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HISTORY OF IRELAND, 
 
 FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT 
 TO THE PRESENT TIME; 
 
 INCLUDING A PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF 
 
 ITS LITERATURE, MUSIC, ARCHITECTURE, 
 AND NATURAL RESOURCES; 
 
 WITH UPWARDS OF TWO HUNDRED 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 
 
 OF 
 
 ITS MOST EMINENT MEN; 
 
 INTERSPERSED WITH A GREAT NUMBER OF 
 
 3rtsl) illclobic0, 
 
 ORIGINAL AND SELECTED, 
 
 ARRANGED FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, 
 
 AND ILLUSTRATED BY MANY 
 
 ANECDOTES OF CELEBRATED IRISHMEN, 
 
 AND A 
 
 SERIES OF ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTIONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS MOONEY, 
 
 LATE OF THE CITY OF DUBLIN. 
 
 YOL. I. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PATRICK DONAHOE, 3 FRANKLIN STREET. 
 
 1853. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by 
 
 Thomas Moonev, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetta 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 44427 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 "History's lessons, if you'll read 'em, 
 
 Will impart this truth to thee — 
 
 Knowledge is* the price of freedom ; 
 
 Know yourself, and you are free." — Nation. 
 
 History is defined to be a dignified recital of events. Its object is tc 
 give us the advantages of ages of experience, and its treatment ought to 
 be such as not only to instruct, but to amuse and to incite. 
 
 It should, we conceive, be written to effect this triple purpose : to in- 
 struct, by a skilful array of events growing naturally out of one another; — 
 to amuse, by a happy introduction of as much of the characteristic fea- 
 tures of the persons in the narrative, — the romance of life, as it may be 
 termed, — as shall not take too much from its dignity ; which introductions 
 should appear at due intervals in the work, like inns upon a great road, to 
 afford refreshment to the reader-; — and to incite to deeds of virtue, patriot- 
 ism, tenderness, and heroism, by duly extolling such as may have distin- 
 guished themselves by these laudable traits; teaching the young that 
 by these means only can they hope for the approbation of their contem- 
 poraries and of posterity. This is the aim of history, to which all its 
 bearing should tend. 
 
 Most histories are written so dryly that they are as unpalatable 
 as law books. Hence the young mind flies off to novels and romances, 
 which are fictitious histories, but which possess the exciting and at- 
 tractive properties that the grave historian casts away. The mind 
 of youth should be filled with true history as the preparatory course to 
 the acquisition of other knowledge ; and it should, in my opinion, be 
 written in familiar language, and interspersed with the most beautiful 
 flowers of literature, to refresh and delight the mind, and engage its 
 attention. 
 
 The old historians, writing for less sophisticated natures, enveloped their 
 narratives in poetry, and frei,uently recited them to their auditories, accom- 
 panying the voice with the sounds of the harp — a mode of conveying 
 b 
 
V. PRErACE. 
 
 nistorical information which was far more effective than thnt adopted by 
 the moderns. The multitude of every nation, in ancient times, knew the 
 history of their country tolerably well. But, with all our modern inven- 
 tions, is this the case now ? Do the multitude in Ireland, England, France, 
 or America, know the history of their respective countries tolerably well 1 
 It must be admitted that they do not. Females, in general, know little of 
 history; and one of the reasons is, that most of the histories we have 
 are written so gravely, that none but a mind ardently bent on acquiring a 
 knowledge of the past will toil through the wearisome pages in which it 
 is deposited. 
 
 Entertaining this opinion, which I have formed upon a close observation 
 of the bent of the public taste, I have constructed my work upon the 
 ancient plan, restoring poetry and music to their companionship with 
 history. This, of course, will subject me to the rod of the reviewers; but I 
 hope to have the multitude on my side, who are always natural in taste 
 and honest in judgment ; and, if I succeed in this respect, I can afford 
 to bear the laceration of others. I therefore present my History of 
 Ireland in a scries of lectures, interspersed with Irish melodies, nearly in 
 the style in which they were originally delivered by me in New York, 
 This method of conveying historical information I found to be attractive 
 and effective in the lecture-room, and I trust it will prove so in my book. 
 Those who seek the music and the pictures may pause to meditate on 
 facts that are side by side. 
 
 The music is selected from many eminent Irish composers. The col- 
 lection embraces every measure. It is difficult to select music that will 
 please every taste ; and some that I have omitted may be much better 
 than some that I have chosen. The pieces which I have published are 
 merely specimens; and many of them are linked with the history by an 
 indissoluble tie. There is yet an unbounded field of Irish music untrod- 
 den. Perhaps, in some future publication, I may offer a further col- 
 lection. The songs of my own composition have been arranged for sundry 
 instruments by Mr. M'Gaughy, and will be found, it is hoped, suggestive 
 of patriotic sentiment. 
 
 In a work which, like this, embraces such a multitude of details re- 
 specting events and persons, some errors must strike the intelligent reader ; 
 and it will give me pleasure to receive suggestions for improvement from 
 any quarter. The severest censure of the reviewers, if founded on sufficieni 
 grounds, will have my attention. The whole of this work is stereotyped, 
 and covers seventeen hundred metal plates ; it is in my power; by a 
 trifling expenditure, to have alterations made in any of its pages. My 
 life will be well spent in perfecting the work ; and every detection of 
 error or omission, either by friend or foe, will enable me to carry out the 
 great object I have in view — the completion of a good History of Ireland. 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 The unreflecting or the prejudiced Protestant may deem this History par- 
 tial, because he will not find in it any abuse of Catholicism or its clergy. 
 The enlightened and the patriotic Protestant will perceive that, in common 
 with the great body of the Irish people, the author dwells in fervent terms 
 upon the virtue and nationality of the Protestant patriots, dead and living. 
 Molyneaux, Swift, and Lucas, were Protestants. Grattan, Flood, Bristol, 
 Charlemont, and Curran, were Protestants. The Emmets, O'Connor, 
 Tone, Rowan, Russell, were Protestants. These are among our canonized 
 patriots, the concentred rays of whose genius form one bright beacon to 
 illumine our path in exile, and our road to freedom. In our own day, 
 O'Brien, Grattan, Steele, Davis, Barrett, Gray, Seaver, Clements, and 
 others, who are among the trusted leaders of Ireland, are Protestants. 
 We are prepared to risk our lives by their side in defence of liberty. 
 What more would Protestantism have, unless it desire a tyrannical ascend- 
 ency over Catholics, which the Protestant ministers of the queen of 
 England have said never can exist again. 
 
 The unreflecting and the prejudiced Englishman may deem this History 
 partial, because much that he considered his own in art and valor has 
 been restored to Ireland, and because the necessities of history compel 
 the exposure of a long course of English misrule in Ireland and else- 
 where. But the enlightened and the honest Englishman will perceive 
 that the aristocracy and its agents are separated, all through, from the great 
 bulk of the English people, who suffer almost as much from their depre- 
 dations as Ireland or India ; and a special acknowledgment is made to the 
 English democracy for the several manifestations of sympathy which they 
 have volunteered in behalf of the freedom of their brethren in Ireland. 
 Indeed, the wish is frequently wafted forth for a hearty cooperation of the 
 oppressed English and Irish people for the achievement of their common 
 liberties. 
 
 I have not occupied my pages, as others have done theirs, with detailed 
 descriptions of those lands that were confiscated during the several wars 
 between England and Ireland, nor published profitless lists of the "right 
 owners," the descendants of most of whom are scattered over the world, 
 and are become the servants of the servants of men. Such publications 
 enable the cunning agents of England to spread alarm among the Protes- 
 tant possessors of those estates, by pointing to the care with which the 
 Irish historians record the boundaries and the names of former owners, — to 
 insinuate that the object of the present agitation for the reestablishment of 
 the Irish parliament is to seize on those estates, and restore them to the 
 descendants of the original owners. Public opinion is completely set 
 against any disturbance of the possessors of property in Ireland, upon any 
 pretence oi former illegal seizure. No ! The Irish, when in possession of 
 power, will never overhaul the titles of those who reside in Ireland; but 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 they will not spate the permanent absentees ; tJiey are a doomed race. And 
 if Ireland be driven to the field to achieve her liberty, the fee simple of ab- 
 sentee property, worth, at twenty years' purchase, one hundred and twenty 
 millions sterling, {six hundred millions of dollars,) will be found most 
 appropriate, and amply sufficient to pay those auxiliaries who may volun- 
 teer in her behalf, and w-ho would be happy with freedom, competence, 
 and a permanent residence in Ireland, as their reward. In such an event, 
 the man who would not be for Ireland would be against her ; and the 
 penalty of his hostility ought to be, at least, the loss of his property. 
 
 There will be found occasional repetitions of the same facts in the 
 work. I have learned from O'Connell, from Cobbett, and from the Lon- 
 don Times, that it is necessary, for the purposes of truth, to repeat peculiar 
 facts. In defence of this practice, I will let the Times speak for me. 
 
 "Now, there is an immense power in facts. The long contemplation, 
 and for a time the barren contemplation, of one simple fact, has often led 
 to the sublimest discoveries. The fall of an apple elicited the theory of 
 gravitation, the ascent of a soap-bubble the laws of color and light. It is 
 so in the history of nations ; the bare sight of the blood-stained dagger, or 
 of its bleeding victim, has overthrown dynasties. Such is the powder of a 
 picture, or of a ballad. It is a fact boldly exhibited, and appealing to the 
 hearts of men. Wherever there is public opinion, wherever there are com- 
 mon sense and common feeling, a fact is sure to have its weight. It is a 
 battering-ram, which, though it be only one instrument, yet, by many 
 successive blows, will break through the thickest and hardest prejudice or 
 stupidity. It is the continual drop which wears the stone. So we say, 
 if there be a great and distressing body of facts, with some great mystery 
 of iniquity, or error, or misfortune, connected with it, tell it, and tell it, and 
 tell it again. Tell it in a thousand forms. Tell it with perpetual variety 
 of circumstance and novelty of view. Tell it of this locality, and tell it 
 of that. Tell it of twenty years back, and tell it of now. Tell it of the 
 mass, and tell it of individuals. Give sums total, and particular instances. 
 Give names and places. Make the fact familiar, and yet vast ; detailed, 
 and yet marvellous. Do all this with a laborious and painful accuracy 
 which cannot be gainsaid. Be a very slave to the truth. Before a gen- 
 eration is past, the fact will speak for itself, and find a cure. You will 
 have endued a mere fact with life and energy. An undeniable statement, 
 which admits of being comprehended in ten words, and which was once 
 the ineffectual subject of whole libraries, will at last have more power than 
 ten million men."/' 
 
 This volume embraces the great outlines of the history of Ireland from 
 the first settlement of the island to the 30th of May, 1845. Although it is 
 
 * Leading article from the Times, on the Reports from Ireland of its " Commis- 
 sioner," September, 1845. 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 a bulky book, it is yet but an abridgment. It might have been still further 
 abridged, if I had not feared Jo defeat the great object in view by a dan- 
 gerous brevity. Although brevity is the soul of icit., it may be the destruc- 
 tion of history. The history of Ireland might, for that matter, be given 
 in two or three pages : Thus, — 
 
 Ireland was first peopled, about fifteen hundred years before the Christian era, by an 
 intelligent race called Phoenicians, who came from the shores of the Mediterranean 
 Sea, and who brought with them a knowledge of the arts, sciences, and literature, 
 then extant among the enlightened inhabitants of Egypt and Etruria. The island 
 was called Scotia, was divided into principalities, and was governed by independent 
 kings for the first six hundred years, who warred with each other for supremacy. 
 About nine hundred years before the Christian era, a Fcis, or parliament, was called by 
 one of the most learned and moderate of those kings, named Ollamh Fodhla, which 
 was held at Tara, the seat of his court, where all the chief men of the country, to the 
 number of one thousand, assembled. This great man delivered to that assembly a 
 history of the nation, which included the laws and maxims of their forefathers ; 
 whereupon a written constitution was framed, and appended thereto, called the Psalter 
 of Tara, which was received for more than two Uiousaud years as a guide by the 
 subsequent kings and jurists of Ireland. The laws made by those ancient legislators 
 were very wise and very humane. They provided for the national hospitality, for the 
 diffusion of knowledge and wealth, and the subdivision of land, and for the punish- 
 ment of crime. The trial of disputes by twelve men, and the law o^ gavel, were prom 
 inent among them. Their language, which was very ancient, and identified with 
 the earliest developments of human science, is spoken by the people to tiiis day. 
 Chivalry, honor, music, poetry, and martial courage, were promoted by their social 
 customs. Their religion, to the fourth century, was pagan : they sacrificed to the 
 sun, like most tjf the pagan nations of antiquity. 
 
 Though the nations which surrounded them were many times conquered and 
 reconquered, and oven sold as slaves, by Roman, Saxon, Dane, and Norman, 
 Ireland maintained an unconquerable integrity all through. During the western 
 wars of the Romans, the Irish opposed their legions in Britain, and finally drove them 
 back, after a contest which lasted four hundred years. 
 
 They were the only nation that received Christianity without sheddino- blood, which 
 they did in the year four hundred and thirty-two, from the lips of St. Patrick, who 
 was a Gaulish captive, brought into Ireland, with many others, as trophies of war, by 
 their conquering legions. After their conversion to Christianity, they turned their 
 whole strength to the cultivation of letters and morals. They were an enlightened 
 nation, and the doctrines of Christianity stimulated them to become missionaries and 
 teachers of the west of Europe in morals, languages, literature, astronomy, architecture, 
 poetry, and music. They opened extensive colleges at home, to which the youth of 
 Gaul, Britain, and Scotland, repaired to be educated ; and they sent forth swarms of 
 missionaries over Europe, who undertook to instruct and refine the barbarous hordes 
 which overran that continent on the breaking up of the Roman empire. There is 
 hardly any celebrated part of Europe where evidences may not be found at this day of 
 their piety, industry, or knowledge. During the long night of rufiianism and ignorance, 
 which hung over Europe from the fourth to the sixth century, when the Gotha 
 were seated on the thrones of the Caesars, the enlightened sons of Ireland were the 
 only cultivators of letters, preservers of ancient documents, and dispensers of knowl- 
 edge, that remained in Europe. They preserved the ancient Latin and Phoenician 
 languages, which they speak in the purest style at the present hour. It was 
 
VIU PREFACE. 
 
 from them that the Anglo-Saxons received tlieir knowledge of letters and their ideas 
 of legislative government ; and though there are some writers of the present genera- 
 tion who denominate the ancic^nt parliaments ofTara"rude baronial assemblies," 
 it must be remarked that nothing has come from Saxon, Dane, or Norman, to supply 
 their places; that the entire legislation of England, from the Norman conquest to 
 the days of Castlereagh, is fraudulent, bloody, and oppressive ; that the laws which 
 emanated from the ancient Irish legislative assemblies were calculated to diffuse 
 wenlth and knowledge, to dispense justice, to punish crime, and to superinduce 
 morality — results diametrically opposed to those which flowed from the legislation 
 and laws of England. Ireland, for several centuries, presented these attributes, and 
 won from the admiring nations which she taught the distinctive title Insulam Sancto- 
 rum et Doctorum, (Island of Saints and Doctors.) 
 
 In the ninth century, her people were harassed by a war witli the Danes, whicii 
 continued two hundred years; and though that powerful race gave a new line of kings 
 to England, and founded a new kingdom in the heart of Gaul, they were subdued by 
 the persevering bravery of the Irish, who defeated them, and extinguished their power 
 in Ireland, in the beginning of the eleventh century. From the first settlement of the 
 country to this, (a period of twenty-four hundred years,) the Irish maintained their 
 independence. 
 
 In the twelfth century, through the quarrels of their native prmces, they were 
 invaded by new enemies in the Anglo-Normans, which proved disastrous to their 
 independence. These invaders were crafty and treacherous, arrayed prince against 
 prince, — assisting one side or the otlier, according to circumstances, — until the 
 power of all was considerably diminished. For the first four iuindred years 
 of this invasion, the Anglo-Norman power contented itself within a small semicircle 
 on the eastern const of Ireland, known as the '• English Pah?," which covered about 
 one eighth of the island, wiiore the English laws, language, and dress prevailed, and 
 where a little parliament and governtnent were established under English auspices; 
 but the descendants of the first settlers became, in course of time, thorough partici- 
 pators in Irish feeling, customs, and language, imbued with feelings racy of the soil, 
 and were occasionally " more Irish than the Irisli themselves." The new adventurers 
 from England were looked upon by those of a previous age with jealousy ; but both 
 parties generally conspired to oppress and pillage the native inhabitants. 
 
 Towards the fifteenth century, the native Irish princes had won back by the sword 
 a very considerable portion of the territories at first seized by the invaders, but, 
 instead of joining together to expel them, as their forefathers had expelled the Danes, 
 were content to receive from them annual trii)utes, which were called " black mail," 
 and which were paid to them by thi- English settli^rs for a century and a Iialf. During 
 all this time, the native princes carried on their petty wars with one another just 
 as if no foreign foe was on their soil, and wasted that strength in senseless assaults 
 upon each other, which was more than twice sufficient, if combined, to expel the com 
 mon enemy. 
 
 On the introduction of the' changes in the creed of England, in the sixteentli and 
 seventeentli centuries, a series of religious wars and sacrilegious confiscations ensued, 
 from which the people of Ireland suffered terribly. A mania for pillage and robbery 
 was generated in the minds of the English people by tiie wicked examples of llonry 
 VIII. and his daugliters, together with those monarchs of England who (with one ex- 
 ception, that of James II.) for three centuries succeeded him. This mania was con- 
 verted into thundering armies, and at one period it seemed as if half the population 
 of England and Scotland had landed in unfortunate Ireland, with the resolve of 
 exterminating the ancient inhabitants. A vast number of the native Irish were 
 destroyed by the sword and famine in the course of a series of wars, which began iu 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 the mididle of the sixteenth, and terminated by treaty at the close of the seventeenth 
 century. 
 
 In the course of these wars, the Irish maintained their right to civil and religious 
 liberty against a greatly superior and a far more crafty force. They were aided in 
 their heroic defence by Spain and France, and were signally victorious in many battles ; 
 but bribery and treachery did more to despoil them of their inheritance than the arms 
 of their enemies. Having lost three fourths of their territory and half of their popu- 
 lation, being reduced by famine and the sword to about one million of inhabitants, 
 (who still supplied a resisting army of twenty thousand men,) and having been badly 
 commanded by King James JI. and his French generals, they came to the resolution 
 of capitulating with the invaders, which they did by solemn treaty, at the siege of 
 Limerick, in 1691, in presence of the English and Irish armies. In that treaty of 
 peace, it was agreed, for the first time, that the Irish should acknowledge the king of 
 England as king of Ireland, but that they were in other respects to be deemed a sepa- 
 rate nation, to enjoy the rights of worshipping God according to their consciences, the 
 inheritance of their estates by those who survived the war, and liberty of trade, navi- 
 gation, and manufacture. There was no question raised about a local parliament, 
 because Ireland was then, and ever had been, in possession of some kind of a legisla- 
 ture. The king and queen of England, William and Mary, most anxious for peace' 
 solemnly ratified this treaty ; after which the flower of the Irisli army passed over and 
 entered into the service of the king of France. Trade and manufactures, for which 
 Ireland was ever celebrated, began again to flourish ; and several English manufac- 
 turers went over and settled there, to take advantage of the greater facilities for 
 manufacture which the country offers in water-power, labor, provisions, and climate. 
 From this a jealousy arose in England, which caused the king to break all those 
 treaties with the Irish which he had so recently agreed upon. First he put down their 
 manufactures, and next proscribed the Catholics, who formed, as at present, the great 
 majority of the people. Succeeding monarchs followed up these bad acts by others 
 still worse, denying liberty to educate, or acquire property, until the nation wa^ 
 reduced to the most degrading ignorance and poverty by a dreadful and certain 
 process. 
 
 The Irish, destitute of an army, and but just recovering from the horrors of warfare, 
 were unable to resist the course of injustice and oppression which they were now 
 doomed to experience. At length, upon the breaking outof the war of independence in 
 the American colonies, a gleam of hope opened, which was realized in the establishment 
 of the political independence of Ireland in 17S2, after which the Irish nation started 
 onward in a brilliant career of prosperity. Tiiis was accomplished by the virtuous 
 resolution of the Irish volunteers, a civil and military association numbering about 
 eighty thousand men, who proclaimed civil and religious liberty, and the independ- 
 ence of Ireland, as their mottoes and objects, and at whose demand the king and 
 parliament of England solemnly declared, by act of parliament, that the Irish nation 
 was integral, and independent of the English parliament; that no authority had power 
 to legislate for Ireland but the king, lords, and commons, of Ireland ; and that this com- 
 pact was to last/orcrcr. During this bright era, Ireland gave to literature, eloquence, 
 and the arts, many of the most exalted geniuses, whose contributions England has 
 endeavored to appropriate to her own glory, without acknowledgment. 
 
 The prosperity thus engendered in Ireland by peace and freedom superinduced, 
 in England, the revival of the old national jealousy, which exhibited itself repeat- 
 edly during the administration of Mr. Pitt, but which broke into an overwhelm- 
 ing massacre in the year 1793 ; immediately after which, and while an English army 
 of one hundred and seventy thousand men were in the country, a proposition was 
 brought forward in the Irish parliament by the British minister, to hand over the rights 
 
* PREFACE. 
 
 of the Irish parliament to that of Britain, and reduce the three hnrrdred Irish repre- 
 sentatives to one hundred, who were to be transferred to the English parliament 
 where, however, they were to be met by an English majority of five hundred. A 
 proposition so destructive of the national rights and prosperity was met by the most 
 determined hostility of the Irish people. 
 
 They had just passed through a civil war, and suffered a general massacre and loss 
 of leaders, and were unable to resist the blow by war ; besides which, a majority of the 
 Irish members were bribed to vote away the independence of their country. Under 
 these circumstances, and in defiance of the two solemn compacts of 1691 and 1782, 
 the union with England was consummated. The gentry began to leave the 
 country, and carry off the produce of the soil, and the ruin of Ireland commenced. 
 In about three years after this, Robert Emmet tried, by a well-contrived but an 
 unfortunate effort, to overthrow the British power in Ireland. He failed, and was 
 executed ; and then the British ministry suspended the constitution for several years. 
 
 At length Daniel O'Connell, a distinguished Catholic lawyer, commenced a system 
 of agitation for Catholic emancipation, which, after several years' perseverance, pre- 
 vailed at last. The British ministry acknowledged that they were compelled to grant 
 freedom to the Catholics and Dissenters, in obedience to their combined confederation. 
 O'Connell then led the way in the reform of the British parliament, and the British and 
 Irish corporations, by the success of which he obtained a great deal of political power 
 for the Irish people, who were greatly enlightened by his eloquent instruction, and 
 now numbered some seven millions, six sevenths of whom were Catholics. He then 
 raised the demand for the restoration of the Irish parliament; and though, in the 
 prosecution of this demand, both himself and his friends have often been criminally 
 indicted, and even imprisoned, yet tiie cause is so just, and the people are so con- 
 vinced that without it they must be forever miserable, that there is no doubt but, like 
 emancipation, reform, and other great, questions of justice, it will at length be success- 
 ful. To enforce this demand, Ireland possesses a population of eight millions and 
 a half, of whom a million and a half are organized valiant men, governed by a num- 
 ber of distinguished leaders, unparalleled in her history for their talent, courage, and 
 caution. The Protestant part of tlie population are gradually becoming reconciled 
 to their Catholic countrymen. The British minister has declared, in parliament, 
 that Ireland presents a confederation now which it is not in the power of England to 
 put down ; and thus, after another cycle of suffering, Ireland stands forth in her 
 integral power, a nation in every thing but the name — an attribute, of which, under 
 Heaven, she shall not long be destitute. 
 
 Many there are who will not give more than a few minutes to the study 
 of Irish history. For the information of these, the preceding paragraphs 
 are designed. Even through that glimpse, they may see how deserving 
 Ireland is of her freedom, and how well calculated she is to achieve it; 
 and this must win her friends and consideration. But the Irish exile 
 will not be content with a hasty look into this subject. He will search 
 the long record of the glorious deeds of his forefathers ; and though he 
 may be far removed from the scenes of his youth, yet the dreams of home 
 and relatives will bring his troubled memory back to his native hills 
 and valleys, where the dearest images first impressed their forms on his 
 heart. 
 
 The expatriated Irishman, wheresoever he may be driven by the fiat of 
 a severe destiny, carries with him into exile an undying sympathy for his 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 native land. The scenes of his boyhood, — the river, brook, or mountain, 
 around which he gamboled in days of light-hearted youth, — the dear 
 brother, sister, or parent, lying in the churchyard, and those loved 
 relatives who still live, but are separated from Him, perhaps forever, by a 
 boundless ocean and continent, — all these come before him in his dreams, 
 or in the mirror of his memory. Wheresoever he may be, — whether on 
 sea or on land, amid the convivial circle or wrapped in sleep, — by day or 
 by night, at labor or at rest, in London or Paris, Canada or India, in 
 New York or New Orleans, the memories of his father-land haunt 
 his imagination. No enjoyment, no excess of fortune or of misfortune, 
 can efface them. Ireland, with all her griefs and woes, with all her joys 
 and sorrows, fills his mind, breaks in upon his reveries, and springs his 
 sympathies. Her cares are his cares ; her triumphs are his triumphs ; 
 her reverses trouble him ; the career of her patriots fills him with anxiety; 
 their glory and their gloom are equally his ; they pursue and hang round 
 him in public and in private ; and the farther he is removed from his 
 native land, the more intensely does he feel for all that concerns her. 
 Although his attachment to the land of his adoption be sincere and 
 strong, his reverence for the land of his fathers is profound and lasting. 
 Such is the Irishman in exile. He is the same in the four divisions of 
 the earth, and he may be found in them all. 
 
 The political partisan may condemn him for this attachment to father- 
 land and to all its holy associations; but the philosopher knows it 
 to be an instinct planted in his heart by his Creator, and that he can no 
 more divest himself of its influence than he can of his senses. 
 
 Amid all the privations to which the wandering Irishman is subject, 
 there are few that so sensibly affect him as an exclusion from a knowl- 
 edge of what is passing " at home." In proportion as his mind is cul- 
 tivated is this pain intense. Every scrap of paper upon which the name 
 of Ireland is impressed becomes dear to him ; an Irish newspaper is a 
 welcome gift, and a book of Irish history or poetry is a prize. The music 
 of his boyhood days, when struck up in his hearing, makes him a boy 
 again. For a moment the heavy burdens of the world are removed, and 
 the care-worn exile becomes for a time softened and spiritualized into a 
 happy being. This may be pronounced a weakness, a childish weakness ; 
 still it delights the wanderer, and is frequently his greatest consolation. 
 
 For the Irishman in exile, this book is specially compiled. It is not a 
 critical history. It is a familiar narrative, in which all that is dear to 
 him is embraced. The history, biography, architecture, and music of 
 his country are treated of, and the monuments of his forefathers' genius 
 and valor are pointed out. With this book in his possession, he will 
 never be alone. It brings him into communion with the great spirits of 
 the past and the present ; he is again in their society ; he feels the enno- 
 c 
 
Xll PRF1!-ACE 
 
 bling influences of their example ; and his mind expands with virtuous 
 and valiant sentiment. As, in well-bred society, we are coerced into 
 corresponding demeanor, so, when we commune frequently with the 
 exalted, whether dead or living, we imbibe their spirit, insensibly become 
 like them, rise in the moral scale, are obliged to be virtuous, and ashamed 
 to be base. 
 
 With this object, among others, I have gathered records of the bril- 
 liant deeds of the most distinguished of our countrymen. These will 
 show the world what Ireland deserves to be, and it will show Irishmen 
 themselves what they should individually aspire to be. It will awaken 
 their pride, and nourish their principle. With this book for his com- 
 panion, the Irishman who leaves his native home will be able to discover 
 the numerous interesting evidences of the virtue, talent, and valor of his 
 countrymen, which are to be met with in all parts of Europe and in many 
 parts of America. Should he travel into Scotland, he will find in the 
 Isle of Hy (lona) a memorial of the piety and philanthropy of St. 
 Columba Kille, who from that spot illumined Caledonia and the north of 
 England in the sixth century, and who left behind him an institution from 
 which the lights of science and religion exclusively beamed for four cen- 
 turies on the north of Britain. Should he from thence cross the borders 
 into England, he will pass over the remains of that testimony to Irish valor, 
 the great wall built by the Romans to keep out the Irish legions — the only 
 legions in the world that remained unconquered by them. Let him from 
 this memorable spot proceed to visit the old Abbey of Malmesbury, where 
 Maildelphus, the Irish monk, taught the Angles and Saxons Christianity, 
 letters, Latin, and architecture ; and when he comes to Oxford, let him 
 survey St. Peter's Chapel, which he will find modeled after Cormac's 
 Chapel, on the rock of Cashel. He will remember, too, that Alfred, who 
 founded, in the ninth century, this college and the constitution of Eng- 
 land, received his education and ideas of law and government in Ireland, 
 and appointed Irish professors to instruct his countrymen. Nor ought 
 he to omit to look at their library, where he will see that the most 
 ancient manuscripts in it are in the hand-writing of Irishmen. 
 
 If he go to London, let him enter Westminster Abbey, and survey with 
 feelings of reverence the everlasting roof of Irish oak which was brought 
 from Ireland in the twelfth century, and which hangs in solemn grandeur 
 over the forgotten dead. He will not leave this place without calling 
 at Grattan's grave, and kissing the sacred stone under which he sleeps. 
 Let him, if he have feeling and ambition, visit the British Museum, for it 
 was founded by his countryman. Sir Hans Sloane ; and the Royal 
 Academy of Arts also, for that was founded by his countrymen, Barrett 
 and Barry, whose magnificent historical paintings adorn its walls — paint- 
 ings which Thomas Campbell declared were equal to Michael Angelo's. 
 
PREFACE. XIU 
 
 Passing from this, he will admire the parliament-house of England, which 
 was built by his countryman Barry, and adorned in fresco by his coun- 
 tryman M'Clise. The viewing and remembering these things will rouse 
 his ambition and animate his heart. 
 
 Should he pass over into France, there also will he meet, scattered on 
 every side, memorials of his forefathers. At Ligny, within three leagues of 
 Paris, are the ruins of three churches built by his countryman Fridolius, in 
 the sixth century, where the lights of Christianity and learning were 
 opened upon France. In the Irish College of Paris, he will find the 
 original manuscripts of St. Sedulius and others, written in the seventh 
 century, and at Versailles he will find four grand paintings of the battle of 
 Fontenoy, won over the lion of England by his countrymen. He will 
 kneel in the grand hall before the statue of Sarsfield, and vow to struggle 
 for the freedom of the land which gave him birth. 
 
 Should he wander through Italy, this book will prove an index to much 
 that will interest an Irishman. The ancient language of that classic soil 
 is still the popular language of Ireland. The most ancient manuscripts in 
 the Vatican are in the hand-writing of Irishmen. He will find that his coun- 
 trymen Columbanus and Dungal instructed Italy, in the sixth and seventh 
 centuries, in letters and music. He will find the library of the latter 
 missionary preserved in the Ambrosian library at Milan. But ere he quits 
 Rome, let him visit the tomb of the great Hugh O'Neill, in the monas- 
 tery of St. Isidore, and pluck caution and courage from his grave ; for by 
 these attributes he once humbled the power of England. 
 
 This book will guide him to many an honored or sacred spot in Austria, 
 Switzerland, and other parts of Europe, where his countrymen have left 
 memorials of their virtue, genius, or valor, the recollection of which must 
 inspire him with consanguine attributes. And should his destiny drive 
 him to the new world, he will find even here many noble monuments of a 
 like character. On entering New York, almost the first object that 
 strikes him is the tomb of Thomas A. Emmet ; before which the patriot 
 exile will feel an involuntary impulse to kneel and pray. He will think 
 of his brother's blood not yet avenged, and his grave yet undistinguished 
 by a tomb or an epitaph. With these thoughts upon him, he will sigh 
 for his hapless country, and meditate upon the best means to give her 
 freedom. When he passes into the interior, he will visit the farm of 
 Wolfe Tone, in New Jersey, or. mayhap the relict of that great man at 
 Georgetown, in the District of Columbia. From thence let him visit 
 Mount Vernon, the tomb of Washington, and honor the memory of 
 him who did justice to that Irish brigade which fought faithfully by his 
 side to the last. Let him then cross the Alleghanies, and observe the 
 traces of Irish genius in the stupendous works which annihilate moun- 
 tains, invented by Dougherty, and from thence to New Orleans, to 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 admire the most beautiful architectural pile upon the face of the new 
 world, erected by Gallagher. At this point he will be near the Mara- 
 thon of modern times, the plain of New Orleans, where the descendants 
 of his countrymen contributed to overthrow the picked and chosen legions 
 of England. 
 
 If, after seeing some of these monuments, and reading about the others, 
 he should remain slavishly indifferent to his country's fame and freedom, 
 and to his own pride and character, then, he may rely on it, his nature 
 is bastardized, and he belongs not to Erin. 
 
 This book will call up memories of the past and of the absent. It 
 will bring struggling Ireland into the minds of a new and a great race. 
 The more her history is studied, the more her claim upon the sympathies 
 of man will be established and admitted. It was for her dead more than 
 for her living that the nations sympathized with modern Greece, and 
 armed for her emancipation. This effort, the first to combine in one 
 work the history, science, and biography, of Ireland, if properly seconded 
 by her own sons, will do much to engage the minds of the thoughtful 
 and the valiant in her behalf Every true Irishman will assist in circu- 
 lating this book, — push its facts and arguments through the press, and 
 have passages from it read aloud in lyceums and reading-rooms. It was 
 not written to aid a party, but to dispel falsehood and establish truth. 
 Every man, who neglects to spread its contents among his neighbors, 
 favors the dominion of calumny and tyranny. 
 
 The Irish name has been blackened in America by the pens of 
 calumniators. This book will help to remove the stain. The Irishman 
 in Ireland is prevented, by the libel and sedition laws, from learning the 
 history or the doctrines of freedom. This book will help to enlighten 
 him. Every Irishman in the United States should send one of these 
 books to some friend in Ireland. It wdl be a welcome gift, and its 
 introduction among the Irish farmers will rouse their ambition and fortify 
 their valor. Every Irishman in the United States, who can afford it 
 should have one of these books to lend to his American neighbors. He 
 should be industrious in circulating it from man to man, until all his 
 American neighbors have read it over. If this be vigorously performed 
 at all points of the Union, one or two years will not pass over ere a new 
 and a powerful sentiment will grow up, in favor of Irishmen and Ireland, 
 which will make the path of the exile pleasant in his adopted country, and 
 contribute to exalt his race and his father-land in the scale of nations. 
 
 T. M. 
 
GUIDE THROUGH THE WORK. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 Introduction — Ancient Nations — Egyptians — Phoenicians, &c 1 
 
 LECTURE IL 
 Phoenician Mythology — Etruscans — Their Discovery of Ireland — First 
 
 Settlers of Ireland, Slc 34 
 
 LECTURE m. 
 
 Government — Legislative Assemblies — Laws — Literature — Religion and 
 
 Customs of the Ancient Irish from 1260 to 860 B. C 51 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 The Irish Language — Historians of Ireland — Ancient Architecture - 
 
 Round Towers, &c 77 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 The Irish Bards — Their Poetry, &,c 151 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 The Music of Ireland 180 
 
 LECTURE VIL 
 The Historic Narrative resumed — 860 B. C. to the first Year of the 
 Christian Era — Names and Deeds of twenty Kings — Military Code — 
 Laws of Chivalry — Division of Ireland into Provinces and Counties.. .248 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 From the Birth of Christ to A. D. 141. 
 Names and Deeds of forty-three Kings — Moran — Roman Invasions — 
 Roman Customs contrasted with those of the Irish 271 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 
 From A. D. 141 to 279. 
 
 Laws — Caledonian Colony — Leinster Militia — Reign of Cormac 298 
 
 LECTURE X. 
 From A. D. 279 to 500. 
 The Constitution of tlie Irish Militia — Origin of several Irish Families — 
 Defeat of the Romans in Caledonia — Literature, Religion, and Cus- 
 
XVI GUIDE THROUGH TITE WORK. 
 
 toms of tho nnciont Irish contra-storl with those of Rome, &c. — The 
 Mission of St. Patrick 325 
 
 LIXTUllPJ XI. 
 From A. I). 500 to 800. 
 Origin of the Saxons — The English Ilopt^'irchy — Spirit of the Christian 
 Ages — The Monks — Numerous Irish Missionaries — Their Labors 
 in Europe 3(>4 
 
 LECTURE XII. 
 From A. D. 800 to I OK!. 
 Names of fifty-nine Kings of Ireland — State of Europe — Charlemngne — 
 Mahomet — The Venetians — The Danes — Inva-sions and Battles in 
 Ireland — Brien Boroimhe — Battle of Clontarf. 409 
 
 LECTURE XIII. 
 
 Religion, Liternturc, and Architecture of Ireland in the tenth and elev- 
 enth Centuries, with Engravings illustrative of the latter Subject 448 
 
 LKCTURE XIV. 
 FiiOM A. I). lOIG TO 1509. 
 Names of nineteen Irish Kings — Norman Conquest — First English Inva- 
 sion — Magna Charta — Bruce — The Laws and Battles of the Pale... 545 
 
 LECTURE XV. 
 From A. D. 1509 to 15fi0. 
 The Reign of Henry tlie Eighth — Queen Mary — The Reformation — 
 
 Seizure of Church I'roperly, &c fiOl 
 
 LECTURE XVI. 
 From A. D. l.WO to 1003. 
 
 Mary Queen of Scots — (i,iif-f!n Klizalxith — The Fifteen Years' War — 
 
 The Deeds of Ilugii O'Neill 6135 
 
 LECTURE XV 11. 
 
 From A. D. 1(50^ to UI!)!. 
 
 The Reign of .Tames the First — Charles the First — "Irish Rebellion" — 
 
 Cromwell's Invasion — Charles the Second — James the Second — Wil- 
 
 . liairi the Third — Trfmty of Liiriffrick — Irish Exiles — Sarsfield 714 
 
 LKC'JMJRE XVIII. 
 From A. I). Ifi9l to 178^. 
 Breach of the Treaty of iiirrnirick — Confiscations — Suppression of Trade 
 and M!inui(i.c,tures--l'':nal Laws — Reign of Queen Anne — George 
 tlie First, Second, and Third — Irish Volunteers — Independence 804 
 
GUIDE THROUGH THE WORK. XVU 
 
 LECTURE XIX. 
 From A. D. 1782 to 1798. 
 The Dissolution of the Irish Volunteers — The Rise and Progress of the 
 United Irishmen — Wolfe Tone's Exertions — Battles of '98 — Trials 
 and Executions of tliat Period — Fall of Ireland 858 
 
 LECTURE XX. 
 
 From A. D. 1798 to 1800. 
 
 The United Leaders — The "Union" and the Mode of carrying it 1^*90 
 
 LECTURE XXI. 
 Life of Rohert Einmot — Russell — Letters of T. A. Emmet and Macnevin 
 
 — Insurrection — R. Emmet's last Speech and Deatli^Miss Curran. .10G8 
 
 LECTURE XXII. 
 
 Biographical Sketches of the eminent I\lcn of Ireland, that flourished from 
 the Beginning of tlie Eighteenth to the Beginning of tlie Nine- 
 teenth Century. 1097 
 
 LECTURE XXIII. 
 
 O'CONNELL AND HIS TiMES. — FrOM A. D. 1800 TO 1820. 
 
 His Ancestry — Youth — Professional Career — Duels and Agitation 1199 
 
 LECTURE XXIV. 
 
 O'CONNEI,!, AND HIS TiMES. — FrOM A. D. 1820 TO 1830. 
 
 The Rise, Progress, and Triumph of tlie Catholic Association — Biograph- 
 ical Sketches of the Catholic Loaders 1295 
 
 LECTURE XXV. 
 
 O'CONNELL AND HIS TiMES. — FrOM A. D. 1830 TO 1845. 
 
 The Reform Agitation — Tiie Repeal Agitation — The " Experiment " — 
 Resources and Manufactures of Ireland — Revival of the Repeal 
 Agitation — Monster Meetings — State Trials — Imprisonment and 
 Triumph 1343 
 
 LECTURE XXVL 
 
 O'Connell and his Family — Father Matliew — The Archbishop of 
 Tuam — Bishop Higgins — William Smith O'Brien, with tiie load- 
 ing Repealers, and distinguished Men of Intellect 1554 
 
 NOTES, supplemental, on the Round Towers, tlie Volunteers, and the 
 
 Laws and Law-Makers of England 1633 
 
 GENERAL INDEX 1041 
 
 MUSICAL INDEX 1652 
 
APPROBATION. 
 
 Meeting of the Fi-iends of Ireland in New York. 
 
 A meeting of the Friends of Ireland and of Universal Liberty was held at Wash- 
 ington Hall, Broadway, on the evening of the 1st of May, 1843, the Rev. Johit N. 
 Smith, pastor of St. James's, in the chair, James Bergen and George D. Dowling 
 secretaries. 
 
 The object of the meeting having been very eloquently stated by the reverend 
 chairman, which was called with a view to have the valuable and interesting course 
 of Lectures on Ireland, delivered in the course of the past winter, by Mr. Moonev, 
 published, — 
 
 The reverend gentleman stated that he had heard many of those Lectures delivered, 
 and he considered that if the whole were published in the cheapest possible form, the 
 book would form an excellent auxiliary to our stock of literature ; that it would make 
 an excellent school book, which we much wanted, for it was a lamentable fact, that 
 the youth of this country never saw a History of Ireland, simply because there is really 
 no such work, complete, in existence. Even the children of Irish parents forget the 
 blessed and revered land of their forefathers, or learn of it only through the vicious 
 medium of English calumniators. A new era had arrived, public inquiry respecting 
 Ireland had taken wing, and it will not rest now until it flies over the entire history 
 of that interesting but oppressed land. (Cheers.) Mr. Moonky had given the 
 whole of her splendid history, in a pleasing, graphic, and familiar style, suitable to 
 ever}-^ taste. He was the first man that did the thing so much required, and he felt 
 it his duty to Ireland and to truth to give the work his heartiest support. (Cheers.) 
 
 The Rev. Mr. M'Carran supported the views of the reverend chairman. Letters 
 were received from Messrs. Charles O'Conor, William Denman, Dr. M'Gloin, and 
 other gentlemen, highly approving the object of the meeting. 
 
 Mr. Wallace, of Kentucky, also addressed the meeting in laudatory terms of the 
 object it had in view, and moved the following resolutions: — 
 
 Resolved, That we have witnessed with pleasure the great advantage derived by this 
 community from the Lectures on Irish History, delivered by Thomas Mooney, Esq., 
 during the past winter, arid, feeling it due to Ireland and the United States, that 
 the most extensive circulation should be given to the valuable and interesting matter 
 contained in these important Lectures as a national work, we deem it a duty to request 
 Mr. MooNEY to publish an edition of the same. 
 
 Resolved, That we, as a committee, not only cheerfully recommend such a publica- 
 tion to every friend of Ireland, and of universal liberty, throughout the United States, 
 but will assist, by all honorable means, in disposing of the work when published. 
 
 Resolved, That the secretaries of this meeting be empowered to call upon the lead- 
 ing men of this city, and throughout the United States, for such general cooperation 
 as they may be disposed to render. 
 
 The following named gentlemen then and subsequently subscribed their names 
 for the work : — 
 
20 
 
 John Power, vicar-gene- 
 ral, pastor of St. Peter's, 
 (five copies,) 
 
 John N. Smith,pastorof St. 
 James's, (five copies,) 
 
 Michael M'Carron, St. 
 James, 
 
 Wm. Nightengale, pastor 
 of Fiftieth Street Church, 
 (two copies,) 
 
 Alexander Mappeti, Trans- 
 figuration Church, 
 
 Rev. Mr. Murphy, St. Ma- 
 ry's, 
 
 Felix Varela, vicar-gene- 
 ral, pastor of Transfigu- 
 ration Church, 
 
 John M'Closkey, pastor of 
 St. Joseph's,* 
 
 Andrew Byrne, pastor of 
 the Church of the Na- 
 tivity, 
 
 Rev. Wm. Quarter, pastor 
 of St. Mary's, 
 
 Rev. Mr. Curran, of St. 
 Paul's, Harlem, 
 
 ' Coadjutor bishop of New Vork. 
 The following correspondence took place : — 
 
 John M'Keon, M. C, 
 
 Robert Emmet, 
 
 Charles 0"Conor, 
 
 W. J. Macneven, 
 
 Samuel R. Macneven, 
 
 John Caldwell, treasurer 
 N. York Repeal Associ- 
 ation, 
 
 Patrick S. Casserly, 
 
 Gregory Dillon, 
 
 Wm. Denman, 
 
 Robert Hogan, president 
 Emigrant Society, New 
 York, 
 
 Dr. Sweeny, 
 
 Dr. M'Gloin, 
 
 Roche Brothers & Co., 
 
 James Shea, 
 
 Joim M'Sweeny, 
 
 John Augustus Shea, 
 
 P. H. Bushe, 
 
 John Colgan, 
 
 Denis Carolin, 
 
 William Wallace, of Ken- 
 tucky, 
 
 Timothy Fahy, 
 
 JAMES BERGEN 
 
 Henry H. Byrne, 
 
 Henry C. Bowden, 
 
 Daniel Major, 
 
 Robert Wilson, 
 
 C. M. King, 
 
 Wm. Francis Clarke, 
 
 Allanson Nash, 109 Nassau 
 Street, 
 
 Moses Y. Beach, proprietor 
 of the Sun, 
 
 Horace Greely, proprietor 
 of the Tribune, 
 
 Bernard Donnelly, 
 
 Charles J. Leahy, 
 
 Thomas Scanlan, 
 
 Robert O' Donovan, 
 
 Alex. Wells, 
 
 John Brady, 
 
 Bartholomew O'Conor, sec- 
 retary Repeal Associa- 
 tion, 
 
 James Trute, 
 
 Patrick M'Kenna, Pitts- 
 burg, 
 
 James Hurley. 
 
 GEO. D. DOWLING,}"^''^^''^"■^■ 
 
 ^o the Very Rev. JOHN POWER, Vicar-General of New York. 
 
 Washington Hall, May 4, 1843. 
 
 Very Rev. Sir : 
 
 As secretaries of a meeting of friends of Ireland, held in this hotel on the first 
 of May, we beg leave, in compliance with the resolutions of that meeting, to enclose 
 your reverence a copy of the same, and to request most respectfully your attention 
 thereto. 
 
 The students in the schools of America, and the great public generally, have hitherto 
 been deprived of a correct History of Ireland — one which would acquaint them with 
 the true character of the Irish people, their ancient importance amid the nations, their 
 unequalled efforts for many centuries in propagating Christianity and literature, and 
 the unparalleled succession ot ages during which they sustained their national integ- 
 rity, together with the treachery and butchery by which they were deprived of their 
 freedom. 
 
 The American youth, learning the little that is printed of Ireland through the 
 prejudiced histories written by her oppressors, cannot but have conceived a very 
 unfavorable impression of her gallant, industrious, and warm-hearted people. Such, 
 indeed, is the result of those unfair and prejudiced reports, that many amongst the 
 American public have treated individuals from Ireland with unaccountable ill-feeling, 
 which, in very many instances, has tended to impede the progress of enterprising 
 industry, in many of the most important walks of life. 
 
2% 
 
 A new era, however, has arrived. Discussions on the claims of Ireland to national 
 independence have brought the character of that nation more directly before the 
 public eye, the result of which is the growth of a more favorable opinion, throughout 
 America, towards Ireland and her people. From these discussions have grown a 
 series of Lectures on Ireland, which have been delivered in the course of the last 
 winter before the New York public, by Mr. Thomas Mooney, a gentleman recently 
 arrived from Ireland, whose unceasmg exertions for the liberation of his country 
 entitle him to the thanks of every friend of freedom. These Lectures have covered 
 the whole history of Ireland, from the earliest period to the present time, and will, 
 when published, supply that desideratum in American literature so much required. 
 
 It is our pleasing duty. Very Rev. Sir, to solicit the honor of your name to the 
 national list of patrons and subscribers of this work ; and we are, with respect, your 
 very obedient servants, 
 
 JAMES BERGEN, J Secretaries. 
 GEO. D. DOWLING, 5 
 
 ANSWER 
 
 To James Bergen and George D. Bowling, Esqrs. 
 
 New York, May 12, 1843. 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 I have received your letter of the 4th instant, with the resolutions passed at a 
 meeting held in Washington Hall, on the 1st instant, recommending the publica- 
 tion of Mr. Mooney's Lectures on Ireland, as delivered in this city during the past 
 winter. 
 
 Of Mr. Mooney's knowledge of Ireland and of Irish affairs I am fully convinced. 
 Of his great services and labors in her cause since his arrival in this country you 
 yourselves are witness. By his speeches and Lectures we all have been instructed. 
 I therefore, gentlemen, do fully concur in the resolutions, and as a proof of my hearty 
 concurrence, I beg you will set my name down for five copies of the work. 
 With great esteem, I have the honor to be, gentlemen, 
 
 Your very faithtui servant, 
 
 J. POWER, V. G. ofK. Y. 
 
22 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 To the exiled Irishmen resident in the United States, the British 
 Provinces, and in other parts of the world, and to those Irishmen 
 still in bondage in their native country. 
 
 MY COUNTRYMEN : I have performed the laborious task of gathering into one 
 book a tolerably complete history of our country, our greatest men, our immortal 
 music, our ancient language, and our sublime architecture. 
 
 This work has cost me several years of study, research, and labor. It is now done. 
 My book is in the hands of the world. 
 
 It commences the history of Ireland at a period thirteen hundred years before the 
 Christian era, and continues it to the thirtieth of May, 1845. It embraces an account 
 of all transactions in Irish history most interesting to Irishmen, which have taken 
 place during the long succession of ages comprehended in three thousand two hun- 
 dred years. 
 
 Independent of the historic narrative, which begins at tlie beginning, and concludes 
 in the present year, glancing at the parallel history of England and Scotland as it 
 proceeds, the book contains the following special features, never before presented in 
 any Irish History. 
 
 THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 
 
 First. — A special essay on the antiquity, nature, history, and present condition of 
 the Irish language, with fac-simile specimens of th"e ancient Plia;nician or Coptic 
 character, in that stage when it succeeded symbolic writing ; also, fac-simile speci- 
 mens of tlie Irish alphabet, and oghams, (secret writing,) and a brief account of the 
 patriotic efforts now being made to revive the language in Ireland. 
 
 IRISH MUSIC. 
 
 Second. — A special history of Irish music — its remote practice in Ireland — the 
 mode of its original construction — the origin and ancient form of the harp — its cul- 
 tivation and improvement by the Irish bards — the ancient rules or canons of music 
 which they formed — a fac-simile drawing of ancient musical notes — the time when, 
 and the persons who, introduced the harp music and its laws among the nations of 
 Europe — the general nature of Irish music, and its condition at the present time. 
 
 Third. — As connected with, and illustrative of, the foregoing, I have introduced 
 
 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY IRISH MELODIES, (POETRY AND MUSIC 
 
 COMBINED.) 
 These melodies are arranged for the piano-forte, violin, flute, or clarionet, and 
 presented as specimens of our ancient and modern composition, embracing every 
 measure, whether of love, sorrow, joy, merriment, war, or patriotism, well calculated 
 to soothe the heart in exile, or to animate it in bondage. 
 
 IRISH POETRY. 
 Fourth..— A special essay (historical) on the nature of Irish poetry. Various 
 specimens of versification in the Irish language, with translations, are introduced. It 
 is shown that the Irish bards first invented harmonic versification, and formed the 
 science of dividing time and matter in music, poetry, and prose. 
 
ARCHITECTURE. 
 Fifth. — A special history of Irish architecture, from the early erections of crom- 
 leaghs and round towers to the building of the Parliament-House in Dublin. 
 
 It is proved in this essay, that the sublime style of architecture miscalled 
 Gothic is in fact Irish ; and the names of the pious architects who introduced that 
 style throughout Europe, with the names of the churches which they erected, are given. 
 
 RELIGION AND LITERATURE. 
 
 Sixth. — tThe history of the ancient worship of Ireland, and of the introduction of 
 Christianity into that kingdom, with some reflections on its nature — the extensive 
 universities in Ireland — the state of literature at various periods — the establishment 
 of universities by Irish scholars, in the si.xth and seventh centuries — the revival, by 
 those pious missionaries, of the learned languages, writing, literature, religion, arts, 
 science, and music, through Europe, after the barbarous violence of Goth, Vandal, and 
 Saxon had subsided. 
 
 THE HISTORIANS. 
 
 Seventh. — A series of biographical sketches of the ancient and modern historians 
 of Ireland, with accounts S? the records which they compiled and the places where 
 these are now deposited, and the best compilations that now exist. 
 
 THE GREAT MEN. 
 Eighth. — A series of abridged biographies of our most distinguished men, from 
 Ollamh Fodhla to O'Connell, comprising two hundred separate "Lives," which in- 
 clude the kings, warriors, writers, saints, bards, and artists who flourished during 
 the ages prior to the English invasion, and those heroic soldiers, patriots, martyrs, 
 poets, musicians, orators, authors, and artists of our country, who shone at intervals, 
 in the gloom of seven centuries of Anglo-Saxon oppression, including those who now 
 live, and surround O'Connell in the heroic struggle for national independence. 
 
 HISTORICAL VIEWS OF OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 Tenth. — It afibrds, through the whole work, continued parallel glimpses of the 
 histories of England, Scotland, and Europe generally, by which the reader may 
 become well informed, as he proceeds, of the revolutions of neighboring nations, 
 from the flood to the present year. 
 
 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 
 
 Eleventh. — A comprehensive Alphabetical Index is appended to the work, which 
 will enable the reader easily to refer to the most prominent subjects treated of in its 
 pages. 
 
 I have put the whole of this matter into one book. It makes over sixteen hundred 
 and fifty pages. 
 
 I believe it will be admitted that this is the most comprehensive History of Ireland 
 that ever was published. I might have spun out ten volumes from the material im- 
 bodied in this one ; but my object is to place in the hands of every Irishman, in the 
 cheapest form, and in one book, an account of all things connected with our country 
 which we value most, by which the splendid history of our race, now for the first time 
 put together since our fall, shall, like the Jewish chronicle, be preserved forever 
 unbroken. 
 
24 
 
 My long residence in Dublin, my long connection with the political agitation ot 
 Ireland, and my personal cognizance of matters and men, enable me to narrate, with 
 tolerable accuracy, the transactions of the last twenty important years in Irish history 
 — a period yet uncovered by any other writer. 
 
 I have asked no patronage or subscription from any man towards this work. It 
 comes out equally independent of the rich or the poor. In this respect it is more for- 
 tunate than many of its predecessors. It speaks truth of the living and the dead — 
 is published in a land of freedom, and speaks in the freeman's tone. I ask you, my 
 countrymen, to assist in its circulation, not as a favor to me, but to us all, — the sons 
 of a persecuted and calumniated land, — for this book will be your vindicator and 
 cheering companion in exile or in bondage. 
 
 As to pecuniary profits, I shall have little. Every man acquainted with publishing 
 will tell you this is the cheapest book ever published. The music alone imbodied in 
 it cannot be purchased for six times its price. Several thousand copies must be sold 
 before the first outlay shall be repaid. 
 
 1 therefore confidently call on you to assist in the circulation of this book. I sug- 
 gest the formation of little clubs of subscribers of fives, tens, or twenties, by which 
 the expense of carrying it to a distance will be lessened ; and, as a means of dispel- 
 ling mucii of that prejudice that exists in this country towards Irishmen, I would 
 suggest tliat it be loaned to Americans by those who purchase. 
 I am, my countrymen. 
 
 Your faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 THOMAS MOONEY. 
 
 Boston, Jfovember 1, 1845 
 
25 
 
 APPROBATION. 
 
 [From the Boston Pilot of November 15, 1845. J 
 
 THE HISTORY AND MUSIC OF IRELAND. 
 
 We record to-day the most extraordinary meeting, connected with Ireland, that evoT 
 took place in Boston, which was held on Monday evening at the Odeon, Franklin 
 Street, a building capable of holding several thousand persons, to receive Mr. Mooney's 
 new work on the History and Music of Ireland. The building is a vast theatre, con- 
 Eisting of pit, boxes, and three galleries, every part of which was crowded to its 
 uttermost capacity, by the flower of the Irisli citizens of this place, including all the 
 clergy of the district, and very many distinguished American citizens. 
 
 Amongst those whom we noticed at the meeting were the Right Rev. Bishop Fitz- 
 patrick, the Rev. Dr. Manihan, the Rev. Mr. O'Reilly, Rev. Mr. O'Brien, Rev. Mr. 
 Goodwin, Rev. Mr. Fitzeimmons, Rev. Mr. M'Mahon, Rev. Mr. Wilson, Rev. Mr. 
 Gibson, Rev. Mr. Hardy, Rev. Mr. O'Beirne, Rev. Mr. Brady, Rev. Mr. M'Grath, Rev. 
 Mr. Dougherty, J. W. James, Esq., W. J. Walsh, Esq., O. A. Brownson, Esq., &c. 
 
 Although the doors were opened at six o'clock, yet, for an hour previously, Federal 
 Street was crowded with people waiting for admission, and several thousands went 
 away unable to enter. 
 
 A concert of the music in Mr. Mooney's book was then produced, which far surpassed, 
 in melody and execution, any musical entertainment we ever witnessed. The music, 
 selected by Mr. Mooney from the minstrels of Ireland, is undoubtedly the very finest we 
 ever heard, and its execution, by Mr. Michael Mooney, Mrs. Franklin, Mr. Horncastle, 
 Mr. Garcia, Mr. Shaw, Mr. M'Gaughey, Miss Walsh, and Master O'Keefe, was truly 
 delightful, and won from the audience the most rapturous applause. The house was 
 brilliantly lighted ; the rich and deep intonation of the organ, when pealing forth the me- 
 lodious airs of old Ireland, filled our hearts with joy ; and the sight and sounds of the 
 harp, the Harp of Erin, surrounded as it was that night by men who are prepared to 
 peril all to emancipate her, called up the memories of Tara and Clontarf, and caused 
 many a noble heart in that building to pant for the freedom of that unhappy land. 
 
 When the vast and brilliant auditory were perfectly satiated with melody, Mr. 
 Mooney came upon the platform to call the meeting to order. He was heartily ap- 
 plauded, and, after a few responsive remarks, moved — John Warren James, Esq. 
 to the chair, and Stephen J. Rogers, Esq., secretary. 
 
 Mr. Mooney then said he had called that meeting together to present to his country- 
 men a. History of Ireland. The work had been gathered from at least one hundred 
 different authors, whose writings were inaccessible to the great mass of the public. It 
 was a faithful and a fearless history of the Milesian race, down to the memorable 
 30th of May, 1645, and would, he hoped, be interesting to every Irishman in exist- 
 ence, whether in exile or bondage, for it was the first time that their history was com- 
 pletely presented by one hand. [Applause.] Many men have died in the attempt to com- 
 plete this work. He was more fortunate than several others of far greater abilities 
 He called on them to circulate their history, to lend it to their American neighbors 
 it will purify the mephitic atmosphere, and will cheer the exile in his path ! [Cheers.] 
 
 He would now present the book to them through one to whom Irishmen were grate- 
 fill, one to whom he was deeply obliged. [Applause.] 
 
26 CHARACTER OF THE ETRURIANS. 
 
 the people who succeeded them in their beautiful country, absolutely 
 nothing intelligible has come down to us. If their sepulchres exhibit 
 so much greatness, refinement, and dignity, what splendor might be 
 expected in their temples, theatres, public buildings, palaces, and the 
 habitations in which they lived, moved, and acted ! These were above 
 ground. Their successors, the Romans, ruthless, ignorant, and barba- 
 rous, have obliterated nearly every trace of them, if we except their 
 stupendous architecture, some magnificent specimens of which have, 
 by their magnitude, defied the ruthless efforts of the barbarians, and 
 resisted their puny efforts, while they attributed their erection to super- 
 natural agency. Such has ever been the fate of civilized nations, when 
 conquered by barbarians. The fall of the Roman empire, in turn, 
 produced the "dark ages;" the Anglo-Saxons destroyed all traces of 
 Roman literature in Britain. The hostile disposition exhibited by all 
 barbarous people against civilization and literature, has been very 
 remarkable. Omar, who destroyed the Alexandrian library, was a 
 correct specimen of the ferocious and ignorant barbarian of all ages." 
 
 Sir William then quotes from the Quarterly Review, 1833, a passage 
 on this nation. " Etruria is one of the great, mid, as yet, unsolved 
 problems of ancient history. It is clear that, before the Romans, there 
 existed in Italy a great nation, in a state of advanced civilization, with 
 public buildings of vast magnitude, and works constructed on scientific 
 principles, and of immense solidity, in order to bring the marshy plains 
 of central and northern Italy into regular cultivation. They were a 
 naval and commercial people, to whom tradition assigned the navigation, 
 at one period, of the Mediterranean. Their government seems to have 
 been nearly allied to the Oriental theocracies : religion was the domi- 
 nant principle, and the ruling aristocracy a sacerdotal order." 
 
 He then enters into an elaborate history of this extinct nation, which 
 he justly builds upon the inscriptions on their coins, on their tombs, on 
 their vases, on their bronze mirrors or sjjecula, on their tables of bronze, 
 that have been, within the last few years, dug up from beneath the 
 classic earth of Italy, over which the Roman conquerors trod, uncon- 
 scious, in their efforts to obliterate the memory of this people, of the 
 existence of subterranean evidences which would, in other ages, meet 
 the eye of posterity, and deprive Rome of the honors of originating arts, 
 science, and mythology, which she so zealously and so unjustly strove 
 to assume at the expense of her teachers, the Etrusco-Phoenicians. 
 
 This great nation, with its history, was involved in the deepest 
 mystery, until a critical knowledge of the ancient Irish language, 
 
LANGUAGE OF THE ETRURIANS PROVED TO BE IRISH. 27 
 
 acquired late in life, by Sir William Betham, enabled that profound 
 scholar and antiquarian to perceive, that all their inscriptions, memorials, 
 and devices, were written in the ancient Irish character ; and 
 that through the Irish, and the Irish tongue alone, could he unlock the 
 hidden history of that polished, illustrious people, who once filled Italy, 
 Gaul, Spain, and Ireland, with memorials of their arts and labor, which 
 still remain, outliving the coundess generations of man, that have washed 
 over them as the ocean beats over the lasting rocks of Erin's old prom- 
 ontories. 
 
 Sir William gives upwards of fifty plates of accurate drawings of 
 many of their ancient coins, curiosities, weapons, bronze mirrors, together 
 with the literal inscriptions found on the seven tables of bronze — inscrip- 
 tions called by the learned the " Eugubian Tables." There are several 
 mythological engravings on ancient pieces of metal, which are given, and 
 translated first from the old Etrusco-Phoenician language into modern 
 Irish, and then from the Irish into modern English. In presenting a 
 drawing of a magnificent statue in alabaster, found in one of the ancient 
 vaults of Etruria, Sir William thus writes : — 
 
 "Although the number of plates has already exceeded what was 
 contemplated, I cannot resist the temptation of placing in this work one 
 of a recumbent figure of a man, which formed the covering of a sar- 
 cophagus, now in the museum at Volterra. It is doubtless a portrait of 
 the deceased, who was, according to the expression of Catullus, a corpu- 
 lent Etruscan — ' obesus EtruscusJ 
 
 " It is not easy to imagine a finer formed head, or a countenance 
 more expressive of a brilliant intellect, a cultivated, well-stored mind, and 
 a benevolent heart, than the one here presented. The ring on his left 
 hand, and the gold chain, or torque, round his neck, declare him a 
 man of high rank. He was a writer, as appears from the volume in his 
 hand. His head is encircled with a wreath of oak leaves ; the counte- 
 nance fills us with bitter regret that the productions of the mind of such 
 a man should be lost forever. How many ages of progressive civiliza- 
 tion must have passed away to have produced such a head, and a 
 pencil, or chisel, capable of making it live to our days ! Where is the 
 Greek or Roman statue which throws this into the shade, and exhibits 
 a higher style of excellence in art, or one of which any age might be 
 prouder ? His very obesity is a proof of civiirzation. He was a benefac- 
 tor to his country by his writings : probably his nation, anxious to do him 
 honor, erected this monument to his memory. Anonymous as he is to 
 us, his merits will not be altogether unappreciated ; for they caused the 
 
The Rev. Mr. M'M^hon next addressed the meetmg in terms highly compUmen 
 tary to the work, and was followed by W. J. Walsh, Esq., in a most eloquent speed 
 to the same purport ; after which the subscription list was commenced. 
 
 Mr. O'Brien, the president of the Father Mathew Total Abstinence Society, rose 
 on behalf of that body, to take the first copy, which the society have resolved to for 
 ward to Father Mathew. [Loud cheers.] 
 
 A stream of subscribers were then supplied, who paid down their money and took 
 away their books. We never saw any thing like the enthusiasm displayed on this oc- 
 casion. Several hundred copies were cleared away. The immense assemblage then 
 began to separate 
 
 [From the Boston Pilot, November 22.1 
 
 MR. MOONEY'S CONCERTS AND HISTORY. 
 
 CHARLESTOWN. 
 
 The Town Hall of Charlestown was filled to the doorway with an enthusiastic audi- 
 tory on Monday evening, to hear Mr. Mooney's concert. We noticed in the room 
 very many of the American citizens of the place, including the Rev. Mr. Goodwin, 
 Professor Ryder, of Holy Cross College, Rev. Mr. O'Brien, Rev. Mr. Hardy, Rev. Mr. 
 M'Grath, &c. 
 
 At the conclusion, the Rev. Mr. O'Brien came on the stand, to address the people 
 on the nature and contents of Mr. Mooney's work on the History, Music, Biography, 
 Architecture, and Resources of Ireland. " I love," he said, "music and history. I 
 came here to hear genuine melody, and to recommend to my fellow-citizens a genu- 
 ine History of the land of my forefathers. [Cheers.] I wish them to take this work, 
 and peruse its facts and statements. If they have prejudice against Ireland, the study 
 of this book will dispel it. Faithful history is, after religion, the most interesting 
 study for the human mind. This History is faithful and true. It is carefully and sim- 
 ply written. It has been perused with deep interest by one who watches over the 
 Catholics of New England with a father's fondness, and I am glad to say that it has 
 his entire approbation. [Cheers.] And I have only to add my own testimony of its 
 value, and my thanks to the author for producing a work that at once reflects credit 
 upon him and upon his country." [Cheers.] 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Goodwin then came upon the stand, and delivered a feeling and elo- 
 quent address to the immense auditory, most of whom were his parishioners. We re- 
 gret we have not full notes of the eloquent addresses of both gentlemen. The follow- 
 ing few sentences from Mr. Goodwin will give an idea of his sentiments: — 
 
 " My fellow-citizens, I attend here this evening to give expression to my gratitude 
 towards Mr. Mooney, the author of this very important and very faithful work on the 
 history of Ireland. I have not had it in my possession more than a couple of days, 
 but even in that short time I have seen enough to convince me that it is an admirable 
 ■work, most ably constructed to effect the establishment of truth and liberty. [Applause.] 
 It appears at the first glance to be a bulky volume, but it is in truth a most concise 
 production. There are no waste words nor tedious details, and it really surprises me 
 how the author contrived to compress so much knowledge into one book. It is a his- 
 tory of European civilization for three thousand years, and presents to us Ireland, in 
 every phase, during that long succession of ages, down to the present hour. We have 
 biography, we have architecture, fully and ably traced and developed ; and, besides 
 
29 
 
 this, we have upwards of a hundred pieces of the best Irish music, which cannot be pur 
 chased in the music stores for less than twice the price of this book. 1 trust no Irish 
 family will be without this admirable work. I could wish that every American citizen 
 would possess himself of it. It would remove much of that senseless prejudice which 
 exists around us towards our Irish fellow-citizens. 1 was born within a stone's throw 
 of where I now stand, and was once as full of unjust prejudice towards the Irish people 
 as any around me ; but when I came to knovv^ them, to study tlieir history and char- 
 acter, my prejudices vanished, and my heart swelled with friendship for so moral, gen- 
 erous, and high-minded a people. [Cheers.] There may be some grounds afforded, by 
 the ill conduct of individuals, for this prejudice; but this ill conduct must not be suf- 
 fered to tarnish a great nation, that has, in all ages, given saints and missionaries to re- 
 ligion, scholars to literature, genius and talent to the arts, and valiant champions to 
 liberty. [Loud and enthusiastic cheers.] Let this invaluable book, which bears incon- 
 trovertible testimony to the fame of Ireland, be widely distributed, and you and your 
 children's children, to the latest generation, will partake of the benefit of the great 
 truths which it proclaims." [Great applause.] 
 
 Mr. Mooney then opened the subscription list, when several copies of his work 
 were taken ; soon after which the meeting broke up. 
 
 ROXBURY. 
 
 On Tuesday evening, a similar concert and meeting took place in Roxbury. The 
 Town Hall was crowded to excess by the most numerous and respectable auditory that 
 ever gathered within its capacious walls. The concert was presented in tlie finest 
 style by the performers. 
 
 At the conclusion, the Hon. Isaac H. Wkight came upon the platform, and was 
 very heartily applauded by the assembly. He said his friend, Mr. Mooney, remarked 
 that there was music in his voice, but he thought the music they had just heard before 
 was far better. He was really delighted with this night's entertainment, for it ush- 
 ered into existence a faithful History of Ireland. This was a work that had long been 
 much wanted. He was proud, as an American citizen, that this great work had been 
 written and published in America. Here was it brought forth, where the press was 
 free, and where the truth can be told ; and Mr. Mooney has told the whole truth re- 
 specting his native land. No son of that land can do more for its exaltation than he 
 who pens of it an honest and careful history. That work has been performed, by Mr. 
 Mooney, in a manner that reflects the highest credit on his talents, and the highest 
 honor upon his country. It is a monument to his country's fame more lasting than 
 stone or brass, and will survive as long as the language in which it is written. [Ap- 
 plause.] Mr. Mooney has wisely gathered into his work the scattered but beautiful 
 melodies of his native land. This will ever preserve it in the hearts of the people, for 
 the melody of Ireland is found to reach the human heart, and touch its finest sensibil- 
 ities. It now remains for the people to come forward and sustain this great effort to 
 elevate them. Let it not be said that Mr. Mooney shall, by the very greatness of his 
 labors to exalt his country, fall, and become, like many other men of ability, a beggar 
 for his pains. [Cheers.] 
 
 The honorable gentleman then gave his name for the work, and was followed by 
 very many in the meeting, when scores of the History of Ireland were taken. 
 
 Mr. Sharkey said, he was desired by several American citizens to request Mr. Moo- 
 ney to repeat the concert. 
 
LETTERS FROM THE BISHOPS OF BOSTON AND 
 
 NEW yOE-K. 
 
 Boston, J\'ov. 24, 1845. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I have devoted eis much time to the perusal of your excellent History of 
 Ireland as 1 could well afford from rny other occupations, since the receipt of the 
 copy you had the kindness to lay before me. 1 have, in fact, read enough of it to be 
 able to form a pretty fair estimate of its value ; and I unhesitatingly say, that it has 
 given me more- information of poor, oppressed Ireland than any book I had ever read 
 before — to say nothing of the exquisite pleasure and delight I derived from its well- 
 written pages. It is truly a great work, and one I shall rejoice to see in the hands of 
 every Irishman, and of every native-born citizen of America. You have indeed 
 labored well and hard for Old Ireland. May all your hopes in her regard be realized, 
 and may you yet live to see her what she ought to be — 
 
 " Great, glorious, and free, 
 First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea." 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 t BENEDICT, Bishop of Boston. 
 
 Thomas Moosey, Esq. 
 
 New Yokk, Kov. 26, 1845. 
 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 I received with much satisfaction your voluminous and interesting work on 
 Ireland, which you had the kindness to send to me. I have had time only to glance 
 through it ; but I am convinced that it is at once a useful and highly-deserving pro- 
 duction. 
 
 It is honorable to Ireland that, in a foreign land, there should be found both zeal and 
 talent sufficient to accomplish it, and also, as I hope, patronage enough to warrant the 
 undertaking, and to remunerate the labor and research necessary for its accomplishment. 
 
 1 return you rny thanks for the copy you were good enough to send rne ; and 
 
 I remain, with great respect, 
 
 Your obedient servant in Christ, 
 
 { JOHN, Bishop of New York. 
 Thomas Mooitet, Esq., Boston. 
 
31 
 
 LETTER FROM ROBERT EMMET, ESQ., OF NEW YORK. 
 
 New York, Dec. 8, 1845. 
 
 Thomas Mooney, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 1 owe you an apology for having so long deferred ac- 
 knowledging the receipt of the copy of your work on Ireland, which you so kindly 
 sent me, and your letter accompanying it. I can only say that, since 1 received it, I 
 have, with few intervals, been laid up witli attacks of rheumatism, which have pre- 
 vented me from attending to business or using my pen in any way. I am happy to 
 say, however, that I am almost restored ; and one of tlie first uses I make of my 
 returning strength is to express to you the grateful sense which I feel at your kind- 
 ness and attention. 
 
 During my confinement to my room, I have derived great pleasure and much in- 
 struction from your book ; and / do not hesitate to say that the useful information it 
 contains, its correct and patriotic views, and the mode rjou hare adopted for the arrange- 
 ment of its contents, viake it one of the most interesting historical compilations I crer 
 Tnct wit/i. 
 
 As an Irisliman, I feel grateful to you for so successful an effort to place the his- 
 tory and character of our country in their true liglit; and I sincerely hope, as I fully 
 believe, that your exertions will not go unrewarded. Every man who has Irish blood 
 in liis veins should be the possessor of your book ; and I wish you no smaller meas- 
 ure of reward tlian that, and a continuance of health to enjoy it. 
 
 Believe me, sincerely, 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 ROBERT EMMET. 
 
33 
 
 SUBSCRIBERS' NAMES 
 
 BOSTON LIST. 
 
 Right- Rev. BENEDICT, Bishop of Boston. 
 Right Rev. JOHN, Coadjutor Bishop. 
 
 Rev. Dr. O'Flaherty, Rev. Mr. O'Brien, 
 
 Rev. Mr. O'Reilly, 5, Rev. Mr. Flood, 
 
 Rev. Mr. Fitzsimmons, Rev. Mr. Crudden, 
 
 Rev. Mr. Hardy, Rev. Mr. Dougherty, 
 
 Rev. Mr. M'Mahon, Rev. Mr. O'Beirne, 
 
 Rev. Mr. Goodwin, Rev. Mr. Haskins, 
 
 Rev. Mr. M'Grath, Rev. Mr. M'Dermott, 
 
 Very Rev. Dr. Ryder, Rev. P. O'Beirne. 
 Rev. Mr. Devlin, V. A., 
 
 Isaac Wright, 
 Walter J. Walsh, 
 J. C. Tucker, 
 St. Mary's R. Room, 3, 
 Michael Riley, 
 James Riley, 
 Michael Kenny, 
 Terence M'Hugh, 4, 
 M. J. Mooney, 
 Patrick Mooney, 
 Peter Higgins, 2, 
 P. Comerford, . 
 Hugh Duffy, 
 Cooper Moriarty, 
 P. Conarty, 
 John Collins, 
 John Stuart, 
 Edward M'Cafferty, 
 C. Masterson, 
 Owen Murphy, 
 James Sullivan, 2, 
 Thos. Osborne, 
 Patrick Greehy, 
 Edward Haley, 
 George Derett, 
 James Ryan, 
 J. Ford, 
 
 Stephen Cusack, 
 Jas. O'Connor, 
 Daniel O'Regan, 
 M'Donald, 
 
 Thos. Hughes, 
 Florence M'Carty, 
 Francis M'Girr, 
 Edward Byrne, 
 Jas. Byrne, 
 Wm. Murray, 
 Thos. Connors, 
 Robert Giles, 
 Andrew Gaffney, 
 W. S. Baxter, 
 Wm. Timmons, 
 J. P. Crean, 
 Patrick Phillips, 
 James Cummings, 
 Nugent Keenan, 
 Thos. O'Hara, 
 Mr. M'Gaughy, 
 Philip Guinan, 
 Daniel M'Farland, 
 J. Daly, 
 
 Jeffrey Donahoe, 
 John Dee, 
 Patrick Connors, 
 Bernard M'Laughlin, 
 Patrick Furlong, 
 H. W. M'llroy, 
 Michael Dinan, 
 J. T. Cunningham, 
 Edward Gillen, 
 Michael Canny, 
 Peter Peduzzi, 
 
 Patrick Durr, 
 Edward Young, 
 Henry Dooley, 
 John C. Kells, 
 Wm. A. Wilson, 
 Henry J. Duff, 
 Michael Drury, 
 Owen Sullivan, 
 Jeremiah Minahan, 
 Timothy Linehan, 
 Edward Coughlan, 
 James M'Conologue, 
 Michael Walsh, 
 Michael O'Rourke, 
 Thos Sweeney, 
 Wm. Dwyre, 
 John Hector, 
 Wm. Feely, 
 Patrick Loan, 
 Thos. Hennessy, 
 Cornelius M'llroy, 
 Charles Doherty, 
 Wm. Byrne, 
 Jeremiah Sheehan, 
 Thomas Kenny, 
 M. Stuart, 
 John Devlin, 
 Mark Conway, 
 Joseph Nash, 
 Thomas Hill, 
 Philip Reilly, 
 
33 
 
 Wm. Franklin, 
 
 Major Heiss, 
 
 Maurice Vaughan, 7, 
 
 D. M. Hallinan, 
 
 Wm. Simpson, 
 
 Wm. Daly, 3, 
 
 Saxton &, Kelt, 2, 
 
 Redding & Co., 8, 
 
 J. Burke, 25, 
 
 John Warren James, 
 
 O. A. Brownson, 
 
 P. Donahoe, 
 
 Squire Aimes, 2, 
 
 Michael Gallagher, 5, 
 
 J. R. Fitzgerald, 
 
 Dennis O'Brien, 
 
 Father Matthew Society, 
 
 Mr . Roberts, 
 
 J. D. Mahoney, 2, 
 
 Thomas Mooney, 
 
 Miss M. Walch, 
 
 Richard Walch, 
 
 Arthur M'Evoy, 
 
 Stephen J. Rogera, 
 
 Michael Keyes, 
 
 Dr. Germaine, 
 
 Hugh Gray, 
 
 Edward Donnelly, 
 
 P. Winters, 
 
 Robert Mahood, 
 
 John Manning, 
 
 Hugh Ward, 
 
 Thos. Dunnigan, 
 
 Edward Russell, 
 
 John Kelly, 
 
 Michael Hall, 
 
 Edward Dolan, 
 
 Thos. F. O'Keefe, 
 
 Master Walter Byrne, 
 
 Wm. Dudley, 
 Patrick Flynn, 
 Peter M'Goorty, 
 Daniel Crowley, 
 John Cashman, 
 James T. Baxter, 
 David Hunksley, 
 Hugh M'Dirild, 
 Bartholomew Whitton, 
 Thos. Wallace, 
 Terence O'Neill, 
 Edward Murphy, 
 Edward Farran, 
 John Nicholson, 
 Charles Kelley, 
 Michael Hyde, 
 John Grant, 
 Thos. Tracy, 
 Thomas O'Hara, 
 Roger Doherty, 
 Thos. Kenny, 
 Bernard Fitzpatrick, 
 Cornelius Gray, 
 Francis S. M'Girr, 
 Jeffrey Pendergrast, 
 John Bray, 
 Hugh Cummiskey, 
 Edward Lawlor, 
 James Carney, 
 Catherine Gallagher, 
 Edmund Wall, 
 Michael Foley, 
 Wm. Murphy, 
 John Flanagan, 
 George Wilson, 
 Timothy Lynch, 12, 
 Wm. Phayer, 6, 
 Francis M'Ginley, 
 Patrick Lyons, 
 
 John White, 
 
 Michael Ryan, 
 
 Wm. Riding, 
 
 M. M'Burney, 
 
 Daniel M'Carty, 
 
 Hugh Doherty, 
 
 Michael Kane, 
 
 Edward Powers, 
 
 Patrick Barry, 
 
 Dougal Anderson, 
 
 Martin Collier, 
 
 Hugh Murphy, 
 
 Wm. Nagle, 
 
 John Murray, 
 
 Wm. Hyland, 
 
 P. H. Pierce, 
 
 John Power, 
 
 James Ahem, 
 
 Patrick Sharkey, 
 
 B. F. Cooke, 
 
 Owen Cusack, 
 
 John Berran, 
 
 Marcus Byrne, 
 
 Michael M'Donnell, 
 
 Patrick O'KeefFe, 
 
 John Kenny, 
 
 Wm. Doyle, 
 
 J. Hector, Jr., 
 
 P. Salmon, 
 
 J. M'Cabe, 
 
 Michael King, 
 
 Thomas Hand, 
 
 James Ward, 
 
 John Whitty, 
 
 T. Reynolds, 
 
 John Troy, 
 
 W. B. M'Connellogue, 5, 
 
 Wm. Cunningham, 10, 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Reasons for delivering these Lectures. — Ignorance respecting Ireland prevailing 
 in America. — Reasons. — Policy of Britain to defame Ireland, and suppress 
 her History. — American Literature derived from England. — Opinions of Warner 
 and Sir James Mackintosh on the Antiquity of Irish Literature and Laws. 
 
 My first duty is to acquaint you with the reasons which induce me 
 to deliver before the American public a course of Lectures on the 
 History of Ireland. I have travelled over a large surface of this great 
 country within the last three years ; I have attended many public 
 meetings of American citizens, who assembled, during that time, to 
 sympathize with Ireland, in her struggle for a nation's rights. I have 
 had the honor and pleasure, at those meetings, to explain the true 
 relations that existed between Ireland and England ; and to explain the 
 nature of that momentous measure, termed " repeal," which the Irish 
 people are now seeking to achieve. 
 
 In the" course of these addresses, I brought before the attention of 
 innumerable meetings of American citizens, views of Irish history — 
 facts important to her cause, that all should know ; and it surprised 
 me not a little to find that much of what I stated appeared new to 
 the great public, even to the reading and reflecting classes of this Union. 
 
 Meditating on this deplorable ignorance of Ireland's history, which 
 I found very generally existing, I endeavored to account for it to myself. 
 I found, in the public schools and libraries of America, the histories 
 of Greece, Rome, France, Spain, England, and Scotland; but I 
 found no history of Ireland. The Americans, speaking the English 
 language, derive their literature from English books ; and all that they 
 have known of Irish history, they derived from the prejudiced, prostitute 
 pens of British writers. 
 
 The policy of Britain, since her first invasion of Ireland, in 1169, has 
 1 
 
2 POLICY OF BRITAIN TO DEFAME IRELAND. 
 
 ever been to disparage the fair character of her sister isle ; to darken it 
 before the nations of the earth ; to hold the country up to each new 
 generation as disentitled to national rights, national honor, national fame ; 
 to pay dishonest writers for discrediting its glorious history of civiliza- 
 tion, independence, and government, which commenced a thousand 
 yeafs before England herself had emerged from a stale of barbarism, 
 or slavish subjection to pagan Rome. 
 
 Those English writers of Irish history, beginning with Giraldus 
 Cambrensis, who, first of his class, commenced to defame Ireland, at 
 the instigation of the British king, Henry the Second, immediately 
 after the invasion of Ireland by that monarch, have continued their 
 calumnies, age after age, with the regularity of a well-organized sys- 
 tem, to the last living libellers of the London press, (the Times and 
 the Standard,^ who pile up calumny upon calumny on dieir victim, 
 with surprising effrontery, even in this enlightened age. 
 
 These calumnies, uttered with the same unblushing confidence in the 
 past ages as in the present, have always been quoted by writer after 
 writer, on the English side, the falsehoods of one generation serving for 
 texts to the generation succeeding. Every reign, every English minis- 
 try, has brought forth its swarm of revilers, who have stood, as it were, 
 on the banks of Time, casting their filth and their poison into the stream 
 of its history ; who have generated in the minds of the youth of their 
 own country terrible prejudices against their Irish brethren, teaching and 
 training them to oppress that inoffensive nation — a nation that, for 
 many ages, had been their faithful, their unconquerable, their victo- 
 rious ally against the overwhelming power of pagan Rome. 
 
 In addition to this perfected system of calumny, which seems as if it 
 never were to end, the English invaders, in every age, have made it 
 their special object to destroy every valuable record, which they could 
 lay their hands upon, of Ireland's ages of independence, of govern- 
 ment, of laws, of literature, poetry, and music. 
 
 I shall show, as I proceed, when, and where, and by whom, were 
 those libraries of Ireland's glory destroyed — libraries that took ages to 
 accumulate, in which were carefully registered the deeds of the kings, 
 and princes, and lawgivers, of " Temora " (Tara) for upwards of two 
 THOUSAND YEARS ; who, unconquercd by invaders, and undisturbed in 
 succession, preserved the national independence of the great Irish race 
 for a duration longer than any nation, ancient or modern, can boast of. 
 
 But these Vandals from Britain did not destroy only the records of 
 Irish arts, sciences, fame, and glory, but destroyed, in the promiscuous 
 
ANCIENT DOCUMENTS. BENEDICTINE MONKS. 6 
 
 outrage, innumerable records, and most valuable historical fragments 
 (which were deposited, in the course of time, in the Irish colleges) 
 of Egypt, of Phoenicia, of the Scythians and Celts, from which nations 
 the early settlers in Ireland were descended. 
 
 Many fragments of Grecian and Roman literature, which constitute 
 the code of classics, were found amongst the few volumes of Ireland's 
 own history, which the devotees of knowledge tried to preserve and 
 secrete during the ages of persecution. The world is indebted to the 
 order of Benedictine monks for almost ^ll we have of ancient histoiy, 
 of Grecian or Roman literature. These good men gathered, in every 
 age, such fragments of the world's history as had escaped the unlettered, 
 but conquering hordes of the north of Europe — a race which looked on 
 knowledge, and on letters, as their greatest enemies. 
 
 When all Europe, in the fifth and sixth centuries, was convulsed 
 with struggles between the decaying power of Rome and her resisting 
 vassals, — when those nations, which she had enslaved by her arms, 
 and oppressed by her aristocracy, uprose against her sway, and demol- 
 ished, by a mighty convulsion,' her Western Empire, — the peaceful, 
 studious, contemplative inquirers after nature's mysteries were driven 
 from their academic abodes in western Europe, and very many of 
 them fled for refuge to Ireland. 
 
 For this there existed a very natural cause. Ireland had maintained 
 her independence against the arms of Rome during the whole of her six 
 or seven centuries of conquest. Though Britain, Gaul, Spain, Greece, 
 and all the nations of the East, submitted to that rule, Ireland alone, 
 amongst them all, remained independent ; presenting to the eyes of 
 posterity a splendid oasis of freedom amidst the universal desolation 
 of slavery. Her schools and colleges, sustained by national grants, and 
 cherished by national hospitality, offered sanctuaries to the learned of 
 Europe, who fled thither from the surrounding scenes of tumult and 
 slaughter, carrying with them such valuable fragments as they could, 
 secure of the intellectual industry of previous generations. 
 
 The innumerable monasteries which were instituted in Ireland 
 soon after the establishment of Christianity there, in the beginning 
 of the fifth century, attracted the " Brothers of St. Benedict," a society, 
 the first of the kind in the world, which originated in Italy, and 
 extended 'ts branches through the European continent, and to Ireland. 
 These Brothers, I say, seemed to be the only executors of ancient 
 literature. They gathered it ; they protected it ; and little indeed is the 
 world aware of the obligations it owes to those industrious ecclesias- 
 
4 IRELAND THE CHIEF SEAT OF WESTERN LITERATURE,, 
 
 tics, or to that nation which ofFereii them and their priceless gatherings a 
 safe and welcome sanctuary, when they were driven from every other. 
 
 Ireland having been the chief seat, in the west, of literature and laws, 
 even in the Druid ages, the early accumulations, age after age, must have 
 swelled to immense dimensions, previous to the European convulsions in 
 the fifth and sixth centuries. But, when we estimate the quantity of 
 books, documents, and records, which the literary refugees carried with 
 them into Ireland, during that convulsion, and when we add them to 
 those already gathered there, we can then conceive some measure of 
 the criminality of those British invaders, one of whose objects, for 
 many centuries, seemed to be the destruction of every ivorlc of literature 
 found in that ill-fated country. 
 
 I shall show, when I come to the reigns of Elizabeth, James the First, 
 the Charleses, Cromwell, that cartloads of the most ancient and most 
 valued works were taken from the shelves of the religious libraries, 
 brought out, and burned at the doors of those tenements which St. 
 Patrick and his successors erected, within wliose venerable piles 
 Alfred and his Saxon countrymen, for many ages, received their 
 gratuitous education. 
 
 But, though ages of fanatical persecution destroyed much that we 
 should value, yet enough was saved to show what our nation was in her 
 lengthened career of independence. The literary and religious refugees 
 who fled from British violence, in the sixteenth and seventeentli centuries, 
 to the Continent, carried with them more than enough of material to 
 furnish the world with a more accurate history of Ireland than any 
 
 OTHER NATION CAN BOAST OF. 
 
 And what must gratify you and me very much, is the fact, that, 
 notwithstanding the corruption and tyranny practised by each succeeding 
 British ministry towards Ireland ; notwithstanding the promotion and 
 rewards which awaited every lying historian ; notwithstanding the 
 persecution which every literary man, who dared to print the truth, from 
 Molyneux to Plowden, experienced at the hands of guilty power, — yet 
 there have been found Englishmen and Scotchmen, who, ih the face of 
 all, in the teeth of national pride and ministerial power, have clung 
 to the proud, the lasting standard of eternal truth, have explored the 
 streams of History to their obscure source, have traced them honestly 
 for three thousand years of time, and have honestly admitted the ancient 
 power and glory of Ireland. 
 
 How great must our gratitude be towards men so just and so fearless ! 
 Say, how much of the crimes of England towards Ireland is washed 
 
AUTHORITIES RELIED ON IN THIS WORK. O 
 
 away by the virtues of the few honest writers on Irish history, who have, 
 in latter times, appeared amongst her sons. Amongst these I shall 
 quote from Betham, Colonel Vallancey, Dr. Warner, Plowden, Lin- 
 gard, and Cobbett ; and amongst the writers of Scottish birth, Sir 
 James Mackintosh, the ornament of English literature ; and the Abbe 
 M'Geoghegan amongst the French. Among the Irish writers, I will 
 draw on the rich stores put together by O'Conor, O'Halloran, O'Con- 
 nell, Keating, Mac Dermott, Pepper, Moore, Wyse, Barrington, 
 O'Callaghan, Battersby, Madden, &tc. From some of the surviving 
 patriots of '98 I have collected unpublished material. From two of 
 the above historians I present, at the outset, a couple of extracts, 
 merely to indicate the nature of the important history which I have 
 undertaken to develop. 
 
 Dr. Warner says, " Will any critic in this country [England] any 
 longer confidently assert that the Irish had not the use of letters till 
 after the arrival of St. Patrick, and the conversion of the island to 
 Christianity ? Ought we Englishmen not rather take shame to ourselves 
 that we have hitherto always treated that ancient gallant people with 
 such illiberal contempt, who had the start of the britons for 
 
 MANY AGES, IN ARTS AND SCIENCES, IN LEARNING AND LAWS?" 
 
 Sir James JVIaekintosh says, " The Chronicles of Ireland, written in 
 the Irish language, from the second century to the landing of Henry 
 Plantagenet, have been recently pubhshed, with the fullest evidences 
 of their genuineness and exactness. The Irish nation, though they 
 are robbed of many of their favorite legends by this authentic 
 publication, are yet enabled by it to boast that they possess genuine 
 history several centuries more ancient than any other nation possesses, 
 in its present spoken language. Indeed, no other nation possesses any 
 monument of its literature, which goes back within several centuries of 
 the beginning of those Chronicles. Some of Dr. O'Conor's hearers 
 may hesitate to admit the degree of culture and prosperity he claims 
 for his country ; but no one, I think, can deny, after perusing his proofs, 
 that 'the Irish were a lettered people while the Saxons 
 
 WERE still immersed IN DARKNESS AND IGNORANCE.' " 
 
 If Ireland, then, be, and have been, what these great men admit, 
 ought we not to feel humbled at finding her history so Httle known ? to 
 find her name not only blotted from the political map of the world, but 
 fraudulently excluded from the commonwealth of the world's literature ? 
 And, as we are vigorously struggling in the sublime effort to restore her 
 political position amid the nations, so ought we to struggle vigorously 
 
6 POLICY OF BRITISH WKITERS TOWARDS IRELAND. 
 
 to reestablish her in her ancient relations with the literature and science 
 of enlightened man. 
 
 While I feel strongly that this ought to be done, I also feel that I 
 am incompetent to impart to the work I undertake those features of 
 style and diction which would increase its interest, and secure for the 
 nation to which I belong a reasonable share of honor. I feel this 
 thoroughly, and I express it unaffectedly; yet I also mourn the igno- 
 rance tliat prevails in this great country, in relation to Ireland ; and, 
 clumsy though my hand may be, and untutored my pen and tongue, 
 I will avail myself of the opportunity and the means that even / possess,, 
 to place before the American public a general digest of Ireland's history, 
 from the beginning of her ages of civilization and government to the 
 present time. 
 
 SECTION II 
 
 Policy of British Writers. — Dr. Johnson's Letter. — Discovery of a Key to the 
 Egyptian Inscriptions. — Rosetta Stone. — The Deluge. — Noah. — Settlement of 
 Egypt by the Children of Ham. — Origin of Writing. — Instinct in Insects and 
 Quadrupeds. — Symbolic Writing. — Irish Language constructed on the Sounds of 
 Nature. — Ancient Egyptian Government. — Egyptian Priesthood. — The Pharaohs- 
 or Kings of Egypt. — Pyramids.— Brick-making. — Mummies. — Manufactures of 
 Egypt. — Its Architecture. — Metre. — Calendar. — Art and Science. — Libraries. 
 — Histories. — Fathers of History. 
 
 The majority of British writers have left no effort untried to discredit 
 the early history of Ireland. The laborious records of the ancient Irish 
 historians they have treated as bardic rhapsodies, because their authors 
 claimed for their country a high degree of perfection in government, 
 arts, literature, manufactures, music, civilization, and social refinement. 
 
 When the knowledge of any art, or law, which moderns value, was 
 attributed to ancient Ireland, the British calumniators seized on the 
 proposition, and held it up to derision, as an absurdity. " Observe,'^ 
 they would say, " the Irish claim the merit of knowing the principles 
 of masonry and building three thousand yeai^s ago; of working in 
 metals, of manufacturing textile fabrics, of understanding mathematics 
 and astronomy, — though we know those various branches of human 
 knowledge were the inventions of modern ages." Arguments of this 
 kind take well with admirers exclusively of modern art and civilization ; 
 
DR. JOHNSON S LETTERS ON IRELAND. 7 
 
 for self-love is gratified, and self-importance swelled by their admission. 
 Those who would disturb theories so fashionable, have rather an uphill 
 work to perform. 
 
 The celebrated Dr. Johnson, the great standard authority on the 
 English language, deplored, frequently, the little that was known of 
 ancient Ireland by his countrymen. Some of his letters, of dates 1755, 
 1777, to Dr. O'Conor, of Bealenagar, the Irish historian, have been 
 recently published by Sir William Betham, Ulster king at arms in 
 Ireland, in his very able work on the ancient Celtae, &;c., now before 
 ine. The following extracts from one of those letters is seasonable : — 
 
 " What the Irish language is in itself, and to what language it has 
 affinity, are very interesting questions, which every man wishes to see 
 resolved, that has any philological or historical curiosity. Dr. Le- 
 land begins his History too late. [Leland, who was a renegade 
 Irishman of that age, commenced his History of Ireland from the 
 beginning of her connection with Britain.] The ages which deserve an 
 exact inquiry are those — for such there ivere — when Ireland was 
 
 THE SCHOOL OF THE WEST, THE QUIET HABITATION OF SANCTITY AND 
 
 LITERATURE. If you could givc a history, though imperfect, of the 
 Irish nation from its conversion to Christianity to the invasion from 
 England, you would amplify knowledge with new views and new 
 objects. Set about it, therefore, if you can. Do what you can easily 
 do without anxious exactness. Lay the foundation, and leave the 
 superstructure to posterity. 
 
 " I am, sir, your humble servant, 
 
 " Samuel Johnson. 
 
 ^'May 19, 1777." 
 
 Considerations such as these, so eloquently expressed by the great 
 Dr. Johnson, ought to induce us to look into the ancient history of a 
 race which was, for many ages, the " teachers of the west," and should 
 excuse me for carrying you back to ages of the world far more remote 
 than the arrival of the Phoenicio-Milesian settlers in Ireland, to the 
 times, indeed, of Moses, of Abraham, and of Noah, for the purpose 
 of proving the reality of that remote civilization, which Ireland inherited 
 from a long line of illustrious ancestors, whose Irish descendants, in 
 every age, passionately cultivated the literature bequeathed to them. 
 
 The recent discoveries made in the hieroglyphic systems of the ancient 
 Egyptians, and in the tombs of ancient Etruria, place within our reach 
 iihat knowledge of the primeval ages which was denied to the Greeks 
 
8 DISCOVEEY OF A KEY TO THE EGYPTIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 and Romans ; viz., a knowledge of ancient Egypt, Phoenicia, Etruria, 
 &c. ; of the invention and advancement of art amongst those singu- 
 larly great nations. In the days of Herodotus, Josephus, Pliny, and 
 other fathers of history, who wrote about two thousand years ago, 
 Egypt had, even then, been almost forgotten, and would have been 
 completely so, had it not been for her everlasting monuments of art. 
 All the decipherers of the symbolic memorials had long, long been 
 gathered to the catacombs of the embalmed dead, and httle remained 
 to attest their former grandeur and power, but their wonderful pyramids, 
 and their mysterious inscriptions, which no living man, for many ages, 
 could decipher. 
 
 To ancient Greece and Rome, Egypt and Phoenicia were lands to 
 be plundered, not exalted ; lands whose wisdom and glory dimmed 
 their own ; lands to be forgotten, not recorded. Both those nations, 
 in turn, plundered Egypt, Phoenicia, and Etruria. Both possessed 
 themselves of their arts, sciences, laws, and religious mysteries, and 
 boldly assumed them as their own. What England was, and is, to 
 Ireland, Greece and Rome were to Egypt and Phcenicia — plunderers 
 of their territory and science, and libellers of their name. 
 
 But Providence brought to light the means of opening the sealed 
 tablets of the Egyptians and the entombed treasures of the Phoenicians. 
 We shall first dwell on ancient Egypt. 
 
 In the year '1191, some engineers of the French army vv^ere exca- 
 vating, for the foundations of a fort, near the ancient Egyptian city 
 of Rosetta, in the district known as the Delta, through which the Nile 
 discharges its waters into the Mediterranean Sea. At several feet 
 below the surface, they discovered, in the sandy earth, an oblong slab 
 of black basalt stone, about three feet by two and a half, which was 
 covered with writing and symbolic characters. When the French 
 were captured by the British at Alexandria, this stone was given 
 up to their commander^ carried to London, and there attracted the 
 attention of the antiquaries of the world. It was found to consist of a 
 triplicate memorial of the coronation and proclamation of an Egyp- 
 tian king or Pharaoh, who flourished one hundred and ninety-six 
 years before the Christian era. 
 
 The first record of the event is in hieroglyphics or symbols, used 
 in the mysterious system of the Egyptian priesthood ; the second 
 memorial is in the Demotic, or Encorial, which was the language of 
 the common people of Egypt ; and the third memorial is in the Greek 
 language. The latter purports to be a translation of the two preceding 
 
THE DELUGE. NOAH. 
 
 memonals, proving, for the first time, to the satisfaction of all men, that 
 the symbolic characters found on the old monuments of Egypt are, in 
 fact, written records. Great exertions were made by the learned of 
 Europe to find a key to decipher these interesting symbols, which had 
 remained sealed history to the most learned of mankind for better than 
 two thousand years. 
 
 At length the task was accomplished by the learned French antiquary, 
 M. CliampolUon le Jeune, who, in conjunction with Dr. Young and 
 some other learned and scitsntific inquirers, hit upon a complete key 
 for deciphering the monumental records of ancient Egypt ; the conse- 
 quence of which has been, that a series of reports have been read 
 before the French Institute, and published to the world, with diagrams, 
 explanations, maps, and illustrative drawings, which present to the eye 
 of the scholar a new and magnificent historical superstructure. Proud 
 may the Irishman feel at this singular result, for it confirms the truthful 
 historians of his own country, who lived and recorded her glorious 
 attributes two thousand years ago. From some of the voluminous 
 publications on ancient Egypt, recently made by the learned, I have 
 condensed into a brief narrative the progress of civilization, as conducted 
 by two of the chief communities of ancient times, who flourished for 
 unnumbered centuries after the deluge. 
 
 The original traditions of every nation acknowledge and attest that 
 the world was destroyed by a deluge ; one family, only, consisting of 
 eight persons, having been preserved. The time when this event 
 happened is variously dated by the traditions and histories of the 
 numerous primary tribes into which mankind was divided long 
 subsequent to that event. The na7ne of the head of the favored family, 
 thus preserved from all creation, is difi^erently pronounced by the 
 descendants of these primary nations. The Hebrew chronicles and 
 the Christian pronounce it Noah. 
 
 Noah remained on the earth, after the deluge, three hundred and 
 fifty years. He was lord of the whole earth. His three sons, Shem, 
 Ham, and Japheth, had bestowed on them, by their father, the most 
 fertile regions of the east. Ham, and his son, Mizraim, with their 
 families, proceeded from the banks of the Euphrates, in Asia, to the 
 valley of the Nile, during the lifetime of Noah. That region was 
 bestowed on them by the patriarch, as their inheritance. Egypt was 
 called by the Egyptians Khem, or Kah, the " Land of Ham." Such 
 is the translation of symbols on the old monuments. 
 
 Shem and Ham, two of the sons of Noah, were twins. "Shem" 
 2 
 
10 EGYPT SETTLED BY THE CHILDREN OF HAM. ORIGIN OF WRITING. 
 
 means " fair twin ; " " Ham " means " swarthy twin." Though the 
 term Ham means swarthy, in no ancient language does it mean blacJc. 
 In Ps. xxviii. 51, Egypt is designated the " tabernacle of Ham."" 
 
 Canaan was the person cursed by Noah; he was the fouith son of 
 Ham ; he was a white man, yet his posterity did not become black : 
 they are a white race. The offspring of the fair twin " Shem " were 
 Israelites. They were called " shems," or " strangers/' in Egypt. 
 Mizraim, the son of Ham, was a Caucasian, in physical conformation ; 
 that is, well proportioned in the make of the head, with sharp features. 
 The Caucasian race, by their physical and mental superiority, extended, 
 in after ages, their dominion over the surrounding nations. The records 
 of the contemporary nations, which grew up from Noah's family, have 
 nearly all perished. Little is certainly known of the ancient history of 
 the Hindoos, Chinese, Assyrians, Persians, &;c. he. 
 
 Egypt stands, like her enduring pyramids, almost the sole standard 
 for the history of man, from the destruction of the earth by the deluge 
 to the present time. Amongst the first settlements on the banks of the 
 River Nile, we recognize Thebes as the earliest gathering of people 
 which comes up to our idea of a city. Thebes was the first city built 
 by Mizraim and his successors. It was, no doubt, like all other cities 
 in their commencement, a mere village. It was built on the banks of the 
 Nile, about one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty miles from its 
 discharging mouths into the Mediterranean Sea. The city of Thebes 
 was for many ages considered, by all the tribes and nations surrounding, 
 the centre of knowledge, religious mysteries, arts, science, and celestial 
 light. The Sanconiathon, the great Phoenician book, kept in Tyre, 
 as well as other ancient works, Hebrew and Phoenician, record that the 
 use of letters was either invented or restored by a descendant of Miz- 
 raim, named Thaat, or Thoth. By others this individual (Thoili) is 
 considered to be Phceneas, or one skilled in the science o( sounds. Mr. 
 Gliddon, the eminent Egyptian hierologist, thinks that writing, either by 
 symbols or letters, was known to the inhabitants of the earth before the 
 flood. There is no good reason to doubt the proposition. When we 
 know that animals and insects, of all sorts, are secretly directed in their 
 operations, by the unseen hand of the Creator, by tliat law which we 
 term intuition, or instinct, to perform for themselves those acts of 
 provision and protection which surprise us ; when we observe the 
 precise and correct geometrical skill displayed by the spider, who 
 weaves his nets, to catch his food, with much more exactitude than the 
 most expert and instructed fisherman or net manufacturer ; when we 
 
INSTINCT IN INSECTS AND QUADRUPEDS, StC. 11 
 
 Study the labors of the bee, the wisdom, forethought, and science, dis- 
 played by that wonderful creation of God, — how humbled do we rise 
 from the contemplation ! Whether we remark on the wisdom which, 
 in the summer, provides food for winter ; the forethought to erect a 
 suitable habitation to protect itself and young against cold ; the math- 
 ematical science evidenced in the erection of those habitations and 
 storehouses ; the conservative sense displayed in the erection of 
 guards, to keep pillaging insects from entering their front apertures, or 
 outer doors, — we feel that the magnificent social economy, practised 
 by this insect, cannot be dictated by self-will, self-culture, or instruction 
 derived from any quarter. 
 
 In the construction of the honey-comb, one of the highest principles 
 of mathematics is strictly observed. The principle is called maxima 
 and minima. This problem had long been unsettled by the most 
 learned mathematicians. The celebrated M'Claurin, a disciple of New- 
 ton, by a fluxionary calculation, at length solved the problem, and 
 determined the proportions of a certain angle ; and he found, by the most 
 exact measurement the subject could admit of, that it is the very angle 
 in which the three planes in the bottom of the cell of a honey-comb do 
 actually meet. To call this extraordinary knowla^ge by the name of 
 intuition, or instinct, as we generally do, fails to convey the true 
 definition. We should call it divine teaching. When, therefore, 
 the inferior portion of animated nature evidences the eternal presence 
 of a divine Creator, and a divine Teacher, is it to be maintained for a 
 moment, that man, the chief work of his hand, should be denied those 
 advantages conferred on insects and quadrupeds? That man was 
 blessed at different periods, before and since the deluge, with divine 
 revelations for his guidance in this world, is attested by Scripture. 
 
 Returning, however, to the early science manifested by the ancients, 
 we find the art of indicating ideas by man to man, through signs and 
 symbols, was very early known to the Egyptians. The first mode 
 established was pictorial marks. The figure of a man expressed an 
 idea. The varied positions, attitudes, and postures, of the man repre- 
 sented variations of the idea, or separate ideas. Parts of the human 
 body also denoted thoughts and ideas ; and so of figures of quadrupeds, 
 fishes, birds, trees, mountains, Stc. The creations of nature were thus 
 used by the early scribes and linguists, as the medium of indicating their 
 thoughts 
 
 The writers of this symbolic character began at the top of a page or a 
 monument, and carried the subject downwards. Square obelisks of hewn 
 
12 SYMBOLIC WRITING. 
 
 Stone, of about seventy to ninety feet high, were "erected by the early 
 kings of Egypt in front of their pyramids, on which, beginning at the top, 
 were recorded, in symbol, the events of their reigns. Then there were 
 different sets of natural objects, which were used at discretion, to 
 represent the same set of ideas. 
 
 When the ideas to be entableted were of a sublime, celestial, noble, 
 chivalrous, heroic character, the most noble animals and the grandest 
 objects of creation were used in the symbolic alphabet. When they 
 were of an opposite character, — when scorn, contempt, or hatred, were 
 to be imbodied, — the meanest, most loathsome reptiles were figured. 
 The Egyptian scribes were expert at this kind of writing, and are said 
 to have been able to indite as quickly as a man could speak. 
 
 In the progress of the art, for greater expedition, parts only of the 
 human body, and parts of other animals, birds, trees, fishes, &ic., were 
 used, the suppressed portion being understood; and thus an alphabet 
 of curves, angles, and lines, came into use, perfectly well understood by 
 the people of those primeval ages. 
 
 Different branches of the human family used different marks to make 
 up their alphabet ; and hence that variation which we see in the writing 
 of the several natlon| of the earth. Symbolic writing, after being used 
 for two thousand five hundred years, ceased generally in Egypt about 
 three hundred years before Christ. 
 
 In the same way was language, or the sounds of the human voice, 
 used to express human thoughts or ideas. The voices of animals and 
 birds, as well as men, were, by the ancients, called into requisition to 
 form a dialect. The higher we mount up to the source of language, 
 the more imitative of nature shall we find the expression of ideas. 
 Thus, in Egypt, says Gliddon, 
 
 The name of an Ass was Yd, from his bray ; 
 
 ". " " " Lion " Mooee, from his roar ; 
 
 " " " " Cow " Khc, from her loiv ; 
 
 " " '• " Frog " Croor, from his croak; 
 
 " " " " Cat " Chdoo, from her mew; 
 
 " " " , " Pig " Rurr, from his grunt ; 
 
 " " « " Serpent " Hoff, from its hiss. 
 There are very many other words traced to the cries and chiruping 
 of birds ; but there is enough in the above example to explain the 
 simple roots of language. The Irish language, of which I shall have 
 much more to say hereafter, was constructed upon the same principles, 
 in very remote ages, by a branch of the Egyptian family called Phce- 
 
EGYPTIAN WORSHIP. IS 
 
 7iictans, for which reason, it is the most expressive of any known 
 language. No language can so powerfully express the varied sensations 
 of adoration, joy, grief, love, anger, merriment, scorn, contempt, as the 
 Irish. But to return. 
 
 The form of government first instituted by the Egyptians was a 
 hierarchy, or government of the sacred priesthood. A religious pon- 
 tificate was established at Thebes. The system of discipline established 
 among them was complex and matured. Its leading characteristics 
 were political forethought, intellectual discrimination, equity, and moral- 
 ity. It extended the dominion of Egypt over the nations that surround- 
 ed it. In process of time the civil power of the Egyptian priesthood 
 was struck down by the usurping arm of a military chieftain, and then 
 commenced the reign of the kings, or " Pharaohs." 
 
 But the moral power of the priesthood over the mind remained and 
 endured, owing to its intrinsic utility to the happiness of man, for three 
 thousand years ; and yielded only at last to the superiority and divine 
 strength of the Christian system. What the form of that religion was, 
 which thus held sway for so long a period, it is not my province to 
 describe. Its general principles, however, may be glanced at. They 
 were, a belief in a divine Author, or Origin ; the sun being the visible 
 manifestation of that Supreme E^eing, which they worshipped by 
 offerings of sacrifice : they believed in the immortality of the soul ; in a 
 future state ; in judgment, rewards, and punishments ; in a general 
 resurrection ; and also, that the soul, on the death of the body, passed 
 immediately into some other animal, — bird, fish, or insect, — according, 
 to the "judgment" of Isis and Osiris, (male and female deities,) in 
 which it existed for a certain period, passing from stage to stage, to 
 either final bliss or final suffering, or extinction. 
 
 A system of celestial adoration and belief, which enabled an enduring 
 hierarchy to hold subordinate, for three thousand years, the wild passions 
 of a warlike and powerful people, such as the Egyptians once were, 
 and which continued its sway, after their fall, in spite of foreign inva- 
 sions, and even ages of slavish submission to the conqueror, cannot be 
 viewed by the most Christian man with any other feelings than those 
 of wonder and respect. When we know the powerful hold it had on 
 the mind of the Eastern nations, we are not surprised at the zeal dis- 
 played by the early Christians in obliterating the literature in which its 
 mysteries were so thoroughly interwoven. The same zeal was dis- 
 played by St. Patrick in Ireland, who, with, his own hands, burnt 
 several hundred volumes of Druid literature, consisting principally of 
 
14 EGYPTIAN PRIESTHOOD AND THE PHARAOHS. 
 
 poetry, which was so fascinating in its conception and measure, yet so 
 impregnated with Druid rites and doctrines, that the apostle deemed its 
 existence dangerous to the Christian doctrine he had just promulgated. 
 
 The first mlers of Egypt were the priests. They united in their 
 persons sacred and temporal authority. This form of government is 
 called a theocracy. The ministers of religion were also ministers of 
 science and knowledge, uniting in their persons two of the most influ- 
 ential missions with which man can be invested — the worship of the 
 Deity and the cultivation of the human intellect. 
 
 This theocracy was necessarily despotic ; and, in the progress of the 
 nation, a military power was created to support the government. 
 
 Society was then divided into three classes — the priests, the military, 
 and ^^Q people. A rivalry soon sprang up between the first two. The 
 physical power being in the hands of the military, a military chieftain — 
 a soldier of fortune — seized the sceptre of dominion, established a royal 
 government, and made the throne hereditary in his line of descendants, 
 through a long future. 
 
 This first Pharaoh (a term which meant Icing) is known as Menes. 
 He began his reign as king of Upper and Lower Egypt about two 
 thousand five hundred years before Christ. That the Egyptians, under 
 their Pharaohs, became a mighty nation, and held that position for 
 unnumberedages. is well attested. Egypt held subject to her sway, at 
 one period, Palestine, Syria, Arabia, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, 
 Libya, Barbary, and other remote nations, in tribute or in bondage. 
 From the Old Testament, or from profane history, we could derive only 
 a limited or partial view of the true greatness of the Pharaohs; and the 
 present race of Egyptians are themselves totally ignorant of events to 
 them so momentous. 
 
 "But when," says Gliddon, "we are enabled, through the discov- 
 eries of hieroglyphical science, to read, translate, and understand the 
 legends still sculptured on Egypt's vast monuments, and decipher the 
 written pages of her crumbling papyri, we are enabled to bring forward 
 her history a speaking witness of her glory." 
 
 The first objects in Egyptian prowess which attract the attention of 
 the reflective, are those stupendous monuments of human labor and 
 skill, the pyramids. Properly have they been described "one of the 
 wonders of the world." They are strewed along the banks of tlie Nile, 
 from Memphis back to the junction of the white and blue forks of that 
 great river, at Meroe, covering a line of fifteen hundred miles. They 
 are so numerous, that if placed, as lighthouses, ten miles apart, they 
 
PYRAMIDS. 
 
 15 
 
 would be sufficient to surround the whole coast of North and South 
 America, and still leave a heavy balance. And yet each of these 
 monuments seems, to our eyes and senses, as if it were the work of an 
 entire nation for many years. 
 
 And, more singular still, the stones used in their erection were all 
 taken from one quarry, — in the mountains known as the "Libyan chain," 
 — carried in boats against the current of the river, in some instances 
 seven or eight hundred, or a thousand miles ; squared, cut, chiseled, 
 and then raised to altitudes, varying with the size of the erection, from 
 ninety to four hundred and fifty feet. Calculations have been made, 
 by the learned, as to the number of tons' weight of stone which were 
 used in the erection of those extraordinary piles. 
 
 One of the largest, at Memphis, a very ancient city of Egypt, is thus 
 measured : Height, four hundred and fifty feet ; square feet at the base, 
 seven hundred and forty-six feet ; cubic feet of masonry, thirty-two 
 millions and twenty-eight thousand feet ; tons' weight of stone, six mil- 
 lions eight hundred and forty-eight thousand, of good limestone, cut into 
 blocks varying from two to five feet square ; and the pile covered thir- 
 teen acres of surface. The pyramids which stand along the valley of 
 the Nile are of various sizes. The total number (including those in 
 Ethiopia, a remote region of Upper Egypt) has never yet been accu- 
 rately given. About one hundred and eighty have been numbered ; 
 many have been measured. Some are built entirely of stone ; and so 
 accurate and so exact have been these ancient people in their great 
 works, that the names of their kings, and the dates of their erection, 
 have been chiseled into the stones, in the symbolic character of the 
 time. And further; duplicate marks have been cut into the quarry 
 bed from whence the stones were excavated. 
 
 Some of the largest pyramids were built of sun-burnt brick, made of 
 the alluvial mud washed down in the waters of the Nile, in a journey 
 of four thousand miles from the interior of Southern Africa. (The 
 source of this river no white man, save Bruce, has ever yet explored.) 
 
 Brick-making, in ancient Egypt, was a business which employed 
 great numbers of the people. The artificial soil, deposited annually over 
 the Egyptian valley by the periodical overflowing and subsiding of that 
 singular river, the Nile, has ever enabled the people to raise abundance 
 of grain without much labor. And the kings and priests, observing the 
 danger of permitting the people to simmer in idleness, employed them 
 in making bricks, quarrying stone, and erecting those huge, everlasting 
 monuments of their existence, which still remain, and probably will 
 
16 BRICK-MAKING IN EGYPT. — MUMMIES. 
 
 during the full period assigned to the earth itself. Each of those pyra- 
 mids was erected to receive the remains of a king and his family, and 
 perpetuate his name to future generations. Within each there is found 
 a chamber, or chambers, for the dead. 
 
 The sun-burnt brick, made from the alluvial deposit of the Nile, 
 seems to be of eternal endurance. Some of the pyramids are built 
 altogether of that material, bound by a cement mortar, the component 
 parts of which are now unknown. It was the custom of each Pharaoh 
 to commence his pyramid at the commencement of his reign, marking 
 the brick, while in process of manufacture, or the stone, with his name 
 and degree, and to continue to heap layer upon layer, according to true 
 mathematical principles, until a square pyramid arose before his own 
 eyes, which was to perpetuate his name and deeds to posterity. The 
 great object of the Pharaohs appears to have been to excel each other 
 in the size of their pyramids. Hence the labor not only of their own 
 people, but of all the nations they conquered, was called in to aid in 
 the erection of those stupendous works. 
 
 As mausoleums of the dead, these pyramids present other features 
 calculated to awaken our wonder. The process of embalming, and the 
 materials used in the process, have long since become a mystery to the 
 most scientific of modern men. Since the French possessed themselves 
 of Egypt, about forty-five years ago, and forced open the ancient shrines 
 to the inquiring eyes of science, thousands of embalmed bodies have 
 been brought to Europe, which had been preserved, — flesh, bones, 
 and muscles,— by the process of embalming, for full four thousand years. 
 And the travellers of the present day assure us there are yet millions 
 of these preserved bodies within the pyramids and mausoleums of 
 Egypt. 
 
 Mr. Gliddon exhibited a set of earthen jars, four in number, as speci- 
 mens of those found in sets nearly alongside every embalmed body. 
 These jars contained the heart, liver, and intestines, of the deceased, 
 which were drawn out preparatory to the body being embalmed : a 
 composition of pitch, lime, and some other ingredients, was then intro- 
 duced into the disemboweled body. It was next swathed in pitched 
 linen or cotton cloth, from the head down around the feet, in intermina- 
 ble folds. Between each layer there was introduced a hot liquid, of a 
 pitchy compound, which completely bound together the outside coatings, 
 and rendered the body within impervious to air or moisture. This art is 
 now totally unknown. 
 
 But what surprises us still more, is the degree of refinement and 
 
SHROUDINGS. MANUFACTURES OF EGYPT. 17 
 
 3xcellence which their woven textile fabrics, whether of linen or cotton, 
 found around those venerable mummies, plainly indicate. 
 
 The microscope has been applied to the material of those shroudings, 
 to ascertain whether the thread was spun from cotton or from flax ; but 
 the most accurate and scientific observers could not decide, some 
 alleging them to be from a cotton, oihers from a flaxen fibre. That 
 the art of spinning and weaving, in its advanced stage, was well known 
 to those ancients, is proved, by their exhumed shroudings, beyond all 
 doubt or dispute. 
 
 Within the pyramidal chambers, castings of the dead, in clay, have 
 been found, which display a high degree of advancement in that art. 
 There have also been found images of the dead, sculptured in stone, 
 laid by the side of the deceased. Millions of little glass images of their 
 deities Isis and Osiris are found within every mausoleum ; some of 
 which were colored in the manufacture, and all of which evince the 
 existence of a thorough knowledge of glass-making, a thousand years' be- 
 fore the period hitherto set down by the learned, as the era of the dis- 
 covery of that art. The earthen jars found, in great quantities, amongst 
 the embalmed dead, prove their knowledge of pottery. Specimens of the 
 glass and earthen ware, manufactured by the Egyptians four thousand 
 years ago, have been exhibited in Europe and America ; and they 
 equal any thing of the same kind manufactured in the present time. 
 Indeed, the glass specimens surpass the product of the present day. for 
 they were beautifully colored during the process of manufacture — a 
 degree of refinement to which moderns cannot aspire. The knowledge 
 displayed by these remote people, in every branch of science, is truly 
 surprising. They were the inventors of the arch, in architecture, in all 
 its variety, a thousand years, at least, before either Greece or Rome had 
 a social existence. The'' Gothic'' arch is found in Egyptian monuments 
 which date before the time of Abraham. The pointed arch and the 
 circular arcli — the latter used in watercourses — are inventions of the 
 Egyptian age, or probably of ages anterior to the flood. 
 
 The Egyptians quarried and hewed the hardest granite blocks, some 
 of which were one hundred to one hundred and twenty feet in length, 
 ten feet in width, and eight feet in depth. These were conveyed from 
 the Libyan quarry, hundreds of miles, and raised several hundred feet, 
 to their appointed places in their everlasting piles. 
 
 The " Doric column," the father of the order of pillars, erroneously 
 attributed to the Greeks, is simply an Egyptian pillar, shaped from the 
 solid block : it Is fluted, in concave hollows, from the top to the bottom ; 
 3 
 
18 ARCHITECTURE. METRE. 
 
 the top is surmounted by a simple circular capital ; the base rests on a 
 low, square pedestal. Several of these ancient columns are still to be 
 seen among the ruins of Egypt, which were erected many ages previous 
 to the existence of Athens or Rome. 
 
 The knowledge of metre, or measurement, was well understood by 
 those ancient people. On the blowing up of one of the monuments, by 
 Mohammed Ali, for the puqiose of getting stone to erect a military fort, 
 a wooden measure was discovered amongst the rubbish, which was 
 found to be two cubits, or forty-two inches, long. It was notched in 
 metrical distances, like our modern rules, by fingers, palms, and spans, 
 and proved to be a rule or measure, which belonged to one of the 
 masons employed on the monument three thousand five hundred years 
 ago. The measure dropped from the woi'kman's hand amongst the 
 stones, and was found imbedded in the mortar. 
 
 This invaluable relic of ancient art is in the custody of the French 
 embassy, and, I suppose, is «ow deposited in the archives of that nation. 
 
 The learned explorers, who purchased it of the workmen, applied it 
 to many of the entrances and chambers of the pyramids. It proved to 
 be the measure by which they were all erected ; the entrances to all are 
 equal tp two cubits, or forty-two inches of our measure. The " mhit " 
 of the ancients was the length of the arm of a full-grown man, from the 
 elbow to the top of the second finger ; the " span " was the breadth 
 described by stretching asunder the thumb and second finger ; the 
 "palm" was .the breadth of the four fingers of the hand, without the 
 thumb; the " finger '' was simply the breadth of that joint, which is 
 something less than an inch; the "fiathom" was the length, from 
 finger to finger, of a full-grown man's arms extended at opposite sides. 
 
 The cuUt was the common term of measurement amongst the 
 ancients. There were the royal cubit and common cubit, which diifered 
 a little in dimension from each other. The cubit was the measure of 
 ancient Ireland ; the doors of the round towers are exactly two cubits 
 wide ; that of Roscrea is three feet and six inches, equal to two cubits. 
 The legislative hall of Tara measured two hundred and fifty cubits 
 long. The ark of Noah was three hundred cubits long. 
 
 The Egyptians also perfectly understood the seasons, and the revo- 
 lutions of the heavenly bodies ; they fixed the year to consist of three 
 hundred and sixty-five days. It was so established in the times of 
 Herodotus, four hundred and forty years before Christ. Plato, the 
 celebrated Greek philosopher, who studied at Heliopolis, in Egypt, 
 
EGYPTIAN CALENDAR. ART. 19 
 
 bears testimony to the early establishment of a calendar amongst them. 
 Champollion declares that the dates on the tombs would establish the 
 existence of a national calendar in Egypt two thousand years before 
 Christ. It is said, moreover, that the early Egyptians pledged their 
 kings not to alter their calendar. 
 
 The round towers of Egypt and of India should here receive a notice ; 
 but I purposely reserve this feature of Egyptian antiquity until I come 
 to treat of the round towers of Ireland, they being the emanation of a 
 common age and a common race. 
 
 I would here insert, from Mr. Gliddon, a pithy description of the 
 state of arts and science in ancient Egypt: "Will not the historian," 
 he says, " deign to notice the prior origin of every art and science in 
 Egypt, a thousand years before the Pelasgians and Phoenicians studded 
 the isles and capes of the archipelago with their forts and temples, long 
 before Etruscan civilization had smiled under Italian skies ? 
 
 " Philologists, astronomers, chemists, painters, architects, physicians, 
 must return to Egypt to learn the origin of language and writing ; of 
 the calendar, and solar motion ; of the art of cutting granite with a 
 copper chisel, and of giving elasticity to a copper sword ; of making 
 glass with the variegated hues of the rainbow ; of moving single blocks 
 of polished granite, nine hundred tons in weight, for any distance by 
 land and water ; of building arches, round and pointed, with masonic 
 precision, antecedent, by two thousand years, to the Cloaca Magna 
 of Rome ; of sculpturing a Doric column, one thousand years before 
 the Dorians are known in history ; of fresco painting, in imperishable 
 colors ; and of practical knowledge in anatomy. Every craftsman can 
 behold, in Egyptian monuments, the progress of his art four thousand 
 years ago ; and whether it be a wheelwright building a chariot, a shoe- 
 maker drawing his twine, a leather-cutter using the self-same form of 
 knife of old as is considered the best form now ; a weaver throwing the 
 same hand shuttle ; a whitesmith using the identical form of blowpipe 
 which is but lately recognized to be the most efficient ; the seal engra- 
 ver cutting, in hieroglyphics, such names as Shoopho's, above four 
 thousand three hundred years ago ; or even the poulterer removing the 
 pip from geese. All these and more astounding evidences of Egyptian 
 priority, now require but a glance at the plates of Rosellini, which have 
 been engraved from original scenes, sculptured into the enduring monu- 
 ments of Egypt." 
 
 As to tlie advanced state of learning, and the great numbers of written 
 
20 SCIENCE. LIBRARIES. HISTORIES. 
 
 books which abounded in ancient Egypt, a glance or two will disclose 
 enough. 
 
 Every one has heard of the destruction of the celebrated library of 
 the Egyptian city of Alexandria, where many thousand volumes were 
 destroyed by popular fury, during the career of Julius Caesar through 
 Egypt, fifty years before Christ. That was the largest and most valua- 
 ble collection of antiquity ; yet Caesar, while defending the arsenal, 
 could not save it from destruction. 
 
 The Tyrian and Phoenician annals were destroyed by Alexander the 
 Great. Poems of all sorts, and particularly epic poems, were common 
 in Egypt, and were publicly chanted to the praise of deities or theiv 
 heroes. Homer, it is said, visited Egypt about nine hundred years 
 before Christ ; and the poet Naucrates charges him with gleaning from 
 Egrjptian bards the ideas which, with such sublimity of thought and 
 diction, he perpetuated in his Iliad and Odyssey. 
 
 Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, borrowed much of their 
 philosophy from the Egyptians. Plato was educated in Egypt. 
 Whichever way we turn, amongst the literary monuments of the past, 
 we shall behold Egypt the fountain of science, the school of post-dilu- 
 vian man. — Perhaps this is the best place to pass up the stream of 
 history to its extreme or obscure source, and note the great remaining 
 authorities which delineate the progress of mankind to modern ages. 
 
 The Pentateuch was the earliest record of the Jews. It was looked 
 upon as so sacred, that every letter was counted. Yet, when the 
 Christians argued from that very book, to prove the divinity of Christ 
 by the exactitude of the patnarchal prophecies, the Jews then interpo- 
 lated their o\\'n sacred chronicle. The Septuagint was a translation 
 into Greek of the Hebrew Pentateuch, which was performed in the 
 reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, two hundred and forty 
 years before Christ, when seventy learned men sat in the Isle of 
 Phai'os, Alexandria, to make the translation from a copy of the Law,, 
 sent by the high priest of the Israelites to Philadelphus, at the latter's 
 solicitation, in return for the liberation, by that monarcii, of one hundred 
 thousand Jews. The Hebrew copy came from Jerusalem to Alexan- 
 dria, written on parchment, in letters of gold. The Egyptians, besides 
 the memorials on their monuments, kept a national record, called " the 
 old chronicle : " this is lost. A fragment only of the writings of Mane- 
 tho, one of tiieir most celebrated historians, has come down to us. 
 
 Manetho was a learned Egyptian, a native of the eastern Delta, in 
 
FATHERS OF HISTORY. 21 
 
 Lower Egypt, high priest and sacred scribe in Heliopolis, who lived 
 about two hundred and sixty years before Christ, and, at the request 
 of Ptolemy Philadelphus, composed, in the Greek language, a history 
 of the kings of Egypt, from the earliest times down to the invasion of 
 that nation by Alexander the Great, three hundred and thirty years 
 before Christ. One only fragment of his history has come to us, 
 which is copied verbatim into Josephus's work. Moses and the other 
 writers of sacred history devoted themselves merely to a history of 
 the Jewish family. Moses flourished twelve hundred years before 
 Christ, and was an Egyptian, educated at Memphis. Eratosthenes of 
 Cyrene was the superintendent of the great Alexandrian library, two 
 hundred years before Christ, and sixty years after Manetho. His 
 original work, a catalogue of Egyptian kings, has perished, except 
 an extract preserved by Syncillas, which he copied from another, whose 
 works have also perished. Herodotus is the well-known Greek writer, 
 styled the father of hisiory ; he was in Eg3^pt about four hundred 
 and forty years before Christ ; his visit there was made during the 
 dominion of the Persians, after Egypt had fallen fvom her pristine 
 greatness. He prepared a historj^ of his travels, and the best account 
 he could compile of Egypt, which lie read in the Olympic circus, 
 before his countrynven, the Greeks. Jtilhis Cctsar wrote sketches 
 of the nations he had conquered, denominated Commentai'ies, about 
 fifty years before Christ. Diodorus the Sicilian wrote forty years 
 before Christ ; and the next great authority on ancient history is Jose- 
 phiis, the well-known Jevs'ish historian, who wrote at Roine, soon 
 after the fall of Jerusalem, one hundred years after Christ, or there- 
 abouts. Then followed the Christian writer and prelate, Clement of 
 Alexandria, about one hundred and ninety years after Christ — Strabo, 
 Tacitus, Pliny, Polybius, and numerous others who swell the stream of 
 history by their writings. I shall show, in the proper place, the early 
 liistorians of Ireland, who wrote of that ancient nation before and subse- 
 quent to the days of Moses. 
 
22 THE PHffiNICIANS. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 The Phoenicians. — Their Cities, Tyre and Aradin. — Their Dominion. — Helped in 
 the Erection of Solomon's Temple. — Mysteries of the Phoenician Priests. — The 
 Greeks taught by them. — The Etrurians. — A Colony of the Phoenicians. — 
 Character of the Etrurians. — Irish Language derived from them. — Civilization 
 and Refinement of the Etrurians. — The Irisii Language the Root of the Lathi. — 
 The oldest Manuscripts in Europe in the Hand- writing of Irishmen. — Dr. John- 
 son's Letter. 
 
 We will now glance at that branch of the great Eastern family, from 
 which Ireland was directly peopled ; namely, the Phcenigians, " the 
 people of the waters," the " masters of the seas," as the ancient histo- 
 rians invariably designate them. 
 
 The very ancient Phoenician book, denominated the " Sanconiathon," 
 or " Book of first Time," contains the history of the Phoenician nation- 
 It was translated into Greek, from the old Phosni tongue, (the present 
 Irish,) by Polybius, the Greek historian, who wrote under Roman aus- 
 pices and influence. This ancient record attributes to the Phoenicians a 
 civilization and literature prior to that of the Egyptians. The most 
 learned of the modern antiquarians have not yet settled the question^ 
 whether the Phoenicians or the Egyptians are entitled to the honor of 
 priority in the discovery of the radical arts and sciences ; more time, 
 and still more extensive inquiries, are required to fix this pbint with 
 greater certainty. Whilst the inquiry goes on, which cannot, terminate 
 as it may, affect the history of Ireland in the slightest degree, we shall 
 view an outline sketch of the Phoenician people, who were the first 
 chief settlers of Ireland, as shall hereinafter be most fully proved by 
 Irish historians, corroborated by foreign contemporary writers, of every 
 age, and almost of every nation,-by identity of language, letters, cus- 
 toms, religion, buildings, coins, weapons, dress, &c. Stc. ; and who 
 continued in Ireland to be an independent, and, in the words of the 
 great Dr. Johnson, " an illustrious .race," for upwards of two thou- 
 sand five hundred years ; '•' the teachers of the West, the ardent 
 cultivators of lettei-s, arts, and piety." 
 
 The Roman writer Strabo says the ancient Phoenicians had settle- 
 ments in the Belirin Islands, in the Persian Gulf. In these islands 
 were places called Tyre and Aradin. This brings the Phoenicians 
 very near the cradle of the human race, the point of dispersion after 
 the flood. "That they were the Sabeans, and that their object of 
 
THEIR DOMINION. TYRE. 23 
 
 adoration was the sun, will," says Sir William Betham, " appear here- 
 after." 
 
 The principal territory occupied by the Phoenicians, when their 
 power began to swell, was the lands now known as Syria and the Delta, 
 on the south of the Mediterranean Sea, with Sicily, Italy, Spain, and 
 Gaul, on the opposite side. It is certain that the communities of men, 
 which grew up on the borders of the Mediterranean Sea, were direct 
 emanations from this people, or were instructed by them in laws, 
 religion, and arts. It is also admitted by all, that the Phoenicians were 
 a nation contemporary with the Egyptians. 
 
 The latter occupied the valley of the Nile, covering some ten or 
 twelve hundred miles from its discharging points into the sea, towards 
 its source. The Phoenicians occupied a portion of the Delta, and 
 the neighbor region of Syria. The Egyptians and Phcenicians were 
 distinct, but, as abundantly appears, very friendly nations. The Egyp- 
 tians, residing in the interior country, devoted themselves to agriculture, 
 science, and war. The Phoenicians, occupying the sea-shores, devoted 
 tliemselves to the navigation of the seas, to manufactures, to the dis- 
 covery of foreign lands, to the extension of dominion, and to the propa- 
 gation of letters, religion, Sic. &c. 
 
 The celebrated city of Tyre was one of the Phoenician seats of manu- 
 facture, and continued, for many ages, the chief seat of manufactures for 
 the whole world. The textile fabrics of that ancient city, and the beau- 
 tiful colors which the Phoenician artisans imparted to them, had been, for 
 many ages, the admiration of all other nations. The " Tyrian purple," 
 famous in all history, so infatuated the Roman ladies, that large fortunes 
 were expended in decorating a single family ; and so far did this infatu- 
 ation extend, that the emperors issued proclamations which forbade any 
 but the imperial family to assume the precious color in their dress. 
 The city of Tyre, which ever excited the jealousy of both Rome and 
 Greece, was at length destroyed by the ruthless arms of Alexander the 
 Great, about three hundred and thirty years before Christ. 
 
 We are informed, in holy writ, that " Hiram, king of Tyre, sent his 
 servants to congratulate Solomon on his being made king of Israel. 
 Solomon then sent to Hiram to announce his intention of building a 
 temple to the God of Israel, and requesting his assistance to cut the 
 timber, and quarry the stones. Great stones were quarried, hewn, and 
 squared, by the workmen of Hiram, and the temple was erected by 
 Phoenician workmen, for which Solomon bound himself to pay Hiram, 
 every year, twenty thousand measures of wheat, and as many of oil, 
 together with twenty cities, called to this day " of the land of Cabul." 
 
24 MYSTERIES OF PHffiNICIAN PRIESTS. GREEKS TAUGHT BY THEM. 
 
 " To the PhcEnicians may be traced," says Sir William Betbam, in 
 his recent very able and learned work on the ancient Celtse, " nearly 
 the entire mythological system of the ancients." That enlightened 
 nation confined its religious adoration to one divinity. According as 
 each new art was discovered, — such as the nature of metals, the science 
 of sailing in ships, the knowledge supplied by observations of the stars^ 
 anoon, the art of writing, &.c. k,c., — each discoverer was almost dei- 
 fied ; for it was supposed he was gifted with a divine revelation. Hence 
 originated the long list of " gods " and goddesses, who ai'e supposed to 
 preside over the sea, the arts, letters, war, and of which I shall say a 
 few words presently. But their chief adoration was directed to one 
 Supreme Being, whom the priests identified in the gorgeous sun. 
 
 The mysteries of the Phoenician priests were elaborately constructed, 
 and artfully calculated to engage the affections and obedience of the 
 human mind. The Cabiric mysteries and ceremonies of Samothrace, 
 Lnhros, and Masos, so celebrated among the ancients, are still continued 
 to our days, under the name of freemasonry. The Sanconiathon 
 demonstrates that the Phoenician priests allegorized all the discoveries 
 of learning, transforming the discoverers into mystical deities ; and, 
 perceiving the anxiety of men, both their own people and foreigners, 
 for these allegorical mysteries, " delivered them," says the text, " to 
 their successors, and to foreigners." And thus originated that porten- 
 tous and overwhelming system of idolatry, which eventually overspread 
 the nations of antiquity, and which yielded only at last to the pure re- 
 ligion of the cross. From such simple elements proceeded the complex 
 system of the Greek and Roman mythology, which has ever continued 
 to lead captive the imaginations of even the educated portion of the 
 human race. 
 
 The Phoenicians, when they first visited the Grecian isles, in ships 
 moved by the wind, were considered, by the Greeks, divinities, or supe- 
 rior beings. The Greeks were then, and continued for several subsequent 
 centuries to be, a barbarous people. They were regarded as " barba- 
 rians" by the Egyptians. The first dawn of letters was shed upon them 
 by their teachers, the Phoenicians and Egyptians. Other nations, that 
 grew up on the borders of the Mediterranean Sea, received the allego- 
 ries, mythology, literature, and civilization, of the Phoenicians, and 
 then fabricated local or individual systems upon then), according to the 
 whims and fancies of the several hierophants, or learned scribes, who 
 undertook to interpret these mysteries to their respective followers. 
 The extensive number of divinities created by the imaginative and 
 polished Phoenicians, the various attributes conferred on each, enabled 
 
THE ETRURIANS A COLONY OF THE PHffiNICIANS. . 25 
 
 the priests and scribes to form an extensive system of illusive divinity, 
 which gave full occupation to the human mind, and attracted the 
 uninitiated around their shrines and altars, to receive their instruction, or 
 to offer them obedience or worship. 
 
 Stupendous, amongst the colonies of the Phoenicians, stood the 
 Etrurians, who occupied, on the opposite shore, the land of " ancient 
 Etruria,'' known, in after ages, as the seat of the Roman empire, and 
 latterly as Ttali/. I here take from the able work of Sir William Betham, 
 already referred to, an entire page, descriptive of ancient Etruna. 
 
 " The attention of the British public has been much directed to 
 Etruscan antiquities by the exhibition, a few years since, In Pall Mall, 
 London, of the magnificent specimens of sarcophagi, fictile vases, 
 bronzes, gold ornaments, and other remains of ancient Italy, brouglit to 
 England by Seignior Campanari. The inscriptions excavated in Etru- 
 ria were not inaptly termed, by Professor Buckland. a kind of geological 
 literature. The works of Etruscan art demonstrate high civilization, and 
 a progress of the human mind equal to the most elevated point of any 
 Greek or Roman civilization, or even of modern Improvement. The 
 human face divine of their statuary and painting exhibits a noble physi- 
 ognomy, a dignity and refinement of character, equal to the admirable 
 excellence of the manipulation. The prow of a ship was their national 
 emblem, and the dolphins, and other maritime emblems on their coins, 
 bronzes, statuary, fictile vases, and pottery, declare their devotion to, 
 and great progress in, navigation and commerce. The articles of elabo- 
 rate workmanship in gold and silver declare their sumptuous and 
 gorgeous magnificence, as well as their progress in that department of 
 the arts ; while their painting and sculpture, and indeed all their 
 remains, evince a highly civilized, refined, and glorious people, both by 
 land and sea ; a people like the magnificent inhabitants of Tyre and 
 Phoenicia, described by the prophet Ezekiel, of which people the 
 Etruscans were assuredly colonists ; for they were the only ancient 
 people of the world answering such a description. 
 
 " These wonderful remains of so polished and highly civilized a race, 
 occupying a period of ages unJcnoum to history, whose very name is 
 doubtful, fill the mind with surprise and admiration. Their inscriptions 
 declare their literate character. So polished a people must have had 
 authors and historians. Some noble statues are represented with 
 inscribed volumes or rolls in their hands. Where are these? They 
 were capable of every effort of the human mind, equally with any age 
 or country ; yet, except a few words to be found in the Roman writers, 
 4 
 
26 CHARACTER OF THE ETRURIANS. 
 
 the people who succeeded ihem in their beautiful country, absolutely 
 nothing intelligible has come down to us. If their sepulchres exhibit 
 so much greatness, refinement, and dignity, what splendor might be 
 expected in their temples, theatres, public buildings, palaces, and the 
 habitations in which they lived, moved, and acted ! These were above 
 ground. Their successors, the Romans, ruthless, ignorant, and barba- 
 rous, have obliterated nearly every trace of them, if we except their 
 stupendous architecture, some magnificent speciriiens of which have, 
 by their magnitude, defied the ruthless efforts of the barbarians, and 
 resisted their puny efforts, while they attributed their erection to super- 
 natural agency. Such has ever been the fate of civilized nations, when 
 conquered by barbarians. The fall of the Roman empire, in turn, 
 produced the " dark ages ; " the Anglo-Saxons destroyed all traces of 
 Roman literature in Britain. The hostile disposition exhibited by all 
 barbarous people against civilization and literature, has been very 
 remarkable. Omar, who destroyed the Alexandrian library, was a 
 correct specimen of the ferocious and ignorant barbarian of all ages." 
 
 Sir William then quotes from the Quarterly Review, 1833, a passage 
 on this nation. " Etruria is one of the great, and, as yet, unsolved 
 problems of ancient history. It is clear that, before the Romans, there 
 existed in Italy a great nation, in a state of advanced civilization, with 
 public buildings of vast magnitude, and works constructed on scientific 
 principles, and of immense solidity, in order to bring the marshy plains 
 of central and northern Italy into regular cultivation. They were a 
 naval and commercial people, to whom tradition assigned thejiavigation, 
 at one period, of the Mediterranean. Their government seems to have 
 been nearly allied to the Oriental theocracies : religion was the domi- 
 nant principle, and the ruling aristocracy a sacerdotal order." 
 
 He then enters into an elaborate history of this extinct nation, which 
 he justly builds upon the inscriptions on their coins, on their tombs, on 
 their vases, on their bronze mirrors or specula, on their tables of bronze, 
 that have been, within the last few years, dug up from beneath the 
 classic earth of Italy, over which the Roman conquerors trod, uncon- 
 scious, in their eflxjrts to obliterate the memory of this people, of the 
 existence of subterranean evidences which would, in other ages, meet 
 the eye of posterity, and deprive Rome of the honors of originating arts, 
 science, and mythology, which she so zealously and so unjustly strove 
 to assume at the expense of her teachers, the Etrusco-Pho^nicians. 
 
 This great nation, with its history, was involved in the deepest 
 mystery, until a critical knowledge of the ancient Irish languao-e, 
 
LANGUAGE OF THE ETRURIANS PROVED TO BE IRISH. 27 
 
 acquired late in life, by Sir William Betham, enabled that profound 
 scholar and antiquarian to perceive, that all their inscriptions, memorials, 
 and devices, were written in the ancient Irish character ; and 
 that through the Irish, and the Irish tongue alone, could he unlock the 
 hidden history of that polished, illustrious people, who once filled Italy, 
 Gaul, Spain, and Ireland, with memorials of their arts and labor, which 
 still remain, outliving the countless generations of man, that have washed 
 over them as the ocean beats over the lasting rocks of Erin's old prom- 
 ontories. 
 
 Sir William gives upwards of fifty plates of accurate drawings of 
 many of their ancient coins, curiosities, weapons, bronze mirrors, together 
 with the literal inscriptions found on the seven tables of bronze — inscrip- 
 tions called by the learned the " Eugubian Tables." There are several 
 mythological engravings on ancient pieces of metal, which are given, and 
 translated first from the old Etrusco-Phoenician language into modern 
 Irish, and then from the Irish into modern English. In presenting a 
 drawing of a magnificent statue in alabaster, found in one of the ancient 
 vaults of Etruria, Sir William thus writes : — 
 
 "Although the number of plates has already exceeded what was 
 contemplated, I cannot resist the temptation of placing in this work one 
 of a recumbent figure of a man, which formed the covering of a sar- 
 cophagus, now in the museum at Volterra. It is doubtless a portrait of 
 the deceased, who was, according to the expression of Catullus, a corpu- 
 lent Etruscan — ' obesus Etruscus.' 
 
 '' It is not easy to imagine a finer formed head, or a countenance 
 more expressive of a brilliant intellect, a cultivated, well-stored mind, and 
 a benevolent heart, than the one here presented. The ring on his left 
 hand, and the gold chain, or torque, round his neck, declare him a 
 man of high rank. He was a writer, as appea.rs from the volume in his 
 hand. His head is encircled with a wreath of oak leaves ; the counte- 
 nance fills us with bitter regret that the productions of the mind of such 
 a man should be lost forever. How many ages of progressive civiliza- 
 tion must have passed away to have produced such a head, and a 
 pencil, or chisel, capable of making it live to our days ! Where is the 
 Greek or Roman statue which throws this into the shade, and exhibits 
 a higher style of excellence in art, or one of which any age might be 
 prouder ? His very obesity is a proof of civilfzation. He was a benefac- 
 tor to his country by his writings : probably his nation, anxious to do him 
 honor, erected this monument to his memory. Anonymous as he is to 
 us, his merits will not be altogether unappreciated ; for they caused the 
 
28 CIVILIZATION AND REFINEMENT OF THE ETRURIANS. 
 
 conception and execution of a piece of art which would do honor to any 
 •people. We are unable to unroll his volume, or to develop the beau- 
 ties of his mind ; but we can conceive what such a development of 
 intellect and expression of countenance might be capable of; and it adds 
 to our regret that the mental productions of such a people should have 
 been so completely annihilated by the barbarous policy of their con- 
 querors. The Phoenician and Etruscan writings were the only means 
 by which the early history of man could have come down to our days. 
 The sacred writings are but a history of one family, only incidentally 
 refemng to other nations. The ' Sanconiathon ' was a recital of the 
 progress of the human mind in its mental development, and of its dis- 
 coveries in science, literature, and arts." 
 
 Sir William, in another part of his works, shows the ruthlessness with 
 which the Roman barbarians destroyed every visible work of art or 
 utility, erected by the Etrusco-Phoenicians. The stupendous works 
 erected to bring the marshy plains of Italy into cultivation are still 
 lasting monuments of the genius and power of these people, who had 
 passed away before the Greeks and Romans emerged from barbarism, 
 or had learned to write. The Greeks and Romans did not know their 
 own origin ; much less were they qualified to give an account of their 
 predecessors. The senate of Rome ordered the books written by 
 Numa Pompilius to be burned, four hundred years after his death — 
 a strong testimony against their literary taste and judgment. What must 
 the feelings of an Irishman be, who reads these pages, and is informed 
 by them that his remote ancestors were some of these illustrious 
 Etrusco-Phoenicians, who brought with them into Ireland the language, 
 literature, arts, and sciences which they possessed ? and further, when 
 the fires of learning were extinguished by both Greek and Roman con- 
 querors throughout the East, that to the learned descendants of the 
 Phoenicians, who flourished in Ireland, " in the holy island of the 
 West," were they indebted for many of the wandering torches that re- 
 kindled the sacred flame of literature throughout the Roman and Greek 
 dominions? — all which shall duly appear as we proceed. 
 
 As to the language of the ancient Irish, Betham has the following 
 luminous passage in his book : " It is repugnant to common sense to 
 suppose that this remote island was the means by which civilization 
 was communicated, in the heghming, to the countries surrounding the 
 Mediterranean Sea, and the 'East, which seems to be implied when we 
 assert that the roots of many words in the Greek and Latin are to 
 be found in the Irish language ; but if we are able to show that this 
 
THE IRISH LANGUAGE THE ROOT OF THE LATIN. 29 
 
 language is the same as that spoken by the people who occupied Italy, 
 and the countries bordering on that sea, before Greece or Rome were 
 heard of, the absurdity vanishes, and the fact ceases to surprise. A 
 man will laugh in your face if you assert that the Latin is mostly 
 derived from the Irish ; but if you are able to show that the Etruscan 
 inhabitants of Italy spoke the same or a kindred language before the 
 Latin had existence, if he be not convinced, his sarcasm and ridicule 
 will certainly be deprived of all its point." 
 
 The above, and a few other passages, which I shall just now quote 
 fi'om the same able and honest author, are more than sufficient to awake 
 the dullest mind to a consideration of the vast literary and artistical inter- 
 ests, wrapped in the neglected literature and history of Ireland. "The 
 manuscripts of the ancient nations of Europe were destroyed by bar- 
 barous conquerors. The Danes were the only invading enemies of the 
 ancient Irish ; and, never having possessed more than detached spots 
 here and there on the coast, had no opportunity of possessing or destroy- 
 ing, universally, the books of Ireland. The policy of England has been 
 to make war against the Irish language ; but they have not been able to 
 annihilate Irish literature. There still remain manuscripts of more 
 
 REMOTE ANTIQ.UITy" IN IrELAND THAN IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, NOT 
 
 ONLY IN THE Irish, BUT IN THE Latin TONGUE ; and the oldest iu 
 the libraries on the continent are the production of Irishmen, who were 
 the teachers of the early ages of Christian Europe, as well in 
 
 LEARNING AS RELIGION." 
 
 There are in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, many Latin manu- 
 scripts, on vellum, of very great antiquity ; among them a copy of the 
 Gospels, called the " Book of St. Patrick," of the fifth century ; an- 
 other copy of the Gosp&ls, called the " Book of Kells," a magnificent 
 volume, written in uncials, beautifully and elaborately illuminated, on 
 the space leaves of which are entered deeds and grants from the Irish 
 raonarchs, long before the English invasion. The Irish manuscripts 
 at the abbey of St. Gall, in Switzerland, are of very remote 
 antiquity; "and," continues Sir W. Betham, "indeed the most 
 ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS IN EuROPE locre ivritteii by Irishmen or 
 their disciples." The old manuscript discovered in the Irish monas- 
 tery of Bobbio, or Babia, Italy, is certainly of the fourth century. 
 These facts ought to have due influence on the minds of the learned, 
 in removing the blind prejudices which throw a doubt upon Irish 
 literature. 
 
 Sir William again quotes one of Dr. Johnson's letters to Charles 
 
30 THE OLDEST MANUSCRIPTS IN EUROPE WRITTEN BY IRISHMEN. 
 
 O'Conor, to mark the anxiety felt by that erudite scholar, in relation 
 to Irish history and the Irish language. 
 
 " To Charles O'Conor, Esq. : 
 
 " Sir, — I have lately, by favor of Mr. Faulkner, seen your account 
 of Ireland," (alluding to a short dissertation published by Mr. O'Conor,)' 
 and cannot forbear to solicit a prosecution of your design. Sir William 
 Temple complains that Ireland is less known than any other country, 
 as to its ancient state. The natives had but little leisure, and less 
 encouragement for inquiring; and strangers, not knowing the language, 
 ha^'e had no ability. I have long wished that the IrisJi literature were 
 cultivated. Ireland is known by tradition to have been once the seat 
 of piety and learning ; and surely it would be very acceptable to all those 
 who are curious, either in the origin of nations or the affinities of 
 language, to be further informed of the revolutions of a people so 
 ancient, and once so illustrious. What relation there is between 
 the Welsh and Irish language, or between the language of Ireland and 
 that of Biscay, deserves inquiry. Of those unextended tongues it 
 seldom happens, that more than one are understood by any one man ; 
 and therefore it seldom happens that a fair comparison can be made. I 
 hope you will continue to cultivate this kind of learning, which has too 
 long lain neglected, and which, if it be suffered to remain in oblivion for 
 another century, may perhaps never be retrieved. As I wish well to 
 all useful undertakings, I will not forbear to let you know how much 
 you deserve, in my opinion, from all lovers of study, and how much 
 pleasure your work has given to, 
 
 " Sir, your most obliged and most humble servant, 
 
 " Samuel Johnson. 
 
 " London, JIj)ril 9, 1757." 
 
 These undoubted testimonies of our former position amid the nations 
 encourage me to perform the labor of wading through immense masses 
 of material, furnished by the events of thousands of by-gone years, and 
 should prompt the reader, if he be a lover of literature, or have an Irish 
 heart in his bosom, to peruse these pages with attention, and learn from 
 the facts put forward the illustrious character of the Irish nation — a 
 nation that yet lives, in all her ancient piety and glory, her learning 
 and poetry, in the persons of her 0'Connell,her Mac Hale, her Mathew, 
 and her Moore ; and lives in all her ancient bravery, in her countless 
 millions of courageous children, at home and abroad. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 31 
 
 DEAR HARP OF MY COUNTRY. 
 
 BY MOORE. 
 
 When Moore composed his inspiring songs, Ireland was prostrate, and her bard 
 wrote in tears, breatliing only the sighs of suffering and despair. Yet the tears 
 of the bard fell upon and irrigated the land he mourned, and there grew from the 
 sacred earth a crop of undaunted heroes to vindicate her freedom. Were Moore's 
 career to begin now, his songs would express the sentiments of resolve and defiance 
 which proudly characterize the Irish nation. This feeling will be to some, I hope, 
 an apology for presuming to add a verse to the following song, which Moore wrote 
 at a period of his life when he had made up his mind to resign the lyre of his 
 country — a resolution which, however, he found himself unable to keep. The 
 stanza which I have added is printed in Italic. 
 
 In Moderate Time, with much Warmth of Expression. 
 
 n'^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 i^ 
 
 -^ — — 
 
 5: 
 
 ^ 
 
 1. Dear Harp of my country! in darkness I found thee; The 
 
 ■# — I 1^~ 
 
 — ^"^'^^ ^ 
 
 -T— ^ ^— ^— >■ 
 
 cold chain of si - lence had hung o'er thee long, When 
 
 proudly, my own isl - and Harp, I unbound thee, And 
 
 gave all thy chords to light, free - dom, and song. The 
 
 :t=:p?-=-^-pi: 
 
 p 
 
 W 
 
 =^E 
 
 -~^-f- 
 
 warm lay of love, and the light note of gladness, A 
 
 — — -jt — #~ ^ — r-r-n^i ^ — ^ — »^ — ~ i 
 
 - - wa - ken thy fond - est; thy live - - li - est thrill ; But so 
 
32 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 -#-- 
 
 -t^— ti- 
 
 , 1^ KT IN 1^ KT- r- 
 
 _«_-Jz^_i — ? — j — zq — 
 
 oft hast thou ech - oed the deep sigh of sad - ness, That 
 
 e en 
 
 -"9 9 
 
 in thy mirth it 
 
 steal from thee still ! 
 
 2. 
 
 Dear Harp of my country, farewell to thy numbers ; 
 
 This sweet wreath of song is the last we shall twine: 
 Go, sleep with the sunshine of fame on thy slumbers, 
 
 Till touched by some hand less unworthy than mine. 
 If the pulse of the patriot, soldier, or lover, 
 
 Have throbbed at our lay, 'tis thy glory alone ; 
 I was but as the wind passing heedlessly over. 
 
 And all the wild sweetness I waked was thy own. 
 
 3. 
 
 With Animation. 
 
 ^ut the Harp, that so long hath been silent and weeping. 
 
 Resigned by its master in gloom and despair, 
 Shall again be brought forth from the shrine where 'tis sleeping^ 
 
 And with glad notes of freedom enliven the air ; 
 When the voice of the brave ivith its echoes shall mingle, 
 
 In the clangor of arms, or the transport of glee, — 
 For the millions ivho love it will shortly assemble 
 
 To proclaim that their nation again shall be free. 
 
 CUSHLAMACHREE. [darling of my heart.] 
 
 BY MR. CHARLES PHILLIPS, 
 
 (the eloquent IRISH BARRISTER.) 
 
 P 
 
 e-zt 
 
 
 1. Dear E - - rin, how sweet - ly thy green bo - som 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 33 
 
 p— I r 
 
 :p=£ 
 
 
 ri - ses, An em - e - raid set in the ring of the 
 
 
 a^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 sea ! Each blade of thy meadows my faith-ful heart 
 
 T^^rZZ. 
 
 'r — I r' 
 
 -S- 
 
 pri - zes, Thou Queen of the West, the world's Cushla - ma - 
 
 =3=C3=i-_»: 
 
 -S i 
 
 --^-hi 
 
 
 T" 
 
 
 chn 
 
 Thy gates o - pen wide to the poor and the 
 
 ~9 I W 
 
 1 g r~ 
 
 
 
 "H" 
 
 "I #" 
 
 -'t-s=: 
 
 stranger: There smiles hospi - tal - i - ty, heart -y and 
 
 T 
 
 ;5:^-f 
 
 ~1^- 
 
 :r: 
 
 J?: 
 
 T" 
 
 '{ ^ 
 
 H 
 
 
 _^i^i 
 
 free ; Thy friendship is seen in the moment of danger, And the 
 
 I 
 
 ^ 
 
 wan - derer 
 
 welcomed with Cush - la - ma - chree ! 
 
 2. 
 
 Thy sons they are brave ; but, the battle once over, 
 
 In brotherly peace with their foes they agree ; 
 And the roseate cheeks of thy daughters discover 
 
 The soul-speaking blush that says Cushlamachree ! 
 Then flourish forever, my dear native Erin, 
 
 While sadly I wander an exile from thee ; 
 And firm as thy mountains, no injury fearing. 
 
 May Heaven defend its own Cushlamachree ! 
 
LECTUEE II. 
 
 The Heathen Deities proved to have been Phcenician. — Hercules. — Tinia. — Druid 
 Fires in Ireland, in Honor of Tinia. — Apollo. — Minerva. —Phoenician Mariners. 
 — Their first Discoveries. — lo Ptean. — The Irish Language the Key of Ancient 
 Mythology. — Neptune. — Birth of Minerva. — Mercury. — V ulcan. — Charun. — 
 Venus. — Pandora's Box. — Castor and Pollux. — Ethis. — Eris. — Mars. — Plu- 
 tus. — Bacchus. — Herodotus's Opinion on the Greek Deities. — Janus. — Prome- 
 theus, Discoverer of the South. — The Hydra. — Scylla and Charybdis. — Jupiter 
 Sancus. — The Seanchus of the ancient Irish. — Confirmation of Irish Tradition 
 and History, by the Etruscan Inscriptions and Roman Writers. 
 
 It was the belief, for a long period, in the schools, that the magnifi- 
 cent system of mythology which comprehends the divinity worship of 
 the ancients was invented by the Greeks and Romans. Sir William 
 Betham demonstrates that the whole of those deities grew from the 
 inventions and discoveries of the Phoenicians. The man, with that 
 people, who, by his discoveries, made any addition to the stock of human 
 knowledge, was deemed inspired, and was revered after his death as a 
 secondary or den)igod. The art which he invented was considered by 
 his followers as under his protection. The succeeding practitioners and 
 cultivators paid him homage, and invoked his aid. 
 
 HERCULES. 
 
 Hercules was considered the hero of the sun, or of light. He was sup- 
 posed by the Phoenicians to influence and direct all their affairs. He ruled 
 the waves, conquered their enemies, and surmounted all their difficulties 
 by sea and land. " The Greek hero Heracles, and the Latin Hercules, 
 were evidently adopted," says Betham, " from an imperfect notion of 
 the true meaning of the Phoenician fiction ; " and he then quotes as fol- 
 lows, from Herodotus : " Being anxious to know as much as could be 
 ascertained with certainty of these things, I sailed to Tyre, in PhcBnicia, 
 because I had heard that in that city there was a temple dedicated to 
 Hercules. I saw that temple ; it was enriched with many magnificent 
 donations ; and, among others, with two pillars, one of fine gold, the 
 other of emerald, which shines at night in a surprising manner. Con- 
 versing with the priests of this god, I inquired how long this temple had 
 been built. I found these also to differ from the Greeks ; for they 
 assured me the temple was built at the same time with the city, and that 
 two thousand three hundred years were already passed since the foun- 
 
TINIA. APOLLO. NERF. 35 
 
 dation of Tyre. I saw also at Tyre another temple, dedicated to the 
 Thaslan Hercules ; and when I arrived at Thasus, I found there a 
 temple of Hercules, built by those Phoenicians who founded that city, 
 during the expedition they made in search of Europe, [i. e., in a 
 voyage of discovery to Europe,] which was five generations before Her- 
 cules, the son of Amphitryon, appeared in Greece." 
 
 TINIA. 
 
 The Phoenician coins and inscriptions represent Tinia as the sun, 
 the first moving cause, the creator of all. Teinne, in the Irish lan- 
 guage, signifies " fire of the air, or sky ; " and in Ireland, the worship of 
 the sun, or Tinia, was anciently held on midsummer-day, twenty-fourth 
 of June. After the introduction of Christianity, the feast was identified 
 with the feast of St. John the Baptist. 
 
 Before Christianity, the Irish Druids kindled two fires, with great 
 . incantations and mystery, and drove their cattle between them to defend 
 them against pestilence and murrain. These they called BeUtaine, 
 and Baltine, that is, the Jire of the god Baal. 
 
 It is probable that the early Phoenicians worshipped the true God, 
 as Baal Tinne, or the lord creator of all things, having derived that 
 idea from the original revelation of God to man. In process of time, the 
 sun, as the most glorious and splendid of visible objects, became the 
 supposed demonstration of the substance of the Deity; and, as men are 
 apt to be attracted by matter, they worshipped the sun as the image of 
 God, created by himself. 
 
 APOLLO, 
 
 according to the Phoenicians, was the north star ; the fixed polar star, 
 round which the other stars revolved in perfect order and harmony ; 
 which idea caused them to create him " god of music." The north 
 star is spoken of in the Etruscan inscriptions, as the guiding sign by 
 which the ships were steered, when out of sight of land. 
 
 NERF, NERVA, (MINERVA.) 
 
 Sir William Betham presents us with several engravings of mirrors, 
 medals, tombs, &c., in which are imbodied the mysteries, gods, and 
 inscriptions, of the Phoenicians. 
 
 Mirrors. — As this term may require explanation, I may mention 
 that the mirrors found in the tombs of the Phoenicio-Etruscans, 
 throughout Italy, which have lain there three thousand five hundred 
 
36 NERF, NERVA. 
 
 years, exhibit a knowledge of the ait of engraving, in the ancient work- 
 men, which surprises the philosopher. These mirrors were formed of 
 steel, highly polished. Tiie shape was that of a small frying-pan. 
 The -concave side, brightly burnished, was that which reflected the 
 features of Phoenician beauty. On the convex side was generally 
 engraved some national emblem, growing out of the discoveries and 
 successes of their adventurous mariners. The engravings on these steel 
 mirrors remain very perfect ; and surprisingly so, when the length of 
 time they have lain in the earth is taken into account. They are now 
 deposited in several museums in Italy and other places, and have 
 afforded plenty of food for reflection to the learned. (See the work of 
 Mrs. Hall on Etruria.) 
 
 Nerf was the goddess of the moon and sea. Her Greek name of 
 Athena arose from the Phoenician story of her being born from the h^ ad 
 of Tinia, the supreme god, pronounced still, by the Irish, Thvna, 
 Anna was the name which, according to Cormac's Glossary, the ancient 
 Irish annexed to the idea and attributes of Minerva. And Strabo, the 
 Roman writer, alleges ''the mother of the gods was worshipped in au 
 island near Britain, in the saaae way as in Sumothrace." 
 
 When the Phoenician mariners first ventured to sail over the ocean by 
 the light of the moon at night, their success was hailed as a new triumph 
 over the waves. Medals commemorating the event weve cast ; public 
 manifestations of joy were indulged in ; and hence originated the public 
 shout or cry of lo Paan, (as appears by the inscriptions on their 
 medals,) which the Greeks and Romans practised, without being aware 
 of the original cause. The name of Minerva has been involved in con- 
 siderable mystery, and must have remained so, but for the light thrown 
 upon it by the translation of the writings on the Eugubian Tables, 
 and on the Etruscan coins and medals, which could never have been 
 deciphered, says Sir William Betham, but through the key presented 
 in the Irish language. 
 
 The prefixing of Mo (good) to the Phoenicio-Ii-ish name Nerf, forms 
 the Roman Minerva; and the Irish, in after ages, prefixed this epithet 
 to their Christian saints. St. Cohnan is called Mo Cholmock ; St. 
 Braccan, Mo Braccan ; i. e., St. Colman, or Good Colman ; St. 
 Braccan, or Good Braccan. And the term Naom, (holy one,) applied 
 to Nerf, in the Eugubian Tables, is also given lo the Christian saints. 
 Naom is the Irish word for a saint, or holy person. 
 
 Minerva is represented, in the inscriptions and medals, accompanied 
 by an owl, because she flies by night ; i. e., a ship sailing by night as 
 
HERMES. SETHLAUS. 37 
 
 well as by day. Neptune was a god created by the ignorance of the 
 Greeks, who, not knowing the meaning of the association of Minerva 
 with an owl, on the medal, created from the ship a deity, which they 
 called Neptune. Herodotus says, (Euterpe, 268,) " The Egyptians 
 affirm that they know not the names of Neptune, Castor and Pollux, 
 nor ever received them into the number of their gods." The name of 
 Neptune is made up from corruptions of the Phoenician and Etruscan 
 names of a ship. Minerva is represented, in most cases, as accom- 
 panying Hercules in all those actions which are called his labors — 
 represented by our ideas of wisdom of design ; the good or great science, 
 or vigorous exertion in performance. Minerva is sometimes denominated 
 Pallas, as the lord or lady, ov supreme goddess oilight, intelligence, and 
 wisdom. The serpent, from its wise and subtle attributes, has been 
 almost always found in the representations of Minerva. In one of tlie 
 Etruscan mirrors there is a beautiful allegorical engraving, picturing the 
 birth of Minerva, from the head of the supreme god Tinia. The 
 group, consisting of male and female deities, expresses the perfection in 
 art which these ancients had attained, a thousand years before Rome 
 
 existed. 
 
 HERMES, OR MERCURY. 
 
 Hermes, araong the Phcenicians and Etruscans, was. the god of 
 mining, trade, and wealth. The name originally expressed the idea of 
 a journey, voyage, message, or the v/ind — swift as the wind in flight. 
 He is represented naked, with wing;ed sandals to liis feet, and a winged 
 cap on his head ; he has in his hand two serpents, entwined together. 
 His name is spelled on Etruscan coins several ways. From this charac- 
 ter the Greeks created their Hermes^ and the Romans their Mercurius. 
 The early Romans borrowed the name and attributes of the god from 
 their neighbors, the Etruscans, He is sometin>es i-eprese^ited as the god 
 of eloquence- 
 
 SETHLAUS^ OR VULCAJNf. 
 
 Sethlaus is the name given to the god of metals. He was called 
 Vulcan by the Romans, who were ambitious to append their own names 
 to all things, real or ideal, which they unjustly appropriated from other 
 nations. The name of Sethlaus grew from the circumstance of his 
 having been a digger of holes in the earth, in search of metals. He is 
 represented, in die Etruscan engraving of the birth of Minerva, (already 
 alluded to,) with a hammer in his hand, as just having made an incision 
 in the head of Tinia, (the supreme,) out of which Minerva sprang, 
 completely armed and accoutred. 
 
38 CHARUN. LARAN, TURAN. CASTURAND CASATRA. ETHIS. 
 
 CHARUN. 
 
 Charun appears in almost all sculptures of funeral processions on the 
 Phoenicio-Etruscan tombs. He is represented with a severe, ferocious 
 countenance, generally winged and buskined, his ears like those of a 
 wolf. He is generally represented as accompanied by another winged 
 male figure, with a benevolent countenance, clothed and buskined, 
 carrying a torch, who seems to be the friendly guide to the departed 
 soul, while Charun follows, and sometimes appears to hinder and coun- 
 teract the benevolent acts of the good spirit. His ferocious countenance 
 indicates his malevolent character. His boat seems, says Sir William 
 Betham, to have been of Greek or Roman invention ; for in all the 
 Etruscan sepulchral sculptures it does not once appear. 
 
 LARAN, AND TURAN, (VENUS.) 
 
 Laran was the god of beauty, of symmetry, and love. He is repre- 
 sented on the back of a mirror with Turan, the goddess of beauty ; both 
 naked, but sandaled, with Apollo and Minerva on the other side. The 
 goddess Turan is represented by the Greeks as rising from the sea, 
 and they call her Venus. Turan is sometimes represented, in the 
 allegorical sculptures 'of the Phoenicio-Etruscans, stooping over a 
 box, the lid of which she is opening. From this the Greek fable of 
 Pandora is probably derived. From the inscriptions may be gathered 
 the meaning of identifying the goddess of beauty with the Pandora box, 
 which represented the idea of the troubles which have arisen among 
 men for the possession of female beauty. Turan was represented as 
 holding the box of love, which she occasionally opened amongst men, 
 when she wished to generate discord. 
 
 CASTUR AND CASATRA, (CASTOR AND POLLUX.) 
 
 The Castur or Casatra of the Phoenicians is the Castor of the 
 Greeks. He is engraved, in the ancient mirrors, dressed in a cloak and 
 cap, armed with a spear, but with naked legs and feet, and appeared 
 a voyager or pilot. Among the Greeks, Castor is represented in com- 
 pany with Poltuke, (Pollux.) Tlieir names indicate their characters of 
 messengers or guides, navigators, &c. Sir William Betham explains at 
 length a mirror in which Pohuke is represented describing his voyages 
 and adventures to the king of the earth. 
 
 ETHIS 
 is represented as the goddess, or emblem, of justice. She is a serious 
 
ERIS. MAMERS. SOMMANO. ANNA PERENNA. BACCHUS. 39 
 
 female figure, with wings on her shoulders ; the emblem of a celestial 
 being, clothed and sandaled, with a necklace and cap on her head. 
 
 ERIS, 
 
 the goddess, or emblem, of history, is represented on a mirror. She is 
 naked, except a scarf thrown round her ; she also wears a necklace, and 
 pointed crown on her head. In her left hand she holds a style, or 
 point, for writing. Eris is the Greek name for Juno, the goddess of the 
 air ; but the style in her hand indicates her character as writer of history. 
 
 MAMERS, (MARS.) 
 
 Mamers was the Etruscan god of terrible war. To him was given 
 to wife Neriene, or Evil Strength, viz., the destroying sword. 
 
 SOMMANO, (PLUTUS.) 
 
 Sommano, or Sorano, was the father of the inferior regions, the 
 minister of death. This was Plutus. 
 
 ANNA PERENNA 
 
 was the mother of fruitfulness. Anna, according to Cormac's Glossary, 
 was the mother of the Irish gods — the mother also of food. 
 
 BACCHUS. 
 
 Under this head, Sir William Betham introduces a lengthy translation 
 from Herodotus, giving that ancient writer's opinion on the origin of 
 most of these deities, from which I make the following extract: — 
 
 " But what origin is to be assigned to each of these gods, whether 
 they always existed, and in w^hat form, was, till very lately, unknown ; 
 and, to use a common expression, till yesterday, [Herodotus lived, 
 and wrote these remarks nearly two thousand three hindred years 
 dgoJ] I am of opinion that it was Hesiod and Homer, who lived about 
 four hundred years before me, who introduced the genealogy and 
 history of the gods among the Greeks, gave them their names, and 
 assigned to each his functions, honors, and attributes. The other poets, 
 who have been supposed to be more ancient, I think lived after Hesiod 
 and Homer. What I have before related I heard from the priestesses 
 of Dodona. The Egyptians were the first inventors of festivals, cere- 
 monies, and transactions with the gods ; all which, I am persuaded, the 
 Greeks borrowed from that people, because they appear to have been 
 very ancient among the Egyptians, and very recently introduced into 
 Greece. 
 
40 JANUS. 
 
 " The PhcEnicians and Syrians, who inhabit Palestine, acknowledge 
 that they received the circumcision from the Egyptians. Whether the 
 Ethiopians took this custom from the Egyptians, or the Egyptians from 
 them, is a matter too ancient and obscure for me to decide. Yet I am 
 inclined to believe the Ethiopians took the custom from the Egyptians, 
 because we see that none of the Phoenicians, who have any commerce 
 with the Greeks, continue the practice of circumcising their children. 
 From Bacchus, who is said to have been the son of Seraele, the daugh- 
 ter of Cadmus the Tyrian, [Phoenician,] to our time, about one thousand 
 six hundred years have passed ; from Hercules, the son of Alcmene, 
 about nine hundred ; from Pan, who, the Greeks say, was the son of 
 Mercury and Penelope, not more than eight hundred, which is less thaii 
 they reckon from the siege of Troy." 
 
 Herodotus then gives a list of the deities wliom the Greeks created;, 
 amongst which are the Graces and the Nereides. That ancient author 
 states that Vesta, Themis, and Juno, were derived from the Pelasgi, 
 (Phoenicians,) and concludes his remarks with the following remarkable 
 sentence: " Let every man embrace whatever opinion he thinks right ; 1 
 have stated mine. I am convinced that the Greeks had not heard of 
 these gods until they became acquainted with the names of the other 
 gods, because they ascribe their generation to no higher a period." 
 
 JANUS. 
 
 The Roman account of this god is, of all their fables, the most con- 
 fused and unsatisfactory. Like the Greeks, they had a misty notion of 
 something being meant by the bifronted head on the Etruscan coins, 
 which they heard that people call lanus, or some name of like sound ; 
 and, seeing a double-faced head upon them, they concluded that it musS 
 have related to an ancient king or deity. Various were their opinions 
 of the origin and attributes of this deity. Some attributed to him the 
 discovery of the year ; others, the power of creating war or peace. In 
 the latter light he was viewed and worshipped by the Romans. They 
 erected a temple to him in Rome, which was kept open during war, 
 and closed during peace. This temple was closed only three times in 
 seven hundred years ; namely, once under Numa, once after the first 
 Punic war, and once under Augustus. But the double-faced heads 
 found medaled on the Phoenicio-Etruscan coins are now proved, by 
 their inscriptions, to be a symbol of the first Phoenician ship which had 
 sailed to the south, and to the north of the Mediterranean Straits. 
 
PROMETHEUS. THE HYDRA. SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS. 41 
 
 PROMETHEUS. 
 
 Prometheus was created by the Phoenicians from the allegory which 
 they built up on their discovery of the south seas. The gods, as we 
 have seen in the great Phoenician book, the Sanconiathon, were no 
 other than the discoveries made in science by their learned men. By a 
 certain voyage to the south, made by Promathe, the constellation of 
 Gemini, in the heavens, was fully developed. Promathe was styled, 
 in the Phoenician language, a very good god. He is represented as 
 climbing up to heaven, and from thence bringing down fire, which 
 meant nothing more than sailing to the south, by which new stars and 
 constellations, and a warm climate, were discovered. 
 
 The confining of Prometheus to a rock, and his delivery by Hercules, 
 were most likely the adventures of a nautical discoverer, who, absent 
 from his country through some accident happening to his ship, and unable 
 to return, was, after some years, discovered and brought back by subse- 
 quent voyagers, of whom Hercules was the emblem. The vulture or 
 eagle, represented as preying on his liver, expresses symbolically the 
 trouble or vexation attending such a situation, which, although distress- 
 ing, did not extinguish the hope of relief, and of returning to his 
 
 country. 
 
 THE HYDRA 
 
 is the allegory of the Phoenician mariners passing in their ships round 
 ridges, or points of headland. As soon as one headland is passed, 
 one of the heads of the hydra is conquered ; and, that difficulty 
 over, another arises in the horizon, and immediately presents itself to 
 the coasting mariner. 
 
 Thus the heads were apparently interminable, until Hercules (the 
 personification of the manners) had doubled all these capes, by 
 exploring the whole coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, and eventually 
 passed the straits into the ocean. Hercules applied ^re to those heads, 
 to render them harmless ; that is, the mariners erected fire beacons, 
 which were kept burning at night for their guidance along the Mediter- 
 ranean shores. The Greeks made a very pretty nursery story of this 
 
 allegory. 
 
 SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS. 
 
 Charybdis was, to the Phoenicians, a dangerous whirlpool, of a 
 furious and appalling character ; Scylla a perpendicular rock, close at 
 hand to the whirl. This explanation deprives Scylla and Charybdis 
 6 
 
42 JUPITER. SANCUS. 
 
 of all their poetry and mystical character, and describes them as any 
 simple and unsophisticated sailor would. 
 
 JUPITER. 
 
 The Jupiter of the Greeks and Romans — styled the father or ruhr 
 of the gods — is the Tinia of the Phoenicians. 
 
 The Hesperides were the islands, to the south of the Mediterranean 
 Sea, where grew the golden apples — orai}ges. 
 
 The fables about Hercules' killing the dragon which watched this 
 fruit is explained by his conquering the difficulties of long voyages, in 
 quest of those southern islands. 
 
 The Titans, and numerous other Greek divinities, originated in the 
 nautical enterprise and adventure of the Phoenicians. It would require 
 an entire volume to enter fully into their history, and to show in detail 
 how small is the claim of either Greece or Rome to the merit, whatever 
 it may be, of building up the beautiful series of allegories, from which 
 have grown the fascinating creations of the endless family of heathen 
 gods and goddesses : which are chiefly to be attributed to the intellect- 
 ual and enterprising Phoenicians, as also are the appellations and charac- 
 ters of various stars and constellations in the heavens. I will conclude 
 my remarks on this head, which are altogether condensed from the 
 elaborate writings of Sir William Betham, with his history of 
 
 SANCUS. 
 
 The Sabines, according to Varro and Ovid, had a deity called 
 Sancus, or Sangus. He was adopted by the Romans as dius Fidius. 
 The Italian author translates his from the Latin sanctus, (the holy one,) 
 and makes him son of Jove. He is also said to have been the national 
 god of the Umbri. The Greeks made him the same as Hercules. 
 
 There is not, perhaps, a stronger proof of the identity of the Etruscan 
 with the Gaelic language, than the name of this deity. Nor can it be 
 better illustrated than in the following translation of a passage in a 
 commentary on the Brehon laws, in the Irish language, quoted in 
 O'Reilly's Irish Dictionary, under the word Seancus, the precise name 
 of the supposed Sabine deity : — 
 
 " Seanchus, that is, old cause ; that is, a very old cause, and every 
 cause appertaining to antiquity, as senex custodia ; that is, old guardian- 
 ship, or keeping secure. Seancur, that is, sensus ; Castigatorius, that 
 is, collected intelligence arranged in order — the old head of knowledge 
 
THE SEANCHUS OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. 43 
 
 or law. What the aforesaid great Sheanchus states is, that Sheanchus 
 is the term applied to perfect knowledge among the learned, as gene- 
 alogies, such as Genesis, which is in truth genealogical histor3\ Law 
 books were the origin and foundation of the Irish Sheanchus books. 
 The delineation or ramifying all true history is called dinseanchus, 
 that is, accurate and corroborated history. Poetry without fabulous 
 embellishment, grammar, and the elements of education, among the 
 learned of Ireland, were so called. 
 
 •' Sheancus constitutes, both in name and matter, the original laws of 
 Ireland. They are sometimes called Fenechus, because they regulated 
 the Fenians [Phoenicians] and their colonies. It was the foundation of 
 the knowledge of the tribes of Erinn, and points out their oi'igin, for the 
 Erenachs [Irish] derive their name from Fhcnius, Farsaid, Phenius 
 the mariner, or oftheproio of a sMj)."" 
 
 On this definition of the term, Sir William makes the following com- 
 ment: "Sheanchus, the old cause or first cause, was the epithet properly 
 applied to Tinia, the supreme god ; and all the epithets in the foregoing 
 translation are equally applicable. In this commentary on the old laws 
 of Ireland, we have all the attributes of Sancus, and even his name set 
 forth and explained by a writer who lived some centuries ago, in the 
 west of Europe, in the then almost unknown, and altogether neglected, 
 Ireland. A commentary written to explain a difficult and obsolete 
 term, unknown to the vulgar of that day, respecting the old laws of 
 Ireland, is an evidence above suspicion, clear and irrefragable. 
 
 " The Seanchus was also called Feenechus, because the Irish derived 
 their knowledge of it from their ancestors, the Fenicians, or Phoenicians, 
 of whom they were a colony. Could any evidence be more direct and 
 conclusive? We find the language and traditions of Ireland 
 IN perfect accordance with the statements of the Roman 
 writers, and all extraneous testimony." 
 
 It is said by the same learned authority, that, in distant ages, a colony 
 from Ireland found the American continent. O'Halloran notes it dis- 
 tinctly as having occurred in the twelfth century. A Highlander at 
 Quebec, a few years ago, who understood the Gaelic, acted as interpret- 
 er between some Indian tribes and the governor of Canada ; and I find 
 a curious document published in the papers lately from the Indians, in the 
 western part of New York, in which they use the same word to express 
 the idea of historian, viz., " sago senota,^' used by the ancient Irish. 
 
 ***** * * The Buffalo Commercial Advertiser says that 
 the General Council of Seneca Chiefs, recently held at Cattaraugus, have nominated 
 and adopted Col. Stone, editor of the Commorcial Advertiser,, a chief of the tribe; 
 In pursuance of a resolution in council, to that effect, it was unanimously agreed 
 
44 IDENTITY OF THE ANCIENT IRISH AND PHCENICIANS. 
 
 that he be received into the clan of the TVliite Heron, and be hereafter known by 
 the name of Sa-go-sen-o-ta, meaning the man who perpetuates the exploits of 
 brave men. 
 
 SECTION II 
 
 Discovery of Ireland by the PhcEnician Mariners. — The Eugubian Tables. — Identity 
 of the ancient Irish and the Phoenicians. — First Ship that touched Ireland. — 
 Wexford Harbor. — River Slaney. — The Island dedicated to Nerf. — Called the 
 Holy Island. — Translation of the Eugubian Tables. — Gillia Keavin. — First 
 Settlers in Ireland. — Pdlar of Hercules. — Erected by Breogan. — Stanzas from 
 Gillia Keavin. — Landing and Death of Ith. — Arrival of the chief Milesian 
 Fleet. — Negotiation with the old Inhabitants. — Battles of Kerry and Meath. — 
 Death of Scota. — The Damnonii. — Tiieir Settlement in Connauglit and Cornwall. 
 
 In the foregoing remarks I have briefly sketched the general character 
 and position of the great Phoenician family. I will now trace their 
 adventurous migrations to Ireland. 
 
 By the discoveries in the tombs of Italy, made within the last few 
 years, we are put in possession of unerring data to trace the direct 
 connection of the ancient Irish with the Phoenicians. The "' Eugubian 
 Tables," found, in the year 1422, amongst the tombs of Italy, at the 
 base of the Apennine Mountains, contain records highly interesting to 
 the Irish anticparian. The material of those tables was bronze, or 
 mixed metals ; and on them were engraved, in the old Phoenician 
 (Irish) language, detailed accounts of the discovery of Ireland by the 
 mariners. " Many passages in these inscriptions," says Sir W. Betham, 
 "were found so palpably Irish, as to leave little doubt that the whole 
 was of possible interpretation by means of the Irish language." 
 
 These interesting relics of the past consist of seven bronze tables. 
 They seem to have been erected in some public place in the Phoenician 
 cities, for the direction of mariners who sailed to Ireland. The in- 
 scriptions found on them were enigmas to the world, until Sir William 
 Betham, through his acquired knowledge of the ancient Irish language, 
 translated, and proved from the record, the identity of the ancient Irish 
 with the Phoenician people — an identity which extended to language, 
 customs, religion, arts, sciences, manufactures, commerce, &z;c. 
 
 These tables describe the first land touched on reaching Ireland. 
 The Tuscar Rock, which stands in the ocean in front of Wex- 
 ford, was the first object they saw. Sir William occupies several 
 pages of his work with the inscriptions in the old Phoenician charac- 
 
THE TUSCAR ROCK. 45 
 
 ter, which he gives in columns, — in juxtaposition with which, he 
 places a translation into the common or familiar Irish language, and 
 then a literal translation of each sentence into English. The writing 
 on the Eugubian Tables runs from right to left, contrary to our present 
 custom. I regret there is no Irish type in America, to enable me to 
 print the Irish characters after Sir William's copy. 
 
 The following few extracts from his condensed translations will 
 serve to give some idea of the nature of those inscriptions. The 
 inscriptions on the tables, No. 1 to 5, exhibit the following outline : — 
 
 A Phoenician vessel proceeded, in a strong current, along the coast 
 of Spain, beyond Cape Ortegal, then called the Nortliern Headland of 
 the ocean, on which it appears a fire beacon was kept burning for the 
 benefit of mariners at night. The vessel proceeded, for twelve days, 
 in a direction due north, observed by the polar star, when they saw 
 land, and came to a point which they named Car-na, or the Turn. In 
 another place it is called Tus-cer, or the First Turn, being the first 
 deviation from the direct northern track. Tliey saw also a large, black 
 rock, in the middle of the sea. They went round this point, and got 
 into smooth water, and were free from the heavy seas and swells they 
 had so long encountered. They called this Car-na-ser-tus-cer, or the 
 free turn of the first deviation. That point of land bears, to this day, 
 the name of Carnasoire Point, and the rock the Tuscar Rock. The 
 peninsula is now the parish of Carne, in the county of Wexford. The 
 mariners soon discovered the entrance to the River Slaney, which they 
 entered in safety. The flux and reflux of the tides are described with 
 extraordinary accuracy, — declared to be governed by a certain law, 
 and influenced by the moon. They dedicated the country to Nerf, 
 (Minerva,) by the guidance of whose wisdom they had made the 
 discovery ; and it is worthy of remark that coins of bronze are still 
 extant which were made to commemorate this discovery. (Engravings 
 of those coins are given in Sir William's book.) This land was dedi- 
 cated to Nerf as it was the first land discovered in the west of Europe, 
 and was likely to lead to other undiscovered countries. 
 
 It was thus Ireland, in those remote ages, was called a Holy Island, 
 viz., " the illustrious holy one of the sea, the holy guiding one of the 
 sea, even Nerf" All the points and circumstances of this voyage 
 are marked out on the metal tables with extraordinary accuracy. 
 
 I give a few verses of Sir William's translation from the tables, but 
 would remark that there are two hundred and fifty pages of his book 
 occupied with the translations of this singular record of antiquity. 
 
46 TRANSLATION OF THE EUGDBIAN TABLES. 
 
 TABLE I. 
 TRANSLATION. 
 
 " 1. O PhcEnicians, this is a statement of the night voyage to Came, 
 [the Turn,] and of the manner of going with great science over by the 
 waters of the ocean. 
 
 " 2. At first the waves were strong and swelling, which continued 
 for a long way from the land, but the knowledge of the movino- cause 
 which acted on the sea, in the lonely course. 
 
 " 3. From this, on the voyage, and with the moon's light at night, all 
 the way to Came, by this valuable knowledge it is when 
 
 " 4. Day is away, but with the moon it was a certain and safe course 
 in the sea a long way from the coast, with the course of the tides, 
 both to and from that place. 
 
 " 5. The currents, both day and night, and the moon's light, will be 
 favorable all the way to sea. Indeed, in the night, during the voyao-e 
 at sea, the moon will give light, and thus day and night will be in it. 
 
 " 6. Great will be the influence of the moon on the curi'ent, when 
 steering for a long way from the mouth, both in going out and returnino- 
 home. 
 
 " 7. O Phoenicians, it is very safe and secure navigation this long 
 distance, steering the course, by the moon's light, to the port in that 
 island Phoenician, and 
 
 " 8. From thence to return by the same course, the same long dis- 
 tance on the ocean, in the absence of day when there is moon." 
 
 The contents of these bronze tables, from which I make the above 
 extract, are given at great length in Sir William's book ; but, as the 
 matter is more a study for the learned antiquarian than the general 
 reader, I shall not quote further, but pass on to the next link in the 
 historic chain. 
 
 Giolla Keavin, Cormac, Declan, and other ancient historians of Ire- 
 land, who wrote a thousand years ago, have left behind them manuscripts, 
 compiled and copied from manuscripts still more ancient, that existed 
 in their time, which give a history of the Milesian families, by which 
 Ireland was settled about thirteen hundred years before the birth of 
 Christ. Whether the island was partially peopled by previous adven- 
 turers from the Phoenician stock, or from a less enlightened race, we 
 have no means of knowing. Still less have we any means of deter- 
 mining the probable period when the island was first visited by human 
 
FIRST SETTLERS OF IRELAND. 47 
 
 beings. The conjectures of historians are given, speculations and 
 theories are raised ; but, it must be confessed, the first peopling of 
 Ireland extends so far back into the dim twilight of antiquity and 
 tradition, that a candid writer must acknowledge his incapability to 
 define the period, or trace up the family, which poured the first small 
 stream of human life into her fertile valleys. 
 
 The Eugubian Tables, from which I have made extracts, belong to 
 an age thirteen or fourteen hundred years before the birth of Christ. 
 That the tide of emigration from the south-east of Europe began then 
 to set in towards Ireland, is quite reasonable to suppose. The traditions 
 found existing amongst the first settlers, by the Milesian colony, state 
 that the island was peopled three hundred years before their arrival. 
 This would fix the arrival of the first adventurers about sixteen cen- 
 turies beford Christ. Tlie first settlers of every country are less 
 mindful than their successors of the refinements or luxuries of life. It 
 is quite reasonable to suppose the very first setders of Ireland, like 
 other pioneers of civilization, felt interested only in the affairs of imme- 
 diate existence, and heeded little the duty, which they owed posterity, 
 of transmitting, on stone or brass, a memorial of their enterprise. That 
 they were Phoenicians is a supposition more likely to be true than any 
 other. The discovery of the island itself \\'as regarded by the Phoe- 
 nician mariners and people with as much sur])rise and joy as the discov- 
 ery of America by Columbus was regarded by Spain and all Europe. 
 
 All that we have certainly vouched by the Eugubian brass tables, 
 are, the facts that the " Holy Island" in the west was discovered twelve 
 days' sail due north of Cape Ortegal, in Spain ; that the rock in the 
 front of Wexford, known ever since as the Tuscar, was the first object 
 observed by the overjoyed mariners ; that this rock looked like a 
 ship turned upside down in the water ; that the River Slaney was 
 entered by the mariners, and the navigation of the river was described 
 as perfecdy safe, — " sailing in and out on the flowing and ebbing of 
 the tide." The point on the Spanish coast from whence they started 
 is marked out with extraordinary accuracy. Cape Ortegal is called 
 the Three Hills, which, indeed, is the figure it exhibits from the sea. 
 In the front of this bay, standing on a short peninsula, is the famous 
 Pillar of Hercules, erected, as it is written, by Breogan, the Phcsnician. 
 It was built as a watchtower, on which a light was kept burning, to 
 guide the mariners in their traffic to and from Ireland. The Pillar of 
 Hercules has survived the shocks of countless generations. In the days 
 of the Romans, it was deemed a work of great antiquity. When that 
 
48 STANZAS FROM CILLIA KEAVIN. 
 
 overwhelming power destroyed tlie Carthaginians, who sprang from, 
 or were a continuation of, the Phoenicians, they consecrated this pillar 
 to their tutelar god Mars, which proved clearly enough that they knew 
 not the object for which it was originally erected, which was to direct 
 the operations of commerce, not of war. 
 
 The merchants, composing the board of trade of Galicia, have 
 erected, in 1809, a new pillar, two hundred feet high, around the old 
 one ; the object of which is precisely the same as that of the original 
 erection, viz., to guide mariners at sea. Much has been written re- 
 specting this tower. The traditions in Spain, respecting its founder 
 and those of Ireland, singularly coincide, and offer additional evidence 
 of the truthfulness of Irish history. In the " Annals of the Four 
 Masters," the " BooTc of Ballymote,''^ the Leabhar Gabhaltas, or " Book 
 of Conquests," the last of great antiquity, now in the Royal Irish 
 Academy, are found several allusions to this pillar, which was the first 
 erection of the city of Brigandsia, aftei'wards Corunna. It was 
 sung by Giolla Cannhan. ov Keaviu, a very ancient Irish poet, in a long 
 historical poem, which records the adventures of the family oi Breogan, 
 the renowned Milesian chief who built this tower, and whose sons led 
 the first considerable colony to Ireland. 
 
 I give from Sir William Betham's translation the two following 
 stanzas : — , 
 
 39. 
 
 " Great skirmishes and battles were fought 
 Against the renowned Spanish hosts. 
 By Breogan, of deeds and battles ; 
 By him was founded Brigandsia.f 
 
 43. 
 
 " Ith. the son of Breogan, of generous fame, 
 Was the chief who came to Ireland ; 
 He was the chief man tvith a tribe, 
 Of the valiant and powerful race of Gael." 
 
 The historians acquaint us that Ith, with about one hundred and 
 fifty followers, landed In Ireland about one thousand two hundred and 
 sixty-eight years before the birth of Christ ; and, being suspected by the 
 earlier inhabitants to be either a spy or an Invader, they attacked and 
 
 t The meaning of the term Brigandsia Is, the mountain most remote; and the 
 founding alluded to the tower, rather than a town. 
 
AKRIVAL OF THE CHIEF MILESIAN FLEET. 49 
 
 killed him and the majority of his followers, a few only escaping, who 
 reached their ships, and returned to Brigandsia, (Corunna.) Among 
 those who escaped was Lughaigh, the son of Ith, who carried back his 
 dead father's body, and exhibited it to the posterity of Breogan. " Then 
 Lughaigh, the son of Ith, went to Tuir Breoghan, [or Corunna,] and 
 showed his father's dead body unto the posterity of Breoghain." 
 
 And the relatives and friends of Ith resolved to avenge their father's 
 death. Accordingly they summoned all the forces they could com- 
 mand, and, according to the old text, " they ship dieraselves at 
 Corruna, or Tuir Breoghain, in Galicia, leaving Spain among the 
 forraigners, like a boane among a company of quarrelling curres, and to 
 sea they goe, in thirty shippes, each whereof carried thirty valiant men, 
 besides their women, and a number of the vulgar sorte, under their forty- 
 nine commanders, viz., eight sons of Breoghain, '^ Sec. he. 
 
 The text goes on to desci'ibe the commanders and the families from 
 whence they sprang, and informs us that " they all, with their forces, 
 arrived safe at the haven of Wexford, then called Jubhir Slaine." 
 This landing took place in 1264 before Christ. [As it begins the 
 authenticated history of Ireland under the Milesians, I shall hencefor- 
 ward observe a chronological notation in my historic narrative. The 
 letters B. C. I shall mean to express the words '•' before Chi-ist,"] 
 
 They summoned the rude inhabitants to surrender the government. 
 To this a reply was returned, stating that they had no notice of this 
 hostile invasion, and of course were not prepared to resist it ; that it 
 was contrary to the rules of war to take them thus by surprise, but, if 
 they would give proper time to collect troops, they would put the fate 
 of their country on a single battle. 
 
 After much negotiation, the following condhions were agreed to: 
 That the invaders should speedily return to their ships ; their ships clear 
 the coasts ; after which, if they made good their second landing, the 
 Damnonii (the name of the prior inhabitants) would deem it an equita- 
 ble invasion, and either submit or oppose them, as they found most 
 convenient. 
 
 This was agreed to by both sides, and faithfully adhered to by the 
 Milesian chiefs. They conveyed all their troops and provisions on 
 board, and put to sea with their whole fleet. When they were fairly 
 in the main ocean, they tacked about ; but a storm coming on, produced 
 dreadful consequences ; several vessels were lost ; five of the eight sons 
 of Milesius were drowned, besides many ladies and captains. 
 
 A portion of the fleet, thus shattered, made a landing at the port now 
 7 
 
50 THE MILKSIAN AND DAMNONIAN BROTHERS. 
 
 known as Drogheda, on the north-eastern coast of Ireland. Another 
 portion relanded in Kerry, near Tralee. A bloody battle took place, in 
 the latter place, in which the women fought, as well as the men. Scota, 
 the widow of Milesius, with other ladies, fell in the action, and the 
 place of her death is marked to this day, and known as Scotha's Hill. 
 The Milesian army were the victors, and then, joining their companions 
 in Drogheda, gave battle to the northern inhabitants on the plains of 
 Meath. 
 
 The Milesians vi^ere commanded by three brothers, and the Damnonii 
 were also commanded by three brothers. The battle raged all day with 
 about equal success on both sides. The opposing princes eagerly sought 
 each other, through numbers of wounded and dying. At length they 
 met. The fate of Ireland, like that of Rome in the days of the Horatii, 
 hung on the swords of these contending brothers. The three native 
 chieftains fell by the hands of their invading opponents. The invaders 
 were now the victors. 
 
 The Danaans, or Damnonii, aftej- ruling Ireland for one hundred 
 and ninety-five years, were completely subdued. Some tribes passed 
 over to Devonshire and Cornwall, in England, carrying with them 
 the customs and language of their race. Others of them settled beyond 
 the River Shannon, in the west of Ireland, now known as Connaught, 
 where they were permitted, undisturbed, to establish their own form 
 of government and elect their chiefs ; which distinct law and govern- 
 ment continued in force, in Connaught, from that period to the third 
 century of the Christian era. But these old settlers were not persecuted 
 by their conquerors ; their properties were not confiscated ; their gov- 
 ernment was not abolished by the ruthless hand of their invaders. 
 Such a mode of settling a country was reserved for more enlightened 
 times. 
 
 The Milesian adventurers thus became masters of Ireland, by the 
 laws of the most honorable warfare ; and their sway continued in their 
 successors for the unprecedented space of two thousand four hun- 
 dred YEARS. 
 
LECTUKE III. 
 
 FROM 1260 TO 860 B. C. 
 
 Government established by the Milesians. — The Island divided between Heber and 
 Herejnon. — Amberghin, the chief Druid. — Heber and Heremon quarrel. — Heber 
 slain. — Heremon proclaimed King. — Erects the Palace of Tara. — Suppresses 
 Rebellion. — Arrival of the Tribe called Picts. — Family of Milesius refuse them 
 an Inheritance. — Names assumed by the Milesians. — Picts settle in ancient 
 Caledonia. — Seek the Liberty of marrying the Milesians. — Agree that the new 
 Colony shall be subject to the Milesian King. — Death of Heremon. — Names of 
 nineteen Kings, who reigned in the Course of four hundred Years. — Improvements 
 in the Island. — Advanced State of Arts and Literature. — The Law of Colors. — 
 Ancient Mode of dyeing. — Dress of the Kings. — Gold and Silver Helmets, Ves- 
 sels, &c. — Ambassador sent to Greece. — Reign of Ollamh Fodhla. — Assembles 
 a Parliament at Tara. — Dimensions of the Hall. — Order of taking Seats. — Pro- 
 vincial Division of the Kingdom. — Druid Ceremonies before the. Commencement 
 of Business. — Sheanechies' Reports. — Rules which governed the Sheanechics. — 
 Law of Hospitality. — Duty of the Hospitaler. — Betagli Lands. — Hospitality in 
 Christian Ireland cherished still by the People. — Irish Law of Gavel. — English 
 Law of Primogeniture. — Contrasted. — Nature of the British Aristocracy. — Law 
 of Primogeniture in the United States abolished. — Origin of Trial by Jury. — Altled 
 the Great educated in Ireland. — The whole System of Irish Law transferred by him 
 to England. — Remarkable Coincidences. . . . — Ancient Sheanichea the pres- 
 ent Recorder. — Chief Court of Tara. — Laws of Tara. — Origin of Corporations. — 
 Commentators on and Compilers of Irish Laws. — Ollamh Fodhla's History of the 
 Milesians. — Laws of Heraldry. — Arms of Ireland. — Ladies' Assemblies in Tara. 
 — Palace of the Ladies. — The Harp. — Songs: "The Harp that once through 
 Tara's Halls." — Savourneen Deelish. — Come, raise a Cheer for Erin ! 
 
 B. C. 1260. The leaders of this successful colony now turned their 
 attention to the subject of its government and permanent establish- 
 ment. Hcber-Fionn and Heremon, brothers, and children of Milesius, 
 as chiefs of the colony, divided the island between them. Heber 
 enjoyed the sovereignty of all the southern part ; Heremon enjoyed 
 Leinster and the northern districts. Some of these districts were sub- 
 divided amongst their sons, and secondary chiefs, according to rank 
 and merit. The province of Connaught was given to the old settlers, 
 commonly called the Belgse or Firboigs, and Danaans. 
 
 A third son of Milesius, Amhergin, claims our attention. He was 
 chief of the order of learned persons, who were called ollamhs, that is, 
 doctors — professors of religious ceremonies and literature. He was a 
 Druid; a priest and teacher of that stupendous system of mythology, 
 which prevailed throughout the entire family of the Phoenicians, and 
 their contemporaries, the Egyptians. That system of religious obser- 
 vance and worship, if we may so call it, was introduced into Ireland by 
 the Milesian colony, the chief Druid being Amhergin, or, as some 
 
52 HEREMON SOLE MONARCH OF IRELAND. 
 
 write it, Amberghin, brother of the successful warriors. A universal 
 obedience was yielded to the priest and to the ceremonials. Our 
 imaginations will aid the historian in conceiving and picturing the gran- 
 deur, solemnity, and fascination, of these superbly gorgeous ceremonies, 
 performed in a country newly conquered, and in presence of the very 
 heroes and priests who had led the colony on to victory, and to the 
 possession of the most fertile, most fruitful land yet acquired by Phoe- 
 nician enterprise. 
 
 B. C. 1250. The brothers, Heber and Heremon, were not destined 
 to enjoy very long the fruits of their success. A few yeai-s passed over, 
 when the wife of Heber threw a covetous eye on a lovely vale, situate 
 on the border of her husband's dominion, that, by the first partition- 
 had fallen to the share of Heremon, and which, from its rare beauty, 
 had attracted the special care and cultivation of the latter's wife. The 
 wife of Heber urged him to demand of his brother this favored spot. 
 It was refused : an appeal to arms succeeded the negotiation. The 
 wife of Heber urged him on to battle. He levied his followers, and led 
 them to the plains of Gesiol, in Leinster. Here he was met by his 
 brother, at the head of a hardy band, when that memorable battle 
 was fought, which gave victory to Heremon, and which lost to the 
 ambitious queen of Heber, her husband, her crown, and her territory. 
 Heremon was then proclaimed sole monarch of Ireland. Giraldus 
 Cambrensis, who wrote in 1176, quoting from the old books to which 
 he had access, has the following passage in reference to this event : — 
 
 " After several battles, and doubtful events of war, between the 
 brothers, victory fell at length to Heremon ; and in one of those battles,. 
 Heber, his brother, being slain, Heremon became sole master of the 
 kingdom, and was the first monarch of the Irish people, who inhabit the 
 kingdom to this day." 
 
 Heremon, now being sole monarch of Ireland, built a splendid residence 
 on a gentle eminence in the present county of Meath, which he dedicat- 
 ed to his queen. Tea, and denominated the palace of Tea, or Tealtha. 
 It was also called Tara, and again Temora. This palace was enlarged 
 at several periods, and became, for unnumbered generations, the resi- 
 dence of the monarchs of Ireland. I shall have frequent occasion to 
 speak of Tara, and therefore reserve a particular description of this far- 
 famed palace of kings for a niore advanced stage of this narrative. 
 The government established by Heremon was a simple monarchy. 
 His reign, though short, was beset with difliculties. Although he pro- 
 vided for the sons of his fallen brother, by conferring on them tracts of 
 
AKRIVAL OF THE TRIBE CALLED PICTS. 53 
 
 their father's territory, and otherwise actively employed himself in 
 establishing law and order, he did not escape the troubles of rebellion. 
 Some of his chieftains were the leaders of an unnatural revolt, which, 
 however, he suppressed. In addition to this, he was plagued with 
 the warlike incursion of a colony, called Picts, who came from one of 
 the Grecian islands of Thrace to seek a settlement in Ireland. They 
 were strangers to the Milesian tribes, and excited commotion on their 
 arrival ; for it was the custom, amongst the ancients, to look with sus- 
 picion on strange tribes — to refuse to mix or reside with them. 
 
 The Milesians — Chnna Mileag — that is, the children of Milesius 
 — were divided into four tribes, viz., those of Heber, Heremon, Ir, and 
 1th. They preserved their race pure, and made no alliance with 
 strange tribes, nor with tlie lower orders, or vassals of their own. They 
 formed four great families, who were descended from the same father. 
 '^ They preserved," says the Abbe M'Geoghegan, " their genealogies 
 carefully, and knew the whole line of their ancestors down to the chief 
 of their tribe. This precaution was essential in regard to the succes- 
 sion to the throne, because it was required that those who aspired to it 
 should be descended from one of the tribes." Each tribe possessed, 
 in the beginning, their own portion of the island, and each portion was 
 divided into lands and lordships, possessed by the different branches of 
 the tribe. Each tribe had vassals and farmers to cultivate their lands 
 and tend their flocks. Every one was called by his name. They 
 did not take the name of castles, or villages, like the nobles of the 
 present day, but usually added to their names that of their fathers, with 
 the adjective Mac, which signifies son, viz., Mac Mahon, the son of 
 Mahon. RoIIin says, the custom of the East was to add to the name 
 of the son that of the father. For instance, Sardanapalus is composed 
 of Sardan and Pal, which means Sardan son of Pal. This custom 
 was followed by the Greeks and Romans. In Muscovy, the same 
 practice is observed to this day. The Fitz, formerly made use of 
 among the Saxons, in England, meant the same thing. Fitzgevd\<\, 
 Fitzsxmonii, mean the son of Gerald, the son of Simons. The 
 present race of Thompso7W, Johnsons, Jacksows, &.c., are emanations 
 of the same idea. 
 
 Returning to the Picts, we find that the feelings of the Milesians 
 were strongly opposed to their settlement in Ireland. King Heremon 
 pointed out to them the opposite coast, now known as Scotland, which 
 was then either not peopled at all, or by very few indeed. The 
 Pictish adventurers agreed to go thither, but, being without women or 
 
5.1 CALEDONIA A COLONV OF IRELAND. 
 
 children, ihey sought of King Heremon Uberty to obtain wives from 
 amongst his subjects ; and they agreed that the government of the new 
 settlement should be subject to the Irish monarch and his successors. 
 To attest the sincerity of their intentions, and to afford a guaranty for 
 the faithful observance of their engagements, they pledged themselves to 
 encourage the continuance of this connection by means of matrimonial 
 alliances, and that the children alone of Irish women should succeed to 
 the hereditary oflices connected with the government, religion, educa- 
 tion, or military system of the colony. To this stipulation the king 
 agreed, anrl from that period to the times of Columb Kille, in the sixth 
 century of the Christian era, this compact was faithfully adhered to on 
 both sides. Caledonia was a colony tributary to Ireland, and sent 
 deputations to the parliament of Tara. This alliance rendered Cale- 
 donia, in after ages, impregnable to the Roman arms, and enabled 
 that colony, by the aid of the Irish legions, to preserve its independ- 
 ence against all invasions, for better than two thousand years. The 
 colony was called Scoto, after the mother country, Ireland.* Ireland 
 was then, and for many subsequent ages, called Scotia Major, or the 
 Great Scotia, and the colony of Caledonia v.'as called Scotia Minor, 
 i. e., the Lesser Scotia. The alliance was formed and bound by the 
 ligaments of blood and interest: indeed, both people were one 
 family ; spoke the same language ; were governed by the same laws ; 
 fought for their mutual defence in the same legions ; cultivated the 
 same music ; practised tlie same religious ceremonies, customs, he, all 
 which shall be shown and sustained, with ample proof, in the course of 
 this narrative. 
 
 On the death of Heremon, after a reign of thirteen years, he was 
 succeeded by his three sons, who agreed to divide the duties of supreme 
 government between them ; each ruling, alternately, during one year. 
 In the progress of their government they were interrupted by the sons 
 of Heber, who, with their forces, overthrew the power of the sons of 
 Heremon. Various hostile struggles lor supreme government now 
 ensued between those rival houses, which were attended by much 
 bloodshed. Although the old historians go into lengthened detail of 
 those battles, I do not think that the peaceful spirit of the present age 
 calls for a very circumstantial account of such deplorable occurrences. 
 I shall therefore pass rapidly onward to that period of our history, when 
 these physical contests were partially abated by the establishment of the 
 triennial assemblies of Tara. 
 
 The princes who filled the throne of Ireland, from the death of 
 * The Milesian brothers denominated the island Scoto in honor of their mother 
 who had fallen in its conquest. 
 
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ISLAND. 55 
 
 Hevemon to the time of Ollamh Fodhla, were Muimhne, Luighne, 
 Laiskne, Irial, Eithrial, Conmaol, Tighcrmnas, Eochaidth, Cearman, 
 Eochaidth II., Fiachadth, Eochaidth III., Aongus, Eadhna, Rothe- 
 achta, Scadhna, Fiachadth II., Muincheamboin, and Aldergoid ; viz., 
 nineteen kings during the space of about four hundred years. 
 
 In the course of these four hundred years, the island increased con- 
 siderably in its population, importance, foreign traffic, &;c. The forests 
 of oak, with which, we are informed, the whole face of the country 
 was originally covered, had been nearly all cut down. Agriculture had 
 progressed under the care of royal husbandmen. The Phoenicians, 
 from which people these settlers had directly emanated, were still 
 the leading nation of Europe and the East, and had kept up a con- 
 siderable traffic with the Milesians of Ireland. Rome had not yet 
 begun even an embryo existence ; and the islands of Hellas — i. e., 
 the Greek islands — had only begun to emerge from the most un- 
 lettered barbarism. Although the Milesian princes battled among 
 themselves for political or supreme sway, as most of the ancients did, 
 yet art, science, literature, manufacture, &;c., progressed under them 
 with an expansive speed, which does not at all surprise us when we 
 recollect the degree of refinement and advancement their immediate 
 progenitors had maintained for many previous centuries. 
 
 During the reign of Tighemmas, (included in the nineteen kings,) 
 literature, arts, and agriculture, flourished. The old bards and his- 
 torians celebrate this monarch for having introduced the scale and 
 degrees of colors to be worn by the several orders of the people. By 
 him it was ordained that princes of the blood royal were to have seven 
 colors in their garments. The monarch was known by his mantle of 
 yellow and purple, for green had not yet become the national color. 
 The vesture of the Druids, ollamhs, bards, and artists, was variegated 
 by six dyes ; that of the nobility and knights by jioe ; of betachs, or 
 keepers of the houses of free hospitality, by four ; of commanders of 
 battalions, three ; of private gentlemen, two ; and of peasantry and 
 soldiers, one. The provisions of this regulation were observed for 
 many ages with the most rigid attention. The regulation had scrip- 
 tural authority to sustain it ; for it existed among the chosen of God. 
 We are told that " Jacob loved Joseph more than all, his children, 
 because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of 
 many colors.^'' The national observance of this custom tended to induce 
 the cultivation of colors amongst the people. The authority of foreign 
 writers exists, which proves that the Irish carried the art of dyeing to 
 
56 
 
 DRESS OF THE IRISH. 
 
 great perfection. Bishop Nicholson, a learned authority, tells us they 
 understood the composition of the celebrated Tyrian purple, which 
 was extracted from a small shell-fish found in abundance round the 
 Irish coast. Red, purple, and crimson, are frequently mentioned by 
 the old poets in their descriptions of the attire of their heroes. The 
 learned and accomplished English author, Colonel Vallancey, says, on 
 this head, " Though the garb of the ancient Irish was simple in its 
 fashion, yet the materials of which it was composed were of the most 
 costly quality. Their kings wore mantles of an immense size, gen- 
 erally nine ells, of yellow and purple silk, which were studded with 
 gems and precious stones. Their helmets, shields, and ensign staffs, 
 were of pure gold, as the country abounded with that precious metal." 
 The learned Dr. O'Conor also refers to that period in the following 
 passage: "The dress of the ancient Scots [Irish] was plain as their 
 manners. The fashion of their vesture was admirably adapted to the 
 manners of a martial nation, and it received very litde change through 
 all ages ; it helped to display action, and exhibited the actor in the 
 most advantageous manner ; it bears a perfect resemblance to the 
 costume of the ancient Greeks, [who must have fashioned after the 
 Phoenicians, their superiors in manufacture and art.] One piece of the 
 dress covered the legs ,and thighs of the wearer very closely. The 
 hraccon, or vest, was fastened v/ith golden clasps, and so conveniently 
 contrived as to cover the breast better than any modern garment, while 
 the close sleeves of a flowing mantle gave the soldier all the advantages 
 he could require in the use of arms. Over the whole they wore a 
 fallung, or wide cloak, which covered them from the sun and rain, in 
 time of inaction ; and in time of war it served them for a bed in the 
 field tents. I have seen a representation of these dresses in the 
 carving on the king of Connaught's tomb, [Feidlim O'Connor,] in the 
 abbey of Roscommon, and I am certain that the remains of this species 
 of dress are still preserved in the Highlands of Scotland." 
 
 These and other testimonies sustain us in believing the advanced de- 
 gree of maturity to which civilization, art, and manufacture, had arrived 
 at that period amongst the ancient Irish. In the reign of this prince, 
 also, were many mines of great value discovered and opened in Ireland. 
 Some goblets have been found in the bog of Allen, which were made 
 in the reign of Tighernmas, and their sculptured devices afford a proof 
 of the proficiency of the ancient Irish in the working of metals, &c. 
 Dr. Warner says, referring to this era in our history, that " gold and 
 silver must have been very plenty in this country in ancient times, as 
 
AMBASSADOR SENT TO GREECE. 57 
 
 all the knights wore golden helmets, and chains, and shields of the 
 same precious metal." A bit of a bridle, of solid gold, of ten ounces, 
 which was found in digging some ground, was sent as a present to 
 Charles the First, by the Earl of Straftbrd. The same nobleman sent 
 also an ingot of silver to the royal mint, from the mines of Tipperary, 
 which weighed three hundred ounces, and a crown of gold was also 
 found, and many other evidences of ancient wealth and art. Heraldry 
 and heraldic orders had been introduced into the customs of the gentry 
 and chiefs, which were more generally observed by those classes in 
 subsequent times. 
 
 Another of the nineteen kings, viz., Eithrial, wrote the history of his 
 ancestors, from the great Phenius down to his own days. " According 
 to Colgan and Molloy," says Pepper, '' this work of our royal his- 
 torian existed in the archives of Tara, until St. Patrick, in the too 
 ardent glow of his Christian zeal, committed it to the flames, with very 
 many more of our antique works." O'Halloran says that King Eith- 
 rial sent an embassy to Greece, consisting of many learned men, at 
 the head of which was the Druid Abaris, who instructed the in- 
 habitants of the Hellas in many of the arts and sciences then familiar 
 to the Irish. Tiiis embassy proceeded to Egypt, to explore the rich 
 mines of knowledge existing there, and returned through the Phoenician 
 territories, carrying back to Ireland great additions to the national 
 science and knowledge. Diodorus, quoting Heccatacus, the Egyptian 
 writer, confirms this. See ••' Round Towers,", further on. 
 
 B. C. 9:20. We now come to the reign of Ollamh Fodhla. This 
 prince, memorable for the wise institutions which he founded in Ireland, 
 came to the throne of the Milesian kings after a bloody contest. He 
 was of the line of Ir: was crowned with the utmost grandeur as KinK 
 Eochaidh, which was his real name ; but, being a prince of profound 
 acquirements, and having been, before his elevation, one of the bardic 
 order, he assumed the name of Ollamh Fodhla, viz., Learned Doctor, 
 or Doctor of Ireland. His reign constitutes the most memorable 
 epoch in the annals of the ancient Milesians : he saw and deplored 
 the strife which continued to grow from the opposing and ambitious 
 impulses of rival chieftains ; he had witnessed the frequent acts of in- 
 justice practised by local petty chieftains on their vassals, and he had 
 the wisdom, as well as magnanimity, to propose a tribunal, before which 
 he, as well as all other men in the country, must bow — to which all 
 should be responsible. This tribunal consisted of ''the assembly of the 
 estates" which this great man proposed should meet every third year at 
 8 
 
58 HALL OF TAKA. ORDEK OF TAKING SEATS. 
 
 the palace of Tara. It was composed of the provincial princes, nobles, 
 Druids, brehons, bards, artists, and workers in metals. This parliament 
 was assembled under the grandest order of ceremonies ; for the accom- 
 modation of the members, who consisted of a thousand persons, an 
 t'xtensive hall was erected, principall)^ of oak, the fronts of which were 
 supported by richly carved and ornamented pillars of the" same wood. 
 This national hall was five hundred feet long, sixty wide, and one 
 hundred high. It had fourteen principal entrances, many of which 
 opened into banqueting rooms, libraries, and courts of judgment. This 
 extensive erection of wood gave place, in the third century of the 
 Christian era, to a magnificent edifice of marble, raised by the pro- 
 found scholar and king, Cormac ; of which more in its place. 
 
 In this great assembly the utmost decoruni was observed ; each 
 member had his place presciibed ; his shield of arms was fixed over his 
 seat ; the princes of the royal Milesian blood had their seats next the 
 monarch ; the provincial kings had seats immediately around his 
 person. Ireland had been, at this time, divided into the provinces of 
 Leinster, Munster, Connaught, and Ulster, over each of which there 
 was a provincial king, or governor, who reigned both by election and 
 by blood. The monarch of Ireland was generally chosen by the voice 
 of the assembly from these four princes ; his power extended over all 
 Ireland, while theirs extended only over their respective districts. It 
 was the practice of the Irish kings to suggest or name, during their 
 lifetime, their successors in the monarchy, which nomination required 
 to be approved by the national assembly. 
 
 The members, sitting under their respective armorial shields and 
 standards, the provincial princes, and the monarch in the midst, must 
 have exhibited a splendid spectacle to a free and enthusiastic people. 
 When we consider, that this legislative body consisted of nearly one 
 thousand persons, and that the people, to whom they gave laws, did not 
 exceed two millions, we may then foim some idea of the democracy of 
 that assembly, and proudly contrast that feature with any modern 
 parliament or house of legislation in the world. 
 
 Business commenced in the parliament of Tara with great solemnity. 
 The Druids were occupied, for three days previous to its commence- 
 ment, in offering their mysterious sacrifices to the sun and moon. Those 
 ceremonies were performed in the view of thousands : there were 
 numerous trains of virgins, called vestals of the moon, who assisted at 
 the ceremonies, attired in white dresses richly adorned with gems and 
 precious stones. After these ceremonies had passed away, the mem- 
 
RULES WHICH GOVEHNEO THE SHEANACHIES. 59 
 
 bers were called to their duties by a flourish of musical instruments. 
 Their first business was to call on the Sheanachics, or provincial 
 historians, to read their reports of all public occurrences, crime, or 
 oppression, from their respective districts. These Sheanachies were 
 selected from the most trustworthy : they had lands app)'opriated to 
 tiieir use, and were rendered perfectly independent of their prince. 
 They were expected to utter nothing that was not strictly correct. The 
 Sheanachie was liable to severe punishment, expulsion from, the legisla- 
 ture, and even death, if found guilty of the slightest deviation from truth. 
 The learned and celebrated Primate Usher says of this class of pubhc 
 officers, " The Brehon Fileas [Sheanachies] were commissioned to set 
 down in writing every remaikable transaction worth recording thai 
 happened in the kingdom, as well as in the neighboring states, agreeably 
 to the truth of the facts. And, lest any error or false insinuation should 
 creep in, or be introduced, they were bound, in the general convention, or 
 in the presence of the chief monarch and a select committee of the nobili- 
 ty and Druids, to produce their writings every three years, when, after a 
 diligent examination, and having expunged every fact, which appeared 
 either uncertain or of doubtful authority, from the record, none was pre- 
 served but that which was sanctioned by the votes of all, as worthy of 
 the great Psalter of Tara ; so culled because it was compiled in verse 
 to aid the memory, and to guard against corruptions and falsifications." 
 
 Each province sent its Sheanachie before the assembly, and that 
 which he reported, when undisputed, was committed to the great book 
 of Tara, called the Sheanachie More, or Great Antiquity ; otherwise 
 the Psalter of Tara. This chief record was carried on by the Mile- 
 sians, from the beginning of their power in Ireland, after the manner of 
 their ancestors, the Phoenicians, who kept their national history, from die 
 infancy of primeval time, in the record named Sanconiathon. 
 
 When all those reports were heard and recorded in the great book, 
 tlien was the assembly called upon to make suitable laws to repress 
 criine, to regulate the enterprise or stimulate the industry of the people. 
 Prominent amongst the ancient laws which emanated from Tara was 
 the celebrated law of hospitality. This provided for the mainte- 
 nance of public places of entertainment, at suitable distances from each 
 other, where the traveller was ever sure to find food and a home. Lib- 
 eral grants of land were made by the state, and by princes, for this 
 purpose. TbiC officer appointed to administer the national hospitality 
 was called the betagh, (that is, hospitaler,) and the lands he occupied 
 were called the hally betagh. He was enjoined to keep grazing in his 
 pastures six herds of cattle, each herd to number one hundred and 
 
60 LAW OF HOSPITALITY. 
 
 twenty head, and to have seven ploughs continually working in his 
 fallows. He was to have food at all times prepared for those who 
 travelled, or were in want. There was no such thing known, for ages 
 upon ages, in Ireland, as a public inn, hotel, or other such establishment, 
 in which a charge was made for entertainment. This public custom 
 continued in Ireland many centuries, even long after its connection 
 with England ; at least through three fourths of the kingdom, which, 
 until the sixteenth century of the Christian era, had never submitted 
 to the English crown. There were eighteen hundred of those houses in 
 the province of Munster. In the reign of James the First, the Irish 
 attorney-general of that monarch, namely, Sh' John Davies, reported, 
 under his own hand, to his royal master, that, z'/t the single county of 
 Monahan, there then were ninety-six thousand acres ofbetagh lands ; 
 all of which were duly seized by his religious majesty, and divided, with 
 other similar lands, amongst his canting followers. When Ireland be- 
 came Christian, the lands which, in pagan times, were thus administered, 
 passed into the management of the Christian priestiiood. Hospitality 
 ever after appeared as the handmaid of Religion. The people imbibed 
 the social virtue as a tenet of their faith, and entwined it in the code of 
 their religious observances. It has descended to their children, and is 
 practised, even in their fall, as one of their most paramount duties. 
 The dwelling of the humblest peasant in Ireland, like that of the 
 proudest lord, bears testimony to the prevalence of this exalted virtue. 
 Every traveller who visits Ireland bears a hearty attestation to this. 
 Go into the poorest cottage at meal-time, — the board may be poorly 
 furnished, — the dish may consist of potatoes only, — whatever it is, 
 you are welcome to a share of it ; for hospitality is part of the na- 
 tional sentiment of Ireland ; and O, may that Christian, godlike vir- 
 tue never abandon the hearts of her children in exile, wheresoever 
 chance or persecution may drive them ! 
 
 The next important law that emanated from Tara was the law of 
 gavel. This was a law which obliged the rich parent to divide, at his 
 death, all his property, share and share alike, amongst his children. 
 The jurist, the true poUtical economist, and the democrat, will acknowl- 
 edge this law to be amongst the very best that could be devised, to 
 subdivide masses of property amongst a people. They must ac- 
 knowledge it to be the very wisest of human devices for repressing the 
 growth of an aristocracy. To estimate truly the value of this law, we 
 should weigh it with its opposite, the law of primogeniture. That cele- 
 brated baron law was instituted in England by William the Conqueror, 
 hi the eleventh century, and transferred to Ireland after her complete 
 
IRISH LAAV OF GAVEL. LAW OF PRIMOGENITURE. 6 1 
 
 connection with the British crown, in the sixteenth century. The law 
 of primogeniture, or entail, prohibits the owners of the chief estates in 
 Britain, or Ireland, from seUing any portion of them, dividing them 
 amongst children, or any way disposing of them, except by the aristoc- 
 racy-sustaining regulations which it prescribes. These compel the 
 parent, at his death, to bequeath the whole of his land estate to his next 
 male heir, to the manifest deprivation of the rights of his other children. 
 
 Every man can see, by this comparison, how well calculated was the 
 old Irish law of gavel for diffusing wealth, and distributing amongst the 
 people the social and political power which it always confers. Every 
 man, also, can estimate the aid which the law of primogeniture offers to 
 tyranny, by concentrating vast property in the hands of a few, by 
 giving that few unlimited power, which the few have never failed to 
 use to debauch the press, corrupt the legislature, demoralize public 
 sentiment, and oppress the people. If we would thoroughly understand 
 its nature, let us observe its action in Britain and Ireland. The whole 
 surface of those kingdoms is owned by about five thousand prime pro- 
 prietors in fee. The joint population of Britain and Ireland amounts to 
 some seven-and-lwenty millions, and these five thousand, with their 
 families, by their compact action and great wealth, contrive to fill the 
 two houses of parliament with themselves and their nominees. It has 
 been proved that the British house of commons contains four hundred 
 members, out of six hundred and fifty-eight, who are directly returned 
 to parliament by the landed interest. It is hardly necessary to add that 
 the British house of lords is made up nearly entirely of the landed 
 aristocracy ; and this faction have continued, and do continue, to rob the 
 people of both nations of twenty millions sterling per annum by their 
 corn tariff, and of forty millions sterhng per annum by their national 
 debt, which they borrowed to preserve their estates, and which they 
 compel the people to pay. 
 
 The law of primogeniture prevailed in the American states as long as 
 they were subject to the same British faction. On the establishment 
 of American independence, the British law of primogeniture was 
 abolished, and the Irish law of gavel was substituted. Up to the year 
 1800, the law of primogeniture lingered in Virginia and Kentucky ; but 
 at present there is not a remnant of that tyrannic law remaining in 
 existence throughout the entire Union. 
 
 Equalling the foregoing in importance, and springing from the same 
 source, was the trial of the twelve men, or, in other words, the 
 trial by jury. That was, and is, essentially an Irish law. Leland, who 
 
62 ALFRED THE GREAT EDUCATED IN IRELAND, 
 
 though he was writincr, to screen the English Government, tells us, 
 in the preface to his History of Ireland, that among the old Brehon 
 laws of Ireland was one which referred all disputes about land to the 
 decision of twelve men. All personal disputes in those ages, under the 
 head of '•' offences against the person," were decided by wager of 
 battle, or personal combat. The law of the twelve men prevailed in 
 Ireland for many ages before the time of King Alfred. That truly great 
 prince and his brother were driven into exile by the Danes. They 
 were received in Ireland, and were educated in the collegti of Mayo, 
 where Alfred not only acquired a thorough knowledge of the whole 
 system of Irish jurisprudence, but learned also to play well on the Irish 
 harp, which proved of the utmost service to him in his celebrated con- 
 flicts with the Danes. It is related of that great prince, that he entered 
 the Danish quarters disguised as a wandering harper, and played so 
 admirably on the instrument, that he obtained their confidence, and 
 made himself acquainted with all their plans, which knowledge he 
 communicated to his countrymen, who were thereby inspired to make 
 that vigorous effort which freed his country, during his life, from the 
 Danish yoke. 
 
 The whole superstructure of Irish law was transferred by Alfred to 
 England, including the law of gavel, the trial of the twelve men, the 
 chief court of judgment. The great boolc of maxims, commonly called 
 the Doomsday Boole, which still remains in the archives of Oxford, 
 was modeled after the Psalter of Tara. The only merit due to 
 King Alfred, in reference to the trial by jury, is, he extended the Irish 
 law of the twelve men to all questions relating to the person, as well 
 as to property. I may add here that, when Alfred was firmly estab- 
 lished on the throne of his fathers, he brought over Irish preceptors, and, 
 amongst others, the celebrated iJn'^ma, under whose management he 
 founded the university of Oxford — that Oxford which has, in latter years, 
 so frequently poured out its hireling venom on Ireland and Irishmen. 
 
 Tile office of the Sheanachie comprehended other duties than the 
 recording of public occurrences. The Sheanachie was a petty judge in 
 his district, and decided on matters of secondary importance. Thii. 
 officer is still continued in the British and American constitution, in the 
 person of the recorder. The duties performed at present by tht 
 recorders of London, Dublin, and New York, are not very dissimilar to 
 tliose performed by the ancient Sheanachics of Ireland. The great 
 book of antiquity kept at Tara, called the Sheanachie More, was a rec- 
 ord of all the maxims of law and government, which had grown from 
 
CHIEF COURT OF TARA. 63 
 
 the experience of ages. It was, in fact, the code of common law, the 
 maxims of which had grown into proverbs, and were turned by the 
 bards into verse, the better to fasten them in the memories of the 
 people. 
 
