Our Author's last excursion was to the Oasis el Cassar, a place abounding in Egyptian antiquities. Here, he conceived, though by a process of induction somewhat too laboured, that he had discovered the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon, celebrated for the splendid temple of that divinity, and the fountain dedicated to the sun. He was prevented by the jealousy of the natives, from taking a minute survey of those memorable ruins. He visited, however, several different times that far-famed fountain. His description of it differs from that which Herodotus gives of it; a circumstance which we by no means mention in dero. gation of the justness and accuracy of Mr. Belzoni's conclusions; for the father of history did not himself penetrate the desert as far as the Oasis, and derived his knowledge of the miracle ascribed to the fountain, (the periodical change of its temperature from extreme heat to extreme cold,) from mere faine and tradition.

We have thus noticed all that can be properly called new in this interesting work; conscious, at the same time, that a minuter analysis would have rendered ampler justice to its merits. But among its merits, we cannot conscientiously include correctness of style and composition. Its diction is evidently that of a man accustomed to think and to speak in another idiom. Yet, making all due allowances for a defect which ought to smooth the frown of criticism, we cannot help breathing the wish, that Mr. Belzoni's clear and perspicuous narrative had been permitted to run its course like our own Thames, strong without rage,' and undisturbed by the contemptible altercations and petty jealousies which will be for ever breaking out among competitors occupied in the same pursuits, and looking for fame or profit from priority of discovery. A book dedicated to science, ought to exhibit the dignity of science; and that enlightened portion of the public to whom the Author looks for the reward and patronage of his labours, ought not to have been tormented with his squabbles with Count Forbin, or M. Drouetti, or Mr. Salt.

We cannot conclude this article without again referring our readers to the admirable lithographic engravings which accompany the volume, for beautiful delineations of the chief objects of the Author's researches: they do the highest honour to this new school of engraving. Appended to the volume, is Mrs. Belzoni's Trifling Account of the Women of Egypt, Nubia, and Syria.' But, as other travellers have exhausted the subject, it would be unfair to the lady herself, and uninteresting to our readers, to insert any extracts from it.

Art. II. Historical Memoirs of the City of Armagh, for a Period of 1373 Years, comprising a considerable Period of the General History of Ireland; a Refutation of the Opinions of Dr. Ledwich, respecting the Non-existence of St. Patrick; and an Appendix, on the Learning, Antiquities, and Religion of the Irish Nation. By James Stuart, A.B. Svo. pp. 661. Price 18s. Newry. 1819. THIS bulky and somewhat unsightly mass of letter-press will

be found to contain a fund of information, historical, biographical, and topographical, laboriously collected from sources not very accessible to ordinary readers, and to be replete with matter highly curious and interesting. The general summary of its contents, as stated in the preface, is as follows.

1. Historical Memoirs of Armagh, with a statistical account of that city.-2. Biographical Sketches of the various Prelates who presided, in Succession, over the See of Armagh, from the Year 445, till the Reformation.-3. A Biographical Account of the Protestant Archbishops of Armagh, Primates of all Ireland, from the Period of the Reformation, till the Year 1818.-4. A similar Account of the Lives of the Roman Catholic Archbishops of Armagh, or titular primates of all Ireland.-5. A Narrative of various important Events in the general History of Ireland, in which the Archbishops of Armagh, and the Church of Ireland, were either directly or indirectly concerned.-6. An Account of the Establishment of Presbyterian Congregations, and of other Religious Societies in the city of Armagh; with biographical Sketches of the Presbyterian Ministers in regular Order.-7. Various matters relating to the Trade, Manufactures, Antiquities, Manners, Customs, Learning, and Religion of the Country, &c.'

