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whom springs the surviving family of O'Conor Don, including our deceased author. Froissard's report from his friend Henry Christède, whom Leland, in a cursory allusion to the circumstance, (vol. i., p. 344,) terms Castille, and who married, and resided in Ireland for seven years, is pregnant with curious matter, which would well deserve illustration. His old interpreter, Lord Berners, the editions of whose translation by Pinson and Middleton, (one with the date of 1526, the other without date,) are, from their rarity, so valuable, was, as might be expected, little inquisitive on the subject; nor does it appear that Mr. Johnes, who, moreover, is very incorrect in his version of Christède's story, is more so. M. Buchon, the last and best editor of the original, has also left many names of persons and places unexplained. Some competent person will, we trust, undertake the task, and supply the deficiency.

An account of King Richard's second visit to Ireland, translated from the French by Lord Mountjoy, the conqueror of O'Neil, as pre-mentioned, and subsequently created Earl of Totness, forms part of Walter Harris' "Hibernica, or Collection of Irish Tracts," published in 1770. Notwithstanding these royal journies, Lord Brougham, on the 22nd of March, 1839, in a debate relative to Ireland, expressed a belief that George IV. was the first sovereign who had been in Ireland since King John, except William III. as commander of his invading army. But the learned peer speaks and writes on every occurring matter, and not always with due attention to accuracy.

It is to the Abbé Mac-Geoghegan that we owe the narrative of the French mission in 1549 to the

Chieftains of Ulster. His History of Ireland has long been an object of research to the collectors of rare books, and to the readers of Irish annals; for, though little remarkable, it must be granted, for liberality of opinions or philosophy of views, it contains many facts and documents not easily discoverable elsewhere. It has, accordingly, been often described by bibliographers, but, without notice of some variations, not disentitled to attention.

The first and second volumes bear the uniform impress of "Paris, chez Antoine Boudet, 1758 and 1762, avec approbation et privilège du Roi;" but the third, the paging of which is continued from the second, barely exhibits on the title-page, " A Amsterdam M.DCCLXIII." This change admits of easy explanation; for, when the two former issued from the press, the great Seven-years War raged in all its intensity between Great Britain and France; and every instrument of mutual annoyance was resorted to; but at the close of that memorable contest in 1763, the French government, no doubt, felt that it would be unseemly to sanction a work so hostile to the opinions of the people, and to the rights of the reigning house of England, as the author's assertion of the iniquity of Henry's divorce, with Elizabeth's thence derived illegitimacy, and establishment of protestantism. The royal approbation and privilege were consequently withdrawn; but, though this third volume was suf fered to circulate in conjunction with its predecessors, several retrenchments or modifications, technically denominated cartons, were enjoined as the condition of this connivance. Some few copies, however,—very few, we believe, for we never met with more than

one, escaped the vigilance of the censor or police, and represent the genuine sentiments and original language of the author, which it may not be uninteresting to compare with the substituted ideas and commanded words of the current edition. For this purpose, we shall first transcribe the opening paragraphs of the latter, which, with its predecessor, will be found in the subjoined note. The subject is not without special interest to Ireland, as the source, in its result, of her accumulated sufferings, consequent on the legislative enforcement there, of a worship utterly repugnant to the national conscience.*

*The modified edition, exhibits the text as follows:

"Aussitôt après la mort de la reine Marie, Elizabeth, l'unique fille de Henri VIII. qui restoit alors, fut déclarée en Parlement héritière du trône; elle fut, selon le rit Romain, couronnée reine d'Angleterre avec les cérémonies accoûtumées, dans l'Abbaye de Westminster, par Oglethorpe, Evêque de Carlisle; l'Archevêque d'York et les autres Evêques du Royaume ayant refusé d'y assister. Cette princesse avoit alors vingt-cinq ans. Son règne fut long et rempli d'événemens: les princes contemporains furent Ferdinand d'Autriche Empereur, Henri II. Roi de France, Philippe II. Roi d'Espagne ; le Pape Paul IV. gouvernoit l'Eglise.

"Elizabeth, se voyant en possession du trône d'Angleterre, commença à penser au gouvernement spirituel et temporel de l'état; quoiqu'elle eût résolu de faire changer la religion sa prudence lui fit garder quelques mesures d'abord pour ne pas allarmer les Catholiques, ni faire perdre toute espérance aux Protestans; elle se choisit un conseil de seigneurs des deux religions; elle fit annoncer ensuite à tous les princes de l'Europe, par ses ambassadeurs, son avénement au trône," &c.

