entertain, was brought to bear upon them, not only with a view to
insuring their speedy degradation, but with the further design of
accomplishing ultimately the utter extinction of their race. Yet
notwithstanding that confiscation, exile and death, have been their
bitter portion for ages--notwithstanding that their altars, their
literature and their flag have been trampled in the dust, beneath the
iron heel of the invader, the pure, crimson ore of their nationality
and patriotism still flashes and scintillates before the world; while
the fierce heart of "Brien of the Cow Tax," bounding in each and
every of them as of yore, yearns for yet another Clontarf, when
hoarse with the pent-up vengeance of centuries, they shall burst like
unlaired tigers upon their ancient, and implacable enemy, and, with
one, long, wild cry, hurl her bloody and broken from their shores
forever.

Had England been simply actuated by a chivalrous spirit of conquest,
alone, or moved by a desire to blend the sister islands into one
harmonious whole, even then her descent upon Ireland could not be
justified in any degree whatever. Ireland had been her _Alma Mater_.
According to the venerable Bode and others, her noble and second rank
flocked thither in the seventh century, where they were "hospitably
received and educated, and furnished with books _without fee or
reward_." Even at the present moment, the Irish or Celtic tongue is
the only key to her remote antiquities and ancient nomenclature. The
distinguished Lhuyd, in his Archaelogia Britannica, and the
celebrated Leibnitz himself, place this latter beyond any possible
shadow of doubt. Scarcely a ruined fane or classic pile of any remote
date within her borders but is identified with the name of some
eminent Irish missionary long since passed away. What would Oxford
have been without Joannes Erigena, or Cambridge, deprived of the