BROTHER MICHAEL.*

BY THOMAS D'ARCY MCGEE.
WHEN the wreck of noble houses
Strew'd the land, as the Armada
Strew'd the iron beach of Erris,—
In those days when faith and science,
Shared the fate of ancient lineage,
And the holy men—the planets
On this earthly side of Heaven,
Faded from the blank horizon;—
Then, when no man could determine
If the present or the future

Show'd most darkly, came a stranger
From a distant shore to gather,
And to save the old memorials
Of the noble and the holy,-
Of the chiefs of ancient lineage,
Of the saints of wondrous virtues;
Of the Ollamhs and the Brehons,
Of the Bards and of the Betaghs,
That they might not die for ever:
How he came, and how he labour'd,
What he suffer'd, what adventur'd,
That he might preserve the story
Of the dear ancestral Island,
These should never be forgotten.

II.

Not a stranger, yet a stranger
Was the patient pale explorer:
Born the heir of Bardic honors,
Where Kilbarron, like a topsail,
Soars above the North Atlantic,—
Better days in green Tyrconnell,
High beside its chiefs had found him
Seated at the festal table:

Now, poor brother of Saint Francis,
Less than priest and more than layman,
On the threshold of the chancel
He is well content to hover;
So that, fare and garb provided,
Time to pray, and time to labor
In the work his soul delighted,
It might prosper-let him perish!

III.

Looking southward from the city
By th' Egyptian called Eblana,
We can trace the careful stages
Of the constant brother Michael!
We can trace him where the Slaney
Spreads its waves around Beg-Erin,
Holy Isle of Saint Iberius!

Where the gables of Dunbrody
Stand the proof of Hervy's penance†
By the junction of the rivers;

Michael O'Clery, the chief of the Four Masters, was merely a lay-brother of the order of Saint Francis. "Brother Michael" was his sole name in religion-and by that alone I have presumed to call him.

†The Cistercian abbey of Dunbrody was founded by Hervy de Montemarisco, A.D. 1182.

Where the golden vale of Cashel
Leads the pilgrim to the altar,-
To the tabernacle glorious,
Shining from that rocky altar;
Where, in beauteous desolation,
Like Saint Mary in the desert,
Quin's fair abbey pleads with heaven.

IV.

Looking northward from the city
By the Egyptian called Eblana,
We can trace the careful stages
Of the constant brother Michael,—
Where the Boyne, historic river,
Dear to Cormac and Cuchullin,
Stretches seaward, sad and solemn,
Loth to leave the plain of Tara;
Where the lakes and knolls of Cavan
Echo to the sound of harping;
From the yet unconquer'd forests,
Where Lough Erne's arbor Islands
Waft their fragrance to the mountains ;
Thence to th' ancestral region
Turns the constant brother Michael,-
With the gleanings of his travel,
With the spoils of many ruins,

With the pedigrees of nobles,
With the trophies of his Order,

With the title-deeds of races,

With the acts of Saints and Prophets;

Never into green Tyrconnell

Came such spoil, as Brother Michael
Bore before him on his palfrey!
By the fireside in the winter,

By the sea-side in the summer,
When your children are around you,
And the theme is, love of country;
When you speak of heroes dying
In the charge or in the trenches,
When you tell of Sarsfield's daring,
Owen's genius, Brian's wisdom,
Emmett's early grave, or Grattan's
Life-long epic of devotion;-

Fail not then, my friend, I charge you,
To recall the no less noble

Name and works of brother Michael,
Worthy chief of the Four Masters,
Saviours of our country's annals.

IRELAND: AN OPENING.

BY D. B. WEHS.

THE problem that for ages economists have attempted to solve, and which has baffled solution down to the present day, is-how to make Ireland a commercial country? Without entering into a profitless disquisition upon the Celtic race, or internecine dissensions, we will venture to suggest an opening that presents itself-one most important in the business connections it would bring to this country, advantageous in its effects upon commercial enterprise, and admirably adapted for the existing intermediate condition of Irish progress. This

opening, in our opinion, is to be found in developing a commerce with France, and in the natural facilities Ireland possesses as an entrepôt for both the American and Australian trades. For the present, however, leaving aside the latter consideration, the point to which attention may be usefully directed, is the suitability of Ireland as a western depôt for French goods. At first this may seem an Utopian fancy; but if we condescend to facts, we conceive that such a supposition will not stand the test of inquiry.

