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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34965-8.txt b/34965-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac16d98 --- /dev/null +++ b/34965-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5788 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Irish History and the Irish Question, by Goldwin Smith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Irish History and the Irish Question + +Author: Goldwin Smith + +Release Date: January 15, 2011 [EBook #34965] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRISH HISTORY AND IRISH QUESTION *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Foley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + IRISH HISTORY AND THE IRISH QUESTION + + + BY GOLDWIN SMITH + + AUTHOR OF "THE UNITED KINGDOM" + "THE UNITED STATES" + + + NEW YORK + McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. + 1905 + + + + + COPYRIGHT BY + GOLDWIN SMITH, + 1905. + + Published, November, 1905, n. + + + + +PREFACE + + +A long summer was spent by me in that loveliest of all parks, the +Phoenix, as the guest of Edward Cardwell, then Chief Secretary and real +head of the Irish government. Under Cardwell's roof the Irish Question was +fully discussed by able men, Robert Lowe among the number. But I had a +still greater advantage in constant and lasting intercourse with such +friends as Lord Chancellor O'Hagan, Sir Alexander Macdonald, the head of +the Education Department, and other leading Irish Liberals of the moderate +school, ardent patriots and thoroughgoing reformers though opposed to +violence and disruption. To the teachings of these men in dealing with the +Irish Question, I have always looked back for my best guidance. I did what +I could generally to acquaint myself with the country and its people. I +had the opportunity of seeing something of Maynooth as the guest of its +excellent principal in that day. At that time there was rather a lull in +the agrarian war, but religious antagonism was still marked. The fruit of +my studies was a little book entitled "Irish History and Irish +Character," in which I tried to show that the sources of Ireland's sorrows +were to be found in natural circumstance and historical accident as much +as in the crimes or follies of man in recent times. Upon that text I +preached in favour of charity and reconciliation. I am told that a chord +was touched at the time. But my essay has long been superseded and buried +out of sight by the important works, historical and political, which the +controversy has since produced, as well as by the forty eventful years +which have elapsed since its publication. The subject, however, has +retained all its interest, and my confidence in the wisdom of my Irish +friends and instructors has remained the same, or rather has been +strengthened by the course of events. + +I was in Ireland again a good many years afterwards in connection with the +meeting of the Social Science Association, and was the guest of Lord +O'Hagan. The Parnellite Movement was then in full activity; American +Fenianism was at work; and the soil heaved with insurrection. My friend W. +E. Forster was the Secretary, and, much against his own inclination, was +administering measures of repression, the only alternative to which +appeared to be the abdication of the government. On this occasion I was +unlucky enough to draw upon myself a thunderbolt hurled through the +_Times_, but evidently from the skies, by hinting in a public speech that +the Phoenix Park was as worthy to be the occasional residence of royalty +as Osborne or Balmoral. A happy change, attended apparently with the best +effects, has now come in that august quarter. + +It is needless to say that this essay does not pretend to be a history of +Ireland. It is an attempt to trace the general course of the history as it +leads up to the present situation. + +The works published in recent years to which I have been chiefly indebted +are: Joyce's "Social History of Ancient Ireland," Richie's "Short History +of the Irish People," Bagwell's "Ireland under the Tudors," Froude's "The +English in Ireland," Lecky's "Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland," +together with the special chapters on Ireland in his general history, +Ingram's "Two Chapters of Irish History" and "History of the Irish Union," +Ball's "Irish Legislative Systems," T. P. O'Connor's "The Parnell +Movement," and Sir Horace Plunkett's "Ireland in the Twentieth Century," +with the comments on it by Father O'Riordan. + +To Mr. Bagwell's "Ireland under the Tudors" I am specially indebted for +his narrative of the Tudor wars. To Mr. T. P. O'Connor I am specially +indebted for the most vivid accounts of the famine and of the evictions, +as well as for an improved insight into the Parnell Movement and of the +doings which preceded it. Of part of those doings I was myself in some +measure a witness, through my social connections with a circle of English +politicians who were inclining to an Irish alliance. + +The annals of the Tudor wars are horrible and heartrending. But history +cannot drop the veil over them. They long left their evil traces on Irish +character and sentiment, explaining and extenuating some terrible things +which ensued. Nor, in truth, have they become obsolete as warnings to us +in general of the acts into which civilized nations may be betrayed when +they make wars of conquest on those whom they deem barbarians. + +It seemed that a brief account of the recent land legislation for Ireland +might be useful to readers of an essay of this kind. I append one which +has been prepared for me by my friend, Mr. Hugh J. McCann, B.L., of the +Dublin Bar. Its author is in no way committed to any opinion expressed in +the other part of the work. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + I FROM EARLY TIMES TO EDWARD I (1272) 1 + + II EDWARD I TO HENRY VII (1272-1509) 19 + + III HENRY VIII TO MARY (1509-1558) 28 + + IV ELIZABETH TO JAMES I (1558-1603) 37 + + V JAMES I (1603-1625) 55 + + VI CHARLES I TO THE PROTECTORATE (1625-1660) 61 + + VII THE RESTORATION (1660) 80 + + VIII THE REVOLUTION (1688) 86 + + IX THE PENAL CODE (1695-1727) 91 + + X ANNE TO THE REVOLUTION OF 1782 (1702-1782) 105 + + XI THE REVOLUTION OF 1782 AND THE REBELLION OF 1798 121 + + XII UNION (1801) 148 + + XIII DANIEL O'CONNELL (1823-1847) 164 + + XIV GLADSTONE (1868-1893) 191 + + XV THE PRESENT STATE OF THE QUESTION 204 + + ACCOUNT OF THE IRISH LAND CODE 227 + By HUGH J. MCCANN, B.L., of the Irish Bar. + + + + +IRISH HISTORY AND THE IRISH QUESTION + + + + +I + + +Of all histories the history of Ireland is the saddest. For nearly seven +centuries it was a course of strife between races, bloodshed, massacre, +misgovernment, civil war, oppression, and misery. Hardly even now have the +troubles of Ireland come to a close, either for herself or for her +partner. Unrest still reigns in her and, embodied in her Parliamentary +delegation, harasses the Parliament and distracts the councils of Great +Britain. + +The theatre of this tragedy is a large island lying beside one nearly +three times larger, which cuts it off from the continent of Europe, while +on the other side it fronts the wide ocean. The climate is for the most +part too wet for wheat. The pasture is very rich. Ireland seems by nature +to be a grazing country, and a country of large farms; tillage and small +farms have been enforced by the redundance of rural population consequent +on the destruction of urban industries. In coal and minerals Ireland is +poor, while the sister island abounds in them, and in its swarming +factories and mines furnishes a first-rate market for the produce of Irish +pastures; so that the two islands are commercial supplements of each +other. The progress of pastoral countries, political and general, as they +have little city life, is slow. With beauty Ireland is well endowed. The +interior is flat, with large peat bogs and brimming rivers. But the coast +is mountainous and romantic. The western coast especially, where the +Atlantic rolls into deep inlets, has a pensive charm which, when troubles +end and settled peace reigns, may attract the villa as they do the +wanderer now. In early times the island was densely clothed with woods, +which, with the broad and bridgeless rivers, operated like the mountain +barriers of the Scottish Highlands in perpetuating the division of clans, +with their patriarchal system, their rivalries, and their feuds, thus +precluding the growth of a nation. In Ireland there was no natural centre +of dominion. Interest of every kind seems to enjoin the union of the +islands. But in the age of conquest the weaker island was pretty sure to +be marked as a prey of the stronger, while the difficulties of access, the +Channel, broad in the days of primitive navigation, and the Welsh +mountains, combined with the internal barriers of forest and river and +with the naturally wild habits of the people, portended that the conquest +would be difficult and that the agony would be long. Such was the mould of +Destiny. + +The people of Ireland when history opens were Celts, kinsmen of the +primitive races of Gaul and Britain, remnants of which are left in Wales +and in the Highlands of Scotland. Their language was of that family, while +cognate words connect it with the general Aryan stock. There are traces of +a succession of immigrations. Too much, no doubt, has been made of the +influence of race. Yet the Teuton is a Teuton and the Celt is a Celt. The +Celt in his native state has everywhere shown himself lively, social, +communicative, impulsive, prone to laughter and to tears, wanting, +compared with the Teuton, in depth of character, in steadiness and +perseverance. He is inclined rather to personal rule or leadership than to +a constitutional polity. His poet is not Shakespeare or Milton, but Tom +Moore, a light minstrel of laughter and tears. His political leader is +O'Connell, a Boanerges of passionate declamation. In war he is impetuous, +as was the Gaul who charged at Allia and the Highlander who charged at +Killiecrankie and Prestonpans. His taste as well as his manual skill in +decoration is shown by the brilliant collection of gold ornaments in the +Celtic Museum at Dublin, as well as in stone carvings and such a paragon +of illuminated missals as the Book of Kells. But it is greater than his +aptitude for high art, that art which treats the human form, in which he +has not shone. His religious tendency, the outcome of his general +character, is either to Catholicism with its fervid faith, its mysteries, +and its ceremonial, as in Ireland; or to the enthusiastic forms of +Protestantism, as in the Highlands and in Wales. Anglicanism, a sober cult +with a balanced creed, suits him not. It was a cruel decree of destiny +that the larger island from which the conqueror would come was peopled by +the Teuton, so that to the usual evils of conquest was added that of a +difference of character inherent in race. + +The primitive organization of the Irish Celts was tribal, the underlying +idea being kinship, real or reputed. The ruler with paternal authority was +the chief of the tribe. To avert strife his tanist, or successor, was +elected in his lifetime. In a community of reputed kinsmen there could be +no aristocracy of birth; but there seems to have been a plutocracy, whose +riches in that pastoral country consisted of cattle, which formed the +measure of wealth and command of which made poorer clansmen their +retainers. Under these were the freemen of the tribe. Under the freemen +again were the unfree, wanderers or captives taken in war or slaves from +the English slave-market. The unfree appear to have been the only tillers +of the soil. Thus tillage was marked with a bar sinister from its birth. +The tribal law was a mystical and largely fanciful craft or tradition in +the keeping of the Brehons, or judges, a hereditary order who, though +revered as arbiters, were without power of enforcing their judgments. Like +primitive law in general, it lacked the idea of public wrong. It treated +crime as a private injury, to be compounded by fine. The land was the +common property of the tribe, to which it nominally reverted on the demise +of the holder, though it may be assumed that the chiefs at all events had +practically land of their own and that the tendency in this, as in other +cases, was to private ownership. + +What the religion was is not certainly known. Probably it was the same as +that of the Celts of Great Britain and Gaul, Druidism, wild, orgiastic, +and perhaps sanguinary. But there seem to be no remains clearly Druidic in +Ireland. + +Life was pastoral, roving, probably bellicose. It appears that women +required to be restrained from taking part in war. The characteristic garb +of the tribesman was a loose saffron mantle, which served as his dress by +day, his coverlet by night. His favourite weapons, often used, were an axe +and a dart. He drew, it seems, a bow weak compared with the long-bow of +England. The gentler side of his character was shown in his passionate +love of the harp and the reverence in which he held the harper, and which +was extended to the bard, whose rude lays saluted the intellectual dawn +and whom we find in later times feared as an author of lampoons. Among his +favourite amusements was chess. + +Knowledge of the peculiar system of the Irish, political and legal, is of +more consequence because the opposite system, that of constitutional +government and feudal ownership, having presented itself to him as that of +alien masters and oppressors, tribal peculiarities and sentiments lingered +long. The idea of tribal ownership perhaps was a few generations ago still +faintly present in agrarian agitation. Nor has the general character of +the tribesman long been, if it yet is, extinct. Tribal feuds were until +lately represented in the strange faction fights of the Caravats and +Shanavests, the Two-Year-Olds and Three-Year-Olds, the annual fight of +factions for a legendary stone, and the encounters between bodies of the +peasantry at Irish fairs. Perhaps another feature of character traceable +to tribalism may be the gregarious habit of Irishmen contrasted with the +Englishman's isolation and love of his private home. + +Connected apparently with the tribal sentiment were the strange customs of +fosterage and gossipred. Fosterage consisted in putting out the child to +be reared by a tribesman who became its foster-father. Gossipred, a +Christian addition, was a spiritual kinship formed at the font. Both +relations had extraordinary force. + +There were, of course, tribal wars. There were leagues or dominations of +powerful tribes which left their traces in the division of the island into +four or five provinces, once petty kingships. There was a supreme +kingship, the seat of which, sacred in Irish tradition and legend, was the +Hill of Tara; but it was probably only when common danger compelled a +union of forces that this kingship became a real power. The features of +the country, combined with the character of the tribal organization based +on kinship, not on citizenship, would prolong the tribal divisions and +prevent union. Nor had nature anywhere fixed a central seat of command. +Only when opposed to an invader and struggling against him for the land +did Celtic Ireland form for the time a united people; even then it could +hardly be called a nation. + +The Roman conqueror looked, but came not. It might have been better for +Ireland if he had come. Yet, when he retired, he would probably have left +the Romanized provincial, here as in Britain, too unwarlike to hold his +own against the next invader. + +A conqueror of a different kind came. He came in the person, not of a +Roman general, but, if the tradition is true, of a slave. By the preaching +of St. Patrick, according to the common belief, Ireland was added to the +Kingdom of Christ. The conversion was rapid and probably superficial, the +chief of the tribe carrying the tribe over with him, as Ethelbert of Kent +and other English kinglets carried over their people, rather to a new +religious allegiance than to a new faith. + +Within the Roman Empire the centres of the Church had been the cities. +Cities were the seats of its bishoprics. The models of its organization +were urban. But in Ireland there were no cities. The episcopate was +irregular and weak, denoting rank rather than authority or jurisdiction. +The life of the Church was monastic and missionary. The weird Round +Towers, believed to have been places of refuge for its ministers and their +sacred vessels, as well as bell-towers, speak of a life surrounded by +barbarism and rapine as well as threatened by the heathen and devastating +Northmen. Partly perhaps owing to its comparative isolation and detachment +at home, the Irish clergy was fired with a marvellous and almost +preternatural zeal for the propagation of the Gospel abroad. It crossed +the sea to Iona, the sacred isle, still to religious memory sacred, from +which the light of the Gospel shone to the wild islesmen and to the rovers +of the Northern Sea. Irish missionaries preached to heathen Germany, +colliding there, it seems, with a more regular episcopate. They played a +part in the conversion of Britain not less important than that of the +missionaries of Rome, before whose authority, however, the Irish Church in +the person of Aidan was at last compelled to retire, the decisive struggle +taking place on the mode of celebrating Easter. + +In Ireland itself there arose in connection with the Church a precocious +and romantic passion for learning which founded primitive universities. +Its memory lingers in the melancholy ruins of Clonmacnoise. This was the +delusive brightness of a brief day, to be followed by the darkness of a +long night. + +The Church of Ireland seems in its origin to have been national and +neither child nor vassal of Rome. Its theology must have been independent +if Scotus Erigena was its son. But Rome gradually cast her spell, in time +she extended her authority, over it. Its heads looked to her as the +central support of the interests of their order and as their protectress +against the rude encroachments of the native chiefs. Norman Archbishops of +Canterbury served as transmitters of the influence. Still, the Irish +Church was not in Roman eyes perfectly regular. Tithes were not paid, nor +was the rule of consanguinity observed, or the rite of baptism +administered in strict accordance with the ordinances of Rome. + +Christianity did not kill the brood of a lively superstition, the fairy, +the banshee, the spectre, charms, amulets, prophecies, wild legends, which +in the times of gloom that followed strengthened their hold upon Irish +imagination. + +Hostile invasion came first in the form of the Northmen, whose piracy and +rapine extended to Ireland as well as to Gaul and Britain. Piracy and +rapine we call them now, but to the Northmen they seemed no more criminal +than to us seems hunting or fishing. The chief objects of the invader's +attack were the monasteries, at once treasuries of Church wealth and +hateful to the people of Odin. Ruthlessly the Northman slew and burned. +His fleet made him ubiquitous and baffled defence, union for which there +was not at first among the tribes. Common danger at last enforced it. A +national leader arose in the person of Brian Boru, who was for Ireland the +military, though not the political, saviour that Alfred was for England. +At the great battle of Clontarf, the host over which the Danish Raven flew +was totally overthrown, and Ireland was redeemed from its ravages. The +Dane, however, did not wholly depart. Exchanging the rover for the trader, +he founded a set of little maritime commonwealths at Dublin, Wexford, +Waterford, and Limerick, germs on a small scale and in a rude way of +municipal as well as commercial life. + +But a conqueror, more fell and more tenacious than the Dane, was at hand. +In 1169 a little fleet of Welsh vessels ran into the Bay of Bannow. From +it landed a band of mail-clad soldiery, men trained to war, with a corps +of archers. They were Normans from Wales under the leadership of the +Anglo-Norman rover Fitzstephen, and were the precursors of a larger body +which presently followed, under Richard Strigul, Earl of Pembroke, from +the strength of his arm surnamed Strongbow. Dermot, an Irish chief, +expelled for his tyranny, had brought these invaders on his country as the +instruments of his revenge. Henry II. had, by giving letters of marque, +sanctioned the enterprise, the fruits of which he intended to reap. Early +in his reign the king had obtained from Pope Adrian IV., an Englishman by +birth, a bull authorizing him to take possession of Ireland, which with +other islands the bull declared of right to be an appanage of the Holy +See. Here, as in the case of William's invasion of England, the Papacy +used Norman conquest as the instrument of its own aggrandizement. The +authenticity of the bull is disputed by Irish patriotism, but in vain. No +one questions the share of the Papacy in the Norman conquest of England. + +With the aid of his Norman allies, to whom the Irishman with his naked +valour was as the Mexican to the Spaniard, Dermot prevailed and glutted +his revenge by plucking from the triumphal pyramid of hostile heads that +of his chief enemy and tearing it with his teeth. But in this case, as in +that of the alliance of Cortez with the Tlascalans, the ally had +conquered for himself. Declining to be dislodged, he proceeded to +establish himself and to organize a Norman principality. + +Now the jealousy of the English king was aroused. He saw an independent +Anglo-Norman kingdom on the point of being founded by Strongbow in +Ireland. He published the papal bull, came over to Ireland in his power, +and held his court at Dublin in a palace of wickerwork run up in native +style for the occasion, where the Irish chiefs bowed their heads, but not +their hearts, before him. He organized a feudal principality with himself +as lord, but having the Pope as its suzerain, and tributary to the Papacy. +He formally introduced the organization of a feudal kingdom. He held at +Cashel a synod like that held by William the Conqueror at Winchester for +the purpose of reforming, that is thoroughly Romanizing, the Church of +Ireland. Irregularities respecting infant baptism and the matrimonial +table of consanguinity were set right. The payment of tithes, that +paramount duty of piety, was enjoined. Rome was installed in full +authority, thus in Ireland, as in England, receiving from her Norman +liegemen her share of their prize. With this pious offering to the Papacy +in his hand, Henry departed to meet his responsibility for the slaying of +Becket. He was presently succeeded for a short time in Ireland by his +hopeful boy, John, whose personal behaviour was an earnest of the future +tenour of his reign. Afterward, as king, John paid Ireland another flying +visit in which, besides pouncing on an enemy, he seems to have made a +fleeting attempt to regulate the government. + +Henry, had he not been called away by the storm following the death of +Becket, might have left things in better shape, but nothing could make up +for the permanent absence of the king. Two antagonistic systems henceforth +confronted each other. On one side was the feudal system, with its +hierarchy of land-owners, from lord-paramount to tenant-paravail; its +individual ownership of land; its hereditary succession and primogeniture; +its feudal perquisites, relief, wardship, and marriage; its tribute of +military service; the loyalty to the grantor of the fief which was its +pervading and sustaining spirit; its knighthood and its chivalry; its +Great Council of barons and baronial bishops; its feudal courts of justice +and officers of state; all however highly rude and imperfect. On the other +side was tribalism, with its tie of original kinship instead of +territorial subordination; its tanistry; its Brehon law. But the feudal +system in Ireland lacked the keystone of its arch. It was destitute of +its regulating and controlling power, the king. A royal justiciar could +not fill the part. From the outset the bane of the principality was +delegated rule. + +Ireland was a separate realm, though attached to the Crown of England. It +had a Parliament of its own, which followed that of England in its +development, being at first a unicameral council of magnates, lay and +clerical; but after the legislation of Edward I. a bicameral assembly with +a Lower House formed of representatives of counties and boroughs, whose +consent would be formally necessary to taxation. Representatives of +Ireland were at first called to Edward's Parliament at Westminster, but +the inconvenience seems to have been found too great. Weak, however, was +the Parliament of the colony compared with that of the imperial country. +If the Lords ever showed force, the making of a House of Commons was not +there. The representation, as well as the proceedings and the records, +appears to have been very irregular. Nothing worthy of the name of +Parliamentary government seems ever to have prevailed. Among those who +signed the Great Charter was the Archbishop of Dublin; but of chartered +rights Ireland was not the scene. There is no appearance of a separate +grant of subsidies by the clerical estate. The clergy, it seems, were +represented by their proctors in the Lower House, as by the bishops and +abbots in the Upper House. The Parliament appears to have been generally a +tool in the hands of the deputy. The irregularity of its composition seems +to have extended to its meetings. + +From the first the relation between the feudal realm and that of the +tribes was border war. They were alien to each other in race, language, +and social habits, as well as in political institutions. The Norman could +not subdue the Celt, the Celt could not oust the Norman. The conquest of +England by William of Normandy had been complete, and had given birth to a +national aristocracy, which in time blended with the conquered race and +united with it in extorting the Great Charter. The Norman colony in +Ireland was left to its feeble resources, and to a divided command, while +the monarchy was far away over sea, was squandering its forces in French +fields, and could not even project a complete conquest. Besides, there +were the difficulties which the country, with its broad rivers, its bogs, +its mountains and forests, opposed to the heavy cavalry of the +Anglo-Norman. There was the mobility of a pastoral people, presenting no +cities or centres of any kind for attack, driving its cattle to the woods +on the approach of the invader, and eluding his pursuit like birds of the +air. Thus the Anglo-Norman colony failed to become a dominion and +presently dwindled to a pale. Between the Pale and the Celt incessant war +was waged with the usual atrocity of struggles between the half-civilized +and the savage. Fusion there could be none. There was not the bond of +human brotherhood or that of a common tongue. On neither side was the +murder of the other race a crime. Never was there a more inauspicious +baptism of a nation. + +Anglo-Norman and Celt, feudalist and tribesman, alike were Catholics. A +common religion might have been a bond, a common clergy might have been a +mediating power. But race and language prevailed over religion. The +Churches, though outwardly of the same faith, remained inwardly separate, +and not only separate but hostile to each other, the clergy on both sides +sharing the spirit and the atrocities of race enmity and frontier war. The +Church of the tribes was still very rough and irregular. The Norman on his +part was devout. He was a founder of monasteries, thereby discharging his +conscience of a load not seldom heavy. Whatever of religious life and +activity there was in the Pale seems to have been monastic. Our glimpses +of the secular clergy show that they were secular indeed. Among them not +neglect of duty only but criminality appears to have been rife. + +In the little commercial towns of Danish foundation on the coast which had +been taken over by the Norman, life was probably rather more civilized; +but they were too diminutive to exert any influence beyond their gates. +Galway in time became the port of an active trade with Spain which is +supposed to have left a Spanish trace on its architecture and a Spanish +strain in the blood of its people. + + + + +II + + +It was not likely that the colony, in the state in which it was, would +gain by emigration from England. It was probably losing by depletion. +English kings drew soldiers from it for their wars. There being no +university or means of education, youths who wanted to study went to +Oxford, where, though they were not native Irish, they seem to have played +in academical brawls the part which native Irish might have played. Thus +the colony was emptied of its intellect. Fiefs by feudal rule of descent +passed to absentees and to women, weakening its military force. In every +way the life-blood of the English and feudal settlement was being +continually withdrawn. Of the kings of England, Richard I. was away on +crusade, John and Henry III. were wrestling with rebellion at home. The +thoughts of Edward I. were turned to Ireland; but his energies were +absorbed by Scotland, Wales, and Gascony. He too drew soldiers from +Ireland. + +The Anglo-Norman element, however, was united, while inveterate disunion +reigned among the native tribes. It was occupying the posts of vantage +with the castles characteristic of its military rule. It seems to have +been rather gaining ground when the island was invaded by Edward Bruce, +the brother of Robert, who, emulous of his brother's success in Scotland, +came over on the invitation of Irish tribes to carve out a kingdom for +himself. Bruce gained successes and committed great ravages, but was at +length met at Dundalk by the Anglo-Norman army under John de Bermingham, +overthrown, and slain. He had estranged his Irish allies. According to one +of their chroniclers, the day on which he was slain was the happiest of +days for the Irish people. The Irish appeal to the Pope against English +misrule on this occasion is in form a national manifesto, but was probably +less than national in its source. + +Still Bruce's invasion seems to have dealt the Norman colony a heavy blow +and thrown back into the hands of the native tribes districts which it had +conquered and over which its settlements had spread. Degeneration set in +amongst its people. They took to the strange native custom of fosterage, +to the Irishman's saffron mantle and his long moustache, to his weapons, +to his mode of riding, even to his language, and countenanced license by +confusing the Brehon with the feudal law. + +A strange compound of feudalism with tribalism ensued, in the shape of +mongrel chieftaincies, henceforth the predominant powers. English barons +doffed their baronial character, donned that of the tribal chief, and made +themselves independent lords of wide domains peopled by native Irish. It +seems that they retained the Norman instinct of command. Many of them +changed their Anglo-Norman for Irish names; Bourke, O'Neill, O'Brien, +O'Connor. They kept in their pay troops of bravos, gallowglasses and +kernes. Their rule seems to have combined the extortions of the feudal +lord with those of the native chiefs. Bonaught was a tax imposed by a +chief for the support of his mercenaries. Sorohen was an obligation on +lands to support the chief with his train one day in a quarter or one in a +fortnight. Coshery was a chief's right to sponge upon his vassals with as +many followers as he pleased. Cuddies, or night suppers, were due by lands +upon which the chief might quarter himself and his train for four days +four times a year. Shragh and mart were yearly exactions in money and +kine, apparently imposed at will. But worst of all was coyne and livery, +horse-meat and man-meat taken at will. This, it seems, was not an Irish +but an Anglo-Norman invention introduced at first as the means of coping +with Edward Bruce, but, like the income tax, perpetuated when the special +need was past. The chiefs deemed themselves independent princes, +renouncing openly or practically allegiance to the English Crown. It is +with these potentates and the forces which their restless and rebellious +ambition could command that the Crown henceforth in its struggle with the +Irish difficulty has to deal. Had they been united, they might have +prevailed; but they were always at feud with each other, while policy, +though not loyalty, led some of them to side with the Crown. Of the septs, +the three most powerful were the Geraldines of the north, close to Dublin, +the head of which became afterward Earl of Kildare; the Geraldines of the +south in Munster, the head of which became Earl of Desmond; and the +Butlers, also in the south, whose head became the Earl of Ormonde. The +O'Neills in Ulster were another powerful sept. The Butlers, less +Hibernized than their rivals, were almost always on the side of the Crown. + +To put a stop to degeneration and restore order in the Pale by the +talismanic influence of royalty, Edward III. sent over his son Lionel, +Duke of Clarence. Under the duke's influence the Irish Parliament passed +the statute of Kilkenny, drawing a sharp line of division between the two +races; declaring marriage, fosterage, gossipred, and even concubinage with +the Irish high treason; pronouncing the same penalties against supplying +horses and armour to Irishmen or furnishing them with provisions in time +of war; commanding Englishmen to speak English, to bear English names +only, and to ride and dress in the English fashion; providing for the +arming of the colony against Irish enemies; separating in every way the +native Irishman from the Englishman and even forbidding the admission of +Irish priests to livings in the English Church or to the English +monasteries. There are severe regulations against the entertainment of +Irish story-tellers and bards. An article declaring the English born in +Ireland and in England to be equal and forbidding them to call each other +English Hobbe or Irish Dog on pain of a year's imprisonment and a fine at +the king's pleasure shows that there was a social division in the colony +on that line. The statute betrays despair of a fusion of races or of a +subjection of the whole island to English rule and law. At the same time +it seems to restrain English aggression and decree peace between the +races. + +Piqued, we are told, by a taunt of his impotence as lord of Ireland which +stung his pride, Richard II. twice came over to Ireland with a large army. +His armies were wrecked by the difficulties of the country and the +passionate weakness of their commander. From his second visit Richard was +recalled by the knell of his own doom. + +The Pale was drawn into the troubles of the Roses. Before the outbreak the +Duke of York had come over to Ireland as vicegerent, won the heart of the +people, asserted the independence of the Irish Parliament, and seemed +disposed to make himself king. He had been recalled by the Civil War, but +he had left behind him a Yorkist party which adhered to the White Rose +after Bosworth, recognized the two pretenders, Lambert Simnel and Perkin +Warbeck, and fought for the lost cause by the side of Martin Schwartz and +his German hackbut-men at Stoke. + +The Anglo-Norman colony or "Pale" was now at its nadir. Much of its +manhood had been drawn away by the kings to their Scottish and French +wars. It was reduced to a circle of two counties and a half round Dublin, +defended by a ditch. Had the chiefs of tribes been unanimous, it would +almost certainly have been destroyed. But the chiefs of tribes were very +far from being unanimous, and thanks to their dissensions Strongbow in his +tomb at Christ Church still slept undisturbed on the field of his victory. +In the Pale itself reigned corruption, disorder, and misrule. "There is no +land in all this world that has more liberty in vices than Ireland and +less liberty in virtue." Such, as reported to Henry VIII., was the +internal condition of the colony; and the description extended in its full +force to the Church. + +The hostility of the Pale to the Red Rose probably combined with +distractions at home in leading Henry VII. to try the policy of winning +the great Irish chiefs to allegiance by marks of confidence and honour and +of governing Ireland through them. He tried it with the Earl of Kildare, +the head of the great Geraldine clan, saying, as the story went, when he +was told that all Ireland could not govern that man, "then that man shall +govern all Ireland." Kildare, deported to England as a suspected traitor, +but there winning favour and confidence by the artful address in which his +kind were seldom wanting, was sent back to Ireland as lord deputy. The +policy had a show of success. Kildare as deputy harried the lands of his +own enemies and reported execution done on the enemies of the Crown. He +gained one signal victory of that kind. But the attempt to employ restless +and lawless ambition as the regular mainstay of orderly government could +not be a permanent success. The sept of Butler alone was true to the +Crown. The next reign saw Kildare's son and successor as deputy in the +Tower, and his grandson, Silken Thomas, raising a madcap rebellion which +was made impious by the murder of an archbishop. The execution of Silken +Thomas and his five uncles closed the experiment of governing Ireland +through that house. There was left one boy whom faithful guardians carried +abroad and to whom the heart of the sept still turned. + +To make an end of the aspirations to independent nationality which had +budded under the Duke of York, and bring Irish legislation completely +under the control of the Crown, the Lord Deputy Poynings caused to be +carried through the Parliament of the Pale the pair of acts which bore his +name, subjecting Irish legislation to the control of the English Council. +The first act ordained that in future no Parliament should be held in +Ireland "but at such season as the King's Lieutenant-in-Council there +first do certify the King under the great seal of that land the causes and +considerations, and all such acts as then seemeth should pass in the said +Parliament." Should the king in council approve, the Irish Parliament was +to be summoned under the great seal of England and not otherwise. The +second act provided that all public statutes "late made within the realm +of England" should be in force in Ireland. This it was decided applied to +all English acts prior to the tenth year of Henry VII. Ireland was thus +practically turned from a separate principality into a political +dependency of England. The work of Poynings was long afterwards completed +by the act of George I. affirming the right of the British Parliament to +legislate for Ireland. + + + + +III + + +During the early part of the reign of Henry VIII. the policy of the +English government was a continuation of that of Henry VII. It was a +policy of conciliation and of ruling through the great Irish chiefs, the +heads of the Butlers, the Geraldines, and the O'Neills, who were gratified +by the bestowal of English titles of nobility, with flattering marks of +confidence, and by a change in the tenure of their land from tribal to +feudal, which invested them with full ownership. The Irish chief and the +feudal baron of the Pale now sat in Parliament together for the first and +last time. There appears to have been an inclination on the part of the +Crown to favour the native Irish, it being still remembered perhaps that +the Anglo-Irish had supported the Yorkist pretenders. The king himself +penned a sage and benevolent manifesto, in the shape of a despatch to the +Lord Deputy Surrey, on the blessings of civilization. The policy of +conciliation was in fact necessary as well as laudable; for the king, +plunged by his diplomacy into continental embroilments and lavishing his +father's hoard on a Field of the Cloth of Gold, had not the means of +subduing Ireland. It would have been vain to look in those days for the +philosophy which could make allowance for a diversity of national ideas +and habits. The O'Neill, upon his elevation to the earldom of Tyrone, is +required with his heirs to forsake the name of O'Neill, to use English +habits and the English language. The age, however, was one of growing +light. Education was a passion of the hour. A decree in favour of the +establishment of a system of free schools in Ireland went forth. Unhappily +it remained a decree. No homilies, no peerages, no flatteries or marks of +confidence could permanently avail to quiet the intractable ambition of +the great chiefs. They took the titles, which tickled their vanity; but +they preferred the state of a chieftain with his gallowglasses and with +his despotic power over the sept to that of a baron under royal rule, with +feudal restraints and obligations. They were always at feud with each +other, waging private war and ravaging each others' territories with the +ruthlessness of the most cruel invader. Murders among them were frequent. +Conspiracies were always on foot. Thus the catastrophe of the house of +Kildare ended what may be called the early Tudor policy of native +government and conciliation. The policy of conquest with colonization in +its train prevailed once more. + +The instrument of that policy was to be a line of English deputies; able +men on the whole and zealous in the public service, but generally +incapable of understanding any national character or any institutions but +their own. A deputy had also to contend with desperate difficulties, utter +insufficiency of military force, an empty exchequer, a service full of +jobbery and corruption, hostile intrigue both at Dublin and in the court +at home. + +The line was opened by Skeffington, a good though somewhat decrepit +soldier, before whose artillery fell the redoubtable native fortress of +Maynooth. The Crown had now a new and formidable force upon its side in +the cannon, which it alone could afford to maintain. In Ireland as +elsewhere the end of the feudal fortress had come. + +At the same time there were forfeited to the Crown great tracts of land +held by absentees, the feudal principle still prevailing and military +service being still a condition of the ownership of land. The Crown +thereby became a landowner on a vast scale, with the means of planting +settlements in all the districts under its power. Thus a wide field was +opened for Crown colonization. + +But now comes an event most momentous in itself and fraught with future +woe to Ireland. Henry VIII., enraged at the refusal of the Pope to let him +put away his wife and marry another woman, breaks with the Papacy, carries +his kingdom out of its dominion, declares himself supreme head of a +national Church, dissolves the monasteries, seizes their estates, and half +reforms the church in a Protestant sense, breaking the worshipped images, +closing the shrines, expurgating the liturgy, and licensing the +translation of the Bible. He seizes into his own hands under the mask of a +_congé d'élire_ the appointments to the bishoprics. Wavering to the last +in opinion between Catholicism and Protestantism according as the party of +the old or that of the new aristocracy prevailed in his councils, he in +the upshot practically ranges his kingdom on the Protestant side in the +grand struggle that was to come between the Catholic and the Protestant +powers. + +In Ireland there was one religion but there were two Churches: that of the +Pale and that of the native Irish; divided from each other, not by +doctrine or ritual, but by race and language, practically treating each +other as not within the pale of Christendom, hardly within the pale of +humanity. No Irishman could be admitted to church preferment or to a +monastery in the Pale. Nor did the churches ever act together as one +Church. Both were in a most miserable condition. The edifices were in +ruins, the services were unperformed. Monasteries however abounded. They +were the refuge of the peaceful in that world of strife and blood. That +some of them were on a large scale stately ruins prove. It is surmised +that they may have been wealthy, if not in lands, in orchards, fish-ponds, +mills, or the labour which seems to have been sheltered within their ample +walls. Like the English monasteries, they impropriated the tithes of +parishes, thus helping to kill the parochial system. The character of the +clergy was still scandalously low, not seldom criminal. Among the people +religion was almost dead; the remnant of it, as well as the remnant of +education, was kept alive by the poor Franciscan friars. In neither Church +was there the making of martyrs. + +In the little maritime towns there was more religion, as well as something +more like civilization. But in this as in other respects their influence +was confined to their own gates. + +There was no opposition in the Irish Parliament to the change of the +king's title from _Dominus_ to _Rex_, whereby the sovereignty of the Pope +was cancelled, to any article in the king's assumption of autocratic power +over the Church, or to his taking to himself the appointment of bishops. A +show of resistance made by the proctors of the clergy in the House of +Commons was promptly met by their extrusion. Nor was there the slightest +unwillingness on the part of any lord or chief to take his share of the +plunder of the monasteries, which, as in England, were suppressed, with +confiscation of revenue and goods, including the impropriated tithes of +parishes which they had served. A plea put in by the deputy on behalf of +six friaries in consideration of their special services to education and +their hospitality was not heard. + +The iconoclastic part of the revolution, attacking the material objects of +popular worship, relics, wonder-working images, and venerated shrines, +seems to have encountered some natural resistance, and it appears that the +government failed to put an end to pilgrimages, which were the religious +pleasure-trips of the people. + +The leader of the Reform movement, and specially of iconoclasm, in +Ireland, under Henry VIII., was Archbishop Browne, a fervid but +apparently not discreet man. He had a rather restive coadjutor in Bishop +Staples. No counterpart of Cranmer, Latimer, or Ridley appeared. + +The members of the council of Edward VI., being men of the new official +aristocracy, opposed to the old houses, attached themselves to the party +of movement in religion. In England they completed the work of +confiscation, carried iconoclasm a step farther, and made Protestant +reforms in the religious system, the last in conjunction with foreign +reformers. Their policy in Ireland was the same. They sent over the +prayer-book of Edward. But the effect appears to have been small. The way +had not been prepared by the advent of Lutheranism or by the use of +translations of the Bible. Besides, there was no religious feeling on +which it could act. The Deputy St. Leger was a shrewd man of the world, +who, while he was ready to put the law in force, disliked all religious +agitation. "Tut, tut," he said to the earnest reformer, "your religious +matters will spoil all." The way of the new liturgy was effectually +blocked by the Erse language, and no missionary effort appears to have +been made. + +The military policy of Edward's government had a very able though rather +grim representative in Bellingham, if he had only been backed by a +sufficient force. But the foreign complications of England being what they +were, no sufficient force could ever be sent. The system of regular +hostings against the natives is now on foot. Bellingham having stormed a +position, there ensues a butchery of wood kerne, the equal of which +Bellingham supposed there had never been. "Such," the deputy says, "was +the great goodness of God to deliver them into our hands." Puritanism with +its ruthlessness is making its appearance in the lists, on one side, while +on the other side enters its mortal foe the Jesuit. + +The government incurred deserved hatred in Ireland as in England by +carrying to further lengths the debasement of the coin which had been the +disgraceful shift of the spendthrift Henry VIII. A petition sent to the +king upon the subject, in setting forth the folly of debasement, stated +with an accuracy remarkable for the time the function of the precious +metals as a medium of exchange. Wholesale fraud on the part of government +was not likely to help the cause of the Reformation. + +Beyond the English Pale the change of religion never reached the people. +Antagonism of religion was henceforth added to estrangement of race. +Protestantism was to be the religion of the conqueror; Catholicism was to +be the religion of the conquered. The Pope became a rival in sovereignty +to the king of England, claiming the allegiance at once of piety and +patriotism. Instead of the torpid clergy of the old native Church, now +came upon the scene active emissaries of Rome with the Jesuit, master of +intrigue, at their head, to do the joint work of propagandism and +rebellion. Presently will appear the crusading soldiery of Catholic Spain. + +With Mary comes an interlude of reaction. The sovereignty was not restored +to the Pope. Grantees of abbey lands in Ireland, as in England, Catholics +though they might be, held fast their prey. But the old ritual was for a +time legally revived, and the hand of iconoclasm was stayed. Protestantism +was rabbled; but Smithfield fires, the martyr's spirit being absent, there +were none. + +A story is told of an envoy sent by Mary to Ireland with a warrant of +persecution, whose commission a clever Protestant woman, in whose house he +put up by the way, stole and replaced by a pack of cards, so that when the +deputy opened the wallet at the council board nothing came forth but the +pack of cards with the knave of clubs uppermost. + + + + +IV + + +Thus the day of the Elizabethan era which dawned so brightly upon England +came on in heavy clouds for the unhappy dependency. The religious +compromise which it brought to England was adapted by the English +statesmen who framed it to the religious condition and temperament of +their own people. To the condition and temperament of the Irish people +there was no such adaptation. To the Catholic lords of the Pale the +Elizabethan religion was alien; to the native Celts it was not only alien, +but utterly abhorrent. It presented itself, not as the religion of +Ireland, but as the religion of the conqueror. + +The ecclesiastical polity comprised in the Act of Uniformity and the +Thirty-nine Articles was, however, formally extended to Ireland, and the +Crown resumed the powers which it had assumed in the time of Henry VIII. +or his son, including the appointment of bishops, in this case without the +veil, retained in England, of the _congé d'élire_. In the dependency as +in England, the State assumed supreme power of religious legislation, +overriding and almost treating as null the authority of the ecclesiastical +Convocation. Propagation of the Anglican liturgy beyond the Pale continued +to be blocked by the language. + +Burleigh and the other statesmen of Elizabeth's Council could not fail to +turn their minds to the Irish problem, enhanced as its gravity had been by +the progress of religious revolution in Europe and the danger of a +conflict with the Catholic powers. Trinity College is a noble monument of +their policy. In Ireland, as in England, they restored the coin, though +the benefits of that wise measure were offset by protectionist enactments +carried in the Parliament of the Pale, which bore the usual fruits. They +sent commissioners of inquiry to give them more trustworthy information +than they could get from the despatches of the deputies or the tattling +intriguers of the Pale. They formed a plan for the institution of +provincial presidencies to lengthen the arm of government and form local +centres of civilization, which, had it taken effect, might have been the +best solution of the problem. But the necessary means of giving effect to +any policy failed them. Churches and schools, which were named by a +reformer at the time as the indispensable instruments of civilization, +could in the case of Ireland be named only in mockery. An ordinance for +the general establishment of schools more than once went forth, but an +ordinance still it remained. The Pale, reduced as it was in extent and +weakly defended, was in itself a nest of misrule, jobbery, and corruption. +Nothing could have been done without a military force in the hands of the +central government sufficient to enforce law and order. Such a force the +counsellors of Elizabeth had no means of maintaining. Continental war drew +heavily on the exchequer. The queen was unwisely parsimonious. She was +seized with spasms of frugality. Militia on the spot of any value there +was none. The service was very unpopular in England, and the men enlisted +or pressed for it as soldiers were apt to be of the Falstaffian kind, +better at preying on the people for whose protection they were sent and at +indulging in the general license of the camp than at facing the perils and +hardships of "hostings" in the Irish wilds. Their pay was almost always in +arrears. + +The service was not inviting. "The deputy, according to his commission, +marched into the north. But, alas, he neither found France to travel in +nor Frenchmen to fight withal. There were no glorious towns to load the +soldiers home with spoils, nor pleasant vineyards to refresh them with +wine. Here were no plentiful markets to supply the salary of the army if +they wanted, or stood in need; here were no cities of refuge, nor places +of garrison to retire into, in the times of danger and extremity of +weather; here were no musters ordered, no lieutenants of shires to raise +new armies; here was no supplement of men or provisions, especially of +Irish against Irish; nor any one promise kept according to his +expectation; here were, in plain terms, bogs and woods to be in, fogs and +mists to trouble you, grass and fern to welcome your horses and corrupt +and putrefy your bodies; here was killing of kine and eating fresh beef, +to breed diseases; here was oats without bread, and fire without food; +here were smoky cabins and nasty holes; here were bogs on the tops of +mountains, and few passages, but over marshes, or through strange places; +here was retiring into fastnesses, glens, and no fighting, but when they +pleased themselves; here was ground enough to bury your people in being +dead, but no place to please them while alive; here you might spend what +you brought with you, but be assured there was no hopes of relief; here +was room for all your losses, but scarce a castle to receive your spoil +and treasure. To conclude: here was all glory and virtue buried in +obscurity and oblivion, and not so much as a glimmering hope that how +valiantly soever a man demeaned himself it should be registered or +remembered." + +The deputies sent in command might do their best according to their +lights. They generally did. But the lights of all of them were not the +same, and the web of Penelope woven by one was always in danger of being +unwoven by his successor. One of them only, Sussex, was large-minded +enough to think of acknowledging the Brehon law, reducing it to a system, +and making it a bridge across which the Irish might pass to legal +civilization. All the deputies had to contend more or less with local +opposition and intrigue. + +The consequences to Ireland of this policy of government by deputies were +disastrous. The presence of royalty might have had some effect on the +Irish heart. It could hardly have failed, at all events, to reveal the +real state of things. But it was never tried. + +Elizabeth, Protestant by circumstance and profession, Catholic in her real +leanings, hating nothing so much as a Puritan, unless it were a +clergyman's wife, and an autocrat to the core, had no desire of breaking +with the Papacy or with Spain. But when a Pope excommunicated and deposed +her, the die was cast. Ireland was drawn into the European war between +Catholicism and Protestantism which was also that between despotism and +freedom; she became a point of military danger in a national and religious +struggle for life or death. There is now an end of the policy of +conciliation or of colonization with a civilizing object. The policy +henceforth is that of conquest, and when resistance is obstinate, of +extermination. + +The reign was filled with successive wars between the English and the +natives, the first slightly, the last two more deeply, identified on the +side of the natives with papal suzerainty and the Catholic cause. The +first was that with Shane O'Neill, elective head of the great Ulster sept +of O'Neill and pretender to the royal earldom of Tyrone. The tribal +headship was unquestionably elective; to the earldom Shane's claim was +doubtful, the question being partly one between the English and the Brehon +law. It was presently settled by the murder of Shane's rival. Shane was, +in fact admitted himself to be, a barbarian, brutal, drunken, and cruel, +all in a high degree. He made his prisoners wear an iron collar fastened +by a short chain to gyves on their ankles so that they could neither stand +nor lie. At the same time he was able, crafty, and daring. He made himself +supreme in Ulster, baffled the English in war, and was so formidable that +the Lord Deputy Sussex, once at least, if not more than once, attempted to +get rid of him by assassination. He intrigued with Philip of Spain. At +another time he coquetted with the Queen's government and paid a visit to +the court, where he and his gallowglasses, with their axes, their Irish +heads of hair and moustaches, their wide-sleeved saffron shirts, short +tunics, and shaggy cloaks of fur or frieze, produced a sensation among the +courtiers. Master of dissimulation, Shane fell on his knees before the +Queen and confessed his rebellion in the Irish language "with howling." +Returning to Ulster, he recommenced the game there, plundering and +burning, slaying man, woman, and child. He was at last stabbed in a brawl +with the Scottish raiders with whom he had intrigued. These marauding +immigrants from the Scottish Highlands and isles were now a formidable +addition to the elements in the cauldron of Irish anarchy and ruin. + +Shane was an Irish leader of the thoroughly Celtic type. Perhaps the +next, though in a widely different guise and sphere, may be said to have +been Daniel O'Connell. + +As a mover of disturbance on a large scale there succeeded James +Fitzmaurice, kinsman of the Earl of Desmond, the head of the southern sept +of Geraldines. Fitzmaurice, whether from conviction or policy, gave +rebellion a more religious character and connected it with Rome and +Madrid, which he visited on missions of intrigue. In this work he had a +compeer in Stukely, an adventurer of the kind then common, who also +intrigued with the Catholic powers. If their aim was an Irish crown on a +Catholic head, it came to nothing. But Fitzmaurice brought with him to +Ireland a regular proclamation from the Pope, and had made formidable +headway in his appeal to the forces of disorder when he was killed. The +leadership of the movement passed to the Earl of Desmond, who with a +little aid from Spain raised in Munster a rebellion on a large scale. He +was a feeble though respectable leader, and his rising in the end bore no +fruits but a renewal of slaughter and devastation. + +The aid of Rome and Spain promised to the Irish Catholics was long in +coming. Ever tardy and vacillating was the mind of the Spanish king. But +at the time of Desmond's rebellion the aid came. In concert with the +insurgent Irish a force of Italians and Spaniards landed and established +itself in a fortalice at Smerwick. The deputy at that time was Lord Grey, +a Puritan most pronounced and militant, the Artegal, the Knight of +Justice, in Spenser's "Faerie Queene," bent on the overthrow of the false +Duessa and the extermination of her brood. He invested Smerwick. The Irish +allies of the invader failed to relieve the place, and the garrison was +compelled to surrender at discretion. Grey then butchered the whole of +them in cold blood. Raleigh, as the officer in command, it is to be feared +directed the slaughter. Alva or Parma would have done the same, and +Elizabeth in approving incurred no special infamy. + +The poor Irish in this rebellion showed that fidelity to a chief which was +one of their small stock of political virtues. They afterwards showed +their love of legend, of melancholy legend especially, by telling that +Desmond's ghost, mounted on a phantom steed with silver shoes, rose at +night from the water on the bank of which he had been slain, and fancying +that in the moaning of the wind they heard the Desmond howl. + +The attainder of the Earl of Desmond was followed by the sweeping +confiscation of a vast tract of land to the Crown, on the assumption that +as the domain of an earl it had been a fief and the property of its lord; +whereas under native law and according to native ideas it was the property +of the tribe. Spenser was one of the grantees of the Crown and settlers on +the conquered land. He had been the secretary of Lord Grey. The author of +the "Faerie Queene" thus encountered the religion of the false Duessa, his +hatred of which was not likely to be diminished when he was afterwards by +a great outbreak of insurrection ejected from his grant. + +Now along the dangerous western coast of Ireland were driven in dire +distress a number of great ships of war, with the troops and much of the +power and chivalry of a mighty kingdom on board. These were the miserable +remnants of the Invincible Armada. About a score of the ships were cast +ashore or wrecked. The crews for the most part perished. On one strand of +less than five miles in length were counted above eleven hundred corpses +cast up by the sea. On two miles of strand in Sligo there lay wrecked +timber enough to build five first-rate ships, besides mighty great boats, +cables and other cordage, and masts of extraordinary size. Of those who +struggled to land, many were killed by the English, not a few by the +native Irish, who stripped and robbed those whom they did not kill, +skipping and capering at the sight of such glorious plunder. The Armada +had come to liberate the native Irish from the heretical yoke; but love of +plunder overcame in their simple souls regard for a political and +ecclesiastical alliance, their appreciation of which, perhaps, had never +been very clear. + +One Spaniard, Cuellar, after being stripped and narrowly escaping with his +life, spent some time in an Irish cabin, and has left his notes on native +Irish life and character, valuable as those of a neutral. + +"The habit of those savages," he says, "is to live like brutes in the +mountains, which are very rugged in the part of Ireland where we were +lost. They dwell in thatched cabins. The men are well made, with good +features, and as active as deer. They eat but one meal, and that late at +night, oatcake and butter being their usual food. They drink sour milk +because they have nothing else, for they use no water, though they have +the best in the world. At feasts it is their custom to eat half-cooked +meat without bread or salt. Their dress matches themselves--tight +breeches, and short hose jackets of very coarse texture; over all they +wear blankets, and their hair comes over their eyes. They are great +walkers and stand much work, and by continually fighting they keep the +queen's English soldiers out of their country, which is nothing but bogs +for forty miles either way. Their great delight is robbing one another, so +that no day passes without fighting, for whenever the people of one hamlet +know that those of another possess cattle or other goods, they immediately +make a night attack and kill each other. When the English garrisons find +out who has lifted the most cattle, they come down on them, and they have +but to retire to the mountains with their wives and herds, having no +houses or furniture to lose. They sleep on the ground upon rushes full of +water and ice. Most of the women are very pretty, but badly got up, for +they wear only a shift and a mantle, and a great linen cloth on the head, +rolled over the brow. They are great workers and housewives in their way. +These people call themselves Christians, and say Mass. They follow the +rule of the Roman Church, but most of their churches, monasteries, and +hermitages are dismantled by the English soldiers, and by their local +partisans, who are as bad as themselves. In short there is no order nor +justice in the country, and every one does that which is right in his own +eyes." + +"Savages" Cuellar calls the natives; what but savages could they be when +not only had all the means of civilization been withheld from them, but +they were hunted like beasts of prey? That the women are "great workers +and housewives in their way" is a redeeming feature in the picture. The +whole land, English and Irish alike, was a wreck. The secretary of a lord +deputy reports that the people had no conscience, but committed crimes +freely; that they even changed wives among themselves; that bridges were +falling down, churches roofless; there were no charities, no schools; law +was jobbery, and the judicial bench was filled with ignorance; every lord +hated the restraints of law and made himself an Irish chief; and disorders +were as great among English soldiers as among Irish kernes. + +The third rebellion, and the most formidable of all, was that of the Earl +of Tyrone, head of the O'Neills of Ulster. It stirred the general forces +of revolt, national and religious, beyond Ulster, in Connaught and +elsewhere. Tyrone gave his movement distinctly the character of a holy +war, and received aid from Spain. Unlike Desmond, he was an able leader. +He gained a victory over the English at the Yellow Ford which filled +Dublin with panic. To put him down, Elizabeth sent her favourite Essex, +with forces greater than her parsimony allowed to an ordinary deputy. +Essex went forth with great pomp and amidst high expectations. But he +totally lacked steadiness of character and policy. He failed and went home +to run mad courses and die on the scaffold, faintly recalling the Irish +history of Richard II. + +Essex was succeeded by Mountjoy, able, iron-willed, and ruthless, who made +it a war of extermination and devastation. The Spaniards brought tardy aid +to their Irish allies. They landed in force at Kinsale, and for a moment +the fortune of war seemed to waver, but it soon inclined again to the side +of the deputy and England. The force of the rebellion was broken, and +Tyrone was compelled to surrender. + +Of all the wars waged by a half-civilized on a barbarous and despised +race, these wars waged by the English on the Irish seem to have been about +the most hideous. No quarter was given by the invader to man, woman, or +child. The butchering of women and children is repeatedly and brutally +avowed. Nothing can be more horrible than the cool satisfaction with which +commanders report their massacres. "I was never," said Captain Woodhouse, +"so weary with killing of men, for I protest to God for as fast as I +could I did but hough and paunch them." "The number of their fighting men +slain and drowned that day," says another commander, "were estimated and +numbered to be fourteen hundred or fifteen hundred, besides boys, women, +churls, and children, which could not be so few as many more and upwards." +Over and over again massacres of people of both sexes and all ages are +reported with similar coolness. Another ruffian seems to have put to death +children who were held as hostages. + +Mountjoy especially used famine deliberately as his instrument of war, and +with signal effect. After his work, multitudes lay dead in the ditches of +towns and other waste places, with their mouths coloured green by eating +docks and nettles. Children were seen eating their mother's corpse. Old +women, we are told, lit fires in the woods and ate the children who came +to warm themselves. Not only were horses killed and eaten, but cats and +dogs, hawks and kites. The wolves, driven by hunger from the woods, killed +the enfeebled people. The dead lay unburied or half-buried, the survivors +not having strength to dig graves, and dogs ate the remains. + +It must be said that the native Irish not only retaliated these cruelties +on the English whenever they could, but committed them on each other. +Edward Butler, for example, invades Arra, the district of another clan, +harries the country far and wide, breaks open the churches to which the +frightened women had fled in the vain hope of sanctuary, and gives the +region up for forty-eight hours to plunder and rape, sparing neither age +nor condition. The lately gathered corn is destroyed, and famine stares +the whole population in the face. The raid is presently repeated, the +cattle are driven off, and a house full of women and children is given to +the flames. In the English settlement of Munster, overrun by the native +Irish, English children are taken from their nurses' breasts and dashed +against walls; an Englishman's heart is plucked out in his wife's +presence, and she is forced to lend an apron to wipe the murderer's +fingers. Of the English fugitives who flocked into Youghal some had lost +their tongues and noses. Irish tenants and servants that yesterday fed in +the settlers' houses were conspicuous by their cruelty. + +What was called law was almost as murderous as war. Men were hanged at +assizes by scores, and these massacres were reported by the deputy with +satisfaction as gratifying proof of the increased influence of public +justice. A bishop witnesses them with complacency. Respect for human life +must have perished. Such was the training which in the formative period of +national character the Celtic Irish received, and which must be borne in +mind when we come to atrocities committed by them at a not very much later +period. + +At the same time we do not see the back of destiny's cards. The +subjugation of barbarous clans by a foreign conqueror, himself +half-civilized, was horrible. Would a series of tribal wars among the +clans themselves have been less horrible? When Strongbow landed there had +been hardly any sign of permanent union or of the foundation of a settled +polity. Nor afterwards does there appear to have been any attempt or +tendency of the kind. + +Tyrone, on his submission, had been restored to rank and great part of his +estate. But he, as well as his confederate, the O'Donnell, created Earl of +Tyrconnell, afterwards finding themselves objects of aversion and +suspicion, fled the country. Their flight and the suppression of a futile +outbreak of tribal insurrection under another O'Donnell finished the work. +The whole island was now conquered, but the heart of the people, as +presently appeared, was very far from being won. The hold of the Papacy +and the Catholic Church upon their liegemen had been growing stronger +under the long struggle and was not impaired by its close. It formed +henceforth a religious substitute for nationality. + + + + +V + + +Ireland, conquered, now became shire land, at least in contemplation of +law. The law of England, in the eyes of its professors the consummation of +human wisdom, ousted the Brehon law. The feudal system of land tenure +supplanted the tribal system. Freehold and leasehold, primogeniture and +entail, took the place of tribal ownership and tanistry. Justice was +henceforth to be administered in English courts, and judges were to go +circuit as in England. The change at first seemed to be well received. +Perhaps novelty itself impressed. An English chief justice, going circuit +through the newly Anglicized districts, could complacently report that +multitudes had flocked to his court; whence he drew the cheerful inference +that the Irish after all, like other men, loved justice. So they did, and +do; but it was not the justice of the king's bench and Coke. Nor did they +love its administration by an alien conqueror. It was probably curiosity +as much as confidence that drew them to the court of Chief Justice Davies; +so the event proved. + +The whole machinery of government, as well as the law and the judiciary, +was at the same time assimilated, formally at least, to the English model. +The corporate towns received new charters. The place of the military +deputy was taken by the head of a civil government with his officials. + +Unhappily the ecclesiastical polity of England, with its tests and its +recusancy law, compelling attendance at the services of the State Church, +was at the same time thrust upon people to whom it was in itself and in +its associations abhorrent. Under Elizabeth there had been a politic +laxity. Now fines for recusancy are exacted. Intolerance of Catholic +dissent from the royal religion could not fail to be increased by the +Gunpowder Plot. + +James I., with all his pedantry, his absurdities, and his stuffed +breeches, was not without something of the largeness of mind which culture +generally imparts. He could understand Bacon. His Irish policy, evidently +inspired by Bacon, was colonization, plantation as it then was called. For +this there was ample room on the forfeited lands of Tyrone and other +attainted chiefs, so far as legal ownership in the contemplation of +English law was concerned. But the attainders of the chiefs had not +cleared the lands of the members of their septs, in whose minds tribal +ownership was rooted. This was the weak point of the transplantation +policy, as in the sequel tragically appeared. Extensive grants, however, +were made to a colony formed by English and Scottish settlers, undertakers +as they were called. Of Scottish settlers there had before been not a few. +The city of London invested largely in the enterprise. Thus was formed in +Ulster, and in Ulster has continued to exist to the present time, a sort +of Protestant pale. Bacon's philosophic eye ranges complacently over the +prospect of a people of barbarous manners "brought to give over and +discontinue their customs of revenge and blood and of dissolute life and +of theft and rapine, and to give ear to the wisdom of laws and +governments; whereupon immediately followeth the cutting of stones for +building and habitation, and of trees for the seats of houses, orchards, +enclosures, and the like." Beyond doubt this settlement was an improvement +in material respects. Nor, though the new settlers might domineer, was +their domination likely to be more oppressive and insolent than that of +the native chief, with his gallowglasses and his coyne and livery. The +tribal ownership of land had probably become almost a fiction, the chief +treating the land as his own. Little, therefore, was actually lost in +that way by the tribesman, while there was an end of coyne and livery and +the other extortions of the chiefs. On the other hand the chief, however +oppressive, was nominally one of the tribe and a kinsman, and the land was +still tribal in the fancy of the sept. The tribesman was not liable to +eviction. Nor was improvement in agriculture or even in advancement of law +and order likely to be so fascinating to the native Irish, especially to +gallowglasses and kernes, as to Bacon. The adventurers were apt to be of a +sordid class, ravenous, close-fisted, little likely to make themselves +beloved. The eagles of enterprise spread their wings for the Spanish main; +the vultures swooped upon Ireland. The medley of Brehon law and English +law, with the variety of titles, some by forfeiture for treason, others by +ancient grants from the Crown, formed an element in which the art of the +predatory pettifogger had full play. By legal chicane, the chicane of an +alien law, many an Irish Naboth may have been dispossessed. There was, +moreover, the antagonism of religion, greatly intensified by the long +struggle in which the natives, fighting for independence, had looked up to +Rome for support and been fired at heart by the active zeal of her +missionaries. + +The government meant well. It sent over an able lord deputy in the person +of Chichester, who did his best for healing and improvement. In +improvement he was somewhat hasty and procrustean. He might have done +better had he only imbibed Bacon's spirit of philosophic toleration, and +not fancied that for Irish barbarism Protestantism of the Anglican type +was the sovereign cure. Bacon, as one of his three specifics for the +recovery of the hearts of the people, had recommended a toleration, +partial and temporary at least, of the Catholic religion, which was to be +combined "with the sending over of some good preachers, especially of that +sort which are vehement and zealous persuaders and not scholastical, to be +resident in principal towns." The government issued a politic manifesto, +promising to all native Irish of the poorer class equal protection and +complete immunity from any oppressive claims of chiefs. But let the +government charm as wisely as it might, it could not charm away the +difference of race, language, and character, the antagonism of religion, +the memories of the long and murderous struggle, the ravenous cupidity and +overbearing attitude of the alien adventurer, the anguish of the native +who saw the stranger in possession of his land. + +James called a Parliament for all Ireland, Catholic as well as Protestant. +It was packed for the Crown, which created boroughs for that purpose. +Still, it was something more like a national assembly than Ireland had +ever seen or in fact was destined again to see. The elections to it were +fiercely contested between the races and religions. Its first sitting was +characteristic. There was a division on the election of a speaker. One +party went out into the lobby. In its absence the other party seated its +man in the chair. The party which had gone out, returning and finding what +had been done, seated their man in the other man's lap. The importance of +this Parliament, however, is extolled by Sir John Davies, and one act, at +all events, stands to its credit. It repealed the statute of Kilkenny and +all other laws recognizing and perpetuating distinctions of race, +declaring that their cause had ceased, since the inhabitants of the +kingdom without distinction were henceforth under the protection of the +Crown, and the best way of settling peace was to allow their intercourse +and intermarriage so that they might grow into one nation. There was a +transient ray of sunlight on the dark scene. Efforts were made to improve +Trinity College, and learning shone forth in the person of Usher. + + + + +VI + + +There was still in Ireland a mine charged with the wrath of the +dispossessed added to the hatred of race and religion, the religious +hatred being the more deadly because, the Protestants of Ireland being +Calvinist, the antagonism was extreme. The match was applied to the mine +by the outbreak of revolution in England under Charles I. Strafford, +having passed from the ranks of patriotism to the place left vacant by the +death of Buckingham in the councils of the king, came with his dark look +of command as viceroy to play the part of beneficent despot in Ireland, +and at the same time to raise an army there for his master. The part of +despot he played to perfection, making the Irish Parliament the tool of +his will, applying to it and to the government in general his own and +Laud's high royalist policy of Thorough. The part of beneficent despot he +played to a considerable extent. He set his heel on the rapacity of the +adventurers, compelling the chief of them, the Earl of Cork, to disgorge. +He enforced order and put down piracy, which in the general disorder had +become rife. He fostered the cultivation of flax and the linen trade, +though he paid blackmail to English protectionism by prohibiting the +woollen manufacture. He did his best to reform the State Church, which he +found sunk in torpor, sinecurism, and simony, while its edifices were +ruins and piggeries. Unluckily he was a strict Anglican, whereas the only +Protestantism in Ireland which had life in it was the Calvinistic +Protestantism represented by Usher. He made a mortal enemy by turning the +sumptuous monument of Lady Cork off the place of the high altar. But to +find means of raising an army for his king he had to resort to violent +measures. He dragooned the Parliament into granting extraordinary +supplies. The king had pledged himself in the form of "graces" to respect +and quiet titles to large tracts of land. These graces Strafford thrust +aside. By legal chicane and intimidation of juries he, in defiance of the +king's plighted word, confiscated a great part of the land of Connaught. A +legal raid of the Crown on the estates which the city of London had +purchased in Ulster made the lord deputy another formidable enemy. He +added to the number by trampling on the pride of men of rank and +influence. Strafford had formed his army. That he intended it as a +support to the arbitrary government of Charles is beyond question; his +betrayal of that intention by some loose words uttered in council formed +the most damaging piece of evidence against him; and though the army broke +up on his departure, fears of it continued to haunt the English mind and +to intensify English feeling against the Irish. The Irish Parliament +joined in the impeachment of the man who had trampled on it, and when +Strafford pleaded in defence of his arbitrary measures, that Ireland was a +conquered country, Pym's retort was, "They were a conquered nation! There +cannot be a word more pregnant or fruitful in treason than that word is. +There are few nations in the world that have not been conquered, and no +doubt but the conqueror may give what law he pleases to those that are +conquered; but if the succeeding pacts and agreements do not limit and +restrain that right, what people can be secure? England hath been +conquered, and Wales hath been conquered, and by this reason will be in no +better case than Ireland. If the king by the right of a conqueror gives +laws to his people, shall not the people by the same reason be restored to +the right of the conquered to recover their liberty if they can?" + +Revolution was in the air. It stirred the heart of the Catholic cowering +under the penal law, who saw the foot of his arch-enemy the Puritan on the +steps of power. It stirred still more the heart of the disinherited +native, especially on the forfeited domain of Tyrone. One of those great +popular conspiracies of which the Irish have the gift was formed under the +leadership of Phelim O'Neill, who ranked among his countrymen as head of +the great sept of O'Neill, and cherished ancestral traditions of vast +domains and princely power. With Phelim O'Neill was a better man, Roger +Moore, one of the disinherited, a deadly enemy of England. The rebellion +posed as royalist, declaring for the king against the Puritan and +revolutionary Parliament; its aims were Ireland for the Irish, and +Catholicism as the Irish religion. Phelim O'Neill was not a man to +restrain from crime. But the people, once launched in insurrection, were +probably beyond control. They rose upon the English settlers in Ulster, +drove them from their homes, and massacred some thousands with the usual +cruelty, women and children taking part in the fiendish work. Many were +stripped naked and exposed to perish in the cold. Dublin was full of +shivering and famished fugitives. The capital itself narrowly escaped +through fortunate betrayal of the plot, such as in an Irish conspiracy +seldom fails. It was natural that panic should exaggerate the number +murdered, as it was that panic and superstition together should see the +spectres of the English who had been drowned by the rebels at Portadown. +The effect upon the English, above all upon the Puritan mind, was like +that of the Sepoy mutiny and the massacre of Cawnpore. Ruthless +retaliation followed. Where the Protestants got the upper hand, Irish men, +women, and children were butchered without mercy. Thenceforth the Irishman +was to the Puritan a wild beast or worse. All Irishmen who landed in +England to fight for the king, with the women who followed their camps, +were put to the sword. An Irishwoman left behind by a Munster regiment at +the siege of Lyme was torn to pieces by the women of the place. + +The English Parliament at once, being short of money, passed, to provide +for the Irish war, an act confiscating in advance two and a half millions +of acres of rebel land as security for a loan; a measure, to say the +least, extreme and sure to make the conflict internecine. The act passed +without a dissentient voice, and was one of the last that received the +assent of Charles. + +In Ireland against the dark clouds of the storm one rainbow appeared. The +Protestant Bishop Bedel, though a proselytizer, had by his beneficence won +the love of his Catholic neighbours. He and his family were not only +spared by the rebels, but treated with loving-kindness, and when he died a +farewell salute was fired over his grave. + +Thus commenced a course of mutual slaughter which lasted eleven years, +and, according to Sir William Petty, cost, by sword, plague, and famine, +the lives of a third part of the population. A great pasture country was +reduced to the importation of foreign meat. A traveller could ride twenty +or thirty miles without seeing a trace of human life, and wolves, fed on +human flesh, multiplied and prowled in packs within a few miles of Dublin. +Numbers abandoned the country and enlisted in foreign services. Slave +dealers plied their trade and shipped boys and girls to Barbados. + +Strafford's place as deputy not having been filled, the government +remained in the hands of the Puritan Lords Justices Parsons and Borlase, +the first an intriguer and jobber, the second a worn-out soldier and a +cipher. They had prorogued the Parliament by which they might have been +restrained. The commander of the army on the king's side and the +representative of the king's interest was Ormonde, the head of the +loyalist house or sept of Butler, a man thoroughly honourable as well as +able and wise, whose character stands out nobly amidst the dark carnival +of evil. + +It is difficult to say to which of the contending parties the palm of +atrocity is to be awarded. Probably to that of the government, which knew +no measure in the extermination of Catholics and rebels. Where Ormonde +commanded there was sure to have been comparative mercy. Mercy there +certainly was on the side of the insurgents when they were commanded by +Owen O'Neill, a genuine soldier trained in foreign service and observant +of the rules of civilized war. But a papal legate who was in the Catholic +camp gleefully reports that after a battle won by the confederates no +prisoners had been taken. By the soldiery of the government at least +children were butchered, the saying being that "nits make lice." + +The anti-Catholic policy of the Puritan government and the castle had +driven into the arms of insurrection the Catholic lords of the Pale, +English in blood, normally hostile to the tribes though they were. The +Confederation formed at Kilkenny a provisional government with an assembly +of priests and laity combined, which elected a council of war. The +assembly was presently joined by a papal nuncio, Rinuccini, who brought +money from Rome and it seems at the same time encouragement of the +rebellion from Richelieu. The nuncio sought to control everything in the +paramount interest of the Papacy, which thus once more appears as a power +of temporal ambition. The assembly was not unanimous. Of the clergy and +the nuncio the chief aims were the ascendency of the Catholic Church and +the recovery of the confiscated Church lands. The chief aims of the lay +lords were lay; they wanted relief from political disabilities and +recovery of their political power. Restoration to the Church of the abbey +lands, of the grantees of which they were the heirs, was by no means to +their mind. + +Of the origin of the rebellion in Ulster King Charles was perfectly +innocent, though he drew suspicion on himself by some careless words. +Nothing worse for his cause could have happened. But when in his wrestle +with the Puritan he was thrown, he began to cast a longing eye on the +forces in Ireland which, though rebel and Catholic, were at all events +hostile to the Puritan. There ensued a series of tangled intrigues with +the Confederates, in the course of which Charles showed his usual +weakness and duplicity, while he was fatally committed by the mingled +rashness and tergiversation of his envoy, Glamorgan, the result being a +disclosure very injurious to the poor king's character and cause. The +Confederacy was divided between a party which was for treating and a party +which was for war to the knife. For war to the knife was the nuncio, an +ecclesiastical termagant of the Becket stamp, inflated with notions of his +own spiritual power and reckless in the pursuit of his own end, which was +to lay Ireland at the feet of the Pope. In all this the high-minded +Ormonde sadly stooped to take a part for his royal master's sake. When the +cause of his royal master was finally lost, he surrendered his command to +the Parliament and left Ireland. + +After the execution of Charles the scene shifted again. Abhorrence of +regicide brought about a junction of the more moderate Protestants with +the more moderate Confederates, uniting different parties and sections +under a common profession of loyalty. Ormonde then returned to lead a +mixed and not very harmonious force against Michael Jones, the Republican +commander. He advanced to the attack of Dublin, but was totally defeated +by Jones. + +Now on the wings of victory came Cromwell with ten thousand of the New +Model. His proclamation on landing promised to all who would keep the +peace, peace and protection for themselves. That proclamation, the first +utterance of law and order heard in those parts for ten years, was +strictly carried into effect. A soldier was hanged for robbing a native of +a fowl. No disorder, rapine, or outrage upon women is laid to the charge +of the Puritan army in Ireland. Cromwell sat down before Drogheda, which +was held by a large royalist garrison, partly English. The garrison having +refused to surrender on summons, he stormed. Two attacks failed; a third, +led by himself, took the town. He put the garrison to the sword. That a +garrison refusing to surrender on summons and standing a storm might be +put to the sword was the rule of war in those days; it was the law, though +not the rule, of war even in the days of Wellington. Nevertheless, this +was a fell act for a commander who was generally humane in war, and at +Worcester risked his life in persuading Royalists to take quarter. Of this +Cromwell was himself sensible, and he spoke of it with compunction. "I am +persuaded," he said in his despatch to the Parliament, "that this is a +righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches who have imbrued +their hands in so much innocent blood; and that it will tend to prevent +the effusion of blood for the future; which are the satisfactory grounds +to such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret." Were +remorse and regret ever breathed by Alva, Parma, or Tilly? What did the +soldiery of those Catholic commanders do when it stormed a Protestant +town? What did the British soldiery, maddened by the recollection of a +massacre far less than that of 1641 do, not only to the Sepoy mutineer, +but to the insurgent people of Oude? When Rupert stormed Leicester, the +town was sacked, and women and children were found among the dead. The +Royalist Carte, in his life of Ormonde, commenting on the slaughter of the +garrison of Drogheda, says, "This was certainly an execrable policy in +that regicide. But it had the effect he proposed. It spread abroad the +terror of his name; it cut off the best body of the Irish troops and +disheartened the rest to such a degree that it was a greater loss in +itself and much more fatal in its consequences than the rout at +Rathmines." This is not a defence, nor much of an excuse. But it testifies +to a motive other than mere thirst of blood and shows that Cromwell spoke +the truth. + +There was cruel slaughter again at the storming of Wexford, but it does +not appear that it was ordered by Cromwell. The defences having been +carried, the combat was renewed within the town by the townspeople, who, +it is stated, had provoked wrath by their piracy and by drowning a number +of Protestants in a hulk. The city had been summoned to surrender on fair +terms. + +Cromwell was at once called away to the war with Scotland. He left the war +in Ireland to be finished by Ireton and Ludlow, who gradually extinguished +organized resistance, leaving only something between guerilla warfare and +brigandage called "Toryism," a name presently transmitted to a great +political party in England which bore it as a name of honour, in +opposition to that of Whig, on every hypothesis equally humble in its +source. + +The two races and religions had fought for the land, and the Saxon and +Protestant had won. It is surely simple to suggest that the winner ought +to have invited the loser to take the prize, especially after such a +display of that loser's sentiments and intentions as the massacre of 1641. +Had it not been made fearfully clear that the two races and religions +could not dwell together in peace? The victorious Puritan drove the +Catholic into Connaught. The Catholic, if he could, would have driven the +Puritan into the sea. The original decree of "To Hell or Connaught," the +hateful sound of which still rings in Irish ears, seems to have been +somewhat mitigated as the wrath of the victor cooled. At all events the +sentence extended to landowners only, not to artisans and labourers, who +were to remain where they were and to be disciplined and civilized by +English masters. A great number of those who had fought on the losing side +were sent away to foreign service, ridding Ireland of a manifest danger +and forming the first instalment of the grand Irish element in the armies +of Catholic Europe. There was also a large deportation to Barbados, +including probably families left behind by the military emigration. This +was cruel work, the more so as there was terrible suffering in the +passage. The whole business was horrible and deplorable. But in passing +sentence on the winner we must remember what the loser, had he been the +winner, would have done. The shadow of an evil destiny was over all. +Deportation was not to slavery for life, but to terminable bondage, one +degree less cruel. + +To cast all on Cromwell is most unfair. He had nothing specially to do +with Ireland till he came to put an end to the war. He left it forever +when he had struck his decisive blow. He could no more have given back the +contested land to the Catholics than he could have turned the Shannon to +its source. The act under which the land had been forfeited in advance and +a loan on it raised had been passed by the unanimous vote of Parliament +and had received the assent of the king. The soldiers who held land-scrip +for their pay presented their claims. As little would it have been +possible for Cromwell, even if he had desired it, to license the +celebration of the Mass, which in Puritan eyes was a sign, not only of +idolatry, but of allegiance to a foreign power, that power the mortal +enemy, not of the Protestant religion only, but of the Protestant State. +With liberty of conscience Cromwell declared that he would not interfere. +This was something in an age when the rack and the stake of the +Inquisition were still at work and when Irish troopers in the service of a +Catholic power were butchering the Protestant peasantry of Savoy. If the +Nuncio Rinuccini had got the upper hand in Ireland, a retirement of heresy +into the sanctuary of conscience would scarcely have saved it from the +stake. Cromwell does not appear to have persecuted in Ireland or to have +given the word for persecution. + +The Protector united Ireland as well as Scotland to England, thus bringing +the factions under the control of a strong government, Ireland's only hope +of peace. Union assured her free trade with Great Britain and the +dependencies, an inestimable boon, not in the way of material wealth only, +but in that of commercial civilization, as its withdrawal afterwards +fatally proved. Her shipping was at the same time assured of exemption +from the disabilities of the Navigation Laws. The Protector sent her a +good governor in the person of his son Henry, who seems to have identified +himself with the welfare of her people. He sent her a liberal law reformer +in the person of Chief Justice Coke, proposing to himself to treat her as +a blank paper, whereon he could write reforms such as professional bigotry +debarred him from effecting in England. His mortal enemy Clarendon, after +dilating on the iniquities of the settlement, says, "And, which is more +wonderful, all this was done and settled within little more than two years +to that degree of perfection that there were many buildings raised for +beauty as well as use, orderly and regular plantations of trees, and +fences and enclosures raised throughout the kingdom, purchases made by +one from the other at very valuable rates, and jointures made upon +marriages, and all other conveyances and settlements executed, as in a +kingdom at peace within itself, and where no doubt could be made of the +validity of titles." If these material improvements were at first limited +to the domain and race of the victor, they would in time have spread. + +Cromwell's own letter to Sadler on the administration of justice in +Ireland breathes anything but the ferocity ascribed to him. About religion +he speaks in his unctuous Puritan way, but in a tone far from savage. +"First let me tell you, in divers places where we come, we find the people +very greedy after the Word, and flocking to Christian meetings; much of +that prejudice that lies upon poor people in England being a stranger to +their minds. And truly we have hoped much of it is done in simplicity; and +I mind you the rather of this because it is a sweet symptom, if not an +earnest of the good we expect."