general, are involved in great obscurity. According to the mode of the Greek church, the episcopates or bishopricks were so small in extent, and so great in number, as probably to amount to about three hundred but when the Roman pontiff, by means of the Danish invaders, gained influence in this island, and at length, by the English establishment, the actual supremacy of its church, a plan was gradually executed for the diminution of the number, and the augmen tation of the extent of the sees, because the fewness and encreased revenues of the prelates rendered the clergy more respectable, and the church more manageable by the pope and his legates. This project was of difficult execution and proceeded very slowly; because the chiefs of septs, whose families had enjoyed the patronage of sees, frequently resisted the papal authority in the abolition of this privilege by the suppression of an episcopate.

Most probably in Ireland, as elsewhere, the bishops were at first elected by their congregations, and afterwards, in the progress of clerical power, by exclusive corporations of the clergy, or the chap. ters of cathedrals where cathedrals were found. But when, from the wealth or power annexed to them, episcopates became an object of ambition, the toparchs would suffer none except men of their own families to come into election, so that episcopates were held by a kind of hereditary succession, similar to that of the toparchies themselves; that is, they were inheritances appropriated to certain families, not by lineal inheritance, but by apparent election, in which the electors had no freedom of choice. When the papal influence gained admission, and was by the arms of the English, established in this country, this abuse was by degrees, not without many obstacles, ultimately removed.

Our parishes appear to have had their commencement with that of the dissolution of the smaller episcopates, in the year 1152, when in a general council, held at Kells, in Meath, under cardinal Paparon, a regulation was made among other canons, "that on the death of a corepiscopus, or village bishop, or of bishops who possessed small sees in Ireland, archipresbyters, or rural deans, should be appointed by the diocesans to succeed them, who should superintend the clergyand laity in their respective districts, and that each of their sees should be con. verted into a rural deanery." Since we find that in the thirteenth century, this regulation remained unexecuted, at least to any considerable degree, the parochial division of the dioceses of Ireland was doubtless not finally settled before a late period."

It is here shewn that Henry II. owed the footing, which he gained in Ireland, to gentle methods, to attractive displays of magnificence, and to the light pressure of the yoke which he imposed on the chiefs and dependents of the rude country; which he rather nominally than substantially subjected to his crown. The relation of the incident which prevented an effectual settlement of the island is accompanied by Mr. Gordon with just and pertinent reflections:

That Henry, obliged prematurely to depart from Ireland, left not behind him in this country one true subject more than he had found in it at

his first arrival, is a just observation of Sir John Davics, in his treatise styled a discovery of the causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued until the beginning of the reign of Fames the first. By the institutions of Henry, left fatally imperfect by unseasonable interruption, the inhabitants of this island became severally subject to two very different forms of government, the British colonists to the AngloNorman, the ancient natives to the Irish under a new sovereignty. The condition of the Irish princes, who had submitted, was no otherwise altered than that they professed allegiance to the king of England instead of the king of Connaught. Their Brehon laws, their ancient customs, their modes of succession, and their mutual wars, waged as if by independent potentates, remained as much in force after, as they had been before the English invasion. The British colonists on the other hand were in the same political situation with their fellow subjects in England, and governed by English laws. The king, reserving as his immediate property the maritime towns and some districts, parcelled the rest of the surrendered lands among the leaders of his troops, which they were to possess by military tenure or feudal right, that is, bound to the payment of homage to his majesty with a small tribute, and to the maintenance of certain numbers of knights and inferior soldiers for his service, they were otherwise each in his own teritory, absolute, and hereditary lords or princes. These lords or barons parcelled in like manner their lands to knights or gentlemen, who, instead of rent, gave military service, each furnishing on occasion a number of soldiers according to his portion.

