investigators, accepting these volumes as faithful official indices to the Rolls, will be misled into concluding lands to have clear titles, although, in reality, subject to heavy reversionary claims, the entries of which on the Rolls are at present inaccessible to the public, in consequence of the defective mode in which the so-called 'Calendars' have been compiled. "These omissions and inaccuracies in connection with grants of lands are also gravely prejudicial to the chorographer, the local historian, and the local proprietor. "The Calendars totally ignore the admirably scientific system, initiated by Sir Thomas A. Larcom in the Ordnance Survey, of tabulating chronologically the various documentary and colloquial forms of the name of each townland in Ireland, the valuable results of which appear on the Ordnance Maps, and in the recently published elaborate Index of nearly one thousand pages, enumerating separately and precisely the names, areas, counties, baronies, parishes, and other details of upwards of 62,000 Irish townlands and towns. "In competent hands one section of the calendars of Anglo-Irish records might have been made the complement of this important national work-but, instead of accuracy and precision in connection with the land entries, the volumes before us present a chaotic combination of errors, defects, and omissions, which, but for the present exposition, might have led the world to conclude that the science and intelligence of Ireland had suddenly retrograded with giant strides." Among the "incorrect abstracts, inaccurate decipherments, and false translations of documents on the Rolls," we find numerous specimens of such errors as the following:- A Kildare rectory deciphered into a Dublin church; the Charter of Clonmel assigned to 1483 instead of 1364; Aylsham in Norfolk deciphered into Isinglass; Avoir-du-pois deciphered into haberdashery; kitchen ware into batter; a bishop of Ossory changed into "the Lord Ollor bishop;" defalcations of imprests set down as defalcations of priests; "Thewe," the old English word for a ducking-stool, declared to signify Saxon bondmen! The result of the analysis of the text of the Calendars is summed up as follows: "I. That a large portion of the Text,' purporting to be the result of original research, is composed of plagiarisms from printed books; and that no conclusive evidence has been adduced to shew that the remainder of the so-called 'Text' has not been abstracted from the Calendar of the same Patent Rolls, formerly prepared at the public expense under the Irish Record Commission. "II. That the grants of titles and offices given in these volumes are defective and valueless, as they omit the important clauses of the patents. "III. That the grants of pardons as here published are defective and useless, because the Calendars, for the most part, do not specify the causes or offences for which the pardons were granted. "IV. That the grants of lands as here given, are defective, misleading, and may be prejudicial to the public, because, in the majority of cases, the Calendars do not mention all the lands granted, and seldom specify the counties or localities of those enumerated. "V. That the charters, royal letters, ecclesiastical and municipal documents on the Patent Rolls, as presented in these volumes, are defective and unreliable, because the Calendar-versions omit various important portions of them, give incorrect decipherments of some, and inaccurate translations of others. "VI. That the Calendars are seriously defective, because they omit to notice a large number of important patents and grants, and the places in the text which should have been occupied by them have been filled with unacknowledged reprints of common books already accessible to the public and irrelevant in Calendars of Patent Rolls. “Thus, these Calendars have not only failed to fulfil any one of the objects for which works of this class are executed; but also, as defective and inaccurate abstracts of original records, they may, in the words of a late English palæographer, prove equally dangerous to truth, property, and to liberty itself.” ” " With these conclusions every reader who carefully examines the so-called "Calendars" must necessarily coincide; but it would appear from the following observations that further misdirected 'movements were contemplated under the same erring official guidance :— "The extraordinary circumstances connected with the production of the socalled 'Calendars' of a small portion of the Rolls, signally demonstrate how difficult it would be to predict the full extent to which the public might be prejudiced by the continuance of a system of ignoring those conversant with these subjects. That such a course was contemplated must be inferred from statements made in the House of Commons, that a Public Record Office is actually in course of construction at Dublin. This building appears to have been designed in the same spirit, and by the same authorities, with the notorious Calendars-since neither the Royal Irish Academy, the Irish Archæological and Celtic Society, nor any one of the recognised archivists of Ireland, was consulted either upon its construction, or with reference to the documents proposed to be deposited within its walls! Such a proceeding has excited serious apprehension in the public mind, as presaging a perverse attempt to persevere in a system which has already produced first-fruits