[1] + +His words on the social question in the same letter show tenderness of +feeling. "Sir, it seems to me we have a great opportunity to set up until +the Parliament shall otherwise determine, a way of doing justice among +these poor people, which for the uprightness and cheapness of it may +exceedingly gain upon them who have been accustomed to as much injustice, +tyranny, and oppression from their landlords the great men, and those that +should have done them right as (I believe) any people in that which we +call Christendom.... Sir, if justice were freely and impartially +administered here, the foregoing darkness and corruption would make it +look so much the more glorious and beautiful and draw more hearts after +it." This is not the language of hatred, much less of extermination. + +Critics of Cromwell fail to notice that his mind opened as he rose, +notably in the way of religious toleration. The Ironside had now become a +great statesman. "Savage" the writer of his domestic letters surely can +never have been. + +The representatives of Ireland in the Parliament of the Protectorate, it +is true, were nominees. A popular election on the morrow of the Civil War, +and with its embers still glowing, would have been out of the question. +The union of the Parliaments effected, and representation granted, popular +election would have come in time. Meantime, there was the sheltering and +controlling authority of the Protector and the Council of State. + +To charge Cromwell with having misunderstood the genius of the Irish +nation and wronged it by his policy seems absurd. There was, in reality, +no Irish nation. There was an island inhabited partly by the wreck of +Celtic tribes, partly by conquerors and colonists of another race, the two +races differing widely in character, speaking different languages, having +antagonistic religions, not alien only, but desperately hostile to each +other. Deadly experience had shown that, left to themselves, they could +not live at peace. There was no political union, no attachment to a native +dynasty, no tradition or sentiment truly national among the wreckage of +the septs. The religious bond, it is true, had been greatly strengthened +among them by the conflict, and formed something like a national tie. But +adaptation of his policy to Catholic character and sentiment could hardly +be expected of a Puritan chief in the age of the Spanish Inquisition. + +The European war between Catholicism and Protestantism, and the consequent +mingling of religious with political strife, were everywhere a fatal +stumbling-block to statesmanship in that day. It does not seem that +Cromwell dealt with the difficulty in England or Ireland less wisely and +liberally than did statesmanship elsewhere. Perhaps the greater share of +liberality was his. The signs of his personal inclination were certainly +on the liberal side. + + + + +VII + + +The death of the Protector before his hour, and the military anarchy which +ensued, brought on the Restoration. The Restoration brought claims on the +part of dispossessed Royalism for restitution in both countries. The +occupants of confiscated lands in Ireland, seeing what must come, had +under the leadership of opportunist politicians, such as Broghill and +Cork, worshipped with politic rapture the return of the Royal Sun. The +disinherited on the other hand clamorously pressed their claim to +restitution. To that claim honour bade and sympathy inclined Charles II. +to give ear. But the adventurers were a formidable body, and while their +professions were fervently loyal their hands were on their swords. Nor did +Protestant England, even in its hot fit of loyalty, love the Irish +Catholic or forget the massacre of 1641. There ensued a vast controversy, +desperately embarrassing to Clarendon, Charles's chief adviser, to Charles +himself no doubt an insufferable bore. Intrigue and corruption, in which +the possessors were strong, contended with argument in the fray. The +government at last took refuge in the appointment of a commission +instructed to decide claims to restitution on the principle of complicity +or non-complicity in the rebellion of 1641; a criterion rather difficult +of application, since Charles I. had on the one hand assented to the Act +of Forfeiture, and on the other hand by treating with the Confederates had +practically recognized their loyalty to the crown. The upshot was an Act +of Settlement with a supplementary Act of Explanation, under which the +possessors retained about two-thirds of the lands, the disinherited +getting the other one-third, eked out with scraps, which by escheat or +forfeiture for regicide were at the disposal of the crown. The Act of +Settlement was thenceforth in the eyes of the Protestant possessor the +great charter of proprietary right, to be upheld at whatever cost; in the +eyes of the dispossessed Catholic, the hateful muniment of proprietary +wrong, to be cancelled whenever he had the power. The net result of the +Act of Settlement and Explanation was that Ulster was left, as it remains, +a Protestant pale. + +The Anglican State Church recovered all its possessions and privileges, +and was once more planted on the neck of a Catholic people. It is sad to +learn that Jeremy Taylor, who, when under persecution, had eloquently +defended liberty of prophesying, as a bishop of the restored Irish +establishment defended that liberty no more. But how could a hierarch of +the State Church of Ireland fail to don its spirit with his mitre? + +The whole of the Protector's work was undone. The union of Scotland and +Ireland with England was broken. Ireland was again reduced to the state of +a dependency, and of a dependency unloved and unrespected, whose interests +were to be always sacrificed to those of the country which was the seat of +power. Of this she was soon made fatally sensible. Protectionism was the +creed of that dark age. Ireland as a fine grazing country had been doing a +profitable export trade with England in cattle, pork, bacon, and dairy +produce. The English grazier demanded of his Parliament protection against +the free importation of food, denounced by him as a "nuisance." On his +demand an act was passed prohibiting the trade. Good sense and the public +interest struggled hard. The debate was unusually fierce. Ominous +expressions of contempt for the Irish were heard, and led to a challenge. +The king had the good sense to disapprove the measure, but gave way, as he +was sure to do. The patriotic policy of the grazier triumphed. Irish fish +narrowly escaped prohibition at the same time. This was the first of a +line of prohibitive acts fatal to the commerce of Ireland and to her +commercial civilization. At the same time she came under the Navigation +Laws, which were fatal to her shipping trade. + +Ireland, however, had the good fortune to be during the greater part of +the reign of Charles II. under the government of that Duke of Ormonde who +had commanded for the king in the Civil War. The duke was a statesman, +like Clarendon and Southampton, of the old and honourable cavalier school, +untainted by the political profligacy or the social dissoluteness of the +men of the Cabal. He governed as impartially as the anti-Catholic laws and +his own strict Anglicanism would let him; did his best to keep the peace +between the factions, political and religious; promoted manufactures and +trade, encouraged and endowed education, founded a college of medicine, +organized a national militia. He heartily identified himself with Irish +interests, and opposed the Cattle Act with an energy and a force of +argument which entitle his memory to the respect of free traders. It is +the sad truth that of Irish history between the Conquest and the Union the +one bright period is the viceroyalty of Ormonde. + +Ireland unhappily, though her interests were out of the pale of English +care, was not out of the pale of English faction and revolution. The +Stuart brothers, plotting with their French patron the subversion of +English religion and liberty, looked to Catholic Ireland for help in their +plot. They cultivated the Catholic interest there, and against the law +promoted Catholics to office and command. Richard Talbot, lying Dick, +afterwards Duke of Tyrconnel, one of the lowest of their wonderfully low +agents, as well as about the most violent, appeared upon the scene. It was +probably by thwarting or refusing to promote this conspiracy that Ormonde, +a strict Protestant though of the Anglican school, and constitutional +though a monarchist, incurred temporary dismissal from his viceroyalty. +Possibly in the same quarter may be sought the explanation of the +mysterious attempt at murdering him by Blood, of the criminal connection +of the court with whom there can be little doubt. On the other hand, the +cruel anti-Catholic panic, created in England by the well-founded +suspicion of danger to Protestantism from Stuart intrigue with France +which gave birth to the Popish plot, extended its rage to Ireland. The +last and most pitiable of the innocent victims of that frenzy was the +Catholic Archbishop Plunket. + + + + +VIII + + +Signs of preparation for the Stuart attack on Protestantism and liberty +were visible in Ireland as well as in England in the last years of Charles +II. But the blow was suspended during the life of the Merry Monarch, who +preferred the calm of the seraglio to the stir of a great enterprise, and +did not want to go again upon his travels. With the accession of Charles's +fanatical and blundering brother, the crisis came. The Viceroy Clarendon, +a Tory of Tories, but an Anglican, was deposed from the viceroyalty, and +quitted Ireland with a stream of Protestant refugees in his train. Into +his place vaulted Dick Talbot, now Duke of Tyrconnel, drunk with the fury +of Romanizing and despotic reaction. A Catholic reign of terror set in. +Protestants were disarmed; driven from places of authority, political, +judicial, or municipal; practically outlawed, plundered, outraged, +compelled to fly for their lives. The country seethed with a general orgie +of insurrection and revenge. The people swarmed to the standard of +Catholic and agrarian revolution, rather than to that of the English +king, for whom they cared little and who cared little for them. Presently +came James, ejected from England, with the power of his French patron at +his back. Under him a packed Parliament repealed the Act of Settlement by +which the Protestants held their lands, proclaiming reconfiscation and +expulsion on a vast scale. Not satisfied with this, the Parliament passed +a monstrous Act of Attainder against a large portion of the Protestant +proprietary. Nor can it be assumed that the frantic hatred which inspired +this act would have confined itself to spoliation, for which the repeal of +the Act of Settlement might have pretty well sufficed. A long lifetime had +not yet passed since 1641. James, who was not an Irish patriot but an +English king out of possession, would have vetoed the Act of Attainder had +he dared. But he dared not. He even suffered himself in this case to be +divested of the royal prerogative of pardon. Another prerogative, that of +regulating the coin, he exercised by sanctioning a base issue on a large +scale, which, being made legal tender, completed the ruin of the +Protestant trader. + +But Protestantism, the stern Protestantism of the Calvinist, rallied on +its own ground, and behind the mouldering walls of Derry made against a +Catholic host one of the heroic defences of history, a worthy theme in an +after time for the most brilliant of historians. In the battle of Newtown +Butler, Protestantism again triumphed over odds. Succour at length came +from England. It came first in the person of the renowned Schomberg, whose +army, however, made up of raw recruits, ill supplied by fraudulent +contractors, and filled with disease by the moisture of the climate, +miserably rotted. At last the bonfires of jubilant Protestantism announced +that William of Orange had landed. On the Boyne he gained a small battle +but a great victory, which decided that the Protestant Saxon, not the +Catholic Celt, should be master of Ireland. James fled to the luxurious +asylum of his French master, and with him fled the last hope of the +Catholic cause. + +Once more, however, at Aghrim, the Catholic, under the command of the +French General St. Ruth, accepted the wager of battle in open field. He +fought well, and the fortune of the day wavered, when a cannon shot took +off St. Ruth's head. Protestantism owed its victory largely to a regiment +of French Huguenots exiled by the bigoted tyranny of their own king. + +All was over in the field. The irresistible Marlborough reduced Cork and +Kinsale. But in Limerick, by soldiers pronounced untenable, Catholicism +had its Derry. Its hero Sarsfield, by a daring march, cut off William's +siege artillery, and, after a fierce assault, gallantly repulsed, William +was fain to raise the siege. After his departure Ginkell again invested +the place, and Sarsfield, finding that the last hour of the last Catholic +stronghold had come, capitulated on terms. The military terms of the +surrender were strictly observed. The political terms, securing a measure +of religious liberty to Catholics, though endorsed by William in his wise +Dutch love of toleration, were repudiated by Parliament. The "violated +treaty of Limerick" was an ugly business, though there seems to have been +no protest at the time. But James had fled. The garrison of Limerick had +no status but a military one, to which surrender put an end. Politically +they were merely insurgents. Could any political terms made with them have +bound the sovereign authority of the Irish and British Parliaments in +dealing with their own citizens forever? Can Sarsfield have thought that +they did? + +A crowd of Irish women and children lined the shore at Limerick, watching +with tearful eyes the receding sails of the fleet which bore away their +husbands and fathers, the garrison of the last Catholic stronghold, to +service in foreign lands. The defenders of Limerick were thus exchanged +for the Huguenot exiles who had charged and conquered at Aghrim. Those +men, with many an exile from Catholic Ireland who followed in their track, +went to form the Irish brigade and to redeem on foreign fields battles +lost in their own land. + + + + +IX + + +In that mortal struggle, had the Catholic won, he would have deprived the +Protestant certainly of his land, perhaps of his life. The Protestant, +having won, proceeded at once to avenge and secure himself by binding down +his vanquished foe with chains of iron. Chains of iron indeed they were. +By the series of enactments called the Penal Code, passed by the Irish +Parliament with some assistance from that of England, the Irish Catholic +was reduced to helotage political and social, while measures were taken +for the extirpation of his religion. To crush him politically he was +excluded from Parliament, from the franchise, from municipal office, from +the magistracy, from the jury box, as well as from public appointments of +all kinds, and even from the police force. To crush him socially he was +excluded from all the higher callings but that of medicine, from the +bench, from the bar, and from the army. He was denied the armorial +bearings which denoted a gentleman. To divorce him from the land, he was +forbidden to acquire freehold or a lease beneficial beyond a certain +rate; he was debarred from bequeathing his estate; and his estate was +broken up by making it heritable in gavelkind. The gate of knowledge was +closed against him. He was shut out of the university; forbidden to open a +school; forbidden to send his children abroad for education. That he might +never rise against oppression, he was disarmed and prohibited from keeping +a horse of more than five pounds' value. He might not even be a gamekeeper +or a watchman. + +The law, without actually prohibiting the Catholic religion, provided, as +was hoped, for its extirpation. All priests were required to be +registered, and were forbidden to perform service out of their own parish. +All Catholic archbishops and bishops were banished, and were made +punishable with death if they returned, so that in future there could be +no ordinations. Monks and friars also were banished. Catholic chapels +might not have bells or steeples. There were to be no pilgrimages or +wayside crosses. Rewards were offered to informers against Catholic +bishops, priests, and schoolmasters, and their trade was lauded as +honourable service to the state. Marriage of a Catholic with a Protestant +was prohibited; to perform it was a capital offence; so was conversion of +a Protestant to Catholicism. Religious hatred outraged domestic affection +by enacting that if the son of a Catholic turned Protestant the +inheritance should at once vest in him, his father being reduced to a life +interest; that the wife of a Catholic turning Protestant should be set +free from her husband's control and entitled to a settlement; that a +Catholic could not be a guardian, so that, dying, he had to leave his +children to the guardianship of an enemy of their faith. + +Representatives of the government designated the Catholics officially as +"our enemies." The Irish Parliament was exhorted to put an end to all +distinctions except that between Protestant and Papist. To such a relation +between races under the same government history can scarcely show a +parallel, unless it be the case of the Moriscos in Spain. + +"It was," says Burke, "a complete system full of coherence and +consistency; well digested and well composed in all its parts. It was a +machine of wise and elaborate contrivance and was as well fitted for the +oppression, impoverishment, and degradation of a people and the debasement +in them of human nature itself as ever proceeded from the perverted +ingenuity of man." It was the panic rage of a garrison which had narrowly +escaped extermination, and less cruel than the treatment of the Huguenots +by the Catholic king at the instigation of the Jesuit and with the +approbation of the Catholic Church in France. The fires of the Inquisition +were still burning, and continued for some time to burn. If the British +Parliament shares the guilt of the Penal Code, twice had an army of Irish +Catholics been raised for the destruction of English liberties. When last +those liberties were in the extremity of peril, a force of Irish Catholics +had been encamped at Hounslow. Nor was Catholicism merely a religion. It +was allegiance to a power which claimed the suzerainty of Ireland, which +had launched the decree of deposition against Elizabeth, which, after the +rising of 1641, had sent its nuncio to the rebel council of Kilkenny. +These memories on both sides ought long ago to have been consigned to a +common grave. + +At the same time it was deplorable that the settlement of the Catholic +provinces after their reconquest should have been left to the Protestants +of Ireland, transported with rage and fear. The true course, had it been +possible, was the union of Ireland with England. Representatives of the +loyal districts of Ireland might have been called at once to the +Parliament at Westminster. The rest of the island might have been placed +under a strong government of pacification and settlement, till peace and +the reign of law had been thoroughly restored. It is needless to say that +such a solution could not even suggest itself to the mind of any statesman +at that time. + +In extirpating the Catholic religion the policy of the Penal Code failed. +To the faith which was their only comfort and sole redemption from utter +degradation the people more than ever clung. The priests braved the law, +celebrated mass in hiding-places, furtively ordained, several hands being +laid on at once that the man ordained might be able to swear that he did +not know who had ordained him. They taught in hedge schools, and, though +but coarsely educated themselves, preserved the scantling there was of +knowledge and civilization among the people. In their celibacy they had a +great advantage for such work. Interested conversions among Catholics of +the higher class, especially as passports to the bar, seem not to have +been uncommon. An old lady of an ancient line is said to have embraced +Protestantism avowedly against her conscience, saying that it was better +that one old woman should burn than that the estates of the house of +Tomond should go out of the family. But disinterested conversions there +were none. On the other hand Protestants in isolated settlements were +turned Catholic by social contagion. + +Other parts of the code took deadly effect. The Catholics generally ceased +to own land. Of their landed gentry, some went into exile. The people, +bereft of their natural leaders, sank into apathetic helotage and mute +despair. Neither in 1715 nor in 1745, when a pretender again unfurled the +banner of the House of Stuart, was there the slightest political movement +among them. Socially, the iron had entered their souls and they cowered +under the yoke of the ascendancy. Once, an informer having tendered a +Catholic the legal ten pounds for his pair of fine horses, the Catholic +drew his pistol and shot the pair. But this was a rare spark of +self-respect on the part of the helot. + +The cup of woe was not yet full. In England, with revolution principles, +the mercantile party had mounted to power, and commerce in those days was +everywhere ridden by the fallacy of protectionism, which killed the only +good articles in the Treaty of Utrecht, those opening free trade with +France. Ireland, the English protectionist regarded as a foreign country, +and a particularly dangerous enemy to his interest. The cattle trade +having been killed by the act of Charles II., the Irish had taken to the +export trade in wool and to woollen manufactures. The wool grown on Irish +sheepwalks was of the finest, and was eagerly purchased by France and +Spain. This industry also English monopoly killed by prohibiting the +exportation of wool to foreign countries and the importation of Irish +woollen goods into England. The same jealous rapacity seems to have +successively killed or crippled the cotton industry, the glove-making +industry, the glass industry, the brewing industry, to each of which +Ireland successively turned; English greed being bent, not only on +excluding the Irish competitor from its own market, but on keeping the +Irish market to itself. Ireland had been promised free enjoyment of the +linen trade, which Strafford had encouraged by promoting the growing of +flax while he discouraged the wool trade; yet even this promise Irish +financiers could accuse England of eluding by tricks of the tariff. +England needing more bar iron than she could produce, the importation of +bar iron from Ireland was allowed; but the consequence was a consumption +of timber for smelting which denuded Ireland of her forests. + +Cromwell's union would have secured to Ireland exemption from the +disabilities of the Navigation Laws. The Restoration imposed them. They +killed her trade with the colonies and killed her shipping interest at the +same time. "The conveniency of ports and harbours," said Swift, "which +nature has bestowed so liberally upon this kingdom, is of no more use to +us than a beautiful prospect to a man shut up in a dungeon." + +In all this Ireland was treated as a colony, meant only to be a feeder to +the imperial country. But her position was worse than that of the +colonies, in which commercial restrictions generally were loosely +enforced, and which, when strict enforcement was attempted by Grenville, +rose in arms. The colonies, moreover, were regarded with pride and +affection. Popish Ireland was regarded with contempt and hatred. + +The lawful trade in wool with foreign countries England had suppressed. +Its place was partly taken by a smuggling trade, for which the inlets of +the Irish coast afforded the best of havens, and which had the people +everywhere for confederates. Thus, in every line, religious, social, +educational, and commercial, the Irishman found the law his inveterate +enemy. Could he fail to be an inveterate enemy of the law? + +Cut off from manufactures and from trade, the people were thrown for +subsistence wholly on the land, and land for the most part better suited +for pasture than for tillage. For the land they competed with the +eagerness of despair, undertaking to pay for their little lots rents which +left them and their families less than a bare subsistence. On such a scene +of misery as the abodes of the Irish cotters the sun has rarely looked +down. Their homes were the most miserable hovels, chimneyless, filthy. Of +decent clothing they were destitute. Their food was the potato; sometimes +they bled their cattle and mixed the blood with sorrel. The old and sick +were everywhere dying by cold and hunger, and rotting amidst filth and +vermin. When the potato failed, as it often did, came famine, with disease +in its train. Want and misery were in every face; the roads were spread +with dead and dying; there were sometimes none to bear the dead to the +grave and they were buried in the fields and ditches where they perished. +Fluxes and malignant fevers followed, laying whole villages waste. "I have +seen," says a witness, "the labourer endeavouring to work at his spade, +but fainting for want of food, and forced to omit it. I have seen the +helpless orphan exposed on the dunghill, and none to take him in for fear +of infection. And I have seen the hungry infant sucking at the breast of +the already expired parent."[2] There was an enormous amount of vagrancy +and mendicity, as there was in Scotland before the union. This was under +the government of the first of free nations, and in the era of Newton, +Addison, and Pope. + +Reduced to living like beasts, the people multiplied their kind with +animal recklessness. The result was fatal overpopulation, the pressure of +which, aggravated by occasional failures of the treacherous potato, could +be relieved only by the tragic remedy of emigration on an immense scale. + +Of the landowners, who might have had compassion on their serfs, many were +absentees; residence in Ireland, especially when agrarian war began, being +hardly pleasant. Their place was taken by the middleman, through whose +ruthless agency they extorted their rents and who frequently sublet, +sometimes even three or four deep, so that the cotter groaned under a +hierarchy of extortion. From the ranks of the middlemen were partly drawn +the upstart gentry, or squireens, a roistering, debauched, drinking, and +duelling crew, whose tyrannical insolence scandalized Arthur Young, +ruling with the horse-whip a peasantry cowering under the lash and +hopeless of redress by the law. The peasantry still largely spoke Erse, +another badge of their social inferiority, and a further barrier between +them and the ruling class. + +To the extortion of the middleman was added that, even more hated, of the +tithe proctor. The Protectorate had at all events relieved Ireland of the +Anglican State Church. That incubus the monarchy reimposed, and the +peasant was compelled out of the miserable produce of his potato field or +patch of oats, besides the exorbitant rent, not only to provide for his +own priest, but to pay tithe to a clergy whose mission was to extirpate +the peasant's religion. The Anglican bishoprics were rich. The rectories +for the most part were miserably poor, so that pluralism might be +necessary to make an income. But pluralism of the most scandalous kind +also prevailed, and we have a dean holding two groups of livings, fourteen +livings in all, one group twelve miles away from the other. Some of the +clergy, on the plea that there were no glebe houses for them, were drawing +their tithes in the pump room and at the card tables of Bath. Bishops were +sometimes non-resident as well as scandalously secular and inert. Most of +them were English, and appointed to keep up the English interest. There +were bright exceptions, such as Bolter, King, above all Berkeley, but they +were few. Swift could say of Irish bishops that government no doubt +appointed good men, but they were always murdered on Hounslow Heath by the +highwaymen, who took their credentials, personated them, and were +installed in their place. There have been worse institutions than the +State Church of Ireland; there was never a greater scandal. Even if +Anglicanism had been less alien to the Irish heart, what chance would such +missionaries as these have had against the devoted emissaries of Rome? +What must have been the feelings of the Irish peasant when of his crop of +potatoes, all too scanty for him and his children, the tithe proctor came +to claim a tenth part in the name of a Christian minister? + +There were prelates of a better stamp who sought to do well by the people. +Under their auspices were set up the chartered schools, to give poor Irish +children an industrial education. But the work of charity was marred by +bigotry. The children were taken from their Catholic parents and forcibly +brought up as Protestants, whereby the heart of the Catholic parent was +filled with anguish, and more bitter offence, it seems, was given than by +any other kind of repression. The schools at last became a sink of abuse, +inhumanity, and corruption. + +Rural Ireland was a recruiting ground for the armies of the Continent. On +some lonely hillside the recruiting agent reviewed the youth of the +neighbourhood, picked out the strong, the flower of the population, and +turned back the feeble to their miserable homes. + +If anything was to be done for the extension of Protestantism, union among +the Protestant minority was indispensable, and the enthusiasm of the +Calvinist, sombre as it was, might have had its attractions for the Celt, +as it had for the Celts of the Scottish Highlands, among whom it gave +birth to the hill preachers, and for those of Wales with whom Calvinistic +Methodism prevailed. But the bishops of the State Church hated the +Presbyterian even more bitterly than they hated the Catholic. After their +brief and hollow alliance with the Nonconformists, when their own interest +was threatened, they had speedily relapsed into High Anglicanism, and +under the not unsuitable leadership of the infidel Bolingbroke had taken +to persecuting Nonconformity in England. They extended the persecution to +Ireland, excluding by the Sacramental Test the defenders of Derry from +municipal office and military service. They imported the Schism Act, +forbidding Nonconformists to open schools. They threatened interference +with Presbyterian worship, Ireland having no Toleration Act. They disputed +the validity of Presbyterian marriage. They thus set flowing a stream of +Presbyterian emigration from the north of Ireland to the American +colonies. The stream was afterwards swelled by the rapacity of Lord +Donegal and other landed proprietors of Ulster, who, being owners of great +estates, when the leases of their tenants ran out, instead of renewing +them to the tenant, put them up to the highest bidder. Starving Catholics, +in the desperate competition for land, outbidding the Protestants, a +number of Protestant families were driven from their homes. The +consequence was, first, aggressive insurrection under the names of the +Heart of Oak Boys and the Steel Boys, ultimately emigration to America. +Thus the Church and the landlord between them were charging the mine of +American revolution. + + + + +X + + +Presently, too, inexorable nature made her voice heard, proclaiming that +Ireland, with its rich pastures and watery skies, was in the main not an +arable but a grazing country. There was a good market for meat. +Speculators began buying up land and throwing it into large grazing farms. +The cotter was ejected and driven to the bogs and mountains. This +overtaxed even a cotter's submission, and there broke out an agrarian war, +the most deadly perhaps in history, the canker and disgrace of British +government, protracted in varying phases and with fluctuating intensity +almost from that day to this. Companies of men, wearing white shirts over +their clothes, and thence afterwards called Whiteboys, harried the grazing +farms by night, and the stillness of the night air was broken by the +bellowings and moanings of hamstrung cattle. + +Irish outrage has been essentially agrarian, rather than religious. The +division of churches coincided generally with the social division. The +middleman was necessarily Protestant, since, under the penal law, no +Catholic could acquire a beneficial lease; and the antagonism of religion +and language emphasized and embittered that of class and interest. But a +Catholic generally suffered like a Protestant if he provoked the wrath of +the people. A Protestant settling in a Catholic district, if he was in any +way obnoxious, was especially liable to maltreatment. Later on there was a +hideous instance of this in the case of a Protestant schoolmaster settling +and opening his school in a Catholic district. He and his family were +mangled with horrible cruelty. + +Nor can it be said that the landlords as a class were the objects of +hatred and outrage apart from the agrarian quarrel. A landlord who resided +and did not oppress his tenantry, especially if he were affable, jovial, +and hospitable, was generally the object of a clannish affection, though +his mansion might be a "Castle Rack-rent" and his serious duties might be +very indifferently performed. + +The commercial restrictions and the Navigation Acts were fatal to the +prosperity of the whole island, while the penal inability of the Catholics +to invest could not fail to lower the value of land. This would be felt +by the conquering as well as by the conquered race and sect. Scotland, cut +off by the repeal of Cromwell's union from trade with England and the +dependencies, had so suffered commercially and industrially that she +swarmed with vagrants, and the ardent patriot, Fletcher of Saltoun, +proposed slavery as a remedy for the evil. The union, opening free trade +with England, brought commercial prosperity in its train. The English in +Ireland stretched out their hands to the British government for a union +like that which was being made with Scotland, and were coldly repelled. To +English protectionism the chief blame for the refusal no doubt is due. But +unwillingness to incorporate a large Catholic population may also have +played its part. Let the cause have been what it may, there is hardly +anything in the records of British statesmanship more deplorable than this +refusal of union to Ireland. Protectionism here again pleads the excuse of +universal delusion, and in no case is the excuse more needed. + +Moreover, the Protestants of Ireland, British in blood and, as lords over +a subject race in their own country, more than British in pride, were +denied the enjoyment of British freedom. A Parliament they had; but that +Parliament could legislate only by grace of the English council and of a +council named by the lord lieutenant in Ireland. Its control even of money +bills was not recognized, while the Crown had a hereditary revenue which +made it almost independent of Parliamentary grants. In the Upper House, +owing to the large absenteeism of lay lords, the bench of bishops, +nominees of the Crown and agents of the British interest, largely held +sway. Of the three hundred seats in the House of Commons more than half +were filled by nominees of the patrons of pocket boroughs, which the Crown +had been always creating at its will, and the nominations were sold like +common merchandise. The House, moreover, swarmed with placemen and +pensioners. The Parliament was elected for a whole reign, so as to be +scarcely responsible even to such a constituency as it had. The Irish +Parliament of George II. continued for thirty-three years. There was a +session only in every other year. The English House of Lords arrogated to +itself the jurisdiction of final appeal. The judges held only during +pleasure. There was no annual Mutiny Act. There was no Habeas Corpus. +There were large sinecures, instruments of corruption in the hands of the +government. The pension list, swollen beyond bounds, was a privy fund for +kings' mistresses and for jobs too dirty for the English list. The high +appointments, ecclesiastical, administrative, and judicial, were treated +as patronage by the English government and generally reserved for +Englishmen. The face of their king the Irish never saw. The viceroy +resided only during a small part of his term, and his place was filled in +his absence by lords justices who were often bishops, English themselves, +and bent above all things on securing the ascendancy of the English +interest. Three archbishops in succession practically ruled Ireland. +Presbyterians and other Protestant Dissenters, victims of episcopal +intolerance, had crying wrongs of their own. + +Union with England had been refused, and the protection of England being +no longer so manifestly indispensable to her garrison in Ireland as it had +been, a craving for self-government took its place. Molyneux, and after +him Lucas, alarmed and exasperated authority by writing in favour of the +independence of the Irish Parliament. But a far more potent artificer of +discord appeared in Swift, who, balked of preferment in England by the +wreck of his political party, exiled to a native land which he abhorred, +was eating his heart, and ripe for mischief, especially for any mischief +which could avenge him on the Whig government, above all on Walpole, its +chief, by whom it seems the path of this model Christian and pure writer +to a bishopric had been crossed. That a feeling of justice and of pity for +the sufferings of the Irish people, which Swift has vividly described, had +their place in his heart beside malice and vengeance, may be true; though +his sense of justice was not strong enough to prevent him, profane and +really sceptical as he was, from vehemently upholding the Penal Code and +the Sacramental Test; while his pity for the people led to no +philanthropic effort of a practical kind, and was not very tenderly +expressed in his satirical suggestion that they should appease their +hunger by eating their babies. His proposal to exclude English goods would +gratify his malice as well as his patriotism, and had it been adopted +would probably have led to a large increase of smuggling. + +One of the grievances of Ireland was that there was no Irish mint. A new +copper coinage was needed. The contract was given by the English +government to the king's mistress, and by her sold to Wood, a respectable +manufacturer. As the coinage was approved by Sir Isaac Newton, then master +of the mint, it can hardly have been very bad. But Irish jealousy cast +suspicion upon its character. Then rose a storm of popular fury, improved +by Swift into a whirlwind on which he rode in his glory. Swift's "Drapier +Letters" are monuments of his genius for pamphleteering, his intense +malice, and his freedom from the restraints of truth. They produced an +immense effect, made him the idol of Dublin for the rest of his days, and +forced Walpole to give way and call in the halfpence. Their author did not +mention among the evils of an English connection that he and the members +of his State Church were enabled by the support of the British power to +set their feet upon the necks of four-fifths of the Irish people and to +wring from the starving Catholic the income of the dean of St. Patrick. +The letters ranged far beyond the immediate occasion, and appealed +strongly to the growing desire of independence, which we may be pretty +sure that Swift, had he been nominated by Bolingbroke to an English +bishopric, would have fiercely opposed. The Parliament to which his +revolution would have consigned Ireland is described by himself as a den +of thieves of which he devoutly desired the extirpation. + +Presently there arose a patriot party in the Irish Parliament. It found a +leader in Flood, a man of solid ability and powerful in debate, while the +purity of his patriotism was not so clear. At Flood's side, or rather +perhaps, as the event proved, on his flank, there presently arose the far +more illustrious Grattan, whose purity and patriotism were unquestionable, +whose oratory was brilliant, his admirers thought divine. The objects +sought by the patriots were reduction of the duration of Parliaments, +control of money bills, an annual Mutiny Bill, Habeas Corpus, tenure of +the judges during life or good behaviour, reduction of the pension list, +exclusion of placemen and pensioners from the House of Commons, taxation +of the rents of absentees. On the first and most important point they +succeeded through a bargain with the Crown on the amount of the military +force. The duration of Parliament was cut down to eight years, that number +being preferred to seven, because it was only in alternate years that +Parliament sat. This was a very important change. War, with imperfect +success, was waged on the question of money bills. On the other points +reform made no way, the English government clinging obstinately to all its +powers and using its veto, while the lord lieutenant was able to avert a +crash by buying up a majority in the Irish Parliament. Taxation of the +rents of absentees, a measure very popular and much pressed, was vetoed +by the English government. The protest of the absentees against it was +evidently the work of Burke, whose patron, Lord Rockingham, had an estate +in Ireland. Burke argued that the double land-ownership was a link of +union between the two countries; which it might have been if the residence +as well as the proprietorship had been shared. The advocates of the tax +might have cited the original character of land grants to which feudal +service was annexed and which were forfeited by the failure of absentees +to perform it. Chatham supported the tax. For a moment, unhappily for a +moment only, his thoughts were turned to Ireland. A far greater service he +would have rendered his country by pacifying Ireland as he pacified the +Highlands than by his conquest of Canada, of which the loss of the +American colonies was the result. In the background there was a growing +sentiment in favour of independence, the flag of which was by Grattan +presently unfurled. + +It was not in Ireland as it was in England, where the regular party system +prevailed and the minority changed with the majority in Parliament. The +Castle called to the council whom it pleased, without regard to the +existence of a political connection among them, though it was, of course, +under the necessity of calling those who could bring it support at the +time. The party tie was accordingly very loose and connections were +shifting. Flood had no scruple in providing for himself, apart from his +friends, by acceptance of a rich sinecure under the government. Hely +Hutchinson, a free lance, could use his personal influence in forcing the +government to make him provost of Trinity College. + +For a time the Castle put itself into the hands of a junto of great lords +and owners of Parliamentary boroughs, who undertook to supply it with a +majority at the price of patronage and power. To break this ring and +restore the free action of government, an effort was made by the Lord +Lieutenant Townshend. But Townshend's boisterous energy, successful for a +time, in the end failed, and the Castle fell back into the routine of +government by intrigue and corruption, aided by viceregal dinners and +balls. + +Chatham's glory dazzled Ireland as well as England. But presently came the +quarrel ending in war, with the American colonies, whose commercial +grievances were the same in kind as those of Ireland, practically less +severe. Ireland at once showed sympathy with American revolt. Presently +the island was divested of troops by the demands of the war, and its +coasts were left open to the attacks of privateers. There was no national +militia. Under the leadership of Lord Charlemont a body of volunteers, +almost entirely Protestant, was raised and reached at last the number of +forty thousand. There was, no doubt, in the movement a good deal of claret +and fanfaronade. But it included the leading gentry, and for its purpose +was very strong. Formed ostensibly, at first really, for defence against +the Americans, it presently fell politically into their track and demanded +of the British government, now prostrated by misfortune in the war and by +the combination of European powers against it, first freedom from the +commercial restrictions, then legislative independence. North made +commercial concessions; he would have made them on a much more liberal +scale and possibly have satisfied the volunteers. But again monopolist +greed, strong in the commercial cities of England, vetoed, and Burke lost +his seat at Bristol for advocating the policy of free trade. The victories +of Rodney and Eliot, had they come in time, might have strengthened the +hands of the British government and saved it from an ignominious +capitulation. As it was, the British government surrendered at discretion. +First the commercial restrictions were swept away; then the legislative +supremacy of England, embodied in the Poynings Act and the Act of the +Sixth of George I., affirming the right of the British Parliament to +legislate for Ireland, was renounced. Flood, the patriot with a bend +sinister, insisted on pushing the humiliation of England still further and +compelling her by a declaratory act solemnly to bind her own hands for the +future, while Grattan, the patriot without reproach, took the more +generous line. Thus England underwent the deepest humiliation in her +history at the hands of an Irish party which owed its land, its +ascendancy, probably its very existence, to her protecting power. Such was +the condign punishment of a long course of ignorant, blundering, and +corrupt misgovernment, a punishment not the less calamitous and degrading +because it was deserved. + +So Grattan in the Irish Parliament was able, in a transport of rhetorical +rapture, to worship "the newborn nation," a nation which comprised a +fraction of the people of the country, the rest being still political +helots. Had he adored an uncontrolled Ascendancy, his deity would have +been real. + +The volunteers, having felt their strength, were inclined to vote +themselves permanent, overawe Parliament, and enforce Parliamentary +reform. Flood was so misguided as to take that line. But the incarnation +of violent counsels was the bishop of Derry, an English nobleman holding +an Irish bishopric, a most absurd figure, and probably half insane. His +Right Reverence avowed that he looked forward to blood. He paraded before +the door of Parliament in a coach and six, dressed in purple with long +white gloves and gold tassels depending from them, and with a guard of +horse, looking as if he meant to be king. But the Parliament was firm, and +Lord Charlemont and other sane leaders were able to control the body, +which was drawn, not from a Faubourg St. Antoine, but from the +property-owning class under aristocratic leading. Still revolutionary +excitement did not die. + +What was now the state of things? There were two independent Parliaments, +each with full powers of legislation, under the same Crown; that Crown not +being invested with authority to control and harmonize the action of the +two Parliaments, but being a Crown upon a cushion or little more. The +commercial and even the international relations of the two Parliaments +might point different ways. There might be a divergence on a question of +peace or war; one Parliament declaring for war, the other refusing to vote +the supplies. On general questions, such as commercial and criminal law, +opposition was possible to any extent; and considering the feelings +towards each other with which the partners set out, was not unlikely to +occur. Ireland might even refuse currency to English coin. The monarchical +link itself was not quite firm. On the question of the regency, when +George III. went mad, the two Parliaments did actually fly apart; the +Irish Parliament recognizing, while the British Parliament refused to +recognize, the claim of the Prince of Wales to the regency by virtue of +his birth. Only the king's recovery averted a collision. Adopted in haste +and in a rush of revolutionary ardour, the system was in fact unworkable +and must have ended in confusion. Grattan was unquestionably true to +British connection. But Grattan was not Ireland, and even he had led in no +very loyal attitude the defiance of the British Parliament on the regency +question. His statesmanship can hardly have been profound if he fancied +that the constitution of 1782 would work. + +It is moreover always to be borne in mind that this Parliament was the +Parliament of a Protestant ascendancy, representing not one-quarter of the +people of Ireland, and that with all its high talk of independence, it +still owed, and knew that it owed, to British protection its power, its +privileges, its political pelf, perhaps even the safe possession under the +Act of Settlement of lands on which the disinherited still cast a longing +and vindictive eye. + +How then was the policy of Ireland to be kept from breaking away from that +of Great Britain? The practical answer was, by corruption, the means of +which at the command of the Castle were, besides office, sinecures, some +of them very rich; commands in the army; pensions; bishoprics, with other +Church patronage; and peerages. The peerages, though lavishly created, +seem to have retained their value. The Parliament, the body on which +corruption had to operate, was a Parliament of rotten boroughs, the +nominations for which were sold in open market. The House of Commons +continued to swarm with placemen and pensioners, whose votes were at the +command of government. In the House of Lords the Anglican bishops were +strong. + +Appended to a report made to Pitt on the political situation in Ireland is +the following schedule of corruption:-- + + "H---- H----, son-in-law to Lord A----, and brought into Parliament + by him. Studies the law; wishes to be a commissioner of barracks, or + in some similar place. Would go into orders and take a living. + + "H---- D----, brother to Lord C----. Applied for office; but, as no + specific promise could be made, has lately voted in opposition. Easy + to be had if thought expedient. A silent, gloomy man. + + "L---- M----, refuses to accept £500 per annum; states very high + pretensions from his skill in House of Commons management; expects + £1,000 per annum. N.B.-- Be careful of him. + + "J---- N----, has been in the army and is now on half pay; wishes a + troop of dragoons on full pay. States his pretensions to be fifteen + years' service in Parliament. N.B.--Would prefer office to military + promotion; but already has, and has long had, a pension. Character, + especially on the side of truth, not favourable. + + "R---- P----, independent, but well disposed to government. His four + sisters have pensions; and his object is a living for his brother. + + "T---- P----, brother to Lord L----, and brought in by him. A captain + in the navy; wishes for some sinecure employment." + + + + +XI + + +There was no lack, say apologists of the Irish Parliament, of useful +legislation on subjects with which a landed gentry was qualified to deal. +There was a fatal lack of legislation on one momentous subject with which +a land-owning gentry ought to be qualified to deal, but from which the +Irish Parliament resolutely turned its eyes. For half a century before the +union, that body steadfastly abstained from inquiring into the causes of +disaffection among the peasantry. It even repressed a report upon the +subject which the chairman of the committee had begun to read. + +The condition of the peasantry was still horrible and heartrending. The +revolution of 1782, by loosening the fetters of trade, had brought +increase of prosperity to the merchant and manufacturer. It had brought no +relief to the tiller of the soil. A little before this Arthur Young had +travelled in Ireland and had been shocked at seeing the insolent despotism +of the petty country gentlemen, whom he called the vermin of the kingdom, +over their serfs; the horsewhip freely used, the serf not daring to lift +his hand in defence, the total denial of legal redress, since a justice of +the peace presuming to issue a summons would at once have been called out. +Landlords of consequence had assured Young that many of their cotters +would think themselves honoured by having their wives and daughters sent +for to the bed of their masters. He had even heard of the lives of people +being made free with. The middleman and the tithe-proctor were ruthless as +ever. To the payment of tithes a drop of bitterness had been added by the +exemption, through an abuse of political influence, of the grazing farms, +which left the whole burden of maintaining a hostile Church on the back of +the cotter. The peasantry, on the other hand, maddened by suffering, took +a fearful revenge on the oppressor or his agents. Agrarian murder and +outrage prevailed. There were cruelties worse than murder. Middlemen and +tithe-proctors were "carded"; that is, lacerated with boards full of nails +drawn down their backs, buried up to their necks in pits full of thorns, +made to ride on saddles stuck with spikes, their ears and noses cut off. A +clergyman was met riding in great agony with his head wrapped up; his ears +and cheeks were found nailed to a post. That the Irish when excited are +capable of dark atrocities is a feature of their character which it is +useless to disguise. Debility when excited is apt to be most cruel. The +trait showed itself plainly in the hamstringing of soldiers and the +houghing of cattle, as well as in the torturing of middlemen and +tithe-proctors. Law and police were paralyzed. The peasantry were one vast +conspiracy bound together by awful pledges, the betrayal of which was +death. No evidence could be obtained though there might be plenty of +eye-witnesses. Perjury in the common cause was no sin. + +It was supposed that the Whiteboys had their meetings in Catholic chapels. +But there is no ground for taxing the Catholic Church as a body with any +share in the criminal part of the movement. The Catholic clergy of Ireland +were then, as they are now, a peasant clergy, sympathizing with their +class. They depended on that class for their stipends. Some of them their +sympathy might betray into complicity, more or less active, with agrarian +crime. More of them might be guilty of failure to exert their religious +authority as ministers of the sacraments, the confessional, and death-bed +absolution, on the side of law. But their record on the whole appears to +have been as clear as, considering what persecution they had undergone, +and that the law was their enemy as well as the enemy of the peasant, it +was reasonable to expect. + +The mansion of an unpopular landlord became a besieged fortress. +Absenteeism of course increased. To a rather later date belongs the story +of an agent who, having complained to his absentee landlord that his life +had been threatened, received the reply, "Tell the villains that they need +not hope to intimidate me by shooting you." + + "I am well acquainted," said a statesman not oversensitive to popular + wrongs, "with the Province of Munster, and I know that it is + impossible for human wretchedness to exceed that of the miserable + tenantry of that province. I know that the unhappy tenantry are + ground to powder by relentless landlords. I know that far from being + able to give the clergy their just dues, they have not food and + raiment for themselves; the landlord grasps the whole. Sorry I am to + add that, unsatisfied with present extortion, some landlords have + been so base as to instigate the insurgents to rob the clergy of + their tithes, not in order to alleviate the distresses of the + tenantry, but that they might add the clergy's share to the cruel + rack-rents already paid. Sir, I fear it will require the utmost + ability of Parliament to come to the root of these evils. The poor + people of Munster live in a more abject state of poverty than human + nature can be supposed able to bear. Their miseries are intolerable; + but they do not originate with the clergy; nor can the legislature + stand by and see them take the redress into their own hands. Nothing + can be done for their benefit while the country remains in a state of + anarchy." + +The miseries might not originate with the clergy, but the popular wrath +did originate specially with the exactions of the tithe-proctor. Grattan +proposed commutation. But then the tithe of pasture agistment, as it was +called, could no longer have been evaded. That simple reform was put off +for more than a generation, with the most calamitous results. + +Dublin was gay, mansions rose, claret flowed, wit sparkled, the dance went +round. Nor was there lack of social polish or of culture of the classical +kind. On the other hand, there were extravagance, waste, and debt. Wild +and spendthrift characters appear among the leaders and mirrors of +society. Beauchamp Bagenal, as Sir Jonah Barrington tells us, "had visited +every capital of Europe, and had exhibited the native original character +of the Irish gentleman at every place he visited. In the splendour of his +travelling establishment, he quite eclipsed the petty potentates with whom +Germany was garnished. His person was fine, his manners open and generous, +his spirit high, and his liberality profuse. During his tour, he had +performed a variety of feats which were emblazoned in Ireland, and +endeared him to his countrymen. He had fought a prince; jilted a princess; +intoxicated the doge of Venice; carried off a duchess from Madrid; scaled +the walls of a convent in Italy; narrowly escaped the Inquisition at +Lisbon; concluded his exploits by a celebrated fencing match at Paris; and +he returned to Ireland with a sovereign contempt for all continental men +and manners, and an inveterate antipathy to all despotic kings and +arbitrary governments." + +Duelling was the social law. The attorney-general fought a duel; the +provost of Trinity College fought a duel. Refusal of a challenge was +social death. The viceroy's secretary, when challenged by a disappointed +applicant for place, deemed it necessary to go to the field of honour. +Robert Fitzgerald was so addicted to duelling that he wore a chain shirt +under his vest. + +What can have produced such characters? Was it anything in Irish blood or +air, or was it the absence of the commercial element with its sobering +influence? The story of Robert Fitzgerald, nephew of the bishop of Derry, +seems to bespeak a wild domestic despotism exercised by the squires. +Fitzgerald is said to have confined his father in a cave with a muzzled +bear. He put to death one of his household, for which, however, he was +hanged. The matrimonial adventurer from Ireland was also a figure well +known in the sister isle. + +Of intellectual fruit there was not much except oratory, pamphlets, and +pasquinades. Swift was an Englishman born in Ireland and banished to the +place of his birth. Burke's genius as well as his physiognomy was one-half +Irish, and his Irish half had its share in that splendid but mischievous +outburst, his essay on the French Revolution. His heart turned to Ireland, +and some of his best thought was given to her case. But he hardly belongs +to the Irish Pantheon. + +Oratory, both Parliamentary and forensic, flourished. Grattan, Flood, +Yelverton, Foster, Fitzgibbon (afterwards Lord Clare), Curran, are great +names in their different ways. Nor was the oratory all in the style +supposed to be Hibernian. Foster's style, for example, was grave and +weighty. So generally was that of Flood. + +In Parliament there were lively scenes. Grattan and Flood having parted +company in politics, and Flood having defamed Grattan, Grattan poured upon +Flood a furious torrent of the most personal invective; telling him that +his talents were not so great as his life was infamous; that he had been +silent for years and silent for money; that he might be seen passing the +doors like a guilty spirit waiting the moment at which he might hop in and +give his venal vote; that he was a kettledrum, battering himself into +popularity to catch the vulgar; that he might be seen hovering over the +dome like an ill-omened bird of night, with sepulchral note and broken +beak (Flood having a broken nose); and winding up by telling him in the +face of the country, before all the world, and to his beard, that he was +not an honest man. Flood retorted with equal fury, and a wild scene +ensued. It is not difficult to believe in the genius or the patriotism of +these orators; but it is difficult to believe in their unimpassioned +wisdom. + +The Penal Code had ere this lost much of its cruelty. Time, security, and +intercourse had softened the feeling of the Protestants against the +Catholics, whose passive loyalty had been proved by their inaction when +Great Britain was twice invaded by Stuart pretenders. The most odious +enactments of the code, those which involved personal degradation and +outrage on family affection, had fallen into desuetude or been evaded. +Protestant friends would hold land for a Catholic in confidential trust, +and ostensibly assume the guardianship of his children, leaving the real +guardianship to the kin. The attempts of informers to take advantage of +forfeitures were discouraged by the courts. Protestant fanaticism was +dying out everywhere except in rural Ulster, and was giving way among the +educated to indifference and even to scepticism. The spirit of Voltaire +was abroad. Chesterfield, as viceroy, brought it with him, laughing at +religious intolerance, and saying that the only Catholic of whom he was +afraid was the reigning beauty of Dublin. The whole system of the Catholic +Church, though still nominally subsisting only by connivance, was openly +and securely carried on. Conspicuous Mass houses were built. The Catholic +hierarchy and priesthood were forming friendly relations with a government +which had once designated all Catholics as enemies. Catholics of the upper +class educated in France came back from the land of the Encyclopædists +tinctured with its liberalism. Catholics were admitted by connivance into +Trinity College. A central committee had been formed to guard Catholic +interests, which in the penal era would have been treason. After 1782, +relief bills were passed. Catholicism was recognized by law. All +restrictions upon the maintenance of the hierarchy, freedom of ordination, +or additions to the priesthood were abrogated. Catholics were made capable +of acquiring property in land, though under the guise of leases for nine +hundred and ninety-nine years. The Gavelling Act, passed to break up +their estates, was repealed. It was unfortunately too late to restore the +Catholic gentry, which had been decimated by the Penal Law. In 1783 a bill +was passed opening to Catholics the profession of the law in all its +branches and grades except the rank of king's counsel and the judicial +bench, repealing the law against the intermarriage of Catholics with +Protestants, that against foreign emigration, that making an Anglican +license necessary for schools, and that restricting the number of +apprentices permitted in Catholic trade. The laws against the possession +of arms and the exclusion from command in the army were left. Otherwise of +the Penal Code the political disabilities almost alone remained. + +The principal relief bill was introduced by Sir Hercules Langrishe, the +friend and correspondent on Irish politics of Burke, who pleaded the cause +of the Irish Catholics with all the vehemence of his nature, a measure of +sympathy with the religion probably mingling in his heart with love of +freedom and justice. Burke had less feeling for the grievances of +Protestant Dissenters or of Anglican clergymen liberally inclined, who +sought the relaxation of tests. He afterwards sent his son, whose ability +he fondly overrated, as his representative to Ireland, in the affairs of +which the aspiring youth meddled, and with farcical results. + +The Presbyterians of Belfast had before this been relieved of the Test Act +and their other religious bonds and humiliations. But the relief had come +too late to turn them into good friends of the Anglican Church or of +British connection. Revolutionary and republican sentiment had, with +religious scepticism, taken root in Belfast. + +The revolution of 1782 had not been democratic. The Volunteers were +property holders and their leaders were peers. But the withdrawal of the +Volunteers was not followed by political calm. Among the populace of +Dublin, especially, excitement continued and showed itself detestably by +hamstringing British soldiers. The cry was now for two drastic measures of +change: the political emancipation of the Catholics, and a reform of +Parliament substituting freedom of election for nomination and clearing +the legislature of pensioners and placemen. The two combined evidently +meant death to Protestant ascendancy and to oligarchy, both of which +naturally shrank from suicide. + +The struggle grew fierce, and now not only was the American Revolution +fresh in recollection, but the French Revolution, advancing with thunder +tread, was filling the minds of the people everywhere, and especially +those of the oppressed and suffering, with vague visions and hopes of +change. Even to the hovel of the Irish serf, a vague hope, not of a +society regenerated on the principles of Rousseau, but of deliverance from +the middleman, from the tithe-proctor, and from the English connection, +which he thought was at the bottom of all his sufferings, had begun to +make its way. + +Of reform, the leader was Grattan. Opposition to reform found a mighty +champion in Fitzgibbon, afterwards Lord Clare, a strong man, fearless as +he was able, and a very powerful speaker, but violent and overbearing, as +well as reactionary to a degree which charms the reactionary historian. +Fitzgibbon had a very coarse but rather effective shield-bearer in Dr. +Duigenan, the son of a Catholic farmer intended for the priesthood, but +captured by the Protestant clergyman of his parish. + +Grattan and the reform party failed to get admission for Catholics to +Parliament. They failed to purify the House itself by substituting free +election for nomination boroughs, or by the effective exclusion of +pensioners and placemen from the House. They succeeded in extending the +electoral franchise to all holders, whether Catholic or Protestant, of +forty-shilling freeholds. Unfortunately, they could hardly have done worse +than by giving political power to the mass without its natural leaders. +Protestant demagogues playing for the Catholic vote were certain to +appear. Another bad effect of the measure was the multiplication of cotter +holdings by land-owners who would absolutely control the cotter's vote. On +the other hand, to ask the Protestant oligarchy to part with its exclusive +possession of Parliament was to ask it, not only to resign power, but even +to cast a shadow on its property, for the Act of Settlement had hardly +even yet become perfectly sacred as the title-deed of proprietary right. +Not all the advocates of Parliamentary reform were in favour of Catholic +emancipation. Flood among others was opposed to it. + +Of the British government Pitt was now absolute master. Early in his reign +he had glanced at Irish politics and it seems had thought of union. But +the Channel was still wide and Irish government was still left to the +Castle. Pitt, however, had tendered Ireland a commercial agreement framed, +like his commercial treaty with France, in the spirit of the first +statesman who read Adam Smith. Introduced by him with great ability and at +first with general acceptance, his measure in the end was wrecked by a +combination of British protectionism, Whig faction, and Irish jealousy on +the subject of legislative independence; to the last of which Fox, carried +away by faction, scrupled not to appeal. Commercial union would have +strengthened the political connection, and by furthering commercial +prosperity might have done something to allay Irish discontent. Latterly, +Pitt's thoughts had been engrossed by the struggle with France. They were +now turned perforce to the political state of Ireland, which was evidently +becoming very perilous; at that time, unfortunately, with no happy result. + +The Whigs opposed to the French Revolution, Portland, Spencer, +Fitzwilliam, and Windham, had coalesced with Pitt without renouncing their +general principles, which they wished to apply to Ireland, regarding that +field, it seems, as especially their own. At their instance Fitzwilliam +was sent over as viceroy, believing, and it seems with reason, that he +bore Catholic emancipation and general reform in his hand; though he had +no written instructions, nor, it appears, any verbal instructions +sufficiently clear. He went hastily to work, opened his budget of +concessions prematurely, and too promptly brandished the besom of +administrative reform, dismissing from office one of the great +place-hunting house of Beresford, which by assiduous intrigue had filled +the public service with its nominees. The Beresford carried his plaint to +the headquarters of the Tory party in London, and told Pitt that +Fitzwilliam was turning out all the faithful supporters of the government. +What followed is still a mystery. There was a long, unaccountable, and +apparently inexcusable silence on the part of Portland, broken at last by +disclaimer, rebuke, and recall. Fitzwilliam, stung to fury at this +treatment, trampled on official rules and did serious mischief by his +publication of confidential letters betraying an incipient design of +union, which to Irish patriotism at that time was maddening. At the bottom +of all the misunderstanding and trouble was the king, into whose miserable +mind had been instilled, it appears by Fitzgibbon, the belief that by +consenting to Catholic emancipation he would break his coronation oath. +The two great Tory lawyers, Eldon and Kenyon, to their honour, told the +king the truth. It seems probable, however, that the union of the +coalition government was imperfect, as that of coalition governments is +apt to be, and that this may be the account both of the want of clearness +in Fitzwilliam's original instructions and of the strange silence, ending +at last in an abrupt dismissal, which ensued. + +Fitzwilliam left Dublin amidst passionate demonstrations of popular +disappointment and grief. His place was taken by Lord Camden, one of the +Tory section of the Pitt government, who came to face Irish rebellion +aided by Revolutionary France, while England, placed in extreme peril by +French victories and the secession of her allies, was struggling for her +life and was unable to afford military support to the government of +Ireland. + +Catholic emancipation and reform of Parliament, had Fitzwilliam been +allowed to grant them, would, Grattan thought, have averted the crisis. +They might have staved it off, but it would probably have come in another +form. That the new power thus called into being would be as loyal as +Grattan himself to British connection was a highly precarious assumption. +The course of the French Revolution would have not been stayed, nor would +the wild hopes which it excited have been extinguished. The aspirations of +Tom Paine's disciples at Belfast would not have ceased. The cotter's +hunger would not have been appeased nor would he have been reconciled to +the payment of tithe and Church cess. The blind hatred of British +connection as the supposed source of all evil to Ireland would have +continued to work. The State Church would at once have been attacked. The +Castle government, bereft of its two supports, nomination boroughs and +patronage, would inevitably have lost its hold. Chaos would then have +come. Material order might have been preserved by a sufficient military +force. Otherwise there was apparently nothing for it but union. + +In Presbyterian Belfast, hatred of the State Church and the English +government which supported it, bred by Episcopal intolerance, had +developed, especially among the young men, into rationalism and acceptance +of the doctrines, both religious and political, of Tom Paine. The +connection of sympathy with the exiles in America had been kept up, and +the spirit of the American was combined with that of the French +Revolution. Thus was formed the circle of United Irishmen. The professed +aim of this association, perhaps originally its real aim, was only the +reform of Parliament. But it soon became revolutionary, aiming at +independence of England and the foundation of an Irish republic, to be +brought about by the aid of revolutionary France. Its soul was Wolfe Tone, +a young man of talent, literary and practical, and of generous instincts, +wild, dissipated, recklessly adventurous, burning with hatred of England. +Other leading members of the circle were Jackson and Emmett. Most of the +set were plebeian. But there was one recruit from the aristocracy, Lord +Edward Fitzgerald, son of the Duke of Leinster, fired, like Lafayette, +with the enthusiasm of liberty, but distinguished and made an object of +sentimental interest only by his rank and by his tragical end. + +The outbreak was now imminent. Grattan, with his few steadfast adherents, +seceded from Parliament, where he had better have stayed to moderate as +far as he could the fury of repression. This he owed to the country on +which he had imposed the constitution of 1782, a system fraught, as he +might have seen, with disruption and capable of being worked only as it +had been worked, by Castle influence. The bond of loyalty to England, +which was strong in his own breast, he assumed to be general. Neither he +nor, with reverence be it said, Burke, excellent as the general principles +of both might be, correctly read the situation, which was one of a very +special kind. Burke's letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe on the subject of +religious emancipation is accounted one of the greatest of his works. But +Fitzgibbon might with reason have replied to it that of the real Irish +problem it offered no practical solution. It did not show how a national +Parliament of Ireland, with a great Catholic majority, and uncontrolled by +Castle patronage and influence, to which reform would have put an end, +could be kept in secure harmony with the Parliament of Great Britain. +Burke, however, now and then, glances timidly at the policy of union. +Grattan could think of nothing but his two Parliaments linked by eternal +affection. After Grattan's secession, the oligarchy closed its ranks, and +the Parliament thenceforth went thoroughly with the government, or even +beyond it, in the policy of repression. + +The Castle understood its danger. In Irish conspiracies the informer is +never lacking. Besides, there were Catholics, who though patriots, wishing +to avert civil war, communicated with the government, and furnished it +with information for that purpose. Among these may fairly be numbered +Arthur O'Leary, on whose connection with the government and acceptance of +a small pension from it, lately revealed, prejudice pounces as a proof +that the best reputed and most eminent of Irish Liberals was a rogue. +Arthur O'Leary wrote well, and the spirit of his writings was thoroughly +liberal as well as loyal. Nothing seems to have been expected of him +beyond general information of Catholic tendencies and movements such as +one who desired to avert civil war might honestly give. By its secret +intelligence the government was enabled at a critical moment to seize some +of the leaders of the conspiracy, while Lord Edward Fitzgerald met his +death in resisting arrest. + +The fire, smouldering everywhere, burst into a flame in Armagh, a +Protestant district into which Catholics had intruded by outbidding +Protestant holders of farms whose leases had expired. The Protestants, +banding together under the name of Peep o'Day Boys, proceeded to oust the +intruders, burning some of their houses. The Catholics combined for mutual +protection under the name of Defenders. Outrages were committed on both +sides. In a pitched battle, on a small scale, called the battle of the +Diamond, the Catholics were worsted and a number of them were killed. Many +Catholics were driven from their homes, and the fugitives spread through +the country the belief that the Protestants were bent on extermination. + +The United Irishmen, disciples of Tom Paine, cared nothing for the +quarrels of sects. But disaffection of any kind was grist to their +revolutionary mill. They coalesced with Defenderism, and by superior +intelligence got control of the movement, which they organized as an +expectant army of revolution. Their task was made easy by the habits of +conspiracy formed among the peasantry in the agrarian war. There were +secret oaths, passwords, military gradations of command. There were even +reviews under pretence of digging the potatoes of patriots who were in +prison. Everything was ready for a rising as soon as French succour should +appear. All the blacksmiths were making pike-heads, the young trees were +being everywhere cut down for the shafts. Muskets in plenty would come +with the auxiliary army from France. Wolfe Tone had visited Paris, of +which in its revolutionary phase he gives a lively picture, and received a +promise of aid; Hoche, with whom he had an interview, being eager for the +enterprise. + +Among the people generally the rebellion was agrarian rather than +religious, religious only as the Catholic peasantry believed that they saw +in Protestantism a badge of general enmity. But that belief made the war +between the sects internecine. It does not appear that any but a few of +the lowest and coarsest of the priesthood took an active part in the +rebellion. The order, as a whole, could hardly look with pleasure for the +conquest of Ireland by an atheist revolution. The French, in fact, had +they become masters of Ireland for a time, would probably in the end have +found themselves there, as in Spain, confronted by a hostile priesthood +carrying with it the people. + +In the extremity of danger, surrounded by gathering rebellion, Castle +government had now to strike or fall. It struck, practically proclaiming +martial law. But it was without the only safe means of military +repression. Of regular soldiers it had few. Those few behaved well. Some +of them earned by their conduct the blessings of the people. But in the +main repression had to be entrusted to yeomanry and fencibles, little +controlled by discipline, and infected, as a militia is always apt to be, +and as in this case they were in an extreme degree, by the passions of the +hour. These men, sent forth to disarm the people, in their search for +concealed arms burned, slew, pitch-capped, flogged without stint or mercy, +and turned a great district of the north and midland into a hell. The +people retaliated with equal atrocity where they had the power. A large +number of suspects were arbitrarily shipped on board the fleet, where it +was believed they helped by their infection to beget the mutiny at the +Nore. Lord Moira, a patriot Irish nobleman, protested vehemently in the +House of Lords, but his exaggeration and partiality broke the force of his +appeal. To control the excesses of repression and restore military +discipline, the gallant Abercrombie was put in command; but he lost his +self-control, reviled the troops in an imprudent manifesto, broke with the +government, and left matters worse than they had been before. + +In Ulster, fraternities of strong Protestants, which had existed +informally since 1689, were now formally organized as Orange Lodges. They +embodied an intensely sectarian feeling and committed their share of +outrages, but they lent the government powerful aid. + +Conspicuous among the ruthless agents of repression was the head of the +Beresfords, whose riding-house at Dublin was a daily scene of torture. +Conspicuous also was Judkin Fitzgerald, the field of whose operations was +Tipperary. Fitzgerald's apologists plead that his policy was successful. +It might be so, but the cause of public order does not gain in the end by +outraging that law of natural justice on respect for which public order +must ultimately depend. Fitzgerald, savagely flogging a man on whom he had +found a note in the French language, which not knowing French himself he +could not read, was presently assured by one who could read the note that +it was perfectly harmless. He nevertheless continued the torture of the +lash till the victim nearly expired. Such a case seems to defy apology. +Fitzgerald, however, was not only protected from question by an Act of +Indemnity, but rewarded with a title. On both sides all hearts were fired +with the satanic madness of civil war. + +French aid had been promised. To the unspeakable discredit of the British +admiralty, it came. An expedition which had long been in preparation under +Hoche was allowed to sail from Brest and unopposed to make the coast of +Ireland at Bantry Bay. A storm which prevented a landing, the bad +seamanship of the French, whose naval service had been shattered by the +revolution, and the separation of the frigate which had the general on +board from the rest of the fleet, saved Ireland from temporary conquest +and Great Britain from the consequences of that disaster. It is remarkable +that the peasantry in the neighbourhood of Bantry Bay received the +soldiers of the government well and shared their potatoes with them. Was +this loyalty or fear? Had the French landed, would the potatoes have been +still more hospitably shared? An expedition afterwards fitted out in +Holland, now a vassal of France, at the very crisis of the mutiny at the +Nore, was weatherbound till the mutiny was over and was then crushed by +Duncan at Camperdown. A small French force under Humbert afterwards +landed, and at Castlebar put the militia to shameful flight. But it was +presently surrounded by superior numbers and forced to surrender. There +were still some faint demonstrations, in one of which the arch-enemy of +England, Wolfe Tone, met his doom. He imprudently betrayed his identity to +his captors. His French commission availed him not. He escaped the gallows +by suicide. He was a genuine enthusiast, and he was at all events on one +of the only two practicable lines of action. Separation was the sole +alternative to union. But had Tone got the upper hand, with his fanaticism +and a savage peasantry thirsting for Protestant and English blood at his +back, the political millennium in Ireland, as in France, would have opened +with a reign of terror. + +Disappointed of aid from France, the rebellion took the field by itself. +There was a great rising in Wexford, headed by Father Murphy, a fighting +priest, a compound of Wat Tyler and John Ball, who gave himself out as a +supernatural personage, and persuaded the people that he could catch +bullets in his hands. The father showed a natural genius for war. His +peasants fought desperately, and the Irish pike proved a formidable weapon +in their hands. The rebels gained one or two successes in the field, and +took the city of Wexford. They perpetrated fiendish cruelties. At +Scullabogue they burned or butchered a barn full of Protestants. At +Wexford they dragged their prisoners to the bridge, stripped them naked, +hoisted them up on the points of their pikes, and threw them into the +river. At Vinegar Hill, a name of ghastly memory, the rebel headquarters, +a batch of Protestants was every day brought out after a mock trial to be +massacred. The people being here under priestly leadership, the character +of a religious crusade was given to their warfare, and every Protestant +was a mark for their murderous fury. On the other hand, Protestants in the +north who at the outset had been revolutionary, seeing the rebellion +assume the character of a Catholic crusade, passed to the side of +government and repression. One or two men of property were forced into +leadership by the rebels; otherwise property was entirely on the side of +the government. + +After Scullabogue, Wexford, and Vinegar Hill, there could not fail to be +a terrible outpouring of vengeance. It came in full measure, as we learn +from the correspondence of Cornwallis, a soldier of high distinction and +character, who was sent in place of Camden as viceroy to close the scene. +He is much afraid, he says, that any man in a brown coat who is found +within several miles of the field of action is butchered without +discrimination. The Irish militia, he says, are totally without +discipline, contemptible before the enemy when any serious resistance is +made to them, but ferocious and cruel in the extreme when any poor +wretches either with or without arms come within their power. In short, +murder appears their favourite pastime. The conversation of the principal +persons of the country all tends to encourage the system of blood, and the +conversation even at his own table, where he does all he can to prevent +it, always turns on shooting, burning, hanging. If a priest has been put +to death, the greatest joy is expressed by the whole company. "Who fears +to speak of '98?" said a patriot bard in other days. The answer is, every +one who is not utterly lost to reason and humanity. These militia men, it +is to be borne in mind, were Irish, not English, and their murderous +enmity was the enmity of one section of Ireland to another. + + + + +XII + + +Pitt now resolved on a legislative union of Ireland with England and +Scotland, thus reverting to the policy of the Commonwealth. But union had +been the ideal of Molyneux, and since the revolution of 1782 it had found +many advocates, among them Adam Smith. An Irish government of sectarian +ascendancy and oligarchy combined, controlled, and held in precarious +subordination to the government of Great Britain by intrigue and +corruption, had ended in murderous and ruinous conflict of political +parties, social classes, and religious sects. In its realm people had been +refusing to eat pork because the swine might have fed on human flesh. +Foreign invasion had been invited. It had come, and only by repeated +miracles had Great Britain as well as Ireland been saved in the last +extremity of peril. Nor had that peril ceased. It was much to be deplored +that Pitt could not, like Cromwell and the Council of State, effect the +union by simply calling representatives of Ireland to the Parliament at +Westminster. Situated as Pitt was, he had, as Castlereagh laconically put +it, "to buy the fee simple of Irish corruption." The price he paid was +compensation in money to the owners of pocket boroughs and profuse grants +of peerages. The process was not edifying. Cornwallis, who had come at +once to put an end to havoc and to carry the union, having a strict sense +of honour, might well recoil from his task. Bribery with money has not +been brought home to the government, though in one case at least it has +been brought home to the opposition. From that stain the union is free. A +pretty large sum was needed to tune the press and for campaign expenses. +Pocket boroughs in those days were deemed property, and had been so +treated in Pitt's Reform Bill for England. The compensation paid the +owners of boroughs was not above the market price, and it was paid to the +opponents as well as to the supporters of the union; Lord Downshire, the +most powerful opponent of the union, as it happened, receiving the largest +sum of all. Foster, who made the greatest speech in Parliament against the +union, received seventy-five hundred pounds for his half share of a pocket +borough. In the absence of such compensation the owners of pocket boroughs +and the purchasers of seats for them would have been virtually bribed by +their private interest apart from any political consideration to oppose +the bill. Something was needed to induce a powerful and selfish oligarchy +to part with the field of its ascendancy and its ambition. For that +purpose the lavish creation of peerages was used. It cost the nation +nothing, and titles which had been openly used as bribes were not capable +of much degradation. Pitt is upbraided for not having taken the sense of +the nation by means of a general election. The sense of a nation of which +at least three-quarters were not eligible to Parliament! The sense of the +proprietors of nomination boroughs on the question of depriving them of +their property and its influence! The sense of a nation, the passions of +which had not had time to cool after a furious civil war, a civil war the +ashes of which still fiercely glowed and might by the excitement of a +general election have been fanned again into a flame! It is ever to be +lamented that the thing could not have been done in a simpler and less +questionable way. But it had to be done. Venality was venal, and, its +consent being necessary to the salvation of the state, had to be bought. +The purity of Pitt's motives or of those of his colleagues cannot be +questioned. The idea that he had provoked rebellion to make way for union +is a slander which only political frenzy could fabricate or believe. + +What was the feeling in Ireland at large it is very hard to determine. +There were addresses and declarations on both sides, but we cannot tell +how they were got up. Cornwallis made a canvassing tour. His opinion at +first was that Dublin was furiously opposed but the rest of the country +was favourable. This estimate changed as the struggle went on. Dublin, of +course, was the centre of excitement. At the outset it was the scene of a +riot. The capital could not like to lose the seat of government and the +social centre; nor could the Irish bar like the transfer of the supreme +jurisdiction to Westminster, or the severance of the Parliamentary from +the forensic career; the two, while Parliament sat in Dublin, having been +habitually, and often brilliantly, combined. Cork, on the other hand, was +flattered with the prospect of becoming a second Glasgow. It seems strange +that the Orangemen should then have been against the union, of which they +have since been the staunchest supporters. But they no doubt scented the +approach, with the union, of Catholic emancipation. The Catholic +hierarchy, headed by Archbishop Troy, was strongly for the union, and +unquestionably drew with it a large following both of clergy and laity. +The hope was undoubtedly held out of Catholic emancipation, possibly +accompanied by a provision for the Catholic priesthood, as a sequel to the +union; though no positive pledge was or could be given. At the same time +it is to be borne in mind that the general sympathy of a Catholic +priesthood would be with the British government as the chief antagonist of +an atheist France. The terrible tension of '98 had probably been followed +in many quarters by collapse and readiness to acquiesce in anything that +could hold out to life and property the protection of a strong government. +The "Annual Register" for 1802 says that at the first election of Irish +members to the United Parliament no supporter of the union lost his +election or was even upbraided on that account; that in the county of +Dublin alone did a candidate think his opposition to the union such a +claim to popular favour as to make it worth his while to allude to it; and +that some of the largest and most independent counties returned strong +supporters of the union. Cornwallis reports that in Dublin, the chief +centre of opposition, when at last the royal assent was given to the bill, +not a murmur was heard nor, as he believed, was there any expression of +ill-humour throughout the whole city. + +The Established Church of Ireland would be willing to support a measure +which, by identifying it with the English establishment, converted it from +the Church of a small minority into a limb of the Church of a great +majority, thus giving it a tenable ground of existence and a pledge of +support which it fondly hoped would never fail. + +The campaign of opinion, at all events, was conducted on both sides with +perfect freedom. There is no pretence for alleging that the union was +carried by military force. The affair at Dublin was a street riot, for the +repression of which it was necessary to call in the troops. Nothing like +military terrorism in fact is alleged. Twelve months before the passing of +the union, and in the middle of the struggle, Cornwallis said that "the +force remaining in Ireland was sufficient to maintain peace, totally +inadequate to repel foreign invasion." + +There were historic debates in the Irish Parliament. Grand speeches were +made in the nationalist and patriotic vein by opponents of the union. +Grattan, the author of the constitution of 1782, came in his volunteer +uniform to bedew its hearse with his oratoric tears. The dramatic effect +was enhanced by the bodily infirmity of the great patriot and orator, +which obliged him to speak sitting. Plunket put forth to the utmost those +powers of debate which led Lord Russell to pronounce him of all the many +speakers whom he had heard the most convincing. Foster produced a profound +effect by his mastery of commercial and financial detail, though in this +part of the field he had to contend with the supreme and unclouded +judgment of Adam Smith left on record in favour of union. As strong an +argument as any was that Ireland would be in danger of losing her leading +men, who would be drawn away to England. But absenteeism was already rife, +and was likely to be in the main diminished rather than increased by any +measure which made Ireland a happier abode. To the spirit of nationality +telling appeals could not fail to be made; but to what the nationality +amounted, whether it was nominal or real, of the heart or merely of local +boundary, had with terrible clearness appeared. In the speeches of the +opposition there seems to have been much more of political argument of a +general kind and of patriotic sentiment than of reference to the actual +working of the Constitution of 1782 and the consequences to which it had +led. + +Of all the opponents of the union on the high patriotic ground, the most +fervid was Plunket. "For my own part," he exclaimed, "I will resist it to +the last gasp of my existence, and with the last drop of my blood, and +when I feel the hour of my dissolution approaching I will, like the father +of Hannibal, take my children to the altar and swear them to eternal +hostility against the invaders of their country's freedom." It is to be +hoped that Plunket's children, if they took the oath, found absolution; +for the father soon afterwards, sitting in the united Parliament of which +he was a distinguished member, had so far changed his sentiments as to say +of the union; "As an Irishman I opposed that union; as an Irishman I avow +that I did so openly and boldly, nor am I now ashamed of what I then did. +But though in my resistance to it I had been prepared to go the length of +any man, I am now equally prepared to do all in my power to render it +close and indissoluble. One of the apprehensions on which my opposition +was founded, I am happy to say, has been disappointed by the event. I had +been afraid that the interest of Ireland, on the abolition of her separate +legislature, would come to be discussed in a hostile Parliament. But I can +now state--and I wish when I speak that I could be heard by the whole of +Ireland--that during the time that I have sat in the united Parliament I +have found every question that related to the interests or security of +that country entertained with indulgence and treated with the most +deliberate regard." + +Grattan too sat in the united Parliament enjoying a Nestorian dignity and +at first, Parliamentary reformer though he was, for a nomination borough. +He voted for one of those measures of coercion, the necessity for which +unhappily soon made itself felt. The most telling speech of all against +union in the Irish Parliament was that of Foster; and Foster too sat in +the united Parliament, was reconciled to Pitt, was by him made chancellor +of the Irish exchequer, and became a peer of the United Kingdom. + +The cause of the union in debate was pleaded by Clare and Castlereagh, +inferior to their opponents in eloquence, though Clare was a very +formidable speaker as well as a very strong man. + +Through the British Parliament the union was carried by overwhelming +majorities, though opposed by Grey, who afterwards, as prime minister, +became its firm upholder, and by Sheridan, far less sage than brilliant, +while Fox refused to attend the debates, throwing out a hint that he +preferred something in the way of federation; what, he did not say. In the +Irish Parliament at first the measure was defeated. It was carried at +length by dead-lift effort on the part of Clare and Castlereagh, who, +leading for the government, did unquestionably make unlimited and by no +means scrupulous use of such expedients as in those days were more freely +employed by governments to push vital measures through the House. That +such expedients should have prevailed is to be deplored as a stain on the +origin of the union. At the same time it proves the rottenness of the +assembly then on trial for its life. Nor should it be forgotten that on +the side of opposition to the union were arrayed purely local and personal +interests not more respectable in themselves than were the methods by +which their resistance was overcome. + +Let Irish patriots, when