Their whole income is about £264,000. "In Ireland," says the Eclectic Review (1823), "the church of England has the tithes, the church of Rome the people. Of nearly seven millions of people, 54 millions are Roman Catholics, above one million dissenters, and less than half a million (400,000) adherents of the establishment. To minister to these 400,000 hearers, there are 1700 clergy (of whom 587 are dignitaries), with an income of £1,300,000." The income of the clergy of the other 63 millions we have above mentioned is £264,000. (Consult Moreau's Statistical State of Ireland (London, 1827), Wakefield's Account of Ireland (1812), Young's, Beaufort's, Reid's (1823) Travels in Ireland.) Until 1800, Ireland had a separate parliament; but, the union with England having been effected in that year, the country is now represented in the imperial parliament. The government is administered by a viceroy appointed by the king, with the title of lord lieutenant of Ireland. An Irish chancellor, commander of the forces, chief secretary, vicetreasurer, and attorney and solicitor general, &c., compose the Irish ministry. In 1827, the Irish peers were 213–1 duke, 14 marquises, 76 earls, 48 viscounts, 70 barons, and 4 peeresses. They are represented in the British house of lords by 28 representative peers; the church is also represented by four representative bishops. The Irish commons are represented by 64 knights and 36 citizens and burgesses. By 10 George IV, c. 8 (13 April, 1829), a freehold of £10 clear yearly value is made a qualification for voters, in the election of knights of the shires, and the 40 shilling freeholders, of whom the number was 184,492, are disfranchised.

The beginning of the history of Ireland is enveloped in fable. The historians of the country (O'Flaherty, Keating, O'Halloran, Vallancey, Plowden) speak of Greek and Phoenician colonies, give lists of kings, &c., for which there is no historical foundation. The vernacular language of the Irish proves that they are a part of the great Celtic race, which was once spread all over Western Europe. (See Gaul.) No Irish manuscript has been found more ancient than the 10th century. The oldest and most authentic Irish records were written between the 10th and 12th centuries; some of them go back, with some consistency, as far as the Christian era; but there is no evidence that the Irish had the use of letters before the middle of the fifth century, when Christianity and Christian literature were introduced by St. Patrick.

The new faith did not flourish till a century later, when St. Columba erected monasteries. In the eighth and ninth centuries, the scholars of Ireland were among the most distinguished at the courts of the Saxon kings, and of Charlemagne. But when the Northmen commenced their descents on the coasts, the ecclesiastics took to flight; and it is evident, from the condition of the people at a later period, that the learning of the Irish clergy never extended beyond the walls of the monasteries. Divided among a number of barbarous and hostile chiefs, Ireland had been for a long time torn by internal wars, and, for nearly two centuries, ravaged by the Danes, when, in the beginning of the 11th century, Brian Borrhoimi, or Boroihmh (the Conqueror), united the greater part of the island under his sceptre, restored publie tranquillity, and expelled the northern invaders. In 1155, Henry II, king of England, obtained a bull from Adrian IV, granting him the possession of Ireland. In 1169, English troops under the earl of Pembroke (Strongbow) landed in the country, which was soon partially reduced by the invaders, aided by the mutual hostilities and jealousies of the native chiefs. The country over which the English actually ruled included the four counties of Dublin, Meath, Louth and Kildare, and was called the pale. In the rest of the island, the native chiefs still maintained their independence. In 1310, Edward Bruce, brother of the king of Scotland, landed in Ireland, at the head of a Scotch force, and caused himself to be crowned king of the island; but, not being vigorously supported by the Irish, who had invited his assistance, he was defeated by the English, and the Scotch were obliged to return without accomplishing any thing. There still remained one independent prince, in the province of Ulster, whose daughter and heir having been married to the duke of Clarence, son of Edward III, that province came into the hands of the English in 1361. A parliament, held at Kilkenny in 1367, forbade intermarriages with the Irish, the use of their language, &c., under severe penalties, and thus contributed to widen the distinction between the two nations, which it should have been the policy of the English government to amalgamate. In the reign of Henry VI, Richard, duke of York, was appointed chief governor; and an attachment to his descendants continued to influence the Anglo-Irish during the reign of Henry VII, as appears in the affair of Lambert Simnel. In his reign (1495) was passed

