Preface to the First Edition
In Fraser’s Magazine for the month just expired, there has appeared an article headed the “Arcana of Freemasonry,” which will save me the trouble of an introductory dissertation. The style is quaint, but that will be overlooked; its author is evidently a true mason and a good man; and, initiated as he is in all the fundamentals of his fraternity, he will be the more ready to recognise the truth of my disclosures, as well as to admit the originality of the proofs which I adduce. To him, therefore, whoever he is, do I with confidence refer.
“In the spirit of the mighty dead,” says he, “the great ones of the earth, that seem ever and anon to look down through the clouds of this murky atmosphere and to beckon us heavenward, nothing strikes more keenly, in our conviction, than that passion for divine truth which burned unquenchably within them. With what hallowed devotion they worshipped it, with what intense aspirations they loved it, we must remember but too painfully, when we converse with men as they are, and read the writings they applaud.
“Yes—it must be so! The first and noblest object to which the ambition of man can aspire is the discovery and propagation of truth, on which the felicity of all created thinkers absolutely depends; and, fortunately, the glory of its discovery is nothing superior to the joy of its communication. And therefore have the finest and freest souls, that have caught the brightest glimpses of truth’s eternal radiation, ever most earnestly sought to lead their brethren and kindred to the same difficult and solitary height from which they themselves first witnessed the dawnings of the prophetic dayspring.
“How many illustrious names, however venerable, have from time’s eldest records sought out with indefatigable assiduity the relics of divinest Wisdom! How often beneath her charmed inspirations they wandered forth, exulting over the boundless fields of metaphysical and physical science—endeavouring by the things that are manifest to retrace the hidden Divinity—to look through nature up to nature’s God! And if happily they discover some strange and stirring indications of the Almighty’s elaborating hand, or some bright testimony of His vivifying though impalpable Spirit, have they not hastened with glowing hearts, and souls overcharged with adoration, to whisper the mystery in secret, or to proclaim the marvel to the world?
“The history of Freemasonry being in fact the history of the gradual progression of devotion and philosophy in the youth, maturity, and declension of our planet’s millenary circle, is intensely interesting to the philosophic mind, as the ages of the one have a thousand mystic correspondences with the ages of the other. After taking a luminous survey of the advances of human intelligence as revealed in Scripture, it traces the perpetual tradition of divine wisdom among the hierophantic academies of classic memorial. None understood so well the essential truth of their theo-astrological mythologies and their symbolical mysteries. They track every subtle declension of lofty and bright-souled truth into the shadowy circumference of hostile error; and thus, establishing their minds on the deepest foundations of history, they continually build up superstructures of all that is precious in literature or elegant in art.
“In thus eulogising Freemasons, we of course allude to Freemasons initiated into the deep spirit of divine philosophy, and not mere nominal professors. True masons,—those who are made free by their free devotion to God’s spiritual service, and accepted by emulating the self-immolation of their celestial prototype of heaven and earth for just and disciplined worthies,—we would discourse of these, and these alone. It would be as unfair to judge of Freemasonry in its hidden sanctuary within the veil, by its irregular members, as to judge of its religious illustration without the veil by merely nominal Christians.
“But for true, or free, or speculative masons. These are the men who, attached to their celestial Saviour with filial enthusiasm incommunicable, and to each other by fraternal sympathies that melt them into beautiful unanimity of immortal emulation, these are the men who feel a more especial and endearing interest in the whole history of mankind. To them, whatever is “wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best,” in all the records of humanity, hath a kind of kindred familiarity of association unknown to others; for in all true men they recognise their ancestry or their brotherhood, and they watch the broad line of their genealogical descent with the reverent fondness of a lineal and loyal progeny. In their history they love to contemplate the magnificent economy of Providence for the gradual perfectionising of all lapsed intelligences. In this they view every variation of Churches and States with tranquil and unbroken satisfaction, and from it they look forward to the future with that fine, free, and fearless confidence which Christian philosophy alone inspires.
“In the present times, these relations to society have assumed a somewhat deeper and still more thrilling intensity; they know well enough that old age hath come upon the earth, and that the latter day is at hand; and that the prophecies relating to her dissolution and bright regeneration are, ere long, to be accomplished in their fulness.
“They confess, with rejoicing, the vast spread of intellectual light and freedom that now gilds the concluding pages of our planet’s history. They believe that the true and venerable principles of Church and State will be confirmed and illustrated in their breadth and length, and height and depth, by the last and prophetic experience of pious and patriot sages, ere the kindling judgment breaks out upon the astonished world.
“Such is the position of Freemasons in society at present. And when we consider the extent of this chosen band of good and wise men, bound together by the fellowship of indissoluble benevolence, and scattered over every kingdom and republic, we cannot but observe their influences with peculiar scrutiny of attention; for, by keeping fast their own counsel, and preserving mutual good faith, they ever possess a strong, though secret domination of philanthropy over all the affairs of Church and State. In her peaceful and inviolable retirement, Masonry is, as it were, the primum mobile and mainspring of society,—unseen herself, but urging the whole visible mechanism into harmonious and musical action.
