engineers. On many European rivers great traffic is carried on with boats of very little draught. If the Limerick corporation or the river commissioners would consult some boatbuilder from Pesth on the Danube, or a steam engineer from Cincinnati on the Ohio, they would soon learn how to make use of the Shannon. But at all events, the number of persons and amount of property on the banks of the Shannon and its tributaries far exceed those affected by the navigation of the waters. To this object the attention of the commissioners should be mainly directed. The injury now submitted to can hardly be calculated. It is not merely the actual loss of crops by floods, and the waste of ground now periodically or permanently under water, but the injury extends to lands above the flood levels, the produce of which is deteriorated by the cold, damp atmosphere and the early frosts thereby produced. Agricultural improvement is retarded, and I have the authority of Sir Robert Kane for the statement, that "the property lost in a single year is so great that it would, if judiciously expended, pay the entire cost of remedying the evil."

I have said thus much about the improvement of the Shannon, because it is a subject associated with the past history and future prospects of Ireland, and is likely to be again before Parliament. In old times nothing was thought of by the Government

about this river, except that it was a useful barrier and defence against the hostile septs who dwelt beyond its boundary. Money was gladly spent in building and keeping in repair fortifications to guard "the passes of the Shannon." It is the happy proof of a new and better epoch, that the river is now regarded as a channel of intercourse, and as a means of developing the peaceful industry and productive resources of the country. And I have included my remarks in the chapter on Home Rule, because this seems an example of public undertakings, the designing and carrying out of which could be well delegated to native ingenuity and skill. The British Government has undertaken the postal and telegraph service of Ireland, and its police and schools, and is likely to have charge of its railways also; but it is too much to expect the overburdened British Government to attend to the rivers and roads of a country. An Irish board, or Council, or whatever it might be called, in Dublin, could manage such affairs better than a committee at Westminster, and any board of commissioners there appointed.

Shortly after I was at Limerick I heard of the celebration of an ancient custom connected with the river. A steamer, freighted with the corporation and various official personages, sailed down the tidal stream to where it joins the sea, and there a javelin

was cast towards the ocean, in symbol of the sovereignty of the Mayor of the port over the magnificent river. Bombastical speeches were made, not without the usual references to Saxon oppressors, and the glories of the green isle, "first flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea." The whole scene was characteristic of Irish public life, in matters where rhetorical patriotism is alone within attainment. But if entrusted with practical power of home government, Irish enterprise and Irish capital would find in such works as the improvement of the Shannon, useful and remunerative occupation, in the prosperity resulting from which, all parties and creeds and classes would share.

Give the Lord Lieutenant a Council, representing County Boards, and consisting of men such as formed the Executive of the Industrial Exhibition, and Irish home affairs would be "ruled" in Dublin better than they can be at Westminster.

CHAPTER IX.

A CHAPTER ON IRISH HISTORY.

Celtic Records-Annals of the Four Masters-Before and after the Norman Invasion-Mr. Froude's Lectures.

MY

Y old master, John Williams, Archdeacon of Cardigan, Rector of the Edinburgh Academy, imbued me with early respect for Celtic lore. He believed that Britain in ancient times was peopled by a race far in advance of other northern nations, who brought from Phoenicia and the East rich stores of knowledge and art. After the Roman and Scandinavian invasions, the ancient civilization of the island declined, and the records of it only remain in Welsh Triads and Taliesin fragments. He used to affirm that the Cymry of Britain crossed over to Ireland, and civilized the savages there. The Irish tongue, he said, was only a dialect of the ancient Cymraeg, “a most primitive and vigorous offshoot of the orginal language of the Noachida." All which is learnedly discussed in his book, "Gomer: an Analysis of the

Language and Knowledge of the Ancient Cymry," which I had the pleasure of reviewing in 1854 in the "Literary Gazette," of which I was then one of the editors. Peace to the memory of my enthusiastic teacher and good friend, Archdeacon Williams!

Probably from this early bias I always used to look with profound respect on those who professed to be versed in ancient Irish lore. From ordinary books it was not easy to gather any clear knowledge of old Irish history. Milesians and Firbolgs and Tuathana-Danains, and the rest of them, they all had a hazy existence, not historical, scarcely legendary. But in hearing learned men referring to venerable native manuscripts, especially "The Annals of the Four Masters," I supposed there must be rich sources of wisdom, the entrance of which was shut out by ignorance of the language. The notion was dispelled on seeing the actual "Annals of the Four Masters," the great authority on the subject, and reading the translation, which the learned labours of Dr. O'Donovan brought within the reach of English students. A portion of the work, down to the year 1171, had previously been edited by Dr. O'Connor, from an ancient. MS. in the library at Stowe. There are two manuscripts, more perfect, in Dublin-one in the Library at Trinity College and the other in that of the Royal Irish Academy. From these Dr. O'Donovan edited