ait 
1829.] Has England misgoverned Ireland ? 627 
Hew vain a man, say the enlightened philosophers of the present 
day, must that John de Courcy, and Earl of Ulster, and Baron of Kin- 
sale haye been, who, when desired by his sovereign, King John, to 
demand at his hands a reward for his great services, requested that he 
and his heirs, Barons of Kinsale, might have the privilege of wearing 
their hats in the royal presence. Do these critics consider de Courcy’s 
motive? Do they consider that he demanded and obtained what would 
give him and his heirs, when seen by the native Irish in the presence 
of the English monarch, the consequence and dignity of sovereign 
princes—that de Courcy, from being seen covered in the presence of the 
king, would rank far higher in their eyes than the greatest princes and 
nobles of the English court ? 
The Irish, unwilling to acknowledge that they owe their civilization 
to the English, refer back to the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, 
when Ireland was one of the chief seats of learning. We shall not deny 
them this honour, but only submit to whom they owed it—certainly 
not to the English—but indubitably to the British. The fact stands 
thus: Ireland, never having been a Roman colony, retained its original 
habits ; when, in the fifth century, numerous Britons, and especially 
many ecclesiastics and men of learning, fleeing from the persecutions of 
the Saxons, found a shelter in Ireland. Thus were Christianity and 
learning first introduced into a country at the then extremity of the 
earth; and where, remote from the collision of hostile arms, which 
during some centuries continued to devastate every other country in 
Europe, successive generations cultivated letters in undisturbed tran- 
quillity, receiving students from foreign climes, and sending forth 
missionaries (abroad styled Scots) who became famous in every country 
in Europe. This was the literary golden age of Ireland, but it was of 
British planting. Yet, after all, these seats of learning were like the 
Oasis of the desert—the spire of a church, the palm tree at the fountain, 
marking the sacred spot, was hailed with joy by the wearied pilgrim, 
who to gain it, had passed the surrounding waste. It is perfectly recon- 
cilable to experience, that monastic and collegiate institutions—the 
cultivation of the Latin language and literature, may attain to eminence, 
without any great popular advance in civilization. And thus we find, 
that no sooner had the Danes commenced their descents on Ireland, 
than her learning disappeared. 
The English conquest in 1172, was the next grand epoch in Irish 
history, but English laws never extended beyond the English pale, 
until James I., in the fourth year of his reign, was enabled finally to 
abrogate the Brehon laws, and introduce those of England. The old 
Irish laws were a mixture of Gavelkind, Tanistry, and Brehonic insti- 
tutes. No man endeavoured to acquire property, when his children 
were not to inherit it. Since, although by the law of gavelkind all the 
children share alike, by which property, in two or three generations, 
becomes frittered away ; yet there was a much shorter process by which 
a man’s wealth could be seized by his lord, whose arbitrary cuttings 
and “ cosherings” soon reduced him to a level with beggars and slaves. 
Of the blessings of tanistry, by which the heads of tribes elected, 
from the family of the deceased chieftain, his successor ; and the nobles, 
by a similar process, their king from the children, brothers, uncles, and 
cousins, of the late monarch, a just notion may be formed from the. fact, 
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