the power to do harm:-which, when it is brightened from the dark shades, and has acquired that animating lustre to which nature has destined it, will command a much larger share of love and veneration than it has yet obtained. As it is, to give it all the interest to which it has every claim, another pen than mine must describe it. All at which I aim is only to remove prejudice, to correct misrepresentation, and to direct the public attention to a subject which at any time it may not be unpleasing to study, but the consideration of which at present it may be criminal to neglect.

[.

CHAP. III.

THE CHARACTER OF THE IRISH CONTINUED-RE

MARKS ON THE POETRY AND MUSIC OF THE
IRISH ON THEIR BARDS, SENACHIES, AND
HARPERS.

THE subject of this and the following chapter, I once intended to have treated at much greater length; I shall only at present, however, make such remarks as may seem necessary to illustrate the character and genius of the Irish, and as may tend still more evidently to identify that people with the Highlanders.

To shew from the customs, manners, superstitions, and language, a similarity of origin between these two nations,must at least be amusing. But though this may be a subordinate consideration, it is not my chief object. If it can be shewn that the Highlanders and the Irish are one people; that their ancient manner, their poctry, music, and superstition, are nearly alike, then it may be asked, what are those circumstances which have formed the

character of the one with so much heroic elevation, so amiable, and so useful, while that of the other has been prevented from arriving at the same moral attainment, from rising to the same popularity and distinction. The Irishman, as well as the Highlander, possesses, with some limitations, "the generous and chival"rous spirit, the self-subdued mind, the warm "affection to his family-the fond attachmentto "his clan the love of story and of song-the

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contempt of danger and of luxury-the mystic superstition equally awful and tender." Some of these qualities, perhaps, he possesses in an inferior degree: still it must be allowed that his mind is equally susceptible, and tender, and generous, and he only requires to be placed in circumstances favourable to moral improvement in order to exhibit the same lovely picture, of simplicity and innocence, of affection and fidelity, that may be seen in the glens and recesses of the north.

..

Campion, with all the prejudices of an Englishman of the sixteenth century, confirms this view of the Irish character, if, indeed, any confirmation be necessary, on a point so obvious though not generally understood."Thepeople are "thus inclined: religious, frank, amorous, ire"ful, sufferable of pains infinite, very glorious, "delighted with wars,great alms givers,passing

E

" in hospitality.

The same being virtuously "bred up or reformed, are such mirrors of holi"ness and austerity, that other nations retain "but a shadow or shew of devotion in compa"rison of them."*

The same author mentions a circumstance respecting the extreme and even brutish ignorance of the Irish, which, I am persuaded, when properly explained will support no such conclusion. For, though it is admitted, that they are ignorant on moral and religious subjects, I am unwilling to allow that they have been at any time so ignorant, as not to know the guilt of homicide. They, indeed, as well as the Highlanders, deemed it lawful to take the life of any connected with another clan or sept in open combat; and all nations engaged in war, entertain similar sentiments; but the assassin seems always to have been viewed by them with abhorrence.

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"I found a fragment of an epistle (says Campion) wherein a virtuous monk declareth that "to him, travelling in Ulster, came a grave gen"tleman about Easter, desirous to be confessed "and howseled, who in all his life time had never yet received the blessed sacrament. When he "had said his mind, the priest demanded him

* Campion's Ilistory of Ireland, p. 19.

"whether he were faultless in the sin of homicide?
"He answered that he never wist the matter to
"be heinous before, but being instructed thereof;
"he confessed the murder of five, the rest he
"left wounded, so as he knew not whether they
"lived or no. Then was he taught that both
"the one and the other was execrable, and
very meekly humbled himself to repent-
"ance."
I mention this anecdote, because
it seems to accord with the opinions which
for a long time have prevailed respecting the
native Irish; and because a stranger to the .
Celtic tribes will be disposed to draw a con-
clusion from it unfavourable to the character of
that people, which the circumstances to which
it refers will by no means support.

It is well known that no people in the world were more averse to homicide than the Highlanders. Even the professed thieves of the mountains, were degraded in their own estimation, and shunned by their fellow plunderers, if they killed a human being otherwise than in fair combat: though the Highlanders, it must be confessed, in certain cases, if commissioned by their chief, blindly executed vengeance in secret on the sons of the strangers; not, indeed, when they came as guests, but when they were known to be the avowed enemies of their country or their clan. Such instances, however, were ex

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