15] 
years of Henry the Sixth, acts were passed making the English Chief, 
or head of a family, accountable for his sons and his dependants, 
and liable to be punished for any crimes they might happen to com- 
mit, in the same manner as the Irish laws made the whole tribe ac- 
countable for the crimes of any of its members. But the Statutes of 
Kilkenny, it would appear, did not abolish the Irish laws, even 
amongst the English colonists ; for instances are not wanted to show, 
that by those laws many of the great English settlers regulated their 
differences, so low down as the reign of Elizabeth. And from all 
the letters patent, bestowing or granting offices, during the entire 
reign of Charles the First, it is evident that even then the Irish laws 
were not totally abolished. For, in each of these patents, clauses 
are inserted, binding the patentee, under the forfeiture of his grant, 
and all the benefits to be derived from it, that “ he shall cause all 
** his family, &c. to use the English language, and that he shall, as 
“ faras his wer extends, abolish the Brehon law, and establish 
** the commen law of England.” 
III. The Irish laws at the commencement of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, varied but little from what they were at an early period 
of Irish history. 
‘That the Irish had written laws at a much earlier period than 
some writers are willing to allow, has, it is submitted, been proved 
in the foregoing pages. That these laws were first promulgated in 
a very remote period, the laws themselves bear internal evidence. 
Therefore, if they have not suffered some very material changes in 
the lapse of ages, they must, it may be presumed, exhibit a faith- 
ful picture of ancient opinions, customs, and manners, that may 
VOL. XIV. Y 
