IT having been frequently stated in print that the book
called Lavengro was got up expressly against the popish
agitation in the years 1850-51, the author takes this oppor-
tunity of saying that the principal part of that book was
written in the year'43, that the whole of it was completed
before the termination of the year'46, and that it was in
the hands of the publisher in the year'48. ¹ And here he
cannot forbear observing, that it was the duty of that
publisher to have rebutted a statement which he knew to
be a calumny; and also to have set the public right on
another point dealt with in the Appendix to the present
work, more especially as he was the proprietor of a Review
enjoying, however undeservedly, a certain sale and repu-
tation.

But take your own part, boy!
For if you don't, no one will take it for You.

With respect to Lavengro, the author feels that he has
no reason to be ashamed of it. In writing that book he
did his duty, by pointing out to his country-people the
nonsense which, to the greater part of them, is as the breath
of their nostrils, and which, if indulged in, as it probably
will be, to the same extent as hitherto, will, within a very
few years, bring the land which he most loves beneath a
foreign yoke--he does not here allude to the yoke of
Rome.

Instead of being ashamed, has he not rather cause to
be proud of a book which has had the honour of being
rancorously abused and execrated by the very people of
whom the country has least reason to be proud? ²

-vii-