thereby enabling me to unite my detachments, that "he strenuously advised Gates to pass Lynches Creek "and fight me at all events: this was related to me by "De Kalb's aid-de-camp (a relation of the M. de la

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Fayette) who was made prisoner. Gates rejected the "advice, threw himself across the country into the "other road above Hanging Rock Creek, and gave us "three days to prepare to meet him; in a country "likewise very favourable for us. Since that action the "sickness of the troops, added to want of provisions "and almost every kind of stores has detained us "inactive. We are now in march towards Hillsborough, "where Gates has collected a small body of militia. "At present there is no prospect of serious opposition, "but I cannot believe that the Congress will not make an effort to stop the advance of our successes. We "have reason to hope that we shall be joined by the greater part of the North Carolinians, who have certainly given strong proofs of faithful attachment

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"to us. We hear that a French fleet is on the coast; "and has landed troops to the Northward... It is now "ten weeks since we have heard from New York .. "You must have been astonished at our warfare here "after the representations which we perceive were "made to you respecting the loyalty and peaceable "state of His Majesty's Province of South Carolina."

The correspondence also includes letters connected with the following:-Lord Rawdon's challenge of Duke of Richmond, and apology of the latter in the House of Lords for his observations on the execution of the American prisoner, Isaac Haynes; affairs of the Regency (1789); succession of Lord Rawdon to earldom of Moira on his father's death in 1793. His residence in Scotland as Commander-in-Chief in 1802-3; intimacy, at Holyrood House, with "Monsieur," subsequently Charles X., and his own popularity at Edinburgh. In connexion with the latter he writes as follows, under date of 13th December 1803, to his sister, the Countess of Granard :

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"Could the gratification of vanity compensate to me for a very uncomfortable life I should be well paid "here. I am the fashion to a degree quite ridiculous. "The Lord Chief Baron (Dundas) had offered himself "for the office of Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, corresponding to the Chancellorship of our "Universities. Whilst the vacancy had been impending "he had been designated by general opinion as the

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successor, and when the opening happened all competition with him was supposed to be utterly vain. "On the day of election last week, when he was pro

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posed, a graduate stepped forward and named me. "There was a burst of applause. A poll took place. "I carried it by one. On a scrutiny two who had voted "for me were invalidated, so the Chief Baron was seated by one. As this was within the walls of the College, care has been taken to suppress any publication of "the circumstance, but as it was from mouth to mouth "it disseminates a wondrous notion of my influence. I "had not the remotest knowledge of the matter; not that there was a vacancy."

Elizabeth Hastings, Countess of Moira, mother of Francis Rawdon, was the last direct descendant of the ancient house of Hastings, and inherited numerous titles. Independently of these she long exercised influence in Ireland through her great natural talents, antique grandeur of sentiments, and enlightened devotion to the interests of the Irish. In 1769 Lord Huntingdon writes to her: "Was you but to know the number"less inquiries that are made after your health in "London, you would be vastly satisfied with your long "list of well-wishers. Your Irish acquaintance are so

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eager to inform me of your convalescence, that I am "charmed with their appearance of kindness towards you; and I met with many civilities at Bath from people I had never seen before, on the score of being your brother."

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Lady Moira's views on Irish affairs in 1797-8, are expressed in letters now before us, addressed at that period to her son, who, in the Houses of Lords in England and Ireland, urged the adoption of conciliatory measures towards the Irish people.

At Castle Forbes are also preserved the following:"Memoirs of the family of Hastings, collected by their "descendant E[lizabeth] Moira, daughter of Theophilus, "and sister of Francis, Earls of Huntingdon, and wife "of John, Earl of Moira." Quarto, 96 pages.

In other papers Lady Moira discusses historical and genealogical questions connected with England, and points out misstatements allowed to pass current on the authority of Sir W. Dugdale and Horace Walpole.

There is also here extant an interesting letter of six pages, dated Edinburgh, 10th February 1805, addressed to Lady Moira by Walter Scott, in which he observes: -"Your ladyship's genealogical deductions gave me. "much amusement and information; they are the keys "of history and often its touchstone, and it is scan"dalous that the history of our most noble families "should be, as they are, abandoned to the interested "tribe of heralds and pedigree makers. Till of late years, I believe, these matters were better managed "in Scotland, but we have long grown nearly as care"less as the neigbours whom we are daily aping. I "think your Ladyship's conjecture with respect to the origin of the song 'Queen Eleanor was a sick woman' "is quite a ray of light; hardly anything was so likely "to be of advantage to the Lancastrians as to slur the "descent of the house of York."

