TO THE READER.
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suggest what may gratify his particular views. It has been lately observed, " that there are two ways of writing history, one to search out, sift, and classify the facts, leaving the reader to derive from them such impressions ~s he is capable of forming. In the other, the reader is offered, not the hard bare facts themselves, but the impressions which the study of them has produced on the writer's mirid. There are many people to whom a string of facts conveys no ideas at all, and who would be utterly unable to conjure up a lively picture of any period witho-q.t assistance. It is evident, however, that this second kind of history must necessarily be taken very much on trust, and that there is a point at which it becomes exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish .between solid fact and pure imagination." K-eeping· this· priil.eiple steadily in_view, I purpose to introduce here, as- an intr6duction, a serielf.of extracts from historical papers relating to the City of Cor:kt, .whieh ·r have transcribed from authenti9 sources~ som~ in the Library of the British Museum, .some·in the Public Record Offi~- others in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, the Treasury of the Corporation of Co:rk 1 and · elsewhe:te, . and .which~ :r trus~ will· give a true picture. of the times· tMy . refer· tb. . It· I!: tb be' regretted . that the period betiweem 1643 and 1690 in· the Council Book ha.B:been -lost. ·.That the Couneil Books of this peried were · kept ,in ·d separate volume'. appeats ·frotn . Smith's '~History of ·cGFk ;"' tiat . . . this volnm.e bas not 'been fonnd, after mu~h enquiry and ·research.' The· work~. itself: wilt oontaiit an. abstract of every entry in the· Council. Book of. the-. Col'poration of Cork, not omitting a name thronghmit. Tbe Appendices· will embrace:-- lstly., Inventories of the merchandi~ aml J:toueehold goods of the Citizens· of. Cork, during the reigns of Ed.. waJ.'d VI., ·Queen Mary and Elizabeth,_taken from original MSS. .- 2ndly.
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