It is not long since we had occasion to advert to a controversy relating to the birth, parentage, and education of a Saxon saint, the renowned St. Neot; in which the affirmative hypothesis came under our consideration, which identifies him with Prince Athelstan. In the Introduction to the present volume, a negative bypothesis of a still more daring character, is made the subject of investigation, which would reduce no less a personage than the patron saint of Ireland to a nonentity. This attempt at posthumous murder, has been made by the learned author of the "Antiquities of Ireland," Dr. Ledwich; whose theorizing ingenuity has shewn itself in an opposite direction to that taken by the inventive boldness of Mr. Whitaker. He takes upon him to affirm, that it is absolutely asserting meridional light to be nocturnal darkness, to maintain St. Pa'trick's existence, mission, or primacy.' The dogmatism of this assertion would prepare us to find that the arguments which could be brought in support of it, are singularly unsatisfactory. And Mr. Stuart has shewn, that Dr. Ledwich has nothing but his own blunders to produce in justification of his

scepticism. Fleury, Cave, Ussher, Camden, Ware, Tillemont, Bollandus, Baronius, Spelman, Stillingfleet, and Mosheim, all coincide in their belief of his existence, and upon no doubtful testimony. But Dr. Ledwich finds no difficulty in assuming that all his predecessors have on this subject mistaken meridional light for nocturnal darkness;' and because some of the traditions relating to the Saint are apocryphal, or of uncertain authority, he would have us blot out his whole story as fabulous, though far better attested than a large portion of what passes for ecclesiastical history. The mind of our antiquary,' says Mr. Stuart, possessed with a kind of credulous scepticism, a sort of dogmatizing doubt, rejects the probable, and implicitly believes in the impossible.' A writer who takes the negative side of even a doubtful question, can have no right to indulge himself in the language of peremptory decision. Almost the slightest degree of positive testimony is sufficient to overthrow the most plausible hypothesis that has for its object to establish a mere negation, provided there is no natural improbability in the attested fact. But, to maintain, in contempt for all but contemporary testimony, the non-existence of an individual,-a point which it would seem under any circumstances, a delicate task to place beyond dispute, and that individual, one so illustrious as the Irish apostle, betrays either an ungovernable love of paradox, or a singular wantonness of scepticism. While we cannot avoid smiling at the honest warmth and indignant earnestness of St. Patrick's present champion, we fully agree with him in deprecating the temerity and dogmatism of Dr. Ledwich's assertions, which are so much at variance with the spirit that ought to characterize the historian and the antiquary. Yet, the Dr.'s ipse dixit appears to have been implicitly relied upon by the Rev. James Gordon in his History of Ireland, and by some other modern writers. Mr. Gordon asserts, that the apostle is ❝ mentioned in no writing of authentic date, anterior to the ninth 'century, and that he is quite unnoticed by Bede, Adamnan, and 'Cumian.' Whereas Dr. Ledwich admits that St. Patrick is expressly mentioned in Bede's Martyrology, though he insinuates a doubt of its authenticity. Cumian, who wrote about the year 650, styles St. Patrick the first apostle of Ireland;' and Adamnan, who also lived in the seventh century, makes express mention of him. To these authorities is to be added Bishop Tirechan, whose two books of "the Acts of Saint "Patrick," referred to by Ussher, were written about the year 650, besides other very ancient documents.

That it was not till the ninth century that St. Patrick was dubbed the Patron-saint of Ireland,' is highly credible. Had this been all that Ledwich wished to establish, it is a pity that, he should have gone to the very unnecessary length of disputing VOL. XV. N.S. 3 C

