[ .8 ] 



this Spanlfh or Celtiberian colony took polTeffion of Ireland its 

 leader became king ; and when we confider the remotenefs of 

 this ifland from foreign invafion, we Aall think it Icfs wonder- 

 ful that its fucceffion fhould have continued unchanged through 

 fuch a long line of Milefian princes. The fame circumftance in 

 the annals of China does not fhock our belief, and we account 

 for it from the fame caufe, viz. its being feparated from all con- 

 nexion with the reft of the world, which preferved it until the 

 Tartar invalion from thofe revolutions which have fo frequently- 

 changed the government of other countries. And, to come 

 nearer home for an example, the Scottifh line, ftill happily- 

 reigning in Great Britain, tracing it no higher than to its un- 

 queftioned anceftor Fergus the Second, is at this day not lefs 

 antient than the line of the Milefians in Ireland was, at the 

 period down to which the written antiquities of that country, 

 ftill extant, are carried. 



I SHALL not here enter into a difcuflion concerning the moft 

 antient and authentic annals of Ireland, faid to have been 

 framed under the fandlion of public authority from time to time, 

 'till the invafion of the Danes : thofe valuable monuments have 

 perifhed long fince j but, as I before obferved, even in, thofe 

 more recent compilations which now remain, we find none of 

 thofe palpable contradidions in different hiftorians, none of thofe 

 uncertainties and variations in the names and order of their kings, 

 which appear in the hiftories of the darker ages of other nations, 

 where fidion or tradition has fupplied the want of authentic 

 materials. A general agreement appears in the names and lineage 

 of that long feries of princes that fucceeded and dcfccnded from 



the 



