Almost every one of them had been in some measure trained both to military and to political functions.

Almost every one was familiar with the use of arms, and was accustomed to bear a part in the administration of justice.

It was remarked by contemporary writers that the colonists had something of the Castilian haughtiness of manner, though none of the Castilian indolence, that they spoke English with remarkable purity and correctness, and that they were, both as militiamen and as jurymen, superior to their kindred in the mother country, [200] In all ages, men situated as the Anglosaxons in Ireland were situated have had peculiar vices and peculiar virtues, the vices and virtues of masters, as opposed to the vices and virtues of slaves.
The member of a dominant race is, in his dealings with the subject race, seldom indeed fraudulent,--for fraud is the resource of the weak,--but imperious, insolent, and cruel.

Towards his brethren, on the other hand, his conduct is generally just, kind, and even noble.

His selfrespect leads him to respect all who belong to his own order.