"fuch fignal bleffings, and devoutly 66 pray for a continuance of them" (p. 197)-Firearms were first introduced into Ireland in 1489, 32 years before hand-guns or mufquets were known in England. In 1495, 10 Henry VII. an act paffed to reftain them to long-bows, arrows, and bells. The conformity in the modes of fortifications of all nations is manifeft; but we must not thence infer that all had a Celtic origin (p. 199). A fpecimen of the natural hiftory of Ireland, and of the manners of the Irish in the 12th century, p. 207-230. Giraldus Cambrenfis was the first who gave a regular topographical defcription of Ireland. He first treats of the natural hiftory, then of the wonders, and laftly of the colonization of the ifle, and manners of the natives. He read his work, for three days, before the University of Oxford, which Mr. L. confiders as a ftrong evidence of his fincerity. Coal was not difcovered in Ireland before 1632; and its Irish name, Gual, and Cornish, Kelan, is derived from the Teutonic, Kol, and do not prove its being known to the Britons or Celts (p. 215). Henry II. in 1172 divided Ireland into fhires, and appointed fheriffs. John, in 1210, conftituted 12 counties, which included Leinster and Munfter. The five provinces were divided into cantreds, centuries, or hundreds, fubdivided into town-lands, each containing eight carucates, or ploughlands. The ftrange practice of fastening the plough to the horfe's tail, which Mr. L. thinks was probably introduced by the Picts, becaufe it obtained in the Northern parts of Scotland, was attempted to be stopped by acts of council and penalties, 1606, 1612 (p. 217). They burnt out inftead of threshing their corn, had mills, and baked their bread under embers. Barley and rye feem not to have been indigenous, and rice was fown in 1585. There were few indigenous fruits, for the name of the apple is not to be derived from the Celtic but the Teutonic. From the filence of Bede and Cambrenfis, and barley being little known, Mr. L. infers they had no ale. Diofcorides' Irifh Curmi, made of barley, is more than doubtful; and Whitaker's derivation of it from Curm, blue, and ui, water, more improbable ftill, and rather (if the derivation be right) applicable to a fermented potation from milk. Meadh is the Anglo-Saxon Meatbe, a drink made of honey, which was formerly one of the exports of Ireland. Wine, in Giraldus' 66 time, came to Ireland from PoitouThe Irish are charged with eating human flesh. Mr. L. inclines to think "human facrifices, tafiing each other's "blood as the feal of leagues and compacts, made strangers judge very unfa"vourably of the Northerns. The Irish "defcended from them were not lefs "barbarous, of which Spenfer records a "difgufting proof, 1596" (p. 224). Unfortunately for the credit of humanity, the ftrongest evidences of cannibalifm are too numerous; and though we could confine it to rage and refentment, yet, whether they difplay_themfelves in Africa or Europe, in Guinea, Otaheite, or FRANCE, it is a feeble apology for poor Human Nature, that its pallions encroach fo on its reason, and, it may be, on its fenfuality. But not to dwell on this unnatural subject — the crude pieces of ill-dreft animal food rendered the leprofy fo prevalent, that the Irish recurred to the ufe of fpirits, the diftillation of which was introduced in the 12th century, first, indeed, medicinally, but foon for pleasure and intoxication. Aqua vitæ, or Uifgebeatba, Ufquebab, or, more fimply, Whisky, was not generally known in Stanihurft's time. Mr. L. imagines, the Moofe deer, not being mentioned by Giraldus, had been deftroyed by the Firbolg hunters. The banqueting-hall at Tarah, and the confumption of meat and butter therein, are exploded as a fiction of later date, "too "grofs for infancy or anility to credit." Mr. L. doubts if the Celtic feafts defcribed by Athenæus from Pofidonius were not too elegant and refined for that people, who were Germans, but con. founded with Gauls. The next fection, on the mufick of the antient Irifh, as cultivated by their bards, is written by Mr. Wm. Beauford, A. M. (p. 230-254). Mr. B. adopts the opinion of his friend L. that "no genuine remains of Celtic customs and 66 manners, of Celtic arts and fciences, "exift at this day; that, overborne at an "early period by the great Celtic fwarm, "the Celtes were either exterminated or adopted the ufages of their conque"rors." Thefe 24 pages it is not within the compafs of our work to abridge. We haften to the "Antiquities of old "Leighlin, in the County of Carlow, by "Mr. Ledwich," with a view of the town (pp. 255, 256), and "The Poli"tical Conftitution and Laws of the an"tient Irish" (p. 257-275). "Every affertion of domestic writers referring to events antecedent to the 5th cen"tury, is cautiously to be received. The accounts of a pentarchy fubfifting in "Ireland before the Incarnation, and of "the divifion of the island into 25 dy"nafties, deferve little credit, becaufe "they intimate the exiftence of the feu"dal fyftem, which most agree to be of later date."