The trifle here offered to the Public will serve as a specimen of Mr. Fitzgerald's poetic talents; and I believe it to be the only production, in that line, which he has left behind him: it was written during his residence in Dublin New Prison, about the year 1782, where he was confined for a riot; in which case, however, his father and brother only were prosecutors. Whilst thus immured, as Romeo says, the author had “;room for meditation”; and if his performance is not found to be in every part strictly logical, of which however the public are the best judges, it will certainly be allowed that his subject is, in general, novel, and his allegory extended to the usual length, in this kind of writingh. A very few copies of this Riddle were at that time disperses: however, care was taken to supply those persons with duplicates, against whom his father was directed, and against whom he had declared personal war.

From the bitterness of Mr. Fitzgerald's satire, particularly that part which is pointed at one of the then great law officers, or rather a great law-quack, I have heard it more than once predicted, that, although the principle object amongst the characters in the Riddle was ever known to be an arrant coward, nothing but a miracle could bring off the author Scot-free. If Mr. Fitzgerald, therefore, had any reason to complain that, on a late awful occasion, he was neither treated with candour, nor even with common justice, which is pretty evidenty, it will be no very difficult matter to conjecture that the unusual severities, which he then suffered, orginated in his having first commenced hostilities with his pen, against those very persons who, in that country, have the sole power of life and death, and of distributive justice in general, in their own hands; but our author, unfortunately for himself and Brecknock, could never bend his mind to flatter, no was he calculated, be his vices what they may, to assume a character suitable to the sycophancy of the times.

So far as relates to pesons, the subject of the Riddle is Irish: but, in order to render such passages, as might not be easily understood, inelligible to an English reader, I have added a few Notes, which, not to interrupt the text, are annexed to the Poem, with those of the author likewise.

It was my intention to have given an edition of tthis Riddle, with Mr. Fitzgerald's epistolary correspondence, at a much earlier period;

and to have added thereto many curious and interesting papers relative to him and Brecknock, which I have collected since their execution, to serve as an addition to the Case of Fitzgerald, published in the month of August last, by JAMESON in the Strand. The CollectionI allude to is nearly compelted, but as none but authentic documents, and the fairest and the most forcible argument, shall be produced, in a work where the conduct of the principle Irish lawyers is to be investigated, if not arraigned, a small deloare of that publication is absolutely necessary.

Agreeable however, to the promise I made in the CASE OF FITZGERALD, concerning the Riddle, I though it incumbent on me, no longer to delay the publication of it: and in order to accomodate those Gentlemen who collection poetical pieces, which are generally prined in quarto, I determined to print th Riddle by itself in that size.

In what manner I became possessed of the copy, and of those anecdotes concerning the author and his family which I have already published, as well as those I propose to publish, I must defer explaining until the above promised Collection appears.

With the first edition of a Riddle, it is, I believe, very unusual to give a solution: but as every reader, on the first perusal, may not be able to give a true interpretation of the present one, I shall observe, that the author's secret bears a name as delicate as any in the English language; notwithstanding the few loose verses which he has introduced under the denomination of

“—Arch entendre double.”

And, by way of encouragement to young poets, I propose to give a sum, not less than five guineas, for the most apposite poetical interpretation of, or answer to it; the subject must be taken in all its parts, after the manner of those in Swift, be comprised in nearly the same number of lines as the original, and then copy, with or without the real name, delivered to Mr. JAMESON, the publisher, before Michaelmas day next.