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disinterested with regard to worldly riches, the primitive gospel rule of poverty of life, and unostentatious labour for the spiritual improvement of the people, formed their sole line of duty.

One principal cause of the success attending the early teachers of Christianity in Ireland, arose from their succeeding to the office of the Ollam, or doctors, whom they superseded in the duty of giving instruction to youth, or joined with themselves, upon their conversion, in that office, which was one of the most cherished objects of public concern. As the doctors were particularly designed for that department of national polity, provision was made for their support at the public expence; so also the Christian clergy, who undertook the same charge, became particularly the objects of royal protection; and grants of land, with various immunities, were secured to them by the kings and minor chiefs for the building of monasteries, and abbies, and forming of scholastic foundations, similar to those formerly conducted by the Ollam.

Many individuals, urged by motives of piety, or desirous of instruction, attached themselves to these communities as lay brethren, and freely offered their assistance in relieving their spiritual associates from laborious employments, voluntarily managing the agricultural concerns of the establishment; for which reason the barren wastes, which for the sake of retirement had been mostly selected for the sites of such buildings, were soon converted into fields of fair and fertile appearance, and even still add considerable beauty to the ruins.

"The leisure thus obtained for the regular brethren,” says the writer last quoted, "was employed by the more pious in religious meditation, by the more thoughtful in theological or scholastic studies; those whose inclinations

led them to more active literature, composed books, whilst others performed the humbler, but not less useful, task of copying them; and the arts of architecture, sculpture, painting and music, as connected with objects of religion, were cultivated in these convents. To the patient industry which was thus directed, we owe the preservation of most of the classics, and a large portion of history which would otherwise have been lost; and to the genius which was thus brought forth, we are beholden for those cathedrals which vie with the noblest monuments of the ancient world, if they do not indeed surpass them."

The monasteries of Ireland continued to be sanctuaries of learning throughout those dark ages, when the rest of Europe was agitated by the tempests of tumultuary war, and maintained an acknowledged pre-eminence in every branch of literature peculiar to themselves, besides such as would otherwise have been utterly annihilated. Were it not for the advantages of education held out in these last asyla of science, the work of invention might have proved more laborious, more honourable than succeeding ages have seen it; for whilst the western world was immersed in that barbarism which properly attends the sword, the silent pen was laying up that useful information which would console humanity for much of what it had lost. The liberal manner in which students frequenting these schools were received deserves to be recorded; the credit of the fact remains with Mr. O'Halloran: "Her princes and great men (meaning those of the insula sanctorum et doctorum,) founded the numerous universities of the kingdom on so generous and extensive plans, that not only the foreign students were found in clothes, diet, and lodgings, but even with books, then so scarce an article, gratis !”

In the beginning of the eighth century the repose of the

Irish monasteries began to be disturbed by the ravages of the Danes, who, availing themselves of the facilities which their light ships afforded, made frequent incursions into the northern parts of Britain and Ireland; and finding their depredations on the latter equal to the extent of their barbarous cupidity, renewed their sanguinary visits with a frequency that threatened those peaceful mansions with total destruction. In one of those plundering expeditions, the famous abbey of Benchoir (Bangor), in Down, was ransacked, and 900 of its unresisting inmates cruelly massacred. Such severe visitations were little relieved by the defence afforded by their natural protectors, who, it appears from the histories of those times, were so distracted by feuds among themselves, as to be unable to resist these hardy and ruthless invaders, who, waging an exterminating war, carried pillage and desolation into the heart of the country, and made themselves, for a long time, masters of a great part of the island. In this interval, which continued nearly two centuries, the Danes fortified Dublin, and founded many other towns along the eastern coast; nor were they effectually opposed until the eleventh century, when they were finally subdued at Clontarf; after which great defeat, those who remained became Christians, and having settled peaceably in the towns they had built, they made the first attempts at regular commerce; for, notwithstanding the splendid accounts of the wealth and riches of the country, and its great renown for shipping, nothing appears to establish the existence of any revenue directly arising from its foreign trade.

Under the disadvantages in which the want of adequate security left the monastic foundations, they fell away considerably from their original plan; and, in progress of time, their rights and immunities suffered still more from the

Irish chieftains themselves, many of whom, in open violation of all established usage, on many occasions influenced the election of abbots, frequently substituting their own relatives in place of those elected in the regular form; sometimes causing even laymen to be chosen as superiors to those religious communities.

The fundamental law of succession to the throne, in which the reigning family possessed hereditary right, but the subject claimed the power of electing the most deserving individual of that line, rendered that mode of conferring kingly honours a perpetual ground of intrigue and contention, which was usually decided by the sword. Such troubles added still more to the insecurity of the monasteries, and tended to defeat the exalted ends of their institution.

In these sanguinary disputes, the inferior chiefs being invariably involved, were sure to draw their adherents into the quarrel; and consequently the weightiest mischief of the feuds were sure to fall upon the people; and as these were devotedly attached to the clergy, they in turn came in for a share in the calamity, although no open or direct violation of person or property appears to have been exercised. Thus, between the pacific piety of the convent, and the desultory turbulence of their chieftains, the mass of the people was at once enlightened and severe; of internal polish and rude exterior; a conscientious observer of the laws of justice, and at the same time a stern avenger of their violation. In the words of Dr. Leland, "a robust frame of body, a vehemence of passion, an elevated imagination, were the characteristics of the people. Noble instances of valour, generous effusions of benevolence, ardent resentments, desperate and vindictive outrages, abound in their annals."

The main cause, however, of the depressed state of the population, and their backwardness in civilization, for that they were so, under those circumstances, must be admitted, was the uncertainty of tenure with regard to landed property, which kept them in constant vassalage to their chiefs, who were themselves subject to the same absurd system. The narrow, and it may be said, impracticable code of Brehon distribution of estate, required a perpetual recurrence to subdivision in the event of decease: hence arose endless confusion, litigation, and dispute, entailing mischievous habits on society, and serving to foster a disposition to acts of violence.

Property was in this manner continually changing masters. It was impossible that the state of society could materially improve, because there existed none of those exciting causes which force men in modern times into action in such various ways. Agriculture was confined to the mere supply of the occupant, or of those who manufactured arms or articles of clothing; in the latter particular, the country had attained considerable celebrity. cultivation of the soil was limited *, both from the sim

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• Notwithstanding the splendid descriptions given by some warmhearted writers concerning the ancient prosperity of Ireland, the above opinion will continue to be received as true, until proofs shall be given that Ireland had an export corn trade. The argument, that the country was better inhabited formerly than at present, is not sufficiently founded, even by the fact of vegetable soil being found with marks of cultivation on the sides of mountains now covered with bog. That tillage has been employed in those situations is undoubted; but may it not be asserted, that those places were made to produce corn for the support of people who had made choice of those elevated situations for defence or security? Were it not that there is less vegetable matter to supply or produce the growth of bogs now than in former times, such a phenomenon might be again witnessed by future antiquarians, should the desolating hand of war remove the persons whose industry is now seen covering other parts of those very same mountains with patches of cultivation.