-"The fucceffion to the "throne was elective, but generally from "the royal flock" (p. 259). The chiefs also were elective. This was the law of Taniftry, whereby the oldeft and worthieft of the furname was chofen. So far our cuftoms were in perfect unifon with thofe of the Northern nations. The claffes of Ireland have been divided a according to the Egyptian, Chinele, or others, into four, feven, or nine, without any foundation for either inftance. The nobility confifted of higher and inferior orders, who made payments and performed fervices to the king. The age of the Brehon laws is uncertain; or rather the date of their commitment to 66 writing. Soune go back only to the 10th century. The cleareft evidence of the feudal incidents in them is an inconteftible proof of their Northern origin. The Irish had written laws in the 8th century, and their laws and canons were first committed to writing about the 7th. "There can be no doubt but the legal inftitutes of the most diftant "people will bear a refemblance to ours, and this must be the cafe while men have one common nature; but the "derivation of them to the Irish from "the Eaft never can be evinced by any argument deduced from reafon, hiftory, or learning" (p. 277). The perfon who adminiftered the Irish laws was called Brathamh, or Brehon, and gave his decrees from a hill-top. One of thefe feats, called by the common people The Fairy Chair, is on the hill of Kyle, in Queen's county, engraved here; but the figures at the hill-foot are too fanciful. The Welsh Gorfeddes, artificial infulated mounts, were of this kind, and feveral fuch are in Ireland. Mr. L. thinks the Brehon laws cannot be understood by a common fcholar, furnished only with Lluyd's, Macurtin's, and O'Brien's dictionaries. They fell into difufe from 1608, and the law-fchools with them. It appears from the fragments that the Brehons had contrived a technical language, or jargon, and contractions, in imitation of the Norman lawyers, which they called the Peannian, GENT. MAG. July, 1792. or Phenian language, from Peann, a pen, becaufe it was different from the Be. honic oral law. This effay is followed by a defcription of Knockmoy abbey, founded by Cathal O'Connor, monarch of Ireland, 1189, on his defeating the English on this fpot. The paintings on it reprefent the crucifixion, and the other fome part of Irish hiftory, three deceafed kings, as crowned fkeletons, and three living ones, Roderic O'Connor, between two others, his vaffals, one with a hawk on his fift, his grand falconer, another with his fword and a hawk flying by his fide, his grand marthal, who both held their lands by grand ferjeantry. The figures below are fuppofed the execution of Dermot M Murragh's fon, for the crime of his father, in joining the English, but to us appear to reprefent the martyrdom of St. Sebaftian. If the infcriptions under each of thefe groupes could be read, it would be feen which opinion was well founded. In the fubfequent effay, on the round towers, Mr. L. adopts the fentiment which prevailed for five centuries, from Cambrenfis to Molyneux, that they were of Danish conftruction, the Irish having no commerce, coin, or mechanical arts, particularly that of mafonry*, before the great Northern invafion in the 8th and 9th centuries; and the Oftmen were converted to Chriftianity a century be fore the general opinion. To the time of their converfion thefe towers are to be referred. Bells were firft ufed in monafteries in the 7th and 8th centuries, and founded by pulling a rope. Belfries abroad were diftinct from the church; and the two round towers of Grymbald's crypt, and that of Aix la Chapelle, were of the 9th century: confequently, the Irish towers were adopted from the continent. The various opinions of writers are examined, and the five different applications of them by Col. Vallancey. Mr. L. gives a lift of thefe towers, no fewer than 65, almost all of them divided into ftories of different heights, with floors. He ascribes the round towers in Norfolk and Suffolk to Irifh miffionaries; and obferves, that fome in Ireland have "They had only skill enough to form "fubterranean granaries and antrile chambers "to fecure their corn, and foften the feverity a of the winter's cold" (p. 141). What pity it is that almost every modern writer is fond of introducing fome new word into our language. EDIT. Saxon Saxon ornaments to their femicircular arches (p. 284-305. The next effay treats of the Antiquities of New Grange, in the County of Meath (p. 307-328); and afcribes it to the newly-converted Oftmen, who retained much of