simply state, that a host of Gathelians marched to the assistance of the marauders; and, in conjunction with them, endeavoured to take and demolish O'Kelly's little castle. The castle was well defended, and the combined forces beat off. They forgot to record, whether the chieftain of Imany had an entrenched camp near his little castle, to second the valour of its little garrison, though the fact can hardly be doubted; since it cannot be conceived, that the castle-builder would abandon a work, that cost such exertion, and was so necessary to his people. From this sample, and some more that shall follow, it is self-evident, that a people, thirsting so greedily for each other's destruction, could not long subsist as a nation, in the devouring jaws of anarchy and vindictive hostilities. Indeed, there was at that time no such thing as an Irish nation united by interest and the national feelings of patriotism. Each clan was a distinct nation, considering only its own local concerns, and hostile or indifferent to the rest. Sometimes, indeed, they formed alliances among a few clans, for some object offensive or defensive; but these were temporary and precarious, while the Irish alliances with their enemies, for the ruin of their country, were more numerous and steady. The mercenary race of their bards, with few exceptions, abused the influence of music and numbers, on minds of vehement sensibility, meanly flattering and inflaming their passions; and were easily bribed, by the invaders, to rekindle old animosities and wars amongst them. Thus, in the reign of queen

Elizabeth, the bards of the north and south were played off against each other, to revive the rivalry of the houses of Heber and Heremon; and impede, by their mutual vaunting, defiance, reproaches and recriminations, any concert for their common protection.

Leland, with his fellow writers of the same stamp, talk of the successes of the earl of Ormond, during his deputyship, over O'Nial, and some other chieftains, which but ill accord with what he states in the same page.* *We find the limits of the English Pale, as it stood in the ninth year of Henry VI. defined in such a manner, as gives a MORTIFYING idea of the extent of English power in those days;" little more than the county of Dublin being exempt from tribute to Irish chieftains. "In this interval we find a remarkable instance of the poverty or the economy of those times. It was agreed in council, that as the hall of the castle of Dublin, and the windows thereof, were ruinous, and that there was in the treasury a certain antient silver seal cancelled, which was of no use to the king, the said seal should be broken and sold, and the money laid out on the said hall and windows." Here are two convincing proofs of their inability to put down any of the great chieftains, or compelling them to relinquish their claim to the tribute, called, by those who paid it, Black Rent. The narrow limits of the colony, and the tributes therefrom to the powerful families of Mac Murchad, O'Nial

* Leland, Vol. II. B. III. c. i. p. 22.

and O'Brien, sufficiently explain the poverty of the exchequer.

1

Even in this state of real debility, and precarious tolerated existence, the Pale could not divest itself of its absurd antipathies, subservient to the policy of England. In the administration subsequent to that of Ormond, all the statutes against marrying, fostering, or trafficking with the Irish, were renewed. Nevertheless, the parliament of this little tract, called the Pale, paid a laudable attention to their own interests, with regard to English interference. In their petitions to the king, they notice the misrepresentations made to him of his Irish subjects; the incapacity and ignorance of persons sent from England to every office of trust; and their impudent affectation of superiority over the old settlers: their own right to be treated as Englishmen, agreeably, to the stipulations of their ancestors, they insisted on. The discontents, arising from those grievances unredressed, kept increasing, untill they were buried in oblivion by contests of greater moment.

The chief settlers, generally descended from indigent and profligate adventurers, on the testimony of their own cotemporary countrymen, had, by various arts of violence, perfidy, and fraud, profiting of the anarchy and feuds of the old natives, attained princely opulence and consequence. The Geraldines, Burkes, and Butlers, could rank with chieftains of the second class, in power and resources. Of all these, the earl of Desmond was the most potent. He usurped a

large tract of the county of Cork, under pretence of a grant from Cogan; as if that early adventurer had a right to grant other men's estates. He was by patent appointed governor of Limerick, Waterford, Cork and Kerry, dispensed from attendance on parliament for life, on sending a proxy. As an independent sovereign, he exercised all the prerogatives of royalty, and continued his encroachments. Ormond, at this time deputy, began to look with a jealous eye on the aggrandizement of the rival of his house; and interposed his authority, to restrain the rapacity of Desmond. The latter bad him defiance; they collected forces; to war they went, in which the unfortunate natives were, as usual, the principal victims and sufferers. Foiled in his endeavour to defeat Desmond, the deputy was obliged to make a twelve month's truce with him; during which the thane had time to strengthen his party, and encourage the enemies of Ormond to impeach him of sundry acts of mal-administration. The artifices of Desmond succeeded: an order was issued for the removal of Ormond, which, on receiving a favourable testimony of his Irish deputy's conduct, Henry suspended; yet, soon after, whether moved by the accusations sent over, or to remove a cause of jealousy from among the leading colonists, he sent an Englishman, Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, to govern his Irish domain. He came attended by 700 men; a necessary reinforcement, in times of turbulence and factious broils among natives and settlers. The Fitz-Patricks and the Butlers

had some quarrels, in which the Irish chieftain of Ossory, as usual, was assassinated. O'Connor Faly and the Berminghams invaded Meath. O'Brien and Clanrickard made war on the colonists of Thomond. The colonial writers here state," that the Irish chieftains were reduced, the degenerated English intimidated, and some of the most obnoxious among them, particularly of the Berminghams, seized, condemned and executed." The reduction of the Irish chieftains! How reasonable the tales of baron Munkhausen, when compared with such extravagant rant? Long after this period the Milesian power was formidable. It was not with 700 men, and the forces of the petty, impoverished Pale, that such an undertaking could be dreamed of. If, by the mediation of a deputy, peace was restored, or atonement made to an injured or offended chieftain, it was set down reduction, homage. The native Irish seldom took up arms but to revenge some wrong or insult. The settlers, true to the first principles of their mission, never let slip, but always strove to create opportunities of encroachment. If a provoked chieftain was appeased by submission and satisfaction, 'tis strange language to call the transaction homage, submission, and no way reconcileable with the continuance of the tribute.

At a parliament held in Trim, anno 1447, the bigotted ordinances of the Pale against native Irish were renewed. The beard-act, prohibiting the use of whiskers, now generally worn by soldiers on the continent; an act against the use of