able spirit in defence of his country; his enthusiastic attachment to her interests; his honest indignation at the calamities with which she was afflicted; and his unwearied efforts to obtain justice for her wrongs, and punishment against her persecutors.-When he was obliged by-force to submit to the English monarch, his sympathy for the sufferings of his country did not diminish: he frequently remonstrated against the practices of his English subjects, and at length appealed to the council of Lateran against the persecutions of England. So formidable were his representations, that Henry would not suffer him to return to his native land. He was succeeded in the archbishopric of Dublin by an Englishman, named John Comyn; a man, it may be anticipated, remarkable for qualities of an opposite character to the humane and lamented O'Toole. While the English historians feel gratification in relating those circumstances of our history, calculated to humble the Irish character, and while they anxiously seize the pen to paint those scenes in which Irish vengeance frequently gained the ascendancy over the native benignity of the Irish heart-be it my office to set down those anecdotes which elevate my countrymen, and record those characters who command the veneration of posterity. It is a

source of melancholy reflection, that a modern Irish historian* of talents is to be found, and living in an age of liberality and refinement, to echo those tales which were fabricated, perhaps, by malice; or which, if ever they had any foundation in fact, may be palliated by the exasperations with which this devoted people were cruelly visited.

The most determined calumniator of the Irish character now came to Ireland by order of Henry, as the adviser and historian to his son John, who, created lord of Ireland, was immediately to follow. This celebrated histo

*Mr. Leland.

rian of falsehood and malignity, Giraldus Cambrensis, or Gerald Barry, inflated with all the pride of the conqueror, and the more disgusting petulance of the pedagogue, came to Ireland with the pre-determined purpose of mocking and insulting the misery the arms of his master had inflicted. We find him constantly engaged in the most irritating controversies with the Irish clergy, wounding their patriotic feelings by his arrogance, and insulting them by his menaces-yet this is the authority which some Irish his torians will follow, when writing the history of the English invasion of Ireland.

Ireland was now about to be sacrificed to another whim of the English monarch. He again removed De Lacy from the government, and substituted Philip de Braosa, or Philip of Worcester: a man of furious and vindictive temper, voracious and insatiable, whose object was plunder, and whose means to obtain it were fraud and violence. The Irish clergy were the victims of his avarice, and their churches the object of his unlimited rapacity. The governor was at length obliged to surrender his administration to young prince John, son of the English monarch; who, being knighted by his father, proceeded to Ireland with a train of Norman courtiers, and dissolute and abandoned bankrupt adventurers, who, desperate in their fortunes, transported themselves to Ireland, as the last refuge from the persecutions of their difficulties. Glenvil, the celebrated lawyer, also accompanied prince John. The royal retinue arrived at Waterford in the latter end of the year 1185, when they were received with the accustomed hospitality of the Irish. The courtly and delicate companions of the young prince, astonished at the foreign and warlike appearance of their Irish visitors, indiscriminately yielded to those sentiments of contempt and abhorrence which the savage would have excited. They thoughtlessly practised on the Irish chieftains, of whose hospitality they were partaking,

the most insulting indignities. Such treatment roused the Irish to furious courage, and had the extraordinary effect of extinguishing the voice of faction, obliterating domestic jealousies, and uniting every heart and arm of the country.

The flame of national resentment spread through every county, and one unanimous determination prevailed, to liberate Ireland from the insolent oppressors of their rights, The English were attacked in all their strongest positions, and the most signal ravage inflicted on the violators of the national pride of Ireland. Thus the administration of this inexperienced and insolent prince had nearly destroyed the hopes of England, when Henry ordered De Courcy to take into his hands the reins of administration. Hugh De Lacy fell a victim, about this period, to the knife of the assassin, who, historians say, was found among his own countrymen; and it may be truly said, that the wisdom of his mercy did more to extend the English power in Ireland, than the most determined valour of Henry's best generals. De Courcy was considered by the British mo narch best qualified to succeed De Lacy. The whole country was now torn with civil war; the fury of faction facilitating the progress of the invader's sword.

The Irish monarch, unable and unwilling to make any further efforts in stemming the torrent which threatened to sweep away every vestige of Ireland's glory, retired, in despondency and sorrow, to the solitude and protection of a convent. His unnatural children triumphed over an indulgent father, and the nominal sovereignty of Ireland was doomed again to be disputed by the most furious competition.

The viceroy endeavoured to take advantage of the feuds of the Irish, and confidently and incautiously march

ed his forces into Connaught. Such a step had the effect of uniting the Irish chieftains of the West, who assembled their forces, and compelled the viceroy to measure back his hasty and imprudent steps. De Courcy lost his most distinguished officers in this rash adventure,

This victory over the English, if followed up, would have annihilated their power in Ireland; but the victories of the Irish were almost always the sources of new divisions among themselves, and of new hopes to their ene mies. Party spirit destroyed the spirit of perseverance, overthrew the operations of system, and rendered it impossible for the most undaunted heroism to complete an achievement always bravely commenced. Such was the situation of Ireland when Henry died.

The character of this monarch, as far as that character can be drawn from his conduct towards Ireland, may be described in a very few words;-cruel, and humane, according to the expediency of either to promote his speculations of conquest. As the extension of his power in Ireland was the grand object of his ambition, he little considered the morality and integrity of the means by which he was to obtain its possession. He was careless about the reproaches of the humane or the just, and deaf to every monitor, but that which could facilitate his conquests, and minister to his avarice of plunder. The cries of an unoffending and innocent nation reached his ears in vain. He answered those cries by the sword, or by fraud; and heard the accusation of the usurper and destroyer of Irish rights without compassion, and without pity, even in those parts of Ireland which submitted to his arms.

We have seen that the English monarch practised towards his English subjects the same duplicity, and the same cunning, which distinguishes his first operations in

H

Ireland. He deprived his English colony of the administration of De Lacy, because it was mild and merciful, and parental; and he substituted De Courcy, because he was cruel, and vindictive, and unprincipled. The same apprehensions which Henry's successors have always entertained lest Irishmen should be united, operated on the mind of Henry against the union of the first English settlers in Ireland. The adventurers who first devoted their lives and fortunes to the conquest of Ireland, he discouraged; and changed his governors and generals, whenever he suspected they had obtained the confidence of the Irish, either by their courage, or their wisdom. A model of the same unprincipled and varying system of politics which has distinguished the English government in their administration of Irish affairs for the last century, may be found in the uncertain policy of Henry towards his English colony.

Giraldus Cambrensis, Mathew Paris, and a crowd of defamers of the Irish character, labour to prove that the treaty between Henry and Roderic amounted to the conquest of Ireland; and that when the Irish monarch volunteered in becoming the tributary of Henry, he surrendered his Irish crown, and became the subject of England. "The calumny can be best replied to" says the ingenious Dr. Campbell, "by taking into consideration the difference between subjects and tributaries. A tributary is not a subject, but a vassal who stipulates to pay tribute, and perhaps do homage and swear fealty to a superior power, that he may live in peace. A sovereign may be tributary to a more potent sovereign, without obeying any of his ordinances; that is, he may acknowledge his own inferiority by these tokens of submission, yet retain his sovereignty over his subjects, without owning any other duty to his liege lórd. This was precisely the case of Ireland before Henry set foot in this kingdom,