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MAIL AND STAGE COACHES AND CARS. — Dublin Night Mail, arrives at 15
minutes past 1, A.M. ; despatched at 45 minutes past 10, P.M. Armagh
Car, arrives 9, A.M. ; despatched at 4, P.M.
Castleblaney Car, arrives at 15 minutes past 9, A.M. ; despatched at
3 P.M. Dublin Day Mail, arrives at 25 minutes past 2, P.M. ;
despatched at 20 minutes past 11, A.M. Carlingford Car, arrives
at 9 P.M. ; despatched at 5, A.M. Down Car, arrives at 10 minutes
past 10, P.M. ; despatched at 2, A.M. Kilkeel Car, arrives at 10
P.M.; despatched at 5, A.M. Dungannon Coach,arrives at 25 minutes
past 10, P.M. ; despatched at 2, A.M. Belfast Coach, arrives at 45
minutes past 10, P.M. ; despatched at 55 minutes past 1, A.M.
Dungannon Day Coach, from the Victoria Hotel, at 10, A.M. Duhlin
Fair Trader, from Black's Hotel, at 12, noon. Lark to Drogheda, from
Victoria Hotel, at 8, A.M. Dublin Van, from Magill's Hotel, at 6,
A.M. Commerce to Belfast, from Magill's Hotel, at 5, A.M. Portadown
Van to Belfast, from Magill's Hotel, at 6, A.M. Armagh Van, from
O'Hara's Hotel, at 7, A.M. Armagh Van, from Magill's Hotel, at 7,
A.M. Armagh Van, from Magill's Hotel, at 4, P.M. Armagh Van, Week
Mail, from Mindock's Hotel, at 4, p M. Dundalk, from Magill's Hotel,
at 4, P.M. Castleblaney, from Donnelly's, at 4, P.M. Coaches or
caravans start from Newry for Dublin, and all the intermediate towns
on that route, at 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock, 11 o'clock (mail), and 12
o'clock, A.M.; and at 2 o'clock and 11 o'clock (mail), P.M. A mail
car starts for Kilkeel, and the towns on that line, at 5 o'clock,
A.M., starting at the same hour, P.M., on its return. For
Downpatrick, and the intermediate towns, Rathfriland, Castlewellan,
and Clough, a mail car at 4 o'clock, A.M., starting at 6 o'clock in
the evening on its return. For Belfast, two conveyances at 7, A.M.,
via Tandragee and Portadown, and thence by railway, passing Lurgan
Moira, and Lis- burn ; an omnibus and the Fair Trader coach, in the
same route, at 2, P.M.; and the mail coach at 3J, P.M., and 3, A.M.,
via Longhbrickland, Banbridge, Dromore, Hillsborough, and Lis- burn.
For Armagh, at 3, A.M. (mail), 7, A.M., and 4, P.M., and thence to
Monaghan, Aughnacloy, Dungannon, and various other towns. For
Newtown, Hamilton, Castleblaney, and Ballybay, at 3J, P.M.
