religious distinctions, repulsions and jealousies were engendered, which have fatally retarded the advance of the country. An Englishman cannot conceive how "political animosities" could be revived, in the nineteenth century, by the suggestion of what fired the young blood of the sixteenth; as well might he inherit a hatred to his neighbour, because their ancestors had conflicted in the wars of the Roses. "The historian of Scottish events," as the writer has heretofore remarked, "encounters political junctures, that in their time were equally productive of national disunion; but the Caledonian is no longer exasperated by their fullest details, they were the workings of a conflict gone by. The master spirit of their chronicles has fearlessly projected the most heart-stirring conflicts of those feudal times, and his countrymen more than participate with the literary world in the chivalry of his narrative, and the classic interest he has shed over every scene he touched." In Ireland, those feelings of repulsion have unhappily existed within such a recent period, as to justify the interrogatories alluded to; but, while any possible apprehensions, as regards the stability of property, are morally relieved by a reflection on the various relations by which purchase, marriage, tenancy, and such interests, have consolidated the old and new proprietary, and yet more legally dissipated by modern enactments of limitation, any other fears as of "political animosity," which induced these remarks, may be considered as, under the wisdom, power, and goodness of expectant legislation, about to be extinguished for ever.

The writer of this article has here but to add, that the indexes and compilations, of which he has given the details above, are open to inspection, and that he is prepared, while life, health, and professional avocations permit, to make them available for the service of his country; if they are not early adopted he cannot but fear, that "the Catalogue" will be little more than the bill of Lading of a ship "that has gone down at sea."

STATISTICS

OF

THE BARONY OF BOYLE.

BOYLE, within whose abbey the "Annals," here selected for publication, were compiled, and which has, consequently, induced the next ensuing pages of introductory local notice, appears to have derived its appellation from the Irish radix "boilg," whose signification of "bubbling water" well applies to the rapid, rippling current, with which its river hurries through the town; and that name it communicates to the barony, manor, and parish in which it is situated.

The barony, which comprises the northern part of the County Roscommon, was defined by Strafford's Survey(a) as containing 13 parishes, subdi

(a) In thus referring to Strafford's Survey, it must be understood that the original surveys and abstracts, taken by this talented despot on the Connaught Inquisitions, perished in the great fire of the Record Repositories, near Dublin Castle, in 1711. Copies, or, at least, Constats, were however necessarily kept in the several counties surveyed, and their acreable returns were traditionVOL. I.

B

vided into 434 townlands, or 41,817 A.; and, according to that estimate, it has been heretofore rated for subsidy and cess. The Grand Jury Map, published in 1817, laid down its contents as, in Irish measure, 65,137A. of arable land, 25,548A. of bog, and 3,598a. covered with water; but the recent Trigonometrical Survey has, with yet more accuracy, while it adjusts the measurement to the present imperial standard, ascertained the scope of the district as 154,768a. 1R. 3P., whereof 8,707A. 2R. 9P. are covered with water. Of this total tract 68,214A. 2R. 14P. have, by legislative authority, been portioned off in 1833 for the better distribution of local assessment; and the tract, so severed, has been denominated the barony of French-park, leaving 86,544A. 3R. 29P. comprised in eight parishes, as the present extent of the now-called barony of Boyle; and to this only do the following notices apply. The total annual value of its lands has, on the general valuation, been calculated as (exclusive of exemptions) £38,714 3s. 2d. This estimate was, however, taken for the paramount object of equitably adjusting county cess, and was based upon certain then stated

ally perpetuated as the scale of annual Grand Jury assessment, a course indispensable in Connaught, the Down Survey having been only partially effectuated in that province, and Roscommon and Galway wholly excluded from it. The computations of Strafford's Survey were therefore, ex necessitate, especially recognized by the Act of Explanation, as evidence to be adopted in places where the Down Survey had not been taken.

averages of agricultural produce exclusively. The total population has been returned on the last census as 40,129 persons, of whom the lower order chiefly communicate in the Irish language.

The soil, though of great variety, may be generally comprehended under two classifications; that of the plain districts, whose substratum is limestone, varying in colour and quality, and abounding with petrefactions and madrepores; and that of the mountains and their vicinities, which is based on sandstone. The former, as may be supposed, is by much the more fertile, forming the natural pasture for which this barony has been long pre-eminently celebrated, more especially the pasturage in the tract south-east of Boyle, popularly termed the “plains of Boyle," though its surface is, in fact, considerably undulated. The only sandy land is contiguous to Lough Allen, where it appears to have been formed by drifts from the shores of that lake.

In the mountainy districts, dry patches covered with heath are occasionally found; but the surface, heretofore commonly wet and boggy, or only producing rushes and aquatic plants, and so characterized in Weld's "Statistical Survey of the County Roscommon," has, in latter years, by judicious drainage and the introduction of lime as a manure, been greatly improved; and it but remains by a liberal extension of roads to encourage its cultivation, and facilitate the transmission of its produce.

The most interesting portion of this mountainous

character, in reference to geological formation, is that on the confines of Lough Allen, forming the celebrated coal and iron district of Arigna. The coal strata here are arranged with great regularity, rising immediately into the high flat-topped mountains, Brah-Slieve and Slieve Curkagh, which are separated by the deep and narrow valley of the Arigna. They dip conformably with the subjacent limestone, and in opposition to the southern declivity of the hills; but the continuity of the different beds is sometimes broken by faults, producing a variation of level from twenty to forty yards wide. The series of strata, their respective thickness, and the extent of the field, are subjects fully detailed in Griffith's Report on the Connaught Coal District." The quality of the coal is bituminous, emitting a thick smoke before it kindles, and yielding a strong heat, but rather a heavy earthy smell. It is, however, sufficiently well adapted for culinary or manufacturing purposes, and, for the object of smelting iron, is considered as good as any English coal; it also makes excellent coke. The most important colliery is at Aughabehy, on the estate of Captain Tenison, who is the proprietor of others adjacent at Celtinaveena, Derreenavoghy, Tullylyons, Tullyglass, and Crosshill. Others occur, and have been worked at Rover and Kilvin, now the property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; at Gubbarudda, Graignageeragh, and Cammock, on the estate of the Mac Dermott Roe; at Graig-na-clogh, held moietively by the Rev.