The foregoing, it will have been seen, presents the mere ordinary recital of events, untinctured with any political or religious prepossessions. Not so the suppressed paragraphs, which were as follows:

“CHAPITRE XXX.--Il doit paroître étrange, dit Cox en parlant de la reine Marie, que les Protestans se soient soumis avec tant de facilité à une princesse née d'un mariage incestueux et si contraire à la loi de Dieu, mariage qui fût déclaré nul par le divorce prononcé juridiquement entre les parties; sçavoir, Henri VIII. et Catherine d'Arragon ses père et mère, par Cranmer Archevêque de Cantorberi; mais on peut dire qu'il est bien plus étrange de voir ici les Catholiques, qui étoient sans contredit en plus grand nombre, et qui tenoient les rénes du gouvernement, se choisir pour reine Elizabeth, fruit de l'adultère de Henri VIII. avec Anne Bollen, déclarée illégitime par deux

On the Abbé's reasoning against the divorce, as displayed in the note, we shall only observe, that it is at least as sound and logically deduced as that which he combats. In the subsequent pages of the permitted, though unauthorised volume, Mac Geoghegan, or, as he writes the name, Ma-Geoghegan, is sufficiently open and undisguised in the expression of his partialities. The variances between the copies are neither frequent in number nor marked in bias. To him William of Orange was ever an usurper, and James the lawful sovereign; for, like Cox, he had inherited with his birth the prepossessions of his

actes du Parlement encore en force de leur temps, et plus que soupçonnée d'erreur dans sa foi: cependant, ils la couronnérent au préjudice de Marie Stuart Reine d'Ecosse, Princesse Catholique et légitime héritière de la couronne d'Angleterre, puis qu'elle étoit arrière petite-fille de Henri VII. par Marguerite fille ainée de ce Prince, et sœur de Henri VIII.

"Il est toujours constant que l'une ou l'autre de ces deux princesses, filles de Henri VIII. sçavoir Marie et Elizabeth, étoit illégitime, et par conséquent inhabile à regner. Leur père ne pouvoit avoir deux femmes à la fois. Si son mariage avec Catherine d'Arragon étoit nul, Marie étoit sans doute illégitime; mais comme ce mariage a été jugé valide par ceux qui avoient le droit d'en connoître, et qu'il ne fût jamais dissout par aucune autorité légitime, toute l'infamie tombe nécessairement sur Elizabeth.

“Marie étoit née, selon Cox, d'un mariage incestueux, contraire à la loi de Dieu. Pour former ce jugement il ne consulte que le Lévitique, (cap. xviii.) ou il est défendu de révléer la turpitude de son frère; mais il passe sous silence la loi du Deutéronome, (cap. xxv.) qui ordonne d'épouser la femme de son frère mort sans enfants. Cet auteur raisonne sur des principes contestés, et en tire des conséquences à son avantage. Ayant tiré son origine du fameux Doctor Richard Cox, tuteur du Roi Edward VI., l'un des compilateurs de la nouvelle liturgie Anglicane, et ensuite Evêque d'Ely, sous la reine Elizabeth, il hérita avec la naissance du zèle de ce Docteur pour la religion Protestante; il sentoit bien que la gloire de la Réforme étoit liée avec le système du divorce de Henri VIII., et de Catherine d'Arragon. Il suppose, comme les autres Ecrivains de même trempe que lui, que ce divorce avoit quelque réalité, que Cranmer avoit assez de pouvoir pour casser un mariage jugé valide par les Papes et toute l'Eglise, et regardé comme indissoluble par les parties intéressées pendant près de vingt ans, et il raisonne en conséquence," &c.-Sander: de Schism, pp. 10 et 25.

family. His father had followed the fortunes of the dethroned monarch, and testified, by the abandonment of his country and property, perhaps a delusive-certainly an honourable-consistency of principle.

To have eliminated all the portions of the volume which, at that day, might have appeared obnoxious to the English government, would not only have broken the harmony and estranged the spirit of the work, but have been equivalent to its prohibition. The French censor, accordingly, limited the retrenchment or alterations, in a great degree, to the opening passages which We have submitted, with the change of the title-page, and allowed the book to make its way in the usual course of trade. We will not, however, say that there are not some other differences worth noting between the original and current copies; but We forbear troubling the reader with them for the present.

Independently of what may be of bibliographical interest concerning these volumes, they occasionally offer other grounds of curious inquiry to the historian and antiquary-we could indicate several, but shall now confine the notice to one.

It is in volume ii., pages 338 to 349, that a minute account is given of the visit made in 1549—1550, to the great chieftains of Ulster, O'Neil and O'Donnel, by the two envoys from Henry II. of France, the Baron de Fourquevaux, (Raimond de Beccarie) and the Protonotaire de Montluc (Jean de Montesquiou.) The object of the French monarch was to detach the Irish princes from their allegiance to the English throne, then filled by Edward VI., which these ambassadors had no great difficulty in achieving, nor in inducing them to swear fealty to Henry, who was, in

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