bishop Ussher thus writes to Mr. William Camden, from Dublin, June 8, 1618:

"The Company of Stationers in London are now erecting a factory for books and a press here. Mr. Felix Kingston and others are sent over for that purpose. They begin with the Statutes of the realm. Afterwards they purpose to fall in hand with my collections." &c. The earliest Latin book known to have been printed in Ireland is Sir James Ware's, "Archiepiscoporum Casseliensis et Tuamensis Vitæ." (Lives of the Archbishops of Cashel and Tuam), published in 1626, the next his "De Præsulibus Lagenia" (of the Presidents of Leinster), in 1628.

It may be regarded as a literary curiosity, that Archbishop Ussher quoted his own work, "Gotteschalci Historia," 1631, as the earliest Latin treatise issued in Ireland. That learned prelate, born in 1580, entered Trinity College in the first year of its teaching, 1593, being at the time only thirteen years of age.

The unique object of this paper being the rise and progress of printed literature in Ireland, we pass over the voluminous works of this great scholar published in London. Neither shall we be tempted to descant on the civil wars by the fact of the great scholar's departure from Ireland in 1641, and the ill-feeling excited among the 66 mere Irish by the bitterness of some of his writings. This party, on the breaking out, destroyed his tenements, and converted his flocks and herds into soldier's rations. His library, in his house in Drogheda, was saved, however; and after being conveyed

to Dublin, it was thence shipped to London.

The archbishop's intention had been, from the beginning, to bequeath his ten thousand volumes and his MSS. to Trinity College, Dublin; but his other property being destroyed, as mentioned, he left them to his daughter, as the only legacy available for her support. After his death, in Surrey, in 1656, the executors of his will announced the intended sale, and the King of Denmark, and Cardinal Mazarin would have contended for the possession of the valuable library, but Cromwell announced his will that the great mass of literature should not be allowed to leave the kingdom. This being reported in Ireland, the officers and soldiers of the republican army subscribed £2,200, and bought the library with the intention of fulfilling the Archbishop's original purpose. This sum, though below the value, the executors were obliged to accept, and the books and MSS., and a small collection of coins were accordingly consigned to the Irish capital again. They were not, however, allowed to be sent to the College, but were kept at the Castle, with the object of being added to a new College about to be founded by the Protector. In the troubles consequent on the death of Cromwell, the collection was more or less injured, and several books and manuscripts stolen; but on the accession of Charles all that were left untouched were delivered up to the College, where they have since been carefully watched and preserved.

Resuming our post at the press, we find another edition of the "Book of Common Prayer," quarto size,

treatment.

published in Dublin in 1620 (A copy is preserved in Trinity College), and, in the same year, Bolton's Collection of the Statutes.

A restless friar of the Franciscan order, getting into disgrace with his superiors, kept the Dublin Press disturbed from 1633 to 1635, with his pamphlets, written against his archbishop, Thomas Fleming, who, for cogent reasons, had interdicted his flock from attendance at the masses of the said friar, or of Peter Cadell, D.D. This worthy styled himself Paul Harris, his real surname being Matthews. Dr. Madden says, that "his pieces contain numerous and curious prints of history, especially the ecclesiastical history of his own time and place of residence in 1635. He describes himself to be aged sixty-three, and to have been an exile from England twentyyears. In 1600 he tells us that he was in Spain."

venerable primate. He soundly rated him for allowing the clergy of the Lower House to propose any modification whatsoever, and would not adopt his suggestions, which would have had the effect of reconciling the Irish clergy to the new order of things. Thus did his wrath boil over when. writing to the English dignitary :

"When I came to open the book, and run over their Deliberandums in the margin, I confess I was not so much moved since I came to Ireland. I told him (the dean), not a dean of Limerick, but an Ananias, had sate in the chair at that committee. However, sure I was Ananias had been there in spirit if not in body, with all the fraternities and conventicles of Amsterdam. That I was ashamed and scandalised with it above measure; I therefore said he should leave the book and draught with me, and that I did command him, upon his allegiance, he should report

"f LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE." "The Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical" (Crooke and Helsham 1634), and "Articles agreed upon by the Prelates, Archbishops," &c. (Stationers and printers, 1634), bring us to high-handed dealings of Lord Strafford, then Lord Deputy, with the Irish ecclesiastics, who fancied they possessed the right of forming their own opinions on certain canonical ordinances framed by his grace of Canterbury. In the Deputy's mind, canons on which the Irish clergy were not consulted, were no more to be commented on than an ukase of the Czar by any of his boyars or serfs. Dr. Madden quotes at length the deputy's letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, detailing the presumption exhibited by the Convocation in their marginal annotations on the English Book of Canons. The couple of extracts which follow exhibit its spirit. The great autocrat would not even approve of modified formulas drawn up by the

mittee bill he heard again from me."