The territories acquired by himself and his British subjects in Ireland were formed by Henry into shires or counties, with sheriffs and other magistrates, on the English model; which counties, afterwards enlarged, formed what was called the English Pale, or that division of the island within which the English law was acknow, ledged. But even within the Pale were many septs of Irish governed entirely by their ancient laws, as were the inhabitants of all other parts of the country. Among the acts of this monarch while in Ireland was a charter, by which he granted the city of Dublin to the citizens of Bristol, with the same privileges as those which they enjoyed at home. By another charter he granted the city of Water. ford to the Ostmen, with English laws and the rights of English subjects. To provide for the uninterrupted administration of affairs in his absence, a statute was enacted by the king in council, empowering the chancellor, treasurer, chief justices, chief baron, keeper of the rolls, and king's sergeant at law, to elect, with the consent of the nobles of the land, a successor to the chief governor in case of his death, vested with the full authority of the king's vicegerent until the royal pleasure should in that particular be notified. Hugh de Lacy was appointed chief governor, with Robert Fitzstephen and Maurice Fitzgerald as his coadjutors. To de Lacy was granted the territory of Meath already in possession of English troops; and to John de Courcy, an adventurous baron, the whole province of Ulster, provided that he could make a conquest of that unsubmitting part of Ireland.'

How

How uniform, in all times, appears to have been the spirit which has been the scourge of ireland! The motives, so ably traced in the ensuing passage, have continued to operate down to our days, and to produce their baleful effects; not less to the detriment of the empire than to the prejudice of Ireland. Let us hope that the parental and benign vigilance, which ought to distinguish a British Government in these days, will no longer allow them room to play!

The lawless condition of Ireland may be more easily conceived than described. Yet, though the English laws were so outrageously infringed by the barons and other petty tyrants, as to afford but a slender protection to the colonists who lived under their authority, the case was still worse with the Irish, who lived under a different system, their ancient laws, and had no legal claim to the privileges of the English constitution. With exception of those, whose situa tion was remote from the settlements of the English, this disadvan tage was so severely felt, especial'y by those whose lands were bordered or surrounded by the lands of the colonists, that repeated pe titions to the throne were sent, earnestly soliciting admission to the protection of English law, or, in other words, a change of condition from tributaries to subjects. A few in the reigns of Henry the third and his successor were admitted to this privilege, by royal patents, on the plea of their having been faithful and serviceable to their majestics. To Edward the first, in 1278, was offered, through his chief governor Ufford, the sum of eight thousand marks, equal in actual value to eighty thousand pounds at least of our present money, for the extension of this right to all the Irish within the pale.

The measure proposed by this petition, conducive to the peace and improvement of the country. must have been quite agreeable to so wise a prince as Edward. He commanded the chief governor to negociate the business, with consent of the better part of the commons, prelates, and nobles of the English colony; and two years afterwards, on repeated applications from the Irish, he gave peremptory orders, with expressions of displeasure at their tardiness in affairs of such moment, for the assembling of the lords and commons to deliberate on the subject. Whether a parliamentary assembly was held or not for this purpose we have no authentic information, but evidence enough that the good intentions of the king were frustrated, and the petitioners disappointed, by the intrigues of men, who, like mankind unfortunately in general, preferred apparent and temporary to real and lasting advantages. The enjoyment of power seduces the possessor. The properties and lives of the Irish, unprotected by the laws of England, the acceptance of which they had at first ignorantly declined, were exposed to the violences of the colonial barons and their dependants, who chose unwisely to retain a delusive privilege rather than contribute to such a settlement as would redound to their own solid benefit and security.'

The

The memorable policy of the Edwards and the Henrys, in attempting impracticable foreign conquests, and neglecting the welfare of their dependencies at home, is here forcibly displayed, and temperately exposed. In the reign of the va lorous and heroic Edward III. the flourishing English settlements in Ulster and Connaught were nearly annihilated; and in this reign was passed that disgrace to Irish legislation, the Statute of Kilkenny; the particulars of which, with the author's reflections on them, we cannot refrain from submitting to our readers:

