"I am now publishing a collection of poems; in which I have arrogantly inscribed one sonnet to your lordship, the effusion of wonder more than of genius. To Mr. Sterling also I have paid a small tribute of thanks, in Parnassian incense, for the delight and classical improvement reaped from his genuine page of fancy.

66

My age is not sixteen ; yet I have read most of the celebrated authors in Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and a little in Spanish, particularly in my dear Cervantes. But, alas! it avails me nothing to know more than the dullest of mankind: the eccentric energy of Savage, and the amazing genius of Chatterton, could not purchase the necessaries of life.

"To you, my lord, who have written on the Sydneys of ancient date, and who feel their generosity, I apply for some hopes of future happiness in life: for some station where the thorn of adversity may be exchanged for the olives of quiet

and where, looking on the troubled ocean of life, I may bless my deliverer.

"I am, sir, your lordship's humble ser"THOMAS DERMODY."

vant,

SIR,

To Henry Grattan, Esq.

"YOUR liberality to me has been increased more than threefold by the elegant though undeserved approbation of your letter. The honour, I hope, will attend me with life; for though unworthy such particular attention now, it gives me room to imagine I may improve to some merit hereafter.

"The following request I most ardently desire to gain your pardon for: any one but yourself might suppose me advancing too much on your generosity. Inclosed I take the liberty to send you a little poem addressed to that noble body, the Whig

club. I am assured that the humblest production offered by you, sir, in the cause of youth and inexperience, would meet the concurrence of all good and worthy people. “I am, sir, with esteem and gratitude, your obedient servant,

"THOMAS DERMODY."

So highly did Mr. Grattan estimate the talents of Dermody, that in his zeal to serve him he introduced many passages of the above-mentioned poem into a celebrated speech in the house of commons, and strongly recommended its author to the particular notice of many persons of taste and fortune. The poem itself is lost; but the following introduction to it may perhaps give some idea of its general purport.

To the Whig-Club.

"GENTLEMEN,

"EMBOLDENED by the patriotic generosity of your public proceedings, as a native of Ireland I lay the unadorned efforts VOL. II..

of a youthful muse before your inspection< assured that you will be proud to cherish the humblest adventurer who is ambitious of displaying his most early attempts in his own country, where candour and partial attention are predominant. The blossom of genius must be nourished with the kindly dew of favour before it can attain the flourishing luxuriance of perfection. If I designed an encomium in these few lines, I might hail the distinguished members of your illustrious club as the supporters of a nation, as the censors of corruption, and patrons of merit in its lowest state: but I esteem the general applause of a free people as the noblest panegyric; and therefore, after many wishes for the success of your glorious endeavours, and availing myself of the honour of claiming your pardon for this intrusion, shall decline into my native obscurity.

"I am, gentlemen, your obliged and sincere servant,

"THOMAS DERMODY."

Through the kindness of Mr. Grattan he was shortly after this time introduced to that celebrated orator and patriot, Henry Flood, esq. who honoured him with his particular friendship while he lived. Dermody retained a grateful sense of his favours, and at his death composed an elegy which much increased his own reputation. appears from the following curious fragment written by Mr. Flood, that he had suggested to Dermody a plan for composing a poem on the British constitution, comprehending the whole of its history from the Norman conquest down to the accession of the house of Hanover.

It

"EXORDIUM: Something like the beginning of Paradise Lost, but suited to the subject of the British constitution and its reform.

"Read Macaulay's History of England. Describe, from its earliest beginning, the dawn of liberty, or strugglings of those