gistrate reads the riot act; the little difference here, being, that the riot is within doors, and the peace endangered by the warning party?

Hoping that through the intervention of your influence, and the "march of taste" hereafter, abbeys will not be turned into dwelling-houses, nor dwelling-houses into castles or abbeys; that no ruins but Time's shall be deemed legitimate, asserting the supremacy of his scythe over the trowel of the bricklayer; that the pride of the picturesque, a Welsh churchyard, shall be left inviolate in the "holiness" of its "beauty," to transpose a text, and that poor lost travellers may receive the Christian charity of help, notwithstanding a meeting of good Christians unluckily holden at

the time.

THOMAS Of ERCILDOUN, better known as Thomas the Rhymer, is the reputed author of several predictions, current among the Highlanders, although there is no reason to believe he knew the Gaelic, or prophesied in that language. It is probable that they were imputed to this celebrated personage for want of better authority. The following has in many places been too truly fulfilled :

"Cuiridh fiacail na chaorach an crann air an sparr." The tooth of the sheep will lay the plough on the shelf.

"Bithidh muileann air gach àlt, agus àth air gach cnoc; Tombac aig na buachaillean, 'us gruagaichean gun naire."

There shall be a mill on every brook, a kiln on every height; herds shall use Tobacco, and young women shall be without shame.

LEGISLATION FOR THE IRISH.

May, 1833.

GENTLEMEN,

YOUR Magazine being "a general Celtic repertory," the subjoined particulars respecting the Gaël Eirinach may not be uninteresting at the present time to the readers of so unique and interesting a publication.

The unhappy situation of Ireland, so miserably convulsed by the turbulent passions of an irritated peasantry, is, and has long been a subject of deep regret; and the attention which has unfortunately been of late drawn towards that part of the empire, is calculated to excite some curiosity regarding the history of the country. The difference of opinion, as to the cause of the deplorable state of society in most parts of that fine island, shews that it is not well understood. I have not the presumption, like some writers, to imagine I have discovered a panacea for the evils afflicting this ill-fated land. I write less as a politician than as an antiquary; but as such a profession is eminently useful in pioneering through rough tracts, and smoothing the march of others, more provident of their time, and confident in their individual judgment, than desirous of benefiting by the light of historical documents, some curious facts, apparently but little known, may be through your kindness advantageously brought in view. From these, the illiberality or injustice of former English governments, in denying the protection of the laws to the Irish, while at the same time they were claimed as liege men, by the right of conquest, if not in some sort by their own offer, as well as papal gift, will be seen; and it will strike every one that the want of cordiality between the two countries, existing so strongly even now, is, in a great measure, to be traced to that impolitic system of exclusion and degradation, pursued for centuries after Henry II., towards the "mere Irish." The cause appears to me sufficient to affect until a much later period the sensitive and inflexible Kelt, without taking into consideration the divided allegiance which it is maintained their religion produced after the reformation, and which occasioned the remark of King James, that they were but half subjects; having their souls drawn one way by the Pope, while their bodies only turned another way, were subject to him.

Henry II. invaded Ireland in 1172, and the Pope solemnly

bestowed the sovereignty on the crown of England, as it was believed he had the right to do, yet it is evident that the island was not conquered. For a long time the English could not without great difficulty maintain themselves within the "Pale" or district where they settled, and the irritation of the natives was certainly not softened by laws which prevented them from obtaining justice in a suit against the English settlers or their adherents.* The poor Gaël were unable to bring an action at law, against any one, however aggrieved, except they had purchased denizenship at a heavy cost; which method of emancipation continued in use until the reign of James I.

There was indeed a plea which sometimes availed them: five bloods or five races were enfranchised, and enabled to take the benefit of the English laws. These tribes, "qui gaudeant lege Anglicana," are enumerated in the 3d Edward II., as the O'Neals de' Ultonia, or of Ulster; the O'Briens de Thomonia, or Thomond; the O'Malaghlins de Media, or Meath; the O'Connaghers de Connacia, or Connaught; and the Mac Murroghs de Lagenia, or Leinster.

A few cases will illustrate the condition of the "pure Irish" in those days, and the spirit which directed the measures pursued by their Saxon lawgivers.

Anno 29 Edward I., before the justice in eyre at Drogheda, Thomas le Botteler brought an action of detenu against Robert de Almain, for certain goods; to which it was objected, "quod non tenetur ei inde respondere, eo quod est Hibernicus, et non de libero sanguine." Thomas however swore, on the sacrament, that he was an English

man.