they bewail the extinction of the independent +Parliament of Ireland, remember that its last days had been marked by +eager support of the most ruthless and sanguinary measures of repression. + +No serious exception appears to have been taken to the political bargain +which gave Ireland one hundred representatives in the House of Commons +and thirty-two representatives, including four bishops sitting by +rotation, in the House of Lords. The party system has never been +constitutionally recognized, and it was not observed that the +representative peers, elected by their own order, would always be Tory, to +the total exclusion of the other party. About the fiscal bargain questions +are raised. These affect not the political issue. + +Viceroyalty, with Castle executive, was retained. This may be said to be a +relic of dependence. But the need of a separate administration +unfortunately has never ceased. When, in 1850, it was moved to abolish the +lord-lieutenancy, Ireland protested, and in deference to her veto the +measure was withdrawn. Ireland retained her separate judiciary and for +some time her separate department of finance. + +It was in regard to the religious question that the union was for the time +a failure. Pitt kept his word. He proposed Catholic emancipation to his +cabinet and pressed it on the king. He was foiled by the rogue and +sycophant Wedderburn, who for his personal ends played on the king's +morbid conscience and was aided in his work by the influence of two +archbishops, through whom a state church once more rendered its political +service to the nation. Pitt paid the debt of honour by resignation. It is +said that if he had persevered he would have prevailed, and the king would +have submitted, as he did in other cases, such as the acknowledgment of +American independence, the dismissal of Thurlow, the permission to Lord +Malmesbury to treat with France, the recall of the Duke of York, and the +admission of Fox to the government. But not one of these was a case of +religious conscience, nor in one of them had the king a great body of +national sentiment on his side, as he had, and knew that he had, in his +resistance to Catholic emancipation. He afterwards turned out the +Grenville ministry, which proposed to admit Catholics to military command, +and in so doing was manifestly sustained by the nation. After all, Pitt +must have known best what could be done with the king. That his +resignation was less of a sacrifice, because he thus escaped the necessity +of treating for peace with France, is conjecture, and does not affect the +actual propriety of his course. The king having in consequence of the +excitement been threatened with a recurrence of his malady, Pitt waived +the Catholic question for the king's lifetime, and, when called by the +extreme need of the country, returned to power on that understanding. He +would have done little good, and not have gratified the nation by driving +the king mad and transferring the government in the midst of the great war +to the Prince of Wales as Regent and the revellers of Carlton House. In +criticising the action of public men at this period, we must always bear +in mind the overmastering exigencies of the war. Pitt, though he waived +his principle on the subject of Catholic emancipation, never renounced it. +It passed to his pupil Canning, and within a generation prevailed. + +The only concession made at this time to the Catholics was the endowment +of Maynooth as a seminary for the Catholic priesthood of Ireland, cut off +from the seminaries of the continent by the war. + +Since the union, there has been much that was deplorable in the state of +Ireland and in the relations of the two islands, the main source of which, +however, as will presently appear, was not political. There has been a +hateful series of coercion acts. But there have been no Tudor hostings; +there has been no 1641; no 1689; no 1798. No fleet of an invader has +anchored in Bantry Bay. Belfast, once the seed-plot of revolution, has +prospered and been content. Two years afterwards revolution flamed up +again for a moment in the abortive rising of Emmet. Then it died down, to +break forth seriously, at least as civil war, no more. + +The union must be taken to have been a union in the full sense of the +term, putting an end to separate identity, not merely a standing contract +between two parties, each of which retained the right of enforcing the +contract against the other. On this understanding Parliament has acted, +and is likely again to act in the case of the representation, as well as +in the disestablishment of the Irish Church. The United Kingdom cannot be +hide-bound forever by the terms which, necessarily having reference to the +circumstances of its formation, must, like those circumstances, have been +deemed liable to change. + +It is unfortunate that no common name for the united nationality could be +found. "British" excludes the Irish, "English" both the Irish and the +Scotch, and separatist sentiment is fostered by the retention of the old +national name. + +Victory over the French Revolution and Napoleon was accompanied by an +ascendancy of Toryism, which kept Liverpool at the head of the government +for fourteen years. In this both islands fared alike. But the Cabinet was +divided on the subject of Catholic emancipation. Plunket, still a Liberal +though now a Unionist, showed his power as a debater in the Catholic +cause. Castlereagh and Canning were on the Liberal side. Emancipation was +carried in the Commons, thrown out in the lords, while old Eldon drank to +the thirty-nine peers who had saved the Thirty-nine Articles, little +thinking how soon he was to be smitten in the house of his friends. On +Liverpool's death there were a few months of Canning and a brief interlude +of Goodrich. Then power reverted to the Tory and anti-Catholic section of +the Liverpool combination, at the head of which were Wellington and Peel. +Peel, in whom hereditary Toryism was combined with natural openness of +mind and practical sagacity, as well as with supreme skill in +administration, seemed specially sent to carry England safely by the +bridge of Conservatism over the gulf between the old era and the new. He +had been one of the anti-Catholic section of the Liverpool government, and +in that character had been elected to Parliament by the clerical and then +Protestant University of Oxford. But he had administered Ireland for six +years; had seen the state of things there; had been impressed and shown +symptoms of a change of sentiment. He dealt liberally with Catholics in +the matter of patronage. He and Wellington now acquiesced in the relief of +the Dissenters by the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. Probably +they were hesitating on the brink of Catholic emancipation when they were +impelled by a new force. The Catholic cause had found for itself a +first-rate leader, organizer, and orator, Daniel O'Connell. + + + + +XIII + + +Daniel O'Connell, whose figure fills the next page in Irish history, was a +Dublin barrister who, having gained a unique reputation as a skilful or +more than skilful winner of verdicts, passed from the forensic to the +political field. He was of pure Irish blood, Irish in physiognomy, +typically Irish in character. Nature had endowed him with all the gifts of +a popular leader, bodily as well as mental; for he had a voice of +unrivalled power and compass as well as extraordinary tact in dealing with +the masses and skill in the conduct of agitation. His oratory was such as +never failed to tell with his Irish audience, while its violent +exaggeration, its disregard of truth and offensiveness of expression too +often excited the just resentment of those whom he assailed and repelled +all moderate and right-minded men. At the same time he knew how to play +the courtier, as he showed when George IV. visited Ireland. He entered +public life without the blessing of the veteran Grattan, who accused him +of setting afloat the bad passions of the people, venting calumny against +Great Britain, and making politics a trade. That his motives were mixed is +probable. But of his Irish patriotism there could be no doubt. O'Connell +was a most devout Catholic, enjoyed the hearty confidence of the +priesthood, and was able to make full use of its influence in calling out +and marshalling the people. He thus opened a new era in the history of +Irish agitation. In return, he supported the priesthood in its extreme +pretensions; notably in defeating a proposal for the admission of +Catholics to political power subject to securities for the loyalty of +their Church which conflicted with high priestly pretensions, though it +had been favourably entertained at Rome. It was on this point that he and +Grattan broke. O'Connell, with the aid of his priestly fuglemen, formed a +great Catholic association to overawe the government. On the other side, +the Orangemen, now heartily Unionist, rushed to arms. A fierce conflict +ensued in Ireland, with some danger to the peace. In the course of it the +Duke of York, heir presumptive to the Crown, electrified the country and +filled the heart of Eldon and true blue Protestantism with joy by a solemn +declaration that if he became king he would veto Catholic emancipation. +After trying his power by carrying some elections, O'Connell determined +to bring the conflict to a head by himself standing for Parliament in +defiance of the law by which, as a Catholic, he was excluded. He carried +his election for Clare against the candidate of the gentry by the votes of +the Catholic peasantry, the forty-shilling freeholders; the influence of +the Church with its sacraments being openly employed in his support. Peel +and Wellington now gave way and carried the admission of the Catholics to +Parliament, only tempering the shock to their Tory supporters by the +abolition of the forty-shilling freehold; no great blow to liberty, since +the only question was whether the forty-shilling freeholder should be the +tool of the landlord or of the priest. The refusal to O'Connell of the +rank of king's counsel, to which he had become eligible, was defended as +another sop to the Tories; but it really was a mark of resentment, very +unwise as well as undignified, though partly excused by the offensiveness +of O'Connell's bearing and language. It may have been unwillingness to +confess change of opinion that led Wellington and Peel to ascribe the +concession of Catholic emancipation to fear of civil war. O'Connell could +not have put into the field any force capable of making head against the +forces of the government, Ulster, the Orangemen, and the Irish gentry. He +was himself utterly unwarlike, and there was no foreign power to come to +his aid. The measure was a concession of right demanded not only by the +Irish Catholics themselves, but by a large party in England which included +the best intelligence of the country and the most powerful organs of the +press, without the help of which it could not have been carried. Unhappily +it was made to appear as a concession of fear. + +O'Connell's victory made him the idol and the master of Catholic Ireland. +A large revenue, called his "rent," was thenceforth raised for him by +annual subscription. On this his enemies did not fail to reflect. He +defended it as the necessary compensation for the sacrifice of a large +professional income to the service of the country. At his ancestral +mansion of Darrynane, on the wild, thoroughly Celtic, and Erse-speaking +coast of Kerry, the "Liberator" held a rustic court profusely hospitable, +amidst a circle of devoted adherents, with an open table at which as many +as thirty guests were sometimes seated; thus presenting probably the +nearest possible counterpart of the head of a great sept in the tribal +days. To Darrynane a pilgrimage was made by Montalembert, who fondly +hoped that he had found in its master that union of devotion to the +Church with liberty which was the ideal of the liberal Catholic school. + +Would Catholic emancipation pacify Ireland? Its authors expected that it +would. Even Macaulay appears to think that if the popular religion of +Ireland had been treated at the union as the popular religion of Scotland +was treated, all in Ireland, as in Scotland, might have been well. The +result was disappointing. The Irish cotter had voted and shouted for +Catholic emancipation at the bidding of the priests and the platform; but +what he wanted and hoped to get by a revolution of any kind was, not so +much political or religious change, as more oats and potatoes. His real +grievances were hunger and nakedness. To afford those myriads a +treacherous food, the behest of nature had been too much disregarded; +lands destined for pasture had been turned into potato and oat plots. The +millions, reduced to an animal existence, had gone on multiplying with +animal recklessness. The increase was greater since rebellion and +devastation were at an end. In this sense alone the consequences of the +union may be said to have been evil. The priest enjoined marriage on moral +grounds, perhaps not without an eye to fees. Between 1801 and 1841 +population increased by three millions. More than ever, the homes were +filthy hovels shared with swine, the beds litters of dirty straw, the +dresses rags, the food the potato, while there was frequent dearth and +sometimes famine. Eviction increased, since, the forty-shilling freehold +franchise having been abolished, the landlord cared no longer to multiply +holdings for the sake of votes. The land system, with its tiers of +middlemen, was as cruel as ever. Tithe, the most odious of all imposts, +was still collected in the most odious manner. As a consequence, peasant +Ireland was still the scene of a vast agrarian war waged by a starving +people against the landlord and the tithe-proctor. Arson, murder, carding +and mutilation of middlemen and tithe-proctors were rife. Victims leaping +from the windows of their burning houses were caught on pitchforks. The +nation was undergoing a baptism of lawlessness and savagery. All the +peasants were in the league of crime and screened the assassin. Law was +powerless. Prosecution was hopeless. Murder was committed in open day and +before a number of witnesses, all of whom, if brought into court, would +perjure themselves in the common cause. A deep impression had been made +upon Peel by the horrors of the agrarian war. He had been particularly +moved by a case showing the transcendent height which social passion had +attained. A party of Whiteboys entered a house in which there were the man +whom they came to murder, his wife, and their little girl. The man was in +a room on the ground floor. His wife and their little girl were in a room +above, with a closet, through a hole in the door of which the room could +be seen. The woman heard the Whiteboys enter and knew their errand. She +put the child into the closet, saying to her, "They are murdering your +father below, then they will come up and murder me. Mind you look well at +them and swear to them when you see them in court." The child obeyed. She +looked on while her mother was murdered. She swore to the murderers in +court, and they were hanged upon her evidence. + +The evil had reached such a height that society in Ireland was almost on +the point of dissolution. Ordinary coercion acts, of which there had been +a series, failed and the Liberal government of Grey was compelled to have +recourse to martial law. + +The tide of reform, however, which began to flow in 1830, before it ebbed, +brought to Ireland, besides her share in reform of the Parliamentary +representation, the opening of the municipal councils, which had been +universally close and corrupt, and after Catholic emancipation still +excluded Catholics. It brought commutation of tithe, a measure of immense +value, far too long delayed, which shifted the burden of payment from the +shoulders of the cotter to those of the landlord. It brought a poor law, +cruelly needed in the midst of multiplying evictions. Furthermore, it +brought in 1831-1833 the momentous gift of public education, national and +undenominational, in the inauguration of which the Anglican primate, +Archbishop Whateley, reconciling his advanced liberalism with his +anomalous position, took a leading part. Ireland thus in national +education preceded England by many years. Whateley had fellow-workers in +liberal Catholics, ecclesiastical as well as lay, but the weight of Roman +authority and influence was, as it always has been, and still is, against +free education. The State Church of the minority succeeded in repelling +attack; but it underwent some internal reform, including the suppression +of ten superfluous bishoprics; a sacrilegious act of the state which +helped to give birth to sacerdotal reaction at Oxford. After the abolition +of the tithe-proctor, the State Church had become less odious to the +people. The Castle administration was growing more liberal. +Lords-lieutenant tried to be fair in distribution of patronage. A Liberal +secretary, a man of mark, Drummond, warned the Irish landlords that +property had its duties as well as its rights. Peel, as Irish secretary, +had laid the foundation of the Irish constabulary, that noble force of law +and order which combines independent intelligence with the discipline of +the regular soldier. Drummond rendered a most important service by +completing the institution. The Irish constabulary has naturally in the +main been composed of Protestants. But the Catholic policeman in Ireland +has in a marked way resisted seditious influence and been true to the +government and his duty. The Irishman follows his commander. Attempts to +seduce Irish soldiers from fidelity to the colours seem to have generally +failed. + +O'Connell, with his following, helped to carry the Parliamentary Reform +Bill of 1832, which, in fact, could not have been carried without their +vote. He lent a general though not hearty or unwavering support to the +Whig ministry of Grey, which, though it paid him some deference, was too +strong to be under his control. But on the passing of a drastic coercion +bill directed against political as well as agrarian disturbance, there was +an angry rupture, and the Whigs became "base, bloody, and brutal," like +all others who crossed O'Connell's will. O'Connell was not handsomely +treated. His eminence as a lawyer, combined with his influence in Ireland, +entitled him to a high place. But his blustering violence, his unmeasured +vituperation, his venomous abuse of England, and the changefulness of his +moods made him a dangerous ally for any government. Cobden said, +"O'Connell always treated me with friendly attention, but I never shook +hands with him or faced his smile without a feeling of insecurity; and as +for trusting him on any public question where his vanity or passions might +interpose, I should have as soon thought of an alliance with an Ashantee +chief." + +The Melbourne and Russell ministry was weak and fain to lean on O'Connell +with his Irish brigade for support and to allow him a voice in +appointments, though it suffered greatly in English eyes by the alliance. +O'Connell shouted with joy when that government was snatched from death +and restored to a feeble existence by the refusal of the queen to change +her bed-chamber women on Peel's demand. But the advent of Peel to power, +with a strong government, filled him with rage and despair. The two men +had quarrelled in Ireland, a challenge had passed between them, and Peel +was the object of O'Connell's bitterest hatred. In principle the new +government was hostile to O'Connell, and its strength placed it wholly +beyond his influence. His power was threatened with extinction. His rent, +moreover, since there had been a lull in agitation, was rapidly falling +off, and he was in pecuniary distress. The last, some think, was not his +least urgent motive for embarking in another agitation. This time it was +for a repeal of the union, of which he had before only thrown out fitful +hints. He now raised the standard of repeal and issued his mandate to the +priesthood to call out the peasantry in that cause. The priesthood +joyfully obeyed. Monster meetings were held and were addressed by +O'Connell in his most violent strain, with ostensible respect for +constitutional methods, but with constant appeals to national hatred and +suggestions of military force. The priests consecrated the meetings and +the sentiments, celebrating Mass on the grounds. It is surely idle to +contend that a priesthood acting thus and having its centre in Rome is +only a Christian ministry, not a power of political disturbance. An +outbreak appeared to be at hand, when the government took direct issue +with the agitator by proclaiming a monster meeting which he had appointed +to be held at Clontarf; a scene suggestive of military force as it had +been the field of the great Irish victory. O'Connell, who, if he was not +pacific, was unwarlike, shrank from the conflict and called off the +meeting. The government followed up the blow by indicting the agitator for +sedition. There was a monster trial at Dublin, in the course of which, to +preserve the Irish character of the scene, the attorney-general challenged +the counsel on the other side to a duel. O'Connell was found guilty, but +the verdict was afterwards quashed on appeal to the House of Lords, for +irregularity in the panel, by the judgment of three Whigs against one Tory +and the independent Brougham, though it had been upheld by seven of the +nine judges to whom the case was referred. O'Connell was set free. But the +spell of his ascendancy had been broken. By shrinking from the appeal to +force he had forfeited the respect of the fighting section of his party. +The Conservative government was invincibly strong. O'Connell's health and +physical force had broken down. Thus ended the great Liberator's career. +He bequeathed his body to Ireland and his heart to Rome. There can be no +question about his devotion to either, whatever motives may have mingled +with his devotion to Ireland. Whether he did more good to the Irish cause +by his patriotism than harm by the passions which he excited and the +enmities he created, is a question about which different opinions have +been formed. His blind attachment to the Church, had he been victorious, +would have put Ireland under the control of a reactionary priesthood. + +For some time before his death, O'Connell, by shrinking from force, had +been losing the hearts and the adherence of a party of force on his own +side called "Young Ireland," a set of young men, some highly gifted as +journalists or poets, whose aim was not repeal but national independence, +and who in their organ, _The Nation_, preached rebellion and revelled in +the memory of '98. + +Peel, victorious, graced his victory by concession, to which indeed he was +heartily inclined. He saw that "Ireland was his difficulty," and wanted to +treat the problem as liberally as his following of Protestants and squires +would let him. He increased the grant to Maynooth, thereby constraining +Gladstone, by way of satisfaction to his former self, to go through the +form of resignation. He enabled the Catholic Church freely to receive +charitable bequests. Not venturing to throw open the fellowships and +scholarships of Trinity College to the Catholics, he founded for their +special benefit three undenominational colleges at Belfast, Cork, and +Galway, forming together a university with power of granting degrees. This +measure, excellent in its way, was but a partial success. The priesthood +looked with invincible suspicion on free science, while Catholic +professors of science, whom the Church might have trusted, were hardly to +be found. But Peel touched the real root of the evil, and pointed to +effective reform, when, in 1843, he issued a Commission of Inquiry into +land occupancy in Ireland and the condition of the peasant occupants. The +commission reported that the agricultural labourer of Ireland continued to +suffer the greatest privations and hardships; that he was still dependent +upon casual and precarious employment for subsistence; that he was still +badly housed, badly clothed, and badly fed; and that he was undergoing +sufferings greater than those of the people of any other country in +Europe. Some tentative motions followed, but there had scarcely been time +for the report of the commission to work, when the sentence of nature was +pronounced with awful distinctness in the form of a great famine with +pestilence in its train. The population of Ireland at this time was +probably double that which the island could happily bear. A precarious +subsistence was afforded by the potato, which, always treacherous, now +suddenly and completely failed. Peel, warned of impending calamity, at +once opened the ports for the importation of grain, then grasped the +occasion for the repeal of the Corn Laws, on the policy of which his own +mind had been undergoing change. His administrative power and that of his +colleagues would probably have done all that was possible to meet and +mitigate the disaster. But at the critical moment his government was +struck down by a conspiracy of Russell and the Whigs with the ire of the +Corn Law squires and the vengeful ambition of Disraeli. Russell, who took +his place, was far more an adept in party strategy than a master of +practical administration. There ensued a heartrending scene, the climax of +seven centuries of evil accident, maladministration, and Irish woe. + +"Famine advances on us with giant strides," wrote an official in the +August of 1846. "Towards the end of August," says Mr. T. P. O'Connor, "the +calamity began to be universal and its symptoms to be seen. Some of the +people rushed into the towns, others wandered along the highroads in the +vague hope of food. They plucked turnips from the fields, were glad to +live for weeks on a single meal of cabbage a day, feasted on the dead +bodies of horses and asses and dogs. There was a story of a mother eating +the limbs of her dead child. Dead bodies were discovered with grass in +their mouths and in their bowels; weeds were sought after with desperate +eagerness; seaweed was greedily devoured; so were diseased cattle and +diseased potatoes. Despair fell on all hearts and faces. The ties of +kindred in some cases failed, parents neglecting their children and +children turning out their aged parents. On the other hand, there were +stories of parents dying of starvation to save a small store for their +children. The workhouses, usually shunned, were overcrowded. In one, three +thousand persons sought relief in a single day. They crowded even into the +jails. Driven from the workhouses, people began to die by the roadside or +alone in their despair within their cabins. Roads and streets were strewn +with corpses. One inspector buried one hundred and forty bodies found on +the highway. The scenes inside the cabins were even more horrible; +husbands lay for a week in the same hovels with the bodies of their wives +and children. The decencies of burial were no longer observed. Then came +the plague, attacking bodies already weakened by hunger." "A terrible +apathy," says an eye-witness, "hangs over the poor of Skibbereen; +starvation has destroyed every generous sympathy; despair has made them +hardened and insensible, and they sullenly await their doom with +indifference and without fear. Death is in every hovel; disease and +famine, its dread precursors, have fastened on the young and the old, the +strong and the feeble, the mother and the infant; whole families lie +together on the damp floor devoured by fever, without a human being to wet +their burning lips or raise their languid heads; the husband dies by the +side of the wife, and she knows not that he is beyond the reach of earthly +suffering; the same rag covers festering remains of mortality and the +skeleton forms of the living, who are unconscious of the horrible +contiguity; rats devour the corpse, and there is no energy among the +living to scare them from their horrid banquet; fathers bury their +children without a sigh, and cover them in shallow graves, round which no +weeping mother, no sympathizing friends are grouped; one scanty funeral is +followed by another and another. Without food or fuel, bed or bedding, +whole families are shut up in naked hovels, dropping one by one into the +arms of death."[3] + +All the devices of government by relief work and in other ways to grapple +with the twofold calamity were palliatives and little more. The most +effective measure of relief was a vast emigration to the United States and +Canada, which also had its horrors. Thousands, already weakened by hunger +and suffering, succumbed to the hardships of the passage; another +multitude died on landing. Canada did all she could for the hapless +strangers cast upon her shore. But ship-fever followed the fugitives, and +graveyards were filled with their dead. It was reckoned that more than two +hundred thousand persons died on the voyage or on arrival at their +destination. Few Irishmen, however prejudiced against England, will deny +that the people of Great Britain and Canada showed unbounded sympathy with +Ireland in her affliction, and did their utmost for her relief. O'Connell +himself, while he criticised the measures of the government, allowed that +individual humanity and charity were abundant; that the noblest generosity +was evinced by multitudes of the English; and that if individual +generosity could save a nation, British generosity would do it. He said +that he was afraid of not finding words sufficient to express his strong +and lively sense of English humanity. To charges of English indifference +to Irish suffering, his words are a sufficient answer. + +Close upon the famine and pestilence came 1848, the year of European +revolution. Young Ireland, the party of force, did not fail to catch the +flame. Its organ, _The Nation_, cried, "It is a death struggle now between +the murderer and his victim. Strike! Rise, men of Ireland, since +Providence so wills it! Rise in your cities and in your fields, on your +hills, in your valleys, by your dark mountain passes, by your rivers and +lakes and ocean-washed shores! Rise as a nation!" _The Irish Felon_, a +journal still more advanced, was even more openly for war. But neither in +city or field, on mountain or in valley, by pass or shore, did the people +rise at the impassioned call. Young Ireland found at once that it was but +a knot of literary men whose appeals to national feeling, penned as they +were with vigour, might be read with sentimental pleasure but would rouse +nobody to arms. O'Connell's mastery of the people depended on the support +of the priesthood, given in a cause originally religious to that zealous +champion of the Church who, dying, bequeathed his heart to Rome. Young +Ireland was more revolutionary than Catholic, as the priests did not fail +to perceive. The desire of political revolution, apart from agrarianism, +was not strong enough to rouse the peasantry to arms, though they had +learned to hate England as the supposed source of their sufferings. The +people, moreover, had hardly recovered from the depression caused by the +famine. Young Ireland however raised its flag. Smith O'Brien, with a small +party, made a trial trip, appealing to the people of two or three places, +but met with no response. A farcical encounter with the police at the +house of widow Cormack on the bog of Boulagh, followed by the capture of +Smith O'Brien, was the end. The sentence of death passed on the leader of +the revolt was wisely commuted by the government. + +The famine had at least one good effect. It drew attention to the main +source of the evil in Ireland, which was agrarian and social, not +political and religious. But now it was supposed that the mischief lay in +the inability of the landlords, overwhelmed with debt, burdened with +family settlements, and crushed by the demands of the Poor Law, to perform +their duty to their tenants. To remedy this evil was created the +Encumbered Estates Court, with power to order the sale of encumbered +property on the petition of the creditors and give a clear title to the +purchaser. The policy seemed sound, yet the result was not good. The court +cleared out the old proprietors who lacked means to do their duty; it put +in their place a new class of proprietors who, having been induced to buy +the land on pure speculation, felt that they had no duty to do, and who, +unlike their predecessors, had no kindly tie to the people. The new owners +naturally proceeded to make the most of their purchase; and the way to +make the most of their purchase clearly was to sweep out the cotter +tenants and throw the land into large holdings. This some of them +proceeded to do, and the consequence was a period of evictions almost +vying in cruelty with the famine. Whole districts were cleared and relet +in large holdings. Cabins were being thrown down in all directions. A +thousand of them were levelled in one union within a few months, and the +inmates were cast out helpless, half-naked, starving, to go to the union +or perish. The cabins were burned that the people might not return to +them. The suffering and misery, says a reporter, attendant upon these +wholesale evictions, is indescribable. The number of houseless paupers in +one union is beyond his calculation. Those evicted crowd neighbouring +cabins and villages, and disease is necessarily generated. In April he +calculates that six thousand houses have been levelled since November, and +he expects five hundred more by July. Wretched hovels had been pulled +down, the inmates of which in a helpless state of fever and nakedness were +left by the roadside for days. While inspecting a stone-breaking depot, +the reporter observes one of the men take off his remnant of a pair of +shoes and start across the fields. He follows him with his eye, and at a +distance sees the blaze of a fire in the bog. He sends to inquire the +cause of it and of the man's running from his work, and is told that the +man's house had been levelled the day before, that he had erected a +temporary hut, and that while his wife and children were gathering +shell-fish on the beach and he was stone-breaking the bailiff fired it. +This incident was one of several which made a deep impression on Peel, who +would probably have moved with effect had he remained in power. Pages are +filled with pictures of this kind. Civilized Europe could show nothing +like it. It was almost enough to break forever the spirit of the nation, +certainly to implant the bitterest memories, and here the main cause was +misgovernment and bad law. + +Relief works were no cure, nor were they in themselves very rational, +since the people, unfed, half-clothed, and living in pestilential +mud-holes, were really too weak to work. Parliament so far interfered as +to pass an act requiring forty-eight hours' notice of eviction to the +relieving officers, prohibiting evictions two hours before sunset or +sunrise, and on Christmas Day and Good Friday, and prohibiting the +demolition of the house of a tenant about to be evicted. But this rather +throws a lurid light on the state of things than effects a cure. The +public even might have some reason to complain of the land-owner who +recklessly cast upon the poor rates or upon public charity the human +encumbrances of his land. + +Apart from overpopulation and its effects, the Irish land-law +unquestionably needed reform. The people, struggling with each other for +their sole means of subsistence, undertook to pay exorbitant rents, and +their improvements, if they made any, became without compensation the +property of the landlord. In Ulster, always exceptional, there prevailed a +certain measure of tenant-right, something like the English copyhold. In +Ireland the demand for tenant-right now began to be loudly heard. An +English Radical, Sharman Crawford, brought forward a measure in +Parliament, but without effect. For some years nothing effectual was done +in the way of reform. Palmerston, to whom power passed, though in foreign +policy he dallied with revolution, was conservative, especially on social +subjects, at home. "Tenant's right is landlord's wrong" was his judgment +on the agrarian question. On the Irish side there was no leader of worth +or force. Patriotism was in a trance, and the chronicler of the +Nationalist party indignantly proclaims that the cause was betrayed by a +series of low adventurers who embraced it as the way to preferment. "The +most common type of Irish politician," he says in his anguish, "in these +days was the man who entered Parliamentary life solely for the purpose of +selling himself for place and salary." "This," he adds, "was the golden +season, when every Irishman who could scrape as much money together as +would pay his election expenses was able after a while to obtain a +governorship or some other of the many substantial rewards which English +party leaders were able to give to their followers." The constituencies, +it seems, political feeling being at a low ebb, were ready to elect the +man who could bring them public pelf. Of the adventurers, the worst was +Sadleir, who, with his set, attempted to intrigue with the Peelites, and +who, being a financial swindler as well as a political schemer, became +bankrupt and committed suicide. So the cause of the Three F's--Fixity of +tenure, Free sale, and Fair rents--made no way. English Radicals in +Parliament stood all the time ready to move with the Irish on this +question or for Disestablishment; but the Irish members were taken up with +intriguing for places for themselves, for appointments of the sons of +their constituents to clerkships in Somerset House, or for a government +subsidy to the Galway Packet contract. Irish writers are bound to remember +that Englishmen were not responsible for the choice or character of Irish +members. They are bound also to remember the impression which the members +chosen by the Irish could not fail to make on English minds. The British +Parliament could not justly be said to be "deaf, blind, and insolently +ignorant," though it was not on the right track. It might be excused for +being a little deaf and blind to the appeals of "a motley gang of as +disreputable and needy adventurers as ever trafficked in the blood and +tears of a nation." + +From the time of the union to this time there had been, and long after +this time continued to be, a series of coercion acts, rendered necessary +by agrarian outrage. There were thirty-two enactments of this kind between +the union and 1844. It would have been almost better, had it been +possible, frankly to suspend the constitution while the true remedy was +being applied. + +Liberal leadership now devolved from Palmerston on Gladstone, thus +bringing on the political field a new and immensely powerful motive power. +Gladstone was in opposition. In his mind a natural, and under the party +system legitimate, desire of recovering power for his party and himself +perhaps mingled with a sincere though tardily formed conviction of the +injustice of such an institution as the State Church of a small minority +in Ireland. It was unfortunate that he, like Peel and Wellington, gave +fear of Irish violence as a motive for doing justice. After some +premonitory hints, he, in former days the great champion of state +religion, declared for disestablishment. His case was overwhelmingly +strong. Faint and feeble were the arguments on the other side. The +institution was an anachronism, an anomaly, and a scandal. Its past had +been miserable. It had made no converts; it had made many rebels. By its +tests and its intolerance it had divided the Protestant interest, sending +many a Presbyterian across the sea to fight for the American Revolution. +Its ministry had been jobbed, its character defiled, by unscrupulous +politicians. Of late, however, it had been greatly reforming itself, and +it had got rid of its tithe-proctors by the commutation of tithes. Its +clergy generally were now on friendly terms with the people. Its last hour +was by far its best. Vested interests were respected in the change, and +the unblest establishment glided quietly and safely into its new and +happier life as a purely spiritual church. Through the Commons the measure +passed with ease; through the Lords, like other great measures of change, +it was forced by fear. + + + + +XIV + + +From disestablishment of the Church Gladstone, now in the full swing of +his Liberalism, proceeded next year to reform the land system of Ireland. +Taking his cue from Ulster tenant-right, perhaps also from English +copyhold, he passed an act, the first of a series which, by giving +compensation for improvements and for disturbance, restricting eviction, +regulating rents, and furnishing to the tenant by government loans the +means of purchasing the fee, has gone far towards transferring the +ownership from the landlord to the tenant. Some of these measures have +virtually involved confiscation, notably in the case of purchasers under +the Encumbered Estates Act, to whom full ownership had been morally +guaranteed. + +Economically, the tendency, indeed the aim, of the land acts has been to +make Ireland a land of peasant proprietors. The social tendency of such +legislation is to the abolition of the gentry, of the value of whose +leadership to a people eminently in need of leaders, Gladstone, +personally ignorant of Ireland, might not be a competent judge. +Unquestionably, the relations between landlord and tenant called for +reform. The appropriation of the tenant's improvements by the landlord was +in itself plainly unjust, and the sweeping evictions yielded in cruelty +only to the famine. But for overpopulation the immediate remedy was +depletion. Had Gladstone said that the overpopulation was originally the +consequence of misgovernment and repression of industry which, reducing +the people to abject misery, had wrecked their self-respect and +self-restraint, he would have been emphatically right, and the fact cannot +be too constantly kept in mind. Gladstone might also have said with truth +that emigration was a mournful cure, though it transferred the emigrant to +a far happier land and lot. But the overpopulation having taken place, +whatever the cause, the only remedy was depletion. No expansion of +manufacturing industry, commerce, or mining adequate to the absorption of +the surplus population could be expected in time to meet the pressing call +for relief. Irishmen are sensitive on this point, but no disparagement of +the Irish race is implied in the recognition of the facts. Overpopulation +was not the fault of the people, but their misfortune. There has been a +very large migration of the Irish into England and Scotland as well as +into the colonies and the United States. + +Gladstone's measure, however, fell short of Irish expectation, which was +the three F's: Fixity of tenure; Fair rent; Freedom of sale. A land war +presently broke out and became combined with a struggle nominally for Home +Rule, really for separation from Great Britain. The political part of this +agitation, rebellion as it really was, had its main source and support, +not in Ireland, but in the Irish population of the United States. Even +before the famine there had been an emigration of Irish to America, so +large as by its political effects to alarm American patriotism and give +birth to the great Know-nothing Movement in defence of American +nationality. The Irish, being highly gregarious and unused to large +farming, settled in cities. When they went out to work on railways or +canals, it was in large gangs. They were drawn into the vortex of politics +and became the retainers of crafty politicians, who, in secret, smiled at +their simplicity. They fell almost invariably into the Democratic party. +The name may have attracted them; but the Democratic party was that of the +Southern slave-owner, who was glad to enlist the Irishman as his humble +ally at the North and to pay him out of the treasury of political +corruption. The rank and file of Tammany were largely Irish. O'Connell had +been nobly hostile to slavery. His kinsmen and admirers on the other side +of the Atlantic were, on the contrary, vehement supporters of slavery, and +jealous assertors of their superiority over the enslaved race. Such is the +tendency of the newly enfranchised. In the war between the North and the +South the Irish in New York rose against the draft and committed great +outrages, especially against the negro, among other things setting fire to +a negro orphan asylum. They were ruthlessly put down. After the famine, +emigration greatly increased. Family affection among the Irish is +beautifully strong, and the members of a family who had gone before sent +home their earnings to pay for the passage of those whom they had left +behind. It has been reckoned that the Irish have expended twenty millions +sterling in this way. With a passionate love of Ireland the American Irish +combined a still more passionate hatred of England as Ireland's tyrant and +oppressor. Invasion and destruction of England were their dream. Always +addicted to secret fraternities and natural adepts in conspiracy, they +formed associations for war on England; that of the Fenians and that of +the still more rabid and bloodthirsty Clan-na-Gael, whose utterances were +frenzies of hatred. Large sums were subscribed; Irish servant-girls, with +a patriotism which in any case was honourable to them, giving freely of +their wages. American politicians flattered the mania, and harvested the +Irish vote. The war bequeathed to the Fenians some regular soldiers, among +others, Mitchel, who had been conspicuous in the ranks of slavery. The +Fenians invaded Canada and overthrew a corps of Canadian volunteers, but +retired on the approach of regulars; a bad omen for their conquest of +England. Conquest of England the Fenians did not attempt, beyond a +farcical essay at Chester. But they helped greatly to kindle rebellion in +Ireland, to provide it with money, and to supply it with assassins. The +National League, the form which, in Ireland, political combined with +agrarian rebellion assumed, almost ousted the law and the queen's +government. It resisted the payment of rents. Those who opposed its will +were "boycotted," a term of which this is the origin. Sometimes they were +murdered. A stripling was murdered for having served a master who had come +under the ban of the League. A wife was mobbed on her way home from +viewing the body of her murdered husband. Lord Frederick Cavendish, the +Irish secretary, going to Ireland with the kindest intentions, and the +permanent secretary, Mr. Burke, were stabbed to death in the Phoenix +Park. Mr. W. E. Forster, distinguished by his humane efforts at the time +of the famine, was marked for assassination. At the outbreak of the +rebellion a policeman escorting Fenian prisoners had been murdered at +Manchester, and an attempt made to blow up Clerkenwell Prison, where a +Fenian was confined, had caused the deaths of twelve people and the +maiming of one hundred and twenty. Gladstone had made the mistake of +treating the alarm caused by those outrages as a motive for doing justice +to Ireland. The motive for doing justice to Ireland was justice. + +The assassination of Cavendish and Burke, it is right to say, was the act, +not of the Land League or of any conspiracy in Ireland itself, but of the +Invincibles, a club of frenzied Irish in the United States. By the Irish +leaders it was heartily condemned. That it was regarded with utter +abhorrence in the Irish quarters of English cities was denied by observers +at the time. Fierce and blind were the passions of those days. + +To repress what was in fact a rebellion fed by foreign aid, to uphold the +law, and rescue life and industry in Ireland from the lawless tyranny of +the National League, as it was called, the government, as was its plain +duty, sought and obtained extraordinary powers, and threw a number of the +leaders of the rebellion into prison. It was time, when loyal citizens +were joining the League for protection in their callings, which the +queen's government could no longer afford. When the Irish rose against the +draft in New York, the Americans shot down several hundreds of them +without process of law. + +In the British Parliament the "rebel" party, as Bright justly called it, +had found a leader of mark in Parnell, a man of great ability and force of +character, incisive and forcible, if not eloquent, as a speaker. He had +supplanted in the leadership Mr. Butt, a man of social sensibility and +refinement, unfitted for an aggressive part. The agitation under Parnell +combined agrarianism with repeal, thus giving the political part of the +movement a hold upon the people and a force and a formidable extension in +Ireland which by itself it had never had. The Land League, becoming the +National League, almost supplanted the queen's government in Ireland. + +Parnell's avowed aim was the foundation of a peasant proprietorship. +Neither he nor any of his party seem to have cared to study +dispassionately the natural aptitudes of the country, and to satisfy +themselves whether it was capable of supporting the population which +disastrous events and sinister influences had accumulated upon it. Their +main object was political. It was, under the guise of repealing the union, +to sever Ireland from Great Britain. As an inducement to the peasantry to +support them in that attempt, they offered to transfer the property in the +land from the landlord to the tenant, though with a decorous promise of +indemnity. Mr. Parnell's name was English, and he had been educated at +Cambridge. It was understood that his bearing towards his Celtic +associates was high and that he was peremptory as well as absolute in +command. At his side was Mr. Biggar, whose great gift was unparalleled +effrontery. The two undertook to coerce the British Parliament by +obstruction. Had the British Parliament been itself, it would quickly have +asserted its dignity. But it was split into factions, upon the balance of +which Parnell and Biggar were able to play. Gladstone succumbed so far as +by an equivocal agreement, nicknamed the Kilmainham Treaty, to release +Parnell and his associates from prison. On the other hand, the +Conservatives coming into power struck the flag of the law by refusing to +renew the Crimes Act for the protection of loyalty in Ireland, while they +angled for the Parnellite vote by casting reproach on the conduct of a +lord-lieutenant who had done his duty. + +At the general election which followed, Gladstone went to the country, +appealing for a majority which should enable him to settle the Irish +question independently of Parnell. Parnell passed the word to all his +partisans, both in Ireland and in the Irish quarters of English towns, to +vote against the Liberals. They obeyed. Gladstone was defeated. Then he +who had denounced Parnell as wading through rapine to dismemberment; who +had proclaimed his arrest as a rebel to an applauding multitude at +Guildhall; who had thrown him and scores of his followers into prison; who +had never given to the nation a hint of his sympathy with Parnell's +agitation, suddenly turned round and coalesced with Parnell. He put forth +an apology for his conversion founded on the hidden workings of his own +mind. But what availed the workings of his own mind if all the time he was +carrying on the policy of repression, misleading the nation thereby? It is +true he might have pointed to the coquetting of the other party, or its +leaders, with the Parnellites. He might perhaps with more force have +appealed to his own unquestionably sincere sympathy with all who were +struggling for independence. His retrospective imagination was strong, and +having changed so much he had always present to his mind the possibility +of further change. It made his language sometimes capable of unforeseen +interpretation. + +The Liberal party was filled with astonishment, confusion, and dismay. But +the _Times_ stood fast and rallied the adherents of the union. To the +steadfastness and power of this great journal the defeat of Gladstone's +policy and the salvation of the union were largely due. Bright's refusal +to cast in his lot with the "rebel" party was also a heavy blow to +Gladstone. The political connection between the two men had been growing +close, and Bright might almost be said to personify justice to Ireland, as +to all the weak and oppressed. If there was a man who would have protested +against the sacrifice of Ireland to English interests it was John Bright. +Lord Hartington presented himself with unexpected vigour as a Unionist +leader. Gladstone was defeated in the House of Commons and still more +signally in the general election which followed, Conservative and Unionist +Liberals voting together on the special issue. In the contest Gladstone +lashed himself into fury, appealed to Separatist sentiment, not in Ireland +only, but in Scotland and Wales, to the prejudice of the masses against +the classes, of the uneducated against the educated and the learned +professions. He was fired with enthusiasm for the right. His instincts +were always high. But this did not make him a cool-headed statesman warily +dealing with a question which touched the life of the commonwealth. + +Now fortune played a strange trick. Parnell, the leader and mainstay of +the League, Gladstone's ally, was convicted of adultery. Adultery is not +political, but it was too much both for the Irish hierarchy and for the +nonconformist conscience. Parnell had to be dragged from the helm of the +Irish party, to which he clung with a frantic tenacity, such as proved him +after all to be, though a very remarkable, hardly a very great, man. + +Raised once more by another turn of fortune's wheel in the party game to +power, Gladstone again brought forward a Home Rule Bill. This time he, +with the help of the Irish members, pushed the bill through the House, +partly by closure, in a form already condemned by himself, giving Ireland +a separate Parliament for her own affairs, and at the same time retaining +her representation in the British Parliament, with power there to vote +upon all questions. The Irish delegation would have played, as in fact it +does now, for its own purposes, on the balance of British parties, and +baffled any attempt to enforce restrictions on the doings of its own +Parliament which the Home Rule Act might have imposed. The majority for +the bill in the Commons was forty-three, including eighty Irish members. +British members of the House of Commons who voted for the bill probably +reckoned on its being killed in the Lords. Killed it was there with a +vengeance. Gladstone appealed to the people against the Lords, but in +vain. Thus ended in disaster his wonderful career. His speeches on Home +Rule showed, like all his speeches, vast oratoric power, mastery of +details, clearness and liveliness in exposition. But weak points are also +apparent. The Irish Parliament cannot have been at once a sink of +corruption and an institution with which it was sacrilege to interfere. +The comparison of the union in criminality to the massacre of St. +Bartholomew must surely have made all hearers but the Irish smile. Upon +this subject the speaker raves, and generally he forgets that the mission +of reconciliation which he had undertaken would not be furthered by +opening old sores. The examples of Austria-Hungary and the connection of +Norway with Sweden, cited by him as proofs that a conjunction of two +Parliaments worked well, would be generally taken not as encouragements +but as warnings. The case of Norway and Sweden has since become a warning +indeed. The intricate machinery by which the speaker proposes to regulate +the action of his two Parliaments has too much the look of a speculative +structure elaborated without reference to the peculiar state of Ireland +and the forces to be encountered there. Of the force of the Catholic +priesthood, nothing is said. In fact, the political architect knew little +of the country with which he was dealing, having been in it only for three +weeks, and then not at a good point of view. + +Thus the Irish question, which the greatest among the public men of his +time had failed to settle, was once more thrown into the cauldron of party +strife. + + + + +XV + + +Looking back on these most melancholy annals, we shall find that for their +general sadness Nature is as much to be blamed as man. She did well in +placing at the side of a country rich in coal and minerals, destined to be +manufacturing, one of pasture to supply food. She made a fatal mistake in +peopling them with different and uncongenial races. War, in the age of +war, and conquest of the weaker by the stronger were sure to be the +result. For the form in which conquest came, the Papacy has partly to +answer. It used the sword of the Norman adventurer in this case, as it had +in the case of England, to crush religious independence and force all +churches to bow to its own dominion, while, as the wails of its own +partisans in the Becket controversy show, it was itself unworthy of the +sovereignty of Christendom. Of this Catholics are bound to take note, as +they are of the fact that the Papacy at a later day, by inciting the Irish +to rebellion on its own account, brought upon them no small portion of +their woes. The Norman conquest of England had incidentally the bad +effect of connecting the English monarchy with dominion in France, and +thus turning the forces of the English kings from Ireland, where they +might have ended the agony, to a field where they were much worse than +wasted. Things could not have taken a more unfortunate course than that of +a colony of half-civilized conquerors carrying on war with barbarous +tribes of a different race and tongue, yet without force to effect the +conquest. The invasion of Edward Bruce, with which England had nothing to +do, probably did further harm by breaking up whatever there was of +Anglo-Norman order and turning barons into chiefs of Irish Septs. Then the +Reformation, a European convulsion involving Ireland, and in the most +unfortunate way, since it identified Protestantism with conquest, +Catholicism with the struggle for independence, introduced another deadly +source of strife, and made Ireland the point of danger to England in her +desperate struggle for her own existence and the salvation of the +Protestant cause. Otherwise it seems not impossible that the Tudor +statesmen, with such a man as Burleigh at their head, might, as they +desired, have effected a peaceful settlement. Civilization, not +extermination, was their aim. The great Celtic rebellions of Shane +O'Neil, Desmond, and Tyrone, the last two Catholic as well as Celtic, +forced upon them the policy of extermination with all its horrors. The +rising and massacre of 1641 were the sequel. The vengeance of the victor +and the transplantation of the vanquished to Connaught were in their turn +the sequel of the rising and massacre of 1641. Of these again the rebound +was the Catholic rising of 1688, which, had it been successful, would have +ended certainly in the dispossession, probably in the expulsion, possibly +in the extermination, of the Protestants. English liberty and religion +were at the same time threatened by an Irish Catholic force encamped at +Hounslow. The Penal law was execrable; yet hardly more execrable than the +Great Act of Attainder. In later days Castle government by corruption was +vile; but it was the inevitable accompaniment of the constitution of 1782, +the work of Grattan and the Volunteers. Of the master evil of all, the +state of the masses of the Irish people, English protectionism must share +the blame with the penal laws. But protectionism was then the delusion of +the commercial world. Irish patriots were not free from it. To deal with +peasant distress was the immediate duty of the Irish Parliament, which +refused even to turn its eyes that way. Peasant distress, organized for +rebellion by a revolutionary party at Belfast, itself deriving its +inspiration from the American and French revolutions, produced the rising, +ever to be accursed and deplored, of 1798. + +Irish patriots are apt to talk of England as a single person or, rather, +fiend, actuated in her dealings with Ireland by hatred and contempt. +England is a nation divided into parties and swayed by varying influences +from time to time. The England of Peel and Gladstone is not the England of +the Georges, the Stuarts, the Tudors, the Plantagenets, or responsible for +the doings of those dynasties. In the evil days of her political history, +England, if she oppressed Ireland, also suffered herself. The Liberal +party in England did its best for Ireland, and if the Irish members had +been what they ought to have been and done what they ought to have done, +more rapid progress might have been made. As it was, Ireland shared the +great measures of Parliamentary and municipal reform which there had been +little prospect of her achieving by herself. She received the boon of +national and undenominational education about a generation before England, +and but for the reactionary influence of her own priesthood would have +received it in full measure. The same influence maimed as far as it could +the undenominational colleges. Nothing could be more deplorable than the +long series of coercion acts. But it was hardly to be expected that the +English government should strike its flag to assassination and boycotting, +or that the British nation would be moved to concession by the inroads of +American conspirators combined with domestic rebellion. It was about 1866 +that Guizot, talking of Ireland as he walked with an English guest, +stopped in his walk and said with an emphatic gesture, "The conduct of +England to Ireland for the last thirty years has been admirable." This, +before disestablishment, was too strong, as the English guest remarked at +the time; but as the judgment of a cool-headed foreign statesman, whose +course had not been one of unbroken harmony with England, it was likely to +be more just at least to the motives of England than the invectives of +O'Connell. + +Since the Union there has been no 1641, no 1688, no 1798. The two races +and religions have lived generally at peace if not in concord with each +other. The religious riots at Belfast are a very mitigated relic of the +religious wars of former days. Reform, though its advance has been slow +and fitful, has advanced. Within a generation from the date of the Union, +Catholic Emancipation was carried. The tithe-proctor did not very long +survive. Presently the State Church itself was abolished. Ireland shared +with Great Britain Parliamentary reform, to which the Irish oligarchy +could never have consented without political and social convulsion. Not +long afterwards came national education, bestowed on Ireland before it was +bestowed on England. None of these improvements would directly touch the +agrarian sore, the malignity of which was increased by the growth of the +Irish population under the reign of order, far beyond the power of the +land to maintain it. But relief has been given to famine, and strenuous +efforts have been made and are still being made to effect a radical cure. +Ireland has enjoyed free trade with Great Britain and with the whole +British Empire. Everything has been open to Irish merit and industry. +Millions of Irish and their children have found homes in Britain and the +colonies. To sever Ireland from Great Britain is still possible. To divide +the Irish from the British is not possible. In both islands and in all the +colonies the two races are now joined and cannot be put asunder. + +Besides, as has already been said, we must always bear it in mind that we +do not see the other side of Destiny's cards. Suppose Ireland had remained +the land of the Septs, would her lot certainly have been more happy? +Neither at the time of the Norman Conquest nor afterwards do the Septs +appear to have shown any tendency to a union such as would have given +birth to a national polity and its attendant civilization. For aught we +can see, they might have gone on indefinitely, like the clans of the +Scottish Highlands, in a state of barbarous strife fatal to progress of +every kind. Even their common interest in the struggle against the +Anglo-Norman invader produced no general or permanent union. The Brehon +law, which was their principal bond, had no executive force and was in +itself barbarous, not distinguishing public from private wrong. The Septs +warred upon each other not less savagely than the conqueror warred upon +them all. If anything like union came at last, it was not political but +religious, and brought with it a fatal share in the European war of +religions. Nor were conquests other than Anglo-Norman impossible. From the +Highlands and islands of Scotland came bodies of marauding adventurers +which might have been reënforced, and, in the North at least, have +prevailed. It is not certain that without the aid of John de Bermingham +and his Anglo-Normans, the Septs would have got rid of Edward Bruce. + +That the interest of Ireland should be regarded as subordinate to that of +Great Britain was the principle on which British politicians acted in the +days that are past. To the past this principle must now be and indeed has +been decisively consigned. That union, to be good for either party, must +be good for both, is the accepted basis of discussion. On the other hand, +it is not to be assumed that the aspirations of Irish politicians +naturally bent on carving out an independent field of action for +themselves, are entirely free from the bias of personal ambition or +identical with a dispassionate view of the interest of the Irish people. +Nor is it to be forgotten that Ulster is a part of Ireland. + +There are two questions, perfectly distinct and calling for separate +consideration, though they have become blended in the course and for the +purposes of the political agitation. One is economical, the other +political. + +The economical question is whether Ireland can support her present +population. Patriotic eloquence will not change her skies, or render it +otherwise than cruel to induce her people to stay in a land in which they +cannot make their bread. Instances there may be of barren soil made by +the loving industry of the small owner fruitful and capable of supporting +a large population; but the industry of the small owner, though it can +improve the soil, cannot alter the skies. What is to be desired is a +special report, calm and expert, upon this subject. Is Ireland generally +capable of being turned with advantage into an arable country? Can wheat +or grain of any kind be profitably raised there in face of the competition +of the great grain-growing countries such as that now opened, and bidding +fair to be opened over a much larger area, in the Canadian Northwest? The +small farmer to live must have something to sell. Is there reason to look +in any other direction than farming for a speedy extension of Irish +industries such as would provide bread sufficient for the population? Is +the water-power of Ireland, now that electricity has been developed, +likely to do what has been done for England by coal? Is the shipping +trade, for which the Irishman has had little opportunity of showing a +turn, likely to increase? These are questions which it is for economists, +not for politicians or patriotic orators, to decide. It is said that there +are tracts of land in Ireland still unoccupied and fit for occupation. If +there are, the survey will show the fact. Land purchase by government +subvention is a policy hardly to be pursued unless it is certain that its +results will not presently be reversed by nature. + +The worst part of emigration is that it carries away the pith and sinews +of a nation, taking the strong and leaving the weak, the aged, and +unsupported women. It is a pleasant proof, already noticed, of the warmth +of the Irish heart that there has been less of solitary and more of family +emigration in their case than in those of some other emigrating races. +After all, how has the earth been peopled, how have all the nations been +formed but by migration? + +To turn to the political question. The danger of insurrection has probably +passed away. Fenianism has been largely deprived of its trans-Atlantic +base, and can no longer look confidently to American sympathy for support +and supplies. The Irish vote has less power. Little at least was heard of +it in the last presidential election. Yet the political question is still +most serious, and presses urgently for settlement; a state of things +largely due to the division of parties in the British government which +showed its influence in the abandonment of the Crimes Act by the Salisbury +administration; in the Maamtrasna debate; and in Mr. Gladstone's sudden +coalition with Parnell; but above all in the votes of British members of +the House of Commons for Mr. Gladstone's second Home Rule Bill, giving +Ireland a Parliament of her own and representation in the British +Parliament at the same time. Parliament still has in it a body of Irish +members not only alien but hostile, avowing that their object is not to +aid in deliberation but to coerce, playing upon the balance of parties for +purposes of their own, degrading the assembly, and distracting the +councils of the nation. Nor is the source of this evil confined to the +constituencies of Ireland. There is in England and Scotland a large Irish +population, which, as was seen in the election of 1885, obeys the voice of +the Irish leaders and at their command votes inimically to the country in +which it lives and earns its bread. In Ireland itself, moreover, the +hell-broth of agitation is kept constantly seething to the inevitable +detriment of recuperative effort, which cannot do its full work without +security for the future. + +As the first step it should be calmly settled what are the specific +grievances under which Ireland labours, and which the Imperial legislature +cannot, but an Irish Parliament could, remove. Historic wrongs are past +remedy. Ireland has more than her share of representation in Parliament. +She has no established Church. If her priesthood would let her, she would +have a complete system of national education. Her land law is now far more +favourable to the tenant than that of the other kingdoms, and she has been +and still is receiving government subventions in aid of the tillers of her +soil which English and Scotch tenants do not receive and which would cease +if she became independent. Nothing is closed against her people. They have +the markets of the whole Empire. All its offices, patronage, and services +are perfectly open to them. So long as they will abstain from outrage and +murder, they enjoy all the personal privileges of British freemen. It +cannot be said that the law has been suspended for any purpose other than +the repression of outrage. If the ordinary law and government were very +bad, Ulster would hardly have prospered as it has done. If Castle +government is the grievance, abolition of it was offered to Ireland long +ago and was by her rejected. Let the existing grievances be specified, and +let it be seen whether Imperial legislation is incapable of redressing +them. The truth is that with the Irish leaders it has not been redress of +particular wrongs and grievances or the introduction of practical +improvements that has been the object of desire. Their aim has been to +create a nationalist feeling which should end in political separation. +Such has been the constant tenor of their appeals to sentiment and the end +to which their policy has really pointed. + +Suppose Ireland severed from Great Britain, what would be her lot? She +would then have to assume all the burdens and responsibilities of an +independent nation, including military and naval defence, as well as the +entire expense of a separate government. As she could not hope to vie in +strength with her powerful neighbour, she would be at that neighbour's +mercy; nor, considering the temper in which the parting would take place, +would occasions for quarrel be unlikely to arise. Ireland might have to +seek the protection and become the vassal of some foreign power. Irish +trade would no longer be free of British markets or of the markets of +British dependencies. Irish labour would no longer be free of the British +labour market. The Indian service and the Imperial services generally +would be closed against Irishmen. + +Nor would Ireland be entirely united in herself or perfectly set free from +the hated British influence. She would still have in her the men of +Ulster, Saxon and Protestant, antagonistic probably to the Catholic +majority, and if they were pressed in the unequal conflict, stretching out +their hands for aid to their fellow-Protestants and kinsmen in Great +Britain. + +A mere arm of the sea, such as that which divides Ireland from Great +Britain, is surely not enough in these days of improved navigation, to +form a bar to political union. The distance from London to Dublin is now +practically far less than it was a century ago from London to Edinburgh. +Nor does there seem any reason why salt water should be fatal. The Ionian +Islands are in the kingdom of Greece; so probably some day will be Crete. + +If Ireland were detached from Great Britain, into what hands would she +fall? The gentry would be extinguished. To excite popular hatred of them +as landlords has been the constant aim of the Nationalist leaders. There +would be a general repudiation of rent, which the Irish government and +judiciary would lack the will, while the British government and judiciary +would have lost the power, to prevent. The record of Irish landlordism is +not bright. Absenteeism has been a great evil, though the estates of some +absentees have been notably well managed. There have been hideously cruel +evictions, especially it seems on the lands purchased by speculators +under the Encumbered Estates Act. Landlordism, as mere drawing of rent, is +an evil. It is not desirable that any man should own land as a +non-resident or own more land than he can manage or superintend. The old +feudal law attaching service to lordship of land was sound in principle. +But if the Irish gentry would accept that principle, be resident, look +after their estates, and do their duty to their tenants, they would +probably be accepted by their people as social leaders, and they might +play that part with good effect. The life of the French peasant is not the +acme either of civilization or of happiness, even though we may make some +abatement from the picture presented by Zola in "La Terre." Unhappily the +tendency, even in England, seems to be towards the detachment of the owner +from his land and the abandonment on his part of every function save that +of receiving the rent and spending it, perhaps in some pleasure city or +abroad. The decadence of the agricultural interest in England is by some +ascribed to this cause. + +The gentry being no more, Catholic Ireland would at first fall into the +hands of the priesthood. The moral character of the Irish priesthood in +the opinion of impartial judges is high, as is that of the priesthood of +French Canada. In both cases ecclesiastical influence is strong, and in +both a population virtuous after the Catholic model is the result. The two +are probably about the best things that the Roman Catholic Church has to +show. But the Roman Catholic religion is mediæval. The training of its +ministers inevitably shuts out light which would be fatal to mediæval +belief. An Irish peasant lad, having been intellectually secluded for +seven years at Maynooth, comes out proof against the intellectual +influences and advancing science of his time. He is the mental liegeman +and the preacher of the Syllabus, which anathematizes freedom of thought +and claims for the Church dominion, not only over the soul but over the +body, such as was hers in the Middle Ages. He laid his ban on the Queen's +Colleges, and has discouraged and thwarted the extension of popular +education. In regard to education and intelligence, he has been in Ireland +what he has been in Spain and other countries subject to his sway. In the +sphere of industry and commerce the influence has generally been the same. +The religious ideal of life with its Church festivals and Saints' Days has +prevailed. In Ireland as in Canada the priest inculcates early marriages, +the effects of which may be morally good but are economically perilous. +The excessive conversion of the fruits of industry to the unproductive +purposes of the Church has already begun to call forth protests. + +The power of the Roman Catholic priesthood would be encountered by the +stalwart Protestantism of Ulster in the Parliamentary arena as it still is +sometimes in the streets of Belfast. It might presently find itself +encountered by another adversary, revolutionary Nationalism, the heir of +that party of force which broke away from the leadership of O'Connell, the +devout son of the Church, and was an object of well-founded suspicion and +aversion to the hierarchy of his day. The affinity of this element is to +the revolutionary party in other countries; and if, like the United +Irishmen of Belfast, it has been willing to act with allies devoted to the +Church, it is not itself devout, as the Church, if she comes to share +power with it, may be led to feel. + +The idea of unity of race as a basis of Irish nationality has little +support. In the North there is a strong and masterful Saxon element. There +must be a large Anglo-Saxon and English element in the old Pale. The men +of Tipperary, though characteristically Irish, are believed to be +descendants of Cromwellians. There is Huguenot blood. + +The revival of Erse as a national language is surely a patriotic dream. +How is it possible to revive a language all but dead, with no valuable +literature or wealth of printed books, in face of a language which has a +grand literature, is spoken by all the educated classes, indeed almost +universally, in Ireland, and is necessary for intercourse with Great +Britain. O'Connell, we are told, had no great sympathy with the revival of +Irish archæology, and no sympathy at all with the project of reviving the +Irish language. He recognized the superior utility of the English tongue +as the medium of all modern communication, and saw without regret the +gradual disuse of Erse. Fancy and sentiment may prevail among a literary +class which nevertheless will hardly carry its patriotism so far as to +darken its own mind by unlearning English. + +"Ireland ought to be governed in accordance with Irish ideas." Such is the +current saying, and it sounds wise. But statesmanship would hardly act +upon it before taking measures to learn what ideas are peculiarly Irish +and whether they are features of national character, innate and indelible, +and not traces of historic accident or fancies instilled in the course of +political agitation. The perpetuation of weaknesses accidentally +contracted cannot be wise for man or nation. The political idea which +seems most characteristic is the tendency to personal leadership rather +than to self-government or constitutional rule. But this has been common +to all races in early times. It was fostered and prolonged by the +circumstances of Irish history. It could hardly be pronounced incapable of +modification by familiarity with free institutions. + +What would be the political constitution of an independent Ireland? How +would its form be settled? The political training of the people generally +since they came out of political thraldom has been agitation against +government and law; their only notion of rule has been personal. Nor is a +hierarchy friendly to political liberty. To set up a stable democracy in +Ireland, if that is the aim of the revolutionary party, would surely be an +arduous undertaking. + +All who look coolly into the matter apart from faction and its necessities +have pronounced that the choice lies between separation and legislative +union. Two Parliaments, two nations; so all wisdom says and so experience +before the Union proved. The forces which under Grattan's constitution +held the two Parliaments together in strained and precarious fellowship, +the nomination boroughs, the pension list, the sinecures, the peerages, +the bishoprics, would no longer exist. What is even more important, there +would no longer be an oligarchical and exclusionist Parliament in Ireland +dependent on British support for its ascendency, perhaps even for the +security of its lands. Antagonism would almost inevitably ensue; the more +surely as the partners would set out with the embitterment of a divorce. +Nothing apparently could avert collision; the result of which would be +repression, making the latter end worse than the first. + +The proposal of federation is surely preposterous. It would be necessary +first to cut the United Kingdom in two and create an Irish government in +order that negotiations for a federal union might be set on foot. But how +could there be a federation of two states, one of them enormously superior +in power to the other? What sort of deliberative assembly would the +federal council be? + +Another plan is to form a federation of the four nationalities, as they +are assumed to be, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; wrenching apart +the members of a great nation which have long been united and cancelling +the highest work of British statesmanship. Here again federation could not +work. England being so much the predominant partner, the result would +almost certainly be a perpetual league of the three minor powers against +her domination. The federal system is applicable only to a group of +tolerably equal States. The restoration of the Heptarchy with the addition +of Scotland, divided into Highland and Lowland, and the four provinces of +Ireland erected into States, would be a comparatively practicable system. +The present condition of the Federal system in the United States does not +encourage experiments of that kind. + +The mildest proposal of all is devolution; in other words, the concession +to Ireland of a larger measure of local self-government. This probably +would be readily granted to any extent compatible with supremacy of law +and security of life and property, which no government without abdicating +its plainest duty can forgo. Gradual extension of local self-government +would not entail any acute crisis or bring on any party conflict. The +Lord-lieutenancy, Parliament has already shown itself ready to abolish. It +was in deference to the wish of Ireland that it has been retained. The +only thing in the way of undue centralization of which, so far as the +writer remembers, his Irish friends complained, was the necessity of +carrying Irish causes to Westminster as the final court of appeal. +Whether concession on this point would be feasible it is for legal +authorities to say. + +However, it can hardly be doubted that in the course of this struggle a +sentiment has been cultivated among the people of Ireland for which it is +wise as well as kind in some way to provide satisfaction. The Irishman +being of lively sensibility and impressible through sight has never seen +the power which really governs him. A session or two of the Imperial +Parliament held at Dublin for the settlement of Irish questions would +probably have had a very good effect, but it was thought to entail too +much inconvenience. Would there be any objection to empowering the Irish +members of both Houses to sit annually at Dublin as a preparatory House of +Irish legislation framing bills to be commended to Parliament? There would +then be something in College Green. The experiment would involve none of +the difficulties or perils of a statutory division of the powers of +Parliament. It would be at first on the footing of an experiment, nor +would it preclude further concessions if further concessions should be +found needful. + +With the question of national character, social or industrial, and its +special requirements, I do not pretend to deal. It has been treated +systematically, perhaps for the first time, by an excellent authority, +Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett, in his "Ireland in the New Century." Of Irish +character a part may be aboriginal and fundamental. A part probably is the +result of historical accident more or less ingrained, and probably capable +of modification. I am told that Irish character has been even acquiring a +more serious cast since I watched the Tipperary steeplechases or stood on +the fair-ground of Ballinasloe. Not a little, so far as the masses are +concerned, is probably the work of a priesthood strongly and inherently +reactionary, which has exercised the same influence on the ideal of life, +character, mind, and industry here as in other Catholic countries. Ireland +is perhaps happy in having been cut off from the prodigious development of +luxury and dissipation which, as social writers tell us, has been taking +place on the other side of the Channel as well as from the domination of +the stock-exchange. She may in this way become a saving element in the +social character of the United Kingdom. + +Is it vain to hope that for the settlement of a question so vital party +may for one short hour suspend its war? What far-off object of +aggrandizement can be half so important as a contented and loyal Ireland. + + + + +AN ACCOUNT OF THE IRISH LAND CODE + +BY HUGH J. MCCANN, B.L. + + +The Irish landlord, poor as his circumstances were before the famine, was +in many instances reduced to sorer straits after the terrible scourge had +passed away. The good landlord, anxious to do his duty by his tenants, +helped them as far as his mortgages and other financial burdens would +allow. The tyrannical one, regardless of the sufferings of his victims, +sought to extract impossible rents from an unfortunate tenantry who had +scarcely the means of subsistence. The Encumbered Estates Act, it was +thought, would relieve the tension. It empowered a court specially +constituted for the purpose to order the sale of estates encumbered with +debt, on the petition of any person sufficiently interested as owner or +creditor. + +Landlordism, it was thought, would, by this act, be relieved of much that +made it tyrannical, even when it meant well. But the act was a failure. It +was worse. It was the means of wrecking many a fortune, and driving many +a proprietor to ruin. Men who, in hard times, were doing well for their +tenants and their country under difficult circumstances were driven from +the land. + +The act came into operation towards the end of 1849. A wild rush was made +by creditors to the court. Prices fell with amazing rapidity, and landed +property became a drug in the market. Valuable properties failed to +realize sufficient to meet the mortgages, and their owners were inevitably +ruined. + +A new class of landlord now appeared on the scene in the person of the +speculator, who bought up the bankrupt properties as they presented +themselves. The new proprietors had nothing in common with their tenantry. +They knew little of their needs and requirements and cared less. They had +but one interest and that was a commercial one. To make their properties +realize a good dividend on their outlay was their one concern, and up went +the rents accordingly. Such was the fate of the unfortunate tenants who +were allowed to continue as tenants of the new proprietor. This was bad +enough, but those that were given notice to quit were even more cruelly +wronged. Compensation for wrongful disturbance was not recognized in +Ireland in 1850, and tenant property amounting to three millions sterling +was sold to pay the landlord's creditors. + +Nothing could demonstrate more clearly how utterly rotten was the whole +land system in Ireland at the time. Landlord and tenant alike were in a +miserable plight. Rents fell heavily in arrear, and evictions were the +order of the day. The landlord played the bold game, struck hard, and +without mercy. The tenant sought protection in combination and conspiracy. +Such was the condition of Ireland when thoughtful men sought by +legislation to cure the crying evils of the time. Many remedies were +proposed between 1850 and 1860, but none of them reached the stage of +legislative enactment. In the latter year, however, Cardwell made an +attempt to place the law of landlord and tenant on a better footing. + +In spite of a good deal of opposition, government succeeded in placing two +important measures on the Statute Book, viz.: the Landed Property +(Ireland) Improvement Act, 1860, and the Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment +Act (Ireland) of the same year. By the former limited owners were enabled, +subject to judicial sanction, to charge the inheritance with the cost of +specified improvements, and to bind their successors for stated periods. +Agricultural leases for a period of twenty-one years or less could be +given by the limited owners without judicial intervention, but every +improvement lease required the sanction of the chairman of the county in +which the lands were situated. + +To tenants the right of compensation was granted for certain specified +improvements made by them, provided that before entering on the +improvements they made them the subject of an agreement with the landlord, +or had given notice of his intention to improve, and the landlord had not +notified his objection within a period of three months from receipt of the +notice. The principle of retrospective compensation was not, as yet, +admitted. + +The second act consolidated the existing law of landlord and tenant, and +made some important changes in procedure. + +The relationship of landlord and tenant, hitherto based on _tenure_, as in +England, was henceforth to be founded on _contract_. + +Before proceeding to examine its provisions, it might be well to point out +that the common law rights of Irish agricultural tenants were in the +absence of special customs governed since the reign of James I. by English +common law rules. The English system of land tenure was imposed upon the +country by virtue of conquest. But the circumstances of the two countries +were entirely different. + +In England the landlord owned the soil and everything on it. The dwelling +houses and out-offices, the farm roads, the drainage, were built by him or +his predecessors. He let a holding to a tenant as a going concern, and for +the holding so equipped he received rent. The relations between landlord +and tenant in England rested on a business footing. If the tenant did not +feel satisfied with his farm or his lot, he moved on. There were none of +the ties there, either of attachment or of interest, that existed in +Ireland. In Ireland the tenant or his predecessor provided, by his labours +or his savings, the whole equipment of the farm. His family for +generations back occupied the same plot, and he dearly learned to know and +love every stone and hedge about the place. In England the improvements +were effected by the landlord out of the rent paid him by the tenant, and, +of course, were legally his by the law of the land. In Ireland the +improvements, almost universally made by the tenant, became at common law +the property of the landlord, who was under no _legal_ obligation to +compensate the tenant for them on ejecting him from his holding. The +following extract from the report of the Devon Commission contrasts the +practice in the two countries very well. "The Commission finds on all +hands, it is admitted, that, according to the general practice in Ireland, +the landlord builds neither dwelling-house nor farm-offices, nor puts +fences, gates, etc., into good order before he lets his land to a tenant. +The cases in which a landlord does any of those things are the exceptions. +The system, however, of giving aid in these matters is becoming more +prevalent. In most cases whatever is done in the way of building is done +by the tenant, and in the ordinary language of the country +dwelling-houses, farm-buildings, and even the making of the fences are +described by the general word 'improvements,' which is thus employed to +denote the necessary adjuncts to a farm, without which in England or +Scotland no tenant would be found to rent it." + +What I have said represents the general, but, I should add, not the +universal, condition of things in Ireland at this time. + +In parts of the country, especially in Ulster, certain customs prevailed +which recognized that a tenant was something more than a rent producer. +They denied the right of the landlord to raise rents by reason of any +value added to the soil by the tenant's outlay. They recognized a right of +continuous occupancy by the tenant at a fair rent. This right, called +tenant right, became on some properties of immense value, and was often +sold by an out-going tenant at a price exceeding in value the fee simple +purchase of the holding. In Ulster more than anywhere else in Ireland the +custom was very widely prevalent, but was as yet without the sanction of +the law. + +But I have digressed from the Act of 1860. In dealing with the Act of +1870, what I have just said will be of importance. The Landlord and Tenant +Act, 1860, otherwise known as "Deasy's Act," is a voluminous measure of +one hundred and five sections which may be conveniently grouped into three +sections. The first deals with the _Contract of Tenancy_, the second with +_Surrenders and Assignments_, and the third with the _Methods of +Procedure_. Section three enacts that "the relation of landlord and tenant +shall be deemed to be founded on the express or implied contract of the +parties." The conduct of the parties may imply a contract of tenancy, +payment of rent being evidence, but not irrefutable evidence, of its +existence. + +Section four requires that "every lease or contract, with respect to +lands whereby the relations of landlord and tenant is intended to be +created for any freehold estate or interest, or for any definite period of +time, not being from year to year, or any lesser period, shall be by +_deed_ executed, or _note in writing_ signed by the landlord or his +agent." It is further provided that a tenant may, if there be no agreement +to the contrary, remove his fixtures within two months of its +determination by an uncertain event. Two covenants are implied in the +contract of tenancy by each of the parties thereto. The landlord by his +lease implies an agreement on the part of himself and his successors that +he has a good title to make it, and that the tenant shall have quiet and +peaceable enjoyment of his holding. + +The tenant agrees to pay rent, taxes, and impositions payable by the +tenant, and to keep the premises in good and substantial repair and +condition; and, secondly, to give up peaceable possession of the demised +premises in good and substantial repair and condition on the determination +of the lease, subject to any right of removal or of compensation for +improvements that may have lawfully arisen in respect of them, and to any +right of surrender in case of the destruction of the subject-matter of the +contract. + +_Surrenders and Assignments_ may be made (1) by deed, (2) by a note in +writing, or (3) by operation of law. + +Sections forty-five to one hundred and two deal with actions for the +recovery of rent and actions of ejectment. The most important provision is +that which provides that if a tenant has had a decree given against him in +an action of ejectment, he may be restored to his holding on applying to +the court within six months, and paying the rent with arrears and costs. + +Such are the main features of Deasy's Act. Beyond consolidating and +regularizing the existing law it achieved nothing. A decided advance, +however, was made in the Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act, 1870, which +was restricted in its operation to agricultural and pastoral tenancies. We +have seen how there existed in Ulster and other parts of the country +certain customs favourable to the tenant. To the Ulster custom, as it was +called, Ulster was indebted for exceptional prosperity. + +The contentment of its agricultural population was in strange contrast to +the seething discontent of the other parts of the country. Much of the +thrift and plenty that exists in parts of Ulster to-day can be traced back +to the exceptional treatment accorded to the tenants of Ulster long +before legislation came to the aid of their less fortunate brethren south +of the Boyne. The aim of the Land Act of 1870 was to place the latter +class in a similar position to the Northerns. The act legalized the Ulster +custom and similar usages. It gave tenants not subject to these a right to +be compensated for their improvements on quitting their holdings, and +guaranteed a measure of security by providing compensation for +disturbance. What is "disturbance" is a question for the court, and must +be decided on the facts of each particular case. + +Agreements not to improve the holding, or not to claim for improvements, +are declared void. If the holding be subject to the Ulster custom, there +is a general presumption that the improvements belong to the tenant. + +The term "improvements" shall mean in relation to a holding (1) any work +which, being executed, adds to the letting value of the holding, on which +it is executed and is suitable to such holding; and (2) tillages, manures, +or other like farming works, the benefit of which is unexhausted at the +time of the tenant quitting his holding. + +We have not proceeded far before it becomes apparent that to secure to the +tenant the full enjoyment of his own property was the line along which +land legislation was travelling. The Act of 1870 went some distance in +this direction. But the great advance was not made till ten years after, +when Gladstone proposed to establish a tribunal which would assess and fix +the property of the two partners in the dual ownership of land in Ireland. +The