relapsed into its former condition, Henry VIII. perfected what had been begun by Edward, by receiving that country into an incorporating union with his kingdom, and abolishing at the same time all usages, which would have maintained its distinctness. The result of this dif ferent treatment of Wales was that the country was in a short time rendered a scene of order and civilisation, whereas the feud of Ireland is still shaking our repose.

Another consequence of the abandonment of the war to the exertions of individuals was that possessions so large were granted to the first adventurers, that nothing was left to be granted to the natives upon their submission; and accordingly it has been remarked, that during three hundred years no Irish lord obtained a grant of his country from the crown, except the king of Thomond, who had a grant during the minority of Henry III, and Roderic O'Connor, whose territory however was taken from his successor to transfer it to an English adventurer. In such circumstances no progress could be made towards the reduction of Ireland, for every chieftain of Ireland must have felt that all his importance depended on the continuance of the struggle, since submission must have sunk him into the lowest dependence on the leaders of his English enemies.

*Davies's Hist. Tracts, p. 102-119.

Nor were the English colonies able even to maintain their condition, but they at length degenerated from the laws and usages of their original country into those of the country, which they vainly laboured to subdue. The civil government became so weak, that the lords would not suffer the rigid justice of the English laws to be executed among them; the habits of the Irish were found to be (f) so much more suitable to the indulgence of their licentious dispositions, that they had become mere Irish in their language, names, apparel, and all their usages; and thus was the hostility of the original natives reinforced against the English connection by the junction of their antagonists, who were at this time become adverse to the institutions of the country, from which their own ancestors had proceeded.

But though a very general degeneracy prevailed among the inhabitants of English race, the principles of a parliamentary constitution had fortunately been introduced and preserved, to furnish in more auspicious times an organ of national improvement and happiness. The origin of the Irish parliament is indeed involved in some obscurity and controversy. The charter granted to the English inhabitants of Ireland in the first year of the reign of Henry III, in imitation of that which had been extorted.

*Davies's Hist.. Tracts, p. 125, 159.

by the English from his predecessor John, seems to prove that no such institution then existed in that country, as it omits the clause of the Great Charter, which regulates the summonses of the peers of parliament, reserving it with some other matters for more mature consideration. The first assembly which appears to have deserved the name of a parliament, was that convened in the year 1295, or the twentythird year of the reign of Edward I, the same in which the representatives of boroughs were first summoned to the English parliament, and consequently the same which was the epoch of the complete representation of the people of England. The urgent expenses, occasioned by the various enterprises of that monarch, forced him to resort for assistance to all classes of his subjects, and in both countries at the same time gave existence to the germ of future assemblies of popular representatives. Before this time doubtless frequent assemblies of the nobles and prelates had been held, and † to the former, in conjunction with the officers of the crown, had been committed by Henry II. the power of electing a temporary successor to a deceased chief governor. But as before this time we discover no legislative interposition for redressing

• Hist. of the Polit. Connection between England and Ireland, p. 37. Lond. 1780.

+ Leland, vol. 1. p. 83.

the evils of the state, and (g) the English laws appear to have been considered as the public code, however disregarded and violated in practice, these assemblies seem rather to have been the councils of the executive government than national legislatures. It is natural indeed that, in this early period of their constitutional history, the English settlers should not at once have been actuated by any desire of maintaining their distinctness from the parent state, but that this disposition should have been gradually formed as the new government acquired a separate interest.

How far the parliament so constituted was entitled to be considered as the legislature of Ireland, is a question which has been long and violently agitated. A claim of distinct and entire independence has been indeed from time to time maintained; as circumstances created interests opposed to the supremacy of the English government. When this country was involved in the contest of the two great English parties of York and Lancaster, the duke of York acquired an ascendency over its councils, and in the year 1460 caused the parliament to frame a most strenuous declaration of

its independence, for the purpose of protecting him against his enemies of the house of Lancaster, which then was in possession of the

• Leland, vol. 2. p. 42.

*

throne of England. As the party of the duke of York became successful in the same year, this first declaration of Irish independence was not encountered by any contradiction. But when the introduction of the Reformation into Ireland had given occasion to a division of parties in the Irish legislature, the roman-catholic party, which prevailed in the house of commons, maintained the cause of Irish independence against the house of lords; and the controversy, thus begun in the year 1640, was still more vehemently agitated in consequence of the act passed in the English parliament in the following year for suppressing the rebellion of Ireland. The claim of independence was naturally revived by James II, when he had fled from England, and was endeavouring to maintain his royalty in this country. But though it was thus cherished by the formation of a roman-catholic party in Ireland, and was generally resisted by the Protestants of this period, in their anxiety to strengthen the connection with England, it was not wholly destitute of support among the latter body, many of them having been alarmed by the pretension advanced in the act of Charles: and when the Revolution had established the principles of liberty in England, the feelings of Irish Protestants caught the sympathy of independence,

* Harris's Hibernica, part 2. Pref. Dubl, 1770.