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savage state! Yet they bore a striking resemblance to the institutions of those nations revered for wisdom by all antiquity. As in Egypt, Chaldea and Hindoostan, the people consisted of distinct classes, or, as they are called, casts, of different rank, privilege, and avocation, distinguished by different garments and colours, all hereditary. The military, the judicial, the literary, the druidic, the bardic, the agricultural, and the mechanical casts, were all by inheritance, and the number of casts was seven, as in the East. Lest emulation should be extinguished, by hereditary succession to professions, different degrees and titles of honour were awarded to merit, determinable by the unbiassed judgment of the public, on the performances of competitors. The memorials of these things I have seen, in old vellum manuscripts of the Brehon laws, written in the Phoenico-celtic. For example, seacht ngradh phile, seven degrees of phile, of which the highest was ollamh, or ard ollamh. Now, the philosophy of the Milesians included music, poetry, and eloquence, as well as arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, geography, natural history and physic. The fragments of those that have survived persecution, have not been the contrivance or work of savages, but of an ingenious scientific people. I have known cures to be wrought, by recipes taken from these musty records, of diseases, which baffled the faculty to this day, with all their materia medica. What shall I say of those relics of antient art yearly dug up? Vases and instruments, for use or or4 c

VOL. I.

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nament, in gold, silver, brass, and iron, of curious and elegant workmanship. The most valuable and elegant specimens that I have seen, of these antient monuments of Irish art, three golden serpents of exquisite workmanship, forming an urn by their foldings, purchased by Delandre from a countryman, and from him by the marquis of Lansdown, I hope to be preserved. These put me in mind of a passage I had read in one of the old vellums, concerning the migration of the Hy-Mbruin tribe towards the Shannon. They divided themselves into three columns, the standard of each was a serpent of burnished gold. I was not confirmed in the belief of this assertion until I saw the reality, and both call to mind the brazen serpent, that was borne before the children of Israel. The same goldsmith has another curious antique, dug from the Irish soil, a golden vase, in form of a cymbal, of no savage contrivance or workmanship. In effect, whether we contemplate the munificent institutions in favour of learning, piety, hospitality, poetry, music; their mild and equitable laws, some of which are still preserved on vellum, of a date antecedent to the christian æra. The triennial assembly of the states. Their Olympic games, of which some mention is to be found in the fabulous period of Grecian antiquity. Their antient orders of chivalry. The different titles and degrees of honor, assigned to every kind of merit, in arts, in learning, valour and virtue. The care with which, beyond any other nation, they preserved the records of history. This at

tention to historic truth was in reality indissolubly interwoven with the constitution; for every man's rights, privileges and property, depending on pedigree, the antiquary was as necessary as the Breheamh no clan could want one. Besides the check of mutual jealousy, their works must be revised by the states at Tara, and receive their sanction, before they were admitted as legitimate records.

It is not without contempt and scorn, that any one, informed of the memorable facts concerning the antient, learned, philanthropic and religious race, can read the despicable insult of an infidel historian, telling the world, that the barbarous Baltic rovers contributed rather to civilize Ireland! He has not named any single species of improvement introduced by them; not a single art or manufacture, that has any Danish name, or any connexion with a Danish origin. The terms of Irish art and science have a strong affinity with the antient languages of Phenicia and Persia. But the Danes built castles here! What then? Does civilization depend on the rude workmanship of them forts, or on stone buildings preferably to wooden? Whoever experienced the comforts of timber walls, especially during the damp cold winters of these islands, would assuredly not chuse to be environed with damp cold stones. When the dearth and scarcity of timber obliged people to resort to stone fabrics, the opulent still got their walls wainscotted, i.e. lined with timber by Scottish, that is, Irish carpenters. On the contrary, the ferocious plunderers were civilized by those whom they outraged, and from

whom they received religion, letters and arts. They likewise imparted letters, arts and religion, as far as Iceland and Africa, founded colleges and universities in sundry parts of Europe, where their learning and piety is still preserved in memory, in temples, and religious offices. The very names of Gillimer* and Gillus, of the Vandals and Goths, point out the missionaries who baptized them; the one meaning the Servant of Mary, the other the Servant of Jesus.

Hume and Leland agree, in attributing to their ignorance, the inattention of the Irish to the theological controversies that convulsed the greater part of Europe during nearly two centuries. It might, with more justice perhaps, be attributed to the contrary, or to other causes. In the writings of cotemporary protestants, we find much cause to think, that superior information, natural sagacity, or both united, discredited the reformation in Ireland. The preachers of the new faith they describe as sorry curates,' ignorant, profligate, indolent, careless of the instruction or salvation of the people, so they got the emoluments of a sinecure office. The catholic clergy, on the other hand, are depicted, as animated with indefatigable zeal and perseverance, in the exercise of their functions, sacrificing thereto every personal consideration of ease, health, and frequently at the peril of their lives. From

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*Gillimer, king of the Vandals, in Africa, was defeated by Bellisarius, an. 530. His Irish name is a sufficient proof of his having been baptized by an Irish missionary, whose father he had converted, as he is mentioned to have been kind to the church.-Christ. Helvicus, Chron. Hist.

this unsuspicious evidence 'tis easy to infer, which flock was best instructed. The sagacity of the Irish was easily directed to discern the essential point, on which all controversies must depend. A supernatural religion must contain some things undiscoverable and unintelligible to mere human reason, the number and definition of which cannot be settled by it, but by the divine authority, immediate or delegated. Now as that supernatural religion is not revealed to every individual directly, and yet is necessary for all, and for ever, consequently, it must be communicated by delegated authority, extending to all countries and all ages, protected from any noxious error, and commanding silence on the human understanding, in the exposition of the faith. Revealed religion implies, in its conception and definition, a superior and paramount authority, to whose dictates human reason must submit. The Irish must have perceived, on supposition of their being diligently taught the principles of their religion, that christianity was founded on facts, and those of a supernatural kind, claiming implicit belief. That facts, beyond the course of nature, require more than ordinary testimony, unerring. Because supernatural religion, teaching incomprehensible mysteries, deserves no implicit submission, unless supported by unerring testimony, and taught by those commissioned as delegates to preserve and dispense it from generation to generation. Irish catholics saw, that those, who disown infallible testimony and interpretation, have no right to

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