The Revival of Irish Literature Part 5

Edited, with an Introduction, by the Hon. Sir CHARLES GAVAN DUFFY, K.C.M.G.

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN, Paternoster Square.

DUBLIN: SEALY, BRYERS & WALKER, Middle Abbey Street.

NEW YORK: P. J. KENEDY, Barclay Street.

NOTICES OF THE BRITISH PRESS.

_From_ THE DAILY NEWS.

The remarkable Series of papers on "The Patriot Parliament."

_From_ THE PALL MALL GAZETTE.

The papers are by far the most valuable of Davis's contribution to Irish history. Mr Lecky, in his history, has spoken of them with much admiration, and has adopted many of their conclusions. The account of the Jacobite Parliament which is given by Lord Macaulay has long been generally accepted in England, but we believe that any one who will candidly examine the evidence that is collected by Davis will arrive at the conclusion that this account is seriously misleading.

To many, however, the most attractive part of this little volume will be the introduction which is written by Sir Gavan Duffy. It is a brilliant and powerful indictment of the government of Ireland under the Stuarts. It is impossible to mistake the accent of sincerity that runs through his pages, and very few men have written Irish history with such eloquence and force.

_From_ THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE.

We have Mr. Lecky's testimony that Davis's account of what he calls the Patriot Parliament is "the best and fullest" he is acquainted with. He has made it clear that Macaulay's condemnation of the Parliament was over coloured.

_From_ NOTES AND QUERIES.

We do not discuss politics, even when upwards of two hundred years intervenes between the then and the now. From the literary point of view, taking into consideration the limitations of a popular book, we have little but praise to give to Davis's "Patriot Parliament." He wrote as a partisan; but we detect no perversion of facts. Sir Charles Gavan Duffy's introduction is remarkably interesting. Some of our readers will like to put this volume on the shelf where they keep their books of historic reference, for in the appendix is a carefully compiled catalogue of the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of 1689.

_From_ THE TIMES.

A reprint of a politico-historical tract by a writer highly commended by Mr. Lecky, with an appreciative biographical introduction from the pen of a well-known authority on Irish history.

_From_ THE GLOBE.

Mr. Lecky once described Davis's work as "by far the best and fullest account" of the a.s.sembly in question, and in reproducing it the Irish Society have earned the thanks of all students of Irish history.

_From_ THE SCOTSMAN.

The work is a valuable and instructive account of the work done by "the Popish Parliament of James II." It is introduced by a paper in which its editor tells all that need be known of Davis, and shows in what respects his account corrects Macaulay. The reissue should be welcome to every one interested in Irish history.

_From_ THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.

It is a vigorous and readable paper, and it carries weight with it.

_From_ THE NEWCASTLE CHRONICLE.

Sir Charles Gavan Duffy's introduction extends to nearly one hundred pages, and traces in bold and rapid lines the history of Ireland under the Stuarts. It is written with that ease, lucidity, and decision which marks the style of Davis's colleague of fifty years ago, who now does this service to the history of his country and to the memory of his friend.

_From_ THE SCOTTISH LEADER.

It would not have been easy indeed to make a better opening of such a series as this aspires to be. "The Patriotic Parliament" is only a characteristic fragment of the work of one of Ireland's most notable heroes, and it is also a contribution of real merit to Irish history. A perusal of this little book will fully justify Mr. Lecky's praise of the skill and industry displayed by Davis, at the same time that it will fill one with a kind of amused admiration of the fervid and somewhat youthful enthusiasm of the "Young Ireland" of 1845.

_From_ THE FREEMAN.

The Irish Parliament of 1690 has been seriously maligned by Macaulay, Froude, Ingram, and others. This is a vindication, and the work of an Irish Protestant. The introduction by Sir Charles Gavan Duffy is very vividly written and gives a view of the colonisation of Ulster of a very serious character. We have not s.p.a.ce for the story as given here, but we commend it to our readers who desire to understand the springs of Irish discontent.

_From_ THE BAPTIST.

To impartial students of history Davis's work will be indispensable.

_From_ THE METHODIST TIMES.

