The so-called Book of Minister is a comparatively modern compilation of Irish materials, partly of the nature of Keating's History of Ireland, but more similar in character to the genealogical treatises edited by John O'Donovan for the Irish Archaeological Society about a century ago. It has long been popularly known by this name, and has often been used by pedigree-hunters; but no study of its structure and contents was possible until the manuscripts containing it had been examined and described. The present edition was undertaken by Prof. Tadhg Ó Donnchadha (i.e. Torna) nearly a decade ago.

The publication of the Irish pipe roll of the fourteenth year of King John calls for more than the brief notice that would normally be given to a stray historical document of similar length published unobtrusively as a supplement to an archaeological journal, for this slender volume is the most important single contribution to the history of Norman Ireland that has come to light for many a long day, and one that has been worth the great labour and care that the editors have spent upon it. Our first thought is to compare this Irish roll with the English and Norman pipe rolls of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, without which our knowledge of the history of England and Normandy would be sadly defective.

The history of eighteenth-century Ireland prior to the Volunteer movement is remarkably uneventful, but two episodes ruffled its political calm. They were the Wood's halfpence dispute of 1723–5, and the conflict between the Irish administration and parliament, 1753–6.

It was the extent and vehemence of the opposition experienced by the administration in 1723–5 that led to the evolution of the undertakers—powerful members of parliament who undertook to conduct government business through the house of commons in return for a share in the disposal of patronage.

Louis Gougaud was born in 1877 at Malestroit, Morbihan, and, to his death, was faithfully attached to Brittany, exploring its ecclesiastical history, and regularly contributing to the Chronique d'histoire, de géographie et de littérature de la Bretagne. Educated at St. Vincent's College, he entered the university of Rennes as a student of law. From these early studies dates his interest in legal problems as displayed in his work on the history of matrimonial law. At the same time, he was attracted to artistic problems: his earliest publications (1900–6) appeared in literary periodicals.

In a pleasant popular account of the owners of Gormanston Castle and of some documents connected with them, recently published by Father Aubrey Gwynn, there is one matter upon which comment seems desirable: this is the author's restatement of the late Miss M. V. Clarke's hypothesis regarding the Irish Modus tenendi parliamentum or rather one copy of it, that exemplified in 1419. That a historian so learned and critical as Fr. Gwynn should accept this hypothesis without reserve, and indeed hold up Miss Clarke's essays as ‘ models of their kind ’, suggests that they are capable of a good deal of mischief.