So the Primate, the Bishops of Meath, Kilmore, Raphoe, and Derry, the prolocutor, &c., being sternly rebuked, and obliged, with the exception of one recusant, to admit such a scheme of Church government as was agreeable to the King and his representative, he thus complacently concluded his epistle :

"So much now I can say, the King is as absolute here as any prince in the known world can be, and may be still if it be not spoiled on that side. For so long as His Majesty shall have here a deputy of faith and understanding, and that he be preserved in credit, and independent upon any but the King himself, let it be laid as a ground it is the deputy's fault if the King be denied any reasonable desire."

A Treatise on the Authority of the Church by Leslie (Society of Stationers, 1637), and Sir Richard Bolton's Justice of the Peace(1638), make the number of separate publications in

Ireland, up to 1640, exactly 78. This is given on Dr. Madden's authority, who carefully examined libraries and all available authorities for the settling of the precise number. The amount appears small, but even in the middle of the nineteenth century, Irish readers preferred London to Dublin imprints.

LITERATURE OF THE GREAT RE-
BELLION.

THE uneasy relations of the King's government with the confederate Catholics during the Great Rebellion, produced some activity among the metropolitan and provincial presses during that disastrous period. We quote some titles of the printed tracts.

"The Declaration of Owen O'Neill, published in the Head Quarters of that part of the Army adhering with him, together with the Right Honourable the Supreme Councell of the Confederate Catholics of Ireland. "Printed at Kilkenny, by Order of the Council, 1640."

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The Sentence of the Councell of Warre, pronounced on My Lord Mountnorris, 12th December, 1835, date 1641.

"An Argument delivered by Patrick Darcy, Esq., by the Express Orders of the House of Commons in the Parliament of Ireland, 9th June, 1641," was printed at Waterford, in 1643 by Thomas Bourke, printer to the Confederate Catholics of Ireland. One of the earliest cares of the Council of the Confederates, on the organisation of the body, 23rd of October, 1642, was to set printingpresses at work in Kilkenny and Waterford.

The same year, 1643, in the month of October, was printed in Dublin, "A Letter from a Protestant in Ireland to a Member of the House of Commons in England, upon occasion of the late Treaty."

"A Proclamation concerning a Cessation of Arms," issued this year in London, was a reprint of a Dublin tract, struck off by "William Blayden, printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty." These two pamphlets are in the Thorpe' Collection, in the library of the Royal Dublin Society.

Next year, 1644, there issued from the Confederate press at Waterford, "The Propositions of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, 'presented by the Commissioners to His Sacred Majesty, in April, 1644."

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In the same year a certain M.D., named Loghan, having thought proper to publish a tract with the title. A Cordiell, or the Motives which induced me to desert the Romish, and embrace the true Protestant Religion," was pounced on by a Catholic priest and Dr. of Divinity, Walter Enos by name, who probably copied the bitter style of the pamphlet in the title-page of his own rejoinder, which ran thus:

"A Lexipharmacon, or a Sovereign Antidote against a Virulent Cordiell, composed 22nd of June, 1644, by two Druggists. The one an Apostate, called John Loghan, a titular Dr. of Physick; the other a Dr. of Divinity of the pretended Reformed Gospel, called Ed. Parrey, wherein the Cordiell is proved to be a Contagious Drugge of pestilent Ingredients, and the Motives inducing the Apostate into a Revolt, to be Damnable and Heretical."

Dr. Enos addressed the supreme Conferate Council, claiming their encouragement in terse and highly sensational language. All the controversialists of that era, and some of the past generation, never felt the necessity of "purchasing a commodity of good words." The Lexipharmacon was printed at the Waterford office, 1644. It is preserved in Trinity College. Among the rare.

pamphlets collected by the late Charles Halliday, is a manifesto issued the same year by the Council at Kilkenny.

The best-executed work issued in Ireland in the first half of the seventeenth century, dates, "Waterford, 1644, Thomas Bourke, printer." It consists of a declaration of the confederate Catholics of their intentions with respect to English and Scotch Protestants residing in Ireland:

Whereas we are informed that it is generally believed by the English and Scottish Protestants of this kingdom, that we, the Lords and Gentry, and others of the said kingdom, have taken arms, and taken forces for the extirpation and banishing of them out of the kingdom, thereby to acquire to ourselves their goods and estates, . . . We hereby declare that we never consented nor intended, nor never intend nor condescend to any such acts, but do utterly disclaim them. But that each man known to be a moderate conformable Protestant may (as well as the Roman Catholics) respectively live and enjoy the freedom of their own religion, and peaceably and quietly possess their own estates, so far forth as they, or any of them, shall joyne with us in the oath following." This oath exacted allegience to King Charles and his successors, and an engagement not to interfere with the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion.

The signatures to the document were as below:-

Mount Garret, Fz. Tho. Dublin, Antrim, Netterville, Arthur Iveah; John Clonfert; Thomas Preston; Edward Fitzmorris; Richard Bellingham; Tirlough O'Neille; Patrick Darcy; George Commins.