Poyning's act (so called from sir Edward Poyning, lord-deputy of Ireland), which provided that all former laws passed in England should be in force in Ireland, and that no Irish parliament should be held without previously stating the reasons on account of which it was to be summoned, and the laws which it was intended to enact. When Henry VIII, in the 16th century, embraced the reformation, the Irish continued to adhere to the Catholic religion. But, in 1541, Henry received from the Irish parliament the title of king of Ireland, instead of lord, which he had before borne, as a vassal of the pope. The monasteries were suppressed, the tribute to the papal see abolished, and, to reward the chieftains for their submission, O'Neil, O'Brien and De Burgo were created earls; they were the oldest peers of Irish descent. Under Edward VI, the deputy proposed to the Irish parliament the adoption of the reformation. Three archbishops and 17 bishops left the assembly; most of the clergy fled the country, and those of the lower clergy who remained, being deprived of their incomes, lived on the charity of their parishioners. Elizabeth, in 1560, caused the measures adopted in the reign of Mary to be abrogated, and replaced every thing on its former footing. She endeavored to improve the condition of Ireland, and employed able men to effect her purposes, yet her reign was marked by a series of risings, which finally terminated in a general war against England, usually called the rebellion. O'Neil, earl of Tyrone, instigated by the pope, and supported by the Spaniards, was the leader in this war, which, though successfully begun, ended with the reduction of the whole island (1603). In 1613, the first national parliament was held in Ireland; but of 226 members of the house of commons, 125 were Protestants, and the upper house consisted of 25 Protestant bishops and 25 temporal lords, of whom but few were Catholics. The reign of James (1603-25) was, on the whole, favorable to Ireland; the arbitrary power of some of the chieftains was restrained, the administration of justice improved, &c.; but religious troubles were occasioned by the disabilities to which the Catholics were subjected. On the accession of Charles I, Wentworth, afterwards earl Strafford, was appointed lord-lieutenant; and his administration was beneficial to the country. But the republican inclinations of the English residents, the hate which existed between them and the Irish Catholics, the influence of the Irish clergy, who were

educated in foreign countries, with other circumstances, led to an attempt to shake off the English yoke. Dr. Lingard says of this insurrection, that it has been usual for writers to paint the atrocities of the natives and to omit those of their opponents, but that revolting barbarities are equally recorded of both, and that if among the one there were monsters who thirsted for blood, there were among the others those who had long been accustomed to deem the life of a mere Irishman beneath their notice. After the death of Charles, Cromwell was appointed lieutenant of Ireland, and, with his usual energy and promptitude, but with great cruelty, soon reduced the whole country. All the possessions of the Catholics were confiscated, about 20,000 Irish were sold as slaves in America, and 40,000 entered into foreign service, to escape the severity of the conqueror.

Charles II restored the fourth part of the confiscated estates to the Irish, and James II appointed Tyrconnel, a Catholic, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and filled the parliament with Catholics. But the battle of the Boyne (1689) restored the Protestant ascendency. William proscribed the adherents of James, and confiscated their estates. Great numbers of the Irish entered the French army, and it has been computed that 450,000 fell in the French service, from 1691 to 1745. The dependence of the Irish parliament on the English next became a subject of controversy, and in 1719 was passed an act declaring that the British parliament had full power to make laws binding the people of Ireland. The Irish trade and industry were also subject to every kind of restriction and discouragement; and it was not until the American war broke out, that a change became perceptible in the conduct and language of the British government towards Ireland. The Irish parliament demanded free trade, but the nation went much further; and, in 1782, the parliament of Ireland was placed on the same footing with that of England. The French revolution was another occasion which encouraged the Irish to attempt to obtain new concessions. An association was accordingly formed, under the name of the United Irishmen, the secret object of which has been asserted to be the establishment of an independent republic. The Catholics also held a convention, in 1792, and obtained the removal of some grievances of which they complained. As the troubles continued, the habeas corpus act was suspended in 1796. The leaders of the Irish union

were arrested in 1798, and the plan of an insurrection was discovered; yet quiet was not restored without much bloodshed. In order to prevent further troubles, it was thought advisable to effect a union of Ireland with England, which was done in 1800. The future history of Ireland belongs to Great Britain (q. v.; see, also, the article Catholic Emancipation).

