land were at the first all pagans, and as far as we can learn, there was no serious effort made on the part of the Irish for their conversion. It was through the influence of their own compatriots in England that they were at length brought to the knowledge of the truth.
The Danes who landed in England found no insurmountable obstacle to prevent their coalescing with the Angles. They were of the same race, and spoke alosmt the same language; they had the same forms of government, and very nearly the same code of laws. When at one time the Danes became rulers of the nation, the transference of power was scarcely perceived by the people in general—the same laws and usages continued in force; it caused no break in the national life. It was more like a mere change of dynasty than the subjugation of the country by a foreign power. The political result was that Danes and Saxons became in the end one homogeneous people. The religious result was that the paganism of the Danes imperceptibly faded away, and that by degrees they accepted the religion of Christ, which was established all around them.
During all this time the Danes of Ireland did not forget their kinsmen beyond the Channel. Though settled in Dublin, or Waterford, or Limerick, they were not Irish. Just as in an earlier age the inhabitants of the south-west of Scotland belonged to the Irish, and not to the Pictish people, so these Danes were really Englishmen living in Ireland. In times of defeat they sent to England for help; and when some of their warriors could be spared from the defence of their possessions, they went across the water and took their part in the contests with Saxons and Britons which were being continually carried on. When the Danes of England became