In the first place, the trade between France and America is enormous. The quays and wharfs of the principal French ports are laden with American consignments. The leading houses in the United States have confidential agents in Paris and Havre, but these are the leading houses alone. The rising firms have occasionally visited Europe to purchase, and acquaint themselves with the head quarters of their trade; but of late such has been the impetus arising from American intercourse with the Continent, that the buyers in the English and foreign markets resemble bees swarming round a hive. Since the establishment of the Irish line of steamers to America, the buyers invariably first touch land on Irish soil. Many of them are selected for this particular duty from their British or Irish origin. They come over the Atlantic waters to establish business relations, to purchase, or to put afloat an agency to suit their trade, which sometimes lies far away in the Western States, or south among the Plantations. Their journey awakens many old memories and associations of days gone byof friends, connections, and prospects long parted with; and it is no unnatural conjecture, that their hearts will warm as they near the old weather-beaten shores of Ireland, that loom in historic stillness through the haze. Nor is it unnatural to believe, that as they linger in some of our deserted-looking towns, where the torpid genius of agriculture reigns, they will anxiously wish to imbue their own race with that spirit of enterprise and life that distinguishes their adopted country. The question we would, therefore, put to Irishmen of enterprise is this: Shall these opportunities be neglected? Shall these visitors pass through Ireland, as the wild fowl sweep over our moors, on their way to their distant home, and leave no further trace behind them? or shall we not induce them to arrest their steps, and thus be enabled to build up a western trade by their connection.

It is a well-ascertained fact that the manufacturers of France are most solicitous to find new vent for their goods. The number of English agents resident in France who have made considerable incomes, and sometimes considerable fortunes, by introducing new goods to the shops of England, prove the desire of the French manufacturers to use any respectable agency to extend their business. The goods for which the French are most celebrated, are those that find a large sale abroad, and will now find a still larger demand from the increased facilities for their introduction into other countries; and these are articles that would easily form a staple source of trade in Ireland, from their general usefulness,

their portability, and their wide, and almost universal adoption in America. To enumerate these various objects of manufacture would be almost impossible, but it may perhaps satisfy some inquiry to mention the following items which are among the most popular goods of French make. For example: Articles de Paris, that is, domestic and personal ornaments; bronze figures for the mantelpiece; models in bronze, ormolu, and metal, from ancient sculpture; walking canes with mounted handles; clocks in ormolu, bronze and metal; Sevres china; toys; surgical instruments; books; catholic vestments, altar pieces, and church decorations; jewellery; hats; gloves; silks; paper, and stationery; wine; brandy; feathers; boots and shoes; glycerine; perfume essences; light clothing for the tropics; and the products of Algeria. The American trade is chiefly in wines, brandy, silk, gloves, boots and books, but superadd to these the frequent creations of the fertile French mind, and the field that awaits Irish enterprise may be estimated.

We venture to assume for granted, that American buyers would not pass Ireland, if their requirements were capable of being supplied here. The only two objects that could carry the buyer to the continental market would be cheapness and novelty, and both of these essentials is merely a matter of capital. A sufficiency of means will purchase at the lowest market rates, especially in France, and the secret doors that enclose the new designs, and new improvements, will always open to ready money. It seems, therefore, from the geographical facilities Ireland possesses to meet the demands of the American market, from the extensive warehouse room lying idle in our western and central towns, and the cheapness and direct communication now available in a few days by the Irish steamers, that therein is the nucleus and materials of extensive trade. It is by no means an unimportant feature in these considerations, to look at the command over the British market that such an entrepôt in Ireland would possess. In the extent of its relations, and its command of an united capital-for I assume that the principle of limited liability would apply here-it would be able to counterbalance English private enterprise; and in the fact of a considerable stock of goods being always on hands an object easily arranged with the French manufacturers-its capacity for sustaining a regular system of home business, and for promptly meeting all home orders, it would become the source of a considerable amount of home supplies, and obtain preponderance in the home market, which in itself would form an extensive trade. Great as might be the immediate advantages of such a trade in Ireland, we should look, also, to the future effect which it would have, in directing the attention of the enterprising portion of the Irish community to articles of industrial wealth, for which the Irish people, from their educated and artistic tastes, would be eminently fitted. The genius of the French and Irish nations are, to a considerable extent, very similar; they are of the same race; and though different climates, and different political circumstances will always draw