act recognized and legalized dual ownership. It created a partnership +between two parties whose interests were hostile. It was a great act, and +did incalculable good, but many years were not to elapse until it became +evident that a return to single ownership--but this time by the +tenant--was absolutely necessary. The endeavours to work dual ownership +irretrievably broke down. + +Both parties had little confidence in the Land Court established by the +Act of 1881. + +The landlord complained that his property was being confiscated; the +tenant believed that he was still paying rent on his own improvements. The +act was meant to give tenants fixity of tenure, fair rent, and free sale. +A new judicial body, the Irish Land Commission, with jurisdiction to hear +and determine all matters of law or fact arising under the act, was +established. The commission consists of three commissioners--one a +judicial commissioner and numerous assistant commissioners appointed by +the lord lieutenant for the time being with the approval of the treasury. +This is not the place to examine the provisions of this complicated +measure minutely, but as it is the foundation of much of the land +legislation that followed, it is important that its main provisions be +understood. + +The act distinguishes between "present" tenancies and "future" tenancies, +a "present" tenancy being "a tenancy subsisting at the time of the passing +of the act, or created before the first day of January, 1883, in a holding +in which a tenancy was subsisting at the time of the passing of the act, +and every tenancy to which the act applies shall be deemed to be a present +tenancy until the contrary is proved." + +A "future" tenancy means a tenancy beginning after the passing of the act. +The act applies only to agricultural and pastoral holdings. It gives +qualified powers to both "present" and "future" tenants to dispose of +their holdings for the best price they can get, or to mortgage them if +they think fit. + +Fixity of tenure was secured by enabling a tenant to convert his interest +into what is called in the act a _statutory term_. Such a term may be +created by an agreement between the landlord and tenant for an increased +rent, or by having a fair rent fixed, or by filing in court an agreement +for a judicial rent. A _statutory term_ can be created only in respect of +a "present" tenancy except when in regard to a "future" tenancy the tenant +has agreed with the landlord to an increased rent. The provisions as to +the fixing of a fair rent apply only to "present" tenancies. Section three +of the act gives a tenant power to dispose of his holding by bequest. +Perhaps the most important provisions of the act are those enabling a +landlord or tenant to have a "fair rent" fixed. + +Either party may apply to the court to have the rent made a _judicial +rent_. The court fixes this rent after considering all the circumstances +of the case, holding, and district, and having regard to the interests of +both parties. No rent shall be payable in respect of improvements made by +the tenant unless he has been already compensated for them by the +landlord. In the administration of the act the word "improvements" has +given rise to endless litigation. In the now famous case of Adams _v._ +Dunseath it was held that "improvements" meant improvement works and not +increased letting value. It was also held in a case affecting the same +holding that a tenant is entitled to "a fair return by way of annual +allowance in respect of the present capital value of his improvement works +which may be estimated by way of percentage on such capital value; and if +after making this percentage there is still a surplus of increased letting +value, it is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Land Commission to +determine whether, and in what proportions, such surplus shall be divided +between landlord and tenant." It was further laid down that the Land +Commission was to treat "the latent and dormant resources of the soil, as +let by the landlord to the tenant, as the property of the landlord, and +the development of those resources by the tenant as the act of the +tenant." + +This act was undoubtedly a great charter for the tenants and created +something like a revolution in Ireland. It contained many defects, and was +marred by many blemishes, but on the whole it was a masterly attempt to +settle the question. Like much of the land legislation for Ireland, most +of its shortcomings were due to a reckless disregard on the part of +British ministers for Irish opinion. Indeed, this was the cause of most of +the amending legislation that followed. + +Under the Act of 1881 "fair rents" were fixed for periods of fifteen +years, when they were again ripe for revision. Roughly speaking, the old +non-judicial rents were reduced by twenty per cent on an average to +convert them into first term rents. These again were further reduced by +twenty per cent on an average for the second term. This, of course, played +havoc with the landlord's income, and did not materially benefit the +tenant, the prices of the produce of whose farm was falling with even +greater rapidity. The experiment of dual ownership had been tried and was +found wanting; a return to single ownership was sought for by the series +of acts known as the Land Purchase Acts. + +It was not till 1885 that the experiment of land purchase was seriously +tried in Ireland, but it is right to say that the question first came +before the public in a practical form so far back as 1869 in the +discussions on the disestablishment of the Irish Episcopal Church. At that +time Mr. Bright proposed to increase the number of owners of land in +Ireland by allowing the glebe tenants to purchase the property attached to +the glebes. The idea was embodied in the Irish Church Act, and over six +thousand occupying owners were thus created. Under this act three-fourths +of the purchase money was advanced by the State, and the balance paid in +cash by the purchasers. The money was advanced by the State for +thirty-two years, the shortest period allowed by any of the acts. From the +tenant's point of view this act cannot be said to have been an unqualified +success. The price of land was high at the time, and the purchasers having +bought high sustained the whole burden of the sudden fall in the prices of +produce which almost immediately succeeded the conclusion of their +bargains. In 1870 and in 1881 there were embodied in the acts of these +years provisions to enable tenants to purchase their holdings; but the +procedure to be followed was made so complicated that the tenants did not +avail themselves of the purchase clauses to any great extent. The +insignificant number of sixteen hundred sales were completed under the two +acts. + +In 1885 a Conservative government came into power, and though their term +of office was of short duration, they introduced and passed a measure +which, by its marvellous and, I might add, its unexpected success, pointed +the direction and paved the way for all future legislation for the +settlement of the land problem in Ireland. Back to single ownership was +the keynote of the measure. Hitherto the credit or discredit of all +legislation on the land problem belonged to the Liberals. They strove to +make dual ownership a possibility. Conservative statesmen sought for a +settlement in the opposite direction. + +In sales under all the purchase acts from 1885 to the Act of 1903 all the +purchase money is advanced by the State to the selling landlord, and is +charged by the State to the tenant who purchases. The tenant repays the +amount borrowed or "advanced," to use the language of the acts, in annual +instalments, which instalments clear off not only the original "advance," +but the accumulated interest. + +Roughly speaking, the procedure is this. The landlord and tenant, having +agreed on a price, sign an agreement for sale, and file it with the Land +Commission, which body has the carriage, so to speak, of all purchase +transactions, as well as all other transactions under the land acts. The +holding is inspected by the Land Commission which, having been satisfied +that the land in question is security for the "advance," pay the purchase +money to the landlord and collect from the tenant the annual instalments +necessary to repay it to the State. + +The plan of the Act of 1885, better known as the Ashbourne Act from the +fact that it was Lord Ashbourne who introduced the measure to the lords, +was simple in the extreme, and to this is due, in no small measure, its +rapid success. It was easily understood by the people, and so popular did +it become that in three years the money provided by it was completely +exhausted. + +In 1888 a second bill was passed under which an additional sum of five +millions--this was the amount provided by the Ashbourne Act--was set aside +for purchase. Under the two measures 25,368 owners were created. + +"Almost from the start," writes Mr. George Fottrell (a gentleman well +qualified to discuss the question of land purchase in Ireland) in the +_Morning Post_, "the Ashbourne Act was a success. During the first five +years of its working, the 'advances' actually paid over by the Land +Commission to landlords amounted annually on an average to £1,250,000 +sterling. The 'applications' represented a considerably larger sum. By +1887 they had more than exhausted the £5,000,000 which had been voted by +Parliament for the Ashbourne Act, in 1885, and thereon a further sum of +£5,000,000 was voted. The scheme continued to work well; the +'applications' came in steadily but with no feverish haste, the largest +total sum applied for under the Ashbourne Act in any one year being in +1887 when it reached £3,700,000. In each of the next two years it reached +just two millions. In 1890 it had dropped to less than a million and a +half; in 1891 it was slightly in excess of that amount. By 1891 it was +plain that the second vote of five millions had been virtually absorbed, +and that Parliament must be applied to for further money. To cool-headed +people in Ireland it seemed that the obvious course was to ask for a small +grant, say of ten millions, so as to continue to test cautiously the +usefulness of an act which had so far worked well, while by the very +smallness of the grant keeping in reserve a check on the expansion of the +act if it should prove to work mischievously. + +"This course was not taken. In 1891 Parliament was asked to make a much +larger grant. Over thirty millions were voted, but coupled with conditions +which made the money useless." + +Mr. Balfour's act, the Purchase Act of 1891, was extremely complicated. +Under it Ireland was entitled to draw upon Imperial credit to the extent +of £33,000,000. The rate of interest payable by the purchasers was +substantially the same as under the acts of 1885 and 1888, the period of +repayment in the three cases being forty-nine years. + +But a change was made in the method of payment to the landlord. Previous +to 1891, he had been always paid in cash. Under the Balfour Act he was +paid in guaranteed land stock. There were many complicated provisions in +regard to the creation of a guarantee fund, an insurance fund, and other +safeguards. The complexity of the measure and the procedure under it, and +the consequent delays in completing any transactions in a reasonable time, +acted as a deterrent to intending purchasers and the act was virtually a +failure. At this point it is well, perhaps, to summarize the results of +the working of land purchase under the acts already dealt with. We have +seen that a total sum of (say) £44,000,000 was made available by the +various acts for land purchase. Out of this a total sum of £21,182,268 has +been expended, leaving about twenty-three millions still available. Under +all the acts up to and including that of 1891, 62,241 tenants purchased +their holdings, 6057 under the Church Act, 877 under the Land Act of 1870, +731 under the Act of 1881, 25,368 under the Purchase Acts of 1885 and +1888, and the balance of about 30,000 became purchasers by means of the +Act of 1891. + +Numerous and extensive as these operations were, it is satisfactory to +note, and it redounds to the credit of the Irish people, that Mr. +Wyndham, when introducing his Land Bill of 1902, was able to assure the +House of Commons that Irish Land Purchase had this one merit that the +State had incurred no loss under it and was exposed to no risk. In no case +did an Irish tenant break his bargain. There was no case of bad debt to +mention. + +One of the first stumbling-blocks to a tenant proposing to purchase under +the Act of 1891 was that he was unable to know, or even approximately +gauge, what was the actual sum he would have to pay, by way of annuity, +each year. This was a serious flaw, and helped more than anything else +perhaps to clog the wheels of purchase. This state of things, however, was +remedied by the Purchase Act of 1896, by which the maximum sum payable in +any year was an instalment at the rate of £4 per cent on the purchase +money, no matter at what number of years' purchase of his rent the tenant +might buy. Most of the cumbrous restrictions of the Act of 1891 were +removed, and once more the applications began to tumble in. In 1895-1896 +the applications received numbered less than half a million. In 1897-1898 +and in 1898-1899 they reached nearly two millions. A steady decrease then +set in, but on the whole purchase proceeded at a satisfactory pace. + +A strange condition of things now existed in Ireland, and a condition of +things that could not last. Here and there over the country there existed +a contented peasantry, the virtual owners of their holdings, paying a +reasonable annuity for a definite period to the State. If they had not the +sense of complete ownership, they had the very next best thing to it. They +knew that if they themselves were not the absolute owners of their +holdings during their lives, their children and their children's children +would be, and they set to work with a heart and a will to work and improve +their farms, knowing full well that the results of their labour would, at +last, be theirs, and could not be wrung from them by the whims or +exigencies of the landlord. On the other side of the fence, or river, the +tenant who had not purchased and, perhaps, could not purchase, for his +landlord would not sell, continued to pay a rent sometimes exorbitant, but +always higher than his friend the purchaser close by. Such was the +position of the tenant's side of the question. Now let us examine the +landlord's. + +Under the Act of 1896 the landlord was paid in government stock. Between +the years 1891 and 1896 government stock rose from 96 to 110. A premium of +ten per cent was a strong incentive to the landlord to sell. If he had an +estate worth £5000, he received in reality for it £5500, for he was +credited with £5000 stock which, sold on change, realized £5500 in cash. +In some cases, where the estate was mortgaged, the gain was even more. +This was gold finding for the landlord until the price of stock fell, +which it did and with a vengeance. Stock which in 1897 stood at 113 fell +in 1901 to 91. The fall again clogged the wheels, and the question once +again became the burning question of the hour. It is right to say here +that there were other forces at work which made the landlord anxious to +get out, if he could at all, on reasonable terms. The fall in the price of +produce continued, and the Land Commission, which had under the Act of +1881 twice revised the rentals, and reduced them each time by twenty per +cent on an average, were preparing for the third revision. The landlords +looked forward to 1911 with fear and trembling. With their estates mostly +heavily mortgaged, and the third revision at hand, they were as anxious as +the tenants, if not more so, that Parliament should step in to their +mutual aid. It did so in the Land Act of 1903. The introduction of this +measure was preceded by a conference of landlords and tenants, +representatives in Ireland which met in the Mansion House, Dublin, and +after five sittings reported as follows:-- + +"Whereas it is expedient that the land question in Ireland be settled so +far as it is practicable and without delay, + +"And whereas the existing position of the land question is adverse to the +improvement of the soil of Ireland, leads to unending controversies and +law-suits between owners and occupiers, retards progress in the country, +and constitutes a grave danger to the state, + +"And whereas an opportunity of settling once for all the differences +between owners and occupiers in Ireland is very desirable, + +"And whereas such settlement can only be effected upon a basis mutually +satisfactory to the owners and occupiers of the land, + +"And whereas certain representatives of owners and occupiers have been +desirous of endeavouring to find such basis, and for that purpose have met +in conference together, + +"And whereas certain particulars of agreement have been formulated, +discussed, and passed at the conference, and it is desirable that the same +should be put into writing and submitted to his Majesty's government, + +"After consideration and discussion of various schemes submitted to the +conference, we are agreed:-- + +"1. That the only satisfactory settlement of the land question is to be +effected by the substitution of an occupying proprietary in lieu of the +existing system of dual ownership. + +"2. That the process of direct interference by the State in purchase and +resale is in general tedious and unsatisfactory; and that, therefore, +except in cases where at least half the occupiers or the owners so desire, +and except in districts included in the operations of the congested +districts board, the settlement should be made between owner and occupier, +subject to the necessary investigation by the State as to title, rental, +and security. + +"3. That it is desirable in the interests of Ireland that the present +owners of land should not as a result of any settlement be expatriated, +or, having received payment for their land, should find no object for +remaining in Ireland, and that as the effect of a far-reaching settlement +must necessarily be to cause the sale of tenancies throughout the whole of +Ireland, inducements should, wherever practicable, be afforded to selling +owners to continue to reside in that country. + +"4. That for the purpose of obtaining such a result, an equitable price +ought to be paid to the owners, which should be based upon income. + +"Income, as it appears to us, is second term rents--including all rents +fixed subsequent to the passing of the Act of 1896--or their fair +equivalent. + +"5. That the purchase price should be based upon income as indicated +above, and should be either the assurance by the State of such income, or +the payment of a capital sum producing such income at three per cent or at +three and one-fourth per cent, if guaranteed by the State, or if the +existing powers of trustees be sufficiently enlarged. + +"Costs of collection where such exist, not exceeding ten per cent, are not +included for the purpose of these paragraphs in the word 'income.' + +"6. That such income or capital sum should be obtainable by the owners:-- + +"(_a_) Without the requirement of capital outlay upon their part, such as +would be involved by charges for proving title to sell. Six years' +possession, as proposed in the bill brought forward in the session of +1902, appears to us a satisfactory method of dealing with the matter. + +"(_b_) Without the requirement of outlay to prove title to receive the +purchase money. + +"(_c_) Without unreasonable delay. + +"(_d_) Without loss of income pending reinvestment. + +"(_e_) And without leaving a portion of the capital sum as a guarantee +deposit. + +"7. That, as a necessary inducement to selling owners to continue to +reside in Ireland, the provision of the bill introduced by the chief +secretary for Ireland in the session of 1902 with regard to the purchase +of mansion houses, demesne lands, and home farms by the State, and resale +by it to the owners, ought to be extended. + +"8. We suggest that in certain cases it would be to the advantage of the +State as insuring more adequate security, and also an advantage to owners +in such cases, if upon the purchase by the State of the mansion house and +demesne land and resale to the owner, the house and demesne land should +not be considered a security to the mortgages. + +"9. That owners wishing to sell portions of grazing land in their own +hands for the purpose of enlarging neighbouring tenancies should be +entitled to make an agreement with the tenants, and that in the event of +proposed purchase by the tenants such grazing land may be considered as +part of the tenancies for the purpose of purchase. + +"10. That, in addition to the income, or capital sum producing the income, +the sum due for rent from the last rent day till the date of the agreement +for purchase and the hanging gale should be paid by the State to the +owner. + +"11. That all liabilities by the owner which run with the land, such as +head-rents, quit-rents, and tithe-rent charge, should be redeemed, and the +capital sum paid for such redemption deducted from the purchase money +payable to the owner. Provided always that the price of redemption should +be calculated on a basis not higher, as regards annual value, than is used +in calculating the purchase price of the estate. In any special cases +where it may have to be calculated upon a different basis, the owner +should not suffer thereby. Owners liable to drainage charges should be +entitled to redeem same upon equitable terms, having regard to the varying +rates of interest at which such loans were made. + +"12. That the amount of the purchase money payable by the tenants should +be extended over a series of years, and be at such a rate, in respect of +principal and interest, as will at once secure a reduction of not less +than fifteen per cent, or more than twenty-five per cent on second term +rents or their fair equivalent, with further periodical reductions as +under existing land purchase acts until such time as the treasury is +satisfied that the loan has been repaid. This may involve some assistance +from the State beyond the use of its credit, which, under circumstances +hereinafter mentioned, we consider may reasonably be granted. Facilities +should be provided for the redemption at any time of the purchase money or +part thereof by payment of the capital or any part thereof. + +"13. That the hanging gale, where such custom exists, should be included +in the loan and paid off in the instalments to be paid by the purchasing +occupier, and should not be a debt immediately recoverable from the +occupier, but the amount of rent ordinarily payable for the period between +the date when the last payment fell due and the date of agreement for sale +should be payable as part of the first instalment. + +"14. That counties wholly or partly under the operations of the congested +districts board, or other districts of a similar character (as defined by +the Congested Districts Board Acts and by section four, clause one, of Mr. +Wyndham's Land Purchase Amendment Bill of last session), will require +separate and exceptional treatment with a view to the better distribution +of the population and of the land, as well as for the acceleration and +extension of these projects for migration and enlargement of holdings +which the congested districts board, as at present constituted and with +its limited powers, has hitherto found it impossible to carry out upon an +adequate scale. + +"15. That any project for the solution of the Irish Land Question should +be accompanied by a settlement of the evicted tenants' question upon an +equitable basis. + +"16. That sporting and riparian rights should remain as they are, subject +to any provisions of existing Land Purchase Acts. + +"17. That the failure to enforce the Labourers Acts in certain portions of +the country constitutes a serious grievance, and that in districts where, +in the opinion of the local government board, sufficient accommodation has +not been made for the housing of the labouring classes, power should be +given to the local government board, in conjunction with the local +authorities, to acquire sites for houses and allotments. + +"18. That the principle of restriction upon subletting might be extended +to such control as may be practicable over resales of purchasers' interest +and mortgages, with a view to maintaining unimpaired the value of the +State's security for outstanding instalments on loans. + +"And whereas we are agreed that no settlement can give peace and +contentment to Ireland or afford reasonable and fair opportunity for the +development of the resources of the country, which fails to satisfy the +just claims of both owners and occupiers, + +"And whereas such settlement can only be effected by the assistance of the +State, which, as a principle, has been employed in former years, + +"And whereas it appears to us that, for the healing of differences and the +welfare of the country, such assistance should be given, and can be given, +and can effect a settlement without either undue cost to the treasury or +appreciable risk with regard to the money advanced, we are of opinion that +any reasonable difference arising between the sum advanced by the State, +and ultimately repaid to it, may be justified by the following +considerations:-- + +"That for the future welfare of Ireland, and for the smooth working of any +measure dealing with the transfer of land, it is necessary:-- + +"1. That the occupiers should be started on their new career as owners on +a fair and favourable basis, insuring reasonable chances of success, and +that in view of the responsibilities to be assumed by them they should +receive some inducement to purchase. + +"2. That the owners should receive some recognition of the facts that +selling may involve sacrifice of sentiment, that they have already +suffered heavily by the operation of the land acts, and that they should +receive some inducement to sell. + +"3. That for the benefit of the whole community it is of the greatest +importance that income derived from sale of property in Ireland should +continue to be expended in Ireland. + +"And we further submit that, as a legitimate setoff against any demand +upon the State, it must be borne in mind that, upon the settlement of the +land question in Ireland, the cost of administration of the law and the +cost of the Royal Irish Constabulary would be materially and permanently +lessened. + +"We do not, at the present time, desire to offer further recommendations +upon the subject of finance which must necessarily be regulated by the +approval of the government to the principles of the proposals above +formulated except that, in our opinion, the principles of reduction of the +sinking fund in the event of loss to the State by an increase of the +value of money should be extended by the inclusion of the principle of +increase of the sinking fund in favour of the purchasers in the event of +gain to the State by decrease in the value of money. + +"Inasmuch as one of the main conditions of success in reference to any +land purchase scheme must be its prompt application and the avoidance of +those complicated investigations and legal delays which have hitherto +clogged all legislative proposals for settling the relations between Irish +landlords and tenants, we deem it of urgent importance that no protracted +period of time should ensue before a settlement based upon the +above-mentioned principles is carried out; that the executive machinery +should be effective, competent, and speedy, and that investigations +conducted by it should not entail cost upon owner or occupier; and, as a +further inducement to despatch, we suggest that any state aid, apart from +loans which may be required for carrying out a scheme of land purchase as +herein proposed, should be limited to transactions initiated within five +years after the passing of the act. + +"We wish to place on record our belief that an unexampled opportunity is +at the present moment afforded his Majesty's government of effecting a +reconciliation of classes in Ireland upon terms which, as we believe, +involve no permanent increase of Imperial expenditure in Ireland; and that +there would be found on all sides an earnest desire to coöperate with the +government in securing the success of a Land Purchase Bill, which, by +effectively and rapidly carrying out the principles above indicated, would +bring peace and prosperity to the country. + +"Signed at the Mansion House, Dublin, this third day of January, 1903. + + "DUNRAVEN (_Chairman_) JOHN REDMOND + "MAYO WM. O'BRIEN + "W. H. HUTCHESON POE T. W. RUSSELL + "NUGENT T. EVERARD T. C. HARRINGTON" + +It soon transpired that the idea of a conference between landlords' and +tenants' representatives was the government plan for laying the foundation +of the bill that they contemplated introducing as a government measure +later on. The tenants' representatives, who, in the then position of the +land question, with prices falling and the third revision term looming in +the distance, had all the trumps in their hands, were hopelessly +outmanoeuvred by the landlord section. + +The question to be discussed was largely a financial one, but still the +tenants had not a man of financial ability at the board. It is true the +members of the conference were nominated, and not selected by their +respective sides, though afterwards, for reasons easily understood, the +nominations were ratified by the parties concerned. But nominated by whom? +By a Captain Shawe Taylor, a personage popular with all parties, but in +this matter undoubtedly the agent of the government. The conference sat +five times, and all through the proceedings the nationalist +representatives were rubbing their hands with glee, for they thought the +millennium had come. + +The landlord party, on the other hand, were in nightly communication with +the Castle. Treasury experts were drafted over to Dublin, and no stone was +left unturned to secure for the landlords a measure which would satisfy +the most exacting. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. On the 3d +of January, 1903, the land conference issued its report. Clear-headed +politicians saw at once that the tenants had played the game and lost. +Every advantage or benefit that the landlord sought or claimed was secured +to him by this treaty, as it was afterwards styled, in terms that could +not be gainsaid. The tenants' clauses in the report were mostly pious +expressions of opinion, which were afterwards, when the Land Bill came to +be drafted, brushed aside, or quietly ignored. But all was not yet lost. + +The _Freeman's Journal_, under the able guidance of Mr. Thomas Sexton, in +a series of powerful articles, reviewed the whole position. It boldly but +temperately pointed out the defects in the conference report. It refused +to shout with the crowd. It could not see that much was gained. It clearly +saw that a great deal had been lost. The bill, a large and complicated +measure of eighty-nine clauses, was shortly afterwards introduced. It was +a great measure and aimed at the final settlement of the land question. +And, indeed, such an end, devoutly to be wished, would certainly have been +attained had the amendments pressed on the government during the passage +of the bill by the organ of the tenants been accepted and embodied in the +act. + +Clause after clause was closely examined, and the defects exposed by Mr. +Sexton in a series of articles, inspired if not actually written by him in +the _Freeman_. He had done much service for Ireland in the past, but I +doubt if his great abilities had ever been better applied than to the work +of examination, elucidation, and amendment of the Land Bill of 1903. + +His criticisms culminated in the publication of a schedule of amendments +which he claimed were necessary to the final settlement of the question. + +It is worth while now putting them on record, for they have a true +historical value. It is now seen in the working of the act, that the +acceptance of some of the amendments contained in the schedule materially +improved the bill, while the omission of the others explains the necessity +for still further legislation on the subject. + +The following is a summary of the amendments referred to:-- + +1. The rights of tenants under the Fair Rent Laws should be maintained +intact. + +2. No non-judicial tenant should be excluded from purchase by reason +merely of his tenure. Caretakers of holdings of which they had previously +been tenants should have the rights of tenants for the purpose of +purchasing such holdings. + +3. As a condition precedent to purchase, non-judicial rents and first term +rents fixed or agreed upon down to the end of 1896 should be reduced to +the average level, substantially of second term rents, and purchase should +not be transacted in the cases of non-judicial rents, or of such first +term rents, except upon this basis. + +4. The purchase system being voluntary, the compulsory limits of price in +this bill should be struck out. + +5. The aim of the system being to extinguish dual ownership and equal +treatment being essential both as between past and future transactions, +and also between the tenant who buys his holding and the landlord who buys +back his land sold by him to the State, no rent charge should be reserved. +Such a reservation would forever exclude the tenant from ownership, by +erecting a new and perpetual system of landlordism in the place of the +old. + +6. The rate of interest on consols being now two and one-half per cent, +the new guaranteed stock might be issued at two and one-half, instead of +two and three-fourths as proposed, and by this means the decadal +reductions, instead of being abolished as the bill provides, might be +allowed at the rate of eight per cent; or, at the option of the purchaser, +the period during which his annuity would be payable could be shortened by +about ten years. If the annuity rate were three and one-half, the +purchaser might be allowed to choose between decadal reductions at the +rate of eleven per cent, and a term of redemption shorter by nearly +twenty years than that prescribed in the bill. + +7. Sales of untenanted land, and, in particular, resales of demesne or +other land to vendors, should be subject to the needs of migration, of +enlarged holdings, and of making provision for evicted tenants, in the +case of each estate or district, and no evicted farm should be resold to +the vendor, or sold to a new tenant, if the evicted tenant, or his +personal representative, is willing to become the purchaser. + +8. The cost of improvement of estates and untenanted land, being charged +to every purchaser and repaid by his annuity, should be provided for as +part of the advances required for the purposes of this act, leaving the +reserve fund available to the estates commissioners for cases of +exceptional need. + +9. It is necessary to maintain the existing satisfactory condition that +the holding, or other land purchased, is to be sufficient security for the +repayment of the advance. + +10. The Purchase Aid Fund should be increased to not less than twenty +millions; and distributed either in inverse ratio to the number of years' +purchase in each case, or by a uniform grant of a fixed number of years' +purchase to every selling landlord. + +11. A term of years should be fixed in the bill, on the expiration of +which term the provisions for grants from the Purchase Aid Fund, resales +to landlords, and distribution of purchase money free of cost should cease +to operate. + +12. The subject of sporting and mineral rights calls for clear provision +dictated in the public interest, instead of the ambiguous, loose, and +inconclusive proposals which appear in the bill. + +13. It is requisite that the limit of advance to an evicted tenant be not +less than the ordinary limits; also, that provision be made for restoring +evicted tenants to their former holdings when vacant; for making +arrangements to that end when the holdings are occupied; and for stocking +the land. + +14. The cramping restrictions imposed on the congested districts board, +which have effectually prevented that body from dealing with the great +agrarian evil of the West, would not be removed or substantially +diminished by the meagre proposals of the bill; nor can the privations and +miseries endured in the congested districts be sufficiently abated in any +other way than by such a redistribution of grazing ranches as will provide +the people of those districts with land enough to yield them the means of +living. As the guarantee fund--now ample enough for every purpose--is +henceforth to apply alike to congested and other districts, and as +advances for land purchase are seen to be free from risk, and special +treatment is to be applied to congested estates throughout the country, it +is evident that the time has come for a uniform system of land purchase, +and that this is to be secured, either by investing the congested +districts board, for all the purposes of land purchase in their particular +areas, with powers corresponding to those of the estates commissioners, or +else by giving the estates commissioners jurisdiction for land purchase in +the congested districts, and authorizing the board to apply its income +wholly to its various other objects of expenditure. + +15. The proposals with regard to the Labourers' Acts are so trivial that +they cannot be amended. The government should be asked to appoint a +commission to inquire and report, this year, how the question may be +adequately dealt with; and a bill directed seriously to that end should be +passed into law next session. + +The Irish Land Act, 1903, otherwise known as the Wyndham Act, from the +name of the Irish chief secretary who introduced it, came into force on +the 1st of November, 1903. This is not the place to set forth its +provisions, but the principal advantages which accrue to a selling +landlord and a purchasing tenant availing of its provisions may be briefly +stated. The entire purchase money agreed upon is paid to the landlord in +cash. No part of the purchase money is retained as a guarantee deposit. +For the purchase of a single holding the limitations of preceding acts are +extended to £7000. + +The vendor of an estate shall receive in addition to the purchase money +from the tenants a bonus for his own immediate benefit. The landlord is +enabled to sell his demesne, and repurchase it at a profit. The landlord +may sell his estate direct to estate commissioners appointed by the act, +or to the congested districts board, and these bodies are enabled to +resell to the tenants after readjustment and partition of the holdings on +the estate if necessary. Enlarged powers of investment of purchase money +are conferred upon trustees. The principal advantages secured to the +tenant are as follows: At the end of sixty-eight and one-half years, a +tenant becomes owner in fee of his holding. As soon as the agreement to +purchase is signed, he ceases to be liable for rent. He is enabled to +repay the advance at the rate of three and one-fourth per cent of his +purchase money. (Though the reduction of the annuity rate from four per +cent under the previous act to three and one-fourth per cent under the +Wyndham Act is an undoubted advantage to a tenant, it is certainly to his +disadvantage that the amount set aside towards the sinking fund should be +reduced from one and one-fourth per cent and one per cent to one-half per +cent.) In congested districts the land commission, or congested districts +board, may purchase lands under certain conditions to enable them to deal +with the problem of congestion. + +The greatest blot on the measure is undoubtedly what is known as the +"Zones." The act provides that if the price agreed upon between the +parties allows a reduction of not less than ten per cent nor more than +thirty per cent on a tenant's existing rent, in the case of a second term +rent, and a reduction of not less than twenty per cent nor more than forty +per cent in the case of a first term tenant, the bargain _must_ be +sanctioned by the commissioners without inquiring whether the land in +question is security for the "advance." + +The result of this provision is that tenants have been wheedled or cajoled +into agreeing to bargains which they will find it difficult or impossible +to keep. The price of land became artificially inflated, and the average +of eighteen years' purchase paid for land in Ireland under the previous +Purchase Acts has been raised by five to seven years' purchase. It is +essential that free bargaining should be restored if purchase is to +proceed on sound economic lines. In spite of the efforts of the wisest of +their leaders, the Irish tenantry are rushing into bargains under the +Wyndham Act that may eventuate in dire consequences for themselves and for +the country. + +The importation of Canadian cattle when it comes will have a serious +effect on the Irish produce market, and a further decline in produce +prices may be expected. + +Will the Irish tenant be then able to discharge his liability to the State +and have sufficient margin for living? That is the question for the +future. The answer to it alone can settle whether we have yet reached +finality in the Irish Land Code. + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] Carlyle, Appendix, No. 17. + +[2] See Lecky, II., 216 _et seq._ + +[3] T. P. O'Connor, "The Parnell Movement," pp. 53, 54. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. + +Punctuation has been corrected without note. + +Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the +original. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Irish History and the Irish Question, by +Goldwin Smith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRISH HISTORY AND IRISH QUESTION *** + +***** This file should be named 34965-8.txt or 34965-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/9/6/34965/ + +Produced by Brian Foley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Irish History and the Irish Question + +Author: Goldwin Smith + +Release Date: January 15, 2011 [EBook #34965] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRISH HISTORY AND IRISH QUESTION *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Foley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<p class="center"><span class="giant">IRISH HISTORY</span><br /><span class="big">AND</span><br /><span class="giant">THE IRISH QUESTION</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">BY<br /> +<span class="huge">GOLDWIN SMITH</span><br /> +<small>AUTHOR OF “THE UNITED KINGDOM”<br />“THE UNITED STATES”</small></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/illo_title.png" alt="" /></div> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="big">NEW YORK<br />McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.<br />1905</span></p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright by</span><br /> +GOLDWIN SMITH,<br /> +1905.<br /> +<br /> +Published, November, 1905, n.</p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + +<p><br />A long summer was spent by me in that loveliest of all parks, the +Phœnix, as the guest of Edward Cardwell, then Chief Secretary and real +head of the Irish government. Under Cardwell’s roof the Irish Question was +fully discussed by able men, Robert Lowe among the number. But I had a +still greater advantage in constant and lasting intercourse with such +friends as Lord Chancellor O’Hagan, Sir Alexander Macdonald, the head of +the Education Department, and other leading Irish Liberals of the moderate +school, ardent patriots and thoroughgoing reformers though opposed to +violence and disruption. To the teachings of these men in dealing with the +Irish Question, I have always looked back for my best guidance. I did what +I could generally to acquaint myself with the country and its people. I +had the opportunity of seeing something of Maynooth as the guest of its +excellent principal in that day. At that time there was rather a lull in +the agrarian war, but religious antagonism was still marked. The fruit of +my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span> studies was a little book entitled “Irish History and Irish +Character,” in which I tried to show that the sources of Ireland’s sorrows +were to be found in natural circumstance and historical accident as much +as in the crimes or follies of man in recent times. Upon that text I +preached in favour of charity and reconciliation. I am told that a chord +was touched at the time. But my essay has long been superseded and buried +out of sight by the important works, historical and political, which the +controversy has since produced, as well as by the forty eventful years +which have elapsed since its publication. The subject, however, has +retained all its interest, and my confidence in the wisdom of my Irish +friends and instructors has remained the same, or rather has been +strengthened by the course of events.</p> + +<p>I was in Ireland again a good many years afterwards in connection with the +meeting of the Social Science Association, and was the guest of Lord +O’Hagan. The Parnellite Movement was then in full activity; American +Fenianism was at work; and the soil heaved with insurrection. My friend W. +E. Forster was the Secretary, and, much against his own inclination, was +administering measures of repression, the only alternative to which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span> +appeared to be the abdication of the government. On this occasion I was +unlucky enough to draw upon myself a thunderbolt hurled through the +<i>Times</i>, but evidently from the skies, by hinting in a public speech that +the Phœnix Park was as worthy to be the occasional residence of royalty +as Osborne or Balmoral. A happy change, attended apparently with the best +effects, has now come in that august quarter.</p> + +<p>It is needless to say that this essay does not pretend to be a history of +Ireland. It is an attempt to trace the general course of the history as it +leads up to the present situation.</p> + +<p>The works published in recent years to which I have been chiefly indebted +are: Joyce’s “Social History of Ancient Ireland,” Richie’s “Short History +of the Irish People,” Bagwell’s “Ireland under the Tudors,” Froude’s “The +English in Ireland,” Lecky’s “Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland,” +together with the special chapters on Ireland in his general history, +Ingram’s “Two Chapters of Irish History” and “History of the Irish Union,” +Ball’s “Irish Legislative Systems,” T. P. O’Connor’s “The Parnell +Movement,” and Sir Horace Plunkett’s “Ireland in the Twentieth Century,” +with the comments on it by Father O’Riordan.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span>To Mr. Bagwell’s “Ireland under the Tudors” I am specially indebted for +his narrative of the Tudor wars. To Mr. T. P. O’Connor I am specially +indebted for the most vivid accounts of the famine and of the evictions, +as well as for an improved insight into the Parnell Movement and of the +doings which preceded it. Of part of those doings I was myself in some +measure a witness, through my social connections with a circle of English +politicians who were inclining to an Irish alliance.</p> + +<p>The annals of the Tudor wars are horrible and heartrending. But history +cannot drop the veil over them. They long left their evil traces on Irish +character and sentiment, explaining and extenuating some terrible things +which ensued. Nor, in truth, have they become obsolete as warnings to us +in general of the acts into which civilized nations may be betrayed when +they make wars of conquest on those whom they deem barbarians.</p> + +<p>It seemed that a brief account of the recent land legislation for Ireland +might be useful to readers of an essay of this kind. I append one which +has been prepared for me by my friend, Mr. Hugh J. McCann, B.L., of the +Dublin Bar. Its author is in no way committed to any opinion expressed in +the other part of the work.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#I">I</a></td><td><span class="smcap">From Early Times to Edward I</span> (1272)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#II">II</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Edward I to Henry VII</span> (1272-1509)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#III">III</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Henry VIII to Mary</span> (1509-1558)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#IV">IV</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Elizabeth to James I</span> (1558-1603)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#V">V</a></td><td><span class="smcap">James I</span> (1603-1625)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VI">VI</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Charles I to the Protectorate</span> (1625-1660)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VII">VII</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Restoration</span> (1660)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#VIII">VIII</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Revolution</span> (1688)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#IX">IX</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Penal Code</span> (1695-1727)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span><a href="#X">X</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Anne to the Revolution of 1782</span> (1702-1782)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XI">XI</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Revolution of 1782 and the Rebellion of 1798</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XII">XII</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Union</span> (1801)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XIII">XIII</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Daniel O’Connell</span> (1823-1847)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_164">164</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XIV">XIV</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Gladstone</span> (1868-1893)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_191">191</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><a href="#XV">XV</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Present State of the Question</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_204">204</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>ACCOUNT OF THE IRISH LAND CODE</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td><span style="margin-left: 2em;">By <span class="smcap">Hugh J. McCann</span>, B.L., of the Irish Bar.</span></td></tr></table> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2>IRISH HISTORY AND THE IRISH QUESTION</h2> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2> + +<p><br />Of all histories the history of Ireland is the saddest. For nearly seven +centuries it was a course of strife between races, bloodshed, massacre, +misgovernment, civil war, oppression, and misery. Hardly even now have the +troubles of Ireland come to a close, either for herself or for her +partner. Unrest still reigns in her and, embodied in her Parliamentary +delegation, harasses the Parliament and distracts the councils of Great +Britain.</p> + +<p>The theatre of this tragedy is a large island lying beside one nearly +three times larger, which cuts it off from the continent of Europe, while +on the other side it fronts the wide ocean. The climate is for the most +part too wet for wheat. The pasture is very rich. Ireland seems by nature +to be a grazing country, and a country of large farms; tillage and small +farms have been enforced by the redundance of rural population consequent +on the destruction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> of urban industries. In coal and minerals Ireland is +poor, while the sister island abounds in them, and in its swarming +factories and mines furnishes a first-rate market for the produce of Irish +pastures; so that the two islands are commercial supplements of each +other. The progress of pastoral countries, political and general, as they +have little city life, is slow. With beauty Ireland is well endowed. The +interior is flat, with large peat bogs and brimming rivers. But the coast +is mountainous and romantic. The western coast especially, where the +Atlantic rolls into deep inlets, has a pensive charm which, when troubles +end and settled peace reigns, may attract the villa as they do the +wanderer now. In early times the island was densely clothed with woods, +which, with the broad and bridgeless rivers, operated like the mountain +barriers of the Scottish Highlands in perpetuating the division of clans, +with their patriarchal system, their rivalries, and their feuds, thus +precluding the growth of a nation. In Ireland there was no natural centre +of dominion. Interest of every kind seems to enjoin the union of the +islands. But in the age of conquest the weaker island was pretty sure to +be marked as a prey of the stronger, while the difficulties of access, the +Channel, broad in the days of primitive navigation,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> and the Welsh +mountains, combined with the internal barriers of forest and river and +with the naturally wild habits of the people, portended that the conquest +would be difficult and that the agony would be long. Such was the mould of +Destiny.</p> + +<p>The people of Ireland when history opens were Celts, kinsmen of the +primitive races of Gaul and Britain, remnants of which are left in Wales +and in the Highlands of Scotland. Their language was of that family, while +cognate words connect it with the general Aryan stock. There are traces of +a succession of immigrations. Too much, no doubt, has been made of the +influence of race. Yet the Teuton is a Teuton and the Celt is a Celt. The +Celt in his native state has everywhere shown himself lively, social, +communicative, impulsive, prone to laughter and to tears, wanting, +compared with the Teuton, in depth of character, in steadiness and +perseverance. He is inclined rather to personal rule or leadership than to +a constitutional polity. His poet is not Shakespeare or Milton, but Tom +Moore, a light minstrel of laughter and tears. His political leader is +O’Connell, a Boanerges of passionate declamation. In war he is impetuous, +as was the Gaul who charged at Allia and the Highlander who charged at +Killiecrankie and Prestonpans.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> His taste as well as his manual skill in +decoration is shown by the brilliant collection of gold ornaments in the +Celtic Museum at Dublin, as well as in stone carvings and such a paragon +of illuminated missals as the Book of Kells. But it is greater than his +aptitude for high art, that art which treats the human form, in which he +has not shone. His religious tendency, the outcome of his general +character, is either to Catholicism with its fervid faith, its mysteries, +and its ceremonial, as in Ireland; or to the enthusiastic forms of +Protestantism, as in the Highlands and in Wales. Anglicanism, a sober cult +with a balanced creed, suits him not. It was a cruel decree of destiny +that the larger island from which the conqueror would come was peopled by +the Teuton, so that to the usual evils of conquest was added that of a +difference of character inherent in race.</p> + +<p>The primitive organization of the Irish Celts was tribal, the underlying +idea being kinship, real or reputed. The ruler with paternal authority was +the chief of the tribe. To avert strife his tanist, or successor, was +elected in his lifetime. In a community of reputed kinsmen there could be +no aristocracy of birth; but there seems to have been a plutocracy, whose +riches in that pastoral country<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> consisted of cattle, which formed the +measure of wealth and command of which made poorer clansmen their +retainers. Under these were the freemen of the tribe. Under the freemen +again were the unfree, wanderers or captives taken in war or slaves from +the English slave-market. The unfree appear to have been the only tillers +of the soil. Thus tillage was marked with a bar sinister from its birth. +The tribal law was a mystical and largely fanciful craft or tradition in +the keeping of the Brehons, or judges, a hereditary order who, though +revered as arbiters, were without power of enforcing their judgments. Like +primitive law in general, it lacked the idea of public wrong. It treated +crime as a private injury, to be compounded by fine. The land was the +common property of the tribe, to which it nominally reverted on the demise +of the holder, though it may be assumed that the chiefs at all events had +practically land of their own and that the tendency in this, as in other +cases, was to private ownership.</p> + +<p>What the religion was is not certainly known. Probably it was the same as +that of the Celts of Great Britain and Gaul, Druidism, wild, orgiastic, +and perhaps sanguinary. But there seem to be no remains clearly Druidic in +Ireland.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>Life was pastoral, roving, probably bellicose. It appears that women +required to be restrained from taking part in war. The characteristic garb +of the tribesman was a loose saffron mantle, which served as his dress by +day, his coverlet by night. His favourite weapons, often used, were an axe +and a dart. He drew, it seems, a bow weak compared with the long-bow of +England. The gentler side of his character was shown in his passionate +love of the harp and the reverence in which he held the harper, and which +was extended to the bard, whose rude lays saluted the intellectual dawn +and whom we find in later times feared as an author of lampoons. Among his +favourite amusements was chess.</p> + +<p>Knowledge of the peculiar system of the Irish, political and legal, is of +more consequence because the opposite system, that of constitutional +government and feudal ownership, having presented itself to him as that of +alien masters and oppressors, tribal peculiarities and sentiments lingered +long. The idea of tribal ownership perhaps was a few generations ago still +faintly present in agrarian agitation. Nor has the general character of +the tribesman long been, if it yet is, extinct. Tribal feuds were until +lately represented in the strange faction fights of the Caravats and +Shanavests, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> Two-Year-Olds and Three-Year-Olds, the annual fight of +factions for a legendary stone, and the encounters between bodies of the +peasantry at Irish fairs. Perhaps another feature of character traceable +to tribalism may be the gregarious habit of Irishmen contrasted with the +Englishman’s isolation and love of his private home.</p> + +<p>Connected apparently with the tribal sentiment were the strange customs of +fosterage and gossipred. Fosterage consisted in putting out the child to +be reared by a tribesman who became its foster-father. Gossipred, a +Christian addition, was a spiritual kinship formed at the font. Both +relations had extraordinary force.</p> + +<p>There were, of course, tribal wars. There were leagues or dominations of +powerful tribes which left their traces in the division of the island into +four or five provinces, once petty kingships. There was a supreme +kingship, the seat of which, sacred in Irish tradition and legend, was the +Hill of Tara; but it was probably only when common danger compelled a +union of forces that this kingship became a real power. The features of +the country, combined with the character of the tribal organization based +on kinship, not on citizenship, would prolong the tribal divisions and +prevent union. Nor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> had nature anywhere fixed a central seat of command. +Only when opposed to an invader and struggling against him for the land +did Celtic Ireland form for the time a united people; even then it could +hardly be called a nation.</p> + +<p>The Roman conqueror looked, but came not. It might have been better for +Ireland if he had come. Yet, when he retired, he would probably have left +the Romanized provincial, here as in Britain, too unwarlike to hold his +own against the next invader.</p> + +<p>A conqueror of a different kind came. He came in the person, not of a +Roman general, but, if the tradition is true, of a slave. By the preaching +of St. Patrick, according to the common belief, Ireland was added to the +Kingdom of Christ. The conversion was rapid and probably superficial, the +chief of the tribe carrying the tribe over with him, as Ethelbert of Kent +and other English kinglets carried over their people, rather to a new +religious allegiance than to a new faith.</p> + +<p>Within the Roman Empire the centres of the Church had been the cities. +Cities were the seats of its bishoprics. The models of its organization +were urban. But in Ireland there were no cities. The episcopate was +irregular and weak, denoting rank rather than authority or jurisdiction. +The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> life of the Church was monastic and missionary. The weird Round +Towers, believed to have been places of refuge for its ministers and their +sacred vessels, as well as bell-towers, speak of a life surrounded by +barbarism and rapine as well as threatened by the heathen and devastating +Northmen. Partly perhaps owing to its comparative isolation and detachment +at home, the Irish clergy was fired with a marvellous and almost +preternatural zeal for the propagation of the Gospel abroad. It crossed +the sea to Iona, the sacred isle, still to religious memory sacred, from +which the light of the Gospel shone to the wild islesmen and to the rovers +of the Northern Sea. Irish missionaries preached to heathen Germany, +colliding there, it seems, with a more regular episcopate. They played a +part in the conversion of Britain not less important than that of the +missionaries of Rome, before whose authority, however, the Irish Church in +the person of Aidan was at last compelled to retire, the decisive struggle +taking place on the mode of celebrating Easter.</p> + +<p>In Ireland itself there arose in connection with the Church a precocious +and romantic passion for learning which founded primitive universities. +Its memory lingers in the melancholy ruins of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>Clonmacnoise. This was the +delusive brightness of a brief day, to be followed by the darkness of a +long night.</p> + +<p>The Church of Ireland seems in its origin to have been national and +neither child nor vassal of Rome. Its theology must have been independent +if Scotus Erigena was its son. But Rome gradually cast her spell, in time +she extended her authority, over it. Its heads looked to her as the +central support of the interests of their order and as their protectress +against the rude encroachments of the native chiefs. Norman Archbishops of +Canterbury served as transmitters of the influence. Still, the Irish +Church was not in Roman eyes perfectly regular. Tithes were not paid, nor +was the rule of consanguinity observed, or the rite of baptism +administered in strict accordance with the ordinances of Rome.</p> + +<p>Christianity did not kill the brood of a lively superstition, the fairy, +the banshee, the spectre, charms, amulets, prophecies, wild legends, which +in the times of gloom that followed strengthened their hold upon Irish +imagination.</p> + +<p>Hostile invasion came first in the form of the Northmen, whose piracy and +rapine extended to Ireland as well as to Gaul and Britain. Piracy and +rapine we call them now, but to the Northmen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> they seemed no more criminal +than to us seems hunting or fishing. The chief objects of the invader’s +attack were the monasteries, at once treasuries of Church wealth and +hateful to the people of Odin. Ruthlessly the Northman slew and burned. +His fleet made him ubiquitous and baffled defence, union for which there +was not at first among the tribes. Common danger at last enforced it. A +national leader arose in the person of Brian Boru, who was for Ireland the +military, though not the political, saviour that Alfred was for England. +At the great battle of Clontarf, the host over which the Danish Raven flew +was totally overthrown, and Ireland was redeemed from its ravages. The +Dane, however, did not wholly depart. Exchanging the rover for the trader, +he founded a set of little maritime commonwealths at Dublin, Wexford, +Waterford, and Limerick, germs on a small scale and in a rude way of +municipal as well as commercial life.</p> + +<p>But a conqueror, more fell and more tenacious than the Dane, was at hand. +In 1169 a little fleet of Welsh vessels ran into the Bay of Bannow. From +it landed a band of mail-clad soldiery, men trained to war, with a corps +of archers. They were Normans from Wales under the leadership of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +Anglo-Norman rover Fitzstephen, and were the precursors of a larger body +which presently followed, under Richard Strigul, Earl of Pembroke, from +the strength of his arm surnamed Strongbow. Dermot, an Irish chief, +expelled for his tyranny, had brought these invaders on his country as the +instruments of his revenge. Henry II. had, by giving letters of marque, +sanctioned the enterprise, the fruits of which he intended to reap. Early +in his reign the king had obtained from Pope Adrian IV., an Englishman by +birth, a bull authorizing him to take possession of Ireland, which with +other islands the bull declared of right to be an appanage of the Holy +See. Here, as in the case of William’s invasion of England, the Papacy +used Norman conquest as the instrument of its own aggrandizement. The +authenticity of the bull is disputed by Irish patriotism, but in vain. No +one questions the share of the Papacy in the Norman conquest of England.</p> + +<p>With the aid of his Norman allies, to whom the Irishman with his naked +valour was as the Mexican to the Spaniard, Dermot prevailed and glutted +his revenge by plucking from the triumphal pyramid of hostile heads that +of his chief enemy and tearing it with his teeth. But in this case, as in +that of the alliance of Cortez with the Tlascalans, the ally had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +conquered for himself. Declining to be dislodged, he proceeded to +establish himself and to organize a Norman principality.</p> + +<p>Now the jealousy of the English king was aroused. He saw an independent +Anglo-Norman kingdom on the point of being founded by Strongbow in +Ireland. He published the papal bull, came over to Ireland in his power, +and held his court at Dublin in a palace of wickerwork run up in native +style for the occasion, where the Irish chiefs bowed their heads, but not +their hearts, before him. He organized a feudal principality with himself +as lord, but having the Pope as its suzerain, and tributary to the Papacy. +He formally introduced the organization of a feudal kingdom. He held at +Cashel a synod like that held by William the Conqueror at Winchester for +the purpose of reforming, that is thoroughly Romanizing, the Church of +Ireland. Irregularities respecting infant baptism and the matrimonial +table of consanguinity were set right. The payment of tithes, that +paramount duty of piety, was enjoined. Rome was installed in full +authority, thus in Ireland, as in England, receiving from her Norman +liegemen her share of their prize. With this pious offering to the Papacy +in his hand, Henry departed to meet his responsibility for the slaying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> of +Becket. He was presently succeeded for a short time in Ireland by his +hopeful boy, John, whose personal behaviour was an earnest of the future +tenour of his reign. Afterward, as king, John paid Ireland another flying +visit in which, besides pouncing on an enemy, he seems to have made a +fleeting attempt to regulate the government.</p> + +<p>Henry, had he not been called away by the storm following the death of +Becket, might have left things in better shape, but nothing could make up +for the permanent absence of the king. Two antagonistic systems henceforth +confronted each other. On one side was the feudal system, with its +hierarchy of land-owners, from lord-paramount to tenant-paravail; its +individual ownership of land; its hereditary succession and primogeniture; +its feudal perquisites, relief, wardship, and marriage; its tribute of +military service; the loyalty to the grantor of the fief which was its +pervading and sustaining spirit; its knighthood and its chivalry; its +Great Council of barons and baronial bishops; its feudal courts of justice +and officers of state; all however highly rude and imperfect. On the other +side was tribalism, with its tie of original kinship instead of +territorial subordination; its tanistry; its Brehon law. But the feudal +system in Ireland lacked the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> keystone of its arch. It was destitute of +its regulating and controlling power, the king. A royal justiciar could +not fill the part. From the outset the bane of the principality was +delegated rule.</p> + +<p>Ireland was a separate realm, though attached to the Crown of England. It +had a Parliament of its own, which followed that of England in its +development, being at first a unicameral council of magnates, lay and +clerical; but after the legislation of Edward I. a bicameral assembly with +a Lower House formed of representatives of counties and boroughs, whose +consent would be formally necessary to taxation. Representatives of +Ireland were at first called to Edward’s Parliament at Westminster, but +the inconvenience seems to have been found too great. Weak, however, was +the Parliament of the colony compared with that of the imperial country. +If the Lords ever showed force, the making of a House of Commons was not +there. The representation, as well as the proceedings and the records, +appears to have been very irregular. Nothing worthy of the name of +Parliamentary government seems ever to have prevailed. Among those who +signed the Great Charter was the Archbishop of Dublin; but of chartered +rights Ireland was not the scene. There is no appearance of a separate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +grant of subsidies by the clerical estate. The clergy, it seems, were +represented by their proctors in the Lower House, as by the bishops and +abbots in the Upper House. The Parliament appears to have been generally a +tool in the hands of the deputy. The irregularity of its composition seems +to have extended to its meetings.</p> + +<p>From the first the relation between the feudal realm and that of the +tribes was border war. They were alien to each other in race, language, +and social habits, as well as in political institutions. The Norman could +not subdue the Celt, the Celt could not oust the Norman. The conquest of +England by William of Normandy had been complete, and had given birth to a +national aristocracy, which in time blended with the conquered race and +united with it in extorting the Great Charter. The Norman colony in +Ireland was left to its feeble resources, and to a divided command, while +the monarchy was far away over sea, was squandering its forces in French +fields, and could not even project a complete conquest. Besides, there +were the difficulties which the country, with its broad rivers, its bogs, +its mountains and forests, opposed to the heavy cavalry of the +Anglo-Norman. There was the mobility of a pastoral people, presenting no +cities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> or centres of any kind for attack, driving its cattle to the woods +on the approach of the invader, and eluding his pursuit like birds of the +air. Thus the Anglo-Norman colony failed to become a dominion and +presently dwindled to a pale. Between the Pale and the Celt incessant war +was waged with the usual atrocity of struggles between the half-civilized +and the savage. Fusion there could be none. There was not the bond of +human brotherhood or that of a common tongue. On neither side was the +murder of the other race a crime. Never was there a more inauspicious +baptism of a nation.</p> + +<p>Anglo-Norman and Celt, feudalist and tribesman, alike were Catholics. A +common religion might have been a bond, a common clergy might have been a +mediating power. But race and language prevailed over religion. The +Churches, though outwardly of the same faith, remained inwardly separate, +and not only separate but hostile to each other, the clergy on both sides +sharing the spirit and the atrocities of race enmity and frontier war. The +Church of the tribes was still very rough and irregular. The Norman on his +part was devout. He was a founder of monasteries, thereby discharging his +conscience of a load not seldom heavy. Whatever of religious life and +activity there was in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> the Pale seems to have been monastic. Our glimpses +of the secular clergy show that they were secular indeed. Among them not +neglect of duty only but criminality appears to have been rife.</p> + +<p>In the little commercial towns of Danish foundation on the coast which had +been taken over by the Norman, life was probably rather more civilized; +but they were too diminutive to exert any influence beyond their gates. +Galway in time became the port of an active trade with Spain which is +supposed to have left a Spanish trace on its architecture and a Spanish +strain in the blood of its people.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> + +<p><br />It was not likely that the colony, in the state in which it was, would +gain by emigration from England. It was probably losing by depletion. +English kings drew soldiers from it for their wars. There being no +university or means of education, youths who wanted to study went to +Oxford, where, though they were not native Irish, they seem to have played +in academical brawls the part which native Irish might have played. Thus +the colony was emptied of its intellect. Fiefs by feudal rule of descent +passed to absentees and to women, weakening its military force. In every +way the life-blood of the English and feudal settlement was being +continually withdrawn. Of the kings of England, Richard I. was away on +crusade, John and Henry III. were wrestling with rebellion at home. The +thoughts of Edward I. were turned to Ireland; but his energies were +absorbed by Scotland, Wales, and Gascony. He too drew soldiers from +Ireland.</p> + +<p>The Anglo-Norman element, however, was united, while inveterate disunion +reigned among the native<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> tribes. It was occupying the posts of vantage +with the castles characteristic of its military rule. It seems to have +been rather gaining ground when the island was invaded by Edward Bruce, +the brother of Robert, who, emulous of his brother’s success in Scotland, +came over on the invitation of Irish tribes to carve out a kingdom for +himself. Bruce gained successes and committed great ravages, but was at +length met at Dundalk by the Anglo-Norman army under John de Bermingham, +overthrown, and slain. He had estranged his Irish allies. According to one +of their chroniclers, the day on which he was slain was the happiest of +days for the Irish people. The Irish appeal to the Pope against English +misrule on this occasion is in form a national manifesto, but was probably +less than national in its source.</p> + +<p>Still Bruce’s invasion seems to have dealt the Norman colony a heavy blow +and thrown back into the hands of the native tribes districts which it had +conquered and over which its settlements had spread. Degeneration set in +amongst its people. They took to the strange native custom of fosterage, +to the Irishman’s saffron mantle and his long moustache, to his weapons, +to his mode of riding, even to his language, and countenanced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> license by +confusing the Brehon with the feudal law.</p> + +<p>A strange compound of feudalism with tribalism ensued, in the shape of +mongrel chieftaincies, henceforth the predominant powers. English barons +doffed their baronial character, donned that of the tribal chief, and made +themselves independent lords of wide domains peopled by native Irish. It +seems that they retained the Norman instinct of command. Many of them +changed their Anglo-Norman for Irish names; Bourke, O’Neill, O’Brien, +O’Connor. They kept in their pay troops of bravos, gallowglasses and +kernes. Their rule seems to have combined the extortions of the feudal +lord with those of the native chiefs. Bonaught was a tax imposed by a +chief for the support of his mercenaries. Sorohen was an obligation on +lands to support the chief with his train one day in a quarter or one in a +fortnight. Coshery was a chief’s right to sponge upon his vassals with as +many followers as he pleased. Cuddies, or night suppers, were due by lands +upon which the chief might quarter himself and his train for four days +four times a year. Shragh and mart were yearly exactions in money and +kine, apparently imposed at will. But worst of all was coyne<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> and livery, +horse-meat and man-meat taken at will. This, it seems, was not an Irish +but an Anglo-Norman invention introduced at first as the means of coping +with Edward Bruce, but, like the income tax, perpetuated when the special +need was past. The chiefs deemed themselves independent princes, +renouncing openly or practically allegiance to the English Crown. It is +with these potentates and the forces which their restless and rebellious +ambition could command that the Crown henceforth in its struggle with the +Irish difficulty has to deal. Had they been united, they might have +prevailed; but they were always at feud with each other, while policy, +though not loyalty, led some of them to side with the Crown. Of the septs, +the three most powerful were the Geraldines of the north, close to Dublin, +the head of which became afterward Earl of Kildare; the Geraldines of the +south in Munster, the head of which became Earl of Desmond; and the +Butlers, also in the south, whose head became the Earl of Ormonde. The +O’Neills in Ulster were another powerful sept. The Butlers, less +Hibernized than their rivals, were almost always on the side of the Crown.</p> + +<p>To put a stop to degeneration and restore order in the Pale by the +talismanic influence of royalty,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> Edward III. sent over his son Lionel, +Duke of Clarence. Under the duke’s influence the Irish Parliament passed +the statute of Kilkenny, drawing a sharp line of division between the two +races; declaring marriage, fosterage, gossipred, and even concubinage with +the Irish high treason; pronouncing the same penalties against supplying +horses and armour to Irishmen or furnishing them with provisions in time +of war; commanding Englishmen to speak English, to bear English names +only, and to ride and dress in the English fashion; providing for the +arming of the colony against Irish enemies; separating in every way the +native Irishman from the Englishman and even forbidding the admission of +Irish priests to livings in the English Church or to the English +monasteries. There are severe regulations against the entertainment of +Irish story-tellers and bards. An article declaring the English born in +Ireland and in England to be equal and forbidding them to call each other +English Hobbe or Irish Dog on pain of a year’s imprisonment and a fine at +the king’s pleasure shows that there was a social division in the colony +on that line. The statute betrays despair of a fusion of races or of a +subjection of the whole island to English rule and law. At the same time +it seems<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> to restrain English aggression and decree peace between the +races.</p> + +<p>Piqued, we are told, by a taunt of his impotence as lord of Ireland which +stung his pride, Richard II. twice came over to Ireland with a large army. +His armies were wrecked by the difficulties of the country and the +passionate weakness of their commander. From his second visit Richard was +recalled by the knell of his own doom.</p> + +<p>The Pale was drawn into the troubles of the Roses. Before the outbreak the +Duke of York had come over to Ireland as vicegerent, won the heart of the +people, asserted the independence of the Irish Parliament, and seemed +disposed to make himself king. He had been recalled by the Civil War, but +he had left behind him a Yorkist party which adhered to the White Rose +after Bosworth, recognized the two pretenders, Lambert Simnel and Perkin +Warbeck, and fought for the lost cause by the side of Martin Schwartz and +his German hackbut-men at Stoke.</p> + +<p>The Anglo-Norman colony or “Pale” was now at its nadir. Much of its +manhood had been drawn away by the kings to their Scottish and French +wars. It was reduced to a circle of two counties and a half round Dublin, +defended by a ditch. Had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> the chiefs of tribes been unanimous, it would +almost certainly have been destroyed. But the chiefs of tribes were very +far from being unanimous, and thanks to their dissensions Strongbow in his +tomb at Christ Church still slept undisturbed on the field of his victory. +In the Pale itself reigned corruption, disorder, and misrule. “There is no +land in all this world that has more liberty in vices than Ireland and +less liberty in virtue.” Such, as reported to Henry VIII., was the +internal condition of the colony; and the description extended in its full +force to the Church.</p> + +<p>The hostility of the Pale to the Red Rose probably combined with +distractions at home in leading Henry VII. to try the policy of winning +the great Irish chiefs to allegiance by marks of confidence and honour and +of governing Ireland through them. He tried it with the Earl of Kildare, +the head of the great Geraldine clan, saying, as the story went, when he +was told that all Ireland could not govern that man, “then that man shall +govern all Ireland.” Kildare, deported to England as a suspected traitor, +but there winning favour and confidence by the artful address in which his +kind were seldom wanting, was sent back to Ireland as lord deputy. The +policy had a show of success.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> Kildare as deputy harried the lands of his +own enemies and reported execution done on the enemies of the Crown. He +gained one signal victory of that kind. But the attempt to employ restless +and lawless ambition as the regular mainstay of orderly government could +not be a permanent success. The sept of Butler alone was true to the +Crown. The next reign saw Kildare’s son and successor as deputy in the +Tower, and his grandson, Silken Thomas, raising a madcap rebellion which +was made impious by the murder of an archbishop. The execution of Silken +Thomas and his five uncles closed the experiment of governing Ireland +through that house. There was left one boy whom faithful guardians carried +abroad and to whom the heart of the sept still turned.</p> + +<p>To make an end of the aspirations to independent nationality which had +budded under the Duke of York, and bring Irish legislation completely +under the control of the Crown, the Lord Deputy Poynings caused to be +carried through the Parliament of the Pale the pair of acts which bore his +name, subjecting Irish legislation to the control of the English Council. +The first act ordained that in future no Parliament should be held in +Ireland “but at such season as the King’s <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>Lieutenant-in-Council there +first do certify the King under the great seal of that land the causes and +considerations, and all such acts as then seemeth should pass in the said +Parliament.” Should the king in council approve, the Irish Parliament was +to be summoned under the great seal of England and not otherwise. The +second act provided that all public statutes “late made within the realm +of England” should be in force in Ireland. This it was decided applied to +all English acts prior to the tenth year of Henry VII. Ireland was thus +practically turned from a separate principality into a political +dependency of England. The work of Poynings was long afterwards completed +by the act of George I. affirming the right of the British Parliament to +legislate for Ireland.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> + +<p><br />During the early part of the reign of Henry VIII. the policy of the +English government was a continuation of that of Henry VII. It was a +policy of conciliation and of ruling through the great Irish chiefs, the +heads of the Butlers, the Geraldines, and the O’Neills, who were gratified +by the bestowal of English titles of nobility, with flattering marks of +confidence, and by a change in the tenure of their land from tribal to +feudal, which invested them with full ownership. The Irish chief and the +feudal baron of the Pale now sat in Parliament together for the first and +last time. There appears to have been an inclination on the part of the +Crown to favour the native Irish, it being still remembered perhaps that +the Anglo-Irish had supported the Yorkist pretenders. The king himself +penned a sage and benevolent manifesto, in the shape of a despatch to the +Lord Deputy Surrey, on the blessings of civilization. The policy of +conciliation was in fact necessary as well as laudable; for the king, +plunged by his diplomacy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> into continental embroilments and lavishing his +father’s hoard on a Field of the Cloth of Gold, had not the means of +subduing Ireland. It would have been vain to look in those days for the +philosophy which could make allowance for a diversity of national ideas +and habits. The O’Neill, upon his elevation to the earldom of Tyrone, is +required with his heirs to forsake the name of O’Neill, to use English +habits and the English language. The age, however, was one of growing +light. Education was a passion of the hour. A decree in favour of the +establishment of a system of free schools in Ireland went forth. Unhappily +it remained a decree. No homilies, no peerages, no flatteries or marks of +confidence could permanently avail to quiet the intractable ambition of +the great chiefs. They took the titles, which tickled their vanity; but +they preferred the state of a chieftain with his gallowglasses and with +his despotic power over the sept to that of a baron under royal rule, with +feudal restraints and obligations. They were always at feud with each +other, waging private war and ravaging each others’ territories with the +ruthlessness of the most cruel invader. Murders among them were frequent. +Conspiracies were always on foot. Thus the catastrophe of the house<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> of +Kildare ended what may be called the early Tudor policy of native +government and conciliation. The policy of conquest with colonization in +its train prevailed once more.</p> + +<p>The instrument of that policy was to be a line of English deputies; able +men on the whole and zealous in the public service, but generally +incapable of understanding any national character or any institutions but +their own. A deputy had also to contend with desperate difficulties, utter +insufficiency of military force, an empty exchequer, a service full of +jobbery and corruption, hostile intrigue both at Dublin and in the court +at home.</p> + +<p>The line was opened by Skeffington, a good though somewhat decrepit +soldier, before whose artillery fell the redoubtable native fortress of +Maynooth. The Crown had now a new and formidable force upon its side in +the cannon, which it alone could afford to maintain. In Ireland as +elsewhere the end of the feudal fortress had come.</p> + +<p>At the same time there were forfeited to the Crown great tracts of land +held by absentees, the feudal principle still prevailing and military +service being still a condition of the ownership of land. The Crown +thereby became a landowner on a vast scale, with the means of planting +settlements in all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> districts under its power. Thus a wide field was +opened for Crown colonization.</p> + +<p>But now comes an event most momentous in itself and fraught with future +woe to Ireland. Henry VIII., enraged at the refusal of the Pope to let him +put away his wife and marry another woman, breaks with the Papacy, carries +his kingdom out of its dominion, declares himself supreme head of a +national Church, dissolves the monasteries, seizes their estates, and half +reforms the church in a Protestant sense, breaking the worshipped images, +closing the shrines, expurgating the liturgy, and licensing the +translation of the Bible. He seizes into his own hands under the mask of a +<i>congé d’élire</i> the appointments to the bishoprics. Wavering to the last +in opinion between Catholicism and Protestantism according as the party of +the old or that of the new aristocracy prevailed in his councils, he in +the upshot practically ranges his kingdom on the Protestant side in the +grand struggle that was to come between the Catholic and the Protestant +powers.</p> + +<p>In Ireland there was one religion but there were two Churches: that of the +Pale and that of the native Irish; divided from each other, not by +doctrine or ritual, but by race and language, practically treating<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> each +other as not within the pale of Christendom, hardly within the pale of +humanity. No Irishman could be admitted to church preferment or to a +monastery in the Pale. Nor did the churches ever act together as one +Church. Both were in a most miserable condition. The edifices were in +ruins, the services were unperformed. Monasteries however abounded. They +were the refuge of the peaceful in that world of strife and blood. That +some of them were on a large scale stately ruins prove. It is surmised +that they may have been wealthy, if not in lands, in orchards, fish-ponds, +mills, or the labour which seems to have been sheltered within their ample +walls. Like the English monasteries, they impropriated the tithes of +parishes, thus helping to kill the parochial system. The character of the +clergy was still scandalously low, not seldom criminal. Among the people +religion was almost dead; the remnant of it, as well as the remnant of +education, was kept alive by the poor Franciscan friars. In neither Church +was there the making of martyrs.</p> + +<p>In the little maritime towns there was more religion, as well as something +more like civilization. But in this as in other respects their influence +was confined to their own gates.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>There was no opposition in the Irish Parliament to the change of the +king’s title from <i>Dominus</i> to <i>Rex</i>, whereby the sovereignty of the Pope +was cancelled, to any article in the king’s assumption of autocratic power +over the Church, or to his taking to himself the appointment of bishops. A +show of resistance made by the proctors of the clergy in the House of +Commons was promptly met by their extrusion. Nor was there the slightest +unwillingness on the part of any lord or chief to take his share of the +plunder of the monasteries, which, as in England, were suppressed, with +confiscation of revenue and goods, including the impropriated tithes of +parishes which they had served. A plea put in by the deputy on behalf of +six friaries in consideration of their special services to education and +their hospitality was not heard.</p> + +<p>The iconoclastic part of the revolution, attacking the material objects of +popular worship, relics, wonder-working images, and venerated shrines, +seems to have encountered some natural resistance, and it appears that the +government failed to put an end to pilgrimages, which were the religious +pleasure-trips of the people.</p> + +<p>The leader of the Reform movement, and specially of iconoclasm, in +Ireland, under Henry VIII.,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> was Archbishop Browne, a fervid but +apparently not discreet man. He had a rather restive coadjutor in Bishop +Staples. No counterpart of Cranmer, Latimer, or Ridley appeared.</p> + +<p>The members of the council of Edward VI., being men of the new official +aristocracy, opposed to the old houses, attached themselves to the party +of movement in religion. In England they completed the work of +confiscation, carried iconoclasm a step farther, and made Protestant +reforms in the religious system, the last in conjunction with foreign +reformers. Their policy in Ireland was the same. They sent over the +prayer-book of Edward. But the effect appears to have been small. The way +had not been prepared by the advent of Lutheranism or by the use of +translations of the Bible. Besides, there was no religious feeling on +which it could act. The Deputy St. Leger was a shrewd man of the world, +who, while he was ready to put the law in force, disliked all religious +agitation. “Tut, tut,” he said to the earnest reformer, “your religious +matters will spoil all.” The way of the new liturgy was effectually +blocked by the Erse language, and no missionary effort appears to have +been made.</p> + +<p>The military policy of Edward’s government<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> had a very able though rather +grim representative in Bellingham, if he had only been backed by a +sufficient force. But the foreign complications of England being what they +were, no sufficient force could ever be sent. The system of regular +hostings against the natives is now on foot. Bellingham having stormed a +position, there ensues a butchery of wood kerne, the equal of which +Bellingham supposed there had never been. “Such,” the deputy says, “was +the great goodness of God to deliver them into our hands.” Puritanism with +its ruthlessness is making its appearance in the lists, on one side, while +on the other side enters its mortal foe the Jesuit.</p> + +<p>The government incurred deserved hatred in Ireland as in England by +carrying to further lengths the debasement of the coin which had been the +disgraceful shift of the spendthrift Henry VIII. A petition sent to the +king upon the subject, in setting forth the folly of debasement, stated +with an accuracy remarkable for the time the function of the precious +metals as a medium of exchange. Wholesale fraud on the part of government +was not likely to help the cause of the Reformation.</p> + +<p>Beyond the English Pale the change of religion never reached the people. +Antagonism of religion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> was henceforth added to estrangement of race. +Protestantism was to be the religion of the conqueror; Catholicism was to +be the religion of the conquered. The Pope became a rival in sovereignty +to the king of England, claiming the allegiance at once of piety and +patriotism. Instead of the torpid clergy of the old native Church, now +came upon the scene active emissaries of Rome with the Jesuit, master of +intrigue, at their head, to do the joint work of propagandism and +rebellion. Presently will appear the crusading soldiery of Catholic Spain.</p> + +<p>With Mary comes an interlude of reaction. The sovereignty was not restored +to the Pope. Grantees of abbey lands in Ireland, as in England, Catholics +though they might be, held fast their prey. But the old ritual was for a +time legally revived, and the hand of iconoclasm was stayed. Protestantism +was rabbled; but Smithfield fires, the martyr’s spirit being absent, there +were none.</p> + +<p>A story is told of an envoy sent by Mary to Ireland with a warrant of +persecution, whose commission a clever Protestant woman, in whose house he +put up by the way, stole and replaced by a pack of cards, so that when the +deputy opened the wallet at the council board nothing came forth but the +pack of cards with the knave of clubs uppermost.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + +<p><br />Thus the day of the Elizabethan era which dawned so brightly upon England +came on in heavy clouds for the unhappy dependency. The religious +compromise which it brought to England was adapted by the English +statesmen who framed it to the religious condition and temperament of +their own people. To the condition and temperament of the Irish people +there was no such adaptation. To the Catholic lords of the Pale the +Elizabethan religion was alien; to the native Celts it was not only alien, +but utterly abhorrent. It presented itself, not as the religion of +Ireland, but as the religion of the conqueror.</p> + +<p>The ecclesiastical polity comprised in the Act of Uniformity and the +Thirty-nine Articles was, however, formally extended to Ireland, and the +Crown resumed the powers which it had assumed in the time of Henry VIII. +or his son, including the appointment of bishops, in this case without the +veil, retained in England, of the <i>congé d’élire</i>. In the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> dependency as +in England, the State assumed supreme power of religious legislation, +overriding and almost treating as null the authority of the ecclesiastical +Convocation. Propagation of the Anglican liturgy beyond the Pale continued +to be blocked by the language.