IRELAND, William Henry, is the son of the late Samuel Ireland, well known as the author of several tours, and as illustrator of Hogarth. The son was born in London, educated at the academy in Soho square, and articled to a conveyancer of New Inn, where, having much leisure, he began to exercise his ingenuity in imitating ancient writings. His progress in this encouraged him to endeavor to pass off some imitations of Shakspeare as the real remains of the bard. Having executed some of them on the blanks of old books, he communicated them to his father as recently discovered MSS. of Shakspeare. The father made the discovery public. The public were greatly interested by these papers, and a few, who ought to have known better, admitted their authenticity, and in private companies, with much warmth, supported it. A subscription was set on foot to enable the Irelands to print them. A splendid volume appeared in 1798, and, at Drurylane theatre, a play was performed, called Vortigern and Rowena, as a specimen. On the appearance of the volume and the play, both the readers and the audience detected the cheat, which had, however, already been properly exposed by Mr. Malone. Young Ireland how found it necessary, for his father's character, to acknowledge the fraud, and published an authentic Account of the Shakspeare Manuscripts, in which he solemnly declares that his father was deceived by him; that he alone was the author and writer, and that no one else had any part in the affair; and, lastly, that he should not have gone so far, had not the public praised the papers so much, and flattered his vanity. Since then, Mr. Ireland has written several novels, some poetry, a work called France during the last seven, Years of the Bourbons, Anecdotes of Napoleon, a Life of Napoleon, &c.

IRENEUS, ST.; presbyter, and, at a later period, bishop of Lyons, towards the end of the second century, a pupil of Polycarp and Papias; a man of considerable learning, and animated with an ardent zeal for Christianity. He was violent in his opposition to the heretical Chiliasts. 6

VOL. VII.

His works are all lost, except his Libri V adversus Hæreses, and these are extant only in a translation. He suffered martyrdom (after 202), and is honored as a saint. His day is April 6. His works have been edited by Feuerardent (Paris, 1596, folio), Grabe (Oxford, 1702, folio), Massuet (Paris, 1710). His fragments have also been collected by C. M. Pfaff (Hague, 1715).-There are several other martyrs of this name, and three men of the same name are mentioned in the Greek Anthology.

IRENE; 1. in mythology, one of the Hours (see Hours), denoting peace.-2. An empress of Constantinople, alike famous for talent and beauty, and for her crimes; was born at Athens, and, in 769, married Leo IV, after whose death, by poison administered by her, she raised herself (780), and her son, Constantine VI, who was then but nine years old, to the imperial throne, with the aid of the nobles. She believed it necessary to strengthen herself in this dignity by new acts of violence, and caused the two brothers of her murdered husband, who had formed a conspiracy against her, to be executed. Charlemagne at that time menaced the Eastern empire. Irene at first delayed him by promises. She at last went so far as to oppose him, arms in hand; but he totally defeated her army in Calabria, in the year 788. Two years before, she had convened two general councils at Nice, in which the Iconoclasts were particularly attacked. (See Iconoclasts.) When Constantine had grown up, he refused to permit her to participate longer in the government, and actually reigned alone seven years, when he was arrested at the order of his mother, his eyes plucked out, and himself finally murdered. Irene was the first female who reigned over the Eastern empire. Her entrance into Constantinople on a triumphal car of gold and precious stones, her liberality to the people, the freedom which she bestowed on all prisoners, and other artifices employed by her, were not sufficient to secure her from the consequences of her criminal accession. She had ordered many nobles into banishment, and, to secure yet more firmly the possession of the throne, had just resolved to marry Charlemagne, when Nicephorus, who was placed on the imperial throne, exiled her, in 802, to the isle of Lesbos, where she died, in 803.

