would send orders for a certain number of copies at once. If every
priest, convent, and college, ordered twelve copies for their schools,
the work could be put in hands immediately.




PREFACE

TO THE FIRST EDITION.


The history of the different races who form an integral portion of the
British Empire, should be one of the most carefully cultivated studies
of every member of that nation. To be ignorant of our own history, is a
disgrace; to be ignorant of the history of those whom we govern, is an
injustice. We can neither govern ourselves nor others without a thorough
knowledge of peculiarities of disposition which may require restraint,
and of peculiarities of temperament which may require development. We
must know that water can extinguish fire, before it occurs to us to put
out a fire by the use of water. We must know that fire, when properly
used, is a beneficent element of nature, and one which can be used to
our advantage when properly controlled, before we shall attempt to avail
ourselves of it for a general or a particular benefit. I believe a time
has come when the Irish are more than ever anxious to study their
national history. I believe a time has come when the English nation, or
at least a majority of the English nation, are willing to read that
history without prejudice, and to consider it with impartiality.

When first I proposed to write a History of Ireland, at the earnest