344 P^oc, B. N. F. C, 



or not the art of writing was known in Ireland much before St. 

 Patrick's time is uncertain, but there are good grounds for 

 believing that during Patrick's lifetime the great code of Irish 

 law, called the Brehon Law, which is embodied in a large 

 work entitled the " Senchas Mor," was written in the form in 

 which it now exists, although it is not alleged that any actual 

 manuscript of that early time has come down to us. This 

 great law compilation was made, according to the Annals of 

 Ulster, in the year 439, under the direction of nine eminent 

 persons, consisting of three kings, three bishops, and three 

 poets. The three principal personages engaged in this great 

 work were Leaghaire, the monarch of Erinn ; Patrick, the 

 apostle of Erinn ; and Ros, the chief File or bardic poet of 

 Erinn. A large portion, if not the whole, of this work has 

 come down to us by successive transcriptions, dating from the 

 close of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth to the 

 latter part of the sixteenth century. " In the account of this 

 work, generally prefixed to it, and which is in itself of great 

 antiquity, we are told that it was Ros the poet that placed 

 before St. Patrick the arranged body of the previously existing 

 laws of Erinn ; that the saint expunged from them all that was 

 especially anti-Christian or otherwise objectionable, and pro- 

 posed such alterations as would make them harmonise with the 

 new system of religion and morals which he had brought into 

 the country ; that these alterations were approved of, adopted, 

 and embodied in the ancient code ; and that code, thus 

 amended, was established as the national law throughout the 

 land " (O'Curry). The '' Senchas Mor " has lately been printed 

 by the Government, so that any one can study this ancient 

 code of Irish law ; and I may say that any one who does so will 

 be amazed at the vast amount of detail, at the number of dis- 

 tinct offences which are named, and at the curious nature of 

 the punishments, or compensations, for a system of compensa- 

 tion seemed to underlie the Irish penal code. Three bulky 

 volumes of this work have now been published under the 

 authority of the Brehon Law Commission, and, just to give you 



