D.

the common people." But lords and common people had yet to learn what things could be wrought under the semblance of English law, and what was the true import of that protection into which they had been graciously received.

As a preliminary measure towards the establishment of English power, the old laws and customs of Tanistry and Gavelkind, and all "cuttings, cosherings, and sessings"* were abolished, and the English law of inheritance, and English

Coigne and Livery, Cuttings and Cosherings, were various names for the several forms of contribution which an Irish Chieftain was entitled to receive from his clansmen, or, as English writers universally phrased it, "from his tenants." "Coigne and Livery" meant man's-meat and horse-meat (Spenser's State of Ireland), which a chief seems to have been invested with power to require in rather indefinite quantities, according to the exigencies of his station; and "Coshering" was the 12 privilege of the chieftain to make progresses among his clan, and live, with all his train, at their expense; "wherein he did eat them," says Sir John Davies, "out of house and home."Historical Tracts, p. 134. Sir John, indeed, who was a main instrument in establishing the new systems of tenure, is highly indignant against the old, which he says "made the lord an absolute tyrant, and the tenant a very slave and villein"-being unable apparently to understand the fact, which, however, is indisputable, that the Chieftain was not a "lord,' nor the clansmen "tenants," much less "villeins;" that all these "cosherings," &c. were the ancient pay. ments which custom required every clan to make to its elected leader; and that, far from being oppressive, they were gladly submitted to by every clan without exception, for their common saying," says Spenser, "is, Spend me and Defend me"-a phrase which clearly indicates the mutual obligations of chief and people, and the mode in which they were to be discharged.

..

*

The "Com

tenures substituted in their stead. mission of Grace" issued, and in pursuance of its provisions most of the Irish lords yielded their estates to the crown, and received them again under the English titles of Knight Service or Common Soccage; inquisitions were holden into the amount of land possessed by the chieftains, in order that none of them should receive a re-grant of more than what was actually in his possession; and the tenants under each lord, relieved of uncertain contributions and exactions, held their lands subject to an annual rent and by free tenure.†

• Lascelles 'says "The Commission of Grace was merely a device for raising money. Lawyers were the financiers of the day. And this device of a new tenure was a mere tax, ever renewable like a phoenix, but not so fabulous. Though these Commissions of Grace are interlarded with many specious professions of pity for the poor love of justice-the prosperity, trade, and commerce of the country' civility and the like; yet so is every declaration even of war, which is sure to lay prostrate all those blessings. We might as well believe the preambles of many statutes, which, nevertheless, every man of common sense knows are nothing else but the pretexts, not the true reasons of the law."-Liber munerum publicorum Hiberniæ under the heading of Res gesta Anglorum in Hibernia, chapter 6, p. 47, being a very excellent history of Ireland by Mr. Lascelles of the Middle Temple.

These changes, which would at the first glance appear to be beneficial to the people, were suggested by a far-seeing policy, having a very different object. The destruction of the custom of Tanistry rooted out the very principle of Irish government-election; and with it that ancient system of clanship which is found pervading the history of Ireland from the earliest periods, (Moore, 1, pp. 169, 170,) and which principally depended on this, and on the other institution of Gavelkind. The

In this scheme of government, which at one blow destroyed the institutions, habits, laws, and customs of ages, which substituted one form of civilization for another essentially different, there was, to the eyes of an Englishman, much apparent wisdom. The ancient laws of Ireland had been tried, say English writers, and were found not to be beneficial. From the customs of Tanistry and, Gavelkind, and from the subdivision of power amongst the numerous chieftains, resulted incessant contentions, which rendered any great National movement unlikely, if not impossible, and fatally impeded the progress of the people to refinement and high civilization. A social system without any settled appropriation of property,*

*

latter made all lands the common property of the sept, for, on the death of the Prince, his Tanist (who during his life time had been elected to succeed him) assembled the sept, and made a partition of all the lands amongst them. This was a system quite different from the Anglo-Norman, or feudal, forms of social organization, and was certainly unfavourable to agricultural improvement. But the English monarchs saw a greater evil in it. It gave the princes only a life-estatea restricted and not descendible interest; and the life estate only, and not the remainder, was forfeitable by treason. By giving the "fee-simple" to the Chief, his estates became subject to the law of Forfeiture; and what was more important to the objects of England, the sept lost that common bond of interest and union with the Chief, which gave them power and consequence. A similar result occurred in the system of Highland clanship in Scotland by similar policy.

The fruits of the Irish Gavelkind was the total desolation of the country. When the English entered the fertile fields of Ulster, they found an idle desert; and

and with no established line of hereditary descent, divided and contentious, where all differences were brought to the arbitrament of the sword, or decided by a code in which the punishment for the gravest crimes was commuted to pecuniary mulets;-a military system capable of producing the noblest instances of heroism, and occasionally of gallantly resisting foreign invasion, but incapable of affording permanent internal security, gave way before a newer and more vigorous order of things, and yielded, not without honourable resistance, to the arms and policy of an united enemy.* It is now a matter of mere speculation whether, if Ireland "had not tempted

the general subjugation of the Celtic tribes, who, though gifted, and in no ordinary degree, with strength, courage, and intelligence, have yielded to every stranger, may probably be traced to their stubborn adherence to this system, which annihilated all inducements to industry, destroyed the sources of individual opulence, and exposed the nation at large to all the evils of sloth and indolence."-Sir F. Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, vol. 1, p. 75. He says that Gavelkind is a variation of an universal Teutonic custom.

* Noble instances occur in Irish history of resistance to foreign aggression. The very crimes and abominations committed by the Danes prove how violent and persevering must have been the opposition of the Irish to the northern invaders. The most signal triumph over foreign enemies was achieved by Brian, a wise and successful usurper, who had nearly consolidated in his own person the entire monarchical power of Ireland. Had he survived the bloody and glorious triumph of Clontarf, he might perhaps have completed his scheme of wise usurpation, and realized in his own person, or in that of one of his descendants, the theory contained in the text. Scarcely had

the cupidity of her neighbours, there would have arisen in the course of time some Egbert or Harold Harfager to consolidate the provincial kingdoms into one hereditary monarchy."* It is most probable that such a consummation might have been effected; but the spirit of adventure carried the invader to the shores of Ireland before her Legislator appeared, and the country fell beneath the internal dissensions of her own sons as much as by the force and treachery of a foreign foe. It has been her unfortunate lot that those who, after the loss of her independence, obtained power in Ireland, perpetuated those evils ruling first by the conflicting interests of different races, and afterwards by the angrier antagonism of different creeds. This policy will develope itself in the course of this narrative.

After the final and irreparable defeat of Hugh O'Neill, but little resistance was offered to the introduction of English law in Ulster. In a few years the entire province was under its control; it was filled with English garrisons ;† patrolled by

he fallen when contentions arose between his sons and the chief of another tribe, who laid claim to the throne of Munster; and on their march homewards the former were opposed by the Prince of Ossory, Mac Gilla Pa trick, who demanded hostages. "Hostages or battle ?" "Let it be then battle," said the sons of Brian, for never within the memory of man did a prince of the race of Brian give hostages to a Mac Gilla Patrick." The sequel of this characteristic episode is given in one of Moore's exquisite melodies.

66

* Hallam's "Constitutional History," ch. 18, p. 463. "The following list of garrisons held by the British in Ulster, in May, 1603, compiled from Moryson, (Hist. 1. 73, 155, 253; and ii. 131, 184, 208, 356,) will convey