Given at Kilkenny the 6th of July, 1644. Immediately after, R. Austin republished this document in London with the following title:-

"A Declaration made by the Rebells in Ireland against the English and Scotch Protestants, lately Contrived by the Confederate Rebells

in a council held at Kilkenny against the Parliament of England and the Protestants of these Kingdoms." And" A General Proclamation, published by the Law Council for arming all Catholics from. eighteen to sixty for Subduing all Protestants in the Kingdom of Ireland. Published according to order."

In 1645, William Blayden printed at his Dublin press (it is a pity that we are not told in what street), "A Declaration set forth by the Lord Lieutenant and Councell, vindicating the honour and justice of His Majestie's Government," &c., &c. By Alice Lady Moore, Viscountess Dowager of Drogheda, Sir Patrick Wemys, knight, and Captain J. Rawson.'

At the same press and in the same year were printed - "Articles of Peace made, and concluded, and agreed upon, by His Excellency, James, Lord Marquis of Ormonde, Lieutenant General of His Majestie's Kingdom of Ireland, &c., &c., with Donnagh, Lord Viscount Muskerry, and others, authorised by His Majestie's Roman Catholic subjects, 6th of March, 1645.

In 1646, the Confederate Council at Kilkenny issued another proclamation assuring the Roman Catholics in the English quarters of their protection. The document was printed in Kilkenny by Thomas Preston, quarto size.

This was answered by the King's printer in Dublin, William Blayden, with, "A Remonstrance from the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament in Dublin, concerning the Estate of Ireland, the Barbarousness of the Bloody Rebells," &c. Two other tracts of Blayden, printed the same year, are preserved in the Thorpe Collection.

The earliest Irish almanack discovered by Dr. Madden, was printed in this year, 1646, in Waterford, being probably compiled by a mere Irishman, for it was reprinted in London, by John Booker under the title of,

"A Bloody Irish Almanack; or Rebellious and Bloody Ireland, discovered, in Some Notes extracted out of an Almanack in Ireland for this year, 1646.” Dr. Madden here remarks: :

"In this' Bloody Irish Almanack' the author observes (p. 11), "It is observable that pyrates (Danes) were the founders of Waterford."

The poor King was executed, January 30th, 1648, and the dissolution of the Confederate League occurred some months later, after an existence of about six years. (It was initiated 23rd October, 1642). The last manifesto of theirs, which we can quote, is a protest got up by the Ormonde party in the council, "against the nuncio's attempt to oppose the cessation of arms, and to subject the affairs of the kingdom to spiritual jurisdiction." It was printed in Kilkenny, in small folio, in the month of April in the above year.

Next year William Blayden printed in Dublin, "True Copy of Several Letters, first sent from Lord Ormonde to the Honourable Colonel Michael Jones, Commander-in-chief of the Parliamentary Forces, and Governor of the city of Dublin."

"Cromwell's Celebrated Answer, (we quote text) to the Clonmacnois Manifesto of the Irish Catholic prelates and clergy, was printed at Cork, in 1649, and reprinted in London, March 1649-50. The Cork edition exists in the King's Inns' Library, Dublin."

The "Acts and Declarations" assailed by Cromwell, had been printed in Cork, and reprinted in Dublin in that same year.

Next year 1650 was printed also in Cork. "A Declaration and Proclamation of the Deputy General of Ireland, concerning the Present Hand of God in the Visitation of the Plague, and for the exercise of Fasting and Prayer."

The parliament, however Godfearing and self-searching as they

Their

were, acted exceedingly like any
mere worldly assembly in depriving
their political opponents of as much
of their property as they safely could,
and investing the spoil in the hands
of their military supporters.
Act of Settlement, constructed on
the above principle, was printed by
Peter de Pienne, at Waterford, in
1652, and is happily the last publish-
ed document in our way, connected
with the Great Rebellion. Going
back,we take up some publications of
a more cheerful character, which we
did not wish to notice in such un-
suitable company.

PLAYS AND OTHER UNWARLIKE
PRODUCTIONS.

In the noble library (now destroyed, or dispersed) of the late Earl of Charlemont rested for many years beside the original Shakespeare folio, and among other early and rare dramas, a quarto play thus entitledLandgartha, a tragic-comedy, as it was presented in the New Theatre in Dublin with good applause, being an ancient story.

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"Written by H. B. (Henry Burnell), 4to. printed at Dublin (no printer's name) 1641."

"This play (we quote Dr. Madden) was first acted on St. Patrick's Day, 1639, 'with the allowance of the Master of the Revels.'

"Prefixed to this 'tragic comedy' is an Epistle Dedicatory by the author, and a Eulogistic Poem in Latin, signed E. Burnell. 'Patre suo Carissimo Encomium' (An Eulogy by his very dear father).

"There are also two laudatory poems addressed to the author, and at the end the following lines: "Some, but not of the best judgment, were offended at the conclusion of this play, in regard Landgartha took not then to what she was persuaded to by so many, the King's embraces. To which kind of people (who know not what they say) I answer, omitting all other reasons, that a tragic comedy should neither end comically