of France, whom that monarch sent to England to assert his master's claim to Normandy; or, as others say, to some castle of this province. The stern aspect, the enormous giant-size, the notorious strength of De Courcy, are said to have alarmed the French champion, who declined the combat, and fled into Spain. He exhibited before the English monarch, extraordinary proofs of bodily strength, for which he obtained his liberty, and regained the possession of his extensive properties. John further granted to De Courcy, and to his heirs, the privilege of standing covered in their first audience with the king of England. Upon the death of this celebrated baron, the earldom of Ulster was conferred by John upon Hugh de Lacy. The latter, with the viceroy, Meyler Fitzhenry, were about this period called over to England to defend their monarch against the increasing combinations of his enemies. In addition to the numberless embarrassments by which the British king was pressed, he was also involved in a contest with the pope, relative to the election of the prelate of Armagh. The Irish clergy, encouraged by the Roman pontiff, proceeded to elect a countryman of their own, Eugene, as successor to Thomas O'Connor, late prelate of Armagh. The king forbade his Irish subjects to acknowledge Eugene as the prelate; and sent forward the archdeacon of Meath, to take possession of the see of Armagh. This contest continued a long time; till at length it is written, that the king, soothed by a present of three hundred marks of silver, and one hundred of gold, consented that Eugene should be invested with all the rights of the see. The exemplary character of Eugene, his great virtues, and well-merited popularity, contributed more particularly to establish his election, than the pre-eminence of papal authority, or the corruption of the English monarch. However the latter may have come in aid of the prayers of the nation, they cannot be considered the leading causes of the victory obtained over the pride and passions of the British sovereign.

The English interest, in the south and west of Ireland, was now (1208) considerably established and secured by the active and efficient administration of the viceroy, Meyler Fitzhenry; and scarcely a power remained in Ireland sufficiently formidable to excite the reasonable apprehensions of the British monarch; but, anxious to enjoy the opportunity which would enable him to raise an army in England without offending his sturdy and independent barons, he affected to dread the growing power of the De Lacys; and under the pretext of circumscribing their authority within reasonable bounds, marched an army into Ireland. The English monarch arrived in Dublin, in the year 1210; where not less than twenty Irish chieftains attended to do him homage. Hugh and Walter de Lacy fled to France. The Irish princes consented to pay tribute to John, but refused to invest him with their lands, resign their respective sovereignties, or accept the English laws. They always insisted upon the right of administering their own government, according to the Irish laws and customs.-John brought with him the most celebrated lawyers of England; by whose counsel a regular code of laws was prepared and determined upon for Ireland, and deposited under the king's seal, in the exchequer of Dublin. The lands of Ireland, immediately in possession of the British monarch, were divided into counties, where sheriffs and other officers were appointed. Twelve counties were established by John-Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Argial, (now called Louth,) Katerlagh, (now called Carlow,) Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary.

During the three months king John remained in Ireland, he was for the most part, engaged, in assimilating its laws and jurisprudence to those of England; that the two countries might be governed by the same system of legislation, as well as the same monarch.

On the departure of John, the administration of Ireland

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was given to John de Grey, first Bishop of Norwich; who first caused money to be coined of the same weight with that of England; and by whose vigorous and firm regula+ tions, the English colony were able to send a large force to the assistance of John, when threatened by an invasion from the king of France. It would, perhaps, be more correct to attribute the undisturbed and peaceable state of the English power in Ireland, to the mild and conciliating policy which the English councils then adopted. They found, by experience, that little was to be obtained by violence; and that much had been sacrificed. John therefore ordered his viceroy to treat his Feodaries, or those Irish chieftains who had submitted to do him homage, with all respect and attention; to protect them against their rebellious vassals; and as long as they demeaned themselves with loyalty to his government, to treat them with kindness and1 regard. Perhaps, in accounting for this unusual extension of royal benignity, we may be permitted to observe, that the patriotic and successful struggles of the English barons against the unjust pretensions of their monarch, may have inclined the latter to court the allegiance of his Irish subjects by kind and parental concessions. The history of mankind demonstrates, that the liberties of a nation only rise as their governments have been weakened and humbled; and that the people have always found the surest refuge in the adversity of the monarch. To protect the crown against the insolent and usurping demands of aristocracy, the former has had recourse to the people; and the consequence of all has been usually promoted by the alternate rise and decline of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Cathal, the prince of Connaught, was thus protected by John against his vassals, and a present of costly robes was delivered by the viceroy to each Irish chieftain, as a mark of favour and protection. Some historians have supposed, that the object of the present was to seduce the Irish to the wearing of English attire, and

to an assimilation of dress with that of the people to whom they were united. John was now engaged in that disgraceful and memorable transaction which stains his memory and country; namely, his abject submission to the pope, and his resignation of the kingdoms of England and Ireland to the see of Rome. In return for this act of national debasement, pope Innocent addressed a letter to the prelates and princes of Ireland, commanding them by his apostolical mandate, to persevere in their allegiance to the king and his heirs, who were now the objects of his parental protection. The celebrated contest between the British monarch and his barons immediately followed these transactions; and the Magna Charta, or the great charter of English freedom, was signed by a reluctant king, in the presence of his armed subjects, at Runnimead. This sacred instrument, so deservedly the object of British veneration, gave freedom only to the clergy, the barons, and the gentry of England: it did not abolish slavery among the great body of the people. A long interval elapsed, before they enjoyed a free and impartial constitution.

On this memorable occasion, Ireland, (or rather the English colony in Ireland) was forgotten or unnoticed, nor was any concession obtained by the English barons in this country, until the commencement of the reign of Henry III. when we find them petitioning for the removal of those grievances, which they suffered so severely under the reign of his father, and a cessation of that violence, which he so wantonly practised, in the confiscation and plunder of their properties, the levying exorbitant taxes, and the practice of every mode of oppression which his avarice could suggest,

They also prayed that the queen dowager, or the king's brother, should reside in Ireland. To this petition, a most gracious answer was given by Henry. He declared "that the same liberties which have been granted to his subjects of England, shall be extended to his subjects in Ireland.”

Thus were the rights and privileges of the English colony in Ireland, or of those Irish who had submitted to England, ascertained and confirmed. All the advantages of a free constitution, were hereafter to be enjoyed by the English colony, and their descendants, in as full and as ample a manner as their countrymen in England, who succeeded in their glorious struggles with their king for the assertion of human right, and laid the foundation in their great charter of the future glory and splendor of the English nation.—The English monarch at length fell a victim to the indignation of his insulted and injured subjects. It is said he died of a broken heart, after a useless and destructive struggle against the liberty of his country.

K

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