PROCEEDINGS 
OF 
THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 
1838, No. 9. 
January 22. 
SIR Wm. R. HAMILTON, A.M., President, in the Chair. 
A Letter from Colonel Yorke was read, enclosing a copy 
of Lord John Russell’s letter to the Lord Lieutenant, in- 
forming his Excellency that the Academy’s address to the 
Queen was very graciously received, and that her Majesty 
has been pleased to consent to become the Patroness of the 
Academy. 
Sir William Betham read a paper on the “ Eugubian 
Inscriptions” preserved at Gubbio, an Episcopal city in the 
Papal states, on seven plates of bronze, which were disco- 
vered on excavating the crypt of an ancient temple there in 
the year 1444. Five of the inscriptions are in the old Etruscan 
character, written from right to left, like the Hebrew and 
other Shemitic languages; two, the sixth and seventh, are 
in what is now called the Roman character, written from left 
to right. Two other plates were found at the same time, 
and were sent to Venice in the year 1505, but never re- 
turned. 
The object of Sir William Betham’s paper was to show 
that the ancient Etruscan language was identical with the 
Tberno-Celtic, and, that the Irish language, as it is still 
spoken in this country, affords the true clue to the interpre- 
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