175 
bodied in the Seanchas* bheg ; which, though certainly composed in 
times subsequent to the establishment of the Christian religion in 
Treland, carries internal marks of very high antiquity. 
In the latter end of the first Christian century, lived the cele- 
brated Moran, chief Judge to the Monarch Fearadhach Fionn- 
fachtnach (Farayagh Finnfaghtnagh), ¢. e. the fair and just. Moran, 
under the auspices of his “ fair and just’ Monarch, is said to have 
formed some laws for the better government of the people. What 
these laws were, the writer of this Essay cannot say; but, if they 
were framed on the principles recommended to his master in his 
Udhacht + (Oo-aght) or testamentary precepts, they must be truly 
just; and truly happy must that people have been, who had a 
Fearadhach to govern them, and a Moran to administer justice. 
In the time that Conn of the hundred battles reigned over Ire- 
land (A. D. 177,) lived Modan, son of Tulban, who wrote a law- 
treatise called Meill bhreatha. A copy of this tract was in the pos- 
session of the celebrated Duald Mac Firbis, the last of the Anti- 
quaries of Leacan, who was murdered at Dunflin, in the county 
of Sligo, A. D. 1670. 
About the year 200, lived Fachtna, son of Seancha, whose laws 
are quoted in the Sanasan, or Glossary of Cormac Mac Cuillionan, 
King of Munster, and Archbishop of Cashel ; and, about the same 
period, lived Conla, Judge of Conaght, Kinnith O’Conmid, and 
some others, of whom the writer of these pages acknowledges that 
he knows little more than the name. 
In the year 254 of the Christian era, Cormac Mac Art, or, as 
he is by others called Cormac O’Cuinn, ascended the throne of 
Ireland. Besides several other tracts, he wrote a Treatise on 
VOL. XIV. BB 
* See Note page 166. + In Library of Trin. Col. Dublin, H. No. 35. 
