185 
Spencer, who lived at a time when the Brehon law was in full 
force in every part of Ireland, except those included within the 
compass of the English pale, made the proper enquiries to inform 
himself upon the subject of ancient Irish law, he would have found 
that it was not “ a rule of right unwritten,” but a law written many 
centuries before statute law was known in his native country ; and, 
if his reading had been more extensive, he would have known, that 
the practice he condemns as barbarous in the Irish had been the 
practice of many ancient nations, and sanctioned by the laws of his 
own country. “ For,” says Blackstone,* “ we find in our Saxon 
“ laws, particularly those of Athelestan, the several Weregilds, or 
compensations for homicide, established in progressive order from 
“ the peasant up to that of the King himself. ‘This was a custom 
“ derived to us, in common with other northern countries, from our 
“ ancestors the ancient Germans.” But Spencer was a poet, and 
as people of that description are more fond of dealing in fiction than 
in fact, he denied the existence of the Irish written law ; and, as it 
was the fashion of the day to decry and debase the Irish charac- 
ter; he selected asa fair sample of the entire code of Irish laws, 
the mode of punishing the crime of murder, which he conceived 
would be considered by his readers as barbarous and unjust. He 
acknowleges indeed, that, in the legal proceedings of the Irish, 
“« oftentimes there appeareth great shew of equity ;” but he mistates 
a fact, blending truth with falshood. It is true the Irish law did 
generally impose an Eric, or fine, as a punishment for the crime of 
murder ; but there were cases, in which that crime was punished with 
death, and in all cases the murderer was subject to many grievous 
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* Commentaries, Book 4, page 23. 
