THE HEREDITARY DESCENT.
THE SCOTTISH-IRISH LAW OF DESCENTS.
CHAPTER XI.

"There is a double cause why I should be careful of the welfare of that people [the Irish]: first, as the king of England, by reason of the long possession the crown of England hath had of that land; and also as king of Scotland, for the ancient kings of Scotland are descended of the kings of Ireland." - Speech of King James I. at Whitehall, Apr. 21, 1613.

F.R.A. Glover: There is a passage in Scottish History, connected with Irish Legend, which appears so extravagant in itself, that it has been pronounced to be utterly beyond the possibility of reality; it has, indeed, been stigmatized as much as if it had been invented, merely to show how far absurdity could be carried or credulity taxed. If it stood alone, one's wonder might almost be excited that any man of so much mental culture as to have attained the position of a chronicler, should have troubled himself to refer to such a poor story; or, much more, have thought it worth the time occupied in transcribing it. Therefore Mr. Moore's observations concerning it are not altogether surprising.

It may, however, be neither untrue nor stupid; and it is, in any case, doubtless, founded on fact.

When the Picts "first desired that some of the Milesian Women should accompany them to Scotland," so runs the Legend, "they pledged themselves solemnly that, should they become masters of the country they were about to invade, the Sovereignty should ever after be vested in the descendants of the female line" (Moore, i, 111). In so far there is nothing very extravagant; this was evidently to secure that the Blood Royal of Scotland should be one with the Blood Royal of Scotia Major, i.e., Ireland. What follows is, however, treated in the comment of Mr. Moore, as being too strong for his digestion. He says, " This matrimonial compact is, thus, in a spirit far worse than absurd, misrepresented by O'Halloran. 'They, at the same time, requested wives from Heremon; engaging, in the most solemn manner, that not only then, but for ever after, if they, or their successors, should have issue by a British and again by an Irish woman; that the issue of this last only, should be capable of succeeding to the inheritance! and which law continued in force to the days of Venerable Bode; i.e., about 2000 years! A mark of such striking distinction, that it cannot be paralleled in the History of any nation under the sun!" Vol. ii. ch. 4, O'Halloran' (Moore i, 111, note).

Yet this story, absurd as it seems, and against which, as the representation of a supposed state of things, the Historian found it in his conscience to reclaim as above, must have had some foundation of fact, on which to have been based; and, indeed, the chronology corrected, - i.e. for 2000 Years read 1000, - might, under certain imaginable circumstances, be not only reasonable but true; and even by us, at this time, be reasonably held, according to the view of the case taken by the imponents, to be a necessary imposition. And, seeing that these certain circumstances trench very closely on the hypothesis of this work, and that the Irish King would, if such circumstances had existed, have had, on the one hand, high authority to adduce for the laying down of the stipulation; and the Scottish, on the other, would have had good reason for accepting it; it almost becomes a duty in us, for the credit's-sake of our ancestors, to inquire, whether such circumstances did exist as, existing, would convert the absurd and unreasonable into what would have been a perfectly intelligible and justifiable requirement; and therefore reasonably likely on the part of the Scottish, to be acquiesced in.

Can any good reason, then, be assigned for the stipulation, on the part of the Irish Monarch, that could have produced such a willing acquiescence on the part of the Scottish, as Bede declares to have been the case in this matter, and to have had such a long endurance?

It is not necessary, however, it must be remarked, that the supposed facts, in such imaginable circumstances, should have ever really existed. It is sufficient to make the story probable, that the general belief was, that the case was as it was imagined to be. And it may be remarked, generally, that it is hardly becoming in us to travel out of the record, for the purpose, as it were, of impugning the intelligence of our ancestors, by proving to our own satisfaction that they were mere dupes; when, if we keep strictly within it - as we ought, at least, not to neglect to do, - investigation of the marks along the highway which they trode, may show us, that those whom we think to have been unwise, because they did not act just as we think we should have done, are, on the contrary, the wise: .. those, whose acts bear witness for them, and who do not, like some others, bear witness for themselves, and "warm themselves in their own sparks" (Isa. 1:11). Credulity is a poor thing, it may be; and our poor half-civilized ancestors may have been credulous. Nevertheless, it is astonishing how much credulity some people have, who are credulous of their own wisdom, as they compare themselves with "ancient men and their good fathers who begat them" (Ecclesiasticus 44). A wretched example of this self-adulation has recently been most painfully presented to the world! [JML: Does the reader know to what the writer, in 1861, is referring?]

What good reason, then, - what sufficient reason can be assigned, for the stipulation, on the part of the Irish King; and the covenant entered into by the Scottish Petitioners? such as may account for that willing acquiescence on the part of the latter, which Bede declares to have been of so enduring a character among their descendants?

