enough that often the alleged antiquity of his documents cannot be proved, that it can be even disproved, and that he must rely on other supports than this to establish what he wants; yet one finds him saying: "I open the collection of Welsh bards from the sixth to the tenth century. Taliesin, one of the oldest of them,” ., . and so on. But his adversaries deny that we have really any such thing as a "collection of Welsh bards from the sixth to the tenth century," or that a "Taliesin, one of the oldest of them," exists to be quoted in defence of any thesis. Sharon Turner, again, whose Vindication of the Ancient British Poems was prompted, it seems to me, by a critical instinct at bottom sound, is weak and uncritical in details like this: "The strange poem of Taliesin, called the Spoils of Annwn, implies the existence (in the sixth century, he means) of mythological tales about Arthur; and the frequent allusion of the old Welsh bards to the persons and incidents which we find in the Mabinogion, are further proofs that there must have been such stories in circulation amongst the Welsh." But the critic has to show, against his adversaries, that the Spoils of Annun is a real poem of the sixth century, with a real sixth-century poet called Taliesin for its author, before he can use it to prove what Sharon Turner there wishes to prove; and, in like manner, the high antiquity of persons and incidents that are found in the manuscripts of the Mabinogion,-manuscripts written, like the famous Red Book of Hergest, in the library of Jesus College at Oxford, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,-is not proved by allusions of the old Welsh bards, until (which is just the question at issue) the pieces containing these allusions are proved themselves to possess a very high antiquity. In the present state of the question as to the early Welsh literature, this sort of reasoning is inconclusive and bewildering, and merely carries us round in a circle. Again, it is worse than inconclusive reasoning, it hows so uncritical a spirit that it begets grave mistrust, when Mr. Williams ab Ithel, employed by the Master of the Rolls to edit the Brut y Tywysogion, the "Chronicle of the Princes," says in his introduction, in many respects so useful and interesting: "We may add, on the authority of a scrupulously faithful antiquary, and one that was deeply versed in the traditions of his order-the late Iolo Morganwg--that King Arthur in his institutes of the Round Table introduced the age of the world for events which occurred before Christ, and the year of Christ's nativity for all subsequent events." Now, putting out of question Iolo Morganwg's character as an antiquary, it is obvious that no one, not Grimm himself, can stand in that way as "authority" for King Arthur's having thus regulated chronology by his institutes of the Round Table, or even for there ever having been any such institutes at all. And finally, greatly as I respect and admire Mr. Eugene O'Curry, unquestionable as is the sagacity, the moderation, which he in general unites with his immense learning, I must say that he, too, like his brother Celt-lovers, sometimes lays himself dangerously open. For instance, the Royal Irish Academy possesses in its Museum a relic of the greatest value, the

Domhnach Airgid, a Latin manuscript of the four gospels. The outer box containing this manuscript is of the 14th century, but the manuscript itself, says O'Curry (and no man is better able to judge) is certainly of the 6th. That is all very well. "But," O'Curry then goes on, "I believe no reasonable doubt can exist that the Domhnach Airgid was actually sanctified by the hand of our great Apostle." One has a thrill of excitement at receiving this assurance from such a man as Eugene O'Curry ; one believes that he is really going to make it clear that St. Patrick did actually sanctify the Domhnach Airgid with his own hands; and one reads on " As St. Patrick, says an ancient life of St. Mac Carthainn preserved by Colgan in his Acta Sanctorum Hibernia, was on his way from the north, and coming to the place now called Clogher, he was carried over a stream by his strong man, Bishop Mac Carthainn, who, while bearing the Saint, groaned aloud, exclaiming: Ugh! Ugh!'

"Upon my good word,' said the Saint, it was not usual with you to make that noise.'

"I am now old and infirm,' said Bishop Mac Carthainn, and all my early companions in mission-work you have settled down in their respective churches, while I am still on my travels.'

“'Found a church then,' said the Saint, that shall not be too near us (that is to his own Church of Armagh) for familiarity, nor too far from us for intercourse.'

"And the saint then left Bishop Mac Carthainn there, at Clogher, and bestowed the Domhnach Airgid upon him, which had been given to Patrick from heaven, when he was on the sea, coming to Erin."