 The estates of Tara instituted a chief court, before which all ap- 
 peals, disputes, and complaints, from every part of the kingdom, were 
 brought for final adjudication. The most careless observer will 
 recognize, in that ancient Irish tribunal, the origin of the present Courts 
 of Chancery of England and Ireland, and the Supreme Court of the 
 United States. In the first session of the assembly of Tara, it was 
 established, says the Abbe M'Geoghegan, as a fundamental law of the 
 land, that, every three years, the king, nobility, and principal men in 
 the kingdom, should, under certain penalties, repair in person, or, in 
 case of sickness or any other obstacle, send proxies to Tara at the 
 time fixed, there to deliberate on the necessities of the state, to establish 
 laws, and confirm or change the old ones, as the general welfare might 
 require. It was afterwards decreed by the assembly that each lord 
 should maintain, at his own expense, a judge and historian, to whom he 
 should assign a portion of land sufficient for the maintenance of their 
 family, so that, free from all domestic embarrassments, they might 
 devote their time exclusively to their employment. The business of 
 the historian, who was a sort of notary, was to preserve, in writing, a 
 record of their genealogies, alliances, and noble actions, which was pre- 
 sented, every three years, to the national assembly, to undergo the 
 criticism of a committee of nine, viz., three princes, three Druids, and 
 three historians : an abstract of these things, to give them validity, was 
 registered in the Psalter of Tara. This custom of examining the 
 annals of private families, and enrolling them in the Psalter of Tara, 
 lasted, without interruption, till the twelfth century of the Christian era, 
 and without any change, except that, when the pagan j)riesthood was 
 abolished by the preaching of the gospel, in the fifth century, the three 
 Druids were replaced by three bishops. So, when St. Patrick assist- 
 ed as judge, with other bishops, at one of those assemblies, he had all 
 the ancient books of the Milesians brought before him, and, having 
 examined them all very carefully, he approved of the Psalter of Tara, 
 with several other histories, written long before his time, and at the 
 same time condemned and burnt one hundred and eighty volumes of 
 the bardic compositions. 
 
 Besides the public offices created in the assembly of Tara, every 
 lord or chief had a physician, poet, and musician, to each of whom he 
 
64 ORIGIN OF CORPORATIONS. 
 
 assigned a certain portion of land. These lands, like those of the judges 
 and historians, were considered sacred, and were exempt from all taxes 
 and impositions, even in time of war, like those of the Dmid priests of 
 Egypt — a convincing proof of the taste of the Milesians for the 
 politer arts in those remote times. Wise laws were also enacted to 
 maintain the public peace. All violence against members of the 
 assembly, during the session, was prohibited under pain of death. The 
 same sentence was pronounced against those guilty of murder, violation, 
 and robbery, without the monarch having the power to pardon. 
 Copies of these ordinances were distributed amongst all the private 
 judges in the kingdom, to serve as rales in the administration of 
 justice. 
 
 A celebrated regulation was instituted for mechanics. They ap- 
 pointed sixty of each trade in every district to inspect and govern the 
 others. No one was allowed to work at any trade without having been 
 approved of by these commissioners, who were called, in the language 
 of the country, " Jollamuidh," which signifies expert in their art or 
 profession. Such was the first organization of bodies of trades and 
 mechanics in Ireland ; and such was the origin of corporations, first 
 instituted for the management of trades, and subsequently for the man- 
 agement of town and city affairs. The English are indebted to Ireland 
 for their corporate institutions, but have not the honesty to admit it : on 
 the contrary, they would rather acknowledge themselves indebted for 
 these institutions to the Romans, their conquerors, than to the Irish, 
 their ancient allies. But justice will be done to ancient Ireland, never- 
 theless, by the enlightened opinion of mankind. Ireland was familiar 
 with those laws and institutions ere Carthage or Rome had yet been 
 cities, ere Greece was honored by Solon and Lycurgus ; three 
 centuries before Rome received from the Athenians the laws of the 
 twelve tables. I extract entire from the Abbe M'Geoghegan the 
 following gratifying paragraph : — 
 
 " About the time of our Saviour the learned in the jurisprudence of 
 the country began to make collections of the laws, and to commit them 
 to Vvriting, several of which are mentioned by their historians. In the 
 time of Conquovar, king of Ulster, who began to reign some years 
 before the Christian era, Forchern and Neid-IMac-Aidnha, two cele- 
 brated poets, composed a dialogue on the laws. The same, with 
 Athirne, chief poet of Conquovar, were the authors of the axioms of 
 the laws, called ' judicia coslestia,' [celestial judgments,] as the axioms 
 of the sages of Greece were called ' dicta sapientium.' Fearadach, 
 
COMMENTATORS ON AND COMPILERS OF IRISH LAWS. 65 
 
 the monarch, and Moran, his judge, were celebrated for their justice and 
 their writings on the laws. Modain-Mac-Tolbain, judge under Con- 
 stantine, surnamed Keadcaha, made a collection of laws, called 'Meill- 
 breatha.' Fiothall, or Fithic Fiorgothia, one of the legislators at Tara, 
 under Cormac, surnamed Ulfada, has left a treatise upon laws entitled 
 ' Fiondsuith.' King Cormac and Cairbre, his son. made a code of laws, 
 called * Dula,' which was divided into three parts, and contained regula- 
 tions on various matters. 
 
 " All those works on law, with many othei-s of the same nature, 
 were collected in the eighth century, and formed into one body of laws, 
 by three brothers, Faranan, Boethgal, and Moeltul, the first of whom 
 was a bishop, the second a judge, and the third a poet and antiquarian. 
 This collection was called ' Brathaneimhadh,' signifying ' sacred judg- 
 ments.' The matter it contained is briefly explained in the following 
 Irish lines : — 
 
 ' Eagluis, flatha Agus filidh 
 Breitheamh Dliios gacbdligh, 
 Na bruigh fo aibh dar linn, 
 Na saor agus na gablian ; ' 
 
 which are thus translated into Ijatin by Gratianus Lucius : — 
 
 ' Quid sit jus cleri, satrapEe, vatisque, fabrique, 
 Nee non agricoliE, liber iste docebit abunde ;' 
 
 and into English for the information of all : — 
 
 Priests, bards, and poets, 
 Judges, human and divine, 
 That never oppressed, in our time, 
 Trades, ails, or science. 
 
 " Gratianus Lucius mentions his having seen several larsje volumes 
 on Irish laws, written m large characters on parchment — 
 
 " ' I myself have seen many thick volumes of Irish laws, written on 
 parchment, and among them the text written in large characters, having 
 the lines moderately separated, for the more easy interpretation of the 
 words compressed in smaller letters. We see more copious comments 
 introduced in the page, having the text the same as in books of 
 laws.'"* 
 
 [These Irish laws were adopted by Alfred and Edward the Confessor, 
 kings of England, who formed the Doomsday Book. Lyttleton was the 
 
 * Several vols, of Brehon laws, in the Irish character, are now in Trinity College. 
 
 9 
 
6Q HERALDRY OF VARIOUS NATIONS. 
 
 first Englishman who wrote a small work on the laws, which formed texts 
 for Coke and others, who followed and enlarged.] Ollamh Fodhla, 
 having a pure taste for literature, gave every encouragement to the bards 
 and historians : he founded several public places of instruction, and a 
 chief one near his own palace of Tara, where the higher mysteries of 
 the Druids and the superior branches of knowledge were taught ; he also 
 wrote with his own hand a history of the Milesians in Ireland, from 
 their first landing down to the period of his reign, which he prefaced 
 by an account of their ancestors, the Phoenicians, tracing their pedi- 
 gree back almost to the flood. This work was submitted by him to 
 the estates of Tara, received, and adopted, as the beginning of theii' 
 national journal, the Psalter of Tara : several copies were made of 
 that great book, and were kept in the capitals of the provinces, which 
 gave rise to the Psalter of Cashell, the Psalter of Ardmagh, of 
 Glendelagh, Tuam, &;c., and several othei-s, which were regularly con- 
 tinued transcripts of the great national journal ke})t in Tara. 
 
 This prince, during a reign which extended to forty years, regulated 
 the laws and customs of heraldry. Previous to his time, the Milesians 
 did not observe very exactly any particular order ; they had a banner, 
 bearing, as an escutcheon, a dead serpent and a wand, in memory of the 
 cure of Gaodhal by Moses. The Milesian genealogists traced their 
 connection to Gaodhal, and therefrom assumed as their distinguishing 
 emblem the dead serpent and wand. King Ollamh Fodhla, however, 
 instituted symbols and ensigns for all his chiefs, which symbols were 
 affixed to their seats in the hall of legislation, to prevent all jealousy 
 and confusion. The Milesians, according to Keating, evinced a strong 
 partiality for heraldic distinctions. Our early annalists, says he, inform 
 us that Hector, the Trojan hero, bore sable two lions combatant ; 
 Osiris, the Egyptian, bore a sceptre-royal, ensigned on the top with ao 
 eye ; Hercules, the Phoenician, bore a lion rampant holding a battle- 
 axe ; the arms of the kingdom of Macedon were a wolf; the Scythians, 
 who remained in the country, and made no conquests abroad, assumed 
 a thunderbolt ; the Egyptians bore an ox ; the Phrygians, a swine ; 
 the Thracians painted the god Mars upon their banners ; the Romans, 
 an easle ; and the Persians, bows and arrows. Homer relates that the 
 shield of Achilles had several curious devices raised on it ; Alexander the 
 Great bore a lion rampant, and ordered his soldiers to display the same 
 upon their shields ; Augustus Csesar bore the image of Alexander the 
 Great ; the Phoenicians, being a commercial nation, assumed the prow 
 of a ship. The author of the Leabhar Leatha says the twelve tribes 
 
ARMS OF IRELAND. 67 
 
 of Israel bore each different symbols, to distinguish them in their march 
 through the desert. Dr. Warner says there was no nation where 
 heraldic distinctions were more strictly regulated than in Ireland. 
 When a chieftain distinguished himself against the enemy, his name 
 and exploit were immediately entered into the records of his house, to 
 be transmitted down from father to son, and by that means to inspire 
 the several branches of the family with an emulation to imitate such a 
 great example. 
 
 The harp was the earliest national symbol of the Firbolgs, or 
 first inhabitants. When Heber and Heremon divided the kingdom 
 between them, they differed about a musician and poet ; but the matter 
 was settled in a friendly manner by Ambergin, their brother, who ad- 
 judged the musician to Heber, and the poet to Heremon ; the brothers 
 then assumed the harj) as an emblem of the harmony that prevailed 
 between them. The yellow banner, emblazoned with the dead serpent 
 and the rod of Moses, was borne by the standard-bearer of Roderick 
 O'Connor, king of Connaught, when that monarch had an interview 
 with Henry the Second of England. Brian Borohme bore on his 
 standard, at Clontarf, the sun bursting through a cloud. It may be 
 that I shall enter more fully on the subject of Irish heraldry in the 
 progress of this work, if I think it will not swell the volume to an 
 inconvenient bulk. I pass on from the topic, merely observing that 
 the whole system and stiperstructure of English and French heraldry 
 have been modeled after the old orders and creations of Tara. These 
 heraldic laws and symbols were introduced into Gaul, (France,) and 
 into Europe generally, by the celebrated Charlemagne, on the reestab- 
 lisliment of civilization, in the eighth century. It is distinctly recorded 
 of that distinguished king and scholar, that he brought from Ireland 
 several learned men, under whose direction he founded universities in 
 various parts of his dominions. Amongst these learned Irishmen 
 were Claude Clement and John Scott, who were installed by Charle- 
 magne professors over the universities of Pavia and Paris. 
 
 The palace and the assemblies of Tara were adorned by the beauty 
 of the land. Modern belles and beaux imagine that in ancient times 
 the human face bore no traces or lineaments of heaven's divine 
 creation. They firmly believe, indeed, that, before the discovery of 
 certain soaps, loashes, and composites, the cheek of woman threw out 
 no lovely glow, and her eye no kindling ray ; that men were a sort of 
 wild animals, with bushy hair and ferocious aspects, and, of course, 
 insensible to the more refined influence of the superior sex. Such 
 
CS ladies' assemblies in tara. 
 
 sapient thinkers should be reminded that the gorgeous sun shone in the 
 heavens three thousand years ago as brightly as it does now ; that the 
 moon glided then through her silvery path with the same regularity 
 and bewitching brightness she does at present; that the firmament 
 was studded with the same bright stars we now look uj>on with so 
 much rapture ; that Nature, through her successive seasons, put forth 
 her changing beauties with the same pleasing variety, in endless 
 continuation, breathing through rich foliage her balmy incense, filling the 
 flowers with vivifying perfume, prompting millions of winged choris- 
 ters to chirp the same light and happy strains which we see, and feel, 
 and hear, at this day ; that Nature was the same throughout all time, 
 under the rule of one great God ; and man has ever been subject to 
 the same natural laws. 
 
 'Every account of the transactions of Tara, which the old historians 
 have left us, bears ample evidence of the grandeur of their various 
 ceremonies, whether of business or pleasure, the magnificence of their 
 festivals, the innocence, and, at the same time, utiHty of their sports 
 and amusements. To the ladies present on all or any of these occa- 
 sions, the utmost deference v/as paid : a special palace was appropriated 
 to their use, which was called Griannan na Ninghean, or the Council 
 of the Ladies. This council had delegated to it power to regulate all 
 things appertaining to woman. In such an assembly, we may readily 
 imagine, music held a prominent consideration. Such was the case. 
 The oldest and most polished instrument of the Milesians, the harp, 
 was the favorite instrument of the refined then, as it now is, boxed 
 though it be in the case of a piano-forte, and struck by leathern 
 hammers instead of fairy fingers. The " harps of Tara " have long 
 been the theme of the bard and poet. Moore, the sweetest bard of 
 modern times, — of whom Erin may well be proud, — has linked the 
 " harp of Tara " with immortal verse. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 69 
 
 COME, RAISE A CHEER FOR ERIN! 
 
 WORDS BY T. MOONEY. 
 
 Written on the Mississippi, ichile on my Western Repeal Mission in 1841-2, and 'pub- 
 lished in the Dublin Pilot, in one of a series of letters, addressed by me to that 
 paper, under the title of '■'■ American Correspondence.'^ T. M. 
 
 -1^ ^C 
 
 ^ 
 
 1. Come, raise 
 
 — b— -4 
 
 zi 
 
 a cheer for E 
 
 
 
 rin ! Her 
 
 l_ 
 
 f=g: 
 
 ^-W 
 
 rz:±- 
 
 f 
 
 -s 
 
 sun a - gain will shine out bright ! Come, 
 
 5^ 
 
 Se^eSS 
 
 -p p- 
 raise a shout for E - rin ! She'll soon e- merge from 
 
 :trT 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^P^: 
 
 r 
 
 -r-^tf-^ -* 
 
 slavery's night. 
 
 e££ 
 
 i 
 
 Come, 
 
 ®±= 
 
 ^^¥=i 
 
 
 i 
 
70 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 _ r r Pn 
 
 raise the toast to E - rin ! Tho' wa - ter sparkle 
 
 — b - 
 
 e- 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 -^ — ^- 
 
 '~T_ 
 
 
 3=?- 
 
 in the bowl, I'll drink thy health, dear E - rin ; Thy 
 
 @-fc 
 
 5— [===£==^ 
 
 :^i^ 
 
 — I — a — ^**, — 
 
 :^ 
 
 
 ^ ^ -»• k^iii^ p ^ 
 
 burn - ing flame still lights my soul ! 
 
 "rrri — 
 3D= 
 
 9 
 
 TT 
 
 ~r r 
 
 i 
 
 -5-:^: 
 
 T- 
 
 
 ~=^ 
 
 I 
 
 2. 
 
 There was a time when, Erin, 
 
 You gave the haughty Briton laws ; * 
 There was a time when, Erin, 
 
 Your children won the world's applause ! 
 And the time again is nearing, 
 
 When Freedom's sword we'll bravely draw, 
 To guard your soil, dear Erin, 
 
 And give your people their own law. 
 
 See the foregoing section, under the head of " Trial by Jury." 
 
MUSIC AND POETKY. 71 
 
 3. 
 
 Then rouse your heart, dear Erin, 
 
 And sound your voice from shore to shore! 
 Demand your rights, brave Erin, 
 
 And your parliament they'll soon restore ; 
 And lift on high your streaming 
 
 Green banner, as in days gone by. 
 The nations aid you, Erin ! 
 
 And Heaven smiles a cheer fiom high ! 
 
 There are three other sets of words to this beautiful old Irish air, viz. : " Maurian 
 a, Gibberlaun,"' an old Irish composition ; " The rose-tree full in bearing ; " and " I'd 
 mourn the hopes that leave rtie," by Moore. The latter I append, because it was 
 addressed by the author to his wife. 
 
 I'D MOURN THE HOPES THAT LEAVE ME. 
 
 1. 
 I'd mourn the hopes that leave me, 
 
 If thy smiles had left me too ; 
 I'd weep when friends deceive me, 
 
 Hadst thou been, like them, untrue. 
 But while I've thee before me. 
 
 With heart so warm, and eyes so bright, 
 No clouds can linger o'er me ; 
 
 That smile turns them all to light. 
 
 2. 
 
 'Tis not in fate to harm me, 
 
 While fate leaves thy love to me ; 
 'Tis not in joy to charm me, 
 
 Unless joy be shared with thee : 
 One minute's dream about thee. 
 
 Were worth a long, and endlq^s year 
 Of waking bliss without thee. 
 
 My own love, my only dear! 
 
 3. 
 
 And though the hope be gone, love, 
 That long sparkled o'er our way, 
 
72 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 O ! we shall journey on, love, 
 More safely without its ray. 
 
 Far better lights shall win me, 
 
 Along the path I've yet to roam, — 
 
 The mind that burns within me, 
 
 And pure smiles from thee at home. 
 
 4. 
 
 Thus, when the lamp, that lighted 
 
 The traveller, at first goes out. 
 He feels awhile benighted, • 
 
 And looks round In fear and doubt ; 
 But soon, the prospect clearing. 
 
 By cloudless starlight on he treads. 
 And thinks no lamp so cheering 
 
 As that liiiht which heaven sheds I 
 
 SHAVOURNEEN DHEELISH. 
 
 [my beautiful young ELLE.N DEAR.] 
 
 BV LADY MOKCAIT. 
 Rather Sr^ow, with Expiikssion. 
 
 ^i^nziE 
 
 1. O! the 
 
 H' 
 
 ^"^ 
 
 5^ 
 
 -w car 
 
 - ment was sad, when my 
 
 © 
 
 -^ 
 
 i: 
 
 love and I part - ed ! Sha - vour - neen Dheel - ish 
 
.MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 73 
 
 
 S-'= 
 
 r 
 
 1 ^ — 1^ 
 
 Ei - leen Ogge; As I kissed off her tears, I was 
 
 8: 
 
 ^ 
 
 -fP- 
 
 '» r_Tzzir 
 
 1 r 
 
 l-JJ' 
 
 333^L=ji^:Eg^3^gis_^-j 
 
 niiih broken - heart - ed ; Sha - - vour - neen Dheel - ish 
 
 Ei - - leen Ogge. 
 
 Wan was her cheek, which 
 
 la: 
 
 "* r: 
 rizci 
 
 iiE 
 
 " I — I — ri" 
 
 "jg s^r 
 
 isi 
 
 'W 
 
 E_rz=s: 
 
 zzfizw: 
 
 :^=p: 
 
 :p=:: 
 
 hung on my shoul - der ; Damp was her hand — no 
 
 
 ^- 
 
 -J-T ^— 
 
 ©:p: 
 
 mar - ble was cold - er ; I felt in my heart I ne'er 
 
 ^ -ftf 
 
 IP 
 
 10 
 
74 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 Long I fought for my country, far, far from my true love, 
 Shavourneen Dheelish Eileen Ogge ; 
 
 All my pay and my booty I hoarded for you, love, 
 Shavourneen Dheelish Eileen Ogge ; 
 
 Peace was proclaimed ; escaped from the slaughter, 
 
 Landed at home, my sweet girl soon I sought her ; 
 
 But sorrow, alas ! to the cold grave had brought her, 
 Shavourneen Dheelish Eileen Ogge. 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 75 
 
 CAROLAN'S FAREWELL TO MUSIC. 
 
 i-e-^: 
 
 TTI. 
 
 h 
 
 C 1~ "~i — WTZ in~TIIIiTl*~i* n I IT 
 
 -i — ^^-3~#^~ -i — *#^ — rh" -I — rr~r~^#~ ~"S' — j 
 
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 FFrr 
 
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 ' — *^— ri — rn 
 
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 r~ ~r rr»i — ^ni" 
 
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 9' 
 
 
 HUMORS OF MULLINAFAWNA 
 
 
 "n 
 
 
 rrr~rw~ 
 
 frtzEzZL 
 
 'r~Y 
 
 
 0'F9 
 
 -f=t^=5,rr: 
 
 P^ 
 
 9-W^9 
 
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 x_.rzzizri ?. 
 
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LECTURE IV. 
 
 THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 
 SECTION I. 
 
 The Irish Language. — Attempts to suppress it. — Professor of the Irish Language 
 appointed by the Dubhn University. — The oldest Manuscripts in Europe in the 
 Irish Language. — Irish Dictionaries. — Ancient Writers on the Language. — 
 Etruscan, Celtic, and Irish Language identical. — Sir William Betham's Opinion 
 thereon. — Much of the Latin derived from the Irish. — Criterion to judge. — 
 Refinement of the Phojnicio-Etruscans. — Ancient Irish Alphabet. — Compared 
 with the Egyptio-Irish Ogham. — Five of the Zodiacal Signs are Letters of the 
 Irish Alphabet. — Gave to Perry, of the Morning Chronicle, the Idea of Short 
 Hand Writing. — Moore's Opinion on the Language. — Fidelity of the Irish to 
 their Letters^ and Language. — Irish Alphabet printed by Order of Bonaparte. 
 — Ireland the School of the Saxons. — Mother' Tongues of Europe. — Alpha- 
 bets now in Use in the World. — Suggestions for restoring the Language. — Its 
 musical Properties. — Ancient Irish and Egyptians the same Family. — Origin 
 of the prefixes and Mac. — Meaning of the Term Celt. — Languages liable 
 to alter in Pronunciation and in Spelling. — Efforts of the British to root the 
 Language out of Scotland and Wales. — Estimate of the Numbers who still 
 speak the Irish Language in Wales and Scotland. — Like Estimate for Ire- 
 land. — Like Estimate of those Exiles who speak it. — Efforts lately made to 
 revive it. — Irish Language the Key to most others. — Efforts of the learned 
 Men of Ireland to restore it. — Suggestions to Parents in this Country. — Irish 
 History and Language not taught in this Country. — Appeal to wealthy Irish- 
 men on this Continent to revive it. 
 
 Having introduced to the reader the principal settlers of ancient Ire- 
 land, and traced their origin, migration, settlement, government, laws, 
 &c., downwards for ahout five hundred years, I will now treat of their 
 language, historians, architecture, bards, poets, music, &c. ; after which, 
 in ray fifth lecture, I will resume the historic narrative. 
 
 In offering a few words on the Irish language, I confess, with humility, 
 my inability to do even limited justice to a question so profound. I 
 cannot even devote space to the opinions of others. The " Irish lan- 
 guage," as a topic, would require an entire volume to elucidate ; and 
 yet, even though I had the ability to compile such a work, and the 
 
ATTEMPTS TO SUPPRESS THE IRISH LANGUAGE. 77 
 
 capital to bring it through the press, where, in this country, should 1 find 
 purchasers in sufficient numbers to cover the expense? The Irish 
 language had been, in the course of the last three centuries, driven 
 from the schools and universities of Ireland by the tyrant policy of Britain. 
 Acts of parliament, queenly and kingly proclamations, penalties, and 
 every species of persecution, were called up to suppress its use in 
 Ireland, and in Ireland's ancient colony of Caledonia. It was pro- 
 claimed down at court, discountenanced by the affluent, discouraged by 
 the patrons of literature, suppressed totally in the English and Irish 
 schools and colleges. My father told me that he, when at school, has 
 had a wooden gag put into his mouth by his teacher, as a punishment 
 for having spoken occasional words of the Irish language during school 
 time. It is really wonderful how a language, so hunted from school 
 and cabin by the severest kind of persecution, did yet survive ; and still 
 more wonderful is it to see the descendants of those, who made war 
 upon that language, now exerting themselves to reestablish it in those 
 very universities from which they formerly hunted it with such senseless 
 barbarity ! 
 
 In the university of Dublin, called Trinity College, a professor 
 of the Irish language was appointed in the year 1841. On this head, 
 Sir William Betham, in his very able work, from which I have quoted 
 so largely, has the following : — 
 
 " Until last year the university of Dublin had no professor of 
 Irish ! A reverend and learned gentleman has been recendy appointed. 
 It is said he speaks the vernacular Irish fluently. Let us hope that, by 
 his means, the most ancient written living language in Europe may 
 take its just place in the estimation of the learned, and escape from the 
 undeserved and illiberal criticism of those who, while they condemn, 
 acknowledge their incapacity to judge, and virtually the injustice of their 
 judgment. It has long been a reproach to the Irish university, that, 
 possessing the most ancient and valuable Irish manuscripts in their libra- 
 ry, they had no one competent to explain their contents. They have 
 long had professors of the Oriental languages, and even writers on 
 Ethiopic and Sanscrit ; but, till now, no professor of Irish. Not one 
 of the fellows has ever been induced to make himself acquainted with 
 the Iberno- Celtic, [the Irish,] which may justly contend with the most 
 ancient language of the East for precedence in antiquity. 
 
 " A more just consideration of the claims of the old tongue of 
 Ireland, it is to be hoped, will now be accorded ; and it will not be 
 despised because it is not understood. It will, I trust, be examined by 
 
78 IRISH DICTIONARIES. 
 
 a scholar, a man of liberal education and enlightened mind ; one who 
 will commence, perhaps, in some measure influenced by the prejudices 
 of education, but who, duly weighing every point of evidence, will 
 accord due weight to each. Such a man will discover in the Irish 
 language a mine of philological wealth ; a guide which will explain 
 most of the difficulties which have hitherto so much obscured the 
 history of the ancient people and languages of Europe." 
 
 " It is a singular fact, not generally known," continues Sir William, 
 "that the most anciext European manuscripts now existing 
 ARE IN THE Irish LANGUAGE, and that the most ancient Latin manvr 
 scripts in Europe were ivritten by Irishmen. I have in my own 
 library manuscripts unintelligible to common Irish scholars. The 
 present Irish vernacular has a very limited vocabulary ; only so much 
 as is necessary for the purposes of rural life, and the wants of the 
 peasant. Nine tenths of the language have become obsolete, and 
 only to be found in ancient glossaries and manuscripts. Fortunately, 
 the labors of a few scholars, within the last two centuries, have collected 
 the ancient words into the form of a dictionary : among these the late 
 Mr. William Halliday, the compiler of the best Irish grammar, deserves 
 honorable mention. By his premature death, Irish literature sustained a 
 heavy loss. That learned and talented individual collected materials 
 on the basis of Shaw's Gaelic Dictionary, which the late Edward 
 O'Reilly added to and published. Four fifths of the words contained in 
 this work are now obsolete and unintelligible to the Scottish Highlander 
 and the speakers of Irish of the present day. Much of the Gaelic, 
 in tlie translations which I have given of the Etruscan and Eugubian 
 Tables, is certainly obsolete and unintelligible to the Scottish Gael, and 
 to those who merely speak the modern Irish. The Scots, having no 
 ancient manuscripts, know nothing of their tongue beyond what is 
 acquired orally, which is limited and meagre when compared with the 
 old language. 
 
 " It has been said that the modern Gaelic has no terms of art or 
 science. This is to be attributed to their having been lost by non- 
 usage ; for the ancient Irish possesses all the terms of art or science 
 known at the time it was colloquial. The present Irish vernacular 
 has not now in use one fifth of the words to be found in the ancient 
 glossaries, [dictionaries ;] it is, therefore, not a matter of surprise that 
 these works are not understood by those who speak the limited and 
 corrupted vocabulary of the present day, and who are, also, for the 
 most part, illiterate. To many of those who read and write the 
 
ANCIENT WRITERS ON THE LANGUAGE. 79 
 
 modern language, ancient manuscripts are unintelligible, and even to 
 those who pretend to translate them. It is in the ancient manuscripts 
 that the old Celtic language is presented in its purity. Glossaries 
 of the Irish Gaelic exist in manuscript, written some centuries since, 
 explaining words even at that time obsolete. At the same time, it 
 must be observed that much of the Gaelic, which I have placed in juxta- 
 position with the Etruscan, is intelligible even to the vernacular Irish- 
 man or Scottish Highlander. The similarity, the almost identity, is 
 remarlcahle ; there are very few variations even of a letter. 
 
 " The most celebrated of the ancient Irish glossaries [dictionaries] 
 is that ascribed to Cormac, bishop of Cashel, who lived about A. D. 
 901. There are two or three copies of this work in Trinity College, 
 Dublin. A copy of this glossary, made for General Vallancey, by 
 Peter Connell, who was a good ancient Irish scholar, with many 
 glosses and additional explanations, I have had copied and collated, 
 with many others, and translated all the explanations into English. I 
 have had copies made of O'Clery's and many other glossaries, and 
 believe I possess copies of the best, if not of all, that are extant. 
 In addition to which, I have interleaved dictionaries with many thou- 
 sand words added from the books of Ballymote and Lecan, and the 
 Leabhar Brean, Brehon laws, and other ancient manuscripts, glossed 
 and explained by interlineations, especially those of the ancient laws. 
 The language of the Eugubian Tables, being so ancient, may be con- 
 sidered as the inchoate, primitive, monosyllabic roots, from which the 
 more modern compound language may be ascertained by analysis, and, 
 being understood, will assist greatly in determining the sources of 
 many other modern tongues. * * * 
 
 " The essence of the languages of the Etruscans and Celts may 
 fairly be considered identical. At the same time, no one could flatter 
 himself that a translation of such difficulty could be made perfect by a 
 first effort. I commenced the study of the Irish language late in life, 
 and would willingly have foregone the laborious exertion, could I 
 have been fortunate enough to have met with an Irish scholar capable 
 and willing to have done justice to the subject which so much interested 
 my thoughts. If, in early life, I had been acquainted with the lan- 
 guage, the task might have been accomplished with less labor, and 
 perhaps more perfectly." 
 
 Sir William then goes into a lengthened critical analysis of the 
 Irish language, tracing its letters and sounds to the most remote an- 
 tiquity. " It is," he says, "•' the most ancient living language ; more 
 
80 CELTIC AND IRISH LANGUAGES IDENTICAL. 
 
 ancient than the Greek itself." He proves, as I have in another 
 place quoted him, that the language spoken throughout the Phoenician 
 empire was that which we now call Irish. It was the language of 
 Tyre, of Carthage, of the refined and learned inhabitants of Italy, ages 
 before " Rome " was dreamed of. Moreover, it is a twin dialect to the 
 Syriac, the language which the Redeemer used while on earth. Italy 
 was the first great colony of the Phoenicians which improved on the 
 state of civilization, derived from their Tyrian ancestors, even more 
 than Carthage. On this head ray learned authority says, "When we 
 assert that the roots of many words in the Greek and Latin are to be 
 found in the Irish language, it may excite surprise in the minds of 
 some ; but if we are able to show that the Irish language is the same 
 as that spoken by the people who occupied Italy and the countries bor- 
 dering on the Mediterranean, the absurdity vanishes, and the fact ceases 
 to surprise. A man will laugh in your face if you assert that the Latin 
 is mostly derived from the Irish ; but if y^u are able to show that the 
 Etruscan inhabitants of Italy spoke the same or a kindred language, 
 if he be not convinced, his sarcasm and ridicule will certainly be de- 
 prived of all its point." The very learned and able Dr. O'Brien, 
 the compiler of the first published Irish dictionary, in his preface to that 
 work, gives a long list of words in the Irish, having a strong affinity 
 with the Latin and Greek, " which," he says, "should, I presume, be 
 esteemed a strong proof that the Lingua Prisca [first language] of 
 the aborigines of Italy, from which the Latin of the twelve tables, and 
 afterwards the Roman language, was derived, could be nothing else but 
 a dialect of the original Celtic — a dialect, indeed, which, in process of 
 time, received some mixture of Greek, especially the ^olic, from the 
 colonies, or rather adventurers, which anciently came to Italy from 
 Peloponnesus, agreeably to the saying of Dionysius Halicarnassus. The 
 language used by the Romans is neither absolutely barbarous, or Greek, 
 but a mixture of both : in many respects it is similar to the ^olic 
 lanffuase." 
 
 " And at the same time," continues Dr. O'Brien, " to show that 
 the Iberno-Celtic did not borrow from the Latin any of those words in 
 which both languages agree, 1 shall only lay down, on the part of the 
 Irish, those which are expressive of ideas which no language can want 
 words for, even in its most incult state, and are, at the same time, the 
 only words in common use, in that language, to signify, precisely and 
 properly, the things they are appropriated to — two characteristics which 
 plainly demonstrate that they are not derivatives of any other language, 
 
THE ETRUSCAN AND THE IRISH IDENTICAL. 81 
 
 but rather genuine original words of the Cehic tongue, from which cir- 
 cumstances, joined to the plain marks of derivation with lohich the 
 corresponding Latin ivords are stamped, it will evidently appear that 
 the Latin ivords are derivations of the Celtic, from which the old 
 Latin, refined by the Romans, had been formed." Again, " Now, it is to 
 be noted, that, inasmuch as it is allowed by the best etymologists, that, 
 of radical words of the same sense in different languages, those should 
 be esteemed the more ancient that consist of fewest letters, and that, of 
 words agreeing only in part, those which have the additional letters or 
 syllables are, for the most part, derivations, — it follows that the Iberno- 
 Celtic, being chiefly monosyllabic, should be esteemed the radical and 
 ancient words. The Latin words, agreeing in sense with the Irish mono- 
 syllables, are generally of two or more syllables." Dionysius Halicar- 
 nassus, who wrote a short time previous to the birth of Christ, 
 says, the Etruscans had their own language, rites, manners, and laws, 
 which were original and independent. Referring to their inscriptions on 
 the Eugubian Tables, Sir William Betham remarks, " That the sixth and 
 seventh tables, written in the Roman character, were examined by their 
 framers with great care before they were placed where they were found, 
 appears, from certain erasures and insertions, by ivay of correction of 
 errors committed by the engraver, exhibiting a great desire for accuracy, 
 as well as demonstrating that the language was then governed by rules 
 of orthography and grammar — a most significant test of a high state of 
 civilization and progress in literature, the result of a long period of 
 enjoyment, of repose, and political security, and the development of 
 the highest exertions of the human intellect. The works of mind of 
 this wonderful people, in the various departments of literature, science, 
 sculpture, painting, commerce, architecture, mining, navigation, astrono- 
 my, and, in short, every other art and token of civilization, fill the mind 
 with astonishment ; all having germinated and been brought to light 
 principally by themselves, and from them communicated to the rest of 
 the world, and, as has been elegantly expressed by Professor Haron, the 
 gentle attrition of commerce thus lighted up the flame of civilization." 
 
 There is no doubt but the Etruscan lanffuage and character so 
 referred to, as the twin dialect of the Irish, are directly traceable to the 
 era of symbolic writing, when ideas were represented by figures of men, 
 beasts, trees, birds, fishes, weapons, &c. ; when, as I have before noted, 
 writers abbreviated those signs, marking only the legs of the man, the 
 tail or horns of the beast, branches of the tree, feathers of the bird, or 
 portions of the fish or weapons, and so formed an alphabet. The Per- 
 11 
 
82 SYMBOLIC WRITING. 
 
 sians marked their ideas by the signs of arrows in various positions, and 
 the ancient Chinese, by knots on cords. 
 
 I give, in a wood cut, a specimen of the most ancient writing of the 
 Egyptians, which, when compared with the old Irish letters placed in the 
 same diagram, will be found to exhibit a very close relationship. It will 
 be seen there is no great difference in the construction of the letters of 
 both nations, not greater than might exist between the writings of any 
 two men we should select promiscuously. 
 
 Inscription on the Ohelisk of Heliopolis. \ js. 
 
 Translation by Champollion: — "Pharaoh; sun offered to the 
 WORLD ; lord of Upper and Lower Egypt ; the living of men ; son of 
 the sun ; Osortasen," &c. 
 
 The following are terms used in an ancient Irish music book, ex- 
 planatory of musical notes : — Given in Walker's Bards. 
 
 CVieot^i , Long Sound. 
 
 ^eals OIKp ^. /^TS Long or Short Sounds. 
 
 C^lti' ^ Long Sound. 
 
 
 
 Long Sound. 
 
 Long or Short Sounds. 
 
 0%"^ 
 
 ■p^-t/; YWo/"^ Long 
 
 or Short Sounds. 
 
SYMBOLIC WRITING. 83 
 
 Here are specimens of the Irish Ogham, or secret characters, used 
 by the Druids, and continued among the learned down to the last 
 generation. M'Curtain wrote, in 1760, that he knew of two-and- 
 thirty separate oghams which then existed in the county of Clare. Let- 
 ters of the alphabet are placed over or under each sign, to give the 
 reader an idea of their import. 
 
 Simple Ogham. 
 
 I.II.IIUIII.IIil!. m.i.n^.y. f^„ 
 
 , I III- 1 1 1 . 
 
 ^.^.J£. £. n. 
 
 a,.c.u e. A^ M. .01. 
 
 — -I'l Mi i-i:ii-M I !!• 
 
 Complex Ogham. 
 
 ^-^ -tF fc\j S 
 
 ^b/t T^p ccl^. 
 
 r\ ^ r t ^ ^^ ^- j^ ex bis 
 
 v^ lA^tiAti^occT ^|i. -Afjl-Conn. cy4C<\x\ ■ coTi4n. c]tio-pc . IsmV^m 
 
 The following is another specimen of the ogham characters 
 
 Pmi-t'E^ /lift 4 
 
 which, translated, reads, "Dermoind O^Sullevoine." 
 
84 
 
 SYMBOLIC WRITING. 
 
 These oghams were used by the most learned Druids and scribes, to 
 communicate, exclusively to each other, the secret instructions and ordi- 
 nances of their order. They were not for the use of the profane, but the 
 initiated. The very term itself, ogma, in the Celtic, means " secret let- 
 ters," and the practice is directly traceable to the custom of the Phoeni- 
 cian and Egyptian priests. Each upright line or dot in the ogham, or 
 secret alphabet, expressed a word, an idea, or part of an idea.* The 
 learned Irish antiquarian, Ware, writing of these Irish " ogham colls," 
 says, " They were writings that represented the branches of trees," and 
 adds, " I have a book of parchment filled with these kinds of characters." 
 Like the ancient Hebrew and the Ionic, the ogham scale consists of only 
 sixteen simple elements ; from the alphabetic Psalms it would appear 
 that the Hebrew had twenty-two letters ; but these Psalms are not older 
 than the times of David. Scaliger demonstrates that the original Hebrew 
 alphabet consisted only of sixteen letters, as did the Etruscan, according 
 to Gori ; as did the Ionic, according to Pliny, Suidas, Polybius, and 
 others. But, even as early as the time of Herodotus, the original forms 
 of the Ionic letters were lost. Sir R. Phillips says, " The Hebrew writ- 
 ten character w^as the Phoenician ; but in the captivity they acquired the 
 square Chaldaic, and lost the former." In Ireland, however, the original 
 number and forms of the letters, and the very name of the Phoeniciao 
 alphabet, were, and are still, preserved. Daily and De Gebelin say 
 that the Irish ogham ciphers come nearest to the mysterious inscription 
 at Persepolis. And Sir Richard Phillips, (English authority,) in another 
 part of his able work, says, " The current native language of Ireland is, 
 verbatim et literatim, that of Carthage, a territory of Phoenicia. Plautus 
 makes Hanno speak in Carthaginian, and ' Haim done Filli hanum bene 
 Filli in mustine,^ is, to a letter, either Irish, Carthaginian, or PhcBnician.'" 
 Many similar passages might be given from Plautus. " Scaliger sup- 
 poses (adds Phillips) the Phcenician to have been the original Hebrew 
 character, otherwise the Samaritan, and it is generally supposed to be 
 that which was used by the Jews from the time of Moses." 
 
 * I have heard it said that the Irish ogham writing, in which there are a thou- 
 sand arbitrary characters to represent words and ideas, gave to the late Mr. Perry, 
 of the London Morning Chronicle, his idea of short-hand and verbatim reporting 
 of the parliamentary debates. Before Perry's time there were no verbatim reports 
 of parliamentary speeches. Members who would make known their opinions were 
 obliged to publish them in pamphlets. It is a remarkable fact that the majority of 
 the reporters now on the London press are Irishmen ; and I may add, that 1 know 
 some of the very ablest reporters in the United States to be of the same country. 
 
BEITH LUIS NION, OR IRISH ALPHABET. 
 
 85 
 
 I also present the Irish alphabet, called Beith Luis Nion^ having the 
 power or sound of each letter denoted by its correspondent in the Eng- 
 lish language, as arranged by Bishop Molloy, at Lovain and Rome. 
 
 a 
 
 d 
 
 h 
 
 I 
 
 c 
 
 c 
 
 t) 
 
 b 
 
 e 
 
 e 
 
 t" 
 
 F 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 Irish 
 Pronunciation. 
 
 Latin 
 Pronunciation. 
 
 English Pronunciation 
 and Signification. 
 
 . Ailim Abies Fir Tree A. 
 
 .Beith Betulla Birch B. 
 
 , .Colt Corylui Hazel C. 
 
 .Duir Ilex Oak D. 
 
 .Eadha Tremula Aspen. 
 
 . Fearn Alnus Alder . 
 
 .Gort Hedera Ivy . . 
 
 .E. 
 .F. 
 .G. 
 
 ^ 
 
 ? 
 
 J 
 
 1 
 
 J 
 
 i 
 
 w 
 
 777 
 
 V 
 
 V 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 V 
 
 V 
 
 V- 
 
 r 
 
 r 
 
 ^ 
 
 t 
 
 t: 
 
 u 
 
 -y. 
 
 .Huatli Oxiacantlius White Thorn H. 
 
 .Idho Taxus Yew I, 
 
 .Luis Ornus Wild Ash L. 
 
 . Muin Vitis Vine M. 
 
 . Nion Fraxinus Ash N. 
 
 . Oun Genista Broom O. 
 
 . Potte JS/ot explained. P. 
 
 , .Ruis Sambucus Elder R. 
 
 , .Duil SalLx Willow S. 
 
 , . Tinne JVot explained, probably the Deity T. 
 
 , .Ur Erix or Erica Heath U. 
 
 O'Halloran gives but sixteen letters, omitting the signs (English) F and 
 H ; but Moll9y, Valiancy, M'Geogheghan, Dunlevy, and Halliday, give 
 eighteen letters, — which I have supplied as above, — together with the 
 Latin and English significations of all. 
 
 It is a very remarkable circumstance, and proves the great antiquity 
 of the Irish language, that some of the zodiacal signs, and those of the 
 planets and satellites, are really letters of the Irish alphabet. The Irish 
 letters S, M, O, and G, are zodiacal signs ; B, R, and D are signs of 
 satellites. Some of the ogham signs appear to have an identity with the 
 signs of the planets and satellites. This proves that when men first 
 began to spell their way through the heavens, the signs by which they 
 denoted the most striking objects were the signs then used to denote the 
 ordinary sounds of the human voice. And these signs the Irish have 
 preserved for at least three thousand five hundred years, — an em- 
 
86 FIDELITY OF THE IRISH TO THEIR LETTERS AND LANGUAGE. 
 
 dence that identifies the Irish language with the earliest development 
 of astronomical science. Nor ought it to be left unsaid here, that eigh- 
 teen in twenty-six of the ordinary manuscript characters which I am 
 now using, writing in the EngUsh language for the printer, and that 
 which all English people use in their ordinary writings, are the letters 
 of the old Irish alphabet. Perhaps not one English scholar in a mil- 
 lion is aware of this so very apparent fact, nor aware of the historical 
 attestation of Bede, Camden, and other English authors, which tells us 
 that " the Saxons received, in the sixth century, their literature, lan- 
 guage, and the forms of their letters, from the Hibernians." 
 
 Moore devotes several pages of learned research to this interesting 
 subject. From him I make a few brief extracts : — 
 
 " Abundant and various as are the monuments to which Ireland can 
 point, as mute evidences of her antiquity, she boasts a yet more striking 
 proof in the living language of her people, — in that most genuine, if 
 not only-existing dialect of the oldest of all European tongues, — the 
 tongue which, by whatever name it may be called, according to 
 the various theories respecting it, whether Japhetan, Cimmerian, Pelas- 
 gic, or Celtic, is accounted most generally to have been the earliest 
 brought from the East, and to have been the vehicle of the first knowl- 
 edge that dawned upon Europe. In the still v^'ritten and spoken 
 dialect of this primeval language we possess a monument of the high 
 antiquity of the people to whom it belongs, which no cavil can reach, 
 nor any doubts disturb. According to the view of some learned 
 philologers, the very imperfections attributed to the Irish language — 
 the predominance in it of gutturals, and the incompleteness of its 
 alphabet — are both but additional and convincing proofs as well of its 
 directly Eastern origin as of its remote antiquity. The tongues of the 
 East, before the introduction of aspirates, abounded with gutturals, 
 which softened by degrees into aspirates ; the alphabet, derived from 
 the Phoenicians by the Greeks, having had but the same limited number 
 of letters which compose the Irish. That the original Cadmian num- 
 ber was no more than sixteen is the opinion, with but few exceptions, 
 of the whole learned world ; and that such exactly is the number of 
 the genuine Irish alphabet has been proved satisfactorily by the learned 
 librarian of Stoive, Dr. O'Connor. Thus, while all the more recent 
 and mixed forms of language adopted the additional letters which the 
 Greeks introduced, the Irish alone continued to adhere to the original 
 number — the same number and the same character, no doubt, which 
 Herodotus saw graven on the tripods in the temple of Apollo at 
 
Moore's opinion. 87 
 
 Thebes. To so characteristic an extent did the Irish people imitate 
 this fidelity, that even the introduction among them of the Roman 
 alphabet, by St. Patrick, did not tempt them into any innovation 
 upon their own. On the contrary, so wedded were they to their own 
 lettei-s, that, even in writing Latin words, they would never admit any 
 Roman character that was not to be found in their primitive alphabet, 
 but employed two or more of their own ancient characters to represent 
 the same organic sound. Thus, in all words begun or ended by x, 
 instead of writing that simple character, they used the double letters 
 qs, or es — a trouble they might have saved themselves, had they not 
 rejected it as an exotic character not existing in their alphabet. 
 
 " According to the learned Lazius, the Irish language abounds with 
 Hebrew words, and had its origin in the remotest ages of the world. 
 The eminent French writer Marcel endorses this opinion. This 
 writer, who was director of the chief school of literature in France, 
 under Napoleon, published an Irish alphabet, from the types belonging 
 to the Propaganda of Rome, which were sent by the order of Napo- 
 leon to Paris : from the types of the Propaganda, the Irish catechism 
 oi Molloy, called Lucerna Fidelium, was also printed." 
 
 Similar considerations induced the great Leibnitz to recommend a 
 diligent study of the Irish language, as highly conducive, in his opbion, 
 to the knowledge and promotion of Celtic literature. 
 
 The eminent Dr. Warner, an English historian, says, "The great 
 antiquity of the Irish language, which is the same as the ancient Scyth- 
 ian, affords another proof of the Phoenician origin of the Irish nation, 
 and that the elements of their idiom were brought to Ireland when 
 the use of letters was in its infancy. Indeed, the old Irish bears so 
 great an affinity to the ancient Hebrew, that, to those who are masters 
 of both, they appear plainly to be only dialects of the same tongue. 
 This surely lays a fair foundation for an ancient history to be built upon ; 
 for a nation and language are both of an age, and if a language be an- 
 cient, the people must be as old." 
 
 Raymond, another English antiquarian, says, " In order to discover 
 the original of the Irish nation, I was at the pains to compare all Euro- 
 pean languages with that of Ireland, and I found it had little agreement 
 with any of them. I then had recourse to the Celtic, the original 
 language of the ancient Celtse, or Scythians ; and I found the affinity so 
 great that there was scarcely .a shade of difference, there being such 
 an exact agreement between them, and the Irish lansuage having no 
 
88 MOTHER TONGUES OF EUROPE. 
 
 affinity with any known language in the world, excepting the Hebrew 
 and Phoenician. This is sufficient, I think, to procure that credit to 
 Irish history which it may justly challenge." — " When we add to all 
 this," says Moore, " that, at the time when the Irish first broke forth, as 
 scholars and missionanes, upon Europe, they were found in possession 
 of modes of writing peculiar to themselves, of elements acknowledged 
 to have no prototypes in any known language, and differing in name, 
 number, and order, from those of every other existing alphabet, such 
 a coincidence, with all that we know of the early fortunes of the coun- 
 try, as well as with all that her own traditions lay claim to, forms a 
 case for the antiquity of her history and language, and priority of her 
 literature, not easily controverted." The learned Camden, himself an 
 Englishman, acknowledged that the Saxons received and adopted the 
 Irish letters — Anglo- Saxones rationcm fonnandi Kteras accepisse ab 
 Hibernis, cum eodem inane charactensi fuerit qui Bodie Hibernes est in 
 usu. Free translation — '• The Anglo-Saxons received a knowledge of 
 letters from the Hibernians ; whose idiom, or dialect, was soft and ex- 
 pressive." — Bede, the Saxon ecclesiastic, who wrote anno 7.30, states 
 that, in his time, the Irish language was spoken generally in the north 
 of England, and in Caledonia, together witli three or four others, 
 namely, the Latin, Pictish, English, or Saxon, and the British, which 
 was a dialect of Welsh. Camden, in another place, says, "St. Patrick's 
 disciples, in Ireland, were such great proficients in the Christian religion, 
 that, in the age following, [the close of the fifth century,] Ireland was 
 termed sanctorum patria, — that is, the country of saints. * * * * 
 The Saxons, in that age, flocked thither as to the great mart of learning; 
 and this is the reason why we find this so often in our writers — Amon- 
 daius est ad disciplinam in Hibernia — ' Such a one was sent over 
 into Ireland to be educated.' " 
 
 The French geogmpher Sanson says there are six mother lan- 
 guages in Europe, viz., the Irish, Finlandish, Welsh, Biscayan, Hun- 
 garian, and Albaniac. The Irish language, continues he, is, besides 
 in Ireland, still spoken in the north of Scotland. The Findlandish is 
 used in Scandinavia, which comprises Finland and Lapland. The 
 Bretonic, which is the language of Lower Brittany, in France, is 
 likewise called Welsh, after a province of England. The Biscayan 
 comprises Lower Navarre, with Cabour in France, and Biscay in 
 Spain. The Hungarian is the language. of Hungary and Transylvania, 
 which countries belong to Turkey in Europe ; and the Albanian is thus 
 named from Albania, a country also of Turkey in Europe. 
 
NUMBER OF LETTERS IN FIFTEEN DIFFERENT ALPHABETS. 89 
 
 The present alphabets, of clifFerent nations, contain the following 
 number of letters, according to Phillips: — 
 
 Irish, (Phoenician,) 16; Persian, 32; 
 
 Hebrew, 22 ; Sanscrit, 50 ; 
 
 Greek, 24 ; Chinese, 214 ; 
 
 Latin, 22 ; Turkish, 33 ; 
 
 Sclavonic, 27 ; German, 26 ; 
 
 Spanish, 27 ; French, 25 ; 
 
 Russian, ........ 41 ; English, 26. 
 
 Arabic, 28 ; 
 
 The first letter, or sound, of the Phoenician [Irish] and Hebrew alpha- 
 bet, was aJejjh, which the Greeks called alpha; and which was original- 
 ly denoted, symbolically, by the figure of a man walking ; which, in 
 process of symbolic writing, was contracted to the figure made by the 
 man's /e^s; thus, [a,] our present A. So might we go through 
 the entire alphabets that follow the present Irish, and prove their deriva- 
 tions from it, which was itself formed from the first symbolic mode of 
 painting sounds, adopted by any of the human race. The Hebrew 
 language and letters are believed, by the most learned, to be derived 
 from the Phoenician ; since Tyre, Sidon, &;c., were distinguished cities 
 in the age of Moses and Joshua ; and even Abraham lived in their 
 territory. 
 
 An apparently well-informed writer, in Walker's Irish Bards, says, 
 " Another fatal injury, which the Irish language sustained, was from the 
 first missioners, who gave us an alphabet which did not express all the 
 sounds in the Celtic. This alphaljet very remarkably agrees with tlie 
 Runic. The vowel i was used for e, as double c was for g, and h 
 for p. No two or three vowels, joined together in the same word, can 
 form two different syllables for rhymes ; and hence the bards, to multiply 
 syllables for their rhymes, threw between the vowels a d, or g, aspi- 
 rated by an A ; thus corrupting and disguising the natural structure of 
 the word. C is constantly pronounced as a Jc. Unable, from insuf- 
 ficiency of letters, to express the sounds of the Irish language, these 
 consequences were inevitable, viz., its orthography and orthoepy were 
 altered ; its accentuation was lost ; the sonorous vowel e was not used, 
 /supplied its place, though less adapted to the inflections of the voice; 
 and hence the coarse descriptive terms applied to the language by 
 some writers, ancient and modern. 
 12 
 
90 SUGGESTIONS FOR RESTORING THE LANGUAGE. 
 
 It is one of Lhuyd's observations, that the Irish have kept their 
 letters and orthography beyond all their neighboring nations, and still 
 continue the same letters and orthography, which makes their written 
 language appear very different from what they speak. The latter fol- 
 lowed, of course, from not having letters enough to express sounds ; the 
 enunciation and written language could never agree. But the former 
 part of the assertion is a gross error ; for the Irish endeavored to correct 
 the want of letters, to express all their sounds, by introducing the palatals 
 g, ch, gh, h, in after ages, to preserve some resemblance between the 
 writing and sound ; and also by the addition of the vowels e, y, the 
 labials p, ph, and v, and the linguals th, dh, and z. 
 
 A countryman and namesake of my own, residing in Boston, who reads 
 and writes the Irish character, intimates that he always understood there 
 were five vowels and twelve consonants in the Celtic alphabet. 
 
 A writer in Walker offers the following suggestions for the revival 
 of the language : " Is this venerable tongue to be suffered to go into total 
 oblivion ? By no means. The best thing that, in my opinion, can be 
 done, is, to collect from the various dialects of the Celtic its original 
 existing words into a vocabulary, as a standard to explain obscure terms. 
 Let all the scattered fragments be collected carefully ; let the canting phra- 
 seology of lawyers and physicians be investigated, and a key from those 
 will be formed to decipher the Brehon laws. A good Irish scholar, 
 thoroughly versed in ancient manuscript, I do aver, would, from the 
 intelligible commentary annexed to those laws, be able, in a short time, to 
 make a canting dictionary which would render the whole perfectly easy." 
 
 An eminent musical writer, in the same work, has the following obser^ 
 vations on the musical properties of the Irish language : " In the Irish 
 language, all vowels meeting in one word, without a consonant between 
 them, make but one syllable, whether it be long or short ; but an aspi- 
 rated consonant between two vowels makes them separate syllables. 
 This property of the Irish language renders it exceedingly harmonious, 
 and well calculated for poetical and musical compositions ; far superior 
 either to the Latin or any of the modern tongues — a circumstance that 
 confirms the assertion of Cambrensis, who, speaking of the Irish music 
 of his day, [A. D. 1180,] says it was much superior to the Welsh; 
 theirs being of a grave and solemn nature, whereas that of the Irish was 
 soft, lively, and melodious, emitting soft and pleasant notes, divided by 
 just proportions into concords and discords, making a complete melody, 
 all of which depended upon the power and variety of the sounds and 
 length of the Irish vowels, and to which tiie Welsh language is a stranger." 
 
ANCIENT IRISH AND EGYPTIANS THE SAME FAMILY. 91 
 
 From the specimens of the ancient Egyptian and Irish writing, which 
 I have given in previous pages, (see page 83,) it will easily be seen 
 that the Irish language was that spoken and written in the valley of the 
 Nile, four thousand years ago ; and the inference flowing from that iden- 
 tity is, that the first settlers in Ireland spoke and wrote the language 
 of the Pharaohs, and, as I shall prove in another place, practised the 
 same customs, religious, political, and social ; wore the same dresses, 
 manufactured the same textile fabrics, and were learned in the same arts 
 and sciences. On this head the learned English antiquarian. Colonel 
 Vallancey, has the following : " If they [the Irish] had not had an inter- 
 course, in former days, with the Egyptians, Persians, and Phoenicians, 
 how is it possible so many idioms of speech, so many technical terms, in 
 the arts of those ages, could have been introduced into the old Irish 
 dialect ? — terms not to be met with in the dialect of any other northern or 
 western nation. What people, the Egyptians and Irish excepted, named 
 the harp, or music, ouinil — Irish aine, that is, oirjideadh, that is, music, 
 a musical instrument : orphideadh expresses the action of playing. What 
 people in the world, the Orientalists and the Irish excepted, called the 
 coyy of a book the son of a book, and echo the daughter of a voice 1 
 With what northern nation, the Irish excepted, can the Oriental names 
 of the tools and implements of the stone-cutter, the carpenter, the ship- 
 builder, the weaver, be found ? And with what people, the old Irish and 
 Egyptians excepted, does the word ogham signify a book, and the name 
 of Hercules or Mercury ? The Egyptian name of ermes lies concealed 
 in the Irish compound ed-airmes ; that is, the root or art of invention. 
 And in what part of the globe, Egypt, Ireland, and Scotland, excepted, 
 were priests, or holy persons, denominated culdes, or caldes ? in the Cop- 
 tic, (Egyptian,) kaldes sanctitus 1 Again, the Coptic esonab sacerdos 
 is the Irish eascab, a bishop. To these examples we may add six hun- 
 dred others, of which in their proper place. But the most striking 
 instance of the intercourse of the Hiberno-Scythians with Egyptians and 
 Phoenicians is the prefixes to surnames, O, Ua, and Mac ; the former 
 denoting the eldest of the family, the second being a general name for 
 the son — O^ Stirps, familia ; hence O Siris. Thus the Irish use either 
 O or Ua ; as, UaConcobhar ; in English, O'Connor. Among what 
 people, the Egyptians and Irish excepted, did seach nab signify the 
 writing priest ? — he who was skilled in the sacred writing, &;c." 
 
 Vallancey thus continues, in a most interesting paper on the language, 
 manners, and customs, of the ancient Irish, to discuss their identity with 
 the Egyptians and Phoenicians, which I may refer to again in the prog- 
 ress of this work 
 
92 MEANING OF THE TERM CELT. 
 
 The pioneers of colonization, who issued from the cradle and school 
 of the human race, in the valley of the Nile, and along the shores of the 
 Mediterranean, were called, very generally, Celts ; which means qidck 
 movers, voyagers. The term was synonymous with Phoenician : both 
 denominations appear to have been applied to the same people. — The 
 Phoenicians were a permanent nation, occupying the region now known 
 as Syria, and the Delta. The Celta were that portion of the great 
 families, either Egyptian or Phoenician, who moved off in quest of new 
 settlements. The word celerity (speed) is evidently a derivation from 
 the term. The fertile lands of Italy, Sicily, Spain, Gaul, (France,) 
 and Ireland, were those first settled by these enterprising bands. They 
 separated into cantons or nations that acquired or assumed distinctive 
 appellations. Celt, or Kelt, seemed to be the genus ; Gael, Gaul, 
 Cymri, Belgce, Teutons, he, the species. Dr. Murray observes, " Each 
 horde soon multiplied into various nations, regulated by similar customs, 
 and loosely connected by language." Various circumstances, operating 
 on their common speech, gave rise to peculiar pronunciation or dialect. 
 The change of old, the substitution of new words, and other causes af- 
 fecting articulation, produce, in dme, great difference between the speech 
 of distant places in an extensive country ; but among nations of identic 
 origin there must long continue a close affinity of language. An 
 eminent French author, M. Bullet, says the difference of climate will 
 alter a language. The extension of science, manufactures, and com- 
 merce, will alter the character of a nation's language, fill it with new 
 terms for the inventions and improvements made, and produce, by the 
 introduction of foreigners, a change in its pronunciation. Polyhius, the 
 Greek writer of Roman history, he, tells us diat the Latin was, in his 
 time, [two hundred years before Christ,] so different from what it had 
 been in the time of Lucius Junius Brutus and Marcus Valerius, three 
 hundred years previously, who were consuls when the first treaty be- 
 tween the Romans and Carthaginians was made, that little of that 
 document could be then understood ; and Hannibal, the Carthaginian 
 general, when treating with the Gauls, was obliged to erflploy an 
 interpreter, though the Gauls originally spoke the same language, and 
 were, in fact, a part of the Carthaginian family. 
 
 Logan, the compiler of a work on Scottish antiquities, though he has, 
 like many other of his countrymen, endeavored to appropriate the ancient 
 military and literary renown of Ireland, without offering a particle of 
 documentary evidence in support of his claim, has, however, gathered 
 together a goodly volume of ancient traditional fragments, which are 
 agreeably arranged, and offer a recreative study to the antiquarian. 
 
ESTIiMATE OF THE NUMBERS WHO SPEAK IRISH. 93 
 
 From Mr. Logan's work I may occasionally pluck a flower to variegate 
 or adorn my own. On the language of the Celts, that writer has the 
 following passage in the closing pages of his book : — 
 
 "The Celtic language has been several times the object of legislative 
 severity. In lerland several enactments were passed against it, as 
 was the case in Wales, about 1700. Even so late as 1769, a plan was 
 entertained by the bishops to extinguish Cumrag, by having the church 
 service performed in the English only — a circumstance that but too 
 often occurs, it is to be feared, without such a design. In Scotland I 
 have often heard it complained that clergymen were put into a living 
 who were quite unable to preach to the people in their vernacular 
 tongue. It was attempted to root out the Gaelic, [Irish ;] but, as might 
 be expected, the design was impracticable. I d6 not know if the 
 French ever thought of abolishing the Breton language, which, by 
 Lagonidec, is said to be still spoken by upwards of four millions of 
 people ; a trial would have shown that no measures could accomplish 
 this. The case of the Wends, whose language it was attempted to 
 suppress, shows the impracticability of forcibly changing the mother 
 tongue of any people. In 1765, it was thought expedient to eradicate 
 the Bohemian language, and the design was long prosecuted, before 
 the impossibility of accomplishing the object was discovered. 
 
 " The nobility and gentry of Ireland continued to speak and write 
 their native language until the reign of Elizabeth, or James the First. 
 The Highlanders relinquished the practice of writing in Gaelic before 
 they had acquired any taste for conversation in English. Rory Mor, 
 chief of the M'Leods, is said to have been the last of the Gael, who 
 continued to write in the language of his fathers. 
 
 " There are at present upwards of three millions of people in the 
 British isles, who speak Celtic, viz., about two millions in Ireland, [in 
 this calculation Mr. Logan is far under the mark ; I shall refer to it at 
 the close of the quotation,] about four hundred thousand in Scotland, 
 and about seven hundred thousand in Wales. This latter country 
 began very early to pay considerable attention to the printing of books 
 in the native language. By a catalogue, published in 1710, there ap- 
 pears to have been then upwards of seventy. Almanacs, magazines, 
 dictionaries, grammars, religious books, and even several scientific 
 works, have been published, and the number is supposed now to 
 exceed ten thousand. The first Welsh Bible, a black letter folio, was 
 printed in 1563 ; the first in Ireland, I believe, was in 1609. Bishop 
 Kers well's Liturgy, 1566, appears to have been the first book printed 
 
94 GAELIC BOOKS. GAELIC DICTIONARY. 
 
 in Gaelic. The Bible, and many other books, among which are not to 
 be forgotten the poems of Ossian, from the original manuscripts by the 
 Highland Society, have been since published ; yet education and liter- 
 ature were certainly less attended to by the Highlanders than their 
 characteristic thirst for knowledge might have led us to expect. But 
 the cause is to be found in the unsettled state of society. Wales is 
 nearly four times richer than Scotland, [which I doubt much,] and sup- 
 ports seven or eight periodicals in the native language, while Scotland 
 has only recently established one, the Teachdaire Ga'elach, or Highland 
 Messenger, which, however, appears to meet with suitable encouragement. 
 
 " The want of a Gaelic dictionary was long felt in Scotland ; but 
 that of Mr. Armstrong, published in 1825, was hailed with satisfaction, 
 and the labors of the gentlemen employed by the Highland Society 
 have more recently appeared in the Dictionarium Scoto-Celticum, 
 in two large volumes, quarto, which will now preserve this pure and 
 valuable dialect of a language once universal in Europe. It will also fix 
 the orthography, which was previously so unsettled. The learned have 
 frequently suggested means of simplifying the spelling, by getting rid of 
 numerous consonants which are retained without being at all sounded. 
 The Celtic Society of Glasgow have this year, 1833, offered four 
 prizes for the best essays on the subject ; but their exertions have come 
 too late, it is to be feared, to produce any effect. The apparently use- 
 less consonants are retained to show the root or primitive of a word, 
 and thereby prevent confusion. 
 
 " Notwithstanding, the important assistance which, in acquiring 
 other languages, would be derived from a knowledge of this jjrimitive 
 tongue, there is not a Celtic professorship in any seminary of learning 
 in the kingdom." [A professor of the Irish language has been recently 
 appointed in Trinity College, Dublin.] 
 
 Mr. Logan evidently underrates the numbers in Ireland, who still 
 speak the Irish language, in fixing them at two millions. AU the 
 inhabitants of Connaught, with very few exceptions, speak the Irish, 
 in their ordinary conversations. The people of that province alone 
 number over two millions; in the southern province of Munster, whose 
 population is rather more than two millions, the Irish language is spoken 
 with nearly equal generality. There are many parts of the south and 
 west of Ireland in which the English language is very seldom spoken, 
 and very little understood. At the " monster meeting," held, in the 
 autumn of 1843, at Skibbereen, in the western part of the county of 
 Cork, O'Connell was interrupted, in his English speech, by an old 
 
MR. LOGAN S ESTIMATE ERKONEOUS. 95 
 
 man, who, with thousands of others on the spot, could not understand a 
 word of what he said. The old man exclaimed in Irish, " Lawir Gailic T' 
 upon which the Liberator, with astonishing promptitude and ease, 
 changed the vehicle of his ideas to the old language of the nation, in 
 which medium he continued, to the end of his speech, to pour out the 
 burning lava of his heart upon the mass of boiling blood, which had 
 gathered at his call from a thousand sources in the neighboring mountains. 
 
 The Irish spoken in Munster is esteemed by the best judges to be 
 purer, and more classical, than that spoken in any other part of Ireland, 
 or in Wales, or Scotland. The Irish spoken in the province of Con- 
 naught is said, by competent judges, to be the sweeter in accent. The 
 people of the south of Ireland generally cultivate the Irish tongue with 
 classical care, and are so thoroughly conversant with its radices, that they 
 master, with little difficulty, most other languages. It is no uncommon 
 thing, as remarked by learned travellers through Ireland, to find the 
 working peasants, in many parts of the south of Ireland, conversant with 
 Homer, Virgil, and Horace, in the original text. The cultivation of 
 letters seems to be a natural instinct of the southern inhabitants of Ire- 
 land. Although not more brave than their countrymen in the other 
 provinces, they were more fortunate in maintaining their independence, 
 and with it their letters, language, and chivalrous spirit, against all 
 sorts of British force and influence, longer than any other portion of their 
 countrymen. The south of Ireland has given to the world, certainly, the 
 most learned and eloquent men ; and this may be, in a great degree, 
 attributed to their careful and classical cultivation of the pure Irish lan- 
 guage, which offers a thorough key to the other languages of Europe, 
 and enables the orator or writer to select, with ease, the most powerfully 
 expressive words to convey the conceptions of his mind. 
 
 I confidently believe that Jive millions of the eight and a half, which 
 compose the population of Ireland, speak the Irish language. In 
 Munster, eleven speak Irish to three who speak English : in Con- 
 naught, the proportion is thirteen to one. In Leinster about one half, 
 and in Ulster two thirds, speak the Irish language. There are a couple 
 of millions of Irishmen living by their labor in England ; of these, I am 
 certain, one third, at least, speak the ancient language of their country. 
 In America, I am a witness that it is freely spoken by Irishmen, at their 
 work, in New Orieans, New York, and Newfoundland. There are 
 upwards of four millions of Irish people scattered along the American 
 continent, under the various governments of Britain, United States, 
 Mexico, &c. ; of these scattered exiles, the half speak the language of 
 
96 EFFORTS TO REVIVE THE IPJSH LANGUAGE. 
 
 their fathers. Then there are the British colonies in the West and 
 East Indies, and towards the south pole, and, besides, the numerous ships 
 and armies of Britain, which carry with them, wheresoever they go, the 
 persecuted language, with the oppressed sons, of Ireland. 
 
 Thus I compute, that the Celtico-Gaelic is yet spoken by eight mil- 
 lions of native born Irishmen, and by eleven hundred thousand Scotch 
 and Welshmen — much more than five times the number in the whole 
 world who speak Greek, and ten times the number in the world who 
 speak Latin, and twenty times the number of those who speak 
 Hebrew, dialectcs so much cultivated by the learned world. And when 
 we leflect, that those who speak the " ancient tongue," are generally 
 illiterate, and stick to it in defiance of fashion, derision, ridicule, and 
 interest, how exalted must be our ideas of the vitality of that language, 
 which vitality is chiefly — perhaps alone — attributable to its brevity, 
 melody, power, and expression ! 
 
 I do not conceive how any man, ignorant of the Irish language, can be 
 deemed a complete scholar. Without its aid he cannot penetrate the 
 arcliives of literature that lie behind Greece and Rome. I am fortified 
 in this position by the opinion of a ])opular and judicious English 
 writer of the present times, namely, Sir Richard Phillips ; from whose 
 work on ancient and modern history, languages, and literature, I have 
 already drawn many appropriate supjDlies. 
 
 " Every thing in Europe is modern and imitative, in relation to 
 the history, science, and literature, of the Arabians, [the Egyptians and 
 Phoenicians,] and the nations who wrote and spoke in their language. 
 The Greeks were their servile imitators ; and study, in Greece, was to 
 visit those countries and borrow from them. Pythagoras even served 
 in the Chaldaic armies, and Solon, Plato, Anaxagoras, and others, 
 travelled in Arabian countries before they professed wisdom. We also 
 might drink at the same fountain, but by a strange fatality have preferred 
 the muddy stream of GreeJc and Roman derivation. Scarcely fifty in 
 all Europe understand Arabic, [the ancient Phoenician,] but five thou- 
 sand Greek, and a million Latin ; though the Romans merely copied 
 the Greeks, who mutilated their own original." 
 
 Let us hope that the senseless prejudice, raised by our tyrant foes 
 against the powerfully expressive and truly melodious language of oui- 
 forefathers, shall not, in our days, be suffered to prevail against it. We 
 are struggling hard to restore our country to her place amongst the 
 nations ; we must be successful if we but persevere, and act in concert. 
 Let us make an effort, a collateral effort, to revive her literature and 
 
THE SCRIPTURES PRINTED IN IRISH. 97 
 
 her language ; let those who shall come after us be told, that there 
 lived men in this generation who felt all the ennobling pride of ancestry, 
 of nation, and of tongue, and who offered at their holy shrines the 
 homage of hearts and hands pulsating with Milesian blood. 
 
 Within the last four or five years, a vigorous spirit of nationality, 
 in respect to language, has grown up in Ireland : this spirit has been 
 quickened by occasional essays on the ancient tongue, published in the 
 periodical press. There is also established an Archaeological Society, 
 to revive the hterature and language of the country, at the head of 
 which, as secretary, presides a most erudite Irish scholar in the person 
 of O'Donovan. The elaborately learned publications of Sir William 
 Betham, on the antiquities and letters of the ancient Celtae, Etruscans, 
 &c., have done vvondei-s to open men's eyes to the rich mines of 
 literary wealth, that lie unexplored for want of a thorough knowledge 
 of the Irish tongue. 
 
 That profoundly learned and purely patriotic divine, the Archbishop 
 of Tuam, popularly called John of Tuam, and justly designated, by 
 O'Connell, the "Lion of the Fold of Judah," has not been idle in 
 trying to revive the national language. Not only does he preach in 
 the old language himself, but insists on the clergymen, under his 
 episcopal authority, preaching to the people the tidings of the cross 
 through the medium of their ancient tongue. His authority extends 
 over the entire province of Connaught, and his example and influence 
 have proved a wonderful stimulus to the revival of a taste for the Irish 
 language in other parts of the island. His grace has translated several 
 of Moore's most national melodies from the English language into the 
 Irish, for the purpose of diffusing the sentiments of the inspired bard 
 amongst the oppressed people for whom he strung the lyre of his 
 country with such irresistible power — and is, with the same laudable 
 zeal, now translating the Iliad of Homer into Irish. In the clerical 
 colleges of Maynooth, Carlow, and Kilkenny, which are devoted to the 
 education of Catholic clergymen, the Irish language is taught as 
 part of the educational course ; and in the colleges where missionaries 
 of opposite forms of ci'eed are educated, it has latterly been made a 
 branch of study and acquirement. Some of these missionaries have 
 gone so far as to print the Scriptures in the Irish language, for distribu- 
 tion in the west and south of Ireland. Though their immediate object — 
 that of changing the people from the old to some of the new forms of 
 faith — has not been accomplished, yet their labors have been productive 
 of great service in reviving the study, the writing, and printing, of the 
 
 national language. 
 
 13 
 
98 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR ITS REVIVAL. 
 
 The writers in the Dublin Nation have done their share in the good 
 work, by the frequent pubhcation of very eloquent and interesting 
 essays on the nature of the language. The immortal songs, in the Na- 
 tion, in which are artfully and beautifully woven together, by happy 
 allusions, the literary and military events, and associations, of Irish 
 glory, or Irish sorrow, have stirred through the national heart the 
 slumbering life-blood of Ireland, have awakened a new pulsation for 
 freedom, a new fervor for nationality, a new appetite for Irish literature, 
 language, art, and music. 
 
 Such desires and appetites cannot long remain ungratified. Already 
 are there historians, poets, painters, engravers, statuaries, and anti- 
 quarians, at work, endeavoring to satisfy the new desires that are felt 
 by the sober, regenerated Irish people. The writers in the Dublin 
 Nation have suggested the publication of a weekly newspaper in the 
 Irish- language, as one of the means wliich ought to be resorted to for 
 its revival. And they reason on the revival of the language thus : 
 " The bulk of our history and poetry is written in Irish ; and shall we, 
 who learn Italian, and Latin, and Greek, to read Dante, Livy, and 
 Homer, in the original, — shall we be content with ignorance, or, per- 
 haps, an ignorant translation of Irish?" Abetter and cheaper plan, 
 perhaps, would be the publication, in the Nation, every week, of a 
 column of news in the Irish, with a juxtaposition translation in the 
 English language. One of the newspapers in New Orleans, where 
 half the population' are French, and the other half English, publishes 
 the leading news in a couple of French columns, and also a transla- 
 tion into English, in the same paper. In Montreal and Quebec, 
 likewise, in many of the newspapers, and in all the public proc- 
 lamations, the matter is published in both the French and English 
 languages. Such a plan would, I am convinced, work admirably in 
 Ireland. 
 
 It ought to be made known to every parent, who has it in his power 
 to give his sons a classical education, that the Irish language is the key 
 to all the others. Almost all the distinguished Irishmen, who have kept 
 entranced assemblies hanging on their accents, have been well versed in 
 the Irish language. The great O'Connell is a remarkable instance in 
 illustration ; so is Cm-ran ; both of whom sucked in the Irish language 
 with their nurses' milk : both of these men were unequalled, at the Irish 
 bar, in getting at the hearts of a jury. 
 
 It is an admitted fact that the Irish language is the most touching of 
 any which can be used by the advocate in persuasion, or the lover in 
 
SUGGESTIONS TO PARENTS IN AMERICA. 99 
 
 supplication ; it is the most scathing in the expression of loathing or 
 scorn, the most animating in war, the most expressive in suffering, 
 the most melting in woe, the most persuasive in debate. He who 
 knows it best, other acquirements being given, will prove the most suc- 
 cessful suitor, the most powerful debater. 
 
 Would it not be wise, tlierefore, in parents in America, as in Ireland, 
 who intend to prepare their sons for the learned walks of life, to have 
 instilled into their youthful minds a knowledge of the Irish language ? 
 Our Irish colleges, in America, should have a professor of that lan- 
 guage. A sort of scholastic foppery prevails in our Irish colleges 
 here, which has kept out our old language from the studies of youth : 
 Jjecause, forsooth, it has been proclaimed down in Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge, it ought, therefore, to be prohibited in those colleges of Americii 
 which are exclusively filled by the sons of Irish parents. This is false 
 doctrine. With uplifsed hands I repudiate it ! 
 
 Many Irishmen there are in this country who have, by great labor 
 and industry, realized a wealthy competence, and, stimulated by the 
 undying devotion of their race to letters, spare no expense in giving 
 their sons what is called a " splendid education ; " but not one word of 
 the history and language of their fathers' country are they taught in 
 the course of this "splendid education." With the beastly ferocity of 
 pagan Rome, with the refined immorality of the Greeks, with the 
 military and manufacturing prowess of bloodstained Britain, with the 
 dazzling frivolity of France, are they made familiar, and with the in- 
 Jidelity of all a.ve they deeply saturated; but with the military renown 
 'of the country of their fathers, with its morality and letters even before 
 Christianity, with its Christian piety ever since, with its ages of faith, 
 of glory, of law, of government, of literature, of hospitality, of inde- 
 pendence, they are left unacquainted. Of its ancient and erudite 
 language they know nothing ; its science and art they discredit ; its 
 ancient manuscripts, that enrich the shelves of European libraries, they 
 disregard ; its classic architectural piles that yet stand, stubbornly above 
 the earth, proclaiming the science and piety of their founders, are un- 
 known, unseen, unheeded. Ireland, whose entire surface, for several 
 feet deep, is enriched with the dust of their sainted forefathers, is ex- 
 cluded from their studies, and forgotten in their hearts ; and some of 
 these half-taught fops go to the extremity of denying their extraction, 
 despising their fathers and their fathers' country, and at last abandon 
 the sacred principles of their fathers' religion, taught them by Christ and 
 Saint Patrick. 
 
100 APPEAL TO THE OPULENT AMONG THE IRISH. 
 
 Let me ask the Irish father, whose heart is proof against the 
 fashionable cant, and duplicity, and villany, to be found in the atmos- 
 phere of our great cities, whether this mode of education shall be 
 suffered to continue. Let me ask the clergyman, whose experience 
 must attest the truth of my premises and my inferences, whether 
 Ireland, and her language, as a study, are to be excluded from the 
 course of education administered to our youth. Let me suggest to 
 the true-hearted Irishmen, who are able to pay for the classical educa- 
 tion of their sons, to insist on their being taught the language and 
 history of their ancestors ; the most interesting lay study that can be put 
 before the minds of youth. 
 
 What I have written may not fall, in every instance, on inanimate 
 rocks ; the spark I fling out may fall on a large Irish heart, a maga- 
 zine full of the best affections of humanity, the exalted impulses of 
 which may be sustained by affluence. These suggestions may find 
 their way to such a heart, and may light up a resolve within it, to 
 do some substantial thing to perpetuate on this continent the lan- 
 guage of ancient Ireland. There are many Irishmen in the United 
 States who have realized very large properties ; indeed, there have 
 been some immense properties amassed by Irishmen in this coun- 
 try. In St. Louis and other parts of the south and west there are 
 some Irish families excessively wealthy. In Natchez there is an Irish 
 family which has given ten thousand dollars towards the erection of 
 the Catholic church in that place. In some parts of Ohio I have seen 
 schools and churches that have been raised by the beneficence of indi- 
 vidual Irishmen, who appropriated lands to their maintenance. The 
 public institutions of Baltimore, St. Louis, and other cities, bear testimony 
 to the magnificent generosity of the Irish heart. The greatest prop- 
 erty in America, — that which has just been awarded by the Supreme 
 Court to the children and heirs of General Gaines, — amounting to 
 fifteen millions of dollars, arising from a portion of the city of New- 
 Orleans, was originally gathered by an Irishman in that city, whose 
 daughter the late General Gaines married. The Croghans — Irish also — 
 have immense properties in Pittsburg and Louisville. The Devereuxs 
 have immense properties in the state of New York. In Brooklyn, near 
 New York, there is an Irishman worth two millions of dollars. In 
 Boston there is another who is worth, at least, half a million. 
 
 Who knows .but these or some others equally wealthy, whom I do 
 not know, into whose hands these pages may fall, and who, admiring 
 
APPEAL, TO THE OPULENT AMONG THE IRISH. 101 
 
 the glorious history of their forefathers, may be induced to appropriate 
 to its honor some five or ten thousand dollars, the interest of which 
 would support forever a professor of the Irish language in some of 
 those chief colleges where the sons of wealthy Irishmen congregate 
 for instruction ? What an enduring monument of a good, enlightened 
 man would such a bequest create ! It would perpetuate the name of 
 the liberal donor to the remotest generations, and connect it with the 
 classic associations of the Milesian race. The hint I thus cast upon 
 the waves of time may yet be taken up, nursed, and matured into 
 a vigorous realization, and the language of the sages and saints of 
 Ireland may yet be steadily perpetuated along this continent, amongst 
 the descendants of a once illustrious people. 
 
 Were those who are blessed with the means of promoting this great 
 object to read the life of Flood, — to be found towards the close of this 
 work, — they will there learn the estimate which that truly great Irish- 
 man formed of the Irish language, to revive which he bequeathed the 
 reversion of his entire estates. They could hardly resist the appeal of 
 so brilliant a precedent. 
 
 Since the foregoing essay was written, I have noticed, in a Dublin 
 paper, the following paragraph, which proves that in the ancient lands 
 of Africa, the language so long preserved in Ireland is occasionally 
 heard. 
 
 " Silk Buckingham, by way of settling the question as to the descent 
 of the Irish from the .Phoenicians, mentioned a fact, which had come 
 within his knowledge, of a gentleman from Fez, who by means of the 
 language of the mountaineers of Atlas, with which he was intimately 
 acquainted, kept up a conversation with two Irishmen, in their native 
 idiom. He also knew of a Dublin lady, who, by means of the Irish 
 language, conversed freely with the mountaineers of Atlas in their native 
 idiom ; these niountaineers being the descendants of Carthaginians who 
 had taken refuge in ancient times in the Atlas range, and preserved the 
 dialect of their Phoenician forefathers." 
 
102 PKINCIPAL IRISH AND BRITISH HISTORIANS OF IRELAND. 
 
 SECTION 11. 
 
 Notice of the Principal Irish and British Historians of Ireland. — Amberghin. — Eth- 
 rial . — Ollamh Fodhla. — " The Black Book." — " Book of Conquests."— " Book of 
 Invasions." — Psalters of Cashell, Glendelagh, Armagh, Na-Pi,aun, &c. — Annals 
 of Tigernachus. — Ancient Manuscripts found in the Abbey of Icolm-Kille, in Scot- 
 land. — Ware's Opinion. — M'Geoghegan's Opinion. — Annals of Ulster. — Usher. 
 Oxford Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts. — Abbe M'Geoghegan. — Manuscripts 
 carried to France by James the Second. — Old Manuscripts in Trinity College, 
 Dublin. — First British Historians. — Gildas. — Bede. — Cambrensis. — Falsehood 
 of his Work on Ireland. — Piead by him at Oxford. — Exposed during his Lifetime. 
 
 — Admitted and apologized for by him. — Ware's Opinion of Cambrensis. — Other 
 English Historians. — Sir James Ware. — Ireland has a better Bight to Antiquity 
 than Rome. — Ancient Manuscripts of Ireland. — Irish and other Authors who 
 have written within the last three Centuries. — Lombard. — Keating. — O'Sulli- 
 van. — Ward. — O'Cleary. — Roth. — Usher. — Colgan. — Sir James Ware. — 
 Belling. — Walsh. — O'Flaherty. — O'Reilly. — Porter. — Allemand. — Molyneux. 
 O'Kennedy. — Harris. — O'Connor. — Leland. — Warner. — Abbe M'Geoghegan. — 
 O'Conor. — Ledwich. — Scully. — Corry . — Wise. — Colonel Vallancey. — O'Hallo- 
 ran. — Walker. — Plowden. — Barrington. — Grattan. — Wyse. — Carey. — Pepper. 
 
 — Moore. — Life of O'Connell. — Battersby. — O'Callaghan. — O'Connell. — 
 Madden. — Wolfe Tone. — M'Neven. — Emmet, &c. 
 
 I PROPOSE, in this place, to give a very brief account of .some of the 
 more prominent Irish, Biitish, and other historians, by whom the great 
 fabric of Irish history has been erected. Most historians refer, in very 
 abbreviated notices, to previous authorities, from whom they quote, sup- 
 posing tlieir readers ah-eady acquainted with all those authors.- This I 
 have myself always felt to be very unsatisfactory. To those who spend 
 all their time in the company of books, these abbreviated notices are not 
 so great a source of inconvenience as to the great bulk of mankind, who 
 aj'e occupied with affairs far apart from literary study. 
 
 As 1 design this book for young persons, of both sexes, who cannot 
 possibly be acquainted with one tenth of the learned authors to whom 
 reference is made, I shall do my utmost, throughout the work, to render 
 every thing as plain — as easily comprehended — as possible ; and, instead 
 of merely referring to authorities which many may not have the inclina- 
 tion or the means of consulting, 1 will put them in direct communication 
 with the authors themselves, by publishing appropriate extracts ; exhib- 
 iting, in their own words, the variety, spirit, and material, of their 
 testimony to the ancient civilization and glory of Ireland. 
 
 The first literary person that our annals record is Amberghin, the 
 brother of Heber and Heremon, the leaders of the first Milesian colony. 
 
AMBERGHIN. ETHRIAL. OLLAMH FODHLA. 103 
 
 He wrote a poem descriptive of the voyage and adventures of the Mile- 
 sian colony from Spain. According to O'Flaherty, he was poet and 
 judge of the colony; and Sir William Betham. gives in full, in the 
 original text, Amberghin's poem containing all the occurrences, with a 
 literal translation, which that learned man pronounces to be the Irish 
 account of the same events as those recorded in engraved characters on 
 the Eugubian brass Tables. The poems of Amberghin are the most an- 
 cient compositions in the Irish language. They are altogether historical, 
 and are, in that respect, according to the custom of the ancients, who 
 wrote nearly all their histories, biographies, and laws, in poetic meas- 
 ures, the better to preserve them in the memories of the people. These 
 very ancient poems are found in the Books of Leacan, Ballymote, 
 and the Book of Conquests, says Sir William Bethara, copied from 
 more ancient manuscripts now lost, or, if existing, not at present in 
 possession of the learned world. The language of those poems bears a 
 striking and extraordinary resemblance to that of the Etruscan Tables. 
 It is monosyllabic. Many of the expressions are the same, and the 
 style of the whole is very like. There can be no doubt of their very 
 remote antiquity, being handed down by successive transcribers for cen- 
 turies, who, ignorant of their meaning, had no motive for deception. 
 They transcribed them from more ancient copies, to preserve them as 
 ancient monuments of their country, admitting their incapability to 
 develop their meaning. They have, from their great antiquity, been 
 nearly as much a sealed book as the Eugubian Tables. There are four 
 of these ancient poems, one of which is an account of the passage of a 
 ship across the Bay of Biscay to Ireland ; being, as it were, the Irish 
 account of the event celebrated in the Eugubian Tables. 
 
 Ethrial, son of Irial, the monarch and prophet of Ireland, wrote, ac- 
 cording to Keating, the history of the voyages and migrations of the 
 Milesians down to his time, about forty years after the death of Amber- 
 ghin. Ethrial also wrote some tracts on laws and medicine. 
 
 Ollamh Fodhla, the lawgiver and King, about three centuries after 
 Ethrial's time, delivered in to the estates of Tara a history of his ances- 
 tors to that time. This great work was received and adopted by the 
 assembled estates as the basis of their national registry. They denom- 
 inated it the Psalter of Tara. Copies of this work were made and kept 
 in Tuam, Glmdalough, Cashell, and some other places. Tlie history 
 of Ireland was kept as a business of the king and pariiament for very 
 many generations. Collateral with this great registry were written 
 certain auxiliary books, called the " Black Book," the " Book of Con- 
 
104 PSALTER NA-PaUN'. ARMAGH. CASHELL. ETC. 
 
 quests," the '•' Book of Invasions." The contents of these ancient 
 books, together \s-ith all contained in the great Book of Tara, were 
 carefully collated and entered in the Psalter of CashelL by Cormac 
 M' CuUinane, Bishop and Governor of Munster, in the beginning of the 
 tenth century. 
 
 Cairbre Liffeachair, monarch in the third century of the Chris- 
 tian era, conposed the History of Kings, who were his jwedecessors ; 
 "' a copy of which," says the Abbe M'Geoghegan, " had been pre- 
 served until the last [17th] century, in the abbey of Icolra-Kill, and 
 Sir George 3I'Kenzie, in his Defence of the Royal Line of Scotland, 
 mentions to have seen it.'' Since the time of Christianity (I quote from 
 the same author) we have the book called Xa-Geeart, written half in 
 Irish and half in Latin, by St. Benignus, disciple of St. Patrick : the 
 Psalter called Xa-Raun. the Psalter of Armasrh, of Cluan M'XoisJc, 
 Cliian Aigneach. and of Gravala : the - Books" of Fiontan of Leir, 
 Glendaloch. Roscrea, and Kilkenny. These "Books" were kept by 
 the bishops or abbots of those j^ces, for they were monasteries ^ith 
 churches attached. They were histories of the country generally, and 
 of the local ecclesiastical institutions. Gillia Keavin, in the tenth 
 century, \^Tiote an epic poem, into which he wove the whole history of 
 Ireland from the beginning. In this great work, a copy of which is still 
 extant, he presents the entire thread of Irish history, though, no doubt, 
 highly embellished with poetical colorings. Yet we cannot doubt the 
 existence of the men whom he describes, (x the general facts he weaves 
 in, because we may believe the favorite actors of the poet have been 
 overmuch exalted. With equal reason might those who will occupy 
 our places, five hundred years hence, disbelieve the almost incredible 
 exertions of Washington and O'Connell, and, indeed, their verv exist- 
 ence, because the grateful people of our day. have almost deified those 
 great men. 
 
 The Martyrology of ^larianus Gorman was written in the elev- 
 enth century. This work, together with many Irish manuscripts, was 
 translated into Engliih, in 1627, by ConeU M'Geoghegan, which is 
 recorded in O'Flaherty's Ogjgia. The Annals of Tigernachus, of 
 Cluan M'Xoisk, were \\Titten in the Irish language and characters, in 
 the eleventh century. They were records of Ireland, kept at that 
 monastery. The Annals of Ennisfail were wTitten in the thirteenth 
 century, also the Synchronisms of Flannus a Monasterio. The greatest 
 part of these writings are still entire. 
 
 Sir George M'Kenzie, the Scotch writer already referred to, in his 
 
ANCIENT MANX'SCRIPTS FOUND IN THE ABBEY OF ICOLM-KILL. 105 
 
 Defence of the Royal Line of Scotland, printed at Edinburgh, in 1685, 
 speaks of the Irish manuscripts in the abbey of Icohii-Kill, which he 
 had seen. The following are his words : " Since I have commenced 
 this work, a very ancient manuscript of the abbey of Icolm-Kill has 
 fallen into my hands. It was written by Cairbre LifFeachair, who lived 
 six generations before St. Patrick, and about the time of our Savior. 
 An exact account is given in it of Irish kings ; from whence I infer that, 
 as the Irish had manuscripts at that period, we certainly must have pos- 
 sessed them. I have also seen an ancient genealogy of the kings of the 
 Scots, in Albania, [that is, the Irish colony established in Caledonia, in 
 the reign of Heremon. The ancient Irish were called iSco/5,] which 
 agrees with \vhat has been said in our history on the crowning of Alex- 
 ander the Second, and which is preserved at Icolm-Kill as a sacred 
 deposit. And I have also seen another ancient manuscript, which sets 
 forth that the Dalreudini [the sons and posterity of the Irish prince 
 Cairbre Raidi, who governed Caledonia in a remote age] of Albania 
 have been established here [in Scotland] six generations before Eire, 
 whom Usher calls the father of our kings. From the same manu- 
 script it is discovered that Angus Thuirtheampher had reigned in 
 Ireland five hundred years before our Fergus the First, [of Scotland,] 
 which accords with our histories, which say that the Scots inhabited 
 this country for a long period before Feargus established himself in it. 
 These same Irish manuscripts agree also with the history of Cau-bre, 
 alluded to above : these are, in fact, the additions made to his book by 
 our ancient Senachies." 
 
 The learned Ware [Irish writer] quotes the Psalter named " Nar- 
 ran," written in the eighth century, half Irish and half Latin, by x\ongus 
 Kelide, or Colideus. The same author praises highly the Psalter of 
 Cashell, and its learned author, Cormac JNI'Cullinnan, Bishop of Cashell 
 and King of the province of Munster, who wrote in the beginning of the 
 tenth century. " He was a man,"' says fVare, " most learned and 
 skilled in the antiquities of Ireland, and wrote in his native language a 
 history, commonly called the Psalter of Cashel, ivhich is sfill extant, 
 and held in high esteejn.'^ 
 
 There were, besides these distinguished Irish authorities, many of 
 lesser note; viz., Lecan, 3loJaga. DDioJing, O'Duvegan, ]\rEgan, 
 Moel Conroy, O'Brodeen, O'Doran, O'Duneen, &:c. All these au- 
 thors have written one after the other. They have transmitted, age 
 after age, says 3rGeoghegan. and from hand to hand, the thread of 
 the history of the INIilesians, from the beginning. Scarcely an age 
 14 
 
106 ANNALS OF ULSTER. 
 
 USHER. 
 
 passes without some who write the histoiy of every country. The last 
 historians, if general, always renew and relate, besides the present, what- 
 ever might be contained in the ancient monuments of a country ; so 
 that, should the original ones be lost, or consumed by time, (contingen- 
 cies that have pursued the records of all nations,) their substance is still 
 preserved in modern works. The realities of the monuments of the 
 Milesians cannot be doubted. They are quoted by authors that are 
 well known, and incapable of imposing on tliem by substituting chime- 
 ras for the true ones. Keating, Colgan, Gratianus Lucius, Walsh, 
 O'Flaherty, Kennedy, and others, quote them in every page. The 
 celebrated Protestant Archbishop Usher discovered in the ancient 
 archives of the Armagh cathedral (which was built by St. Patrick) 
 a gathering of the most ancient monuments of intellectual greatness. 
 One of these valuable works was called the Annals of Ulster, which 
 Usher named Ultonieyises. It was written partly in Irish, and partly in 
 Latin, but in the Irish character. It was a history of all public occur- 
 rences in Ireland for many centuries previous, kept by the clergy of 
 that cathedral from the times of St. Patrick, 444. The last writer on 
 this celebrated record was Roderick Cassidy, Archdeacon of Clogher, 
 who lived in the eleventh century, and died 1041, and who continued 
 the great work down to his own time. 
 
 Usher himself 'has written much on the history of Ireland, and indeed 
 on universal history. He was a very learned man, and may be more 
 indebted for his fame to the rare and ancient records which he discov- 
 ered in Armagh than the worid supposes. He speaks highly of the 
 Annals of Ulster, and of the ancient Annals of Tigernachus, another 
 historical work of remote ages. One of the most ancient specimens 
 of Greek musical notation that is now in the world, was found here by 
 Usher, and published, in the close of the sixteenth century. On this 
 ancient relic I shall have more to say under the head of our " ancient 
 music." Usher was a sort of Presbyterian Episcopalian, receiving, in 
 that respect, his hue from James the First of England. His Chronol- 
 ogy, of the Creation, had been received and adopted by the British 
 parliament in the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
 
 There has been published in Oxford a catalogue of the ancient English 
 and Irish manuscripts deposited with the Duke of Chandos, in England, 
 by the Earl of Clarendon. — That ancient seat of learning, I may note 
 in a parenthesis, was oi'Iglnally established in part by Irish professors, in 
 the time of King Alfred. — In that catalogue are the following notices of 
 some of the Irish works in the possession of the Duke : — 
 
' ABBE m'gEOGHEGAN. MANUSCRIPTS CARRIED TO FRANCE. 107 
 
 " The Annals of Ulster is a book of most ancient character, and has 
 been written partly in Irish, and partly in Latin, but in the Irish charac- 
 ters ; it commences with the year of our Lord 444, and ends A. D. 1041, 
 in which Rodericus Cassideus, Archdeacon of Clogher, died ; he wrote 
 the latter part of said Annals." — Vol. 2. 
 
 " The Annals of Tigernachus (according to Ware) Clonmacnaisensis 
 are mutilated in the beginning. The author touches on universal histo- 
 ry, till the coming of St. Patrick ; after this he describes the affairs of 
 Ireland, till the year of our Lord 1088, in which he died ; the book is 
 in the Irish characters and language." — Vol. 3. 
 
 " In the Annals of the Monastery of Innisfail, the author lightly touches 
 on universal history, from the creation of the world to the year of our 
 Lord 430. After this he describes, with great accuracy, Irish affairs to 
 the year of our Lord 1215, in which he lived." — Vol. 26. 
 
 The learned Abbe M' Geoghegan, a French ecclesiastic, who wrote 
 his History of Ireland, in Paris, in the close of the seventeenth century, 
 which he dedicated to the " Irish brigade," who followed the fortunes 
 of Sarsfield and King James to France, and who enlisted in the military 
 service of that country, says, " The late king of England, James the. Sec- 
 ond, had a large manuscript volume in folio, called Leahar Lecan, taken 
 from the library of Trinity College, Dublin ; it was afterwards, by order 
 of the prince, who had an act passed before notaries for the purpose, de- 
 posited in the archives of the Irish College, in Paris, and" is carefully 
 preserved. The style of this manuscript is so concise, and the words 
 so abridged, that it is difficult to find any among the learned in that 
 language able to decipher it. 
 
 " The translator of Keating's History into English, printed at Dublin, 
 in 1723, and afterwards in London, informs us, in his preface, that there 
 is in the library of Trinity College, in the same city, among other mon- 
 uments, a volume, in folio, written upon parchment many centuries 
 ago ; that this volume contains extracts from the Psalters of Tara, 
 Cashel, Armagh, and other monuments of antiquity ; and in order to 
 obtain the reading of it for six months, that he had been obliged to sive 
 security to the amount of one thousand pounds sterling. Would he 
 have dared to publish and to have printed, in the same city, that account, 
 and give the name of Dr. Raymond, during his lifetime, who had been, 
 he says, his security, if he feared that he could be contradicted ? That 
 is not probable. 
 
 "The monuments to which we have been alluding, besides many 
 others preserved in the cabinets of some lords of the country, are frag- 
 
108 FIRST BRITISH HISTORIANS. GILDAS. BEDE. 
 
 ments that have escaped the fury of the Danes and Saxons ; they can 
 be compared to inscriptions engraven upon columns injured by time, 
 which are at present useless in a country where the language is in its 
 decline. From such sources, those who have treated of the subject 
 within the last two centuries have been supplied : when the language 
 was better understood than at present, it was then possible to consult 
 these monuments ; but those opportunities will disappear the more as 
 time advances." See note at page 128. 
 
 The first British author, of whom we have any account, is Gildas 
 Britannicus, surnamed the Wise, who wrote in the sixth century a 
 treatise De Excidio Britannia. He seems to doubt if his country- 
 men, the ancient Britons, left any monuments or manuscripts ; for he 
 says he was obliged to follow, in his writings, the accounts given of 
 his country by foreigners ; which is true enough ; for Julius Caesar, 
 who landed in Britain about fifty years before the birth of Christ, was 
 the first person who made any written historical memorial of the 
 inhabitants of Britain. He describes them as being numerous, divided 
 into wandering tribes, without settled habitations, destitute of govern- 
 ment, laws, or letters. They drove their flocks from pasture to pas- 
 ture, and followed them for subsistence. Arts or manufactures they 
 had none ; they were clothed in the skins of animals, and painted their 
 bodies blue. They were conquered by Caesar, and subjected to the 
 sway of Rome without much difficulty ; under that power they 
 remained for four centuries. "Whatever events grew up in Britain, 
 during all that time, were recorded by the historians of Rome. 
 
 After Gildas came the Venerable Bede. He was a Saxon ecclesias- 
 tic, who wrote historical records of England, about the year 730 of the 
 Christian era ; his references to Ireland are frequent and truthful. But 
 the man who stands conspicuous on the page of time, as the historian 
 and traducer of Ireland, is Gerald Barry, commonly called Giraldus 
 Cambrensis ; he was the first stranger who undertook to write a history 
 of Ireland. Giraldus was a Welsh priest, who followed the fortunes of 
 his relatives and friends, in their invasions of Ireland, from 1169 to 
 1171. Henry the Second of England had made claim to the Irish soil, 
 at the court of Rome ; he represented the Irish people to Pope Adrian 
 (an Englishman) as destitute of religion, law, morals, or government ; and 
 to support this representation, with a view to induce the pope to join his 
 cause, he employed Giraldus to write his book. The popes of that epoch 
 bad much temporal power awarded to them by the nations of Europe. 
 They were, by a kind of universal consent, referred to as arbiters in all 
 
CAMBRENSIS. FALSEHOODS IN HIS WORK. 109 
 
 national or princely disputes. Their decisions were bowed to with 
 implicit obedience by the whole Christian world. Hence the anxiety 
 of Henry to procure a corrupt witness against Ireland, which Giraldus 
 proved himself to be. It appeared that Henry obtained a clandestine 
 bull from Pope Adrian, which (though the genuineness of this document 
 has been disputed by O'Connell and others) conferred authority on 
 Henry to invade Ireland, and force it into subjection to England, and, 
 through the English monarch, more immediately than it had been, to 
 the Pope. 
 
 To sustain the king, Cambrensis wrote his History of Ireland. He 
 was only twice in Ireland, once with the adventurers under Strongbow, 
 and once with Prince John, the son of Henry tbe Second, both visits 
 not occupying more than eighteen months ; he only saw about one 
 third of the country ; he, or his, durst proceed no farther ; he under- 
 stood not the language, of the people, to whom he was a total stranger, 
 and could not, therefore, consult the records of their ancient archives ; 
 he was obliged to substitute inventions, and tales, picked up after the 
 manner of our modern travellers, for historical facts ; he mixed only 
 with the most common and illiterate, and such tales as he obtained 
 from the lowest, he distorted and mixed up with the most ridiculous 
 inventions of his own, representing the people as little better than bar- 
 barians, and their civilization by conquest a meritorious act. 
 
 Cambrensis v^Tote five books in Latin ; the first three he called 
 the " Topography of Ireland ; " the last two, " Ireland conquered by 
 Henry the Second." He spent five years composing these books, 
 which he read before the learned doctors and people of Oxford, after 
 the example of Herodotus, who read his History of Egypt before the 
 Greeks. Cambrensis, in order to run his concoction down the throats 
 of his hearers, resorted to the aid of sweets and sugar-plums. He 
 treated the whole town splendidly for three days ; the first day was 
 appropriated to the populace ; the second, to the doctors, professors, 
 and principal scholars of the university ; and, lastly, on the third day, 
 he regaled the other scholars, soldiers, and citizens of the town, — "a 
 noble and brilliant action," says Cambrensis himself, "whereby the 
 ancient custom of the poets has been, for the first time, renewed in 
 England." The History of Ireland, written by this half-witted caluui- 
 niator, represents the River Shannon as discharging itself into the North, 
 Sea, whereas it discharges itself into the South or Atlantic. He scarcely 
 mentions who were the first inhabitants of Ireland ; as to the Scoto- 
 
110 FALSEHOODS EXPOSED AND ADMITTED. 
 
 Milesians, who were the peaceful possessors of it for two thousand 
 years, he gives no account whatever, either of their government, 
 laws, battles, or inventions ; he says, indeed, there had been one hun- 
 dred and eighty-one aionarchs of that race before his time, but does 
 not give us so much as their names. 
 
 Such was the authority, on which the majority of subsequent English 
 writers have deprived Ireland of her two thousand years of literature 
 and glory. The learned Ahhe MGeoghegan, from whom, in O'Kel- 
 ly's translation, I have condensed some of the foregoing, asks, with 
 great force, " Have not the Irish an equal right to complain of him, as 
 Josephus [in his first book against Appion] complains of some Greek 
 authors, who undertook to compose the history of the Jewish war, the 
 destruction of Jerusalem, and captivity of the Jews, from hearsay, 
 without having ever been in the country, or seen the things of which 
 they wrote, and who, he said, impudently assurited to themselves the 
 title of hjstorians ? " 
 
 But, even during the lifetime of Cambrensis, those contemptible 
 fictions of his were exposed, and he was made to feel the stings of 
 conscience so keenly as to prompt him to make a public confession of 
 the incorrectness of his books. He did recant, in an apology, published 
 in a second edition of his work, the Conquest of Ireland, and in a 
 treatise styled Recantation. He acknowledged that, though he had 
 learned, from men of that country worthy of belief, many things which 
 he mentions, he had followed the reports of the vulgar in too many 
 instances. Sir James Ware, the learned Irish antiquarian, speaks 
 of the works of Cambrensis thus : " Many things concerning Ireland 
 could be noticed in this place as fabulous, which Cambrensis hath 
 heaped together in his Topography ; to analyze or descant upon each 
 would require a whole tract. Caution should be particularly applied 
 by the reader to his Topography, which Giraldus himself confesses. 1 
 cannot hut express my surprise, how men, now-a-days otherioise grave 
 and learned, have obtruded on the world the fictions of Giraldus for 
 truths.''^ 
 
 Men " grave and learned " have adopted, age after age, the false- 
 hoods of Cambrensis ; have added to these falsehoods, and have piled 
 them up with unblushing effrontery : for this they have been well re- 
 warded with fat places and easy chairs by the British government ; and 
 the worst of it is, there are plenty of " grave and learned men," in our 
 day, who pursue the self-same course in reference to unhappy Ireland, 
 
ENGLISH HISTORIANS. Ill 
 
 and who are rewarded by the self-same power that instigated and re- 
 warded Cambrensis. The works of this false witness lay buried in 
 obscurity for four hundred years, until republished by Camden, at 
 Frankfort, in 1602; and thus was the poison generated anew through 
 the mind of Europe. Those old, confronted, and discredited falsehoods 
 were reproduced by the host of calumniators, who grew up after, die 
 reformation, and who methodically and unblushingly followed Cam- 
 brensis, building up their histories on his fictions ; for the same motives 
 that actuated Cambrensis, in the twelfth century, have guided the pens 
 of most of the English historians of Ireland since the refonnation. 
 Hanmer, Campion, Spenser, Camden, and Leland, are amongst the 
 most conspicuous of the English defamers of Ireland ; whilst it must be 
 confessed, with deep humility, that Ireland herself has vomited forth 
 monstrosities, who have undertaken, for English pay, to disparage and 
 vilify the glorious, though oppressed, land that bore them. Of these 
 in their places. 
 
 " Sir James Ware," says the abbe, " begins his antiquities of Ireland 
 with the. reign of Laogare, and the apostleship of St. Patrick. Why 
 he has not taken them from an earlier epoch, he assigns, as a reason, that 
 most of what had been written concerning the predecessors of that mon- 
 arch was exceedingly mixed with fables and anachronisms. Two things 
 in this must be observed ; first, that, from the acknowledgment of the 
 author, there were some kings the predecessors of Laogare, and monu- 
 ments which speak of them ; second, that these monuments were mixed 
 with fable and anachronisms. I have no doubt but his criticism is 
 just ; this is a fault common to all ancient histories. What can be 
 known of antiquity, if all history be rejected which contains any thing 
 that may be false, fabulous, or supposed ? Is not Herodotus, the father 
 of history, called also the father of falsehood ? Why has he put forth 
 things that are doubtful, nay, untrue, according to Manetho, in regard to 
 Egypt and the Egyptians, upon the testimony of Vulcan's priests, 
 whom he had met with at Memphis ? Is he correct in the accounts he 
 gives of the manners and customs of the Scythians, Amazons, and 
 other countries, from hearsay ? Have the author of the Cyropsedia, 
 Titus Livy, Quintus Curtius, and others, been free from the lash of 
 criticism ? Have the more modern historians, Camden, Buchanan, De 
 Thou, Mezeray, and Pere d'Orleans, escaped censure ? Is not Vol- 
 taire convicted of repeated mistakes in his Age of Louis the Four- 
 teenth, in his History of Charles the Twelfth, and in his History of the 
 Empire ? 
 
112 IRELAND HAS A BETTER TITLE TO ANTIQUITY THAN ROME. 
 
 " Can we not with justice say that Ware was not a fit judge in the 
 affair ? He did not know the primitive language of Ireland, so as to be 
 able to explore the first periods of its history ; he had no opportunity 
 of consulting the Psalters of Teamour, (Tara,) and other monuments, 
 necessary for such an undertaking ; he saw but some books of annals, 
 written half in Latin and half in Irish, the dates whereof ran no higher 
 than the Christian era ; in a word, every thing, antecedent to that period, 
 is accused by him of containing fable and anachronisms ; by these 
 means he exonerates himself from making the researches to which he 
 did not feel himself competent. 
 
 " It is further objected, that, because the Romans, and also the 
 Greeks, had not historians more ancient than Herodotus, who lived 
 about four hundred years before the Christian era, the pretensions 
 of the Milesians, with respect to the epoch of their history, cannot be 
 maintained. 
 
 " Josephus, in his book against Appion, asserts that, to have a knowl- 
 edge of antiquity, we must not seek it among the Greeks, whose 
 writings, he says, are imperfect, new, and doubtful ; it appears, there- 
 fore, that history was not the ruling passion of that people, although 
 polished in other respects. "^ 
 
 " As to the Romans, they are more modern. The use of letters, 
 says Livy, was rare among the ancient Romans, the memory being 
 their only depository of time, in the first ages of the republic. If their 
 priests in succeeding ages, transmitted some monuments, they were lost 
 in the burning of the city ; and, if we attach belief to Vossius on the 
 subject, Fabius Pictor was the first who wrote the history of the re- 
 public, in the year of Rome 485. 
 
 " Orpheus of Crotona, in his poem of the Argonauts, and Aristotle, 
 in his book of the World, dedicated to. Alexander, make mention of 
 Ireland, under the name of lerna, from whence Usher takes the oppor- 
 tunity of saying, ' that the Romans could produce no testimony so 
 authentic for the antiquity of their name.' The comparison of Usher 
 is not made in allusion to the soil or land of Rome, nor to that of 
 Ireland, the two countries being in that respect of equal antiquity ; the 
 question is with respect to those who inhabited the tivo countries, of 
 which we have a more authentic testimony for their antiquity than the 
 other : thus, in the opinion of Usher, the Scoto-Milesians had a better 
 title to antiquity than the Romans. 
 
 " The strength of this reasoning will be felt still more forcibly, if, 
 with Camden, we consider that the name lerna, and others, which 
 
ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS OF IRELAND. 113 
 
 Strangers give to that island, are derived from Eire, ' ah Erin ergo 
 gentis vocahulo originatio pretenda ; ' a name which has been peculiar 
 to it since the Scoto-Milesians have been in possession of the island, 
 and which is derived from Ire, one of their ancient chiefs. If it be 
 then allowed us to think, with Usher, that the Scoto-Milesians were 
 established in Ireland before the Roman name was known, we may 
 likewise suppose that, from being a lettered people, the dates of their 
 histories are much higher than those of the Romans." 
 
 The existing manuscripts which treat of Ireland are, indeed, more 
 voluminous than those of all the rest of Europe put together. How 
 many authentic manuscripts are there remaining in the libraries of the 
 Vatican at Rome, of the king at Paris, and in the Bodleian library at 
 Oxford, which were never published ? The history of Ireland rests on 
 the concurring testimony of Jjfiy different records, each of which, 
 though differing in object, has an essential connection one with the 
 other. These records are all, or nearly all, written in the Irish lan- 
 guage and character. It ought to satisfy us that Keating, Colgan, 
 Gratianus [Lynch,] Bruodine, O'Flaherty, O'Halloran, Sir William 
 Betham, and many others, who made use of, and understood, the Irish 
 Innguage and manuscripts, can warrant them, and say that they bear 
 every mark of the remotest antiquity, and that the extracts which they 
 give from them are faithful. I make a further summary, from the 
 Abbe M'Geoghegan and other writers, of the authors who have written 
 on Ireland before our time. 
 
 The authors who have, in the last three centuries, given their 
 attention to the history of Ireland, and that are best known, are Peter 
 Lombard, Keating, Messingham, O'SuUivan, Ward, Clery, Roth, 
 Usher, Colgan, Ware, Bruodine, Gratianus Lucius, Belling, Walsh, 
 O'Flaherty, O'Reilly, Porter, Molyneux, Kennedy, O'Halloran, &c. 
 
 Peter Lombard was born in Waterford, and, being brought up 
 from his youth at Westminster, under the eyes of the learned Camden, 
 he displayed great proofs of capacity for the sciences ; he afterwards 
 came to Louvain, where he completed his studies, and received the doc- 
 tor's cap. The provostship of the cathedral of Cambray was after- 
 wards conferred on him ; lastly, he was appointed archbishop of 
 Armagh, and primate of Ireland. Among his other works, he has left a 
 commentary, in Latin, on the history of Ireland, which was highly 
 esteemed, and was printed after his death, in quarto, at Louvain, in 1632. 
 
 Geoffrey Keating was born in Ireland, in the sixteenth century, 
 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth : being intended for the ecclesias- 
 15 
 
114 IRISH AND OTHER AUTHORS OF THE LAST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 tical state, he left his country, in consequence of the persecutions that 
 were carried on against the Catholics, and came to France, where he 
 received the degree of doctor in theology. Returning afterwards to 
 his native country, and being perfect master of the Irish language, he 
 collected every thing that was possible for him, from the ancient 
 monuments of Ireland, and formed the design of reducing them into 
 the shape of history. Two motives induced him to undertake it, as he 
 himself says in his preface — first, to draw from obscurity a people 
 who were equally ancient as they were generous and noble, by pre- 
 serving from the ravages of time a methodical histoiy of their monu- 
 ments ; secondly, to develop the injustice of some authors, who, 
 without consulting them, propagate against the Irish their false pro- 
 ductions, which may be termed satires rather than history. He adds, 
 that every thing which he advances in favor of Ireland arises from his 
 love for truth, and that his testimony should not be suspected, being 
 himself of English origin. This qualification, however, raised suspi- 
 cions from many quarters against him, particularly in the provinces 
 of Connaught and Ulster, where he was denied access to their 
 documents. 
 
 This history, written in the Irish language, which was principally 
 spoken at that time, has been since translated into English, and become 
 thereby open to criticism. Those who think themselves interested in 
 degrading the Irish people, whose antiquity appears to them insupport- 
 able, severely censure the history of Keating ; while others, more moder- 
 ate and impartial, consider it a valuable collection of antiquities. It 
 must, however, be acknowledged, that, if the English translation of this 
 history be a faithful one, — which is not very certain, — there are many 
 anachronisms in the work, and accounts which seem to be fabulous and 
 absurd tales. However, these should be attributed rather to the cre- 
 dulity of the author, who has too closely followed, on some occasions, 
 the fictions of the ancient bards, than to any previous intention of de- 
 grading the history, of the Irish nation. Among all its defects we 
 discover many good and interesting things, which make that work 
 essentially useful : provided it be read with caution, much information 
 may be derived with respect to the origin of the Milesians, their 
 establishment in the island, their wars, government, and the succession 
 of their kings. 
 
 Thomas Messingham, a priest, and native of the province of 
 Leinster, also apostolical prothonotary, and superior of a community of 
 Iiish in Paris, published, in that city, in 1624, a small folio volume in 
 
O'SULLIVAN. WARD. o'cLEARY. 115 
 
 Latin, entitled Florilegium InsnJa. Sanctorum; it contains the lives 
 of many of the Irish saints, taken from the best authors. 
 
 Philip O'Sullivan, a gentleman of the noble family of O'Sullivan 
 Barry, in the county of Cork, being compelled by the misfortune of 
 the times, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to fly from his country, 
 withdrew to Spain, where, after having completed his stodies at 
 Compostella, he composed several works in Latin ; amongst others, an 
 abridgment of the history of Ireland, vvliich had for its title Historica. 
 CathoUca Hibernice Compendium, dedicated to Philip the Fourth, 
 king of Spain, and printed at Lisbon, in 162L The fabulous account 
 of St. Patrick's purgatory, introduced into his history, after the Viscount 
 Lamon de Parellos, a Spanish lord, has been injurious to it. In his 
 description of the island, its antiquities, the invasion of the English, the 
 fifteen years' war under Queen Elizabeth, and the persecution under 
 James the First, he appears to be correct. He has drawn upon him- 
 self the censure of Usher, who treats him as a faithless author, on 
 account of a tract written* against him, under the title of Archicomi- 
 geromastix. 
 
 Hugh Ward, or Wardens, a native of the county Donegal, in Ulster, 
 was first brought up at Salamanca, w here he became one of the order 
 of St. Francis, in 1616 ; he afterwards completed his studies at Paris, 
 from whence he was called, and nominated lecturer in theology, and 
 afterwards warden, at Louvain. As he was very learned and versed in 
 antiquity, he took the resolution to write a universal history of the 
 saints of his own country. For that object he sent Michael O'Cleary, a 
 monk of his order, to collect materials necessary for it. In the mean 
 time, he composed several works that were afterwards very useful to 
 John Colgan, who undertook, after his death, to finish his intended 
 history. 
 
 Michael O'Cleary, a native of the province of Ulster, and monk 
 of the order of St. Francis, was sent, as has been observed, into Ire- 
 land, by Ward, to make the researches necessary for the work he had 
 contemplated. This monk performed his commission with all possible 
 attention, without his patron having derived from it any benefit, being 
 prevented by death. 
 
 O'Cleary, having formed a taste for that kind of employment, 
 troublesome indeed, but very useful to the public, and being joined by 
 other antiquarians of the country, particularly Ferfessius O'Conry, 
 Peregrin O'Cleary, and Peregrin O'Dubgennan, collected a quantity 
 of materials to serve for an ecclesiastical and civil history, and reduced 
 
116 ANNALS OF THE FOUR MASTERS. USHER. 
 
 them into order. Some ancient monuments he purged, by comparing 
 them with old manuscripts, of the errors which had crept in by the 
 ignorance of the copyists. 
 
 The first of these monuments is an historical abridgment of the 
 Irish kings, their reign and succession, their genealogies and death. 
 
 The second is a tract on the genealogies of their saints, called 
 Sanctilogium genealogicuin . 
 
 The third treats of the first inhabitants, and different conquests of 
 that island, the succession of her kings, their wars, and other remark- 
 able events, from the deluge until the arrival of the English in the twelfth 
 century. This book is called Leabhar Gabhaltas." 
 
 The erudite John O'Donovan has as follows: — "The O'Clerj^s 
 commenced the compilation of these Annals on the 22d of Janu- 
 ary, 1632, and completed their task on the 18th of August, 1636. 
 The authorities collated and abstracted into this compilation are 
 enumerated in the testimonium prefixed to the Annals, and given 
 under the hands of the guardian and brotherhood of the monastery. 
 Of the work so produced there appear to have been four transcripts, all 
 of which, in whole or in part, have come down to the present day. 
 The first volume of the copy executed for O'Gara, after having been 
 carried into Spain by his son, Colonel O'Gara, came ultimately into the 
 possession of the venerable Charies O'Conor, by whose grandson, Dr. 
 O'Conor, it was deposited at Siowe, where it still remains. Another 
 copy, complete, transcribed for the use of the truly learned John Col- 
 gan, was by him bequeathed, with his other manuscript collections on 
 Irish history and hagiology, to his convent at Louvain. O'Flaherty,. 
 author of Ogygia, had a tliird copy, the second volume of which, 
 wanting a century at the commencement, is now preserved in the library 
 of Trinity College, Dublin. The second volume, complete, of a fourth 
 copy, which seems to have been executed for the use of the O'Clerys 
 themselves, and contains the original dedication and testimonium in the 
 proper hand-writing of the respective parties, having come into the pos- 
 session of the late Austin Cooper, Esq., was purchased at the sale of his 
 library by George Petrie, Esq., of this city, and by him the purchase 
 was generously transferred to the Royal Irish Academy, the ultimate 
 depository and faithful preserver of this, as of many of the other remain- 
 ing evidences of the learning, piety, and patriotic zeal, of the Irish peo- 
 ple in past ages." Mr. O'D. is now translating this work. 
 
 James Usher, or Usserius, was a native of Dublin, and well known, 
 in the republic of letters, by his erudition and the great number of 
 
. WARE. COLGAN. 117 
 
 his works, which are a proof of it. The writings of this learned man, 
 that have any reference to our history, are his Veterum Epistolarum 
 Hibernicanim Sylloge, and Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates. 
 The first contains fifty letters upon the Irish people, with some notes 
 from the editor. This small volume was printed first in Dublin, in 
 1630, and reprinted at Paris, 1665. The second, which was printed 
 at Dublin in 1639, and at London in 1687, treats of the origin of 
 British churches. 
 
 John Colgan, a native of the county Donegal, in Ulster, and monk 
 of the order of St. Francis, in the convent of St. Anthony of Padua, 
 at Louvain, where he was professor in theology, was learned in the 
 language and antiquities of his country ; he undertook to write the 
 lives of the Irish saints, and was the more capable of undertaking it 
 from being aided by the researches which Ward had made with 
 the same intention. In 1645, a volume in folio was published by him 
 at Louvain ; it contained the lives of the saints for the first three 
 months of the year, under the tide of Acta Sanctorum Veteris et 
 Majoris Scotut. A second volume was published at Louv^ain, in 1647, 
 which had for its title Triadis Thaumaturgce, he. ; it contained the 
 lives of St. Patrick, St. Columb, and St. Bridget. We have like- 
 wise a treatise from him on the country, life, and writings, of John 
 Scot, called the subtle doctor, printed in octavo, at Antwerp, in 1655. 
 There are, in fine, many manuscript volumes, at Louvain, of this author, 
 which speak of the apostleship and mission of many Irish saints in 
 foreign countries. 
 
 Sir James Ware, or Wareus, a native of Dublin, made many 
 researches useful to the history of Ireland, both in the registries and 
 cloisters of the churches and monasteries of the country, and in the 
 libraries of England. He published first, in Dublin, in 1639, a treatise, 
 in Latin, upon the Irish writers. In 1654 and 1658, he had the 
 antiquities of Ireland published in London, under the tide of De Hiber- 
 nia et Antiquitatibus ejus Disquisitiones. In fine, he has furnished a 
 commentary on the Irish prelates, from the conversion of that country 
 down to his time. This work has been printed at Dublin, in 1665, 
 under the title of De Prasulibus Hibemia Commentarius. All these 
 have been translated into English, and printed in folio, at London, in 
 1705, to which is subjoined a discourse from Sir John Davis, who was 
 attorney-general to James the First, wherein he examines into the 
 cause of the delay of the conquest of Ireland by the English. Ware's 
 researches on the foundation of the churches, the names and succession 
 
1 18 BRUODINE. LYNCH. BELLING. WALSH. o'fLAHERTY. 
 
 of their prelates, the establishment of monasteries and religious houses, 
 and the learned writers of that country, are extremely interesting. His 
 works, which relate to Ireland, from the invasion of the English, are in 
 general excellent, and worthy a man of his merit ; but his treatise on its 
 antiquities is of small moment ; he was not sufficiently acquainted with 
 its language to be able to consult the monuments of that people, so 
 that he has, at a small expense, acquired for himself the title of anti- 
 quarian. 
 
 Anthony Bruodine, a native of the county Clare, in Ireland, was a 
 Recollet and professor in theology, in the convent of that order at 
 Prague. Among other works he composed a volume in quarto, enti- 
 tled Propugnaculum CatholiccB Veritatis, Pars Primq historica, &tc., 
 printed at Prague, in 1668. 
 
 John Lynch, priest and archdeacon of Tuam, and native of Gal- 
 way, in Connaught, was learned in the language of his country, and 
 ably conversant in all kinds of literature. The troubles produced to 
 his country by the war of the parliamentarians, and tyranny of Crom- 
 well, obliged him to leave it. In 1652, he came to France, and pub- 
 lished, among other works, a volume in folio, printed in 1662, under 
 the title of Cambrensis Eversus, and under the borrowed name of 
 Gratianus Lucius. Our author, with much judgment and solidity, refutes 
 the calumnies that Cambrensis had advanced against his country. 
 
 Sir Richard Belling, a"native of the county Dublin, has left us a 
 volume in duodecimo, printed in Latin, at Paris, in 1650, under the title 
 of Vmdicarum Catholicontm Hibernice Libri duo, and under the bor- 
 rowed name of Philopater Ireneeus. In the first book of this volume 
 we discover a sufficiently exact account of the affairs of Ireland, from 
 the year 1641 till 1649. The second is a refutation of a work written 
 by a monk named Paul King, on Irish affairs. 
 
 Peter Walsh was a native of Moortown. in the county Kildare. 
 Being admitted into the order of St. Francis, he studied at Louvain, 
 where he became professor of theology. He begins with the history of 
 the country, to end it with the twelfth century ; but though the recital 
 of facts contained in it be sufficiently correct, still the want of order and 
 system discoverable makes the reading of it irksome. The second part, 
 which he promised, has never appeared. 
 
 Roderick O'Flaherty, an Irish gentleman, was born at Moycullin, in 
 the county Galway ; it was the patrimony of his ancestors for many 
 ages, but confiscated in the troubles which had 'arisen in 1641 ; he was 
 a man of letters, and profoundly skilled in the history of his own and 
 
o'rEILLT. PORTER. ALLEMAND. 119 
 
 foreign countries. He has left us a large volume, in Latin, composed 
 from the most authentic monuments, and which he dedicated to the 
 Duke of York, who soon afterwards became king of Great Britain, un- 
 der the name of James the Second. It was printed in quarto, at London, 
 in 1685, under the title of Ogygia, wherein he treats of the ancient 
 history of Ireland, before Christianity. In this book he displays great 
 erudition, and a deep knowledge of chronology, as appears from the 
 testimony of two great men, Loftus and Belling, whose approvals are 
 found printed at the head of his work. Stillingfleet also cites him with 
 eulogy. 
 
 Hugh O'Reilly, an Irish gentleman, and native of the county Cavan, 
 was master in the court of chancery, and register to the council under 
 James the Second. Having followed the fortunes of that prince into 
 France, he was nominated his chancellor for the kingdom of Ireland. 
 In 1693, O'Reilly published a small volume in English, which has for 
 its title, Ireland's Case briefly stated, that is to say, an abridgment of 
 the state of Ireland, since the reformation, wherein the things which hap- 
 pened in that country are represented without disguise. He reproaches 
 Charles the Second with want of gratitude to his Irish subjects for their 
 services : he shows the injustice and bad policy of that prince, for having 
 confirmed the murderers of the king, his father, in their possessions and 
 "wealth, as rewards for their regicide ; the old proprietors were, for those 
 objects, stripped of theii- fortunes, whose only crime was their faithful 
 allegiance to their king. He speaks, in fine, like a man who, in pleading 
 his own cause, pleads that of his country. His complaints, it appears, 
 were well founded ; whereas the king, his master, to whom he communi- 
 cated the purport of his writings, before they would be printed, was 
 pleased to say, that "they contained but too many truths." 
 
 Francis Porter, a native of the county of Meath, and monk of the 
 order of St. Francis, was for a long time professor of theology in the 
 College of St. Isidore, at Rome, and president of it for some time. 
 Among other works he has left us a volume in Latin, and printed in 
 quarto, at Rome, in 1690, under the title of Compendium Annalium 
 Ecchsiasticarum Regni Hihernia. After his description of the king- 
 dom, and a list of its kings, he speaks of the war of the Danes ; the 
 remainder relates to the affairs of the church. 
 
 Louis Augustin AUemand, a lawyer in the parliament of Paris, 
 published in that city, in 1690, UHistoire Monastique d'Irlwide, in 
 the French language, and dedicated it to James the Second, king of 
 Great Britain and Ireland, The learned author follows, with great exact- 
 
120 MOLYNEUX. o'kENNEDY. HARRIS. 
 
 ness, those who have written on the same subject before him ; namely. 
 Usher, Ware, Colgan, and others ; and it can be affirmed, that, for a 
 stranger, who had never seen the country of which he writes, his work 
 is very correct. 
 
 WilHam Molyneux was born in Dubhn, and has pubhshed many 
 excellent works. Amongst others, one upon the State of Ireland, 
 was dedicated by him to the Prince of Orange: he proves in it that 
 that country was never conquered by Henry the Second ; that he grant- 
 ed, according to treaty, a parliament and laws to such of the people of 
 Ireland as resided in his pale ; that the ecclesiastical state in that country 
 was independent of England, and that the English could not bind the 
 Irish by laws made where the people had not their deputies. 
 
 Matthew O'Kennedy, an Irish gentleman, and doctor of laws, mas- 
 ter in the court of chancery, and judge of the admiralty, in Ireland, has 
 ^Yritten a small volume in English, printed at Paris, in 1705: it contains 
 an historical and chronological dissertation on the royal family of the 
 Stuarts, who are (he says) of Irish descent, through the colonies that 
 were sent at different periods into Albania. This treatise has not 
 escaped criticism ; it has been abused by Father De la Haye, an Anglo- 
 Scotchman, in a letter to the Duke of Perth, wherein there are more 
 invectives against Kennedy and his country than proofs against his 
 dissertation, the object of his attacks, as appears by Kennedy's reply, in 
 the shape of a letter, to what De la Haye had advanced. This was 
 printed at Paris, in French , in 1715, with the letter of that father sub- 
 joined to it. 
 
 Walter Harris, counsellor, has published two volumes, in folio, in 
 English, on the history of Ireland, under the tide of the Works of 
 Sir James W^are on Ireland, revised and augmented. The first volume 
 was printed at Dublin in 17.39, and the second in 1745; a third, which 
 he had promised, never appeared. The Irish people are deeply indebt- 
 ed to this learned man, for the pains he has bestowed, and the interesting 
 researches he has made to complete that work, which he has considera- 
 bly enlarged, and enriched with many tracts that escaped the vigilance 
 of his prototype, and which merit for liim the title of author, instead of 
 editor, which he has modestly taken. 
 
 The Dissertations upon the ancient history of Ireland, given in English 
 by an anonymous writer, and published at Dublin, in 1753, through the 
 care of Michael Reilly, display an extensive knowledge in the antiqui- 
 ties of that country. This work is flowery in its style, and the matter 
 handled with peculiar delicacy arid neatness. The writer was among 
 
LELAND. WARNER. CORRY. m'gEOGHEGAN. 121 
 
 the first of those who began to breathe truth about Ireland, at a period 
 when the tyrannic chain of England held her in silence. This author 
 was the learned Q'Conor of Belenagar. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Leland was born in Dublin, 1722. He was educated in 
 the school of Dr. Sheridan, so famous for giving brilliant scholars to the 
 world. He became a fellow of Trinity College, and a clergyman of 
 the established church. On the lieutenancy of Lord Townsend, in Ire- 
 land, 1768, he was made castle chaplain to that nobleman. Having 
 gathered some materials for a history of Ireland, he ventured to give 
 them to the world. From the slanders of Cambrensis, Cox, Temple, 
 and other defamers of his country, he drew his supplies. To vilify the 
 creed of his fathers seemed to be his chief object, for he was a parson of 
 that "Establishment" which had possessed itself of the property of the 
 believers in the old creed ; and he w^s the pampered tool of that 
 Orange faction which so often steeped his country in its bravest blood. 
 His history covers the period from the reign of Henry the Second, 1172, 
 to that of William the Third, 1691. Dr. Johnson said of him that " he 
 began his history of Ireland too late," for he despatched two thousand 
 years of ancient Irish history in a few pages of " introduction." Plow- 
 den says of him, "The late Dr. Ijcland is well known to have written 
 his history of Ireland for a bishopric, which he never attained." He 
 died in 1785. 
 
 Warner, an Englishman of more justice and greater industry, has 
 written much of Ireland, her ancient story, and her high antiquity. He 
 acknowledges that " Ireland had the start of the Britons, for many ages, 
 in arts and sciences, in learning and in laws." 
 
 Curry, an Irishman, wrote, in the middle of the eighteentii century, a 
 history of the civil wars of Ireland, which embraces that period covered 
 by the reigns of Elizabeth, James the First, Charles the First, Cromwell, 
 Charles the Second, James the Second. It is an able work, and one 
 which has fully vindicated Ireland from the charges of cruelty in those 
 unfortunate struggles, which had been so plentifully heaped on her by 
 Leland and others. 
 
 The Abbe M'Geoghegan, who was of Irish descent, wrote, in Paris, 
 a very able, though brief history of Ireland, which he brought down to 
 his own time, namely, the close of the seventeenth century. This work 
 was compiled from a variety of Irish manuscripts and other records, 
 brought to France by the leading Irish exiles, before and after the fall 
 of James the Second. He dedicated his work to the " Irish brigade," 
 then in the service of Louis the Fifteenth, a legion composed of the Irish 
 16 
 
122 THE YOUNGER o'cONOR. LEDWICH. 
 
 refugees in France, who, after the example of the glorious Sarsfield, 
 enlisted in the French king's service, and, single-handed, defeated the 
 English frequently. This work has been lately translated by Mr. 
 O'Kelly, and republished in Ireland, in a very able manner, by Mr. 
 Duffy. I am indebted to it for much valuable matter not to be found 
 in other publications. 
 
 Dr. O'Conor, of Belenagar, wrote his Dissertations on Irish his- 
 tory in about 1750 : the work purposed to be only a series of papers 
 on ancient Ireland. Mr. O'Conor had in his possession very many 
 ancient historical manuscripts, and other records, which came to him 
 from his ancestors, who were of the royal line of O'Conor, kings of 
 Ireland — the possession of which enabled him to give to the world a 
 most important volume. It is to be regretted that his grandson, the late 
 Dr. O'Conor, found himself necessitated to part with all those invaluable, 
 those truly national records. He sold them to the English Duke of 
 Buckingham, the owner of the celebrated library of Stowe, where they 
 now remain in hondage, somewhat like the country of which they tell. 
 Dr. O'Conor undertook, while enjoying the patronage and friendship of 
 the Duke of Buckingham, to write a history of Ireland, based upon the 
 foundation laid by his grandfather. This work has been censured by 
 some of the most patriotic of our modern historians and writers, for its 
 imperfect presentation of the noble superstructure of Irish history. It 
 was written under English influence, and for English booksellers, and it 
 is not uncharitable to suppose that, written and published under such cir- 
 cumstances, its tone is subdued and its style pliant. However, the pub- 
 lication of the doctor's work in England did great good, for it attracted 
 the attention of such men as the late Sir James Mackintosh, who de- 
 clared, after perusing it, that " Dr. O'Conor had exhibited proofs which 
 showed that the Irish nation were possessed of laws and letters, arts and 
 sciences, centuries before the British had yet emerged from barbarism." 
 If Dr. O'Conor's book did no more than draw this admission from so 
 learned and eminent a man, it has not been written in vain. 
 
 Dr. Ledwich, an Irishman, undertook to present the historical features 
 of his country, and has so greatly distorted them that Ireland disowns 
 his work, and repudiates his authority. He has. been proved to be a 
 false witness against his native land, and must be classed with the mon- 
 ster, or rather the reptile race, that seem to be yet uneradicated from the 
 Irish soil. Ledwich was originally a Catholic, but became a Protestant 
 for the sake of the loaves and fishes which awaited his apostasy ; to sus- 
 tain or countenance which, he calumniated his former creed, and tra- 
 duced his country. 
 
SCULLY. VALLANCEY. o'hALLORAN. 123 
 
 Mr. Scully, an Irish gentleman of Tipperary, wrote, in the middle of 
 the eighteenth centuiy, a powerful and well-digested account of the 
 " penal laws." It made a tremendous impression on the minds of the 
 Roman Catholics of Ireland and England, for it held a faithful mirror to 
 the body, political and social, and affrighted them to that activity which 
 eventuated in the formation of the first Catholic committee. That com- 
 mittee was the acorn, from which has grown the majestic oak of Irish 
 agitation. Mr. Scully, Mr. Wyse, (father of the present accomplished 
 Thomas Wyse, member for Waterford,) and I\Ir. O'Conor of Belenagar, 
 formed the first glorious triumviri who agitated for liberty, though laden 
 with the chains of the oppressor. Though their agitation produced 
 nothing, they transmitted the duty and trust which they assumed to the 
 succeeding generation. Henry Grattan, the patriotic John Keogh, and 
 the great-minded but unfortunate Theobald Wolfe Tone, with others, 
 took up and carried on the great cause, and succeeded, in 1793, in 
 striking off the first series of Ireland's galling chains. 
 
 Colonel Vallancey, an Englishman, an enthusiastic antiquarian, devo- 
 ted his mind to the study of Ireland's ancient history, and her antiquities. 
 To him she offered unexplored mines of the richest ore. He was em- 
 ployed as an architect and engineer to erect fortifications round the Irish 
 coast. His wealth and opportunities enabled him to gratify his taste, and 
 he entered on the great work with extraordinary zeal. He not only 
 studied the history of Ireland, but her ancient language also ; and em- 
 ployed some of the best Irish scholars he could procure to assist him in 
 the meritorious labor of unravelling the tangled hank of her antiquities. 
 He went so far as to prepare and publish a brief glossary or dictionary 
 of the Irish language, as spoken in Wexford, and in some other parts of 
 Ireland ; and it must be acknowledged that he rendered, as far as his 
 necessarily limited acquaintance with the Irish language permitted, a 
 valuable addition to the already existing enormous stock of materials 
 for a comprehensive history of Ireland. 
 
 Dr. Sylvester O'Halloran, a native of the county Limerick, in Ireland, 
 a gentleman of ancient family, and of great literary attainments, published, 
 by subscription, about the year 1786, the first part of what he designed 
 to be a comprehensive history of Ireland. Being a profound Irish 
 scholar, besides a thorough patriot and philanthropist, he infused into the 
 work, as far as it went, all the dignity, eloquence, and research, which 
 characterize the writers of the most refined ages, ancient or modern. 
 Unfortunately, he did not carry his history farther than the twelfth cen- 
 tury : death shortened a hfe devoted to the perpetuation of the history 
 
124 
 
 PLOWDEN. 
 
 of his country — a fate which, by some special destiny, prematurely 
 overtook many other men who engaged in the same laborious work ! 
 His book is a splendid and truthful one as far as it goes. He had 
 had the advantage of the zealous and learned labors of the very 
 many erudite men who wrote before him; and it is creditable to the 
 Irish character that, in a period just emerging from the gloom of the 
 penal code, under whose terrible influence the intellect of Ireland was 
 darkened, so powerful a writer as O'Halloran just then made his appear- 
 ance, who flung out on the world a brilliant reflection of the almost 
 departed rays of Ireland's renown and glory. O'Halloran, full of ac- 
 quired lore, apposite similes, and biographical anecdote, frequently 
 suspends his narrative while he empties his full-charged mind upon the 
 page. His digressions for that reason are, though always interesting, 
 sometimes inconveniently long ; which effaces or disturbs the order of 
 historical facts in the reader's mind. This, I think, is the only fault 
 which can be alleged against the work. It is otherwise a splendid pro- 
 duction, sustained by authority, enlightened by reason, enriched by a 
 wondrous gathering of facts, and adorned by a beautiful style, which 
 continues its elevated tone from the beginning to the end. These com- 
 bined properties of O'Halloran's work justified Pepper in denominating 
 him the Irish Livy. 
 
 Joseph C. Walker, a native of Dublin, wrote an historical memoir of 
 the Irish bards, Irish music, instruments, weapons, &.C., published in 
 1786. Mr. Walker's was the first effort to gather into an historical 
 record the interesting reminiscences of Irish poetry and music. Walker 
 acknowledges himself indebted to many eminent men of Ireland, for 
 various papers and essays of inestimable value. These are published, 
 in his work, under the signatures of the various learned and tasteful 
 contributors, which include the names of O'Conor, O'Halloran, Val- 
 lancey, Beauford, Hawkins, Dr.. Young, Archdale, Ousley, &ic. Mr. 
 Walker had good opportunities to acquire the necessary knowledge. 
 He was an officer ui the treasury chambers of Dublin, and was one of 
 those who were warmed into the necessary enthusiasm of authorship by 
 the kindling influence of national independence which Ireland enjoyed 
 in his time. Since Walker wrote. Bunting, Moore, Hardiman, Murphy, 
 and others, have made efforts to rescue our music and history from ob- 
 livion. 
 
 Francis Plowden, an Englishman, wrote an honest, though abridged, 
 history of Ireland, from its connection with England in 1172 to 1800; 
 and a continuation of Irish history from 1801 to 1811. His latter work 
 
BARRINGTON. GRATTAN. WYSE. 125 
 
 is invaluable as proving, by documentary evidence, tbe atrocious villany 
 of those who concocted, aided, and acted as agents of blood, in bringing 
 about the fraudulent union. Mr. Plowden's first work on Ireland was 
 a volunteer publication, entitled a Review of Irish History. This 
 work, for its extreme impartiality, was attacked by the Orange writers 
 of the day. He then entered the field as a vigorous historian, searching 
 the archives of Ireland for proof to sustain his general accusations against 
 England, her ministers, and their bloodthirsty agents in Ireland, the 
 notorious Orangemen. Mr. Plowden, I have heard, was prosecuted for 
 libel by some of the persons whose deeds he brought to light, and under 
 a government where the publication of truth is declared libel, he was 
 found guilty, and sentenced to be fined and imprisoned ; to escape 
 which, he fled to France, where, I have heard, he died. 
 
 Sir Jonah Barrington, a native of Dublin, a member of the Irish 
 parliament, and a judge of the admiralty, published, in Paris, a splendid 
 historical work, denominated the Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, 
 which embraces the gloomy events of Ireland, that grew up under the 
 penal laws — the times of Grattan, the Irish volunteers, and the fall of 
 Ireland at the union. His history of the union is the most truthful and 
 comprehensive work published on the subject. The author was himself 
 a member of the Irish parliament, and voted to the last against its anni- 
 hilation : he wrote and published his history in Paris, whither he retired 
 after the fall of his country. His is an eloquent and a truthful picture 
 of the times in which he lived — the most glorious, as well as the most 
 gloomy, recorded in Irish history. His work was published in 1833. 
 
 Martin M'Derraott, of the Coulavin family, died in London, 1821, at 
 thirty-one years of age, while superintending the publication of his history 
 of Ireland. Pepper lauds that portion which appeared, very highly ; 
 and says, no historian of Ireland has infused so much of the spirit of 
 historical eloquence into the narrative of his country's story, as that gift- 
 ed and lamented son of Irish genius. 
 
 Grattan's Life, by his son, (Henry,) covers nearly the same ground as 
 that trodden by Barrington. Grattan having been the chief actor during 
 the days of Ireland's glory, from 1777 to 1795, his Life discloses a bril- 
 liant succession of incidents, a great number of documents, letters of a 
 very interesting character, especially so to the statesman and general 
 politician. This work was published in Dublin, in 1840. 
 
 The present Thomas Wyse, the eloquent member for Waterford, 
 wrote, in 1830, a history of the Catholic Association. His work takes in 
 the penal code, and the efforts made by previous associations of Cath- 
 
126 CAREY. PEPPER. MOORE. 
 
 olics to efface that code from the constitution. Mr. Wyse's work 
 carries on the thread of Irish history, with circumstantial detail, to the 
 passing of the reform bill, in 1831. 
 
 Matthew Carey, of Philadelphia, published in that city a very able but 
 brief work, a few years ago, entitled Ireland Vindicated. 
 
 Pepper, the eloquent, talented, and learned Pepper, published in 
 Boston, in 1836, a history of Ireland, which he brought down only to 
 the twelfth century. He intended to carry the history to his own times, 
 and was preparing to go to Ireland to collect documents ; but he Uvea 
 not to complete his work. Pepper was a native of Ardree, near Dro- 
 gheda, where, previous to his departure for this country, he was engaged 
 in the flour business. He established, in New York, the Irish Shield, 
 which, on removing to Philadelphia, he continued, in that city, to its 
 fourth volume. It was a spirited weekly publication, which fully realized 
 its title. He was editor of the Boston Sentinel, and the early series of 
 the Boston Pilot. His work on Ireland is extremely eloquent : indeed, 
 some persons think his style rather inflated ; but this is a small fault. 
 The immense quantity and the great variety of the facts, notes, and 
 appropriate quotations from other authors, which he has put together 
 in his eloquent book, must forever preserve his name amongst the most 
 talented and patriotic of his countrymen. He died in Boston, of a vio- 
 lent cold and fever, caught from stripping ofl" his coat to cover some 
 unfriended countryman of his own. Poor Pepper, though endowed 
 with splendid talents, was encountered, in this asylum of the oppressed, 
 by petty personal attacks, which he repelled with scathing power and 
 cmshing effect. To honor his memory, some patriotic and warm- 
 hearted sons of Ireland have caused a marble obelisk to be erected over 
 his remains in Charlestown burial-ground. The workmanship was 
 executed, in a very able manner, by Michael Gallagher, of Canton. 
 It bears the simple inscription that follows : — 
 
 I 
 GEORGE PEPPER, 
 
 HISTORIAN OF IRELAND; 
 BORN IN TALLISTOWN, CO. LOUTH, IRELAND. 
 
 Died in Boston, May 11th, 1837. 
 
 — AGED 45 TEARS. 
 
 Thomas Moore commenced the publication of his history of Ireland 
 
HUISH. BATTERSBY. o'cALLAGHAN. 127 
 
 in the year 1835 ; and though he has no doubt prosecuted the work 
 with as much vigor as he could summon, and devoted as much time to 
 it as his other engagements would permit, it is not yet completed. 
 It brings the history of Ireland down to the time of Elizabeth, 1550, 
 and a very important space yet remains to be described. Although it 
 must be a species of presumption in me to attempt to say any thing of 
 one whose works have made him known to every nation, still a few lines 
 in this place may be pardoned. The family of Moore were from Wex- 
 ford, in Ireland. The poet was born in Dublin, whither the family came 
 to carry on business. They opened a grocer's store in Aungier Street, in 
 that city ; and young Moore was educated in Trinity College. His 
 poetry points the speeches of every patriot, and graces, while it con- 
 veys, the sentiments of every drawing-room miss.* Few men had better 
 opportunities than Moore to gather materials ; yet there are some emi- 
 nent Irishmen not well satisfied with his history of Ireland : amongst 
 these are O'Reilly, Dalton, O'Brien, Pepper, Sir William Betham, and 
 the writers of the Dublin Nation. I should be the last man in creation 
 to cast the shadow of censure on Mr. Moore's history, whose style is so 
 eloquent, whose learning is so great, whose fame is so well and so deserv- 
 edly established ; but after all this, I must confess, there is more favor 
 shown to England in his work than England deserves : however, on this 
 head I shall speak in the proper place. 
 
 The Life of O'Connell has been published by Robert Huish. The 
 book touches the outlines of Irish history from 1800 to 1833. The 
 author, having put together four or five hundred pages filled with the 
 sayings and doings of this great man, flings upon his hero, at the con- 
 clusion of the work, one of the usual canting taunts about his reception 
 of an annual stipend from his countrymen. The author wrote for the 
 English. The Life of O'Connell is yet to be written. 
 
 The Repealer's Manual, by Mr. Battersby, of Dublin, published in 
 1832, is an invaluable compilation of facts, figures, and documents, con- 
 nected with the fatal union. I wish it were reprinted, and put into the 
 hands of every repealer in England, Ireland, and America. From it I 
 have gleaned many valuable facts, nowhere else to be obtained. 
 
 The Green Book, by John Cornelius O'Callaghan, now of Dublin, but 
 whose family, I believe, are from the south of Ireland, was published in 
 Dublin in 1840. Its historical part is devoted to the affairs of Ireland 
 under James the Second and William the Third. The various battles 
 which took place, on Irish ground, between these kings, are ably re- 
 
 * See my sketch of him, page 1100. 
 
128 O'CONNELL, MADDEN, CLONEY, WOLFE TONE, GORDON, ETC. 
 
 viewed ; the English accounts are ripped up, and a new reading of the 
 memorable events is given to the world, well fortified by indisputable 
 authorities. Mr. O'Callaghan had been a contributor of prose and 
 poetic pieces to the Dublin Comet, which was a brilliant weekly paper 
 of the Anglesey reign. It did good service to the cause of freedom, in 
 those days of terror. The Parson's Horn-Book was enlivened by 
 some of the squibs and crackers of O'Callaghan. Brown and Sheehan, 
 however, were the chief writers of that very able book. Brown is now 
 employed on the Washington Globe, in America ; Sheehan on one of 
 the London newspapers, from which he draws a handsome salary, and 
 infuses into the periodical all the poetry, sarcasm, and spirit, which 
 characterized the Comet and Horn-Book. 
 
 Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator, published, in 1842, a -'Memoir 
 of Ireland, Native and Saxon," which does not pretend to be more than 
 an historical indictment against the Saxon. It begins with the invasion 
 by Strongbow, in 1169, and concludes with the reign of James the First 
 It is indeed a terrible indictment against England, and terribly has she 
 felt it. It is a gathering of horrors, poured out on the head of the op- 
 pressor with an unsparing hand. This work has furnished the repealers 
 of Europe and America with material enough to excite their indignation, 
 and feed their eloquence. On Daniel O'Connell, the author of that 
 work; I shall have a special lecture, which see. 
 
 Madden's History of the United Irishmen, Cloney's Narrative, 
 Wolfe Tone's Memoirs, Gordon's History, and Taylor's Rebellion of 
 1798, together with Fragments of Irish History, published by Macneven 
 and Emmet, in New York, furnish pretty full materials relating to the 
 unfortunate affairs of Ireland during the rebellion of 1798, and the times 
 immediately previous and subsequent. Besides these, the innumerable 
 biographies of distinguished Irishmen furnish material abundant to sustain 
 that part of the undertaking. 
 
 These are the principal authorities from which I have compiled this 
 work. The greater portion of the modern authors above enumerated are 
 in my possession. I need not express how intensely I feel the responsi- 
 bility which I incur. If I shall live to complete this book, and present 
 to my countrymen in America a familiar digest of their glorious history, 
 together with some specimens of their music, — if I shall win the charac- 
 ter of having done no damage to their name and cause in this endeavor, 
 — let me have the honor of a place in this distinguished catalogue of 
 her historians. 
 
IRISH MANUSCRIPTS. 129 
 
 Note referred to at page 108. 
 
 Whitelaw gives a list of the Irish manuscripts m the Irish character still exist- 
 ing in the archives of Trinity College, Dublin, and in the private libraries of 
 members of the Gaelic or Hiberno-Celtic Society of Ireland. There sxe forty-one 
 manuscripts on antiquities ; (liirty on battles ; eight on laws ; eleven on medicine 
 and botany ; four on science ; eleven on morals and religion ; ten dictionaries and 
 glossaries ; fourteen romances and dramatic tracts, forming altogether one hun- 
 dred and twenty-nine very ancient and very rare works. See Whitelaw's Dublin, 
 Appendix, 78, and Nicholson's Irish Historical Dictionary, Dublin, 1723. The 
 Right Rev. Dr. Murphy, bishop of Cork, has ten thousand quarto pages, transcribed 
 from old Irish manuscripts of a more modern date. 
 17 
 
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 MUSIC. 
 
 THE LAMENTATION OF THE AGED WOMEN. 
 
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132 ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE OF IRELAND. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 First Erections of the Milesians. — Round Towers. — Probable Uses. — Specimens of 
 ancient Round Towers. — Egyptian. — Indian. — Irish. — Obelisks of Egypt. — 
 Round Towers of India. — Religious Systems of India. — Buddhism. — Druids. — 
 Caesar's Description of them. — Tower of Ardmore, in Ireland. — Experiments at 
 the Foundation. — Number and Size of the Irish Round Towers. — Marks of 
 Christianity found on them. — Identity of the old Irish Castles with Egyptian 
 Houses proved. — GobbaAvn Scir. — Drawings of Egyptian Houses. — Irish Cas- 
 tles. — Drawing of an ancient Egyptian Sandal, found in Ireland. — Mr. Gliddon's 
 Opinion thereon. — Egyptian Writer Heccatseus on Ireland. — Cromleaghs. — 
 Caves, &c. 
 
 The ancient architecture of the Milesians deserves here a specia! 
 notice. It must be kept in our minds, totally distinct from the archi- 
 tecture of the ages which came immediately before and followed the 
 introduction of Christianity. The first erections of this singular people 
 yet live. They have lived on for thousands of years, through storm 
 and through convulsion ; and they yet exist above the earth, defying; 
 like the proud race of the land, both time and tyranny. 
 
 The stone erections of the ancient Irish were of two kinds, viz., the 
 round, pointed towers, and the square, vaulted castles. The former were 
 sepulchres, and, as some very learned men assert, were used also for 
 religious purposes and astronomical observations ; tlie latter for the 
 habitations of chiefs. There are many of both kinds of building yei 
 existing in Ireland. The material of vv'hich they are composed seems 
 calculated to endure forever. Many of the round towers are yet in a 
 perfectly whole and sound condition, though erected more than three 
 thousand years ago ! The material of them all is stone and cement. 
 The latter was formed of properties unknown to modern science. The 
 scientific men of modern times cannot, by the most minute analysis, 
 discover the nature of that cement, which has bound the stones together 
 for so many ages. The origin and uses of these round towers have been 
 the topic of a prolonged controversy between some of the most eminent 
 scholars of Europe. Several books have been written to prove one side 
 or other of the different positions assumed by the respective writers. 
 No reasonable man could expect, from a work so general as this, a crit- 
 ical inquiry into a vexed question so learnedly discussed. A glance at 
 the curious and interesting subject is all I propose to give. 
 
 Sir William Betham has entered into the profoundest depths of the 
 round tower inquiry. Ancient and modern history, the experiments 
 
ROUND TOWERS. 133 
 
 and observations of travellers in all countries, have been compared with 
 each other. The ground under and around the foundations of some of 
 these towers has been dug, under the superintendence of gentlemen 
 whose only object was to elicit truth. An opinion, formed upon con- 
 curring experiments, made not only in Ireland, but in India, Egypt, 
 Italy, and elsewhere, has been established ; the substance of which is, 
 that these towers were erected in those ages when men conceived their 
 greatest honor, while living, consisted in the dimensions of the monument 
 they could raise up for the reception of their ashes. 
 
 This was the spirit which animated the Pharaohs of Egypt to the 
 erection of the pyramids, those huge masses of stone and cement, 
 which have certainly perpetuated the fame of the race of kings that 
 raised them, in defiance of time or invasion, through many and many an 
 age. Mr. Moore, while devoting several pages of his work to this topic, 
 thinks these towers were used as well for astronomical purposes as re- 
 ligious. The four windows generally found at the top, as pointing to 
 the four cardinal points of the compass, — north, south, east, west, — 
 the stone steps, leading upwards, through the inside, to these apertures, 
 plainly prove these towers to have been erected for utility as well as 
 show. There is, in my opinion, nothing in the supposition inconsistent 
 with the wisdom and pride of our progenitors. We can readily conceive 
 the motives of a distinguished man, who, in raising a monument to per- 
 petuate his memory, chose a mode which would forever connect his 
 name with science, and preserve a recollection of his existence in the 
 minds of enlightened men.* 
 
 Before I enter farther into this question, I deem it proper to present 
 outlines of three of these ancient erections, which are evidently akin to 
 each other. No. 1 is Egyptian ; No. 2, Indian ; No. 3, Irish. 
 
 * See note, in reference to Mr. Peitre's new theory on this subject, at the end of 
 the book. 
 
OBELISKS OF EGYPT. OF INDIA. 135 
 
 No. 1. The obelisk of Heliopolis is the sole remaining one of a 
 pair that stood together, which were erected by Osortasen, king of 
 Egypt, about 2070 B. C. Gliddon tells us that, about six hundred 
 and forty-seven years ago, Abd-el-Cateef, the Arab historian, wrote 
 there were then two upon the spot. The height of the remaining pillar 
 is about sixty-one feet, and its base six and a half. The Pharaohs of 
 Egypt erected these comparatively small towers before their great mon- 
 uments and pyramids, to receive the written memorials of their existence 
 and quality. That presented in the annexed diagram contains a series 
 of hieroglyphic characters ; the translation of some of which is as follows : 
 — " Pharaoh, sun offered to the world, lord of Upper and Lower 
 Egypt, the living of men, son of the sun, Osortasen," &c. Sic. — 
 This obelisk was dedicated to the sun, to which was dedicated the city, 
 on the ruins of which it still stands. There are several of these Egyp- 
 tian obelisks existing in Thebes, Alexandria, and other cities, along the 
 Nile. All of these contain inscriptions of some sort or another, record- 
 ing the deeds of kings and heroes. By some these erections have been 
 called Cleopatra's Needles, but this is a popular misnomer. The obelisk 
 in the Hippodrome, at Constantinople, is a work of Thotmus the Fourth. 
 That at Rome bears inscriptions of various Pharaohs and Roman em- 
 perors. Of all the obelisks, the largest and most beautiful is that of 
 Karnac, at Thebes, cut by Queen Amense, before Christ 1760. It is 
 a single shaft, of the purest and most exquisitely polished sienite, in 
 height about ninety feet, and in weight about four hundred tons. 
 
 In Egypt, where the passion for erecting stupendous monuments over 
 the dead was nurtured for ages by national policy and popular senti- 
 ment, these obelisks were of secondary importance — something in the 
 way of ornament to the main erection ; but in those distant countries 
 into which the Egyptians and Phoenicians penetrated, where the popula- 
 tion was yet thin, and building material scanty, their kings and chiefs 
 contented themselves with erecting the smaller towers, which, according 
 to the changing circumstances of climate and country, were linked by 
 the builders, for the reasons already stated, with both the religious and 
 ■scientific studies of the people. 
 
 In reference to the Indian tower, marked No. 2, all we can learn 
 about it is little indeed. Sir William Betham says, " We find round 
 towers in every respect identical with our own, scattered over the entire 
 surface of the peninsulas of India. Two Buddhist towers are now 
 standing at Bigpore, described by Lord Valentia, and there is another 
 standing at Cole, near Allyghur, as appears from a drawing by my friend 
 
136 BtJDDHISM. 
 
 Captain Smith, late of the 44th. His lordship observes, ' It is singular 
 that there is no tradition concerning them, nor are they held in any 
 respect by the Hindoos of this country. The rajah, Jyanagur, consid- 
 ers them holy, and has erected a small building to shelter the great 
 number of his subjects who privately come to worship them.'" On 
 their general uses, and their identity with the age and objects of the 
 Irish towers. Sir William Betham thus reasons : " The opinions and 
 tenets of the Buddhist faith supply the strongest evidence that the 
 towers of India and those of Ireland originated with the same opinions, 
 and were erected for the same purpose — evidence which, taken as a 
 whole, I never even hoped would be so satisfactory and conclusive as it 
 now appears. In papers published in the Transactions of the Royal 
 Irish Academy, I attempted to show that the Ptolemaic maritime 
 geographical names of the Indian seas were significant of the local 
 character and peculiarities of each place in the Irish language. This 
 was to me a matter of surprise, but at that time I did not contemplate 
 that the tenets of the Buddhist faith, (the faith, be it remembered, which 
 preceded the Brahmins in India,) the most ancient faith of all India, and 
 still of the Island of Ceylon, the ancient Taprobana, and the greater 
 part of the further peninsula of India and China, should be found nearly 
 in perfect accordance with that of the Celtic Druids. Such, however, 
 is the fact, as far as we know of the latter, and the remains of that 
 people in our island also coincide.* 
 
 " Buddha Gaudma is supposed to be an incarnation of the deity. 
 There were many before him ; he is now the Buddho, The Lama of 
 Tibet is supposed also to be a living incarnation, or representation of 
 Buddho, by the Chinese called Foe, and on the death of his body, the 
 soul immediately is born again in another person. It is necessary to 
 say thus much to account for the numerous holy relics of Buddha, 
 which have been deposited in many dagobas, tcypes-, and towers, in 
 India. 
 
 " The Buddhist believes in a future state of rewards and punish- 
 ments, in the transmigration of souls. A bad man may be born again a 
 pismire ; a good one, a heavenly being, an angel. Heaven awards not- 
 its blessings, or hell its pains, eternally, but according to the merits or 
 demerits of the individual. 
 
 "Buddha issued ten commandments I Of these — 
 
 « 1. Thou shalt not kill. 
 
 " 2. Thou shalt not steal. 
 
 " 3. Thou shalt not commit fornication. 
 
 • See a further evidence of this identity in language at page 101- 
 
BUDDHISM. 137 
 
 " 4. Thou shalt not say any manner of falsehood. 
 
 " 5. Thou shalt not drink any intoxicating liquor. 
 
 " These five were to be observed by all his disciples, but by the holy 
 priests are added to the third above recited, ' or admit a lustful desire, 
 or suffer the touch of a woman.'' 
 
 " 6. Thou shalt not eat at any unpermitted hour. 
 
 " 7. Thou shalt not dance, sing, or play music, or see them done. 
 
 " 8. Thou shalt not use high and great seats. 
 
 " To the inferior priests are enjoined the following, in addition : — 
 
 " 9. Thou shalt abstain from the use of flowers or perfumes. 
 
 " 10. Thou shalt not receive, use, or touch gold, silver, or money 
 of any kind. 
 
 " The breach of these laws is committed by thought, word, and deed, 
 thus, in stealing : — 
 
 " 1. The knowledge that the property is another's. 
 
 " 2. The desire of stealing. 
 
 '' 3. Projecting means to steal. 
 
 " 4. Actual commission of theft. 
 
 " The 3d, of fornication : — 
 
 " 1. Desiring a woman not your wife, or a woman a man not her 
 husband. 
 
 " 2. Lustful desire in man or woman. 
 
 " 3. Planning a committal. 
 
 " 4. Actual commission. 
 
 " The 4th, of falsehood : — 
 
 " 1 . The knowledge of its being a falsehood. 
 
 " 2. The saying it. 
 
 " 3. The making the hearer believe it. 
 
 " The 5th, drinking intoxicating liquor : — 
 
 " 1. The knowledge of its being intoxicating. 
 
 " 2. The drinking it. 
 
 " 3. Suffering under its effects. 
 
 " There are ten sins : three committed by deeds — killing, stealing, 
 and debauching. 
 
 " Four by words — lying, backbiting, slandering, or speaking to hurt 
 another's feelings, and idle talk. 
 
 " Three by mind — covetousness, envy, and false belief. 
 
 " This brief statement of the opinions and belief of Buddhism clearly 
 shows that the late Mr. O'Brien totally misunderstood its precepts, and 
 that, all his premises being erroneous, his conclusions must be equally so. 
 18 
 
1 38 BUDDHISM. DRUIDS. C JiSAR. 
 
 The religion of Buddha has nothing in common with the obscenities of 
 Siva, or the worship of the Phallus. 
 
 " I do not mean to say that the Buddhist religion is pure in its prac- 
 tical effects : its theory alone is pure ; but it requires something more 
 than pure laws to produce pure lives. It is well said, ' It inculcates 
 benevolence, tenderness, forgiveness of injuries, and love of enemies ; it 
 forbids sensuality, love of pleasure, and attachment to worldly objects ; 
 yet it is destitute of power to produce the former or subdue the latter. 
 It is like an alabaster image, beautiful in all its parts, but destitute of 
 life, and being so, provides no atonement for sin. Here, also, the 
 Gospel triumphs over this and every other religion.' # * * 
 
 "The Druids have long ceased to exist in Gaul and Britain, and none 
 of the Roman or Greek writers afford any satisfactory clew to their doc- 
 trines and dogmas, except what we find in Caesar. We, in fact, know 
 but little of them ; St. Patrick's zeal for the Christian faith destroyed all 
 the books of the Irish Druids. 
 
 " The little Caesar supplies is, however, of the first importance. To 
 the pen of that great man we are indebted for what we know of the early 
 history of the British islands. He possessed the highest order of human 
 intellect ; he was the greatest soldier, the most profound statesman, and 
 most elegant scholar, not only of his own day, but of the periods which 
 preceded him, at least so far as profane history speaks," 
 
 It is due to truth to insert here the character of Julius Caesar by 
 the learned Sir Richard Phillips : " He was a profligate young 
 patrician, who, being two millions in debt, obtained by corruption the 
 command of the army, with which he plundered and enslaved several 
 nations, and then turned it against the freedom of his own. He ulti- 
 mately paid the penalty of his tyranny and treachery by the loss of 
 his life at the Capitol. Most of the commentaries which bear his 
 name were written by Hirtius and AppiusJ' 
 
 " Csesar says, ' The Druids are occupied with the sacred duties of 
 expounding their religion, and ordering the ceremonies of their public 
 and private sacrifices. To them the youth are committed for education, 
 and they are held in such honor and reputation, that all controversies, or 
 disputes, both public and private, are referred to their decision. If any 
 offence be committed, as murder or manslaughter, or any dispute re- 
 specting estates, lands, or inheritance, it is the Druids who decide, 
 punishing the guilty and rewarding the virtuous.' 
 
 " ' They teach, as their chief doctrine, that men's souls are immortal, 
 and move from one body to another after death.' 
 
DRUIDS. BAAL. 139 
 
 " Let us now compare the Druid and Buddhist systems, and first their 
 religion. They both believe in the metempsychosis, or transmigration of 
 souls — a system so peculiar and singular in its character and ramifica- 
 tions, as to negative at once the idea that it could have originated from 
 separate sources ; the most credulous and speculative would scarcely 
 venture an assertion so improbable. If this be admitted, we know that 
 the metempsychosis was essentially an opinion taught by Pythagoras, 
 and promulgated over the world by the Phoenician people, both in the 
 east and west. 
 
 " The Druids and Buddhists were both skilful astronomers ; of this I 
 have already given sufficient evidence in Ctesar and Upham, and the 
 Mahawansa. 
 
 " BAAL. 
 
 " Among other coincidences between the opmions and customs of the 
 Buddhists and the Celts, Is to be numbered the planet worship of the 
 Baalim, which prevails in Ceylon, and wherever Buddhism rules. It 
 will not be denied that the worship of Baal prevailed in Ireland, and 
 other Celtic countries, except by those whose ignorance is only to be 
 equalled by the confidence with which they put forth their pretensions to 
 knowledge. The lighting of the fires of the Bealtin, on the eve of the 
 summer solstice, the name of Baal scattered over the whole of Ireland, 
 in its topography, as Baal iigh more, the great house of Baal, in Cork; 
 Baltinglass, the Green of Baal's Fire, in Wicklow ; Baall agh, or 
 Baal's Ford, in Mayo, at which place, by the bye, is a round tower, 
 prove the fact : it is useless to multiply examples. 
 
 " Mr. Upham says of the doctrines of the Bali in Ceylon, (page 1 16,) 
 
 " ' Planet influence is styled Bal-le-ah, which may bear acuity to 
 Baal: 
 
 "These Indian towers, like the Irish, are circular; they are both soli- 
 tary buildings, with an entrance elevated from eight to twelve feet from 
 the ground ; they each have small apertures for the admission of light, 
 at regular distances from the elevation, with four apertures near the top, 
 at the four cardinal points, and each is covered with a round or conical 
 top. The Buddhist writings declare that they were built over the 
 bones or relics of their saints, or to commemorate some act of their 
 incarnate Buddho, In the tower of Timahoe, in Ireland, an urn was 
 found, which contained human bones. 
 
 " In India are abundance of dagobas, or mausolea of dome-like masses, 
 covering the body of a deceased Buddho, solid, save the chamber, where 
 the body was deposited. In Ireland we have conical hills, as New 
 
140 ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND. 
 
 Grange, Killeavy, Dowth, Ratoath, Cloncuny, of exactly the same 
 character." 
 
 The tower of Ardmore, No. 3, in the diagram, stands in the county 
 of Waterford, on the coast, near the entrance of Youghal Bay. It is 
 above one hundred feet high, forty-two feet in circumference, fifteen in 
 diameter. " It is divided on the outside, by projecting bands, into four 
 unequal stories, with a window in each, except the upper, in which are 
 four opposite to each other. The door is about fifteen feet from the 
 ground. This is the only tower in Ireland (at least I believe so) which 
 has the projecting bands, in which it resembles much the Indian towers 
 of Boglipor." 
 
 Sir William Betham, in concert with other antiquarians of Ireland, 
 has had many of those Irish towers closely examined, and the earth 
 dug up for several feet beneath their foundations. As tlie description of 
 one experiment would nearly answer for all, I content myself with 
 giving that made in Ardmore, in July, 1841, by Mr. Hackett, who de- 
 scribes the root of the tower thus : " Mr. Odell's letter described our 
 labor in reaching the bottom ; let me now describe what appears to have 
 been the manner in which the builders of the tower proceeded. They 
 first went about ten feet, or more, below the surface, and there laid their 
 foundation of large rocks ; about four feet from the bottom they laid the 
 body across, the head and feet resting on the rocks at the opposite side, 
 the body lying on a bed of mould, four or five feet in diameter ; they then 
 continued to carry up the foundation, the ends irregularly serrated, so as 
 to overlay the head on one side, and the feet on the other; they then 
 covered the body with about two feet of mould, which they covered 
 with a floor of mortar ; over this, they wedged in, with such force as to 
 render them impervious to ordinary labor, large blocks forming a com- 
 pact mass of unhewn stones, and above them another layer of similar 
 stones, but not so compact; over this were indications of another mortar 
 floor, which being only visible at the edges, indicated a former attempt 
 at exploration. Only about one course or two of large blocks were laid 
 higher than the outside plinth ; above these was a loose mass of small 
 stones, five or six feet deep, of the same kind of stones as the substratum 
 of blocks, all of which are different from the stone of which the tower 
 was built. I am thus minute in the description, because it has been 
 suggested that, as the skeleton was found lying east and west, as the 
 bodies do in the surrounding cemetery, the tower had been built over a 
 grave unknown to the builders. This induced me to examine it with 
 more care, and I took with me an intelligent mason, who agreed with 
 
NUMBER AND SIZE OF THE IRISH ROUND TOWERS. 141 
 
 me that this tower was certainly intended as a sepulchre, for the whole 
 was carefully and artificially prepared for that purpose ; first, laying 
 down a concrete floor, then four successive layers of mason's work, and 
 finally, above these, a second floor of concrete ; all this would not be 
 accidentally built over a body previously deposited, for the last floor 
 and the walls rest on the solid rock. 
 
 " On the 29th of July, I received a letter from my friend, John 
 Windele, Esq., of Cork, confirming Mr. Hackett's statements ; and, 
 on the 18th of August following, one from Mr. Odell, stating that he 
 had discovered a second skeleton, so imbedded in the solid work of the 
 tower, he had ' not been able to extract it, but that it can be got out 
 without, ill the slightest degree, interfering with or endangering the 
 foundation, which rests, as I had anticipated, upon the rock.' " 
 
 Similar experiments were made in the foundations of the towers of 
 Cashell, Cloyne, Roscrea, Drumbo, Maghera, and other places. There 
 are sixty of these ancient edifices in Ireland, and two in Scotland, viz., 
 at Brechin and Abernethy ; their general height ranges between ninety 
 and one hundred and twenty feet. Moore says of them, in the con- 
 clusion of his interesting essay, (published, however, previous to the 
 important discoveries made by Sir William Bethain and his friends,) 
 " They [the towers] must therefore be referred to times beyond the 
 reach of historical record." That they were destined originally to 
 religious purposes, can hardly admit of question ; nor can those who 
 have satisfied themselves, from the strong evidence which is found 
 in the writings of antiquity, that there existed between Ireland and 
 some parts of the East an early and intimate intercourse, harbor much 
 doubt as to the real birthplace of the now unknown worship, of which 
 these towers remain the solitary and enduring monuments. 
 
 Some of the round towers have marks of Christianity cut in the 
 door-ways, and in other parts of the building. From this circumstance, 
 certain writers have taken occasion to insist that some of them were 
 built in Christian times ; but, on examination, this will be found un- 
 tenable. We know that the early Christian missionaries adopted the 
 policy of weaving in as many of the previous customs of their converts 
 as, consistent with their principles, they could. For instance, the 
 Baaltine fires, lit up throughout Ireland at midsummer, in honor 
 of Baal, (the sun,) were not suppressed by St. Patrick, but the custom 
 was turned to Christian account, by annexing to it the festival of St. 
 John : thus did they in all countries. These venerated towers were not 
 destroyed, nor the custom of assembling round them abolished ; but 
 
142 IDENTITY OF THE OLD IRISH CASTLES AND EGYPTIAN HOUSES. 
 
 Christian churches were erected close to them, and the Christian rites 
 were performed nearly on the very sites of the pagan sacrifices. Even 
 in our own times, a reverend gentleman in the south of Ireland 
 has erected two round towers on the ancient principle. 
 
 With a view of proving the identity of the early buildings of Ireland 
 and those of Egypt, I present drawings of an old Egyptian house, and 
 of a building which is a specimen of many that are yet to be seen in 
 Ireland. No. 1, I have copied from a drawing presented by Mr. 
 Gliddon in his lectures on Egypt, which he sketched from one of the 
 ancient Egyptian houses to be found in the valley of the Nile. No. 2, 
 I have sketched, according to the impressions made on my memory of 
 an old castle to be found in Ireland, near the banks of the Grand 
 Canal, at the village o( Balateage, about twenty-four miles south-west 
 of Dublin. I have seen this old castle many a time, and have often 
 run up its old stone steps when a boy. The old arched vault is still 
 in perfect order, and over it is a layer of earth, which forms a second 
 floor or story. The roof has long since decayed away, and the upper 
 part of the walls are mouldering slowly.* This castle, like all the others 
 of its kind through Ireland, is supposed to have been erected several 
 centuries ago by a certain Gobbawn Seir, or masonic conjurer, whom 
 popular tradition has linked with every extraordinary or ancient build- 
 in o- of which there is no certain history known. No. 3, is a sketch 
 of the ancient Castle of Carlingford, near Dundalk, in the county 
 Louth. Near this castle is the ruin of an old abbey, which was 
 erected Several ages ago: the castle was then an ancient ruin. There 
 are still lingering in Ireland a few others of those very ancient 
 erections, — one at Kilgobbin, another at Kilcullen, he. There 
 can be no doubt entertained by any man, that they are of Egyptian 
 orio-in, and are nearly coeval in date with similar erections yet found 
 in the valley of the Nile, which gives them an age of better than three 
 thousand years. 
 
 No. 4, is an accurate drawing of a leather sandal, found in the 
 year 1833, by some turf-cutters, deep in the bog near Kilnemnon, 
 in the county Tipperary. I take the engraving and description from 
 Fold's Dublin Magazine, 1834. The gentleman who describes it says, 
 " The drawing is done to life ; the smallest minutia of the carving, 
 and even two cuts, which the sandal unfortunately received from the 
 tools of the workman ere it was discovered, being faithfully delineated. 
 This valuable relic of antiquity is made of leather curiously carved ; 
 * These walls are eight feet thick. 
 
EGYPTIAN SANDAL FOUND IN IRELAND. 143 
 
 and I need not add, that it is well tanned. The possessor is of opinion 
 that it is near a thousand years old." 
 
 I took this drawing to Mr. Gliddon, of whom I have made 
 honorable mention on several previous occasions, to ascertain his 
 opinion as to its origin. He, without hesitation, declared it to be an 
 Egyptian sandal. Mr. Gliddon resided in Egypt three-and-twenty 
 years as the consul of the United States, and, during that time, made 
 the antiquities of that country his favorite study. He pointed out to 
 me, amongst his drawings, the outline or profiles of many Celtic heads, 
 which are still seen chiseled in the monuments of Thebes. He as- 
 sured me that it was the opinion of the learned, who had studied this 
 subject, that these profiles bore so strong a resemblance to the Irish of 
 the present day, that they might be said to be sketches of the living 
 race, instead of their progenitors entableted near four thousand years 
 ago ! 1 could indeed give other engravings of ancient coins, weapons, 
 and ornaments, which will go still farther to prove the immediate rela- 
 tionship of ancient Ireland with Egypt. 
 
CKOMLEAGUS. CAVES. • ] 45 
 
 Here, perhaps, is the best place to introduce the celebrated passage 
 from the Egyptian writer Heccataeus, transcribed by Diodorus the 
 Sicilian, in reference to the "Land of the Hyperboreans," which 
 proves how highly Ireland was then esteemed by the scribes of that 
 great nation. " They say that Latona was born here, [in Ireland,] 
 and, therefore, that they worshipped Apollo above all other gods ; and, 
 because they are daily singing songs in praise of this god, and ascribing 
 to him the highest honors, they say that those inhabitants demean 
 themselves as if they were Apollo's priests, who has here a stately 
 grove and renowned temple of round form, beautified with many rich 
 gifts ; that there is a city likewise consecrated to this god, whose citi- 
 zens are most of them harpers, who, playing on the harp, chant 
 sacred hymns to Apollo in the temple, setting forth his glorious act?. 
 The Hyperboreans use tht ir own natural language ; but, of long and 
 ancient time, have had a special kindness for the Grecians, and more 
 especially for the Athenians, and them of Delos ; and that some of 
 the Grecians passed over to the Hyperboreans, and left behind them 
 divers presents, inscribed with Greek characters ; and that Abaris for- 
 merly travelled from thence into Greece, and renewed the ancient 
 league of friendship with the Delians," &c. 
 
 These drawings, and what I have said respecting them, relate only 
 to the ancient architecture of Ireland. The ages antecedent and 
 subsequent to Christianity gave birth to a different, and a more 
 varied, style, which shall, when we come to the affairs of those ages, 
 be fully considered. 
 
 Under the head of " ancient erections " of Ireland may be ranked 
 the cromleaghs and caves, which were of Phoenicio-Etruscan origin. 
 
 " The Etruscan mode of burial was the most sumptuous and ex- 
 pensive of any ancient nation, except, perhaps, the Egyptians. It 
 does not appear that they embalmed the bodies of the dead, but they 
 hewed out chambers in the natural rock, in which they placed sarcoph- 
 agi of marble, and other stones, and also of burned clay, and placed 
 about them vases and bronzes of great beauty and exquisite taste ; on 
 the bodies they left sumptuous ornaments of gold and precious stones. 
 
 " To give even a sketch of this very interesting portion of the 
 Etruscan remains, would occupy too much space. The object here 
 is merely to make a comparison between the mode of sepulture of 
 the ancient inhabitants of Ireland and those of Italy. 
 
 " The damp climate, and consequent wetness of the soil of Ireland, 
 forbids the general adoption of excavating chambers in the natural 
 19 
 
146 CAVES. 
 
 rock ; nor does the hard stone, of which Irish rocks are, for the most 
 part, composed, admit of such an operation ; while the soft tufa of Italy 
 is peculiarly fitted for the purpose : we cannot, therefore, expect to 
 find many similar chambers in Ireland. The Etruscans, however, had 
 also their large artificial hills, or tumuli, with long galleries, or passages, 
 leading to the centre, where were lofty chambers, formed of large 
 stones of Cyclopian architecture, in which they deposited the mighty 
 dead. 
 
 " The monument, or tumulus, called Cucumella, in the plains of 
 Canino, partakes of the character of the round tower, as well as of 
 the tumulus. It closely resembled Newgrange, Dowth, and many 
 other Irish sepulchral tumuli, as to its external appearance, before it 
 was opened." 
 
 Ireland still presents evidences, in her caves and cromleaghs, of her 
 Phoenicio-Etruscan origin. There are celebrated caves in all parts of 
 the country, some of them evidencing, in the inside, the expenditure 
 of considerable labor and taste. That in the plains of Louth is inlaid 
 with marble, on which figures in basso relievo have been well 
 carved. " St. Patrick's Purgatory " is a narrow cell in one of the 
 islands of Lough Derg. It is hewn out of the solid rock, and was a 
 place of penance, of voluntary imprisonment, which the holy man 
 prepared for himself, and to which he frequently retired as a punish- 
 ment for his sins. Skeheewrinky, near Cahir, is a splendid cave: 
 after descending by a ladder of thirty steps, the visitor can wander for 
 half a mile under ground, and find on every side rocky altars, columns, 
 spires, and architectural ruins, resembling a fallen city. Bally Cassidy, 
 near Enniskillen, is a cave, the dome of which rises to the elevation 
 of twenty-five feet, and the different chambers are adorned with Tuscan 
 columns of limestone. Indeed, in every part of Ireland, there are 
 time-honored caves, to which the enthusiasts in religion or science 
 withdrew, to enkindle in their souls, unimpeded by the gross world 
 without, the celestial fires of that heaven which they worshipped. 
 
 For a further account of Irish architecture, see page 485. 
 In the month of August, 1844, and since the preceding pages were 
 stereotyped, one of those colossal mounds, having a cave beneath, was 
 accidentally opened by some laborers, near Tarbert, on the Kerry side 
 of the Shannon. It is described as a conical hill, two hundred yards 
 from the base to the summit. It is surmounted by an ancient fort. 
 Beneath the summit was discovered a vertical entrance, a common door- 
 way, of about two feet square, and about six feet below the surface. 
 
THE PILLAR TOWERS OF IRELAND. 147 
 
 Five or six persons who had ventured in, one after the other, were suffo- 
 cated by the confined air. At length, when its suffocating properties 
 were somewhat neutraHzed by the admixture of a fresh current, others 
 entered, and having dragged out the lifeless bodies, report that they pro- 
 ceeded through the narrow passage before described, and at the distance 
 oi a few feet were able to stand nearly erect ; they thus advanced 
 through four cellars, each about six feet long, connected, in a circuitous 
 direction, by narrow apertures, the walls of the cellar being formed of 
 grit-stone, overlapping each other. 
 
 Having passed through these, the party reached a straight hall, about 
 twelve feet long, at the end of which the leader (Bunnian) struck upon 
 one of the bodies they were seeking. It is probable that before this 
 book goes to press, some further information may be obtained about the 
 interior of this second Irish pyramid. This discovery, together with the 
 pyramid called New Grange, near Drogheda, discovered only seventy 
 years ago, leaves no longer any doubt that the original settlers of Ireland 
 were from the shores of the Nile. The following beautiful stanzas, by 
 Desmond, in the Dublin Nation, are appropriate : — 
 
 THE PILLAR TOWERS OF IRELAND. 
 
 <' The pillar towers of Ireland — how wondrously they stand, 
 By the lakes and rushing rivers, through the valleys of our land ! 
 In mystic file, through the isle, they lift their heads sublime, 
 These gray old pillar temples — these conquerors of time! 
 Two favorites hath Time — the pyramids of Nile, 
 And the old mystic temples of our own dear isle ; 
 As the breeze o'er tlie seas, where the halcyon has its nest, 
 Passeth Time o'er Egypt's tombs and the temples of the West ! 
 The names of their founders have vanished in the gloom, 
 Like the dry branch in the fire, or the body in the tomb ; 
 But to-day, in the ray, their shadows still tliey cast — 
 These temples of forgotten gods — these relics of the past ! 
 Around these walls have wandered the Briton and the Dane, 
 The captives of Armorica, the cavaliers of Spain, 
 Phoenician and Milesian, and tlie plundering Norman peers, 
 And the swordsmen of brave Brian, and the chiefs of later years ! 
 How many different rites have these gray old temples known ! 
 To the mind what dreams are written in these chronicles of stone ! 
 What terror, and what en-or, what gleams of love and truth, 
 Have flashed from these walls since the world was in its youth! 
 Here blazed the sacred fire ; and, when the sun was gone, 
 As a star from afar, to the traveller it shone ; 
 
 And the warm blood of the victim have these gray old temples drunk, 
 And Uie death-song of the Druid, and the matin of the monk." 
 
148 
 
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LECTURE V. 
 
 Til I'. BAUDS. 
 
 The Banla. — Tlicir iuicu>iit Diitios. — Rospect shown Ihcrii. — Nature of I'octry. 
 
 — Music dofiiicd. — IJards wore cliorislu'd by tl»o Ancionts. — Thoir Modo of 
 hclpinjr llic Memory. — Material of tluMr Books. — Public Ijocturos of the 
 Barda delivered in Reci1,al,ivo. — Helpt^d tli(>ir Voice with tlie Harp, — AcadcMuies 
 of the Bards. — Tlic Barred and Ring. — Bards led Iho Armies to Battle. — 
 Tiieir Jnduencc. — Their Dress. — Value of their Dress. — Their Duties at the 
 Biiriiil of the Dead. — The Caione. — Ijamei\tation over Chucullen's Tomb. — 
 The Ulluhilh, or Irish Cry over the Dead. — Female Voice mingled in the 
 Jianientalion. — Bardesses. — Bards acted as Registrars. — Were taken as Hos- 
 tages. — Blair's Estimate of their Character. — Grew in Nund)ers prodigiously. — 
 Limited by King Hugh in the si.vth Century. — Cohimba, Kille comes from 
 Scotland to plead for them. — Their excessive Numbers prove the poetical 
 and musical Taste of the People. — The Scottisii Bards received tiieij Education 
 in Ireland. — Destruction of Irish poetic Maiuiscri|ils. — Irisli Poetry. — Rules of 
 th(! Poets. — The twenty-four Laws of Irisli Poetry introduced into Wales in 
 the eleventh Century. — The Irish Miist(>rs of every Sort of Versification. — 
 Their Rules adoptt^i by mod(;rn Poets. — Sj)ecinien8 of ancient Irish Poetry. — 
 Irish Triads. — C.^lassified Deliuition of English Versification by Sir R. Piiillips. 
 
 — Oisin the old Bard of Erin. — Learne<I Disputes about his Poems. — Homer's 
 •subject to similar Disjjutes. — Oisin n\{ Irisliuiati. — The most l(>arned Men 
 jidiuit it. — Macplierson's Translation. — (^iiariuM.er of Macpherson. — Speci- 
 mens of the Oisiauic Poetry. — Eionmaccounduill's Advice to jiis Son. — 
 Oisin's Lamentation for the Loss of his Sight. 
 
 Ouii idea of a bard difTors inatorially from llial cnl.(Mtaincd by our 
 Milesian forefathers. By us, llio bard is vieweil as a wandorinuj rhyinor, 
 songster, or sonio eccentric person of that nature. Hut in llie early 
 ages of Ireland, ami durini; lur long career of independence, the bard 
 was esteemed a most important ofilcer. In his pen-son were imited tho 
 attributes and functions of historian, legislator, judo(», poet, and niusi- 
 
152 RESPECT SHOWN THE BARDS. NATURE OF POETRY. 
 
 cian, and sometimes the functions also of Druid. From the very 
 first settlement of the Milesians in Ireland, the bard was viewed by the 
 people with the highest respect. In the reign of the enlightened Irish 
 king Tigernmass, about nine hundred years before Christ, the high 
 respect entertained for the bardic order was distinctly marked in the 
 sumptuary laws established by that monarch to regulate the colors in 
 the people's dress. That celebrated law limited the common people 
 and soldiery to one color ; military officers and private gentlemen to 
 two colors ; commanders of battalions to three colors ; beataghs, or 
 keepers of houses of hospitality, to four; the principal nobility and 
 knights to five ; and the ollamhs, or dignified bards, to six ; whilst 
 to the king seven colors, and no more, were permitted. This law, while 
 it marked distinctly the respect rendered to the bards, ranking them 
 next to royalty itself, proves, at the same time, the order which, in that 
 remote age, prevailed amongst the ancient Irish, and establishes, beyond 
 the power of calumniators to deny, the science and taste which must 
 have been called into action, to supply the public appetite for those 
 various colors. The Franks, or French, in the time of Pepin, adopt- 
 ed this custom from the Irish, and have continued it from that time to 
 the present. The many-colored garments of the French are to be 
 traced to the Irish custom here noted. Walker, reflecting on this 
 law, asks, with patriotic exultation, " Can ■ that nation be deemed 
 unenlightened or barbarous, in which learning shared the honors next 
 to royalty ? Warlike as the Irish were in those days, even arms were 
 less respected amongst them than letters. Read this, ye polished 
 nations of the earth, and blush ! " 
 
 In all ages, and in every nation, poetiy and music were ever held m 
 estimation. Every man is more or less a poet or musician, and is 
 affected more or less with the one or the other expression of human 
 feeling, in proportion as his physical and mental faculties are natural^ 
 healthy, developed, and cultivated. Poetry is the regulated efferves- 
 cence of the brain ; it is part of the excitement which takes place 
 beyond the demands for natural wants, and thus displays itself in 
 flights called imagination ; those flights are often eccentric, and produce 
 evil. But " good poetry," says Sir R. Phillips, " is the able display 
 o^ feeling; and good prose, the able display o{ fact, correct reasoning, 
 and acquired knowledge." 
 
 Music is the more sublimated expression of human feeling ; its 
 effect depends upon the power and variation of the sounds which con- 
 vey it. Music may be defined an agreeable stream of well-con- 
 
BARDS CHERISHED BY THE ANCIENTS. 153 
 
 trasted sounds, formed by the standard of the human voice in a natural 
 key, continually varying from that to a lower or higher pitch, but 
 uttered in a manner agreeably to the organs of hearing, or the seat of 
 sensations in the brain. Music, like language, delights in simple 
 sounds ; yet refinement, as it proceeds, sanctions a skilful deviation from 
 simple sounds^ as the acme of science. An ear accustomed or edu- 
 cated to these deviations must be continually fed by the like sounds, 
 for it sickens at the pure voice of nature. In the same way does the 
 physical appetite of one, who has been fed from childhood on food tor- 
 tured from its natural flavor by every imaginable invention, sicken 
 against plain meats in their original elements. 
 
 In the next section, I shall enter more fully into the subject of 
 MUSIC ; the present is devoted to the " bards." 
 
 Ancient Ireland was surpassed by no nation on the earth in political, 
 literary, and religious institutions. The bards, as heads of education, 
 and administrators of laws, were a privileged and an influential class. 
 They were greatly respected by the ancients of every nation. The 
 Egyptians and PhcBnicians honored them highly ; and the Greeks 
 and Romans — pupils of those learned nations — honored their bards 
 after the custom of their great teachers. Even Alexander the Great 
 was accompanied by a bard, Cherijlus, who received a piece of gold 
 for every good verse, and a blow for every bad one. Our great 
 Irish bard Oisin speaks of a king* who kept one hundred bards in his 
 court. 
 
 As books were very scarce in those ancient times, the bards turned 
 their histories and laws into poetic or rhyming metre, the more easily to 
 fasten them in the memories of the hrehons (judges) and legislators. 
 Some classes of the bards were required to recite from memory the 
 genealogies and history of twenty kings. Others were required to 
 recite in verse the whole history of Ireland, including all the laws and 
 battles that had taken place from the first landing of the Milesians to 
 their own times. These exercises must have wonderfully increased the 
 power of their memories. Their academical discipline enjoined that, 
 on every new day, the business of the preceding should be rehearsed, 
 the conversations and exercises renewed, till all that was deemed most 
 valuable was stamped indelibly on the leaves of memory. It was the 
 practice of those learned men to store their heads with knowledge. 
 The learned of our aays keep their knowledge packed in their libraries. 
 
 The bards wrote on the inner bark of the beech-tree. The term 
 book was derived from bench, a beech-tree. The book of Dedan, 
 * Cormac, in the third century. 
 
154 MATERIAL OF THEIR BOOKS. 
 
 written in Ireland before the Christian era, which was deposited by 
 James the Second in the College of Paris, is of that material. The 
 Egyptians cut their laws and histories on stone. They also wrote them 
 on leaves of the papyrus plant. The Phoenicians engraved on bronze 
 tables ; the Romans on ivory ; and the Irish on wood, iron, bark, and 
 the skins of beasts. Parchment volumes were commonly rolled on a 
 stick having a ball at each end ; the composition began at the centre. 
 These were called " volumes," and the outsides were inscribed just as 
 we now letter books. Flatted horn and thin plates of brass were used 
 in religious recitals, and in schools. The horn-book of our nurseries is 
 a primitive book. Parchment volumes were scarce ; they frequently 
 sold for double their weight in gold. Information was communicated 
 to assemblies by the bard, as it now is by the lecturer. He recited, in 
 sweetly-modulated tones and in metre, the deeds of kings, heroes, ad- 
 venturers, mariners at sea, the relations which the stars bore towards 
 each othej', &ic. 
 
 All they deemed worth preserving, in science, law, or worship, was 
 committed to verse, and, through the sweet medium of poetry, con- 
 ducted to the heart, and marked on the memory. 
 
 Each succeeding generation of the Milesian family recognized the 
 attributes and authority of the " bard," as a legislator, an administrator 
 of the law, poet, historian, and instructor of youth. Occasionally their 
 voices were accompanied by an instrument — the harp, most likely, as 
 that instrument was very generally in use, in those ages, in Ireland. 
 
 We are told by the Abbe Dubois, an old French writer, that the 
 early Grecian and Roman orators, in their public orations, sustained 
 their voices by musical accompaniments. Thales, the Cretan legislator, 
 conveyed his precepts in verse, and sung them to his lyre. In Ireland, 
 there were places set apart for the educatiori of the " bards." These 
 sacred recesses of study were generally sunk in sequestered woods. 
 The eye of day was excluded, and learners studied by the light of 
 tapers, torches, and lamps. The ollnmh studied twelve yeai-s, each three 
 of which were devoted to a chief branch of science. It was in those 
 primary recesses of learning that the Druids instructed the bards. The 
 diet and dress of the students were regulated by the most rigid rules of 
 prudence. The attractions and lures of pleasure were strictly kept 
 away from these homes of study ; all was peaceful, silent, and awful ; 
 here the troubles of the world found no entrance ; here genius was 
 fostered, and the soul sublimed. 
 
 In after ages, colleges of extensive dimensions were founded on these 
 
ACADEMIES OF THE BARDS. 155 
 
 principles in Ireland. Clogher, Armagh, Lismore, and Tamour, were 
 amongst the chief seats of learning. The regulations of those primary 
 seats of literature were afterwards copied by the universities of France, 
 Germany, and England. The bard, thus educated for about twelve 
 years, received his degree as ollamh, or doctor, when the square cap, 
 or barred, was put on his head, and a ring on his finger, in token of his 
 learning and station ; and these insignia of the learned are continued to 
 our own time, especially in the ecclesiastical customs of the Christian 
 church. The square cap, worn by modern ecclesiastics in the pulpit 
 Sec, is the barred of the ancient Irish. 
 
 There were several orders of bards. The most learned were ad- 
 mitted into the order of the Druids, which was the highest of all. 
 They were trained to arms, and, though not bearing arn)S in the field, 
 joined in every battle, exciting the warriors, by singing the praises and 
 glories of their fathers. Their persons were held sacred by all sides ; 
 it was a sort of sacrilege to injure them in person, property, or repu- 
 tation. They animated the troops, before and during an engagement, 
 with Rusga-Catha, — the inspiring war-song, — and, when they shook 
 the " chain of silence," contending armies stopped the battle, and 
 listened to the voice of negotiation. They were the heralds and 
 constant attendants, in the field of battle, of the chiefs whom they 
 served, marching at the head of their armies, arrayed in white flowing 
 robes, harps glittering in their hands, and their persons surrounded 
 with a staff of vocal and instrumental musicians. While the battle 
 raged, they stood apart, and watched, in security, every action of the 
 chief. Their business on the field of danger was as much to record 
 the noble deeds of their chiefs, as to stimulate them by the ani- 
 mating strains of their martial music. 
 
 "The Muse her piercing glances throws around, 
 And quick discovers every worthy deed." 
 
 It was the province of one of these bardic orders, the Jilea, to 
 mark the backsliding of his chief, and correct any tendency to evil he 
 might discover in him. Mr. O'Conor, of Belenagar, says, that these 
 bards were supposed by the common people to be gifted with the 
 power of prophecy ; and this delusion was favored and encouraged by 
 the military chieftains, in whose interest they exerted their extraordinary 
 influence over the p3ople in the various struggles for governmental 
 sway, which then, as now, possessed the hearts of men. 
 
 The dress of these bards, as I have said, consisted of a white flowing 
 
156 DRESS OF THE BARDS. 
 
 toga, or cotJia, hung loosely over their shoulders, bound by a girdle 
 round the loins. The cotha of the Irish was the toga of the Romans. 
 The limbs were encased in a thruise, made of weft, which fitted so 
 closely, that the action of the muscles could readily be seen through 
 the web. This thruise went down to the ankles, where it was tightly 
 fastened, and there was observable, in stripes, the exact number of 
 colors peculiar to his order. He wore his beard long, and his flowing 
 locks, which reached over his neck and shoulders, were bound round by 
 a golden fillet. "His harp, in good grace, was pendent before him. 
 And thus in a moment of inspiration does he move. 
 
 "He is entranced. The fillet bursts that bound 
 His liberal locks. His snowy vestments fall 
 In ampler folds ; and all his floating form 
 Doth seem to glisten Avith divinity !'" 
 
 The value of a bard's dress was fixed by a royal ordinance of Mogha 
 Nuadhad, one hundred and eighty years after Christ, at five milch cows, 
 which would equal fifty pounds of present British currency. There 
 are frequent allusions in this ordinance to the " old laws," which prove 
 that, in very remote ages, this matter was attended to by the kings. 
 We see, from the whole train of Iiish history, that this order of men 
 possessed a very considerable influence in the affairs of Ireland. They 
 appeared to be, in those early ages, the models and the censors of 
 society. Their duty, as expressed by one of their order, was, to 
 
 "Applaud the valiant, and the base control, 
 Disturb, exalt, enchant, the human soul!" 
 
 Another office, performed by the bard with pomp and circumstance, 
 was the ceremony of lamentation at the burial of the dead. When a 
 prince or a chief fell in battle, or died by the course of nature, " the 
 stones of his fame" were raised amid the voices of bards. On this 
 occasion, the Druid having performed the rites prescribed by religion, 
 and the pedigree of the deceased being recited aloud by his seanachai, 
 the caione, or funeral song, (composed and set to music for the 
 occasion,) was sung in recitativo over his grave by a racaraide, or 
 rhapsodist, who occasionally sustained his voice, with arpeggios swept 
 over the strings of his harp ; the symphonic parts of this solemn 
 ceremony being performed by minstrels who chanted a chorus at inter- 
 vals, in which they were joined responsively by other attending bards, 
 the relations and friends of the deceased mingling their sighs and 
 tears. 
 
LAMENTATION OVER CHUCULLEn's TOMB. 157 
 
 The following lamentation of the bards over Chucullen's tomb, as 
 translated into English, will give an idea of the soul they infused 
 into their compositions : — 
 
 " By the dark rolling waves of Lego, ^ 
 
 They raised the hero's tomb, Luath; 
 At a distance lie the companions 
 Of ChucuUen at the chase. 
 Blest be thy soul, son of Semo ! 
 Thou wert mighty in battle! 
 Thy strength was like the strength 
 Of a stream ; thy speed like the eagle's wing. 
 Thy path in the battle was terrible; 
 The steps of death were behind thy sword. 
 Blest be thy soul, son of Semo! 
 Thou hast not fallen by the sword of the mighty; 
 Neither was thy blood on the spear of the valiant. 
 The arrow came, like the sting 
 Of death, in a blast; nor did 
 The feeble hand which drew the bow 
 Perceive it. Peace to thy soul in thy cave, 
 Chief of the Isle of Mist! 
 The mighty are dispersed, O Mora! 
 There is none in Cormac's hall: 
 The king mourns in his youth, for 
 He does not behold thy coming. 
 The sound of thy shield is ceased ; 
 His foes are gathering round: 
 Soft be thy rest, in thy cave, chief of Erin's wars. 
 Bragcla will not hope thy return, 
 Or see thy sails in ocean's foam; 
 Her steps are not on the shore, nor 
 Her ear open to the voice of thy rowers. 
 She sits in the hall of shells,* and sees 
 The arms of him that is no more. 
 Thine eyes are full of tears, daughter 
 Of car-borne Sorglars. 
 Blest be thy soul in death, O chief of shady Cromla." 
 
 The custom was founded in sound policy. The bards were directed 
 to seize on the solemn occasion of interments to soothe the tumultuous 
 passions of human nature, and to impress on the minds of their hearers 
 a reverence and imitation of virtue, or what in those heathenish days 
 
 Hall of music ; so called from various musical shells used by the ancients ; 
 the musical principles of which have been imitated in modern brass instruments. 
 
158 IRISH CRY OVER THE DEAD. 
 
 was deemed virtue. They dwelt on the excellences and heroism of 
 the deceased, recounting all his acts of humanity and valor ; closing 
 every stanza with some remarkable epithet of their hero. Walker 
 observes on this custom, " David's lamentation for Jonathan, and the 
 conclamaiio over the Phoenician Dido, as described by Virgil, coincide 
 with the caione, or Irish cry : the ululuh of the Irish, and the Greek 
 word of the same import, are exactly alike." 
 
 This ceremony was considered of such moment that the man to 
 whom it was denied was deemed accursed, and his ghost supposed to 
 wander through the woods bewailing his miserable fate. Thus the 
 woods and wilds became peopled with shadowy beings, whose cries 
 were supposed to be heard in the piping winds, and the banshee's moans 
 were believed to mingle in the terrific lamentation, 
 
 " Deepening the murmur of the falling floods, 
 And breathing browner horrors on the woods." 
 
 The melting sweetness of the female voice was deemed necessary 
 in the chorus of the funeral song. Women, whose vocal powers gave 
 effect to the voice of song, were taken from every class of life, and 
 instructed in all the music then practised. 
 
 The cur sios, or elegiac measure, was chiefly taught them, that they 
 might assist in heightening the melancholy which that solemn ceremony 
 was calculated to inspire. 
 
 Mr. O'Halloran says it was ever considered that a fine female voice, 
 modulated by sensibility, is beyond comparison the sweetest and most 
 melting sound in art or nature. 
 
 It appears, in every age of our country's history, that women exer- 
 cised an active influence in the political and social government of 
 society. They cultivated and nourished music and poetry as a passion. 
 They often employed those divine powers in softening the manners of 
 the men, rendered harsh by the practices of the camp and the battle- 
 field. What an unbounded influence must those arts, united with the 
 irresistible sway of female beauty, have given the women of those ages 1 
 Accordingly we find them guiding, in secret, the helm of the state, and 
 proving the primary cause of great revolutions. While embattled ranks 
 waited the arrival of expected invaders, women often passed through the 
 lines, animating the soldiery with suitable war-songs, accompanying their 
 voices with cruits, or portable harps. On such occasions, if the danger 
 was imminent, they appeared in black, and assumed a frantic air : — 
 
BARDS. BLAIr's ESTIMATE OF THEIR CHARACTER. 159 
 
 " Througrh our ranks 
 
 Our sacred sisters rushed, in sable robes, 
 With hair dishevelled, and funeral brands 
 Hurled round with menacing fury ! " 
 
 When armies returned, in triumph, from foreign wars or domestic 
 battles, troops of virgins, clad in white, each bearing a small harp in her 
 band, advanced with a tripping step to meet them, with congratulatory 
 
 songs : — 
 
 " With the voice of songs and the harp, 
 They will hail their heroes." 
 
 These influences proved strong incentives to valor ; and its universal 
 practice throughout Ireland could have no other effect than that of pro- 
 ducing, which it did, a nation of heroes. 
 
 A further duty of the bard was to fix the degree of honor won by his 
 chief, or that realized by his ancestors. An officer for registering the 
 titles and honors of nobility is still continued in Ireland for each of the 
 four provinces. One of these is Sir William Betham, the ablest scholar 
 and most profound antiquarian in Europe. The bards were deemed of 
 so much consequence in the state, that they were sometimes accepted as 
 hostages. Aodh-Dubh, king of Munster, would not consent to the in- 
 vestiture of Aodh-Caomh, in the sixth century, till he delivered up 
 hostages to him : this was agreed to, and Breannin, the abbot of Clonfert, 
 with M Lenin, the bard, were delivered up as sureties. It is no wonder 
 that the bards were held in this high estimation. It was through their 
 means only, that the prince, or chieftain, could hope for immortality to 
 his fame. The bard mingled in every social and convivial circle. 
 Without him the feast, however luxuriantly spread, would prove insipid. 
 Blair, noticing the respect paid to them by the Irish, says, " So strong 
 was the attachment of the Celtic nations to their poetry and their bards, 
 that, amidst all the changes of their government and manners, even long 
 after the Druids were extinct, and the national religion altered from the 
 worship of the sun to the worship of its Creator, the bards continued to 
 flourish ; not as a set of strolling songsters, like the Greek rhapsodists 
 in Homer's time, but as an order of men highly respected in the state, 
 and supported by a public establishment. We find them, according to 
 the testimonies of Strabo and Diodorus, before the age of Augustus 
 Caesar ; and we find them remaining under the same name, and exer- 
 cising the same functions, as of old, in Ireland and in the north of 
 Scotland, almost down to our own times." After the introduction of 
 Christianity, some of our bards acted in the double capacity of bards and 
 
160 THE BARDS GREW IN NUMBERS PRODIGIOUSLY. 
 
 clergymen. As late as the thirteenth century, we find Donchad O'Daly, 
 abbot of Boyle, excelling all the other bards of his time in the hymnal 
 species of poetry. In the next section I shall show the share which 
 the bards and the early Christian fathers took in the cultivation of music. 
 
 Invested with honors, wealth, and power, says Walker ; endowed 
 with extraordinary privileges, which no other subject presumed to claim ; 
 possessed of an art which, by soothing the mind, acquires an ascendency 
 over it ; respected, by the great, for their learning, and reverenced almost 
 to adoration, by the vulgar, for their knowledge of the secret composition 
 and hidden harmony of the universe, the bards became, in the reign 
 of Hugh, about A. D. 560, intolerably insolent and corrupt, and their 
 order a national grievance. They arrogantly demanded the golden 
 buckle and pin which fastened the royal robes upon the monarch's 
 breast, and had been, for many generations, the jewelled associates of 
 the crown. They lampooned the nobility, and were guilty of several 
 immoralities, and not only grew burdensome to the state, but increased 
 so prodigiously, that the mechanic arts languished from want of artif- 
 icers, and agriculture from want of husbandmen. Many regulations 
 had been put into operation, during the reign of several monarchs, to 
 restrain them ; and the monarch (Hugh) called an assembly of the 
 estates in Donegal, principally to expel them from the kingdom, and 
 abolish the whole order. But, at the intercession of St. Columba 
 Kille, who came, with a considerable deputation from Scotland, (then 
 a colony of Ireland,) to attend this assembly, he spared the order, 
 but reduced its numbers, allowing only to each provincial prince, and 
 to each lord of a cantred, one registered ollamh, who was sworn 
 to employ his talents to no other purpose but the glory of the Deity, 
 the honor of his country, of its heroes, of its females, and of his 
 own patron. 
 
 The Welsh bards grew so arrogant, in the times of Griffudd ap Cy- 
 nan, (twelfth century,) that it became necessary to control them by a 
 law, which restrained them from asking for the prince's horse, hawk, or 
 greyhound. 
 
 The excessive number of the Irish bards, and the very laws passed, 
 in later ages, to limit and control them, prove the pervading taste of the 
 Irish nation for poetry and music, during a long succession of ages. 
 This prominent attribute in our national character, together with count- 
 less facts, well attested, that history has left us, which shall be presented 
 as I proceed, must establish for Ireland, in the minds of all unprejudiced 
 men, her claim to be ranked the school of Western Europe in poetry 
 
SCOTTISH BARDS RECEIVED THEIR EDUCATION IN IRELAND. 161 
 
 and music. In the celebrated letter of Dr. Macpherson to Blair, there is 
 a long and interesting account given of the bards of the MDonald, the 
 most eminent of the chieftain race of Scotland. The genealogy of the 
 family hard is traced back through nineteen generations. They had 
 lands and pay appropriated to their use by their patron, the M'Donald. 
 Their duty was to continue the family record, the deeds of the chief, 
 the intermarriages with other families, the history of the national wars, 
 and general vicissitudes of the clans ; to make periodical visitations, 
 every three years, to all the branches of the chieftain's family ; to enter 
 and correct records of the births, marriages, deaths, survivorships, 
 transfer of lands, &c. These entries were taken as evidences, in all 
 courts of law, in Scotland, Leland, and Wales, down to a modern epoch. 
 That which more especially deserves our notice, in this interesting rem- 
 iniscence, is the closing remark of Dr. Macpherson, himself a Scotch- 
 man : " The last of the race was a man of letters, and had, like his 
 ancestors, received his education in Ireland, and knew Latin tolerably 
 well." — See Macpherson's letter to Dr. Blair. 
 
 Many of the most sublime pieces of our ancient poetry are lost, never 
 to be retrieved. Our poetic gatherings have been destroyed at thi-ee 
 periods in our history. The first took place in the fifth century, at the 
 introduction of Christianity, by St. Patrick, who burnt all poetic compo- 
 sitions not embracing laws or history ; the second during the tempo- 
 rary subjection of the Irish to the Danes, in the ninth century, when a 
 general destruction of the national poetry, as well as schools and colleges, 
 took place, under the direction of the Danish chiefs ; and the third in 
 the sixteenth century, at the terrible period of the reformation, when 
 the sacking of convents and the burning of whole libraries were the 
 ruffian occupation of British soldiers and adventurers. 
 
 Through all those vicissitudes, there were some children of poetry, in 
 whose hearts the godlike fire could not be extinguished, who, like Cagsar, 
 when, pitched from his bark into the current of the Delta, he buf- 
 feted the struggling surge with one hand, while /vith the other he bore 
 his Commentaries above the waves in triumph to the shore, clung, 
 with a death-struggle, to the poetic remains of their heroic ancestors. 
 
 The attention of the most learned has, in latter years, been turned 
 to the nature and construction of Irish poetry. It was found in the old 
 Irish code of poetic rules, entitled Uiraicecht na Neagir, (Rules for a 
 Poet,) that the most extensive, exact, and minute laws were laid down 
 for the government of their poetic compositions. Dr. Molloy says, 
 the construction and variety of Irish metre are the most difficult he had 
 21 
 
162 IRISH POETRY. RULES OF THE POETS. 
 
 ever seen or heard of. In its composition, these things are required — 
 number, quartans, number of syllables, concords, correspondence, ter- 
 mination, union, and caput ; the subdivisions of all which are again 
 minute and perplexing. The authors of that able work on the poetry 
 and music of Wales, entitled the Myvyrian Archaeology, published un- 
 der the superintendence of the society of Welsh antiquarians, enter on 
 a profound inquiry into this subject. 
 
 Referring to a second era in Welsh poetry and music, (the twelfth 
 century,) on which those learned antiquarians pause to comment, they 
 bring forward the great and broad fact, that " from Ireland [in that cen- 
 tury] was brought into Wales, by Griffudd ap Cynan, certain cunning 
 musicians and bards, well skilled in poetry and music ; and then was 
 established twenty-four elementary principles of versification : these, 
 with their subdivisions, [say the authors,] include every species of 
 
 TERSE THAT HAS EVER YET, IN ANY AGE, Or AMONGST ANY PEOPLE, 
 BEEN PRODUCED, BESIDES A PRODIGIOUS NUMBER OF ORIGINAL CON- 
 STRUCTIONS, WHICH CAN BE FOUND WITH NO OTHER PEOPLE." The 
 
 learned Wormius, who wrote in the sixteenth century, speaks iri 
 wondering terms of the pupil of a learned Scot, (the Irish were, in 
 those ages, called Scots,) who was master of no fewer than one, 
 hundred different kinds of verse, with the musical modulation of 
 words and syllables, which included letters, figures, poetic feet, 
 tones, and tune. Macpherson says of the poetry belonging to the 
 era of Oisin, (the third century,) " Each verse was so connected 
 with those which preceded or followed it, that, if one line had been 
 remembered in a stanza, it was almost impossible to forget the rest. 
 The cadences followed in so natural a gradation, and the words were so 
 adapted to the natural turn of the voice, after it is raised to a certain 
 key, that it was almost impossible, from a similarity of sound, to substi- 
 tute one word for another. This excellence is peculiar to the Celtic 
 tongue, and, perhaps, is to be met with in no other language. Nor does 
 this choice of words clog the sense, or weaken the expression. The 
 numerous flections of consonants, and variation in declension, make the 
 language very copious." 
 
 Here must the reader, if he have Irish blood streaming in his veins, 
 be forced, as I have been, to pause in admiration of those almost for- 
 gotten forefathers, and to lament, for human nature's sake, the existence 
 of that ignorance, or that prejudice, which, in our days, refuses to them 
 the deserved distinction of a refined and intellectual reputation. 
 
 The refined poetry which the Irish produced, from the second to the 
 
THEIR RULES ADOPTED BY MODERN POETS. 163 
 
 ninth century, is at once a monument of their learning and their culti- 
 vated taste. The critical rules laid down for the construction of poetry, 
 by Alexander Pope, in modem times, were understood and developed, 
 fifteen hundred years ago, by the poets of Erin. 
 
 ««'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence; 
 The sound must seem an echo to the sense. 
 When Ajax strives some rocKs vast weight to throw, 
 The line too labors, and the words move slow. 
 Not so when swift Camilla scours tlie plain, 
 Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main." 
 
 Pope. 
 
 The principle in poetic composition so expressly recommended by 
 Pope was, as we have seen, understood, practised, and taught, by the 
 men who have, with equal charity and truth, been described, by some 
 English writers, as semibarbarous. 
 
 Spirit of tlie godlike Oisin ! 
 
 Whene'er you wander o'er Temora's ruins, 
 
 Along tliy radiant pathway in the clouds, 
 
 Look down upon those slanderers 
 
 With heaven-created scorn! 
 
 And smite the reptiles back 
 
 Into that hell from whence alone 
 
 They e'er could have emerged! 
 
 This may be the best place to give a few specimens of the ancient 
 Irish rhyme, which I take from Logan and others. 
 
 " In Gaelic poetry, the rhythm sometimes consists in the similarity of 
 the last words of the first and third, and second and fourth lines, as in 
 English composition, thus : — 
 
 *Measg aoibhneis an talla nam fear 
 Mar so thog cronan am fonn 
 Dh'eirich maduinn a, soills' o'n ear 
 Bughorm air an lear, an tonn.' 
 
 Carraig Thwa, ver. 195. 
 
 " In the stanza which immediately follows this, the rhymes are in the 
 last syllables, but the final consonants are not alike, the harmony de- 
 pending on the concord of the vowels. 
 
16^ 
 
 DESCRIPTIONS or VERSIFICATION. 
 
 *Ghairm an righ a shiuil gu crann; 
 Thanig gaoth a nail o'n Chruaich: 
 Dh'eirich Innis-Thorc gu mall; 
 Is Carraig Thura iul nan stuadh.' 
 
 Here the correspondence is in the a in the first and third lines, and in 
 the ua in the second and fourth. 
 
 " Sometimes the conformity between the last word of a line, and some 
 word or part of a word about the middle of the following line, constituted 
 the rhyme ; as, 
 
 ' 'Suaigneach m' aigne 'n uaimh mo bhroin ; 
 'Smor mo leon fo laimh na h'aois. 
 Ossag 'tha gastar o Thuath 
 Na dean tuasaid ruim 'smi lag.' 
 
 Morduth. 
 
 " The above three sorts of rhyme are often found in one composition, 
 intermixed with couplets rhyming as softly and perfectly as in modem 
 Italian ; for example : — 
 
 ' Soilsichibh Srad air Druim feinne 
 'Sthig mo laoich o ghruaigh gach beinne.' 
 
 Morduth. 
 
 " Some of the most beautiful passages in old Gaelic poetry are, how- 
 ever, a sort of blank verse, having no rhyme. It appears that the bards 
 sought, in this case, no more than to render every line perfect, with- 
 out any dependence on the next, of which the following 'War Song* 
 furnishes specimens. 
 
 'A mhacain cheann, 
 
 J^an cursan strann, 
 
 Ard leumnach, righ rCd!n sleagh! 
 
 Lamh threin ^sguch cas 
 
 Croidhe ard gun sc&. 
 
 Ceann airm nan rinn gear girt, 
 
 Gearr sios gu has, 
 
 Gun bharc sheol ban 
 
 Ehi snamh ma dhubh Innishtore. 
 
 Mar tharnanech hhavil 
 
 Do bhuill, a laoich! 
 
 Do shuU mar chaoir ad cheann^ 
 
 Mar charaic chruin, 
 
 Offspring of the chiefs, 
 
 Of snorting steeds, high bounding ! 
 
 King of spears ! 
 
 Strong arm in every trial! 
 
 Ambitious heart without dismay. 
 
 Chief of the host of severe sharp- 
 
 Cut down to death, [pointed weapons, 
 
 So that no white-sailed bark 
 
 May float round dark Innistore. 
 
 Like the destroying thunder 
 
 Be thy stroke, O hero ! 
 
 Thy forward eye like the flaming bolt ; 
 
 As tlae firm rock, 
 
SPECIMENS OP ANCIENT IRISH POETRY. 165 
 
 Do cTiroidhe gun roinn. Unwavering be thy heart; 
 
 Mar lassan oidhch do lann. As the flame of night be thy sword. 
 
 Cum suar do scia Uplift thy shield, 
 
 Is crobhhui nial Of the hue of blood. 
 
 Mar chih bho reul a bhaish, As you see his death shall be real. 
 
 A mliacain cheann Offspring of the chiefs 
 
 JVan cursan strann, Of snorting steeds, 
 
 Sgrios naimhde sios gu lar. Cut down the foes to eartL'" 
 
 " The ease with which the language is rendered harmonious is the 
 cause that there are so few bad verses in Gaehc. Many of the sweet- 
 est lyrics have no other rhyme than the frequent sound of a single 
 vowel or diphthong running throughout the stanza, with hardly any 
 regularity of situation. 
 
 'A nighean donn na buaile 
 
 — * 
 
 Gam bheil an gluasad farusd 
 
 Gun tug mi gaol co buan difit 
 
 'Snach gluais e air an Earrach so 
 
 Mheall thu mi le d' shughradli, 
 
 Le d' bhriodal a's le d' chuine 
 
 Lub thu mi mar fhiuran 
 
 'Scha duchas domii bhi fallain uaith.' 
 
 Anon, 
 
 "In singing or playing these compositions, the rhyming vowels are 
 apparent, and prove the harmony of the measure. The Aged Bard's 
 Wish is probably older than the introduction of Christianity among 
 the Gael, for he displays his belief in the ancient Celtic theology, and 
 anticipates the joys that await him in the elysium of the bards — in the 
 hall of Ossian, and of Daol. It shows that, at a very early period, 
 harmony of numbers was sedulously studied. There is a beautiful 
 poetical translation of this piece by Mrs. Grant ; for the literal version 
 of the stanzas quoted, I am indebted to the author of Melodies from 
 the Gaelic. 
 
 'THE AGED BARD'S WISH. 
 
 *Ocairibh mi ri taobh nan allt 
 A shiubhlas mall le ceumaibh ciuin. 
 ' Fo sgail a bharraich leag mo cheann 
 
 'S bith thus a ghrian ro chairdeil rium. 
 
166 SPECIMENS OF ANCIENT IRISH POETRY. 
 
 Gu socair sin 's an f heur mo thaobh 
 Air bruaich na'n dithean.'snan gaoth tla, 
 Mo chos ga slioba sa bhraon mhaoth, 
 Se luba thairis caoin tren bhlar. 
 
 Biodh sobhrach bhan is ailli snuadh 
 M'an cuairt do ra' thulaich, 'suain fo dhriuchd, 
 'San neonain bheag 's mo lamb air chluain 
 'San ealbhuigh mo chluas gu cur.' 
 
 Translation. 
 
 *0 lay me by the streams tliat glide, 
 With gentle murmurs soft and slow; 
 Let spreading boughs my temples hide ; 
 Thou sun, thy kindest beams bestow. 
 
 And be a bank of flowers my bed, 
 
 My feet laved by a wandering rill: 
 Ye winds, breathe gently round my head; 
 
 Bear balm from wood, and vale, and hill. 
 
 Thou primrose pale, with modest air, 
 
 Thou daisy white, of grateful hue. 
 With other flowers, as sweet and fair, 
 
 Around me smile through amber dew.'" 
 
 There was a very peculiar measure of poetry in great favor with the 
 ancient Irish, called a triad, connecting three lines in a special har- 
 mony. Cormac, king of Ireland, in the third century, wrote a cele- 
 brated work in this measure, called, by his Latin contemporaries, De 
 Triadibus ; this work was very highly applauded by the old writers. 
 Of the philosophic, the elegant Cormac, who rebuilt the halls of Tara 
 iin carved marble, I shall have much to say in its place. He was the 
 Pericles of Ireland ! and yet who knows any thing of him ? 
 
 Fingal, the father of Oisin, wrote triads. Camden mentions a Welsh 
 \\()rk, Triadiim Liber, and there are others yet existing. Thomas 
 Davis, of the Nation, the present war bard of Erin, wrote the 
 celebrated lament over Father Tyrell's grave partly in that measure ; 
 and perhaps, than it, there never was any composition in the English 
 language which produced amongst the people so deep a feeling of com- 
 bined sorrow and revenge. The circumstances which caused the death 
 
TRIAD VERSIFICATION. 167 
 
 of Father Tyrell will be related under the head of the " State Trials " 
 of 1844. — I give a specimen of the lament over the martyr. 
 
 "A MARTYR'S BURIAL. 
 
 " And shall we bend and bear forever ? 
 And shall no time our bondage sever? 
 And shall we kneel, and battle never 
 For our own soil ? 
 
 And shall our tyrants safely reign 
 On thrones built up of slaves and slain, 
 And nought to us and ours remain. 
 But chains and' toil.'' 
 
 No ! round this grave our oath we plight. 
 To watch, and labor, and unite, 
 Till banded be the nation's might, 
 Its spirit steeled ! 
 
 And then, collecting all oiu* force, 
 We'll cross oppression in its course, 
 And die, or all our rights enforce 
 Upon the field." 
 
 This is another evidence of the knowledge of human passion which 
 our great forefathers acquired by the cultivation of mind. Here are we, 
 in the blaze of the nineteenth century, — after poetry has been, for the 
 past fifteen hundred years, twisted and tortured into a thousand forms 
 and fashions, even as ladies change their dresses, — confessing, by our 
 imitation and adoption of their style and rules, their intellectual power. 
 
 I regret the limits of this work will not permit me to give more of 
 those specimens. The lover of genuine poetry will find in Hardiman's 
 Minstrelsy, Walker's Irish Bards, Bunting's Collection, Moore's immor- 
 tal Melodies, the Green Book, Spirit of the Nation, specimens of every 
 style of Irish poetry ; some of the latter are to be found in the musical 
 pages of this book. 
 
 Sir Richard Phillips has given a very brief list of the terms and 
 rules of modern English poetry, which, like the English language itself, 
 have been compounded from the rules of several nations. A poet, 
 skilled in the Irish language, and rules for Irish poetry, can easily 
 discover that many of the laws which govern English poetry have been 
 
168 LEARNED DISPUTES ABOUT OISIn's POEMS. 
 
 drawn, like their best common-law maxims, and the trial by jury, their 
 letters, and their Latin, from persecuted Ireland. 
 
 " Heroic measure, in English poetry, is ten syllables. Iambic verse 
 is when unaccented syllables alternate with accented ; in anapcstic 
 verse, the accent falls on every third syllable ; a daciyle is one long 
 and two short syllables ; a trochee is one long and one short syllable ; 
 a fijjondee is two long syllables ; and iambics arc like trochees. There 
 are twenty-eight feet, or metres, consisting of two, or three, or four, 
 short and long syllables. Hexameter verse is of six. feet — the first four 
 dactyles or spondees, the fifth a dactyle, and the sixth must be a spondee. 
 Pentameter is five feet, the two first dactyles or spondees, the third a 
 spondee, and the two last anapests, or two short and one long syllable.'* 
 — Sir Richard Phillips. 
 
 Anxious as I feel to conclude this protracted section on our an- 
 cient bards and poetry, I cannot do so without devoting a page to 
 the poetry attributed to Oisin. There are few who are not aware 
 that the scattered poetic works attributed to this poet, have been 
 translated from very old Irish manuscripts by Mr. Macpherson, a 
 Scotchman, about seventy years ago. These scattered fragments were 
 collected in some cottages of the Highlands of Scotland, where the 
 old Gaelic (Irish) is yet, and probably ever will be, spoken. Mac- 
 pherson understood the old language, — a rare accomplishment in an 
 educated man. He discovered the fire and soul originally infused 
 into, and still vividly existing in, those fragmental pieces. They 
 were chiefly founded on the wars, successes, or reverses, deaths, vic- 
 tories, or loves, of the Irish heroes, who accompanied Oisin and his 
 father's legions in their warlike expeditions against the Romans in 
 Caledonia and the north of Britain. These poems were written in 
 detached pieces in the camp or on the march. The scenery around 
 their homes, their marches, and the fields of their conflicts, are accurate- 
 ly sketched ; the incidents are colored in Homer's style ; the con- 
 nection between their actions and the spirits of those who preceded 
 them — the communion of the living with the dead — is traced in the 
 vivid sublimity of Milton. Although Oisin, who flourished in the 
 third century, may have written some of these pieces, there is internal 
 evidence in the poems, as proved by very learned men, that many of 
 them belong to eras some centuries more modern than Oisin's time, 
 whilst others again assert that some of them are Macpherson's own 
 creation. Now, it may be probable that the majority of all these rea- 
 soners are right. 
 
homer's subject to similar disputes. 169 
 
 The poems of Homer, which have been gathered into two distinct 
 works, viz., the Iliad and Odyssey, are not all of his composition, 
 nor of his age. The wars of the Trojans, which form the sub- 
 ject of the Iliad, took place 1150 B. C, and two hundred and 
 fifty years before he wrote. He was blind during the prime of his 
 life ; and, therefore, many of his compositions were delivered orally, 
 and committed to the memory of others, according to the practice of 
 that era. He travelled much in Egypt, where he composed some 
 portions of the works attributed to him. They were gathered there 
 and elsewhere, two hundred and fifty years after his death, by Lycur- 
 gus, the Spartan lawgiver, and others, from the lips of men, and not 
 from books. Although it is now believed by the learned (see Sir 
 Richard Phillips, p. 602) that Homer did not write all the works at- 
 tributed to him, yet no one values them the less on that account. He 
 probably began a certain style of poetic description, apt, natural, and 
 exciting, which he sang or recited with great effect to the people of his 
 age. Others imitated his style, and elongated his story. Copyists in 
 succeeding ages purified the composition as they transcribed it from 
 hand to hand. This was a privilege and practice assumed by copyists 
 before the era of printing, and is one of the reasons why the works of 
 old authors have come to our hands so pure. 
 
 The Oisianic poems may have descended to us attended by like 
 circumstances. The uncertainty as to the origin and the age of some 
 of them, is a characteristic that appertains to other great works, which 
 are, nevertheless, highly valued. That Oisin was the son of Fion 
 M' Coumhall, the Irish general of the Leinster militia, (Irish also,) is 
 admitted by all ; that he commanded in his father's legions, in Cale- 
 donia, against the Roman legions, in the third century, is equally certain ; 
 but that he was a Scotchman, as Macpherson has it, is untenable, 
 improbable, and untrue. As well might it be said that the Duke of 
 Wellington is an Englishman, or a Spaniard, because he fought the 
 wars of England in Spain. Oisin, his father Fion, and his legions, 
 were Irish, who, under the Irish and Caledonian compact, fought the 
 Romans on the plains of Britain. The heroes he celebrates were 
 Irish ; the scenery he describes is Irish. It can yet be seen in Done- 
 gal, between the Screen and Tara, from the Hill of Allallou to the 
 Morna Mountains. In the county Donegal there is a cloud-capt moun- 
 tain called Alt Ossoin, around which is some of the scenery so finely 
 described by Oisin. 
 
 I say so much, and adduce the proof that follows, to show that 
 22 
 
170 OISIN PROVED TO HAVE BEEN IRISH. 
 
 Oisin was not a Scotchman, because I find in a book now before me, 
 by Logan, published in Scotland, and in this country, that the old heresy 
 of MacjDherson is by him revived ; to which I oppose the opinions of 
 Laing, Pinkerton, Dr. Johnson, Sir Walter Scott, the Edinburgh Re- 
 view, Sir James Mackintosh, Nicholson, Warner, and common sense. 
 
