Page:The best hundred Irish books.djvu/9

 BY HISTORICUS.

"Past history, and especially the past history of one's own native country," says Carlyle—"everybody may be advised to begin with that. Let him study that faithfully. Innumerable inquiries, with due indications, will branch out from it. He has a broad, beaten highway, from which all the country is more or less visible. There travelling, let him choose where he will dwell." Taking these words as my text, let me at once say that in any list of the best hundred Irish books—by which I mean books, or parts of books, written, no matter by whom, about Ireland or the Irish—the first place must be given to Mr. Lecky's "History of England in the Eighteenth Century." In the chapters (vol II, chaps 6 and 7, and vol IV, chaps 10 and 17) on Ireland in this great work, science and honesty have been for the first time combined in the writing of Irish history. These chapters (with an important reference to the Anglo-Norman settlement) deal with the condition—social, religious, and political—of the Irish people from the commencement of the last century to 1782. The work is still unfinished, and in the concluding volumes we may hope to read the first great History of "Grattan's Parliament" which has yet been published. Mr. Lecky possesses in an eminent degree the qualities essential to make an historian of the foremost rank. He has the faculty of research, the faculty of style, and an inherent love of justice. His references to authorities are always ample and his footnotes full and scholarly; so that it may be said that he not only carries a torch with which to light up the way of the student who follows him, but he supplies the student with a torch to strike out new paths if so minded. Transparent honesty, an earnest desire to be fair, and an anxiety to let 119 diet pertinent to his subject escape attention, are, combined with a brilliant style, the distinguishing characteristics of one who is not only the greatest of Irish historians but among the greatest of living writers. As Mr. Lecky's Irish chapters in his "History of England in the Eighteenth Century," are entitled to the foremost place among the best hundred Irish books, his "Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland" is entitled to a place of distinguished merit. The sketches in this work of Swift, Flood, Grattan, and O'Connell are among the most interesting and valuable contributions to Irish history which we possess.

Parting from Mr. Lecky, I propose to deal with all other Irish books, not generally in chronological order, or in order of merit, but as they occur to me while I write. Of books .dating to early Irish history I think Professor Sullivan's "Introduction" to O'Curry's "Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish" is the best. Mr. Richey's "Lectures on Irish History" are very valuable, but have not generally obtained the attention they deserve, owing perhaps to the fact that they are printed in very indifferent type. A new edition, well brought out, is certainly much needed, and I believe that Mr. Richey was engaged in preparing such an edition a short time prior to his death. It may be hoped some one will take up the unfinished task. Why not Professor Sullivan? In referring to the subject of early Irish history mention should be made of Sir Henry Maine's "Early History of Institutions," which contains so admirable an account of the Brehon laws and the tribal system. Of course, the honoured name of O'Curry, who did so much to make the writing of early Irish history a scientific possibility, cannot be for-