he Pagan times it was regarded as a sanctuary of the Magian
or Druid creed. From the fifth century it became equally illustrious in
Christendom. Without going into the disputed question of whether the
Irish church was or was not independent of Rome, it is certain that
Italy did not send out more apostles from the fifth to the ninth
centuries than Ireland, and we find their names and achievements
remembered through the Continent.

Of two names which Hallam thinks worth rescuing from the darkness of
the dark ages, one is the Irish metaphysician, John Erigena. In a
recent communication to the "Association" we had Bavarians
acknowledging the Irish St. Killian as the apostle of their country.

Yet what, beyond a catalogue of names and a few marked events, do even
the educated Irish know of the heroic pagans or the holy Christians of
Old Ireland? These men have left libraries of biography, religion,
philosophy, natural history, topography, history, and romance. They
_cannot all be worthless_; yet, except the few volumes given us by
the Archaeological Society, which of their works have any of us read?

It is also certain that we possessed written laws with extensive and
minute comments and reported decisions. These Brehon laws have been
foully misrepresented by Sir John Davies. Their tenures were the
gavelkind once prevalent over most of the world. The land belonged to
the clan, and on the death of a clansman his share was re-apportioned
according to the number and wants of his family. The system of erics or
fines for offences has existed amongst every people from the Hebrews
downwards, nor can anyone, knowing the multitude of crimes now
punishable by fines or damages, think the people of this empire
justified in calling the ancient Irish barbarous because they extended
the system. There is in these laws, so far as they are known,
minuteness and equity; and what is a better test of their goodness we
learn from Sir John Davies himself, and from the still abler Baron
Finglass, that the people reverenced, obeyed, and clung to these laws,
though to decide by or obey them was a high crime by England's code.
Moreover, the Norman and Saxon settlers hastened to adopt these Irish
laws, and used them more resolutely, if possible, than the Irish
themselves.

Orderliness and hospitality were peculiarly cultivated. Public
caravansarais were built for travellers in every district, and we have
what would almost be legal evidence of the g