Paganifm. But when Mr. L. "thinks, with Keyfler, that the "Anglo-Saxons were the authors of "Stonebenge," one wonders he could not compare it to better purpose with the fimilar piles he defcribes in other countries. He diftinguishes the Celtic from the Scythic, which laft was the Druidic religion and cenfures Borlafe as not having judgement to difcriminate them. We have next a print of the Dominican priory at Aghaboe, and an account of it, and the Auguftin abbey, now the parifh-church there. Mr. L. proceeds to the antient Irifh drefs (p. 331-354), which he treats in a more critical manner than the author or the effay on that fubject, reviewed in vol. LVIII. p 996. Next follow the Antiquities of the Trish Church, firft ably treated by Archbishop Uther, who has been thamefully perverted to ferve the purposes and caufe of Abbé Ma Geoghegan, who wrote in French a large Hiftory of Ireland. Mr. L. intended to make his labours appear as notes and additions to Uther's valua ble difcourfe on the religion profeffed by the Irish; but finding them too much en'arged, he has fubjoined them here, in near 100 pages (p. 355-451). He fixes the converfion of the Irish to Christianity to the 4th century. The difcipline of the Irish church was examined at Whitby in 661. He examines the history or legend of St. Patric, of which he finds no mention in any author or work of veracity of the 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th centuries; nor was he heard of when Bede died, but is first mentioned in legends A. D. 858 and 880. Chriftian churches fucceeded Druid groves, caves, and ftones; and even St. Brigit is a Druid veftal guardian of the facred fire. The crofs at Kilcullen, engraved p. 385, is fuppofed a Danith work. We think we fee on it fome fcripture hifto ries, such as Balaam on his ass, David Alaying the lion to fave the lamb, as at Southwell (fee vol. LVII. p. 425) * * On comparing the print of the North door of Temple M'Dermot, at Clonmacnois, with the defcription, we are tempted to change the order of the latter, and place the three faints and dean, whom, by-the-bye, we trongly fufpect to be angels, till we have a Palladius, anno 430, was driven from Ireland as "an intruder into a church "which was complete and independent, "and would not liften to his foreign 66 commiffions, or obey an extra national “jurisdiction; and therefore it rejected "the pope and his delegate and this is "the tenour of our ecclefiaftical history "to the 12th century," and till the inva fion of Henry II. The Oftmen, in the 9th century, added Patric to their faints, and built a cryptical church over his reliques at Armagh, of whofe primacy we have no authentic account before 1122. The number of bishops in the Irish church was prodigious. Ireland was full of chorepifcopi, village, or rural bifhops-a practice derived from the Eaft, as was alfo monachifm, which must have taken deep root here in the 5th, for it flourished greatly in the 6th century. The Church of Rome first got footing there in the 7th century, not without refiftance from the Culdees and the hierarchy of Ireland. The Oftmen completed it by their fubmiffiveness to Rome; and their fubmiffion to Canterbury firft fuggefted to the English princes the acquifition of Ireland through the donation of the pope. St. Patrick's purgatory was invented 1153, the year before the pope gave the island to Henry II.; and the late pope Benedict XIV. preached and published a fermon on its virtues. Mr. L. concludes with Mifcellaneous Antiquities; among which are stone hatchets ufed by the Celtes before the knowledge of iron: thefe were fucceeded by brafs and copper ones, in imitation of them. Mr. L. fuppofes the loop or ear at the fides of the latter was for the convenience of carriage, by ftringing, or for flinging. To thefe fucceeded brazen fwords; and Mr. L. thinks it much more probable that thofe found at Cannæ belonged to Gauls than Carthaginians. better reprefentation, over the three faints, instead of below. Quare, alfo, if the fourteen crofs, are not worshiping instead of dancing? men on each hand of St. Kiaran, on his The hiftories on the shaft are feriptural. The first on the South fide may be the bap tism of Chrift, as on the Bridkirk font in år, cheologia, vol. II. p. 131: the fecond, two apoitles, one perhaps St. Paul, with a fword. The pauper carrying a child, on the North fide, is evidently St. Chriftopher carrying the infant Jefus. The foepherd playing on bis pipe, with two sheep at his feet, is the Pafter bonus. The last on this fide, or the chariots and horsemen, on the bafe, we do not attempt to explain. The The golden articles found in Ireland and the North are of Belgic Gauls, among whom Strabo mentions them. The Oftmen brought into Ireland the goldfmith's and jeweller's arts; and many curious fpecimens of