them. So we have the blind prophet predicting that a Red Hugh O'Donnell would annihilate the Anglo-Norman power on the plains of the Liffey; but we have him adding too, that the same redoubtable hero would, to complete his triumph, burn and ravage Leinster, Munster, and Connacht also, as if for the very purpose that the common enemy should, on his next coming over the water, have less opposition to meet. And well did the astute Anglo-Normans, (as well as, indeed, their Elizabethan successors in a subsequent age,) know what use to make of these rude and baseless predictions............. And as the native Irish, for a long period after De Courcy's time, continued to be influenced by the expectation of the good or evil which these worthless predictions had promised them, so also did the enemy continue with success, either to appropriate to their own account older predictions, or to procure new ones to be made for their especial purposes in the native Gaedhlic."-pp. 430-433.

It is desirable that these observations of Professor O'Curry should obtain the widest circulation among his humbler countrymen, who will, we trust, allow the worthless fabrications styled "Prophecies," still current among them, to sink into the oblivion and contempt they merit, and thus practically evince the value they attach to the opinion of a Gaelic scholar so eminent, and so thoroughly identified with the right thinking portion of themselves in face, religion, and political feelings.

The necessarily brief notices we have given of some of the more important of the numerous Gaelic documents still unpublished will enable our readers to form an idea of the vast amount of preliminary work to be done before any accurate history of Ireland can be commenced; and at the same time demonstrate how valueless and erroneous are all the publications hitherto put forward as "Histories of Ireland." Relative to the inost gifted of those who have undertaken such compilations we are told the following anecdote by Professor O'Curry.

"The first volume of his [Moore's] History [of Ireland] was published in the year 1835, and in the year 1839, during one of his last visits to the land of his birth, he, in company with his old and attached friend, Dr. Petrie, favoured me [Professor O'Curry] with quite an unexpected visit at the Royal Irish Academy, then in Grafton Street. I was at that period employed on the Orduance Survey of Ireland; and, at the time of his visit happened to have before me, on my desk, the Books of Ballymote and Lecain, the Leabhar Breac, the Annals of the Four Masters, and many other ancient books for historical research and reference. I had never

was.

before seen Moore, and, after a brief introduction and explanation of the nature of my occupation by Dr. Petrie, and seeing the formidable array of so many dark and time-worn volumes by which I was surrounded, he looked a little disconcerted, but after a while plucked up courage to open the Book of Ballymote, and ask what it Dr. Petrie and myself then entered into a short explanation of the history and character of the books then present, as well as of ancient Gaedhilic documents in general. Moore listened with great attention, alternately scanning the books and myself; and then asked me in a serious tone if I understood them, and how I had learned to do so. Having satisfied him on these points, he turned to Dr. Petrie, and said: 'Petrie, these huge tomes could not have been written by fools or for any foolish purpose. I never knew anything about them before. and I had no right to have undertaken the History of Ireland.' Three volumes of his history had been before this time published, and it is quite possible that it was the new light which appeared to have broken in upon him on this occasion that deterred him from putting his fourth and last volume to press until after several years; it is believed he was only compelled to do so at last by his publishers in 1846."p. 154.

The numerous and copious extracts printed in Mr. O'Curry's volume, in the original Gaelic character, from many important Manuscripts, give an incontestable weight and authority to his work, affording, at the same time, invaluable illustrations of the language at the various periods to which they belong. His admirable chronological series of facsimiles of Gaelic caligraphy from the fifth century to our own time possess the highest interest for every scholar, and will be received as a great boon by Continental Palæographers whom they will enable to identify and assign to their proper ages mauy Irish manuscripts hitherto lying unrecognised and obscure in foreign libraries.

That Professor O'Curry fills with eminent credit to himself and with great advantage to the institution, the chair so judiciously assigned to him in the Catholic University of Ireland, is fully testified by the lectures now before us, which embody much of the results of a life-long experience of documents in the ancient Irish language. The testimony which we willingly accord to the value and importance of Professor O'Curry's labours cannot augment the high estimation in which he has been long and deservedly held by scholars most competent to appreciate his profound acquirements as an Hiberno-Celtic

498

O'Curry's Ancient Irish Historical Literature.

[Aug.

Palæographer. To many readers this volume opens a field of ancient literature completely novel both in ideas and language. An examination of the appended facsimiles of portions of the venerable Gaelic documents from which the materials of these lectures have been mainly drawn cannot fail to excite in the mind feelings of astonishment, mingled with admiration, at the protracted, patient labour and untiring zeal of the author of this work, every page of which evinces so complete a mastery over the difficulties abounding in these obscure writings, and so thorough an acquaintance with the most minute details which they record. These sentiments of admiration and astonishment will not be diminished when it is remembered that eminent workers in true literature, art, and science-whose labours would obtain for them elsewhere national respect and consideration-gain nothing in Ireland by the exercise of their talents beyond the high but unsubstantial appreciation of a very small number of cultivated men.

