of Dublin, to prepare men's minds for the reception of the young prince. After being knighted at Windsor, by the king, his father, at the age of twelve, John set off for Milford, in the April of 1175, where a fleet awaited to conduct him to Ireland. He embarked at Easter, accompanied by Ralph Glanville, justiciary of England, and Giraldus Cambrensis, his tutor. He was accompanied by four hundred knights, and some young debauched courtiers, who possessed his entire confidence. As soon as he landed at Waterford, the Irish lords in its vicinity came immediately to compliment him on his arrival. The manners and customs of the two nations were very different. The Irish were naturally hospitable, free, and polite to strangers; the English the very reverse. Receiving the Irish lords with a sulky disdain, they fired the pride of the chieftains, who retired, breathing vengeance for the insults of the royal boy and his debauched companions. War resounded from all quarters; and the chieftains for a while suspended their private hostilities, to avenge what they considered a national affront. But these tumultuary hostilities produced no other effect, than that of interrupting the pleasures in which John revelled, determining him to abandon so dangerous a dignity, and return to England, after having built three castles, during his stay, for the protection of the colony. His tutor, Gerald Barry, vulgarly called Gyraldus Cambrensis, remained behind, to collect the fables which he called the history of Ireland. The policy of England constantly joined

the pen of the libeller to the sword of the warrior; to destroy the character as well as the persons of the natives, and confound in one ruin their fame and their inheritance.

The king of England, instructed by John's mal-administration in Ireland, thought it expedient to entrust the government in the hands of military men. Accordingly John de Courcy, an able officer, practised in the Irish mode of warfare, was appointed viceroy. He undertook some expeditions to Cork and Connaught, with various

success.

During the progress of the invaders it cannot be supposed, that the natives, however divided by domestic quarrels, could remain idle spectators of their own ruin. Here and there some valiant efforts were made by the invaded clans, which, for want of union, discipline, and a national government, terminated in a fruitless effusion of blood. Four English officers, with a detachment of the garrison of Ardfinnan, were put to the sword, by Donald O'Brien, king of Thomond. Another detachment from the same garrison, surprised marauding near Limerick, met the same fate. Surprises and ambuscades are allowed by the law of nations: it is not easy to justify assassination upon any principle. Arthur O'Melaghlin, chief of Meath, was killed by the English, three English lords were also killed; and to complete the picture of the times, while assassination, carnage and robbery were triumphant, monasteries were founded.

About this time an abbey of Bernardines was

founded at Leix, near the river Nuir. The bodies of St. Patrick, St. Columb, and St. Bridget were translated at Down, by the Pope's legate; and the Staff of Jesus was carried in triumph from the cathedral of Armagh to Christ-church, Dublin, the adventurers hoping that it would promote their interests.

While the Irish nation was falling piecemeal a prey to their invaders, the family quarrels of the chieftains accelerated the catastrophe. O'Connor Maonmui entered Connaught, at the head of a hostile force, to dethrone his father; but the latter, having obtained the assistance of Donald O'Brien, of Thomond, defeated him. Roderic O'Connor, disgusted, and weary of holding the reins of a tottering monarchy, destitute of the sinews of war, and of the means of enforcing a submission to the laws, retired to the abbey of Cong, where he spent the remainder of his days, thirteen years, to prepare for eternity.

The natives sometimes copied the example of the invaders, whose pretence was civilization, but whose practice was a lesson in every manner of cruelty and tyranny. About this time Hugh de Lacy, the usurper of Meath, was assassinated at Durrow, with the stroke of a hatchet, by a young Irish lord, disguised as a workman, while he was building a strong castle to keep the vicinity in subjection. Henry II. on hearing of the death of Lacy, sent his son John, with a considerable army, to repossess himself of the government. Delayed at Chester by contrary winds, the king, on hearing of the death of his son

Geoffry, who died at Paris, sent him orders to return, and charged Philip Wigorne with the expedition to Ireland. Some pretend that Henry himself came to Ireland at that time.

The impending ruin of Ireland was not capable of appeasing the intestine troubles of the Irish, or uniting them for their common preservation. Donald, son of Hugh O'Loghlin, chieftain of Tyrone, was dethroned by his son Roderic Lachertair. The latter made incursions the year following into Tyrconnel, where he was slain, and Donald was again established.

1186. The death of O'Conarchy, bishop of Lismore, and apostolic legate, referred by our annalists to this year, deserves to be noticed only as it elucidates the policy of the courts of Rome and London. Since the first alliance, concluded between Henry II. and Pope Adrian, and continued by their respective successors, judging the reduction of Ireland to be for the interest of the allied powers, they had a Pope's legate always in Ireland, of the king's nomination, and devoted to his interest. Three of them had already acted in that capacity, Cardinal Vivian, O'Heney, archbishop of Cashel, and the last mentioned bishop of Lismore. A fresh spiritual ambassador came from Rome, Cardinal Octavian, with an assistant, Hugh de Nounant, bishop of Coventry and Litchfield, to perform the ceremony of crowning his son John, king of Ireland. The ceremony was suspended, says Hoveden, on account of Henry's continental affairs, who brought with him the two legates, to assist at a confe

rence he was going to hold with the king of France towards a treaty of peace.

That the absurd union of bigotry and robbery could be met with in the native Irish as well as in their English invaders, Mildouin O'Donoghue will serve for an instance. At the head of a gang of freebooters, he plundered the church of Ardfert, and the abbey of Inisfallen, situated in Lough Lene, (now called the Lake of Killarney), and with much effusion of blood. During the prevalence of anarchy and confusion in Ireland, the wealth of these places attracted the cupidity of a number of swordsmen, more able and willing to fight than to work.

The writers on Irish affairs, as has been observed, seem not to have penetrated the policy which induced the invaders to plunder native monasteries, and found new ones in their room. How edifying it is, says Abbé Geoghegan, to see the plunderers of churches, and of other men's properties, making religious foundations! This strange sort of devotion was introduced into Ireland by the English, says the abbé. For instance, Philip Wigorne, viceroy of Ireland, after plundering the university of Armagh, founded a priory of Benedictines at Kilcumin, county of Tipperary. But of what nation were the monks? It appears by the original charter, in the Cottonian library, that they were taken from the Benedictine abbey of Glaston, in England; and were subject to that house, and to the rules of English policy to admit no native members or novices.