Lord Edward Fitzgerald, by Mr Crean, B L. Then the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, Walker's Irish Bards, Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy, Howard's Revenue Exchequer (Irish), where the reader will find an amazing amount of information upon Irish inquisitions, patents, surveys, maps, confiscations, forfeitures, &c. Sir William Betham's Constitutional History of Ireland, Sir Bernard Burke's "Extinct Peerage," and here I may incidentally mention that a mine of learning lies hidden and unprinted in the manuscript volumes of the "Ordnance Survey." The last time that I had occasion to consult these works of priceless value they were kept in a bookcase in the Royal Irish Academy. Whether they have since been drafted over to Sir Samuel Ferguson's, Q C, care in the Rolls Office I know not; but this I know, that if consumed by fire their information could never be replaced. Here you will find three volumes given to each county—viz., the Inquisitions in English, the Patents and the Antiquities. The Inquisitions tempore Elizabeth and James I. give a great amount of learning on the Irish families, Irish properties, confiscations, fisheries, titles, abbeys, abbey lands, &c. In the Antiquities, the reader has the opinions of John O'Donovan, Petrie, and of other able Irish antiquarians that were employed on that survey. As my hand is in, I mention, State Papers temp Henry VIII. to James I.," where the reader will have told to him better than in any history the persecutions of the Catholic clergy in Ireland—witness "the Trial of Darby O'Hurley, Catholic Archbishop of Cashel," where Adam Loftus, Protestant Archbishop of Dublin, had him put to the torture by pouring boiling pitch into his boots to discover if he were consecrated to the archbishopric by the Pope's authority and in places beyond the seas. One or two other works I shall mention, and these are Walker's Hibernian Magazine and the Irish Penny Journal, as also the "History of Ireland," by Sir Richard Cox, Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, and last and not least, the "History of Ireland," by Martin Haverty, sub-librarian of the King's Inns, who I have the privilege of numbering, amongst my old and sincere friends.—I have the honour to remain, your obedient servant,
Knight St Gregory the Great.
II.
I now proceed to consider the very interesting correspondence on the subject of "The Best Hundred Irish Books," and to try, as far as I can, to give effect to the suggestions of the distinguished and able men who have joined in a discussion which may, I hope, prove useful to the students of Irish History.
Dr Healy, in his excellent letter, fairly observes that "the article might be more appropriately headed ' The Best Hundred Books on Irish History.'" But, as a matter of fact, I adopted, with a qualifying adjective, a popular heading, because it was popular; and, anticipating criticism, I endeavoured to fortify myself by starting with the quotation from Carlyle, and adopting the nom de plume of "Historicus," so that I might, as far as it was possible, suggest at the outset what the heading did not clearly suggest—the precise nature of my paper. In addition, I endeavoured to make my position clear by stating that by Irish books I meant "Books or part of books written, no matter by whom, about Ireland or the Irish." But I must not conceal any opinion that historical books are the best; and I agree with Carlyle that "everybody should be advised to begin with the history of his own country." I had, besides, a special reason for directing, so far as I was able, the attention of Irishmen to the history of Ireland. Without going into the question of causes, which would, of course, be quite outside the scope of this paper, it is manifest that the study of Irish history has been and is much neglected. If the statement of Sir C Gavan Duffy be accurate—and there is no more competent judge of the subject—that there are not a "dozen men in the island" capable of drawing up a decent list of Irish historical books, the fact is appalling. Dr Healy, in his letter—of which one cannot speak too highly, having regard to its directness and suggestiveness—says, " that several of the books which 'Historicus' has named should be regarded by anyone as the best, or among the best, does not speak well for Irish Literature;" and he adds, "I cannot blame the writer of your article if amongst his hundred authors he has enumerated some historians who are altogether unworthy of that name, who never consulted, nor cared to consult, the original authorities, and who give us as genuine history their own crude and meagre conceptions, sometimes of real, and sometimes of imaginary, events." Those words are courageous and true, and, if his Grace permit me, I beg to tender him my thanks for using them. I had in my mind, in writing