so mischievous as the chaotic Calendars of Patent Rolls, and which, but for a timely public protest in these pages, might have been as severely prejudicial to property, as to the character of the historic literature of the Empire. "The Council of the Irish Archæological and Celtic Society, by its action at this juncture, has added another to its many recognised merits. These eminent noblemen and scholars have presented to the Treasury a memorial, advocating the concentrating and calendaring of all the scattered Public Records of Ireland, and dwelling with emphasis on the necessity of providing that the execution of such arrangement should be entrusted to scholars of tried ability and known skill in this department of learning, so as to insure the fullest possible advantages to the public." This Memorial, already published in our pages, has been followed by one of similar purport from the Kilkenny and South-east of Ireland Archæological Society. The Archivists of Ireland will, we trust, not now relax their efforts until they have exacted proper measures from the guardians of the national purse. On this subject the author of the work before us observes as follows: "The entire affair resolves itself practically into the narrow question-whether the Public Records of Ireland shall be still subjected to be garbled and capriciously manipulated by law clerks and pedigree agents, with results prejudicial to the community, costly to the revenue, and discreditable to the country, or whether they shall—as in all other civilized nations-be committed to the management of b GENT. MAG., Sept. 1863, p. 440. archivists of recognised capacity, whose labours would be advantageous at home, and redound abroad to the honour of the empire. "It is unnecessary here to repeat that which has been already detailed, with reference to the steps most proper to be taken for effectively carrying out so important an object. Regarding the question from a public financial point of view, it will be seen from the official figures in the Appendix, that although since 1839 the Imperial Parliament has granted the aggregate sum of £631,614 for record and archivistic purposes in London and Edinburgh, there has been no special allocation in this department for similar arrangements connected with the Anglo-Irish Records in Ireland, with the exception of the cost of the so-called 'Calendars of Patent Rolls,' and £15,000 voted for a Public Record Office to be erected at Dublin under the extraordinary circumstances noticed. "Discarding narrow ideas and local prejudices, we should essay to take a wide and extensive view of this question-affecting not only the titles, properties, pedigrees, and lands of large numbers, but also absolutely involving the perfection of the history of Great Britain, which cannot be properly written until all the materials for the annals of both islands have been placed within the grasp of the imperial historian. And if any man,' wrote Bacon, 'perhaps should think it may refresh the memory of former discords, he may satisfy himself with the verse― "olim hæc meminisse juvabit:" for, the case being now altered, it is matter of comfort and gratulation to remember former troubles. "To which I may add, that a solid and permanent public good would result from the publication, in their integrity, of the original documents, in the presence of which should rapidly fade away those romances, styled 'Irish Histories,' by which Ireland has been, and must continue to be, historically mistaught and deluded, until confronted with the facts still slumbering in her obscure record repositories. "Public opinion, now directed to the present extraordinary position of the Irish Records, will, it is to be hoped, effect the abolition of a system which, but for the disclosures in these pages, could scarcely have been imagined to exist at the present day in connection with any portion of the Archives of the United Kingdom: 'He,' says John Selden, 'that pulls down the first brick, does the main work, afterwards 'tis easy to pull down the wall.' Let us therefore trust that we may soon witness the attainment of the main object of this publication, namely, the establishment of arrangements to secure from accident, and render accessible to all classes of inquirers, the invaluable, though now obscure and ill-treated, Public Records of Ireland." The treatise on the Records of Ireland has effected an important service in calling attention to the neglected condition of those Archives, and in demonstrating that scholars can with effect appeal to the bar of public opinion in vindication of the literary rights of themselves and their predecessors, when sought to be infringed upon, even under the auspices of influential but erring Governmental departments. While regretting that the public funds should have been expended on such Calendars, and that some well-intentioned officials were for a time misled into patronising these productions, we cannot but feel that this affair, in its entirety, has inculcated a salutary monition to those who would embark in, or presume to pronounce publicly on, archivistic or historical subjects without having previously qualified themselves by the devotion of the time and study requisite for their proper comprehension. The valuable historic and documentary information, not elsewhere accessible, embodied in this volume of the "Irish Archivist," render it a standard repertory for