The last and not the least of the fearful series of injustices enacted, in the name of justice, at the Parliament of Kilkenny, was the statute which denied, which positively refused, the benefit of English law to Irishmen, and equally forbid them to use the Brehon law, which is even now the admiration of jurists, and which had been the law of the land for many centuries.
If law could be said to enact that there should be no law, this was precisely what was done at the memorable Parliament of Kilkenny.

If Irishmen had done this, it would have been laughed at as a Hibernicism, or scorned as the basest villany; but it was the work of Englishmen, and the Irish nation were treated as rebels if they attempted to resist.

The confiscation of Church property in the reign of Henry VIII., added a new sting to the land grievance, and introduced a new feature in its injustice.

Church property had been used for the benefit of the poor far more than for the benefit of its possessors.

It is generally admitted that the monks of the middle ages were the best and most considerate landlords.