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The letters here of Lady Moira's mother, Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, the enthusiastic and munificent patroness of Methodism, are dated in 1759, 1767, 1778, and 1781.

The collection further contains letters from the following:-Ailesbury, Lord; Atkinson, Joseph; Cobbe, Charles, Bishop of Dromore (1727), of Kildare (1732-43), and Archbishop of Dublin, 1742-1765; Comings, F.; Courtenay, J.; Doyle, Welbore Ellis; Egmont, Earl of, 1741-1765; Gilford, Lord, 1794; Hertford, Lord, Viceroy, 1766; Hillsborough, Earl of, 1757-70; Jones, W. Todd; Levinge, Sir Richard; Lindsay, Theophilus ; Maule, Henry, Bishop of Dromore, 1741; O'Gorman, Chevalier Thomas; Nugent, Buckingham, 1791; Prior, Thomas, 1723; Stormont, Lord, 1783; Toplady, Augustus, 1760; Westmoreland, Earl of, 1795.

The publication of a selection from the letters and papers in this collection would render accessible much new historical and biographical information. Dublin.

J. T. GILBERT.

EARL OF GRANARD.

From page 1 to page 226 is occupied with memoirs of the Geraldine Earls of Desmond to the period of their extinction in the reign of Elizabeth. These memoirs are partly based on the work of O'Daly,* with much additional matter from Stanihurst, Hooker, Camden, and "Hibernia Pacata," interspersed with some local particulars and extracts from Irish poems with versions in English.

Page 227. The Genealogy of the Rt. Hon. John Earl of Grandison, as descended by the mother's side from Gerald Fz. Gerald, the only brother of Thos. Earl of Desmond, beheaded at Drogheda.

Page 232. Pedigree of the Right Hon. John, Earl of Grandison, as descended of the house of Desmond by the name of FitzGerald.

Page 233. Pedigree of Richard Fitz Gerald, esq', commonly called Mac Thomas of Woodhouse, who married the Hon. Katherine Villiers, sister of the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Grandison.

After this the author writes, at page 235:

"Haveing thus shewn the original descent of the Fitz"Geralds, and deduced an account of those of the "house of Desmond in a lineal succession of the Earls so called, and of such of their relations by that name severally as in course of seniority and proximity of

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* "Initium, incrementa, et exitus familia Geraldinorum, Desmonia "Comitum, Palatinorum Kyerria in Hybernia, ac persecutionis hæreti. corum descriptio. Ex nonnullis fragmentis collecta, ac Latinitate "donata. Per Fratrem Dominicum de Rosario O'Daly, Ordinis Præ"dicatorum, S. Theologia professorem, in supremo S. Inquisitionis "Senatu censorem, in Lusitaniæ regnis quondam visitatorem generalem "ac fundatorem conuentuum Hybernorum eiusdem Ordinis in PortuIgallia. Vlyssipone. Ex officina Craesbeeckiana. Anno 1655."

OF THE GERALDINE EARLS OF DESMOND.

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"kindred were their next heirs to a period in the house "of Dromana (for want of issue male of the Honorable "John FitzGerald, esq', grandfather to the present "Earl of Grandison), I shall now proceed to the genealogy of others of the collateral and most remarkable familys descended of the house of Desmond; and as "I find that those of the White Knight, the Knight of "Kerry, and the Knight of Glinn weare an early and "considerable offspring of that line, and who made no "small figure in Ireland, according to such Irish and

English manuscripts as came to my hands, I will "likewise show the source from whence they took head "and set forth their genealogies in particular."

Page 244. "Genealogy of those distinguished [as] "the progeny of the Old Knight."

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Page 253. "Genealogy of the family of the White Knight, the same being chiefly collected from manuscript memoirs relating thereunto."

Portions of the leaves towards the end of the volume have been destroyed by damp, which has also rendered imperfect those which contained the pedigrees of the Knight of Kerry, the Knight of Glinn, Fitz-Geralds of Cloyne, Castlemartyr, Clonglish, &c., and in many places. the writing is much faded.

In these notices of branches of the Desmond stock and their descendants - Fitz Geralds, Mac Gibbons, Fitz Gibbons, and others-are to be found many genealogical and local details not elsewhere accessible. Some of these, the author tells us, he gathered from "old and broken scraps of ancient family memoirs." His own name does not, however, appear; and of the history of the volume itself, the only particulars known are as follow:-For many years it was in the possession of the Rev. James Hingston, appointed Vicar General of Cloyne in 1794. After his death in 1840 it was given to the Rev. George E. Cotter, of Rockforest, near Mallow, co. Cork. From the latter it passed in 1871 to its present owner, Abraham Fitz Gibbon, Esq., M. Inst., C.E., of the Rookery, Stanmore, Middlesex who has with much assiduity laboured to bring to light materials illustrative of the history of the Geraldines of Munster and their connections. Dublin.