inquirers into subjects connected with the "history, position, and treatment of the Public Records of Ireland," while the wit and humour with which its pages abound will make it acceptable to readers not specially interested in archivistic literature. MEMORIAL TO THE LATE REV. T. JAMES. We have much pleasure in complying with a request for the insertion of the following resolutions in reference to a Memorial of the late Rev. Canon James; and we beg to commend the matter to the attention of our readers. Some idea of Mr. James' claims to regard from all archæologists may be gathered from his memoir, lately given in our pages". A general meeting of the subscribers was held at the Architectural Society's Rooms, Gold-street, Northampton, on Saturday, May the 7th; the Rev. Lord Alwyne Compton in the chair. The temporary Secretary reported that a circular had been addressed to each subscriber, requesting that, should he be unable to attend the meeting, he would signify his assent or otherwise to the recommendation of the committee, that the Memorial to the late Rev. T. James do consist of a handsome font and cover in the Round portion of St. Sepulchre's Church, Northampton. Many letters were received from subscribers unable to attend the meeting, the great majority of whom entirely concurred in the recommendation of the committee. It was resolved, on the motion of W. Smyth, Esq., seconded by W. Mackworth Dolben, Esq., "That the funds subscribed for a Memorial to the late Rev. T. James be expended in a font and cover for St. Sepulchre's Church." It was resolved, on the motion of the Rev. C. Smyth, seconded by Ashby Ashby, Esq., "That application be made to G. G. Scott, Esq., R.A., to furnish a design for the proposed emorial, and that the committee do communicate with Mr. Scott on the subject without delay." It was also resolved, on the motion of A. Pell, Esq., seconded by H. O. Nethercote, Esq., "That the subscription list be closed on the 29th day of September next, until which time the Northampton Union Bank and the Northampton Banking Company be requested to receive subscriptions." It was moved by the Hon. and Rev. A. Douglas, seconded by the Rev. C. Smyth, and carried unanimously, "That the committee which has hitherto acted in the preliminary arrangements for this meeting, be requested to act in carrying out its resolutions, and that they have power to add to their number;" and it was further resolved, that such resolutions be advertised in three Northampton and two Leicester papers. On the motion of W. Mackworth Dolben, Esq., seconded by Ashby Ashby, Esq., the best thanks of the meeting were given to the Rev. Lord Alwyne Compton, for his able conduct in the chair. (Signed) ALWYNE COMPTON, Chairman. GENT. MAG., Jan. 1864, p. 119. HISTORY OF CHARLES THE BOLD, DUKE OF BURGUNDYa. How the popular history of any country first grew up would be hard to trace. Sometimes it really represents a national sentiment, a deeprooted feeling in the minds of the people as to the character of their leading men and the most eventful times in their annals. The colours of such a painting will be very bright or very dark, for a national feeling, whether of love or hate, is always strong: but such a painting is worth careful study; at the very least it expresses, as nothing else can, the temper of the nation, and enables us to make some guess at its future course. In early times such a national history will naturally take the form of poetry (as in Barbour's poem on the Bruce), which soon becomes a prose chronicle, with some attempt at toning down improbable incidents, but with the sentiment thoroughly preserved. Often, perhaps, the original shape of the story is due to one man's conception of the course of events, which spreads and becomes popular. How much in Froissart, for instance, is due to gossip from chance persons whom he met, and all of which he jotted down in good faith for us. Yet our ordinary history embodies almost all that Froissart gives us concerning the men of his age. So, again, every one can tell the stories as to the youth of Henry V., about Judge Gascoigne and Falstaff, and probably believes the former if not the latter, though now we are told on the best authority that the Tudor chroniclers never miss a good story, and that almost all the good stories are-only good stories. Has not Mr. Carlyle just shewn us that even the politeness of the English and French guards to each other at Fontenoy, as to "which should fire first," is only "a good story," worked up perhaps in a French guard-room. Still, be the sources what they may, a popular history grows up in time, and becomes as it were identified with the nation, which will fiercely resent any attempt at impugning its truth. It was long before the Highlanders would hear anything against Ossian; the Lowlanders even yet cannot bear to have the story of Wallace examined; and what did not Abelard suffer for proving that St. Denis the patron saint of France was not Dionysius the Areopagite. It was only because we had become Protestants that the deposition of St. George from his place of honour was taken quietly. Even Milton did not quite dare to dismiss Brutus and his Trojans entirely from the earliest history of England. A time, however, comes sooner or later when the process History of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. By John Foster Kirk." (2 vols. London: Murray.) GENT. MAG. 1864, VOL. I, 4 T |