Page:The Leadbeater Papers (1862) Vol 1.djvu/19

Leadbeater is chiefly known, and its utility has been fully proved by the approbation of all who were at that time interested in the welfare of the Irish poor, and by their efforts to circulate them as widely as possible among the class for which they were intended. They were subsequently published in a larger form for the English public, and were enriched with notes illustrative of the character, manners, &c. of the Irish peasantry by the author's friend Mr. W. P. Lefanu, the founder and proprietor of the "Farmer's Journal," and by Miss Edgeworth, who interested herself warmly in the success of the work, and addressed several letters to Mary Leadbeater expressive of her esteem, and of her desire to do everything in her power to promote her benevolent views. A third series of the "Cottage Dialogues," which remained in manuscript at the time of the author's death, was published in a duodecimo volume along with the earlier series,^[1] and has been pronounced by competent judges to be even superior to them in interest and simple pathos. In the "Dialogues," we may observe that Rose, who is a model of excellence, always imparts advice or information to her idle neighbour with a mildness and diffidence far removed from the loquacious, self-important manner in which some of the perfect characters held up to our view are made to dictate to their misguided companions, and which almost disgusts the reader with perfection. They also afford an example of that lambent wit and