Bourke Ulick J. Aryan Origin of the Gaelic Race and Language
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430
SAXON
BIAS.
an
object
of
very great
interest.
My
brother
Saxons
have,
as is
well
known,
a
terrible
way
with them
of
wanting
to
improve
everything
but
themselves.
I
have
no such
passion
;
I
like
variety
to
exist
and to
show
itself
to
me
j
and
I
would
not,
for
the
world,
have the linea-
ments of
the Keltic
ganius
lost."
Again:
"
It
is
not
in
the outward
and
visible world
of material
life
that the Keltic
genius
of
Wales
or Ireland
can
at
this
day hope
to count
for
much
;
it
is
in
the inward world
of
thought
and
of
science."
Those are
remarkable words
of the
Professor of
Poetry
in Oxford
University.
Next,
he
shows what
prejudice
and
political
bigotry
can
produce
:
'5
When
I
was
young
I
was
taught
to
think of
Kelt
as
separated
by
an
impassable gulph
from
Teuton.
My
father,
in
particular,
was never
weury
of
contrasting
them
;
and
ho insisted
much
oftener on the
separation
between
us
and them
(Saxons
and
Kelts),
than on
the
separation
between
us and
any
other
race
in
the
world.
In
the same
way
Lord
Lyndhurst,
in
words
long
famous,
called
the
Irish
'aliens
in
speech,
in
religion,
and
in
blood.'
This
naturally
created a
profound
sense
of
estrangement
j
it
doubled the
estrangement
which
poli-
tical
and
religious
differences had
already
made
between us
and
the
Irish
people.
It
seemed to make this
estrange-
ment
immense,
incurable,
fatal."
He
says
:
"
The Jew of
ancient
times seemed a
thousand
degrees
nearer than
the
Kelt
to
us. Puritanism
had
so
assimilated
Bible ideas and
phraseology,
that the
sense
of
affinity
between
the
Teutonic
and
Hebrew nature
was
quite
strong.
A
steady,
middle-class
Anglo-Saxon
much
more
imagined
himself Ehud's cousin
than Ossian's."
The
effect
of
religious antagonism
is made
manifest
by
what
is stated
in the
foregoing
paragraph, particularly
THE
KELT
AND
SAXON
AHE
COUSINS.
431
when
every
body
knows that
Matthew
Arnold
writes
what
he is
convinced
is true.
Philology
and
ethnology
and
antiquities
proclaim
Britains to
be,
like the
Gaels,
Aryan
in
origin,
Keltic
in
race,
and not
at
all
Semitic.
Yet,
the
Anglo-Saxon
believed the
Hebrew
his cousin
;
the
Kelt,
a
stranger.
Such,
as told in
the words of British
writers,
had
been^the
notions of
Englishmen
in the
past,
regarding
Irishmen,
their
laws
and
institutions
;
and such
is
the
opinion
regarding
them to
this
day
amongst
hun-
dreds and
thousands of
Philo-anglians
in
Ireland,
in
Scotland,
and in
America. This settled
notion
is the
offspring
of
ignorance,
fostered
by
prejudice
and
nurtured
in
the
lap
of
political
and
religious
hate.
Have
they
not
ere
this been told
the
contrary
?
Cer-
tainly.
More
than
a
century ago,
the Most
Rev. John
O'Brien,
Catholic
Bishop
of
Cloyne
and
"Ross,
published
in the
Collectanea of
Vallancey
a
dissertation
on
the
"
Tanistic
Law of
Senior-Succession,
illustrated
in
an
historical and
genealogical
account
of
the
Kings
of
Monster"
and to this
was annexed
"
Part of the
ancient
Brehon
Laws
of
Ireland"
(printed by
Thomas
Ewing,
Dublin,
1774.)
The
"
Manners,
Customs,
Commerce,
and
Laws
of
the Ancient
Scots"
(Irish),
had been
even
before
that
period (1775)
presented
to
the
public
by
the
Very
Rev. Dr.
Charles
O'Conor,
of
Belanagare.
Dr.
Lanigan
did not
neglect
to treat this
important
subject
in
his
Ecclesiastical
History
of
Ireland
(Dublin,
1822.)
And
in
1824
Edward
O'Reilly published
an
essay
on
"
The
nature
and
influence of
the Brehon Laws."
Moore
and
other
Irish
historians,
previous
to
the
pub-
lication
of
the
Annals
of
the
Kingdom
of
Ireland,
so
ably
translated
and
edited
by
Dr.
