No improbability or

continued to govern Ireland, without interruption, till about the year 1168, when it ceased in the person of Roger O'Connor, and the sovereignty was assumed by our Henry II. Of this race of kings, the first 110 were Pagan, the rest Christian. St. Patrick was sent from Rome about the year 431, to preach the christian religion to the Irish in the reign of Loagaire, the first christian monarch, who received baptism from the hands of St. Patrick.

This simply is the sum of that history of Ireland, impossibi- which by many British, and latterly by some Irish wrility in the

of this ac

count.

substance ters, is pronounced not only in part fabulous, but false and fictitious in the whole. Ere the discussion be entered into, it is necessary to premise, that by thus denuding the substantial body of the history from the allegory, fancy, and fiction, with which their minstrels had attempted to adorn or disguise it, no objection or difficulty to its truth can be raised out of the moral improbability, or physical impossibility of the facts recorded. The discredit of the facts must then rest upon the want of evidence of their existence. It is an obvious presumption, that the islend did not remain many centuries uninhabited after the flood *. It is evident without proof, that a society, planted and formed in an island, must have emigrated from a country

*The Reverend Edward Davies, in his learned work on Celtic Researches of the Origin, Tradition, and Language of the Antient Britons, though he cannot fall in with the whole hypothesis of General Vallancy upon the antient history of Ireland, yet admits, (p. 104) that “Spain, and even Britain, were probably colonized by those, who were born within a century of the deluge."

then possessing some practical knowledge of navigation and the emigrant colonists must have carried with them the traditional and written history, the religion, the institutions, the customs, the habits, the arts, the sciences, the doctrines, the prejudices, the errors, and the primitive language, which were familiar to them at the time of their, emigration; all variations from which must have been accidental and gradual, from local circumstances occasioned more from adventitious intercourse, or foreign power, than internal change, innovation, or decay. Wherever separate communities or societies have existed, some specific form of civil government must have kept them toge ther. Where a form of government coeval with the institution of a colonized community is known, its continuance is to be presumed, until evidence be produced of its change, decline, or extinction. "Great "is the folly of endeavouring to establish universal "pyrrhonism in matters of history, because there are "few histories without some lies, and none without "some mistakes *." Greater is the folly of denying the existence of persons, merely because fabulous and incredible tales have been reported of them.

rests upon

tainty.

Moral certainty, which is all that can be expected History in history, rests upon national tradition, antient me-moral cermorials, probability, and credible testimony. Ocular demonstration is not required of the historian, and the sworn evidence of witnesses † may sometimes be justly

*Bol. on Hist. Let. iv.

Witness the manuscript collection of sworn depositions (consisting of 32 large folio volumes), in the possession of the uni

questioned. If, therefore, a given period of time comprise a series of probable events, such as the names,

versity of Dublin, concerning the outrages committed in the civil wars in Ireland, in the reign of Charles I. From these deposi tions, Temple assures us, "That hundreds of the ghosts of Protestants, that were drowned by the rebels at Portnadown, were seen in the river, bolt upright, and were heard to cry out for revenge on the rebels. One of the ghosts was seen with hands lifted up, and standing in that posture, from the 29th of December to the latter end of the following Lent." Dr. Maxwell (afterwards bishop of Kilmore), one of these deponents, whose integrity and candour, said Borlase, none ever dared to question, in his examination, in order to give all the credit he could to his co-jurors in the same cause, gives a lively description of the different postures and gestures of these apparitions, " as sometimes having been seen by day and night, walking upon the river, sometimes brandishing their naked swords, sometimes singing psalms, and at other times shrieking in a most fearful and hideous manner; adding, " that he never heard any man so much as doubt the truth thereof: but he obliged no man's faith, in regard he saw them not with his own eyes; otherwise he had as much certainty as could morally be required of such matter." (Borl. Hist. App. 392.)

Of another set of depositions from another party, Dr. Warner thus speaks (vol. ii Hist. of Reb. 146.) "But so many of the sayings, which are recorded in the manuscript collection of depositions in my custody, are so ridiculous or incredible, or contradictory to one another, as shew plainly, that they spoke what their own, or the different passions and septiments of their leaders prompted: sometimes what came uppermost, or they thought would best serve or vindicate their cause; at other times what the reproaches of their prisoners provoked them to; not seldom what despair suggested; and, for the most part, as they were tutored by their priests. Upon the whole, there is no credit to be given to any thing, that was said by those people, which had not other evidence to confirm it." And of the before-mentioned thirty-two thick folio volumes of depositions, taken under two

families, and reigns of 197 monarchs, who successively ruled the country for the space of about 2000 years, and the name, family, or reign of any one of the whole race be not disproved or even called into doubt, then will there exist such proof of the historical truth of such succession, as to force the assent of any man who possesses the free use of a sound mind. The most fabulous legends, the wildest inventions, and even impossible feats of heroism or magic attributed to these different sovereigns, though specifically to be rejected, may strengthen the evidence of the existence of the personages, of whom they are narrated by their bards or phyllids, senachies, or historians, who, though faithful in pedigree and chronology, were encouraged in embellishing the feats of their favourite heroes to indulge the flights of their poetical genius. The etymology of many appellatives and proper names of the highest antiquity, bespeaks a reference to fabulous al

separate commissions from the lords justices to the dean of Kilmore and seven other clergymen, Dr. Warner says (p. 295), “ As a great stress hath been laid upon this collection in print and in conversation among the Protestants of that kingdom, and the whole evidence of the massacre turns upon it, I took a great deal of pains, and spent a great deal of time, in examining these books; and I am sorry to say, that they have been made the foundation of much more clamour and resentment, than can be warranted by truth and reason." It is to be fearfully apprehended, that much of the evidence, and many of the affidavits, procured and published after the late rebellion in 1798, will fall under the observation of Dr. Warner. (ib.) "What sort of evidence that is, may be easily learnt by those who are conversant with the common people of any country, especially when their imaginations are terrified with cruelties, and the passions heated by sufferings."

Mere denial

insufficient

history.

lusions to different monarchs, who find their regular places in the lists handed down of the Milesian dynasty by the most antient and accurate of these metrical annalists. The reality or total fiction of such a race of Irish monarchs, is the sole object of this Dissertation.

The mere negation of historical remote events, within the line of probability, cannot be set up against national tradition and antient records (though not cotemporary with the facts recorded), especially by strangers to the language * in which these traditions have been long preserved. A distant fact can only be disproved by internal or external evidence. The assumed probability and possibility rebut the disproval from internal evidence. The external evidence to disprove must be at least equal, or rather of higher degree, than that upon which the authority of the fact

* Great weight is allowed to the observation, that no man ignorant of a language, in which an history is written, is properly fitted to write or observe upon it. Were particular historical facts the object of this Dissertation, the author, under a total ignorance of the Irish language, would never have attempted the arduous task of scrutinizing the truth, consistency, or probability of the general substance of the events recorded. But a continued list has been given by the native authors of 197 princes, varying in the duration of their respective reigns, from one to fifty years, and most of them killed in battle, during a space of 2000 years. Now, it is neither improbable, nor unnatural, that each of these kings, who always came to the throne when adult, and generally in a state of warfare, should upon an average have lived between eleven and twelve years. This allowance fills the utmost space of time given by their bards and chronologers from the arrival of Milesius to the deposition of Roger O'Connor, the last sovereign of the Milesian dynasty.