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Account of Books 
Rerum Hisernicarum Scrirrones 
ANTIQUI, ex vetustis MSS. Codici- 
bus descripti, recogniti, nunc pri- 
mum in lucem editi, Adjectis Variis 
lectionibus, Glossario, Disserta- 
tionibus. Indiceque copioso. A 
Carolo O'Conor, D. D.* 
ARIOUS historical writers of 
the most respeétable authority, 
amongst whom are numbered that 
father of British history, the ve- 
nerable Bede, Nennius, William of 
Malmesbury, Giraldus Cambrensis, 
for the Year i803: 
ters, Camden, Usher, and Pare, 
had turned the attention of the 
learned to the ancient annals of Ire- 
land, as to a fund of interesting’ 
knowledge respecting the religion, 
laws, government, manners, lan- 
guage, and general history of a 
people, who were supposed to have 
retained distinétions in all these mat- 
ters, long after their neighbours had, 
in most of those points, been amal- 
gamated to a certain extent. The re- 
ferences made by these writers to 
Irish documents, had induced the 
and others of our early chroniclers, 
literati of Europe, and more parti- 
and, latterly, those invaluable wri- 
cularly those of the British isles, who 
were 
* Although it vary from our asual mode to review an article yet unpublished, 
we are contident, that,in the present deviation from an established rule, our readers 
will acknowledge, that it has been “ more honoured in the breach than in the ob- 
servance.” By a reference to page 820 of our last vol. it will be found, in an 
original letter of the illustrious Burke’s (there preserved) to col. Valancey, that 
he earnestly expresses himself on the subject of what yet remains of the antient 
literature of Ireland, in the following terms :—“ Will you pardon me for re- 
minding you of what I once before took the liberty to mention; my earnest wish 
that some of the antient Irish historical monuments should be published as they 
_ stand, with atranslation in Latin or English. Until something of this kind be 
done, criticism can have no secure anchorage. How should we be enabled to 
judge of histories, or historical discussion on English affairs, where references 
are had to Bede, to the Saxon Chronicle, to Ingulphus, and the rest, whilst those 
authors lurked in libraries, or what is worse, lay in the hands of individuals?” A 
little farther he adds, “ There is no doubt of a subscription sufficient to pay the 
SPENCE. 20.2 cradle the ability to undertake it has been found: But if any acci- 
dent should happen to you and to Mr. O’Conor, what security have we that any. 
other like you should start up =” 
We 
