were brought over from England and Scotland: the Irish were removed from the hills and fastnesses, and settled in the open country: husbandry and the arts were taught them; a fixed habitation secured; plunder and robbery punished; and by these means, Ulster, from being the most wild and disorderly province of all Ireland, soon became the best cultivated and most civilized." Chap. xlvi.

For what Hume means by the attainder of rebels I must refer you to Plowden's History of Ireland. Tyrone and Tyrconnel were accused, but aware what a host of paid witnesses could be brought against them, they absconded to France and every impartial historian has allowed it was all a cloud conspiracy framed by vultures thirsting for plunder. "The Irish were removed from the hills and settled in the open country." Sir Thomas Phillips says, "That the fundamental grounds of this plantation were, the avoiding of natives and planting only with British." Leland, speaking of the examinations that were made into the titles by which the Irish held their lands, says, "In the enforcement of those enquiries, there are not wanting proofs of the mos tiniquitous practices of hardened cruelty, of vile perjury, and scandalous subornation, employed to despoil the fair and unoffending proprietor of his inheritance." He adds, "The Irish lay under odious disqualifications, or were neglected by the state in the disposal of offices of trust and emolument: they were overshadowed by new men sent from England to the king's service, whom they saw with indignation rising suddenly into affluence." Leland, vol. 2, p. 470. Such was the manner in which the Irish were "settled in the open country." But, however, " husbandry and the arts were taught them." What advantage can men derive from a knowledge of the arts and husbandry who have not an acre to till? Could gentlemen and their sons, sieze the spade and the plough, to cultivate the lands of their fathers, for bigoted Puritans or speculating Londoners? But it may be said they were lying fallow and were useless, were not tilled, give them to persons that would cultivate them: Good: If an Irishman had robbed Mr. Hume of his coat, on the plea of its wanting a patch in the elbow, would he not have justly complained? Would he not have preferred the old and ragged one to nakedness? What

would he have thought of the man administering consolation in these words: "Rejoice Mr. Hume, rejoice in the theft: an expert tailor has made trowsers and a jacket from your garment for a naked peasant boy?" With due deference, I think Mr. Hume, with all his boasted philanthropy and philosophy, would have replied. "I would rather the coat should screen me from the storm than the urchin. Suum curque."

But Hume continues, "such were the arts by which James introduced humanity and justice among a people, who had ever been buried in the most profound barbarism. Noble cares! Much superior to the vain and criminal glory of conquests."

"Such were the arts!" Tyranny, cruelty, oppression and confiscation! "Noble cares," indeed! To civilize the people reduce them to beggary, and destroy the rights of ages to polish the intellect a novel method certainly; let us join in the pæan to praise the discovery!! "Much superior to the vain and criminal glory of conquest." Shout ye heavens, and all earth clap your hands in joy, for the starvation of thousands and the pillaging of property is praiseworthy, the shedding of blood vain and criminal.

Elizabeth shed blood in torrents during her war in Ireland; yet the Irish, comparatively speaking, love her, but cordially hate James. If we prefer the tyrant that destroys his victim at once, either by the sword or the gallows, to the monster that calmly feasts his joy upon the slow consuming victim of famine or torture, we must give all praise to Elizabeth. The measures of Elizabeth, though sanguinary, were vigorous; those of James as unfeeling, but lingering. Elizabeth's exterminating power was the sword; James' the law and the "insolence of office" and favour: Elizabeth pressed life at once from the body of the fallen; James branded his victim on the forehead, and sent him forth another Cain, to fall by horrible famine, or the poignant anguish of his own preying thoughts.

If Hume was a philosopher, the praise of an accurate historian is no sprig in his laurel wreath his England abounds in the perversion of facts, in assertions without proofs, and the most heartless determined calumnies that ever escaped the pen of prejudice or passion. Where are the authorities that prove Ireland to have "ever been buried in the most profound bar

barism?" If his candour or research had equalled his impudence, his history would have been a treasure, but swelled as it is by the philosophy of romance, and the power of discovering the motives and perverting the intentions of all whom he hates for their sanctity or zeal for religion, a candid and faithful history was a desideratum, and I am happy to see such a work in the hands of the learned and indefatigable Dr. Lingard, whose labours have thrown new lights upon our annals, and are cast in a language beautiful and appropriate, and peculiar to himself.

If the remains of Irish literature are examined, every impartial mind must acknowlege the Irish language to be nervous, copious, and energetic: abounding with phrases that appeal to the heart and melt it: that raise the mind to the highest flights of enthusiastic sublimity; and inferior to no tongue for that caustic lightning of ridicule and wit, so conspicuous even in the phrases of the peasant: A polished language is the result of a nation refined.