“In the present time, Freemasons cannot but feel that a terrible responsibility is committed to their charge. The ancient interests and ambitions of Churches and States are coming into perpetual and jarring collision with the new. The ebb-tides of bigotry and despotism are clashing with the advancing currents of enthusiasm and dissolute passion. The spray of the whirling eddies already whitens the deep, and the roar of the conflicting breakers is heard far away upon the wind. God saith, ‘I will overturn, overturn, overturn, until He shall come whose right the kingdom is’; and the sea and the waves are roaring upon every shore, and men’s hearts fail them for fear, and for looking on those things which are coming on the earth. To true masons is entrusted the hazardous charge of piloting the vessel athwart the boiling whirlpools. They will save, if they can, earth’s latest age from indecent strife and confusion, and struggle hard against the unfilial and disloyal apostates, that would bring down her grey hairs with sorrow to the grave.”30
Here I would willingly close my Introduction; but as it may seem strange that a work which bears upon its title-page the character of “Prize Essay” should not have been published by the Society that have awarded it the prize, I am obliged to open up a statement of facts which I had rather have concealed; yet, in doing so, I shall take care, now that all vexation has passed over, that no symptoms of asperity shall escape my pen; all the colouring of language I shall equally avoid; nay, even inferences, however obvious, I shall not press into observation, but confine myself strictly to a matter-of-fact detail as to the conduct of the party in the case in question.
In December 1830, the Royal Irish Academy, after many fruitless efforts to obtain information on the subject of the Round Towers, proposed a premium of a gold medal and fifty pounds to the author of an approved Essay, in which all particulars respecting them were expected to be explained. This intimation I never saw. The stipulated time for the composition of treatises—namely, a full twelvemonth—expired, and the several candidates sent in their works. After a perusal of two or three months, the Council agreed upon giving the premium to one of them; but his work being deficient in some of the conditions required,31 it was furthermore resolved that he should be allowed some additional interval for the supplying of these defects, and this determination they put into practice by the following advertisement:—
“Royal Irish Academy House, Dublin,
“21st February 1832.
“It having appeared to the Royal Irish Academy that none of the Essays given in on the subject of the ‘Round Towers,’ as advertised in December 1830, have satisfied the conditions of the question, they have come to the following resolutions:—
“1st. That the question be advertised again as follows:—
“‘The Royal Irish Academy hereby give notice that they will give a Premium of Fifty Pounds and the Gold Medal to the author of an approved Essay on the Round Towers of Ireland, in which it is expected that the characteristic architectural peculiarities belonging to all those ancient buildings now existing shall be noticed, and the uncertainty in which their origin and uses are involved be satisfactorily removed.’
“2nd. That the time be extended to the 1st of June next, for receiving other Essays on said subject, and for allowing the authors of the Essays already given in to enlarge and improve them; for which purpose they will be returned, on application at the Academy House.
“All Essays, as usual, to be sent post free to the Rev. J. H. Singer, D.D., Secretary, at the Academy House, 114 Grafton Street, Dublin; each Essay being inscribed with some motto, and accompanied with a sealed billet, superscribed with same motto, in which shall be written the author’s name and address.”
A few days before this appeared, I heard, for the first time, of the subject having been for competition. Wishing to ascertain whether it was decided or not, I availed myself of a pretext for calling upon Dr. M‘Donnell, one of the Secretaries to the Academy, when the following conversation took place between us:—
“I wish to know, sir,” said I, “whether the Council would patronise a translation of Ibernia Phœnicia, which I have just embarked in, with Dr. Villanueva’s consent?”
“The Council have already subscribed to the original, and I believe they feel no difficulty in understanding it in that form,” was the reply.
“I do not at all question their competency,” I rejoined; “but to the public, Doctor, it is a sealed volume; and I cannot think it foreign from the spirit of your institution to countenance such an idea. Besides, it is not a mere echo of the original that I intend to give. I purpose to enlarge it by many additions of my own, accompanying it all through with notes and illustrations.”
“To what points in particular will those additions refer?”
“To the development of the mystery which overhangs the Round Towers.”
“Oh! On that head the Academy have already made up their minds. What is your theory about them?”
“Surely, Doctor, if the Academy have already made up their minds upon the subject, my information can be to you of no value! Good-morning.”
If my disappointment at this interview was great, my delight, a few mornings after, was incomparably greater, on beholding the advertisement above introduced; and though the shortness of the time allowed, with the positiveness of the assertion so recently and reluctantly extorted, made me suspect at once that there was some management in the business, yet, having thoroughly assured myself, from the wording of that manifesto, that I was entitled to enter the lists, I plunged into the discussion without further delay, and day and night, in sorrow and in difficulties, I laboured, until I finished my Essay against the appointed day, when I sent it in accordingly to await its chance.
Four days, however, had only passed over, when the Council, having perceived that they had been taken at their word, by the appearance of a new candidate, allowed their friend to take back his Essay for one month more, to render it more perfect! And in the exercise of their discretion, they had the modesty to advertise, by a document precisely similar to that already inserted, that their object in so doing was to “obtain new Essays on said subject.”
