182 
probably an error in this title. It is most likely, that it should be 
written Taidh Fenechas, 2. e. the ancient law on theft or larceny. 
XV. Cain Borachta, a tract relating to property in herbage, 
herds, flocks, &c. 
Of the works of the authors mentioned in the former sec- 
tion, it is to be feared, that the greater part is now irrecover- 
ably lost. This, notwithstanding the great care at all times 
taken by the Irish of their ancient laws and records, will not be 
much wondered at, when it is considered, that the Danes and 
Norwegians, wherever their power extended, proved themselves 
the determined enemies of literature, by plundering the schools 
and colleges, burning and destroying the books, and murdering 
* the professors and students. A barbarous policy, in which they were 
too closely followed by the English, from their first invasion of 
Ireland down to at least the reign of James the First, if not to the 
time of Cromwell. Add to this, that, when the clergy and monks 
(in whose libraries copies of those important national documents 
were always religiously preserved) were obliged to fly from the land 
of their forefathers, to escape from the persecutions waged against 
them by the ruling powers, they carried with them to the con- 
tinent, where they found an asylum, as much of their property, in- 
cluding their books, as they could secure from the gripe of rapa- 
city. Even the law-tracts mentioned in the foregoing catalogue, 
which, not much above 150 years ago, were jn the hands of 
Duald M‘Firbis, are no longer forthcoming. It is true Mr. 
O’Conor, in his preface to “ Ogygia vindicated,” page 9, speaking 
of Mr. M‘Firbis, says, “ His historical, typographical, and genealo- 
“gical collections (written by his own hand) are now in the pos- 
session of a worthy nobleman, the Earl of Roden, who added 
this to the other collections of Irish manuscripts made by his 
Father, our late Lord Chanceller Jocelyn.” Amongst these, his 
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