rights  and  territories,  receiving  back  again  their
lands  under  a  royal  patent,  in  which  the  power
of  taxing  and  exacting  ad  libitum  from  the  clan
was  abolished,  and  rents  ^  in  money f  payable  to
the  chieftain,  substituted  in  stead;  and  monry,
it  should  be  remembered,  was  a  variable  standud
of  value,  not  very  generally  understood  at  that
time.  The  chieftain,  in  fact,  became  a  landlord,
and  his  clansmen  tenants.  But  neither  chieftain
nor  clansmen  understood  their  new  position.  The
clansman,  no  doubt,  felt  relief  from  the  opprcs*
sion,  which  in  disturbed  times  had  become  intolc*
rable,  of  cosberings^  bonagbt,  coinnmedb^  or  coignc,
and  the  rest.  But  the  idea  of  paying  rent^  subject
to  ejectment,  for  a  farm  which  had  been  held  by
his  ancestors  from  time  immemorial  was  quite
unintelligible  to  him.  He  would  have  infinitely
preferred  the  anticnt  oppressive  enactments,  al-
though they  were  to  cost  him  an  hundred  per
cent,  more  than  the  new  rent.  The  result  was
that  the  chieftain,  in  his  new  character  of  land*
lord,  lost  his  antient  rights,  under  the  Irish
Brehon  laws,  but  was  unable  to  recover  his  new
rights  under  the  laws  of  the  English  Parliament.