STEAM
PACKET OFFICES. — Samuel Smith, 27, Merchants' Quay; Thomas A. Kidd,
11, Merchants' Quay. Steam conveyance from Warrenpoint to Liverpool
every 'Wednesday and Saturday. It may help to complete our picture
of Newry, in the opinion of the passing tourist, if we record the
impression made upon ourselves in a first hasty visit, a couple of
years ago : — The entrance into Newry, by the Dublin road, is
exceedingly agreeable ; and the appearance of the canals
intersecting the streets, and bearing upon their waters vessels of
from one to two hundred tons burthen, lends a novel and highly
picturesque aspect to the whole scene — strongly recalling some of
the old Canalettis in the National Gallery. One remarkable feature
in the architecture of the town is, that such a thing as a brick
house is nowhere to be seen ; all the edifices are of stone — the
fine granite of the country and this imparts to them a warm,subtial,
comfortable, burgomaster sort of air, that banishes all idea of
squalor and abject poverty ; and subsequent experience confirmed the
correctness of first impressions. It was about four o'clock in the
evening when we reached Newry. The streets were crowded with persons
of both sexes, almost all of whom were well dressed, cleanly, and
good-looking, and amongst whom the progress of our vehicle, laden as
it was to the shafts, did not create a degree of curiosity enough to
cause inanj' of the pedestrians to turn their heads after us — a
fact that, to our minds, augured well for the traffic of the place;
and this conjecture, too, we found satisfactorily established by
inquiries afterwards. Newry has confessedly the advantage of being
but little defaced
with those long, straggling, poverty-stricken suburbs, for which
most towns in Ireland are so unpleasantly remarkable. Enter it from
what side you will, you are almost in the heart of it directly,
though it stands upon a considerable space of ground, and a pleasant
country stretches away on either hand around it. Some of the
cottages in the poorer quarters exhibit a most unaccountable love
for the economy of space on the part of the inmates, being
inconceivably small. Nor can any intelligible reason be adduced why
they should be so, for the best of building materials are at hand in
the greatest abundance ; and the additional room required can hardly
be an object on the score of rent to tenants of the smallest means,
if indeed it would be made an object by the most griping of
landlords. The interiors of those cottages into which we looked
were, on the whole, much better than the outside ; and the men,
women, and children that swarmed within, seemed happy and contented
with their lot. The smallness of their abodes may be contrived with
a view to comfort, in their opinion, as it is certain that a little
furniture
goes a long way, and so does a little fuel ; while the healthiness
of the air out of doors, and their daily exposure to its beneficial
influence, make up for confined and unventilated sleeping
apartments.
The houses, or rather cabins, in Newry, of which we speak, are,
however, very few, and bear an extremely small proportion to the
town at large, where neatness, love of order, and you generally
thriving air prevail to a degree we have never seen surpassed any
where. It is to this growing love of order and
neatness, and comfort, among the poorer classes especially, that the
progressive advance of the people of Ireland as a people, is to be
attributed. ' The working classes of this country,' says Dr. Kane,
in his invaluable volume on the Resources of Ireland, ' havemade,
within the last few years, unparalleled strides in the habits which
best conduce to industrial success. The existing generation is half
a century in advance of that which is dying off, and
the generation now at school will be half a century in advance of
us. We were reckless, ignorant, improvident, drunken, idle. We were
idle, for we had nothing to do ; we were reckless, for
we had no hope ; we were ignorant, for learning was denied us ; we
were improvident, for we had no fortune; we were drunken, for we
sought to forget our misery. That time is passed away for ever.' We
can answer, from observations and minute inquiries, that Newry and
the neigbourhood "afford ample proof of the correctness of this
assertion ; and of another assertion, also, which Dr. Kane says is
applicable to the greater part of Ireland, and which we quote here,
as well for its intrinsic value, as because of the admirable
reasoning by which it is followed, viz. : — ' The children are at
school, the parents are sober and steady. The revenues
collected on ardent spirits are diminished one half, notwithstanding
that the export trade has augmented. The sums in the Savings' Bank
are not materially augmented, and it is better not ; the mere desire
to amass money is, after all, not what we want most. Greater desire
to live comfortably, to eat better food, to wear superior clothing,
to buy good books — these are passions far more useful to the
people, and more important to encourage than the mere accumulation
of money, which there is no danger will come, if it be not already
present, and will lead to its usual results.' The principles laid
down in these remarks should, it strikes us very forcibly, never be
lost sight of by those who make the condition of Ireland their
study, and the welfare of her people an object of their solicitude.
We had reason to be struck with the justice of the claim preferred
by Newry on the score of the beauty of its females. It is said that
an offer was lately made by the gallants of Newry, to compete in
this particular with all Ireland, and the Lotharios of the remaining
portion of " the island of the saints and of the learned" were
compelled tacitly to admit the inferiority of their mistresses'
charms, by declining the contest. But grace of feature and of mien
are the least of the attractions of which the ladies of Newry can
boast. All we saw of them in society, and all we could gather from
inquiry, lead us to believe that they may be taken as a favorable
specimen of the character of the Irishwoman generally, thus
elegantly depicted by a recent pen : — " The women of Ireland — from
the highest to the lowest — represent the national character better
than the other sex. In the men, very often, energy degenerates into
fierceness, generosity into reckless extravagance, social habits
into dissipation, courage into profitless daring, confiding faith
into slavish dependence, honour into captiousness, and religion into
bigotry.
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