 The learned Dr. Young, Bishop of Clonfert, an erudite Irish 
 scholar, went to Scotland himself, in 1784, to search for Gaelic 
 poetry. The following extract from his letter from the Highlands, 
 on the subject of his mission, is given by the Gaelic Society of 
 Dublin : " The Irish language is spoken with considerable accuracy 
 in many parts of the Highlands of modern Scotland. This I conclude 
 from having conversed with several gentlemen of this country with the 
 greatest ease and familiarity ; and I must add that none of them 
 refused an immediate and unequivocal acknowledgment that the Gaelic 
 of Scotland was a dialect of the mother tongue of Ireland, as well as 
 the Highland Scots were the descendants of a colony from the mother 
 country. They readily assented to the dishonorable fabrication of 
 Macpherson, and declared they knew, from undisputed tradition, that 
 Fingal, Oisin, Oscar, and all the other Finnian heroes, were Irishmen." 
 The bishop, in another publication, charges Macpherson with altering 
 the old manuscripts, erasing the name of St. Patrick, varying dates, 
 &;c., so as to enable him to build upon these a Scotch fame. The 
 talented Pepper speaks of the affair thus : " Has not the voice of 
 literary Europe reproached them [the Scotch] for national vanity, in 
 pluming themselves with borrowed feathers clandestinely plucked from 
 the wings of Irish songsters ? and for clothing the meagre, deformed, 
 and decayed skeleton of their history in garments stolen from the 
 wardrobes of our learned antiquarians and annalists ? Macpherson was 
 certainly a poet, whose talents had graduated in the Parnassian col- 
 lege ; and, while we deny him the honor due to candor, we cordially 
 concede that these poems, which we award him the full credit of 
 having framed from fragments of Irish poetry, possess traces of genius 
 that would have reflected credit on even the best epic of Homer." 
 James Macpherson was born at Inverness, 1738. In 1758, he pub- 
 lished his first fragments of ancient poetry collected in the Scottish 
 Highlands; in 1762, he produced Fingal; in 1763, Temora and 
 others. He died in 1796. 
 
 Here we introduce tv^^o specimens of poetry of the Oisianic age. 
 The first is from Baron Harold's translation of some of these frag- 
 ments. It is a remonstrance addressed by Fion MCoumhall to his 
 
FINGAIi's REMONSTRANCE. 171 
 
 son Oisin, on choosing a wife. The second is the lament of Oisin, 
 in his old age, for the loss of his sight. It equals, in my opinion, the 
 lamentation of Milton on the same bereavement. It is remarkable 
 that the three great poets, Homer, Milton, and Oisin, were each 
 totally blind for many years of their lives. 
 
 REMONSTRANCE OF FION M'COUMHALL, (FINGAL,) ADDRESSED 
 TO HIS SON, ON THE CHOICE OF A WIFE. 
 
 "My son, of the noble line 
 Of Heremonian heroes ! 
 Thou gallant descendant of Erin's kings ! 
 The down of youth grows on thy cheek ; 
 Martial renown is loud in thy praise; 
 Romans fear thee ; their eagles 
 Were dazzled by the lightning of thy spear! 
 They flew before thee like timid birds 
 Before the hawks of Leinster! 
 Is it in the morning of thy fame, 
 Bright with the sunbeams of martial gloiy, 
 That thou wouldst ally thyself 
 With the daughter of tlie Pict, 
 And thus sully 
 The royal purity of Milesian blood ? 
 
 Thy country is proud of thy exploits, 
 
 And the royal virgins of Erin 
 
 Sigh for thy love, 
 
 While Cormac's bards 
 
 Sing the deeds of thy bravery, 
 
 In the battles of the mighty ! 
 
 O, tlien, Oisin, 
 
 Of dulcet hai-mony. 
 
 Listen to tlie voice of thy father. 
 
 Albanian maids are fair, 
 
 But fairer and lovelier are 
 
 The chaste daughters of thine own 
 
 Wave-washed isle 
 
 Of wood-crested hills ! 
 
 Go to thy happy isle; to Branno's 
 
 Grass-covered field. 
 
 Ever-Alien, the most brilliant gem 
 
 In ti.e diadem of female loveliness, 
 
 The trembling dove of innocence, 
 
 And the daughter of my friend, 
 
 Deserves thy attachment; 
 
172 oisin's lamentation. 
 
 The pure blood of Milesius 
 
 Glows in her guileless heart, 
 
 And flows in her blue veins ; 
 
 Majestic beauty 
 
 Flows around her as a robe of light, 
 
 And modesty, as a precious veil, 
 
 Heightens her youthful charms. 
 
 She is as lovely 
 
 As the mountain flower, 
 
 When the ruddy beams of the rising sun 
 
 Sparkle on its dew-gemmed side ! 
 
 Go I take thy arms, 
 
 Embark in yonder dark-bosomed ship, 
 
 Which soon will bear you 
 
 Over ocean's foam. 
 
 To green Brannd's streamy vales, 
 
 Where you will win 
 
 A pure virgin heart, that 
 
 Never yet heaved with a sigh of love ! 
 
 For thee, the vernal rose of passion 
 
 Will first 
 
 ESuse its sweetness through her sighs, 
 
 And blush in all its beauty on her cheeks." 
 
 OISIN'S LAMENTATION FOR THE LOSS OF HIS SIGHT. 
 
 "O thou that rollest above! 
 Round as the shield of my fatliers, — 
 Whence are thy beams, O sun. 
 Thy everlasting light? 
 Thou comest forth in thy awful beauty, 
 And the stars hide their heads in the sky; 
 The moon, cold and pale. 
 Sinks in the western wave ; 
 But thou thyself alone, 
 Who can be a companion of thy course ? 
 The oaks of the mountains fall ; 
 The mountains themselves decay with years , 
 The ocean sinks, and grows again ; 
 The moon herself is lost in heaven ; 
 But thou art forever the same. 
 Rejoicing in the brightness of thy course ! 
 When the world is dark with tempests. 
 When thunder rolls and lightning flies, 
 Thou lookest in thy beauty from the clouds, 
 And laughest at the storm! 
 But to Oisin thou lookest in vain, 
 
oisin's lamentation. 173 
 
 For he beholds thy beams no more, 
 
 Whether thy yellow hair flows 
 
 On the eastern clouds, or 
 
 Thou trerablest at the gates of the west; 
 
 But thou art perhaps like me, 
 
 For a season, and thy years will have an end; 
 
 Thou shalt sleep in thy clouds, 
 
 Careless of the voice of the morning. 
 
 Exult, then, O sun ! 
 
 In the strength of thy youth ! 
 
 Age is dark and unlovely; 
 
 It is like the glimmering 
 
 Of the mom, when 
 
 It shines through broken clouds ; 
 
 And the mist is on the hills. 
 
 The blast of the north is on the plain, 
 
 And the traveller shrinks 
 
 In the midst of his journey ! " * 
 
 There are many other poets of Erin, from whose works I shall 
 produce occasional specimens. Goldsmith's beautiful poetry is in every 
 body's mouth. Furlong's sentimental and euphonious compositions 
 ought to be equally circulated. The Irish bards of the present age, at 
 whose head Moore, Davis, and Barry proudly stand, are fully equal to 
 the bards of any age or of any nation. Some emanations of their 
 splendid genius will be found scattered along these pages. Those 
 who would understand and cultivate Irish poetry have an opportunity 
 herein to judge of its varied properties, and to appreciate, which I 
 humbly hope they will, the selections I have made, and look kindly 
 on my own humble dabbling in the sublime art. 
 
 * Within the present year a valuable manuscript copy of poems, written by Oisin, 
 was discovered buried in an old church near Belfast. The precious relic was incased 
 in an iron chest. It is written on vellum, in the ancient Irish character. The prop- 
 erty on which it was discovered belonging to the Dublin corporation, the manuscript 
 was claimed and taken possession of by that body, but was given out by them to the 
 ArchaBological Society, to be translated. Some of the poems have alre;idy appeared 
 in English, and transcend, in majestic beauty, any of those previously published by 
 Macpherson. 
 
174 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 O! BLAME NOT THE BARD. 
 
 BY MOORE. 
 
 I have in this, as in other instances, taken liberties with Moore. I am quite aware 
 of the presumption of the act, and my only apology is my fervent desire to ani- 
 mate the hearts of my countrymen. When Moore wrote this affecting piece, he 
 was smarting under the insinuations of his countrymen, that he devoted his tal- 
 ents more to pleasure than to patriotic exertions. He had been a living witness 
 of his country's glory, and her fall. He saw her deprived of freedom, bleeding, 
 prostrate, and destitute even of the hope to recover. At such a moment his muse 
 was melancholy, and mingled her sighs, and tears, and moans, in one passionate 
 flood. But Ireland's wounds are almost healed ; her tears are dried up ; her vigor 
 and courage have returned, and she stands erect, calling on the plunderers of her 
 liberty for its restoration. At such a moment, I may be pardoned by the patri- 
 otic for adding an appropriate stanza to this beautiful song. It is the concluding 
 one, — in Italics. 
 
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176 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 breathes but the song of de - sire, Might have 
 
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 But alas ! for his country — her pride is gone by, 
 
 And that spirit is broken which never would bend; 
 O'er the ruin her children in secret must sigh, 
 
 For 'tis treason to love her, and death to defend. 
 Unprized are her sons till they've learned to betray ; 
 
 Undistinguished they live, if they shame not their sires ; 
 And the torch, that would light them through dignity's way, 
 
 Must be caught from the pile where their country expires ! 
 
 Then blame not the bard, if in pleasure's soft dream 
 
 He should try to forget what he never can heal ; 
 O ! give but a hope, let a vista but gleam 
 
 Through the gloom of his country, and mark how he'll feel ! 
 That instant his heart at her shrine would lay down 
 
 Every passion it nursed, every bliss it adored. 
 While the myrtle, now idly entwined with his crown. 
 
 Like the wreath of Harmodius, should cover his sword.* 
 
 4. 
 
 But, though glory be gone, hope fades not aivay ; 
 Thy name, loved Erin ! shall live in his songs ; 
 
 • See the hymn, attributed to Alcaeus, "I will carry my sword, hidden in myr- 
 tles, like Harmodius and Aristogilon," etc. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 117 
 
 Not even in the hour when his heart is most gay, 
 
 Will he lose the remembrance of thee and thy wrongs! 
 
 The stranger shall hear thy lament on his plains ; 
 The sigh of thy harp shall be sent o'er the deep, 
 
 Till thy masters themselves, as they rivet thy chains, 
 Shall pause at the song of their captive, and weep ! 
 
 5. 
 
 But arise, dearest Erin ! the home of the brave ! 
 
 The birthplace of heroes, and sages of light ! 
 Send your voice of complaint arid resolve o'er the ivave, 
 
 And the nations shall join in your cause and your fight ! 
 And the God that protected his children before. 
 
 Whom the tyrant of Egypt oppressed in his might, 
 Shall watch o'er the struggle around your green shore. 
 
 And bless the brave arms of your sons in the fight ! 
 
 LEWIS O'MORE. 
 
 rhe following stanzas were sung for me by a friend, to the foregoing air, with a 
 great deal of feeling, and affected me much. They evidently belong to a by- 
 gone age, and must be a translation from an ancient ode in the Irish language. 
 O'More was an illustrious chieftain of Leinster. The chief of the sept was a To- 
 parch, and ranked next to the Leinster kings. This song is founded on his 
 exploits at the battle of Clontarf, in the year 1016. But in the wars with the 
 English invaders, for more than four hundred years, the O'Mores of Leix and 
 Offalley proved to be the unconquerable enemies of England, and maintained 
 their independence. [Sir Thomas More, the first illustrious victim to the tyranny 
 of Henry the Eighth, was a scion from this house.] Their power crumbled, and 
 their territory was confiscated, after the treacherous butchery of the three hun- 
 dred Leinster chiefs at Mullaghmast, in the reign of Queen Mary, — for which, 
 see " Mullaghmast." 
 
 1. 
 
 Remember the days when thy children, dear Erin, 
 In myriads assembled around thy green shore, 
 
 When the cross and the harp, on thy bright banner beaming, 
 Were borne by the chieftains of Lewis O'More ! 
 23 
 
178 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 When the heroic legions, to battle descending, 
 
 Embossed their bright skians in the invader's gore ; 
 
 While the blood of its guardians, spontaneously blending, 
 Round the banners of Erin and Lewis O'More ! 
 
 2. 
 
 Bright gleamed the sword of O'More 'mid the strong, 
 
 And fierce was the look he bestowed on the foe; 
 They shrunk with dismay from his firm knit brow, 
 
 Though Odin still tried to avert their o'erthrow 1 
 But still, while the harp of thy minstrel is glowing 
 
 With grief that the hero of our isle is no more. 
 Let us send the cup round, with the grape treasures flowing, 
 
 To Malachy, Morrough, and Lewis O'More ! 
 
 BEAUTY IN TEARS, 
 
 
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MUSIC. 
 
 179 
 
 MACFARLANE'S LAMENTATION. 
 
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LECTURE VI. 
 
 THE MUSIC OF IRELAND. 
 
 A Harper and Poet accompany the Milesians to Ireland. — Ireland deemed ibe 
 Island of Apollo. — Origin of vocal Music. — Origin of the Harp. — The Irish 
 Harp. — Superior to the Greek Lyre. — Music mixed in all the Ceremonials 
 of the ancient Irish. — How the Music of Ireland was constructed. — Its Nature. 
 
 — Its Effect on a Nation. — Greece not the School of Music. — Fragment of 
 Grecian Music found in Ireland. — Its inferior Quality proved by Burney. — 
 Romans ignorant of Music. — Irish Bagpipes. — Ireland the true School of 
 Music. — Revolution effected by Music. — Ode of Moriat. — The Harp and 
 Bagpipes of the Irish gave Bass and Treble. — The Harp of the ancient Irish the 
 Piano-Forte of the Moderns. — Irish addicted to Music before the Christian 
 Era. — Christian Missionaries adopt the Irish Music, and introduce it into the 
 Churches. — Ireland preserved Literature, Science, and Music, when Rome fell. 
 
 — Irishmen imparted musical Notation, as well as grammatical Punctuation, to 
 Europe. — Terms of ancient Notation. — Specimen of the ancient Notation pre- 
 served for unnumbered Generations in the Family of the Cavanaghs. — Two 
 Schools for Music in Europe. — Efforts of the first Christian Fathers to form a 
 Code of Church Music. — The Gregorian Chants established A. D. 600. — 
 Ireland full of her own Church Music one hundred and fifty Years previously. — 
 Musical Modes and Rules well known in Ireland. — Ireland the musical School 
 of Western Europe. — Rhyme in Poetry an Irish Invention. — Proofs. — Moore's 
 Opinion. — Camden's Opinion. — Several Pieces in the Gregorian Chants com- 
 posed by Irishmen. — Columbanus, an Irishman, introduced Irish Music into 
 Germany and France. — Irish musical School totally different from the Latin. — 
 Opinion of Cambrensis. — Wales derived her Music from Ireland. — Caradoc's 
 Opinion. — Ledwich's Opinion. — Twenty-four Irish musical Laws introduced 
 into Wales. — Musical Schools of the Irish. — Italy derived the Harp and Rules 
 of Playing from Ireland. — The Violin of Irish Origin. — Scotch Music essen- 
 tially Irish. — Proof. — Opinions of English Writers on Irish Music. — Improve- 
 ments in the Irish Harp. — The Horn. — The Organ. — The Piano-Forte formed 
 from the Harp. — Power of various Instruments. — Music of England. — Speci- 
 men of the first Notes used. — Luther introduced Music into his Churches. — 
 George the Fourth introduces two hundred Strains. — Handel, rejected in 
 London, received and applauded in Dublin. — Change in the Character of Irish 
 Music. — Persecution of the Minstrels. — Irish Music adapted to the Passions of 
 Love and Sorrow. — Truly constructed. — Irish Musicians copied the Sounds 
 of Men, Birds, and Beasts, on their Harjvsirings. — Variety of Character of 
 Irish Music. — Lament of the Minstrel O'Gnieve. — Suppression and Decline of 
 Irish Music. — O'Kane, Carolan, Jackson, &c. — Revival of Irish Music after 
 1782. — Belfast musical Convention in 1792. — Assembly of Irish Harpers. — Mr. 
 Bunting's Notes of that Meeting. — Mathematical Examination of the Structure 
 of the Irish Harp. — The old Irish Bards formed their Harps agreeably to the 
 Philosophy of Sound. — "The Harp of Tara." — Its History. — Musical Glasses 
 invented by an Irishman. — Moore revives the Music of Ireland. — General 
 Revival of Irish Music. — Lover. — Balfe. — Successful Composers. — Italian 
 
IRELAND DEEMED THE ISLAND OF APOLLO. 
 
 181 
 
 Opinion of Irish Music. -Present musical Spirit of Ireland.- General Effects 
 of Music. -Attempt to define its Nature. - Style of most of the fashionable 
 Ferformers.- Scientific Examination of Sound. - Its Laws.- Echoes - Organs o 
 Hearing. -Musical Keys. -Nature of the Voice. - Mechanism of the Throat, 
 Chest, &c.- Laws of Wind Instruments. -Nurses should «i"g *« ^"f "^^^• " 
 Hints to public Singers. -Moore's Suggestions for singing his Irish Melodies. 
 -Willis's Description of Moore's Singing. -Moore's Visit to the Dublm 
 Theatre. — Eflfect of an Irish Tune on the Boston Public. 
 
 The music of Ireland is all that her oppressors have left her. That 
 proud attribute even Cambrensis allowed her seven hundred years ago. 
 That Ireland was the school for music to the Western nations for ages, 
 I am, I trust, able to prove ; that she possessed musical notations, and a 
 series of the most exact and minute rules for poetry and music, her 
 annals testify ; very old manuscripts, containing the rules and the 
 notations anciently in use, have been produced by Walker. Facsim- 
 iles of the ancient notes will be found in the course of this section, 
 which when the reader has perused, together with other proofs of a 
 like nature, he must then admit the preeminence of Ireland over all the 
 nations of Europe, in this ancient and fascinating branch of human science. 
 On the first arrival of the Milesian colony in Ireland, there were 
 places and positions assigned to the Dmids, poets, and musicians 
 AmbergUn, one of the sons of Milesius, the brother of Heber and 
 Heremon, first kings of the island, was the chief Druid bard, the head 
 of the order. This proves that poetry was then a special study, and 
 its professors an ascertained class. The old historians tell us that the 
 brother-kings, Heber and Heremon, quarrelled about the exclusive reten- 
 tion of two°celebrated sons of song, viz., Cirmacsis, a poet, and Onna 
 Ceanfin, a harper; but that, on the arbitration of Amberghin, the 
 poet was adjudged to Heremon, and the musician to Heber. The 
 incident proves that mu/ic and poetry were passionately cherished by 
 the ancient Irish. A well-attested fact like this, occurring upwards of 
 three thousand years ago, in Ii'eland, ought to be received as strong 
 evidence of the general prevalence of musical taste amongst the people. 
 But we have much stronger proofs than this. Heccataus, the ancient 
 Egyptian historian, quoted by Diodorus, describes Ireland, then called 
 Hyberborea, as having in it a city, in the midst of a grove, where the 
 priests of Apollo sang the praises of that god, mingling their voices 
 with the sounds of the harp. -The following is the passage, according 
 to Booth's translation : " They say that Latona was born here, and, 
 therefore, that they worshipped Apollo above all other gods ; and, 
 because they are daily singing songs in praise of this god, and ascribing 
 
182 ORIGIN OF VOCAL MUSIC. ORIGIN OF THE HARP. 
 
 to him the highest honors, they say that these inhabitants demean 
 themselves as if they were Apollo's priests, who has here a stately 
 grove, and renowned temple, of round form, beautified with many rich 
 gifts ; that there is a city likewise consecrated to this god, whose citi- 
 zens are most of them harpers, xvho, playing on the harp, chant sa- 
 cred hymns to Apollo in the temple, setting forth his glorious acts." 
 This was written of Ireland five hundred years before the Christian era. 
 The musical ceremonies in the temple of Apollo were nothing more 
 than the worship of the sun, which was sometimes called Baal, and 
 again Apollo. The ceremony consisted in part of vocal chants, in 
 which the music of the harp was blended. The island, in that age, 
 was deemed ancient by the contemporary nations. It was called, even 
 then, the " Holy Island," a name suggested by the strong disposition 
 evinced by its people to celebrate their religious ceremonies with great 
 pomp and excitement, and also from its having been made, by the 
 Phoenician colony which first settled in it, the centre of their radiating 
 instruction to the communities that began to grow around in Albion, 
 Wales, and Caledonia. 
 
 I have already proved the intimate connection that subsisted between 
 ancient Egypt and ancient Ireland. The whole system of worship, 
 music, science, and art, as then known in Egypt, was carried into Ire- 
 land. This relationship existed ages before Greece had either letters or 
 political existence. 
 
 The Irish of those ancient days, like their relatives in Egypt, practised 
 but a few simple musical sounds. These were regulated by the human 
 voice. The first sound uttered by the open mouth, in a natural key, 
 vi'as called A. That sound was fixed as the standard note. They 
 faried the voice above and below that standard, producing an agreeable 
 variation of vocal sounds. And this is music, — the fii'st and purest sup- 
 plied by nature. A good voice was found capable of producing sixteen 
 tones, perfectly distinct from each other, agreeing in number with the 
 sixteen sounds represented by the sixteen letters of the old Irish al- 
 phabet, which was the alphabet first used in Egypt. These are 
 measured by two octaves, of eight tones to each octave. 
 
 It is probable that ages passed away ere Egypt had arrived at the 
 improved eleven-stringed harp. In the times of Solomon, David, and 
 Moses, a harp was used ; but it may have had then only five or 
 eight strings. There still exist on the monuments at Thebes, in Egypt, 
 figures of the ancient instrument, chiseled into the enduring granite. 
 The harp must have been first formed from the bow of the archer. 
 
THE IRISH HARP SUPERIOR TO THE GIIF.EK LYRE. 183 
 
 The sound of the bowstring would indeed suggest the existence of music 
 in that simple instrument. It did, in fact, suggest the idea. The first 
 harps, as appears by the models sculptured on the Theban monuments, 
 were formed simply like the bent bow of the warrior. The strings were 
 few at first, producing only five or six notes. The improved harp, of 
 eleven strings, was, no doubt, the result of many experiments, which, 
 when accomplished, was deemed worthy of eternal perpetuation on 
 stone. It was simply the bent bow of the archer, generally about five 
 feet long, the longest string giving the bass note, and the others, short- 
 ening with the arc of the semicircle, gave the intermediate tones, up to 
 the treble, according to their respective lengths. The date of this im- 
 provement may be fixed with that of Thebes itself, which was in the 
 zenith of its consequence about three thousand five hundred years ago. 
 The harps brought into Ireland by the Milesian colony were of thai 
 fashion, as we find by some old traditional sketches. 
 
 The improvements made in the harp are altogether Irish. The 
 Greeks do not seem ever to have had an instrument like our harp. 
 There is frequent mention made by their poets of a lyre. As they 
 received all their instructions in literature and arts from Egypt, it is 
 probable the old bent boiv of the Egyptians passed over into Gjeece ; 
 but the Greeks worked it into an instrument differing widely from the 
 harp. One of those lyres, having eight strings, was found in a tomb at 
 Athens. Its form is that of the bow, bent till the points nearly meet, 
 which are then bound together- Strings are fastened in the centre, and 
 drawn to the united points ; but, from the construction of this instru- 
 ment, it was incapable of extension, or of much modulation. And 
 MontfauQon remarks, that " Greek instruments had no contrivances for 
 shortening the strings." So that they must have been unacquainted 
 with the expansive and vibrating character of the harp. The lyre 
 usually put into the hands of Apollo, by painters and poets, is fash- 
 ioned after that found at Athens. But it would be far more cor- 
 rect to put the Irish harp into the hands of the musical god, seeing, 
 from Heccat^us, that he was worshipped by tiie ancient Irish with the 
 voice of song and the sounds of the harp, during the vernal equinox, 
 before the Greeks arrived, if ever they arrived, at an advanced stage of 
 musical refinement. 
 
 That the ancient Irish cultivated the music of the voice, and of 
 instruments, is proved in every page of their history. Music mixed in 
 every ceremonial. In their sun worship, the song of praise and thanks- 
 giving was raised to the giver, in their opinion, of fniits, and regulator of 
 
184 MUSIC MIXED IN THE CEREMONIALS OF THE IRISH. ITS EFFECTS. 
 
 the seasons. At their funerals, the voice of lamentation was vented under 
 the control of musical notation. In the battle, the harper bards led on 
 the warrior hosts. At the festive board, and in the banquet hall, there 
 also the voice of music stimulated the joyous passions. On all these 
 occasions, the harper bards caught the most touching sounds of human 
 sensations as they rose, and copied them on their harp-strings. These 
 were, upon succeeding occasions, struck out again from their strings, to 
 kindle in other hearts emotions similar to those which gave them birth. 
 In this manner, a series of the most touching sounds was formed by the 
 Irish bards into a code of melody, which has lasted through unnum- 
 bered ages. This melody, whenever played according to nature's 
 rules, (ever the same, in all ages,) never fails to reach the human heart, 
 and awaken therein the self-same sensations that originally gave ex- 
 istence to the melody itself. 
 
 For this reason, the music of Ireland has attracted the encomiums of 
 all the surrounding nations. The elegant and erudite Walker remarks, 
 that " the Irish music is, in some degree, distinguished from the music 
 of every other nation, by an insinuating sweetness, which forces its way 
 irresistibly to the heart, and there diffuses an ecstatic delight that thrills 
 through every fibre of the frame, awakens sensibility, and agitates or 
 tranquillizes the soul. Whatever passion it may be intended to excite 
 it never fails to awaken. It is the voice of nature, and will be heard. 
 We speak of the music of the ancient Irish ; for music, like language, the 
 nearer we remount to its rise amongst men, the moie it will be found to 
 partake of a natural expression." And Dr. O'Conor dilates upon the 
 same idea thus : " In every concert, the abhram, or song, accompanied 
 the instrumental music, and the ode was invariably adapted to the spe- 
 cies intended, whether the heroic, the dolorous, or the somniferous. By 
 this you find that our ancients in Ireland were far from being strangers 
 to the powers of hannonized sound, in directing, as well as exciting, the 
 human passions. Sotmds were therefore cultivated and modified, so as 
 to produce extraordinary civil and political effects on the minds of men.''* 
 
 This attention to the cultivation of the musical art evinces a degree 
 of refinement of manners and of soul amongst the Irish, which few 
 other nations can equally claim. " If a rnan, naturally rough, becomes 
 softened, /or the <{me, by music, — if those times are continually re- 
 newed, — habit will take the place of nature, and that man's character will, 
 to a certain degree, change." — Sherlock. — So a nation kept continually 
 under the influence of music must become softened, susceptible, refined. 
 And yet there are English writers, who have, to aid the base purposes 
 
FRAGMENT OF GREEK MUSIC. 185 
 
 of tyranny, written down the ancient Irish, and the modern Irish also, 
 as a barbarous people, though their passionate cultivation of music, in 
 all ages, would of itself confront and abash the calumny. 
 
 Collins, who wrote the Ode on the Passions, recited so often by our 
 schoolboys, began it with a falsehood — 
 
 " When Music, heavenly maid, was young, 
 While yet in early Greece she sung." 
 
 Collins was an Englishman, and though he knew in his heart that Ire- 
 land, not Greece, had the best claim to the honorable distinction of 
 school for young Music, yet, to sing it, or even admit it, would make 
 his ode and himself unpopular amongst his countrymen. He therefore 
 starts with his musical rhapsody from Greece ; and while we admire his 
 composition, we are grieved to think that the genius of poetry should, 
 in his person, bend, in a falsehood, to the genius of tyranny. 
 
 There is no evidence, either on the page of history or in musical tra- 
 dition, of any very great excellence to which the Greeks attained in 
 music. Moore, quoting Anacharsis, says, " The sweetness of their an- 
 cient music had already been lost when all the other arts were but on 
 their way to perfection ; " and Wood, in his Essay on Homer, has the 
 following : " The old, chaste Greek melody was lost in refinement 
 before their other arts had acquired perfection." But we have the 
 means of ascertaining the character of Greek music, furnished by a frag- 
 ment of their own composition, in the days of their highest degree of 
 refinement. It is an astronomical hymn, composed by Dionysius. It 
 is in three parts. The first was dedicated to Calliope ; the second, to 
 Apollo ; the third, to Remisius. This fragment has marked upon it the 
 very notes by which the Greeks chanted it. And, curiously enough, it 
 was discovered in the sixteenth century, by Archbishop Usher, in the 
 archives of the cathedral of Armagh, in Ireland. When this ancient 
 fragment was given to the world, it created a strong excitement, espe- 
 cially in the musical circles. Galleli, the Italian composer, published 
 it, in 1587, with musical notes, in his Dialogue upon Ancient and 
 Modern Music. 
 
 This fragment, having occupied the attention of the learned and 
 musical world for a long period, is thus defined, in the scale of ex- 
 cellence, by the great Burney, whose work on music is a standard 
 authority : — 
 
 " In reference to those ancient melodies, I have only to say, that no 
 pains have been spared to place them in the clearest and most favorable 
 24 
 
186 ROMANS IGNORANT OF MUSIC. IRISH BAGPIPES. 
 
 point of view ; and yet, with all the advantage of modern notes and 
 modern measures, if I am told that they came from the Cherokees or 
 the Hottentots, I should not be surprised at the degree of excellence 
 they possess. There is music that all mankind, in civilized countries, 
 would allow to be good ; hut these fragments are certainly not of that 
 sort; for, with all the light that can be thrown upon them, they have 
 still hut a rude and inelegant effect, and seem wholly unworthy of so 
 refined and sentimental a people as the Gireeks ; especially if we sub- 
 scribe to the high antiquity that has been given to two of the hymns, 
 which makes them productions of that period of time, when arts and 
 sciences were arrived in Greece to a very high point of perfection." 
 
 From these proofs the candid *mind must conclude that the taste of 
 the Greeks did not favor very much the growth of music. That is all I 
 contend for here. At another stage in this work, I shall enter into a 
 short comparison between the Greek and Roman political institutions, 
 laws, customs, morals, &ic., and those of Ireland, in parallel ages. 
 
 As to the Romans, thqy knew nothing worth naming of music, and 
 this Cicero himself admits. We have heard that " Nero fiddled while 
 Rome was burning ; " but the fact is, Nero never saw a fiddle : he had a 
 sweet voice, and sang, in the theatre, for days, and even nights, without 
 stopping : on some occasions he punished his courtiers for nodding asleep 
 during his performance ; and it is said he wrote nearly all his orders 
 connected with his government, to save his voice. The chief instrument 
 of the Romans was a blow-pipe, resembling the Scotch bagpipe. It is 
 said, indeed, that the Scotch have modeled their bagpipes from the Ro- 
 man. The Irish bagpipe is a different kind of instrument. It has a set of 
 drone pipes, which give a base an octave lower than the chanter pipe : all 
 these pipes are supplied by wind from a bag, into which it is puffed by a 
 bellows strapped to one arm of the player, while the other arm squeezes 
 the wind-bag which supplies all the pipes. The bagpipe, as thus de- 
 scribed, is thoroughly an Irish musical instrument, and is of very great 
 antiquity. In the ancient parliamentary assemblies of Tara, a place 
 was set apart for the cushlas, the Irish name of the players on the bag- 
 pipe, so denominated because the instrument was worked by the inside 
 of the arm, the region of the arteries which run to the heart. 
 
 Let us now turn to Ireland, and examine for ourselves what her an- 
 cient claims are to musical reputation. We have seen that the Egyp- 
 tian historian, in describing the ancient Irish, noticed their musical 
 exercises on the harp. The history of Ireland is studded all over with 
 the deeds of the bards and musicians. Indeed, most of the bards were 
 
REVOLUTION EFFECTED BY MUSIC. 187 
 
 also musicians, and taught the divine art to the youth' of both sexes. In 
 the fragments of old Irish poetry which have come down to us, we find 
 numberless allusions to ladies of other days, who struck the harp with 
 fairy fingers, accompanied with strains from their own hearts, which 
 melted those of their hearers, even as the sun's rays melt down the snow. 
 A daughter of Erin is thus described by a bard who wrote two thousand 
 years ago : — 
 
 " The daughter of Moran seized the harp ! 
 And her voice of music praised the strangers. 
 Their souls melted at the song, 
 Like a wreath of snow before the eye of the sun ! " 
 
 Another, of the same age, is thus described : — 
 
 " The spouse of Thrathal had remained in her house ; 
 Two children rose with their fair locks about her knees; 
 They bend their ears above the harp, 
 As she touched with her white hand 
 Its trembling strings. She stops. 
 They take the harp themselves, 
 But cannot find tlie sound which they admired. 
 'Why,' they said, 'does it not answer us? 
 Show us the string wherein dwells the song ! ' 
 She bids them search for it till she returns. 
 Their little fingers wander amongst the wires." 
 
 About three hundred and fifty years before the Christian era, a revo- 
 lution was brought about in Ireland, by the power of music, in the 
 following manner : The Irish monarch, Leoghaire, with several of his 
 sons and nobles, was murdered by his brother, Cobthaigh, who usurped 
 the throne. One only of the king's children, named Mahon, escaped. 
 His friend privately conveyed him to the hospitable mansion of the king 
 of Munster. Here he grew up a youth of comely person and of great 
 promise. During his residence at the court of Munster, he inspired the 
 lovely Moriat, the prince's daughter, young and beautiful as himself, 
 with a strong affection for him. The usurper, hearing that a young 
 prince and heir to his ill-gotten throne was still alive, was about to de- 
 clare war against the king of Munster ; whereupon, for greater safety, 
 Mahon fled the kingdom, and found an asylum in the court of the king 
 of Gaul. Here he signalized himself in that king's service, by 
 several brilliant actions in war. 
 
 The fame of his valor reached his faithful Moriat, and, under the in- 
 fluence of the divine passion which she cherished, she composed tlie fol- 
 
188 THE ODE OF MORIAT. 
 
 lowing beautiful ode, which she instructed her harper, Craftine, to sing 
 to the chords of his harp, in affecting melody, and sent him in quest of 
 her exiled lover. 
 
 When the minstrel arrived at the quarters of Mahon, on the banks 
 of the Loire, in France, he took his station under his windows, and 
 sang the ode of Moriat. 
 
 " Warrior prince ! son of a thousand kings 
 Of wave-wreathed Erin! 
 Hast thou forgotten thine own native land, 
 And the imperishable glory 
 Of tliy sires — those 
 Milesian heroes, who were 
 Towers of fire in the battles of the valiant ? 
 Is the voice of Erin's harp 
 Still dear to recollection, and 
 Gladdening to the soul of Prince Mahon, 
 The hope of Innisfail ? 
 Listen, O prince, to strains 
 That would speak the sorrows 
 Of tliy oppressed country, and 
 
 The wailings of desponding love. * 
 
 Know, then, that Erin, 
 Thy country and kingdom. 
 Invokes thee, her darling son. 
 To return to the throne of thy fathers, 
 And rescue her from usurpation. 
 Return! return to green Aelga, 
 And free thy people from the yoke! 
 The harps of Tara breathe the sounds of woe ; 
 The oaks of tliy forests sigh in the breeze ; 
 The rocks of Meatli respond, in echoes 
 To the Banshee's lamentations ; 
 And the ghosts of thy royal fathers. 
 As the}' stalk over their pathway of clouds, 
 Call upon thee to rouse. 
 
 And make victory the footstool of thy throne ! 
 But if tliy country cannot 
 Awaken pity in thy breast, 
 Surely love will melt 
 Thy heart to compassion. 
 As the vernal sunbeams 
 Dissolve the crystal mirror 
 Of the ice-plated Shannon, 
 When hoary Winter becomes 
 Shocked at his own imagfe. 
 
THE ODE OF MORIAT. 189 
 
 Dost thou still remember Moriat, 
 
 The maid of thy first love ? 
 
 Has absence obliterated 
 
 The record of thy solemn vow ? 
 
 Has another, fairer, younger princess 
 
 Despoiled the heart-shrine 
 
 In which thy young affection first placed her image ? 
 
 Have you forgotten your last words, 
 
 That thy 'beloved Moriat should be 
 
 The only divinity, thy 
 
 Heart would worship?' 
 
 This fondly-remembered declaration 
 Is the very life of her hope. 
 The bright beacon that shines 
 In the wilderness of her heart! 
 Return, O wandering warrior, 
 To the maiden of thy vow. 
 Thy presence would brighten 
 The darkness of her woe ! , . • 
 
 O, Mahon ! canst thou resist 
 The double claim of country 
 And of love ? 
 
 Come, gallant prince, of the race of heroes, 
 To the halls of thy sires, 
 And at the head of the warriors of Erin, 
 Let your might be like the spirit of the tempest 
 Uprooting tlie pines of the hill, 
 And your vengeance as terrible 
 As the mountain torrent 
 Sweeping over the valley of 
 The husbandman. 
 
 Hasten, then, O, hasten 
 To the fields of exploit of thy glorious sires. 
 Here their spirits will inspire tliee with courage, 
 And nerve thee with 
 Supernatural power. 
 And give thy martial arm force 
 To prostrate the usurper of thy throne." 
 
 The prince, filled with the passion of resistless love, and the fires of a 
 lofty ambition, prevailed on the French king to grant him an expedition 
 to recover his throne. He was successful — he landed, and marched 
 directly to the palace of the murderer of his father, and destroyed him 
 and his guards. His success soon flew out on the winds of fame. His 
 first act was to marry his faithful Moriat. His marriage and coronation 
 were the grandest known in Ireland for many previous reigns. 
 
190 THE KAHP OF THE IRISH THE PRESENT PIANO-FORTE. 
 
 Both the harp and the bagpipes of the ancient Irish gave a bass. This, 
 standing alone, would be an incontrovertible evidence of their thorough 
 knowledge of music, with its counterpoint, bass, and harmonies. Some 
 of the musical writers say that counterpoint, bass, and harmony, were not 
 known in Europe till the eleventh century, and erroneously attribute the 
 invention of these improvements to Guido. Now, the very construction 
 of these ancient Irish instruments — the harp and bagpipes — must dis- 
 prove a part of this assertion. It is true that bass, counterpoint, and har- 
 mony, were not known in the south of Europe till the eleventh century ; 
 but it is not equally true that Guido invented them, inasmuch as they 
 were familiar to the Irish musicians several centuries before that period. 
 
 The harp, in the course of ages, was enlarged by the Irish musicians, 
 from eleven strings, the old Egyptian number, to thirty-two, which gave 
 them sixteen tones, or two octaves, below C, and sixteen tones, or two 
 octaves, above that note, forming a comprehensive scale, which com- 
 prised the full complement of bass and treble tones. The harpers 
 touched the instrument with both their hands, one of the hands sounding 
 bass notes, and the other the treble, as players upon the self-same 
 instrument, in the piano-forte, do at present. — The piano-forte of the 
 present day is simply the Irish harp, placed horizontally in a box, and 
 struck by machinery. — The old Irish harpers obtained their flats and 
 sharps by pressing the string about to be struck with the thumb of one 
 hand, while they struck it with the fingers of the other. This old con- 
 trivance was done away by the introduction of the pedal. Thus each 
 string concealed three tones. The Irish harp produced a great number 
 of tones and semitones — perhaps one hundred — affording compass 
 enough for bass and harmonies ; and the harp even now supplies the 
 greatest number of octaves or sounds of any instrument except the 
 organ. No other nation, either in Europe or in any other part of the 
 world, cultivated the harp. It is Ireland's exclusively. It is graven on 
 her banners. It is graven on her people's hearts. It is the symbol of 
 their nation. The guitar, the violin, and many other instruments, are 
 variations and derivatives from the harp ; but the " harp of Erin " is 
 Erin's own, and 
 
 "Must still be respected, 
 While there lives but one bard to enliven its tone." 
 
 The old Irish bagpipes, as I have said, afforded, in its three drone 
 pipes, a comprehensive bass. Two of the drones were pitched equal to 
 D, on the chanter pipe, and one an octave, or eight tones, lower. The 
 chanter or treble pipe gave eight or ten notes, which, by a stiff blast, 
 
IRISH ADDICTED TO JIUSIC BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ERA. 191 
 
 were run up the entire of the G clifF, in the same manner that the flute 
 is made to play. The flat and sharp notes were obtained by playing 
 in a particular way the end of the chanter on a leather strap, fastened 
 to the knee, and by half stopping the finger-holes of the chanter ; 
 and the drone pipes were so contrived that the player could lengthen 
 and shorten them at pleasure, deepening or contracting his bass accord- 
 ing to the demands of the strain played by the chanter. 
 
 More than enough of evidence is herein offered, to show that the an- 
 cient Irish understood bass, counterpoint, and harmony. If I have not 
 already wearied out the reader's patience, I beg him to accompany me 
 through this inquiry. The ear and heart, attuned to music, will be 
 pleased to trace the progress of this fascinating art, through countless 
 ages, from its infancy to its present maturity. As I said already, Rome 
 knew nought of music. The amusements of that brutal nation consist- 
 ed chiefly of inhuman exercises, involving the sacrifice of hundreds of 
 thousands of human beings, in the amphitheatres, where the admiring 
 eyes of patrician beauty gloated on sights of blood, and heard with 
 ecstasy the groans of the dying. Practices such as these, continued for 
 upwards of seven hundred years, suffocated all the tender or sensitive 
 feelings of humanity, which alone can appreciate and foster music. 
 
 It will be seen, when we come to the times of St. Patrick, and the 
 introduction of Christianity into Ireland, that the people were passionate- 
 ly addicted to music, both vocal and instrumental. Their sun worship, 
 their funerals, their wars, their games, and their festivities, were all at- 
 tended by musical performances. The apostle of the cross brought no 
 singers with him into Ireland ; he brought no music ; but he found it 
 there. The pagan deeds and ceremonies of their ancestors he found 
 celebrated and sung, by the Irish poets, in the most fascinating versifi- 
 cation, attuned to strains of touching melody. The poetry he destroyed, 
 but the music he turned to the purposes of Christianity. He induced 
 them to turn their musical strains towards God and his Son, instead of 
 Baal. Christian objects. Christian heroes and saints, held the place of 
 pagan heroes and deities, in their public chants. During the lifetime 
 of St. Patrick, several hundred churches were erected throughout Ire- 
 land. Many universities and monasteries were also established. In 
 some of the latter, the monks formed choirs which consisted of hundreds 
 of singers. In the abbey of Benchoir, which was founded in Carrick- 
 fergus, in the North of Ireland, in the beginning of the sixth centuiy, 
 there were three thousand monks, all of whom, in turn, joined in an 
 eternal song of praise to the Almighty. No fewer than three hundred 
 
192 MUSIC INTRODUCED INTO THEIR CHURCHES. 
 
 at a time were so engaged, and when those had performed their share 
 of the holy duty, they were reheved by others, and so on, throughout 
 the night as well as the day, from year to year. In this way the song 
 of praise to God was kept up for many ages. The term Ben-choir, the 
 Irish appellation of this abbey, means sweet music. Archdale says, 
 "The abbey of Mungret, near Limerick, contained, for many ^gQ^, fif- 
 teen hundred religious persons, of whom five hundred were skilled 
 in psalmody, to serve continually in the choirJ' 
 
 In truth, the monks of the various monasteries established throughout 
 Ireland, cherished, practised, and taught music, inventing several ad- 
 ditional rules for its government, suggested by a passionate cultivation 
 of the science ; and, as the elaborate Burney hath remarked, " the 
 national music of a country is good or bad in proportion to that of its 
 church music," so may we readily give our belief to the advanced 
 state of musical science claimed for Ireland at the era we are consider- 
 ing, viz., the sixth century of Christianity. On the general introduc- 
 tion of Christianity into Ireland, through the mission of St. Patrick, in 
 the previous century, the Roman or Latin language was universally 
 established in all the church offices. The natural influence exerted by 
 the church over the newly-converted Irish, exalted, in their estimation, 
 to a certain extent, the language of its ritual over their own. Hence 
 their musical and religious terms were gradually clothed in the language 
 (Latin) used by the priesthood. Some writers have, on this very slender 
 ground, alleged that the Irish received their musical knowledge from 
 the church missionaries who came from Rome ; but this is a fallacy. 
 On the decline of the Roman empire in the fifth and sixth centuries, 
 th.e ancient seat of their government fell into the hands of the barbarian 
 tribes, who rushed from every side upon the centre of that power 
 which oppressed them. 
 
 Every thing connected with the cultivation of mind was swept away 
 by the infuriate deluge. Even the Latin tongue, the language of the 
 Roman empire, became in a short time mixed with the barbarous 
 dialects of all those nations, which sent in their hostile legions to destroy 
 her. The knowledge of writing the Latin language was nearly lost, 
 and its old pronunciation completely so. The few books which escaped 
 the fury of war were written in Roman or Etruscan capitals, without 
 the least distinction or division of words or sentences. All was chaos 
 in government, law, literature, and music, throughout Europe. And 
 it was in Ireland alone, where the eagles of conquering Rome never 
 were suffered to perch, that all the higher attributes of civilization 
 
IRISH MUSICAL NOTATION. 193 
 
 remained in pristine vigor, and continued, undisturbed by civil commo- 
 tion, to approximate to matured excellence. 
 
 Even the language of fallen Rome was preserved in its original 
 integrity by the Christian priesthood of Ireland, and by them carefully 
 cultivated, and restored, improved, to the schools of Europe, when 
 order was at length reestablished by Charlemagne. The English 
 nation, says the English Camden, was taught Latin by Maildulphus, 
 a learned Irishman, anno 680. — See Camden, p. 176. — To them are 
 we indebted for the application of the principles of punctuation to the 
 Latin language. In the ages between the sixth and ninth century, 
 they used, says Beauford, a number of points and marks, not only to 
 distinguish and point out to the reader the true meaning of the different 
 parts of a written discourse or composition, but also to express the 
 several todies and inflections of the voice in which such compositions 
 ought to be pronounced. 
 
 These marks they divide into three species, viz., grammatical, 
 rhetorical, and musical. From the first two species are derived the 
 several stops and marks at present used in reading and writing through- 
 out the greater part of Europe. The third, that is, the musical, were 
 used in the psalms, or other divine hymns, to render the singing more 
 easy, and to regidate the modulation of the voice. 
 
 Walker gives a translation from an old Irish manuscript, containing 
 some of the ancient rules for singing, from which I quote the fol- 
 lowing : — 
 
 " ' The ancient Irish poems, as sung by the Jileas, harpers, &;c., 
 were frequently accented, to render the singing of them more easy. 
 The characters thus made use of were the same as those adopted by 
 the Latins, differing only in power, according to the genius of the 
 language. A line of poetry marked, was denominated car, or a 
 marked line, (being the same as the Latin sulcos ;) and the characters 
 used therein consisted of two species, that is, the ceol, or sound, (the 
 tonus of the Latins,) and annal, or breath, from whence, in the Irish 
 tongue, car came to signify a bar or line in music, or music in general ; 
 and ceol, or chieol, a musical note. But ceol properly signifies sound, 
 and the marks under that name expressed the elevation and depression 
 of the voice on any syllable in musical concord, and was of three 
 species, that is, ceol ardceol, basceol, and circeoL The ceol in this 
 case marked the middle tone or pitch of the voice, (being the same as 
 the Latin modicus,) and in our language was seldom denoted by any 
 character, the syllables in this pitch being left without an accent. The 
 25 
 
194 IRISH MUSICAL NOTATION. 
 
 ardceol, (the same as the Latin acutus,) thus (' ), marked over a syl- 
 lable, denoted that the voice was raised a third above the ceol, or middle 
 pitch, and, when the character was doubled, elevated the tone to the 
 octave. The basceol, thus marked (^), depressed the voice a third 
 below the ceol, and a fifth below the ardceol, (being the same as the 
 Latin gravis,) but, where marked double, fell a sixth below the ceol, 
 and an octave below the ardceol. The circeol (the same as the Latin 
 circumjlexus) denoted the turning or modulation of the voice, and 
 depended entirely on the length and power of our diphthongs and triph- 
 thongs ; for, as the Irish language does not delight in the harsh sounds 
 of consonants, there is no tongue, perhaps, where the power and variety 
 in the sound of the vowels are so great, in consequence of which, the 
 circeol varied its power according to the different inflections of the 
 vowels. The first species, thus marked ( -^ ), denoted the falling voice, 
 from a third above the ceol, to a third, and sometimes a fourth, below, 
 making the falling fifth or sixth, and properly belongs to the diphthongs 
 
 eu, iu, ao, and oi. The second species, thus marked {^ ), denoted 
 
 the rising voice in the fifth or sixth, passing through the intermediate 
 
 third, and was generally placed over the diphthongs and triphthongs, 
 
 •V -^ ,/s 
 
 ieu, aoi, ei, he. The third species elevated the voice a third, and fell 
 
 a third, alternately, and was marked thus ( /" ) over the accented vowel, 
 
 as ea ; but when the voice only fell or rose a single note, this ( — ' ) for 
 the rising note, and ( i ) for the falling. 
 
 " ' As for the semitones, they were seldom marked, being left to the 
 ear of the musician, according to the key he sang or played in. And 
 in the Irish language, all vowels, meeting in one word, without a conso- 
 nant between them, make but one syllable; and, however they may be 
 accented, the different tones are sounded in the time or length of the 
 syllable, whether it be long or short ; but an aspirated consonant be- 
 tween two vowels makes them separate syllables. This property of 
 the Irish language renders it exceedingly harmonious, and well calcula- 
 ted for poetical and musical compositions — far superior either to the 
 Latin or any of the modern tongues.' " — Here let the reader turn to 
 page 83, under the head of " Language," for a further evidence of 
 musical notation, in the fac-simile engraved from this old manuscript. 
 
 If the reader, who has perused these pages, still remains unsatisfied 
 as to the degree of excellence to which ancient Ireland attained, I will 
 only invite his attention to the following specimen of musical note's in 
 the ancient character, with the accompanying translation into modern 
 notation. 
 

 
 s 
 
 ^ 
 
 jtir 
 
 > 
 
 "-^ 
 
 b-' 
 
 > 
 
 
 in 
 
 r- 
 
 P 
 
 jn 
 
 
 
 :>^ 
 
 
 
 :ivo 
 
 
 
 vx2> 
 
 
 
 
 ^/ 
 
 rD 
 
 •v^ >•> 
 
 
 If- > ^^ 
 
 ir 
 
 ir- > 
 
 r> 
 ir V 
 
 
 SPECIMEN OF THE ANCIENT IRISH MUSICAL NOTATION. 195 
 
 The annexed ancient char- 
 acters were symbols of musical 
 sounds. They answered all 
 the purposes of modern notes, 
 which are no more. These 
 marks of musical modulation 
 must be thoroughly conclusive 
 as to the possession of a com- 
 plete musical school by the 
 Irish several centuries before 
 the days of Pope Gregory, who 
 sat in the pontifical chair about 
 594. It is true, Burney, who 
 saw this specimen, does not 
 consider that it belongs to a 
 period so remote ; but Burney 
 knew nothing of Irish history, 
 or the Irish language, and 
 viewed Ireland only through 
 the medium supplied by the 
 writings of his prejudiced coun- 
 trymen,* 
 
 This musical curiosity, says 
 Walker, was given to Mr. 
 Beauford by a priest, who took 
 it from a manuscript which had 
 been for many generations in 
 the possession of one of the 
 families of the Cavanaghs. The 
 characters in which it is written 
 are the Etruscan, or Latin, of 
 the middle ages. 
 
 ir 
 
 
 ^-n 
 
 h/ 
 
 > 
 
 ^-> 
 
 ir- 
 
 "> 
 
 w-> 
 
 »r 
 
 > 
 
 ^i^ 
 
 1-^ 
 
 V 
 
 v^^ 
 
 in 
 
 
 
 IP" 
 
 ^ 
 
 -^^ 
 
 ifo 
 
 L/ 
 
 o 
 
 irt 
 
 r 
 
 rD 
 
 IS 7^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 T 
 
 "iiii 
 
 I am aware that there exists a difference of opinion amongst learned 
 writers on the point whether Ireland received most instruction m music 
 from, or communicated most to, the - Latins." It would be difficult 1 
 believe, to select any assertion, proposition, or recorded event, withm 
 the knowledge of man, about which there is not a difference of opinion. 
 One broad fact has been established by the controversy, namely, that 
 there were at the dawn, and during the early ages of Christianity, two 
 distinct musical schools in the world, viz., the Eastern and the Western. 
 
 * Burney admits, however, that the farther back he traced Irish music, the more 
 melodious and refined he found it to be. 
 
196 EFFORTS TO FORM A CODE OF CHURCH MUSIC. 
 
 Some of the theological writers, who, since the reformation, wrote ad- 
 versely to the supremacy of Rome, have gone so far as to build some- 
 thing like a theological argument on the difference which they found in 
 the psalmody and music used in the churches immediately surround- 
 ing the pontifical centre, and those used in Ireland, Britain, and 
 Gaul. 
 
 That the Christian fathers adapted their psalms and hymns to what- 
 ever rules and modes they found existing in those countries which they 
 converted, is recorded and admitted by all the early historians. There 
 were hardly any of the nations destitute of some sort of musical 
 chant ; for melody belongs to the mental and physical formation of a 
 human being, and not to science. It belongs, like feeling and senti- 
 ment, to nature. Although, according to Burney, the Eastern nations 
 know nothing of bass, harmony, or counterpoint, yet we may readily 
 admit their practice of chanting, in strains of rude melody, the praises 
 of their dead or living great. The pagans of the East did this, and 
 observed the method of chanting with one, and responding with an- 
 other, set of voices. St. Paul desires the Ephesians to speak to each 
 other in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, (Ephesians, chap. v. 
 verse 19.) Though it is impossible to determine of what kind the 
 ecclesiastical musical modes were, yet we may conclude, from the 
 frequent allusions made to the subject by the immediate followers of the 
 apostles, that some musical order was followed, and improvement 
 aimed at. St. Origen, early in the third century, says, that Christians 
 sang psalms. The terms he uses in reference to the Christian! 
 psalmody are of Greek origin, which lead to the supposition that the 
 " rude and inehgayit " music of the Greeks was that adopted by the 
 Christian fathers. I have marked the definition of Greek music in 
 Italics, because it is not mine, but that of a great master of musical 
 science and history, Dr. Burney. 
 
 During the first three hundred and fifty years of Christian preaching, 
 the doctrine was so violently opposed, and the teachers so inhumanly 
 persecuted, and sacrificed, by the pagan Romans, that litde order and 
 less improvement could he introduced into the psalmody of the church. 
 It is computed that, in the space of three hundred and fifty years 
 from the foundation of Christianity, upwards of four millions of human 
 beings were put to death for professing the Christian religion. When, 
 in the close of the fourth century, one or two of the Roman emperors 
 became Christian, this horrible persecution abated, and then some 
 efforts were made by St. Ambrose to regulate the church psalmody. 
 
THE GREGORIAN CHANTS. 197 
 
 About the year 384, he formed a compound chant of the Dorian, 
 Lydian, Mixolydian, and Phiygian tones, which were called authentic 
 modes. To this, his holiness Pope Gregory, in 599, added three or 
 four Plagal tones. The chants, thus modeled under Ambrose and 
 Gregory, continued for ages the songs and psalmody of the church, and 
 even down to our own days stand amongst its music under the general 
 designation of the "Gregorian chants." They were the first efforts of 
 the Latin fathers to form a code of melody. The ever-existing jealousy 
 of the church against innovation on any of its rules or principles, and 
 its desire to secure uniformity in the sacred song, as well as in prayer, 
 sacrifice, and sacrament, forbade any change in the Gregorian chants for 
 several ages ; but in the twelfth century, improvements were made, it 
 appears, by the Pope Gregory of that age. 
 
 Such are the material components of the musical school of the 
 Latins. Let us now turn our eyes again to Ireland. The chants of 
 Pope Gregory were established in the year 600 of the Christian era ; 
 but St. Patrick entered Ireland in the year 427, one hundred and 
 seventy-three years before Gregory's time. He could not, therefore, have 
 introduced the music of the Latins into Ireland, inasmuch as the Latins 
 had no musical code at the time of his appointment by Pope Celestine, 
 nor had they, as I have shown, for nearly two centuries after; and yet 
 all the churches and monasteries — and they were numerous — erected in 
 St. Patrick's time were filled with choristers. The monastery of Ben- 
 choir, whose very name (sweet 7nusic) indicated the character of its 
 performances, had as many as three thousand choristers, who kept up the 
 eternal song of praise to the Creator, as well by night as by day, min- 
 gling with their voices the sounds of the harp. The whole island, in 
 the course of St. Patrick's mission, Vv^as covered over with churches 
 and monasteries, some built of stone, some of wood, and some of 
 clay ; but they were all filled with singers and harpers. We find that 
 Dubh-thach, the great poet of the Irish, on the arrival of St. Patrick, 
 reconstructed, at the saint's request, many of his own poems, and those 
 of other Irish bards living and dead, accommodating them to celebrate, 
 in melody and harmony, the praises of the Christian martyrs, instead of 
 the heathen deities. 
 
 We find that a series of musical rules, for dividing and accenting 
 poetical compositions, existed in Ireland in very remote ages. We 
 find the musical diagram for regulating the harp music in use. We 
 find the universal cultivation of the harp prevaihng amongst the refined 
 classes of the Irish. We find that even the clergy sang to it in their 
 
19S MUSICAL MODES AND RULES KNOWN TO THE ANCIENT IRISH. 
 
 churches, as Cambrensis, in his Topographia, written in the twelfth cen- 
 tury, testifies. " Hence it happens," says he, " that the bishops, abbots, 
 and holy men, in Ireland, carry with them their harps, and, modulating 
 them, are piously delighted. Whence it happens that St. Keivcn^s 
 harp is held in the greatest reverence by the people of that country." — 
 Chap. 12, dis. 3. — In the Life of St. Keiven, it is stated that the 
 king of Munster, so early as A. D. 489, had the best band of harpers 
 of any in his time, who accompanied their music with singing. We 
 find the bagpipes, the horn, and sundry other instruments, in use, with 
 rules for playing on them, long established in pagan ages. Such ma- 
 turity was not attainable by any sudden or fashionable application ; it 
 must have been the effect alone of long practice and cultivation. 
 
 The more we proceed on this interesting inquiry, the more numerous 
 do we find proofs of the musical science of Ireland. 1 have shown, from 
 the controversy on the comparative merits of the Latin and Western 
 nwisical schools, that two distinct schools existed in Europe. Such, in 
 fact, was the case : the Western school was seated in Ireland. That it 
 was esteemed the hcst, through the most part of Europe, we shall find 
 established by the following evidence : " When Neville Abbey was 
 established in France, in the close of the sixth century, under the 
 auspices of King Pepin, Gertrude, the daughter of that governor, sent 
 into Ireland for musicians and choristers to serve in it. A band of these 
 Irish harpers and choristers came from thence, who imparted their 
 music and rules to all the Franks, which were adopted by the court and 
 the nation ; " and we find that the great Charlemagne, in the eighth 
 century, appointed two Irishmen, Clement Albanius and Dungin, 
 preceptors for the two great universities of Pavia and Paris, which he 
 established. 
 
 If the Irish school were not esteemed the better of the two, its pro- 
 fessors would not have been selected for music and literature by those 
 monarchs, who assisted so materially in restoring civilization and letters 
 to Europe. 
 
 But far more remains to be told. The construction of rhyme, the 
 father and mother of music, is purely of Irish origin. The Greek or 
 Roman poets wrote no poetry that rhymed. Theirs was written in 
 hluiik verse, that is, verse without rhymes. The translators of the old 
 Greek and Roman poets — Dryden, Pope, Cowper, and others — have 
 clothed their translations in rhyming verse, to meet the demands of the 
 popular taste ; but their great originals wrote without rhyme. Singular 
 as it may appear, nevertheless it is true, that the Irish were the only 
 
RHYME ORIGINATED WITH THE IRISH. MOORe's OPINION. 199 
 
 people of ancient days who rhymed in poetry. The ancient ran, 
 or rin, of the Irish was the father of modern rhyme. — The reader 
 will please turn to pages 163, 164, for specimens of ancient Irish rhyme ; 
 and, further, the first in all this world who wrote Latin rhymes were 
 Irishmen ! 
 
 On this head let us hear Moore. " It would appear, indeed, that the 
 modern contrivance of rhyme, which is supposed by some to have had 
 a far other source, may be traced to its origin in the ancient rans or 
 rins [stanzas] of the Irish. The able historian of the Anglo-Saxons, 
 [Turner.] in referring to some Latin verses of Aldhelm, which he 
 api>ears to consider as the earliest specimen of rhyme now extant, pro- 
 fesses himself at a loss to discover whence that form of verse could 
 have been derived. ' Here, then,' says Turner, ' is an example of 
 rhyme in an author who lived before the year 700, and he was an 
 Anglo-Saxon. Whence did he derive it? Not from the Arabs; they 
 had not y^t reached Europe.' " But already before the time of Aid- 
 helm, the use of rhyme had been familiar among the Irish as well in 
 their vernicular verses as in those which they wrote in Latin. Not to 
 dwell on such instances in the latter language as the hymns of St. 
 Columba Kille, an example of Latin verses interspersed with rhyme is 
 to be fovind among the poems of St. Columbaniis, of Ireland, which 
 preceded those of Aldhelm by near half a century, viz. : — 
 
 " Mundus iste transit et quotidie decrescit ; 
 Nemo vivens manebit nullius vivus remansit" 
 
 Though the rhymes, or coincident sounds, occur thus in general on the 
 final syllable^ there are instances throughout the poem of complete 
 double rhymes. 
 
 So far back, indeed, as the fifth century, another Irish poet, Sedulius, 
 had> in some of the verses of his well-known hymn on the life of 
 Christ, left a specimen of much the same sort of rhyme, viz. ; — 
 
 «A solis ortus cardi?ie, ad usque terrse limitem 
 Christum canamus principe?» — natum virgine." 
 
 But it is still more correctly exemplified in a hymn in honor of St. 
 Bn^id, written, as some say, by Columbkill, but, according to others, 
 hy St. Ultan, of Ardbraccais. 
 
 "Christum in nostra insula, quae vocatur Hibemia, 
 Ostensus est homiuibus — maximis mirabiliiits," 
 
200 Camden's opinion. — irish music spread through Europe. 
 
 From the following account of the metrical structure of Irish verse, 
 it will be seen that it was peculiarly such as a people of strong musical 
 feeling, with whom the music was the chief object, would be likely to 
 invent and practise. " The rhyme," says Dr. Drummond, " consists 
 in an equal distance of intervals and similar terminations, each line 
 being divisible into two, that it may be more easily accommodated to 
 the voice and the music of the bards. It is not formed by the nice 
 collocation of long and short syllables, but by a certain harmonic rhythm 
 adjusted to the voice of song by the position of words ivhich touch the 
 heart and assist the memory.^' 
 
 " According to this ' art of the Irish,' as it was styled," continues 
 Moore, " most of the distichs, preserved by Tigernach from the old 
 poets, were constructed ; and it is plain that Aldhelm, who was in- 
 structed by Maidulph, a native of Ireland, derived his knowledge of 
 this, OS ivell as of all other literary accomplishments of that day^ 
 from the lips of his learned Irish master. How nearly bordering on 
 jealousy was his own admiration of the schools of the Irish, has been 
 seen in the sarcastic letter addressed by him to Eagfrid, who had just 
 returned from a coui-se of six years' study in Ireland, overflowing, as it 
 would appear, with gratitude and praise." 
 
 Camden admits the English learned Latin from the Irish, and 
 adopted the Irish letters ; and several English authors admit that 
 rhyming is exclusively an Irish practice. 
 
 St. ColumbanuSj the celebrated Irish scholar and Christian mis- 
 sionary, who proceeded from Ireland, in the sixth century, throughout 
 Europe, teaching literature and Christianity, used, it is said, to enjoy the 
 music of the harp ; and, on one occasion, the holy man is described 
 sitting, along with his brethren, upon the banks of Lake Kee, in Ireland, 
 listening to the songs of the celebrated poet and musician Cronan. He 
 was a Leinster man, educated in the Irish college of Benchoir, already 
 alluded to ; and he took with him twelve Irish monks, who travelled 
 with him through several places on the European continent, preaching 
 the doctrines of the cross. Princes and potentates welcomed hirrs 
 wheresoever he appeared, gave him lands, and encouraged him to 
 establish his disciples as teachers amongst their people. Wherever he es- 
 tablished monasteries, he also established, says the Abbe M'Geoghegan, 
 the perpetual psalmody by different choirs, who relieved each other by 
 day and night, as practised at the time at Benchoir and other Irish 
 monasteries. The same authoi'j writing in France, adds, that he was 
 
SOME GREGORIAN CHANTS COMPOSED BY IRISHMEN. 201 
 
 the first who estabhshed the monastic order among the French. We 
 may fairly presume that he introduced, through his order, into France, 
 thus early, (sixth century,) the sacred music of Ireland. 
 
 Germany received its Christianity and psalmody from Ireland in thai 
 century and the one succeeding, as shall be shown more fully in those 
 pages of this Work which treat of Christian Ireland. While I am 
 writing, an address appears in the Irish papers, directed to Daniel 
 O'Connell by the clergy of Germany, fully confirming all I have 
 advanced. I make a very brief extract. 
 
 " We never can forget to hole upon your beloved country as our 
 mother in religion; that, already at the remotest periods of the Christian 
 era, commiserated our people, and readily sent forth her spiritual sons 
 to rescue our pagan ancestors from idolatry, at the sacrifice of her 
 own property and blood, and to entail upon them the blessings of the 
 Christian faith." — Dublin Nation, 13th April, 1844. 
 
 Indeed, the chants of the Latin church received many contributionb 
 from Ireland even during the lifetime of Pope St. Gregory. St. 
 Columbkill sent three pieces to Rome, two of which were thought very 
 fine by his holiness, and there incorporated in his chants. The first of 
 these begins with the lines 
 
 "In te, Cliiiste, credentium;" 
 the second with 
 
 "Noli, pater, indulgere." 
 
 The great Sedulius, the Irish evangelical poet, wrote several church 
 hymns, some of which were adopted by the same pontiff, and inserted 
 in the breviary of hymns — " A soils ortus cardine," for the nativity ; 
 and " Hostis Herodes impie," for the epiphany ; with the " Salve, 
 sancta, parens enixa puerpera regem" which is used as an introit at the 
 masses of the Blessed Virgin. " The Catholic Church (says Moore) 
 has selected some of her most beautiful hymns from this poem. Sedu- 
 lius wrote in 448 — more than a century before the time of Pope 
 Gregory." 
 
 I might, indeed, continue to produce many other similar instances, if I 
 deemed them necessary. It is evident from Irish history that the lay 
 and church music of Ireland grew, under their own cultivation, from 
 the ancient sounds of simple melody, to a complete maturity. The 
 genuine old Irish lay melodies are capable of being converted into 
 quick or dancing measure, and vice versa — a test of their correct mode. 
 This the dancing airs of modern times do not admit with equal propriety 
 and effect. The Irish was totally distinct from the Latin mode, which 
 was not introduced into Ireland till about the twelfth century. At 
 26 
 
202 OPINION OF CAftlBRENSIS. 
 
 that period, by the strenuous exertions of St. Malachy, Archbishop of 
 Armagh, the music practised at the chief seat of the Christian church 
 was introduced partially into the church service of L-eland. But this 
 did not alter the general character of the lay music of the nation; 
 for we see, when Geraldus Cambrensis visited Ireland, in 1186, the 
 music of Ireland was in great perfection, and in high estimation. 
 
 Cambrensis was an Englishman, who had travelled as the companion 
 of Henry the Second all over Europe ; had heard the best music of 
 every country, and of the most refined society. In his Book of Travels 
 is the following remarkable passage on the Irish music of that age : — 
 
 " The attention of this people to musical instruments I find worthy 
 of commendation ; in which their skill is, beyond all comparison, 
 superior to that of any nation I have seen; for in these the modulation 
 is not slow and solemn, as in the instruments of Britain, to which we 
 are accustomed ; but the sounds are rapid and precipitate, yet at the 
 same time sweet and pleasing. It is wonderful how, in such precipitate 
 rapidity of the fingers, the musical proportions are preserved, and, by 
 their art, faultless throughout, in the midst of their complicated modu- 
 lations and most intricate arrangement of notes, by a rapidity so sweet, 
 a regularity so irregular, a concord so discordant, the melody is rendered 
 hai-monious and perfect. Whether the chords of the diatesseron or 
 diapente are struck together, yet they always begin in a soft mood, and 
 end in the same: that all may he perfected in the sweetness of delicious 
 sounds, they enter on, and again leave their modidations, icith so much 
 suhtilty, and the tinglings of the small strings sport with so much 
 freedom under the deep notes of the bass, delight with so much 
 delicacy, and soothe so softly, that the excellence of their art seems to 
 lie in concealing it." 
 
 But such was the celebrity of Irish music a century preceding the 
 arrival of Cambrensis, that the Welsh bards, so celebrated for their 
 knowledge in this art, condescended to seek for and receive instruction 
 from those of Ireland. " GrufFydh ap Conan," says Powell, " brought 
 over with him from Ireland divers cunning musicians into Wales, who 
 devised mostly all the instrumental music that is now there used ; as 
 appeareth as well by the books written of the same, as also by the 
 names of the tunes and meastires used among them to this date." 
 This is found in Camden's History of Britain and Ireland, 1584, (page 
 191.) 
 
 The learned Selden says of Welsh music, when speaking of the 
 subject, " Their music, for the most part, came out of Ireland with 
 
CAKODOC'S OPINION. LEDWICh's OPINION. 203 
 
 GrufFydh ap Conan, prince of North Wales, about King Stephen's 
 time." — Notes on Drayton. 
 
 Carodoc, of Lhancarvan, a Welshman, in the twelfth century, assures 
 us that the Irish devised all the instruments, tunes, and measures, 
 in use among the Welsh. " Caradoc, the Welsh king and historian," 
 says Ledwich, " without any of that illiberal partiality so common 
 with national writers, assures us the Irish devised all the instru- 
 ments, tunes, and measures, in use among the Welsh. Cambrensis 
 is even more copious in its praise, when he declares that the Irish, aiove 
 any other nation, is incomparably skilled in symphonal music. This 
 incomparable skill could never be predicated of unlearned, extempora- 
 neous bardic airs : it implies a knowledge of the diagram, and an exact 
 division of the harmonic intervals ; a just expression of the tones, and, 
 in the quickest movements, a unity of melody. Cambrensis observes 
 these particulars of our music ; he accurately distinguishes the Irish and 
 English styles : the latter was the diatonic genus, slow, and made up of 
 concords, heavy, the intervals spacious, as in ecclesiastical chant: 
 the former was the enhai'monic genus, full of minute divisions, with 
 every diesis marked, the succession of our melodies lively and rapid, our 
 modulations full and sweet. He alone, [Cambrensis,] who had the 
 sharpest faculties, and was the most profoundly versed in the musical 
 art, felt ineffable pleasure in hearing Irish musicians. It is then evident 
 that all this transcendent excellence in music could be derived but from 
 two sources — a perfect knoivledge of it as a science, and its universal 
 cultivation^ 
 
 Logan, the Scottish antiquarian, says, " Although the Welsh were 
 not previously ignorant of music, it is related that Gryfith ap Cynan, 
 being educated in Ireland, brought its music, musicians, and instruments, 
 to his own country about 1100, and, having summoned a congress of 
 the harpers of both countries to revise their music, the twentyfour 
 musical canons were established in Wales." 
 
 I will here repeat, from my chapter on the bards, the nature of those 
 rules for poetry and music which were then brought from Ireland into 
 Wales. The authors of that able work on the poetry and music 
 of Wales, entitled the Myvyrian Archaeology, published under the 
 superintendence of the Society of Welsh Antiquarians, enter on a 
 profound inquiry into the subject. Referring to the rules of poetry and 
 music introduced from Ireland into Wales in the eleventh and twelfth 
 centuries, they say, " The rules consisted of twenty-four elementary 
 principles of versification. These, with their subdivisions, include 
 
204 IRISH MUSICAL, LAWS INTRODUCED INTO WALES. 
 
 every species of verse that has ever yet, in any age, or amongst any 
 people, been produced, besides a prodigious number of original con- 
 struction, which can be found with no other people." Dr. Molloy, 
 already quoted by ine, says, the construction and variety of Irish metre 
 are the most difficult he has ever seen or heard of. In its composition 
 these things are required — number, quartans, number of syllables, 
 concords, correspondence, termination, union, and caput, the subdivisions 
 of all which are again minute and perplexing. 
 
 Ere Dr. Johnson designated Ireland the school of the West, he had 
 fully satisfied himself that she deserved the appellation ; and so in truth 
 she did. Her schools of literature, science, and music, were celebrated 
 throughout Europe, and imparted to its youth the light of wisdom. 
 The ancient Irish, according to Vallancey, Walker, and other anti- 
 quarians, had their musical schools, in which the bards and oirfidigh 
 were instructed in musical science. Into these schools, the stray 
 musical talent of the country was collected, maintained, and educated, 
 at the expense of the foundation — a practice we find prevalent at present 
 in the Jesuit schools of Germany, and also in the pontifical schools at 
 Rome. In those Irish musical schools, a circle of the learners was 
 formed, called draieacht, to distinguish it from ogham, the prosodiacal 
 circle. 
 
 The Irish bishops carried the harp with them in the time of Cam- 
 brensis, and, indeed, the clergy were often excellent bards. Donchadh 
 O'Daly, abbot of Boyle, in 1250, excelled all the bards of his time. 
 The members of the Scots (Irish) church, says Logan, brought 
 sacred music to great perfection, and rendered it celebrated throughout 
 Europe in very early ages ; and left many treatises on it. 
 
 Wharton, in his History of English Poetry, says, " Even so late as 
 the eleventh century, the practice continued among the Welsh bards of 
 receiving instructions in the bardic profession from Ireland^ 
 
 Up to the twelfth century, poetry and music were generally cultivated 
 by the same person ; so that all things that were said of one branch 
 applied to the other. After that period, poetry and music separated, and 
 each was pursued by different votaries. The musician gradually be- 
 came a distinct artiste, and so of the poet. 
 
 I find it asserted in some of the musical works, that " counterpoint, or 
 melody, as treble and bass, were invented by Guido, an Italian, about 
 the year 1022, and the time table by Frameo, in 1080." I cannot see 
 how that can be called an invention In Italy, in the eleventh century, 
 which was known in Ireland at least five hundred years previously But 
 
THE VIOLIN OF IRISH ORIGIN. IRISH GUITAR. 205 
 
 this fallacy proves lo us thai the Latins knew little of the varied musical 
 principles of the Western (Irish) school for a long period after their 
 religious intercourse commenced. Improvements, it is said, travel much 
 slower than snails. We can readily credit the fame which Guido and 
 Frameo acquired, by the introduction to their countrymen of the Irish 
 rules for treble mid bass, and dividing time, which they offered to the 
 world as inventions. The Italians, according to their oivn great musi- 
 cal author, Galleli, " derived their harp from Ireland before the time 
 of Dante,'' (A. D. 1300.) The instrument, according to his account, 
 had, at that time, four octaves and a tone in compass, viz., thirty-three 
 strings. As Italy got her harp from Ireland, it is not presuming too 
 much to say she got the instructions for playing on it from the 
 same quarter ; for they must be very subtle casuists indeed, who can 
 draw a different conclusion from those plain premises. 
 
 The violin, though brought to great perfection in Italy, in 1550, by 
 Amati and Straduarius of Cremona, had its origin in the Irish creamh- 
 tine cruit, (JValker and Vallancet/,) an instrument of six strings, four 
 only of which could be termed symphonic, and these were stretched 
 over a flat bridge on a finger-board. The two lower strings projected 
 beyond the finger-board, and were not touched by the plectrum, or 
 bow, but occasionally with the thumb, as a bass accompaniment to the 
 notes sounded on the other strings. This instrument, the parent 
 of the violin, was used as a tenor accompaniment to the harp at 
 feasts and convivial meetings. Martyn, in his Journey through the 
 Western Highlands, notices the prevalence of this instrument, and 
 remarks, " As it is not denied that the crcamhtine emit was the parent 
 of the violin, it only remains to be admitted that the Scots borroiced 
 this instrument from the Irish, in order to account for the violin being 
 in such general use in the Western Isles." The Welsh had a similar 
 instrument long in use, the invention of which some of their writers 
 having claimed for them, the learned Colonel Vallancey, the English 
 antiquarian, grapples with the assumption, and vindicates the claim of 
 Ireland to its invention. " I believe," he says, " the only honor they 
 can have is the invention of playing on this instrument with the bow ; 
 yet this seems to have been known to the Irish also, for, in our common 
 lexicons, we find ' Cpuit, a harp, a fiddle, a crowder.' " 
 
 It is very evident that this instrument may have been played by 
 the ancient Irish with the fingers, hke our modern guitars ; or, rather, may 
 we not say it was the old Irish guitar? It was capable of giving four 
 octaves, or thirty-two natural notes, which was formerly the precise 
 
206 SCOTCH MUSIC ESSENTIALLY IRISH. 
 
 power of the harp. Upon this basis the viohn of Cremona was con- 
 structed. Experiments have improved it so much that a bar may be 
 bowed above fifty different ways. Paginini was the most wonderful 
 viohnist that ever appeared. He transcended, with the G string by 
 itself, all other performers with the four strings. 
 
 The Scottish music is essentially Irish ; their ancient language was 
 Irish ; their kings, their laws, books, and poetry, were all Irish in origin ; 
 all their musical instruments, with the exception of the bagpipes, were 
 Irish. The Scotch bagpipe, which they have brought to very great 
 perfection, and play on delightfully, is of Roman origin. 
 
 The learned Mr. Beauford, at the request of Dr. Walker, made an 
 exact comparison between the Irish and some of the Highland airs, pub- 
 lished, in the last century, by the Rev. Mr. M'Donald, and it was dis- 
 covered that they were constructed on the same principles. The cause 
 of this affinity in music, between these two people, is the same as that 
 which made their language common or identical, namely, a common 
 origin, and a long and closely continued alliance and relationship. Dr. 
 Campbell, in his Philosophical Sui-vey, confidently asserts that the honor 
 of inventing the Scots music must be given to Ireland. The Scottish 
 historian John de Fordun, who was sent over to Ireland, in the four- 
 teenth century, to collect materials for a history of Scotland, (the first 
 that ever was published separately on Scotland, from the time of its 
 original colonization from Ireland,) expressly says that '■^Ireland was 
 the fountain of music in his time, whence it then began to fiow into 
 Scotland and Wales." 
 
 John Major, in his fulsome panegyric on James the First of Scotland, 
 (as quoted by Walker,) calls that prince " another Orpheus, who 
 touched the harp more exquisitely than either the Highlanders, or even 
 the Irish, who ivere the most eminent harpers then known." This was 
 written in 1600. Walker continues to remark, " The cause of this 
 affinity between the airs of the two nations we may find in the Scottish 
 historians. These writers inform us that, about the period of which we 
 are now treating, many Irish harpers travelled into the Highlands of 
 Scotland. Here, while they diffused several of their native melodies, 
 they undoubtedly occasioned a revolution in the musical taste of the 
 country for the excellence of their performance : they, standing at this 
 time unrivalled in their profession, must have excited admiration ; and 
 whatever we admire we are ambitious to imitate." 
 
 In a large work, entitled Caledonia, page 476, quoted by Logan, 
 a Scotchman, the following passage appears: "The Welsh, the 
 
OPINIONS OF ENGLISH WRITERS ON IRISH MUSIC. 207 
 
 Scots, and the Irish, have all melodies of a simple sort, which, as they 
 are connected together by cognate marks, evince at once their relation- 
 ship and antiquity. The Manx have but a few national airs that much 
 resemble the Irish. Much of the music of Ireland seems as if it were 
 composed for love only." 
 
 The music of the Isle of Man is altogether Irish. 
 
 Almost all the English poets, who wrote on Ireland from the twelfth 
 to the sixteenth century, noticed the preeminence of her music above 
 all the nations of Europe. Fuller, in his History of the Holy War, says, 
 " Yea, we may well think that all the concert of Christendom in this 
 warre could have made no musick if the Irish harp had been wanting." 
 
 Drayton has the following : — 
 
 "The Irish I admire, 
 And still cleave to that lyre, 
 
 As our music's mother; 
 And think, till I expire, 
 
 Apollo's such another." 
 
 Lord Bacon says, " The harpe hath the concave not along the strings, 
 but across the strings ; and no harpe hath the sound so melting and so 
 prolonged as the Irish harpe." Moore quotes the following from 
 Evylin's Journal : " Come to see my old acquaintance, and the most 
 incomparable player on the Irish harp, Mr. Clarke, after his travels. 
 Such music before or since did I never hear, that instrument beins: 
 neglected for its extraordinary difficult}^; but, in my judgment, far 
 superior to the lute, or whatever speaks with strings." Even Spenser, 
 the poet of Queen Bess, praises the harp of Ireland, and says he had 
 much of their poetical compositions translated to him. Walker re- 
 marks that it is very probable Spenser borrowed several of his beautiful 
 fictions from some of these Irish poems ; for in them, as in those of 
 Ariosto and Chaucer, giants and fairies may be found in abundance. 
 Many more English, and also French, authorities could be quoted, if I 
 deemed them necessary. 
 
 In the fifteenth century, the Irish harp, according to Dean Lynch, 
 received considerable improvements from the ingenuity of Robert Nu- 
 gent, a Jesuit, who resided in Ireland. He enclosed the open space 
 between the trunk and upper part (or arm) of the instrument with little 
 pieces of wood, and closed it up after the manner of a box, and the 
 bored part, or sound-hole, on the right side, which was formerly open, he 
 covered with a lattice work of wood, as in the clavichord, and then 
 
208 IMPROVEMENT IN THE HARP. THE HORN. 
 
 placed a double row of chords on each side. This was certainly a 
 valuable improvement ; for, in consequence of the double row of strings, 
 which was stretched along each side ol the trunk, there were two 
 strings to each tone, so that two parts might be played on the instru- 
 ment at the same time — the treble with the right hand and the bass with 
 the left. The Welsh have used a double-stringed harp, in latter years, 
 which is much esteemed amongst musicians ; but the Irish harpers seem 
 to prefer the old single-stringed instrument. The old harps were strung 
 with wire, and the performers struck them with their nails, which were 
 suffered to grow very long for that purpose. Gut is now used. The 
 Welsh formerly used hair. 
 
 There were many other instruments in use amongst the ancient Irish, 
 which want of space will not permit me to dwell on. The ancient 
 horn was a simple musical instrument, common to almost all the 
 nations. It was formed from the horn of the cow, and was occasionally 
 lengtliened by a small brass or tin tube inserted in the smaller end, 
 which was put into the mouth. Holes were bored in this instrument at 
 musical distances. Almost all chiefs, knights, bards, and travellers, 
 wore those horns suspended over the neck, by the side ; and when 
 they arrived at the ancient betagh, (resting-place of free entertain- 
 ment,) they sounded either the horn worn by themselves, or that found 
 suspended at the gate. It is said that St. Patrick, when he travelled, 
 took with him a horn. The horn was used as a drinking cup by the 
 Irish chieftains ; and it was also used as a signet, or symbol of agree- 
 ment, in the perfection of civil contracts. In England, as in Ireland, 
 it was used as a pledge, in the transfer of inheritances, and its presence 
 upon such occasions may have given birth to that old Irish and English 
 custom of having a drink at the conclusion of a bargain or contract. 
 The horn, or coniu, does not seem to be peculiar to any nation; it 
 was used as well by the Jews, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, 
 Romans, Gauls, Germans or Tentones, Caledonians, as by the Irish. 
 
 When the bugle horn ceased to be used in the armies of the Irish, 
 and the other European powers, it was either slung, as an ornament, at 
 the side of domestics, (^WaJker,) or employed at hunting matches to call 
 together a scattered pack of hounds. There were many variations of 
 this instrument, such as the clarion, trumpet, &;c. The flute, pipe, 
 flagelet, and boy's whistle, v/ere originally in the same form. The Irish 
 had the corobasnas, a chorus instrument of a complex form, which was 
 used, as its Irish name imports, for marking time in music. It consisted 
 of two circular plates of brass, connected by a wire of the same metal, 
 
THE ORGAN. PIANO-FORTE. BELLS. TROMBONE. 209 
 
 twisted in a worm-like manner, which jingled round the shanks, when 
 the plates were struck upon by the fingers. 
 
 The ORGAN was invented by a barber of Alexandria, about one hun- 
 dred and thirteen years before the birth of Christ. The history of its 
 improvements from the rude original to its present perfected state, is inter- 
 esting, but too long for this work. When it was first introduced into Ire- 
 land, history is silent. Organs were in general use, in the churches of Italy 
 and France, in the seventh century ; about which time, the religious of 
 Ireland and of those countries had frequent intercourse. There is an 
 organ at present at Amsterdam, which has fifty-two whole stops, besides 
 half stops, and two rows of keys for the feet, and three for the hands, 
 and a set of pipes that imitate a chorus of human voices. The organ at 
 Haerlem (^Gardiner) is one hundred and eight feet high and fifty feet 
 broad, with five thousand pipes, resembling columns of silver, from the 
 ground to the roof. It produces a tone of thunder. This is an instru- 
 ment capable of yet greater improvements. 
 
 The PIANO-FORTE, as I have already said, is simply the Irish harp, 
 placed horizontally in a box, and struck by the machinery of levers and 
 leathern hammers, touched by the fingers. This instrument, now such 
 a universal favorite, was constructed in London, in 1766, by Zumpi, a 
 German. The compass of the piano extends, like the modern harp, 
 through six octaves. To present a scale showing the surpassing com- 
 pass of the harp, I give, from the best musical authorities, the following 
 calculation : the compass of the grand action harp extends through six 
 and a half octaves ; the compass of the grand action piano, through 
 six and a half, and latterly some have been run up to seven ; the 
 guitar, through two and a quarter ; the clarionet, three and a half; 
 the horn, three ; the bassoon, three ; the flute, three ; the violin, two 
 and a half, but every note can be bowed fifty different ways ; the 
 moloncello, two and a quarter ; human voices, two. In an organ of 
 eight octaves, the pipes of the lowest tones are thirty-two feet long, and 
 of the highest, one inch and a half. 
 
 Bells began to be used in churches on the introduction of Chris- 
 tianity into Britain and Ireland ; but large bells, suspended in towers, 
 were not general till the eighth and ninth centuries. At that time, on 
 the expulsion of the Danes from Ireland, the clergy converted the 
 old round towers of Ireland into belfries. 
 
 The trombone is the sackbut of the ancients ; and it was revived about 
 1790, after a model found in Pompeii. It produces the semitones by 
 sliding out and in, hke a telescope tube. 
 27 
 
210 MUSIC OF ENGLAND. 
 
 The English had no musical schools, and cultivated the science very 
 sparingly, till about the close of the sixteenth century. A country de- 
 scribed so accuratiely by one of their own accomplished writers, in the 
 few compact words that follow, can have little pretensions to music ; for 
 it is the offspring of peace, art, science, literature, and political inde- 
 pendence. " The Roman occupation of Britain is an historical blank. 
 They held the country four hundred years — a period sufficient to change 
 its character; but we have few evidences of their improvements, one? ybr 
 twelve centuries after their departure civilization was in the lowest 
 state." — Sir Richard Phillips. 
 
 While music and poetry were flourishing in Ireland, coarse ballads, 
 set to rude music, were the delight of the nobility and gentry of Eng- 
 land. I hope no person from that country will deem me guilty of 
 disparaging unjustly the character of the English nation. Ireland has, 
 until very lately, been contemptuously treated by the majority of Eng- 
 lishmen. Her fair character has been stained by calumnious writers. 
 Under the shade of clouds of slander, her liberties have been stolen 
 away, and her children have been scattered, houseless and friendless, on 
 a cold world. If, in the endeavor to remove some portion of that vast 
 cloud, by the publication of this book, I should wound the sensibilities 
 of any English man or woman, I have only to say that the deed is 
 farthest from my wish. Although the great body of the English people 
 710W feel disposed to be more just to Ireland, still the genius of history 
 requires that I should, in these pages, tell the truth, the whole truth, 
 and nothing but the truth ; and that I shall do, under the favor and pro- 
 tection of the Almighty. 
 
 John Baldwin, an English writer, published a work, called the 
 "Canticles or Balades of Solomon, A.D. 1549," in which he thus con- 
 cludes his address to the reader: "Would God that such songs might 
 once drive out of office the bawdy balades that commonly are indited 
 and sung of idle courtyers in princes' and noblemen's houses." This 
 depravity of taste, remarks Walker, which Mr. Baldwin reprobates, 
 must have been gradually stealing on his countrymen. 
 
 Henry Lawes, according to Milton, who was himself a lover of music, 
 was the first improver of the secular music of the English. Milton's 
 sonnet to him begins thus : — 
 
 "Harrj'', whose tuneful and well-measured song 
 First taught our English music how to span 
 Words with just note and accent, — not to scan 
 With Midas ears, committing short and long," &c. 
 
GEORGE THE FOURTH INTRODUCES TWO HUNDRED STRAINS. 211 
 
 So much for the secular music of the EngHsh. Now we turn 
 for a moment to iheir church music, which we shall find in a very 
 simple, unimproved state. In " The Book of Common Prayer noted, 
 published by John Marbeake, in 1550, which contains so much of the 
 common prayer as is to be sung in churches," there were but three or 
 four sorts of notes used, viz. 
 
 ?z=L==^Ei^;^[i:^ 
 
 The whole is filled with chanting notes on four red lines only ; but 
 their knowledge of harmony, it appears, increased in the year 1563, for 
 another work was then printed, entitled "The Whole Psalms, in Foure 
 Partes, which may be sung to all Musical Instruments." Yet their taste 
 seems not to have kept pace with their practical improvement ; for 
 Prinn, in a work published in 1663, calls their church music the bleat- 
 ing of brute beasts. 
 
 Luther, who was a tolerable musician, introduced some new rules 
 into English psalmody. He caught the popular airs floating in the 
 dance and wake, and gathered them into his churches. The Old 
 Hundredth, says Phillips, was a love ditty ; Rebuke me not, was an 
 Irish jig ; and Stand up, O Lord, was a Poitou-dance. 
 
 Burney gives the first tune printed in English notes, and it appears to 
 be the old Irish air, Ta an Sammodth teacht, " The Summer is coming," 
 to which Moore wrote the beautiful words, " Rich and rare were the 
 gems she wore," to be found in the musical pages of this work. 
 
 Madrigals for four or five voices were introduced in the seventeenth 
 century, when Marinzio, Este, Morley, and VVilbye composed their 
 glees and catches. James the First, himself a good musician, intro- 
 duced into Scotland several eminent foreign performers, who, it is said, 
 improved the Scotch style, and, on their return to Italy, brought 
 with them the old Irish and Scotch music, which they learned during 
 their sojourn. 
 
 George the Fourth^ a few years ago, with the aid of oup countryman 
 Michael Kelly and Gardiner, had two hundred strains of Haydn, Mo- 
 zart, and Beethoven, adapted to as many of the best versions of the 
 Psalms. The English, within the present century, have become great 
 patrons of foreign music, whilst they have nearly altogether neglected 
 their own, meagre though it be. In truth, their principal stock was given 
 to them by Irish composers. Michael Kelly, alone, wrote the music of 
 
212 HANDEL REJECTED IN LONDON, APPLAUDED IN DUBLIN. 
 
 sixty English operas and musical pieces, during the first quarter of the 
 present century.* He composed all the music for Dibdin's songs, sung 
 by him with powerful effect during the wars against Napoleon. The 
 taste of the English public for genuine music was not so accurate as that 
 of their contemned neighbors, the Irish, as may be seen from the follow- 
 ing anecdote of Handel, which appears in Walker, but better told by 
 Busby, in his musical work. " When Handel first produced his Messiah 
 before a London audience, in 1750, it was condemned. He went to 
 Dublin, reproduced the splendid performance there, and won from that 
 more discriminating audience thunders of applause. In fact, it created 
 quite a sensation in Ireland. On Handel's return to London, he had the 
 satisfaction of enjoying the most enthusiastic applause, and the highest 
 honors, from the same audiences which previously condemned his 
 immortal composition ; and after his death, his natal day was commemo- 
 rated in London by the most extravagant musical festivals." At the 
 Handel commemoration of 1784, which took place in Westminster 
 Abbey, four hundred and eighty-three performers took part ; at that of 
 1834, there were six hundred and twenty. 
 
 The music of Ireland changed gradually in its character after the 
 introduction of the religious wars of the reformation. Although the first 
 settlers from England, who obtained a footing in Leinster, through the 
 national treachery of Dermod M'Murrough, in 1169, had given their 
 Irish neighbors considerable annoyance, — and although King Edward 
 the First, of England, inhumanly butchered, at a feast, three hundred of 
 the Welsh harpers, and soon after caused to be passed, at the little par- 
 liament of his Pale, a statute making it penal to entertain any of the Irish 
 minstrels, rhymers, or news-tellers, — still the heart of L'eland was not 
 broken, and her music was buoyant as her spirit was light, hearty, 
 animating. 
 
 But after the desolation which followed the religious wars of Henry 
 the Eighth, Elizabeth, James the First, Cromwell, and William the 
 Third, the character of the national music changed. But rather than 
 attempt a description of this change, I give that of the elegant and accu- 
 rate Walker, from whose rare work I have already drawn so largely. 
 " Such was the nice sensibility of the bards, such was dieir tender affec- 
 tion for their country, that the subjection to which the kingdom was 
 reduced, affected them with the heaviest sadness. Sinking beneath this 
 weight of sympathetic sorrow, they became a prey to melancholy. 
 Hence the plainliveness of their music ; for it being, at this time, (from 
 1550 to 17BQj) their only solace, must have served to increase their 
 * See Michael Kelly, at page 1190. 
 
IRISH MUSIC ADAPTED TO THE PASSIONS OF LOVE AND SORROW. 213 
 
 melancholy ; for music, says Bacon, feecleth that disposition of the 
 spirits which it findeth : the ideas that arise in the mind are always con- 
 genial to, and receive a tincture from, the influencing passion. The 
 bards, often driven, together with their patrons, by the sword of oppres- 
 sion, from the busy haunts of men, were obliged to lie concealed, in 
 marshes, in gloomy forests, among rugged mountains, and in glens and 
 valleys, resounding with the noise of falling waters, or filled with por- 
 tentous echoes. Such scenes as these, by throwing a gloom over the 
 fancy, must have considerably increased their settled melancholy ; so 
 that, when they attempted to sing, it is not to be wondered that their 
 voices, thus weakened by struggling against a heavy mental depression, 
 should rise rather by minor thirds, which consist but of four semitones, 
 than by major thirds, which consist of five. Now, almost all the airs of 
 this period are found to be set in the minor third, and to be of the sage 
 and solemn nature of the music which Milton requires in his Penseroso. 
 
 ' bid the soul of Orpheus sing 
 
 Such notes as warbled to the string, 
 Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, 
 And made hell grant what love did seek.'" 
 
 The great Orientalist, Sir William Jones, remarks on the advantage 
 we have over the Greeks, in our minor scale, which enables us to adapt 
 our music so admirably to subjects of grief and melancholy — love, for 
 instance. Mr. Marsden, in his History of Sumatra, says, " The Sumatra 
 tunes very much resemble, to my ear, those of the native Irish, and have 
 usually, like them, a flat third." " Being very desirous," says Walker, 
 " to discover the cause of this resemblance, I consulted Mr. Marsden on 
 the subject, the result of which was the following curious paper: — 
 
 " ' It is observed that the popular music of most nations, within cer- 
 tain limits of civilization, is confined to the flat or minor key. The 
 sharp or major key is doubtless the more obvious, and must present itself 
 to the rude essayers of the art. Accordingly it will be found, that peo- 
 ple in a very savage state, as the negroes of Africa, seldom, if ever, 
 demonstrate any acquaintance with the minor key. Their short songs, 
 by which they regulate the motion and soothe the irksomeness of their 
 labor, are all in the major Jcey, which accords better with the natural 
 vivacity of their disposition. In countries where, from incidental cir- 
 cumstances, the inhabitants are encouraged to devote their leisure to the 
 improvement of their musical skill, they catch, at length, the succession 
 of tones with a flat interval ; and finding this more expressive of passion, 
 
214 IRISH MUSICIANS COPIED THE SOUNDS OF BIRDS, ETC. 
 
 and more calculated to awake the feelings, which is the great end and 
 object of music, amongst people whose genuine sensations are not blunt- 
 ed by the polish of refinement, they attach themselves to it, and the 
 other key, being comparatively deficient in pathos, falls into disuse. 
 Where the art is carried to its last stage of perfection, as among the 
 European nations, and where the object of the musician is to entertain 
 by variety, and surprise by brilliancy of execution, — to captivate the 
 ear rather than the hearts of his auditors, — there both the keys are 
 indifferently employed, or so managed as to produce that species of 
 pleasure which arises from sudden transitions and contrasts. 
 
 " ' Since writing the above, I met an observation by a French author, 
 that singing birds always tune their song in the major key, and that, 
 although it has frequently been attempted to teach those birds which 
 possess imitative faculties to pipe airs with a flat third, it has never to 
 any degree succeeded.' " 
 
 The Irish harpers copied the sounds of birds and animals upon their 
 harp-strings. So did the Irish pipers upon the bagpipes. Hunting 
 tunes have been made the medium of numberless variations, in which the 
 cries of the hounds, the " Tally ho ! " of the huntsman, and the moans 
 of the dying stag or fox, have been very well imitated. Gardiner, 
 in his Music of Nature, has put into notes the songs of twenty-four birds, 
 and twenty animals, and of eight or ten insects ; also twenty expres- 
 sions of human passion or feeling. The gnat gives the note A, on the 
 second space. The death-watch calls in B flat, and answers in C. 
 The three notes of the cricket are in B. The buzz of a beehive is in F. 
 The wings of the house-fly are in F, in the first space. The humble- 
 hce is an octave, or eight notes, lower, &£c. 
 
 I have inserted these digressional i-emarks and quotations here, for 
 the purpose of presenting the reader with some of that variety of charac- 
 ter which belongs to Irish music. And now to return to the ages of its 
 decline. 
 
 A people hunted like wolves, as the Irish have been, by their barbaric 
 neighbors, for the last three hundred years, could not have practised the 
 nice and minute rules necessary to keep up a good musical school ; 
 •they were not able to improve and refine according to the rapid de- 
 velopment of musical science in other happier nations ; and hence 
 there is found a marked decline in its cultivation. 
 
 Walker mentions one Maguire, a vintner, who resided near Charing 
 Cross, London, about the year 1730, and played exceedingly well 
 on the Irish harp. His house was frequented by some of the very 
 
LAMENT OF THE MINSTREL o'gNIVE. 215 
 
 first men in London, even members of the cabinet, wiio came to hear 
 his melody. Upon one occasion, he was asked why the Irish airs were 
 so plaintive and solemn. He replied that the native composers were " too 
 deeply distressed at the situation of their country and her gallant sons to 
 compose otherwise ; but remove the restraints which they labor under, 
 and you will not have reason to complain of the plaintiveness of their 
 notes." Offence was taken at these warm expressions ; his house be- 
 came gradually neglected, and he died soon after broken-hearted. 
 
 Many fragments of beautiful lamentations, as well as incitements to 
 freedom, composed by the minstrels who lived in the ages of persecu- 
 tion, are plentifully scattered through the history of this period. I can 
 make room for only one specimen. It is the composition of O'Gnive 
 family ollanih to the O'Neills of Clanaboy. 
 
 « O 
 
 The condition of our dear countrymen! 
 How languid tiieir joys! 
 How pressing their sorrows ! 
 The wrecks of a party ruined! 
 Their wounds still rankling! 
 The wretched crew of a vessel 
 Tossed long about, finally cast away ! 
 
 Are we not 
 The prisoners of the Saxon nation ? 
 The captives of remorseless tyranny ? 
 Is not our sentence pronounced? 
 Is not our destruction inevitable ? 
 Frightful, grinding thought! 
 Power exchanged for servitude, 
 Beauty for deformity, the 
 Exultations of liberty 
 For the pangs of slavery, 
 A great and brave people 
 For a servile, desponding race ! 
 
 How came this transformation? 
 Shrouded in a mist, which 
 Bursts down on you like a deluge, 
 Which covers you with successive 
 Inundations of evil. 
 Ye are not the same people. 
 Need I appeal to your senses ? 
 But what sensations have you left? 
 
 * 9P ^ ^ ^ iJf; # 
 
 The suffering children of Ireland no longer 
 
 Recognize their common mother. 
 
 She equally disowns us for her children. 
 
216 SUPPRESSION AND DECLINE OF IRISH MUSIC. 
 
 We both have lost our forms. 
 What do we now behold 
 But insulting Saxon natives, 
 And native Irish aliens? 
 
 Hapless land! 
 Thou art a bark through which 
 The sea hath burst its way. 
 We hardly discover any part 
 Of you in the hands of the plunderer. 
 Yes ! the plunderer hath 
 Refitted you for his own habitation, 
 And we are new-moulded for his purpose. 
 
 Ye Israelites of Egypt — 
 Ye wretched inhabitants of this foreign land. 
 Is there no relief for you ? 
 Is tliere no Hector left 
 For the defence, or rather for 
 The recovery, of Troy ? 
 
 It is thine, O my God, 
 To send us a second Moses. 
 Thy dispensations are just; 
 And unless tlie children of Scythian Scot 
 Return to thee, old Ireland is not doomed 
 To arise from the thraldom of the Saxon." 
 
 This is not the place to record the milHons of human beings, of everj 
 age and of both sexes, that were butchered — the confiscations and the 
 desolation which accompanied the wars of Elizabeth, James the First, 
 Cromwell, and William the Third. The reader will find them briefly 
 discribed in the proper place in this volume. Every attribute of the Irish 
 nation which we should admire was struck down, and, as eloquently 
 expressed by the heart-broken bard, " the slaves of Ireland no 
 longer recognize their common mother." In this terrible desolation the 
 music of Ireland sank. Nine tenths of the most beautiful compositions 
 perished. A few, compared with what existed, have come down to us ; 
 and, judging by their surpassing melody, we may form a conception of 
 what the music of Ireland really was in the ages of her independence. 
 During the pressure of the penal laws, from the age of Elizabeth, in the 
 sixteenth, to the times of Grattan and Flood, in the eighteenth century^ 
 the intellect of Ireland shrank back into the earth as fast as it saw the 
 glare of tyranny. Education had been suppressed, wealth and enter- 
 prise forbidden, freedom extinguished, and the songs of the bard silenced 
 by the hangman or the trooper. Now and then, however, in the midst 
 of the universal gloom, some dazzling genius would flash his meteor rays 
 
o'kaNE. CAROLAN. 217 
 
 on the thick surrounding darkness, — but only to make the darkness 
 more visible ; yet those involuntary emanations of native talent did 
 occasionally appear, affording evidence of the vitality of Erin's body, 
 and the immortality of her soul, — proving, in the language of her darling 
 poet, Moore, 
 
 " that still she lives." 
 
 Amongst these, O'Kane, Carolan, Jackson, and some others, stand 
 proudly prominent — the first as a harper, the second and third as com- 
 posers. O'Kane not only delighted his own countrymen in Ireland, but 
 passed over to Scotland, about 1740, where he won such renown, that 
 the lairds of that ancient country made him their honored guest. He 
 was presented by the Laird M'Donald with a harp key, that had been 
 time immemorial in the family, which bore marks of great antiquity, 
 being ornamented with gold and silver, and precious stones of great 
 value. Such a tribute offered by the primary chieftain of Scotland to 
 Irish musical genius is not to be undervalued. 
 
 Of Carolan a volume might be agreeably filled. Walker gives many 
 pages of his valuable book to his life, and Bunting and Hardiman also 
 give many particulars. " The cabin," says the former, " in which our 
 bard was born, 1670, in the village of Nobber, county Westmeath, is still 
 pointed out to the inquisitive traveller. As it is in a ruinous state, it must 
 soon become a prey to all-devouring time ; but the spot on which it stood 
 will, I predict, be visited, at a future day, with as much true devotion by 
 the lovers of natural music, as Stratford-upon-Avon and Binfield are by 
 the admirers of Shakspeare and Pope." He must have been deprived of 
 sight at a very early period of life by the small-pox, for he remembered 
 no impression of colors, and was shut up in darkness before he had 
 taken even a cursory view of creation. From this he felt no incon- 
 venience. " My eyes," he would say, " are transplanted into my ears." 
 Yet, though blind, he could play backgammon very well. Hospitality 
 consumed his little farm. He ate, drank, and was merry, leaving the 
 morrow to provide for itself. It is not known at what period of his life 
 he became an itinerant musician, or whether it grew from necessity or 
 choice. His person was comely, his forehead intellectual, as may be 
 seen from an engraving of him to be seen in the Frontispiece. Walker 
 says, " Methinks I see him mounted on a good horse, and attended by a 
 harper in the character of a domestic, — for he at all times kept a good 
 pair of horses, and a servant to wait on him, — setting forth on his 
 journey, and directing his course towards Connaught. Wherever he 
 28 
 
218 CAROLAN. 
 
 goes, the gates of the nobility and gentry are thrown open to him. 
 Like the Deniodocus of Homer, he is received with respect, and a dis- 
 tinguished place assigned him at the table. Near him is seated his 
 harper, ready to accompany his voice and supply his want of skill in 
 practical music." " Carolan," says Mr. Ritson, " seems, from the descrip- 
 tion we have of him, to be a genuine representative of the ancient bard." 
 Carolan had his love troubles. There is hardly any bard free from them. 
 Woman worships poetry and music, and he who has been blessed or 
 cursed with poetical or musical addictions, will have his share of her 
 smiles and frowns. 
 
 It was during his peregrinations that he composed all his beautiful 
 pieces. " Carolan," says Magee, in his Dublin Packet for 1784, " though 
 a modern minstrel, has been admired as a first-rate musical genius — an 
 untaught phenomenon in the cultivation of harmony. His music is in 
 every body's hands, and is in the highest degree popular." I have se- 
 lected some of Cardan's musical remains for these pages, which I hope 
 will not be neglected for airs of far less melody or merit. 
 
 His wit was prompt and pointed. Residing, at one time, in the house 
 of a parsimonious lady, who was sparing in her supply of his favorite 
 beverage, he heard the butler, O'Flinn, unlocking the cellar door, and, 
 following him, was repulsed rather surlily ; upon which he instantly 
 composed a bitter epigram in Irish, which is translated as follows : — 
 
 " What a pity hell's gates are not kept by O'Flinn ; 
 So surly a dog wonld let nobody in." 
 
 Not only Geminiana, but Handel, appreciated and praised Cardan's 
 powers : both these great composers were in Ireland. Carolan succeed- 
 ed in every kind of composition. Mr. O'Conor, the historian, makes 
 honorable mention of his sacred pieces. " On Easter day I heard him 
 play at mass. He called the piece ' Gloria in Excelsis Deo,' and he 
 sung that hymn in Irish verses as he played. At the Lord's Prayer he 
 stopped ; and after the priest ended it, he sang again, and played a piece 
 which he denominated the ' Resurrection.' His enthusiasm of devotion 
 affected the whole congregation." I have compressed Bunting's notice 
 of him into the following brief paragraph : — 
 
 The bards, according to the testimony of the Greek and Roman 
 writers Slrabo, Diodorus, Marcellinus, &c., existed among the ruder 
 branches of the Celtic tribes before the time of Augustus, emperor of 
 Rome, in the second century. We find them under the same name in 
 Ireland, from the earliest period of our history down to the year 1738, 
 
REVIVAL OF IRISH MUSIC AFTER '82. 219 
 
 when Carolan died, who seems to have been born to render the termi- 
 nation of his order memorable and brilliant. If we reflect upon the 
 disadvantages under which he labored, — born blind, with slender oppor- 
 tunities of acquiring ideas, the inhabitant of a country recently deso- 
 lated by a civil war, the flames of which had scarcely subsided, and 
 add to this his own propensity to idleness and dissipation, — we cannot 
 but be astonished at the prodigious powers of his mind. He occasion- 
 ally tried almost every style of music, — the elegiac, the festive, the 
 amorous, and sacred, and has so much excelled in each, that we 
 scarcely know to which of them his genius was best adapted. His first 
 composition was plaintive and amorous, addressed to " Bridget Cruise," 
 a lady to whom he was attached, without the hope of success. 
 He is said to have dedicated fifteen different pieces to her, all of which 
 are lost. "O'Rourke's Feast," the music of which he composed 
 for Mugh M'Gouran's ode, was much admired by Swift, who im- 
 mortalized it in his works. " Paudeen O'Rafferty " he composed 
 almost impromptu, on hearing that a little boy without pants had opened 
 a gate for him, on his way to Miss Cruise's residence. These melodies 
 will be found amongst the music of this work. His last piece was 
 inscribed to Dr. Stafford, his physician. He composed, early in life, 
 the Fairy (^ueen, Rose Dillon, and others of his serious pieces ; 
 but, after having established a reputation, and addicted himself too 
 much to festive company and the bottle, he spent his time in the 
 composition of his planxties , which required no labor or assiduity. We 
 may form some idea of the fertility of his genius, from this circumstance, 
 that a harper, attending the Belfast meeting, (in 1792,) who had never 
 seen him, and was not taught directly by any person that had an 
 opportunity of copying from him, had acquired upwards of a hundred 
 of his tunes, which, he said, constituted but a very inconsiderable part 
 of the real number. We need not wonder if nine tenths of his com- 
 positions be irreparably lost, as Carolan never taught any itinerant pupils, 
 except his own son, (who had no musical genius,) and as we have 
 never heard that any of his pieces were committed to writing until 
 several years after his death, when young Carolan, under the 
 patronage of Dr. Delany, edited a small volume. The Italians digni- 
 fied him with the name of Carolonius. 
 
 On the establishment of the parliamentary independence of Ireland, 
 in 1782, and the consequent growth of a young and buoyant public 
 spirit, such as happily characterizes her sons at present, (1844,) her music 
 was searched for among the ruins of her plundered shrines. Belfast, the 
 
220 ASSEMBLY OF IRISH HARPERS. 
 
 birthplace of that glorious spirit, which was, unfortunately for Ireland, 
 misdirected in 1798, and which was calculated, under a wiser manage- 
 ment, to give her freedom, called into existence a national musical de- 
 sire, which produced a general convention of musicians from all parts of 
 Ireland. It assembled in 1792, in Belfast, at which the few remaining 
 harpers of Ireland attended. The celebrated Dr. Bunting was author- 
 ized by the Belfast committee to attend professionally, to take down the 
 airs according to modern notation, and in the English language, for the 
 purpose of forming a standard code of national music. The following is 
 a portion of his report of that celebrated meeting : — 
 
 " The compiler of this volume was appointed to attend, on that 
 occasion, to take down the various airs played by the different harpers, 
 and was particularly cautioned against adding a single note to the old 
 melodies, which were found, as we shall see, to have been preserved 
 pure, and handed down through a long succession of ages. Most of 
 the performers convened at the meeting were men advanced in life, 
 and all concurred in one opinion respecting the reputed antiquity of 
 those airs which they called ancient. They smiled on being interro- 
 gated concerning the era of such compositions, saying they were more 
 ancient than any to which our popular traditions extended. 
 
 " It would appear that the old musicians, in transmitting this music to 
 us through so m.any centuries, treated it with the utmost reverence, as 
 they seem never to have ventured to make the slightest innovation in 
 it during its descent. This inference we naturally deduce from our 
 finding that harpers, collected from parts far distant from one another, 
 and taught by different masters, always played the same tune on the 
 same key, with the same kind of expression, and without a single 
 variation in any essential passage, or even in any note. The beauty 
 and regularity with which the tunes are constructed appear surprising. 
 This circumstance seemed the more extraordinary, when it was dis- 
 covered that the most ancient tunes were, in this respect, the most 
 perfect, admitting of the addition of a bass with more facility than such 
 as were less ancient. Hence we may conclude that their authors must 
 necessarily have been excellent performers, versed in the scientific part 
 of their profession, and that they had originally a view to the addition 
 of harmony in the composition of their pieces. It is remarkable that 
 the performers all tuned their instruments on the same principle, totally 
 ignorant of the science of the principle itself, and without being able to 
 assign any reason, either for their mode of tuning or of their playing bass. 
 On an impartial review of all these circumstances, we are inclined to 
 
MATHEMATICAL EXAMINATION OF THE IRISH HARP. 221 
 
 believe that those specimens which have survived and been transmitted 
 to us are only the wreck of better tunes, the history of which is either 
 lost, or incorrectly recognized in a confused series of traditions." 
 
 But Ireland, even in the ruins of her music, has yet much more 
 varied and touching melody than any other nation on earth can 
 boast of. What an old Scottish author applied to his country may, 
 with a slight alteration, be given to Erin. 
 
 "From the pastoral cot and shade 
 
 Thy favorite airs, my Erin, came, 
 By some obscure Beethoven made, 
 
 Or Handel, never kno-\vn to fame! 
 And hence tlieir notes, forever warm, 
 Like nature's self, must ever chann." 
 
 The scientific Beauford, in Walker's Bards, p. 344, furnishes a 
 learned paper on the construction and capability of the harp. He 
 enters into a critical and mathematical examination of its structure, 
 which he gives in several pages full of algebraical calculations, to 
 which I refer those who may doubt his result, which appears by the 
 following passages in his paper: — 
 
 " As the science of music advanced among the European nations, 
 the harp changed its form. Its original figure was, most probably, like 
 the harp of the Phrygians, a right-angled plain triangle ; but, as this 
 form was not capable of receiving, with convenience, a number of 
 strings, it was found more proper to alter the right angle to an oblique 
 one, and to give a curvature to the arm. The Irish hards, in 'particular, 
 seem, from experience derived from practice, to have discovered the 
 true musical figure of the harp — a form which will, on examination, be 
 found to have been constructed on true harmonic principles, and to 
 bear the strictest mathematipal and philosophic scrutiny, as I shall 
 endeavor to demonstrate in the following pages ; but, not having an 
 opportunity of examining a number of these instruments, I have taken 
 that in Trinity College, called Brien Boroimhe's harp, as the model of 
 the Irish harp in general. The Greeks constructed their triangular 
 harps of three, four, or five, and six, strings. But the old Irish bards 
 seem to have improved upon this system, for, by making the plane of 
 their harp an obhque-angled triangle, they fell into the true proportion 
 of their strings ; that is, as the diameter of a circle to its circumference, 
 which fully agrees also with the learned Dr. Young's laws relating to 
 the theory of sound. # * * 
 
222 THE HARP OF TAUA. 
 
 " From what has been said, we see how near the Irish bards, in the 
 construction of their harp, came to mathematical correctness. Finding 
 the straight arm inconvenient, they constructed it in a curve, which, 
 most probably, they determined by the length of the strings, and the 
 length of the strings by their ear, which led them naturally to the 
 proportion of the circumference of a circle to its diameter and semi- 
 diameter from the beginning of the axis of the arm, or tension. This 
 method of dividing the musical scale was introduced by the late Mr. 
 Harrison, in his time-piece, as a new discovery. Little did that in- 
 genious mechanic think that it was discovered by men inhabiting woods 
 and bogs several centuries previous. I might, from the above datas, 
 consider the extent and perfection of the old Irish music ; but this 
 would carry me too far, and, indeed, would require a volume." — 
 April 10, 1786. 
 
 As allusion has been so pointedly made, by the above distinguished 
 writer, to the harp of Brien, also called the '• harp of Tara," I think 
 this the most fitting place to insert the following authorized history 
 of this venerated relic : — 
 
 THE HARP OF SRIEN BOROIMHE. 
 
 " The hero struck this harp in his battles, and, at the last glorious 
 victory of Clontarf, it was found in his tent, together with his crown, 
 by his nephew Donagh, who succeeded himself and all his sons who 
 fell on that dreadful day. In the close of Donagh's life in Munster, he 
 retired from the political theatre of his great uncle, and sought repose 
 in a monastery in Rome. Thither he carried with him the celebrated 
 harp of Brien, together with his golden crown, and other insignia of 
 royalty, which he presented to Pope Alexander the Second as presents. 
 The harp remained in the Vatican until Pope Leo the Tenth sent it and 
 other Irish relics as presents to Henry the Eighth, with the title of 
 king, defender of the faith. Some time after, Henry presented the 
 harp to his favorite, the first Earl of Clanrickard, in whose family it 
 remained until the beginning of the last century, when it came, in the 
 paraphernalia of Lady Ehzabeth Burgh, into the possession of her 
 husband. Colonel M'Mahon, of Clenagh, in the county of Clare, 
 after whose death it passed into the hands of Commissioner M'Na 
 mara of Limerick. In 1782, this wandering harp came into the pos- 
 session of the Right Honorable William Coningham, the father of the 
 marquis of that name, who was such a favorite with George the Fourth, 
 
THE HARP OF TARA. 223 
 
 king of England. The marquis, to his credit, with a view of fixing 
 the future residence of the immortal harp of Brien, placed it in the 
 museum of Trinity College, Dublin. When George the Fourth visited 
 that city, he touched the single remaining wire-string which so often, 
 with its lost companions, sped the voice of melody into heroic souls, 
 under the masterly hand of the great Brien. This far-famed harp is 
 thirty-two inches high, and of extraordinarily good workmanship. The 
 sounding-board is of oak ; the arm and curved pillar of red sally ; the 
 point of the arm is capped with silver, extremely well wrought and 
 chiseled ; it contains a large and rich crystal, set in silver, and there 
 was another stone, now lost ; the ornamental knobs at the side are of 
 silver ; on the arm are the arms of the O'Brien family chased in silver, 
 the bloody hands supported by lions. On the sides of the curved 
 pillar are carved two Irish wolf dogs ; the holes of the sounding- 
 board, where the strings entered, are ornamented with escutcheons of 
 brass, carved and gilt. This harp has twenty-eight keys, and as many 
 string-holes ; consequently there were twenty-eight strings. The foot- 
 piece, or rest, is broken off, and the parts to which it was joined are very 
 rotten. The whole bears evidence of an accomplished and expert artist. 
 
 Brien, the great hero, was passionately fond of music, and used this 
 harp in his convivial hours, as w'ell as in private, to solace the troubles 
 of his great soul. Its remembrance, presented in the above sketch, 
 may quicken some spirit amongst us into activity in behalf of the per- 
 secuted land of Brien, Sarsfield, Emmett, Tone, Fitzgerald, and 
 O'Connell. And when Ireland shall be again what nature intended 
 her to be, that harp shall be taken into her senate, restrung, and shall 
 sound again the accents of the free. 
 
 The harp presented by Mary, Queen of Scots, to a young Scotch 
 lady, is of lighter construction than Brien's, and has thirty strings, but 
 of nearly the same form. 
 
 Mr. Gunn, in his Inquiry, has the followmg pretty passage : — 
 
 "I have been favored with a copy of an ancient Gaelic poem, to- 
 gether with the music to which it is still sung in the Highlands, in 
 which the poet personifies and addresses a very old harp, by asking 
 what had become of its former lustre? The harp replies, that it be- 
 longed to a king of Ireland, and had been present at many a royal 
 banquet ; that it had afterwards been successively in the possession of 
 Dargo, of Gaul, of Fillan, of Oscar, of O'Duine, of Diasmod, of a 
 physician, of a bard, and, lastly, of a priest, who, in a secluded corner, 
 was ' meditating on a white book.' " 
 
224 MOORE REVIVES THE MUSIC OF IRELAND. 
 
 About the year 1750, the musical glasses, since improved into the 
 harmonica, were invented by Richard Pockrich, an Irishman, a name 
 which, Campbell says, ought not to be lost to the lovers of harmony. 
 With the celestial tones of this instrument, the sweetest within the 
 compass of melody, Mr. Pockrich once so charmed two bailiffs sent to 
 arrest him, that they became incapable of executing their office. He 
 was born to a good estate in the county of Monohan, in Ireland, but 
 outlived his property, and died poor. 
 
 The terrible and unfortunate revolution of 1798 again saturated the 
 fields of Ireland with blood. The spirit of liberty, of poetry, and of music, 
 which began to grow up in Ireland, was almost extinguished in the 
 purest blood of her people. A few years of death-like gloom succeeded 
 that bloody era. At length, Moore began to write. His lyrical scraps, 
 fluno- on the waves of public sentiment, burned on the surface like the 
 phosphoric stars that follow a ship's track over the ocean. His senti- 
 ment, breathed through the most beautiful language, penetrated the 
 hearts of the people, and created within them something like itself. 
 He found his songs sung to the old popular airs of the country, and 
 this induced him to set about adapting a series of songs to a portion, at 
 least, of the national melodies. With this view, he obtained the coop- 
 eration of Sir John Stephenson, the eminent musical composer of that 
 period. Sir John and himself made a musical tour through the interior 
 of Ireland, and heard the old songs sung, and the old airs played, by the 
 country people and the wandering musicians, whether harpers, pipers, 
 or fiddlers. A gathering was thus made from the ruins of our national 
 music. Several of those airs have been rendered still more popular by 
 the beauty of language or sentiment with which Moore reclothed them. 
 Sufficient has been rescued by diose two patriotic gentlemen to attract 
 the admiration of Europe. 
 
 On the publication of Moore's Melodies, in the years 1809 to 1812, 
 they immediately won unbounded popularity. They were sung in 
 every drawing-room, and charmed every circle. They passed over to 
 Britain, and won from our proud invaders the tribute which they so 
 richly merited. The lament of Erin, through her poetry and her music, 
 extorted a tear from their flinty hearts, as beautifully expressed by Moore 
 himself. 
 
 "The stranger shall hear thy lament on his plains, 
 The sigh of thy harp shall he sent o'er tlie deep, 
 Till thy masters themselves, as they rivet thy chains, 
 Shall pause at the song of their captive, and weep." 
 
GENERAL REVIVAL OF IRISH MUSIC. 225 
 
 The Melodies of Moore worked miracles in the national sentiment, 
 which, indeed, they may be said to have created. Their melody and 
 their passion awoke the soul of Ireland from the torpor of slavery. 
 
 O'Connell felt the sentiment growing up around him which Moore's 
 poetry created, and never failed to point his speeches against tyranny 
 with the stings supplied, in endless profusion, by the accomplished bard. 
 
 The music of Ireland, from this date, began to revive rapidly : it was 
 introduced into the theatre in overtures and musical interludes. Even 
 the bands of the British regiments studied and played it. The 88th, 
 commonly called the Connaught Rangers, marched to the batde-ground 
 of Waterloo to the airs of " Garryowen " and " Patrick's Day," and 
 did not fall there from shots received in their backs. 
 
 These Melodies and music were published in six European languages 
 — a splendid evidence of their excellence. When the gatherings of 
 Moore and Sir John Stephenson made so great an impression in England 
 and throughout the continent, some of the Scotch writers, with their usual 
 love of country, claimed many of the airs as theirs, upon the ground of 
 these airs having been familiar in the Highlands time out of mind. Lord 
 Kaimes is positive that those airs called the old Scots^ tunes, were 
 originally Irish compositions, which James the First, who was himself a 
 good musician, had adapted to the church service ; and Pope had previ- 
 ously called Ireland the motlier of sweet singers. It is hardly necessary 
 to enter into a controversy about the authorship of modem Scotch music, 
 seeing that their best and principal airs were directly taken from Ireland, 
 as admitted by their own writers. 
 
 Even modern Italy worked into her musical code some of those beau- 
 tiful creations of Ireland, which Moore had clothed with such fascinating 
 drapery. The most eminent of their talented sons and daughters ad- 
 mitted this : Geminiani declared that the music of Ireland could not be 
 equalled on the western side of the Alps ; and Handel said that he would 
 rather be the author of iEllin a Roon than of the best of his own com- 
 positions. The celebrated Madame Malibran once entranced a select 
 party in London by an Irish composition, so altered by Italian variations 
 of her own creating, and by a change in the language, that they did not 
 detect the original basis upon which madame had raised her beautiful 
 fabric of sounds. It was rapturously applauded. One of the party 
 ventured to ask the name of the delightful song. She replied, to their 
 infinite surprise, with much naivete, it was the Irish air of the Coulin. 
 
 Within the last few years, several Irish musical composers have 
 followed in the path beaten out by Moore and Sir John Stephenson. 
 29 
 
226 LOVEK. BALFE. SUCCESSFUL COMPOSERS. 
 
 Lover stands prominent as a good poet, story-teller, and musical 
 composer — a true specimen of the old Irish bard. His popular song?, 
 " A baby was sleeping," the " Fairy Boy," and others, have stamped 
 his name with the characteristics of poet and musician ; and his 
 " Rory O'More " is literally in every one's memory, both in the old 
 world and the new. Some of these will be found in the musical pages. 
 
 Balfe, too, has shed his sentimental beauties on the stream of his 
 country's melody. His chief productions have been brought before the 
 Dublin and London musical audiences, in the shape of operas, which 
 have won alike the approbation of the refined and scientific. His ''Bo- 
 hemian Girl " has been performed many successive nights in New York, 
 winning the utmost applause. Mr. Brooke has produced some operatic 
 music that keeps its place on the stage. ' 
 
 The songs of the writers in the Dublin Nation, and of many other 
 compatriot poets, have astonished Europe by their number, power, and 
 beauty. Some of these will be found in this work, set to such Irish airs 
 as I deemed fitted their spirit and metre. 
 
 The spirit which now animates Ireland seems to be composed as well 
 of poetic or musical, as of patriotic and martial elements. It is a glo- 
 rious spirit, call it what we may. Never before was the ark of liberty 
 floated by a prouder, safer, stronger current. Bishops and priests, as of 
 old, sing the songs of freedom. The towering Machale has struck the 
 dearsah of Ireland, and the lowly priest of Drogheda, Father Burke, 
 has made several dearsahs (harps) of the size of the harp of Tara. 
 These he so far improved that the harpers taught by him, who play 
 upon them, delight the social circles, as of old. That reverend and 
 patriotic gentleman has established a musical college in Drogheda, and 
 holds an annual musical festival, at which many harpers attend at the 
 contests of melody, as in the olden days. 
 
 With the return of liberty to the Emerald Isle, her music, which is the 
 genuine language of happy hearts, shall resume its throne in the public 
 mind, and create, and sustain with its voice, the food on which it 
 lives. 
 
 I hope to be excused for giving so many pages to the subject of music. 
 As a passionate admirer of the divine art, I conjecture (erroneously per- 
 haps) that others will be pleased to dwell on that which fascinated me. 
 I am sure there is a principle in our nature that acts in sympathetic 
 union with a concord of sweet sounds. Music excites the most tender 
 and refined, as well as the most powerful, emotions of which humanity 
 is susceptible. In the church, it lifts up, the heart to a community with 
 
GENERAL. EFFECTS OF MUSIC. 227 
 
 God. In the festive assembly, it is the very soul from which delight 
 radiates on all within its influence. In the camp, it is the best symbol 
 of order and discipline. In the combat, it is more inspiring than the 
 commander's voice. At military funerals, it spreads melancholy and 
 sorrow on all around ! And in the serenade, the voice of sweet 
 music, floating on the midnight breeze, arouses beauty from delectable 
 dreams to a reality still more delightful ! 
 
 The best play in the theatre would go lamely off without appropriate 
 music. Children can be kept in good temper by the lullaby of the 
 nurse. It will silence their cries, dry up their tears, and bring sunshine 
 into their little eyes. It will tame the vicious horse in the plough more 
 effectually than the lash. " The ploughman's whistle is better than his 
 goad." In the cottage, it stirs the limbs of the over-labored, and sets 
 the weary heart dancing. The aged live over again under its influ- 
 ence, and the young brighten into ecstasy. On the high and giddy mast, 
 it is the solace of the seaman. The voice of his own song cheers the 
 helmsman, in the midnight watch. The traveller plods his way more 
 merrily when he sings, and the laborer, by the same means, gets rid of 
 half his toil. 
 
 Tell us, ye philosophic few, by what secret means are all our faculties, 
 physical and mental, worked upon by this charmer? In what way 
 does it reach the valves of the heart, that our tears gush forth or recede 
 at its bidding ? How does it so mix with the blood, that it stirs to frenzy, 
 and, anon, calms to repose ? How does it fasten on the gristly sinews 
 and muscles, stiffening them up to supernatural power, which, at its 
 pleasure, it again relaxes into softened inactivity ? How does its subtile 
 influence steal along our thrilling nerves, through every recess and 
 region of our frame, changing our features, at its will, into joyful, heroic, 
 pious, melancholy, or merry combinations ? 
 
 It flies through the frame more rapidly than the most powerful poison, 
 or its antidote. Would it not be a powerful auxiliary to the phy- 
 sician in restoring the convalescent, or even assuaging the pains of 
 the sick ? View this component part of our nature whichsoever way 
 we will, it appears to me to be a highly-important gift from our Creator, 
 conferred upon us, like speech itself, for our happiness. If we neglect 
 its cultivation, or reject its use, we deprive ourselves of a portion, at 
 least, of that earthly pleasure which God conferred upon Adam and 
 Eve before their fall, and which, in his mercy, he permitted to remain 
 with man to sustain him through the labors and miseries attendant on 
 our fallen nature. 
 
228 ATTEMPT TO DEFINE MUSIC. 
 
 "Harmony from heaven descended, 
 Soaring first when chaos ended, 
 And through time and space extended 
 Heaven's first decree. 
 
 The very soul itself refining, 
 All that's great and good combining, 
 God, and man, and angels, joining, 
 Hail thee. Harmony ! " 
 
 Music is, in reality, simple. Nature gives forth its own melody, 
 which can be regulated by a few general rules, so as to affect the hearts 
 of the majority of those who hear it. 1 have ventured to define its 
 nature in my section on the bards, which I shall here repeat. Poetry 
 is the regulated effervescence of the brain. It is part of the excitement 
 which takes place beyond the demands for natural wants, and thus dis- 
 plays itself in flights called imagination. Good poetry is the able display 
 oi feeling, and good prose the able display of fact, correct reasoning, 
 and acquired knowledge. 
 
 Music is the more sublimated expression of human feeling. Its effect 
 depends upon the power and variation of the sounds which convey it. 
 It is an agreeable stream of well-contrasted sounds, formed according to 
 the standard of the human voice, in a natural key, continually varying 
 from that key to a lower or higher pitch, but uttered in a manner agree- 
 able to the oi'gans of hearing, or the seat of sensations in the brain. 
 Music, like language, delights in simple sounds ; yet refinement, as it 
 proceeds, sanctions a skilful deviation from simple sound as the acme 
 of science. An ear accustomed or educated to these deviations, must 
 be continually fed by like sounds, for it sickens at the pure voice of 
 nature. In the same way does the appetite of one who has been fed 
 from childhood on compound cookery — on food tortured from its natu- 
 ral flavor by every imaginable invention — sicken against plain meats, 
 presented in their original elements. 
 
 Instrumental music requires much more study, and many more rules, 
 to form it, than vocal, because the effort is an artificial imitation of nature, 
 and approaches nearer to perfection, as it imitates nature more exactly. 
 In proportion as our musical taste — that is, the sense of hearing and 
 discriminating — becomes accustomed to deviations from the pure sounds 
 of nature, the pleasure we derive from pure melody is diminished. This 
 refinement may be said to remove the ear so far from the heart, that the 
 essence of music (melody) cannot reach it. Most of the scientific 
 music which we hear, is calculated only to display the brilliant execution 
 
STYLE OF THE FASHIONABLE PERFORMERS. 229 
 
 of the performer, and to occasion a gentle titillation in the organs of 
 hearing; and many of the great masters who perform on the violin, harp, 
 bugle, or piano-forte, to hear whom we pay high prices, seem to disdain 
 the use of melody altogether, and to be ashamed to be supposed capable, 
 or accustomed, to play a simple tune as it was originally composed. 
 Their performances consist of flourishes on their instrument, displaying 
 the effect of great practice, but shedding out none of that soul of music, 
 which the poet conceived and expressed in the following familiar and 
 immortal distich : — 
 
 " Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, 
 To soften rocks and bend the knotted oak." 
 
 But the music we are accustomed to hear at some of the fashionable 
 concerts is certainly not of that nature. The performers, for the most 
 part, come before the audience as if it were only for the purpose of 
 tuning their instruments, and to show what they could do, if they had 
 a mind. They run up and down the scale in capricious phantasies, and 
 when we think they are about to commence, they make an obeisance and 
 retire, amid thunders of applause. — " O ! there be players that I have 
 heard play, — and heard others praise, and that highly, — that, having 
 neither the tones of music, nor the soul of music, have so strutted and 
 puffed, so strained their instruments, and split our ears, that I have 
 thought some of nature's journeymen had made them, and not made 
 them well, they imitated nature so abominably." 
 
 Complication in music advances with the musical education of the 
 ear. The grave and sober Correlli and Arne gave way to Haydn 
 and Mozart, who, in turn, gave way to Beethoven and Rossini ; but 
 mehdy belongs to the imagination, and not to science ; it belongs to 
 nature, and not to art. Some are well skilled in the complication of 
 music, but are not gifted with melody ; or rather that melody, originally 
 planted in their hearts by nature, has been extinguished by a scientific 
 violation of her laws. They cannot be called musicians, but are 
 merely dexterous players. Musicians of this character will never, 
 they may depend on it, "bend the knotted oak," or "soothe the 
 savage breast." 
 
 Gardiner, in his Music of Nature, analyzes the components of sound, 
 and examines the organs of hearing. I will endeavor to make plainer, 
 while I extract, a few of his subtile but valuable ideas. Sound and 
 light, or tones and colors, are produced by two different affections of the 
 very same medium ; every sound is a mixture of three tones, just as a 
 ray of light is of three colors ; the union of the key note with the fifth 
 
230 NATURE OF SOUND. 
 
 and octave is the common chord. The diatonic scale is the prism of 
 sound. White light may be decomposed into three colors ; and every 
 sound is a compound of three tones. Atoms of oxygen and nitrogen in 
 conjunction may produce one tone or color, oxygen another lone or color, 
 and nitrogen a third tone or color. One is the excitement or propulsion 
 of atoms called light, and the other the propulsion of a gross volume 
 called sound. The atmosphere will affect both. It will affect espe- 
 cially the human voice, which oftentimes has to contend, in thronged 
 rooms, against a dense volume of vapor, in which the vital gases have 
 been consumed by the frequent respiration of the same volume of air. 
 And if the singer has been unused, for some time previously, to the 
 enjoyment of fresh air, in which oxygen and nitrogen shall be fully 
 represented, the voice will lack that elasticity which is necessary to 
 strike vigorously on the atmosphere, and produce a pure, clear sound. 
 
 Every vibration and propulsion of atoms, in the aerial elements, in- 
 cludes, on examination, the prismatic and diatonic scales. Both scales 
 are chemical, and are produced by the very atoms which produce all 
 our chemical and electrical phenomena : the scales are similar, because 
 they are the measures of the effects upon the same sensorium. The 
 figures agree, since a volume of five parts of atmospheric air is four 
 measures of nitrogen and one oxygen, and every sound is composed of 
 the fundamental note, its fifth, and octave, whose square is twenty-five 
 and one hundred, or one to four. 
 
 Sound arises from vibrations of the air, as may be seen by the vibra- 
 tions in the water of a musical glass, and by the affections of light bodies 
 laid on strings in concord, and they may be felt by the vibrations of all 
 instruments. Sound affects particles of dust, or the animalcule seen in 
 a sunbeam. The delicacy and intensity with which the vibrations of 
 sound reach the ear, prove the fulness of space in aerial atoms. We 
 distinguish tones, says Phillips, when the vibrations are seven thousand 
 in a second. The lowest tone which the ear can discriminate is, ac- 
 cording to some, twelve and a half undulations in a second, to others 
 thirty, and the most acute, above seven thousand. Every ear differs 
 from another in its powers of sensibility or accuracy. The harmonies 
 of one sound are the separate effects of different parts of the string. 
 Water is a better conductor of sound than air ; wood also is a powerful 
 conductor of sound, and so is flannel or ribbon. Deaf persons may 
 converse through deal rods held between the teeth, or held to their 
 throat or breast. The best form for a concert room, or speaking hall, is 
 an oblong, or double cube ; the fewer elliptical surfaces the better ; and 
 
ORGANS OF HEARING. MECHANISM OF THE THROAT, &;C. 231 
 
 the roof or ceiling should be finished quite plainly, and perfectly semi- 
 circular. An echo returns a monosyllable at seventy feet distance, and 
 another syllable at every forty feet distance. All sound appears to be 
 echo or reflection ; and if not a distinct echo, it is only for want of dis- 
 tance. The speaker, or performer, should stand at the end, and not 
 at the side, of a room. If the room be square, as many are, he 
 should get towards a comer, and send his tones towards the corner oppo- 
 site to that in which he stands. Public speakers derive great advantage 
 from the practice of singing. Effective speakers modulate the tones of 
 their voice, agreeably to the true principles of music, though frequently 
 knowing little of the science which governs those principles. The 
 words should be chosen, like notes in music, of all lengths : the adagios 
 of Haydn and Beethoven are, like passages of Milton and Shak- 
 speare, made of words slow and rapid. 
 
 The sense of hearing arises from, or is regulated by, an expansion of 
 nerves into the inner chamber of the ear, and these receive the vibra- 
 tions of the tympanum — a strained membrane. This elastic membrane 
 is damped by a small bone called the mallet; but, like a drum, it will not 
 transmit to the brain two loud sounds in immediate succession. These 
 delicate organs are pleased with a succession of pure sounds, varied in 
 their length, loudness, and tone. The pleasure can be increased by 
 tormenting them for a moment with discords, or harsh or flat tones, 
 returning again to the same sweet notes in which they delighted, or to 
 others in a higher or lower strain, agreeably to the key on which the 
 air is constructed. The key is the bass or centre of any system of 
 notes, and gives character to the composition. Old songs were com- 
 posed in G minor. When F is made the key or bass of any melody, 
 the effect is rich and grave ; but its relative, D minor, is more sombre. 
 C is bold and energetic, and its relative, A minor, is similar, but plaintive. 
 G is gay and lively, but its relative, E minor, soft and tender. D is 
 grand- and lofty, but its relative, B minor, complaining. A is glowing, 
 but F sharp minor mournful. The sharps of E are brilliant and spar- 
 kling. The sharps of B are piercing. B flat is dull, and G minor 
 melancholy. E flat is mellow and soft, and C minor complaining; 
 A flat, delicate and tender, but its relative, F minor, gloomy. D flat 
 major is solemn and awful. 
 
 The point of action in the voice is in the throat, and level with the 
 hair in the back of the neck. As singers raise or lower this point, the 
 tone is harsh, hard, thick, throaty, and guttural. High notes are produced 
 by lessening the aperture and increasing the velocity of the breath. 
 
232 WIND INSTRUMENTS. 
 
 If the lowest notes would permit the passage of a billiard ball, the 
 highest should permit but a pea. The notes of the musical scale are 
 formed by the contraction or enlargement of the rima glottidis, an 
 aperture in the larynx, over the windpipe. In the passage leading from 
 the mouth to the lungs, just within the part of the neck where " Eve's 
 apple " protrudes, are situated two sets or pairs of muscles, one of them 
 about an inch above the other, of a half-moon shape, thick and attached 
 at their circumference, but thin and pendulous in the centre of the pas- 
 sage. These muscles are situated so nearly at opposite sides, that, when 
 the air, in passing out from the lungs, causes them to vibrate, they nearly 
 close the opening. The vibrations of these muscles produce sounds just 
 as the strings of the viol produce them when vibrating under the bow. It 
 is like the reed in wind instruments, but susceptible of the most delicate 
 variations. So astonishingly great is the number of these vibrations, that 
 it is now believed the human voice is capable of one thousand changes, 
 perceptible to a musical ear. These changes are all produced by the ac- 
 tion of these muscles, in obedience to volition, or at will ; they are greatly 
 strengthened, and capable of surprising modification by exercise ; it is 
 said that some voices are able to give two to three hundred changes in 
 one breath. Braham, Farinelli, and Mrs. Wood, could give three hon' 
 dred without drawing breath ; but these are prodigies. Ordinary good 
 voices are exhausted by fifty. 
 
 The human voice is governed by the laws which apply to wind in- 
 struments. The throat is the tube, and the chest and lungs the wind- 
 bag. By pressing the wind through the aperture in the throat, (already 
 described,) subject to a variety of compressions, in its passage, the music, 
 with all its variations, is obtained. Ferlandi played on an oboe with 
 one leather joint, by twisting which he imitated the tones of the human 
 windpipe. But the human pipe exceeds, for variety and delicacy, all 
 the pipes ever invented. The reason why we always have the same 
 sound from organ-pipes is, because they are always blown by a bellows, 
 with a certain weight thereon, and therefore the sound is the same. 
 
 It appears that, by lengthening the trombone, in the middle of a note, 
 the force of the breath being kept the same, a new note is produced. 
 Again, the trombone can be drawn out and made to produce the same 
 note by blowing differently ; that is, by making a larger a}>erture in the 
 mouth, and blowing with less force. Those who sing will always 
 derive advantage from considering these general principles — principles 
 which, if applied to the exercise of the voice, cannot fail to produce 
 full, melodious, and correct tones. These rules apply generally to the 
 
Moore's suggestions for singing his melodies. 233 
 
 flute, clarionet, and all wind instruments, and I introduce these remarks 
 to give a clearer idea of the nature of the human instrument, which 
 every one is blessed with, and which is superior to all others. 
 
 The Italians call the lower notes the voce di petto, the voice of the 
 breast ; and the higher notes the voce di testa, or voice of the head. 
 The former is called the language of the heart ; the latter, or upper 
 notes in men, is called falsetto. The nose and roof of the mouth are 
 the sounding-board of the voice. The teeth, the bridge of the lips, and 
 tongue, on whose activity, form, and skilful use, depend the modulations 
 of tone, — the speaking, singing voice, — is a machine whose use children 
 should be taught. It is curious, but perfectly true, that children who 
 are nursed by a woman who sings in their infant ears, have generally a 
 taste for music, and those nursed by one who does not sing, are rarely 
 ever good musicians. So delicate is the nature of our infant sensibilities, 
 that we partake of the character of that mental or spiritual atmosphere 
 into which we first respire. 
 
 Persons who sing before assemblies should eat very little, or indeed 
 nothing, for three or four hours ere they begin : keeping the stomach 
 empty enables one to take in more breath at a draught. Any candies, 
 preparations, or drinks, that stimulate the palate, tongue, &-c., are bad. 
 They generally beget thirst, which creates a rough surface in the throat, 
 tongue, lips, &,c., which alters the tones materially. Cobbett remarks that, 
 in defending himself on a charge of libel, he spoke six hours without 
 ceasing, — refreshing his lips and throat by now and again eating a 
 mouthful of common suet. 
 
 I will here introduce a few observations from Moore and some others, 
 on the style in which the sentimental music of Ireland should be sung 
 and played. Rapidity and ornament in the execution kill it. I have 
 heard too many murder those melodies in this way. 
 
 Let us hear Moore himself, on this: "It has always been a subject 
 of some mortification to me, that my songs, as they are set, give such a 
 very imperfect notion of the manner in which I wish them to be per- 
 formed, and that most of that peculiarity of character which I believe 
 they possess as I sing them myself, is lost in the process they must 
 undergo for publication ; but the truth is, that, not being sufficiently 
 practised in the rules of composition to rely upon the accuracy of my 
 own harmonic arrangements, I am obliged to submit my rude sketches to 
 the eyes of a professor before they can encounter the criticism of the 
 musical world, and, as it too frequently happens that they are indebted 
 for their originality to the violation of some established law, the hand 
 
 that corrects their errors is almost sure to destroy their character, and 
 30 
 
234 Willis's description of moore's singing. 
 
 the few little flowers they boast are pulled away with the weeds. In 
 singing them myself, however, I pay no such deference to criticism, but 
 usually give both air and harmony according to my own first conception 
 of them, with all their original faults, but, at the same time, all their 
 original freshness. I know I shall be told, by the learned musician, 
 that whatever infringes the rules of composition must be disagreeable to 
 the ear, and that, according to the pure ethics of the art, nothing can 
 possibly be pleasant that is wrong; but I am sorry to say that I am 
 lawless enough to disagree with him, and have sometimes been even so 
 lost to all sense of musical rectitude, as to take pleasure in a profane 
 succession of fifths." * * * " Wherever I have been content tore- 
 main simply in the key in which I began, without wandering from home 
 in search of discords and chromatics, I have not only been independent 
 of critical aid, but the strains I have produced were much more 
 touching and effective. 
 
 " There is but one instruction T should venture to give to any person 
 desirous of doing justice to the character of these ballads, and that is, to 
 attend as little as possible to the rhythm, or time in singing them. The 
 time, indeed, should always be made to wait upon the feehng, but par- 
 ticularly in this style of musical recitation, where the words ought to 
 be as nearly spoken as is consistent with the swell and sweetness 
 of intonation, and where a strict and mechanical observance of time 
 completely destroys all those pauses, lingerings, and abruptnesses, which 
 the expression of passion and tenderness requires. The truth of this 
 remark needs but little enforcement to those who have ever heard a song 
 of feeling and delicacy passed along in the unrelenting trammels of an 
 orchestra." 
 
 Willis, in his Pencilings, describes an interview he had with Moore, 
 while in London, at Lady Blessington's. It portrays the effect of 
 Moore's singing in few words, and in a practical way. 
 
 "We went up to coffee, and Moore brightened again over his chasse 
 cafe, and went glittering on with criticisms on Grisi, Pasta, and others 
 of the choral goddesses now ravishing the worid. This introduced 
 music very naturally, and, with a good deal of difficulty, he was taken to 
 the piano. Its effect is only equalled by the beauty of his own words ; 
 and for one, I could have taken him into my heart, with my delight. 
 He makes no attempt at music. It is a kind of admirable recitative, in 
 which every shade of thought is syllabled and dwelt upon, and the sen- 
 timent of the song goes through your blood, warming you to the very 
 eyelids, and starting your tears, if you have soul or sense in you. I 
 have heard of women's fainting at a song of Moore's, and if the burden 
 
EFFECT OF AN IRISH TUNE ON A BOSTON AUDIENCE. 235 
 
 of it answered by chance to a secret In the bosom of the listener, I 
 should think, fronn its comparative effect upon so old a stager as myself, 
 that the heart would break with it. 
 
 " We all sat round the piano, and, after two or three songs of Lady 
 Blessington's choice, he rambled over the keys awhile, and sang ' When 
 first I met thee warm and young ' with a pathos that beggars descrip- 
 tion. When the last word had faltered out, he rose and took Lady B.'s 
 hand, said ' Good night,' and was gone before a word was uttered. For 
 a full minute alter he had closed the door, no one spoke. I could have 
 wished, for myself, to drop silently asleep where I sat, with the tears in 
 my eyes, and the softness upon my heart." 
 
 I remember well the effect of those melodies on a theatre full of all 
 sorts of people, in Dublin. I was in the theatre on the night of 
 Moore's visit, in the spring of 1838. He sat in one of the dress boxes. 
 There were with him Lady Morgan, Counsellor Finlay. Mr. and Miss 
 Kelly, and other friends of his youth. The airs which he had gathered 
 and immortalized were played successively before him by the orchestra, 
 in a beautiful medley. At each change from one well-known air to 
 another, the audience poured forth a peal of unbridled applause. It 
 affected him thoroughly. It was a delightful, and at the same time a 
 melancholy moment. The remembrance came upon us of some who 
 loved those tunes, now in the cold grave ; of the hopes of freedom 
 breathed by the bard yet unrealized ; of the chains of slavery yet hang- 
 ing round us. He spoke, — for the audience would have him speak, — 
 but he could say little ; his gestures were more eloquent than the tongue 
 of any man ; he alluded to his origin — Irish ; his heart — Irish ; his 
 songs — Irish, which had passed into the languages of six nations ; 
 which were sung on the banks of the Vistula, the Rhine, the Ganges, 
 the St. Lawrence, as well as the Shannon. Peal upon peal of applause 
 followed. The curtain drew up for the afterpiece. I shall never forget 
 that night, or the effect of that proud swell of my country's music. 
 
 At one of the most fashionable concerts that ever took place in 
 Boston, which was given by the celebrated violinist Ole Bull., at the 
 Melodeon, on the 27th May, 1844, he played the Irish melody, " The 
 last rose of summer." It was encored. The same air was then 
 played, by that musical prodigy Master Hughes, on the harp, and it was 
 again encored. Perhaps, in the history of music, such an excitement 
 never was produced on an audience as that produced by the masterly 
 execution of this simple Irish melody by these two genuine mastei"s 
 of the human heart. There were nearly two thousand of the most 
 respectable citizens of Boston, who witnessed that fact. 
 
236 horncastle's collection. 
 
 I append one more attestation to the same general purpose from an 
 English musician, the leader of her majesty's sacred choir. I extract it 
 from the London Sun of October 18, 1844. "Mr. Homcastle, of the 
 Queen's Chapel Royal, has published a volume entitled the ' Music of 
 Ireland' — a collection of beautiful, perhaps matchless melodies. The 
 service which the composer has rendered to music, and even to ethnol- 
 c^, by the preservation and publication of those exquisite relics of 
 cmdent science and refinement, is enhanced by his judicious as well as 
 reverential abstinence from attempts at improving perfection. In this 
 respect, he stands very much above his predecessor in the same field, 
 Sir John Stevenson ; for he at once admits that the old music of Ire- 
 land, as it is found, is not the wild effusion of a rude and simple people, 
 but is the production of a school in a high degree methodized, skilful, 
 and cultivated. The Irish keine, according to Mr. Homcastle, is a 
 noble and most expressive piece of music. These keines serve as 
 examples of the most beautiful harmonic composition, and prove, be- 
 yond a doubt, that music in those early ages was in the highest state 
 of cultivation. Yet to this day, the humblest of the people are the 
 only depositaries of these great works. There is a close affinity existing 
 between the poetry of the Latins and that of the Irish. The first ode 
 of Horace is perfectly adapted as written for the Irish melody of ' I 
 am asleep, and don't waken me.' It may be worth asking. Did Horace 
 know and use the Irish tune ? " 
 
 The foregoing confirms, in a striking manner, the opinion to a like 
 effect recorded by Dr. Burney, as follows: "It is certain that the 
 further we explore, while yet any light remains, the more highly is 
 Irish border minstrelsy extolled. The oldest Irish tunes are said to 
 be the most perfect." — Burnefs Music; Historical and Critical 
 Dissertation on the Harp. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 237 
 
 STRIKE THE HARP TO ERIN'S GLORY! 
 
 MUSIC AND WORDS BY T. MOONEY. 
 
 RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO MISS D- 
 
 MONTREAL, ON HEARING HER PLAT 
 
 (which SHE DID DIVINELY) AN IRISH MELODY ON THE IRISH HARP. 
 
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238 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
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 Now our swords are brightly gleaming ! 
 
 Now our banners proudly streaming ! 
 
 Now the victory is won, 
 
 And Freedom shouts, " They run ! they run ! " 
 
 Now our hearts are proudly swelling! 
 
 Now the tyrant's death is knelling ! 
 
 Hark ! that shout, across the sea, 
 
 Tells us Erin now is free ! 
 
 Hark ! that shout, across the sea, 
 
 Tells us, Erin now is free ! 
 
 KATE KEARNEY. 
 
 1. O, did you not hear of Kate Kearney? 
 
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 239 
 
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 lives on the banks of Kil - lar - ney ; From the 
 
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 For that eye is so modestly beaming, 
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 Yet, O, I can tell how fatal's the spell 
 That lurks in the eye of Kate Kearney. 
 
 3. 
 
 O, should you e'er meet this Kate Kearney, 
 Who lives on the banks of Killarney, 
 Beware of her smile, for many a wile 
 Lies hid in the smile of Kate Kearney. 
 
 4. 
 Though she looks so bewitchingly simple, 
 Yet there's mischief in every dimple ; 
 And who dares inhale her sigh's spicy gale, 
 Must die by the breath of Kate Kearney. 
 
240 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 'TIS THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER. 
 
 BY MOORE. 
 
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 241 
 
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 Since the lovely are sleeping. 
 
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 Thus kindly I scatter 
 
 Thy leaves o'er the bed, 
 Where thy mates of the garden 
 
 Lie scentless and dead ! 
 
 3. 
 
 So soon may I follow, 
 
 When friendships decay. 
 And from love's shining circle 
 
 , The gems drop away ! 
 When true hearts lie withered, 
 
 And fond ones are flown, 
 O ! who would inhabit 
 This bleak world alone ! 
 31 
 
242 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 THE ANGEL'S WHISPER. 
 
 BY LOVER. 
 
 A superstition of great beauty prevails in Ireland, that token a child smiles in its 
 sleep, it is talking to angels. 
 
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 243 
 
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 For I know that the angels are whispering to thee. 
 
 3. 
 
 " And while they are keeping 
 
 Bright watch o'er thy sleeping, 
 O, pray to them softly, ray baby, with me; 
 
 And say thou wouldst rather 
 
 They'd watch o'er thy father, — 
 For I know that the angels are whispering with thee." 
 
 4. 
 
 The dawn of the morning 
 
 Saw Dermot returning; 
 And the wife wept with joy her babe's father to see, 
 
 And closely caressing 
 
 Her child, with a blessing. 
 Said, "I knew that the angels were whispering with thee." 
 
244 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 THE MEETING OF THE WATERS. 
 
 BY MOORE. 
 
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MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 245 
 
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 Yet it was not that Nature had shed o'er the scene 
 Her purest of crystal, and brightest of green ; 
 'Twas not the soft magic of streamlet or hill ; — 
 O, no ! it was something more exquisite still 1 
 
 3. 
 'Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near, 
 Who made each dear scene of enchantment more dear; 
 And who felt how the best charms of Nature improve. 
 When we see them reflected from looks that we love. 
 
 4. 
 Sweet Vale of Ovoca ! how calm could I rest, 
 In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best! 
 Where the storms which we feel in this cold world should cease, 
 And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace! 
 
246 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 O'ROURKE'S FEAST. 
 
 (PLEIG ZACANA NA RUARCAC.) 
 BY C AROLAN. 
 
 
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LECTUEE VII. 
 
 FROM 880 B. C. TO THE CHRISTIAN ERA. 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Resumption of the historic Chain at the Death of OUamh Fodhla. — Twenty Kings 
 and a Queen, who succeeded him in a Space of three hundred Years. — War 
 Chariots invented. — MiUtary Fortifications. — Mihtary Code. — Carthaginian and 
 Irish Weapons identical. — Ancient Mines of Ireland. — Plenteousness of Gold and 
 Silver. — Mints. — Coins. — Napoleon's Imperial Crown made of Irish Gold. — 
 Palace of Emania. — Queen Mecha seizes on the Sceptre. — Irish Archers. — Robin 
 Hood beaten by an Irishman in Feats of Archery. — The Monarch Righ Dhearg 
 invades the Picts. — Jughaine the Great passes into Gaul. — Leads an Army against 
 Greece. — Division of Ireland into Counties. — Murder of Jughaine. — Exile of 
 his Son Maon. — Revolution effected by Music. — Maon established on the 
 Throne. — Reign of Aongus the Second. — Aids the Carthaginians in their Wars 
 with Greece, and with Rome.— Birth o^ Fear- Mara, the Sea-Child. — The Parent 
 of the Royal Line of Scotland. — Division of Ireland into four Provinces, and a 
 Monarchy. — Palace of Cruighain, in Connaught, built. — Queen Meibhe. — Insur- 
 rection of the Bards. — Laws for regulating the Burial of the Dead. — The Knights' 
 Mode of Burial. — Ancient Surgery. — Chivalry. — Traditions of Chivalry. — In- 
 stitutions of Knighthood in Ireland. — Various Orders. — Academies for their 
 Education'. — Their Mode of Training. — Their Oaths. — Their Magnanimity.— 
 Their Tilts and Tournaments. — Military Renown of Ireland acknowledged. — The 
 vahant Cuchullen. — Battle of Mullacrew described. 
 
 880 B. C. I NOW resume the historic narrative, requesting the reader 
 to call back to his recollection, that we dropped it [page 57] at the 
 establishment of the parliament of Tara, by OUamh Fodhla, 920 years 
 before the birth of Christ. Having dwelt at some length upon the 
 character of that eminently wise prince, who was the twentieth of the 
 Milesian kings since the foundation of the kingdom, we take up the 
 succession of events from his death, which took place A. M. 3122, or 
 880 years before the Christian era. 
 
 The monarchs who succeeded Ollamh, for a period of three hundred 
 years, numbered twenty, which gave an average reign of fifteen years 
 to each. 
 
 The recital of the events of their separate reigns would be tedious, 
 
WAR CHARIOTS INVENTED. 249 
 
 and occupy space which can be filled with matter more interesting to 
 the present generation. I shall merely glance at the development of 
 inventions, customs, and occasional acts specially deserving to be 
 remembered, which grew up during the three hundred years they 
 reigned. 
 
 In the reign of Rothceathca, the Irish manufactured war chariots, to 
 the sides and wheels of which they attached scythes, or long, sharp 
 knives, and drove them, by fui'ious horses, through the ranks of their 
 enemies. The Gauls, seven hundred years after that peiiod, according 
 to Caesar, used these destructive engines in their wars with the Romans. 
 O'Halloran says they were manufactured for them by the Irish; and 
 Julius Cssar informs us that he used this very contrivance in his con- 
 quest of Britain. 
 
 In the reign of EU?n we read, for the first time, of military fortifica- 
 tions, which were invented by him. He cut deep trenches, and raised 
 high breastworks of earth, lined with stone, around the different stations, 
 in which he garrisoned his troops. He completed seven of those stations ; 
 but, in after periods, in the Danish wars, these duns, or fortifications, were 
 amazingly increased, and there are many of them yet remaining through- 
 out Ireland. 
 
 The Psalter of Cashell tells us that Elim, for these inventions, got the 
 name of Imboch, or Stagnant Water. 
 
 Seadhna the Second wrote a code of laws and discipline for the milita- 
 ry, which proved to be a guide and standard for many ages afterwards, 
 and he fixed the pay of soldiers to consist of part food, part clothes, and 
 part money, which continues the practice of England to this day. His 
 is the earhest treatise on military tactics that we find on record. In suc- 
 ceeding ages, Mago, the Carthaginian, and Arrian, the Greek, wrote 
 on the same subject. 
 
 In those days, a close intercourse was kept up between the Cartha- 
 ginians and the Irish. Sometimes, indeed, the Carthaginians approached 
 the Irish coasts as pirates or invaders, but were universally resisted with 
 great slaughter. Antiquaries have proved that the Carthaginian swords 
 found near the plains of Cannae, in Italy, which are now in the British 
 Museum, and the old Irish swords so frequently found in bogs and 
 morasses, are, as to make, form, and mixture of metals, so exactly 
 similar, as to appear to have come out of the same mint. 
 
 Governor Pownal compared some Irish swords in the possession of 
 Lord Milton, found very deep in the bog of CuUen, in the county Tip- 
 perary, with those in the British Museum, and requested the assay- 
 32 
 
250 CABTHAGINIAN AND IRISH WEAPONS IDENTICAL. 
 
 master of the mint to analyze both. This he accordingly did, and found 
 the proportion of metals composing thein so exactly corresponding, that 
 he declared they must have been cast in the same furnace. They are 
 both, says the mint master, a mixture of copper, of iron, and perhaps r)f 
 some zinc ; they take an exquisite polish, and carry a very sharp edge, 
 and are firm and elastic. They are so peculiarly formed as to resist any 
 kind of rust, as appears when taken out of bogs after lying there for ages. 
 Our annals remark on the great plenteousness of our mines, and the 
 knowledge and art displayed by our ancestors in all that related to their 
 domestic fabrications. It is quite natural to conclude that those remark- 
 able swords were of their own manufacture. On this head, O'Halloran 
 has the following : — 
 
 " But as our annals particularly remark on the abundance of mines 
 and minerals in our country, and the ingenuity of our artists, the candid 
 reader will agree with me, I think, that the Carthaginians imported their 
 swords from us in the course of traffic, as Ireland was in that age un 
 equalled for the elegance of her arms." 
 
 Camden says, the massy gold and silver chalices, candlesticks, plate, 
 utensils, ornaments, and images of saints, seized by Queen Elizabeth in 
 the Irish abbeys, brought more than a million sterling. 
 
 Sir James Ware alleges that, in 1639, an urn full of the coins of the 
 monarch Eadhna Dcarg, who reigned 700 years before the birth of 
 Christ, was found in a Druidical cave in the county Clare. These 
 coins were of silver, and as large as an English shilling; on one side 
 was the impression of the monarch's head, and on the reverse, Hibernia 
 bearing in her hand the wand entwined with a serpent. Two of these 
 coins are to be seen in the museum of Trinity College, Dublin. 
 
 Warner, the English historian, has the following in reference to the 
 mineral properties of Ireland : — 
 
 " The mountains of Ireland are full of mines and minerals. Gold 
 and silver must have been very plenty in this country in ancient times, 
 as all the knights wore golden helmets and chains, and a shield of the 
 same precious metal. The Earl of Strafford sent over to Charles the 
 First a bit of a bridle, of solid gold, of ten ounces' weight, found by 
 workmen who were digging in lands in the county Tipperary. The 
 same nobleman sent also an ingot of silver to the royal mint from the 
 mines of the county Tipperary, which weighed three hundred ounces ; 
 and in his letter to the secretary of state, he says that the lead mines of 
 Munster were so rich, that every load of lead had in it forty pounds of 
 pure silver.* 
 
 * See Mines of Ireland^ towards the conclusion. 
 
ANCIENT MINES. MINTS AND COINS. 251 
 
 There are many considerable collieries in various parts of the kingdom, 
 probably enough to supply all Europe with coal ; but for want of gov- 
 ernment encouragement, they are neglected. Besides these, there are 
 numerous iron mines and lead mines in the island. There is one lead 
 mine, in the county of Antrim, so rich that from every thirty pounds of 
 lead one pound of silver is yielded. By the report of the railway com- 
 missioners, published by authority of jhe British parliament, in 1839, it 
 is shown that eleven of the thirty-two counties of Ireland are studded 
 with every species of mineral wealth. 
 
 In fine, nature designed Ireland for the operations of art and agricul- 
 ture ; and, though she is unfortunately poor, she has exhaustless wealth 
 in her own bosom, but under the hermetic seal of British policy. 
 
 In the reign of Eadhna the Second, mints were worked, and gold 
 and silver coined into money. The mint was erected at Ross, on the 
 banks of the Suir, in the county Waterford. 
 
 In the year 1639 of the Christian era, several pieces of these ancient 
 coins were discovered by countrymen at Gleandeloch, in the county 
 Wicklow, a parcel of which fell into the hands of Sir James Ware. The 
 antiquarians confess them to be of great antiquity, and drawings of 
 them had been made to prove it. All writers agree as to the very early 
 use of money in L'eland. The Irish coins engraved from by Ware have 
 on the face a human head, encircled with a cap or helmet ; on the re- 
 verse, a horse. The ancient Carthaginian coins had the same effigies. 
 We find, long before the Christian era, that they had bons, or pieces of 
 four pence; the scrubal, ov three pence; and the pinghin, or penny; 
 but larger pieces of money, though stamped by the king, were esti- 
 mated, as at this day in China, by weight only. 
 
 " Long before the birth of Christ, the Irish had stamped money ; and 
 their artists seem to have been as unrivalled in the fabrication of metals, 
 as they confessedly were in lignarian architecture and martial music." — 
 Bishop Nicholson. 
 
 " There can be no doubt of the early use of trade and money in Ire- 
 land, into which, it is probable, it was introduced as soon as it was fre- 
 quented by the Phoenicians. Before the reign of Echaidh the Fourth, 
 seven hundred and fifty years before Christ, the Irish made their pay- 
 ments of gold and silver in bars and ingots, with which their rich mines 
 supplied them." — Antiquities of PVales. 
 
 Many discoveries of ancient Irish coins have been made by the coun- 
 try people ; but the laws compelling them to render all treasures discov- 
 ered in the earth to the lords of the soil, they were frequently melted 
 
252 PALACE OF EMANIA. QUEEN MACHA SEIZES THE MONARCHY. 
 
 down in secret by the finders, and sold in bars to the gold and silver 
 smiths. The imperial crown of Napoleon was made, in part, of a crown 
 belonging to the Irish monarch Brien Boroimhe, which was taken from 
 the Vatican, where it had lain as a valued relic since the time of Pope 
 Adrian, to whom it was presented by Donagh, the nephew of the hero 
 of Clontarf 
 
 About 460 B. C, Ciomhhaoth was peaceably proclaimed monarch 
 of Ireland, and has been gready celebrated for his prudence, his for- 
 titude, and his moderation. This ptince revived all the wise insti- 
 tutions of his great predecessor, Ollamh Fodhla. His queen, Macha, 
 founded the splendid and celebrated palace of Emania, or Eamuirania, 
 in the north, — next to Tara, the most magnificent public structure of 
 ancient Ireland. The remains of this superb palace could be traced, 
 near Armagh, in the days of O'Halloran, 1785. It was the scene of 
 many a brilliant fete in after ages, and the subject of many a bardic 
 epic. This splendid palace got its name from Macha, his queen. She 
 traced its area on a proper scale with the gold pin of her handkerchief. 
 From this it took its name ; for ea is Irish for pin, and niuir for necJc. 
 
 We are informed that this celebrated palace was finished in the 
 grandest style of architecture. The arched roofs were lined with pol- 
 ished marble brought from Italy, and the interior pillars, we are told, 
 were made of the same costly material, highly and beautifully carved ; 
 and the marble quarries of Kilkenny, the west of Ireland, and also the 
 north, furnished material enough to complete a rich and lasting architec- 
 tural structure. 
 
 When her husband died, leaving no male issue, Queen Macha was 
 called, upon to evacuate the royal palace of Tara, for the purpose of 
 inaugurating the rightful heir. By the laws of Ireland, no female was 
 allowed to sway the monarch's sceptre ; yet this courageous woman 
 entered the hall of the national convention, and boldly claimed the 
 diadem, as the widow and inheritrix of her husband. She addressed 
 the assembly with great energy, confounding the Druids, Brehons, and 
 Senators, by her extraordinary daring ; for the attempt was unprecedented 
 in the history of the country. 
 
 As soon as they informed her that she must surrender the throne to 
 the rightful claimant, she laconically replied, " He must then fight up to 
 his knees in blood before he can pluck the diadem of my fathers from 
 my brow." And, after uttering this threat, she hastened to the camp, 
 where a numerous and devoted army awaited her orders. She addressed 
 her brave soldiers in the language of passion, saying, — "You will 
 
IRISH ARCHERY. ROBIN HOOD BEATEN BY AN IRISHMAN. 253 
 
 combat to-day under the command of a woman ; yet I shall prove to you 
 that I am worthy of leading Irish heroes, and that, in the woman heart 
 of your queen there is glowing the chivalric spirit of my Milesian 
 fathers." 
 
 She led forth her legions to battle. No forces which her enemies 
 could bring into the field availed them. All power melted before her 
 daring and irresistible course, and complete victory declared her in 
 possession of the sceptre. As in the days of Joan of Arc, of France, 
 whose followers mistook her courage for supernatural inspiration, and 
 conquered under the influence of its animating impulse, so this extra- 
 ordinary woman carried dismay into the ranks of her enemies wherever 
 she appeared. 
 
 In this battle the first notice occurs of archers; and we find, through 
 all subsequent stages of our history, that the Irish soldiers obtained great 
 renown for their expertness and skill in archery. No youth, however 
 noble, could be admitted into the Irish militia who could not pierce a 
 given object with an arrow at the distance of two hundred yards. The 
 science of archery can boast as high an antiquity in Ireland as among any 
 nation of earth. In several renowned battles in England and Scotland, 
 the Irish bowmen obtained the victory. When our Fingal, O'Neil, and 
 Dathy, delivered Caledonia from the yoke of Rome, their accomplished 
 archers were the terror of the Roman legions ; and, in subsequent 
 years, when the celebrated Robert Bruce made, in 1314, the un- 
 paralleled stand for his country against the arms of England, which 
 history celebrates and succeeding ages admire, O'Neil, his brother-in- 
 law, sent over a legion of Irish archers, which helped him to win. 
 Referring to this brilliant battle, Chaucer, the English poet, says, — 
 
 « To Albion Scotts we ne'er would yield ; 
 The Irish boAvmen won the field." 
 
 Spenser, another, who wrote in the reign of Elizabeth, 1597, (no friend 
 to Ireland,) extols the Irish archers for their discipline : " They certainly 
 do great execution with their short bows and little quivers, and their 
 short, bearded arrows are fearfully Scythian." Hollinshead, (English,) 
 in his Chronicles, says that the famous Robin Hood, the outlaw, fled to 
 Ireland in the reign of Richard the First, and that an Irishman named 
 Pat Lawler excelled him in feats of archery. " This trial of skill took 
 place," says Dr. Hanmer, "in Dublin, 1195. Robin shot an arrow 
 eleven score and seven yards, the distance from Old Bridge to St. Mi- 
 chael's church ; but Pat Lawler sent his arrow three yards farther." 
 
254 RIGH DHEARG INVADES CALEDONIA. JUGHAINE INVADES GREECE. 
 
 B. C. 330. Righ Dhearg, or Reachta, succeeded the victorious 
 Queen Macha, and in his reign the Scottish Picts became troublesome 
 He transported a mighty army into Albany under the command of Terc 
 and Iboth, with which he effectually reduced them. 
 
 B. C. 310. Jughaine, called More, or the Great, having won the 
 crown in the field, was now enthroned monarch. He, too, passed over 
 to Albion, and reduced some rebellious spirits there. His deeds in the 
 field had reached the ears of Europe, and he passed over to the Gaulic 
 king's court, with a splendid retinue of knights and minstrels, and married 
 the fair Casaria, called the Lovely. When he returned to his kingdom 
 with his beautiful queen, he summoned the estates to a solemn convo- 
 cation at Tara. This was the grandest and most solemn assembly held 
 at Tara for two hundred years previously. It was surrounded by all 
 the pomp and circumstance which the king could devise ; and, the object 
 of his ambition being distant conquest, he raised the hopes and inflamed 
 the imaginations of his followers, and swore them to his interest by the 
 sun, moon, and stars, and by their favorite god Neptune. Thus ani- 
 mated, he led his legions towards the Mediterranean Sea, having first 
 appointed his wife queen regent of Ireland and Albany. His first land- 
 ing was on the Island of Sicily, which he conquered without resistance, 
 and subsequently passed over to Africa, to the aid of the Carthaginians, 
 who were then at war with Greece. It is said by Plutarch, that, on 
 this occasion, one of the Corinthian Greeks addressed the opposing 
 Carthaginians in terms of reproach for having applied for auxiliaries to 
 the Atlantic isle, beyond Hercules' Pillars ; that is, beyond the Straits 
 of Gibraltar ; for history admits that the Carthaginians procured legions 
 from Ireland to aid them in their wars against the Greeks and Romans. 
 The sacra cohors, or sacred cohorts, mentioned by Diodorus the Sicilian, 
 Cwtius, and others, were the Irish legions, Ireland having been then 
 as I have shown, named "sacred isle," and her armies " sacred cohorts." 
 
 Prince Jughaine was saluted " monarch of Ireland and Albany, and 
 of all the Western Isles of Europe," by his admiring allies in Gaul and 
 the countries within the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. If it were 
 not that the Romans, who imitated the Greeks in this custom, invariably 
 destroyed the records of the nations they conquered, obliterating their 
 languages and letters, and compelling them to speak and write in their 
 own. It is certain the Carthaginian records would have supplied us with 
 many testamentary facts connected with the military prowess of our 
 ancestors, who, being the descendants, were ever after, until Carthage 
 was destroyed, the firm allies of the Carthaginians. 
 
JUGHAINE DIVIDES IRELAND INTO COUNTIES. MAON. 255 
 
 That the Carthaginians were a learned and most powerful people, 
 will not be disputed, and that the ancient Irish spoke the same language, 
 used the same weapons, and observed the same religious and social 
 customs and laws, and practised the same military discipline, prove that 
 an intimate connection subsisted between these two nations. It is con- 
 fidently affirmed that an Irish legion formed part of Hannibal's invad,ing 
 army, which crossed over the Alps into the plains of Italy, and ap- 
 proached towards the very gates of Rome, and would have then con- 
 quered the eternal city, had not the Carthaginian politicians betrayed 
 Hannibal, and abandoned him to his enemies, even in the midst of his 
 victorious career. In after ages, Irish swords were found in Italy, in 
 the very track of Hannibal's army ! 
 
 The monarch Jughaine had twenty-five children, of whom twenty-two 
 were sons. He divided the kingdom into twenty-two parts, and set a 
 son to govern each district, from which taxes for the national exigencies 
 were derived. This system of taxation continued for three hundred 
 years. He reigned thirty years, but was inhumanly murdered by his 
 brother, who, however, was permitted to reign only a day and a half; 
 for the second son of the murdered prince rose up with a great force 
 against the usurper, ere he had time to sink the iniquitous roots of his 
 power in the earth. He was destroyed, and from one foul act many 
 more have flowed ; for the young and victorious Loaghaire the Second 
 excited enmity, which produced his own fall. He and his eldest son 
 were both murdered by aspirants for the diadem. A younger child of 
 this prince escaped the slaughter, and was sent by his friends to the 
 residence of the king of Munster. 
 
 Maon, the child thus sent to the hospitable palace of the king of 
 Munster, afterwards passed, for greater safety, over to the Gauls, amongst 
 whom he rose to the dignity and command of a general, signalizing 
 himself in all their wars. Whilst a youth in the palace of the king of 
 Munster, he prepossessed the daughter of that prince in his favor; and 
 she, faithful to his interest, when an opportunity arrived for the re- 
 sumption of his father's throne, sent a favorite bard to the court of the 
 French king, who sought the exiled prince, and sung to him a poem, 
 beautiful in conception and composition, urging his immediate return. 
 Maon was fired by the passion of love and glory ; he prevailed on the 
 French king to give him legions ; he returned, landed an army in 
 Wicklow, marched directly to the court of the usurper, and put him 
 and the chief men of his court to death. The circumstance is de- 
 scribed at length in my lecture on music, page 1 87, where, also, will 
 
256 AONGUS THE SECOND AIDS THE CARTHAGINIANS. 
 
 be found the. ode composed by Moriat. This revolution is attested 
 by O'Halloran, Warner, M'Dermott, Lynch, and others. 
 
 About three hundred years before the Christian era, Aongus the 
 Second reigned as monarch of Ireland for eighteen years; during 
 which, says the " Book of Reigns," " he led his victori&us armies 
 against the Greeks, and was saluted as conqueror of Greece." 
 
 " When we compare this relation," says O'Halloran, " with the 
 accounts given us by Greek and Roman writers of the irruption of the 
 Gauls into Greece, and note how exactly the reign of Aongus accords 
 with the time of this remarkable invasion, we must, I apprehend, be 
 convinced that our annals deserve the highest credit." 
 
 The great fact stands out, in all these events, that the Irish were 
 not idle spectators of the wars that were kept up between the rival 
 nations of Carthage (Phoenicia) and Greece, or her eldest-born, Rome. 
 The Carthaginians obtained constant aid from the Irish monarch; 
 this is attested by Greek, Roman, and Irish historians, in numberless 
 instances. Seven princes reigned in succession after Aongus, over a 
 space of ninety years, during which period, nothing beyond the average 
 events occurred. At length we light on the reign of Aongus the 
 Third, who, like his predecessors, distinguished himself in those foreign 
 wars. We are told that, on his return covered with glory, he revelled 
 in excess, and violated the chastity of his daughter, by whom he had 
 a son : for this he obtained the name of Tuirmhedch, or the Shame- 
 ful, which proves that, even before the introduction of Christianity, 
 the ancient Irish were distinguished for their moral sensibilities — as 
 hio-h an argument as can be adduced in support of their refined 
 civilization. 
 
 To conceal this crime, the infant was put into an open boat, and 
 sent down the current of a river, to sink or swim, as it pleased the fates ; 
 but the child was found by fishermen, and, having been clothed in 
 purple, which denoted its royal origin, he was put to nurse, and 
 denominated Fear-mara, or the Sea-Man. And as, from this provi- 
 dentially-saved child, by the female side, a long line of monarchs have 
 descended, it may be proper to dwell a little upon his history. 
 
 When" preserved tlius by the interposition of the fates, and brought 
 back a man to the palace, his father, the king, granted him large pos- 
 sessions in Ulster ; and, as we shall see hereafter, many of his de- 
 scendants became kings of Munster, and some of them monarchs of 
 Ireland. These descendants became, in the progress of ages, kings 
 also of Scotland. 
 
ORIGIN OF THE SCOTTISH KINGS. Q,UEEN MEIBHE. 257 
 
 " Froni the posterity of this prince, whose name, Fiacha Fearmara," 
 says die English /'Fanier, " thus exposed to almost certain destruction, 
 either by famine or the waters, came the royal line of Scotland — the 
 progenitors, on the British side, of our present monarch." The families 
 of the O'Connors, O'Connells, M'Dermotts, O'Tooles, M'Loughlins, 
 O'Farrels, O'Dwyers, O'Ryans, and Murphies, are all descended from 
 tliis prince, and are the proudest names that illuminate the annals of 
 Ireland. From the same line was descended the O'Connors of Kerry 
 and Sligo. Roderick O'Connor was directly descended from Feargus 
 M'Roy, king of Ulster, by the famous Queen Meibhe. 
 
 Aongus was succeeded by Connall CGllam, and he again by 
 Seamhuin, and he by several other princes, whose warlike achieve- 
 ments are dwelt upon by the old writei^ with an enthusiasm which 
 shows that the men of the olden days delighted much in feats of arms. 
 I pass over a period of one hundred and sixty years, during which no 
 organic change took place, though several princes reigned. 
 
 Ireland was divided into five provinces by Eochaidth the Ninth, 
 about one hundred years before the nativity of our Redeemer, viz., 
 Munster, Leinster, Connaught, Ulster, and Meath. Meath was fixed 
 on to be the domain of the reigning monarch, — as the District of 
 Columbia is the residence of the president of the United States. Meath 
 then comprehended an area of seventy square miles. It was divided, 
 in Henry the Eighth's time, into Meath and West Meath. Previous 
 to the reign of Eochaidth, the province of Connaught had con- 
 tinued to be governed by one of the princes of the Danaans, who 
 were the earliest settlers on the island. This prince, by considerable 
 address, and by proposing to remove the seat of legislation from Tara 
 to a more central spot in the island, or to the plains of Connaught, 
 obtained great popularity in that province. He built a splendid palace 
 in Cruighain, a part of Connaught celebrated for its great cave and 
 Druidical mysteries, and he called it Rath Eochaidth, or Eochaidth's 
 palace. He gave his daughter, Meibhe, to the Connaught prince in 
 marriage, and, he dying, this princess reigned alone, under the protection, 
 for a time, of her father ; and finally her administration secured her 
 the allegiance of the province, though her reign was contrary to the 
 national laws, which forbade a woman to sway the sceptre. 
 
 It appears this princess indulged in the enjoyment of an illicit 
 passion with Connor, the young prince of Ulster, by whom she had 
 three sons. Charles O'Connor thus notices their pedigree: "Rod- 
 erick O'Connor was directly descended from Feargus M'Roy, [son of 
 33 
 
258 INSURRECTION OF THE BARDS. MODE OF BURIAL. 
 
 the king,] king of Ulster, by the famous Meiblie, queen of Connaught. 
 From this source also sprang the O'Connors of Corcomrve, as well as 
 those of Roscommon." 
 
 Her palace was one of great splendor, and was celebrated in the 
 days .of St. Patrick as one of the royal houses of Loaghaire. She 
 interfered in the discussion of the estates on the affairs of the nation, 
 and, in a speech remarkable for force and beauty, urged her followers 
 to battle in defence of their ancient rights. Some bloody battles were 
 fought between the Connaught and the Ulster knights. In these 
 battles, Queen Meibhe appeared in person, animating her soldiers, and 
 inspiring them to extraordinary deeds of valor. 
 
 This extraordinary woman was killed at the advanced age of one 
 hundred and ten, by a stone hurled from the sling of one of her Ulster 
 foes, while bathing, on a summer's moniing, in Loch Ribb. He had 
 practised with the sling for some time previous, in order to gain a cor- 
 rect aim. 
 
 About this time, the bards and literati had swelled to a very incon- 
 venient number, and their insolence and rapacity excited the indignant 
 hostility of the great body of the people. (On this topic see section on 
 the bards, pages 159, 160.) An insurrection having been generated 
 by their exactions and insolence, a great body ,of them fled to Ulster, 
 where they were received, and protected, and entertained, to the number 
 of one thousand, for seven years, by Connor, the prince of Ulster, and 
 the historian of the age. By the management and address of this 
 prince, he had the nurnber of the ollamhs, or doctors of learning, re- 
 duced, as in the days of Fodhla, to two hundred. 
 
 It was in those days that regulations for the interment of the dead 
 were first recorded. It was decreed that the head of the deceased 
 should be placed to the west, the feet to the east, and a leacht, or 
 monument of stone, raided over all. Some of the knights had graves 
 dug, — the bottom of smooth marble, the sides built with brick and 
 cement, in the form of a modern coffin, and so formed that, at top, a 
 • large stone exactly fitted it, and left no room for dust or worms to creep 
 in. In this the corpse was laid, with his armor on him, and his sword 
 by his side. Inscriptions were raised round the mouths of the coffins, 
 and the beauty of the letters proclaim, at this day, the skill of the 
 sculptors. Many such are to be seen at present, in several parts of 
 Ireland. 
 
 In the famous battle of Murthemne, on Cuchullin^s being mortally 
 wounded, he directs his charioteer " to carry him to yonder can-uig, 
 [a large stone placed on one end,] to place his body standing against it, his 
 
SURGERY THE STUDY OF THE OLLAMHS. 259 
 
 sword in his hand, his shield raised up, and his two spears by his left 
 side." The renowned hero Eogon, slain in the battle of Lena, was 
 laid out completely armed in the same manner. The following trans- 
 lation from an Irish verse in the history of this battle shows Eogan : — 
 
 " Placed erect, 
 His lance by his shoulder, 
 His helmet on his head, his coat 
 Of mail on his body, 
 And his sword in his hand." 
 
 At the royal palace of Cruachan, in the county of Roscommon, in 
 Connaught, there was a celebrated cemetery, established for the re- 
 ception of the dead — a modern Westminster Abbey : it was called the 
 hill of graves. Here the kings and princes of the blood were buried. 
 Dathy was the last of the pagan monarchs buried there. In after ages, 
 golden shields, and golden crowns, and helmets, were found in this 
 place, also golden urns, and other precious evidences of the grandeur 
 of the past ages. 
 
 By several accounts of the battles of those times, we learn that 
 surgeiy was made the special study of some branches of the learned 
 professions, or ollamhs. But the practice of physic and surgery, like 
 other learned branches, in remote ages, was kept in certain families, and 
 transmitted to their descendants as hereditary rights. The military 
 surgeons were deemed the most skilful, and those belonging to the 
 royal militia the best of all. It was a common saying then, in refer- 
 ence to a person that was dying, or despaired of, that " all the phy- 
 sicians of the royal militia would not raise him." 
 
 Having arrived at that age in the history of Ireland when the feats 
 of chivalry became more intimately interwoven in the social and 
 political institutions of the people, this may be a proper place to 
 consider the origin and nature of practices that, in after ages, engrossed 
 so much of the mind of the most polished and learned people of 
 Europe. So extremely ancient have the institutions of chivalry been in 
 Ireland, that the most learned historians know not where to fix their 
 origin. Unfortunately for letters, the early histories of the Gauls and 
 Britons, and of every other nation subdued by the Romans, are lost. 
 The Romans proved themselves every where as much the enemies of 
 science and letters as of the liberties of mankind. In Selden^s 
 Titles of Honor, an English work of authority, it is settled that the 
 order of knighthood took not its rise in Rome. 
 
260 INSTITUTIO?; OF KNIGHTHOOD IN IRELAND. 
 
 Ireland, however, having ever preserved her freedom from the 
 universal yoke of Rome, her history is plainly the only key to the laws 
 and customs of the ancient Celtae. 
 
 We find our ancestors, in Phoenicia and Egypt, attributed the first 
 civil reformation of the people to the curetes, or knights ; and curetes is, 
 to this day, the Irish name of a knight, and cure the French name 
 for a pastor. Caesar, in his Commentaries, describes the Gaulish 
 knights, and says they were the second order in the state ; and, as the 
 ancient Irish and Gauls were the allies of each other against the 
 common foe Rome, it is most natural to conclude that, from the constant 
 intercourse kept up between both people, the social, political, and 
 wariike customs of one nation would be adopted and practised by the 
 other. The order of knighthood was known in Ireland from the days 
 of Ollamh Fodhla ; for we find them a distinct class, taking part in 
 the legislative deliberations of Tara more than eight hundred years 
 before the Christian era. There were five equestrian orders in Ire- 
 land. The first was the Niagh Nase, or knights of the golden collar ; 
 and this order was peculiar to the blood royal, as without it no prince 
 could presume to become candidate for the monarchy. 
 
 In the fourth century of the Christian era, when EochaidtJi, king of 
 
 Leinster, seized the palace of Tara, previous to the election of the 
 
 monarch, the Druids, and doctors, and lawyers, remonstrated against 
 
 the iliegahty of the act, as he was unfitted to become even a candidate 
 
 for the throne, inasmuch as he had not yet received the gradth-gaiage, 
 
 or the order of chivalry ; upon which he relinquished his claim, and 
 
 surrendered the palace to Nial the Grand. Of the other orders, there 
 
 were the Curaithe na Craobh-Ruadth, or the red branch knights of 
 
 Ulster ; the Clana Deagha, or Munster knights ; the Leinster knights 
 
 were called Clana Baoisgne ; the knights of Connaught were of the 
 
 old Danaan race, and yielded not the palm in courage or discipline to 
 
 any heroes in Europe. Each of these classes of warriors had peculiar 
 
 " arms," or siu^ns, on their helmets and banners, that they might be 
 
 known on the field of battle by their friends. This was the origin of 
 
 heraldry, and orders of nobility, so much prized by the aristocracy of 
 
 Europe. The rank these knights held was very early settled, for they 
 
 preceded all orders in the state, except the ollamhs, or doctors in 
 
 different sciences, and the blood royal. By the law of colors already 
 
 explained, knights were allowed five colors in their clothes. In two 
 
 centuries nearer to us, they were allowed, by law, silver shields and 
 
 targets, and the privilege of fighting in chariots, which was previously 
 
TRAINING OF THE KNIGHTS. 261 
 
 the privilege only of the blood royal, or of generals. In subsequent 
 reigns, it was decreed that the knights should wear a torquis, or 
 collar, of gold, pendulous from the neck. And this last, Straho and 
 Livy, the Roman historians, say, was constantly worn by the knights 
 of Gaul. Not only their rank was ascertained, but the utmost care was 
 taken of their education, and their military regulations. 
 
 Academies, at the national expense, were founded for them at Tara 
 in Meath, Emania in Armagh, Cashell in the south, Chruachan in 
 Connaught, and Naas in Leinster. These schools were like the military 
 school of West Point, or the military academies of France or England. 
 The candidates were entered at seven years of age, when slender 
 lances were put into their hands, and a sword by their sides. From 
 this to fourteen, they were instructed in letters and military discipline, 
 when they took their first vows. They were now exercised every day 
 in casting a javelin at a mark ; at which, in time, they became so 
 expert, that they could with certainty transfix an enemy, if within 
 their reach. The cran tubal, or sling, was another instrument with 
 which they hurled death around with wonderful precision. At the use 
 of the sword and target, they were uncommonly skilful, and they fought 
 on foot, on horseback, or in chariots, according to circumstances. At 
 eighteen, they took their last vows ; and, from the accounts of this 
 order of men still preserved, we are surprised at the elevation of their 
 sentiments. To swear by their knighthood was the most sacred oath, 
 for it reminded them of all their vows. 
 
 At the battle of Ventry, in Kerry, one of the knights in Fionas 
 array swore in the following translated words : " I affirm on my 
 word, and on the arms of chivalry " — an oath which no one of them 
 was ever known to break. At the battle of Murtheimhne, fought 
 before the incarnation, in the north of Ireland, when Cuchullin is ad- 
 vised by his officers against fighting the imperial army, he at length 
 cries out, " Since the days that my first arms were put into my hands, 
 [that is, since I received the order of knighthood,] I have not declined 
 a battle, nor shall I this." Their common saying was, Ish fear bleath 
 na seaghhail — " Glory is preferable to life." 
 
 Before the batde of Maigh-Lena, in the King's county, fought in 
 the second century of the Christian era, it was proposed, by some 
 officers of the imperial militia of Ireland, to attack and surprise the troops 
 of Munster at night ; to which Gaull, the son of Morni, general-in- 
 chief of the Connaught knights, thus replied : " On the day that I received 
 
262 MILITARY RENOWN OF IRELAND ACKNOWLEDGED. 
 
 the honor of knighthood, I vowed never to attack an enemy at night, 
 by surprise, or under any kind of disadvantage ; " and accordingly this 
 noble commander refused to lead out his troops till the day had dawned. 
 The general mode of challenge between the Irish knights, in practice in 
 those ages, was this : In every military academy, before the great court, 
 a coat of mail and a shield were suspended under a handsome arch, to 
 denote them always ready for battle. At all public festivals, and par- 
 ticularly when the young knights took their last vows, numbers repaired 
 to the scene of action to witness the ceremony. Such foreign knights 
 as chose to enter the lists, struck the shield three times with their lances, 
 when each cried out, Sgreadaim sgiath and sarim compach — that is, 
 ••' Strike the shield and demand the fight." Their names, quality, and 
 proofs of knighthood were then demanded, and the terms of the tourna- 
 ment adjusted. 
 
 Mr. O'Halloran goes into proof, at length, to show that the Gauls 
 and Romans borrowed their orders of knighthood and heraldry from the 
 Irish ; for the custom of obliging all candidates for the monarchy to 
 be knights of the highest military order, which we see adopted in the 
 tenth and twelfth centuries of Christianity throughout Europe, was 
 observed in Ireland previous to the Christian era. Our histories 
 of chivalry, yet well preserved, tell us that the knights of Ireland, 
 in very early days, frequently traversed the continent of Europe in 
 quest of adventure, where they gained glory and honor. And so cele- 
 brated were they in Europe, that they were called, by way of preemi- 
 nence, the heroes of the Western Isle. Harris says, "The French had 
 no regular body of men charged with the care of armories, processions, 
 and ceremonies, until A. D. 1031, when we find mention, in their chron- 
 icles, of Robert Daupin, as their first king at arms. In England, it does 
 not appear that any such officer as the herald was ever employed on 
 r;:issions by William the Conqueror, or either of his sons; and it was 
 lialf a century after the invasion of Ireland, that the office was introduced 
 among the English warriors, who, no doubt, tooJc their original idea of 
 it from the Irish princes J' Dr. Warner (English authority) says, " It 
 must be confessed that this was a period of great military renown in 
 Irish history; for here were three principal orders of knights at that time, 
 who were not only accounted the greatest men of the age by their own 
 provinces, but were so confessed by all the nations of the western "world. 
 We are told that their valor, their strength, and the largeness of their 
 stature, (being the picked men of the nation,) were the wonder of the 
 
THE VALIANT CUCHDLLIN. 263 
 
 surrounding countries ; and that their exploits are not to be paralleled in 
 history." It was one of the principal customs of the ancient Irish to 
 train up their youth to a military life, that they might either defend their 
 country in times of distress, or carry the fame of their arms abroad." 
 Add to this what Llhuid, an old Welsh historian, has long since demon- 
 strated, viz., that the names of the principal commanders who opposed 
 Ctzsar in Britain are pure Irish, Latinized. Can we suppose that those 
 whom we saw so manfully assist the Carthaginians and Gauls, in their 
 struggles with the Romans, would remain idle spectators when the 
 Romans were approaching so near their own homes? Certainly not. 
 And I shall show, in the course of these lectures, that with the aid of 
 Irish legions, led by the great Irish heroes and generals, Nial and Dathy, 
 the Romans were finally driven out of England, in some four hundred 
 years later than the period I am now treating of. And the same 
 generals and Irish legions, or cohorts, chased the Roman force to the 
 very foot of the Alps. As the name of the valiant Cuchullin has 
 frequently appeared in the songs of our bards, I deem it appropriate to 
 insert here an account of the battle at which he fell, which was, unhap- 
 pily, between the native princes of Ireland, and grew from the claims 
 of the rival houses of Heber, Heremon, and Ir, to the chief government 
 of the nation. I take the account from Pepper, whose own soul seemed 
 to have imbibed the spirit of the heroes he so eloquently describes. 
 
 " The allied army encamped in Ardee, which was then called Baile 
 na Riog, or the 'Town of the Kings,' which is still its Irish appellation. 
 Here Fergus and the other chiefs wished to bring the Ultonians to 
 battle, and, with this intent, they raised fortifications on the banks of the 
 River Dee, a deep and rapid stream, that rises from a small lake in the 
 county of Meath, five miles north-west from Ardee, and, after passing 
 through that town and Dunleer, and receiving, in its course, the waters of 
 several tributary rivulets, falls into the sea at Annagassin, in the county 
 of Louth, at the distance of fifteen miles from its original source. The 
 rath, or mound, which the Connacians then erected adjoining Ardee, is 
 one of the most majestic, elevated, and extensive piles of earth and stone 
 in Ireland. 
 
 " Connor, in the mean time, made a vigorous preparation to oppose 
 the meditated attack of the approaching foe, and happily succeeded, by 
 his artifice and address, in appeasing the resentment of the hero Cuchul- 
 lin, and in persuading him to take the chief command of the Ultonian 
 army, then encamped at Dundalk. The very name of this chief of the 
 Craob-rogh, or the knights of the Red-wreath, was a ' tower of strength ' 
 
264 BATTLE OF MULL AC RE W. 
 
 to Connor's forces. Notwithstanding that Cuchullin could never forget 
 nor forgive the baseness and cruelty of the king of Ulster to his relatives, 
 he still was impelled to assume the command of the army, not only by 
 the desire of glory, but by the craving of revenge; for, in a former war 
 between the Connacians and Ultonians, Lugha, the champion of Mun- 
 ster, had killed his father. The Ultonian general had strict orders to 
 remain on the defensive at Dundealgan, (Dundalk,) until he should be 
 reenforced by a legion, under Connal Cearnach, that was daily expected 
 to return from an expedition to Britain. The Connacians, aware of their 
 numerical superiority, did every thing which artifice could suggest to 
 force Cuchullin to a battle. They abandoned their entrenched camp at 
 Ardee, and took up a position on an eminence at Muirthimme, (Mulla- 
 crew,) four miles northward of their former camp, and in the immediate 
 vicinity of Caislean na Calga, or Galga Castle, the patrimonial resi- 
 dence of the Ultonian general. This movement compelled Cuchullin 
 to extend the right wing of his army to a height now called Ard Patrick, 
 or the Hill of Patrick. The two armies approximated so close, that it 
 was impossible, in consequence, to avoid a battle. The Ultonian chief, 
 however, notwithstanding his fiery valor and impetuous courage, wished 
 to decline coming to action, until the arrival of his gallant colleague, 
 Connal. But Fergus and Lugha caused trumpeters to approach 
 Cuchullin's camp, in order to mock and deride them, and by this means 
 provoke him to join battle with them. These insults had the desired 
 effect ; for they irritated the brave hero of Ulster, who, impatient to 
 avenge them, issued the signal for the attack on the Connacian camp 
 At that moment, when his military passion reached the acme of enthu- 
 siasm, some of his officers endeavored to persuade him to postpone the 
 action for a day. He indignantly retorted, ' What ! are we to fear their 
 superior numbers? No! their defeat will be more glorious to the Ulster 
 arms. I to shrink, like a dastard, from the face of the vaunting foe ! O, 
 never ! Since my first arms were put into my hands, I have never de- 
 clined a battle, nor shall I this. If I am to fall under the spear of 
 Lugha, I shall fall like my heroic sire, covered with a warrior's glory, 
 and with a spotless fame, worthy of being embalmed in the song of 
 Erin's bards.' The onset was as dreadful as it was desperate ; resent- 
 ment and implacable rage burned in every breast, and rendered the 
 conflict of the belligerents sanguinary and fierce beyond any former ex- 
 ample on record. Cuchullin's war chariot, like the red thunderbolt 
 felling the trees of the forest, flew through an avenue studded by uplifted 
 battle-axes, and paved with dead bodies. To stop this fiery car of 
 
DEATH OF CUCHULLIN. 265 
 
 carnage, which rolled through the Connacians as irresistible as the head- 
 long torrent of burning lava when sweeping down the rocky declivities 
 of -^tna, was an achievement that none except Lugha had the daring 
 courage to attempt The Munster champion bravely resolved to cross 
 his blood-flowing path, and arrest his destructive career, or nobly die in 
 the glorious attempt. Our ancient historians compared the collision of 
 the war-cars of Lugha and Cuchullin to that of two huge rocks of flame, 
 thrown in contact by a violent volcanic concussion. The combatants 
 fought with a force and a fury which astounded the contending armies. 
 It was a murderous conflict of two enraged giants, each of whom was at 
 once fired with the desire of vengeance and glory. After fighting from 
 noon to dusk with unexampled bravery and unshaken resolution, Lugha 
 succeeded in piercing the heart of the Ultonian champion with his jave- 
 lin. Thus fell the renowned champion of LTlster, a hero whose exploits 
 have been the theme of countless songs and stories of Irish and Scottish 
 writers." 
 
 34 
 
266 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 THE FOUR-LEAVED SHAMROCK. 
 
 BY LOVER. 
 
 A Four-leaved Shamrock is supposed to endue the finder with magic power- 
 
 ModerAto, 
 
 1. I'll seek a four-leaved shamrock In all th^ ^^^'^Y^ 
 
 gs- 
 
 --r^ 
 
 
 
 dells ; And if I find the charmed leaves, O, 
 
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 how I'll weave my spells ! I would not waste my 
 
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 mag - ic might On diamond, pearl, or gold ; For 
 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 267 
 
 
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 treasures tire the wea - ry sense ; Such triumph is but 
 
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268 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
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 To worth I would give honor; 
 
 I'd dry the mourner's tears ; 
 And, to the pallid lip, recall 
 
 The smile of happier years. 
 And hearts that had been long estranged, 
 
 And friends that had grown cold, 
 Should meet again, like parted streams, 
 
 And mingle as of old. 
 O, thus I'd play th' enchanter's part ; 
 
 Thus scatter bliss around ; 
 And not a tear, nor aching heart, 
 
 Should in the world be found, — 
 Should in the world, &;c. 
 
 The heart that had been mourning 
 
 O'er vanished dreams of love. 
 Should see them all returning, 
 
 Like Noah's faithful dove ! 
 And Hope should launch her blessed bark 
 
 On Sorrow's dark'ning sea ; 
 And Misery's children have an ark, 
 
 And saved from sinking be. 
 O, thus I'd play th' enchanter's part ; 
 
 Thus scatter bliss around ; 
 And not a tear, nor aching heart. 
 
 Should in the world be found, — 
 Should in the world, &;c. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 269 
 
 :r.lr 
 
 O PATRICK, FLY FROM ME. 
 
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 lost for - ev - - er ! O Fortune, kind - er 
 
 
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 My mother scolds me o'er and o'er, With lessons 
 
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■270 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 ir3^lZ^» 
 
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 cold and end - less ; It on - ly makes me love him 
 
 
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 more, Be - cause he's poor and friend - less. 
 
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 And then to me my Patrick says, 
 
 'Tis true, he has not riches ; 
 But that love they little prize, 
 
 Whom gold so much bewitches. 
 He tells me — but, ah me ! I fear 
 
 Lest I from duty falter; 
 I wish he could as soon persuade 
 
 The mother as the daughter. 
 O Patrick, fly from me. 
 
 Or we are lost forever ! 
 O Fortune, kinder be, 
 
 Nor thus our true hearts sever. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 FROM THE BIRTH OF CHRIST TO A. D. 141. 
 
 Names and Titles of the forty-three Kings who reigned in Ireland during the six 
 hundred Years preceding the Birth of Christ. — Comparison with the Reigns of 
 sixty-four Roman Emperors ; with the Saxon Kings ; with the Scotch. — Char- 
 acter of the civil Wars among the Irish Chiefs. — Julius Csesar. — His Inva- 
 sion of Britain. — His Character of the ancient Britons. — Traffic of the Britons 
 carried on in Irish Ships. — Irish, Welsh, and British Druids meet in Mona's Isle. — 
 Agricola invades Britain. — Reigns of the Irish Monarchs. — Conaire. — Connor of 
 the red Eyebrows. — Criompthon. — His Invasion of Britain, and Victory over the 
 Romans. — Cairbre the Usurper. — Moran the Just. — Appointed chief Judge. — 
 Moran's Collar. — Moran's Purity. — Lord Norbury and other Judges unlike him. 
 
 — Tuathal. — Agricola, the Roman General, prosecutes the Conquest of Britain. — 
 Is met at the Grampian Hills by Irish Legions under Gealta Gooth. — Erection of 
 the Roman Wall by Adrian and Severus. — The Wall erected to keep out the 
 Irish and Picts. — Customs and Games of the Irish. — Baal Fires. — Brilliant Fetes 
 of the Monarch Tuathal. — Horse Racing. — Charioteering. — Marriages. — Feats 
 of the Knights. — Marriage Ceremonies. — Amphitheatres in Meath. — Archi- 
 tecture of the Ancient Irish. — Appeal to Irishmen on the Education of their Chil- 
 dren. — History of Ireland forms no Part of modern School Study. — Comparison 
 between Irish and Roman Customs. — Roman Exercises. — Scipio's Feats. — Ex- 
 hibition of Beasts fighting. — Claudian's Description of the Beasts. — The Circus. — 
 Sea Monsters introduced. — The Gladiators. — Female Gladiators. — Knights and 
 free Citizens become Gladiators. — The Senators and Patricians become Gladiators. 
 
 — Ladies enter the Circus to fight each other, and to fight with the Beasts. — Roman 
 Gentry traded in the Virtue of their Wives. — Dreadful Ferocity of the Roman 
 People. — Shed Rivers of Blood in opposing Christianity. — Ridiculous Superstitions 
 of the Romans. — The History of Rome is given to our Youth, and that of Ireland 
 excluded. — The splendid Reign of Tuathal continued. — Provincial Assemblies. 
 
 — Regulations to encourage Arts and Manufactures. — Commerce of ancient Ire- 
 land very considerable. — Tuathal's Address to the National Assembly. — Great 
 Expedition against the Romans, under Gealta Gooth. — Defeats them in two 
 pitched Battles. — Pauses in Obedience to Instructions from the King and Parlia- 
 ment. — Marriage and tragic Death of Tuathal's two Daughters. — The Monarch 
 marks out Leinster for Destruction. — Origin of the Leinster Tribute. — A Re- 
 volt, and Death of Tuathal. — Flight of his Son to the Picts. — His Return and 
 Victory over the Usurper 
 
 Having presented to the reader the principal events of Irish history for 
 a period of six hundred years, since I took up the chain at the death of 
 Ollamh, onoitting many vivid accounts of battles, court intrigues, love 
 affairs, which are so like each other, and so little instructive, that I ex- 
 pect to be pardoned for dashing on rapidly over centuries, merely noting 
 the chief organic changes, and characteristic acts of the several ages 
 through which I pass ; 1 now give a catalogue of the kings, whose 
 principal deeds I have noticed in the preceding pages, who succeeded 
 
272 CHARACTER OF THE CIVIL WARS AMONG THE IRISH CHIEFS. 
 
 Lughaidh, from six hundred years before Christ to the fifth year 
 of the Christian era, viz. : Siorlaimh, Eochaidh V., Eochaidh VI., 
 Conning, Art II., Fiaclia, Olioll, Airgeadmhcr, Eochaidh VIL, 
 Lughaidh III., Aodh-Diihorba, Ciombaoith, Q^ueen Macha, Reachta, 
 or Righ Dherg, Jughaine the Great, Laoghaire II., Mahon, Meilge, 
 Modh Chorb, Aongiis II., Jarero, Fearchorb, Conla, Olioll III, 
 Adamar, Eochaidh VIII, Feargus, Aongus III, Connall, Niadh, 
 Eanda, Criomthean, Ruighruidhe, Jonadhbhur, Breasal, Lughaidh 
 IV., Duach, Fiachtna, Eochaidh IX., Eochaidh X., Eidersgeoill, 
 Nuadhneacht ; forty-three kings, from the reign of Lughaidh II., six hun- 
 dred years before the Christian era, to the fifth year of Christianity, 
 which gives an average reign of thirteen and a half years to each. 
 From that period to the invasion of Tergesius the Dane, there reigned 
 sixty-one kings, in a space of seven hundred and thirty-eight years, 
 which gives an average of twelve years to each. When this evidence 
 of the civilization of Ireland for that period is weighed, — when it is 
 balanced against the history of five hundred years of Rome, during 
 the full time of the empire, — it will then be seen to which of those 
 people the palm of approbation ought to be adjudged. From the 
 time of Julius Caesar to that of Augustulus, anno 475, about five 
 hundred years, there reigned sixty-four emperors over Rome. Their 
 reigns averaged but eight years for each. Forty-six of these emperors 
 were monsters of crime and vice ; thirty-three of them were murdered ; 
 seven were assassinated or poisoned, one strangled ; two fell by their 
 own hands ; one was burnt, and one was drowned ; and nineteen 
 only died natural deaths. 
 
 If we turn our eyes to England, we will find that twenty-eight kings 
 of the Saxon heptarchy were murdered in a period of three hundred and 
 fifty years. Robertson says of the Scotch kings and nobles, they were 
 revengeful. Of six successive princes, from Robert the Third to James 
 the Sixth, not one died a natural death. The wars and kingly murders 
 that grew from the English factions of the white and red roses, only three 
 or four centuries past, are sufficiently bloody and treacherous to keep 
 the tongues of Englishmen quiet on topics like these. 
 
 It is unfortunately true that the warlike propensities of the Irish led 
 them into hostile conflicts with each other, when the more exciting enter- 
 prise of foreign wars did not call their princes from their own country. 
 Taught, from youth upwards, to esteem personal bravery and military 
 exploit as the very climax of human excellence, they resented insults, 
 and settled disputes about territory, on the field of combat. Still, in 
 
THE CHAIN OF SILENCE. 273 
 
 those deplorable conflicts, a code of laws was observed by the most 
 deadly opponents, which proved how sensibly alive they must have 
 been to that principle of human action called honor, whose root is justice, 
 and whose nourishing fluid is tenderness and exalted human feeling. 
 In the hottest period of battle, if the attending bards or heralds, on 
 either side, shook the *' chain of silence," there was an instantaneous 
 suspension of the war, and the voice of negotiation was listened to. 
 The combatants were frequently induced to retire to their respective 
 homes by the songs of bards, and seldom or never have they been 
 known to take unfair advantage of each other. Those internal battles, 
 however, were most generally maintained with terrible resolution on 
 both sides. The idea of retreating never entered into the heads of any 
 party. The absorbing, impelling sentiment that enwrapped the nation, 
 directed them to die on the field or conquer their opponents. The 
 princes who instigated and led those warrior legions to the field, deemed 
 it so great a disgrace to survive the loss of a vital or pitched battle, that, 
 when they saw, towards the conclusion, their hopes and soldiers die 
 away, they invariably plunged into the thickest of the contest, and fell 
 fighting by the sides of the remnant of their followers. The whole his- 
 tory of Ireland presents but one exception to this general practice — that 
 of Malachy II., anno 1010, who survived the loss of his diadem. Had 
 Napoleon died, with his sword in hand, resisting his enemies at the gates 
 of Paris, instead of on the rock of St. Helena, how much more brilliant 
 would his fame have shone in the eyes of the military world than 
 it now does! — As to the political equity of Napoleon, I hold an 
 opinion on it different from those who cry him up a genuine lover and 
 distributor of human liberty, which shall be expressed in its place. 
 
 With all their faults, the ancient Irish strictly revered the most sacred 
 laws of honor. Contests were frequently decided by the single combat 
 of the contending princes, who put their claims upon the issue of their 
 personal bravery and skill, whilst the contending armies on either side 
 paused in their work of death, and gazed upon the vital combat of their 
 respective chiefs. Great was the glory of the victor. Frequently a 
 diadem and a principality awaited his triumph. The opposing armies 
 joined together, forgot their former feuds, and mutually partook of hos- 
 pitality, whilst the processions of the victor to his palace, whether main- 
 tained or acquired on the field of honor, were swelled by his former 
 enemies as well as friends, and were attended by a pomp and circum- 
 stance to which modern days afford no parallel. 
 
 On this feature in their character, the eloquent Phillips has founded the 
 35 
 
274 JULIUS Cesar's invasion of Britain. 
 
 following stanza in his beautiful song of " Cushlamachree," which is 
 printed, with the music, in the beginning of this work: — 
 
 " Thy sons they are brave ; but, the battle once over, 
 In brotherly love with their foes they agree." 
 
 We have now arrived at that era in tlie world's history marked by 
 the birth of a Savior. Rome had risen to the meridian of her power. 
 Julius C(zsar, as her general, had conquered more than half the then 
 known world. He had subjected many of the civilized and barbarous 
 nations of the earth to his sway, and compelled them to pay tribute to 
 the Roman aristocracy. After his conquest of Gaul, Spain, Africa, 
 Egypt, Pontus, and some other states of lesser note, he had carried 
 before him, in his triumphal procession into Rome, vessels of gold and 
 silver, computed by modern authors to be worth tivelve millions pounds 
 sterling, or sixty millions of dollars, — together with eighteen hundred 
 and twenty-two golden diadems, weighing fifteen thousand and twenty- 
 three pounds weight. All these were put into the Roman treasury, as 
 spoils to the republic, independent of the booty he brought home for 
 himself. In addition to all these, the profusion of jewels, paintings, 
 and other rich and valuable curiosities, swelled his spoils to an in- 
 credible amount. 
 
 Elated with this success, he sought the shores of Britain, to add it 
 to his conquests. According to his own account, he landed on the 
 shores of Britain, near Dover, on the 26th of August, fifty-five years 
 before the birth of Christ. He soon overcame the feeble resistance of 
 scattered and undisciplined tribes. He describes the inhabitants as 
 divided into forty tribes, each living in a state of independence of the 
 other. Those in the southern parts, ^vho appeared to be emigrants from 
 Belgic Gaul, were the most civilized. They had made some progress 
 in agriculture and the arts of life. The rest maintained themselves by 
 pasture, were clothed with the skins of beasts, painted their bodies, and 
 were constantly shifting their habitations, either in search of food or to 
 annoy or avoid their enemies. They had no other laws than the will 
 of their chiefs. 
 
 Caesar returned to the continent after establishing a temporary govern- 
 ment in Britain, in the name of Rome ; but was obliged to go back the 
 next year to quell the insurrections of the northern Picts. In this he 
 succeeded, having landed, from a fleet of eight hundred ships, an im- 
 mense army, with which he overran a great portion of Britain. But the 
 foot of a hostile Roman soldier never polluted Ireland, and subsequent 
 
IRISH, WELSH, AND BRITISH DRUIDS MEET IN WALES. 275 
 
 events, well attested by Roman and English history, will tell the rea- 
 son why. 
 
 On Caesar's return, he sent over lawgivers to England, and pursued, 
 as did succeeding governors, a conciliatory policy. The laws of Rome 
 were partly adopted in the south of Britain, +>ut rejected towards the 
 north. The only thing the Britons, at this time, shipped to other coun- 
 tries, according to Caesar, was tin, which, it appears, the Phoenicians 
 obtained from the British mines in Cornwall ; but as the Britons, ac- 
 cording to Tacitus, had no ships at this time, this traffic was carried on 
 in Irish vessels — an important admission, which is made by the Roman 
 historian in his Life of Agricola. Britain remained in this condition for 
 ninety years, during which no Roman general approached the country. 
 In the forty-sixth year of the Christian era, Platius, a Roman general, 
 landed in Kent, and advanced to the Thames, which he passed, and 
 fought three great battles with the Britons, whom he defeated near 
 Oxfordshire. In five years afterwards, the Roman general Pauli- 
 nus arrived in Britain, and found, that in Mono's Isle, now called 
 the Isle of Anglesey, (separated from the main land in Wales merely 
 by a river, over which the greatest suspension bridge in the world now 
 hangs, namely, the Menai bridge,) was congregated an immense num- 
 ber of Irish knights, Britons, Welsh, Druids, and bards, who opposed 
 his progress. In this isle there was established a sacred seat of 
 Druidism, to which the Druids of Ireland used to repair to mingle 
 their peculiar ceremonies with those of their brethren of Wales and 
 other parts of Britain. 
 
 The Roman general met with great resistance here, and he bent 
 his whole force to the destruction of the religious and military congre- 
 gations on the island. It was here the Irish allies were accustomed 
 to land from Wexford. The Roman general laid siege to this place, 
 and finally destroyed the fortifications, together with the Druidical 
 altars, and then erected a fort of great strength, leaving behind him 
 a strong garrison, to drive off auxiliaries who might approach from 
 Ireland, 
 
 In twenty years afterwards, we find Julius Agricola, the Roman 
 general, employed in retaking Mona's Island, which proves that this was 
 the battle-ground between the Irish allies of Britain and the Roman 
 legions. 
 
 Returning to my narrative of Ireland, we find Conaire, in the first 
 years of the Christian era, monarch of Ireland. He belonged to the 
 family fi-om which the Dalriada of Scotland descended, and fix)m whom 
 
276 CONATRE. CONNOR. CRIOMTHON CAIRS. 
 
 her present majesty, by the female side, claims lineage. The first act 
 of Conaire's reign was an unexampled punishment on the people of 
 Leinster for the murder of his father. He ordered that every first of 
 November, three hundred swords mounted with gold, three hundred 
 cows, three hundred purple cloaks, and three hundred steeds, should be 
 delivered at his palace as an eric from that province, for the crime. He 
 reigned forty years, some historians assert it to be sixty years; but 
 during his reign the people enjoyed a perfect state of happiness. He 
 was succeeded by Connor of the Red Eyebrows, and he again by Cri- 
 ompthon, who penetrated Britain with a victorious army, harassing the 
 Roman forces, destroying their fortifications, and carrying home quanti- 
 ties of warUke spoils. Criompthon died suddenly by a fall from his 
 horse. 
 
 A. D. 41. On the death of this prince, he was succeeded by Cairhrey 
 the usurper, a prince of the Danaan line, from Connaugbt. Cairbre 
 possessed shinh)g abilities, as well as cunning and treachery. His remote 
 ancestors were amongst the very first chiefs of the tribes who settled m 
 Ireland, and his family, through a long course of ages, mourned the pre- 
 dominance of the Milesian race in the government. Cairbre, seeming^ 
 to possess this feeling to an uncontrollable degree, conceived the daring 
 resolution of seizing upon the sceptre by a treacherous effort. To carry? 
 this resolve into effect, he negotiated with, and secured the alliance of., 
 some British Belgte and Gauls, to act with the forces which his own 
 province of Connaught afforded. He prepared for a favorable oppor- 
 tunity to attack the constituted authorities. It was in that moment wherv 
 the throne of Ireland had become vacant by the death of the beloved 
 Criompthon.. when the princes and nobles of the kingdom had assem.bled- 
 at Tara for the purpose of ehicting a successor to the crown. The 
 festive entertainments which custom had ordained, were being enjoyed- 
 These electoral entertainments generally continued three days. Cairbre 
 watched the hour of unsuspecting hilarity for his attack. Late in the 
 night, when the princes and other authorities in the palace of Tara were 
 stultified with wine, and relaxed with enjoyment, he and his troops, who 
 approached by secret marches, roshed upon the devoted guests, and 
 slaughtered all they could reach, without distinction or mercy. The 
 sanguinary Cairbre was then proclaimed king by his soldiery, who com- 
 pelled the terrified arch-Druid to inaugurate him as monarch, on the 
 Stone of Destiny, with the accustomed solemnity. For five years, the full 
 duration of his reign,, he acted towards the nation with singular mildness 
 and justice, and his son Moran, the celebrated lawgiver and judge. 
 
MORAN APPOINTED CHIEF JUDGE. HIS COLLAR. 277 
 
 won the general affections of the people by his talents and unexampled 
 equity. 
 
 On the death of Cairbre, the usurper, Moran, the heir apparent, was 
 proclaimed monarch of Ireland, with the usual ceremonies ; but when a 
 deputation of the national assembly waited on him with the crown, this 
 great man declined to assume it, giving his reasons in the following 
 memorable words : — 
 
 " I never shall wear that crown, to which 1 have no just right, except 
 what I might derive from the violence that placed it on my father's 
 brow. Do you conceive Moran so ignoble as to accept the power 
 which is based on such dishonorable claims ? No, legislators ! You 
 wrong me when you suppose that injustice should be the foundation of 
 my personal aggrandizement. If my own honest merits cannot secure 
 me the applause of posterity, let my deeds rest i-n darkness, in oblivion." 
 
 Feardhaih, of the old Milesian line, was therefore called (anno 46) to 
 the throne, and to him all parties in the state swore allegiance. Moban 
 was appointed chief judge of all matters in the kingdom ; and, from his 
 extraordinary wisdom and integrity, his name has passed down to us 
 as a model for judges in- all succeeding ages. The prince and the 
 judge were worthy of each other, and, by their wisdom and equity, 
 produced in the kingdom the most perfect state of social happi- 
 ness. So great was the reputation of Moran for wisdom and justice, 
 that the golden collar he wore round his neck was worn by all his 
 successors ; and so wonderful were the powers attributed to it, that the 
 people were taught to believe that whoever gave a wrong decree with 
 this collar round his neck, was sure to be compressed by it in proportion 
 to his deviation from the line of truth ; but when the judgment given 
 was just, it would hang loose and easy. The common people, even to 
 this day, swear dar-an-joadh-Mhoran, i. e. " by the collar of Moran," 
 which is deemed a most solemn asseveration. 
 
 With the exception of Sir Thomas More, lord chancellor of Eng- 
 land, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, who, according to Sir James 
 Mackintosh, was the purest judge that appeared in England for a thou- 
 sand years, we have no judge, in England or Ireland, that won such 
 universal approbation and respect as Judge Moran, until we come to 
 our own days, and light on the person of the lamented Sir Michael 
 O'Loughlin, the late Irish master of the rolls, — one who came from 
 a line of ancestors known in Ireland a thousand years ago. 
 
 Dr. Warner, the English historian, says of Chief Justice Moran, 
 " There is not in all history, as I remember, another instance of a 
 
273 IRISH LEGIONS OPPOSE THE ROMANS. 
 
 revolution like this, brought about by the self-denial and strength of a 
 single man, called to the exercise of royal power through the wicked- 
 ness and perfidy of his own father, divesting himself of this power, and 
 disarming a giddy multitude, in order to establish the public tranquillity, 
 and set the lawful heir ujx)n the throne. Indeed, ancient or modern 
 hdstory affords no parallel of mch self-denial, if we except the single 
 instance of Lycurgus, the famous Spartan lawgiver, who, though 
 called by general consent to the throne, on the death of his brother, 
 no sooner heard that liis sister-in-law was pregnant, than he abdicated 
 the regal sway, and assumed merely the regency of the state." 
 
 Such, descendants of the Irish £ace, was Judge Moran ; one who 
 elevates your nation on the score of judicial equity to an equality with 
 the proudest and most polished on the earth. It was much regretted, 
 in the days of Lord Norbury, that Moran's collar could not be found 
 10 place about his neck, for it would have choked him long ere he 
 condemned so many brave men to the block ; and it would be cred- 
 itable to justice, if a distmguished functionary, who figured lately in 
 certain " state trials," had had this collar round his neck while charging 
 the jury. 
 
 Anno 69,. Fiachadh was proclaimed monarch of Ireland. In the 
 same year, Vespasian was proclaimed emperor of Rome. Fiachadh 
 pcuired forces into North Britain, and continued to resist the Roman 
 power there. In those batdes, the celebrated Gealta Gooth, (the 
 GaJgacus of Tacitus,) an Irish chieftain of those days, led over the 
 Irish legions against the Romans, who were then sweeping the plains 
 o!' Britain ; but internal division, which, at that time, grew up amongst 
 the chiefs and princes of Ireland, absorbed the national spirit, and kept 
 back the supplies ; otherwise the Roman arms might have been 
 stemmed much sooner and much more effectually than they were. 
 
 Anno 86, we find Fiachadh slain in battle, and succeeded by 
 Elim, who, however, was not suffered to enjoy his powers long. He 
 was opposed by Tuathal, the son of the preceding monarch. Tuat- 
 hal gathered home some of the Irish legions from North Britain, with 
 which he attacked Elim, and, in eighty-five batdes. won his way to the 
 throne. Though he waded through much blood in his way to power, 
 yet his reign was otherwise just, wise, and glorious. His first public 
 act was a convention of the estates of Tara. Before this assembly he 
 appeared in his place as monarch and president of their councils. He 
 addressed them with great eloquence, pointed out the danger of divisions, 
 and of the pretensions of so many families whose blood entitled them to 
 
adman's wars in BRITAIN. THE ROMAN WALL. 279 
 
 the throne, and besought them, as they valued their safety and dreaded 
 the power of Rome, to pass an act hmiting the chief monarchy to 
 the male issue of one house. To this they agreed, and they swore 
 fealty to the house of Heremon. 
 
 This prince revived all the wise institutions of Ollamh Fodhla. 
 More lands were appropriated by the estates, or parliament, to the 
 support of the crown and the interests of literature, and to enable the 
 prince to support his dignity with greater splendor. These lands were 
 called fearon buird righ Erion, or the raensal lands of the monarch 
 cf Ireland. The great Ollamh Fodhla, having conferred on the 
 University of Tara the power of granting the highest degrees in 
 literature and science, King Tuathal followed up the idea, and con- 
 ferred privileges and powei-s on the Tara University, endowing it liber- 
 ally with revenues. 
 
 A little while ago, I brought forward a view of the invading armies 
 of Rome, penetrating Britain, attacking Mona's Island, which was then 
 a point of great consequence, as the rendezvous of the allies of the 
 Britons. 
 
 In the intestine struggles of Ireland, in the last and preceding reigns, 
 a portion of the Irish forces were withdrawn from the Isle of Anglesey. 
 Agricola had, therefore, the easier conquest of that important military 
 post. And, though little or no defence had been made, yet Tacitus 
 asserts, that, by its capture, Agricola got the name of a " most con- 
 summate general." Having obtained this important post, he swept 
 the plains of Britain before him from the south, and was repulsed only 
 on the gathering together of a sufficient force of Irish allies on the 
 Grampian Hills, under Gealta Gooih, the Irish general. Here a 
 desperate resistance was offered to the overwhelming legions of Rome, 
 by the combined arms of the Irish cohorts, Picts, and North Britons ; 
 but, though Tacitus claims the victory of the day for his father-in- 
 law, Agricola, yet it is quite certain that the Romans never penetrated 
 farther. Indeed Agricola contented himself with erecting a chain of 
 forts from the Clyde to Galway Frith, which divided Britain from 
 Scotia Minor. In twenty years farther on, we find the Roman 
 emperor, Adrian, obliged to come into Britain, to defend their 
 possessions, which defence ended in his building a wall from Sol- 
 way Frith across to the mouth of the Tyne. Again, Severus has, 
 farther on, to fight for his existence against the combined forces of the 
 Picts and Irish ; and we may form some idea of the strength of his 
 legions, when we learn that fifty thousand of them died of an epidemic, 
 
280 BAAL FIRES. CUSTOMS OF THE IRISH. 
 
 near York, in England, whilst prosecuting his defence of the Roman 
 conquests. 
 
 Severus, in the year 200 of the Christian era, builds the famous 
 wall of stone along the line of Adrian's wall of clay, which divided 
 England from Scotland. -Its height was twelve feet, its breadth, at the 
 foundation, was nine feet, and its length sixty miles. In front was a 
 ditch eleven feet broad. And here was high and haughty Rome, com- 
 pelled, by the valor of the Milesian race, to pause, and draw a limit 
 westward to her all-conquering power. This wall yet remains 
 above the earth, a stupendous monument, not of Roman greatness, 
 but of Irish valor — a sort of memorial to teli the world that such a race 
 was never destined by Heaven for slavery. 
 
 Here may be the best place to view the customs, games, and amuse- 
 ments, of the ancient Irish, and to make a comparison between their 
 character and that of the Romans during parallel ages. I have al- 
 ready shown that the Irish worshipped Baal, or the sun, as the great 
 author of nature, of heaven, and earth. It was the custom, on the 
 eves of May and November, for the Druidical priests to light up holy 
 or worship-fires, in honor of the sun, throughout the kingdom, when 
 all other fires were extinguished, and not rekindled but by a torch from 
 the chief fire of the Druids. This chief or primary fire was, by Tu- 
 athaJ, ordered to be lighted only in Tara, where it was surrounded 
 with the utmost degree of splendor and ceremony. The fire was 
 lighted in a shady grove, when the king, queen, princes, Druids, bards, 
 chiefs, knights, and the multitude, were present. When the ceremony 
 was completed, portions of this holy fire were then given to the first 
 orders, from whose fires the otiiers took torches, and so on the fires of 
 the whole kingdom were lighted up. Although, at this time, we may 
 smile at the simplicity of this custom, yet, in those days, it had a con- 
 siderable influence on the people. And so difficult it is to subdue a 
 popular custom, that, even in our days, the first of May is ushered in by 
 the young and gay with extraordinary excitement, though the original 
 cause for the custom is unknown to probably nine hundred in every 
 thousand. 
 
 The object of the monarch Tuathal was to conduct the government 
 of the country in a way agreeable to the taste and feelings of the 
 people. In order to make the meetings of the gentry and chiefs more 
 frequent, and to attach them to his person, he revived the festive meet- 
 ings on the plains of Louth with uncommon splendor. Here he erected 
 a superb pile of architecture, where he revived the great fair, to which 
 
MARRIAGES. IRISH ARCHITECTURE. 281 
 
 all the trading people of the kingdom repaired. It commenced fourteen 
 days before the first of August, and continued fourteen days after. The 
 amusements of horse-racing, charioteering, feats of arms and dexterity 
 by the knights, took place at this national gathering. Temporary 
 amphitheatres of wood were raised for the accommodation of many 
 thousand persons ; and the ladies were, of course, assigned the best and 
 most conspicuous places at these public entertainments. At these meet- 
 ings, marriages and alliances were formed between the families of the 
 chiefs, gentry, and distinguished orders, and every method was studied 
 to promote exhilarating exercise, and refined and modest enjoyment. 
 
 So intent was Tuathal on raising the morals of his people to the 
 highest pitch of virtuous refinement, that, to promote connubial al- 
 liances, he offered prizes to such young men as selected their wives at 
 this great meeting. Here rival knights contended, at tilts and dexterous 
 feats of grace and agility, for the ladies of their love ; and poets sang, 
 and rustics wresded, to win the smiles and approbation of the fair. 
 
 The learned O'Flaherty says of these games and amusements, that 
 the strictest order and most becoming demeanor were observed through- 
 out : the men were placed by themselves ; the ladies had a separate 
 place assigned them in the capacious amphitheatres of oak erected for 
 the occasion, where their parents were present, and treated about their 
 nuptials. As soon as the match was settled, the happy youth presented 
 a garland of roses to the elected object of his choice, and then led her 
 forth to the Druid's altar, where the nuptial ceremony was solemnly 
 performed by the .ministering Druid. We are told, that this prince 
 erected on the site of these festive games a Druidlcal cave In the 
 earth. The ruins of this celebrated pagan abode are yet to be seen, 
 and, say the learned Bcauford and the Welsh antiquarian Llhyuide, 
 who visited the ruins, " they equal any time-honored remnant of ancient 
 architecture, which a Palmyra or Babylon could boast." The learned 
 Camden and Raymond, both English writers, say the same, one 
 of whom describes this celebrated cave " as elegantly vaulted, with 
 polished marble slabs, indented into each other — Is eighty feet long, with 
 a marble paved floor, and walls encrusted with the same material." 
 There are bass-relief and hieroglyphic Inscriptions on some of the 
 panels, boldly sculptured. And Beauford continues his remarks in the 
 following words : " It Is a ridiculous assumption In some English 
 writers, who, to gratiiy their prejudices, maintain that the ancient Irish 
 were not eminent in architecture before the English Invasion. The 
 round towers and antique cathedrals of Cashell, Clonard, Armagh, 
 36 
 
282 SHIP-BUILDING. EDUCATION OF IRISH CHILDREN. 
 
 Ardfeit, and many others, with hundreds of old abbeys and innumer- 
 able Druidical altars and caves, are testimonials in favor of the taste, 
 the architecture, and the genius, of the ancient Irish." 
 