Before the introduction of christianity in Ireland, the fileas or writers embodied all their thoughts by the means of 17 cyphers which they engraved on wood, and learned, so run the fables, from one Phenius, renowned for knowledge in the East. May we not say this points to the Phenecians, who introduced the sciences among the Greeks, Italians, and particularly the Spaniards? Strabo informs us, that letters were common among the Spaniards at an early period; and what is there unnatural in supposing, indeed asserting, that a colony from Spain should settle in Ireland, and there cultivate what they had learned at home?

The Irish documents that have been preserved inform us, that after the reform of the fileas, houses and lands were appropriated for the use of those literati, and that amidst the confusion of war, and the desolation that attends it, their lands were revered, and their property always escaped pillage or injury: that they were exempt from all civil employments: their only duty self improvement and the training of the rising generations; that they exposed the corrupt doctrines of the druids and that Cormac O'Quin, an enlightened monarch, lead the attack upon polytheism, and defended the doctrine of the Godhead, and the adoration of one supreme, omni

potent and merciful Creator of heaven and earth. Writings that have reached us from the fifth century, prove that the Irish language was in full perfection before the introduction of christiany. The more barbarous a nation the more difficult was the work of their conversion; the short time that was employed in the conversion of the Irish and the glorious fruits that immediatel yresulted, gives a flat contradiction to the assertion that it "had ever been buried in the most profound barbarism."

This narrative of the fileas, has been laughed at by many modern authors of extensive learning and great acuteness; whether a fable or not I shall not presume to say, "who shall decide when doctors disagree?" But if allowed an opinion, I should ask if the literature and consequent refinement of the ancient Irish are bugbears, when were those treatises written that have been preserved? When the classics deluged Ireland, Latin was the language of the schools; in it the students addressed their masters; in it the professors delivered their lectures and penned their treatises. A professor would have thought it a tacit confession of his ignorance, had his instructions met the eye of his pupil in the vernacular tongue. Every Irishman of any talent endeavoured to gain a knowledge of Latin, and what a clever Irishman exerts himself to acquire he seldom misses possessing. These treatises that have reached us, are from internal evidence, the work of some acute and powerful pen; they must then have been written before the 5th century. It may be asked, how can you account for the evident allusions to scripture history aud christianity that frequently occur in these Irish manuscripts, if they were written before the introduction of christianity? To that I have one reply, although the general conversion of the Irish did not take place before the fifth century under St. Patrick, yet it is evident the Christian religion was preached there before his time. Dr. Lingard says "Though the gospel had been preached in Ireland at a more early period, the general conversion of the natives had been reserved for the zeal of St. Patrick." Henry 2nd, ch. 5th. Is it improbable, impossible, that the allusions referred to, were not gleaned from the first preachers: are they not evidences to prove the labours of missionaries in Ireland prior to St. Patrick?

That the Irish, after the light of christianity had dispersed the darknes of idolatry, laboured with fervour in the science of the gospel, and were distinguished for the true spirit of devotion, is evident fron every antient writer: and that the sciences and literature were not forgotten, but assiduously cultivated is equally certain. The foundation of the great monasteries of Raithen, in West Meath, of Cluain Fearta, or solitude of wonders on the borders of Munster, between Ossory and Queen's county of Cluain Fearta, now Clonfert in Connaught, of Achadhbho, or Field of oxen, the first see of the bishops of Ossory: of Inisfallen in Desmond, of Ard-fenan in the county of Tipperary, of Glandaloch in the county of Dublin, and of Len-alli, in King's county, sufficiently demonstrate their fervour in the cause of religion. Marianus Scotus, in 674, writes in his Chronicle, "that Ireland was filled with saints or holy men." Cambden says, that the disciples of St. Patrick had made such a rapid progress in Christianity, that in the following age Ireland was surnamed the land of saints, "Ut-in subsequentia ætate. Hibernia Sanctorum Patria diceretur."

(To be continued.)

EEE

Ο

众众

Copy of a Letter from Sir Charles Wolseley to the Editor of the "Litchfield Mercury.”

Wolseley Hall, October 7th, 1823.

SIR,-I could wish through your paper, to put the public in possession of a fact to which it is desirable to call their attention, and to add a few remarks that seem to me to arise materially from it. Last Tuesday I went to Wolseley Bridge to qualify myself to act as commissioner of taxes, when to my surprise I found I was incapacitated from performing the functions of such an office, unless I made oath that to believe in transubstantiation and the invocation of saints is damnable and idolatrous, in other words, that every believer in them is consigned to eternal damnation. Now sir, though I am not a believer in transubstantiation, I know many honourable men who