</p> + +<p>Burleigh and the other statesmen of Elizabeth’s Council could not fail to +turn their minds to the Irish problem, enhanced as its gravity had been by +the progress of religious revolution in Europe and the danger of a +conflict with the Catholic powers. Trinity College is a noble monument of +their policy. In Ireland, as in England, they restored the coin, though +the benefits of that wise measure were offset by protectionist enactments +carried in the Parliament of the Pale, which bore the usual fruits. They +sent commissioners of inquiry to give them more trustworthy information +than they could get from the despatches of the deputies or the tattling +intriguers of the Pale. They formed a plan for the institution of +provincial presidencies to lengthen the arm of government and form local +centres of civilization, which, had it taken effect, might have been the +best solution of the problem. But the necessary means of giving effect to +any policy failed them. Churches and schools, which were named by a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +reformer at the time as the indispensable instruments of civilization, +could in the case of Ireland be named only in mockery. An ordinance for +the general establishment of schools more than once went forth, but an +ordinance still it remained. The Pale, reduced as it was in extent and +weakly defended, was in itself a nest of misrule, jobbery, and corruption. +Nothing could have been done without a military force in the hands of the +central government sufficient to enforce law and order. Such a force the +counsellors of Elizabeth had no means of maintaining. Continental war drew +heavily on the exchequer. The queen was unwisely parsimonious. She was +seized with spasms of frugality. Militia on the spot of any value there +was none. The service was very unpopular in England, and the men enlisted +or pressed for it as soldiers were apt to be of the Falstaffian kind, +better at preying on the people for whose protection they were sent and at +indulging in the general license of the camp than at facing the perils and +hardships of “hostings” in the Irish wilds. Their pay was almost always in +arrears.</p> + +<p>The service was not inviting. “The deputy, according to his commission, +marched into the north. But, alas, he neither found France to travel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> in +nor Frenchmen to fight withal. There were no glorious towns to load the +soldiers home with spoils, nor pleasant vineyards to refresh them with +wine. Here were no plentiful markets to supply the salary of the army if +they wanted, or stood in need; here were no cities of refuge, nor places +of garrison to retire into, in the times of danger and extremity of +weather; here were no musters ordered, no lieutenants of shires to raise +new armies; here was no supplement of men or provisions, especially of +Irish against Irish; nor any one promise kept according to his +expectation; here were, in plain terms, bogs and woods to be in, fogs and +mists to trouble you, grass and fern to welcome your horses and corrupt +and putrefy your bodies; here was killing of kine and eating fresh beef, +to breed diseases; here was oats without bread, and fire without food; +here were smoky cabins and nasty holes; here were bogs on the tops of +mountains, and few passages, but over marshes, or through strange places; +here was retiring into fastnesses, glens, and no fighting, but when they +pleased themselves; here was ground enough to bury your people in being +dead, but no place to please them while alive; here you might spend what +you brought with you, but be assured there was no hopes of relief; here +was room for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> all your losses, but scarce a castle to receive your spoil +and treasure. To conclude: here was all glory and virtue buried in +obscurity and oblivion, and not so much as a glimmering hope that how +valiantly soever a man demeaned himself it should be registered or +remembered.”</p> + +<p>The deputies sent in command might do their best according to their +lights. They generally did. But the lights of all of them were not the +same, and the web of Penelope woven by one was always in danger of being +unwoven by his successor. One of them only, Sussex, was large-minded +enough to think of acknowledging the Brehon law, reducing it to a system, +and making it a bridge across which the Irish might pass to legal +civilization. All the deputies had to contend more or less with local +opposition and intrigue.</p> + +<p>The consequences to Ireland of this policy of government by deputies were +disastrous. The presence of royalty might have had some effect on the +Irish heart. It could hardly have failed, at all events, to reveal the +real state of things. But it was never tried.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth, Protestant by circumstance and profession, Catholic in her real +leanings, hating nothing so much as a Puritan, unless it were a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>clergyman’s wife, and an autocrat to the core, had no desire of breaking +with the Papacy or with Spain. But when a Pope excommunicated and deposed +her, the die was cast. Ireland was drawn into the European war between +Catholicism and Protestantism which was also that between despotism and +freedom; she became a point of military danger in a national and religious +struggle for life or death. There is now an end of the policy of +conciliation or of colonization with a civilizing object. The policy +henceforth is that of conquest, and when resistance is obstinate, of +extermination.</p> + +<p>The reign was filled with successive wars between the English and the +natives, the first slightly, the last two more deeply, identified on the +side of the natives with papal suzerainty and the Catholic cause. The +first was that with Shane O’Neill, elective head of the great Ulster sept +of O’Neill and pretender to the royal earldom of Tyrone. The tribal +headship was unquestionably elective; to the earldom Shane’s claim was +doubtful, the question being partly one between the English and the Brehon +law. It was presently settled by the murder of Shane’s rival. Shane was, +in fact admitted himself to be, a barbarian, brutal, drunken, and cruel, +all in a high degree. He made his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> prisoners wear an iron collar fastened +by a short chain to gyves on their ankles so that they could neither stand +nor lie. At the same time he was able, crafty, and daring. He made himself +supreme in Ulster, baffled the English in war, and was so formidable that +the Lord Deputy Sussex, once at least, if not more than once, attempted to +get rid of him by assassination. He intrigued with Philip of Spain. At +another time he coquetted with the Queen’s government and paid a visit to +the court, where he and his gallowglasses, with their axes, their Irish +heads of hair and moustaches, their wide-sleeved saffron shirts, short +tunics, and shaggy cloaks of fur or frieze, produced a sensation among the +courtiers. Master of dissimulation, Shane fell on his knees before the +Queen and confessed his rebellion in the Irish language “with howling.” +Returning to Ulster, he recommenced the game there, plundering and +burning, slaying man, woman, and child. He was at last stabbed in a brawl +with the Scottish raiders with whom he had intrigued. These marauding +immigrants from the Scottish Highlands and isles were now a formidable +addition to the elements in the cauldron of Irish anarchy and ruin.</p> + +<p>Shane was an Irish leader of the thoroughly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> Celtic type. Perhaps the +next, though in a widely different guise and sphere, may be said to have +been Daniel O’Connell.</p> + +<p>As a mover of disturbance on a large scale there succeeded James +Fitzmaurice, kinsman of the Earl of Desmond, the head of the southern sept +of Geraldines. Fitzmaurice, whether from conviction or policy, gave +rebellion a more religious character and connected it with Rome and +Madrid, which he visited on missions of intrigue. In this work he had a +compeer in Stukely, an adventurer of the kind then common, who also +intrigued with the Catholic powers. If their aim was an Irish crown on a +Catholic head, it came to nothing. But Fitzmaurice brought with him to +Ireland a regular proclamation from the Pope, and had made formidable +headway in his appeal to the forces of disorder when he was killed. The +leadership of the movement passed to the Earl of Desmond, who with a +little aid from Spain raised in Munster a rebellion on a large scale. He +was a feeble though respectable leader, and his rising in the end bore no +fruits but a renewal of slaughter and devastation.</p> + +<p>The aid of Rome and Spain promised to the Irish Catholics was long in +coming. Ever tardy and vacillating was the mind of the Spanish king. But +at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> the time of Desmond’s rebellion the aid came. In concert with the +insurgent Irish a force of Italians and Spaniards landed and established +itself in a fortalice at Smerwick. The deputy at that time was Lord Grey, +a Puritan most pronounced and militant, the Artegal, the Knight of +Justice, in Spenser’s “Faerie Queene,” bent on the overthrow of the false +Duessa and the extermination of her brood. He invested Smerwick. The Irish +allies of the invader failed to relieve the place, and the garrison was +compelled to surrender at discretion. Grey then butchered the whole of +them in cold blood. Raleigh, as the officer in command, it is to be feared +directed the slaughter. Alva or Parma would have done the same, and +Elizabeth in approving incurred no special infamy.</p> + +<p>The poor Irish in this rebellion showed that fidelity to a chief which was +one of their small stock of political virtues. They afterwards showed +their love of legend, of melancholy legend especially, by telling that +Desmond’s ghost, mounted on a phantom steed with silver shoes, rose at +night from the water on the bank of which he had been slain, and fancying +that in the moaning of the wind they heard the Desmond howl.</p> + +<p>The attainder of the Earl of Desmond was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>followed by the sweeping +confiscation of a vast tract of land to the Crown, on the assumption that +as the domain of an earl it had been a fief and the property of its lord; +whereas under native law and according to native ideas it was the property +of the tribe. Spenser was one of the grantees of the Crown and settlers on +the conquered land. He had been the secretary of Lord Grey. The author of +the “Faerie Queene” thus encountered the religion of the false Duessa, his +hatred of which was not likely to be diminished when he was afterwards by +a great outbreak of insurrection ejected from his grant.</p> + +<p>Now along the dangerous western coast of Ireland were driven in dire +distress a number of great ships of war, with the troops and much of the +power and chivalry of a mighty kingdom on board. These were the miserable +remnants of the Invincible Armada. About a score of the ships were cast +ashore or wrecked. The crews for the most part perished. On one strand of +less than five miles in length were counted above eleven hundred corpses +cast up by the sea. On two miles of strand in Sligo there lay wrecked +timber enough to build five first-rate ships, besides mighty great boats, +cables and other cordage, and masts of extraordinary size. Of those who +struggled to land, many were killed by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> English, not a few by the +native Irish, who stripped and robbed those whom they did not kill, +skipping and capering at the sight of such glorious plunder. The Armada +had come to liberate the native Irish from the heretical yoke; but love of +plunder overcame in their simple souls regard for a political and +ecclesiastical alliance, their appreciation of which, perhaps, had never +been very clear.</p> + +<p>One Spaniard, Cuellar, after being stripped and narrowly escaping with his +life, spent some time in an Irish cabin, and has left his notes on native +Irish life and character, valuable as those of a neutral.</p> + +<p>“The habit of those savages,” he says, “is to live like brutes in the +mountains, which are very rugged in the part of Ireland where we were +lost. They dwell in thatched cabins. The men are well made, with good +features, and as active as deer. They eat but one meal, and that late at +night, oatcake and butter being their usual food. They drink sour milk +because they have nothing else, for they use no water, though they have +the best in the world. At feasts it is their custom to eat half-cooked +meat without bread or salt. Their dress matches themselves—tight +breeches, and short hose jackets of very coarse texture; over all they +wear blankets, and their hair comes over their eyes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> They are great +walkers and stand much work, and by continually fighting they keep the +queen’s English soldiers out of their country, which is nothing but bogs +for forty miles either way. Their great delight is robbing one another, so +that no day passes without fighting, for whenever the people of one hamlet +know that those of another possess cattle or other goods, they immediately +make a night attack and kill each other. When the English garrisons find +out who has lifted the most cattle, they come down on them, and they have +but to retire to the mountains with their wives and herds, having no +houses or furniture to lose. They sleep on the ground upon rushes full of +water and ice. Most of the women are very pretty, but badly got up, for +they wear only a shift and a mantle, and a great linen cloth on the head, +rolled over the brow. They are great workers and housewives in their way. +These people call themselves Christians, and say Mass. They follow the +rule of the Roman Church, but most of their churches, monasteries, and +hermitages are dismantled by the English soldiers, and by their local +partisans, who are as bad as themselves. In short there is no order nor +justice in the country, and every one does that which is right in his own +eyes.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>“Savages” Cuellar calls the natives; what but savages could they be when +not only had all the means of civilization been withheld from them, but +they were hunted like beasts of prey? That the women are “great workers +and housewives in their way” is a redeeming feature in the picture. The +whole land, English and Irish alike, was a wreck. The secretary of a lord +deputy reports that the people had no conscience, but committed crimes +freely; that they even changed wives among themselves; that bridges were +falling down, churches roofless; there were no charities, no schools; law +was jobbery, and the judicial bench was filled with ignorance; every lord +hated the restraints of law and made himself an Irish chief; and disorders +were as great among English soldiers as among Irish kernes.</p> + +<p>The third rebellion, and the most formidable of all, was that of the Earl +of Tyrone, head of the O’Neills of Ulster. It stirred the general forces +of revolt, national and religious, beyond Ulster, in Connaught and +elsewhere. Tyrone gave his movement distinctly the character of a holy +war, and received aid from Spain. Unlike Desmond, he was an able leader. +He gained a victory over the English at the Yellow Ford which filled +Dublin with panic. To put him down, Elizabeth sent her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> favourite Essex, +with forces greater than her parsimony allowed to an ordinary deputy. +Essex went forth with great pomp and amidst high expectations. But he +totally lacked steadiness of character and policy. He failed and went home +to run mad courses and die on the scaffold, faintly recalling the Irish +history of Richard II.</p> + +<p>Essex was succeeded by Mountjoy, able, iron-willed, and ruthless, who made +it a war of extermination and devastation. The Spaniards brought tardy aid +to their Irish allies. They landed in force at Kinsale, and for a moment +the fortune of war seemed to waver, but it soon inclined again to the side +of the deputy and England. The force of the rebellion was broken, and +Tyrone was compelled to surrender.</p> + +<p>Of all the wars waged by a half-civilized on a barbarous and despised +race, these wars waged by the English on the Irish seem to have been about +the most hideous. No quarter was given by the invader to man, woman, or +child. The butchering of women and children is repeatedly and brutally +avowed. Nothing can be more horrible than the cool satisfaction with which +commanders report their massacres. “I was never,” said Captain Woodhouse, +“so weary with killing of men, for I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> protest to God for as fast as I +could I did but hough and paunch them.” “The number of their fighting men +slain and drowned that day,” says another commander, “were estimated and +numbered to be fourteen hundred or fifteen hundred, besides boys, women, +churls, and children, which could not be so few as many more and upwards.” +Over and over again massacres of people of both sexes and all ages are +reported with similar coolness. Another ruffian seems to have put to death +children who were held as hostages.</p> + +<p>Mountjoy especially used famine deliberately as his instrument of war, and +with signal effect. After his work, multitudes lay dead in the ditches of +towns and other waste places, with their mouths coloured green by eating +docks and nettles. Children were seen eating their mother’s corpse. Old +women, we are told, lit fires in the woods and ate the children who came +to warm themselves. Not only were horses killed and eaten, but cats and +dogs, hawks and kites. The wolves, driven by hunger from the woods, killed +the enfeebled people. The dead lay unburied or half-buried, the survivors +not having strength to dig graves, and dogs ate the remains.</p> + +<p>It must be said that the native Irish not only retaliated these cruelties +on the English whenever they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> could, but committed them on each other. +Edward Butler, for example, invades Arra, the district of another clan, +harries the country far and wide, breaks open the churches to which the +frightened women had fled in the vain hope of sanctuary, and gives the +region up for forty-eight hours to plunder and rape, sparing neither age +nor condition. The lately gathered corn is destroyed, and famine stares +the whole population in the face. The raid is presently repeated, the +cattle are driven off, and a house full of women and children is given to +the flames. In the English settlement of Munster, overrun by the native +Irish, English children are taken from their nurses’ breasts and dashed +against walls; an Englishman’s heart is plucked out in his wife’s +presence, and she is forced to lend an apron to wipe the murderer’s +fingers. Of the English fugitives who flocked into Youghal some had lost +their tongues and noses. Irish tenants and servants that yesterday fed in +the settlers’ houses were conspicuous by their cruelty.</p> + +<p>What was called law was almost as murderous as war. Men were hanged at +assizes by scores, and these massacres were reported by the deputy with +satisfaction as gratifying proof of the increased influence of public +justice. A bishop witnesses them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> with complacency. Respect for human life +must have perished. Such was the training which in the formative period of +national character the Celtic Irish received, and which must be borne in +mind when we come to atrocities committed by them at a not very much later +period.</p> + +<p>At the same time we do not see the back of destiny’s cards. The +subjugation of barbarous clans by a foreign conqueror, himself +half-civilized, was horrible. Would a series of tribal wars among the +clans themselves have been less horrible? When Strongbow landed there had +been hardly any sign of permanent union or of the foundation of a settled +polity. Nor afterwards does there appear to have been any attempt or +tendency of the kind.</p> + +<p>Tyrone, on his submission, had been restored to rank and great part of his +estate. But he, as well as his confederate, the O’Donnell, created Earl of +Tyrconnell, afterwards finding themselves objects of aversion and +suspicion, fled the country. Their flight and the suppression of a futile +outbreak of tribal insurrection under another O’Donnell finished the work. +The whole island was now conquered, but the heart of the people, as +presently appeared, was very far from being won. The hold of the Papacy +and the Catholic Church upon their liegemen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> had been growing stronger +under the long struggle and was not impaired by its close. It formed +henceforth a religious substitute for nationality.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> + +<p><br />Ireland, conquered, now became shire land, at least in contemplation of +law. The law of England, in the eyes of its professors the consummation of +human wisdom, ousted the Brehon law. The feudal system of land tenure +supplanted the tribal system. Freehold and leasehold, primogeniture and +entail, took the place of tribal ownership and tanistry. Justice was +henceforth to be administered in English courts, and judges were to go +circuit as in England. The change at first seemed to be well received. +Perhaps novelty itself impressed. An English chief justice, going circuit +through the newly Anglicized districts, could complacently report that +multitudes had flocked to his court; whence he drew the cheerful inference +that the Irish after all, like other men, loved justice. So they did, and +do; but it was not the justice of the king’s bench and Coke. Nor did they +love its administration by an alien conqueror. It was probably curiosity +as much as confidence that drew them to the court of Chief Justice Davies; +so the event proved.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>The whole machinery of government, as well as the law and the judiciary, +was at the same time assimilated, formally at least, to the English model. +The corporate towns received new charters. The place of the military +deputy was taken by the head of a civil government with his officials.</p> + +<p>Unhappily the ecclesiastical polity of England, with its tests and its +recusancy law, compelling attendance at the services of the State Church, +was at the same time thrust upon people to whom it was in itself and in +its associations abhorrent. Under Elizabeth there had been a politic +laxity. Now fines for recusancy are exacted. Intolerance of Catholic +dissent from the royal religion could not fail to be increased by the +Gunpowder Plot.</p> + +<p>James I., with all his pedantry, his absurdities, and his stuffed +breeches, was not without something of the largeness of mind which culture +generally imparts. He could understand Bacon. His Irish policy, evidently +inspired by Bacon, was colonization, plantation as it then was called. For +this there was ample room on the forfeited lands of Tyrone and other +attainted chiefs, so far as legal ownership in the contemplation of +English law was concerned. But the attainders of the chiefs had not +cleared the lands of the members of their septs, in whose minds<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> tribal +ownership was rooted. This was the weak point of the transplantation +policy, as in the sequel tragically appeared. Extensive grants, however, +were made to a colony formed by English and Scottish settlers, undertakers +as they were called. Of Scottish settlers there had before been not a few. +The city of London invested largely in the enterprise. Thus was formed in +Ulster, and in Ulster has continued to exist to the present time, a sort +of Protestant pale. Bacon’s philosophic eye ranges complacently over the +prospect of a people of barbarous manners “brought to give over and +discontinue their customs of revenge and blood and of dissolute life and +of theft and rapine, and to give ear to the wisdom of laws and +governments; whereupon immediately followeth the cutting of stones for +building and habitation, and of trees for the seats of houses, orchards, +enclosures, and the like.” Beyond doubt this settlement was an improvement +in material respects. Nor, though the new settlers might domineer, was +their domination likely to be more oppressive and insolent than that of +the native chief, with his gallowglasses and his coyne and livery. The +tribal ownership of land had probably become almost a fiction, the chief +treating the land as his own. Little, therefore, was actually lost in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +that way by the tribesman, while there was an end of coyne and livery and +the other extortions of the chiefs. On the other hand the chief, however +oppressive, was nominally one of the tribe and a kinsman, and the land was +still tribal in the fancy of the sept. The tribesman was not liable to +eviction. Nor was improvement in agriculture or even in advancement of law +and order likely to be so fascinating to the native Irish, especially to +gallowglasses and kernes, as to Bacon. The adventurers were apt to be of a +sordid class, ravenous, close-fisted, little likely to make themselves +beloved. The eagles of enterprise spread their wings for the Spanish main; +the vultures swooped upon Ireland. The medley of Brehon law and English +law, with the variety of titles, some by forfeiture for treason, others by +ancient grants from the Crown, formed an element in which the art of the +predatory pettifogger had full play. By legal chicane, the chicane of an +alien law, many an Irish Naboth may have been dispossessed. There was, +moreover, the antagonism of religion, greatly intensified by the long +struggle in which the natives, fighting for independence, had looked up to +Rome for support and been fired at heart by the active zeal of her +missionaries.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>The government meant well. It sent over an able lord deputy in the person +of Chichester, who did his best for healing and improvement. In +improvement he was somewhat hasty and procrustean. He might have done +better had he only imbibed Bacon’s spirit of philosophic toleration, and +not fancied that for Irish barbarism Protestantism of the Anglican type +was the sovereign cure. Bacon, as one of his three specifics for the +recovery of the hearts of the people, had recommended a toleration, +partial and temporary at least, of the Catholic religion, which was to be +combined “with the sending over of some good preachers, especially of that +sort which are vehement and zealous persuaders and not scholastical, to be +resident in principal towns.” The government issued a politic manifesto, +promising to all native Irish of the poorer class equal protection and +complete immunity from any oppressive claims of chiefs. But let the +government charm as wisely as it might, it could not charm away the +difference of race, language, and character, the antagonism of religion, +the memories of the long and murderous struggle, the ravenous cupidity and +overbearing attitude of the alien adventurer, the anguish of the native +who saw the stranger in possession of his land.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>James called a Parliament for all Ireland, Catholic as well as Protestant. +It was packed for the Crown, which created boroughs for that purpose. +Still, it was something more like a national assembly than Ireland had +ever seen or in fact was destined again to see. The elections to it were +fiercely contested between the races and religions. Its first sitting was +characteristic. There was a division on the election of a speaker. One +party went out into the lobby. In its absence the other party seated its +man in the chair. The party which had gone out, returning and finding what +had been done, seated their man in the other man’s lap. The importance of +this Parliament, however, is extolled by Sir John Davies, and one act, at +all events, stands to its credit. It repealed the statute of Kilkenny and +all other laws recognizing and perpetuating distinctions of race, +declaring that their cause had ceased, since the inhabitants of the +kingdom without distinction were henceforth under the protection of the +Crown, and the best way of settling peace was to allow their intercourse +and intermarriage so that they might grow into one nation. There was a +transient ray of sunlight on the dark scene. Efforts were made to improve +Trinity College, and learning shone forth in the person of Usher.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + +<p><br />There was still in Ireland a mine charged with the wrath of the +dispossessed added to the hatred of race and religion, the religious +hatred being the more deadly because, the Protestants of Ireland being +Calvinist, the antagonism was extreme. The match was applied to the mine +by the outbreak of revolution in England under Charles I. Strafford, +having passed from the ranks of patriotism to the place left vacant by the +death of Buckingham in the councils of the king, came with his dark look +of command as viceroy to play the part of beneficent despot in Ireland, +and at the same time to raise an army there for his master. The part of +despot he played to perfection, making the Irish Parliament the tool of +his will, applying to it and to the government in general his own and +Laud’s high royalist policy of Thorough. The part of beneficent despot he +played to a considerable extent. He set his heel on the rapacity of the +adventurers, compelling the chief of them, the Earl of Cork, to disgorge. +He enforced order and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> put down piracy, which in the general disorder had +become rife. He fostered the cultivation of flax and the linen trade, +though he paid blackmail to English protectionism by prohibiting the +woollen manufacture. He did his best to reform the State Church, which he +found sunk in torpor, sinecurism, and simony, while its edifices were +ruins and piggeries. Unluckily he was a strict Anglican, whereas the only +Protestantism in Ireland which had life in it was the Calvinistic +Protestantism represented by Usher. He made a mortal enemy by turning the +sumptuous monument of Lady Cork off the place of the high altar. But to +find means of raising an army for his king he had to resort to violent +measures. He dragooned the Parliament into granting extraordinary +supplies. The king had pledged himself in the form of “graces” to respect +and quiet titles to large tracts of land. These graces Strafford thrust +aside. By legal chicane and intimidation of juries he, in defiance of the +king’s plighted word, confiscated a great part of the land of Connaught. A +legal raid of the Crown on the estates which the city of London had +purchased in Ulster made the lord deputy another formidable enemy. He +added to the number by trampling on the pride of men of rank and +influence. Strafford<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> had formed his army. That he intended it as a +support to the arbitrary government of Charles is beyond question; his +betrayal of that intention by some loose words uttered in council formed +the most damaging piece of evidence against him; and though the army broke +up on his departure, fears of it continued to haunt the English mind and +to intensify English feeling against the Irish. The Irish Parliament +joined in the impeachment of the man who had trampled on it, and when +Strafford pleaded in defence of his arbitrary measures, that Ireland was a +conquered country, Pym’s retort was, “They were a conquered nation! There +cannot be a word more pregnant or fruitful in treason than that word is. +There are few nations in the world that have not been conquered, and no +doubt but the conqueror may give what law he pleases to those that are +conquered; but if the succeeding pacts and agreements do not limit and +restrain that right, what people can be secure? England hath been +conquered, and Wales hath been conquered, and by this reason will be in no +better case than Ireland. If the king by the right of a conqueror gives +laws to his people, shall not the people by the same reason be restored to +the right of the conquered to recover their liberty if they can?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>Revolution was in the air. It stirred the heart of the Catholic cowering +under the penal law, who saw the foot of his arch-enemy the Puritan on the +steps of power. It stirred still more the heart of the disinherited +native, especially on the forfeited domain of Tyrone. One of those great +popular conspiracies of which the Irish have the gift was formed under the +leadership of Phelim O’Neill, who ranked among his countrymen as head of +the great sept of O’Neill, and cherished ancestral traditions of vast +domains and princely power. With Phelim O’Neill was a better man, Roger +Moore, one of the disinherited, a deadly enemy of England. The rebellion +posed as royalist, declaring for the king against the Puritan and +revolutionary Parliament; its aims were Ireland for the Irish, and +Catholicism as the Irish religion. Phelim O’Neill was not a man to +restrain from crime. But the people, once launched in insurrection, were +probably beyond control. They rose upon the English settlers in Ulster, +drove them from their homes, and massacred some thousands with the usual +cruelty, women and children taking part in the fiendish work. Many were +stripped naked and exposed to perish in the cold. Dublin was full of +shivering and famished fugitives. The capital<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> itself narrowly escaped +through fortunate betrayal of the plot, such as in an Irish conspiracy +seldom fails. It was natural that panic should exaggerate the number +murdered, as it was that panic and superstition together should see the +spectres of the English who had been drowned by the rebels at Portadown. +The effect upon the English, above all upon the Puritan mind, was like +that of the Sepoy mutiny and the massacre of Cawnpore. Ruthless +retaliation followed. Where the Protestants got the upper hand, Irish men, +women, and children were butchered without mercy. Thenceforth the Irishman +was to the Puritan a wild beast or worse. All Irishmen who landed in +England to fight for the king, with the women who followed their camps, +were put to the sword. An Irishwoman left behind by a Munster regiment at +the siege of Lyme was torn to pieces by the women of the place.</p> + +<p>The English Parliament at once, being short of money, passed, to provide +for the Irish war, an act confiscating in advance two and a half millions +of acres of rebel land as security for a loan; a measure, to say the +least, extreme and sure to make the conflict internecine. The act passed +without a dissentient voice, and was one of the last that received the +assent of Charles.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>In Ireland against the dark clouds of the storm one rainbow appeared. The +Protestant Bishop Bedel, though a proselytizer, had by his beneficence won +the love of his Catholic neighbours. He and his family were not only +spared by the rebels, but treated with loving-kindness, and when he died a +farewell salute was fired over his grave.</p> + +<p>Thus commenced a course of mutual slaughter which lasted eleven years, +and, according to Sir William Petty, cost, by sword, plague, and famine, +the lives of a third part of the population. A great pasture country was +reduced to the importation of foreign meat. A traveller could ride twenty +or thirty miles without seeing a trace of human life, and wolves, fed on +human flesh, multiplied and prowled in packs within a few miles of Dublin. +Numbers abandoned the country and enlisted in foreign services. Slave +dealers plied their trade and shipped boys and girls to Barbados.</p> + +<p>Strafford’s place as deputy not having been filled, the government +remained in the hands of the Puritan Lords Justices Parsons and Borlase, +the first an intriguer and jobber, the second a worn-out soldier and a +cipher. They had prorogued the Parliament by which they might have been +restrained. The commander of the army on the king’s side and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +representative of the king’s interest was Ormonde, the head of the +loyalist house or sept of Butler, a man thoroughly honourable as well as +able and wise, whose character stands out nobly amidst the dark carnival +of evil.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to say to which of the contending parties the palm of +atrocity is to be awarded. Probably to that of the government, which knew +no measure in the extermination of Catholics and rebels. Where Ormonde +commanded there was sure to have been comparative mercy. Mercy there +certainly was on the side of the insurgents when they were commanded by +Owen O’Neill, a genuine soldier trained in foreign service and observant +of the rules of civilized war. But a papal legate who was in the Catholic +camp gleefully reports that after a battle won by the confederates no +prisoners had been taken. By the soldiery of the government at least +children were butchered, the saying being that “nits make lice.”</p> + +<p>The anti-Catholic policy of the Puritan government and the castle had +driven into the arms of insurrection the Catholic lords of the Pale, +English in blood, normally hostile to the tribes though they were. The +Confederation formed at Kilkenny a provisional government with an assembly +of priests<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> and laity combined, which elected a council of war. The +assembly was presently joined by a papal nuncio, Rinuccini, who brought +money from Rome and it seems at the same time encouragement of the +rebellion from Richelieu. The nuncio sought to control everything in the +paramount interest of the Papacy, which thus once more appears as a power +of temporal ambition. The assembly was not unanimous. Of the clergy and +the nuncio the chief aims were the ascendency of the Catholic Church and +the recovery of the confiscated Church lands. The chief aims of the lay +lords were lay; they wanted relief from political disabilities and +recovery of their political power. Restoration to the Church of the abbey +lands, of the grantees of which they were the heirs, was by no means to +their mind.</p> + +<p>Of the origin of the rebellion in Ulster King Charles was perfectly +innocent, though he drew suspicion on himself by some careless words. +Nothing worse for his cause could have happened. But when in his wrestle +with the Puritan he was thrown, he began to cast a longing eye on the +forces in Ireland which, though rebel and Catholic, were at all events +hostile to the Puritan. There ensued a series of tangled intrigues with +the Confederates, in the course of which Charles showed his usual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +weakness and duplicity, while he was fatally committed by the mingled +rashness and tergiversation of his envoy, Glamorgan, the result being a +disclosure very injurious to the poor king’s character and cause. The +Confederacy was divided between a party which was for treating and a party +which was for war to the knife. For war to the knife was the nuncio, an +ecclesiastical termagant of the Becket stamp, inflated with notions of his +own spiritual power and reckless in the pursuit of his own end, which was +to lay Ireland at the feet of the Pope. In all this the high-minded +Ormonde sadly stooped to take a part for his royal master’s sake. When the +cause of his royal master was finally lost, he surrendered his command to +the Parliament and left Ireland.</p> + +<p>After the execution of Charles the scene shifted again. Abhorrence of +regicide brought about a junction of the more moderate Protestants with +the more moderate Confederates, uniting different parties and sections +under a common profession of loyalty. Ormonde then returned to lead a +mixed and not very harmonious force against Michael Jones, the Republican +commander. He advanced to the attack of Dublin, but was totally defeated +by Jones.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>Now on the wings of victory came Cromwell with ten thousand of the New +Model. His proclamation on landing promised to all who would keep the +peace, peace and protection for themselves. That proclamation, the first +utterance of law and order heard in those parts for ten years, was +strictly carried into effect. A soldier was hanged for robbing a native of +a fowl. No disorder, rapine, or outrage upon women is laid to the charge +of the Puritan army in Ireland. Cromwell sat down before Drogheda, which +was held by a large royalist garrison, partly English. The garrison having +refused to surrender on summons, he stormed. Two attacks failed; a third, +led by himself, took the town. He put the garrison to the sword. That a +garrison refusing to surrender on summons and standing a storm might be +put to the sword was the rule of war in those days; it was the law, though +not the rule, of war even in the days of Wellington. Nevertheless, this +was a fell act for a commander who was generally humane in war, and at +Worcester risked his life in persuading Royalists to take quarter. Of this +Cromwell was himself sensible, and he spoke of it with compunction. “I am +persuaded,” he said in his despatch to the Parliament, “that this is a +righteous judgment of God upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> these barbarous wretches who have imbrued +their hands in so much innocent blood; and that it will tend to prevent +the effusion of blood for the future; which are the satisfactory grounds +to such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret.” Were +remorse and regret ever breathed by Alva, Parma, or Tilly? What did the +soldiery of those Catholic commanders do when it stormed a Protestant +town? What did the British soldiery, maddened by the recollection of a +massacre far less than that of 1641 do, not only to the Sepoy mutineer, +but to the insurgent people of Oude? When Rupert stormed Leicester, the +town was sacked, and women and children were found among the dead. The +Royalist Carte, in his life of Ormonde, commenting on the slaughter of the +garrison of Drogheda, says, “This was certainly an execrable policy in +that regicide. But it had the effect he proposed. It spread abroad the +terror of his name; it cut off the best body of the Irish troops and +disheartened the rest to such a degree that it was a greater loss in +itself and much more fatal in its consequences than the rout at +Rathmines.” This is not a defence, nor much of an excuse. But it testifies +to a motive other than mere thirst of blood and shows that Cromwell spoke +the truth.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>There was cruel slaughter again at the storming of Wexford, but it does +not appear that it was ordered by Cromwell. The defences having been +carried, the combat was renewed within the town by the townspeople, who, +it is stated, had provoked wrath by their piracy and by drowning a number +of Protestants in a hulk. The city had been summoned to surrender on fair +terms.</p> + +<p>Cromwell was at once called away to the war with Scotland. He left the war +in Ireland to be finished by Ireton and Ludlow, who gradually extinguished +organized resistance, leaving only something between guerilla warfare and +brigandage called “Toryism,” a name presently transmitted to a great +political party in England which bore it as a name of honour, in +opposition to that of Whig, on every hypothesis equally humble in its +source.</p> + +<p>The two races and religions had fought for the land, and the Saxon and +Protestant had won. It is surely simple to suggest that the winner ought +to have invited the loser to take the prize, especially after such a +display of that loser’s sentiments and intentions as the massacre of 1641. +Had it not been made fearfully clear that the two races and religions +could not dwell together in peace? The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> victorious Puritan drove the +Catholic into Connaught. The Catholic, if he could, would have driven the +Puritan into the sea. The original decree of “To Hell or Connaught,” the +hateful sound of which still rings in Irish ears, seems to have been +somewhat mitigated as the wrath of the victor cooled. At all events the +sentence extended to landowners only, not to artisans and labourers, who +were to remain where they were and to be disciplined and civilized by +English masters. A great number of those who had fought on the losing side +were sent away to foreign service, ridding Ireland of a manifest danger +and forming the first instalment of the grand Irish element in the armies +of Catholic Europe. There was also a large deportation to Barbados, +including probably families left behind by the military emigration. This +was cruel work, the more so as there was terrible suffering in the +passage. The whole business was horrible and deplorable. But in passing +sentence on the winner we must remember what the loser, had he been the +winner, would have done. The shadow of an evil destiny was over all. +Deportation was not to slavery for life, but to terminable bondage, one +degree less cruel.</p> + +<p>To cast all on Cromwell is most unfair. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> had nothing specially to do +with Ireland till he came to put an end to the war. He left it forever +when he had struck his decisive blow. He could no more have given back the +contested land to the Catholics than he could have turned the Shannon to +its source. The act under which the land had been forfeited in advance and +a loan on it raised had been passed by the unanimous vote of Parliament +and had received the assent of the king. The soldiers who held land-scrip +for their pay presented their claims. As little would it have been +possible for Cromwell, even if he had desired it, to license the +celebration of the Mass, which in Puritan eyes was a sign, not only of +idolatry, but of allegiance to a foreign power, that power the mortal +enemy, not of the Protestant religion only, but of the Protestant State. +With liberty of conscience Cromwell declared that he would not interfere. +This was something in an age when the rack and the stake of the +Inquisition were still at work and when Irish troopers in the service of a +Catholic power were butchering the Protestant peasantry of Savoy. If the +Nuncio Rinuccini had got the upper hand in Ireland, a retirement of heresy +into the sanctuary of conscience would scarcely have saved it from the +stake. Cromwell does not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>appear to have persecuted in Ireland or to have +given the word for persecution.</p> + +<p>The Protector united Ireland as well as Scotland to England, thus bringing +the factions under the control of a strong government, Ireland’s only hope +of peace. Union assured her free trade with Great Britain and the +dependencies, an inestimable boon, not in the way of material wealth only, +but in that of commercial civilization, as its withdrawal afterwards +fatally proved. Her shipping was at the same time assured of exemption +from the disabilities of the Navigation Laws. The Protector sent her a +good governor in the person of his son Henry, who seems to have identified +himself with the welfare of her people. He sent her a liberal law reformer +in the person of Chief Justice Coke, proposing to himself to treat her as +a blank paper, whereon he could write reforms such as professional bigotry +debarred him from effecting in England. His mortal enemy Clarendon, after +dilating on the iniquities of the settlement, says, “And, which is more +wonderful, all this was done and settled within little more than two years +to that degree of perfection that there were many buildings raised for +beauty as well as use, orderly and regular plantations of trees, and +fences and enclosures<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> raised throughout the kingdom, purchases made by +one from the other at very valuable rates, and jointures made upon +marriages, and all other conveyances and settlements executed, as in a +kingdom at peace within itself, and where no doubt could be made of the +validity of titles.” If these material improvements were at first limited +to the domain and race of the victor, they would in time have spread.</p> + +<p>Cromwell’s own letter to Sadler on the administration of justice in +Ireland breathes anything but the ferocity ascribed to him. About religion +he speaks in his unctuous Puritan way, but in a tone far from savage. +“First let me tell you, in divers places where we come, we find the people +very greedy after the Word, and flocking to Christian meetings; much of +that prejudice that lies upon poor people in England being a stranger to +their minds. And truly we have hoped much of it is done in simplicity; and +I mind you the rather of this because it is a sweet symptom, if not an +earnest of the good we expect.”<small><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></small></p> + +<p>His words on the social question in the same letter show tenderness of +feeling. “Sir, it seems to me we have a great opportunity to set up until<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +the Parliament shall otherwise determine, a way of doing justice among +these poor people, which for the uprightness and cheapness of it may +exceedingly gain upon them who have been accustomed to as much injustice, +tyranny, and oppression from their landlords the great men, and those that +should have done them right as (I believe) any people in that which we +call Christendom.... Sir, if justice were freely and impartially +administered here, the foregoing darkness and corruption would make it +look so much the more glorious and beautiful and draw more hearts after +it.” This is not the language of hatred, much less of extermination.</p> + +<p>Critics of Cromwell fail to notice that his mind opened as he rose, +notably in the way of religious toleration. The Ironside had now become a +great statesman. “Savage” the writer of his domestic letters surely can +never have been.</p> + +<p>The representatives of Ireland in the Parliament of the Protectorate, it +is true, were nominees. A popular election on the morrow of the Civil War, +and with its embers still glowing, would have been out of the question. +The union of the Parliaments effected, and representation granted, popular +election would have come in time. Meantime, there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> was the sheltering and +controlling authority of the Protector and the Council of State.</p> + +<p>To charge Cromwell with having misunderstood the genius of the Irish +nation and wronged it by his policy seems absurd. There was, in reality, +no Irish nation. There was an island inhabited partly by the wreck of +Celtic tribes, partly by conquerors and colonists of another race, the two +races differing widely in character, speaking different languages, having +antagonistic religions, not alien only, but desperately hostile to each +other. Deadly experience had shown that, left to themselves, they could +not live at peace. There was no political union, no attachment to a native +dynasty, no tradition or sentiment truly national among the wreckage of +the septs. The religious bond, it is true, had been greatly strengthened +among them by the conflict, and formed something like a national tie. But +adaptation of his policy to Catholic character and sentiment could hardly +be expected of a Puritan chief in the age of the Spanish Inquisition.</p> + +<p>The European war between Catholicism and Protestantism, and the consequent +mingling of religious with political strife, were everywhere a fatal +stumbling-block to statesmanship in that day. It does not seem that +Cromwell dealt with the difficulty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> in England or Ireland less wisely and +liberally than did statesmanship elsewhere. Perhaps the greater share of +liberality was his. The signs of his personal inclination were certainly +on the liberal side.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + +<p><br />The death of the Protector before his hour, and the military anarchy which +ensued, brought on the Restoration. The Restoration brought claims on the +part of dispossessed Royalism for restitution in both countries. The +occupants of confiscated lands in Ireland, seeing what must come, had +under the leadership of opportunist politicians, such as Broghill and +Cork, worshipped with politic rapture the return of the Royal Sun. The +disinherited on the other hand clamorously pressed their claim to +restitution. To that claim honour bade and sympathy inclined Charles II. +to give ear. But the adventurers were a formidable body, and while their +professions were fervently loyal their hands were on their swords. Nor did +Protestant England, even in its hot fit of loyalty, love the Irish +Catholic or forget the massacre of 1641. There ensued a vast controversy, +desperately embarrassing to Clarendon, Charles’s chief adviser, to Charles +himself no doubt an insufferable bore. Intrigue and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> corruption, in which +the possessors were strong, contended with argument in the fray. The +government at last took refuge in the appointment of a commission +instructed to decide claims to restitution on the principle of complicity +or non-complicity in the rebellion of 1641; a criterion rather difficult +of application, since Charles I. had on the one hand assented to the Act +of Forfeiture, and on the other hand by treating with the Confederates had +practically recognized their loyalty to the crown. The upshot was an Act +of Settlement with a supplementary Act of Explanation, under which the +possessors retained about two-thirds of the lands, the disinherited +getting the other one-third, eked out with scraps, which by escheat or +forfeiture for regicide were at the disposal of the crown. The Act of +Settlement was thenceforth in the eyes of the Protestant possessor the +great charter of proprietary right, to be upheld at whatever cost; in the +eyes of the dispossessed Catholic, the hateful muniment of proprietary +wrong, to be cancelled whenever he had the power. The net result of the +Act of Settlement and Explanation was that Ulster was left, as it remains, +a Protestant pale.</p> + +<p>The Anglican State Church recovered all its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> possessions and privileges, +and was once more planted on the neck of a Catholic people. It is sad to +learn that Jeremy Taylor, who, when under persecution, had eloquently +defended liberty of prophesying, as a bishop of the restored Irish +establishment defended that liberty no more. But how could a hierarch of +the State Church of Ireland fail to don its spirit with his mitre?</p> + +<p>The whole of the Protector’s work was undone. The union of Scotland and +Ireland with England was broken. Ireland was again reduced to the state of +a dependency, and of a dependency unloved and unrespected, whose interests +were to be always sacrificed to those of the country which was the seat of +power. Of this she was soon made fatally sensible. Protectionism was the +creed of that dark age. Ireland as a fine grazing country had been doing a +profitable export trade with England in cattle, pork, bacon, and dairy +produce. The English grazier demanded of his Parliament protection against +the free importation of food, denounced by him as a “nuisance.” On his +demand an act was passed prohibiting the trade. Good sense and the public +interest struggled hard. The debate was unusually fierce. Ominous +expressions of contempt for the Irish were heard,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> and led to a challenge. +The king had the good sense to disapprove the measure, but gave way, as he +was sure to do. The patriotic policy of the grazier triumphed. Irish fish +narrowly escaped prohibition at the same time. This was the first of a +line of prohibitive acts fatal to the commerce of Ireland and to her +commercial civilization. At the same time she came under the Navigation +Laws, which were fatal to her shipping trade.</p> + +<p>Ireland, however, had the good fortune to be during the greater part of +the reign of Charles II. under the government of that Duke of Ormonde who +had commanded for the king in the Civil War. The duke was a statesman, +like Clarendon and Southampton, of the old and honourable cavalier school, +untainted by the political profligacy or the social dissoluteness of the +men of the Cabal. He governed as impartially as the anti-Catholic laws and +his own strict Anglicanism would let him; did his best to keep the peace +between the factions, political and religious; promoted manufactures and +trade, encouraged and endowed education, founded a college of medicine, +organized a national militia. He heartily identified himself with Irish +interests, and opposed the Cattle Act with an energy and a force of +argument which entitle his memory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> to the respect of free traders. It is +the sad truth that of Irish history between the Conquest and the Union the +one bright period is the viceroyalty of Ormonde.</p> + +<p>Ireland unhappily, though her interests were out of the pale of English +care, was not out of the pale of English faction and revolution. The +Stuart brothers, plotting with their French patron the subversion of +English religion and liberty, looked to Catholic Ireland for help in their +plot. They cultivated the Catholic interest there, and against the law +promoted Catholics to office and command. Richard Talbot, lying Dick, +afterwards Duke of Tyrconnel, one of the lowest of their wonderfully low +agents, as well as about the most violent, appeared upon the scene. It was +probably by thwarting or refusing to promote this conspiracy that Ormonde, +a strict Protestant though of the Anglican school, and constitutional +though a monarchist, incurred temporary dismissal from his viceroyalty. +Possibly in the same quarter may be sought the explanation of the +mysterious attempt at murdering him by Blood, of the criminal connection +of the court with whom there can be little doubt. On the other hand, the +cruel anti-Catholic panic, created in England by the well-founded +suspicion of danger to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> Protestantism from Stuart intrigue with France +which gave birth to the Popish plot, extended its rage to Ireland. The +last and most pitiable of the innocent victims of that frenzy was the +Catholic Archbishop Plunket.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> + +<p><br />Signs of preparation for the Stuart attack on Protestantism and liberty +were visible in Ireland as well as in England in the last years of Charles +II. But the blow was suspended during the life of the Merry Monarch, who +preferred the calm of the seraglio to the stir of a great enterprise, and +did not want to go again upon his travels. With the accession of Charles’s +fanatical and blundering brother, the crisis came. The Viceroy Clarendon, +a Tory of Tories, but an Anglican, was deposed from the viceroyalty, and +quitted Ireland with a stream of Protestant refugees in his train. Into +his place vaulted Dick Talbot, now Duke of Tyrconnel, drunk with the fury +of Romanizing and despotic reaction. A Catholic reign of terror set in. +Protestants were disarmed; driven from places of authority, political, +judicial, or municipal; practically outlawed, plundered, outraged, +compelled to fly for their lives. The country seethed with a general orgie +of insurrection and revenge. The people swarmed to the standard of +Catholic and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> agrarian revolution, rather than to that of the English +king, for whom they cared little and who cared little for them. Presently +came James, ejected from England, with the power of his French patron at +his back. Under him a packed Parliament repealed the Act of Settlement by +which the Protestants held their lands, proclaiming reconfiscation and +expulsion on a vast scale. Not satisfied with this, the Parliament passed +a monstrous Act of Attainder against a large portion of the Protestant +proprietary. Nor can it be assumed that the frantic hatred which inspired +this act would have confined itself to spoliation, for which the repeal of +the Act of Settlement might have pretty well sufficed. A long lifetime had +not yet passed since 1641. James, who was not an Irish patriot but an +English king out of possession, would have vetoed the Act of Attainder had +he dared. But he dared not. He even suffered himself in this case to be +divested of the royal prerogative of pardon. Another prerogative, that of +regulating the coin, he exercised by sanctioning a base issue on a large +scale, which, being made legal tender, completed the ruin of the +Protestant trader.</p> + +<p>But Protestantism, the stern Protestantism of the Calvinist, rallied on +its own ground, and behind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> the mouldering walls of Derry made against a +Catholic host one of the heroic defences of history, a worthy theme in an +after time for the most brilliant of historians. In the battle of Newtown +Butler, Protestantism again triumphed over odds. Succour at length came +from England. It came first in the person of the renowned Schomberg, whose +army, however, made up of raw recruits, ill supplied by fraudulent +contractors, and filled with disease by the moisture of the climate, +miserably rotted. At last the bonfires of jubilant Protestantism announced +that William of Orange had landed. On the Boyne he gained a small battle +but a great victory, which decided that the Protestant Saxon, not the +Catholic Celt, should be master of Ireland. James fled to the luxurious +asylum of his French master, and with him fled the last hope of the +Catholic cause.</p> + +<p>Once more, however, at Aghrim, the Catholic, under the command of the +French General St. Ruth, accepted the wager of battle in open field. He +fought well, and the fortune of the day wavered, when a cannon shot took +off St. Ruth’s head. Protestantism owed its victory largely to a regiment +of French Huguenots exiled by the bigoted tyranny of their own king.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>All was over in the field. The irresistible Marlborough reduced Cork and +Kinsale. But in Limerick, by soldiers pronounced untenable, Catholicism +had its Derry. Its hero Sarsfield, by a daring march, cut off William’s +siege artillery, and, after a fierce assault, gallantly repulsed, William +was fain to raise the siege. After his departure Ginkell again invested +the place, and Sarsfield, finding that the last hour of the last Catholic +stronghold had come, capitulated on terms. The military terms of the +surrender were strictly observed. The political terms, securing a measure +of religious liberty to Catholics, though endorsed by William in his wise +Dutch love of toleration, were repudiated by Parliament. The “violated +treaty of Limerick” was an ugly business, though there seems to have been +no protest at the time. But James had fled. The garrison of Limerick had +no status but a military one, to which surrender put an end. Politically +they were merely insurgents. Could any political terms made with them have +bound the sovereign authority of the Irish and British Parliaments in +dealing with their own citizens forever? Can Sarsfield have thought that +they did?</p> + +<p>A crowd of Irish women and children lined the shore at Limerick, watching +with tearful eyes the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> receding sails of the fleet which bore away their +husbands and fathers, the garrison of the last Catholic stronghold, to +service in foreign lands. The defenders of Limerick were thus exchanged +for the Huguenot exiles who had charged and conquered at Aghrim. Those +men, with many an exile from Catholic Ireland who followed in their track, +went to form the Irish brigade and to redeem on foreign fields battles +lost in their own land.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> + +<p><br />In that mortal struggle, had the Catholic won, he would have deprived the +Protestant certainly of his land, perhaps of his life. The Protestant, +having won, proceeded at once to avenge and secure himself by binding down +his vanquished foe with chains of iron. Chains of iron indeed they were. +By the series of enactments called the Penal Code, passed by the Irish +Parliament with some assistance from that of England, the Irish Catholic +was reduced to helotage political and social, while measures were taken +for the extirpation of his religion. To crush him politically he was +excluded from Parliament, from the franchise, from municipal office, from +the magistracy, from the jury box, as well as from public appointments of +all kinds, and even from the police force. To crush him socially he was +excluded from all the higher callings but that of medicine, from the +bench, from the bar, and from the army. He was denied the armorial +bearings which denoted a gentleman. To divorce him from the land, he was +forbidden to acquire<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> freehold or a lease beneficial beyond a certain +rate; he was debarred from bequeathing his estate; and his estate was +broken up by making it heritable in gavelkind. The gate of knowledge was +closed against him. He was shut out of the university; forbidden to open a +school; forbidden to send his children abroad for education. That he might +never rise against oppression, he was disarmed and prohibited from keeping +a horse of more than five pounds’ value. He might not even be a gamekeeper +or a watchman.</p> + +<p>The law, without actually prohibiting the Catholic religion, provided, as +was hoped, for its extirpation. All priests were required to be +registered, and were forbidden to perform service out of their own parish. +All Catholic archbishops and bishops were banished, and were made +punishable with death if they returned, so that in future there could be +no ordinations. Monks and friars also were banished. Catholic chapels +might not have bells or steeples. There were to be no pilgrimages or +wayside crosses. Rewards were offered to informers against Catholic +bishops, priests, and schoolmasters, and their trade was lauded as +honourable service to the state. Marriage of a Catholic with a Protestant +was prohibited; to perform it was a capital offence; so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> was conversion of +a Protestant to Catholicism. Religious hatred outraged domestic affection +by enacting that if the son of a Catholic turned Protestant the +inheritance should at once vest in him, his father being reduced to a life +interest; that the wife of a Catholic turning Protestant should be set +free from her husband’s control and entitled to a settlement; that a +Catholic could not be a guardian, so that, dying, he had to leave his +children to the guardianship of an enemy of their faith.</p> + +<p>Representatives of the government designated the Catholics officially as +“our enemies.” The Irish Parliament was exhorted to put an end to all +distinctions except that between Protestant and Papist. To such a relation +between races under the same government history can scarcely show a +parallel, unless it be the case of the Moriscos in Spain.</p> + +<p>“It was,” says Burke, “a complete system full of coherence and +consistency; well digested and well composed in all its parts. It was a +machine of wise and elaborate contrivance and was as well fitted for the +oppression, impoverishment, and degradation of a people and the debasement +in them of human nature itself as ever proceeded from the perverted +ingenuity of man.” It was the panic rage of a garrison which had narrowly +escaped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> extermination, and less cruel than the treatment of the Huguenots +by the Catholic king at the instigation of the Jesuit and with the +approbation of the Catholic Church in France. The fires of the Inquisition +were still burning, and continued for some time to burn. If the British +Parliament shares the guilt of the Penal Code, twice had an army of Irish +Catholics been raised for the destruction of English liberties. When last +those liberties were in the extremity of peril, a force of Irish Catholics +had been encamped at Hounslow. Nor was Catholicism merely a religion. It +was allegiance to a power which claimed the suzerainty of Ireland, which +had launched the decree of deposition against Elizabeth, which, after the +rising of 1641, had sent its nuncio to the rebel council of Kilkenny. +These memories on both sides ought long ago to have been consigned to a +common grave.</p> + +<p>At the same time it was deplorable that the settlement of the Catholic +provinces after their reconquest should have been left to the Protestants +of Ireland, transported with rage and fear. The true course, had it been +possible, was the union of Ireland with England. Representatives of the +loyal districts of Ireland might have been called at once to the +Parliament at Westminster. The rest of the island<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> might have been placed +under a strong government of pacification and settlement, till peace and +the reign of law had been thoroughly restored. It is needless to say that +such a solution could not even suggest itself to the mind of any statesman +at that time.</p> + +<p>In extirpating the Catholic religion the policy of the Penal Code failed. +To the faith which was their only comfort and sole redemption from utter +degradation the people more than ever clung. The priests braved the law, +celebrated mass in hiding-places, furtively ordained, several hands being +laid on at once that the man ordained might be able to swear that he did +not know who had ordained him. They taught in hedge schools, and, though +but coarsely educated themselves, preserved the scantling there was of +knowledge and civilization among the people. In their celibacy they had a +great advantage for such work. Interested conversions among Catholics of +the higher class, especially as passports to the bar, seem not to have +been uncommon. An old lady of an ancient line is said to have embraced +Protestantism avowedly against her conscience, saying that it was better +that one old woman should burn than that the estates of the house of +Tomond should go out of the family. But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> disinterested conversions there +were none. On the other hand Protestants in isolated settlements were +turned Catholic by social contagion.</p> + +<p>Other parts of the code took deadly effect. The Catholics generally ceased +to own land. Of their landed gentry, some went into exile. The people, +bereft of their natural leaders, sank into apathetic helotage and mute +despair. Neither in 1715 nor in 1745, when a pretender again unfurled the +banner of the House of Stuart, was there the slightest political movement +among them. Socially, the iron had entered their souls and they cowered +under the yoke of the ascendancy. Once, an informer having tendered a +Catholic the legal ten pounds for his pair of fine horses, the Catholic +drew his pistol and shot the pair. But this was a rare spark of +self-respect on the part of the helot.</p> + +<p>The cup of woe was not yet full. In England, with revolution principles, +the mercantile party had mounted to power, and commerce in those days was +everywhere ridden by the fallacy of protectionism, which killed the only +good articles in the Treaty of Utrecht, those opening free trade with +France. Ireland, the English protectionist regarded as a foreign country, +and a particularly dangerous enemy to his interest. The cattle trade<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +having been killed by the act of Charles II., the Irish had taken to the +export trade in wool and to woollen manufactures. The wool grown on Irish +sheepwalks was of the finest, and was eagerly purchased by France and +Spain. This industry also English monopoly killed by prohibiting the +exportation of wool to foreign countries and the importation of Irish +woollen goods into England. The same jealous rapacity seems to have +successively killed or crippled the cotton industry, the glove-making +industry, the glass industry, the brewing industry, to each of which +Ireland successively turned; English greed being bent, not only on +excluding the Irish competitor from its own market, but on keeping the +Irish market to itself. Ireland had been promised free enjoyment of the +linen trade, which Strafford had encouraged by promoting the growing of +flax while he discouraged the wool trade; yet even this promise Irish +financiers could accuse England of eluding by tricks of the tariff. +England needing more bar iron than she could produce, the importation of +bar iron from Ireland was allowed; but the consequence was a consumption +of timber for smelting which denuded Ireland of her forests.</p> + +<p>Cromwell’s union would have secured to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>Ireland exemption from the +disabilities of the Navigation Laws. The Restoration imposed them. They +killed her trade with the colonies and killed her shipping interest at the +same time. “The conveniency of ports and harbours,” said Swift, “which +nature has bestowed so liberally upon this kingdom, is of no more use to +us than a beautiful prospect to a man shut up in a dungeon.”</p> + +<p>In all this Ireland was treated as a colony, meant only to be a feeder to +the imperial country. But her position was worse than that of the +colonies, in which commercial restrictions generally were loosely +enforced, and which, when strict enforcement was attempted by Grenville, +rose in arms. The colonies, moreover, were regarded with pride and +affection. Popish Ireland was regarded with contempt and hatred.</p> + +<p>The lawful trade in wool with foreign countries England had suppressed. +Its place was partly taken by a smuggling trade, for which the inlets of +the Irish coast afforded the best of havens, and which had the people +everywhere for confederates. Thus, in every line, religious, social, +educational, and commercial, the Irishman found the law his inveterate +enemy. Could he fail to be an inveterate enemy of the law?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>Cut off from manufactures and from trade, the people were thrown for +subsistence wholly on the land, and land for the most part better suited +for pasture than for tillage. For the land they competed with the +eagerness of despair, undertaking to pay for their little lots rents which +left them and their families less than a bare subsistence. On such a scene +of misery as the abodes of the Irish cotters the sun has rarely looked +down. Their homes were the most miserable hovels, chimneyless, filthy. Of +decent clothing they were destitute. Their food was the potato; sometimes +they bled their cattle and mixed the blood with sorrel. The old and sick +were everywhere dying by cold and hunger, and rotting amidst filth and +vermin. When the potato failed, as it often did, came famine, with disease +in its train. Want and misery were in every face; the roads were spread +with dead and dying; there were sometimes none to bear the dead to the +grave and they were buried in the fields and ditches where they perished. +Fluxes and malignant fevers followed, laying whole villages waste. “I have +seen,” says a witness, “the labourer endeavouring to work at his spade, +but fainting for want of food, and forced to omit it. I have seen the +helpless orphan exposed on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> the dunghill, and none to take him in for fear +of infection. And I have seen the hungry infant sucking at the breast of +the already expired parent.”<small><a name="f2.1" id="f2.1" href="#f1">[2]</a></small> There was an enormous amount of vagrancy +and mendicity, as there was in Scotland before the union. This was under +the government of the first of free nations, and in the era of Newton, +Addison, and Pope.</p> + +<p>Reduced to living like beasts, the people multiplied their kind with +animal recklessness. The result was fatal overpopulation, the pressure of +which, aggravated by occasional failures of the treacherous potato, could +be relieved only by the tragic remedy of emigration on an immense scale.</p> + +<p>Of the landowners, who might have had compassion on their serfs, many were +absentees; residence in Ireland, especially when agrarian war began, being +hardly pleasant. Their place was taken by the middleman, through whose +ruthless agency they extorted their rents and who frequently sublet, +sometimes even three or four deep, so that the cotter groaned under a +hierarchy of extortion. From the ranks of the middlemen were partly drawn +the upstart gentry, or squireens, a roistering, debauched, drinking, and +duelling crew, whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> tyrannical insolence scandalized Arthur Young, +ruling with the horse-whip a peasantry cowering under the lash and +hopeless of redress by the law. The peasantry still largely spoke Erse, +another badge of their social inferiority, and a further barrier between +them and the ruling class.</p> + +<p>To the extortion of the middleman was added that, even more hated, of the +tithe proctor. The Protectorate had at all events relieved Ireland of the +Anglican State Church. That incubus the monarchy reimposed, and the +peasant was compelled out of the miserable produce of his potato field or +patch of oats, besides the exorbitant rent, not only to provide for his +own priest, but to pay tithe to a clergy whose mission was to extirpate +the peasant’s religion. The Anglican bishoprics were rich. The rectories +for the most part were miserably poor, so that pluralism might be +necessary to make an income. But pluralism of the most scandalous kind +also prevailed, and we have a dean holding two groups of livings, fourteen +livings in all, one group twelve miles away from the other. Some of the +clergy, on the plea that there were no glebe houses for them, were drawing +their tithes in the pump room and at the card tables of Bath. Bishops were +sometimes non-resident as well as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> scandalously secular and inert. Most of +them were English, and appointed to keep up the English interest. There +were bright exceptions, such as Bolter, King, above all Berkeley, but they +were few. Swift could say of Irish bishops that government no doubt +appointed good men, but they were always murdered on Hounslow Heath by the +highwaymen, who took their credentials, personated them, and were +installed in their place. There have been worse institutions than the +State Church of Ireland; there was never a greater scandal. Even if +Anglicanism had been less alien to the Irish heart, what chance would such +missionaries as these have had against the devoted emissaries of Rome? +What must have been the feelings of the Irish peasant when of his crop of +potatoes, all too scanty for him and his children, the tithe proctor came +to claim a tenth part in the name of a Christian minister?</p> + +<p>There were prelates of a better stamp who sought to do well by the people. +Under their auspices were set up the chartered schools, to give poor Irish +children an industrial education. But the work of charity was marred by +bigotry. The children were taken from their Catholic parents and forcibly +brought up as Protestants, whereby the heart of the Catholic parent was +filled with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> anguish, and more bitter offence, it seems, was given than by +any other kind of repression. The schools at last became a sink of abuse, +inhumanity, and corruption.</p> + +<p>Rural Ireland was a recruiting ground for the armies of the Continent. On +some lonely hillside the recruiting agent reviewed the youth of the +neighbourhood, picked out the strong, the flower of the population, and +turned back the feeble to their miserable homes.</p> + +<p>If anything was to be done for the extension of Protestantism, union among +the Protestant minority was indispensable, and the enthusiasm of the +Calvinist, sombre as it was, might have had its attractions for the Celt, +as it had for the Celts of the Scottish Highlands, among whom it gave +birth to the hill preachers, and for those of Wales with whom Calvinistic +Methodism prevailed. But the bishops of the State Church hated the +Presbyterian even more bitterly than they hated the Catholic. After their +brief and hollow alliance with the Nonconformists, when their own interest +was threatened, they had speedily relapsed into High Anglicanism, and +under the not unsuitable leadership of the infidel Bolingbroke had taken +to persecuting Nonconformity in England. They extended the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>persecution to +Ireland, excluding by the Sacramental Test the defenders of Derry from +municipal office and military service. They imported the Schism Act, +forbidding Nonconformists to open schools. They threatened interference +with Presbyterian worship, Ireland having no Toleration Act. They disputed +the validity of Presbyterian marriage. They thus set flowing a stream of +Presbyterian emigration from the north of Ireland to the American +colonies. The stream was afterwards swelled by the rapacity of Lord +Donegal and other landed proprietors of Ulster, who, being owners of great +estates, when the leases of their tenants ran out, instead of renewing +them to the tenant, put them up to the highest bidder. Starving Catholics, +in the desperate competition for land, outbidding the Protestants, a +number of Protestant families were driven from their homes. The +consequence was, first, aggressive insurrection under the names of the +Heart of Oak Boys and the Steel Boys, ultimately emigration to America. +Thus the Church and the landlord between them were charging the mine of +American revolution.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2> + +<p><br />Presently, too, inexorable nature made her voice heard, proclaiming that +Ireland, with its rich pastures and watery skies, was in the main not an +arable but a grazing country. There was a good market for meat. +Speculators began buying up land and throwing it into large grazing farms. +The cotter was ejected and driven to the bogs and mountains. This +overtaxed even a cotter’s submission, and there broke out an agrarian war, +the most deadly perhaps in history, the canker and disgrace of British +government, protracted in varying phases and with fluctuating intensity +almost from that day to this. Companies of men, wearing white shirts over +their clothes, and thence afterwards called Whiteboys, harried the grazing +farms by night, and the stillness of the night air was broken by the +bellowings and moanings of hamstrung cattle.</p> + +<p>Irish outrage has been essentially agrarian, rather than religious. The +division of churches coincided<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> generally with the social division. The +middleman was necessarily Protestant, since, under the penal law, no +Catholic could acquire a beneficial lease; and the antagonism of religion +and language emphasized and embittered that of class and interest. But a +Catholic generally suffered like a Protestant if he provoked the wrath of +the people. A Protestant settling in a Catholic district, if he was in any +way obnoxious, was especially liable to maltreatment. Later on there was a +hideous instance of this in the case of a Protestant schoolmaster settling +and opening his school in a Catholic district. He and his family were +mangled with horrible cruelty.</p> + +<p>Nor can it be said that the landlords as a class were the objects of +hatred and outrage apart from the agrarian quarrel. A landlord who resided +and did not oppress his tenantry, especially if he were affable, jovial, +and hospitable, was generally the object of a clannish affection, though +his mansion might be a “Castle Rack-rent” and his serious duties might be +very indifferently performed.</p> + +<p>The commercial restrictions and the Navigation Acts were fatal to the +prosperity of the whole island, while the penal inability of the Catholics +to invest could not fail to lower the value of land.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> This would be felt +by the conquering as well as by the conquered race and sect. Scotland, cut +off by the repeal of Cromwell’s union from trade with England and the +dependencies, had so suffered commercially and industrially that she +swarmed with vagrants, and the ardent patriot, Fletcher of Saltoun, +proposed slavery as a remedy for the evil. The union, opening free trade +with England, brought commercial prosperity in its train. The English in +Ireland stretched out their hands to the British government for a union +like that which was being made with Scotland, and were coldly repelled. To +English protectionism the chief blame for the refusal no doubt is due. But +unwillingness to incorporate a large Catholic population may also have +played its part. Let the cause have been what it may, there is hardly +anything in the records of British statesmanship more deplorable than this +refusal of union to Ireland. Protectionism here again pleads the excuse of +universal delusion, and in no case is the excuse more needed.</p> + +<p>Moreover, the Protestants of Ireland, British in blood and, as lords over +a subject race in their own country, more than British in pride, were +denied the enjoyment of British freedom. A Parliament they had; but that +Parliament could legislate only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> by grace of the English council and of a +council named by the lord lieutenant in Ireland. Its control even of money +bills was not recognized, while the Crown had a hereditary revenue which +made it almost independent of Parliamentary grants. In the Upper House, +owing to the large absenteeism of lay lords, the bench of bishops, +nominees of the Crown and agents of the British interest, largely held +sway. Of the three hundred seats in the House of Commons more than half +were filled by nominees of the patrons of pocket boroughs, which the Crown +had been always creating at its will, and the nominations were sold like +common merchandise. The House, moreover, swarmed with placemen and +pensioners. The Parliament was elected for a whole reign, so as to be +scarcely responsible even to such a constituency as it had. The Irish +Parliament of George II. continued for thirty-three years. There was a +session only in every other year. The English House of Lords arrogated to +itself the jurisdiction of final appeal. The judges held only during +pleasure. There was no annual Mutiny Act. There was no Habeas Corpus. +There were large sinecures, instruments of corruption in the hands of the +government. The pension list, swollen beyond bounds, was a privy fund for +kings’ mistresses and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> for jobs too dirty for the English list. The high +appointments, ecclesiastical, administrative, and judicial, were treated +as patronage by the English government and generally reserved for +Englishmen. The face of their king the Irish never saw. The viceroy +resided only during a small part of his term, and his place was filled in +his absence by lords justices who were often bishops, English themselves, +and bent above all things on securing the ascendancy of the English +interest. Three archbishops in succession practically ruled Ireland. +Presbyterians and other Protestant Dissenters, victims of episcopal +intolerance, had crying wrongs of their own.</p> + +<p>Union with England had been refused, and the protection of England being +no longer so manifestly indispensable to her garrison in Ireland as it had +been, a craving for self-government took its place. Molyneux, and after +him Lucas, alarmed and exasperated authority by writing in favour of the +independence of the Irish Parliament. But a far more potent artificer of +discord appeared in Swift, who, balked of preferment in England by the +wreck of his political party, exiled to a native land which he abhorred, +was eating his heart, and ripe for mischief, especially for any mischief +which could avenge him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> on the Whig government, above all on Walpole, its +chief, by whom it seems the path of this model Christian and pure writer +to a bishopric had been crossed. That a feeling of justice and of pity for +the sufferings of the Irish people, which Swift has vividly described, had +their place in his heart beside malice and vengeance, may be true; though +his sense of justice was not strong enough to prevent him, profane and +really sceptical as he was, from vehemently upholding the Penal Code and +the Sacramental Test; while his pity for the people led to no +philanthropic effort of a practical kind, and was not very tenderly +expressed in his satirical suggestion that they should appease their +hunger by eating their babies. His proposal to exclude English goods would +gratify his malice as well as his patriotism, and had it been adopted +would probably have led to a large increase of smuggling.</p> + +<p>One of the grievances of Ireland was that there was no Irish mint. A new +copper coinage was needed. The contract was given by the English +government to the king’s mistress, and by her sold to Wood, a respectable +manufacturer. As the coinage was approved by Sir Isaac Newton, then master +of the mint, it can hardly have been very bad. But Irish jealousy cast +suspicion upon its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> character. Then rose a storm of popular fury, improved +by Swift into a whirlwind on which he rode in his glory. Swift’s “Drapier +Letters” are monuments of his genius for pamphleteering, his intense +malice, and his freedom from the restraints of truth. They produced an +immense effect, made him the idol of Dublin for the rest of his days, and +forced Walpole to give way and call in the halfpence. Their author did not +mention among the evils of an English connection that he and the members +of his State Church were enabled by the support of the British power to +set their feet upon the necks of four-fifths of the Irish people and to +wring from the starving Catholic the income of the dean of St. Patrick. +The letters ranged far beyond the immediate occasion, and appealed +strongly to the growing desire of independence, which we may be pretty +sure that Swift, had he been nominated by Bolingbroke to an English +bishopric, would have fiercely opposed. The Parliament to which his +revolution would have consigned Ireland is described by himself as a den +of thieves of which he devoutly desired the extirpation.</p> + +<p>Presently there arose a patriot party in the Irish Parliament. It found a +leader in Flood, a man of solid ability and powerful in debate, while the +purity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> of his patriotism was not so clear. At Flood’s side, or rather +perhaps, as the event proved, on his flank, there presently arose the far +more illustrious Grattan, whose purity and patriotism were unquestionable, +whose oratory was brilliant, his admirers thought divine. The objects +sought by the patriots were reduction of the duration of Parliaments, +control of money bills, an annual Mutiny Bill, Habeas Corpus, tenure of +the judges during life or good behaviour, reduction of the pension list, +exclusion of placemen and pensioners from the House of Commons, taxation +of the rents of absentees. On the first and most important point they +succeeded through a bargain with the Crown on the amount of the military +force. The duration of Parliament was cut down to eight years, that number +being preferred to seven, because it was only in alternate years that +Parliament sat. This was a very important change. War, with imperfect +success, was waged on the question of money bills. On the other points +reform made no way, the English government clinging obstinately to all its +powers and using its veto, while the lord lieutenant was able to avert a +crash by buying up a majority in the Irish Parliament. Taxation of the +rents of absentees, a measure very popular and much pressed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> was vetoed +by the English government. The protest of the absentees against it was +evidently the work of Burke, whose patron, Lord Rockingham, had an estate +in Ireland. Burke argued that the double land-ownership was a link of +union between the two countries; which it might have been if the residence +as well as the proprietorship had been shared. The advocates of the tax +might have cited the original character of land grants to which feudal +service was annexed and which were forfeited by the failure of absentees +to perform it. Chatham supported the tax. For a moment, unhappily for a +moment only, his thoughts were turned to Ireland. A far greater service he +would have rendered his country by pacifying Ireland as he pacified the +Highlands than by his conquest of Canada, of which the loss of the +American colonies was the result. In the background there was a growing +sentiment in favour of independence, the flag of which was by Grattan +presently unfurled.</p> + +<p>It was not in Ireland as it was in England, where the regular party system +prevailed and the minority changed with the majority in Parliament. The +Castle called to the council whom it pleased, without regard to the +existence of a political connection among them, though it was, of course, +under the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> necessity of calling those who could bring it support at the +time. The party tie was accordingly very loose and connections were +shifting. Flood had no scruple in providing for himself, apart from his +friends, by acceptance of a rich sinecure under the government. Hely +Hutchinson, a free lance, could use his personal influence in forcing the +government to make him provost of Trinity College.</p> + +<p>For a time the Castle put itself into the hands of a junto of great lords +and owners of Parliamentary boroughs, who undertook to supply it with a +majority at the price of patronage and power. To break this ring and +restore the free action of government, an effort was made by the Lord +Lieutenant Townshend. But Townshend’s boisterous energy, successful for a +time, in the end failed, and the Castle fell back into the routine of +government by intrigue and corruption, aided by viceregal dinners and +balls.</p> + +<p>Chatham’s glory dazzled Ireland as well as England. But presently came the +quarrel ending in war, with the American colonies, whose commercial +grievances were the same in kind as those of Ireland, practically less +severe. Ireland at once showed sympathy with American revolt. Presently +the island was divested of troops by the demands of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> the war, and its +coasts were left open to the attacks of privateers. There was no national +militia. Under the leadership of Lord Charlemont a body of volunteers, +almost entirely Protestant, was raised and reached at last the number of +forty thousand. There was, no doubt, in the movement a good deal of claret +and fanfaronade. But it included the leading gentry, and for its purpose +was very strong. Formed ostensibly, at first really, for defence against +the Americans, it presently fell politically into their track and demanded +of the British government, now prostrated by misfortune in the war and by +the combination of European powers against it, first freedom from the +commercial restrictions, then legislative independence. North made +commercial concessions; he would have made them on a much more liberal +scale and possibly have satisfied the volunteers. But again monopolist +greed, strong in the commercial cities of England, vetoed, and Burke lost +his seat at Bristol for advocating the policy of free trade. The victories +of Rodney and Eliot, had they come in time, might have strengthened the +hands of the British government and saved it from an ignominious +capitulation. As it was, the British government surrendered at discretion. +First the commercial restrictions were swept away; then the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> legislative +supremacy of England, embodied in the Poynings Act and the Act of the +Sixth of George I., affirming the right of the British Parliament to +legislate for Ireland, was renounced. Flood, the patriot with a bend +sinister, insisted on pushing the humiliation of England still further and +compelling her by a declaratory act solemnly to bind her own hands for the +future, while Grattan, the patriot without reproach, took the more +generous line. Thus England underwent the deepest humiliation in her +history at the hands of an Irish party which owed its land, its +ascendancy, probably its very existence, to her protecting power. Such was +the condign punishment of a long course of ignorant, blundering, and +corrupt misgovernment, a punishment not the less calamitous and degrading +because it was deserved.</p> + +<p>So Grattan in the Irish Parliament was able, in a transport of rhetorical +rapture, to worship “the newborn nation,” a nation which comprised a +fraction of the people of the country, the rest being still political +helots. Had he adored an uncontrolled Ascendancy, his deity would have +been real.