both have been found in Ireland. Having, in this interefting Collection of Effays on the Antiquities of Ireland, expofed the futility and extravagance of thole antiquaries who bewilder themfelves and their readers with a ridiculous deduction of them from Phoenician and other Eastern nations, Mr. L. clofes his work with a few remarks on fome ftrictures on it in an Analysis of the Hif tory and Antiquities of Ireland, previous to the Fifth Century, by William Webb; of which he briefly obferves, p. 465, "If "we will not accept verbolity for argu"ment, and puerile and contradictory "remarks for proof, our expectation "will be difappointed." The 38 plates of Mr. L's work are beautifully engraved by J. Ford, from drawings by Mr. William Beauford. Thole who are acquainted with the collection of valuable drawings of monu ments, buildings, and various antiquities in Ireland, from the earliest period to the Diffolution, formed at a great expence by the Right Hon. Wm. Burton Convngham, teller of the Exchequer at Dublin, will be pleafed to be informed that they are in no very diftant train of being laid before the public eye, in a regular chronological arrangement. This gentleman was once at the head of a litile fociety for inveftigating the antiquities of Ireland, of which Mr. L. was allo a member, till the free pleasantry with which the latter could not help treating certain reveries circulated among them, and here occafionally alluded to, diffolved the fociety *. 138. Letter from Lady W-ll-ce to Capt. —. WE have perufed with fatisfaction this long letter from an affectionate mother to an only fon, just "entered on the great flage of life," to whom the holds up the example of her beloved brother, Col. Maxwell, who behaved fo well at the memorable fortie which deftroyed the Spanish batteries before Gibraltar, Nov. 17, 1782. She fpeaks of him, and of this fiege, with rapture. He gained she name of "the foldier's friend" among the troops. "Such a conduct made him "fo beloved by Gen. Elliot, that, on the glorious fortie on the Spanish See alfo Colle&an, Hb. N° XI. "works he gave him a very critical "command, which awakened fo much "the envy of the fenior officers, that "they loudly remonstrated. The Ge "neral gave them for anfwer, that in ་་ every attack he always chofe men he "thought fitteft for the fervice; he "never ftudied chronology. An anfwer "which, from fuch a man as the im"mortal Elliot, ftamped very early ho "nour on the name of Col. M――ll” (p. 113)." English glory defended a"gainst thofe three united powers of "Spain, France, and Holland, in a fiege "nearly as long as that of Troy, that "garrifon which, in the year 1704, the "English took in three days. This was "a mortal blow to the Spanish arrogance, and the intrigues and vanity of "France for France was too inglori "oufly funk in flavery and depravity to "have a fenfe of pride; and it foon "brought the Dutch to refpect the alliance of England" (p. 156). 66 Her Ladyfhip earnettly recommends every principle of virtue and honour, and begins with inculcating a strict regard to religion, to maintain a confcience void of offence towards God and man, and to bear always in mind the certainty of a future ftate. She concludes this part of her advice thus: "Fear God, my "fon, first; and next to him fear the "wretch who fears him not" (p. 44). She next guards her dear Wallace from the feducing powers of paffion, and every violent propenfity for women, gaming, and wine. It is by conquer ing evil propenfities that a man is "rendered truly a hero” (p. 77).—After drawing the character of our Henry V. the thus proceeds (p. 79): 1 "Such another prodigy will one day again delight the eyes of Europe-a prince not lefs replete with the most graceful charms of perfon and manners than with the candour, fpirit, and liberality of Henry-with every added charm which our more polished age can give his heart warm, generous, and benevolent, too noble to suspect, or by arts evade, his enemies, or fhew averfion to bad men otherwife than by being himself honourable: fubmitting to the most inju thofe he protects, he will emerge in all that rious flanders to referve from degradation fplendour which attends the noon-day fun after having difpelled the clouds exhaled from foul vapours beneath him.” Louis XIV. the goes on: which renders it now impoffible for weak, "How happy for England that Revolution corrupted men even to abufe their power! What What honour to our nation, when neighbouring kingdoms are ruled by such profligacy and dishonour, that our government can never be corrupted by vicious complaifance, or the people harraffed by the caprices of artful kept-miftreffes! Happy the people at liberty to choofe. Happy that country where the most brilliant abilities, the most incompatible probity and purity of manners alone dare affume