LITERARY NOTICES.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE GREAT BARDIC INSTITUTION.* THAT the bardie order formed one of the most important elements of the social system of the ancient Irish, is well known. The bards or fileas ranked with the judges and lawgivers; they were often identical with the historians or chroniclers; and although in this respect there was much in common between the manners of the ancient Irish and those of other primitive people, legislation appears to have been more express on the subject in Ireland than elsewhere, and the position of the bards as an institution in the state appears to have been more distinctly recognised. Like similar things, however, in more advanced and better organised states of society, the bardic institution of the Irish degenerated into an abuse. The members of the profession multiplied in number; its privileges were often perverted; from being idolised by the people it became a national grievance; and its tyranny was something so intolerable as to stir up popular resistance, and lead more than once almost to the extirpation of the order. This happened more especially on two occasions-once in the pagan times, when, in the reign of Eochy Feidhlach (monarch of Ireland about the first century), the interference of Conor Mac Nessa, king of Ulster, saved the bards from total expulsion; and again at the Convention of Drumceat, held by Hugh, son of Ainmire, in the year 573, when St. Columbkille, himself a poet, prevailed on the monarch and the assembly to deal mercifully with the offending bards, and to subject their order to certain wise regulations, rather than decree its suppression. After this we do not hear that they drew down upon themselves any violent public hostility, and it is probably to some period not very much later than the lastmentioned event, that we are indebted for the composition now published for the first time in the newly-issued volume of the Ossianic Society. This composition is in prose, and its object was to expose to public ridicule the insolence and arrogance of the bards. For this purpose they are supposed to visit in a body the court of Guaire the Hospitable, king of Connaught, who entertains them in the most sumptuous manner, building a great house, and providing all the necessary supplies and attendance for their entertainment. The good king, whose generosity was such that his right hand was fabled to have become longer than his left, from being constantly extended in bestowing gifts, was willing to exhaust all the resources of his kingdom to gratify the multitudinous and insatiable bards and their followers; but the whimsical wishes of his capricious guests drive him to despair, and their threats to satirise him if he failed to procure all they demanded, terrify him almost to death. The story describes with great humour the crazy longings of the bardic appetite, and relates how Guaire is relieved from his embarrassinent

* Transactions of the Ossianic Society, Vol. V. Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe, or the proceedings of the Great Bardic Institution. Edited by Professor CONNELLAN. Dublin, printed for the Society by JOHN O'DALY.

by his brother Marvan, the swine-herd, whose wit or prayers procure all the strange things which the bards desire, and who at length turns the tables on them by putting them under an obligation to fulfil his injunctions, which, as the reader may expect, are difficult enough, and amply punish the bards for the unreasonableness of their own demands. One of Marvan's geasas, or injunctions, is that they should find out the true account of the Tain bo Cuailgne or "Cattle raid of Cooly," which could only be done by raising the spirit of Fergus, son of Roy, from the grave; and as this story of the Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe, or proceedings of the Great Bardic Institution, is frequently prefixed to the former famous Irish romance in the old manuscripts, it is generally supposed to have been an introduction to it, although it is more probable that it was composed for a distinct and particular purpose, that is, as a satire upon the bards or fileas for their abuse of public hospitality. We have little doubt that the members of the Ossianic Society will very generally agree with us in pronounc ing this volume to be by far the most valuable of their publications. It has been edited with great care by a good Irish scholar, who has had long experience in the study of Irish history and antiquities, and whose intimate acquaintance with Irish manuscripts has matured and guided his views on the subject. Hence Mr. Connellan's numerous annotations, both upon the tract itself, and in the appendices to it, are very valuable; and there is certainly no former publication of the society from which anything like the same amount of popular information can be derived. The Elegy on Hugh O'Rourke, supplied by Mr. O'Daly, secretary of the society, is very interesting; and Mr. Connellan's essay on the Macpherson controversy and on the poetic remains of Oisin, is well written and useful, not as reviv ing the controversy in question, which has been long since set at rest, but as a statement of those points in it which should be known and preserved. relics of some of the earliest of the Irish bards, such as Amergin, Fintan, St. Columbkille, Dallan, and Seanchan, which have been appended to the volume, will also be gladly received by the lovers of the old language of Erin, and the volume, on the whole, cannot fail to advance the character and the objects of the society.

TRACTS AND TREATISES ON IRELAND.*

The

The collectors and publishers of original historic records render a service to society which cannot be too highly appreciated, and without which the task of the historian would be, to a great extent, impossible. What would have become of Continental history but for such men as Muratori and the Benedictines? What would have been the fate of our own, if there had not been such collectors and preservers of old documents as the O'Clerys, and

A Collection of Tracts and Treatises, illustrative of the Natural History, Antiquities, and the Political and Social State of Ireland, at various periods prior to the present century. In two vols. Vol. I. Dublin, reprinted by ALEX. THOм and SONS. 1860.

