noting down, for the instruction and guidance of his subjects and
posterity, the account of a voyage which even now, after an interval of
ten centuries of continued nautical improvements, and since the
discovery of the compass, is not unattended with danger, nor
accomplished in less than a year's time wasted.

WILLIAM BELL, Phil. Dr.

British Archeological Association.

* * * * *

REMARKABLE PROPOSITION CONCERNING IRELAND.

The following passage, which contains a curious proposition relating to
Ireland, will probably be new and interesting to many readers of "NOTES
AND QUERIES," since the book from which I extract it is a scarce one,
and not often read. Among the many various schemes that have of late
been propounded for the improvement of our sister country, this is
perhaps not the least remarkable, and shows that the _questio vexata_,
"What is to be done with Ireland?" is one of two centuries' standing.
James Harrington, in his _Oceana, the Introduction_, {180} (pp. 35, 36.,
Toland's Edition, 1700), speaking of Ireland under the name of Panopea,
says,--

"Panopea, the soft Mother of a slothful and pusillanimous
people, is a neighbor Iland, antiently subjected by the Arms of
_Oceana_; since almost depopulated for shaking the Yoke, and at
length replanted with a new Race. But (through what virtues of
the Soil, or vice of the Air, soever it be), they com still to