kill, and partly from the fences and watchers required to preserve the flocks, are enormous.' (P. 371.)

We trust that these brief extracts may suffice to direct the attention of our readers to M. de Lavergne's delightful and instructive volume, which is too succinct to admit of further condensation. But before we conclude, one or two general remarks suggest themselves to the mind. It is evident that these results of agricultural improvement, which have already doubled the wealth and prosperity of the French people, are due in the first place to the maintenance of peace. They have not acted with equal intensity upon the growth of the population; and in speaking of the last census of the Empire, in 1856, we took occasion to show that the augmentation of the population in the rural districts was incredibly slow and small. In fact throughout France hands are wanting to the thorough cultivation of the country; and as the introduction of farming machinery to do the work of hands can only be the result of time, the value of the peasant-labour absorbed by the military conscription, at the rate of 100,000 able-bodied men per annum, is a heavy loss to the country, and a burden which falls with especial weight on the rural districts. This evil would, of course, be incalculably augmented by any interruption of the peace of Europe; and it may be confidently asserted that France gains much more in all that really constitutes the power and wealth of a nation by devoting her whole strength to the improvement of her internal resources, than she could do by the conquest of the most coveted provinces of neighbouring states. The present Imperial Government owes everything to the peasantry of France; and the only political principle to which the Emperor can fairly lay claim, is his practical discovery that a government based on the firm support of the masses of the agricultural population can hold its ground, not only against the revolutionary passions of the great towns, but even against the great majority of the educated classes. But the peasantry are precisely the class which have most to lose and least to gain by war. The army itself, which is dreaded by some politicians, as a formidable engine for the disruption of Europe, is in reality little more than the peasantry trained to arms; and nine-tenths of these conscripts and soldiers have no higher ambition than to fall back, at the expiration of their term of service, upon the villages and homesteads in which their lives are to be happily and usefully spent.

Of all the measures which the Emperor Napoleon, in his full possession of unlimited power, has thought fit to adopt, by far the wisest for his dynasty and the best for the country, are those calculated to ameliorate the conditions of the rural dis

tricts. He said the other day with truth to the peasants of the Allier, that the improvement of the country was, upon the whole, a more useful and important work than the transformation of great cities. And, upon the whole, his measures for this purpose have been well-conceived. He has learned that the interference of the Government by way of protection is rather mischievous than beneficial: he has abolished the sliding scale of import and export duties on corn; he has opened markets by the expansion of roads at home and by treaties of commerce with foreign countries; and he has evinced an active and intelligent solicitude for these, the first, interests of the country. It would be unjust to preceding governments, and especially to that of King Louis Philippe, not to add that the same path was trodden with no mean success by the ministers of that reign; and that the splendid results we now witness are the fruits of improvements commenced under the constitutional monarchy, momentarily arrested by the convulsions of 1848, and vigorously continued and enlarged by the present Emperor. Whatever may be the opinions we entertain of the political institutions of the second Empire, on the ground of material improvements it is absurd to deny that the Emperor has rendered great services to France-services indeed so great, that one of the charges brought against him by his uncompromising opponents is, that these benefits have caused the nation to forget even that loss of freedom by which they have been purchased. However this may be, nothing is more certain than that the policy which has enriched the rural districts and rebuilt the towns of France- which is doubling her agricultural produce, and has more than doubled her foreign trade-is irreconcilably opposed to the policy of aggression and war. The two things cannot co-exist. And whilst we exult in all that contributes to the welfare, industry, and intelligence of a great nation, our satisfaction is enhanced by the reflection, that in the successful pursuit of these pacific and honourable objects, the French nation have in reality given pledges to peace, greater than they are perhaps themselves aware of; and that all the true permanent interests of the country would suffer from prolonged hostilities with foreign nations in exact proportion to the prosperity they have already attained, and the yet more brilliant promises of the future.

ART. IV.-1. Historical Memoir of the O'Briens, with Notes, Appendix, and a Genealogical Table of their several Branches. By JOHN O'DONOGHUE, A.M. Dublin: 1860.

2. Irish History and Irish Character. By GOLDWIN SMITH. Oxford: 1861.

WHEN the last O'Ruarc was driven from Breffny, the Paystha hid the evidences of his state in a

⚫ beneath the waters of the Linn, and there they remain unscathed by time, and will reappear in their ancient shape, when the curse of the Saxon has left the country.' This quaint old legend expresses a truth, though not in the sense intended by its author, with respect to many of the antiquities of Ireland. Her historical and genealogical records are numberless, and have been preserved with great exactness; but they have lain concealed for several generations beneath the tide of war and revolution. At length, however, in the present age, when Ireland is blessed with comparative peace, and the long strife of Saxon and Celt is giving way to a kindlier feeling, they are finding a place in our national literature; and their richness, fulness, and interest may be estimated by such specimens as the Irish State Papers,' and Dr. O'Donovan's Annals of the Four "Masters." One of the most important additions to the series will be a translation of the Brehon laws which is now in course of publication with the aid of a Parliamentary subsidy.

