"vehemence of paffion, an elevated imagination, were the characteristics " of the people. Noble inftances of valour, generous effufions of bene"volence, ardent refentments, defperate and vindictive outrages, abound in "their annals. To verfe and mufic they are peculiarly addicted. They who are poffeffed of any fuperior degree of knowledge, they who operate on "their fancies or paffions by the livelieft ftrains of poetry, are held in "extraordinary veneration. The minifters of their religion are accounted more than human. To all these they submit their contefts; they confult "them as oracles of law and policy. But reflection, and the gradual progrefs of refinement, convince them of the neceffity of fettled laws. The "principles of equity and independence implanted in the human breast, "receive them with delight; but the violence of passion still proves fuperior “to their restraint. Private injuries are revenged by force; and infolent -"ambitious chieftains ftill recur to arms." tleman had lived among the Irish, he would have known that they were active citizens, both by night and by day. Since the publication of that pamphlet, I have thrice vifited Ireland: the legiflature, fince that period, has thought proper to repeal most, if not all, of thofe very laws, which I then termed galling and fevere. The acts of the legiflature have justified my application of those epithets to the laws, which they found neceffary to repeal. The civic activity, by night and day, upon which the historical baronet has indulged his jocularity, is rather too awful a subject to reply to in the fame ftrain. I fcarcely know a more fure preventative against a relapse into this diforder of activity, than to encourage the fober industry of the active citizens.-It long has been my cordial wifh to promote the welfare of Ireland, which is, if I may be allowed the phrafe, the right hand of the British empire: and it has ever pained me to obferve its natural powers cramped, checked, and paralyfed. In reprobating the spirit with which this work of Sir Richard Mufgrave, and fome other publications of a fimilar tendency, are written, it would be injuftice to the public not to lay before them the sentiments which the Marquis Cornwallis expreffed in an official letter to that Baronet, after the publication of his work, viz. "SIR, Dublin Cafle, March 24, 1801. "I am directed, by the Lord-Lieutenant, to exprefs to you his concern, at its appearing that your late publication of the Hiftory of the late Rebellions in Ireland, has been dedicated to "him by permiffion. Had his Excellency been apprifed of the contents and nature of the work," he would never have lent the sanction of his name to a book, which tends fo ftrongly to revive "the dreadful animofities which have fo long distracted this country, and which it is the duty of every good fubject to endeavour to compofe. His Excellency, therefore, defires me to request, that in any future edition of the book, the permiffion to dedicate it to him may be omitted. "I have, &c. "E. B. LITTLEHALES." "Sir Richard Mufgrave, Bart. If this be a faithful portrait of the characteristic features of the Irish nation, and I admit the outline and colouring to be juft, the references I fhall make to the earlier parts of the Irifh annals, will ferve to trace and account for the origin, nature, and continuance of that national character, out of which arife fome of the strongest reafons for uniting that kingdom. with our own. The pride of ancestry has a peculiar effect upon the Irish. No nation, in fact, now upon the face of the globe, can boaft of fuch certain and remote antiquity; none can trace inftances of fuch early civilisation; none poffeffes fuch irrefragable proofs of their origin, lineage, and duration of government. It has been a pitiful prejudice in too many English writers, to endeavour to throw difcredit upon the early part of the Irish hiftory. That many fabulous accounts are to be found in the Irish annalifts, is true; but no less true is it, that the English hiftorians fuperabound with grofs, and wilful mifreprefentations of the Irish annals *. The poffeffion of a vernacular language at this day, which was in general use above three thousand years ago, is a defiance to historical fiction and falfity, that Ireland alone, amidst all the nations of the universe, can proudly boaft. The ancestors of the Irish were undoubt *The ill-judged policy of mifrepresenting the Irish hiftory, for partial or corrupt purposes, began almost as early as our connections with that country; and, it is to be lamented, that it has been kept up almoft uniformly to the prefent day. Gerald Barry, commonly called Giraldus Cambrenfis, was fent over by Henry II. for the avowed purpose of publishing whatever he could collect, that was disadvantageous to the Irish. Williamson, the bishop of Derry, says: "Wonderful, indeed, are many of the tales which he picked up, of the natural, moral, and "political state of this