Page:The Gaelic State in the Past & Future.djvu/24

 directive was lacking; for the tendency towards centralisation was suspended with the abeyance of the dynastic struggle. It was supplied, however, when Brian Borumha sprang into the field, and snatched the monarchy from a weakened line.

Brian rallied the nation, and knit and perfected the system that Cormac had created. A simple, and indeed very modern, method existed to his hand that was partly turned to his purpose. It is customary to speak of the Leabhar na gCeart as the Book of Rights, or Tributes. The modern word, however, is Taxes; for taxes remain taxes whether they be paid in coin or in kind. Each of the seven great territories, into which the provincial authorities had devolved, had some time prior to Brian laid down a regular revenue to be contributed to them by the stateships under their authority. This had been done as a national system, and had been committed to writing in one book. Brian, having transferred the Kingship of Thomond to his own line, revised the contributions accordingly within his own particular territory. He also took contributions from each of the other six Kingships as Monarch of the Nation. It only therefore required the centralisation of what was really a fiscal system to complete the unity and central function of the State. For so statecraft has always been compelled to meet the same difficulty that confronted Brian in A.D. 1002.

Had Brian lived, or had he been able to establish his dynasty, the result would, without doubt, have been achieved. Unfortunately he fell in the hour of