190 
See more on this subject in the Welsh laws of Hywell Dha, and 
in Wilkin’s Leges Anglo-Saxonice. 
Sir John Davis, Attorney General of Ireland in the reign of James 
the First, has been even more severe than Spencer in his condemna- 
tion of the Irish, for their practice of punishing the crime of murder 
by an Erie, or fine. In his “ Discovery of the true cause why Ire- 
land was never entirely brought under obedience to the crown 
“ of England,’* he says, “ For, if we consider the nature of the 
* Trish custome, we shall finde, that the people which doth use 
* them, must of necessitie be rebelles to all good government, de- 
“ stroy the Commonwealth wherein they live, and bring barba- 
* yism and desolation upon the richest and most fruitful land of the 
«* world. For, whereas by the just and honourable law of England, 
« and by the laws of all other well-governed kingdomes and com- 
monweals, murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, and theft, are 
« punished with death, by the Irish custome, or Brehon lawe, the 
* highest of these offences was punished only by a fine, which they 
“ call an Ericke.”—Here the learned Attorney General makes a 
great display of his extensive knowledge of the “ honorable laws of 
« England,—* and of all other well-governed kingdomes and com- 
“ monweals,” yet he has not the justice and impartiality (though 
very estimable qualities in an Attorney General) to acknowledge, 
that the custom he condemns in the Irish had been constantly prac- 
tised in his own country, and in several other nations not devoid of 
civilization. 
If Sir John Davis had taken the pains to enquire fully into this 
subject, and had the candor to confess the truth, which he must 
have discovered from such enquiry, he would have given a picture 
* London edition 1747, printed from the edition of 1612. p. 167. 
