HISTORICAL SKETCHES. SECTION I. LITERARY HISTORY; Or Gleanings from the Early Ages to the Present Day, including some notice of the most eminent Men; references to Irish Typography, whether in Britain or on the Continent; and an Account of the translation and printing of the Sacred Volume in the vernacular tongue. WHATEVER may be presumed as to the character and attainments of any race of men, it is only by the examination of their own written compositions, if they have such in possession, that we can arrive at any precision respecting the extent of their attainments in literature. With regard to the native Irish, however, such has been the singular fate of their manuscripts, and even such is their present condition, that difficulties almost insuperable present themselves at the threshold of inquiry. Many of these, unquestionably, perished in the Danish invasions of the ninth and tenth centuries, and that singular species of policy which obtained for centuries after the Anglo-Norman invasion, must account for the loss of many others.* Collections of others are, it is true, happily still in existence; but whether those of greatest value are to be found in this kingdom, or on the continent, it is impossible for any one to affirm. The probability is, that they are abroad. I am aware of the valuable collection in Trinity College, * According to Ussher, in 848, the Bishop of Armagh and all the students were expelled by Tergusius. Armagh, however, was pillaged four times in succession from 890 to 913.-Tria Thuam. 296. In 1016 the library again sustained material injury from the Normans and Ostmen.-Ann. Innisfal. and Tria Thuam. 298, Injured by fire in 1074, the city was rebuilt by the year 1091, but in the AngloNorman invasion of 1178 various literary works, which had escaped the Danes. were destroyed in the libraries of the monks, so that the native Irish, in order to harass and disappoint the invaders, began to burn the religious edifices with their own hands. See Annal, quoted by Leland, i. 123, A Dublin, of that in the Bodleian Library, and the Cottonian manuscripts, as well as the treasure contained in the Chandos collection at Stowe ; part of which, in four volumes quarto, with a Latin translation, has been recently printed at the charge of the proprietor, his Grace the Duke of Buckingham. Besides these, there are various manuscripts in the possession of Irish gentlemen, members of the Iberno-Celtic Society, and others, some of which are of considerable antiquity. Of the more modern compositions of the two last centuries the titular Bishop of Cork has at least ten thousand quarto pages transcribed. Were, however, the more ancient Irish manuscripts, now in the King's Library at Copenhagen, or the still larger collection in the Royal Library at Paris, examined; were the Spanish manuscripts deciphered, or the stores which are believed to be deposited in the Vatican; it is almost certain that the claims of the Irish, to a very early cultivation of letters, would be set at rest, and admitted by all. Ancient records, the very deciphering of which was strangely regarded in former times, as tending to endanger the tranquillity of the kingdom, were not likely to remain long in it, and hence we fully account for the foreign collections; but that, under the influence of the same fear, the laudable and natural desire of translating any part of these by a foreign power, should not have been met and gratified, proves the extent to which the dread of Irish composition had gone. At such a period, prejudice would consign to oblivion whatever came within its power. Indeed, until the reign of James I., if not later, it seems to have been an object to discover every literary remain of the Old Irish, with a view to its being either destroyed or concealed.† At the same time, no individual can, even at present, distinctly inform us, whether what we have in our possession be of real value or not, or whether these manuscripts are not nearly the only remaining source from which light might be thrown on the ancient history of Ireland, and perhaps discover to us some of their ideas respecting other countries as well as their own. The stores * In the reign of Elizabeth, the King of Denmark applied to England for proper persons, who might translate the ancient Irish books in his possession; and an Irishman in London, then in prison, being applied to on the subject, was ready to engage in the work. But upon a council being called, a certain member, it is said, who may be nameless, opposed the scheme, lest it might be prejudicial to the English interest. + Webb's Analysis, p. 121. Dub. 1791. even in Dublin have never been impartially and thoroughly canvassed, nor does even a complete Catalogue Raisonné of the collection in Trinity College exist. I may repeat it, therefore, that the actual state of Irish manuscript, for these last two hundred years, is one of the most striking illustrations of the power of prejudice, as to one branch of our national history, to which any historian can point. In the most ancient and curious, which, I presume, must be abroad, historical narration there must be, of whatever value; assertions also, many, in which the writer had no motive to falsify, though in various instances he might prove to be mistaken. But what is the amount of information in these numerous written compositions, no man can tell. We have been printing, very properly, ancient and modern Greek in parallel columns,-Turkish for the Turk, and struggling hard to decipher the hieroglyphics of Egypt; but the records of one branch of the British population are still to be explored. Of the manuscripts said to be in Spain, no one informs us whether they are in the Escurial, or at Salamanca, Alcala, or elsewhere. Of the King's Library at Copenhagen, as there has never yet been a printed catalogue, nor the written one completed, what those manuscripts were, which a former monarch wished to have translated, we are yet to be told. In Paris, by a few these manuscripts may be known to exist;-in the Vatican they have slumbered since, and from before, the days of Wadding. Fragments have been translated from a few at home, and if all the rest are of no higher value, we should have the less reason to regret their neglect; but chance specimens from a body of written composition are not like the specimens of most other things. In our present state, there is no judicious man who would hazard more than conjecture, and, perhaps, add,-before you decide, examine, at least, what seem to be the most valuable, and are most valued in different libraries; and, before you return to your verdict, forget not the relative character of other nations. At present we are prepossessed with unexamined opinions; and the positive assertions of national prejudice, whether for or against the antiquity or value of Irish writing, have yet to be met by a positive and candid examination of the writing itself. At all events, there is one evil which has hitherto "pursued the antiquities of Ireland, that the writers in general, who have known her language, have been deficient |