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name dear to the honor of our country) writes, that no essential alterations were attempted by the first Christian missionaries; because they thought that schemes of political legislation belonged properly to the civil power alone. A new code of laws was framed and published by St. Patrick in the fifth century, in conjunction with the most celebrated bards and ecclesiastics of that period. This code was denominated Seanchas Moer, or the great antiquity. Some writers (as Sir John Davis and Sir Richard Cox) assert that the old Irish never had any settled jurisprudence among them, or any written laws; that the judgments of their Brehon or judge were arbitrary and decisive, and that he regulated his opinions more by the uncertain guides of tradition, than the settled and confirmed rules of authenticated records. On the other hand, Joseline, Saint Bernard, Cambrensis Eversus (authorities of more credit) contend that several collections of laws existed in their own days. · Roddy, a celebrated Irish antiquarian, removed the doubts of Sir Richard Cox, by showing him some old Irish law books.

Of the ancient manners of the Irish it is impossible to give such an account as the mind can rest upon with satisfaction, Credulity and scepticism so balance the scales, that the historian who means to be impartial, should draw a middle line; and it is no small gratification to reflect, that notwithstanding the ardour and enthusiasm with which the advocates of the Irish character relate the acl:ievements of their countrymen, the wisdom of their laws and regulations, the mildness and paternal tenderness of their govern ment, that much more is to be found worthy of our admiration than the enemies of Ireland are willing to acknowledge, and that the manners of the ancient Irish were neither odious nor disgusting, nor barbarous, as the great historian of England has industriously represented-thus sacrificing the

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character, and pride, and honour of Ireland, to the malignant jealousy and envy of his adopted country.

According to the old Irish records, called the book of tributes, the obligations of the monarch and his subjects were reciprocal; each had their rights defined, and each lived in perpetual and watchful jealousy of the other. The dignity of the monarch was supported by tributes paid by inferior princes; the with holding of those tributes was often a source of war and convulsion, and each provincial king was interested in supporting the rights of the monarch under whom he derived all his power.

The power and government of each provincial king were exactly similar to that of the monarch; his successor or tainist was elected in his life-time; he also received tributes from inferior chieftains, paid for their services, and was entertained by them in his visitations and attendances on his wars. The same system of controul and of service was carried on through all ranks of society. Throughout Ireland the tenure of lands determined with the life of the possessor; hence the cultivation of ground was only in proportion to - the immediate demands of nature, and the tributes to be paid to superiors. Among the ancient Irish, hospitality was considered a duty-it was enjoined by law; and no family, was suffered to leave their abode without due notice, lest the traveller should be disappointed of his expected reception. The duties to be performed by the subject, and the protection to be afforded by the king, were reciprocal; they were regulated by law; the laird could exact his penalties, or his taxes, under the denomination of Coshierings,* and Bonnaught, and Cuddies, names denoting particular

Coshiering was free quarters for the chieftain himself-Bonnaught was free quarters for his soldiers-Cuddy was a supper and lodging, which

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modes of provision for the temporary support of himself and his attendants; and which, under the odious titles of coin and livery, were so severely condemned, and so violently resisted. The laws of the old Irish provided against murder, rape, adultery, theft, robbery; but the punishment inflicted for the perpetration of the most odious crime, with the exception of murder, which was punished with death, was no more than the imposition of a pecuniary penalty or eric, which was generally to be paid to the relations of the party injured. Some opinion of the extreme lenity of the old Irish penal code may be deduced from this example, nor are we to wonder that a people who manifested such. anxiety to proportion the punishment to the offence as they always did, should be considered by Sir John Davis the greatest lovers of equal and impartial justice.

From the invasion of the English may be dated the decline of that moral and honest principle which seems to have regulated the old Irish in the performance of their duties to their sovereign and to each other. With regard to their dress it is minutely and accurately described by Irish authors.* The vest, the trouse, the mantle, the . enormous linen sleeves dyed with saffron, (the men generally assuming a warlike aspect,) their thick beards and great whiskers, their bushy hair hanging over their whiskers, gave them a fierce and formidable appearance. Their customs were as remarkable as their dress. The custom of fosterage+ particularly has excited the curiosity

a chief had a right to demand, not only from his subjects, but from his equals. There were other imposts for dogs and horses.

