Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/430

 and bearing of the common and statute law, as rationally recognised and defined, with the international adjustments and powers exercised, from the period of the Anglo-Norman invasion to the reign of Charles I, and was originally intended as an introduction to a projected work on the annals of the early Irish parliaments. A continuation to 1782, which Mason contemplated, was apparently never begun. The book having become very scarce was reprinted at Dublin in 1891, with a preface, life of the author, and an introduction by the Very Rev. John Canon O'Hanlon.

In 1830 Mason published a ‘Grammar of the Irish Language,’ 8vo, Dublin (2nd edit. 1839), in the preface of which he acknowledged that he was not acquainted with the Irish as a colloquial but only as a written language. Little notice was taken of the book until he was rash enough to print in the ‘Christian Examiner’ for September 1833 (pp. 618–32) a long letter, signed ‘H. M. M.,’ on ‘The Irish Language,’ ostensibly a critique of Owen Connellan's edition of the Irish prayer-book, but in reality a personal attack upon him and Thaddæus Connellan [q. v.] Owen Connellan replied, as far as the editor of the magazine would allow him, in the October number (pp. 729–32); he showed that Mason's ‘Grammar’ was a mass of errors, and that the pocket edition of Bishop Bedell's Irish Bible, issued by the Irish Society under his supervision, also in 1830, was just as inaccurate. In these strictures Connellan was joined by Dr. Charles Orpen and John O'Donovan [q. v.] Connellan soon afterwards printed his reply in its unmutilated form as ‘A Dissertation on Irish Grammar,’ 1834.

Mason, it seems probable, was also responsible for the editing of an Irish version of the Book of Common Prayer issued at Dublin in 1825. His other works, exclusive of pamphlets written in support of the Irish Society and the Association for the Improvement of Prisons, are: 1. ‘The Catholic Religion of St. Patrick and St. Columbkill, and the other Ancient Saints of Ireland,’ 2nd edit. 8vo, Dublin, 1823; 3rd edit., as ‘Religion of the Ancient Irish Saints,’ 1838. 2. ‘The Lord's Day: a Poem,’ 8vo, Dublin, 1829. 3. ‘The Life of William Bedell, D.D., Lord Bishop of Kilmore,’ 8vo, London, 1843, a very creditable work. 4. ‘Memoir of the Irish Version of the Bible,’ 18mo, Dublin, 1854, a series of papers reprinted from the ‘Christian Examiner.’ In 1836 he addressed a letter to Thomas Moore called ‘Primitive Christianity in Ireland,’ 8vo, Dublin, in refutation of some statements made by Moore in the first volume of his ‘History of Ireland.’ 

MASON, JAMES (fl. 1743–1783), landscape engraver, was born about 1710, and practised his art in London. Between 1743 and 1748 he executed a series of plates from pictures by Claude and Gaspar Poussin in various English collections, which were published in numbers by Arthur Pond, and during the next twenty years engraved much from the works of Smith of Derby, Scott, Lambert, Serres, Bellers, and other contemporary English painters. Subsequently he was employed by Boydell, for whom he produced his two finest prints, ‘A View on the River Po,’ 1769, and ‘The Landing of Æneas,’ 1772, both after Claude, and many others after Swanevelt, Moucheron, Zuccarelli, and R. Wilson. Mason exhibited frequently with the Society of Artists, of which he was a member, and with the Free Society between 1761 and 1783. His latest plate, ‘A Village Farm,’ after Hobbema, was published in 1786. He was very skilful in rendering the effect and colour of the original pictures, and ranks with Canot, Chatelain, and Vivares, in conjunction with whom much of his work was done. 

MASON, JAMES (1779–1827), miscellaneous writer, born in 1779, was a member of a family long settled at Shrewsbury, where he lived until his death. He was captain of the Shrewsbury volunteers, and interested himself both in politics and literature. He was a supporter of Fox, advocating the abolition of slavery and Roman catholic emancipation. In 1804 appeared his ‘Considerations on the necessity of discussing the State of the Irish Catholics’ (1804). This was followed by ‘A Brief Statement of the present System of Tythes in Ireland, with a Plan for its Improvement.’ He took part in the Shrewsbury election of 17 Oct. 1806, and next year issued ‘A Letter to the Electors of Shrewsbury.’ Others of his political pamphlets were: ‘Observations on Parliamentary Reform’ (1811), and ‘A Review of the principal Arguments in favour of restricting Importation, and allowing the Exportation of Corn’ (1814).

His published literary work included a