255 



Derry, and engaged to expend £20,000 on the plantation, and to 

 build Londonderry and Colerain. As a competent force was ne- 

 cessary to support the infant settlement, the king instituted the order 

 of Baronets, an hereditary dignity, Equestris Nobilitas, to be con- 

 ferred on a number, not exceeding two hundred ; each of whom, 

 on passing his patent, was to pay into the Exchequer a sum that 

 would maintain thirty men in Ulster, for three years, at eight pence 

 a day. For the encouragement of learning, free schools were en- 

 dowed in the principal towns, and considerable grants of land were 

 made to the University of Dublin, together with the advowson of 

 six parish churches in each county, three of the largest and three 

 of the middle proportion. These not only provide a body of learned 

 clergy in the northern province, being always bestowed upon fel- 

 lows, but also animate the candidates for fellowships by securing a 

 more speedy and regular succession of vacancies. For the execu- 

 tion of these wise and liberal plans he selected the fittest jnan that 

 could be found. Sir Arthur Chichester. His views of improvement 

 were not confined to Scotland and Ireland, but extended to the new 

 colony in Virginia. 



There is an unhappy and injurious prejudice prevalent in Ire- 

 land, that a part of the inhabitants are alone descended from the 

 aborigines of the island ; that this distinction belongs peculiarly to 

 those of the Roman Communion ; and that the remainder are in- 

 truders on their possessions and rights. But no prepossession can be 

 more groundless. There is not, perha[)s, in the world a country 

 inhabited by a more promiscuous population than Ireland ; nor one, 

 in which any class of the people have less reason to consider them- 

 selves indigenous. The original settlers are supposed to have been 

 a mixed multitude from Scythia, Phenicia, Spain, Belgium, Bri- 

 tain, Caledonia, and the northern countries of Europe, On the 



