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far as they might be influenced by the introduction of the Christian 
religion, and by an improved state of civilization. From this view, 
and from the authority of candid and liberal English writers, re- 
ferred to in the second section of this essay, it may be inferred, that 
a publication of those laws, accompanied by a literal translation, 
must furnish to the historian and antiquary much curious informa- 
tion, and throw considerable light on the manners and customs of 
the ancient inhabitants of several continental nations, as well as on 
those of Great Britain and Ireland. But it is to the people of Ire- 
land in particular that a publication of the Brehon laws would be 
of the greatest importance ; because such a publication would be the 
best means of refuting the slanders of those who have thrown an 
odium on the character of our ancestors, in consequence of their 
attachment to those laws. 
By some of those, who acknowledge that the ancient Irish had 
laws, it has been asserted that those laws produced anarchy and con- 
fusion, that by their effects they debased the human mind, reduced tc 
the most savage barbarism the people who were governed by them, 
and caused this fruitful country to become a barren desert. Of 
those who have made this assertion, Sir John Davis may be consi- 
dered the principal ; and, from his high situation, as Attorney General 
of Ireland, and the means he had of obtaining the best informa- 
tion on the affairs of the country, his authority is generally consi- 
dered as incontrovertible. On this account his assertions respecting 
the laws of tanistry and gavelkind, and the ancient custom of com- 
pensating for murder by the payment of an Eric or fine, have been 
fairly examined, in the course of this essay; and, to remove from 
the Irish character that obloquy which Davis and others have 
heaped upon it, a fair statement has been given of what those 
laws really were. In this statement, the writer has contrasted 