This last advertisement was not published for some days after their friend had removed his work from the Council Board; so that there were no more than about three weeks remaining, for the inditing of new works upon a subject for which lives have been found inadequate, and for which their friend had already been allowed a period nearly approaching to two years!
Soon as informed of this manœuvre, I called upon Dr. Singer, as the Secretary, and entreated of him, with much ardour, that he would put a stop to those proceedings; stated that I was myself the author of one of the Essays, which I would not further particularise; and that, as I had reason to apprehend something wrong was in contemplation, I would feel obliged if he exerted himself to have the Essays detained, and determined upon by their merits as they then stood. He asked me to explain the ground of my apprehensions. I complied; whereupon he assured me that I was mistaken in that quarter, as “the individual,” says he, “at whose request we have extended the time is one for whom we all have a regard, and is by no means the person on whom your suspicions light!”
It was but little consolation to me that the person in whose favour all this partiality was exerted was “not the person on whom my suspicions lighted”! I remonstrated, but in vain. Every syllable that transpired afterwards tended only to show that the decision was already pronounced—that the premium was already awarded. I then hinted at the injustice of seducing me into the competition, at the very risk of my life, upon so short a notice, and not vouchsafing now so much as to examine my production. This had some effect, and I left the Doctor with an assurance that I “should, at all events, get a hearing.”
The day for the reception of the amended Essays again came, and mine again made its appearance. In the interim was started a periodical, under the direction of some members of the Council, the most prominent of whom was the favoured individual himself. In the second number of this periodical, on the Saturday after the last sending in of the Essays, there appeared an article, written by the Rev. Cæsar Otway, a member of the Council, under the assumed name of Terence O’Toole, in which half playfully and half mysteriously, he lets the cat out of the bag, and actually asserts, as the event verified, that the premium was already determined to a member of their own body!
Here are his words:—
“The Round Tower, to the right, is a prodigious puzzler to antiquarians. Quires of paper, as tall as a tower, have been covered with as much ink as might form a Liffey, in accounting for their origin and use. But all these clever and recondite conjectures are shortly, as I understand, to be completely overthrown, and the real nature of these Round Towers clearly explained, for the first time, in a Prize Essay presented to the Royal Irish Academy by an accomplished antiquarian of our city.”32
Notwithstanding the disguise here assumed of “as I understand,” and so forth, the writer of this announcement had, at this moment, not only perused his colleague’s Essay, but actually registered his vote in its favour! And as to his pretending that the development was a discovery, by saying “for the first time,” he betrays therein the extreme either of untruth or of ignorance, as the theory alluded to is but the echo, in all particulars, of Montmorency’s book, every sentence in which I prove erroneous in the early chapters of the present volume! I could no longer, however, be ignorant as to the identity of the person in whose favour Dr. M‘Donnell had told me the Council had “made up their minds”;—casually corroborated afterwards by Dr. Singer!—I saw at once that the “accomplished antiquarian of our city” was Mr. Petrie, the antiquarian artist of the Royal Irish Academy—himself a member of their Council!
However, Dr. Singer had promised that I “should get, at all events, a hearing.” And this was performed with a vengeance. Three months was the time devoted to the examination of all the former Essays. It remained, therefore, only publicly to announce what was privately resolved upon. But as my Essay, the only new one, was at all taken in, it was indispensable but that they must read it, and six long months did they appropriate thereto. At the end of this period they saw that the position assumed was right, and that I was entitled to the premium. But they had already pledged themselves to give it to their friend, whose theory was the direct opposite of mine; and, consequently, every sentence in it, or in mine, must be wrong—a discrepancy, however, which they thought to reconcile by leaving the original prize undisturbed, and voting me a separate one.
Had they had the candour to avow that this was their dilemma, I should never have murmured, but quietly submitted to the issue; instead of which, however, they worded their resolution in such a form as led the public to think that there were two premiums all along intended, and that the first of these was given to the best composition, and the second to that which approached it in quality.
It was as follows:—
“Royal Irish Academy House.
“On Monday, December 17, a meeting of the Council of the Royal Irish Academy was held, for the purpose of deciding on the merits of essays received, pursuant to advertisement, on The Origin and Use of the Round Towers of Ireland, when the following premiums were adjudged, viz.:—
“Fifty pounds and the gold medal to George Petrie.
“Twenty pounds to Henry O’Brien, Esq.”
Now, be it observed that it was not only of the gold medal and fifty pounds that I was deprived by this manœuvre, but of the one hundred additional pounds which Lord Cloncurry had offered upon the same subject. Of this the Academy were also the dispensers, on the understanding that whoever should get their gold medal and fifty pounds—the only premium which they had offered—should also get his lordship’s hundred; so that by this stratagem they assigned to their friend not only their own, but his lordship’s patronage!
