trate his favourite weapon, the blunderbuss, which is so often mentioned in his memoirs. This gun has recently been acquired by the writer. It is so heavy that it could only have been used with effect by a powerful man. The barrel is 22 inches long by 24 inches wide at the muzzle; the stock has a flint lock and is brass-mounted, and around the mouth it has deeply engraved on the barrel

"Happy is he that escapes me.
James Freany."

In the Earl of Carrick's intercession for Freney he was able to say that he never took away human life, but, on the contrary, was instrumental in saving it when it was often threatened by his accomplices. There is only one instance recorded where life was lost, and that was when the military surrounded a house where he had with his henchman, Bulger, taken refuge. To use his own words: "About nine o'clock I awoke Bulger, desiring him to get up and guard me whilst I slept, as I had guarded him all night; he said he would, and then I went to bed, charging him to watch close for fear we should be surprised. I put my blunderbuss and two cases of pistols under my head, and soon fell fast asleep. In two hours after the servant girl of the house, seeing an enemy coming into the yard, ran up to the room where we were, and said there were 100 men in the yard, on which Bulger immediately awoke me, and taking up my blunderbuss he fired a shot towards the door, which wounded Mr. Burgess, one of the sheriffs of Kilkenny, of which wound he died."

Freney says he wrote these memoirs hoping that the proceeds of their sale would enable him with his family to leave the old country, and earn their bread by honest employment in some foreign land. His attainment of this resolve would have amply rewarded Lord Carrick for the interest he had shown in him, and the personal sacrifices he had made on his behalf, but his memoirs end here, and afford us no information of his after life.

ROBERT DAY.

St. Nicholas Parish Church, Cork.-The Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1848, contains a short review of an Ecclesiastical Sketch of the Parish of St. Nicholas, Cork, square 12mo., 24 pp., compiled by the rector, the Rev. John Woodroffe. This sketch (which most likely was Cork-printed) was accompanied by the form of prayer observed on laying the foundation stone of the new church on the 11th of November, 1847. In preparing the foundation portions of three previous structures were discovered, the last of which was built no longer back than 1720, but had fallen into great decay partly through a violent storm which occurred in the year 1728. The new church of 1847, which was designed by Mr. Joseph Willan, architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of Ireland, in the style of the thirteenth century, was to cost £8,000, of which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners contributed £5,000, the remainder being raised by public subscription.

Loss of the Cork Steamer, Killarney" in 1838.-The following account of this calamitous occurrence, which involved the loss of the "Killarney" steamer and no fewer than twenty-nine lives, is copied from The Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1838.

The "Killarney" left Cork for Bristol on Friday, January 19th, 1838, but the weather being very tempestuous she only made Poor Head, and was obliged to return to the Harbour. At eight o'clock that evening she put off again, and stood for Ballycotton, the wind increasing every moment to a gale, and the vessel going very slowly. This continued till midnight, the vessel rolling dreadfully, and her cargo of pigs bearing her down to leeward, and every wave that struck her causing her to dip so deeply that she shipped several seas. A great quantity of water poured down the forehold, the hatches being left open, as there were about 300 pigs below. There were about 350 pigs on deck; and in order to lighten the vessel the Captain directed all hands to exert themselves to throw them overboard. Exert themselves they did, but, in the language of one on board, "the pigs clung to the vessel as if they were determined to be her destruction." Up to four o'clock on Saturday morning they managed by means of the air or engine pumps to work the hold tolerably clear of the water that was shipped; but at that hour coal got into the pumps and choked them. The water then rose rapidly, the fires were extinguished and the engines no longer worked. After several hours' incessant labour in trying to empty the holds with buckets the crew succeeded so far as to get up a little steam again on Saturday at twelve o'clock; but it was to little purpose. A thick fog enveloped them; and on its clearing off about three o'clock they found themselves rapidly drifting on the rocky coast (at the west side of the Harbour). The vessel struck, between four and five o'clock, on a rock under The Rennies, about two miles from Roberts' Cove. About twenty-five persons effected a landing many failing in the attempt. Of those who succeeded several afterwards fell off from exhaustion; and the survivors suffered the greatest hardships, having to remain exposed to the storm two tedious days and nights, during which their sole sustenance was a little salt water and some scraps of seaweed. So near were they to the land that the rock on which they clung could not be seen without stooping over the adjoining cliff; yet all attempts to relieve them on Sunday failed; and it was not till Monday morning that, by passing a rope over the rock from two sides of the bay, that persons on shore at length let down a cot for their relief. The number rescued from the rock was fourteen, one of whom, the carpenter, died soon afterwards. Two others were lost from the breaking of the rope, and one, a sailor, was drowned in trying to swim ashore.