IRETON, Henry; an eminent commander and statesman, of the parliamentary party, in the civil wars of Charles I. He was descended from a good family, and

was brought up to the law; but, when the civil contests commenced, he joined the parliamentary army, and, by the interest of Cromwell, whose daughter Bridget he married, he became commissary-general. He commanded the left wing at the battle of Naseby, which was defeated by the furious onset of prince Rupert, and he himself wounded and made prisoner. He soon recovered his liberty, and took a great share in all the transactions which threw the parliament into the power of the army. It was from his suggestion that Cromwell called together a secret council of officers, to deliberate upon the disposal of the king's person, and the settlement of the government. He had also a principal hand in framing the ordinance for the king's trial, and sat himself as one of the judges. Ireton accompanied Cromwell to Ireland, in 1649, and was left by him in that island as lord deputy. He reduced the natives to obedience with great vigor, but not without cruelty. He died in Limerick, in 1651. Hume calls him a memorable person, celebrated for vigilance, capacity, and a rigid exercise of justice, during his unlimited command in Ireland. After the restoration, his body was taken up and suspended from the gallows, with that of Cromwell, and was buried in the same pit.

IRIA; a Basque word,signifying town,city. IRIARTE, OF YRIARTE, Thomas d'; a Spanish poet, born in 1752, and died in 1803. As a poet, he is known by his Literary Fables (1782), which have been translated into English, his poem La Musica (1784, 4to.), dramas, &c. His works were published in 8 vols., at Madrid, in 1805.

IRIDIUM; the name of a metal discovered in 1803, by Mr. Tennant, in the black residuum from the solution of the ore of platinum. Its name was bestowed in allusion to the rainbow (iris), in consequence of the changeable color it presents while dissolving in muriatic acid. Its color is white; it is brittle, and very difficult of fusion; specific gravity, 18.68. It is acted upon with difficulty even by the nitro-muriatic acid; but, when oxidized by digestion with it, it unites with other acids, and with the earths, particularly with alumine. It combines with sulphur, by heating a mixture of ammonia, muriate of iridium, and sulphur: the compound is a black powder, consisting of 100 iridium and 33.3 sulphur, Lead unites with this metal easily, but is separated by cupellation, leaving the iridium on the cupel, as a coarse black powder. Copper forms with it a very malleable alloy, which, after cupellation,

with the addition of lead, leaves a small proportion of the iridium, but much less than in the preceding instance. Silver forms with it a perfectly malleable compound, the surface of which is merely tarnished by cupellation; yet the iridium appears to be diffused through it in fine powder only. Gold remains malleable, and little altered in color, though alloyed with a considerable proportion; nor is it separable either by cupellation or quartation. Dr. Wollaston has observed, that, among the grains of crude platinum, there are some scarcely distinguishable from the rest, but by their insolubility in nitro-muriatic acid. They are harder, however, when tried by the file, not in the least malleable, and of the specific gravity of 19.5. These he concluded to be an ore consisting entirely of iridium and osmium.

IRIS; daughter of Thaumas and Electra (daughter of Oceanus), the sister of the Harpies, and the fleet, golden-winged messenger and servant of the gods, especially of Jupiter and Juno, who, in reward of her services, as tradition runs, transported her to heaven, in the form of a rainbow. She is represented as a beautiful virgin, with wings and a variegated dress, with a rainbow above her, or a cloud on her head exhibiting all the colors of the rainbow. The physical appearance of the rainbow is the foundation of this fable, conformably with the custom of the Greeks. The rainbow was believed to draw vapors up to the clouds from the sea and land, and to drink up the rivers with the head of an ox.The ring of the eye, or the colored circle around the pupil of the eye, is also called iris; and iris stones are specimens of crystal or quartz, which exhibit the colors of the rainbow.

IRIS, FLAG, OF FLOWER-DE-LUCE; a genus of plants comprising upwards of 80 species, remarkable for their pointed, sword-shaped leaves, and their large and beautiful flowers. They constitute one of the chief ornaments of the northern regions of the globe, and usually grow in wet places, bearing flowers of various colors, but the prevailing tint of which is blue. Nine species are natives of the U. States, some of which possess active cathartic properties.