 Bede has honorably admitted that to Ireland his country was in- 
 debted for their naval and mural architecture. William Rufus sent 
 into Ireland for the oak that built Westminster Abbey, over which it 
 yet presides, a grand and solemn witness of its superiority over the oak 
 ©f England. " King Alfred, who had been exiled in Ireland, on 
 regaining possession of his kingdom, invited over Irish ship-builders, 
 who constructed for him a large fleet. Some of the vessels thea 
 built had seventy-six oars, and were generally navigated by sixty or 
 seventy sailors." — DundeVs Inquiry into the Rise and Progress 
 of the British Navy, London edition, 1799. 
 
 Gildas, who wrote A. D. 560, says, " The Hibernians had large 
 ships for the purposes of war, but that, in carrying on trade, they con- 
 veyed their commodities over a sea rough and tempestuous in wicker 
 boats, encompassed with a swelling covering of ox-hides ; " these were 
 called Curraghs, and were noticed by Tacitus five hundred years 
 before Gildas wrote. Gildas himself, was educated in Ireland. 
 
 We are now considering the period ranging In the first century of 
 the Christian era, three hundred and fifty years before Ireland was yet 
 blessed generally with the light of Christianity. 
 
 I have opened to you a view of the rational, healthful, modest, and 
 graceful amusements practised by your ancestors — at least the' ancestors 
 of the Irish — even before the refining influence of Christian precept had 
 added a polish and a lustre to their character. You, children of this 
 brave, chivalrous, modest, and virtuous race ! to you I now address 
 myself. You send your youth to the schools which a liberal go\ern- 
 ment has provided for their instruction ; and they are directed to drink 
 their first draughts of knowledge froiu tiie fountains of Greece, Rome^ 
 and England, whilst the country of their ancestors, containing all that is 
 brave, beautiful, grand, learned, pious, modest, and virtuous, is totally 
 neglected. Not even is there a history of that glorious country on your 
 school tables. The history of the oppressor of your race is that which 
 corrupt fashion and impure and degenerate taste direct you to peruse; 
 whilst the wisdom of those neglected sages, saints, and heroes, of your 
 own country is cast off, — that country, that opened its doors to the per- 
 secuted missionaries of literature, when the hurricane of human passion, 
 which swept over Europe in the middle ages would, but for your 
 
AMUSEMENTS OF THE ROMANS. 283 
 
 sainted ancestors, have extinguished every vestige of Greek, or Roman, 
 or ancient literature. 
 
 But come now, let us examine the lessons which your youth are 
 directed to study in the senate, in the field, and in the theatre, of the 
 Romans, which are pretended to be so far beyond the models for study 
 which your own neglected ancestors have left you. I have shown you 
 the innocent, the modest, the graceful, the elegant amusements of your 
 calumniated ancestors, on the plains of Louth, and in the palaces of 
 Tara. 
 
 Let us now take a glance at the public amusements of the Romans, 
 previous and sulasequent to the same period, whilst both people were 
 under the influence of Druidical or pagan worship. The feats of 
 exercise which these heroes performed, consisted chiefly of running, 
 leaping, swimming, throwing a stone or a javelin, or running against a 
 horse across a plain. 
 
 It is thus the famous Scipio is described, in a grand gathering of the 
 Roman people, by Italicus, as translated by Dryden : — 
 
 " Among the rest the noble chief came forth, 
 And showed glad omens of his future worth. 
 High o'er his head, admired by all the brave, 
 He brandished in the air his threatening stave ; 
 Or leaped the ditch, or swam the spacious moat, 
 Heavy with arms and his embroidered coat 
 Now fiery steeds, though spurred with fury on, 
 On foot he challenged, and on foot outrun ; 
 While 'cross tlie plain he shaped his airy course, 
 Flew to the goal, and shamed the generous horse. 
 Now ponderous stones, well poised with both his hands, 
 Above tlie wondering crowd unmoved he sends; 
 Now 'cross the camp he aims his ashen spear. 
 Which, o'er ten thousand heads, flies singing in the air." 
 
 Such were the extolled exercises of Scipio, one of their greatest 
 heroes. And there is nothing in the boasted feats that an Irish 
 hero of the same age would not accomplish ; and we could get 
 a thousand Irish boys, of the present age, to beat Scipio hollow, at 
 leaping ditches, throwing stones, or running against the swiftest horse. 
 So much for some of the ivonderful feats of these great models which 
 we are to follow. Let us go farther into their delicate, polished, ele- 
 gant, amusements. It was the custom of the Roman people to have 
 periodical combats with wild beasts, got up for their amusement. The 
 animals v/ere brought from the most distant countries for their gratifica- 
 
234 THE GLADIATORS. 
 
 tion. There were three sorts of diversions with the beasts, all which 
 Vv'ent under the description venatio. The first order of the amusement 
 was when the people were permitted to run after the beasts, and catch 
 what they could for their own use ; the second order, when the beasts 
 fought with one another ; and the last, when they were brought out to 
 engage with men. 
 
 Claudian, their own poet, thus describes the animals that were 
 collected to gratify, by their presence and their feats in the ring, the 
 elegant Roman patricians : — 
 
 " All that witli potent teeth command the plain, 
 All that run horrid with erected mane, 
 Or proud of stately horns, or bristling hair, — 
 At once tlie forest's ornament and fear, — 
 Torn from the deserts by the Roman power. 
 Nor strength can save, nor craggy dens secure." 
 
 The middle part of the circus was set all over with trees, removed 
 thither by main force, and fastened to huge planks, which were laid on 
 the ground. These, being covered with earth and turf, represented a 
 natural forest, into which the beasts were let, from a cave, or dens under 
 ground. The people, at a sign given by the emperor, fell to hunting 
 and combating them, and carried away what they could kill to regale 
 upon at home. Sometimes we find a tiger matched with a lion ; 
 sometimes a lion with a bull, a bull with an elephant, a rhinoceros with 
 a bear. But the most wonderfully surprising feature in those horrid 
 sports was, the bringing of the sea-water into the amphitheatre, when 
 huge sea-monsters were introduced, to combat with wild beasts. Cal- 
 phuni, in his Eclogues, describes the scene thus : — 
 
 " Nor sylvan monsters we alone have viewed ; 
 But huge sea-calves, dyed red with hostile blood 
 Of bears, lie floundering in the wondrous flood." 
 
 The men who en<iao;ed with wild beasts had the common name of 
 bestiarii. Some of these were condemned persons ; others hired them- 
 selves out, at a set pay, as gladiators. We find several of the nobility 
 and gentry, many times, voluntarily undertaking a part in these encoun- 
 ters ; and Juvenal acquaints us that the ladies of Rome were am- 
 bitious of showing their courage on such occasions, though with the 
 forfeiture of their modesty : — 
 
 " Nor Mars alone his bloody arms shall wield ; 
 Venus, when Caesar bids, shall take the field — 
 Not only wear the breeches, but the shield." 
 
THE GI-ADIATORS. 285 
 
 '• Cum M<zvia Tuscum jigat aprum, et nuda ieneat venabula mamma." 
 Those who coped on the ground with beasts, commonly met with a 
 very unequal match ; and their safety consisted in the nimble turning 
 of their bodies, and leaping up and down to elude their adversary. 
 In the show of wild beasts, exhibited by Julius Caesar, in his third 
 consulship, twenty elephants were opposed, in the circus, to 6ve hundred 
 footmen. 
 
 The first rise of the celebrated but horrible class of human beings, 
 called gladiators, is accounted for by the Roman writers in this way : 
 It was their custom to believe that the ghosts of the dead were only to 
 be satisfied, and kept fiom howling abroad, by the sacrifice of human 
 blood. At first they used to buy captives and slav'es, whom they 
 butchered and offered up at these obsequies ; afterwards they contrived 
 to veil over their impious barbarity with the specious show of pleasure 
 and voluntary combat. And therefore, on the day appointed for the 
 sacrifices to the departed ghosts, they obliged the captives to engage in 
 mortal combat with each other, at the tombs of the chief men ; and 
 the victor who killed his opponent obtained his liberty and a reward. 
 This shocking custom, as I shall show, grew with the growth of 
 Rome, and strengthened with her strength, until a nation of savages 
 was created, which sv/ept like a curse over the face of the earth. 
 
 The first public show of gladiators, apart from the funeral rites, took 
 place at Rome, in the consulship of Claudius, long before the Christian 
 era. Within a little time, when they found the people exceedingly 
 pleased with such bloody entertainments, the consuls, who courted pop- 
 ularity, gave them these feats of blood frequently, and they soon grew 
 into a custom. And not only on the death of any great or I'ich citizen 
 did these inhuman rites take place, but all the principal magistrates took 
 occasion to present the people with such spectacles, in order to procure 
 their esteem and affection. As for the emperors, it was so much their 
 interest to ingratiate themselves with the commonalty, that they 
 obliged them with these shows upon almost all occasions ; as on 
 their birthday, at the time of a triumph, after any signal victory, 
 or at the consecration of any public edifice. As the occasions of 
 these solemnities were prodigiously increased, so was the length of 
 them, and the number of the combatants. At the first show exhib- 
 ited by the family of the Bruti, there were only three pair of gladia- 
 tors. Julius Cassar presented three hundred and twenty pair of these 
 fighdng monsters. Titus exhibited a combat of gladiators and wild 
 beasts which lasted a hundred days together. And Trajan continued 
 
286 ROMAN LADIES ENTER THE CIRCUS TO FIGHT EACH OTHER. 
 
 the barbarous amusement one hundred and twenty-three days, at a sin- 
 gle show, during which he brought out a thousand pair of gladiators. 
 
 These gladiators were commonly slaves or captives ; for it was an 
 ordinary custom to sell a disobedient servant to the lanistis, (master 
 gladiators,) or their instructors, who, after they had taught them part of 
 tiieir skill, let them out for money at the shows. But mark I the free- 
 men subsequently put in for a share of this honor, to be killed in jest, 
 and many times offered themselves to hire for the amphitheatre — 
 whence they had the name of the auctorati. Nay, the knights and 
 noblemen, and even the senators, at length were not ashamed to take up 
 the same profession, some to keep themselves from starving, after they 
 had squandered away their property, and others to curry favor with the 
 emperors. The emperor Augustus issued a public edict that none of 
 the senatorian order should turn gladiators, and soon after he laid the 
 same restraint upon the knights. Yet these prohibitions were so little 
 regarded by succeeding emperors, that Nero brought out into one show, 
 as gladiators, four hundred senators and six hundred of the equestrian 
 order. 
 
 But all this will be left in the shade, when we come to a further 
 search, and find the very ivomen engaging, in the circus, as gladiators — 
 particularly under Nero and Domitian. Juvenal, in his sixth satire, 
 thus exposes their barbarous manners — translated by Dryden : 
 
 "Behold tlie strutting Amazonian there! 
 She stands in guard, with her riglit foot before, 
 Her coats tucked up, and all her motions just ; 
 She stamps, and then cries ' Hah ! ' at every thrust" 
 
 And again he says, — 
 
 "O, what a decent sight 'tis to behold 
 All thy wife's magazine by auction sold — 
 The belt, the crested plume, the several suits 
 Of armor, and the Spanish leather boots ! " 
 
 These female gladiators fought with sharp sp^rs or swords, until the 
 combat ended with the death of one. Some of the more daring en- 
 gaged with the men, and even with the wild animals. — The Roman 
 senators traded in the virtue and in the persons of their wives ; it was 
 common for these noble Romans to let out their wives for one, two, or 
 three years, to other noble Romans, and receive them back again with 
 the price of their dishonor. Even the great Cato was guilty of this 
 degradation. O, but it is shocking to proceed. 
 
HOME AS STUDIED BY OUR YOUTH. 287 
 
 This barbarous, cruel, inhuman, beastly state of morals prevailed in 
 Rome for six hundred years — ay, during its most palmy days. 
 
 When the thrones of the emperors were at last endangered by the 
 numbers of the gladiators, — when all decency was swept away, and all 
 security for life or property anniiiilated, by the prevalence of this hor- 
 rible propensity, in a city' composed, we are assured, of millions, — it was 
 then the emperors tried to put a stop to the horrid practices ; but it 
 was not till Christianity had triumphed, it was not till the divine 
 precepts, given to the apostles and Christian missionaries, had been 
 sowed and nurtured by rivers of the martyrs' blood, that these inhuman 
 practices were abated and melted down. How did this ferocious race 
 meet the preachers and apostles of Christianity ? Ask the page of his- 
 tory, and it will answer, With imprisonment, torture, and death. His- 
 tory will tell you that the Christian blood shed by the Romans, in their 
 persecutions of the followers of Christianity, exceeded the powere of 
 calculation. It is said that four millions of human beings were put to 
 death simply for professing the peaceful doctrines of the merciful Savior 
 of the world. And at length, so wearied did the Roman judges be- 
 come, from the sheer labor of condemning the Christians to death, and 
 so fatiguing was the labor of executing them, that judges and execution- 
 ers at last could not with readiness be obtained to do the work of blood. 
 Many of these judges, and many of the executioners too, seeing so many 
 freely go to death rather than renounce a single particle of the Christian 
 faith, became themselves Christians ; for, they said, a religion that could 
 not be extinguished after the shedding of so much blood, must have God 
 to support it. 
 
 But it is not only of their ferocity and beastly habits we can 
 speak — they practised the most ridiculous superstition. They be- 
 lieved in dreams, and had public interpreters appointed to communicate 
 to the emperor the meaning of the dreams of his people. Thus the 
 dreams of the young or the old ladies of Rome influenced the decis- 
 ions of generals and statesmen. The appearance of certain birds or 
 animals crossing the march of an army, would induce their bravest gen- 
 erals to turn aside from their purpose. Animals were sacrificed to their 
 gods to propitiate them before battle, and the manner of their death de- 
 cided the order of battle ; the quantity of blood, the number of groans 
 or struggles of the dying beast, gave the cast to their fate. - 
 
 Such was bloody, barbarous, beastly, and inhuman Rome — Rome, 
 whose deeds your youth are taught to study, as sources of instruction and 
 models for imitation — Rome, whose history is held to be a part of 
 
288 REIGN OF TUATHAL. 
 
 the "classics," or that combination of knowledge, which the world 
 bows to as the literary code, by which it is to be governed ; whilst 
 Ireland, brave, chivalrous, modest, virtuous, hospitable Ireland, — 
 pious, learned, cultivated, polished, — the land where not one martyr was 
 offered to oppose the introduction of Christianity, — the land where 
 architecture flourished, and flourishes to this day, — the school for virtue, 
 oratory, music, poetry, and arms, — that great and good model which has 
 survived Rome, and will survive equally bloody and inhuman England, 
 — that great model of all the human duties and all the human orna- 
 ments, children of the Milesian race, is forgotten by your teachers, and 
 your youth are educated in every thing but the history of your ven- 
 erated and almost forgotten father land. 
 
 Having made this unavoidable digression, I return to the reign of the 
 monarch Tuaihal. The triennial meeting of the estates at Tai'a were 
 carefully attended to during this reign. The national records were 
 revised and corrected, and every new art or discovery that sprang up 
 was cherished. It is recorded that, at this time, a meeting of the 
 estates of Connaught was held at the palace of Cruchain, in that 
 province, at which new laws were oiiginated, to be proposed in the 
 chief parliament of Tara. During the same reign, a meeting of the 
 estates of Leinster was held at Naas, to suggest alterations in the 
 national code of laws, and to provide for the better administration of 
 the laws throughout the province. This proves for us, that, at this 
 period, the legislative powers of government were distributed, to a cer- 
 tain extent, through the provinces, just as the powers of the American 
 republic are, to a certain extent, distributed through the states. This 
 is further confirmed by the action of the Ulster estates, which met at 
 the celebrated palace of Emania, in the north, in the same reign ; 
 where certain laws were passed for the regulation and encouragement 
 of arts, manufactures, trade, and commerce. And thus were laid in the 
 earth those seeds of manufactures and commerce, which, we shall see, 
 as we get along, progressed in the north of Ireland, and still linger in 
 that part of the kingdom. In fact, we may say that Ireland was to 
 Europe, in respect of manufiictures, what the New England States are to 
 America. On this matter, Tacitus, the Roman historian, in his Life of 
 Julius Agricola, states that the commerce of the Irish, in his days, 
 was much more extensive tlian that of the Britons. 
 
 The Roman legions had now laid waste a great part of Britain. 
 Owing to the struggles for die diadem that had, for the previous few 
 years, distracted the Irish at home, and had drawn back the auxiliary 
 
tuathal's address to the national assembly. 289 
 
 legions, which they had been previously enabled to leave in Britain, 
 the Romans found little to resist their onward course, and King 
 Tuathal, fearing for the triumph of Roman power so near him, appre- 
 hending his own green island might be the next gem the stranger 
 would set in his diadem, summoned the estates to assemble and consider 
 their danger, being in the very neighborhood of Roman conquerors. 
 King TuathaVs address to his parliament is to be found, in the original 
 Irish, in Bishop MoUoy's Genealogies of Irish Kings, and bears the 
 marks of vigor and eloquence. 
 
 After alluding to other matters, the prince thus concludes a powerful 
 appeal : — 
 
 " Behold, wise counselloi-s, the Roman legions menacing our coasts, 
 pampering their lofty hopes with the expectation of subjecting this 
 sacred isle, rich with the dust of Milesian heroes, to their yoke ! Will 
 you suffer your wives and daughters to be dragged as captives to the 
 streets of Rome, to share the ignoble fate of Britain and Albania's 
 daughters ? Will you suffer the Roman eagles to perch on the national 
 standard of Gathclus, [the harp,] that sacred standard which the great 
 Hebrew prophet, Moses, gave to the father of the Milesian race ? Be 
 united, be firm in concord, and the Irish air will never be poisoned by 
 the breath of the Roman invaders. When we march forth to battle, 
 with souls enkindled with the spirit of patriotism, the despoiler's power 
 will recede from our spears, as the foaming waves recoil when broken 
 and dissolved on the rocks of our shores. Yes, senators, if destructive 
 and intestine dissension make no chasms in our ranks and love of 
 country, the Romans shall find us invincible, and as firm in the fight 
 as the majestic mountain, which, seated on its ocean throne, looks 
 down with contempt at the idle rage of the turbulent billows that burst 
 on its rocky footstool ! " 
 
 This heart-stirring, this sublime appeal to the nation, was responded 
 to in the equipment of an immense force for immediate operations in 
 Britain. This force was put under the command of the celebrated 
 Irish hero whose name has come down to our days surrounded with 
 glory — Gealta Gooth, whose progeny gave kings to Leinster for many 
 ages after. 
 
 The forces of Rome at this time had devastated Britain, under the 
 Roman emperor, Adrian, anno 118, and were about marching on 
 Caledonia, which, by treaty, the Irish were bound to protect from 
 invasions. The king of the Picts placed the combined forces under 
 the command of the Irish general, and he immediately gave batde to 
 37 
 
290 GEALTA GOOTH COMMANDS AN EXPEDITION. 
 
 the Romans, whom he defeated in two engagements, and compelled 
 to retreat to Newcastle. The emperor, Adrian, who was then in 
 Wales, repaired to the north, where his armies were disheartened. 
 Here he commenced a wall of clay, the erecting of which he in- 
 spected in person, carrying it across from Carlisle to Newcastle, a dis- 
 tance of sixty miles. This wall subsequently gave place to a wall of 
 stone, erected by Severus, which yet remains to tell the world of the 
 bravery of the ancient Irish, and their kinsmen, the Picts. 
 
 Gealta Gooth encamped at Stirling, and awaited orders from the 
 king and parliament of Ireland, as to whether he should cross the 
 Tweed in chase of the Romans ; but it was decided in the Irish 
 councils, that he should not proceed farther with the Irish army than 
 their compact with the Caledonians required. And here was the Roman 
 power checked by one of our forgotten ancestoi-s, while the Roman 
 warriors, who fled before him, are recorded and held up to our youth 
 as the paragons of bravery and military glory. 
 
 Shortly after this, an event occuiTed, of a most painful and tragic 
 character, which lit up for a long time after the strife of civil war in 
 Ireland. The monarch Tuathal, whose life we are considering, had 
 two daughters, fair and beautiful ; the elder of whom, Dairine, was 
 wooed and wedded by Eochaidtk, prince of Leinster, and carried, with 
 an immense retinue, in great splendor, to his palace of Ferns, in 
 Wexford. The bride was accompanied to her future palace and 
 home by her younger sister, Fithier, a princess, we are told, of 
 extraordinary beauty, who remained some time in the palace of 
 Ferns. During this time, the prince, Eockaidth, smitten with her 
 extraordinary beauty, conceived a strong passion for his sister-in-law, 
 and. In some time after her return to her father's palace of Tara, fol- 
 lowed her thither, dressed in the deepest mourning, and represented to 
 the king, his father-in-law, that his wife, Dairine, had died suddenly — 
 " an event," said he, " that will break my heart, unless your majesty 
 snatches me from the precipice of despair, by giving me the princess 
 Fithier, to soothe my sorrows, and replace in these arms the counter- 
 part of that angel perfection of which death has robbed me." The 
 monarch, moved by his well-assumed grief, consented to bestow a 
 second daughter on the fiend. He soon wooed and captivated the 
 young princess, and they were married by the arch-Druid, with great 
 solemnity, at the palace of Tara. In some time afterwards, the married 
 pair set out for the prince's palace at Ferns. When they arrived there, 
 the shame and amazement of the young princess, Fithier, on finding 
 
ORIGIN OF THE LEINSTER TRIBUTE. 291 
 
 her elder sister yet alive, cannot be described. Dairine, the first and 
 lawful wife of the prince, fired with jealousy, loaded her poor innocent 
 sister with the most dreadfid reproaches, which operated so sensibly on 
 her feelings, that she fell into convulsions, and died in a paroxysm of 
 grief. Dairine, deeply affected at the death of a sister she always 
 loved so dearly, threw herself upon the body, and, overwhelmed with the 
 wickedness of her husband and the death of her beloved sister, plunged 
 a dagger in her own bosom, and died clasping that sister in her arms. 
 
 In the whole history of Greece or Rome, — ay, of Roman virtue, 
 that you are taught so much to admire, — there is no more shining 
 example of female virtue, sensibility, and self-immolation, on their long 
 records, than the death of these two sisters presents. 
 
 So overwhelmed in grief and rage was the monarch Tuathal. at 
 this dishonor and tragic end of his two daughters, that he called his 
 estates of Tara together, before whom he related all these facts, when 
 it was resolved, with one accord, to drive the guilty prince of Leinster 
 from his throne. War was instantly declared, and the enraged monarch 
 led his army into Leinster in person, laying waste the habitations of 
 Eochaidth's followers. Eochaidth and a few of his followers sought 
 safety in flight ; and from the place of his secret refuge, he despatched 
 his chief bard to the enraged monarch, with offers of the most humble 
 submission to such terms as he chose to dictate. This proposal 
 being made with considerable address by the prince's bard, an armistice 
 was agreed to upon the following conditions: That Eochaidth, to 
 enjoy his life and crown for himself, and to have his principality 
 guarantied to his successors forever, should pay unto the chief monarch 
 of Ireland the following tribute every second year, viz., three thou- 
 sand cows, three thousand ounces pure silver, three thousand mantles 
 richly embroidered, three thousand sheep, three thousand hogs, and 
 three thousand copper caldrons. This tribute, known as the Boroimhe 
 tax, was the after-cause of much internal warfare, when the guilty 
 author had been for centuries in the dust. It proves for us the mas- 
 culine virtue of those people who marked a whole province to destruc- 
 tion for the crime of its prince ; and it proves the wealth that abounded 
 in Ireland in those early ages, by the nature of the medium in which 
 this tribute was paid. 
 
 Some of our English neighbors of the present day insinuate, that 
 we were a poor, miserable set before they came amongst us ; that v,'e 
 had no gold or silver ; that we had no manufactures of cloth, and, 
 of course, no such thing as' embroidered mantles ; and that, as for 
 copper caldrons, we never had the like, and never had a leg of mutton 
 
292 DEATH OF TUATHAL. 
 
 to put into a caldron, till they came over and blessed us with their arts, 
 sciences, and civilization. But the items of these and other tributes, 
 the detail of the will of our princes, and th6 concurring testimony of 
 Roman, French, and Florentine writers, will prove, in spite of our 
 oppressors, what Ireland was. And the concurring desire and sym- 
 pathy of mankind will soon restore Ireland to her rightful position, and 
 enable her to pass through future ages with still more stainless glory 
 than she won during the ages that are past. 
 
 Tuathal, having reigned fifty years, was killed by a revolter, 
 named Mul, who persecuted his family and followers. Tuathal's eldest 
 son fled to the camp of his uncle, the chief of the Picts, in whose 
 armies he performed prodigies of valor. But the usurper, Mai, losing 
 the confidence of the people, FeidUmh, the exiled prince, hastened 
 back to his native land with a few followers, when the whole popula- 
 tion rose in his behalf, and, after some slight resistance, the usurper was 
 killed, and Feidlimh crowned with much pomp at the palace of Tara, 
 in the year of Christianity 141. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 293 
 
 THE EMERALD ISLE. 
 
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 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
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MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 295 
 
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 Of the heart that is yearning to be with thee now. 
 I fancy I grasp the brave hand of my brother ; 
 
 I see the glad light of my sister's fond smile ; 
 I stand in the hall of my father and mother, 
 
 Who welcome me back to the Emerald Isle ! 
 
 O ! land of the grateful, where every emotion 
 Of kindness is fostered, of friendship sincere ; 
 
 Where every breast, in its loyal devotion. 
 
 Would barter its life-blood to spare thee a tear! 
 
 beautiful land ! whose sunny-eyed daughters 
 
 Wear hearts on their lips, that have never known guile, 
 
 1 hasten to thee, o'er the far-swelling water, 
 
 My home, and my Hountry ! the Emerald Isle ! 
 
296 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 CAROLAN'S RECEIPT. 
 
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 33 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
 FROM A. D. 141 TO 279. 
 
 Reign of Feidhmh. — Law of Lex Talionis. — Reign of Cathoir More. — His extraor- 
 dinary Will. — His Posterity. — Wealth and Refinement of the ancient Irish. — 
 Reign of Con of the Hundred Battles. — Quarrel with Eogan, Prince of Munster. — 
 Battle of Lena. — Gaul M'Morna, the Connaught Hero. — Death of Con, and 
 Accession of Conaire. — Carbrai Rihda. — Caledonian Colony. — Established and 
 sustained by the Irish. — Proof. — Feargus the Second of Scotland. — Liah Fail. — 
 The Stone of Destiny. — The Kings of Ireland, Scotland, and England, crowned 
 upon it. — Origin of many Irish Families. — Fion M'Cumhall. •=— Oisin. — The 
 Leinster Militia. — The Reign of Cormac. — His Laws. — Palace of Tara rebuilt by 
 him, of Marble. — His Magnificence. — The Officers he appointed. — Successes of 
 Fion M'Cumhall against the Romans in Britain. — Revolts against Cormac. — 
 Cormac's Abdication in Favor of his Son. — His Writings. — Proclaims his Belief in 
 God, and renounces the Sun Worship. — Persecution of him by the Druids. — 
 Tara's Hall. — Great Meeting on Tara Hill, in August, 1843. 
 
 Feidlimh, as we have seen, succeeded to the throne, anno 141. 
 He introduced a consolidation of all the good laws of his predeces- 
 sors — Ollamh, Moran, Jughaine, More, and Connor. 
 
 Previous to his time, the only crime punishable with death was the 
 insult of any person at Tara during the sitting of the legislature, 
 especially the insult of a lady. All crimes committed under other cir- 
 cumstances might be paid for by eric, or fine. This, we find, was the 
 custom of the early Greeks, and of the Britons also, down to the'seventh 
 century of the Christian era. Feidlimh introduced the law known as lex 
 talionis, which signifies a life for a life, an eye for an eye, and a limb 
 for a limb. The punishment of death was inflicted on criminals by the 
 sword, by the arrow, or by drowning. " Hanging," says Bishop Hutch- 
 inson, " the most ignominious of all deaths, was unknown in Ireland 
 until after the English invasion." A complete reformation of the laws 
 was effected by Feidlimh, and a comprehensive code of enactments 
 was passed, which appropriated punishment, founded on the strictest 
 equity, to every occurring crime. These enactments have passed 
 down to posterity, known as the Breatha Nuimhe, or Celestial Judg- 
 ments, and have formed the foundation of that code of laws estab- 
 lished in Britain seven centuries later, by King Alfred. 
 
 Feidlimh died at his palace of Tara, anno 150, after a reign of nine 
 years, leaving behind him, in the equitable code of laws which he com- 
 piled, a lasting monument of his wisdom and talents, — a code v/hich 
 
CATHOIR MORE. HIS WILL. 299 
 
 Warner pronounces to be " strictly equitable, and agreeable to the laws 
 of God." 
 
 The estates of Tara were summoned to choose a successor, and the 
 choice fell on Cathoir More, grandson of Gealta Gooth, the cele- 
 brated hero who opposed Agricola and his Roman legions at the 
 Grampian Hills. 
 
 Cathoir More, we are told, was a wise prince ; but the pretensions 
 of other of the royal houses disturbed his reign, and, at length. Con, 
 surnamed " of the Hundred Battles," a prince of his own line, foment- 
 ed an insurrection against his throne, and finally disputed its possession 
 on the field. Both parties amassed considerable armies to contend for 
 empire. 
 
 On the night preceding the decisive battle that was to put one or the 
 other on the throne of Tara, Cathoir awoke from a dream, in which 
 he saw foreshadowed the disastrous results of the ensuing day. He 
 summoned his chief bard, or secretary, and his ten sons, together with 
 all his chief counsellors, to his presence, whom he addressed as 
 follows : — 
 
 " To-morrow's sun will beam on my dead body ; but I shall die, like 
 ray gallant ancestors, resisting the foe, while I have strength to stand at 
 the head of my brave army, in whose ranks there is not a single coward." 
 
 He then desired all to leave him, except his chief bard, whom he 
 caused to engross his will, a copy of which is carefully preserved in the 
 Book of Lecan, to be seen in the Irish College, Paris. It was tran- 
 scribed from that antique record by the celebrated O'Flaherty. 
 
 To his beloved son Rosa, called Failge, he bequeaths his kingdom 
 of Leinster, to which he adds ten shields, richly ornamented, ten 
 swords with gold handles, ten gold cups, and wishes him a numerous 
 and warlike posterity to govern Tara. 
 
 To his second son, Daire Berach, he gives Inath Laigheen, the 
 present Fingal, and part of Wicklow. He wishes him to prove a suc- 
 cessful hero, and always to rule over the Gailean Glas — the ancient 
 Belgfe. To this he added one hundred and fifty spears, ornamented 
 with silver ; fifty shields, ornamented and embossed with gold and silver ; 
 fifty swords, of exquisite workmanship ; fifty rings, of the purest gold ; 
 one hundred and fifty cloaks, of rich manufacture ; and seven military 
 standards. 
 
 To his third son, Breasal, seven ships of burden ; fifty shields, richly 
 ornamented with gold and silver ; five swords with gold hilts ; and five 
 chariots, with harnesses and horses. To these he adds the lands on the 
 
300 WILL OF CATHOIR MORE. 
 
 banks of the River Amergin, and charges him to watch over the old 
 inhabitants, who will be otherwise troublesome to him. 
 
 To Cetach, the fourth, he leaves possessions, thinking it a pity to 
 separate him from his brothers. 
 
 To Feargus Luascan, the fifth, he left nothing ; but this defect his 
 brothers supplied. 
 
 To Oliel, the sixth, his backgammon tables and men, saying that 
 neither the possession of lands or towns would be of any use to him, as 
 he never attended to any study but gaming. 
 
 To his seventh son, Aungos, he gave nothing ; but this defect his 
 brothers supplied. 
 
 To Ecoaidth, the eighth son, he gives his benediction only, wishing 
 his posterity may adhere to their blood, and calls him Treath Fear, or 
 " a weak man," for he was so far imposed upon as to give away a tract 
 of land claimed as a promise in his sleep. 
 
 To his son Criompthon he leaves fifty brass balls, with brass maces 
 to play with ; ten backgammon tables, of curious workmanship ; and 
 two chess tables. 
 
 To his youngest and tenth son, Fiacha, whom he praises for his 
 bravery and spirit, and for the universal love he gained, he leaves the 
 country about Wexford ; recommends him to support his brother, and 
 bequeaths him fifty large vessels, made of yew, fifty drinking cups, and 
 fifty pied horses, with brass bits. 
 
 To his nephew, Tuathal, he gives ten chariots, with horses and 
 harnesses ; five pair of backgammon tables ; five chess boards, with 
 ivory men ; thirty shields, embossed with gold ; and fifty swords, highly 
 ornamented. 
 
 To Mogh Chorh, one hundred black and white cows, with their 
 calves, coupled two and two with brass yokes ; one hundred shields ; 
 one hundred javelins, colored red ; one hundred polished spears ; fifty 
 safFron-colored cloaks ; one hundred horses, of different colors ; one hun- 
 dred gold pins for cloaks ; one hundred goblets, elegandy finished ; one 
 hundred large vats, made of yew ; fifty chariots, curiously finished, ten 
 of which were of exquisite workmanship ; fifty chess tables ; fifty play- 
 ing tables, of different kinds ; fifty trumpets ; fifty standards ; fifty 
 copper caldrons ; with a privilege of being privy counsellor to the king 
 of Leinster. 
 
 To the pnnce of Leis he left one hundred cows, one hundred 
 shields, one hundred swords, one hundred spears, and seven spotted 
 horses. 
 
LETTER or THOMAS o'cONOR. 30l 
 
 Cathoir More, according to the English Dr. Warner, was the richest 
 monarch that ever appeared in Europe ; and these details of wealth 
 and luxuries prove the advanced degree of maturity to which arts and 
 manufactures had then arrived in Ireland. 
 
 King Cathoir fell, as he himself predicted, in the next day's battle; 
 but his posterity often sons gave to Ireland several of the most patriotic 
 and influential families who distinguished themselves for many ages. 
 From Rosa, the eldest son, sprang the house of O^ Connor Faly, the 
 O'Dcmpsies, lords of Clanmarah, and the O^Duns. From Daire Ba- 
 rach are the O^Gormans, O'Mallone, and O'Mooneys descended. 
 The issue of Fiachiadth, the younger, gave more kings to the throne of 
 Leinster than those of all his brothers united. From him are descended 
 the royal families of MMurragh, and Cavanagh, kings of Leinster, 
 O' Toole, O' Byrne, O' Murphy, O'DoivIing, O'Maoilrain, O'Cin- 
 seleugh, M Cormick. 
 
 Rosa Failge, the eldest son of Cathoir, is the great progenitor of the 
 O'Connors of Faly, or OfFaly, a district comprehending the King and 
 Queen's counties, and part of the county of Kildare. Roger and Arthur 
 O'Connor, or their children, are the only legitimate descendants of this 
 sept of the 0'Connoi"s now living. Their father, John O'Connor, of 
 Mount Pleasant, enjoyed a remnant of the family estates in 1750. 
 Arthur O'Connor was seized as one of the chiefs of the revolution of 
 1798, and in the amnesty agreed upon between Lord Castlereagh and 
 the state prisonei-s, he passed over to France, where he yet remains in 
 exile. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the family of Roger 
 O'Connor to speak with certainty of its living members ; but, having 
 written, for information on this point, to the venerable Thomas O'Con- 
 or, of New York, I have received from him the following letter in reply, 
 which I give to the reader without curtailment : — 
 
 "New York, June 24, 1844. 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " I have your favor of the 19th instant. I am not an his- 
 torian, and cannot throw any useful light on the interesting subject of 
 your intended publication. In this momentous crisis of the Irish strug- 
 gle, the patriot will hail every well-authenticated historical research as 
 a useful contribution to the stock which patriotism accumulates for the 
 vindication and support of Ireland. 
 
 " The O'Connors of Cork, and those of Roscommon, to both of which 
 you allude, are, I am inclined to believe, different families, unconnected 
 by consanguinity, or deriving a common origin in some period long past. 
 
302 LETTER OF THOMAS o'cONOR. 
 
 "Arthur O'Connor, an exile residing in France, must, I suppose, be 
 the chief of the Cork family. The O'Connor Don, residing at Clanalis, 
 in the county of Roscommon, is the head of the Roscommon family. 
 Fergus O'Connor, who distinguished himself by a generous advocacy 
 of the righteous cause of the British Chartists, is, I suppose, a son of 
 Roger, and a nephew of Arthur O'Connor. 
 
 " In a small volume, entitled ' Dissertations on the Ancient History of 
 Ireland,' published in Dublin, some sixty or seventy years ago, I find 
 the following paragraph : — 
 
 " ' From Rossa Filgeach, the eldest son of Cahoir the Great, came the 
 O'Connors of Failgeach, a large country in ancient time, comprehend- 
 ing considerable parts of the King's county, the Queen's, and Kildare. 
 They were, in all ages, a very martial and renowned family, as all our 
 annals testify, (both before and after the invasion of Henry the Second,) 
 until they were crushed by the superiority of relentless power, in the 
 reign of Philip and Mary. Some general officers of the family serve, at 
 present, with great repute, under his Catholic majesty ; and John 
 O'Connor, of Mount Pleasant, in the King's county, esquire, enjoys, at 
 this day, a part of his ancestors' estate, one of the most ancient tenures 
 in the kingdom.' 
 
 " In the same volume I find the following : — 
 
 " ' Roderic, the last king of Ireland, was chief of the Hy-Brune and 
 Clan Murray race. For more than a thousand years, this family, in- 
 cluding a few of the Hy-Fiacans, governed the province of Connaught 
 with sovereign authority. On the failure of Roderic's power, the gov- 
 ernment of this country fell to Cabal Crovedarg, in his time as great a 
 man as any in this kingdom, and the younger brother of Roderic. 
 From him descended, in fifteen lineal generations, the late Andrew 
 O'Connor, of Ballintobber, in the county of Roscommon, a person of 
 great worth and virtue, the chief of his name, and the father of Daniel, 
 the present O'Connor Don, and of the chevalier Thomas O'Connor, an 
 officer of great repute in the service of his most Christian majesty. 
 
 "'Dominic, the eldest son of O'Connor Don, lives now abroad on his 
 travels; and I mention him here with the greater pleasure, as, in so 
 early a period of life, he is exhibiting those rare accomplishments, which 
 are not the less valuable that they are independent of the highest birth, 
 as well as out of the reach of fortune.' 
 
 " In a work compiled by an Irish ecclesiastic, and published in Eng- 
 land, in the year 1814, th'^re appears a genealogy showing the descent 
 of the present fanuly of the O'Connors of the county of 'Roscommon, 
 
LETTER OF THOMAS o'cONOR. 303 
 
 from Tordelbachus, the supreme monarch of Ireland, the father of 
 Roderic and of his brother Cahal Crovedarg, (Red-handed,) herein 
 ah'eady mentioned. The names appear in Irish and in Latin. They 
 are as follow, as well as 1 can translate. Opposite to some of them, 
 I give, in brackets, the names as they appear in the Latin version. 
 The other names are probably properly translated. 
 
 1. 
 
 Turlough (Tordelbachus.) 
 
 11. 
 
 Owen. 
 
 2. 
 
 Charles. 
 
 12. 
 
 Carbery (Carbreius.) 
 
 3. 
 
 Hugh (iEdhus.) 
 
 13. 
 
 Dermod (Diannitius.) 
 
 4. 
 
 Roderic. 
 
 14. 
 
 Hugh. 
 
 5. 
 
 Owen (Eoganus.) 
 
 15. 
 
 Charles. 
 
 6. 
 
 Hugh. 
 
 16. 
 
 Charles. 
 
 7. 
 
 Turlough. 
 
 17. 
 
 Dennis. 
 
 8. 
 
 Hugh. 
 
 18. 
 
 Charles. 
 
 9. 
 
 Turlough. 
 
 19. 
 
 Dennis. 
 
 10. 
 
 Felim. 
 
 
 
 "Dennis, the last name above mentioned, died, and was succeeded 
 by his son Owen, the first of the family of Balenagare, who assumed the 
 affix of ' Don.' He died, and is succeeded by his son Dennis, the pres- 
 ent O'Connor Don, residing at Clanalis, in the county of Roscommon, 
 formerly the residence of the late Dominic O'Connor Don. 
 
 " Owen, of Belenagare, and Dominic, of Clanalis, were descended 
 from a common ancestor, a lineal descendant of the monarch Tourlough, 
 or Tordelbachus. The deaths of Dominic and of his brothers Alexan- 
 der and Thomas, without issue, in the present century, rendered extinct 
 that branch of the O'Connor family. The next in lineal succession 
 from the monarch was Owen of Belenagare, then living. This accounts 
 for the genealogy being carried down in the living line of Belenagare, 
 and not in the extinct line of Clanalis. 
 
 "The present O'Connor Don represents his county in the imperial 
 parliament — more properly the British parliament ; for the mockery of 
 Irish participation in the legislature is an absolute and intended insult to 
 Ireland. But a better fate is in store for unhappy Ireland. 
 
 " I fully believe that England is a falling nation. If any thing is 
 more clear to my mind, it is this, that Ireland is a rising nation. The 
 great, last struggle now making by England is a proof that British 
 rulers are sufficiently sensible of the necessity of more than ordinary 
 exertion to maintain a tottering fabric, not in the vain expectation of se- 
 curing permanent stability, but with the more rational hope of extend- 
 
304 
 
 LETTER OF THOMAS O CONOR. 
 
 ing the lease. If I mistake not, the British minister has, by the im- 
 prisonment of O'Connell, extinguished this hope. 
 
 "The rise of Ireland does not depend solely on the fall of England. 
 Such fall might accelerate the ripening destiny of Ireland; but Ireland 
 must rise in despite of whatever obstructions may be interposed by the 
 British minister. The British people — thanks to our enlightening 
 presses — at length discover that they are not themselves free; that 
 they gain nothing, but lose much, by the degradation of Ireland, and 
 that it is their interest to make a common cause with Ireland against the 
 common enemy of both. The poor may not reach the station of the 
 wealthy, so far as worldly pelf is concerned, but they will approximate 
 in intellectual endowment. Inequality of pecuniary fortune will always 
 exist, and it may be well that it be so ; but the acquisition of literary 
 information, the fruition of which by one portion of the community, 
 and the insidious denial of it to the other, have hitherto constituted the 
 distinction between the lordly arrogance of the one and the constrained 
 servility of the other, is about to become, like the air we breathe, the 
 common heritage of all ; delusion and humbug will no longer prevail 
 over the tutored mind ; neither fraud nor force will cajole or deter ; lit- 
 erary education will resist the subtlety of the one, and the modern 
 invention of an Irishman — passive resistance — will nullify the other. 
 The revolution of Europe is clearly commenced. Old Ireland is in the 
 van. It surely cannot be that those who lead in the movement will be 
 the last to reach the goal of general aim. ' Whom God would destroy, 
 he first makes mad.' Neither concession nor compromise will come 
 from a government which casts the gamester's last throw. Mr. Peel 
 obstinately resists the repeal of the union. Let me be a prophet : the 
 present generation will not pass away until an Irish ambassador will be 
 received at Washington, and there recognized as the representative of 
 free, sovereign, and independent Ireland. I will not see this day; you 
 may. Emi go bragh. 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 " Thos. O'Conor. 
 "Thomas Mooney, Esq." 
 
 I take it that I have proved, from the items of the will of Cathoir 
 More, that Ireland was then (the second centur}') in the enjoyment 
 of all the arts, manufactures, luxuries, and literature, which mankind 
 could boast of in any part of the world. 
 
 Independently of the great wealth conveyed by Cathoir More to his 
 
CON OF THE HUNDRED BATTLES. 305 
 
 ten sons, — the profuse Retail of gold and silver vessels ; of arms and 
 war chariots, ornamented with gold ; of embroidered mantles and cloaks 
 for knights and ladies; of ships ; of cattle; of spears, swords, banners; 
 of the chess boards and ivory men ; of backgammon tables ; of musical 
 instruments, &;c., seems to have been recorded by the wealthy donor, 
 with a prophetic eye, as evidences which would go, to the latest pos- 
 terity, to overwhelm in confusion those who, having pillaged Ireland, 
 and butchered her people, would traduce her name, and deny her the 
 honor of her twenty-four centuries of political independence — an inde- 
 pendence adorned by the development of arts, sciences, literature, and 
 glory. But in this the calumniators of Ireland shall be disappointed ; for 
 
 " Enough of her glory 
 Remains on each sword 
 To light us to victory yet" 
 
 In the year of Christianity 153, Con of the Hundred Battles, son 
 of Feidlimh the Lawgiver, succeeded to the monarchy of Ireland. 
 He was a prince of great abilities, both in the field and in council ; and 
 his reifi-n has furnished the historians of Ireland vvitli much exciting 
 matter for applauding comment and instructive digression. His reign 
 was embroiled by a contest with Eogan, the prince of Munster, for 
 the supreme government of the country. Many heroically-fought 
 battles ensued. At length, it was resolved that the government and 
 patronage of Ireland should be divided into equal parts, as in the days 
 of Heber and Heremon, the first kings ; that Eogan should govern the 
 southern division, lying beyond the line drawn from Dublin to Galway ; 
 and that Con of the Hundred Battles should have the government and 
 income of the northern division. This arrangement continued for some 
 years ; but in the year 181, we find the wars again renewed, we are in- 
 formed upon the following grounds : — 
 
 Eogan, on a royal tour through his dominions, visited Dublin, which, 
 in those days, was called Atha Cliath Dubhline, or the " Passage over 
 the Black PooV He found a greater number of ships on the north, or 
 Con^s side of the river, than on his own ; and, of course, the revenues 
 and customs derived by Con were unduly greater than his. This proves 
 to us the extent of trade which Dublin enjoyed in those early times. 
 In the days of St. Patrick we find it celebrated " for its extent and 
 magnificence, the number and riches of its inhabitants, the grandeur of 
 its edifices, and the greatness of its commerce." 
 
 This trivial ground of quarrel, added to others of a weightier charac- 
 ter, produced the revival of hostilities. Both princes prepared with 
 39 
 
306 EOGAN. ART. GAUL m'mORNA. 
 
 great animation for the decisive battle that \^as to give one or other 
 supreme dominion. At length the armies meet at Lena, in the King's 
 county. The Munster prince, Eogan, is described by the historians as 
 cutting down all before him in the contest — moving, like the living 
 demon of fire, through the hostile ranks. 
 
 Art, another princely warrior, is thus described, as he enters the 
 battle field, by the recording bard : — 
 
 " tlie hero of Tara ! 
 
 The irresistible wave in enmity ; 
 
 As quick as lightning in defence; 
 
 Terrible in battle; 
 
 The support of mighty armies ; 
 
 The very hand of liberality ; 
 
 The all-protecting; the 
 
 Performer of most mighty deeds ! 
 
 AH, the son of Con, the son 
 
 Of Tuathal, arose. 
 
 Warrior-like was his anger, 
 
 Powerful his voice ; 
 
 Lovely the champion, 
 
 His flaxen hair plaited. 
 
 His shirt of silk. 
 
 In one hand he bears two bows, 
 
 In the other his javelin. 
 
 And by his side 
 
 His dreadful and irresistible sword. 
 
 Yonder he sweeps over the plain, like 
 
 The thunder-bolt that tumbles the rocks 
 
 Into the foaming sea. 
 
 How majestic is the hero's step! 
 
 The brightness of his sword contends 
 
 With the refulgence of the sunbeam ; 
 
 The gleam of his spear illuminates the hill ! " 
 
 We find, from the detailed descriptions, three things proved ; Jlrst, 
 the beauty and majesty of the poetry ; secondly, the bravery, high 
 bearing, and natural nobility of the hero ; and, thirdly, the fact of the 
 silk manufacture being, at this early age, a flourishing branch of national 
 industry — centuries before the Gauls or Britons were in possession 
 of it. 
 
 But at length the mighty Gaul M'Morna, the Connaught general, 
 stood before Eogan, sword in hand. " Now," said Eogan, " we meet 
 in a fair field ; let our swords decide which of us is the bravest." They 
 fought desperately for an hour, when it was the fate of Eogan to fall, a 
 
DEATH OF CON, AND ACCESSION OF CONAIRE. 307 
 
 victim to his own unreasonable ambition. During this great personal 
 combat, the armies on each side, as if by the spell of enchantment, sus- 
 pended hostilities to gaze with wonder on the mighty conflict of their 
 chiefs. Such a circumstance, if illustrated by the poetry of a Homer, 
 would rank, on the pages of glory, as brilliantly as any action or circum- 
 stance of Greek or Trojan valor which that great poet cast in the mould 
 of immortality. 
 
 When Eogan fell, pierced by a hundred wounds from the sword of 
 Gaul M'Morna, his soldiers lifted up his body on their shields, to show 
 to Eogan's followers that he was slain. " Lay down the body of the 
 king of Munster," said his brave conqueror, " for he died as a hero 
 should die — covered with wounds and glory." 
 
 Ck)n of the Hundred Battles was then declared monarch of Ireland, 
 over which he reigned, not without much trouble, for thirty years. 
 Historians differ about the manner of his death, some alleging he fell 
 in battle, others that he was assassinated. O'Halloran doubts the latter 
 view, as it was totally inconsistent with the genius and spirit of chivalry 
 which then pervaded every class in Ireland. 
 
 A. D. 183. On the death of Con, the national assembly of Tara 
 proceeded to the election of a successor. The suffrage of the majority 
 declaring for Conaire, of the northern or Heremonian line, he was, 
 accordingly, seated on the throne of Tara. Conaire, being in undis- 
 turbed possession of the L'ish throne, had the greater means left to him 
 of opposing the Roman power in Britain, and went over at the head 
 of considerable legions of Irish, to resist their forces, which were 
 commanded by Severus, A. D. 192. The Irish historians dwell in 
 terms of rapture on his progress and battles with the Roman legions. 
 
 A. D. 200. In his reign, or immediately after it, Carbrai Rihda, 
 one of his sons, was sent over to Caledonia to protect it, as an Irish 
 province, against the threatening arms of Rome. Since the days of 
 Heber and Heremon, Albania, or Scotland, was partially subject to Ire- 
 land, acknowledging allegiance, under the memorable compact entered 
 into between Heremon and the Picts. Carbrai was invested by the 
 national assembly of Tara with some of the attributes of independence, 
 for the purpose of giving more satisfaction to the Albanians, who were 
 flattered with the idea of obtaining the semblance of an independent 
 prince to reign over them. Carbrai, according to Bede, commenced 
 the first regular attempt at an independent government in Caledonia, in 
 the second century. " From this leader," continues Bede, " whose 
 name was Riada, the posterity of those settlers are, to this day, called 
 
308 THE CALEDONIAN COLONY PROVED TO HAVE BEEN IRISH. 
 
 Dal Reudimh, or the Irish occupiers of the part." The Abbe M'Geo- 
 ghegan is also positive on this point, and explains thus : " It is true that 
 before this time the Albanian Picts were, for centuries, tributary to the 
 crown of Ireland ; yet it remained for Carbrai to form the first regular 
 settlement in Scotland." Primate Usher, a great authority, says that 
 this prince reduced all Scotland under his dominion ; and O'Kennedy, 
 in his Chronology of the Stuart Line, published in Edinburgh, 1780, 
 asks, in reply to some of the Scottish writers, who contended for an 
 origin from the north of Europe for their ancestors — " How can the 
 Caledonians, in the face of the authorities of Bede and Fordun, have 
 the egregious folly to deny their Irish origin ?" In addition to these, 
 there are all the Irish historians agreeing to and asserting the same 
 great facts. In a most learned essay by Dr. Barnard, Protestant 
 bishop of Killaloe, published by Walker, in 1786, entitled an Inquiry 
 into the Oricrin of the Scots in Britain, which has never since been 
 refuted, there are detailed proofs exhibited which would alone sustain 
 the claim of Liiand to tl.e colonization and government of Caledonia. 
 We have seen that their old language and music were Irish, to which 
 may be added their measurements — a Scotch and Irish mile being 
 two thousand two hundred and forty yards, which differs from the 
 length of an English mile. A few extracts from the " Inquiry " may 
 be appropriate. 
 
 "The original of that portion of the inhabitants of Britain, property 
 called Scots, has been a point of history, so established by the concur- 
 rence of all writers on that subject, both native and foreign, from Venera- 
 ble Bede down to Sir George M'Kenzie, that, for a period of at least 
 nine hundred years, it was never esteemed matter of question, until some 
 late Scottish antiquarians, anxious to support an hypothesis inconsistent 
 with their own annals and tradition, have thought proper wholly to reject 
 the received opinion of their ancestors on this head, and to offer to the 
 public, in its place, an entire new system of their own, founded on argu- 
 ments of probability sufficiently plausible and ingenious, but unsupported 
 hy ivritien testimonies, or any authentic documents whatsoever.''^ 
 
 The bishop then examines the testimonies of several learned au- 
 thors on the question, and quotes the Roman writer Tacitus, the 
 British writers Gildas, Bede, Fabius, Athelwerdus, Geojfrey of Mon- 
 mouth, and Fordun, Buchanan, John Major, M'Kenzie, and other 
 learned writers of Scotland. His quotation of the celebrated sugges- 
 tion of the historian Tacitus to Julius Agricola, his father-in-law, in 
 reference to the necessity of conquering Ireland for the purpose of ren- 
 
EXTINCTION OF ROMAN POWEK IN BRITAIN. 309 
 
 dering the Roman empire in Britain the more secure, ^deserves our 
 special notice. " The intercourse between the Irish and the Caledoni- 
 ans, and their ancient alliances, had been further cemented when it 
 became their mutual interest to join their forces against the Romans — 
 the Caledonians to preserve their liberty, and the Irish to keep the 
 enemy from attacking theirs, which they were in no danger of until after 
 Britain was totally subdued. Tacitus, speaking of the utility of an 
 expedition against Ireland, to secure the Roman conquest in Britain, 
 adds, among other motives, ut libertas tanquam e conspectu tolleatur, 
 [to take away that hankering after freedom which the sight of a free ally 
 so near at hand would naturally excite.] This hint gives the reader to 
 understand that Agricola had already suffered some inconvenience from 
 this connection of interests. The expedition here suggested never took 
 place, because," adds the bishop, " that general had work enough cut 
 out for him by the valor of the Irish and Caledonians under Galgacus, 
 [Gealte Gooth] loithout crossing the sea in search of a new enemyy 
 
 After a comparison of all the accounts which the learned bishop 
 examined, he thus sums up : that a colony of Scots from Ireland 
 had anciently settled in Caledonia ; that they had several conflicts with 
 the Romans, after Caesar's invasion of that country ; that they were, on 
 one occasion, attacked by the Romans under Maximus, defeated, and 
 forced to abandon Britain ; that, on Maximus's leaving Britain, they 
 took advantage of his absence, and made fresh attempts to reinstate 
 themselves ; that they were again forced back by Gratianus, and obliged 
 to fly to Ireland ; after whose death they returned in full force, a united 
 army of Irish, Caledonians, and Picts, and laid waste and occupied the 
 country from sea to sea ; that, lastly, they established complete dominion 
 in Scodand, about anno 396, when the names of Caledonians and 
 Picts were sunk by Niall, and the general name of Scotia substituted. 
 And further, about the same period, the great Niall of the Nine Hostages 
 began his reign in Ireland, — he who vanquished the Romans in several 
 battles through Britain, and finally extinguished their power in that 
 country, after it had subsisted for four hundred years. 
 
 Cairbra Rihda had established a firm footing in Caledonia, during his 
 expedition, in the close of the second and beginning of the third century, 
 which was continued by his descendants for better than two hundred and 
 fifty years. Towards the middle of the fifth century, we have an ac- 
 count of another migration of Scots into Britain, and more settlements 
 obtained there. This was when Britain was totally freed from the 
 Romans. When the Irish made their second great settlement in the 
 
310 LIAH FAIL, OR STONE OF DESTINY. 
 
 northern part of Britain, their armies committed excesses, which are re- 
 corded and deplored both by Gildas and Bede. But this was natural 
 in exuhing conquerors, who had been previouly harassed for ages by 
 legions from that soil. 
 
 From this time the settlement of the Scots (Irish) in Caledonia as- 
 sumed a monarchical aspect. And it appears, further, that they were 
 determined to have a king and government independent of the mother 
 country. With this object in view, they invited the monarch of Ireland, 
 Arcath, or Earca, to send them his son Feargus to be their king. The 
 proposal was accepted ; and upon this occasion did the Irish monarch 
 make the Scots colony a present of the famous Liak Fail, or " Stone of 
 Destiny," on which, from the times of Heber, the kings of Ireland were 
 crowned. This took place in the latter part of the fifth century. It 
 was the popular belief of the Irish, for many centuries, that an ille- 
 gitimate branch of the royal family could be detected on being placed 
 sitting on this stone. The policy of kings favored this delusion. On 
 this stone were crowned all subsequent kings of Scotland, to the time of 
 the conquest of that country by Edward the First of England, in the 
 thirteenth century, when it was carried by that prince to England, as a 
 precious trophy — a symbol of conquest, and deposited in Westminster 
 Abbey. Upon this stone, which is encased in an antique oaken 
 chair, all the kings of England, from that time to the present, have 
 been crowned and proclaimed. The learned Bishop Barnard lemarks 
 thus on the superstitious properties attributed to this famous relic : 
 " In the days of paganism, no Irish king would have parted with 
 such a mysterious relic ; but as Ireland was then just become Chris- 
 tian, vve may suppose that it was little esteemed ; though Feargus the 
 Second might think it would be of use to him to give his new subjects 
 a superstitious veneration for his person and family, and prevent them 
 from attempting to shake a throne thus established by fate itself." 
 
 Yet we find, amid the enlightened people of England, that their cor- 
 onations of their monarchs are considered incomplete — in fact, illegal — 
 if the kingly ceremony of sitting on this stone be omitted. Her present 
 majesty was crowned sitting on this old Irish stone, in Westminster 
 Abbey, surrounded by all the bishops, peers, chancellors, and heralds, 
 of her country, and by ambassadors from the courts of every civilized 
 country upon earth. And yet these English are the people who absurd- 
 ly enough sneer at the " superstitions of the ignorant Irish." 
 
 It is common in individuals, swelled by temporary affluence, to deny 
 connection with poor relations, no matter how respectable they may 
 
ORIGIN OF MANY IRISH FAMILIES. 311 
 
 once have been ; so the Scotch, after boasting for nine or ten centuries 
 their Irish origin, turned round when Ireland had fallen in political 
 opulence and literary wealth, and endeavored to disown their parentage 
 and protection. 
 
 The only piece of Albanian Scottish historical antiquity extant is a 
 regal poem, much like our style,, containing a list of their kings, begin- 
 ning with Loam, brother to Feargus, and ending with Malcolm, the son 
 of Donchadh, confirming, word for word, our Irish annals. 
 
 The Scotch, then, are the Irish inhabitants of North Britain ; and as, 
 through the posterity of our monarchs, we gave Scotland and England a 
 long race of kings, it will be necessary to keep an eye on the progress 
 of the Milesian race in that direction. 
 
 The Mackeoghs were connected with this great line. From Cor- 
 mac Cos and Eogan, princes of great valor and prowess in the field, 
 sprang several noble families, that shine in the Irish annals — names that 
 fling the radiance of exalted virtue and martial renown on the pages and 
 the nation they adorn. 
 
 Amongst these are the M' Carthies, the O' Connells, O^ Callaghans, 
 O'Keeffes, O'Donohoes, O^Mahonies, O^Donovans, M Aniliffee, 
 O^Shee, O'Line, M'Gillicuddy, O^Gara. From the posterity of 
 Cormac Cas have proceeded the O^Briens, MNamaras, M'Mahons, 
 Kennedies, iW' Clinchies, M' Cochlins, O'Hiffernons, O' CarroUs, (princes 
 of Ely and Louth,) O^Rierdons, O^ Flanagans , O'Haras, O^Fogar- 
 tys, O'Maras, O^Machaiio, O'Caseys, O^Flynns. From the monarch 
 iW' Con proceeded the families of O^Driscol, (chief of the county Cork,) 
 O'Leary, O^Kelly, O^Bernes, O' Breogan. The very old and re- 
 spectable Scotch family of M^Flanchy and Campbell claim the honor 
 of a descent from the same ancient and honorable source. 
 
 I now return to the reign of Conaire, from which I digressed to 
 present the reader with a distinct view of the progress of the Mile- 
 sian colony in Caledonia. In doing so, I was obliged to anticipate 
 my narrative at least three centuries, as relates to that branch of the 
 subject. 
 
 In this age of Ireland's story there appeared two men, whose tran- 
 scendent powers — the one in arms, and the other in poetry — cannot be 
 passed over with ordinary haste. The first is Fion M' Cumhall, the 
 chief of the Leinster militia ; the second Oisin, his son, the Homer of 
 ancient Ireland. 
 
 First, of Fion, the military hero. The time in which he flourished 
 was about the year 220 of the Christian era. So great was this hero's 
 
312 FION m'cUMHALL. THE REIGN OF CORMAC. 
 
 exploits on the field, that he was magnified, by his admiring successors, 
 to the size of a giant ; and all his celebrated militia were ranked by the 
 popular legends as giants, or men of extraordinary agility and stature. 
 Hence there hangs about Fioii M'CumhalVs niche, in the temple of 
 Fame, a romantic drapery, which renders his whole history doubtful to 
 those who are unwilling to believe aught that is brave or virtuous of Ire- 
 land in the ages of her independence. Fion was a great hero, a great 
 general, a great legislator, and the terror of the Roman power in Britain. 
 He resided chiefly on the Hill of Allen, in the county of Kildare. He 
 trained his militia himself; and when I relate that he was equally 
 the terror of the Ulster and Munster knights of his own country, 
 it gives no mean idea of his heroism ; but when I further state that he 
 made, with his fleets, no less than thirty descents on Wales, which was 
 then under the government of Rome, and carried from thence great spoils 
 of war each time, it will give some idea of his bravery and prowess. 
 According to all the best authorities, including Warner, the English 
 historian, and the solemn declaration of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, 
 published through its Transactions, " Fion, the renowned general-in- 
 chief of the Irish militia, was son of Cumhall and Murin, who was daugh- 
 ter of Thady, son of Nuadh, the ' white monarch of Ireland.' He was 
 son-in-law to King Cortnac, and grandson to Con of the Hundred Battles. 
 His two sons, Oisin and Feargus, by the Irish princess, were renowned 
 in arts and arms. Feargus Fair Lips, figuratively meaning of sublime 
 diction, has been emphatically styled the 'philosophic poet of pointed 
 expression.' " So far from the Transactions of the Gaelic Society. 
 
 Warner says, in reference to the Leinster militia, " That great body 
 of heroes, the Irish militia, was commanded by Fian, the gallant son of 
 Cumhall, who was married to the daughter of Cormac Cas." All this 
 it is necessary to place on the record, as there was a dispute about the 
 hero's country. The great poet Oisin has left behind him a fragment 
 of his composition, which has sailed down the stream of time to us. 
 In it are discoverable the fire, the genius, and the well-stored mind, of 
 one whom Ireland may proudly rank against the loftiest talent of the 
 past ages, or of that in which he lived. For a full account of Oisin, see 
 page 168. 
 
 THE REIGN OF CORMAC. 
 
 Two hundred and fifty-five years after the birth of Christ, the court 
 of Tara was adorned by one of the most enlightened and brilliant of the 
 Milesian princes — the monarch Cormac His road to the throne lay- 
 through hostile legions ; yet he had address, skill, and bravery sufficieat 
 
REFORMS OF CORMAC. 313 
 
 for the design. Being a legitimate prince of one of the rival houses of 
 the southern hue, his claims to power were supported by a valorous 
 ai'my, in which there commanded the celebrated hero Lugha, who, in 
 the heat of battle, slew, with his own hand, Feargus, the rival prince, 
 annihilating thus all further impediment to the exaltation of Cormac. 
 That prince was crowned, with an unusual degree of splendor, on the 
 Stone of Destiny, at Tara, anno 255. It was the most brilliant coro- 
 nation that had taken place for many previous centuries. More than a 
 hundred Druids of the first class assisted in the gorgeous ceremonies, and 
 a hundred bards chanted the inaugural salutation, mingling with their 
 voice the tones of instrumental music. 
 
 Having reached the summit of his ambition, he immediately directed 
 his attention to the state of the laws, and the administration of justice 
 throughout the kingdom. The law^s, which had greatly accumulated 
 from the reign of OUamh Fodhla, were all reviewed, purified, digested, 
 and condensed. Any that were deemed in the slightest degree inequi- 
 table were abolished, and a code of jurisprudence was established, which 
 remained in force from that time, say Warner and others, to the end of 
 the monarchical dynasty of the Milesians, in the twelfth century. Dr. 
 Warner says of him, " The ordinances which he established for the 
 public good, which are yet to be seen in the old Irish records, and which 
 show his great skill in the laws and antiquities of his country, were never 
 abolished whilst the Irish regal government had existence." 
 
 These laws were so much approved of by the people, and by their 
 leaders in the national assembly, that they were denominated the will 
 of Heaven, or celestial judgments, and it was ruled a treason or sacrilege 
 to attempt to change any portion of them ; so true was it ever that 
 no people in the world loved justice more than the Irish — a trait in 
 their character remarked on, fourteen centuries later, by Lord Coke, Sir 
 John Davies, and many other English jurists. 
 
 Cormac applied himself also to the regulation of the religious cere- 
 monials of the people, and, for this purpose, summoned to Tara a great 
 number of the Druids from all parts of Ireland, and, at the same time, 
 convoked the various orders of learned doctors for the purpose of revising 
 the history of the country, and establishing improved regulations for the 
 administration of public instruction. The concentration in Tara of so 
 many men, eminent for their great literary acquirements, rendered the 
 court of Cormac the most brilliant in Europe at the time, and not in- 
 ferior, indeed, to the courts of the Roman emperors. The monarch also 
 encouraged poetry and music, and was not insensible to the enchant- 
 40 
 
314 COKMAC'S MAGNIFICENCE. 
 
 ments of the social circle. Though he attended to the sober business 
 of legislation and jurisprudence with the grave, he mingled, in seasons 
 of festivity, with the gay and chivalrous. He encouraged, with lavish 
 hand, every art and science. He had the old palace of Tara, and hall 
 of assembly, which were erected principally of oak, pulled down, and a 
 magnificent palace and legislative hall of marble erected on the site. 
 It was deemed the most elegant structure in Europe ; there were many 
 grand entrances to it, and one hundred and fifty richly-carved marble 
 columns graced those entrances and piazzas on every side. Torna 
 Eigis, who wrote in the fourth century, says, that " the marble statues 
 of two hundred Irish kings, princes, and generals, adorned the niches 
 of the halls of Tara." Whilst these great works were in progress, 
 the royal establishment removed to Miodh-Cuarto, in West Meath. 
 When they were at length completed, they were a source of extreme 
 delight to the people, and to strangers, for many came from other 
 countries to admire them. Several hundred bed-chambers were fitted 
 up for the accommodation of foreign visitors, and fifteen hundred per- 
 sons sat down daily at the royal tables. W^e are further assured that 
 the monarch and his guests were waited on by one hundred and 
 fifty knights of noble blood, whilst the meats were mosdy served in 
 gold and silver. The music of a hundred minstrels, mingling with 
 the ceremonies of these banquets, must have flung over all the illu- 
 sion of enchantment. 
 
 As if nothing were deficient in this splendid group, the monarch was 
 blessed with three sons, and ten daughters, the most beautiful and ac- 
 complished in the land, whose animating presence in all these courtly 
 scenes must have added to the magic that abided around his person. 
 
 Dr. Warner concludes his notice of this monarch in the following 
 words: "There never had been a monarch on the throne of Ireland 
 who was attended by such a numerous retinue. The great guard, con- 
 sisting of the flower of the Irish army, always on duty in the palace, and 
 the other ensigns and distinctions of royalty which he had about him, 
 which were equal to the dignity of the greatest princes of that time, 
 made the court of this monarch the theme of universal fame. What 
 added something to its lustre was his numerous issue — three sons, of 
 great renown in arms, and ten daughters, of distinguished beauty and 
 rare accomplishments." 
 
 The king's eloquence in the national assembly ; his skill in military 
 affiiirs ; his profound acquaintance with the laws, literature, and history, 
 of his country ; his magnificent architectural erections ; his refined man- 
 
SUCCESSES OF FION m'cUMHALL AGAISNT THE ROMANS. 315 
 
 ners, elegant hospitality, lavish encouragement of science and art ; and 
 the minute attention he paid to the wants and welfare of the people, to 
 the improvement and defence of the country, — contributed to imbody a 
 ruler that may be weighed against a Solon, a Pericles, a Lycurgus, an 
 Augustus, an Alfred, or a Charlemagne ; a Louis Fourteenth, a Fred- 
 erick, or against any that any age or kingdom has given to man- 
 kind. 
 
 Cormac caused a law to pass the assembly which made it imperative 
 on every future monarch of Ireland to keep about his person a discreet 
 nobleman, of Milesian blood, with whom he could confidently converse ; 
 a pious Druid, to direct him in matters of conscience ; a chief hrehon, 
 (judge,) to assist him in his judicial decisions ; a physician, to attend to 
 his health ; a poet, to record his mihtary exploits ; a musician, to stimu- 
 late his spirits ; an antiquarian, to explain historical mysteries ; and three 
 treasurers, to collect his revenues. These offices were religiously con- 
 tinued, by the Irish kings, for the remaining thousand years of their 
 power ; and, more remarkable, they were transferred to the English 
 court by King Alfred the Great, together with the entire framework of 
 the jurisprudence of Ireland. Many, if not all, the offices of Cormac 
 are still preserved in the court of the British monarch, from immemorial 
 usage. The present keeper of Queen Victoria's conscience is that 
 charitable, moral, and conscientious personage, the learned Lord Chan- 
 cellor Lyndhurst; and the remaining officers now (1844) about her 
 person, contrary, I presume, to her majesty's desire, are of a similar 
 character. 
 
 In the reign of Feargus, the predecessor and rival of Cormac, Fion 
 iVf Cumhall, the renowned general of the Leinster militia, whom I have 
 already introduced to the reader, had been despatched, with a consider- 
 able army, to the Dalriadian colony in Caledonia, for the purpose of 
 protecting it from the aggressive invasions of the Romans. Fion, having 
 belonged to the party of the fallen monarch, whose cause he had warmly 
 espoused against Cormac and his father, was not on terms of friendship 
 with the present king. Notwithstanding this, he sent an ambassador to 
 Connac's court, acquainting him with his perilous condition ; for his army 
 had been seriously diminished by various battles with the Romans, whilst 
 the army of the enemy had been considerably augmented. Cormac, 
 though he entertained no kindly feelings towards Fion, sent him a strong 
 reenforcement, placing the entire command in his hands. Fion, thus 
 recruited, attacked the Roman legions, and caused them to fly before 
 him to the centre of Britain. In this brilliant campaign, Oisin, the poet, 
 
316 REVOLT. CORMAC'S ABDICATION IN FAVOR OF HIS SON. 
 
 the son of Fion, distinguished himself by deeds of great bravery. Hav- 
 ing gone at some little length into the character of Oisin in my section 
 devoted to the " Bards," I refrain from any remark on the topic here. 
 
 Whilst victory crowned the arms of Cormac abroad, his internal affairs 
 ran unpleasantly. The great expenses which he had incurred in build- 
 ing the magnificent palace and house of assembly of Tara, and in sup- 
 porting a most costly regal establishment, compelled him to raise large 
 revenues on the people. He established, for this purpose, new tributes, 
 which, as they ever do, begot plenty of discontent and opposition. 
 These led to treasons and plots; and so Cormac, notwithstanding his 
 equity, wisdom, and talents, found himself successively engaged in war 
 with the people of Leinster, Munster, and Connaught. In an engage- 
 ment with the army of the latter, he lost an eye, which rendered him in- 
 capable of exercising longer the functions of monarch ; for it was con- 
 trary to the law of Ireland for any prince who had received a serious 
 blemish in his person to remain on the throne. 
 
 Ere Cormac resigned the throne to his son and successor Eochaidh, 
 he publicly declared his belief in the existence of a supreme God, and 
 renounced the absurd woi-ship of the sun, whjch prevailed in Ireland 
 for fifteen centuries. This, as might be expected, caused a mighty 
 sensation in Ireland. The Druids immediately became his enemies ; but 
 he removed them from the palace, and they never after resumed their 
 accustomed power in Ireland. His son Eochaidh was crowned on the 
 Stone of Destiny, at which ceremony the accustomed aid of the Druids 
 was dispensed with. This was the greatest blow against their power. 
 As a matter of course, they conspired against Cormac. He had now, 
 after a reign of twenty-three years, retired to a cottage in Meath, near 
 the royal palace, where he was consulted by politicians, princes, and 
 literary men, upon all matters and things interesting to them ; " For," 
 says the Gaelic Society of Dublin, '-' Cormac was transcendently pre- 
 eminent above all others for his profound knowledge in the antiquity 
 and jurisprudence of his country. The schools he endowed, the books 
 he composed, and the laws he established, bear unquestionable tes- 
 timony of his munificence, wisdom, and learning." 
 
 In that cottage he wrote his Advice to Princes, addressed to his son 
 Carbre Eochaidh, an able work, that still exists in the possession of 
 the O'Halloran family of Limerick. There he also revised the Psalter 
 of Tara, enlarged by commentary on Ollamh Fodhla's treatise on law. 
 The Druids, determined to crush his influence, preached against his 
 heresy, and incited the people, and even the monarch, his son, against 
 
DEATH OF COHMAC. MEETING ON THE HILL OF TARA. 317 
 
 him. They induced Eochaidh to issue a proclamation calling on all 
 princes, ollamhs, and people, to come and worship Baal (the sun) on 
 a certain day. This was a net to catch Cormac, but he regarded it 
 not ; he remained in his cottage ; they complained to the king of the 
 act of contumacy, upon which he advised them to bring the image 
 representing the sun to the presence of Cormac, and call upon him to 
 worship. The arch-Druid and four others accordingly earned the 
 idol to the house of the king, whom they found engaged in prayer to 
 the supreme God. On entering into Cormac's presence, they set up 
 their idol on a tripod, and then fell down before it in worship. Cor- 
 mac took little notice of their ceremonies. The arch-Druid soon arose, 
 and questioned Cormac " why he refijsed to adore as his fathers did." 
 He replied, that " the Deity whom he worshipped could, with a breath, 
 extinguish the sun and stars, dry up the ocean, and sink the universe 
 beneath its bed." The Druids felt deeply mortified at this reply, on 
 receiving which they retired, vowing vengeance on the abdicated 
 monarch. 
 
 On the evening ensuing this meeting, Cormac was choked by a fish- 
 bone, at supper, and the Druids were greatly rejoiced thereat. Some 
 writers have accused them of poisoning him. Thus died this extraordi- 
 nary man, the first amongst the pagan Irish who intuitively perceived, 
 through the profound medium of his philosophy, the existence of a 
 Creator, in the extent, mechanism, and regularity, of his works. Pos- 
 terity has designated him " Cormac the Lawgiver." In the sixth century, 
 St. CoUimb Kille discovered the tomb of Cormac, at Cruachan, in the 
 county Roscommon, The saint erected a church over the royal grave, 
 the ruins of which are yet to be seen. 
 
 Dr. Warner further says of this great man, '' King Cormac had con- 
 \nnced himself of the absurdities of idolatry upon principles of philosophic 
 reason ; and had he hved but a little longer, it is probable that pagan- 
 ism would have been extinct in Ireland before the introduction of Chris- 
 tianity, and that the original theology and patriarchal worship would 
 have been restored." 
 
 Of the magnificent court which he erected on the eminence called 
 Tarn Hill there is not now a stone together. This far-famed hill is 
 about sixteen miles from the city of Dublin. It was the theatre, for 
 countless generations, of the deeds of the Milesian kings and senates. 
 It is a spot consecrated, hallowed, in the memories of the Irish people. 
 The fall of Tara is associated in their minds with the fall of their country 
 — with its subjection to the stranger. 
 
318 MEETING ON THE HILL OF TARA. 
 
 It was here, in 1798, that a desperate battle was fought between 
 the United Irishmen and the British troops, in which the former were 
 defeated. Upwards of two hundred of the United men who fell in the 
 eno^agement were buried in one large grave on this eminence. And 
 on this consecrated spot was held the monster meeting of August, 
 1843, at which the Liberator, Daniel O'Connell, presided. That 
 meeting will be memorable in Irish history throughout all ages. Up- 
 wards of a million of human beings gathered at the call of O'Connell, 
 to petition for the restoration of their parliament. They were attended 
 to the ground by the clergymen of their respective parishes! The 
 holy sacrifice of the mass was offered up by these priests over the 
 " Croppy's Grave," and the multitude knelt in prayer for the reception 
 into the mansions of the Eternal of the souls of those who fell at that 
 memorable battle ; and then they proceeded to the passing of resolu- 
 tions declaring that no other power, save the king, lords, and commons, 
 of Ireland, had, or by right ought to have, any power to make laws to 
 bind Ireland. 
 
 There did not occur at this meeting a single accident, insult, outrage, 
 or quarrel of any kind ; nor was there a single drunken person seen 
 amongst the million that gathered there — a thing unparalleled in the 
 whole history of mankind. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 319 
 
 TARA'S OLD GREEN. 
 
 BY T. MOONEY. 
 
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 Did you hear of the meeting on Tara's old Green,* Where 
 
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 twelve hundred thousand were there to be seen, With their 
 
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 lead-ers so brave, and their shamrocks so green?* O' - 
 
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 * This was the greatest meeting ever held in Ireland, or, perhaps, in any other 
 country. It took place on the 13th of August, 1843, on the hill of Tara, (distant 
 fifteen miles from Dublin,) on the site of the palaces of the former kings of Ire- 
 land ; and its object was to demand the restoration of the Irish parliament. The 
 Irish papers make the number that assembled twelve hundred thousand, while the 
 reporters of the English press fix the number at eight hundred thousand. But, ad- 
 mitting the middle number, of a million, as the most correct, it was the greatest 
 meeting known to history. There did not take place at this meeting a single ac- 
 cident, insult, or disturbance, during that memorable day. 
 
 t In the insurrection of 1798, several hundred men fell on this hill. A great 
 number were buried in one large grave on the side of it, which is called the 
 " Croppy's Grave." On this mausoleum of patriotism the people knelt to pray, on 
 the morning of that memorable meeting. 
 
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 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
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 cov - ered the he - roes who fought for their God, Their 
 
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 coun - try, their free - dom, and shamrocks so green. 
 
 2. 
 
 The eyes of all Europe looked on in amaze 
 On the fire of Liberty's beautiful blaze, 
 
 That rose from the mountain where Patrick had been ; * 
 And the Saxon stood palsied in awe at the sight; 
 He said very little, just then, about fight, 
 For he knew that the hearts of the valiant and brave 
 Would never submit to the chains of the slave, 
 
 In the land of Saint Patrick and shamrocks so green ' 
 
 3. 
 And the harp of old Tara, half silent so long. 
 Which breathed, neglected, its mournful song, 
 
 Strikes the music of Liberty over the main, 
 And proclaims the first gem of the earth and the sea 
 Shall ever again be great, glorious, and free ! 
 For millions have vowed they are ready to bleed 
 In defence of old Erin, and freedom of creed, 
 
 Her parliament rights, and her shamrocks so green ! 
 
 4. 
 Then hurrah for the men who assembled that day ! 
 To drive all the tyrant oppressors away 
 
 From the hill where our parliament ever had been. 
 And, hurrah for their friends, that live over the sea'.f 
 Who are struggling so hard to set Ireland free ! 
 And may their exertions with triumph be crowned; 
 And the proud name of Erin be honored all round, 
 
 As a nation of freemen and shamrocks so green. 
 
 * St. Patrick preached the gospel on this hill to the pagan king Logaire, whom 
 with all his court, he converted, in the year 434. 
 t The American repealers. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 321 
 
 And hurrah for O'Connell ! who spoke to them all ! 
 
 Who stood on the ruins of Tara's old hall, 
 When a million of patriots knelt on the green ! 
 
 And they sent up a prayer, that's registered in heaven, 
 
 And the chains of their tyrants will shortly be riven ; 
 
 And music shall echo the shouts of the free ! 
 
 And the harps of old Tara sing, over the sea, 
 Long live the shillelahsj and shamrocks so green! 
 
 NOTHING IN LIFE CAN SADDEN US. 
 
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322 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRr. 
 
 TRUE LOVE CAN NE'ER FORGET. 
 
 WORDS BY rURLONG. MUSIC BY LOVER. 
 
 Founded on the fact related of Carolan, the Irish bard, that, after his loss of sigkt^ 
 and the lapse of twenty years, he recognized his first love by the touch of her hand. 
 
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MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 323 
 
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 At rise of sun. But withered was the 
 
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324 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 "Long years are past and o'er 
 Since, from this fatal shore, 
 Cold hearts and cold winds bore 
 
 My love from me." 
 Scarcely the minstrel spoke, 
 When, quick, with flashing stroke, 
 A boat's light oar the silence broke 
 
 Over the sea. 
 Soon, upon her native strand, 
 Doth a lovely lady land ; 
 While the minstrel's love-taught hand 
 
 Did o'er his sweet harp run, 
 "True love can ne'er forget, &ic. 
 
 Where the minstrel sat alone, 
 There that lady fair hath gone ; 
 Within his hand she placed her own: 
 
 The bard dropped on his knee; 
 From his Up soft blessings came; 
 He kissed her hand, with truest flame; 
 In trembling tones he named her name, 
 
 Though her he could not see. 
 But, O ! the touch, the bard could tell, 
 Of that dear hand, remembered well. 
 Ah ! by many a secret spell, 
 
 Can true love trace his own ' 
 For true love can ne'er forget, 
 Fondly as when they met; 
 He loved his lady yet, 
 
 His darling one. 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
 FROM A. D. 279 TO 500. 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Reign of Carbrc. — Leinstcr Militia. — Their Constitution. — Qualifications. — Obli- 
 gations. — Number. — Comniande s. — Garrisons. — Discipline. — Names of the 
 Legions. — Population of Ireland n that Age. — War with Denmark. — Triumph. 
 
 — Civil Wars at Home. — Destru^,tion of the Leinster Militia. — Origin of several 
 Irish Families. — Niall of the Nine Hostages. — Irish Government in Caledonia. 
 
 — Prowess of Niall in Caledonia. — Forces the Roman Wall. — Capture of Pa- 
 tricius. — Death of Niall. — Reign of Datliy. — Brilliant Victories over the 
 Roman Legions. — Evacuation by the Romans of Britain and Gaul. — Position 
 and Condition of Ireland at this Period. — Ireland the Athens of Europe. 
 
 — Accounted for. — Proved by the Admissions of British Writers. — Opinions 
 of Sir James Mackintosh, Dr. Warner, Toland, Camden, Whitakcr, Stilliniflleet. 
 
 — The pagan Worship of the ancient Irish. — Comparison with that of Rome 
 and Greece in coeval Ages. 
 
 We have seen, in the preceding pages, the advance of arts, sciences, 
 and literature, in Ireland, ere yet the meridian rays of the Ciiristian 
 religion had illumined her oak-covered hills. We are now approaching 
 that epoch in her history, when her military glory and her Christian 
 works shine in bright reflections on the page ; and, if all the original 
 spirit of our Milesian fathers be not killed within us by the unhealthy 
 atmosphere of a selfish age, the trumpet-call of freedom in behalf of 
 that suffering land shall be answered over the Atlantic by the proud 
 impulses of our devoted hearts ; and that country which was, in other 
 ages, the land of the free and the home of the brave, shall, by the 
 united efforts of her scattered children, be again restored to her rank 
 amid the nations — 
 
 " Great, glorious, and free, 
 
 The fii-st flower of tlie earth, 
 
 And tirst gem of the sea," 
 
 Anno 279, we find Carbre, the son of Cormac, on the Irish throne, 
 exhibiting in his government all the virtues of his father. He had the 
 
326 LEINSTER MILITIA. THEIR CONSTITUTION. 
 
 history and antiquities of Ireland carefully revised, and some additions 
 made to the national code of laws. About this time, a celebrated Irish 
 hero, Curausius, had raised himself so high in the Roman emperor's 
 confidence, that he was sent to Britain to govern as the lieutenant of 
 Rome. Here he obtained the affections of the people, and finally 
 assumed the purple, the symbol of imperial authority. Rome, be- 
 coming alarmed at this, sent forces to depose him. He applied to the 
 Irish monarch for aid, which he obtained, and then successfully resisted 
 Rome until his death, which, it is said, was effected by assassins. 
 
 It was in this age that the famous Leinster militia was broken up 
 and dispersed. The history of that celebrated corps deserves a special 
 place in our memory. On the ancient partition of Ireland between 
 Heber and Heremon, the different orders of the people were also 
 divided, and lands were assigned to the chiefs and princes, on the con- 
 dition that each should support a stipulated number of armed troops, to 
 attend the prince when called on. The land thus disposed of was 
 called ftaran an chidheamh, or " sword land." 
 
 Here was the origin of military tenures in Europe. 
 
 These troops were divided into legions called catha. Each catha 
 contained three thousand men ; every thousand was commanded by a 
 fear comhlan mile, or " the commander of one thousand," who had 
 under him ten captains, twenty lieutenants, and forty sergeants. The 
 captain was called fear comhlan cead, or " the commander of one 
 hundred," and so on. The commander of the legion was named 
 faioseach an catha, or " governor of the legion." To each legion was 
 appointed a proper number of physicians and surgeons, afid these were 
 the most eminent of the different universities of the kingdom. 
 
 None were admitted into these legions but men of large stature, 
 without any deformity of person ; they must be versed in history and 
 poetry ; they must be perfect in the use of arms. Each soldier must 
 be able to clear at once any wall as high as himself, and to run under 
 the branch of a tree as low as his knee without relaxing his pace. 
 He was bound singly not to fly from nine armed men. Those legions 
 were the children of the state, and it required interest to become one 
 of the body. Another condition was that, before enrolling, the parents 
 and friends of each candidate were to swear not to revenge his death, 
 if slain, but to leave it to the general. Such was the constitution 
 and material of Fion's celebrated legion, the Leinster militia. 
 
 The force of the whole kingdom at this time was eighty-four thousand 
 fighting men. Each provincial king had his seven legions, of three 
 
GARRISONS OF THE LEINSTER MILITIA. DISCIPLINE. 327 
 
 thousand men to each legion ; besides this, the chief prince of Tara'had 
 his seven legions. The chief commander of each provincial army was 
 called righ thine, or " king of the soldiery ; " and to him they swore 
 fidelity and allegiance. The marshal was named iuargna catha; 
 and their pay was made ouf in clothes, money, and provisions, as had 
 been established by the Irish monarch Seadhna, who reigned in Ireland 
 seven centuries before the Christian era. 
 
 From November to May, they were quartered on the country, each 
 house supplying a soldier -with certain necessaries. In summer, they 
 were obliged to support themselves by fishing and hunting. From 
 May to November, they were ordered to the different duns, or stations, 
 established to give proper notice should an enemy approach. There 
 was one of these old duns, or garrison forts, in the Bay of Tralee, 
 one at the mouth of the Casin, in the county of Kerry, also one at 
 Jnis Catha, or Scattery, and some other places in the county Lim- 
 erick. Rath Conan, in Limerick, still retains the name of its governor, 
 to wit, the famous Conan Maol; and many similar instances could be 
 quoted. Such soldiers as were not on particular duty, or service, 
 were employed in great hunting matches, where the chase preserved 
 them in health and vigor, and supplied part of their wants. 
 
 The red deer was then numerous in the mountains of Ireland ; they 
 were very large, fleet, and fierce. We have yet several glowing relations 
 of those famous hunts about the romantic district in which the lakes of 
 Killarney are situated ; and Killarney itself is immortalized in the books 
 of travellers for its stag hunts, which are yet continued with great spirit 
 by some of the old Milesians, whose patriotism and spirit not all the 
 powers of England could subdue. 
 
 Neither ancient nor modern history can furnish a more complete and 
 formidable military institution than this. Men arrived at the highest 
 degree of military discipline previous to their reception into the army. 
 Not only expert at annoying an enemy, but equally so in defending 
 themselves, — not only animated to the fight by their natural courage, 
 but raised higher by the swelling sounds of music, and animated into 
 heroism by the songs of the bards, — a military body thus trained 
 up must have been formidable ; and so indeed they were. Those 
 legions were denominated after the services they performed against the 
 common enemy, Rome. Thus the Irish forces kept up in Albion or 
 Scotland were called Jine Alhin, or Albanian legions ; the legions 
 in Gaul were called fine Gaul, 
 
 This constant exercise of the Irish military will explain very clearly 
 
328 WAR WITH DENMARK. CIVIL WARS AT HOME. 
 
 not only why they kept their own country free from foreign insult 
 or domination, but why, also, they were enabled to pour their troops 
 on the continent, and why, in the days of Caesar, and of successive 
 Roman generals, they led on the troops of Britain and Scotland. 
 
 By the military returns of this age we can estimate the population 
 of Ireland at four millions and a half 
 
 In this reign, the celebrated Moghcorb ruled over Munster: his 
 mother was a princess of Denmark, called Ilcrothach, or the " A\\-love- 
 lyj' The two brothers of this princess flew to Ireland, to look for aid 
 from their nephew, to push the usurper of their father's throne from 
 his unjustly-acquired eminence. Influenced by his mother, he pre- 
 pared a large fleet; and, with a select body of troops taken out 
 of the Munster and Leinster militia, he invaded Denmark. The 
 Danes prepared to meet him. The battle was fierce, bloody, and well 
 fought. The superior bravery and discipline of the L'ish at length 
 prevailed. The Danes were totally defeated. There fell, on the Danish 
 side, the usurper of Denmark, his four sons, and four brothers, be- 
 sides numbers of his commanders, and three thousand of his soldiers. 
 Moghcorb caused his two uncles to be proclaimed joint kings of Den- 
 mark, exacted tribute from the Danes for the expenses of his war, and 
 returned home crowned with glory. This brilliant achievement was 
 the theme of the bards and antiquarians for many years. 
 
 The fame of Moghcorb naturally begot the enmity of other princes 
 of his own country, which blew up at last, under one pretence or 
 another, to open hostilities ; and, unhappily, we are pained to read 
 of those brilliant arms, which won such trophies abroad, turned by Irish 
 heroes on each other. Carbre, the prince of Ulster, led on his forces 
 towards Munster, the territory of Moghcorb. The contending armies 
 met on the plains of Meath, near Tara. The Leinster and Connaught 
 militia, since the days of Con, were enemies or rivals. The entire 
 forces of both provinces appeared under arms that day, and, as neither 
 knew fear or thought of retreating, it became a total carnage on both 
 sides. Of Fion's troops not one escaped, but Oisin, the father of 
 Osgur, and the Clana Morni, or Connaught troops, experienced the 
 same dreadful fate. Osgur, the general, after performing prodigies of 
 valor, fell by the sword of Carbre, the king of Ulster; and he, in 
 return, met the same fate from the arm of the great Moghcorb. This 
 battle was fought A. D. 295. 
 
 The only princes who survived this dreadful day were the hero 
 Moghcorb, and Aodth, king of Connaught ; and the latter, the 
 
NIALL OF THE NINE HOSTAGES. 329 
 
 year after, raised a new army, engaged Moghcorb at Spaltrach, on 
 the borders of Munster, in which action the gallant Moghcorb fell, 
 anno 296. The Leinster militia were thus totally destroyed. Osgur, 
 their general, was killed. Osgur was the son of Oisin, who lost his 
 eyes in the battle ; and Oisin, as I have said, was the son of Fion 
 3r Cumhall. This band of heroes was totally extinguished by that 
 misfortune. The Munster militia, which was revived by Loghcorb, 
 continued to exist for many centuries after. 
 
 Anno 300, Fiacha, of Connaught, was called to the throne. From the 
 son of this prince are the Clana Neill and their tribe, in Connaught, de- 
 scended. From his brother descended the three CoJIas, who were the 
 progenitors of several noble families in Ireland. From the eldest, or 
 Colla-nas, came the MDonncls, both of Scotland and Ireland ; the 
 M'Douel, or Doyles, the IWRorys, the Clan Isithigh, or O'Sheehies ; 
 the Clan Chirrins, or O^Kerins, O'Gniefes. From Colla dha Criock, 
 the second son, sprang the M'Mahons of Orgial; the M^Quines of 
 Fermanagh, O'Hanlan, MAnaigh, MManus, MEgan, O'Kellt/, 
 O^Madin, or Madigan, O'Nealan. Of the posterity of the third son 
 there is no record. 
 
 These brothers had engaged in the local struggles of their country, 
 which kept her in trouble and civil wars for better than half a century ; 
 during which the celebrated palace of Amania, the seat of the Ulster 
 princes for eight centuries, — the home of bards and heroes for many 
 an age, — was sacked and burned. Though it was never after habita- 
 ble, its venerated ruins were discernible in the last century. 
 
 Several monarchs succeeded those princes, whose deeds were of the 
 average character. But we light on the reign of Eochaidh, anno 
 359, to whom a son was born named Niall, aftenvards surnamed 
 " of the nine hostages." After a troublesome reign, Eochaidh died, 
 and the choice of a successor produced great excitement. At length 
 the vote of the estates of Tara fell upon the young Niall, who, though 
 opposed with great vigor, even by the swords of his rivals, was at 
 length triumphant. Some invasions and troubles arising in Scotland 
 between the L'ish settlements there and the Romans on the Biitish 
 side of the border, the monarch Niall went over with a large force. 
 The troubles were subdued, the colonists submitted, and acknowledged 
 that all Scotland, except that part north of the Friths of Clyde and 
 Forth, was subject to the Irish monarch, to be governed by laws made 
 by the parent power in Ireland. Hume, the historian of England, 
 acknowledges this. He says, " In very ancient language, Scotland 
 42 
 
330 IRISH GOVERNMENT EXTENDED TO CALEDONIA. 
 
 means only the country north of the Friths of the Clyde and Forth. 
 I shall not," he continues, "make a parade of literature to prove it, 
 because I do not find that the Scots themselves dispute the point." 
 
 Niall settled the boundaries on this occasion, calling the entire of 
 Caledonia Scotia, after the parent and governing country, Ireland. It 
 ought to be remarked that Ireland was originally called Scotia in honor 
 of Scoto, the -mother of the Milesian princes Heber and Heremon.* 
 
 Having thus setded all dissensions, Niall, at the solicitation of some 
 Saxon tribes, agreed to help them to subdue the Roman power in Britain. 
 And accordingly we find him prepare an immense army, including 
 Irish, Picts, and Saxons, at the head of which he forced the celebrated 
 Roman wall, attacked the Roman cities, and compelled them to pay 
 tribute ; after which he returned to Ireland in great triumph. 
 
 As the Romans had been oppressive to Saxon tribes in Gaul, a mes- 
 senger from the latter appeared at the Irish court, to solicit the powerful 
 aid of Niall in coercing them ; and here again our great Niall showed 
 himself a distinguished hero. He prepared an expedition against the 
 Romans, who then held Gaul in subjection. He landed on the borders 
 of Brittany, laid waste the Roman setdements, and came home loaded 
 with spoils and treasure, together with several captives, amongst whom 
 was the youth that became afterwards the apostle St. Patrick. 
 
 Much discussion has arisen among writers about the place of the 
 saint's birth. The best authorities, and the most numerous, too, agree 
 that he was a Gaulish captive, taken to Ireland by Niall. He 
 might have been born in Wales, for his family came from Wales to 
 Brittany ; the Book of Lecan says his mother was a Frank, and that 
 she was sister of St. Martin, bishop of Tours. One thing is admitted 
 by all, namely, that he and his two sisters were taken as captives to 
 L'eland by Niall, and sold as such, according to the custom of those 
 days. This invasion and caption took place anno 388. 
 
 Niall, on his return to Ireland, found his kingdom suffering under trou- 
 bles ; which having settled, he prepared a great force to make a second 
 descent on Gaul. To this end he summoned the leaders and chiefs of 
 his people to Tara, and had present at the assembly deputies from 
 Scotia Minor, who all unanimously resolved to support him in his enter- 
 piise against the Romans in Gaul ; and with an immense force he 
 entered that country, and, finding little resistance, marched through 
 the provinces, and encamped on the banks of the Loire, where, 
 however, in the midst of his triumphant career, he met his death by an 
 arrow shot at him from an assassin. His army reembarked, taking with 
 * It was also called Erne, Hybernia, and Irland. 
 
REIGN OF DATHY. 331 
 
 them his dead body, which was interred in Ireland with great pomp, 
 " He was called the hero of the nine hostages,'^ says Hutchinson, "be- 
 cause he compelled nine nations to send him hostages. No monarch 
 carried the glory of the Irish arms farther than Niall. He drove the 
 Romans out of Caledonia, and pursued them to the banks of the Loire, 
 in Gaul." These hostages were covered with golden fetters. 
 
 As the posterity of Niall of the Nine Hostages made a most distin- 
 guished figure in our history, and as, from his house, for almost six 
 centuries, the monarchs of Ireland were chosen, with a single instance 
 excepted, it is proper to say something of his posterity : Niall had eight 
 sons, four of whom remained in Meath and its neighborhood ; the others 
 acquired possessions in the north of Ireland. The issue of these eight 
 sons have been distinguished by the titles of Northern and Southern 
 Ai Nialls. From the southern branch have descended O^Sionach, 
 or Fox, lord of TafF; Magauly, Mag. Caren, O'Braoin, O' Qtiin, and 
 O^Daly; also O^Kindelan. From these four southern brothers, whose 
 territories lay in the very centre of Ireland, came the O'Malochlins, the 
 M' Geoghagans, and the O^Molloys. Of the northern line, Eogan, or 
 Eon, the fifth son, got the great tract of country known as Tir Connal, 
 or Tir Eon ; for the tract was formerly Connal's. Connal's tract goes 
 yet by the name of Tir Connel, and the chiefs of this house assumed 
 the name of O^Donnel from a celebrated ancestor so called. 
 
 Anno 420. On the death of Niall, his nephew, Dathy, ascended 
 the Irish throne. Several refugees from Roman persecution having 
 fled from Gaul and Britain to Ireland, they besought him to render 
 them assistance. At the head of a powerful army, he landed in North 
 Britain, where he broke down the Roman wall, drove their forces before 
 him out of Britain, passed with his victorious army over to Gaul, where 
 he subdued the recruited legions of Rome throughout that kingdom, 
 and chased them to the very foot of the Alps ; at which point, unfor- 
 tunately, he was killed by lightning. 
 
 This brilliant chapter in the history of the Milesian race took place 
 in the year of Christianity 428. The Roman power was now com- 
 pletely extinguished in Britain. The successes of Dathy gave other 
 nations courage to attack Rome in every direction, until, at length, her 
 provinces broke away from her, one after the other. She broke up at 
 the extremities, and fell, after she had persecuted mankind for seven 
 hundred years. Even so will that great race, whose true Milesian 
 blood still streams through millions upon millions of brave Irishmen, 
 — even so will that brave blood, which exudes its aspiring and uncon- 
 
332 POSITION AND CONDITION OF IRELAND AT THIS PERIOD. 
 
 querable spirit into every generation, — survive the fall and dispersion 
 cf the piratical aristocracy of England. And " when the future travel- 
 ler from New Zealand shall visit London, and, standing upon the single 
 remaining arch of its last bridge, view from that spot the ruins of 
 St. Paul's," — the sacred island, which nourished that blood, for count- 
 less generations, with a miraculous vitality, shall herself be then " the 
 land of the free and the home of the brave." 
 
 It is necessary to keep in strong relief before the public eye that 
 Ireland, even under the pagan system, was the school of Western Eu- 
 rope. Here were preserved, with a religious exactitude, the histories of 
 contemporary nations, and also an elaborate history of Ireland, her 
 laws, literature, science, &c. Here the Gauls, Franks, Britons, Welsh, 
 the Picts, and the Germans, came to study. Three principal circum- 
 stances contributed to this — First, the nations of Europe were constantly 
 agitated and disturbed by the depredations of the Romans, for better 
 than seven hundred years, which drove the studious to Ireland, the only 
 spot in Europe where their persons and properties were safe from out- 
 rage, — the only spot in Europe that preserved its independence of 
 Roman sway. An evidence of this is singularly offered in the names 
 of the several tracts of land yielded by the hospitable Irish to those 
 refugees, which retain their names to this day. In the county Limerick, 
 they have Gall Baile, or the " Gauls' Town," Baile na Francoigh, or 
 the " Franks' Town," and so. of other places. I have already shown that 
 the persons and properties of the ollamhs, or doctors of learning, the 
 bards, and Druids, were ever held most sacred by the contending fac- 
 tions in Ireland. It was deemed a sacrilege to assault, kill, or invade 
 the property of any of them. 
 
 Secondly., the original settlers, under the sons of Milesius, brought 
 with them the chief arts and sciences known in ancient Egypt, and 
 the knowledge of manufactures, and of the arts of dyeing, and working 
 metals, which were known in Tyre, then the queen city of the world. 
 This is proved by various incontestable evidences, which I have already 
 arrayed in the early pages of this book. 
 
 Thirdly, the equable and healthful climate of Ireland, its fruitful and 
 luxuriant fields, its delicious air and water, the sweetness and richness 
 of its provisions, its romantic recesses, time-honored by the study of the 
 bards and Druids, — all these circumstances would conspire to attract the 
 studious to its inviting bosom. And when, as admitted by St. Patrick 
 himself, he found the Druids possessed of a thorough knowledge of all 
 things then known to mankind, — when he found them well versed in 
 
ADMISSIONS OF BRITISH WRITERS. 333 
 
 the languages, customs, arts, and histories, of the Eastern nations, and 
 well acquainted with the features and dogmas of Christianity, — we can 
 then estimate the true character of that people amongst whom St. Patrick 
 appeared to preach the Crucified. 
 
 Here, in support of what I have now advanced, let me present again 
 the testimony of the eminent historians of the present and past century. 
 
 Sir James Mackintosh, who was familiar with the past and pres- 
 ent features of man's history ; whose philosophic eye penetrated the 
 recesses of nature and of science, and swept over creation's wide do- 
 main, subjecting all to his inquiry and comment; the advocate of 
 civil and religious liberty; the companion of Henry Brougham, — he, 
 the monarch of the Edinburgh Review, honored Scotland by his birth ; 
 honored England by his learning; honored literature by his genius; 
 honored Ireland by the honesty of his testimony to her ancient great- 
 ness and learning; and he honored humanity by his moral worth. 
 Stand forth, thou shining light of the present century, and tell the 
 world what Ireland was in ages past I " The chronicles of Ireland," 
 says he, "written in the Irish language, from the second century to 
 the landing of Henry Plantagenet, have been recently published, 
 with the fullest evidences of their genuineness and exactness. The 
 Irish nation, though they are robbed of many of their favorite legends 
 by this authentic publication, are yet by it enabled to boast that they 
 possess genuine history several centuries more ancient than any other 
 European nation possesses, in its present spoken language. They 
 have exchanged their legendary antiquity for historical fame. Indeed, 
 no other nation possesses any monument of its literature, which goes 
 back within several centuries of the beginning of those chronicles. 
 Some of Dr. O'Conor's readers may hesitate to admit the degree 
 of culture and prosperity he claims for his countrymen ; but no one, 1 
 think, can deny, after perusing his proofs, that the Irish loere a let- 
 tered people ivhile the Saxons were still immersed in darkness and 
 ignoranceJ' — Sir James Mackintosh, History of England, vol. i. 
 chap. ii. 
 
 " Will it be any longer doubted, after this," says Warner, " whether 
 the ancient Irish had any philosophy, literature, or arts, in their pagan 
 state ? Will any critic in this country [England] any longer confidently 
 assert that the Irish had not the use of letters till after the arrival of St. 
 Patrick, and the conversion of the island to Christianity ? Ought we 
 Englishmen not rather take shame to ourselves, that we have hitherto 
 always treated that ancient gallant people with such illiberal contempt, 
 
334 THE IRISH UNDER PAGANISM. 
 
 [and MARK !] loho had the start of the Britons, for many ages, in 
 arts and sciences, in learning and laws 1 " 
 
 ToJand, in his History of the British Druids, says, " At this era, the 
 Irish were the most enlightened cultivators of letters in Europe; and 
 so great ivas the respect in ivhich their learning was held by the Sax- 
 ons and North Britons, that the Druids of these countries, for ages, 
 were initiated into their arts, knowledge, and, mysteries, by the 
 Irish Druids.'^ Another Enghshman, Camden, says, " St. Patrick 
 found the Irish Diiaids, who contended with him at Tara, eminently 
 versed in Grecian literature and astronomy." Again, Whitaker, an- 
 other English historian, says, ''In the reign of the celebrated monarch 
 NiAL, the arch-Druid of Ireland, was acknowledged the sovereign pon- 
 tiff of the order by the Druids and bards of Gaul, Britain, and Scot- 
 land." And Bishop Stillingfleet, another adverse authority, says, 
 "St. Patrick certainly brought no accession of literature to the Irish, 
 as their Druids ivere then the most learned body of men in Europe, and 
 stood unrivalled in the cultivation of letters." 
 
 " The simple statement of Tacitus," says Moore, " that, at the period 
 when he wrote, [the first century,] the waters and harbors of Ireland 
 were, through the means of commerce and of navigators, better known 
 than those of Britain, opens such a retrospect at once into her foregone 
 history, as, combined with similar glimpses in other writings of antiquity, 
 renders credible her claims to early civilization, and goes far to justify 
 some of the proud boasts of her annals." These are testimonies from 
 writers the most of whom are not Irish ! These are testimonies in favor 
 of Ireland's former standing in arts, in laws, in arms, and in morals, 
 which should cheer the exiled emigrant from that sacred island in his 
 pilgrimage through countries where he is little known, and where his 
 nation is studied only through the printing presses of her tyrants. 
 
 Such were Ireland and the Irish on the arrival of the apostle Patrick ; 
 and now we shall witness her embrace, without the sacrifice of a single 
 drop of blood, the peaceful, bloodless doctrines of the Christian gospel ; 
 we shall see her become, in fact, a very nation of apostles and preachers 
 of the gospel of Heaven ; we shall see her open colleges and schools for 
 the youth of all nations, where food and clothing, where education, 
 and, what was then more valuable, where books, were given to the 
 students free of charge — books that were valued at double their weight 
 in gold. We shall see her missionaries go into Europe, — ay, through the 
 length and breadth of Europe ; we shall see them convert, instruct, 
 and civilize, the Saxon, the Pict, the Gaul, the Belgan, the German, 
 
THE IRISH UNDER PAGANISM. 335 
 
 the Italian. We shall see their country revered amongst the nations, 
 and honored by the appellation of insula sanctorum et doctorum, 
 (island of saints and doctors ;) and when this is brought out before the 
 people of this great republic, let the paltry Irishman, who forgets the 
 sacred earth of his forefathers, be contemned by enlightened man, and 
 be despised by chivalrous woman. 
 
 The religion practised generally by the Irish, down to this period, 
 was pagan Druidism, which continued for seventeen hundred years 
 the religion of the princes and people of Ireland. It is hard, at this 
 distant period, to define exactly the nature of the Druid religion ; the 
 reader will please turn to page 136, and learn something of its nature. 
 
 It appears that the paganism of the ancient Irish was better calcu- 
 lated to generate good morals, than the paganism of Rome, or Greece, 
 during coeval ages. We have seen the Leinster prince, Eochaidth, 
 banished from his throne, some two centuries previous to this era, for 
 having imposed on his father-in-law a tale that his first wife, daughter of 
 the king, was dead, and fraudulently obtain the hand of his second 
 daughter in marriage, his first being alive. We have seen another king 
 in Ireland branded as " the Shameful," for the crime of incest. And 
 we have seen the solemn and ceremonious nuptial rights strictly observed 
 at the pubhc festivities. We cannot find a single feature of polygamy 
 mark the face of society in ancient Ireland. We have seen the care 
 with which female honor was guarded ; and pagan Ireland may proudly 
 contrast herself, in morals, with the most refined nations of the ages 
 which we are considering. , 
 
 For, if we turn even to Greece, though they had there some confused 
 ideas of a future state, yet Socrates was persecuted for publishing his 
 belief in the existence of a supreme God. Not so Cormac, the king of 
 Ireland, as we have seen in the last century. When he intuitively dis- 
 covered the existence of a divine Creator, and renounced the paganism 
 of the Druids, he was not persecuted. Although Greece has given to 
 the world some splendid'scholars, yet the morals and philosophy of that 
 ancient people are questionable. Tytler, in his Ancient History, says, 
 " The Greek philosophy, on the whole, affords little more than a picture 
 of the imbecility and caprice of the human mind." Their religious no- 
 tions were formed after various crotchets of the philosophers, who, to 
 become conspicuous, combated with each other, destroying by one set 
 of opinions the creations of another. 
 
 If we turn to Rome, we will find their religion consist of the worship of 
 imaginary gods, to whom the most brutal and ridiculous sacrifices were 
 
336 THE IRISH UNDER PAGANISM. 
 
 offered. Besides this, they observed a code of prognostication, founded 
 on the manner of death of the animals offered up to their gods ; thus, 
 if the ox died easily from the firet stroke, and bled profusely, then their 
 battles were likely to be successful. If, on the contrary, he showed 
 signs of a convulsive struggle ; if the animal's heart was small ; if any of 
 the entrails fell from the priest's hands, — then the augurs and soothsayers 
 would weigh all the circumstances, and order public affairs accordingly. 
 A court of augurs or interpreter of dreams, omens, and other accidents, 
 was established in Rome ; and even the emperors were appointed 
 presidents of this wise assembly, the emperor taking upon him to judge 
 of things divine and human. A pretty system of philosophy, indeed, 
 which sanctioned an emperor and a grave court sitting on the dreams 
 of all the young and old ladies of Rome ! 
 
 Yet Rome is amongst the studies of your youth, to the exclusion of 
 Ireland. 
 
 There were many most disgusting ceremonies practised in Rome, but 
 the state of morals was degrading in the extreme ; it was a custom for 
 married men to negotiate for what we would consider the dishonor of 
 their wives. Even the great Cato was guilty of this degradation ; and, 
 although we have a Lucretia stabbing herself, in the presence of her 
 husband and kindred, rather than survive her dishonor, we have a 
 Tullia stabbing her own father, the king of Rome, to prepare the way 
 for the usurpation of her husband, Tarquinius. 
 
 No such degradino;, debasino; features can be discovered in the morals 
 or customs of the pagan Irish : on the contrary, public virtue, which 
 grows only from the individual virtue of each unit of the community, 
 was manifest in every act and custom of the ancient Irish. Such was 
 Ireland before the meridian Sun of Christianity shed its refulgence over 
 her verdant valleys. 
 
 We shall now pursue her eventful story during the brilliant ages that 
 she was mistress of the world's literature, when Greece was almost for- 
 gotten, when Rome had crumbled beneath the weight of her own 
 wickedness, when England was the theatre of contending barbarians — 
 Saxon and native Britons:— and when Europe was trod alone by the 
 barbarian Goth and Vandal, then was Ireland the seat of science, piety, 
 and art. 
 
BTUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 337 
 
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MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 339 
 
 But if, in pursuit, we go deeper, 
 Allured by the gleam that shone. 
 
 Ah ! false as the dream of the sleeper, 
 Like love, the bright ore is gone ! 
 
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 That flitted from tree to tree, 
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 4. 
 
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 When Sorrow herself looked bright ; 
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 That led thee along so light ; 
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 Each feeling that once was dear. 
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 NORAH, THE PRIDE OF KILDARE 
 
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 Yet nothing shall ever thy heart from mine sever. 
 Dear Norah, sweet Norah, the pride of Kildare ! 
 
342 DAWN OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Dawn of Christianity in Ireland. — The first Missionaries. — Cathaldus. — The Feast 
 of Easter. — Dima the Missionary. — Heber. — St. Albe. — Palladius. — Their 
 Labors. — St. Patrick. — His Captivity and Servitude. — His Return to Gaul. — 
 His long Studies as an Ecclesiastic. — Appointed Bishop of Ireland. — Origin of 
 the Name Patrick. — Arrives in Ireland. — His Progress. — Appears at Tara. — 
 Discusses Christianity before the King. — Doctrine of the Trinity. — The Sham- 
 i-ock. — Converts the Druids, the King, and his Court. — Leaves Tara. — Passes 
 into Connaught. — Absence of venomous Reptiles in Ireland. — Arrives in Dub- 
 lin. — Proceeds to Munster. — Baptism of the Prince. — Proceeds to Ulster. — 
 Is attacked by an Assassin. — Preserved by Odran. — Attacked by a Brigand. 
 
 — Repentance of the Brigand. — Attacked by a Pirate. — Success of the Apostle. 
 
 — Great Number of Bishops and Priests appointed. — Conciliation of the Druids. 
 
 — Erection of Armagh into an Archbishopric. — Retreats of the Pious. — Com- 
 mittee of Nine, to revise the Laws and History of Ireland. — Destruction of the 
 Poetry of the Bards. — The Trial by Twelve Men. — The Apostle revisits Rome 
 
 — Returns to Ireland. — His Death. — His Sepulchre. 
 
 The renunciation, by King Cormac, of the Druid worship, and the 
 proclamation of his belief in the existence of a God, a Creator of 
 heaven and earth, prepared the way, in a considerable degree, for the 
 introduction of Christianity into Ireland. The minds of the people were 
 shaken by the philosophic reasons which Cormac published for his 
 recantation of a worship which his progenitors had followed for so 
 many ages. O'Halloran goes into a learned discussion to prove that 
 Christianity was preached in Ireland at an earlier period than is com- 
 monly supposed. 
 
 The constant enmity between the Roman emperors and the Irish 
 monarchs, which existed for the first four hundred years of the Christian 
 era, prevented any kind of friendly intercourse between the two nations. 
 The Christian doctrine first came, not immediately from Rome to Ireland, 
 but from the churches of Asia. Mansuetus, an Irishman, the first bishop 
 and patron of Toul, and canonized by Leo the Ninth, is said to have 
 been a disciple of St. Peter. " To me," continues O'Halloran, " it would 
 seem that Mansuetus, and the other Irish Christians, were rather the 
 disciples of St. John the evangelist ; and I ground my opinion on what 
 the Venerable Bede relates, touching the famous controversy about the 
 (;elebration of Easter. He tells us, that, in defence of the Irish time of 
 celebrating this feast, in opposition to that of Rome, Coleman, the Irish 
 bishop of Lindisfarn, among other reasons, declared, that ' he had re- 
 
THE FIRST MISSIONARIES. CATHALDUS. FEAST OF EASTER. 343 
 
 ceived it from his forefathers, who sent him to Northumberland as their 
 bishop ; and it was the same custom which St. John, Christ's especially 
 beloved disciple, with all the churches under him, observed.' " 
 
 In the reign of Con, in the second century, Ireland sent forth the 
 famous St. Cathaldus, to preach the doctrine of Christ ; and he became 
 bishop and patron of Tarentum, in Italy. In the next age, Christianity 
 had taken root in the minds of many reflecting men of Ireland, and it 
 is expressly said, in the Catha Gahhra, that the Irish general Fion 
 went to Rome. In the succeeding age we read of an Irish bishop suf- 
 fering martyrdom in Britain ; and it is evident, by the poem of Torna 
 Eigis, chief bard to Niall the Grand, beginning with Dail Catha idir 
 Core, that he himself was a Christian, and Colgan offers arguments to 
 prove the great Niall one also. 
 
 As to the feast of Easter, the observance of which w^as a source of so 
 much contest between the western and eastern churches, I think this the 
 proper place to introduce the reasoning of O'Halloran and others on the 
 subject. The Jews had their pascha, or passover, to commemorate their 
 escaping unhurt on the night the destroying angel killed the first-born of 
 man and beast throughout Egypt ; and the apostles, after the death of 
 our Redeemer, judged that nothing could be more expressive of our 
 deliverance from sin than the institution of a similar festival. The Jews 
 were commanded to celebrate their passover on the fourteenth day of 
 the moon of the first month, which corresponded with our March, 
 this being the time of the vernal equinox, when the sun is in Aries, 
 the days and nights of equal length, and the new year beginning to 
 spring. The Jews had put our Lord to death, whilst they were cele 
 brating the feast of the paschal lamb. And this circumstance deter- 
 mined the Christians to celebrate theirs at the same time. 
 
 St. Peter and St. Paul, after quitting Palestine, judged that the 
 keeping this feast on the fourteenth day of the first moon, was rather 
 adopting the Jewish than forming a new festival. They therefore trans- 
 ferred it to the Sunday after, unless that Sunday fell on the fourteenth ; 
 but St. John, and the churches of Asia and Africa, adhered to the first 
 institution. It was, however, a matter of mere discipline, in which 
 Christians might differ without sin or schism. St. Poly carp, bishop of 
 Smyrna, and an immediate disciple of St. John, came to Rome, anno 
 158, on purpose to confer with Pope Anacctus on the subject. The 
 Asiatics, and all the churches deriving under them, continued their prac- 
 tice of celebrating Easter until the year 325, when the Council of 
 Nice issued a decree for observing this feast every where on the Sunday 
 
344 ST. ALBE. PALLADIUS. 
 
 immediately following the vernal equinox. After further discussion be- 
 tween the bishops of various nations, this decree was ultimately obeyed 
 eveiy where. 
 
 The missionaries of Christianity not only preached in the fourth cen- 
 tury, but founded churches, and opened schools and colleges, in Ireland. 
 The holy Dima founded a Christian school near Adare, in the county 
 Limerick. Heber soon after founded another at Beg line, in Leinster, 
 " where," Father Colgan says, " many persons flocked to be instructed 
 in Christianity and letters." St. Albe, archbishop of Munster, St. 
 Kieran, and St. Declan, all preceded St. Patrick, and founded churches 
 in Ireland. 
 
 In the year 427, Pope Celestine, during the reign of Logaire, mon- 
 arch of Ireland, sent Palladlus, his bosom friend, with an ecclesiastical 
 staff of twelve missionaries, to Ireland. These were directed by the 
 pope to " proceed to the Scots believing in Christ," and Palladius was 
 appointed their first bishop. Such is the account given of this first mis- 
 sion by the Venerable Bede, who was a saxon ecclesiastic, and monk 
 of the same faith, and who wrote, in the seventh century, his histories 
 in Latin, from which they were translated into old Saxon English by 
 King Alfred. 
 
 The Irish were unwilling to acknowledge ecclesiastical obedience to 
 Rome, a power whose arn)S they so bravely and successfully resisted in 
 the field. They did not then perceive the distinction between the tem- 
 poral power of the Roman emperors and the spiritual power of the 
 chief bishop of the Christian church ; and although, by the open 
 renunciation of the Druidical system by King Cormac, pagan worship 
 had received a deadly blow, and though Pelagius, and his disciple 
 Celestus, who were both Irishmen, did much to disseminate their doc- 
 trines of Christianity, yet, before St. Patrick alone did the pagan system 
 melt away. This all the historians admit ; so that, without entering 
 farther into the earlier efforts of the Christian missionaries to convert the 
 Irish, I will at once proceed to the consideration of the mission of the 
 great apostle Patrick. 
 
 We have seen, in the previous pages, that the Irish legions harassed 
 the Roman power in Britain, and, that Niall the Grand, battled with 
 them in that country, and through Gaul, where he took two hundred 
 captives. These he carried to Ireland, and sold, for the period of seven 
 years, according to the custom practised in those ages, in reference to 
 captives taken in war. Amongst these captives were Patrick, then six- 
 teen years of age, and his two sisters, Lupida and Deverca. 
 
ST. PATRICK. THE BIRTHPLACE OF PATRICK. 345 
 
 Historians differ about the birthplace of Patrick, O'Hallaran con- 
 tending his parents were Welsh on the father's side, and Gaulish on the 
 mother's side, whilst Moore contends for his Roman extraction. And 
 altliough there have been written upwards of sixty separate biographies 
 of this remarkable missionary, yet we are not truly certain whether 
 to assign him a Welsh, a Gaulish, or Roman parentage ; but, after all, 
 the parentage of such a one matters not much, for he was born for man- 
 kind and for religion. All the historians agree as to the mode of his 
 capture, bis conversion, &lc. 
 
 When brought to Ireland, the youth was sold to one Milcho, living in 
 that part of the island known as Antrim, where he was appointed a shep- 
 herd. The mountain now known as Sliohh Miss, or the "^Mountain of 
 the Moon," was the place of his meditation and prayer. After his term 
 of seven years of servitude ended, Patrick returned to the continent, and 
 obtained entrance into the College of Tours, in which his uncle Martin 
 was a teacher. In this place he studied for four years. This was in 397. 
 After St. Martin's death, in four or five years, he set out for Rome ; 
 here he was admitted among the prebendaries of St. John of Lateran, 
 anno 403 : he was then thirty years of age. For some time he studied 
 here. He afterwards visited several holy retreats in the islands of the 
 Mediterranean, and attached himself to the barefooted order of St. Au- 
 gustine. From these he went, in 418, to study with St. Germain at 
 Auxerre. Here he prepared himself more especially for performing the 
 important services to Christianity which subsequently crowned his life. 
 Leaving St. Germain, he entered the monastery of the Isle of Lerius, 
 where he continued for nine years in close study. After his leaving 
 Lerius, he returned to Auxerre, to his beloved friend St. Germain. 
 When the news of Palladius's death had reached them, St. Germain sent 
 him to Rome with instructions upon the mission to Ireland. He was 
 then, anno 430, thirty-eight years old. 
 
 It appears from his own Confessions, a book, the original of which, 
 according to Colgan, is still extant in the library of St. Vast, in Artoisy 
 that when a youth, in servitude, among the hills of Ireland, he was fer- 
 vent in his prayers to Heaven. " Every day I fed the flocks, and prayed 
 frequently during the day ; my love of God increased more and more, 
 and my fear and faith in him were augmented, so that in one day I 
 prayed almost a hundred times, and as often in the night. Whilst I tar- 
 ried on the mountain and in the woods, I was roused to pray both in the 
 snow, frost, and rain ; neither did I feel any pain from it, nor lassitude, 
 as I think, because my soul was then ardent." — Usher, c. 17, p. 830. 
 44 
 
346 ST. Patrick's studies. — appointed bishop of Ireland. 
 
 In another place, Usher quotes the account of visions which the holy 
 man repeatedly saw, at several periods of his life. After having had his 
 interviews with Pope Celestine, then the incumbent of the holy see, he 
 hastened towards Ireland, together with twenty men, eminent for their 
 wisdom and sanctity, appointed by the pontiff himself to assist him in 
 the mission. In passing, he visited St. Germanus, his guardian and 
 instructor : from him he received chalices and sacerdotal vestments, a 
 quantity of books, and every other thing requisite for the ministry of the 
 church. 
 
 His baptismal name was Succath : at the time of his ordination by 
 St. Germain, it was changed to Magonias. After his consecration, and 
 to add greater weight and dignity to his embassy. Pope Celestine con- 
 ferred on him the order of the patricii. This was an institution of 
 Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor of Rome. It was 
 more honoi'able than the ancient Roman order of the patricii; for the 
 Christian order of patricii ranked next to the emperors. Thus did the 
 apostle Pati'ick return to the land of his captivity, bearing all the honors 
 which temporal and spiritual authority could confer. When Ireland be- 
 came thoroughly Christian, her people, in reverence towards their 
 beloved apostle, called their male children Patricius, after him. The 
 name was subsequently abbreviated to Pat, and corrupted into Paddy ; 
 but little do the great masses of vulgarity, who use the term Pat, or 
 Paddy, as a medium of reproach or contempt towards the expa- 
 triated Irishman, — little do they know that it was a title of the highest 
 honor which the Roman emperor could confer — a title which was 
 rendered still more illustrious by the apostle, by whom it was inter- 
 woven in the fondest memories of the Irish — a name honored for 
 fourteen hundred years by the descendants of the Milesians — a name 
 that will go honored down to the remotest posterity, reminding other 
 ages that a change was effected in the minds of an entire nation, by its 
 bearer, without resorting to a single act of persecution. It was a 
 title which the nobility of Europe, in succeeding generations, were 
 proud to wear ; for we find that the emperor Charlemagne, and other 
 kings of France, assumed the title of patricii, in the eighth and ninth 
 centuries, as one of the highest honors. The aposde retained the title 
 Patricius during his life, by which title alone is he recognized by 
 posterity. 
 
 There was a small ship placed at his disposal ; he first landed 
 upon Leland at a place called Crioch Cuallan, on the eastern part 
 of Leinster, called at present Wicklow. This took place anno 432, 
 
LANDS IN IRELAND. HIS PROGRESS. 347 
 
 during the reign of King Laogare, the grandson of O'Niall of the 
 Nine Hostages. After preaching here for some time, and making a 
 few converts, he returned to his ship, and steered towards DubHn, when 
 he touched at an island called, after him, Inis Phadruig. Having 
 rested here, he again put to sea, and steered along the coast to the 
 north of Ireland, wh£re he made port in the Bay of Dundrum, county 
 Down. 
 
 The lords of the territory, having heard that pirates had landed on 
 their coast, issued forth, with their followers, to drive them off, but, 
 being struck with the sanctified appearance of the apostle and his follow- 
 ers, heard them preach, and became their converts. The apostle, being 
 now near the residence of his old master, Mllcho, undertook to find and 
 preach to him the tidings of the Crucified. Milcho, too proud to 
 receive instruction from one who had formerly been his slave, and 
 hearing with indignation that his son and two daughters had embraced 
 the Christian faith, in the excess of his rage, set fire to his house, and 
 cast himself into the flames. St. Patrick was so affected at this, that he 
 remained several hours without speaking, and shed tears. 
 
 After spending some time in this district, where he made many con- 
 verts, he ordained some priests, and left behind him some of his own 
 missionaries, whom he consecrated bishops. He then embarked for 
 Meath. 
 
 He landed below Drogheda, where the Boyne falls into the sea, and 
 left his little ship in care of Luman, his nephew, and a few sailors, with 
 orders to wait for him for forty days, during which he would preach the 
 gospel in the interior of the country. His intention was to go and cele- 
 brate the festival of Easter in the plains of Magh-Breagh, where the city 
 of Tara was situated. He wished to be within reach of the court, at 
 the time of the assembly, composed of the princes, Druids, and pagan 
 priests, which was to be held that year by the monarch ; well knowing 
 that whatever impression he might produce at court would necessarily 
 influence the provinces : with this view he armed himself with zeal to 
 take advantage of so favorable an opportunity. 
 
 Our saint having met, on his way, with Sesgnen, the lord of a territory 
 in Meath, who invited him to partake of his hospitality, he entered his 
 house, announcing the word of God, and baptized him with all his fam- 
 ily. This lord had a son, to whom the holy bishop gave the name of 
 Binen, or Benignus, at his baptism. The young convert became at- 
 tached to the saint, accompanied him every where, and made so great a 
 progress in piety and virtue, that he considered him worthy of being ap- 
 pointed to the see of Ardmach, which he surrendered to him. After 
 
348 ST. PATRICK ARRIVES AT TARA. — THE SHAMROCK. 
 
 leaving the house of Sesgnen, the apostle proceeded towards Tara, and 
 arrived, the day before Easter, at a place called Firta-Fir-Feic, now 
 Slaine, on the left bank of the River Boyne, where he had a tent erect- 
 ed, to prepare for the ceremonies of the following day. 
 
 When the monarch convened, or held the religious festival, at 
 Tara, it was customary to make a bonfire on the preceding day : it was 
 prohibited to have one in any other place at the same time, in the terri- 
 tory of Breagh. Patrick, who despised so superstitious a practice, 
 caused a large fire to be lighted before his tent, which was easily seen 
 from Tara. The Druids, alarmed at this attempt, carried their com- 
 plaints before the monarch, and said to him that, if he had not that fire 
 immediately extinguished, he who had kindled it, and his successors, 
 would hold the sovereignty of Ireland forever ; which prophecy has 
 been fulfilled in a spiritual light. The monarch sent an order to the 
 stranger to appear before the assembly, the day following, in order to 
 account for his conduct, and he forbade that any should rise through 
 respect for him. Ere, son of Dego, was the first who disobeyed the 
 orders of the monarch : at the approach of the saint, that lord rose up, 
 offered him his place, and, having listened attentively to the word of 
 God, embraced Christianity, and was afterwards nominated bishop of 
 Slaine, by the apostle. Patrick, always eager to do every thing that 
 could tend to the salvation of mankind, presented himself, the day fol- 
 lowing, with two of his disciples, before the assembly, whel'e he preached 
 the faith of Jesus Christ, in presence of the monarch and all his nobles, 
 with a freedom which was ti-uly apostolical. Dubtach, arch-poet of 
 Laogare, submitted to his preaching ; and the talents which he had em- 
 ployed before his conversion, in celebrating the praises of the false 
 gods, were afterwards turned to glorify the true God and his saints. 
 Fiech, his disciple, followed his example, and afterwards became bishop 
 of Sletty. . 
 
 So convincing were the arguments of Patrick, that several Dinids 
 were converted ; and then the monarch exclaimed, " It is better I should 
 believe than die." The queen, the monarch, and their two daughters, 
 were converted. It was on this occasion that St. Patrick, when told 
 by the Druids that the doctrine of the Trinity was absurd, as three could 
 not exist in one, stooped down, and, pulling a shamrock, which has 
 three leaves on one stem, replied, " To prove the reality and possibility 
 of the existence of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I have only to 
 pluck up this humble plant, on which we have trodden, and convince 
 you that truth can be attested by the simplest symbol of illustration." 
 Such was the manner in which the mild but truly eloquent apostle of 
 
ABSENCE OF VENOMOUS REPTILES. 349 
 
 Christianity introduced that change in the reUgion of Ireland, which 
 softened and refined the manners of a chivah'ous and warhke race into a 
 nation of apostles and preachers of the Christian divinity. 
 
 The preaching of the apostle was here supported by many miracles, 
 mentioned by the authors of his life. There never was, in reality, a 
 circumstance in which signs were more necessary than in an assembly 
 composed of the chiefs and learned men of the whole nation. St. 
 Patrick, having completed his mission at the court of Tara, repaired to 
 Tailton, where the military games were celebrated every year. He did 
 not keep the talent which his Master endowed him with unemployed : 
 he always sought large assemblies, in order to turn it to advantage. 
 The season of those military exercises, which was the last fifteen days 
 of July, and the first fifteen days of August, being near, he repaired to 
 Tailton, where he preached the doctrine of Jesus Christ to Cairbre and 
 Conall, brothers of Laogare, the monarch, with different success : the 
 former continued obdurate and unchanged ; the latter, having attended 
 to his instructions, was baptized, and in gratitude he conferred land on 
 the saint, upon which he built a church. He spent the rest of that year 
 in the territories of Meath and Leinster, where a great number were con- 
 verted, amongst others the two princesses Ethne and Fedeline, daugh- 
 ters of Laogare, with the Druids Mael and Caplait. 
 
 He then passed over to West Meath, where he was successful ; for 
 his fame now travelled before him. He tarried a while at Brefny, in 
 the county Leitrim, the home of the O'Ruarks. Here he was hospita- 
 bly entertained, and made many converts. It was in this place he de- 
 stroyed the idol Crom Cruach, and on the spot founded a church. 
 From thence he passed across the Shannon into Connaught. . He there 
 made many thousand converts, erected several churches, appointed 
 many priests and bishops, and soon proceeded on to Sligo, where he 
 founded several more churches. He next returned to the county Gal- 
 way, and made many converts. At the approach of Lent, he withdrew 
 to a high mountain, called Creagh Phadring, in the county of Mayo. 
 Here he spent forty days in fasting and prayer. Some of the authors 
 of his life say that he gathered here all the snakes and reptiles of the 
 island, and drove them down into the sea. However this be, it is 
 certain that the soil of Ireland is exempt from venomous reptiles. 
 Solinus, who had written some centuries before the arrival of St. 
 Patrick in Ireland, makes mention of this exemption ; and, after him, 
 Isidore, bishop of Seville, in the seventh century, and Bede in the 
 eighth, speak of it without assigning any cause. It appears that 
 
350 ST. PATRICK ARRIVES IN DUBLIN. PROCEEDS TO CASHELL. 
 
 Jocelin is the first who gave this account, in the twelfth century. 
 The pecuharity may be supposed to proceed from the cUmate or the 
 nature of the soil, rather than from any supernatural cause. It would 
 require very many books to give a detailed account of the apostle's 
 labors and successes through Ireland. What I have said, or may yet 
 say about him, is the most meagre outline of his extraordinary mission. 
 
 Returning towards the east of Leinster, he crossed the River of Fin- 
 glass, arrived at Bally- Ath-Cliath, " oppidum super crates," a city so 
 called from the hurdles which were used either to secure the founda- 
 tions of the houses, or to strengthen the roads on the marshy banks of 
 the River LifFey, which waters it : this city has been since called Duhh- 
 Lin, at present Dublin, from the black and muddy bottom of that river. 
 
 The high reputation for sanctity which St. Patrick had acquired, 
 added to the number of miracles he wrought every where, having made 
 him known and respected even by the pagans, the inhabitants of Dub- 
 lin went out in crowds to meet him. These appearances were a happy 
 omen of the faith they were about to receive from his lips. He bap- 
 tized them all, with Alphin, son of Eochaidh. who was at that time 
 their king : the ceremony was performed in a fountain near the city, 
 called, since that time, the Fountain of St. Patrick, and became an object 
 of devotion to the faithful for many centuries, till it was filled up and 
 enclosed within a private dwelling in the beginning of the seventeenth 
 century. The saint had a church built near this fountain, which after- 
 wards became a cathedral, bearing his name. 
 
 Having established Christianity in Leinster on a solid basis, St. Pa- 
 trick proceeded to Munster, where there were already some Christians, 
 and a few. churches founded by his precursors. He went directly to- 
 wards Cashell, where King Aongus at that time resided. This prince, 
 being informed of the sanctity and virtues of the holy apostle, came forth 
 to meet him in the plain of Femyn, which is a territory that surrounds 
 Cashell : he received him with every mark of distinction and respect, 
 and brought him to his city in triumph, where he heard the word of God, 
 and was converted to the faith, together with his whole court. 
 
 A sino-ular fact is related of the Christian fortitude and patience of 
 Aongus, during the ceremony of his baptism. The holy bishop having 
 leaned on his pastoral staff, which was pointed with iron, it pierced the 
 king's foot, who suffered the pain without complaining till the ceremony 
 was ended. The apostle, hearing of the accident, asked him why he 
 had not complained ; the king answered respectfully that he thought it 
 formed part of the ceremony. This circumstance was finely represented 
 
ATTACKED BY AN ASSASSIN. 351 
 
 on canvass by the celebrated Irish painter Barry, who was president of 
 the Royal Academy of London in the last century. This prince was 
 pious, and fii-mly attached to the religion he had embraced: out of a 
 great number of children of both sexes, he devoted one half to the ser- 
 vice of God, and always supported in his palace religious persons, who 
 served as his council in religious affairs. 
 
 The four precursors of St. Patrick, namely, Ailbe, Declan, Kieran, 
 and Ibar, having come to Cashell to see the saint, and to congratulate 
 their king upon his conversion, assisted at the synod which that apostle 
 had convoked. Some difference arose about the primacy, which those 
 saints, who, like him, had received their mission from the holy see, 
 would not acknowledge in St. Patrick. However, their charity stifled 
 every sentiment opposed to the cause of Jesus Christ. They were 
 confirmed, at that synod, in the possession of the churches they had 
 founded. That of Imleach-Jobhuir, otherwise Emly, in Tipperary, 
 founded by St. Ailbe, was made the metropolitan of the whole prov- 
 ince : it was united to Cashell in the sixth century. Thai of Ardmore, 
 in the territory of Desie, in the county of Waterford, was adjudged to 
 St. Declan, by whom those people were converted : this church was af- 
 terwards annexed to Lismore. St. Kieran was confirmed in the see of 
 Saigre. Lastly, Ibar was appointed bishop of Beg- Erin, that is, Little 
 Ireland, an island on the coast of Wexford. Having settled, with the 
 other bishops, the affairs of the church of Cashell, St. Patrick took leave 
 of Aongus, and continued his mission through Muscraighe-Breogain, 
 Aracliach, and Lumneach, as far as the River Shannon. 
 
 In the year 455, he left Munster, to return to the north of the island. 
 In passing through Leinster, he preached the gospel in the district of 
 Hy-Failge, which belonged to the descendants of Rossa-Failge, son of 
 the monarch Cathoir-More. 
 
 Our saint spent six years in visiting the churches of Ulster, consoling 
 and confirming the new Christians, and converting those who had per- 
 severed in idolatry ; and, the better to watch over the churches in gen- 
 eral, he resigned the see of Ardmach to St. Binen, or Benignus, his 
 disciple and successor. 
 
 On one occasion a desperate chieftain, instigated by some of the 
 Druids, waylaid the apostle, to take his life ; but the extraordinary zeal 
 of his charioteer, Odran, happily prevented the accomplishment of the 
 dreadful design. 
 
 The assassin appeared ; but Odran, the saint's driver, exchanged 
 dress with his master, placed himself in the chariot, whilst the saint took 
 
352 ST. PATRICK SAVED BY ODRAN. 
 
 the horse's reins, and, when the murderous attack was made, he re- 
 ceived the spear of the assassin, and thus preserved, for some years 
 longer, to Christianity a valuable life, whilst we may confidently hope 
 the immolation of the zealous man's body obtained the admission of his 
 soul to the companionship of the blessed. The faithful Odran was the 
 only martyr that Ireland offered at the shrine of Christianity, which is 
 a boast that no other nation can make. 
 
 Upon another occasion, the captain of a band of robbers attacked 
 him while visiting Lecale, the scene of his earliest labors ; and the de- 
 signs to rob him, and perhaps take his life, he baffled by the extraor- 
 dinary address he summoned on the occasion. His persuasive and 
 powerful rebuke had such an effect on the brigand, that he fell on his 
 knees, implored the saint's forgiveness, and besought him to impose such 
 a penance on him as the saint thought due to his iniquitous attempt. 
 Patrick directed him to place himself in a curragh, or small boat, made of 
 hurdles and leather, and put out to sea, clothed in a coarse garment, and, 
 trusting to the waves and the winds, land on the first shore he touched, 
 and there devote himself to the service of God. The command was 
 faithfully obeyed, and Maccaldus, the brigand, landed on the Isle of Man, 
 the island midway between Ireland, Scotland, and England. Here 
 he found two Christian bishops, under whom he learned the doctrines of 
 Christianity, and succeeded these very bishops, on their death, as chief 
 bishop of that Island. 
 
 Whilst the apostle was engaged in a district on the coast of Munster, 
 where he had been baptizing an immense number of persons, a pirate, 
 from the coast of Wales or England, named Coroticus, landed and pil- 
 laged the inhabitants, having murdered some of those Christians, and 
 carried off many of them, whom he sold as captives. Upon this occa- 
 sion, the holy Patrick pronounced a fiat of excommunication against 
 this pirate, which, together with his Confessions^ are the only written 
 documents in his own hand-writing that have come down to us. It is 
 said this pirate destroyed himself shortly after through remorse. 
 
 No language that I could use would convey an idea of the labors, in- 
 cessant zeal, and signal and miraculous successes, that attended the 
 mission of St. Patrick. So great and signal, indeed, was this success, 
 that, in a very few years, the princes and chief nobility of the kingdom 
 became Christians. Not only this, but so great was their zeal, and so 
 pure their intentions, that they did not deem it sufficient to devote a 
 part of their riches, their flocks, and their corn to God, but bestowed 
 also their sons on the church. Hence the amazing number of devout 
 
GREAT NUMBER 01' PKIESTS A^D BISHOPS APPOINTED. 353 
 
 recluses and holy bishops, of the purest blood of Ireland, whose pedigrees 
 have been preserved widi great care, many of whom passed over, from 
 time to time, to Britain, Gaul, and to the continent, to establish the doc- 
 trine of Christianity by their precepts and their example. 
 
 It is recorded of Patrick that, during his mission in Ireland, he conse- 
 crated no less than three hundred and sixty bishops, and ordained three 
 thousand priests, none of whom were received who had not given the 
 clearest evidences of a holy and pious life. This number of bishops 
 may, at this time of day, surprise some; but the saint, who mingled 
 great tact and prudence with his zeal and piety, observing that, in Ire- 
 land, all titles, and stations, and public offices, connected either with the 
 religion or police of the kingdom, belonged, by an hereditary tenure, to 
 certain families, to which offices certain lands were aunexed for their 
 support, instructed and appointed the Druid priesthood, who derived 
 an hereditary right to office and income, to the duties of the Christian 
 religion. The chief Druid, or Fhnnen, enjoyed these incomes, and, to 
 aid him, was appointed a coadjutor. These families were all con- 
 ciliated towards the new order by this concession to their family 
 dignities and incomes ; and when we rememlaer the length of his 
 mission, being sixty odd years, the number of bishops he consecrated 
 will cease to surprise us. 
 
 He saw four of the archbishops, that he himself consecrated in the 
 head seat of Armagh, die one after the other, he being the first and the 
 sixth archbishop. By the prudence, moderation, and good sense, 
 of the apostle, was the whole kingdom brought to acknowledge the 
 doctrine of Christ ; and this wonderful reform was conducted with so 
 much wisdom that it produced not the least disturbance, confusion, or 
 confiscation. The Druids and their votaries were unmolested, and 
 Christian bishops were appointed to succeed the Druid mch-Flamens 
 from those families only whose hereditary titles were clear and 
 admitted. 
 
 The university of Tara enjoyed, from the days of Ollamh Fodhla, the 
 power of conferring precedences on the learned doctors. The apostle, 
 having built a great university at his favorite residence of Armagh, re- 
 solved that it should be the chief of all the Christian seminaries. To 
 this end he had influence enough with the l^ing and assembly of the 
 estates to obtain a legislative enactment trahsfei*ring the power of 
 granting doctors' degrees to Armagh, which rank it supported till the 
 dissolution of the Irish monarchy. Holy abbots at that time, and for 
 centuries after, erected their retreats in the most sequestered spots of 
 45 
 
354 THE OLD LAWS. TRIAL BY JURY. 
 
 Ireland, that nothing might disturb their prayers and meditations. 
 Scarce an island, or solitary spot of ground, in Ireland, that spiritual 
 retreats were not already made in, and churches and abbeys erected, 
 the remains of most of which are yet visible. 
 
 The apostle was also anxious to purify the laws and literature of 
 Ireland, and for this purpose obtained a committee of nine from the 
 assembly. Amongst these were the king and some other of the provin- 
 cial princes. Here the saint was paramount, and with his own hand 
 burned several hundred volumes of poetry and other works of the 
 Druids. It is said the poetry was so fascinating, the apostle feared the 
 reading of it would cause some to relapse into the Druid system again ; 
 and this disposition of Patrick was caught up and imitated by all the 
 zealous Christians throughout Ireland, who revered Patrick so much 
 that a universal destruction of the poetic v/orks of the ancient Irish 
 ensued, which, as admirers of literature, we cannot but deplore. In the 
 course of this severe scrutiny, all the laws of Ireland were examined 
 into ; and here, amongst die brehon accumulations, was discovered that 
 priceless feature in your jurisprudence of the present day, the " trial of 
 the twelve men." 
 
 All disputes about land were submitted to the decision of twelve men ; 
 and here is the foundation of that palladium of human liberty, the trial 
 by jury, which was in action, amongst other wise laws, in Ireland for 
 centuries, and which was afterwards introduced by Alfred into the Eng- 
 lish constitution. As some persons, who have been accustomed to read 
 little else than British history, entertain the idea that King Alfred in- 
 vented the tribunal of trial by jury, I would ask such to read the preface 
 to Leland's History of Ireland, and the able work of O'Halloran, in 
 which has been shown that the apostle Patrick found, at this examina- 
 tion of the Irish laws, the trial of the twelve men, as part of their breathe 
 nhime, or celestial judgments. He wisely retained that feature in their 
 jurisprudence, and it was found in operation by Alfred when he received 
 his education in Ireland ; where, indeed, all the Saxon princes and 
 priests came, in those ages, to be instmcted in philosophy, law, literature, 
 music, and religion. 
 
 No scholar or jurist will venture to say that the trial by the jury of 
 twelve was known to the laws of any of the Greek islands. It cannot 
 be found among the laws of the Twelve Tables of Rome, nor is it in the 
 Pandects of Justinian — a work which imbodied the entire laws of the 
 Roman empire. No feature of trial by twelve men can be found in 
 the institutions of the Visigoths, whose kings succeeded those of Rome 
 
THE APOSTLE REVISITS ROME. 355 
 
 in Italy, and who introduced, through the south of Europe, a new code 
 of jurisprudence ; nor can it be traced in the laws of the Ostrogoths, 
 who swarmed round the Baltic ; nor, least of all, among the customs of 
 the Saxons, the most ferocious and illiterate of the barbarians of ancient 
 Europe. 
 
 We have the evidence of St. Patrick and his committee that the law 
 of the twelve men was the ancient custom of Ireland ; and when we 
 know the other nations of Europe cannot produce a particle of evidence 
 to support their envious claims to this transcendent legal honor, we shall 
 feed our oppressed hearts with the remembrance of that glory which our 
 forefathers have shed on us by their laws, their arms, their arts, and 
 their sanctity ; and, though the sacred trial by jury has been desecrated, 
 in our days, by the judges of the Saxon, yet the hour of our vindication 
 is only made the more certain by that desecration ! Our freedom is 
 settled by the negotiations of Heaven. Justice and intelligence will 
 triumph at last. 
 
 The saint, having completed the conversion of Ireland, prepared to 
 proceed to Rome, to report to his holiness the success which attended 
 his labors. To this end, he sailed for Liverpool, where he preached 
 and converted many hundreds. Liverpool was then but a fishing 
 village. Here was erected a cross, to commemorate the event, which 
 remains to this day a witness of the labors of the great apostle. From 
 this he proceeded to the Isle of Man, where he placed St. Germain. 
 From that he repaired to Rome, where, some of the historians say, he 
 received the honorary title of the Roman order patricius, but which 
 others contend he received ere he first landed in Ireland. On this 
 second visit to Rome, he received the utmost degree of honor. He was 
 appointed legate or chief of the clergy of Ireland. He returns to the 
 loved scene of his labors, where he appointed thirty new chief bishops, 
 and divided the kingdom into sees, deaneries, rectories, and parishes, 
 over which he placed eminent ecclesiastics of learning and piety. 
 
 The sees, parishes, rectories, and deaneries, established by the 
 apostle, remain the ecclesiastical boundaries of the English church in 
 Ireland to this day. Towards the close of his life, he retired to Lough 
 Derg, a favorite retreat in the county Donegal, where he spent the most 
 part of its decline in pious meditation, presiding occasionally at great 
 synods of the clergy. 
 
 After a long life of piety, usefulness, and fame, the saint sank to rest, 
 at the age of one hundred and twenty-six, honored and revered by 
 nations. He sank peaceflilly, the bright luminary of heaven in the dis- 
 
356 ST, TATrJCK's TOMB. 
 
 lant west, blending his glory with the light of the gospel sun. No pomp 
 heralded his coming ; no mailed armies guarded his dying bed ; the 
 heralds of heaven bore him to the presence of his Creator. 
 
 He was buried in Downpatrick, in the north of Ireland ; and in the 
 same tomb were subsequently laid the remains of St. Bridget and St. 
 Columb Kille. A splendid shrine was erected here for the saint, which 
 was adorned with costly and precious jewels, and his staff was laid by 
 his side. 
 
 The tomb of Patrick was visited by Cambrensis in 1174, and upon it 
 he found the following Latin inscription : — 
 
 " Hi tres Duno, tumulo tumulaniur in uno, 
 Brigida, Patridus, atque Columba Pius." 
 
 "In Down three saints one grave do fill, 
 Bridget, Patrick, and Columb Kille." 
 
 Here his sainted bones rested, and here stood his shrine and the offer- 
 ings of piety that adorned it, till, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, the 
 fanatics of that age scattered the sacred pile, and took away the sacred 
 staff which the apostle carried when he performed the sacred offices of 
 his ministry. May Heaven forgive them 1 
 
MUSIC AND POETBT. 
 
 35/ 
 
 PATRICK'S DAY. 
 
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 But he must come again at the head of his men, 
 O'Connell and Matthew the van proudly leading, 
 And these vipers drive out, with shillelahs so stout, 
 From the island that Matthew's reforming; 
 
 And, should he not win, 
 
 We have millions of men. 
 That are ready to fight o'er the battle again, 
 With Saxon or Hessian, in valley and glen ; 
 For Erin is foaming with deep agitation. 
 And vows she'll submit to no foreign dictation. 
 O ! they never again shall oppress that brave nation. 
 On Patrick's day in the morning. 
 
 Come, now, raise a shout, and let freemen speak out, 
 For the hour is come for Erin's redeeming; 
 The times they are favoring, the enemy's wavering, 
 And Ireland's freedom is dawning. 
 O'er valley and hill. 
 By streamlet and rill, 
 The voice of young Liberty, echoing shrill, 
 
360 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 Proclaims to the world the national will ; 
 And millions are swelling in high exultation, 
 For the Saxon is sinking in every nation, 
 While Erin takes courage, makes one declaration 
 Of freedom on Patrick's morning! 
 
 4. 
 
 Then who is there here that refuses a cheer 
 To the land of Macdonough* and Barry! now mourning; 
 Or of Jackson | so brave, that shed o'er the wave, 
 The rays of his splendor adorning ; 
 
 Of Montgomery,<§> too, 
 
 Who, to freedom so true, 
 Let his blood spill like water, winning freedom for you ! 
 His race now for liberty fervently sue ; 
 And the nation that gave those heroes so brave 
 To Columbia, to battle on field and on wave. 
 Deserves her old station, as freedom's own nation, 
 On Patrick's day in the morning! 
 
 * Macdonough, the hero of Lake Champlain, was the son of Irish parents, born 
 on the passage to America. 
 
 + Barry was a Wexford man. He left his country as a ship-boy, at seventeen 
 years of age, and became a captain of a merchantman trading to America. When 
 the revolution broke out, he volunteered to fight at sea on the side of liberty; was 
 appointed to the command of the first vessel ever built by the republic, — the Lex- 
 ington, of seventeen guns, — distinguished himself in many a well-fought action, and 
 lived to receive the applauding thanks of Washington and liberated America. 
 
 X Jackson, like Macdonough, was born of Irish parents, on their passage to the 
 Canadas. His deeds form a principal part of the history of the United States. 
 His defence of New Orleans will last as long in the memories of mankind as the 
 defence of Thermopylse. " The Irish blood, which alone flows in my veins, will 
 never cease, but with my life, to beat in unison with those who have at heart the 
 establishment of Irish liberty." — Letter to the Author, dated '■'■Hermitage, May 23, 
 1842." 
 
 § Montgomery, an Irishman, brigadier-general of the American army, fell in the 
 midst of a successful career, at the gates of Quebec. He had driven the English 
 before him for several hundred miles, and fell here by a chain -shot, said to have 
 been fired by a recreant from the American side, who had joined the British. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 361 
 
 O ERIN, MY COUNTRY! 
 
 1. O E-rin, my country ! although thy harp slumbers, And 
 
 Ta-ra's old hall, With 
 
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 46 
 
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 en its tone 
 
362 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 2. 
 
 O Erin, my country ! I love thy green bowers ; 
 
 No music's to me like thy murmuring rills; 
 Thy shamrock to me is the fairest of flowers, 
 
 And nought is more dear than thy daisy-clad hills. 
 Thy caves, whether used by the warriors or sages, 
 
 Are still sacred held in each Irishman's heart; 
 And thy ivy-crowned turrets, the pride of past ages, 
 
 Though mouldering in ruins, do grandeur impart. 
 
 3. 
 
 Britannia may vaunt of her lion and armor, 
 
 And glory when she her old wooden walls views; 
 Caledonia may boast of her pibroch and claymore, 
 
 And pride in her philibeg, kilt, and her hose ; 
 But where is the nation can rival old Erin ? 
 
 Or where is the country such heroes can boast? 
 In battle they're brave as the lion or tiger. 
 
 And bold as the eagle that flies round her coast. 
 
 4. 
 
 The breezes oft shake both the rose and the thisde. 
 
 While Erin's green shamrock lies hushed in the vale; 
 In safety it rests while the stormy winds whistle, 
 
 And grows undisturbed 'midst the moss of the vale. 
 Then hail ! fairest island in Neptune's old ocean ! 
 
 Thou land of St. Patrick, my parents, agrah ! 
 Cold, cold must the heart be, and void of emotion, 
 
 That loves not the music of " Erin go bragh ! " 
 
 TAKE BACK THE VIRGIN PAGE. 
 
 BY MOORE. 
 
 1. Take back the vir - gin page. White and un - writ - ten still ; 
 
MUSIC AND POETBT. 
 
 363 
 
 ^: 
 
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 Some hand, more calm and sage, The leaf must fill. 
 
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 Thoughts come as pure as light. Pure as e - ven you require ; 
 
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 But, O ! each word I write Love turns to fire 1 
 
 2. 
 
 Yet, let me keep the book; 
 
 Oft shall my heart renew, 
 When on its leaves I look. 
 
 Dear thoughts of you. 
 Like you, 'tis fair and bright; 
 
 Like you, too bright and fair 
 To let wild passion write 
 
 One wrong wish there. 
 3. 
 Haply, when from those eyes 
 
 Far, far away I roam. 
 Should calmer thoughts arise 
 
 Towards you and home. 
 Fancy may trace some line 
 
 Worthy those eyes to meet; 
 Thoughts that not burn, but shine 
 
 Pure, calm, and sweet. 
 4. 
 And, as the records are 
 
 Which wandering seamen keep, 
 Led by the hidden star 
 
 Through winter's deep. 
 So may the words I write 
 
 Tell through what storms I stray; 
 You still the unseen light 
 
 Guiding my way ! 
 
LECTUEE XI 
 
 FROM A. D. 500 TO 800. 
 
 Glimpse at the Greeks and Romans. — State of Europe in the fifth Century. — 
 The Saxons. — Alliance between the Irish and Saxons. — Saxons obtain a Foot- 
 ing in England. — Seize on the Government. — Battles between the Saxons and 
 native Britons. — Treacherous Massacre committed by the Saxons. — Ancient 
 Memento of the Deed. — Battles of the Saxons with the native Britons. — The 
 Angles. — Origin of the Term "England." — The Heptarchy. — Resumption of 
 the Narrative. — Reign of OUiol. — National Assembly of Tara. — Trade Corpo- 
 rations. — Reign of Lughaidh. — Progress of Christianity. — St. Bridget. — Orna- 
 mented Writing in her Time. — Reign of Mortough. — Spirit of the Christian 
 Ages. — The Monks. — Their Rules of Life. — College of Lismore. — Seized on 
 at the Reformation. — Origin of the Societies of holy Men. — Their Establish- 
 ment on the Continent by Irish Missionaries. — Christian Spirit of the Nation. — 
 Colleges. — Zeal and Number of the Christian Missionaries. — Reflections on 
 the Influence of religious Instruction. — Opinions of Sir James Mackintosh, 
 Bede, and Camden. — Eminent Irish Missionaries. — Catalans. — Sedulius. — 
 Colurab Kille. — His expulsion from Ireland. — Founds the Monastery of Huy. 
 
 — Returns with a Delegation from Scotia Minor. — Proceedings of the Delega- 
 tion. — His Death and Sepulchre. — Columbanus. — His Mission in France and 
 Germany. — Gall. — Jonas. — Fiacre. — Aidan. — Irish Missionaries teach the 
 Saxons. — Reluctance of the Scotch and English to acknowledge it. — Finian. — 
 Colman. — Fursey. — Maildelphus. — Cuthbert. — Kilian. — Sedulius. — Donatus. 
 
 — Virgilius. — He discovers the Sphericity of the Earth. — Clement. — Alba- 
 nius. — Appointed by Charlemagne over his Colleges. — Dungal. — Appointed 
 Manager of the Schools of Italy. — John Scotus. — His Reception by Charles 
 the Bald of France. — Appointed by King Alfred to preside in the University 
 of Oxford. — King Alfred educated in Ireland. — The English derived their 
 Letters, Education, and Laws, from Ireland. 
 
 We are now arrived at the close of the fifth century of the Christian 
 era. Ireland had enjoyed, for the previous eighteen hundred years, an 
 uninterrupted independence and a brilliant fame. She witnessed, 
 during those succeeding centuries, the fall of Carthage, the rise and fall 
 of Greece, the rise, career, and prostration of Rome. Carthage and 
 Greece had fallen the victims of Roman aggrandizement; and Rome 
 herself came down at last, the victim of her own tyranny and vice. 
 About the year of Christianity 476, we find the vast empire broken up, 
 and the Gothic kings seated on the thrones of the Caesars. From that 
 point back to the foundation of the imperial city by Romulus there 
 passed twelve hundred and twenty years. For five hundred years 
 after the erection of the city, there was no written history of Rome or 
 its people. The history of Ireland was commenced by Ambergin, the 
 Druid, thirteen hundred years before the Christian era, and eight or 
 
GLIMPSE AT THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. 365 
 
 nine hundred before that of the imperial mistress of the world was 
 begun. 
 
 Ireland was a nation ere Rome had risen, and Ireland was in the 
 zenith of her nationality when she fell. For four centuries, the Irish 
 kept the arms of Rome fully employed in Britain, nor suffered one of 
 their soldiers to touch her holy earth ; and, in the end, her heroes, 
 O'Niall and Dathy, drove her eagles before them through the provinces 
 of Britain and France. 
 
 Glorious, glorious Erin ! her antiquity and her history may be paraded 
 against the grandeur of Rome and the refinement of Greece. The 
 ferocity and bestiality of the fofmer, and the slavery and imbecility of 
 the latter, find no copyists amongst the Irish. Of Rome I have said 
 much, of Greece little. We pardon much to Greece for her scholars ; 
 yet their knowledge consisted only of glimpses at the history of by- 
 gone nations : in architecture and sculpture they were proficients, but 
 they learned from Egypt ; of manufactures, mechanics, or commerce, 
 they knew httle ; in poetry, eloquence, and logic, they were masters ; 
 in music they were infants. Their republican forms of government 
 were stained by the most odious tyranny. When Greece was freest, 
 the slaves formed the actual majority of the inhabitants. To these the 
 free citizens were rigorous bond-masters. The condition of the people 
 under these governments was more servile and humiliating than any to 
 be found under the most despotic monarchies. The contraction of 
 debts was the source of bondage even between the free. Nor were the 
 richer classes independent ; they generally ranged into factions, sup- 
 porting rival politicians, and were influenced by corruption. "The 
 whole," says Tytler, " was a system of servility and debasement of 
 spirit which left nothing that could furnish material for encomium to a 
 real advocate for the dignity of human nature." 
 
 In the fifth century, Ireland, as we have seen, abjured the Druid 
 worship, and yielded her intellect to the doctrines of the cross. 
 Rome fell about this period, and the unbridled fury of the northern 
 nations, just expanding from the chains of her broken power, swept like 
 a tornado over Europe. All that was valuable in art or science was 
 covered in the chaos of eternal night. Art, literature, writings, every 
 thing, was buried in the graves which desolation peopled. For nearly 
 a hundred years, this carnage and commotion continued. The Latin 
 tongue, the language of Rome, and of some of her dependencies, was 
 corrupted by the jargon of all the other nations. Its spelling and 
 pronunciation were lost in the track of commotion. Many hundreds 
 
366 STATE OF EUROPE IN THE FIFTH CENTURY. 
 
 fled from the theatre of contending armies to Ireland, the only spot ia 
 Europe that was found sacred to literature, — the sacred island, whose 
 gallant sons esteemed the wise and protected the weak. 
 
 The Gothic chiefs, as I have said, were seated in the palaces of the 
 Caesars, and the Saxon tribes, about the same time, had made a firm 
 footing in Britain. By the triumphant efforts of our Dathy, Gaul was 
 delivered from the Roman yoke, and a prince of the ancient Gaulish 
 line restored to the throne of that nation. He was the first free king 
 of the ancient race who reigned in that country for four hundred years, 
 or during the supremacy of the Romans. His name was Clodian ; but, 
 on his assumption of the government, he was called Chevelu, as he 
 wore his hair in long curls — a privilege denied to any of the Gaulish 
 people by their masters, for they were compelled by the Romans to 
 cut their hair short, as a mark of their subjection and slavery. 
 
 In Britain, the Saxons began to be important, and, as about this 
 time they first made a permanent footing in that country, a few digres- 
 sional remarks on their history may be acceptable. 
 
 Notwithstanding that the power of Rome was thoroughly subdued in 
 Britain by O'Niall and Dathy, there still remained some mean spirits in 
 that country, vv^ho, a little before her complete fall, hankered after her 
 honors, and tides, and appointments, — who Uved, in fact, by aiding 
 her in subjecting their own countrymen to her sway. We could 
 hardly believe so badly of humanity, but that we see instances of a 
 like degradation in too many Irishmen of the present day, who meanly 
 live by aiding or countenancing England in her oppressive subjuga- 
 tion of their country. The Irish monarch Loagaire, observing these 
 treacherous addictions in the chiefs of Britain, and seeing the temporary 
 successes of the Roman Actius in Gaul, became alarmed lest a new 
 invasion of Britain should be determined on. With the view of ren- 
 dering his own dominions the more secure, he encouraged an alliance, 
 offensive and defensive, between the Saxon tribes of Germany, the 
 Picts, and himself, for their mutual protection against Rome, especially 
 on British ground. The Irish monarch had had the address to induce 
 the most national of the old Britons to invite the Saxons into their 
 country, and to allot them lands to colonize and cultivate. 
 
 The Saxons thus got their first footing in England, and they, ob- 
 serving the effeminacy of the Britons, and the bias which many of 
 them manifested towards the sway of their tottering masters, formed the 
 design of seizing on the government. This seemed to be favored by 
 the Irish princes, on account of the protection it would afford their own 
 
SAXONS OBTAIN A FOOTING IN ENGLAND. 367 
 
 territories; and this accordance between the Irish and Saxons was 
 increased on the defeat of Attila, in Gaul, by the Roman troops. Their 
 immediate wisdom was manifest in this alliance, though, in after ages, 
 it proved the cause of their own fall. They judged that, by keeping 
 the Roman arms as far off as possible, they were best protecting them- 
 selves ; for, should she succeed in reconquering England, then the 
 full force of her wrath would naturally be directed against Ireland, her 
 unconquerable enemy in the west ; and on this very point Tacitus had 
 given his opinion, three centuries before, to Agricola, as I have already 
 quoted. 
 
 O'Halloran says, this accounts for, and explains, the constant predi- 
 lection which the Irish then had for the Saxons ; the care they took to 
 reform their rude manners ; to instruct tliem in the principles of Chris- 
 tianity, and in letters ; to ordain bishops and priests on purpose for the 
 Saxon mission ; to found schools and seminaries for them in different 
 parts of the kingdom ; all which the Venerable Bede, a Saxon born, 
 fully proclaims by a variety of passages in his Ecclesiastical History of 
 Britain. 
 
 When the Romans abandoned South Britain, the native Britons 
 elected a king, whom they soon after dethroned. They proceeded to 
 elect other kings, whom they successively dethrone or murder. At 
 length, they fix on Vortigcm, a prince of the Dumnonii, or inhabitants 
 of Devon and Cornwall. 
 
 The first body of Saxons, at the invitation of Vortigern, landed, in 
 the year 449, at the Isle of Thanet, in three galleys, from the 
 north-west of Germany, under the leadership of two brothers, Hengist 
 and Horsa ; they engaged in the service of Vortigern, and agreed to 
 fight against his enemies for pay ; they were kindly received, and, in 
 a short time, they sent for further reenforcements, which soon after 
 arrived. In this second expedition there came Danes and Angles, 
 and also the handsome Rotvena, niece of Hengist, with whom the 
 British prince became smitten, and to whom he was soon after 
 wedded. This marriage brought about an alliance between the reigning 
 prince and his hired auxiliaries, of a very close and apparently friendly 
 character ; but the new-comers assuming more authority than the old 
 inhabitants deemed legitimate or safe, the latter expressed aloud their 
 dissatisfaction, and finally called for their dismissal from the service 
 of their prince, and their return to their own country. The Saxoas 
 refused to accede to this, and the unfortunate Britons, who had but just 
 got rid of one set of tyrants, had now to fight for existence against 
 another. 
 
368 SAXONS SEIZE ON THE GOVERNMENT. SAXON MASSACRE. 
 
 A battle ensued between the Saxons and the native Britons in Kent, 
 and, though the former liad not the victory, yet Hengist, having, with 
 his own hand, killed the brother of the prince, took upon himself the 
 title of king of Kent. Two years after this, another great battle was 
 fought between the Saxons and native Britons, in which the former 
 were victorious, when Hengist ravaged the country in a merciless 
 manner, and the unfortunate inhabitants fled for safety to the distant 
 woods and mountains. The Britons then applied to the king of Brit- 
 tany, in France, for succor. He sent them Ambrosius, at the head of 
 ten thousand men ; but, through the jealousy of the local chiefs of the 
 old Britons, this force was rendered nugatory. 
 
 In 466, the war between the Saxons and Britons was again renewed. 
 It was in this war that the celebrated Prince Arthur, of Cornwall, 
 made his appearance at fourteen years of age. This war did not 
 change the features of the struggle. 
 
 Hengist, the chief of the Saxons, now meditated the blackest and 
 most atrocious deed that stains the page of history. Perhaps, in the 
 whole annals of the collected perfidy of mankind, there is nothing so 
 diabolical to be found. 
 
 On l!;e first arrival of the Saxons in Britain, Voriigem, the British 
 prince, fell in love with, and married, Roioena, the handsome niece 
 of Hengist. By him she had a daughter, who, when grown to 
 maturity, was given in marriage to Vortimer, the general-in-chief of 
 the old Britons. Hengist entered into a conspiracy with Rowena 
 to destroy this general, who was her own son-in-law, which she 
 accomplished by administering poison to him at an entertainment. 
 The conspiracy between this unnatural woman and her fiendish 
 uncle extended afterwards to the destruction " of her own husband, 
 and three hundred, of the chiefs of the Britons, under the fol- 
 lowing circumstances : Hengist gave a great entertainment, to 
 which, under pretence of agreeing to certain amicable conditions for 
 the peaceable settlement of the country, then under negotiation, Prince 
 Vortigern and three hundred of his chiefs were invited, who were 
 the heads of the noblest families in Britain. At the urgent 
 suggestion of this wicked woman, her husband and his chiefs and 
 captains accepted the invitation. In the midst of the banquet, the 
 prince and his three hundred chiefs were surrounded by a host of armed 
 Saxons, and all of them were foully butchered, one only escaping. 
 This occurred on the frst of May, 476, which was noted for ages 
 after as the day of Saxon treachery ; and, to mark the deed to the 
 execration of all posterity, Ambrosius erected a cromleagh, in Wiltshire. 
 
THE HEPTARCHY. ORIGIN OF " ENGLAND." 369 
 
 Such were the means by which the Saxons first obtained power in 
 Britain ; such were the means by which they preserved that power 
 through succeeding ages ; such were the means by which they obtained 
 power and preserved it in unfortunate Ireland ; and such the means 
 by which they would have power every where. 
 
 Hengist, after the butchery of the prince and all his chiefs, was so 
 detested and feared by the inhabitants of the country he had thus got 
 possession of, that they fled from it, leaving tracts of land totally unin- 
 habited. Other Saxon hordes were invited over, who, however, had to 
 fight their way inch by inch to the possessions they sought. In 488, 
 Hengist died, at the age of sixty-nine, thirty-nine years of which he 
 reigned the king of Kent. 
 
 Other Saxon leaders appeared ; and in those times the celebrated 
 Prince Arthur defeated them in several battles ; and at Baden Hilt, 
 near Bath, Arthur gained an important victory, where he killed, it is 
 said, four hundred Saxons with his own hand. 
 
 In 542, a decisive battle was fought near Camelford, between 
 Arthur, at the head of the old Britons, and the Saxons. In this battle, 
 the valiant Arthur was killed : and, though the commander of the 
 Saxons fell on the same field, the death of Arthur so discouraged the 
 Britons, that a panic seized them, their hopes fell, and, with their brave 
 commander, their cause sank forever. Arthur was buried in Glaston- 
 bury, at the age of ninety, seventy -six of which he was in the field, 
 tr}nng to rid his country of her oppressors. 
 
 Multitudes of the Angles now appeared, and landed on the eastern 
 coast of Britain ; and finally the Saxons and Angles became so numer- 
 ous, that, in the year 585, they agreed to divide the kingdom into seven 
 principalities, to be called England, over each of which a supreme 
 king was appointed ; and this was called the Heptarchy, which con- 
 tinued from this period to the year 827, when another organic change 
 took place by the invasion of the Scandinavians, or Danes. The 
 ancient inhabitants were driven among the barren mountains of Wales, 
 which was called Cambria : they were ever, and are still, a distinct 
 race from the Angles and Saxons — distinct in blood, customs, and 
 language. 
 
 Anno 458 We now return to the direct history of the Milesian race, 
 which I resume at the year 458. The estates of Tara had been 
 called together to elect a successor to Laogaire, who, after reigning 
 thirty years, was killed by lightning. Oilioll Molt, the son of the 
 hero Dathy, was, by a plurality of voices, declared monarch. He 
 47 
 
370 NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF TARA. TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 was a Christian prince, and so were almost all the princes and nobility 
 of the kingdom at the time. 
 
 It was decreed, at that sitting, that the Christian bishops should 
 fill those seats in the national assembly formerly occupied by the 
 Druid Flamens, and that three bishops should always compose a 
 part of the committee for inspecting the different provincial histories? 
 instead of the three arch-Druids. This committee was more regu- 
 larly appointed after St. Patrick's preaching than previously. It 
 was composed of three bishops, three bards, and three antiquarians. 
 The monarch, or his delegate, was the president of this commonwealth. 
 All the records of the kingdom were subjected to the severest criticism 
 and inquiry. 
 
 Besides the general assembly of Tara, there were the provincial 
 assemblies regularly convened at Cruachan in Connaught, and Emania 
 in Ulster, for the close inspection of trade, commerce, and the 
 mechanic arts. These provincial assemblies met, by proclamation of 
 the monarch, to make their reports on those matters so connected with 
 the happiness of the people. Sixty of the best-informed were com- 
 missioned to disperse themselves into the chief cities and manufac- 
 turing towns, to see if the exclusive privileges granted to them were in 
 any manner abused, or if any article was made so inferior as to defraud 
 the purchaser, or damage the national character. 
 
 Such were the wise methods by which our great ancestors preserved 
 their country free and happy, whilst other nations of Europe were 
 reduced to the greatest distress and confusion, owing to the absence of 
 sound legislation. How different are her affairs conducted in modern 
 times ! Though Scotland has her board of trade, established no earlier 
 than 1715; though England has her board of trade, established no 
 earlier than the reign of Elizabeth ; though France, Belgium, Holland, 
 and all the European nations, have their boards of trade, — Ireland alone 
 had no board of trade since the "Union," until the humble individual 
 who writes this record established one^ under the auspices of the Very 
 Reverend Dr. Flanagan, in 1840, based on the voluntary subscriptions 
 of the citizens of Dublin. That board is still continued by the Liber- 
 ator and the patriotic repealers of Ireland. It worked wonders in 
 awaking attention to the neglected manufactures of Ireland, some fabrics 
 of which, in beauty and durability, are not to be excelled in Europe. 
 
 Anno 478. In this year, Lughaidh, the son of Laogaire, became 
 monarch of Ireland. His reign was one of troubles. Though the in^ 
 fluence of Christianity softened the combatants, yet history is grieved to 
 
REIGN OF LUGHAIDH. PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. 371 
 
 record the shedding of much blood by rival factions. The Christian reli- 
 gion had now made great progress in Ireland. During St. Patrick's 
 mission, upwards of seven hundred religious houses were built and con- 
 secrated. Besides these, the celebrated St. Bridget founded her famous 
 monastery in Kildare, anno 480, for which she formed particular rules. 
 She was the daughter of Dubhtach, a Leinster captain ; was born 45.3 ; 
 took the veil, at the age of thirteen, from the hands of St. M' Caile. 
 She lived to seventy yeare of age ; and, from the day of her vow to 
 the day of her death, she was daily gaining in spiritual perfection. She 
 was not only canonized after death, but declared perpetual patroness 
 of Leinster. The fame of her sanctity spread over Europe, and at 
 Seville in Spain, at Lisbon, at Placentia in Italy, at Tours, Cologne, 
 and even in London, the Christians dedicated churches to her. Parents 
 were anxious to give her name to their children ; and every where 
 her life was imitated by the pious virgins, who dedicated themselves to 
 a retired communion with their Maker. She wrote several books 
 on various subjects ; amongst these, Rules for the Nuns of her own 
 Foundation ; a Poem to St. Patrick ; also the Life of St. Patrick. 
 She founded the convent, monastery, and the cathedral of Kildare, a 
 round tower near which is yet standing. 
 
 On the right and left sides of the old cathedral of Kildare were 
 placed monuments and statues of St. Bridget and St. Conlaith, highly 
 finished, and ornamented with precious stones, gold, and silver. From 
 the old descriptions of this cathedral, there is evidence of a very high 
 excellence in the science of architecture. And Cambrensis, the un- 
 friendly historian of Ireland, confesses to have examined, with astonish- 
 ment, amongst other relics and curiosities of the church, a Concordance 
 of the four Gospels, written for the use of St. Bridget, the margin of 
 which was ornamented with mystic pictures, most wonderfully and 
 animatingly finished ; the writing, but particularly the capital letters, 
 so highly ornamented, that, says he, " neither the pencil of Apelles, 
 nor the chisel of a Lysippus, ever formed the like; in a word, they seem 
 to have been formed by something more than a mortal hand." 
 
 Anno 503, Mortough, of the house of Niall, was chosen monarch 
 of Ireland. He was an excellent Christian, and his queen, Sabina, 
 led so exemplary a life as to be ranked amongst the saints of Ireland. 
 Several kings succeeded each other in Ireland ; but, as their reigns 
 furnish nothing beyond the average course of events, I will pass them 
 over. 
 
 In the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, the attention, 
 
372 SPIRIT OF THE IRISH CHRISTIANS. LISMORE. 
 
 labors, and enthusiasm, of the nation, seem to have been exclusively 
 directed to the erection of churches, monasteries, and colleges. In 
 these monasteries large numbers of religious men assembled. They 
 were governed by different local rules established by their founders. 
 Prayer, labor, and the instruction of the ignorant, seem to have been 
 their exclusive occupation. Their times for prayer were frequent both 
 by night and by day. In all the monasteries, they rose twice or thrice 
 in the night to pray and sing. In the daytime, they labored in their 
 fields, having none but themselves to cultivate their lands and raise 
 provisions. They returned frequently fram their fields to their churches 
 to offer prayer. Some of those pious men, better fitted with patience 
 and knowledge than the others, were the teachers of youtb. Instruc- 
 tion was universally communicated, free of charge, to the agricultural 
 population surrounding those monasteries. In all probability, the youth, 
 thu^ gratuitously taught, were. grateful to their kind-hearted preceptors, 
 and did them, in return, many generous offices in their building oper- 
 ations and harvest-work. A relationship of a most endearing nature 
 grew up between the inhabitants of those peaceful tenements and the 
 surrounding country, and a sanctified happiness seems to have pervaded 
 the entire nation. 
 
 There were many of those societies whose rules were more rigid than 
 the others ; some permitted no woman to enter their gates ; others lived 
 altogether on herbs, and drank nought but water. There seemed to be 
 an emulation between these several communities towards purity and 
 holiness, which stamped on the })eople that character of sanctity which 
 contemporary nations so much admired and applauded. 
 
 " Lismore is a holy city, into the half of which, there being an 
 asylum, no woman dare enter ; it w.as filled with cells and holy mon- 
 asteries, and a number of holy men are always in it. The religious 
 fiow to it from every part of Ireland, England, and Britain, anxious to 
 emigrate to Christ ; and the city itself is situate on the southern bank 
 of the river, formerly called Ne7n, lately called Aben-Mor, i. e., a great 
 river in the district of Nandesus." — Allemand's Monastic History of 
 Ireland. 
 
 This famous seat of learning was celebrated, even in pagan times, for 
 its literary fame. It is situated in the south of Ireland, on the banks of 
 the River Blackwater, which runs into the Atlantic at Youghal. 
 Perhaps, through all creation, there is not a more lovely spot. It 
 was a famous seat of literature long previous to the times of St. Patrick. 
 It was here Cataldus studied and King Cormac w^as educated ; here St. 
 
ABSENTEES. ORIGIX OF THE SOCIETIES OF HOLY MEN. 373 
 
 Donat taught, and Cormac of Cashell was entombed. It was the 
 sepulchre of sages and kings for many ages ; and, when the cross was 
 raised upon its time-honored towers, the pious of the European nations 
 came thither to worship and be instructed. The College of Lismore 
 educated more students, during the ages of its Christian fame, than 
 have Oxford and Cambridge together, since their foundation. 
 
 Lismore, as a Christian university, was liberally endowed with lands 
 for its maintenance. The produce of these lands was spent amongst 
 the people that raised it, brightening their intellects and nourishing 
 their persons. Education was offered to every body free of charge. 
 
 During the reformation, in tlie sixteenth century, Lismore and its lands 
 were seized on by Queen Elizabeth, and given to Boyle, the ancestor of 
 the present Duke of Devonshire. He was a soldier of fortune, who 
 came to Ireland with nothing but his sword and a patent to rob from 
 the virgin queen. The pious and learned inhabitants of Lismore were 
 put to the sword ; their lands and effects were seized ; the light of 
 education was extinguished, and the open hand of hospitality was closed 
 forever. The ■' noble " proprietor and his successors became absentees. 
 These lands were put into the hands of an agent. The rich produce, 
 the herds, and flocks, and grain, and provisions, raised by the poor 
 people who inhabit them, were thenceforward carried over to England 
 to feed a race tliat despise them. The Duke of Devonshire is con- 
 tinually absent ; he spends all this substance in the gayest parts of 
 Europe, and his tenants are considered well off, if the able-bodied 
 men get sixpence a day for their labor. The case of Lismore 
 is the case of all Ireland. 
 
 Whether the institutions of holy brotherhoods of monks had their origin 
 in Ireland or elsewhere, we have no very distinct means of ascertaining. 
 It is certain that, on St. Patrick's arrival in the country, he found 
 more than one society existing. The monks of St. Ailhe, and those 
 of St. Dedan and St. Kievan, were established in Ireland long be- 
 fore his time." Before the establishment of the two great societies by 
 St. Benedict and St. Augustine, there were established in Ireland thir- 
 teen distinct orders, viz., those of St. Ailbe, St. Declan, St. Kievan, 
 St. Patrick, St. Columb, St. Carthach, St. Molua, St. Moctee, St. 
 Colnan, St. Finian, St. Columbanus, St. Brendan, and the order 
 instituted by St. Bridget for females. All these orders differed one 
 from the other, not only in their dress, tonsure, food, and retirement, 
 but likewise in the names of those who had been their founders. 
 The abbeys and monasteries connected with each order were dis- 
 
374 ACKNOWLEDSMENT OF THE GERMANS. 
 
 tinct in name, possessions, and rules ; and these rules were totally 
 independent of those of any other brotherhood on the continent. 
 Indeed, there are but a few faint records of the monkish orders in 
 any part of the continent, till the times of St. Augustine and St. 
 Benedict, the former of whom flourished in the fourth and the latter 
 in the seventh century. These two societies endeavored to blend 
 all the existing orders with their own. But it appears that one 
 only of the thirteen Irish orders joined them at first, namely, that of 
 Columbanus. In the course of time, however, the remainder became 
 blended with one or other of these extensive orders. 
 
 Before this junction, the Irish missionaries had already established 
 their orders in France and Germany. St. Columbanus and St. Gall 
 had travelled from Ireland, in the close of the sixth century, through 
 France, Italy, Switzerland, and many parts of Germany, and had built 
 several monasteries and churches in all those countries, some of which 
 exist to this day. 
 
 The order of monks, or holy brotherhoods, was thus introduced into 
 some parts of Europe by Irish missionaries ; and the rules and church 
 music of Ireland were introduced at the same time. Whether any such 
 orders existed in Europe previous to their first establishment in Ireland, 
 we have no means of ascertaining. It is said, traditionally, there were 
 some orders in the isles of the Mediterranean and in Alexandria ; but 
 there is no very distinct record of their existence. 
 
 The Germans of the present day honorably acknowledge their 
 Christian and literary indebtedness to Ireland. In the present year, an 
 address of sympathy has been drawn up by some of the heads of the 
 German colleges, directed to Daniel O'Connell, in which ancient Ire- 
 land is thus spoken of: — 
 
 " It would, indeed, be divesting ourselves [the people of Germany] 
 of all human sentiments, if we were not to entertain the deepest and 
 sincerest sympathy for the ill-treated people of your isle, sighing under 
 >the yoke, and still reeking from the streams of shed blood. But want 
 of sympathy on our part would, moreover, involve the blackest ingrati- 
 tude. We never can forget to look upon your beloved country as our 
 mother in religion, that already, at the remotest periods of the Chris- 
 tian era, commiserated our people, and readily sent forth her spiritual 
 sons to rescue our pagan ancestor's from idolatry, at the sacrifice of her 
 own property and blood, and to entail upon them the blessings of the 
 Christian faith. They thus have made us their, and their nation's, 
 spiritual children, and laid up a store of merits for the people of Ireland, 
 
RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF THE IRISH. 
 
 375 
 
 which only base indifference and want of all good feeling could be 
 unmindful of, and which just now presents itself the more vividly to our 
 memory, the more ive behold the native land of those faithful apostles 
 delivered over to undeserved misfortune by hijustice." — German 
 Address to Daniel O' Connell, dated April, 1844. 
 
 This combined expression of sympathy and gratitude, from a people 
 so enlightened as the Germans, is peculiarly .cheering to the oppressed 
 Irishman, and is animating beyond measure, at this moment, to the Irish 
 exile. 
 
 So numerous were the literary and religious foundations established 
 by those people, that the island, says the Abbe M'Geoghegan, " was 
 called, by way of preeminence, from the number of saints it had 
 produced, Insula Sanctorum, the ' Island of Saints.' " The number, 
 indeed, was so great, that Colgan observed, not without reason, in the 
 preface to his life of the Irish saints, that " what is at present said of 
 them is scarcely credible." 
 
 "Besides, Ireland can, in comparison with the rest of Europe, boast 
 of having been at that time a seminary of sanctity, whither the Chris- 
 tians of other nations came in crowds, to learn the practice of Christian 
 virtue, and from whence a considerable number of saints went forth 
 daily, and dispersed themselves throughout the different parts of Europe, 
 where they founded famous abbeys, the monuments of which are still 
 to be seen, so that Ireland might be called, in that golden age, ' in 
 aureis illis seminatce Fidei primordiis,^ the Thebaid of the west. It 
 even appears, says Allemand, that, at that time, it was sufBcient to be 
 an Irishman, or to have been in Ireland, to be considered holy, and 
 become the immediate founder of some abbey. Whilst the rest of 
 Europe was a prey to the most dreadful catastrophes and astonishing 
 revolutions, Divine Providence bestowed upon this peaceful island 
 graces and blessings which strangers went thither to be partakers of." 
 
 A mere catalogue of the religious and literary institutions which they 
 erected would fill a score of pages, that might not, after all, be so inter- 
 BStino- to the general American reader as other matter presented in Irish 
 history. It may be sufficient to say, that, in every district of five 
 square miles in Ireland, institutions of this kind were established. In 
 these were deposited all the books and literary remains of former ages. 
 [n the abbey of Fathan, near Inisowen, there was found a large 
 book of chronology, filled with many historical passages concerning 
 other nations, from which the antiquarian frequently quoted. Colgan 
 said, that, in his time, there were still some fragments of it remaining, 
 which had escaped the fury of the reformers of later ages.. 
 
376 REFLECTIONS ON THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 
 
 In Armagh, Usher found those precious tomes of antiquity, which he 
 wrought, with so much genius, to his own advantage and renown. 
 Cashell, Tuam, St. Finbars, and other such pious depositories, yielded 
 their rich literary and chronological treasures to the modern historian. 
 The rich library of Lismore, seized on by Boyle, afforded his son, 
 the Earl of Orrery, that immense store of knowledge of science and 
 astronomy which shone out through him as original conceptions. 
 
 ;S'^. Fachanus founded an academy at Ross, in the county of Cork, 
 which soon grew into a city, and which is ranked by Ware as one of 
 the principal academies of this age. The university of Clonard, next to 
 that of Benchoir, was greatly celebrated. In it, under St. Finian, were 
 no less a number than three thousand scholars at one time ; in that of 
 Armagh, there were seven thousand. 
 
 The great St. Bernard, an Italian writer of the twelfth century, says 
 that, " in the sixth century, under St. ComhgiU, the monastery of 
 Benchoire was a most noble one, containing many thousand monks, 
 and itself the chief of many monasteries. So fruitful was it of holy 
 men, and multiplying so greatly to the Lord, that Luanus alone, a 
 subject of this house, founded no less than one hundred monasteries. 
 
 " This T mention," continues he, " that the reader may form an idea 
 of the number of religious that existed in these days in Ireland." 
 
 The zeal and piety of these holy monks, he tells us, were not con- 
 6ned to Ireland, but, like an inundation, their saints spread piety and 
 virtue over all Europe. 
 
 A list of the religious, literary, and scientific books, written in this 
 age, has been furnished by the historians, but they form quite a cata- 
 logue. It is true that the majority of these works consist of the lives 
 of saints, and are occupied with other pious subjects, and may not be 
 highly appreciated by the Uluminaii of the present age. There are 
 some, however, of the pious descendants of the great race of which 
 those men were part, who appreciate their worth, and still would imitate 
 their pious examples. One of the great objects these despised men ever 
 had in view was, to improve the human heart, and call forth from its 
 recesses charity, philanthropism, hospitality, and a thorough contempt of 
 riclies, — to subdue or root out that curse of the human mind, covetous- 
 ness, a vice from which the majority of the troubles of families and of 
 nations has proceeded. That besetting sin begins in infancy: the 
 child, covetous of toys and coppers, grows to manhood, and becomes 
 covetous of wealth. It is the business of religion to purge this and 
 other deteriorating passions from the human mind. 
 
IN FORMING THE GOOD CITIZEN. 377 
 
 But where religion forms not the good citizen, neither can the law. 
 The purity and force of the law proceeds from that purity, integrity, 
 and innate love of justice, which religion only can engender and pre- 
 serve in the human heart. Without religion, the general is susceptible 
 of treachery, the judge of partiality, the public magistrate of bribery, 
 and the public officer of 'peculation. 
 
 The order of Heaven is equality, and a common participation, here 
 and hereafter, in its blessings. Any serious deviation from this order 
 produces misery in the community in which it arises. We all come 
 into the world and go out of it on a perfect equality. The baby of the 
 monarch or the president, and the baby of the humblest in society, 
 are equally helpless, equally pleased or grieved by the self-same causes, 
 and experience the self-same sensations of pleasure or pain. The 
 differences that arise between us in after life proceed from a variety of 
 subsequent circumstances, including the gifts of a sound, capacious 
 mind, derived most frequently from a serene, religious, and healthy 
 parentage, — or a mind of an opposite nature, derived from an opposite 
 source. A mind derived from the former source, if instructed by the 
 genius o^ religion and charity, expands into a most perfect human being. 
 
 Heaven points its finger of scorn at the accumulations of the cov- 
 etous, and the tinsel dignity of the worldly great, by blessing poor and 
 lowly parents with children who become the very lords of intellect. 
 
 When the mind expands without the governing power of religion, 
 the worst kind of human passions grow and increase, and in pro- 
 portion to the capacity with which the individual is endowed, so in 
 that degree does he become more and more mischievous to mankind. 
 
 Sir James Mackintosh remarks, on the tendency of the old Irish 
 writers to celebrate the most learned, virtuous, and pious of men, 
 instead of the most warlike, " The vast collections of the lives of 
 saints often throw light on public events, and open glimpses into the 
 habits of men in those times. * * * The whole force of this noble 
 attempt to exalt human nature was at this period spent on the lives of 
 saints — a sort of moral heroes, or demigods, without some acquaint- 
 ance with whom it is hard to comprehend an age when the com- 
 memoration of the virtues then most venerated, as imbodied in those 
 holy men, was the principal theme of the genius of Christendom." 
 
 The degree of eminence, in literature and science, to which the Irish 
 
 nation attained, is hardly to be credited, and would not be admitted on 
 
 the authority of their own historians, whose partiality for their country, 
 
 or whose vanity, might be supposed to influence their descriptions, 
 
 48 
 
378 OPINIONS OF BEDE AND CAMDEN. LABORS OF CATALDUS. 
 
 But the united testimony of a crowd of foreign authors, ancient and 
 modern, from Bade to Monsieur Michelet, suppHes proofs that must 
 remove all doubt about the facts. 
 
 - " Besides the number of monasteries that had been founded in Ire- 
 land, and which were peopled with saints and learned monks not inferior 
 to the fathers of the deserts for the austerity of their lives and total 
 abandonment of the world, Ireland supplied all Europe, during these 
 a^es, with swarms of zealous missionaries, who announced the name of 
 Jesus Christ amongst some nations, and among others caused it to 
 revive." — Bede. 
 
 The English Camden remarks, " The disciples of Patrick made so 
 great a progress in Christianity, that, in the following age, Ireland was 
 called the Island of Saints; and none could be more holy and learned 
 than the Irish monks, both in their own country and Britain, who sent 
 swarms of most holy men iiito all Europe. To them, Luxovium in 
 Burgundy, Bohiense in Italy, Hornipolis in Franconia, St. Gallus in 
 Helvetia, Malmesburia in Lindefarn, and many other monasteries in 
 Britain, owe their origin. The following saints were from Ireland : 
 Celius Sedulius, (presbyter,) Columba, Columbanus, Colmanus, Aidanus, 
 Gallus, Kilianus, Maidulphus, Brendanus, and many others, who were 
 renowned for their sanctity and learning." 
 
 The eminent Cataldus deserves the attention of the historian and the 
 reader. Born in Ireland, he made his studies in the celebrated College 
 of Lismore. Here, according to Usher, he was the delight of the foreign 
 students, who flocked to that celebrated seat of literature for knowledge : 
 " A youth, endowed with a hberal discipline, soon attained to that ex- 
 cellence in instructions, that the Gauls, English, Teutones, Scotch, and 
 other neighboring people, who came to Lismore, flocked to hear him." 
 Having performed the functions of bishop of Rathheny, in Ireland, some 
 years, he undertook a voyage to Jerusalem, to visit the holy sepulchre, 
 and, returning through Italy, he re'cstahlished the Christian religion 
 amongst the Tarentines, who had already abandoned it, and returned to 
 the impious worship of idols. The inhabitants of Tarentum adopted 
 him as their patron saint, and on his death erected a silver monument 
 over his tomb. It is said by Usher and Ware, that he foretold the 
 destruction of Naples. He preached in the fifth century. Usher con- 
 cludes his notice of him in these remarkable words : " Rejoice, O happy 
 Ireland, for being the country of so fair an offspring ; but thou, Taren- 
 tum, rejoice still more, which encloses (within a tomb) so great a treas- 
 ure!" 
 
SEDULIUS. FRIDOLINTJS. 379 
 
 Sedulius, a native of Hibernia, according to Usher, was a most 
 eminent scholar, who travelled through Europe, studied and lectured 
 at Rome, wrote several works in prose and verse, some of them theo- 
 logical, some historical, some biographical : he also wrote some hymns, 
 which were adopted by the council of the church at Rome. The 
 works of Sedulius were highly esteemed by the ancients ; to which a 
 council, composed of seventy bishops, assembled at Rome during the 
 pontificate of Gelasius, bears a favorable testimony. " We think highly,^' 
 said the fathers of the council, ''of the paschal work, written in heroic 
 verse, by the venerable Sedulius/' Moore has the following, in reference 
 to this learned man : " A far loftier flight of sacred song was at the same 
 time [fifth century] ventured by an Irish writer abroad, the poet Shell ; 
 in Irish, Seidhuil, Latinized Sedulius. Among other writings of 
 acknowledged merit, he was the author of a spirited poem in iambics, 
 upon the life of Christ. From this poem the Catholic church has 
 selected some of her most beautiful hymns.'' Sedulius wrote in 448, 
 more than a century before the time of Pope St. Gregory. Hilde- 
 phonsus, archbishop of Toledo, says of our author, that he was an 
 evangelical poet, an eloquent orator, and a Catholic writer — "bonus 
 ille Sedulius, poeta evangelicus, orator facundus, scriptor Catholicus." 
 Lastly, the church inserted " A soUs ortus cardine/' and " Hostis 
 Herodes impie," (taken from the writings of Sedulius,) in the breviary 
 of hymns, the first at the nativity of our Savior, and the last at the 
 Epiphany, with the " Salve, sancta parens, enixa puei'pera Regem," 
 which is used as an introit at the masses of the blessed Virgin. 
 
 St. Fridolinus, son of an Irish king, having embraced a monastic life, 
 left his country, and travelled through several parts of Germany and 
 France, about the end of the fifth century, and in the time of Clovis, 
 fii'st Christian king of the Franks ; on which account he was called 
 " Fridolinus the traveller," by Judocus, Coccius, Possevin, and others. 
 After preaching the gospel in different parts of Gaul, he withdrew for 
 some time to the monastery of St. Hilary, at Poitiers, of which he was 
 created superior. He afterwards founded several religious houses in 
 Thuringia, Alsace, Strasburg, and on the fi'ontiers of Switzerland ; 
 Colgan reckons eight, six of which were dedicated to St. Hilary, for 
 whom this saint had a particular devotion. Lastly, he founded a mon- 
 astery for females in an island in the Rhine, called Seeking or Secane, 
 where he was interred in 514. According to Baleus, he wrote some 
 works of piety which have been lost. The Scotch writers claim this 
 
380 ' St. COLUMB EILLE. 
 
 great man for their country ; but M'Geoghegan, from whom I take the 
 above, brings up a crowd of foreign authorities who confound the idea. 
 One or two only of his foreign authors shall I here quote. " The con- 
 vent of Seeking was commenced by St. Fridolinus, who was son of a 
 king of the Scots; he was eminent for his studies in philosophy." — 
 Bruschius on German Monasteries, — " Old historians are agreed in 
 this, that' Fridolinus was of royal descent, that he was born in Lower 
 Scotia, which is called Ireland." — Peter Canisius, Life of St. Frido- 
 linus. 
 
 St. Columb Kille was born in the beginning of the sixth century : he 
 lived to the age of seventy-seven, thirty-three years of which were spent 
 in North Britain, conducting the light of the gospel to the Picts and 
 Scots. He was educated in Ireland, under St. Fridian, who be- 
 came afterwards bishop of Lucca, in Italy. He acquired a com- 
 plete knowledge of the learned languages and divinity, in the College 
 of Clonard, where there were, at that time, three thousand students. 
 After this, he became abbot of a monastery in Deny. 
 
 It was the law of the Tara Jies, or parliament, that any man who 
 should raise up the hand to strike, much less to kill, during its legislati\e 
 deliberations, should be deemed guilty of death, out of the power of lire 
 monarch to pardon. In the year 549, there took place at Tara a fatal 
 quarrel between Cuornane M^Aodh and another member of the great 
 assembly, in which the latter was killed. As the crime was death, 
 the offender flew to his friends Daniel and Fergus, princes of great 
 power; but they durst not harbor him, and advised him to go to 
 their cousin, St. Columba, and, by imploring his protection, he might 
 afford him an asylum in his monastery; for, in those days, the 
 criminal who became penitent, and remained within the walls of a 
 monastery, was held harmless from the process or punishment of the 
 law. Cuornane, accordingly, applied to Columba, and was admitted 
 to his monastery in Derry. But a national outrage of this sort was 
 not to go unpunished ; and Dermod, the king, had the offender 
 dragged out of the monastery, and put to death, notwithstanding the 
 prayers and protests of the brothers to the contrary. 
 
 Columba deemed the violation of his asylum the cause of God. 
 High in blood, he could not brook this insult : he therefore applies to 
 his relations, the northern Clana Neill; and Fergus and Domhnal, at 
 the head of a mighty army, are in the field, to vindicate the insulted 
 abbot. A terrible battle is fought at Cuildreimhne, between the pro- 
 
COLUMBA FOUNDS THE MONASTERY AND COLLEGE OF BY. 381 
 
 vincials and the chief monarch's army, in which the abbot's party 
 gain the day. The vanquished party recruit their strength, and in turn 
 make war upon the abbot. 
 
 He is requested by his bishop to abstain from all interference in such 
 terrible affairs. Disregarding the admonition, a synod of the clergy is 
 held, before which Columba is cited to appear. He submits to their 
 decision in his regard, and their decision is, that he shall quit Ireland, 
 and never see her again. To this he submits, with a truly repentant 
 spirit. His public reprehension, and his penitentiary exile, do great 
 honor to the clerical order and discipline of those days. 
 
 On his arrival in Albion, with a goodly number of brothers, he was 
 kindly received by Conall, prince of the Dal Rhida, who bestowed 
 on him the Isle of Huy, or Hy. Here he established his chief monas- 
 tery ; and from thence, with his followers, he entered the country of the 
 Picts, and by his zeal, his preaching, his precept and example, con- 
 verted the whole country. 
 
 In the year 574, when Aodh was monarch of Ireland, a special par- 
 liament was called in Tara, for the purpose of taking some decided steps 
 to collect in the yearly tribute, due by Albania to the Irish crown ; 
 also, to enact some regulations as to colleges. At this great assembly 
 the Albanians were represented, and amongst others, who came upon 
 this memorable occasion, was Columba, attended by twenty bishops, 
 forty priests, and fifty deacons. As part of the sentence imposed upon 
 Columba, on quitting Ireland, was, that he should never more see the 
 country, he complied literally with this penance, for he had his eyes 
 bound up from the time of quitting Scotland to his return home. 
 
 He was received with great ceremony and respect in Ireland, and the 
 grand assembly, in which mingled his voice and wisdom, abolished many 
 abuses that existed in schools, and in other departments of state. 
 
 St. Columba composed several works in prose and verse ; amongst 
 others, a Rule for Monks, which still exists, the Life of St. Patrick, and 
 a Hymn to St. Kieran. These I have already noticed in the section on 
 music. There were many works of piety and prophecy written by this 
 eminent man. He was entombed, at his death, amongst the great 
 chiefs of Scotland, in the abbey of Hy, in 597 ; but part of his remains 
 were removed, in the beginning of the ninth century, to the monastery 
 of Down, where they were deposited with those of St. Patrick and St. 
 Bridget, as already noticed. 
 
 Rich as have been the annals of Ireland in names of samtly renown, 
 for none has she cherished, in all ages, a greater reverence than for her 
 
382 COLUMBANDS. 
 
 great Columb Kille. That isle of the waves (Hy) with which his name 
 is connected, and which, through his ministry, became the " Luminary 
 of the Caledonia Regions, has far less reason," says Moore, " to boast 
 of her tombs of kings, than of those heaps of votive pebbles, cast by 
 pilgrims along the path which took them to the honored shrine of her 
 saint. From this immemorial custom, the island was denominated 
 lona. There is a splendid copy of the Four Gospels, in the hand- 
 writing of Columb Kille, now deposited in Trinity College, Dublin. 
 Usher, O'Flaherty, and other antiquarians, have authenticated it. 
 It is indeed amongst the most precious relics of the early Christians. 
 Speaking of lona, Dr. Johnson writes : " We are now treading that 
 illustrious island, which was once the luminary of the Caledonia regions. 
 That man is litde to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force 
 upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer 
 upon the ruins of lona." — Journey to the Western Islands. 
 
 The eminent Columbanus performed a distinguished part in his time. 
 He was a native of Leinster, in Ireland. In his youth he had been a 
 diligent student of grammar and languages. Early in life, he was a per- 
 fect master of his own tongue, as well as those of Greece, Rome, Spain, 
 and other nations. He wrote several commentaries on the Scriptures, 
 Psalms, and other religious subjects, which were the chief topics of the 
 scholars of the age. He studied under very eminent men in the Irish 
 colleges, and finally placed himself under the instruction of the chief of 
 the abbey of Benchoir, from whence he subsequently departed, with 
 twelve disciples, to go to Britain, and from thence to Burgundy. In 
 the latter country he was received by the king, Sigebert, with every 
 possible mark of respect ; for bis fame had travelled before him. This 
 prince offered him lands for a settlement in any part of his dominions. 
 Columbanus fixed on Luxeu, in the desert, at the foot of the mountains 
 of Vosge, where he founded a celebrated monastery, in which he estab- 
 lished his order, and the perpetual psalmody, by different choirs, who 
 relieved each other day and night. He was the first who established 
 the monastic order among the French. The order of St. Columbanus 
 was then considered the model of a retired life, and Luxeu as the centre 
 of perfection. The number of persons, of every rank and condition, 
 who wished to submit to the law of St. Columbanus, was so great, that, 
 in order to lighten the burden on the house of Luxeu, he was obliged to 
 found another at Fontaine, in the same country. 
 
 Columbanus had been, for nearly twenty years, at the head of the 
 monastery of Luxeu, when he was expelled through the influence of 
 
COLUMBANUS'S MISSION IN FRANCE AND ITALT. 383 
 
 Brunehaut. This ambitious queen shared the government of Burgundy 
 with her grandson Thierry the Second, who was king. Fearing that 
 the marriage of this prince would diminish her authority, she endeavored 
 to dissuade him from it, by procuring him illicit pleasures, which ex- 
 cited the zeal of St. Columbanus, who reproached him severely for the 
 shameful life he led. The prince, who had a high opinion of the sanctity 
 of St. Columbanus, heard him patiently ; but the intrigues of Brunehaut, 
 who had prejudiced all the nobles of the kingdom against him, forced 
 him to yield to the storm, by leaving his monastery at Luxeu. Not- 
 withstanding this, our saint was favorably received by Clothaire the 
 Second, king of Suissons, to whom he foretold that in three years 
 the French monarchy would be united in his person, which prophecy 
 was afterwards accomplished. 
 
 St. Columbanus, having preached the word of God in several prov- 
 inces in France, and confirmed his doctrine by miracles too numerous to 
 be introduced here, went to Italy, where, with the approbation of Aigi- 
 lulph, king of the Lombards, he founded the abbey of Bobbio, in Milan, 
 over which he presided but one year, having died there on the 21st of 
 November, 615, and was succeeded by a native of Burgundy, called 
 Atala. 
 
 The Augustine monks affirm that St. Columbanus was of their order ; 
 but Reyner says that he was a Benedictine. 
 
 St. Columbanus wrote many works in Latin, which are quoted by 
 Ware and others ; namely, a book of commentaries on the Psalter ; a 
 work against the Arians, which Jonas calls " a work of flowery eru- 
 dition ; " and thirteen homilies. 
 
 " The writings of this eminent man," says Moore, " that have come 
 down to us, display an extensive and varied acquaintance, not merely 
 with ecclesiastical, but with classical literature. He was acquainted 
 both with Greek and Hebrew, as well as Latin and that of his own 
 country, [the English language did not then exist ;] and when it is recol- 
 lected that he did not leave Ireland till he was nearly fifty years of age, 
 and that his life afterwards was one of constant activity and adventure, 
 the conclusion is obvious, that all this knowledge of elegant literature 
 must have been acquired in the schools of his own country. The vari- 
 ous countries and places with which the name of this great saint is con- 
 nected, have multiplied his lasting titles to fame. While Ireland boasts 
 of his birth, France remembers him by her ancient abbeys of Luxeuil and 
 Fontaine; and his fame in Italy still lives, not only in the cheiished 
 relics at Bobbio ; in the coffin, the chalice, the holy staff of the founder; 
 
384 GALL. JONAS. FIACRE. 
 
 and the strange sight of a Missal in the Irish language, in a foreign land, 
 but in the every-day remembrance of his name, which lives in the beau- 
 tiful town of San Columbano, in the territory of Lodi." 
 
 St. Gall, who accompanied Columbanus, was born, of noble parents, 
 in Ireland ; was placed, at an early age, according to his life, written by 
 Wailafridus Straboj under the guidance of St. Columbanus, with whom 
 he made considerable progress in the study of the Holy Scriptures, the 
 liberal arts, grammar, and poetry, and in the practice of regular discipline. 
 He passed through a variety of adventures and sufferings, in his efforts 
 to spread the religion of the cross. He finally died near his holy cell, 
 near which the monastery called after him was erected, and round 
 which the populous town of St. Gall, in Switzerland, now stands. There 
 are some manuscripts deposited in this celebrated abbey in the hand- 
 writing of St. Gall, and his preceptor, St. Columbanus. They are 
 probably amongst the oldest in Europe. 
 
 The immediate companions and disciples of these two learned and 
 holy men founded several abbeys in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and 
 France. I compress from M'Geoghegan, Moore, and O'Halloran, some 
 particulars of a few only of the Irish missionaries of that age. 
 
 Dichuill (in Latin, DlchuUus and Deicola) was half brother of St. 
 Gall, and, like him, a disciple of St. Columbanus. He obtained per- 
 mission to remain in Burgundy, where he founded, at a few leagues 
 from Luxeu, the celebrated monastery of Lure, (in Latin, Lutra, or 
 " Lutrense monasterium.") Theodore, a monk of St. Campden, who 
 had accompanied St. Gall from Ireland, of which he was a native, 
 shared with him the labors of the apostleship. After the death of St. 
 Gall, he founded two cells in Germany, one at Campden, or Campi- 
 dana, the government of which he confided to his colleague Theodore, 
 and the other at Fuessen, (in Latin, " ad Fauces,") at the foot of 
 the Alps. Those cells, having been richly endowed by King Pepin, 
 became afterwards celebrated abbeys. 
 
 Among the disciples of St. Columbanus may be reckoned Jonas, 
 abbot of Luxeu before the middle of the seventh century. 
 
 Jonas wrote, in Latin, the life of St. Columbanus, to which he had 
 been an eye-witness ; he also wrote the Uves of Atala and Eustachius, 
 both disciples and successors of St. Columbanus ; the former at Bobbio, 
 the latter at Luxeu. 
 
 Fiacre, born of noble parents in Ireland, being desirous of devoting 
 himself to God in solitude, left his country, and went to France, accom- 
 panied by some disciples. He addressed himself to Faron, bishop of 
 
AIDAN. 385 
 
 Meaux, who received him with kindness, and gave him the forest of 
 Brodole, which belonged to him, with permission to settle there. 
 
 Bede has the following passage in reference to St. Fiacre : — 
 
 " Ireland is dignified by the lustre of a new lamp ; that island glitters 
 to the Meldi, by the presence of so great a light. The former sent 
 Fiacrius ; Meaux received the ray which was sent. The joy of both is 
 in common : the latter possesses a father, tHe former a son." — Bede's 
 History of the Church. 
 
 St. Aidan was a monk of the abbey of Hy, the members of which 
 were Scots from Ireland, the Picts having given that island to St. Col- 
 umb Kille, and to the Scotic monks who had preached the faith of Jesus 
 Christ amongst them, as appears from Bede. From that abbey, there- 
 fore, were the twelve disciples who had accompanied this apostle to 
 Britain, as is remarked in his life, besides some others who had after- 
 wards followed him from Ireland. The connection, says Moore, of the 
 venerable Irishman St. Aidan with the Anglo-Saxon King Oswald, 
 singularly illustrates the mutual relations of their respective countries 
 at this period. During the reign of his uncle Edwin, the young Oswald 
 had lived an exile in Ireland ; and, having been instructed, while there, in 
 the doctrines of Christianity, resolved, on his accession to the throne, to 
 disseminate the same blessing among his subjects. With this view he ap- 
 plied to the elders of the Scots among whom he had himself been taught, 
 desiring that they would furnish him with a bishop, through whose in- 
 struction and ministry the English nation, which he had been called 
 upon to gpvern, might receive the Christian faith. In compliance with 
 the royal desire, a monk of Hy, named Aidan, was sent, to whom, on 
 his arrival, the king gave the small island of Lindisfarn as the seat of 
 his see. This island has since been called the Holy Isle. 
 
 In the spiritual labors of the saint's mission the pious King Oswald 
 took constandy a share, and " it was often," says Bede, " a delightflil 
 spectacle to witness, that, when the bishop, who knew but imperfectly 
 the English tongue, preached the truths of the gospel, the king himself, 
 who had become master of the Scottish language during his long banish- 
 ment in Ireland, acted as interpreter of the word of God to his com- 
 manders and ministers. From that time," continues the same authority, 
 " numbers of Scottish or Irish poured daily into Britain, preaching the 
 faith, and administering baptism through all the provinces over which 
 King Oswald reigned. In every direction churches were erected, to 
 which the people flocked with joy to hear the word. Possessions were 
 granted by royal bounty for the endowment of monasteries and schools, 
 49 
 
386 IRISH MISSIONARIES AMONGST THE SAXONS. 
 
 and the English, old and young, were instructed by their Irish teachers." 
 Though St. Augustine is reported the patron saint of England, arriving 
 in that country, 597, with forty rnissionaiies, to complete the conversion 
 of England, yet, says O'Halloran, the honor of converting England 
 should be by no means ascribed alone to him. Some of the Scottish 
 writers, of latter times, will have it, that all these instructors came from 
 Scotland, because the term "Scots" had been, a thousand years ago, 
 applied to natives of Ireland and Albania indifferently. But how will 
 they get rid of the great fact that their own nation owed its direct con- 
 version and evangelical light to the apostolic labors of the Irish saint 
 Columb Kille and his pious brethren ? 
 
 We must own that it is hard upon wealthy, inflated people, like the 
 English and Scotch of the present day, to acknowledge their great in- 
 debtedness, for literature, laws, religion, music, and letters, to so poor 
 and so oppressed a people as the Irish — those Irish that are seen daily 
 in the streets of Glasgow and of London, carrying hods and coal-bags 
 on their shoulders. It is hard, it must be confessed, for the gold-lace 
 gentry, that swarm round the Horse Guards, to acknowledge that their 
 forefathers were educated by the forefathers of these abject serfs, who 
 now, by the decree of fate, toil as their bond-slaves. Few of their 
 writers can bring themselves to admit it ; and even Dr. Lingard, the 
 Catholic historian of England, exhibits his mean unwillingness to do 
 poor Ireland justice. Speaking of this very circumstance, — St. Aidan's 
 labors, and those who cooperated with him, — he describes them, with 
 remarkable brevity, as " Scottish monks," without further comment, 
 which Moore thus eloquently reproves : " It was hardly worthy of Dr. 
 Lingard's character to follow so far the example of Dempster, and other 
 such writers, as to call our eminent Irish missionaries at this period by 
 the ambiguous name of Scottish monks, without, at the same time, in- 
 forming his readers that these distinguished men were Scots of Ireland. 
 The care with which the ecclesiastical historians of France and Italy 
 have, in general, marked this distinction, is creditable alike to their fair- 
 ness and their accuracy." Lloyd states that the auxiliaries of Aidan 
 "came out of Ireland," and Cardinal Fleury calls them " missionaires 
 Irlandois." 
 
 St. Finian, a native of Ireland, and a monk of the abbey of Hy, suc- 
 ceeded St. Aidan in the episcopal see of Lindisfarn, and in the mission 
 of the kingdom of Northumberland. He caused to be built in the Isle 
 of Lindisfarn, says Bede, a church suitable for an episcopal see, not of 
 stone, but of oak, after the manner of the Scots ; he labored perseveringly 
 
FINIAN. COLMAN. FDRSET. 387 
 
 for the conversion of souls ; he baptized Pcncla, "king of the interior 
 provinces, and Sigebert, Icing of the East Angles, with the lords of 
 their retinue, and sent priests to instruct and baptize their subjects. 
 
 St. Colnian, a native also of Ireland, succeeded St. Finian in the 
 bishopric of Lindisfarn. Those three prelates were celebrated for the 
 sanctity and purity of their morals, their zeal for the propagation of the 
 faith, and the exercise of every virtue ; it can be affirmed that the 
 Saxons of the northern provinces were indebted to them for the knowl- 
 edge of the true God. 
 
 St. Fursey, having labored in the conversion of souls in Ireland for 
 the space of twelve years, went, about the year 637, with some disci- 
 ples, to England, where he was kindly received by Sigebert, king of the 
 East Saxons : this saint, having rescued some of the Picts and Saxons, 
 who had escaped the zeal of the preceding missionaries, from the super- 
 stitions of idolatry, and brought them to the worship of the true God, 
 founded the abbey of Cnobersburgh, now Burgh Castle, in the county 
 of Suffolk, on some land which the king had given him ; he afterwards 
 induced this pious prince to abdicate the throne, and become a monk. 
 
 Subsequently, St. Fursey availed himself of the offer of Clovis the 
 Second of France, and settled at Latiniacum, (Lagny,) on the River 
 Marne, six leagues from Paris, where he caused three chapels to be built, 
 the first of which he dedicated to our Savior, the second to St. Peter, 
 and the third was called, when he died, after his own name, through the 
 devotion of the faithful. Being afterwards joined by several monks, his 
 disciples, who had followed him from Ireland, — amongst others, ^milia- 
 nus, Euloquius, Mombulus, &;c., — and seconded by the liberality of the 
 king and lords of the country, he founded a monastery which he himself 
 governed. 
 
 So amazingly great were the number of the Irish saints in the Isles of 
 Arau, for instance, that the writers were obliged to class their names 
 thus : there were four Colga7is, ten Gobhans, twelve Dichulls, twelve 
 Maidoes, twelve Adrands, thirteen Camans, thirteen Dimins, fourteen 
 Brendens, fourteen Finians, fourteen Ronans, fifteen Conalls, fifteen 
 Dermods, fifteen Lugads, sixteen Lassare, seventeen Serrani, eighteen 
 Erneni, eighteen Folbei, eighteen Cominei, nineteen Foilani, nineteen 
 Sulani, twenty Kierani, twenty TJltinai, twenty-two Cilliani, twenty- 
 three Aidi, twenty-four Columbce, twenty-five Senani, twenty-eight 
 Aidani, thirty Cronans, thirty-seven Moluani, forty-three Lazreani, 
 thirty-four Mochunni, fifty-eight Mochuani, fifty-five Fintani, sixty 
 Cormacs, and two hundred Colemans. Most of the above are Irish 
 names Latinized. 
 
388 MAILDULPHUS. CUTEBERT. GERTRUDE. KILIAN. 
 
 Maildulphus, an Irish monk, and very learned man, went to England 
 in 676. Of him the English Camden has the following notice : — 
 
 " Nor was it known by any other name, for a long time, than Ingcl- 
 born, till Maildulphus, a certain Hibernian Scot, a man of the soundest 
 erudition, and a peculiar sanctity of life, being taken by the delicious- 
 ness of the grove, after his opening a school, and devoting himself, with 
 his congregation, to a monastic life, built a monastery in it : from hence 
 it began to be called by Maildulphus, instead of Ingleborne, by Bede, 
 the ' city of Maildulphus,' and afterwards contracted into Malmsbury. 
 Among the disciples of Maildulphus, Aldelmus, who had been appointed 
 his successor, was particularly noted ; for he was the first of the Eng- 
 lish people who wrote in Latin, and was the first who taught the 
 English to compose Latin verse.^^ — Camden, p. 176. 
 
 St. Cuthbert, son of an Irish prince, was born at Kenanuse, otherwise 
 Kells, in Meath, and became a monk, and was summoned to Lindisfarn^ 
 by Eata, bishop of that see ; from thence he went to an island called 
 Fame, some leagues in the sea, where he lived as a hermit, till he was 
 appointed bishop of Lindisfarn : with reluctance he accepted that dig- 
 nity, but was constrained to yield to the solicitations of King Eg- 
 frid, and some bishops whom he had assembled in synod for that 
 purpose. 
 
 St. Gertrude, having become, on the death of her mother Itte, abbess 
 of ]Nivelle, in Brabant, sent to Rome for relics of the holy martyrs, and 
 for books of piety ; she also sent to Ireland for learned men, to expound 
 the Holy Scriptures, and instract the nuns in them, and to preach the 
 word of God in the country around. 
 
 '• Rome, at that time, took care to have the relics of the saints and 
 holy books brought to her ; she sent to Ireland for learned men to ex- 
 pound to herself and to her people the canticles of the holy law, which 
 the Irish had almost by heart. The monastery of Vossuensis was built 
 on the banks of the Sambre for receiving the saints FuUanus and Ul- 
 tanus, brothers of St. Furseus." — Breviary of Paris. 
 
 St. !^ilian left Ireland, with two companions called Colonat and Tot- 
 nan, the one a priest and the other a deacon. Being desirous to visit 
 the church of Rome, he took his route through Flanders and Germany. 
 On his arrival in Rome, having been presented to Pope Conon, the 
 holy father found him to be possessed of so much wisdom, and so 
 perfect in his knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, that he ordained and 
 appointed him to preach the gospel to the infidels of Franconia, where 
 
SEDULIUS. DONATUS. 389 
 
 having converted Duke Gosbert, and a great number of his subjects, he 
 fixed his see at Wirtzburg, of which he was the first bishop, and was 
 afterwards honored as a martyr, 
 
 " St. Kilianus, an Irish monk, preached in these times the evangelical 
 doctrine to the eastern Franks, and is called their apostle." — Chronicles 
 of Cardinal BeUarmini. 
 
 " In a district of Austria, where stood a castle of New France, nay, a 
 city, as, in the Teutonic dialect, Wirtzburg, situate near the River Meuse. 
 signifies, the martyrdom of St. Kilianus, the first bishop of that city, and 
 that of his two disciples, Colonatus, a presbyter, and Totnanus, a dea- 
 con, took place. They came from Ireland, the island of the Scots, and, 
 after receiving the authority of the apostolical see, they preached 
 the name of Christ to that city and district." — Martyrology of 
 NotJcer. 
 
 Gosbert, whilst he was a pagan, married Gielana, his brother's wife ; 
 but, being converted to Christianity, St. Kilian, like another John the 
 Baptist, reproached him, with truly apostolical freedom, for this incestu- 
 ous marriage, and advised him to separate from her ; Gielana, exasperated 
 at the holy prelate's reproof, caused him and his companions to be as- 
 sassinated on the 8th of July, 689, the day on which they are honored 
 by the church as martyrs. 
 
 Sedulius, surnamed the younger, to distinguish him from the great 
 Sedulius, of whom we have spoken, in the fifth century, went from 
 Ireland to Rome, where he assisted at a council held against illicit 
 marriages, the 5th of April, 721, under the pontificate of Gregory the 
 Second. He left to posterity compilations on the Gospel of St. 
 Matthew, which are still to be seen in manuscript in some of the 
 libraries in Paris. There are other manuscripts in existence at- 
 tributed to him. 
 
 St. Donatus left Ireland with his companion Andrew, and, after trav- 
 elling through France and Italy, setded in Etruria, now Tuscany, where 
 he led the life of a hermit for some time, after which he was nominated 
 bishop of Fiesole. He remained for a considerable time at the head of 
 that church, and became celebrated for the brilliancy of his virtues. It 
 is affirmed that the Dominicans at Rome have his life in manuscript ; 
 he wrote his travels, the office of his church, and commentaries on the 
 Holy Scriptures ; he gave also a description of Ireland in hexameter and 
 pentameter verse, some fragments of which are quoted by Colgan. The 
 following is a translation of his description of Ireland : — 
 
390 VIRGILIUS DISCOVERS THE SPHERICITY OF THE EARTH. 
 
 " Far westward lies an isle of ancient fame, 
 By nature blessed, and Scotia is her name, 
 Enrolled in books ; exhaustless in her store 
 Of veiny silver and of golden ore ; 
 Her fruitful soil forever teems with wealtli, 
 With gems her waters,* and her air with healdi ; 
 Her verdant fields with milk and honey flow ; 
 Her woolly fleeces vie with virgin snow; 
 Her waving furrows float witli bended corn, 
 And arms and arts her envied sons adorn ; 
 No poison there infects, no scaly snake 
 Creeps through the grass, or settles in the lake — 
 A nation wortliy of its pious race. 
 In war triumphant, and unmatched in peace " 
 
 In the eighth century, the high scholastic reputation of the Irish, 
 had become established throughout Europe. That mode of applying 
 the learning and subtilty of the schools to the illustration of theology, 
 which assumed, at a later period, a more systematic form, under the name 
 of the scholastic philosophy, is allowed to have originated among the 
 eminent divines whom the monasteries of Ireland in this century poured 
 forth. Amongst the lights, that shed their brilliant rays, at this time, not 
 only on their own country, but on Europe, was the eminent Virgilius, 
 whose real name was Feargal. Arriving in France, anno 746, on the 
 Christian mission, he attracted, by his preaching and writings, the notice 
 of the monarch Pepin, the father of Charlemagne. He became an inmate 
 of his princely residence on the Oise ; from thence, after a stay of two 
 years, he proceeded to Bavaria, bearing letters of introduction from the 
 monarch to the duke of that province. A theological discussion grew 
 up between Virgilius and Boniface, the great missionary of Ger- 
 many, on the mode of administering baptism ; and, though the pope 
 (^Zachary) decided in his favor, yet, the pride of Boniface having been 
 wounded, he was not restrained from preferring charges of heresy against 
 the Irish divine, alleging, among other things, that Virgilius taught there 
 was another world, and other men, under the earth. 
 
 Virgilius had, by the lights of the astronomical and geographical 
 studies of the Irish colleges, become convinced of the sphericity 
 
 * A writer in The Philosophical Transactions, vol. xviii., says, " I myself saw one 
 pearl, found in the Lake of Killarney, bought for fifty shillings, that was valued 
 at forty pounds. A miller took out a pearl, which he sold for ten pounds to one 
 who sold it to the late Lady Glenanly for thirty pounds, with whom I saw it in 
 a necklace. She refused eighty pounds for it from the late Duchess of Ormond." 
 
CLEiMENT. ALBINUS. 391 
 
 OF THE EARTH, AND THE EXISTENCE OF ANTIPODES. The idea thuS 
 
 broached by the Irish ecclesiastic, creating a supposition that there was 
 a world and a race whom Christ did not die to save, brought upon his 
 head the suspicions of the holy see. An inquiry was ordered, from 
 which there grew considerable excitement ; but Virgilius found means to 
 avert the condemnation of the holy fathers, by either qualifying or with- 
 drawing his theory ; for as yet the most learned of the Latins had not 
 mastered, to the same degree which the Irish had, the wonderful mech- 
 anism, of the heavens. 
 
 Fools have attempted, on this slight foundation, to raise a charge 
 against the tyranny of Pope Zachary ; but, as Moore observes, were it 
 even certain that this pope was slow to believe in the existence of 
 antipodes, he would at least have erred in good company, as already 
 the poet Lucretius had pronounced this belief to be inconsistent with 
 reason ; and St. Augustine had denounced it as contrary to the Scrip- 
 tures. Let Ireland have the credit of having given birth and educa- 
 tion to a man who comprehended and disclosed much of the mechanism 
 of the heavens, and also the sphericity of the earth, eight hundred 
 years before the sublime truths ivere understood and admitted by the 
 learned of Europe. 
 
 When Virgilius left Ireland, he was accompanied by a Greek bishop, 
 named Dubda. Usher states that there was established a Greek col- 
 lege and church in Trim, which was called, in his time, the Greek 
 school. The fame of her schools and churches had attracted several 
 Greek ecclesiastics to Ireland, and it is a very remarkable fact that 
 her own scholars were eminent and fluent masters of the Greek lan- 
 guage in the fifth and sixth centuries. 
 
 The accession of Charlemagne to the throne of France was the com- 
 mencement of a new era in European civilization. That extraordinary 
 man not only look the field against the ambitious Mahometans, but 
 struggled also most successfully against the prevailing ignorance of Eu- 
 rope. He encouraged, in the most comprehensive sense, the scholars 
 of every nation, who flocked to his court as to the best market for the 
 products of their intellect. Amongst the crowd of learned men which 
 such temptation drew around him, the scholars of Ireland were dis- 
 tinguished. Conspicuous among the latter were the learned Irishmen 
 Clement and Alhinus. When the talents of these eminent men be- 
 came known to the emperor, he assigned them distinguished positions. 
 Clement was placed chief professor over the university of Paris, which 
 he had just commenced, and Albinus was sent to found and preside 
 
392 ITALIAN TESTIMONY. THE BIKETRUM AND RING. 
 
 over a similar university in Pavia, which was to reenlighten Italy 
 The Italian historian Denina, remarking on the fallen state of Italy at 
 this moment, when she was compelled to look to the north and the ex- 
 treme west for instructors, adds, as a proof of her reduced condition, that 
 Irish monks were placed by Charlemagne at the head of her schools. 
 Tiie following passage is comprehensive : " Ma ben maggior maravi- 
 glia ci dovrd parere, die Vltalia non solamente allora abbia dovuto 
 riconoscere da barbari boreali il rinnovamento delta milizia, ma abbia 
 da loro dovuto apprendere in quello stesso tempo le scienze piu necet- 
 sarie ; e che bisognasse d.agli ultimi confini d'occidente et delnordfar 
 venire in Italia i maestri ad insegnarci, non che altro, la lingua Latina. 
 Carlomagno nel 781 avea preposto alle scuole d^Italia e di Francia 
 DUE MONACHi Irelandesi." — Dtlh Rivoluzioni d^ Italia, lib. viii. 
 cap. 12. 
 
 [" Bat how much more marvellous must it appear that Italy, at that 
 time, not only owed the reestablishment of the militia to the northern 
 barbarians, but had to learn of them the most necessary sciences, and 
 was obliged to cause masters, from the uttermost confines of the west 
 and north, to come to Italy to teach them even the Latin language. 
 Charlemagne, in 781, had placed in the schools of Italy and 
 OF France two Irish monks!"] 
 
 The Italian historian, in speaking of the northern barbarians, alluded 
 to the military skill of the Goths ; his reference to the teachers of the 
 sciences and the Latin tongue clearly applies to Ireland, for the 
 northern nations were unacquainted with the Latin language, and 
 their knowledge of science was trifling. 
 
 In Selden's Titles there is preserved a copy of a diploma for a 
 doctorship, at Rome, in physic and philosophy, in which, amongst other 
 insignia of this office, a biretrum was placed on the candidate's head, 
 and a ring on his finger. Now, the word biretrum is not Latin, but 
 Irish ; and the cardinal's cap is, to this day, known by no other name 
 than biretrum ; so that the ring and cap, placed on the finger and head 
 of the higher ecclesiastics in the Catholic ordination, are insignia bor- 
 rowed from Ireland ; for they are the very insignia worn by our ancient 
 doctors in different sciences ; and, as the first universities of Europe 
 were regulated and established by Irishmen, it is most easy to account 
 for the transfer of the customs, honors, and degrees which existed in the 
 colleges of their native land. 
 
DUNGAL. 393 
 
 " In the latter part of this century," says Moore, " we find another 
 native of Ireland, named Dungal, honored, in like manner, by the 
 patronage of the imperial chief of France. This learned Scot addressed 
 a letter to Charlemagne on the two solar eclipses, which proves that he 
 was well acquainted with all the ancients had written on the subject, 
 while, both in his admission that two solar eclipses might take place 
 within the year, and his doubt that such a rare incident had occurred in 
 810, he is equally coiTect. While on this topic, I may mention that 
 the Irish historians have most accurately recorded the solar eclipse 
 which happened in the month of May, 664 — an evidence at once 
 of their historical accuracy, and of the authenticity of their writings." 
 
 It was at this period that a great plague happened in England, which 
 Bede alludes to most feelingly, wherein he acknowledges that his cmin- 
 trymen, both " noble and of lower rank, had retired to Ireland to pursue 
 a course of studies, and to lead a stricter life;" and the historian adds 
 the creditable fact, that the Irish most cheerfully received all these stran- 
 gers, and supplied them gratuitously with food, with books, and 
 INSTRUCTION ; on which Ledwich remarks, " So zealous and disinterest- 
 ed a love of learning is unparalleled in the annals of the world." 
 
 The very circumstance that Charlemagne, after he retired to a 
 monastery, consulted Dungal, as one of the few European scholars 
 worthy of being consulted on profound questions, proves the high 
 estimation in v/hich he had been held. The authors of the Histoire 
 Litteraire de la France say, " Ce qui paroit appuye tant sur son 
 nom, que l'Hibernie fournit alors plusieurs autre grands hommes 
 a la France,'^ — ["which appears grounded as much upon his name 
 as upon Hibernia's giving, at that time, many other great 
 MEN to France."] 
 
