Excerpt from The Irish Nation, Vol. 5: Its History and Its Biography While a long and dull repose lay over the late tempest-beaten fields and still obscure towns of the least uncultured part of Ireland, yet under all obstructions, moral, social, economical and administrative, the arts and manners of civilization began to obtain a slow and partial development. And the foundations of that English interest arose which alone protected and saved the connexion with England. England herself was carried through every trial to which a kingdom could be exposed, short of invasion or civil war. With regard to Ireland, her policy was yet kept in subjection to her own interest; a jealous regard to legislative and commercial superiority appears prominent in all her dealing. It was in effect simply a colonial policy, maintained for the do minant state - yet, notwithstanding this depressing condition, the inter ests chiefly important to social progress were not neglected. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.