papers and volumes bearing on municipal law and municipal
history in Ireland. Among these, two most elaborate and interesting
volumes, being the Council Books of Cork, Youghal, and Kinsale, from
1610 to 1659, 1666 to 1687, and 1690 to 1800. The records for the years
not enumerated have perished, that is, for the first five or six years
after the Restoration, and for the years just preceding and just
following the fall of James II. These volumes take one back to the
condition of Southern Ireland immediately after English greed and
intrigue had sapped the foundations of the peace which followed the
submission of the great Earl of Tyrone, and brought about the flight to
the Continent of that chieftain, and of his friend and ally, the Earl of
Tyrconnell.

They give us no picture, unfortunately, of the closing years of
Elizabeth's long struggle to establish the English power, or of the
occupation of Kinsale by the Spanish in the name of the Pope. But there
is abundant evidence in them of the theological hatred which so
embittered the conflict of races in Ireland during the seventeenth
century.

It was a relief to turn from these to a solemn controversy waged in our
own times between Cork and Limerick over a question of municipal
precedence, in which Mr. M'Carthy did battle for the City of the Galley
and the Towers[7] against the City of the Gateway and Cathedral dome.
The truth seems to be that King John gave charters to both cities, but
to Cork twelve years earlier than to Limerick. Speaking of this contest,
by the way, with a loyalist of Cork to-night, I observed that it was
almost as odd to find such a question hotly disputed between two
Nationalist cities as to see the champions of Irish independence
marching under the banner of the harp, which was invented for Ireland by
Henry VIII.

"I don't know why you call Cork a Nationalist city," he replied, "for
Parnell and Maurice Healy were returned for it by a clear minority of
the voters. If all the voters had gone to the polls, they would both
have been beaten."

A curious statement certainly, and worth looking into. Mr. M'Carthy gave
me also much information as to the working of the municipal system here,
and a copy of the rules which govern the debates of the Town Council.
One of these might be adopted with advantage in other assemblies, to
wit, "that no member be permitted to occupy the time of the Council for
more than ten minutes."

There is an important differen