through so long a series of ages furnished Ireland with her kings.

This celebrated colony, though coming directly from Spain, was originally, we are told, of the Scythic race; and its various migrations and adventures, before reaching its "Isle of Destiny" in the west, are detailed by the bards with all that fond and lingering minuteness, in which fancy, playing with its own creations, so much delights to indulge. Grafting upon this Scythic colony the traditional traces and stories of their coun try respecting the Phoenicians, they have contrived to collect together, without much regard either to chronology, history, or geography, every circumstance that could tend to dignify and add lustre to such an event, an event upon which not only the rank of their country itself, in the heraldry of nations, depended, but in which every individual, entitled by his Milesian blood to lay claim to a share in so glorious a pedigree, was imagined to be interested. In order more completely to identify the ancestors of these Scythic colonists with the Phoenicians, the bards relate that by one of them, named Fenius, to whom the invention of the Ogham character is attributed, an academy for languages was instituted upon the Plain of Shinar, in which that purest dialect of the Irish, called the Bearla Feini, was cultivated.

From thence, tracing this chosen race in their migrations to different countries, and connecting them, by marriage or friendship,. during their long sojourn in Egypt, with most of the heroes of Scripture history, the bards conduct them at length, by a route not very intelligible, to Spain. There, by their valor and

enterprise, they succeed in liberating the country from its Gothic invaders, and in a short time make themselves masters of the whole kingdom. Still haunted," however, in the midst of their glory, by the remembrance of a prophecy which had declared that "an island in the Western Sea was to be their ultimate place of rest," the two sons of their great leader, Milesius, at length fitted out a grand martial expedition, and set sail, in thirty ships, from the coast of Gallicia, for Ireland. According to the bardic chronology, thirteen hundred years before the birth of Christ, but according to Nennius Aengus and others, near five centuries later, this "lettered and martial colony arrived, under the command of the sons of Milesius, on the Irish coasts; and, having effected a landing at Inbher Sceine, the present Bantry Bay, on Thursday, the first of May, A. M. 2934, achieved that great and memorable victory over the Tuatha de Danaan, which secured to themselves and their princely descendants, for more than two thousand years, the supreme dominion over all Ireland."

Such is a very brief outline of the early history of Ireland, as furnished by the bards. It would, perhaps, be equally unwise wholly to adopt or reject their story. It is as probable that there is some foundation, in reality, for most of these events, as it is that the Grecian tales of Hercules and Theseus had their origin in truth. But it is impossible to separate the fabulous from the historical; and we are therefore compelled to leave the subject in one of those happy mists, in which antiquaries may continue to fight their bloodless battles.

Although the Milesian colony is embraced in the

bardic fables, it seems properly to come within the scope of veritable history. We do not, indeed, adopt even the chronology of the sanguine Irish historians of modern date. Dr. O'Connor, who has bestowed vast learning upon the subject, considers Kimboath the fifty-sixth king of the Milesian line, and carries his reign back to a period at least two centuries before Christ.

Leaving the date, as a matter of entire uncertainty, we may proceed to some details respecting the Septic or Milesian dynasty. It seems that the tribe came to Ireland under the two sons of Milesius, Heber and Heremon. They divided the country between them, constituting their brother Emergin arch bard, or presiding minister over the departments of law, poetry, and religion.

The two kings, Heber and Heremon, soon quarrelled for the possession of a beautiful valley, and Heber was slain, his brother now becoming sole sovereign of the island. Passing over the immediate successors of Heremon, we may notice Tighernmas, who was miraculously destroyed, with a vast multitude around him, for offering sacrifice to the idol Crom Cruach. Achy, his successor, passed an edict, regulating the exact colors of the garments the different classes of people should wear. Ollam Foodhla, the royal sage, as he is called, instituted the triennial convention at Tara, in which there seemed an approach to representative government; the leading persons of the three orders, the king, the Druids or priests, and the plebeians, being convened for the making of such laws as the public good required. In the presence of these assemblies, the

events to be entered on the public Psalter or record, kept at Tara, were examined and prepared.

The space between Ollam Foodhla and Hugony the Great, the royal builder of the famous palace of Emania, is filled up by the bards with thirty-two kings, all of whom died by violence except three. In the reign of Conary the Great, which coincides with the beginning of the Christian era, the young hero Cuchullin was slain in the full flush of his glorious career. With the fame of this Irish warrior most readers have been made acquainted by the poems of Macpherson, attributed to Ossian. Tuathal the Acceptable, after having been compelled to fly his kingdom, was restored about the year 130, and introduced various improvements in the laws and institutions of the country. Feidlim the Legislator, and Con of the Hundred Bat tles, intervened between Tuathal and Cormac Ulfadha, who is said to have founded three academies at Tara, to have revised the Psalter from the time of Ollam Foodhla; and, having lost an eye in repelling an attack upon his palace, resigned his crown, in obedience to a law which excluded any one marked with a personal blemish from the throne. Having retired to a thatched cabin at Kells, this king devoted himself to the writing of books, one of which, "The Advice to a King," was said to be extant in the seventeenth century.

A long space now occurs, in which there is little of interest. Succeeding to the usurper Colla, Nial of the Nine Hostages made a formidable invasion of Britain, in the fourth century, and afterwards extended his enterprises to the coast of Gaul, where he was assassinated by one of his followers with a poisoned arrow.

It was in the course of this expedition that the soldiers of Nial carried off a youth destined to work a great revolution in Ireland.

Such, from the period of Kimboath, is the semiauthentic history of Ireland, based upon the annalists, catching, however, an occasional ray of light from the bardic legends. If it cannot be set down as entirely worthy of our confidence, we may at least rest in the belief, that, in its general outline, and doubtless in its prominent characters, it affords a general representation of truth.

Succeeding to Nial of the Nine Hostages, Dathy, the last of the pagan kings of Ireland, like his predecessor, ravaged the coast of Gaul, and, making his way to the foot of the Alps, was there slain by a flash of lightning. Leogaire, who reigned at the time of St. Patrick's mission, was killed by the sun and wind, for violating an oath.

The authentic history of Ireland properly begins with St. Patrick, in the fifth century. The name of this Christian apostle has been so often connected with incredible tales and miraculous legends, that it is apt to excite ridicule in the minds of many persons. But an examination of his true history will lead every fairminded individual to a very different estimate of his character. St. Patrick appears to have been a native of Boulogne, in France, and to have been born about the year 387, A. D. In his sixteenth year, he was made captive, as before intimated, in a marauding expedition, conducted by Nial of the Nine Hostages. Being carried to Ireland, he was sold as a slave to a man named Milchó, living in what is now called the