J. T. GILBERT.

PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY OF IRELAND BY HUGH HOWARD, LL.D.

The author or compiler of this work was the second son of Robert Howard, Bishop of Killala and Elphin (1729), some of whose letters were noticed in my report in 1871 on the papers of William King, Archbishop of Dublin.* Bishop Howard's eldest son Ralph, was advanced to the peerage in 1776, as Baron Clonmore, co. Carlow, and created Viscount Wicklow in 1785.

Hugh Howard, called to the Irish bar in 1758, sat in Parliament in Ireland successively for Johnstown (Donegal) and Athboy, held the office of AccountantGeneral of Chancery, and died in 1799.

Howard's "Parliamentary History," of which no account has hitherto been published, extended originally to six or eight folio volumes, of which we have now only the first and second.

Upwards of 100 pages of the first volume are occupied with extracts from published works on the early state of Europe, and on the affairs of Ireland in successive reigns from Henry II. to James I. inclusive. The remainder of the two volumes is composed of an abstract of Parliamentary business in Ireland from 1715 to 1773, arranged under sessions and viceroyalties, as set out by Howard in the following table, at page 415 of his first volume :

"GEORGE 1ST. 1715. 1st session. 1 vol. p. 138. 1717. 2nd session. 1 vol. p. 168. 1719. 3rd session. 1 vol. p. 182. 1721. 4th session. 1 vol. p. 191. 1723. 5th session. 1 vol. p. 204. 1725. 6th session. 1 vol. p. 222. GEORGE 2D. 1727. 1st session. 2 vol. p. 199. 1729. 2nd session. 2 vol. p. 211. 1731. 3rd session. 2 vol. p. 223. 1733. 4th session. 2 vol. p. 230. 1735. 5th session. 2 vol. p. 240. 1737. 6th session. 2 vol. p. 246. 1739. 7th session. 1 vol. p. 248. 1741. 8th session. 1 vol. p. 256. 1743. 9th session. 1 vol. p. 262. 1745. 10th session. I vol. p. 268. 1747. 11th session. 1 vol. p. 278. 1749. 12th session. 1 vol. p. 280.

GEORGE 3D.

Earl of Halifax.

Wm. Geo. Hamilton. Earl of Northum- Wm. Geo. Hamilton. berland. Earl of Hertford. Viscount Townsend.

Viscount Towns

Lord Beauchamp. Ld. Fred. Cambell.

Sir Geo. McCartney.

1761. 1st session. 1 vol. p. 378. 1763. 2nd session. 2 vol. p. 1. 1765. 3rd session. 2 vol. p. 49. 1767. 4th session. 2 vol. p. 107. GEORGE 3D. (2d Parliament.) 1760. 1st session. 2 vol. p. 125. 1771. 2nd session. 2 vol. p. 145. 1771. 3rd session. 2 vol. p. 167. Viscount Towns- Sir Geo. McCartney. 1773. 4th session. 2 vol. p. 272. John (Col.) Blaquiere." Prefixed to the first volume are the following memoranda by Howard:

end. Viscount Towns- Sir Geo. McCartney. end.

"N.B.-The order in wch this work was carried on was this-ab 9th April 1772, I began to abridge such part of ye Stat [utes] as related to ye Constitution, from ye beginning to ye end of ye reign of Q. Eliz. I then began ye Journals with ye E[arl] of Harrington's 24 adm", & carried them on to ye end of ye E[arl] of Hallifaxes. I then began ye 7th session of Geo. ye 24 & carried it on to ye E. of Harrington's 24 adm", being ye 12th session, & also ye Parl of James ye first. I next begin with ye 1t session of Geo. ye 1st, & carried it thro' his reign. I then began ye E[arl] of Northumberland's adm", 1763, being ye 2a session of Geo. ye 3d, & carried it on to almost ye end of ye session of 1771. I next abridgd y 6 first sessions of Geo. ye 24, and then finishd to the end of Lord Townshend's administration in 1771. I then abridgd ye Parlts of Charles ye first, Charles y 2, King James, King William, & Queen Mary; and lastly Queen Ann; and finishd ye whole the [blank] day of July 1774. And found it very easy by doing some of it for about an hour every morning, & sometimes in ye day when I had leisure. But I had avocations each summer of above 3 months.

