems to bear some resemblance to one. We will not go so far as to say that verses thus constructed * are destitute of poetical feeling, but in such cases it does appear so. The reality of the fact should always furnish the motive and foundation; the business of the artist is, or ought to be, to mould into form that which will produce the beautiful and the harmonious." Schiller." In every respect Schiller was of that noble and dignified bearing, graced by a countenance and features of a remarkable quality, that indicated a being of the higher order of existence. The piercing yet soft expression of his eyes animated and perfected the whole contour. His great talents resembled his external appearance. In the varied subjects to which he directed his mind, he rigidly examined them in all their intricate varieties, and in every point of view. It may be urged, and perhaps with some degree of propriety, that he only studied his subjects as he found them admitted by common consent, and did not with philosophical calmness scrutinize the inward operations of the human mind: this was not his business as a mere poet. Perhaps this species of erratic feeling is in some measure accounted for in his not giving a finishing stroke to his compositions when originally composed. In several of his dramas he frequently changed the role at the very moment of its rehearsal. All the characters of his pieces are boldly conceived and executed, and are enlivened by appropriate incidents, and with all those dramatic peculiarities calculated to produce stage effect. In this respect my pieces are deficient, and on that account are not adapted to the theatre; but Schiller's talent, on the other hand, seems as if it was created entirely for the stage. In every new production that emanated from his pen, his genius and greatness as a poet seemed to have increased with it; but it is rather a singular circumstance that ever since the composition of The Robbers, all his pieces more or less display the cruel and unfortunate fate of his heroes. From this propensity Schiller seems never to have freed himself. Goethe enjoyed the personal friendship of the Grand Duke of Saxe whom he was elevated to the dignity of Privy Councillor, with the title of Excellency. Weimar, by 1839.] Goethe's Table Talk. "Schiller at the end of every eight days seemed, as it were, to be another and a more perfect man; every time I had the pleasure of meeting him he appeared more instructed, more learned, and his genius more fully developed, as well as his judgment more vigorous. The most beautiful and the most valuable present I ever received from him are his Letters : they may be truly classed among his best productions; and, as it respects myself, I value them as precious reliques. We may truly say that he was, upon the whole, a magnificent being; but, alas! he died in the plenitude of his greatness, and in the full manhood of his strength. "The Grand Duke of Saxe Weimar gave him a pension of one thousand of his mighty " Schiller was always a temperate man, as it has been elsewhere remarked; but at certain moments of bodily feebleness he had recourse to the use of wine, for the purpose of producing physical force and energy; but, unfortunately for him, the use of these artificial means was only of a momentary advantage; they insidiously undermined his already weakened constitution, not only his bodily strength, but also enfeebled his powerful mental energies." "The Germans like to find in a work something serious-elevation, in the rank of their estimation, as it public more than all the charms of of Corneille: 'Were he alive, I should Poetry." In speaking of the poets This, in my opinion, is censurable, as our re The march of intellect." This is not the age to be in error; it was somewhat pardonable in the ancients. What purpose would all to begin again? If so, there would be searches answer, if young people were no advance. As regards ourselves, we are in some measure somewhat have not shaken off the old leaven; excusable in our errors, because we more from those who come after us but the world may justly demand than from ourselves. There is no re- Life compared to a Watering-place. "When I reflect on the period of life I have already passed, and the companions with whom I associated, the |