</p> + +<p>The volunteers, having felt their strength, were inclined to vote +themselves permanent, overawe Parliament, and enforce Parliamentary +reform.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> Flood was so misguided as to take that line. But the incarnation +of violent counsels was the bishop of Derry, an English nobleman holding +an Irish bishopric, a most absurd figure, and probably half insane. His +Right Reverence avowed that he looked forward to blood. He paraded before +the door of Parliament in a coach and six, dressed in purple with long +white gloves and gold tassels depending from them, and with a guard of +horse, looking as if he meant to be king. But the Parliament was firm, and +Lord Charlemont and other sane leaders were able to control the body, +which was drawn, not from a Faubourg St. Antoine, but from the +property-owning class under aristocratic leading. Still revolutionary +excitement did not die.</p> + +<p>What was now the state of things? There were two independent Parliaments, +each with full powers of legislation, under the same Crown; that Crown not +being invested with authority to control and harmonize the action of the +two Parliaments, but being a Crown upon a cushion or little more. The +commercial and even the international relations of the two Parliaments +might point different ways. There might be a divergence on a question of +peace or war; one Parliament declaring for war, the other refusing to vote +the supplies. On general questions,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> such as commercial and criminal law, +opposition was possible to any extent; and considering the feelings +towards each other with which the partners set out, was not unlikely to +occur. Ireland might even refuse currency to English coin. The monarchical +link itself was not quite firm. On the question of the regency, when +George III. went mad, the two Parliaments did actually fly apart; the +Irish Parliament recognizing, while the British Parliament refused to +recognize, the claim of the Prince of Wales to the regency by virtue of +his birth. Only the king’s recovery averted a collision. Adopted in haste +and in a rush of revolutionary ardour, the system was in fact unworkable +and must have ended in confusion. Grattan was unquestionably true to +British connection. But Grattan was not Ireland, and even he had led in no +very loyal attitude the defiance of the British Parliament on the regency +question. His statesmanship can hardly have been profound if he fancied +that the constitution of 1782 would work.</p> + +<p>It is moreover always to be borne in mind that this Parliament was the +Parliament of a Protestant ascendancy, representing not one-quarter of the +people of Ireland, and that with all its high talk of independence, it +still owed, and knew that it owed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> to British protection its power, its +privileges, its political pelf, perhaps even the safe possession under the +Act of Settlement of lands on which the disinherited still cast a longing +and vindictive eye.</p> + +<p>How then was the policy of Ireland to be kept from breaking away from that +of Great Britain? The practical answer was, by corruption, the means of +which at the command of the Castle were, besides office, sinecures, some +of them very rich; commands in the army; pensions; bishoprics, with other +Church patronage; and peerages. The peerages, though lavishly created, +seem to have retained their value. The Parliament, the body on which +corruption had to operate, was a Parliament of rotten boroughs, the +nominations for which were sold in open market. The House of Commons +continued to swarm with placemen and pensioners, whose votes were at the +command of government. In the House of Lords the Anglican bishops were +strong.</p> + +<p>Appended to a report made to Pitt on the political situation in Ireland is +the following schedule of corruption:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“H—— H——, son-in-law to Lord A——, and brought into Parliament +by him. Studies the law; wishes to be a commissioner of barracks, or +in some similar place. Would go into orders and take a living.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>“H—— D——, brother +to Lord C——. Applied for office; but, as no specific promise could be made, has lately voted in opposition. Easy +to be had if thought expedient. A silent, gloomy man.</p> + +<p>“L—— M——, refuses to accept £500 per annum; states very high +pretensions from his skill in House of Commons management; expects +£1,000 per annum. N.B.— Be careful of him.</p> + +<p>“J—— N——, has been in the army and is now on half pay; wishes a +troop of dragoons on full pay. States his pretensions to be fifteen +years’ service in Parliament. N.B.—Would prefer office to military +promotion; but already has, and has long had, a pension. Character, +especially on the side of truth, not favourable.</p> + +<p>“R—— P——, independent, but well disposed to government. His four +sisters have pensions; and his object is a living for his brother.</p> + +<p>“T—— P——, brother to Lord L——, and brought in by him. A captain +in the navy; wishes for some sinecure employment.”</p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2> + +<p><br />There was no lack, say apologists of the Irish Parliament, of useful +legislation on subjects with which a landed gentry was qualified to deal. +There was a fatal lack of legislation on one momentous subject with which +a land-owning gentry ought to be qualified to deal, but from which the +Irish Parliament resolutely turned its eyes. For half a century before the +union, that body steadfastly abstained from inquiring into the causes of +disaffection among the peasantry. It even repressed a report upon the +subject which the chairman of the committee had begun to read.</p> + +<p>The condition of the peasantry was still horrible and heartrending. The +revolution of 1782, by loosening the fetters of trade, had brought +increase of prosperity to the merchant and manufacturer. It had brought no +relief to the tiller of the soil. A little before this Arthur Young had +travelled in Ireland and had been shocked at seeing the insolent despotism +of the petty country gentlemen, whom he called the vermin of the kingdom, +over their serfs;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> the horsewhip freely used, the serf not daring to lift +his hand in defence, the total denial of legal redress, since a justice of +the peace presuming to issue a summons would at once have been called out. +Landlords of consequence had assured Young that many of their cotters +would think themselves honoured by having their wives and daughters sent +for to the bed of their masters. He had even heard of the lives of people +being made free with. The middleman and the tithe-proctor were ruthless as +ever. To the payment of tithes a drop of bitterness had been added by the +exemption, through an abuse of political influence, of the grazing farms, +which left the whole burden of maintaining a hostile Church on the back of +the cotter. The peasantry, on the other hand, maddened by suffering, took +a fearful revenge on the oppressor or his agents. Agrarian murder and +outrage prevailed. There were cruelties worse than murder. Middlemen and +tithe-proctors were “carded”; that is, lacerated with boards full of nails +drawn down their backs, buried up to their necks in pits full of thorns, +made to ride on saddles stuck with spikes, their ears and noses cut off. A +clergyman was met riding in great agony with his head wrapped up; his ears +and cheeks were found nailed to a post. That the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> Irish when excited are +capable of dark atrocities is a feature of their character which it is +useless to disguise. Debility when excited is apt to be most cruel. The +trait showed itself plainly in the hamstringing of soldiers and the +houghing of cattle, as well as in the torturing of middlemen and +tithe-proctors. Law and police were paralyzed. The peasantry were one vast +conspiracy bound together by awful pledges, the betrayal of which was +death. No evidence could be obtained though there might be plenty of +eye-witnesses. Perjury in the common cause was no sin.</p> + +<p>It was supposed that the Whiteboys had their meetings in Catholic chapels. +But there is no ground for taxing the Catholic Church as a body with any +share in the criminal part of the movement. The Catholic clergy of Ireland +were then, as they are now, a peasant clergy, sympathizing with their +class. They depended on that class for their stipends. Some of them their +sympathy might betray into complicity, more or less active, with agrarian +crime. More of them might be guilty of failure to exert their religious +authority as ministers of the sacraments, the confessional, and death-bed +absolution, on the side of law. But their record on the whole appears to +have been as clear as, considering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> what persecution they had undergone, +and that the law was their enemy as well as the enemy of the peasant, it +was reasonable to expect.</p> + +<p>The mansion of an unpopular landlord became a besieged fortress. +Absenteeism of course increased. To a rather later date belongs the story +of an agent who, having complained to his absentee landlord that his life +had been threatened, received the reply, “Tell the villains that they need +not hope to intimidate me by shooting you.”</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“I am well acquainted,” said a statesman not oversensitive to popular +wrongs, “with the Province of Munster, and I know that it is +impossible for human wretchedness to exceed that of the miserable +tenantry of that province. I know that the unhappy tenantry are +ground to powder by relentless landlords. I know that far from being +able to give the clergy their just dues, they have not food and +raiment for themselves; the landlord grasps the whole. Sorry I am to +add that, unsatisfied with present extortion, some landlords have +been so base as to instigate the insurgents to rob the clergy of +their tithes, not in order to alleviate the distresses of the +tenantry, but that they might add the clergy’s share to the cruel +rack-rents already paid. Sir, I fear it will require the utmost +ability of Parliament to come to the root of these evils. The poor +people of Munster live in a more abject state of poverty than human +nature can be supposed able to bear. Their miseries are intolerable; +but they do not originate with the clergy; nor can the legislature +stand by and see them take the redress into their own hands. Nothing +can be done for their benefit while the country remains in a state of +anarchy.”</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>The miseries might not originate with the clergy, but the popular wrath +did originate specially with the exactions of the tithe-proctor. Grattan +proposed commutation. But then the tithe of pasture agistment, as it was +called, could no longer have been evaded. That simple reform was put off +for more than a generation, with the most calamitous results.</p> + +<p>Dublin was gay, mansions rose, claret flowed, wit sparkled, the dance went +round. Nor was there lack of social polish or of culture of the classical +kind. On the other hand, there were extravagance, waste, and debt. Wild +and spendthrift characters appear among the leaders and mirrors of +society. Beauchamp Bagenal, as Sir Jonah Barrington tells us, “had visited +every capital of Europe, and had exhibited the native original character +of the Irish gentleman at every place he visited. In the splendour of his +travelling establishment, he quite eclipsed the petty potentates with whom +Germany was garnished. His person was fine, his manners open and generous, +his spirit high, and his liberality profuse. During his tour, he had +performed a variety of feats which were emblazoned in Ireland, and +endeared him to his countrymen. He had fought a prince; jilted a princess; +intoxicated the doge of Venice; carried off a duchess from Madrid; scaled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +the walls of a convent in Italy; narrowly escaped the Inquisition at +Lisbon; concluded his exploits by a celebrated fencing match at Paris; and +he returned to Ireland with a sovereign contempt for all continental men +and manners, and an inveterate antipathy to all despotic kings and +arbitrary governments.”</p> + +<p>Duelling was the social law. The attorney-general fought a duel; the +provost of Trinity College fought a duel. Refusal of a challenge was +social death. The viceroy’s secretary, when challenged by a disappointed +applicant for place, deemed it necessary to go to the field of honour. +Robert Fitzgerald was so addicted to duelling that he wore a chain shirt +under his vest.</p> + +<p>What can have produced such characters? Was it anything in Irish blood or +air, or was it the absence of the commercial element with its sobering +influence? The story of Robert Fitzgerald, nephew of the bishop of Derry, +seems to bespeak a wild domestic despotism exercised by the squires. +Fitzgerald is said to have confined his father in a cave with a muzzled +bear. He put to death one of his household, for which, however, he was +hanged. The matrimonial adventurer from Ireland was also a figure well +known in the sister isle.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>Of intellectual fruit there was not much except oratory, pamphlets, and +pasquinades. Swift was an Englishman born in Ireland and banished to the +place of his birth. Burke’s genius as well as his physiognomy was one-half +Irish, and his Irish half had its share in that splendid but mischievous +outburst, his essay on the French Revolution. His heart turned to Ireland, +and some of his best thought was given to her case. But he hardly belongs +to the Irish Pantheon.</p> + +<p>Oratory, both Parliamentary and forensic, flourished. Grattan, Flood, +Yelverton, Foster, Fitzgibbon (afterwards Lord Clare), Curran, are great +names in their different ways. Nor was the oratory all in the style +supposed to be Hibernian. Foster’s style, for example, was grave and +weighty. So generally was that of Flood.</p> + +<p>In Parliament there were lively scenes. Grattan and Flood having parted +company in politics, and Flood having defamed Grattan, Grattan poured upon +Flood a furious torrent of the most personal invective; telling him that +his talents were not so great as his life was infamous; that he had been +silent for years and silent for money; that he might be seen passing the +doors like a guilty spirit waiting the moment at which he might hop in and +give<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> his venal vote; that he was a kettledrum, battering himself into +popularity to catch the vulgar; that he might be seen hovering over the +dome like an ill-omened bird of night, with sepulchral note and broken +beak (Flood having a broken nose); and winding up by telling him in the +face of the country, before all the world, and to his beard, that he was +not an honest man. Flood retorted with equal fury, and a wild scene +ensued. It is not difficult to believe in the genius or the patriotism of +these orators; but it is difficult to believe in their unimpassioned +wisdom.</p> + +<p>The Penal Code had ere this lost much of its cruelty. Time, security, and +intercourse had softened the feeling of the Protestants against the +Catholics, whose passive loyalty had been proved by their inaction when +Great Britain was twice invaded by Stuart pretenders. The most odious +enactments of the code, those which involved personal degradation and +outrage on family affection, had fallen into desuetude or been evaded. +Protestant friends would hold land for a Catholic in confidential trust, +and ostensibly assume the guardianship of his children, leaving the real +guardianship to the kin. The attempts of informers to take advantage of +forfeitures were discouraged by the courts. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>Protestant fanaticism was +dying out everywhere except in rural Ulster, and was giving way among the +educated to indifference and even to scepticism. The spirit of Voltaire +was abroad. Chesterfield, as viceroy, brought it with him, laughing at +religious intolerance, and saying that the only Catholic of whom he was +afraid was the reigning beauty of Dublin. The whole system of the Catholic +Church, though still nominally subsisting only by connivance, was openly +and securely carried on. Conspicuous Mass houses were built. The Catholic +hierarchy and priesthood were forming friendly relations with a government +which had once designated all Catholics as enemies. Catholics of the upper +class educated in France came back from the land of the Encyclopædists +tinctured with its liberalism. Catholics were admitted by connivance into +Trinity College. A central committee had been formed to guard Catholic +interests, which in the penal era would have been treason. After 1782, +relief bills were passed. Catholicism was recognized by law. All +restrictions upon the maintenance of the hierarchy, freedom of ordination, +or additions to the priesthood were abrogated. Catholics were made capable +of acquiring property in land, though under the guise of leases for nine +hundred and ninety-nine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> years. The Gavelling Act, passed to break up +their estates, was repealed. It was unfortunately too late to restore the +Catholic gentry, which had been decimated by the Penal Law. In 1783 a bill +was passed opening to Catholics the profession of the law in all its +branches and grades except the rank of king’s counsel and the judicial +bench, repealing the law against the intermarriage of Catholics with +Protestants, that against foreign emigration, that making an Anglican +license necessary for schools, and that restricting the number of +apprentices permitted in Catholic trade. The laws against the possession +of arms and the exclusion from command in the army were left. Otherwise of +the Penal Code the political disabilities almost alone remained.</p> + +<p>The principal relief bill was introduced by Sir Hercules Langrishe, the +friend and correspondent on Irish politics of Burke, who pleaded the cause +of the Irish Catholics with all the vehemence of his nature, a measure of +sympathy with the religion probably mingling in his heart with love of +freedom and justice. Burke had less feeling for the grievances of +Protestant Dissenters or of Anglican clergymen liberally inclined, who +sought the relaxation of tests. He afterwards sent his son, whose ability +he fondly overrated, as his representative to Ireland, in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> affairs of +which the aspiring youth meddled, and with farcical results.</p> + +<p>The Presbyterians of Belfast had before this been relieved of the Test Act +and their other religious bonds and humiliations. But the relief had come +too late to turn them into good friends of the Anglican Church or of +British connection. Revolutionary and republican sentiment had, with +religious scepticism, taken root in Belfast.</p> + +<p>The revolution of 1782 had not been democratic. The Volunteers were +property holders and their leaders were peers. But the withdrawal of the +Volunteers was not followed by political calm. Among the populace of +Dublin, especially, excitement continued and showed itself detestably by +hamstringing British soldiers. The cry was now for two drastic measures of +change: the political emancipation of the Catholics, and a reform of +Parliament substituting freedom of election for nomination and clearing +the legislature of pensioners and placemen. The two combined evidently +meant death to Protestant ascendancy and to oligarchy, both of which +naturally shrank from suicide.</p> + +<p>The struggle grew fierce, and now not only was the American Revolution +fresh in recollection, but the French Revolution, advancing with thunder<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +tread, was filling the minds of the people everywhere, and especially +those of the oppressed and suffering, with vague visions and hopes of +change. Even to the hovel of the Irish serf, a vague hope, not of a +society regenerated on the principles of Rousseau, but of deliverance from +the middleman, from the tithe-proctor, and from the English connection, +which he thought was at the bottom of all his sufferings, had begun to +make its way.</p> + +<p>Of reform, the leader was Grattan. Opposition to reform found a mighty +champion in Fitzgibbon, afterwards Lord Clare, a strong man, fearless as +he was able, and a very powerful speaker, but violent and overbearing, as +well as reactionary to a degree which charms the reactionary historian. +Fitzgibbon had a very coarse but rather effective shield-bearer in Dr. +Duigenan, the son of a Catholic farmer intended for the priesthood, but +captured by the Protestant clergyman of his parish.</p> + +<p>Grattan and the reform party failed to get admission for Catholics to +Parliament. They failed to purify the House itself by substituting free +election for nomination boroughs, or by the effective exclusion of +pensioners and placemen from the House. They succeeded in extending the +electoral franchise to all holders, whether Catholic or Protestant, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +forty-shilling freeholds. Unfortunately, they could hardly have done worse +than by giving political power to the mass without its natural leaders. +Protestant demagogues playing for the Catholic vote were certain to +appear. Another bad effect of the measure was the multiplication of cotter +holdings by land-owners who would absolutely control the cotter’s vote. On +the other hand, to ask the Protestant oligarchy to part with its exclusive +possession of Parliament was to ask it, not only to resign power, but even +to cast a shadow on its property, for the Act of Settlement had hardly +even yet become perfectly sacred as the title-deed of proprietary right. +Not all the advocates of Parliamentary reform were in favour of Catholic +emancipation. Flood among others was opposed to it.</p> + +<p>Of the British government Pitt was now absolute master. Early in his reign +he had glanced at Irish politics and it seems had thought of union. But +the Channel was still wide and Irish government was still left to the +Castle. Pitt, however, had tendered Ireland a commercial agreement framed, +like his commercial treaty with France, in the spirit of the first +statesman who read Adam Smith. Introduced by him with great ability and at +first with general acceptance, his measure in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> end was wrecked by a +combination of British protectionism, Whig faction, and Irish jealousy on +the subject of legislative independence; to the last of which Fox, carried +away by faction, scrupled not to appeal. Commercial union would have +strengthened the political connection, and by furthering commercial +prosperity might have done something to allay Irish discontent. Latterly, +Pitt’s thoughts had been engrossed by the struggle with France. They were +now turned perforce to the political state of Ireland, which was evidently +becoming very perilous; at that time, unfortunately, with no happy result.</p> + +<p>The Whigs opposed to the French Revolution, Portland, Spencer, +Fitzwilliam, and Windham, had coalesced with Pitt without renouncing their +general principles, which they wished to apply to Ireland, regarding that +field, it seems, as especially their own. At their instance Fitzwilliam +was sent over as viceroy, believing, and it seems with reason, that he +bore Catholic emancipation and general reform in his hand; though he had +no written instructions, nor, it appears, any verbal instructions +sufficiently clear. He went hastily to work, opened his budget of +concessions prematurely, and too promptly brandished the besom of +administrative reform,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> dismissing from office one of the great +place-hunting house of Beresford, which by assiduous intrigue had filled +the public service with its nominees. The Beresford carried his plaint to +the headquarters of the Tory party in London, and told Pitt that +Fitzwilliam was turning out all the faithful supporters of the government. +What followed is still a mystery. There was a long, unaccountable, and +apparently inexcusable silence on the part of Portland, broken at last by +disclaimer, rebuke, and recall. Fitzwilliam, stung to fury at this +treatment, trampled on official rules and did serious mischief by his +publication of confidential letters betraying an incipient design of +union, which to Irish patriotism at that time was maddening. At the bottom +of all the misunderstanding and trouble was the king, into whose miserable +mind had been instilled, it appears by Fitzgibbon, the belief that by +consenting to Catholic emancipation he would break his coronation oath. +The two great Tory lawyers, Eldon and Kenyon, to their honour, told the +king the truth. It seems probable, however, that the union of the +coalition government was imperfect, as that of coalition governments is +apt to be, and that this may be the account both of the want of clearness +in Fitzwilliam’s original<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> instructions and of the strange silence, ending +at last in an abrupt dismissal, which ensued.</p> + +<p>Fitzwilliam left Dublin amidst passionate demonstrations of popular +disappointment and grief. His place was taken by Lord Camden, one of the +Tory section of the Pitt government, who came to face Irish rebellion +aided by Revolutionary France, while England, placed in extreme peril by +French victories and the secession of her allies, was struggling for her +life and was unable to afford military support to the government of +Ireland.</p> + +<p>Catholic emancipation and reform of Parliament, had Fitzwilliam been +allowed to grant them, would, Grattan thought, have averted the crisis. +They might have staved it off, but it would probably have come in another +form. That the new power thus called into being would be as loyal as +Grattan himself to British connection was a highly precarious assumption. +The course of the French Revolution would have not been stayed, nor would +the wild hopes which it excited have been extinguished. The aspirations of +Tom Paine’s disciples at Belfast would not have ceased. The cotter’s +hunger would not have been appeased nor would he have been reconciled to +the payment of tithe and Church cess. The blind hatred of British +connection as the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>supposed source of all evil to Ireland would have +continued to work. The State Church would at once have been attacked. The +Castle government, bereft of its two supports, nomination boroughs and +patronage, would inevitably have lost its hold. Chaos would then have +come. Material order might have been preserved by a sufficient military +force. Otherwise there was apparently nothing for it but union.</p> + +<p>In Presbyterian Belfast, hatred of the State Church and the English +government which supported it, bred by Episcopal intolerance, had +developed, especially among the young men, into rationalism and acceptance +of the doctrines, both religious and political, of Tom Paine. The +connection of sympathy with the exiles in America had been kept up, and +the spirit of the American was combined with that of the French +Revolution. Thus was formed the circle of United Irishmen. The professed +aim of this association, perhaps originally its real aim, was only the +reform of Parliament. But it soon became revolutionary, aiming at +independence of England and the foundation of an Irish republic, to be +brought about by the aid of revolutionary France. Its soul was Wolfe Tone, +a young man of talent, literary and practical, and of generous instincts, +wild, dissipated, recklessly adventurous, burning with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> hatred of England. +Other leading members of the circle were Jackson and Emmett. Most of the +set were plebeian. But there was one recruit from the aristocracy, Lord +Edward Fitzgerald, son of the Duke of Leinster, fired, like Lafayette, +with the enthusiasm of liberty, but distinguished and made an object of +sentimental interest only by his rank and by his tragical end.</p> + +<p>The outbreak was now imminent. Grattan, with his few steadfast adherents, +seceded from Parliament, where he had better have stayed to moderate as +far as he could the fury of repression. This he owed to the country on +which he had imposed the constitution of 1782, a system fraught, as he +might have seen, with disruption and capable of being worked only as it +had been worked, by Castle influence. The bond of loyalty to England, +which was strong in his own breast, he assumed to be general. Neither he +nor, with reverence be it said, Burke, excellent as the general principles +of both might be, correctly read the situation, which was one of a very +special kind. Burke’s letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe on the subject of +religious emancipation is accounted one of the greatest of his works. But +Fitzgibbon might with reason have replied to it that of the real Irish +problem it offered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> no practical solution. It did not show how a national +Parliament of Ireland, with a great Catholic majority, and uncontrolled by +Castle patronage and influence, to which reform would have put an end, +could be kept in secure harmony with the Parliament of Great Britain. +Burke, however, now and then, glances timidly at the policy of union. +Grattan could think of nothing but his two Parliaments linked by eternal +affection. After Grattan’s secession, the oligarchy closed its ranks, and +the Parliament thenceforth went thoroughly with the government, or even +beyond it, in the policy of repression.</p> + +<p>The Castle understood its danger. In Irish conspiracies the informer is +never lacking. Besides, there were Catholics, who though patriots, wishing +to avert civil war, communicated with the government, and furnished it +with information for that purpose. Among these may fairly be numbered +Arthur O’Leary, on whose connection with the government and acceptance of +a small pension from it, lately revealed, prejudice pounces as a proof +that the best reputed and most eminent of Irish Liberals was a rogue. +Arthur O’Leary wrote well, and the spirit of his writings was thoroughly +liberal as well as loyal. Nothing seems to have been <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>expected of him +beyond general information of Catholic tendencies and movements such as +one who desired to avert civil war might honestly give. By its secret +intelligence the government was enabled at a critical moment to seize some +of the leaders of the conspiracy, while Lord Edward Fitzgerald met his +death in resisting arrest.</p> + +<p>The fire, smouldering everywhere, burst into a flame in Armagh, a +Protestant district into which Catholics had intruded by outbidding +Protestant holders of farms whose leases had expired. The Protestants, +banding together under the name of Peep o’Day Boys, proceeded to oust the +intruders, burning some of their houses. The Catholics combined for mutual +protection under the name of Defenders. Outrages were committed on both +sides. In a pitched battle, on a small scale, called the battle of the +Diamond, the Catholics were worsted and a number of them were killed. Many +Catholics were driven from their homes, and the fugitives spread through +the country the belief that the Protestants were bent on extermination.</p> + +<p>The United Irishmen, disciples of Tom Paine, cared nothing for the +quarrels of sects. But disaffection of any kind was grist to their +revolutionary mill. They coalesced with Defenderism, and by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> superior +intelligence got control of the movement, which they organized as an +expectant army of revolution. Their task was made easy by the habits of +conspiracy formed among the peasantry in the agrarian war. There were +secret oaths, passwords, military gradations of command. There were even +reviews under pretence of digging the potatoes of patriots who were in +prison. Everything was ready for a rising as soon as French succour should +appear. All the blacksmiths were making pike-heads, the young trees were +being everywhere cut down for the shafts. Muskets in plenty would come +with the auxiliary army from France. Wolfe Tone had visited Paris, of +which in its revolutionary phase he gives a lively picture, and received a +promise of aid; Hoche, with whom he had an interview, being eager for the +enterprise.</p> + +<p>Among the people generally the rebellion was agrarian rather than +religious, religious only as the Catholic peasantry believed that they saw +in Protestantism a badge of general enmity. But that belief made the war +between the sects internecine. It does not appear that any but a few of +the lowest and coarsest of the priesthood took an active part in the +rebellion. The order, as a whole, could hardly look with pleasure for the +conquest of Ireland by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> an atheist revolution. The French, in fact, had +they become masters of Ireland for a time, would probably in the end have +found themselves there, as in Spain, confronted by a hostile priesthood +carrying with it the people.</p> + +<p>In the extremity of danger, surrounded by gathering rebellion, Castle +government had now to strike or fall. It struck, practically proclaiming +martial law. But it was without the only safe means of military +repression. Of regular soldiers it had few. Those few behaved well. Some +of them earned by their conduct the blessings of the people. But in the +main repression had to be entrusted to yeomanry and fencibles, little +controlled by discipline, and infected, as a militia is always apt to be, +and as in this case they were in an extreme degree, by the passions of the +hour. These men, sent forth to disarm the people, in their search for +concealed arms burned, slew, pitch-capped, flogged without stint or mercy, +and turned a great district of the north and midland into a hell. The +people retaliated with equal atrocity where they had the power. A large +number of suspects were arbitrarily shipped on board the fleet, where it +was believed they helped by their infection to beget the mutiny at the +Nore. Lord Moira, a patriot Irish nobleman, protested<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> vehemently in the +House of Lords, but his exaggeration and partiality broke the force of his +appeal. To control the excesses of repression and restore military +discipline, the gallant Abercrombie was put in command; but he lost his +self-control, reviled the troops in an imprudent manifesto, broke with the +government, and left matters worse than they had been before.</p> + +<p>In Ulster, fraternities of strong Protestants, which had existed +informally since 1689, were now formally organized as Orange Lodges. They +embodied an intensely sectarian feeling and committed their share of +outrages, but they lent the government powerful aid.</p> + +<p>Conspicuous among the ruthless agents of repression was the head of the +Beresfords, whose riding-house at Dublin was a daily scene of torture. +Conspicuous also was Judkin Fitzgerald, the field of whose operations was +Tipperary. Fitzgerald’s apologists plead that his policy was successful. +It might be so, but the cause of public order does not gain in the end by +outraging that law of natural justice on respect for which public order +must ultimately depend. Fitzgerald, savagely flogging a man on whom he had +found a note in the French language, which not knowing French himself he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +could not read, was presently assured by one who could read the note that +it was perfectly harmless. He nevertheless continued the torture of the +lash till the victim nearly expired. Such a case seems to defy apology. +Fitzgerald, however, was not only protected from question by an Act of +Indemnity, but rewarded with a title. On both sides all hearts were fired +with the satanic madness of civil war.</p> + +<p>French aid had been promised. To the unspeakable discredit of the British +admiralty, it came. An expedition which had long been in preparation under +Hoche was allowed to sail from Brest and unopposed to make the coast of +Ireland at Bantry Bay. A storm which prevented a landing, the bad +seamanship of the French, whose naval service had been shattered by the +revolution, and the separation of the frigate which had the general on +board from the rest of the fleet, saved Ireland from temporary conquest +and Great Britain from the consequences of that disaster. It is remarkable +that the peasantry in the neighbourhood of Bantry Bay received the +soldiers of the government well and shared their potatoes with them. Was +this loyalty or fear? Had the French landed, would the potatoes have been +still more hospitably shared?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> An expedition afterwards fitted out in +Holland, now a vassal of France, at the very crisis of the mutiny at the +Nore, was weatherbound till the mutiny was over and was then crushed by +Duncan at Camperdown. A small French force under Humbert afterwards +landed, and at Castlebar put the militia to shameful flight. But it was +presently surrounded by superior numbers and forced to surrender. There +were still some faint demonstrations, in one of which the arch-enemy of +England, Wolfe Tone, met his doom. He imprudently betrayed his identity to +his captors. His French commission availed him not. He escaped the gallows +by suicide. He was a genuine enthusiast, and he was at all events on one +of the only two practicable lines of action. Separation was the sole +alternative to union. But had Tone got the upper hand, with his fanaticism +and a savage peasantry thirsting for Protestant and English blood at his +back, the political millennium in Ireland, as in France, would have opened +with a reign of terror.</p> + +<p>Disappointed of aid from France, the rebellion took the field by itself. +There was a great rising in Wexford, headed by Father Murphy, a fighting +priest, a compound of Wat Tyler and John Ball, who gave himself out as a +supernatural personage,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> and persuaded the people that he could catch +bullets in his hands. The father showed a natural genius for war. His +peasants fought desperately, and the Irish pike proved a formidable weapon +in their hands. The rebels gained one or two successes in the field, and +took the city of Wexford. They perpetrated fiendish cruelties. At +Scullabogue they burned or butchered a barn full of Protestants. At +Wexford they dragged their prisoners to the bridge, stripped them naked, +hoisted them up on the points of their pikes, and threw them into the +river. At Vinegar Hill, a name of ghastly memory, the rebel headquarters, +a batch of Protestants was every day brought out after a mock trial to be +massacred. The people being here under priestly leadership, the character +of a religious crusade was given to their warfare, and every Protestant +was a mark for their murderous fury. On the other hand, Protestants in the +north who at the outset had been revolutionary, seeing the rebellion +assume the character of a Catholic crusade, passed to the side of +government and repression. One or two men of property were forced into +leadership by the rebels; otherwise property was entirely on the side of +the government.</p> + +<p>After Scullabogue, Wexford, and Vinegar Hill,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> there could not fail to be +a terrible outpouring of vengeance. It came in full measure, as we learn +from the correspondence of Cornwallis, a soldier of high distinction and +character, who was sent in place of Camden as viceroy to close the scene. +He is much afraid, he says, that any man in a brown coat who is found +within several miles of the field of action is butchered without +discrimination. The Irish militia, he says, are totally without +discipline, contemptible before the enemy when any serious resistance is +made to them, but ferocious and cruel in the extreme when any poor +wretches either with or without arms come within their power. In short, +murder appears their favourite pastime. The conversation of the principal +persons of the country all tends to encourage the system of blood, and the +conversation even at his own table, where he does all he can to prevent +it, always turns on shooting, burning, hanging. If a priest has been put +to death, the greatest joy is expressed by the whole company. “Who fears +to speak of ’98?” said a patriot bard in other days. The answer is, every +one who is not utterly lost to reason and humanity. These militia men, it +is to be borne in mind, were Irish, not English, and their murderous +enmity was the enmity of one section of Ireland to another.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2> + +<p><br />Pitt now resolved on a legislative union of Ireland with England and +Scotland, thus reverting to the policy of the Commonwealth. But union had +been the ideal of Molyneux, and since the revolution of 1782 it had found +many advocates, among them Adam Smith. An Irish government of sectarian +ascendancy and oligarchy combined, controlled, and held in precarious +subordination to the government of Great Britain by intrigue and +corruption, had ended in murderous and ruinous conflict of political +parties, social classes, and religious sects. In its realm people had been +refusing to eat pork because the swine might have fed on human flesh. +Foreign invasion had been invited. It had come, and only by repeated +miracles had Great Britain as well as Ireland been saved in the last +extremity of peril. Nor had that peril ceased. It was much to be deplored +that Pitt could not, like Cromwell and the Council of State, effect the +union by simply calling representatives of Ireland to the Parliament at +Westminster. Situated as Pitt was, he had,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> as Castlereagh laconically put +it, “to buy the fee simple of Irish corruption.” The price he paid was +compensation in money to the owners of pocket boroughs and profuse grants +of peerages. The process was not edifying. Cornwallis, who had come at +once to put an end to havoc and to carry the union, having a strict sense +of honour, might well recoil from his task. Bribery with money has not +been brought home to the government, though in one case at least it has +been brought home to the opposition. From that stain the union is free. A +pretty large sum was needed to tune the press and for campaign expenses. +Pocket boroughs in those days were deemed property, and had been so +treated in Pitt’s Reform Bill for England. The compensation paid the +owners of boroughs was not above the market price, and it was paid to the +opponents as well as to the supporters of the union; Lord Downshire, the +most powerful opponent of the union, as it happened, receiving the largest +sum of all. Foster, who made the greatest speech in Parliament against the +union, received seventy-five hundred pounds for his half share of a pocket +borough. In the absence of such compensation the owners of pocket boroughs +and the purchasers of seats for them would have been virtually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> bribed by +their private interest apart from any political consideration to oppose +the bill. Something was needed to induce a powerful and selfish oligarchy +to part with the field of its ascendancy and its ambition. For that +purpose the lavish creation of peerages was used. It cost the nation +nothing, and titles which had been openly used as bribes were not capable +of much degradation. Pitt is upbraided for not having taken the sense of +the nation by means of a general election. The sense of a nation of which +at least three-quarters were not eligible to Parliament! The sense of the +proprietors of nomination boroughs on the question of depriving them of +their property and its influence! The sense of a nation, the passions of +which had not had time to cool after a furious civil war, a civil war the +ashes of which still fiercely glowed and might by the excitement of a +general election have been fanned again into a flame! It is ever to be +lamented that the thing could not have been done in a simpler and less +questionable way. But it had to be done. Venality was venal, and, its +consent being necessary to the salvation of the state, had to be bought. +The purity of Pitt’s motives or of those of his colleagues cannot be +questioned. The idea that he had provoked rebellion to make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> way for union +is a slander which only political frenzy could fabricate or believe.</p> + +<p>What was the feeling in Ireland at large it is very hard to determine. +There were addresses and declarations on both sides, but we cannot tell +how they were got up. Cornwallis made a canvassing tour. His opinion at +first was that Dublin was furiously opposed but the rest of the country +was favourable. This estimate changed as the struggle went on. Dublin, of +course, was the centre of excitement. At the outset it was the scene of a +riot. The capital could not like to lose the seat of government and the +social centre; nor could the Irish bar like the transfer of the supreme +jurisdiction to Westminster, or the severance of the Parliamentary from +the forensic career; the two, while Parliament sat in Dublin, having been +habitually, and often brilliantly, combined. Cork, on the other hand, was +flattered with the prospect of becoming a second Glasgow. It seems strange +that the Orangemen should then have been against the union, of which they +have since been the staunchest supporters. But they no doubt scented the +approach, with the union, of Catholic emancipation. The Catholic +hierarchy, headed by Archbishop Troy, was strongly for the union, and +unquestionably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> drew with it a large following both of clergy and laity. +The hope was undoubtedly held out of Catholic emancipation, possibly +accompanied by a provision for the Catholic priesthood, as a sequel to the +union; though no positive pledge was or could be given. At the same time +it is to be borne in mind that the general sympathy of a Catholic +priesthood would be with the British government as the chief antagonist of +an atheist France. The terrible tension of ’98 had probably been followed +in many quarters by collapse and readiness to acquiesce in anything that +could hold out to life and property the protection of a strong government. +The “Annual Register” for 1802 says that at the first election of Irish +members to the United Parliament no supporter of the union lost his +election or was even upbraided on that account; that in the county of +Dublin alone did a candidate think his opposition to the union such a +claim to popular favour as to make it worth his while to allude to it; and +that some of the largest and most independent counties returned strong +supporters of the union. Cornwallis reports that in Dublin, the chief +centre of opposition, when at last the royal assent was given to the bill, +not a murmur was heard nor, as he believed, was there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> any expression of +ill-humour throughout the whole city.</p> + +<p>The Established Church of Ireland would be willing to support a measure +which, by identifying it with the English establishment, converted it from +the Church of a small minority into a limb of the Church of a great +majority, thus giving it a tenable ground of existence and a pledge of +support which it fondly hoped would never fail.</p> + +<p>The campaign of opinion, at all events, was conducted on both sides with +perfect freedom. There is no pretence for alleging that the union was +carried by military force. The affair at Dublin was a street riot, for the +repression of which it was necessary to call in the troops. Nothing like +military terrorism in fact is alleged. Twelve months before the passing of +the union, and in the middle of the struggle, Cornwallis said that “the +force remaining in Ireland was sufficient to maintain peace, totally +inadequate to repel foreign invasion.”</p> + +<p>There were historic debates in the Irish Parliament. Grand speeches were +made in the nationalist and patriotic vein by opponents of the union. +Grattan, the author of the constitution of 1782, came in his volunteer +uniform to bedew its hearse with his oratoric tears. The dramatic effect +was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> enhanced by the bodily infirmity of the great patriot and orator, +which obliged him to speak sitting. Plunket put forth to the utmost those +powers of debate which led Lord Russell to pronounce him of all the many +speakers whom he had heard the most convincing. Foster produced a profound +effect by his mastery of commercial and financial detail, though in this +part of the field he had to contend with the supreme and unclouded +judgment of Adam Smith left on record in favour of union. As strong an +argument as any was that Ireland would be in danger of losing her leading +men, who would be drawn away to England. But absenteeism was already rife, +and was likely to be in the main diminished rather than increased by any +measure which made Ireland a happier abode. To the spirit of nationality +telling appeals could not fail to be made; but to what the nationality +amounted, whether it was nominal or real, of the heart or merely of local +boundary, had with terrible clearness appeared. In the speeches of the +opposition there seems to have been much more of political argument of a +general kind and of patriotic sentiment than of reference to the actual +working of the Constitution of 1782 and the consequences to which it had led.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>Of all the opponents of the union on the high patriotic ground, the most +fervid was Plunket. “For my own part,” he exclaimed, “I will resist it to +the last gasp of my existence, and with the last drop of my blood, and +when I feel the hour of my dissolution approaching I will, like the father +of Hannibal, take my children to the altar and swear them to eternal +hostility against the invaders of their country’s freedom.” It is to be +hoped that Plunket’s children, if they took the oath, found absolution; +for the father soon afterwards, sitting in the united Parliament of which +he was a distinguished member, had so far changed his sentiments as to say +of the union; “As an Irishman I opposed that union; as an Irishman I avow +that I did so openly and boldly, nor am I now ashamed of what I then did. +But though in my resistance to it I had been prepared to go the length of +any man, I am now equally prepared to do all in my power to render it +close and indissoluble. One of the apprehensions on which my opposition +was founded, I am happy to say, has been disappointed by the event. I had +been afraid that the interest of Ireland, on the abolition of her separate +legislature, would come to be discussed in a hostile Parliament. But I can +now state—and I wish when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> I speak that I could be heard by the whole of +Ireland—that during the time that I have sat in the united Parliament I +have found every question that related to the interests or security of +that country entertained with indulgence and treated with the most +deliberate regard.”</p> + +<p>Grattan too sat in the united Parliament enjoying a Nestorian dignity and +at first, Parliamentary reformer though he was, for a nomination borough. +He voted for one of those measures of coercion, the necessity for which +unhappily soon made itself felt. The most telling speech of all against +union in the Irish Parliament was that of Foster; and Foster too sat in +the united Parliament, was reconciled to Pitt, was by him made chancellor +of the Irish exchequer, and became a peer of the United Kingdom.</p> + +<p>The cause of the union in debate was pleaded by Clare and Castlereagh, +inferior to their opponents in eloquence, though Clare was a very +formidable speaker as well as a very strong man.</p> + +<p>Through the British Parliament the union was carried by overwhelming +majorities, though opposed by Grey, who afterwards, as prime minister, +became its firm upholder, and by Sheridan, far less sage than brilliant, +while Fox refused to attend the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> debates, throwing out a hint that he +preferred something in the way of federation; what, he did not say. In the +Irish Parliament at first the measure was defeated. It was carried at +length by dead-lift effort on the part of Clare and Castlereagh, who, +leading for the government, did unquestionably make unlimited and by no +means scrupulous use of such expedients as in those days were more freely +employed by governments to push vital measures through the House. That +such expedients should have prevailed is to be deplored as a stain on the +origin of the union. At the same time it proves the rottenness of the +assembly then on trial for its life. Nor should it be forgotten that on +the side of opposition to the union were arrayed purely local and personal +interests not more respectable in themselves than were the methods by +which their resistance was overcome.</p> + +<p>Let Irish patriots, when they bewail the extinction of the independent +Parliament of Ireland, remember that its last days had been marked by +eager support of the most ruthless and sanguinary measures of repression.</p> + +<p>No serious exception appears to have been taken to the political bargain +which gave Ireland one hundred representatives in the House of Commons<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +and thirty-two representatives, including four bishops sitting by +rotation, in the House of Lords. The party system has never been +constitutionally recognized, and it was not observed that the +representative peers, elected by their own order, would always be Tory, to +the total exclusion of the other party. About the fiscal bargain questions +are raised. These affect not the political issue.</p> + +<p>Viceroyalty, with Castle executive, was retained. This may be said to be a +relic of dependence. But the need of a separate administration +unfortunately has never ceased. When, in 1850, it was moved to abolish the +lord-lieutenancy, Ireland protested, and in deference to her veto the +measure was withdrawn. Ireland retained her separate judiciary and for +some time her separate department of finance.</p> + +<p>It was in regard to the religious question that the union was for the time +a failure. Pitt kept his word. He proposed Catholic emancipation to his +cabinet and pressed it on the king. He was foiled by the rogue and +sycophant Wedderburn, who for his personal ends played on the king’s +morbid conscience and was aided in his work by the influence of two +archbishops, through whom a state church once more rendered its political<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +service to the nation. Pitt paid the debt of honour by resignation. It is +said that if he had persevered he would have prevailed, and the king would +have submitted, as he did in other cases, such as the acknowledgment of +American independence, the dismissal of Thurlow, the permission to Lord +Malmesbury to treat with France, the recall of the Duke of York, and the +admission of Fox to the government. But not one of these was a case of +religious conscience, nor in one of them had the king a great body of +national sentiment on his side, as he had, and knew that he had, in his +resistance to Catholic emancipation. He afterwards turned out the +Grenville ministry, which proposed to admit Catholics to military command, +and in so doing was manifestly sustained by the nation. After all, Pitt +must have known best what could be done with the king. That his +resignation was less of a sacrifice, because he thus escaped the necessity +of treating for peace with France, is conjecture, and does not affect the +actual propriety of his course. The king having in consequence of the +excitement been threatened with a recurrence of his malady, Pitt waived +the Catholic question for the king’s lifetime, and, when called by the +extreme need of the country, returned to power on that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> understanding. He +would have done little good, and not have gratified the nation by driving +the king mad and transferring the government in the midst of the great war +to the Prince of Wales as Regent and the revellers of Carlton House. In +criticising the action of public men at this period, we must always bear +in mind the overmastering exigencies of the war. Pitt, though he waived +his principle on the subject of Catholic emancipation, never renounced it. +It passed to his pupil Canning, and within a generation prevailed.</p> + +<p>The only concession made at this time to the Catholics was the endowment +of Maynooth as a seminary for the Catholic priesthood of Ireland, cut off +from the seminaries of the continent by the war.</p> + +<p>Since the union, there has been much that was deplorable in the state of +Ireland and in the relations of the two islands, the main source of which, +however, as will presently appear, was not political. There has been a +hateful series of coercion acts. But there have been no Tudor hostings; +there has been no 1641; no 1689; no 1798. No fleet of an invader has +anchored in Bantry Bay. Belfast, once the seed-plot of revolution, has +prospered and been content. Two years afterwards revolution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> flamed up +again for a moment in the abortive rising of Emmet. Then it died down, to +break forth seriously, at least as civil war, no more.</p> + +<p>The union must be taken to have been a union in the full sense of the +term, putting an end to separate identity, not merely a standing contract +between two parties, each of which retained the right of enforcing the +contract against the other. On this understanding Parliament has acted, +and is likely again to act in the case of the representation, as well as +in the disestablishment of the Irish Church. The United Kingdom cannot be +hide-bound forever by the terms which, necessarily having reference to the +circumstances of its formation, must, like those circumstances, have been +deemed liable to change.</p> + +<p>It is unfortunate that no common name for the united nationality could be +found. “British” excludes the Irish, “English” both the Irish and the +Scotch, and separatist sentiment is fostered by the retention of the old +national name.</p> + +<p>Victory over the French Revolution and Napoleon was accompanied by an +ascendancy of Toryism, which kept Liverpool at the head of the government +for fourteen years. In this both islands fared alike. But the Cabinet was +divided on the subject<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> of Catholic emancipation. Plunket, still a Liberal +though now a Unionist, showed his power as a debater in the Catholic +cause. Castlereagh and Canning were on the Liberal side. Emancipation was +carried in the Commons, thrown out in the lords, while old Eldon drank to +the thirty-nine peers who had saved the Thirty-nine Articles, little +thinking how soon he was to be smitten in the house of his friends. On +Liverpool’s death there were a few months of Canning and a brief interlude +of Goodrich. Then power reverted to the Tory and anti-Catholic section of +the Liverpool combination, at the head of which were Wellington and Peel. +Peel, in whom hereditary Toryism was combined with natural openness of +mind and practical sagacity, as well as with supreme skill in +administration, seemed specially sent to carry England safely by the +bridge of Conservatism over the gulf between the old era and the new. He +had been one of the anti-Catholic section of the Liverpool government, and +in that character had been elected to Parliament by the clerical and then +Protestant University of Oxford. But he had administered Ireland for six +years; had seen the state of things there; had been impressed and shown +symptoms of a change of sentiment. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> dealt liberally with Catholics in +the matter of patronage. He and Wellington now acquiesced in the relief of +the Dissenters by the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. Probably +they were hesitating on the brink of Catholic emancipation when they were +impelled by a new force. The Catholic cause had found for itself a +first-rate leader, organizer, and orator, Daniel O’Connell.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2> + +<p><br />Daniel O’Connell, whose figure fills the next page in Irish history, was a +Dublin barrister who, having gained a unique reputation as a skilful or +more than skilful winner of verdicts, passed from the forensic to the +political field. He was of pure Irish blood, Irish in physiognomy, +typically Irish in character. Nature had endowed him with all the gifts of +a popular leader, bodily as well as mental; for he had a voice of +unrivalled power and compass as well as extraordinary tact in dealing with +the masses and skill in the conduct of agitation. His oratory was such as +never failed to tell with his Irish audience, while its violent +exaggeration, its disregard of truth and offensiveness of expression too +often excited the just resentment of those whom he assailed and repelled +all moderate and right-minded men. At the same time he knew how to play +the courtier, as he showed when George IV. visited Ireland. He entered +public life without the blessing of the veteran Grattan, who accused him +of setting afloat the bad passions of the people,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> venting calumny against +Great Britain, and making politics a trade. That his motives were mixed is +probable. But of his Irish patriotism there could be no doubt. O’Connell +was a most devout Catholic, enjoyed the hearty confidence of the +priesthood, and was able to make full use of its influence in calling out +and marshalling the people. He thus opened a new era in the history of +Irish agitation. In return, he supported the priesthood in its extreme +pretensions; notably in defeating a proposal for the admission of +Catholics to political power subject to securities for the loyalty of +their Church which conflicted with high priestly pretensions, though it +had been favourably entertained at Rome. It was on this point that he and +Grattan broke. O’Connell, with the aid of his priestly fuglemen, formed a +great Catholic association to overawe the government. On the other side, +the Orangemen, now heartily Unionist, rushed to arms. A fierce conflict +ensued in Ireland, with some danger to the peace. In the course of it the +Duke of York, heir presumptive to the Crown, electrified the country and +filled the heart of Eldon and true blue Protestantism with joy by a solemn +declaration that if he became king he would veto Catholic emancipation. +After trying his power<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> by carrying some elections, O’Connell determined +to bring the conflict to a head by himself standing for Parliament in +defiance of the law by which, as a Catholic, he was excluded. He carried +his election for Clare against the candidate of the gentry by the votes of +the Catholic peasantry, the forty-shilling freeholders; the influence of +the Church with its sacraments being openly employed in his support. Peel +and Wellington now gave way and carried the admission of the Catholics to +Parliament, only tempering the shock to their Tory supporters by the +abolition of the forty-shilling freehold; no great blow to liberty, since +the only question was whether the forty-shilling freeholder should be the +tool of the landlord or of the priest. The refusal to O’Connell of the +rank of king’s counsel, to which he had become eligible, was defended as +another sop to the Tories; but it really was a mark of resentment, very +unwise as well as undignified, though partly excused by the offensiveness +of O’Connell’s bearing and language. It may have been unwillingness to +confess change of opinion that led Wellington and Peel to ascribe the +concession of Catholic emancipation to fear of civil war. O’Connell could +not have put into the field any force capable of making head against the +forces of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> the government, Ulster, the Orangemen, and the Irish gentry. He +was himself utterly unwarlike, and there was no foreign power to come to +his aid. The measure was a concession of right demanded not only by the +Irish Catholics themselves, but by a large party in England which included +the best intelligence of the country and the most powerful organs of the +press, without the help of which it could not have been carried. Unhappily +it was made to appear as a concession of fear.</p> + +<p>O’Connell’s victory made him the idol and the master of Catholic Ireland. +A large revenue, called his “rent,” was thenceforth raised for him by +annual subscription. On this his enemies did not fail to reflect. He +defended it as the necessary compensation for the sacrifice of a large +professional income to the service of the country. At his ancestral +mansion of Darrynane, on the wild, thoroughly Celtic, and Erse-speaking +coast of Kerry, the “Liberator” held a rustic court profusely hospitable, +amidst a circle of devoted adherents, with an open table at which as many +as thirty guests were sometimes seated; thus presenting probably the +nearest possible counterpart of the head of a great sept in the tribal +days. To Darrynane a pilgrimage was made by Montalembert, who fondly +hoped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> that he had found in its master that union of devotion to the +Church with liberty which was the ideal of the liberal Catholic school.</p> + +<p>Would Catholic emancipation pacify Ireland? Its authors expected that it +would. Even Macaulay appears to think that if the popular religion of +Ireland had been treated at the union as the popular religion of Scotland +was treated, all in Ireland, as in Scotland, might have been well. The +result was disappointing. The Irish cotter had voted and shouted for +Catholic emancipation at the bidding of the priests and the platform; but +what he wanted and hoped to get by a revolution of any kind was, not so +much political or religious change, as more oats and potatoes. His real +grievances were hunger and nakedness. To afford those myriads a +treacherous food, the behest of nature had been too much disregarded; +lands destined for pasture had been turned into potato and oat plots. The +millions, reduced to an animal existence, had gone on multiplying with +animal recklessness. The increase was greater since rebellion and +devastation were at an end. In this sense alone the consequences of the +union may be said to have been evil. The priest enjoined marriage on moral +grounds, perhaps not without an eye to fees. Between 1801<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> and 1841 +population increased by three millions. More than ever, the homes were +filthy hovels shared with swine, the beds litters of dirty straw, the +dresses rags, the food the potato, while there was frequent dearth and +sometimes famine. Eviction increased, since, the forty-shilling freehold +franchise having been abolished, the landlord cared no longer to multiply +holdings for the sake of votes. The land system, with its tiers of +middlemen, was as cruel as ever. Tithe, the most odious of all imposts, +was still collected in the most odious manner. As a consequence, peasant +Ireland was still the scene of a vast agrarian war waged by a starving +people against the landlord and the tithe-proctor. Arson, murder, carding +and mutilation of middlemen and tithe-proctors were rife. Victims leaping +from the windows of their burning houses were caught on pitchforks. The +nation was undergoing a baptism of lawlessness and savagery. All the +peasants were in the league of crime and screened the assassin. Law was +powerless. Prosecution was hopeless. Murder was committed in open day and +before a number of witnesses, all of whom, if brought into court, would +perjure themselves in the common cause. A deep impression had been made +upon Peel by the horrors of the agrarian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> war. He had been particularly +moved by a case showing the transcendent height which social passion had +attained. A party of Whiteboys entered a house in which there were the man +whom they came to murder, his wife, and their little girl. The man was in +a room on the ground floor. His wife and their little girl were in a room +above, with a closet, through a hole in the door of which the room could +be seen. The woman heard the Whiteboys enter and knew their errand. She +put the child into the closet, saying to her, “They are murdering your +father below, then they will come up and murder me. Mind you look well at +them and swear to them when you see them in court.” The child obeyed. She +looked on while her mother was murdered. She swore to the murderers in +court, and they were hanged upon her evidence.</p> + +<p>The evil had reached such a height that society in Ireland was almost on +the point of dissolution. Ordinary coercion acts, of which there had been +a series, failed and the Liberal government of Grey was compelled to have +recourse to martial law.</p> + +<p>The tide of reform, however, which began to flow in 1830, before it ebbed, +brought to Ireland, besides her share in reform of the Parliamentary +representation, the opening of the municipal councils,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> which had been +universally close and corrupt, and after Catholic emancipation still +excluded Catholics. It brought commutation of tithe, a measure of immense +value, far too long delayed, which shifted the burden of payment from the +shoulders of the cotter to those of the landlord. It brought a poor law, +cruelly needed in the midst of multiplying evictions. Furthermore, it +brought in 1831-1833 the momentous gift of public education, national and +undenominational, in the inauguration of which the Anglican primate, +Archbishop Whateley, reconciling his advanced liberalism with his +anomalous position, took a leading part. Ireland thus in national +education preceded England by many years. Whateley had fellow-workers in +liberal Catholics, ecclesiastical as well as lay, but the weight of Roman +authority and influence was, as it always has been, and still is, against +free education. The State Church of the minority succeeded in repelling +attack; but it underwent some internal reform, including the suppression +of ten superfluous bishoprics; a sacrilegious act of the state which +helped to give birth to sacerdotal reaction at Oxford. After the abolition +of the tithe-proctor, the State Church had become less odious to the +people. The Castle administration was growing more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> liberal. +Lords-lieutenant tried to be fair in distribution of patronage. A Liberal +secretary, a man of mark, Drummond, warned the Irish landlords that +property had its duties as well as its rights. Peel, as Irish secretary, +had laid the foundation of the Irish constabulary, that noble force of law +and order which combines independent intelligence with the discipline of +the regular soldier. Drummond rendered a most important service by +completing the institution. The Irish constabulary has naturally in the +main been composed of Protestants. But the Catholic policeman in Ireland +has in a marked way resisted seditious influence and been true to the +government and his duty. The Irishman follows his commander. Attempts to +seduce Irish soldiers from fidelity to the colours seem to have generally +failed.</p> + +<p>O’Connell, with his following, helped to carry the Parliamentary Reform +Bill of 1832, which, in fact, could not have been carried without their +vote. He lent a general though not hearty or unwavering support to the +Whig ministry of Grey, which, though it paid him some deference, was too +strong to be under his control. But on the passing of a drastic coercion +bill directed against political as well as agrarian disturbance, there was +an angry rupture,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> and the Whigs became “base, bloody, and brutal,” like +all others who crossed O’Connell’s will. O’Connell was not handsomely +treated. His eminence as a lawyer, combined with his influence in Ireland, +entitled him to a high place. But his blustering violence, his unmeasured +vituperation, his venomous abuse of England, and the changefulness of his +moods made him a dangerous ally for any government. Cobden said, +“O’Connell always treated me with friendly attention, but I never shook +hands with him or faced his smile without a feeling of insecurity; and as +for trusting him on any public question where his vanity or passions might +interpose, I should have as soon thought of an alliance with an Ashantee +chief.”</p> + +<p>The Melbourne and Russell ministry was weak and fain to lean on O’Connell +with his Irish brigade for support and to allow him a voice in +appointments, though it suffered greatly in English eyes by the alliance. +O’Connell shouted with joy when that government was snatched from death +and restored to a feeble existence by the refusal of the queen to change +her bed-chamber women on Peel’s demand. But the advent of Peel to power, +with a strong government, filled him with rage and despair. The two men +had quarrelled in Ireland, a challenge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> had passed between them, and Peel +was the object of O’Connell’s bitterest hatred. In principle the new +government was hostile to O’Connell, and its strength placed it wholly +beyond his influence. His power was threatened with extinction. His rent, +moreover, since there had been a lull in agitation, was rapidly falling +off, and he was in pecuniary distress. The last, some think, was not his +least urgent motive for embarking in another agitation. This time it was +for a repeal of the union, of which he had before only thrown out fitful +hints. He now raised the standard of repeal and issued his mandate to the +priesthood to call out the peasantry in that cause. The priesthood +joyfully obeyed. Monster meetings were held and were addressed by +O’Connell in his most violent strain, with ostensible respect for +constitutional methods, but with constant appeals to national hatred and +suggestions of military force. The priests consecrated the meetings and +the sentiments, celebrating Mass on the grounds. It is surely idle to +contend that a priesthood acting thus and having its centre in Rome is +only a Christian ministry, not a power of political disturbance. An +outbreak appeared to be at hand, when the government took direct issue +with the agitator by proclaiming a monster meeting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> which he had appointed +to be held at Clontarf; a scene suggestive of military force as it had +been the field of the great Irish victory. O’Connell, who, if he was not +pacific, was unwarlike, shrank from the conflict and called off the +meeting. The government followed up the blow by indicting the agitator for +sedition. There was a monster trial at Dublin, in the course of which, to +preserve the Irish character of the scene, the attorney-general challenged +the counsel on the other side to a duel. O’Connell was found guilty, but +the verdict was afterwards quashed on appeal to the House of Lords, for +irregularity in the panel, by the judgment of three Whigs against one Tory +and the independent Brougham, though it had been upheld by seven of the +nine judges to whom the case was referred. O’Connell was set free. But the +spell of his ascendancy had been broken. By shrinking from the appeal to +force he had forfeited the respect of the fighting section of his party. +The Conservative government was invincibly strong. O’Connell’s health and +physical force had broken down. Thus ended the great Liberator’s career. +He bequeathed his body to Ireland and his heart to Rome. There can be no +question about his devotion to either, whatever motives may have mingled +with his devotion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> to Ireland. Whether he did more good to the Irish cause +by his patriotism than harm by the passions which he excited and the +enmities he created, is a question about which different opinions have +been formed. His blind attachment to the Church, had he been victorious, +would have put Ireland under the control of a reactionary priesthood.</p> + +<p>For some time before his death, O’Connell, by shrinking from force, had +been losing the hearts and the adherence of a party of force on his own +side called “Young Ireland,” a set of young men, some highly gifted as +journalists or poets, whose aim was not repeal but national independence, +and who in their organ, <i>The Nation</i>, preached rebellion and revelled in +the memory of ’98.</p> + +<p>Peel, victorious, graced his victory by concession, to which indeed he was +heartily inclined. He saw that “Ireland was his difficulty,” and wanted to +treat the problem as liberally as his following of Protestants and squires +would let him. He increased the grant to Maynooth, thereby constraining +Gladstone, by way of satisfaction to his former self, to go through the +form of resignation. He enabled the Catholic Church freely to receive +charitable bequests. Not venturing to throw open<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> the fellowships and +scholarships of Trinity College to the Catholics, he founded for their +special benefit three undenominational colleges at Belfast, Cork, and +Galway, forming together a university with power of granting degrees. This +measure, excellent in its way, was but a partial success. The priesthood +looked with invincible suspicion on free science, while Catholic +professors of science, whom the Church might have trusted, were hardly to +be found. But Peel touched the real root of the evil, and pointed to +effective reform, when, in 1843, he issued a Commission of Inquiry into +land occupancy in Ireland and the condition of the peasant occupants. The +commission reported that the agricultural labourer of Ireland continued to +suffer the greatest privations and hardships; that he was still dependent +upon casual and precarious employment for subsistence; that he was still +badly housed, badly clothed, and badly fed; and that he was undergoing +sufferings greater than those of the people of any other country in +Europe. Some tentative motions followed, but there had scarcely been time +for the report of the commission to work, when the sentence of nature was +pronounced with awful distinctness in the form of a great famine with +pestilence in its train. The population of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> Ireland at this time was +probably double that which the island could happily bear. A precarious +subsistence was afforded by the potato, which, always treacherous, now +suddenly and completely failed. Peel, warned of impending calamity, at +once opened the ports for the importation of grain, then grasped the +occasion for the repeal of the Corn Laws, on the policy of which his own +mind had been undergoing change. His administrative power and that of his +colleagues would probably have done all that was possible to meet and +mitigate the disaster. But at the critical moment his government was +struck down by a conspiracy of Russell and the Whigs with the ire of the +Corn Law squires and the vengeful ambition of Disraeli. Russell, who took +his place, was far more an adept in party strategy than a master of +practical administration. There ensued a heartrending scene, the climax of +seven centuries of evil accident, maladministration, and Irish woe.</p> + +<p>“Famine advances on us with giant strides,” wrote an official in the +August of 1846. “Towards the end of August,” says Mr. T. P. O’Connor, “the +calamity began to be universal and its symptoms to be seen. Some of the +people rushed into the towns, others wandered along the highroads in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +vague hope of food. They plucked turnips from the fields, were glad to +live for weeks on a single meal of cabbage a day, feasted on the dead +bodies of horses and asses and dogs. There was a story of a mother eating +the limbs of her dead child. Dead bodies were discovered with grass in +their mouths and in their bowels; weeds were sought after with desperate +eagerness; seaweed was greedily devoured; so were diseased cattle and +diseased potatoes. Despair fell on all hearts and faces. The ties of +kindred in some cases failed, parents neglecting their children and +children turning out their aged parents. On the other hand, there were +stories of parents dying of starvation to save a small store for their +children. The workhouses, usually shunned, were overcrowded. In one, three +thousand persons sought relief in a single day. They crowded even into the +jails. Driven from the workhouses, people began to die by the roadside or +alone in their despair within their cabins. Roads and streets were strewn +with corpses. One inspector buried one hundred and forty bodies found on +the highway. The scenes inside the cabins were even more horrible; +husbands lay for a week in the same hovels with the bodies of their wives +and children. The decencies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> of burial were no longer observed. Then came +the plague, attacking bodies already weakened by hunger.” “A terrible +apathy,” says an eye-witness, “hangs over the poor of Skibbereen; +starvation has destroyed every generous sympathy; despair has made them +hardened and insensible, and they sullenly await their doom with +indifference and without fear. Death is in every hovel; disease and +famine, its dread precursors, have fastened on the young and the old, the +strong and the feeble, the mother and the infant; whole families lie +together on the damp floor devoured by fever, without a human being to wet +their burning lips or raise their languid heads; the husband dies by the +side of the wife, and she knows not that he is beyond the reach of earthly +suffering; the same rag covers festering remains of mortality and the +skeleton forms of the living, who are unconscious of the horrible +contiguity; rats devour the corpse, and there is no energy among the +living to scare them from their horrid banquet; fathers bury their +children without a sigh, and cover them in shallow graves, round which no +weeping mother, no sympathizing friends are grouped; one scanty funeral is +followed by another and another. Without food or fuel, bed or bedding, +whole families are shut<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> up in naked hovels, dropping one by one into the +arms of death.”<small><a name="f3.1" id="f3.1" href="#f1">[3]</a></small></p> + +<p>All the devices of government by relief work and in other ways to grapple +with the twofold calamity were palliatives and little more. The most +effective measure of relief was a vast emigration to the United States and +Canada, which also had its horrors. Thousands, already weakened by hunger +and suffering, succumbed to the hardships of the passage; another +multitude died on landing. Canada did all she could for the hapless +strangers cast upon her shore. But ship-fever followed the fugitives, and +graveyards were filled with their dead. It was reckoned that more than two +hundred thousand persons died on the voyage or on arrival at their +destination. Few Irishmen, however prejudiced against England, will deny +that the people of Great Britain and Canada showed unbounded sympathy with +Ireland in her affliction, and did their utmost for her relief. O’Connell +himself, while he criticised the measures of the government, allowed that +individual humanity and charity were abundant; that the noblest generosity +was evinced by multitudes of the English; and that if individual +generosity could save a nation, British<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> generosity would do it. He said +that he was afraid of not finding words sufficient to express his strong +and lively sense of English humanity. To charges of English indifference +to Irish suffering, his words are a sufficient answer.</p> + +<p>Close upon the famine and pestilence came 1848, the year of European +revolution. Young Ireland, the party of force, did not fail to catch the +flame. Its organ, <i>The Nation</i>, cried, “It is a death struggle now between +the murderer and his victim. Strike! Rise, men of Ireland, since +Providence so wills it! Rise in your cities and in your fields, on your +hills, in your valleys, by your dark mountain passes, by your rivers and +lakes and ocean-washed shores! Rise as a nation!” <i>The Irish Felon</i>, a +journal still more advanced, was even more openly for war. But neither in +city or field, on mountain or in valley, by pass or shore, did the people +rise at the impassioned call. Young Ireland found at once that it was but +a knot of literary men whose appeals to national feeling, penned as they +were with vigour, might be read with sentimental pleasure but would rouse +nobody to arms. O’Connell’s mastery of the people depended on the support +of the priesthood, given in a cause originally religious to that zealous +champion of the Church who, dying, bequeathed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> his heart to Rome. Young +Ireland was more revolutionary than Catholic, as the priests did not fail +to perceive. The desire of political revolution, apart from agrarianism, +was not strong enough to rouse the peasantry to arms, though they had +learned to hate England as the supposed source of their sufferings. The +people, moreover, had hardly recovered from the depression caused by the +famine. Young Ireland however raised its flag. Smith O’Brien, with a small +party, made a trial trip, appealing to the people of two or three places, +but met with no response. A farcical encounter with the police at the +house of widow Cormack on the bog of Boulagh, followed by the capture of +Smith O’Brien, was the end. The sentence of death passed on the leader of +the revolt was wisely commuted by the government.</p> + +<p>The famine had at least one good effect. It drew attention to the main +source of the evil in Ireland, which was agrarian and social, not +political and religious. But now it was supposed that the mischief lay in +the inability of the landlords, overwhelmed with debt, burdened with +family settlements, and crushed by the demands of the Poor Law, to perform +their duty to their tenants. To remedy this evil was created the +Encumbered Estates Court, with power to order the sale of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> encumbered +property on the petition of the creditors and give a clear title to the +purchaser. The policy seemed sound, yet the result was not good. The court +cleared out the old proprietors who lacked means to do their duty; it put +in their place a new class of proprietors who, having been induced to buy +the land on pure speculation, felt that they had no duty to do, and who, +unlike their predecessors, had no kindly tie to the people. The new owners +naturally proceeded to make the most of their purchase; and the way to +make the most of their purchase clearly was to sweep out the cotter +tenants and throw the land into large holdings. This some of them +proceeded to do, and the consequence was a period of evictions almost +vying in cruelty with the famine. Whole districts were cleared and relet +in large holdings. Cabins were being thrown down in all directions. A +thousand of them were levelled in one union within a few months, and the +inmates were cast out helpless, half-naked, starving, to go to the union +or perish. The cabins were burned that the people might not return to +them. The suffering and misery, says a reporter, attendant upon these +wholesale evictions, is indescribable. The number of houseless paupers in +one union is beyond his calculation. Those evicted crowd <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>neighbouring +cabins and villages, and disease is necessarily generated. In April he +calculates that six thousand houses have been levelled since November, and +he expects five hundred more by July. Wretched hovels had been pulled +down, the inmates of which in a helpless state of fever and nakedness were +left by the roadside for days. While inspecting a stone-breaking depot, +the reporter observes one of the men take off his remnant of a pair of +shoes and start across the fields. He follows him with his eye, and at a +distance sees the blaze of a fire in the bog. He sends to inquire the +cause of it and of the man’s running from his work, and is told that the +man’s house had been levelled the day before, that he had erected a +temporary hut, and that while his wife and children were gathering +shell-fish on the beach and he was stone-breaking the bailiff fired it. +This incident was one of several which made a deep impression on Peel, who +would probably have moved with effect had he remained in power. Pages are +filled with pictures of this kind. Civilized Europe could show nothing +like it. It was almost enough to break forever the spirit of the nation, +certainly to implant the bitterest memories, and here the main cause was +misgovernment and bad law.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>Relief works were no cure, nor were they in themselves very rational, +since the people, unfed, half-clothed, and living in pestilential +mud-holes, were really too weak to work. Parliament so far interfered as +to pass an act requiring forty-eight hours’ notice of eviction to the +relieving officers, prohibiting evictions two hours before sunset or +sunrise, and on Christmas Day and Good Friday, and prohibiting the +demolition of the house of a tenant about to be evicted. But this rather +throws a lurid light on the state of things than effects a cure. The +public even might have some reason to complain of the land-owner who +recklessly cast upon the poor rates or upon public charity the human +encumbrances of his land.</p> + +<p>Apart from overpopulation and its effects, the Irish land-law +unquestionably needed reform. The people, struggling with each other for +their sole means of subsistence, undertook to pay exorbitant rents, and +their improvements, if they made any, became without compensation the +property of the landlord. In Ulster, always exceptional, there prevailed a +certain measure of tenant-right, something like the English copyhold. In +Ireland the demand for tenant-right now began to be loudly heard. An +English Radical, Sharman Crawford, brought <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>forward a measure in +Parliament, but without effect. For some years nothing effectual was done +in the way of reform. Palmerston, to whom power passed, though in foreign +policy he dallied with revolution, was conservative, especially on social +subjects, at home. “Tenant’s right is landlord’s wrong” was his judgment +on the agrarian question. On the Irish side there was no leader of worth +or force. Patriotism was in a trance, and the chronicler of the +Nationalist party indignantly proclaims that the cause was betrayed by a +series of low adventurers who embraced it as the way to preferment. “The +most common type of Irish politician,” he says in his anguish, “in these +days was the man who entered Parliamentary life solely for the purpose of +selling himself for place and salary.” “This,” he adds, “was the golden +season, when every Irishman who could scrape as much money together as +would pay his election expenses was able after a while to obtain a +governorship or some other of the many substantial rewards which English +party leaders were able to give to their followers.” The constituencies, +it seems, political feeling being at a low ebb, were ready to elect the +man who could bring them public pelf. Of the adventurers, the worst was +Sadleir, who, with his set, attempted to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> intrigue with the Peelites, and +who, being a financial swindler as well as a political schemer, became +bankrupt and committed suicide. So the cause of the Three F’s—Fixity of +tenure, Free sale, and Fair rents—made no way. English Radicals in +Parliament stood all the time ready to move with the Irish on this +question or for Disestablishment; but the Irish members were taken up with +intriguing for places for themselves, for appointments of the sons of +their constituents to clerkships in Somerset House, or for a government +subsidy to the Galway Packet contract. Irish writers are bound to remember +that Englishmen were not responsible for the choice or character of Irish +members. They are bound also to remember the impression which the members +chosen by the Irish could not fail to make on English minds. The British +Parliament could not justly be said to be “deaf, blind, and insolently +ignorant,” though it was not on the right track. It might be excused for +being a little deaf and blind to the appeals of “a motley gang of as +disreputable and needy adventurers as ever trafficked in the blood and +tears of a nation.”</p> + +<p>From the time of the union to this time there had been, and long after +this time continued to be,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> a series of coercion acts, rendered necessary +by agrarian outrage. There were thirty-two enactments of this kind between +the union and 1844. It would have been almost better, had it been +possible, frankly to suspend the constitution while the true remedy was +being applied.</p> + +<p>Liberal leadership now devolved from Palmerston on Gladstone, thus +bringing on the political field a new and immensely powerful motive power. +Gladstone was in opposition. In his mind a natural, and under the party +system legitimate, desire of recovering power for his party and himself +perhaps mingled with a sincere though tardily formed conviction of the +injustice of such an institution as the State Church of a small minority +in Ireland. It was unfortunate that he, like Peel and Wellington, gave +fear of Irish violence as a motive for doing justice. After some +premonitory hints, he, in former days the great champion of state +religion, declared for disestablishment. His case was overwhelmingly +strong. Faint and feeble were the arguments on the other side. The +institution was an anachronism, an anomaly, and a scandal. Its past had +been miserable. It had made no converts; it had made many rebels. By its +tests and its intolerance it had divided the Protestant interest, sending +many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> a Presbyterian across the sea to fight for the American Revolution. +Its ministry had been jobbed, its character defiled, by unscrupulous +politicians. Of late, however, it had been greatly reforming itself, and +it had got rid of its tithe-proctors by the commutation of tithes. Its +clergy generally were now on friendly terms with the people. Its last hour +was by far its best. Vested interests were respected in the change, and +the unblest establishment glided quietly and safely into its new and +happier life as a purely spiritual church. Through the Commons the measure +passed with ease; through the Lords, like other great measures of change, +it was forced by fear.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h2> + +<p><br />From disestablishment of the Church Gladstone, now in the full swing of +his Liberalism, proceeded next year to reform the land system of Ireland. +Taking his cue from Ulster tenant-right, perhaps also from English +copyhold, he passed an act, the first of a series which, by giving +compensation for improvements and for disturbance, restricting eviction, +regulating rents, and furnishing to the tenant by government loans the +means of purchasing the fee, has gone far towards transferring the +ownership from the landlord to the tenant. Some of these measures have +virtually involved confiscation, notably in the case of purchasers under +the Encumbered Estates Act, to whom full ownership had been morally +guaranteed.</p> + +<p>Economically, the tendency, indeed the aim, of the land acts has been to +make Ireland a land of peasant proprietors. The social tendency of such +legislation is to the abolition of the gentry, of the value of whose +leadership to a people eminently in need of leaders, Gladstone, +personally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> ignorant of Ireland, might not be a competent judge. +Unquestionably, the relations between landlord and tenant called for +reform. The appropriation of the tenant’s improvements by the landlord was +in itself plainly unjust, and the sweeping evictions yielded in cruelty +only to the famine. But for overpopulation the immediate remedy was +depletion. Had Gladstone said that the overpopulation was originally the +consequence of misgovernment and repression of industry which, reducing +the people to abject misery, had wrecked their self-respect and +self-restraint, he would have been emphatically right, and the fact cannot +be too constantly kept in mind. Gladstone might also have said with truth +that emigration was a mournful cure, though it transferred the emigrant to +a far happier land and lot. But the overpopulation having taken place, +whatever the cause, the only remedy was depletion. No expansion of +manufacturing industry, commerce, or mining adequate to the absorption of +the surplus population could be expected in time to meet the pressing call +for relief. Irishmen are sensitive on this point, but no disparagement of +the Irish race is implied in the recognition of the facts. Overpopulation +was not the fault of the people, but their misfortune. