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ANCIENT LAWS AND INSTITUTES (IRELAND).
RETURN to an Order of the Honourable The House of Commons,
dated 8 April 1864;—
COPY " of Third and Fourth Reports made to the Irish Govbrnment
by the Commissioners for the Publication of the Ancient Laws and
Institutes of Ireland.''''
THIRD REPORT.
16 January 1861.
In February 1859 a very full statement was laid before His Excellency the
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, detailing the progress made by the Commission in
the work of transcribing and translating the Ancient Irish Laws. This report
was ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on the 12th August 1859
(No. 190, Sess. 2).
Since the date of the abovementioned report, Dr. O'Donovan and Mr. Eugene
Curry have been employed, under the superintendence of the Commissioners,
with scarcely a day's intermission, and have made great progress tovvards the
completion of their task.
In the spring of 1859 the Commissioners were obliged to send Dr. O'Donovan
to Oxford to copy an important law manuscript, the existence of which had been
previously unknown to them. The inconvenience, expense, and loss of timecon-
seqnent upon the visits of the transcribers to the libraries of England were not
contemplated by the Commissioners when they entered upon the duties entrusted
to them. They hoped that, as they were charged with the execution of a public
work, they might count upon obtaining the loan of such manuscripts as tbey had
occasion to make use of. In some instances their expectations were realized ;
and they have to acknowledge with gratitude the liberality of the authorities of
Trinity College, Dublin, the Royal Irish Academy, and the Burgundian Library
of Brussels, by whom they were favoured with the loan of a number of
very valuable manuscripts. The Trustees of the British Museum, and the
Librarian of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, though equally desirous to afford
every assistance and facility to the Commissioners, found themselves precluded
by the rules of their respective institutions from the exercise of a power of lending
manuscripts. Dr. O'Donovan having completed his task, the Commissioners are
now able to announce that all the ancient manuscripts of laws in the Irish language
known to exist in these kingdoms have been transcribed, with the exception of
a single one in the possession of an individual who refuses to permit the Commis¬
sioners to copy or collate it. The extent of the work now accomplished will be
apparent when it is stated that the total number of pages of Irish transcript
executed by Dr. O'Donovan and Mr. Eugene Curry amounts to 5,397. These
are large quarto pages, containing on an average 225 words. The transcript
having been made in anastatic ink, the Commissioners were able to produce, in
their own office, 20 facsimile copies of it at a very moderate cost; these copies
are available for different purposes. Some have been cut up and used in the
construction of a copious glossary for the use of translators and editors, and
others will remain at the disposal of the Commissioners for deposit in the British
Museum and other public libraries. The difficulty of making this transcript can
hardly be estimated by those who have not superintended the progress of the
work. The original manuscripts are many of them nearly illegible from age
and discoloration ; they are also full of abbreviations. These difficulties would
192. A hav