John
O'Donovan,
had
al-
luded to
theBrehon Laws.
The
Brehon Law was
known
by
Englishmen
from
the
days
of
Henry
II,
to have
been
the
432 ORIGIN
AND VALUE OF THE
BREHON CODE.
Irish code.
In the
sixteenth
vol.
of
the Transactions
of
the
Royal
Irish
Academy
(Dublin,
1830)
is found an
essay
by
John
D'Alton
on
the
social and
political
state of
the
people
of Ireland
from the
commencement of
the Christian
era to the
twelfth
century.
The renaissance of
Irish
antiquities, however,
and the
marvellous
growth
of
Irish
learning,
together
with the
glorious
revival
of
Gaelic
literature,
based on
scientific
principles,
date from
the
day
when
the
Government
es-
tablished
the
Ordnance
Survey
in
this
country.
The
gifted
Dr.
Petrie,
M.B.I.A.,
and
his
staff,
did in
a
few
years
immense work.
They
had
plans
laid,
and
had
begun
actually
to
re-erect
from the debris
of
past
times
monuments
of
Gaelic
knowledge,
which,
for the
nation,
would
have,
like a
new
dawn,
shed a
fresh
radiance
over
the
past
;
and
for
Gaelic
students in the
future,
would
have been a
beacon-light
to
enlighten
and
to
guide
them
on the road of
home
linguistic
studies.
The Irish nation had
not,
perhaps,
been
prepared
for
so
great
a
change.
The
literary
labours of Petrie
and
his
staff were
stopped.
The mere
mechanical
survey
went
on.
O'
Donovan,
ho
waver,
gave
us the
Annals
of
the Four
Masters,
in
an
English
and
in
an
Irish
dress
;
O'Curry
his
manuscript
materials of
Irish
history.
The
British
Go-
vernment
ordered,
some
twenty-three years
ago,
the
pub-
lication
of
the Brehon
Laws. Three
volumes were
trans-
lated,
and have now been edited
and
published.
Let
us now
see,
from
impartial
witnesses,
what is the
real
truth
regarding
this code
of
laws
;
what
is their
origin
;
what
their
legal
value
?
The Brehon
Law is so called from
the
Gaelic term for
judge
(Breitheamh,*)
whose office was to
explain
the law
and
apply
its
meaning
to
the
several
cases
that were
brought
before
him
for
adjudication.
"
There
are
ENGLISH
AND
BREHON
LAWS
THE SAME
startling points
of
correspondence
between
the
functions
of
the
Druids,
as
described
by
Csesar,
and
the
office of
the
Brehon.
The
extensive
literature
of law
just
disinterred
testifies
to
the
authority
of
the Brehons
in all
legal
rnat-
ters,
and
raises
a
strong
presumption
that
they
were
universal
referees
in
dispute.
The
schools
of
literature
and law
appear
to
have been
numerous
in
ancient
Ireland.
The
course
was
twelve
years."
Maine,
p.
32.
The term
Tweiih,
of the same
origin
with
the
Greek,
phero
; Latin,
fcro
;
and
the
English
bear,
signifies
to
carry,
to
seize,
to
join
;
and
applying
the
name
to
the
operation
of
the
mind,
to catch
the
thoughts
and to
compare
them,
and thus
to
form
a
judgment
in the
philosophic
sense
and in
the
judicial,
to
pronounce
the
decision arrived
at,
whenever
one
has
applied
the
law to the case at issue. The
Brehon
Law
was
that code
by
which the Irish
race,
in
pagan
and
in Christian
times,
had
been
governed.
It
is,
as shall
be
shown,
the
twin sister
of
the
Roman
code,
known
as
the
Laws
of the Twelve
Tables.
It is of
Aryan
oiigin.
These
laws came
from the same
parent
stock as
those which
direct
the
political
and
social
life of
Europe;
"for,"
says
Sir
Henry
Sumner
Maine
(Preface
to Lectures on the
Early
History
of Institution*)
"
the
Roman
law
has never
ceased
to be
spoken
of with
deep respect
;
and it
is,
in
fact,
the
source
of the
greatest
part
of
the
rules
by
which
civil
life
is still
governed
in the
western world."
The
laws of
England
and of
Scotland
are,
in a
certain
measure,
founded on the
Roman
law,
and therefore the
Brehon
Law and the
English
law have
had,
so
far,
a com-
mon
origin.
