n
tell with certainty the date of that transaction within a thousand years
or so, and it might perhaps be permitted to rest in peace. There is
another Irish historian and poet, who represents a race to which we have
not yet got altogether reconciled. Our friend, Dr. Sigerson, is as
unmitigated a Dane as the great soldier from whom his name is derived.
When I was last in Dublin I proposed a final burial of national feuds,
ancient and modern, and, as a last victim might be required to consecrate
the transaction, I suggested, that we might execute this last Dane on the
field of Clontarf, where, by some unaccountable mischance, his ancestor
escaped the conquering sword of Bryan. The Doctor offered no objection to
so reasonable a proposal, but suggested that the tramway from Nelson's
Pillar to Clontarf should run quarter-hour trains on the day of execution,
as he wanted a large audience to tell them what they certainly did not
know, that there was a strong Danish contingent in Bryan's Irish army, and
that the Danes, so far from being exterminated at Clontarf, maintained
themselves in Ireland for many generations afterwards, and still
constitute a solid element in our population. Some clement person
suggested that as the sons and daughters of Siger are among the most
gifted patriots in the country just now, it might be discreet to forgive
them offences nearly ten centuries old, but he was pronounced out of
order. I am rejoiced to say a compromise was arrived at in the end, by
which, if the learned doctor will undertake to translate some of the most
characteristic of the Scandanavian sagas for the new Irish Library, and
make us better acquainted generally with the Norse literature, so far as
it relates to Ireland, his punishment may be postponed, and perhaps
altogether remitted. There is another nation with whom our quarrels are
more recent, more bitter, and more prolonged, but it would be genuine
wisdom to make peace with them also if they will let us. The memory of
wrongs which are perpetuated and renewed cannot be forgotten; but, while
no man knows better than I do how just are our complaints and how terrible
the memories they evoke, I affirm that the best Irishmen are prepared
_toto corde_ to forget and forgive the past, if its policy and practices
are never to reappear. The Rules of this Society forbid me to speak of
later quarrels, whether international or internecine; but surely no people
ever were more emphatically exhor