268 



memory of the fiery cross is not yet entirely extinguished in the minds 

 of the warm-hearted Highlanders : — 



" The other day, John M 'Arthur, employed as a serviceman on the 

 roads, while attired in full Highland costume, and carrying a large fiery 

 cross — the emblem by which the clans in the days of other years were 

 assembled — ran on the public road west from the east end of old Kil- 

 patrick, a distance of three miles in eighteen minutes, in order to show 

 the juveniles how telegraphing in the Highlands was performed long 

 before the existence of steamboats, or rails, or common roads." 



It may also be allowed to remark that Leach, the popular illustrator 

 of Punch," must have presumed upon a very general knowledge of the 

 practice and custom when, during the commotion excited by the eleva- 

 tion of Archbishop Wiseman to the title of Eminence and the dignity of 

 Cardinal, he is represented in pontificalilus huiTying with the fiery 

 cross through the country. 



Our further and final deductions regarding the ring more parti- 

 cularly under notice may be summed up as follows : — That it has been 

 one of the solemn symbols of our Irish pontiff, and has been most pro- 

 bably sent round to summon his flock for convocations in peace; for 

 arming and assembling against the enemy or invader in time of war ; 

 that the ring could be slided from one point to the other, and was used 

 to indicate the anathema and imprecations which Scott has so forcibly 

 set forth upon any recusant or clansman, 



" Who, summon'd to his chieftain's aid, 

 The signal saw, and disobeyed." 



The term hachslider would be a curious verbal modern term and^in- 

 terpretation. We are justified in such interpretation of the swivel ring 

 from the use still thus made of it in the long quotation above, from " The 

 Antiquary ;" and the conclusion we arrive at may be fairly stated, that 

 this ring bears impress of the vitality of British (Irish and Scotch) ju- 

 dicial customs, from their earliest Paganism, unaffected by the influences 

 of Christianity, or a new and entirely opposite code of laws. Jurispru- 

 dence may change its precepts, a fresh view of duties and morals ob- 

 tain, but customs and observances founded in nature are unchanging 

 and permanent in the minds of a nation. 



Mr. William Lawless, of Kilkenny, presented the following dona- 

 tion : — 



A silver pectoral cross, of elaborate workmanship, composed of five 

 crosses, connected together, and ornamented in the front with settings of 

 uncut garnets and light- blue glass beads, surrounded with twisted wire, 

 and twenty triangular pyramids, composed of small silver shot. The 

 back, though much worn, retains traces of the crucifixion and evange- 

 lical emblems, wrought on a ground of niello. Portions of both front 

 and back were originally gilt ; and from the remains of two pins, which 

 extend from the rays of the central cross, it may be concluded that four 

 beads were necessary to complete this part of the ornament. When per- 