Yet,
these are the
laws which
those
who
enacted the
Statute
of
Kilkenny pronounced
"
wicked
and
damnable,"
and
which Edmund
Spencer
styled
"
re-
pugning
both
to
God's
law and
man's;"
and
Sir John
.
Davis
coolly
calls
"
lc\vd"
and
"
u:i?easonab
l
o.'
!
,-IM;!
<
,
;
-
43J: EXTENT
OF
THE BEEHO-N
LAWS,
MS.9.
trasts
it with
the
"
just
and
honorable law
of
England."
Are we certain
that
the
Brehon
Law is
Aryan
that
it
is
the same as
the
laws
of the
Twelve
Tables
? Yes
-
r
three volumes
of
the
Brehon
Law are
now before
the
public.
Each savant
can
read and
judge.
An
English
legal
lecturer
(Sir
Henry
Sumner
Maine)
has
published
a
volume of
four hundred
pages,
pointing
out
the
historic,
archaic,
legal,
and
philologic
value
of
this
code of
laws.
The
Brehon Law had been written
in
old Irish.
Hence-
the
necessity
and value
of the
Irish
language,
in
order
to
know
with
accuracy
and
certainty
those
ancient
laws.
It
is
true
that
they
have been
translated
;
yet,
a
knowledge
of
the
language
is
still,
to
a
great
extent,
necessary.
Of
the
extent
of the
Brehon
Law
manuscripts,
and
their
historic
importance,
O'Curry
in
his ninth
lecture
thus
speaks
(MS.
Materials,
p.
201-202)
:
"
This
collection
is
so
immense
in
extent,*
and
the
subjects
dealt
with
throughout
the whole of
it,
in
the
utmost
detail,
are
sc*
numerous,
and
so
fully
illustrated
by
exact
definitions
and
minute
descriptions,
that,
to enable
us to fill
up
the-
outline
supplied
and
genealogies,
these
books of
laws
alone
would
almost
be found
sufficient
in
competent
Lands.
....
Any
one
who
has examined
the
body
of
Welsh
Laws,
now some
years
before the
world,
will
at
once
be able to
form
a fair
opinion
of the
interest
and
value,
in historical
and
social
points
of
view,
of
this
far
larger
this immense
and
hitherto
unexplored
mass
of
legal
institutes.
And
these
were
the
laws and
insti-
tutes
which
regulated
the
political
and
social
system
of a
people
the
most
remarkable
in
Europe,
from a
period
almost
lost
in
the
dark
maze of
antiquity,
down
to
within
*
O'Curry
had transcribed
at
the
time
eight
thousand
quarfo
%:'.ijes
of
matter,
relating
to the Brehor.
Laws;
and
this
immerso
^ile
was
only
part
of
the code.
titudy
of
Ktltic
Literature, p.
-2V.
BREHON
LAW
LIKE POMPEII
435
about two hundred
years,
or
seven
generations,
of
our
own
time,
and whose
spirit
and
traditions,
I
may
add,
in-
fluence the
feelings
and actions
of the
native
Irish,
even
to this
day.
To
these
laws,
may
we, indeed,
justly apply
the
expressive
remark
of
the
poet
Moore on
the
old
MSS.
in the
Royal
Irish
Academy,
that
they
were
not
written
by
a
foolish
people,
nor for
any
foolish
purpose.
.
.
Copious though
the
records
are in
which the
action
and
every
day
life of our remote ancestors
have come
down
to
us,
through
the various documents of which I
have
been
speaking,
still,
without
these
laws,
our
history
would
be
necessarily
barren, deficient,
and
uncertain
in one
of
its most
interesting
and
important
essentials."
This
wonderful code of laws
has,
like
Pompeii
or
Her-
culaneum
entombed
in
lava,
been sealed
up
for
over
one
thousand
years
in the
language
of
the Keltic
race.
For
this
reason
the
Brehon Law
has come
forth at the
present
time,
like
those
specimens
of art and
of
science,
in
paint-
ing
or
sculpture
or
architecture,
which have
been
found
in
the buried cities near
Vesuvius
;
or,
farther
still,
like
the Etruscan
vases
and
statues
thut had
lain
entombed
in
the
cities
of
the dead for a
thousand
years
before
Romulus
founded,
on
the
banks
of the
Tiber,
the
city
that
was
des-
tined
one
day
to rule the world.
