212 
indisputable. The old code of laws called the seanchas bheg, so 
often above mentioned, provides, in a munificent manner, privileges 
and rewards for the encouragement of professors in various arts and 
sciences. Hence it was, that the ancient Irish exceeded all the 
other European nations in the manufacture of woollen cloths, which 
they exported to England as well as to several other nations on the 
continent.* A lucrative branch of commerce, that gave employ- 
ment to numerous hands, and of which Ireland, for the benefit of 
England, was unjustly deprived in the reign of King William the 
Third. 
In addition to those laws, already referred to, there are a variety 
of ancient laws, still extant, which were well calculated to protect 
property, to reward merit, to discountenance vice, and to encourage 
virtue. There was no class of people, from the highest to the 
lowest, but were amenable to justice, nor was there one law for the 
rich and another for the poor; but to all justice was administered 
with impartiality. ‘To prevent extortion, the prices of almost every 
article were regulated by law, even to the value of labour and the 
fees to physicians. 
By a law tract in the College library,+ the prices of a variety of 
articles are determined. A part of this tract has been published by 
the late General Vallancey ;{ but what he has given as a translation 
is, in many places, not at all like the original. It may, however, 
serve to give the reader, who does not understand the Irish language, 
some idea of the nature of its contents. Appendant to a large vo- 
lume of considerable antiquity, on the practice of medicine, in the 
* See an Essay on “ The Antiquity of the Woollen Manufacture in Ireland,” by the late 
Earl of Charlemont, published in the first volume of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Aca} 
demy. 
+ Class H. No. 34. ¢ Collect. de Reb. Hib. vol. 1. 