nation." (Ir. Hift. lib. 2.) Sir James Ware, who published his Antiquities of Ireland under Queen Ann, "admires that some men of his age, otherwise grave and "learned, fhould obtrude those fictions of Giraldus upon the world for truths." The Bishop of Derry, who published his Irish historical Library in 1724, affures us, p. 3, that "a very learned perfon, Mr. Jofiah Lynch, titular Archbishop of Tuam, to whom Mr. Flaherty prefaces his Ogygia, wrote a particular detection of this man's mistakes and flanders, which he called Cambrenfis Everfus, and published under the name of Gratianus Lucius. This writer accufes Cambrenfis of maliciously destroying a great many of the old Irish annals, whereof he had the perufal: and it is thence juftly observed by Bishop Stillingfleet, that (if fo) he had better advantages and more authorities than Keating." Candor however must admit, that if Cambrenfis be fairly charged with wilful mifrepresentation of facts, fuppreffion of truth, and publication of falfhood, the motive for destroying thofe annals, which he had fo perverted and abused, cannot be doubtful. No impartial writer has ever attempted to justify the groundless and incredible fables of Cambrenfis. Mr. Pinckerton as lately as 1789 has remarked, that he fhews the greatest ignorance in his account. of Irish History. (Pinck. Scot. London, 1789.) edly edly Scythians*, or, as they were afterwards called, Phœnicians. The general belief that the Greeks, the Romans, the Carthaginians, and even the Egyptians, received the ufe of letters from the Phoenicians, reconciles the mind to the very early civilifation of this colony, which they fettled in the west. For it now seems no longer doubtful, that a Scythian or Phoenician colony fettled in Ireland †. All ancient hiftorians agree, that hordes of Scythians emigrated * Hence were they anciently called Scoti, by an easy transition from Ex voor, Scythians: which appellation in procefs of time, remained only appropriate to North Britain, which was inhabited by a colony from Ireland. Venerable Bede generally calls the Irish Scots. James I, upon his acceffion to the throne of England, boasted to the Parliament that he derived his pedigree from the Irish Dynasty. + Befides the common use of the Phoenician language by the native Irish to this day, there are many proofs of their defcent from the Scythians or Phoenicians, that put the question out of all doubt. That the Carthaginians were a Phœnician colony has never been questioned, and like other colonies they carried their language with them. Plautus, who wrote his plays in the fecond Punic war, introduces into his Panulus the character of Hanno a Carthaginian, into whose mouth he puts feveral Carthaginian (or Phoenician) fentences, which had ever before baffled the erudition of the learned to decypher; until these speeches have been lately attentively confidered, and became perfectly intelligible to the Irish scholar. The ingenious and learned Lieutenant Colonel Vallancey, whofe unexampled proficiency in the Irish language has rendered his researches into the antiquities of that country most useful to the public, has given an accurate collation of these Punic speeches with the Irish, as now spoken; and they will be found to differ little more, than the different provincial dialects of the French, and even of our own tongue; and infinitely less after a lapfe of 3000 years, than modern English differs from what was in ufe four centuries ago. Vid. Collect. de Reb. Hib. They are alfo to be found in Sir L. Parfons's Defence of the Ancient History of Ireland. It was to be expected that the ignorance of the editors and printers of Plautus, fhould often mifplace the fyllables and run one word into another, in a language which was not underflood. Colonel Vallancey has corrected this dislocation of the words and fyllables, and thus rendered the whole legible to the Irish, without altering a letter. The curious reader may with to fee a specimen of this wonderful fimilarity, or rather identity of the Phoenician and Irish lan guages. Carthaginian, as in Plautus. Bythlym mothym noctothij nelechthanti diafmachon. Proper intervals arranged by Colonel Vallancey. Byth lim! mo thym nocto thii nel ech anti dias machon. Irish. Beith liom! mo thyme noctaithe niel ach anti daise maccoinne. Be with me! my fears being difclofed, I have no other intention but recovering my daughter. Handone filli hanum bene, filli in muftine. Whenever emigrated to Egypt, and from thence to Spain: why then refufe credit to the Irish annalists, who are unanimous in afferting that a colony of these Scythians from Spain fettled in Ireland. The Irish have always prided themfelves upon having kept up a longer fucceffion of monarchs, than any other kingdom of the world. This race of kings the Irish call Milefian, all of them having defcended from Heber, Eremon, and Ith, the three fons of Milefius, who headed the expedition from Spain. In the year of our Lord, 1170, one of the Princes of Ulfter boafted to Pope Alexander III. of an uninterrupted fucceffion of 197 Kings of Ireland, down to his time.