indeed; for even imperial Rome cannot produce any teftimony fo old, of its being known to the Greeks.

The next foreign evidences, I believe, in point of time, are Diodorus, Strabo, Mela, and Solinus, who wrote in and about the first century; and who agree in afferting that the Irish were then in the moft rude state of fociety. And some of them are particular in obferving that the Irish were more uncultivated than the Britons, as the Britons were more uncultivated than the Gauls +. Diodorus fays, "that the most fierce of the Gauls are those who "inhabit the north: They fay that fome of them "are Canibals, like the Britons who inhabit Ire"land."

If the teftimony of these writers is not to be entirely credited, neither is it to be entirely dif regarded. For to argue that they all trufted to report, and knew not well what to fay, is only to admit that Ireland was, in their time, very little known. If Tacitus has faid that the ports of Ireland were more frequented by merchants than those of Britain; it was probably because they were fafer; befides, more does not imply much. The advocates for our Pagan civilization must confefs, that, if their country had been then much known, the inhabitants of it would not have been represented, by their contemporaries, as "a people deftitute of every virtue "

When Cæfar was defirous of knowing the state of Britain, he convened the merchants and traders of Gaul from every quarter, but they were utterly ignorant

* Uther, p. 378.

+ Lib. 5. Feroceffimi Gallorum funt qui fub feptentrionibus habitant: Dicunt ex iis nonnullos anthropophagos effe, ficut Britannos qui Irim incolunt.

Cultores ejus inconditi funt & omnium virtutum ignari magis quam alia gentes, aliquatenus tamen gnari, pietatis admodum expertes. Pomp. Mela, Lib. 3.

ignorant of the fize of the island, the number or force of the nations which inhabited it, or even of their skill in war or customs in peace: Nay, they could not give him any exact information of their ports, moft capable of receiving his fleet. And when Agricola, near a hundred years after, made the best inquiries about the state of Ireland, he concluded, that it could be fubdued by a legion and fome auxiliaries. From all which we must conclude, that the British islands were, in thofe times, poffeffed by a race of men far from civilized; and that the Irish were not lefs barbarcus than their neighbours.

This opinion has obtained fo generally, from generation to generation, among the writers of every country but our own, that Mr. Hume måde no fcruple to affert, and refused to retract the affer tion, that "the Irifh, from the beginning of time, "had been buried in the most profound barbarism " and ignorance; who, at the coming of the Eng"lifh over them, continued ftill in the most rude "ftate of fociety, and were diftinguished only by "thofe vices to which human nature, not tamed by education nor restrained by laws, is for ever

fubject. Among them courage and force, though "exercised in the commiffion of crimes, were more "honoured than any pacific virtues; and the most

fimple arts of life, even tillage and agriculture, "were almost wholly unknown. They had felt the "invafions of the Danes and the other northern

66

people; but these inroads, which had fpread "barbarifm in the other parts of Europe, tended "rather to improve the Irish; for the only towns, "which were to be found in the island, had been "planted along the coaft by the freebooters of Norway and Demark."

As to the fancy of Voltaire, that fome nations feem formed for fubjection, and that there is a natural inferiority to England in the genius of

Ireland,

Ireland*, it no more deserves a serious answer than the following ftanza of the old ballad to the tune of St. George he was for England, &c.

St. David of Wales the Welshmen much advance :
St. Jaques of Spain, that never yet broke lance:
St. Patrick of Ireland which was St. George's boy,
Seven years he kept his horfe, and then ftole him
away:

For which knavish act as flaves they do remaine.

But St. George, St. George the dragon he hath flaine. St. George he was for England; St. Denis was for France; Sing Hani foit qui mal y penfe.

