197 



practices. St. Patrick, we know, was a ~Prencliman, and was educated 

 in France ; St. Columbanus, also, travelled in Prance. St. Declan, who 

 it is said built the town at Ardmore, travelled to Italy. Yergilius, in 

 the eighth century, was an Irishman, and, like most of his countrymen at 

 that period who were distinguished for learning, left his own country, 

 and passed into France. I)e Caumont's words are Cours d'Anti- 

 quites," vol. vi., p. 349): — 



Crosses of Cemeteries.— Crosses raised in the centre of church-yards 

 are also objects deserving of study, when they are ancient; for I am per- 

 suaded that, in the middle ages, they have in many burial-grounds 

 taken the place of the towers of which I have spoken ; at the present 

 day, they have taken their place in many sites. The most ancient I 

 know of are of the twelfth, or about the end of the eleventh cen- 

 tury. They are most frequently simple crosses, enclosed in a circle, and 

 raised on a square, or sometimes on an octagonal, pedestal. In Brit- 

 tany, crosses have been erected on which are sculptured rather compli- 

 cated groups of figures, and of a workmanship the more remarkable, as 

 they are in granite." 



Crosses like the first mentioned are found at Glendalough; and 

 crosses like those in Brittany are to be met with at Monasterboice, Clon- 

 macnoise, and other churchyards. 



Dr. Eobert M'Donnell read a paper On the Organs of Touch in 

 Fishes." 



Mr. John Moeisy read the following — 



i^^qtjiet into the existence of a puee passive yoice in 

 Hindustani. 



In his ''Hindustani Grammar," published at Calcutta, 1798, Dr. Gil- 

 christ gave an exposition of the Preterite tenses, which has been repeated 

 by subsequent grammarians, and by none more distinctly than by Dr. 

 Forbes, who, nevertheless, leans heavily on his distinguished predeces- 

 sor. Gilchrist did not please himself; but Forbes, although he has done 

 as little as the former, seems self-satisfied ; and, like him, frames his 

 rule respecting the " Agent with iV^," on the supposition that the Pre- 

 terite tenses are Active — a theory which I shall show to be untenable. 



That Dr. Forbes accepts them as Active, we have abundant evi- 

 dence in his "Hindustani Grammar." 



1. He leaves them in the paradigm of the conjugation of a transi- 

 tive verb. Had he thought them Passive, he would have separated 

 them. 



2. He introduces them, p. 54, with this observation: "All the 

 nominatives assume the case of the agent, characterized by the post- 

 position ne;" but it must be allowed that this expression is not decisive, 

 for the agent case and the nominative are confounded. 



E. I. A. PEOC. VOL. Vlll. 2 B 