The legend is full of poetry, full of humour; and one can quite appreciate, after reading it, the tact which gave St. Patrick such a prodigious success in organizing the primitive church in Ireland; the new bishop, "not too near us for familiarity, nor too far from us for intercourse," is a masterpiece. But how can Eugene O'Curry have imagined that it takes no more than a legend like that, to prove that the particular manuscript now in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy was once in St. Patrick's pocket?

I insist upon extravagances like these, not in order to throw ridicule upon the Celt-lovers,-on the contrary, I feel a great deal of sympathy with them, but, rather, to make it clear what an immense advantage the Celt-haters, the negative side, have in the controversy about Celtic antiquity; how much a clear-headed sceptic, like Mr. Nash, may utterly demolish, and, in demolishing, give himself the appearance of having won an entire victory. But an entire victory he has, as I will next proceed to show, by no means won.

MATTHEW ARNOLD.

Notes on the Cattle Plague.

INTELLIGENT foreigners have observed of us as a nation that though we fail to carry out our precautionary and remedial measures with that admirable and timely precision which is so easy to a despotic government, we attempt a greater number of things, and that if we accomplish them less perfectly, we do, in a fashion, educate ourselves in the process. When our education is complete, we shall, of course, undertake more feats, and perform them better, than any other people. Meanwhile, it may not be amiss to consider how we have dealt with the Cattle Plague which now devastates our land; and though we have not any cure to propose which is the result of our actual experience, it may yet be that by a careful summary of all the views which have been unfolded, and all the propositions that have been ventilated, by pushing them to their logical conclusions, and making that which all sermon-writers know as the "third head, or practical application," something definite and useful may be evolved, if not for the animals, at least for ourselves. Of remedies so called there have been scores announced and sold; but of those absolutely efficacious, so far as is known, not one. Inoculation-the only thing which, short of death, was recommended by old Australian cattleholders-has been very little tried here, probably because those who advised it admitted that "it caused the tail to swell enormously;" and as we all made up our minds, in the first instance, that every beast attacked must die, we were desirous not needlessly to disfigure him, lest inspectors might challenge the carcase, and people refuse to buy and eat of it. The few large owners of the high-bred short-horns (almost priceless in value) divided their herds into small lots, which were domiciled in different sheds far from the high roads. Each lot had its separate herdsman, whose duty it was to attend exclusively to his own animals, and on no account to approach the others, or to go beyond the boundaries of the farm, or to hold intercourse with other herdsmen, cattle-dealers, or drovers. Any stock sold, as sheep, pigs, &c., were invariably driven into the public road before changing hands; and no animals of any kind were bought or allowed to be domiciled in the farm, whether from infected districts or not. So far these expedients seem to have answered perfectly well. The small farmers and cowkeepers daubed the noses of their beasts with tar, and hung around their necks little bags of camphor or strings of onions, which it is to be supposed would act more as a species of charm than according to any rational theory. In a general way, these men attempted little more; and having done this, they awaited the result, some with confidence, some with fear. As might have been anticipated,