"N.B.-There are 6 Folio Books in brown covers marked A. 1, A. 2, B. 1, B. 2, C. and D.

"From these, a very accurate Parliamentary History of Ireland may be collected, and which would indeed form the only and best History of Ireland; as Ireland has seldom an opportunity of acting otherwise than by its Parliament. If a judicious abridgement were made of these 6 volumes (wch in part I have already done in sort of pocket books, but not in the way I would wish it done, being too brief), the whole might be comprized in three or four octavo volumes.

"The 6 vol. of Manuscript contain two very interesting periods.

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1. From Hen. 2d to ye reign of James ye 1st, when ye Journals commence. This I think a very interesting part, but it is deficient in one particular. That defect

PARLIA

may be thus supplied. Look over Lodge's Peerage from beginning to end, and there you will find many HISTORY OF Parlts held in this Kingdom, vouched by records, of

MENTARY

IRELAND.

wch there is no other memorial; enter every one of these, and in that King's reign to wch it belongs, on the authority of Lodge; and 2dly, look over all the English great Counsils (whether put down as Parliaments in the English Parliamentary History in 20 vols. or not) in wch ye Arch Bp. of Dublin, Earl of March, or other Irishmen signed, and confidently add them as part of the Irish Parliamentary History; the Irish & English Councils manifestly then sitting togather in one great Counsil or Parliam1.

"2. The period from the commencement of the Journals in ye beginns of James ye 1st, to ye present time is likewise deficient in one particular. This deficiency may be easily supplied by comparing the abridgement with the Lords' Journals, and corrects and explains the Commons' Journal by the Lords. This I should have done if I had had the Lords' Journals, but they were not published until after I had finished the abridgmt of the Commons' Journals.

"Rutland Square, 25th Febry 1797.

H. H."

As the Commons' Journals and other sources from which Howard compiled are now accessible in print, the main value of his two volumes before us is to be found in his incidental notices of affairs of which he personally had cognizance or had received information on through those conversant with Irish politics in the last century. His original matter is, however, in general, combined with details of Parliamentary acts from which it cannot well be separated. An exception is to be found towards the end of the second volume in the following, on the viceroyalty of Lord Harcourt, which may be taken as a specimen of the original composition of a writer hitherto unknown to the public: "George 3rd, 1773. 4th session. 16th vol. of Journals. Lord Harcourt.

"The Earl of Harcourt, a nobleman far advanced in years, but of an hale constitution, was thought a proper person to succeed Lord Townsend. He had been preceptor to ye King, & was at ye time of his appointm embassador at Paris. His instructions were, as appears from his whole administration, to finish what his predecessor had laid ye foundations of; & it is very remarkable y without any amiable quality, either of the head or heart, and tho' professedly sent to lay on great & heavy additional taxes, he met with no opposition yt could make him uneasy, & continued here [blank] years, neither loved nor hated, neither esteemed nor despised, a single & most part of ye time a lone man, & that he performed all this meerly by some natural qualities of wch he was possess, such as prudence & a coolness of head and heart, being entirely set upon his designs, & doing nothing either from affection or hatred, but all from interest. The only circumstance in wch he shewed weakness was a timidness in his nature wch made him dread ye opposition of all numerous bodies, & hence it was yt he was affraid to carry the design of erecting a new bridge into execution, for fear of incensing ye Corporation of Dublin, & rather than do this he chose to throw an indignity on a large majority of ye House of Commons. He could not withstand private solicitations for pardons for malefactors, & he was in this respect so remarkably weak, yt he pardoned almost every street robber, housebreaker, & thief yt was condemned during his governm', to ye great hurt of society. His Excellency's age was not of proof to fence him from ye scandal of an amour with an unmarried lady of past

