CALENDAR OF IRISH STATE PAPERS.

HC Deb 11 February 1898 vol 53 cc351-2

SIR THOMAS ESMONDE (Kerry, West)

I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury if he can state the reason of the delay in carrying out the calendar of the Irish State Papers; and if he is aware that nothing has been done since Mr. Sweetman brought the calendar to A.D. 1251; and if he will take steps to have the work proceeded with immediately?

THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. R. W. HANBURY,) Preston

There does not appear to have been any delay in carrying out the calendar of Irish State Papers. It is not the fact that nothing has been done since Mr. Sweetman brought the calendar to the year 1251. Mr. Sweetman himself, in four subsequent volumes, brought it to 1307. Since then the Patent Rolls and Close Rolls, from which his materials were chiefly drawn, have been systematic- cally dealt with. Eleven volumes of calendars for the period from 1307 to 1509 have already been published, and others are in progress. In these the English entries have also been included. With regard to later periods, there are two exclusively Irish volumes in the press, the one beginning with 1599, the other with 1625.