A Pre-Roman Survival
Early Irish Laws and Institutions. By Professor Eoin MacNeilL (Burns Oates and Washbourne. 5s.) POPULAR and learned notions of early Irish history have been revolutionized, during the last thirty yearseby.the researches of Professor Eoin MacNeill. Henceforth, the common man must abandon the old Milesian myth of Irish origins, and the scholar must cease to Write of the Irish civilizationai tribal. The discoveries of this Irish savant also have value in a wider field of study. While lighting up the Irish past, he has illuminated the non-Roman, or barbarian" history of Europe. His latest book, Early Irish Laws and Institutions, would have warmed the heart of Sir Henry Maine ; for it explores a field that was the special province of the author of Ancient Law, correcting many of that master's conjectures no doubt, but giving us what Maine craved, a faithful image of the world beyond the Roman shields.
The legions never reached, Ireland._ The Celtic civilization, hewn down on the Continent by Caesar, lived on among the Gaels, grew, and developed and decayed. It Was at its highest when the laws were codified in the two centuries before the Norse invasiaos.. Juristic writing went on for nearly a thousand years more. The extant law tracts date largely from the fourteenth century, when the conflict with feudalism was at its height, and commentaries being written as late as the very end of the sixteenth. Only under James I did old Irish law wholly cease. The late writings show the code in decay. Yet this code that was cut down finally in tye time of the first Stuart -was a growth with roots in pre-Roman Europe.• That olden civilization, so long a-dying, comes thus into the full light of history. As Greece was based on the city- State, native Ireland rested on the rural State, called tuath, "a veritable city of the fields." There were about eighty of such, communities, occupying areas roughly equal to half a modern county. " The Kingdom of Dal Riada, out of which grew the Kingdom of Scotland, extended in its greatest length to 30 miles, in breadth to 20 miles." The Greek principle that a State should be no larger than a human voice could reach had its parallel in the rule that a tuath was no larger than would allow the freemen to come together, to the State aonach or governing assembly, in one day's journey. There was an elaborate social hierarchy, suggesting a remote common origin with feudalism ; but the system differed from feudalism in land tenure. It was normal for the tiller of the soil to possess the soil. In a tuath, the 44 chief occupation was agriculture, and all its magnates were agriculturists. The Irish law tracts may be said to revel in the details of agricultural industry."
As in Greece, -so in the Celtic world, the weakness was the weakness of the central power, This was not apparent until there was conflict with an external force. It must not be thought that the States of Ireland were totally discrete bodies. Across the whole country ran a single law, interpreted by jurists who were, so to speak, a nations-It guild. The theory was that laws, "while . . . equally applicable _everywhere . . . are carried into effect by the authority and through the action of each State separately." Where common action was required (as when parties to a disputegielonged to different States), "special-means were provided in the general law for, joint action, judicial and executive." Caesar shows that the Druids, who were the predecessordenf the Irish jurists; held is. similar rank in Gaul, and interpreted a general law in the component donates. What Caesar called a cioitas is what Ireland knew as a tuath.- The States were linked together in associated groups. At the beginning of the Christian era there were five main groups ; and so it comes that the Irish word for province is caiigeadh, or "fifth." Later,'there was a heptarchy, and the Book of Rights, drawn up about the year 900, sets forth a detailed Constitution of Ireland, the interrelations of the seven hege- monies and their component States, with the High-Kingship over all. In Ireland, -owing to the geographical constraint, the Celtic system of .confederation reached thus a formal com- pleteness. On the Continent, in what we call the Imperium Celticurn, before Rome conquered the provinces. it was looser, but the same principle held. In Scotland (although Dr. MacNeill does not deal with this),- the confederation- called Clan Chattan, and that of the Lordship of the Isles, maintidued the common peace. - Many -will remember that the Highland
lords established a force called the Black Watch, by reason of its neutral tartan, which acted like the international forces which have been-controlled at different places by the League of Nations.
These notes lead our thoughts to a surprising conclusion. . The - parallel between a Celtic confederation of Sovereign bodies, applying in their oinl territory a law agreed upon by all, maintaining a common juristic body , and 'even common forces, with the League of.Nation.s, is so striking that it is not accidental. May we not say that the League is the emergence 7 inmodern Europe of the principles that Roman imperialism . crushed : confederation in place . of domination, international - unity arrived at by consent ? We have the printed word and modern communications to offset the weakness of central authority in ancient times—a weakness due to slownes.s of , communication. Perhaps the parallel would be closer if the supreme -unity at Geneva rested on subordinate, natural groupings, such as the States of Continental Europe, the South American. States, the States of the British Commonwealth, the United States, and the States of the East, acting as minor Leagues. I do not know whether Dr. MacNeill would concur with such an extension of his ideas ; lmd it serves to show how , fruitful in suggestion is his little, concentrated book.
RUDE DE BLACAM.
Previous page