I was in London at the time, and signified my dissatisfaction by letter. Several were interchanged, in one of which I gave them to understand that I would submit to the injustice if they would but publish my work in their Transactions simultaneously with Mr. Petrie’s. This they declined, assuring me that they would publish it, but not simultaneously, and not until after. No comment is necessary for this.
Meanwhile, their periodical, which, from the first moment of its starting, whenever reference was made to the Round Towers, unqualifiedly asserted that they were Christian, and only coeval with the monasteries,33 thought proper now to change its tone; but as an open acknowledgment of error would be too self-abasing for Academicians, they only put forth a feeler, as if implying doubt on the matter, which would have the twofold effect of screening the “Council’s” verdict—as the result of doubt or ambiguity—and of preparing the public mind for the altered and novel conclusion to which all, I trust, will ere long, as well as themselves, have arrived.
My eye, however, was on their plans, though separated by “a roaring sea.” I knew that where there were so many windings to mature the plot, there must be as many to prevent its detection; and, accordingly, the very first move they made in these, their new tactics, I checkmated at once by the following letter:—
(No. 1.)
“London, March 16, 1833.
“Dear Dr. Singer,—The Dublin Penny Journal of February 23rd, on the article, ‘Devenish Island,’ contains this sentence, viz.: ‘Whether the towers are the accompaniment to the churches, or the churches to the towers, is a question not yet decided.’
“Now this—coupled with the circumstance of the Committee having awarded two premiums to two, as I understand, conflicting ascriptions, and that when only one was originally proposed—induces me, with all deference, to offer this memorial, through you, to the Academy.
“As the development of truth in the elucidation of history is the object of the antiquarian, and, as the ‘labourer is worthy of his hire,’ I take the liberty respectfully to ask whether, if I make my ascription of the Round Towers a mathematical demonstration, with every other incident relating to their founders, comprehending all the antiquities of Ireland, as connected therewith—and this by all the varieties and modes of proof—whether, I say, in that event, will the Academy award me the gold medal and premium? or, if that cannot be recalled, an equivalent gold medal and premium.
“My intercalary work, substantiating all the above, is now finished, and can be forwarded to the Committee by return of the same post which will favour me with your answer.—I have the honour to be, dear sir, your obedient, etc.
“Henry O’Brien.
“To the Rev. Dr. J. H. Singer,
“Secretary to the Academy.”
By the above proposal I must not be understood as admitting that my original essay “was not sufficiently conclusive”; but as I had more arguments still in reserve, I wanted to elicit from the Academy the admission that it was truth they sought after. After waiting, however, more than three weeks, and getting no reply, I forwarded some other proofs, accompanied by a letter, of which the following was the conclusion, viz.:—
(No. 2.)
“These are but items in the great body of discoveries which this intercalary work will exhibit. In truth, I may without vanity assert that the whole ancient history of Ireland, etc., is therein rectified and elucidated—which it never was before. Am I, therefore, presumptuous in appealing to the Royal Irish Academy—the heads of Irish literature and the avowed patrons of its development—for the reward of my labours?
“I shall with confidence rely upon their justice.—I have the honour to be, with sincere regard, etc.
“Henry O’Brien.
“To the Rev. Dr. J. H. Singer,
“Secretary to the Academy.”
(No. 3.)
“Royal Irish Academy House,
“April 16, 1833.
“Sir,—Your improved essay and letter were yesterday laid before Council, and as Dr Singer is at present confined with the gout, it devolves on me to communicate to you the following extract from the minutes:—
“‘Resolved, that the Secretary be directed to reply to Mr. O’Brien, and to state that any alteration or revocation of their award cannot be made, whatever may be the merits of any additional matter supplied to them after the day appointed by advertisement; but if Mr. O’Brien be willing that the new matter be printed along with the original Essay, the Council will have the same perused, in order to ascertain the expediency of so enlarging their publication.’
—By order.
“Rich. Row, Clerk to the Academy.
“To H. O’Brien, Esq.”
(No. 4.)
“London, April 18, 1833.
“Sir,—Had I a notion that the Academy’s reply would be such as your letter has this day imparted, I would never have sat down to indite those additions, much less have forwarded them for their perusal. For why did I write to the Secretary three weeks ago, but to ascertain whether or not, in the event of my doing so and so, would the Academy act so and so, and thus repair that injury which they had before inflicted? What could be more easy than to give me a categorical answer, one way or the other? Instead of which, however, they left me to my own conclusions, which, as usual in such circumstances, leading me to construe silence into acquiescence, I transmitted my documents on the tacit faith that though the Academy would not pledge themselves by a written promise, they would, notwithstanding, if my researches proved adequate, reward my industry by a suitable remuneration.
“Now, however, when my papers have been received, and my developments communicated, I am told that, be their merits what they may, the award is irrevocable; and I have no alternative, in the writhings of my mortification, but the consolation of being injured and duped at the same time.
“You will say, perhaps, that my new evidences have not yet been read, and that therefore my property is secure and sacred. But has not the accompanying letter been read? And what was that but a programme of their contents?