50 years old. But if there was any foundation for this report, it does not appear yt Miss Alicia McCartney had any influence in ye managemt of public affaires. She was sensible & agreeable, tho' all her life almost of suspected reputation, & as he was a lone man, it was probably ye charms of her conversation alone fixed his attention to her. Lord Harcourt brought over with him for his Secretary, Lieut. Col. John Blaquiere, who was his Secretary to ye embassy at Paris. He had been bred up in an Irish regiment of cavalry along with an elder brother, & they were at this time both of them Lieut. Col; & as they were Englishmen of a very moderate extraction, they were very little known. But the Secretary who, tho' the younger, had ye best character of ye brothers, having found means to get himself appointed Secretary to Lord Hartcourt's embassy, he was found of capacity sufficient for ye place he now enjoyd. A singular circumstance happened in his favour even before he entered on his office or arrived in ye kingdom. Mr. Bagnall, member for ye county of Carlow, a man of great estate, but of a very extraordinary character, had asked some very slight favour of him in London, just before his setting out for Ireland, & conceiving, with very little foundation, yt ye Secretary had not used him well, he followed him over to Ireland, with the sole purpose of sending him a challenge. The Secretary had scarce set his foot on Irish ground before he received this challenge, wch he accepted. The combatants met in ye Phoenix Park & discharged their pistols, but luckily no mischief was done; and the first action of ye Secretary's wch brought him into public notice was this duel, wch made the whole of his ministry here extremely easy, & he was never once attempted to be bullied in ye house or out of it, tho' such attempts were made almost daily on his predecessor, St George McCartney. Mr. Bagnal continued here for a few days longer, during wch time he quarelled & fought a duel with another gentleman & received a wound in his arm; & having done the business he came about, he returned to England before ye Parlt met, & never attended in Parliam afterwds, & upon ye expiration of it declined representing ye county of Carlow, wch he might have done without expence, in ye next Parliam'. . . . But as ye making a fortune for this man seems to have been ye chief point of Lord Harcourt's administration, it may be curious to pursue it step by step. Upon his first arrival he was, in right of his office, made a privy couusillor, but this was but little consolation as he was in very indigent circumstances. In former times Secretarys were generally contented with ye emoluments of their office, & had such opportunitys of getting money for doing favours that they were seldom rewarded with great places. And all this was done without envy & with noise. But in Lord Harington's adm" a different mode prevailed, much to ye detriment of ye people of Ireland. For it is of little real consequence to ye public whether a man gets a peerage for nothing or whether he pays money for it; but every place given to an Englishman is so far a loss to ye people. Of the Secretarys since Lord Harington's time, one only, Ld Frederick Cambell,* returned without taking a considerable lucrative employmt along with him. Mr. Weston was made Aulnager; Lord George Sackville, Clerk of the Council, with ye reversion of ye place of Ranger of ye Phoenix Park; Sr Henry Cavendish was indeed a resident, so yt ye making him Teller of ye Exchequer does not fall within ye rule. Mr. Rigby was made Master of ye Rolls, Mr. Hamilton, Chancellor of ye Excheq'; Sr Geo. McCartney, from ye circumstances of ye times, was content with a pension of £1,500 a year, but it was soon changed into a governm of an unheard of castle in the North of Ireland. But to proceed with Col. Blaquiere. In order to give him something like a fortune, & to bestow some consequence upon him, he was made a Knight of yo Bath; & a common gate keeper of ye Phoenix Park who had a small gate house there & a salary of about 12£ a year, happens to dye, the place was given to the Secretary, & to make it worth his acceptance, a lease was made him by ye Crown of a few acres in ye Park for the term of 3 lives, wch were walled in & a very handsom lodge & improvem' built & layed out for him at ye public expence. The value of this grant could not have been less than 5 or six 1000 pounds. But as this was a scheme of the Cols own, for he was not until some time after made Knight of ye Bath, it was like all the rest of his schemes, daring & inconsiderate. The Park was already overburthened with rangers and lodges, & ye people cryed out agt the enclosure, alleging that they had a liberty of

But he got a great place in his own country, Scotland."