* It is a remarkable fact, that linen was so plenty amongst the ancient Irish, that even in the reign of Henry the Eighth, an act passed, prohibit ing them putting more than seven yards of linen in a shirt or shift.

Stat. 28th, Henry 8th.

+ Stanihurst says, on the custom of fosterage, "You cannot find one instance of perfidy, deceit, or treachery among fosterers; nay, they are ready to expose themselves to all manner of dangers for the safety of those who sucked their mothers milk. You may beat them to mummy,

of the antiquarian. The Brehon laws seem to intimate that fostering was the occupation of those whose inferior condition rendered them incapable of doing other services to the public. Irish writers state that children were given from different families to be nursed and bred up in others, and that inferiors thus purchased the honor of fostering the children of the rich. Thus, say they, a stricter connection was formed between different families and different tribes. The fragments of the Brehon law, however, contradict this statement. In those laws it is laid down, that wages shall be given to fosterers, in proportion to the time that children continue under their care, and the instruction they have received. The youth in fosterage was instructed in the management of cattle, in husbandry and tillage; and thus an affection and attachment were created between the instructor and the instructed, which seemed to emulate the attachments of the closest affinity. Thus it appears, that the laws, and manners, and customs of the old Irish, do not merit the idle and absurd denunciations, which ignorant malignity has so often pronounced against them. That the rights of Irishmen were accurately defined by their laws, their properties and liberties protected by an impartial administration of justice; that they had their legislative assemblies, their judges, and their clergy, all equally venerated and looked up to by the people; that the noblest sentiments of the heart were cultivated and cherished, and that the Irishman considered his country, when compared with the surrounding world, as the envied land of justice and learning-her bards contributing the efforts of their genius to render her immortal, while the first characters in Europe, with

you may put them upon the rack, you may burn them on a gridiron, you may expose them to the most exquisite torture that the cruellest tyrant can invent, yet you will never remove them from that innate fidelity which is grafted in them-you will never induce them to betray their duty.

Charlemagne* at their head, were paying homage to her superiority in letters, and to her valour in the field.

Of the invasions of Ireland which took place previous to the invasion of the English monarch, the first was that of Egfred, the king of Northumberland, who made a descent on Ireland in the year 684, as we are informed by Bede, who laments with a kind and benevolent heart the misery and devastation suffered by a people who were most friendly to the English nation. Perhaps for this reason, Henry and his successors visited the beautiful and fertile plains of Ireland with misery and desolation. Soon after, this country was invaded by the Danes and Norwegians; their expeditions commenced about the eighth century. About this period the monarchy of Ireland was enjoyed in alternate succession by the two branches of the Hy-Nial race, the northern house of Tyrone, and the southern, or Clan-Colman, seated in Meath. The power of the monarch was limited, but the people were happy, and the country respected by surrounding powers. In the space of twenty years, frequent invasions of these northern hordes took place, each of which harassed the country, and at length succeeded in establishing some small settlements in various parts. In 825, Turgesius, a warlike

It is universally admitted, that in early times Ireland was the greatTM mart of literature in Europe. Spencer contends that the Irish had the use of letters long before England, and that Oswald, a Saxo king, applied to Ireland for learned men to instruct his people in the principles of Christianity. Camden says it abounded with men of genius and erudition, when learning was trampled on in every other quarter of the globe. Irish monks were the founders of the most celebrated abbeys and monasteries in France, Italy, Switzerland, England. The younger Scaliger writes that 200 years before the age of Charlemagne, all the learned were of Ireland. The great Alfred brought professors from this seat of science, to his college of Oxford. Mr. Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, superciliously remarks, on the ancient literary fame of Ireland, "A people" he writes, " dissatisfied with their present condition, grasp at any vision of the past or future glory," thus does this luminous historian draw his pen across the successful labours of our Irish antiquarians.

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