bandage, and expressed very well the Irish word bannlamh, similar to it in sense and wand, and signifying a narrow cloth of a mb or eighteen inches in breadth, though ittle at present is so wide. This is vulgarly iled bandles or bendel linen. Two bandles nd an half, or six yards and three quarters length of this narrow linen make now a irt for a common labourer. The act alwy seven yards, which is equal to about free yards and an half of yard-wide linen, hich is the allowance for the finest shirt.

"The Irish, says Moryson writing in 83, had in their shirts twenty or thirty ells, alded in wrinkles and coloured with saffron. pon makes the quantity thirty yards. Ve are not certain whether the first meats sh or Flemish ells, there being between be a difference of eighteen inches in each If we take the thirty yards of the last, ere were in an Irish shirt or smock, six les or fifteen yards of yard-wide linen. fo one has attempted to explain how so uch linen could conveniently be disposed Cotemporary writers supply some hints. ndent describing the appearance made Shane O'Neil at the court of Elizabeth, D. 1562, attended by his Galloglasses, ,the latter bore battle-axes, their heads tre bare with locks curled and hanging

awa, their shirts stained with saffron or aman urine, and the sleeves of them large, eir vests rather short, and their cloaks Surged.***

Many vain attempts were made to ake the common people lay aside their hantles, for a dress under which weaens could so easily be concealed, was ot to be suffered in so barbarous a counry. Cromwell's officers, who effected very thing they undertook, succeeded. Happy had it been for Ireland had his Fystem continued! The people, who were obliged to leave off the mantle, and had no other garment at first to supply its place, went about half-naked, muffled with table-cloths, pieces of tapestry, and rags of all colours and forms, that they looked as if they had just escaped from Bedlam.

The essay on the military antiquities of Ireland contains one curious anecdote from Strada. Sir William Pelham led into the Low Countries in 1586, fourteen hundred wild Irish, e sylvestri omnes genere atque ferino, clad only below the navel, armed with bows and arrows, and mounted on stilts which they used in

passing rivers, grallis seu perticis, quarum usus in trajiciendis amnibus alti impositi, longe aliis superstabant.

On the political constitution and laws of the ancient Irish.-The Brehons laws are now wholly unintelligible; so Dr. Ledwich asserts, notwithstanding the translated specimens in the Collectanea, and he supports his assertion by cogent reasons. Charles O'Connor, who was confessedly the best Irish scholar then in the kingdom, was applied to for his opinion, and the following is an extract from his answer.

"Our Irish jurisprudence was almost entirely confined to the Phænian dialect, a dialect understood only by the Brehons, the law-advocates, and a few who had curiosity to study our law language. I have seen and possessed some of our Phænian tracts; and having an opportunity in my youth of conversing with some of the most learned Irish scholars in our island, they freely confessed to me, that to them both the text and gloss were equally unintelligible. The key for expounding both was so late as the reign of Charles L. possessed by the Mac Egans, who kept their law-school in Tipperary, and I dread that since that time it has been lost. But I have been informed, that Duald MTirbis, the ablest scholar instructed by these Mac Egans, was employed on a law-lexicon, in which, it has been said, he made a good progress. Possessed of such an expositor, our lawlearning, the product of inany ages, might be discovered, and become a valuable acquisition."

Of the many Celtic scholars whom Dr. Ledwich consulted, not one could understand their laws; it was therefore fully established, that they were not to be explained without a glossary or key. He is of opinion, that this impenetrable obscurity is in a great measure to be attributed to the technical jargon in which, like most other laws, they may have been composed, and which are utterly unintelligible to any unacquainted with the profession. But if this theory were true, so many connecting words would be understood as immediately to manifest it.

A clear account of this political system is given in his able dissertation. At the head of all was the Ard-riagh, or supreme monarch, whose principal revenue arose from the tribute paid him by the

In 1542, it was proclaimed, that noblemen should have but twenty cubits or bandles of en in their shirts; horsemen eighteen; footmen sixteen; garsons twelve; and clowns ten: and that none of their shirts should be dyed with saffron, on pain of twenty shillings. Cox,

1. p. 272.

