and the church, kept him in a continued state of agitation, and suspended the fate of Ireland for a considerable time. The circumstances of this country were peculiarly well calculated to encourage the speculations of a king, whose force was undivided and entire, whose power was uncontrouled, and whose genius was equal to the magnitude of the undertaking. Ireland was then governed by a monarch, the tenure of whose government depended for the most part on his personal valour and abilities: perpetually harassed by factions, and opposed by powerful rivals; his subjects frequently disputing the extent of his powers, the rights of his sovereignty, and taking up or laying down their arms according to the caprice of the hour, or the influence of faction. For example:-of Ulster, the family of Hy-Nial were the hereditary sovereigns; of Munster, the descendants of the illustrious O'Brien; of Connaught, the family of O'Connor: and Leinster gave the title of royalty to Dermod M'Murchad, a prince handed down to posterity by Irish annalists in the most odious and contemptible colours.

The rival monarchs of Ireland were, O'Connor, king of Connaught, and Hy-Nial, king of Ulster. The former, in conjunction with Dermod, king of Leinster, overrun the territories of O'Rourk, the prince of Breffney or Leitrim; and seduced O'Rourk's wife, whose name was Deverghall. This outrage was the fruitful parent of that long series of misery experienced by Ireland for centuries after. O'Rourk succeeds in his efforts to separate O'Connor from his alliance with the king of Leinster, and aided by the arms of the western monarch, recovers his wife from the adulterer. Roderic O'Connor succeeded to the throne of his. father, Turlogh O'Connor. This prince proceeded to Dublin, immediately after his father's death, and was there solemnly inaugurated. He then marched to the north, and was received by the chieftains of Ulster with every mark of the most respectful submission. Dermod fled be

fore the united forces of Roderic and O'Rourk, whose honor he had abused; and his subjects unanimously deposed him as unworthy to be their king. Roderic, in his progress through the country, appeared in all the pomp and pride of majesty, acknowledged by all as their rightful and beloved sovereign. He held a magnificent convention of the states at Meath, where the honors and magnificence of his country were revived with all their ancient glory; and independent and imperial Ireland, which had been rudely assailed by factions, seemed once more to raise her head under the guidance of a monarch whose courage and whose talents were the boast and admiration of his countrymen. Dermod, deserted by his people, an object of detestation and contempt, prompted by the indignant feelings of insulted and fallen pride, threw himself into the arms of England, as the last and only refuge he could find from the persecution of his malignant fortunes. He embarked for England with sixty of his most trusty followers, where he was received with unbounded hospitality. Henry, the English monarch, was at this time endeavouring to suppress the insurrection of his subjects in his French dominions. Dermod immediately repaired to Henry, and laid at his feet the story of his misfortunes and persecutions in his native country. He implored the aid of the British king, and, if supported by his arms in the assertion of his undoubted rights, promised to hold his recovered dominions in vassalage to Henry and his heirs.

The insurrection of Henry's French subjects, the obstinate rebellion of his brother Geoffry, and the more obstinate resistance of bishop Becket, prevented Henry going in person to vindicate the cause, and assert the rights of the exiled Irish king; but he gave a license to such of his English subjects as were disposed to aid Dermod in the recovery of his rights. Dermod returned to England, full of hope and confidence. He was joined by earl Pem