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> has been a +very large migration of the Irish into England and Scotland as well as +into the colonies and the United States.</p> + +<p>Gladstone’s measure, however, fell short of Irish expectation, which was +the three F’s: Fixity of tenure; Fair rent; Freedom of sale. A land war +presently broke out and became combined with a struggle nominally for Home +Rule, really for separation from Great Britain. The political part of this +agitation, rebellion as it really was, had its main source and support, +not in Ireland, but in the Irish population of the United States. Even +before the famine there had been an emigration of Irish to America, so +large as by its political effects to alarm American patriotism and give +birth to the great Know-nothing Movement in defence of American +nationality. The Irish, being highly gregarious and unused to large +farming, settled in cities. When they went out to work on railways or +canals, it was in large gangs. They were drawn into the vortex of politics +and became the retainers of crafty politicians, who, in secret, smiled at +their simplicity. They fell almost invariably into the Democratic party. +The name may have attracted them; but the Democratic party was that of the +Southern slave-owner, who was glad to enlist the Irishman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> as his humble +ally at the North and to pay him out of the treasury of political +corruption. The rank and file of Tammany were largely Irish. O’Connell had +been nobly hostile to slavery. His kinsmen and admirers on the other side +of the Atlantic were, on the contrary, vehement supporters of slavery, and +jealous assertors of their superiority over the enslaved race. Such is the +tendency of the newly enfranchised. In the war between the North and the +South the Irish in New York rose against the draft and committed great +outrages, especially against the negro, among other things setting fire to +a negro orphan asylum. They were ruthlessly put down. After the famine, +emigration greatly increased. Family affection among the Irish is +beautifully strong, and the members of a family who had gone before sent +home their earnings to pay for the passage of those whom they had left +behind. It has been reckoned that the Irish have expended twenty millions +sterling in this way. With a passionate love of Ireland the American Irish +combined a still more passionate hatred of England as Ireland’s tyrant and +oppressor. Invasion and destruction of England were their dream. Always +addicted to secret fraternities and natural adepts in conspiracy, they +formed associations for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> war on England; that of the Fenians and that of +the still more rabid and bloodthirsty Clan-na-Gael, whose utterances were +frenzies of hatred. Large sums were subscribed; Irish servant-girls, with +a patriotism which in any case was honourable to them, giving freely of +their wages. American politicians flattered the mania, and harvested the +Irish vote. The war bequeathed to the Fenians some regular soldiers, among +others, Mitchel, who had been conspicuous in the ranks of slavery. The +Fenians invaded Canada and overthrew a corps of Canadian volunteers, but +retired on the approach of regulars; a bad omen for their conquest of +England. Conquest of England the Fenians did not attempt, beyond a +farcical essay at Chester. But they helped greatly to kindle rebellion in +Ireland, to provide it with money, and to supply it with assassins. The +National League, the form which, in Ireland, political combined with +agrarian rebellion assumed, almost ousted the law and the queen’s +government. It resisted the payment of rents. Those who opposed its will +were “boycotted,” a term of which this is the origin. Sometimes they were +murdered. A stripling was murdered for having served a master who had come +under the ban of the League. A wife was mobbed on her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> way home from +viewing the body of her murdered husband. Lord Frederick Cavendish, the +Irish secretary, going to Ireland with the kindest intentions, and the +permanent secretary, Mr. Burke, were stabbed to death in the Phœnix +Park. Mr. W. E. Forster, distinguished by his humane efforts at the time +of the famine, was marked for assassination. At the outbreak of the +rebellion a policeman escorting Fenian prisoners had been murdered at +Manchester, and an attempt made to blow up Clerkenwell Prison, where a +Fenian was confined, had caused the deaths of twelve people and the +maiming of one hundred and twenty. Gladstone had made the mistake of +treating the alarm caused by those outrages as a motive for doing justice +to Ireland. The motive for doing justice to Ireland was justice.</p> + +<p>The assassination of Cavendish and Burke, it is right to say, was the act, +not of the Land League or of any conspiracy in Ireland itself, but of the +Invincibles, a club of frenzied Irish in the United States. By the Irish +leaders it was heartily condemned. That it was regarded with utter +abhorrence in the Irish quarters of English cities was denied by observers +at the time. Fierce and blind were the passions of those days.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>To repress what was in fact a rebellion fed by foreign aid, to uphold the +law, and rescue life and industry in Ireland from the lawless tyranny of +the National League, as it was called, the government, as was its plain +duty, sought and obtained extraordinary powers, and threw a number of the +leaders of the rebellion into prison. It was time, when loyal citizens +were joining the League for protection in their callings, which the +queen’s government could no longer afford. When the Irish rose against the +draft in New York, the Americans shot down several hundreds of them +without process of law.</p> + +<p>In the British Parliament the “rebel” party, as Bright justly called it, +had found a leader of mark in Parnell, a man of great ability and force of +character, incisive and forcible, if not eloquent, as a speaker. He had +supplanted in the leadership Mr. Butt, a man of social sensibility and +refinement, unfitted for an aggressive part. The agitation under Parnell +combined agrarianism with repeal, thus giving the political part of the +movement a hold upon the people and a force and a formidable extension in +Ireland which by itself it had never had. The Land League, becoming the +National League, almost supplanted the queen’s government in Ireland.</p> + +<p>Parnell’s avowed aim was the foundation of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> peasant proprietorship. +Neither he nor any of his party seem to have cared to study +dispassionately the natural aptitudes of the country, and to satisfy +themselves whether it was capable of supporting the population which +disastrous events and sinister influences had accumulated upon it. Their +main object was political. It was, under the guise of repealing the union, +to sever Ireland from Great Britain. As an inducement to the peasantry to +support them in that attempt, they offered to transfer the property in the +land from the landlord to the tenant, though with a decorous promise of +indemnity. Mr. Parnell’s name was English, and he had been educated at +Cambridge. It was understood that his bearing towards his Celtic +associates was high and that he was peremptory as well as absolute in +command. At his side was Mr. Biggar, whose great gift was unparalleled +effrontery. The two undertook to coerce the British Parliament by +obstruction. Had the British Parliament been itself, it would quickly have +asserted its dignity. But it was split into factions, upon the balance of +which Parnell and Biggar were able to play. Gladstone succumbed so far as +by an equivocal agreement, nicknamed the Kilmainham Treaty, to release +Parnell and his associates from prison. On the other hand, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +Conservatives coming into power struck the flag of the law by refusing to +renew the Crimes Act for the protection of loyalty in Ireland, while they +angled for the Parnellite vote by casting reproach on the conduct of a +lord-lieutenant who had done his duty.</p> + +<p>At the general election which followed, Gladstone went to the country, +appealing for a majority which should enable him to settle the Irish +question independently of Parnell. Parnell passed the word to all his +partisans, both in Ireland and in the Irish quarters of English towns, to +vote against the Liberals. They obeyed. Gladstone was defeated. Then he +who had denounced Parnell as wading through rapine to dismemberment; who +had proclaimed his arrest as a rebel to an applauding multitude at +Guildhall; who had thrown him and scores of his followers into prison; who +had never given to the nation a hint of his sympathy with Parnell’s +agitation, suddenly turned round and coalesced with Parnell. He put forth +an apology for his conversion founded on the hidden workings of his own +mind. But what availed the workings of his own mind if all the time he was +carrying on the policy of repression, misleading the nation thereby? It is +true he might have pointed to the coquetting of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> other party, or its +leaders, with the Parnellites. He might perhaps with more force have +appealed to his own unquestionably sincere sympathy with all who were +struggling for independence. His retrospective imagination was strong, and +having changed so much he had always present to his mind the possibility +of further change. It made his language sometimes capable of unforeseen +interpretation.</p> + +<p>The Liberal party was filled with astonishment, confusion, and dismay. But +the <i>Times</i> stood fast and rallied the adherents of the union. To the +steadfastness and power of this great journal the defeat of Gladstone’s +policy and the salvation of the union were largely due. Bright’s refusal +to cast in his lot with the “rebel” party was also a heavy blow to +Gladstone. The political connection between the two men had been growing +close, and Bright might almost be said to personify justice to Ireland, as +to all the weak and oppressed. If there was a man who would have protested +against the sacrifice of Ireland to English interests it was John Bright. +Lord Hartington presented himself with unexpected vigour as a Unionist +leader. Gladstone was defeated in the House of Commons and still more +signally in the general election which followed, Conservative and Unionist +Liberals voting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> together on the special issue. In the contest Gladstone +lashed himself into fury, appealed to Separatist sentiment, not in Ireland +only, but in Scotland and Wales, to the prejudice of the masses against +the classes, of the uneducated against the educated and the learned +professions. He was fired with enthusiasm for the right. His instincts +were always high. But this did not make him a cool-headed statesman warily +dealing with a question which touched the life of the commonwealth.</p> + +<p>Now fortune played a strange trick. Parnell, the leader and mainstay of +the League, Gladstone’s ally, was convicted of adultery. Adultery is not +political, but it was too much both for the Irish hierarchy and for the +nonconformist conscience. Parnell had to be dragged from the helm of the +Irish party, to which he clung with a frantic tenacity, such as proved him +after all to be, though a very remarkable, hardly a very great, man.</p> + +<p>Raised once more by another turn of fortune’s wheel in the party game to +power, Gladstone again brought forward a Home Rule Bill. This time he, +with the help of the Irish members, pushed the bill through the House, +partly by closure, in a form already condemned by himself, giving Ireland +a separate Parliament for her own affairs, and at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> same time retaining +her representation in the British Parliament, with power there to vote +upon all questions. The Irish delegation would have played, as in fact it +does now, for its own purposes, on the balance of British parties, and +baffled any attempt to enforce restrictions on the doings of its own +Parliament which the Home Rule Act might have imposed. The majority for +the bill in the Commons was forty-three, including eighty Irish members. +British members of the House of Commons who voted for the bill probably +reckoned on its being killed in the Lords. Killed it was there with a +vengeance. Gladstone appealed to the people against the Lords, but in +vain. Thus ended in disaster his wonderful career. His speeches on Home +Rule showed, like all his speeches, vast oratoric power, mastery of +details, clearness and liveliness in exposition. But weak points are also +apparent. The Irish Parliament cannot have been at once a sink of +corruption and an institution with which it was sacrilege to interfere. +The comparison of the union in criminality to the massacre of St. +Bartholomew must surely have made all hearers but the Irish smile. Upon +this subject the speaker raves, and generally he forgets that the mission +of reconciliation which he had undertaken would not be furthered by +opening old sores.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> The examples of Austria-Hungary and the connection of +Norway with Sweden, cited by him as proofs that a conjunction of two +Parliaments worked well, would be generally taken not as encouragements +but as warnings. The case of Norway and Sweden has since become a warning +indeed. The intricate machinery by which the speaker proposes to regulate +the action of his two Parliaments has too much the look of a speculative +structure elaborated without reference to the peculiar state of Ireland +and the forces to be encountered there. Of the force of the Catholic +priesthood, nothing is said. In fact, the political architect knew little +of the country with which he was dealing, having been in it only for three +weeks, and then not at a good point of view.</p> + +<p>Thus the Irish question, which the greatest among the public men of his +time had failed to settle, was once more thrown into the cauldron of party +strife.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV</h2> + +<p><br />Looking back on these most melancholy annals, we shall find that for their +general sadness Nature is as much to be blamed as man. She did well in +placing at the side of a country rich in coal and minerals, destined to be +manufacturing, one of pasture to supply food. She made a fatal mistake in +peopling them with different and uncongenial races. War, in the age of +war, and conquest of the weaker by the stronger were sure to be the +result. For the form in which conquest came, the Papacy has partly to +answer. It used the sword of the Norman adventurer in this case, as it had +in the case of England, to crush religious independence and force all +churches to bow to its own dominion, while, as the wails of its own +partisans in the Becket controversy show, it was itself unworthy of the +sovereignty of Christendom. Of this Catholics are bound to take note, as +they are of the fact that the Papacy at a later day, by inciting the Irish +to rebellion on its own account, brought upon them no small portion of +their woes. The Norman <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>conquest of England had incidentally the bad +effect of connecting the English monarchy with dominion in France, and +thus turning the forces of the English kings from Ireland, where they +might have ended the agony, to a field where they were much worse than +wasted. Things could not have taken a more unfortunate course than that of +a colony of half-civilized conquerors carrying on war with barbarous +tribes of a different race and tongue, yet without force to effect the +conquest. The invasion of Edward Bruce, with which England had nothing to +do, probably did further harm by breaking up whatever there was of +Anglo-Norman order and turning barons into chiefs of Irish Septs. Then the +Reformation, a European convulsion involving Ireland, and in the most +unfortunate way, since it identified Protestantism with conquest, +Catholicism with the struggle for independence, introduced another deadly +source of strife, and made Ireland the point of danger to England in her +desperate struggle for her own existence and the salvation of the +Protestant cause. Otherwise it seems not impossible that the Tudor +statesmen, with such a man as Burleigh at their head, might, as they +desired, have effected a peaceful settlement. Civilization, not +extermination, was their aim. The great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> Celtic rebellions of Shane +O’Neil, Desmond, and Tyrone, the last two Catholic as well as Celtic, +forced upon them the policy of extermination with all its horrors. The +rising and massacre of 1641 were the sequel. The vengeance of the victor +and the transplantation of the vanquished to Connaught were in their turn +the sequel of the rising and massacre of 1641. Of these again the rebound +was the Catholic rising of 1688, which, had it been successful, would have +ended certainly in the dispossession, probably in the expulsion, possibly +in the extermination, of the Protestants. English liberty and religion +were at the same time threatened by an Irish Catholic force encamped at +Hounslow. The Penal law was execrable; yet hardly more execrable than the +Great Act of Attainder. In later days Castle government by corruption was +vile; but it was the inevitable accompaniment of the constitution of 1782, +the work of Grattan and the Volunteers. Of the master evil of all, the +state of the masses of the Irish people, English protectionism must share +the blame with the penal laws. But protectionism was then the delusion of +the commercial world. Irish patriots were not free from it. To deal with +peasant distress was the immediate duty of the Irish Parliament, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +refused even to turn its eyes that way. Peasant distress, organized for +rebellion by a revolutionary party at Belfast, itself deriving its +inspiration from the American and French revolutions, produced the rising, +ever to be accursed and deplored, of 1798.</p> + +<p>Irish patriots are apt to talk of England as a single person or, rather, +fiend, actuated in her dealings with Ireland by hatred and contempt. +England is a nation divided into parties and swayed by varying influences +from time to time. The England of Peel and Gladstone is not the England of +the Georges, the Stuarts, the Tudors, the Plantagenets, or responsible for +the doings of those dynasties. In the evil days of her political history, +England, if she oppressed Ireland, also suffered herself. The Liberal +party in England did its best for Ireland, and if the Irish members had +been what they ought to have been and done what they ought to have done, +more rapid progress might have been made. As it was, Ireland shared the +great measures of Parliamentary and municipal reform which there had been +little prospect of her achieving by herself. She received the boon of +national and undenominational education about a generation before England, +and but for the reactionary influence of her own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> priesthood would have +received it in full measure. The same influence maimed as far as it could +the undenominational colleges. Nothing could be more deplorable than the +long series of coercion acts. But it was hardly to be expected that the +English government should strike its flag to assassination and boycotting, +or that the British nation would be moved to concession by the inroads of +American conspirators combined with domestic rebellion. It was about 1866 +that Guizot, talking of Ireland as he walked with an English guest, +stopped in his walk and said with an emphatic gesture, “The conduct of +England to Ireland for the last thirty years has been admirable.” This, +before disestablishment, was too strong, as the English guest remarked at +the time; but as the judgment of a cool-headed foreign statesman, whose +course had not been one of unbroken harmony with England, it was likely to +be more just at least to the motives of England than the invectives of +O’Connell.</p> + +<p>Since the Union there has been no 1641, no 1688, no 1798. The two races +and religions have lived generally at peace if not in concord with each +other. The religious riots at Belfast are a very mitigated relic of the +religious wars of former days. Reform, though its advance has been slow +and fitful, has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> advanced. Within a generation from the date of the Union, +Catholic Emancipation was carried. The tithe-proctor did not very long +survive. Presently the State Church itself was abolished. Ireland shared +with Great Britain Parliamentary reform, to which the Irish oligarchy +could never have consented without political and social convulsion. Not +long afterwards came national education, bestowed on Ireland before it was +bestowed on England. None of these improvements would directly touch the +agrarian sore, the malignity of which was increased by the growth of the +Irish population under the reign of order, far beyond the power of the +land to maintain it. But relief has been given to famine, and strenuous +efforts have been made and are still being made to effect a radical cure. +Ireland has enjoyed free trade with Great Britain and with the whole +British Empire. Everything has been open to Irish merit and industry. +Millions of Irish and their children have found homes in Britain and the +colonies. To sever Ireland from Great Britain is still possible. To divide +the Irish from the British is not possible. In both islands and in all the +colonies the two races are now joined and cannot be put asunder.</p> + +<p>Besides, as has already been said, we must always<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> bear it in mind that we +do not see the other side of Destiny’s cards. Suppose Ireland had remained +the land of the Septs, would her lot certainly have been more happy? +Neither at the time of the Norman Conquest nor afterwards do the Septs +appear to have shown any tendency to a union such as would have given +birth to a national polity and its attendant civilization. For aught we +can see, they might have gone on indefinitely, like the clans of the +Scottish Highlands, in a state of barbarous strife fatal to progress of +every kind. Even their common interest in the struggle against the +Anglo-Norman invader produced no general or permanent union. The Brehon +law, which was their principal bond, had no executive force and was in +itself barbarous, not distinguishing public from private wrong. The Septs +warred upon each other not less savagely than the conqueror warred upon +them all. If anything like union came at last, it was not political but +religious, and brought with it a fatal share in the European war of +religions. Nor were conquests other than Anglo-Norman impossible. From the +Highlands and islands of Scotland came bodies of marauding adventurers +which might have been reënforced, and, in the North at least, have +prevailed. It is not certain that without the aid of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> John de Bermingham +and his Anglo-Normans, the Septs would have got rid of Edward Bruce.</p> + +<p>That the interest of Ireland should be regarded as subordinate to that of +Great Britain was the principle on which British politicians acted in the +days that are past. To the past this principle must now be and indeed has +been decisively consigned. That union, to be good for either party, must +be good for both, is the accepted basis of discussion. On the other hand, +it is not to be assumed that the aspirations of Irish politicians +naturally bent on carving out an independent field of action for +themselves, are entirely free from the bias of personal ambition or +identical with a dispassionate view of the interest of the Irish people. +Nor is it to be forgotten that Ulster is a part of Ireland.</p> + +<p>There are two questions, perfectly distinct and calling for separate +consideration, though they have become blended in the course and for the +purposes of the political agitation. One is economical, the other +political.</p> + +<p>The economical question is whether Ireland can support her present +population. Patriotic eloquence will not change her skies, or render it +otherwise than cruel to induce her people to stay in a land in which they +cannot make their bread.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> Instances there may be of barren soil made by +the loving industry of the small owner fruitful and capable of supporting +a large population; but the industry of the small owner, though it can +improve the soil, cannot alter the skies. What is to be desired is a +special report, calm and expert, upon this subject. Is Ireland generally +capable of being turned with advantage into an arable country? Can wheat +or grain of any kind be profitably raised there in face of the competition +of the great grain-growing countries such as that now opened, and bidding +fair to be opened over a much larger area, in the Canadian Northwest? The +small farmer to live must have something to sell. Is there reason to look +in any other direction than farming for a speedy extension of Irish +industries such as would provide bread sufficient for the population? Is +the water-power of Ireland, now that electricity has been developed, +likely to do what has been done for England by coal? Is the shipping +trade, for which the Irishman has had little opportunity of showing a +turn, likely to increase? These are questions which it is for economists, +not for politicians or patriotic orators, to decide. It is said that there +are tracts of land in Ireland still unoccupied and fit for occupation. If +there are, the survey will show the fact. Land<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> purchase by government +subvention is a policy hardly to be pursued unless it is certain that its +results will not presently be reversed by nature.</p> + +<p>The worst part of emigration is that it carries away the pith and sinews +of a nation, taking the strong and leaving the weak, the aged, and +unsupported women. It is a pleasant proof, already noticed, of the warmth +of the Irish heart that there has been less of solitary and more of family +emigration in their case than in those of some other emigrating races. +After all, how has the earth been peopled, how have all the nations been +formed but by migration?</p> + +<p>To turn to the political question. The danger of insurrection has probably +passed away. Fenianism has been largely deprived of its trans-Atlantic +base, and can no longer look confidently to American sympathy for support +and supplies. The Irish vote has less power. Little at least was heard of +it in the last presidential election. Yet the political question is still +most serious, and presses urgently for settlement; a state of things +largely due to the division of parties in the British government which +showed its influence in the abandonment of the Crimes Act by the Salisbury +administration; in the Maamtrasna debate; and in Mr. Gladstone’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> sudden +coalition with Parnell; but above all in the votes of British members of +the House of Commons for Mr. Gladstone’s second Home Rule Bill, giving +Ireland a Parliament of her own and representation in the British +Parliament at the same time. Parliament still has in it a body of Irish +members not only alien but hostile, avowing that their object is not to +aid in deliberation but to coerce, playing upon the balance of parties for +purposes of their own, degrading the assembly, and distracting the +councils of the nation. Nor is the source of this evil confined to the +constituencies of Ireland. There is in England and Scotland a large Irish +population, which, as was seen in the election of 1885, obeys the voice of +the Irish leaders and at their command votes inimically to the country in +which it lives and earns its bread. In Ireland itself, moreover, the +hell-broth of agitation is kept constantly seething to the inevitable +detriment of recuperative effort, which cannot do its full work without +security for the future.</p> + +<p>As the first step it should be calmly settled what are the specific +grievances under which Ireland labours, and which the Imperial legislature +cannot, but an Irish Parliament could, remove. Historic wrongs are past +remedy. Ireland has more than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> her share of representation in Parliament. +She has no established Church. If her priesthood would let her, she would +have a complete system of national education. Her land law is now far more +favourable to the tenant than that of the other kingdoms, and she has been +and still is receiving government subventions in aid of the tillers of her +soil which English and Scotch tenants do not receive and which would cease +if she became independent. Nothing is closed against her people. They have +the markets of the whole Empire. All its offices, patronage, and services +are perfectly open to them. So long as they will abstain from outrage and +murder, they enjoy all the personal privileges of British freemen. It +cannot be said that the law has been suspended for any purpose other than +the repression of outrage. If the ordinary law and government were very +bad, Ulster would hardly have prospered as it has done. If Castle +government is the grievance, abolition of it was offered to Ireland long +ago and was by her rejected. Let the existing grievances be specified, and +let it be seen whether Imperial legislation is incapable of redressing +them. The truth is that with the Irish leaders it has not been redress of +particular wrongs and grievances or the introduction of practical +improvements that has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> been the object of desire. Their aim has been to +create a nationalist feeling which should end in political separation. +Such has been the constant tenor of their appeals to sentiment and the end +to which their policy has really pointed.</p> + +<p>Suppose Ireland severed from Great Britain, what would be her lot? She +would then have to assume all the burdens and responsibilities of an +independent nation, including military and naval defence, as well as the +entire expense of a separate government. As she could not hope to vie in +strength with her powerful neighbour, she would be at that neighbour’s +mercy; nor, considering the temper in which the parting would take place, +would occasions for quarrel be unlikely to arise. Ireland might have to +seek the protection and become the vassal of some foreign power. Irish +trade would no longer be free of British markets or of the markets of +British dependencies. Irish labour would no longer be free of the British +labour market. The Indian service and the Imperial services generally +would be closed against Irishmen.</p> + +<p>Nor would Ireland be entirely united in herself or perfectly set free from +the hated British influence. She would still have in her the men of +Ulster, Saxon and Protestant, antagonistic probably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> to the Catholic +majority, and if they were pressed in the unequal conflict, stretching out +their hands for aid to their fellow-Protestants and kinsmen in Great +Britain.</p> + +<p>A mere arm of the sea, such as that which divides Ireland from Great +Britain, is surely not enough in these days of improved navigation, to +form a bar to political union. The distance from London to Dublin is now +practically far less than it was a century ago from London to Edinburgh. +Nor does there seem any reason why salt water should be fatal. The Ionian +Islands are in the kingdom of Greece; so probably some day will be Crete.</p> + +<p>If Ireland were detached from Great Britain, into what hands would she +fall? The gentry would be extinguished. To excite popular hatred of them +as landlords has been the constant aim of the Nationalist leaders. There +would be a general repudiation of rent, which the Irish government and +judiciary would lack the will, while the British government and judiciary +would have lost the power, to prevent. The record of Irish landlordism is +not bright. Absenteeism has been a great evil, though the estates of some +absentees have been notably well managed. There have been hideously cruel +evictions, especially it seems on the lands<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> purchased by speculators +under the Encumbered Estates Act. Landlordism, as mere drawing of rent, is +an evil. It is not desirable that any man should own land as a +non-resident or own more land than he can manage or superintend. The old +feudal law attaching service to lordship of land was sound in principle. +But if the Irish gentry would accept that principle, be resident, look +after their estates, and do their duty to their tenants, they would +probably be accepted by their people as social leaders, and they might +play that part with good effect. The life of the French peasant is not the +acme either of civilization or of happiness, even though we may make some +abatement from the picture presented by Zola in “La Terre.” Unhappily the +tendency, even in England, seems to be towards the detachment of the owner +from his land and the abandonment on his part of every function save that +of receiving the rent and spending it, perhaps in some pleasure city or +abroad. The decadence of the agricultural interest in England is by some +ascribed to this cause.</p> + +<p>The gentry being no more, Catholic Ireland would at first fall into the +hands of the priesthood. The moral character of the Irish priesthood in +the opinion of impartial judges is high, as is that of the priesthood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> of +French Canada. In both cases ecclesiastical influence is strong, and in +both a population virtuous after the Catholic model is the result. The two +are probably about the best things that the Roman Catholic Church has to +show. But the Roman Catholic religion is mediæval. The training of its +ministers inevitably shuts out light which would be fatal to mediæval +belief. An Irish peasant lad, having been intellectually secluded for +seven years at Maynooth, comes out proof against the intellectual +influences and advancing science of his time. He is the mental liegeman +and the preacher of the Syllabus, which anathematizes freedom of thought +and claims for the Church dominion, not only over the soul but over the +body, such as was hers in the Middle Ages. He laid his ban on the Queen’s +Colleges, and has discouraged and thwarted the extension of popular +education. In regard to education and intelligence, he has been in Ireland +what he has been in Spain and other countries subject to his sway. In the +sphere of industry and commerce the influence has generally been the same. +The religious ideal of life with its Church festivals and Saints’ Days has +prevailed. In Ireland as in Canada the priest inculcates early marriages, +the effects of which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> may be morally good but are economically perilous. +The excessive conversion of the fruits of industry to the unproductive +purposes of the Church has already begun to call forth protests.</p> + +<p>The power of the Roman Catholic priesthood would be encountered by the +stalwart Protestantism of Ulster in the Parliamentary arena as it still is +sometimes in the streets of Belfast. It might presently find itself +encountered by another adversary, revolutionary Nationalism, the heir of +that party of force which broke away from the leadership of O’Connell, the +devout son of the Church, and was an object of well-founded suspicion and +aversion to the hierarchy of his day. The affinity of this element is to +the revolutionary party in other countries; and if, like the United +Irishmen of Belfast, it has been willing to act with allies devoted to the +Church, it is not itself devout, as the Church, if she comes to share +power with it, may be led to feel.</p> + +<p>The idea of unity of race as a basis of Irish nationality has little +support. In the North there is a strong and masterful Saxon element. There +must be a large Anglo-Saxon and English element in the old Pale. The men +of Tipperary, though characteristically Irish, are believed to be +descendants of Cromwellians. There is Huguenot blood.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>The revival of Erse as a national language is surely a patriotic dream. +How is it possible to revive a language all but dead, with no valuable +literature or wealth of printed books, in face of a language which has a +grand literature, is spoken by all the educated classes, indeed almost +universally, in Ireland, and is necessary for intercourse with Great +Britain. O’Connell, we are told, had no great sympathy with the revival of +Irish archæology, and no sympathy at all with the project of reviving the +Irish language. He recognized the superior utility of the English tongue +as the medium of all modern communication, and saw without regret the +gradual disuse of Erse. Fancy and sentiment may prevail among a literary +class which nevertheless will hardly carry its patriotism so far as to +darken its own mind by unlearning English.</p> + +<p>“Ireland ought to be governed in accordance with Irish ideas.” Such is the +current saying, and it sounds wise. But statesmanship would hardly act +upon it before taking measures to learn what ideas are peculiarly Irish +and whether they are features of national character, innate and indelible, +and not traces of historic accident or fancies instilled in the course of +political agitation. The perpetuation of weaknesses accidentally +contracted cannot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> be wise for man or nation. The political idea which +seems most characteristic is the tendency to personal leadership rather +than to self-government or constitutional rule. But this has been common +to all races in early times. It was fostered and prolonged by the +circumstances of Irish history. It could hardly be pronounced incapable of +modification by familiarity with free institutions.</p> + +<p>What would be the political constitution of an independent Ireland? How +would its form be settled? The political training of the people generally +since they came out of political thraldom has been agitation against +government and law; their only notion of rule has been personal. Nor is a +hierarchy friendly to political liberty. To set up a stable democracy in +Ireland, if that is the aim of the revolutionary party, would surely be an +arduous undertaking.</p> + +<p>All who look coolly into the matter apart from faction and its necessities +have pronounced that the choice lies between separation and legislative +union. Two Parliaments, two nations; so all wisdom says and so experience +before the Union proved. The forces which under Grattan’s constitution +held the two Parliaments together in strained and precarious fellowship, +the nomination boroughs, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> pension list, the sinecures, the peerages, +the bishoprics, would no longer exist. What is even more important, there +would no longer be an oligarchical and exclusionist Parliament in Ireland +dependent on British support for its ascendency, perhaps even for the +security of its lands. Antagonism would almost inevitably ensue; the more +surely as the partners would set out with the embitterment of a divorce. +Nothing apparently could avert collision; the result of which would be +repression, making the latter end worse than the first.</p> + +<p>The proposal of federation is surely preposterous. It would be necessary +first to cut the United Kingdom in two and create an Irish government in +order that negotiations for a federal union might be set on foot. But how +could there be a federation of two states, one of them enormously superior +in power to the other? What sort of deliberative assembly would the +federal council be?</p> + +<p>Another plan is to form a federation of the four nationalities, as they +are assumed to be, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; wrenching apart +the members of a great nation which have long been united and cancelling +the highest work of British statesmanship. Here again federation could not +work. England being so much the predominant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> partner, the result would +almost certainly be a perpetual league of the three minor powers against +her domination. The federal system is applicable only to a group of +tolerably equal States. The restoration of the Heptarchy with the addition +of Scotland, divided into Highland and Lowland, and the four provinces of +Ireland erected into States, would be a comparatively practicable system. +The present condition of the Federal system in the United States does not +encourage experiments of that kind.</p> + +<p>The mildest proposal of all is devolution; in other words, the concession +to Ireland of a larger measure of local self-government. This probably +would be readily granted to any extent compatible with supremacy of law +and security of life and property, which no government without abdicating +its plainest duty can forgo. Gradual extension of local self-government +would not entail any acute crisis or bring on any party conflict. The +Lord-lieutenancy, Parliament has already shown itself ready to abolish. It +was in deference to the wish of Ireland that it has been retained. The +only thing in the way of undue centralization of which, so far as the +writer remembers, his Irish friends complained, was the necessity of +carrying Irish causes to Westminster as the final<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> court of appeal. +Whether concession on this point would be feasible it is for legal +authorities to say.</p> + +<p>However, it can hardly be doubted that in the course of this struggle a +sentiment has been cultivated among the people of Ireland for which it is + +wise as well as kind in some way to provide satisfaction. The Irishman +being of lively sensibility and impressible through sight has never seen +the power which really governs him. A session or two of the Imperial +Parliament held at Dublin for the settlement of Irish questions would +probably have had a very good effect, but it was thought to entail too +much inconvenience. Would there be any objection to empowering the Irish +members of both Houses to sit annually at Dublin as a preparatory House of +Irish legislation framing bills to be commended to Parliament? There would +then be something in College Green. The experiment would involve none of +the difficulties or perils of a statutory division of the powers of +Parliament. It would be at first on the footing of an experiment, nor +would it preclude further concessions if further concessions should be +found needful.</p> + +<p>With the question of national character, social or industrial, and its +special requirements, I do not pretend to deal. It has been treated +systematically,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> perhaps for the first time, by an excellent authority, +Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett, in his “Ireland in the New Century.” Of Irish +character a part may be aboriginal and fundamental. A part probably is the +result of historical accident more or less ingrained, and probably capable +of modification. I am told that Irish character has been even acquiring a +more serious cast since I watched the Tipperary steeplechases or stood on +the fair-ground of Ballinasloe. Not a little, so far as the masses are +concerned, is probably the work of a priesthood strongly and inherently +reactionary, which has exercised the same influence on the ideal of life, +character, mind, and industry here as in other Catholic countries. Ireland +is perhaps happy in having been cut off from the prodigious development of +luxury and dissipation which, as social writers tell us, has been taking +place on the other side of the Channel as well as from the domination of +the stock-exchange. She may in this way become a saving element in the +social character of the United Kingdom.</p> + +<p>Is it vain to hope that for the settlement of a question so vital party +may for one short hour suspend its war? What far-off object of +aggrandizement can be half so important as a contented and loyal Ireland.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p> +<h2>AN ACCOUNT OF THE IRISH LAND CODE</h2> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By Hugh J. McCann, B.L.</span></p> + +<p><br />The Irish landlord, poor as his circumstances were before the famine, was +in many instances reduced to sorer straits after the terrible scourge had +passed away. The good landlord, anxious to do his duty by his tenants, +helped them as far as his mortgages and other financial burdens would +allow. The tyrannical one, regardless of the sufferings of his victims, +sought to extract impossible rents from an unfortunate tenantry who had +scarcely the means of subsistence. The Encumbered Estates Act, it was +thought, would relieve the tension. It empowered a court specially +constituted for the purpose to order the sale of estates encumbered with +debt, on the petition of any person sufficiently interested as owner or +creditor.</p> + +<p>Landlordism, it was thought, would, by this act, be relieved of much that +made it tyrannical, even when it meant well. But the act was a failure. It +was worse. It was the means of wrecking many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> a fortune, and driving many +a proprietor to ruin. Men who, in hard times, were doing well for their +tenants and their country under difficult circumstances were driven from +the land.</p> + +<p>The act came into operation towards the end of 1849. A wild rush was made +by creditors to the court. Prices fell with amazing rapidity, and landed +property became a drug in the market. Valuable properties failed to +realize sufficient to meet the mortgages, and their owners were inevitably +ruined.</p> + +<p>A new class of landlord now appeared on the scene in the person of the +speculator, who bought up the bankrupt properties as they presented +themselves. The new proprietors had nothing in common with their tenantry. +They knew little of their needs and requirements and cared less. They had +but one interest and that was a commercial one. To make their properties +realize a good dividend on their outlay was their one concern, and up went +the rents accordingly. Such was the fate of the unfortunate tenants who +were allowed to continue as tenants of the new proprietor. This was bad +enough, but those that were given notice to quit were even more cruelly +wronged. Compensation for wrongful disturbance was not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>recognized in +Ireland in 1850, and tenant property amounting to three millions sterling +was sold to pay the landlord’s creditors.</p> + +<p>Nothing could demonstrate more clearly how utterly rotten was the whole +land system in Ireland at the time. Landlord and tenant alike were in a +miserable plight. Rents fell heavily in arrear, and evictions were the +order of the day. The landlord played the bold game, struck hard, and +without mercy. The tenant sought protection in combination and conspiracy. +Such was the condition of Ireland when thoughtful men sought by +legislation to cure the crying evils of the time. Many remedies were +proposed between 1850 and 1860, but none of them reached the stage of +legislative enactment. In the latter year, however, Cardwell made an +attempt to place the law of landlord and tenant on a better footing.</p> + +<p>In spite of a good deal of opposition, government succeeded in placing two +important measures on the Statute Book, viz.: the Landed Property +(Ireland) Improvement Act, 1860, and the Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment +Act (Ireland) of the same year. By the former limited owners were enabled, +subject to judicial sanction, to charge the inheritance with the cost of +specified improvements,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> and to bind their successors for stated periods. +Agricultural leases for a period of twenty-one years or less could be +given by the limited owners without judicial intervention, but every +improvement lease required the sanction of the chairman of the county in +which the lands were situated.</p> + +<p>To tenants the right of compensation was granted for certain specified +improvements made by them, provided that before entering on the +improvements they made them the subject of an agreement with the landlord, +or had given notice of his intention to improve, and the landlord had not +notified his objection within a period of three months from receipt of the +notice. The principle of retrospective compensation was not, as yet, +admitted.</p> + +<p>The second act consolidated the existing law of landlord and tenant, and +made some important changes in procedure.</p> + +<p>The relationship of landlord and tenant, hitherto based on <i>tenure</i>, as in +England, was henceforth to be founded on <i>contract</i>.</p> + +<p>Before proceeding to examine its provisions, it might be well to point out +that the common law rights of Irish agricultural tenants were in the +absence of special customs governed since the reign of James I. by English +common law rules. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> English system of land tenure was imposed upon the +country by virtue of conquest. But the circumstances of the two countries +were entirely different.</p> + +<p>In England the landlord owned the soil and everything on it. The dwelling +houses and out-offices, the farm roads, the drainage, were built by him or +his predecessors. He let a holding to a tenant as a going concern, and for +the holding so equipped he received rent. The relations between landlord +and tenant in England rested on a business footing. If the tenant did not +feel satisfied with his farm or his lot, he moved on. There were none of +the ties there, either of attachment or of interest, that existed in +Ireland. In Ireland the tenant or his predecessor provided, by his labours +or his savings, the whole equipment of the farm. His family for +generations back occupied the same plot, and he dearly learned to know and +love every stone and hedge about the place. In England the improvements +were effected by the landlord out of the rent paid him by the tenant, and, +of course, were legally his by the law of the land. In Ireland the +improvements, almost universally made by the tenant, became at common law +the property of the landlord, who was under no <i>legal</i> obligation to +compensate the tenant for them on ejecting him from his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>holding. The +following extract from the report of the Devon Commission contrasts the +practice in the two countries very well. “The Commission finds on all +hands, it is admitted, that, according to the general practice in Ireland, +the landlord builds neither dwelling-house nor farm-offices, nor puts +fences, gates, etc., into good order before he lets his land to a tenant. +The cases in which a landlord does any of those things are the exceptions. +The system, however, of giving aid in these matters is becoming more +prevalent. In most cases whatever is done in the way of building is done +by the tenant, and in the ordinary language of the country +dwelling-houses, farm-buildings, and even the making of the fences are +described by the general word ‘improvements,’ which is thus employed to +denote the necessary adjuncts to a farm, without which in England or +Scotland no tenant would be found to rent it.”</p> + +<p>What I have said represents the general, but, I should add, not the +universal, condition of things in Ireland at this time.</p> + +<p>In parts of the country, especially in Ulster, certain customs prevailed +which recognized that a tenant was something more than a rent producer. +They denied the right of the landlord to raise rents<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> by reason of any +value added to the soil by the tenant’s outlay. They recognized a right of +continuous occupancy by the tenant at a fair rent. This right, called +tenant right, became on some properties of immense value, and was often +sold by an out-going tenant at a price exceeding in value the fee simple +purchase of the holding. In Ulster more than anywhere else in Ireland the +custom was very widely prevalent, but was as yet without the sanction of +the law.</p> + +<p>But I have digressed from the Act of 1860. In dealing with the Act of +1870, what I have just said will be of importance. The Landlord and Tenant +Act, 1860, otherwise known as “Deasy’s Act,” is a voluminous measure of +one hundred and five sections which may be conveniently grouped into three +sections. The first deals with the <i>Contract of Tenancy</i>, the second with +<i>Surrenders and Assignments</i>, and the third with the <i>Methods of +Procedure</i>. Section three enacts that “the relation of landlord and tenant +shall be deemed to be founded on the express or implied contract of the +parties.” The conduct of the parties may imply a contract of tenancy, +payment of rent being evidence, but not irrefutable evidence, of its +existence.</p> + +<p>Section four requires that “every lease or <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>contract, with respect to +lands whereby the relations of landlord and tenant is intended to be +created for any freehold estate or interest, or for any definite period of +time, not being from year to year, or any lesser period, shall be by +<i>deed</i> executed, or <i>note in writing</i> signed by the landlord or his +agent.” It is further provided that a tenant may, if there be no agreement +to the contrary, remove his fixtures within two months of its +determination by an uncertain event. Two covenants are implied in the +contract of tenancy by each of the parties thereto. The landlord by his +lease implies an agreement on the part of himself and his successors that +he has a good title to make it, and that the tenant shall have quiet and +peaceable enjoyment of his holding.</p> + +<p>The tenant agrees to pay rent, taxes, and impositions payable by the +tenant, and to keep the premises in good and substantial repair and +condition; and, secondly, to give up peaceable possession of the demised +premises in good and substantial repair and condition on the determination +of the lease, subject to any right of removal or of compensation for +improvements that may have lawfully arisen in respect of them, and to any +right of surrender in case of the destruction of the subject-matter of the +contract.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span><i>Surrenders and Assignments</i> may +be made (1) by deed, (2) by a note in writing, or (3) by operation of law.</p> + +<p>Sections forty-five to one hundred and two deal with actions for the +recovery of rent and actions of ejectment. The most important provision is +that which provides that if a tenant has had a decree given against him in +an action of ejectment, he may be restored to his holding on applying to +the court within six months, and paying the rent with arrears and costs.</p> + +<p>Such are the main features of Deasy’s Act. Beyond consolidating and +regularizing the existing law it achieved nothing. A decided advance, +however, was made in the Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act, 1870, which +was restricted in its operation to agricultural and pastoral tenancies. We +have seen how there existed in Ulster and other parts of the country +certain customs favourable to the tenant. To the Ulster custom, as it was +called, Ulster was indebted for exceptional prosperity.</p> + +<p>The contentment of its agricultural population was in strange contrast to +the seething discontent of the other parts of the country. Much of the +thrift and plenty that exists in parts of Ulster to-day can be traced back +to the exceptional treatment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> accorded to the tenants of Ulster long +before legislation came to the aid of their less fortunate brethren south +of the Boyne. The aim of the Land Act of 1870 was to place the latter +class in a similar position to the Northerns. The act legalized the Ulster +custom and similar usages. It gave tenants not subject to these a right to +be compensated for their improvements on quitting their holdings, and +guaranteed a measure of security by providing compensation for +disturbance. What is “disturbance” is a question for the court, and must +be decided on the facts of each particular case.</p> + +<p>Agreements not to improve the holding, or not to claim for improvements, +are declared void. If the holding be subject to the Ulster custom, there +is a general presumption that the improvements belong to the tenant.</p> + +<p>The term “improvements” shall mean in relation to a holding (1) any work +which, being executed, adds to the letting value of the holding, on which +it is executed and is suitable to such holding; and (2) tillages, manures, +or other like farming works, the benefit of which is unexhausted at the +time of the tenant quitting his holding.</p> + +<p>We have not proceeded far before it becomes apparent that to secure to the +tenant the full <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>enjoyment of his own property was the line along which +land legislation was travelling. The Act of 1870 went some distance in +this direction. But the great advance was not made till ten years after, +when Gladstone proposed to establish a tribunal which would assess and fix +the property of the two partners in the dual ownership of land in Ireland. +The act recognized and legalized dual ownership. It created a partnership +between two parties whose interests were hostile. It was a great act, and +did incalculable good, but many years were not to elapse until it became +evident that a return to single ownership—but this time by the +tenant—was absolutely necessary. The endeavours to work dual ownership +irretrievably broke down.</p> + +<p>Both parties had little confidence in the Land Court established by the +Act of 1881.</p> + +<p>The landlord complained that his property was being confiscated; the +tenant believed that he was still paying rent on his own improvements. The +act was meant to give tenants fixity of tenure, fair rent, and free sale. +A new judicial body, the Irish Land Commission, with jurisdiction to hear +and determine all matters of law or fact arising under the act, was +established. The commission consists of three commissioners—one a +judicial <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>commissioner and numerous assistant commissioners appointed by +the lord lieutenant for the time being with the approval of the treasury. +This is not the place to examine the provisions of this complicated +measure minutely, but as it is the foundation of much of the land +legislation that followed, it is important that its main provisions be +understood.</p> + +<p>The act distinguishes between “present” tenancies and “future” tenancies, +a “present” tenancy being “a tenancy subsisting at the time of the passing +of the act, or created before the first day of January, 1883, in a holding +in which a tenancy was subsisting at the time of the passing of the act, +and every tenancy to which the act applies shall be deemed to be a present +tenancy until the contrary is proved.”</p> + +<p>A “future” tenancy means a tenancy beginning after the passing of the act. +The act applies only to agricultural and pastoral holdings. It gives +qualified powers to both “present” and “future” tenants to dispose of +their holdings for the best price they can get, or to mortgage them if +they think fit.</p> + +<p>Fixity of tenure was secured by enabling a tenant to convert his interest +into what is called in the act a <i>statutory term</i>. Such a term may be +created by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> an agreement between the landlord and tenant for an increased +rent, or by having a fair rent fixed, or by filing in court an agreement +for a judicial rent. A <i>statutory term</i> can be created only in respect of +a “present” tenancy except when in regard to a “future” tenancy the tenant +has agreed with the landlord to an increased rent. The provisions as to +the fixing of a fair rent apply only to “present” tenancies. Section three +of the act gives a tenant power to dispose of his holding by bequest. +Perhaps the most important provisions of the act are those enabling a +landlord or tenant to have a “fair rent” fixed.</p> + +<p>Either party may apply to the court to have the rent made a <i>judicial +rent</i>. The court fixes this rent after considering all the circumstances +of the case, holding, and district, and having regard to the interests of +both parties. No rent shall be payable in respect of improvements made by +the tenant unless he has been already compensated for them by the +landlord. In the administration of the act the word “improvements” has +given rise to endless litigation. In the now famous case of Adams <i>v.</i> +Dunseath it was held that “improvements” meant improvement works and not +increased letting value. It was also held in a case affecting the same +holding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> that a tenant is entitled to “a fair return by way of annual +allowance in respect of the present capital value of his improvement works +which may be estimated by way of percentage on such capital value; and if +after making this percentage there is still a surplus of increased letting +value, it is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Land Commission to +determine whether, and in what proportions, such surplus shall be divided +between landlord and tenant.” It was further laid down that the Land +Commission was to treat “the latent and dormant resources of the soil, as +let by the landlord to the tenant, as the property of the landlord, and +the development of those resources by the tenant as the act of the +tenant.”</p> + +<p>This act was undoubtedly a great charter for the tenants and created +something like a revolution in Ireland. It contained many defects, and was +marred by many blemishes, but on the whole it was a masterly attempt to +settle the question. Like much of the land legislation for Ireland, most +of its shortcomings were due to a reckless disregard on the part of +British ministers for Irish opinion. Indeed, this was the cause of most of +the amending legislation that followed.</p> + +<p>Under the Act of 1881 “fair rents” were fixed for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> periods of fifteen +years, when they were again ripe for revision. Roughly speaking, the old +non-judicial rents were reduced by twenty per cent on an average to +convert them into first term rents. These again were further reduced by +twenty per cent on an average for the second term. This, of course, played +havoc with the landlord’s income, and did not materially benefit the +tenant, the prices of the produce of whose farm was falling with even +greater rapidity. The experiment of dual ownership had been tried and was +found wanting; a return to single ownership was sought for by the series +of acts known as the Land Purchase Acts.</p> + +<p>It was not till 1885 that the experiment of land purchase was seriously +tried in Ireland, but it is right to say that the question first came +before the public in a practical form so far back as 1869 in the +discussions on the disestablishment of the Irish Episcopal Church. At that +time Mr. Bright proposed to increase the number of owners of land in +Ireland by allowing the glebe tenants to purchase the property attached to +the glebes. The idea was embodied in the Irish Church Act, and over six +thousand occupying owners were thus created. Under this act three-fourths +of the purchase money was advanced by the State, and the balance paid in +cash<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> by the purchasers. The money was advanced by the State for +thirty-two years, the shortest period allowed by any of the acts. From the +tenant’s point of view this act cannot be said to have been an unqualified +success. The price of land was high at the time, and the purchasers having +bought high sustained the whole burden of the sudden fall in the prices of +produce which almost immediately succeeded the conclusion of their +bargains. In 1870 and in 1881 there were embodied in the acts of these +years provisions to enable tenants to purchase their holdings; but the +procedure to be followed was made so complicated that the tenants did not +avail themselves of the purchase clauses to any great extent. The +insignificant number of sixteen hundred sales were completed under the two +acts.</p> + +<p>In 1885 a Conservative government came into power, and though their term +of office was of short duration, they introduced and passed a measure +which, by its marvellous and, I might add, its unexpected success, pointed +the direction and paved the way for all future legislation for the +settlement of the land problem in Ireland. Back to single ownership was +the keynote of the measure. Hitherto the credit or discredit of all +legislation on the land problem belonged to the Liberals. They strove to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +make dual ownership a possibility. Conservative statesmen sought for a +settlement in the opposite direction.</p> + +<p>In sales under all the purchase acts from 1885 to the Act of 1903 all the +purchase money is advanced by the State to the selling landlord, and is +charged by the State to the tenant who purchases. The tenant repays the +amount borrowed or “advanced,” to use the language of the acts, in annual +instalments, which instalments clear off not only the original “advance,” +but the accumulated interest.</p> + +<p>Roughly speaking, the procedure is this. The landlord and tenant, having +agreed on a price, sign an agreement for sale, and file it with the Land +Commission, which body has the carriage, so to speak, of all purchase +transactions, as well as all other transactions under the land acts. The +holding is inspected by the Land Commission which, having been satisfied +that the land in question is security for the “advance,” pay the purchase +money to the landlord and collect from the tenant the annual instalments +necessary to repay it to the State.</p> + +<p>The plan of the Act of 1885, better known as the Ashbourne Act from the +fact that it was Lord Ashbourne who introduced the measure to the lords, +was simple in the extreme, and to this is due, in no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> small measure, its +rapid success. It was easily understood by the people, and so popular did +it become that in three years the money provided by it was completely +exhausted.</p> + +<p>In 1888 a second bill was passed under which an additional sum of five +millions—this was the amount provided by the Ashbourne Act—was set aside +for purchase. Under the two measures 25,368 owners were created.</p> + +<p>“Almost from the start,” writes Mr. George Fottrell (a gentleman well +qualified to discuss the question of land purchase in Ireland) in the +<i>Morning Post</i>, “the Ashbourne Act was a success. During the first five +years of its working, the ‘advances’ actually paid over by the Land +Commission to landlords amounted annually on an average to £1,250,000 +sterling. The ‘applications’ represented a considerably larger sum. By +1887 they had more than exhausted the £5,000,000 which had been voted by +Parliament for the Ashbourne Act, in 1885, and thereon a further sum of +£5,000,000 was voted. The scheme continued to work well; the +‘applications’ came in steadily but with no feverish haste, the largest +total sum applied for under the Ashbourne Act in any one year being in +1887 when it reached £3,700,000.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> In each of the next two years it reached +just two millions. In 1890 it had dropped to less than a million and a +half; in 1891 it was slightly in excess of that amount. By 1891 it was +plain that the second vote of five millions had been virtually absorbed, +and that Parliament must be applied to for further money. To cool-headed +people in Ireland it seemed that the obvious course was to ask for a small +grant, say of ten millions, so as to continue to test cautiously the +usefulness of an act which had so far worked well, while by the very +smallness of the grant keeping in reserve a check on the expansion of the +act if it should prove to work mischievously.</p> + +<p>“This course was not taken. In 1891 Parliament was asked to make a much +larger grant. Over thirty millions were voted, but coupled with conditions +which made the money useless.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Balfour’s act, the Purchase Act of 1891, was extremely complicated. +Under it Ireland was entitled to draw upon Imperial credit to the extent +of £33,000,000. The rate of interest payable by the purchasers was +substantially the same as under the acts of 1885 and 1888, the period of +repayment in the three cases being forty-nine years.</p> + +<p>But a change was made in the method of payment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> to the landlord. Previous +to 1891, he had been always paid in cash. Under the Balfour Act he was +paid in guaranteed land stock. There were many complicated provisions in +regard to the creation of a guarantee fund, an insurance fund, and other +safeguards. The complexity of the measure and the procedure under it, and +the consequent delays in completing any transactions in a reasonable time, +acted as a deterrent to intending purchasers and the act was virtually a +failure. At this point it is well, perhaps, to summarize the results of +the working of land purchase under the acts already dealt with. We have +seen that a total sum of (say) £44,000,000 was made available by the +various acts for land purchase. Out of this a total sum of £21,182,268 has +been expended, leaving about twenty-three millions still available. Under +all the acts up to and including that of 1891, 62,241 tenants purchased +their holdings, 6057 under the Church Act, 877 under the Land Act of 1870, +731 under the Act of 1881, 25,368 under the Purchase Acts of 1885 and +1888, and the balance of about 30,000 became purchasers by means of the +Act of 1891.</p> + +<p>Numerous and extensive as these operations were, it is satisfactory to +note, and it redounds to the credit of the Irish people, that Mr. +Wyndham,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> when introducing his Land Bill of 1902, was able to assure the +House of Commons that Irish Land Purchase had this one merit that the +State had incurred no loss under it and was exposed to no risk. In no case +did an Irish tenant break his bargain. There was no case of bad debt to +mention.</p> + +<p>One of the first stumbling-blocks to a tenant proposing to purchase under +the Act of 1891 was that he was unable to know, or even approximately +gauge, what was the actual sum he would have to pay, by way of annuity, +each year. This was a serious flaw, and helped more than anything else +perhaps to clog the wheels of purchase. This state of things, however, was +remedied by the Purchase Act of 1896, by which the maximum sum payable in +any year was an instalment at the rate of £4 per cent on the purchase +money, no matter at what number of years’ purchase of his rent the tenant +might buy. Most of the cumbrous restrictions of the Act of 1891 were +removed, and once more the applications began to tumble in. In 1895-1896 +the applications received numbered less than half a million. In 1897-1898 +and in 1898-1899 they reached nearly two millions. A steady decrease then +set in, but on the whole purchase proceeded at a satisfactory pace.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>A strange condition of things now existed in Ireland, and a condition of +things that could not last. Here and there over the country there existed +a contented peasantry, the virtual owners of their holdings, paying a +reasonable annuity for a definite period to the State. If they had not the +sense of complete ownership, they had the very next best thing to it. They +knew that if they themselves were not the absolute owners of their +holdings during their lives, their children and their children’s children +would be, and they set to work with a heart and a will to work and improve +their farms, knowing full well that the results of their labour would, at +last, be theirs, and could not be wrung from them by the whims or +exigencies of the landlord. On the other side of the fence, or river, the +tenant who had not purchased and, perhaps, could not purchase, for his +landlord would not sell, continued to pay a rent sometimes exorbitant, but +always higher than his friend the purchaser close by. Such was the +position of the tenant’s side of the question. Now let us examine the +landlord’s.</p> + +<p>Under the Act of 1896 the landlord was paid in government stock. Between +the years 1891 and 1896 government stock rose from 96 to 110. A premium of +ten per cent was a strong incentive to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> the landlord to sell. If he had an +estate worth £5000, he received in reality for it £5500, for he was +credited with £5000 stock which, sold on change, realized £5500 in cash. +In some cases, where the estate was mortgaged, the gain was even more. +This was gold finding for the landlord until the price of stock fell, +which it did and with a vengeance. Stock which in 1897 stood at 113 fell +in 1901 to 91. The fall again clogged the wheels, and the question once +again became the burning question of the hour. It is right to say here +that there were other forces at work which made the landlord anxious to +get out, if he could at all, on reasonable terms. The fall in the price of +produce continued, and the Land Commission, which had under the Act of +1881 twice revised the rentals, and reduced them each time by twenty per +cent on an average, were preparing for the third revision. The landlords +looked forward to 1911 with fear and trembling. With their estates mostly +heavily mortgaged, and the third revision at hand, they were as anxious as +the tenants, if not more so, that Parliament should step in to their +mutual aid. It did so in the Land Act of 1903. The introduction of this +measure was preceded by a conference of landlords and tenants, +representatives in Ireland which met in the Mansion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> House, Dublin, and +after five sittings reported as follows:—</p> + +<p>“Whereas it is expedient that the land question in Ireland be settled so +far as it is practicable and without delay,</p> + +<p>“And whereas the existing position of the land question is adverse to the +improvement of the soil of Ireland, leads to unending controversies and +law-suits between owners and occupiers, retards progress in the country, +and constitutes a grave danger to the state,</p> + +<p>“And whereas an opportunity of settling once for all the differences +between owners and occupiers in Ireland is very desirable,</p> + +<p>“And whereas such settlement can only be effected upon a basis mutually +satisfactory to the owners and occupiers of the land,</p> + +<p>“And whereas certain representatives of owners and occupiers have been +desirous of endeavouring to find such basis, and for that purpose have met +in conference together,</p> + +<p>“And whereas certain particulars of agreement have been formulated, +discussed, and passed at the conference, and it is desirable that the same +should be put into writing and submitted to his Majesty’s government,</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>“After consideration and discussion of various schemes submitted to the +conference, we are agreed:—</p> + +<p>“1. That the only satisfactory settlement of the land question is to be +effected by the substitution of an occupying proprietary in lieu of the +existing system of dual ownership.</p> + +<p>“2. That the process of direct interference by the State in purchase and +resale is in general tedious and unsatisfactory; and that, therefore, +except in cases where at least half the occupiers or the owners so desire, +and except in districts included in the operations of the congested +districts board, the settlement should be made between owner and occupier, +subject to the necessary investigation by the State as to title, rental, +and security.</p> + +<p>“3. That it is desirable in the interests of Ireland that the present +owners of land should not as a result of any settlement be expatriated, +or, having received payment for their land, should find no object for +remaining in Ireland, and that as the effect of a far-reaching settlement +must necessarily be to cause the sale of tenancies throughout the whole of +Ireland, inducements should, wherever practicable, be afforded to selling +owners to continue to reside in that country.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>“4. That for the purpose of obtaining such a result, an equitable price +ought to be paid to the owners, which should be based upon income.</p> + +<p>“Income, as it appears to us, is second term rents—including all rents +fixed subsequent to the passing of the Act of 1896—or their fair +equivalent.</p> + +<p>“5. That the purchase price should be based upon income as indicated +above, and should be either the assurance by the State of such income, or +the payment of a capital sum producing such income at three per cent or at +three and one-fourth per cent, if guaranteed by the State, or if the +existing powers of trustees be sufficiently enlarged.</p> + +<p>“Costs of collection where such exist, not exceeding ten per cent, are not +included for the purpose of these paragraphs in the word ‘income.’</p> + +<p>“6. That such income or capital sum should be obtainable by the owners:—</p> + +<p>“(<i>a</i>) Without the requirement of capital outlay upon their part, such as +would be involved by charges for proving title to sell. Six years’ +possession, as proposed in the bill brought forward in the session of +1902, appears to us a satisfactory method of dealing with the matter.</p> + +<p>“(<i>b</i>) Without the requirement of outlay to prove title to receive the purchase money.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>“(<i>c</i>) Without unreasonable delay.</p> + +<p>“(<i>d</i>) Without loss of income pending reinvestment.</p> + +<p>“(<i>e</i>) And without leaving a portion of the capital sum as a guarantee +deposit.</p> + +<p>“7. That, as a necessary inducement to selling owners to continue to +reside in Ireland, the provision of the bill introduced by the chief +secretary for Ireland in the session of 1902 with regard to the purchase +of mansion houses, demesne lands, and home farms by the State, and resale +by it to the owners, ought to be extended.</p> + +<p>“8. We suggest that in certain cases it would be to the advantage of the +State as insuring more adequate security, and also an advantage to owners +in such cases, if upon the purchase by the State of the mansion house and +demesne land and resale to the owner, the house and demesne land should +not be considered a security to the mortgages.</p> + +<p>“9. That owners wishing to sell portions of grazing land in their own +hands for the purpose of enlarging neighbouring tenancies should be +entitled to make an agreement with the tenants, and that in the event of +proposed purchase by the tenants such grazing land may be considered as +part of the tenancies for the purpose of purchase.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>“10. That, in addition to the income, or capital sum producing the income, +the sum due for rent from the last rent day till the date of the agreement +for purchase and the hanging gale should be paid by the State to the +owner.</p> + +<p>“11. That all liabilities by the owner which run with the land, such as +head-rents, quit-rents, and tithe-rent charge, should be redeemed, and the +capital sum paid for such redemption deducted from the purchase money +payable to the owner. Provided always that the price of redemption should +be calculated on a basis not higher, as regards annual value, than is used +in calculating the purchase price of the estate. In any special cases +where it may have to be calculated upon a different basis, the owner +should not suffer thereby. Owners liable to drainage charges should be +entitled to redeem same upon equitable terms, having regard to the varying +rates of interest at which such loans were made.</p> + +<p>“12. That the amount of the purchase money payable by the tenants should +be extended over a series of years, and be at such a rate, in respect of +principal and interest, as will at once secure a reduction of not less +than fifteen per cent, or more than twenty-five per cent on second term +rents or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> their fair equivalent, with further periodical reductions as +under existing land purchase acts until such time as the treasury is +satisfied that the loan has been repaid. This may involve some assistance +from the State beyond the use of its credit, which, under circumstances +hereinafter mentioned, we consider may reasonably be granted. Facilities +should be provided for the redemption at any time of the purchase money or +part thereof by payment of the capital or any part thereof.</p> + +<p>“13. That the hanging gale, where such custom exists, should be included +in the loan and paid off in the instalments to be paid by the purchasing +occupier, and should not be a debt immediately recoverable from the +occupier, but the amount of rent ordinarily payable for the period between +the date when the last payment fell due and the date of agreement for sale +should be payable as part of the first instalment.</p> + +<p>“14. That counties wholly or partly under the operations of the congested +districts board, or other districts of a similar character (as defined by +the Congested Districts Board Acts and by section four, clause one, of Mr. +Wyndham’s Land Purchase Amendment Bill of last session), will require +separate and exceptional treatment with a view to the better<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> distribution +of the population and of the land, as well as for the acceleration and +extension of these projects for migration and enlargement of holdings +which the congested districts board, as at present constituted and with +its limited powers, has hitherto found it impossible to carry out upon an +adequate scale.</p> + +<p>“15. That any project for the solution of the Irish Land Question should +be accompanied by a settlement of the evicted tenants’ question upon an +equitable basis.</p> + +<p>“16. That sporting and riparian rights should remain as they are, subject +to any provisions of existing Land Purchase Acts.</p> + +<p>“17. That the failure to enforce the Labourers Acts in certain portions of +the country constitutes a serious grievance, and that in districts where, +in the opinion of the local government board, sufficient accommodation has +not been made for the housing of the labouring classes, power should be +given to the local government board, in conjunction with the local +authorities, to acquire sites for houses and allotments.</p> + +<p>“18. That the principle of restriction upon subletting might be extended +to such control as may be practicable over resales of purchasers’ interest +and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> mortgages, with a view to maintaining unimpaired the value of the +State’s security for outstanding instalments on loans.</p> + +<p>“And whereas we are agreed that no settlement can give peace and +contentment to Ireland or afford reasonable and fair opportunity for the +development of the resources of the country, which fails to satisfy the +just claims of both owners and occupiers,</p> + +<p>“And whereas such settlement can only be effected by the assistance of the +State, which, as a principle, has been employed in former years,</p> + +<p>“And whereas it appears to us that, for the healing of differences and the +welfare of the country, such assistance should be given, and can be given, +and can effect a settlement without either undue cost to the treasury or +appreciable risk with regard to the money advanced, we are of opinion that +any reasonable difference arising between the sum advanced by the State, +and ultimately repaid to it, may be justified by the following +considerations:—</p> + +<p>“That for the future welfare of Ireland, and for the smooth working of any +measure dealing with the transfer of land, it is necessary:—</p> + +<p>“1. That the occupiers should be started on their new career as owners on +a fair and favourable basis, insuring reasonable chances of success, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +that in view of the responsibilities to be assumed by them they should +receive some inducement to purchase.</p> + +<p>“2. That the owners should receive some recognition of the facts that +selling may involve sacrifice of sentiment, that they have already +suffered heavily by the operation of the land acts, and that they should +receive some inducement to sell.</p> + +<p>“3. That for the benefit of the whole community it is of the greatest +importance that income derived from sale of property in Ireland should +continue to be expended in Ireland.</p> + +<p>“And we further submit that, as a legitimate setoff against any demand +upon the State, it must be borne in mind that, upon the settlement of the +land question in Ireland, the cost of administration of the law and the +cost of the Royal Irish Constabulary would be materially and permanently +lessened.</p> + +<p>“We do not, at the present time, desire to offer further recommendations +upon the subject of finance which must necessarily be regulated by the +approval of the government to the principles of the proposals above +formulated except that, in our opinion, the principles of reduction of the +sinking fund in the event of loss to the State by an increase of the +value<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> of money should be extended by the inclusion of the principle of +increase of the sinking fund in favour of the purchasers in the event of +gain to the State by decrease in the value of money.</p> + +<p>“Inasmuch as one of the main conditions of success in reference to any +land purchase scheme must be its prompt application and the avoidance of +those complicated investigations and legal delays which have hitherto +clogged all legislative proposals for settling the relations between Irish +landlords and tenants, we deem it of urgent importance that no protracted +period of time should ensue before a settlement based upon the +above-mentioned principles is carried out; that the executive machinery +should be effective, competent, and speedy, and that investigations +conducted by it should not entail cost upon owner or occupier; and, as a +further inducement to despatch, we suggest that any state aid, apart from +loans which may be required for carrying out a scheme of land purchase as +herein proposed, should be limited to transactions initiated within five +years after the passing of the act.</p> + +<p>“We wish to place on record our belief that an unexampled opportunity is +at the present moment afforded his Majesty’s government of effecting a +reconciliation of classes in Ireland upon terms<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> which, as we believe, +involve no permanent increase of Imperial expenditure in Ireland; and that +there would be found on all sides an earnest desire to coöperate with the +government in securing the success of a Land Purchase Bill, which, by +effectively and rapidly carrying out the principles above indicated, would +bring peace and prosperity to the country.</p> + +<p>“Signed at the Mansion House, Dublin, this third day of January, 1903.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td>“<span class="smcap">Dunraven</span> (<i>Chairman</i>)</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td><span class="smcap">John Redmond</span></td></tr> +<tr><td>“<span class="smcap">Mayo</span></td><td> </td><td><span class="smcap">Wm. O’Brien</span></td></tr> +<tr><td>“<span class="smcap">W. H. Hutcheson Poe</span></td><td> </td><td><span class="smcap">T. W. Russell</span></td></tr> +<tr><td>“<span class="smcap">Nugent T. Everard</span></td><td> </td><td><span class="smcap">T. C. Harrington</span>”</td></tr></table> + +<p>It soon transpired that the idea of a conference between landlords’ and +tenants’ representatives was the government plan for laying the foundation +of the bill that they contemplated introducing as a government measure +later on. The tenants’ representatives, who, in the then position of the +land question, with prices falling and the third revision term looming in +the distance, had all the trumps in their hands, were hopelessly +outmanœuvred by the landlord section.</p> + +<p>The question to be discussed was largely a financial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> one, but still the +tenants had not a man of financial ability at the board. It is true the +members of the conference were nominated, and not selected by their +respective sides, though afterwards, for reasons easily understood, the +nominations were ratified by the parties concerned. But nominated by whom? +By a Captain Shawe Taylor, a personage popular with all parties, but in +this matter undoubtedly the agent of the government. The conference sat +five times, and all through the proceedings the nationalist +representatives were rubbing their hands with glee, for they thought the +millennium had come.</p> + +<p>The landlord party, on the other hand, were in nightly communication with +the Castle. Treasury experts were drafted over to Dublin, and no stone was +left unturned to secure for the landlords a measure which would satisfy +the most exacting. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. On the 3d +of January, 1903, the land conference issued its report. Clear-headed +politicians saw at once that the tenants had played the game and lost. +Every advantage or benefit that the landlord sought or claimed was secured +to him by this treaty, as it was afterwards styled, in terms that could +not be gainsaid. The tenants’ clauses in the report were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> mostly pious +expressions of opinion, which were afterwards, when the Land Bill came to +be drafted, brushed aside, or quietly ignored. But all was not yet lost.</p> + +<p>The <i>Freeman’s Journal</i>, under the able guidance of Mr. Thomas Sexton, in +a series of powerful articles, reviewed the whole position. It boldly but +temperately pointed out the defects in the conference report. It refused +to shout with the crowd. It could not see that much was gained. It clearly +saw that a great deal had been lost. The bill, a large and complicated +measure of eighty-nine clauses, was shortly afterwards introduced. It was +a great measure and aimed at the final settlement of the land question. +And, indeed, such an end, devoutly to be wished, would certainly have been +attained had the amendments pressed on the government during the passage +of the bill by the organ of the tenants been accepted and embodied in the +act.</p> + +<p>Clause after clause was closely examined, and the defects exposed by Mr. +Sexton in a series of articles, inspired if not actually written by him in +the <i>Freeman</i>. He had done much service for Ireland in the past, but I +doubt if his great abilities had ever been better applied than to the work +of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> examination, elucidation, and amendment of the Land Bill of 1903.</p> + +<p>His criticisms culminated in the publication of a schedule of amendments +which he claimed were necessary to the final settlement of the question.</p> + +<p>It is worth while now putting them on record, for they have a true +historical value. It is now seen in the working of the act, that the +acceptance of some of the amendments contained in the schedule materially +improved the bill, while the omission of the others explains the necessity +for still further legislation on the subject.</p> + +<p>The following is a summary of the amendments referred to:—</p> + +<p>1. The rights of tenants under the Fair Rent Laws should be maintained +intact.</p> + +<p>2. No non-judicial tenant should be excluded from purchase by reason +merely of his tenure. Caretakers of holdings of which they had previously +been tenants should have the rights of tenants for the purpose of +purchasing such holdings.</p> + +<p>3. As a condition precedent to purchase, non-judicial rents and first term +rents fixed or agreed upon down to the end of 1896 should be reduced to +the average level, substantially of second term rents, and purchase should +not be transacted in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> cases of non-judicial rents, or of such first +term rents, except upon this basis.</p> + +<p>4. The purchase system being voluntary, the compulsory limits of price in +this bill should be struck out.</p> + +<p>5. The aim of the system being to extinguish dual ownership and equal +treatment being essential both as between past and future transactions, +and also between the tenant who buys his holding and the landlord who buys +back his land sold by him to the State, no rent charge should be reserved. +Such a reservation would forever exclude the tenant from ownership, by +erecting a new and perpetual system of landlordism in the place of the +old.</p> + +<p>6. The rate of interest on consols being now two and one-half per cent, +the new guaranteed stock might be issued at two and one-half, instead of +two and three-fourths as proposed, and by this means the decadal +reductions, instead of being abolished as the bill provides, might be +allowed at the rate of eight per cent; or, at the option of the purchaser, +the period during which his annuity would be payable could be shortened by +about ten years. If the annuity rate were three and one-half, the +purchaser might be allowed to choose between decadal reductions at the +rate of eleven per cent,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> and a term of redemption shorter by nearly +twenty years than that prescribed in the bill.</p> + +<p>7. Sales of untenanted land, and, in particular, resales of demesne or +other land to vendors, should be subject to the needs of migration, of +enlarged holdings, and of making provision for evicted tenants, in the +case of each estate or district, and no evicted farm should be resold to +the vendor, or sold to a new tenant, if the evicted tenant, or his +personal representative, is willing to become the purchaser.</p> + +<p>8. The cost of improvement of estates and untenanted land, being charged +to every purchaser and repaid by his annuity, should be provided for as +part of the advances required for the purposes of this act, leaving the +reserve fund available to the estates commissioners for cases of +exceptional need.</p> + +<p>9. It is necessary to maintain the existing satisfactory condition that +the holding, or other land purchased, is to be sufficient security for the +repayment of the advance.</p> + +<p>10. The Purchase Aid Fund should be increased to not less than twenty +millions; and distributed either in inverse ratio to the number of years’ +purchase in each case, or by a uniform grant of a fixed number of years’ +purchase to every selling landlord.</p> + +<p>11. A term of years should be fixed in the bill,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> on the expiration of +which term the provisions for grants from the Purchase Aid Fund, resales +to landlords, and distribution of purchase money free of cost should cease +to operate.</p> + +<p>12. The subject of sporting and mineral rights calls for clear provision +dictated in the public interest, instead of the ambiguous, loose, and +inconclusive proposals which appear in the bill.</p> + +<p>13. It is requisite that the limit of advance to an evicted tenant be not +less than the ordinary limits; also, that provision be made for restoring +evicted tenants to their former holdings when vacant; for making +arrangements to that end when the holdings are occupied; and for stocking +the land.