and converted the name of Saxon into a term of reproach. Their descendants, pursuing a similar system towards all whom they oppressed, styled Wallace a "master of thieves," Owen Glendowr a sorcerer, and Hugh O'Neill an "arch traitor," although it is now admitted that these men were fully justified in taking up arms to regain their natural rights.

From their first settlement in Ireland, a section of the colonists found that vilification and ridicule were the most effective modes of depriving their opponents of the sympathy and justice to which they were justly entitled; the language of the Irish was conquently pronounced to be barbarous, their laws impious, their ancient history a mass of fabrications, and every effort was made to eradicate those sentiments of national pride which dignify and exalt the human character. The colonial oligarchy and the venal writers existing on the income derived from the prejudices of those classes whom they goaded into fanaticism, combined to represent the Irish as a nation of fools, blunderers, drunkards, and assassins. By thus exciting the fears of the English government, they contrived quietly to appropriate to their own uses the entire spoil of the plundered Irish, whose attempts to obtain justice or to regain their properties were always styled rebellions. Pausing at no falsehoods, however monstrous, the ascendancy faction succeeded in convincing the neighbouring country that the Irish were little better than cannibals, and so widely was this idea circulated in England in the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth century, that a writer of the reign of George I. observes that: "upon the arrival of an Irishman to an English country town, I have known crowds coming about him, and wondering to see him look so much better than themselves;" while the following description of the inhabitants of Ireland written in 1738, affords a specimen of the monstrous misrepresentations propagated under the patronage of the colonial faction, despite the opposition of an enlightened and far-seeing minority of their own party :

"The people of Ireland at this day are uncivilized, rude and barbarous, they delight in butter tempered with oatmeal, and sometimes eat flesh without bread; but which they eat raw, having first pressed the blood out of it, and pour down large draughts of usquebaugh for digestion, reserving their little corn for their horses. Their dress is no less barbarous; cows and cattle are their chief wealth; they count it no infamy to commit robberies, and violence and murder is in their opinion no way displeasing to God. They are much given to incest,

and nothing is so common among them as divorces under pretence of conscience. They pray to the wolves lest they should devour them, the country being overgrown with woods and subject to voracious animals."

Such were the representations by which the colonists laboured to inculcate that they alone were capable of maintaining the English power in Ireland, whereas if these unscrupulous intermediate traders upon national animosities had been divested of the power of retarding the progress of the country, and prevented from intercepting the administration of evenhanded justice to all, the people of both islands would have become more conversant with each other, and learned mutual respect and forbearance. From this colonial policy emanated the elaborate and widely-circulated fabrications, styled "Histories of Ireland," in every portion of which the natives were depicted as ignorant and cowardly savages, having nothing in common with their fellowmen but the outward semblance of human nature.* The press being entirely under the control of the ascendancy faction, all controversy on the subject was prohibited, and the so called "History of Ireland" finally became a collection detailing nought but massacres, forays and battles between the natives and their opponents, in which the latter were falsely represented as a victorious and magnanimous people, contending against a number of rude and ignorant clans. These writings produced the desired effect of making many Irishmen ashamed of their country; and dull pedants, unable to penetrate through the mist of falsehood, were ever ready to declaim against "our melancholy history," and "our sad annals." Far different was the case in Scotland, where the history of the subjugated Highlanders-themselves descended from an Irish colony-was invested with a dignity which evoked a wise nationality, and enabled every native of that country on recurring to the struggles of his ancestors for independence, to exclaim with the Italian patriot:

"Di vostra terra sono: e sempre mai

L'ovra di voi, e gli onorati nomi

Con affezion ritrassi e ascoltai."

Thus also in Farquhar's once popular comedy of "Love and a bottle," 1699, when " Roebuck," an Irish gentleman, announces his country to "Lucinda," she exclaims-"Oh, horrible, an Irishman! a mere wolf-dog, I protest!" For a French tourist's description of Ireland in 1734, totally different from the above, see the IRISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, Vol. II., 34.

Their own suicidal acts at length broke the power of the Irish colonial ascendancy, and their career of profligacy and oppression having finally stripped them of station and influence, the propagation of falsehood became no longer a State object. The investigations of a few dispassionate inquirers have consequently completely subverted the hitherto received history of Ireland, which is now proved to have been based upon unfounded statements and party libels. The general spread of knowledge discloses every year more fully the sinister objects of those who, still pursuing their old course, endeavour to gain emolument and advancement, by exciting the religious and political passions of classes yet sufficiently illiterate to be amenable to their influence. Antique prejudices are gradually receding before the advance of information; ignorant jibers at the country are fast falling into disrepute; and even Thackeray's Irish caricatures have become as distasteful to the public as that monstrosity-the stage Irishman-who now only finds admirers in Baotian provincial districts. We indeed, believe, that our people are now so far advanced in national self-respect and knowledge of themselves, that any attempt to caricature the Irish character in our public theatres would encounter no better a reception than that experienced by the comedian Hudson, who was lately driven from the stage in New York, where he expected that his buffoonery would have been rewarded with plaudits equal to those bestowed by the unreflecting on his predecessor Tyrone Power, who gained a reputation by depicting Irishmen in the same style as Clement Marot* pourtrayed his Gascon valet :—

"Gourmand, yvrongne, et asseuré menteur,
Pipeur, larron, jureur, blasphemateur."

