BOOK CLV. EUROPE. Europe Continued. - British Islands. SECTION III. DESCRIPTION OF IRELAND. BOOK CLV. General view. PLACED under a foggy and cloudy sky, Ireland was despised by the Roman power, as a territory defended by wintry tempests. The name of Hibernia bestowed upon it by Cæsar, explains to us the idea formed of the country by the ancients. The history of this island is wrapped in obscurity and error. Strabo paints its inhabitants in no very flattering colours: according to this geographer they were more savage than the Britanni their neighbors: they were cannibals, and looked upon it as a meritorious action to devour the carcasses of their parents: connexions forbidden by the ties of consanguinity, such as the union of a brother and sister, or of a son and mother, were not held in disrcpute by them. If these statements, which Strabo utters with some doubting, were well founded, we should regard the Irish as the most unfitted for civilization of all the European tribes. The partisans of religious intolerance who in both houses of the British parliament so long denied to the Irish catholics the right of sharing in the national representation, would have been naturally led to regard them as a race destined to bondage, and the parliament would * Tacitus likewise gives it this name in the life of Agricola. Pomponius Mela calls it Juverna. + Strabo, Lib. IV, cap. V, 5. He calls the island Jerne. Diodorus Siculus names it Iris. CLV. have refused to sanction a measure otherwise demanded by BOOK the voice of justice and humanity. The English writers have too long been under the influence of their antipathy to a people who remained inaccessible to the religious reformation, and have represented them as the dregs of the human race, while the Irish writers, with a contrary exaggeration, Launch out into praises of their ancestors, and exalt the virtues of their contemporaries. The humiliating laws which have for several centuries oppressed this people, have also had a pernicious effect upon their character, still we shall refrain from undue indulgence or severity in passing a judg ment upon them. A short time since they were stamped with a mark of reprobation: they were a conquered people: now they are free: new ties attach them to the mother country: but proud of their emancipation, they seem to be more turbulent than ever, like a scholar escaped from the hands of his pedagogue. We may however anticipate for them a complete regeneration: the light of knowledge once spread abroad among them, will direct them in the way of their true interests; industry will receive a new impulse, and England will derive from an act of justice, new materials of power. habitants. If we may believe Ussher,* Keder,† Waræus, and other Ancient In antiquaries, the history of Ireland may be traced back five hundred years before the Christian era. A colony arriving from Scythia by the way of Spain, settled here at this date, and introduced the Phenician language and a taste for letters among the Celtic inhabitants. This kind of civilization hardly accords with the relation of Strabo, who lived in the time of Augustus. The first of the above named writers pretends that christianity was introduced into the island a short time after the death of its founder, but a more reasonable belief is that it was first propagated there in the 5th century, first by the exertions of Palladius, the legate of Pope Celestine, and shortly after by St Patrick the first Author of the work upon the religion of the ancient Irish and British, and of the Veterum Epistolarum Hibernicarum Sylloge. + Recherches des medailles frappées en Irlande avant que Henri II s'emparat de ce royaume. Dissertations sur les antiquités de l'Irlande. BOOK CLV. Language. Ancient race of Kings, bishop of Ireland. The Gaelic or ancient Celtic was always the prevailing language, and we have seen that two of its dialects have been preserved in Scotland: the third, called Erse, Irish, or Erinach, is the dialect of the inbabitants of Ireland in this idiom the people still give this island the name of Erin. In the eighth century this country, governed by an ancient race of kings, was already in possession of several arts, since we find they used coined money of silver in their trading still they were ignorant of the art of building with stone, as the Danes and Norwegians, then called Osterlings, arrived at this period, made settlements on the coast, and built solid and regular edifices: before this time the inhabitants had been content with wretched wooden constructions. These foreigners laid the foundations of First cities, Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Cork, and Limerick, but as they dwelt in greater numbers about Dublin than in their other territories, this region received from the natives the name of Fingal, that is, the strangers' land. In the twelfth century, Ireland was divided into five kingdoms called Ulster, Leinster, Meath, Connaught, and Munster, these were subdivided into several small principalities, probably the tributaries of each crown. Henry II, at his accession to the throne of England, formed the project of uniting Ireland to his dominions, but wanted a pretext for the usurpation, this however soon offered itself: Dermot Mac Murrough, king of Leinster, a cruel tyrant, had been driven from his kingdom for stealing the wife of O'Roisk, prince of Bressing.* He took refuge at the court of Henry and solicited his friendship, offering to submit to him as a vassal in recompense for the assistance necessary to regain his crown. Henry, who had no need of persuasion, accepted the offer, Henry II. despatched an army to Ireland, and re-established Dermot on the throne. This however, was but a single step towards his object he obtained from pope Adrian, a bull annexing Ireland to his crown, passed over to the island with the Ireland under * The prefix Mac signifies son os grandson, and is a mark of nobility: formerly none except the chieftains and those who traced their origin to a high antiquity, were allowed the distinction of this name. BOOK CLV. Under Under James II, and WilJiam. lics, although other writers fix the number no higher than 10,000. Be the truth where it will, this fatal occurrence cemented to the latest times the hatred of two nations formed for union. The Irish, of course, took the part of the unfortunate Charles I. Cromwell felt himself called upon in 1653, to avenge his countrymen by carrying fire and sword into the desert extremities of Connaught, proclaiming that every catholic taken without the limits of the province should be put to death without trial, and his property divided among the partizans of the English. Encouraged by the embittered feelings of the Irish, James II, dreaming of the recovery of a crown which he had abandoned, hazarded the fate of this country by seeking here defenders whose courage he was incapable of animating. At the head of an army nearly equal to that of William, a single defeat overthrew his hopes, and although he complained of the French for not rendering assistance, what confidence could he inspire into those who fought for him? Would a prince who possessed any courage have abandoned so precipitately, the field of battle and his kingdom? Ireland had not yet attained to a state of quiet when the example of the French revolution excited anew those pretensions hardly laid at Rebellion. rest. Anarchy was organized under leaders, the lower classes took up arms, the soldier rebelled against his commander, the servant plotted against the life of his master, the peasant armed himself against his landlord, terror spread among all the friends of order: the magistrate feared to raise the sword of justice and whoever spoke in the name of the law, fell by the steel of the assassin. In this state of feverish anxiety, the Irish demanded succour from the French Directory; a French squadron eluded the English fleet and anchored in Bantry Bay, but a storm hindered the debarkation, and the ships were forced to put to sea. In spite of this misfortune, the rebellion was organized, and exploded in the middle of the year 1798: some French frigates landed a thousand infantry and some munitions of war in the bay of Killala, and a few insurgents joined this handful of soldiers, but being attacked by a superior force of the English they were made prisoners. |