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HISTORY OF

roads & ways thro' ye Park; and, their cause being MENTARY undertaken by some turbulent persons in ye City, the IRELAND. improvemt was presented as crossing a public road; & the King was put to ye indignity & expence of making out a title to his own Park, wch with a great deal of difficulty he was enabled to do; & ye whole transaction was attended with great heats & uneasinesses to La Harcourt's adm", & forced ye Secretary to remain a great while incognito. But this grant was by no means sufficient to satisfy ye ambition & ye penury of St John Blaquiere. He was looking circumspectly about for ye fall of some great office; but no opportunity offered. At length Francis Andrews, Provost of Trinity College, died in consequence of ye irregularities of his youth. A man of more principle & less audacity than St John Blaquiere could never have elicited any personal advantage from such an event. Tho' sufficiently learned for an officer, he could not be Provost, but an opportunity offered of accommodating ye matter. John Hely Hutchinson, Prime Serjt at law, ye vainest man alive, set his heart upon ye place. The return of 2 members to serve in Parl was supposd to be annexed to it, wch was a power the Prime Serjeant envied in other men, & wisha to procure for himself. He immagined too yt it would give him an opportunity of gratifying his revenge by supplanting the Attorney-Gen in ye next Parl', who had, early in his life, represented ye University, & had ever since held ye seat. He did not reflect how very improper it would be to put a practising lawyer, a man with a wife & family, & no divine, contrary to all rule & order, at ye head of ye only University in ye kingdom. He only considered the precedent in ye case. Andrews was a lawyer & yet Provost, & why might not he; leaving out of ye consideration yt Andrews was a Fellow, & as such rose only in his own profession. A bargain was struck between these two men, that Hutchinson shd give up to ye other his place of Aulnager, & resign his place of Prime Serjeant in favour of Mr. Dennis, in whose promotion Lord Shannon strongly interested himself, & yt as a compensation for it, he shd be made Provost; and Lord Harcourt, who had not in any of his political transactions the smallest regard to decency, did not oppose it; at least, much. But it is likely the thing could not have been effected, or the King be prevailed upon to do so preposterous an act, but by ye strongest influence of the English minister. The adopting this measure was attended with all yt ridicule, vexation, & persecution of ye new Provost wch might be expected, & wch will probably prove fatal to him. But it did not impede Lord Hartcourt's adm", wch from some fatality, nothing could move or disturb. But there still remained something to ye completion of Sir John Blaquiere's schemes, wch was a wife of a good connection, & intitled to a good fortune. The lady pitched upon was an heiress whose father had an estate of £800 a year, & who was cousin-german to Sir Wm Montgomery's three daughters. But as ye father could not afford to part with any thing in present upon ye marriage, a mean was found out to put the new Knight in possession of ye whole estate at once, by procuring for the father a pension equivalent in income to what he parted with. From these circumstances wch are known, some guess may be made how other matters were carryed on. As to ye state of parties, Lord Harcourt opened his administration with a strong majority, & accidents concurred during ye first session to render him still stronger. The expected honours, many of wch were promised over & over again, were still delayed, by wch the small interests were kept in yt obedience to the commands of Governmt, wch they had shewn from ye beginns of this Parlt, & it was determind to carry them on to ye end of it. In yt hope Lord Shannon's interest was entirely come over, & had made some terms wch they expected would be fulfilled; so yt the whole opposition consisted of Mr. Ponsonby, ye former Speaker's shattered interest, & yc Duke of Leinster's. The single opposition of Mr. Barry Maxwell Barry, who made up in pertinacity & industry for what he wanted in abilities, & some individuals who were not very much in earnest. And by ye death of ye D. of Leinster in this session, the Marquiss of Kildare, now Duke of Leinster, withdrew his opposition, of wch he was heartily tired; and for ye remainder of this session & ye whole of ye following one, the field was left open to my Lord Hartcourt almost without an enemy. And in ye next session ye small opposition wch remained (for by yt time Mr. Flood & Mr. Hussey Burgh, the two best popular speakers, were very much soften, & Flood made Vice-Treasurer) found an advantage in their situation, & by a new manœuvre the Secretary chose to carry all points of danger by their means. Another thing wch contributed to ye ease of Ld Harcourt's adm" was his

bringing over with him ye repeal of ye Oak-boy Act, & a power to unite ye two revenue boards, tho' it was certainly for ye advantage of ye country they shd be kept separate, if it could be done without expense. In treating of this session I shall divide it into two periods, the business of ye House till ye pass the money bills & ye recess, & ye business subsequent to yt period."

The manuscript is entirely in the autograph of Howard, and many pages are in writing of very small size.

It was most liberally placed at the disposal of your Commission by its owner, the Reverend Michael Molony, C. C,. of Kilbride, co. Wicklow. He acquired it about eighteen years ago, at a sale of effects of the late Rev. Jas. McKenna, P. P., Rathdrum, who bought it at the sale of the late Colonel Howard, of Castle Howard whose book-plates appear in both volumes. J. T. GILBERT.

Dublin.

THE BLACK BOOK OF LIMERICK.

PARLIA

MENTARY HISTORY OF

IRELAND.

BLACK BOOK OF

The late President of St. Patrick's College, May- LIMERICK. nooth, bequeathed to the College library an extensive collection of manuscripts, now called from his name the "O'Renehan Manuscripts," consisting of original documents and transcripts, chiefly relating to the history of Ireland, and especially to the history of the Irish Church.

Among these manuscripts is one, the Regestum Limericense, commonly known as the Liber Niger, or Black Book of Limerick, of which the college is only the depositary, the manuscript being the property of the Roman Catholic Bishop of the diocese of Limerick.

see.