In the 28th of Edward III., an action of trespass was raised by Simon Neal, against William Newlagh, for breaking his close in Clandalkin, county of Dublin. The defence was that the plaintiff, "Hibernicus est, et non de quinque

Three innovations which Henry made on the Irish customs, as enumerated in an old мs., seem not very objectionable. The first was the ruling and ordering of the church by curates; the second was how the people should behave to them, &c.; the third referred to making wills; evidently meant to break their adherence to the Brehon law of gavelkind. A man was first to reckon what he owed, and the residue, after paying his debts, was to be divided into three parts. If married, one went to his wife, one to the children, and one "to be spente for the weale of his sowle." If he had no children, the half went for the last purpose. This resembles the Scottish division, viz. the dead's part, the wife's part, and the bairn's part of gear.-BIB. HARL.

sanguinibus," but he was able to prove himself of the O'Neals of Ulster, and was therefore awarded damages.

In the 4th Edward II., at Waterford, before John Wogan, chief justice, Robert Wayleys was accused of the slaughter of John Mac Ivor, Mac Gillemory; but it was alleged that he must be held guiltless, "quia dicit, quod prædictus Johannes fuit purus Hibernicus et non de libero sanguine."

More to the same purpose might be cited, and those who are curious may consult Sir John Davies's "True Causes why Ireland was never subdued," 1612.

The English seem to have accounted the natives an inferior race of men, with whom it was not proper in any way to assimilate. The opinion in Trevisa's Polychronicon, that whoever associated with them became "besmytted with their treason," certainly influenced those who enacted laws, which, under heavy penalties, forbade any to marry, foster, or make gossip, i. e. become godfathers or mothers; or even to trade with the Irish in their markets. By an Act of Henry V. the Irish were banished from England, and prohibited from entering British inns of court, lest the students should be infected with their barbarous principles. Another statute set a price on the head of an Irishman entering the pale, if he was not in the company of an Englishman of good repute, wearing the English apparel; and finally, in the 28th of Henry VIII., it was ordained that none should marry a person of Irish blood, even although a denizen by charter, unless he had done both homage and fealty to the king in chancery, and was bound by sureties to be a loyal subject.

The legislators took the consequence of these laws as the cause, and armies were from time to time sent to Ireland by which the people were overawed, indeed, but never pacified. Their own Brehon law was decried, yet the English law was withheld from them. They could not legally purchase lands, but their own hereditary possessions were forfeited by rebellion, or simply resistance to those who they alleged had no right to intermeddle with their affairs. The desperate wars which such policy occasioned, would, says Sir John Davies, "have lasted till the world's end, if they had not been at last protected and governed by law;" but this better policy was not introduced until the time of James I. Under a system of misrule, which drove even Englishmen of the Pale to the adoption of Irish manners, and opposition to

their own government, it is not greatly to be wondered at that the natives, naturally prone to retaliate on those who injured them, should adhere with enthusiasm to their own more equitable institutions, or that they should cheerfully make oath to their priests, that they would "spare neither life nor goods in opposing the English deputy.'

However partial the Irish, as Kelts, might be to their ancient, and in many respects well-regulated usages, they were not so perversely blind to the advantages of adopting judicious" reform," and putting an end to continued rapine and bloodshed, as some have supposed. In the reign of Edward III. a petition was forwarded to him, praying that all the Irish might be permitted to enjoy the English law, without being obliged to purchase individual enfranchisement; but the lords of that country, that is, the Englishmen of "the Pale," advised his majesty to refuse his assent, as the natives could not be allowed that privilege without danger to the crown. Again: the Byrnes of the mountains prayed Henry VIII. that their country might be made shire ground, and called Wicklow; and in the same reign, O'Donnel covenants with the lord deputy, "Si Dominus Rex velit reformare Hiberniam," he and his people would cheerfully embrace the English laws. Here it is just to quote the words of Sir J. Davies, who declares that "the Irish loved equal justice, and would rest perfectly satisfied with the execution thereof although it were against themselves, so as they might have the protection and benefit of law."

There was naturally a want of confidence in a government so jealous of this class of its subjects, and it is not to be doubted that the even balance of justice was sometimes turned by the influence of suitors. In the 20th Edward IV., O'Neal, one of the five bloods, on his marriage with a lady of the family of Kildare, thought it necessary to obtain a special Act of parliament, to secure his own denizenship.

The form of a deed of this sort was as follows: "Edwardus IV., Willielmo O'Bolgir capellanum de Hibernica natione de gratia nostra speciale, &c., concessimus eidem Will, quod ipse libere sit, status, et libere conditionis, & ab omne servitute Hibernica liber et quietus, et quod ipse legibus Anglicanus in omnibus et per omnia uti possit et gaudere, eodem modo, quo homines Anglici infra dictam terram eas habent," &c.

In certain cases it would appear, that their own Keltic