. blished amongst us, will inconteftibly proclaim a learned people! To conclude, is it poffible to fhew ftronger proofs of unbounded humanity, than the establishing houses of hospitality for the relief of the stranger and the distressed; affigning to their support large tracts of land in every part of the kingdom, and ranking the Beatachs, or keepers of such houses, next to the prime nobility! All which plainly fhews-" that they did not lose in Ireland "thofe arts they brought from the continent!" In countries where the fine arts are protected, war will not injure, much lefs destroy them. The reign of Francis I. was one continued fcene of war, yet he first introduced letters into France. The reign of Louis XIV. was long and bloody, and still learning was never more flourishing there. Britain and Germany equally involved in war, yet ftill protected letters; whilft Ireland in peace for near a century, for want of countenancing, science has in a manner fairly left them! BOOK 3082 CHA P. I. The reign of Ollamh-Fodhla-reforms the conftitution, and establishes the famous Feis-Tamhrach-their manner of affembling, and the objects of their deliberations-other assemblies of an inferior nature- of Fion, Slanoll, Geide, Fiach III. Bearngal, and Olioll, fucceeding monarchs. E OCHAIDH, the son of Fiachadh, son of Seadhna, of the line of Ir, after the battle of Tara, was folemnly inaugurated, on the Liagh-Fail, monarch of Ireland. The reign of this prince and the great reforms he made in the conftitution, form a memorable epocha in Irish hiftory. In the preceding reigns, the reader must have perceived the gradual advances to politenefs and found legislation. The completion of this grand system was referved for the prefent time. Eochaidh was a prince of great erudition, and on this account he got the name of Ollamh-Fodhla, or the Learned Doctor, or Legiflator; and as he is better known by this, than his real name, by it we shall for the future call As Mumhain, or Munfter took its name from EochaidhMumho, fo did Ulladh, or Ulfter, by inflection, from Fodhla: hence it would feem that Munfter was fo called from its fuperior power (Mumho importing power and ftrength), and Ulfter from its learning. him. Fraught Fraught big with the mighty projects of deftroying national feuds, and tranfmitting the monarchy to his own immediate fucceffors, in exclufion of the other branches of the royal line, he began this great reform by establishing a triennial parliament at Tara, to form general laws for the whole kingdom; and during which meeting the provincial kings and feudatory lords were confidered as counfellors to the monarch only. To avoid the leaft confufion or caufe of complaint, the arrangement of the people was such as announced the highest degree of politeness. Miodh-Cuarta, where the chief affembly met *, was 300 feet long, thirty cubits high, fifty in width, and had fourteen doors. The monarch's throne was elevated in the center of this room, with his face to the west. The king of Leinfter had his at a proper distance, but lower, and fronting the monarch; the Munfter king was on his left hand; the king of Ulfter on his right; and the king of Conaught behind him. The reason why this last place was affigned the Conacian prince, was his being of the Belgic race. Long feats were placed for the other orders in the state. In the first row were placed the Ollamhs, or doctors in fciences, and which rank the Chriftian bishops afterwards held. The hereditary marshal, ftandard-bearer, and treasurer, had places allotted to them; next came the chief of the nobility, at the head of whom were placed the knights; after these the Beatachs, and representatives of towns and cities. Deputies from the Picts and Brigantes of Britain had alfo feats allotted them in this affembly. This most august convention met three days before the great feaft of Samhuin (i. e. before the firft of November). The two first days were spent in vifits and friendly intercourfe; the third in celebrating the feast of Samhuin, or the moon, in the temple Dinaheanchas- Ward, p. 359. Keating, p. 1, &c. VOL. I. S of. of Tlachta; juft as their Phoenician ancestors met in the house of Rimmon *, i. e. of the moon, from Re, the moon, and Muadh, an image; hence Reamhan, prophecying by the moon! The affembly was announced by facred odes, fet to a grand variety of musical inftruments. In the days of St. Patrick this meeting in the prefence of Loagaire the monarch, was compared for grandeur and magnificence to that of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, on the plains of Dura †. The Druids having finished their rites and myfteries, the great fire of Samhuin was lighted up, and the deities folemnly invoked to blefs the national counfels. The three fucceeding days were spent in entertainments and festivities; after which the national business, in all its departments, commenced. We read with astonishment of the wonderful order and regularity obferved in these great feftivals. First, notice was given by found of trumpet, when the efquires of the nobility, and of the other orders of the ftate, presented themselves at the door of the grand hall, and gave in the fhields and enfigns of their different mafters, to the deputies of the great-marshal of the crown; and, by direction of the king at arms, they were ranged according to the qualities of the different owners. A fecond blaft of trumpet, at a proper distance of time, gave notice to the target-bearers of the general officers, to deliver up these infignia alfo; and on the third found, the princes, the nobility, &c. appeared, and were immediately feated under their different arms, without the least diforder or confufion. The proper business of this first affembly was the police of the kingdom; foreign alliances; peace and war, and a moft ftrict examination of the national records. Was any nobleman, or other treated unjustly by his prince, here was his fovereign 2 Kings, chap. v. ver. 18. Trias Thaumat. Vita St. Rumold. Prim. Ecl. Brit. &c. appeal. appeal. Did any prince act contrary to the laws; unjustly opprefs a weaker power, to this great affembly they appealed for juftice, and had it! Princes who feemed refractory were foon. brought to order, as, in fuch cafes, not only the monarch, but every order of the state were to fend proportionable forces to reduce the delinquent to reafon. Here the records of the nation underwent a fevere fcrutiny, and the tranfa&tions of the different provincial kings were carefully compared with each other. The moft fevere punishments awaited on fuch Senachies as could be convicted of the leaft falfhood; but in every other refpect, their perfons and properties were inviolable. In the moft violent civil diffenfions, their houses were afylums, and their lands and flocks. free from depredation; and it is moft unexampled, that in every revolution the nation experienced, even to the beginning of the laft century, a single inftance does not occur, of a Senachie's being convicted of misrepresentation, or this law being violated. Nay even at periods when the number of bards became a real burthen to kingdom, and that their infolence drew on them national refentment, they were punished by banishment, and by a reduction of their number only. In the prefent affembly it was decreed, that for the future, the number of Ollamhs, or doctors in different fciences, should not exceed 200 of each order. All the different records of the kingdom were here examined; and this was the first rise of the famous Pfalter of Tara, being an epitome of unerring facts, drawn from the other records of the kingdom, and which it was looked upon as criminal to form the leaft doubt! Here it was that this great prince delivered in the origin, the exploits, and migrations of the Milesian race, till their landing in Ireland, all wrote with his own hand, and entered into the Senachas More, the Great Antiquity, or Pfalter of Tara, fo called from this place of their meeting. In order to have the national history carried on, in the moft clear and unexceptionable |