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his existence. The time at which St. Peter was dubbed the first bishop of Rome, or St. Mark was chosen the patron-saint of Venice, may admit of a question; but no person, in assigning a comparatively modern date to either circuinstance, would feel himself called upon to deny the previous existence of the Apostle or the Evangelist. Yet, this very obvious distinction would seem to be equally overlooked by both our reverend controvertists. Dr. Ledwich has stated very correctly, that the ninth century was famous for reviving and incorporating 'Pagan practices with the Christian ritual.' Observing, (he says,) that Rome had her Mars, Athens her Minerva, Carthage her Juno, and every country and city her proper and peculiar deity, whose guardian care was its greatest protection and se'curity, they conceived it a very becoming employment for Christian saints to assume the patronage of a Christian people; and to interest them the more in this new occupation, they brought their bones and relics, wherever laid, and deposited them in the principal church of the metropolis.' Mr. Stuart appears to be very indignant at this representation; but his anger is not called for. This was, unquestionably, the origin of tutelary saints and national patrons. It supplies, however, no argument in favour of the Dr.'s hypothesis, since the office of spiritual patron would surely not have been assigned to a pseudo-apostle who had never before been heard of; nor could the nation have been so universally made the dupes of a bare imposture. Mankind are often led to give easy credit to apocryphal stories relating to celebrated personages; but, to bring a people to believe with one consent, that a person whose name was altogether new to them, was the hero of their own traditional history, the greatest benefactor of their country, and the tutelary saint of their ancestors, would be an instance of successful fraud wholly unprecedented. Yet, Dr. Ledwich would have us believe, that this was successfully practised by the Danish invaders of Ireland, after their conversion to Christianity. It was while the Ostmen were in possession of Ireland, that the name of St. Patrick,' he tells us, ' first ap'peared;' and thus an imaginary apostle was, according to this sagacious antiquary, imposed upon the most learned community then existing in Europe, as their national saint, by their illiterate and ferocious invaders!!

The Historical Memoirs of the City of Armagh, commence, of course, with the life of its saintly founder, by whom it is said to have been built in the year 445. Several countries contend for the honour of his birth. By most writers, he is held to have been a native of the Strath Clyde territory; an opinion resting chiefly on the name of a place near Dunbarton, called Kilpatrick. Mr. Stuart adopts the notion that he was born at Tours in Armoric Gaul, where his mother

Conchessa, and his uncle St. Martin, are stated to have resided; while he admits it to be beyond all question, that the saint was of British origin. His chief authority appears to us, however, to be very equivocal. The expression of Fiech, is, that he was born at Nem Tur, which would seem to mean nothing more than Turris Caelestis, the holy tower; as it is rendered by one of his early biographers. Mr. Owen, in his Cambrian Biography, and Mr. Hughes, in his recent disquisitions on ancient British history, claim him on behalf of their countrymen as a native of Wales; stating, that among the Welsh, Patrick is called the son of Mawon, and styled Padrig Maenwyn of Gwyr, in the west of Glamorgan. The place of his nativity is said to have been Aberllychwr, or Loghor, where there is a church dedicated to his memory; and he is, moreover, affirmed to have been a teacher of the faith, in the college founded at Caer-worgan, in the vale of Glamorgan, by the father of the emperor Theodosius, until he was carried away captive by the Gwyddelians, or Irish. The genealogical account of his descent given by Colgan, which makes him the son of Calphurnius, a deacon, and the grandson of Potitus, a presbyter, assigning to his family a Roman origin, carries the marks of monkish fiction on the face of it. Thus much appears to be certain; that he was first carried into Ireland as a captive, and that this circumstance ultimately led to his becoming a preacher of Christianity in that country. He is stated to have been ordained a presbyter by Germanus bishop of Auxerre. All accounts notice his intimacy with that prelate, who twice visited Britain; once in 429, and again in 446, for the purpose of sup pressing Pelagianism, and of regulating the British churches. Germanus, or, as the Welsh style him, Garmon, was the uncle of Emyr Llydaw, an Armoric prince. He resided for a considerable time in Britain; and several churches in Wales, as well as the metropolitan church of the Cornish Britons, were dedicated to him. St. Patrick's acquaintance with the worthy bishop, must, however, have been of a prior date to the visit of the latter to this country; and it is highly probable, that the Son of Mawon, or, as he was styled, Magonius, if born in Britain, received his education in Armoric Gaul. He could not have been brought up in one of the seminaries instituted by Germanus in this country, (as the Author of Hora Britannica conjectures,) for this obvious reason, that the Welsh tradition represents him as presiding over the choir at Caer-worgan, prior to its re-establishment by Germanus, who appointed Iltutus to be the principal; and St. Patrick, if the year of his birth be correctly given by Ware, was at that period nearly sixty years old. The year 432 is assigned as the date of his arrival in Ireland as the accredited successor of Palladius, under the au