J'BEFACK.
that of all men on earth, Mr. Prior should ever venture on
such a charge, or throw down such a challenge.
At page 13 of Mr. Prior's first volume, in giving several
details of the childhood of the poet, he expresses his thanks
to " the Rev. Dr. Strean, of Athlone, to whom I feol obliged
" for the inquiries he has made," So at pages 22, 28, 110,
and in other places (in the Bocond volume, 255, &c). Yet
the obligation was really incurred, not to Dr. Sfrcnn, but to
an Sssay only once very slightly and cursorily alluded to
(102), containing (LSD—149) the whole of Dr. Strean'a in-
formation, and published in 1808 by Mr. Mangin, who not
without reason complained, on the appearance of Mr. Prior's
book, that, though Dr. Strean had placed it in Mr. Prior's
hands telling him it contained all he had to any about
Goldsmith, he had " employed much of what he found in
" the JSfosay without having the, courtesy to use marks of
(t quotation." (Parlour fffiitdoifl Book, 4-5.)
, At pp. 28-20, 4547, 1.00, HH, JS>H, and in other
parts of the description of Goldsmith's boyhood, nil the
characteristic anecdotes are given generally ns on the
authority of his sisters or friends; but any particular
mention of the Percy Memoir, in which (5-0-7-1)-! 8-14)
they were first published, is studiously avoided. In like
manner the account of his first adventures in Edinburgh,
told with an original air at p. 184-1,35, the notice of
Mr. Contarino at p. 50-51, and of Mr, Lawder nt p,
130, are taken without acknowledgment from the same
source (19-20, 17, and 18); and at p. 47 a little fact w