66

Mac Firbises, and Colgan, and Ware, and others? Great merit also unquestionably belongs to a publisher, who, from pure love of the subject, collects at his own expense, old and valuable printed tracts fast passing into oblivion, and long since counted among scarce books," and presents them to the world in all the freshness of new type and binding, and in a form which renders them more accessible and easy of reference than ever they were before and this it is that has been well done by Mr. Thom, in the republication of the collection of tracts and treatises, of which we have a first instalment in the volume before us. As far as the present volume extends, these tracts belong to the period between the Reformation and the Revolution, and express purely English views; but they are indispensable to the student of Irish antiquities, and of the political condition of Ireland at the period referred to. The first treatise is the exceedingly curious one on the natural history of Ireland, by Dr. Gerard Boate, first printed in 1652, and dedicated to "His Excellency, Oliver Cromwell, captain-generall of the Commonwealth's army in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and to the Right Hon. Charles Fleetwood, Commander-in-Chief (under the Lord Generall Cromwell) of all the forces in Ireland." It purports to be "for the common good of Ireland, and more especially for the benefit of the adventurers and planters therein." The next paper in the collection is the original Latin work of Sir James Ware, "De Hibernia et Antiquitatibus ejus." This work of the learned, honest, and gentleminded Ware, will ever be a standard one on our antiquities. Next in order is Spenser's "View of the State of Ireland, written dialogue-wise between Eudoxus and Ireneus," in which the poet blends so much error with truth, and gives utterance to so many things unworthy of his own kindly nature. The last treatise in the volume is that written by Sir John Davis for his master, King James I." A Discoverie of the State of Ireland; with the true Causes why that Kingdom was never entirely subdued, nor brought under Obedience of the Crowne of England, untill the Beginning of his Majesties most happy Reigne." This production of the Attorney-General of Ireland, under the first of the Stuarts, has afforded invaluable statements and admissions to Dr. Curry, in his History of the Civil Wars, and after him to Mr. O'Connell, and others. This volume of Tracts and Treatises appears without any editorial prefix or addition, except a very valuable index to the whole volume. It is beautifully printed; and as a contribution to Irish history-a perfectly gratuitous one too, being presented by Mr. Thom to public institutions, and to his literary friends-it is most creditable to its enterprising publisher.

HISTORICAL MEMOIR OF THE O'BRIENS.*

THE history of such a sept as that of the O'Briens is necessarily, to a great extent, the history of Ireland. The

* Historical Memoir of the O'Briens, with Notes, Appendix, and a Genealogical Table of their several branches; compiled from the Irish Annalists. By John O'Donoghue, A.M., Barrister at-Law. Dublin: Hodges, Smith & Co.

relations of the one and the other are intimately interwoven from the commencement; and if some of the great events which occupy a large space in the national history are only lightly touched upon in the particular one, the want is counterbalanced by the minuteness of detail with which the reader's interest can be gratified in others. The task is equally laborious on the part of the writer; researches must be followed up with equal pains in the one case and in the other; and in both a service is rendered to the public which is seldom appreciated at its full value. In the work to which we here direct attention-and upon which, having been now for some months before the world, and in the hands of many students of Irish history, a public opinion has been already formed-this task has been executed with no small amount of labour and ability, although there are many of the author's statements against which we must totally protest, and in which we conceive that he exbibits an unjustifiable bias. He divides his subject into two great periods -the medieval and the modern-extending the former down to the accession of James I., and pursuing the latter or modern period to the Union. He tells us that his original intention was to confine the work to the medieval portion, but that on second thoughts he extended his plan in order to embrace an account of the celebrated baron, afterwards earl, of Iachiquin; of the Viscounts Clare who followed King James II.'s fortunes after the capitulation of Limerick, and of the senatorial labours of the late Sir Lucius O'Brien, during the exciting period which preceded the legislative union. We open the book with anticipated interest at that part which commences with the epoch of 1641, to obtain the author's views on the first of these subjects, namely: the career of Lord Inchiquin. The outbreak of the great Civil War is dismissed, indeed, in a few words. "That the rebellion," says our author, was provoked by a series of acts of oppression on the part of those who had the charge of the government, is matter of history. Fanaticism and bigotry on both sides -a desire to root out the natives and to dispossess them of their properties, on the part of those who urged the forming of new plantations, encountered by the efforts of the owners to retain them-these were the exciting and sufficient causes, which ended in the confiscation of the greater portion of the land throughout nine and twenty counties in Ireland." That is, on one side there was an exterminating aggression, and on the other side a struggle to defend life, and property, and religion. Such is the statement of the cause of the war, as given by a writer whose sympathies are certainly not on the side of the Catholics; but in his application of the words "fanaticism and bigotry on both sides," it should be also borne in mind that one of these sides was aggressive and the other defensive. The famous Inchiquin is introduced to us in the following terms.