532 Proceedings oj the Royal Irish Academy, 



Irish Acts of Parliament during the eighteenth century (and indeed much 

 earlier), which are carefully indexed. Under the word "ass" what do we find ? 

 The first mention is in the Act 17 Geo. II, vol. vi, p. 656 (I743j, and in this 

 very indirect fashion : " Any person who shall kill, cut open, or skin any cow, 

 calf, &c., sheep or lamb, or any horse, mare, gelding, colt, filly, ass, or mule, 

 with intent to steal the fat, flesh, skin, or carcase thereof, &c., &.c, shall 

 suffer death, as in cases of felony." That enumeration is repeated in later 

 Acts, threatening people who skin any such animal and leave the carcase on 

 the high road, especially in the vicinity of Dublin. But I do not put much 

 stress on this enumeration, which is merely for completeness' sake, and may 

 well have been copied by some official from an English Act. There were a 

 few Spanish asses imported for breeding mules, and there were a few milch 

 asses, so that the animal was not unheard of in modern Ireland. 



At last, after several repetitions of these Acts, we come to something 

 definite in the Act 23 & 24 Geo. Ill (vol. xii, 596), 1783. It is (along with 

 other matters) an Act for licenshig hawkers and pedlars. It puts a licence, 

 with a tax of 20s., on any person travelling with any horse or horses, 

 ass or asses, mule or mules, or any other beast or beasts drawing burthen," 

 and the phrase is repeated several times through the forest of verbiage 

 which deprives all these Acts of the remotest pretension to be called 

 literature. 



Here, then, I had found what I sought— clear evidence that the ass was 

 recognized as a beast of burden after 1776 — the date of A. Young's 

 ignorance — and before the framing of the Act of 1783-4. We may put the 

 date provisionally at the surprisingly recent figure of 1780. In later Acts, 

 up to 1800, I have found no new light ; so it may be inferred that the 

 diffusion of this new beast of burden was gradual, and, therefore, silent. 



I have not hunted through the books of travel after that date, but have 

 heard from the President that iu a book published very early in the last 

 century the writer wonders why they do not have donkeys at Killarney, 

 instead of the ponies used accoi'ding to the old habit of the country. Here, 

 however, is fresh evidence. 



About the year 1800 the Royal Dublin Society organized the production 

 of careful statistical surveys for every county in Ireland, of which twenty- 

 two were actually published, and by special inquirers, to whom the Society 

 issued a list of subjects, as suggestions of the course the inquiry should 

 pursue. In this list, under the head of stock, we find horses, cows, sheep, 

 pigs, even rabbits and bees, but no mention whatever of the ass. There 

 was also to be a chapter of general observations, among which the inquirer 

 might add any matter of interest which occurred to him. Although, there- 