 We find Dungal, in some time after, placed Over the great university 
 of Pavia, and invested with the supreme management of the public 
 schools established through Italy. How high was the position of the 
 Irish scholar may be estimated from the first sentence of the capitular of 
 Lothaire the First, in reference to education : " Primum in papia conve- 
 niant ad Dungallum de mediolano, de laude de Bergamo, de Novaria,^' 
 &c. No rhention is made of any other professor — Dungal alone is made 
 special in this law. Dungal bequeathed to the monastery of Bobbio, in 
 honor of his great countryman, Columbanus, a valuable collection of 
 books, " the greater part of which," says Moore, " are now at Milan, 
 having been removed to the Ambrosian library by Cardinal Frederic 
 Borromeo." Indeed, several of the French writers of the eighth and 
 dO 
 
394 LABORS OF THE IRISH MISSIONARIES. 
 
 ninth centuries bear testimony to the learning of the scholars of Ireland, 
 as well as to that disinterested zeal which prompted them to travel from 
 their native land through so many strange countries. " What shall I 
 say of Ireland," exclaimed Eric of Auxerre, " who, despising the dan- 
 gers of the deep, is migrating, with almost her whole train of philoso- 
 phers, to our coasts ? " 
 
 The French historian Mezeray mentions with astonishment the num- 
 ber of Irish who entered Gaul, to instmct the people. He highly extols 
 their piety and learning, and proclaims the new face the country as- 
 sumed by the very labor of their hands. Hear his own words : " It 
 must be acknowledged that these crowds of holy men were highly use- 
 ful to France, considered merely in a temporal light, — for, the long 
 incursions of the barbarians having quite desolated the country, it 
 was still, in many places, covered with woods and thickets, and the low 
 grounds with marshes. And these pious, religious men, who devoted 
 themselves to the service of God, not to a life of indolence, labored with 
 their own hands to grub up, to reclaim, to till, to plant, and to build, — 
 not so much for themselves, who lived with great frugality, but to feed 
 and cherish the poor, — insomuch that uncultivated and frightful des- 
 erts soon became agreeable and fruitful dwellings ; the heavens seemed 
 to favor the soil, reclaimed and cultivated by hands so pure and disin- 
 terested." " / shall say nothing,^' he adds, " of their having preserved 
 almost all that remains of the history of those times." 
 
 The frii^htful wastes of Italy and Germany were alike reclaimed by 
 those missionaries, and instruction spread around, like a rich and plenti- 
 ful banquet. 
 
 During the troubles occasioned by the Danish invasions of Ireland, 
 about A. D. 800, many pious and learned ecclesiastics fled to France. 
 Wherever they settled, they established houses of learning and hospitali- 
 ty, such as they were accustomed to in their own country. In the 
 council of Meaujc, in France, held in 845, amongst other acts, there 
 passed, is the following : " That complaint shall be made to the king, 
 of the ruin of hospitable houses, but particularly of those of the Irish 
 nation, founded by charitable natives of that country." And the ord- 
 nance goes on to describe the offensive acts of the intruders, against 
 whom it was directed. It continues, " Not only have these intruders 
 refused to receive or entertain such as present themselves for relief, but 
 they have even ejected these religious persons, whose duty it was to 
 relieve the sick, the distressed, and the stranger." This is extracted 
 from Fleury's Ecclesiastical History of France. 
 
TRIBUTE OF BIICHELET. 395 
 
 They built their cells in woods and desert places, living on an 
 antediluvian diet, and making it a part of their vows to reclaim and 
 cultivate deserts, not for their own, but the emolument of the poor. 
 From this it is that the old abbeys had around them so much land 
 called " commons," or land free to all. This ground, originally waste, 
 was claimed by no one, and was given for the use of the poor after the 
 necessaries of the abbeys were provided. 
 
 Many such facts are scattered through the civil and ecclesiastical 
 histories of France. A vivid recollection of the services rendered to 
 French literature by Irishmen, prompted the eminent historian, Mon- 
 sieur Michelet, the chief of the historical section in the Archives du 
 Royaume, in his able History of France, published 1840, speaking 
 of the social condition of the Celtic tribes in ancient France, to exclaim, 
 " A strange destiny that of the Celtic world 1 Of its two divisions, 
 one, though the least unfortunate of the two, perishes, wastes away, or 
 loses its language, its costume, and its distinctive character — I mean 
 the Highlanders of Scotland, with the populations of Wales, Cornwall, 
 and Brittany. These, forming the serious and the moral element of the 
 race, seem to be dying away, and threaten to become extinct. The 
 other part, full of life, multiplies and increases in spite of every thing — 
 I speak of Ireland. 
 
 " Ireland ! the eldest of the Celtic race, so far away from France, her 
 sister, who is unable to defend her, except across the waves ! the 
 Isle of Saints ! the Emerald of the Seas ! all-fertile Ireland, whose men 
 shoot up like blades of grass, and frighten England with the ominous 
 sound that daily rings in her ears, ' There is a million more of them ! ' 
 the land of poets, of men of daring thoughts — of John Scotus Erigena, 
 of Berkeley, of Toland, of Moore, and of O'Connell ! People of the 
 brilliant word and the swift sword ! people that in this, the decrepitude 
 of the world, still retain the gift of song! Let England smile, if she 
 will, \\ hen, in some obscure and wretched corner of her crowded cities, 
 the Irish widow is heard raising the coronach over her husband's corpse. 
 Weep on, unhappy Ireland ! France, weep thou too ! weep that thou 
 seest in thy capital, over the door of the House of Learning, still 
 open to the children of Ireland, the harp that in vain demands thine 
 aid ! Let us weep that we cannot give back to her the blood that she 
 has spilt for us ! But must we not speak our grief? Is it to be in vain 
 that, within less than two centuries, four hundred thousand Irishmen 
 have combated in our armies ? And are we to witness the sufferings 
 of Ireland without uttering a word ? " 
 
396 JOHN SCOTUS. 
 
 But the most extraordinary, perhaps, of all the scholars of Ireland, 
 and the most distinguished certainly of the middle ages, was John Sco- 
 Tus, who bore the distinctive tide of Erigena. All the historians are 
 loud in their praises of him. He was a very learned man indeed, — 
 probably the most profoundly learned that appeared in Europe from the 
 dawn of Christianity to his own time. Although he belonged to no 
 ecclesiastical order, he studied much in solitude, and seems to have made 
 every science and every art, by turns, the object of his investigation. 
 It would seem, too, from his life, that the object of it was to gather the 
 flowers of knowledge through the valleys of his native land, only to scat- 
 ter them on those of other nations. We find him in France, about the 
 year 845, enjoying not only the patronage, but the friendship of the 
 monarch of that country, Charles the Bald, and employed by him to 
 translate from the Greek the mystic treatises on theology ascribed to 
 Dionysius of Alexandria — a book that effected a wonderful sensation 
 in the literary world, not only by the original principles of the author, 
 but from the profound conception and commentaries of the translator, 
 who was the first lay Christian of Europe that dared to dive into the 
 ocean of theology, bringing with him, through his course, the principles 
 of philosophy — illustrating the truths of the one by the demonstrations 
 of the other. 
 
 As this work was filled with metaphysical and obscure questions on 
 the divine nature and attributes, Pope Nicholas the First wrote a letter 
 to Charles, in which he observed, that John, one of the nation of 
 the Scots, had translated into Latin the worlcs of Denis the Areopagite, 
 concerning the names of God, and the celestial hierarchy, which book 
 should have been sent to him for his approxal, particularly as John, 
 though in other respects a man of profound learning, was suspected of 
 an error of faith ; he consequently begged of him to send the book and 
 its author to Rome, or to expel him from the Paris university. The 
 king, being desirous to keep in with the pope, without giving umbrage to 
 John Erigena, advised him to return to his own country, in order to 
 avoid the storm. In obedience to the king's desire, John returned to 
 Ireland. According to Ware, he subsequently came to England 
 at the solicitation of King Alfred, who employed him some time 
 afterwards in reestablishing the schools at Oxford. He adds, " Isaac 
 Wake informs us, that the Statutes of Alfred and Erigena, a Gothic 
 work, were preserved there in his time, as monuments of antiquity." 
 Mr. Moore, without producing any authority, says John Erigena died 
 b France j but when we have, against this assertion, Leland, the Eng- 
 
SAXON GENTRY EDUCATED IN IRELAND. 397 
 
 lish antiquarian, Isaac Wake, Ware, and the Abbe M'Geoghegan, I 
 must respectfully differ from him. Leland, who, during the reign of 
 Henry the Eighth, spent several years examining the literary contents 
 of the monasteries, takes care to distinguish the Irish John from a Saxon 
 scholar of the same name, who distinguished himself, about the same 
 time, in the court of Alfred. See Leland's Commentaries, cap. 115. 
 
 The reader, who has patiently perused the previous part of this book, 
 who has weighed the unimpeachable authorities arrayed in favor of Ire- 
 land's claims to be the school of Europe, during the early and middle 
 ages of Christianity, will not be surprised to read that King Alfred 
 himself, like the rest of his Saxon countrymen, received his education in 
 Ireland. There are Englishmen, and Scotchmen too, who will take up 
 the Gospels and swear upon them that this is false. It is useless to quote 
 the Venerable Bede, the Saxon writer of the seventh century, and vari- 
 ous eminent men of that nation, down to Dr. Johnson, Warner, and Sir 
 James Mackintosh, who honorably acknowledge it. Such sentiments 
 as the following find little credence with those who contribute to keep 
 Ireland in slavery. "This country [the Danes] pressed upon Ireland 
 likewise with the like carnage. There were in it, at that time, many 
 nobles and gentry from among the English, who, in the time of Bishops 
 Finanus and Colmanus, having withdrawn themselves thither, for either 
 the sake of divine study or to lead more chaste lives, — some gave them- 
 selves up to a monastic life, and others attended in the monasteries to 
 hear the professors. All of them the Scots most freely admitted, and 
 sujjylied them gratis xvith daily sustenance, with books, and masters." 
 — Bede''s Church Hist. b. 3, c. 27. Macpherson says, " To the fifth, 
 sixth, and seventh centuiies, religion and learning flourished in Ireland 
 to such a degree, that it was commonly styled the mother country of 
 saints, and reputed the kingdom of arts and sciences. The Saxons and 
 Angles sent thither many of their princes and princesses, to have the 
 benefit of a pious and learned education. It ought likewise to be ac- 
 knowledged that some of the most eminent teachers of North Britain 
 received their instruction at the Irish seminaries of literature and religion." 
 In fact there was a college dedicated, in Mayo, to the exclusive educa- 
 tion of the Saxons: it was called Maigh-Coan-Sasson, or Mayo of 
 the English. Bede says that, in the time of Adamnar, there were 
 one hundred Saxon saints in that college. The Benedictine monks of 
 St. Gall, in Switzerland, mention, in the ninth century, that they derived 
 the principal part of their books from Ireland. " Our Anglo-Saxons," 
 says Camden, "went, in those times, to Ireland as if to a fair, to 
 
398 ENGLISH DERIVE LETTERS, LAWS, AND EDUCATION, FROM IRELAND 
 
 'purchase "knowledge ; and we often find, in our authors, that, if a person 
 were absent, it was generally said, of him, by way of a proverb, that he 
 was sent to Ireland to receive his education; it even appears that our 
 ancestors, the ancient Anglo-Saxons, had learned the use of characters 
 in Ireland ; and from the Irish, our ancient English ancestors appear 
 to have received their method of forming letters, and obvious- 
 ly MADE use of the SAME CHARACTERS WHICH THE IrISH NOW MAKE 
 
 USE OF." — Camden, British edition, p. 730. Camden wrote in the 
 sixteenth century, and meant, of course, the old Irish character of the 
 Irish language, which, in fact, is, for the most part, substantially the 
 self-same letter that all, who write the English in the present day, use 
 in their manuscript characters. 
 
 Notwithstanding all that we can prove, when we claim the honor 
 of originating those jural and political institutions, which Alfred estab- 
 lished in Britain, our claim is denied. Let those, then, who deny our 
 claims, show where Alfred obtained his education. Is it likely he would 
 be sent to the secondaiy or inferior schools of Europe, while those of 
 L'eland, which stood at the head of all, were open ? M'Geoghegan says, 
 " Alfred went also to Ireland to perfect himself in the study of philoso- 
 phy and the sciences — In Hibernia magno otio litteris imbutes omni 
 philosophia composuerat animumJ' p. 198. Where, if not in Ireland, 
 did he learn to play on the harp ? Where, if not in Ireland, did he find 
 the trial of the twelve men 1 Where, at that time, if not in Ireland, did 
 he find an assembly legislating for the government of the people ? 
 Where, if not in Ireland, did he observe the use of a national record, of 
 legal maxims and public events, like the Psalter of Tara, of which the 
 celebrated English Doomsday Book is evidently an imitation ? When 
 they show us any other people than the Irish, who can, in those ages, 
 claim these distinguished attributes of nationality, we may then listen 
 patiently to their denial of Alfred's Irish education. But when I come 
 to treat of his exploits against the Danes, I will adduce proof of this 
 fact which no honest man can doubt. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 399 
 
 THOUGH THE LAST GLIMPSE OF ERIN, 
 
 BY MOORE. 
 
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 MUSIC AND POETRT 
 
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 And I'll gaze on thy gold hair, as graceful it wreathes, 
 And hang o'er thy soft harp, as wildly it breathes ; 
 Nor dread that the cold-hearted Saxon will tear 
 One chord from that harp, or one lock from that hair.* 
 
 * " In the twenty -eighth year of the reign of Henry the Eighth, an act was made 
 respecting the habits, and dress in general, of the Irish, whereby all persons were 
 restrained from being shorn or shaven above the ears ; or from wearing glibbes or 
 Coulins (long locks) on their heads, or hair on the upper lip, called Crommeal. 
 On this occasion a song was written by one of our bards, in which an Irish virgin 
 is made to give the preference to her dear Coulin (or the youth with the flowing 
 locks) to all strangers, by which the English were meant, or those who wore their 
 habits. Of this song the air alone has reached us, and is universally admired." — 
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 about the same period were some harsh measures taken agaiast the Irish minstrels. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRr. 
 
 401 
 
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 Is when some heart indignant breaks, 
 
 To show that still she lives. 
 
 The following admirable soiig, from the Dublin Nation^ may he sung to the same 
 tune, — which is the very ancient air of "Mollv Asthore." 
 
 Look down on Erin's verdant vales, — so rich, so gay, so green, — 
 And tell me, can a bosom throb, not loving Ocean's queen ? 
 Look round on Erin's mossy moors, her meads and mountains high, 
 And tell me, does a dastard live, who'd not for Erin die ? 
 
 No, no ; in Erin lives not now a traitor to her cause, — 
 The thundering voice a Nation speaks, each traitor overawes! 
 A beaming light is burning bright, on mountain, rock, and sea; 
 And, by the mighty march of mind, our land will soon be free ! 
 
 Then strike the Harp, old Erin's Harp, with fearless force and hold; 
 It breathes not for a timorous hand, nor for a heart that's cold ; 
 It loves tlie open, generous soul, — tlie bold, tiie brave, tlie free ; 
 But for tlie craven, crouching slave, it has no melody. 
 
 You're men ! — as such should know your rights, and knowing should defend ; 
 Who would be free, themselves must dare the tyrant's chain to rend; 
 O, fruitless is tlie grief that springs above a nation's fears ; 
 One firm resolve of migJity men is worth a tide of tears. 
 
LECTURE XII. 
 
 PROM A. D. 800 TO 1016 
 
 Close of the eighth Century. — Names of fifty-nine Kings of Ireland. — Inva- 
 sions. — Glimpse of European Affairs. — The Franks. — The Building of Paris. 
 — Charlemagne. — His Laws. — Mahomet. — The Venetians. — Trade and Com- 
 merce. — The Danes. — Their Invasions of France, Germany, England, Hol- 
 land, and Ireland. — Turgesius, their Chief. — His Devastations. — Death of 
 Niall. — Accession of Malachy. — His many Battles with the Danes. — Danes 
 triumph. — Danish and English Oppression alike. — Atrocities of the Danes. — 
 Designs of the Chief Turgesius. — Frustrated, and the Danes destroyed. — Re- 
 establishment of the Kingdom. — Death of Malachy. — Accession of Hugh the 
 Seventh. — Further Attempts of the Danes. — Plots to foment Dissensions. — 
 Attacks of the Danes. — Renewal of the Wars. — Retreat of the Danes on 
 Wales. — Effects of Peace in Ireland. — Reign of Niall the Fourth. — Renewed 
 Dissensions. — Danes renew their Invasions. — Various Battles. — Victories of 
 Cealachan. — Stratagem to destroy him. — Southern Expedition of Sea and 
 Land Forces. — Sea Fight of Dundalk. — Glorious Conduct of the Irish. — 
 Defeat of the Danes. — Reign of Congulash. — New Danish Invasions. — Brien 
 Boroimhe. — Routs the Danes in various Battles. — Storms Limerick. — Settle- 
 ment of Munster. — Hospitality and Magnificence of Brien. — A Virgin walks 
 alone through Munster. — Malachy the Second. — The Collar of Gold. — Lough 
 Neagh. — War between Malachy and Brien. — Brien comes to the Throne. — 
 Solemn Coronation. — Assembly of the Estates of Tara. — Law relating to Sur- 
 names. — O's and Macs. — English Titles. — Revival of Literature. — Irish 
 Teachers sought after by King Alfred. — Glance at English Affairs. — King 
 Alfred. — Introduces the Irish Laws. — Calls an Assembly of the Estates like 
 that of Tara. — Death of King Alfred. — Danes reestablish their Power in 
 England. — Dissensions in Ireland. — Danes take Advantage. — Again invade 
 Ireland. — Preparations of Brien. — Clontarf. — Morning of the Battle. — Brian's 
 Address to his Army. — His Son Murrough takes the Command. — The Battle. — 
 Murrough waves the "Sunburst," and leads the decisive Charge. — Victory! — 
 Murrough killed. — Death of Brien. — The Danes completely subdued. — In- 
 glorious Attacks of the Prince of Ossory on the Munster Troops. — Bravery of 
 the wounded Men. 
 
 A. D. 800. Anxious to follow up the deeply-interesting sketch of 
 our literary and Christian missionaries, who appeared from the time of 
 52 
 
410 CLOSE OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY. 
 
 St. Patrick to the close of the eighth century, and to fix in the reader's 
 mind a distinct image of their extraordinary labors, I avoided intruding 
 upon his attention the civil or kingly affairs of the country during the 
 three hundred years over which I have ranged from the reign of King 
 Laogaire, in the middle of the fifth to the close of the eighth century. 
 
 The historians of those times have left us little material connected 
 with kings. The genius of the educated, and the labors of the people, 
 seem to have been exclusively directed to the spread of religion and 
 literature over Europe. The kings who reigned, and the battles they 
 fought, are passed over with unusual brevity. As these battles were 
 generally fought between Irishmen on their native land, it is a matter 
 of less consequence that the Christian historians of the middle ages 
 should have given them so little of their space. I, for one, do not 
 regret this ; for it is with the utmost reluctance that I record for publi- 
 cation any of those senseless sanguinary battles fought by Irishmen 
 against Irishmen on their common birthplace. I am occasionally 
 compelled to record them, in obedience to the order and demands of 
 history. 
 
 Not all the virtues of the Irish are sufficient to hide the stains which 
 those wars with each other have left upon their fame, nor all their 
 bravery sufficient to avert the frequent calamities of invasions and 
 persecutions which those well-known divisions have for a thousand 
 years invited. Their proneness to contend with each other is the most 
 senseless, as well as the most mischievous and fatal, trait in their 
 national character. They have latterly become somewhat sensible of 
 this, and it is hoped that, under the wise and enlightened counsels of 
 their present chief men, it will totally disappear. Let those among 
 them who are most patriotic, suffer injury from their countrymen with- 
 out retaliation ; and let those who are most in the right be the most 
 patient and forbearing, for the sake of union. 
 
 From the fifth year of the Christian era to the time of Laogaire, 
 there reigned twenty-eight kings. From the accession of Laogaire, the 
 first Christian monarch of Ireland, about 430, to that of Aodh the 
 Sixth, in the close of the eighth century, there reigned thirty-one 
 kings ; that is, fifty-nine kings in eight hundred years, which give an 
 average of thirteen and a half years to each reign. Some of these 
 monarchs, for the sake of union, reigned two at one time. Some of 
 them, also, retired to monasteries in the prime of manhood. If, ac- 
 cording to Newton, an average kingly reign of fifteen years be an 
 undoubted evidence of a high degree of civilization in a people, then 
 
NAMES OF FIFTY-NINE KINGS. 411 
 
 the average offered by two thousand years of the Milesian dynasty 
 in Ireland, which comes up to thirteen or fourteen years, as the dura- 
 tion of each king's reign, is an unerring index of national civilization. 
 
 The following are the names of the fifty-nine kings : — Conaire, 
 Lughaidh, Connor and Criompthon, Cairbre, Fiachadhjion, Mini, 
 Tuathal, Mai, Feidhlim, Cathoir More, Con, Conaire, Art, MCon, 
 Feargus, Cormac, Carbrie, Feacha and Colla, joint kings, Muiried- 
 hach, Eochaidth, Criompthon, Niall^ Dathy, Laogaire, Olioll, 
 Lugha, Murtough, Tuathal, Dermod, Feargus and Daniel, joint 
 kings. Achy, Carbra Croman, Hugh, Hugh Slaine and Colman, 
 joint kings, Naradnach, Clearach, Daniel, Claon and Ceallach, joint 
 kings, Dermod and Bleathmac, joint kings, Fionachte, Loingseach, 
 Congell, Fearghall, Togartach, Aaodth Ollah, Daniel HI., Niall IL, 
 Dunchaid, Niall UL, Aodth. 
 
 I will not go farther into the civil affairs of the last three centuries 
 than to glance at one or two invasions, which the Northumbrian king, 
 and, after him, the Picts, attempted on Ireland. 
 
 " In the year of the incarnation of our Lord 684," says Bede, 
 " Ecgfrid, king of the Northumbrians, having sent General Berte with an 
 army to Ireland, plundered that unoffending people, (who had been 
 always friendly and well-disposed towards the English,) without sparing 
 either churches or monasteries ; however, the Irish used all their efforts, 
 and repelled force by force. Thus this attack of the Saxons was 
 attended by no other result than the pillaging of some villages on the 
 coasts of the island." 
 
 M'Geoghegan says, " In the reign of Loingsheach, (anno 700,) the 
 Britons and Saxons made an attempt upon Ireland ; they laid waste 
 the plain of Muii'theimne, at present the county of Louth ; but they 
 were repulsed by Loingsheach, and forced to abandon their enterprise. 
 They were afterwards totally defeated by the Ulster troops, at Moigh- 
 Cuillin, or Ire-Connaught, in the county of Galway. They again landed, 
 for the sake of plunder, arrived during the reign of Feargall, (712,) in 
 Ulster, where, after a bloody engagement fought at Cloch-Mionuire, 
 they were entirely routed by the Dalriads and other tribes of Ulster." 
 
 In the long and peaceful reign of Daniel, (Domhnall,) A. D. 743, 
 the Picts made sudden incursions into Leinster. They were, however, 
 totally defeated by the Leinster troops, in the district of Ossory, where 
 their king and leader, Cabasach, was slain. 
 
 It may be well to turn aside here from our direct study of Irish 
 history, for the purpose of glancing at the general state of Europe, 
 at this era. 
 
412 GLIMPSE OF EUROPEAN AFFAIRS. CHARLEMAGNE. 
 
 Among the most conspicuous of the European nations about 
 this time was the empire of the Franks. The Fraiiks were a 
 German race, that rushed into Gaul on the breaking up of the 
 Roman empire. They were freemen, attached to the Roman repubhc, 
 and took the name of Franks, or French, from that term. They 
 began the city of Paris in the close of the fifth century. Pepin 
 and his grandson Le Bref were their distinguished rulers. They 
 were the guardians of the throne, or grand regents, and were called 
 mayors; but their power in the field becoming considerable, Le 
 Bref assumed the monarchy, and bequeathed it to his son, the cele- 
 brated Charlemagne. This great man added considerably to the 
 dominion of the French ; he attracted around him the ablest officers 
 and the most learned men in Europe. Many eminent men from 
 Ireland found, in his court, hearty encouragement, as already shown. 
 He divided the kingdom into counties and provinces, after the 
 Irish customs. Indeed, he adopted many of the laws of Ireland ; 
 amongst the rest, the law of eric, or fine, for crime. Charlemagne 
 began a Book of Maxims and Laws, after the model of the Psalter 
 of Tara, which was lost after his death, but found again in the fifteenth 
 century. He drove the Lombards out of Italy, and gave the 
 holy see a considerable inheritance ; he met the Saracens in several 
 battles, and confined their dominion to the east of Europe. His char- 
 acter was simple, but brilliant ; his reign and government just and 
 glorious. He died 814. Having divided the empire which he ac- 
 quired, consisting of France, Germany, Italy, and some lesser terri- 
 tories, amongst his sons, they quarrelled after his death, and embroiled 
 France in years of civil war. Germany, which was given entire to 
 one of his sons, assumed a separate government from the rest of 
 Europe. The revenues of a great part of Italy were placed by Char- 
 lemagne at the disposal of the holy see, in which state they have 
 continued nearly ever since. 
 
 A large portion of the east of Europe, and of Asia and Africa, was 
 subjected to the sway of a new conqueror, who mingled a new religious 
 system with the prowess of his sword ; this was Mahomet, a native of 
 Mecca in Arabia, of mean extraction, but of great learning and acquire- 
 ments. He flourished about the beginning of the seventh century. 
 He pretended to the gifts of prophecy and revelations from Heaven. 
 His countrymen, for infinite ages, had worshipped the sun and stars ; 
 but he taught the existence of a Supreme God, denying that Jesus 
 Christ was divine, but admitting his doctrine to be good, and his mission, 
 
PROGRESS OF THE SARACENS. MAHOMET. 413 
 
 like his own, that of a prophet. Mahomet had studied the Jewish 
 and Christian Scriptures, and formed on their basis a testament of his own, 
 which he called the Koran. It was beautifully written, in detached 
 pieces, and during certain retreats to mountains and woods, to which he 
 retired at intervals, after the manner of Moses, to commune with God. 
 When any part of his doctrines was disputed, he generally retired, 
 under pretence of laying the objections before the Most High, and, after 
 a due interval of absence and communion, he returned with a further 
 piece of the Koran, which either silenced or satisfied his adversaries. 
 He pretended that these detached pieces were brought to him, in his 
 retreats, by the angel Gabriel. Its florid composition, and its splendid 
 Arabic language, imposed on the vulgar. The Koran was thus compiled 
 as a rule of faith and morals, and whenever its inspired character 
 was questioned, the prophet boldly defied his opponents to write 
 one chapter like it. 
 
 Mahomet, though persecuted for his preaching, gained an extraordi- 
 nary ascendency over his followers. The persecutions which he and 
 they encountered prompted them to combine for defence, and ultimately 
 they became offensive. Mahomet finally assumed the title of king, 
 with that of prophet, arrayed a numerous army, attacked and robbed all 
 those who refused to believe his creed. The plunder which followed 
 his conquests attracted vast armies to his standard. His religious tenets, 
 embraced in Islamism, admitted the utmost libertinism to his followers; 
 each man was allowed four wives, besides concubines, but was forbidden 
 all intoxicating liquors under pain of death. He laid under his dominion 
 an incalculable extent of territory in the East. He died at the age 
 of sixty-three ; and then, his armies ranging under his principles, their 
 command was assumed by his father-in-law, Abu BcJcr. The Christians 
 opposed these armies in many very great battles, at one of which, Yer- 
 mouth, in Syria, one hundred and fifty thousand Christian soldiei-s were 
 slain. The Mahometans then conquered Egypt, Persia, Armenia, 
 Mesopotamia, and the north of Africa. In the course of seventy years, 
 this Mahometan, or Saracen, empire was extended from India to 
 Siberia, and from Samarcand to the Atlantic. Their African soldiers, 
 called Moors, vanquished the Visigoth kings who reigned in Spain and 
 Portugal. They invaded Italy, and besieged Rome. Here they were 
 met by the French forces under Louis It Debonnaire, and driven 
 back towards their stronghold in Spain. After this they kept at a 
 distance from the western Christian states. Spain was for a long 
 period subject to their power, and the Christians of the Holy Land, 
 
414 THE WARS OF THE CRUSADES. 
 
 around Jerusalem, seem to have been the peculiar object of their 
 vengeance. Their cruelties towards the Christians were shocking, and 
 extended to such a degree, that the Christian kings of Europe, about 
 the middle of the eleventh century, at the instigation of Peter the Her- 
 mit, raised a million of soldiers, at the head of whom they marched to 
 the Holy Land, to avenge on the Saracens the outrages they had 
 committed on their fellow-believers. These wars were called the 
 "wars of the crusades," and they engaged, it may be said, the 
 physical strength of the greater part of the world for more than a 
 century. Millions of human beings fell victims on both sides; the 
 flow of blood was at length temporarily stopped by the victorious 
 Saracen, Saladin, who, after overthrowing an army of three hundred 
 thousand Christian soldiers at the walls of Jerusalem, in 1187, pro- 
 claimed liberty of conscience to the Christians. 
 
 These wars were, however, again renewed, in the succeeding century, 
 by several European kings, under pretence of protecting Christianity, 
 but really to extend dominion. They were the cause of unprece- 
 dented carnage. The cross was hoisted again on the flag of the Chris- 
 tian warriors ; the crescent on that of the Saracens. From the 
 beginning to the close of those wars, upwards of forty millions of 
 human beings were slain — a dreadful carnage. Yet Christianity might 
 have had to contend for freedom to this day with the followers of 
 Mahomet, had not this vigorous resistance been offered to their arms by 
 the Christians ; though, doubtless, the ambition of the Christian kings 
 and knights led them to exceed the limits of their first design, which 
 extended only to the protection of fellow-Christians. 
 
 Next in importance was the rise of the republic of Venice. The 
 great monarchs of Christendom concerned themselves, for many cen- 
 turies, only in the afl^airs of war. Trade and manufactures were left to 
 be minded by the petty states and towns of Europe, which were not 
 of consideration enough to be consulted in the great affairs of the 
 world. Some of these came to grow rich and powerful, and some of 
 the others became poor by war and luxury. The first amongst the states 
 which grew into opulence and power, was the little republic of Venice. 
 It held the mastery of the commerce of the world for better than a 
 thousand years. This singular city was begun, in the fifth century, by a 
 few fugitives from Rome, who settled upon one of the marshy islands 
 at the head of the Adriatic Sea. Some say they fled from the cruelty 
 of Attila the Hun ; but I rather think they were persecuted Christians, 
 for, soon after their settlement, they erected, on the Island of the Rialto, 
 
RISE AND FALL OF THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. THE DANES. 415 
 
 a church to St. James, which was to be seen, in the sixteenth century, 
 in the midst of the most opulent part of the city. 
 
 These refugees increased ; they hved by fishing and hunting 
 There were seventy-two islands in the Adriatic cluster, which were 
 ultimately covered with buildings, and connected with each other by four 
 hundred and thirty bridges. The huts of the first settlers changed, in 
 the course of time, to large palaces and warehouses ; the fishing-boats, 
 to ships of commerce ; and the fishermen, into carriers between the east 
 and the west. As they grew in opulence, they formed themselves into 
 a republic. They elected, periodically, a chief man and a council for 
 their government. Their chief was called a doge, and theirs was the 
 model of modern republics. 
 
 The Venetian republic grew to be the greatest commercial power in 
 the world. For several centuries they sustained that character. The 
 crusaders employed their ships and merchants in their busy intercourse 
 with the East, by which Venice acquired unbounded wealth and exten- 
 sive connections. For better than two centuries, they were the bulwark 
 of Christendom against the Turks and Tartars. They were the fron- 
 tier power, and their colonies were the objects of Turkish ambition. 
 Genuine freedom seemed to have abode with them for several centuries. 
 They were the centre and distributors of literature, art, and science, in 
 Europe, from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. Their republican 
 constitution sustained them independent for better than a thousand 
 years, and only fell into decay by the vice and luxury of an overgrown 
 aristocracy. Venice fell, under the repeated assaults of the Turks, in 
 1669. The war had continued for nearly half a century, during which 
 forty thousand Christian soldiers, and one hundred and eighteen 
 thousand Turks, were slain. 
 
 The nation next in importance, and more directly so to the Irish' 
 reader, is that Scandinavian irruption of men generally denominated 
 " Danes." They issued from the north of Europe in inexhaustible 
 numbers. Born to a cold and cheerless climate, and a sterile earth, they 
 were ready to risk life, and incur any degree of hardship, for the 
 luxuries of a southern soil. Aided by the great quantity of the best 
 ship timber to be found upon their barren hills, they fitted out fleets, 
 which were placed under resolute leaders, whom they denominated sea 
 Icings. The object of their first efforts was simply plunder. They 
 usually put to sea in the summer, issuing from the basin of the Baltic in 
 large fleets, plundering the European coasts on the Atlantic, and returning 
 to their unapproachable fastnesses in the north. Encouraged by successes, 
 
416 ORIGIN OF THE NORMANS. 
 
 they proceeded into the very heart of Europe. In the time of Charles 
 the Bald, (843,) they plundered many parts of France ; even in the reign 
 of Charlemagne, they attempted the same thing, but were kept in check 
 by the dread of his arms. But now, they sailed boldly up the Seine, 
 plundered Rouen, while another fleet entered the Loire, and laid waste 
 all the rich country washed by that river; carrying away, together 
 with rich spoils, men, women, and children, whom they sold into 
 captivity. In 844, they appeared abroad in greater numbers ; attacked 
 England, Ireland, France, Spain, and Germany ; they astonished and 
 alarmed all Europe ; they entered the Elbe, plundered Hamburg, and 
 penetrated far into Germany. 
 
 They were called Northmen, or Normans, by the French ; and these 
 daring adventurers penetrated, at one time, under Eric, their king, as 
 far as Paris. Its inhabitants fled, and the city was burnt. Their 
 fleet, with little resistance, burnt Bourdeaux. To avert the destruction, 
 Charles the Bald compounded with them for a large sum, and Charles 
 the Gross yielded them a part of his Flemish dominion. This only 
 tended to increase their confidence. Their leaders continued their attack 
 until Rollo, one of their chiefs, compelled the king of France (anno 
 912) to surrender a large portion of the territory of Neustria, and to 
 give him his daughter in marriage. This territory was formed into 
 a new kingdom, called Normandy, of which Rouen was the capital. 
 
 In England, they were equally successful ; they entered the Thames, 
 sailed up to London, sacked it, drove the Saxon kings from their stools, 
 and laid the whole country under tribute. Their ravages in England 
 were like those in France and Germany. They were of a plunderous 
 character, observed none of the usual conditions of warfare ; gave no 
 quarter, respected no age, sex, or condition ; they looked upon literature 
 and books with the most savage enmity, making it their special duty to 
 destroy every literary collection which they could seize. They ap- 
 peared to affrighted Europe as a terrible scourge, which nothing could 
 avert. 
 
 They visited Ireland about the close of the eighth century. They 
 sailed up through her rivfers, landed suddenly from their small craft, pil- 
 laged the people, murdered the clergy, destroyed the churches, burned 
 the libraries, and returned quickly with their spoils to sea. This har- 
 assing warfare was kept up on the Irish for many years. It was in vain 
 that the pillagers were met and defeated in pitched battles — in vain that 
 thousands of their numbers were slain in countless engagements. They 
 seemed to be nothing the less in numbers or ferocity. After a pillaging 
 
TURGESIUS THE DANISH CHIEF. 417 
 
 and wasting war, or series of invasions, of half a century, during 
 which many of the best commanders of Ireland, and unnumbered 
 legions of her bravest men, were slain, — under which accumulated mis- 
 fortunes, Connor, the monarch of Ireland, died of grief, in 821. 
 
 The Danish chief, Turgesius, now appeared in the north of Ireland, 
 with a fleet of three hundred ships, filled with an overwhelming army. 
 They landed in several harbors, and forced their way through the coun- 
 try ; during which, they took Armagh, then the chief city of Ireland. 
 Great was the joy of the Danes at its surrender, whilst the spirits of 
 the Irish were depressed in an inverse ratio. 
 
 Turgesius having obtained the command of all those aliens, wherever 
 dispersed, who had made a footing in Ireland before his arrival, availed 
 himself, with great tact, of this additional power ; for he aimed at the 
 thorough conquest of the kingdom. His different detached parties were 
 every where in action. Whilst he possessed himself of Drogheda, 
 another of his party took Dublin. And now was the whole country 
 one scene of ruin and desolation. Churches and monasteries, religious 
 and laics, nobles and peasants, without discrimination, suffered the 
 utmost cruelty of sword and fire. The wealthy cities and smiling 
 villages, where, before, such scenes of splendor, hospitality, and piety, 
 were exhibited, became now destitute of inhabitants, and the country, 
 instead of being covered with flocks and corn, was covered with barba- 
 ^ rians, who were a disgrace to humanity ; and, superadded to all this, 
 there existed a lamentable dissension between the provincial kings 
 of Munster and Connaught. The Irish, divided among themselves, re- 
 fusing to support each other when attacked, gave spirit to the Danes, 
 who had therefore nothing to fear but from the military and people of 
 the territory on which they descended. 
 
 Turgesius erected forts and warlike stations in all those places which 
 be seized, and none of the old inhabitants could return to the fond 
 habitations of their infancy without making a formal submission to him. 
 He took care to invest the posts on the sea-coasts with armed battalions. 
 In vain did the Irish oppose them manfully, and cut them off in regi- 
 ments of eight hundred, and a thousand at a time in the interior; as 
 the Danes were continually increased by new adventurers on the sea- 
 coasts, it appeared as if they grew out of the sea, so interminable did 
 their numbers appear. The interior part of Ireland was yet free from 
 their absolute power, and poured forth new men to defend those places 
 nearest to them. Turgesius, in imitation of the Irish, built light barks 
 to run into the interior of the country. He filled the Shannon, and other 
 53 
 
418 DEATH OF NIALL. ACCESSION OF MALACHT. 
 
 rivers, and lakes, with myriads of armed men. Loch Neagh and 
 Loch Erne were covered with small craft full of armed pirates, land- 
 ing on every side, pillaging churches and villages, and putting to the 
 «word defenceless women and children. 
 
 Anno 835. Niall the Third, who succeeded Connor as monarch of 
 Ireland, was indefatigable, at this period, in reconciling jarring interests, 
 and animating his brave countrymen to resistance. He was enabled to 
 collect forces enough to o;ive battle to the Danes in two signal engacre- 
 ments, in which he cut them to pieces. Encouraged by his successes 
 in reconciling jarring interests, and uniting forces to resist the invader, 
 the monarch now made a journey into Leinster, to rally the peoplo 
 of that province to their duty ; but he lost his life, in crossing a river, 
 through his own excessive humanity in endeavoring to save the life of 
 one of his officers. 
 
 Anno 848. The Irish throne was now filled by the monarch Mala- 
 chy. Imitating the policy of Niall, he called a council of the nation at 
 Armagh, which had been retaken from the Danes. Here the estates 
 of Connaught, Ulster, and Meath, assembled, with several of the bishops 
 and clergy. It was then agreed to make a general and simultaneous 
 attack on the Danes, in every direction. This resolve was carried into 
 effect with great vigor. The monarch himself, at the head of a brave 
 body of troops, cut to pieces a large army of Danes, consisting of some 
 thousands, in Meath. The brave Dalgais cut to pieces several hundred 
 of them at Ard Bracen ; and the people of Tyr Connell gave a signal 
 overthrow to a large body of them near Emisrudth. The same success 
 attended the people of Loch Gobhair. The monarch Malachy, still 
 following up his successes, gave them battle at Glass Glean, where 
 seventeen hundred, together with Saxolb, their general, were left dead 
 on the field. 
 
 But these transitory successes seemed not to diminish the number of 
 the invaders. Having made a footing in England, they found ready 
 auxiliaries in their countrymen who had settled there, and, without wait- 
 ing for troops from their native homes around the Baltic, were enabled 
 to replace the ranks of the dead almost immediately. Their hordes ap- 
 peared on the Irish coast in still greater numbers, and county after 
 county, and district after district, fell into their hands, after rivers of the 
 bravest blood had been shed in their defence. The wills of the conquerors 
 became law to the vanquished. At length, every district in the land, 
 in which an Irish chieftain resided, was obliged to entertain a Danish 
 chief, to whom he was to submit, and from whom he was to receive 
 
LETTERS INTERDICTED. TAXES IMPOSED. 419 
 
 orders for the government of his people ; for the Irish would receive 
 no commands but directly from their own chiefs. 
 
 Although this preserved the appearance of freedom amongst the peo- 
 ple, it at the same time riveted more completely their chains. Every 
 town, besides its old magistrate, was superintended by a Danish captain, 
 with his company ; eveiy village had a sergeant, and in every farm- 
 house was billeted a Danish soldier. Nothing that the citizen or farmer 
 possessed could he call his own. The cattle, the corn, the provisions, 
 were at the disposal of the rapacious soldiery. The inhabitants dared 
 not sit down to their meals until these banditti were first satisfied. Uni- 
 versities and schools were filled with soldiers ; churches and monasteries 
 were destroyed, or, where suffered to stand, filled up with pagan priests.' 
 Some of the clergy and learned men escaped the sword, and quitted the 
 country for France, or fled to the wildernesses, and there died of starva- 
 tion and cold. Religion and letters were interdicted ; the nobility and 
 gentry were forbidden the use of arms, and the ladies were prevented re- 
 ceiving the education proper for their state. Reading, and every kind 
 of literary instruction, were forbidden to the common people. 
 
 This was not enough; the master of every house in the land was 
 obliged to pay annually to Tnrgesius's receivers an ounce of gold ; and 
 this was exacted with such rigor and cruelty, that such as could not 
 comply were to forfeit the loss of their nose, or become slaves. Hence 
 this tax was called nose money ; and such were the terms only upon 
 which these pillagers would cease in their work of extermination. As 
 the best blood of the country had already saturated the soil in its de- 
 fence, the exhausted inhabitants submitted for a while to this state of 
 degradation. 
 
 We look back upon those days of Ireland's suffering with natural 
 emotions of pity. Had we lived then, and escaped from the torture 
 of the Dane to a free country, how resolutely we would turn round, 
 and organize some power to free our countrymen from the yoke ! And 
 yet Ireland is subject to a like tyranny at this moment, with a single 
 exception — that of religious liberty. There is not a master of a house 
 in Ireland that has not to pay more than an ounce of gold to the Eng- 
 lish task-master : whether in the shape of labor, or pork, or money, or 
 meal, the humblest cotter in the land pays his ounce of gold to the Saxon. 
 
 In addition to this, there is not a village of Ireland that has not 
 its sergeant of police, and its dozen or half-dozen policemen, with 
 loaded rifles, ready, upon the slightest pretence, to shoot down the 
 people. There is hardly a mail that comes from Ireland which does not 
 
420 ENGLAND AS BARBAROUS AS THE PIRATE DANES. 
 
 inform us of some murders committed by those policemen, or some 
 detestable act of espionage. We know that all that the Irish farmer 
 can raise is little enough to satisfy the landlord, the agent, middle 
 man, tax man, and parson — all these being the machinery by which 
 the Saxons pillage the Irish people. We also know that if the Irish 
 farmer is seen to wear a good coat, or a good hat, on a Sunday, or his 
 wife a new gown, a report is made to their task-masters by the police 
 sergeant, and strait the rent is raised five or ten shillings an acre. The 
 people of Ireland are forbidden to keep arms in their houses, unless each 
 sword and gun shall be registered and branded, and a tax of forty 
 shillings a year paid to the British. This tax, in fact, amounts to a total 
 prohibition of the use of arms to the bulk of the people. They are 
 forbidden to fish in their own waters ; for the British, after having taken 
 possession of all the lands, have, by the river laws, taken possession 
 of all the fish in the waters also, and a poor Irish farmer that dares fish 
 up a salmon or trout out of those appropriated waters becomes liable to 
 a long imprisonment and a fine, which must be paid ere he can get free. 
 Then there are the game laws, which have transferred the winged 
 creation to the English as their exclusive property. The Irish farmers^ 
 who hold as tenants under lease, or at will, are not permitted to cut 
 down a tree or a sapling, vv'hich may be growing on their lands^ without 
 the special permission of their task-masters. 
 
 In very few features of Danish tyranny does the tyranny of England 
 differ, save in religious liberty ; and even in that she exceeded the Danes 
 in cruelty and in persecution, until compelled to relent by Tone, Keogh, 
 Grattan, Macneven, O'Connell, and the united resolves of the Irish people. 
 England, in the midst of the nineteenth century, is a more barbarous 
 persecutor of the Irish nation, and of mankind in general, wherever she 
 can send her pirate navies with a chance of impunity, than ever were 
 the barbarians that issued fiom the north of Europe in the dark ages we 
 are now considering ; and the public opinion of civilized man must be 
 brought to bear against this barbarian power, as it was brought against 
 the Danish power, in the ninth and tenth centuries, when they were 
 driven out of Ireland and England, and other parts of Europe, by one 
 simultaneous effort of indignant man. The storm is gathering around 
 England ; and, no matter what appearances she may exhibit, we know 
 she is rotten within, rotten throughout, and can be shaken to atoms by 
 the thunder-voice of united millions. 
 
 The brutal invasions on female liberty and virtue which these barba- 
 rians (the Danes) at length began to practise, drove the' people to madness. 
 
DESIGNS OF TURGESIUS ON THE KINo's DAUGHTER. 421 
 
 All decency was sunk, and the virtuous daughters of Ireland were 
 forcibly torn, by those monsters, from the parental shrine, or the nuptial 
 sanctuary. 
 
 The chief Dane, Turgesius, had a palace built for himself in the 
 same fort where Malachy, the Irish king, was permitted, as a sort of 
 prisoner, to reside. Though the Dane arrogated supreme sway, yet 
 he frequently condescended to visit Malachy, his brother king, who, 
 through a constrained policy, was obliged to entertain the usurper. 
 During these repeated visits, the unwelcome guest became aware of the 
 beauty of one of King Malachy's daughters, and, in a compulsory way, 
 demanded the lady for his dishonorable association. This was the 
 deepest wound that was yet struck into the afflicted heart of the Irish 
 monarch. It was not enough that his dominions were overrun by an 
 unearthly swarm of monsters ; it was not enough that his dignity was 
 eclipsed and his crown removed from his venerable brow ; it was not 
 enough that he was held a vassal prisoner in his own palace, in the 
 presence of his family and followers ; but, to complete his humiliation, 
 there comes this superadded misfortune, — he must resign his virtuous 
 daughter to the unlawful power of the usurper. 
 
 The king endeavored to amuse the Danish chief by assuring him 
 that there were several young ladies in his family or neighborhood who 
 far surpassed his daughter in beauty ; but the arrogant Dane, whose 
 passions had hitherto been strangers to any refusal, declared his inflexible 
 determination, in case the king refused, to take away the young princess 
 by force. Though stung to the heart by the infamous resolution of the 
 tyrant, Malachy, with consummate policy, disguised his indignation 
 and resentment ; and, instead of an affront, he affected to take it as an 
 honor, and assured the Dane that he would positively send his daughter 
 on the next evening, accompanied with fifteen of the most beautiful 
 virgins that he could find amongst all his people, and if the princess 
 still appeared to his eye the most attractive, then he consented that tlie 
 Dane should possess her ; but if fascinated by any of the other ladies, 
 he then trusted to his honor to restore his daughter. 
 
 The lascivious Dane was not only satisfied, but extremely delighted 
 with the proposal ; he called together fifteen of the most daring and 
 influential chiefs of his .party, and communicated to them the intrigue, 
 to each of whom he promised to sacrifice a beautiful virgin in his palace 
 — an intimation received with uproarious delight. 
 
 Malachy planned an escape from this degradation, which, if unsuc- 
 cessful, must have caused his death, and the complete destruction of 
 
422 malachy's expedient to defeat tukgesius. 
 
 his family. His plan was this : He got together fifteen of the hand- 
 somest young men he could find in the neighborhood, amongst his friends 
 and followers, on whose spirit and resolution he could depend, and, after 
 communicating to them the secret of his purpose, and pledging them to 
 execute it to his wish, he had them all attired in the most costly habili- 
 ments of a lady's wardrobe. Every one of them was, however, armed 
 with a dagger, beneath his robe. The king then instructed them 
 in the part they were to act, and promised that he and a good 
 body-guard would be within call at the Dane's fort. Thus ac- 
 coutred and disciplined, the princess and her companions went to the 
 Dane's castle, where they no sooner arrived than they were con- 
 ducted to an apartment, where the chief and his associates were pre- 
 paring to receive them. The princess and her companions were in- 
 spired with very different feelings from those entertained by the Danish 
 heroes. Amongst the trembling sensations of the moment, which must 
 have pervaded their hearts, the love of country was predominant. They 
 knew, if they missed the blow which they now meditated, that they and 
 their country were sacrificed. 
 
 The moment arrived ! Turgesius had looked over the faces and 
 figures of all the visitors, and, having selected the princess from amongst 
 all, proceeded to embrace her, when, she giving the signal, her 
 companions plunged their daggers into the hearts of their respective 
 partners ; every one of the Danes, except the chief, was put to 
 death: him they boiind ; and instantly, at a signal given, King Mala- 
 chy, with his guards, broke into the fort, sword in hand, giving no 
 quarter. The Danish ofiicers and soldiers fell promiscuously in the 
 carnage, and not one remained alive, or was suffered to escape with the 
 tale. The revenge of the Irish being thus satisfied, Malachy had the 
 tyrant bound in irons, and brought before himself and courtiers, upbraid- 
 ing him with all the horrid crimes he had committed ; he had him 
 dragged along in his procession to grace the victory, and finally flung 
 him, covered with irons, into Lough Neagh. 
 
 No sooner was this success over the Danish chiefs made known out- 
 side, but it spread quick as light over the island ; and the news could 
 not travel quicker than did the resolution of the Irish people to throw 
 off the yoke which had so long enslaved them. As soon as the Danes 
 found their chief taken prisoner, and many of their commanders killed, 
 they in turn became panic-stricken and dispirited ; and, as if the charm 
 of their power lay in their leader, no sooner was he taken than their 
 courage forsook them : so the same cause produced in the hearts of the 
 
DESTRUCTION OF THE DANES. HUGH THE SEVENTH. 423 
 
 Irish such new courage and animation, like men awakened from a 
 trance or a dream, they were amazed to find themselves the conquer- 
 ors. Such of the Danish invaders as lived near the coast betook 
 themselves to their ships, and quitted the island ; others fled to the 
 forts and fortified places ; but every where they were pursued by their 
 infuriate foes, whom revenge and freedom excited to extraordinary 
 deeds of war. 
 
 Malachy now took the reins of government into his hands, and called 
 the estates together. Had it not, perhaps, been for the affront offered 
 to the honor of his daughter, he had longer acquiesced in the bondage 
 of the Dane. He assembled the estates near the ancient seat of legisla- 
 tion, in Tara, and there submitted various measures for the future 
 defence of the country and its prosperity. 
 
 In a short time, the country became cleared of hostile ships, and an 
 armed Dane was not to be seen in the land. Liberty was proclaimed, 
 the remnant of the clergy and literati came forth from the wildernesses, 
 and many of those who fled to France returned ; universities and 
 colleges were again opened, and such works, books, and writings, as 
 could be found, after the battles, or had escaped the Danish con- 
 flagrations, were carefully collected. The glory of Malachy, and the 
 greatness of his exploits, were the themes of the senachies and bards, 
 and the kingdom reechoed the sounds of joy. 
 
 Many of the Danes had settled in the maritime towns and cities, who 
 sued the Irish monarch for pardon, proposing to swear fidelity to his 
 crown. Their petitions were taken into consideration by the estates, 
 and a favorable construction placed upon their intentions. They were 
 suffered to remain in those maritime towns, where they carried on traf- 
 fic. A general amnesty passed, and the few Danes that remained 
 became incorporated, apparently, in interest and sentiment, with the 
 nation. The next care of Malachy was to send ambassadors to foreign 
 princes, announcing the happy change. To Charles the Bald, of 
 France, he sent rich presents, of gold ornaments, Irish horses, and 
 wolf dogs, and was about to visit that prince in person, but was cut off 
 by death. 
 
 Anno 864. Malachy was succeeded by Hugh the Seventh. 
 Though the Danes, as a military people, were expelled the kingdom, 
 yet the fertility of the soil, and beauty of the country, but more espe- 
 cially its immense wealth, stimulated them to pant for its repossession. 
 To effect this by force they saw was impracticable. The following 
 project was resorted to: Three brothers, Amelanus, Sitaracus, and 
 
424 NEW ATTACKS OF THE DANES. 
 
 Ivorus, Danish commanders of ability, fitted out a considerable fleet, 
 apparently freighted with merchandise, but in which large quantities 
 of arms were concealed ; and the better to deceive the vigilance of the 
 Irish, they were divided into three squadrons. One squadron, com- 
 manded by Ivorus, sailed up the Shannon, to dispose of their goods at 
 Limerick. He waited on Lachtna, king of North Munster, presented him 
 with some curiosities, requested his permission to settle in his city, with 
 his people, in the way of traffic, promising extraordinary taxes and 
 duties to his government for this liberty. The Danish chiefs now laid 
 themselves out to pay their court to the different princes, in whose terri- 
 tories they had got footing. They entered into their Interests, soothed 
 their passions, and spirited up chief against chief; and as we know 
 how prone our countrymen are to be deceived, and" cajoled by sweet 
 language, we are not now surprised at the success of the wily Dane. 
 They obtained, permission, for the defence of their merchandise, to build 
 castles, which they erected of extraordinary strength. By these means, 
 and the accession of fresh forces, under the disguise of dealers and 
 travellers, they became, in a short time, formidable again. 
 
 Such was the preparation made by the Danes for a reconquest of 
 the country. At this time, their successes in England and Wales were 
 considerable. It was their policy, when they lost one station, to aban- 
 don it with perfect composure, and retreat to such places as they still 
 held, to collect their forces for a fresh onslaught. \n opportunity soon 
 offering to put their plans into operation, the Danish chief Ame' 
 lanus attacked, with a considerable force, the governor of Meath. 
 The war between the Danes and the natives was thus again renewed, 
 with various successes on either side : it was carried into Ulster, where, 
 again, the clergy, defenceless women, and children, were butchered ; 
 but the northern king gathered his forces, and met the Danes at Lough 
 Foil, in the county Donegal, and routed then) with great slaughter. 
 The Ulster monarch followed up his conquests, and appeared before the 
 gates of Dublin, which he surrounded, and then put the Danish garrison 
 to the sword. The Danish chiefs and soldiers, from other quarters of 
 Ireland, came to the aid of their countrymen ; but in one decisive en- 
 gagement, upwards of five thousand of them were slain. Soon after 
 this, the remaining Danes collected their scattered forces, and got them 
 over to Wales, to the assistance of their countrymen, Hinquar and 
 Hubba, who were then hard pressed by the Welsh. 
 
 The histories of France and England sufficiently attest the fidelity 
 with which the Danes, in their enterprising attempts on dlfierent nations. 
 
RETREAT OF THE DANES ON WALES. NIALL THE FOURTH. 425 
 
 supported each other: the scattered forces, driven from Ireland, 
 enabled the invaders of Wales to effect its conquest ; and then it was 
 that Roger, the king of the Britons, fled to Ireland for refuge, and was 
 there most honorably entertained by the Irish monarch. 
 
 During the remainder of this king's reign, there were no more attempts 
 made by the Danes to disturb the tranquillity of the Irish nation. Again 
 arts, sciences, and literature, began to bud forth, with the sudden fresh- 
 ness of a warm summer, after a long, ungenial winter. 
 
 But, in 888, the Danes again invaded Leinster, plundering the 
 churches and monasteries, and retiring to their ships with great expe- 
 dition. In five years farther on, we find them plundering the churches 
 of Armagh. The historians of those times fill their pages with recitals 
 of the occasional depredations, committed at various parts of the sea- 
 coasts, by these pillagers. 
 
 Anno 916, Niall the Fourth came to the throne. The Danes, who 
 by this time had become informed of the various dispositions of the 
 chiefs towards each other, — their private causes of quarrel, he, — 
 joined one party or the other in these deadly animosities, and kindled 
 up the passions of the people and chiefs to civil wars. And when their 
 dissensions had been increased to a fearful pitch, the Danes intimated 
 to their countrymen, at home, the favorable opportunity for the recon- 
 quest of the country. Accordingly, Ulster was, in 917, invaded by a 
 large Danish force ; but they were bravely met by the Ulster prince, and 
 defeated, with great slaughter. In the ensuing year, a tremendous force 
 appeared, in the harbor of Dublin, commanded by the Danish chief Goc?- 
 frey ; and this fresh force, uniting with the one previously in the coun- 
 try, attacked Dublin, carried it by storm, and put thousands to the sword. 
 
 A great annual fair was usually held in Roscrea, v/hich is nearly the 
 centre of Ireland : merchants resorted to it not only from all parts of 
 Ireland, but from foreign countries, to purchase cloth, serges, and flan- 
 nels, which were then manufactured largely in the south and west of 
 Ireland. The traffic of Ireland was, at this time, considerable. The 
 Danes of Limerick and Galway had formed a plan to surprise the mer- 
 chants and traders who attended this fair ; and they arrived, in several 
 small detachments, on the borders of the Shannon, to a point within a 
 few hours' march of the meeting. By the watchtower fires, the forces 
 of Roscrea were alarmed, and the Irish troops, merchants, assistants, 
 and all, turned out and killed four thousand of the Danes. 
 
 The Irish chieftains of the south placed themselves under the leader- 
 ship of Cealachan, and attacked the Danish forts wherever they 
 54 
 
426 STRATAGEM TO DESTROY CEALACHAN. 
 
 existed in that quarter, and routed the Danes totally out of the south 
 of Ireland. Cealachan then prepared a great sea fleet, to sail round 
 to Waterford, Dublin, and the northern ports, where the Danes still 
 retained power. In this expedition they were eminently successful, 
 especially in Armagh and the north of Ireland generally. Sitric, the 
 Danish chief, who governed Dublin, seeing his power about to be anni- 
 hilated, sent ambassadors to the young heroic Cealachan, proposing a 
 peace, and offering his sister, with an immense marriage portion, to the 
 young commander. In addition, he offered him ships, and a guaranty 
 against the further incursions of his countrymen. These proposals had 
 the effect of inducing young Cealachan to listen to the wily Dane, 
 and, as the young lady was beautiful, it was thought the prince, on see- 
 ing her, would be so enamored as to consent to the terms required by 
 the Dane ; but more than this, the treacherous Dane was determined, 
 the moment he got Cealachan in his power, to destroy him. 
 
 The wife of Sitric was an Irish princess, and felt a natural horror 
 at the contemplated butchery : she therefore intimated to the young 
 hero the trap that was laid for him ; but he having arrived as far as Kil- 
 mainham, ere he was aware of the plot, he and his followers were 
 surrounded, and all the young knights in his train butchered. 
 
 This act of baseness roused the men of the south, and tremendous 
 retahation ensued. Cealachan was sent prisoner to the north of Ire- 
 land, from whence he found means to communicate with his country- 
 men in Munster, and urged them to send an expedition by sea, which 
 was considered in a parliament of Munster; and, in consequence, one 
 hundred and twenty ships of war were fitted out, having on board slings, 
 bows and arrows, spears, swords, &:c., all well manned. These were 
 furnished by the following chiefs : O^Driscol, O' Cobhtach, and O^Flan, 
 armed and manned ten ships each. Corchna Dubhnee, of Kerry, the 
 hereditary admiral of Munster, fitted out thirty vessels: O' Connor Ker- 
 ry twenty ships : from Corcomrudth and Burren, in the county Clare, 
 twenty ships, and from Corcha Bhaison twenty ships ; in all, one hun- 
 dred and twenty ships. There was sent by land an expedition of twelve 
 thousand men, in complete armor, well appointed, the choice and flower 
 of the Munster militia. The whole of this brave army was placed 
 under O^Kccffe; and his commanders of battalions were O Hara, 
 O'Connor, O^Gara, O^ Coghlin, O' Fermellon. He arrived before Ar- 
 magh, then in the possession of the Danes, which he attacked, with 
 great bravery, sword in hand, and captured. 
 
 Sitric, the chief Dane, and his principal followers, withdrew to Dundalk, 
 
GRKAT SEA-FIGHT. 427 
 
 where his ships lay. Thither O'KeefFe and his vaHant army pursued 
 him ; and, on their arrival, he was found embarked in his ships out in the 
 bay. O'KeefFe sent a flag of truce to demand the prisoners, particularly 
 Cealachan and Dunchiun ; but Sitric sent, for answer, that the prisoners 
 should not be restored till a fine was paid for every Dane that was killed 
 in fifteen battles, in which the prince Cealachan commanded. At the 
 same time, Sitric ordered the captive prince to be bound to his main- 
 mast, in view of the Munster army on the shore. This insult was the 
 more galling, as the Danish ships were out of their reach. What must 
 their delight have been then, on beholding the Munster fleet in sight, 
 and with their oars and sails filling up the bay ! 
 
 When the Irish army beheld distinctly their own admiral's flag, they 
 sent up a shout that rent the very skies. O^Failbhe drew up his ships 
 in an extended line, so as to leave room enough to work and fight. 
 The battle begins ; the Danes fight for existence. O^Driscol, O' Cobh- 
 tach, and O'Flan, lead the attack by showers of spears and arrows, 
 large stones hurled from machines, he. They approach nearer, grap- 
 ple, and board the Danes. O^Failbhe grappled the Danish admiral, 
 the rest of his squadron did the like to others, and all leaped into the 
 enemy's ships. 
 
 Never was greater valor displayed than by both parties on this occa- 
 sion. The Danish fleet was much better manned than the Irish, and 
 this made the conflict long and dubious. O^Failbhe, at the head of a 
 hardy band, rushes to the mast, cuts down the prince Cealachan ; they are 
 successful, and the liberated prince performs prodigies. His liberation 
 is shouted along the ships, and reechoed from the anxious army on the 
 shore. O^Failbhe was rushed on by Sitric, the Dane, and a band 
 of desperate followers ; he fell pierced by twenty spears. 
 
 His death, for a moment, intimidated his crew ; for his head was imme- 
 diately severed from his body by the Dane, and exhibited, in order to 
 strike terror into the Irish sailors and warriors ; but Fingal, second in 
 command, vowed revenge on Sitric. He animates his brave compan- 
 ions ; they catch the sapred flame, and bravely second their gallant 
 commander. Fingal and Sitric at length closed on the deck, sur- 
 rounded by Danes. Fingal, seeing his end certain, resolved to die 
 gloriously. By a sudden effort, he grasped Sitric in his arms, and 
 plunged with him into the fathomless deep. The like did Connal and 
 Leagha, (ancestors ol O'ConnellandO'Loughlin,) who engaged with the 
 ships commanded by Tor and Magnus, brothers to Sitric ; and, reduced 
 to 'the same extremity with Fingal, like him they grasped those chiefs 
 
428 REIGN OF CONGALACH. BRIEN BOROIMHE. 
 
 In their arms, and, like him, plunged with them into eternity. O'Con- 
 nor Kerry and his division met the same opposition. He attacked, 
 hand to hand, the Danish commander, whose head he cut off; and, 
 whilst he was exposing it to his men, he met the same fate from another 
 Dane. 
 
 In short, such bravery and determination must conquer ; and conquer 
 jt did, but not till nearly every Irish chief was killed, and every Dane 
 also; and, of that numerous host of insolent invaders, who, in the morn- 
 ing, manifested such insulting airs, not a single Dane remained alive at 
 night. The page of history does not furnish a braver action than this. 
 The enemy's ships being taken or destroyed, Cealachan and Dimchiun, 
 the long-imprisoned princes, landed, and the sight of them on shore, after 
 the glories of the day, may be more easily imagined than described. 
 
 The spirit of Cealachan and his glorious companions from the south 
 seemed to be caught by the northern men. O'Neill fitted out a fleet 
 on Lough Neagh, with which he attacked the Danes, and killed twelve 
 hundred men. In like manner, the Conaccians attacked them on Lough 
 Orb, destroying vast numbers. 
 
 Anno 946. Congalach, of the Heremonian line, became monarch 
 of Ireland. He also had to contend with the Danes for his monarchy, 
 which he did with great bravery, killing four thousand near Dublin. 
 Several more Danish legions appear at Dublin, land, and proceed to the 
 interior of the country, where they are met, and are generally cut to 
 pieces. Godfrey, the next Danish chief that made his appearance on 
 the Irish soil, brought with him a larger alien force than ever before 
 appeared in Ireland ; but the Irish army met and attacked them at Mun 
 Brocan, in Meath, where seven thousand of them were killed on the 
 field of battle. This victory was dearly purchased, for the Irish lost 
 the flower of their army that day, amongst whom were Roderic 
 O^ Cannanan, prince of Tyr Connell, and others of high name. 
 
 In the mean time, the Danes came over in their ships, in various 
 fleets, and secretly landed, in small detachments, all round the island. 
 In this extremity, the Munster hero, Cealachan, died, which caused 
 much grief to the Irish. His posterity assumed the name of O' Ceala- 
 chan, and preserved a considerable part of their hereditary property to 
 the days of Cromwell. Without dwelling too minutely on the various 
 battles which took place between the Danes and the Irish, we will come 
 at once to the brilliant life and exploits of Brien, surnamed Boroimhe. 
 Brien was a Munster prince, the son of Vincidi, the king of North 
 Munster. He was born in the year 926, and commenced his reign in 
 
ROUTS THE DANES IN VARIOUS BATTLES. 429 
 
 Munster, in the thirty-ninth year of his age. The length of his reign 
 was forty-nine years ; the first thirty-seven he was king of Munster, and 
 the last twelve he was monarch of Ireland. 
 
 The Danes, who occupied the south, still held nearly all the islands 
 in the Shannon, from Limerick to the sea. Brien prepared a fleet of 
 ships and flat-bottomed boats, and, at the head of twelve hundred brave 
 Dalgais, he landed at Innis Catha, or Scattery Island, near the little sea- 
 port of Kilrush. 
 
 This is the celebrated island to which St. Senanus retired in the fifth 
 century , where he founded no less than eleven churches for the use of his 
 monks, the ruins of some of which are yet standing. This holy retreat 
 was celebrated for five hundred years ; and amongst its rigid rules was 
 one which prohibited any female landing on the island — a law which 
 was strictly enforced from its foundation in the fifth century to the coming 
 of the Danes, when they took possession of the churches and grounds, 
 butchering the holy inhabitants. Brien's first attack was on the bar- 
 barians who had thus possessed themselves of a spot so sacred. 
 
 He killed eight hundred of their best men, took possession of the 
 island, and repaired the churches. After their reconsecration, he offered 
 a solemn thanksgiving to God for thus enabling him to overcome his 
 enemies. From this spot he embarked forces which sailed up the 
 Shannon, and were every where successful in driving out the Danes 
 from the islands and forts they occupied along that river. In every 
 place which he retook, he repaired the churches and colleges they had 
 destroyed, restoring the clergy to their rank and possessions. These acts 
 of -bravery and respect offered to religion and letters won for Brien 
 the greatest popularity. 
 
 Thousands flocked to his standard, and he was thus enabled to fit out 
 a grand expedition against Limerick, which, by the wonderful increase 
 of the Danes there, had neariy become a Danish city. On his ap- 
 proach, the Danes shut the gates, and offered battle ; but Brien's invin- 
 cible army carried the city by storm, scaling the walls, and meeting the 
 foe with spear and sw^ord. The Danish magistrates he deposed, and 
 set up the old magistrates of the people. 
 
 Having now thoroughly subdued the Danish power throughout Mun- 
 ster, his next care was to give vigor to the laws. The ruined schools 
 and monasteries he rebuilt and repaired ; he also rebuilt all the royal 
 houses and colleges through Munster, at his own expense. It was the 
 custom then for every prince of the royal blood to support three royal 
 houses in his dominion. Here hospitality was done in a truly princely 
 
430 MALACHT. 
 
 Style. There were thirteen of those royal houses in Munster. The 
 public roads were, during the last hundred and fifty years of strife, torn 
 up or neglected. These Brien repaired. He summoned a feis, or par- 
 liament, in Cashell, where many excellent public acts were passed. The 
 lands which had been unlawfully usurped by the Danes were restored 
 to the proper owners, and such lands as could not be clearly claimed 
 were given over to the state. The records of the kingdom were all here 
 carefully examined, and new copies ordered to be multiplied by the 
 seneachies. New houses of public hospitality were erected upon the 
 lands forfeited to the king ; and the Psalter of Cashell informs us that 
 no less a number than eighteen hundred of such houses was established 
 in Munster. The annual revenue of Brien was very considerable. It 
 was agreed, in the presence of St. Patrick, five hundred years previous- 
 ly, in Tara, that the revenue of the king of Munster should consist of 
 six thousand two hundred and forty oxen, six thousand cows, four thou- 
 sand sheep, five thousand hogs, five thousand common cloaks, one 
 hundred green cloaks, forty scarlet cloaks, four hundred and twenty tons 
 of iron ; and the annual revenue of the city of Limerick was three hun- 
 dred and sixty-five tuns of claret, besides spices, cloths and silks. 
 " This work now before me," says O'Halloran, " mentions the proportion 
 which the different territories of Munster paid of this revenue." The 
 maritime force of Munster consisted, at this time, of three hundred vessels 
 of war; they were generally of forty to sixty tons each. The land 
 force amounted to twenty-five thousand foot and five thousand horse. 
 
 Brien restored the country, particularly his own province of Munster, to 
 such content, and so well oidered the local government, that not a single 
 outrage was heard of. Brien got the surname of Boroimhe from the 
 vast number of cows paid to him in tribute, bo being the Irish of cow, 
 and roimhe, tax. It was at this period of his reign that a young and 
 beautiful virgin undertook a journey alone from one side of the province 
 of Munster to the other, carrying in her hand a wand, at the top of 
 which was affixed a valuable diamond ring ; and this singular feat she 
 performed without receiving the least injury or molestation. On this 
 incident has our countryman Moore written the beautiful song, " Rich 
 and rare were the gems she wore," which will be found in the musical 
 pages. 
 
 Anno 980. We find the celebrated Malachy the Second installed 
 monarch of Ireland. The Danes had, shortly after his accession, ap- 
 peared with a considerable force on the plains of-Meath, to give him 
 battle ; but here Malachy met them at the head of his brave troops, 
 
BRIEN COMES TO THE THRONE. 431 
 
 and killed five thousand of them on the field. It was at this battle that 
 Malachy encountered two celebrated Danish chieftains, Tomar and 
 Carlus, one after the other, whom he killed on the spot, taking a collar 
 of gold from the neck of one, and carrying off the sword of the other, as 
 trophies of his victory. 
 
 Partly on this incident Moore has written one of his beautiful melo- 
 dies, and partly on the fact related by Cambrensis in relation to Lough 
 Neagh ; namely, " It was an old tradition," said Cambrensis, " that 
 Lough Neagh had been originally a fountain in a valley, by whose sud- 
 den overflowing the country and whole region became submerged, and 
 the fishermen, in clear weather, used to point out to strangers the tali 
 ecclesiastical towers under the water." On these interesting reminis- 
 cences the expressive stanzas, 
 
 " Let Erin remember the days of old," 
 
 have been founded. They will be found in the music pages. 
 
 Malachy pursued the Danes to the gates of Dublin, where they shut 
 themselves up ; but he scaled the walls, carried the city by storm, and 
 planted on its walls the green standard of his country, instead of that of 
 the invader. Here he found several noble prisoners, whom he liberated. 
 
 Ireland was now pretty well freed from the Danish power ; but, un- 
 fortunately, the jealousies which grew up in the breast of Malachy 
 towards the hero Brien were near subjecting the nation to the power of 
 the Danes again. These jealousies ended in a bloody conflict between 
 the armies of both, in which the Munster hero was victorious. 
 
 Brien was then, 1001, saluted and proclaimed monarch of all Ireland, 
 Malachy offering him the crown and sword in submission. Brieii now 
 received hostages from Malachy as sureties for his peaceable behavior. 
 He also demanded hostages from all the surrounding princes. He 
 marched his army to Athlone, and there solemnly received the fealty of 
 all Connaught. From thence he proceeded to Armagh, where he 
 received the fealty of the northern princes, and in the cathedral of 
 Armagh, received the holy communion from the hands ol the bishop, 
 Marianus, after which Brien made an offering of rich presents to the 
 dignitaries of the church, and the support of the cathedral of St. Patrick, 
 and declared his intention of being there interred at his death. He 
 then returned to T^ara, where, in the presence of the princes and chief 
 nobility of the land, he was solemnly anointed and crowned by the 
 archbishop of Cashell, and it was then announced to the people, that 
 '•' Brien, the son of Cincidi, the son of Lorcan, and so on to Milesius, 
 
432 LAW RELATING TO SURNAMES. THE o's AND MAc's. 
 
 was monarch of Ireland," which was confirmed by giving the royal shout 
 — a practice still followed at the coronation of the kings of England, 
 France, and other European countries. 
 
 After Brien's coronation, a national assembly was called in Tara, where 
 many good and useful- laws were enacted, which remained in force in 
 the southern and western provinces of Ireland for many succeeding 
 centuries, even after the English invasion. The national history, which, 
 during the sway of Danish power, was suffered to drop, was again taken 
 up and continued. A law was passed, by which, to avoid confusion, 
 certain families were for the future to be distinguished by surnames ; 
 but these were not to be arbitrarily imposed. Each chief was to be 
 called after some certain ancestor, whose particular virtues would always 
 remind him of his origin. Accordingly, the successors of the great 
 Brien assumed the prefix, or surname, of O^Brien, or the descendants of 
 Brien. The issue of his brother Mahon were called Mac Mahon. The 
 issue of Niall the Grand were called O^NeiU. The adjuncts of Mac 
 or O, importing the son, or descendant, were prefixed only to the issue 
 of the chiefs of that name or clan. Thus plain Brien, though belong- 
 ing to the clan, or name, yet did not belong to the family of the chief; 
 plain Carthy, for instance, though indicating the Carthy clan, attached 
 not the chieftain's distinction to the wearer which the prefix Mac 
 conferred. 
 
 "Per Mac atque O tu veros cognoscis Hibernos, 
 His duobus demptis, nullus Hibernus adest." 
 
 By Mac and O, 
 
 You'll always know 
 True Irishmen, they say ; 
 
 For if they lack 
 
 Both O and Mac, 
 No Irishmen are they. 
 
 Some of the descendants of the Irish chieftains yet retain their estates 
 and original titles in Ireland ; for instance, O'Donoghou of the Glens, in 
 Killarney ; O'Connor Don, of Roscommon ; O'Gorman Mahon, of 
 Clare. 
 
 These titles were always so much prized in Ireland, and held in such 
 reverence by the people, that when, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, 
 the O'Brien of Clare had accepted the title of Earl of Thomond from 
 Henry;, the chiefs of his own blood set fire to his noble mansion at Clan- 
 road, near Ennis, and would have consumed him in the flames, but for 
 the timely interference of M Clanchy, chief justice of Munster. John 
 
KING ALFRED EDUCATED IN IRELAND. 433 
 
 O'Neill, in the reign of Elizabeth, returned the patent of Earl of Ty- 
 rone, which his father accepted from Henry the Eighth. He com- 
 plained to the queen of the dishonor his father had affixed on the blood 
 by accepting a mushroom title from his enemies. In short, the Irish 
 chiefs regarded the English titles as degradations. 
 
 The assemblies which met in the ancient halls of legislation, under 
 Biien's reign, produced such a code of equitable laws, and the king had 
 them administered with such exactness, that the whole country assumed 
 a new face ; the cities, from a ruined state, became more ample and 
 splendid ; the churches, monasteries, and public hospitals, were repaired, 
 or rebuilt, with additional majesty ; piety, peace, and plenty, spread far 
 and wide ; learning every where resumed its position and influence, and 
 the eminent doctors of learning educated in Ireland were again sought 
 for by every nation of Europe to superintend their schools of literature, 
 religion, and music, — particularly those of England, which had been 
 suppressed by the Danes. 
 
 Here may be the place to introduce a glance at the progress of civilization 
 in England at this period. Alfred, who was educated in Ireland, and was 
 made thoroughly familiar with all the literature, laws, and customs, known 
 and practised there, no sooner completed the deliverance of his country 
 from the Danes, than he introduced among his subje-^ts all the good laws 
 of Ireland, amongst which were the trial by jury, the law of gavel, 
 the assembly of estates, the division of the country into counties or 
 shires, the law of Eric, and the Brehon code. 
 
 Turner, in his History of the Anglo-Saxons, quotes from the History 
 of Johna Tinmouth, in manuscripts in the Bodleian library, and the 
 chronicler Higden, (all three English writers,) and gives his belief of their 
 account of Alfred's place of education from almost childhood, thus : 
 " If it be true, as these chroniclers intimate, that infirm health occa- 
 sioned his father, in obedience to the superstition of the day, to send him 
 to Modwenna, a religious lady in Ireland, celebrated in sanctity, such 
 an expedition must, by its new scenes, have kept his curiosity alive, 
 and have amplified his information." — Turner's Anglo-Saxons, b. ii. 
 chap. viii. 
 
 The learned Usher has the following confirmatory paragraph : " Ut 
 de Polydoro Virgiiio, et Nicolao Harpsfeldio nihil dicam, qui nono post 
 Christum seculo Modvennam et oritham floruisse volunt, illos secuti 
 auctores, qui magnum Illium aluredum." — De Brit. Eccles. Primord. 
 
 The cure here said to have been performed on Alfred by Modwenna 
 is mentioned, also, says Moore, by Hanmer. Thus we have six Eng- 
 55 
 
434 GLANCE AT ENGLAND IN THE TENTH CENTURY. 
 
 LisH AUTHORITIES, together with the profound Irish scholar Primate 
 Usher, assenting to the fact that King Alfred the Great received his 
 education, from the years of sickly childhood to ripe manhood, in 
 Ireland. 
 
 Alfred had been defeated in many battles with the Danes, but his 
 courage was invincible, and his spirit untiring. When the Danes 
 thought he and his friends were completely routed, he got into their 
 camp in the dress of a bard, and, lulling their apprehensions with the 
 music of his harp, informed himself of their position, returned, collected 
 his scattered friends, attacked them at the moment he knew they feasted 
 and indulged in excess, and by this and other signal acts of valor and 
 generalship, freed his country from their yoke. He fought fifty-six 
 battles with that barbarian power, and at length cleared them from his 
 kingdom. 
 
 Alfred turned the attention of the English to building small war 
 vessels, after the manner of the Irish. He established a regular militia 
 on the very principle of Fion M'Cumhall's, all of whom were well 
 armed, and registered. He introduced building with stone and brick 
 into England, and taught his countrymen the use of cement, previously 
 unknown to them. He also introduced the order of knighthood, and 
 created the first knight that was ever made in England ; namely, his 
 grandson Athelstan. He commenced the regular record of English 
 history, .customs, and laws, after the manner of the Psalters of Tara, 
 Cashell, and Tuam ; and that record which he commenced was, in other 
 ages, continued by Edward the Confessor, and was called by him the 
 Doomsday Book, from which William the Conqueror continued his na- 
 tional record. The body of laws which he then established in England 
 were the same as those in use in Ireland for so many ages, and were 
 totally different from the civil laws of Rome, compiled in the Pandects of 
 Justinian, or those introduced into England by William, in the eleventh 
 century. He obliged his nobility and chief men to bring up their chil- 
 dren to the highest state of excellence in every sort of learning. To 
 none would he give place or command that was not skilled in letters. 
 This was the very law and practice of Ireland for ages. He introduced 
 the practice of marking the hour of the day by the burning of a wax 
 candle, sticking a nail or a needle into the candle, forming divisions which 
 would denote the time passed, each mark denoting an hour. This 
 practice was known in the monasteries of Ireland, where watching and 
 prayers were regulated by these watch-lights. Alfred invented lanterns 
 to enclose these lights and protect them from the wind. 
 
THE DANES AGAIN IN^^ADE IRELAND. 435 
 
 He established first, in England, an annual assembly of the estates, 
 i. e., bishops, priests, gentry, and artificers — exactly following, in this re- 
 spect, the constitution of the Tara assembly. This was held in London. 
 He followed the Irish practice, dividing England into shires, (counties,) 
 and appointing over each a lieutenant for its government — a practice 
 continued to this day. Alfred had an astonishing memory, and could 
 recite in verse the whole history of Ireland and England to his own 
 times. By his bravery he freed England from the Danes, and by his 
 wisdom conferred on his countrymen that body of laws known as the 
 British constitution. He built many churches, after the arched style 
 of Ireland, endowed them largely, and was buried in Winchester. After 
 Alfred's death, the Danes again ravaged England, and so subjugated 
 were the English, that one Dane was considered equal to ten English- 
 men. I utter this on the authority of Wade, the present living historian 
 of England. The English passed again under the Danish yoke, and 
 became subject to their kings. The monarch, Svein, was succeeded on 
 that throne by Knut, Harold and Horda Knut, written by some, Canute, 
 Harold, and Hardicanute. 
 
 But we must hasten to the grand concluding acts of the life of our 
 brave Brien Boroimhe. The Danes, encouraged by their great successes 
 in England, after the death of Alfred, as there existed nothing in 
 that quarter to give them apprehensions, now turned their longing eyes 
 once more on Ireland. 
 
 It has ever been the peculiar misfortune of Ireland, that her proud 
 chieftains were prone to quarrel with each other, and, by their dissensions, 
 give well-founded hopes to the enemies of their country. In this instance, 
 again, Ireland was not without her petty quarrel. It arose in a very silly 
 way. The sister of Maolmorda, prince of Leinster, was married to the 
 monarch Brien. The Leinster prince came to Brien to pay him the 
 obedience due from a provincial prince to the monarch of Ireland. For 
 this act of duty he was reproved by his sister, the queen of Brien. 
 High in her fancied dignity of blood, she would not suffer her brother to 
 bend before her husband. This brought on a coolness and dislike, and 
 ended in strife, which Brien avoided by every reasonable effort. 
 
 Meantime the Danes make great use of this lucky dissension, and 
 promise Maolmorda secret supplies of men and arms, to resist the 
 authority of the monarch Brien. To the shame of Ireland, I record 
 that he listened to the treacherous proposals. The Danes thereupon 
 make great preparations, and land a powerful army at Dublin. They 
 came from Sweden and Norway, and also from their settlements in 
 
436 CLONTARF. JiCRMNG Oi THE BATTLE. 
 
 England. Never before was there so powerful an army landed on her 
 shores. Joined to the numerous tribes of Danes already scattered 
 through the country, together with the forces of the treacherous prince 
 of Leinster it formed a seemingly invincible army. They landed, and 
 garrisoned Dublin with sixteen or eighteen thousand men, besides the 
 troops which remained in their ships, that lay in Clontarf Bay, about 
 three miles from the city. 
 
 Brien, fully aware of all their movements, was not idle. He appeared 
 before Dublin in the beginning of April, in the year 1014. His army 
 amounted to fourteen thousand men, and he expected reenforcements 
 under his son Donough, who had been occupied in chastising the treach- 
 ery and insolence of the Leinster prince. He offered the Danes battle 
 on Palm Sunday, which they declined ; but on Good Friday they sig- 
 nified, by their dispositions, that they were about to attack. 
 
 Brien felt much grieved that a day so sacred to the Christian hear? 
 should have been chosen by the heathen invaders for the work of death. 
 But fight he must; no alternative remained. 
 
 At the earliest dawn, prior to the fatal signal, the good and gallant 
 monarch, accompanied by his son Murrough and his grandson Turlough^ 
 rode through the ranks, animating the troops. The aged hero carried 
 in his hand a crucifix, reminding them of the day the invader chose to 
 give them battle ; the greater part of the army formed a circle round 
 their venerated monarch. He then addressed them in the following 
 short but powerful appeal, which has been translated from the Annals of 
 . Innisfallen : " Be not dismayed, my soldiers, because my son Donough 
 is avenging our wrongs in Leinster ; he will return victorious, and in the 
 glory of his conquests you shall share; On your valor rest the hopes 
 of your country to-day ; and what surer grounds can they rest upon ? 
 Oppression nov/ attempts to bend you down to servility : will you 
 not burst its chains, and rise to the independence of Irish freemen ? 
 Your cause is one approved by Heaven : you seek not the oppression 
 of others ; you fight for your country and your sacred altars. It is a 
 cause that claims a heavenly protection. In this day's battle, the inter- 
 position of that God who can give victory will be signally manifested in 
 your favor. Let every heart, then, be the throne of confidence and 
 courage. You know that the Danes are strangers to religion and hu- 
 manity ; they are inflamed with the desire of violating the fairest 
 daughters of this land of beauty, and enriching themselves with the 
 spoils of sacrilege and plunder. The barbarians have impiously fixed, 
 for their struggle to enslave us, upon the very day on which the Redeemer 
 
THE BATTLE. 437 
 
 of the world was crucified : victory they shall not have. From such 
 brave soldiers as you they can never wrest it ; for you fight in defence 
 of honor, liberty, and religion — in defence of the sacred temples of tlie 
 Deity, and of your sisters, wives, and daughters. Such a holy cause 
 must be the cause of God, who will deliver your enemies, this day, into 
 your hands. Onward, then, for your country and your sacred altars ! " 
 
 The courageous old man then held out his vigil crucifix in one hand, 
 and waved his gold-hilted sword with the other, signifying that he was 
 willing to die in support of Christianity and Ireland, The whole army 
 heard this address, and were greatly animated. Brien was deeply al- 
 fected, and was proceeding to take his station in the midst of them, as 
 their general, when all the chiefs interposed, and implored him, on ac- 
 count of his age, (then eighty-eight,) to retire to his tent, and leave the 
 command to his son, the vahant Murrough. With this request he un- 
 willingly complied. 
 
 The Irish army then called on their chiefs to lead them to the fight ; 
 the intrepid Dalcassians, the body-guard of Brien, raised the sunburst 
 standard of Fingal, — the Gall-greana, or "blazing sun," marked with 
 the arms of the O'Brien, the hand and sword, bearing the inscrip- 
 tion, " Victory or Death ! " 
 
 The clash of battle commenced ; every chief, and every soldier, of 
 the Irish army, vied with each other in evincing a valor and hero- 
 ism worthy of the fame of Ireland. The Danes, on the other hand, 
 fought with a desperate resolution — an energy that required all the 
 genius and valor of the Irish generals to oppose. Every man fought, 
 under his respective ensigns, until felled by the spear or axe of his ad- 
 versary, when his place was quickly supplied by another. Every foot 
 of ground was contested. " I never," writes a spectator, in the Chroni- 
 con Scotorum, " beheld with my eyes, nor read in history, a sharper 
 and bloodier fight than this." 
 
 Princes Murrough and Turlough, the son and grandson of Brien, 
 fought like invincible beings : every where they darted on the fo'e, like 
 the flashes of lightning. The Danish princes, Carolus, Sitric, and 
 Conmael, fell by their swords ; and so did forests of others. A band of 
 one thousand of the Danish warriors were clad in tight armor, who 
 proved the most formidable of the foe. The fight had raged from sun- 
 rise till long past meridian, when the valiant Murrough, resolving to 
 conclude the gigantic fight, snatched the standard of Fingal, waved it 
 high above their heads, exclaiming, "■ Before the lapse of an hour, this 
 
438 VICTORY. MURROUGH KILLED. 
 
 must float, either over the tents of the Danish camp, or over my dead 
 body:' 
 
 The other chiefs catch the fire of his kindling heroisnoi, and furiously 
 precipitate themselves on the foe. No human force could resist the 
 overwhelming charge. The Danes, thrown into confusion, fled on 
 every side, pursued to their very ships by the victorious Irish. 
 
 Murrough's right arm became so swollen, by the violent exertion of 
 wielding his sword all the day, that he could not raise it up, and knelt 
 beside a brook, to bathe it. At that moment a straggling party of Danes, 
 who were retreating from the field, accidentally came near, and one of 
 them, Anrud, a chief, set upon him ; but Murrough, though not able to 
 raise his right arm, with a trip prostrated him on the earth, and with his 
 left arm actually dragged his coat of mail over his head, placed the point 
 of his sword on his body, and, leaning on it, drove it through into 
 the earth ; while Murrough was so stooped over his foe, the expiring 
 Dane snatched a cimeter from Murrough's girdle, and plunged it into 
 his heart. The Dane expired immediately, and the brave Murrough 
 lingered till the ensuing day ; he received all the rites and consolations 
 of religion, ere his valiant spirit fled from earth. 
 
 Thus fell the Ajax of Clontarf. '• According to the Munster Book 
 of Batdes," says a learned antiquarian, " Prince Murrough was buried 
 in the west end of a chapel, in the cemetery at Kilmainham. Over his 
 remains was placed a lofty stone cross, of granite, on which his name was 
 engraven. About forty-five years ago, the cross fell from its pedestal. 
 •Under its base were found Danish coins and a fine sword, supposed to 
 be that which the prince used at the battle of Clontarf. This sword 
 hangs now in the apartments of the commander of the forces, at Kil- 
 mainham hospital." 
 
 Let us now look after the great " star of the field," Brien. Corco- 
 ran, one of his marshals, was the first to fly to the monarch's tent, with 
 the intelligence of the brave Murrough's death. He found him kneeling 
 before a crucifix ; and, on hearing the sad news, he thought the victory 
 was won by the Danes, and instantly said, " Do you and the other 
 chiefs fly to Armagh, and communicate my will to the successor of St. 
 Patrick. But as for me, I came here to conquer or to die, and the 
 enemy shall not boast that I fell by inglorious wounds." At this in- 
 stant, Broder, the Dane, with a small party, rushing, in their despair, 
 towards the wood, near which Brien's tent was erected, resolved, in the 
 madness of despair, to be avenged. The aged but heroic monarch, see- 
 
DEATH OF BKIEN. INGLORIOUS ATTACK ON RETURNING TROOPS. 439 
 
 ing them rush into his tent, seized his sword, and with one blow, cut 
 off the legs of the first Dane that entered. Broder, entering next, struck 
 Brien on the back of the head with his axe ; but, in spite of the stun- 
 ning wound, Brien, with all the rage of a dying warrior, by a fortunate 
 stroke, cut off the head of Broder, and killed the third Dane that at- 
 tacked him ; a?id then calmly resigned himself to death. 
 
 Thus, in the eighty-eighth year of his age, in the midst of conquest, 
 fell one of the bravest, wisest, most patriotic and religious, of Ireland's 
 princes, whose reign exhibits the most splendid display of glory in the 
 annals of his country. His career, long and splendid, irradiated his coun- 
 try's name with a halo of glory. Its rays may yet enkindle in us the 
 fire of successful resistance to the cruel oppressors who now hold that 
 country in bondage. 
 
 Brien commanded in twenty-nine pitched battles against the Danes, 
 and the last fought by him extinguished their power in Ireland. He 
 was entombed in St. Patrick's cathedral, in Armagh, according to his 
 will. Some of the historians record that the remains of Murrough were 
 taken to Armagh. The victory of Clontarf was dearly bought : seven 
 thousand to ten thousand Irish fell that day, and upwards of fourteen 
 thousand Danes, with every one of their principal officers. 
 
 In a few days after the battle of Clontarf, the surviving chiefs agreed 
 to return home, each to his respective province. The Connacians set 
 out for their home, and so did the Ulster men to theirs. 
 
 The Munster heroes, one half of whom were wounded, began 
 their march towards their homesteads, under Donough, the son or 
 grandson of Brien ; but I am grieved to say, that passing through the 
 territory of Fitzpatrick, of Ossory, that inglorious chieftain came to 
 give them battle, owing to an old grudge which he entertained towards 
 them. The wounded men, the remnant of Brien's brave army, to the 
 number of eight hundred, addressed Donough, their leader, urging him to 
 allow them to join their companions against the inglorious foe. " Let 
 you, brave prince," said they, " cause a sufficient number of stakes to be 
 cut down in yonder wood, and driven into the battle-ground, to which 
 let us be tied, in such a manner as to have our hands and arms at liberty 
 to wield our weapons ; between every two of us, let a sound man be 
 placed, and let us stand to conquer or to die with our brave comrades." 
 The prince, moved to admiration at the glorious proposition, re- 
 luctantly complied, and the wounded men stopped their wounds with 
 moss. Thus stationed, these heroes waited the attack of their foes. 
 Perhaps, in the whole page of history, amongst the most valorous acts 
 
440 BRAVERY OF THE WOUNDED MEN. 
 
 of ancient or modem heroes, there is nothing to equal this brilliant exhi- 
 bition. When the adverse forces made the first onslaught, and saw the 
 condition and the bravery of the wounded heroes, they suddenly halted, 
 and absolutely refused to repeat the charge. Such were the silent but 
 eloquent appeals of those brave, wounded heroes, — thus upheld, in the 
 battle, by stakes, — that the Prince of Ossory could not, or would not, 
 reanimate his troops to a second attack. 
 
 Those heroes then passed with glory to their homes, the proud con- 
 queror of their country's invaders and her internal foes. On this 
 battle and that of Clontarf, Moore has founded the inspiring song — 
 " Remember the glories of Brien the brave ! " It will be found in the 
 music of the next page, and its sentiment, I hope, will animate us in oui 
 struggle for our national parliament ; for , 
 
 "Enough of his glory remains on each sword, 
 To light us to victory yet" 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 441 
 
 REMEMBER THE GLORIES OF BRIEN. 
 
 BY MOORE. 
 
 Bold. 
 
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 1. Re-mem-ber the glo - lies of Bri - en the 
 
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 brave,* Tho' the days of the he 
 
 ro are 
 
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 -r 
 
 t\ 
 
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 Tho' lost to Mo - no - nia,f and 
 
 
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 m 
 
 l-f^~m~.'-i 
 
 fc 
 
 cold in the grave, He re - turns to Kin 
 
 ^#- 
 
 £: 
 
 ^ 
 
 -#f- 
 
 * Brien Boroimhe,the great monarch of Ireland, who was killed at the battle of 
 Clontarf, in the beginning of the eleventh century, after having defeated the Danes 
 in twenty-five engagements. 
 
 ♦ Manster. na 
 
442 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRr. 
 
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 -E: 
 
 --^-^T 
 
 
 :«r3=prp 
 
 "g 1 — r 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 beam on the bat - tie, 
 &- ^ # 
 
 -#- 
 
 But e 
 
 EsPRESs. Lentando. 
 
 T" 
 
 -#-- 
 
 nough of its glo - ry re - mains on each sword, 
 
 iE^: 
 
 ^- 
 
 :pz^ 
 
 zi 
 
 LL Jr Tempo. 
 
 E? 
 
 H 
 
 icr^jc 
 
 -F 
 
 
 To light us to vie - to - ry yet. 
 
 :F-: 
 
 zzztP- 
 
 Fgi^T^TE 
 
 The palace of Brien. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRT. 
 
 443 
 
 2. 
 
 Mononia ! when Nature embellished the tint 
 
 Of thy fields, and thy mountains so fair, 
 Did she ever intend that a tyrant should print 
 
 The footstep of Slavery there? 
 No, Freedom 1 whose smiles we shall never resign, 
 
 Go, tell our invaders, the Danes, 
 That 'tis sweeter to bleed for an age at thy shrine, 
 
 Than to sleep but a moment in chains! 
 3. 
 Forget not our wounded companions,* who stood, 
 
 In the day of distress, by our side ! 
 While the moss of the valley grew red with their blood, 
 
 They stirred not, but conquered, and died ! 
 The sun, that now blesses our arms with his light, 
 
 Saw them fall upon Ossory's plain: 
 O 1 let him not blush, when he leaves us to-night, 
 
 To find that they fell there in vain ! 
 
 * This alludes to an interesting circumstance related of the Dalgais, the favorite 
 troops of Brien, when they were interrupted in their return from the battle of 
 Clontarf, by Fitzpatrick, prince of Ossory. The wounded men entreated that they 
 might be allowed to fight with the rest. "Let stakes," they said, "be stuck in 
 the ground, and suffer each of us, tied to and supported by one of these stakes, to 
 be placed in his rank by the side of a sound man." " Between seven and eight 
 hundred wounded men," adds O'Halloran, " pale, emaciated, and supported in this 
 manner, appeared mixed with the foremost of the troops ; never was such another 
 sight exhibited." 
 
 RICH AND RARE WERE THE GEMS SHE WORE, 
 
 BY MOORE, 
 
 Iw Moderate Time. 
 
 ?^^^^^ 
 
 T- 
 
 p 
 
 * » ^- 
 
 1. Rich and rare were the gems 
 
 at-a 
 
 f^ 
 
 —Sz±=e- 
 
 she 
 
 '^ 
 
444 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 
 ks>- 
 
 £ 
 
 f^ 
 
 wore, 
 
 And a bright gold ring on her 
 
 i: 
 
 £ 
 
 1 — ^1 f- 
 
 "H" 
 
 ig& 
 
 F=g5=£ 
 
 But, O ! 
 
 wand she 
 
 bore ; 
 
 her 
 
 S?' 
 
 =ip: 
 
 ^# 
 
 i=F=[ 
 
 ~n" 
 
 T' 
 
 beau - ty was 
 
 be - yond 
 
 i: 
 
 "T 
 
 £ 
 
 5 
 
 
 :!z*Ej 
 
 =i 
 
 -"5^ 
 
 ':=tt— p- 
 
 ^r-fz: 
 
 ±: 
 
 "S>~ 
 
 ?: 
 
 3: 
 
 spark - ling gems, or snow - white wand ; But 
 
 £=: 
 
 * This ballad is founded upon the following anecdote: "The people were in- 
 spired with such a spirit of honor, virtue, and religion, by the great example of 
 Brien, and by his excellent administration, that, as a proof of it, we are informed 
 that a young lady of great beauty, adorned with jewels and a costly dress, under- 
 took a journey alone from one end of the kingdom to the other, with a wand only 
 in her hand, at the top of which was a ring of exceeding great value ; and such 
 an impression had the laws and government of this monarch made on the minds 
 of all the people, that no attempt was made upon her honor, nor was she robbed 
 of her clothes or jewels." 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 445 
 
 =«=[: 
 
 i ^ - a • F —i \ 
 
 O ! her beau - ty was far be - yond Her 
 
 ^ 
 
 £ 
 
 f^^ 
 
 f^^^h 
 
 spark - ling gems, and snow - white wand ! 
 
 i: 
 
 :?=? 
 
 T' 
 
 r 
 
 iffi 
 
 -iS>' 
 
 f 
 
 :S=£: 
 
 2. 
 
 " Lady, dost thou not fear to stray, 
 
 So lone and lovely, through this bleak way? 
 
 Are Erin's sons so good, or so cold. 
 
 As not to be tempted by woman or gold?" 
 
 " Sir Knight ! I feel not the least alarm ; 
 No son of Erin will offer me harm : 
 For, though they love woman, and golden store, 
 Sir Knight ! they love honor and virtue more ! " 
 
 On she went ; and her maiden smile 
 In safety lighted her round the green isle ; 
 And blessed forever is she, who relied 
 Upon Erin's honor, and Erin's nrirlo i 
 
446 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 SING, WHACKl FOR THE EMERALD ISLEl 
 
 E - rin doth tru - ly ex - eel ; 
 
 For vir - tue, for 
 
 iEg?EE£EE 
 
 -^ 
 
 3?E 
 
 N-- 
 
 or and fun, 'Tis famous, the world sure can 
 
 -#- 
 
 ^=r 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 '^9- 
 
 tell. 
 
 The boys are all fris - ky ; the girls, 
 
 r-#— #- ^- 
 
 
 =--^P==TE 
 
 ^r^ 
 
 Sweet daughters of vir - tue they prove; 
 
 The 
 
 -^ 
 
 '— r — p~^—w 
 
 sr — 1^_ 
 
 for - mer ne'er dread a - 
 
 t- 
 
 
 I r 
 
 ny 
 
 per - ils ; 
 
 The 
 
 =g53E-J=$ 
 
 i-r-l- 
 
 m 
 
 lat - ter are brim-ful of 
 
 love. 
 
 Then sing, 
 
 whack! for the Em - e - raid isle. 
 
 Where shil 
 
BIUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 447 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^— 
 
 £ 
 
 -#- 
 
 le - lahs and sham - rocks a - bound ; 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 May 
 
 ^- 
 
 peace and pros - per 
 
 » » 
 
 i - ty smile 
 
 O'er the 
 
 £ 
 
 land, and its na - lives all round. 
 
 2. 
 
 As for heroes, we have them in plenty, 
 
 From gallant old Brien Boroimhe ; 
 In battles, faith, upwards of twenty, 
 
 He leathered the Danes black and blue. 
 Invasion her sons could not sever; 
 
 Like lions they fought on the strand ; 
 And may their descendants forever 
 
 Protect their own beautiful land. 
 Then smg, whack, &;c. 
 
 3. 
 
 Our forefathers tell us. Saint Pat 
 
 Drove venom away from our shore ; 
 The shamrock he blessed, and for that. 
 
 We'll steep it in whisky no more. 
 He told us, while time would remain, 
 
 Still merry should be the gay sod ; 
 And bloom in the midst of the main. 
 
 With the footsteps of friendship be trod. 
 Then sing, whack, Sic. 
 
LECTTJEE XIII. 
 
 RELIGION, LITERATURE, AND 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Review of the Danish Wars. — Reflections. — Lessons of History. — Religion of the 
 first Irish Christians. — Derived from Rome. — Nature qf the Popedom. — Rehgion 
 of Ireland and Rome alike. — Proofs. — Usher's Grandson. — The Councils of 
 Fathers. — How the Scriptures were compiled. — When and by whom written. — 
 Christian Religion established before the Scriptures were written. — Catholic 
 Church Evidence for the Scriptures. - — Councils of the early Fathers. — Safest 
 Interpreters. — The Bible. — Who shall explain it ? — Where is the true Version ? 
 
 — Effects of individual Judgment. — Clerical Interference in cjvil Affairs. — The 
 Monks. — Abbots. — Christian Warriors. — The Pope's Connection with civil 
 Affairs. — His present Authority defined. — Debate on the Point in the Irish Re- 
 peal Association. — Ecclesiastical Dissensions in Ireland. — Tithes first introduced. 
 Discipline and Order restored. — Literature of this Period. — Moore's Descrip- 
 tion. — Tigernach. — King Cormac. — His Wars. — Death and Will. — Reflections. 
 
 — Architecture at this Period. — Irish Architecture. — Mode of treating the 
 Question. — Patriarchal Temples. — Ancient Caves. — Pyramids. — Round Tow- 
 ers. — Conical Huts. — Tents. — First Cities. — First Architects. — The Phoenicians 
 and their Cities. — Testimony of Holy Writ. — Jewish Temples. — Chinese Archi- 
 tecture. — Etrurian Architecture. — The Arch. — Cement. — Grecian and Irish 
 Architecture distinct in Principle. — Grecian Orders. — Roman Architecture. — 
 Irish Architecture. — Style of the first Christian Churches. — The Goths. — The 
 Architecture of Ireland. — The great Hall of Tara. — First Christian Churches of 
 Ireland. — Antiquities neglected. — Origin of the pointed Arch. — Splendid Ruins. 
 
 — Opinion of English Architects. — Great Antiquity of Ireland. — Beauty of its Ar- 
 chitecture. — Cormac's Chapel. — Willis's Opinion. — Perspective View of the 
 Interior of Cormac's Chapel. — Irish Style. — Art of staining Glass known to the 
 Irish. — Their Sculptures. — Chieftains' Castles. — Standing Cathedrals. — Section- 
 al View of Holy Cross Abbey. — Remarks. — What Nation originally possessed the 
 Germ of this grand Architecture ? — Buildings of the Ancient Brltoi^. — Of the 
 Anglo-Saxons. — Of the Picts.— Of the Welsh. — Of the Gauls and French.— 
 Of the Italians. — Condition of Europe in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth 
 Centuries. — The Irish Monks the Architects of Europe . — First Monasteries erected 
 in England. — Monasteries built on the Continent of Europe by Irish Monks. — 
 Dr. Milner's Opinion. — Further English Evidences. — St. Peter's at Oxford mod- 
 elled after Cormac's Chapel. — Salisbury Cathedral, after Holy Cross Abbey. — 
 Did the pointed Style come from the East .'' — Character of Irish Architecture. — 
 Origin of the Term " Gothic." — Variations in Style. — Revival of Architecture in 
 Ireland. — Irish Architects of the present Day in England and America. 
 
REVIEW OF THE DANISH WARS. REFLECTIONS. 449 
 
 In the preceding section I have given the great outline of the Danish 
 wars in Ireland. Those wars were, with the exception of a few short 
 intermissions, continued for two hundred and forty years. Seven or eight 
 generations of Irishmen were born, and were cut off by the sword, and 
 by death, from the commencement of those wars to their termination. 
 During all this time, the Danes never established a sovereignty in Ire- 
 land. Their nearest approach to it was made during the leadership of 
 Turgesius ; and then the proud Dane reigned jointly only with Mala- 
 chy, by a compromise, I admit, degrading to the latter. 
 
 Their years of sovereignty over a part of Ireland were few. They 
 were never masters of the whole. While England yielded in despair to 
 their dominion, and received from them a race of kings ; while the French 
 compromised for their independence,. and yielded up to the invader, as 
 the price of peace, a large portion of their territory, on which was found- 
 ed the kingdom of Normandy, — Ireland gave, in every generation, a 
 new race of heroes, who contended inch by inch for their freedom, and, 
 falling, bequeathed the battle to their posterity. If, from the first Dan- 
 ish battle to the last,- we subtract the years of peace from those of war, 
 we shall find there were two hundred years of fighting. The old histo- 
 rians spread those battles on their canvass in life size. Were I to 
 imitate them, the " Danish Invasions " would fill two volumes as large 
 as this. The battles were of the most sanguinary character ; the perse- 
 verance, desperation, and ferocity, of the Danes, were equalled only by 
 the unconquerable spirit and bravery of the Irish. Whole legions, from 
 three thousand to five thousand men each, were again and again cut off: 
 yet new invaders appeared, in still greater numbers, as if borne to our 
 shores by an ungovernable instinct. They came, were killed, and their 
 places were supplied by others. I should estimate about twenty-five 
 thousand Irishmen fell every year during the two hundred years of war. 
 This estimate, which is moderate, would lead us to a result which cannot 
 but astonish, — that ^ce millions of Irishmen bled on the field, for the 
 independence of their native land, during those two centuries. I am 
 certain, from the returns given by the old histories, that double that 
 number fell on the Danish side. I know not the wars, on the page 
 of history, to liken these to, for duration and desperate valor, on 
 both sides, save the Punic wars, between the Romans and Cartha- 
 ginians, and those between the followers of Mahomet and the cross. 
 
 There can hardly be named a single church, castle, or other sacred 
 building, that existed in Ireland before the Danish wars, which was not 
 taken, pillaged, battered down, retaken, rebuilt, redestroyed, ten times 
 57 
 
450 LESSONS IN HISTORY. 
 
 over during these terrible contests. The remorseless savages, impelled 
 as much by the desire of plunder as by hatred of the cross, invaded 
 the sanctuaries of piety and literature, scattered the shrines of the dead, 
 desecrated the altars of sacrifice, burnt the valued libraries of the col- 
 leges, demolished the venerated evidences of architectural genius ; and 
 yet the Milesian race refused to yield their country up. 
 
 Six generations had fought and fell, and the seventh was found by 
 the Danes as unconquerable as the first. 
 
 Where, in the volume of history, is the "parallel of that to be found 1 
 Not on the historic page of England ! not on the historic page of 
 France ! 
 
 Let that proud fact be engraved on the heart of every 
 Irishman. 
 
 Let it be proclaimed at home; let it be trumpeted abroad; let it be 
 rehited by mothers to their babes ; let it be told by old men ; let it be 
 sung in ballads ; let it be blown from the clarion ; let it be sounded 
 from every instrument that speaketh with strings — that, though Eng- 
 land submitted, and received a race of kings from, the northern inva- 
 ders — that, though France yielded them half her territory, Ireland 
 never yielded them an inch — fought against them two hun- 
 dred AND forty years, AND SUBDUED THEM AT LAST. 
 
 Who will tell us that the present race of Irishmen are less brave, or 
 less oppressed, than those who lived in the days of the Malachys and 
 the Briens ? 
 
 O Irishmen, bear in mind the wise axiom of one of your own wri- 
 ters, in the Nation : — 
 
 " History's lessons, if you read 'em, 
 Will impart this truth to thee — 
 Knowledge is the price of freedom ; 
 Know yourselves, and you are free." 
 
 The history of those wars will teach Irishmen this lesson, — when- 
 ever they yielded to the gratification of their personal resentments towards 
 each other, — whenever they yielded to dissensions and quarrels amongst 
 themselves, — then the Danes were encouraged to make new invasions, 
 and, so long as this local strife continued, were victorious. But, when- 
 ever the Irish chiefs and provinces cordially united, their resistance of 
 the invader was crowned with triumphant success. 
 
 This "lesson" is literally as applicable to their wars with the Eng- 
 lish as with the Danes, as will appear, unfortunately, too plain in the 
 succeeding pages. Their battles with the English, though now carried 
 
ANCIENT RELIGION OF IRELAND. 451 
 
 on by the tongue and pen, are yet as hot, and as pregnant of suffering, 
 as ever. » It would be a signal blessing to the Irish race, were they 
 gifted with perception sufficiently capacious to measure the power of 
 UNITY. Such unity can grow only from kindness to each other, mutual 
 forbearance, a toleration of each other's opinions, and even faults and 
 follies ; an individual suppression of vanity, resentments, illegitimate 
 ambition ; a religious oblivion of all old family, personal, party, or county 
 animosities ; a thorough contempt for distinction, grounded on the pos- 
 session of wealth merely, or family heritage ; neither of which can make 
 a man noble or pure, though either is sure to make him vain — a most 
 dangerous foible among a people struggling to be free. Vanity, scat- 
 tered through the ranks of the people, is worse than the shells of their 
 enemies. Ingratitude, on the other hand, from the people to their 
 servants, is full as mischievous. Therefore it is necessary that they 
 be instructed and intelligent, either to recover their liberties, or to 
 preserve them. Vanity and cant, the counterfeit of patriotism, will 
 pass on an ignorant multitude for the genuine ore. Any movement 
 for freedom, built on such machinery, will break down, and tend, at 
 the conclusion, to strengthen tyranny. An intelligent community will 
 detect the counterfeit from the genuine metal, and, whether the latter be 
 found in the cottage or the castle, will prize it equally. Among such a 
 people tyranny cannot live. This all history teaches. 
 
 The reader, after so long a study of war, will naturally feel desirous 
 to learn the general state of religion, hterati^re, architecture, arts, &;c., 
 at this period, in Ireland. I shall, in this section, devote a few pages 
 to each topic ; and first, on 
 
 RELIGION. 
 
 The first Christian missionaries that appeared in Ireland were, accord- 
 ing to the strongest probabilities, disciples of St. John, who preached to 
 the Eastern nations. Among these, history has recorded St. Mansuetus. 
 The second and more numerous teachers proceeded directly from 
 Rome, and bore the commission to preach from the then occupant of 
 Peter's chair. In the earlier struggles of Christianity, during the first, 
 second, and third centuries, the chief bishop of the Christians had 
 no settled habitation. He was driven about from Rome to Jemsalem, 
 from thence to Antioch, and from Antioch to Byzantium. Often was he 
 sacrificed to the ferocity of the Romans ; but his place was quickly filled 
 by another, elected from among the ecclesiastics of the church. The 
 pope might be crucified, but the chief of the Christian church still lived 
 
452 NATURE OF THE POPEDOM. 
 
 in his appointed successor. The term pope itself is derived from pater 
 patrie, " father of fathers," of which papa is an abbreviation, and from 
 which "pope" has grown ; and the elemental constitution of thisyh^Aer 
 is not unlike that of the president of the United States. 
 
 The one is elected from among bis fellows to fill the chair of the 
 Christian republic, the other to fill the chair of the republic of the Uni- 
 ted States. The one is invested with supreme and sovereign power for 
 the control and protection of the community ; so is the other. The 
 president is elected for a term of four years, the pope for the remainder 
 of his life. The popes, being generally selected from the oldest men, 
 have not reigned beyond an average term of seven years each. There 
 have been two hundred and sixty popes in one thousand eight hun- 
 dred years, which give about seven years to each. Ten presidents of 
 the United States have governed in sixty-one years, which give an 
 average of six years, nearly, to each. The pope is assisted by a 
 council of bishops and cardinals, generally seventy-two in number, and, 
 in difficult cases, by a council of the entire church — that is, representa- 
 tives from the priesthood of every nation, called a general council; 
 the president, by the senate and congress. For a time, during the 
 struggle of the revolution, the constitution and laws of that jx)wer which 
 we noiv call the United States, were centred in the jjerson of George 
 Washington. The entire government and direction of the Christians, 
 during seasons of persecution, were similarly deposited in the sole keep- 
 ing of an individual bishop. As soon as the strife was over between 
 the apostles of civil liberty and the agents and armies of tyranny, on this 
 continent, councils of the various states of the Union were held, and cer- 
 tain regulations were established for the government and guidance of the 
 newly-disenthralled community. The early Christians, as soon as the 
 war of persecution was abated, and their own triumph established, called 
 general councils for the regulation of their affairs, which consisted of the 
 most discreet, learned, and zealous of their ecclesiastics. In the case of 
 the Americans, liberty, with its attributes, — equity, law, protection, — 
 was established in the minds of millions of men, before the constitution 
 was written, or the laws agreed upon. Religion — the Christian reli- 
 gion — was established in the hearts of millions before the Gospels were 
 written, or gathered into a compiled code. The earliest councils of 
 the Christian church were those of Carthage and Nice, held in the 
 close of the third and beginning of the fourth centuries. These coun- 
 cils, in condemning newly-started doctrines, agreed upon a united inter- 
 pretation of the Holy Scriptures, old and new, expounded several difficult 
 
NATURE OF THE POPEDOM. 453 
 
 points, and gave us a code of religious instructions and laws for our 
 government. 
 
 The pope and his council of cardinals, for the time being, are intrust- 
 ed with the administration of the Christian code of faith and morals, but 
 cannot alter them in any essential. This, I take it, is the nature and 
 extent of the president's authority. He may, according to the constitu- 
 tion, exercise his supreme power, even despotically, in carrying on the 
 government, or in preventing an alteration of the laws ; but to alter the 
 laws himself would be treason to the community, and he dares not 
 attempt it. Even so it is with the pope. 
 
 General councils of the church have had their majorities and minori- 
 ties, on difficult and perplexing questions ; but the articles of Christian 
 faith remained undisturbed, though clerical discipline has experienced 
 occasional alterations. The same may be said of the general practice of 
 the American government ; and, to carry on the parallel, I may add, 
 that patriarchs are appointed by the pope to take charge of the ecclesi- 
 astical interests of nations, equalling in relative authority the governors 
 of our American states. 
 
 I have made these preliminary remarks with a view of removing 
 from between the reader and me a cloud of prejudice, (should it exist,) 
 which may have been generated by long-continued abuse of the Cath- 
 olic religion, within his hearing, or by the perusal of authors, of 
 counterfeit talent, who rely for their success less upon their power to 
 create than to destroy, and more upon their power to degrade humanity 
 than to exalt it, — who would, to get a blow at the Catholic church, 
 trample down humanity itself. 
 
 To return now to the direct question. St. Palladius and St. Patrick 
 brought into Ireland the code of faith, ceremonials, and discipline, estab- 
 lished by the first general councils of Christians that were held any 
 where ; viz., the councils of Carthage and Nice. And it was singular 
 to find, as O'Halloran remarks, that the ceremonials and articles of faith 
 of those Irish Christians who had been converted by the earlier mission- 
 aries, who came from the East, before any general council of the church 
 had been held, coincided in all articles of faith, morals, and ceremonial, 
 with those agreed upon at these first general councils of the Christian 
 church. St. Patrick, having been the successful agent of the Lord in 
 the conversion of all Ireland, was intrusted by the pope with the power 
 of consecrating bishops. And on his second visit to Rome, he was 
 intrusted, by the successor of Celestine, Pope Hilarius, with the power 
 of holding a primacy and council in Ireland, where all matters of disci- 
 pline, including the appointment of bishops, ordination of clergymen, 
 
454 ST. patkick's injunction. — usher's history. 
 
 and the establishment of churches, colleges, and monasteries, were ad- 
 ministered. This power was conceded to the bishop of Armagh as 
 " primate of Ireland," until about the eleventh century. Appeals and 
 references, in difficult matters, were sometimes made to the archbishop 
 of Canterbury, as the legatus natus of the British islands. 
 
 It does not appear, during the five or six centuries which passed 
 from St. Patrick's mission to the eleventh century, that there took 
 place any very frequent interference of the pope, in the administration of 
 the Irish church ; though it was the constant practice of Irish ecclesiastics 
 to proceed to Rome for instruction, edification, or appointment. Indeed, 
 this practice was not confined to ecclesiastics ; for the laity of the middle 
 ages, of all countries, and especially of Ireland, faced to Rome, in their 
 holy pilgrimages, it being the centre seat of Christianity. That able 
 controversialist on the Catholic side. Dr. Milner, arrays, in his reply to 
 Ledwich, a host of incidents, appointments, correspondences, references, 
 appeals, that took place, from the fifth to the twelfth century, between 
 the Irish clergy and the Roman see, which leave no doubt upon the 
 mind, that the religion established by St. Patrick in Ireland, and that 
 established in England by St. Austin, were, in faith, morals, and cere- 
 monials, substantially the same with that practised in Rome during 
 coeval ages. 
 
 In 629, there was a national ecclesiastical synod held in Ireland, in 
 M hich the following clause was passed among their acts : " That, on 
 questions of peculiar moment or difficulty arising in Ireland, recourse 
 should he had to the apostolic see." This canon was passed in accord- 
 ance with the advice which St. Patrick had solemnly given to his clergy 
 in Armagh, to apply, in all questions of difficulty, to the holy see, as he 
 expressed it, velut natos ad matrem — " like children to a mother." 
 See iS*^. Cummian's Ep. in Sylloge, as quoted by the Very Reverend Dr. 
 MiLEY, of Dublin, in his late very able letters on this question. "This 
 is," adds the doctor, " an epitome of what Primate Usher has said of St. 
 Patrick." He gives, in his Antiquities, the vouchers for this, and much 
 more. Yet that same archbishop, later in his life, under the influence 
 of the anti-Catholic King James the First, and in view of the primacy 
 of Ireland, wrote his " libel " on the " religion of the ancient Irish," which 
 appeared to be so contradictory of his able work on her antiquities, 
 written with the honesty of youth, that his grandson, the Rev. James 
 Usher, having investigated the pros and cons of his learned relative, not 
 only abjured the Protestant form of worship, in which he had been edu- 
 cated, and of which he was a distinguished and well-paid minister, but 
 absolutely joined the Catholic church, in which he became an edifying 
 
usher's grandson became a catholic. 455 
 
 and zealous priest, and raised his able pen in defence of the creed which 
 he had from conviction espoused. 
 
 In a letter, published a century ago, (quoted by Dr. Miley,) 
 addressed to some of the anti-Catholic writers of the day, he says, 
 " When you attack the church of Rome, you never fail to assault her 
 in some point or other in which she is impregnable. You accuse her 
 of teaching idolatry, or impiety, &;c. This, to be sure, gains you a 
 temporary applause amongst your zealous partisans, and influences their 
 hatred against Papists ; but, in the mean time, the Papists themselves, 
 being conscious of the falsehood of these charges, are confirmed in their 
 religion, and serious Protestant seekers, (like myself,) discovering by 
 degrees the same falsehood, are induced to go over to the Popish com- 
 munion." 
 
 " Primate Usher," continues Dr. Miley, " details, in his Antiquities, 
 how the faith was first founded in Britain, while yet a Roman province, 
 by missionaries from the pope, A. D. 181. They return to give an 
 account of their successes, just as St. Boniface and St. Patrick did. 
 
 ' Sic disposita regione, 
 Doctores Romam repetunt, coniirmat eorum, 
 Dictus apodtolicus factum,' &c. — Gildas. 
 
 " The decrees of a council, consisting of six hundred bishops, who 
 met at Aries in the year 314, were subscribed by the bishops of Lon- 
 don and York, with other prelates of Britain ; and in one of those 
 decrees there is the clearest recognition of papal supremacy. That 
 supremacy was still more emphatically asserted and enforced in the 
 great council of Sardica, A. D. 347 ; and Usher again tells us — indeed, 
 he could not deny it — that there also some prelates of Britain assisted. 
 In fine, the church of the Britons, or Welsh, as we now call them, used 
 to be visited and reformed by the pope's legates even after the Saxon 
 conquest ; so that, of the subordination of the British church to the 
 pope's, there can be no question whatever ; and consequently, if it were 
 only on this account alone, there ought to be none as to the similar sub- 
 ordination of the Irish church, because that between the British and 
 Irish there was the most perfect accord and sympathy in religious views, 
 is admitted on all hands." 
 
 The celebrated Irish father St. Columbanus, who in the sixtli century 
 established so many churches in Germany, writing to Pope Honorius the 
 Fourth, proves, incontestably, that the Irish clergy adhered strictly to 
 the see of Rome, in faith and practice. I make one extract : he begins, 
 '^ Pulcherrimo omnium Euro])(B ecclesiarum caviti — papa pradulci 
 
456 RELIGION OF IRELAND AND ROME ALIKE. 
 
 — pastorum pastori — To the head most serene of all the churches of 
 Europe — to the pope best beloved — to the pastor of pastors : — it is 
 not as an alien that I write. 1 address you as a friend, as a follower, as 
 a disciple ; wherefore my language shall be such as ought to be addressed 
 to the pilot and mystic steersman of the spiritual ship, &tc. Thus shall 
 I presume, because we Irish are the disciples of St. Peter and St. Paul, 
 stationed on the verge of the world. We are on that account more 
 scrupulous in admitting nothing but what is apostolical. Amongst us, 
 no heretic, feud, or schismatic, was ever met with ; but that faith which 
 we first received from the successors of the apostles, we cling to, with a 
 constancy that cannot be shaken," he. — Sacra Collectanea, 1667. 
 
 And it is a remarkable fact, that, amid the incredible crowd of learned 
 ecclesiastics which Ireland gave to the church in fourteen hundred 
 years, not one of them ever originated a schism ! While other nations 
 changed their creed oft and oft, Ireland remained as firm in her first 
 faith as the rock Peter. 
 
 In 6S0, St. Wilfrid, archbishop of York, assisted at the first great 
 Lateran council of one hundred and twenty-five bishops, under Pope 
 Agatho, in which he bore testimony to the orthodoxy of the churches 
 of Ireland, as well as those of Britain. 
 
 That philosophical controversialist. Dr. Milner, thus speaks, in another 
 page : " It is objected, by Usher, that what is called St. Patrick's purgato- 
 ry, was not instituted by the saint of that name. This I readily grant, 
 for it was set on foot by an Abbot Patrick, several ages later, and was 
 once suppressed by an order of the pope, ni 1497. But if he argues 
 from thence that St. Patrick and the early Christians did not believe in 
 a middle state of souls after death, which may be assisted by the prayers 
 of living Christians, he is guilty of an error both in reasoning and in 
 fact. It will be seen in this saint's second council, that he forbids the 
 holy sacrifice of the mass to be offered up for those persons, after their 
 death, who had rendered themselves unworthy of having it offered up 
 for them during their lifetime. It will not be disputed that the writings 
 of Bede abound with testimonies in favor of prayers for the dead, of 
 purgatory, he, (see his Ecclesiastical History, chap. 22, vol. xi. chap. 
 19;) and it is a fact that he himself, when he came to die, earnestly 
 desired that prayers and masses might be offered for him. (See Cuth- 
 bert's Bede, tom. iii.) 
 
 " It is said that St. Patrick condemned the worship of images. 
 True, he condemned and extirpated the use of pagan idols ; but there is 
 not the shadow of an argument to show that he deviated from the 
 received doctrine and practice of the universal church, with respect to 
 
ANCLENT PRACTICES. 457 
 
 the paying a proper reverence to the cross of Christ, his image, or the 
 images and rehcs of the martyrs and saints, or with respect to the pious 
 usage of desiring the saints to offer up pray ere for us. Before St. Patrick 
 arrived in Ireland, he saw the cross of Christ exahed upon the imperial 
 standards of Constantine, and he left the great doctors of Christianity, 
 Chrysostom, Aiigmtine, Prosper, and Leo, bearing ample testimony 
 to all these practices. He himself is recorded as bringing over relics 
 into these islands, as Usher acknowledges St. Pailadius did before him. 
 We find that St. Patrick condemned certain criminals to twelve 
 months' public penance for their sins — a mode of atonement then much 
 practised by the church, but limited, in modern ages, to private acts of 
 penance, consisting of prayer and fasting. 
 
 "With respect to our native historian and theologian, Venerable 
 Bede, whom Usher appeals to, he describes St. Augustine of Canter- 
 bury preaching the gospel to King Ethelbert, with the cross for an 
 ensign, and the figure of Christ for an emblem ; he represents the same 
 saint consecrating pagan temples with holy water and relics, and offer- 
 ing up homage to God by the sacrifice of the mass. With respect to 
 images in particular, Venerable Bede proves that God did not interdict 
 the total use of them, by his commanding the figures of cherubim and 
 oxen to be placed in the temple : ' for certainly,' he adds, ' if it is lawful 
 to make twelve oxen of brass, to support the brazen sea, it cannot be 
 amiss to paint the twelve apostles going to preach to all nations. We 
 are told that the liturgy of St. Patrick differed from that of the Roman 
 church. It is not, however, proved to have differed, in the smallest 
 tittle, from that which was followed at Rome when St. Patrick received 
 his mission ; much less Is It proved to have deviated in any point which 
 is essential to the nature of the sacraments and sacrifice of the church 
 in all ages and countries. That the Catholic liturgies of all times and 
 countries have been essentially the same in this respect, is abundantly 
 proved by divines and canonists. Nevertheless, it is to be proved that a 
 certain latitude, in mere ceremonies and particular devotions, has always 
 been allowed to great or national churches, under the regulation of their 
 head pastors. St. Gregory permitted our apostle, St. Augustine, to 
 adopt any usages of this nature for the Infant church of the English, 
 which he might choose to borrow from the French or other Catholic na- 
 tions ; and the court of Rome, at the present day, so far from requiring 
 the orthodox Greeks, who have colleges there, to conform to her ritual 
 in these unessential points, obliges them to adhere to their own. It 
 appears that the mass was sometimes, in former ages, said by the Irish 
 58 
 
458 ANCIENT PRACTICES OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 clergy at night. So it was, in the same ages, and on the same occa- 
 sions, — namely, on the eves of certain great festivals, — by the clergy of 
 every other Catholic country. It is still said by us at midnight on 
 Christmas night. In the mean time, we learn from Bede, that nine of 
 the clock in the morning was the usual time of saying it. Bede and 
 Cogitosus speak of ' the sacrament of the Lord's body and blood ; ' 
 whence it appears that the sacrament was in ancient times administered 
 in both kinds. I answer, that the Catholics use the same language 
 at the present day, though the laity receive the sacrament only under 
 one kind ; that the difference of receiving it under one or under both 
 kinds, is a mere point of discipline, which may be, and has been, 
 changed, as the circumstances of time and place required ; and that, 
 nevertheless, the present practice of the church, in communicating to the 
 laity under the form of bread alone, was the practice of our infant Eng- 
 lish church, as appears from Bede himself. In the mean time, we are 
 to observe that this illustrious doctor of the English church, at the begin- 
 ning of the eighth century, expressly teaches, not only that the mass is 
 a true sacrifice, in which Christ is truly and really present, but also that 
 a true and proper change or transubstantiation of the bread and wine 
 into the body and blood of Christ takes place in it. I will transcribe 
 bis words, and I defy the subtilty of the most ingenious controvertist 
 to give them any other meaning than that which I have assigned. 
 
 " ' Lavat nos (Christus) a peccatis nostris quotidie in sanguine suo, 
 cum ejusdem beatee passionis memoiia ad altare replicatur, cum panis et 
 vini creatura in sacramentum carnis et sanguinis ejus, ineflabili spiritus 
 sanctificatioiie transfertur : sicque corpus et sanguis illius non infide- 
 lium manibus ad perniciem ipsorum funditur, et occiditur, sed, fidelium 
 ore, suam sumitur ad salutem.' " Bed, Hom. in Epiph. tom. 7. 
 
 [" Christ washes us daily from our sins, in his blood, when the memory 
 of his blessed passion is renewed at the altar, when the substance of 
 bread and wine is changed into the sacrament of his body and blood 
 by the ineffable santification of the Holy Ghost ; and thus his body and 
 blood is immolated and shed ; not by the hands of infidels to their 
 eternal ruin, but they are received by the faithful for their salvation."] 
 
 As the doctrine of the eastern church is particularly implicated in 
 the present controversy, I shall select, from among scores of other 
 testimonies relating to it, a passage from the catechetical discourses 
 of a holy father who was bishop of the primitive church of the fourth 
 century : " The bread and wine of the eucharist, before the invocation 
 of the adorable Trinity, were mere bread and wine; but that invo- 
 cation having taken place, the bread becomes the body of Christ, 
 
THE COUNCILS OF FATHERS. 459 
 
 and the wine becomes the blood of Christ. Since, then, Christ thus 
 declares concerning the bread, 'This is my body,' who can doubt any- 
 longer? And since he confirms what he said, and declares, ^ This is 
 MY BLOOD,' who will dare to hesitate, and affirm that it is not his 
 blood? He once changed water into wine, which resembles blood, 
 at Cana in Galilee ; and is he riot worthy to be believed, when he 
 says that he changes wine into blood?" he. — St. Cyril of Jerusalem. 
 Catech. Mystagog. i. — See also the Liturgy of St. Basil, and of St. 
 Chrys. in Le Brun, &lc. 
 
 I have been tempted to insert from Dr. Milner these few words of 
 explanation of some of the doctrines of the Catholic church. We can- 
 not account for the obstinacy with which the great bulk of the people 
 of Ireland adhere to the Catholic faith, without remembering that it is 
 the same which Patrick taught them fourteen hundred years ago. 
 Patrick may have been wrong, and the councils of Christian fathers who 
 assembled at Carthage, and Nice, and Constantinople, in the third 
 and fourth centuries, may have mistaken the meaning of the Scriptures, 
 which they themselves had gathered and compiled, and from which 
 point Christianity started, with the seal of a great council of learned 
 teachers and profound believers, affixed in unity upon its brow. Lo- 
 gicians and subtile reasoners may go behind these early councils, or take 
 their position on some spot several centuries this side of their delibera- 
 tions. Yet I know not that they can present us with a better scheme 
 for our salvation than that which those Christian fathers have left us. 
 
 When sonie persons tell me — and it is no unfrequent thing — that 
 they do not see how any intelligent or enlightened man can believe in 
 the absurd doctrines of the Catholic religion, I naturally feel a desire to 
 learn which creed of all those who have separated from her is more 
 consistent with the true ideas of reason and intelligence, or with the 
 Testaments, Old and New. If Christ came to fulfil what had been fore- 
 told by the prophets, — if he confirmed the correctness and divine mis- 
 sion of these prophets, — he must have left prophets to carry on the 
 administration of religion, as it had been carried on before his time. 
 He did not, it appears, condemn what Moses had recorded, or the laws 
 and commandments which he professed to have had from the direct 
 revelations of God. On the contrary, he came, as he tells us, to confirm 
 them in all their great particulars, and to leave behind him men, like 
 Moses, who were specially instructed to preach and teach. Christ did 
 not write any portion of the New Testament ; he did not write any 
 thing connected with his mission except once, and then it was with his 
 finger, in the sand. Nearly all the apostles had written down what 
 
460 HOW THE SCRIPTURES WERE COMPILED. 
 
 they heard him say and saw him do, from their memories, some years 
 after his death, in compliance with the wishes of congregations or indi- 
 viduals. The Christian religion, consisting of baptism, sacrifice, 
 and penance, including the morals comprehended in the ten command- 
 ments, was established before the Neio Testament was written. 
 
 Ere the apostles separated, to preach to all nations, they agreed upon 
 a doctrine, upon a united and common interpretation of Christ's mission 
 and maxims ; that doctrine is comprehended in the aposdes' creed, 
 which is found in every Catholic prayer-book. It was some twenty 
 and fifty years after our Lord's death, that the books called the Gospels, 
 with others not preserved, were written by the apostles and their imme- 
 diate disciples. These were gathered before a council of Christian 
 bishops and teachers at Carthage, in the fourth century, when an 
 examination of them all took place, and a selection of the most concise 
 and direct histories of our Redeemer's hfe and conversations was jnade. 
 This selection was then compiled into that book which they called the 
 New Testament, being the continuation and fulfilment of those revela- 
 tions of God contained in the Old. 
 
 The apostles and their disciples did not write those books while in 
 direct communication with each other, nor did they resort to any par- 
 ticular means to have them published to the Christians of countries 
 distant from those in which they preached. St. Peter, who was the 
 first POPE or chief of the Christians, by the appointment of the Redeem- 
 er, preached through India, Syria, Italy, and lastly, in Rome, where he 
 was crucified, about twenty-seven years after our Lord's death. St. 
 John wrote in Asia, having travelled much in the East. His writings 
 were principally directed to prove the divinity of Christ. 
 
 St. Paul preached throughout Lesser Asia, Greece, and Spain. His 
 Epistle to the Romans was intrusted to a lady, named Phebe. That 
 to the Ephesians was sent to his disciple Theophilus. He was be- 
 iieaded. St. Andrew preached in Scythia. He too was stoned on a 
 cross ; St. Thomas and Bartholomew, in Parthia and India. St. 
 Matthew wrote a book of memorandums, of Christ's chief actions and 
 words, at the particular request of the Christians of Palestine. St. 
 Mark composed his at the request of those of Rome ; St. Luke for the 
 sole guidance of Theophilus, St. Paul's disciple. They all taught by 
 word of mouth. We do not find that they wrote down their creed. 
 They had no written document in common. The creed, the com- 
 mandments, and the words of baptism, of sacrifice, and other cere- 
 monials of the mass, they had, according to the custom of the time, 
 
BY WHOM WKITTEN. 461 
 
 committed to iheir memory ; for, in those ages, the teachers and 
 lawgivers committed their lessons and laws to memory, and not gener- 
 ally to the scroll. 
 
 There were persons in every one of those countries, through which 
 the apostles passed, who disputed the Christian doctrine. With such 
 the apostles and their immediate disciples held discussions ; and, in the 
 absence of the apostles from the scenes of their labors, they were 
 applied to by their converts for explanations. They then wrote " Epis- 
 tles " or doctrinal letters, some of which we have included in the New 
 Testament. The Gospels and Epistles are not complete treatises on the 
 Christian religion ; they are merely detached fragments, written to meet 
 special objections, but not covering the whole ground of Christianity, 
 which was given by word, and not by scroll. There is found no 
 creed in any of the Gospels, no particular form of faith ; the form had 
 been establislied by word and by deed, at the council of Jerusalem, be- 
 fore the apostles separated. The religion of Jesus was formed without 
 books — • preached and spread without books : those apostles fixed their 
 doctrines in the minds of men, and not on perishable scrolls. Millions 
 of Christians, and thousands of priests and bishops, were converted and 
 ordained, before even those sacred writings were gathered together, out 
 of the different countries in which they were written, or from the hands 
 of those to whom they were addressed. 
 
 In short, the " Catholic church." comprehending the countless mil- 
 lions who embraced the doctrines of the cross prioi' to the fourth 
 century, together with their numerous learned teachers, who were edu- 
 cated men, — historians, mathematicians, astronomers, &c., — was formed 
 before the book called the New Testament was compiled. 
 
 We have no authority but the Catholic church for believing that all 
 these various books and epistles are the genuine emanations of those 
 holy apostles and their disciples. It was only after several spurious 
 writings were circulated — after several schismatical treatises had been 
 written and published, in the third and fourth centuries — that a council 
 of the fathers was held in Carthage, being the third general council of 
 the church, in which many of the chief bishops of the Christian world 
 were assembled, Pope Innocent presiding, to inspect those writings. 
 
 All the writings of the apostles and their immediate disciples, which 
 could be gathered any where, were submitted to the consideration of this 
 council. Learned men were appointed to translate them from the 
 Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldee, Phoenician, and other languages, into 
 Latin. There were very many of the writings deemed either unfit or 
 
462 THE BIBLE WHO SHALL EXPLAIN IT? 
 
 unnecessary for retention in the Christian code. Amongst those re- 
 jected were the books written by St. Barnabas, one of the chosen 
 twelve of Christ. Four books only were selected as gospel or true 
 books, and two of these were written by Mark and Luke, who were not 
 of the twelve, but the immediate disciples of St. Peter and St. Paul. 
 Their books, however, had been confirmed by these latter apostles. 
 
 The Christian religion, then, was completely formed, preached, and 
 established, before these books were written, and centuries before they 
 were compiled. If I remain a Christian, I must be guided by the trans- 
 mitted authority, wheresoever it lies, of those who formed and established 
 that religion. If I receive Mark and Luke, why should I reject St. 
 Clement, St. Augustine, St. Basil, St. Chrysostom ? I prefer the Roman 
 Catholic church to all others, because the great body of the fathers 
 have adhered to the Roman see. I take their interpretation of these 
 Gospels because their predecessors wrote and compiled them, and 
 because they are the only evidence I have of their being at all 
 the writings of the apostles. If I cannot find my way by their as- 
 sistance, who will guide me? If I leave the Catholic church to 
 better my chances of salvation, to whom shall I go ? All of these sects 
 outside of her pale, differ from one another, condemn one another. 
 
 In this difficulty, I shall be desired to read my Bible, and judge for 
 myself. I have read my Bible, and I have judged for myself, and my 
 judgment tells me that it is a book far beyond my comprehension ; that, 
 though there be many things plain enough, yet, again, many things are 
 in it which require to be explained to me. To whom shall I go for this 
 explanation? These books, it appears, were originally written in the 
 Greek, Syriac, Chaldee, Phoenician, and Hebrew languages. There 
 are many of the terms used, and customs noted, and things done, which 
 cannot be understood, or reconciled to our senses, without we also study 
 ancient history, and the very languages in which our Lord himself and 
 the apostles spoke and wrote. 
 
 Who amongst us, without this knowledge, can interpret the Scrip- 
 tures? It will be objected that there have been eminently learned men, 
 who, having all these acquirements, have put an interpretation on the 
 Scriptures different from that of the church of Rome. So there have ; 
 but, again, these learned men have differed from each other ; have put — 
 to speak moderately — a hundred different constructions upon the New 
 Testament. On the other side, I find that the innumerable host of 
 learned men who have appeared within the Catholic pale, have adhered 
 to the one interpretation of the entire Scriptures, from the first council 
 to the present time. 
 
THE BIBLE WHO SHALL EXPLAIN IT ? 4{)3 
 
 I find that many of* the interpretations put on the Scriptures by the sees 
 of the present day are not new ; that some of them were started foiutt'eii 
 or fifteen hundred years ago, and refuted by the church of that day ; ior 
 instance, Arius, a priest of Alexandria, preached against the divinity of 
 Christ in A. D. 315. A council of three hundred and eighteen Christian 
 bishops, held at Nice, in A. D. 319, condemned his opinions as heretical. 
 In 360, the usurper of the holy see at Constantinople preached against 
 the divinity of the third person in the trinity, the Holy Ghost, which 
 was considered by an assembly of one hundred and fifty bishops, in 
 a general council held in that city, in 381, in which the trinity was 
 fully maintained, and the denial proclaimed heresy. In 311, the pre- 
 rogative of " the church " was questioned by Donatius, but affirmed at 
 three separate councils, namely, Rome, 313, Aries, 314, Carthage, 411. 
 In 412, Pelagius, an English monk, preached at Rome, Carthage, and 
 through Palestine, against the existence of original sin, and the necessity 
 of God's grace to salvation. His doctrines were condemned in the 
 council of Carthage, 416, and that of Milevand, 418. In 429, Nesto- 
 rius preached against the unity of person in Jesus Christ. His doctrine 
 was condemned in the general council of Ephesus, 431, which consisted 
 of two hundred bishops. In 488, Eutyches, superior of a monastery in 
 Constantinople, preached against the distinction of two natures in Jesus 
 Christ — condemned by the general council of Chalcedon, 451, where 
 three hundred and sixty bishops assembled. In 726, the Greek emperor 
 Leo, like some of his successors, raised objections against the honors due 
 to holy images. The objections were considered and condemned in the 
 second general council of Nice, 787, where three hundred and seventy- 
 seven bishops assembled. It does not appear that the mass, the real 
 
 PRESENCE, TRANSUBSTANTIATION, AURICULAR CONFESSION, PENANCE, 
 
 the seven sacraments of baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, ex- 
 treme unction, holy orders, and matrimony, were called in question 
 by even the schismatics of those early ages, nor, except in the instance 
 of Arius, until the times of Luther and Calvin, in the sixteenth century. 
 How, then, can I refuse to yield my belief to their decrees — to the 
 doctrines of the Catholic church ? How can I be so absurd as to go out 
 amongst those who I am not sure are learned, or guided by a Christian 
 spirit ? But I have been told the Bible alone is enough, without any other 
 assistance, to guide me to salvation. If this be so, I must be the judge 
 of my own criminaUty, and I must acquit or condemn myself according 
 as my self-love, my passions, or my ignorance, shall prompt. I shall 
 make unto myself images of perfection in my own mind. By these I 
 
464 THE BIBLE WHO SHALL EXPLAIN IT ^ 
 
 will judge myself. Others, by the same rule, will form their separate 
 images of right and wrong, vice and virtue. Each will form a code of 
 laws of his own, and act on it. If each man will interpret those difficult 
 Scriptures, is it likely that any two men will agree in understanding them 
 alike ? Have they ever done so yet 1 People may say, " If you pray to 
 God, he will enlighten you with grace to enable you to understand every 
 difficult passage." Only that this is said by many sincere persons, I 
 would call it cant. To define it mildly, I must pronounce it delusion. 
 
 The Scriptures sometimes speak literally, and sometimes figuratively, 
 of the Deity and his attributes — of angels — and in a mysterious style 
 of prophecy. Then the peculiar idioms of the old languages, the para- 
 bles, figures of allegory and hyperbole in which the divine will was 
 symboled, frequently puzzle, and make us wish for a clearer under- 
 standing, and desire aid to explain them. When we confront one text of 
 the Scriptures with another, how puzzled we feel by their apparent 
 contradiction of each other! and we cannot select the plainest and 
 reject the rest. Either the whole Scriptures are necessary to be un- 
 derstood, or they are not. If a part only, then loho is to decide on the 
 part which we may put aside? or if we must, and cannot, understand 
 all, then who is to explain to us that portion which is obscure? If each 
 man's own sense is enough to direct him, then he may select passages 
 favorable to his own personal addictions, whether of war, conquest, lust, 
 murder, &c. ; for texts are to be found to answer any of these purposes, 
 in the Scriptures. 
 
 It is hard to understand the Scriptures. St. Augustine, in the fourth 
 century, said, "There are more things in Scripture which I am ignorant 
 of than those that I know;" and the Protestant Doctor Balguy said, in 
 the last century, " Open your Bibles, take the first page that appears, 
 in either Testament, and tell me, without disguise, is there nothing in it 
 too hard for your understandings ? If you find all before you clear and 
 easy, you may thank God for giving you a privilege which he has de- 
 nied to many thousands of sincere believers." — Balguy^s Discourse, 
 p. 133. 
 
 The sense of a text in Scripture may depend upon the choice of a 
 single word in the translation, or its position in the sentence or sentences 
 of which the text is formed, and even upon the punctuation. The denial 
 of the divinity of Christ itself has been partly sustained by the division 
 of one scriptural sentence into two, which was done by substituting a 
 period for a comma, without changing a single letter of the original ; for 
 example, " Surrexit nan. Est hie ; " whereas the correct and true 
 
WHERE IS THE TRUE VERSION? INDIVIDUAL JUDGMENT. 465 
 
 reading and punctuation are, " Surrexit, non est hie" '•' He is risen, he 
 is not here." 
 
 If I am to judge for myself, independent of the CathoHc church, 
 I must be able to compare my English translations of the Bible with the 
 original Latin version, which is in possession of that church alone, and 
 then 1 must take that on their authority as a correct translation from the 
 Greek and Hebrew texts of the inspired writers, some of which are lost. 
 
 The text of Moses and the ancient prophets was destroyed with the 
 temple and city of Jerusalem ; and, though they were replaced by au- 
 thentic copies, at the end of the Babylonish captivity, by the prophet 
 Ezra, yet those also perished in the persecution of Antiochus, from 
 which time we have no evidence of the genuineness of the Old Testa- 
 ment until it was supplied by Christ and his apostles. King Henry the 
 Eighth condemned Tyndal's Translation of the Bible, as crafty, false, 
 and untrue. The Bibles first published by Queen Elizabeth's bishops 
 were found so incorrect by the bishops of James the First, that a 
 new translation was deemed necessary, which, when made, produced 
 a great deal of discussion between the learned Protestants of the 
 day. 
 
 Which of all these translations shall I consult ? and, then, if every man 
 expounds the Scriptures for himself, what necessity is there for any cler- 
 gymen ? or any church ? or any attendance at church ? and, to pursue 
 this idea, we shall soon find every man set up in his own mind an image 
 of God, or an idol for his own private worship. He will also be dis- 
 posed to form laws for his government in civil society out of his own 
 head, and according to his own standard or image of justice. Is this 
 right? The illustrious Fenelon has said, "It is better to live without 
 any law than to have laws which all men are left to interpret according 
 to their several opinions and interests." 
 
 Is this right? I repeat. Am I safe in my own keeping, and under 
 my own exclusive judgment ? Shall I reject all advice ? Shall I con- 
 sult no one, except some person equally weak, or ignorant, or wicked, 
 with myself? I cannot bear to think of it. There must be some one 
 left on earth to guide me besides the careless printer, whose production, 
 called a Bible, is now before me. 
 
 These are some of the grounds for my adhesion to the Catholic 
 
 church. I cannot say that I am enlightened, for I live in the midst of 
 
 darkness, and grow more and more convinced, every day, of my own 
 
 ignorance. The only object in the misty atmosphere around, which ap- 
 
 69 
 
466 CLERICAL INTERFERENCE IN CIVIL A.FFAIRS. 
 
 pears to my weak vision most distinct, is the connection of the existing 
 Catholic church with the first Christians and the Redeemer himself." 
 
 While I thus give vent to my opinions on the doctrines of the Cath- 
 olic faith, I am bound by the immutable laws of history to state that in 
 Ireland, as well as on the European continent, many of the bishops and 
 abbots, officiating as the ministers of that faith, imbued their sacred 
 hands in the strife of battles, and absolutely commanded their legions in 
 the tented field. There is, of course, nothing more foreign to the idea 
 of the duties of a prelate, entertained by the Christian of the present 
 day, than the command of warlike legions on the field of slaughter. 
 
 While I have no notion of attempting to defend this mixture of the 
 warrior with the priest, I may, however, be permitted to account for it. 
 The higher orders of the clerg)», for many centuries after the general 
 introduction of Christianity throughout Europe, were almost the sole 
 managers of every thing. They performed all the offices of religion ; 
 administered the higher duties of the courts of jurisprudence ; were 
 chancellors and judges, legislators, lawgivers, historians, architects, 
 mechanics, painters, poets, — premiers and counsellors of kings, diplo- 
 matists, ambassadors, secretaries of state: — above all, they were every 
 where, through every country, the only teachers of youth, the chief 
 possessors of knowledge, the sole writers of books. 
 
 Tliese relations with society, it must be owned, were calculated to 
 give them an immeasurable ascendency. Nor did this state of things 
 spring up all at once. It gradually grew from the labor, study, learn- 
 ing, and utility, of the great body of the monks and clergy, and, indeed, 
 from the wants of society itself. They performed all these important 
 offices for nations, because there was none other found so well fitted by 
 varied acquirements for the trust. Princes, when young, were sent to 
 pious and learned ecclesiastics to receive education. When at maturity, 
 and they came to their hereditary seats of power, they frequently 
 induced their learned and beloved preceptors to accompany them, to 
 remain round their persons, to advise them in all matters of state, to 
 accompany them in their journeys, and counsel them in their wars. 
 
 The ABBOTS, who were, by election for life, presidents of their com- 
 monwealths, in the monasteries, became, in the course of a few 
 centuries, a most important power in the state. It has been said that 
 those abbots were under the influence of the popes, and, by their direc- 
 tions, meddled largely in civil affairs. It was not generally so. The 
 ABBOTS were independent and irresponsible governors of their own little 
 kingdoms, in and about their monasteries ; a few of them only were 
 under what is railed " priests' orders," and thence amenable to the holy 
 
THE MONKS. ABBOTS. 467 
 
 see. The great majority were lay chiefs, of religious and learned cor- 
 porations, governed only by their own laws, owing obedience to the 
 chief houses of their own order. In the progress of time, many of these 
 important trusts were forcibly and factiously seized by laymen, who 
 assumed the barren title of deacon or archdeacon, which was then the 
 name of a mere tyro in the ecclesiastical grades. Both the lay and 
 ecclesiastical abbots exercised, through extensive ramifications, a very 
 considerable influence over the Christian communities. 
 
 These monasteries became wealthy, from various sources. The monks, 
 by their great industry, improved the lands granted to them by the 
 princes and great ones, to perhaps a thousand times their original value. 
 Wherever they settled, upon wastes or in forests, they devoted their 
 labor and knowledge, after the worship of God, to agriculture, architec- 
 ture, and literature. Towns and cities grew up around their monasteries ; 
 their lands, therefore, became miraculously enhanced in value. Their 
 proprietary and ownership never died, nor were transferred. The little 
 commonwealth was continued by new disciples, and newly-elected gov- 
 ernors, from generation to generation. Their surplus lands were let, at 
 easy rents, to an affectionate tenantry, whose children received a free 
 education from their pious landlords. Between the people and these 
 monks the most friendly relations existed. The poor and the sick 
 were all taken care of by those pious men, and they were, we may welt 
 suppose, exceedingly popular. 
 
 The abbots, or presidents, of those corporate colleges, were, therefore, 
 a very important class of men. In addition to the foregoing sources of 
 their power, they were usually made trustees or guardians to young 
 heirs of noble blood and great possessions, and they were not unfre- 
 quently related by blood themselves to the highest-born of the land. 
 Occasions arose when some of them were called from the cloister to the 
 throne, as heirs by blood to the dignity. 
 
 For several centuries, the European Christians were kept in con- 
 tinued wars, defending themselves from the Mahometans on the one 
 side, and the northern marauders, called Danes, on the other. 
 
 Thousands upon thousands of the ecclesiastics of Europe, and par- 
 ticulariy of Ireland, were butchered unresistingly, withifi their sacred 
 habitations. It was not unnatural in men, attacked in their castles by 
 those land pirates, to defend themselves as best they could. All these 
 circumstances conspired to form that apparently incongruous character, 
 the militant priest. 
 
 The vicissitudes of the clergy, in various parts of Europe, and the very 
 
468 THE pope's connection with civil affairs. 
 
 existence of the Christians, rendered it necessary for the popes to 
 meddle largely in the civil affairs of kings. Indeed, it was impossible 
 for them to be passive spectators of the butcheries of their clergy and 
 spiritual flocks, by the Mahometans in the south, and the Danes in 
 the west, of Europe. They therefore leagued with princes for protec- 
 tion ; and princes, in turn, sought their assistance, in establishing their 
 own authority amongst their subjects. 
 
 The popes, too, were frequently appointed, by contending petty 
 princes, as the arbitrators of their disputes. This grew to a common 
 practice ; and at last the great monarchs of Europe endeavored anxious- 
 ly, one against the other, to secure the interest of the see of Rome, as a 
 protection ; and it is admitted by the great writers of the present centu- 
 ry, (see Edinburgh Review, No. 52,) that the temporal power obtained 
 by the church, in the middle ages, conduced, by the check which it 
 opposed to the encroachments of kings, to advance considerably the 
 cause of civil and political liberty. 
 
 In the mean time, the Christian church spread its branches through 
 unnumbered dominions. Its influence progressed with its principles, 
 and it became, at last, a far more potent power on earth than the might- 
 iest of the nations recorded on the page of time. 
 
 Although the popes have, for centuries past, ceased to interfere in the 
 afiairs of kings, their spiritual and moral influence, over nearly two 
 hundred millions of Catholics, spread throughout the world, is as para- 
 mount as it ever was. But the Catholics every where perfectly 
 understand the distinction between the spiritual obedience they 
 owe the holy father, in matters of faith and Christian discipline, and 
 the civil obedience they owe the king or chief magistrate under whom 
 they live. 
 
 A very remarkable illustration of my argument has come to my hand 
 since these remarks were penned ; it is part of a debate in the Dublin 
 Repeal Association, on the third of July, 1844. It appears that the British 
 ministry, with all their affected contempt for the " power of the pope," 
 have not disdained to importune the holy fither to put forward in Ire- 
 land his moral power in their behalf. They contrived to get the 
 Austrian minister. Prince Metternich, to second their designs at Rome ; 
 and an attempt was actually made to wheedle the pope into the issuing 
 of a bull to the Irish Catholic clergy, which should command them to 
 discountenance the repeal agitation. 
 
 His holiness has not issued any such rescript, and has so intimated to 
 all the parties interested. Upon this important point, that faithful son 
 
DEBATE ON THE POINT IN THE REPEAL ASSOCIATION. 469 
 
 of Ireland, Henry Grattan, made the following observations in the 
 Repeal Association : — 
 
 " He (Mr. Grattan) would request, for the next day of meeting, the presence of his 
 Protestant and Orange friends, in order to unfold to them some intelligence from 
 Rome of a surprising character. He had lately been in the Eternal City, and had 
 mingled in the society of the pope, and his cardinals and prelates, and he thought his 
 duty to the Irish people, and especially to the Protestant portion of them, required 
 him to disclose a shameful conspiracy which he had detected there, being a machina- 
 tion, on the part of individuals high in power in England, to induce his holiness to 
 prohibit by his mandate the agitation of repeal. ('Hear! hear!') He would detail 
 the particulars, if he lived, on the next day of meeting ! (' Hear ! ' and loud cheers.) " 
 
 Mr. Grattan's authority is unquestionable on the fact he asserts, and 
 his opportunities of accurate information are, for many reasons, more 
 than those of ordinary persons. In alluding to the topic, Mr. O'Neil 
 Daunt, a practical and theologically informed Catholic, said : — 
 
 " He begged to express his satisfaction that his honorable friend had stated the fact 
 that influential persons in England had used means to induce the pope to condemn 
 the Repeal agitation. (' Hear ! hear ! ') He spoke of the course with the deepest respect 
 for his holiness, but he would just ask them this : Supposing that the pope were to 
 enjoin them to desist from their struggle for repeal, was there one solitary Catholic in 
 Ireland who would o'bey him ? (Cries of ' No, not one ! ' and vehement cheering.) "Not 
 they, indeed. They knew too well the just limits of the spiritual jurisdiction of the 
 pontiff, which he (Mr. Daunt) was quite certain his holiness never would exceed. 
 The ministry might spare themselves the fruitless labor of negotiating with Rome 
 upon a point respecting which, whatever Rome might promise, the Irish people 
 could never be turned aside from their course. (Cheers.) " 
 
 Now, recollect by whom these observations, totally disavowing the 
 temporal authority of the pope, were uttered ; to what assembly they 
 were addressed, and how received by the multitude. The sentiment 
 was uttered by a strict Catholic, Mr. O'Neil Daunt ; it was addressed to 
 an assembly which was, and which the speaker knew was, mostly com- 
 posed of Catholics ; and by that meeting, so constituted, the sentiment 
 was received whh unanimous shouts of assent and approbation. There 
 was no preconcert here ; the thing was momentary. The ebuUition was 
 natural, distinct, and powerful, — worth a thousand treatises on " the 
 temporal and spiritual power of the pope." 
 
 Returning to the state of religion, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, 
 in Ireland, we are pained to find that struggles for the primacy of 
 Armagh extended to irreverent lengths. The power of " primate of 
 ALL Ireland" was originally conferred on St. Patrick, by the holy see; 
 which power descended, in episcopal succession, to the occupant of the 
 primatical chair of Armagh. This see was therefore the object at 
 
470 TITHES. 
 
 which the ambitious spirits of Ireland aimed. The power of the 
 chair of Armagh radiated, as from the centre of autliority,on all the 
 affairs of Ireland, whether civil or ecclesiastical. The families of 
 royal blood, who contended in the field with each other for supreme 
 sway, courted this power, and intrigued for its alliance. This begot a 
 series of struggles in the election of the primate, which produced broils 
 of a most irreverent character ; and it is recorded that one noble family, 
 by its members, kept possession of the see for nearly two hundred years, 
 and wen! so far as to force lay members into the sanctified chair of 
 Patrick, who seized upon the rich revenues and possessions of the see, 
 and appointed a bishop as " suffragan," to perform the clerical duties. 
 
 On the subject of church dues, Moore says, concerning this period, 
 " There occurs more than once, in the records of this century, some 
 mention of a law relating to ecclesiastical property, which, as much im- 
 portance appears to have been attached to it. requires some passing 
 notice. It would appear that the revenue arising from those dues, 
 which had, ever since the time of St. Patrick, been paid to the church 
 of Armagh, was, amidst the convulsions of this period, interrupted or 
 withheld ; and, in the year 824, we find the authority of the warlike 
 Feidhlim, king of Munster, interposed in aid of Artrigius, archbishop 
 of Armagh, for the collection of this tax. A law had been established, 
 indeed, about the year 731, by the king of all Ireland and the king of 
 Munster, in concert, to regulate the payment of the revenue of the pri- 
 matial see ; and it is manifestly this regulation we read of in the annals 
 of the ninth century, as enforced under the name of the ' law of St. 
 Patrick.' " 
 
 It does not appear that tithes were paid or demanded in Ireland till 
 about the twelfth century, and in conformity to the decisions of the 
 solemn chief synods, held under the direction of a legate from the holy 
 see. Previous to this, the payments to the support of the church seemed 
 to have been irregular. The institution of tithes, or tenths, was for 
 the purpose of securing uniformity in the Christian contributions to the 
 church. In other parts of Europe, they were earlier established. 
 
 " Notwithstanding all these things," says Moore, [ivho is severer on the 
 Irish clergy mul chieftains of this age than any foreign writer,^ " that 
 there must still have been preserved among the people of this country 
 — a people once so conspicuous throughout Europe for their piety — a 
 strong and pervading religious feeling, however imbued with the general 
 darkness of the times, and allowed to run wild for the want of culture 
 and discipline, is sufficiently apparent on the very face of our native 
 
DISCIPLINE AND ORDER RESTORED. LITERATURE AT THIS PERIOD. 471 
 
 annals, even in this dim and agitated period. The number of pious, 
 and, according to the standard of their age, learned ecclesiastics, who 
 are recorded, in the annals of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, 
 as passing their whole lives in works of devotion and charity among the 
 ruins of once flourishing monasteries, could not but cherish, in the popu- 
 lar mind, a fond remembrance of the early saints of the land, and keep 
 alive, like the spark beneath the embers, some remains of the faith of 
 better days." 
 
 It was not till the twelfth century that a reformation was effected in 
 the ecclesiastical affairs of Ireland, — when, by the authority of the pope, 
 hacked by the deliberations and decisions of several synods of the Irish 
 clergy, creating thus a strong public opinion, the lay intruders \yere re- 
 moved from their ill-gotten powers, and the church was suffered to 
 return to that austere discipline for which it was famed in the ages pre- 
 vious to the Danish invasions. 
 
 Drs. Lannigan, Carew, and Gahan, give copious details of the several 
 synods of these times, and the ecclesiastical measures instituted to restore 
 Christian observance and uniformity to the Irish church. Having de- 
 voted already so much remark and space to the affairs of religion, I fear 
 to risk a further intrusion of the same matter on the reader, who is 
 referred for full details to those elaborate and faithful chroniclers of Irish 
 church history above mentioned ; and I shall now proceed to the next 
 great feature of the age, its 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 After the two hundred and forty years of war which Ireland had just 
 then passed through ; after the sacking and burning of the colleges, 
 monasteries, and libraries, during the Danish persecutions ; after more 
 than two centuries of slaughter of all ages and degrees, — it cannot be 
 expected that her literature could be any thing like what it had been 
 from the fifth to the ninth century. 
 
 After the battle of Clontarf, and the total prostration of Danish power 
 in Ireland, the members of the learned professions came forth from their 
 hiding-places and retreats. An endeavor was made to restore the libra- 
 ries ; but, alas ! it was a vain attempt. The majority of the books were 
 destroyed ; and Ireland, which had been once so rich in the possessions 
 of those countless tomes of genius, so celebrated throughout Europe, — 
 from the superabundance of which, the Benedictine monks on the Conti- 
 nent acknowledge t» have frequently received copious supplies, — was 
 now destitute of many records of her own history, and forced to seek 
 
472 LITERATURE OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY". 
 
 among the archives of foreign seminaries, the attested memorials of her 
 past greatness. Only two or three of her numerous colleges escaped 
 total destruction. 
 
 Her learned men now rallied on the scanty stock of manuscripts left 
 them, and during the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth centuries, — 
 say for a period of one hundred and seventy years, — applied themselves 
 with so much industry to the work of restoration, that Ireland reassumed 
 her scholastic station amid the nations, — again put forth her literary 
 blossoms, and filled Europe anew with the aroma of her knowledge. 
 I find so good a paper on this head in Moore, that I transcribe it en- 
 tire, rather than write any thing of the same kind myself. 
 
 " The night of ignorance and barbarism, which had been so long 
 gathering around the western world, is supposed, in the century we are 
 now considering, [the tenth,] to have reached its utmost gloom. How 
 far this comparative view is well founded may be a matter of question ; 
 but of the positive prevalence of darkness throughout this age there can 
 exist no doubt. It i? not, therefore, wonderful that even Ireland, which 
 had hitherto stood as a beacon of learning in the west, should begin to 
 share in the general obscuration of the times, and, being acted upon by 
 the same causes which had already uncivilized some of the fairest 
 regions of Europe, should feel the fated tide of barbarism gaining fast 
 upon her shores. The exceeding rapidity with which the chief schools 
 and monasteries throughout the country, though so frequently ravaged 
 and burnt by the Northmen, again arose from their ashes, and resounded 
 afresh with the voice of instruction and prayer, seems hardly less than 
 marvellous. Nor was this intrepid and persevering enthusiasm, in the 
 cause of learning and holiness, confined to the natives of the country 
 alone, but inspired also its visitors; as, but a few months after a des- 
 perate inroad of the Danish spoilers into Armagh, we are told of a 
 youth of a royal house of the Albanian Scots, named Cadroe, repairing 
 to the schools of that university for the completion of his education. 
 
 " Among the obituary notices scattered throughout the annals of this 
 age, there occur the names of several divines who are described as 
 learned and eminent, but of whom no further mention is to be found. 
 Towards the middle of the century flourished Probus, or, as his Irish 
 name, of the same import, is said to have been, Coenachair, whose Life 
 of St. Patrick, still extant, is praised by a high authority on the subject 
 of our ecclesiastical history, as ' a very valuable work.' That Probus 
 was an Irishman, he has himself placed beyond doubt by several expres- 
 sions which occur in his pages. Thus, when speaking of the saint 
 
LITERATURE OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. 473 
 
 embarking from Britaing for Ireland, he says, that ' he entered upon our 
 sea ; and the harbor first reached by the missionary, whom he styles 
 * our most holy father,' is represented by him as ' one much celebrated 
 among m.' Probus was chief lecturer of the school of Slane, and fell 
 a victim there, as already has been related, during an attack upon the 
 church of that place by the Danes. 
 
 " In the year 975, according to the annalist Tigernach, took place the 
 death of Keneth O'Artegan, ' chief of the learned of Leath Cuinn.' A 
 poem of this writer is still preserved, descriptive of the beauty of the 
 celebrated hill of Tara, and moralizing mournfully over its history ; nor 
 should those who visit, in our days, that seat of long-extinguished royal- 
 ty, feel any wonder on not discovering there some vestige of its grandeur, 
 when told that, even in the time of this poet, not a trace of the original 
 palace still remained ; while the hill itself had become a desert, over- 
 grown with grass and weeds. 
 
 " As thus, in the midst of the general darkness of the age, there were 
 still preserved in Ireland some relics of the lore of better days, so, in 
 the schools and religious establishments of the Continent, her sons still 
 continued to retain all their former superiority, and, among the dwarf 
 intellects of that time, towered as giants. In England, since the time 
 of her great Alfred, both sacred and literary knowledge had sunk to so 
 low an ebb, that at length no priest could be found capable of writing 
 or translating a Latin letter. ' Very few churchmen were there,' says 
 Alfred, 'on this side the Humber, who could understand their daily 
 pi-ayers in English, or translate any letter from the Latin. I think there 
 were not many beyond the Humber ; they were so few, that I, indeed, 
 cannot recollect one single instance on the south of the Thames when I 
 took the kingdom.' — See Turner, Hist. Anglo-Sax. book v. chap, i, 
 ' A few years before the Norman conquest,' says Mr. Berington, on the 
 authority of William of Malmesbury, ' the clergy could hardly stammer 
 through the necessary service of the church, and he who knew the rules 
 of grammar was viewed as a prodigy.' The Irish were, in this century, 
 the means of restoring some taste for liberal studies. With that devotion 
 to the cause of religion and instruction which had become, in this people, 
 (as an author of those times expresses it,) a second nature, a number of 
 Irishmen, described as conversant with every department of knowledc^e, 
 secular as well as sacred, retired, some time before the year 940, to 
 Glastonbury. This monastery had already been long distinguished as a 
 favorite retreat of their countrymen ; and, within its walls, so great was 
 the reverence felt for their patron saint; says Usher, ' that, from an early 
 60 
 
474 LITERATURE OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. 
 
 period, the establishment had been called ' Glastonbury of St. Patrick.' 
 From the Irish who fixed themselves there in this century, the Abbe St. 
 Dunstan chiefly received his education ; and while he imbibed, as we 
 are told, under their discipline, the very marroW of scriptural learning, 
 they also instructed him in the sciences of arithmetic, geometry, and 
 astronomy, in all of which they were, it is intimated, more deeply skilled 
 than in the refined niceties of classical literature. With a taste, too, 
 highly characteristic of their country, they succeeded in awakening in 
 their pupil so strong a love and talent for music, that it was in after life 
 his frequent practice, when worn with business or study, to fly for re- 
 freshment to the soothing sounds of the harp. 
 
 " On the continent of Europe, in like manner, the fame of the Island 
 of Saints continued to be upheld by the learning and piety of her sons ; 
 and in the course of this century, there flourished in France, as well as 
 in Germany and the Netherlands, a number of eminent Irishmen, whose 
 names belong not so much to the country which gave them birth, as to 
 those which they benefited by the example and labors of their lives. 
 Among the prelates present at a synod, held in the year 947, at 
 Verdun, was an Irish bishop named Israel, whose character and accom- 
 plishments must have been of no ordinary stamp, as he had been one 
 of the instructors of the great and learned Archbishop Bruno, the brother 
 of the Emperor Otho. 
 
 " An Irish abbot of considerable celebrity, named Fingan, who had 
 been honored with the notice and patronage of the dowager empress 
 Adelhard, the zealous relict of Otho the Great, was, through her inter- 
 est, invested with the government of the abbey of Symphorian, at Metz, 
 on the singular condition that he and his successors should receive no 
 other than Irish monks into their establishment, as long as any such 
 could be found ; but, in case of a deficiency of monks from Ireland, 
 should then be allowed to admit those of other nations. See the deed 
 in Colgan, Acta Sanctorum. 
 
 " Another of these ' monasteries of the Scots,' as they were to a late 
 period called, had been established about this time on an island in the 
 Rhine, near Cologne, having for its first abbot an Irishman named Mim- 
 borin ; and it is clearly to this establishment at Cologne that such 
 frequent reference is made in the Annals of the Four Masters, and 
 others. 
 
 " Of the attention early paid to the study of Greek in the native 
 schools of the Irish, some notice has already been taken ; and a proof 
 of their contmued attention to the cultivation of that language is to be 
 
LITERATURE OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. 475 
 
 •found in the interesting fact, that, in the diocese of St. Gerard, at Toul, 
 where there had assembled at this time a number of Greek refugees, as 
 well as of Irish, the church service, in which both nations joined, 
 was performed in the language of the Greeks, and according to the 
 Greek rite. 
 
 " One of the few of our learned countrymen at this period, who have 
 left behind them any literary remains, was an Irish bishop named 
 Duncan, or Duncant, who taught in the monastery of St. Remigius, at 
 Rheims, and wrote for the use of the students under his care a Com- 
 mentary on the Nine Books of Martianus Capella, — an author whose 
 claims to attention, such as they are, concern the musician rather than 
 the scholar, — and also, Observations on the First Book of Pomponius 
 Mela, De Situ Terrae ; both of which writings are still extant ; and the 
 former is in the British Museum. 
 
 " With respect to those Irish bishops we frequently read of, as con- 
 nected with foreign religious establishments, and passing their whole 
 lives abroad, it is right to explain, that there existed at this time a 
 custom in Ireland of raising pious and exemplary monks to episcopal 
 rank, without giving them any fixed sees. In' addition to these there 
 was also, as in the primitive times of the church, an order of Chorepis- 
 copi, or country bishops, to whom the care of the rural districts was 
 intrusted, with powers subordinate to those of the regular bishop in 
 whose diocese they were situated. From these two classes of ministers 
 were furnishedj doubtless, the great majority of those Episcopi Vagantes, 
 or ' vague bishops,' as they are called, of whom such numbers, princi- 
 pally Irish, were found on the Continent in the middle ages ; and whose 
 assumed power of ordaining came at length to be so much abused, that, 
 at more than one council, an effort was made to abate the custom by 
 declaring all such ordinations to be null and void. Notwithstanding, 
 however, such occasional laxity of discipline, it is admitted by one of 
 the most liberal as well as most learned of theologians, that the bishops 
 of this description from Ireland were of great service, as well to the 
 Gallican as the Germanic church. 
 
 " Of that class of humble but useful writers, the annalists, who merely 
 narrate, says Cicero, without adorning the course of public affairs, Ire- 
 land produced, in this century, two of the most eminent, perhaps, in all 
 Europe — Marianus Scotus and Tigernach. The latter of these writers, 
 whose valuable annals have been so frequently referred to in these 
 pages, is said to have been of the sept called the Muireadhaigh, or 
 Murrays, in Connaught, and was abbot of Clonmacnois. His Annals, 
 
476 LITERATURE OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. 
 
 which were brought down by him to the year of his death, 1088, are 
 scarcely more valuable for the materials of history which their own 
 pages furnish, than for the proofs they afford of still earlier records 
 existing when they were written — records which, as appear from the 
 dates of eclipses preserved by this chronicler, and which could not 
 otherwise than by written memorials have reached him so accinately, 
 must have extended as far back as the period when Christianity be-* 
 came the religion of the country. 
 
 " Another service conferred on the cause of Irish antiquities by this 
 work, independently of its own intrinsic utility, arises from the number 
 of metrical fragments we find scattered throughout its pages, cited from 
 writings still more ancient, which were then evidently existing, though 
 at present no other vestige of them remains. That Tigernach had 
 access to some library or libraries, furnished with books of every descrip- 
 tion, is manifest from his numerous references ; and the correctness of 
 his citations from foreign authors, with whose works we are acquainted, 
 may be taken as a surety for the genuineness of his extracts from the 
 writings of our own native authors, now lost ; thus affording an an- 
 swer to those skeptical objectors, who, because there are ^tant so few 
 Irish manuscripts of an earlier date than about the eleventh or tenth 
 century, contend that our pretensions to a vernacular literature, in the 
 centuries preceding that period, must be mere imposture or self-delusion. 
 
 " Marianus Scotus, the contemporary of Tigernach, and, as some 
 suppose, a monk in the very monastery over which he presided, stands, 
 as a chronographer, among the highest of his times. He wrote also 
 Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul, a copy of which, transcribed by 
 himself. Is still extant in the imperial library of Vienna. 
 
 " It appears that by Marianus, as well as by his countryman Tiger- 
 nach, who had never been out of Ireland, the error of the Dionyslan 
 cycle was clearly perceived ; and to the former is even attributed the 
 credit of having endeavored, however unsuccessfully, to correct It. 
 
 " Besides Marianus, there appeared, in this century, several other dis- 
 tinguished Irishmen on the Continent ; among the foremost of whom 
 may be mentioned St. Colman, whom Austria placed on the list of her 
 patrons, and whose praise was celebrated In an ode by Stabius, the his- 
 toriographer of the emperor Maximilian. 
 
 " Some curious historical poems by Flann and Gilla-Coeman, two 
 metrical chronographers of this century, have furnished a subject for 
 much learned comment to the pen of the reverend editor of the Irish 
 Chronicles ; who, in proof of the accuracy of Gilla-Coeman's chrono- 
 
KING CORMAC. 
 
 477 
 
 logical computations, has shown that all the dates assigned by him to 
 the great events of Scripture history coincide, to a wonderful degree, 
 with those laid down by no less authorities than Scaliger, Petavius, and 
 Sir Isaac Newton. 
 
 " Though somewhat anticipating, in point of time, it may save trouble 
 to state, while touching on the subject, that the chronological list of the 
 Irish kings, which had by Coeman been brought down to the lime of St. 
 Patrick, was, by another metrical chronographer, Gilla Moduda, who 
 flourished about the middle of the twelfth century, continued to the death 
 of Malachy the Second, in a poem consisting of a number of ranns, or 
 strophes, much in the manner of the metrical list of the Dalriadic kings, 
 composed in Scotland, in the reign of Malcolm the Third. 
 
 " While thus not a few of the natives themselves continued to culti- 
 vate, even in those stormy times, most of the studies for which their 
 country was once so famous, neither does it appear that the attractions 
 and advantages, by which foreign students were forraeriy drawn to their 
 schools, had altogether at this dark period ceased. An instance to the 
 contrary, indeed, is afforded in the case of Sulgenus, afterwards bishop 
 of St. David's, who, 'moved by the love,' as we are told, 'of study, set 
 out, in imitation of his ancestors, to visit the land of the Irish, so won- 
 derfully celebrated for learning.' Having been driven back by a storm 
 to his own country, it was not till after a long lapse of time that he 
 again ventured on the voyage, when, reaching the country of the Scots 
 in safety, he remained there tranquilly for more than ten years, studying 
 constantly the Holy Scriptures, and storing his mind with the spiritual 
 wealth which they contained. Such is the account given, in a poem 
 written on the studious labors of Bishop Sulgenus in the schools of 
 Ireland at this period ; and Usher cites the poem as a proof that the 
 study of letters had at this lime revived in the country, and that 
 Ireland, even in the eleventh century, was still ' a storehouse of the 
 most learned and holy men.' ' Revixisse tamen bonarum literarum stu- 
 dia, et seculo adhuc undecimo habilam fuisse Hiberniam (ut in Vita 
 Florentii loquitur Franciscus Guillimannus) virorum sanctissimorum doc- 
 tissimorumque officinamJ Another conclusion which Usher -draws from 
 this poem is, that the name of Scots was still, in the eleventh century, 
 applied, xar f^ox^iv, to the Irish." After this period, the name of Ire- 
 land, (after Ir, who came with the Milesians,) began to be generally 
 applied to the island, while that of Scotia was more distinctly given to 
 Caledonia. 
 
 I have purposely postponed a notice of Cormac M' CulKnane, bishop 
 
478 KING CORMAC. 
 
 of Cashell and king of Munster. to allow Moore's observations on the 
 literature of those times, which I am obliged to abridge, to go to the 
 reader uninterrupted. Moore does not, in my opinion, treat the bishop- 
 king of Munster fairly, and I therefore compile my account of him from 
 other sources. 
 
 This extraordinary man, who has left behind him the best memorials 
 of his science, taste, and knowledge, which any Irishman of remote ages 
 had been fortunate enough to bequeath entire, was bishop of Cashell in 
 the close of the ninth century. He wrote, amongst other works, the 
 entire history of Ireland, from the earliest period to his own times, in a 
 magnificent epic in blank verse. Having access to, he consulted the 
 most authentic and learned works of his day. His church and his resi- 
 dence were comparatively safe from the Danish atrocities, for they were 
 built on the " Rock of Cashell," a high, craggy, and, in those times, 
 inaccessible fortress. His great work, together with that of Tigernach, 
 and a few others, are the principal and the fullest manuscript histories 
 of ancient Ireland that remain. 
 
 But it is not alone as an elegant historian, that this brilliant scholar 
 shines, like a star of the first magnitude, from the dim, distant horizon of 
 the past. He was, besides, a scientific and accomplished archhect, 
 devoting the revenues of his see, while yet a bishop, to works of taste 
 and art. He erected on the Rock of Cashell that splendid specimen 
 of pure Irish architecture, which has borne his name to us for a thousand 
 years, and which attests at this day, by its admirable proportions, its 
 scientific construction, and its tasteful richness, the science and skill of 
 the classic architect, and the wonderful degree of perfection to which 
 (he art had, in his time, arrived in Ireland. It is admitted that " Cor- 
 inac's Chapel " is the purest specimen of that style of architecture, erro- 
 neously called Gothic, that can be found in Europe, of so eiarly a date 
 as the ninth century. 
 
 In the neighboring pages I shall devote some remarks specially to the 
 subject of Irish architecture, to which I refer the reader for this branch 
 of Cormac's performances. The wars of Cormac, all unecclesiastical 
 as they were, seem to have been forced upon him by two conspiring 
 circumstances, — first, the refusal of the Leganians (Leinster men) to 
 pay some tribute or subsidy demanded by the crown of Munsfer, and 
 second, the fiery impetuosity of Flaherty, the abbot of Iniscathy, who 
 may have been a layman, with feelings of high family resentments un- 
 subdued. It is evident, from all the circumstances of those unhappy 
 wars, that the untamable spirit of Flaherty was the direct cause of this 
 
WARS OF KING CORMAC. 479 
 
 great man's troubles and sudden death, as we may gather from the 
 history of the last of his battles. 
 
 A few days before the fatal battle of Magh Abhe, the bishop-king, 
 according to the custom of the times, made his will, which, with much 
 self-possession, he wrote in verse. To various ecclesiastics he be- 
 queathed more or less of his personal effects, rare books, &;c. ; and 
 then he singled out, from the young nobility of Munster, Lorcan, — the 
 four and fortieth in descent from the great Olioll OUwn, — a layman, 
 to whom he committed, in case of his fall in the approaching battle, the 
 civil or kingly affairs of Munster. This is a circumstance of great 
 weight, in proving to us that the good man himself felt the impropriety 
 of one of his dignities, which appears to have been thrust upon him to 
 silence contending claimants for the Munster crown, and to preserve the 
 peace of the province. 
 
 When all these things were completely arranged, the army of 
 Munster marched to the frontier plains of Leinster, to enforce their king's 
 demands. The abbot of Iniscathy, clothed in steel as a field marshal, 
 rode through and encouraged the troops ; and Cormac, laying aside his 
 sacerdotal robe, clad himself superbly in a similar costume, and waved 
 his truncheon of command over his brilliant legions. Arrived at the 
 confines, they found the king of Leinster with a numerous array ready 
 to contest the claim. The " herald of Munster " was sent to the 
 opposite army to demand tribute or declare war. During his absence, 
 the warlike Abbot Flaherty gallopped through the ranks, animating the 
 troops for the coming struggle. His horse, affrighted by the glitter of 
 spears, plunged, and flung the gallant marshal to the earth, depriving 
 him nearly of life. This was deemed a most unpropitious omen by the 
 troops: many of them, panic-stricken, fled from the field. The herald, 
 having returned from the camp of the king of Leinster, brought prop- 
 ositions for peace, or at least for a suspension of hostilities until the 
 harvest, then ready for the sickle, should be saved. This proposal was 
 accompanied by many presents to the Munster chiefs, not the smallest 
 of which was sent to the militant abbot. 
 
 This proposal seemed so reasonable, that King Cormac, who was 
 from the beginning averse to the war, declared his readiness to accept 
 it. At the council-board, however, the insatiable abbot of Iniscathy 
 rose up in an indignant passion, charging the king with cowardice, even 
 in presence of the Leinster herald. The harangue delivered by the 
 abbot to the chiefs had the -efFect of causing them to decline the terms 
 of peace. The king, mortified deeply by this unseemly conduct, retired 
 
480 DEATH OF KING CORMAC. 
 
 to his tent, humbled himself m prayer, and resigned himself to a 
 seemingly uncontrollable fate. Having sent for his confessor, he added 
 a codicil to his will, in case he fell, of which he had a lively presenti- 
 ment, directing his body to be laid beneath the altar of his own ca- 
 thedral. 
 
 The leaders of either army now drew up their troops in the order of 
 battle. Fresh reenforcemeuts arrived to the ranks of the Leinster men, 
 sent by Flan, the then chief monarch of Ireland. By mutual consent, 
 both armies moved to the plains of Magh Albhe, which, I believe, is 
 in the Queen's county. 
 
 The Leinster army, with its allies, appeared to be five to one over 
 those of Cormac. " Defeat " was written on his commander's brows ; 
 yet the militant abbot of Iniscathy scorned all proposals for compromise. 
 At the first charge, the Munster men fell back, and were thrown into dis- 
 order : one of the chiefs, at this instant, ordered his men to fly from the 
 ranks of the abbot, and let him fight it out. The battle was soon ter- 
 minated. Great numbers of the flying Munster men were killed, and 
 the author of all this mischief was taken prisoner by .his triumphant 
 foes. Cormac showed himself in the thickest of the fight, and thus 
 confronted the insinuation of cowardice made by Iniscathy. The 
 accounts tell us, he fell and broke his neck in the battle ; and, though 
 some of his infuriate enemies cut off his head, and carried it to the 
 victor prince, that high-minded man reproved them with tears in his 
 eyes, and, like Caesar, on viewing the head of Pompey, kissed the 
 clotted hps of his fallen but illustrious opponent. 
 
 The remains of the bishop-king were buried, according to his request, 
 under the altar of his magnificent cathedral of Cashell. The following 
 lines from his will are characteristic of the scholar, the divine, the 
 architect, and the king : — 
 
 ^' My PSALTER which preserves the earliest records 
 And monuments of this my native country, 
 Which are transcribed tviih great fidelity, 
 I leave to Ronal Cashell, to he preserved 
 To after times and ages yet to come." 
 
 [He has also left a glossary of the Irish language, which is much 
 esteemed by scholars.] 
 
 Catholic writers have condemned in the person of, Cormac the 
 mixture of the monarch and the divine. A man who could have 
 shone in the utmost splendor, in ^either character, has been disparaged 
 
PSALTER OF CASHELL. 481 
 
 by uniting both in his own person. Such writers have an adautted 
 privilege, if they see grounds for it, to condemn in their own clergy any 
 addictions towards military enterprise that may appear ; but I will take 
 on me to say, that it is not, at least, good taste in writers belonging to 
 the "church of England,*' to do the same thing, seeing that, within our 
 own memory, in these enlightened times, the Duke of York, while 
 commander of the British forces, was solemnly installed by the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, '• Bishop of Osnaburgh ; " and remem- 
 bering, too, that her present Majesty, Victoria the First, is at once 
 head of the army, the navy, and the church of England. 
 
 The Psalter of Cashell was a collection, says the learned Irish 
 scholar O'Reilly, of Irish records in prose and verse, transcribed from 
 niore ancient documents, such as the Psalter of Tara, Sic. It contained 
 also many original poems, some of them written by Cormac himself. 
 This book was extant in Limerick in the year 1712, and indeed much 
 later, for we find the learned Mr. O'Halloran, who wrote his history in 
 that city, in quoting from it, says, " the Psalter of Cashell, now before 
 me;" and this is further attested by a large folio, in manuscript, which 
 was transcribed in the Irish language, from the great original. The 
 original work, in the hand-writing of the illustrious author, is now, accord- 
 ing to the assertion of the Iber no- Celtic Society, in the British Museum. 
 In the time of Sir James Ware, this work was referred to, and held in 
 high esteem ; and Astle, the author of the Origin of Writing, says, 
 *' The oldest Irish manuscript which we have discovered is the Psalter 
 of Cashell, written in the tenth century. In the Library of Trinity Col- 
 lege, Dublin, says Ware, there is a manuscript history of Ireland by 
 M'Geohegan, translated from an old book, which was compiled by 
 Columb Kille, O'More, and othei-s that were professed Irish chroniclers, 
 which states that Brien, observing into what ignorance the kingdom 
 was fallen, by the devastations and outrages of the Danes, having 
 assembled all the nobility, bishops, and great men, at Cashel, caused 
 all their history, from the time in which it had been left off, to be 
 recorded in the Psalter there, which they all signed ; copies of which 
 were sent into every province for the use of each provincial king ; and 
 no credit was to be given to any other relations of public affairs, than 
 what were contained in those chronicles." 
 
 I imagine the reader will thank me for inserting here part of an inter- 
 esting letter, written from Maynooth, in Ireland, by the celebrated 
 English divine, Dr. Milner, to one of his friends in England, bearing 
 date June 29, 1807. Milner' s Letters from Ireland. 
 61 
 
482 IRISH CLERGY SPREAD OVER EUROPE. 
 
 " For who, sir, were the luminaries of the western world, when the 
 sun of science had almost set upon it ? Wiio were the instructors of 
 nations during four whole centuries, but the Irish clergy ? To them you 
 are indebted for the preservation of the Bible, the fathers, and the clas- 
 sics ; in short, of the very means by which you yourself have acquired 
 all the literature you possess. In whatever part of this extensive island 
 St. Patrick preached the gospel, he founded convents and schools of 
 instruction, by means of which he enlightened and civili?^ the inhabit- 
 ants at the same time that he converted them. These schools soon 
 became so famous, that they were frequented by crowds of students from 
 France, Flanders, and Geitnany, as well as frou) the different parts of 
 Britain. Gildas, the most ancient of our British writers whose works 
 are extant, studied for a long time at St. Patrick's seminary of Armagh, 
 as did, in the following century, St. Agilbert, a Frenchman, the second 
 bishop of the West Saxons. Soon after this, namely, in the seventh 
 century, we find great numbers of our countrymen, |X)or as well as rich, 
 flocking to Ireland as to a general mart of literature, where the hospita- 
 ble Scots, as the ihhabitants were then called, with a generosity 
 unknown in every other nation, not only instructed tl)em giatis, but also 
 fed them gratis. At length a residence in Ireland, like a residence now 
 at a university, was considered as almost essential to establish a literary 
 character. I cannot forbear quoting here the often-repeated lines which 
 Camden extracted from the Life of St. Sulgenius, who flourished in the 
 eighth century : — 
 
 ' Exemplo patnim, commotus amore leg^endi, 
 Ivit ad Hibernos sophia inirabile claros.' 
 
 " Not content, however, with teaching the foreigners who came to them 
 for instruction, the Irish clergy, in the seventh, eighth, and ninth, centu- 
 ries, spread themselves over the greater part of Europe for the sake of 
 converting and civilizing the remaining pagans in the northern parts of it, 
 and of instructing the unlettered Christians, as was the case with most 
 of them every where. St. Killian became the apostle of Franconia, 
 St. Rumold of Brabant, St. Virgilius of Carinthia, St. Columban of the 
 Swiss, St. Gallus of the Grisons, being all of them Irishmen ; not to 
 speak of St. Donatus, bishop of Fesuli, and St. Cataldus, bishop of 
 Tarentum, who illuminated the church of Italy, nor of St. Fui-sy, St. 
 Fiacre, St. Firmin, St. Rupert, &.C., who illustrated the churches of 
 France and Germany. In a word, there is hardly a diocese in the 
 countries here mentioned which does not record the learning and sane- 
 
FOREIGN SEMINARIES OF LEARNING FOUNDED BY IRISH. 483 
 
 tity of several illustrious missionaries from Ireland who formerly served 
 it. The most celebrated nurseries of learning in those ancient times, 
 both in our own country and abroad, were all instituted by Irish schol- 
 ars. It was the learned Irish bishop St. Aidan who instituted that of 
 Lindisferne, which enlightened the northern and midland parts of Eng- 
 land. It was the venerable monk Maidulph who opened the famous 
 school of Malmsbury, from which sacred and profane literature, Greek 
 as well as Latin, was diffused over the southern and western parts of it. 
 St. Columb Kille founded the learned monastery of lona, in the Western 
 Isles ; St. Columban. those of Luxieu and Bobbio ; St. Gall, the cele- 
 brated one which bore his name amongst the Alps. In short, we are 
 equally indebted to the Irish for the most renowned universities of mod- 
 ern times. Claudius Clemens was the first professor of the university 
 of Paris, as Joannes Scotus was of the one at Ticinum, or Padua. 
 Even our boasted university of Oxford is greatly, if not chiefly, indebted 
 for its foundation to the last-mentioned acute and eloquent scholar, who 
 first opened an academy for the instruction of English children upon the 
 plan of the aforesaid foreign universities, and who excited the great 
 Alfred to institute one equal to them in his own dominions. [Usher 
 Primord.] The centuriators of Magdeburg make Joannes Scotus the 
 first professor at Oxford ; but he seems to have died a little before the 
 schools were actually opened there. — N. B. It is agreed amongst the 
 learned, and it is evident by comparison, that our ancient English or 
 Saxon characters are boiTowed from those of Ireland. 
 
 " True it is, the calamity which almost extinguished the flame of 
 literature in England, — I mean the destruction of the monasteries by the 
 Danes, — was productive of the same effect in Ireland. Nevertheless, it 
 is easy to prove that the Irish clergy did not fall into total ignorance 
 during the dark period which succeeded this storm ; as, likewise, that 
 they soon recovered a considerable degree of their former literary credit ; 
 and, in short, that there was an uninterrupted succession of men eminent 
 for their learning and talents amongst them, even down to the second 
 destruction of monasteries by the tyrant Henry the Eighth. Even 
 under the cruel and almost uninterrupted persecution which they have 
 endured till within these few years, they have contrived to acquire, 
 not only professional, but also classical and ornamental literature. 
 Several of them have studied the classics and sacred literature under 
 hedges, for want of schools, and others have spread themselves 
 over the continent of Europe, in order to acquire that knowledge 
 
484 EXTRACT FROM PROFESSOR GORRES. 
 
 which their predecessors originally diffused throughout it. Tlie suc- 
 cess which they have generally met with in their studies has been 
 equal to the ardor with which they have applied to them. Accordingly, 
 sir, you will find, upon inquiry, that the Irish students in the foreign 
 universities, down to the very period of the late revolution, carried off 
 more than their due proportion of prizes and professorships by the sheer 
 merit of superior talents and learning, and a much greater proportion 
 than fell to the lot of all other foreigners in tlie countries in question 
 put together." 
 
 Professor Gorres, of Munich, one of the most eminent philosophers 
 of Europe, in the present day, has, in his profound discourse on mystic 
 theology, beautifully expressed his admiration of Christian Ireland. Re- 
 ferring to the Gothic irruptions of the fifth century, he writes, " All not 
 engaged in the combat took refuge in the ark of the church ; which, 
 amid the mighty swell of waters, floating hither and thither, guarded the 
 treasures concealed within it ; and while, amid the general tumult of the 
 times, it secured a peaceful asylum to religious meditation, it continually 
 promoted the contemplative as well as heroic martyrdom. Such an asy- 
 lum was found from the middle of the fifth century, in the green Eme- 
 rald Isle,^ the ancient Erin, — whose secluded situation and watery 
 boundaries, as they had once served to protect her from the disorders of 
 the Roman empire, now sheltered her from the storms of the migration 
 of nations. Thither, seeking protection with St. Patrick, the church had 
 migrated, to take her winter-quarters, and had lavished all her blessings 
 on the people, who had given her so hospitable a reception. Under her 
 influence, the manners of the nation were rapidly refined ; monasteries 
 and schools flourished on all sides ; and, as the former were distinguished 
 for their austere discipline and ascetic piety, so the latter were conspic- 
 uous for their cultivation of science. While the flames of war were 
 blazing around her, the Green Isle enjoyed the sweets of repose. When 
 we look into the ecclesiastical life of this people, we are almost tempted 
 to believe that some potent spirits had transported over the sea the 
 cells of the valley of the Nile, with all their hermits ; its monasteries, 
 with all their inmates ; and had settled them down in the Western Isle — 
 an isle which, in the lapse of three centuries, gave eight hundred and 
 fifty saints to the church, won over to Christianity the north of Britain, 
 and, soon after, a large portion of die yet pagan Germany ; and, while 
 it devoted the utmost attention to the sciences, cultivated, with especial 
 care, the mystical contemplation in her religious communities, as well as 
 in the saints whom they produced." 
 
PATRIARCHAL TEMPLES. 485 
 
 IRISH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 There is not one of the national attributes of Ireland, which her jealous 
 rivals have endeavored more vehemently to snatch from her, and assume 
 as their own, than her sublime style of architecture. Many and many a 
 volume has been written to prove her ignorant, barbarous, super- 
 stitious, or savage, before the happy period of her political connection 
 with Britain, from which alone, as some people will have it, she may 
 date the commencement of her literature, civilization, religion, architec- 
 ture, and constitutional government. 
 
 A writer, who, like myself, maintains the converse of all this, is put 
 unceremoniously on his proofs, whilst those on the opposite side of the 
 question seem to think they are not called upon for any ; and, having it 
 in their power to point to the admitted opulence of England for the last 
 four hundred years, think that length of inheritance sufficient to build 
 up a claim to ages of national greatness. Happily, there is a third 
 nation growing up in the world, thoroughly impartial in its predilections, 
 and sufficiently important in the commonwealth of mind, to be appealed 
 to, — whose fiat, when finally pronounced through her historians and 
 philosophei-s, will place the image of Ireland in its proper niche in the 
 temple of intellectual fame. That country is America, — young 
 America, — whose empire grows with each diurnal revolution of the 
 earth. To her sons of intellect and enterprise I commit the claims of 
 Ireland to a due station in the commonwealth of mind. 
 
 I propose now to show that Ireland originated neariy all the styles of 
 architecture which were celebrated through Europe for so many ages as 
 " Gothic." In doing this, I will first sketch a few general outlines of 
 the earliest architecture of the ancients ; then show the nature of the 
 varied erections of Ireland, from the dawn of Christianity to the fall of 
 that country, in the twelfth century, which I shall sustain by dates and 
 diagrams ; and then I will trace the Irish missionaries and architects, 
 introducing their circular and pointed architecture into Britain, France, 
 Portugal, Italy, Switzeriand, and Germany. I will name the churches 
 they built and the dales of their erection, point to their style, and trace 
 their origin to Ireland ; and then I will ask the impartial reader for that 
 verdict which I do not fear to hear pronounced. 
 
 If we go back to what may be termed the second creation of man, 
 we shall find that the first act of Noah, after descending from the ark, 
 was to build an altar. Abraham built altars at various times, and so did 
 
486 THE ANCIENT CAVES. 
 
 Jacob. The latter is the first who set up a stone under the circum- 
 stances detailed in the twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis. On awaking 
 from his remarkable dream, he said, " Surely- the Lord is in this place ; " 
 and he took the stone which he had put for his pillow, and set it up for 
 a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it ; and he called the name of the 
 place Bethel; and, dedicating it to the Deity, said, "And this stone 
 which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house." In many other 
 parts of the Old Testament we' find stones or pillars set up as memo- 
 rials of sacred engagements. Joshua said at the covenant of Shechem, 
 " Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us, for it hath heard all the 
 words of the Lord." We find Samuel, and others of the patriarchs 
 of the Old Testament, frequently set up stones as marks of something 
 solemn or sacred ; and it is a remarkable circumstance, coinciding so 
 wonderfully with the religious practices of the very first settlers in 
 Ireland, that large stones were raised in secluded spots, as the centres 
 round which they gathered to worship the Deity, those very stones being 
 called by the Irish Bothal, or house of God, which has the same 
 signification of the Hebrew Bethel. Moses erected twelve upright 
 stones, because of the number of the tribes. The ancient Egyptian 
 " worship stones," or " temples," were rude, unsquared, unchiseled, and 
 of great size. These upright stones were sometimes crossed with 
 others. 
 
 In those ages, men dwelt in caverns. Men first burrowed habitations 
 into hills and rising slopes. These were the primeval houses of the 
 great ; and cool and very comfortable houses they were in warm coun- 
 tries. At this day, the inhabitants of New York, poor and rich, and 
 those of some other American cities, live mostly in the basement story, 
 or cellars, of their houses, being the coolest in summer, and the warmest 
 in winter. 
 
 The generations immediately following Noah inhabited caverns. We 
 find the remains of extensive towns, and almost cities, cut in the Nubian 
 rocks, which run along the valley of the Nile. There are deserted 
 cities still to be seen in the solid rocks in some parts of India*^ The 
 excavations at Salcette, ten miles north of Bombay, must have em-' 
 ployed in the cutting forty thousand men for forty years. 
 
 The massive blocks of stone, cut out of the caverns in the valley of the 
 Nile, were, in the beginning, raised into great, unshapen mounds, which 
 became naturally nienioiials conunemorative of the great work. Under 
 these mounds the chief men were buried ; and succeeding kings, finding 
 
PVRAJttlDS. CAVERNS. ROUND TOWERS. 487 
 
 that the veneration of the people was called up towards these gigantic 
 memorials, began to employ vast numbers of their vassals to erect those 
 conical monuments, under which, at their death, they were to be en- 
 tombed. The first pyramids erected were the smallest. Each succeed- 
 ing Pharaoh excelled his predecessor in the size of his tomb ; and hence 
 the number and greatness of these stupendous monuments of a proud 
 and powerful people. 
 
 The caves and caverns were, therefore, cut out before the pyramids 
 were begun. The caves of Egypt, India, Greece, and Ireland, are 
 nearly of equal age. There are no marks upon the face of Ireland so 
 ancient, and so deservedly venerable, as her numerous caves and exca- 
 vations. They proclaim, better than books, her high antiquity. What 
 a splendid monument of primeval ages is the cavern of New Grange, 
 near Drogheda ! Why it is still called Neiv Grange, I am sure I can- 
 not tell. It is, at the least, three thousand five hundred years old. It 
 might be proved older, but cannot be proved younger. It is of an age 
 with the excavations of India, and was dug before many of the pyra- 
 mids of Egypt were begun. There have been some other caves dis- 
 covered in Ireland of less magnitude than New Grange, but all of 
 nearly the same character, though not of equal extent. How many 
 more of these ancient abodes there may be yet undiscovered in that 
 country, no one can tell. New Grange was discovered by accident, 
 about seventy or eighty years ago. There were many carved pillai*s 
 found at the entrance ; and we find from Kholl, who visited the cave, 
 that paralleled curved lines, clearly Egyptian, are to be seen on the 
 stone altar. It may have been the habitation of a tribe, — at once the 
 fortress, abode, and place of worship, of a hardy band, into which neither 
 cold nor heat, wild beast nor marauder, could enter ; or it may have been 
 the treasury or tomb of some mighty chief, some unsung Agamemnon. 
 A laborious exploit it must have been, for it was arched with massive 
 flat blocks, and ornamented within. How many cities have been built 
 and swept clean from the earth since New Grange was hewed out and 
 fashioned ! 
 
 Of an age with the pyramids were the great temples found in the 
 valley of the Nile, in Persia and India, also the round towers spread 
 through the latter country, so nearly resembling those which are remain- 
 ing in Ireland, and in China. In the latter, round towers are found in 
 every market town. The first of the excavations, and of the rude stone 
 
488 FIRST CITIES. TENTS. 
 
 pillars, are four thousand years old ; the first of the pyramids, about 
 three thousand seven hundred ; the first of the round towers, about three 
 thousand five hundred years. 
 
 The conical hills through Bretagny, Britain, Scotland, and Ireland, 
 are all of one family, were used for the same purpose, and are of a date 
 exceeding three thousand five hundred years old, at least. The first 
 stone pillars erected for religious purposes are of the same age. 
 
 The next stage in building was the circular hut, made of trees, 
 branches, and clay. These were very simply constructed, in the midst 
 of flat plains and forests, by the shepherd class, who lived in the interior 
 of countries. A number of those huts were, for mutual protection, built 
 together, surrounded by circular trenches, and otherwise fortified, with 
 trees, stones, turf, fee, for the defence of cattle against wild beasts, or 
 marauding tribes. 
 
 Those were the first cities. 
 
 Of an age with those were the tents and marquees, covered with the 
 skins of beasts, these being the material not only of their tents, but of 
 their boats, and sometimes of their clothes. Those characteristics apply 
 to the early swarms of men who departed from the shores of the 
 Euphrates and the Nile, east, north, and west, to repeople the earth. 
 As I have shown in another place, those early movers were called 
 Celts, or Celta ; and wheresoever they went, whether into India, China, 
 America, or Europe, they brought with them the same first general 
 notions of every thing, whether of heaven or of earth. 
 
 It is one of the great mystic attributes of the Deity, in reference to 
 man, that, from the beginning, he has permitted him to range about from 
 opinion to opinion, in respect to his own divine power, nature, and will. 
 The first families that succeeded Noah and his children observed the 
 general form of divine worship instituted by him. They assembled 
 around great upright stones, to acknowledge their obedience to God, and 
 reflect on their crimes. 
 
 A few ages only passed, when offshoots from those families scattered 
 into distant lands, and adopted novelties in language, customs, and 
 religion. It appears that they every where worshipped one supreme 
 Spirit, though great diversity of opinion grew up as to the nature of 
 that Spirit, his attributes^ or identity. But all acknowledged there was 
 a Supreme Being, and all worshipped that Being under some name or 
 symbol. 
 
 Hence the universal enthusiasm with which men, in all countries and 
 
FIRST ARCHITECTS. PHffiNICIANS. 489 
 
 ages, devoted life, wealth, power, every thing, to the erection of temples 
 to this Supreme Being. 
 
 This induced study, invention, and improvement, in the art of 
 building, which has grown to a science, and is called architecture. 
 Endeavoring to be brief, I must cut off from the reader's view an 
 extensive Eastern plain, covered with the most varied specimens of 
 temple ruins, built in the course of unnumbered generations, exhibiting 
 the various ideas of man under dissimilar influences. We would doubt 
 the most creditable historian, who should relate to us that men performed 
 such- prodigies of labor as tlie pyramids, caverns, temples, and sphinxes 
 of Egypt ; the magnificent cities of Assyria, with their walls three hun- 
 dred feet high, their hundred brass gates, and their streets fifteen 
 miles long ; the excavations in India, in which thousands upon thou- 
 sands resided ; the great wall of China, forming a road and bounda- 
 ry two thousand miles long, and other wonderful works ; — did not many 
 of the deeds themselves remain above the earth to speak for their 
 architects. 
 
 I would come at once to the architectural labors of that great people, 
 to whom all history, sacred and profane, yields the honor of establish- 
 ing the science of architecture, as followed up and developed by the 
 most civilized of the succeeding nations, — I mean the Phoenicians. 
 Though I have, in my early pages on ancient architecture, proved the 
 preeminence of the Phoenicians in this respect, yet I will here insert a 
 few words extracted from the works of Elmes, who is considered by the 
 most eminent architects of England a good authority. 
 
 " The Phoenicians are generally supposed to be those descendants 
 of Noah who settled on the coast of Palestine, and are the same 
 people who are called, in the Old Testament, the Canaanites, — a word 
 signifying merchants, — and afterwards, by the Greeks, Phanicions. 
 Sidon, their capital, so often spoken of by Homer, was eclipsed by its 
 own colony. Tyre. These primitive people occupied the coast of Asia 
 eastward of Egypt, and extending from Arabia Deserta to the Mediter- 
 ranean Sea. It is but a small territory, but its people have been greatly 
 celebrated as the inventors of navigation, arithmetic, and writing. In- 
 habiting a barren soil, they applied themselves to commerce and the 
 arts, and appear to have been distinguished for their excellence in 
 manufactures and works of taste. Their first advanced posts, in the 
 march of civilization, were the Isles of Cyprus and Rhodes ; from thence 
 successively into Greece, Sicily, Sardinia, and Italy ; afterwards into 
 62 
 
490 
 
 JEWISH TEMPLES. 
 
 Gaul ; and, always advancing, discovered the southern and western 
 coasts of Spain, and onwards into the British isles. 
 
 Of their beautiful city Tyre, the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth 
 chapters of Ezekiel give a grand and a poetical description, describing 
 it as of " perfect beauty in the midst of the sea." 
 
 " Thy borders are in the midst of the seas. Thy builders have per- 
 fected thy beauty. They have made all thy shipboards of fir-trees of 
 Sener. They have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee. 
 Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars. The company of 
 the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory. Fine linen, with 
 broidered work from Egypt, was that which thou spreadest forth to be 
 thy sail. Blue and purple, from the isles of Elishah, was that [the gar- 
 ments] which covered thee. The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad 
 were thy mariners. Thy wise men, O Tyrus, were thy pilots. The 
 ancients of Gebal, and the wise men thereof, were thy calkers. All the 
 ships of the sea, with their mariners, were in thee to occupy thy mer- 
 chandise. Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of 
 all kind of riches. With silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy 
 fairs," &tc. &;c. 
 
 The sacred text continues to describe the merchants of Javan, 
 Tubal, Meshech, Togormach, Deden, Syria, Judah, Damascus, 
 Dan, Arabia, Sheba, Asshur, Chilma, — which are the names of 
 nations or kings, whose merchants traded in the city of Tyre, for 
 horses, mules, oxen, horns, ivory, ebony, emeralds, purples, and em- 
 broidered work, fine linen, coral, agate, minnith, pannag, honey, oil, 
 and balm, wine, white wool, bright iron, cassia, (mirrors,) and cala- 
 mus, precious cloths for chariots, spices, precious stones, and gold, blue 
 cloths, broidered work, chests of rich apparel bound with cords ; all 
 these, with " multitudes of rich wares," were sold in the fairs of Tyre. 
 
 The Phcenicians had several other cities, distinguished for their mag- 
 nificence, wealth, manufactures, and extended commerce : among the 
 principal were Joppa, Damascus, and Baalbec. The Egyptians 
 would allow no other nation than the Phoenicians to trade with them. 
 Hence the knowledge of Egypt was accessible only to the latter, and 
 by them was communicated to their colonies. — Elmes^s Lectures on 
 Architecture, p. 112. 
 
 The Jews, by a residence of four hundred years in Egypt, anterior 
 to the time of Moses, became acquainted with the arts and sciences 
 then known in that country. After their deliverance, they led a wan- 
 
CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. 491 
 
 dering life for forty years. They dedicated a temple to God, after the 
 manner of the Egyptians, who worshipped visionary deities. Being 
 necessary to carry it with them through the wilderness, they constructed 
 it in tiie form of a spacious tent ; this was called " the tabernacle ; " it was 
 one hundred and fifty cubits long by fifty wide, five cubits high, formed of 
 wooden columns, with brass bases, and silver capitals, having curtains 
 of tapestry suspended between them. These columns were sixty in num- 
 ber, twenty on each side, and ten on each end, which faced the east and 
 west. The Jews used this temple for a length of time after the conquest 
 of Palestine; but, under the reign of Solomon, constructed a permanent 
 temple at Jerusalem, which, together with several palaces for King Da- 
 vid and King Solomon, were built by Tyrian artists and workmen. 
 
 The architectural structures of the Chinese are very ancient, and have 
 been, according to Sir William Chambers, modeled after tents and pavil- 
 ions. From this arises its essential character — lightness; and its de- 
 fect — weakness. The materials are wood, brick, and tiles; the latter 
 are dried in the sun or burnt. They are regulated in their buildings by 
 very strict municipal laws, which prescribe, with the greatest accuracy, 
 even to feet and inches, how the Lon, or palace of the prince, of the 
 first, second, or third order, of the imperial family, should be built ; then, 
 of a grandee of the empire ; and lastly, of a mandarin. .They also 
 regulate the size, proportion, and style, of the buildings of second, third, 
 or fourth rate cities and towns, through the empire. These laws are 
 very ancient. The gradations in their buildings, lengths of the terraces, 
 heights of the roofs, are marked distinctly ; from the simple citizen to 
 the man of letters, from the man of letters to the mandarin, from him to 
 the prince, from the prince to the emperor. The common houses are 
 mere huts of a single floor. The fronts of their houses, next the street, 
 have no windows, and they hang a mat before their doors to prevent 
 passers-by looking in. Their palaces are grand though somewhat fantas- 
 tical. They have lofty lowers, in the market towns, all through China, 
 which are not unlike the round towers of Ireland. They are used 
 for astronomical and atmospherical observations, or as sepulchral tombs, 
 and are isolated, round, square, hexagonal, or octagonal, and built 
 with several materials. They place "umbrellas" on their towers, which 
 are in some degree related to the apex of the round tower of Ireland. 
 They have also triumphal arches erected- to innumerable distinguished 
 men, and some women. Their canals exceed in extent any thing con- 
 ceived by Europeans, and their great wall of two thousand miles' length, 
 with its forty thousand towers, defies all imitation. 
 
492 ' ETRUSCAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Etruria, (the present Italy,) lying on the north side of the Mediter- 
 ranean Sea, a few days' sail from Tyre, was, as I have before shown, 
 the most considerable of the Phoenician colonies. Its cities were built 
 upon the same plans, its architects constructed on the same principles ; 
 its merchants were as rich, and its artists were as celebrated, as those 
 of Tyre, Sidon, or Damascus. Of the former cities not a vestige 
 remains : the chief memorial of their opulence and celebrity is to be 
 found in holy writ. The remains of Etruria fill the tombs and caverns 
 of ancient Italy, and establish the science, art, and opulence, of its 
 Phoenician inhabitants. 
 
 The Etrurians, and, I presume, the Phoenicians, were the only nations 
 amongst the ancients who understood the principles of architecture, 
 according to our ideas of the science. The stone pyramids of Egypt 
 are built without cement ; the huge stones fitted together so closely 
 that a knife could not be thrust between them. The brick-built pyra 
 mids are not so old as those erected of uncemented stones ; and, in the 
 temple of Belus, built of brick, by the Assyrians, we are informed that 
 they used a sort of vegetable tar ; from which we may conclude, they 
 were then ignorant of the means of converting stones and earth into 
 lime — a most important discovery, and, like most others_, made by 
 accident. • 
 
 The finar and arch were used, in their erections, by the Etruscans, 
 and they have left behind an order or style of architecture which is 
 called Doric, and sometimes Tuscan. There has been a long contro- 
 versy between antiquarians, about the true fathers of the arch. One 
 class contends that the Egyptians, and another, that the Etruscans 
 originated it. It is maintained, by Elmes. that the Egyptians, in their 
 early career, were ignorant of the principle of the arch, or they certain- 
 ly would not have transported the roof of the temple of Latona, at Butis, 
 from the Island of Philoe, a distance of nearly six hundred miles. It 
 was the most enormous block of stone ever moved by human power. 
 It contained above one hundred and forty-four thousand cubic feet, and 
 weighed above twenty millions of pounds — eight thousand seven hun- 
 dred tons. 
 
 The Etruscans have left specimens of very ancient methods of con- 
 struction. To them has been attributed the invention of building with 
 small pieces of stone joined together by calcareous cements, because in 
 their country are found the earliest examples of this method of con- 
 struction. — Elmes's Lectures, p. 281. — The ruins of Etruria, its arched 
 
PRINCIPLE OF GRECIAN ARCITECTURE. 
 
 493 
 
 shores and gateways, composed of cemented stones, and far more 
 ancient than those of Rome, (which rose upon its fall,) leave no doubt 
 whatever that its inhabitants were acquainted with the principles and 
 use of the arch. The largest entrance into the Vola Terra is a mag- 
 nificent arch, called the Gate of Hercules, built by the Etrurians. 
 They built several theatres, where the supposed actions of their deities 
 in heaven were represented : the entertainment formed part of their 
 religious worship. The capitol at Rome, the temple of Jupiter, and 
 many other public buildings in that city, were built by the Etrurian 
 architects. 
 
 From Etruria, as I have already incontestably proved, in my early 
 pages. No. 132 to 146, marched forth science to the east and to the 
 west. Its journey to Ireland, through the medium of Etrurian com- 
 merce, has also been proved, and its approach to the Isles of Hellas, 
 (Greece,) though later, is as distinctly observable. 
 
 And this brings us to the development of the two great principles on 
 ^\hich the various styles and orders of architecture have been raised. 
 These two principles in architecture are called the arched and the 
 columnar. Greece seems to have cultivated the columnar, and Ireland 
 the arched style. In these opposite decisions the inhabitants were 
 influenced by their respective climates. In Greece, and in the East 
 generally, they have, or had, no rain. Their vegetation was nourished 
 by dewy exhalations from the earth ; therefore their flat roofs and their 
 square style of architecture, as we may symbol in the following out- 
 line — two upright pillars and a cross-beam : 
 
 The architecture of Ireland was fashioned by the influence of the 
 Climate, — which is generally rainy. It will be found, by the ancient 
 
494 
 
 PRINCIPLE OF IRISH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 ruins, to have been raised according to the principle symboled in the 
 following outline — two upright pillars and a pointed arch : 
 
 Keeping distinctly these two fundamental principles continually in 
 view, we shall be able to trace the two great styles of architecture, 
 Grecian and Irish, through the labyrinth of styles, orders, and innu- 
 merable technicalities, with which science and caprice have invested 
 them. The elegant superstructures called Grecian are raised in square 
 or angular pieces, with vertical columns, and horizontal beams. Arched 
 architecture is the opposite of this. It is raised by a series of arches, 
 starting from columns, or clusters of columns, which sometimes Ave again 
 intersected by other arches, in a transverse direction, forming beautiful 
 groins, or quarter arches, admitting the most romantic and endlessly 
 various embellishments. " Both styles," says Hazlitt, " are founded in 
 the indestructible principles of human nature." 
 
 The Greeks improved the style which they adopted. They divided 
 their improvements into stages, which they called after the persons by 
 whom, or the cities in which, the improvements were made. The first 
 was simple and unadorned, called the Doric : its column is fluted along 
 the shaft, and terminates at the top by a capital, called a tile. The 
 second was called Ionic, the column of which was generally fluted, 
 taller, and more slender ; the shaft placed upon a pedestal, and topped 
 by a capital, with volutes as ornaments, in the form of the crooked 
 horns of the ram. 
 
GREEK ORDERS. ROMAN ARCHITECTURE. 495 
 
 The CorinOiian was the third or last order of the Greeks, and did not 
 appear until long after the other two had been in use. Its character- 
 istics are richness, in all its carvings, flutings, and ornaments. The 
 capital of the column is fashioned after a flower-basket, set on a tomb, 
 surrounded by foliage. These orders are distinguishable from each 
 other by the fashion of the column, with which all the accessories and 
 appurtenances of the building must correspond. 
 
 The Greeks, like their masters, the Phoenicians, first used wood in 
 their erections, then brick, stone, and lastly, marble. Occasionally, 
 bronze pillars are found in their ruins. They never allowed more than 
 three orders. The Romans admitted five. Nature, says Elmes, dictates 
 but three, viz., robust, chaste, elegant. These the Greeks had imbodied 
 in the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The Romans would have one 
 more elegant than the elegant, and one more robust than the robust, — 
 hence their Tuscan and Composite, — without any fixed law, depending 
 merely upon taste or caprice. 
 
 The Greeks had splendid public temples, but miserable private 
 dwellings. Statues and pictures filled their galleries ; but they had 
 no public bridges — not even over the stream which coursed through 
 the far-famed Athens, through which the citizens were obliged to 
 wade. 
 
 The Romans compounded an order from the vertical and horizontal 
 style of the Greeks, and the arched style of the Etruscans. They 
 jumbled both together with much tawdry ornament. " The architec- 
 ture of Rome," says Elmes, " possesses, in its various superabiandant 
 ramifications, heaps of affectations and conceits, solely arising from the 
 error of employing the orders, columns, pediments, and cornices, merely 
 as ornaments, whereas the Greeks used them as principal and necessary 
 parts. Their architecture gave to posterity the swollen composite; 
 their sculpture, the exaggerated style of the gladiator." For the first 
 six or seven hundred years of^ the Roman republic, they built their 
 private dwellings, their great temples, and theatres, of wood. Those 
 that remain, in stone, and marble, and brick, in such colossal ruins, 
 were built from about fifty years before Christ to one hundred and 
 fifty years after. When the Romans had reduced the Greeks com- 
 pletely under their rule, and earned home their learned men as captives, 
 whom they compelled to instruct their youth, — then commenced the 
 rise of what is called Roman architecture, massive, grand, irregular, 
 extravagantly ornamented. The private dwellings of both Greek and 
 Roman citizens were, however, miserable huts, of only one floor. The 
 
496 THE GOTHS. 
 
 pure Greek architecture, from the same period, declined, and never after- 
 wards revived. Such as were afterwards erected in Greece, were of the 
 compound Roman character. 
 
 The celebrated Roman writer Vitruvius has left behind a work on 
 Roman architecture, in which he endeavors to establish a series of 
 canons and a grammar. As it was the first work which specially 
 treated of architecture as a science, it was considered, for a long 
 time, a safe guide in erecting works of strength and grandeur; but 
 other men have long since entered the field of architectural debate, 
 and have analyzed the axioms of Vitruvius, condemned the most of 
 them by the test of science and time, and returned back on the Greek 
 school for the laws and models of columnar architecture. It must be 
 confessed that no nation can vie with Greece in the construction of 
 that class of erections denominated the elegant public buildings of 
 a city ; viz., theatres, palaces, senate-houses, and the like. Courts of 
 justice, jails, and other grave works, have been built in the massive or 
 Doric order ; while the true order for churches, and all buildings devoted 
 to religion, is the Irish, alone, characterized by the circular or pointed 
 arch, with pillars and buttresses, tapering upwards, with pyramidal or 
 spire-like terminations. This style had been called Gothic for the 
 first time in the sixteenth century, and by that style has been distin- 
 guished, though most improperly, to the present time. Although the 
 Greeks were admitted as elegant in their style of architecture, yet 
 Hoskings has the following remarks in reference to them : " Ignorance 
 of the use of the arch, inferior carpentry, the absence of glass, and the 
 ignorance of the use of chimneys, were disadvantages which the Greeks 
 labored under, in the construction of their houses, that no degree of taste 
 and elegance could completely countervail. 
 
 " Architecture," says Hoskings, page 16, " was already extinct among 
 the Romans, when the seat of empire was transferred to Constantinople, 
 by Constanline, about three hundred and seventy yeare after the birth of 
 Christ. The change of religion, which then took place, led to the destruc- 
 tion of many of the noblest structures of Rome. The materials of her 
 decaying temples were converted into the new churches ; and these wGire 
 built without any order or architectural principle vvhatever." The first 
 Christian church erected by Justin, at Byzantium, [Constantinople,] 
 called San Sophia, was built partly of columns brought from Rome, and 
 in a compound style, in which no distinct order was prominent. This 
 model, in compliment to the emperor, was that which nearly all the 
 Christians around the seat of power followed in their erections ; and 
 
THE ARCHITECTURE OF IRELAND. 497 
 
 those in Rome, Greece, Italy, and other places, where the new religion 
 took root, followed, as near as they could, the same example. 
 
 Now, about this style all writers are agreed — all architects, all noen 
 of science and taste, — that it was utterly and absolutely absurd, un- 
 architectural, barbarous. 
 
 During the Gothic irruptions over all Europe, in the two hundred 
 years from the beginning of the fifth to the close of the sixth century, 
 all science, art, and literature, were trampled under foot. The Latin 
 language, as I have before remarked, was absolutely lost. Egypt had 
 long previously become a vast ruin. Greece was, for centuries, reduced 
 to bondage ; and now, the mighty Rome herself, the mistress so long 
 of all the world but Ireland, was, in turn, reduced to a shapeless ruin ; 
 her temples tumbled, her palaces inhabited by cattle, her theatres 
 tenantless, and desolation weeping over the fanes of her greatness. 
 
 During this period of chaos and ignorance, all idea of architec- 
 tural construction had vanished from the continent of Europe. We 
 shall see in the case of architecture, as in those of literature and music, 
 that in Ireland alone was its principle purely cultivated, so far, at 
 least, as the arched style. 
 
 " To Ireland," in the eloquent language of Professor Gorres, the Ger- 
 man philosopher, — " To Ireland the affrighted spirit of truth had flown 
 during the Gothic irruptions in Europe ; and there made its abode in 
 safety until Europe returned to repose, when those hospitable philoso- 
 phers, who had given it an asylum, were called by Europe to restore 
 its effulgent light over her bedarkened forests." 
 
 I have already made the reader aware that Ireland kept pace, in 
 knowledge, with her kindred race on the shores of the Mediterranean, 
 until about the time of Julius Caesar, fifty years before Christ. Caesar's 
 wars in Gaul and Britain, and the occupation of those countries, broke 
 up, for four centuries, all communication between Ireland and the con- 
 tinent of Europe. 
 
 Ireland improved her architecture during all this time. The progress 
 of art is like that of the scarce-noticed fountain which silently glides 
 along an humble watercourse. By degrees it becomes a rivulet, and 
 increases to a brook. Capable now of utility, it rises into consequence, 
 spreads on like a swelling river, and rolls majestically to the ocean, 
 giving power to machinery, and employment, utility, and blessings to 
 the people. 
 
 It was thus the arched architecture of Ireland stole onwards to im- 
 portance ; it was thus, as we shall see, that the arched principle was 
 63 
 
498 
 
 ARCHED STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 conducted into Europe by those indefatigable Irish missionaries, who 
 spread literature and Christianity over the western part of that continent, 
 in the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries. 
 
 I respectfully and earnestly solicit the patient attention of the reader 
 to the proofs which I shall now lay before him in support of this 
 proposition. 
 
 I am fully aware of the danger of entering on this profound question, 
 and feel my incapability, wanting as I do that knowledge of the science, 
 and of many of the technicalities which belong to it. There are 
 general principles, however, which belong to nature, and are governed 
 by its laws alone, with which I feel myself competent to deal ; and 
 there are, besides, historical facts on my side, which cannot be perverted 
 or converted to the purposes of delusion in this enlightened age. 
 
 The English and Scotch writers, who have entered on this question, 
 have claimed the merit of arched architecture for England or for Scot- 
 land, according as their partialities impelled them ; others have given 
 the honor to the Eastern nations, and some to the black Moors who 
 overran Spain in the eighth century. To any and to every nation was 
 the honor offered, but to the right owner, down-trodden Ireland ; for, 
 during the last seven hundred years, 
 
 "It was poverty to honor, 
 Treason to love, 
 And death to defend her." 
 
 The ages of the caverns had passed away, the ages of the round 
 towers, and square, vaulted castles, succeeded. See the engravings 
 at pages 133 and 143. These latter gave place to the arched and 
 gable-roofed buildings, which have prevailed in Ireland for better 
 than two thousand years. It is historically true that the ancient 
 Irish built their private and many of their public structures of oak, 
 wattle, and clay, like the ancient Greeks and Romans. The round 
 towers, and square, vaulted castles, that yet remain, cannot be less 
 than two thousand five hundred to three thousand years old. There 
 are comparatively few of those remaining. Very many of them 
 have been swept from the earth by time, like the cities of Tyre, 
 Babylon, Nineveh, Carthage, and others of coeval ages. The 
 Druidical temples of Ireland were generally built in a masculine Doric 
 style, to insure durability. The fragments of broken cornices and 
 architraves, as well as the sculptured figures that enriched the friezes 
 of those edifices, which are still to be seen in Ireland, afford an indu- 
 
FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCHES OF IRELAND. 4S9 
 
 bitable proof of the perfection to which the pagan Irish carried the 
 arts of sculpture and architecture. The palaces of Tara and Emania 
 were immense piles, whose vaulted domes rested, to use the language of 
 Dr. Harris, "on a forest of marble columns." These have perished 
 beneath the hand of time, and also beneath the withering curse of the 
 church. We are told that, in the sixth century, a chief of note com- 
 mitted murder on his antagonist in the national assembly of Tara, and 
 fled, according to the custom of the time, for sanctuary, to a neighbor- 
 ing monastery. The king's guards pursued him thither, dragged him 
 forth in defiance of the usage, and warning voice of the holy directors 
 of the abbey, and carried him back to Tara, where he was punished 
 with death. 
 
 The bishop and monks of this abbey then came in procession before 
 the walls of Tara, and pronounced against it a curse ; and from that 
 day its opulence and authority ceased. No man ventured within its 
 precincts. Its arched roofs and thickly-columned walls fell to decay by 
 degrees, and, in the course of a few ages, the spot where it reared its 
 ornamented head can alone be seen. The feo, or parliament, met in a 
 place near to it, and the bards filled their songs with mournings for 
 its fall. 
 
 Before Christianity was introduced into the island, the Druids were the 
 architects. They built their places of worship of stone and cement, 
 and in the very form of that gahle represented by the oudine, page 
 494. Usher tells us, and Father Colgan before him, that there 
 were eleven hundred stone churches in Ireland in St. PatricJc^s time. 
 These were all built on the round arch or pointed arch principle ; and 
 the church writers affirm that the Christian apostle converted, in all 
 cases, the Druid temples into churches. Are we to doubt Primate 
 Usher, who, as an antiquarian, stands coequal with Newton and Sir 
 William Jones ? There are a few, a very few, of the ruins of these 
 primitive churches yet to be seen in Ireland. 
 
 The antiquarian is referred to the Island of Iniscathy, near the mouth 
 of the River Shannon — described in the Boole of Ballimote, as "the 
 wonder of Ireland" — for material to ponder on. St. Senanus, in 
 490, built no fewer than eleven small churches of stone and cement on 
 this celebrated spot, which, for countless generations before his time, 
 had been the scene of Druid rites and worship ; for here is also found, 
 looking down upon those Christian ruins, one of the largest and most 
 remarkable of the pagan round towers, which was built, at least, fifteen 
 hundred years before the time of St. Senanus. It measures one hun- 
 
500 ANCIENT SPECIMENS. IRISH ANTK^UITIES NEGLECTED. 
 
 dred and twenty feet liigh, and springs from a base twenty-two feet in cir- 
 cumference. Although scathed and rent by lightning, the original roof 
 remains in the form of a conical cap, or barred, which, Walker says, 
 the national architects and sculptors of Ireland regarded as a dress 
 becoming even to angels. 
 
 The word church, thirteen hundred years ago, had a very different 
 meaning from the import of the word at present. It was, then, a 
 mere cell, hermitage, or sanctuary. Although, as it is recorded, eleven 
 churches were built upon the island by St. Senanus, the remains of 
 seven, only, are now to be traced. The chief or cathedral church 
 called St. Mary's, and one other, are in pointed style, but 
 possess no other attraction. The "seven churches," built by St. 
 Kevin, in the county of Wicklow, on the gloomy rock of Gknda- 
 lough — whose very name calls up an echo of the grandest antiquarian 
 associations — about the same time, (the fifth century,) the ruins of 
 which yet remain, are similar evidences in favor of the great proposi- 
 tion. 
 
 These ruins are the oldest remaining in Europe of the pointed style. 
 There is no doubt whatever about their date or history. They are the 
 indexes to the bed of that ancient current of architecture, which 
 flowed on from century to century, expanding in dimensions, beauty, 
 and magnificence. 
 
 I will quote an entire article on this topic from the London Athe- 
 neeum of June, 1844. 
 