The Regestum Limericense is, as its name implies, the cartulary of the Cathedral of Limerick, being a collection of all the documents relating to the property, and the rights, statutes, usages, and privileges of the It is written on vellum and parchment, the most ancient part consisting of seventy-six leaves, written in the latter part of the 14th century, the earliest document bearing date in 1194, and the latest in 1362. An appendix containing the Procuration Table and Rental was added in the beginning of the 15th century by Bishop Cornelius O'Dea, whose name may possibly be remembered in connexion with the very beautiful Limerick crozier and mitre, which formed one of the most attractive groups of ecclesiastical art in the Mediæval Loan Exhibition of South Kensington.

The documents contained in the cartulary consist of charters, statutes, agreements, inquisitions, and other records of transactions relating to the affairs of the see. They are of the same general character which is common in ancient ecclesiastical and monastic cartularies; and they supply much valuable information as to the history of the Cathedral Church of St. Mary, and as to the usages, the discipline, and above all, the topography of the diocese and city of Limerick.

The history of this MS. is somewhat remarkable. The more modern portion was compiled (in 1418) during the episcopate of Cornelius O'Dea, already referred to, and consists of the Rental, the Procuration Book, and other documents relating to the property of the see. But the more ancient part consists of transcripts of documents from the date of the Invasion downward; the earliest being of the year 1194, and the latest of 1362. The book appears to have remained in the diocesan archives from Bishop O'Dea's time till the War of the Confederates in 1641. Bishop Adams, in the reign of James I., had a transcript made of the latter portion, which was rapidly becoming illegible. This transcript is known as the Little Black Book. The Black Book itself was seen and used by Ware, and extracts from it are found in the Sloane MSS.

During the ascendency of the Catholic party in 1641 and the years which followed, the Protestant Bishop, George Webb, having been imprisoned, the Black Book returned into Catholic hands; but little seems to be known of its subsequent fortunes for a long period. It passed a second time out of the custody of the Catholic Church; for the medium through which it is believed to have been recovered by the Catholic Bishop in the beginning of the present century was Mr. Ralph Ouseley, a Protestant gentleman, by whom it was given to the Right Rev. Dr. Young, who was Bishop of Limerick from 1796 till 1813. Bishop Young evidently knew and understood its value, and the margin bears evidence in many places of his intelligent appreciation.

The late Roman Catholic Bishop, Dr. Ryan, placed it in the hands of the late President of St. Patrick's

College, Maynooth, Very Reverend Laurence O'Renehan; and Dr. O'Renehan having bequeathed his MSS. to the College, and the Black Book being still in the collection, it remains with the consent of the present Bishop, Right Reverend Dr. Butler, in the custody of the College, but subject to the disposal of the Bishop.

A transcript of it was made for the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, under the direction of the late Reverend Dr. Todd, and two further copies have been since made, one for the Bishop of Limerick, and one for the library of Maynooth College.

Its contents differ but little from those of other diocesan or monastic cartularies, being partly ecclesiastical, but in great part relating to the temporal possessions of the see. They consist of papal documents, diocesan statutes, ordinances, disciplinary enactments, presentations to benefices, licenses, regulations for the chapter and for monastic bodies, intermixed with leases, contracts, inquisitions, quit-claims, covenants about mills, fisheries, right of water-courses, fairs, and markets, and the numberless similar details of the affairs of great mediæval seigneurs. These, it need hardly be said, are replete with instruction as to the antiquities not alone of the district, but of the entire Anglo-Irish community of the period. It would be out of place to enter here into any detail of these documents. I shall only mention one, which has been referred to already in more than one account of the Liber Niger.

It is an Inquisition taken in the year 1201, under an order of Meyler FitzHenry, Grand Justiciary, by William de Burgo, of all the property of the Bishop of Limerick. The particulars of the Inquisition do not call for any special notice; but it is remarkable in this respect, that it was held under a triple jury selected out of the three classes of the population then existing in Limerick, namely, twelve Englishmen, twelve Irishmen, and twelve Ostmen or Dancs. The necessity of such an arrangement at this period is a noteworthy evidence of the strength and durability of the footing which the Northerners had obtained in the maritime towns of Ireland. That such had been their position in Waterford and the towns of the eastern coast had been sufficiently apparent; but it is more remarkable to find them occupying such a relation in a remote western port, such as Limerick.

In any selection from Irish cartularies for publication, the Black Book of Limerick ought to hold a prominent place. C. W. RUSSELL.

CHIEF BARON WILLES'S MEMORANDA ON IRELAND. Since the appearance of the notice of Chief Baron Willes's Notes on Ireland, published in the Appendix of last year's report, another MS. volume from the same pen has been put into my hands by Mr. Willes, with kind permission to bring it under the observation of the Historical Manuscripts Commission.