* It appears, indeed, at all times to have been a national paffion of the Irish, to boaft of the monuments of their ancient glory. The government introduced by the first fettlers, was of a peculiar caft. They divided the country into four provinces, viz. Ulfter, Leinster, Munster, and Conaught, each of which had its king; and at the head of these four provincial kings was placed a fupreme monarch. The whole formed a Pentarchy. To the fupreme they all paid tribute, as a mark of fubjection, though they were, in all other respects, abfolute and independent within their respective provinces or provincial kingdoms. The monarch had always had some Whenever the (Venus) grants a favor, the grants it linked with misfortunes, Carthaginian. Meipfi & en efte dum & a lam na ceftin um, Irish. Meifi & an eifte dam & alaim na ceftin um. Hear me, and judge, and do not too haftily queftion me. The warlike inftruments which have been found in Ireland under the earth, exactly resemble the weapons difcovered about Cannae, fome of which are in the British Museum: the brazen fwords and fpears are of the fame form and fubftance, being a compofition of brafs and tin. I think it useless to adduce any proofs of the fimilarity of habits, cuftoms or ufages, between the colony and the mother country, from the hiftorians of each. Suffice it to say, that to this day the Irish peasants are in the annual habit of lighting upon certain hills, on the eve of Midfummer, what they still call Bal's fire, though fully as ignorant, that Bel was the god of their Phoenician ancestors, as others are, that Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Venus were heathen deities, in whose honor the days of the week have received their appellation. * The moderate allowance of 10 years to the reign of each of these Kings, will fill the space of 1970 years, 200 years being a moderate allowance for thofe reigns which exceeded that duration. This nearly corresponds with the time (viz. about 1000 years before the birth of Chrift), at which most of the Irish annalists date the arrival of the Phoenician colony from Spain under Milefius. demefne demefne lands annexed to his royalty; but their great and favourite Tuathal feparated the diftrict of Meath from the other provinces, and appointed it for the appanage of the monarch. This formed one part of his revenue; another part of it arofe out of the provincial contributions of corn, hay, aud cattle: and when any ftate emergency required more than the ordinary fubfidies, the revenue was aided to the extent of the exigency by occafional taxes, which were voted and impofed, not by the monarch, but by the general affembly of the nation. It has been frequently and juftly remarked, that more family pride is retained by the Irith, even in extreme indigence, than by any other nation; and it is generally attended with a conviction of fome right to large poffeffions, and feldom.exifts without fome hereditary tincture of contempt for thofe, whofe lineage they think lefs ancient and noble than their own ; although, at the fame time, no nation attach more confequence to property. This is a relict and natural confequence of the ancient conftitutions, under which more dignity and confequence were annexed to particular families than in other nations, not as with us by primogeniture; but the honours and dignities of the families were confidered by the different fepts, clans, or lineages as difposable to the moft worthy. This principle prevailed from the family of Milefius down to every other throughout the island. Not only the throne, but all the posts of honour and profit under the state were in fact elective; not indeed out of the nation at large, but out of particular fepts or families: confequently purity of blood became a national object, and carried with it more real confequence, than it did in any other nation of Europe. Thus although the monarchy were by the conftitution elective, and in fact feldom went in an immediate lineal descent; yet from the landing of the Phonicians to the miffion of St. Patrick, including the space of about 1500 years, and from that to the invasion of Ireland under Henry II. being about 640 years, no one filled the monarchy that was not a defcendant of one of the three fons of Milefius. In the choice of their monarch feniority and proximity of blood had great weight, but not the preponderance. Military talents outweighed civil accomplishments; the previous reception of the order of knighthood was an indifpenfible qualification to be elected; and any species of perfonal imperfection, or even cafual deformity, created abfolute ineligibility.* In * The Irish annalifts relate that Cormoc, in the third century, foliciting votes to be elected to the fucceffion of Mac Con, Fergus king of Ulfter, who wished to defeat his election, fo contrived during |