broke and Robert Fitzstephen, both Welsh noblemen, and celebrated in their own country as men of high spirit, and splendid achievements. To these adventurers Dermod promised the entire dominion of the town of Wexford, with a large adjoining territory, as soon as by their assistance he should be reinstated in his rights. After Dermod had concluded this treaty with these Welsh adventurers, he proceeded to Ireland to inform his friends that he was about to be supported by a powerful foreign alliance. He landed at Wexford, where he lay concealed in a monastery, until the returning spring brought round the period at which the arrival and co-operation of the English allies were expected. Roderic, king of Ireland, hearing of the arrival of Dermod, immediately marched against the latter, and forced him to fly for shelter to the woods. Dermod, sensible of his inability to wage so unequal a war with Roderic, submitted to the Irish monarch, and gave hostages for his future peaceable and loyal conduct. Roderic agreed to the terms of submission, and again reposed confidence in his fidelity. These pledges of peace had not long been given by Dermod to Roderic, when his English allies appeared on the coast of Wexford. Robert Fitzstephen, with thirty knights, sixty men in armour, and three hundred archers, all chosen men of Wales, arrived in Ireland in the year 1170.-The army was reinforced with ten knights, and two hundred archers, under the command of Maurice ap Pendergast, the valiant Welshman. The report of this formidable invasion, (formidable when we consider the divisions of Ireland,) had no sooner circulated through the neighbouring counties, than the old subjects of Dermod conceived it expedient to resume their allegiance, and to crowd round his standard, with all the ardor of the most zealous loyalty. The combined forces marched to Wexford, and the Irish and Ostmen, who then governed the town, marched out to meet the enemy.

The Irish army were compelled to return to

the town, and the enemy, encouraged by this temporary success, pursued them to the gates of the city. The Irish turned upon their pursuers, and drove back the enemy with considerable loss. At length the clergy of the garrison interposed their mediation between the besieged and besiegers, and Wexford was given up to Dermod, and , earl Pembroke, who was immediately invested with the lordship of the city and domain. Harvy of Mountmauris was also head of two considerable districts, on the coast between Wexford and Waterford. Here was settled the first colony of British inhabitants, differing in manners, customs, and language, from the natives, and even to this day preserving that difference in a very remarkable degree, notwithstanding the lapse of many ages. Dermod immediately proceeded at the head of his combined forces, amounting to 3000 men, to lay waste the territory of the prince of Ossory, (a part of Leinster,) which he desolated with fire and sword; and though the Irish army made a most heroic resistance to the invader, the superiority of English discipline and English arms, counterbalanced the advantages which the Irish enjoyed from their superior knowledge of the country. Had the latter patiently remained in the woods and morasses, where the English cavalry could not act, they would have wearied the courage, and baffled the discipline of the invaders, and perhaps would have preserved the independence of their country. A reliance on the intrepidity of their soldiers, betrayed them from their native situations into the open plains, where they were exposed to the superior generalship of the English invader.

English historians have laboured, with malicious industry, to paint the comparative superiority of their countrymen, over the wild and barbarous natives of Ireland; and hesitate not to brand with the infamous epithets of cruel, and savage, and uncultivated, these unoffending

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people, whose properties the English were desolating, whose peace they were disturbing, and on the rights and liberties of whose country they were about to trample.

The vengeance of an unprincipled and exiled Irish monarch found refuge in the ambition and avarice of English adventurers; and the miserable and afflicting scenes, which the reader of Irish history is doomed to wade through, were acted under the specious and insulting pretext of order, religion, and morality-but to proceed. Dermod succeeded in bringing to subjection the revolted 'subjects of his government, and prepared to defend himself against the denunciations of the Irish monarch, who now began to be alarmed, at an invasion which he had hitherto viewed with contempt, and without apprehension.

The Irish reader contemplates, with a mixture of gratification and melancholy, the picture of magnificence and grandeur which the preparations of the monarch of Ireland present to his view, for the invasion of the territories of Dermod, and the expulsion of the English army, who presumed to violate the independence of Ireland. He convened the estates of the nation at Tarah, in Meath. He ordained new laws, raised and regulated new seminaries, distributed splendid donations to the various professors of learning, and assembled and reviewed the army in presence of the vassal Irish sovereigns, who waited on their monarch. Dermod, deserted by his "subjects on the approach of the Irish monarch, fled to his fastnesses in Wexford, where he strongly entrenched himself.

Before Roderic unsheathed his sword, he remonstrated with the English leaders on the injustice and cruelty of their invasion; on the shameful and odious connection they had formed with an adulterer, and traitor to his country; and that the war they were about to wage with

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