frequently forced them from one tribe to another, property was eternally fluctuating; and new partitions of lands made almost daily. Hence, the cultivation of grounds was only in proportion to the immediate demands of nature, and the tributes to be paid to superiors. And whatever magnificent structures might have been erected for occasions of state, or for religious worship, it is certain that both princes and people dwelt in houses slightly composed of hurdles.

AMONG a rude people, hospitality was a principal virtue. It was enjoined by law;

and as neither lords nor tenants were bound to each other, as the whole tribe might mi grate to some more favourable district, the Brehon institutes expressly enjoin that no Rath shall break up suddenly, lest the traveller should be disappointed of his expected reception. But neither the duties to be re ceived by the lord, nor the entertainment he was to expect from his inferiors, were determined by his arbitrary will and pleasure. They were proportioned to the benefits received from him, and ascertained by the laws so that the lord could exact his Coshering, his Cuddies, his Bonnaught, names denoting particular modes of provision for the temporary support of himself and his attendants; and which in latter times were found so grievous, and so severely condemned, under the denominations of "Coyne and livery." Even the lowest of the people claimed reception and refreshment, by an almost VOL. I.

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perfect right and so ineffectual is the flux of many centuries to efface the ancient manners of a people, that at this day the wandering beggar enters the house of a farmer or gentleman, with as much ease and freedom as an inmate. The benevolent spirit of Christianity served to enforce and countenance such manners. "The most holy men of heaven," say the Irish laws, were remark"able for hospitality; and the Gospel com"mands us to receive the sojourner, to enter*"tain him, and to relieve his wants."

THESE, laws not only provide against murder, rapes, adultery, theft, robbery; but such crimes as are not generally cognizable by human tribunals; such as slander, tale-bearing, or disrespect to superiors. But at this day it will not be regarded as a distinguishing mark of barbarity that the most outrageous offences were punishable only by an ERIC or fine. That for murder was to be paid by the perpetrator or his family, to the son, or relations of the deceased, and in proportion to their degrees of consanguinity: that for adultery, to the husband of the offender, by her father or nearest relations; or, if a bondwoman, by the tribe which entertained her, or by the church which she served. The incestuous person not only paid his Eric, but was instantly expelled from his tribe. Nor could any man be admitted into a new tribe, until he had paid Eric for all offences whatever committed in his former residence. The fine paid to a son for the murder of his father was rated at seven Cumhals, as they were call

ed,

ed, or twenty-one kine. Hence we may form a judgment of the lenity of their penal laws in other instances. The property and security of woods, the regulation of watercourses, but above all the property of bees, on which depended the principal beverage of the people, were guarded by a number of minute institutions, which breathe a spirit of equity and humanity. We are not to wonder that a people, accustomed to the refinements found in their own laws, should be pronounced of all others the greatest lovers of justice. This is the honorable testimony of sir John Davis and lord Coke. With shame we must confess, that they were not taught this love of justice by the first English settlers,

MORYSON, in his travels, informs us that an Irish chieftain with his family and attendants sat round his fire, naked. There is little doubt but that in the reign of Elizabeth, even the old natives had degenerated, and that the wars of several centuries had reduced them to a state inferior to that in which the English found them in the days of Henry the Second. Yet the fact is totally incredible. The climate of Ireland must at all times have forced the most barbarous to some covering, even in their retired chambers. Irish writers minutely describe the ancient dress of their country, the vest, the trowse, the mantle, the enormous linen sleeves dyed with saffron, the ornaments of their women, and the crowns of their kings. The fragments

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of their laws, an authority less suspicious, regulate the prices of dress for all orders and degrees; they ordain that wives who bring no dowry (including even queens) shall be restrained in the expence of their apparel; they ascertain the prices of needle-work, embroidery, and other ornaments. But if the women were attentive to adorn their persons, the men affected rather a warlike aspect: their thick beards, and great whiskers, their glibbs or bushy hair hanging careless over their visage, joined with an athletic body, gave them a fierce and even hideous appear

ance.

"THE Songs of the bard," saith lord Lyttleton,“ had usually more power to incite “and enflame, than the music of the harp "to soften or mitigate the ferocity of the "chief: so that even this recreation, which "seems to indicate something gentle and

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approaching to politeness in the temper of "the Irish, contributed to keep up that turbulent spirit, averse to order and peace, "which no prince or legislator that their country ever produced had sufficient skill "to controul." The observation is fully verified by the history of this people.

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Of all the customs of the Irish, that of FOSTERAGE, as it is called, hath been a particular subject of speculation. Their writers generally agree, that children were mutually given, from different families, to be nursed and bred up in others; and that infe

riors, instead of expecting any reward for their care, purchased the honor of fostering the children of the rich. Hence, we are told, a stricter connection and confederacy were formed between different families and different tribes. There is no doubt, but that children bred from their infancy together, in the same family, under the same parental care, in the same sports and occupations, with minds untainted by pride, and inattentive to worldly distinctions, considered each other as real brethren, and contracted warm affections, which time could not extinguish: that they regarded their fosterers with a filial reverence; and were oftentimes, through life, attended by the children of these fosterers with a zealous and steady attachment. But I cannot allow that fosterage was purposely devised by politicians to produce these effects, that there was a mutual exchange of children, or any mutual alliances intended or concerted by such an exchange. The Brehon laws seem to intimate, that fostering was the occupation of those whose inferior condition rendered them incapable of doing other services to the public. No man," say they, "shall in any case be entitled to ERIC, but " he who pays tribute or FOSTERS: and in "their injunctions on ALL orders of women, "their expression is, from the queen to the FOSTERERS.' So far are the fragments of these laws from favouring the notion that the honor of breeding children was ever purchased, that they are exact in ascertaining the wages that shall be paid to fosterers in

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