That this mass of materials for Irish History will sooner or later be thrown into form, analogy leads us hopefully to anticipate. It is much to be wished, in the interest of literature, that such stores of information should be turned to account, and be moulded into a regular narrative. It is, also, we think, of some importance, their angry feuds having partly ceased, that Irishmen should know more of their country than is found in compilations on the subject; and should feel linked with the life of their forefathers by the tie of genuine historical association. Accordingly we sympathise with efforts in this direction; and this, in truth, is the principal reason that we give space to a review of Mr. O'Donoghue's volume. It is an attempt, however crude and imperfect, to make use of the elements of Irish History which of late years have been brought to light; and although it is a failure in point of art, it bears marks of care and study, and its tone and spirit are generally impartial. To praise it further is however impossible, for it has not a single trace of genius; it is

very deficient in style and arrangement; in some particulars we think it inaccurate; and it seems to have been composed in defiance of the laws of effect and perspective in writing. A real "Historical Memoir of the O'Briens' would give the reader a lively image of the Ireland which saw the battle of Clontarf, and acknowledged Brian of the Tributes' as its sovereign. It would make him acquainted with the genius of the age when the Princes of Thomond bade defiance to their nominal lords, the Plantagenet Kings, and swept the Pale with their Celtic vassals. It would place before him that eventful drama in which the O'Briens were prominent actors-the subjugation of Ireland by the Tudors, and the civil wars of the Revolution--and it would make him feel in the Ireland of 1782, when sketching the life of the Great Sir Lucius.' Mr. O'Donoghue, however, appears to be ignorant of the true end of historical biography; and although, as critics, we have no desire to measure his work by a high standard, we are bound to complain that he should have written it without regard to acknowledged principles. As it stands, it is only an undiscriminating genealogy, connected by a weak and tedious commentary. No greater contrast could be offered to Mr. O'Donoghue's desultory volume, than the essay by Professor Goldwin Smith, which we have also placed at the head of this Article. It is in fact a masterpiece of historical analysis, of profound and accurate thought, and of ingenious observation, conveyed in language of singular purity and precision. We shall not attempt to review this most remarkable volume, for it is in itself the critical essence of Irish history, and not a word can be subtracted from it without injuring the marvellous effect of the composition. After all that has been said of Ireland, this essay has the freshness of truth, and we do not think we overrate its excellence in placing it among the best specimens of political writing in the language. We shall avail ourselves occasionally of some of Mr. Goldwin Smith's luminous remarks, which throw a beam of light on the sources of Irish history; but we now resume the humbler labour we have imposed on ourselves in following the fortunes of the O'Briens.

Mr. O'Donoghue traces the line of the O'Briens through a long series of Milesian chiefs ascending beyond the Christian

era.

We shall not follow these phantom shapes, the denizens of a shadowy land, where the light of history has never shone, and the faint gleams of Celtic tradition only make the general darkness visible. The prowess of Con of the Hundred Battles, the deeds of Niall of the Nine Hostages, the feuds between the sons of Olioll Olum, and the crimes of Mong-finn of the fair

tresses, are the proper theme of bards and sennachies; and we shall only say respecting these legends that they are quite at variance with the vague notion of the præ-historical civilisation of Ireland. When at length, about the eleventh century, the void assumes a different form, the scene it presents is very different from that bright mirage of peace and piety which for ages mocked the fancy of the Celt as the true image of the land of his fathers.

From Cape Clear to the Giant's Causeway, barbarian tribes spread over a land of hill, plain, forest, and morass, with scarcely a mark of culture upon it. Their wild cattle were their principal wealth; and rude burrows of turf or mud, here and there crowned by a low-browed church, were their only permanent habitations. The savage customs of the aborigines were inconsistent with national life, secured the continuance of war and disorder, and made hereditary property impossible. A nominal monarch was crowned at Tara; but his crown was usually the prize of a war between the Septs of the North and South, and his reign was almost always inaugurated by a royal raid on his weakest subjects. The tribes, however, were independent of each other, and owed allegiance only to their chiefs, who ruled them with a despotic sway, not unlike that of a Turkish Pasha. Each chief was absolute owner of the soil within the territory of the tribe, and parcelled it out among his followers who held it at will in miserable vassalage. The barbarous nature of this relation many years afterwards astonished Normans accustomed to the feudal severities; and in Spenser's time the English language had no terms to express its harshness. As for the chief, his title depended on election, although confined to certain families; and every election was usually preceded by a desperate strife among the clansmen, and was followed by a massacre of the vanquished, and a general redistribution of the territory. Mr. Goldwin Smith shows with great distinctness how the peculiar tenures of land by tanistry in the Irish Septs, which the English lawyers called 'no estate, but only a transitory and scambling possession,' arrested the social and economical developement of the Irish people at an almost primitive stage; and probably laid deep in the hearts of the people those indelible passions, which still look on the theory of feudal property as a robbery of the inhabitants, and break out to this day in agrarian outrages and theories of tenant right. The whole history of the island is a commentary on the original land tenures by the Septs, irrespective of any strict law of personal inheritance by descent.

parated into distinct communities, each a centre of murder,