Like the two volumes of notes reported on last year, the present volume is autograph, and is entitled "Memoranda on Debates, &c., in the Irish Houses of "Parliament." It is a small 4to volume of about 150 pages, and contains the Chief Baron's account of the proceedings which took place in the Irish Parliament during his sojourn in Ireland, upon the chief questions of public interest at that period. Chief Baron Willes was not a member of either House of Parliament, nor does he profess to report even in the most summary way the parliamentary discussions, with which, indeed, he had no direct opportunity of becoming acquainted. But his position as a privy councillor brought him officially into connection in the Privy Council with all the important discussions of public policy which arose in Parliament. It is not necessary to observe that under the operation of Poynings' Act all heads of bills intended to be submitted to Parliament were first discussed in the Privy Council in order to be certified by the Lord Lieutenant in Council to the Privy Council of England, to be by them returned, with any required modification, for proposal and discussion in either house of the Irish Parliament. In this way all measures originating with the Irish Government necessarily came before the Privy Council in the first instance, and even measures which had been introduced in one of the two Houses were discussed in the Privy Council before passing to the other House.

The time of the Chief Baron's sojourn in Ireland was

a very critical one in the parliamentary history of that kingdom in the last century. It was during this time that the first stirrings of the agitation for legislative independence may be said to have begun in Ireland; and almost every question of public policy in turn was eagerly seized by the Irish national party as an occasion for presenting in some new form the principle of freedom from English control which it was their aim to establish. Of the secret history of this movement and the impulses by which it was created or urged on, but little is disclosed by contemporary writers, and I cannot help considering the Chief Baron's memoranda as a valuable accession to the existing materials.

These memoranda commence from the date of his arrival in 1757, and contain a very interesting account of the debate on the Pension List which occurred during the Duke of Bedford's government, and of the direct agitation for the repeal or modification of Poynings' Act, by which it was followed. A still more curious and less known chapter of Irish Parliamentary history is the Chief Baron's account of a bill introduced by Lord Clanbrassil for the registration of the Roman Catholic clergy, by which it was proposed to license one priest for each parochial district, provision being made for the perpetuation of the same license to the priest who should succeed on the demise of each incumbent. Lord Clanbrassil had introduced the measure unsuccessfully in the session of 1756; but it was carried by a small majority in the Lords in 1757, and was then brought for discussion to the Privy Council. The Chief Baron's account of the debate, as well as his reflections on the question generally, afford a curious insight into the condition of public opinion on Catholic claims at this period, even in the more moderate and liberal classes. The bill was rejected on the ground that, whereas all previous enactments for registration of Popish clergy had aimed at the extinction of the clerical body at the expiration of the term of the existing registration, Lord Clanbrassil's proposal, even by the moderate measure of toleration which it doled out in providing for a succession, was in effect an establishment of Popery in Ireland. On this ground even the Chief Baron himself, although with an evident unconsciousness of any want of enlightened liberality in so doing, argued against the bill.

It was rejected by a large majority of the Council. But the very discussion of it at this time is in itself a noticeable circumstance; and it is creditable to the proposal of Lord Clanbrassil that this bill appears to have been but one of a series of kindred measures which he had projected, among which was a scheme for the recognition of episcopal government in the Catholic church, and a still more remarkable one for the establishment of a seminary for the education of the priesthood at home-a curious anticipation, in truth, by nearly half a century, of Mr. Pitt's policy in the foundation of Maynooth College.

In the same volume with these memoranda of the debates is bound up a most interesting letter (evidently to Lord Warwick), dated 15th December 1760, giving an account from day to day of the progress of the contest as to the right of originating money bills, which culminated in the declaration of independence. The struggle began on occasion of the dissolution of Parliament at the death of George II., and the subsequent general election. The sympathies of the Chief Baron, as an Englishman, were naturally with the Royal prerogative, but his narrative is most instructive, and appears to be thoroughly fearless and impartial.

Equally graphic are his account of the mingled alarm and excitement caused throughout Ireland by the news of the landing of the French at Carrickfergus; and his summary of the discussions in the Privy Council on a proposed alteration of the law as to municipal elections in Dublin, giving new and more direct powers to the burgesses in the election of wardens.

It is to be regretted that he did not continue these interesting memoranda to the end of his residence in Dublin; but the period which they cover may be said to have opened up in a greater or less degree the principles of nearly all the discussions which, for the rest of the century, were destined to keep alive in Ireland that spirit of agitation which only subsided in the total prostration consequent on the unhappy crisis of the rebellion of 1798.

C. W. RUSSELL.