 " It is much to be regretted that the society, lately established in 
 Eno-land, having for its object the preservation of British antiquities, 
 did not extend its design over those of the sister island, which are 
 daily becoming fewer and fewer in number. That the gold ornaments, 
 which are so frequently found in various parts of Ireland, should be 
 melted down for the sake of the very pure gold of which they are 
 composed, is scarcely surprising ; but that carved stones, and even 
 immense Druidical remains, should be destroyed, is, indeed, greatly to be 
 lamented. At one of the late meetings of the Royal Irish Academy, 
 a communication was made of the intention of the proprietor of the 
 estate at New Grange to destroy that most gigantic relic of Druidical 
 times, which has justly been termed the Irish pyramid, merely because 
 its vast size ' cumbereih the ground.' At Mellifont, a modern corn-mill 
 of large size has been built out of the stones of the beautiful monastic 
 buildings, some of which still adorn that charming spot. At Monaster- 
 boice, the churchyard of which contains one of the finest of the round 
 
IRISH ANTIQUITIES NEGLECTED. 501 
 
 towers, are the ruins of two of the little ancient stone Irish churches, 
 and three most elaborately carved stone crosses, eighteen or twenty feet 
 high. The churchyard itself is overrun with weeds, the sanctity of the 
 place being its only safeguard. At Clonmacnoise, where, some forty 
 years ago, several hundred inscriptions in the ancient Irish character 
 were to be seen upon the gravestones, scarcely a dozen (and they the 
 least interesting) are now to be found ; the large, flat stones, on which 
 they were carved, forming excellent slabs for doorways, the copings of 
 walls, &;c. ! It was the discovery of some of these carved stones in 
 such a situation which had the effect of directing the attention of Mr. 
 Petre (then an artist in search of the picturesque, but now one of the most 
 enlightened and conscientious of the Irish antiquaries) to the study of 
 antiquities ; and it is upon the careful series of drawings made by him 
 that future antiquarians must rely for very much of ancient architectural 
 detail now destroyed. As to Glendalough, it is so much a holiday 
 place for the Dubliners, that it is no wonder every thing portable has 
 disappeared. Two or three of the seven churches are levelled to the 
 ground ; all the characteristic carvings described by Ledwich, and 
 which were ' quite unique in Ireland,'' are gone. Some were removed 
 and used as key-stones for the arches of Derrybawn bridge. Part of 
 the churchyard has been cleared of its gravestones, and forms a 
 famous place, where the villagers play at ball against the old walls of 
 the church. The little church, called 'St. Kevin's Kitchen,' is given 
 up to the sheep. The abbey church is choked up with trees and 
 brambles, and, being a little out of the way, a very few of the carved 
 stones still remain there, two of the most interesting of which I found 
 used as coping-stones to the wall which sun'ounds it. The connection 
 between the ancient churches of Ireland and the north of England 
 renders the preservation of the Irish antiquities especially interesting to 
 the English antiquarian ; and it is with the hope of drawing attention 
 to the destruction of those ancient Irish monuments that I have written 
 these few lines. The Irish themselves are, unfortunately, so engrossed 
 with political and religious controversies, that it can scarcely be hoped 
 that, single-handed, they will be roused to the rescue even of these evi- 
 dences of their former national greatness. Besides, a great obstacle 
 exists against any interference with the religious antiquities of the 
 country, from the strong feelings entertained by the people on the 
 subject, although practically, as we have seen, of so little weight. 
 Let us hope that the public attention directed to these objects will have 
 a beneficial result, and insure a greater share of 'justice to Ireland;' 
 
502 ANCIENT SPECIMENS OF THE POINTED ARCH. 
 
 lor will it be believed that the only establishment in Ireland for the 
 propagation and dilFusion of scientific and antiquarian knowledge — the 
 Royal Irish Academy — receives annually the munificent sum of three 
 hundred pounds from the government ! And yet, notwithstanding this 
 miserable pittance, the members of that society have made a step in the 
 right direction, by the purchase of the late dean of St. Patrick's Irish 
 Archaeological Collection, of which a fine series of drawings is now 
 being made at the expense of the academy, and of which they would, 
 doubtless, allow copies to be made, so as to obtain a return of a portion 
 of the expense to which they are now subjected. Small, moreover, as 
 this collection is, it forms a striking contrast with our own National 
 Museutn, which, rich in foreign antiquities, is almost without a single 
 object of native archa3ological interest, if we except the series of Eng- 
 lish and Anglo-Saxon coins and manuscripts." 
 
 St. Brendan erected a superb abbey in Ardferd, in the sixth century. 
 It was partially destroyed by fire in 1080, and rebuilt, together with 
 a cathedral, on the arched principle. In the mouldering choir of 
 the cathedral, is to be found an alto relievo, exquisitely sculp- 
 tured. 
 
 The great abbey and cathedral of Clanmacnoise, in the King's 
 county, were built in 549. It is a magnificent ruin, attesting great 
 knowledge in the design and construction. From two thousand to three 
 thousand students were, for many ages, accommodated within its 
 capacious walls. " The gray pinnacles," says Pepper, " and time- 
 tinged turrets of these vast ruins, look out upon the majestic Shannon 
 in awful sublimity." In Roscarbery, in the south of Ireland, are ruins 
 of the sixth century, and near the spot are several great caves, divided 
 into chambers, discovered in 1791. 
 
 The round tower of Roscrea, built in the early Druid ages, is eighty 
 feet high, and fifteen feet in diameter, with two steps round it at the 
 bottom. At fifteen feet from the ground is a window with a regular 
 ARCH, and at an equal height is another window with a pointed arch. 
 The ruins of the old church, built near it by St. Cronan in the sixth 
 century, are all in the old pointed or gable style. 
 
 Eraly, now a poor village, was the spot on which St. Alhc erected 
 his first cathedral, or bishop's church, in 501. It is fourteen miles west 
 of Cashell, in the south of Ireland. In the close of the sixth century, 
 a university was built here, which, until the city was plundered and 
 burnt by the Danes, in the ninth century, afforded accommodation, as 
 recorded by Colgan, for fifteen hundred students at a time. "Here," 
 
SPLENDIB RUINS. 503 
 
 says Pepper, " is still to be seen a wilderness of architectural ruins 
 worthy the pen of a Byron or the pencil of a Rosa." 
 
 " The ancient Damliag, or House of Stone,^' says Moore, " erected 
 by St. Kienan as early as the fifth century, some of the ruins of 
 Glendalough, and parts of the small church of St. Donlach, near 
 Dublin, present features of remote antiquity, and prove them to be of a 
 much earlier date than the chapel of Cormac, at Cashell, (anno 880 ;) 
 this latter structure being clearly a specimen of the more ornate stage 
 of that old circular style of architecture, which, in the church of St. 
 Donlach, is seen in its ruder and yet undecorated form. It may be 
 remarked, as peculiar to these ancient Irish churches, that their roofs 
 are of stone bound by cement, and that the ciypts, instead of being 
 subterranean, as in some of the ancient British churches, are situated 
 aloft between the ceiling and the angular roo/" of stone." 
 
 The splendid cathedral, erected by St. Patrick, in Armagh, in the 
 fifth century, as the chief church of Ireland, has been so often battered 
 by invaders, and so often repaired by the native Irish in the fashion of 
 the age in which the new alterations took place, that we cannot make 
 any use of it as evidence. We are told by the church annalists, A. D. 
 838, that it was originally built of stone and cement in the cruciform 
 shape, with many pillars and arches, having a square tower fifty feet high. 
 Being the chief seat of power for many ages, it has suffered more alterations 
 than almost any other edifice in Ireland. It was repaired about sixty or 
 seventy years ago by the then Protestant primate Lord Rokeby, who not 
 only restored the cathedral, but erected a splendid portico, in the old arch 
 style, in conformity with the genius and style of the old building. To him 
 Armagh is indebted for its reassuming the appearance of a city, which it 
 may now be denominated — the most beautiful inland city of Ireland. 
 
 The magnificent abbey of St. Francis, near Sligo, erected in the seventh 
 century, in that peculiar style of arch, and spirally carved column, which 
 prevailed in Ireland in that age, yet remains, in its colossal ruins, the ad- 
 miration of all travellers.* There are forty arches of stone raised on 
 massive, but well-carved columns, yet remaining, that support the long, 
 arched roof of stone, which is in very good preservation. 
 
 But I feel myself going too far into this question, and must stop 
 abruptly ; for, indeed, there is much more to be said in support of my 
 proposition, than I have said, or can find room to say in these pages. 
 I will at once allow one of the most eminent of modern English 
 architects (Mr. Elmes) to give his opinion on the point. Mr. 
 
 * The erection of this vast building is by some erroneously attributed to Maurice 
 Fitzgerald, lord justice of Ireland, A. D. 1252. 
 
504 OPINIONS OF ENGLISH ARCHITECTS. 
 
 Elmes, as he says in the preface to his book, had prepared a course of 
 lectures on ancient and modern architecture. Having spent many 
 years of his hfe in the study of the art abroad and at home ; having 
 been enlightened by a high classical education ; and feeling competent 
 to come before the learned of England, to criticise the various styles 
 and orders of the present and the past of their own nation, besides the 
 prevailing and exploded styles of the polite nations of Europe, — he was 
 well able to present the question, in all its bearings, to his countrymen. 
 
 He did so. He delivered two or three courses of these lectures^ in 
 London, in 1819. But he never had been in Ireland ; had looked but 
 slightly, if at all, into her history ; nor can we blame him for this. The 
 genius of every British government, that ruled for the last seven hun- 
 dred years, has excluded Ireland from the study of youth, has tended 
 to decry her old institutions, to deny her former fame, and to destroy 
 every vestige of her history. " It was, till the time of James the 
 First," says Mr. Webb, " an object of government to discover and 
 destroy every literary remain of the Irish, in order the more fully to 
 eradicate from their minds every trace of their ancient independence." 
 
 Mr. ElmeSj like most young Englishmen, was taught, from the nursery 
 to the village school, from the university to the parliament, to despise 
 Ireland and the Hirish. He prepared his lectures on architecture, 
 therefore, without as much as thinking of that country. But his curi- 
 osity led him at last to Ireland. He saw and examined for him- 
 self, and confesses, honestly, that, after his visit to that country, he saw 
 
 REASON TO ALTER A GREAT PART OF HIS BOOK. 
 
 But we will hear himself: — 
 
 " The following lectures were originally written for, and dehvered at, 
 the Surrey Institution, in the winter of 1819. They were, secondly, 
 with muck alteration, and, with many additions made, after a tour 
 
 THROUGH PARTS OF IRELAND, INTERESTING FOR ARCHITECTURAL AN- 
 TIQUITIES, delivered at the Russell Institution, in the winter of 1820. 
 — Preface to Elmes's Lectures on Architecture. 
 
 " From tours," he says, " which I have recently made through some 
 of the most interesting parts of Ireland for architectural antiquities, and 
 from considerable investigation into its history, I conceive that country 
 to have been peopled originally and directly from the East ; the 
 ancient architecture, the ancient religion and language of Ireland, and 
 those of the inhabitants of Hindustan and other Oriental countries, 
 coinciding in a wonderful manner. 
 
 "The pyramids of Egypt have narrow passages beneath. At 
 Benares, in India, there are also long caves under the ground ; and that at 
 
OPINIONS OF ENGLISH ARCHITECTS. 505 
 
 New Grange, near Drogheda, in Ireland, is of the same character. I 
 doubt not but that this interesting work is of as great antiquity as any in 
 Europe, and was a burying-place for the ancient Irish. No one ac- 
 quainted with the subject could avoid being struck with the likeness 
 between one of the round towers of Ireland, at Kilkenny, measured 
 by myself, and one of the ancient towers or pillars of India, near 
 Allahabad. 
 
 "The first letter of the Irish alphabet is called ailirti; that of the 
 Hebrew, aleph ; — the second, b, beith ; Hebrew, beth ; — m in Irish is 
 muin ; in Hebrew, mem ; — n in Irish is nuin ; in the latter, nun ; — r is 
 ruis in Irish ; in Hebrew, eus ; — boodh also is Irish ; and boodh, or 
 hoodha, in Sanscrit, means the same unhewn upright stone of worship ; — 
 heth signifies, in Irish and Hebrew, a house ; coph, a curve; daleth in 
 Hebrew, and durres in Irish, a door. 
 
 "Mr. Lynch, the secretary to the Gaelic Society of Dublin, says, in 
 his Grammar, that the names of the Irish letters are very ancient, and 
 seem to have been derived from the language spoken by Noah, from 
 which they were adopted by the Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Canaanites, 
 or Phoenicians, and by these introduced into Greece and the south-west 
 of Europe. This is also the opinion of Eupolemus, Eusebius, St. 
 Jerome, St. Augustine, and Bellarmine, with most of our modern 
 philosophers." 
 
 Mr. Elmes, after devoting some of his pages to the round towers and 
 cromleaghs, and giving his conjectures, all of which must merge in Sir 
 William Betham's profound and scientific examination, to which I have 
 devoted some early pages, proceeds — "The architectural antiquities of 
 Ireland present a fine unexplored field, to which, I trust, I may have 
 leisure to turn more of my attention. There are ruins of between 
 thirty and forty abbeys of splendid architecture. Those of Jer- 
 
 POINT, AND OF THE BlACK AbbEY IN THE COUNTY OF KlLKENNY, 
 ARE FINER THAN ANY I EVER WITNESSED IN EnGLAND, NOT EVEN 
 EXCEPTING THE FAR-FAMED NeTLEY AbBEY IN HAMPSHIRE. 
 
 "Then there are their mounts, their cairns, and their caves, their round 
 towers, their ancient cathedrals, and the modern Baalbec — the de- 
 serted city of Kilmalloch, in the county of Limerick : likewise the 
 remains of the seven churches at Glendaloch, in the county of Wick- 
 low, and the bed of St. Kelvin, immortalized by the muse of the Irish 
 melodist, together with their cromleaghs, which rival any in England. 
 
 "A very singular specimen of ancient Irish architecture, which is cer- 
 tainly ONE OF THE MOST CURIOUS FABRICS IN THESE KINGDOMS, mUSt 
 
 64 
 
506 CORMAC'S CHAPEL. WILLIs's OPINION. 
 
 be noticed — the stone-roofed chapel ol the ancient King Connac, at 
 Cashell, who was, after the patriarchal mode, both king and bishop, and 
 flourished about the year 900. It is a regular ecclesiastical edifice, 
 divided into a nave and choir, the latter narrowing its breadth, and 
 separated from the nave by a wide arch. Under the altar tradition 
 rejwrts the remains of St. Connac to be deposited. There is a strikmg 
 7-cscmblancc between this chapel and the church of St. Fcter, at Oxford, 
 ivith Grimbauld's crypts beneath ity — Elmes's Lectures. — JNow we 
 know St. Peter's, at Oxford, was not built until the restoration of King 
 Alfred, nearly a century after the erection of Cormac's Chapel. To 
 this magnificent testimony 1 will add that of another Englishman of 
 literary fame. Sir R. C. Hoare. 
 
 " The stone chapel of Cormac, at Cashell, is nowhere to be sur- 
 passed, and is itself a host, in point of remote and singular antiquity ; 
 and though her monastic architecture may fall short, both in design and 
 execution, to those of the sister kingdoms, [the author meant, of course, 
 the grand structures of England, built in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries,] yet Ireland, in her stone-roofed chapels, round towers, and 
 rich stone crosses, may justly boast of singularities unknown to either of 
 them. Of the two crosses at Monasterboyce, they are by far the finest 
 examples, and the richest, in their sculpture, of any I have ever seen." — 
 Tour in Ireland. 
 
 As this book is chiefly written with a view of making American citi- 
 zens acquainted with Ireland, I shall now adduce the testimony of their 
 own talented Willis : " The prominent association with the name of 
 Ireland, to one who does not draw his ideas of the country from the 
 English newspapers, is that of a prolific mother of orators, warriors, 
 patriots, and poets. Out of sight of the froth that is thrown up from the 
 angry caldron of political strife, and out of hearing of the bitter con- 
 tentions of party spirit, the inhabitant of another country looks upon the 
 small space occupied by Ireland, on the map of the world, with feelings 
 of mingled wonder and admiration. The veil that obscures her past 
 glory is withdrawn ; the cloud that lowers over her social horizon melts 
 away ; and the distant observer, opening the volume of her mournful 
 history, counts the long roll of her illustrious names, and reads in those 
 pages of shame and sorrow — blotted by the best blood of her children 
 — the true character of an enthusiastic people. An undying love of 
 liberty, and an untamed and restless genius, make them turbulent, excita- 
 ble, and vindictive, under real or imaginary wrongs ; while the natural 
 warmth and kindness of their disposition make us willing to forget the 
 
CORMAC'S CHAPEL. 507 
 
 faults which, under more favorable ch"cu instances, would never have had 
 existence. In a work like this, however, of a pictorial character, and 
 intended for circulation among all parties, the great question at issue in 
 Ireland can only be thus far adverted to ; and in recording my own ob- 
 servations while travelling in the country, I feel convinced that, by 
 avoiding the irritating topics of political and religious discussion, my 
 readers will journey along with me more pleasantly through the wild 
 and beautiful scenery of this Western Eden. Nor do I fear that we 
 shall tire on the way for lack of objects worthy the attention of the anti- 
 quary and the poet, where every valley boasts the remains of some old 
 abbey or monastery — the fast-decaying relics of the faded grandeur of 
 the ancient Irish church ; and where the romantic legends of an imagi- 
 native peasantry have peopled every hill-side with the fantastic and 
 graceful creations of Fairy-land. Let me, then, in the language of Ire- 
 land's favorite bard, invite those who love Nature in her wild and simple 
 attire, to follow me in my pilgrimage through those lovely scenes ; for 
 
 'Never did Ariel's plume, 
 At golden sunset, hover 
 O'er such scenes of bloom 
 As I will waft tliem over.' " * 
 
 And now let us gaze, with such emotions as our hearts may be capa- 
 ble of feeling, upon this miniature perspective sketch of the far-famed 
 CoRMAc's Chapel, erected anno 880, the oldest specimen in Europe of 
 true arched architecture. 
 
 I am tempted to insert here a stanza from Lord Byron's Address 
 to Greece, in 1809, slightly paraphrased, which applies to Ireland as 
 accurately as it applied to Greece ; and may be conducive in waking up 
 a spirit equally inimical to slavery with that called up by his lordship's 
 inspiriting muse: — 
 
 "£rin, how lovely, in thine age of woe, 
 Land of heroes, sages, godlike men, art thou! 
 Thy vales of evergreen, thy hills of snow, 
 Proclaim thee Nature's varied favorite now. 
 Thy shrines, thy temples, to thy surface bow, 
 Commingling slowly with heroic earth, 
 Broke with the share of every rustic plough ; 
 And nought remains save Avell-recorded worth, 
 And the proud spirit which thy race gives forthJ'^ 
 
 * Scenes in Ireland. 
 
508 IRISH STYLE. ART OF STAINING GLASS. 
 
 This singularly-beautiful church is the most perfect specimen of iho 
 genuine arched style in Europe. This erection was not the consequence 
 of any sudden light which broke in upon the nation. It could have 
 grown only from hundreds upon hundreds of experiments and improve- 
 ments, in Irish architecture, for several ages. Nor is it to be attributed 
 to some happy design of King Cormac, the illustrious architect. Its 
 varied excellences in construction ; its well-poised stone roof, so scien- 
 tifically balanced and cemented; its graceful arches and groins; the 
 columns, so chaste and rich in shaft and capital ; the carvings, so 
 minute and varied, — proclaim that the numerous workmen employed 
 were educated in a school devoted to the art. And let it be further 
 borne in mind, that the columns of this edifice are not copied after those 
 of either Greece or Rome. They appear to be a distinct order, peculiar 
 to Ireland. 
 
 Mr. Ehnes says that " want of knowledge in the workmen cannot 
 be compensated for by any skill, art, or science, in the architect. 
 Hence a nation must be liberal patrons of the art, and train up by 
 practice, experiments, and scientific teaching, her artisans, ere she can 
 hope to establish a national style, or a reputation for architecture." 
 
 There does not appear in this entire church a single piece of wood. 
 How well they understood the laws of gravity and equilibrium is attested 
 by the enduring edifice itself, which has lived a thousand years, and 
 promises to live for a thousand years to come. The arch of Cormac 
 will live forever ! To erect the arched architecture, requires a knowl- 
 edge of what the French call stereoiomy, and the nicest balancing, or 
 equilibrium, and calculations of gravity. The principle of construction 
 in the arch, as artists call it, is the very acme of architectural sci- 
 ence. In this even Michael Angelo failed, in the erection of the cupola 
 of St. Peter's. In latter years, there were discovered very serious fissures, 
 which were repaired by the extraordinary skill of Zahaglio, who encir- 
 cled the cupola with a stupendous iron chain, after the example of Sir 
 Christopher Wren, at St. Paul's, London. 
 
 We find, about the age which succeeded that of Cormac, that the 
 art of staining glass had arrived to a high degree of perfection. I will 
 adduce one or two illustrations from Pepper's valuable Notes, and 
 Brewer's Beauties of Ireland. 
 
 " The art of staining glass was carried to the highest point of perfection 
 by our ancient artists, as the scanty but elegant specimens still to be seen 
 in the cathedrals of Limerick, Kilkenny, Raphoe, Armagh, and several 
 other of our antique ecclesiastic edifices, amply testify. In the infancy 
 
ART OF STAINING GLASS. 509 
 
 of the art in Ireland, in the fourth century, the process of painting glass 
 was very simple ; it consisted in the mere arrangement of glass, tinged 
 with different colors, in a symmetrical order, like the dyes delineated on 
 a mosaic ceiling. Our churches were adorned with stained glass win- 
 dows, exhibiting scriptural and martyrological history, and religious and 
 clerical symbols, two centuries before the church of St. Mark, in Venice, 
 was decorated with this species of embellishment. We are told by 
 Bishop Burke, in the history of the Irish abbeys, that St. Kenan's Ca- 
 thedral, built at Duleek,*in thecounty of Meath, A. D. 489, was enlight- 
 ened by stained glass windows, representing the sufferings of Christ. 
 In the fifth and sixth centuries, the art made rapid strides to perfection ; 
 the painters became more spirited in design, and more skilful and ex- 
 quisite in execution ; but tliough they delineated figures enlightened with 
 their shades, yet they could not fill up their contours with fine groupings, 
 or graphic elegances of detail. When they were called upon to adorn 
 palaces or churches, they had glass of every color of the rainbow pre- 
 pared, out of which they cut the pieces they wanted to fill up the 
 window frame or sash. But after a short lime, they discovered a more 
 improved method, of incorporating the colors in the glass itself, by heat- 
 ing it in a strong fire to the desired degree. We believe that the art is 
 partially lost, for the modern attempts have neither the boldness of 
 design nor the vivid freshness of coloring which our old abbeys and 
 churches yet exhibit. The atrocious myrmidons of Cromwell, after the 
 massacre at Drogheda, proceeded to the once magnificent abbey of 
 Melefont, in the county of Louth, and, in the rage of the diabolical spirit 
 of their fanaticism, broke and demolished the gorgeously stained glass 
 windows, which even the ravaging Huns of Elizabeth had spared. On 
 these windows, which were presented to the abbot by O'Rourke, prince 
 of BrefFeny, A. D. 1169, were beautifully painted, at full lengths, the 
 twelve apostles, the four evangelists, and the prophets of the Old Testa- 
 ment. Harris has asserted that, if these windows were in existence in 
 his day, 1763, they would be worth six thousand guineas." Pepper. 
 
 " The cathedral of St. Canice is an extensive and commanding pile, 
 seated on a gentle eminence, whence are obtained fine views over the 
 city, and along the winding banks of the River Nore. This church is of 
 a cruciform shape, surmounted with a low tower. The length from east 
 lo west is two hundred and twenty-six feet, in the clear ; and the breadth 
 of the cross, from north to south, one hundred and twenty-three feet. 
 
 " The eastern part of the church, comprising the choir and chancel, 
 is seventy-seven feet in length. The bishop's throne, the seats, and the 
 
 * Stone House. 
 
510 chieftains' castles. 
 
 gallery, are of varnished oak ; the whole being conspicuous for a sedate 
 simplicity. At the east end is a very lofty window, divided into three 
 lights of the lancet form on the exterior, but each compartment finishing, 
 internally, with a trefoil head. We are informed by Ware, that Bishop 
 Ledred, soon after the year 1318, expended large sums in embellishing 
 his cathedral, and particularly in filling the windows with stained glass. 
 His liberality was eminently displayed in this eastern window, the paint- 
 ings of which represented the history of Christ, from the birth to the 
 ascension. Rinuncini, legate to the Catholics of Ireland during the 
 troubles of the seventeenth century, is said to have offered seven hundred 
 pounds for the glass of this window, which offev was declined ; but, 
 unhappily, the glass was destroyed, in 1650, by the fanatics of that 
 gloomy period. Some mutilated fragments were afterwards collected 
 by Bishop Pococke, and placed in two ovals over the western door. 
 
 " The nave is divided from its side aisles by pointed arches, unoma- 
 mented, and supported by pillars composed of black marble. The 
 side aisles are lighted by pointed windows, and the body of the church 
 by windows of quatrefoil shape, placed in a clerestory. In the side 
 aisles, and between the pillars, are numerous altar-monuments. The 
 long succession of these sepulchral memorials adds greatly to the impres- 
 sive effect of this division of the structure ; and we have rarely seen tjje 
 interior of an ecclesiastical building, which at the same time was so little 
 indebtel to architectural effort, and possessed so imperative a sway over 
 the feelings." — Brewer'' s Beauties of Ireland. — Killala Church, built 
 1160, by Daniel O'Brien, king of Limerick, a venerable pile, erected 
 in the form of a cross — two hundred feet in length, and in every respect 
 proportioned. The large, pointed, arched window, over the eastern 
 portal, is elaborately enriched with sculptural mouldings and ornaments. 
 The venerable ruin is m fine preservation, and is surrounded, like the 
 temples of Thebes, with countless ruins that date back before its time 
 several centuries. The stone cross of Tuam, a part of which still exists ; 
 the statues of the twelve apostles, at the cathedral of Cashell ; the 
 grand archway of Mellefont Abbey, and the beautiful tracery and enrich- 
 ments of many other ruins in Ireland, remain yet as proofs that the 
 ancient Irish artists carried sculpture to a perfection, in the tenth centu- 
 ry, "which no nation in Europe," says Pepper, ^^ could then equal." 
 
 Chieftains' castles lie about, in magnificent ruins, on every hill : to 
 particularize them would fill many pages : they bear date of the 
 eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. The principal cathedrals 
 that still exist entire, which may be referred to as to the matured age of 
 
HOLT CROSS ABBEY. 511 
 
 Insh architecture, are, besides Cormac's Chapel, built 880, — Christ's 
 Church, Dubhn, built 1038 ; St. Patrick's, Dublin, 1070; Holy Cross, 
 1110 ; and the cathedrals of Waterford, Limerick, and Cork, about 1104. 
 The monastic ruins of Ardfert, in the county Kerry, are amongst the 
 noblest in Ireland. We are told, by Colgan, that when St. Brandon 
 taught there, in 935, it accommodated nine hundred students, six of 
 whom were foreign princes ; and at the far-famed abbey of Benchoir, 
 there was room for three thousand. 
 
 The engraving now before the reader represents an accurate sectional 
 view of the interior of Holy Cross Abbey, in the county of Limerick.* 
 This is a specimen of the improved or pointed architecture, which, 
 in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, spread so rapidly 
 over Europe, from this very model. Look upon it, reader, with an 
 inquiring and a reverential eye. It is all, every particle, of pure cut 
 stone. The abbey was begun about 1080, and finished 1110, — 
 one hundred years before this style was introduced into continental 
 Europe. Examine its proportions with the eye of science, and try 
 — can any part of it be improved 1 You may adorn it, — you may 
 heap ornament upon ornament on this splendid pile; but show where 
 you can add one limb or feature to its architectural beauty. 
 
 All beauty in architecture, as laid down by the best authorities, must 
 grow from utility ; any limb, or part of a limb, put up merely for orna- 
 ment, is false — is tawdry. You may ornament a buttress, a jamb, a 
 column, a capital, an entablature, an arch, a ceiling, or a window ; but 
 when any of these great limbs are put up as ornaments, they become 
 absurd and vulgar, contrary to good taste, and proclaim the architect 
 incompetent. Look again, reader, upon that picture ! The men who 
 erected that pile are accounted barbarous. Be it so ; the day of their 
 vindication is coming. 
 
 * Holy Cross Abbey, according to Dr. Milner, the learned English divine, was built 
 in the beginning of the twelfth century, by Donald O'Brien, king of Limerick, to 
 receive a piece of the identical cross on which the Savior was crucified. The cross 
 was buried, in the reign of the emperor Adrian, under the temple of Venus, in Rome, 
 and dug out by the empress St. Helena, and distributed among the Christians of the 
 universe. The piece, about three inches long, which was brought to Ireland, was 
 placed in a wooden case in the form of a cross, and deposited in the altar of this 
 church after it was built ; where it remained till the reign of Henry the Eighth, 
 when, owing to the many sacrilegious acts perpetrated in that reign upon every 
 shrine in which aught that was held sacred by the people was deposited, it was 
 placed, for safety, in the custody of a member of the Kavanagh family, by whose 
 descendants it is still preserved. 
 
512 HABITATIONS OF THE ANCIENT BRITONS. 
 
 We sliall now inquire into the state of architecture in Britain, Scot- 
 land, Wales, Germany, Italy, and France, during the early ages of 
 Christianity. We shall try to discover which of those nations originally 
 possessed the germ of that grand church architecture, which, in its ad- 
 vanced stages, filled the minds of the whole world with such admiration ; 
 — which so infatuated kings, queens, lords, and ladies, with its beauty, 
 that lands, crowns, jewels, and all else that men and women hold dear, 
 were yielded up to amplify and establish it. 
 
 The inhabitants of Britain, before Csesar's invasion, 50 B. C, lived 
 in caves and thickets. The caves were their winter habitations, and 
 places of retreat in time of war. They were formed and rendered se- 
 cure and warm by art, like those of the ancient Germans, as described 
 by Tacitus, who wrote, " They are used to dig deep caves in the 
 ground, and cover them with earth, where they lay up their provisions, 
 and dwell in winter for the sake of warmth. Into those they retire also 
 from their enemies, who plunder the open country, but cannot discover 
 these subterranean recesses." — Royal English Encyclopcedia. 
 
 Their summer houses consisted of a few stakes, wattles, and boughs 
 of trees ; and this was the custom in Britain down to the invasion of 
 Caesar. In fact, England and Germany, being the continental interior 
 of the newly-discovered west of Europe, bore that relation to Ireland 
 which the countries and inhabitants west of the Mississippi now bear 
 to Massachusetts or New York. Nature and history both agree in 
 assuring us that Ireland was the land first peopled, reclaimed, and 
 adorned, by the eastern tribes who moved westward in search of land 
 and adventure. It was the first land they met as they sailed from the 
 Mediterranean. Hence it was the centre from which all intellectual 
 light radiated on Western Europe. 
 
 The ancient Britons had no cities, according to our idea of a city. 
 Their dwellings, consisting of circular huts, were scattered about the 
 country, and generally situated at the skirt of some forest, or on the 
 banks of some river ; for they were governed in this matter more by the 
 convenience of their cattle than their own. And these remarks will 
 apply equally to Gaul as to Britain, and to Germany as to either. 
 " In those early periods of our history," says Elmes, " which are before 
 the Roman invasion, our ancestors appear to have had scarcely any 
 other dwellings than thickets, dens, and caverns ; and, according to 
 Tacitus and Caesar, could have been little better, in point of civilization, 
 than many of the recently-discovered inhabitants of the South Seas. 
 
STONE HUTS. 513 
 
 The earliest style of architecture, practised in Britain, appears to have 
 been similar to that which is still used in the smaller hamlets of England, 
 called, by village architects, wattle and dab, being a daubing, or rude 
 plastering, with clay, over the chinks and crevices of the wattled walls 
 of their wicker-worked cabins, filling up the interstices with moss. 
 The roofs were formed as they are at present, with boughs of trees, and 
 thatched with straw, to protect the inmates from the weather. The form 
 of the huts was conical, with a hole in the apex or top. to admit light 
 and emit smoke. We can trace this simple style from the ancestors of 
 the polished Greeks to the aboriginal Britons ; and the villages of the 
 Hottentots and CafFres exhibit it to this day. What the ancient Britons 
 called a toivn, was merely an enclosure, by a sort of circular ditch and 
 mound, of a tract of woody land ; within which an assemblage of huts, 
 of the above description, was erected, to protect themselves and cattle 
 from the incursions of border tribes ; for the inhabitants of the island 
 were then divided into about forty contending tribes. 
 
 " Stone huts, in imitation of the ' wattle and dab,' were erected in the 
 course of time, circular in their plan, and conical in their elevation, with 
 circular apertures at the top ; so that, what was a mansion among the 
 ancient Britons, and served the noblest of our ancestors for withdrawing- 
 rooras, boudoirs, parlors, &ic., would make an excellent, though small- 
 sized, tile-kiln of the present day." — Elmes's Lectures, 354. — When 
 Caractacus, the old British chief and monarch, was taken captive, and 
 sent in triumph to Rome, he exclaimed, as he gazed in wonder on their 
 palaces, " How is it that a people having such houses can envy my 
 humble cottage in Britain?" During the occupation of Britain by the 
 Romans, we are told they built many towns and cities, besides the great 
 wall to keep out the Picts and Irish. The latter monument is the 
 principal remnant that remains of their erections. We are told the 
 Roman wall was fortified with several hundred military towers, at 
 short distances from each other, like those on the great wall of 
 China. These were battered down by the hardy bands under 
 O^Neill and Dathy, who drove the Roman eagles out of Britain. 
 Their wooden towns have all perished. That immense pile of an- 
 tiquity, Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, is not of Roman erection ; the con- 
 jecture of the antiquarians is, that it is the remains of a colossal 
 Druid temple, raised and destroyed anterior to the recollection of 
 history or tradition. Neither Gildas nor Bede allude to it, though both 
 lived within forty miles of it. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxons, who succeeded the Romans as conquerors in 
 Britain, were the greatest enemies to architecture. They battered 
 65 
 
514 ARCHITECTURE OF THE PICTS. 
 
 down every town and castle which the Romans erected ; and both 
 " Saxon and Briton were again," say the chroniclers, " obliged to resort 
 to dens, caves, and thickets, for shelter." 
 
 This loas the condition of England in the fifth and sixth cen- 
 turies. 
 
 " The truth is," say the English editors of The Royal Encyclo- 
 paedia, — " The truth is, that the Anglo-Saxons, at their arrival in this 
 island, [Britain,] were almost totally ignorant of those arts, and, like 
 all the other nations of Germany, had been accustomed to live in 
 wretched hovels built of wood or earth, or covered with straw or the 
 branches of trees ; nor did they much improve in the knowledge of 
 architecture for two hundred years after their anival, (A. D. 670.) 
 During that period, masonry was quite tmknown and unpractised in 
 this island, and the walls even of cathedral churches were built of 
 wood." 
 
 " There does not seem to have been so much as one church of stone, 
 nor any artists who could build one, in all Scotland, at the beginning 
 of the eighth century ; for Naitan, king of the Picts, in his famous 
 letter to Ceolford, abbot of Weremouth, A. D. 710, earnestly entreats 
 him to send him some masons to build a church of stone in his king- 
 dom, which he promises to dedicate to the honor of the apostle Peter, 
 to whom the abbey of Weremouth was dedicated ; and we are told by 
 Bede, who was then living in that abbey, that the reverend abbot 
 granted this pious request, and sent masons according to his desire." 
 
 There are found, in Scotland, two or three circular stone buildings, in 
 a state of complete ruin, which resemble large lime-kilns, with stories 
 of windows up to the top, at which the walls nearly close together : 
 these were evidently built in the age of the round towers by the first 
 Milesian adventurers, or by some of the Firbolgs, or even earlier tribes^ 
 (from the valley of the Nile,) that preceded them. 
 
 The vitrified forts, to be found in the Highlands of Scotland, were 
 evidently erected by the ancient Irish Dalriadians, who first peopled 
 Scotland. It is nonsense to attribute them to the Romans, who were 
 never suffered by their indomitable enemies to build any thing north of 
 the great wall. The fact that the stones were fastened together by 
 vitrification, viz., melted into one another by the action of fire, and 
 not by mortar or cement, proves the degree of science which, in 
 remote ages, prevailed in the parent country, Ireland. 
 
 "In other parts of this island, [Britain,] architecture was, as might 
 naturally be imagined, in a still less flourishing state. It appears, indeed, 
 
ANCIENT ITALIAN ARCHITECTURE. 515 
 
 to have been almost entirely lost among the posterity of the ancient 
 Britons, after they retired to the mountains of Wales. The chief palace 
 of the king of Wales, where the nobility and wise men assembled for 
 making laws, was called White Palace, because the walls of it were woven 
 with white wands, which had the bark peeled off. Even the castles of 
 Wales, at this period, [eighth and ninth centuries,] that were built for 
 the security of the country, appear to have been constructed of the 
 same materials ; for the old laws required the king's vassals to come to 
 the building of these castles with no other tools but an axe." — Royal 
 English EncyclopiBdia. 
 
 If we open the early histories of France, we shall see nought but 
 ignorance, wretchedness, and the grossest incivilization prevail in that 
 country, from the third to the seventh century. The condition of 
 wretchedness and ignorance to which the Roman emperors Diocletian 
 and Maximilian had reduced the Gauls, in the third century, was not 
 in the slightest degree alleviated by their next masters, the Franks, 
 who rushed in upon them, in the sixth century, from the wild, uncivilized 
 forests of Germany. The chiefs of these latter bands are described to 
 us as " ferocious," and their serfs " slavish and ignorant." 
 
 In Italy, architecture was completely destroyed by the Goths, — 
 savages from the north of Germany, — who sacked Rome, A. D. 412 
 to 460. Ignorance, brutality, revenge, destroyed nearly all the beau- 
 tiful structures ; and, in the succeeding two or three centuries, the 
 Saracens destroyed all the Christian edifices, and even those of the 
 ancient treasury of arts, — the beautiful Italian cities Messina and 
 Cuma. Roman architecture, which flourished from Augustus to the 
 time of Hadrian, declined about the third century ; and, during four or 
 five hundred years, the taste for building grew barbarously worse in 
 that country. ( Whittington, p. 3.) Nearly all the churches built by 
 Constantine and the early Christians about and immediately following 
 his time, have been pulled down and rebuilt. One old church, " St. 
 Paul's," of the latter end of the fourth century, yet exists outside the walls 
 of Rome; it is entirely walled; the windows are very small. Some 
 others of the fifth century yet remain, described by Whittington as 
 mean and without taste, but not one of them is in the pointed style. 
 Architecture continued in a depressed state through Italy nearly five 
 hundred years. 
 
 The Italians, long before the fall of Rome, gave up the study of 
 architecture, or its prosecution, and must have long before forgotten how 
 to erect arched stone roofs ; for the old church of St. Peter's, at Rome, 
 
«• 
 
 516 EUROPE FROM THE FOURTH TO THE EIGHTH CENTURY. 
 
 was covered with gilt bronze tiles, roofed with wood, the timbers un- 
 covered, and above them were laid layers of shingles. I do not deny 
 but that the Italian Christians, in the fifth and sixth centuries, erected 
 churches of a peculiar style, of mixed orders ; but they clearly were 
 not of that pointed and arched style which I claim for Ireland, and to 
 establish which my general arguments are directed. I defy any man 
 to point out one Italian church, or ruin, or even the authentic draught 
 of one, of an age ranging between the first and the eighth centuries, 
 which bears the germ of, or a resemblance to, pointed architecture. 
 
 Now, then, having cleared away all the rotten pretensions to pointed 
 ARCHITECTURE sct up for the ancient Saxons, Germans, French, Italians, 
 Welsh, or Scotch, I shall, like a true workman, lay the foundation of 
 our prior claim to that style wide and deep in the minds of the un- 
 prejudiced and the enlightened. 
 
 Every architect, every artist, every scholar, will at once admit that 
 great public edifices, whether civil, military, or ecclesiastical, and the 
 richly-constructed palaces of princes and wealthy men, can alone come 
 under the denomination of " architecture." In the erection of all such 
 edifices, a knowledge of arithmetic, geometry, and mathematics, — of the 
 laws of gravity and equilibrium, — of chemistry and the nature of 
 metals, — is absolutely required, not only in the master-workman, hut in 
 his men ; and this remark applies more especially to the erection of 
 arched Irish architecture ; in the whole of which, as we have shown, 
 nothing but stone -is used, even to the window frames, mullions, and 
 diminutive intersections. The starting of those stone arches from side 
 walls, and buttresses, and columns ; the intersecting of them, again and 
 again, with flying arches of the same solid material ; the poising in 
 the air hundreds of tons of stones, supporting one another by the 
 nicest calculated powers of gravity and equilibrium, — poising and 
 binding them together, that the shocks of a thousand years are not suffi- 
 cient to disturb ; — these are requirements which such semi-savage 
 tribes as the inhabitants of the continent of Europe, in the fourth, fifth, 
 sixth, and seventh centuries, did not, it is admitted, possess. They 
 could not write, and knew nothing of mathematical calculations. Men 
 living in a semi-savage state are slow to bend the mind to study. 
 Ages and ages pass over the heads of an ignorant race before they can 
 be brought to the condition of learners, reasoners, thinkers, or calculators. 
 
 Architecture could not have grown amongst the inhabitants of 
 the west of Europe until they were first educated, because it is the 
 result of a combination of learned acquirements. And now let us 
 
IRISH MONKS THE ARCHITECTS OF EUROPE. 517 
 
 look back upon those pages I have already devoted to the splendid 
 labors of the Irish missionaries through every state of Western Europe, 
 from the fifth to the ninth century, when swarms of educated monks 
 went out of Ireland in every dii'ection, carrying with them knowledge, 
 piety, and industry, which they devoted, agreeably to the precepts of 
 iheir religion, to the exaltation of their fellow-men. 
 
 Every architect and scholar knows that these monks were the work- 
 men who built all the churches of Europe for five hundred years ; they 
 were the architects, the masons, the carpenters, the plumbers, the 
 smiths, glass-makers, sculptors, painters. A great many societies of 
 these holy men joined together for the purpose of erecting churches 
 and bridges, from motives of pure charity to others, in obedience to a 
 strong religious feeling : of course this is incredible to the great masses 
 of vulgarity, who continue to call the monks " lazy," in defiance of the 
 literary and scientific monuments they have left behind. But scholars 
 know that the stone bridges and churches through Europe, which were 
 erected before the tenth century, were all built by the hands, and under 
 the direction, exclusively, of the monks ; nay, more, there was not a 
 single want of mankind, or a mode by which they could be benefited, 
 that these calumniated men did not combine into associations to supply. 
 Were youth to be educated, they were the teachers ; were books to 
 be written, or translated, or multiplied, they performed the work ; were 
 the poor to be relieved, they were the almoners ; were the sick to be 
 tended, they were the physicians and visitors ; were widows and orphans 
 to be provided for, the monks were their guardians ; were travellers to 
 be protected, guided, and entertained in the midst of wildernesses, and 
 on the tops of mountains, the monks formed associations to perform 
 this humane duty ; were bridges to be erected over impassable fords and 
 rivers, these men combined to build them — the noblest bridge in all 
 Europe, that of Avignon, over the Rhine, was erected by the labor and 
 collections of these charitable monks : were churches, monasteries, and 
 schools, to be built, they formed into holy brotherhoods for the purpose. 
 If this be not true, then the history of Europe is a huge lie ! Tho 
 society of Freemasons, for the building of bridges, roads, &c. &c., 
 was first heard of in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and wa^ 
 established by one of those religious orders, though it has long sinci^. 
 ceased to huiJcl. 
 
 Now, we shall trace the Irish monks, step after step, through 
 Europe, erecting churches and forming religious congregations every 
 where throuo;h that continent. 
 
518 FIRST MONASTERIES ERECTED IN ENGLAND BY IRISHMEN. 
 
 The first Christian edifice erected for divine worship, in England, was 
 built by Irish architects at Withtrn, anno 603. " For the Anglo-Saxons," 
 says Bede, " were partly converted to Christianity by Irish missionaries 
 before the -arrival of St. Austin, in 597." The same architects, who 
 built Withern, were then employed to build old St. Paul's, in London, 
 in 610, on the site of the temple of Diana. We have the authority of 
 Turner, and other English historians, to say that St. Wilfrid, bishop of 
 York, who built the church of Hexham, in 674, sent to Ireland for 
 architects to construct it. In fact, as Dr. Johnson remarks, " Ireland 
 was then the school of the west, in every art and science ; " and to her 
 taste and authority, in matters of style, the Saxons and Goths of Eng- 
 land and Germany cheerfully deferred. 
 
 Dr. Milner, an Englishman, remarks, " Can we suppose that the 
 tutors of the English, French, and Germans, in the learned lau' 
 guages, the sciences, and music, as the Irish are known to have been 
 during four centuries, were incapable to build plain round towers 
 of stone ? " And the doctor might have added, the most finished 
 temples of arched and pointed architecture. In the Island of Hy, 
 (lona,) St. Columbe Kille and his Irish monks built that famous monas- 
 tery, from which the north of England was instructed in architecture, 
 literature, and Christianity ; for there were several monasteries erected in 
 connection with the house of Hy, and after the same model. The 
 style of that architecture, as noticed by the writer in the London 
 Athenceum, whom I have quoted, is " directly connected with the archi- 
 tecture of Ireland." " The monastery of Lindisfarne was built," says 
 the Royal English Encyclopaedia, " by Irishmen, under St. Finan, in 
 the beginning of the sixth century." It was built of split oak, but the 
 shape was afterwards imitated in stone. The abbey of Malmesbury 
 was founded and built by the L'ish monk Maildulphus, in the seventh 
 century. It is the oldest existing building in England of that style, 
 and, according to the English Elmes, displays all the main features of 
 arched architecture, which is now called Gothic. The English Turner, 
 in his History of Arts and Sciences, says, " Aldhelm had continued his 
 studies at Malmesbury, where Maildulphus, an Irishman, had founded 
 a monastery." * — Vol. II . 
 
 * At this very monastery it was that the Irish missionaries first presented to the 
 illiterate Saxons the rudiments of literature, science, architecture, and music, and 
 even the very forms of the letters used in writing the English language to this day. 
 
IRISH ARCHITECTS THROUGHOUT EUROPE. 519 
 
 Gallus, an Irish monk, built the monastery of St. Gall, in Switzerland, 
 in connection with which several other monasteries afterwards subsisted, 
 about anno 630. Dichuill, an Irish monk, built the monastery o^Luttwa, 
 in France, and received grants of land from the French monarch Clotaire 
 the Second, anno 650. The monastery Centula, in Pontheed, was 
 built by Caidoc, to whom a splendid tomb was erected, on which was 
 engraved, with golden letters, the following : " To whom Ireland 
 gave birth, and the Gallic land a grave." St. Fursa, from Ireland, 
 built the monastery of Lagny, near the River Marne, in France, anno 
 650. In Brabant, the brothers of St. Fursa, Ultan and Foillan, 
 built a monastery about the same time, which was long called the 
 Monastery of the Irish." St. Fridolin fixed himself and his monks on 
 the then uninhabited island in the Rhine, called Seckingen, where he 
 built a monastery, anno 590. The Prince Dagobert, of Strasburg, 
 in the seventh century, who, like many of the German and Saxon 
 princes, was educated in Ireland, brought with him several Irish monks, 
 who built churches throughout his dominions. The Irish Virgilius 
 raised the splendid Basali of Saltzburg, anno 750. 
 
 The great church of Europe, erected by Charlemagne, at Aix-la- 
 chapelle, was built by Irish monks brought from the abbey of St. Gall ; 
 and the chief architect, feeling a deep veneration for the old round 
 towers of his native country, erected one of the same kind, in connec- 
 tion with the church, in the very heart of Europe, — the only one, 
 indeed, to be found throughout that continent. 
 
 The most distinguished specimen of old Gothic architecture, in 
 Portugal, is the church of the convent of Batallia, which was con- 
 structed by AN Irish architect. — See Hoskings, in Adams's 
 and Black's Arts, Edinburgh edition, page 21. 
 
 Here are proofs, and I have many more, that in Scotland. England, 
 Germany, France, and Portugal, the Irish monks erected generally the 
 first Christian churches and monasteries. The very forms of those 
 churches, so closely modeled after the erections in their native land, 
 wonderfully coincide. And when we add to all this the swarms 
 of foreigners from every part of Europe, who came to Ireland, for four 
 or five centuries, to be educated, and who returned to their own coun- 
 tries with vivid impressions of her architecture and science, we account 
 for the spread of the Irish style of building in so rapid and general a 
 manner throughout Europe. 
 
 " Who, SIR," says the English Dr. Milner, " were the lumina- 
 ries OF the western world when the SUN of science had 
 
 ALMOST SET UPON IT ? WhO WERE THE INSTRUCTORS OF NATIONS, 
 
520 DR. milner's opinion. 
 
 DURING FOUR WHOLE CENTURIES, BUT THE IrISH CLERGY ? To THEM 
 YOU ARE INDEBTED FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE BlBLE, THE 
 FATHERS, AND THE CLASSICS ; IN SHORT, OF THE MEANS BY WHICH 
 YOU YOLTISELVES HAVE ACQUIRED WHATEVER LITERATURE YOU POS- 
 SESS." 
 
 " Gildas, the first British historian, studied for a long time, in the 
 sixth century, at St. Patrick's Seminary, at Armagh, as did Agilbert, 
 the French divine, in the succeeding century, who was the second 
 bishop of the West Saxons. Soon after this, we find great numbers of 
 our countrymen, poor as well as rich, flocking to Ireland as to a general 
 mart of literature. At length, a I'esidence in Ireland, like a residence 
 now at a university, was considered as almost essential to establish a 
 literary character. 
 
 " I cannot forbear quoting from Camden the lines which he extracted 
 from the Life of St. Sulgenius, who flourished in the eighth century : — 
 
 *Exemplo patrum, commotus aniore legendi, 
 Ivit ad Hibernos, sopliia mirabile claros.' " * 
 
 Such, in fact, was the case, and, to come to the point, we chal- 
 lenge Europe to show so old and such beautiful specimens of the 
 arched and pointed architecture, as we can show in these two churches 
 I have adduced, namely, Cormac's Chapel, built 880, and Holy Cross, 
 built 1110, and in others, which are falling to ruin. 
 
 " Stone buildings," says the Royal Encyclopaedia, " were very rarely 
 built in England in the eighth and ninth ages. When any such 
 buildings were erected, they were the objects of much admiration," 
 (wonder.) 
 
 " When Alfred the Great, towards the end of the ninth century, 
 iormed the design of rebuilding his ruined cities, churches, and monas- 
 teries, he was obliged to bring many of his artificers from foreign 
 countries." The church of St. Peter's, at Oxford, built by him, is so 
 evidendy a copy from Cormac's Chapel, of Cashell, that we need but 
 point the artist's eye to the form and features of both, to ascertain from 
 whence Alfred, who was educated in Ireland, drew his architects, 
 artisans, and models. 
 
 " It was not till after the Norman conquest that the English began 
 to build generally with stone arches. Stoive relates that Mauritius, 
 bishop of London, about the eleventh century, began the foundation of 
 the new church of St. Paul upon arches of stone — a manner of work 
 unknown to the English." 
 
 * Letters of Dr. Milner from Ireland; Letter L 1808. 
 
• SALISBURY CATHEDRAL MODELED AFTER HOLY CROSS. 521 
 
 In the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, all London was 
 built of wood, and covered with reeds and thatch ; and there is still, or 
 was, not long ago, the remnant of one of these preserved for its singular 
 antiquity, and converted into a tavern, called the " Thatched-house 
 Tavern." The old " Bow Church " of London, built 1077, was so 
 called because it was built upon the new principles of arches of stone, 
 and was, therefore, called St. Mary-/e-6oi^. And Stradford Bridge, the 
 first stone arched bridge built in England, was, from the same circum- 
 stance, called Stradford-/e-6oM>. See Stoive's Survey. 
 
 After the Norman conquest, WiUiam and his son Rufus, to occupy 
 the minds of the people, began in every direction the building of grand 
 churches, in the pointed style. 
 
 A short time before Murchard O'Brien's death, William Rufus sent 
 to request he would allow him to cut timber in the Irish forests. 
 " The fair green, or commune," says Hanmer, " now called Ostmon- 
 town Green, was all wood ; and bee that diggith, at this day, to any 
 depth, shall finde the ground full of great rootes. From thence, anno 
 1098, King WiUiam Rufus, by license of Murchard, had that frame 
 which made up the roofe of Westminster Hall, where no English spider 
 wehheth or breedeth to this day.''^ — Chronicle of England. 
 
 Salisbury Cathedral is the first complete erection in the pointed arched 
 style that was built in England, finished in 1258, evidently after the 
 style of Holy Cross, in Ireland, which was built one hundred and 
 fifty years previously. 
 
 Painted glass was not introduced into England until about the year 
 1250, nor generally till 1400, though it was common in Ireland four 
 hundred years before. The windows of the cathedrals then began 
 to be enlarged, divided into several lights by stone muUions, run 
 ning into ramifications above, which were filled v/ith painted representa- 
 tions, on the glass, of saints, martyrs, kings, which made, says an old 
 writer, " a most glorious history." 
 
 It will not do to tell us, that this arched and pointed architecture, was 
 introduced to Europe by the crusaders or the knights templars. They 
 had it in Ireland in the ninth and tenth centuries, whereas the cru- 
 saders did not return from the East till the twelfth ; nor were the knights 
 templars established until 1148; and the first church they built was 
 their own, at Paris, 1222, which was paid for by their treasurer. 
 
 Nor can this style be credited to the Saracens, as some have very 
 unlearnedly done ; for Elmes and others tell us that the oldest specimens 
 of this style, of Saracen origin, which can be referred to, are the walls 
 66 
 
522 
 
 CHARACTER OF IRISH ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 of Alexandria, built in 878 by the Caliph Montatowakkel. There are 
 some buildings, in the East, of the twelfth century, erected by the 
 Sultan Saladin, (whose real name was Joseph.) The Moorish build- 
 ings in this style are few and poor, and the dates of their erection uncer- 
 tain. There are no buildings of this character to be found in the 
 East of a date any thing so early as those to be found in Ireland. If 
 there be, let them be pointed out, and proof of their age be given. 
 
 After the conquest of Constantinople by the Mahometans, in the 
 fifteenth century, every mosque was constructed in imitation of the 
 Christian churches, to which they added adornments of their own, con- 
 sisting of slender, lofty minarets, diversified in style and ornament by 
 each succeeding sultan. Wherever the army of the Mahometans 
 triumph, they convert the Christian churches into mosques for their own 
 use. This was the case in Portugal and Spain. It is undeniable that 
 in Asia Minor, Syria, Arabia, Persia, and on to India, the pointed arch 
 may be seen occasionally. But they are modern erections. 
 
 The Irish cannot claim the honor of originating the arch and column, 
 which were in use in Phoenicia and Egypt before Ireland was probably 
 inhabited ; but, as he who improves an invention is, to a certain extent, 
 to be deemed an inventor himself, so the Irish, having brought the arch 
 and column to the highest degree of architectural development, con- 
 sistent with real beauty, and as no other nation can show claims, equal- 
 ing theirs, to that honor, so they must be deemed the originators of that 
 style which, from the eighth to the fourteenth century, was adopted 
 by all Europe, and carried to such extraordinary degrees of refine- 
 ment. 
 
 If the structures of Ireland were not as colossal as those of her 
 neighbors, it should be remembered that they built them from their own 
 resources, and by their own labor. The palaces of pagan Rome were 
 built by the captives she dragged thither from all countries, and by the 
 plunder of defenceless and unoffending nations. Most of the great 
 temples of Europe were raised by leaning on communities distant 
 from the place of their erection ; but Ireland never built her temples 
 by the pillage of any nation. Her churches and temples are compara- 
 tively small ; but, then, how beautiful they are ! They were built to 
 worship in them the true God. Their aspect, as they look down 
 upon us in placid grandeur, is sublime. Every aisle, every column, 
 arch and porch, every window, proclaim them houses of prayer. 
 A New Zealander, or Hottentot, if brought into one of these ruins, 
 would pronounce it a house of the " Great Spirit." 
 
CHARACTER OF IRISH ARCHITECTURE. 523 
 
 The Grecian was the style for state or revelry, the Irish for prayer. 
 The elements of the Irish are spires, pinnacles, lofty arched and pointed 
 windows, and elevation, as opposed to the square, angular, flat, and 
 horizontal style of the Greeks. 
 
 " It is difHcult," says the Royal English Encyclopaedia, " for the 
 noblest Grecian temple to convey half so many impressions on the 
 mind as a cathedral does, of the best Gothic [Irish] character — a proof 
 of skill in the architects and priests who erected them. The latter 
 exhausted their knowledge of the passions in composing edifices whose 
 pomp, mechanism, vaults, tombs, painted windows, and perspectives, 
 infused such sensations of exalted devotion. We must have taste to be 
 sensible of the beauties of Grecian architecture. We only want 
 passions to feel and appreciate those of Gothic, [Irish.] In St. Peter's 
 or St. Paul's, we are convinced they were built by great princes. In 
 the cathedrals of Gothic [Irish] construction, we think not of the 
 builders, but of religion." 
 
 In truth, Ireland, before her fall in the twelfth century, brought this 
 arched and pointed style to the highest desirable point of perfection, 
 uniting in itself the three great essentials in architecture, strength, grace, 
 and richness. 
 
 During the reigns of the first three Henrys of England, the angles 
 of the arch were formed very acute, and the arch, if it could be so 
 called, was hardly discernible. During the reigns of the first three 
 Edwards, the arch was formed by an equilateral triangle, running from 
 the points where the arch sprang, to its key-stone. During the period 
 from Henry the Sixth to Henry the Eighth, the arch of the roofs and 
 windows was brought down again to Cormac's standard. Dr. Whar- 
 ton described three changes in style, as stages in this style of architec- 
 ture, viz., the simple, the ornamental, and i\\e jlorid. 
 
 In the sixteenth century, during the reign of Elizabeth, when the 
 leaders of the reformation had seized upon the temples, colleges, and 
 monasteries, of Ireland and England, and the lands attached to them, 
 — when they would cry down the former occupants of these venerable 
 dwellings, and when, indeed, they blew up many of them from the 
 foundation with gunpowder, — then the Irish style of building was 
 cried down. Sir William Wotton wrote against it. He called it 
 Gothic, which word meant, in England, any thing ruffianly or 
 savage. Sir Christopher Wren, the English architect of the seven 
 teenth century, called this style " a gross concameration of heavy, 
 
524 
 
 ITALIAN ARCHITECTS INVITED TO ENGLAND. 
 
 melancholy, and monkish piles." How intellectual (his man was ! It 
 was he who frowned upon Westminster Abbey, St. Stephen's Chapel, 
 York Minster, and Salisbury Cathedral, and who, when he attempted 
 to imitate this style, made so many blunders. See his works in this 
 line, and those of Inigo Jones, in Lincoln's Inn Chapel, the steeple at 
 Warwick, King's Bench in Westminster, he. 
 
 Italian architects were about this time encouraged to come into 
 England, to construct ecclesiastical buildings upon new principles. 
 There was no new principle in architecture, but there were some com- 
 pounds which prevailed in parts of the continent, especially in Venice 
 and Rome. These compounds were classed in five orders by the 
 Romans, and revived by Palladio, the Italian writer, about the six- 
 teenth century, and were introduced into England by Inigo Jones soon 
 after. The style of architecture changed in England with each new 
 class of religious reformers. The Roundheads knocked down the 
 erections of Elizabeth and Charles. These were again scouted at the 
 restoration of Charles the Second, and from that period to the time of 
 George the First, all was a blank in English architecture. 
 
 In Ireland, during that long period of tears and blood, — a period 
 which stains the blackest annals of humanity, — no progress was made in 
 architecture ; no progress, alas ! in any thing but the works of confisca- 
 tion and blood. Her venerable piles were battered down by the 
 cannon of Elizabeth and Cromwell. But towards the middle of 
 the eighteenth century, Ireland began again to put forth her archi- 
 tectural skill. Her classic soil, studded over by the mouldering ruins of 
 her greatness, afforded her men of genius schools and models for the de- 
 sign and construction of piles of modern beauty. From the very day that 
 Molyneux emitted the spark of nationality in his celebrated " Inquiry," 
 (even one man can rouse and elevate a nation,) the architectural genius 
 of Ireland budded forth anew. In 1727, the Parliament-House o°f Ire- 
 land was commenced. It was completed in 1787, and is esteemed the 
 most perfect and beautiful Ionic structure in Europe. The architects 
 were Irish, and so were the workmen.* The Dublin Custom-House 
 was commenced in 1787. This is considered the most beautiful public 
 building in the British empire. It is raised in a very grand Doric 
 style, surmounted by a magnificent dome, and the interior groined with 
 arches. It covers two Irish acres. The Four Courts, the Royal Ex- 
 change, and the Rotunda, are all, in their way, unequalled in the British 
 
 * A front view of this noble structure will be found at the end of this lecture. 
 
IRISH ARCHITECTS OF THE PRESENT DAY. 525 
 
 dominions. They were Irishmen who designed and erected all but 
 one of those splendid monuments of genius and freedom. These 
 national structures grew up in Ireland under the sunshine of her native 
 parliament. The old ones, that smile on us with the wisdom of a 
 thousand years, grew up under her kings. They are all the growth of 
 a NATION, the symbols of a nation, and the trumpets which call the 
 lifeless into action for their restoration to national purposes. 
 
 The Irish architects of the present day are not inferior to their coun- 
 trymen of any age, as evidenced by the living artists now at the head 
 of the profession in Ireland, England, and Ainerica. 
 
 As I have made no claim, in this entire work, in behalf of my 
 countrymen, without having substantial grounds for it, so, when I allege 
 that Irishmen are at the head of the profession of architects in England 
 and America, I mean to prove it. When, about five years ago, the 
 Parliament House of England was burned to the ground, a committee 
 of the House of Commons was appointed to superintend the erection 
 of a new one ; designs and specifications were advertised for by that 
 committee ; three hundred designs and plans were sent them by as 
 many aspirants for the honor. These plans came from architects of 
 every European nation. To the honor of Ireland, the preference was 
 given to the plan of Mr. Barry, a native of the south of Ireland ; and 
 the execution of the work was accordingly placed under his super- 
 intendence. 
 
 The most beautiful piece of architecture on the surface of America 
 is the St. Charles Hotel, in New Orleans. This has been admitted by 
 hundreds of thousands of the natives of this country. It was erected, in 
 1837, by a joint stock' company, at a cost of nine hundred thousand 
 dollars ; and its architect, who is still living, is an excellent Irishman, 
 Mr. Gallier, {Gallagher,^ of New Orleans. The White House, at 
 Washington, was erected by an Irish architect, Mr. Hoban, father of 
 the learned and eloquent lawyer, J. Hoban, Esquire, of that city. And 
 here, in Boston, I find the granite front of the Exchange has been 
 elegantly sculptured by another of my countrymen, named Barry. 
 
 I have seen the brilliant monuments of their genius in many of the 
 railroads and canals of Pennsylvania and New York. The invention 
 of Mr. John Dougherty, for taking boats, full of merchandise and 
 passengers, out of the canal, carrying them over the Alleghany Moun- 
 tains, and lodging them safely in the Western Canal, is surely one of the 
 greatest inventions of modern times. The stupendous works between 
 Philadelphia and Pottsville, and the magnificent locks at Lockport^ 
 
526 IRISH ARCHITECTS OF THE PRESENT DAT. 
 
 on the Erie Canal, erected under the scientific superintendence of Irish- 
 men, are evidence that the unextinguishable genius of Ireland has been 
 transmitted, in the buoyant blood of her children, to the present gener- 
 ation, and cause me to exclaim, in the language of one of her brightest 
 sons in exile, John Augustus Shea, — 
 
 "Well may ye exult o'er the tyrannous slaves 
 
 Who, crushing your freedom, would rob ye of fame ; 
 Would curse the fair sunlight that blesses your waves, 
 And deny ye, 'mid nations, tlie right of a name. 
 
 " Look down with contempt on their impotent hate ! 
 
 Show the world tliat beholds ye, that, even in chains, 
 Far more of the genius that raaketh men great. 
 With you, than with tkem in their gloiy, remains. 
 
 "When the Saxon, degraded and trampled, lay down, 
 And trembled to every foeman that came,* 
 The universe rang with your lofty renown. 
 
 And Fancy stood mute in the light of your fame. 
 
 " Disdaining the barriers, — fetters and fire. 
 
 And malice and prejudice, — all that could bind, 
 With what strength does Hiberma still upward aspire. 
 Supreme in the proud competition of mind ! 
 
 "Day by day do thy great ones go down to the grave, 
 But thy genius expires not ; but soars like the morn, 
 When it rises, pavilioned in light, from the wave. 
 As glorious as though but that moment 'twere bom. 
 
 "Where, where through the universe, varied and vast. 
 Can empire, or kingdom, or nation, present 
 Such genius as even in bondage thou hast. 
 
 Which brightened, like sunlight, wherever it went? 
 
 "By reedy Eurotas no braver e'er trod. 
 
 When Greece, 'gainst all Persia, stood up in her pride, 
 And Pallas awoke in each bosom a god. 
 
 Than at Liberty's summons can rise at thy side. 
 
 " Nor e'er did Castalia's fountain of song 
 More soul-stirring rapture of melody pour, 
 Than beareth the spirit of Erin along 
 
 In the music and light of the genius of Moore. 
 
 * Nee fult inventus quispiam qui hostibus obviaret. — Matthew of Westminster. 
 
POEM OF JOHN AUGUSTUS SHEA. 5^7 
 
 "And Painting and Sculpture live, breatlie, at thy will; 
 And the Drama, which mankind's dark history unscrolls, 
 Which readeth our hearts with mysterious skill; 
 The Priest of her Universe Temple, is Knowles. 
 
 "And doth it not quicken the pulse and tlie blood 
 Of an Irishman's heart, to remember the day 
 When Grattan, Burke, Sheridan, Curran, and Flood, 
 In supremacy shone — a refulgent array ? 
 
 "In poetry, eloquence, learning, our land 
 
 Retaineth her empire, and these shall live on. 
 Like the nature-built ramparts that circle her strand, 
 
 When tlie whirlwinds that sweep round her glory are gone. 
 
 There's a cheering vitality o'er and within 
 
 Her children and her, that defietli decay; 
 And what may we hope not from that which has been, 
 
 Which no treasure could buy, and no Judas betray ? 
 
 "But who can look over the billows' bright foam. 
 And cast his glad eyes on that cluster of men 
 Who are struggling to give back to Erin a home, — 
 A dwelling for orators, jurists, — again; — 
 
 "But must feel that the days of her glory return, 
 Revived by O'Connell, O'Brien, O'Neill; 
 O, cold is the heart that won't vividly bum, 
 In patriot flame, for the cause of repeal. 
 
 "Then, Erin, exult o'er the tyrannous slaves 
 
 Who, crushing your freedom, would rob you of fame; 
 Would curse the fair sunlight tliat blesses yoiu* waves, 
 And deny ye, 'mid nations, the right of a name." 
 
528 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 LET ERIN REMEMBER THE DAYS OF OLD. 
 
 BY MOORE. 
 
 Grand and Spirited. 
 
 -^-e- 
 
 -~~i — J 
 
 1. Let E - rin re-mem-ber the days of old, 
 
 ifZdzzz ~~r 1 — 9 1 
 
 Ere her faith - less sons be - trayed her; When 
 
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 rtiiziip 
 
 Mai - a - chy wore the col - lar of gold,* Which he 
 
 "6-P=P=F 
 
 s; 
 
 
 
 mm 
 
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 won from her proud in - va 
 
 :H^-n'-r-t 
 
 der. 
 
 When her 
 
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 3 
 
 
 lBBBi^aHr~ 
 
 * " This brought on an encounter between Malachy, the monarch of Ireland, in 
 the tenth century, and the Danes, in which Malachy defeated two of their cham- 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 529 
 
 -P 
 
 £ 
 
 8: 
 
 kings, with stand - ard of green un - furled, Led the 
 
 
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 em - erald gem of tlie west - ern 
 
 world 
 
 8-7=^ 
 
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 Was set 
 
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 the crown of 
 
 stran - ger. 
 
 '¥-'- 
 
 m 
 
 3: 
 
 l^alS 
 
 2. 
 On Lough Neagh's bank, as the fisherman strays,* 
 When the clear, cold eve's declining, 
 
 pions, whom he encountered successively, hand to hand, — taking a collar of gold 
 from the neck of one, and carrying off the sword of the other, as trophies of his 
 victory." — Warner's History of Ireland, vol. i. book 9. 
 
 * It was an old tradition, in the time of Giraldus, that Lough Neagh had been 
 originally a fountain, by whose sudden overflowing the country was inundated, and 
 a whole region, like the Atlantis of Plato, overwhelmed. He says that the fisher- 
 men, m clear weather, used to point out to strangers the tall ecclesiastical towers 
 under the water. 
 
 67 
 
5S0 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 He sees the round towers of other days 
 In the wave beneath him shining! 
 
 Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime, 
 Catch a glimpse of the days that are over; 
 
 Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time 
 For the long-faded glories they cover! 
 
 YOUGHALL HARBOR. 
 
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MUSIC. 
 
 531 
 
 THE LAMENTATION OF CONNAUGHT. 
 
 (gair na conactnac.) 
 
 
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532 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 THE YOUTH WITH THE FAIR FLOWING LOCKS. 
 
 (CAIL FIONN, OR COULIN.) 
 
 
 
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MUSIC. 
 
 533 
 
 JACKSON'S DELIGHT. 
 
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534 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
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 WOOD'S LAMENTATION. 
 
 BY CAROLAN. 
 
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MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 EILEEN A ROON, 
 
 B=?= 
 
 ^^^£^E^-=~=f 
 
 fs* — =■ 
 
 1. Blind to all else but thee, Ei - leen a Roon 
 
 Roon ; My ears ban - quet on thy praise, 
 
 My dove of all the grove thou art ; With 
 
 
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 Pride and pleas - ure of my days ! Source of all my 
 - out thee sickness wastes my heart ; Who can a - lone the 
 
 
 
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 ^is=i 
 
 hap - pi - ness 1 Ei - leen a Roon ! 
 
 cure im - part ? Ei - leen a Roon ! 
 
 2. 
 
 Break not, for king or throne, 
 
 Eileen a Roon, 
 The vows that made thee mine alone, 
 
 Eileen a Roon ! 
 Venus of my every vow ! 
 Brightest star on heaven's brow ! 
 My Helen, without stain, art thou, 
 
 Eileen a Roon ! 
 My rose, my lily, both confessed ; 
 My treasure, all I wish, possessed, 
 
536 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 The hearted secret of my breast, 
 
 Eileen a Roon ! 
 3. 
 With thee, o'er seas Pd sport my way, 
 
 Eileen a Roon ! 
 Never, never from thee stray, 
 
 Eileen a Roon ! 
 I'd wander o'er thy honeyed lip ; 
 With love tales charm thee on the deep; 
 Then lull thee on my breast to sleep, 
 
 Eileen a Roon ! 
 To valleys green I'd stray with thee; 
 By murmuring rill, and whispering tree ; 
 The birds will our wild minstrels be, 
 
 Eileen a Roon ! 
 4. 
 With more than human passion warms, 
 
 Eileen a Roon, 
 I'd fold thee in these raptured arms, 
 
 Eileen a Roon ! 
 Press thee, kiss thy bosom's snow ; 
 Round thee all my fondness throw, 
 Joys that only lovers know, 
 
 Eileen a Roon ! 
 Heaven beams in all thine eye. 
 Spotless star of modesty ! 
 Ere I deceive thee, may I die, 
 
 Eileen a Roon ! 
 5. 
 A hundred thousand welcomes,* 
 
 Eileen a Roon ! 
 A hundred thousand welcomes, 
 
 Eileen a Roon ! 
 O ! welcome, evermore. 
 With welcomes yet in store. 
 Till life and love are o'er, 
 
 Eileen a Roon ! 
 
 * Ceathe Miela Failthe, which means a hundred thousand welcomes, is a frequent 
 phrase of hospitality used in Ireland. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 537 
 
 fAg an bealac* 
 
 By C. G. Duffy, of the '■'■ J^ation." 
 
 AlXEGRO. 
 
 1. "Hope no more for fa - ther - land ; All its ranks are 
 y^^T^r^ ^^^' ^^1 
 
 
 
 thinned or broken ; " Long a base and coward band 
 
 id— d^-i ^---^ ^^- 
 
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 -9 
 
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 3: 
 
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 Re - creant words like these have spoken ; But we preach a 
 
 * Fdg an Bealac. ' " Clear the road ! " or, as it is vulgarly spelt, Faugh a Bal. 
 lagh, was the cry which the clans of Connaught and Munster used in battle. 
 The regiments raised in the South and West took their old shout with them 
 to the Continent. The 87th, or Royal Irish Fusileers, from their use of it, went 
 generally by the name of" The Faugh a Bollagh Boys." "Nothing," says Napier, 
 in his History of the Peninsular War, — " nothing so startled the French soldiery 
 as the wild yell with which the Irish regiments sprang to the charge." And 
 never was that haughty and intolerant shout raised in battle, but a charge, swift 
 as thought and fatal as flame, came with it, like a rushing incarnation of Fdg 
 an Bealac! 
 
 6S 
 
538 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
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 land a - wo - ken ! Father - land is true and tried, 
 
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 stand a - side ! Knaves and traitors, Fag an bea - lac ! 
 
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 Know, ye suffering brethren ours, 
 
 Might is strong, but Right is stronger ; 
 
 Saxon wiles, or Saxon powers. 
 Can enslave our land no longer 
 Than your own dissensions wrong her; 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 539 
 
 Be ye one in might and mind; 
 
 Quit the mire where cravens wallow ; 
 And your foes shall flee like wind 
 
 From your fearless Fag an bealac! 
 
 3. 
 
 Thus the mighty multitude 
 
 Speak, in accents hoarse with sorrow: — 
 " We are fallen, but unsubdued ; 
 
 Show us whence we hope may borrow, 
 
 And we'll fight your fight to-morrow 1 
 Be but cautious, true, and brave, 
 
 Where ye lead us we will follow ; 
 Hill and valley, rock and wave. 
 
 Shall echo back our Fag an bealac. 
 
 4. 
 
 "Fling our sun-burst to the wind, 
 
 Studded o'er with names of glory; 
 Worth, and wit, and might, and mind, 
 
 Poet young, and patriot hoary. 
 
 Long shall make it shine in story. 
 Close your ranks — the moment's come — 
 
 Now, ye men of Ireland, follow ! 
 Friends of freedom, charge them home! 
 , Foes of freedom, Fag an bealac!" 
 
540 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 TAKE HENCE THE BOWL. 
 
 BY MOORE . 
 
 L With Melancholy Peeling. |' 
 
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 me dream - ing Of 
 
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 days, of nights, now gone. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 541 
 
 iiEr= 
 
 ^5=s=^=«F=f 
 
 line: 
 
 ^ 
 
 There, in its clear re - flee - tion, As 
 
 8± 
 
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 Lost hopes and dead 
 
 af - fee - tion, Like 
 
 ~^L 
 
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 shades be - fore 
 
 8± 
 
 me 
 
 pass. 
 
 -n<S>- 
 
 -st 
 
 2. 
 Each cup I drain brings hither 
 
 Some friend who once sat by ; 
 Bright lips, too bright to wither; 
 
 Warm hearts, too warm to die ! 
 Till, as the dream comes o'er me, 
 
 Of those long-vanished years, 
 Then, then the cup before me 
 
 Seems turning all to tears ! 
 
542 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 ARABY'S DAUGHTER. 
 
 BY MOORE. 
 
 9 
 
 £ 
 
 p ^ - 1^ ^ - .- ^ p^ — -p — 
 
 1. Farewell, farewell to thee, Ar - a - by's daughter; 
 
 -*1- 
 
 
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 Thus warbled a pe - ri be - neath the dark sea ; No 
 
 rJcBz 
 
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 irizrzi- 9' 
 
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 pearl ev-er lay under Oman's green wa-ter, More 
 
 5—5- 
 
 ^ 
 
 zt-^: 
 
 pure in its shell than thy spir - it in thee. A 
 
 -5-F 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 543 
 
 P 
 
 ■ round thee shall glis - ten the love - li - est amber That 
 
 
 =R^ 
 
 -^.9- 
 
 -iV- 
 
 sor - row - ing sea-bird has wept, With 
 
 f-r^^-r-^-r^ 
 
 in whose hoUow-wreath'd chamber We 
 
 
 o - cean by moon - light have slept. 
 
 ti; 
 
 S 
 
 m 
 
 2. 
 
 JNor shall Iran, beloved of her hero, forget thee, 
 Though tyrants watch over her tears as they start; 
 
 Close, close by the side of that hero she'll set thee, 
 Embalmed in the innermost shrine of her heart! 
 Around thee shall glisten, &tc. 
 
LECTURE XIV. 
 
 PROM A. D. 1016 TO 1509. 
 
 Resumption of the Narrative. — Reign of Malachyll. — Of Donough O'Brien. — 
 Of Turlogh O'Brien. — Names of seventeen Irish Kings who reigned in four 
 hundred Years. — Condition of England. — Enghshmen bought as Slaves. — 
 Edward the Confessor. — William of Normandy, " the Conqueror," enslaves the 
 English. — Abolishes the Saxon Language. — Origin of Barons. — State of Wales 
 and Scotland. — Affairs of Ireland. — King Turlogh O'Connor. — The ancient 
 Manufactures of Ireland. — Manufacturing in Europe. — Roderick O'Connor 
 crowned Monarch of Ireland. — Dermot M'Murrough. — O'Ruark o( BieSny. — 
 Deposition of M'Murrough. — He flies to England. — Proposals to Henry II. 
 and Strongbow : invites an Invasion of his Country. — Invaders routed by the 
 Irish King. — Their Treachery. — Further Invasions. — Battle of Wexford. — 
 Progress of th? Invaders. — Their Compromise with the King. — Strongbow 
 lands. — Captures Waterford. — Invaders march on Dublin. — Alarm of the 
 Irish. — Cause of Ireland's Weakness. — Strongbow recalled by Henry II. — 
 Arrival of Henry II. — Conference at Cashell. — The Pope's Bull. — Submission 
 of some Chiefs. — Henry returns to England. — Henry's Character. — The forged 
 Bulls. — M'Murrough's Death. — Death of O'Ruark. — Poem of John Quincy 
 Adams on this Invasion. — Reflections on this Invasion. — Henry's Treaty with 
 the King of Ireland. — Henry II. did not conquer Ireland. — First Lord Deputy 
 sent to Ireland. — Prince John. — Abdication of Roderick. — Death of Henry II. 
 
 — Kinar John. — Magna Charta. — Confusion of Tongues. — An Irish Cham- 
 pion.-^ Henry III. and Edward I. of England. — Wales annexed to England. 
 
 — Wallace and Bruce of Scotland. — Inventions of this Age.— Bruce invited to 
 Ireland. — Failure of the Enterprise. — Reign of Edward III. of England. — 
 Penal Laws against the Irish. — "Irish Absentees." — Ineffectual Efforts to 
 conquer Ireland. — The Wars of York and Lancaster. — The O'Byrnes of 
 Wicklow. — English pay Tribute to the Irish Chiefs. — Charge of Ignorance 
 against the Irish refuted. — Donald O'Neill's Letter to the Pope. — Letter of 
 the Duke of York. — Fall of Richard III. — Henry VII. — State of Ireland at 
 this Time. — Poyning's Law. — Duties performed by the Clergy. 
 
 We shall now resume the general history of Ireland at the epoch of 
 the battle of Clontarf, anno 1016. 
 
 The Danes were effectually crushed in spirit by that memorable battle. 
 No further attempts of any consequence were made by them upon 
 Ireland. Their daring, adventurous leaders, having established them- 
 selves as masters over England, and over a considerable territory of 
 
MALACHI II. TURLOGH O BRIEN. 545 
 
 France, called Normandy, seemed to be content with those extensive 
 domains, and to have given up all farther hopes of conquering a coun- 
 try, in which, during two hundred and forty years, so many millions 
 of their choicest soldiers had been slain. 
 
 On the death of the illustrious Brien Boroimhe, and of his heroic 
 son Murrough, with others of his children, on the field of Clontarf, the 
 crown of Ireland was resumed by Malachi the Second. 
 
 The country gradually glided into a state of apathetic indifference to 
 political rights, disturbed only by the ambitious efforts of the three 
 great houses to possess the monarchy. These houses were long 
 known as the southern O'Briens, the northern Hy Nials, and the Con- 
 naught Hybrunes, whose contentions with each other generated those 
 commotions that rendered their country an easy prey, in the twelfth 
 century, to another set of invaders, still more cruel, still more treacher- 
 ous, than the Danes. 
 
 The eight years of Malachi's reign were devoted to arts of peace and 
 works of improvement. At his death, the chief government of Ireland 
 was assumed by the reigning prince of Munster, Donough O'Brien, 
 otherwise Donat, or Denis, son of Brien Boroimhe. A portion only 
 of the nation obeyed him. His reign was, however, peaceful. The 
 princes of the other provinces were satisfied with governing their own 
 subjects, without disputing with him the supreme authority ; but, being 
 suspected of having been accessory to the death of Thadeus, his eldest 
 brother, he was dethroned by the nobles of the kingdom, and reduced 
 to the rank of a private individual, which induced him to undertake a 
 pilgrimage to Rome, according to the habit of those ancient times. 
 Here he spent the remainder of his life in St. Stephen's monastery, and 
 died at the age of eighty-eight years, having presented the crown and 
 harp of his father to the pope. After his abdication, the crown of 
 Ireland was preserved by Dermod, as the regent, or protector, for the 
 young Twiogh O^Brien, grandson of the illustrious Brien of Clon- 
 tarf. Dermod had to assume sovereign sway, to raise armies, to fight 
 battles for his ward, which history informs us he did most valiantly. 
 
 At length, in the year 1072, Turlogh O^ Brien was installed on the 
 throne of Tara as monarch of Ireland. He was a prince of consider- 
 able abilities, courage, and piety, and approached to, or closely im- 
 itated the virtues of his illustrious grandsire. 
 
 He, at his death, was succeeded by his son Murtagh, who died 
 1101, having previously retired to a monastic life. 
 
 From the reign of Aoddi the Fourth, in the eighth century, to that of 
 69 
 
546 SEVENTEEN IRISH KINGS. CONDITION OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Roderick O'Connor, in the twelfth, there reigned seventeen kings in 
 a space of about four hundred years, which gave an average reign of 
 near thirty years to each. They were as follows: Connor, JSial 
 III., Malachi L, Hugh VL, Flan, Nial IV., Congalach, Malachi 
 II., Brien Boroimhe, Donough O^Brien, Dermod, the regent, 
 TurIos;h O^Brien, Moriarthach O'Brien, DonkaJd Maglough- 
 lin, Turlogh O'Connor, Moriarthach Magloughlin, and Roderick 
 O' Connor. 
 
 The reigns of some of these latter kings were, in every respect, 
 what a Christian people could admire ; and there are many records 
 existing of letters which had frequently been sent by the arch- 
 bishops of Canterbury to Turlogh O'Brien, of a highly laudatory 
 character. 
 
 It is necessary that we now take a hasty glance at the political and 
 social condition of England about this period, that we may the better 
 understand the roots of those organic changes which shordy after took 
 place in both kingdoms. 
 
 From the period of the Saxon buichery, in 476, to the Danish 
 invasion of England, in the beginning of the ninth century, the 
 government of England was divided into eight principahties, between 
 the Saxon princes, which they called the heptarchy. A separate 
 king reigned over the ancient Britons, who inhabited the Welsh moun- 
 tains. Scotland, on the north, had its independent king. 
 
 The ravages of the Danes, and their final conquest of England, in 
 the ninth century, broke up the frame of the Saxon government. 
 The whole nation became subject to the Danes, who ingrafted them- 
 selves on the soil, and married into the older Saxon families, and thus 
 became, as it were, by sufferance, the rulers of England. 
 
 Alfred, during the latter part of his life, totally hunted them from 
 his soil ; but, after his death, they returned, and, under Canute and 
 other Danish chieftains, England was brought again under the sub- 
 jection of the Danish rulers. 
 
 At this time, the English Saxons were bought and sold as slaves by 
 their conquerors. The price of a slave was quadruple that of an ox. 
 Slaves and cattle formed the living money ; they passed current in the 
 payment of debts, and also in the purchase of property and commodi- 
 ties. — See Wade's Recent History of England. 
 
 In the year 1042, on the death of Hardicanute, without issue, the 
 crown of England, by will, came to the hands of the celebrated 
 Edward, a monk, called the Confessor, who was brother of one of the 
 
EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. AVILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 547 
 
 previous Saxon princes. By the accession of this monk, the Saxon line 
 was restored in England. 
 
 Edward was a religious, learned monk, who, though thus being un- 
 expectedly called from his clois.ter to govern a nation, displayed great 
 wisdom, talents, and fitness for the trust. 
 
 Having been educated in Normandy, he preferred the Normans to 
 the highest posts of honor and command. He gathered together the 
 old Saxon laws and customs, which they had derived principally from 
 Ireland. These, together with the Psalter, or Doomsday Book, com- 
 menced by Alfred, after the model of the Psalter of Tcira, he had 
 carefully transcribed in the Latin language, which compilation contains 
 the great landmarks of the British constitution. It is that work to 
 which constitutional lawyers are prone to refer, for precedents of 
 social regulations. He built many churches in England, amongst 
 others, Westminster Abbey, demolished by Henry the Third, but since 
 rebuilt. He reigned twenty-three years ; and at his death, 1066, 
 the crown of England was claimed by Harold, son of the Danish 
 Earl Godwin. 
 
 This claim was contested by Tosti, assisted by Harold's brother, 
 who met Harold with their respective forces on the plains near Stan- 
 ford bridge, when a great carnage took place, the field being whitened, 
 for fifty years after, by the bones of the slain. At this battle, Harold 
 was victorious ; but, in four days after it was fought, William, duke of 
 Normandy, landed on the Sussex coast, with a powerful army. Harold 
 at the time was seated at a banquet, in York, surrounded by his thanes, 
 when news was brought of the arrival of a formidable competitor for the 
 crown. They met at the celebrated field of Hastings, where Harold's 
 forces were cut to pieces, himself slain, and William proclaimed king. 
 
 This took place on the 3d of October, 1066. That great victory, 
 and the final triumph of William of Normandy, has been called the 
 JSorman conquest, by which England came under the rule of a new 
 dynasty. • 
 
 William claimed the crown of England, under the pretence of a 
 promise of it. made to him by Edward the Confessor, which claim he 
 supported and established in the field. William the Conqueror proved 
 a terrible scourge to England. He carried fire and sword into eveiy 
 part, and spared neither age nor sex, young nor old. Several risings were 
 attempted in the course of his reign, but these he suppressed with great 
 cruelty. He affected to hold England as a tributary province to Nor- 
 
548 WILLIAM ENSLAVES THE ENGLISH. 
 
 mandy ; and yet the man who got all this power was the illegithnate 
 son of Robert, duke of Normandy, by the daughter of a tanner. 
 
 Speaking of his irruption into the north of England, William, the 
 Abbot of Malmesbury, writing sixty years after the conquest, says, 
 " From York to Durham, not an inhabited village remained ; fire- 
 slaughter, and desolation, made it a vast wilderness, which it continues 
 to this day." 
 
 William introduced the curfew law into England, which compelled 
 the nation to put out their fires and candles at eight o'clock every night. 
 
 " It would be difficult to find in history,'' says an English writer, " a 
 revolution more destructive, or attended with a more complete subjection 
 of the ancient inhabitants. Contumely was added to oppression, and 
 the unfortunate natives were universally reduced to such a state of 
 servility, meanness, and poverty, that, for ages, the English name becamb 
 a term of reproach I'''' * And several generations passed away before 
 one single family of Saxon pedigree was raised to any honor, or could 
 attain the rank of baron, in the state. 
 
 The English language was abolished in the court of the king, and 
 in those of law, and the French language substituted; at length, William 
 would suffer the youth of the nation to be instructed in no other than 
 the French tongue. The English language was proclaimed and 
 cried down by public and private act, in the same manner that the 
 good Queen Bess tried to extinguish the Irish language, in the 
 sixteentii century, which, however, has outlived her persecutions, and 
 will outlive the power and dynasty of her tyrant successors. The 
 pleadings in the law courts, from this time to the time of Edward the 
 Third, anno 1340, and the acts of Parliament, were all written in the 
 French language. Those Saxons, who wished to curry favor at court, 
 helped to run down their native tongue, and bring it into contempt. 
 Even so is it with some of the Irish at present, in reference to the lan- 
 guage and customs of their native land. 
 
 • 
 " We'd think no slaves lived in the ancient reign, 
 Did not some plain examples still remain." 
 
 The organic changes effected by this tyrant are beyond my limited 
 space to even compress into a short recital. He demolished churches 
 in every part of England, taking possession of their lands, which he 
 appropriated to his hungry followers — a practice afterwards followed by 
 his descendant, the rival monster, Henry the Eighth. He disarmed the 
 
 * Wade. 
 
ORIGIN OF BARONS. STATE OF WALES AND SCOTLAND. 549 
 
 English militia, and broke them up ; he look possession of all the 
 lands of England, which he divided into baronies, reserving four- 
 teen hundred manors and estates to himself; the remainder he conveyed 
 to about seven hundred of his followers, whom he honored by the . 
 title of harons. 
 
 The baronies were again let out to knights, or vassals, who paid the 
 baron the same submission in peace or war which the baron paid to the 
 king. The whole kingdom was put into the hands of about seven 
 hundred chief tenants, and sixty thousand " knights' fees." None of the 
 natives were admitted into the first class, but were glad to be admitted 
 into the second, and be the willing vassal of some Norman master. 
 The military of the kingdom was maintained by each of those chiefs as 
 the first charge on their lands ; and diis is the origin of primo- 
 geniture in England, by which all the lands of that country were held 
 after the conquest. 
 
 A curious piece of antique embroidered tapestry is yet preserved In 
 the cathedral of Bayeux, in France. It is a piece of linen, four 
 hundred and twenty feet long, and two feet wide, on which is worked 
 the principal figures and most striking scenes of the Norman conquest ; 
 it was worked by women, chosen by Matilda, the conqueror's wife ; 
 and it accurately describes the dress of the heroes of that age. None 
 of them wore stockings, and all wore wooden shoes. Wooden shoes 
 were then worn by the greatest of the European princes. 
 
 About this time, the celebrated Macbeth, the hero of Shakspeare's 
 tragedy, murdered Duncan, the king of Scotland, and usurped the 
 crown. He was deposed by Malcolm, aided by Seward, earl of North- 
 umberland. About the same period, Griffith ap Cynan, who was 
 educated in Ireland, reigned king of the Welsh. 
 
 In this age began that remarkable movement, known as the " cru- 
 sades," to which I have elsewhere alluded. 
 
 Such was the general state of Europe, of England, Scodand, Wales, 
 and Ireland, at the important epoch in Irish history which we are 
 approaching. 
 
 We have now arrived at the year 1150, and we find Turlogh 
 O'Connor, of the Connaught line, monarch of Meath, and the west 
 and south of Ireland. From the events of his reign, the historians 
 have drawn of this prince a high character. He was not only a great 
 general, but a profound and accomplished politician ; he protected trade, 
 manufactures, letters, and religion ; he had a strong passion for archi- 
 tecture, and built many great chyrches, castles, and bridges ; he rebuilt 
 
550 MANUFACTURES OF IRELAND. 
 
 several causeys, and repaired and made many roads ; he threw two 
 spacious bridges across the River Shannon, one at Athlone, the other at 
 Achochtha ; he also established a new mint, and had money coined at 
 Cluon Macknoise, — repaired the cathedral of Tuam, founded there a 
 great priory ; he punished crime severely ; even his own son. was loaded 
 with irons for twelve months for some unstated crime ; he founded and 
 endowed several universities throughout Ireland ; and left great wealth, 
 by his will, to the churches and colleges. 
 
 About this time also were held several ecclesiastical synods in 
 Ireland ; the proceedings of which are more interesting to the priest- 
 hood than to the general reader, as they related to mere matters of 
 discipline ; they will be found detailed at copious length in Lannigan, 
 Carew, or Gahan's Ecclesiastical Histories. 
 
 It may be proper here to take a glance at the manufacturing powers 
 of Ireland and Europe about this period. 
 
 I have already shown that the people of Ireland manufactured the 
 materials furnished by their mines, forests, flocks, and herds, into 
 every necessary for their own use. I have adduced the holding of 
 several fairs throughout Ireland, at which woollens, serges, flannels, 
 and other textile fabrics, were brought forward for sale. I have shown 
 the immense quantities of iron which were paid as revenue to their 
 various kings : their gold and silver articles of ornament and use were of 
 the highest finish, and display the proficiency of the workmen even to 
 this day. We have heard of the beautiful colors imparted to their 
 manufactures by the use of the marine insect called buccani purpura. 
 This was known in Ireland five hundred years before the Christian 
 era. We have seen that they manufactured silk for their chieftains' 
 dresses, which are frequently described by the bards with remarkable 
 precision. Amongst the articles of dress is noted the silken shirt. 
 
 In looking back upon those ages, if we see more attention given to 
 the polite arts than to trade and manufactures, we must attribute this 
 bias in the public mind to the universal spirit of chivalry which per- 
 vaded, in those times, every nation of Europe. It was then deemed 
 mean to trade or traffic in articles of manufacture ; such was then the 
 prevalent feeling of Europe. 
 
 The celebrated De Witt, of Holland, writing of those ages, says, 
 "Before this period, \ihe tenth century,^ there were no merchants in 
 all Europe, excepting a few in the republics of Italy, who traded with 
 the Indian caravans of the Levant ; or possibly there might have been 
 found some merchants elsewhere, though but in few places, that carried 
 
MANUFACTURING IN EUROPE. 551 
 
 on an inland trade, so that each nation, to the northward and eastward, 
 was forced to sow, build, and weave for itself; wherefore, in case of a 
 superfluity of their people, they were compelled, by force of arms, (for 
 want of provisions, and to prevent the effects of bad seasons, or hunger,) 
 to conquer more land. Such circumstances produced the irruptions of 
 the Celtae, Cimbri, Scythians, Goths, Vandals, Huns, Franks, Burgun- 
 dians, Normans, Stc, who, till about the year 1000, were in their greatest 
 strength ; all which people, and, in a word, all that spoke Dutch or 
 German, exchanged their superfluities, not for money, but, as it is re- 
 lated, thus — viz., two hens for a goose, two geese for a hog, three lambs 
 for a sheep, three calves for a cow, so much oats for barley, so much 
 barley for wheat, he. ; so that, excepting for eatables, there was 
 neither barter nor traffic. The Flemings, lying nearest to France, were 
 the first that began to earn their living by weaving, and sold the same 
 in that fruitful land, where the inhabitants were not only able to feed 
 themselves, but also, by the superfluous growth of their country, would 
 put themselves into good apparel ; which Baldwin, the count of Flan- 
 ders, considered, about the year 960, considerably improved by es- 
 tablishing yearly fairs in several places without laying on any toll." 
 
 Such were the commerce and traffic of Europe in those ages. I have 
 shown that Ireland had her great annual fairs ever since the days of 
 Cormac, in the third century, and probably since the first settlement of 
 the country by the Phoenicians ; for it was, as I have shown under the 
 head of " Architecture," the practice of the citizens of Tyre to hold 
 frequently those great fairs, in which woollen cloth, serges, flannels, 
 silks', and linens, were sold, also gold and silver ornaments, Sic. Those 
 " fairs " continue in Ireland to the present day. Fairs were not established 
 generally in Europe until the ninth century. Somewhat later than the 
 tenth century, the Flemings likewise supplied Germany with their 
 draperies, and, later still, the countries more northerly. 
 
 England had no foreign commerce for many centuries after this period. 
 The great bulk of her foreign trade was, for two hundred years, en- 
 grossed by the German merchants, who kept, in London, the cele- 
 brated Steelyard ; and these Germans conducted all their traffic also 
 in their own shipping. The British had not then either merchants 
 or shipping, until the inhabitants of the cinque ports, lying opposite to 
 France and Flanders, began, by degrees, to build ships of their own. 
 About the middle of the fourteenth century, the English began to build 
 ships, which Edward the Third very much encouraged. The great 
 raonarchs of Christendom concerned themselves, for many centuries, 
 
552 KING RODERICK o'cONNOR. o'rUARK. 
 
 only in the trade of war, and left the business of traffic altogether to 
 smaller states. 
 
 I shall now, having given the reader a glance at the general state of 
 Europe, come back to the affairs of Ireland, which country, at this 
 time, was far ahead of the continental nations of Europe, in arts, 
 sciences, letters, laws, religion, traffic. 
 
 In the year 1166, Roderick O'Connor, son to Turlogh the Great, 
 assumed the title, and was saluted monarch of Ireland. He marched 
 through the several provinces of the kingdom, and received the hostages 
 and formal submission of its chiefs. And now took place that incident 
 in our history that led to all the misfortunes which Ireland has endured 
 from tliat day to the present. 
 
 Dermot M'MurroughO'Kavenagh. king of Leinster, nursed a passion 
 for DeargorviUe, daughter of the king of Meath, and, though she was 
 subsequendy married to O'Ruark, prince of Breffny, or West Meath, 
 yet their mutual affection was not extinguished by the separation 
 consequent thereon. At length an opportunity offered which brought 
 matters to a crisis. It was the practice, in those ages, for princes 
 to go on long journeys to holy retreats in the performance of re- 
 ligious pilgrimages. O'Ruark had gone to Lough Dherg, a religious 
 retreat in the north of Ireland, which was consecrated by St. Patrick, 
 and which was frequented, for several centuries, by greater numbers 
 than even the holy see itself. In the absence of O^RuarTc, 
 M'Murrough, the Leinster prince, carried off Deargorville to his 
 own castle of Ferns, in Leinster. On the injured husband's return, 
 his feelings, and those of his friends, were worked up to a high 
 pitch of anger. His first act was to complain to the monarch 
 Roderick. This he did in the following letter, translated by O'Hal- 
 loran : — 
 
 " O^Ruark to Roderick the Monarch, health. 
 " Though I am sensible, most illustrious prince, that human adversi- 
 ties should be always supported with firmness and equanimity, and that 
 a virtuous man ought not to distress or afflict himself on account of the 
 levity, or inconstancy, of an imprudent female, yet, as this most horri- 
 ble crime (of which I am fully satisfied) must have reached your eai-s 
 before the receipt of my letters, and as it is a crime hitherto so un- 
 heard-of, as far as I can recollect, as never to be attempted against any 
 king of Ireland, — seventy impels me to seek justice, whilst charity 
 admonishes me to forgive the injury. If you consider only the dishonor^ 
 
DERMOT M MURROUGH. 
 
 S3 
 
 — that, I confess, is mine alone ; if you reflect on the cause, it is 
 common to us both ; for what confidence can we place in our subjects, 
 who are bound unto us by royal authority, if this lascivious destroyer 
 of chastity shall escape unpunished after the commission of so flagitious 
 a crime ? The outrages of princes, so publicly and notoriously com- 
 mitted, if not corrected, become precedents of pernicious example to the 
 people ; in a word, you are thoroughly convinced of my affection and 
 attachment to you ; you behold me wounded with the shafts of fortune, 
 and sorely distressed with the greatest afflictions : it only remains for me 
 to request, as I am entirely devoted to you, that you will not only with 
 your counsels assist, but with your arms revenge, these injuries, which 
 torment and distract me. This, when you will, and as you will, I not 
 only demand, but require, at your hands. Farewell ! 
 
 " O'RUARK." 
 
 Mr. Moore thinks that the outrage upon O'Ruark took place ten 
 years before Roderick O'Connor came to the throne, and that Mag- 
 loughlin, the monarch at that lime, refused to take up his quarrel. Be 
 that as it may, all the historians agree that Roderick O'Connor, in con- 
 sequence of this appeal from O'Ruark, immediately called a national 
 council, at which it was decreed that M'Murrough, for various crimes 
 and enormities, was unworthy to reign longer over Leinster. An army 
 was fitted out, and the command of it given to O'Ruark. He marched 
 to the territories of M'Murrough, who made some feeble resistance ; but, 
 his friends and followers every where abandoning him, he sought safety 
 in flight, and embarked, with about sixty followers, for Bristol. The un- 
 fortunate lady, the cause of all this war, flew to St. Bridget's nunnery, 
 in Kildare, where she passed the rest of her life in penitence. 
 
 The territories of M'Murrough were divided between the princes of 
 Ossory and Murcha. The royal army returned, and proceeded to 
 quell some rising in the north : that army amounted, we are told, to 
 thirty-nine thousand foot and fourteen thousand horse. 
 
 King Roderick, who accompanied the expedition, returned to Tara, 
 held a parliament there, and also the fair of Taltean, which lasted 
 for a month, and which was surrounded with unusual splendor. 
 
 But while the Irish nation were thus enjoying the blessings of peace, 
 they little suspected that a plot was hatching to disturb their tran- 
 quillity, and destroy their independence. 
 
 The exiled M'Murrough, after remaining some time in Bristol, 
 repaired to Normandy, in the north of France, where Henry the Second, 
 70 
 
 \ 
 
554 m'murrough flies to England. 
 
 kino- of Eno-land, ihen was sojourning. Henry was the fourth Norman 
 kino- of Eno-land, after Wilham the Conqueror. Between him and the 
 Conqueror, there were WilHam the Second, called Rnfus, on account 
 of his red hair, Henry the First, and Stephen. 
 
 MMurrough sought assistance from the English monarch to regain 
 his lost dominion. Henry the Second gave him a favorable reception, 
 heard his tale, but excused himself from, at present, engaging in his 
 cause. MMurrough requested, at least, his permission to raise such 
 volunteers amongst his subjects as he could procure. To this Henry 
 consented, and issued in his favor the following proclamation, addressed 
 to all his subjects of England, Wales, and Normandy : — 
 
 " Whereas Dermod, king of Leinster, most wrongfully, (as he in- 
 formeth,) banished out of his own country, hath craved our aid, there- 
 fore, forasmuch as we have received him into our protection, grace, and 
 favor, whoever, within our realms, subject unto our command, will aid 
 and help him, whom we have embraced as our trusty friend, for the 
 recovery of his land, let him be assured of our grace and favor." 
 
 MMurrough, by sound of trumpet, had tliis proclamation frequently 
 read in Bristol and some adjoining cities. He offered great rewards to 
 such as would enlist under his banners ; but his progress was not en- 
 couraoino-. He then passed over to Wales, and applied to Richard, 
 Earl of Strigul, commonly called Strongbow. He made considerable 
 offers of lands in Ireland to the Welsh Norman chieftain, also offered 
 him his daughter Eva in marriage, and the reversion of his kingdom, 
 on his death, if, by his means and those of his friends, he should be 
 restored to his dominions. This treaty was accepted by Strongbow, 
 sioned and sworn to on both sides, and MMurrough bound himself 
 by oath, to give him, at a proper time, his daughter Eva in marriage ; 
 but the exiled prince had not the power, by the Irish constitution, to 
 will his kingdom to alien blood, or to any chief, contrary to the will of 
 his people. 
 
 Two other Welsh chieftains, Robert Fitzstephen and Maurice Fitz- 
 gerald, entered into the project : one of these was promised the town 
 of Wexford. With such forces as he could collect, MMurrough 
 landed suddenly on the Irish coast, and seized on a portion of his old 
 territories. O'RuarJc, his mortal enemy, had notice of this, and was 
 soon in arms to expel him, with the approbation of the monarch, 
 Roderick O'Connor. 
 
 MMurrough then had recourse to negotiation. He made the most 
 abject submission to King Roderick, and besought him to interpose his 
 
FIRST ENGLISH INVASIONS. 555 
 
 good offices to appease the vengeance of O'Ruark, whom he confessed 
 he had greatly injured ; and as the unhappy lady had long become a 
 penitent sister of the holy nuns of Kildare, he begged for the enjoy- 
 ment of a portion or pittance of his former patrimony. 
 
 His appeal, which was made through an eloquent ecclesiastic, was 
 heard favorably, (unfortunately for Ireland.) He was allowed a large 
 breadth of the lands of Wexford ; he delivered up seven hostages to 
 the monarch, and presented O'Ruark with one hundred ounces of pure 
 gold. Thus every thing appeared settled ; but alas for Ireland, that 
 gave birth to such a traitor as MMurrough ! 
 
 Having now artfully gained a settlement and reestablishment in his 
 native country, forgetful of his oaths, or hostages, to the Irish monarch, 
 he turned his whole energies and cunning to the base object of binding 
 that native country in the toils of the stranger. He sent his private 
 secretary, O'Regan, to Wales, to remind his friends of their promises 
 and engagements, and to say that he was ready to receive them with 
 open arms. He directed him to send over small squadrons, so as not to 
 alarm his enemies, and to be ready to land a considerable force in the 
 spring. O'Regan was directed to get as many recruits, for the enter- 
 prise, as he could, and make the most flattering promises of land and 
 wealth to the adventurers. 
 
 M'Murrough was busy and incessant throughout that winter, and 
 increased his partisans and followers without" letting them know his 
 deep intent; and, by appointment with his Welsh associates, there 
 landed, in May, 1169, in five small vessels from Wales, Fitzstephen, 
 Fitzgerald, Barry, Hervey, and some other chiefs, together with about 
 thirty knights, sixty esquires, and three hundred archers, .with Maurice 
 Prendergast at the head of ten knights and two hundred archers, forming 
 not more than seven hundred foreigners altogether. On their arrival, 
 on the 11th May, 1169, they despatched a letter to MMurrough, 
 announcing their presence in the country. He Immediately sent his 
 son, at the head of five hundred horse, to meet them ; he followed 
 himself, at the head of two thousand infantry ; and they soon concerted a 
 plan of military operations. Wexford being nearest them, they resolved 
 to attack it first, which they did with great fury. Fitzstephen and 
 Barry led on the troops to the assault ; they soon filled the ditches, and 
 reared their ladders against the walls ; but the Irish, regardless of 
 their shining armor, in which all the adventurers were incased, hurled 
 them from the walls with great slaughter ; and, after the loss of many 
 gallant knights and soldiers, the invaders sounded a retreat. 
 
556 BATTLE OF WEXFORD. 
 
 This repulse greatly dispirited them ; and Fitzstephen, fearing that 
 his followers would fly to their ships and return, had them burnt before 
 their eyes, that no mode of escape might lie open, and to convince 
 ihem that death or victory was the only choice before them. For 
 three successive days did they renew the attack, but with no better 
 success. 
 
 At length the bishop and clergy of Wexford, in order to save the 
 effusion of Christian blood, — both the invaders and invaded were 
 of one faith then, — offered their mediation to bring about terms of 
 peace. This was listened to, and the result was, the citizens returned in 
 their allegiance to M'Murrough, putting hostages into his hands for this 
 agreement. But lliey little thought he had conveyed over, by a sort 
 of mortgage, the city and liberties of Wexford to the strangers. No 
 sooner did he get possession of the town, than he resigned his authority 
 and rights over it to Fitzstephen and Fitzgerald. 
 
 This triumph, obtained by stratagem, over W^exford, raised the name 
 of M'Murrough, and exaggerated the numbers of his foreign auxiliaries. 
 Numbers of his countrymen flocked to his standard, thinking they were 
 supporting their chief and prince, and, without a single additional soldier 
 from England, he invaded the territories of the neighboring chiefs, and 
 subdued and plundered them. 
 
 All this took place in Wexford without exciting any alarm throughout 
 the other provinces of Ireland. It was, unfortunately, too much the prac- 
 tice, in those days, for provincial princes to make war upon each other, 
 and retaliate, on each side, by spoils and hostages, without calling for 
 the interference of any other power. The progress of this liandful of 
 adventurers, in support of the efforts of one of their own princes, to 
 recover his territories, excited too little jealousy, and it seems not more 
 than the ordinary curiosity consequent upon border warfare. 
 
 M'Murrough, however, refusing to pay his annual tribute to Roder- 
 ick, the monarch, the latter felt justly alarmed at such manifestation of 
 independence, which he truly attributed to the presence and advice 
 of the strangers. He thereupon called a council of the estates, when it 
 was resolved that M'Murrough should dismiss the strangers from his 
 dominion, compensating them for their services, and the king, Roderick, 
 undertook to provide them with ships, to take them back to their own 
 country ; but as F'itzstephen had been taken out of jail, and the majority 
 of those adventurers were outlaws and runaways from the justice of 
 their own country, the offer was not at all palatable, though any other 
 terms, short of quitting Ireland, would have been gladly accepted. They 
 
PROGRESS OF THE INVADERS. 557 
 
 counselled M'MuiTougb, therefore, not to yield. But the Irish monarch, 
 at the head of twenty thousand men, marched into Leinster, and would 
 have exterminated the invaders, but for, unluckily again, the interference 
 of the clergy, who were authorized by the wily M'Murrough to offer 
 a complete submission to Roderick, on the part of himself, and to dis- 
 miss all the foreigners, with proper rewards for their trouble. And this 
 agreement, being accepted, was ratified by the oath of M'Murrough, 
 before the great altar of the church of St. Maidog, at Ferns. The un- 
 dertaking was joined in, besides, by several of the clergy, to increase the 
 solemnity and guaranty of the contract. 
 
 In this year, Maidog, third son to Owen Gwinneth, of North Wales, 
 by an Irish lady, born in Clochran, in Connaught, and who was much 
 addicted to maritime affairs, fitted out some ships to explore towards the 
 north, but was driven to the American coast, where, according to Stow 
 and Clin, he landed at New Spain, now Florida. He returned to Ire- 
 land, and fitted out a second expedition ; but of this last no accounts ever 
 were received. It is said that a portion of this small colony penetrated 
 into Mexico, and founded tribes in that extraordinary and fertile region. 
 
 To return : M'Murrough kept up an active correspondence wit'j 
 Strongbow ; and, finally, that chief, at the head of a considerable force, 
 landed at Waterford, in 1170, where being joined by M'Murrough, 
 they soon attacked the city, but were bravely repulsed. Next day they 
 returned to the assault, but were again unsuccessful. Raymond Le 
 Gros, one of the foreigners, hit upon an unthought-of expedient for 
 entering the town : observing a projecting house, built on the city 
 walls, one side of which rested on a few wooden piles, — these he pulled 
 from under the house, when it tumbled ; and thus,(in the night,) opening 
 a pass, the besiegers rushed in, and fell upon the inhabitants, sword in 
 hand, committing the greatest carnage and the most atrocious acts of 
 cruelty, sparing neither age nor sex. The city, by this stratagem, fell 
 into their hands, and its vast wealth became their spoil. 
 
 The fiendish M'Murrough then sent for his daughter to the castle of 
 Ferns, and had her married on the spot, in the midst of the shocking 
 carnage, to Strongbow. M'Murrough and his allies, now having 
 Waterford and Wexford at their command, — in the harbors of which 
 they kept ships, to secure a retreat, — looked to more extensive conquest, 
 and prepared a considerable force to move on Dublin. They provided 
 their army with every necessary for the march on Dublin, of which the 
 monarch, Roderick, was apprized, and to frustrate which he had all the 
 roads guarded. M'Murrough and his associates got to Dublin by un- 
 
558 SIEGE OF DUBLIN. 
 
 frequented paths, over tlie wild mountains of Glendelough, in the County 
 Wicklow, and thus evaded the royal army, arriving before Dublin ere 
 the king was aware that tliey had begun to move. 
 
 They called on the citizens to surrender, but this was obstinately 
 refused ; and here again the interference of the clergy, who wished to 
 avoid the shedding of human blood, was the cause of the loss of this 
 important garrison to the Irish. 
 
 St. Lawrence O'Toole, the archbishop of Dublin, one of the most 
 learned men of Europe at this period, proposed a negotiation between 
 the besieged and besiegers. A deputation of the citizens, with that 
 most venerable prelate at their head, met M^Murrough and Strongbow 
 at their camp; but, during this negotiation, Raymond Le Gros and 
 Miles Cogan were examining the city walls, and, having found the 
 weakest and least defended part, they returned to their camp, and, ere 
 yet the negotiation ended, rushed, at the head of one thousand picked 
 men, to those weak points of the city, which they entered with great 
 fury, sword in hand, and butchered old and young, male and female, 
 committing the most revolting acts of violation on the ladies, in presence 
 of their dying husbands, brothers, and relatives. Pillage and slaughter 
 were the order of the hour, in the midst of which MMurrough and 
 Strongbow entered the city in triumph, and Cogan, for this treacherous 
 and ULSoldierlike act, was installed governor of Dublin. 
 
 The twenty-first of September, 1170, was the day of this dreadful 
 massacre. The treachery, perfidy, and cruelty, of those new invaders, 
 astonished and terrified the whole nation. The Irish princes, when 
 they fought with each other, appointed the time and place of battle ; 
 and when the conflict was over, the victors were excessive in their kind- 
 ness to the vanquished, treaties of peace and oaths were kept religious- 
 ly, property was not violated, nor the sacred shrine of female honor 
 invaded. But these miscreants introduced a new system of warfare ; 
 they exhibited nought but savage treachery, blood-thirstiness, and 
 beastly ferocity. 
 
 When these misfortunes had fallen on the Irish people, they were 
 greatly grieved and subdued in spirit, and, wondering one to another at 
 the change in their fortunes, held a solemn meeting of the clergy and 
 chief men at Armagh, to consider their present condition, and such parts 
 of their conduct as might be deemed most offensive by the Almighty, 
 who had evidently sent these invaders as a scourge. It appeared, at that 
 meeting, that it was the custom of Englishmen to expose their children 
 for sale, and the Irish speculators of the day bought and sold them from 
 
ALARM OF THE IRISH. 559 
 
 one to another, like any other articles of merchandise. The synod of 
 Armagh, therefore, entered into a most solemn vow to discontinue forever 
 this traffic in their fellow-creatures. All the English, in bondage in Ire- 
 land, were thereupon set at liberty. — See Camhrcnsis and Dr. Warner. 
 
 Upon this crisis in the fate of Ireland, the Abbe M'Geoghegan makes 
 the following comment : " The reign of Roderick O'Connor is mem- 
 orable for a revolution, which forms an epoch fatal to Ireland. An 
 invasion of the English, which, in its beginning, would not have alarmed 
 even the petty republic of Ragusa, became, from its having been 
 neglected at first, so serious, that the liberty of a powerful nation became 
 its victim, and a monarchy which had lasted for more than two thousand 
 years was overthrown. 
 
 " Politicians endeavor to account for the fall of empires. By some it 
 is ascribed to the weakness of those rulers who introduce a bad system 
 in the administration of their laws, and by some to exterior causes; 
 while others, with more reason, assign it to the will of the Supreme 
 Being, who has drawn all things out of nothing, who governs all, and 
 sets bounds to the duration of all created objects. Besides this, how- 
 ever, I think we may examine the connection that exists between 
 natural and secondary causes, which are the instruments made use of 
 by the Divinity. 
 
 " With respect to Ireland, the source of her destruction can be 
 discovered within her own bosom. This kingdom was, from the settle- 
 ment of the Milesians in the island, governed by one king, till the reign 
 of Eocha the Ninth, who erected the four provinces into as many king- 
 doms, independent of each other, some time before the Christian era : 
 they were, however, dependent on the monarch, as those electors and 
 princes are who hold their states of the emperor of Germany. This 
 was the first blow which the constitution of Ireland received. It suf- 
 fered again, in the first century, by the revolt of the plebeians, and the 
 massacre of the princes and nobles of the country by these barbarians, 
 who seized upon the government. Towards the end of the second 
 century, a war also, which Modha-Nuagat, king of Munster, carried on 
 against Con, the monarch, (the result of which was the division of the 
 island between the contending parties,) produced new disasters to the 
 kingdom. 
 
 " Notwithstanding these convulsions in the state, and the violent 
 attacks of the Normans, during two centuries, the Irish monarchy still 
 maintained itself till the reign of Malachi the Second, in the beginning 
 of the eleventh century, when the sceptre, which had been for six or 
 
560 STRONGBOW RECALLED BY HENRY. 
 
 seven hundred years hereditary in the same family, passed into other 
 hands. Factions increased in proportion to the number of claimants to 
 the crown, and the government was, in consequence, rendered weak and 
 enfeebled. 
 
 " The fall of monarchies seldom occurs suddenly. The change takes 
 place by degrees, and from a chain of events which imperceptibly un- 
 dermine the constitution of the state, (as sickness enervates the body,) 
 till it requires but a slight shock or stroke to complete their destruction. 
 The Irish monarchy received this fatal blow, in the twelfth century, 
 through the debauchery and boundless ambition of one of its princes."" 
 
 While Strongbow was carrying on his conquests, King Henry the 
 Second became alarmed lest he might assume a sovereignty in Ireland 
 independent of his royal power. He therefore issued a proclamation, 
 forbidding any of his subjects, on pain of death and forfeiture of their 
 lands, to give further aid to Strongbow. This seriously paralysed the 
 invader, for many of his troops returned affrighted to England. At 
 this nick of time the Irish had it completely in their power to prostrate 
 the forces of the invader; but fate ruled it otherwise. Instead of 
 uniting to drive off the common enemy, they wasted their energies in 
 fighting with each other, chieftain against chieftain, about some petty 
 privilege or tribute. Strongbow, in the mean time, sent his brother-in- 
 law, Raymond Le Gros, to King Henry, who was then in Normandy, 
 to formally surrender all the lands he had acquired in Ireland to his 
 majesty, and assure him of the speedy conquest of the whole kingdom, 
 if only a moderate army, under the command of his majesty in person, 
 were to land in the country. It appears the king refused to listen to 
 the suggestion, and returned a most discouraging answer to Strongbow; 
 whereupon that daring chief now resolved to act for himself. 
 
 In the mean time, St. Lawrence O'Toole, the archbishop of Dublin, 
 proved himself a pure patriot. Seeing an opportunity so favorable for 
 the utter extermination of the invaders of his country, he flew from 
 province to province, endeavoring to unite the chiefs and princes ; but 
 their foolish animosities between each other prevailed. They refused 
 to unite under Roderick O'Connor, who appeared not to have had the 
 confidence of the northern province. Besides, the insignificance of the 
 Anglo-Norman force in Ireland, and the reported refusal of Henry the 
 Second to abet his countrymen, tended to spread a dangerous security. 
 At length, however, the Irish chiefs were roused and ralhed, so far as to 
 surround Dublin with a considerable force, under the command of King 
 Roderick O'Connor. But, instead of proceeding to capture the city, 
 
HENRY THE SECOND LANDS AT WATERFORD. 561 
 
 they foolishly lay two months around it, listening to negotiations from 
 the wily intruders, when at length the English, in a state of madness and 
 despair, rushed out at night, and, though only a handful, so terrorized 
 the unprepared Irish, that they fled : the king, being at the time in a 
 bath, had barely an opportunity to escape. 
 
 Strongbow, having now established his power over Leiuster, repaired in 
 person to the presence of Henry the Second, and the result was the form- 
 al invasion of Ireland by that monarch, with a force of four thousand five 
 liundred men, brought to Ireland in four hundred small ships. They 
 landed near Waterford, on St. Luke's day, 18th October, 1171. At 
 that very moment a fierce war was raging, in the heart of Ulster, between 
 the native chieftains, the forces of any of whom would have been suf- 
 ficient to defeat the king of England. 
 
 Strongbow formally gave up to King Henry, Waterford, Wexford, and 
 Dublin, which, together with the imposing presence of the king, and his 
 glittering retinue of armed knights, on their shores, paralyzed the courage 
 of the southern chiefs very materially. But that which more than any 
 thing else intimidated them, was the report, industriously circulated pre- 
 vious to Henry's arrival, that Pope Adrian had conferred the sovereignty 
 of Ireland on the English monarch. 
 
 It was the custom of princes in those days, for the greater security 
 of their dominions, to make them over to the head of the Christian 
 church, and receive them back as ecclesiastical grants ; for so sacred 
 were the possessions of the church then regarded, that none were found 
 throughout the Christian world so bold as to invade them. 
 
 It was pretended by King Henry, that Adrian the Fourth had made 
 over the whole of Ireland to him. He lost no time, therefore, on his 
 arrival, in inviting the clergy of the south and the west to a gi'and 
 conference, at the ancient seat of legislation, in Cashell. The pre- 
 tended bull of Adrian, who had then been dead eighteen years, was pro- 
 duced. It set forth the anxieties of die holy see to have virtue and 
 religion cultivated in Ireland, and the chief pastors obedient and sub- 
 missive to the sovereign poindfF; and the better to insure this object, the 
 clergy and people of Ireland were called upon to receive Henry the 
 Second of England as their king. A second bull, confirming the fore- 
 going, purporting to be from Alexander the Third, was also read ; and 
 though this one also has since been proved a forgery, yet it had an 
 astounding effect on the assembly. 
 
 Each man looked at his neighbor, not knowing what decision to 
 make. The ecclesiastics were seized with panic and indecision. Some 
 71 
 
562 SUBMISSION OF SOME CHIEFS. 
 
 of the clergy inclined to the admonitions of the pope, and submitted to 
 Henry, whilst others went their ways tb their respective provinces as 
 much in grief as in anger. Some of the secondary chiefs of the south 
 u-ave up their territories to Henry, receiving the same back, to bold as 
 his vassals; and as this act of submission appeared not humiliating, 
 owinff to the acquiescence of many of the clergy in the ordinance of 
 ihe see of Rome, Henry obtained the adherence of seven counties 
 without striking a blow. 
 
 In this famous synod, some unimportant alterations were made in 
 reference to church affairs, which embraced only the better payment of 
 tithes, and the relief of the church lands from the quarterly tributes 
 demanded by chiefs, together with some regulations about marriages. 
 These things were sanctioned by Henry the more heartily, for he was 
 crafty, and lost no opportunity of gaining the clergy to his interests. It 
 is also alleged by English writers, that Henry, at this first convention, 
 gave the benefit of English laws to the Irish. If so, the Irish were so 
 unconscious of the benefit, that, outside of the English pale, they never 
 as much as adopted one of them; and, still more^ the English within the 
 pale could not be prevented, even by the most rigorous laws of Eng- 
 land, adopting the Irish laws, language, customs, and even the Milesian 
 names. 
 
 To whatsoever extent the English writers may claim a sovereignty 
 over Ireland by the submission to Henry of some of the southern princes, 
 and even that of the paltry Roderick of Connaught, they must admit 
 that the great north and north-west of the country never, even formally, 
 submitted to this newly-assumed power, and that, for two hundred and 
 fifty years from this period, it gradually melted away, until, as we shall 
 prove, the power of England in Ireland was represented by forty 
 horsemen and eighty archers on foot. 
 
 Henry was soon called back to England, to answer the charge of 
 having procured the assassination of Thomas a Becket, archbishop of 
 Canterbury, afterwards canonized as St. Thomas of Canterbury, 
 which there is no doubt but he did cause, promote, and had accom- 
 plished. 
 
 The Abbe M'Geoghegan, in proving those bulls forgeries, asks, 
 " Is it likely any pope would select such a monster as Henry the Second 
 to effect a reformation of a nation's morals ? " and then draws the char- 
 acter of Henry from Cambrensis, and other historians, thus : — 
 
 "The bull of Alexander the Third must appear a paradox to all 
 those who strictly investigate the morals of Henry, and his behavior to 
 
THE FORGED BULLS. HENRt's CHARACTER. 563 
 
 the court of Rome. A bad Christian makes a bad apostle. What 
 was Henry the Second ? A man who, in private Hfe, forgot the 
 essential duties of religion, and frequently those of nature ; a supersti- 
 tious man, who, under the veil of religion, joined the most holy prac- 
 tices to the most flagrant vices ; regardless of his word, when, to 
 promote his own interest, he broke the most solemn treaties with the 
 king of France ; he considered principle as nothing, when the sacrifice 
 of it promised to produce him a benefit. It is well known, that, with- 
 out any scruple, he married Eleanor of Aquitaine, so famous for her de- 
 baucheries, and branded by her divorce from Louis the Seventh. He 
 ungratefully confined this very woman in chains, though she had broucrht 
 him one fourth o( France as her marriage portion. He was a bad 
 father, quarrelled with all his children, and became engaged in wars on 
 every side. As a king, he tyrannized over his nobles, and took pleasure 
 in confounding all their privileges ; like his predecessors, he was the 
 sworn enemy of the popes ; he attacked their rights, persecuted their 
 adherents, sent back their legates with contempt, encroached upon the 
 privileges and immunities of the church, and gloried in supporting the 
 most unjust usurpers of them ; which led to the martyrdom of St. 
 Thomas of Canterbury. Again, his debaucheries are admitted by 
 every historian. No one is ignorant that he went so far as to seduce 
 the young Alix, who had been betrothed to his son Richard, and that 
 all the misfortunes which filled the latter part of his life with affliction, 
 were caused by this passion, as obstinate as it was criminal and base. 
 Behold the apostle, the reformer, whom the holy see would have 
 chosen to convert Ireland ! The witnesses, we here bring forth, are 
 not to be suspected. Cambrensis himself, whose opinions I have 
 elsewhere reflited, is the first to acknowledge the irregularities of Henry 
 the Second." 
 
 " The pope refused either to see or hear ihe ambassadors, whom 
 Henry had sent to exculpate himself from the murder of Thomas of 
 Canterbury ; but the Roman court cried out, ' Desist, desist,' as if it 
 were impioift for the pope to hear the name of Henry, who had sent 
 them. By the general advice of the council, the pope dispensed with 
 expressly mentioning the name of the king, and the country beyond the 
 sea." — Hoveden, p. 526. 
 
 " These bulls have, in fact, all the appearance of forgery. They are 
 not to be met with in any collection. It appears, also, that Henry the 
 Second considered them so insufficient to strengthen his dominion in 
 Ireland, that he solicited Pope Lucius the Third, who succeeded 
 
564 M MUKROUGH S DEATH. 
 
 Alexander, to confirm them ; but that pope was too just to authorize 
 his usurpation, and paid no regard to a considerable sum of money 
 which the king sent to him." 
 
 Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator, has given it as his opinion, that 
 these bulls were forgeries. 
 
 The Irish princes did not act, unfortunately, that independent 
 part which became men who lived in this crisis of their country's 
 affairs. Divided among themselves, and submissive to the ordinances 
 of the church, while we revere their feelings as Christians, we cannot 
 but deplore their conduct and tame submission as freemen. That this 
 was the true cause of Ireland's unaccountable toleration of the invaders 
 on her soil maybe gathered from the letter, written by the great O'Neill,, 
 kino of Ulster, in 1330, and presented to John the Twenty-second, pope 
 of Rome, in the name of the Irish nation, which I have published at 
 length towards the conclusion of this lecture. " During the course of so 
 many ages, our sovereigns preserved the independency of their country," 
 says O'Neill : " attacked more than once by foreign powers, they 
 wanted neither force nor courage to repel the bold invaders ; but that 
 which they dared to do against force, they could not attempt to da 
 against the simple decree of one of your predecessors, Adrian." 
 
 Such were the causes of the subjection of a portion of Ireland to 
 English juii-diction. 
 
 Those who followed Henry the Second to Ireland were the descend- 
 ants of the Norman conquerors, who were again the progeny of the 
 Danish barbarians that settled in France, and founded the kingdom of 
 Normandy. Neither their association with the French, nor with the 
 Anglo-Saxons since their arrival in England, tended to diminish their 
 ferocity. During the century that preceded the invasion of Ireland, 
 they were continually under arms, either to crush the rebellious Saxons, 
 battle with the Scots, or subjugate the Welsh. And these are the 
 people who, Cambrensis says, introduced civilization into Ireland. 
 
 The infamous M'Murrough, or Dei'mot, as he is sometimes called, 
 died in the midst of the desolations he had called down upon'his country. 
 This execrable wretch died a shocking spectacle ; his body was covered 
 with a hideous leprosy, and he expired in the greatest misery, without 
 friends, pity, or spiritual comfort. 
 
 Previous to Henry's arrival, I should have told that the valiant 
 O'Ruark, at the head of his own knights, made one more brave effort 
 to free his native land. He attacked Dublin sword in hand, and, 
 having drawn Miles Cogan, the governor, and his garrison, outside of the 
 
DEATH OF o'rUARK. 565 
 
 fortifications, a bloody battle was fought between them, which produced 
 no other effect than the loss of many lives. The son of O'Ruark, 
 having signalized himself by his valor in the thick of the battle, was 
 mortally wounded, with several of his followers, who sold their lives 
 dearly to the Enghsh, of whom also a great number fell on the field of 
 battle. 
 
 Subsequently a conference was held between O'Ruark and De Lacy 
 to make a peace, which was proposed by the English, and. while the 
 negotiation was proceeding on the hill of Tara, between both leaders, 
 who left their armies in the valleys, and ascended with their interpreters 
 to the hill, seven English knights went up its side, tilting in jest, — they 
 soon fell upon O'Ruark ; and, in the presence of both armies, the 
 valiant hero was stabbed to the heart, upon which his followers were 
 rushed upon, at the moment of panic, and cut to pieces or dispersed. 
 
 It cannot but gratify every Irishman, in America and Ireland, to learn 
 that the philosopher, statesman, and litterateur of America, .John 
 QuiNCY Adams, has written a beautiful poem, founded on the unfortu- 
 nate affairs in the history of Ireland, brought on by the traitor Dorniot. 
 I take leave to insert a dozen stanzas selected at rar.dc m, snd to 
 notice that, in his able preface, Mr. Adams justly reproves the mcial 
 veracity of Hume, who painted Henry the Second as a hero : — 
 
 " So much for Hume's philosophy, teaching by the example of Henry 
 the Second. If there be, in the annals of the human race, a transaction 
 of deeper and more melancholy depravity than the conquest of Ireland 
 by Henry the Second, it has not fallen under my notice. It would 
 seem as if it could not be accomplished but by a complication of the 
 most odious crimes, public and private." — 
 
 "Among those kings, there rose, from time to time, 
 
 One braver or more skilful than the rest, 
 With brighter parts, and genius more sublime, 
 
 Who bore among tliem all a loftier crest: 
 His power, while in the vigor of his prime, 
 
 O'er the whole island was at once impressed ; 
 And at the time precise of which I sing, 
 Roderick O'Connor was fair Erin's king. 
 
 "And tlien the people were, as they are now, 
 
 A careless, thoughtless, brave, kind-hearted race, 
 Witii boiling bosom, and with dauntless brow, 
 With shrewdest humor, and with laughing face ; 
 
566 POEM OF JOHN Q,UINCY ADAMS ON THIS INVASION. 
 
 Their women, purer than the virgin's vow, 
 
 Blooming in beauty, and adorned witli grace; 
 But some exceptions, I must own, were there, 
 As in all ages may be found elsewhere. 
 
 " Christians they had been from St. Patrick's day ; 
 
 Their priests for learning had been long renowned; 
 Though not accustomed Peter's pence to pay, 
 
 Nor tithes unto the pontiff triple-crowned. 
 Music they loved; they loved the minstrel's lay; 
 
 Their hearts were tuned to harmony of sound ; 
 As if from heaven's most hallowed notes it stole, 
 The harp of Erin searched the inmost soul." 
 
 ON DERMOT'S PRESENTING HIS DAUGHTER TO STRONGBOW, THE 
 
 INVADER. 
 
 " And Dermot promised him fair Eva's hand ; 
 
 And thus his country and his daughter sold : 
 O ! who can read the record of that land. 
 
 And mark her miseries, with bosom cold ? 
 If it must boil to see before us stand 
 
 A wretch who barters liberty for gold. 
 To see one, with what anguish must it swell, 
 At once himself, his child, his country sell?" 
 
 ON THE FIRST SKIRMISHES WITH THE INVADERS. 
 
 " But let not Erin suffer in your mind ; 
 
 If her brave children once were known to flee, — 
 Consult Columbia's annals, you shall find 
 
 The same with those who sought to make her free. 
 In sooth, militia-men you cannot bind 
 
 To serve for six months when engaged for three : — 
 Whence you may come to this conclusion just. 
 On raw militia not too much to trust" 
 
 HENRY'S MOCK SYNOD. 
 
 "At Cashell now a synod was convened 
 Of all the holy prelates of the land ; 
 
 And not a sin or frailty could be gleaned, 
 But stood exp6sed before that sag-ed band. 
 
 No crime was sheltered, not a vice was screened, 
 
POEM OF JOHN QUINCY ADAJIS ON THIS INVASION. 567 
 
 Of all that called for the reforming hand; 
 And what the sins were, would tlie .reader learn, 
 From the proposed reforms he shall discern. 
 
 " First, wedlock never must be solemnized. 
 
 Of kin within canonical degrees ; 
 And children must in public be baptized. 
 
 And taught to know at least the church's fees; 
 And lands and tenements should be devised 
 
 To wives and children as the sire should please ; 
 The dead in churchyards only buried be ; 
 And all the church's lands from taxes free. 
 
 "This was the searching process of refonn, 
 
 A precious model for all after times ; 
 This was to justify invasion's storm, 
 
 And Strongbow's robberies and Dermot's crimes. 
 One vice suppressed will sometimes breed a swarm, 
 
 As has been witnessed since, in other climes ; 
 But Avhen, O when, did Conquest ever dare 
 Unveil her Gorgon face, with snakes so rare ? " 
 
 THE DEATH OF DERMOT. 
 
 "And to his wildered senses, Erin's saints 
 
 Appear with lighted torches in their hands, 
 Applying scorpion scourges till he faints. 
 
 And then reviving him with biazing brands ; 
 While o'er his head a frowning Fury paints. 
 
 In letters which he reads and understands, 
 ' Expect no mercy from thy Maker's hand ! 
 Thou hadst no mercy on thy native land.' 
 
 "And to the shades the indignant spirit fled, 
 
 And THUS was Erin's conquest first achieved ; 
 
 Thus Albion's monarch first became her head ; 
 And now her freedom shall be soon retrieved. 
 
 For (mark the Muse — if rightly she has read, 
 Let this her voice prophetic be believed,) 
 
 Soon, soon shall dawn the day, as dawn it must, 
 
 When Erin's sceptre shall be Erin's trust." 
 
 I have shown that the English first obtained a footing by stratagem 
 and treachery, coupled with the baseness of Dermot, than whom Ire- 
 land, nor no other country, ever gave birth to a greater villain. I have 
 
568 REFLECTIONS ON THIS INVASION. 
 
 shown that these foreigners, on the approach of Roderick, the Irish 
 monarch, at the head of an Irish army many times more than sufficient 
 to exterminate them, swore, on the altar of Wexford, to quit the coun- 
 try forthwith, — instead of which, when their Uves were spared, they 
 Invited over more adventurers. I liave shown that the forged bull of 
 Pope Adrian, who was an Englishman, conferred on Henry the Second 
 the government of Ireland, and that such was the deference paid by 
 the clergy, and the great body of the people of Ireland, to this mandate 
 of the holy see, that it neutralized that resistance which the Irish 
 would otherwise have offered to the handful of invaders, who landed in the 
 train of the English king. But Henry never . exercised any authority 
 over any part of Ireland, save the seven counties on the eastern coast, 
 known for many centuries as the English Pale, which diminished at 
 length to four counties, at which limit it was found on the accession 
 of Henry the Eighth. An agreement was finally made between 
 Roderick, king of Connaught, and Henry the Second, that Roderick 
 should remain king of the Irish, who were to be governed as usud 
 by Irish laws, and that the English settlers within the Pale should 
 be subject to English laws, and to the English king. This is re- 
 corded by the learned Irish historian, Gratianus Lucius, (Lynch.) 
 He says, " CathoUcus O' Duhhthy returned from England, with peace 
 agreed to, on these conditions with the king of England, — that 
 Roderick should be king of the Irish, and that the provinces should 
 be governed by their kings as usual, subject to chiefry to Roderick, he 
 paying tribute to Henry, at the rate of one hide for every ten oxen 
 killed in his territory." 
 
 English writers are prone to construe this peace, entered into with the 
 English monarch, as a submission; but such it never was. Neither the 
 laws of England, nor the mandates of the king of England, ever pene- 
 trated farther into Ireland, for four hundred years after this period, than 
 the semicircle I have described as the Pale. How, then, can the 
 English claim power in Ireland, by virtue of this pretended conquest! 
 Let it be well remembered, that the laws and authority of England 
 were acknowledged only amongst the English settlers of the Pale for 
 that long period. The Pale, be it also noted, did not extend to the 
 one eighth of the kingdom. 
 
 Certain it is that the English, by marriage with the old Irish 
 families in the interior, by intrigue, by border battles and acts of 
 treachery, obtained some property and power, in the long course of 
 four hundred years, in different parts of Ireland. But this property 
 
HENRY THE SECOND DID NOT CONQUER IRELAND. 569 
 
 and this power they held and exercised as Irish princes, subject 
 to the old Irish laws and customs, to which they every where 
 gave a preference, not only because they were in their nature very 
 equitable and very just, but because the common people revered these 
 old laws as celestial judgments, and the new comers were too crafty to 
 alarm the people by introducing any English laws, at variance with the 
 received notions of justice, which time had consecrated in the minds of 
 the nation. 
 
 That Henry the Second did not conquer Ireland, as is affected by 
 some, we have the authority of Sir John Davies, the English attorney- 
 general of King James the First of England. He says, " Henry de- 
 parted out of Ireland without striking one blow, or building one castle, 
 or planting one garrison among ^he Irish, neither left behind him one 
 true subject more than those he found there at his first coming over, 
 which were only the English adventurers spoken of before, who had 
 gained some port towns in Leinster and Munster, and possessed some 
 scopes of land thereunto adjoining." And this is that conquest of King 
 Henry the Second, so much spoken of by so many writers. 
 
 And Plowden, another English historian, remarks on this pretended 
 conquest as follows : — 
 
 " Notwithstanding the nominal or pretended conquest of the whole 
 kingdom of Ireland by Henry the Second, and the grant and confirma- 
 tion thereof by the Popes Adrian and Alexander, the truth is, that the 
 English power and authority, during the reign of Henry the Second, 
 was confined, and it so continued for above four hundred years, to a 
 certain district afterwards called the Pole. This district comprised the 
 counties of Dublin, Kildare, Meath, and Uriel, with the seaport cities 
 of Waterford, Cork, and Limerick, and the lands immediately surround- 
 ing them. Over the other parts of the kingdom, which were ivithout 
 the Pale, comprising twenty-seven counties, neither Henry the Second, 
 nor a7iy of his successors, until the reign of James the First, either had, 
 or even pretended to claim, more than a naked, or nominal and empty 
 tide ; insomuch, that Sir John Davies says, that England never ^ciit 
 over either numbers of men, or quantities of treasure, sufficient to 
 defend the small territory of the Pale, much less to reduce that which 
 was lost. 
 
 " Accordingly," continues Plowden, " the English adventurers 
 
 governed their district by their own model. The native chiefs, 
 
 owning by far the greatest part of Ireland, acted independently 
 
 of the English government, made war and peace, entered into 
 
 72 
 
570 THE ENGLISH COLONY OF THE PALE. 
 
 leagues and treaties, not only amongst each other, but with foreign 
 powers, and punished malefactors by their own laws, customs, and 
 constitutions." 
 
 Having shown by what foul means the inhabitants of England first 
 obtained power in Ireland, I must inform the reader that it is my inten- 
 tion to pass rapidly over the affairs of the English colony in Ireland 
 for a period of three hundred years. Their story is told by their own 
 historians, who were the hired traducers of the " Irish enemy ; " and as 
 safely might the present history of Ireland be taken from the London 
 Times, as from Cambrensis, Cox, Leland, Carte, and other such writers, 
 from whom Mr. Moore principally draws his miserable History. 
 
 Few manuscript accounts of those black times, written by the Irish 
 themselves, have come to our hands. ,The chiefs kept their bards, who 
 wrote the family registers, till the period of the reformation, when all 
 the family observances, with law and justice, were swamped in one 
 common gulf. 
 
 For three centuries, the government and affairs of the English 
 colony in Ireland were so totally distinct from the Irish nation which 
 surrounded that colony on every side, and it was kept so exclusively 
 English by enactments, interests, prejudices, and the commands of the 
 master government in England, that its affairs are of no more interest 
 to the Irishman of the present day, than those of France, Norway, or 
 any other nation of Europe. 
 
 During all this time, the Irish princes, in three fourths of Ireland, 
 were perfectly independent of England, and of each other. The only 
 change wrought by the English invasion in their general condition, was 
 merely the abolition of a supreme monarch in the country. We have 
 many, very many instances of the English within the Pale submitting 
 to pay tribute to the Irish princes, who reigned outside it, and vice versa. 
 I have no desire to swell my book to inconvenient dimensions with the 
 unpleasant history of those border battles, attended sometimes with 
 unusual barbarity on both sides, and in which the quarrels of the 
 English with each other are as conspicuous as those of the Irish. 
 Let some other pen indulge in the disagreeable work. 1 care not 
 either to read about them, or write about them. 
 
 There are certain general outlines, however, that, to preserve the 
 necessary connection of history, I am bound to sketch, which I shall 
 contract as much as 1 possibly can. 
 
 In some time after Henry the Second's return to England, he 
 
PRINCE John's defeat. — abdication of Roderick. 571 
 
 assembled a council at Oxford, Anno Domini 1177, and there conferred 
 upon his son John the title of " Lord of Ireland." William Fitzaldelm 
 was the first English deputy appointed to rule Ireland, who was sent, 
 in 1178, by Henry the Second; and from that appointment to the 
 present, the entire history of the lord lieutenants of Ireland is nearly 
 the same throughout — pervaded with jobbing, favoritism, treachery, 
 alternately towards English and Irish, seeking whom among the Irish 
 they may safely rob, seeking whom among their own they may, with 
 the greatest personal eclat, promote. 
 
 On the young Prince John's arrival in Ireland, his petulant and 
 supercilious manner towards the Irish, drove into rebellion many of those 
 who were won or coaxed into obedience by his father. Prince John lost 
 nearly his entire army in his conflicts with the natives ; and here again, 
 had they been but unanimous, and submitted to one brave man, they 
 might have reestablished the independence of their country ; but fate 
 seemed to work against them ! Prince John was soon recalled, and all 
 the powers of government placed in the hands of De Courcy. 
 
 De Courcy entered Connaught in great force, but was met there by 
 the combined arms of Limerick and Connaught, and quickly put to 
 flight. He subsequently sallied into the north, and, with only a handful 
 of picked and well-armed men, defeated the unprepared natives, and 
 seized upon a wide territory. 
 
 The Irish now began to feel the pulsations of men ; and, had they 
 placed Donald O'Brien at their head, there is not the slightest doubt 
 but they would have driven every invader out of their kingdom ; but the 
 northern chieftains wasted their strength in petty battles, instead of 
 uniting to free the land from the common foe. ^ 
 
 Geraldus Cambrensis, who wrote the first lying history of Ireland, 
 attempted, in the presence of Maurice, archbishop of Cashell, to dis- 
 parage the Irish clergy, by charging on them, amongst other things, 
 that, from the days of St. Patrick, they had not a single martyr 
 amongst them: — "True," said Maurice, "but there are those now 
 amongst us who have made martyrs in their own country, and who 
 have been accustomed to make martyrs. From henceforth Ireland will 
 have her martyrs in abundance ! " 
 
 Roderick O'Connor, who had, for some time, retired from the 
 throne to a monastery, saw, from his retreat, his kingdom of Connaught 
 torn to pieces by his sons. On every side were to be seen either the 
 battles of chieftains or the advancing armies of the invaders. 
 
572 DEATH OF HENRY THE SECOND. KING JOHN. MAGNA CHARTA. 
 
 Henry the Second died in Normandy, 1189, cursing his children, all 
 of whom attempted in turn to have him murdered. 
 
 At King Henry's death, he was succeeded by his son Richard, and, on 
 his death, by John, from whom the charter of liberty, known as Magna 
 Charta, was wrung by the barons and clergy on the field of Runnymede. 
 This Great Charter was not so much an introduction of any new law as 
 It was a recognition of the old customs, observed and in force before the 
 conquest — customs, be it observed, the majority of which had their 
 origin in Ireland, and were transplanted by Alfred, in the tenth century, 
 to England. 
 
 Magna Charta — the birthright of Englishmen — ordains that all 
 freemen shall be allowed to go out of the kingdom and return to it at 
 pleasure ; one weight and one measure shall be established throughout 
 the entire kingdom ; courts of justice shall be stationary, and not ambu- 
 latory, with the king. (Previous to this, the king went his rounds, ad- 
 ministering justice in person, and by assistants.) Circuits were to be 
 held regularly every year; and justice no longer to be sold, refused, 
 or delayed; merchants allowed to transact all business without being 
 exposed to tolls and impositions ; no freeman to be taken, or impris- 
 oned, or dispossessed of his free tenement or liberties, or outlawed, or 
 banished, or any wise hurt or injured, unless by the legal judgment of 
 his peers and the law of the land. Lastly, there was a stipulation in 
 favor of the villains, a sort of slave or serf class, attached to the great 
 man's estate. This class, though the most numerous of all, were not 
 before this deemed worthy of legislative notice. It was ordained that 
 they should not be deprived by a fine of their carts, and their ploughs, 
 and implements of industry. ^ 
 
 This Great Charter was ratified four times by Henry the Third ; twice 
 by Edward the First ; fifteen times by Edward the Third ; seven times 
 by Richard the Second ; six times by Henry the Fourth ; and once 
 by Henry the Fifth : but was trampled under foot by Henry the 
 Eighth ; revived by Queen Mary ; subverted again by Elizabeth ; and 
 has never since been fairly allowed to operate in England or Ireland. 
 Lord Casdereagh's Six Acts, and Alphabet Smith's mode of packing 
 a jury, have completely subverted it in our aays. 
 
 In these times, the language in common use in England was, — in 
 the church and professions, Latin ; at court, French ; and among the 
 common people, old Saxon. It was usual to have public documents 
 and addresses published and read in three different languages. For 
 
AN IRISH CHAMPION. HENRY THE THIRD. 573 
 
 three or four centuries, great confusion of tongues prevailed in Eng- 
 land. In Ireland, the language of the great body of the people re- 
 mained Irish, and in ecclesiastical offices, Latin. The language of 
 the English Pale, amongst the gentry class, was Latin, with a little 
 French ; but the majority of the English spoke the Irish language in 
 common affairs. The English language had yet no regular existence ; 
 and finally it was compounded, by the action of time, into that dialect 
 which exists at this day, of French, Latin, old Saxon, and Irish, called 
 the " English language." 
 
 It is recorded that, in this reign, a French champion came over to 
 England to fight any one who should assert that Philip, king of France, 
 had done wrong to King John. Great was the consternation of the 
 courtiers of John at this threat, for, in those days, matters of the highest 
 import were submitted to personal combat ; and such was the renown 
 of the French champion, that none in^ England dared to face him. At 
 length it was suggested to the king, that there was an Irish chief, of great 
 bodily strength and personal bravery, confined in the Tower, as a state 
 prisoner, who was taken in the late Irish wars. This brave captive was 
 offered his freedom on condition of encountering the French bravo. On 
 the day fixed for the encounter, the Frenchman was not forthcoming ; 
 he had stolen off to Spain, not daring for shame to return to France. The 
 English monarch wished for some exhibition of his champion's strength, 
 before the assembled thousands who came to witness the encounter. 
 Upon this, there was a post, or trunk of a tree, set in the earth, and on it 
 was fixed a steel helmet. At the first blow of his sword, the Irish 
 champion cut the helmet in two; and at the second blow, buried his 
 sword so deeply in the tree, that seven of the strongest of the by-standers 
 could not draw it out ; it was removed only by himself. This fact is 
 related by Wade, in his Recent History of England. King John, having 
 partly conquered Scotland, made another descent on Ireland, with a 
 great army. On this occasion, he received homage from eleven Irish 
 chiefs, or lords, but was obliged to return to England, where he soon 
 after died. 
 
 Henry the Third came to the throne of England, but his wars with 
 the Welsh occupied his attention and forces ; and it is a little re- 
 markable that, even thus early in the career of England, the king's chief 
 force, in his movement on Wales, was made up of Irish conscripts, which 
 he compelled into his ranks. We find also, in this reign, divisions grow- 
 ing up between the English chiefs in Ireland. The Irish now assumed 
 
574 WALES ANNEXED TO ENGLAND. WALLACE, OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 more courage, and reconquered from the invaders a considerable portion 
 of their lost territory. 
 
 Edward the First came to the English throne 1272. In 1300, he 
 held the first assembly in England called a parliament, a shadow of 
 which was soon after held in the English colony in Ireland. Amongst 
 the very first acts of this shq^dow was the institution of a tax on the 
 estates of Irish absentees for the maintenance of the king's army. 
 
 It seems that, in the parliament held in Kilkenny, 1309, the murder 
 of an Irishman was declared a crime not punishable by law, nor the 
 violation of chastity, if on an Irish woman, a crime. See the cases 
 referred to by Lynch, in Moore, 324. In 1317, on petition to the 
 king, a parliament was ordained to be holden in Dubhn every year. 
 
 Several battles were fought, during tliis reign, between the Irish and 
 the invaders, during which the natives gained considerable advantages, 
 having captured one lord lieutenant and killed another ; which suc- 
 cesses, if only followed up with unity, would have completely reestab- 
 lished Ireland in her independence. 
 
 In this reign, the ancient and independent kingdom of Wales was 
 annexed to the crown of England. The celebrated Llewellyn, the last 
 Welsh king, having fallen in the field of battle, his forces fled. But the 
 crafty Edward, having offered terms of peace to the Welsh, invited 
 a grand convocation of all their bards, who were collected together with 
 great industry, by a certain day, when the king had them surrounded, 
 and barbarously butchered. By this means he put it out of the power 
 of the Welsh leaders to reanimate their countrymen by the songs and 
 music of their favorite bards, for there was hardly one left alive in all 
 Wales. The same king marched into Scotland, took Baliol, the king, 
 and several of the nobility, prisoners, and carried to London the cele- 
 brated Stone of Destiny, which had been sent over from Ireland with 
 Feargus, the Irish prince, eight hundred years previously. On this 
 celebrated stone, as I have already noticed at length, were the kings 
 of Ireland crowned for many ages. It has remained in Westminster 
 Abbey since that time. On it is engraved, in Irish lines, — 
 
 " Or Fate's deceived, and Heaven decrees in vain, 
 Or where they find this stone the Scots shall reign." 
 
 It was in this reign that the celebrated Wallace, of Scotland, rose 
 against the English power. His brave followers were defeated, and ten 
 thousand of them slain in one engagement. He was himself taken 
 
BRUCE. INVENTIONS OF THIS AGE. 575 
 
 prisoner, and executed. But he was succeeded by the celebrated Rob- 
 ert Bruce, who defeated the Enghsh in several battles. When King 
 Edward summoned the Irish to aid him in his wars against the valiant 
 Bruce, not one of them, thanli God, responded. It is a shining .ray 
 upon their fame ! Finally, the king of England suddenly dying, Scot- 
 land reassumed her kingly powers. 
 
 About this time, clocks were first used in England. Coal was dis- 
 covered in Newcastle. The use of the magnetic needle, which had 
 been lost to the world from the time of the Phoenicians, was now redis- 
 covered. About the same year, the use of spectacles was introduced by 
 a monk of Pisa. Matthew Paris, the celebrated historian of England, 
 died ; he was a Benedictine monk. Tin was now first discovered in 
 Germany: before that time, none was heard of out of England. 
 
 At the same time, gunpowder was invented by a monk of Cologne; 
 and in the course of fifteen years from its invention, viz., 1346, cannon 
 were first used by Edward the Third, with great effect, at the battle 
 of Cressy, in France. 
 
 In the troubled reign of Edward the Second, about 1315, the 
 Irish, taking courage, and observing the success of the Scots, resolved on 
 doing something worthy of their former fame. 
 
 After the glorious battle of Bannockburn, Bruce was invited by the 
 Irish to be their king : in this instance, the common lineage, language, 
 customs, and laws, of both people were dwelt on as a ground for their 
 friendship. Bruce sent his brother Edward to Ireland, who was 
 evidently an inferior commander. He landed in the north, 1315, with 
 six thousand men, and, being joined by vast numbers of the Irish, sud- 
 denly overran the whole of Ulster, and approached Dublin. Robert 
 Bruce himself soon after joined him, and both armies marched through 
 the country towards Limerick, but evidently with no other intent than 
 laying waste and burning every thing in their way. Edward, in the 
 course of three years, encountered tlje English in eighteen battles in Ire- 
 land, in every one of which he had been victorious ; but was killed in a 
 battle, solely by the desperate valor of one John Mampus, who rushed 
 in among the Scots and Irish, and stabbed Bruce to the heart ; and 
 though Mamphus was instantly killed, the Scots were routed. Upon 
 this occasion, the Connaught chiefs came boldly forward, giving 
 the English battle: however, ten thousand Irish were killed on the 
 field, together with Bmce, and the very flower of the Irish chiefs ; 
 insomuch that hardly one of the O'Connor name was left alive ; after 
 which Robert Bruce returned to Scotland. This effort, though 
 
576 BEIGN OF EDWARD THE THIRD. 
 
 not successful, had the effect of driving the English into their forti- 
 fied towns ; and we are told by Ware and others that the English 
 king's laws were not, for a long time after this, obeyed twenty miles 
 from the city of Dublin. 
 
 During the first and second Edward's time, the power of the English 
 in Ireland had considerably decHned from what it was in the time of 
 Henry the Second, or King John. 
 
 The Pale was now (in the time of Edward the Third) parcelled out 
 among nine lords, who exercised the functions of kings over their own 
 people. King Edward sent over his mandate to establish ,the English 
 laws throughout all Ireland, but the great men hiterposed, and baffled 
 his intention. To show how small was the power of some of these 
 English earls, it is enough to record, that, when Edward the Third 
 wrote to the Earl of Kildare, to assist him at the siege of Calais, the 
 earl went promptly, bringing to his majesty's assistance thirty men at 
 arms, and forty hobbillers, for which the earl received the honor of 
 kniirhthood from the king. 
 
 During Edward's reign, (who seemed disposed to do all that an 
 English monarch could do to distribute justice amongst the Irish,) an 
 ordinance was passed giving the Irish parliament full cognizance over 
 the courts of law in Ireland, and putting an end to appeals to the 
 English courts — a most important measure. 
 
 The ancestors of the present Clanrickard and Lord Mayo were 
 Englishmen. The De Burghs, or Burkes, who obtained territory in 
 the west of Ireland, to ingratiate themselves with the Irish, not only 
 assumed their dress, language, and habits, but absolutely assumed the 
 distinction Mac. The first called himself M'' William Eighter, and the 
 second M^ William Oughter. This example was followed by many. 
 The Blrminghams took the name of M'Yoris ; Dexecester, that of 
 M'Jordan ; Nangle, or De Angulo, that of M'Costelloe. Like changes 
 took place among some branches of the Fitzgeralds, in Munster. The 
 chief of the house of Lixnaw was called M'Maurice ; another was known 
 by the name of M'Gibbon. These are at present called Fitzmaurice 
 and Fitzgibbon, the articles Mac and Fitz being of the same significa- 
 tion, namely, so7i of such a one.* The Buders of Dunboyne took the 
 name of M'Pheris ; the Condons of Walerford were called M'Maioge; 
 and in the same way many others. It ajipears that the new colonies, 
 which were sent, under different reigns, from England to Ireland, were 
 always careful to sow discord between the neio and old Irish, who gener- 
 
 * It i.iust be noted that Fitz originally implied a bastard son. 
 
O'CONNELL TERRITOKY. STATUTES OF KILKENNY. 577 
 
 ally lived in harmony with each other. This unity became a source 
 of uneasiness to the English, and gave rise to the celebrated statute of 
 Kilkenny, above alluded to, which is still preserved, in French, in the 
 library of Lambeth. By this law, the English by descent, who had 
 settled in Ireland, were prohibited, under the penalties of high treason, 
 from having any intercourse with the ancient Irish, — to form alliances 
 with them by marriage, to speak their language, to imitate their mode of 
 dress, to adopt their names, to confer livings on them, or admit them 
 into monasteries or religious houses, he. This law was revived after- 
 wards, and confirmed in a parliament held at Drogheda, under Henry 
 the Seventh ; and from thenceforward there were " English rebels " to 
 the king of England's authority, and Irish enemies. 
 
 The Lansdowne, Desmond, and Leinster families have trailed down to 
 us from Raymond Le Gros, who was the most daring commander that 
 followed Strongbow into Ireland. 
 
 The ancient patrimony of the O'Connells, one of the territories 
 obtained by the ancestors of the Earl of Desmond, was that of 
 O^Konayl, now called the barony of ConneUoe, in the county of 
 Limerick. This tract, amounting to one hundred thousand acres, was 
 ceded to the Desmonds, by the native chieftain, in exchange for other 
 tracts received from them in the counties of Clare and Kerry, where 
 branches of the O'Connell family continue to the present day, the 
 chief of whom is Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator. By a petition from 
 the great lords and clergy to the king, dated in this reign, it appears 
 that the Irish had conquered back more than one third of the lands 
 previously seized by the English ; in consequence of which his liege 
 English subjects were in want of provisions. 
 
 In Edward the Third's reign, many noble widows, who drew large 
 incomes from Ireland, were compelled to contribute, as " absentees," to 
 the king's exchequer, and for the protection of their estates in Ireland. 
 At the memorable parliament, called by his son, the Duke of Clarence, 
 at Kilkenny, in 1367, the celebrated penal laws were passed against the 
 Irish, " that intermarriages with the natives, or any connection with 
 them, in the way of fostering or gossipred, should be considered and 
 punished as high treason ; that any man, of English race, assuming an 
 Irish name, or using the Irish language, apparel, or customs, should 
 forfeit all his lands and tenements ; that to adopt or submit to the 
 brehon law was treason ; that the English should not permit the Irish 
 to pasture or graze upon their lands, nor admit them to any ecclesias- 
 73 
 
578 ACTS AGAINST ABSENTEES. 
 
 tical benefices or religious houses, nor entertain their minstrels, rhymer^, 
 or news-tellers." Thus, while all the lower classes of Irish were pro- 
 hibited from pasturage within English limits, all the better ranks were 
 excluded from the great road to wealth and honor, the church, — all 
 put under the ban of exclusion, as unworthy to live with their fellow- 
 men. 
 
 At the -parliament of the Little Pale, held in Trim, in the reign of 
 Edward the Fourth, 1465, it was enacted that all persons suspected of 
 going or coming to rob, by day or by night, having no man dressed in 
 English apparel in their company, might be seized by any liegeman or 
 subject of the king of England, and be put to death. A premium was 
 offered to those who would bring in the heads of all such to the town of 
 Trim, where such heads were affixed on stakes ; and a fine of twopence 
 on every ploughland in the county, levied by statute to recoinpense the 
 captor. Thus was there, in fact, a price set on the head of every 
 Irishman ; and the English of the Pale, supported by the power of 
 their countrymen in England, were, by these means, encouraged, taught, 
 and incited to acts of the most cruel depredation upon such defenceless 
 natives as fell in their way. 
 
 On this head Plowden, quoting Sir John Davies, says, " Imagination can 
 scarcely devise an extreme of antipathy, hatred, and revenge, to which 
 this code of aggravation was not calculated to provoke both nations. 
 Wherever the English lords obtained a footing by petty conquest, they 
 quartered their soldiers on the inhabitants." " And when die husband- 
 man had labored all the year, the soldiers," says Sir John Davies, "did 
 consume, in one night, all the fruits of his labor, which produced two 
 notorious effects — first, it made the land waste, and next it made the 
 people idle ; lastly, it did force and necessarily make the Irish a crafty 
 people." 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding all this harshness, so generally had the Irish 
 reconquered their hereditary lands from the invaders, that, in this reign, 
 not more than four counties in thirty-two remained under the authority 
 of the crown of England. Many of the English petitioned the king to 
 be relieved from paying soccage on lands long since captured back from 
 them by the Irish. The entire revenue raised by the king of England, 
 in Ireland, did not equal ten thousand pounds a year. 
 
 On the death of this prince, the crown of England fell to Richard 
 the Second, anno 1377. 
 
 In 1379, in consequence of a petition from Ireland, an act was passed 
 
INEFFECTUAL, EFFOKTS TO CONQUER IRELAND. ^19 
 
 in the English parliament against Irish absentees. It was ordained 
 that all who possessed lands, rents, or offices, in that kingdom, should 
 forthwith repair thither, and become residents, for the purpose of 
 watching and defending the same, otherwise forfeit two thirds of their 
 income towards the defence of the country. Some exceptions were 
 made in favor of persons temporarily absent on business, — in the 
 universities, or in the service of the king. But, even from those, one- 
 third of their income was deducted. 
 
 Such was the opposition of the Irish to the English invaders, during 
 the whole of this reign, that, upon the opening of every English parlia- 
 ment, the king found it necessary to apply for money and men, to " carry 
 on the war in Ireland," though at this time the invaders had been 
 two centuries in the country. 
 
 Richard himself embarked for Ireland, with t!iirty-five thousand men, 
 determined to reduce the entire country. Several of the Irish chieftains 
 did him homage ; and, upon his proposal to knight them, they declined 
 that honor, answering they had been knighted since they were seven 
 years of age, when lances had been put into their hands, with which 
 they tilted against shields. 
 
 The king being suddenly recalled by the bishops to quell some disturb- 
 ances at home, the Irish chiefs again invaded the Pale, and killed the lord 
 lieutenant in battle. In five years after this, King Richard reentered Ire- 
 land with all the forces he could collect throughout his dominions from 
 sea to sea. Impressments for the fleet were every where made ; large 
 sums were levied ; even the bishops and clergy of England gave their 
 thousand pounds apiece to the king's fund for the conquest of Ireland. 
 The king's forces, on this occasion, are estimated variously from forty to 
 fifty thousand men. On his approach, some of the Irish chieftains again 
 submitted ; but MMurrough, the hereditary prince of Leinster, as if 
 anxious to retrieve the fallen honor of his house, retired to his woods, 
 and, with only three thousand brave men, bade defiance to the king of 
 England and all his forces. The royal army surrounded the woods, but 
 M'Murrough refuged to come out, while every effort to dislodge him 
 was attended with certain loss to the king's troops. At length his 
 majesty prepared to cut his way into the woods ; but this did not better 
 his chances, for, at each new step, his men and officers fell in small 
 parties by the hands of the Irish, who are described by the chroniclers 
 as nimble and active. A message was at length sent to this noble 
 chieftain by King Richard, to ascertain what terms he demanded as the 
 
580 BRAVE RESISTANCE OF THE IRISH. 
 
 price of his submission to England ; to which he replied, " Not all the 
 gold in the world would tempt me into submission." King Richard's 
 army being now in want of provisions, his majesty was obliged to return 
 to Dublin, the Irish hanging all the way upon his rear, and cutting 
 off hundreds of his dispirited followers. 
 
 Albemarle now arrived from England with reenforcements, and the 
 king determined to return upon M'Murrough, and exterminate him and 
 all his followers ; however, the celebrated Bolingbroke, duke of Lan- 
 caster, had organized a rebellion in England, and was in the field with 
 great numbers of knights and bowmen, to usurp the crown of England. 
 This called Richard hastily back from Ireland, according to Davies and 
 Froissart, with little advantage, and without realizing any. AUhough he 
 had expended enormous sums in conveying his army to Ireland, he did 
 not add a pound to his revenue, nor extend the frontiers of his English 
 province one acre. The courts of law were still confined within the 
 boundaries of the colony, where they had been acknowledged before 
 bis arrival in Ireland. His crown, however, was now on the head of his 
 rival, who was elected by the parliament king of England, by the title 
 of Henry the Fourth, A. D. 1395 ; and Ireland remained still un- 
 conquered. 
 
 Now began the ware of the White and Red Roses in England, 
 between the two great houses of York and Lancaster. During these 
 wars, the colony of the English invaders, in Ireland, was governed 
 by some wretched deputy, who called around him, in Dublin Castle, 
 his little pariiament of English lords, magnates, bishops, and judges, 
 and made such regulations for their own small territory of four 
 counties as they judged best. As an evidence of the high state of 
 civilization of the members of this pariiament, it is recorded that 
 Bartholomew Vernon, and three other Englishmen, members of that 
 body, attacked the sheriff of Meath, in the house, while it was sitting, 
 and murdered him, and, though imprisoned, were ultimately pardoned 
 by the king. 
 
 These were a sample of the men who came to civilize the " wild 
 Irish." 
 
 The chief, M'Murrough, in 1407, after remaining a long time quiet, 
 was vanquished in a noble battle, in which, for several hours of the day, 
 the Irish maintained a decided ascendency in the field. 
 
 In 1408, the statutes of Kilkenny and Dublin were confirmed in 
 a pariiament, held in Dublin, when the clauses against absentees were 
 strictly enforced. 
 
BLACK RENT. 581 
 
 The O'Byrnes of Wicklow were the most troublesome chieftains 
 which the English invaders encountered in this reign, and it proves, 
 better than all the histories ever written by scoundrels, either English or 
 Irish, that the latter remained at this time unconquered, even within 
 sight of the walls of Dublin. In the following year, (1409,) say the 
 annals, " A parliament was held at Dublin by the acting lord lieutenant 
 of Ireland, (viz., Thomas Butler, prior of Kilmainham,) who, having 
 imprudently ventured, with about fifteen hundred infantry, to invade 
 the O'Byrnes country, one half of his followers deserted to the 
 enemy, and he narrowly escaped a serious and disgraceful defeat." 
 It is probable his defeat was most serious, for he did not, during the 
 remainder of his administration, renew the attack on the O'Byrnes. 
 When we remember that the " O'Byrnes country" is located in the valley 
 of the Wicklow Mountains, and plainly within view of the citizens of 
 Dublin, we may then judge of the actual extent of British conquest, in 
 Ireland, in the year 1410, two hundred and forty years after the 
 landing of the first invaders,. 
 
 At this time, the Pale was so hemmed in on every side, that leave 
 was given, by the lord lieutenant, to any of the English lords, to make 
 such terms of peace with the Irish enemy as they could, and to marry or 
 trade with them, or let pastures to them ; and finally things went so severe 
 with the English, that they compromised with the Irish chiefs on their 
 borders for peace by paying them tribute as their vassals, which was 
 called the blacJc rent. And in an address delivered about the same 
 time by the speaker of the English house of commons, we find it 
 openly admitted " that the greater part of the lordship of Ire- 
 land had, at this time, been conquered by the natives." — See 
 Lingard. 
 
 Henry the Fifth arrived at the English throne anno 1416. He won 
 victories in France, by a band of Irishmen, who were prisoners, 
 and whom he compelled to fight, in his foreign armies, at the siege of 
 Rouen, which they captured, and at Pontoise, where, owing to their 
 bravery, the king's enemies were scattered. — See Monstrelef s Account 
 of the English Invasions of France. 
 
 Various were the battles of the Lord Lieutenant Talbot, at this time, 
 against the neighboring chiefs, M'Murrough, O'Dempsey, O'Moore, 
 M'Mahon. The clergy, we are told, educated in English principles, 
 prayed and offered masses for the success of the English arms, and 
 even intercession was made with the pope to induce him to excommu- 
 
582 ' LAW AGAINST BEARDS. 
 
 nicate those Irish chiefs who refused to submit, with which, however, 
 he does not seem to have compUed. Irish law students, at the King's 
 Inns, London, though born of Enghsh parents, were refused admission ; 
 Irish candidates for the priesthood, if Irish, were positively refused 
 admission to the colleges, or ordination, and all this, be it never forgotten, 
 when the religion of the two nations was alike ; and it must be confessed 
 that the influence of the kings of England became very potent at the 
 court of Rome, for it appears the powers of the church were put forth, 
 in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, in behalf of the dom- 
 ination of Britain. It was in consequence of this, that the celebrated pro- 
 test of the Irish to the pope was drawn up by Donald O'Neill, and signed 
 by sev^eral leading chiefs, in 1315, which I shall present immediately. 
 
 In this reign, the great Earl of Desmond was attainted, at a 
 parliament held in Drogheda, for having suffered some of his family to 
 marry with the native Irish, and for such other anti-English practices 
 was condemned and beheaded. At the same place and time, it was 
 declared that any statute passed in England was binding on Ireland. 
 
 At this period, (1468,) so weakened was the English power in Ireland, 
 that a few of the chief lords formed the military Society of St. George, 
 with a view to their protection against the Irish ; and this force, (the entire 
 army of England in Ireland,) amounted to no more than two hundred 
 men i Yet so madly infatuated were the native princes in their hostihty 
 to each other, that they never even thought of asserting the independ- 
 ence of their country, and seemed to have forgotten that they had any 
 other enemies in it but each other. 
 
 About this time, an English heiress fell in love with and married the 
 Irish chief. Art M'Murrough. It had a wonderful effect in superin- 
 ducing marriages between the races, and in fact it began to be plain to 
 England that the descendants of the first invaders were now become, by 
 fosterage and marriage, and by imbibing the indomitable spirit of the 
 nation, more Irish than the Irish themselves. It was in this reign, at the 
 parliament held at Trim, that the famous enactment against Irish beards 
 was passed, viz., 1447, — "Any man who does not keep his upper lip 
 shaved may be treated as an Irish enemy." The clause was, it seems, 
 repealed in the second year of Charles the First. It was to this act 
 O'Connell so humorously alluded when he charged Sibihorpe, who is 
 noted for his abuse of the Irish, with being himself a mere Irishman. Sib- 
 thorpe could not master his passion, when the member for Ireland codlly 
 took up the statute-book, and pointed his attention to this enactment, 
 which, on being read by the clerk, convulsed the house with laughter. 
 
CHARGE OF IGNORANCE AGAINST THE IRISH REFUTED. 583 
 
 In 1483, the Irish revenue of the English invaders was reduced to 
 so low an ebb, that a force of eighty archers, and forty horsemen 
 called spears, constituted the entire military establishment of the Eng- 
 lish in Ireland ; and, lest the sum of six hundred pounds, annually 
 required for the maintenance of this small troop, might prove oppressive 
 to the colonists, it was provided, should the Pale not be able to pay it, 
 the sum was to be sent thither from England. In fact, the English 
 paid tribute to the surrounding Irish chiefs as vassals to conquerors. 
 Cox gives a list of these payments, which he calls scandalous, and of 
 the districts which contributed their portions. The barony of Lecale 
 paid O'Neill, of Clanneboy, twenty pounds a year; the county of 
 Uriel, forty pounds to O'Neill ; the county of Meath, sixty pounds to 
 O'Connor; the county of Kildare, twenty pounds to O'Connor; the 
 exchequer paid eighty marks a year to M'Murrough ; the counties of 
 Kilkenny and Tipperary, forty pounds to O'Carroll ; the county of 
 Limerick, forty pounds to O'Brien ; and, lastly, the county of Cork paid 
 forty pounds to M'Carty, of Muskeny. 
 
 It is perfectly well known to those who have looked into the general 
 run of English writers upon Ireland, that there is a pervading effort 
 eternally manifested by them, to make the Irish of the three centuries 
 before the reformation, and, indeed, for all time previously, appear 
 illiterate, lawless, semi-barbarous, &c. We can readily believe they 
 were " lawless" seeing with what inextinguishable resolution every 
 succeeding generation of Irishmen resisted the sway of England ; and 
 barbarous, from the frequent lessons taught them by their invaders, from 
 the massacre of Dublin, pending a treaty, in 1170, by Cogan and 
 Strongbow, to the massacre on the Rath of the Curragh of Kildare, 
 1798, under General Duff, — the number, perfidy, treachery, and 
 atrocity of which are unparalleled in the whole history of mankind, — 
 making humanity shudder for its name. 
 
 Their literary reputation, during the three or four centuries preceding 
 the reformation, has been assailed ; and — grieved I am to write it — 
 Moore, their own Moore, is amongst the assailants ! But, even with the 
 lid of Moore, the calumniators of Ireland shall not have a victory. 
 
 We can readily imagine that men, whose houses had been eternally 
 n danger of being fired, whose property and ease were continually 
 'nvaded, whose lives were in perpetual danger from a nation of relent- 
 less and pillaging neighbors during several centuries, could have but 
 trifling time for study. Yet, looking at them under all these disadvan- 
 tageous circumstances, we cannot but feel surprised at their hterary 
 
584 CHARGE OF IGNORANCE AGAINST THE IRISH REFUTED. 
 
 acquirements, which, of course, must be considered relatively to the 
 state of learning in other countries about the same ages. 
 
 That Ireland was the teacher of Europe for five hundred years after 
 the fall of Rome, there are plenty of evidences placed on record in 
 the previous pages of this book. On the irruption of the Danes in the 
 ninth and tenth centuries, the studies of Europe, including Ireland her- 
 self, were disturbed, the libraries of Europe were destroyed, and the 
 minds- of the learned distracted. The wars of the crusades, in the 
 eleventh and twelfth centuries, called off the flower of Europe from 
 the pursuit of knowledge to that of military glory. And the invasions 
 of Ireland, by England, and of France by the same power, together 
 with the long and bloody civil wars between the houses of York 
 and Lancaster, brought England, France, and Ireland, into a retrograde 
 movement as respects the acquisition of knowledge. Scotland and 
 Wales were no better. And those five nations were, generation after 
 generation, gradually casting away the knowledge bequeathed by their 
 forefathers. 
 
 There were many of the chief officers of cities in England and 
 France who could not write even their own names. Seals were, there 
 fore, cut, to affix the city or corporate authority to public documents. 
 
 When Charles the Fifth of France, about 1350, founded the Royal 
 Library of Paris, he placed in it his entire stock of books, which num- 
 bered only one hundred and twenty volumes. During the reign of 
 Elizabeth, literature was at a low ebb in England. Very few females 
 could either read or write. Even the two daughters of the great 
 litterateur of the age, William Shakspeare, could not write, — ^ so says 
 Sir Richard Phillips, their own countryman. 
 
 But, to shorten this controversy, we will place before the public two 
 state letters of the fourteenth age, written both by princes, the first of 
 Ireland, the second of England, and they will speak for themselves as 
 to the literary powers and cultivation of their respective writers. The 
 first, from Donald O'Neill, is a compact history of Ireland, to his own 
 times, written, with equal brevity, beauty, and power, to his holiness 
 John the Twenty-second, pope of Rome, which letter will be found in 
 the Scotic chronicle of John of Fordun, vol. iii. p. 908, et seq. 
 
 " To our most holy father, John, by the grace of God, sovereign 
 pontiff, we, his faithful children in Christ Jesus, Donald O'Neill, king 
 of Ulster, and lawful heir to the throne of Ireland, the nobles and 
 great men, with all the people of this kingdom, recommend and humbly- 
 cast ourselves at his feet, &,c. 
 
DONALD o'nEILl's LETTER TO THE POPE. 5?^ 
 
 " The calumnies and false representations which have been heaped 
 upon us by the English are too well known throughout the world not 
 to have reached the ears of your holiness. We are persuaded, most 
 holy father, that your intentions are most pure and upright ; but, fi'om 
 not knowing the Irish except through the misrepresentation of their 
 enemies, your holiness might be induced to look upon as truths those 
 falsehoods which have been circulated, and to form an opinion contrary 
 to what we merit, which would be to us a great misfortune. It is, 
 therefore, to save our country against such imputations, that we have 
 come to the resolution of giving to your holiness, in this letter, a faithful 
 description, and a true and precise idea, of the real state at present of 
 our monarchy, if this term can be still applied to the sad remains of a 
 kingdom which has groaned so long beneath the tyranny of the kings 
 of England, and that of their ministers and barons, — some of whom, 
 though born in our island, continue to exercise over us the same extor- 
 tions, rapine, and cruelties, as their ancestors before them have com- 
 mitted. We shall advance nothing but the truth, and we humbly hope 
 that, attentive to its voice, your holiness will not delay to express your 
 disapprobation against the authors of those crimes and outrages which 
 shall be revealed. The country in which we live was uninhabited until 
 the three sons of a Spanish prince, named Milesius, — according to others, 
 Micelius, — landed in it with a fleet of thirty ships. They came here from 
 Cantabria, a city on the Ebro, from which river they called the country 
 to which Providence guided them, Ibernia, where they founded a 
 monarchy that embraced the entire of the island. Their descendants, 
 who never sullied the purity of their blood by a foreign alliance, have 
 furnished one hundred and thirty kings, who, during the space of two 
 thousand five hundred years and upwards, have successively filled the 
 throne of Ireland till the time of King Legarius, from whom he, who 
 has the honor of affirming these facts, is descended in a direct line. It 
 was under the reign of this prince, in the year 435, that our patron and 
 chief apostle, St. Patrick, was sent to us by Pope Celestinus, one of 
 your predecessors ; and since the conversion of the kingdom through 
 the preaching of that great saint, we have had, till 1170, an uninter- 
 rupted succession of sixty-one kings, descended from the purest blood of 
 Milesius, who, well instructed in the duties of their religion, and faithful 
 to their God, have proved themselves fathers of their people, and have 
 shown by their conduct that, although they depended, in a spiritual 
 light, upon the holy apostolical see of Rome, they never acknowledged 
 any temporal master upon earth. It is to those Milesian princes, and 
 74 
 
586 DONALD o'nEILl's LETTER TO THE POPE. 
 
 not to the English or any other foreigners, that the church of Ireland is 
 indebted for those lands, possessions, and high privileges, with which the 
 pious liberality of our monarchs enriched it, and of which it has been 
 almost stripped, through the sacrilegious cupidity of the English. 
 
 " During the course of so many centuries, our sovereigns, jealous of 
 their independence, preserved it unimpaired. Attacked more than once 
 by foreign powers, they were never wanting in either courage or strength 
 to repel the invaders, and secure their inheritance from insult. But that 
 which they effected against force, they failed to accomplish in opposition 
 to the will of the sovereign pontiff. His holiness Pope Adrian, to whose 
 other great qualities we bear testimony, was by birth an Englishman, 
 but still more in heart and disposition. The national prejudices he had 
 early imbibed, blinded him to such a degree, that, on a most false and 
 unjust statement, he determined to transfer the sovereignty of our coun- 
 try to Henry, king of England, under whom, and, perhaps, by whom, 
 St. Thomas of Canterbury had been murdered for his zeal in defending 
 the interests of the church. Instead of punishing this prince as his 
 crime merited, and depriving him of his own territories, the complaisant 
 pontiff has torn ours from us to gratify his countryman, Henry the 
 Second ; and, without pretext or offence on our part, or any apparent 
 motive on his own, has stripped us, by the most flagrant injustice, of the 
 rights of our crown, and left us a prey to men, or rather to monsters, 
 who are unparalleled in cruelty. Mo7-e cunning than foxes, and more 
 ravenous than wolves, they surprise and devour us ; and if sometimes 
 we escape their fury, it is only to drag on, in the most disgraceful 
 slavery, the wretched remains of a life more intolerable to us than death 
 itself. When, in virtue of the donation which has been mentioned, the 
 English appeared for the first time in this country, they exhibited every 
 mark of zeal and piety ; and, excelling as they did in every species of 
 hypocrisy, they neglected nothing to supplant and undermine us imper- 
 ceptibly. 
 
 " Emboldened from their first successes, they soon removed the mask ; 
 and, without any right but that of power, they obliged us, by open force, 
 to give up to them our houses and our lands, and to seek shelter, like 
 wild beasts, upon the mountains, in woods, marshes, and caves. Even 
 there, we have not been secure against their fury ; they even envy us 
 those dreary and terrible abodes ; they are incessant and unremitting in 
 their pursuits after us, endeavoring to chase us from among them ; they 
 lay claim to every place in which they can discover us, with unwar- 
 ranted audacity and injustice ; they allege that the whole kingdom 
 
DONALD o'nEILl's LETTER TO THE POPE. 587 
 
 belongs to them of right, ancf that an Irishman has no longer a right to 
 remain in his own country. From these causes arise the implacable 
 hatred and dreadful animosity of the English and the Irish towards 
 each other ; that continued hostility, those bloody retaliations and innu- 
 merable massacres, in which, from the invasion of the English to the 
 present time, more than fifty thousand lives have been lost on both sides, 
 besides those who have fallen victims to hunger, to despair, and the 
 rigors of captivity. Hence, also, spring all the pillaging, robbery, 
 treachery, treason, and other disorders, which it is impossible for us to 
 allay in the state of anarchy under which at present we live — an anarchy 
 fatal not only to the state, but likewise to the church of Ireland, whose 
 members are now, more than ever, exposed to the danger of losing the 
 blessings of eternity, after being first deprived of those of this world. 
 Behold, most holy father, a brief description of all that has reference 
 to our origin, and the miserable condition to which your predecessor has 
 brought us. We shall now inform your holiness of the manner in 
 which we have been treated by the kings of England. The permission 
 of entering this kingdom was granted by the holy see to Henry the 
 Second and his successors, only on certain conditions, which were 
 clearly expressed in the bull which was given them. According to the 
 tenor of it, Henry engaged. to increase the church revenues in Ireland; 
 to maintain it in all its rights and privileges ; to labor, by enacting good 
 laws, in reforming the morals of the people, eradicating vice, and en- 
 couraging virtue ; and, finally, to pay to the successors of St. Peter an 
 annual tribute of one penny for each house. Such were the conditions 
 of the bull. But the kings of England and their perfidious ministers, so 
 far from observing them, have uniformly contrived to violate them in 
 every way, and to act in direct opposition to them. First, as to the 
 church lands, — instead of extending their boundaries, they have con- 
 tracted, curtailed, and invaded them so generally and to such a degree, 
 that some of our cathedrals have been deprived, by open force, of more 
 than one half of their revenues. The persons of the clergy have been 
 as little respected as their property. On every side, we behold bishops 
 and prelates summoned, arrested, and imprisoned by the commissioners 
 of the king of England ; and so great is the oppression exercised over 
 them, that they dare not give information of it to your holiness. How- 
 ever, as they are so dastardly as to conceal their misfortunes and those 
 of the church, they do not merit that we should speak in their behalf. 
 
 " We once had our laws and institutions ; the Irish were remarkable 
 for their candor and simplicity ; but the English have undertaken to 
 
583 DONALD o'nEILl's LETTER TO THE POPE. 
 
 reform us, and have been unfortunately but too successful. Instead of 
 being, like our ancestors, simple and candid, we have become, through 
 our intercourse with the English, and the contagion of their example, 
 artful and designing as themselves. Our laws were written, and formed 
 a body of right, according to which our country tvas governed. How- 
 ever, with the exception of one alone, which they could not wrest from 
 us, they have deprived us of those salutary laws, and have given us 
 instead a code of their own making. Great God ! such laws ! If in- 
 humanity and injustice were leagued together, none could have been 
 devised more deadly and fatal to the Irish. The following will give 
 your holiness some idea of their new code. They are the fundamental 
 rules of English jurisdiction established in this kingdom : — 
 
 " 1. Every man, who is not Irish, may, for any kind of crime, 
 go to law with any Irishman, whilst neither layman nor ecclesiastic, 
 who is Irish, (prelates excepted,) can, under any cause or provocation, 
 resort to any legal measures against his English opponent. 
 
 " 2. If an Englishman kill an Irishman perfidiously and falsely, as 
 frequently occurs, of whatsoever rank or condition the Irishman may be, 
 noble or plebeian, innocent or guilty, clergyman or layman, secular or 
 regular, were he even a bishop, the crime is not punishable before an 
 English tribunal ; but, on the contrary, the more the sufferer has been 
 distinguished among his countrymen, either for his virtue or his rank, 
 the more the assassin is extolled and rewarded by the English, and that 
 not only by the vulgar, but by the monks, bishops, and, what is more 
 incredible, by the very magistrates, whose duty it is to punish and 
 repress crime. 
 
 " 3. If any Irishwoman whosoever, whether noble or plebeian, marry 
 an Englishman, on the death of her husband she becomes deprived, 
 from her being Irish, of a third of the property and possessions which 
 he owned. 
 
 "4. If an Irishman fall beneath the blows of an Englishman, the 
 latter can prevent the vanquished from making any testamentary dep- 
 osition, and may likewise take possession of all his wealth. What 
 can be more unjustifiable than a law which deprives the church of its 
 rights, and reduces men, who had been free from time immemorial, to 
 the rank of slaves? 
 
 " 5. The same tribunal, with the cooperation and connivance of some 
 English bishops, at which the Archbishop of Armagh presided, a man 
 who was but little esteemed for his conduct, and still less for his learn- 
 ing, made the following regulations at Kilkenny, which are not less 
 
DONALD o'nEILl's LETTER TO THE POPE. 589 
 
 absurd in their import than in their form. The court, say they, after 
 deliberating together, prohibits all religious communities, in that part of 
 Ireland of which the English are in peaceful possession, to admit any 
 into them but a native of England, under a penalty of being treated by 
 the king of England as having contemned his orders, and by the 
 founders and administrators of the said communities as disobedient and 
 refractory to the present regulation. This regulation was little needed ; 
 before, as well as since its enactment, the English Dominicans, Fran- 
 ciscans, Benedictines, regular canons, and all the other communities of 
 their countrymen, observed the spirit of it but too faithfully. In the 
 choice of their inmates, they have evinced a partiality the more shame- 
 ful, as the houses for Benedictines and canons, where the Irish are now 
 denied admittance, were intended by their founders to be asylums open 
 to people of every nation indiscriminately. Vice was to be eradicated 
 from amongst us, and the seeds of virtue sown. Our reformers have 
 acted diametrically the opposite character ; they have deprived us of 
 our virtues, and have implanted their vices amongst us, 8ic. &,c. &.c. 
 
 "Donald O'Neill." 
 
 This letter bears date 1315. 
 
 The sovereign pontiff, moved by the remonstrances of O'Neill, ad- 
 dressed a letter, quoted by Petrus Lombardus, p. 260, to Edward 
 the Third, king of England, exhorting that prince to check the disor- 
 ders and cruelty that were practised upon the Irish ; but it did not avail. 
 
 We shall now present the letter of the Duke of York, Earl of March, 
 and heir apparent to the crown of England, (in the reign of Henry the 
 Sixth,) who was at the time lord lieutenant of Ireland, 1455. 
 
 The following copy is taken from Campion's history, in the Maza- 
 rin library in Paris, where it can be verified. 
 
 " Right worshipful, and, with all my heart, entirely beloved brother : I 
 commend mee unto you as heartily as I can. 
 
 " Ande like it you to wit, that sith I wrote last unto the king, our 
 sovereigne lord his highnes, the Irish enemy, that is to say, M'Geoghe- 
 gan, and with him three or foure Irish captaines, associate with a great 
 fellowship of English rebells, notwithstanding that they were within the 
 king our soveraigne lord his power, of great malice, and against all 
 truth, have maligned against their legiance, and vengeably have brent a 
 great town of my inheritance, in Meth, called Ramore, and other 
 villages thereabouts, and murdered and burnt both men, women, and 
 children, without mercy, the which enemies be yet assembled in woods and 
 
590 LETTER OF THE DUKE OF YORK. 
 
 forts, waytlng to doe the hurt and grievance to the king's subjects, that 
 they can thinke or imagine for which cause I write at this time to the 
 king's highnes, and beseech his good grace for to hasten my payment 
 for this land, according to his letters of warrant, now late directed unto 
 the treasurer of England to the intent I may wage men in sufficient 
 number, for to resist the malice of the same enemys, and punish them 
 in such wyse, that other, which would do the same, for lack of resist- 
 ance in time, may take example, for, doubtlesse, but if my payment be 
 had, in all haste, for to have men of war in defence and safeguard of 
 this lande, my power cannot stretch to keepe it in the king's obeysance, 
 and very necessity will compell ine to come into England, to live there 
 upon my poore livelode, for. I had lever be dead, than any inconvenience 
 should fall thereunto in my default, for it shall never be chronicled, nor 
 remain in scripture, by the grace of God, that Ireland was lost by my 
 negligence ; and, therefore, I beseech you, right worshipful brother, that 
 you will hold to your hands instantly, that my payment may be had at 
 this time, in eschuing all inconveniences, for I have example in other 
 places, more pity it is to dread shame, and for to acquife my truth unto 
 the king's hi_ghnes, as my dutie is, and this I pray and exhort you, good 
 brother, to shew unto his good grace, and that you will be so good, that 
 this language may be enacted at this present parliament for my excuse 
 in time to come, and that you will be good to my servant Roger Roe, 
 the bearer hereof, &c. 
 
 " Written at Divelin, the 15th Juin. 
 
 " Your faithful true brother, 
 
 " Richard York." 
 
 I, for one, am content to allow an enlightened community to pro- 
 nounce judgment on the literary merits of these authentic letters, the 
 production of equals in English and Irish society. 
 
 After the decisive battle of Bosworth Field, in which the celebrated 
 Richard the Third was slain, the crown, having been found in the 
 field, was carried to the victorious Earl of Richmond, who was crowned 
 on the battle-ground as Henry the Seventh. This successful prince, 
 having married the heiress of the house of York, united on the throne 
 the heads of the contending parties. 
 
 On the fall of Richard, the Plantagenet line became extinct. The 
 Plantagenetfamily had enjoyed the crown of England for three hundred 
 years. It now passed into the family of Tudor. In the previous 
 fifty years, — from 1400 to 1450, — the Irish made wonderful ad- 
 
STATE OF IRELAND. 591 
 
 vances towards the extinction of the English interest in Ireland. 
 Leland, a writer on the English side, thus describes the relative 
 bearings of the English and Irish power, in the beginning of the 
 fifteenth century: " Tiie Irish, in despite of transient, occasional, and 
 inadequate attempts to subdue them, gradually advanced in power, and 
 enlarged their borders. Although the English lords, by the statutes of 
 their little parliament, prohibited the English settlers from trading with 
 the native Irish, yet their most flourishing settlements and richest towns 
 were so totally environed by the old natives, that the English could 
 trade with none other, and were reduced by the legal restraints of their 
 parliament to the danger of being utterly impoverished. The power of 
 the ancient natives was every day extending and increasing: ichat 
 could not he effected by military operations, was, on various occasions, 
 [continues this writer, on the side of England,] attempted by treaties 
 and stipulations ; and here the superior power of the enemy [meaning 
 the Irish] dictated the terms.'''' The English settlers on the border were 
 driven to defend themselves from the incursions of the neighboring Irish, 
 by bribes and pensions. " It doth not appear certain," continues this 
 author, " at what precise time this dishonorable concession was first 
 made; but, from the public records, the commencement of it was not much 
 later than the present period," (viz., during the reign of Henry the 
 Fifth of England, anno 1400.) "An annual stipend, afterwards well 
 known by the name of hlacTi rent, was paid to the powerful Irish chief- 
 tains by the English settlers, to purchase their protection, whose pride 
 was thus gratified by the recognition of their ancient sovereignty. 
 The English subjects were still, by this time, reduced to a mortifying 
 situation. The old native Irish considered the whole race as aliens 
 and intruders — those, at least, who would not consent to adopt their 
 language and manners." And by the 9th of Henry the Sixth, 
 1430, we find the limits of the English Pale set forth in the fol- 
 lowing words. It goes on, after a long preamble, to record, " that the 
 enemies and rebels (the Irish) had conquered and put under their 
 obeysance and tribute in the parts of Munster, and well nigh all the 
 counties of Limerick, Tipperary, Kilkenny, and Wexford ; and in the 
 nether parts, well nigh all the counties of Limerick, Tipperary, Kil- 
 kenny, and Wexford ; and well nigh all the counties of Carlow, Kildare, 
 Meath, and Uriel ; so that there is left unconquered and out of tribute 
 little more than the county of Dublin." 
 
 Such is the testimony of that memorable act of parliament to the 
 great fact, that Ireland, up to this period, was unconquered by 
 Ensrland. 
 
592 DUTIES PERFORMED BY THE CLERGY. 
 
 It is to US of the present day astonishing — incomprehensible — 
 that the Irish chieftains of that period did not combine together, and 
 free themselves and their country totally from British power. They 
 were, it seems, contented, in the distant quarters of the island, to rule 
 their petty septs, to maintain their state and consequence against 
 their neighbors, and to enjoy the honor and advantage of trifling victo- 
 ries. Some of them, indeed, united in the most cordial affection with 
 the old English families, who had joined them in marriage and family 
 interests. Had the Irish people been then led by a Brien Boroimhe, 
 or an O'Ruark, they would have instantly destroyed the English power 
 in Ireland. 
 
 The reign of Henry the Seventh passed away without disturbing 
 materially this general state of things. The Anglo-Irish having joined, 
 either on the one side or the other, in the English civil wars, they were 
 drawn off in great numbers, and appeared in arms against each other in 
 England. From this also grew two parties among the native Irish, — 
 called the York and Lancaster party, — and their animosities continued 
 to be kept up between the great houses of Butler and Geraldine for 
 many generations. Crom-a-boo ! was the senseless war-cry of the Ger- 
 aldines, or the Kildare family ; and Butler-a-hoo ! that of the Butler or 
 Ormond family; — and so of others. At length the king sent Sir Ed- 
 ward Poyning, with a thousand men, to settle the affairs, and to curb 
 the aristocracy, of the Pale. He introduced the famous act, in Drogheda, 
 called Poyning' s Laiv, which forbade the holding any parliament in Ire- 
 land without the king of England's authority, or the proposing any law 
 without its receiving his previous assent and that of his privy council. 
 This was the law which Grattan succeeded in repealing in 1782. In 
 the removal of several penal clauses against the Irish, passed at Kilken- 
 ny, that against speaking the Irish language was not renewed, for nearly 
 all the English in Ireland had for a long time spoken in that tongue, 
 and had dropped the use of their own ; a thing, as remarked by Spenser, 
 unprecedented in the case of a conquered country. 
 
 The higher clergy, in those days, exercised much power in the 
 temporal affairs of society, both in England and Ireland. The office 
 of lord chancellor had been filled by a dignitary of the church since the 
 time of King Alfred, which was discontinued on the fall of Cardinal Wol- 
 sey, whose place was supplied by Sir Thomas More. Medicine was 
 practised by the clergy, particularly the monks ; and as they superin- 
 tended all the public schools and universities, administered to all who 
 were needy, wrote all the books then in use in schools and libraries, 
 
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. THE CLERGY. 593 
 
 besides being lords of one fifth of England, and nearly of a like pro- 
 portion of Ireland, in right of their establishments, they possessed 
 unbounded influence. They were, however, good, indulgent landlords, 
 and the rents paid to them were all spent amongst the people. 
 
 This year [1492] was remarkable for the voyage of Christopher 
 Columbus, and his discovery of the new world, which Seneca seems to 
 have predicted in his Medea : " Ages will arise in after years, when the 
 ocean will loose her chains, and the great globe will open ; when the 
 sea will develop new orbs, and that Thule will not be the extreme 
 region of the earth." Henry the Seventh, to whom Columbus first 
 applied, neglected, it appears, both his own interest and glory, by refu- 
 sing the offer which this great man made to him, in his projected voyage, 
 and which Ferdinand of Castile contrived to turn to his own advan- 
 tage. It was a discovery which gave a new impetus to the energies of 
 the old world, and its effects are yet only in an infant state. 
 75 
 
594 
 
 MUSIC ANB POETRY. 
 
 THE VALLEY LAY SMILING BEFORE ME, 
 
 BY MOORE. 
 
 
 -F 
 
 
 1. The val - ley lay smi - ling be - fore me, Where 
 
 
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 :± 
 
 
 
 i — ^ 
 
 ~i f I — r 
 
 late - ly I left her be - hind ; Yet I trembled, and 
 
 b-\ 1- 
 
 td: 
 
 ¥ 
 
 ^ * 
 
 ^i 
 
 w 
 
 something hung o'er me, That saddened the joy of my 
 
 [zbzzj, j^. ^ 
 
 1 L 
 
 ^3EF*=- 
 
 ^sr 
 
 B 
 
 "I — 
 
 fzizz 
 
 I looked for the lamp, which she 
 
 T^ 
 
 
 "I — r 
 
 PE: 
 
 told me Should shine when her pil - grim re - 
 
 
 t-^ 
 
 :rz=p 
 
 T f — r 
 
 - turned ; But, though darkness be - gan to en 
 
 '-^^- 
 
 --^A 
 
 
 --^^ 
 
 P 
 
 - fold me, No lamp from the bat - tle-ments burned. 
 
 2. 
 
 I flew to her chamber — 'twas lonely 
 
 As if the loved tenant lay dead ; 
 Ah ! would it were death, and death only — 
 
 But, no ! the false young one had fled ! 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 595 
 
 And there hung the liite that could soften 
 
 My very worst pains into bliss ; 
 While the hand that had waked it so often 
 
 Now throbbed to my proud rival's kiss. 
 
 3. 
 
 There was a time, falsest of women, 
 
 When BrefFni's good sword would have sought 
 That man through a million of foemen, 
 
 Who dared but to doubt thee in thought! 
 While now — O degenerate daughter 
 
 Of Erin ! how fallen is thy fame ! 
 And, through ages of bondage and slaughter, 
 
 Thy country shall weep for thy shame. 
 
 4. 
 
 Already the curse is upon her. 
 
 And strangers her valleys profane; 
 They come to divide, to dishonor; 
 
 And tyrants they long will remain. 
 But, onward ! the green banner bearing ! 
 
 Go ! flesh every brand to the hilt ! 
 On our side is Virtue and Erin ! 
 ♦ On theirs is the Saxon and Guilt! 
 
 CALLIEN DHAS CRUITHAN A BO.* 
 
 (the pretty girl milking her cow.) 
 
 To be sung to the foregoing air^ 
 
 1. 
 
 One morning, when Sol was adorning 
 The dew-painted, fragrant rose, 
 
 * Tradition informs us that this very ancient and very beautiful song grew out 
 of the following historical incidents. Keating, (vol. i. page 125,) in conjunction 
 with other authors, fully authenticates the following relation : We have undoubted 
 authority to believe that Eithne Ollmhdd, daughter of O'Dowling, the soa of 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 The larks sang their tunes melodious, 
 And flowers sweet odors disclosed ; 
 
 It was near to the foot of a mountain, 
 Where cataracts rapidly flow, 
 
 1 saw that fair artist of nature, 
 
 Called Callien dhas Cruithan a bo. 
 
 2. 
 
 The nightingale vied with the siren ; 
 
 The linnet she sang in each spray; 
 The dove, with the sweetest allurement, 
 
 And lambs round the sweet one did play ; 
 While Cupid sat there in his chariot, 
 
 Well armed with quiver and bow, 
 To wound all the hearts that came near to 
 
 This Callien dhas Cruithan a bo I 
 
 Eanaheadh, was mother to Carbre Liffenhair, the son of Connae, the son of Art, 
 the son of Cou of the Hundred Fights. This lady was fostered and educated by 
 Buicoidh Boughach, a wealthy herdsman that lived in Leinster. Cormac, in one 
 of his hunting excursions, became suddenly captivated with the lovely Eithne, a 
 virgin of rare beauty, whom he by chance caught a glimpse of in passing through 
 the lands of her foster-father, while she was employed milking a cow in company 
 with her foster-sister and some domestics. The king inquired into the lineage of 
 the lady, declared his passion, and ultimately made her his wife. This historical 
 tradition is given to me by a learned and talented Irishman, as the origin of this 
 beautiful air, which was composed, on the king's marriage, by his favorite bard. 
 The two stanzas above given are, possibly, not the original words which were 
 wedded to this air. I have heard a better version of this old song; and when 1 
 can possess myself of the words, it is likely I shall substitute them 
 
 THE TIME I'VE LOST IN WOOING. 
 
 BY MOORE. 
 
 9 # ^ ~ I " 
 
 1. The time I've lost in woo - ing, In 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 597 
 
 >==?=^- 
 
 
 -^—1-9 ~3 ~3 
 
 watching and pur - su - ing The light that hes In 
 
 woman's eyes, Has been my heart's un - do - ing. 
 
 T-^~ 
 
 r^ 
 
 
 ■^: 
 
 Mi 
 
 l^ZZ 
 
 Though wis - dom oft has sought me, I scorned the 
 
 'k'b~^ ' 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 zzi>-;ns 
 
 — ^ 
 
 ^ _,^ -.^k-T .- 
 
 
 
 
 
 — i— 
 
 w— J' 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 iiiL^p^ 
 
 j^ ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 — • 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 lore she brought me; My on - ly books Were woman's 
 
 i^ZZZr 
 
 H 
 
 looks, And fol - ly 's all they've taught me. 
 
 On her smile, when beauty granted, 
 I hung with gaze enchanted. 
 
 Like him, the sprite 
 
 Whom maids by night 
 Oft meet in glen that's haunted. 
 Like him, too, beauty won me; 
 But while her eyes were on me. 
 
 If once their ray 
 
 Was turned away, 
 O ! winds could not outrun me ! 
 
5^8 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 REMEMBER THEE! YES. 
 
 BY MOORE. 
 
 =f!^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ — -fp ^ ! 
 
 ' — P S- 
 
 ^ 
 
 id: 
 
 )^¥=i- 
 
 5=zj 
 
 1. Re - mem - ber thee! yes, while there's life in this 
 
 ^=^— S--^-' 
 
 s— ^ 
 
 azizzim 
 
 
 heart, 
 
 It shall nev er for - get thee, 
 
 all 
 
 
 -9 
 
 
 i^E^: 
 
 ;sii: 
 
 lorn as thou art ; More dear in thy sor - row, thy 
 
 ^9^ I I I I 
 
 1^-=^^-^=* 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 gloom, and thy showers, Than the rest of the 
 
 l^-r-—^ 
 
 V- — ^- 
 
 world 
 
 in their 
 
 -^'-9-9 
 
 sun - ni - est hours. Wert thou 
 
 « 9 — 9 r~f'"i~'9^f I 
 
 I [^ n~ ! 
 
 i 
 
 all that 1 wish thee, great, glo-rious, and free, First 
 
 fzz 
 
 ~9' 
 
 ^ 
 
 r' 
 
 ^~p g?~ig — '^ — ^ — ii»—r-\-' 
 
 flower of the earth, and first gem 
 
 g^ggg^PP 
 
 might 
 
 thee with proud - er. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 599 
 
 n^ N — r* — 
 
 
 hap 
 
 pi - er 
 
 5^ 
 
 brow ; 
 
 t=i — 
 
 But, O! could I 
 
 
 love thee more deep - ly than now? 
 
 No ; thy chains as they rankle, thy blood as it runs, 
 But make thee more painfully dear to thy sons, — 
 Whose hearts, like the young of the desert-bird's nest. 
 Drink- love in each life-drop that flows from thy breast! 
 Wert thou all that I wish thee, &;c. 
 
 KITTY OF COLERAINE, 
 
LECTURE XV. 
 
 FROM A D. 1509 TO 1560. 
 
 Henry the Eighth. — Cardinal Wolsey. — Queen Catharine. — Anne Boleyn. — 
 Henry breaks with the Pope. ^ Bishop Cranmer. — Sir Thomas More. — Bishop 
 Fisher. — The subservient Parliament. — The Monasteries. — Their public Utility. 
 
 — Opinion of the Quarterly Review. — King Henry's Design on the Monasteries 
 
 — Thomas Cromwell. — His Commissions. — Cobbett's Opinion of them. — Seizure 
 of three hundred and seventy-six Monasteries. — Distributed among the Pliant. — 
 Further Confiscations. — Executions. — Invasion of the Shrines of the Dead. — 
 Chaos in Laws, Morals, and Religion. — Catholics and Protestants burnt on the 
 same Pile. — Monasteries legalized again in England. — Irelapd under Henry. — 
 The Kildare Family. — Beginning of the Reformation in Ireland. — Dissents and 
 Opposition of the Clergy. — Persecution commenced. — Parliament of the Pale. — 
 Confiscations of Irish Monasteries. — Bribery of the Irish Gentry. — King Henry's 
 fifth Wife, Catharine Howard. — Execution of Cromwell. — Execution of the 
 Queen. — Henry marries a sixth Wife. — His Death. — Reading of the Bible first 
 suppressed by him. — Accession of Edward the Sixth. — Further Changes in Re- 
 ligion. — Insurrection in England. — Execution of Somerset. — Death of King 
 Edward. — Intrigues of Northumberland. — Queen Mary proclaimed. — Rebellion. 
 Grand Entry of Mary into London. — Restoration of the Laws, and of the Catholic 
 Religion. — Pliancy of Parliament. — Marriage of the Queen to Philip of Spain. — 
 The Parliament restore the Catholic Religion. — Why call Mary "Bloody".? — 
 Ireland a Refuge for the Persecuted. — Massacre of Mullaghmast. 
 
 Anno 1509. We are now about to enter on the eventful era of the 
 reformation. This event is associated, in our minds, with the reign of 
 King Henry the Eighth of England. As Ireland may date the beginning 
 of her most grievous sufferings and sorrows from King Henry's time, 
 every one will excuse me for going a little into the history of a cause 
 which produced throughout Europe, as well as Ireland, such important 
 changes. 
 
 It is not my vocation, nor have I capacity or acquirements, to enter 
 the arena of theological controversy. I do not intend to treat this ques- 
 tion in a sectarian spirit. Religion is a matter that lies between each 
 man and his Creator. If, as I shall, for nearly the remainder of this 
 work, be obliged to allude to the unfortunate differences in religion 
 which this great change generated in Britain and Ireland, I hope to do 
 
HENRY THE EIGHTH. I^il 
 
 a most unpleasant duly without violence to the feelings of any. I shall 
 not, if I can discover it, speak in a sectarian tone. In recounting the 
 changes in the religious economy of the English government, I shall 
 refer to them only in as far as they operated on the political and social 
 economy of Ireland. 
 
 At tlie very threshold of this inquiry, I ask the kind forbearance and 
 charitable interpretation of my readers, of every shade of opinion, while 
 I unfold to them the incredible sufferings which Ireland has endured, in 
 the name of religion, from the time of Henry the Eighth to the present 
 hour. 
 
 King Henry the Eighth, of England, was the second son of Henry the 
 Seventh, with whose reign I concluded my previous lecture. He was 
 educated for the church ; but Arthur, his eldest brother, dying at the age 
 of fourteen, Henry became thereby the heir of the British crown ; 
 which, on the death of his father, [1509,] he assumed, while yet only 
 eighteen years of age. He was handsome, accomplished, proud, and 
 well educated. Immediately after coming to the throne, he married 
 Catharine, the daughter of Philip, king of Spain. She was about three 
 or four years older than himself. This lady had been nominally married, 
 according to the custom of those times, to the king's brother, who, as I 
 have just mentioned, died at the age of fourteen, and the marriage was 
 therefore never consummated. But the lady's father took care to have 
 a dispensation, or a nullijication of that nominal marriage effected, by the 
 pope, before the second marriage, with Henry the Eighth, was solem- 
 nized. The marriage with Henry therefore took place, with the full 
 approbation of all the church authorities of England, Spain, and Rome. 
 
 King Henry had several children by his virtuous queen, one only of 
 whom lived, namely, the princess Mary, afterwards queen of England. 
 They lived happily and lovingly together for fourteen years, the queen 
 proving herself, through all that time, a most virtuous and afTectionate 
 wife. The religion of England, Ireland, and all Europe, was then one 
 and the same. It was Catholic, and in communion with the see of 
 Rome. 
 
 The movement against the pope and the Catholic religion, which was 
 begun in Europe by Luther, Zuingh, and Calvin, gave a new occu- 
 pation to men's thoughts throughout the Christian worid. In truth, this 
 religious revolution, which had its beginning in the bosom of an offended 
 monk, now mixed or attracted all elements into its vortex, in several of 
 the continental kingdoms, opposition to the pope, opposition to princes, 
 desire of the riches contained in the monasteries, impatience of ecclesi- 
 .76 
 
602 CARDINAL WOLSEY. 
 
 astical discipline, and doubtless the remembrance and existence of many 
 petty acts of overstrained authority committed by prelates of the church, 
 whose pride neither the monitions of the Christian tenets, the interests 
 of religion, nor the fears of punishment, could restrain. 
 
 We find that, in many parts of Europe, mobs were excited to madness 
 against the old church dignitaries. Churches and monasteries were 
 broken up, and the rich contents distributed amongst the ringleaders. 
 In the midst of this half-ecclesiastical, half-civil commotion, princes lost 
 their diadems and principalities, which were seized upon by leaders who 
 presented a new code of religion in one hand, and a new code of civil 
 laws in the other. 
 
 Henry the Eighth distinguished himself amongst the theologians of 
 Europe by the composition and publication of a book against these 
 reformers. It was entitled the " Assertion of the Seven Sacraments," 
 which he dedicated to Pope Leo the Tenth ; and, in return, received 
 from that distinguished father of the church the title defender of the 
 faith, which was conferred on him in a special bull, signed by twenty- 
 seven cardinals and bishops. 
 
 Such was Henry the Eighth at the commencement of the reformation 
 in Germany. There is another distinguished person, to whom the 
 reader must be introduced at this stage of the great drama. This is the 
 celebrated Cardinal Wolsey. I know not if the whole history of the 
 church offers to our view so proud a prelate. Originally of very hum- 
 ble parentage, he was educated for the church, and raised into impor- 
 tance by a train of fortunate circumstances. Having been selected by 
 Henry the Seventh to go upon some mission of negotiation to the court 
 of the Emperor Maximilian, he performed it so well and so quickly, 
 that he won the approbation of the monarch, and was promoted to the 
 deanery of Lincoln ; and he subsequently made him his almoner, which 
 office he held on the accession of Henry the Eighth, whose favor he 
 secured so well that he was appointed a member of his council, and 
 successively bishop of Tournay, Lincoln, archbishop of York, and lastly, 
 cardinal and legate, chancellor of England, and bishop of Winchester. 
 He was abbot of the convent of St. Alban's, and possessed likewise the 
 revenues of the episcopal sees of Bath, Worcester, and Hereford, with 
 several priories and other benefices. So great was the splendor to which 
 he attained, that he kept an almost incredible number of officers and 
 servants in his household ; and when sent by the king as an ambassador 
 to the court of France, he brought with him, in his train, twelve hundred 
 horses, eighty chariots, sixty mules, and other parts of his retinue in 
 
QUEEN CATHARINE. 603 
 
 proportion. Splendor cannot be supported without wealth, and Wolsey 
 was insatiable in the pursuit of it. Man generally possesses many pas- 
 sions ; but one usually preponderates, in which the others seem to centre. 
 The cardinal's ruling passion was ambition. He aspired to nothing less 
 than the papal chair, for which object he sought to obtain the friendship 
 and influence of Charles the Fifth. This emperor, who looked upon him 
 as necessary to aid him in carrying his plans into effect, began to display 
 much regard towards him by a fre(|uent correspondence, and in the 
 letters which he wrote, he signed himself, " Charles, your son and re- 
 lation. ^^ 
 
 Such, condensed from the Abbe M'Geoghegan, is a glimpse at this cel- 
 ebrated man. It is not a little remarkable that the proud, unprincipled 
 cardinal — for unprincipled he was — first set the example, in England, of 
 suppressing monasteries. Wishing to do some signal thing, that would 
 carry his name to remote posterity, he prevailed on the king to suppress 
 forty monasteries, the revenues of which he assumed for the purpose of 
 establishing and supporting two grand colleges, the one at Oxford, the 
 other at Ipswich — an example which King Henry soon after followed, 
 upon a more extended scale, though with somewhat less worthy motives 
 actuating him. 
 
 When Henry had been about fourteen years married, he. began to 
 give vent to certain doubts, which troubled his conscience, as to the 
 religious regularity of his marriage with Queen Catharine. These he 
 communicated to Cardinal Wolsey, who, according to the authority of 
 the Abbe M'Geoghegan, rather encouraged than subdued. Besides 
 all this there was another impulse strongly working in favor of those 
 doubts ; namely, a secret love for the beautiful Anne Boleyn, a maid 
 of honor to his queen. These doubts at last broke openly out, and the 
 king separated from the queen. An appeal was made by him to the 
 pope, complaining that his marriage was unlawful, and requesting a 
 trial, with a view to a divorce. The pope granted this trial, which was 
 commenced before English commissioners, the legate from the holy see 
 presiding. Queen Catharine refused to appear before this tribunal, inas- 
 much as it was composed of Englishmen, under the influence of the 
 king ; and she, being a Spaniard, demanded a trial before the pope and 
 cardinals. On this occasion the queen made a most eloquent appeal to 
 the feelings of all present, in which she set forth her virtue, fidelity, and 
 conjugal rights, and concluded by challenging her husband to say aught 
 against her character since their union. The king said, " that he had 
 no complaints to advance against her, that he was satisfied with her con 
 
604 ^UEEN CATHARINE. 
 
 duct, and that her virtue could not be sufficiently admired. He de- , 
 clared, likewise, that he would continue willingly to live with her if his 
 conscience would permit him." The entire assembly, we are told, 
 melted into tears. Jt broke up without doing any thing; but the royal 
 pair did not come together again. 
 
 Tiuic rolled on without bringing things to an issue. The divorce 
 question was fre(|uently debated without any thing being concluded on. 
 The king, therefore, sent for the two cardinals, in order that they might 
 induce the queen to leave the matter to his own decision. They imme- 
 diately repaired to her, and found her working with her female attend- 
 ants. When she heard Wolsey addressing her, and continuing to 
 speak, " I see clearly," said she, " that you have come here to debate 
 on matters which surpass my capacity." Then, showing a skein of silk 
 which iiiing upon her neck, " Behold," she continued, " what I am 
 capable of, and what is my sole occupation." Wolsey entreated her, 
 through kindness for the king, not to await the result of a lawsuit, the 
 issue, of which could not be favorable to her. " I do not know," replied 
 the queen, " who has advised the king to act as he is now doing. I 
 confess, caidiiial, that it is you whom 1 blame for it. Our parents, who 
 were wise princes, had our marriage previously investigated, and ob- 
 tained from the pope a dispensation for it, of which I hold the original. 
 The king and ! have lived for almost eighteen years together, during 
 which no censure has been cast upon us. Your pride, however, I can- 
 not approve of; your debaucheries, your tyranny, and insolence, I have 
 s[)oken of. Througli the ir»fluence of my nephew, the emperor^ you 
 have failed in being appointed pope, which is the source of all my mis- 
 fortunes ; since, in order to be revenged, you have not been content 
 with kindling a war throughout all Europe, but have been likewise the 
 secret spring and cause of all my misfortunes. Every thing that I 
 suffer, cardinal, from this disgrace, is known to God, who will be your 
 judge and mine." Wolsey wished to reply, but she would not hear 
 him. Campeggio she treated with politeness, but protested that she 
 never would acknowledge either one or the other as her judge, and 
 would continue in the line of conduct she had adopted. 
 
 Some two or three years were now spent in negotiation between the 
 courts of England and Rome. The question was discussed in the col- 
 leges of England, France, and Italy. Books were written pro and con, 
 and the crafty king sent ambassadors to Rome, to tamper witii the car- 
 dinals. He began, in the mean time, to manifest openly his partiality for 
 Anne Boleyn. Having consented to submit the marriage to the college 
 
HENKT BREAKS WITH THE POPE. MORE. FISHER. 605 
 
 of cardinals, under an erroneous supposition that he had gained many of 
 iheni to his side, he was greatly mortified in finding that the entire 
 college, with one exception, gave their votes confirmatory of the mar- 
 riage. The pope acquiesced ; and, after vainly trying to persuade 
 Henry into an acquiescence, sent his ultimatum to the king, requesting 
 him to take back his wife, and put away Anne Bolcyn. 
 
 Henry had already, as it would appear, made up his mind to break 
 with the pope, should the decision be against him ; and it having been 
 promulgated adversely, he kept his intention no longer a secret. In the 
 mean time, having conceived a dislike for Cardinal Wolsey, he suddenly 
 dismissed that powerful prelate from his various offices, and actually 
 placed him under arrest. He advanced Sir Thomas More in his stead 
 to the office of lord chancellor, who was the first layman that ever held 
 that office in England. The celebrat(?d Thomas Cranmer, a theological 
 professor of Oxford, having written a book in favor of the divorce, 
 was proinoted to the archbishopric of Canterbury, in the place of 
 Wolsey. 
 
 The king now influenced his parliament to pass an act declaring the 
 power of the pope, in spiritual or temi)oral matters, at an end in his 
 dominions. By his promise of rich rewards to the members of this par- 
 liament, he moulded them into most pliable courtiers. Any bill he 
 wanted was carried through with rapidity. The archbishop, too, was 
 equally willing to aid the king in all his important changes. The queen 
 was soon divorced, in a court held by archbishop Cranmer. Anne 
 Boleyn was married as quickly. Queen Catiiarine, in tlie course of a 
 couple of years, died universally regretted. By Anne Boleyn he had a 
 daughter, who was afterwards Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 The king now passed an act, through his parliament, making himself 
 supreme head of the church, in all matters, throughout his dominions. 
 He had another act passed, rendering it treason to his person, and pun- 
 ishable with death, to deny his supremacy. Sir Thon)as More, Bishop 
 Fisher, and many other most pious men, refused to take this oath. 
 Their refusal to admit was deemed tantamount to a denial. For this 
 they were both sent to prison. After remaining there some months, 
 they were brought to the block and beheaded. Sir Thomas More was 
 greatly regretted. He met his fate with a tranquil mind. As the execu- 
 tioner was about to lift the fatal axe, this remarkable man coolly removed 
 his beard out of the way, observing that it had not offended his high- 
 ness, the king. Thus died, says Sir James Mackintosh, one of the best 
 men that was born in England for a thousand years. Bishop Fisher 
 
606 SUBSERVIENT PARLIAMENT. 
 
 was also beheaded for the same offence. Several abbots, who refused 
 to admit the supremacy of the king, were hanged and quartered. 
 
 The king, having suspected the virtue of his new queen, had her 
 arrested, tried, and ordered for execution in a few days after. 
 
 Having borrowed large sums from his subjects, which he had no 
 means of paying, he had a bill brought through the parliament, to exempt 
 him from paying any of this money. There was no limit to his personal 
 expenses. On his accession to the throne, he found eighteen hundred 
 thousand pounds in the treasury, accumulated by the late king ; this 
 large sum he had long since squandered in dissipation. After Anne 
 Boleyn's death, he married the Lady Jane Seymour, by whom he had a 
 son, who was afterwards Edward the Sixth of England. The lady 
 died in childbirth, and the infant was extracted by the CBesarean 
 operation. 
 
 The next great political step of Henry was to have a bill carried 
 through the house of commons, giving to his proclamations the force of 
 an act of parliament. By this bold stroke he assumed, in his own per- 
 son, the powers of the state ; abolished Magna Charta, and reduced 
 every authority in the kingdom, civil and ecclesiastical, beneath his unre- 
 strained will. Persons suspected of treason, or those who refused to ac- 
 knowledge the king's supremacy, were condemned and executed by his 
 warrant. At first, the forms of a trial took place ; but these were quickly 
 laid aside, and the king's warrant was alone substituted for all other forms. 
 
 England was now reduced to a condition of the most abject slavery. 
 Hume describes it thus : *' The English, in that age, were so thoroughly 
 subdued, that, 4ike Eastern slaves, they were inclined to adnjire even 
 those acts of violence and tyranny which w^"e exercised on themselves, 
 and at their own expense." 
 
 Henry, having reduced the people to this slave-like dread, proceeded 
 next to seize on the rich monasteries. There were about seven hundred 
 of these throughout England, and an equal number throughout Ireland. 
 I have frequendy described their nature and character in these pages, 
 and especially at page 467, to which the reader is referred. These re- 
 ligious corporations were very wealthy. Their libraries were well 
 stored with books, most of which were ornamented with silver clasps, 
 hinges, and the like ; for the monks spent much of their time composing 
 and transcribing those books. Princes, lords, and other great ones of 
 the world, usually bequeathed, on their death-beds, to the monasteries, 
 some important gift, to be administered in acts of charity or education. 
 And although the monks were supported by the income of these estab- 
 
THE MONASTERIES. 607 
 
 Ushments, yet the poor and the illiterate were also benefited materially. 
 Putting aside all question about a future state, the historian and the 
 philosopher must admit, that those institutions were of great utility to the 
 people of England and of Ireland, where, in the midst of so dense a 
 population, the hand of charity is ever required, either to minister to the 
 needy, the sick, or the illiterate. 
 
 On the score of science, they were admirable academies. There are 
 hardly any of the great inventions which we value at present, that were 
 not discovered by these misrepresented men. The earth's sphericity, 
 antipodes, and the general astronomical balance, were discovered, in the 
 eighth century, by an Irish monk, and its diurnal revolutions by an 
 Italian Jesuit, in the sixteenth. Gunpowder was first compounded by a 
 monk ; and the best treatise on gunnery was written by a Jesuit. 
 Architecture, painting, music, and mathematics, owe their preservation 
 to the monks. Society felt no want which those good men did not 
 associate to supply. 
 
 The Protestant Bishop Tanner, as quoted by William Cobbett, in his 
 History of the Reformation, describes the monasteries thus : " They 
 were schools of learning and education, for every convent had one per- 
 son or more appointed for this purpose ; and all the neighbors, that 
 desired it, might have their children taught grammar and church music, 
 &;c., without any expense to them. In the nunneries, young women 
 were taught to work, and read English, and sometimes Latin also ; so 
 that not only the lower rank of people, who could not pay for their 
 learning, were educated, but most of the noblemen's and gentlemen's 
 daughtei-s were educated in those places. Thirdly, all the monasteries 
 were, in effect, great hospitals ; and were, most of them, obliged to re- 
 lieve many poor people every day. They were likewise free houses of 
 entertainment for almost all travellers. They were likewise of consid- 
 erable advantage to the places where they had their sites, and estates, 
 by creating a great resort thither, by obtaining grants of fairs and 
 markets, freeing the people from the oppressions of the ambitious 
 chiefs and barons, and lasdy by letting their lands at easy rates. 
 
 " And, finally, the abbeys, and churches attached, were great orna- 
 ments to the country, and employed a great many workmen in building 
 and repairing, which contributed much to improve the taste for, and the 
 style of, our architecture." 
 
 The monasteries were constructed throughout Europe on those prin- 
 ciples of utility. There was no nation in which the standard of the 
 cross was planted, but the monastic institutions grew up around it 
 
603 OPINION OF THE QUARTEBLY REVIEW AND OTHERS. 
 
 Mallet, in his History of the Siviss, speaking of those calumniated men, 
 says, " The monks softened, by their instructions, the ferocious manners 
 of the people, and opposed their credit to the tyranny of the nobility, 
 who knew no other occupation than war, and grievously oppressed their 
 neighbors. On this account the government of monks was preferred to 
 theirs — the people sought them for judges. It was a usual saying, 
 that it was better to be governed by the bishop's crosier than the 
 monarch's sceptre." 
 
 Drake, in his Literary Hours, says, " The monks of Cassins were 
 distinguished not only for their knowledge of sciences, but their attention 
 to polite learning, and an acquaintance with the classics. Their learned 
 abbot, Desiderius, collected the best Greek and Roman authors. The 
 fraternity not only composed learned treatises on music, logic, astron- 
 omy, architecture, Stc, but employed a portion of their time in tran- 
 scribing Tacitus, and other ancient authors." 
 
 In the English Quarterly Review, December, 1811, there is the 
 following testimony to the same purport : " The world has never been 
 so indebted to any other body of men as to the illustrious order of 
 Benedictine monks. A community of pious men, devoted to literature 
 and to the useful arts, as well as to religion, seems, in the days that are 
 past, like a green oasis arnid the desert : like stars upon a moonless 
 night, they shine upon us with a tranquil ray. If ever there was a man 
 who could truly be called venerable, it was he to whom the appellation 
 is constantly prefixed — the Venerable Bede — whose life was passed in 
 instructing his own generation, and preparing records for posterity. In 
 those days," continues the Review, " the church offered the only asylum 
 from the evils to which every country was exposed. Amidst continued 
 wars, the church enjoyed peace. It was regarded as a sacred realm 
 by men who, though they hated one another, believed and feared God 
 through the same form of religion. Abused as it was by the worldly- 
 minded and ambitious, and disgraced by the artifices of the designing 
 and tlie follies of the fanatic, it afforded a shelter to those who were 
 better than the world in their youth, or weary of it in their age. The 
 wise, as well as the timid and gentle, fled to this Goshen of God, which 
 enjoyed its own light and calm, amidst darkness and storms." 
 
 Such were the monasteries, which had grown up, like the oaks of the 
 forest, for a thousand years, increasing, as they grew, in strength and 
 majesty. 
 
 There were about twenty to five-and-twenty of these institutions in 
 each county in England and Ireland. To obtain the concurrence of 
 
THOMAS CROMWELL. -—HIS COMMISSIONERS. 609 
 
 parliament, in iiis designs on this property, the king promised some of 
 these possessions to the members, as the reward for their subserviency. 
 But even this failed to make them sufficiently pliable to his will. 
 
 In order to begin the confiscations, the king put on the forms of law, 
 and appointed a commission to visit and inquire into the practices and 
 properties of all the monasteries of the kingdom. At the head of this 
 commission he placed Thomas Cromwell, who was son of a black- 
 smith, and who had been brought up as a messenger in the household 
 of Cardinal Wolsey. The commissioners sent forward their agents to 
 every monastic institution in the kingdom : the kingdom was divided 
 into districts for this purpose, and two deputies were appointed to visit 
 each district. Their object was to obtain grounds of accusation against 
 the monks and nuns. 
 
 These deputies are described by William Cobbett, [from whose able 
 work on the reformation I have condensed most of the foregoing re- 
 marks,] in the following words: "When we consider the object, and 
 what was the character of the man to whom the work was committed, 
 we may easily imagine what sort of men these deputies were. They 
 were, in fact, fit to be the subalterns of such a chief. They were some 
 of the very worst men in all England — men of notoriously infamous 
 characters ; men who had been convicted of heinous crimes, some of 
 whom had actually been branded for crime. These men wrote in their 
 * reports,' not what was, but what their merciless employers wanted 
 them to write. 
 
 " The monks and nuns, who had never dreamed of the possibility of 
 such proceedings ; who had never entertained the idea that Magna 
 Charta, and all the laws of the land, could be set aside in a moment ; 
 and whose recluse and peaceful lives rendered them wholly unfit to cope 
 with crafty, desperate villany, — fell before these ruffians as chickens fall 
 before the kite. The reports made by these villains met with no con- 
 tradiction. The accused parties had no means of making a defence. 
 There was no court for them to appear in. They dared not, even if 
 they had the means, offer a defence or make a complaint ; for they had 
 seen the horrible consequences — the burnings, the rippings up, of all 
 those of their brethren who had ventured to whisper their dissent from 
 any dogma or decree of the tyrant. The monks and nuns, and the 
 multitudes that depended on them for support, were to be at once 
 stripped of this great mass of property, without any other ground than 
 the reports of those men, sent, as the malignant Hume confesses, for 
 the express purpose of finding a pretence for the breaking up of the 
 77 
 
610 SEIZURE OF THREE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX MONASTERIES. 
 
 monasteries, and the king's taking to himself property that had never 
 belonged to hitn or his predecessors." 
 
 Such is Cobbett's opinion of this great confiscation. The youth of 
 the present day are taught, from Hume's History of England, to believe 
 the very worst things of the monastic institutions. The reports of these 
 visitors, whom Cobbett designates "branded ruffians," were taken by 
 Hume, and the rest of the party historians of England, as the grounds 
 and data of their attacks on the characters of the pious inmates ; and 
 the unaccountable hatred entertained against the Catholics, on account 
 of their religious belief, (for which no man is accountable to another,) 
 by many persons generally ignorant of their principles and history, 
 is,. in great part, to be attributed to the reports of those ruffian inquisit- 
 ors, whose falsehood was superinduced by their well-founded expec- 
 tation of sharing in the plunder. 
 
 Upon the reports thus obtained, an act of parlmment was passed in 
 March, 1536, for the confiscation of three hundred and seventy-six 
 monasteries, and for granting their estates, real and personal, to the king 
 and his heirs. He took plate, jewels, gold and silver ornaments, as well 
 as the lands and houses, cattle and crops. This act of naked plunder, 
 corrupt as his parliament was, could not be carried through the house 
 of commons. 
 
 Spelman, in his History of Sacrilege, — who was also a Protestant 
 historian, — says, speaking of the confiscation bill, "The bill stuck long 
 in the lower house, and could get no passage, when the king commanded 
 the commons to attend him in the forenoon, in his gallery, where he let 
 them wait till late in the afternoon ; and then, coming out of his cham- 
 ber, walking a turn or two amongst them, and looking angrily on them, 
 first on one side and then on the other, at last said he, ' I hear that my 
 bill will not pass ; but I ivill have it pass, or I will have some of your 
 heads.' And without other rhetoric, he returned to his chamber. 
 Enough was said : the bill passed, and all was given him as he desired.'* 
 
 It was thus that Henry carried this important measure, and it may be 
 added that thus he carried every thing. The reports of the visitors 
 and inquisitors loere not believed by the parliament, for they refused to 
 legislate on them, until individually threatened with execution. 
 
 The act of confiscation was passed in the year 1536, and in its pre- 
 amble is contained the reasons for its enactments. It includes, in a 
 schedule, all the smaller monasteries, amounting to three hundred and 
 seventy-six ; and it gives as reasons, tbat these lesser monasteries were 
 corrupt, carnal, and sinful, and directs the inmates to go to the larger 
 
DISTRIBUTED AMONG THE PLIANT. EXECUTIONS. 611 
 
 monasteries, •' u-here" (as the act recites,) " thanks he to God, religion 
 is right well kept and observed." 
 
 I shall show, by and by, how easy he found an excuse for laying 
 hands on these also. Before this time, there never was such a word 
 known or understood, in England or Ireland, ns paujper ; but after this 
 time, pauperism and poverty, and poor rates, and a standing army, and 
 a national debt, and deadly animosities, and religious hate and exasper- 
 tions, and finally, the suppression of the people's liberties, ensued. 
 
