70 PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 



Although the princes of Ireland had been frequently tributaries^ 

 yet they never acknowledged subjection to the Crown of Englandy 

 until the beginniiig of the seventeenth century, Henry II. lefttlie 

 princes and chieftains in full possession of their original powers; 

 the Crown of England did not, from the beginning, give laws to 

 the Irish, but left them to themselves, and even refused them the 

 benefit of English jurisdiction, when they requested to have 

 it granted, and even tendered a large pecuniary reward for the 

 boon. 



The secret was this, — the great English lords, settlers, found 

 it more for their selfish purposes, that the English Constitution 

 should not extend to, or protect, the Milesian Irish, that so a free 

 course might be left for their own oppressions, and, that they, 

 whose lands they coveted, might be considered as aliens, and 

 their own violence and plunder freed from the terrors of a just 

 and impartial tribunal. 



In short, the native Irish were out of the protection of the 

 law, so much so, that every Englishman might oppress, spoil, 

 and murder an Irishman with impunity; or, if put upon his 

 trial, he need but plead, that the murdered person was "pz/rws 

 Hibernicus,^' i. c, a mere Irishman, which, if true, acquitted the 

 party offending Sir John Davies quotes records to prove this. 



Even after the English laws were bestowed upon Ireland, 

 it is a well known fact, that the policy was to govern Ireland, 

 not with a view to the happiness of the people, but only to prevent 

 her from falling into the hands of foreign and hostile natioils; 

 and, especially to prevent her from using her energies to become 

 a powerful or prosperous country, lest she might become a dan- 

 gerous rival to the commercial greatness of England. Arguments 

 were used to prove that it was the interest of England to weaken 

 Ireland, by misgovernment, and to distract her by factious dis- 

 orders. The principle of Machiavel — " divide et impera" was 

 the order of the day. 



The grand reformation which took place in England, about 

 the twentieth year of Henry VIII., was unfavorably received in 

 Ireland ; (that country which had, before the arrival of the Eng- 

 lish, refused, and repudiated the authority of the Pope for cert,- 

 turies :) for Ireland, in the reign of Henry VIII., was in a most 

 refractory and distracted state, owing to many untoward and 

 criminal causes of neglect and malgovernment ; at that time? 

 her state was, surely, the most uncongenial and ill-adapted for 

 the speculation and inquiry requisite to prepare an entire people 