We know that from the time when it was declared that "the Seed of the woman was to bruise the Serpent's Head," (Gen. 3:15) that "the man from the Lord" (Gen. 4:1) appointed in the Divine Counsels to do it, was "the desire of women:" (Dan. 11:37) and that, amongst the Jews, this promised seed was so earnestly longed for by every woman individually, that barrenness of the womb was held to be a curse from the Lord amongst those of whom Messiah could possibly come. And though, ultimately, the Shiloh, "the desire of all nations," (Hag. 2:7) was announced as to come of Judah, still, the feeling had been so strongly implanted in the minds of all, that "the desire of women" continued a well-known form of expression: however, in reality, universally recognized, that the field of the possible occurrence of the Event was narrowed, even among, the descendants of Judah, to the Root of Jesse: i.e., to the Descendants of David. (Mic. v. 2.) Consequently, in the event of any woman of the Seed Royal of David, being granted, in alliance, beyond the pale of her own people, - (the possibility of the birth of the Messiah through her womb, being a part of her endowment, and may it not have been to this, that "the mystery not to be uttered," alluded?) - it would be natural, that those who were conscious of this possibility of Descent, should stipulate, before they granted the favour solicited, - viz. to spare a portion of the Elect Seed, - for such terms as they felt would be necessary to secure, that Descents from her, should take precedence of all other Descents. For the expected Seed was to be, it is to be remembered, born, a pre-eminent monarch. And if, on the one hand, those solicited, explained to those who solicited, why they demanded this; and on the other hand, those who solicited the favour and the honour, believed that the others spoke the truth; then it was, would be, would have been, entirely reasonable, that they who acknowledged the reality of the declared endowment, should give in to such demand, and, that all concerned in it, should acquiesce therein.

Now, if we suppose that the Royal Family, or the Chief Race in Ireland, had reason to believe that they were of the Race from which Messiah, the true Jodhan Moran, who was to be, according to their notions, the bearer of the Stone back to the East, in triumph, was to spring; .. and of which Race, they showed the Standard, the Standard of Judah, as their own; being also, at the same time, as they thought, able to affirm, that they had the mark of the assurance of God's favour in the possession of that Stone, of which it was declared, with great confidence, that it was to be with their Race, until some one of those connected with them, should return with it, to the East, as a Sceptred Monarch, as the promised Messiah, as the Righteous Judge, the expected Shiloh; - then, would they not only have been perfectly right in making the alleged stipulation, but it would have been most culpable in them to have neglected any thing which they should have thought to be their duty, towards God and Man, with respect to a due provision for such a possible Event.

But that is the very hypothesis; and which is assumed to be the actual fact in the case: not, indeed, that the Messiah was to come of that Stock, but that, they thought, He might come of it.

The Hebrews, down to the time of the coming of the Messiah, were universally of opinion that He was to be the restorer of the Monarchy of Judah, which would be a monarchy in "the East," as the people in the West would see it, - and a universal King. The belief, therefore, to the same effect, of these simple ones of the West, was no more discreditable to them, than was the persistence in that opinion to the learned hierarchy and fully-civilized intelligence of Judea at the time of the Advent of Christ. For entertaining that opinion, it is to be remembered, that the Jews were never blamed. It was for their persistence in the opinion, after proof sufficient had been exhibited to them that they misunderstood the time rather than misread the predictions, that they were blameworthy: and for which, and their conduct influenced by such misunderstanding of the time, the Jews of the Crucifixion and their descendants suffered. [JML: e.g., the Bar Cochba (=son of the star = Messiah) rebellion and the consequent expulsion of the Jews from Palestine].

The allegation, therefore, of the ancient Chronicler, becomes, not a self-evident fiction, credulously accepted by "fanciful Old Bede," but the credible declaration of a reasonable fact by the Venerable Historiographer: and, the conversion, by such a supposition, of what would be utterly extravagant, not to say nonsensical and inconceivable among rational men, into reasonableness and propriety, affords strong ground for presuming that this was the very idea that possessed those who made the stipulation; and that it was accepted as stated, as the Rule of Succession, willingly, by those upon whom it was imposed. And the rumour or declaration that such an extraordinary Rule of Succession prevailed, and was acted upon, affords strong ground equally for the belief that the stipulation was made, and by some of the descendants of some branches of the original stock, maintained, and to a comparatively late period, acted upon: and an argument, in so far, that all the parties, respectively, believed that they had amongst them the favoured Seed of the Perpetual Race to whom had been assigned, the Throne of David, the Sceptre of Judah, and the invaluable endowments of Jacob, as inherited from Abraham.

This is an argument that will have little weight with such as treat the Revelation of God as an elaborate fiction. But the fiction of Revelation is not now, nor here, the question. It is not, "Were these people right, to believe so and so?" - but, "Are there fair reasons for assuming that they did so believe?" If there are, they acted as has been declared by Venerable Bede. And, so acting, as they did not do so, without some assignable grounds for their belief, those grounds are the marks along the highway which show us by which road our ancestors travelled, and at the same time indicate the reasons why they took that particular way. And we may be erring against truth not less than against decency to pronounce the record nonsense, or the reasonable conduct of the ancients, incredible folly, because some dare to think Revelation, in which our ancestors believed, a fiction, and themselves warranted in denying premisses, on which they formed their conclusions.

Had Mr. Moore had any idea of the real value of this fact, which it fell in his way to relate and comment on, or of the character and name of the several persons and things connected with Irish and Scottish ancient History, and of Tara in particular, of which he has spoken with less consideration than they deserve, we may be sure that he would have given the subject all the advantage that it could have derived from being handled by one of his extensive local knowledge.

From: "England, the Remnant of Judah, and the Israel of Ephraim", written by F.R.A. Glover, M.A., Chaplain to the Consulate at Cologne. Published by Rivingtons, London, 1861. Based on research commenced in 1844.