his own, on account of the above crime-thus omitting all legal and judicial order: and also, his national prejudices and predilections blindfolding the discernment of the pontiff, without our being guilty of any crime, without any rational cause whatever, he gave us up to be mangled to pieces by the teeth of the most cruel and voracious of all monsters; and if, sometimes nearly flayed alive, we escape from the deadly bite of those treacherous and greedy wolves, it is but to descend into the miserable abysses of slavery, to drag on the doleful remains of a life more terrible than death itself, ever since those English appeared first upon our coasts, in virtue of the above, surreptitious donation. They entered our territories under a certain specious pretext of piety and external hypocritical show of religion; endeavouring in the mean time, by every artifice malice could suggest, to extirpate us root and branch, and without any other right than that of strength, they have so far succeeded by base and fraudulent cunning, that they have forced us to quit our fair and ample habitations, and paternal inheritances, and to take refuge, like wild beasts, in the mountains, woods, and morasses of the country; nor can even the caverns and dens protect us against their insatiable avarice. They pursue us even into those frightful abodes, endeavouring to dispossess us of the wild uncultivated rocks, and arrogating to themselves the property of every 'place on which we can stamp the figure of our feet; and through the excess of the most profound ignorance, impudence, arrogance, or blind insanity, scarcely conceivable, they dare to assert that not a single part of Ireland is ours, but by right entirely their own !

"Hence the implacable animosities and exterminating carnage which are perpetually carried on between us; hence our continual hostilities, our bloody reprisals, our numberless massacres, in which, since their invasion to this day, more than 50,000 men have perished on both sides; not to speak of those who died by famine, despair, the rigours of

captivity, and a thousand other disorders, which it is impossible to remedy, on account of the anarchy in which we live-an anarchy which, alas! is tremendous, not only to the state, but also to the church of Ireland; the ministers of which are daily exposed, not only to the loss of the frail and transitory things of this world, but also to the loss of those solid and substantial blessings which are eternal and immortal.

"Let those few particulars, concerning our origin, and the deplorable state to which we have been reduced by the above donation of Adrian IV. suffice for the present.

"We have now to inform your holiness, that Henry king of England, and the four kings his successors, have violated the conditions of the pontifical bull, by which they were empowered to invade this kingdom; for the said, Henry promised, as appears by the said bull, to extend the patrimony of the church, and to pay to the apostolical see, annually, one penny for each house. Now this promise both he and his successors above mentioned, and their iniquitous ministers, observed not at all with regard to Ireland; on the contrary, they have entirely and intentionally eluded them, and endeavoured to force the reverse.

"As to the church lands, so far from extending them, they have confined and retrenched and invaded them on all sides; insomuch that some cathedral churches have been, by open force, notoriously plundered of half their possessions: nor have the persons of our clergy been more respected; for in every part of the country, we find bishops and prelates cited, arrested and imprisoned without distinction; and they are oppressed with such servile fear, by these frequent and unparalleled injuries, that they have not the courage to represent to your holiness the sufferings they are so wantonly condemned to undergo.

"The English promised also to introduce a better code of laws, and enforce better morals among the Irish people; but instead of this, they have so corrupted our morals,

that the holy and dove-like simplicity of our nation is, on account of the flagitious example of those reprobates, changed into the malicious cunning of the serpent.

"We had a written code of laws, according to which our nation was governed hitherto: they have deprived us of those laws, and of every law, except one, which it is impossible to wrest from us; and, for the purpose of exterminating our people, they have established other iniquitous laws, by which injustice and inhumanity are combined for our destruction,-some of which we here insert for your inspection, as being so many fundamental rules of English jurisprudence, established in this kingdom.”