We wish here emphatically to impress on the educated classes of Ireland that if prompt steps be not taken to second the exertions of those who have been for some years disinterestedly engaged in endeavouring to effect the publication of the written historic monuments of their country, the day must ere long arrive when they will again become to the world the sealed books they were from the close of the seventeenth century till the knowledge required to elucidate their contents was regained by the labours of the great Gaelic scholars still spared to us; but who, in all probability will leave no successors in this ill-requited department of learning.

Let us hope, however, that the time may be at hand. when educated Irishmen at home will endeavour to free themselves from the ignominious imputation under which they now too justly lie, of being the least advanced of their class in Europe, when tested by the amount of encouragement they afford to the preservation of their national records, or to the cultivation of the higher branches of art, science and literature.

ART. XI.-The Geraldines, Earls of Desmond, and the Persecution of the Irish Catholics. Translated from the Original Latin by the Rev. C. P. Meehan. Dublin: Duffy. 1849.

THEA

HE monarch of the forest desires to enjoy his prey in peace: he has discovered that, upon the measure of mental serenity with which his meal is eaten, depends the successful performance of various important functions, and upon them the well-doing and happiness of his existence. Since the days of Henry Fitz-Empress the Sovereigns of England have been desiring the peace of Ireland; for they also have sought to enjoy their royal repast in tranquillity; but their desire has been a grief, and their devices vanity! By some instinctive processakin perhaps to that which regulated the royal appetite-an ingenious people invariably discovered the presence of the fang and the claw in their flesh; hence was their intractable spirit ever in remonstrance, and the banquet of their rulers always troubled. For seven hundred years, this hard dying porcupine has brought blood to the lips of the Kings of England. Hibernia Pacata-in the sense of the Rex ferarum-has ever been the desire of King and Council, Deputy and Viceroy, all this long time; and the expedients essayed to effect it have been as numerous and as various as the ministers entrusted with the government of that unintelligible country. Amongst the minor of these schemes was one, which, whatever other claims it may have upon our notice, merits admiration for its originality, its simplicity, and a certain amount of poetic sentiment which inspired and adorned it. In the voluminous history of English diplomacy, so instructive and so moral, it would be difficult to find any record of a political experiment more maturely considered, more timidly hazarded, and more precipitately abandoned, than that of which James, the 17th Earl of Desmond, was the instrument and the victim. The details of this brief episode in a great national struggle are complete from the moment when the first conception of it dawned upon the mind of Sir George Carewe, through all the misgiving with which it was slowly adopted by Sir Robert Cecyll, and most reluctantly consented to by Queen Elizabeth, till its languid termination from mere want of earnestness in all the parties concerned in it: and so utterly insignificant was

the issue of the project which had cost the English cabinet so much anxiety that the reputation of its authors was saved from any material damage by the absolute indifference of all men with regard to it.

The condition of Ireland in 1600 is too well known to permit more than the briefest allusion to it here. A rebellion, the nearest to success of the many through which Ireland had struggled, was universal throughout the land. The English were pent up within a few walled cities; trembling at every rumour of the coming of O'Neill; and in Munster, the Royal Commissioners, with what few forces they had, dared scarcely to venture two miles without the walls of Cork. These commissioners, Sir Henry Power, and Sir Warham St. Leger, were men best acquainted with the simplest and swiftest resources of diplomacy; they became embarrassed, and saw no device more promising than to send armed bands to plunder, and utterly lay waste the most fertile districts of the province entrusted to their care, and of which the chieftains had incurred their suspicion. When the tidings of this prompt proceeding reached the Privy Council, the prospect of immediate and extensive demands upon the Queen's Exchequer afflicted the loyal mind of Sir Robert Cecyll, and he summoned to his counsels a man in whose sagacity and vigour he could place reliance. Sir George Carewe was invited to reduce to writing his opinion of the crisis, and of the measures fittest to be taken to avert expense and danger. Whilst this able counsellor, "in his lodgings in the minories," was anxiously balancing the chances of O'Neill against the Queen, a luminous device flashed upon his mind, which, together with the less ingenious suggestion of troops and money, be at once communicated to the minister. Scarcely to have captured Hugh O'Neill himself would Cecyll have dared to convey Carewe's proposal to the Queen! In the mean time Power and his associate in the government of Munster, were plunging all things into confusion, and Carewe was hurried away to Ireland to supersede them and deal with rebellion as best he could. He entered upon his government in April 1600, and his first act was to demand from the retir ing rulers and from their council, a report on the state of the province. Very forlorn must have appeared to him the hope of extricating his own reputation from the difficulty in which he had consented to place it! A larger