|
The history of the Scoto-Irish kings affords few materials
either amusing or instructive; but it was impossible, from the connexion between that
history and the events that will follow in detail, to pass it over in silence. The
Scoto-Irish tribes appear to have adopted much the same form of goverment as existed in
Ireland at the time of their departure from that kingdom; the sovereignty of which, though
nominally under one head, was in reality a pentarchy, which allowed four provincial kings
to dispute the monarchy of the fifth. This system was the prolific source of anarchy,
assassinations and civil wars. The Dalriads were constantly kept in a state of
internecine commotion and mutual hostility by the pretensions of their rival chiefs, or princes of the
three races, who contended with the common sovereign for pre-eminence or exemption. The
dlighe-tanaiste, or law of tanistry, which appears to have been generally followed as in
Ireland, as well in the succession of kings as in that of chieftains, rather increased
than mitigated these disorders; for the claim to rule not being regulated by any fixed law
of hereditary succession, but depending upon the capricious will of the tribe, rivals were
not found wanting to dispute the rights so conferred. There was always, both in Ireland
and in Argyle, an heir presumtive to the Crown chosen, under the name of tanist, who
commanded the army during the life of the reigning sovereign, and who succeeded to him
after his demise. Budgets, and committees of supply, and taxes, were wholly unknown in
those times among the Scots, and the monarch was obliged to support his dignity by
voluntary contributions of clothers, cattle, furniture, and other neccessaries.
There is reason to believe that tradition supplied the place of written records for many
ages after the extinction of the Druidical superstition. Hence among the Scots,
traditionary usages and local customs long supplied the place of positive or written laws.
It is a mistake to suppose, as some writers have done, that the law consisted in the mere
will of the Brehon or judge. The office of Breitheamhuin or Brehon was hereditary, and it
is quite natural to infer, that under such a system of jurisprudence, the dictum of the
judge might not always comport with what was understood to be the common law or practice;
but from thence, to argue that the will of the judge was to be regarded as the law itself,
is absurd, and contrary to every idea of justice. As the principle of the rude
jurisprudence of the Celtic tribes has for its object the reparation, rather than the
prevention of crimes, almost every crime, even of the blackest kind, was commuted by a
multct or payment. Tacitus observes in allusion to this practice, that it was "a
temper wholesome to the commonwealth, that homicide and lighter transgressions were
settled by the payment of horses or cattle, part to the king or community, part to him or
his friends who had been wronged". The law of Scotland long recognised this system of
compensation. The fine was termed, under the Brehon law, eric, which not only signifies a
reparation, but also a fine, a ranson, a forfeit. Among the Albanian Scots it was called
cro, a term preserved in the Regiam Majestatem, which has a whole chapter showing
"the cro of ilk man, now mikil it is". This law of reparation, according to
O'Connor, was first promulgated in Ireland, in the year 164. According to the Regiam
Majestatem, the cro of a villan was sixteen cows; of an earl's son or thane, one hundred;
of an earl, one hundred and forty; and that of the king of Scots, one thousand cows, or
three thousand oras, that is to say, three oras for every cow.
Besides a share of the fines imposed, the Brehom or judge obtained a piece of arable land
for his support. When he administered justice, he used to sit sometimes on the top of a
hillock or heap of stones, sometimes on turf, and sometimes even on the middle of a
bridge, surrounded by the suitors, who, of course, pleaded their own cause. We have
already seen that, under the system of the Druids, the offices of religion, the
instruction of youth, and the administration of the laws, were conducted in the open air;
and hence the prevalence of the practice alluded to. But this practice was not peculiar to
the Druids; for all nations, in the early stages of society, have followed a similar
custom. The Tings of the Scandinavians, which consisted of circular enclosures of stone,
without any covering, and within which both the judical and legislative powers were
exercised, afford a striking instance of this. According to Pliny, even the Roman Senate
first met in the open air, and the sittings of the Court of the Areopagus, at Athens, were
so held. The present custom of holding courts of justice in halls is not of a very remote
antiquity in Scotland, and among the Scoto-Irish, the baron bailie long continued to
dispense justice to the baron's vassals from a moothill or eminence, which was generally
on the bank of a river, and near to a religious edifice.
Of the various customs and peculiarites which distinguished the ancient Irish, as well as
the Scoto-Irish, none has given rise to greater speculation than that of fosterage; which
consisted in the mutual exchnagem by different families, of their children for the purpose
of being nursed and bred. Even the son of the chief was so entrusted during pupilarity
with an inferior member of the clan. An adequate reward was either given or accepted in
every case, and the lower orders, to whom the trust was committed, regarded it as an
honour rather than a service. "Five hundred kyne and better", says Campion,
"were sometimes given by the Irish to procure the nursing of a great man's
child". A firm and indissoluble attachment always took place among foster-brothers,
and it continues in consequence to be a saying among Highlanders, that "affectionate
to a man is a friend, but a foster-brother is as the life-blood of his heart". Camden
observes, that no love in the world is comparable by many degrees to that of
foster-brethren in Ireland. The close connexion which the practice of fosterage created
between families, while it frequently prevented civil feuds, often led to them. But the
strong attachment thus created was not confined to foster-brothers, it also extended to
their parents. Spenser relates of the foster-mother to Murrough O'Brien, that, at his
execution, she sucked the blood from his head, and bathed her face and breast with it,
saying that is was too precious to fall to the earth. |