A modern writer
narrating
the
discoveries
made
of
the
cities
of the dead
in
Etruria,
says
:
"
It
is
only
in
modern
times a
general
interest
in
the ancient
Etruscans
has
been
revived
;
that
the Truscans
begin
to
remember,
with
pride,
that
on their
territory
in
particular
nourished
this
civilization
of
two
thousand
years
ago
;
and
that
some
Italian
families have
been
led
to
trace
in their
names
and
genealogies
indications
of
a connection
with
the
first
civilizers
of
their
fatherland."
Among
the
cemeteries
explored
by
modern
antiquaries
436
LIKE THE
CITIES
OF
THE
DEAD.
or
by
modern lovers of
gain,
that
of
Vulci,
which
has
furnished
the
Prince of
Canino with
the means
of form-
ing
a most
splendid
collection of
Etruscan
antiquities,
which
has,
besides,
enriched
many
of
the
museums of
Europe,
and which still
yields
an
annual
harvest
to
the
BuccL-ssors
of
the
Prince,
was
utterly
unknown until
the
year
1828,
when it
was
discovered
by
chance.
....
The
tombs of ISTorchia and
Castel
d'Asso,
which are re-
markable
for
their
sculptured
facades,
were
brought
to
light only forty
years ago by
some
sportsmen
of
Viterbo,
who,
in
the
pursuit
of
game, penetrated
into the
secluded
glens
in
which
they
are
situated. The
magnificent
city
of
tombs,
at
Orte,
were
discovered
in
1837.
Others,
at
Savona,
were
brought
to
light
in
1843."
'
;
That
the
word
necropolis,
or
city
of
the
dead,
had
riot,
amongst
the
ancients,
been a mere
figurative
expres-
sion, is,
indeed,
proved
by
many
of
these
rock-hewn
ceme-
teries
; for,
not
only
do the
porticos,
the
pediments,
the
house-like
roofs,
and whole
internal
arrangement
of
the
tombs,
recall
to mind the
habitations of the
living,
but
in
several
places,
such as at
Bieda
and
Cervetri,
it
is
evident
that
the
cemeteries have
been laid
out in
streets,
and
even
in
squares,
the
fagades
of
the
tombs
occupying
the
place
of
those
of
the
houses in
the
cities of
the
living.
"At Castel
d'Asso,
Norchia,
Bieda,
Palerii,
Sutri,
and
Orte
all
places
of little note
in
Italy
at
present,
but
occupying
the
sites
of
cities
which
once
held a
high
rank
in
the
history
of Etruria
the
tombs,
as
regards
their
external
character,
surpass
in
majestic
grandeur
and
architectural
decorations
all
that have as
yet
been
discovered."
The
Brehon
Law,
like the
rich
vases
and
works of
art
that
lay
buried
in
the
tombs
of
Etruria,
had
not
only
been
sealed
up
in
the Irish
language,
unseen
by
the
eye
of
any-
outside
Ireland,
but
had
been for a
period,
lost.
WE
ARE
BACK AT A
BOUND.
437
Now,
at
length,
they
have
been
discovered,
and
are
open
to
the
view of the whole
literary
world.
Thus,
the
present
generation
of
enquirers
are
brought
back,
at a
bound,
to the time
when
they
can behold
the
social
and
civil state of
Ireland
in
the
fifth
century,
and
even
at
a
period
much more
remote.
"
Up
to the
early
dawn
of
civilisation,
the
very
causes,"
says
Sir
Henry
Sumner
Maine,
"
which*
have
denied a
modern
history
to
the Brehon Law
have
given
it
a
special
interest
of
its own
in
our
day,
through
the
arrest
of
its
developement."
It
is
this arrest
of the
developement
of the
Brehon
Law
in
the
past
that
causes
their translation
and
publication
to
be so
much
prized
at
present.
Like
the
Round
Towers,
like
the
family
features of
the
Japhetic
race,
like the
laws of
linguistic
science,
the
Brehon Law
comes in
and
forms an
arc
in
the circle
of
newly-discovered
truths
.that
point
up
to the
primitive
Aryan
period,
full
of
knowledge,
of
action,
of
cyclopean
power
and
grandeur.
It
is
in
no
way surprising
that the
Brehon code should
appear
archaic to
moderns.
In the
form
in which
it
is
now
presented
to
the
public
with translation
by
O'Do-
novan
and
O'Curry
it
has
been
a
literary
fossil
for
over
a thousand
years.