the reins of government, fecure in the love, approbation, and choice of a free people to infure the permanent poffeffion of them" (p. 84). To this axiom of the letter-writer we heartily fubfcribe: "In all companies whatever be referved yet good-humoured; fufpect no man to be a rogue, yet act with every man with whom you are not very well acquainted with as much caution as if he were one. An honest heart is too little apt to fuppofe another capable of that want of probity which it can never be divefted of. Yet fuch is the artful depravity of the unworthy, that, to fecure the unfufpicious, uncorrupted man from be coming the dupe of knavery, it is neceffary to fupprefs that generous confidence which has its fource in internal rectitude. The more liberal the feelings, the more neceffary is cold prudence, the fhield of virtue, to fkreen you from the treacherous. A certain degree of referve with common acquaintances is a proof of good fenfe, which even fools refpect; but this reserve does not prevent gaiety. On the contrary, in never interfering in the private affairs of any one, you will avoid much chagrin: unbounded familiarity fhould only be indulged between friends, and a friend is a phoenix rarely to be met" (p. 95). And this (p. 116): "Nothing fo much revolts the lower clafs of people as their fuperiors treating them imperiously. Make every allowance for their grofs, unlettered manners, and for thofe vices which it requires the most enlightened mind and the niceft fenfe of decorum to prevent their fuperiors often from being feduced to. Even when generofity does not dictate fuch a conduct, felf-intereft fhould. No one can foresee the fervices which fortune may enable the most humble object to render you, nor what poignant miferies may be caufed by the most abject nemy." At p. 121, advifing her fon to ftudy 'hiftory, the sketches out a plan of the rife and progrefs of the Papal power (P. 121-138), which leads her to a view of our own hiftory, and that of France intermingled with that of Europe, to the end of the book. "It was referved to Paul IV. to fee the mortal blow given to the power of the fee of Rome in the glorious reign of Elizabeth, whofe want of toleration, which stained her name with a fifter's death, arose from a conviction that tolerating fuch oppofite doctrines in the church must inevitably, sooner or later, involve the nation in civil difcord (p. 139). . . . . . “The late King of Pruffia allowed every man liberty of confcience, but took fuch measures as to prevent that liberty of thinking from ever being dangerous by being brought into action. One very ingenious method he followed to take off a ftigma affixed upon the Jews. They petitioned him to be permitted to wear fwords, which was formerly denied them. He granted their request, only ordering that they fhould always wear them on the right fide; which, with infinite cleverness, conveys all that can be faid against toleration. The people of the Established church, either in England or in Rome, fhould alone be judged fitting to act directly or indirectly in the government” (p. 140). Her Ladyfhip, with many other just reafoners on human events, afcribes the revolution in France to the revolution in America. "The conduct of Louis was enough to has poured on France afflictions great as awaken divine vengeance; and it already their offences, in a revolution the spirit of volution which will involve them in every which was imported by their troops -a remifery and regret, and prey upon the vitals of the nation until it deftroys it" (p. 161). She paints the King of France as "having no decifion of character;" but fhe dwells on that of the Queen with rapture equal to Mr. Burke, and afcribes her misfortunes, and the fhameful abuse heaped on her, to the envy of a number of interested men at her abilities, and fear of their being known. "Reft affured, there is not a greater foul exifts than the tortured one of Marie Antoniette; the magnanimity and moderation with which he has conducted herself in the most aweful and overwhelming circumftances, to which the and her infants have nearly fallen the victims and constantly been expofed, will ever make her justly be recorded for the firmness and courage of a he roine. The only blot which her enemies, either at home or abroad, accufe her of is one which, if we follow the judgment of Chrift, and none throw a stone against her but he who is free from guilt, there will not be a hand in France uplifted against her" (pp. 164, 165)......"The King, juftly doubting the attachment of the nobles and clergy, whose affumed rights were fo oppreffive to the people, and which he had refolved to restrain, his minifters were divided by jealoufies and perfidies, the feeds of which were so artfully fown by the Pompa dours and Barrys: the Queen, naturally inimical |