sound critical principles will teach us to estimate at their true value those already in our possession. These remains have been scattered over many countries, but pious bands are even now bringing them together once more. The RECORD will tell how the work of restoration progresses, and give from time to time some of the more valuable documents to the light. The RECORD would thus be, in some degree, a link between the clergy of Ireland and their foreign brethren. It would likewise serve as an organ for direct communication between the Priests of Ireland themselves. We have, no doubt, many excellent Catholic newspapers and periodicals which are of material service to our holy religion. But it is quite true, nevertheless, that ecclesiastical subjects cannot well be treated of in publications devoted to general literature. Liturgical decisions, rubrical questions, remarkable cases, points of theology, notices of books treating of clerical or pastoral duties, Christian archæology, if they can gain admission to their pages at all, look strangely out of place in the midst of an indiscriminate gathering of the changing topics of the day. Besides, the general reader might complain, were too much space given in such works to the discussion of new phases of Protestantism or infidelity, to accounts from the Foreign Missions, to the claims of Catholic Education; whilst the clergyman would regret to find his letter or paper on some ecclesiastical matter cut down to a size altogether out of keeping with its importance. In one word, the Catholic Clerical body requires a special organ for itself. This want has been felt in Italy, in France, in Belgium, in Bavaria; and in all these countries the clergy now have a publication exclusively devoted to what concerns their sacred calling. We have abundant assurance from many quarters that these periodicals are esteemed as of great advantage to the clergy. To-day the IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD takes an humble place among them, content to do even a little in so great a work. We are confident that it will receive the sympathy and support of our brother Priests of this country; for the feeling that has called it into existence is a feeling that lies close to the heart of every one amongst us, namely, a true love for the Catholic Church of Ireland. PRAYER OF ST. COLGA. The learned Professor O'Curry devotes the sixteenth and following lectures of his work on the _Manuscript Materials of Irish History_ to the early ecclesiastical MSS. In the eighteenth lecture (page 378, and foll.) he says:-- "The fifth class of these religious remains consists of the prayers, invocations, and litanies which have come down to us: these I shall set down in chronological order, as far as my authorities will allow me, and, when authority fails, guided by my own judgment and experience in the investigation of these ancient writings".