Cum securigero Galloglassorum satellitio, capitibus nudis, crispatis cincinnis dependentibus, camisiis flavis croco vel humana urina infectis, manicis largioribus, tuniculis brevoribus et lacernis villosis. Hist. Eliz. p. 69.

• Harris's Ware, p. 19.

"The second sort is Ogum coll, or the in composed out of the letter c: when all the vowels, dipthongs and tripthongs, uere is substituted, variously repeated,

led and turned, as thus: e "Ꭵ

eccc.

CCC.

12

oi io

ua
33

ວ

* The third sort is the Ogum croabh, or gular Ogum; it has an horizontal maspe, through which and on each side are icular strokes which stand in the sf vowels, consonants, dipthongs and ongs. This is exhibited in the plate 1. the perpendicular master-line with atal strokes is seen in No. 2. and the inscription in No. 3. What is now fed from Molloy is rational and intellile, nor can there be any doubt but all cryptographic modes were practised al the northern countries of Europe: for, celebrated + Icelandic Edda at Upsal, instance of the Ogum consoine, where, d of the vowel, that consonant which ed next in the alphabet is placed: as serkptprks binfdkth skt pmnkbxs ts. Instead of a, e, i, o, u, y, the let1, í, k, p, x, and z were put, so that it

thus:

Dextera scriptoris benedicta fit omnibus horis.

Von Troil remarks, that a similar Ogum be seen in Rabanus Maurus's tract, De Literarum, written about the middle of rinth century. Verelius, Wormius, with y existing monuments prove, that the ctherns writ their runes in every possible in cicles, in angles, from right to left, ! vice versa. Wormius enumerates 12 ferent ways of making runic inscriptions. German buchstab or runes were drawn me in horizontal, and sometimes in pndicular lines. Here we have, if not Longinal of our Ogum croabh, a practice ly similar. In a word, these wonderful Ugums were nothing, as we see, but a graphic and steganographic contrivance, m to the semibarbarians of Europe the middle ages, and very probably de

from the Romans."

The Callan inscription, which is given the Archæologia, is in the third mode,

the complest, or rather rudest of the three, which requires fifteen lines to express the first five letters of the alphabet. As this inscription is translated in five different ways, it is very evident that no reliance can be placed upon ei ther. Dr. Ledwich thinks the Irish alphabet was originally Roman, and received from the Anglo-Saxons. This is a very interesting and erudite essay.

A review of Irish literature in the middle ages.-Here many of the opinions illustrated in the preceding disser tations are applied. Ireland made a rapid progress in letters in the fifth and sixth century, because many of the British clergy fled thither from the Saxons. There are, however, no genuine remains of these centuries. A communication was kept up with the East, and the superiority which their learning gave to the British and Irish clergy in their disputes with the Romanists, so galled them, and impeded their success, hat Theodore archbishop of Canterbury, against the spirit of his religion, and the order of his superiors, was forced to set up schools and promote the study of etters. Columbanus and Cummian_fburished in the seventh century, and their works still exist. In the eighth Virgil, an Irish bishop, was persecuted by Beniface archbishop of Mentz, for believng the sphericity of the earth. The scho lastic theology arose in Ireland about this period, caught from the Greets, and in the next century that country hid the glory of producing Scotus Erigera. After this age her literature declined, and the English conquest extinguished it.

The remaining essays chiefly relate o Irish topography, and are therefore of less value. The account we have given of this very able work, renders it unncessary to speak farther in commend.tion of it. We will only add, that t has the rare merit of being a chea book, as well as a good one.

The ancients disposed letters variously for secrecy and amusement. For the scytale of re Greeks, see Schol. Thucyd. lib. 1. Plutarch in Lysand. A. Gell. 1. 17, c. 9. Fe a contrivances, see Suet. in Aug. c. 88. in J. Cæs. c. 56. Dio. 1. 39. Morhoff. Poly T.. p. 624 Salmuth in Pancipol. tit. 14.

+ Von Troil's Letters on Iceland, p. 299.

Literat. run. p. 138, 139.