This statute, framed chiefly to prevent the degeneracy of the English colonists, interdicted, under the penalty of high treason, marriage, fosterage, and other such connexions with the Irish; the adoption of an Irish name, the use of the Irish language, garb, or customs, under the forfeiture of lands, or imprisonment, until security should be given for a reformation of conduct; the use of the Brehon Law among English on penalty of high treason; the making of war on the Irish without special licence from government; the presentation of Irishmen to ecclesiastical benefices, and the reception of them into monasteries or religious houses: the entertainment of Irish bard's and newsmongers, the propagators of false reports; and, under pain of felony, the quartering of soldiers on English subjects without their consent. Sheriffs were empowered to enter all palatinates and privileged places for the seizure of criminals, who had before found sanctuary there; and four wardens of the peace were ordered to be appointed in each county to adjudge what men and armour every person should furnish for the public service in war, that the partiality of the barons might be obviated, who commonly oppressed some to favour others. The prelates, who voted for this act, superadded the sanction of the church, denouncing excommunication against all who should violate any of its rules.

This exclusive statute, barring all connexions between English and Irish, a statute at several times afterwards revived with modifications often neecessarily relaxed by authority in particular cases, never strictly observed, nor in the then existing circumstances strictly observable, had but a temporary effect on the internal peace of the colony, nor in any considerable degree prevented its decline. A scheme of denization, to incorporate septs of Irish with the colonists under the same laws and government, and to lay a foundation for a general extension of the English constitution to the Irish, instead of declaring them enemies excluded from intercourse, might have been more worthy of the heroic, but misguided, Edward, and of his son, whose claims were so extensive, and whose influence might have been so great in Ireland. But a generous and enlightened policy, which, sacrificing empty pride and immediate advantages, apparent, not solid, adopts a plan of present difficulty for substantial interests in future, was above the genius of the age, at least of the men in power among the English of Ireland.'

During the long reign of Edward III. the whole revenue accruing to the English government from Ireland, according to Sir John Davies, amounted not to ten thousand pounds annually. In the time of Richard II. the lords or petty monarchs of Ireland amounted to seventy-five; all of whom made their submission to that monarch during his first visit to that country. -In the beginning of the reign of Henry VII. we are told

that

The colony had declined to its lowest ebb. The Pale, that portion of the island which acknowledged English law, and obedience to the civil magistrate, had shrunk into so narrow a compass as not to extend over more than the half of the counties of Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Wexford, and Uriel called also Argial, comprehending Louth; and even within these limits the common people had adopted the Irish habit and language; while the rest of the country was possessed by about sixty septs of Irish, and some of degenerate English, dwelling independent of the royal dominion.'

From this time, the history of the two countries becomes more blended, and the particulars of that of Ireland present less of novelty to the English reader.

With the tribute which the author pays to his ingenious and eloquent predecessor Dr. Leland, and his reflections on the period which has elapsed since the revolution, we shall conclude our extracts from his performance:

From the capitulation of Limerick I reluctantly part with Doctor Leland, my faithful guide from the first arrival of the Strongbownian English to that event, whose history, so impartial as to offend the shallow and violent of every party, is compiled from a great number of original historians and other documents. Through his period of Irish transactions I have chiefly followed his compilation more in the matter than the arrangement, comparing it with his authorities, sometimes using his words, as I took not the least pains either to avoid or adopt his expressions, but indifferently availed myself of whatever terms readily occurred, and seemed fit for the purpose. Notwithstanding the supplies afforded me by gentlemen of liberal spirit, a few of the less important materials, from which this respectable writer has compiled, have been beyond my reach, particularly some manuscripts. Some had been communicated to the doctor by the famous Edmund Burke, who from partiality to catholics, and violence in favour of whatever party he espoused was highly offended when he found that the historian was not seduced by his documents from the medium of rectitude. Such has been my own case when I wrote an account of the local rebellion in 1798. I was obligingly supplied with information by men of opposite parties, who were much disappointed when they perceived that my history was not composed in favour of either, but written from a comparison of different narratives with one another and my own experience. To clog my pages with quotations, at bottom, I have considered as unnecessary in this com

pilation,