Q14 M‘Sweeny, on the Climate of Ireland. 
of safety, and of shelter, Leland informs us, that the general, at the age of four 
score, afflicted with the scene of wretchedness, exposed to the violence of a dgeary 
and tempestuous season, stood for hours at the bridge of Dundalk, directing every 
means for alleviating the miseries of his men. 
James’s council of officers, before the battle of the Boyne, advised him to decline an 
engagement with the army of William, and to maintain a defensive war, as the one 
most likely to destroy men in an unfriendly climate, in want of provisions, and suc- 
eours.—Leland’s History of Ireland. 
The sickness of the English army, corroborates the statement of Campion who, 
when writing of the island at a previous period, said that persons newly arrived, were 
particularly liable to be affected with bowel complaints. 
The comparison which Cox made between the winters and summers of England and 
Ireland, agrees with that which has been given to us by Doctor Rutty.— Natural His- 
tory of the County of Dublin, Vol. LI. p. 469. 
In the Pacata Hibernia, we find by a letter, dated August 1602, the Lord Presi- 
dent giving his opinion against ever undertaking a winter siege in Ireland, “for 
Kingsale was bought at so dear a rate, as while I live, | will protest against a winter 
siege, if it may be avoided.”—Pacat. Hiber. p. 631. 
In the reign of William HI. at the siege of Kinsale, as it is now called, the army 
suffered from the weather. The garrison surrendered upon conditions which would 
not have been granted, but that the weather was very bad, provisions scarce, and the 
army very sickly.—Smith’s History of the County of Cork, Vol. II. p. 210. 
It is difficult to ascertain the precise condition of the weather in distant periods, 
the invention of the thermometer, by Sanctorio, being comparatively of modern date ; 
and a long time elapsed before the instrument was reduced to a correct standard by 
Fahrenheit. Great allowance must be made for the accounts in old chronicles, and it 
is possible that extraordinary years happened, accounts of which have not been handed 
down to posterity in Irish, or continental annals. 
In the Philosophical Magazine for 1820, Vol LV. is given a list of extraordinary 
years for a long period, chiefly from a work by Pilgram, in the German language, 
published at Vienna, in 1788. 
This list of years is valuable, as it shows the occasional return of very severe win- 
ters in modern times, and may be used as an answer to those persons who, would at- 
tempt to prove, by quotations from the classics, the greater cold of Europe in the 
time of the Roman dominion ; it is also valuable, as it proves that one of the coldest 
years recorded in the Annals of Ulster, arose from a general cause, by which the 
great rivers of Europe were frozen so hard as to bear waggons for a month. 
A. D. 401. The Black Sea was entirely frozen over. 
462 ‘The Danube was frozen, so that an aoa marched over the ice. 
545 The cold was intense. 
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