RESULTS OF THE RECORD COMMISSIONS. 457 



of the union. In point of style, we give the first sentence, noting 

 accurately its punctuation, as a specimen of its lucidness and ele- 

 gance: 



" Ireland, in extent of surface, is, about, equal to Scotland; but is in 

 the proportion of three to one, as to its produce and population. It is less 

 of an extreme temperature as to heat and cold than England; and perhaps! s, 

 upon the whole, of a finer soil and more genial climate." 



The learned gentleman adduces the round towers to prove that th 

 Irish church was derived from the Greek rather than the Latin hier- 

 archy; and says that the " monastic or Gothic (otherwise the cathe- 

 dral or episcopal) architecture" was one of the expedients devised 

 by ecclesiastics to prop up their falling power. Further on we find 

 the following humane remark: " William the Norman had once 

 entertained this project (the conquest of Ireland); and it is to be 

 regretted that it went no further, for he would have executed it on a 

 large scale, like the king of a great people, and not as it afterwards 

 was executed, more after the manner of some puny feudal chieftain, 

 or roving adventurer. William might have colonized Ireland at once 

 with his Normans and Englishmen, making it another England; and 

 thus the measure of the Union would have been ante-dated, exactly 

 seven hundred and fifty years." Mr. Lascelles' lamentations that 

 the ravages of one of the most ruthless though talented barbarians 

 that ever harried the world, were not extended to another unoffending 

 people, even to their extermination, is worthy of a tory soul under 

 the corruptest tory patronage. Of the first conquest of Ireland by 

 the mercenary Anglo-Norman adventurers, Mr. Lascelles says " So 

 far from disdaining to dwell on these particulars, the regret is that 

 we have not fuller accounts of them. It is a view of human nature 

 as singular as it is interesting: the darings of heroic chivalry having a 

 great and noble purpose;" and speaking of Henry II.'s invasion, while 

 disclaiming sarcasm, he says ff hebethought himself of [Pope] Adrian's 

 donation [of Ireland], made some eighteen years before, and of the solid 

 as well as gallant service he might now render the holy see by bring- 

 ng Ireland within its dominion." We now blame the Irish people for the 

 popery, which, as conquerors, we inflicted upon them ! Their church, 

 like ours, was Christian; but not popish. The petulant Giraldus 

 Cambrienses, allowing the superior chastity of the native Irish 

 Clergy, in that age, and the accuracy of their list of saints, denied, 

 however, that one single martyr could be found in the Irish calendar, 

 " True !" observed the Archbishop of Cashel, " our people have not 

 yet learned to murder God's servants; but we shall soon have a ca- 

 lendar of martyrs, now that the apostle Henry has introduced his 

 religion among us." 



The whole Irish nation collectively, and the various septs sepa- 

 rately, repeatedly petitioned in early ages to be admitted to the privi- 

 leges of English subjects ; this, however, was invariably refused 

 them through the instigation of the local government, to which such 

 applications were referred ; " wherein," says Sir John Davys, " I 

 must still clear and quit the crown and state of England of negli- 

 gence or ill policy, and lay the fault upon the pride, and covetousness, 



M. M. No. 88. 3 E 



