



I P S 



Jpcwich. traile has decre.ved, yet more then 30,000 chaldrons of 

 -\~ coal are annually imported into the town. 



The river Orwell has the advantage of a tide, in ge- 

 neral from 10 to 12 feet, ami though it was formerly 

 much neglected, yet it has been rendered capable of 

 bringing vessels of large burden within very short 

 distance of Ipswich. 



The civil government of the town consists of two 



bailiff*, a recorder, Injustices, including the two !>ail- 



i town clerk, the two chamberlains, two coroners, 



and -' J common councillors. It sends two members to 



parliament, and the right of election is vested in between 



231 



I R E 



600 and 700 persons. Ipswich po?sesses many rights 

 ami privileges peculiar to itself, and an admiralty ju- 

 risdiction extending beyond Harwich on the Essex 

 coast, and on both sides of the Suffolk coast. 



Ipswich has five annual fairs, on May 4>th and 18th, 

 July 2.>*Ji, August 22d, and September 25th. 



Cardinal \Volsey was a native of this town. The po- 

 pulation in 1811 amounted to 2,221 houses, and 13,459 

 inhabitants. See Oldfield's History of the Boroughs ; 

 The Suffolk Traveller ; Tanner's Notitia M ,naxtica ; 

 and the lieaulies of England and IValcs, vol. xiv. p. 230. 



Ml AC. See PERSIA. 



Ir.ic 



IRELAND. 



jfijtorr. * IIE materials for the history of Ireland, prior to the 

 - i -^' invasion of that country by the English, in the reign of 

 Henry II. are so ill authenticated, so scanty and uncon- 

 nected, and, in the very few instances where they are 

 not so, they are so barren of interest and importance, 

 that we cannot deem ourselves justified in dwelling upon 

 them at any length. N- vertheless it would be impro- 

 per to pass them over entirely ; we shall therefore notice 

 them cursorily, so far as they seem to us supported by 

 direct evidence, or great probability, and as they are in- 

 teresting and important from their connection with the 

 more luminous portions of I rish history, 



r . '- . ' That the Celts either passed of their own accord, or 

 Gothic po- were driven by the Goths, into Ireland, there is no rea- 

 I" brt " l son to doubt ; but it is not clear at what period this 

 event happened, nor which of the two branches of the 

 Celts colonised this island. It is also proiwble, that af- 

 ter the Goths of England had driven the Celts into Ire- 

 land, some tribes or families of the former passed over 

 also ; at least the traditions of the Irish the names they 

 give to some at their ancient inhabitants and invaders, 

 and the names of many of the tribes, who, according 

 to Ptolemy, uoasfised Ireland in his time, evidently 

 to a Gothic population. The firs^ authentic 

 fUmpse we possets of Irish history, is drawn from Ta- 

 Xixka oitui ; according to him. an Irish prince, who had 

 hooi rci- been obliged to leave his native country in conse- 

 quence of unsuccessful domestic war, endeavoured to 

 psnnadf Agricola to invade Ireland, assuring him that 

 a tingle legion of Roman soldiers could accompli-!, the 

 nbjsyation of that country, or, more probably of that 

 nd Orons f** 1 '* ^ Tom w h>ch * came. The account of Oro- 

 te Ux Mi '"* tb*** '" *"' 6ft" century, a number of Scythians, 

 estuary, who had been driven out of the north of Spain by the 

 i-eror Con-Untine, landed in Ireland, and there 

 met with a people of the same origin and language 

 with themselves, the Scyths or Scots, does not appear 

 to re*t on very good foundation, though there is un- 

 doubted evidence that Ireland, at least from the 4th 

 century down to the 10th, wa* known under the ap- 

 pellation of Scotia, and its inhabitants under the appel- 

 I.I-...M uf > u -. 



1- .. , ..... The period and the circumstances of the first intro- 



duction of Christianity into Ireland, notwithstanding 

 CarituanitT. the numerous, particular, and confident tradition* of the 

 Irish respecting St. Patrick, are not wi II authenticated. 

 It has been supposed, from some passages in St Jerome, 

 that it was introduced in the 1th century ; but if this 

 was the case, its progress must have been very slow, 

 and its hold on the minds of the inhabitants very feeble; 

 in the 6th century, there appear to have been 

 3 



scarcely any vestiges of it. Soon after this period, Historr. 

 however, Christianity made rapid progress, and mani- >,~ * 

 tested its influence by effects much more decidedly ad- 

 vantageous to the interests of religion and learning than 

 any which it produced in the other Christian countries 

 of Europe. The number of learned and holy men that 

 sprung up in Ireland, and of monasteries and acade- 

 mies that were founded in it, during the fifth and two i r( .t. ln ^ <ji- 

 following centuries, was so great, and so many were the tmmiislied 

 in:--ionaries who proceeded from it to propagate the for its learn- 

 Christian religion, that it was dignified with the title '_ n K in ll) e 

 of Intnla Sanct-ii urn, or the inland of Saints. Attracted 7th ctntur . v - 

 by its justly acquired character, and by the tranquilli- 

 ty and pro>penty with which Ireland was favoured, 

 amidst the barbarism and warfare of the rest of Europe, 

 men distinguished for their piety and learning tix>k re- 

 fuge here. According to Bede, in the year A. D. 64t>, ,\. D. 616. 

 many of the Anglo-Saxons, both noble and of the mid- 

 dling clasnes, left their own country, and took up their 

 abode in Ireland, either to indulge their taste for read- 

 ing, or to lead a life of stricter religious observance ; 

 all of thene the Scots received and treated in the most 

 hospitable manner, lending them books, and affording 

 thrin gratuitous instruction and sustenance. 



What effect the labours of these pious and learned 

 men produced on the character of the great mass of the 

 people, we are not informed ; but it is probable that 

 the political state of the country would most thorough- 

 ly counteract their most zealous and judicious efforts to 

 enlighten and civilize the inhabitants, (if they were 

 made,) and would keep them down, at least to the le- 

 \il ul' that intellectual and moral state, in which the 

 great mass of all the nations of Iv.irope at this period 

 ted. 



Respecting the political state of Ireland at this time, ) politj. 

 our information, here it is accurate, is general ; for cml state it 

 we must carefully separate the fullne-s and minuteness '> """ 

 of the romantic history of this country, from the brief 

 and naked circumstances of its authentic history. That 

 it was divided among several independent chieftains, 

 or princes, there can lie no doubt; but the number of 

 these is uncertain, and probably varitd at different 

 times. Whenever any of these princes gained a great 

 accession to his territories, he assumed to himself the 

 title of King of Ireland, but the title never was support- 

 ed by the power, and generally continued for a very 

 short time. There were several subordinate lords un- 

 der each of the chief princes; in the principality of 

 Mun'ster alone there were eighteen ; under these again 

 there were other chieftains. But the power of the su- 

 perior lord over his feudatories was very precarious, 