The compiler of the work before us appears to labor under the delusion that Ireland is still as deficient in knowledge of her history as she was at the commencement of the present century; and unacquainted with the great progress made during the last twelve years in the investigation of our monuments and records, he has revived and republished false and erroneous statements which have of late been elaborately confuted and finally set at rest. These errors and anachronisms

"Epistre au Roy pour avoir esté desrobbé," Rouen: 1596.

are too palpable and too numerous to require us fully to expose and detail them; we may, however, remark, that his printer has so ignorantly metamorphosed numbers of the Irish names introduced, that even their owners would be unable to recognize them. It might be expected that a lengthened residence on the Continent would have enabled the author to furnish us with some interesting details connected with the history of the Irish in foreign services, his so-called "Souvenirs of the Brigade" can, however, be regarded as neither new nor valuable, being mainly composed of extracts from French Mémoires with which we were before sufficiently conversant. One of the most singular of his mistakes is that relative to a certain Johnson, whom he ranks with lord Clare and other distinguished officers, whereas no person of that name ever attained to any such eminence in the Brigade; he also presents us with what he styles the "favourite ballad of the Irish Brigade," which is apparently a fabrication imposed upon his credulity.

The only portions of the work worthy of consideration, are those which detail the writer's own reminiscences of remarkable events, together with traditional anecdotes of interesting transactions in France and Ireland. In the latter cases, however, no effort has been made to test tradition by historic truth, nor to prune the narratives of redundancies and additions acquired by repeated oral transmission. A considerable part of these volumes is occupied by accounts of modern political events in France, introduced as episodes consequent on the observation, that the wars of the first French revolution were initiated and terminated by two IrishmenGeneral James O'Moran and Wellington; and that the "officer* in command of the royal troops who fought against the Parisian insurgents in 1830, was the son of an Irishman, and het who occupied a similar position in 1848, was the son of an Irishwoman."

Of an eccentric president of the Irish College at Paris, the author gives the following account :

"The Abbé Ferris resided in Paris at the commencement of the Revolution, and emigrated with the Princes. Subsequently he distinguished himself in the campaigns of 1792, 1793 and 1794, in the

* General Wall.

Marshal Bugeaud, whose mother was daughter of Count Clonard.

army of Condé, not as almoner of a regiment, but as an intrepid captain of grenadiers. Thanks to the clemency of Napoleon, he was allowed some years later to return to France, and continued to reside in Paris, Here he renewed his acquaintance with a man named Somers, a native of the county of Wexford, Ireland, who, like Ferris, had been a catholic priest at the period of the Revolution, but who followed a line of conduct different from that of Ferris. He renounced his religious habit, professed himself a sans-culotte, and married the widow of a shoemaker; and carried on, it would seem, from his appearance and expenses, a profitable business. It will naturally be conceived that no sympathy could subsist between him and Ferris; still they continued on amicable if not intimate terms. One day in the year 1812 or 1813, a large party of Irish, some half-dozen or so, agreed to dine together at a traiteur's, for restaurateurs were not yet known at that period, to féte a friend who was to proceed to the United States. Among them were Ferris, Captain Murphy, a very popular dashing offieer, and an enthusiastic Bonapartist; the late excellent and amiable Michael O'Mally, and others. The entire party had nearly assembled, but he, in whose honour the dinner was given, had not yet arrived. This was an Irishman, a captain of an American vessel, which was to sail from Havre the next day but one, and was to call at some or other of the English Channel ports. While they were chatting, waiting for the hero of the entertainment, Somers, who was not popular with his countrymen, suddenly entered the room. Has Captainarrived?' he asked. 'No,' said some of those he addressed. 'He is to sail on Thursday,' said he, ' and promised to post a letter for me at whatever English port he should touch. Here it is,' continued Somers, placing a letter on the table. Have the goodness to give it him. Good-by,' and he withdrew. Murphy started up. He shall carry no letter for you, you—— spy,' said he, and seizing the latter, threw it behind the fire, on which were blazing three oaken logs. Another of the party rushed to the chimney, seized the letter, which had not yet been even scorched, and put it into his pocket. The expected guest entered at that moment. Dinner was immediately served, and this incident forgotten; the rest of the day was spent in joviality. The party separated at eleven o'clock. At the same hour the following forenoon, Somers was shot in the Plain of Grenelle, by sentence of a court-martial, sitting at that period en permanence in Paris. He had been denounced at midnight as a spy, and in correspondence with the enemy. The proof of his treason was incontestable. It was contained in the letter which I have just stated had been snatched from the fire by one of his countrymen, and which being produced to him when brought to trial before the military commission, he admitted to be in his own handwriting. It was addressed to Mr. Smith, No. 1 Downing-street, Westminster, London.' It contained only these words: 'You will read in the journals of to-morrow, that a review of fifty thousand troops was held in the Carrousel, in front of the Tuileries, this forenoon. It is false. There were scarcely ten thousand.' The Emperor was at that moment in Russia. The exaggeration of the number of troops reviewed, which Somers predicted would appear in the

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