“I had thought that the Royal Irish Academy were not only a learned, but a just and a patriotic Society. I had thought that having marshalled themselves into an institution, with the avowed object of resuscitating from death the almost despaired-of evidences of our national history, they would not alone foster every advance toward that desirable consummation, but shower honours, and acclamations, and triumphs upon him who has not only infused a vital soul into those moribund remains, but made the history of Ireland, at this moment, the clearest, the most irrefragable, and withal the most interestingly comprehensive chain of demonstrational proofs in the whole circle of universal literature.34
“But it is not alone the being deprived of my reward that I complain of, and the transferring of that reward to another, every sentiment of whose production must inevitably be wrong, but it is the suppression of my labours, and the keeping them back from the public eye, in deference to my opponent’s work, lest that the discernment of the public should bestow upon me those honours which the discretion of the Academy has thought proper to alienate, that affects me as most severe.
“Indeed, it has been stated from more quarters than one, that the withholding of the medal from me, in the first instance, and the substituting thereinstead a nominal premium of twenty pounds, originated from a personal pique against me individually. Such a report I would fain disbelieve, and yet it is hard not to give it some credence, seeing that the irresistible cogency of my truths and the indubitable value of my literary discoveries are not only not rewarded, but kept back from publication, until someone else more fortunate, or rather more favoured, shall run away with the credit of my cherished disclosures.35 I wish—I desire—I most intensely covet—that the Academy would convince me that this is not an act of the most aggravated injustice.
“You will please lay this before the Council, and tell them from me, respectfully, that I do not want them either to ‘alter’ or ‘revoke’ their award, but simply to vote me ‘an equivalent gold medal and premium’ for my combined essay, or, if they prefer, the new portion of it. Should this be refused, I will put my cause, etc. etc.—I have the honour to be, etc. etc.
“Henry O’Brien.
“To the Rev. Richard Row,
“Clerk to the Academy.”
They bestowed some days in consultation upon the above; meanwhile, the transmission of the Dublin Penny Journal to London was countermanded, and not a copy of it was allowed, for some months afterwards, to come within hundreds of miles of the place of my residence. In the interim the ingenious author of the Celtic Druids, and who had been partly in possession of my development of the “Towers” for some time previously, favoured me with a visit, during which we conversed principally on historical questions. The next day I addressed him a note, a copy of which, with its answer, I take leave to subjoin, for the sake of the terminating clause of the latter, being the self-convicting acknowledgment of the “Academy’s” disingenuousness.
(No. 5.)
“May 2, 1833.
“Dear Sir,—I hope you will not feel displeased at the frankness of this question which I am about to propose to you, viz. have you any objection to show me in manuscript, before you send to print, the terms in which you speak of me, in reference to those points of information which I entrusted to your confidence—such as the ancient names of Ireland and their derivation, the towers and founders, dates, etc.?
“Should you think proper to consent to this feeling of anxiety on my part, I shall be most willing to share with you those other ‘points’ which I exclusively retain.
“To the full extent you shall have them. The only condition I require is, the credit of originality, which I have laboriously earned. Please to drop me a line in reply to this, and allow me to subscribe myself, with great respect,—Dear sir, your obedient,
“Henry O’Brien.
“Godfrey Higgins, Esq.”
(No. 6.)
“May 3, 1833.
“My dear O’Brien,—You may be perfectly assured I shall print nothing which I have learned from you without acknowledging it. But I have really forgotten what you told me, because I considered that I should see it in print in a few days. Anything I shall write on the subject will not be printed for years after your books have been before the public. You did not tell me the name of Buddha, but I told it you, that it was Saca, or Saca-sa,36 which I have already printed a hundred times, and can show you in my great quarto, when you take your tea with me, as I hope you will to-morrow. Sir W. Betham told me of the fire-towers being Phalluses last night at the Antiquarian Society.—Yours truly,
“G. Higgins.”
Who, now, can pretend to think that the neutralising award of the “Council” was the effect of scepticism or legitimate doubt? Here Sir William Betham, the Ulster King-at-Arms! the Goliath of antiquaries!—as he is, undoubtedly, of pedigrees,—being himself a member of the “deciding tribunal,”—proclaims, in the midst of a venerable literary assembly, that my solution of the Round Tower enigma is accurate; and yet in the teeth of this confession, and of the conviction which extorted it, he joins in voting away my medal to a compilation of errors, and in substituting thereinstead twenty pounds!
(No. 7.)
“London, May 2, 1833.
“Dear Dr. Singer,—I exceedingly grieve to hear of your ill-health. Its announcement, I assure you, made me look within myself, and for a moment lose sight of my own hardships. I hope, however, that you are now so far recovered as to send me a favourable answer to this my last appeal.
“Taking it for certain that the Academy’s having not replied to the tenor of my late intimation arose from the circumstance of there having been no ‘Council day’ since; and, as I anticipate, that on Monday next my question will be finally disposed of, I am anxious, for the good of all parties, and for the triumph of truth, to show you in one view how I have amputated the last supports of error, and covered its advocates with ignominy and shame.