This fossil condition
of
Ireland's ancient
law,
morally
speaking,
is
owing
to
four causes the insular
position
of
Ireland,
its
freedom from
Imperial
Eome,
the
antagonism
of Britain and of
British
law,
the
love
of
the
Keltic race
to
preserve
traditional
usages.
VALUE OF
THE LAW.
The
words
of
the
present
writer
may
be
regarded
ag
favoring
too
much
these cherished monuments of
Ireland's
ancient
civilisation. It
is
well, then,
to
quote
Sir
Henry
438 VALUE OF BHEHON
LAW.
Maine
once
more :
"
The
value which the
ancient
laws
of
Ireland
the
Brehon L.iws will
possess,
when
they
are
completely
published
and
interpreted,
may,
I
think,
be
illustrated
in this
way.
Let
it be
remembered
that
the
Roman
law,
which,
next to
the
Christian
religion,
is
the
most
plentiful
source
of
the
rules
governing
actual
con-
duct
throughout
Western
Europe,
is
descended
from a
small
body
of
Aryan
customs,
reduced
to
writing
in
the
fifth
century,
before
Christ,
and known as the
Twelve
Tables
of Rome."
It is
founded on
the
natural
law,
and,
in
part,
on
the
written
law. Such
is the
Brehon
Law,
also
;
it
is
Aryan
in
origin
;
it
is founded
on the
natural
law,
and
composed)
in
part,
of
the
written
law.
"
Let
it farther be
recollected
that
the Roman
law was at
first
expanded
and
developed,
not at
all,
or
very slightly, by
legislation,
but
by
a
process
which
we
may perceive
still
in
operation
in
various
communities the
juridical
inter-
pretation
of authoritative
texts
by
successive
generations
of learned
men.
Now,
the
largest
collection
of Irish
legal
rules which
has come
down to
us
professes
to
be
an
ancient
code,
with
an
appendage
of
later
glosses
and
commentaries
This ancient
Irish code
cor-
responds historically
to the laws
of the
Twelve
Tables,
and
to
many
similar
bodies
of written
rules
which
appear
in
the
early
history
of
Aryan
societies."
"That
a
kernel,
or some
kernels,
of written law existed
is
highly
probable
;
and
it
is also
probable
that the
whole
of the Brehon
law consists
of
them and
of
accumulations
formed
upon
them* .
.
. .
The
Brehon
Laws
are in
no sense
a
legislative
construction,
and
thus
they
are
not
only
an authentic monument
of a
very
ancient
group
of
Aryan
institutions
;
they
are also
a
collection of rules
which
have been
gradually
developed
in a
way
highly
HINDU
LAW,
BBEHON
LAW 439
favorable
to
the
preservation
of archaic
peculiarities."
The Brehon law
had been
expanded
by
the
juridical
interpretation
of
authoritative
texts,
just
like
the laws of
the
Hebrew
race,
or like
the
code of the
Spartan
State.
The Roman
law became
transformed and modified
by
legislation,
to suit
the altered
times,
the
varied
new forms
of
society,
the
changes
connected
with
growing
States
and
with
diverse races.
"
Two
causes
(says
Maine)
have done
most
to
obscure
the
oldest
institutions
of
the
portion
of the
human
race
to
which
we
belong.
One,
the formation
throughout
the
west of
strong
centralised
governments;
the
other has
been the
influence,
direct and
indirect,
of the
Roman
Empire,
drawing
with
it an
activity
in
legislation
un-
known to
the
parts
of the
world which
were never sub-
jected
to
it."
Ireland
had
never
been
exposed
to
these influences
she never
formed a
part
of the Roman
empire
;
she
had
a
central
government,
but
never a
strong
one,
capable
of
exercising
like
Rome of
old,
or
England
at
present
a
special
centralising,
legislative power.
<;
Under
these
circumstances,
it
is not wonderful
that
the
Brehon
Law,
growing
together
without
legislation
upon
an
original body
of
Aryan
customs,
and
formed
beyond
the limit of
that
cloud of lioman
juridical
ideas
which
for
many
centuries
overspread
the whole
continent,
and
even
at
its
extremity,
extended to
England,
should
present
some
very
strong analogies
to
another
set
of
derivative
Aryan
usages,
the Hindu
law,
which
was
similarly
developed."
The
Hindu
law,
therefore,
and
the
Brehon
Law,
and
the
Roman
law are
developements
of one
primitive Aryan
code.
The
laws of
Europe,
divested
of their
legislative
and