Page:A View of the State of Ireland - 1809.djvu/121

 Iren. You think otherwise, Eudox. then I doe, for the cheifest abuses which are now in that realme, are, growne from the English, and some of them are now much more lawlesse and licentious then the very wilde Irish: so that as much care as was by them had to reforme the Irish, so and much more must now bee used to reforme them; so much time doth alter the manners of men.

Eudox. That seemeth very strange which you say, that men should so much degenerate from their first natures, as to grow wilde.

Iren. So much can liberty and ill examples doe.

Eudox. What liberty had the English there, more then they had here at home? Were not the lawes planted amongst them at the first, and had they not governours to curbe and keepe them still in awe and obedience?

Iren. They had, but it was, for the most part, such as did more hurt then good; for they had governours for the most part of themselves, and commonly out of the two families of the Geraldines and Butlers, both adversaries and corrivales one against the other. Who though for the most part they were but deputies under some of the Kings of Englands sonnes, brethren, or other neare kinsmen, who were the Kings lieutenants, yet they swayed