dom, under its ancient and under its present happy
Establishment.

The common Accidents of Time must lead them by better Authority to clearer
Knowledge: In the mean while, I profess my Obligations to them, as they
have given me this Opportunity of declaring my Regard to my Country in
general, and the particular Attachments that ever bind me, in the
strictest Sense of Fidelity and Esteem, to a Friend so worthy as You have
been to,

Sir,
Your very obliged, and
Most obedient Servant.

ESSAY.

In a Nation, where almost every Gentleman is better acquainted, and more
conversant, with the Nature and Circumstances of other Countries than
those of his own, the Publication of such Hints as may somewhat contribute
to remove so odd an Inattention, and induce those far better qualified to
render a Subject so interesting some Justice, will not, I hope, be deemed
an Impertinence; in one especially who, by this Essay, however feeble,
hath nothing beside the Honour and Advantage of _Ireland_ in View, a
Kingdom whereof he is, without Vanity, proud of being a Native.

As the Story of Savages and Barbarians can contain nothing instructive, or
entertaining, the _Antemilesian_ Inhabitants of this Land having been
mostly such, and all surviving Accounts of them almost totally overcast
with Fable, we are therefore, in treating of the antient _Scotia_, or
modern _Ireland_, to refer principally to three distinguished aeras,
whereof the _first_ is, its being peopled by an _Iberian_ or _Spanish_
Colony: The _second_, truly glorious, the Arrival of St. _Patrick_, in his
most salutary Mission: The _third_ and last, its Cession to _Henry_ the
Second, King of _England_, (the first of the Royal Race of _Plantagenet_)
partly from a pretended Title of _Adrian_ the Fourth, Pope of _Rome_;
partly from the restless and insatiable Desires of _Henry_; _more_ from
the manifold Infirmities of the then reigning _Irish_ Chiefs--but above
all, from the peculiarly adverse Fate of _Roderick_, the last of our
Kings.

The assiduous, exact, and candid Author of the _Dissertations_,(1) lately
published, on the Origin, Government, Letters, Sciences, Religion, Manners
and Customs of the antient Inhabitants of this Country, hath put all those
Matters in so clear and happy, and, at the same Time, in so strong a
Light, by the Powers of various foreign Testimonies, of undeniable
Authenticity, coincident with our own, that scarce any Thing new can be
offered