“Thus every leaf unfolds evidences to the realisation of my victory. I took my stand at the outset on the pedestal of truth; and I challenge scrutiny to insinuate that, in the multiplied developments which I have since revealed, I have deviated from my grand position one single iota.
“Let it not be supposed, in the observation with which I am now about to conclude, that I mean anything disrespectful to the Council of the Academy. Many years have not passed since I knew several of them in a different relation; and however little effect college associations may produce on other minds, I find not their influence so fleeting or transient. It is with extreme reluctance, therefore, that I would split with a body who have lectured me as tutors. But time has advanced; I am now right, and they are wrong, and the cause which they patronise will not do them much credit.
“I do not, however, yet give up my hopes but that the Academy will wisely retrace their steps. Revocation of the former medal I do not require—much less the exercise of a single grain of partiality. My demand merely is, as my former letters have indicated, the substitution of justice.
“Please receive the assurance of my consideration, and in confident reliance that you will use your influence in this matter, and favour me with the upshot instantly after Monday’s Board,—I remain, ever sincerely yours,
“Henry O’Brien.”
(No. 8.)
“London, May 9, 1833.
“Dear Dr. Singer,—My appeals are over; and I regret to say that they have not been attended to. The virtuous and enlightened part of the Academy, therefore, cannot blame me, if, in the assertion of my honest right, I try the effect of a public remonstrance.
“In the interim, I transmit to you by this night’s post some additional leaves, which, in the anxiety of despatch, as well, indeed, as from fear that they would not be inserted because they overwhelm for ever the antiquarian pretensions of the Dublin Penny Journal,37 have omitted to copy. However, I will now forward them, and claim that they may be printed along with those already sent in the original Essay.
“... I have exhausted all the forms of blandness and conciliation, in the vain hope of inducing the Council to redeem themselves from disgrace, by doing me common justice. I have strove in the mildest terms of conscious rectitude, invigorated by a phalanx of overwhelming proofs, to make them reconsider their course, and spare me the unpleasant task of exposing a deed which I am loth to characterise by its proper designation. But the ‘heart of Pharaoh’ was hardened; the ‘voice of the charmer’ not listened to; and to my soft importunities nothing was returned but the coldness of obduracy and disregard.
“The Rubicon, therefore, is crossed; my patience feels insulted; and the only consideration I value, in the resolve to which I have at last been driven, is, that you had nothing to do with the ‘job’ of the Round Towers.
“Little did the Academy know what arguments I could adduce in elucidation of certain mysteries. As little do they now dream what proofs I can summon, though you cannot have forgotten one of them, while I promise I shall make Dr. M‘Donnell recollect another; and would not the Rev. Cæsar Otway, with whom I have never so much as exchanged a look, be surprised at my quoting him as a reluctant third witness, to show that the gold medal and premium were predetermined to Mr. Petrie before ever I became a candidate; and that, consequently, the advertisement under which I was invited to contend, but from which the Council never expected an intruder, was but a specious delusion.
“In this determination I violate no act of private regard, nor set light by the claims of individual acquaintance. You know yourself how earnestly I struggled, before the consummation of this nefarious proceeding, to stem the agency of that despicable under-current which I had just detected. I knew that fraud of some kind was at work; and though unable at the moment to fix upon the person in whose favour it was set agoing,—nay, though mentally fastening the blame thereof upon another, whose name, however, I never let slip, and to whom, I rejoice to say I have since made more than recompense for this ideal injury,—yet could I not be persuaded but that something sinister was designated; and to frustrate the influence of such prominent deceit, you know how vehement was my address. I implored you, I besought you, and all but upon my knees, and with tears, I invoked you, by your regard to justice and your fear of a Creator, to check this trickery, and allow merit alone and anonymous to decide the issue.
“I now, in the same spirit of solemn self-composure, adjure the ‘Council’ through you, in the name of that God before whom they and I shall one day appear, that they will have my cause redressed, and make me reparation, not only for the substantial injury, but for the mental disquietude and agony which this ‘business’ has occasioned. If they do not, rest satisfied that my path is already chalked. All the evolutions of the Council, as displayed upon the Towers, and with which I am but too familiar, shall be immortalised in letterpress; and I do not yet despair of the hereditary fairness of my country but that it shall register its dissent from the decision of that tribunal, which could have had at once the obtuseness of intellect and the perverseness of conduct to stultify their own verdict by a contradictory award; and, after inveigling me into a competition which they never meant to remunerate, deprive me of the fruits of my indubitable triumph, in the pursuit of which I had almost lost my life, and cut short my existence in the very spring of my manhood.
“I mean no offence, individually or collectively, to the Academy or its members; but as they have been deaf to the justice of my private ‘appeals,’ I shall try the effect of a public ‘remonstrance’; and as to ulterior consequences I greatly err, else the upshot will show that the motto38 adopted as my fictitious signature in the ‘Essay’ was not the random assumption of inconsiderateness or accident, but the true index to the author’s resources.