 As soon as Henry was in possession of the three hundred and 
 seventy-six estates, he began to assign them away to his followers, for 
 the king soon found he could not keep all to himself; and before four 
 years passed over, he found himself without a single particle of the 
 property he had thus seized : it was all divided amongst his scram- 
 bling followers. 
 
 When the king complained to Cromwell of their rapacity, he used 
 these memorable words : " By our lady, the cormorants, when they 
 have'got the garbage, will devour the dish." Cromwell reminded him 
 that there was much more yet to come. " Tut," said the king, " my 
 whole realm would not stanch their maws." But this difficulty he 
 soon got over. I have just quoted a paragraph from the preamble of 
 the act, 27th Henry, called the conjiscaiion act, in which, in that 
 very bill, he puts on the record that, " in the great and solemn monas- 
 teries, (' thanks be to God,') religion is right well kept and observed." 
 This is the very language of the act ; and to-oiir understandings it would 
 seem a work of some difficulty to find any reason, in the course of four 
 years, for turning on the larger and more solemn establishments, 
 especially when we may well suppose they were strictly on their ffuard 
 to give no cause for censure. But we shall see this done, and that 
 quickly. An act was brought into the parliament, which conferred on 
 the king and his assigns all monasteries, all hospitals, and all colleges, 
 within his dominions. The people here and there flew to insurrection ; 
 but they were butchered, — they were hewed down, even as the butcher 
 despatches ox after ox, in the slaughter-house. 
 
 Seventy-two thousand persons were thus slaughtered, in 
 
 THE course of EIGHT OR TEN YEARS, UNDER PENAL ENACTMENTS, 
 WHICH NEVER, TILL THEN, WERE KNOWN TO THE LAWS OF ENG- 
 LAND. 
 
 No language can describe the horrors of this dreadful change. 
 Monks and nuns, bishops and priests, were executed on the slightest 
 suspicion of murmuring dissent. 
 
612 INVASION OF THE SHRINES OF THE DEAD. 
 
 But — still more revolting — the shrines of the most illustrious dead were 
 invaded, for sake of the mere wealth which had been imbedded in them 
 by their friends or admirers. The tomb and shrine of St. Thomas of 
 Canterbury, St. Austin, and of Alfred the Great, were amongst the most 
 sacred objects desecrated by sacrilegious hands, and the interred dust 
 scattered to the winds. Many of the old and beautiful abbeys were 
 battered down or blown up with gunpowder. The vast libraries, that 
 took ages to accumulate, were taken out and burned at their doors, 
 which all must admit was a loss that never can be repaired. 
 
 Of course, those who so acted did all in their power to blacken the 
 characters of the trustees of this vast property. " Lazy monies" and 
 " moiikish ignorance," were phrases coined and squeezed into the English 
 language, to generate a prejudice in the minds of youth towards the 
 old occupants of the monasteries. If those who seized upon all tliis 
 property had, when they turned out the monks, placed in their stead 
 commissioners or officers under the eye of government, to administer the 
 trusts according to the wills of the various founders, then there w.ould 
 be something to color the charge of impropriety against the monks. 
 But not one of the duties ever performed towards society by the monks 
 has been ever performed by those who got their lands, from that day to 
 the present. 
 
 I will here quote one other extract from William Cobbett, on this 
 terrible change : " The whole country presented the appearance of a 
 land recendy invaded by barbarians. Nothing has ever yet come to 
 supply the place of what was then destroyed. This is the view for us 
 to take of the matter. It is not a matter of mere religion, but a matter 
 of rights, liberties, real wealth, happiness, and national greatness. If all 
 these have been strengthened," continues this great English writer, " or 
 augmented by the change, even then we must not approve of the horri- 
 ble means. But if they have all been weakened or lessened by that 
 reformation, what an outrageous abuse of words it is to call the event by 
 that name. And if I do not prove, clear as the daylight, that before the 
 reformation England was greater, more moral, more wealthy, and more 
 happy, than she has ever been since ; if I do not make this appear as 
 clearly as any fact was ever made to appear, I will be contented to be 
 called a vain pretender for the rest of my life." That able Protestant 
 writer then proceeds to show the alteration for the worse, which this 
 change produced in die condition of the people ; to which work the read- 
 er, who wishes to be more fully informed on this subject, is referred. 
 
 It is a curious fact in the history of erratic man, that, within the past 
 year, namely, about June, 1843, a leading lord of ihe British parliament 
 
MONASTERIES LEGALIZED AGAIN IN ENGLAND. 613 
 
 deplored the loss of those charitable religious and literary corporations to 
 England, showed the incredible ignorance that every where prevailed, 
 and sighed for the reestabhshment of monasteries throughout England, 
 to assist in the restoration of morals and literature. The house of com- 
 mons patiently listened to the noble lord's address, and consented, on his 
 motion, to repeal the statute of mortmain, which was passed at the 
 reformation, and which forbade the existence of any religious corporation 
 in England. Nunneries and monasteries are again growing up in Lon- 
 don, and throughout England, under the authority of parliament. Thus, 
 then, the calumiated monks are at length vindicated, in that very cham- 
 ber, where, three hundred years ago, they were sentenced to destruc- 
 tion and infamy. 
 
 It is now time to look at King Henry's government in Ireland. 
 
 For the first twenty-five years of his reign, he left the entire manage- 
 ment of Ireland to his deputies and the little parliament of the Pale. 
 Things were carried on pretty much as they had been for the three 
 centuries before his time. During the early part of King Henry's reign, 
 the Earl of Kildare, the king's deputy, and the Earl of Surry, who suc- 
 ceeded him, were continually engaged in strife with the Irish chiefs. 
 Various were the successes and reverses of the opposed parties. Many 
 great men, both on the English and Irish side, fell. The chief O'Neill, 
 at this time the hereditary king or prince of Ulster, advanced to the very 
 confines of the British territory in Meath, with ten thousand foot and 
 four thousand horse, and offered battle to the English deputy ; which, 
 however, he thought it prudent to decline. Henry the Eighth subse- 
 quently sent O'Neill a collar of gold, and commanded Surry to invite 
 him to court. 
 
 By an extract from the proceedings of the privy council at Dublin, 
 1534, it appears that " neither the English order, tongue, nor habit, was 
 used, nor the king's laws obeyed, above twenty miles in compass ;" and 
 the council declared it to be their opinion that, unless the laws be duly 
 executed, the " litde place which is now obedient, will be reduced to 
 the same condition as the remainder of the kingdom." — State Papers, 
 63. — Instructions to John Allen. — The Irish chiefs, however, 
 in every direction, indulged their animosities towards each other, and 
 seemed to forget the presence of a common enemy in the country ; 
 against whom had they heartily united, he would not have existed in 
 Ireland twenty-four hours. 
 
 Soon after this, the English brought into Ireland three pieces of can- 
 non, which, being an engine of warfare then new to the Irish, terrified 
 them exceedingly in those parts of the country where it was used. 
 
614 THE KILi>AllE iWir-il,!'. 
 
 Althougli the Earl of Kildare, as lord lieutenant, and after him his 
 son Gerald, had carried fire and sword throughout Ireland, in obedience 
 to the king's command, yet the enemies of this earl, consisting of the 
 Ormonds, the Ossorys, Lord Chancellor Allen, and others, sent an em- 
 bassy to King Henry, representing his actions in a treasonable liglU; 
 upon which Kildare was ordered to England, where, "on his arrival, the 
 king had him shut up in prison. His son, Thomas Fitzgerald, to whom 
 he gave the sword of state during his absence, hearing what had befallen 
 his father, and suspecting, moreover, that his father would be executed, 
 threw up the sword of stale, and declared open war against the king. 
 This declaration he supported with all his might, having gathered con- 
 siderable forces. His chief opposition, however, consisted in the ene- 
 mies of his family amongst the Anglo-Irish of the Pale. His father had 
 persecuted the old Irish too vehemently to allow many of them to join 
 the young earl. Yet some few of the Irish chieftains did flock to his 
 standard, and he undoubtedly made considerable advances towards 
 shaking off the power of England. Having fortified his castle of May- 
 nooth, and several other strongholds, he went into Connaught to collect 
 additional forces ; but the governor of his castle, after withstanding a 
 siege for ten days, treacherously offered to surrender it, expecting to 
 make his fortune by the base act. It deserves to be recorded that 
 the English general, on receiving the castle, paid the traitor the sum 
 agreed upon for surrendering it, but had him shot for betraying so good 
 a master in his absence ; which proper treatment I hope will be a 
 lasting lesson to all future traitors. 
 
 After a great many skirmishes and battles, and a harassing warfare, 
 Lord Thomas Fitzgerald proposed terms of peace to Grey, the English 
 deputy. This was gladly accepted, and the young earl was received 
 at court and pardoned. But King Henry requested him to be sent to 
 England, and under the assurance of safety from the lord deputy, who 
 proposed to accompany him, he consented to risk his life in the hands 
 of the King. On his arrival in London, he found his father had died 
 in prison, into which he was himself committed. In the beginning of 
 the year 1536, five uncles of the young earl, who had been under arms, 
 surrendered on condition of pardon, and, being invited by the deputy to 
 his house, were arrested at dinner, and were likewise sent to London, 
 where, shortly after their arrival, they and their distinguished nephew 
 were treacherously executed. It is not a little remarkable that this 
 deputy, Grey, was subsequently beheaded by Henry, his master. 
 
 There was still a youth, of the Fitzgerald race left — young Gerald, 
 
BISHOP BROWN ANi> TKE FillMATi: OF AUiMAGH. 615 
 
 thirteen years of age, who was secreted by various relatives, and sent 
 to France, whither he was pursued by the agents of King Henry. He 
 found means to escape from Paris to Flanders, Irom thence to Rome, 
 where he received protection from the pope, and was finally restored to 
 his possessions by Edward the Sixth, which was again confirmed by 
 Queen Mary, who. restored him to his titles and honors. 
 
 We find that, in these times, the English absent from their Irish 
 estates were deemed so injurious to the interests of the Pale, that sev- 
 eral of their estates were confiscated to the crown, upon this ground. 
 Amongst the estates so confiscated were those of the Duke of Norfolk, 
 Lords Berkley, Waterford, Shrewsbury. Ormond, together with those 
 of several abbots, who resided in England. A further act against the 
 Irish language was now passed, and no clerk in orders was permitted to 
 officiate, who could not speak the English language fluently. 
 
 It was in one of the little parliaments, held about this time, that the 
 power to vote for members of it was restricted to those who had an 
 interest o{ forty shillings per annum from land. 
 
 When Henry had pretty well established his supremacy, in spiritual 
 matters, throughout England, he sent over to Ireland Bishop Brown, 
 who had preached much in London in favor of his views. With him 
 were coupled some others, as commissioners, to introduce the principles 
 of the new worship, which, after all, did not differ much from that of 
 the old Catholic faith, for the mass and sacraments were not yet 
 abolished. 
 
 On their arrival in Dublin, Bishop Brown summoned a convocation 
 of the clergy, to whom he proposed the oath of supremacy; but no 
 sooner had the commissioners opened their business, than Cromer, arch- 
 bishop and primate of Armagh, an Englishman by birth, openly and 
 boldly declared against an attempt, in his opinion, so impious. This 
 declaration was followed by other clerical members of the parliament. 
 The primate retired from the council to his diocese, where he sum- 
 moned his clergy, and addressed them in strong and pathetic language 
 against the threatened inroad upon their religion. The clergy were 
 every where aroused to oppose the change, and nowhere did Henry 
 meet with sympathy or encouragement. His commissioners were treated 
 with contempt and ridicule, and his chief vicar, Thomas Cromwell, on 
 account of the meanness of his birth, was the object of popular scorn. 
 From disdain and contempt for the commissioners, the people changed 
 to open hostility, and threatened the life of Archbishop Brown. The 
 deputy. Grey, the trusty and well-beloved of Henry, sallied into the 
 
616 MASSACRES AND SACRILEGE. 
 
 diocese of Armagh, with an army of pillagers, for the purpose of striking 
 terror into the hearts of the clergy. He entered Lecale and the Ardes, 
 in the county of Down, against a nobleman of English extraction, called 
 Savage, to whom Cox and others give the appellation of " a degenerate 
 Englishman." He took the castle of Dundruin, belonging to Magennis, 
 with several other fortified places, and laid all that country waste. He 
 next laid his sacrilegious hands on the cathedral church of Down, which 
 he burned, destroyed the monuments of St. Patrick, St. Bridget, and 
 St. Columbe Kill, and committed several other sacrilegious acts. He 
 then made war against images, which were destroyed every where, at 
 this time, particularly those that were most revered by the faithful. The 
 celebrated statue of the blessed Virgin at Trim was burned, as also the 
 crucifix of the abbey of Ballybogan, and St. Patrick's crosier,* which had 
 been removed, by order of William Fitzadelm, in the twelfth century, 
 from Armagh to Dublin, to be deposited in the cathedral church of the 
 blessed Trinity. In many other parts of the kingdom, the example of 
 the English was in this instance followed ; and it must be admitted that 
 all the wars in Ireland, from that period to the present, have been wars 
 on account of religion. 
 
 Bishop Brown suggested to King Henry the calling of a parliament 
 in Dublin, by which acts of compulsion, confiscations, pains, and penal- 
 ties, might be speedily passed into law, and, by force and terror, produce 
 that change in men's opinions which simple reason and logic failed to 
 effect. 
 
 The religious persecutions, instituted by Henry towards his Irish sub- 
 jects, began now to unite both English and Irish; and Archbishop 
 Brown, in a letter to Cromwell, describes the slender power his " high- 
 ness" now had in Ireland, by reason, he adds, that "the English by 
 descent, and the ancient Irish, were beginning to forget their national 
 animosities ; " and notwithstanding that the little parliament of the Pale 
 passed several laws in conformity with his highness's wishes, the same 
 could not be enforced twenty miles from the castle of Dublin. 
 
 A parliament was summoned in Dublin by Grey, the king's lieutenant 
 of the Pale. The parliament was made up by summoning together 
 
 * " Providence," says the Abbe M'Geoghegan, " has preserved a crosier to posterity, 
 vvrhich St. Patrick had used at the baptism of Aongus, king of Cashel, the holy apos- 
 tle having left it with O'Kearney of Cashel, to be used by the bishops of that church 
 on days of ceremony, whose descendants have preserved it, with veneration, to the 
 present time. This venerable monument of Christian antiquity is still m possession 
 of Brien O'Kearney of Fethard, in the county of Tipperary, the chief of the ancient 
 family of that name." 
 
CONFISCATIONS OF IRISH MONASTERIES. 617 
 
 such persons as he judged would be phant to the king's will. So lim- 
 ited, at this time, was the power and jurisdiction of the parliament of 
 the Pale, that the master of the rolls wrote to the king, stating that 
 his laws were not obeyed twenty miles from the capital. Before this 
 little parliament, not of more jurisdiction than a town corporation, were 
 the important propositions of Henry submitted. They were nothing 
 more than transcripts of the acts passed in Westminster. The members 
 of this assembly were promised possessions when the Irish monasteries 
 came into the king's hands. They had seen the number of commoners 
 that were raised to the possession of large estates, which belonged to 
 the English monasteries ; and they each of them naturally calculated 
 on like results from the approaching change in religion in Ireland. Ac- 
 cordingly king Henry the Eighth was, by their first act, declared su- 
 preme head of the church of Ireland. All appeals to Rome in spiritual 
 causes, and all connection with Rome, were forbidden by the next act. 
 The English law, making it penal to slander the king for these innova- 
 tions, was next passed. Another act transferred to the king all first 
 fruits, the abbeys, hospitals, priories, and colleges ; another renounced the 
 authority of the bishop of Rome, and made it criminal in any one to 
 acknowledge it ; another required all officers of every kind and degree, 
 within the king's authority, to swear that the king was the lawful head 
 of the church, and every person who should refuse was deemed guilty 
 of high treason against the Icing, and, of course, forfeited his life. 
 
 Then followed acts for the suppression of monasteries, and vesting 
 them in the crown ; and now commenced the work of blood in Ireland, 
 which has been streaming from men's hearts from that day to the 
 present. 
 
 Previous to this time, the religion of the whole people of Ireland, — 
 English or Irish, — whether within or without the Pale, was Catholic. 
 For a long time, there was no one professed the new form of worship 
 in Ireland, except Bishop Brown and the commissioners sent over by 
 Henry, together with some members of the parliament. From this 
 parliament, the clergy were excluded by special act passed on the first 
 day of its sitting. I should have said, that it was the long-observed 
 practice of this little parliament to summon two clergymen from every 
 ecclesiastical district ; but as, on the first parliament which met in 
 Dublin, to consider Henry's proposals, these clerical members strenuous- 
 ly opposed them, therefore, from the commencement of this, the second 
 sitting on this business, the clerg}' were ejected. 
 
 Seeing the slaughter committed in England, the Irish abbots were 
 78 
 
618 BRIBERY OF THE IRISH GENTRY. 
 
 frightened into submission ; many of them surrendered the abbeys 
 and properties under their management to the king, receiving pensions 
 for hfe. 
 
 The open intention of Henry's parliament, not at all disguised, to 
 effect a forcible change in the religion of the nation, and to take posses- 
 sion of the monasteries, roused the people to a sense of their danger. 
 The chiefs of the old Irish, and the chiefs of the old English settlers, 
 now united most cordially in their opposition to Henry's authority ; 
 and, had they persevered, there is no doubt but they could have 
 shaken off the power of England altogether. But Henry, observing 
 this, changed his tactics, and, instead of acts of coercion, showered 
 presents, titles, honors, and emoluments, of one sort and another, upon 
 all the Irish chiefs he could influence. 
 
 The kings of England never before this time assumed any other title 
 over Ireland than lords of Ireland. This venal litde parliament enact- 
 ed that his highness the king, and his heirs, should in future be denomi 
 nated kings of Ireland. But these enactments were treated with scorn 
 by the nation, and on the death of King Henry, many of the chief men, 
 whom he had cajoled into the color of obedience, relapsed into their 
 former state of independence. 
 
 To return to Henry : After Jane Seymour's death, the king was nearly 
 two years seeking another wife ; few were willing to trust their lives to 
 him. In 1539, he found a mate in Anne, the sister of the Duke of 
 Cleves. When about seven months married, he obtained a divorce 
 from her. There was no fault alleged against her, no crime hinted ; 
 the husband did not like his wife, — that was all, — and this reason was 
 alleged as the ground of divorce. His pliant archbishop, Cranmer, 
 who had divorced him from two wives already, was called upon to 
 annul this marriage" with Anne of Cleves. The husband and wife 
 were, by the archbishop's potent breath, made single again. 
 
 But the king had another young and handsome wife in his view, 
 namely, Catharine Howard, niece of the Duke of Norfolk, whom he 
 immediately married. 
 
 The Duke of Norfolk, (now raised to power,) and several of the old 
 nobility, hated Thomas Cromwell, who was the chief instrument, in the 
 nands of King Henry, in all the important changes he made. He had 
 been placed above all the nobility; and, besides diis, he had got about 
 thirty of the estates belonging to the monasteries. " His palace," says 
 Cobbett, " was gorged with the fruits of the sacking." He was barbarous 
 beyond conception to the poor monks and nuns, whom he had butchered 
 
CROMWELL. DEATH OF HENKY THE EIGHTH. 619 
 
 with the business coolness of an ordinary butcher in his slaughter-house. 
 He stood by, in Canterbury, and superintended the scattering of the 
 dust of St. Thomas a Becket. He it was that directed the scatter-, 
 ing of the ashes and tomb of Alfred the Great, who was the greatest 
 Englishman that ever lived. His own hour had now arrived. The 
 property he had acquired was too valuable to be suffered to remain in 
 his hands. On the morning of the 10th of June, 1540, he was all 
 powerful. In the evening of the same day, he was in prison as a 
 traitor. He lay in prison only a few days, when he was brought to the 
 block. It is true he protested his innocence ; but so did thousands of 
 monks and nuns protest to him their innocence. He was not more 
 innocent than they were, yet they were executed. Although Burnet, 
 or Fox, has denoniinated this Cromwell the valiant soldier of the 
 reformation, yet he fawned and cringed to his royal master like a very 
 dastard. In one of his letters to the king, he " besought his majesty to 
 suffer him to kiss his balmy hand once, that the fragrance thereof 
 might make him fit for heaven I ^'' In another letter to the king, he 
 says, '•' Most gracious prince, I cry for mercy, mercy, mercy I " But his 
 gracious master disregarded all these fawning words, and he was brought 
 to suffer that very death, which he himself, when in power, had 
 awarded and inflicted on so many thousands. 
 
 During the succeeding seven years. King Henry was beset witii 
 vexations. He discovered, or pretended to discover, that his new wife 
 was unfaithful. Her, also, he sent to the block without ceremony, simply 
 by his warrant,, together ivith scores of her relatives. He raged and 
 foamed like a wild monster ; passed still more stringent laws, and, for 
 the last time, took another wife. She was a widow, and she very nar- 
 rowly escaped the fate of the others. 
 
 For some years before his death, he became so unwieldy from 
 gluttony and enjoyment, that he could not be moved about but by 
 mechanical loungers ; but he still retained all the blood-thirsty addic- 
 tions of his previous life. His principal business for the remainder of 
 it was ordering accusations, executions, and confiscations. 
 
 When he was on his death-bed, every one was afraid to intimate his 
 danger to him, lest death to the intimater should be the consequence. 
 He died before he was aware that his end approached, leaving more 
 than one death-warrant unsigned at the time. And Howard, the Duke 
 of Norfolk, who was ordered for execution on the very morning the 
 king died, escaped with his life in consequence. 
 
 Thus died King Henry the Eighth of England. 
 
620 LIMITED POWER OF THE ENGLISH IN IRELAND. 
 
 Ere I close the reign of this King, I shall put on my record an ex- 
 tract from a state paper, published in O'Connell's Memoir, (page 77, 
 .Casserly's edition.) " The document," says the illustrious author, " is to 
 be found in the second volume of the state papers, lately published under 
 the authority of a commission from the crown, containing state papers 
 of the reign of Henry the Eighth, and appears to be a representation 
 made to that monarch of the state of Ireland, with a plan for its reforma- 
 tion:" — "And fyrst of all, to make his Grace understande, that there 
 byn more than sixty countrys called regyons, in Ireland, inhabyted with 
 the king's enemies : some region as big as a shire, some more, some less 
 unto a little ; some as big as half a shire, and some a little less ; where 
 reigneth more than sixty chief captains, whereof some calleth themselves 
 kings : some king's peers, in their language, some princes, some dukes, 
 some archdukes, that liveth only by the sword, and obeyeth to no other 
 temporal person, but only to himself that is strong. And every of the 
 said captains maketh war and peace for himself, and holdeth by sworde 
 and hath imperial jurisdiction within his rome, and obeyeth to no other 
 person, English or Irish, except only to such persons as may subdue 
 him by the sworde. Also, there is more than thirty great captains of 
 the English noble folk, that followeth the same Irish order, and keepeth 
 the same rule, and every of them maketh war and peace for himself, 
 without any license of the king, or of any other temporal person, save 
 to him that is the strongest, and of such that may subdue them by the 
 sword.'" 
 
 Next, as to the counties that had thrown off the English authority, 
 we have this passage : " Here followeth the names of the counties 
 that obey not the king's laws, and have neither justice, neither sheriffs, 
 under the king : — 
 
 The County of Waterfford, 
 
 The County of Corke, 
 
 The County of Kilkenny, 
 
 The County of Lymeryk, 
 
 The County of Kerry, 
 
 The County of Conaught, [the province of Connaught,] 
 
 The County of Wolster, [the province of Ulster,] 
 
 The County of Carlagh, [Carlow,] 
 
 The County of Uryell, [Monaghan,] 
 
 The County of Meathe, [Westmeath,] 
 
 Halfe the County of Dublin, 
 
TRIBUTES PAID TO THE IRISH PRINCES. 621 
 
 Halfe the County of Kildare, 
 Halfe the County of Wexford. 
 
 '•' All the English folke of the said counties, of Irish habit, of Irish 
 language, and of Irish conditions, except the cities and the walled 
 towns. 
 
 " Here followeth the names of the counties subject unto the king's 
 laws : — 
 
 Halfe the County of Uryell, 
 
 Halfe the County of Meathe, 
 
 Halfe the County of Dublin, 
 
 Halfe the County of Kildare, 
 
 Halfe the County of Wexford. 
 
 " All the common people of the said halfe counties, that obeyeth the 
 king's laws, for the most part be of Irish birth, of Irish habit, and of 
 Irish language." 
 
 " It will be seen, from another extract from the same paper, how com- 
 pletely the independence of the Irish chieftains was recognized by all 
 the English constituted authorities. 
 
 " Followeth the names of the English territories that hear tribute to 
 the wylde Irish. Tlie barony of Liechahill, in the county of Wolster, 
 [Ulster,] to the captain of Clanhuboy, payeth yearly 40 £ ; or else to 
 O'Neyll, whether of them be strongest. 
 
 "The county of the Uryell [Monaghan] payeth yearly to the great 
 0\Neyll 40 £.' 
 
 "The county of Meathe payeth yearly to O'Connor 300 £. The 
 county of Kildare payeth yearly to the said O'Connor 20 £. 
 
 " The king's exchequer payeth yearly to M'Morough eighty marks. 
 The county of Wexford payeth yearly to M'Morough and to Arte 
 O'Boy 40 £. 
 
 "The county of Kilkenny and the county of Tipperary pay yearly to 
 O'CarroU 40 £. The county of Limerick payeth yearly to O'Brien 
 Arraghe, in English money, 40 £. The county of Corke to Cormac 
 M'Teyge, 40£. 
 
 " Also there is no folke daily subject to the king's laws, but half the 
 county of Uryell, half the county of Meathe, half the county of Dublin, 
 and half the county of Kildare." 
 
622 THE BIBLE FIRST SUPPRESSED BY HENRY THE EIGHTH. 
 
 It is usual with historians to sum up the character of the kings and 
 heroes whose actions they recount. I have not, generally, attempted 
 this, and in the instance of Henry the Eighth, I wish to avoid it 
 altogether. Some persons have regarded him as an apostle of a great 
 principle ; others think differently. I have placed a few only of 
 the materials of his life before the reader. As I claim the liberty to 
 enjoy my own opinions, 1 willingly concede the same to the read- 
 er, who is welcome to form what opinion he pleases of Henry the 
 Eighth. 
 
 I wish, however, to state one more fact about this memorable re- 
 former. We hear a great deal said every day about reading the Bible, 
 and not reading the Bible. Who will believe it ? — Henry the Eighth 
 was the first person we read of who forbade to the common people the 
 reading of the Scriptures. As head of the reformed church, he issued, 
 under the authority of parliament, in the S4th of his reign, the 8th 
 chapter, a prohibition against Tyndall's version of the Scriptures, which 
 was ordered to be destroyed, as " cr of ty, false, and untrue ; " secondly, 
 the Bible, by this act, was forbidden to be read to others in public ; 
 thirdly, the permission of reading it to private families was confined to 
 persons of the rank of lords and gendemen ; fourthly, the liberty of 
 reading it personally, and in secret, was limited to men who were 
 householders, and to females of noble or gentle birth. Prior to this, the 
 king issued a proclamation, prohibiting the public reading of the Scrip- 
 tures in churches, and forbidding any one to expound them who had not 
 received a regular license from the accustomed authorities for that 
 pur})ose. Before his time, there never was any restriction imposed on 
 reading the Scriptures. 
 
 On the death of Henry the Eighth, his son, Edward the Sixth, was 
 advanced to the throne. As he was then but ten years of age, Lord 
 Hertford was appointed lord protector. The young king, with his 
 protector and Archbishop Cranmer, now made a further change in the 
 national religion. The mass was abolished, and the clergy were per- 
 mitted to have wives. 
 
 Many persons came into England, who preached a still greater 
 change. These were called " new lights ; " and they were as bitterly 
 opposed and persecuted by Bishop Cranmer as were the Catholics. 
 Bishop Cranmer, who, during the reign of Henry the Eighth, had con- 
 demned people to the stake for not believing in transubstantiation, was 
 now ready to condemn them for believing in it. 
 
 Luther found in Germany others who went much farther frorn the 
 
INSURRECTION IN ENGLAND. QUEEN MARY. 623 
 
 old worship than himself. Many of these German sectarians came to 
 England, and openly preached against the existence of gospel ministers 
 at all. Some were for the Common Prayer Book, others for abolishing 
 it. And now began that diversity of opinion, in England, which, 
 without reference to a future state, produced a great deal of bitterness 
 and animosity amongst the people — which yet exists ; and truth com- 
 pels me to add, that that bitterness has extended to a large portion of 
 the population of this country, though the clear interest of people, both 
 in this life and in view of the next, is to treat one another with the 
 utmost kindness and charity. 
 
 The preachers of the various new opinions disclaimed altogether the 
 necessity of good works in the Christian system of duties and worship. 
 And all historians agree that vices of all sorts were never so great or 
 so prevalent before in England. The protector, who was now Duke of 
 Somerset, pulled down several churches and bishops' mansions in Lon- 
 don ; with the materials of which he erected for himself a palace that 
 goes by the name of " Somerset House " to this day ; in which, appro- 
 priately enough, the commissioners for the national debt have their 
 offices. 
 
 The further changes introduced by Somerset in the religion of the 
 nation, produced a violent insurrection throughout some parts of Eng- 
 land. German troops were introduced into England, at the head of 
 whom. Lord Russell marched and defeated the revolters, hanging and 
 butchering many clergymen and other leaders of the resistance. The 
 present Lord John Russell is the descendant of that lord, and is the 
 owner of many of the monastic estates then taken from the church. 
 
 Somerset, having at length excited the envy of his rivals by the 
 enormous wealth he acquired, was out-intrigued by the Earl of Warwick, 
 and was condemned and executed, by the order of his own nephew, the 
 young King Edward, who wept bitterly on being compelled to sign 
 the death-warrant ; so that he, at whose instigation many priests and 
 pious men were executed, in turn fell a victim to the bloody system 
 he had encouraged. 
 
 We have heard and read much of Queen Mary of England, whom 
 the English historians distinguish by the special epithet " bloody." 
 Why she, beyond others of that age, can alone be accounted 
 bloody, and sent down to posterity with that brand upon her mem- 
 ory, can be accounted for only that she was a Catholic. I am now 
 coming into her reign, and shall examine its chief events with im- 
 pai'tiality. 
 
624 DEATH OF KING EDWARD. 
 
 Edward the Sixth was a sickly boy, and his protector foresaw he 
 could not live long. Northumberland, therefore, got him privately to 
 make a will, bequeathing the crown to Lady Jane Grey, the daugh- 
 ter of the Duke of Suffolk. Henry had already bequeathed the 
 crown to Mary, and, in case of no issue from her, then to Eliza- 
 beth. The young king, however, was prevailed on to break that will, 
 and set aside his two sisters. Edward soon died ; and, to carry this 
 project into immediate effect, his death was concealed for three days. 
 Northumberland invited the two princesses, Mary and Elizabeth, to 
 London, to be near the dying prince. His object was to have them 
 arrested and sent to the Tower, soon after which they were to be tried 
 for refusing to conform to the new worship, and would, of course, be 
 executed. Both Mary and Elizabeth were still Catholics. 
 
 Bishop Cranmer was deep in this plot. But one of the conspirators, 
 Lord Arundel, sent a private message to the Princess Mary, to warn 
 her of her danger, and intimating that the young king was dead. 
 
 The proclamation in behalf of Lady Jane Grey was prepared ; but 
 the judges of Westminster Hall refused to sign it. Bishop Cranmer'' s 
 was the first signature to the illegal proclamation ; for which, and for 
 other treasonable acts towards Queen Mary, the said Cranmer was 
 subsequently condemned to death, and burnt, as a traitor, by order of 
 the queen and her council. 
 
 Lady Jane Grey was declared queen of England. Northumberland, 
 in the mean time, effected a marriage between her and his son. The 
 conspirators against Mary had the army, navy, and reformers, all 
 ready to support this violation of the succession. She, however, 
 repaired, on horseback, attended only by a few persons, to Suffolk, 
 where she had herself proclaimed sovereign, and from thence issued 
 her commands, to the council in London, to proclaim her queen. This 
 threw them into the utmost confusion, for they had but the day before 
 proclaimed Lady Jane Grey as queen ; and it shows us what a 
 courageous woman Mary must have been, thus to brave death in the 
 enforcement of her just rights. They sent her a most insolent answer, 
 but she heeded it not. 
 
 The old nobility and gentry, tired of Cranmer and the protector, 
 flocked round her standard, and in a few days, she saw herself sur- 
 rounded by thirty thousand volunteers, who agreed to fight in her behalf 
 without pay. 
 
 The celebrated Ridley, a bishop of the new faith, preached against 
 her, in London, and the Duke of Northumberland marched against 
 
' GRAND ENTRY OF MARY INTO LONDON. 625 
 
 her at the head of a large army ; his forces mehed away as he 
 proceeded, and he sent to London for a further reenforcement. But 
 the news of Mary's success paralyzed the Londoners, and those very 
 men who, a few days before, shouted for Lady Jane, now came for- 
 ward and formally acknowledged Mary as their lawful queen. North- 
 umberland, who had helped along this plot, now seeing himself 
 deserted, turned round, and was the first to offer his subjection and 
 flattery to Queen Mary, which she spurned as became a woman of her 
 spirit ; and in a few hours after, she had him arrested for treason to 
 her crown, and for appearing in arms against her authority. This 
 very Northumberland, when brought to the block for treason to the 
 queen, made a confession in favor of the old faith, and attributed all 
 the blood and misery of the preceding thirty years to the change effect- 
 ed in their form of worship. This, Dr. Heylyn, a good English au- 
 thority, and others, testify. 
 
 During the short reign of the infant Edward, which occupied only 
 seven years, the form of the new worship was changed three times. 
 And those who adhered to the old worship, or who went beyond the 
 letter of the new, were punished with the utmost severity. 
 
 Anno 1553. Queen Mary arrived in London in July of this year. 
 As she approached the city, the crowds to applaud and welcome her 
 increased on every side. Amongst the rest was her cautious and crafty 
 sister, Elizabeth, who joined in the triumphal entry, riding, by the side 
 of her sister, into London, amidst the greatest enthusiasm of the people. 
 The thoroughfares through which they passed were strewed with 
 flowers. The houses were lined, and the very tops of them thronged, 
 with human beings. Queen Mary, who had ever been a steadfast 
 Catholic, was now crowned according to the ritual of that church. 
 The joy of the people, it is admitted on all hands, was unbounded. 
 
 Her first act was to restore the currency to its proper standard, which 
 was debased in the preceding reigns ; her second to pay off the debts 
 due by the crown ; and, for this purpose, she reduced her own expenses 
 to the very lowest standard. The new forms of worship, which had 
 obtained a footing the previous three years, were all reversed ; the 
 old altars were restored ; the married clergy were dispensed with ; 
 and, in short, the Catholic religion was restored in England. The 
 bishops ordained by Cranmer were removed, and Catholic bishops 
 placed in their stead. Cranmer himself was imprisoned on a charge 
 of treason ; and that parliament, which voted so pliantly all that was 
 79 
 
626 MARRIAGE OF THE QUEEN WITH PHILIP OF SPAIN. 
 
 asked of them by the preceding kings, now voted right round the other 
 way. 
 
 They brought in a bill, repealing the act of divorce between Henry 
 and Catharine of Arragon, the mother of the present queen. They 
 declared that marriage lawful, which a few years previously they had 
 declared the contrary ; and they declared Cranmer, by name, the cause 
 of that divorce, and all the subsequent troubles that befell England. 
 
 But now comes the most curious part of this curious history. The 
 queen was anxious to restore the pope's supremacy in England, and to 
 remove from her own shoulders the oppressive weight of " head of the 
 church," assumed by her father. But to do this was, she saw, impos- 
 sible, without effecting a compromise. Every leading lord or com- 
 moner in her dominion had got some of the church property, and, 
 without a civil war, she could not compel them to give it up. The 
 compromise, then, was based on the principle that all the holders of the 
 church property should possess it forever. 
 
 This parliament, then, having made a firm bargain to hold all the prop- 
 erty, an act was quickly carried through both branches, in which these 
 very men declared " that they had been guilty of a most horrible defec- 
 tion from the true church ; " professed their sincere repentance for their 
 past transgressions, and declared their resolution to repeal all laws 
 enacted in prejudice of the pope's authority. After this, the pope sends 
 a legate to England ; and who should he be, but that very Cardinal 
 Pole, whose mother was butchered, though seventy years of age, by 
 Henry the Eighth ? 
 
 The queen married Philip, prince of Spain, in July, 1554. In No- 
 vember, the members of the parliament petitioned the king and queen to 
 intercede with the pope, and obtain for them forgiveness. Cardinal 
 Pole was received at Dover by two thousand of the nobility and gentry, 
 on horseback. The next day, the queen being seated on the throne, 
 having the king on her left, and the pope's legate (Cardinal Pole) on 
 her right, — the members of both houses appeared, ivith Bishop Gar- 
 diner at their head. He, on their part, besought the king's and queen's 
 interposition with his eminence, and asked forgiveness. Cardinal Pole 
 pronounced a long discourse ; at the end of which, he blessed them, and 
 forgave them, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, — the 
 members making the hall resound with cries of " Amen ! " 
 
 Thus was flngland made Catholic again, by that very law, and by 
 the very men that had made her Protestant in the last two reigns. 
 
WHY CALL MART BLOODY? 627 
 
 We have been made familiar, in our school days, with the name of 
 " Bloody Mary," and the Smithfield fires. But why she deserved the 
 appellation of bloody, any more than her father Henry, or her sister 
 Elizabeth, I cannot make out. They were all bloody; and although 
 they shed blood under pretence of upholding the Christian reHgion, 
 the genius and spirit of Christianity wept over their terrible deeds. 
 The total number of persons put to death by Henry the Eighth, for 
 religious and political opinions, was seventy-two thousand. The total 
 number put to death by Queen Mary was two hundred and seventy- 
 six. The total number put to death by Elizabeth, in England and 
 Ireland, exceeded a million of human beings. 
 
 Now, upon what ground Queen Mary could be singled out as more 
 bloody than her father and sister, is incomprehensible. But, on the 
 accession of Elizabeth, the celebrated Fox was employed to write a 
 history of those who suffered death in the reign of Mary ; and, curious 
 enough, some of the " martyrs " included in Fox's book were alive in 
 his time, and confronted him to his face. Bishops Cranmer and Rid- 
 ley were executed for treason against Mary's crown ; as were indeed 
 very many of the two hundred and seventy-six that were executed in 
 her reign. But Fox gave her a bad name, to frighten people from the 
 Catholic faith, to which Queen Mary and her husband, Philip, were 
 zealously attached. In Ireland, not one suffered death, for religion's 
 sake, during her reign ; and it is quite certain, that seventy Protest- 
 ant families, who fled from Bristol, under an apprehension that she was 
 about to retaliate on the persecutors of her mother, were kindly and 
 hospitably received by the Catholics of Dublin, who provided for them 
 houses of entertainment and shelter. Nor was this the only instance of 
 Ireland's hospitality to the persecuted : when the Huguenots were 
 driven out of France, in a subsequent reign, many of them repaired to 
 Ireland for shelter, and found it. 
 
 From Parnell's Historical Apology, — quoted in O'Connell's Memoir. 
 " Though the religious feelings of the Irish Catholics, and their feelings 
 as men, had been treated with very little ceremony during two preced- 
 ing reigns, they made a wise and moderate use of their ascendency. 
 They entertained no resentment for the past, they laid no 
 PLANS FOR future DOMINATION. Evcu Lelaud allows that the only 
 instance of popish zeal was annulling grants that Archbishop Brown had 
 made, to the injury of the see of Dublin. The assertors of the reforma- 
 tion, during the preceding reigns, were every way unmolested — such 
 
628 IRELAND A REFUGE FOR THE PERSECUTED. 
 
 was the general spirit of toleration that many English families, 
 
 FRIENDS TO THE REFORMATION, TOOK REFUGE IN IrELAND, AND THERE 
 ENJOYED THEIR OPINIONS AND WORSHIP WITHOUT MOLESTATION." 
 
 The Irish Protestants, vexed that they could not prove a single in- 
 stance of bigotry against the Catholics, in this their hour of trial, invented 
 a tale, as palpably false as it is childish, of an intended persecution, (but 
 a persecution by the English government, not by the Irish Catholics.) 
 And so much does bigotry pervert all candor and taste, that even the 
 Earl of Cork, Archbishop Usher, and Dr. Leland, were not ashamed to 
 support the silly story of Dean Cole and the knave of clubs! 
 
 How ought those perverse and superficial men to blush, who have 
 said that the Irish Roman Catholics must be bigots and rebels from the 
 very nature of their religion, and who have advanced this falsehood in 
 the very teeth of fact, and contrary to the most distinct evidence of bis- 
 toYj ! The Irish Roman Catholics bigots ? The Irish Roman Cath- 
 olics ARE the only sect THAT EVER RESUMED POWER WITHOUT 
 
 EXERCISING VENGEANCE 
 
 Show a brighter instance, if you can, in the whole page of history. 
 Was this the conduct of Knox or Calvin ? or of the brutal council of 
 Edward the Sixth, who signed its bloody warrants with tears? Has 
 this been the conduct of Irish Protestants ? Taylor, the Protestant 
 author of the Civil Wars, says, p. 169: — " It is but justice to this ma- 
 ligned body, the Catholics, to add that, on three occasions of their- 
 obtaining the upper hand, they never injured a single person, in life or 
 limb, for professing a religion different from their own. They had suf- 
 fered persecution and had learned mercy — as they showed in the reign 
 of Mary ; in the wars of 1641 to 1648; and during the brief triumph 
 of James the Second." 
 
 And, in looking back upon the early history of Ireland, we find re- 
 corded by O'Halloran, that, on the fall of Rome, " the confusion and 
 distresses in Britain and Gaul caused numbers of people fiom these and 
 other countries of Europe to flee to Ireland, as to the only country where 
 peace, subordination, and hospitality, then existed. The Irish received 
 these strangers with their accustomed benevolence, assigning them lands 
 and houses to live in and occupy. These places yet retain the names 
 of the different people on whom they were then bestowed. For 
 instance, in the county of Limerick they have Gall-haile, or the Gauls' 
 town, Baile na Francoigh, or the Franks' town ; and scarcely is there 
 a county of the kingdom in which there is not some place named after 
 
MASSACRE OF MULLAGHMAST. 629 
 
 the persecuted tribes who, in those days, flew to Ireland for an asylum. 
 These are found in districts in every direction, and are called after 
 the different people who fled to its hospitable valleys; as "the British, 
 the Saxon, Gaulish, or Franktown." 
 
 Yet let justice be done Mary, " though the heavens fall." She was a 
 zealous religionist, a conscientious woman, even to restoring every parti- 
 cle of the church property she had been bequeathed by the king, her 
 father, and by Edward, her brother. As to Latimer, Ridley, and 
 Cranmer, — who" changed from whole Catholics to half Protestants, 
 under Henry the Eighth, to whole Protestants under Edward the Sixth, 
 and offered to change back again and be Catholics under Mary, — their 
 deaths never could be ranked amongst the deaths of martyrs. Cranmer 
 made six recantations of the errors of the Protestant faith, in the reign 
 of Mary ; but all did not save him, for he had plotted against the 
 queen's crown, and had been guilty of too many butcheries to be 
 pardoned. 
 
 Mary died of dropsy, when only six years on the throne. No issue 
 came from her marriage with Philip, who, on her death, returned to 
 Spain, where his father, Charles the Fifth, resigned him a part of the 
 Spanish empire, then the greatest in the world, and soon after retired 
 to a monastery. 
 
 During the most brilliant part of Queen Mary's reign, in England, 
 she confiscated, in Ireland, the immense tract of country owned, for 
 twelve hundred years, by the O'Mores, O'Connors, and O'Dempseys, 
 of Leinster, which tracts were changed, in name, into the " King's and 
 Queen's counties." It was during the battles between the queen's 
 deputy and the chiefs of these clans, that the horrible butchery of 
 Mullaghmast took place ; where three hundred chiefs, who had been 
 invited to a peaceful conference, were surrounded and basely butchered, 
 by orders of the Earl of Essex. 
 
 O'Connell thus alluded to this tragedy at the dinner, given in Sep- 
 tember, 1843, on the very spot where the butchery took place: — 
 " It is not by accident that to-night we are on the Rath of Mullagh- 
 mast ; it was deliberate design ; and yet it is curious what a spot we are 
 assembled on. I anticipated it, and I now rejoice in it. Where my 
 voice is sounding, and you are quiet hearers attentively listening, there 
 were once raised the yells of despair, the groans of approaching death, 
 the agony of wounds inflicted on the perishing and the unarmed. On 
 this very spot they fell beneath the swords of the Saxon, who used them 
 
630 MASSACRE OF MULLAGHMAST. 
 
 securely, and delightedly grinding their victims to death. Here the 
 Saxon triumphed, here he raised a shout of victory over his unarmed 
 prey. Upon this very spot three hundred able men perished, who, con- 
 fiding in Saxon promises, came to a conference of the queen's subjects, 
 and in the merriment of the banquet they were slaughtered. There 
 never returned home but one. Their wives were widowed, and their 
 children were orphans; in their homesteads the shriek of despair; the 
 father and the husband steeped in their own blood, their wives and 
 mothers wept over them in vain. O, Saxon cruelty, how it does de- 
 light my heart to think you dare not attempt such a feat again ! " 
 
MUSIC AND POETRT. 
 
 63: 
 
 THE RATH OF MULLAGHMAST. 
 
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 MUSIC A.ND POETRY. 
 
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 While cup and song abound, 
 
 The triple lines surround 
 
 The closed and guarded mound, 
 
 In the night's dark noon ! 
 Alas ! too brave O'More ! 
 Ere the revelry was o'er, 
 They have spilled thy young heart's gore; 
 
 Snatched from love too soon ! 
 
 At the feast, unarmed all, 
 Priest, bard, and chieftain fall 
 In the treacherous Saxon's hall, 
 
 O'er the bright wine bowl ! 
 And now, nightly, round the board. 
 With unsheathed and reeking sword, 
 Strides the cruel felon lord, 
 
 Of the blood-stained soul ! 
 
 4. 
 
 Since that hour, the clouds that passed 
 O'er the Rath of Mullaghmast, 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 633 
 
 One drop have never cast 
 
 On the gore-dyed sod ! 
 For the shower of crimson rain, 
 That o'erflowed that fatal plain. 
 Cries aloud, and not in vain, 
 
 To the most high God ! 
 
 5. 
 
 Though the Saxon snake unfold 
 At thy feet his scales of gold, 
 And vow thee love untold. 
 
 Trust him not, green land ! 
 Touch not with gloveless clasp 
 A coiled and deadly asp, 
 But with strong and guarded grasp, 
 
 In your steel-clad hand ! 
 
 6. 
 
 Then raise the cry to Heaven ; 
 Let the tyrant's chains be riven, 
 And freedom now be given 
 
 To our own green land 1 
 And ever, Graunia Waile, 
 Let your power so prevail. 
 As to guard your children's weal 
 
 By their own right hand! 
 
 FAIR MARGARET. 
 
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LECTURE XVI. 
 
 f^ROM A. D. 1560 TO 1603. 
 
 Mary, Queen of Scotland. — Elizabeth's Jealousy. — Mary Stuart's Misfortunes. — 
 Arrives in Scotland. — Darnley. — Rizzio. — Bothwell. — Rebellion. — Mary put 
 into Prison. — Escapes to Elizabeth, who reconsigns her to Prison. — Her Con- 
 demnation and Murder. — Laws against the Poor. — Penal Laws against Catho- 
 lics. — The English Inquisition. — Sufferings of the Catholics. — Catholics 
 petition the Queen. — Sends the Bearer of the Petition to Prison. — Invents 
 Tortures. — The Rack. — Cruelties of Elizabeth. — Her Character by Wade. — 
 Extends the Reformation to Ireland. — Opposition of the Parliament of the 
 English Pale. — Bribery. — Invasions from England. — Nature of the Irish Clans. 
 
 — Tendency to Disunion. — Elizabeth's Agents crafty. — Swarms of English 
 Adventurers invade Ireland. — Noble Resistance of the Irish. — Sketch of the 
 Fifteen Years' War. — O'Neill, Prince of Ulster. — Battle of Derry. — Defeat 
 of the English — Fall of O'Neill. — His Successor. — Cosby 's Massacre. — 
 Foreign Aid from the Pope. — Bravery of Fitzmaurice. — Success of Desmond 
 against the Invaders. — The Invaders defeated by O'Byrne. — Surrender of the 
 Spanish Garrison. — Treacherous Massacre. — Fall of Desmond . — Foreign Semina- 
 ries. — Dreadful Cruelties. — Confiscations on a grand Scale. — The great Hugh 
 O'Neill. — The Spanish Armada. — The gallant O'Ruark. — Trinity College. — 
 Battle of the Ford of the Biscuits. — The War in Connaught. — O'Neill takes the 
 Field. — His Preparations. — Negotiation opened by the Invaders. — Several Battles. 
 
 — Defeat of the Invaders. — Invaders offer Terms of Peace to O'Neill. — Declined. 
 
 — Battle of Armagh. — Defeat of the Invaders. — Rising of Leinster. — Con- 
 fusion in England. — Further Invasions. — Battle of Binburb. — Defeat of the 
 Invaders. — Their Negotiations for Peace. — Battle of Beal-an-a-Buidh. — Defeat 
 of the Invaders. — Munster League. — Confederacy of Leinster. — Of Connaught. 
 
 — Great Army of Invaders land. — The Earl of Essex. — The Battle of the 
 Pass of the Plumes. — The War in the North. — Battle of Corslieve. — Defeat 
 of the Invaders. — Essex seeks a Conference with O'Neill. — O'Neill marches 
 through Ireland. — The gallant O'Moore. — Mount Joy sent to Ireland. — His 
 Cruelty. — Reverses of the Irish. — Spanish Aid. — Fall of Desmond. — The 
 War in the South. — Aid from Ulster. — Surrender of Kinsale. — The War in 
 Ulster. — War in Munster. — Siege of Dunboy. — Aid from Spain. — Great 
 Battle of Dunboy. — Fall of Dunboy. — Retreat of O'Sullivan Bearre. — Triumph 
 of O'Neill, and Peace. — Death of Queen Elizabeth. — Her Poor Law. 
 
 I NOW come into the reign of Queen Elizabeth. She was the 
 daughter of Henry the Eighth, by Anne Boleyn. EHzabeth, during 
 the reign of her brother, Edward the Sixth, was a Protestant ; and, 
 
MARY STUART. ELIZABETh's JEALOUSY. 635 
 
 durii)g the reign of Queen Mary, was a most rigid Catholic. At the 
 time of her sister's death, she went pubhcly to mass, and had a chapel 
 and confessor in her own house. Queen Mary, on her death-bed, required 
 of her sister a frank avowal of her opinions on rehgion. Ehzabelh, in 
 answer, prayed God, that the earth might open and swallow her, if she 
 were not a true Roman Catholic. Her accession having been in the 
 usual way notified to foreign powers, she sent an ambassador specially 
 to the pope, who, however, refused to recognize her, on the ground that 
 Elizabeth was born out of wedlock. This was sufficient to alarm and 
 inflame her against the holy see. She had, also, another great cause of 
 apprehension about her quiet enjoyment of the throne of England ; 
 which was the real and legitimate tide to that throne, and to that of 
 Scotland, of the beautiful but unfortunate Mary, " queen of Scots." 
 
 Mary Stuart was the daughter of James the Fifth, king of Scot- 
 land, by a French princess, sister of the celebrated Duke of Guise. 
 Mary Stuart's father died when she was only eight days old ; so that 
 she became the reigning queen of Scotland while in the cradle. She 
 was the grand niece of Henry the Eighth. Queen Mary being dead, 
 and Elizabeth having been bastardized, both by acts of Henry's and 
 Mary's parliaments, — in addition to which, not being recognized by 
 France, Spain, or by Rome, — Mary Stuart had, therefore, strong 
 claims and most likely chances to sit on the throne of England. 
 
 A regency having been established in Scotland, the infant queen was 
 taken by her powerful uncle, the Duke of Guise, to be educated in 
 France — of which he was then a prime minister. The French, in 
 order to secure Scotland to their interest against England, got Mary be- 
 trothed to Francis, son of Henry the Second king of France; and, at 
 seventeen years of age, the young queen of Scotland was married to the 
 young French prince, who was but fifteen years of age. This took 
 place in 1558, the very year that Elizabeth ascended the throne of 
 England. In a few months after, the old king of France died, and, 
 by this death, Mary Stuart was elevated, with her husband, to the 
 throne of France. Thus she was queen of France and of Scotland, in 
 fact, and the legitimate heiress to the throne of England ; besides all, 
 she was the most beautiful woman in Europe. 
 
 Elizabeth's natural pride found in all these circumstances materials 
 enough for excitement and alarm. Rejected by the pope as illegiti- 
 mate, her advisers hinted to her to fall back on the Protestant 
 feelings of such as favored the career of Henry, her father, and Edward, 
 
636 MARY Stuart's misfortunes. 
 
 her brother. She seized, and acted on, this suggestion with vigor. 
 Besides this, there was still another consideration which would weigh 
 with the English — Mary Stuart was now queen of France ; if Elizabeth 
 died before her, or died without issue, then England had become a 
 province of France. The bare idea of this — the remote apprehension 
 of the thing — was quite sufficient to stir up the national feelings of the 
 English nation. The nation had no choice but one ^either to uphold 
 Elizabeth, or to become a great province of France. To the latter 
 they would not submit, and, therefore, they decided in favor of 
 Elizabeth, and the setting aside of Mary. 
 
 Before I come to the direct acts of Elizabeth, in reference to 
 Ireland, I will trace very rapidly the career and fate of the beautiful 
 but unfortunate queen of the Scots. 
 
 As I have already said, Mary was married to the young prince of 
 France, whose father died in a few months after they were united. 
 She was thus placed on the throne of France, with her husband, sur- 
 rounded by all that earth could offer in the way of splendor, power, 
 human admiration, and popular applause. But these enjoyments 
 were to be of short duration. Her husband, Francis the Second, 
 died seventeen months after his accession ; and, as the laws of France 
 forbid the occupancy of the throne by a woman, Mary was suddenly 
 obliged to retire from that horizon which her presence illumined for so 
 short a period. She was still a queen — queen of the Scottish nation ; 
 and to that nation she was advised by her friends to return, and assume 
 its government. On her arrival in Scotland, she found all in factious 
 confusion. Her long absence had encouraged rival chieftains to array 
 the country in hostile clans ; besides which, the doctrines of the 
 reformation were vigorously preached by John Knox, who had been a 
 monk. 
 
 Mary, who had been bred a Catholic, and who was deified in the 
 court of France, found her situation in Scotland truly miserable. 
 Besides all this, the agents of Elizabeth were set to work to stir up 
 factions against her; and, through the agency of her money, became 
 more truly the rulers of Scotland than Mary. About three years after 
 her return to Scotland, she married Henry Stuart, Earl of Darnley, 
 her cousin. Darnley was a Protestant, Mary a Catholic ; they soon 
 differed and separated. 
 
 Darnley soon after became jealous of the queen's private secretary, 
 JBdzzio; and with a band of assassins, rushed into her presence while 
 
REBELLION. qUEEN MARY IMPRISONED AND EXECUTED. 637 
 
 seated at supper with the ladies of her court. Rizzio was in attend- 
 ance. They seized and stabbed him at her feet. 
 
 Darnley was himself blown up by gunpowder, in about a year after, 
 in a house where he slept, near Edinburgh. This is placed at the 
 door of the Earl of Bothwell. Soon after this, Mary gave birth to a 
 son, who was afterwards James the First of England. 
 
 The Earl of Bothwell shortly after, with a band of horsemen, seized 
 the queen, as she was returning from a visit to her child. He carried 
 her, by force, to his castle of Dunbar, where she was partly compelled 
 to promise to marry him. This extorted promise she complied with in 
 the most solemn manner, in a few days after, before all the authorities 
 of Scotland. 
 
 Whitaker, an English historian, acquits Mary of all participation in 
 the crime of Darnley's death ; so, also, does William Cobbett. But, be 
 this correct or not, a part of her subjects rebelled against her, headed 
 by the Earl of Murray, her natural brother. The queen's forces were 
 defeated ; Bothwell, her husband, flew to Denmark ; she was put into 
 prison by her own subjects, and her infant son was crowned, at thirteen 
 months old. King of Scotland, Murray assuming the regency. 
 
 Mary now saw herself dethroned and in prison. Queen Elizabeth, 
 privately gloating over her fall, affected to feel pity for her situation, and 
 aatually invited her to her court at Windsor. In an evil hour, Mary lis- 
 tened to these seductive invitations ; and no sooner did she arrive within 
 the authority of Queen Elizabeth, than she was arrested and put into 
 prison, where she remained for nineteen years. Her prison was 
 changed three times ; but out of confinement she never after got. 
 Elizabeth had her tried several times upon various charges, which 
 Whitaker and other historians pronounce to be forged. The ministers 
 of Elizabeth suggested to have her despatched by poison. She was at 
 length tried, on some trumped-up charge of treason, and found guilty 
 by a court composed of Elizabeth's friends. Her death-warrant was 
 signed, and remained for four months unexecuted. In the mean time, 
 the emissaries of the queen tried every means in their power to despatch 
 the queen of Scots by poison. Execution was at length done on her, 
 without allowing her the benefit of a clergyman of her own communion, 
 and the hypocrite Elizabeth affected great horror on hearing of her 
 death, and actually imprisoned her secretary, Davison, for putting her 
 own wishes and orders into execution. 
 
 On this act towards Queen Mary, Whitaker, an English protestant 
 divine, has made the following remarks : — 
 
638 PENAL LAWS AGAINST CATHOLICS. 
 
 " The legal murder of Mary of Scotland took place on the 8th 
 February, 1587, — a day of everlasting infamy to the memory of the 
 English queen, who had no sensibilities of tenderness, and no sentiments 
 of generosity, who looked not forward to the awful verdict of history, 
 and who shuddered not at the infinitely more awful doom of God. I 
 blush, as an Englishman, to think that this was done by an English 
 queen, and one whose name I was taught to lisp, in my infancy, as the 
 honor of her sex and the glory of our isle." 
 
 The people of England sided, however, with Elizabeth, from the 
 moment that a suspicion, as to the intentions of Spain to invade Eng- 
 land, took root. 
 
 On the destruction of the abbeys and monasteries, under Henry the 
 Eighth, the artisans who had been usually employed in decorating and 
 repairing them, and the poor who were ever received and fed in their 
 hospitable halls, now wandered about in large bands. The queen 
 established martial law about London, and actually chid her agents 
 and commissioners for their tardiness, in hanging up, without trial, 
 those whom they might choose to denominate idlers and vagabonds. 
 The poor were then branded in the flesh with red-hot irons, if found 
 begging. 
 
 Before I present a view of the tyranny practised by this woman in 
 Ireland, we must have a glance at some more of her acts in England. 
 
 Penal laws were introduced into the parliament, which imposed fines 
 and punishments on all those who refused to acknowledge Queen 
 Elizabeth the spiritual head of the English church. These laws were 
 not only directed against the Catholics, but against those dissenters who 
 went farther than the Protestants of Elizabeth's laws. Among these 
 were the great body of dissenters of Scotland, who had been influenced 
 by the preaching of John Knox. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth, though having thrown off" the power of Rome, and 
 established her form of church service, was intolerant enough to look 
 with great jealousy on the levelling of clerical distinctions in Scotland, 
 and stickled as firmly for a church establishment of bishops, &c., as 
 any of her Catholic predecessors. Her persecutions, therefore, were 
 levelled at those who, she thought, believed too much, as against those 
 who, she thought, believed too little ; and, to shorten the tale, she 
 brought in several penal laws, imposing fines on all who did not attend 
 and practise the form of public service which she had arranged. The 
 Catholits were the objects of the most bitter persecution ; but they 
 
THE ENGLISH INQUISITION. 639 
 
 did not suffer alone ; they suffered the most, however, in retaliation 
 for the pope's refusing to acknowledge her legitimacy. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth established an inquisition, — that is, she appeinted 
 a commission composed of certain bishops and others, whose power 
 extended over the whole kingdom, and over all ranks and degrees of 
 the people. They were empowered to have an absolute control over 
 the opinions of all men, and to punish all men according to their dis- 
 cretion. They might proceed legally, if they chose, in the obtaining 
 of evidence against parties ; but they had power given them to employ 
 impi-isonment, the rack, or torture of any sort, to effect a conformity in 
 religious opinion, if their suspicions alighted on any man, no matter 
 whether it referred to his politics or religion ; and though they had no 
 evidence, not even hearsay, these commissioners might administer an 
 oath to him, by which he was bound to reveal his thoughts — to accuse 
 himself, his friend, his brother, or father, upon pain of death. 
 
 These subaltern tyrants inflicted what fines they pleased ; they put 
 forth whatever new articles of faith they pleased ; they exercised, in the 
 name of the queen, an absolute control over the bodies, minds, and 
 properties, of all her subjects. It was a terrible tyranny in its nature, 
 and terribly did they exercise it. 
 
 William Cobbett — who was an Englishman, a Protestant, and who, 
 in his younger days, had written against the Catholic church — thus 
 speaks of this tyrannical commission : " When one looks at the deeds 
 of this tyrant ; when one sees what abject slavery she had reduced the 
 nation to ; when one views this commission, composed of greedy, 
 rapacious monsters, let into the full swing of unbridled tyranny over 
 every man, woman, and ciiild, in the kingdom, — one feels humbled at the 
 name of England, that tolerated it even a day. It is impossible for us 
 not to reflect with shame on what we have so long being saying against 
 the Spanish inquisition, v/hich, from its first establishment to the pres- 
 ent hour, has not committed so much cruelty as this ferocious tyrant 
 committed in any one year of the forty-three years she ruled England." 
 
 It is hardly necessary to attempt to describe the sufferings that the 
 Catholics had to endure during this murderous reign. No tongue, no 
 pen, is adequate to the task. To hear mass, to harbor a priest, to admit 
 the supremacy of the pope, to deny this woman's spiritual supremacy, 
 and many other things which an honorable Catholic could scarcely 
 avoid, consigned him to the scaffold. Not only were men punished for 
 not confessing that the new religion was the true one, — not only for con- 
 tinuing to practise the religion in which they had been born and bred, — 
 
640 SUFFERINGS OF THE CATHOLICS. 
 
 but were actually punished for not going to the new assemblages, and 
 there performing what they must, if they were sincere, necessarily deem 
 an act of apostacy. 
 
 No new priest of the Catholic faith was suffered to be made or 
 educated in England, on pain of death. It was death for a priest to 
 come into England from abroad ; death to harbor him ; death for him 
 to perform his functions in her dominions ; death even to confess to him. 
 
 Those who refused to go to her churches were fined twenty-five 
 pounds per month, of the money of those times, which equals two hun- 
 dred and fifty pounds of the money of the present day.- This was a 
 fine, or tax, inflicted for the luxury of keeping a conscience, equal to 
 seventeen thousand dollars a year of American money. 
 
 No Catholic, or reputed Catholic, had a moment's security or peace. 
 At all hours, but generally in the night-time, the agents of the queen 
 entered his house by breaking it open ; rushed in different directions 
 into the rooms ; broke open closets, chests, drawers, rummaged beds and 
 pockets, every where, for crosses, vestments, prayer or mass books, or 
 any thing appertaining to the Catholic worship, or that could afford 
 suspicion that a priest frequented the house. As to the poorer portion 
 of the Catholics, those who were not able to pay these heavy fines, 
 they were whipped publicly ; they were branded with red-hot irons in 
 the forehead or ears ; and none durst let them in or harbor them. 
 
 At last, the Catholics entertained a hope that, by declaring their 
 loyalty as subjects to her throne, they might be able to mitigate 
 the rigor of her oppressive rule. An able and dutiful address was 
 drawn up ; but the question then came, who would present it. All 
 trembled at the danger of presenting even an humble petition. At 
 last, Richard Shelley, of Sussex, undertook the dangerous duty. The 
 humane answer of this tender woman to the petition was, the imprison- 
 ment for life of Mr. Shelley. 
 
 But this was nothing to other acts resorted to by her, to produce a 
 change in the opinions of her people. She employed the rack and 
 torture to extort information. -;- See Cobbett, article Elizabeth. 
 
 There were many kinds of torture invented by this cruel woman ; 
 but her favorite engine was the rack ; which we must examine as pre- 
 sented to us by the English historian. Dr. Lingard : — 
 
 " The RACK was a large, open frame of oak, raised three feet from 
 the ground. The prisoner was stretched on his back, on the floor, 
 under this square frame ; his wrists and ankles were attached, by cords, 
 to two rollers at the ends of the frame ; these were tightened by draw- 
 
CRUELTIES OF ELIZABETH. - 641 
 
 ing the cords in opposite directions, by levers, till the body rose from 
 the floor to a level with the frame. Questions were then put to the un- 
 fortunate victim ; and, if the answers did not prove satisfactory, the 
 sufferer was stretched more and more, till the bones started from their 
 sockets." 
 
 Such was the way this "glory of England" changed the religious 
 opinions of her people ! Such was the reign of Good Queen Bess in 
 England ! But O, horror of horrors ! what was it in Ireland ? The 
 Genius of History grieves while she records her diabolical acts, and the 
 Spirit of Religion shrieks to find that such deeds were perpetrated in her 
 name. 
 
 I may be told that this dangerous ground should be avoided ; that 
 persons may take offence at ray thus laying bare the acts of one whom 
 many persons, in their youth, had been taught to look upon as a bold, 
 chivalrous woman, — a heroine of the English nation. My answer is, 
 that the histories of England, written within the last three hundred yeai"s, 
 have been composed of about equal parts of truth and falsehood ; that 
 Ireland has been blackened by the writers who praised this woman, and 
 it is necessary to tlie cause of truth to unveil her whom they adore, and 
 vindicate the nation which they would blacken. This woman perse- 
 cuted Ireland more than any monarch of England that ever lived. She 
 planted there, through every acre of its surface, the seeds of religious 
 and political strife, and turned a fair garden into a great slaughter-yard. 
 She sent in, amongst the pious and hospitable people of that country, a 
 swarm of pillagers, pirates, plunderers 1 who butchered young and old, 
 clergy and laity, male and female; mothers with their infants at their 
 breasts, — the innocent babes seized and spitted on the points of spears 
 by her terrible agents. 
 
 Let those who approve of the acts of this monster feel dissatisfied 
 with me. The historian, after all, is the true avenger. Shall I, armed 
 as I am with the sword of justice, prove a venal, corrupt officer? What 
 would honest men say of me, were I base enough to pander to power 
 or to falsehood ? Let those who recoil with horror from association 
 with the perpetrators of such butcheries and such robberies, join with 
 us in redeeming Ireland from the state of slavery to which Elizabeth and 
 her successors have reduced that great and noble country. 
 
 Ere I touch upon her treatment of Ireland, let me put on record a 
 
 summing up of her character, written by the impartial Wade, her own 
 
 countryman, who has brought the history of England down to our time 
 
 " Her amiability and morality must be at once given up. She had no 
 
 81 
 
642 ' wade's character of her. 
 
 feminine graces. Like her person, her mind, passions, and even accom- 
 plishments, were masculine. The execution of the unfortunate Scottish 
 queen, though deemed necessary by her ministers, is an ineftaceable blot 
 on her mempry. Amongst the legislative and judicial machinery she 
 used, her absoluteness was ever the guiding principle. 
 
 " First was the Court of Star Chamber, [mark that !] whose members 
 held their places during the pleasure of the crown, and might fine, im- 
 prison, and punish corporally, by whipping, branding, slitting the nos- 
 trils and ears. The queen, if present, was sole judge; and the jurisdic- 
 tion of the court extended to all sorts of offences, contempts, and 
 disorders, that lay out of the reach of the common law. 
 
 " The Court of High Coujmission was a still more arbitrary jurisdic- 
 tion. Its vengeance was directed against heresy, which was defined as 
 a difference of opinion on religion and morals ivith the queen. 
 
 " Martial law was first introduced by her. In suspicious times, the 
 jails were full of prisoners, who were thrown into dungeons, loaded with 
 irons, and frequently tortured to extract confessions. Notunfrequently, 
 in the agony of their tortures, the unhappy sufferers wrongly accused 
 others or themselves. Against these enormities the subject had no re- 
 dress ; neither judge nor jury dared to acquit when the crown ivas bent 
 on a conviction. The queen, by special warrants, claimed the right to 
 interfere to stop the course of justice. There are many records of spe- 
 cial warrants granted by the queen to save malefactors from death ; 
 these warrants were neitlier to be canvassed, disputed, nor examined." 
 
 There is the immortal picture of Elizabeth, drawn by her country- 
 man. Wade, a living historian. 
 
 Talk of English glory, English bravery, English liberty, after that ! 
 Talk and boast of a nation that submitted, for forty-three years, to such 
 a monster ! I may be told that Ireland, too, submitted to her will. 
 ./ deny it I The Irish opposed their hearts' blood to her terrible edicts ; 
 they died in the gory field, rather than submit to such tyranny ; they 
 purified their nation, by rivers of tlieir blood, from the stain of sub- 
 mitting to such a monster ; they parted with all that was dear to them 
 in this life, and offered their dead bodies, in the field of battle, as 
 evidences of their determination not to submit to her tyranny, her 
 morals, or her laws ; and, after fighting and beating her armies 
 
 FOR fifteen years, COMPELLED HER TO SUE FOR PEACE AT LAST. 
 
 I am sick of listening to the cant of " British power," " British honor," 
 and " British freedom." These terms may pass in the court and pres- 
 ence of Queen Victoria : but I and my countrymen, and our fathers, have 
 
SHE EXTENDS- THE REFORMATION TO IRELAND. 643 
 
 suffered too much by it, to allow that cant to have sway in this free 
 country, where truth has a dwelling-place, and where justice is enthroned 
 in the hearts of the people. 
 
 The gauze and tinsel that conceal the deformed features of the 
 British government must be torn away ; her brow must be branded 
 with the term "perjlcli/;" her government must be denounced abroad, 
 and subdued at home ; we will array the public opinion of the civil- 
 ized world against her; and that Ireland, which she persecuted for 
 centuries, must, at last, be vindicated and disenthralled. 
 
 Let us now follow Elizabeth's government into Ireland. She had 
 directions sent to Lord Sussex to have a parliament of the Little Pale 
 summoned from ten counties around the metropolis. Previous to this, 
 the little parliament was composed of no more than members of six 
 counties. There were thirty-two counties in Ireland ; and previous to 
 this period, say 1560, the power of the English Pale went not outside 
 of these six counties ; the rest of the nation was governed by their old 
 provincial princes, and their old Brehon or Brehave laws. The 
 religion of the whole people, as well in the Pale as without, was Ro- 
 man Catholic. 
 
 Elizabeth, then, commenced a reformation of the religious opinions 
 of the people of Ireland ; and her first step was to have the little parlia- 
 ment of the Pale summoned. On their assembling, several acts were 
 proposed by her deputy, — one of which required that all her people 
 should renounce the errors of their former religion, disconnect themselves 
 from the court of Rome, acknowledge her as spiritual head of the 
 church, adopt the prayers and religious ceremonies which she had pre- 
 pared, and, lastly, conform to her system of religious belief and practice. 
 But the parliament rejected these propositions. Sussex found it neces- 
 sary to dissolve the parliament. He then repaired to England, to give 
 the queen, in person, an account of the reception her laws had met with. 
 
 In a few years after, she had another parliament, assembled at Dublin, 
 of men whom she had previously tampered with and moulded to her 
 wishes. Numbers of Englishmen were sent over, and returned to the 
 parliament for places they had never set foot in. Sir Edmond Butler, 
 and many more of the old English settlers, protested against this corrupt 
 act. Four days were spent in debates, at the very threshold of her new 
 legislation; the honest portion of the members declared against receiving 
 any bill, or passing any law, in so illegal an assembly. Great confu- 
 sion prevailed between the members of this parliament ; and, finally, 
 Barnwell and Butler — the Grattan and Flood of the day — opposed 
 
644 IRISH CLA>-5. 
 
 this party, proDounced it a base faction, and determined to resist its 
 doings. 
 
 But Elizabeth let the storm of their virtuous indignation pass by. 
 she relied upon the pliancy to be obtained by briber}-, which she ad- 
 ministered vrith an unsparing hand. Independently of this, she hinted 
 at the confiscations ■« hich w ere to follow, — the rich prizes she had in 
 store for those who were willing to pander to her will. Soon the scene 
 changed ; a majority of the parliament became subservient to her will ; 
 the whole machinery of tyranny, which she had constructed in Eng- 
 land, was sent by her into Ireland, and adopted, without discussion, 
 by this parliament. The church property was ever}* where seized ; 
 the leading men, who opposed her will, were imprisoned and executed. 
 A scheme of extermination was commenced : the lands of all the old 
 Irish chieftains were seized, by acts of this little parliament, and par- 
 celled out to English adventurers, ere the owners were aware of it. 
 Chief after chief fell victims to her vengeance, and district after distinct 
 vcas parcelled out to the swarms of pillagers which now appeared to 
 pour into Ireland, as if a change had been effected in the very laws of 
 nature. 
 
 A mania for pillage and rapine seized the people of England, which 
 ■R"as fostered by this unprincipled woman. Fleets, armies, myriads of 
 them flocked over to unfortunate Ireland, to seize on the lands and pos- 
 sessions of the old inhabitants. 
 
 It would take more than all the pages of this book to hold the details 
 of those butcherly and robberies. In some places subjection was ob- 
 tained by compromise, in others by treachery, and most generally by 
 wars of local extermination. For the previous four hundred years the 
 battles between the Eno-llsh and Irish were senerallv confined to the 
 English deputy and some five or six thousand men, on one side, and 
 some distinguished Irish chieftain, at the head of his mountain clan, on 
 the other. These wars generally terminated favorably to the Irish ; for 
 the utmost the English could obtain by their battles was an armistice or 
 compromise of some sort. 
 
 The Irish clans, under the name of their respective princes, never 
 died. It was in vain that the chieftain of the day, when captured by 
 the English, was beheaded, and bis head placed upon a spike. There 
 was anon '• another Richmond in the field." These clans were regu- 
 lated by a singularly republican law. The property of the clan or tribe 
 was owned almost in common. On the death of any member, all the 
 property belonging to him was cast into the common lot, and redistrib- 
 
NATURE OF THE IRISH CLANS. TANISTRY. 645 
 
 uted amongst bis family. When the chief of the clan died, either in his 
 bed or on the field, his place was supplied, by election, from the best of 
 his family. Those chiefs acknowledged obedience to provincial kings, 
 and these again to the chief monarch of the kingdom. The chiefs, 
 who were called tanists or thanes, were able soldiers, well calculated, in 
 bodily strength and courage, to defend their country. 
 
 The great evil of their political system was its tendency to create 
 ambitious rivalry among themselves. Had only the one fourth of the 
 chiefs of Ireland united against the common enemy, at any period o( the 
 three hundred and eighty years from the invasion of Henry the Second 
 to the time of Elizabeth, their country could have been rid of them in a 
 single campaign. But the very nature of the chieftain's power forbade 
 this union. Ever bound, by the increasing number of his tribe, to extend 
 their territory, and by his natural ambition to extend his own sway, his 
 neighbor clans, east, west, north, and south, were viewed with as much 
 jealousy by him and his, as the common enemy of their race, the Anglo- 
 Normans. 
 
 This erroneous political and social principle, ever acting at all points 
 of the kingdom, gave the crafty invader great advantages, and this was 
 ever the secret source of English domination in Ireland. 
 
 The agents of Elizabeth pursued, by her direction, a crafty course. 
 They did not disclose their objects of general confiscation and extermina- 
 tion. They engaged in the warfare of the chiefs and clans against each 
 other. In some places they warred openly, and vanquished and cut down 
 whole districts, parcelling out the lands of the slain amongst the swarms 
 of English adventurers who now came into the country. On the 
 breaking up of the monasteries in England, and the consequent with- 
 drawal of employment and relief which had been previously afforded to 
 the people by the industrious and considerate monks, the towns of Eng- 
 land became thronged with idle, starving people, who gladly enlisted in 
 any enterprise which promised them a change from their present con- 
 dition. Already had a scale of booty been laid down and offered to all 
 those who should volunteer into the queen's army for the conquest of 
 Ireland. To a footman one hundred and twenty acres, and to a horse- 
 man two hundred acres, of the lands of Ireland, were proposed to be 
 given, which were to be held in fee from the queen, or from some of her 
 favorites, on payment of a penny or twopence per annum, per acre, by 
 the fortunate soldier. 
 
 It does not surprise us to be told that the half of the inhabitants of 
 England and Scodand were in motion for the pillage and butchery of 
 
646 SWARMS OF ENGLISH ADVENTURERS INVADE IRELAND. 
 
 the unfortunate people of Ireland. To heighten the materials of strife, 
 the sacred name of religion was introduced between the combatants. 
 The whole system of the penal laws of England, against those who ad- 
 hered to the Catholic religion, was transferred to Ireland. Those who 
 refused to conform to the queen's standard of worship were fined so 
 heavily, that their estates were soon consumed. These estates, whether 
 owned by persons of English or Irish extraction, were confiscated to the 
 queen, and given to her new favorites, for distribution among their fol- 
 lowers. 
 
 Religion was only used as a pretence, to seize on all the property of 
 the nation ; and, more absurdly monstrous, the Irish people really did 
 not know what the form of faith was which the queen proposed for their 
 adoption. England had just then changed her religion five times in the 
 course of thirty years. They were Catholics in 1529 ; immediately 
 after they became schismatics, and formed a religion, no part of which 
 they understood ; in Edward's reign, the doctrines of Zwingle prevailed ; 
 under Mary, the Catholic religion was restored ; and on the accession 
 of Elizabeth, another was established, composed, with some alterations, 
 of the tenets of Luther and Calvin, to which was given the name of the 
 English church. Such was the undefined worship which the Irish were 
 called upon to adopt, or forfeit liberty, property, and life. 
 
 Although it is not my purpose to enter into the detail of the great 
 contest which now began between Protestant England and Catholic 
 Ireland, yet a notice of the chief actions of men who nobly struggled, in 
 that age, for homes and altars, is due to their memories ; and I condense 
 a few particulars from the voluminous Abbe M'Geoghegan : 
 
 THE FIFTEEN YEARS' WAR. 
 
 O'Neill's power engrossed much of the attention of the English 
 government at this time. The queen despatched Knolls to Ireland 
 to concert measures with the deputy to reduce that nobleman, either 
 by kindness or by force. She even offered to him the titles of Earl of 
 Tyrone and Baron of Dungannon. O'Neill received the proposal 
 with a haughtiness expressive of his contempt for English titles of 
 honor, which he looked upon as beneath the name of O'Neill. The 
 commissioners who were intrusted with the negotiation, received from 
 him the following reply : ' If Elizabeth, your mistress, be queen of 
 England, I am O'Neill, king of Ulster ; I never made peace with her 
 without having been previously solicited to it by her. I am not am- 
 bitious of the abject title of earl ; both my family and birth raise me 
 
♦ BATTLE OF DEURY. DEFEAT OF THE ENGLISH. 647 
 
 above it. I will not yield precedence to any one' ; my ancestors have 
 been kings of Ulster. I have gained that kingdom by my sword, and by 
 the sword I will preserve it.' He then spoke contemptuously of 
 M'Carty More, who had just accepted the title of earl. 
 
 The English government, finding O'Neill fixed in his determination, 
 thought necessary to use force against him. For this purpose. Colonel 
 Randolph was despatched, at the head of seven hundred men, to Derry, 
 a small town in the northern extremity of Tyrone. They took posses- 
 sion of the town, and converted the ancient church of St. Columbe 
 into a magazine for powder and warlike stores ; the priests and monks 
 being driven out, and other sacrileges committed in the churches. 
 
 O'Neill saw plainly that it was against his interest to suffer an enemy 
 to establish a garrison so near, and always in readiness to attack him. 
 He marched, therefore, to Derry, without loss of time, with two thousand 
 five hundred infantry, and three hundred cavalry, and posted himself 
 within two miles of the town. They soon came to an engagement, 
 and, during or subsequent to the battle, the powder magazine took fire, 
 and the town and fort of Derry were blown up, by which nearly seven 
 hundred Englishmen, and Randolph, their chief, met a miserable end. 
 
 Discord still prevailed between O'Neill and O'Donnel. The latter 
 was supported by the English, whose aim was to weaken O'Neill, as 
 his power was an obstacle to the reformation, which they wished to 
 introduce into Ireland, and to the conquest of the country, which was 
 not yet complete. These two princes fought many battles with unequal 
 success. O'Neill, at length, having collected all his forces, gained, over 
 the queen's troops that were sent to assist O'Donnel, the celebrated 
 victory of the red Sagums, called, in the Irish language, ' Cah na 
 gassogues DeargsJ In this battle, four hundred English soldiers were 
 killed, besides several officers who had lately arrived from England. 
 
 The great exploits of O'Neill were not sufficient to save him 
 from ruin. He was brave, and his vassals well disciplined ; but they 
 fought better in the field than in their attacks on towns, or in defending 
 them. The English deputy was more frequendy victorious by strata- 
 gem than by force of arms ; he was in possession of fortifications and 
 garrisons, from which he made occasional incursions on the lands of 
 O'Neill, and was artful enough to foment discord between that prince 
 and his neighbors. He detached Maguire, of Fermanagh, a powerful 
 nobleman of the country, from his interest, and always supported 
 O'Donnel against him ; so that O'Neill, finding himself hemmed in on 
 all sides, and his forces weakened, was reduced to the sad alternative of 
 
648 FALL OF o'nEILL. HIS SUCCESSOR. 
 
 seeking safety among his enemies. He had twice defeated the Scotch ; 
 in the first battle, he had killed their chief, James M'Donnel, and in the 
 second, Surly Boy M'Donnel, brother of the latter, was taken prisoner. 
 Still his misfortunes forced him to have recourse to those whom he had 
 beaten. He restored Surly Boy to his liberty, and set out for Northern 
 Clanneboy, where the Scotch, to the number of six hundred, were en- 
 camped, under the command of Alexander M'Donnel, A. D. 1567. 
 O'Neill appeared with a few attendants in the camp, where he was 
 received with apparent politeness ; but the Scotch, either through re- 
 venge for the injuries they had received from him, or hoping to obtain 
 a considei'able reward from the English government, stabbed him, with 
 all his followers, and sent his head to the deputy, who exposed it upon 
 a pole on the castle of Dublin. 
 
 An account of the expenses of this war against O'Neill was sent to 
 the queen ; according to which it amounted to one hundred and forty- 
 seven thousand four hundred and seven pounds sterhng, besides the 
 taxes raised on the country. Her majesty also lost about three 
 thousand five hundred men of her own troops, who were killed by the 
 Ulster prince and his allies, with several of the L-ish and Scotch, who 
 had taken up arms against him. 
 
 Turlough Lynogh O'Neill, who had been acknowledged chief of 
 that illustrious name, continued to support the cause of his country. 
 The noblemen of Ulster and Scodand made frequent alliances, about 
 that time. O'Neill married the Earl of Argyle's aunt, and kept Scotch 
 troops in his pay. This prince was planning an expedition against the 
 English province, but was prevented from carrying it into execution. 
 His life being endangered by a musket-shot he received either by acci- 
 dent or by design, the Scotch began to desert him, and the tribe was 
 about to appoint another chief. Having, however, recovered, while pre- 
 paring to accomplish his first project against the English, the deputy 
 despatched two commissioners, Judge Dovvdal and the Dean of Armagh, 
 on the part of the queen, to his camp at Dungannon ; and a treaty was 
 entered into between them in January, which was ratified by the deputy 
 in the month of March following. 
 
 Thomas Smith, an Englishinavi, and counsellor to the queen, finding 
 that his countrymen were making rapid fortunes in Ireland, at the ex- 
 pense of the old inhabitants, and wishing to have a share in the spoils, 
 asked permission from his royal mistress to send over his son to found, 
 an English colony at Ardes, in Ulster. The queen having given her 
 consent, young Smith was equipped for the enterprise. One Chatter- 
 
COSBy's massacres. AID FROM THE POPE. 649 
 
 ton being appointed his governor, with a suitable retinue, they sailed 
 for- Ireland; but, on approaching the place of his destination, unfortu- 
 nately for Smith, he met Brien M'Art O'Neill, to whom Ardes be- 
 longed, ready to receive him. The pretended Lord of Ardes was 
 killed in a skirmish, and his troops dispersed by Brien M'Art. 
 
 Francis Cosby, being appointed governor of Leix, ruled that coun- 
 try as a true tyrant. His son Alexander equalled him in cruelty, and 
 wreaked his vengeance on inoffensive Catholics for the hard treatment 
 he had received from O'Morra, [O'Moore.] Having convened a meet- 
 ing of the principal inhabitants in the castle of Moliach, under pre- 
 tence of the public welfare, he had them all murdered by assassins 
 posted there for the purpose, violating thereby all honor and public 
 faith. One hundred and eighty men of the family of O'jMorra. with 
 many others, were put to death upon this occasion. This cruel and 
 bloody tyrant took such delight in putting Catholics to the torture, that 
 he hanged men, women, and children, by dozens, from an elm-tree that 
 grew before his door, at Stradbally, where he resided. He subsequently 
 lost his life at the battle of Glendaloch. 
 
 Fitzmaurice, one of the southern chieftains, made his way to Rome, 
 to solicit money and military assistance from the pope, for the protection 
 of the Catholics. His holiness advanced him a considerable sum, and 
 raised two thousand volunteers, who were to assemble in Portugal. 
 About the half of this force did assemble under Stukely, a foreigner, at 
 Lisbon ; but, on his arrival, this treacherous leader, with his whole force, 
 joined the king of Portugal, in his M^ars on Africa. When Fitzmaurice 
 arrived with the remainder of the force, amounting to seven or eight 
 hundred, great was his mortification to find what had occurred. How- 
 ever, he embarked his litde army in- six small vessels, and arrived safe, 
 bringing arms for four thousand men, with suitable ammunition. He 
 got into the harbor of Smerwick, in the county of Kerry, in July, 
 1579. Here he threw up some fortifications,* and called around him 
 the neighboring chiefs. They soon drove the English out of Tralee, 
 put their chiefs to the sword, and then prepared to march tov/ards 
 Connaught. 
 
 Previous to the march of the grand army, Fitzmaurice, with a 
 few men, went into the friendly parts of Connaught, with the view of 
 conciliating the chiefs ; but, on his way, he was attacked by Theobald 
 Burke, of Castle Connel, who, from a desire to please Elizabeth, sacri- 
 ficed religion and country. Finding it impossible to avoid an engage- 
 ment, Fitzmaurice resolved to conquer or die. Being wounded in the 
 82 
 
650 SUCCESS OF DESMOND AGAINST THE QUEEN. 
 
 breast by a musket-ball, and roused to a last effort, he cleared a passage 
 through the enemy, and cut off the head of Burke with a single blow. 
 The brothers of that captain fell also, and their entire force was routed. 
 The victory, however, proved a dear one to Fitzmaurice. His wound 
 being mortal, he died in six hours after the action. 
 
 Sir John Desmond took the command of the Catholic army, accord- 
 ing to the will of Fitzmaurice ; and now the English deputy penetrated 
 into Munster, in order to extinguish the rebellion. Sir John Desmond 
 posted himself near a forest called Blackwood ; whither the English 
 deputy sent a strong detachment, under Captains Herbert and Price, 
 with orders to force his camp. On the appearance of the English, both 
 armies drew up in order of battle ; the first shock was favorable to the 
 English, but they were afterwards cut to pieces by a body of men 
 whicli Desmond had concealed in the wood, and which, attacking them 
 in flank, soon destroyed them. A great number was killed, and 
 amongst them Herbert and Price. 
 
 The loss of this battle caused great affliction to the English deputy, 
 but he was relieved by the arrival of six hundred English, under Captains 
 Bourcheir, Carew, and Dowdal, sent by the queen to Waterford, to 
 reenforce the army. Sir John Perrot arrived in Cork, with six vessels, 
 to protect the coast. Being joined by this reenforcement, the deputy 
 went on another equally unsuccessful expedition to Counello. Having 
 fallen sick from excess of fatigue, he sent for Malby, the governor of 
 Connaught, to command the troops, and withdrew to Waterford. 
 
 Various now were the successes and reverses of the brave Desmond. 
 During all these changes, the English army was continually increasing, 
 whilst the gold and promises of Elizabeth were daily winning off 
 the supporters of her brave opponent. Every mean act of treachery 
 towards Desmond, committed by any of his degraded countrymen, was 
 rewarded with magnificent grants of land and titles. Those of his fol- 
 lowers, who were caught, obtained no quarter from the English. It was 
 death to correspond with him. 
 
 In the mean time a new deputy, named Greij, was sent to Ireland, 
 who, like most of the English deputies on their first arrival, set out 
 through the country with a view to whip it into subjection by a few 
 shots. This braggadocio marched to the Wicklow Mountains, where 
 the Irish, under the chieftain O'Byrne, were posted. Grey collected for 
 this expedition all the troops of Leinster; but at the memorable wood of 
 Glendaloch he was, after a long and obstinate battle, defeated by the 
 
SURRENDER OF THE SPANISH GARRISON. 651 
 
 Irish. A dreadful carnage was made of the Enghsh troops, and the 
 deputy and his staff flew for safety to DubHn. At this battle, Cosby, 
 who took such delight in hanging Catholics, fell an unmourned victim of 
 his own cruelty. 
 
 The deputy now collected the remnant of his forces, and, with the 
 supplies from England, proceeded to the south, where the Spaniards, 
 under Desmond, were still unconquered. He laid siege, by sea and 
 land, to the garrison of Smerwick, which bravely held out several 
 weeks. At length, a flag of truce was sent to the garrison. Deputies 
 were appointed to treat. Some confusion occurred between the inter- 
 preters and the Spanish commander. Large terms were offered to the 
 garrison-, who. being many days without provisions, clamored for a 
 capitulation : it was at length accepted, and as soon as these poor 
 fellows, numbering six hundred, laid down their arms, they were in- 
 stantly butchered by their honorable enemy. It is from this event 
 that Jldes Greia, or ' the faith of Grey,' became a phrase expressive 
 of perfidy. 
 
 John Desmond, brother of the hero Desmond, was shortly after, 
 when nearly alone, waylaid by the English, while about to cross the 
 River Blackwater. He was wounded in the heroic conflict with his 
 captors, and died on his way to Cork, whither they carried his body, 
 having sent his head to Dublin, where it was placed on the castle ; and 
 his body was tied to a gibbet, at the gates of Cork, where it remained 
 three years, till it was carried into the sea by the wind. 
 
 We have now come to the last year of the life of Desmond, A. D. 
 1583. Finding himself unassisted by the Spaniards, and deserted by 
 his adherents, he became a fugitive through the country. On arriving 
 in the county of Kerry, with a few followers, he took refuge in a 
 small house in the middle of a wood, called Gleam-a-Ginkie, four 
 miles from Tralee, where he was subsisted by whatever GofFred 
 M'Sweeny, who was faithfully attached to him, could procure by 
 hunting. Being surprised at length by his enemies, his head was cut 
 off, and sent to Cork, whence it was brought soon after to England, 
 fastened on a pole, and exposed to public view on the bridge of 
 London. 
 
 Thus perished the hopes of Ireland in the south ; for the smaller 
 chieftains now fell an easy prey before the accumulated troops from 
 England. 
 
 Persecution, which had somewhat abated during the war, began 
 anew with increased severity after the death of the Earl of Desmond 
 
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DREADFUL PERSECUTIONS. 653 
 
 had his plan for the pacification of Ireland. It was no other than that 
 of creating famine and insuring pestilence ! And he encouraged the 
 repetition of these diabolical means by his own evidence of their efficacy. 
 He recommended, indeed, that twenty days should be given to the Irish 
 to come in and submit, after the expiration of which time they were to 
 be shown no mercy. But let me quote his own words : ' The end 
 will (I assure mee) bee very short, and much sooner than it can be in 
 so greate a trouble as it seemeth hoped for ; altho there should none of 
 them fall by the sword, nor be slaine by the soldiour, yet, thus being 
 kept from manurance, and their catde from running abroad, by hard 
 restraint, they would quietly consume themselves, and devour 
 ONE another.' — Spenser^ s Ireland, p. 165. 
 
 " These counsels of Spenser were carried into effect. Take the fol- 
 lowing specimens from Hollinshead's description of the progress of the 
 English army in the south, during the contest with Desmond, who was, 
 in fact, forced into rebellion : ' As they went, they drove the whole 
 country before them into the Ventrie, and by that means they preyed 
 and took all the cattle in the country, to the number of eight thousand 
 kine, besides horses, garrons, sheep, and goats ; and all such people as 
 met, they did tmthout mercy put to the sword. By these means, the 
 whole country having no catUe nor kine left, they were driven to such 
 extremities that, for want of victuals, they were either to die and perish 
 for famine, or to die under the sword.' — Hollinshcad, VI. 427. 
 
 " ' The soldiers likewise, in the camp, were so hot upon the spur, and 
 so eager upon the vile rebels, that day, they spared neither man, 
 woman, nor child, but all was committed to the sword.' — Hollins- 
 head, VI. 430. 
 
 " I give the next quotation to show how trivial it was considered to 
 slaughter four hundred unarmed people in a single day — it was thought 
 an insufficient day's service : ' The next daie following, being the 
 twelfe of March, the lord justice and the earle divided dieir armie into 
 two several companies, by two ensigns and three together, the lord jus- 
 tice taking the one side of Sleughlogher ; and so they searched, the woods, 
 burned the town, and Icilled that daie about foure hundred men, and 
 returned that night ivith all the cattle which they found that day. 
 And the said lords being not satisfied with his dale's service, they did 
 likewise the next daie divide themselves, spoiled and consumed the 
 whole countrie until it was night.' — Hollinshcad, VI. 430. 
 
 "This is but a specimen of the mode in which the war was carried on, 
 I give a few more instances, and I could multiply them by hundreds • 
 
654 DREADFUL PERSECtTTIONS. 
 
 ' He divided his companies into foure parts, and they entered into foure 
 severall places of the wood at one instant, and by that means they 
 scoured the wood throughout, in MUing as manie as they tooJce, but the 
 residue fled into the mountains.' — HoUinshead, VI. 452. 
 
 " ' Tliere were some of the Irish taken prisoners that offered great 
 ransomes, but presently, upon their bringing to the campe, they were 
 hanged.'' — Pacata Hibernia, 421. 
 
 " Here are some specimens of the way in which they were working out 
 Spenser's plan : ' By reason of the continuall persecuting of the 
 rebells, who could have no breath nor rest to relieve themselves, but 
 were alwaies by one garrison or other hurt and pursued ; and by reason 
 the harvest was taken from them, their cattells, in great numbers, preied 
 from then), and the whole countrie spoiled and preied, the poor people, 
 who lived only on their labors, and fed by their milch cowes, were so 
 distressed, that they would follow after their goods which were taken 
 from them, and offer themselves, their wives, and. children, rather to be 
 slaine by the armie, than to suffer the famine wherewith they were now 
 pinched.' — HoUinshead, VI. 433. 
 
 " Again, take the following from Sir George Carew : ' The presi- 
 dent having received certaine information, that the Munster fugitives 
 were harboured in those parts, having before burnt all the houses and 
 come, and taken great preyes, Owny, Onubrian, and Kilquig, a strong 
 and fast country, not farre from Limerick, diverted his forces. East 
 Clanwilliam and Muskery Guirke, where Pierce Lacy had lately be- 
 come succoured ; and, harrassing the country, killed all mankind 
 THAT WERE FOUND THEREIN, for a terrour to those who should give 
 releefe to runagate traitors. Thence, wee came into Arleaghe Woods, 
 where wee did the like, Tjo^ leaving behind us man or beast, corn or 
 cattle, except such as had been conveyed into castles.' It was 
 
 THOUGHT NO ILL POLICY TO MAKE THE IRISH DRAW BLOOD UPON 
 ONE ANOTHER, WHEREBY THEIR PRIVATE QUARRELS MlfiHT ADVANCE 
 
 THE PUBLIC INTEREST. — Pttcata Hibemia, 189." — O'Connell's 
 Memoir, p. 86, Casserly's edition. 
 
 I cannot intrude upon limited space the many similar speci- 
 mens which are to be found in O'Connell's Memoir. 
 
 " O'Hurle, archbishop of Cashel, falling into the hands of Sir William 
 Drury, in the year 1579, was first tortured by his legs being immersed 
 in jack-boots filled with quick lime, water, &c., until they were burnt 
 to the bone, in order to force him to, take the oath of supremacy ; and 
 he was then, with other circumstances of barbarity, executed on the 
 
gallows. As this martyr was dying, he told his persecutor, Drury, 
 that he should meet him before the tribunal of Christ within ten days ; 
 and it came to pass that Drury died within that time, suffering the 
 most excruciating pains. According to Bourke's Hibemia Dominicina, 
 
 IT WAS A USUAL THING TO BEAT WITH STONES THE SHORN HEADS 
 OF THEIR CLERGY TILL THEIR BRAINS GUSHED OUT ; many Were 
 
 Stretched upon the rack or pressed under weights; others had their 
 bowels torn open, which they were obliged to support with, their 
 hands." — Milner's Letters. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth, in her instructions to Carew, 1598, on his going 
 over to carry her exterminating schemes into operation, authorized her 
 officers to " put suspected Irish to the rack, and to torture them when 
 they should find it convenient." 
 
 Numberless instances occur where the English soldiers fell in with 
 sick and wounded men on the Irish side, attended by their wives, sisters, 
 or mothers, every one of whom, including women and children, were 
 put to death! The southern province became totally depopulated, 
 except within the cities, exhibiting a hideous scene of fan)ine and 
 desolation. In some parts of Munster, after Desmond's death, after 
 the entire suppression of his revolt, great companies of Irishmen, with 
 their women and children, were often forced into castles and other 
 houses, which were then set on fire, and, if any of them attempted to 
 escape from the flames, they were shot or stabbed by the soldiers who 
 guarded them. It was a diversion to these inhuman monsters to take 
 up infants on the point of their spears, and whirl them about in their 
 agony, apologizing for their cruelty by saying, that, if they suffered 
 them to live to grow up, they would become Popish rebels ; many of 
 their tvomen ivere found hanging on trees, with their children at their 
 breasts, strangled with the mothers' hair ! And Hollinshead proceeds 
 in the horrible detail to show that the unfortunate people were so re- 
 duced by starvation, that they took up dead bodies out of the graves, 
 and ate of them ; and, lastly, di9 kill and devour one another, as dis- 
 tressed and starving mariners have been known to do at sea ; and in the 
 entire country, from Smerwicke, in the south, to Waterford, a distance 
 of one hundred and twenty miles, not a human being or beast v*'as to 
 be met with, nor yet a blade of corn, or other fruit of the earth ! 
 
 Confiscation now commenced on a grand ^cale. The estates of 
 Desmond, and all the others lately found in opposition to the invaders, 
 were parcelled out. Circulars were sent into England, to all the 
 nobility, inviting their youngest sons to come and settle in Ireland, 
 
656 HUGH o'nEILL. SPANISH ARMADA. 
 
 on certain conditions, one of which was, that they should hold these 
 lands from the crown, at threepence per acre, in the counties of 
 Limerick, Connelloe, and Kerry, and twopence per acre in the 
 counties of Cork and Waterford ; and that no Irishman should be 
 suffered to reside on them. 
 
 The south having been pretty generally subdued, and an expedition 
 of two thousand Scotchmen, who came to aid the Irish, having been 
 secretly intercepted and destroyed, Elizabeth now turned her attention 
 to the north of Ireland, which had been purposely left unmolested by 
 the crafty queen, until the subjection of the south could be established. 
 She loaded the great Hugh O'Neill with honors, invited him to court, 
 and begged him to accept the title of Tyrone, which was despised and 
 refused by his father, and which he affected to accept with a deep sense 
 of the honor. But O'Neill was a wise and an able man ; he had been 
 of the illustrious house of the Hy Nialls, who were monarchs of Ire- 
 land on St. Patrick's arrival, and who continued its chief monarchs 
 till the eleventh century, when the succession was broken up by 
 the Munster house, in the person of Brien Boroimhe. O'Neill in- 
 curred the queen's displeasure by harboring some of the scattered 
 Spanish armada. And here may be a proper place to insert a short 
 account of that celebrated attempt to relieve the Catholics of both 
 England and Ireland. 
 
 Philip, king of Spain, finding negotiations unavailing, turned his 
 thoughts to war, and determined to make a descent upon England. 
 For this purpose, he equipped the most formidable fleet that had been 
 ever known, from whence it was called the invincible armada. This fleet 
 consisted of one hundred and thirty vessels, of various sizes, having on 
 board nineteen thousand two hundred and ninety troops, eight thousand 
 and fifty sailors,, two thousand and eighty .men from the galleys, and 
 two thousand six hundred and thirty pieces of cannon. The Prince of 
 Parma, governor of the Low Countries, received orders to hold himself 
 in readiness, with the fifty thousand men he commanded, and to have 
 boats of a crooked form, and deep in the centre, (each of which was to 
 contain thirty horses,) constructed. With these boats, he intended to 
 convey his army to the mouth of the Thames, at the time of the in- 
 tended arrival of the fleet from Spain. 
 
 On the other hand, all the measures necessary to oppose the designs 
 of the Spaniards were adopted by the queen of England. Admiral 
 Lord Charles Howard, and Vice-Admiral Sir Francis Drake, had orders 
 to repair on board the fleet at Plymouth. Lord Henry Seymour, at 
 
THE SPANISH ARMADA. o'rUAKK. 657 
 
 the bead of forty English and Dutch ships, was appointed to guard the 
 coasts of the Low Countries, to prevent the Prince of Parma from sail- 
 ing. The land forces were stationed along the southern coast, under 
 the command of the Earl of Leicester, who established his bead-quar- 
 ters at Tilbury, near the mouth of the Thames. The ports on every 
 side were fortified and strongly garrisoned. 
 
 Matters being thus prepared on both sides, the Spanish fleet, com- 
 manded by the Duke of Medina, and Jean Martin Recalde, vice-admiral, 
 sailed from the Tagus on the 20th May. Soon after sailing, the fleet 
 was dispersed in a violent gale. Having, however, collected the vessels 
 again with difficulty, they appeared, in July, on the coast of England. 
 The English fleet, stationed at Plymouth, set sail immediately, and, in 
 the course of six days, three battles were fought with unequal success. 
 The Spaniards, hoping to receive assistance from the Prince of Parma, 
 cast anchor opposite Calais. The Spanish admiral despatched a 
 courier to the prince, with orders to join the fleet with his troops, and, 
 in the mean time, to send him some cannon balls, of which he was in 
 extreme need. This the prince could not accomplish. 
 
 The expedition was fatal to the Spaniards, but the English, accord- 
 ing to their national characteristic, boast too highly of their success. 
 The Spanish fleet was, in the beginning, shattered by a violent storm, 
 and, on the coast of Britain, it was disappointed of the succors that 
 were expected from the Low Countries, with which hope the expedition 
 had been principally undertaken. In their battles with the English, the 
 Spaniards were in want of ammunition ; their fleet, too, consisted of 
 large ships, hard to be managed, without frigates or small vessels, so 
 necessary in an engagement. The advantage was entirely in favor of 
 the English. 
 
 All hopes of succeeding on the shores of England being destroyed, 
 the Spanish admiral sailed for Spain, through the Orkneys. When 
 coasting round the north of Ireland, his fleet was v^recked, whereby he 
 lost more men and ships than in his battles with the English. The 
 disappointment evinced by PhiHp, when informed of this circumstance, 
 and of the defeat of his fleet, was mildly expressed in these words : 
 " I sent them to fight against men, not with the elements." 
 
 The gallant O'Ruark, of Breffiiy, for having treated some of those 
 
 Spaniards hospitably, and for refusing to give them up to the English 
 
 governor, was brought to England, condemned by the council, and 
 
 beheaded. Scandal has whispered that the queen, falling in love with 
 
 83 
 
658 DUBLIN UNIVERSITY. 
 
 his fine person, kept him in her palace for some time, ere, like other 
 of her favorites, she sent him to the block. 
 
 Elizabeth, about this time, revived the Dublin University. In a 
 debate, which took place in the month of July, 1844, in the British parlia- 
 ment, Mr. Wyse, the member for Waterford, gave the following account 
 of this university, which was uncontradicted by any member : — 
 
 " It was said, indeed, that the Dublin University was necessarily a 
 Protestant university. It was generally supposed to have been founded 
 by Elizabeth, but that was merely a revival. A university was founded 
 at an early period, in 1312, by John Elyard, bishop of Dublin, who 
 obtained a bull from the pope, to confirm the foundation. It was after- 
 wards richly endowed by several persons. In 1475, the university was 
 revived in the capital, and a fresh bull issued to renew the foundation, 
 owing to the exertions of the Dominican friars. This university was 
 long supported by those who resorted there. But in Elizabeth's time, 
 the establishment was for the education of youth, without any inter- 
 ference with their religion. From the commons' journals of Ireland, it _ 
 appeared that continual interference was made with the establishment ; 
 and the preservation of its library was, ultimately, entirely ow ing to the 
 exertions of a Catholic missionary. Catholics were at length excluded 
 in 1703, not from education there, certainly, but from the fellowships ; 
 and so it had continued down to the present time. No doubt, as re- 
 garded the professorships, a few were filled by Catholics. One of those 
 was the professorship of foreign languages. Now, what were the funds 
 of this college ? He could not speak positively, but he understood the 
 landed pro[)erty, belonging to the university, to be not less than two 
 hundred and thirty-one thousand acres in extent." 
 
 CDonnel, and two other northern princes, who had been in close 
 confinement, in Dublin Castle, for seven years, found means to escape.* 
 O'Donnel, who was next in rank to O'Neill, now raised the standard 
 of revolt against England. Assisted by Maguire, the Lord of Fer- 
 managh, they raised a resolute force, with which they attacked the 
 English, and all those who aided them, in every direction : for a while 
 their success was astonishing, extending into Connaught, and through 
 other parts of the country, and alarming very seriously the queen's deputy. 
 
 The Earl of Kildare, and O'Byrne, of Wicklow, raised the standard 
 of revolt in Leinster, which they overran ; but, having received advan- 
 tageous terms of peace from the queen, they relapsed again into inactivity. 
 O'Donnell and Maguire made a gallant stand against a large force of the 
 English invaders, on the banks of the River Farna, near Inniskillsn. 
 • They got out through the sewer which led from the tower to tlie River Poddle. 
 
THE WAR IN THE NORTH AND IN CONNAUGHT. 659 
 
 Both armies passed the night in firing on each other. At break of day, 
 the English general, having discovered a ford, made his army cross the 
 river, and marched towards the enemy in battle array. The battle 
 began at eleven in the morning, and lasted till night, with great slaugh- 
 ter on both sides ; but the English were at length completely routed, by 
 the superior skill of tbe Irish generals, and the bravery of the soldiers 
 under their command. Those who escaped the carnage endeavored to 
 repass the river ; but, being pursued by the Irish, several were drowned 
 in the endeavor to escape. According even to Camden, the loss of the 
 English was immense ; which avowal, from Englishmen, is worthy of 
 remark. The place where the battle was fought was called Vadum Bis- 
 coctorum Panum, or the Ford of Biscuits ; the confusion of the English 
 being so great, that they were obliged to throw the biscuit which had 
 been intended for the garrison of Inniskillen into the river. This gar- 
 rison, having now lost all hopes of succor, from the defeat of their 
 countrymen, opened the gates to O'Donnel, who restored it to 
 Maguire, to whom it belonged. 
 
 After the reduction of Inniskillen, O'Donnel tflarched to Connaught, 
 to revenge the tyranny which had been practised in that province by 
 Bingham, the governor. He carried terror wherever he passed, putting 
 every English Protestant, from the age of fifteen to sixty, who could not 
 speak Irish, to the sword. O'Donnel afterwards entered Annaly, and 
 burned the district of Longford, which belonged to the O'Ferrals. It 
 had been usurped by an English Protestant, named Brown ; so that 
 the English in Connaught, who escaped the sword of the conqueror, 
 being deprived of all they had amassed, except those who were under 
 the protection of the garrisons and fortresses, were obliged to return to 
 England, highly indignant with those who had induced them to seek 
 their fortunes in Ireland. 
 
 Theobald Burke, a powerful lord of Connaught, of the house of 
 M'William, was deprived, about this time, by the JEnglish, of the estates 
 of his ancestors, and confined in a dungeon at Athlone. Being rescued 
 from his captivity, he had recourse to O'Donnel, who gave him a body 
 of men, to assist him in recovering his patrimony. Burke thereon re- 
 turned to his province, laid siege to Bealike, one of his fortresses, which 
 was in possession of the English, and defeated George Bingham and 
 other chiefs, who were advancing, at the head of an English army, to 
 the relief of the besieged. 
 
 Such was the state of affairs in Ulster. War was raging between the 
 principal nobles of the province and the English force. Disturbances 
 also began to break out in the provinces of Leinster and Connaught. 
 
660 THE GREAT HUGH o'nEILL. 
 
 Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, had acted his part ably. He had 
 spent seven years in organizing his forces, and in providing provisions, 
 and all sorts of warlike stores. He always appeared to act in the 
 queen's interests : still the English distrusted him, while the Irish blamed 
 his inactivity. During his occasional sojourns in England, he made 
 himself master of their tactics, which he combined with those of Ireland, 
 and was thus enabled to discipline the germ of the best military force 
 that ever appeared in Ireland. In order to avoid giving the English 
 any alarm, it was his practice to disband his men as soon as they became 
 'perfectly disciplined, and to call around him a new set from the felds, 
 who were, in turn, disbanded, to make ivay for other sets in like suc- 
 cession, whom it was his delight and amusement to instruct. In this 
 way, he formed a peasant army of about five or six thousand men, who 
 gave to other parts of Ireland, during the war, a race of commanders 
 which all the power of England, as will be seen in the following pages, 
 could not subdue. 
 
 He only waited a favorable moment to avow himself; and this year 
 (A. D. 1595) he renounced the title of earl, assumed the O^Neill, 
 removed the mask, and declared against the queen. He was afterwards 
 nominated commander-in-chief of the Irish league, which consisted of 
 several branches of the O'Neills, Maguires, M'Mahons, Magennises, 
 M'Donnels, O'Cahans, O'Flannagans, and many other powerful nobles 
 of the province, with their vassals. O'Donnel, on his side, commanded 
 the Tyrconnel troops. These princes sometimes acted separately, 
 but always for the good of the common cause, which was that 
 of their religion and their country. This was the most powerful 
 opposition which the Lish had yet made since the first English 
 invasion. 
 
 The frequent victories which the Catholics of Ireland gained over the 
 English alarmed the court of England. The queen was so afflicted by 
 these disasters, that she determined to put an end to them by subduing 
 the Catholics. For this purpose, she sent for the old troops who were 
 serving in the Netherlands against Philip II., and despatched three 
 thousand of them over to Ireland, under the orders of Sir John Nonis, 
 with the title of captain-general. This diversion was highly favorable 
 to Spain. 
 
 Norris, having landed with his forces in Ireland, was joined by the 
 deputy, and the troops under his command, in all amounting to about 
 ten thousand men. The deputy requested that Baskervile should have 
 
NEW INVASION. NEGOTIATIONS. 661 
 
 the command of this reenforcement ; but the court thought proper to 
 confer it on Norris, as being more experienced. He had aheady served 
 in Ireland, as governor of Munster ; and, having afterwards commanded 
 the English army, in Brittany and the Low Countries, against the king 
 of Spain, he was considered to be the ablest captain in England, and 
 capable of opposing Tyrone. He was so fully persuaded of this him- 
 self, that, in taking leave of the queen, he said he would reduce O'Neill 
 to obey her majesty, or force him to leave Ireland. He did not, hoiv- 
 ever, accomplish his promise. 
 
 O'Neill, having heard that Norris was marching towards Ulster, col- 
 lected his forces, and began hostilities, by taking a fort called Portmor, 
 on the Blackwater, near the district of Tyrone, where there was an 
 English garrison, the fortifications of which he destroyed. He dien 
 marched to lay siege to Monaghan. In the mean time, in order to vin- 
 dicate his conduct, O'Neill wrote letters, in the form of manifestoes, to 
 the Earl of Ormond, Wallop, and Russel the deputy, declaring to them 
 that it was not his wish to make war, but to live in peace with the queen, 
 provided he and his followers were allowed to profess the religion of 
 their ancestors, on which condition he was ready to lay down his arms. 
 He wrote in the same terms to the queen and Captain Norris ; but the 
 two last letters were intercepted and suppressed by Marshal Bagnal, 
 who, though O'Neill's brother-in-law, was his avowed enemy. How- 
 ever, instead of receiving favorable answers to his letters, he was pro- 
 claimed a rebel and a traitor to his country, with O'Donnel, O'Rourke, 
 Maguire, and M'Mahon. 
 
 The English government, after some little time, was still desirous of 
 treating with O'Neill and the other Catholic confederates ; for which 
 purpose they agreed upon a truce of two months, from the 27th 
 of October till the beginning of January. In the mean time, the 
 Castle of Monaghan surrendered to the besiegers, commanded by 
 Conn, (son of O'Neill,) O'Donnel, and M'Mahon. The truce 
 ended on the 1st of January. On the 8th, the government sent 
 a commission to Sir Robert Gardiner and Sir Henry Wallop, with full 
 power to conclude a treaty with the Catholics of Ulster. The com- 
 missioners repaired to Dundalk ; but the Irish, through distrust of the 
 English, refused to meet them, so that they were obliged to hold the 
 conference in a plain, in presence of the two armies. The Catholics 
 demanded three things to be granted — first, a general liberty of con- 
 science ; second, a full pardon for the past ; and lastly, the entire 
 removal of the English garrisons, their sheriffs, and other officers of 
 
662 HOSTILITIES COMMENCED. 
 
 justice, from the province, except the towns of Newry and Carrickfergus. 
 The English commissioners not approving of these articles, the confer- 
 ence ended without coming to any decision, except that of renewing the 
 truce till the 1st of April, 
 
 At the expiration of this, Russel, the deputy, and General Norris, 
 led their army to Dundalk. The jealousy between these two noblemen 
 about the command, was the cause of much disunion. The deputy left 
 Dundalk, with his army, to possess himself of Armagh ; but O'Neill, 
 accompanied by Maguire, O'Cahan, the O'Hanlons, and other nobles, and 
 their men, met him on his march. The action began at Killcluona, 
 with great fury on both sides ; but the English were forced to retreat to 
 Newry, leaving six hundred men dead on the field of battle. O'Neill's 
 loss did not exceed two hundred men. 
 
 The ill success of the" deputy, in Ulster, made him quit the province, 
 and return to Dublin. He gave up his command of the troops to 
 Norris. The Catholics of Leinster were in arms ; Fiach, son of Hugh, 
 chief of the O'Byrnes, of Wicklow, and Donald Spaniagh, or the 
 Spaniard, chief of the Cavenaghs, having united their forces, ravaged 
 the whole country, from Dublin to Wexford. The O'Connors acted in 
 the same manner in OfFaly. Connaught was disturbed, and the in- 
 habitants, being joined by a body of Scotch, carried terror wherever 
 they marched. The deputy led his army to this province, and be- 
 sieged Losmage Castle, belonging to O'Madden. He summoned the 
 garrison to surrender, but was answered by the besieged, that, were his 
 army composed of deputies, they would hold out to the last. However, 
 as it was not fortified, he made himself master of it, the besieged having 
 lost about forty-six men. 
 
 The deputy left the affairs of Ulster to Norris, who marched towards 
 Monaghan, in which there had been a garrison, since it was abandoned 
 by the Irish. O'Neill, on receiving intelligence of the march of Norris, 
 intercepted him at Cluoin Tiburuid, in a plain at a short distance from 
 Monaghan. Both armies were divided by a rivulet. The English 
 general endeavored to force his passage, but was twice repulsed by the 
 Irish fusileers ; he had a horse killed under him, and he, with his 
 brother, Thomas Norris, was wounded ; after which the action of an 
 individual decided the victory. An officer, called Segrave, belonging to 
 the army of Norris, and a native of the county of Meath, led on a de- 
 tachment of cavalry to attack the quarter where O'Neill fought. In the 
 midst of the engagement, Segrave forced his way to the chief, and en- 
 gaged him in single combat. The two heroes, having broken two 
 
INVADERS OFFEIl TERMS OF PEACE TO o'nEILL. 663 
 
 lances each, fell. At this moment, O'Neill, attacking his adversary with 
 his sword, slew him, and, by his success, completed the defeat of the 
 English, who left seven hundred men dead upon the field of baiile. 
 The loss of the Irish was inconsiderable. The day following, Norris, 
 wishing to return to the charge, was repulsed with some loss at Bealach- 
 Finnuis. Monaghan surrendered to the Irish, and the garrison marched 
 out with the honors of war. 
 
 Whilst O'Neill was supporting the cause of his country so gloriously 
 in Ulster, O'Donnel marched to the relief of the Irish in Con- 
 naught. Young George Bingham occupied the Castle of Sligo, at that 
 time, with a garrison of two hundred men, both English and Irish. The 
 Irish belonging to the garrison attacked the English, slew Bingham, and 
 gave up the castle to O'Donnel, who appointed Burke to the govern- 
 ment of it. About the same time, the castle of Ballimot, in the same 
 county, (Sligo,) was torn from the elder Bingham by Tumultach and 
 Cahal M'Donagh, to whom it belonged. After the taking of these two 
 places, the affairs of the English in Connaught were in a very un- 
 promising state. The army of O'Donnel kept them in check. 
 
 As the queen and her council were particularly desirous of making 
 peace with O'Neill, commissioners were frequently appointed to propose 
 terms to him. General Norris and Geoftroy Fenton, secretary of 
 state, were appointed to make overtures in 1596. They repaired to 
 Dundalk, where they had an interview with O'Neill. He had not con- 
 fidence enough in the English to treat with them ; besides, the principal 
 condition he required was a freedom of religion, so that this conference 
 was not more successful than the preceding ones. Sir Edward Moor 
 was soon afterwards intrusted to carry the queen's pardon to O'Neill, 
 which he peremptorily refused. 
 
 Three small vessels, laden with powder, arrived about ttiis time from 
 Spain, for O'Donnel. They brought two hundred men also, and 
 promises of more efficient aid. O'Neill wrote letters on the common 
 cause to Fiach, chief of the O'Byrnes, and other noblemen of Leinster, 
 his allies, to which he received favorable answers. He kept up a cor- 
 respondence also with the best disposed characters in Munster, by means 
 of the clan Shyhyes, whom he sent thither for that purpose, with confi- 
 dential letters from himself. 
 
 His letters to many of the lords of Leinster had the desired effect. 
 Fiach O'Byrne renewed hostilities, by taking the fort of BalH-ne-cor, 
 the fortifications of which he destroyed. The O'Morras, O'Connors, 
 O'TooleSj Cavenaghs, and Butlers, took up arms likewise, and demanded 
 
6B4 • BATTLE OF ARMAGH. 
 
 the restoration of their confiscated estates. The deputy marched 
 against O'Byrne ; the Butlers were pursued by the Earl of Ormond, 
 who, after renouncing his religion, persecuted his relatives ; the O'Mor- 
 ras and O'Connors were exposed to the attacks of Sir Anthony St* 
 Leger. Connaught was in as great a ferment as Leinster ; Richard 
 Bingham, governor of that province, having taken up arms against the 
 Burkes and O'Rourkes. 
 
 The king of Spain was aware that Elizabeth had made frequent 
 proposals of peace to O'Neill, O'Donnel, and the other Irish lords. 
 His Catholic majesty sent an agent to encourage these princes to perse- 
 vere, and to renew the promises he had already made to them. In the 
 mean time, the English took Armagh by surprise, and placed a garrison 
 in it. O'Neill beheld, with sorrow, this holy city, that was founded by 
 St. Patrick, profaned by the invaders, to whom nothing was sacred. 
 The garrison was strong, and protected by the army, which was en- 
 camped near it, under General Norris. O'Neill, not deeming it prudent 
 to undertake a siege, brought Norris to an engagement near the church 
 of Killoter. The English, being confident in their strength, were eager 
 to engage, but were vigorously repulsed and put to flight by O'Neill's 
 forces, who pursued them as far as Armagh, and killed several of their 
 men. After this, Norris left five hundred troops in the garrison, under 
 the command of Francis Stafford, and withdrew, with the remainder of 
 his army, towards Dundalk. O'Neill, being master of the field, was 
 enabled to intercept the provisions that were intended for Armagh, so 
 that famine was the consequence. This was succeeded by a plague, 
 which carried off their men in great numbers. The English of Dun- 
 dalk, hearing of the sad condition of their garrison in Armagh, sent a 
 supply of provisions, under an escort of three companies of infantry 
 and a troop of horse. O'Neill surprised the convoy, and put the troops 
 that were guarding it to the sword. His penetrating mind guided him 
 in turning every thing to advantage. He now bethought of a stratagem 
 in which he was most successful ; he got some of his men, both foot 
 and horse, to assume the uniform of the English who were killed, and 
 ordered them to retreat with English banners towards a ruined monastery 
 that was within a gun-shot of Armagh. The prince pursued these supposed 
 English, with the rest of his troops, within view of the garrison ; both 
 parties began a discharge of their musketry, loaded only with powder ; 
 whereupon the men, as instructed, fell on every side, without sustaining 
 any injury. This sham battle soon drew the attention of the garrison 
 of Armagh ; Stafford, the commander, gave orders that half of the gar- 
 
DEFEAT OF THE INVADERS. G65 
 
 rison should take up arms, and advance rapidly to the field of battle, to 
 the relief of their supposed countrymen. The English found not only 
 O'Neill's troops, but those to whose succor they came, drawn up in 
 order of battle, and ready to charge them, whilst Conn, son of O'Neill, 
 who lay in ambush with some infantry in the neighboring monastery, 
 attacked them in the rear. The English, being now between two fires, 
 were cut to pieces, within view of the garrison. Stafford, who was in 
 Armagh, finding himself outgeneraled, submitted to O'Neill, who per- 
 mitted him to join, with the rest of the garrison, the English army at 
 Dundalk. Upon a subsequent occasion, this same place was taken by the 
 English, and retaken by O'Neill, who, with unprecedented magnanim- 
 ity, sent, on both occasions, the English garrisons back to their general. 
 O'Donnel, accompanied by the M'Sweeneys, O'Dogherty, the brave 
 Maguire, O'Rourke, M'William, O'Kelly, M'Dermot, O'Connor Roe, 
 and O'Dowd, entered Connaught with their troops. He was also joined 
 by Murrough M'Sweeney, at the head of three hundred men, whom he 
 assisted in a petty war with the English, during two years, in Munster. 
 Clifford, who was appointed the new governor of Connaught, had not 
 yet arrived. General Norris was weary of serving in Ulster, where, 
 instead of gathering fresh laurels, he was losing those which he had 
 gained in foreign countries. Being desirous of trying his fortune in 
 other parts, he undertook an expedition, against O'Donnel, into Con- 
 naught, either to make terms with him. or reduce him by force. For 
 this purpose, he repaired to Athlone, where he was joined by the Earls 
 of Thuomond and Clanrickard, and others. He also received a reen- 
 forcement from England, which increased his army to ten thousand men. 
 Norris knew that O'Donnel was in the neighborhood of Ballinroab, near 
 Lake Mask, at the head of five hundred men ; and, having set out upon 
 his march, he soon found himself in view of the enemy, from whom he 
 was divided by a small river. The night was spent in firing, and, at 
 break of day, Norris demanded a conference with O'Donnel, in which 
 peace was proposed between the general of the queen and the Irish 
 chiefs. The terms offered to O'Donnel were advantageous, but were 
 not accepted. The conference lasted for some days, during which both 
 armies kept up hostilities, and fought in detached bodies, without coming 
 to a general engagement. Theobald the Naval, having attacked the 
 right wing of the Irish army, at the head of a heavy detachment, was 
 repulsed with the loss of three hundred men. The negotiation lasted for 
 a month between the Prince of Tyrconnel and Norris, without any 
 thing being settled upon. The latter suffered heavy losses, both in skir- 
 84 
 
666 RISING OF LEINSTER. CONFUSION IN ENGLISH COUNCILS. 
 
 mishing and by the desertion of some nobles who joined the standard 
 of the Catholics. After being harassed in his retreat by the troops of 
 O'Donnel, he lost several of his men, and was forced to quit the 
 province in disgrace. 
 
 The deputy undertook an expedition, in May, into the county of 
 Wicklow, where he surprised and killed Fiach M'Hugh, chief of the 
 illustrious tribe of the O'Byrnes, and the champion of the Catholic cause 
 in Leinster. Fiach left two sons, Felim and Raymond, who inherited 
 his bravery and zeal for country. Felim left the command to his 
 brother, and went to visit O'Neill in Ulster, to ask him for assistance. 
 The Prince of Tyrone expressed great friendship for the young noble- 
 man, and, having condoled with him on the death of his father, gave 
 him about three hundred and fifty men, under the command of Brian 
 Riach O'Morra, a nobleman of Leinster. On returning with this reen- 
 forcement, Felim fought some skirmishes with the Eni^lish, and look 
 possession of his father's patrimony, which had been seized upon by the 
 foreigners. After this expedition, Brian O'Morra marched with the 
 same troops towards Loughgarme, (Wexford,) pillaged all the English 
 he met with on his march, and cut a large body of them to pieces, 
 besides four hundred Irish auxiliaries. 
 
 The young chief of O^Morra gave battle to St. Leger, who, after an 
 obstinate resistance, was forced to retreat, leaving Jive hundred men dead 
 on the field. 
 
 Some step was now necessary to be taken, in order to restore the 
 English power in Ireland. The queen recalled Russel, the deputy, 
 and appointed Lord Burrough to succeed him. He first exercised his 
 power over General Norris, whom he sent back to his office of governor, 
 in Munster, forbidding him to leave it without his permission. Norris 
 was too proud to brook this insult ; he had been already disgraced by 
 O'Neill, who had deprived him of the high military reputation he had 
 acquired abroad, and at length died, loaded with ignominy. 
 
 Burrough was haughty ; he commanded for a long time, in Holland, 
 against Philip the Second, whereby he became expert in the art of war. 
 A truce was made by this deputy, for one month, with O'Donnel, 
 O'Neill, and other Irish chiefs, and terms of peace were offered to 
 them, but in vain. The month being expired, the English generaJ 
 marched to Ulster, at the head of a powerful army. Besides the troops 
 which served under Russel and Norris, a large reenforcement was sent 
 to him from England. 
 
 The Anglo-Irish of Meath were zealous to signalize themselves in the 
 
tirrell's pass. 667 
 
 cause of Elizabeth. They assembled at Mullingar, to the number of a 
 thousand men, under the command of Barnewall, Baron of Trimles- 
 town, and marched after the deputy. In their route, however, they met 
 with a signal defeat. 
 
 Richard Tirrell served at that lime in the army of O'Neill. His 
 talents peculiarly fitted him to command a flying camp. From the 
 rapidity of his expeditions, and capability of sustaining fatigue, he had 
 already become formidable to the English, and his memory is still 
 respected by the true Irish. 
 
 O'Neill saw, with calm reflection, the preparations that were in prog- 
 ress against him ; the march of the deputy was known to him ; ho 
 therefore prepared to oppose him, and to cause a diversion. Captain 
 Tirrell was despatched, at the head of four hundred infantry, with orders 
 to act in eidier Meath or Leinster, according to emergencies. Tirrell 
 marched through the whole of Meath without meeting an enemy, and, 
 having reached FertuUagh, he encamped in order to give his army some 
 repose. The iroojis which had been assembled at Mullingar, as has 
 been already observed, being apprized of Tirrell's march, determined to 
 take him by surprise. The baron, who commanded them, looked upon 
 this expedition as unworthy of himself, on account of the small number 
 of the enemy he had to fight, and, therefore, commissioned his son to 
 undertake it, thinking it a good opportunity for him to signalize himself. 
 At the dawn of day, Tirrell received information, through his spies, that 
 the enemy were in full march to surprise him. Without losing a 
 moment, he put himself in a state of defence, but made a feint of fly- 
 ing before them as they approached ; by which movement he gained a 
 defile covered with trees, which has been since called TirrelVs Pass. 
 He then detached half of his litde army, and posted them in a hollow 
 adjoining the road, giving the command to his lieutenant, O'Connor, a 
 brave and intrepid man, like himself. He then, in order to influence 
 his enemy to pursue him, marched on with his division. While the 
 English were passing the ambuscade, O'Connor sallied forth with his 
 troops, and caused the drums and fifes to play Captain Tirrell's 
 march. This was the signal agreed upon for an attack. The English 
 army, having got between two fires, were cut to pieces ; and so general 
 was the slaughter, that one or two only escaped, through a neighboring 
 bog, to carry the news to Mullingar, from whence the army had set out 
 three days before. Tirrell had sufficient generosity to spare the life of 
 the young nobleman who commanded his enemy, but brought him a 
 prisoner to O'Neill. During the action, O'Connor's hand became so 
 
668 BATTLE OF BENBURB. DEFEAT OF THE INVADERS. 
 
 swollen, that it became necessary to cut off the handle of his sword 
 with a file, before it could be disengaged. 
 
 Burrough, the deputy, having reached Ulster with all his forces, his 
 first step was to take possession of Armagh and Portmor, which O'Neill 
 had abandoned after destroying the fortifications. The English general, 
 being afraid to proceed farther, repaired to Portmor, where he left a 
 garrison of five hundred men, and drew off the remainder of his army. 
 He boasted highly of this act of prowess, proclaiming every where that 
 he held the key of Ulster, which he could enter at his pleasure. This 
 boast was truly characteristic of his countrymen, who considered the 
 most trifling advantage a complete victory. It was carefully circulated 
 in foreign countries, where it was reported that the Irish had lost all 
 their towns, and that they were obliged to escape into the woods and 
 inaccessible places. A similar falsehood had been already published at 
 Brussels, on the supposed reduction of O'Neill, the folly of which we 
 shall discover in the sequel. 
 
 The deputy was on his way to Dublin, when he learned that Tirrell 
 was besieging Portmor ; so he immediately returned, collected his forces, 
 and crossed the Blackwater, but was prevented from advancing by 
 O'Neill, who divided his army, and formed two camps, sufficiently near 
 to assist each other. The command of the first division he gave to his 
 brothers, Cormac and Art O'Neill, and M'Mahon, at Droum-Fluich, on 
 the road to Beaun-Bhoruib, at present Benburb, on the left bank of the 
 river. The prince himself commanded the second camp at Tobuir- 
 Masain, and was assisted by James M'Donnel, Prince of the Glynns. 
 The deputy endeavored, in spite of O'Neill's position, to force a pas- 
 sage ; but O'Neill's two divisions having united, they made a desperate 
 attack. In the onset, Burrough was mortally wounded, and was carried 
 to Newry, where he died in a few days. This battle was renewed 
 several times. The Earl of Kildare, on whom the command of the 
 English army devolved, after Burrough's retreat, suffered the same fate ; 
 having been wounded, and twice thrown from his horse, his two foster 
 brothers were killed in endeavoring to put him again on horseback : he 
 fled from the field of batde, and died of his wounds a few days after. 
 The carnage was dreadful ; numbers of the English lay dead upon the 
 field ; many were drowned in the river, and very many wounded. The 
 persons of note who fell upon the English side, besides the deputy and 
 the Earl of Kildare, Were Francis Waghan, the deputy's brother-in- 
 law, Thomas Walen, and Turner. 
 
 Clifford, governor of Connaught, received orders to march with his 
 
FURTHER EFFORTS OF THE INVADERS FOR A PEACE. 669 
 
 troops to the relief of the deputy in Ulster. He accordingly set out at 
 the head of seven hundred men, but, having the misfortune to meet 
 with O'Donnel, he was completely defeated. Clifford lost several men 
 of rank on this occasion, amongst whom was the Baron of Ineschete. 
 
 The queen saw her forces greatly diminished in Ireland by the fre^ 
 quent advantages gained over them by the confederates, and could not 
 find persons qualified to succeed Burrough and Norris. She, however, 
 nominated provisional magistrates and officers for the administration of 
 affairs. Sir Thomas Norris, president of Munster, was appointed lord 
 justice ; but his grief for the death of his brother caused him to resign 
 in a month. The government then received an account of the state 
 of affliirs from the council, who informed them that the war was a 
 general revolt of the Irish, with an intent to shake off the English 
 yoke. Thomas Duff Butler, Earl of Ormond, accepted the commis- 
 sion of lieutenant-general. Ambition being the guide of this noble- 
 man's acts, he was drawn into a faction that was opposed to his 
 country ; but he never enjoyed the reputation of being a great captain. 
 Among other instructions which the Earl of Ormond received from the 
 court of England, he was enjoined to endeavor to bring about a peace 
 with O'Neill ; for which purpose, a truce for two months was agreed 
 upon. Tliey met at Dundalk, and O'Neill proposed the terms ; the 
 first and principal one being the free exercise of the Catholic religion 
 throughout the kingdom. The other conditions proposed by this prince, 
 regarded the grievances of the Irish, and the reparation of the injustice 
 which was practised towards them. These overtures were submitted to 
 the English council, and acceded to in every thing, except the free 
 exercise of religion ; whereon the truce was broken off, and hostilities 
 resumed. 
 
 About the end of the summer, 1598, O'Neill collected all his troops, 
 and laid siege to the Fort of Blackwater, called also Portmor. At the 
 same time, he sent fifteen hundred chosen men to assist his ally, 
 O'Moore, of Leix, who was then besieging Maryborough, where there 
 was an English garrison. These movements produced a diversion, and 
 compelled the Earl of Ormond to divide his forces. He first despatched 
 three thousand men against O'Morra. Five thousand men were then 
 sent against O'Neill, of Ulster, commanded by Bagnal, tl}e marshal. 
 Brian Riach O'Morra defeated the three thousand English that were 
 sent against him ; fifteen hundred, besides the commander, being slain, 
 and Maryborough was taken. O'Morra died, in a few days after, from 
 his v/ounds, and the command devolved upon Owen O'Morra. 
 
670 o'neill surprised. 
 
 During these transactions in Leinster, Marshal Bagnal, having the 
 command of the army in Ulster, repaired to Newry, which was a gen- 
 eral place of meeting for the English. O'Neill was then encamped 
 with his army at MoUach-Ban, on the road to Armagh, and, wishing to 
 cut off all communication between that place and the enemy, he sent his 
 brother Cormac, with a body of five hundred men, to defend the passes. 
 Bagnal was considered an able creneral : he knew that O'Neill was 
 waiting to give him battle, on his march to Armagh, which city he 
 wished to relieve ; but he deceived the prince. He marched circuitously 
 from Newry to Armagh, and supplied the garrison with provisions, in 
 spite of the brave resistance of Cormac O'Neill, who maintained his 
 ground for some time, but was at length forced to yield to superior 
 numbers. Flushed at this trifling advantage, Bagnal determined to tak« 
 O'Neill's camp by surprise ; and, setting out by night, he put the enemy's 
 advance-guard to the sword. They then surromided O^NeiWs tent, 
 who had escaped in his shirt, luith some of his attendants ; but some 
 servants, that were left to guard it and the baggage, were killed. As 
 soon as day appeared, O'Neill collected the forces that were near him, 
 and, having forced the English to abandon their booty, he then put 
 them to flight. Both sides lost some men in this action. 
 
 The English were masters of some towns in Ulster, which were 
 favorable for their depredations, and afforded them a secure retreat ; the 
 principal of them were Newry, Dundrum, and Carrickfergus. Sir John 
 Chichester, the English governor, marched, about the same time, at the 
 head of five hundred infantry and a troop of horse, to plunder the 
 neighborhood. Coming up, at Alfracha, with James M'Donnel, Prince 
 of Antrim, who had with him about four hundred foot and sixty horse, 
 to oppose these robbers, they came to an engagement which was fatal 
 to the English. Their captain having fallen, they were cut to pieces, 
 so that scarcely one remained to bring the intelligence to Carrickfergus. 
 About the same time, the Baron of Triinlestovvn made some inroads on 
 Monaghan, with the Anglo-Irish of Meath, and a few English troops, 
 but was defeated by the M'Mahons. 
 
 The vanity and bad fliith of the English will not suffer them to 
 admit the victories the Irish armies gained over them. Their his- 
 torians either pass them over in silence, or obscure them, so that the 
 advantage may appear to be in favor of their countrymen. Invectives 
 are poured out against a generous people, who fought for their religion 
 and their freedom, and the epithets of traitor, rebel, and barbarian, aro 
 heaped upon the Irish for not calmly yielding to a hateful yoke. An 
 
BATTLE OF BEAI--AN-A-BUIDH. 671 
 
 Englishman must be well beaten before he will admit it. A brilliant 
 victory was gained, this year, over those foreigners, by O'Neill. The 
 truth of this is not questioned even by the English themselves, since 
 they acknowledge that it was the bloodiest defeat they met with since 
 their arrival in the island. 
 
 O'Neill endeavored to bring the English marshal to an engagement, 
 and, being joined by O'Donnel, Maguire, the general of the cavalry, 
 and other noblemen of the province, he laid siege to Portmor, having 
 in this a double object in view ; first, to reduce the place by famine, by 
 cutting off the supplies ; and, secondly, to compel the English to fight, 
 by forcing them to relieve it. The hopes of O'Neill were equalled by 
 his success. In the beginning of August, Bagnal marched with the 
 flower of his army to the relief of Portmor, and, when arrived within a 
 mile of Ardmagh, he met with O'Neill, at a place called Beal-an-a-buidk, 
 between two plains, bordered by a bog on one side, and on the other 
 by a thick wood. The battle commenced, and the slaughter was 
 terrible. Marshal Bagnal, with twenty-four of his principal officers, 
 and two thousand of his army, was killed upon the spot; and the 
 remainder of his forces put to flight. The loss of the English was 
 heightened by an accident that happened in the beginning of the 
 action, in the quarter where the reserve forces lay. The powder 
 magazine having taken fire, five hundred men, who were guarding 
 the baggage, were blown up. The spoils that were wrested from 
 them also were very considerable ; twelve thousand pieces of gold, 
 their warlike stores, thirty-four stand of colors, all their instruments 
 of war, all their artillery, and provisions of every kind, fell into the 
 hands of the Irish. The English who had the good fortune to escape, 
 took the road to Ardmagh. Several were slain in the pursuit, and 
 both horsemen, and about fifteen hundred foot soldiers, sought safety 
 in the churches of that city. This victory cost O'Neill about two 
 hundred men killed and six hundred wounded, and was followed by 
 the surrender of Portmor. (On this battle, one of the poets of the 
 " Nation " has written a good song, which will be found in the 
 " Spirit of the Nation.") 
 
 These brilliant campaigns of O'Neill, and of the other princes and 
 noblemen of Ulster, had opposite influences on the English and Irish 
 people ; the alarm of the former was great, while the joy of the latter 
 was universal. They looked upon O'Neill as the liberator of his 
 country. Many of the chiefs ranged under his command, and sought 
 his protection. 
 
672 DISMAY OF THE QUEEN. MUNSTER LEAGUE. 
 
 The queen's officers sent letters to her majesty, complaining of the 
 sad state of things in Ireland, and saying that, so far from being able to 
 maintain an offensive war in that country, they could not defend them- 
 selves against the enemy without speedy assistance, and more powerful 
 resources than any that had been previously sent. The queen was 
 averse to abandoning the cause of her English province in Ireland. 
 She attached heavy blame to the Earl of Ormond for not having gone 
 in person against O'Neill ; and commanded Bingham, who had been 
 lately removed from the government of Connaught for his cruelty, to 
 repair to Ireland, and succeed Bagnal in the office of marshal. Two 
 thousand foot, and a hundred horse, were, at the same time, despatched 
 thither, under the orders of Sir Samuel Bagnal. These troops landed at 
 Wexford, and were harassed in their march to Dublin by the Irish, 
 who killed a great number of them. Bingham arrived in Dublin with 
 great difficulty, where he soon after died. 
 
 The example of the men of Ulster roused the fallen courage of the 
 Irish in other provinces of Ireland, particularly in Munster, where the 
 bravery of the celebrated Earl of Desmond was still fresh among hJs 
 illustrious allies. This feeling it was necessary to encourage ; and to 
 effect that object. Sir Peter de Lacy, a powerful nobleman in the county 
 of Limerick, wrote to Owen or Owny M'Rory-Ogue O'Morra, who had 
 an army on foot, and invited him, in the name of the Irish Catholics 
 in Munster, to come to their relief. O'Morra, having consulted with 
 O'Neill, undertook the expedition. He committed tiie government of 
 Leix to his brother Edmond, and, at the head of eight hundred infantry 
 and some horsemen, set out on his march for Munster. Raymond Burke, 
 Baron of Leitrim, and his brother William, as also Dermod O'Connor 
 and his brothers Cairbre and Conn, with Richard Tirrell, of FertuUagh, 
 accompanied O'Morra in this expedition. He frightened the Earl of 
 Ormond, and passed triumphandy on through the country. 
 
 The success of O'Morra (O'Moore) produced an almost univers-xl 
 rising of the noblemen in Munster against the queen. 
 
 The chief men that formed a league against the queen were Fitz- 
 maurice, Baron of Lixnaw ; William Fitzgerald, Knight of Kerry and 
 Lord of Kafinnin ; Edmond Fitzgerald, Knight of the Glinn ; Sir 
 Edmond Fitzgerald, called the white livight, with many other branches 
 of that celebrated house ; Dermod and Donogh M'Carty, rival candi- 
 dates for the principality of Alia ; Daniel, son of M'Carty More ; 
 Patrick Condon ; O'Donohoe More, of Onachte ; O'Donoghoe, of the 
 Glinn ; Roche, Viscount Fermoy ; Richard Butler, Viscount of Mont- 
 
UfUNSTER LEAGUE. BATTLES. 673 
 
 garret, w ho bad married the daughter of O'Neill ; and Thomas Butler, 
 Bai-on of Cahir. The same disposition animated the several tribes of 
 the O'SuUivans, the O'Driscols, the O'Donnevans, and the O'Mahonys, 
 of Carbry, who signalized themselves in the common cause of their 
 country. The confederates appointed for their leader James, son of 
 Thomas Fitzgerald, surnamed the Red, and acknowledged him as Earl 
 of Desmond, and leader of the confederates in that province, where 
 the memory of the Earls of Desmond was still dear and respected. 
 
 Religion was not the sole cause of the above alliance. The tyranny 
 of the English governors, and the intolerable insolence of the adven- 
 turers who had been sent to occupy the estates of Desmond and other 
 noblemen, contributed greatly to the undertaking. These adventurers 
 became the first victims to the rage of the confederates. They were 
 driven from their ill-gained possessions, and their castles razed to the 
 ground. Finding themselves now unprotected by the governor, Norris, 
 who was scarcely able to defend himself, they fled to Waterford, and 
 embarked for their own country. 
 
 By this great stroke, the adventurers, who had lately come over from 
 England into Munster and Connaught, were completely driven back to 
 their native country. 
 
 Norris, who shut himself up in Cork, and remained inactive while 
 the war was blazing in the province, to the command of which he had 
 been appointed, felt heavily the shame of it ; and, in order to screen 
 his character, he formed the resolution of attacking the Irish. For 
 this purpose, all his forces, amounting to two thousand five hundred men, 
 were mustered by him in Cork ; and he marched upon Kilmallock. 
 Norris effected his object concerning the garrison of Kilmallock, but 
 was attacked, on his return, at Ard-Scieth, by the Earl of Desmond. 
 It was rather a disordered retreat than a battle. The above chiefs pur- 
 sued him the entire day for eight miles of his march. Many fell in the 
 several skirmishes ; but the heaviest loss was sustained by the fugitives, 
 who, being favored by the night, were at length fortunate enough to get 
 back into Kilmallock. 
 
 Norris undertook a second expedition, which had no better success 
 than the first ; he marched, with two thousand four hundred foot and 
 three hundred horse, against Lord Roche, Viscount Fermoy. At first, 
 the viscount abandoned Baile Androhid, a place not fortified, and with- 
 drew to Bailean Caislean, which was stronger. Norris at length sent 
 away some of his baggage by night, and took the route for Cork. 
 85 
 
674 CONFEDERACY OF LEINSTER OF CONNAUGHT. 
 
 He was pursued by the Irish, who killed two hundred of his men at 
 Mainister-na-Mona. 
 
 Some months after the expedition of Norris, Thomas Burke sought 
 to be admitted into the confederate army. For this purpose, he applied 
 to Raymond Burke, Baron of Leitrim, and to his brother William ; and 
 they appointed him to the command of two hundred men. With this 
 little band, Thomas wished to surprise some places belonging to the 
 English in Muskerry. He met with General Norris at Killtili, at the 
 head of twelve hundred men. To avoid fighting was impossible ; and, 
 notwithstanding the disproportion of their numbers, he acted intrepidly, 
 and by one bold stroke decided the affair. A young man, named John 
 Burke, having forced his way into the ranks, struck Norris with his 
 lance, and disabled him ; and the English army, seeing their leader fall, 
 dispersed. The English general was brought to Mallow, where he 
 died, in fifteen days, of his wounds. 
 
 A. D. 1599. O'Neill beheld with pleasure the league that was formed 
 in Munster, and the advantages already gained over the English. 
 This prince, desirous of strengthening the alliance which he had made 
 with his confederates, granted their demands for assistance, by sending 
 them his brother Conn O'Neill, at the head of three thousand men, 
 well provided with arms and ammunition. The English lay in ambush 
 to dispute his passage, but Conn escaped their snares, by opening his 
 way, sword in hand, through the enemy. After leaving two thousand 
 of them dead upon the field of battle, he continued his march to Mun- 
 ster, where he acquired a high reputation for his military exploits. 
 
 The state of affairs at this time in Ireland, says Camden, was de- 
 plorable, the rebellion having become general through the kingdom. 
 The sway of the English in Ulster was confined to a few strong for- 
 tresses. The greater part of the nobility in Munster were up in arms 
 against them. The O'Morras, the O'Connors, the O'Byrnes, the 
 O'Tooles, the Cavanaghs, the Eustaces, and other chiefs of Leinster, 
 with the O'Molloys, the M'Geoghegans, and the Tirrells, of Meath, 
 were leagued to accomplish their freedom. The O'Rorkes, and some 
 branches of the Burkes, besides some other chiefs in Connaught, took 
 up arms for the same cause, so that Elizabeth saw herself, by this gen- 
 eral revolt, on the eve of losing all her authority in Ireland. She had 
 no person in that country capable of governing it. INIarshal Bagnal 
 was killed ; Richard Bingham, who had been sent by the court to 
 succeed that general, died on his arrival in Dublin ; Norris, who 
 governed Munster, and St. Leger, the president of Leix, perished by 
 
GREAT ARJIY OF INVADERS LAND. THE EARL OF ESSEX. 675 
 
 the sword of the Catholics. The Earl of Ormond commanded the 
 army : his name, however, only, and not his capability, was suited to 
 his zeal in the cause of his mistress. In this position of her affairs, the 
 queen consulted with her council on the choice of a man capable of 
 remedying the disasters that she suffered in Ireland. Her majesty, and 
 most of her counsellors, cast their eyes on Charles Blunt, Lord Baron 
 Mountjoy. But Robert d'Evereux, Earl of Essex, whose ambition 
 knew no bounds, was at length appointed lord lieutenant, and with priv- 
 ileges more extensive than those of any of his predecessors. Her majesty 
 invested him with the prerogative of pardoning any crime, even that of 
 high treason ; besides the power of appointing to offices of trust ; of 
 removing those who enjoyed them without a patent ; of suspending 
 others from exercising them ; also of making military laws and carrying 
 them into execution ; of conferring in fief, according to his pleasure, the 
 confiscated estates of the Catholics, reserving a moderate and yearly 
 revenue from them for the crown ; and, in absence of the high admiral 
 of England, he had the command of the fleet, and the privilege of 
 applying the money in the exchequer to any purposes, without being 
 accountable for it. A powerful and well-provided army was given to 
 him ; it consisted of seventeen thousand foot and thirteen hundred 
 horse, — the most powerful force that had, up to that period, ever 
 been sent to Ireland. 
 
 All matters being arranged, the Earl of Essex, accompanied by three 
 young noblemen, who wished to be partakers of his glory in the expe- 
 dition, set out from London for Ireland, at the end of March, amidst the 
 acclamations of the people. The fleet having sailed, they were over- 
 taken and dispersed by a violent storm, by which many lives were lost. 
 Notwithstanding this misfortune, he landed, on the 15th of April, in 
 Dublin, where he took the usual oath, and received the sword of justice 
 as lord lieutenant. 
 
 The principal instructions given to Essex were, first, not to confer the 
 honor of knighthood on any but subjects of acknowledged merit ; 
 secondly, to block up O'Neill with all his forces, by placing strong gar- 
 risons in the forts of Loughfoyle and Ballyshannon. He had scarcely 
 landed in Ireland, when his creatures began to publish in foreign coun- 
 tries false accounts of his wonderful exploits ; atone time, that his arrival 
 had filled the confederate Catholics with terror, causing them to conceal 
 themselves in woods, and other inaccessible places ; at another, that 
 almost every one of them was accepting the offers of pardon held out 
 by him. The falsehood of these vain boastings was, however, proved 
 by the ill success of his expedition. 
 
676 THE PASS OF THE PLUMES. 
 
 The first act of the jurisdiction of Essex in Ireland was to publish a 
 proclamation in the queen's name, excluding the ancient Irish, her 
 majesty's inveterate enemies, from all hopes of pardon. The Anglo- 
 Irish were promised pardon and religious toleration. The holy sacrifice 
 of the mass was celebrated ki private families, and the other sacraments 
 administered with more freedom ; his policy even induced him to set at 
 liberty some priests who had been confined in dungeons, and to confer 
 the grade 6f knights of the golden spur on some Catholics, with 
 whose opinions he was acquainted. 
 
 After making some regulations respecting the civil administration, 
 Essex turned his thoughts to the campaign, but did not follow the 
 plan that was laid down for him in London. Instead of marching with 
 all his forces against O'Neill and the confederates in Ulster, according to 
 his instructions, he divided them by giving three thousand foot and five 
 hundred horse to Henry Harrington, to watch the movements of 
 the O'Morras, the O'Byrnes, and other confederates of Leinster, and 
 sent three thousand more to Clifford, governor of Connaught, to keep 
 the nobles of that province in check. These detachments reduced 
 considerably his combined forces. Accompanied by three hundred 
 gentlemen, who volunteered in London to accompany him, he set out 
 from Dubhn, on the 20th of May, with the remainder of his army, and 
 marched towards Munster. In passing tlirough Leinster, the rear- 
 guard of the English was severely handled in a defile, by Owen 
 O'Morra, at the head of five hundred men, who killed several officers 
 and privates. The place where they fought was called, after this, 
 Beania-na-Gleti, which signifies the Pass of the Plumes, on account 
 of the quantity of them which the English lost in it. 
 
 This check did not prevent Essex from continuing his march into 
 Munster. He laid siege to the castle of Cahir^ situate on the River 
 Suire. The confederate Irish had in it but a garrison of seven or 
 eight soldiers, without artillery, so that they were unable to maintain a 
 siege against the army of Essex. 
 
 Essex had the castle of Cahir repaired, and, leaving a strong garrison 
 in it, with cannon and ammunition, he marched to the relief of Askea- 
 ton. His army received a considerable reenforcement by the junction 
 of some national troops, under the Earls of Thomond and Clanrickard, 
 M'Pieris Baron, and Henry Norris. On his way back from Askeaton, he 
 was pursued by Daniel M'Carty More and the Earl of Desmond, at the 
 head of two tliousand five hundred men. These chiefs having attacked 
 his rear-guard, at a place called Bnilc-en-Finitcre, the action was very 
 bloody : it lasted from nine in the morning till five in the afternoon. A 
 
TOTAL DEFEAT OF ESSEX. 677 
 
 great number of the English were killed, and Henry Norris, one of their 
 leadei-s, was found among the slain. The loss on the side of the Irish 
 was not so great. After this battle, Essex encamped for a few days at 
 Cruomui, to refresh his troops ; he then marched to Waterford, and was 
 pursued and harassed during six days by the Irish army. 
 
 General Harrington, in the mean time, received a heavy check in the 
 principality of Leix. This general, who was appointed to restore 
 peace to that district, having suiTounded the troops of O'Morra, flat- 
 tered himself that he would be able to reduce them with little loss 
 to himself; but the bravery of the Irish snatched the victory from 
 him. He lost in this engagement twelve hundred men, with all their 
 officers, and, among the rest, Adam Loftus, son of the Protestant arch- 
 bishop of Dublin, who was found among the slain. The remainder of 
 the anny was put to flight. 
 
 Ware, Cox, and others, mistake the circumstances of this victory, or 
 confound them with a similar one gained over Harrington by the 
 O'Byrnes, in the glens of the county of Wicklow ; after which, the 
 viceroy, to punish the want of courage among the English, had them 
 decimated. They, however, are all agreed that the English were 
 defeated by the Irish. Christopher Blanche was sent over at this time 
 to Ireland as lord marshal. Wishing to distinguish himself by some 
 brilliant achievement, he marched to OfFaly, where his army was de- 
 feated by the O'Connors, with the loss of five hundred horse, and he 
 himself escaped with difficulty, having had a leg broken in the action. 
 In the mean time, the Earl of Essex confined himself to the city of 
 Cork. He was deeply affected by the ill success of his arms, which is 
 ingenuously acknowledged in his letter to the English council ; it was 
 intercepted by the Irish, and contains the following words : " I am con- 
 fined ill Cork, where there is an abundance of warlike stores ; but still 
 I have been unsuccessful ; my undertakings have been attended with 
 misfortune. I do not know to what this can be attributed, except to an 
 evil star that has led me here." Finding the forces diminished, he left 
 Munster, without performing one deed worthy of his reputation. To- 
 wards the end of July, he returned with the wrecks of his army to 
 Dublin, where he learned that James Butler, brother to the baron, had 
 retaken the castle of Cahir, and put the English garrison to the sword. 
 
 Essex now turned his thoughts to Ulster ; but, as his march to 
 Munster had greatly diminished his numbers, he wrote to the queen, in 
 conjunction with the council, to ask for fresh reenforcements. At the 
 same time, he sent for Clifford, governor of Connaught, to march with 
 
678 BATTLE OF CORSLIEVE. 
 
 the troops under him towards the frontiers of Ulster, in order to create 
 a diversion. In compliance, Clifford assembled his army at Athlone, 
 on the Shannon ; their destination being Belick, on the River Erne. 
 Clifford sent orders to Theobald Burke, surnamed the Naval, to have 
 cannon, and every thing necessary for the execution of his plans, brought 
 by sea from Galway to Sligo, while he would lead the army by land. 
 In the mean time, O'Connor Sligo, who supported the queen's cause 
 against his country, scoured the county of Sligo with a body of cavalry, 
 to force the inhabitants to abandon O'Donnel, whose cause they had 
 espoused from a spirit of patriotism and religion, and to favor the 
 designs of Clifford ; but, meeting with some of O'Donnel's army, they 
 were compelled to take refuge in Killmuiny, at a short distance 
 from Sligo, where they were besieged by O'Donnel. 
 
 Clifford, being aware of the danger in which O'Connor was of falling 
 into the power of the enemy, reviewed all his troops. His army 
 amounted to two thousand five hundred infantry, both English and their 
 Irish auxiliaries, and a few squadrons of cavalry. The principal chiefs 
 of the auxiliary Irish, were O'Connor Don, Prince of Magherry Con- 
 naught, Melmor M'Sweeney, Prince of Tueth, (who, through some 
 displeasure, had abandoned O'Donnel, and gone over to the English,) 
 and Richard Burke, son of the Earl of Clanrickard and Baron of 
 Dunkillin. Matters being thus arranged, Clifford set out from Athlone, 
 by forced marches for Boyle. O'Donnel purposed to oppose the 
 enemy. He put a strong garrison of four hundred infantry under the 
 command of M'Sweeney Fanid and M'William Burke, into Sligo, and 
 left two hundred cavalry to hold on the blockade of Killmuiny ; after 
 which, he marched with O'Dogharty, Prince of Inisowen, and the 
 remainder of the army, to Corslieve Mountain, where Clifford had to 
 pass into the county of Sligo. Tirconnel possessed himself of the 
 defiles of this mountain, and had trees cut down to obstruct Clifford's 
 passage ; he then encamped with his army in an adjoining plain. 
 
 In the mean time, Theobald Burke appeared with his little fleet 
 before Sligo, but dared not to enter. He thought prudent to await 
 the arrival of Clifford's army. This governor being arrived at Boyle, 
 he left his cavalry under the command of Sir Markham Griffin, since, in 
 passing the defiles of Corslieve, they could not act. On the eve of 
 Lady-day, O'Donnel was apprized of the movement of the English 
 army. O'Donnel then sent Owen M'Sweeney, with Giolla and TuUi 
 O'Gallagher, at the head of six hundred infantry, to stop the enemy, 
 while he himself was preparing to attack them, in order of battle. The 
 
DEFEAT OF THE INVADERS. 679 
 
 engagement commenced at eleven o'clock in the morning, and continued 
 for some time with equal success, till O'Rorke appeared at the head of 
 a body of infantry, and turned the scale of victory. The terror of the 
 English was so great, that they threw their arms on the ground and 
 fled. The rout now became general ; the Irish troops pursued the 
 fugitives for three miles ; Markham, who continued at Boyle with the 
 cavalry, came out to the relief of the English : he attacked and killed 
 some of those who were engaged in the pursuit ; but O'Rorke, coming 
 up, drove him back, and, though badly wounded, he got into Boyle. 
 The English lost in this battle fourteen hundred men in killed, with 
 Clifford, the governor of Connaught, and Henry RatcliiFe, a young 
 English nobleman, who were found among the slain. One hundred 
 and forty of the Irish army were killed and wounded. After this 
 defeat of the English, a great booty was found ; and the conquerors 
 became masters of a vast quantity of arms, colors, cannon, dress, and 
 other warlike apparatus. 
 
 O'Neill, who was on his march to the assistance of O'Donnel, 
 arrived too late, by two days, to share in the glory of this victory. The 
 news of the defeat of the English, and the death of Clifford, being 
 spread, Burke the Naval set sail immediately from Sligo to return to 
 Galway. O'Connor surrendered to O'Donnel, who put him into the 
 possession of his demesne at Sligo, on his promising to assist thereafter 
 against the English. English writers acknowledge that their country- 
 men were defeated in the Curlew Mountains, by the Irish, whom 
 they style rebels, commanded by O'Rorke. They have candor enough 
 also to allow that Clifford, Ratcliffe, and others, were killed in this 
 action, but they strive to smooth the disaster, by giving mutilated 
 accounts of it. " Though the rebels," says Camden, " were superior 
 in numbers, still they were repulsed by the English ; but for the want 
 of powder, the English were put to the rout." 
 
 The Earl of Essex was greatly disconcerted by the defeat of 
 Clifford's army. He waited with anxiety for the arrival of a reenforce- 
 ment from England ; a thousand foot soldiers at length arrived in 
 Dublin, in September, and all the forces then marched for the frontiers 
 of Ulster. As soon as O'Neill heard of the movement of the viceroy, 
 he put his own army in motion, and proceeded to the town of Louth, 
 where he encamped on the banks of a small river which separated the 
 two armies. The English, says Peter Lombard, seeing the Irish 
 so well prepared and eager to engage, were so panic-struck, (according 
 
680 ESSEX SEEKS A CONFERENCE WITH o'nEILL. 
 
 to the words of some who were present,) that they were covered with 
 shame, and afraid to hold up their heads. 
 
 The viceroy immediateiy despatched a herald to O'Neill, to declare 
 to him, that he had not come as an enemy into his province ; oh the 
 contrary, that he came to offer him terms of peace, or at least a truce, 
 and that he would send commissioners for that purpose, if he would 
 accede to his doing so. The Prince of Tyrone having agreed to the 
 proposal, two knights and a counsellor of state were despatched for that 
 purpose by the Earl of Essex. These commissioners being admitted 
 to an audience with O'Neill, they explained to him the purport of their 
 mission. The prince replied, that he would not agree to the terms. 
 
 This reply being communicated to the viceroy, the earl despatched a 
 second herald to the prince, and proposed to meet him at a short dis- 
 tance from their respective armies. The prince accepted the proposal 
 of meeting him, but not apart from his army. Essex, who was eager 
 for an interview on any terms, gave up his stipulation ; he sent away 
 the greater part of his army to Drogheda, and proceeded towards the 
 camp of O'Neill, accompanied by a few nobles and a small number of 
 horsemen. The two chiefs, having met, went down the river, where 
 they might confer together. The conference lasted for some hours ; the 
 viceroy looked for a truce till the month of May. O'Neill answered, 
 that his honor, which was pledged not only to foreign princes, but to 
 the grandees of his own nation, would not allow him to accede to it. 
 Essex reminded O'Neill of the ancient friendship that subsisted between 
 the earl, his father, and him, and, consequently, that he ought to feel 
 some sympathy towards the humbled position of his son. The heart 
 of O'Neill could not resist any longer the repeated solicitations of 
 Essex, and the prince consented to a truce of six weeks, on condition 
 that each should be at liberty to break off by giving a notice of fourteen 
 days. The truce being thus settled on, the two noblemen passed a few 
 hours in social enjoyment. 
 
 Essex, pleased with his negotiations with O'Neill, took leave of that 
 prince, and returned to Dublin, where he received a letter from the 
 queen, dated the 14th of September. Her majesty reproached him and 
 the council with maladministration, and a contempt for her commands. 
 This reproach was mortifying to Essex ; he was recalled and disgraced. 
 The history of the tragic end of that nobleman is sufficiently known ; 
 it will suffice to observe, that, though one of Elizabeth's chief favorites, 
 he was beheaded soon afterwards. 
 
o'nEILL marches through IRELAND. 681 
 
 After Essex had left Ulster, a Spanish captain arrived in that province 
 with two ships laden with warlike stores, which his Catholic majesty 
 had sent to O'Neill. He received the officer, and asked why the king 
 had omitted so long to send the succors which he had promised, and 
 why he did not send all at the same time. The officer answered, that 
 his majesty intended it, but that the report of peace having been made 
 between O'Neill and Queen Elizabeth, was the cause ; and added, that 
 the king of Spain sent him for the express purpose (with these two 
 ships) of bringing him an account of how affairs stood in Ireland. This 
 reply did not satisfy O'Neill ; however, lie concealed his disappointment 
 with his accustomed prudence. 
 
 Philip the Second, king of Spain, having died, Philip the Third 
 succeeded ; and, interested in following the plans of his brother, in 
 regard to the war in Ireland, he sent over two legates, with a 
 crown of phoenix feathers to the Prince of Ulster, with twenty-two 
 thousand pieces of gold, and several kegs of silver for payment of the 
 troops. 
 
 Encouraged even by this moderate assistance, and hoping for greater 
 from the Spaniards, O'Neill resumed hostilities, after a notice of fourteen 
 days, in pursuance of the truce made with Essex. A. D. 1600. Having 
 provided for the security of the principality of Tyrone, ho marched 
 through the whole of Leinster, at the head of seven thousand men, 
 towards Cork, where he encamped, and consulted with the Earl of 
 Desmond, Florence M'Carty Reagh, and other chiefs of the province, 
 about the means of supporting the war. He sent deputies to those 
 whose sincerity he doubted, to solicit them to join in the confederacy 
 against " the enemies of God, their religion, and their country." As a 
 stronger inducement, he sent them an authentic copy of the sentence 
 of excommunication which Pius the Fifth had pronounced against the 
 queen of England and her adherents. Several were brought over by 
 the reasoning of O'Neill, particularly Finian M'Carty. Others, in- 
 fluenced by a different policy, though strongly attached to the Catholic 
 faith, replied, that a subject of such moment ought to be suspended for 
 a while, as the opinion of the see of Rome was not well known. 
 
 Prince O'Neill, who deemed their policy injurious, expressed his dis- 
 pleasure at the replies of these noblemen. Some of them he treated 
 with severity, and devastated their lands, in order to deprive the enemy 
 of subsistence ; others he compelled to give hostages for their future 
 conduct. 
 
 During O'Neill's stay in Munster, the queen's troops kept within 
 86 
 
682 THE GALLANT o'mORRA. 
 
 garrisons and strong places, not daring to take the field, so that the 
 time passed over without hostilities, except an affair between Hugh Ma- 
 guire, prince of Fermanagh, who commanded O'Neill's cavalry, and 
 St. Leger, president of Munster, in which both noblemen fell. Maguire, 
 attended only by Edmond M'Caffry, his standard-bearer, Niall O'Dur- 
 nin, and a priest, left the camp one day, either to take an airing or to 
 reconnoitre the country. Having advanced too far, he met with St. 
 Leger, at the head of sixty cavalry ; notwithstanding this difference in 
 numbers, Maguire, putting spurs to his horse, forced his way through 
 the enemy to their commander, who shot him through the body. 
 Though Maguire's wound was mortal, he determined to be revenged ; 
 struck St. Leger such a blow with his lance that he cleft his head 
 through the helmet, and then opened a passage for himself, sword in 
 hand. Both generals died of their wounds a few days after, greatly 
 regretted by their respective corps. 
 
 The Prince O'Neill, before he left Munster, took the necessary 
 measures for the defence of the province and the security of the con- 
 federates. He placed some veteran troops among them, and, returning 
 through Leinster, he left a reenforcement with O'Morra of Leix. Before 
 this, he passed in view of Ormond, who commanded the English army, 
 but without bringing them to a battle. He arrived safe in Ulster, having 
 honorably fulfilled the designs he had in view. 
 
 Charies Blunt, Baron of Mountjoy, was appointed viceroy, and Sir 
 George Carew was named president of Munster, by the queen. These 
 two noblemen repaired to Dublin, about the end of February, and soon 
 proceeded to Kilkenny, where they visited the Eari of Ormond. 
 Ormond had promised to meet Owen, son of Rory O'Morra, on the 
 borders of Idough, and the president promised to accompany him with 
 his attendants. All arrived, according to appointment, at the place of 
 meeting. The troops of both parties were at a distance, when the con- 
 ference began between Ormond and O'Morra, which lasted for an hour 
 without any thing being concluded. O'Morra had a Jesuit with him 
 named Archer, who was zealously opposed to the reformation, with 
 whom Ormond began a controversy on the scoie of religion, in the 
 course of which he called the Jesuit a traitor ; saying that, under a sem- 
 blance of religion, he was seducing her majesty's subjects from their 
 allegiance ; after which he proceeded to abuse the pope and church of 
 Rome. O'Morra, no longer able to bear with language so indecent, 
 and so foreign to the subject before them, seized the eari, dragged him 
 from his horse, and made him prisoner. The president and Thomond, 
 
NEGOTIATIONS. 683 
 
 with his other friends who were at hand, being alarmed, ran to his 
 assistance and commenced fighting. Some of the English were killed, 
 several wounded, and more made prisoners ; while the president and 
 Thomond took to flight, and owed their safety only to the swiftness of 
 their hoi-ses. Thomond was wounded in the back with a pike, as he 
 complained in a letter to the council of England, wherein the circum- 
 stances of his misfortune in this affray are described. As soon as the 
 two noblemen had got out of danger, they talked of revenge ; their 
 drums and trumpets were ordered to rally the troops and renew the 
 fight ; but the terror of the English was so great, that none but Captains 
 Harvey, Browne, Comerford, and some servants, had the courage to 
 move forward ; and, consequently, they had no alternative but to sub- 
 mit to their misfortune. They then returned to Kilkenny, where they 
 found the Countess of Ormond inconsolable for her husband's capture. 
 
 The deputy was in Dublin when he heard of this unhappy occur- 
 rence, and likewise that the sons of Montgarret and several other 
 noblemen of the Butlers were up in arms. 
 
 The O'Connors Faly, too, laid siege, at this time, to the castle of 
 Crouchan, which was situated in the principality of OfFaly. Thomas 
 Moor, a knight of the golden spur, and GifFard, both Englishmen, com- 
 manded the garrison. The besiegers, having no artillery, scaled the 
 walls with a hundred foot soldiers, and, having entered, put the garrison, 
 which consisted of Englishmen, to the sword, and became masters of 
 the fortress. 
 
 The Irish of Ulster were still in possession of that province, with the 
 exception of a few forts, which the English kept and garrisoned. The 
 deputy was commanded to reduce this province ; but a want of energy 
 in his operations excited the suspicions of the court. It was, therefore, 
 deliberated in council whether he should be recalled, and another 
 deputy appointed, or whether supplies should be sent to continue the 
 war against O'Neill and his allies more vigorously, if he should refuse 
 to make peace. The latter plan was adopted, and a fresh reenforce- 
 ment of troops was ordered to Ireland. In consequence of this, the 
 deputy wrote to O'Neill, in April, proposing terms of peace, in the 
 name of the queen and council, which, so far as related to religion, and 
 the reparation of the injuries that the Irish Catholics had sustained, ap- 
 peared reasonable. The Prince of Ulster, however, knew too well the 
 disposition of the English, to place any confidence in their promises ; he 
 knew that nothing but the inability of acting otherwise would influence 
 them to keep faith with him ; and, besides, he expected daily the 
 
684 RENEWAL OF HOSTILITIES. 
 
 assistance that had been promised to him by the King of Spain, so that 
 he rejected the overtures of the deputy. 
 
 Mountjoy feh the necessity of removing the suspicions which were 
 e>Btertained against him by the court ; and, finding the Prince of Ulster 
 deaf to the proposals he had made, he saw that his only resource to 
 redeem his honor lay in force. He, therefore, collected his troops, to 
 attack him by sea and land ; and in the month of March, a fleet of 
 sixty-seven ships, under Sir Henry Dockwra, was ordered to take pos- 
 session of a lake in the north of Ireland, called LoiighfoyJe, to cause, 
 in that quarter, a diversion favorable to the expedition of his forces by 
 land. Five thousand infantry and three hundred horse were on board 
 this fleet, well provided with ammunition and warlike stores. The 
 English commander, also, had constructed, on the borders of Lough- 
 foyle, four forts, from whence he made frequent incursions on the lands 
 of O'Dogharty, and other noblemen. 
 
 O'Neill, when informed of the movements of the English, assembled 
 a council of the chief men of the province, to adopt measures against 
 the enemy. It was determined, that Prince O'Donnel should oppose 
 the attempts of the garrisons on Loughfoyle, while O'Neill himself 
 would march against the deputy. A detachment of the Irish army 
 having met a party of the English, who were guarding their baggage, 
 attacked and killed a great number of them, and became masters of 
 considerable booty. Tiie deputy, alarmed at this event, returned im- 
 mediately to Dublin, where he remained for some time. 
 
 The Earl of Ormond was still a prisoner with O'Morra. His 
 countess applied with eagerness for his liberation ; for which purpose, 
 she addressed letters to the queen, and to the Prince of Ulster: she 
 reminded the latter of the friendship that subsisted between him and the 
 earl, and begged that, in consideration of the services he had rendered 
 him, he would procure him his freedom. O'Neill paid regard to the 
 entreaties of the countess, and procured her husband's liberty, on con- 
 dition that he would no longer act against his religion or his country, 
 and that he should give hostages for his fidelity. 
 
 Mountjoy, who remained in Dublin since his last expedition to 
 Ulster, proceeded to Kilkenny, to visit the Earl of Ormond after his 
 liberation. He then marched at the head of some troops into Leix, and 
 brought laborers with him to cut down the corn before it was ripe, in 
 order to deprive the inhabitants of subsistence for the next winter, and 
 thereby prolong the war. The inhabitants of Leix ran to arms, and at- 
 tacked both the reapers and the troops who were guarding them ; the 
 
CRAFT AND CRUELTY OF MOUNTJOY. 685 
 
 lord deputy was dismounted, and his horse killed under him, so that he 
 saved himself with difficulty, on foot, through a neighboring bog. The 
 advantages to the Irish from this victory were not equal to the 
 heavy loss that they sustained by the death of Owen O'Morra, killed 
 in the action, who was the soul of the confederacy of Leinster. 
 
 O'Donnel, who was appointed to watch the motions of the garrisons 
 on Loughfoyle, pursued several detachments from those places, and 
 killed a great many of them. The forts were also surrounded .by 
 O'Neill's army. In the month of August, this prince surprised fifteen 
 hundred of their men, who were foraging, and put the whole of them 
 to the sword ; but the English being masters by sea, and the Irish 
 having no fleet to oppose them, their losses were quickly repaired by 
 fresh arrivals of men and arms from England. 
 
 The successes of the English in Munster were more rapid, in 
 consequence of the divisions that prevailed in that province. A king- 
 dom divided must fall. Some of their chiefs had already embraced 
 the reformed religion through interest and an ambition to please 
 Elizabeth ; the rest continued attached to the Roman church. Among 
 the latter, however, were some political temporizers, who would run no 
 risk, and whose principle was to accommodate themselves to the times. 
 The English government omitted nothing to excite disunion ; they strove 
 to reduce the Irish to the most abject wretchedness, hy destroying their 
 jlocks, and the crops necessary for their support ; and also by drawing 
 out of Ireland all its gold and silver, and sending from England, in lieu 
 of it, a new copper coin, which would not pass in any other country, 
 and which soon lost its value there. 
 
 While Carew was employed in holding a council in Cork, to de- 
 liberate on the affairs of the province, several skirmishes took place 
 between the Irish and the court party. Meeting with difficulties 
 in the conquest of Munster, he had to resort to stratagem to supply the 
 want of force. In order to gain over to him some of the confederates, 
 and thus diminish the number of his enemies, he prepared an expe- 
 dition against Limerick, threatening to give up to his soldiers the prop- 
 erty of the Catholics on his march. This he effected by great cunning, 
 energy, and stratagem, burning and destroying every thing in his way 
 from Cork to Limerick. 
 
 The gold of the English was now showered in bribes on all those 
 who were rotten and base enough to give up their trusts. Under its 
 influence some important places were basely surrendered. One of the 
 O'Neill's, and another of the O'Donnel's, surrendered two important 
 
686 SIGNAL DEFEAT OF THE INVADERS. 
 
 posts, which, as naturally may be supposed, produced great dismay 
 among the Irish. Still the redoubled energy of the O'Donnd and 
 the O'Neill subdued even rebels, and overawed the invaders. 
 
 Mountjoy marched, in July, at the head of his forces, towards the 
 ffontiers of Ulster ; but this expedition was equally unsuccessful as the 
 former. He advanced towards Armagh and Portmor, the garrisons of 
 which he relieved, but was deterred from proceeding farther, as he 
 dreaded O'Neill, who was strongly intrenched, which caused him to 
 return to Dublin. 
 
 The deputy set out again from Dublin, in the month of August. 
 He marched first to Naas, in order to join Oliver Lambert, who com- 
 manded a body of troops at Philipstown, in OfFally. The two com- 
 manders, having united their forces, carried fire and sword every where 
 as they passed, so that every step in their march was marked with 
 cruelty, tyranny, and a devastation of the provisions of the people. 
 
 Wishing to create a diversion in favor of his friends at Loughfoyle, 
 Mountjoy marched, in October, for Ulster, at the head of six thousand 
 fighting men. He did not proceed far into the province, when he met 
 with the O'Neill. The two armies continued in sight of each other for 
 fifteen days without attempting any thing, after which two battles were 
 fought — one near Dundalk, and the other in the neighborhood of Car- 
 lingford. These proved fatal to the English ; they lost upwards of 
 four thousand men ; the deputy was dangerously ivounded, and carried 
 to Newry to be cured. It was now that the English government set a 
 price upon the head of O'Neill. A proclamation was issued, offering a 
 reward of two thousand pounds sterling to any one who would deliver 
 him up alive, or one thousand pounds for his head. 
 
 Carew, the president, who was still in Limerick, marched with his 
 troops, in the month of June, into the district of Connillo, where he 
 made himself master, after several unimportant skirmishes, of many 
 important fortresses, burning and destroying the growing grain, or burn- 
 ing that which had been newly harvested, insomuch that in a few 
 weeks there was very little food left, and thousands upon thousands 
 perished by famine. 
 
 The invaders, by these means, procured the ignoble submission of 
 many of the most influential chiefs of the south. The Earl of Des- 
 mond, however, who was the soul of the southern Irish, harassed the 
 invaders in many a well-fought skirmish. His army was now reduced 
 to six hundred infantry and a few cavalry, so that he could not openly 
 attack the invaders, who were five times his number. Endeavoring to 
 
REVERSES OF THE IRISH. 687 
 
 enter the wood of Arlogh, he lost two hundred of these in a well-fought 
 action ; but he finally entered. From this spot, he retreated towards 
 the north. Many places now surrendered, which had held out for 
 years against the invaders, and the south again came fully under their 
 dominion. 
 
 The deputy Mountjoy marched, in the month of December, into the 
 county of Wicklow, to chastise the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles, who made 
 frequent attacks upon the lands near Dublin. Having attempted, in 
 vain, to get Felim, son of Fiach, into his power, he carried away with 
 him, as prisoners, his wife and eldest son ; after which, he laid the 
 whole country waste, burning the houses and their haggards as he 
 passed along. He put garrisons into TuUow and Wicklow; then 
 marched to Monastereven, and afterwards visited Trim, Mullingar, 
 Athlone, and Drogheda ; from which place he set out for Dublin, on 
 the 26th of April, after distributing the troops among the different 
 garrisons. 
 
 Gold and titles, in the greatest profusion, were now bestowed by the 
 queen on the deserters from the Catholic to the Protestant faith, while 
 those who refused to conform were deprived of their lands, liberties, 
 titles, and life. 
 
 The forces of the Irish were continually diminished by their frequent 
 battles, and by their having no succors sent them from abroad, while 
 those of the English were receiving constant reenforcements from their 
 own country. 
 
 The Irish had, to the close of this campaign, made the most noble 
 exertions in defence of their religion and country. They had to con- 
 tend, not only against the English, but also against domestic enemies, 
 without any hope of assistance, so that the country was devastated and 
 exhausted of men and provisions, particularly Munster, which had been 
 for a long time the theatre of the war. Most of the noblemen in that 
 province were obliged to submit to their enemies. Florence M'Carty, 
 seeing the necessity of yielding to the times, followed the example of 
 the rest. Their submission, however, was but a sort of truce, while 
 waiting for the arrival of the Spaniards. 
 
 Anno 1601. Don Martin Lerda was sent to Ireland by the king of 
 Spain, in the beginning of this year. He brought two vessels laden with 
 arms, ammunition, and money. This small succor, which seemed to give 
 omen of greater, was sent to O'Neill ; and his Catholic majesty sent 
 word to this prince, that he would immediately furnish him with troops, 
 and every thing necessary to carry on the war. The vessels being 
 
688 SPANISH AU>. 
 
 arrived in the Bay of Kilibegs, near Donegal, O'Neill divided the 
 resources he received with the confederates, particularly with those 
 of Munster. A gleam of hope seemed to revive the fallen spirits of the 
 Catholics. They met, and deliberated together ; and the Earl ol 
 Clanrickard, who was at that time the only nobleman in Connaught 
 attached to the queen's cause, began to espouse the interest of the 
 confederates. 
 
 The invaders heard of this with great consternation, and sent to the 
 queen, demanding additional supplies of men and money. The queen 
 wrote to her deputy, authorizing him to grant to the entire south of 
 Ireland a general amnesty. Deputy Mountjoy, however, seemed to 
 disregard these suggestions, and, entering on a northern tour of destruc- 
 tion, destroyed more and more of the country, and exasperated the 
 people to the highest pitch. 
 
 The deputy left Dublin, in May, for Drogheda, proceeded to Dun- 
 dalk, and on the 8th of June passed through Moyri, where he had a 
 fort built, which he garrisoned. Having left his camp at Fagher, on 
 the 14th, he passed through Newry, and on the 15th entered Iveagh, 
 the country of the Magennises. While Sir Richard Morrison was taking 
 the city of Down, the deputy entered Dundrum, which was given up 
 to him by Felim M'Evir, to whom it belonged. This nobleman 
 having made his submission, his example was followed by M'Car- 
 tane of DufFerin, and M'Rory of Killiwarlin. The deputy, having 
 ended his tour through Iveagh, where he took some castles without 
 meeting any resistance, returned to Newry, from whence he sent 
 orders to Sir Henry Danvers, commander of Mount Norris, to seize 
 upon the abbey of Armagh, and put an English garrison into it ; but 
 Danvers failed in the attempt. He was repulsed by the garrison, and 
 forced to abandon his enterprise. 
 
 On hearing of Danvers's ill success in his expedition against Armagh, 
 the deputy marched towards Mount Norris, where he was joined by 
 the garrison. Having abandoned the neighborhood of Newry, he then 
 marched his army towards Armagh. On the 13th of July, he 
 arrived on the banks of the Blackwater, which he crossed the day fol- 
 lowing, unopposed by O'Neill, who had his army posted in a wood 
 near the river. It was his design to avoid an engagement, and remain 
 on the defensive, till the succors which he expected from Spain should 
 arrive. On the I6th of the same month, the deputy sent Sir Chris- 
 topher St. Laurence's regiment to the castle of Benburb, where it was 
 attacked by the advanced guard of O'Neill ; they fought briskly for 
 
FALL OF DESMOND. 6S& 
 
 three hours, within view of the Enghsh camp, though St. Laurence, 
 having received fresh assistance from that quarter, was superior in force. 
 O'Neill got the worst of this hattle, and retreated. At this time, the 
 deputy issued a proclamation from the queen, that her majesty would 
 not grant any terms to O'Neill, and that whosoever would take him 
 alive, should receive two thousand pounds reward, or one thousand for 
 his head. 
 
 The great Desmond, having lost his entire army, was taken by Fitz- 
 gibbon, in a cavern, and given up to the English, who sent him to the 
 Tower of London, where, after seven years' imprisonment, he died. 
 
 The deputy crossed the Blackwater in August, and proceeded to- 
 wards Dungannon ; but the frequent skirmishes he had to maintain against 
 the troops of O'Neill, forced him to direct his march towards Armagh. 
 Danvers was ordered, with three hundred men, to burn a village that 
 lay in their march, but was driven back by O'Neill's troops, and pur- 
 sued to the English camp, in spite of the succors that were sent to him. 
 Some days after this, the Irish advanced with a design of attacking the 
 enemy in their camp ; but the deputy, being apprized of it, placed four 
 hundred men in ambush, who, falling on them in flank, killed several of 
 them, and amongst the number, Peter Lacy, Lord of BrufF, in the 
 county of Limerick. 
 
 Such was the state of things about the end of August, 160L Mun- 
 3ter had no longer any leaders after the imprisonment of Florence 
 M'Carty and James Fitzthomas, who were the centre of their union. 
 The people of Leinster were broken down ; Connaught was unable to 
 attempt any thing, and the only resources of the country lay in O'Neill 
 and O'Donnel, whose forces were too few to stand against the English 
 and the unfaithful sons of Ireland. In a word, the country was ex- 
 hausted of men and means, from having sustained, for many years, the 
 burden of a war, while waiting for assistance that came too late. 
 
 Reports were spread at this time, that a Spanish fleet, with troops 
 for Ireland, was at sea ; which becoming known to the council of Eng- 
 land, reenforcements were immediately ordered for Ireland. Philip the 
 Third, king of Spain, was eager to perform the promises that were held 
 out to the princes O'Neill and O'Donnel. For this object, he assem- 
 bled what troops were necessary for the expedition, and gave the 
 command of them to Don Juan del Aquila, a man well experienced in 
 war. As soon as the fleet had got into the open sea, it was dispersed 
 and separated by a violent storm. One part of it, consisting of seven 
 ships, laden principally with artillery and other warlike stores and provis- 
 87 
 
690 AID FROM SPAIN. 
 
 ions, was forced, with the vice-admiral, Don Pedro de Zubiaur, to take 
 shelter in the port of Corunna, in Galicia. The other portion, with Don 
 Juan and two thousand five hundred infantry, (a small force for so great 
 an enterprise,) arrived with difficulty in the harbor of Kinsale, on the 
 23d of September. As soon as the Spaniards had landed, Captain 
 William Saxeys, who commanded the English troops, withdrew to Cork. 
 The inhabitants of Kinsale immediately after opened their gates to Don 
 Juan, who entered and took possession of the town. 
 
 Don Juan was not secure at Kinsale, where he was, in fact, in need 
 of every thing : so he wrote to Spain, by the fleet that was returning, 
 and gave an account to the king, his master, of his voyage, and of the 
 supplies he wanted. The Spanish general found none (except O'Sulli- 
 van) among the Catholics of Munster inclined to assist him. Some had 
 been imprisoned, others gave hostages as a guaranty for their loyalty, 
 and others opposed the cause of their country, so that there was none 
 but O'Sullivan, Prince of Bearre and Bantry, who could make any 
 attempt in favor of the Spaniards. The deputy waited in Cork for the 
 return of the officers who had been sent to Leinster, Connaught, and 
 the garrisons in Ulster, to collect the government forces, which aniounted 
 to about seven thousand six hundred men, comprising those of Munster. 
 The English general marched with his army towards Kinsale, having 
 changed his camp two or three times. The months of October and 
 November were spent in skirmishing, the Spaniards making frequent 
 sallies, and the English driving them back ; the latter, if we can credit 
 their historians, being always successful. The account, however, of a 
 contemporary writer (Peter Lombard) is different. According to him, 
 the Spaniards fought valiantly, during the day, in defending their walls, 
 and by night they sallied forth, killing the sentinels and advanced guards 
 of the English, and carrying off their cannon ; by which means, con- 
 tinues he, the loss of the English always exceeded that' of the Spaniards. 
 Even could we suppose that the English had the advantage, the great 
 disproportion in numbers between the besieged and besiegers would tend 
 to lessen their boasted advantages considerably. The English appeared 
 hefore Kinsale with seven thousand six hundred men ; their army was 
 increased, soon after, to eight thousand, a reenforcement having been 
 brought from England by the loyal Earl of Thomond. Tl)e English 
 artillery was numerous, and skilfully worked ; their camp abounded 
 with provisions ; Captain Button guarded the mouth of the harbor till 
 the arrival of an English squadron often vessels, under Admiral Richard 
 Levison, who were incessantly pouring broadsides on the town, while 
 
FURTHER AID FROM SPAIN. 691 
 
 the army attacked it by land ; and still the siege of Kinsale lasted from 
 the 17th of October to the 9th of January following. 
 
 Vice-Admiral Don Pedro Zubiaur, who was forced by a storm to 
 touch, with his seven ships, at Corunna, in Galicia, arrived on the coast 
 of Ireland, December 3d. This officer entered a harbor called Cuan- 
 an-caislon, (in English, Castle Haven,) in Carbry, about twenty miles 
 from Kinsale, where they were kindly received by five brothers of the 
 O'Driscols, to whom the country belonged, and who gave him up one 
 of their castles. 
 
 The news of the Spaniards having arrived at Castle Haven being 
 spread, the deputy commanded Admiral Levison to engage them. With- 
 out losing a moment, he sailed with six ships and some troops on board. 
 Having reached Castle Haven, he found the Spanish vessels unguarded 
 by their crews, who were sleeping, and fatigued after a long voyage. 
 The Spaniards, being roused by the cannon of the English, which began 
 to play upon their ships and upon the castle, returned, though in a con- 
 fused manner, the fire with their artillery, and supported an engagement 
 during two days, in which the English lost five hundred and seventy- 
 five men. 
 
 The English admiral, not succeeding to his wishes in his attack upon 
 their vessels, was about to land his troops, and attack the Spaniards 
 who were on shore ; but from this he was deterred by seeing them reen- 
 forced, by the Prince of Bearre, with five hundred men, all ready to 
 oppose him. He immediately sailed from Castle Haven for Kinsale, 
 where he vainly boasted of having been successful in his expedition. 
 Many of the surrounding nobility took up arms to join the Spaniards; 
 the principal among whom were Finin O'Driscol and several others of 
 the same name ; the M'Cartys of Carbry ; Donnal O'Sullevan Bearre ; 
 the eldest son of O'Sullevan More j Donnal M'Carty, son of the Earl 
 of Glancar, and other branches of the M'Cartys of Desmond ; the 
 O'Donavans and O'Mahonys of Carbry ; John O'Connor Kierry ; the 
 Knight of Kerry, and others. 
 
 During the expedition of Levison at Castle Haven, a Scotch vessel 
 entered the harbor of Kinsale. This ship was separated at sea from the 
 Spanish fleet, and had eighty Spanish soldiers on board. The com- 
 mander informed Vice-Admiral Preston, and treachero^isly surrendered 
 to him his cargo. 
 
 The princes of Ulster did not forget their promises to Don Juan del 
 Aquila. They used every exertion to march to the relief of Kinsale. 
 The distance was about eighty leagues, and the roads very bad from 
 
692 AID FKOM ULSTER. 
 
 the continual rains. O'Donnel marched first with his army, amounting 
 to two thousand six hundred infantry and four hundred cavahy. 
 
 The news of O'Donnel's march alarmed the English. The lord 
 deputy summoned a council to deliberate on measures for intercepting 
 this prince's communication with Munster ; and the president, Carew, 
 was appointed to this trust. He set out, accordingly, with four thousand 
 five hundred infantry and five hundred cavalry, and advanced towards 
 Ormond, where O'Donnel was to pass. After a march of a few days, 
 he stopped at Ardmail, to the north of Cashel. O'Donnel had already 
 entered the county of Tipperary, through Ikerin, the country of the 
 O'Meaghers, and encamped at Holy-Cross, not far from Ardmail, 
 where the president was stationed. The Prince of Tirconnel wished to 
 avoid fighting, and, to deceive the enemy, he lighted a number of fires in 
 the camp, and began his march before day. He took his route through 
 Slieve Phelim, along the side of the Shannon, and got into the county 
 of Limerick, thi-ough the defiles of the Abbey of Owney, and from thence 
 to the districts of the O'Moel Ryans, and reached the Casde of Crome, 
 which was twelve miles farther on ; so that, on a calculation, he marched, 
 in one day, thirty-two miles — a very arduous exploit for an army followed 
 by their baggage. The president, being informed of O'Donnel's move- 
 ment, marched with his forces the same day, and crossed the country as 
 far as the Abbey of Owney, for the purpose of intercepting him ; but, 
 understanding that he had passed the defiles of Connillo, he gave up the 
 pursuit, and returned to the camp at Kinsale, taking a shorter route, in 
 order to be before O'Donnel, to prevent any communication between 
 him and the Spanish garrison. 
 
 Prince O'Neill set out from Tyrone, in the month of November, at 
 the head of about three thousand men, to assist the Spaniards. O'Neill, 
 on his maich through the county of Meath, met some opposition from 
 the Anglo-Irish ; Darcy, the Lord of Plattin, being killed in the skirmish. 
 He continued his march, however, and on the 8th of December he 
 arrived in the county of Cork, within a few leagues of the English 
 camp. O'Donnel was expecting him in the district of Kinel Meaky, 
 and these two princes encamped together, on the 2 1st, between Cork 
 and Kinsale, within a league of the English army. 
 
 The united forces of O'Neill and O'Donnel amounted to six thousand 
 Irish, besides three hundred Spaniards, who had come from Castle 
 Haven, under the command of O'Sullevan of Bearre and Don Alphonso 
 de la Campo. Their object was not to attack the English, who were 
 fifteen or sixteen thousand strong, a disproportion in numbers far too 
 
FALL OF KINSALE. 693 
 
 great. Some skirmishing battles were now fought, which it would be 
 tedious to relate. 
 
 The English, having nothing more to fear from the Irish army, 
 returned to their camp before Kinsale, and made great rejoicings for 
 their victory. The noise of their firing induced Don Juan to march a 
 part of the garrison to assist (as he thought) the reenforcement he was 
 expecting, and which he imagined was engaged with the English. 
 Seeing his error, however, he marched back into the town. It is 
 worthy of remark, that the Spanish commander of Kinsale, whether 
 from his having a knowledge of an action being fought near the town, 
 or not, did not lead out his troops, as had been previously agreed upon 
 between him and O'Neill. But a concerted action between the Span- 
 iards in the garrison and the Irish having failed, whereby O'Neill lost 
 twelve hundred men, he judged it most prudent to retire to Ulster. 
 
 Whilst the English were vigorously pushing forward the siege of 
 Kinsale, Hugh O'Donnel, after giving the command of his troops to his 
 brother Roderick, embarked for Spain with Redmond Burke, Hugh 
 Mostian, and others. Don Juan, not finding himself equal to hold out 
 any longer, sent, on the last day of December, a letter, by his drum- 
 major, offering to capitulate, which proposal was accepted by the 
 English general, who immediately despatched Sir William Godolphin 
 to treat with the Spanish commander upon the articles of surrender, the 
 principal of which were, that Don Juan should give up to the deputy 
 every place which he was in possession of in the province of Munster, 
 viz., Kinsale, Castle Haven, Baltimore, Bearhaven, and Dunboy, and 
 that the deputy should furnish transport vessels to convey Don Juan to 
 Spain, together with his forces, arms, ammunition, artillery, money, Stc, 
 and with colors flying. This capitulation was signed on one part by 
 Don Juan, and on the other by the deputy, the president of Munster, 
 the Earls of Thomond and Clanriccard, Richard Wingfield, Robert 
 Gardiner, George Bourchier, and Richard Levison. 
 
 The surrender of Kinsale had different effects on the Irish and 
 the Enfrlish. The latter were disgusted with the siege ; independently 
 of the inclemency of the season, it being the month of January, they 
 had provision for only six days ; their treasury was exhausted, their war- 
 like stores worn out, and their artillery not fit for effecting a breach. 
 Nearly half of the English army, which, in the beginning of the siege, 
 amounted to sixteen thousand men, had fallen, either by the sword of 
 the enemy or disease. The English fleet in the bay had suffered as 
 much as the army on land. The deputy, therefore, having consulted 
 
694 NEGOTIATIONS WITH SPAIN. 
 
 with his council, considered the capitulation proposed by the Spanish 
 genera] as the only means of saving the remainder of his army, and 
 avoiding the disgrace of raising a siege, which had been already so fatal 
 to him. 
 
 On the other hand, the possession of Kinsale was of the first im- 
 portance to the cause of Ireland; the garrison under Don Juan 
 amounted to two thousand five hundred men, well provided with ammu- 
 mtion and provisions, and supported by the garrisons of Bakimore, 
 Castle Haven, and Bearhaven, so that, from the state of the English, he 
 might have held out till the arrival of succors from Spain, which would 
 also have given time to O'Neill and the other Irish princes to assemble 
 in the spring. The surrender, therefore, of Kinsale and its dependencies, 
 by shutting out all foreign aid, would necessarily injure the cause they 
 wished to defend. O'Sullevan Bearre, apprehensive of these conse- 
 quences, took possession of the Castle of Dunboy, which belonged to 
 him, but which he had given up as a garrison for the Spaniards on their 
 arrival in the country. Being determined, therefore, that this fortress 
 should not be surrendered to the enemy, he got Thomas Fitzmaurice, 
 Lord of Lixnaw, Donnal M'Carty, Captain Richard Tirrell, and William 
 Burke, with some troops, into the castle by night, and took possession 
 of the gates, without committing any hostility towards the Spaniards. 
 He immediately despatched Dermod O'Driscol to the king of Spain, 
 entreating of his majesty to be convinced that his motives were hon- 
 orable in the taking of Dunboy, and complained vehemently, in his 
 letter, of the capitulation which Don Juan had entered into with the 
 English, calling it wretched, execrable, and inhuman. 
 
 O'Donnel, who had sailed for Spain after the battle of Kinsale, was 
 received, on his arrival at Corunna, in Galicia, with every mark of dis- 
 tinction, by the Count de Caracena. O'Donnel, having recovered from 
 his fatigues, took leave of his host, who presented him with a thousand 
 ducats. He then continued his route, and, having arrived at court, was 
 received by the king and all his courtiers. His majesty gave the neces- 
 sary orders for an expedition to Ireland, and the troops intended for it 
 began to march towards Corunna. 
 
 Don Juan de Aquila, the Spanish general, was still in Ireland ; he 
 sailed, however, with the remainder of his forces, from Kinsale for Spain, 
 on the 16th of Mai-ch, with a fair wind. On arriving at Corunna, being 
 suspected of having acted dishonorably in Ireland, he was arrested by 
 order of the king, and confined to his own house, where he soon after- 
 wards died of grief. The suspicions formed against Don Juan were 
 
THE WAR IN ULSTER. 
 
 695 
 
 founded on the facility with which he surrendered to the English Kin- 
 sale, and the other towns in which the Spaniards were ; also on the 
 friendliness of a correspondence which he kept up with the deputy and 
 Carew, and the reciprocal presents that were made between them ; and 
 finally upon his having furnished passports to the English, who went 
 from Ireland to Spain, under pretence of trading, but who, in reality, 
 were spies, that brought home an account of all that was passing in 
 Spain, relative to the affairs of Ireland ; on proof of which, an English 
 officer, called Walter Edney, was arrested at Corunna. He had freight- 
 ed a vessel at Cork for Spain, and was provided with a letter of intro- 
 duction and presents from the deputy to Don Juan ; but, the latter 
 having already fallen into disgrace, the deputy's plan was defeated ; the 
 Count de Caracena profited by the presents that were sent, and his 
 letters, passports, and papers, were forwarded to the Spanish court. 
 
 Pope Clement the Eighth wrote a letter at this time to Hugh O'Neill, 
 Prince of Tyrone, complimenting him on the confederacy which he had 
 established among the Irish princes, for the defence of the Catholic 
 religion. 
 
 The English deputy, having ended his campaign in Munster, set out 
 for Dublin, appointing Sir Richard Percy counsellor for that province. 
 
 The English troops in Ireland, A. D. 1602, amounted, notwithstand- 
 ing their losses in the late campaign, to seventeen thousand infantry, and 
 a thousand five hundred cavalry. The deputy, after having reviewed 
 them, put them into convenient garrisons till the next campaign. 
 
 In the beginning of June, the deputy assembled his forces, and 
 marched into Ulster, where he got a bridge built over the Blackwater, 
 with a fort, which he called Charlemont, after his own name, and in 
 which he placed Captain Caulfield, [the ancestor of the present Earl of 
 Charlemont,] with a garrison of a hundred and fifty men. He sent the 
 regiment of Sir Richard Morrison to make themselves masters of Dun- 
 gannon ; but the inhabitants of the place, on the approach of the English, 
 set fire to it, and reduced it to ashes, together with the beautiful Castle 
 of Tyrone. The deputy repaired thither with the remainder of his army, 
 where he was joined by Dockwra. 
 
 The Prince of Ulster withdrew to Castle Roe, on the River Bann. 
 The Eno-lish laid the whole country waste, as far as Inniskillen ; they 
 made themselves nsasters of Magherlowny Isle, where O'Neill had a 
 magazine ; and took another island, in which they found three pieces 
 of English cannon, Dockwra, who commanded a garrison at Ony, 
 received orders to harass O'Neill in Dungeven, in Araghty Cahan ; 
 
696 
 
 THE WAR IN MUNSTER. 
 
 while Chichester, who led the troops from the garrison of Carrickfergus, 
 brought the regiment of Morrison to occupy Toome, and the deputy 
 himself guarded the road to Killetro ; but in spite of these plans, and 
 the great superiority of the enemy, O'Neill, with six hundred foot and 
 sixty horse, marched from Castle Roe, and reached Lough Earne unmo- 
 lested. Being incapable of resisting the enemy openly, he remained on 
 the defensive ; for which purpose he chose an inaccessible spot, called 
 Gleannchonkein, near Lough Earne, where he intrenched himself in a 
 manner that left him nothing to fear. The deputy, hearing of this, con- 
 tented himself with ravaging the surrounding country, and with breaking, 
 at Talloghoge, the stone which was used as the inauguration seat of 
 the O'Neills. 
 
 The lord deputy, satisfied with his exploits in the north, repaired to 
 Newry on the 11th September, whence he set out for Dublin, leaving 
 Ulster to the care of Dockwra, Danvers, and Chichester. Chichester 
 executed his commission with such cruelty, through Ulster, that a famine 
 was the consequence. Cox says, " Children were seen to feed upon the 
 flesh of their mothers, who died of hunger," and adds that " the famine 
 in Jerusalem was not more severe than what the rebels suffered on this 
 occasion." 
 
 Notwithstanding that Don Juan del Aquila surrendered to the Eng- 
 lish the towns which he held in Munster, the inhabitants did not give 
 up their arms, holding still the hope of receiving new succors from 
 Spain. Those English authors who never let pass any opportunity of 
 inspiring their readers with contempt for a people that wish to escape 
 from their tyranny, have filled their writings with such injurious and 
 insulting statements as should destroy, in the mind of the discerning and 
 impartial reader, all respect for them. Their language on this occasion . 
 is as follows : " The rebels spread themselves every where, particularly 
 through the districts of Carbry, Bearre, Desmond, and Kerry. No 
 place escapes them ; they have become desperate from their crimes ; 
 they look upon themselves as children of perdition, and unworthy of her 
 majesty's pardon." These are phrases in accordance with the imperious 
 character of the English, who imagine that the world should obey them. 
 The Irish, whom they thus describe as rebels and children of perdition, 
 did not seek the clemency of Elizabeth ; they, on the contrary, took up 
 arms to defend their country against her tyranny and usurpation. 
 
 Daniel O'Sullevan, Prince of Bearre, became chief of the Irish league 
 in Munster, after the surrender of Kinsale, and the retreat of the princes 
 of Ulster. This prince, illustrious for his virtue and his valor, was in 
 
SIEGE OF DUNBOY. 69t 
 
 possession of Dunboy, and omitted nothing to put that fortress into a 
 state of defence. The nobles who espoused with him the common 
 cause, were Daniel M'Carty, son of the Earl of Clancar ; Daniel, son 
 of O'Sullevan More ; Cornelius and Dermod O'Driscol ; Dermod 
 O'Sullevan ; Dermod, Donagh, and Florence M'Carty, of the family 
 of M'Carty Riagh ; M'Sweeny ; Donagh O'Driscol, and his brothers. 
 The Prince of Bearre was also joined by O'Connor Kerry, M'Maurice, 
 Baron of Lixnaw, the Knight of Kerry, the Knight of Glynn, John Fitz- 
 gerald, (brother of the earl,) James Butler, (brother to the Baron of 
 Cahir,) William Burke, Captains Richard M'Geoghegan and Richard 
 Tirrell. The former was appointed to command the fortress of Dunboy, 
 the latter to lead the army of observation. 
 
 This confederacy caused great alarm to the English. The president, 
 Carew, ordered her majesty's troops to assemble at Cork ; and the old 
 and modern Irish, who were loyal to the court party, were also com- 
 manded to meet. These auxiliaries and the Englisli troops amounted 
 to more than four thousand men. In March, a detachment of two 
 thousand five hundred infantry and fifty cavalry was sent under the 
 command of the Earl of Thomond, who was commanded by the deputy 
 to scour the countries of Carbry, Bearre, and Bantry ; to burn all the 
 corn, to take away the cattle, and commit every species of hostility upon 
 the rebellious inhabitants, but to spare those who surrendered. Tho- 
 mond, being unable to act against Dunboy, in consequence of Captain 
 Tirrell's light troops having possession of the mountains of Bearre, took 
 post temporarily with Captain Flower, in an island called Fuidi or Whid- 
 dy, in the Bay of Bantry. 
 
 The lord president determined to besiege Dunboy, and set out, the 
 23d of April, from Cork, with more than five thousand men, besides the 
 body of troops that was under Wilmot, in the county of Kerry. The 
 English assert that the garrison consisted of one hundred and forty 
 chosen men. By their valiant defence of Dunboy, they have well 
 merited the name and character of heroes. 
 
 The president proceeded with caution, and, before he began the siege 
 of Dunboy, resolved to secure the places in his rear. The Irish had 
 left some soldiers in the Castle of Dunraanus, whom it was deemed 
 prudent for this purpose to dislodge. 
 
 Richard M'Geoghegan, commander of the Castle of Dunboy, is repre- 
 sented by an English writer as having had an interview, on the great 
 island where the English troops were then posted, with the Earl of 
 Thomond. After speaking on the subject in a mysterious manner, he 
 
698 AID FROM SPAIN. 
 
 has this passage : " But of this 1 am sure, that the earl's meeting with 
 him was not without the president's knowledge and allowance ; all the 
 eloquence and artifice which the earl could use, however, availed noth- 
 ing, for M'Geoghegan was resolved to persevere in his conduct." 
 
 The president was in the habit of resorting to dishonorable means for 
 seducing those whom he had to fear most amonsfst his enemies. He 
 met, among the Irish themselves, agents obsequious to his wishes. He 
 had already sent, through Owen O'Sullevan, a pressing letter to the 
 cannoniers of Dunboy. These were three in number, two Spaniards 
 and an Italian, whom O'Sullevan Bearre, when he became master of 
 the castle, took into his pay. The deputy proposed to reward them 
 liberally if they would spike the cannon and break the carriages when 
 the siege should have commenced ; but they proved themselves honora- 
 ble to their trust, and incapable of being influenced by his bribes. 
 
 The president, having failed in the overtures made to the governor of 
 Dunboy, sent his troops from the great to the lesser island, which was 
 within about a hundred paces of Bearre, a position that afforded him the 
 opportunity of viewing more closely the movements of the enemy. 
 
 A vessel was sent, in the mean time, by the court of Spain, to Kilmo- 
 killock, near Ardea, to discover if the Castle of Dunboy still held out. 
 There were some passengers on board ; among whom was a friar named 
 James Nelanus, and Owen M'Eggan, who was appointed by the pope 
 bishop of Ross and apostolical vicar of Ireland. This friar brought 
 from the king of Spain twelve thousand pounds, to the chiefs of 
 the confederacy, and some warlike stores, assuring them of further 
 succor, which was coming. He was sent by the Spanish court 
 to assure the Irish that the reenforcements intended for Ireland would 
 be speedily forwarded, and that two thousand troops had already 
 assembled at Corunna for that purpose. The confederates, trusting to 
 the promises given them, formed the resolution of supporting the siege 
 of Dunboy against the English, and forwarded despatches to the king 
 of Spain, to assure his majesty of their determination. Brien O'Kelly, 
 and Donogh, son of Mahon O'Brien, sailed on the 15th of June, 1603, 
 for Spain, with these despatches of the confederates. After this, O'Sul- 
 levan Bearre sent part of the ammunition that had come from Spain to 
 strengthen the garrison of Dunboy. 
 
 The deputy knew how important it would be to reduce the Castle of 
 Dunboy. It was the only place of moment which the Irish of 
 Munster still retained ; it served them as an arsenal and a depot, and 
 secured the means of holding a communication with Spain. He marched, 
 
GREAT BATTLE AT DUNBOY. HORRIBLE CRUELTY. 699 
 
 tbereforGj to within a mile of Dunboy, where his army encamped. Ac- 
 companied by Wilmot, and a corps of infantry, he proceeded to recon- 
 noitre the castle, and to seek a platform on which to erect a battery ; 
 but the musketry of the castle forced him and his attendants to return to 
 their camp. 
 
 The English general, anxious to shelter his troops, and to make the 
 artillery advance against the castle, caused a trench to be opened. The 
 work was frequently interrupted by the besieged, who continually sallied 
 out, and kept up a constant fire from the castle. The English at length 
 established their trench within a hundred and forty paces of the place. 
 A battery of five pieces of cannon was then raised, which played upon 
 the castle, whilst two falconets, placed on a point of land, destroyed the 
 outworks. The president, in the mean time, sent a hundred and sixty 
 men to attack Dorsie's Island. There was a small fort in it belonging to 
 the Irish, and garrisoned by forty men. After a vigorous defence 
 from the besieged, the English made themselves masters of this fort, and 
 found in it a few barrels of powder, three pieces of cannon, and some 
 warlike stores. Four of the besieged were killed in the action, two 
 were wounded, and the rest made prisoners. These latter were exe- 
 cuted immediately afterwards, though they had surrendered. The cru- 
 elty of the English was not confined to the defenders of the castle ; 
 they massacred, without distinction, all the inhabitants of the island. A 
 mother and the infant on her breast were murdered ; the children were 
 barbarously stabbed, and raised, half dead, on pikes, for a spectacle; 
 others were tied hand and foot, and thrown from the top of lofty rocks 
 into the sea. This is but a faint description of the cruelties exercised 
 by the English upon the inhabitants of Ireland — a specimen of the way 
 in which they reformed the morals of the people. 
 
 The English battery played incessantly upon the Castle of Dunboy. 
 Part of it had already fallen ; and, the besiegers supposing that the 
 breach was effected, an attack was ordered. They were repulsed, how- 
 ever, with vigor ; several were killed on both sides, and the English 
 were forced to retire. The fire from the battery was still kept up, by 
 which a part of the vault fell in, and drew those that surrounded it into 
 the ruins. The besiegers entered in crowds upon the breach, and re- 
 newed the battle, but, as before, without success ; they were driven off 
 with heavy loss, and hurled from the top of the breach. A third attack 
 was equally unsuccessful as the two first ; for, after gaining the hall of 
 the castle, the English ivere forced to abandon it. It will be admitted 
 that the garrison of Dunboy, which consisted of hut one hundred and 
 
700 GREAT BATTLE AT DUNBOT. 
 
 forty-three fighting men, must have been considerably weakened from 
 the continued assaults of the enemy. It might, indeed, be supposed 
 that they would easily have been crushed by the overwhelming force of 
 five thousand men, with a powerful artillery ; and, though the efforts of 
 the brave Captain Tirrell, with his flying camp, frequently alarmed the 
 English, they were not sufficient to save the garrison from the unhappy 
 fate that awaited them. 
 
 The president, Carew, seeing the obstinate and determined defence 
 the Castle of Dunboy maintained, ordered a fourth attack, better planned 
 than the preceding ones. For this purpose, a body of fresh troops was 
 chosen, taken by lot from the regiment of the lord president. This body 
 was to be supported by the remainder of the same regiment, and that 
 of the Earl of Thomond ; while those of Percy and Wilmot had orders 
 to hold themselves in readiness to march, both to protect the camp, and 
 to act with the others if necessary. The English artillery continued to 
 play upon the castle from five in the morning until nine, when a turret 
 of the castle, in which there was a falconet which greatly annoyed the 
 English battery, was seen to fall. However, the firing was kept up still 
 against one of the fronts of the castle till one in the afternoon, when, the 
 breach being effected, and the plan of assault fixed upon, the detach- 
 ment which was to begin the attack advanced. The Irish disputed 
 the entrance by the breach for a long time, but were at length forced to 
 yield to the overwhelming numbers of the English, who planted their 
 standards on one of the turrets. Roused by despair, the besieged re- 
 newed the battle, and fought with desperation until night, sometimes in 
 the vaults of the castle, sometimes in the great hall, the cellars, and on 
 the stairs, so that blood foived in every quarter : several of the besieged 
 fell during the attack, amongst ichom was ]\TGcoghegan, their com- 
 mander, whose valor equalled the greatness of his mind and station. 
 The castle was not yet in the possession of the English ; they returned 
 to the assault the day following, and, pretending a desire to spare the 
 further effusion of blood, terms were proposed to the besieged. The 
 few belonging to the garrison, who escaped the preceding day, having 
 lost their chief, and being unequal to defend the castle, accepted the 
 proposed conditions of having their lives spared. Richard M'Geoghe- 
 gan, the commander, however, although mortally wounded, would not 
 listen to any terms ; and, seeing the English enter in crowds, he rose 
 up, though already struggling with death, and, snatching a lighted 
 match, made an effort to fire a barrel of powder which was placed near 
 him ; his intention being to blow up both himself and the enemy, rather 
 
FALL OF DUNBOY. 701 
 
 than surrender. He was prevented, however, by a Captain Power, in 
 whose arms he was basely and inhumanly stabbed by the English sol- 
 diers. M'Geoghegan knew that no confidence could be placed in any 
 treaty with the English, and preferred to die fighting, rather than sur- 
 render to men in whose honor he could repose no trust. " The tvhole 
 nuhiber of the ivard consisted of one hundred and forty-three chosen 
 fighting men, being the best of all their forces, of the ivhich no man 
 escaped, but were either slain, executed, or buried in the ruins.'''' This 
 garrison was not composed of mere mercenary soldiers, taken by lot, but 
 of men of honor and principle, who willingly laid down their lives, in 
 defence of their religion and country : the English themselves admit 
 that so obstinate and resolved a defence hath not been seen loithin this 
 Tiingdom. They were worthy to have been citizens of ancient Sparta, 
 from the mode in which they sacrificed themselves for the good of their 
 country ; and, if their example has not been followed by others, it will 
 be at least a subject of reproach and self-confusion to those of their 
 countrymen who took up arms against them. The siege of Dunboy 
 lasted for fifteen days. 
 
 The Spanish army which was intended for the expedition to Ireland 
 p. mounted to fourteen thousand men. They had assembled at Corunna, 
 and were ready to sail, when intelligence was received of the fall of 
 Dunboy ; on which the Spanish court sent orders to the Count de Cara- 
 cena, sovernor of Corunna, to countermand, for the present, the sailing 
 of the troops. The queen of England had her emissaries in Spain, who 
 informed her of all that had occurred. She therefore ordered her fleets 
 tliat were cruising on the coasts of Spain to be revictualled, and to con- 
 tinue to watch the motions of the Spaniards till the end of September-; 
 she also sent two thousand more troops to Ireland, to reenforce the presi- 
 dent's army in Munster. 
 
 The fall of Dunboy did not prevent the Prince of Bearre from still 
 acting a brave and noble part. Dermod O'Driscol having returned from 
 Spain, Cornelius, son of O'Driscol More, was sent in his stead to solicit 
 speedy assistance. In the mean time, the prince and Captain Tirrell 
 marched with a thousand men into Muskerry, and made themselves 
 masters of Carraig-na-Chori, Duin Dearaire, and Macrumpe, where 
 they placed a garrison. 
 
 O'Donnel continued still in Spain, where he was actively employed 
 at court, in behalf of his country. He wrote at this time the following 
 letter, dated Corunna, to O'Connor Kerry: "The doctor and Dermod 
 O'Driscol will give you an account of every thing that is passing here. 
 
702 RETREAT OF O'SUIXEVAN BEARRE. 
 
 The king sends you money and stores. Believe me, that his majesty 
 will omit no opportunity to gain Ireland, were it to cost him even the 
 greatest part of his kingdom. Endeavor to secure this monarch's good 
 opinion hy your services. I beg that you will inform me of the news 
 in Ireland, and against whom the queen's forces are now employed." 
 
 Soon after this, news arrived of the death of the great O'Donnel, 
 in Spain. 
 
 If the submission of M'Carty of Muskerry was fatal to the Irish 
 cause in Munster, the news of the death of this great man was still more 
 disastrous. The confederates of Munster, upon receiving the sad news, 
 saw themselves deprived of all hope on the side of Spain ; their cour- 
 age was broken down ; Daniel M'Carty, the Knight of KeiTy, Daniel, 
 son of O'Sullevan More, and others, sought to be reconciled to the 
 English government. Captain Tirrell led his troops into Connaught, 
 which raised the courage of the English, five thousand of whom were 
 collected, and the command given to Wilmot, with the title of governor 
 of Bearre. He accordingly led the army to that part of the province, 
 where he published a proclamation in the queen's name, promising 
 pardon to all who would abandon O'Sullevan Bearre's standard. This 
 prince was now forsaken by his allies ; and his Connaught troops having 
 left him, with their commander, Thomas Burke, to return to their 
 province, he deemed it more piTident to follow them with the few that 
 remained, than yield to an inhuman enemy. 
 
 On the last day of December, O'Sullevan Bearre, with O'Connor 
 Kerry, and a few other noblemen, having joined his troops with those 
 of Connaught, the whole amounting to scarcely four hundred men, set 
 out upon their march, intending to take refuge with Hugh O'Neill, Prince 
 of Tyrone. Though his shortest route would have been through 
 Leinster, still, that province being in the power of the English, who 
 had their garrisons in every quarter, he determined to gain the Shannon, 
 in order to reach O'Rourke, Prince of Brefny, through Connaught. 
 The badness of the roads and scarcity of provisions were not the only 
 difficulties the Prince of Bearre had to encounter. He was continually 
 obliged to fight his way with the enemy. We read nothing in history 
 which more resembles the expedition of Zenophan, and the ten 
 thousand Greeks, than this retreat of O'Sullevan Bearre. 
 
 The prince, having overcome the difficulties of a long and painful 
 march, arrived, on the 7th of January, in the forest of Brosnach, above 
 Limerick, near the Shannon, where he encamped with his little army. 
 He here convened a council of war, to deliberate on the means of 
 
RETREAT OF o'sULLEVAN BEARRE. 7C3 
 
 crossing the river ; in which it was decided that a number of boats, 
 made of osier and the branches of trees, should be constructed for the 
 troops ; while, in order to prevent them from sinking, they were covered 
 with skins of horses, provided for the purpose. These boats were used 
 by the ancient Irish, and were called curraghs. The boats being 
 completed, they were brought during the night to Portlaughan, on the 
 banks of the Shannon, opposite to Portumna, and commenced crossing 
 the river. O'Maily, who went by the first, was upset with ten soldiers, 
 but the rest reached the opposite shore in safety. On reviewing his 
 men, O'Sullevan found them reduced to two hundred. He marched, 
 however, through Galway to Mainech, the country of the O'Kellys, 
 where he had to contend with fresh enemies. Having met Captain 
 Malby, an Englishman, Sir Thomas Burke, brother to the Earl of 
 Clanriccard, and other chiefs, near Aughrim, at the head of a body of 
 troops superior in number to his own, a battle began between them 
 with equal animosity ; but Malby, the English general, having been 
 killed, victory declared in favor of the Irish. O'Sullevan continued 
 his march to Brefny, where he was honorably received by O'Rourke. 
 
 The inhuman butcheries of the English throughout Munster raised a 
 new confederacy against them, led on by M'Carty, which, after a few 
 ineffectual efforts, melted away. 
 
 This struggle of the inhabitants of Carbry was the last during this 
 reign that was made, in the province of Munster, in favor of religion 
 aiid liberty. It was too weak to have succeeded. The M'Cartys, 
 having failed, solicited pardon from the president, through Captain 
 Taaffe, and obtained it. Fitzmaurice, with a body of light troops, 
 defended himself for a long time, in Slieve-Luachra, against the English ; 
 and was afterwards so fortunate as to redeem his property and title of 
 Baron of Lixnaw, by his surrender. Thus ended the war in Munster. 
 
 Returning to O'Sullevan : He was not the only unfortunate prince 
 who sought safety with O'Rourke. On his arrival there, he met the 
 son of William Burke, chief of the noble family of the M'Williams of 
 Connaught, and Maguire, Prince of Fermanagh. The same fate having 
 brouo^ht O'Sullevan Bearre and Maguire together, they determined to 
 have recourse to O'Neill, and induce him to renew the war against the 
 English. Having, therefore, taken leave of the Prince of Brefny, they 
 set out, attended by Captain Tirrell and a few cohorts of armed men, 
 and, notwithstanding the severity of the season and the badness of the 
 roads, they proceeded as far as the banks of Lake Erne. They were 
 then obliged to force the several posts belonging to the English, in 
 
704 
 
 APPROACHING DEATH OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 which they were successful. Maguire afterwards got possession of his 
 principality of Fermanagh. 
 
 Whilst the Princes of Bearre and Fermanagh continued victorious 
 on the banks of Lake Erne, Lord Mountjoy, the deputy, received 
 intelligence, from England, of the queen's approaching dissolution. The 
 deputy was alarmed ; he knew the instability of human affairs, par- 
 ticularly among a haughty and seditious people like the English ; and, 
 apprehending a change of government, he wished particularly to put an 
 end to the war in Ireland. O'Neill, Prince of LTlster, was the great 
 obstacle to a general peace; he still kept up his troops, and continued 
 on the defensive for some time, expecting foreign aid ; the deputy, 
 therefore, considered it of importance to gain him over, and made, 
 through his friends, proposals to him. The terms were flattering ; a 
 general amnesty was offered to him, and to his allies, with the free 
 exercise of their religion, and the peaceful enjoyment of their estates, 
 on condition that they would lay down their arms. O'Neill and 
 his friends, having accepted the terms that were offered, entered again 
 into the possession of their inheritances, and enjoyed them for some 
 years in peace. 
 
 A celebrated patent of Queen Elizabeth, addressed to Rory O'Don- 
 nel. Prince of Tirconnel, is stated to have been granted about this 
 time ; from the tenor of it, it appears to have been given by the advice 
 of the lord deputy Mountjoy, and the council of Ireland. It was 
 written in the Latin tongue, and in Gothic characters. In this patent, 
 the queen offers to O'Donnel, and a great many noblemen, proprietors 
 of estates which were held under that prince, a general amnesty and 
 forgiveness of their crimes. After the different branches of the O'Don- 
 nels, the chief noblemen, who are named in the act, are, the O'Boyles, 
 the O'Cahans, the O'Kellys, the O'Galtowes, the O'Crinanes, the 
 O'Carwels, the M'Nenys, the O'Kennidies, the O'Mulrenins, the 
 O'Rowartys, the O'Tiernans, the O'Creanes, the O'Dwyers, the 
 O'Kierans, the O'Moyleganes, the O'Ruddies, the M'Awardes, the 
 O'Dunneganes, the O'Meallanes, the O'Murrys, the O'Doghartys, 
 the O'Miaghans, the O'Clerys, the M'Glaghlins, the O'Sheridans, the 
 O'Cassidys, the O'Cashedians, and many others. This patent, (says 
 the Abbe M'Geoghegan,) which is in my possession, is dated Dublin, 
 26th February, about a month before the death of the queen ; it is 
 sealed with the great seal of England, and signed Philip. 
 
 Thus then, the great O'Neill, with a handful of well-disciplined 
 soldiers, withstood the power of England in the field for 
 
TRroMPH OF o'nEILL, AND PEACE. 705 
 
 FIFTEEN YEARS, and Compelled them at last to grant him peace, the 
 sovereignty of his principality, and perfect freedom for his religion. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth died on the 24th of March, anno sixteen hundred 
 and three. She lived sixty-nine years six months, and reigned 
 forty-four years four months. Symptoms of rage, insanity, and heavy 
 affliction, preceded her death. 
 
 Robert Naughton, an English writer, gives, in his Regalia Frag- 
 menta, a true picture of Elizabeth, and ascribes her last afflictions to 
 the ill success of her arms in Ireland. This Englishman was created 
 Sir Robert Naughton, secretary of state, and master of the court of 
 wardens, under James the First. He lived about the period of her 
 reign, and was deeply conversant in political secrets. 
 
 "The war in Ireland, which," he says, "may be styled the distemper 
 of the reign of Elizabeth, having continued to the end of her life, proved 
 such an expenditure as affected and disorganized the health and con- 
 stitution of the princess, for, in her last days, she became sorrowful, 
 melancholy, and depressed. Her arms, which had been accustomed to 
 conquer, meeting with opposition from the Irish, and the success of the 
 war for so long a time becoming not only doubtful but unfortunate, 
 afflicted her to distraction. 
 
 " It may be imagined that England was at the time equal to undertake 
 and maintain by her resources the war against the Irish. If we take a 
 close view of the state of things at the period, and the number of troops 
 in Ireland, as also the defeat at Black Water, (Benburb,) and the ex- 
 penditure attending the attempts of the Earl of Essex, the reduction of 
 Kinsale, under General Mountjoy, and of a short time subsequently, we 
 shall discover, that, in horse and foot, the troops amounted to twenty 
 thousand men, independently of the naval armaments connected with 
 them. The queen was obliged to keep up a constant and powerful 
 fleet, to watch the coasts of Spain, and blockade its harbors, in order to 
 prevent the succors, which were intended for Ireland, from being for- 
 warded. The expenses, therefore, attending the wars of Elizabeth 
 against the Irish, amounted, at least, to three hundred thousand pounds 
 sterling a year, for fifteen years, which was not half her expenditure in 
 other quarters — an expense which could not be longer supported with- 
 out the aid of the public. The frequent letters of the queen, and the 
 constant requests to General Mountjoy to disband the forces as 
 speedily as possible, furnish an irrefragable proof to what an extremity 
 this princess saw hereelf reduced." 
 
 Irishmen of the present day! read the admission of this English 
 89 
 
706 QUEEN Elizabeth's poor law. 
 
 secretary of state, and learn from it that England put forth her whole 
 power against Ireland during this fifteen tears' war, and failed in 
 subduing the valiant men of that generation. Ireland has broken the 
 heart of many a British king, and queen, and minister, and deputy. 
 The last deputy, De Grey, has just returned (July, 1844) from his 
 futile though outrageous administration of government in Ireland ; and 
 Sir Robert Peel feels and admits Ireland to be his sole difficulty. Queen 
 Victoria has no other trouble on earth but Ireland ; and thus we are, at 
 the end of two hundred and forty years from Elizabeth's attempts, as 
 unconquered as she found us after four hundred years of previous war 
 with her ancestors. 
 
 Amongst some of the last enactments passed by Queen Elizabeth 
 was her celebrated poor law act, entitled " The Forty-third of Eliza- 
 beth." This act gave to the poor a right of maintenance in the land ; 
 it was rendered necessary by the countless swarms of poor and idle 
 people, which appeared in England after the breaking up of the monas- 
 teries. Elizabeth tried all that coercion and cruelty could effect to 
 punish and banish poverty, but its source lay in the uprooting of the 
 whole social system, which took place since King Henry's first seizure 
 of the church property. The poor laws of Elizabeth, for many years, 
 afforded the people some protection against starvation ; but within the 
 last twenty years, they have been so altered in their essential powers, 
 that it is degrading in the extreme to accept of relief under the con- 
 ditions imposed, which reduces the poor to the degraded condition of 
 convicted criminals ere they can taste one morsel of food provided by 
 public charity. These degrading laws have been introduced into 
 Ireland in latter years, but they have failed to afford any substantia] 
 benefit to the poor, whilst to the middle classes they prove a heavy and 
 galling burden. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 707 
 
 HURRAH FOR THE STRIPES! HURRAH FOR 
 THE STARS! 
 
 BY T. MOONEY. 
 
 I — Tr — I — I ^ — 9 — :j ' 9 ^ r 9' 
 
 1. Hur - rah for O' - Con - nell ! Hur 
 
 rah 
 
 for M'Hafe ! 
 
 Hur - rah for 0' - Higgins ! a true man of bravery ! 
 
 
 -n" 
 
 Hurrah for O' - Bri - en 1 Hur - rah for O' - Neill 1 For 
 
 they are the fel - lows to lead us from slavery ; 
 
 And, should they de - sire, We're rea - dy to fire 1 Our 
 
 "i"; 9 ^ 
 
 long - tom ri - fles with punc 
 
 tu 
 
 al 
 
 i - ty! 
 
 f*a: 
 
 With pow - der and steel We'll bat - ter down Peel, And 
 
 give back to E - rin her 
 
708 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 *5^-F- 
 
 Then high for the stripes ! Hur - rah for the stars ! Hur - 
 
 rah for this land of true hos - pi - tal - i - ty ! 
 
 a=^3=?j 
 
 Ed-^ 
 
 
 
 Hurrah for the Bal - ti - more chp - pers and tars ! They'll 
 
 |g=i=a 
 
 help us to win back our na - tion - al - i - ty ! 
 
 Should Victoria go over 
 
 From Bristol or Dover, 
 They'll meet her with friendship, without formality; 
 
 And, ere she goes back, 
 
 They'll teach her the knack 
 Of treating her friends with more hospitality. 
 
 It's true she looks shy 
 
 On her neighbors that's nigh, 
 And wanders abroad for fun and frivolity; 
 
 But she'll shortly find out, 
 
 From within and without, 
 That Erin must have her old nationality. 
 Then high for the stripes, &,c. 
 
 'Tis said that John Bull 
 
 Has an obdurate skull. 
 And is sadly deficient of learning or modesty; 
 
 But, with heaven's own hlessin, 
 
 We'll teach him a lesson 
 In morals, and laws, and political honesty. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 709 
 
 Let no hero quail, 
 
 And no lady fail, 
 To pay up her dues to the Boston society ; 
 
 Let us all come together. 
 
 In good or bad weather, 
 In virtue, in valor, and pure sobriety. 
 Then high for the stripes, he. 
 
 4. 
 
 And who is afraid 
 
 Of what has been said 
 By the queen or her ministers in hostility?* 
 
 They often talk big, 
 
 When they mount the big wig, 
 And put on the airs of royal gentility; 
 
 But Pat, like a block, 
 
 Or immovable rock, 
 Stands firm erect for civil equality ; 
 
 He don't care a curse 
 
 For their army or purse. 
 For he's now wide awake to their wicked rascality. 
 Then high for the stripes, &c. 
 
