167 
We find a distinction made between the Saer neimead and the 
Daer neimead. By the first is meant a So-fhir neimead, 1. e. a 
Neimead in good or easy circumstances, a freeman; by the latter 
is meant, according to the commentator, a “ Do-fhir Neimead | 
(l. a contraction for no) Neimead duire 1 (. no) dereoile.” A 
Neimead in distress or poverty, who is obliged to labour for the 
service of another. Upon these authorities, the author of this 
Essay has no hesitation in asserting, that O’Flaherty, Lynch, 
O’Conor, and Vallancey, and all others who have followed them 
in calling the “ DxicHipn Neimueapu,” “ Judicia Celestia,” 
“ celestial judgments,” or “ the sentence of the law,’ have com- 
pletely mistaken the meaning of the words, which should be rendered 
into English, “ laws of the degrees or ranks.” 
V. Of the office of Brehon or Judge. 
From the commencement of the Irish Monarchy, down to the 
beginning of the seventeenth century after our Lord’s incarnation 
the Irish laws were administered by officers called, in the language 
of the country, Breitheamhuin (Brehooin), in English, Judges, ap- 
pointed for that purpose by their Monarchs, provincial Kings, and 
Chiefs of districts, each for his own people respectively. This 
office, like that of the professors of all other branches of Science or 
Arts, was hereditary in particular families. The M‘Firbisses of 
Leacan were the hereditary Judges of the Tribe of the Mac 
Donoghs of Tir Oliolla, and some other septs in the North of 
Conaght ; the Mac Clanchys filled the judicial chair of Thomond 
(Tuath Mumhan, Thooa-Moowan), or North Munster; the 
VOL. XIV. AA 
