Danes.

But, in order to understand the causes

of their success, it may be proper to glance at the state of the country.

The division of Ireland into five kingdoms had existed from the earliest ages. Meath, constituting one of them, was at the same time the seat of the chief monarch. The power of the latter was gradually extended by encroachments upon the other sovereignties. The mode of succession was generally hereditary, though in some cases it had been elective. There were, however, no settled boundaries to authority, or even to territory; for they fluctuated according to the power or ambition of the various kings. In the struggles which took place, the kingdom of Munster gradually became the most powerful of the pentarchy, and even set up a rival authority against the chief monarch of the realm.

It was at this period, 795, when the country was distracted by the division between contending dynasties, that the Danes began their invasions of Ireland. The name of the monarch who filled the Irish throne at this period, was Aedus or Aedan, during whose long reign the piratical incursions of the Northmen increased in frequency. The Irish nation being unable to present a firm front of opposition to their inva

ders, the Danes soon obtained possession of some parts of the island, and here they maintained themselves for two hundred years.

I cannot go into the details of these events. Though they abound in bold and bloody deeds, there is little to interest, to instruct, or amuse. We pass over the story of the romantic hero Lodbrog; the cruelties and oppressions of the Norwegian ruler Turgesius, presenting one dark picture of plunder, massacre, and devastation; the successive invasions of the country; the establishment of the Danes in several portions of the island, and the unnumbered miseries inflicted upon the people.

At length Brien Borohm came to the throne of Munster, which, as before intimated, had risen to a pitch of power rivalling that of the supreme throne. By gradual encroachments, Brien enlarged his authority, and at last usurped the sceptre of Ireland. With the whole power of the country thus concentrated, he gave battle to the Danes, 1014, on the field of Clontarf. Being eighty years of age, he was unable to join in the fight, and, remaining in his tent, was killed by the infuriated Danes during the engagement; but his army was completely suc

cessful, and the defeated Northmen were soon after finally expelled from the country.

Ireland was, however, an exhausted and desolated land, and only exchanged one oppressor for another. Dermod Macmurrough, the factious and turbulent king of Leinster, having excited the anger of Roderick O'Conner, the monarch of Ireland, was driven from his kingdom and the country. He fled to England, and besought the aid of Henry II. This monarch, being engaged in foreign wars, declined personal interference, but gave authority for any of his subjects to aid Dermod. Richard Strongbow, earl of Pembroke, availed himself of this permission, and made a descent upon Ireland, with twelve hundred men, in 1170. His success led Henry II. to invade the country in 1172, with five hundred knights and four thousand soldiers. He met with little opposition, and the Irish tamely submitted, even Roderick thinking it best to acknowledge Henry's authority. After remaining in the country about five months, Henry returned to England, having gained little but the empty title of king of Ireland.

From the period at which we have now arrived, the history of Ireland is familiar to most readers.

Reserving, therefore, a few historical sketches, as illustrations of the Irish character, I shall not now inflict upon you even an outline of modern Irish history. It is a painful record of power selfishly exercised over a suffering people for centuries, with hardly the redeeming process of civilization. After all that Ireland has suffered, England has left few traces of her dominion, except the settled jealousy of the people and the heaped-up memory of unnumbered wrongs.

It is my purpose, hereafter, to discuss the Irish character a subject of great fertility, and one that will afford more amusement than these dry details of history. But it seems that the ground over which we have passed is not wholly destitute of instruction, even as a means of understanding the Irish people. They are certainly marked with more decided peculiarities than any other nation in Europe. In comparison with them, how bald is the character of the Scotch, French, Spanish, or Dutch! Each of these may be the personification of a single national trait; but the idea of an Irishman at once suggests courage, humanity, cheerfulness, hospitality, wit, and, perhaps, that species of blunder called a bull; and all these traits of character are often seen struggling through the

shadows of unlettered rusticity, poverty, and destitution.

ment.

It is doubtless true, as has been frequently affirmed, that national character is formed by circumstances; and among those which exert a controlling influence are climate and governBut there appear to be original, constitutional traits, which long resist even the force of these. It is easy to discern, in the inhabitants of the different counties of England, differences, not of language only, but of complexion, thought, feeling, and character, which are evidently traceable to original differences in the tribes from which they are descended.

To the original Celtic constitution of the Irish we may therefore attribute much of their distinctive character. That they have been cut off by their insular condition from easy and frequent intercourse with other nations; that they escaped the overwhelming dominion of Rome; that, while they have been the subjects of foreign dominion, they have still cherished a lively feeling of nationality, are facts which both prove and explain the descent of their leading national characteristics from high antiquity.

It might seem that language would be one of the frailest of monuments; but it is more endu