- PLOWDEN’S HISTORICAL 
books and laws cver published in this king- 
dom.’ We have happily lived to see a legis- 
lative union of the two countries, which 
will, it is trusted, by the natural workings 
of the British constitution, go further in 
three years towards the destruction of na- 
tional prejudice and disaffection, than a mere 
communication of laws did in three cen- 
turies.” 
The evidence on which these marvel- 
lous narratives repose, ought carefully 
to be collected and published, after the 
manner of the Myvyrian Archaiology of 
Wales. It is not unlikely that historical 
criticism may be able to separate much 
valuable unreceived truth, when it has 
bolted to the bran the Milesian tales, the 
druidical rimes, the monkish legends, 
the metrical romances, and the prose 
chronicles of the Irish. On these sub- 
jects Mr. Plowden plainly exercises little 
severity of research, and seems rather to 
aim at flattering the national vanity of 
the western islanders, by eagerness of 
credulity, than at enlarging the bounds 
of their historic horizon. 
But in proportion as this narrative 
approaches the ‘period at which the 
connection with England began, it rises 
in critical value and judicious selection. 
Jt is in fact the international history of 
Great-Britain and Ireland until their 
union. Henry II. was invited to Ire- 
land by Dermod, a king of Leinster, 
who, having seduced and detained the 
wife of a king of Breffny, was on the 
point of being punished by a confede- 
racy of the native princes. Earl Richard 
Strongbow was sent to the assistance of 
Dermod: a bull was obtained from 
Pope Adrian, granting the island to 
Henry; and some colonial settlements 
were made, chiefly in Leinster and 
Munster, by the Bristowyans, who ac- 
companied Strongbow. ‘The commer- 
cial habits of many of these settlers fa- 
voured their advantageous establish- 
ment ; and as a cotemporary progress 
was made by the military allies of Der- 
mod, the English interest acquired, step 
by step, a considerable extent of juris- 
diction, comprising at length the coun- 
ties of Dublin, Kildare. Meath, and 
Uriel, and became very obnoxious to 
the ancient inhabitants, who were deno- 
minated by the intruders, Irish without 
the pale. 
The Irish within the pale, fcom their 
primitive connection with England, and 
the intermixture with English, fell under 
a government similar to that of the 
REVIEW OF IRELAND.» 249 
British nation. The country was di- 
vided into districts, and committed to 
the care of sheriffs. Courts of justice 
were established, analogous to those at 
Westminster. And finally, a parliament 
was convened occasionally by the gover- 
nor. Sir John Davies thinks these Irish 
parliaments did not precede the reign of 
Edward II. Leland is for dating their 
commencement under Henry II. The 
oldest parliament-rolls which are extant 
bear date the 40th year of Edward IIT. 
when the statutes of Kilkenny were 
enacted. These statutes most unnatu- 
rally prohibit alliance by marriage be- 
tween the English and Irish, as well as 
putting out children to be nursed in 
Irish families. This is worse than poli- 
tical, worse than religious intolerance : 
it is a conspiracy against the charities of 
the heart, and a prohibition of the affec- 
tions of nature; but it was not likely to 
oppress many individuals, because those 
Pyramus-and-Thisbe attachments, be- 
tween enemies, are not of frequent 
occurrence. A more diffusive griev- 
ance was the extortion of coygne and 
livery from the people; that is, of man’s 
meat, horse-meat, and money, from all house- 
keepers indiscriminately, for the use of 
the troops. This form of oppression 
has lately been repeated under the name 
of free quarters. ‘These various injustiees 
are stated by Mr. Plowden to have en- 
dured, without intermission, under the 
reigns of sixteen monarchs, from Henry 
II. to Henry VIII. ; 
The accession of Henry VII. how- 
ever, as it restored peace and tranquil- 
lity to England, so it enabled the sove- 
reign to plan and execute more effectual 
measures for the administration of his 
Irish dominions. It ought, therefore, 
not to have escaped a more attentive 
notice at the conclusion of the first part 
of this history. Two objects appear to 
have been immediately in the view of 
the crown: to extend a regular policy 
over the country, and to render the 
Irish government subordinate to that 
of Britain. 
To premote the former of these pur- 
poses, under the direction of Sir Edward 
Poynings, the lord-deputy, it was pro- 
vided by an act of the Irish parliament, 
that all the statutes lately made in Eng. 
land of a public nature, should be held 
valid in Ireland. This adoption of 
English laws by the Irish parliament’ 
was not unprecedented, as another in- 
stance of it occurs in the reign of 
