ed the ties of honour which bound them to
those whom they "fostered," or for whom they stood sponsors, as of the
most sacred description. Their own safety and interests, if not common
feelings of humanity and affection, led them to form these connexions,
which were now so ruthlessly denounced. But it led them also to treat
the Irish with more respect, and placed them on some sort of social
equality with themselves; and this was clearly a crime in the eyes of
those who governed the country. The second clause had a similar object,
and insulted the deepest feelings of the Celt, by condemning his
language, which he loved almost as his life, and his customs, which had
been handed down to him by an ancestry which the Anglo-Norman nobles
might themselves have envied. The third enactment was an outrage upon
common justice. It has been already shown that the Irish were _refused_
the benefit of the English law; you will now see that their own law was
forbidden. Some of these laws are at present open to public inspection,
and show that the compilers, who wrote immediately after the
introduction of Christianity into Ireland, and the original lawgivers,
who existed many centuries before the Christian era, were by no means
deficient in forensic abilities. Whatever feuds the Irish may have had
between their clans, there is every reason to believe that justice was
impartially administered long before the English settlement. That it was
not so administered after that settlement, the preceding history, nay,
even the very subject under discussion, sufficiently proves.

The fourth clause might have been beneficial to the Irish, if it had
been strictly observed. The other enactments were observed; but this,
which required the consent of the Government to make war on the natives,
was allowed to remain a dead letter. In any case, the Government would
seldom have refused any permission which might help to lessen the number
of the "Irish enemy."

The last enactments, or series of enactments, were simply barbarous. The
Irish were an agricultural nation; therefore they were not permitted to
be agriculturists. Their wealth consisted solely in their flocks;
therefore every obstacle should be placed to their increase. So much for
the poor. The higher classes had formerly some hope of advancement if
they chose to enter the English service in the army; to do so now they
must renounce their Irish name, their language, and their customs. They
might als