311 



ment might from time to time have communicated, were clogged or 

 corrupted in their gloomy channels. 



Happily we live in times when we can look back upon such scenes 

 with the feelings of the crew, who have worked through the rocks and 

 survived the storm ; the tossing of the waves may yet be visible even 

 in the wake of our course, but the prospect is clearing around us, and 

 religion, surrounded once again with all her Christian charities, like 

 the spirit of God, is moving on the face of the waters. ^ 



SECTION II. 



Government, Constitution, Legislation, Sec. 



In this last interval it cannot be said that Ireland was legitimately 

 governed by any acknowledged supreme king, though several petty 

 princes of provinces did undoubtedly assume the title, and were 

 upheld as such by their respective factions and followers. The eli- 

 gibility was no longer, as before the deposition of Malachy, confined 

 to a particular family, and command was only acquired by the quali- 

 fications of strength and courage. They, however, who so established 

 their pretensions at home, were equally received as such abroad, as 

 has been shewn* in the instances of Turlough and Murtough, while 

 Henry the Second, in the league already mentioned and concluded 

 between him and Roderic O'Conor in 1175, treats him as a king, 

 " regem Connactensem," and his independence as such is expressly 

 stipulated. Roderic was, however, undoubtedly the last who even 

 assumed the appellation of king of Ireland, and although provincial 



* Anle, pp. 303 and 305. 



