victed of

steal them, or treated them with such cruelty as the Americans and others do to this day. An Irish slave was treated as a fellow-creature, and employed about such occupations of herding cattle, &c., as farm-servants and other domestics engage in voluntarily at present. And how did Ireland come to be full of slaves at the time of the Conquest? Ask Giraldus;—and he will tell and their acyou (pp. 501, 502 sup.) that it was the unnatural cuser conEnglish of that age themselves, who for mere love scandalous of money would sell their own children and relatives to strangers: and that of the two parties, the Irish appear to have been those who were most ready to shew compunction, and exhibit in a practical way their penitence for having had a share in this heartless traffic, by proclaiming abolition of slavery in their island, before ever England had adopted such a course. Shame, shame to the

misrepresentation.

aid given to

writer, who could then bring it as a reproach to the ancient Irish that those slaves were purloined from England by them, when the gross falsehood of such a statement is so plainly manifest. "But Note on the used not rebellious nobles, defeated in England, factious nocome to Ireland to recruit their strength, and bles in Engget shelter and protection ?" And why not? Is Irish. it any proof of barbarity in London that it shelters all such characters, defeated in all parts of Europe and elsewhere, and harbours, protects, and aids them now.

When two Welsh princes

land by the

Wm. Newbury's Easter tale noticed.

The AngloNorman improvement of Ireland

not unqualified.

Dermot Mac Murrough's connection,

quarrelled, what law of nations forbade one of them to seek aid in Ireland, or an Irish king to aid which party he might please? Or if it were an English earl that rose against an English king, might not the Irish according to their own discretion interfere to aid the weaker party, when they were themselves no subjects of England at the time, but an independent people; as justly as the English could interfere, as they did, with the royalties of Ireland.

As for the story told by William of Newbury, it is very probable that some disorderly and foolish people, in the locality where the narrator lived, may have observed such Easter customs as he mentions; but not being spoken of elsewhere, they could hardly have been generally prevalent in the province, and are not worth particular notice here.

And for the notices of the improvement of Ireland under the Normans, (which are however to be read with attention to Prov. xxvii. 2,) as there was great room for improvement, they may easily be in part true. But the AngloNormans themselves were answerable for tutoring the Irish, by their wicked example in many instances, in deeds of horrid barbarity and most atrocious perfidy. (Vid. pp. 1030, 1127,1128, sup.) "But what of Dermod Mac Murrough ?" At all events he was not more "barbarous" than

many murderers born in England within the to whom past century. The Irish, however, expelled him disgraceful? from their island for his crimes, as a beastly prince;" while the Anglo-Normans and their Welsh abettors received him with open arms to their sympathy and confidence, and found in him a congenial friend and most effective ally in the execution of their scheme for the conquest of Ireland.

author of

nies above

After having heard so much, one other ques- Some action remains, which may now interest the count of the reader, viz., Who is this author that has been the calumthus rashly aspersing the ancient people of Ire- noticed. land, or how far may his name be considered influential in the literary world? To this inquiry the following reply is furnished in the Quarterly Review of March, 1848, in the article on Antiquarian Club Books, pag. 319:

"Mr. Wright, the coadjutor in the Reliquiæ, and one of the chief working members of the Camden and other societies, has employed himself during a pretty long period with the literature of the middle ages, and has had considerable practice in extracting and editing MSS. reliques of various sorts. On the strength of this he has in a manner constituted himself editor general in AngloSaxon, Anglo-Norman, Middle English, and Middle Latin, and seems to be regarded by a certain clique as a supreme authority in all departments of archæology. He has indeed some requisites for making himself useful in a field where industrious workmen are greatly wanted. tions.

Extent of his literary qualifica

But his activity is so counterbalanced by want of scholarship and acumen, that he can never be more than a third or fourth-rate personage, bearing about the same relationship to a scientific philologist and antiquarian that a law stationer does to a barrister, or a country druggist to a physician."

The Quarterly then proceeds to illustrate this judgment of our author, by adducing in proof of its correctness a number of absurdly amusing mistakes observable in some of his literary productions; in summing up which, it arrives at the apparently just conclusion, that

"A performer capable of blundering so dreadfully where every thing is easy and straightforward, cannot be expected to succeed very well where there is a little scope for criticism.”

THE END.

INDEX.

ABBREVIATIONS.-Abp., Archbishop; Abpk., Archbishopric; Bp., Bishop; Bpk.,
Bishopric; Id., Ireland; Ir., Irish; qd., quoted; &c., &c.

Abbey-building. regarded as a propitia- | Ademar of Angouleme, his Chronicle