two thousand years, according to the best chronologists--Ireland
was ruled by princes of the same family. The fact is unparalleled
in history, and shows that the people were firmly attached to their
constitution, such as it was. It extorted the admiration of Sir
John Davies, the attorney-general of James I, and later of Lord Coke.

The functions of the provincial kings of Ulster, Munster,
Leinster, and Connaught, were in their several districts the same
as those which the Ard-Righ exercised over the whole country. They
also had their feuds and alliances with the inferior chieftains,
and in peaceful times there was also a reciprocity of obligations
between them. Presents were given by the superiors, tributes by
the inferiors; deliberations in assembly, mutual agreement for
public defence, wars against a common enemy, produced among them
traditional rules which were generally followed, or occasional
dissensions.

Sometimes a province had two kings, chiefly Munster, which
was often divided into north and south. Each king had his
heir-apparent, the same as the monarch. Indeed, every hereditary
office had, besides its actual holder, its Tanist, with right of
succession. Hence causes of division and feuds were needlessly
multiplied; yet all the Celtic tribes adhered tenaciously to all
those institutions which appeared rooted in their very nature, and
which contributed to foster the traditional spirit among them.

For these various offices and their inherent rights were all
derived from the universally prevailing family or clannish
disposition. Genealogies and traditions ruled the whole, and gave,
as we have seen, to their learned men a most important part and