and after he departed from it. The provincial kings paid tribute to the monarch, and the subordinate toparchs to the provincial kings, without any diminution of their jurisdiction over their respective subjects.

Roderic the monarch did not submit to Henry during his stay in Ireland; but in a year or two after he volunteered to do homage, and swear fealty, and resigned by deed the sovereignty of certain districts, that he might enjoy the remainder. This is placed beyond doubt by the "Finis et Concordia," that final agreement made between them at Windsor, wherein it is expressly stipulated, that except in those districts he had surrendered, the jurisdiction of Roderic was to remain undiminished over the rest of the island," totam illam terram," and "habitationes terræ habeat subse." Thus was Roderic pledged to make the vassal princes pay their tribute to himself, and through his hand it was to be conveyed to Henry: so that Roderic no more ceased to be monarch of Ireland, than he did to be king of Connaught. To those who have read the triumphant arguments of Mr. Molyneaux, in his inestimable tract called "The Case of Ireland," or the fourth Drapier's letter, by our immortal countryman Swift, little need be urged to demonstrate the fallacy and folly of the assertion that Henry II. conquered the kingdom of Ireland.

We have devoted more time to the reign of Henry II. than such a work as the present would, perhaps, have war ranted; but, as the circumstances which crowd the reign of this monarch are, for the most part, re-acted in many of the reigns which are to follow, and as the policy acted upon by the first English invaders of Ireland has been industriously imitated by his successors, it was deemed useful and instructive to detail more particularly the events of a reign which opened a scene of misery and distraction to Ireland,

which even the lapse of six hundred years has not yet terminated.*

"Had it not been," says sir William, Temple "for circumstances prejudicial to the increase of trade and riches in a country, and which seem natural, or at least, to have been ever- incident to the government of Ireland, the native fertility of the Irish soil and seas, in so many rich commodities, improved by a multitude of people and industry, with the advantage of so many excellent havens, and a situation so commodious for all foreign trade, must needs have rendered the kingdom one of the richest in Europe, and made a mighty increase both of strength and revenue to the crown of England."

"Ireland" says Mr Brown, an intelligent writer in the commencement of the last century, "is, in respect of its situation, the number of its commodious harbours, and the natural wealth which it produces, the fittest island to acquire riches of any in the European seas. For as by its situation it lies the most commodious for the West Indies, so it is not only supplied by nature with all the necessaries of life, but ean, over and above, export large quantities to foreign countries, insomuch that had it been mistress of a free trade, no nation in Europe of its extent could in an equal number of years acquire greater wealth.", Such is the testimony of the greatest enemies, as well as the best friends of Ireland, yet how abused have been the bounties of God!

The friends of Ireland, and the ardent supporters of British connection, creduously hoped that the year 1782 would have been the commencement of an era of peace and happiness, and independence to their country, and of harmony and strength to the empire:-that the two countries, united by a free constitution, would also be united in mutual affection and respect; that the wealth and prosperity of each would have been considered the wealth and prosperity of both; that all further causes of jealousy were removed, and that one common sentiment of sincere attachment to the English constitution would have pervaded all parts of the empire.

These hopes, however just and reasonable, were doomed to be frustrated by the presiding genius of discord which has perpetually governed English counsels with regard to Ireland. The confidence reposed by the catholic in the liberality of his protestant fellow citizen, the growing prosperity of the country, alarmed the avaricious and contracted policy of the British cabinet, and Ireland was again doomed to be the victim of schemes of oppression, and new arrangements of cunning and insincerity. Irishmen were again to be divided in order to be plundered of their liberty, secured to them by the pledged faith of England; and the Union was to be the closing act of that bloody tragedy which extinguished our freedom. Irishmen of rank and property were to be seen carried down the stream of British deception, and idly and infamously administering to the views and the stratagems of the English minister, conspirators against their own consequence, and the degraded betrayers of the rights and character of their country. The policy of Mr. Pitt was not more liberal than the policy of Henry II., and the same frauds and violence which were practised against Ireland in the twelfth, were acted over again, with equal malignity and success, in the eighteenth century.

THE

HISTORY OF IRELAND.

