110 



lay before you the arrangements for its execution which they re- 

 commend, you will, I think, be satisfied that it will be completed 

 in a manner worthy of its subject and of you. 



I must, however, regret that we cannot point to any similar exer- 

 tion of the Committee of Polite Literature. It is true that times are 

 much changed since its institution ; the periodical press now opens 

 a more appropriate course for much that would have belonged to 

 its department ; and, notwithstanding the practice of some Conti- 

 nental societies, there are (I think) few among us who would ven- 

 ture before such a meeting as this to recite their own verses. But 

 a wide field remains. Ethnology in all its provinces ; all that relates 

 to history, or philosophy of language ; the character, the rise and 

 decline of the literature of nations : — in all these can nothing be 

 found to interest our friends and increase our honour? One is so 

 obvious that I cannot refrain from suggesting it for your considera- 

 tion. We have added to our early store of Irish manuscripts the 

 collection of Smith, and now that of Betham; both, I believe, of 

 extreme rarity and value. It is certainly much that these precious 

 relics have been saved from dispersion, perhaps destruction; but I 

 cannot bring myself to feel that this is enough to compensate the 

 generous bounty which has enabled us to acquire them, or to an- 

 swer the claim which the literary world has a right to urge for a 

 knowledge of their contents. To watch over their conservation, to 

 arrange them in a manner worthy of their value, to give a cata- 

 logue of them, — not a dead, arid list of names, but one which shall 

 exhibit the mind and manner of each author as well as his matter, 

 such as shall be a clear and satisfactory guide to ulterior research, — 

 this, as it would certainly repay the labour bestowed on it, and be in 

 the truest harmony with our duty to our country, so it never can 

 be executed under happier auspices, and if deferred for a few years 

 may be totally impracticable. 



I have thus endeavoured to lay before you the rules by which, 

 in my opinion, our conduct should be guided ; rules, at least, which 

 have ever guided me in relation to the Academy, and ever shall 

 guide. If we abide by them I see no reason to doubt the future. 

 There still remain with us, in undiminished splendour, most of the 

 commanding minds to whose power we owe our present pre-emi- 