(The statement of the Irish then sets forth the laws by which the lives, and properties, and feelings of their country, were sacrificed to the rapacious and cruel ascendancy of England. It then goes on in the following strong and emphatic language :)

"All hope of peace between us is therefore completely destroyed; for such is their pride, such their excessive lust of dominion, such our ardent ambition to shake off this insupportable yoke, and recover the inheritance which they have so unjustly usurped, that as there never was, so there never will be any sincere coalition between them and us; nor is it possible there should, in this life; for we entertain a certain natural enmity against each other, flowing from mutual malignity, descending by inheritance from father to son, and spreading from generation to generation. Let no person wonder, then, if we endeavour to preserve our lives and defend our liberties as well as we can, against those cruel tyrants. So far from thinking it unlawful, we hold it to be a meritorious act; nor can we be accused of perjury or rebellion, since neither our fathers nor we did at any time bind ourselves by an oath of allegiance, to their fathers or to them; and therefore, without the least remorse of conscience, while breath remains, we will attack them in defence of our just rights; and never lay down our

arms until we force them to desist. Besides, we are fully satisfied to prove in a judicial manner, before twelve or more bishops, the facts, which we have stated, and the grievances which we have complained of; not like these English, who, in time of prosperity, discontinue all legal ordinances, and, if they enjoyed prosperity at present, would not recur to Rome, as they do now; but would crush with their overbearing and tyrannical haughtiness, all the surrounding nations, despising every law, human and divine.

"Thereupon, on account of all those injuries, and a thousand others which human wit cannot easily comprehend;-and on account of the kings of England, and their wicked ministers, who instead of governing us, as they are bound to do, with justice and moderation, have wickedly endeavoured to exterminate us off the face of the earth,— and to shake off their detestable yoke, and recover our native liberties, which we lost by their means, we are forced to carry on an exterminating war, choosing, in defence of our liberties and lives, rather to rise like men, and expose our persons bravely to all the dangers of war, than any longer to bear like women those atrocious and detestable injuries; and in order to obtain our interest the more speedily and consistently, we invite the gallant Edward Bruce; to whom, being descended from our most noble ancestors, we transfer, as we justly may, our right of royal dominion; unanimously declaring him our king, by common consent, who in our opinion, and the opinion of most men, is as just, prudent, and pious, as he is powerful and courageous; who will do justice to all classes of people."

The pope had strong and influential reasons for his partiality to England, which did not exist in favour of Ireland. The English allowed his holiness both temporal and spiritual power-the Irish confined him to spiritual power. This accounts, in no small degree, for the papal partiality in favour of the former. A bull of excommuni

cation was published some time afterwards, in which Robert and Edward Bruce are mentioned by name.

The thunders of the Vatican, however, were but a small impediment to the Scottish chief. Lord Edward Bruce appeared on the north-eastern coast of Ireland, on the 25th of May, 1315, with a fleet of 300 sail, carrying 6,000 men; with this force he laid waste the English settlements in the north of Ireland. Dundalk and Atherdee opened their gates.

The west and south hailed their deliverer with enthusiasm, and flocked to his standard, animated with the hope that the hour had arrived when the wrongs of their country would be redressed. The disunion of the English lords facilitated the progress of the enemy; and the artifices of Bruce, practised with success on the ambition of Fedlim O'Connor, the king of Connaught, detached a large and powerful force from the ranks of his enemies,

Fedlim O'Connor is deposed by his brother Roderic; and the former, aided by English auxiliaries, recovers his throne, and, contrary to his solemn engagements, joins the forces of the Scotch invader, Edward Bruce. O'Brien of Thomond, the chieftains of Munster and Meath, declare for Bruce; the clergy proclaim him as the deliverer of Ireland from the tyranny of England; and the coronation of Edward Bruce at Dundalk, gave confidence to the timid, and increased boldness to the friends of Irish freedom The illustrious Robert Bruce came over to Ireland with a large force, to confirm the pretensions of his brother to its sovereignty; and though opposed by the most unprecedented dearth of provisions, took many of the strongest places in Ulster, and laid waste the country through which he passed.

The fears of the colony at length began to rouse them from their lethargy: and the danger of being expelled by the Scotch invaders from those great and princely estates which they had purchased with their blood, united