A Narrative of the Wreck of the Steamer "Killarney" in Renny Bay, 72 pages 8vo., with portrait, by Baron Spolasco, at Cork, in 1839, of whom some information is here given. One would like to know why Cork was favoured with a visit from this adventurous individual.

Under the heading "The Last of the Quack Barons," The Gentleman's. Magazine for December, 1858, records the death recently in New York of Baron Spolasco, a quack doctor, well known in South Wales and Gloucestershire. The Baron used to parade in his bills, by way of recommendation that he had escaped from the wreck of the "Killarney"

He

steamer; and by a grand appearance and great impudence he continued to get a great many dupes and to make a great deal of money. frequently made his appearance in a carriage drawn by four horses with postilions, hired to make a sensation. He was the pink of fashion in dress, but occasionally wore a mountebank costume. His humbug, however, lasted only for a season, although it was a pretty long one; and he then took his departure for the United States, where his first appearance was majestic, but he seems to have fallen into poverty before his death.

J. C.

Reviews of Books.

List of Books, Pamphlets, etc., printed wholly, or partially, in Irish from the earliest period to 1820. Compiled by E. R. McC. Dix and Séamus ua Carajde: Dublin, 1905.

This interesting little work supplies a much desired record of Irish printing before our archæological associations and Irish language societies took the field, and may, perchance, lead to the production of a companion volume on the history of the Irish (Gaelic) press, preferably on the lines adopted in Anderson's Historical Sketches of the Ancient Native Irish and their Descendants, published early in the last century. In the period of 250 years (1571-1820), covered in this list, the number of Books, &c., wholly or partially printed in Irish, of which the compilers found any record, was 156. These very attenuated figures and the continental cities— Antwerp, Louvain, Paris, Rome-in which very many of the works were printed, afford a luminous insight into the manner in which native Irish learning was arrested at home and banished from the country in those benighted days. In a country so deprived of the use of the press and so continuously kept thrown back upon old, and elsewhere obsolete, conditions, it is scarcely surprising that the native bards or seannahies—those masterminds and teachers who had their origin in a far-distant past— should have so long continued to influence the destiny of the race. list does not pretend to be exhaustive-in a work of such a character it is almost needless to add that omissions are inevitable-and Mr. Dix urgently invites all interested in the subject to notify him of any additions or corrections which they are capable of making or suggesting, in order that, in the event of a second edition being called for, the list may be reproduced, if possible, in a much more complete condition. The writer, availing himself of this invitation, suggests the inclusion of the following works, which occur to him, in a future edition :

The

A decree of the Irish clergy, dated 12th August, 1646, against the peace concluded between the Duke of Ormond and the Supreme Council of the Catholic Confederation, "which," according to Clarendon's History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in Ireland (Ed. London, 1721, p. 41), "they commanded to be publifh'd in all Places in the English and Irish Tongue." It would be interesting to know where the Irish version of this decree was printed, and whether Irish type was used.

Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum Alphabetice Depositarum. Sive Commentatio de Plantis Indigenis præfertim Dublinenfibus instituta. Being a Short Treatife of Native Plants, efpecially such as grow spontaneously in the Vicinity of Dublin; with their Latin, English and Irish Names, &c, by Cabel Threlkeld, M.D. Dublin, 1727. In this, the earliest printed Irish Herbal, the Irish names are printed in black letter.

John K'Eogh, A.B., who styled himself chaplain to Lord Kingston, was the author of the following books, which contain an appreciable amount of Irish, and which may fairly claim to be included in a list of Irish-printed works:

Botanalogia Universalis Hibernica, or, a General Irish Herbal calculated for this Kingdom, giving an Account of the Herbs, Shrubs and Trees, naturally produced therein, in English, Irish and Latin, &c. Corke, 1735.

Zoologia Medicinalis Hibernica: or a Treatise of Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Reptiles, or Insects, which are commonly known and propagated in this Kingdom Giving an Account of their Medicinal Virtues, and their Names in English, Irish, and Latin, &c. Dublin, 1739. An edition of this work was published in London in 1744, in which the author's name appears as "B. Mandeville, M.D."

Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language: Report for 1904. In the Journal for last year we drew attention to one of the most remarkable features of this Society as exhibited in its annual report, namely, its extensive cash balance of £766 17s. 5d. Since then the Society has evidently pursued the even tenor of its way as the balance now amounts to the stupendous pile of £840-figures that alone are sufficient to confront the reckless assertions that the nation is one of paupers and spendthrifts. At the present time when these islands are writhing in the throes of a fiscal agony the Society would unquestionably confer an opportune benefit on those desirous of grappling with the perplexities of the situation by expounding the secret of how to accumulate wealth consistently with the due discharge of its original objects. The annual reports, which are as regular in their appearances for many years past as the revolutions of the Heavenly bodies, are practically of late years, doubtless for some sufficient reason, the only output of the Society, but it cannot be denied that their contents, extending into about sixty pages each, and mostly made up of the correspondence from those proverbially exuberant functionaries-the National Teachers from all parts of the country-breathe a starry enthusiasm over the language. J. B.

English Goldsmiths and their Marks, by Charles James Jackson, F.S.A. (Macmillan, 42/- net). Hitherto owners and collectors of plate have depended upon the works of Morgan, Chaffers, and Cripps to guide them. The first of these, by Mr. Octavius Morgan, was a volume containing tables of the date letters used by the Goldsmiths' Company in London; these, however, were not taken from impressions of the marks, and contained no reference to the provincial assay offices. Ten years later Chaffers published his handbook, which was followed in 1878 by Cripps, whose book has passed through nine editions. But it was left to Mr. C. J. Jackson to write a comprehensive history of the subject, on which, after years of patient research, he has produced a monu

mental volume of nearly 700 folio pages, containing no less than 11,000 facsimiles of plate marks, embracing England, Scotland, and Ireland. In the works of Chaffers and Cripps Ireland was all but ignored, simply because neither one or the other of these authors made personal and independent researches in this country; hence, while Jackson devotes 150 pages to Ireland, Cripps has barely eleven, thus failing to throw any light whatever upon the goldsmiths of this country. But, fortunately for us, they left its fruitful soil to be cultivated by abler and more capable hands, in proof of which Mr. Jackson gives no less than 324 marks that were used by Cork workers, each having been taken from an authentic piece of plate, and are, in fact, the results of the method adopted and described by him. These plates are actual reproductions of the same size, or slightly larger, than the originals, which are enlarged photographs from plaster casts of the marks themselves.

His tables have, moreover, this further advantage, as a result of the system adopted in their reproduction, that the marks are represented as they actually appear on the plate from which they were taken, with the raised parts white and the depressed parts black. These are followed by a chronological list of the Cork goldsmiths from 1601 to 1850, and with the various marks and makers' names of the provincial towns, notably those of Youghal, Galway, Limerick, Bandon, Kinsale, and other of the walled towns in Ireland.

What Mr. Jackson has done for Cork he has also accomplished for Dublin, by giving a record of its goldsmiths from 1226 to 1902, and, in addition, to the succession of masters and wardens of the Company from its incorporation in 1637. He adds the list of freemen who were members of the guild, and also a list of the enrolments of apprentices to the Dublin goldsmiths from 1632. Also a list of the goldsmiths for whom plate was assayed, and the names of Irish provincial goldsmiths who, in compliance with the Act of the Irish House of Commons, 23 and 24 Geo. III., c. 23, were ordered to register their names in Dublin.

In addition to the 11,000 marks with which the book is illustrated, Mr. Jackson has selected as a frontispiece an admirable photogravure of the Vintners' salt, having the London marks of 1569-70, in the possession of the Vintners' Company of that city; and two illustrations of Irish plate, namely, the silver mace of the Cork guilds, by Robert Goble, and a two-handled covered cup, by Charles Bekegle of Cork, 1697. This fine example is in Mr. Jackson's collection of old English plate. It is ornamented in bold relief with an eagle (in allusion to the maker's name), melons, pomegranates, and other fruit, foliage and flowers. The handles are of the harp shape commonly found on Irish cups of the end of the seventeenth century. Collectors of Irish plate owe much to Mr. Jackson for the light that he has thrown upon the special branch of the subject in which they are most deeply interested; he has raised its value to the same standard as the work that proceeded from the best London workshops of the same period. Mr. Jackson's volume is the result of painstaking and laborious study, from which the accurate deductions and conclusions that have been drawn places it as the first authority, and at the head of the literature of the fascinating subject for which the author has done so much.

R. D.