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PREFACE.

They were included in the

THE Lectures comprised in this Volume were originally delivered before THE DUBLIN YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, IN CONNECTION WITH THE UNITED CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND. several volumes published by the Committee of the Society; but as some of them are now out of print, the Committee believe that a re-issue, in a new and connected shape, will be welcomed by the members and friends of the Association. The Subjects of the Lectures generally, are of present and permanent interest-those on the "The Church" particularly so; and therefore the Committee feel happy in being enabled not only to gather into one Volume a series of instructive and valuable Essays, but also to perpetuate the work of so cordial a friend of the Society as the distinguished Author.

In this Edition the Lectures have been revised and amended.

ASSOCIATION HOUSE,

8 Dawson Street, Dublin,

Dec. 1868.

THE LIFE AND DEATH

OF

THE IRISH PARLIAMENT.

CHAPTER I.

ORIGIN and Progress of the Parliament of Ireland-The Public Buildings of Dublin-Rev. James Whitelaw and the Historians of the City Popular View of the alleged Conquest of Henry II. not correct-Antiquity and Fame of Dublin-Amusing Portrait of Henry by Giraldus Cambrensis-Object of Kings of England to establish one Law, one State, one Church-" Modus Tenendi Parliamentum" not enforced in Ireland for 140 years.

MR. CHAIRMAN,

It affords me no common satisfaction to address you, Sir, in that chair, not only on the score of respect for your character and from private friendship, but because you prove in your own person what a happy life that of a Member of the Old Irish Parliament must have been. Wit, humour, eloquence, administered at suitable times and at reasonable intervals, operate as medicine for the mind; the consequent exhilaration of the spirits acts on the bodily health, securing longevity and vigour. The "mens conscia recti" may be the true cause of the enviable condition of our Chairman—

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