bour of Cork seemed better suited to his expanded genius; I therefore find that the three plowlands of Barnehely were added to the traitor's spoil. The reader will not conceive it improper to review this traitorous judge as an author.
During the preceding troubles ancient law and established religion gave great disgust to arrogant innovators. It required some delay and difficulty to attain a perfect knowledge of either, though little learning and less judgment were sufficient to exaggerate the prominent abuses or presumed imperfections of these social systems. A fallow and vulgar appeal of this sort was published against the practice and profession of the law. Cooke answered the virulent libel in a tract, which for legal depth, classic taste, and extensive learning would not disgrace Selden, Somers, or Hale.
The Chief Baron Corbet attracts our attention; a wretch memorable for corruption and tyranny, without any personal good quality or literary talent to balance such enormous crimes. This obscure and infamous man was regularly bred to the legal profession, but long discontinued its practice. His broken fortune required a situation, and the party gratified that necessity; he therefore moved early in a subordinate military rank, and rose therein with a tolerable character for courage and skill. Cromwell's piercing eye observed that by his conduct, situation and talents he would become a proper associate to those outcasts of every party, with whose aid and exertion he hoped to strengthen his position in a secondary station, or even attain the full measure of a boundless and criminal ambition.
Ireland seemed the hereditary seat of courtly adventurers, and lay exposed at this period to the republican band. Miles Corbet was therefore permitted to repose from military toils in the important station of Commissioner for civil affairs. The kingdom and its inhabitants having been tried, surveyed and reviewed through every class and in its remotest districts, the office was abolished, and a settled peace as to past crimes or confiscated property proclaimed by authority of Government. Compensation had not then been sanctioned by the legislature, or