This humble-looking little book marks an era. Sir Charles Duffy has prefixed an introduction in which he tells once more the long story of Ireland's wrongs. The perusal of it makes one feel that England will never lay aside her prejudices and look at Irish questions as she looks at Italian or Russian questions. After Sir C. G. Duffy's introduction comes Thomas Davis's modest preface. It fills five pages; it was written just fifty years ago. It is altogether admirable in tone and sentiment.

_From_ THE UNIVERSE.

We are of opinion that the issue of this new library will tend to place the position of our country more fairly before the public, and will foster a much-wanted knowledge of Ireland, its requirements and its failings, amongst our own people. We bid the patriotic venture most heartily welcome.

As a necessity, this opening book is identified with Thomas Davis--not by any means that it is the best specimen of his thought or writing--as in some sort acting as a hyphen between his era and ours--the era of glorious promise and that of partial fruition. Sir Gavan Duffy--thanks that he still survives--supplies a masterly introduction, which to us is the kernel of the volume.

_From_ THE CATHOLIC TIMES.

Not the least of the many services which Sir Charles Gavan Duffy's prolific pen has rendered to the country which gave him birth, and which he has long loved and served with patriotic devotion, is the interesting historical introduction he has prefixed to Thomas Davis's "Patriotic Parliament." The mind of the statesman, the heart of the patriot, and the hand of the practised politician are strikingly evident on every page of this powerful polemic.

_From_ THE WEEKLY REGISTER.

We are, it may be hoped, at the beginning of a better time. Along with the publications of the Irish Literary Society, which have just begun so well with "The Patriotic Parliament of 1689," the joint work of Thomas Davis and Gavan Duffy, the twin brethren of modern literature in Ireland, may we see also many a publication by the Irish clergy of such books as the two we have named, and the volumes published some years ago by the present Coadjutor-Bishop for Kildare and Leighlin.

_From_ THE COLONIES AND INDIA.

The book before us is one which no student of Irish history can well be without, for it discloses in what is no doubt the true light the character of the Catholic Parliament of James II.

_From_ THE WEEKLY DESPATCH.

The volume, a very graphic account of the "Patriot Parliament" of 1689, written by Thomas Davis, the Irish patriot of two generations back, is an interesting and very instructive narrative, correcting the slanders and false statements of Macaulay and other English historians, and showing how just, and even how tolerant of Protestant aliens, Irish Catholics could be in the short time allowed to them, more than a hundred years before Grattan's Parliament came into existence, for experimenting in Home Rule.

But the most readable portion of the volume is the long introduction supplied by the editor, Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, who here succinctly reminds us of some of the wrongs inflicted on his fellow-countrymen and fellow-religionists in the old days, and not yet redressed.

_From_ THE WEEKLY SUN.

There ought to be many such books in circulation in England and Ireland, and I hope that this volume will run through many editions. Ignorance has been the bane of the two countries. .h.i.therto. Books like "The Irish Parliament under James II." will go far to cement that feeling of friends.h.i.+p by showing the people of this country how erroneous their preconceived opinions of the character of the Irish people have been.

_From_ THE FREEMAN'S JOURNAL.

Though written fifty years ago, it is as much alive with lessons for the hour as any composition of recent date. The introduction is in itself a most valuable summary of the story of Ireland during the Stuart period.

Together with Davis's work it forms a book of which no student of Irish history or Irish politics can afford to remain in ignorance.

_From_ THE LYCEUM.

Sir Charles Gavan Duffy in his Introduction gives us a sketch of the times immediately preceding the 1689 Parliament, beginning with the Plantation of Ulster under James I. Step by step he traces the course of events through the dark period of Cromwell's campaigns, through the reign of Charles II., with his lack of good faith and honour in his dealings with Ireland, down to the time when James, a fugitive from his own country and in peril of his life, landed on the sh.o.r.es of Ireland and summoned a Parliament of his Irish subjects. Davis's writings on this Parliament and his ample vindication of it from the contumely and abuse so freely bestowed on it, have now, for the first time, been collected together and given to the reading world as a connected whole. It is a book to be closely studied as throwing a bright and instructive light on a dark and much misrepresented portion of Irish history.