“My proposal is this—my unshaken position from which I will not swerve or retract—a gold medal and premium equivalent to those originally advertised.—I am, dear sir, yours sincerely,
“Henry O’Brien.
“To the Rev. Dr. J. H. Singer,
“Secretary to the Academy.”
(No. 10.)
“Grafton Street, Dublin,
“May 13, 1833.
“Dear Sir,—I have been directed by the Council of the Royal Irish Academy to reply to your last letters on the subject of your Essay, and the additional matter recently sent over. As to the latter, I am directed to say that the Council had engaged to examine and publish, if approved, some small additions to your former Essay; but the papers you have sent are so large as to be nearly equal in bulk to the original dissertation; under these circumstances the Council cannot publish them as additional to, or incorporated with, the Essay to which they awarded twenty pounds prize, as thereby its character might be so altered that it would not appear in print the same Essay on which they had formed their opinion. The Council, therefore, wish to know how they may transmit to you the papers you have sent. When the gentlemen to whom your Essay has been submitted for examination report, you shall be made aware of the extent of alteration they suggest; and if you think that your paper requires the additions you have sent, and would therefore wish to publish it with them yourself, I have no doubt the Council will entertain any notice to that effect.—I am, dear sir, your most obedient,
“J. H. Singer.
“H. O’Brien, Esq.”
(No. 11.)
“London, May 20, 1833.
“Dear Dr. Singer,—I do not quite understand the closing observation of your last letter. If the Academy mean me a kindness, I should trust that my nature is too sensible of such advances not suitably to acknowledge it; and I should be sorry that, either from obscurity in the diction, or want of quickness in my perception, I were to lose the opportunity of making a grateful return. Let me, therefore, put the following interrogatory to set myself right, viz.:—
“Will the Academy procure me a publisher for my enlarged work? And will they advertise that, having previously done me injustice, by the transfer of my medal, they now, on being convinced of their error, adopt this as the only mode of reparation, the award itself not being to be recalled?
“Without some such course as this, it is obvious that the offer which they make, instead of being a kindness, would be a mockery; and, instead of making amends for oppression, would be adding insult to persecution! For who, let me ask, would publish a work which a jury have branded with the stamp of inferior, doling out their surreptitious twenty pounds as an eleemosynary deodand, while the darling of their adoption, though disfigured by all the imperfections of blindness, lameness, and untruth, and recommended only by a few painted gew-gaws, which never entered into the requisites of the original advertisement, will pass current in Dublin amongst the creatures of party!
“I have already applied to Mr. ——, and he, intimidated by the vicious state of society in Ireland, declined my proposal; but though his apprehensions were sufficient to deter him from the speculation, they were totally unfounded; for, despite of all corruption, all chicanery, and all cabals, the etc. etc. etc.
“This complaint, observe, does not refer to the new papers only, but extends itself equally to the original Essay. Why do the Academy keep it back? Believe me, it is in vain for them to defer ‘the evil day’ of their exposure. Their doom was sealed the very moment they did me injustice! I have watchfully reconnoitred their course, and have proofs of the intricacies of their internal machinery, ample as those before adduced for the solution of the Round Tower enigma, to effect their overthrow; and if the present generation be not virtuous enough to redress my cause, it shall be no fault of mine if any future age shall be ignorant of the names of the individuals who constitute the present Council; and in what light they shall be considered, their own conscience can furnish them with a tolerable foretaste!
“Was it not a cruelly perverse thing of them, after determining beforehand to award the medal to Mr. Petrie, to inveigle me into the competition by a deceptious advertisement? And then, after signally beating them under all disadvantages, to manœuvre me off by a beggarly cheat? Shame, foul shame for ever upon the Academy!
“Why, sir, the very terms of your letter show their self-convictedness, though they have not honesty enough to avow it overboard! What do they mean by saying that the new matter would ‘make my Essay not appear in print the same as that on which they formed their opinion’? Are they afraid that it would make it appear worse? Not at all; they would rejoice at the pretext, and publish it instanter as a cloak to their verdict! But as they have, in spite of them, admitted those additions to be an improvement,39 why do they, I ask, who have advertised for truth, again repress its effulgence?
“It is now easy to see what they designed by the clauses of ‘expediency,’ ‘if approved,’ and ‘subject to revisal’; viz., if false, we will insert them in self-vindication; but if true, we will not, as being too great a victory over our own ignorance and favouritism!
“My Essay, however, does not want those new papers: the Council, therefore, will please have them sealed and handed over to the custody of Mr. Tims, my bookseller, in Grafton Street. The only additions which I shall insist upon being inserted are those contained in my letters in appropriate places, as I shall point out.
“I conclude by giving notice that I shall claim Lord Cloncurry’s premium; nor do I despair of recovering that, as I should think that his lordship is too honest a man to sacrifice the interests of literature to the intrigues of a faction!—I have the honour to be, etc.,
“Henry O’Brien.”
(No. 12.)
“Royal Irish Academy House, Dublin,
“May 27, 1833.
“Sir,—I am directed by the Council of the Royal Irish Academy to inform you that they feel themselves compelled, in consequence of your late letters, to decline the publication of your Essay, or the maintaining any further correspondence with you on the subject.