they were heavy sufferers. When the disease once commenced it quickly emptied the sheds and fields, and a week was often sufficient to turn a prosperous cowkeeper into a ruined man. When the cows were visibly affected some gave them salt, others chalybeate waters and quinine; some administered opium and castor-oil, others turpentine and gin; some sulphur and whisky, others mineral acids and creosote; some rubbed them and gave them ginger, others fomented them and gave them globules; some kept them warm, some kept them cold; but all was wildness, terror, and confusion, or blind confidence and final dismay. Nothing seems to have been done on any recognized principle of medical practice. Miss Burdett Coutts loved her flock not wisely, but too well; for so much whisky was administered that several died, not of the disease, but of delirium tremens. The teetotal papers have not yet thought fit to improve that occasion; and we make the Alliance company a present of the suggestion, and invite them to supply the omission. The action of the Executive seems to have been, in the first instance, confined to three measures. The Privy Council was summoned to deliberate, a Royal Commission was called into existence, and the Archbishop of Canterbury was ordered to compose a prayer. The results of the cogitations of the Lords in Council were communicated to the expectant world by Mr. Helps. These comprised a list of wearyful and onerous precautions to be observed towards the living, and of more innumerable and mournful duties to be performed in connection with the funeral obsequies, which no one has yet, so far as ordinary observation extends, attempted to carry out in their integrity. As for the animals actually affected, those in the first report my Lords doomed at once for them there was no hope; all endeavours were to be directed to one final deed, i.e. to knock the creature on the head. Smite hip and thigh, slay and spare not, was the advice of the Government, and the practice of the inspectors and veterinary surgeons in the first panic of the plague. Another notable suggestion was that all persons attending diseased cattle should wear a safety dress. It is not needful to describe this dress as elaborately as Mr. Helps was compelled to do; it will be sufficient to say that the man so equipped would in all essential particulars, and certainly in appearance, resemble the diver at the Polytechnic. He was not to see or tend healthy beasts, nor to wander about the roads, nor to touch or associate with his own kind until he had got out of his safety dress, immersed it in disinfectant fluid, and treated his own head, eyes, ears, and such parts of his person as had been necessarily exposed in the same severe manner; and as the dress was to be worn over the usual clothes, the latter were likewise to be taken off and fumigated. It is always well to economize trouble, and the necessity for the last precaution might well have been obviated by the simple plan of the man getting in and out of his safety clothes in the dress with which nature has provided him. Some people thought that by smearing the skin well with oil, absorption and exhalation would be in a great degree checked, and infection thus prevented; but it is clearly better to take advantage of a great

natural law than to provide against its operation. Man is an absorbing and exhaling animal; and by this perpetual soaking and saturation it was perhaps intended by the authorities that he should be transformed into a living and moving disinfectant, giving off fumes of chlorine gas in all directions; in fact, a kind of highly-charged vessel, or "head-centre" of health.

The funeral rites were too numerous to detail. The animals were to be buried where they died, and in quick-lime, with all their belongings, except the horns and hoofs. This was misplaced leniency, for the horns, hoofs, and tail are things well known to be typical and suggestive of the embodiment of evil, and therefore ought, more than anything else, to have been buried away out of sight. The droppings of the unfortunate deceased were ordered to be carefully interred where they were dropped, along with the piece of turf which they had defiled, by means of an instrument which, as described, would be a kind of cross between a "spud” and a long gravy-spoon. When this had been thoroughly and exhaustively done in every field, such grass as was bold and ill-advised to grow thereon, was to be formally burned. The quickest plan would have been, no doubt, to have sown the accursed spot with salt, but in the hurry of business, this idea does not seem to have occurred to any one. These recommendations were eventually greatly modified, and indeed were never carried out with any kind of accuracy or unanimity. Otherwise it would have been a singular, and yet a suggestive spectacle, to see the landscape dotted over and our fair fields perambulated by the sombre and careworn figures of the men who, clad in their safety dress, and spud or spoon in hand, would patiently pursue their odoriferous and endless task. There was a cry at one time, that horses, chickens, pigs, and sheep were liable to the disorder, but this gradually died out. It is, however, pretty certain that sheep imbibe and carry about the infection in their wool; and it was proposed that all dogs should be tied up lest they should become mediums of contagion. This would have rendered necessary an enormous addition to the staff of shepherds and drovers, since, as is well known, a man and his dog can collect and drive. more sheep than twenty men without a dog. A flock of sheep driven by a score of men disguised in the safety dress, would have been something to see, besides looking like being thoroughly in earnest. Sheep are notoriously stupid creatures, but a little child was not long since terrified to death by the sight of a surpliced clergyman, and to be pursued by such drovers might drive even sheep into insanity. Another idea ventilated, was to burn bonfires, let off crackers and fireworks, and make much smoke; it was reported that by these means the cholera had greatly abated at Toulon, Marseilles, &c., acting chiefly, it was supposed, by diverting the minds of the survivors; and assuming that the cholera and the rinderpest are alike judgments, what would remove one would remove the other. This was a bold adoption of psychological therapeutics, and as such might well be commended for its ingenuity. It has often been asserted that agriculturists, by the force of