We request special attention to the observation, that the Irish ports were better known to commerce and merchants.  Such a statement by such an authority must go far to remove any doubt as to the accounts given on this subject by our own annalists.  The proper name of the recreant “regulus” has not been discovered, so that his infamy is transmitted anonymously to posterity.  Sir John Davies has well observed, with regard to the boast of subduing Ireland so easily, “that if Agricola had attempted the conquest thereof with a far greater army, he would have found himself deceived in his conjecture.”  William of Neuburg has also remarked, that though the Romans harassed the Britons for three centuries after this event, Ireland never was invaded by them, even when they held dominion of the Orkney Islands, and that it yielded to no foreign power until the year[93] 1171.  Indeed, the Scots and Picts gave their legions quite sufficient occupation defending the ramparts of Adrian and Antoninus, to deter them from attempting to obtain more, when they could so hardly hold what they already possessed.

The insurrection of the Aitheach Tuatha,[94] or Attacotti, is the next event of importance in Irish history.  Their plans were deeply and wisely laid, and promised the success they obtained.  It is one of the lessons of history which rulers in all ages would do well to study.  There is a degree of oppression which even the most degraded will refuse to endure; there is a time when the injured will seek revenge, even should they know that this revenge may bring on themselves yet deeper wrongs.  The leaders of the revolt were surely men of some judgment; and both they and those who acted under them possessed the two great qualities needed for such an enterprise.  They were silent, for their plans were not even suspected until they were accomplished; they were patient, for these plans were three years in preparation.  During three years the helots saved their scanty earnings to prepare a sumptuous death-feast for their unsuspecting victims.  This feast was held at a place since called Magh Cru, in Connaught.  The monarch, Fiacha Finnolaidh, the provincial kings and chiefs, were all invited, and accepted the invitation.  But while the enjoyment was at its height, when men had drank deeply, and were soothed by the sweet strains of the harp, the insurgents did their bloody work.  Three ladies alone escaped.  They fled to Britain, and there each gave birth to a son—­heirs to their respective husbands who had been slain.

After the massacre, the Attacotti elected their leader, Cairbre Cinn-Cait (or the Cat-head), to the royal dignity, for they still desired to live under a “limited monarchy.”  But revolutions, even when successful, and we had almost said necessary, are eminently productive of evil.  The social state of a people when once disorganized, does not admit of a speedy or safe return to its former condition.  The mass of mankind, who think more of present evils, however trifling, than of past grievances, however oppressive, begin to connect present evils with present rule, and having lost, in some degree, the memory of their ancient wrongs, desire to recall a dynasty which, thus viewed, bears a not unfavourable comparison with their present state.[95]