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THE IRISH PREFACE.
Gentle reader, If an Irishman were asked what a preface was, he would, without hesitation reply, that it was the last chapter of a book, and we should unquestionably pronounce that answer to be a bull; for how can prefatory remarks be valedictory ones?
A few moments' consideration, however, would induce us to withdraw such a hasty opinion, and convince us that his idea is, after all, a correct one.

It is almost always the part that is last written, and _we_ perpetrate the bull, by placing it at the beginning instead of the end of the book, and denominating our parting words introductory remarks.
The result of our arrangement is, that nobody reads it.

The public do not want to hear an apology or explanation, until it first ascertains, whether the one can be accepted, or the other is required.

This contemptuous neglect arises from two causes, first because it is out of place, and secondly because it too often contains a great deal of twaddle.