IRKUTSK; a Russian government in Asia, formerly containing two and a half million square miles, with a population of from 5 to 600,000 inhabitants. The present government, formed in 1823, is the eastern part of the former government; it contains 400,000 inhabitants, and reaches from 95° 40′ E. longitude to the Northern Frozen

ocean and the Pacific ocean, forming the Russian frontier towards China. The soil is chiefly sterile, the climate cold. The mountain chains Sayanskie and Stanovoi render the face of the country uneven. The seas of Kamtschatka and Okotsk, into which many promontories project, wash its coasts. In the warmest summer months only is navigation possible, and the communication with other countries is very much interrupted. The rivers are the Lena, Olonek, Anabara, Kolyma, Indigerka, which empty into the Icy sea; the Anadyr, Karntschatka, Argoun, Schilka, which empty into the Pacific ocean. The climate is various, but the winter is every where long. In the southern part, grain is raised, and some vegetables are produced in every district. The woods abound in bears; few cattle are raised; the reindeer are numerous, as are also sables, foxes and sea-otters. Swarms of mosquitoes molest man and beast. The waters contain many salmon, which make part of the food of the bears and wolves. The mineral kingdom is not destitute of precious metals, but they are little worked. The inhabitants are Russians, Tartars, Mongols, &c., in a low state of civilization. A circle of the government is also called Irkutsk, and the capital of both bears the same name. It was built in 1669, is situated on the Angara, and contains 33 churches, a theatre, several schools (a Japanese gymnasium, a garrison school, a seminary for priests, a printingoffice, a library with 3000 volumes, &c.), soap boileries, manufactories of cloth, salt works, and has considerable commerce, as the entrepot for the fur trade with China. Population, 20,000. It is connected by its position with three commercial routes that of Kiakta, that of eastern Siberia and Kamtschatka, and that of western Siberia and Russia. The commerce carried on here is valued at $800,000 annually. The furniture, ornaments, &c., from China, give this city a Chinese air. Lat. N. 52° 16 41"; lon. E. 104° 11′ 41′′.

IRMINSUL (German, Irmensäule); a statue worshipped by the ancient Saxons, which represented a man completely armed in the fashion of the ancient Germans, with a banner in his right hand and a lance in his left. This statue was their most sacred idol, and is said to have stood in a holy grove at Eresburg, a principal fortress of the Saxons (near the present Paderborn). Charlemagne demolished this fortress in 772, and with it that monument of antiquity. The history and meaning of the Irminsul is very obscure: according to com

mon opinion, it was erected in honor of Hermann, the deliverer of Germany (see Arminius); but it was probably the image of some distinguished divinity, perhaps of Woden himself, and the name of Irmin or Hermann, which signifies man of war, was attached to it, because Woden was the god of war.

IRON is the most valuable of all the metals. Though mentioned in the Pentateuch, we have reason to believe, from the facts that the fabrication of steel was unknown to the ancients, and that they were wholly destitute of metallurgical skill, that its uses were little known in the earlier periods of society. The Romans employed, as a substitute for it in their armor, an alloy of copper and tin. Its use has followed the progress of civilization in the world; and the amount of it consumed by any nation, at the present day, indicates very truly the degree of its advancement in the arts and sciences. The alchemistical name of iron was Mars. In treating of this metal, we shall adopt the following order: its ores; their reduction to the metallic state; the chemical history of iron.

Ores of Iron. Iron exists in nature under four different states-the native state; that of an oxide; in combination with combustible bodies, particularly sulphur; and, finally, in the state of salts, as the sulphate, phosphate, and carbonate, of iron.-1. Native Iron. Natural malleable iron is a rare production of this globe, nearly all that has ever been found upon it having come to us from the atmosphere. It occurs in the form of a ramose stalactite, covered by brown, fibrous oxide of iron, mingled with quartz and clay, in a vein traversing a mountain of gneiss, near Grenoble, in France; also with spathic iron and heavy-spar, at Kamsdorf, in Saxony. More recently, it has been found in three places in the U. States at Canaan, in Connecticut, in a small vein attached to a mass of gneiss upon a high mountain of the same rock; and in Pennsylvania and North Carolina: at the latter place, it was found loose in the soil, in a mass weighing more than 20 pounds. neither of these cases was the iron perfectly pure. That from Saxony, besides 92.50 of iron, contained 6.0 of lead and 1.5 of copper; that of Canaan was slightly intermingled with carbon, so as occasionally to lose its malleability, approximating it to the character of steel; and that of Pennsylvania was alloyed with 1.56 per cent. of arsenic. A piece, weighing 7 oz., from the large mass of North Carolina, was crystal

In