He knows as well as anyone the working of the feudal system and the clan system in Scotland in the same age.

He knows with what treachery and cruelty murders were perpetrated by chiefs and lairds, pretenders and usurpers--how anarchy, violence, and barbarism reigned in that land; yet, when he is dealing with a similar state of things in Ireland, he uniformly takes it as proof of an incurable national idiosyncrasy, and too often generalises from a few cases.

For example, in speaking of Shane O'Neill, who killed his half-brother, Matthew Kelly, Baron of Dungannon, in order to secure the succession for himself, he says--'_They manage things strangely in Ireland._ The old O'Neill, instead of being irritated, saw in this exploit a proof of commendable energy.

He at once took Shane into favour, and, had he been able, would have given him his dead brother's rights.'.