1849

A scarce item: the only copy on COPAC at Trinity College Dublin. (WorldCat records a German library holding). See the entry on the Society’s founder, Rev. Alexander Dallas, in the Oxford DNB. The organisation, which still operates, is a controversial one. It was founded to convert Irish Roman Catholics to Protestantism, and the attitude of those involved can be gauged by the fact that its members considered the Potato Famine a judgement on the Catholics and made relief conditional on conversion, and that the Bishop of Tuam evicted tenants for not sending their children to Protestant schools.

A scarce item, of which no other copy has been traced. 9pp, 8vo. Disbound from a volume, and paginated in manuscript 57-65. In good condition, lightly aged. Printed in lithograph in facsimile of a manuscript document. Begins by explaining the purpose of the dispatch in true Gladstonian style: ‘I find that the impulse which has been given in every other part of the Civilized World to plans of Railway communication has been felt in many of the British Colonies.

4to, 36 pp and a manuscript title-page. All texts clear and complete. Disbound (from a commonplace book?) and apparently complete. Fair, on aged, brittle gilt-edged paper, with a few closed tears (in particular to the last couple of leaves). The book is presumably in Mrs Macdonald's hand, and the only indication to her identity is the final note (see below), signed 'F. M. M.', which shows her to have been an educated member of the middle classes. Divided into three parts. The first part is 'Useful Remarks for the Mistress of a House' (25 pp, paginated from 1 to 23).