A GENERAL ACCOUNT OF SUCH AS ARE OF LESS CONSE
QUENCE, WITH SHORT CHARACTERS;

AND

NOTICES, OR REVIEWS, OF VALUABLE FOREIGN BOOKS;

ALSO THE

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE OF EUROPE, &c.,

**At hæc omnia ita tractari præcipimus, ut non, Criticorum more, in laude et
"cenfura tempus teratur ; fed plane biftorice RES IPSA narrentur, judicium
parcius interponatur."
BACON de biftoria literária confcribenda.

VOL.

XIII.

FROM MAY TO AUGUST, INCLUSIVE, 1792.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, N. 72, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD,

DE GRANVILLE.

ANALYTICAL REVIEW,

For MAY, 1792.

ART. 1. Antiquities of Ireland. By Edward Ledwich, LL.B. M. R. I. and F. A. s. of London and Scotland. 4to. about 500 pa. and 37 plates. Pr. 21. 2s. in boards. Dublin, Greuber; London, Dilly. 1790.

THE volume now before us, confifts of a collection of effays on the antiquities of Ireland. They were written at such times as could be spared from clerical and domeftic avocations,' and the public are indebted for their appearance, to the Rev. dean Coote, who devotes a large portion of an ample fortune to its noblest use, the encouragement of letters, arts, and industry.'

In our account of this article, we fhall take the feveral papers as they occur; and endeavour to give a short analysis of

each.

1. Of the colonization of Ireland in early ages.-After mentioning and ridiculing the idle tales concerning Noah's granddaughter, Partholanus, Milefius, &c. &c. and their arrival in Ireland in very remote times, the author is of opinion, that the identity of the Erfe and Irish languages, affords complete evidence that Ireland was peopled from Scotland; for it feems highly improbable to him, that a small body of its inhabitants fent forth from an obfcure corner, fhould be adequate to the colonization of the ifles and highlands of Scotland, or that a nation which had bravely refifted the Roman prowefs, could fo far degenerate, as to submit to, and accept the language of a handful of invaders.

The original Irifh were part of the Celtes, the first grand clafs who failed from the Mulls of Cantire and Galloway, and thefe poffeffed the island, and continued to multiply till disturbed. by the Firbolgs, a branch of the fecond clafs, or great Scythian fwarm.

The Firbolgs were Belgæ from the northern parts of Gaul; like the other rude nations of antiquity, and like the antient Greeks as recorded by Thucydides, they practifed piracy and war. The period of their arrival in Ireland is uncertain, but as they were a maritime and mercantile people it was not long after they were feated in Britain, that they explored this country, VOL. XIII. No I.

B

and