Richard I.

THE reign of Richard I. was too much devoted to the prosecution of the holy wars, which at this period almost depopulated Europe; and this monarch was so distinguished as the great and illustrious leader of those fanatical and destructive expeditions, we are not to wonder that we find him not only regardless of his own country, but completely indifferert to his Irish dominions, and to that authority which his brother John continued to exercise therein.

The deputies appointed to govern in Ireland, were chosen by John; and the style and title always assumed by the latter was earl of Morton and lord of Ireland. To Dublin he gave new franchises and increased immunities, and the same scene which has wearied our eyes in the last reign, presents itself again to us, in the present, the building of churches in one part, while plunder and devastation are making their baneful progress in another-the destruction of Irish convents and monasteries, and the erection of new convents and monasteries, with English monks, devoted to the English interests.

We find the authority of John solely confined to those parts immediately possessed by the Irish. Satisfied with

the exercise of those safe duties of raising monasteries and forts in various parts of his Irish dominions, John retired to England, and entrusted his Irish administration to the younger De Lacy; an appointment which excited the jealousy and resentment of the late viceroy, De Courcy. This indignant English baron retired to Ulster, separated from his countrymen, and determined to confine himself to the promotion of his own personal interest and ambitious views, unaided and unsupported by England. Such was the weakness of the English government, that they were unable to punish the rebellion of De Courcy, or restrain the dangerous spirit of rivalship which at this period distinguished the British adventurers.

A new and powerful enemy arose in the west of Ireland, animated with the vindictive spirit of his family, and an ardent ambition for military glory. He vowed the most implacable vengeance against the English, who had desolated with fire and sword the fairest and most fertile parts of Ireland, and were then threatening to reduce the entire country to a degrading subjection. This formidable Irish chieftain was named CATHAL THE BLOODY-HANDED. Possessed of all those qualities which could recommend him to a brave people, they followed Cathal to the field. with confidence, and obeyed him with alacrity. De Courcy, alarmed at the progress of this furious and vindictive Irish chieftain, ordered his friend and adviser, Armoric of St. Laurence, to march without delay and join his forces. Armoric being obliged to pass through a part of Cathal's territories, was intercepted; and, after a furious engagement, in which he and his troops peculiarly distinguished themselves, his brave though small detachment was annihilated. This partial defeat was the signal for universal insurrections and confederacies among the Irish; and the misery of the nation was peculiarly aggravated by a destructive fire, which at this period consumed the greater part of Dublin. Cathal the bloody-handed, animated by

the late triumph of his arms, roused the surrounding chieftains to the assertion of their country's rights; and Daniel O'Brien, prince of Thomond, gained an important victory over the English at Thurles.

The arms of this celebrated chieftain were at length repulsed, and his territories, with those of the prince of Desmond, were over-run by the English, who, in their progress, practised the most barbarous cruelties. They put out the eyes of the young prince of Thomond, and tearing his brother from the sanctuary in which he concealed himself, they put him to a cruel and lingering death. Cathal, the king of Connaught, took ample and immediate vengeance on the enemies of his country. He entered Munster at the head of a powerful army, ravaged the English castles, drove the English army before him, and, had he followed up his victory, would perhaps have expelled those adventurers from Ireland. But such was not to be the Irish destiny. For her the Irish hero seemed to be born in vain. The victories of a province or a county were considered by the bravest and most renowned Irish chieftain as the victory of Ireland, and the expulsion of the English from their respective territories, satisfied the vengeance, and completed the ambition of the Irish chiefs. Cathal, content with this partial defeat of his enemies, retired to his kingdom of Connaught, and thus disappointed the hopes and expectations of the nation. The English had no sooner restored the castles and forts which Cathal had destroyed, and repaired the injuries which his armies had inflicted on their territories, than they were again attacked by Mac Carty of Desmond, who drove them out of Limerick, and twice baffled their efforts to recover this important station. Cork, the best and most considerable port in Munster, now occupied by the English, would have fallen into the hands of the Irish, had it not been for the fatal jealousies which existed between the rival Irish chieftains, Cathal, the king of Connaught, and O'Laughlin, chief of