which is another and a stronger one; and altogether we are not inclined
to go into forty-five pages of recondite facts and fine-drawn arguments,
mingled with the most vehement abuse of anybody who ever before wrote on
the subject, to prove that this country had the honour of producing her
ladyship--the Wild Irish Girl. We freely give her up to the sister
island. But not so William Congreve, though we are equally indifferent
to the honour in his case.

The one party, then, assert that he was born in this country, the other
that he breathed his first air in the Emerald Isle. Whichever be the
true state of the case, we, as Englishmen, prefer to agree in the
commonly received opinion that he came into this wicked world at the
village of Bardsea, or Bardsey, not far from Leeds in the county of
York. Let the Bardseyans immediately erect a statue to his honour, if
they have been remiss enough to neglect him heretofore.

But our difficulties are not ended, for there is a similar doubt about
the year of his birth. His earliest biographer assures us he was born in
1672, and others that he was baptized three years before, in 1669. Such
a proceeding might well be taken as a proof of his Hibernian extraction,
and accordingly we find Malone supporting the earlier date, producing,
of course, a certificate of baptism to support himself; and as we have
a very great respect for his authority, we beg also to support Mr.
Malone.

This being settled, we have to examine who were his parents: and this is
satisfactorily answered by his earliest biographer, who informs us that
he was of a very ancient family, being 'the only surviving son of
William Congreve, Esq. (who was second son to Richard Congreve, Esq., of
Congreve and Stretton in that county),' to wit, Yorkshire. Congreve