But

Yet why fhould we blame foreigners for their fanciful reflections, or elaborate invectives against this country? when we fee an aboriginal native (whether bowing to fuch high authority, or affecting a philofophical moderation, but certainly feized by an intellectual epilepfy, in the very midft of a groundless encomium on the literature of his country) introduce the following moft falfe and vilifying remark : "The ufes to which letters have been turned in Ireland, fo different from the practice of other Celtic countries, was not owing to a more happy local genius among its inhabitants; their heavy climate, and other physical causes, ted rather to a flower progrefs in intellectual refearches: But it was owing to one great genius, and this was OLLAM FODHLA." But of this more anon! In the interim let me afk-Does not Spencer panegyrize their fine vein for poetry, and that creative imagination which is the foul of it? Even Mr. Macpherson does not refuse them a fimilar praise. Ireland, it is true, has not, as of old, her colleges of bards; yet one of the sweetest of English poets, calls her the mother of fweet fingers. No depreffion from without, no difcouragement from within, was ever yet fufficient to quench her poetic fires. This age at leaft has produced its full proportion in the dramatic walk. What fock at this day fo gracefully treads the ftage? O! fie Mr. O'Conor! have you forgot our musicians too? Does not Cambrenfis, who denies our country many good qualities which it poffeffes, admit, that the Irish were above all other nations incomparably skilled in mufic? And has not their execution been in all ages aftonishing? Did not Handel call our Carolan the Irifh Orpheus? And are thefe excellencies compatible with a beavy climate and other phyfi cal incapacities?

*

But as to Mr. Hume's high-wrought painting of the Irish nation, was it fufficient for the Historian of it, to make the following phlegmatical obfervation? "The people, thus traduced, ex"claim with indignation, that no brain-fick monk, "in days of darknefs and fuperftition, ever betrayed fuch credulity as appears in thofe affertions. They are, indeed, well difpofed to retort this "severity; but the Irish have no philofophical "hiftorian."

Alas! and was it only to improve in the language, that Demofthenes was tranflated? Did the fun of fcience fet with Mr. Hume? Could not the victo rious adverfary of Warburton have enlightened his three tomes of Irish history with a fingle ray of philofophy? Was there no fpirit to be infufed into fuch a body of matter? Was there no statement of facts which could have redeemed the national name? Could he not, in a manly tone, have marked thofe obftacles, thofe invincible obftacles,

which

That a mind fo philofophical as Mr. Hume's was not emancipated from thofe national prejudices which every where enflave the vulgar, is evident from his going frequently out of his road in fearch of opportunities to depreciate the Irish: Thus, in defcribing the battle of Pinkey, the Irish are twice introduced, and both times to their disadvantage: First, it is faid, "the Irish archers were thrown into disorder, and even the other troops began to ftagger."-Again, towards the conclufion: "The retreat foon changed into a flight, which was begun by the Irish archers." But how different is the reprefentation which Lord Clarendon gives of the behaviour of the Irish troops in Scotland, at a much later period? His Lordship (who at the fame time was greatly incenfed against the nation at large, for its conduct to the king) acquaints us, that "Montrofe did always acknowledge that the rife and beginning of his good fuccefs was due, and to be imputed, to that body of Irish which had been fent over.For upon any military action, in which Montrofe was always fuccefsful, the Highlanders went always home with their booty, and the Irish staid together with their general."-" The Irish were 1500 men, very good and very well officered, and withal fo hardy, that neither the ill fare, nor the ill lodging in the Highlands, gave them any difcouragement."

which have, at every period, obftructed the national pingrets to improvement?-What Dr. Leland could have done, towards wiping away national afperfions, it is not for me to fay; but what he has done, we all know. We know, that with a dignity of ftyle and fructure of periods which might have adorned sy hittory but that he has witten, we are, in ten Pape, diguiled at a dull detail, a fombrous narra

, unanimated by reflection, and enervated by a Tervile dread of (peaking out *.

But we anticipate. Let us first examine into the Revit Sol of Biose pretentions which our writers of sancha vark #ake to literature and civilization, in

M. Toland was reengine a man of confiderable Cyn men wird time of knowledre far bewand shop w ka erige or the time fide of the popfiah k apnlcanar, z: Juciar's Allegory of The Colle Bremsides, the pot, di enquence, called Qumini, vnc hà dezkatinh, from him of the name Ochom, piner the lift alphabet, is ingeninus, na impatabahle, What he has written, on the firmare of the Paran Irifh, has been 1:|: |:ཀ མནན more questionable shape, by almof the fame fubject, fince his time. es, for this mistaken honour of his Arved him into ftrange inconfiften

ut with admitting that the Druids ime or place, commit their rites or doctrines

to himself, in a fingle fentence, fays more in defence han Dr. Leland in his three volumes. For whatever him, in her favour, may be fuppofed to have been Yet, he, fpeaking of the time when Edward Bruce, A to the king of Scotland, was crowned king of Ireland talk, makes this juft reflection: "The horrible and oppreffions which the Irish fuffered under the English nment, made them fly at firft to the ftandard of the king