THE HISTORY OF IRELAND FROM THE INVASION OF HENRY II. WITH A PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE ON THE ANCIENT STATE OF THAT KINGDOM. BY THOMAS LELAND, D. D. Senior Fellow of Trinity College, and Prebendary of St. Patrick's, Dublin. VOL. I. DUBLIN: PRINTED BY BRETT SMITH, 46, MARY-STREET. 1814. PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. THE HE subject of the following History seems not unworthy of attention. A British reader may esteem it neither useless nor uninteresting, to trace the progress of the English power in IRELAND, from the invasion of Henry the Second, through the conflicts of many ages, short intervals of peace, the sudden revival of hostilities, the suppression of civil war, the attempts to compose all national disorders, and the final contest in the cause of James the Second. It is a subject which comes recommended at least by the merit of novelty: for, although particular periods of these affairs have been treated, sometimes imperfectly, sometimes copiously, yet no general and connected history hath yet appeared of those actions, counsels, incidents, and revolutions, which ended in establishing the authority of the crown of England, in a country, now, a respectable member of the British empire. VOL. I. a AT 1 AT the REVOLUTION, indeed, the favour and patronage of government encouraged Sir Richard Cox to such an attempt. But, however assiduous in his researches, he produced nothing better than an hasty, indigested, and imperfect Chronicle, ending with the final suppression of the rebellion commenced in the year one thousand six hundred and forty-one. More than fourscore years have elapsed since the last commotions of Ireland; during this interval it hath made successful advances in refinement and literature and the descendants of the English settlers in this country seem to have had both leisure and inducement, to record those actions in which their ancestors took so considerable a part. But men of letters thought, perhaps, too meanly of the subject; they were deterred by the darkness in which some periods were involved; by the painful and disgusting pursuit of materials not yet disclosed, or not yet wrought into any regular narrative; or by the labour of selection from writers, who viewed their favourite object with an eye too partial, and detailed every incident, with an oppressing minuteness. BUT the circumstances of Ireland were à still more dispiriting obstacle to the historian of this country. Prejudices and animosities could not end with its disorders. The relations of every transaction in times of contest and turbulence, were for many years dictated by pride, by resentment, by the virulence of faction, by the obliquity of particular interests and 1 and competitions. It was scarcely possible for a writer not to share in the passions and prejudices of those around him: or, however candid, dispassionate, and accurate, still he must have done dangerous violence to their opinions and prepossessions, Time, and reflection, and an increasing liberality of sentiment, may have sheathed the acrimony of contending parties; and those at a distance may look on their contentions with indifference: yet, even at this day, the historian of Irish affairs must be armed against censure only by an integrity which confines him to truth, and a literary courage which despises every charge but that of wilful or careless misrepresentation. In several instances the author may have stated facts in a manner different from those writers usually accepted as authentic. Had he in such cases proceeded to a particular examination of the opinions and assertions of other men; had he entered into a justification of his own accounts, or specified the reasons which determined him to reject or to admit every particular authority, his work must have swelled to an enormous size. was therefore, obliged to content himself with a diligent and attentive inspection of different evidence, with a careful use of his private judgment, with exhibiting the authorities he chose to follow, without generally engaging in critical and controversial discussions. They who are best acquainted with the materials of which this History, and He · par |