a situation which he filled with honour to himself and advantage to 

 that patriotic and valuable establishment. His death is attributed, 

 with every appearance of justice, to excessive application to his fa- 

 vourite literary pursuits. His labours for the preservation and 

 improvement of our language deserve considerable praise. 



O'BRIEN'S IRISH GRAMMAR.— Dublin, 1809. 



The author of this Grammar was the Rev. Paul O'Brien, Pro- 

 cessor of Irish in the College of Maynooth. He entitled his work 

 ** A Practical Grammar of the Irish Language," and commenced 

 by an Introduction, which points out the tendency and sys- 

 tem of his grammar, and the requisites in addition to it for com- 

 pleting a course of instruction in the language, viz. a book of Ex- 

 ercises, another of Dialogues, and a Dictionary. He offers his ser- 

 vices, if at any future period his labors might be of use towards 

 the accomplishment of what was wanting in that respect. This is 

 followed by a poetical address to the four provinces of Ireland, in 

 which the neglected state of our literature is deplored in pathetic 

 strains. 



Orthography. — In this department the learned Professor com- 

 mences with the ancient Alphabet according to the U^ttjce-pc, as 

 given by Vallancey, with another from an old copy of the same, 

 and a third Alphabet from the Book of Leacan. These are fol- 

 lowed by the modern Alphabet, a classification of the Letters and 

 the vowel sounds, with their quantities, corresponding English sounds 

 and Irish examples. The vowels have many other sounds besides 

 these which he has noticed in the table of their quantities. Between 

 some of the corresponding English sounds of the Iri^h consonants 



