3d. "There happened," says Mr. Plowden*, "about the year of our Lord 1418, a very notable "transaction, which proved the high estimation " in which the kingdom of Ireland then was, and ever had been holden by the learned of Europe. "At the council of Constance, the ambassadors "from England were refused the rank and pre"cedency, which they claimed over some others; "they were not even allowed to rank or take any place as the ambassadors of a nation: the "advocates for France insisted, that the English

having been conquered by the Romans, and again "subdued by the Saxons, who were tributaries to "the German empire, and never governed by native "sovereigns, they should take place as a branch only of the German empire, and not as a free "nation; for, added they, it is evident from "Albertus Magnus and Bartholomew Glanville, "that the world is divided into three parts, Europe, "Asia, and Africa,'-(America had not then been discovered): Europe was divided into four em"pires, the Roman, the Constantinopolitan, the "Irish, and the Spanish.' The English advocates, admitting the force of these allegations, claimed "their precedency and rank from Henry's being "monarch of Ireland only, and it was accordingly granted t."

* Hist. vol. i. p. 22, n.

+ O'Halloran's Hist. vol. i. p. 68.

LXXX. 2.

State of the Irish between the reign of Henry the second, and the reign of Henry the eighth.

THE period, which next calls for attention, is that, which fills the space between the reign of Henry the second, and that of Henry the eighth. Here, the division of Ireland into the territory within the pale, and the territory beyond it, claims particular notice.

From the reign of Henry the second, until the reign of James the first, the real power and authority of the English monarch were confined to the counties of Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Lowth, Monaghan, and Armagh, and the cities of Waterford, Cork, and Limerick : these made the whole of the territory called the pale. Over the remaining part of Ireland, Henry the second, and his successors, until James the first, had little more than a nominal sovereignty. "England," says sir John Davies, never sent over, either numbers of men, or quan"tities of treasure, sufficient to defend the small territory of the pale; much less, to reduce that, "which was lost, or to finish the conquest of "the whole island."-In the reign of Henry the eighth, Alan, the master of the rolls, in the representation, which, by the desire of the servants of the crown in Ireland, he made to Henry of the state of Ireland, reported, that "the English man

ners, language, and habits did not extend, and "that his laws were not obeyed twenty miles

beyond the capital*." The common observation of the country was, that they, who dwelt, by west of the river Barrow, dwelt, by west of the law. The English government always refused to communicate the constitution and laws of England to the inhabitants of this territory; treated them, both as aliens and foes, and wished them so to remain. "It was," says lord Clare, in his printed speech on the 10th of February 1800,"the early policy of the English government to discourage all connexion "of the colony with the native Irish; the statute "of Kilkenny, enacted in the reign of Edward the

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third, having prohibited marriage or gossipred† "with the Irishry, or persons claiming the benefit "of the Brehon law, by any person of English blood, "under the penalties of treason. This statute was "a declaration of perpetual war, not only against "the native Irish, but against every person of Eng"lish blood, who had settled beyond the limits of "the pale, and from motives of personal interest " or convenience, had formed connexions with the "natives, or adopted their laws or customs."

Hume observes *, that "most of the English "institutions, by which Ireland was governed, "were to the last degree absurd, and such as no "state before had ever thought of, for preserving "dominion over conquered provinces.-The small

army, which they retained in Ireland, they never supplied regularly with pay; and, as no money "could be levied on the island, which possessed

Plow. Hist. vol. i. p. 51. † i. e. Godfathership. + Chap. 44.

"none, they gave their soldiers the privilege of "free quarter on the natives. Rapine and inso"lence inflamed the hatred which prevailed be"tween the conquerors and the conquered; want "of security among the Irish, introducing despair, "nourished still more the sloth natural to that un"cultivated people *. But the English carried "farther their ill-judged tyranny. Instead of

inviting the Irish to adopt the more civilized "customs of their conquerors, they even refused, though earnestly solicited, to communicate to "them the privilege of their laws, and every where "marked them out as aliens and as enemies. "Thrown out of the protection of justice, the natives "could find no security but in force; and flying "the neighbourhood of cities, which they could "not approach with safety, they sheltered them"selves in their marshes and forests, from the in"solence of their inhuman masters. Being treated "like wild beasts, they became such; and joining "the ardour of revenge to their yet untamed bar"barity, they grew every day more untractable and more dangerous.

"As the English princes deemed the conquest "of the dispersed Irish to be more the object of "time and patience, than the source of military glory, they willingly delegated that office to private adventurers, who, enlisting soldiers at "their own charge, reduced provinces of that "island, which they converted to their own profit.

Who perform the greatest portion by far of the hardest and least remunerated labour of this country!

Separate jurisdictions and principalities were "established by these lordly conquerors: the "power of peace and war was assumed military "law was exercised over the Irish, whom they sub

dued, and, by degrees, over the English, by whose "assistance they conquered: and after their authority had once taken root, deeming the English "institutions less favourable to barbarous dominion, they degenerated into mere Irish, and abandoned "the garb, language, manners, and laws of their "mother country*."

LXXX. 3.

State of the Irish Catholics in the reigns of Henry the eighth, Edward the sixth, and queen Mary.

No innovation was ever introduced into any country, which was more contrary to its constitution and laws, more repugnant to its principles or manners, or more distressing to the feelings of its inhabitants, than the parliamentary proceedings in

This assumption by the conquering leaders, of the territorial independence of the conquered chieftains, and the adoption, by the general body of the conquerors, of the language, the manners, the habits, and the feelings of the conquered, are very remarkable: the latter took place nearly in an equal degree, after the confiscations of James and Cromwell; but the difference of religion then strongly marked and continued to distinguish the ancient inhabitants from the new settlers.

The Tartars adopted, on their conquest of China, the laws, customs, and manners of the natives: but there, the conquerors were barbarians, the conquered in a high state of civilization.