§ MR. SMYTHasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, If he will state to the House what number of Copies were taken of the transcripts made by the eminent Irish scholars, the late Eugene O'Curry and John O'Donovan, of the fragments of the Brehon Laws contained in manuscripts in the libraries of Trinity College, Dublin, the Royal Irish Academy, the British Museum, and the Bodleian Library, Oxford; in whose custody each of these transcripts now is; whether it is the intention of the Government to carry out the original purpose for which the Copies were made, and present them to the chief public libraries of the Empire; and, whether the Government would be pleased to direct that Copies of the translations of the Laws made by the scholars in question should be taken and placed in libraries, like those of the Royal Irish Academy and British Museum, where they would be accessible to scholars?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONIt appears, Sir, from the third Report of the Ancient Irish Laws Commission, presented to Parliament in 1864, that 20 Copies were taken of the transcripts. The following Report on the subject has been made by Dr. Graves, Bishop of Limerick, hon. Secretary of the Ancient Irish Laws Commission:—
The Copies of the transcripts of the Brehon Laws which were prepared under the direction of the Commissioners for publishing the Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland, except as far as they were used by the late Dr. O'Donovan and Professor O'Curry in the construction of a glossary and a paragraph index, and otherwise used in the business of the Commission, and except one Copy deposited in the Manuscript Library of Trinity College, Dublin, in which the principal part of the original Brehon Law manuscripts is preserved, are kept in the chambers in Trinity College appropriated to the business of the Commission by Professor O'Mahony (Professor of Irish in the University of Dublin), who has been engaged in editing the volumes of the laws already published and the volume now in the press. The 1851 Copy in Trinity College Library was deposited through the late Dr. Todd, Librarian of Trinity College, one of the original Commissioners. No application has been made to the Commissioners by the authorities of any other public library to have Copies deposited therein. In consequence of the Question now asked by Mr. Smyth I will bring the subject before the Commissioners with a view to have their original plan of having surplus Copies of the transcripts deposited in the leading libraries, as stated in their Report of the 16th of January, 1861, now carried out so far as Copies not previously used or not required for the business of the Commission will permit. As to the Question respecting translations, the only translations made by Dr. O'Donovan and Professor O'Curry in the custody of the Commissioners are their preliminary translations made for the use of the Commissioners. The portion of this preliminary translation, in part edited by Dr. O'Donovan in his lifetime, underwent considerable revision, and the principle of revision so sanctioned by Dr. O'Donovan has been carried out in the volumes (chiefly of his translations) already published as well as that now in the press. It would appear, therefore, that the original plan of the Commissioners should be adhered to—namely, that the translations should only be published after careful editing and revision; and that no part of the preliminary and unrevised translations should be made public, except such portions of them as may at the close of the business of the Commission remain unedited and unpublished.