a strong central government.  This, however, was not accomplished till after a struggle of centuries, during which, except in brief intervals, when a strong prince was able to protect his people, the national demoralisation grew worse and worse.  An Oxford priest, who kept a school at Limerick, writing so late as 1566 of the Irish nobles, says—­’Of late they spare neither churches nor hallowed places, but thence also they fill their hands with spoil—­yea, and sometimes they set them on fire and kill the men that there lie hidden.’

Mr. Froude, following the Irish MSS. in the Rolls House, has presented graphic pictures of the disorders of the Irishry in the reign of Queen Mary.  ‘The English garrison,’ he says, ’harassed and pillaged the farmers of Meath and Dublin; the chiefs made forays upon each other, killing, robbing, and burning.  When the war broke out between England and France, there were the usual conspiracies and uprisings of nationality; the young Earl of Kildare, in reward to the Queen who had restored him to his rank, appearing as the natural leader of the patriots.  Ireland was thus happy in the gratification of all its natural tendencies.  The Brehon law readvanced upon the narrow limits to which, by the exertions of Henry VIII., the circuits of the judges had been extended.  And with the Brehon law came anarchy as its inseparable attendant.’

The correctness of this view is too well attested by the records which the learned historian brings to light, adopting the quaint and expressive phraseology of the old writers whom he quotes.  For example:—­

’The lords and gentiles of the Irish Pale that were not governed under the Queen’s laws were compelled to keep and maintain a great number of idle men of war to rule their people at home, and exact from their neighbours abroad—­working everyone his own wilful will for a law—­to the spoil of his country, and decay and waste of the common weal of the same.  The idle men of war ate up altogether; the lord and his men took what they pleased, destroying their tenants, and themselves never the better.  The common people, having nothing left to lose, became as idle and careless in their behaviour as the rest, stealing by day and robbing by night.  Yet it was a state of things which they seemed all equally to enjoy, and high and low alike were always ready to bury their own quarrels, to join against the Queen and the English.’

At the time when the crown passed to Elizabeth the qualities of the people were thus described by a correspondent of the council, who presents the English view of the Irishry at that time:—­