Pelloutier, Hist. de Celtes. T. 1. p. 402. Mallet, V. 1. p. 363.

ART. XII. Antiquities of the Inns of Court and Chancery; containing Historical and Descriptive Sketches relative to their original Foundation, Customs, Ceremonies, Buildings, Government, e. Sc. With a concise History of the English Law. By W. HERBERT. Embellished with 24 Plates. 8vo. and 4to. pp. 389.

ALTHOUGH topographical and antiquarian works are seldom overcharged with originality, yet every new book should have a portion of that in its composition; the quantity and quality of which desirable article constitutes its relative value. Deprived of this, it can only be useful to a few, as it increases the stock of books, without adding to the stock of knowledge. Walpole has the following very pertinent remarks on book-making, which we strongly recom

mend to the attention of booksellers and
editors. "Never was the noble art of
book-making carried to such high per-
fection, as at present. These compilers
seem to forget that people have libraries.
One vamps up a new book of travels,
consisting merely of disguised extracts
from former publications. Another fills
his pages with Greek and Latin extracts
from Aristotle and Quintilian. A third,
if possible, more insipid, gives us long
quotations from our poets, while a re-
ference was enough, the books being in
the hands of every body. Another
treas us with old French ana in mas-
querade and, by a singular fate, de-
rives advantage from his very blunders,
which make the things look new. Pah!
I, and an amanuensis could scribble one
of those books in twenty-four hours."
Though we do not level the whole of
thi at Mr. Herbert, yet we conceive he
ought to have made a better book, en-
ricled it with more original matter from
hinself, and not depended so much on
the writings of others. It now stands
a nodernized abridgement of the scarce
and valuableOrigines Juridiciales of Dug-
dae; all of whose works are highly use
fu and interesting. They were com-
pite at the time; and had Dugdale
wote now, he would have made them
kep pace with the improved literature
of the age. In the following extract
(ne preface) the author candidly ac-
knowledges his obligations to that great
antiquary, and characterizes his own
work; but does not display equal can-
daur in alluding to, and no specifying
M. Ireland's work on the inns of court;
the embellishments of which, Mr. Her
bet invidiously reprobates, not consider
ing that most of the plates in his own

volume are much worse than the aquatinted views in Mr. Ireland's.

public as a compendium of valuable, rather "The following work is presented to the than original information. In its composi tion the author has freely availed himself of what was before written on the subject, and is very ready to anticipate the scrutiny of onticism, by avowing, that the greater part of h materials have been extracted from the wellknown and justly celebrated performance of 1666, 1667, and 1680, under the title of sir William Dugdale, published in folio in Origines Juridiciales.'

To give the substance of that expensive and interesting work, with the additional advantage of views of the places described, was the primary, and, in fact, the only object here aimed at. But many alterations and inprovements presented themselves in proces ing; by the adoption of which the present from an abridgement. Valuable as the 0gines Juridiciales certainly is, it must be a knowledged to be a repulsive book to modera readers. Many of its details are dry and pr lix; much matter is interwoven with de text, which, being but remotely connects i with it, might have been with more pro priety put into notes; and it abounds in re dundancy of expression, a fault imputable. the style of the age.

volume will be found to differ very materially

"By taking advantage of these circumstances, what is really of importance in tat book, is not only here preserved, but room has been afforded for a great quantity of additional information; and the whole, while it assumes a more attractive form, it is hoped will be found of encreased utility.

already issued from the press: one published
"Two publications on this subject have
in 1790, and called Historical Memoria
of the English Laws, Inns of Court, &
is a mere reprint of part of Dugdale; the
other (a very recent performance), though it
may, perhaps, have the advantage of the for
mer in point of embellishment, is so ex-
tremely superficial, as by no means to answer
the purpose of an History of the Inns of
Court and Chancery: neither of them po
preciate, but to apologize for the appearance of
sesses good plates. This is said not to de-
a third work; of whose superiority, after ha
ing thus fairly stated its claims, the publi
must judge.

with

"Of the engravings, it is unnecessary to speak; their number and the accuracy which they are executed, will best plead tor any deficiencies which may be found in the letter-press."