ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 
and deposited from sir James Ware’s 
library in the Bodleian. 
4. The Annals of Boyle, decy- 
~ phered and transcribed from the 
MS. in the Cotton library, Titus 
A. xxv. 
5. The Annals of Donnegal, com- 
monly called of the IV. Masters ;— 
the first volume of which, in the 
original autograph, is in the marquis 
of Buckingham’s library, at Stowe, 
and éhe second in that of Trinity 
college, Dublin, but of which a 
faithful copy, transcribed by the late 
Charles O’Conor esq. is likewise in 
the Stowe library. 
6. Certain metrical and other an- 
cient compositions, written on vel- 
tum, in Irish language and charac- 
ters, some of which precede the age 
of Tigernach, being quoted by him, 
and belong to the 7th, Sth, 9th, 
10th, and 11th ages, forming a chain 
of traditional history, to the days of 
Tigernach. Of these, some very an- 
cient copies, of various dates, are 
extant in the Bodleian, and others in 
the Stowe library. 
Of all these several annals, it has 
been found necessary to offer to the 
public a critical examination of their 
chronology, and of various matters 
connected with them ; but, far from 
obtruding his own opinions as a 
standard to others, Doétor O’Conor 
considers himself only as a labourer, 
who employs himselfin clearing away 
heaps of rubbish, and in offering ma- 
terials for the employment of the 
Yearned of Europe, and particularly 
of Ireland, of whom there are many 
‘whose talents would do honour to 
any country, aud whose attainments 
would do ample justice to works 
even more difficult than those which 
are here oflered to their considera- 
tion. He professes that he does not 
undertake, in any instance, to jus- 
tify or to defend any national pre- 
3 
939 
judice, nor would it become him to 
attempt to amuse where he could 
not convince. ‘The subjeét he has 
undertaken is so severe, that the 
reader is relieved from any appre- 
hension of being seduced by inge- 
nuity of conjecture, or plausibility 
of declamation. Doétor @’Conor 
gives the originals as he finds them, 
with all their imperfections, what- 
ever they may be, on their heads ;— 
but those imperfeétions will be found 
not to affect the historical part, and 
he trusts that, as faithful chronicles 
of events anterior to the 12th cen- 
tury, the Irish annals will be es- 
teemed, if not more, certainly not 
less, interesting than those of the 
northern nations of Europe, which 
are unquestionably of a later period. 
It has been deemed expedient to 
print them in their original dialeé, 
and to add fac similes of each, for 
the sake of preserving a language 
which, in its various idioms through- 
out these islands, viz. Irish, Erse,’ 
Welch, Cornish, necessarily loses 
ground every hour. 
In the arrangement of this work, 
Doétor O’Conor has endeavoured to 
pursue the system adopted by bishop 
Gibson, in the compilation of the 
Saxon Chronicle. On the same 
plan he offers a Topographical chart 
and di¢tionary, which, he trusts, 
will materially assist local researches 
of every sort that may arise out of 
the study of his originals. 
It is jnipossible to close this sub- 
ject without dwelling with a national 
pride of the purest and most justifi- 
able description, on the distinguished - 
superiority and pre-eminence which 
the British islands claim over all 
other nations of Europe, since the 
‘decline of the Roman empire, in the 
mass, and in the quality of their 
early chronicles, as well as in the 
learning, diligence, and application 
with 