 5. 
 
 And we'll meet on some day. 
 
 Just in our own way. 
 North, east, south, and west, in cordiality ; 
 
 From the isle of our birth. 
 
 To the ends of the earth, 
 Her children shall strike for her nationality ; 
 
 Then shall be unfurl'd, 
 
 Throughout the whole world, 
 The standard of Erin, in brilliant vitality ; 
 
 The sunburst of gold. 
 
 On green, as of old, 
 With the harp, the marks of our nationality ! 
 Then high for the stripes, &c. 
 
 * The queen's speech denouncing repeal. 
 
710 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 Then hurrah for the ladies, 
 
 That's willing to aid us 
 With music and money, in true generosity ! 
 
 May angels for e'er 
 
 Preserve in their care 
 The hearts that throb for our nationality ; 
 
 And O, may they never 
 
 From Erin dissever 
 Their patriot love for her civil equality ; 
 
 May they urge on our cause, 
 
 With their smiles and applause, 
 And help us to win back our nationality. 
 Then high for the stripes 1 &z;c. 
 
 WILL YOU COME TO THE BOWER? 
 
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MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 711 
 
 THE GATHERING OF LEINSTER. 
 
 [ By the writers of the " NationJ" 
 
 
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 2. 
 
 For this did they humble the Roman? 
 
 And was it, pale Helots, in vain 
 That Malachy trampled the foeman. 
 
 And Brien uprooted the Dane ? 
 
712 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 Ye kings of our isle's olden story, 
 Bright spirits of demi-god men ! 
 
 We swear, by the graves of your glory, 
 To strike like your children again. 
 
 3. 
 
 Though beside us no more in the trial 
 
 The swords of our forefathers wave, 
 The multiplied soul of O'Nial 
 
 Has flashed through our patriots brave. 
 By each rock where our proud heroes slumber, 
 
 Each grove where the gray Druid sung, 
 No foreigner's chain shall encumber 
 
 The race from such ancestors sprung. 
 
 4. 
 
 Ye swords of the kingly Temora, 
 
 Exalt the bright green of your sod ; 
 The hue of the mantle of Flora; 
 
 The Emerald banner of God ! 
 Leave, reaper, the fruits of thy labor ; 
 
 Spare, hunter, the prostrated game. 
 Till the ploughshare is wrought to a sabre 
 
 To carve out this plague-spot of shame. 
 
 5. 
 
 Rush down from the mountain fortalice ; 
 
 From banquet, and bridal, and bier; 
 From ruin of cloister, and palace ; 
 
 Arise, with the torch and the spear ! 
 By the ties and the hopes that we cherish, 
 
 The loves and the shrines we adore, 
 High Heaven may doom us to perish — 
 
 But, never to slavery more! 
 
MUSIC. 
 
 713 
 
 SOLDIER'S JOY. 
 
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 53 
 
LECTURE XVII. 
 
 FROM A. D. 1603 TO 1691 
 
 James the First. — New Confiscations. — Gunpowder Plot. — Guy Fawkes. — 
 London Monument. — Persecution of the Irish Catholics. — The Puritans. — 
 Plot against the O'Neills and O'Donnels. — Seizure of Ulster. — Mode adopted. 
 
 — Parliament of James the First. — Charles the First. — The " Fifty-one Graces." 
 
 — Perfidy of the King. — Beginning of the Scotcli War. — The Presbyterian 
 Worship.— " Irish Rebellion of 1641." — First Outrages on the Catholics. — 
 Strafford. — Plot to exterminate the Catholics. — Catholic Confederation. — Eng- 
 lish Evidences. — Order to kill all the Papists. — Indiscriminate Massacre. — 
 Resistance of the Catholics. — The King sends Commissions to the Catholics. — 
 Temporary Peace. — The King's Dispute with the Parliament. — John Hampden. 
 
 — Oliver Cromwell. — King Charles taken Prisoner. — His Trial and Death. — 
 Government of Thirty-nine. — New Reformation. — New Sects. — Fanaticism. — 
 War renewed against the Irish. — Second Battle of Benburb. — No quarter for 
 the Irish. — Cromwell invades Ireland. — Massacre at Drogheda. — Blasphemous 
 Letter of Cromwell. — Massacre at Wexford. — Cromwell repulsed at Dungan- 
 non. — Repulsed at Clonmel. — Heroism of a Catholic Bishop. — Cromwell 
 baffled. — Returns to England. — Ireton commands. — O'Connell's Sketch of 
 Cromwell. — Shocking Cruelties. — Immense Confiscations. — Cromwell assumes 
 the Throne. — Calls Parliaments. — His Death. — Recall of Charles the Second. 
 
 — Change in the Religion of the State. — "Act of Settlement." — Lenity of the 
 Catholics. — Ingratitude of the King. — Calumnious Pamphlets. — Vacillation of 
 the King in Religion. — His Death. — James the Second. — Discharges from 
 Prison Catholics and Quakers. — Proclaims Liberty of Conscience. — The High 
 Chifrch Party oppose him. — Trial of the Seven Bishops. — The Irish Par- 
 liament. — Intrigue against King James. — Invasion of William. — Flight of 
 James. — Affairs in Ireland. — A grand Irish Army raised. — Return of James 
 to Ireland. — Siege of Derry. — James's Defeat in Derry. — His Imbe- 
 cility. — The Battle of the Boyne. — Flight of James. — Defeat of the Irish. 
 
 — Siege of Athlone. — Defeat of the English. — Siege of Limerick. — Heroic 
 Defence. — Exploit of Sarsfield. — Assault on Limerick. — i Heroic Conduct 
 of the Women. — Defeat of the Invaders. — King James's bad Management. 
 
 — Ginckle marches into Kerry. — Bravery of the Irish. — The Summer of 
 1691. — Movements of both Armies. — Second Siege of Athlone. — Brave De- 
 fence. — Heroic Action of twenty Irishmen. — St. Ruth's Joj'. — Fourth Attack 
 on Athlone. — St. Ruth refuses Aid to the Town. — Sarsfield indignant. — The 
 Town lost. — Retreat on Aughrim. — Preparations for Battle. — Action begun. — 
 The Tide of Battle. — The Irish so far victorious. — Joy of St. Ruth. — Disas- 
 trous Mistake. — St. Ruth killed. — Change in the Fortune of the Day. — 
 Irish retreat on Limerick. — Remarks on the Battle. — Sarsfield now Chief in 
 
JAMES THE FIRST. GUNPOWDER PLOT. 715 
 
 Command. — Second Siege of Limerick. — Proposal of Peace from Ginckle. — 
 Accepted. — The Treaty of Limerick. — Irish Commanders in this War : 
 O'Neill, O'Reilly, O'Callaghan, Magennis, M'Mahon, O'Gara, Grace, O'Connell, 
 O'Higgins. — List of Officers killed and wounded — Burke, O'Brien, Dillon, 
 O'Regan, and several other Officers. — Future Dispositions. — Irishmen in for- 
 eign Service. — Sarsfield. 
 
 On the death of Queen Elizabeth, the crown of England de- 
 scended on the head of James the Sixth of Scotland, anno 1603. 
 He was the son of the unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots ; and the 
 crowns of both nations uniting in him, he was, by law, king of Eng- 
 land and Scotland. 
 
 James was a pedant — a learned but not an instructed prince. In 
 religion, he was a rigid Presbyterian. The Duke of Sully said he was 
 the wisest fool in Europe. Wade says, " He was weak, mean, and 
 pusillanimous ; the strong feature of his character was insincerity^' 
 
 On his accession to the throne, he promised toleration to all religions ; 
 but he soon gave indications that he would not adhere to that promise. 
 He brought with him from Scotland many political adventurers, who, 
 under pretence of making a further and a purer reformation in religion, 
 began a new persecution, and a further series of confiscations. 
 
 In the latter end of Elizabeth's reign, she relaxed somewhat in ex- 
 tracting fines from the Catholic gentry, who refused to conform to her 
 worship. These fines fell into arrear ; but the agents of James hunted 
 them up and levied on such estates as had fallen into debt to the 
 crown. A new reformation then commenced ; the estates of the 
 non-believers were all forfeited, and divided amongst the hungry fol- 
 lowers of the king ; and then came the conspiracy, called the gun- 
 powder plot ; this was concerted by William Catesby, a gentleman 
 of family, and by Guy Fawkes, a soldier of fortune, by Percy, a rela- 
 tive of the Northumberland family, and by ten others. 
 
 The parliament of James was to meet on the 5th of November, 1605 ; 
 previous to which, two hogsheads and thirty-two barrels of gunpowder 
 were secreted in the cellar of the parliament-house. It is said that this 
 was a Popish plot ; it is true some of the conspirators were Catholics, 
 but it should be remembered there were still some Catholic peers in 
 this very parliament. It was a plot originating in deep resentment, and 
 deadly resolve, as the event proved, to destroy by one effort a set of 
 men who had trampled on the law, and seized upon a large mass of 
 property, under cover of its outraged authority. Some one of the 
 conspirators, however, in obedience to a compunctious visiting, intimated 
 to Lord Monteagle a hint to stay away from the parliament on the 
 
716 GUT FAWKES. LONDON MONUMENT. 
 
 appointed day. He communicated his suspicions to others ; the alarm 
 spread ; the cellar was searched, and the powder there discovered. A 
 watch was then set ; and long before daybreak, Guy Fawkes was ap- 
 prehended entering the cellar, carrying a dark lantern, dressed and 
 booted as for a journey, and three matches were found in his pocket. 
 
 Fawkes boldly avowed his object before the privy council, and added 
 that he was prepared to be blown up in company with the tyrants, 
 rather than not rid his country of their oppression. Fawkes and the 
 others concerned were executed ; amongst the sufferers was Elizabeth's 
 great favorite, Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 
 It was on this occasion, that the celebrated anthem of England, 
 " God save the King," was composed and sung in the churches of 
 London. 
 
 The courtiers of James turned this plot into capital ; they swore it 
 was a Popish plot, instigated by the court of Rome ; and shortly after 
 this, the great fire of London taking place, they built the celebrated 
 monument, to commemorate the preservation of a portion of the city, 
 the partial destruction of which they ascribed to the Papists. 
 
 Alexander Pope has branded the monument with the immortal char- 
 acter of liar, which will go down to posterity a long way farther than 
 the monument itself — 
 
 " London's column, pointing to the skies, 
 
 Like a tall bully, lifts its head, and lies." 
 
 On the accession of James to the throne, he had it circulated in 
 Ireland, that he was tolerant and favorable to the Catholic religion. 
 It is said he wrote a letter to Pope Clement the Eighth, assuring his 
 holiness that it was his majesty's intention to become a Roman 
 Catholic. In one of the works which he has left behind him, he says, 
 " For myself, if that were yet the question, I would with all my heart 
 give my consent that the bishop of Rome should have the first seat." 
 
 The hopes thus held out to the Irish nation induced them to think 
 that they could again exercise their religion unmolested ; but in this 
 they were deceived. James's deputy. Lord Mountjoy, marched a force 
 into the south of Ireland, and wherever he could discover a cross, or 
 any building which indicated that the Catholic worship was there cele- 
 brated, he had that building seized and put into the possession of some 
 of his followers. 
 
 In the reign of Elizabeth, a code of penal laws had been smug- 
 gled into the Irish parliament. They lay dead, however, for some 
 
PLOT AGAINST THE o'nEILLS AND o'dONNELS. 717 
 
 years ;. they were now revived, and all men were called on to conform 
 to the state religion, and appear on Sundays in the state churches. 
 The members of the corporatiorl of Dublin were Catholic, and all of 
 them, but one, refused to attend ; that one was Alderman Archer : 
 the remainder were fined in various heavy sums of three hundred to 
 five hundred pounds each. 
 
 The old families took alarm, petitioned and remonstrated against this 
 act, and the gentleman who carried the petition before the privy 
 council, namely. Sir Patrick Barnwell, was imprisoned. 
 
 The most rigid persecution was instituted against Catholics ; yet, not- 
 withstanding all the persecutions that took place, and, moreover, during 
 the persecutions of Henry the Eighth, Edward, and Elizabeth, not 
 more than sixtij of the Irish people embraced the new worship, though 
 the population was two millions before the reign of Elizabeth. 
 
 James himself was neither a Protestant nor a Catholic. He disliked 
 the Puritans ; and, like all the Stuarts, was ever ready to sacrifice his 
 friend to the fear of his enemy. At this time, the Puritan party had 
 acquired an ascendency in the political affairs of Ireland, and very 
 many of the reformed clergy were inclined to their doctrines ; the most 
 eminent of those was the celebrated historian, Usher, archbishop of 
 Armagh, who, by his management, contrived to have the whole doctrine 
 of Cahin received as the public belief of the church of Ireland, and 
 ratified by Chichester, the king's lieutenant. 
 
 After this came the great plot for entirely subduing such parts of 
 Ireland as had yet held out against the authority of England. Finding 
 it compactly told by M'Geoghegan, I adopt his account. 
 
 " Cecil, the prime minister of James, a man of considerable talents, but of de. 
 formed person, together with some others connected with the government, acting 
 on the weak king's fears, incensed him against the Catholics of Ireland. The in- 
 strument which Cecil chose to effect his wicked purpose was Christopher St. 
 Laurence, baron of Howth, generally called the one-eyed, who received instruc- 
 tions to invite to a secret conference the leaders of the Catholics, in order to 
 entrap them. The Earls of Tyrone, Tirconnel, baron of Delvin, and some other 
 Catholics of distinction, appeared at this mysterious meeting ; St. Laurence made 
 them swear not to divulge what he would communicate to them for their own 
 safety. He then said, that he had information, through a channel which admitted 
 of no doubt, that the court of England was determined to eradicate the Catholic 
 religion out of Ireland, and force them to become Protestants ; that he himself, 
 from a concern for their safety, advised them to defend themselves against the 
 threat, until positive assurances would be obtained, that no change would be at- 
 tempted against their religion. The noblemen present, however, struck with 
 alarm, unanimously replied, that nothing would shake their loyalty to the prince, 
 
718 PLOT AGAINST THE o'nEILLS AND o'dONNELS. 
 
 in whose royal word they reposed every trust, he being their legitimate 
 sovereign. 
 
 " These protestations of loyalty were not sufficient to protect them against St. 
 Laurence ; he accused them to the king, as capable of forming secret designs 
 against his majesty and the state, though destitute of means to attempt any thing, 
 having neither troops on foot nor a hope of receiving succors from Spain. TjTone 
 and others were summoned before the council. The Catholics declared that the 
 accusation was a calumny ; but, seeing themselves confronted by St. Laurence, 
 they acknowledged that they attended the meeting much less for the purpose of 
 entering into any plot against the king, than to hear what tliis treaclierous man, 
 who had brought them together, intended to propose ; whose infamy they had 
 unanimously condemned on sufficient causes, of which the present is an illustra- 
 tion. Having been severally examined, and only one witness produced against 
 them, the council did not think prudent to put them under an arrest, but ordered 
 them to appear on the day following. During this short interval, some false 
 friends, who were of the council, advised them underhand to consult their own 
 safety, stating that one more witness only, who might be easily suborned, was 
 necessary to convict them. The perfidious advice was but too readily followed by 
 the Earls of Tyrone and Tirconnel, who quitted Dublin. Upon this, they were 
 proclaimed rebels, and not only their individual estates, but six whole counties in 
 the province of Ulster, were confiscated for the benefit of the crown, without 
 examination or trial. These counties were divided between several English and 
 Scotch Protestants, under such regulations as were obviously intended to produce 
 ruin both to the Irish people and their religion. Besides the pecuniary fines tliat 
 were inflicted, and the other penalties that were enacted against Catholics, it was 
 specifically inserted in the patents, that no portion of these lands should be sold, 
 transferred, or farmed, except to and by Protestants exclusively. St Laurence 
 himself, who had hitherto affected a tendency in favor of tlie Catholic religion, 
 declared himself a Protestant, and by doing so became a partaker of the spoils. 
 
 " This iniquitous proceeding being ended, Hugh O'Neill, earl of Tyrone, Rory 
 O'Donngl, earl of Tirconnel, Maguire of Fermanagh, and some other noblemen, 
 crossed over into France. The English ambassador of that court demanded of 
 Henry the Fourth, that these fugitives should be sent back to the king his master. 
 The French king, however, generously replied, that it was beneath the dignity of 
 a monarch to arrest a stranger who seeks to save himself by flight : upon this, the 
 earls took their departure for Flanders, where they were received with dis- 
 tinction by the archduke and archduchess, viz., Albert and Elizabeth, who 
 governed the Low Countries. Thence they proceeded to Rome, where his 
 Catholic majesty provided abundantly for their support, by pensions proportioned 
 to their rank." 
 
 The young and gallant O'Dougherty, chief of the Inishowen dis- 
 trict, seeing his countrymen doomed thus to extermination, took up arms 
 in their defence ; he raised what forces he could, and took some of 
 the English garrisons in his neighborhood, exhibiting great bravery in 
 the various assaults ; he kept up a desultory warfare for a few months, 
 in expectation of aid from some of the friendly powers of the continent, 
 
SEIZURE OF ULSTER. MODE ADOPTED. 719 
 
 with whom the great Hugh O'Neill was then in negotiation. O'Dough- 
 erty, having all the courage, but wanting the skill and caution of the 
 great O'Neill, was, after five months' fighting with twice his numbers, 
 killed while leading a charge in battle. 
 
 The hopes of Ireland from the north were now totally subdued ; the 
 heroic leaders were all exiled or killed ; the successes of the English 
 in Leinster had left that province destitute of a single military leader. 
 
 The whole province of Ulster was soon cleared of its old inhabitants 
 by the sword. King James parcelled out the province to several 
 companies of Londoners, who sent over from Scotland and from Eng- 
 land, but principally from Scotland, a new race to plant it. 
 
 He contrived to confiscate a great portion of the lands of Leinster 
 and Munster ; but ere he forced his way to Connaught, death carried 
 him off. The extermination of nearly a million of the Irish, in the 
 reign of Elizabeth, by sword and by famine, left the country an easy 
 prey to James. The form of inquiry into titles of estates was gone 
 into ; but juries which refused to find a title in the crown were impris- 
 oned and fined. 
 
 To show the shameless means resorted to by James's followers, I 
 quote from Leland : — 
 
 " It was an age of project and adventure ; men's minds were particularly pos- 
 sessed with a passion for new discoveries, and planting of countries. They who 
 were too poor, or too spiritless, to engage in distant adventures, courted fortune 
 in Ireland. Under pretence of improving the king's revenue, they obtained com- 
 missions of inquiry into defective titles ; discoverers were every where busily 
 employed in finding out flaws in men's titles to their estates ; tlie old pipe rolls, 
 and the patent rolls in London, were searched to ascertain the original grants ; 
 and, as all the Irish descents came by gavelkind, no registry or patent was ever 
 eo much as thought of by the Irish landowners. He who could not establish his 
 right by a patent from the crown was dispossessed. The most iniquitous prac- 
 tices of hardened craelty, of vile perjury, and scandalous subornation, were em- 
 ployed to despoil the fair and unoffending proprietor of his inheritance." 
 
 In O'Connell's Memoir of Saxon atrocity, which substantially begins 
 at the reign of* James the First. I find many things which I would 
 transcribe had I room. As the Liberator's book is in the hands 
 of almost every body, I refer the reader to its incontrovertible pages, 
 for a narrative of well-attested English cruelty and treachery, such as 
 disfigure no other page of human history. 
 
 Sir John Davies, the English lawyer, sent over by James the First, 
 to act as attorney-general in Ireland, has borne evidence to the iniquity 
 of the English invaders of Ireland, from the times of Henry the 
 
720 PARLIAMENT OF J.VMES THE FIRST. 
 
 Second, 1172, to his own time, 1610. It appears that Henry the 
 Second marked out the whole of Ireland as confiscated from the original 
 inhabitants to himself; that they were deprived of all property in the 
 land of their fathers, an exception being made in favor of five families 
 only, who were called, in pleading, persons of the five bloods, — " de 
 quinque sanguinibus" — namely, the O'Nials of Ulster, O'Melachlins of 
 Meath, the O'Connors of Connaught, the O'Briens of Thomond, and 
 the M'Murroughs of Leinster. Henry granted, it seems, some special 
 charter to the citizens of Waterford, many of whom were Danes, on 
 condition of remaining loyal to him. 
 
 It had been considered lawful, up to this time, for any Englishman to 
 rob, despoil, or kill an Irishman, or ravish an Irishwoman ; and, if 
 brought to trial, it was enough to plead, as a defence, that the person 
 robbed, despoiled, ravished, or murdered, was an Irishman or Irish- 
 woman, not of the five bloods specially excepted, as above. This was 
 the law, the justice, and the policy of the invaders for more than four 
 hundred years. See O^ConneWs Memoir, Casserly's edition, pp. 42, 
 43, Sic. And, although in James's time, at the recommendation of 
 Sir John Davies, a seeming effort was made to extend one law to all 
 throughout Ireland, we shall see the good interit effectually frustrated 
 by the evergrowing antipathy, jealousy, or covetousness, of the Eng- 
 lish adventurers. 
 
 In this reign, the first general parliament, since the English invasion 
 and the fall of Tara, was held in Ireland. To fill this parliament 
 with Englishmen, King James created, in one day, forty boroughs, on 
 each of which he conferred the right of electing two members, which 
 right lay in the votes of thirteen only of the burgesses, whose chief 
 qualification was the public profession of the Protestant faith. Sir John 
 Davies was the speaker of this house. From such an assembly, it may 
 readily be supposed, the Irish, who still adhered more fixedly than ever 
 to the Catholic faith, experienced the excruciating torture of a burning 
 stream of injustice, rendered the more galling by its emission under the 
 forms of law. 
 
 Charles the First, son of James the First, succeeded to the throne of 
 England, anno 1625. He, like his father, began his reign with 
 promises of toleration. In religion, he was an Episcopalian, and en- 
 deavored to force Episcopacy on the Scots, which attempt they resisted 
 successfully in the field, and compelled him to relinquish. To the 
 Catholics of Ireland he was insincere. 
 
 In 1628, Lord Faulkland, his deputy in Ireland, advised the 
 
CHARLES THE FIRST. THE FIFTY-ONE " GRACES." 721 
 
 Catholics to send agents to England, to make a tender of their services 
 and pecuniary support to the king, with a view to be relieved from the 
 fines imposed on those who refused to conform to the new worship. 
 The Catholics, therefore, sent over their agents with an offer of one 
 hundred and thirty thousand pounds, then deemed a considerable sum : 
 the king accepted the money, granting letters of grace towards them, 
 which insured them freedom of their religion, the trial of all dis- 
 putes and claims by respectable juries, the enjoyment of their prop- 
 erties undisturbed, and a limitation of the title of the crown to their 
 lands, promising likewise to have these rights confirmed by parlia- 
 ment : to these conditions were given the name " king's graces." 
 
 The king took the first two instalments, amounting to one hundred 
 thousand pounds, but never called the parliament to sanction the royal 
 promise ; and thus he cheated them, in a most shameful manner, out of 
 their money. 
 
 These " graces " consisted of fifty-one articles ; and, if honestly 
 adhered to by the English parliament, the Catholics would, under all 
 the circumstances, have been safe in the exercise of their religious wor- 
 ship, and secure in the enjoyment of their properties. 
 
 The Liberator, in his able memoir, has the following passage on the 
 " graces ; "' — 
 
 *' Thus the Irish, and especially the Catholic Irish, in order to obtain the con- 
 firmation oi' their titles to their own estates against an objection in its veiy 
 nature frivolous and unjust, had, in 1628, agreed to pay, and actually did pay, one 
 hundred and twenty thousand pounds to the king ; and, in 1634, the parliament I 
 have spoken of, composed of Catholics and Protestants, granted supplies doubling 
 in amount the expectation of the lord deputy, who gave thereon the most em- 
 phatic promise that the graces should be immediately conceded. 
 
 « Is it credible that, all this time, this very lord deputy had determined these 
 concessions should not be granted ? that the people's money should be obtained 
 under a false pretence, and no value given ? that tlie plighted honor — the honor 
 of Protestant England — should be pledged to Catholic Ireland, and should be 
 pledged only to exhibit another instance of shameless knavery, another most 
 disgraceful breach of public faith ? Why, in its own nature, it is incredible ; 
 TET IT IS LITERALLY TRUE, as may be seen from Strafford's, the deputy's, letters, 
 and the king's reply ^ first, the passage from the deputy's letter, addressed to 
 Secretary Coke : — 
 
 " ' Both houses have, during this sitting, likewise extremely pressed for the 
 graces, especially the law existing in England, for threescore years' possession 
 to conclude the rights of the crown ; and, in the lower house, none so earnest as 
 Fingal and Ranalagh, urging his majesty's promise at every turn. The commons 
 have named a committee to attend the chancellor. * * * * So as consider- 
 91 
 
722 PERFIDY OF THE KING AND HIS DEPUTY. 
 
 in^ that many of these graces are hy no means to pass into laws, and not fore- 
 seeing what inconvenience miglit fall upon his majesty, if these pressures were 
 suffered to go on too far, I consulted these two judges, and Sir George Radcliffe, 
 how we might incline the board to give them the negative answer, and take it off 
 the king, which, on Thursday last, I effected, being, in good faith, very excellently 
 assisted at the table by tJie.m all three, so as now we are resolved not only privately 
 to transmit our humble advices upon every article of the graces, but on Tuesday 
 next, to call this committee of the commons before us, and plainly tell them, that 
 we may not, with faith to our master, give way to transmitting of tliis law of three- 
 score years, or any other of the graces prejudical to the crown ; nay, most humbly 
 beseech his majesty they may not be introduced to the prejudices of his royal 
 rights, and clearly represent unto the king, that he is not bound, either in justice, 
 honor, or conscience, to grant them ; and so, putting in ourselves mean betwixt 
 them and his majesty's pretended engagements, take the hard part wholly from his 
 majesty, and bear it ourselves as well as we may.' — Strafford^ 279, 280. 
 
 " It may be supposed, that Charles was no party to this villanous duplicity. 
 Alas, alas for poor human nature ! and alas for royal nature, too ! Pause and 
 read his reply : tlie king thus writes to Strafford : — 
 
 " ' Wentworth, before I answer any of your particular letters to me, I must tell 
 you, that your last public despatch has given me a great deal of contentaient, and 
 especially for keeping off the envy (odium) of a necessary negative from me of 
 those unreasonable graces that people expected from me.' — Stafford's State Let- 
 ters, Vol. I. p. 321. 
 
 " Both these men lost their heads upon the scaffold. Strafibrd was a consum- 
 mate political villain ; Charles was spoiled by his education and his advisers ; but 
 Ireland suffered, without any compensation, from the deliberate villany of the one 
 and the regal treachery of the other." — CConnelPs Memoir, p. 179, Casserly's 
 edition. 
 
 As for Strafford's grand scheme for confiscating the entire province 
 of Connaught, by the estabhshment of juries to inquire into the king's 
 title to all the lands in the country, beginning with the county Ros- 
 common, and his barefaced mode of bribing judges and jurors, or fining, 
 imprisoning, branding with hot irons, such jurors as refused to find for 
 the king, I refer the reader to his letters, quoted at copious length in 
 O'Connell's Memoir, p. 187. 
 
 To the people of England, King Charles the First proved a vacil- 
 lating, absolute king, attempting to tax them by the force of bis will 
 alone, almost scorning the sanction of parliament. The house of 
 commons containing many Puritan members, these opposed the king 
 in any endeavor of his to establish Episcopacy. They held con- 
 stant communication with the Presbyterians of Scotland. A book 
 of common prayer, composed by the king and council, for Scotland, 
 was ordered to be read in the churches of Edinburgh, by his majesty's 
 command. The Dean of Edinburgh, in his surplice, undertook this 
 
PRESBYTERIAN WORSHIP. ASSAULT ON THE CATHOLICS. T23 
 
 duty, but was assaulted by some person who flung a stool at him ; a 
 mob was gathered, and the life of the dean was threatened. Imme- 
 diately the Scots entered into the memorable compact, called the 
 Covenant, which they compelled all people to subscribe. Archbishop 
 Spottiswood, and several other archbishops, fled to England. The 
 Scots formed themselves into four tables, as they termed it, to regulate 
 their affairs ; all their political concerns were managed at their devotions, 
 which imparted an extraordinary share of frenzy to their proceedings. 
 The Marquis of Hamilton came from England, by the king's commands, 
 to dissolve their convention ; but they continued to sit, in defiance, and 
 appointed a Mrs. Mitchelson to preside over their deliberations, who 
 affirmed that God spoke through her mouth. This mixture of fanaticism 
 and national spirit gathered into an immense, infuriate storm ; and 
 although Charles sent twenty thousand men against the Scots, he was, 
 after some hard-fought battles, and many defections from his standard, 
 compelled to grant them the most unlimited terms. The Presbyterian 
 worship was then established as the national worship of Scotland, and 
 has remained so, with some modification, to the present time. 
 
 Passing over many of the events of this reign in Ireland, I come 
 rapidly to what is called the "rebellion and massacre of 1641." The 
 Catholics tried, by grants to the king, and by declarations of loyalty, to 
 obtain liberty to enjoy their religious worship in peace. Hitherto, 
 since the reign of Elizabeth, they paid a fine of twelve pence per week 
 each, for refusing to attend the English church service. Twelve pence 
 of those days were equal to three or four times the amount in the money 
 of the present ; from which, we may form an opinion of the extent of 
 their sacrifices ; and yet Lord Wentworth (Earl of Strafford) says of this 
 fine, " As a matter of revenue, it should be continued ; but," adds he, " if 
 it be held to, for that which it was intended, which was, to bring the 
 Irish to a conformity in religion, it would come to nothing, and would 
 prove a covering narrower than a man could wrap himself in." 
 
 Such is the opinion, put on record, as to the inflexible adherence of 
 the Irish to their religious opinions, by the very best authority ; namely, 
 the chief persecutor in the trying ordeal. 
 
 Charles, who at first appeared disposed to favor the free worship of 
 the Roman Catholics, receded all at once from this position, through the 
 intimidation of the Puritans, and from the meanness of his own nature. 
 When he had got upwards of one hundred thousand pounds from the 
 Catholics, he dropped his lenient tenderness for their consciences. Soon 
 the system of terrorism recommenced. The Archbishop of Dublin and 
 
724 LEGAL ROBBERIES. 
 
 the chief magistrate of the city, at the head of a file of musketeers^ 
 entered the CathoHc chapel of Cook Street, on St. Stephen's day, whilst 
 the congregation were at their devotion. They seized the priest in his 
 vestments at the altar, hewed down the crucifix, and carried off all the 
 sacred vessels and ornaments. After the first shock, occasioned by this 
 unexpected act of violence, was abated, several of the congregation pur- 
 sued the assailants with stones, and rescued their clergyman. 
 
 The representation of this incident to the English council produced 
 an order for seizing fifteen religious houses for the king's use. The most 
 rigorous execution of the penal laws was now every where put into 
 operation ; and the king gave an order that the array should be paid 
 out of fines levied upon the Catholics who refused to attend the new 
 worship. He commended the wisdom and energy of his Irish council, 
 and directed them to "go on, till the work was fully done, as well in the 
 city as in other places of the kingdom, leaving to their discretion when, 
 and where, to cany a soft or harder hand ! " — See Carte's Ormond. 
 
 Lord Strafford, who had been a member of the opposition, in the 
 English house of commons, suddenly became a courtier, and won the 
 confidence of the king so far as to be appointed the lord deputy of Ire- 
 land, where, on his arrival, he exceeded even the king's cruelty and 
 dissimulation. He revived the court of inquiry into titles, which bad 
 been some time laid aside, and confiscated the entire province of Con- 
 naught. He did this by empanelling juries in each county, the 
 members of which were heavily taxed, if they refused to find a tide to 
 the lands in the crown. The jurors who did not so find, were fined four 
 thousand pounds each, and kept in prison till they paid it ; four shil- 
 lings in the pound were allowed to the chief justice and chancellor, upon 
 all the annual value of the estates seized. Such a system of tyranny 
 was likely to be effective ; and county after county of the province of 
 Connaught was thus vested in the king. 
 
 For nine years this wicked nobleman thus fleeced and persecuted the 
 people of Ireland, endeavoring by every art to exterminate them. 
 At length he was suspected and envied by his former party in the Eng- 
 lish house of commons, who had him impeached, tried, and beheaded. 
 He defended himself with great eloquence ; but he had proceeded too 
 far in enforcing Episcopacy on the Irish Puritans, which was his real sin 
 in the eyes of the parliament of England. He expected, all through, 
 that the king would pardon him ; yet the king signed his death-warrant 
 by commission. The night before his execution, he offered twenty- 
 
PLOT TO EXTERMINATE THE CATHOLICS. 725 
 
 two thousand pounds to the keeper of the Tower to suffer him to 
 escape ; but all could not save him. 
 
 Returning to the system of plunder and persecution fomented by this 
 wicked man, — it produced the utmost ferocity, thirst for plunder, and 
 intolerance, on the side of the Protestant Puritans, and a deadly ani- 
 mosity and a desire of vengeance in the minds of the Catholics. 
 
 Several Catholic priests were at this time put to dealh for merely 
 exercising the functions prescribed by their church. Thomas Ballaker, 
 Thomas Holland, Paul Heath, Francis Bell, Henry Morse, Morgan 
 
 Philip Powel, Martin Woodcock, Reading, and Whitaker, 
 
 were executed in England, under this charge, between the years 1641 
 and 1646: many priests were also hanged in Ireland, and some of these 
 upon the lord deputy's warrant, as related by Strafford, in his defence, 
 that it was the common practice for the lord deputies of Ireland to have 
 men hanged upon their simple warrant, taking on themselves the respon- 
 sibility. — See Rushworih's Collections, viii. p. 649. 
 
 " Some time before the rebellion broke out," says Carte, " it was con- 
 fidently reported that Sir John Clotworthy, who well knew the designs 
 of the faction that governed the house of commons in England, had 
 declared there, in a speech, that the conversion of the Papists in Ireland 
 was only to be effected by the Bible in one hand, and the sword in the 
 other. And Mr. Pym gave out that they would not leave a priest in 
 Ireland. To the like effect Sir William Parsons, out of a strange weak- 
 ness, or detestable policy, positively asserted, before so many witnesses, 
 at a public entertainment, that, ivithin a twelvemonth, no Catholic 
 should be seen in Ireland. He had sense enough to know the conse- 
 quences that would naturally arise from such a declaration, which he 
 would hardly have ventured to make so openly, if it had not been agree- 
 able to the politics and measures of the English faction, whose party tie 
 espoused, and whose directions were the general rule of his conduct." — 
 Carte's Onnond, vol i. p. 235, (English authority.) — And so it turned 
 out to be; for it was afterwards a common thing for the English soldiers 
 to kill the pregnant women, and take out the young children from their 
 wombs, and sport them on the tops of their spears ! 
 
 To see their lands and ancestral halls taken from themselves, and 
 handed over to strangers ; to see their priests hanged, or hunted, and the 
 exercise of their worship broken in upon by hardened, unfeeling ruffians; 
 to see their women and children thus butchered ; to find the king de- 
 ceiving them whilst he took large sums of their money, — was quite 
 enouo;h to drive men to madness. 
 
726 
 
 CATHOLIC CONFEDERATION. IRISH REBELLION. 
 
 It becoming quite manifest to the Irish Catholics that a deep plot was 
 hatching for their destruction, several of the heads of that body confed- 
 erated for their mutual protection. Their alarm was increased by the 
 discovery of a certain petition to parliament, which was secretly got up 
 by the Puritans of Ireland, and had received many thousand signatures. 
 This petition prayed that the Irish Papists should be obliged either to 
 turn Protestants or quit the kingdom, and that those who would not sub- 
 mit to that law should be hanged at their own doors. The following 
 Irish chiefs then resolved on seizing on the Castle of Dublin, and estab- 
 lishing, by a vigorous 9nd well-concerted stroke, the independence of 
 their country — Sir Phelim O'Neill of Tyrone, Rory O'Morra of Ballina, 
 in the county Kildare, Maguire,lord ofEnniskillen, M'Mahon of Mona- 
 ghan, Philip O'Reilly, the chief of Cavan, and several other noblemen 
 of Ulster and Connaught. The attack on the castle was fixed for the 
 23d of October, 1641. Lords Maguire and M'Mahon were appointed 
 to liead the attack ; but one Connolly, Maguire's servant, gave infor- 
 mation of it to the justices the day previous, when the leaders were 
 seized. Maguire and M'Mahon were hanged at Tyburn. Connolly, 
 who embraced the Protestant religion, was rewarded with large posses- 
 sions, in the north-west of Ireland, as the wages of his perfidy. 
 
 Justices Borlaise and Parsons, who inwardly delighted at the idea of 
 a general revolt, having in view the prospect of considerable confisca- 
 tion, now despatched troops into every district of Ireland, to put down 
 the threatened or partial revolt. Sir Phelim O'Neill had captured 
 some English castles in the north, and O'Reilly of Cavan had seized 
 upon Drogheda and some garrisons in its neighborhood. The English 
 soldiery received orders to spare neither man, woman, nor child. Mas- 
 sacres were committed by them in Santry, Clontarf, and Bullock, near 
 Dublin. The garrison of Carrickfergus massacred three thousand men, 
 women, and children, near that place. Similar cruelties were practised 
 by Lord Broghill in the counties of Cork and Waterford — by Coote in 
 the county of Wicklow, where, to use the expression of Coote him- 
 self, " not a child, were it but a hand high, was left ahve." Yet the 
 Catholics, who, driven to madness by this inhuman cruelty, retaliated 
 on their pursuers, are charged with massacring the Protestants in cold 
 blood. 
 
 We have long been accustomed to hear the massacre of 1641 given as 
 a Popish butchery. 
 
 But what does impartial history say ? 
 
ENGLISH EVIDENCES. 
 
 121 
 
 Dr. Anderson, in his Royal Genealogies, has the following passage : — 
 
 " The native Irish being well informed, as tliey thought, that they now [1641] 
 must either turn Protestant, or depart the kingdom, or be hanged at their own doors, 
 they betook to arms in their own defence ; especially in the province of Ulster, 
 where the six counties had been forfeited." 
 
 The English Lord Clarendon says, — 
 
 " About tlic beginning of November, 1641, the English and Scotch forces, m 
 Carrickfergus, murdered, in one night, all the inhabitants of the Island of Gee, to 
 the number of three thousand men, women, and cliildren, all innocent persons ; in 
 a time when none of tlie Catholics of tliat country were in arms or rebellion." 
 
 He adds the note, — 
 
 "This was the Jirst massacre committed in Ireland on either side." 
 
 The same noble author, further on, speaking of Munster, has the 
 following: — 
 
 " In Decey's county, the neighboring English garrisons of the county of Cork, 
 after burning and pillaging all that county, they murdered above three hundred 
 persons, men, women, and children, before a7iy rebellion began in Munster. And 
 the same party led one hundred laborers prisoners to Caperquin, who, being tied 
 in couples, were cast into the river, and made sport to see them drowned." 
 
 He continues thus : — 
 
 " Observe that this county is not charged with any murder committed on Protes- 
 tants.'''' 
 
 Sir William Petty, an English Protestant, and secretary to Cromwell, 
 assures us that, after the most minute inquiry, he finds the computed 
 numbers killed on both sides, in battle and by massacre, did not exceed 
 thirty -six thousand ; and it appears there were more Irish Catholics 
 killed than of the opposite religion. 
 
 Other evidences might be given of provocations for what followed ; 
 but these two are samples of all. That the motives and objects of these 
 exterminators were plunder, is now admitted : to drive the unfortunate 
 people to revolt, in order that their lands might be seized, was their 
 aim. After Strafford's death, the chief government of Ireland was 
 lodged in the hands of the joint deputies. Parsons and Borlaise. Dr. 
 Leland, an historian on the English side, speaking of these men's acts, 
 says, — 
 
 " Whatever were the professions of the chief governors, the only danger tliey 
 really apprehended was that of a too speedy suppression of the rebellion. Exten- 
 sive forfeitures were their favorite object, and that of their friends." 
 
 Carte, the English historian, says, — 
 
 " They privately wrote to the Earl of Leicester not to accept of any overtures 
 
728 ORDER TO KILL ALL THE PAPISTS. 
 
 from the northern rebels, because the cost of supplies from England would be amply 
 compensated by the estates of the actors in the rebellion. And after Parsons'a 
 disgrace, [says Carte,] he owned to Clanrickard, tliat the English parliament's 
 pamphlets were received in preference to the king's orders, as oracles, its com- 
 mands obeyed as laws, and extirpation preached as gospel.^'' 
 
 Such were the predispositions of the governors of Ireland, and their 
 followers, previous to the explosion and massacre of 1641. That 
 was an upheaving of the whole elements of society, a bursting up of 
 the most wicked and exasperated passions of man. Leland says that 
 the favorite object, both of the Irish government and English parliament, 
 was the utter extermination o/ai^l. the Catholic inhabitants of Ireland, 
 even to the last human being ! He is a Protestant historian. Their 
 estates were already marked out and allotted to the conquerors, so that 
 they and their families were consigned to irretrievable ruin. 
 
 On the 23d February, 1641, an order was issued from the council 
 chamber of Dublin Castle, to kill every human being supposed to be a 
 rebel, or who gave heritance to a supposed rebel. This dreadful order 
 was literally carried into effect ; and the justices declare, says Leland, 
 (book 5,) " that the soldiers slew all persons promiscuously, not sparing 
 the women or children," The Ormond Letters supply the following 
 passage : — 
 
 " Sir William Parsons hath, by late letters, advised the governor to the burning 
 of corn, and to put man, icoman, and child to the sivord, and Sir Adam Lofhis 
 hath written in the same- strain." — Ormondes Letters, ii. 350. 
 
 The Liberator gives the following terrific page : — 
 
 " Here is a specimen of a massacre of prisoners in the streets of Dublin, who 
 were taken at the battle of Rathmines. It is Lord Ormond who speaks. The 
 army, [Catholic,] I am sure, was not eight thousand effective men, and of them it 
 is certain there were not above six hundred killed ; and the most of them that 
 were killed were butchered after they had laid down their arms, and had been 
 almost an hour prisoners, and divers of tliem murdered before they were brought 
 within the works of Dublin." — Oi-mond, ii. 396. 
 
 " Their friars and priests were knocked on tlie head, promiscuously, with the 
 others who were in arms." — Whitelocke, 412. 
 
 Again : — 
 
 " Sir Theophilus Jones had taken a castle, put some men to the sword, and 
 thirteen priests." — JVhitelocke, 527. " Monroe put sixty men, eighteen women, and 
 two priests, to death in Newry." — Leland, iii. 203. 
 
 Castlehaven and Clarendon give details of thousands of women, and 
 children, and old men, who hid themselves in furze, which was set 
 fire to, and the people m it burnt ; whoever tried to escape was shot. 
 
RESISTANCE OF THE CATHOLICS. 729 
 
 The flame of revolt now broke forth from the north, west, and south ; 
 the Catholics revenged themselves every where on the Protestants, 
 whom they now regarded as their new enemies. The old English, 
 inside the Pale, as well as the old Irish outside, were driven, by terrible 
 ^ persecution, to join this hatred of the new comers ; and, it is grievous 
 to state, some eight hundred and fifty families, and five thousand men, 
 of the new settlers, were massacred by the Catholics. Some of the 
 historians magnify this ; but Dr. Warner, who took every possible pains 
 to ascertain the truth, states this number as the result of his inquiry. 
 
 The king, becoming shocked at the rivers of blood, now let flowing 
 from both sides, sent commissioners to Ireland to treat for a cessation of 
 hostilities. But the lords justices in Dublin, and particularly Ormond, 
 frustrated every such attempt. Plunder, plunder, plunder, was their 
 object, though they swam to it through rivers of human blood. 
 
 The confederated Catholic lords, both of the English Pale and of old 
 Irish blood, now assembled in Kilkenny, under a regular organization, 
 and, having formed a supreme council, assumed the government of Ire- 
 land, for the protection of their religion, lives, and fortunes. The pres- 
 ence of clergymen at this assembly imparted to it a greater solemnity. 
 The four provinces were represented by-Thomas Preston, of the house of 
 Gormanstown, for Leinster ; Barry, of Barrymore, for Munster ; Burke, 
 of the house of Clanrickard, for Connaught ; and by Owen Roe O'Neill 
 for Ulster. At this Catholic national council, laws, admitted by their 
 enemies to be most equitable, were enacted. The grand council con- 
 sisted of six delegates from each province, and they adopted and used a 
 common seal ; ambassadors were sent from this council to foreign poten- 
 tates, to negotiate for aid, and, although unprovided whh arms, in less 
 than two years they conquered back a great proportion of the lands 
 which they lost in the last reign. 
 
 At length, by the king's repeated commands, a cessation of hostilities 
 between the Catholics and new settlers was agreed to. The king's 
 commissioners appeared at the Catholic council, in Kilkenny, with full 
 powers to settle all things to their satisfaction. The king suddenly be- 
 came most anxious to conciliate the Catholics, and attach them to his 
 interest, and commanded Ormond, his lord lieutenant, to conclude a 
 peace with them, whatever it cost. Here are the king's words: "/ 
 command you to conclude a peace with the Irish, cost what it,may." In 
 another — " I absolutely command you, without reply, to execute the di- 
 rections I sent you on the 27th February last, which were, to malce peace 
 even without the council." The treaty for peace was signed at Kil- 
 92 
 
730 THE king's dispute with the parliament. HAMPDEN. 
 
 kenny, by the Catholic confederates on the one hand, and by the king's 
 commissioners on the other. But scarcely was it signed, when it was 
 formally rejected by the northern army, who, though in the king's ser- 
 vice, were under the influence of the Puritan party in the English 
 parliament. An apprehension that I might weary my readers forbids 
 me to quote here the monstrous, the incredible cruelties practised by the 
 English government in Ireland, under the administration of Ormond, by 
 their officer. Sir Charles Coote. The terrible doings of this monster 
 may be seen in O'Connell's Memoir, pp. 200 to 206, Sec, Casserly's 
 edition. 
 
 It is worth our attention to inquire into the origin of that dispute, 
 between Charles the First and the Puritan parliament, which ended in 
 his execution. The king, having entered into war with Spain and 
 France, fitted out a considerable fleet, and, to defray the expense, laid a 
 tax on his subjects by the instrumentality of a simple proclamation. 
 Mr. Chambers, a citizen of London, disputed the legality of this tax. 
 The opinions of the twelve judges were demanded by the king ; the 
 judges sanctioned the demand ; but Mr. Hampden, a gentleman of 
 Buckinghamshire, also disputed and refused to pay the tax. The case 
 was carried before the judges, where it was ably argued, when Hamp- 
 den was cast, and ordered to pay twenty shillings, the sum originally 
 levied. This, however, was still refused. 
 
 Shortly after this, the king went to Scotland, and while there, dis- 
 covered that a secret correspondence was going on between the Scots, 
 Puritans, and some members of the house of commons. Five of these 
 he ordered to be apprehended, and their papers to be seized. The par- 
 liament then passed a vote, declaring the inviolability of the persons of its 
 members, and that whoever would seize on their persons or papers 
 should stand on his defence. Next day, the king, with five hundred 
 armed men, went into the parliament-house to arrest the five members, 
 and, not seeing them, exclaimed, " The birds are flown." 
 
 The excitement outside now rose to a high pitch ; the sheriffs of 
 London, with an armed multitude, carried the five obnoxious members 
 to their seats. Hampden, on landing from his barge, was conducted to 
 his seat by four thousand horsemen. 
 
 The king then retired to his country residence, Hampton Court, and 
 from that to Windsor, from whence he sent pardons for the five members ; 
 but these were rejected by the parliament. Both houses petition the 
 king to surrender the forts, the Tower, and other places of strength, into 
 their hands. This was refused, and the parliament levy militia, appoint 
 
OLIVER CROMWELL. KING CHARLES BEHEADED. 731 
 
 commanders, organize a revolution, placing the chief command in the 
 hands of Oliver Cromwell, meet the king's party in several engage- 
 ments, and finally defeat him. 
 
 It is not a little extraordinary that Cromwell and some others, who 
 were about leaving England, on the breaking out of the civil war, were 
 seized at Plymouth, and detained by the king. At the celebrated 
 battle of Naseby, that very CromweWs right wing defeated the king's 
 army, took possession of all his ammunition, his majesty himself es- 
 caping by the merest chance. 
 
 The Scots now invite Charles to come over the border, — assuring 
 him that they will preserve him from his enemies. The king intrusts 
 himself to their confidence, and is basely betrayed by them into the 
 hands of the parliamentary leaders, and given up for two hundred 
 thousand pounds paid them by parliament. 
 
 Although the army and parliament, or rather the Presbyterians and 
 Independents, fell out, they subsequently agreed to impeach the king ; 
 seventy commissioners were appointed to try him ; at the head, as 
 president, was the celebrated Bradshaw. 
 
 They assembled in Westminster Hall. Bradshaw sat in a seat of 
 crimson velvet ; the others ranged themselves on either side, on 
 benches covered with scarlet ; at the feet of the president sat the 
 clerks ; on a table were the sword and mace, and directly opposite 
 stood a chair for the king ; when brought into court, and after hearing 
 the charge read, he declined to answer, and refused to acknowledge the 
 jurisdiction of the tribunal ; whereupon the president recorded the 
 " contempt and default of the prisoner." In four days after, the court 
 met and adjudged Charles guilty of the charges, and sentenced him to 
 death. On the 30th of January, 1649, he walked under guard from 
 St. James's to White-Hall, where he was led through the banqueting 
 room to the scaffold ; here his head was severed from his body, and then 
 given to his servants. 
 
 The death of the king was soon followed by the abolition of the 
 house of lords, when the powers of the three estates of the realm 
 merged in the house of commons. A new council, consisting of 
 thirty-nine persons, took on them the whole functions of the executive. 
 The crown lands, bishops' lands, the estates and revenues of the 
 deans and chapters, were again seized by the new powers ; in fact, 
 a new reformation was effected by the parliamentarians ; the mass book 
 was abolished by Elizabeth ; now, the church book, established by her 
 authority, was abolished, and a directory substituted by the parliament. 
 
 The persons who obtained priory, abbey, and church lands and 
 
732 NEW SECTS. FANATICISM. AN OLIGARCHY. 
 
 tithes, in the preceding reign, for the support of the reformed church, 
 were all ejected now. " And it was remarkable," says William Cobbett, 
 " how loudly those persons exclaimed, ' Sacrilege, sacrilege ! ' against 
 the new comers, whose own title to that property was founded upon no 
 better authority." 
 
 As the Catholic bishops were shut out of parliament in the last 
 reign, so the Protestant bishops were now excluded. Prelacy was de- 
 nounced ; to renounce prelacy and the liturgy were the only terms upon 
 which the parochial clergy were allowed to retain their benefices. 
 
 Upon the ruins of the Episcopal church, two sects rose into impor- 
 ance — the " Presbyterians " and " Independents." The Presby- 
 terians were for throwing off the authority of bishops, the religious 
 ceremonies still observed, and the liturgies and form of prayer lately 
 established. The Independents carried the change still farther; 
 they were for the entire abolition of ecclesiastical government ; they 
 disdained creeds, abolished ceremonies of every kind, and contended 
 for the sufficiency of individual judgment in matters of religion. Oliver 
 Cromwell, Sir Harry Vane, and other leaders, belonged to this class. 
 
 The superior activity and energy of the Independents, their influ- 
 ence in the army, and the exclusion of their rivals — the Presbyterians 
 — from parliament, gave them great power. The commonwealth be- 
 came an oligarchy in the hands of about one hundred persons, supported 
 by a standing army of forty-five thousand men. This oligarchy was 
 supported by the sword. Cromwell soon obtained the mastery in the 
 army by flattering the religious fanaticism of the soldiers, and encour- 
 aging in it principles of a levelling character. Many of the common 
 soldiers claimed the right to interpret the Scriptures and preach the 
 gospel. One of these fanatics went into the church of Walton-upon- 
 Thames, while the congregation were at divine service, carrying 
 in his hand a lantern and five candles, also a Bible : he said he had a 
 message to them from God, and, if they did not listen, they would be 
 all damned : he put out one light, as a mark of the abolition of the 
 Sabbath; the second, as the- abolition of tithes and church dues; the 
 third, as a mark of the abohtion of all ministers ; the fourth, of all 
 magistrates ; and the fifth he applied to setting fire to a Bible, declaring 
 that that also was abolished. 
 
 Such were the new chief governors of England. And now we cast 
 our eyes again on Ireland. The Kilkenny confederates had made 
 nearly a general reconquest of Ireland from the English ; only 
 two chief garrisons remained in possession of the British, namely, 
 Dublin and Londonderry. The parliamentarians had taken ten 
 
V/AR RENEWED AGAINST THE IRISH. 733 
 
 thousand Scotchmen into their pay : these were sent into Ireland, under 
 Major-General Monroe, rather to watch the movements of the Irish than 
 to reduce thera entirely. This force was augmented, by the Scotch and 
 English settlers in the country, to nineteen thousand men. 
 
 I take from M'Geoghegan the following graphic narrative of the 
 second battle of Benburb : — 
 
 " Monroe landed in Ireland in May. He marched to Carrickfergus, and seized 
 on the castles of Newry and Carlingford, where he placed garrisons. The Eng- 
 lish commanders represented to him that the opportunity was favorable for con- 
 tinuing the conquest, and reducing the whole province ; but he refused to cross the 
 River Bann, in which refusal he followed the directions of his masters. Having 
 condemned sixty men, eighteen women, and two priests, to death, in Newry, he 
 returned to Carrickfergus, and on his march laid waste the lands of Lord Iveagh 
 and Maccartan. He carried away four thousand head of cattle, and other prop- 
 erty ; the English forces expected a share in the booty, but the Scotch seized on 
 all during the night ; and the English, seeing themselves deceived, mutinied, and 
 v/ould no longer join the Scotch in their robberies. 
 
 " Owen Roe O'Neill was commander of the Irish in Ulster. He agreed with 
 the pope's nuncio, regarding the peace of lfi46, and the motives which influenced 
 tliat minister to oppose it. In the spring of this year, he travelled to Kilkenny, to 
 consult with tliat prelate on the state of religion and the country ; and, having re- 
 ceived the succors he expected, he returned to Ulster. 
 
 " This general collected his forces in the month of May, amounting to about 
 five thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry, with which body he marched 
 towards Armagh. Monroe led his army, consisting of six thousand infantry and 
 eight hundred horse, Scotch and English, and encamped within ten miles of the 
 same place. Being informed that O'Neill was on his march, with a design of 
 taking the city by surprise, the Scotch general decamped on the 4th of June, and, 
 advancing towards the city, arrived at midnight, with a view of attacking O'Neill. 
 Being informed that O'Neill was encamped at Benburb, Monroe marched the 
 next day to attack him ; but, though superior in numbers to O'Neill, he sent 
 orders to his brother, George Monroe, who commanded a force at Coleraine, to 
 come and join him at Glaslough, near Benburb. O'Neill, having information of 
 the time he was to pass, immediately despatched Colonels Bernard, M'Mahon, and 
 Patrick M'Nenay, with their regiments, to meet him and prevent a junction with 
 General Monroe. These two officers performed their trust to the satisfaction of 
 their commander. They cut the enemy, commanded by young Monroe, to pieces, 
 and' returned next day to Benburb, where they shared with O'Neill the honor of 
 the victory they had gained over the Scotch and English. O'Neill was favorably 
 posted between two hills, his rear being enclosed by a wood, and his right extend- 
 ing itself along the Blackwater. Being apprized that Monroe was at Glaslough, 
 O'Neill moved his cavalry to a height, from whence he viewed the Scotch army 
 on the opposite banks of the river. In the mean while, the Scotch crossed the 
 river, where it was fordable, near Kinard, and were marching to Benburb. O'Neill 
 sent Colonel Richard O'Ferral to occupy a defile through which the enemy had to 
 pass ; but their cannon prevented him from keeping it, and he was forced to retire, 
 wliich he did in good order. 
 
734 SECOND BATTLE OF BENBURB. 
 
 « The two amues began to prepare for battle. O'Neill kept the enemy em- 
 ployed for a while with light skirmishing and musketry, while waiting for the sun, 
 wliich annoyed his troops during the day, to go down. He was expecting also 
 the arrival of a detachment, which he sent the preceding evening against some 
 of the enemy at Coleraine. When Monroe saw this force arrive, he thought that 
 they were coming to join himself from the same place, but found his mistake on 
 seeing them enter O'Neill's camp. O'Neill now commanded his men to advance 
 within reach of the pike, and to begin with close fighting. His orders in this 
 were most valiantly executed. The English regiment, commanded by Lord 
 Blaney, after a vigorous defence, was cut to pieces ; and the Scotch cavalry being 
 broken by those of O'Neill, the rout became general. There was but the one 
 regiment of Sir James Montgomery that retired in a body, the remainder of the 
 army that escaped being thrown into the greatest disorder. Colonel Conway, who 
 had two horses killed under him, accompanied by Captain Burke and about forty 
 horsemen, reached Newry. Lord Montgomery was taken prisoner, besides 
 twenty-one officers, and about a hundred and fifty soldiers ; three thousand two 
 hundred and forty-three of the enemy fell on the field of battle, and several were killed 
 the day following in the pursuit. The loss on the side of O'Neill amounted to 
 about seventy men killed and two hundred wounded. The whole of the Scotch artil- 
 lery, arms, tents, baggage, and thirty-two stand of colors, were taken. The booty 
 was immense ; it consisted of fifteen hundred draught horses, and provisions of 
 every kind for two months. General Monroe saved himself with difficulty on 
 horseback, and fled without either hat or wig. After this defeat, he burned 
 Dundrum, and abandoned Portdown, Clare, Galway, Downpatrick, and other strong 
 places. The consternation of his army was so great that numbers fled to Scot- 
 land for safety. 
 
 " The victory gained by General O'Neill seemed to portend the complete con- 
 quest of Ulster. His respect, however, for the orders of the nuncio lost to him 
 the fruits of his success. His excellency wTote to him in June, complimenting 
 him on the victory he had gained, and beseeching him to march into Leinster, to 
 the support of those who opposed the peace. The messenger found O'Neill at 
 Tenrage, ready to fall upon the Scotch. However, in obedience to the nuncio's 
 request, he assembled a council of war, when it was decided to march directly to 
 Kilkenny, in conformity to which decision he issued his commands." 
 
 The monarchy and house of lords being some time overthrown in 
 England, the government of Ireland became an object of dispute to all 
 parties in England. The Presbyterians were for conferring it on 
 Waller; the Independents were inclined towards Lambert; but, after 
 some debating, they all finally agreed tbat Oliver Cromwell was' fittest 
 for that important trust. For some lime previous, a war of extermina- 
 tion had been declared against the Irish Catholics. 
 
 On the 24th October, 1644, the English House of Commons passed 
 the following among other resolutions : — 
 
 "The lords and commons, assembled in the parliament of England, do declare, 
 that no quarter shall be given to any Irishman, or to any Papist born in Ireland, 
 
NO QUARTER FOR THE IRISH. LANDING OF CROMWELL. 735 
 
 which shall be taken in hostility against tlie parliament, either upon sea or 
 within the kingdom or dominion of Wales ; and, therefore, do order that the lord- 
 general, tlie lord-admiral, and all other officers and commanders, botli by sea and 
 land, shall except all Irishmen, and all Papists born in Ireland, out of all capitu- 
 lations hereafter to be made with the enemy, and shall, upon the taking of every 
 such Irishman, and Papist born in Ireland, as aforesaid, forthioith pvi every 
 such person to deaih." 
 
 Cromwell, like some of the reformers who went before him, knew 
 the inflexibility of the Irish character in matters of religion. For the pur- 
 pose of reducing them to obedience to the new powers in England, 
 and under pretence of effecting ?i further reform of religion, he landed 
 in Dublin, with about twelve thousand of his choicest troops well 
 armed, bringing an extensive park of artillery, and twenty thousand 
 pounds in money. His army was composed almost entirely of religious 
 fanatics ; they were denominated levellers in England ; and they saw 
 before them in Ireland a rich prospect of plunder. 
 
 In the latter part of Charles's career, he caressed the Catholics of 
 Ireland, and induced them to believe that he was persecuted for coun- 
 tenancing the free exercise of their religion. This caused them to 
 espouse his quarrel, and to furnish soldiers and money to the royal 
 army. The Catholics were, therefore, now marked by Cromwell and 
 his levellers as their victims ; their private resolve was, no quarter 
 to the Papists, and this they put into execution to the letter. 
 
 Cromwell acted, on his arrival, as lord lieutenant of Ireland, in 
 the name of the parliament of England. No parliament was called or 
 suffered to be held in Ireland for thirty years after this ; the city of 
 Dublin submitted, but the provinces prepared for resistance, in the 
 name of " Charles the Second," son of the decapitated king. 
 
 To Drogheda Cromwell first marched. The town was defended only 
 by four or five thousand men, who bravely prepared to resist the 
 usurper. He appeared before it with ten thousand men, sum- 
 moned it to surrender, and, on refusal, thundered with his cannon at 
 the strong walls for two days, until he made a breach : the word for 
 assault was then given ; his men were twice repulsed with great 
 slaughter ; the garrison behaved with the utmost bravery. Cromwell, 
 seeing that all depended upon his success at this point, with the bravery 
 of a Napoleon, drew his sword, and, rallying his desponding soldiers, 
 entered the breach with great fury, and, breaking through the first 
 resistance, promised quarter to all those who should submit: this 
 quarter was continued as long as resistance appeared in any part of the 
 town. A submission was thus temporarily procured ; and no sooner 
 
736 MASSACRE AT DROGHEDA. BLASPHEMY OF CROMWELL. 
 
 were the arms of the brave defenders given up, than, says Leland, 
 " Cromwell, with an infernal calmness and deliberation, resolved, by 
 one effectual execution, to terrify the whole Irish party ; he issued his 
 fatal orders that the garrison should be put to the sword. Some of his 
 soldiers with reluctance butchered their prisoners ; the governor and all 
 his gallant comrades, numbering three thousand men, were butchered 
 in cold blood. A number of ecclesiastics wero found within the walls, 
 and these seemed to be the more immediate objects of his vengeance ; 
 he ordered his soldiers to plunge their weapons into the helpless men's 
 bodies. For five days, this butchery continued; thirty persons only, 
 out of the whole garrison and citizens, remained unslaughtered, and 
 these were transported as slaves to Barbadoes." 
 
 Cromwell sent to the parliament, on this occasion, a blasphemous 
 despatch ; it is worthy of perpetuation : — 
 
 " Sir, — It lias pleased God to bless our endeavors at Drogheda ; after battering", 
 we stonnod it. The enemy were about three thousand strong in the town. I 
 believe we put to the sword the whole number of the defendants. I do not think 
 thirty of the whole number escaped with their lives, and those that did are in 
 safe custody for the Barbadoes. This hath been a marvellous great mercy. I 
 wish that all honest heads may give the glory of this to God alone, to whom, indeed, 
 the honor belongs. For instruments, they were very inconsiderable to the work 
 throughout. 
 
 "O. Cromwell." 
 
 Upon which the parliament of England resolved, 2d October, 
 1649: — 
 
 " For this important success of the parliament's forces in Ireland, the house 
 appnintod a thanksgiving day, to be held on the 1st November ensusing through- 
 out the nation ; and further, a letter of thanks was voted to be sent to Cromwell, 
 lord lieutenant of Ireland, in which notice was to be taken that the house did 
 approve of the execution done at Drogheda, as an act both o\' justice to them, and 
 mercy to others, who may be warned by it." — Parliamentary History, vol. iii. 
 p. 1334. 
 
 ITow can any Englishman feel surprised at the natural hatred which 
 Irishmen entertain towards his country? Let every honest Englishman, 
 who blushes for this horrible resolution of the English commons, join 
 those patriotic men in England, Ireland, and America, who are try- 
 ing peaceably to get justice done to Ireland. By such a course alone 
 can that well-grounded hatred ever be removed. 
 
 Cromwell spread terror and consternation far and wide : he despatched 
 part of his army to the north, and repaired himself to the south. Wex- 
 ford he took easily, by the treachery of one Stafford, and, as in Droghe- 
 da, butchered the inhabitants, numbering five thousand. 
 
WEXFORD MASSACRE. HEROIC BISHOP. 737 
 
 Dr. Llngard, describing this massacre, says, " No distinction was 
 made between the defenceless inhabitant and the armed soldier ; nor 
 could the shrieks of three hundred females, who had gathered round the 
 great cross, preserve them from the swords of those ruthless barbarians." 
 
 He next proceeded to Duncannon ; but he was met here by a brave 
 and unexpected resistance from Wogon, the governor, who made a 
 sally which destroyed many of the besiegers, and obliged them to retire. 
 
 At Clonmel, he met with still greater resistance from Hugh ONeill, 
 who commanded only twelve to fourteen hundred of the provincials, 
 and who yet made such a resistance, that, in the first assault, two 
 thousand of the besiegers were killed. He was, therefore, content to 
 surround and starve the city rather than storm it. Lord Onnond sent 
 some assistance to the fort, but they were intercepted by the be- 
 siegers, and scattered or taken prisoners. 
 
 Amongst the prisoners taken at Ross, by Cromwell's forces, was a 
 Catholic bishop, who had been active in preaching up resistance to the 
 anvader. He could expect no forgiveness, yet forgiveness was promised 
 him, if he would use his great influence in inducing his friends in Clon- 
 mel to surrender ; he was taken before the town, but the gallant captive, 
 unshaken by the fear of death, when he came within sight of his coun- 
 trymen, implored them to maintain their post resolutely against the 
 enemies of their country and their religion, and be ready, as he was, to 
 die in their defence ; and then instantly resigned himself to execution. 
 
 Such a deed is worthy of a Spartan or a Roman fame, and ought to 
 bring crimson to the cheeks of those Irishmen who refuse to stir hand or 
 foot for the liberties of their country. 
 
 After a brave resistance of two months, diiring which Cromwell 
 lay around the town with twenty thousand men, many thousands of 
 whom were destroyed by repeated sallies, the garrison, having ex- 
 hausted their ammunition, secretly withdrew to Waterford, evacuating 
 the town ; and those who remained obtained most advantageous terms 
 from the usurper, under an impression that he had got hold of the gar- 
 rison, which, on finding how he was baffled, sorely vexed him, for he 
 had lain before the town all that time, unable to proceed farther in his 
 conquest southward. 
 
 He had already taken several thousands of the poor, defenceless 
 peasantry, and shipped them as slaves to the West India colonies, 
 when he was called back to England, to oppose Prince Charles, 
 (son of Charles the First,) who had left the Hague, by invita- 
 tion of some leading royalists of Scotland, and proceeded from the 
 93 
 
738 o'connell's sketch of cromwell. 
 
 continent, in a small convoy, under the command of the Baron Von 
 Tromp. Arriving safe in Scotland, the young prince, though a Prot- 
 estant, was compelled to swear to the covenant of the Scottish Presby- 
 terians, and had already made considerable headway. 
 
 On Cromwell's hasty return to England, he left the army in 
 IrelanrI, under Ireton, who was his duplicate, in cruelty at least. 
 
 I cannot even touch one tenth of the terrible events of this crue! 
 usurper's career. 
 
 One chief cause of the submission of Ireland to Cromwell was 
 the death of O'Neill, and the treachery of Lord Inchiquin, who 
 commanded, for the Irish confederation, nearly all the strong posts of 
 Munster, and whose surrender of these posts, and accession to the 
 enemy, was a severe blow to the cause of Ireland. 
 
 Limerick was obtained by the treachery of one or two within, and 
 the garrison and citizens put to the sword. Galway and several other 
 towns ultimately fell into the hands of the parliament. Lastly, Crom- 
 well, having obtained several victories over the troops of Prince Charles, 
 in Scotland, and compelled him to fly, was enabled to send fresh forces 
 to Ireland, which were poured in in such masses, that they became 
 inconvenient to each other. 
 
 I will introduce here a powerful summing up of Cromwell's atrocities, 
 from O'Connell's Memoir : — 
 
 " Cromwell gorged himself with human blood ; he committed the most hideous 
 slaughters, deliberate, cold-blooded, persevering; he stained the annals of the 
 English people with guilt of a blacker dye than has stained any other nation on 
 earth ; and, after all, for what ? What did he gain by it ? Some four or five 
 years of precarious power ! and, if his loathsome corpse was interred in a royal 
 grave, it was so only to have his bones thence transferred to a gibbet ! Was it 
 for this that he deliberately slaughtered thousands of men, women, and children? 
 female loveliness, and the innocent and beautiful boy — aged but seven years — 
 of Colonel Washington ? The natural result of the promiscuous slaughter of the 
 unarmed peasantry, wherever the English soldiers could lay hold on them, was, as 
 a matter of course, an appalling famine ; the ploughman was killed in the half- 
 ploughed field ; the laborer met his death at the spade ; the haymaker was him- 
 self mowed down ; a universal famine covered the land. An eye-witness, em- 
 ployed in hunting to death the Irish, has left the description which follows: 
 ' About the years 1G52 and 1653, the plague and famine had so swept away whole 
 countries, that a man might travel twenty or thirty miles, and not see a living 
 creature, either man, beast, or bird, they being either all dead or had quit those 
 desolate places. Our soldiers would tell stories of the place where they saw a 
 smoke, it was so rare to see either smoke by day, or fire or candle by night ; and, 
 when we did meet with two or three poor cabins, none but very aged men, witli 
 women and children, were to be seen, and tliose, like the prophet, might have 
 
SHOCKING CRUELTIES. 739 
 
 complained, We are become as a bottle in the smoke ; our skin is black, like an 
 oven, because of the terrible famine, &c. &c.' — Colonel Laurence's Ireland, 
 
 pp. 86, 87." 
 
 Cromwell now instituted trials of all those who assisted the " rebel- 
 lious " of the last ten years. But so many had been killed, so many 
 of the original movers were butchered, or had fled to Spain and France, 
 that only two hundred suffered death : thousands upon thousands had 
 forfeited their estates, and escaped to the continent. 
 
 We see, from Broudin and Lingard, that Cromwell sent away one 
 hundred thousand Irish to foreign countries ; they were principally the 
 flower of the Irish armies. Several thousand young girls and women 
 were seized, and sent to the West India and American colonies, under 
 pretence of making them English and Christian! These unhappy exiles 
 perished in hundreds and thousands ; many thousands were crowded 
 beyond the Shannon into Connaught, to live as best they could, or 
 to die of hunger from excessive numbers. The rest of Ireland was then 
 coolly divided amongst the soldiers of Oliver, he reserving to himself 
 the whole county Tipperary for a demesne. An edict was at the same 
 time issued from Dublin Castle, signed by Fleetwood, Ludlow, and 
 Jones, commanding that every Romish priest found in Ireland was 
 deemed guilty of rebellion, and sentenced to be hanged till half dead — 
 then to have his head taken off, and his body cut in quarters, his 
 bowels taken out and burnt, and his head fixed upon a pole in some 
 public place ; five pounds were offered for the head of a priest, which 
 was the sum given for the head of a wolf. 
 
 The Liberator quotes an extract, from a rare tract published the 
 year after Cromwell's death, which, after describing the horrid deaths 
 of about twenty-four of the most illustrious Irish commanders, concludes 
 thus : — 
 
 " What shall I yet say ? Time would fail me to narrate the martyrdoms of chiefs, 
 nobles, prelates, priests, friars, citizens, and others, of the Irish Catholics, whose 
 purple gore has stained the scaffolds almost without end, who, by faith, conquered 
 kingdoms, and wrought justice, of whom some had trials in mockeries and stripes, 
 moreover, also, in chains and prisons ; others were stoned, cut asunder, racked, or 
 put to death with the sword ; others have wandered over the world in hunger, 
 thirst, cold, and nakedness, — being in want, distressed, afflicted, — wandering 
 in deserts, in mountains, in dens, and in caves of the earth." 
 
 It was after having read these things in O'Connell's Memoir, that the 
 patriot, Robert Tyler, exclaimed, at Philadelphia, in reply to Brougham, 
 " Thank God, I am not an Englishman ! " 
 
 The lands of Ireland were now parcelled into small allotments, among 
 
740 CROMWELL ASSUMES THE THRONE. HIS DEATH. 
 
 Cromwell's array. This rule applied to every part of Ireland save 
 Connaught, which was appropriated by the English parliament, in a 
 general treaty with the Irish, for their reception ; all beyond the Shan- 
 non was appropriated for their use; and the rest of Leiand was 
 divided amongst the adventurers of the previous reigns and the present. 
 This took place anno 1654 ; but the parliament found it impossible to 
 force all the Irish from their homes, without encountering another war, 
 to which Cromwell was now averse. 
 
 At length, having influenced a majority of the English parliament to 
 his interest, Cromwell had himself proclaimed lord protector of Eng- 
 land, Scotland, and Ireland ; he sent his son Henry to Ireland, who 
 suddenly changed the system of government to comparative mildness. 
 Meditating now the seizure of the crown of England, and the es- 
 tablishment of himself as monarch, he soon found an opportunity to 
 carry his ambitious views fully into effect. Having secured the army, 
 and generated distrust of the parliament in the minds of the people, 
 he boldly took a file of musketeers to the house of commons, and 
 bid them "disperse — they had sat long enough"! To one, he 
 said, he was a drunkard ; to another, a cheat ; and finally directed 
 his officer to " carry ofi' that shining bauble," pointing to the mace. 
 In short, having turned them all out, he locked up the doors, and 
 coolly put the keys of the parliament-house in his pocket. ' 
 
 He soon called another parliament, but quickly dissolved it ; called a 
 second, and dissolved that ; a third, and a fourth, and found them all 
 untractable. He assembled and dissolved his parliaments as he would 
 his courts martial. His government was a naked despotism, depending 
 entirely on the soldiery for support. No parliament had been suffered to 
 assemble in Ireland for many years ; that country was given up to the 
 management of his son. His internal government was distinguished by 
 watclifulness and energy ; by means of his spies, he frustrated every 
 effort of his enemies ; but death put a period to his career, after a 
 stormy existence. He reigned as lord protector four years, but was 
 military dictator for ten or twelve. 
 
 Although his son, Richard Cromwell, was proclaimed hereditary pro- 
 tector, yet his authority was soon overthrown ; and the young Prince 
 Charles, having now a considerable party in England, Scotland, and 
 Ireland, had himself recalled to the throne of England ; which event 
 is denominated, in English history, the " restoration.^'' 
 
 Charles the First, when beheaded, left three children — two of 
 
CHARLES II. CHANGE IN THE RELIGION OF THE STATE. 741 
 
 whom successively became monarchs of England, as Charles the 
 Seco?id, and James the Second ; the first now filled the throne. 
 
 Anno 1660. On the arrival of Charles to power, he was beset by 
 intrigues. The various parties into which the three kingdoms were 
 split, contended for favor. The king introduced Episcopacy again, as 
 the religion of the nation, admitted bishops to the house of lords, and 
 also some Catholic peers to the same assembly, and drove the Presby- 
 terians and Independents from all offices of trust and power. The 
 Presbyterian clergy, especially, were driven from their livings. 
 
 This was the state of things in England. The condition of Ireland 
 was miserable in the extreme: the people had continued fighting for the 
 royal cause three years longer than any other part of the British empire ; 
 subject, for the previous hundred years, to the subduing influences of the 
 sword and of famine ; driven from their homes into wilds and fastnesses ; 
 and their houses and lands occupied by a new race, who seemed bent 
 on their extermination. It was thus the unfortunate wrecks of the 
 native Irish were penned up like hunted beasts in the wilds of Con- 
 naught. When Charles the Second came to the throne, before he 
 even landed in England, commissioners were sent to induce him to 
 exclude the Cathohcs of Ireland from parliament, and to confirm Crom- 
 well's soldiers in their holdings : this he promised, and, though the Irish 
 Catholics were the first to declare for his restoration, he, like a true 
 Stuart, when he reached the goal of his ambition, became the bitterest 
 enemy they had in all his dominions. 
 
 The very men, Coote and Broiighill, who most opposed the Stuart 
 cause, under Cromwell, — these, who hunted the old native Irish like 
 wolves, were the two men whom Charles now placed as chief rulers 
 over Ireland. The clamors that beset him, about the lands and spoils 
 of Ireland, were such as baffle all description. The English were all 
 for sweeping confiscations ; and the king was too much dependent on 
 his English supporters to refuse them any thing they asked in Ireland. 
 An act of " settlement " was, therefore, brought into parliament, which 
 confiscated from the Catholic Irish eight millions of acres of the 
 
 BEST LAND OF THE KINGDOM. 
 
 As for the mock " Court of Claims," established by him in Dublin, 
 one sentence will describe it. Before one thousand of the Catholic 
 proprietors had preferred their claims to be restored to their possessions, — 
 which claims, being resisted by the most barefaced perjury, were gen- 
 erally rejected, — Clarendon, his lord lieutenant, dissolved the court, 
 though there ivere yet seven thousand claims remaining unheard. 
 
742 LENITY OF THE CATHOLICS. INGRATITUDE OF CHARLES. 
 
 The old Catholic families met, and appointed agents to proceed to 
 England, to remonstrate against this sweeping and cruel confiscation ; 
 but they were neither heeded, nor even treated civilly, by Charles or 
 his ministers. 
 
 The Catholics were charged with the murder of fifty thousand 
 Protestants, since 1641 ; and, though the Catholics dared their accusers 
 to a solemn investigation of the origin of the spilling of blood, and 
 the greatest sufferers thereby, no inquiry ever took place. It is proved, 
 by Protestant historians, in numberless instances, where Catholic 
 generals saved the lives of Protestants during this sanguinary war. 
 O'Connell quotes three English historians to this effect : — 
 
 " But," he says, " with what proud and glowing gratulation do I turn to the 
 conduct of the Irish Catholics during the civil war! I collect from Protestant 
 historians; for on this subject I shall scarcely use one other: 'Multitudinous 
 facts of lenity, forbearance, and mercy — the horrors of war mitigated by the 
 multiplied exercise of the tenderest humanity.' What a glorious contrast ! a con- 
 ti-ast rendered more striking when we bear in mind, that all this time the English 
 Protestants were committing the horrid cruelties I have been citing. We find 
 preserved by Cartt (English and Protestant) the following fact: 'The Irish 
 made proclamation, on pain of death, tliat no Scotsman should be molested in 
 body, goods, or lands.' p. 178. The next admission is from Temple : ' It was 
 resolved by the Irish party not to kill any, but where of necessity they should be 
 forced thereunto by opposition. ' — Temple's History of the Rebellion, 65. — Even 
 Leland himself — the anti-Irish, the anti-Catholic Lei and — has the same admis- 
 sion : ' In the beginning of the insurrection, it was determined by the Irish, that 
 the enterprise should be conducted in every quarter with as little bloodshed as 
 possible.' — Book 5, c. 3." 
 
 See O' ConnelVs Memoir, for further evidences. 
 
 The doom of Ireland was, however, now sealed, and her choicest 
 spirits were driven into exile, and, for the first time, sought employment 
 in the armies of Spain and France ; in which service, as we shall 
 see hereafter, they distinguished themselves by bravery, ability, and 
 genius. All the old inhabitants became victims, in some way or other, 
 to the reformation. 
 
 "That spirit was broken which never would bend." 
 
 The ingratitude of Charles the Second to the Catholic Irish ought 
 to cause tiiem to hate forever the name and race. This king, who had 
 twice owed his life to Catholic priests ; who had, in fifty-two instances, 
 held his life at the mercy of Catholics, and, when Cromwell's blood- 
 hounds hunted him through Scotland, had been concealed, and then 
 guided in safety past his enemies, by one of those Catholics, a poor 
 man, who could have had a great reward for giving him up, — this 
 
CALUMNIOUS PAMPHLETS. FALSE HISTORIES. 743 
 
 very king — profligate in manners, mean and corrupt in principles — 
 has placed upon the page of history the most memorable instances of 
 baseness and ingratitude that ever it received. 
 
 Derrick, in his entertaining letters, relates the following anecdote — 
 one instance in a thousand of the ingratitude of that most heartless and 
 profligate member of a worthless race : — 
 
 « The conduct of Charles the Second, on his restoration, is notorious ; he con- 
 firmed the grant made to Oliver's soldiers, while his most loj'al subjects were 
 betrayed and abandoned to misery. Among these unhappy sufferers, no man's 
 case was more deplorable than that of Lord Viscount Fermoy, the head of the 
 Roclies, a numerous and loyal clan in the county of Cork. This nobleman, re- 
 fusing to compromise witli the usurper, abandoned a very fine estate, and in 1652 
 went abroad, and entered into the Spanish service. When Charles was at Brus- 
 sels, Fermoy, being a colonel of a regiment, assigned to the king almost all his 
 pay, reserving a mere trifle for the maintenance of himself and family. This 
 generosity having ruined him, he was obliged to sell his regiment to pay his debts ; 
 and afler the restoration, coming to London with a wife and six children, the king, 
 tliough pressed by the Duke of Ormond and Lord Clanricarde, far from restoring 
 him to his honors and estate, refused to hear of him ; and had it not been for the 
 benevolence of these two illustrious noblemen, tliis unhappy lord and his family 
 must have starved." — Virtue's Scenes in Ireland. 
 
 On another occasion, Colonel Costello, who had sacrificed his entire 
 fortune in the king's service, thus addressed the ungrateful monarch 
 in reply to his customary cant of condolence : " Please your majesty, 
 I ask no compensation for my services and losses in your majesty's cause ; 
 I see that to your friends, and to my countrymen in particular, you give 
 nothing, and that it is your enemies alone who receive favor and reward. 
 For ten years' service, for many wounds, and for the total loss of my 
 estates, I ask nothing ; but in the ardor of youth, and in the belief that I 
 was asserting the sacred cause of liberty, I fought for one year in favor 
 of the usurper, and against your majesty : give me hack such portion of 
 my estates as that year's service entitles me to I " 
 
 During the reigns of James the First, EUzabeth, and Cromwell, pam- 
 phlets, defaming the Irish, were constantly issuing from the press of Eng- 
 land. These pamphlets were issued in periods of strife, for the purpose 
 of palliating, before the more humane portion of the people of England, 
 the atrocities of their agents and armies in Ireland. For sixty years 
 these pamphlets continued to be issued in England : not one of them but 
 contained wilful, detailefl falsehoods ; even John Milton blotted his 
 pages with enormous calumnies on the Catholics, and retained vigor 
 enough to abuse the Irish Presbyterians in his old age. Throughout the 
 last century, the English historians copied into their books the wretched 
 
744 
 
 TITUS GATES. 
 
 effusions of these party pamphleteers. The English acts of parliament, 
 through every preamble and clause, contained calumny and abuse of 
 the Irish. And from these lying pamphlets, and lying acts of parlia- 
 ment, has the history of England, relating to this period, been compiled. 
 Those things were encouraged, for it was comfortable to them to hear ill 
 names applied to a race they had robbed and slaughtered. Those 
 calumnies were worked into the histories of England. Falsehoods, 
 once brought into life, take ages to die. English conversation, literature, 
 public documents, all convey a disparaging account of the resources, 
 military achievements, and abilities, of the Irish. Of course, this is done 
 to discourage all attempts of the Irish people to recover their independ- 
 ence ; but the fifteen years' war with the English Puritans was as well 
 sustained by the Irish, though not with equal success, as the war against 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 I will not consume valuable space by dwelling on the events of 
 Charles the Second's reign. At one period, he swore to the covenant 
 of the Scotch Presbyterians ; again he sold himself to Louis the Four- 
 teenth of France, and promised that king to restore the Catholic religion. 
 On obtaining power by this very means, he became the greatest perse- 
 cutor of the Catholics. Towards the close of his reign, he relaxed 
 somewhat towards the Catholics, and admitted them to the corporations, 
 magistracy, and the free exercise of their religion. During all his reign, 
 plots and conspiracies against his power succeeded each other, in which 
 Russell, Sidney, Oates, Rathbone, and others, were the chief, but un- 
 successful actors: his brother, tlie Duke of York, afterwaids James the 
 Second, who was principally bred to the sea, professed himself a 
 Roman Catholic ; and an immense outcry was got up against the pope 
 and Catholics. It seemed to be the bugbear cry of the age, and was 
 industriously propagated, for mere political purposes. 
 
 On the appointment of the notorious Ormond to the lord lieutenantcy 
 of Ireland, an outcry against popery was got up there. A plot was said 
 to be hatched by Titus Oates, which had for its object the murder of 
 all the Protestants, the overthrow of the monarchy, and the resumption 
 of the forfeited estates ; that the Jesuits were at the bottom of it, and 
 that they instigated the burning of London, and were now meditating 
 the burning of all the ships in the harbors of England and Ireland ; 
 that Ormond himself was to be the first victim, &tc. The supposed 
 Irish leaders in this plot were Peter Talbot, the Catholic archbishop of 
 Dublin, who had latterly distinguished himself by the grandeur with 
 which he celebrated the Catholic worship, Lord Mountgarrett, and others. 
 
DEATH OF CHARLES THE SECOND. JAMES THE SECOND. 745 
 
 Terror seized the whole nation, and the whisperings of reason were 
 drowned in the hurricane of indignation that immediately broke out. At 
 first, men walked the streets as if their steps were dogged by assassins, and 
 turned a comer as if death lay in wait to seize them. Some Protestants 
 really imagined they were doomed to death by the pope and his agents. 
 At length indignation succeeded terror, and nothing but blood would 
 satisfy the public appetite. 
 
 Oates, who now offered himself as an informer to government, received 
 from them the greatest encouragement, and a pension of twelve hundred 
 pounds a year. There were many marked out for destruction ; and as 
 Oates, in his own person, proved that a Protestant witness against the 
 Catholics was a good speculation, there were many who now contended 
 for the honor and profit of disclosing the names of conspirators to the 
 governn)ent. The names of many persons who had no existence were 
 given in — amongst these a " Colonel Peppard," who was never before or 
 since heard of. The Catholic priests were held accountable for the acts 
 of their people, and imprisoned on suspicion. Catholics were driven 
 from every office they filled, and a sudden and general persecution com- 
 menced, during which several great men fled from England and Ireland, 
 among them the Duke of York. Numbers of criminals, who were con- 
 fined in the jails, now offered to become informers. Upon the evidence 
 of three of those loathsome wretches. Archbishop Plunkett, the Catholic 
 primate of Ireland, was apprehended, and, contrary to the laws of the 
 realm, sent over to England to be tried, where he was found guilty and 
 condemned to death, though some difficulty was experienced in accom- 
 plishing his destruction, even by a Protestant jury. He was hanged in 
 Tyburn ; and Burnet, the Protestant historian, says of him, " He was a 
 wise and sober man, fond of living quietly and in due subjection to the 
 government, without engaging in intrigues of state ; be had nothing to 
 say in his defence but to deny all ; so he was condemned, and suffered 
 very decently, expressing himself in many particulars as became a 
 bishop." — Burnet, vol. i. p. 230. At last, after a number of lives had 
 been taken, the people awoke from their frenzy, and found they had 
 been made the dupes of faction. 
 
 In this reign, the celebrated George Fox founded the society of Qua- 
 kers. He was imprisoned and persecuted by Charles and his ministry : 
 so were the Scotch Presbyterians, and the Irish Catholics. 
 
 Charles died on the 6th of February, 1685, in the midst of political 
 troubles, and was succeeded by- his brother, the celebrated James the 
 Second. On the king's accession to the throne, he released from 
 94 
 
746 RELEASES FROM PRISON CATHOLICS AND QUAKERS. 
 
 prison several thousand Catholics, who were kept on fines for not attend- 
 ing Protestant worship ; he also discharged twelve hundred Quakers, 
 who were imprisoned for a like offence. His clemency and justice were 
 applauded by the whole hation. King James publicly professed his 
 Catholic principles, and, very shortly after his coronation, published a 
 
 DECLARATION, ALLOWING LIRERTY OF CONSCIENCE TO ALL HIS SUBJECTS. 
 
 He dispensed with all penal laws and tests. Even the oaths of alle- 
 giance and supremacy, on entering office, were abolished. The Catho- 
 lics, Presbyterians, Quakers, and all other religionists, were thus made 
 eligible to all offices in the state. Perfect freedom of conscience was 
 universally established. 
 
 Addresses of thanks for this liberty were daily presented to him, by 
 dissenters, Presbyterians, Quakers, Catholics, all of whom made the 
 highest professions of loyalty and gratitude. The Quakers, without 
 compromising their principles, left their hats in the privy chamber, ere 
 they entered the king's presence. 
 
 The Catholics of Ireland had resumed their position in the state. 
 Many of the Irish chiefs returned to their castles and estates, and had 
 turned the Cromwellians out. The Catholic Earl of Tyrconnel was 
 made lord lieutenant of Ireland ; a parliament was called in Dublin, 
 which was composed two thirds of Catholic members, one third Protes- 
 tant ; and it is admitted this parliament passed a series of excellent laws 
 for the promotion of trade and manufactures, and not one law of a penal 
 or persecuting character. Ireland began again to assume the features 
 of civilization and prosperity. The following are a few of the principal 
 acts passed by that parliament, which, however, were afterwards ex- 
 punged from the statute-books of England : — 
 
 An act declaring that the parliament of England cannot bind Ireland. 
 — Against writs of errors for removing suits out of the Irish courts to 
 the courts of England. 
 
 An act for repealing the acts of settlement. An act for taking off all 
 incapacities of the natives of this kingdom. 
 
 An ACT FOR LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE, and repealing such acts and 
 clauses in any act of parliament which are inconsistent with the same. 
 
 An act for the encouragement of strangers to inhabit and plant in the 
 kingdom of Ireland. 
 
 An act for investing in his majesty the goods of absentees. 
 
 An act for the advance and improvement of trade, and for the en- 
 couragement and increase of shipping and navigation. 
 
 These acts are evidence of the liberal spirit of the Irish Catholics, 
 
THE HIGH CHURCH PARTY OPPOSE HIM. 747 
 
 when in possession of supreme power, and ought to go far In removing 
 from the minds of all reasoning men any apprehensions about the future 
 exercise of power by that calumniated body of Christians. 
 
 But this liberal conduct begot in the hearts of the Episcopal party a 
 fiery animosity, which soon displayed itself. The vice-chancellor of the 
 University of Cambridge opposed the king's tolerant wishes, by rejecting 
 one Francis, a monk, from the fellowship of that college. The king 
 issued a mandate to this college, and to that of the College of St. Mary 
 Magdalene, at Oxford, directing them to admit Catholics to study, and 
 to degrees. The colleges refused to obey the king ; and thus was the 
 religious quarrel again opened by the intolerance of the High Church 
 Protestant party in England. 
 
 At this time, a political conspiracy against the king of France begot a 
 religious persecution of the Protestants in that country, many of whom 
 were killed. Some of them fled to England and Ireland. Those were 
 called the French Huguenots, and the whole of this massacre grew from 
 a political plot , for the particulars of which, see Cobbett's History of 
 the Reformation. King James, by an order in council, ordered a col- 
 lection to be taken through all the churches, for the relief of those 
 persecuted French Protestants, when sixty-three thousand pounds ster- 
 ling were made up for their use. They were also kindly and hos- 
 pitably received in Ireland, and were the means of reviving the silk 
 manufacture in that country. The La Touches, the wealthy bankers 
 of that city, are descendants of some of those Huguenots. About the 
 same time, a rebellion broke out in England, headed by Monmouth, the 
 professed object of which was the reestablishment of the Protestant 
 ascendancy. It was suppressed. Monmouth was executed, with accom- 
 panying circumstances of horror, Judge Jeffries, who was as bloody- 
 minded as any judge that ever sat, under the authority of England, 
 condemned hundreds to death for aiding in this rebellion, upon slender 
 evidence. This begot in the hearts of many men a well-founded hatred 
 of the king and his government. 
 
 The king, adhering to his resolution of declaring conscience free, 
 issued a further declaration to a like effect, which he commanded all 
 bishops, deacons, presbyteries, elders, and religious teachers, of every 
 denomination, to read amongst their congregations, on three successive 
 Sundays. This very fair and liberal declaration was refused to be read 
 by the Protestant archbishop of Canterbury and six other bishops, which 
 refusal created considerable excitement. The bishops petition the king, 
 in which they deny his power to grant such liberty ; though they had, 
 
748 
 
 TRIAL OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 
 
 by the oath of supremacy, sioorn the kings of England to be chiefs in 
 religious matters. 
 
 The bishops were then imprisoned by the king, (a very foolish act,) 
 and tried for contempt, by a jury, who, after great debate and a long stay 
 in the jury-box, brought in a verdict " not guilty." This verdict was 
 received with applause by some persons in the court, and reaching the 
 king's army, who were stationed near London, a cheer was also raised 
 by the soldiers, which the king hearing, while at dinner in the neigh- 
 borhood, he asked an attendant what the cheer was given for, and 
 received for answer, " Nothing, my liege, but the acquittal of the 
 bishops." " Call you that nothing?" rejoined the king. 
 
 Several earls and lords of the Protestant party, highly incensed at 
 the favor shown to the Catholics, entered into a confederation to 
 change the succession : these sent deputies and an address to William, 
 Prince of Orange, inviting him over, and offering him their support on 
 his arrival. This address was confided to the celebrated Bishop Burnet, 
 who afterwards wrote a history of his times. Burnet, with much plausi- 
 bility, painted to William the dazzling prospects of possessing the crown 
 of England, and actually enticed him to the enterprise, though it was to 
 dethrone James, his own father-in-law. 
 
 The prince at length, after many disappointments, landed at Torbay, 
 on the 5th November, 1688, with only seven hundred men ; and, but 
 few persons joining his standard, he made preparations to return. He 
 seemed disheartened for want of success, and continued for a week to 
 remain close to his ships, for the purpose of returning, threatening, at the 
 same time, to publish the names of all those who had invited him over, 
 as a reward for their treachery and cowardice. By degrees, accessions 
 came dropping in. Lord Colchester deserted from King James's army, 
 with a few men under his command ; Lord Cornby was the next ; and 
 so,' after the examples of only two or three of this sort, hundreds, and 
 then thousands, flocked to his standard. Meantime his main army ar- 
 rived from Holland, which amounted to fourteen thousand men. He then 
 marched, with all his forces, towards London. The king met him, with 
 thirty thousand men, at Salisbury ; but, instead of fighting, his principal 
 officers joined the invaders. The king now fled to London, from 
 whence he subsequently retired to France. James was betrayed by his 
 secretary, the Duke of Sunderland, who, the better to effect his treach- 
 ery, affected to become a Catholic, but gave the king's secrets to the 
 Protestant confederation all the time. Louis the Fourteenth offered to 
 send James thirty thousand men ; but this Sunderland strongly opposed, 
 
FLIGHT OF JAMES. ACCESSION OF WILLIAM THE THIRD. 749 
 
 on the ground that it would shake the loyalty and confidence of the 
 English people in the king. William entered London in the midst of 
 burning Catholic chapels and desecrated altars. 
 
 James reigned only three and a half years ; all his relations deserted 
 him at the very crisis of his fate. Even his daughter Anne, wife of 
 the Prince of Denmark, with her husband, fled, in the night, from his 
 palace to the Prince of Orange's camp, which niade the wretched 
 monarch exclaim, " God help me ; my very children have forsaken me." 
 And now it will be necessary to follow the fortunes of his cause to 
 Ireland. 
 
 The declarations of freedom of conscience in England, had been like- 
 wise made and published, and carried into effect in Ireland, by his 
 command. A parliament was called, to which Catholics were invited 
 with Protestants ; and a spirit of emulation, enterprise, and public 
 virtue, seemed for a short period to take the place of the demon of dis- 
 cord and rapine. All religions were tolerated, and the Catholics were 
 admitted to places of trust, to the corporations, and to the command of 
 the army. Good feeling and conciliation were the order of the day ; but 
 the High Church party, and others, who had been put in possession of 
 the old Catholic property, feared much that, should this state of things 
 continue, some of that property would be put back to its original owners. 
 It is to be noted here that the English house of lords debated as to 
 whether they should support King James after his flight. The vote was 
 taken on the following question : " whether James had broken the 
 original compact, and thereby made the throne vacant." Negatived 
 by a majority of two ; which proves that one branch of the British 
 legislature had agreed with the Irish people in sentiment. 
 
 Sir Jonah Harrington puts the case of the Irish people, at this period, 
 in the following terse and pithy style : — 
 
 " James, a monarch de jure and de facto, expelled from one portion 
 of his empire, threw himself for protection upon the loyalty and faith 
 of another ; and Ireland did not shrink from affording that protection. 
 She defended her legitimate monarch against the usurpation of a for- 
 eigner ; and whilst a Dutch guard possessed themselves of the British 
 capital, the Irish people remained faithful to their king, and fought 
 against the invader. 
 
 " In strict matter of fact, therefore, England became a nation of de- 
 cided rebels, and Ireland remained a country of decided royalists. His- 
 toric records leave that point beyond the power of refutation. * * * 
 
 " James was the hereditary king of both countries, jointly and severally. 
 
750 A GRAND IRISH ARMY RAISED. 
 
 The third constitutional estate, only, of one of them, (England,) had 
 deposed him by their own simple vote; but Ireland had never been con- 
 sulted on that subject ; and the deposition of the king of Ireland by the 
 commons of England, could have no paramount authority iq Ireland, or 
 supersede the rights and dispense with the loyalty of the Irish parlia- 
 ment. The Irish people had held no treasonable intercourse with 
 William ; they knew him not ; they only knew that he was a foreigner, 
 and not their legal prince; that he was supported by a foreign power, 
 and had succeeded hy foreign mercenaries. But even if there was a 
 doubt, they conceived that the most commendable conduct was that of 
 preserving entire their allegiance to the king, to whom, in conjunction 
 with England, they had sworn fealty. The British peers had showed 
 them an example, and on that principle they fought William, as they 
 had fought Cromwell ; and again they bled, and again were ruined, by 
 their adherence to legitimate monarchy.''^ 
 
 The High Church party now prepared to cooperate with their friends 
 in England. King James, having retired to France, negotiated with 
 Louis the Fourteenth for military and monetary advances, to enable him 
 to attempt the preservation of Ireland as an independent dominion. 
 
 An attempt was now made, in the north of Ireland, to raise the stand- 
 ard of revolt against King James, by Major Poor, and some others, 
 turning out in arms, in the name of the Prince of Orange. Poor and 
 his party were met and defeated by young Bellew, of Lowth, in the 
 name of King James. 
 
 It was then that the nobility of Ireland raised, clothed, equipped, and 
 armed, partly at their own expense, thirty thousand men for the king's 
 service. There were already some old corps in Ireland, viz., the regi- 
 ments of Mountcashel, Tyrconnel, Clancarty, Antrim, and some oth- 
 ers. The regiments of Enniskillen, of Hugh M'Mahon, Edward Boy 
 O'Reilly, M'Donnel, Maginnis, Cormac O'Neill, Gordon O'Neill, Felix 
 O'Neill, Brian O'Neill, Connact Maguire, O'Donnell, Nugent, Lutter- 
 rell, Fitzgerald, Galmoy, O'Morra, and Clare, &,c., soon appeared in 
 the field. There was no want of soldiers, but the soldiers were in want 
 of almost every thing, except courage and good-will ; and the nobles, 
 who underwent the first expense, were not able to support it long. 
 There were also but few officers who knew military tactics, or who had 
 time to train and discipline the new levies. In the month of March, the 
 Earl of Tyrconnel sent Richard Hamilton, lieutenant-general of the 
 king's army, at the head of two thousand men, against Hugh Montgom- 
 
VICTORIOUS IN THE NORTH. 'PRENTICE BOYS OF DERRT. 751 
 
 ery, Lord Mount Alexander, who had raised a regiment for the Prince 
 of Orange, and was at the head of eight thousand rebels in Ulster. 
 Hamilton set out from Drogheda on the 8th of March, and came up with 
 the enemy, who were boldly drawn up in order of battle at Cladyfort. 
 Notwithstanding the superior number of the rebels, the royalists attacked 
 them so vigorously that they took to flight, and retreated in disorder 
 towards Hillsborough, where Montgomery left two companies of infantry 
 in garrison. He sent the remainder of his forces to Coleraine, under Sir 
 Arthur Rydon, and. sailed for England from Donaghadee. The resist- 
 ance of Derry began in the following way. 
 
 "Tyrconnel had withdrawn the garrison from Londonderry, on the first intelli- 
 gence reaching him of William's invasion of England. But soon perceiving the 
 error he had committed in leaving this important place to the government of its 
 Protestant inhabitants, he despatched tlie Earl of Antrim to take possession of it 
 with a body of twelve thousand Scottish Highlanders. This wild and savage- 
 looking force, whose exploits in the west of Scotland had spread a general horror 
 throughout the land, had halted at the village of Limavaddy, about twelve miles 
 from the city, at the very time when the rumor of the intended massacre reached 
 the ears of the people of Londonderry. The citizens, alarmed at the approaching 
 danger, were collected in the streets, consulting as to what was to be done, when 
 messengers arrived from the village where the Highlanders had halted, giving the 
 most alarming account of their numbers and savage appearance. There was 
 obviously no time to lose. Already were two companies of the force in sight, 
 and two officers of the corps were actually in the town seeking quarters for their 
 men, when, at this critical moment, nine young men of the populace, ' 'prentice 
 lads,' as tliey were termed, drawing their swords, snatched up the keys of the city, 
 and making towards the ferry-gate, they suddenly raised the drawbridge, and 
 shut the gates in the face of the approaching enemy. The adventurous spirit of 
 the youths spread like wildfire. They were soon joined by numbers of citizens of 
 their own class, and the guns were pointed against the advancing troops, who 
 retired without further trouble. The example of Derry quickened the Protestant 
 spirit of the north ; numbers of men from the surrounding neighborhood flocked 
 into the city to aid in its defence ; and several other places, Enniskillen among 
 the number, determined also to hold out for tlie Protestant cause." 
 
 King James was still in France, and saw how favorably disposed his 
 Irish subjects were towards him, the greater part of whom had continued 
 faithful ; only three small towns, Londonderry, Coleraine, and Culinor, 
 having rebelled in favor of the Prince of Orange. The English party in 
 Ireland pressed William to send the necessary succors to support these 
 towns. The royalists thought James's presence might be a check to the 
 enemy ; and being encouraged and assisted by France, he set sail with the 
 celebrated Gabaret, and landed at Kinsale in March, accompanied by 
 some French officers. At Cork he was joined by the Earl of Tyrconnel, 
 
752 SUCCESS OF THE IRISH ARMY. 
 
 whom he created duke, and proceeded to Dublin, in the midst of a 
 magnificent procession of forty thousand courageous Irish soldiers. 
 
 The Duke of Berwick, his natural son, accompanied by several officers, 
 arrived in the camp of Hamilton before Coleraine ; and the same night 
 the general was informed that the enemy had abandoned the place, 
 after having broken the bridge. The day following he entered Cole- 
 raine, and having repaired the bridge, and given the command of the 
 place to Colonel O'Morra, he marched to Strabane, where he refreshed 
 his troops and held a council of war. Here it was understood, through 
 a letter, that the troops of Enniskillen and Deny, making in the whole 
 about ten thousand men, were collected at Clodybridge, on the River 
 Finn, under the orders of Major-Geueral Lundee, for the purpose of 
 opposing the royal army. After the contents of this letter were com- 
 municated, the council determined to march and attack the rebels. 
 Hamilton set out with his army, and found, on his arrival, that the fiftt 
 arch of the bridge was broken, and a fort built on the other side, defend- 
 ed by two thousand men, drawn out in order of battle, upon an eminence 
 near the fort. To surmount these difficulties, General Hamilton posted 
 six companies of musketeers, with orders to fire on those who were 
 guarding the fort, for the purpose of covering some workmen sent to 
 repair the bridge. Every thing was done with the greatest order : the 
 arch being repaired with planks and pieces of wood, the infantry passed 
 over without difficulty, while the cavalry was crossing the river in view 
 of the enemy. This intrepid act disconcerted the rebels : not only 
 those who were guarding the fort, but the whole army took to flight, 
 some of whom retreated to Derry, and some to Enniskillen. They were 
 pursued to Raphoe by the royalist troops, who killed many of them, with- 
 out any loss on their own side, except that of Robert Nangle, major in the 
 regiment of Tyrconnel. After this advantage over the rebels, General 
 Lundee, who commanded them, surrendered at Culraor, and embarked 
 for England. Several other lesser battles were fought between both 
 parties, too tedious to be inserted in this work. 
 
 Hamilton found abundance of provisions at Raphoe, where he stopped, 
 and was joined by Ijord Galmoy at the head of eight hundred men 
 from the garrison of Trim. During his stay there, he received some 
 deputies from Derry, who offered to capitulate. This garrison consisted 
 of six thousand men; and the general, who knew the importance of the 
 place, promised them their lives, properties, and protection, on con- 
 dition that the city would surrender at twelve o'clock next day, which 
 terms icere accepted and ratified on both sides. 
 
 The king, who had stopped in Dublin, wishing to benefit by the first 
 
James's defeat at derry, — his imbecility. lo'J 
 
 moments of ardor which his presence excited among those of his own 
 party, marched directly to the north. The rebels were not a little 
 alarmed at this, having previously given up Coleraine and Cultnor. 
 The prince, accompanied by M. Rose, the deputy-marshal of France, 
 Lord Melford, and some troops, arrived at St. Johnstown, between 
 Raphoe and Derry, on the same day that Hamilton was in treaty with 
 the deputies. The eagerness of the general to compliment the king on 
 his arrival, made him likewise eager to give him an account of the cam- 
 paign. The monarch signified to General Hamilton his disj)leasure at 
 the terms he was about to grant to the rebels of Derry, and marched 
 himself directly for that town, whh the fresh troops he had with him, 
 and immediately summoned it to surrender at discretion. Tliis change 
 made by the king, from the terms previously agreed upon, gave great 
 alarm to the garrison. It had been stipulated that the king's troops 
 should not advance till the place would be evacuated ; and now they 
 began to doubt his sincerity. It was determined, therefore, to defend the 
 town to the last extremity, while waiting for succors that were expected 
 from England. At this juncture, a Protestant minister, named Walker, 
 took the command of the garrison, and infused great courage into the 
 hearts of his party. 
 
 The siege was now begun. The royal army was reenforced by some 
 newly-raised troops, who were as yet undisciplined. The whole then 
 amounted to ten thousand men. The trenches were opened before the 
 place, and the garrison was so straitened for provisions that they were 
 at length forced to eat dogs, cats, &lc. To lighten their numbers, six 
 companies, belonging to Lord Mountjoy's regiment of infontry, were 
 embarked and sent away. The garrison was well provided with warlike 
 stores of every kind, and it had forty pieces of cannon planted upon 
 the walls, which played on the besiegers. The succors by which the 
 Prince of Orange intended to relieve Derry soon made their appear- 
 ance. An English fleet of twenty ships of war, and three hundred 
 transport-vessels laden with provisions, warlike stores, and six thousand 
 troops, under the command of Major-Gen eral Kirke, appeared in 
 Loughfoyle, in the beginning of August. Having relieved the be- 
 sieged, just as they were on the point of surrendering, the royalists were 
 forced to withdraw on the 10th of August, after a siege of seventy- 
 three days, resisted with extraordinary bravery by the Protestant garri- 
 son. King James then ordered Hamilton to lead the army towards 
 Dublin, to oppose Marshal Schomberg, who was expected to land with 
 an army in the neighborhood of that city. Hamilton obeyed the king's 
 95 
 
754 IMBECILITY OF JA?.IES. 
 
 orders, first placing a garrison in Cliarleinont, under Capia'i: OTteyan, 
 an officer of high repute. 
 
 In the mean time, Schomberg landed between Carrickfergus and 
 Belfast, and besieged the former town, which was under the command 
 of M'Carty More, who, having but one barrel of powder, was forced to 
 surrender the castle after a feeble defence. Schomberg then proceeded 
 towards Dundalk. 
 
 The king, being arrived at Drogheda, sent two lieutenants, Butler of 
 Kilcop, and Garland, each at the head of a detachment, to reconnoitre 
 the enemy. They brought back word that Schomberg was encamped ; 
 that his right wing was stretched along Castle-Bellew, his centre ex- 
 tended towards Dundalk, and his left towards the sea. Upon this, the 
 king marched towards Ardee, where he stopped, and, the day following, 
 sent General Hamilton, with the whole of the cavalry, to the village of 
 Aphene, where he was separated from the enemy by a bog and a small 
 river. The king arrived, after a few hours, with the infantry, and 
 encamped, for some days, in presence of the enemy. The Duke of 
 Tyrconnel,M. Rose, and other general officers of the army, were for 
 attacking the enemy. The opportunity was a favorable one, as sickness 
 had got in among Schomberg's troops, and out of twelve thousand men, 
 of whom his army was at first composed, there were not more than 
 three thousand remaining in health ; so that, if the proposed attack had 
 been undertaken, Schomberg would have been forced to decamp, and 
 return to his ships, three of which were in the harbor of Dundalk, 
 
 The king, by the advice of his general officers, put his army in order 
 of battle, and marched with a design of turning the enemy, on the side 
 of the morass. This proved only an ostentatious parade ; as scarcely 
 had they marched a league, when he ordered the troops to return to 
 their camp, ivhere they continued till October, without making any 
 further attempt. 
 
 " If it were permitted to censure the conduct of a wise and virtuous 
 king," says M'Geoghegan, " James the Second might be reproached 
 with having committed two egregious oversights, which deeply affected 
 his cause, and eventually caused the loss of Ireland. At Derry, he 
 rejected, contrary to sound policy, a capitulation entered into between 
 General Hamilton and the garrison of that city. This would have put 
 into his hands that important place. It was the magazine of the north, 
 and, besides being an arsenal, it afforded to his enemies, by its situation, 
 an easy entrance into the kingdom. At Dundalk, he showed a weak 
 compassion for the English, and an imprudent clemency towards subjects 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE. 755 
 
 armed against their sovereign, and ready to tear the sceptre from his 
 hands, after they had violated all the respect due to royalty. It was in 
 these circumstances that Monsieur Rose, according to Larrey, ob- 
 served to the king, ' Sire, if you possessed a hundred kingdoms, 
 you would lose them.' " 
 
 King James and his army decamped the 10th of October, in presence 
 of the exulting enemy, and lay all the winter idle in their quarters. 
 Towards spring, he withdrew to Ardee and to Drogheda, and was soon 
 joined by Sarsfield, from Sligo, who had routed and destroyed all the 
 king's enemies there. And had James now marched against Schom- 
 berg, with the victorious Sarsfield, all would have been saved. 
 
 At length. King William came over in person, bringing with him as 
 strong a force as he could muster ; joining Schomberg, and increasing 
 his army to thirty-eight thousand men. With this force he marched to- 
 wards King James's army, now stationed on the Boyne. The Duke 
 of Berwick makes James's arm}^ twenty-three thousand, and that of 
 the enemy forty-five thousand ; of which M'Geoghegan proves that 
 thirty-eight thousand were at the Boyne, under the command of 
 "W^illiam. 
 
 Finding the most circumstantial history of the celebrated battle of 
 the Boyne in an English histoi'ian, (Smiles,) I transcribe it entire: — 
 
 " William reached the Boyne, at the head of his advanced guard, early on the 
 morning of the 30th of June. After carefully surveying the lines of the Irish 
 on the opposite side of the river, he resolved to force the passage on the following 
 day. As his army was marching into camp, he himself went out to reconnoitre 
 with some of his staff. The rich plains of Meath were within sight ; the clear 
 and joyous river ran sparkling through a fair and fertile pasture land ; and the 
 very summits of the hills were clad in verdure. ' Behold,' said William, turning 
 to his officers — ' behold a land worth fighting for ! ' As he advanced along the 
 left bank, however, a circumstance occurred which had nearly proved fatal to 
 William, and checked the career of his ambition. He had advanced to within 
 musket-shot of Oldbridge, on the opposite side, Avhen he fixed on the place where 
 his batteries were to be planted, and decided upon the spot at which his army 
 should pass the river ; after which, he alighted, and sat down to refresh hunself 
 on a rising ground. The motions of William and his staff were carefully- 
 watched from the other side of the river. Berwick, Tyrconnel, Sarsfield, and 
 some other generals, observed the position of William, and ordered up a detach- 
 ment of men with two field-pieces, which immediately opened a fire on the 
 opposite party. William, however, saw his danger, and took to horse ; but, ere 
 he could do tliis, a man and two horses alongside of him were killed by the 
 first shot ; the second had like to have proved fatal to him ; the ball, having struck 
 the bank of the river, rising en ricochet, slanted on the king's right shoulder, 
 took out a piece of his coat, and tore the skin and flesh. Some confusion 
 immediately took place among the attendants of William, and he rode off, stoop- 
 
756 THE BATTLE OF THE BOTNE. 
 
 ing in his saddle ; on seeing -which, the report immediately arose in the Irish 
 army that the Prince of Orange was killed. This intelligence was immediately 
 conveyed to Dublin, and from thence to tlie continent, where it caused both sad- 
 ness and rejoicing. At Paris, the guns of the batteries were fired, the church bells 
 were set ringing, and bonfires were lit in the streets, in commemoration of the 
 event William, however, was but slightly hurt; and, having got his wound 
 dressed, he continued on horseback during the greater part of the day. 
 
 On the side of James, there was little of the resolute detennination that was so 
 conspicuous on the part of his opponent. After his sudden bravado, the cowardly 
 monarch gradually cooled down, until he at length became as anxious to avoid an 
 engagement as he had formerly been to court one. At the appearance of Wil- 
 liam's army marching into quarters, on the opposite side of the Boyne, the last 
 vestiges of James's courage completely evaporated. A council of war was held 
 late in the evening, when the French generals, who had perceived William's 
 superiority in numbers and artillery, seconded James in his eiForts to avert an en- 
 counter. On the other hand, the Irish generals were eager to engage with the 
 enemy, and urged that William's passage of the Boyne should be desperately 
 resisted. The result was, that James resolved to risk a partial battle, keeping 
 himself out of harm's way tlie while, and then to retreat, by the pass of Duleek, 
 without risking a general action. Hamilton, the Irish general, advised the send- 
 ing of eight regiments to protect the bridge of Slane, a post of great conse- 
 quence, inasmuch as it commanded the left of James's position, and there was 
 little doubt that William's right wing would there attempt a passage ; but James 
 received the proposition with indifference, and said he would order thither fifty 
 dragoons ! Hamilton, surprised and chagrined, bowed, and was silent. In the 
 mean time, James, in anticipation of a retreat, ordered the baggage and tlie 
 principal part of the artillery to be immediately sent forward to Dublin. The 
 fighting part of the affair on the morrow was intrusted to the Irish ; while the six 
 thousand French, the best-appointed part of the army, were to take care of the 
 wretched monarch, and conduct him in safety from the field of battle. Thus did 
 James deliberately make his preparations to throw away his last chance for his 
 awn throne, and to sacrifice, without a struggle, his brave and loyal adherents 
 among the Irish people. 
 
 At William's council, a veiy different spirit prevailed. The mind of the-leader 
 gives the tone to every council. W^illiam was resolute, and bent on an engage- 
 ment. He at once declared his determination to cross the river, on the morrow, 
 in front of the enemy. The hazardous nature of such an attempt, however, 
 startled some of William's best officers. Duke Schomberg, now above eighty 
 years of age, endeavored to dissuade him from the enterprise. When he could 
 not prevail, he urged that a strong body of men should be immediately detached 
 to secure the bridge of Slane, so as to flank the enemy, and cut them oft' from the 
 pass of Duleek. Schomberg's advice was received with indifference, and the old 
 general retired, it is said, in disgust: he afterwards received the order of battle in 
 his tent, remarking, that it had been ' the first ever sent to him.' The order of 
 William was, that the river should be passed in three places — by his right wing, 
 commanded by Count Schomberg (son of the duke) and Lieutenant-General 
 Douglas, at the fords near the bridge of Slane, — the former commanding the 
 cavalry, the latter tiie infantry ; by the centre, commanded by Duke Schomberg ; 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BOTNE. i O i 
 
 and by the left wing, commanded by William in person. Orders were issued that 
 every soldier should be provided with a plentiful stock of ammunition, and that 
 all should be ready to march by break of day, and that every man should wear a 
 green bough or sprig- in his hat, to distinguish them from the Irish, who wore 
 tlie white cockade. He rode through his whole army, about twelve o'clock at 
 night, inspecting them by torch-light; and, after giving out the pass-word, ' West- 
 minster,' he retired to his tent, impatient for the struggle of the morrow. 
 
 The shades of night lay still and quiet over the sleeping host. The stars 
 looked down in peace upon tliese sixty thousand brothers of one great human 
 family, ready to rise with the sun, and imbue their hands in each other's blood. 
 God and nature had formed them in one common hnage, and breathed into them a 
 deep sympathy for tlieir kind ; but t}Tant factions and warring creeds had set 
 them at bitter enmity to each otlier, and turned all the sweetness of their exist- 
 ence into gall. Nature now lay peaceful around them, as a sleeping child ; a few 
 twinkling lights gleamed through tlie dark, from tlie distant watchtowers of 
 Drogheda ; the murmur of the river which separated the two armies fell faintly 
 on the ear ; and the only sounds of life which arose from the vast host that now 
 lay encamped in the valley of tlie Boyne, were the hoarse challenges of tlie sen- 
 tinels, as they paced their midnight rounds. 
 
 The sun rose clear and beautiful. It was the first day of July — an ever- 
 memorable day to poor Ireland. The generate was beat in the camp of William 
 before daybreak ; and, as soon as the sun was up, the battle commenced. Count 
 Schomberg and General Douglas at once moved forward with the right wing 
 towards Slane. The Irish also brought up their left wing towards the same 
 place ; but tliey were t<;o late, owing to James's indecision of the previous night. 
 Before their resistance could be brought to bear with effect upon the enemy's 
 ranks, they had dashed into the river and forded it there. After a smart fight, the 
 Irish retreated, and ten thousand English horse, foot, and artillery, gained a firm 
 footing upon the right bank of the Boyne. There still, however, lay between 
 them and the Irish position several fields enclosed by deep ditches difficult to be 
 crossed ; and beyond these lay the morass, which was a still more embarrassing 
 obstacle in their way. They forced their way through, nevertheless ; when the 
 Irish fled towards Duleek, and were pursued with great slaughter. 
 
 The centre, under Duke Schomberg, so soon as it was supposed that the 
 right wing had effected their passage, prepared to enter the river at Oldbridge. 
 The Dutch blue guards, beating a march till they reached the water's edge, then 
 went in eight or ten abreast, the water reaching above their girdles. When they 
 had gained the centre of the stream, they were saluted with a tremendous fire 
 from the breastworks, houses, and hedges, on the Irish side of the river. But 
 tliey pushed on, and, reaching the opposite bank, drove the Irish skirmishers before 
 them. Hamilton now brouglit tlie Irish battalions of infantry to bear on them, 
 but without effect. The Irish cavalry also charged them with vigor, but the 
 Dutch squares remained unbroken. William, observing that his flivorite troops 
 were hardly pressed, ordered two regiments of French Huguenots and one Eng- 
 lish regiment to their assistance. Hamilton's infantry met them in the stream, 
 yet they made good their passage. But a body of Irish dragoons, at the moment 
 of tlieir landing, charged them on their flank, broke their ranks, and cut the 
 greater part of them to pieces. Caillemote, their commander, was killed, dying, 
 
758 THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE. 
 
 like a Frenchman, with the Avords in his mouth — ^ A la gloire, mes en/am! A la 
 gloire!' [To glorj', my sons! to glory!] A squadron of Danish horse now 
 pushed across ; but the Irish dragoons, in another of their dashing charges, broke 
 and defeated them in a moment, driving them back across the river in great con- 
 fusion and dismay. 
 
 The brilliant, rapid, and successful attacks of the Irish cavalry spread a gen 
 eral alarm through the ranks of the enemy. As they approached, the general cry 
 of ' Horse ! horse ! ' was raised, which was mistaken, by William's advancing 
 soldiers, for 'Halt! halt!' The confusion was rapidly extending, when old 
 Schomberg, perceiving the disorder, and that the remaining French Huguenots 
 had no commander to lead them, crossed the river witli a few followers, and put 
 himself at their head. Pointing to the Frenchmen in James's ranks, he cried, 
 '■Allans, messieurs, voila vos persecuteurs ! ^ [Onward, men! behold your perse- 
 cutors !] and was preparing to rush forward ; but scarcely were these words out 
 of his mouth, ere he was shot through the neck by an Irish dragoon, or, as some 
 supposed, by a fatal mistake of one of his own men. 
 
 The critical moment had now arrived. The enemy's centre was in complete 
 confusion. The Irish cavalry rode through their ranks. Their leaders, Schom- 
 berg and Caillemote, were both killed ; and the men were waiting for orders, ex- 
 posed to the galling fire of the Irish infantry and the furious charges of their 
 cavalry. Had James improved the moment, and ordered the French troops to the 
 instant aid of the Irish, there can be little doubt but the day would have been de- 
 cided in his favor. But James looked idly down from the heights of Donore, sur- 
 rounded by his unoccupied French body-guard of six thousand men, — a safe and 
 inglorious spectator of a struggle, on the issue of which his crown depended. He 
 watched the tide of battle veering, now here, now there ; his enemies pushing 
 their way in triumph, and the brave Irish falling beneath the swords of the 
 foreigner ; then the dashing charge of the Irish cavalry, the rout, the meUe, the 
 pursuit. Now was the time for the electric word, ' Onward ! ' to be sent along the 
 line. But no ; the miserable monarch did not even sympathize with the success 
 of his own soldiers ; for it is said that, on observing the Irish dragoons of Hamil- 
 ton cleaving down the cavalry, and riding over the broken infantry, of William, 
 he exclaimed, with a mawkish sensibility, 'Spare, O spare my English sub- 
 jects ! ' 
 
 The firing had now lasted, uninterruptedly, for more than an hour, when 
 William of Orange seized the opportunity to turn the tide of battle against his 
 spiritless adversary. He entered the action at the head of the left wing, which 
 consisted chiefly of Dutch, Danish, and English cavalry, and directed it upon 
 James's centre, ivhere the Irish now had the decided advantage. Crossing the 
 river through a dangerous and difficult pass, in which he was exposed to con- 
 siderable danger, he made his appearance at the head of his squadrons, with hia 
 drawn sword, and soon forced back the Irish infantry. But the Irish dragoons 
 still maintained their superiority. They again vigorously charged the foreign 
 troops, and completely broke their ranks. William hastened up to the Ennis- 
 killeners, and asked, ' What will you do for me ? ' They answered by a shout, 
 and immediately declared their readiness to follow him. They advanced ; but at 
 the first volley from the Irish ranks, they wheeled and fled. On William 
 bringing up his Dutch cavalry, they returned again to the charge. The struggle 
 now became very close, and the superior strength of William began to tell. The 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE. 759 
 
 Irish, unsupported as they were by their French allies, -while William's entire army 
 was in action, slowly gave way ; but again and again they rallied, driving back 
 the enemy ; the Irish cavalry, dashing in among the advancing troops, scorning all 
 toil and danger. William fought with great courage, mingling in the hottest part 
 of the fight. Several times he was driven back by the Irish horse ; but at last his 
 superior physical power enabled him to force back the Irish troops, and they re- 
 tired slowly towards Donore. Here they again made a gallant stand, beating 
 back the troops of William several times. The fann-house of Sheephouse for a 
 long time withstood their attacks, and was taken and retaken again and again. 
 Again Hamilton endeavored to retrieve the fortune of the day, by a desperate 
 charge at the head of his horse. The British infantry witlistood the furious 
 shock ; the cavalry were repulsed ; and Hamilton, their general, was left a 
 prisoner in the hands of the enemy. Having thus resisted to tlie last, tlie Irish 
 retreated slowly to the pass of Duleek. 
 
 James had already meditated a retreat with his French troops. Sarsfield had 
 implored him to put himself at their head, and make a last effort for his crown. 
 With six thousand fresh men coming into the field when the enemy's troops were 
 exhausted by fatigue, there is little doubt but James would have succeeded. But 
 the effort would cost him trouble, exertion, danger, — neither of which the royal 
 poltroon would risk. Accordingly, James put himself at the head of his French 
 troops, — the first occasion on which he had led in the course of the day, — and 
 set out on his route towards Dublin, leaving tlie rear of his army to shift for 
 themselves. 
 
 The Irish army now poured through the pass ; and when they had reached the 
 other side, they faced about, and vigorously defended it with their scanty artillery. 
 From Duleek they pressed forward towards the Neal, another defile on their 
 route, the enemy following without pressing upon them at all, until night closed 
 upon the rival armies, and William sat down with his army on the ground which 
 James had occupied in the morning. 
 
 Though ' the Boyne ' has since become a party word of triumph among the 
 Protestants of Ireland, it seems to us that, after all, there was very little to boast 
 of at the close of that day's battle. All the advantage that William had gained 
 was, that he had succeeded in crossing the Boyne, in the face of a very inferior 
 force — inferior in numbers, in appointments, in discipline, and in artillery. His 
 best troops had been repeatedly repulsed ; his best generals killed. William him- 
 self was compelled to fall back, and more than once was in danger of overthrow ; 
 and would have been overthrown, but for his great superiority in cavalry, infantry, 
 and artillery. The best part of James's force, the French, were never brought 
 into action. Yet, with all these disadvantages, the issue was doubtful even to the 
 close of the day. William gained nothing but the ground on which his army 
 encamped at night, and the dead bodies with which the field was strewed ; for, 
 with the exception of Hamilton, he made no prisoners ; neither did he take any 
 spoil from the Irish, who retreated in excellent order, with all their baggage and 
 artillery. There is little doiibt that, had not the Irish the misfortune to be com- 
 manded by a coward, the result would have been very different The cry of the 
 Irish, after the battle, was, ' Change generals, and we will fight the battle over 
 again.' The brilliant and successful charges of the Irish cavalry under Hamilton, 
 showed what might have been accomplished had James but possessed a tithe of 
 the chivalrous spirit of this leader. The Boyne was neitlier more nor less than 
 
760 
 
 SIEGE OF ATHLONE. DEFEAT OF THE ENGLISH. 
 
 a drawn battle, tliough to William it had all the advantages of a complete 
 victory." 
 
 I compress from O'Callaghan a few additional remarks on tiiis un- 
 fortunate battle : — 
 
 " The attacking force at the Boyne was thirty-six thousand men, wanting for 
 nothing, with fifty pieces of cannon ; that of the Irish was fourteen thousand 
 Irish, six thousand French, — total, twenty thousand men, with only six pieces 
 of cannon. The Irish were newly-raised, undisciplined troops ; while those of 
 William were veterans, most of whom had fought on the Continent, and led by 
 William, one of the most indefatigable captains of his own or any age. On the 
 other hand, if it be true, according to Chabrias, the Athenian general, that ' an 
 army of stags led by a lion would be better than an army of lions led by a stag,' 
 what a great disadvantage and discouragement tlie Irish suffered in being led 
 by such an imbecile, nay, sach an absolute runaway, as James; yet, after the 
 action, which lasted from six in the morning till night, the Irish were found to 
 have lost only one thousand men and one cannon ; while the English lost five 
 hundred men, and their best general, Schomberg ; and it is supposed their loss 
 was far more than five hundred, for, on the review of their army at Finglas, after 
 the battle, the muster-roll did not exceed thirty thousand. The pass at Oldbridge 
 was guarded by the Irish with great valor. The English charged ten times, and 
 were as often repulsed in tlie course of the day. The Irish yielded that point to a 
 force more than double their number." 
 
 The Irish army, under Tyrconnel and Sarsfield, made good their 
 retreat to the fortifications on the western side of the Shannon, fighting 
 their way with their pursuers the entire distance. They secured their 
 positions, however, in the strongholds of Shgo, Athlone, Limerick, and 
 Cork. 
 
 King William sent General Douglas, with eight thousand men, to take 
 Athlone. It was well fortified. The town was built on both sides of 
 the River Shannon, over which there was a single connecting bridge. 
 On the English side of the town, the fortifications were light ; but on the 
 Irish side, the batteries were stoutly built, and well furnished with heavy 
 guns. This garrison was under the command of Colonel Grace, a brave 
 old Irish officer, who had fought against Cromwell, and defended Ath- 
 lone twice before. His effective force was eight hundred men, though 
 the English make the eight hundred two thousand. However, the 
 English brought before the town eight thousand seven hundred and 
 ninety-four men, twelve cannon, and two mortars. At the approach 
 of the enemy, Colonel Grace broke down the bridge, and betook him- 
 self to the Irish side of the river. When called upon to surrender, that 
 heroic chieftain replied by firing a pistol over the messenger's head, 
 exclaiming," These are my terms." The assault commenced, and was 
 continued day and night, by the assailants, with the greatest fury, resisted 
 
EXPLOIT OF SARSFIELD. 
 
 761 
 
 with heroic bravery, accompanied by the shouts of hearty defiance 
 from the besieged. 
 
 After seven days' firing on the town, Douglas, having lost three 
 hundred and thirty men, drew off his forces to Limerick, where he 
 joined King William, who was now preparing to attack that city. 
 
 Having now Dublin, Drogheda, Carrickfergus, Londonderry, Ar- 
 magh, Wexford, Waterford, and Duncannon garrisons in his possession, 
 W^illiam laid furious siege to Limerick, as being the key to the west 
 and south of Ireland. About three eighths of the kingdom were still in 
 possession of the Irish. Their king, for whom, and for the rights of 
 conscience, they had taken up arms, had left them to their fate. The 
 half of their French allies had returned to France, at the instigation of 
 the French commander, the ignoble Lauson, who marched out of 
 Limerick just as King William appeared before the walls. But who 
 could be expected to support the cause of a runaway prince? The 
 Irish, under all these circumstances, had determined to make a death- 
 like stand for their country ^nd their freedom. 
 
 King William's besieging army, before the walls of Limerick, now 
 amounted to twenty-five thousand men, with a considerable train of 
 artillery ; that of the Irish on the other side amounted to twenty 
 thousand, of which ten thousand only were armed. The Irish lay 
 within a strong-walled garrison, protected by the current of the river, 
 which washed part of its base, and, being considerably animated by 
 the bravery of the Athlone garrison, awaited the attack with undaunted 
 hearts. King William had ordered to his assistance a considerable park 
 of artillery, and great quantities of ammunition, which were on their way 
 to him from Dublin. 
 
 Sarsfield, hearing of it, went up the river twelve miles from Limerick, 
 and, with a party of chosen cavalry, crossed over to the rear of William's 
 army, hung in the mountains, and waited the coming of those supplies 
 from Dublin. William, hearing of his move, sent an additional guard 
 of five hundred cavalry to protect the ammunition, which met the 
 cavalcade and artillery, and conducted them to within five miles of 
 William's camp ; and here, thinking Sarsfield would not have audacity 
 enough to come near them, being overborne with fatigue, encamped for 
 the night. Sarsfield watched them, fell on them while their horses 
 were grazing, destroyed them as they rose to meet him, leaving not one 
 of them alive to escape. He then filled all their cannon with their own 
 gunpowder, buried the muzzles in the earth, piled their baggage and 
 waggons on the top, and, by a well-fixed train, blew all up into atoms, 
 96 
 
762 ASSAULT ON LIMERICK. HEROIC DEFENCE. 
 
 the explosion of which was heard in William's camp, and fifteen miles' 
 distance all around. 
 
 Although the English were now out on all sides to intercept Sarsfield, 
 yet he cut his way through his enemies, carried off a considerable 
 booty, recovered his position behind the walls of Limerick, by the 
 morning's light, and there communicated the utmost enthusiasm to the 
 garrison. 
 
 King William was amazed at the bravery and skill of Sarsfield, 
 whom, as he said, he did not believe capable of such an able 
 manosuvre. William, though disturbed in his operations, prosecuted 
 the siege with vigor. Playing with forty pieces of ordnance, for twenty- 
 seven days, on the walls, he at length effected a breach thirty -six feet 
 wide. He now ordered an assault, which was made by six thousand 
 men, supported by a reserve of eight thousand, all excited to the highest 
 pitch of enthusiasm by the presence and example of their king. 
 
 The besieged watched all the preparations of the enemy, and were 
 ready for a desperate resistance. A dead silence reigned alike in the 
 camp of the besiegers and in the city. The silence was broken by three 
 cannon-shois, the signal of attack. And now the stormers spring 
 forward to the breach : as they approach, the Irish open on ihem a 
 terrible discharge. They press on to the breach amidst a tremendous 
 fire, fighting foot to foot, and hand to hand ; and now the advance men 
 enter ; the Irish close behind them, they are all cut to pieces ; new 
 chargers press on ; they come faster and more furious ; the shouts of 
 the combatants, and the groans of the wounded, are drowned by the din 
 of the besiegers' cannon thundering against the walls ; the Irish oppose 
 themselves in masses to the progress of the invader. The invaders 
 enter the breach, fight for four hours under cover of the thunder of 
 thirty pieces of artillery, and what remain unkilled of them retreat 
 dismayed. The Irish women fought with desperate fury ; they flung 
 themselves into the ranks with the men, which gready animated them ; 
 and a struggle was sustained which illumines the page of Irish history, 
 and flings a radiance on their posterity that yet will light them to 
 victory. 
 
 The English, under cover of their artillery, returned a second time 
 to the breach, but were equally unsuccessful. On this occasion, they 
 were driven out quicker than before, and pursued to their very camp by 
 the Irish, to the great distress and dismay of King William, who rebuked 
 his commanders with bitterness. If the Irish lost one thousand men 
 at the Boyne, the English lost more than two thousand men here, 
 together with one hundred and fifty-eight officers killed and wounded. 
 
iiING WILLIAM RAISES THE SIEGE. 763 
 
 The English Parson Story, who accompanied William, and wrote 
 an account of his wars in Ireland, thus describes the bravery of the 
 Limerick women ; to be seen in O'Callaghan's Green Book, 200 : — 
 
 " The Irish then ventured upon the breach again, and from the walls and 
 every place so pestered us upon the counterscarp, that after nigh three hours 
 resisting bullets, stones, [from the very women, who boldly stood in the breach, 
 
 FIGHTING WITH SUCH WEAPONS AS THEY COULD CATCH FROM THE SLAIN, 
 
 AND WERE NEARER TO OUR MEN THAN TO THEIR OWN ! ) and whatever ways 
 could be thought on to destroy us, our ammunition being spent, it was judged 
 safest to return to our trenches." — Impartial History, by Story, p. 129. 
 
 " The battle was described as so terrific, by a looker-on," says O'Cal- 
 laghan, " that, with the thunder of the cannon and the roar of the 
 musketry, the very skies appeared rending asunder ; the smoke that 
 came from the town reached, in one continued cloud, to the top of a 
 mountain at least six miles off" 1 And yet the women and the men of 
 Limerick stood, during this thunder, in the very eye of death, and 
 clashed with the lightning of the invader, and struck him to the earth. 
 
 illustrious women and men 1 where is the hand to sound your 
 praises ! Where are " Cormac's bards," to give your deeds to immortal 
 song 1 But your bright deeds shall live in our hearts, and light the 
 patriots of other ages to victory 1 
 
 1 pity the cold heart that can read these things unmoved. I agree 
 with O'Callaghan that — 
 
 "The MAN that is not moved witli what he reads, 
 That takes not fixe at such heroic deeds. 
 Unworthy of the blessings of the brave. 
 Is base in kind, and born to be a slave! 
 
 I am not one of these. 1 feel the influence of their inspiring deeds 
 enter into my soul, and I inscribe to their glorious memories the homage 
 of my heart in song: — 
 
 Hurrah for the heroes of Limerick town ! 
 
 Whom the power of William could never put down ! 
 
 Hurrah for brave Sarsfield ! though dead m his grave, 
 
 His spirit yet fires the valiant and brave. 
 
 And if ever the day shall come again, 
 
 When Lim'rick women and Limerick men 
 
 Shall be called to the breach to defend their own land, 
 
 May we be all there just to give them a hand! 
 
 The Prince of Orange asked the garrison for a cessation of arms, to 
 bury his dead, which was " haughtily refused ; " and, finally, in a few 
 days after this defeat, he was compelled to raise the siege. The Eing- 
 
764 
 
 KING JAMES S IMBECILITY. 
 
 lish army decamped in great disorder under General Ginckle, after setting 
 fire to the houses in wliich the sick and wounded lay. They marched 
 from thence to Birr, while, in the mean time. King William had himself 
 escorted to Waterford, where he embarked for England. 
 
 I cannot dismiss this brilliant page in Irish history, without weighing 
 and considering the discouraging circumstances under which so signal a 
 victory was won. 
 
 In the first place, King James refused to confirm the terms of ca- 
 pitulation, made by his able General, Hamilton, with the Derry men, 
 by which they agreed to give up the garrison, conVam'ing forty pieces of 
 cannon and sixty thousand stand of arms, to Hamilton ; which the king 
 refused to confirm unless they submitted to his mercy, thereby rendering 
 them liable to be tried and hanged as rebels, which they apprehending, 
 returned to their dt^fence, and fought it out bravely, living on dogs, cats, 
 and rats, for several weeks, till succor arrived, which obliged King 
 James to raise the siege, after his army had dwindled away to half their 
 original number. 
 
 In the second place. King James allowed the invading army, which 
 first arrived in Ireland under Schomberg, to remain unmolested several 
 months in Newry, though fully able to attack them ; especially, more- 
 over, as the majority of Schomberg's twelve or fourteen thousand men 
 were taken ill with a sort of plague, which rendered more than five thou- 
 sand of them totally unfit for service ; and this, forsooth, out of hu- 
 manity io'wards his English subjects. 
 
 In the third place. King James refused, though strongly pressed by 
 his Irish commanders, Tyrconnel, Sarsfield, and Sir Neal O'Neal, the 
 night before the battle of the Boyne, to place a strong guard at the pass 
 over that river, at Old Bridge, the neglect of which enabled the British 
 to come upon the flank of the Irish army. 
 
 In the fourth place. King James, instead of coming to the aid of his 
 troops in the crisis of that battle, with his reserve of six thousand French, 
 fled the field ere it terminated, and, instead of rallying an Irish regiment, 
 that temporarily gave way near him, he himself, who had all at stake, 
 took to flight ! for which the Irish have called him, from that day to the 
 present, " Shemus a hocha," which, in English, means Jemmy the dirty. 
 
 In the fifth place, King James, on his return to France, met with a 
 French fleet, under De Seignelay, sent to his support by the king of 
 France, whose orders were to cruise round the coast of Ireland, to watch 
 and destroy the transports bringing ammunition and provisions to King 
 William ; but, instead of allowing them to proceed on their duty, he 
 induced the fleet to return, as a convoy to protect himself in his flight. 
 
Marlborough's perfidy. 765 
 
 In the sixth place, Lauson, the French commander, who retreated on 
 Limerick, with the Irish army from the Boyne, withdrew from the aid of 
 that garrison. " As soon as the enemy had appeared before Limerick, 
 the French general, with all his troops, marched straight to Galway, 
 taking with him a great quantity of ammunition," &tc. — Vide King 
 James's Memoirs. 
 
 In the seventh place, Boislau, the French governor of Limerick, dur- 
 ing the assault, ordered several battalions y?'om the breach, xvhich had he 
 
 BEEN OBEYED IN, THE TOWN HAD BEEN LOST. This is prOVed by King 
 
 James's Memoirs ; and Mr. O'Callaghan considers that these French 
 generals had been bribed to act in this way, and, to justify this view, 
 produces the postscript of a letter written from King William's camp 
 before Limerick, by Sir Arthur Rawden, three days after the battle, name- 
 ly, 29th August, 1690. After having said, "We never have received 
 such a foil," the writer adds, " We got their countersign — got into the 
 breach — but were beaten back." — Rawden Papers, pp. 337 and 338. 
 
 So that, considering all these circumstances, — the mismanagement of 
 the king, the abandonment or treachery of allies, and the unlucky re- 
 verses previously encountered, — the defence of Limerick by the Irish 
 alone equals, if it does not surpass, the bravest and brightest military 
 exploit on the page of universal history. 
 
 Soon after this, the famous Marlborough was sent by King William 
 to Cork, with ten thousand men and some ships of war. Cork and 
 Kinsale were reduced by him, after a brave defence of some days on the 
 part of the Irish under Magelligot in Cork and M'Carthy in Kinsale, 
 who, however, ere their little band surrendered, had consumed all their 
 powder, and obtained a capitulation as " prisoners of war," which was 
 perfidiously broken through by Marlborough. The prisoners were 
 starved in prison, the dead left unburied, and disease carried off the ma- 
 jority of four thousand men who surrendered. These English have no 
 honor in war or in peace. — See O^ Callaghan, pp. 204 and 205. — It 
 may be mentioned that these Irish commanders were advised to burn the 
 cities of Cork and Kinsale, and retire to the mountains of Kerry, which 
 would have been wiser, though perhaps less brave. 
 
 Marlborough, Ginckle, and Douglas, King William's chief generals, 
 now concerted a grand plan for the winter campaign. Their united 
 forces spread along the frontier line, from Cork to Enniskillen, amounted 
 to about forty-three thousand men. The war had already cost King 
 William a loss of about five thousand men, tooether with a considerable 
 amount of ammunition. Something decisive must be done, or his chances 
 of conquest would become precarious. A southern division of two thou- 
 
766 
 
 FAILURE OF THE ENGLISH IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 sand horse and foot were ordered to penetrate Kerry, under the English 
 General Tatten, but were so harassed by the nimble Irish on their light, un- 
 shod, mountain horses, that, after two or three months' skirmishing among 
 the mountains, and a repulse by Colonel M'Carthy, from his strong castle 
 of Ross, the invaders returned to winter in Cork. Ginckle, the com- 
 mander-in-chief of the English, subsequently marched into Kerry with a 
 great force, but was even less successful than Tatten, which he avows in 
 his letter to the government at Dublin, in which he strongly urges King 
 William to treat with the Irish Catholics upon fair and liberal principles. 
 See O'' CallagJianh Green Book, 208 and 209. General Douglas was 
 equally unsuccessful against Sligo ; and the troops of the Duke of Ber- 
 wick, stationed on the Connaught side of the Shannon, kept the English 
 army busy all the winter ; insomuch that Captain O'Connor, with only 
 one hundred and twenty men, chased the English, at one time, as far as 
 Philipstown, in the King's county, which he entered sword in hand, 
 killed upwards of one hundred troopers, and burnt the town. The Eng- 
 lish Parson Story thus writes about the relative prowess of both armies, 
 during this winter : " We retired farther into the country, (towards Dub- 
 lin,) and left them (die Irish) all the passes and forts upon the Shannon, 
 by which means they are not to be kept in their ovk'n province of Con- 
 naught, as they might have been, but can keep us out, and also come 
 amongst us when they have a mind to it." — Impartial History, p. 147. 
 I insert an appropriate note from O'Callaghan. 
 
 "It is needless to say that the Irish had 'a mind to it,' since, in aid of those 
 ' trips over the water,' the territory nominally in possession of the English was 
 overrun and ravaged as far as Kildare, Wicklow, and the counties adjacent to 
 Dublin, by different light parties, under various Rapparee leaders, such as Macabe, 
 Grace, Higgins, Callaghan, Cavanagh, the ' White Sergeant,' and ' Galloping 
 Hogan,' who wore called 'robbers, thieves, and bog-trotters,' by the English and 
 their faction, for only levying contributions and waging a system of defensive and 
 patriotic warfare, Avith the approbation of their legitimate sovereign, James the 
 Second ! similar to the hostilities which Alfred, entitled the Great, because success- 
 ful, carried on with his Rapparees from the woods and bogs of Somersetshire 
 against the Danes and the advocates of a Danish ' connection ' and ' glorious revo- 
 lution ! ' ' He sought,' says the historian, speaking of Alfred, ' the woods and 
 deserts to conceal himself. . . where there was a peninsula swrrounrfet? by swamps. 
 . . . Fortified in his island against a surprise from the enemy, by entrenchments of 
 earth and wood, he led the hard and savage life reserved, in every conquered coun- 
 try, for such of the vanquished as are too proud for slavery — that of n free- 
 booter in thAi WOODS, morasses, and defiles! At the head of his friends, 
 formed into bands, he plundered the Danes, laden with spoil, and, if Danes were 
 wanting, the Saxon who obeyed the foreigners and saluted them as his mas- 
 ters!^ — Thieiry, vol. i. p. 110 — 112. The most distinguished, however, of those 
 
UNSUBDUED BRAVERY OF THE IRISH. 767 
 
 brave Irish partisans who infested the Irish territory occupied by the enemy, — one 
 who, in the language of Milton, — 
 
 ' above the rest, 
 
 In shape and gesture proudly eminent, 
 Stood like a tower/ — 
 
 was a gentleman of Tipperary, Anthony Carroll, surnamed Fada, or the Tall, who 
 possessed an estate there, and, by his influence among the Rapparecs, could, ac- 
 cording to Story, ' upon any alarm bring together to the number of at least two 
 thousand ! ' This gentleman (who, unlike our heroes of the present day, required 
 no special commissions or insurrection acts to protect him from his tenantry !) 
 seized on, garrisoned, and held the Castle of Nenagh, taken from the English 
 after their defeat at Limerick, and gave ' plenty to do,' through the autumn and 
 winter of 1690, and part of the spring and summer of 1691, during which he main- 
 tained himself in that stronghold, whence he made frequent excursions through 
 the country till the 2d of August, 1691, when, on the collection, in his neighbor- 
 hood, of ALL the English forces, after the battle of Aughrim, for the second siege 
 of Limerick, the gallant castellan of Nenagh evacuated that fortress, burned the 
 town, and brought away the whole of his garrison of five hundred men in safety, 
 towards Limerick, in spite of the pursuit of a strong party of Ginckle's cavalry, 
 under Brigadier Leveson and Major Wood." 
 
 With such persevering bravery, though deserted by a great portion 
 of their French allies, did the Irish keep up the war all that winter ; and,, 
 surprising as it appears, it is actually true that the regular army of the 
 English amounted to forty-one thousand men, when the entire population 
 of Ireland did not exceed one million and a half — the half of which 
 were in the English interest. And yet, with that thundering army 
 harassing them, — a greater than England ever since brought to bear on 
 any point of Europe, — the Irish were able {again on the invaders, to cut 
 up their encampments and their troops. " Their way was," says Story, 
 speaking of the Irish irregulars, "to make a private appointment to meet 
 at such a pass or wood, precisely at such a time of the night or day as 
 suited their conveniency ; and though you could not see a man over night, 
 yet, exactl}? at their hour, you might find four or five hundred, all well 
 armed and ready for what design they had formerly projected ; but if 
 they happened to be discovered or overpowered, they presently dispersed, 
 having beforehand appointed another place of rendezvous ten or twelve 
 miles distant from that where they were, by which means our men 
 could never fix any close engagement on them during the winter." 
 
 The summer of 1691 now opened. King William was pouring troops 
 into Ireland all the spring, and there was, in fine, sixty-seven English 
 regiments, consisting of thirty thousand foot and about seven thousand 
 five hundred horse, with immense quantities of arms, ammunition, clo- 
 thing, and money, to carry on the war ; besides which, there were under 
 
763 MOVEMENTS OF BOTH ARMIES. 
 
 arms, on William's side, twelve thousand militia, who were placed in the 
 defence of towns, forts, k,c. Arms were sent into the settlements of 
 Protestants, who were inflamed by religious fears and frenzy towards 
 the Irish Catholics. Besides all which, William had now in Ireland 
 thirty-nine heavy cannon, twelve field-pieces, and six mortars. 
 
 On the Irish side, there were about fourteen thousand na.tives, with six 
 thousand French allies. Of the latter three thousand were prisoners of all 
 nations, taken by the French, in their battles in the Low Countries, some 
 of whom were actually English ; and at the Boyne three hundred of these 
 ," allies" deserted to William's side, in presence of both armies. Louis 
 made great promises of assistance to King James ; he sent him two 
 thousand barrels of powder, eight thousand stand of small arms, — very 
 bad, and of little use, — but no cannon, and one million five hundred thou- 
 sand copper crowns, bearing King James's effigy, which were prepared at 
 Brest. The French assistance arrived in May, under St. Ruth. That 
 general brought over some provisions, ammunition, and clothing ; and 
 now the entire force of Ireland was placed, by James, under the chief 
 command of the French Marshal St. Ruth, and amounted to twenty 
 thousand men, the chief part of which moved on the western side of 
 the Shannon, towards Athlone, which is in the centre of Ireland. The 
 Irish had in their possession all Connaught onwards to Sligo, on the 
 north-west, together with the counties of Clare, Limerick, Kerry, and 
 part of the county Cork, in the south. They were protected along 
 their front by the Shannon, and in their rear by the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 Ginckle, at the head of seventeen thousand men, with twenty pieces 
 of cannon, moved from Dublin towards Athlone. At Ballimore, within 
 ten miles of Athlone, he encountered the first resistance, where a garri- 
 son defended by one thousand men, under Uliake Burke, bravely fought, 
 until their powder was exhausted, when they surrendered. Ginckle 
 sent seven hundred of the Irish soldiers, found here, to starve on the 
 Island of Lambay, near Dublin, from which none of them ever returned. 
 Before Ginckle captured this garrison, he encountered, in his way to it, 
 an old castle, guarded by a sergeant and fifteen men. When called 
 upon to surrender by the general, at the head of seventeen thousand men, 
 this undaunted fellow, with that reckless courage for which the Irish are 
 remarkable, ^rerf upon the enemy, and made a desperate resistance, until 
 he was dislodged by superior numbers ; when the English general, in- 
 stead of applauding him for his bravery, hanged him for his rashness. 
 The delays offered to Ginckle by the resistance at Ballimore enabled 
 the Irish, encamped near Athlone, to get into a state of defence. 
 
SIEGE OF ATHLONE. 769 
 
 Ginckle moved on Athlone at four o'clock in the morning of the 18th 
 June,. 1691, with twenty-five thousand men, and a considerable park of 
 artillery. General Fitzgerald, who commanded the outposts of the Irish, 
 sent out two or three hundred men to harass and delay the approaching 
 enemy ; which service they performed so skilfully, that Ginckle's ad- 
 vance-guard did not get to the walls of Athlone for five hours after he 
 set out, though the distance from his bivouac was only five miles. 
 
 St. Ruth, who lay a few miles from Athlone, neglected to send for- 
 ward a sufficient force to defend the garrison. The outer fortifications, 
 on the Leinster side of the river, were now attacked by Ginckle's main 
 army ; thirteen pieces of cannon played upon the walls for forty-eight 
 hours. The English were refreshed by relays from their numerous 
 army, while the Irish, consisting of only a little band, between three and 
 four hundred, defended the outward garrison with great bravery, working 
 all the time, night as well as day, every moment expecting reenforce- 
 ments from Field-Marshal St. Ruth. 
 
 At five o'clock, on the second day, the English cannon made a 
 breach in the walls, and four thousand men rushed to the assault. The 
 gallant band within the fortification fought till half their number were 
 killed, and then, with consummate address, a party of them went to work 
 to destroy the stone arches of the bridge which led across the river to 
 the Irish side; while the remaining handful withstood the murderous 
 bayoneting of the four thousand invaders, until the two stone arches 
 of the bridge were demolished, and then only the remnant retreated 
 within the Irish walls. 
 
 Never, surely, was there performed, by a besieged few, a more glori- 
 ous defence than this ! 
 
 In three or four days, Ginckle had his preparations made for cannon- 
 ading the Irish town. He was soon able to point at least twenty cannon 
 and mortal's against the walls. These walls had been, the previous 
 year, especially the castle, lined by clay walls, eighteen feet thick. 
 The English batteries had been playing away, for five days, on the walls 
 and castle, without doing any great damage. On the 27th June, the 
 eighth battery, of five guns, was planted in a meadow below the town, 
 to rake the flanks of the Irish garrison. Ginckle had fired away nearly 
 all his cannon-shot. A hundred cart-loads of cannon balls arrived from 
 Dublin on the 26th. The English guns now blazed away night and 
 day ; not a cat could safely expose its head on the Irish ramparts : the 
 Insh army worked like horses, in filling up the breaches with clay and 
 stone, and ventured, with the rashness of desperate men, to the eye of 
 97 
 
770 BRAVE DEFENCE. HEROIC EXPLOIT. 
 
 danger. No sooner was a breach made in any part of the walls, than 
 hundreds of stout hearts and willing hands flew to repair it, though every 
 moment some one of them was shot off by a cannon ball. Sometimes 
 they drove up oxen into the breaches, which were siiot by the enemy's 
 balls, and falling into them, the Irish adroitly covered over the carcases 
 with clay and stones, which made excellent ramparts. The English 
 were amazed at the bravery and tact of their adversaries, and the French 
 officers acknowledged they never saw more resolution and firmness in 
 any men or in any nation. 
 
 The great struggle of Ginckle was to get the bridge ; but this was 
 contested by the Irish inch by inch. At length their wooden fascines 
 having been set on fire by the English grenades, the party in defence of 
 the bridge had to retire within the fortress. Ginckle now threw beams 
 over both of the broken arches, and was preparing to put planks across 
 them, intending to pass directly over, boasting to his officers that he 
 would spend Sunday (the next day) in the Irish fortress. 
 
 At this moment, a brave dragoon sergeant, named Custume, offered 
 with his own guard to stop the enemy. The offer of the sergeant and 
 his ten daring companions was accepted ; and in the face of the English 
 firing, they began, with courage and strength, to pull away the English 
 beams and planks, and fling them into' the water. A tremendous fire of 
 great and small arms from the whole English line was directed upon those 
 gallant fellows. They were all slain before they could complete their 
 desperate task. Undeterred by their fate, eleven more then sprang forth 
 to continue what remained to be done. Another general discharge of can- 
 non was now directed on the spot ; the smoke cleared away ; nine of the 
 eleven had fallen ; but the beams were all thrown into the river. The 
 bridge was rendered impassable, and two of the gallant fellows returned 
 in triumph within their walls. 
 
 May not Irishmen be forgiven for pausing on this heroic deed, and 
 expressing their admiration of these unparalleled defenders of their 
 country's liberty ? 
 
 Ginckle, foiled a second time in his efforts to cross the bridge, now 
 directed his artillery with terrific fury on the town. The Irish guns 
 were disabled. Thirteen squadrons of horses and carriages were sent to 
 Dublin for more ammunition. All that had been brought down previ- 
 ously was nearly used. The garrison had stood an incessant fire, for 
 nine days and nights, from the " whole artillery " of Ginckle. 
 
 The English general now determined to ford the river, which, in the 
 memory of man, was never known to be so low. This enterprise having 
 
THE ENGLISH FOILED. ST. RUTh's JOT. 771 
 
 been communicated to St. Ruth by his spies from the English camp, he 
 instantly made preparations to drive the enemy back into the water, 
 should he be daring enough to cross. The next morning, a bridge of 
 boats was got ready by the English. The broken bridge was approached 
 under cover of moving galleries and breastworks. The Irish, on the oppo- 
 site side, were not idle. A grenade, flung by an Irish soldier into the 
 English works on the bridge, set them on fire, and their men had to fall 
 back. This disaster retarded the plan of Ginckle ; and observing how 
 well prepared St. Ruth was to receive them, they .thought it prudent to 
 give up the attack, after expending already in the siege fifty tons of pow- 
 der, six hundred bombs, twelve thousand cannon balls, and several tons 
 of stone, shot from the cannon ! 
 
 Ginckle's officers knew not what to think, seeing themselves a third 
 time defeated in so great a project. The Irish were filled with joy at 
 what they thought was an abandonment of all further design upon the 
 town. St, Ruth, when he saw the English retire, marched his own 
 army back to his camp, two miles from Athlone, where, to commemorate 
 the enemy's defeat, he gave an entertainment to the ladies and gendemen 
 of the neighborhood — a fatal trick of the French, by which Ireland was 
 twice lost ; first by this very carousing of St. Ruth after the victory, 
 and again by the French officers who landed from Tone's expedition, 
 in Killala, in 1798, under Humbert, who, having, with the United 
 Irish, beaten twenty thousand British troops, in three field battles, and 
 driven them from Casde-bar into the heart of Ireland, instead of pursuing 
 the victory, gave a series of balls and entertainments to the gentlefolks 
 of Castle-bar, and remained ten or twelve days loitering in pleasure, 
 until the enemy, recovering his strength, returned and defeated them. 
 Men who struggle for liberty should never taste of pleasure till it is 
 won,- and secured beyond the possibility of danger. 
 
 And here I must remark how frequent and unfortunate it is that the 
 liberties of mankind are jeopardized, and even lost, by the paltry jeal- 
 ousies of chiefs. The Duke of Tyrconnel, who had been twice in 
 France, the successful ambassador of the Irish ; who had commanded 
 in many well-contested actions, and had been always lucky and victori- 
 ous, was doomed to become a victim to a cabal raised in the Irish army, 
 and countenanced by St. Ruth ; and he was finally so disgusted, that 
 he quitted the ranks of his countrymen, whose ingratitude, more pow- 
 erful than the steel of the enemy, had entered his great soul. 
 
 The English government at Dublin were at this time in the deepest 
 gloom. The noble defence of the Irish astonished and confounded them. 
 
772 FOURTH ATTACK ON ATHLONE. 
 
 In anticipation of their defeat in the west, they began to barricade the 
 city of Dublin, to secure a retreat; and Ginckle had actually withdrawn 
 some of his cannon from the walls, with the intention, it is said, of 
 retiring. Ginckle, mortified beyond measure at his failure, after all his 
 boastful promises, now held a council of war, at which it was determined,, 
 on the afternoon of the 3d, to ford the river at six o'clock, on the ensuing 
 morning, and fight a way to the Irish ramparts, which were now so much 
 damaged as to be accessible by assault. 
 
 The attack was commenced at six o'clock in the morning of the 1st 
 of July, 1691, by two thousand grenadiers, commanded by General 
 Mackay, led on by Captain Sandys, and — 
 
 " Under cover of the British cannon, 
 Their grenadiers in armor crossed the Shannon; 
 Led by brave Captain Sandys, who, with fame, 
 Plunged to his middle in the rapid stream. 
 He led them through, and, with undaunted ire, 
 They gained the bank in spite of all our fire." 
 
 St. Ruth, at this time, lay with his main army two miles to the rear 
 of the town. He did not dream that the English would have made this 
 fourth, or " forlorn hope " attack, until roused from his bed the n)orning 
 after the ball, by the roar of the enemy's cannon. The town was un- 
 protected against such an attack, it having not more than twelve or 
 thirteen hundred men for its defence ; and St. Ruth, by the most un- 
 lucky obstinacy, and unaccountable pride, refused to send aid in 
 
 THE MORNING, WHEN WARNED OF THE PREPARATIONS OF THE ENEMY 
 
 by the commanding officer of the town, who sent out to the general for 
 a reenforcement, but was instantly answered, '• if lie was afraid, another 
 general officer would be sent there." 
 
 Meanwhile the English gain the Irish side of the river. The example 
 of the advance companies animated those behind, and soon several 
 thousand of the English were seen rushing headlong into the stream, 
 while their artillery, from their high batteries, with well-pointed aim, cut 
 down the Irish as fast as they appeared on their ramparts. At another 
 part of the river the English threw over a bridge of boats, over which a 
 column of two thousand men soon passed. Enough is stated. The 
 town was encompassed with English soldiers on every side. The Irish 
 fought, and fell in vain, against so overpowering a force. The pride 
 of their French chief would not allow him to send them that timely suc- 
 cor, which, had they obtained when first demanded in the morning. 
 
ST. RUTH REFUSES AID. SARSFIELD INDIGNANT. 773 
 
 would have enabled them to destroy a third part of Ginckle's army, and 
 mayhap decide the campaign. 
 
 Fate, however, ruled it so. The perverse Frenchman refused a second 
 application from the town, made when Mackay's troops plunged into the 
 water. He is described as having been then quite at his ease, sitting 
 in his tent, signing articles against the patriotic Duke of Tyrconnnel, 
 and about to set out on a shooting excursion : " It is impossible," he 
 exclaimed, on hearing the news, "that the English should attempt 
 to take a town, and I so near, with an army to succor it!" To this 
 the brave Sarsfield, who was present, replied, that he knew the en- 
 terprise was not too difficult for English courage to attempt. He urged 
 the immediate despatch of succor to the town ; but, St. Ruth continuing 
 to make a jest of the news, a quarrel between those two chief com- 
 manders was the unfortunate result. 
 
 St. Ruth was convinced, when too late, by the thunder of the British 
 cannon, that the action had commenced, and then sent on two brigades 
 of infantry, which were useful only in covering the retreat of the remnant 
 of the Irish garrison, who were driven from the town, and were found 
 contending the ground, inch by inch, with their pursuers. The English, 
 seeing the reenforcements arrive, retired behind those walls from whicb 
 they had dislodged the Irish ; and the latter, dispirited by the miscon- 
 duct of their chief, and the loss of five hundred of their body, who were 
 slain that morning, retired to the main body at the camp. 
 
 "Thus," says O'Callaghan, from whose very minute history of King 
 William's invasion I have partly compressed the foregoing outline, " not 
 through native, but foreign misconduct, not through the fault of the 
 Irish, but of their general, Athlone was at length taken, after a resist- 
 ance that does honor even to Irish valor." The loss of the Irish, in 
 defending this place during twelve days, was about thirteen hundred 
 men, with all their cannon, &c. 
 
 St. Ruth, though an able general, had, by his arrogance towards the 
 Irish commanders, and his loss of Athlone, so disgusted and dispirited 
 his army, that upwards of five thousand of them abandoned his camp. 
 Findino- his fame and cause endangered, he suddenly altered his bearing 
 towards his companions, sought a reconciliation with Sarsfield,and busied 
 himself up and down to conciliate and encourage every body. He re- 
 tired to the hill of Kilcommoden, where he posted his entire army most 
 advantageously. A bog or morass secured his front. (This morass is 
 now a rich meadow.) The only approach to his ground lay through two 
 narrow passes, about two miles apart ; the one called the pass ofAu- 
 
774 RETREAT ON AUGHRIM. PREPARATION FOR BATTLE. 
 
 ghrim, and the other the pass of Urrachree. That part of his ground 
 faced by the morass was most favorably shielded by several white-thorn 
 hedges and ditches, in which his infantry were posted, flanked by cav- 
 alry and a few cannon. He had now but nine pieces of cannon 
 remaining. His reserve was strongly intrenched on the hill, from which 
 he could observe the entire movements of the enemy ; and behind him 
 all approach was cut off by rivers, broken bridges, woods, and strong 
 detachments of troops. 
 
 St. Ruth was unquestionably a man of first-rate military talent, and 
 seemed now determined to make up for past faults and follies. Though 
 he had not yet become reconciled to Sarsfield, still the army, seeing him 
 do his part so well, determined to die or conquer. The English, after 
 some ten days spent in fortifying Athlone, posting troops at several points 
 on the English side of the Shannon, receiving supplies of men and am- 
 munition from England, &ic., now approached Aughrim, which lies about 
 three miles south-west of Balinasloe. 
 
 St. Ruth, on the Irish side, flew through his ranks, and addressed the 
 men and officers in the most enthusiastic language. ' The clergy also 
 exhorted them, and prepared the whole army for death, by hearing con- 
 fessions and administering to them the last sacrament. The entire of 
 Saturday and Sunday was spent in those solemn devotions : every man 
 was fortified, by all his hopes of earthly happiness and eternal bliss, to do 
 his duty, in the coming batde, to his country, liberty, and his proscribed 
 religion. St. Ruth had now, according to King James's Memoir, but 
 fiifteen thousand men and nine pieces of cannon ; but every man was not 
 only a soldier, but a hero. His French auxiliaries were reduced to some 
 tea or eleven hundred. 
 
 Ginckle approached with fifty regiments, full five-and-tvventy thousand 
 men, the flower of Europe, composed of Daries, Dutch, Germans, and 
 English, besides an unlimited park of artillery. He saw from the oppo- 
 site hill the advantageous position of the Irish, and calculated on a hard 
 battle. The morass appeared to be impassable, and the only two passes, 
 of Urrachree and the Castle of Aughrim, were strongly guarded. The 
 first move made by the English was on the pass of Urrachree, on 
 Monday, the 12th of July, 1691. The morning was foggy, and 
 little was done till about twelve or one o'clock. A skirmishing party 
 were sent over by Ginckle, consisting of two to three hundred men, 
 who were decoyed by a feint battle and retreat of the Irish into their am- 
 buscades, and were nearly destroyed. A few of them, retreating quickly, 
 were supported by a new detachment of nine hundred from Ginckle's 
 
ACTION BEGUN. 775 
 
 main. The Irish were, in turn, reenforced, and charged the enemy so 
 vigorously that he had to retire quickly. Upon this Ginckle ordered a 
 further supply of cavalry, four hundred and eighty strong. Soon ad- 
 ditional forces from both sides came on the ground to succor their 
 respective sides, and a sort of general engagement was now hotly carried 
 on. At length, about three o'clock, a fresh body of Irish horse, by an 
 impetuous charge, drove back the English, with great slaughter, to -their 
 own lines. 
 
 This first skirmish altered the plans of the English. A council of their 
 officers was held, at which it was debated whether the battle should be 
 continued that night. Mackay, the Scotch general, who had so bravely 
 crossed the Shannon at Athlone, urged that the battle should be con- 
 tinued that night, and, by bearing on Urrachree with large numbers, 
 compel St. Ruth to weaken the Aughrim pass in drawing off his men to 
 defend the former, when as the English reserve were to pour unexpected- 
 ly upon the pass of Aughrim, the morass was also to be sounded, and, 
 if found passable, a division of infantry was to force the Irish ground in 
 front. 
 
 The attack was thus begun by the English, in overwhelming num- 
 bers, and with all the impetuosity of which the human heart is capable. 
 The Irish received them bravely. We had better let the English Parson 
 Story, v/ho was amongst the English troops at that moment, tell their 
 tale. " Here we fired .one upon another for a considerable time, and the 
 Irish behaved themselves like men of another nation, defending their 
 ditches stoutly ; for they would maintain one side till our men put their 
 pieces over at the other, and then, having lines of communication from 
 one ditch to another, they would presently post themselves again, and 
 flank us." 
 
 St. Ruth despatched part of his left centre to support his men in this 
 hot battle. He comprehended the plan of the enemy, which was, to 
 weaken him at the Aughrim pass, and felt well persuaded he should 
 disconcert and overthrow them ; for he was truly delighted at the man- 
 ner m which the Irish fought that day, their guns being muzzle to 
 muzzle with the invaders. 
 
 Two thousand of the English had now crossed the bog, plunging, at 
 every step, to their middle in mud, and appeared at the foot of the hill 
 on which St. Ruth's reserve was posted. The Irish received them with 
 a murderous fire from their hedges, whence they retreated from hedge 
 to hedge, half a mile up the hill, destroying part of the enemy at every 
 discharge, and decoying them nearer and nearer to St. Ruth's main 
 
776 BRAVERY AND SUCCESS OF THE IRISH. 
 
 centre. Too far advanced to recede, and seeing the Irish now prepared 
 to return on them in an overvvhehning avalanche, the English commander 
 of this attack tried to rally his men by exclaiming, " There is no way to 
 come off but to be brave ! " But to no purpose : the remnant of this 
 daring band were driven back into the bog. 
 
 Mackay, who was now crossing another part of the bog with four or five 
 thousand men, directed his advance, under Prince Hesse, not to engage 
 the Irish until he and his entire body got over ; but St. Ruth bore down 
 upon the young prince, who was too proud to be still when attacked, 
 and, forgetting the orders of his wary Scotch general, attacked St. Ruth's 
 reserve, who enticed him on as the others had been, and returned 
 with a murderous charge, driving the remnant of his brigade back upon 
 Mackay's reserve, who were yet wading through the bog. The Eng- 
 lish were thus repulsed in every quarter, and the fortune of the day 
 seemed to be with the Irish : yet the English fought with uncommon 
 bravery. " Three times did they roll the tide of battle against the Irish 
 across the bog, though three times they were driven back to the mouths 
 of their cannon, by the victorious Irish," says their own writer. 
 
 Ireland had at Aughrim, like France at Waterloo, her Grouchy. A 
 recreant commander, named O^Donnell, who was marching from Con- 
 naught with eight thousand men, destined to act on Ginckle's rear, was 
 expected up by the Irish all that day. The troops were in motion, and 
 heard the roar of the artillery ; but the wretch detained them, traitor- 
 ously, as afterwards appeared by his junction with William's army, at 
 the siege of Sligo. The traitor, however, met his fate in William's 
 service in Flanders. 
 
 Ginckle now commanded his entire army to a general engagement at 
 all those passes from which they had been already driven, he himself 
 leading and fighting like a common soldier. He had some French Prot- 
 estants in his army who also fought desperately ; but the repulse from 
 the Irish was such, as their account of the battle evidences, that " they 
 resolved, having no other way, to sell their lives as dearly to the Irish 
 as they could." Instead of being able to dislodge the Irish, they were 
 repulsed on every side. " The Irish," according to the French accounts, 
 " made a great massacre of the enemy's broken foot." Even the Lon- 
 don Gazette of the day says, "The Irish were never known to fight 
 with more resolution, especially their foot." 
 
 St. Ruth, in a transport of joy, seeing how the Irish infantry fought, 
 flung his hat up into the air, and, turning to those around him, exclaimed, 
 ^^ I will now beat their army back to the gates of Dublin ! '' Ginckle 
 
DISASTROUS MISTAKE. 
 
 ST. RUTH KILLED. 777 
 
 and Mackay, the best English generals, were defeated in the pass of 
 Urrachree, and in the two passes across the bog, and the fortune of the 
 day seemed setting on the Irish side, when a very trivial circumstance 
 turned the fate of war. The pass at Aughrim, which had been up to 
 this but little assailed, and which was deemed, by both English and 
 Irish, the strongest, for it was so narrow that only two men could ride 
 abreast, and was covered by an impregnable old castle, which belonged 
 to the chieftain O'Kelly, — was guarded by one thousand nine hundred 
 men, under Colonel Walter Burke. As the English advanced on this 
 point, the Irish prepared to fire. After firing the first few rounds, and 
 when a supply of ammunition was required, it was found that casks filled 
 with cannon-shot, instead of bullets, were sent to the castle. Here was, 
 indeed, an untoward mistake. The Irish were panic-stricken ; but, re- 
 solved not to give up cheaply, they fired their ramrods, pieces of copper 
 and silver coins, and even the buttons of their clothes, at the enemy, 
 which, however, only wounded them. 
 
 Where so few of the English fell, for want of bullets in the guns of 
 their adversaries, it is not to be wondered at that they forced the pass of 
 Aughrim, and thus secured the very best ground of the field for at- 
 tacking the Irish. Although the English were twice driven back, 
 yet, supported by several regiments, they forced back the Irish here. 
 St. Ruth, observing the progress of the enemy, and not knowing, the cause, 
 was dashing down from his position on the hill with a splendid body of 
 cavalry, leaving Sarsfield behind with another fine body, but with strict 
 command not to stir till he received orders. St. Ruth, placing him- 
 self at the-headof his choice body of cavalry, was so completely sure of 
 success, that he said, '•' Now we will beat them to some purpose ; " and 
 giving the word to charge, his troops dash down upon the enemy ; but 
 his hour had come. A well-aimed cannon ball, from the English side, 
 took off his head ; and in that head were contained alone all the plans 
 of the battle. The brilliant dress of the French marshal identified him 
 to the enemy — a hint which should induce all skilful commanders to 
 avoid making their persons conspicuous by tawdry trappings. 
 
 The Irish were panic-stricken. Sarsfield, on whom the command de- 
 volved, was yet on the hill, and, owing to the coldness that prevailed 
 between himself and St. Ruth, knew nothing of his plans, or even of 
 his death, until the English had gained the hill. Nearly at the same 
 moment, the Rev. Mr. Stafford, a zealous priest, who animated the 
 troops during the day, met his death ; and a " great delay " in action 
 having taken place on the part of the Irish by these two unfortunate 
 98 
 
778 CHANGE IN THE FORTUNE OF THE DAT. 
 
 circumstances, — and where, as in battle, seconds decide the fate of em- 
 pires, — nearly half an hour elapsed before any regular action was adopted 
 on their side, the enemy gaining ground all the time. Yet, in the 
 language o{ Story, the Irish contested the ground inch by inch, though 
 irregularly and without a commander. " There was nothing," says 
 he, " but a continued fire all along the line, the Irish endeavoring to 
 defend their ditches, and our men as forward to beat them from thence." 
 
 The English now pushed up the hill in three columns, the Irish 
 fighting their way, and Sarsfield still ignorant of St. Ruth's death, and 
 afraid to stir lest he should give cause of umbrage ; yet, had he pushed 
 down the hill earlier with his fine body of reserve, there is no doubt, 
 says Captain Parker of Ginckle's army, but he would have turned the 
 tide of battle. And now, seeing that all was confusion and dismay, he 
 was obliged to join the retreating crowd of his countrymen, who fled 
 from a foe double their number, after fighting the hardest-fought field 
 that probably the history of Europe records. 
 
 A good retreat was now Sarsfield's object. He saw himself chief 
 in command of the remnant of his brave countrymen, and he determined 
 to proceed at once to Limerick, the theatre of his former glory, where 
 he foiled King William, and there make a last brave stand for 
 
 " His king, his country, and his lost estate." 
 
 Two battles were fought by the encircled Irish, at two different points 
 of the field, at which they behaved gallantly for half an hour, cutting 
 their way through hostile ranks, rather preferring to die than submit as 
 prisoners to the faithless invaders ; in which they were quite right, for 
 nearly two thousand Irish, captured during the day, including those 
 taken in the Castle of Aughrim, were inhumanly butchered on the field 
 after the battle ! The loss of the Irish was, according to King James, 
 about four thousand men : (the English make the loss more.) In this 
 number, there were killed of chief officers six hundred, and taken 
 prisoners one hundred and eleven, — evidence enough that the Irish 
 fought well " at home " that day. 
 
 Captain Parker, on Ginckle's side, estimates the English loss at three 
 thousand men, besides seventy-three general officers killed, and one 
 hundred and eleven wounded. The battle began at one o'clock, and 
 lasted until sundown. 
 
 Harris, who wrote the Life of King William, has the following para- 
 graph on this battle: — 
 
SARSFIELD NOW CHIEF IN COMMAND. 779 
 
 " It must in justice be confessed that the Irish fought this sharp battle with 
 great resokition ; wliich demonstrates that the many defeats before tliis time sus- 
 tained by tiiem cannot be imputed to a national cowardice, with which some, with- 
 out reason, impeached them, but to a defect in military discipline, or to the want 
 of skill and experience in their commanders. JJnd now, had not St. Ruth been 
 taken off, it would have been hard to say what the consequences of this day would have 
 been.^^ 
 
 " This admission from a Williamite," says O'Callaghan, " is every 
 thing." 
 
 Such was the field of Aughrim, bravely fought, and lost without dis- 
 honor ; gained by the enemy more through one of the accidents of 
 war, — the sending casks of cannon-shot to Aughrim Castle, instead of 
 bullets, — than to his bravery or skill. Let us, who live, perhaps, to 
 fight the battle over again, be more circumspect in packing our shot; 
 and let us, in the words partly of Moore, — 
 
 "Forget not the fields where tliey perished, 
 The truest, the last of tlie brave ; 
 The bright hopes, when living, they cherished, 
 Shall live with its on to the grave." 
 
 The Irish now rallied upon the strong forts yet in their possession. 
 The principal of these were Limerick, Galway, and Sligo ; which 
 covered a considerable belt of the western part of Ireland. Messengers 
 were despatched to France with a report of the war, and a pressing 
 request for further assistance in arms and ammunition, which was now 
 the principal want of the Irish. Limerick was strongly fortified, and the 
 garrison consisted of four to five thousand stout courageous men, some 
 of whom had fought at Aughrim, and others that had so bravely fought 
 in the former siege. Galway was garrisoned by about the same number, 
 and Sligo by as many ; while Sarsfield, at the head of a splendid body 
 of four thousand cavalry well mounted, scoured the open country be- 
 tween the enemy's lines and the various garrisons in possession of the 
 Irish. This brave officer did the English considerable damage, sur- 
 prising and cutting off whole detSchments at a time, which obliged 
 them to keep near to their strongest fortifications. 
 
 Ginckle now laid siege to Limerick, whilst another division was sent 
 to Sligo, to force that city to surrender, which w^as defended by Sir Teague 
 O'Regan. The English army lay before Limerick from the middle 
 of July to late in September, pouring a continued volley of cannon 
 balls and bombs on the town. This continued night and day, for sixty 
 or seventy days, without any other intermissions than those created by 
 the occasional heroic sallies of the garrison on their assailants. Upon 
 
780 SECOND SIEGE OF LIMERICK. 
 
 these occasions hundreds upon hundreds of both sides were slain, with- 
 out disturbing the general order of the siege. Upon one occasion, a 
 party of one thousand five hundred of the Irish who sallied out were 
 so closely pursued to their gates, that, whether from accident or design, 
 five hundred of their number were shut out by Colonel Luttrel ; and 
 every one of the poor fellows was butchered at the very gates of the 
 garrison. 
 
 The Irish garrison was at length gradually encircled by the British, 
 and all intercourse with their friends in the country was cut off: their 
 provisions were greatly reduced, and Sarsfield tried to get some horses 
 into the town for food, but found it impossible ; and what was still much 
 worse, their ammunition was gradually decreasing, without any hopes 
 or means of being replenished. Still no one thought of surrendering an 
 inch but with life. 
 
 On the other side, the affairs of King William in the Low Countries, 
 where his armies had been considerably reduced, fighting against the 
 combined forces of Spain and France, caused him to send word to 
 Ginckle to conclude the war with the Irish upon any terms, provided 
 they submitted to own him as king. This soon got wind, and it en- 
 couraged the Irish considerably. In the mean time, private messen- 
 gers arrived from France to Sarsfield, intimating that King James's 
 hopes of reestablishing his power in Ireland were declining ; where- 
 upon Sarsfield, Sir Toby Butler, and others of the Irish leaders, thought 
 it best to come to terms of peace with the English general, hearing that 
 he had power and directions to grant them every advantage which they 
 could reasonably hope for, if they had conquered for King James. 
 
 To be brief, after several negotiations between the parties on both 
 sides, a cessation of hostilities took place, and a peace was agreed to, 
 highly satisfactory and honorable to the Irish. The civil articles, — which, 
 with the military articles, are forty-two in number, — guarantied to the 
 Irish Catholics a free exercise of rel^ion ; the privilege of sitting in 
 parliamenty as enjoyed in the reign of Charles the Second ; a freedom 
 of trdde, and the benefit of domestic legislation by the national par- 
 liament in Dublin ; the guaranty of their estates to all those Catholics 
 who liad taken up arms for King James the Second ; a general amnesty 
 and forgiveness of all offences on either side. The m,ilitary articles 
 guarantied to the Irish troops, on their submission, all the honors of war, 
 as may be seen by the twenty-fifth article subjoined : — 
 
 " XXV. That it shall be lawful for the said garrison to march out all at once, 
 or at different times, as they can be embarked, with arms, baggage, drums beating, 
 
THE TREATY OF LIMERICK. 781 
 
 match lighted at hoth ends, hullet in mouth, colors flying, six brass guns, (such as 
 the besieged will chose,) two mortar-pieces, and half the ammunition that is now 
 in the magazines of the said place ; and, for this purpose, an inventory of all the 
 ammunition in the garrison shall be made in the presence of any person that the 
 general shall appoint, tlie next day after these present articles shall be signed." 
 
 Transports were to be provided to send to France such of those 
 soldiers as wished to embark for that country. These articles, which 
 run to great length, may be seen in Leland, Plowden, or M'Geoghegan's 
 Histories of Ireland. 
 
 The following is the preamble to these articles, and the names of the 
 high contracting parties on both sides : — 
 
 "Articles agreed upon the Third Day of October, One Thousand Six Hundred 
 
 and JVi7iety-One, 
 
 " Between the Right Honorable Sir Charles Porter, Knight, and Thomas Con- 
 ningsby, Esq., lords justices of Ireland, and his excellency the Baron de Ginckle, 
 lieutenant-general and commander-in-chief of tlie English anuy, on tlie one 
 part; 
 
 " And the Right Honorable Patrick, Earl of Lucan, [Sarsfield,] Piercy Viscount 
 Galmoy, Colonel Nicholas Purcel, Colonel Nicholas Cusack, Sir Toby Butler, 
 Colonel Garret Dillon, and Colonel John Brown, on the other part: 
 
 " In the behalf of the Irish inliabitantd in the city and county of Limerickj 
 tlie counties, of Clare, Kerry, Cork, Sligo, and Mayo, and those under their protec- 
 tion, [which words in Italic were omitted in the clean copy, though inserted in the 
 rough one, but afterwards confirmed by King William.] 
 
 " In consideration of the surrender of the city of Limerick, and other agree- 
 ments made between the said Lieutenant-General Ginckle, tlie governor of the 
 city of Limerick, and the generals of the Irish army, bearing date with these 
 presents, for the surrender of the said city, and submission of the said army : it is 
 agreed," &c. &c. 
 
 These binding articles between the English and Irish nation were 
 solemnly signed the 3d day of October, 1691, in presence of both 
 garrisons, on a large stone that stood in the midway ground between 
 the two armies. The stone on which this charter of civil and re- 
 ligious liberty was signed is yet preserved conspicuously, and held in 
 great veneration by the people of Limerick, and is appropriately called 
 the Treaty Stone. 
 
 In two days after this treaty was signed, a French fleet arrived in the 
 mouth of the Shannon, bringing an army of reenforcement to Sarsfield. 
 This created considerable emotion on both sides ; some of Sarsfield's 
 captains urged him to avail himself of this aid, and to return to the 
 combat and extinguish the English army. He exclaimed, " No ! I 
 have set my name to the contract, and I will never disgrace the name 
 of a soldier, or an Irishman, by erasing it." Alas for Sarsfield's con- 
 
782 IRISH COMMANDERS IN THIS WAR. o'nEILL. 
 
 fidence in British honor ! We shall by and by see that treaty deliber- 
 ately broken in every particular by Britain. 
 
 And now, after a war of two hundred and fifty years between the 
 Irish and English, the principle for which the Irish first took the field 
 was established, namely, religious liberty. It had been wrung from 
 Elizabeth, after a fifteen years' war; subverted again by James, the First, 
 Cromwell, and the parliamentarians ; partly restored by Charles the 
 Second ; fully established by James the Second ; subverted by King 
 William ; and now, after many a hard-fought field, again wrung from a 
 reluctant enemy by the indomitable valor of the Irish heart. 
 
 This is the natural place from whence to glance back at a few of 
 those bright names who, during the wars from Elizabeth to William, 
 took a leading part in our eventful history — names that fling a radiance 
 over the past, and a gleam of bright light tlirough the future, which 
 cannot but guide the votaries of Irish liberty for ages to come. 
 
 About nineteen thousand men and officers, most of whom fought in 
 those latter battles, availed themselves of a free conveyance to France, 
 and were afterwards employed by the French king, Louis the Four- 
 teenth. They were offered their choice, whether to serve in the army of 
 William or Louis : a day was appointed for testing this. The Irish com- 
 mander? having resolved to go to France, most of the soldiers decided 
 on following them. About three thousand went into the English service. 
 The Irish who now embarked for France formed the celebrated " Irish 
 Brigade," which so valorously distinguished themselves under the French 
 colors at various battles, to whose brilliant deeds upon the continent I 
 shall by and by allude. 
 
 Amongst the names which shine out most frequently in Irish story are 
 the O'Neills. Every reign and every campaign had its "O'Neill" 
 among the rebels to English domination ; and I do not remember to 
 have read of a traitor or runaway of that name but one in our whole 
 history. In short, to do justice to this great family would be to write 
 over again the history of Ireland. Hugh O'Neill, in the reign of 
 Elizabeth, and Owen Roe O'Neill, in the beginning of Cromwell's 
 invasions, were men whom, as military commanders and patriots, any 
 nation might well be proud of. In the parliament of Ireland, called by 
 King James the Second, there were seven O'Neills representatives of 
 northern counties and boroughs. Those O'Neills, indeed, were, in 
 O'Callaghan's words, " glorious fellows," worthy descendants of the 
 race that held the Irish sceptre for six hundred and ninety-nine years. 
 
 Justin M'Carthy, Lord Mountcashell, deserves special notice. He 
 
m'cARTHT. o'kELLYS. FITZGERALD. 783 
 
 had maintained the brunt of James's battles before his arrival with 
 French aid, and had been eminently successful in the north of Ireland, 
 where he fought against those foolish Protestants who espoused King 
 William's cause from a mere fanatical hatred of Popery. He was, 
 however, captured by his opponents at Newtown Butler, and kept im 
 prisoned several months, but escaped to France. The M'Carthys were 
 a very ancient stock of the southern race of Milesian princes, and, for 
 nine hundred years previous to the invasion of Henry the Second, were 
 the hereditary princes of Desmond, or South Munster, who enjoyed the 
 right with the O'Briens, who were princes of North Munster, of nomi- 
 nating alternately a king of the province. The counties of Cork and 
 Kerry were their principal territories ; and the families of O'Callaghan, 
 O'Donovari, O'Connell, O'Donoghue More, and O'Donoghue of the 
 Glen, O'Mahony, O'Keefe", O'Sullivan More, and O'Sullivan Beare, 
 besides several other septs, were their hereditary vassals, and paid them 
 tribute. The M'Carthys, as vvell as the men bearing the above honor- 
 able names, took their distinguished posts on the side of King James. 
 They fought, were killed, or were made prisoners, according to the 
 indiscriminate laws of war. A most interesting note on the distinguished 
 house of the M'Carthys will be found in the Green Book, p. 235. 
 Their immense estates, worth sixty thousand pounds a year, were un- 
 justly seized by the Williamites, clearly contrary to the treaty of 
 Limerick. The last of the family, the Comte de M'Carthy Reagh, 
 left behind him, at Toulouse, a splendid library, second only to -that of 
 the king of France. In this magnificent collection there were eight 
 hundred books in manuscript, of the utmost value : they were sold, and 
 were scattered amongst the libraries of Europe. 
 
 The family of O'Kellys, of Hy-Maney, a county comprehending the 
 northern parts of the county Galway, and the southern parts of the 
 county Roscommon, was founded in the fifth century, and distin- 
 guished themselves in the Danish wars : one of the race commanded 
 the left wing at the battle of Clontarf. The name gave many com- 
 manders to King James's army ; and the head of the family lost his 
 estate at Aughrim by the loss of that battle. Many officers of this 
 name rose, by their valor, to distinction in the French and Austrian 
 services during the last century. — See Green Book, for further par- 
 ticulars, p. 255. 
 
 Colonel Fitzgerald fought nobly in the defence of Athlone, when 
 attacked by Ginckle before the arrival of assistance from St. Ruth. The 
 name of Fitzgerald, though belonging to the Norman invaders, has re- 
 
784 " o'reilly. 
 
 deemed the sin of its first conductors into Ireland, by giving many a 
 martyr to the cause of Ireland ; the last being the adored Lord Ed- 
 ward Fitzgerald, — of whom more hereafter. 
 
 Colonel Edmund Bui O'Reilly, who so ably fought under the Duke 
 of Berwick in the battle of Cavan, which took place before the arrival 
 of Schomberg, was the head of the ancient and powerful house of 
 O'Reilly, descended, like their neighbors, (the O'Rourkes,) from Here- 
 mon, son of Milesius. The O'Reillys were princes of East Brefny, or 
 the modern county of Cavan, as the O'Rourkes were of West Brefny, 
 or the modern county of Leitrim. The O'Reillys were the uncon- 
 querable frontier power which, for so many centuries after the English 
 invasion, kept the English Pale in check, and forbade its advance. 
 'They distinguished themselves nobly in the fifteen years' war against 
 Elizabeth. On the fall, by treachery, of the great O'Neills, their patri- 
 mony was nearly all seized about the same time, — 1607. One of the 
 sept commanded bravely in the confederated Catholic army, who fought 
 for their religious freedom in the times of Charles the First and Crom- 
 well. There were several of the name killed, as commanders in King 
 James the Second's army, at the Boyne, Athlone, and Aughrim ; one of 
 the name was chaplain to King James himself, and another was master 
 in chancery under the same monarch. There were three of the name 
 members of King James's parliament. Many flourishing offshoots of 
 the family have survived in the counties of Cavan and Meath, all of 
 whom, as well as the O'Kellys, have given many shining lights to the 
 Catholic church. And the armies of Louis the Fourteenth, the Empress 
 Maria Theresa, and even of Napoleon, had, amongst their most heroic 
 corps, some members of this noble and patriotic house. 
 
 Andrew, Count O'Reilly, general of cavalry in the Austrian army, 
 may be considered as the last warrior of that distinguished class of 
 Irish officers, the- contemporaries or eleves of the Lacys, Dauns, 
 Loudons, Bradys, and Browns, so renowned in the reigns of Maria 
 Theresa and Joseph the Second. He was the second son of James 
 O'Reilly, of Westmeath, Ireland. By the brilliant charges of his 
 dragoons, he saved the remnants of the Austrian army at Austerlltz, 
 and was the only commander, according to Napoleon, on the Austrian 
 side, who saved his cannon. The men who fought under him were " '98 
 men," and his lieutenant was Aylmer, of Painstown, in the county 
 Kildare. In May, 1808, he was governor of Vienna, and on him de- 
 volved the task of honorably capitulating to Napoleon, the victor of 
 the age. Count O'Reilly died at the age of ninety-two, in Vienna, in 
 
O CALLAGHAN. MAGE 
 
 — m'mahon. 785 
 
 1832, holding the rank of general of cavalry in the Austrian army, and 
 chamberlain commander of the imperial order of Maria Theresa. His 
 sister is Lady Talbot, of Malahide. 
 
 In August, 1844, William O'Reilly, the head of the sept in our 
 times, died at the old castle, county Louth. He was a distinguished 
 member of the Catholic Association, and served in parliament for Dun- 
 dalk, after the triumph of the Catholic cause, in 1829. He is suc- 
 ceeded by Miles O'Reilly, who, it is said, inherits the talent and 
 patriotism of his family. Mr. O'Reilly's uncle is the present attorney- 
 general of Jamaica. A member of the family in exile, according to 
 Mackenzie, has written a history of Rochester. 
 
 A pretty good brigade could now be raised in Ireland for the defence 
 of the country, composed exclusively of the O'Reillys. 
 
 The O'Callaghans, or O'Ceallahans, of the Heberian line, had 
 distinguished themselves in defence of their country, since the, hero of that 
 name defeated the Danes in many battles, down to the war of William. 
 Some of this name commanded under Desmond in the wars of Eliza- 
 beth. The regiment commanded by Maxwell, at Athlone, had a 
 Major O'Callaghan, who well distinguished himself. It is hardly ne- 
 cessary to state that the talented military writer of the Green Book 
 comes from that ancient and noble stock. 
 
 The Magennises were a most ancient family, that gave kings to 
 Ulster for many centuries after the first Milesian settlement. They 
 were conquered by the O'Neills, when the great palace of Emania was 
 destroyed, and the royal lineage of their line terminated. They, how- 
 ever, continued as chieftains to defend their country from invasion ; their 
 possessions chiefly lay in the county Down, called Dalriada, now 
 forming part of the baronies of Upper and Lower Iveach, and the 
 barony of Moy-Inis, now called Lecale. The chief of this noble 
 house. Lord Iveagh, furnished King James with two regiments of in- 
 fantry, and one of dragoons, who fought well during the Williamite 
 war. Three of the name were members of King James's parliament, 
 returned by popular constituencies in their native districts. Two of the 
 family fell at Athlone, bravely leading their men to the breach. At the 
 end of the war. Lord Iveagh entered the Austrian service with five 
 hundred men, the remnant of his brave legion, who fought in the new 
 service against the Turks, in Hungary. 
 
 The M'Mahons w^ere lords of Monaghan, formerly called Uiiel. It 
 was an extensive tract, and we find, from Sir John Davis, there were 
 99 
 
786 o'gaRA. GRACE. 
 
 ninety-si'x thousand acres of M'Mahon's land, set apart, in various parts 
 of his territory, for the support of public hospitality. These lands were 
 managed by that ancient public officer, the beteagh, whose duty, as I 
 have already described, was to keep food and beds continually ready 
 for the traveller and the needy. " They were a race," says the vener- 
 able Cliarles O'Conor, " which were the subject of much panegyric 
 in the works of our annalists and Jileas ; they were of the Heremonian 
 line, and their chiefs, in every age, won the laurels due to the brave, the 
 patriotic, and the hospitable." The last of this illustrious house was 
 the Reverend Father M'Mahon, who studied and taught in Spain, having 
 been driven from his priory in Ireland, by the Orange act of parliament 
 of 1697. Colonel Art Oge MMahon, one of the house, fell at the 
 siege of Athlone. This distinguished commander was King James's 
 lord lieutenant for the county of Monaghan. Two or three more of 
 the family commanded in the same service ; and three others were 
 members of King James's parliament. Captain Hugh M'Mahon went 
 to France, after the surrender of Limerick, and entered the French 
 king's service. These northern M'Mahons must not be confounded 
 with the southern M'Mahons of Clare ; the latter were of the Hiberian 
 line, and were called Dalcassians. 
 
 The O'Gara family — of whom Colonel Oliver O'Gara distinguished 
 himself at Athlone and Aughrim — were the lords of the barony of 
 Colavin, in the county of Sligo ; which immense tract was forfeited 
 from them (robbed) by the English, in 1641. This distinguished officer, 
 after the capitulation of Limerick, retired to France, where he was 
 appointed lieutenant-colonel of King James's regiment of foot, which 
 was one thousand four hundred strong. 
 
 Notice ought to be taken of the brave old Colonel Richard Grace, 
 who fell defending Athlone. He was not of the Milesian race, but of 
 the Norman clan that followed Strongbow into Ireland. Raymond le 
 Gros was the founder of the family ; and, in the course of ages, that 
 family became more Irish than the Irish themselves. The southern 
 family, ennobled as Earls of Desmond, gave evidence of this in the 
 times of Elizabeth. Colonel Richard Grace, who so bravely fell at the 
 head of his regiment, was a singularly brave and chivalrous person. He 
 was beyond eighty years of age, and was in charge of Athlone, when 
 Douglas attacked it, after the battle of the Boyne. ■ When called upon 
 to surrender by that officer, he fired a pistol over the head of the 
 messenger, exclaiming, "Tell your n)asler, these are my terms!" He 
 ably defended the fortress against the invaders on the first occasion, and 
 
O CONNELL. 
 
 •o'higgins. 787 
 
 drove off three thousand, after a long and fruitless, siege. The English 
 commander had previously sent an emissary to him, with an offer of a 
 considerable bribe and dazzling honors, if he would join King William. 
 The brave old hero instantly wrote upon a card, (the six of hearts,^ 
 which was accidentally near him, a stern and haughty refusal. This card 
 goes by the name of " Grace's card," in Ireland, to this day. He had 
 in his youth fought at the head of five thousand of his own men against 
 Cromwell, and was never defeated ; but, on capitulation, left the coun- 
 try with one thousand two hundred men, returned with Charles the 
 Second, and fought for Ireland, in his old age, against King William, 
 falling in the trenches of Atlilone, which town he had three times before 
 successfully defended against English invasion. His estate lay in the 
 neighborhood of Kilkenny. 
 
 The O'CoNNELL sept gave commanders to Ireland ' before now. 
 Without going into the deeds of that family, until 1 come to treat of its 
 present chief, I will merely notice that Colonel O'Connell was taken 
 prisoner at Aughrim, which proves that he was in the thickest of the 
 battle. The Liberator tells an anecdote of a soldier who fought on that 
 day, under the command of his gallant relative, which strongly indicates 
 the resolution that pervaded the entire Irish army at that men)orabIe 
 battle. On Colonel O'Connell asking this poor fellow, the morning of 
 the battle, why he appeared unshaved, it being the Sabbath, he replied, 
 " Arrah, curnil, the man that has the head to-night may shave it." 
 
 The O'HiGGiNs's were distinguished in those and the preceding 
 wars. The family gave three martyrs of distinction to the cause of 
 Ireland within the seventeenth century, — of whom two, bearing the 
 name of Peter, suffered death, in Dublin, for their faith. It must be 
 noted, also, that an excommunicated priest of that name became a 
 traitor in the Williamite war ; but his baseness has been outbalanced by 
 the numerous great spirits given by that family to the liberty of Ireland, 
 and his treachery was punished with death by the guns of his com- 
 rades, who killed him while fighting in the ranks of their enemies. 
 About the year 1610, there were two distinguished poets of this name 
 in Ireland ; one of whom was archbishop of Tuam. In the last cen- 
 tury. Sir John O'Higgins, first counsellor of state to Philip the Fifth of 
 Spain, rendered himself remarkable as the discoverer of the works, in 
 manuscript, of the Irish poet and scholar, SeduUus, [Shiel.] This Sir 
 John O'Higgins, says O'Callaghan, was the great-grandfather of Don 
 Bernardo O'Higgins, president of the republic of Chili, so distinguished 
 in the annals of the South American struggle for independence ; in the 
 success of which, as in the contest for freedom in the United States, 
 
788 o'hIGGINS. officers KILIiEI) AND WOUNDED. 
 
 Irish blood so amply contributed. The original founder of this old Irish 
 name, which is also written without a final 5, — O^Higgin, — was a 
 son of Niall the Grand, of the Nine Hostages, who drove the Romans 
 out of Britain, in the fourth century. 
 
 The man who, in our days, bears that name most prominently before 
 his countrymen, is the illustrious Dr. Higgins, bishop of Ardagh, whose 
 reply to Sir Robert Peel, in 1843, deserves to be engraved in gold on 
 columns of marble in the chief cities of Ireland, and to be committed 
 to the memories of the whole population. " I have sprung," said this 
 illustrious man, at the monster meeting of Mulhngar, where two hundred 
 thousand of his countrymen assembled, " I have sprung not only from 
 the people, but from the very humblest classes of the people. 1 disdain 
 and contemn all the pride of aristocracy. I am of the people, and I 
 sympathize in«their privations. We seek for a repeal of the union, to 
 put an end to those privations. The minister of England refuses this 
 measure, and threatens us with physical force, — to put us down by the 
 sword, — should we persist in the demand. I speak now the sentiments 
 of the entire priesthood and hierarchy of Ireland. They are unanimous 
 in their resolve to obtain a repeal of that union. We are now all 
 unanimous on this point, and 1 defy Sir Robert Peel to put down the 
 repeal agitation in the single diocese of Ardagh ! [Here O'Connell 
 cheered, which the entire multitude reechoed again and again. ' That's 
 the best news,' said the Liberator, ' I ever heard.'] They may drive 
 us from our fields ; they may deprive us of the open light of day to 
 assemble under; but we will retire to our churches, and there, when we 
 have addressed our people on the duty they owe to God, we shall then 
 lecture them on the duty they owe to their country. The myrmidons 
 of England may follow us into our sanctuaries ; hut we will prepare 
 
 OUR PEOPLE FOR THE SCAFFOLD, AND BEQ,UEATH OUR WRONGS TO 
 POSTERITY 1 " 
 
 Let those who have the honor of bearing this name imitate their 
 illustrious namesake in love of Ireland and exertion for her freedom. 
 
 The following is a correct list of the officers who were killed and 
 wounded at Aughrim : — 
 
 " Killed. — The commander-in-chief, Lieutenant-General St. Ruth ; Lord Kil- 
 mallock, (Sarsfield;) Lord Galway, (Burke ;) Brigadier William Mansfield Barker ; 
 Brigadier H. M. J. O'Neill ; Brigadier O'Connell ; Colonel Charles Moore ; Colo- 
 nels David and Ulick Burke ; Colonel Cuconacht or Constantine Maguire ; Colonel 
 James Talbot; Colonel Arthur; Colonel Mahony ; Colonel Walter Nugent; 
 Colonel Felix O'Neill ; Lieutenant-Colonel Morgan ; Major Purcell ; Major 
 O'Donnell; Sir John Everard, &c. 
 
 "Taken. — Lord Duleek, (Beliew ;) Lord Slane, (Fleming;) Lord Bophm, 
 
BURKE. o'bRIEN. DILLON. 789 
 
 (Burke ;) Lord Kenmare, (Browne ;) Major-General Dorrington ; Major-General 
 John Hamilton, (who died of his wounds, and was brother to the gallant Lieutenant- 
 General Richard Hamilton, captured at the Boyne, and to the brave and accom- 
 plished Colonel Anthony Hamilton, who fought against the Enniskilleners, and 
 wrote tlie well-known Memoirs of Grammont, &c. ;) Brigadier Tuite ; Colonel 
 Walter Burke; Colonel Gordon O'Neill; Colonel Butler of Kilkasli; Colonel 
 O'Connell ; Colonel Edmund Madden ; Lieutenant-Colonel John Chappell ; Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel John Butler; Lieutenant-Colonel Baggot; Lieutenant-Colonel John 
 Border ; Lieutenant-Colonel Macgennis ; Lieutenant-Colonel Rossiter ; Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Macguire ; Major Patrick Lawless ; Major Kelly ; Major Grace ; Major 
 William Burke ; Major Edmund Butler; Major Edmund Broghill, (most probably 
 an English error for tlie Irish name Braughall ;) Major John Hewson, &c." 
 
 Colonel Walter Burke, who guarded the Castle of Aughrim, be- 
 longed to the great Norman-Irish house of Milo de Burgh, who came 
 into Ireland with Strongbow, 1170. This family settled in Connaught 
 soon after the first invasion, and assumed the name, language, manners, 
 dress, and customs, of the native Irish, and were deemed, in succeeding 
 ages, " more Irish than the Irish themselves." The Burkes have given 
 heroes to the independence of Ireland in every age, and one of that 
 family, of the northern line, was the celebrated Edmund Burke, whose 
 genius and talents were wielded in favor of his fellow-countrymen in the 
 British senate, and who was the first in Europe to raise his voice in 
 behalf of the then struggling colonies of America. His eloquence 
 contributed mainly to evoke that sentiment through Europe which in- 
 duced Lafayette and Kosciusko to leave their homes for the camp of 
 Washington, and which induced sixteen thousand Irishmen to fight in 
 his ranks. 
 
 Colonel Charles O'Brien, of" O'Brien's regiment," went to France, 
 after the surrender of Limerick. The O'Briens, who, like the O'Neills, 
 have occasionally held the sceptre of Ireland, have their names inter- 
 woven in every page of Irish history. The above colonel was killed 
 at the battle of Ramillies, in 1706, when his regiment was given to 
 Murrough O'Brien, of a branch of the same family ; the latter distin- 
 guished himself as a skilful officer, at Pallue, in the French king's service. 
 The present distinguished William Smith O'Brien is a member of 
 this family, — of whom I shall have something to say under the 
 " repeal agitation." 
 
 Lieutenant-General Dillon also repaired with the others to France, 
 at the head of his regiment. There were several sons of Lord Dillon 
 engaged in the Williamite war, who afterwards proved themselves dis- 
 tinguished officers in the French service. Two were killed at the head 
 of their regiments, at the battles of Fontenoy and Lawfeld. 
 
790 o'rEGAN. SEVERAL OTHER OFFICERS. 
 
 Lover gives the following characteristic sketch of these brave 
 men : — 
 
 '■ In a memorable battle fought in the days of Louis tlie Fourteenth, when tlie 
 French were scattered in every direction, and the fields covered with the dead and 
 dying, Louis addressed his general thus : ' Can any thing be done to preserve the 
 honor of France ? ' His general answered, ' Yes, my liege ; there is a gallant, in- 
 trepid band, the Irish Brigade, upon which all my hopes rest' ' Dillon,' said Mar- 
 shal Saxe, ' let the whole Irish Brigade charge ! to you I commit its conduct 
 Where Dillon's regiment leads, the rest will follow. The cavalry has made no 
 impression yet ; let the Irish Brigade show an example.' ' It shall be done, Mar- 
 shal,' said Dillon, turning his liorse. ' Victory ! ' cried Saxe. ' Or death ! ' cried 
 Dillon, and, plunging his rowels into his horse's side, gallopped along the front of 
 the lines, where the brigade stood impatient for the order to advance. Dillon gave 
 the talismanic word, ' Remember Limerick ! ' and, heading his brave regiment, 
 down swept the brigade, and shortly the hitherto unbroken column of Cumberland 
 was crushed ; the very earth trembled under that horrible rush of horse. The brave 
 Dillon fell, but ho lived long enough to know that the glorious charge of the 
 Irish Brigade had won the day." 
 
 JXor should we omit our admiration of the brave Sir Teague 
 O'Regan, who held Sligo in defiance of the English force sent against 
 him upon three separate occasions, and only gave up when the treaty 
 of Limerick was agreed to. He died in Ireland. 
 
 The Abbe M'Geoghegan supplies the following sketch of these 
 heroic men, who so bravely won a charter for their country in the face 
 of death : — 
 
 " The troops which had lately arrived in France, after the treaty of Limerick, 
 were new-modelled in 1695, and reduced to twelve regiments, the command of 
 which was given to those who had most influence at the court of St Germain. 
 These regiments, called " the troops of King James," were, — 
 
 " The king's regiment of cavalry : Dominick Sheldon, colonel ; Edmond Pren- 
 dergast, lieutenant-colonel ; Edmond Butler, major. 
 
 " The queen's regiment of cavalry : Lord Galmoy, colonel ; Rene de Carne, (a 
 Frenchman,) lieutenant-colonel; James Tobin, major. 
 
 "The king's regiment of dragoons: Lord Viscount Kilmallock, (Sarsfield,) 
 colonel ; Turenne O'CarroU, lieutenant-colonel ; De Salles, (a Frenchman,) major. 
 
 " The queen's regiment of dragoons : Charles Viscount Clare, colonel ; Alex- 
 ander Barnwal, lieutenant-colonel ; Charles Maxwell, major. 
 
 " The king's infantry regiment of guards : William Dorington, colonel ; Oliver 
 O'Gara, lieutenant-colonel ; John Rothe, major. 
 
 " The queen's regiment of infantry : Simon Luttrell, colonel ; Francis Wachop, 
 lieutenant-colonel ; James O'Brien, major. 
 
 « An infantry regiment of marines : The Lord Grand-prior, colonel ; Nicholas 
 Fitzgerald, lieutenant-colonel ; Richard Nugent second lieutenant-colonel ; Ed- 
 mond O'Madden, major. 
 
 "The Limerick regiment of infantry : Sir John Fitzgerald, colonel ; Jeremiah 
 O'Mahony, lieutenant-colonel ; William Thessy, major. 
 
FUTURE DISPOSITION. IRISHMEN IN FOREIGN SERVICE. 791 
 
 " The Charlemont regiment of infantry : Gordon O'Neill, colonel ; Hugh 
 M'Mahon, lieutenant-colonel ; Edmond Murphy, major. 
 
 " Dublin regiment of infantry : John Power, colonel ; John Power, lieutenant 
 colonel ; Theobald Burke, major. 
 
 " The Athlone reginient of infantry : Walter Burke, colonel ; Owen M'Carty, 
 lieutenant-colonel ; Edmond Cantwell, major. 
 
 " Clancarty regiment of infantry : Roger M'Elligot, colonel ; Edward Scott, 
 lieutenant-colonel ; Cornelius Murphy, major. 
 
 " Out of the regiments which the Irish nobility had raised in 1689, for the 
 service of James the Second, several were disbanded in Ireland. Most of those 
 who went to France were imbodied with those we have just been enumerating ; 
 the colonels descending to the rank of captain, and the captains to that of lieu- 
 tenants. The regiments of O'Neill, O'Donnel, M'Donnel, Maguire, M'Mahon, 
 Magennis, were formed into one; Edmond (Buoy) O'Reilly's shared the same fate. 
 
 " The regiments of Burke and Dillon were engaged at the battle of Cremona, 
 February, 1702, in which they particularly distinguished themselves, and con- 
 tributed mainly to the defeat of the enemy. As a mark of his satisfaction, the 
 king increased the pay of the foot captains, not only of these regiments, but of 
 thfee others which were on a footing with the French, to twenty-five pence a day, 
 and the lieutenants to twelve pence. The pay of the second captains and lieu- 
 tenants was increased in proportion. The soldiers, also, received one penny 
 a day additional. Dillon's regiment received their reward in hand, as they al- 
 ready had high pay. 
 
 " Sheldon's regiment of cavalry, to which a squadron was added, consisted of 
 three squadrons in the war of 1700. They distinguished themselves at the battle 
 of Spire, on tlie 24th of November, 1703 ; and the half-pay captains and lieu- 
 tenants, who served with it, received an increase of pay. 
 
 "In 1708, the king of Spain began to raise two regiments of dragoons, and 
 three Irish battalions, consisting of the prisoners taken from the English army in 
 the battle oi' Almanza. These corps were officered by the half-pay officers who 
 had served with the Irish regiments in France. 
 
 " Peace having been concluded at Radstadt, on the 6th of March, 1714, between 
 France and the emperor, the regiments of Lee, Clare, Dillon, Rothe, and Berwick, 
 were increased from twelve to fifteen companies, consisting each of forty men. 
 In order to make up tlie tln-ee new companies, the regiments of O'Donnel, wliich 
 had previously belonged to Fitzgerald and Galmoy, and a second battalion, which 
 was added to Berwick's, were disbanded. O'Donnel's was divided between the 
 regiments of Lee and Clare ; Galmoy's and Berwick's second battalions were 
 joined to those of Dillon, Rothe, and Berwick. 
 
 " From calculations and researches that have been made at the war-office, it 
 has been ascertained, that, from the arrival of the Irish troops in France, in 1691, 
 to 1745, the year of the battle of Fontenoy, more than four hundred and fifty 
 thousand Irishmen died in the service of France. [Independent of which, nearly an 
 equal number entered into the service of Germany, Spain, and Hungary.] 
 
 " Burke applied for, and obtained, permission for his regiment, which had often 
 served in Spain, (in order to avoid shifting,) to offer its services to the king of 
 Spain. This being granted, he proceeded to that country, and subsequently 
 served with distinction in Sicily, Africa, and Italy, during the war of 1733, under 
 the king of the Two Sicilies, to whom his father, the king of Spain, had sent him 
 
792 IRISHMEN IN FOREIGN SERVICE. O SULLIVAN. 
 
 in 1758. Burke's regiment remained in Naples ; it was called the king's carps, 
 and received an addition of two battalions, 
 
 " Through the changes which took place among the Irish troops in France, the 
 kmg of Spain was enabled to increase his three Irish regiments of foot by a bat- 
 talion each, so tliat he had six made up of the supernumerary men who remained 
 unemployed in France. They served at Oran, in Sicily, and in Italy, in 1733, 
 1734, with the highest distinction. Four of these battalions, with the Walloon 
 guards, were successful, in 1713, in repulsing the enemy at Veletry, and in saving 
 Don Philip, who was in danger of being taken prisoner." 
 
 The O'Sullivans have nobly distinguished themselves through every 
 generation and age of Ireland. In the Elizabethan wars, the exploits 
 of the O'SuLLiVAN Beare were the theme of the bards of that age ; 
 and succeeding historians have not failed to emphasize his deeds. They 
 are a very ancient Milesian fauiily, descended from OlioU Olioll, king of 
 Munster before the Incarnation. They possessed three baronial castles, 
 of great strength, in the county of Kerry. The castles and lands of 
 Dunkerron were theirs, which extensive property was seized by the 
 English monarch in 1602, and given to Sir William Petty, the founder 
 of the Lansdoivne family . Sir William was sent over to Ireland to make 
 a survey of the confiscated lands, called the '• Down survey," and ob- 
 tained a considerable share of the plunder for his pains. Sir William 
 Bethem tells us that Kerry O'Sullivan, the last of the unfortunate family, 
 built for himself a mud cabin in the ruins of Ardea Castle, once a princely 
 residence of his ancestors. He clutched, in his misery, the old title- 
 deeds and records of the property, and his poverty, but not his will, wrung 
 them from him. The O'Sullivans are scattered. Branches of the family 
 are to be found in the city and county of Kilkenny, where they have 
 ever distinguished themselves as genuine lovers of liberty and Ireland. 
 One of the family was returned to the English parliament, member 
 for the county, on repeal principles, in the election of 1832, and retired 
 to make way for O'Connell, when he lost his seat in some other contest. 
 The Kilkenny O'Sullivans have acquired considerable wealth by com- 
 mercial pursuits, and are now equal, in that particular, to the proudest 
 of their lordly oppressors. This family, like their proud nation, exem- 
 plified, in their own persons, the inextinguishable vitality of their race. 
 
 Our countrymen have, as it appears, been upon every battle-field of 
 Europe; and it is not at all improbable that the anecdote related by 
 O'Donovan, about Napoleon's grandfather being an Irish soldier, named 
 Gaul BurJce, who fought at the battle of Aughrim, is true. Andrew 
 Jackson, quite as brave and good a soldier as Napoleon, was the son of 
 an Irish father and an Irish mother, and the world need not wonder if 
 the fact of Napoleon's Irish origin should be established more distinctly. 
 
IRISH F^XILES. 793 
 
 There is no part of the world to which the sons of Ireland were not 
 driven, on the Pall of James the Second, The scattered intellect of her 
 vital soil may be traced by tl^e light which it shed on science and on 
 arms. Our countryman, Michael Kelly, one of the first musicians 
 of Europe in his time, tells us, in his " Reminiscences," that when he 
 was at Naples, in 1787, the Russian fleet sailed into the bay, com- 
 manded by Admiral O'Dwycr. And when, a few years after, he dined 
 at the table of the emperor of Austria, at Vienna, there were present, 
 among the distinguished guests. Marshals Lacy, O'Donnell, and Kava- 
 nagh. Marshal Lacy was born of Irish parents, in Russia ! Kava- 
 nagh, he tells us, addressed him in Irish, which he not understanding, 
 the emperor turned round, exclaiming, " What ! Kelly ! don't you 
 speak the language of your own country?" — In South America, 
 through the armies of Spain, in which Irishmen were ever honored, 
 very many of them rose to the highest rank in the dependencies of 
 that once powerful nation. The very last Spanish viceroy of Mexico 
 was O^ Donohue. The present governor of Cuba, General O' Donnell, 
 is, of course, Irish descended. An Irish brigade, commanded by General 
 Devereiix, fought under Bolivar in the revolution of 1823. The ven- 
 erable Devereux is still living in Tennessee. Colonel 3TKenna, who 
 fought by the side of O'Higgins, in Chili, deserves a record among the 
 good and the great. The first explorer and founder of a civilized com- 
 munity in Texas was Magee. (See Niles's Texas, page 208.) And 
 the president of the little senate of the new settlement of Oregon is 
 also of Irish descent. 
 
 I have, in other pages, glanced at the share which Irishmen had in 
 the republican struggles of the United States. The flag of resistance to 
 British supremacy was raised in Philadelphia by Charles Thompson, an 
 Irishman, so early as 1765, who agitated with "Molyneux's Inquiry" in 
 his hand. This was ten years before the states combined, and took the 
 field. And the man whom the first American congress appointed as 
 their secretary was this same Thompson, who retained his post to the 
 triumphant termination of the struggle. There were four or five Irish- 
 men present, and signed thedeclaration of independence, — Smith, Tay- 
 lor, Thornton, and Carroll of Carrollton. Smith commanded the 
 "Pennsylvania Line," which may be called the "Irish brigade" of 
 America. When the time came for taking the field and the ocean, 
 Montgomery, next in command to Washington, led the northern army, 
 and Barry was appointed to the Lexington, the first war-ship built by 
 the confederated states. The first came from Donegal, in Ireland ; and 
 the second, from Wexford. 
 100 
 
794 SARSFIELD. 
 
 Francis the First, emperor of Germany, left the following memoran- 
 dum amongst his papers, which was found after his death, in 1765 : 
 " The more Irish in the Austrian service the better ; our troops will 
 alwaj^s be disciplined ; an Irish coward is an uncommon character; and 
 what the natives of Ireland dislike, even from principle, they generally 
 perform through a desire of glory ;" — which means that, though Irish- 
 men have sometimes been obliged to fight on the wrong side, yet their 
 paramount love of glory has caused them, for its sake alone, to risk 
 life freely where certain death awaited them. When Maria Theresa, 
 the queen of Hungary, instituted fifty crosses of the legion of honor, 
 to be given to the men who should most distinguish themselves in her 
 wars, forty-six of them were won by Irishmen. 
 
 One of the bravest officers in the French army now (1844) in 
 Africa, is Colonel O'Keefe. His name has been mentioned with great 
 praise by Colonel Tempoure. O'Keefe and his brave companions (the 
 twenty-sixth) were brought into action, after a march of twenty leagues, 
 (performed in fifty-six hours,) with knapsacks and arms, under the 
 broiling sun of Africa ; and his exploits at that action are trumpeted 
 through Europe. 
 
 I have reserved the most brilliant soldier of all this war for the last 
 page of my prolonged lecture. 
 
 He was the illustrious Patrick Sarsfield, earl of Lucan. His 
 brother, the earl of Kilmallock, was killed leading a charge at Aughrim. 
 The inheritance of the Sarsfields was a territory near Sligo. I cannot 
 trace their pedigree to remote Milesian generations ; but it matters not. 
 Patrick Sarsfield commanded a regiment of Sligo horse at the 
 Boyne. When King James fled, and the fortune of the day decided 
 against the Irish, Sarsfield and Tyrconnell secured a good retreat for 
 their discomfited army to the western side of the Shannon, on which, 
 as the event proved, they made capital arrangements to repulse the 
 enemy all along the line from Cork to Sligo. 
 
 It was this Patrick Sarsfield, who, with five hundred brave 
 horsemen, passed out of the city of Limerick, while closely besieged by 
 King William, in 1689, and, crossing the Shannon twelve miles above 
 the city, gallopped to the rear of King William's camp, blew up his train 
 of artillery and wagons of ammunition, just arrived from Dublin, killed 
 the guards that protected it, returned behind his city walls, and all 
 within hearing of the Orange kino-. 
 
 It was this Patrick Sarsfield that animated the brave men and brave 
 women of Limerick to that supernatural courage which they displayed 
 
SARSFIELD. 795 
 
 at the first siege of that city, when they stood in the breach and drove 
 the invaders off; and, had the destinies of Ireland and King James been 
 left in his hands, King William would most assuredly have been de- 
 feated, and Ireland would have been erected, under the exiled monarch, 
 into an independent kingdom. 
 
 But fate ruled it otherwise. St. Ruth, the talented but conceited St. 
 Ruth, was sent by the French king, to command the Irish, after those 
 brilliant achievements of Sarsfield had been performed. It was the 
 condition upon which the aid of money and ammunition alone would be 
 given. We have seen how he commanded, in his shameful loss of 
 Athlone, the key of Ireland. Sarsfield's great spirit could not brook 
 such trifling with the dearest interests of his country. He was present 
 in St. Ruth's tent on the morning he refused aid to Athlone ; and, though 
 he, the second in command, urged the French marshal to despatch this 
 aid, he received for reply the contemptuous answer, " Don't the English 
 know I am here? " 
 
 When the town was lost, Sarsfield's indignation knew no bounds : he 
 challenged St. Ruth on the spot, but the friends of the great cause in- 
 terfered, to reconcile them. 
 
 The following poetic sketch of the quarrel is taken from a beautifully 
 written tragedy, entitled the '•' Battle of Aughrim," which was pub- 
 lished and acted about the year 1770. We should be glad to see it 
 occasionally brought forward on the stage. 
 
 ' Sarsfield. — Be calm, my soul ; my swelling spleen, assuage, 
 
 And curb the boiling madness of my rage : 
 
 Now let the earth be in a chaos hurled ; 
 
 Let earthquakes rise and overthrow the world; 
 
 Let gloomy vapors veil the dusky air; 
 
 And let all mankind sink beneath despair ; 
 
 Let Sol and Cynthia now wuhdraw their light, 
 
 And let tiie stars no longer rule the night, 
 
 But let all nature be extinguished quite! 
 
 O heavens ! Athlone is lost, that lovely seat, 
 
 The pride of empire, and the throne of state ; 
 
 Thy sons are slaughtered, and thy walls betrayed, 
 
 Because that traitor Avould not send thee aid ; 
 
 But I'll revenge the wrong, and he shall fall ; 
 
 The crime is great, though the revenge is small. 
 
 Come, draw! and let your sword afford your heart relie£ 
 St. Ruth. — Consider, Sarsfield, I am here your chief! — 
 
 Your country's ruin would attend our strife. 
 Sarsjield. — No thought but that could save your life.' 
 
 « • * * • 
 
796 SARSFIELD. 
 
 The quarrel had not time to be healed at the battle of Aughrim, and 
 this prevented Sarsfield knowing the commander-in-chief's plan of battle, 
 which was unknown to any when he fell, — a chief cause of the Irish 
 defeat that day. 
 
 After the treaty of Limerick with King William, Sarsfield, at the head 
 of four thousand men, passed over into France, and, in the French 
 king's service, defeated the troops of that same William, in many a 
 well-fought field of the Low Countries. He was killed in the midst 
 of victory at the battle of Nerwindle, 170L* As the life-blood gushed 
 from his heart, he caught some of it in his hand, and, looking at it, 
 exclaimed, " O, if this blood had been shed for Ireland!'^ These 
 were his last words. When will grateful Irishmen erect to him a monu- 
 ment in that noble city of Limerick, which he so well defended, and 
 at the walls of which his valor extorted those terms from the invader 
 which restored to many noble and wealthy Irish families their present 
 estates. France, more grateful, has erected for him, in her most splendid 
 city, (Versailles,) a monument, inscribed to " Patrick Sarsfield, Earl 
 of Luc an," in letters of gold. 
 
 The names of O'Brien, earl of Clare, and several more of our exiled 
 countrymen, are to be found in this hall of honor. There are no less than 
 four paintings in it of the battle of Fontenoy, won from the English by 
 the Irish Brigade, on the 11th May, 1745. In these, the Irish Brigade 
 is conspicuously seen charging the flying enemy. 
 
 These are the " lessons of history " which teach us to rely more on 
 ourselves than on others, in accomplishing our freedom. If the Irish 
 have one addiction more, damning to their freedom than another, it is 
 ihe\v pride, which renders them jealous of each other, and, therefore, un- 
 willing to obey each other. Any coxcomb of another nation can lead 
 or command them ; but to each other, howsoever fitted by nature and 
 acquirements some may be to lead in counsel or in battle, the most 
 ignorant will hardly yield obedience. If I could exude my heart's blood 
 into my pen, I would write with the ruddy drops, — to this addiction 
 IS Ireland indebted for her fall, and her sons for being the 
 
 SLAVES of every NATION UPON EARTH. 
 
 * I have seen another account which makes the scene of his death the field of Lan- 
 don, and the time 29th of July, 1693, while leading the victorious charge against 
 King William. 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 797 
 
 THE WOMEN OF LIMERICK! 
 
 DEDICATED TO THE LADIES OF LIMERICK, 
 
 BY T. MOONEY. 
 
 ^jr, " Garryown." 
 
 J 
 
 
 rah for the wo - men of Lim - er - ick town, 
 
 =5: 
 
 'n \' 
 
 3e:3: 
 
 
 Whom the pow - er of Wil -liam could nev - er put down! 
 
 Hur - rah for brave Sarsfield ! tho' dead in his grave, His 
 
 -fy-jfy 
 
 .« . W~' -' ^ 
 
 ifc 1^ "fc T 
 
 'JLh-u- a ' 9- 
 
 T— ^ a - 
 
 1^ _l*«i TH^- V 
 
 >oJ/ i ^ 
 
 -"^ ^- * 
 
 & . * * ^ ± 
 
 spir - It yet 
 
 val - iant and brave. 
 
 And if ev - er the day shall come a - gain, When 
 
 Lim - er - ick wo - men and Lim - er - ick men Shall be 
 
 
 -f 
 
 
 -h 
 
 — .w- 
 
 called to the breach to de - fend their own land, May 
 
 Da Capo, 
 
 115 ^- 
 
 'n: 
 
 we all be there just to give them a hand. 
 
798 
 
 ftlUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 2. 
 
 Remember the treaty of Limerick Stone ; 
 Remember they broke it wiien Sarsfield was gone ; 
 Our cloth manufacture they crushed without cause ; 
 And they struck down our rights, our religion, and laws. 
 But if ever we trust the Saxons again, 
 Who butchered our women, our clergy, and men. 
 May we ever be slaves in the land of our sires. 
 And bundled and burnt in Sassanagh fires. 
 Then hurrah, he. 
 
 3. 
 
 Of all Erin's cities, there never was one 
 That stood out for freedom like old Garry own ; * 
 For years in their garrison bravely they fought ; 
 And never were conquered, or frightened, or bought. 
 And the daughters of Limerick we ever shall prize, 
 For brave are their hearts, and bright are their eyes ; 
 And if ever the Sassanagh f strike them again. 
 We'll be over and save them, with plenty of men. 
 Then hurrah, &ic. 
 
 Popular name for the city of Limerick. 
 
 t Intruder, invader. 
 
 I'LL LOVE THEE NO MORE. 
 
 -^--w- 
 
 ~r 
 
 
 !?»L 
 
 -^ 1 
 
 . * r# • 
 
 "H" 
 
 
 L When the rose-bud of summer, its beau - ty be 
 
 stow - ing. On win - ter's rude blast all its sweetness shall 
 
 pour, And the sun - shine of day in night's darkness be 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 799 
 
 -- i -^-±9—1. 
 
 — IP 9 ^ 
 
 =pi: 
 
 glow - ing, O, then, dear - est El - len, 
 
 "I I 
 
 I'll 
 
 
 ¥ 
 
 T- 
 
 love thee no 
 
 I'll love thee no 
 
 -Fn^^ — \ 
 
 "1 — I — I — I *^~#~ ~ 
 #~g — g — I 
 
 more. 
 
 And the sun - shine of day in night's 
 
 «^»n — i— 
 
 dark - ness be glow - ing, O, then, dear - est 
 
 T" 
 
 "*i^ 
 
 ¥ 
 
 '91 
 
 * El - len, I'll love thee no 
 
 more. 
 
 2. 
 
 When of hope the last spark, which thy smiles loved to cherish, 
 
 In my bosom shall die, and its sweetness be o'er; 
 And the pulse of that heart, which adores thee, shall perish, 
 O, then, dearest Ellen, I'll love you no more. 
 And the pulse of that heart, which adores thee, shall perish, 
 O, then, dearest Ellen, I'll love you no more, 
 
 I'll love you no more, I'll love you no more, 
 O, then, dearest Ellen, I'll love you no more. 
 
 * I have heard Erin substituted for Ellen, with a pleasing effect, in this beauti- 
 ful song. 
 
800 
 
 MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 FORGET NOT THE FIELD. 
 
 BY MOORE. 
 
 De3P0NDINGL7. 
 
 
 
 -^; 
 
 I3E 
 
 3 I r~i ^ 
 
 X 
 
 ~r' 
 
 1. For - get not the field where they perished, 
 
 
 hnS' 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ± 
 
 
 
 n-Z^Sird: 
 
 -r^- 
 
 [""^r- 
 
 
 
 The tru - est, the last of the brave ; 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 —fS- 
 
 -!?1- 
 
 
 
 ~~\~ 
 
 ;=EfeE 
 
 -# #~T- 
 
 i^zzFg 
 
 All gone ! and the bright hope we cherished 
 
 ^•^ZZi^~L — I" 
 
 zi: 
 
 "I — r' 
 
 -'fistsail 
 
 n 
 
 
 b=^: 
 
 Gone with them, and quenched in 
 
 ST 
 
 their grave ! 
 
 ^Sr7P~ 
 
 ^ 
 
 E*l 
 
 -iS- 
 
MUSIC AND POETRY. 
 
 801 
 
 2. 
 
 O! could we from death but recover 
 Those hearts as they bounded before, 
 
 In the face of high Heaven to fight over 
 That combat for freedom once more ! 
 
 Could the chain for an instant be riven, 
 Which Tyranny flung round us then, 
 
 O ! 'tis not in man, nor in Heaven, 
 To let Tyranny bind it again ! 
 
 But 'tis past, — and, though blazoned in story 
 The name of our victor may be. 
 
 Accursed is the march of that glory 
 
 Which treads o'er the hearts of the free ' 
 
 5. 
 
 Far dearer the grave, or the prison. 
 
 Illumed by one patriot name, 
 Than the trophies of all, who have risen 
 
 On Liberty's ruins to fame ! 
 
 MY DARK-HAIRED GIRL. 
 
 
S'~.2 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF AGHRIM, 
 
 (CACH EACTROMA.) 
 
 Presto and Furioso. 
 
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BOSTON COLLEGE 
 
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 Moone?yy Thomas 
 
 A history of Ireland? 
 
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 Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02167 
 
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