“Your Essay and the additional matter will be sent, as you desire, to Mr. Tims, Grafton Street, as soon as a copy of the former can be taken.—I am, sir, your most obedient,
“J. H. Singer, Secretary.
“H. O’Brien, Esq.”
The discontinuance of the correspondence was to be expected, but their declining the publication of my Essay in their Transactions, merely because of my giving utterance to some unpalatable truths, was an excess of magnanimity which I did not think that even the “Council” would personify.
However, you suppose that they, at all events, returned me my Essay, as promised? Far from it! In violation of all honour, and of the written engagements of their Secretary, they have detained it ever since in their hands, thereby putting me to the vast expense of procuring new plates, instead of those which the original contained—an inconvenience, I must affirm, which they had hoped I could never have surmounted; while, in the interim, they should push out their bantling upon the public, secure in the consciousness of having cushioned my work, that they should ride over the market without a rival.
They should have known, however, that the person who, at three months’ notice, undertook to solve the Towers, and then kept them at bay for six months before they could chouse him out of his prize, was not to be deterred by such an obstacle as the above. And the reader may be satisfied that, though it has occasioned me some hardship, he is in no respect thereby a loser.
I have stated that the effect of my Letter No. 1 was to interrupt the transmission of the Dublin Penny Journal to London. I have now to point out the result of the menace conveyed in Letter 8 of my determining to expose—as I enclosed the proofs that I could refute—the antiquarian errors of their organ. It was that they instantly took the hint, and sold their interest in the concern! And its new proprietor, edified no doubt by a friendly lesson at their hands, very wisely intimates, in his opening number, that he shall forego antiquities, and make literary jobbing no part of it.
Here are his words: “From the concluding paragraph of the last number of this little publication, its readers will be aware that it is now in the hands of a new editor and proprietor, and they will naturally expect that in the present number something should be said relative to its future management. ‘Deeds, not words,’ has ever been the motto of its (present) conductor, and he will therefore merely say that it is his intention to give his readers good value for their money; that the Dublin Penny Journal shall not be a mere ‘catchpenny,’ depending upon the number and excellence of its woodcuts for extensive circulation, but containing, as he considers a publication of the kind should do, such a variety of interesting and useful matter as shall render it really valuable. In future, therefore, while the antiquities of the country will not be neglected, the work shall exhibit a more general character in the subjects of its contents.”40
N.B.—As I am a member of no club, belong to no literary society, and have no facilities otherwise for watching periodicals, whether newspapers, magazines, or reviews, I shall feel obliged if any gentleman who, in the exercise of a free judgment, should think proper to dissent from me, and to express such dissent in offensive language, would be pleased to forward me a copy of the work wherein his strictures may appear, and I promise that I shall reply to them with deference, and perhaps satisfaction. I also trust that, from the singularity of my position, I do not expect too much when I express a hope that any publication which speaks against me will allow me to reply through the same medium—a request certainly which cannot be refused, unless the design be hostile and factiously malicious. Any suggestions for improvement, with a view to a second edition, I very cheerfully court.
All communications addressed to me, to the care of my publisher, Mr. Whittaker, Ave Maria Lane, St. Paul’s, London, will reach me, and be attended to.
THE
ROUND TOWERS
OF
IRELAND;
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE TUATH-DE-DANAANS
FOR THE FIRST TIME UNVEILED.
By HENRY O’BRIEN, Esq., A.B.
“Hic sacra, hic genus, hic majorum multa vestigia.”
Cicero.
... “were of fame,
And had been glorious in another day.”
Byron.
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON:
PARBURY AND ALLEN, LEADENHALL STREET;
DUBLIN:
J. CUMMING, LOWER ORMOND QUAY.
MDCCCXXXIV.
TO
THE MOST NOBLE
THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE,
Etc. Etc. Etc.
My Lord Marquis,
Many reasons concur why I should feel ambitious to associate your name with the following production. To enumerate these would neither become my humility, nor be acceptable to your good taste. But there is one motive which, as it is the offspring of the heart, implanted there at a period when adulation was not dreamt of, I may be allowed to particularise,—I was born upon your estates—you are the landlord of that spot which imparted my earliest images—the first soarings of my fancy were derived from that scene—and to the native notes which I have lisped in that primitive and retired region, more than to the vaunted advantages of a subsequent collegiate career, am I beholden for the clue with which I have traversed the ancient world; and of which Envy herself must yet acknowledge, that I have here rectified the history in its very widest amplitude—as well sacred as profane.
It is to do honour to this clue in the eyes of the Mecænas of his age, and, under the auspices of his approval, to promote its revival, that I give utterance to this sentiment; and so, hoping that you will view it in this light, and not as the empty chaunt of a reprehensible egotism, I beg leave to subscribe myself, with the most profound consideration and respect,
My Lord Marquis,
Your Lordship’s most devoted
And most faithful, humble Servant,
Henry O’Brien.
London, September 1834.