</p> + +<p>14. The cramping restrictions imposed on the congested districts board, +which have effectually prevented that body from dealing with the great +agrarian evil of the West, would not be removed or substantially +diminished by the meagre proposals of the bill; nor can the privations and +miseries endured in the congested districts be sufficiently abated in any +other way than by such a redistribution of grazing ranches as will provide +the people of those districts with land enough to yield them the means of +living. As the guarantee fund—now ample enough for every purpose—is +henceforth to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> apply alike to congested and other districts, and as +advances for land purchase are seen to be free from risk, and special +treatment is to be applied to congested estates throughout the country, it +is evident that the time has come for a uniform system of land purchase, +and that this is to be secured, either by investing the congested +districts board, for all the purposes of land purchase in their particular +areas, with powers corresponding to those of the estates commissioners, or +else by giving the estates commissioners jurisdiction for land purchase in +the congested districts, and authorizing the board to apply its income +wholly to its various other objects of expenditure.</p> + +<p>15. The proposals with regard to the Labourers’ Acts are so trivial that +they cannot be amended. The government should be asked to appoint a +commission to inquire and report, this year, how the question may be +adequately dealt with; and a bill directed seriously to that end should be +passed into law next session.</p> + +<p>The Irish Land Act, 1903, otherwise known as the Wyndham Act, from the +name of the Irish chief secretary who introduced it, came into force on +the 1st of November, 1903. This is not the place to set forth its +provisions, but the principal advantages<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> which accrue to a selling +landlord and a purchasing tenant availing of its provisions may be briefly +stated. The entire purchase money agreed upon is paid to the landlord in +cash. No part of the purchase money is retained as a guarantee deposit. +For the purchase of a single holding the limitations of preceding acts are +extended to £7000.</p> + +<p>The vendor of an estate shall receive in addition to the purchase money +from the tenants a bonus for his own immediate benefit. The landlord is +enabled to sell his demesne, and repurchase it at a profit. The landlord +may sell his estate direct to estate commissioners appointed by the act, +or to the congested districts board, and these bodies are enabled to +resell to the tenants after readjustment and partition of the holdings on +the estate if necessary. Enlarged powers of investment of purchase money +are conferred upon trustees. The principal advantages secured to the +tenant are as follows: At the end of sixty-eight and one-half years, a +tenant becomes owner in fee of his holding. As soon as the agreement to +purchase is signed, he ceases to be liable for rent. He is enabled to +repay the advance at the rate of three and one-fourth per cent of his +purchase money. (Though the reduction of the annuity rate from four per +cent under the previous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> act to three and one-fourth per cent under the +Wyndham Act is an undoubted advantage to a tenant, it is certainly to his +disadvantage that the amount set aside towards the sinking fund should be +reduced from one and one-fourth per cent and one per cent to one-half per +cent.) In congested districts the land commission, or congested districts +board, may purchase lands under certain conditions to enable them to deal +with the problem of congestion.</p> + +<p>The greatest blot on the measure is undoubtedly what is known as the +“Zones.” The act provides that if the price agreed upon between the +parties allows a reduction of not less than ten per cent nor more than +thirty per cent on a tenant’s existing rent, in the case of a second term +rent, and a reduction of not less than twenty per cent nor more than forty +per cent in the case of a first term tenant, the bargain <i>must</i> be +sanctioned by the commissioners without inquiring whether the land in +question is security for the “advance.”</p> + +<p>The result of this provision is that tenants have been wheedled or cajoled +into agreeing to bargains which they will find it difficult or impossible +to keep. The price of land became artificially inflated, and the average +of eighteen years’ purchase paid for land<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> in Ireland under the previous +Purchase Acts has been raised by five to seven years’ purchase. It is +essential that free bargaining should be restored if purchase is to +proceed on sound economic lines. In spite of the efforts of the wisest of +their leaders, the Irish tenantry are rushing into bargains under the +Wyndham Act that may eventuate in dire consequences for themselves and for +the country.</p> + +<p>The importation of Canadian cattle when it comes will have a serious +effect on the Irish produce market, and a further decline in produce +prices may be expected.</p> + +<p>Will the Irish tenant be then able to discharge his liability to the State +and have sufficient margin for living? That is the question for the +future. The answer to it alone can settle whether we have yet reached +finality in the Irish Land Code.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><strong>Footnotes:</strong></p> + +<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> Carlyle, Appendix, No. 17.</p> + +<p><a name="f2" id="f2" href="#f2.1">[2]</a> See Lecky, II., 216 <i>et seq.</i></p> + +<p><a name="f3" id="f3" href="#f3.1">[3]</a> T. P. O’Connor, “The Parnell Movement,” pp. 53, 54.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><strong>Transcriber’s Notes:</strong></p> + +<p>Punctuation has been corrected without note.</p> + +<p>Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Irish History and the Irish Question, by +Goldwin Smith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRISH HISTORY AND IRISH QUESTION *** + +***** This file should be named 34965-h.htm or 34965-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/9/6/34965/ + +Produced by Brian Foley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Irish History and the Irish Question + +Author: Goldwin Smith + +Release Date: January 15, 2011 [EBook #34965] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRISH HISTORY AND IRISH QUESTION *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Foley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + IRISH HISTORY AND THE IRISH QUESTION + + + BY GOLDWIN SMITH + + AUTHOR OF "THE UNITED KINGDOM" + "THE UNITED STATES" + + + NEW YORK + McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. + 1905 + + + + + COPYRIGHT BY + GOLDWIN SMITH, + 1905. + + Published, November, 1905, n. + + + + +PREFACE + + +A long summer was spent by me in that loveliest of all parks, the +Phoenix, as the guest of Edward Cardwell, then Chief Secretary and real +head of the Irish government. Under Cardwell's roof the Irish Question was +fully discussed by able men, Robert Lowe among the number. But I had a +still greater advantage in constant and lasting intercourse with such +friends as Lord Chancellor O'Hagan, Sir Alexander Macdonald, the head of +the Education Department, and other leading Irish Liberals of the moderate +school, ardent patriots and thoroughgoing reformers though opposed to +violence and disruption. To the teachings of these men in dealing with the +Irish Question, I have always looked back for my best guidance. I did what +I could generally to acquaint myself with the country and its people. I +had the opportunity of seeing something of Maynooth as the guest of its +excellent principal in that day. At that time there was rather a lull in +the agrarian war, but religious antagonism was still marked. The fruit of +my studies was a little book entitled "Irish History and Irish +Character," in which I tried to show that the sources of Ireland's sorrows +were to be found in natural circumstance and historical accident as much +as in the crimes or follies of man in recent times. Upon that text I +preached in favour of charity and reconciliation. I am told that a chord +was touched at the time. But my essay has long been superseded and buried +out of sight by the important works, historical and political, which the +controversy has since produced, as well as by the forty eventful years +which have elapsed since its publication. The subject, however, has +retained all its interest, and my confidence in the wisdom of my Irish +friends and instructors has remained the same, or rather has been +strengthened by the course of events. + +I was in Ireland again a good many years afterwards in connection with the +meeting of the Social Science Association, and was the guest of Lord +O'Hagan. The Parnellite Movement was then in full activity; American +Fenianism was at work; and the soil heaved with insurrection. My friend W. +E. Forster was the Secretary, and, much against his own inclination, was +administering measures of repression, the only alternative to which +appeared to be the abdication of the government. On this occasion I was +unlucky enough to draw upon myself a thunderbolt hurled through the +_Times_, but evidently from the skies, by hinting in a public speech that +the Phoenix Park was as worthy to be the occasional residence of royalty +as Osborne or Balmoral. A happy change, attended apparently with the best +effects, has now come in that august quarter. + +It is needless to say that this essay does not pretend to be a history of +Ireland. It is an attempt to trace the general course of the history as it +leads up to the present situation. + +The works published in recent years to which I have been chiefly indebted +are: Joyce's "Social History of Ancient Ireland," Richie's "Short History +of the Irish People," Bagwell's "Ireland under the Tudors," Froude's "The +English in Ireland," Lecky's "Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland," +together with the special chapters on Ireland in his general history, +Ingram's "Two Chapters of Irish History" and "History of the Irish Union," +Ball's "Irish Legislative Systems," T. P. O'Connor's "The Parnell +Movement," and Sir Horace Plunkett's "Ireland in the Twentieth Century," +with the comments on it by Father O'Riordan. + +To Mr. Bagwell's "Ireland under the Tudors" I am specially indebted for +his narrative of the Tudor wars. To Mr. T. P. O'Connor I am specially +indebted for the most vivid accounts of the famine and of the evictions, +as well as for an improved insight into the Parnell Movement and of the +doings which preceded it. Of part of those doings I was myself in some +measure a witness, through my social connections with a circle of English +politicians who were inclining to an Irish alliance. + +The annals of the Tudor wars are horrible and heartrending. But history +cannot drop the veil over them. They long left their evil traces on Irish +character and sentiment, explaining and extenuating some terrible things +which ensued. Nor, in truth, have they become obsolete as warnings to us +in general of the acts into which civilized nations may be betrayed when +they make wars of conquest on those whom they deem barbarians. + +It seemed that a brief account of the recent land legislation for Ireland +might be useful to readers of an essay of this kind. I append one which +has been prepared for me by my friend, Mr. Hugh J. McCann, B.L., of the +Dublin Bar. Its author is in no way committed to any opinion expressed in +the other part of the work. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + I FROM EARLY TIMES TO EDWARD I (1272) 1 + + II EDWARD I TO HENRY VII (1272-1509) 19 + + III HENRY VIII TO MARY (1509-1558) 28 + + IV ELIZABETH TO JAMES I (1558-1603) 37 + + V JAMES I (1603-1625) 55 + + VI CHARLES I TO THE PROTECTORATE (1625-1660) 61 + + VII THE RESTORATION (1660) 80 + + VIII THE REVOLUTION (1688) 86 + + IX THE PENAL CODE (1695-1727) 91 + + X ANNE TO THE REVOLUTION OF 1782 (1702-1782) 105 + + XI THE REVOLUTION OF 1782 AND THE REBELLION OF 1798 121 + + XII UNION (1801) 148 + + XIII DANIEL O'CONNELL (1823-1847) 164 + + XIV GLADSTONE (1868-1893) 191 + + XV THE PRESENT STATE OF THE QUESTION 204 + + ACCOUNT OF THE IRISH LAND CODE 227 + By HUGH J. MCCANN, B.L., of the Irish Bar. + + + + +IRISH HISTORY AND THE IRISH QUESTION + + + + +I + + +Of all histories the history of Ireland is the saddest. For nearly seven +centuries it was a course of strife between races, bloodshed, massacre, +misgovernment, civil war, oppression, and misery. Hardly even now have the +troubles of Ireland come to a close, either for herself or for her +partner. Unrest still reigns in her and, embodied in her Parliamentary +delegation, harasses the Parliament and distracts the councils of Great +Britain. + +The theatre of this tragedy is a large island lying beside one nearly +three times larger, which cuts it off from the continent of Europe, while +on the other side it fronts the wide ocean. The climate is for the most +part too wet for wheat. The pasture is very rich. Ireland seems by nature +to be a grazing country, and a country of large farms; tillage and small +farms have been enforced by the redundance of rural population consequent +on the destruction of urban industries. In coal and minerals Ireland is +poor, while the sister island abounds in them, and in its swarming +factories and mines furnishes a first-rate market for the produce of Irish +pastures; so that the two islands are commercial supplements of each +other. The progress of pastoral countries, political and general, as they +have little city life, is slow. With beauty Ireland is well endowed. The +interior is flat, with large peat bogs and brimming rivers. But the coast +is mountainous and romantic. The western coast especially, where the +Atlantic rolls into deep inlets, has a pensive charm which, when troubles +end and settled peace reigns, may attract the villa as they do the +wanderer now. In early times the island was densely clothed with woods, +which, with the broad and bridgeless rivers, operated like the mountain +barriers of the Scottish Highlands in perpetuating the division of clans, +with their patriarchal system, their rivalries, and their feuds, thus +precluding the growth of a nation. In Ireland there was no natural centre +of dominion. Interest of every kind seems to enjoin the union of the +islands. But in the age of conquest the weaker island was pretty sure to +be marked as a prey of the stronger, while the difficulties of access, the +Channel, broad in the days of primitive navigation, and the Welsh +mountains, combined with the internal barriers of forest and river and +with the naturally wild habits of the people, portended that the conquest +would be difficult and that the agony would be long. Such was the mould of +Destiny. + +The people of Ireland when history opens were Celts, kinsmen of the +primitive races of Gaul and Britain, remnants of which are left in Wales +and in the Highlands of Scotland. Their language was of that family, while +cognate words connect it with the general Aryan stock. There are traces of +a succession of immigrations. Too much, no doubt, has been made of the +influence of race. Yet the Teuton is a Teuton and the Celt is a Celt. The +Celt in his native state has everywhere shown himself lively, social, +communicative, impulsive, prone to laughter and to tears, wanting, +compared with the Teuton, in depth of character, in steadiness and +perseverance. He is inclined rather to personal rule or leadership than to +a constitutional polity. His poet is not Shakespeare or Milton, but Tom +Moore, a light minstrel of laughter and tears. His political leader is +O'Connell, a Boanerges of passionate declamation. In war he is impetuous, +as was the Gaul who charged at Allia and the Highlander who charged at +Killiecrankie and Prestonpans. His taste as well as his manual skill in +decoration is shown by the brilliant collection of gold ornaments in the +Celtic Museum at Dublin, as well as in stone carvings and such a paragon +of illuminated missals as the Book of Kells. But it is greater than his +aptitude for high art, that art which treats the human form, in which he +has not shone. His religious tendency, the outcome of his general +character, is either to Catholicism with its fervid faith, its mysteries, +and its ceremonial, as in Ireland; or to the enthusiastic forms of +Protestantism, as in the Highlands and in Wales. Anglicanism, a sober cult +with a balanced creed, suits him not. It was a cruel decree of destiny +that the larger island from which the conqueror would come was peopled by +the Teuton, so that to the usual evils of conquest was added that of a +difference of character inherent in race. + +The primitive organization of the Irish Celts was tribal, the underlying +idea being kinship, real or reputed. The ruler with paternal authority was +the chief of the tribe. To avert strife his tanist, or successor, was +elected in his lifetime. In a community of reputed kinsmen there could be +no aristocracy of birth; but there seems to have been a plutocracy, whose +riches in that pastoral country consisted of cattle, which formed the +measure of wealth and command of which made poorer clansmen their +retainers. Under these were the freemen of the tribe. Under the freemen +again were the unfree, wanderers or captives taken in war or slaves from +the English slave-market. The unfree appear to have been the only tillers +of the soil. Thus tillage was marked with a bar sinister from its birth. +The tribal law was a mystical and largely fanciful craft or tradition in +the keeping of the Brehons, or judges, a hereditary order who, though +revered as arbiters, were without power of enforcing their judgments. Like +primitive law in general, it lacked the idea of public wrong. It treated +crime as a private injury, to be compounded by fine. The land was the +common property of the tribe, to which it nominally reverted on the demise +of the holder, though it may be assumed that the chiefs at all events had +practically land of their own and that the tendency in this, as in other +cases, was to private ownership. + +What the religion was is not certainly known. Probably it was the same as +that of the Celts of Great Britain and Gaul, Druidism, wild, orgiastic, +and perhaps sanguinary. But there seem to be no remains clearly Druidic in +Ireland. + +Life was pastoral, roving, probably bellicose. It appears that women +required to be restrained from taking part in war. The characteristic garb +of the tribesman was a loose saffron mantle, which served as his dress by +day, his coverlet by night. His favourite weapons, often used, were an axe +and a dart. He drew, it seems, a bow weak compared with the long-bow of +England. The gentler side of his character was shown in his passionate +love of the harp and the reverence in which he held the harper, and which +was extended to the bard, whose rude lays saluted the intellectual dawn +and whom we find in later times feared as an author of lampoons. Among his +favourite amusements was chess. + +Knowledge of the peculiar system of the Irish, political and legal, is of +more consequence because the opposite system, that of constitutional +government and feudal ownership, having presented itself to him as that of +alien masters and oppressors, tribal peculiarities and sentiments lingered +long. The idea of tribal ownership perhaps was a few generations ago still +faintly present in agrarian agitation. Nor has the general character of +the tribesman long been, if it yet is, extinct. Tribal feuds were until +lately represented in the strange faction fights of the Caravats and +Shanavests, the Two-Year-Olds and Three-Year-Olds, the annual fight of +factions for a legendary stone, and the encounters between bodies of the +peasantry at Irish fairs. Perhaps another feature of character traceable +to tribalism may be the gregarious habit of Irishmen contrasted with the +Englishman's isolation and love of his private home. + +Connected apparently with the tribal sentiment were the strange customs of +fosterage and gossipred. Fosterage consisted in putting out the child to +be reared by a tribesman who became its foster-father. Gossipred, a +Christian addition, was a spiritual kinship formed at the font. Both +relations had extraordinary force. + +There were, of course, tribal wars. There were leagues or dominations of +powerful tribes which left their traces in the division of the island into +four or five provinces, once petty kingships. There was a supreme +kingship, the seat of which, sacred in Irish tradition and legend, was the +Hill of Tara; but it was probably only when common danger compelled a +union of forces that this kingship became a real power. The features of +the country, combined with the character of the tribal organization based +on kinship, not on citizenship, would prolong the tribal divisions and +prevent union. Nor had nature anywhere fixed a central seat of command. +Only when opposed to an invader and struggling against him for the land +did Celtic Ireland form for the time a united people; even then it could +hardly be called a nation. + +The Roman conqueror looked, but came not. It might have been better for +Ireland if he had come. Yet, when he retired, he would probably have left +the Romanized provincial, here as in Britain, too unwarlike to hold his +own against the next invader. + +A conqueror of a different kind came. He came in the person, not of a +Roman general, but, if the tradition is true, of a slave. By the preaching +of St. Patrick, according to the common belief, Ireland was added to the +Kingdom of Christ. The conversion was rapid and probably superficial, the +chief of the tribe carrying the tribe over with him, as Ethelbert of Kent +and other English kinglets carried over their people, rather to a new +religious allegiance than to a new faith. + +Within the Roman Empire the centres of the Church had been the cities. +Cities were the seats of its bishoprics. The models of its organization +were urban. But in Ireland there were no cities. The episcopate was +irregular and weak, denoting rank rather than authority or jurisdiction. +The life of the Church was monastic and missionary. The weird Round +Towers, believed to have been places of refuge for its ministers and their +sacred vessels, as well as bell-towers, speak of a life surrounded by +barbarism and rapine as well as threatened by the heathen and devastating +Northmen. Partly perhaps owing to its comparative isolation and detachment +at home, the Irish clergy was fired with a marvellous and almost +preternatural zeal for the propagation of the Gospel abroad. It crossed +the sea to Iona, the sacred isle, still to religious memory sacred, from +which the light of the Gospel shone to the wild islesmen and to the rovers +of the Northern Sea. Irish missionaries preached to heathen Germany, +colliding there, it seems, with a more regular episcopate. They played a +part in the conversion of Britain not less important than that of the +missionaries of Rome, before whose authority, however, the Irish Church in +the person of Aidan was at last compelled to retire, the decisive struggle +taking place on the mode of celebrating Easter. + +In Ireland itself there arose in connection with the Church a precocious +and romantic passion for learning which founded primitive universities. +Its memory lingers in the melancholy ruins of Clonmacnoise. This was the +delusive brightness of a brief day, to be followed by the darkness of a +long night. + +The Church of Ireland seems in its origin to have been national and +neither child nor vassal of Rome. Its theology must have been independent +if Scotus Erigena was its son. But Rome gradually cast her spell, in time +she extended her authority, over it. Its heads looked to her as the +central support of the interests of their order and as their protectress +against the rude encroachments of the native chiefs. Norman Archbishops of +Canterbury served as transmitters of the influence. Still, the Irish +Church was not in Roman eyes perfectly regular. Tithes were not paid, nor +was the rule of consanguinity observed, or the rite of baptism +administered in strict accordance with the ordinances of Rome. + +Christianity did not kill the brood of a lively superstition, the fairy, +the banshee, the spectre, charms, amulets, prophecies, wild legends, which +in the times of gloom that followed strengthened their hold upon Irish +imagination. + +Hostile invasion came first in the form of the Northmen, whose piracy and +rapine extended to Ireland as well as to Gaul and Britain. Piracy and +rapine we call them now, but to the Northmen they seemed no more criminal +than to us seems hunting or fishing. The chief objects of the invader's +attack were the monasteries, at once treasuries of Church wealth and +hateful to the people of Odin. Ruthlessly the Northman slew and burned. +His fleet made him ubiquitous and baffled defence, union for which there +was not at first among the tribes. Common danger at last enforced it. A +national leader arose in the person of Brian Boru, who was for Ireland the +military, though not the political, saviour that Alfred was for England. +At the great battle of Clontarf, the host over which the Danish Raven flew +was totally overthrown, and Ireland was redeemed from its ravages. The +Dane, however, did not wholly depart. Exchanging the rover for the trader, +he founded a set of little maritime commonwealths at Dublin, Wexford, +Waterford, and Limerick, germs on a small scale and in a rude way of +municipal as well as commercial life. + +But a conqueror, more fell and more tenacious than the Dane, was at hand. +In 1169 a little fleet of Welsh vessels ran into the Bay of Bannow. From +it landed a band of mail-clad soldiery, men trained to war, with a corps +of archers. They were Normans from Wales under the leadership of the +Anglo-Norman rover Fitzstephen, and were the precursors of a larger body +which presently followed, under Richard Strigul, Earl of Pembroke, from +the strength of his arm surnamed Strongbow. Dermot, an Irish chief, +expelled for his tyranny, had brought these invaders on his country as the +instruments of his revenge. Henry II. had, by giving letters of marque, +sanctioned the enterprise, the fruits of which he intended to reap. Early +in his reign the king had obtained from Pope Adrian IV., an Englishman by +birth, a bull authorizing him to take possession of Ireland, which with +other islands the bull declared of right to be an appanage of the Holy +See. Here, as in the case of William's invasion of England, the Papacy +used Norman conquest as the instrument of its own aggrandizement. The +authenticity of the bull is disputed by Irish patriotism, but in vain. No +one questions the share of the Papacy in the Norman conquest of England. + +With the aid of his Norman allies, to whom the Irishman with his naked +valour was as the Mexican to the Spaniard, Dermot prevailed and glutted +his revenge by plucking from the triumphal pyramid of hostile heads that +of his chief enemy and tearing it with his teeth. But in this case, as in +that of the alliance of Cortez with the Tlascalans, the ally had +conquered for himself. Declining to be dislodged, he proceeded to +establish himself and to organize a Norman principality. + +Now the jealousy of the English king was aroused. He saw an independent +Anglo-Norman kingdom on the point of being founded by Strongbow in +Ireland. He published the papal bull, came over to Ireland in his power, +and held his court at Dublin in a palace of wickerwork run up in native +style for the occasion, where the Irish chiefs bowed their heads, but not +their hearts, before him. He organized a feudal principality with himself +as lord, but having the Pope as its suzerain, and tributary to the Papacy. +He formally introduced the organization of a feudal kingdom. He held at +Cashel a synod like that held by William the Conqueror at Winchester for +the purpose of reforming, that is thoroughly Romanizing, the Church of +Ireland. Irregularities respecting infant baptism and the matrimonial +table of consanguinity were set right. The payment of tithes, that +paramount duty of piety, was enjoined. Rome was installed in full +authority, thus in Ireland, as in England, receiving from her Norman +liegemen her share of their prize. With this pious offering to the Papacy +in his hand, Henry departed to meet his responsibility for the slaying of +Becket. He was presently succeeded for a short time in Ireland by his +hopeful boy, John, whose personal behaviour was an earnest of the future +tenour of his reign. Afterward, as king, John paid Ireland another flying +visit in which, besides pouncing on an enemy, he seems to have made a +fleeting attempt to regulate the government. + +Henry, had he not been called away by the storm following the death of +Becket, might have left things in better shape, but nothing could make up +for the permanent absence of the king. Two antagonistic systems henceforth +confronted each other. On one side was the feudal system, with its +hierarchy of land-owners, from lord-paramount to tenant-paravail; its +individual ownership of land; its hereditary succession and primogeniture; +its feudal perquisites, relief, wardship, and marriage; its tribute of +military service; the loyalty to the grantor of the fief which was its +pervading and sustaining spirit; its knighthood and its chivalry; its +Great Council of barons and baronial bishops; its feudal courts of justice +and officers of state; all however highly rude and imperfect. On the other +side was tribalism, with its tie of original kinship instead of +territorial subordination; its tanistry; its Brehon law. But the feudal +system in Ireland lacked the keystone of its arch. It was destitute of +its regulating and controlling power, the king. A royal justiciar could +not fill the part. From the outset the bane of the principality was +delegated rule. + +Ireland was a separate realm, though attached to the Crown of England. It +had a Parliament of its own, which followed that of England in its +development, being at first a unicameral council of magnates, lay and +clerical; but after the legislation of Edward I. a bicameral assembly with +a Lower House formed of representatives of counties and boroughs, whose +consent would be formally necessary to taxation. Representatives of +Ireland were at first called to Edward's Parliament at Westminster, but +the inconvenience seems to have been found too great. Weak, however, was +the Parliament of the colony compared with that of the imperial country. +If the Lords ever showed force, the making of a House of Commons was not +there. The representation, as well as the proceedings and the records, +appears to have been very irregular. Nothing worthy of the name of +Parliamentary government seems ever to have prevailed. Among those who +signed the Great Charter was the Archbishop of Dublin; but of chartered +rights Ireland was not the scene. There is no appearance of a separate +grant of subsidies by the clerical estate. The clergy, it seems, were +represented by their proctors in the Lower House, as by the bishops and +abbots in the Upper House. The Parliament appears to have been generally a +tool in the hands of the deputy. The irregularity of its composition seems +to have extended to its meetings. + +From the first the relation between the feudal realm and that of the +tribes was border war. They were alien to each other in race, language, +and social habits, as well as in political institutions. The Norman could +not subdue the Celt, the Celt could not oust the Norman. The conquest of +England by William of Normandy had been complete, and had given birth to a +national aristocracy, which in time blended with the conquered race and +united with it in extorting the Great Charter. The Norman colony in +Ireland was left to its feeble resources, and to a divided command, while +the monarchy was far away over sea, was squandering its forces in French +fields, and could not even project a complete conquest. Besides, there +were the difficulties which the country, with its broad rivers, its bogs, +its mountains and forests, opposed to the heavy cavalry of the +Anglo-Norman. There was the mobility of a pastoral people, presenting no +cities or centres of any kind for attack, driving its cattle to the woods +on the approach of the invader, and eluding his pursuit like birds of the +air. Thus the Anglo-Norman colony failed to become a dominion and +presently dwindled to a pale. Between the Pale and the Celt incessant war +was waged with the usual atrocity of struggles between the half-civilized +and the savage. Fusion there could be none. There was not the bond of +human brotherhood or that of a common tongue. On neither side was the +murder of the other race a crime. Never was there a more inauspicious +baptism of a nation. + +Anglo-Norman and Celt, feudalist and tribesman, alike were Catholics. A +common religion might have been a bond, a common clergy might have been a +mediating power. But race and language prevailed over religion. The +Churches, though outwardly of the same faith, remained inwardly separate, +and not only separate but hostile to each other, the clergy on both sides +sharing the spirit and the atrocities of race enmity and frontier war. The +Church of the tribes was still very rough and irregular. The Norman on his +part was devout. He was a founder of monasteries, thereby discharging his +conscience of a load not seldom heavy. Whatever of religious life and +activity there was in the Pale seems to have been monastic. Our glimpses +of the secular clergy show that they were secular indeed. Among them not +neglect of duty only but criminality appears to have been rife. + +In the little commercial towns of Danish foundation on the coast which had +been taken over by the Norman, life was probably rather more civilized; +but they were too diminutive to exert any influence beyond their gates. +Galway in time became the port of an active trade with Spain which is +supposed to have left a Spanish trace on its architecture and a Spanish +strain in the blood of its people. + + + + +II + + +It was not likely that the colony, in the state in which it was, would +gain by emigration from England. It was probably losing by depletion. +English kings drew soldiers from it for their wars. There being no +university or means of education, youths who wanted to study went to +Oxford, where, though they were not native Irish, they seem to have played +in academical brawls the part which native Irish might have played. Thus +the colony was emptied of its intellect. Fiefs by feudal rule of descent +passed to absentees and to women, weakening its military force. In every +way the life-blood of the English and feudal settlement was being +continually withdrawn. Of the kings of England, Richard I. was away on +crusade, John and Henry III. were wrestling with rebellion at home. The +thoughts of Edward I. were turned to Ireland; but his energies were +absorbed by Scotland, Wales, and Gascony. He too drew soldiers from +Ireland. + +The Anglo-Norman element, however, was united, while inveterate disunion +reigned among the native tribes. It was occupying the posts of vantage +with the castles characteristic of its military rule. It seems to have +been rather gaining ground when the island was invaded by Edward Bruce, +the brother of Robert, who, emulous of his brother's success in Scotland, +came over on the invitation of Irish tribes to carve out a kingdom for +himself. Bruce gained successes and committed great ravages, but was at +length met at Dundalk by the Anglo-Norman army under John de Bermingham, +overthrown, and slain. He had estranged his Irish allies. According to one +of their chroniclers, the day on which he was slain was the happiest of +days for the Irish people. The Irish appeal to the Pope against English +misrule on this occasion is in form a national manifesto, but was probably +less than national in its source. + +Still Bruce's invasion seems to have dealt the Norman colony a heavy blow +and thrown back into the hands of the native tribes districts which it had +conquered and over which its settlements had spread. Degeneration set in +amongst its people. They took to the strange native custom of fosterage, +to the Irishman's saffron mantle and his long moustache, to his weapons, +to his mode of riding, even to his language, and countenanced license by +confusing the Brehon with the feudal law. + +A strange compound of feudalism with tribalism ensued, in the shape of +mongrel chieftaincies, henceforth the predominant powers. English barons +doffed their baronial character, donned that of the tribal chief, and made +themselves independent lords of wide domains peopled by native Irish. It +seems that they retained the Norman instinct of command. Many of them +changed their Anglo-Norman for Irish names; Bourke, O'Neill, O'Brien, +O'Connor. They kept in their pay troops of bravos, gallowglasses and +kernes. Their rule seems to have combined the extortions of the feudal +lord with those of the native chiefs. Bonaught was a tax imposed by a +chief for the support of his mercenaries. Sorohen was an obligation on +lands to support the chief with his train one day in a quarter or one in a +fortnight. Coshery was a chief's right to sponge upon his vassals with as +many followers as he pleased. Cuddies, or night suppers, were due by lands +upon which the chief might quarter himself and his train for four days +four times a year. Shragh and mart were yearly exactions in money and +kine, apparently imposed at will. But worst of all was coyne and livery, +horse-meat and man-meat taken at will. This, it seems, was not an Irish +but an Anglo-Norman invention introduced at first as the means of coping +with Edward Bruce, but, like the income tax, perpetuated when the special +need was past. The chiefs deemed themselves independent princes, +renouncing openly or practically allegiance to the English Crown. It is +with these potentates and the forces which their restless and rebellious +ambition could command that the Crown henceforth in its struggle with the +Irish difficulty has to deal. Had they been united, they might have +prevailed; but they were always at feud with each other, while policy, +though not loyalty, led some of them to side with the Crown. Of the septs, +the three most powerful were the Geraldines of the north, close to Dublin, +the head of which became afterward Earl of Kildare; the Geraldines of the +south in Munster, the head of which became Earl of Desmond; and the +Butlers, also in the south, whose head became the Earl of Ormonde. The +O'Neills in Ulster were another powerful sept. The Butlers, less +Hibernized than their rivals, were almost always on the side of the Crown. + +To put a stop to degeneration and restore order in the Pale by the +talismanic influence of royalty, Edward III. sent over his son Lionel, +Duke of Clarence. Under the duke's influence the Irish Parliament passed +the statute of Kilkenny, drawing a sharp line of division between the two +races; declaring marriage, fosterage, gossipred, and even concubinage with +the Irish high treason; pronouncing the same penalties against supplying +horses and armour to Irishmen or furnishing them with provisions in time +of war; commanding Englishmen to speak English, to bear English names +only, and to ride and dress in the English fashion; providing for the +arming of the colony against Irish enemies; separating in every way the +native Irishman from the Englishman and even forbidding the admission of +Irish priests to livings in the English Church or to the English +monasteries. There are severe regulations against the entertainment of +Irish story-tellers and bards. An article declaring the English born in +Ireland and in England to be equal and forbidding them to call each other +English Hobbe or Irish Dog on pain of a year's imprisonment and a fine at +the king's pleasure shows that there was a social division in the colony +on that line. The statute betrays despair of a fusion of races or of a +subjection of the whole island to English rule and law. At the same time +it seems to restrain English aggression and decree peace between the +races. + +Piqued, we are told, by a taunt of his impotence as lord of Ireland which +stung his pride, Richard II. twice came over to Ireland with a large army. +His armies were wrecked by the difficulties of the country and the +passionate weakness of their commander. From his second visit Richard was +recalled by the knell of his own doom. + +The Pale was drawn into the troubles of the Roses. Before the outbreak the +Duke of York had come over to Ireland as vicegerent, won the heart of the +people, asserted the independence of the Irish Parliament, and seemed +disposed to make himself king. He had been recalled by the Civil War, but +he had left behind him a Yorkist party which adhered to the White Rose +after Bosworth, recognized the two pretenders, Lambert Simnel and Perkin +Warbeck, and fought for the lost cause by the side of Martin Schwartz and +his German hackbut-men at Stoke. + +The Anglo-Norman colony or "Pale" was now at its nadir. Much of its +manhood had been drawn away by the kings to their Scottish and French +wars. It was reduced to a circle of two counties and a half round Dublin, +defended by a ditch. Had the chiefs of tribes been unanimous, it would +almost certainly have been destroyed. But the chiefs of tribes were very +far from being unanimous, and thanks to their dissensions Strongbow in his +tomb at Christ Church still slept undisturbed on the field of his victory. +In the Pale itself reigned corruption, disorder, and misrule. "There is no +land in all this world that has more liberty in vices than Ireland and +less liberty in virtue." Such, as reported to Henry VIII., was the +internal condition of the colony; and the description extended in its full +force to the Church. + +The hostility of the Pale to the Red Rose probably combined with +distractions at home in leading Henry VII. to try the policy of winning +the great Irish chiefs to allegiance by marks of confidence and honour and +of governing Ireland through them. He tried it with the Earl of Kildare, +the head of the great Geraldine clan, saying, as the story went, when he +was told that all Ireland could not govern that man, "then that man shall +govern all Ireland." Kildare, deported to England as a suspected traitor, +but there winning favour and confidence by the artful address in which his +kind were seldom wanting, was sent back to Ireland as lord deputy. The +policy had a show of success. Kildare as deputy harried the lands of his +own enemies and reported execution done on the enemies of the Crown. He +gained one signal victory of that kind. But the attempt to employ restless +and lawless ambition as the regular mainstay of orderly government could +not be a permanent success. The sept of Butler alone was true to the +Crown. The next reign saw Kildare's son and successor as deputy in the +Tower, and his grandson, Silken Thomas, raising a madcap rebellion which +was made impious by the murder of an archbishop. The execution of Silken +Thomas and his five uncles closed the experiment of governing Ireland +through that house. There was left one boy whom faithful guardians carried +abroad and to whom the heart of the sept still turned. + +To make an end of the aspirations to independent nationality which had +budded under the Duke of York, and bring Irish legislation completely +under the control of the Crown, the Lord Deputy Poynings caused to be +carried through the Parliament of the Pale the pair of acts which bore his +name, subjecting Irish legislation to the control of the English Council. +The first act ordained that in future no Parliament should be held in +Ireland "but at such season as the King's Lieutenant-in-Council there +first do certify the King under the great seal of that land the causes and +considerations, and all such acts as then seemeth should pass in the said +Parliament." Should the king in council approve, the Irish Parliament was +to be summoned under the great seal of England and not otherwise. The +second act provided that all public statutes "late made within the realm +of England" should be in force in Ireland. This it was decided applied to +all English acts prior to the tenth year of Henry VII. Ireland was thus +practically turned from a separate principality into a political +dependency of England. The work of Poynings was long afterwards completed +by the act of George I. affirming the right of the British Parliament to +legislate for Ireland. + + + + +III + + +During the early part of the reign of Henry VIII. the policy of the +English government was a continuation of that of Henry VII. It was a +policy of conciliation and of ruling through the great Irish chiefs, the +heads of the Butlers, the Geraldines, and the O'Neills, who were gratified +by the bestowal of English titles of nobility, with flattering marks of +confidence, and by a change in the tenure of their land from tribal to +feudal, which invested them with full ownership. The Irish chief and the +feudal baron of the Pale now sat in Parliament together for the first and +last time. There appears to have been an inclination on the part of the +Crown to favour the native Irish, it being still remembered perhaps that +the Anglo-Irish had supported the Yorkist pretenders. The king himself +penned a sage and benevolent manifesto, in the shape of a despatch to the +Lord Deputy Surrey, on the blessings of civilization. The policy of +conciliation was in fact necessary as well as laudable; for the king, +plunged by his diplomacy into continental embroilments and lavishing his +father's hoard on a Field of the Cloth of Gold, had not the means of +subduing Ireland. It would have been vain to look in those days for the +philosophy which could make allowance for a diversity of national ideas +and habits. The O'Neill, upon his elevation to the earldom of Tyrone, is +required with his heirs to forsake the name of O'Neill, to use English +habits and the English language. The age, however, was one of growing +light. Education was a passion of the hour. A decree in favour of the +establishment of a system of free schools in Ireland went forth. Unhappily +it remained a decree. No homilies, no peerages, no flatteries or marks of +confidence could permanently avail to quiet the intractable ambition of +the great chiefs. They took the titles, which tickled their vanity; but +they preferred the state of a chieftain with his gallowglasses and with +his despotic power over the sept to that of a baron under royal rule, with +feudal restraints and obligations. They were always at feud with each +other, waging private war and ravaging each others' territories with the +ruthlessness of the most cruel invader. Murders among them were frequent. +Conspiracies were always on foot. Thus the catastrophe of the house of +Kildare ended what may be called the early Tudor policy of native +government and conciliation. The policy of conquest with colonization in +its train prevailed once more. + +The instrument of that policy was to be a line of English deputies; able +men on the whole and zealous in the public service, but generally +incapable of understanding any national character or any institutions but +their own. A deputy had also to contend with desperate difficulties, utter +insufficiency of military force, an empty exchequer, a service full of +jobbery and corruption, hostile intrigue both at Dublin and in the court +at home. + +The line was opened by Skeffington, a good though somewhat decrepit +soldier, before whose artillery fell the redoubtable native fortress of +Maynooth. The Crown had now a new and formidable force upon its side in +the cannon, which it alone could afford to maintain. In Ireland as +elsewhere the end of the feudal fortress had come. + +At the same time there were forfeited to the Crown great tracts of land +held by absentees, the feudal principle still prevailing and military +service being still a condition of the ownership of land. The Crown +thereby became a landowner on a vast scale, with the means of planting +settlements in all the districts under its power. Thus a wide field was +opened for Crown colonization. + +But now comes an event most momentous in itself and fraught with future +woe to Ireland. Henry VIII., enraged at the refusal of the Pope to let him +put away his wife and marry another woman, breaks with the Papacy, carries +his kingdom out of its dominion, declares himself supreme head of a +national Church, dissolves the monasteries, seizes their estates, and half +reforms the church in a Protestant sense, breaking the worshipped images, +closing the shrines, expurgating the liturgy, and licensing the +translation of the Bible. He seizes into his own hands under the mask of a +_conge d'elire_ the appointments to the bishoprics. Wavering to the last +in opinion between Catholicism and Protestantism according as the party of +the old or that of the new aristocracy prevailed in his councils, he in +the upshot practically ranges his kingdom on the Protestant side in the +grand struggle that was to come between the Catholic and the Protestant +powers. + +In Ireland there was one religion but there were two Churches: that of the +Pale and that of the native Irish; divided from each other, not by +doctrine or ritual, but by race and language, practically treating each +other as not within the pale of Christendom, hardly within the pale of +humanity. No Irishman could be admitted to church preferment or to a +monastery in the Pale. Nor did the churches ever act together as one +Church. Both were in a most miserable condition. The edifices were in +ruins, the services were unperformed. Monasteries however abounded. They +were the refuge of the peaceful in that world of strife and blood. That +some of them were on a large scale stately ruins prove. It is surmised +that they may have been wealthy, if not in lands, in orchards, fish-ponds, +mills, or the labour which seems to have been sheltered within their ample +walls. Like the English monasteries, they impropriated the tithes of +parishes, thus helping to kill the parochial system. The character of the +clergy was still scandalously low, not seldom criminal. Among the people +religion was almost dead; the remnant of it, as well as the remnant of +education, was kept alive by the poor Franciscan friars. In neither Church +was there the making of martyrs. + +In the little maritime towns there was more religion, as well as something +more like civilization. But in this as in other respects their influence +was confined to their own gates. + +There was no opposition in the Irish Parliament to the change of the +king's title from _Dominus_ to _Rex_, whereby the sovereignty of the Pope +was cancelled, to any article in the king's assumption of autocratic power +over the Church, or to his taking to himself the appointment of bishops. A +show of resistance made by the proctors of the clergy in the House of +Commons was promptly met by their extrusion. Nor was there the slightest +unwillingness on the part of any lord or chief to take his share of the +plunder of the monasteries, which, as in England, were suppressed, with +confiscation of revenue and goods, including the impropriated tithes of +parishes which they had served. A plea put in by the deputy on behalf of +six friaries in consideration of their special services to education and +their hospitality was not heard. + +The iconoclastic part of the revolution, attacking the material objects of +popular worship, relics, wonder-working images, and venerated shrines, +seems to have encountered some natural resistance, and it appears that the +government failed to put an end to pilgrimages, which were the religious +pleasure-trips of the people. + +The leader of the Reform movement, and specially of iconoclasm, in +Ireland, under Henry VIII., was Archbishop Browne, a fervid but +apparently not discreet man. He had a rather restive coadjutor in Bishop +Staples. No counterpart of Cranmer, Latimer, or Ridley appeared. + +The members of the council of Edward VI., being men of the new official +aristocracy, opposed to the old houses, attached themselves to the party +of movement in religion. In England they completed the work of +confiscation, carried iconoclasm a step farther, and made Protestant +reforms in the religious system, the last in conjunction with foreign +reformers. Their policy in Ireland was the same. They sent over the +prayer-book of Edward. But the effect appears to have been small. The way +had not been prepared by the advent of Lutheranism or by the use of +translations of the Bible. Besides, there was no religious feeling on +which it could act. The Deputy St. Leger was a shrewd man of the world, +who, while he was ready to put the law in force, disliked all religious +agitation. "Tut, tut," he said to the earnest reformer, "your religious +matters will spoil all." The way of the new liturgy was effectually +blocked by the Erse language, and no missionary effort appears to have +been made. + +The military policy of Edward's government had a very able though rather +grim representative in Bellingham, if he had only been backed by a +sufficient force. But the foreign complications of England being what they +were, no sufficient force could ever be sent. The system of regular +hostings against the natives is now on foot. Bellingham having stormed a +position, there ensues a butchery of wood kerne, the equal of which +Bellingham supposed there had never been. "Such," the deputy says, "was +the great goodness of God to deliver them into our hands." Puritanism with +its ruthlessness is making its appearance in the lists, on one side, while +on the other side enters its mortal foe the Jesuit. + +The government incurred deserved hatred in Ireland as in England by +carrying to further lengths the debasement of the coin which had been the +disgraceful shift of the spendthrift Henry VIII. A petition sent to the +king upon the subject, in setting forth the folly of debasement, stated +with an accuracy remarkable for the time the function of the precious +metals as a medium of exchange. Wholesale fraud on the part of government +was not likely to help the cause of the Reformation. + +Beyond the English Pale the change of religion never reached the people. +Antagonism of religion was henceforth added to estrangement of race. +Protestantism was to be the religion of the conqueror; Catholicism was to +be the religion of the conquered. The Pope became a rival in sovereignty +to the king of England, claiming the allegiance at once of piety and +patriotism. Instead of the torpid clergy of the old native Church, now +came upon the scene active emissaries of Rome with the Jesuit, master of +intrigue, at their head, to do the joint work of propagandism and +rebellion. Presently will appear the crusading soldiery of Catholic Spain. + +With Mary comes an interlude of reaction. The sovereignty was not restored +to the Pope. Grantees of abbey lands in Ireland, as in England, Catholics +though they might be, held fast their prey. But the old ritual was for a +time legally revived, and the hand of iconoclasm was stayed. Protestantism +was rabbled; but Smithfield fires, the martyr's spirit being absent, there +were none. + +A story is told of an envoy sent by Mary to Ireland with a warrant of +persecution, whose commission a clever Protestant woman, in whose house he +put up by the way, stole and replaced by a pack of cards, so that when the +deputy opened the wallet at the council board nothing came forth but the +pack of cards with the knave of clubs uppermost. + + + + +IV + + +Thus the day of the Elizabethan era which dawned so brightly upon England +came on in heavy clouds for the unhappy dependency. The religious +compromise which it brought to England was adapted by the English +statesmen who framed it to the religious condition and temperament of +their own people. To the condition and temperament of the Irish people +there was no such adaptation. To the Catholic lords of the Pale the +Elizabethan religion was alien; to the native Celts it was not only alien, +but utterly abhorrent. It presented itself, not as the religion of +Ireland, but as the religion of the conqueror. + +The ecclesiastical polity comprised in the Act of Uniformity and the +Thirty-nine Articles was, however, formally extended to Ireland, and the +Crown resumed the powers which it had assumed in the time of Henry VIII. +or his son, including the appointment of bishops, in this case without the +veil, retained in England, of the _conge d'elire_. In the dependency as +in England, the State assumed supreme power of religious legislation, +overriding and almost treating as null the authority of the ecclesiastical +Convocation. Propagation of the Anglican liturgy beyond the Pale continued +to be blocked by the language. + +Burleigh and the other statesmen of Elizabeth's Council could not fail to +turn their minds to the Irish problem, enhanced as its gravity had been by +the progress of religious revolution in Europe and the danger of a +conflict with the Catholic powers. Trinity College is a noble monument of +their policy. In Ireland, as in England, they restored the coin, though +the benefits of that wise measure were offset by protectionist enactments +carried in the Parliament of the Pale, which bore the usual fruits. They +sent commissioners of inquiry to give them more trustworthy information +than they could get from the despatches of the deputies or the tattling +intriguers of the Pale. They formed a plan for the institution of +provincial presidencies to lengthen the arm of government and form local +centres of civilization, which, had it taken effect, might have been the +best solution of the problem. But the necessary means of giving effect to +any policy failed them. Churches and schools, which were named by a +reformer at the time as the indispensable instruments of civilization, +could in the case of Ireland be named only in mockery. An ordinance for +the general establishment of schools more than once went forth, but an +ordinance still it remained. The Pale, reduced as it was in extent and +weakly defended, was in itself a nest of misrule, jobbery, and corruption. +Nothing could have been done without a military force in the hands of the +central government sufficient to enforce law and order. Such a force the +counsellors of Elizabeth had no means of maintaining. Continental war drew +heavily on the exchequer. The queen was unwisely parsimonious. She was +seized with spasms of frugality. Militia on the spot of any value there +was none. The service was very unpopular in England, and the men enlisted +or pressed for it as soldiers were apt to be of the Falstaffian kind, +better at preying on the people for whose protection they were sent and at +indulging in the general license of the camp than at facing the perils and +hardships of "hostings" in the Irish wilds. Their pay was almost always in +arrears. + +The service was not inviting. "The deputy, according to his commission, +marched into the north. But, alas, he neither found France to travel in +nor Frenchmen to fight withal. There were no glorious towns to load the +soldiers home with spoils, nor pleasant vineyards to refresh them with +wine. Here were no plentiful markets to supply the salary of the army if +they wanted, or stood in need; here were no cities of refuge, nor places +of garrison to retire into, in the times of danger and extremity of +weather; here were no musters ordered, no lieutenants of shires to raise +new armies; here was no supplement of men or provisions, especially of +Irish against Irish; nor any one promise kept according to his +expectation; here were, in plain terms, bogs and woods to be in, fogs and +mists to trouble you, grass and fern to welcome your horses and corrupt +and putrefy your bodies; here was killing of kine and eating fresh beef, +to breed diseases; here was oats without bread, and fire without food; +here were smoky cabins and nasty holes; here were bogs on the tops of +mountains, and few passages, but over marshes, or through strange places; +here was retiring into fastnesses, glens, and no fighting, but when they +pleased themselves; here was ground enough to bury your people in being +dead, but no place to please them while alive; here you might spend what +you brought with you, but be assured there was no hopes of relief; here +was room for all your losses, but scarce a castle to receive your spoil +and treasure. To conclude: here was all glory and virtue buried in +obscurity and oblivion, and not so much as a glimmering hope that how +valiantly soever a man demeaned himself it should be registered or +remembered." + +The deputies sent in command might do their best according to their +lights. They generally did. But the lights of all of them were not the +same, and the web of Penelope woven by one was always in danger of being +unwoven by his successor. One of them only, Sussex, was large-minded +enough to think of acknowledging the Brehon law, reducing it to a system, +and making it a bridge across which the Irish might pass to legal +civilization. All the deputies had to contend more or less with local +opposition and intrigue. + +The consequences to Ireland of this policy of government by deputies were +disastrous. The presence of royalty might have had some effect on the +Irish heart. It could hardly have failed, at all events, to reveal the +real state of things. But it was never tried. + +Elizabeth, Protestant by circumstance and profession, Catholic in her real +leanings, hating nothing so much as a Puritan, unless it were a +clergyman's wife, and an autocrat to the core, had no desire of breaking +with the Papacy or with Spain. But when a Pope excommunicated and deposed +her, the die was cast. Ireland was drawn into the European war between +Catholicism and Protestantism which was also that between despotism and +freedom; she became a point of military danger in a national and religious +struggle for life or death. There is now an end of the policy of +conciliation or of colonization with a civilizing object. The policy +henceforth is that of conquest, and when resistance is obstinate, of +extermination. + +The reign was filled with successive wars between the English and the +natives, the first slightly, the last two more deeply, identified on the +side of the natives with papal suzerainty and the Catholic cause. The +first was that with Shane O'Neill, elective head of the great Ulster sept +of O'Neill and pretender to the royal earldom of Tyrone. The tribal +headship was unquestionably elective; to the earldom Shane's claim was +doubtful, the question being partly one between the English and the Brehon +law. It was presently settled by the murder of Shane's rival. Shane was, +in fact admitted himself to be, a barbarian, brutal, drunken, and cruel, +all in a high degree. He made his prisoners wear an iron collar fastened +by a short chain to gyves on their ankles so that they could neither stand +nor lie. At the same time he was able, crafty, and daring. He made himself +supreme in Ulster, baffled the English in war, and was so formidable that +the Lord Deputy Sussex, once at least, if not more than once, attempted to +get rid of him by assassination. He intrigued with Philip of Spain. At +another time he coquetted with the Queen's government and paid a visit to +the court, where he and his gallowglasses, with their axes, their Irish +heads of hair and moustaches, their wide-sleeved saffron shirts, short +tunics, and shaggy cloaks of fur or frieze, produced a sensation among the +courtiers. Master of dissimulation, Shane fell on his knees before the +Queen and confessed his rebellion in the Irish language "with howling." +Returning to Ulster, he recommenced the game there, plundering and +burning, slaying man, woman, and child. He was at last stabbed in a brawl +with the Scottish raiders with whom he had intrigued. These marauding +immigrants from the Scottish Highlands and isles were now a formidable +addition to the elements in the cauldron of Irish anarchy and ruin. + +Shane was an Irish leader of the thoroughly Celtic type. Perhaps the +next, though in a widely different guise and sphere, may be said to have +been Daniel O'Connell. + +As a mover of disturbance on a large scale there succeeded James +Fitzmaurice, kinsman of the Earl of Desmond, the head of the southern sept +of Geraldines. Fitzmaurice, whether from conviction or policy, gave +rebellion a more religious character and connected it with Rome and +Madrid, which he visited on missions of intrigue. In this work he had a +compeer in Stukely, an adventurer of the kind then common, who also +intrigued with the Catholic powers. If their aim was an Irish crown on a +Catholic head, it came to nothing. But Fitzmaurice brought with him to +Ireland a regular proclamation from the Pope, and had made formidable +headway in his appeal to the forces of disorder when he was killed. The +leadership of the movement passed to the Earl of Desmond, who with a +little aid from Spain raised in Munster a rebellion on a large scale. He +was a feeble though respectable leader, and his rising in the end bore no +fruits but a renewal of slaughter and devastation. + +The aid of Rome and Spain promised to the Irish Catholics was long in +coming. Ever tardy and vacillating was the mind of the Spanish king. But +at the time of Desmond's rebellion the aid came. In concert with the +insurgent Irish a force of Italians and Spaniards landed and established +itself in a fortalice at Smerwick. The deputy at that time was Lord Grey, +a Puritan most pronounced and militant, the Artegal, the Knight of +Justice, in Spenser's "Faerie Queene," bent on the overthrow of the false +Duessa and the extermination of her brood. He invested Smerwick. The Irish +allies of the invader failed to relieve the place, and the garrison was +compelled to surrender at discretion. Grey then butchered the whole of +them in cold blood. Raleigh, as the officer in command, it is to be feared +directed the slaughter. Alva or Parma would have done the same, and +Elizabeth in approving incurred no special infamy. + +The poor Irish in this rebellion showed that fidelity to a chief which was +one of their small stock of political virtues. They afterwards showed +their love of legend, of melancholy legend especially, by telling that +Desmond's ghost, mounted on a phantom steed with silver shoes, rose at +night from the water on the bank of which he had been slain, and fancying +that in the moaning of the wind they heard the Desmond howl. + +The attainder of the Earl of Desmond was followed by the sweeping +confiscation of a vast tract of land to the Crown, on the assumption that +as the domain of an earl it had been a fief and the property of its lord; +whereas under native law and according to native ideas it was the property +of the tribe. Spenser was one of the grantees of the Crown and settlers on +the conquered land. He had been the secretary of Lord Grey. The author of +the "Faerie Queene" thus encountered the religion of the false Duessa, his +hatred of which was not likely to be diminished when he was afterwards by +a great outbreak of insurrection ejected from his grant. + +Now along the dangerous western coast of Ireland were driven in dire +distress a number of great ships of war, with the troops and much of the +power and chivalry of a mighty kingdom on board. These were the miserable +remnants of the Invincible Armada. About a score of the ships were cast +ashore or wrecked. The crews for the most part perished. On one strand of +less than five miles in length were counted above eleven hundred corpses +cast up by the sea. On two miles of strand in Sligo there lay wrecked +timber enough to build five first-rate ships, besides mighty great boats, +cables and other cordage, and masts of extraordinary size. Of those who +struggled to land, many were killed by the English, not a few by the +native Irish, who stripped and robbed those whom they did not kill, +skipping and capering at the sight of such glorious plunder. The Armada +had come to liberate the native Irish from the heretical yoke; but love of +plunder overcame in their simple souls regard for a political and +ecclesiastical alliance, their appreciation of which, perhaps, had never +been very clear. + +One Spaniard, Cuellar, after being stripped and narrowly escaping with his +life, spent some time in an Irish cabin, and has left his notes on native +Irish life and character, valuable as those of a neutral. + +"The habit of those savages," he says, "is to live like brutes in the +mountains, which are very rugged in the part of Ireland where we were +lost. They dwell in thatched cabins. The men are well made, with good +features, and as active as deer. They eat but one meal, and that late at +night, oatcake and butter being their usual food. They drink sour milk +because they have nothing else, for they use no water, though they have +the best in the world. At feasts it is their custom to eat half-cooked +meat without bread or salt. Their dress matches themselves--tight +breeches, and short hose jackets of very coarse texture; over all they +wear blankets, and their hair comes over their eyes. They are great +walkers and stand much work, and by continually fighting they keep the +queen's English soldiers out of their country, which is nothing but bogs +for forty miles either way. Their great delight is robbing one another, so +that no day passes without fighting, for whenever the people of one hamlet +know that those of another possess cattle or other goods, they immediately +make a night attack and kill each other. When the English garrisons find +out who has lifted the most cattle, they come down on them, and they have +but to retire to the mountains with their wives and herds, having no +houses or furniture to lose. They sleep on the ground upon rushes full of +water and ice. Most of the women are very pretty, but badly got up, for +they wear only a shift and a mantle, and a great linen cloth on the head, +rolled over the brow. They are great workers and housewives in their way. +These people call themselves Christians, and say Mass. They follow the +rule of the Roman Church, but most of their churches, monasteries, and +hermitages are dismantled by the English soldiers, and by their local +partisans, who are as bad as themselves. In short there is no order nor +justice in the country, and every one does that which is right in his own +eyes." + +"Savages" Cuellar calls the natives; what but savages could they be when +not only had all the means of civilization been withheld from them, but +they were hunted like beasts of prey? That the women are "great workers +and housewives in their way" is a redeeming feature in the picture. The +whole land, English and Irish alike, was a wreck. The secretary of a lord +deputy reports that the people had no conscience, but committed crimes +freely; that they even changed wives among themselves; that bridges were +falling down, churches roofless; there were no charities, no schools; law +was jobbery, and the judicial bench was filled with ignorance; every lord +hated the restraints of law and made himself an Irish chief; and disorders +were as great among English soldiers as among Irish kernes. + +The third rebellion, and the most formidable of all, was that of the Earl +of Tyrone, head of the O'Neills of Ulster. It stirred the general forces +of revolt, national and religious, beyond Ulster, in Connaught and +elsewhere. Tyrone gave his movement distinctly the character of a holy +war, and received aid from Spain. Unlike Desmond, he was an able leader. +He gained a victory over the English at the Yellow Ford which filled +Dublin with panic. To put him down, Elizabeth sent her favourite Essex, +with forces greater than her parsimony allowed to an ordinary deputy. +Essex went forth with great pomp and amidst high expectations. But he +totally lacked steadiness of character and policy. He failed and went home +to run mad courses and die on the scaffold, faintly recalling the Irish +history of Richard II. + +Essex was succeeded by Mountjoy, able, iron-willed, and ruthless, who made +it a war of extermination and devastation. The Spaniards brought tardy aid +to their Irish allies. They landed in force at Kinsale, and for a moment +the fortune of war seemed to waver, but it soon inclined again to the side +of the deputy and England. The force of the rebellion was broken, and +Tyrone was compelled to surrender. + +Of all the wars waged by a half-civilized on a barbarous and despised +race, these wars waged by the English on the Irish seem to have been about +the most hideous. No quarter was given by the invader to man, woman, or +child. The butchering of women and children is repeatedly and brutally +avowed. Nothing can be more horrible than the cool satisfaction with which +commanders report their massacres. "I was never," said Captain Woodhouse, +"so weary with killing of men, for I protest to God for as fast as I +could I did but hough and paunch them." "The number of their fighting men +slain and drowned that day," says another commander, "were estimated and +numbered to be fourteen hundred or fifteen hundred, besides boys, women, +churls, and children, which could not be so few as many more and upwards." +Over and over again massacres of people of both sexes and all ages are +reported with similar coolness. Another ruffian seems to have put to death +children who were held as hostages. + +Mountjoy especially used famine deliberately as his instrument of war, and +with signal effect. After his work, multitudes lay dead in the ditches of +towns and other waste places, with their mouths coloured green by eating +docks and nettles. Children were seen eating their mother's corpse. Old +women, we are told, lit fires in the woods and ate the children who came +to warm themselves. Not only were horses killed and eaten, but cats and +dogs, hawks and kites. The wolves, driven by hunger from the woods, killed +the enfeebled people. The dead lay unburied or half-buried, the survivors +not having strength to dig graves, and dogs ate the remains. + +It must be said that the native Irish not only retaliated these cruelties +on the English whenever they could, but committed them on each other. +Edward Butler, for example, invades Arra, the district of another clan, +harries the country far and wide, breaks open the churches to which the +frightened women had fled in the vain hope of sanctuary, and gives the +region up for forty-eight hours to plunder and rape, sparing neither age +nor condition. The lately gathered corn is destroyed, and famine stares +the whole population in the face. The raid is presently repeated, the +cattle are driven off, and a house full of women and children is given to +the flames. In the English settlement of Munster, overrun by the native +Irish, English children are taken from their nurses' breasts and dashed +against walls; an Englishman's heart is plucked out in his wife's +presence, and she is forced to lend an apron to wipe the murderer's +fingers. Of the English fugitives who flocked into Youghal some had lost +their tongues and noses. Irish tenants and servants that yesterday fed in +the settlers' houses were conspicuous by their cruelty. + +What was called law was almost as murderous as war. Men were hanged at +assizes by scores, and these massacres were reported by the deputy with +satisfaction as gratifying proof of the increased influence of public +justice. A bishop witnesses them with complacency. Respect for human life +must have perished. Such was the training which in the formative period of +national character the Celtic Irish received, and which must be borne in +mind when we come to atrocities committed by them at a not very much later +period. + +At the same time we do not see the back of destiny's cards. The +subjugation of barbarous clans by a foreign conqueror, himself +half-civilized, was horrible. Would a series of tribal wars among the +clans themselves have been less horrible? When Strongbow landed there had +been hardly any sign of permanent union or of the foundation of a settled +polity. Nor afterwards does there appear to have been any attempt or +tendency of the kind. + +Tyrone, on his submission, had been restored to rank and great part of his +estate. But he, as well as his confederate, the O'Donnell, created Earl of +Tyrconnell, afterwards finding themselves objects of aversion and +suspicion, fled the country. Their flight and the suppression of a futile +outbreak of tribal insurrection under another O'Donnell finished the work. +The whole island was now conquered, but the heart of the people, as +presently appeared, was very far from being won. The hold of the Papacy +and the Catholic Church upon their liegemen had been growing stronger +under the long struggle and was not impaired by its close. It formed +henceforth a religious substitute for nationality. + + + + +V + + +Ireland, conquered, now became shire land, at least in contemplation of +law. The law of England, in the eyes of its professors the consummation of +human wisdom, ousted the Brehon law. The feudal system of land tenure +supplanted the tribal system. Freehold and leasehold, primogeniture and +entail, took the place of tribal ownership and tanistry. Justice was +henceforth to be administered in English courts, and judges were to go +circuit as in England. The change at first seemed to be well received. +Perhaps novelty itself impressed. An English chief justice, going circuit +through the newly Anglicized districts, could complacently report that +multitudes had flocked to his court; whence he drew the cheerful inference +that the Irish after all, like other men, loved justice. So they did, and +do; but it was not the justice of the king's bench and Coke. Nor did they +love its administration by an alien conqueror. It was probably curiosity +as much as confidence that drew them to the court of Chief Justice Davies; +so the event proved. + +The whole machinery of government, as well as the law and the judiciary, +was at the same time assimilated, formally at least, to the English model. +The corporate towns received new charters. The place of the military +deputy was taken by the head of a civil government with his officials. + +Unhappily the ecclesiastical polity of England, with its tests and its +recusancy law, compelling attendance at the services of the State Church, +was at the same time thrust upon people to whom it was in itself and in +its associations abhorrent. Under Elizabeth there had been a politic +laxity. Now fines for recusancy are exacted. Intolerance of Catholic +dissent from the royal religion could not fail to be increased by the +Gunpowder Plot. + +James I., with all his pedantry, his absurdities, and his stuffed +breeches, was not without something of the largeness of mind which culture +generally imparts. He could understand Bacon. His Irish policy, evidently +inspired by Bacon, was colonization, plantation as it then was called. For +this there was ample room on the forfeited lands of Tyrone and other +attainted chiefs, so far as legal ownership in the contemplation of +English law was concerned. But the attainders of the chiefs had not +cleared the lands of the members of their septs, in whose minds tribal +ownership was rooted. This was the weak point of the transplantation +policy, as in the sequel tragically appeared. Extensive grants, however, +were made to a colony formed by English and Scottish settlers, undertakers +as they were called. Of Scottish settlers there had before been not a few. +The city of London invested largely in the enterprise. Thus was formed in +Ulster, and in Ulster has continued to exist to the present time, a sort +of Protestant pale. Bacon's philosophic eye ranges complacently over the +prospect of a people of barbarous manners "brought to give over and +discontinue their customs of revenge and blood and of dissolute life and +of theft and rapine, and to give ear to the wisdom of laws and +governments; whereupon immediately followeth the cutting of stones for +building and habitation, and of trees for the seats of houses, orchards, +enclosures, and the like." Beyond doubt this settlement was an improvement +in material respects. Nor, though the new settlers might domineer, was +their domination likely to be more oppressive and insolent than that of +the native chief, with his gallowglasses and his coyne and livery. The +tribal ownership of land had probably become almost a fiction, the chief +treating the land as his own. Little, therefore, was actually lost in +that way by the tribesman, while there was an end of coyne and livery and +the other extortions of the chiefs. On the other hand the chief, however +oppressive, was nominally one of the tribe and a kinsman, and the land was +still tribal in the fancy of the sept. The tribesman was not liable to +eviction. Nor was improvement in agriculture or even in advancement of law +and order likely to be so fascinating to the native Irish, especially to +gallowglasses and kernes, as to Bacon. The adventurers were apt to be of a +sordid class, ravenous, close-fisted, little likely to make themselves +beloved. The eagles of enterprise spread their wings for the Spanish main; +the vultures swooped upon Ireland. The medley of Brehon law and English +law, with the variety of titles, some by forfeiture for treason, others by +ancient grants from the Crown, formed an element in which the art of the +predatory pettifogger had full play. By legal chicane, the chicane of an +alien law, many an Irish Naboth may have been dispossessed. There was, +moreover, the antagonism of religion, greatly intensified by the long +struggle in which the natives, fighting for independence, had looked up to +Rome for support and been fired at heart by the active zeal of her +missionaries. + +The government meant well. It sent over an able lord deputy in the person +of Chichester, who did his best for healing and improvement. In +improvement he was somewhat hasty and procrustean. He might have done +better had he only imbibed Bacon's spirit of philosophic toleration, and +not fancied that for Irish barbarism Protestantism of the Anglican type +was the sovereign cure. Bacon, as one of his three specifics for the +recovery of the hearts of the people, had recommended a toleration, +partial and temporary at least, of the Catholic religion, which was to be +combined "with the sending over of some good preachers, especially of that +sort which are vehement and zealous persuaders and not scholastical, to be +resident in principal towns." The government issued a politic manifesto, +promising to all native Irish of the poorer class equal protection and +complete immunity from any oppressive claims of chiefs. But let the +government charm as wisely as it might, it could not charm away the +difference of race, language, and character, the antagonism of religion, +the memories of the long and murderous struggle, the ravenous cupidity and +overbearing attitude of the alien adventurer, the anguish of the native +who saw the stranger in possession of his land. + +James called a Parliament for all Ireland, Catholic as well as Protestant. +It was packed for the Crown, which created boroughs for that purpose. +Still, it was something more like a national assembly than Ireland had +ever seen or in fact was destined again to see. The elections to it were +fiercely contested between the races and religions. Its first sitting was +characteristic. There was a division on the election of a speaker. One +party went out into the lobby. In its absence the other party seated its +man in the chair. The party which had gone out, returning and finding what +had been done, seated their man in the other man's lap. The importance of +this Parliament, however, is extolled by Sir John Davies, and one act, at +all events, stands to its credit. It repealed the statute of Kilkenny and +all other laws recognizing and perpetuating distinctions of race, +declaring that their cause had ceased, since the inhabitants of the +kingdom without distinction were henceforth under the protection of the +Crown, and the best way of settling peace was to allow their intercourse +and intermarriage so that they might grow into one nation. There was a +transient ray of sunlight on the dark scene. Efforts were made to improve +Trinity College, and learning shone forth in the person of Usher. + + + + +VI + + +There was still in Ireland a mine charged with the wrath of the +dispossessed added to the hatred of race and religion, the religious +hatred being the more deadly because, the Protestants of Ireland being +Calvinist, the antagonism was extreme. The match was applied to the mine +by the outbreak of revolution in England under Charles I. Strafford, +having passed from the ranks of patriotism to the place left vacant by the +death of Buckingham in the councils of the king, came with his dark look +of command as viceroy to play the part of beneficent despot in Ireland, +and at the same time to raise an army there for his master. The part of +despot he played to perfection, making the Irish Parliament the tool of +his will, applying to it and to the government in general his own and +Laud's high royalist policy of Thorough. The part of beneficent despot he +played to a considerable extent. He set his heel on the rapacity of the +adventurers, compelling the chief of them, the Earl of Cork, to disgorge. +He enforced order and put down piracy, which in the general disorder had +become rife. He fostered the cultivation of flax and the linen trade, +though he paid blackmail to English protectionism by prohibiting the +woollen manufacture. He did his best to reform the State Church, which he +found sunk in torpor, sinecurism, and simony, while its edifices were +ruins and piggeries. Unluckily he was a strict Anglican, whereas the only +Protestantism in Ireland which had life in it was the Calvinistic +Protestantism represented by Usher. He made a mortal enemy by turning the +sumptuous monument of Lady Cork off the place of the high altar. But to +find means of raising an army for his king he had to resort to violent +measures. He dragooned the Parliament into granting extraordinary +supplies. The king had pledged himself in the form of "graces" to respect +and quiet titles to large tracts of land. These graces Strafford thrust +aside. By legal chicane and intimidation of juries he, in defiance of the +king's plighted word, confiscated a great part of the land of Connaught. A +legal raid of the Crown on the estates which the city of London had +purchased in Ulster made the lord deputy another formidable enemy. He +added to the number by trampling on the pride of men of rank and +influence. Strafford had formed his army. That he intended it as a +support to the arbitrary government of Charles is beyond question; his +betrayal of that intention by some loose words uttered in council formed +the most damaging piece of evidence against him; and though the army broke +up on his departure, fears of it continued to haunt the English mind and +to intensify English feeling against the Irish. The Irish Parliament +joined in the impeachment of the man who had trampled on it, and when +Strafford pleaded in defence of his arbitrary measures, that Ireland was a +conquered country, Pym's retort was, "They were a conquered nation! There +cannot be a word more pregnant or fruitful in treason than that word is. +There are few nations in the world that have not been conquered, and no +doubt but the conqueror may give what law he pleases to those that are +conquered; but if the succeeding pacts and agreements do not limit and +restrain that right, what people can be secure? England hath been +conquered, and Wales hath been conquered, and by this reason will be in no +better case than Ireland. If the king by the right of a conqueror gives +laws to his people, shall not the people by the same reason be restored to +the right of the conquered to recover their liberty if they can?" + +Revolution was in the air. It stirred the heart of the Catholic cowering +under the penal law, who saw the foot of his arch-enemy the Puritan on the +steps of power. It stirred still more the heart of the disinherited +native, especially on the forfeited domain of Tyrone. One of those great +popular conspiracies of which the Irish have the gift was formed under the +leadership of Phelim O'Neill, who ranked among his countrymen as head of +the great sept of O'Neill, and cherished ancestral traditions of vast +domains and princely power. With Phelim O'Neill was a better man, Roger +Moore, one of the disinherited, a deadly enemy of England. The rebellion +posed as royalist, declaring for the king against the Puritan and +revolutionary Parliament; its aims were Ireland for the Irish, and +Catholicism as the Irish religion. Phelim O'Neill was not a man to +restrain from crime. But the people, once launched in insurrection, were +probably beyond control. They rose upon the English settlers in Ulster, +drove them from their homes, and massacred some thousands with the usual +cruelty, women and children taking part in the fiendish work. Many were +stripped naked and exposed to perish in the cold. Dublin was full of +shivering and famished fugitives. The capital itself narrowly escaped +through fortunate betrayal of the plot, such as in an Irish conspiracy +seldom fails. It was natural that panic should exaggerate the number +murdered, as it was that panic and superstition together should see the +spectres of the English who had been drowned by the rebels at Portadown. +The effect upon the English, above all upon the Puritan mind, was like +that of the Sepoy mutiny and the massacre of Cawnpore. Ruthless +retaliation followed. Where the Protestants got the upper hand, Irish men, +women, and children were butchered without mercy. Thenceforth the Irishman +was to the Puritan a wild beast or worse. All Irishmen who landed in +England to fight for the king, with the women who followed their camps, +were put to the sword. An Irishwoman left behind by a Munster regiment at +the siege of Lyme was torn to pieces by the women of the place. + +The English Parliament at once, being short of money, passed, to provide +for the Irish war, an act confiscating in advance two and a half millions +of acres of rebel land as security for a loan; a measure, to say the +least, extreme and sure to make the conflict internecine. The act passed +without a dissentient voice, and was one of the last that received the +assent of Charles. + +In Ireland against the dark clouds of the storm one rainbow appeared. The +Protestant Bishop Bedel, though a proselytizer, had by his beneficence won +the love of his Catholic neighbours. He and his family were not only +spared by the rebels, but treated with loving-kindness, and when he died a +farewell salute was fired over his grave. + +Thus commenced a course of mutual slaughter which lasted eleven years, +and, according to Sir William Petty, cost, by sword, plague, and famine, +the lives of a third part of the population. A great pasture country was +reduced to the importation of foreign meat. A traveller could ride twenty +or thirty miles without seeing a trace of human life, and wolves, fed on +human flesh, multiplied and prowled in packs within a few miles of Dublin. +Numbers abandoned the country and enlisted in foreign services. Slave +dealers plied their trade and shipped boys and girls to Barbados. + +Strafford's place as deputy not having been filled, the government +remained in the hands of the Puritan Lords Justices Parsons and Borlase, +the first an intriguer and jobber, the second a worn-out soldier and a +cipher. They had prorogued the Parliament by which they might have been +restrained. The commander of the army on the king's side and the +representative of the king's interest was Ormonde, the head of the +loyalist house or sept of Butler, a man thoroughly honourable as well as +able and wise, whose character stands out nobly amidst the dark carnival +of evil. + +It is difficult to say to which of the contending parties the palm of +atrocity is to be awarded. Probably to that of the government, which knew +no measure in the extermination of Catholics and rebels. Where Ormonde +commanded there was sure to have been comparative mercy. Mercy there +certainly was on the side of the insurgents when they were commanded by +Owen O'Neill, a genuine soldier trained in foreign service and observant +of the rules of civilized war. But a papal legate who was in the Catholic +camp gleefully reports that after a battle won by the confederates no +prisoners had been taken. By the soldiery of the government at least +children were butchered, the saying being that "nits make lice." + +The anti-Catholic policy of the Puritan government and the castle had +driven into the arms of insurrection the Catholic lords of the Pale, +English in blood, normally hostile to the tribes though they were. The +Confederation formed at Kilkenny a provisional government with an assembly +of priests and laity combined, which elected a council of war. The +assembly was presently joined by a papal nuncio, Rinuccini, who brought +money from Rome and it seems at the same time encouragement of the +rebellion from Richelieu. The nuncio sought to control everything in the +paramount interest of the Papacy, which thus once more appears as a power +of temporal ambition. The assembly was not unanimous. Of the clergy and +the nuncio the chief aims were the ascendency of the Catholic Church and +the recovery of the confiscated Church lands. The chief aims of the lay +lords were lay; they wanted relief from political disabilities and +recovery of their political power. Restoration to the Church of the abbey +lands, of the grantees of which they were the heirs, was by no means to +their mind. + +Of the origin of the rebellion in Ulster King Charles was perfectly +innocent, though he drew suspicion on himself by some careless words. +Nothing worse for his cause could have happened. But when in his wrestle +with the Puritan he was thrown, he began to cast a longing eye on the +forces in Ireland which, though rebel and Catholic, were at all events +hostile to the Puritan. There ensued a series of tangled intrigues with +the Confederates, in the course of which Charles showed his usual +weakness and duplicity, while he was fatally committed by the mingled +rashness and tergiversation of his envoy, Glamorgan, the result being a +disclosure very injurious to the poor king's character and cause. The +Confederacy was divided between a party which was for treating and a party +which was for war to the knife. For war to the knife was the nuncio, an +ecclesiastical termagant of the Becket stamp, inflated with notions of his +own spiritual power and reckless in the pursuit of his own end, which was +to lay Ireland at the feet of the Pope. In all this the high-minded +Ormonde sadly stooped to take a part for his royal master's sake. When the +cause of his royal master was finally lost, he surrendered his command to +the Parliament and left Ireland. + +After the execution of Charles the scene shifted again. Abhorrence of +regicide brought about a junction of the more moderate Protestants with +the more moderate Confederates, uniting different parties and sections +under a common profession of loyalty. Ormonde then returned to lead a +mixed and not very harmonious force against Michael Jones, the Republican +commander. He advanced to the attack of Dublin, but was totally defeated +by Jones. + +Now on the wings of victory came Cromwell with ten thousand of the New +Model. His proclamation on landing promised to all who would keep the +peace, peace and protection for themselves. That proclamation, the first +utterance of law and order heard in those parts for ten years, was +strictly carried into effect. A soldier was hanged for robbing a native of +a fowl. No disorder, rapine, or outrage upon women is laid to the charge +of the Puritan army in Ireland. Cromwell sat down before Drogheda, which +was held by a large royalist garrison, partly English. The garrison having +refused to surrender on summons, he stormed. Two attacks failed; a third, +led by himself, took the town. He put the garrison to the sword. That a +garrison refusing to surrender on summons and standing a storm might be +put to the sword was the rule of war in those days; it was the law, though +not the rule, of war even in the days of Wellington. Nevertheless, this +was a fell act for a commander who was generally humane in war, and at +Worcester risked his life in persuading Royalists to take quarter. Of this +Cromwell was himself sensible, and he spoke of it with compunction. "I am +persuaded," he said in his despatch to the Parliament, "that this is a +righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches who have imbrued +their hands in so much innocent blood; and that it will tend to prevent +the effusion of blood for the future; which are the satisfactory grounds +to such actions, which otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret." Were +remorse and regret ever breathed by Alva, Parma, or Tilly? What did the +soldiery of those Catholic commanders do when it stormed a Protestant +town? What did the British soldiery, maddened by the recollection of a +massacre far less than that of 1641 do, not only to the Sepoy mutineer, +but to the insurgent people of Oude? When Rupert stormed Leicester, the +town was sacked, and women and children were found among the dead. The +Royalist Carte, in his life of Ormonde, commenting on the slaughter of the +garrison of Drogheda, says, "This was certainly an execrable policy in +that regicide. But it had the effect he proposed. It spread abroad the +terror of his name; it cut off the best body of the Irish troops and +disheartened the rest to such a degree that it was a greater loss in +itself and much more fatal in its consequences than the rout at +Rathmines." This is not a defence, nor much of an excuse. But it testifies +to a motive other than mere thirst of blood and shows that Cromwell spoke +the truth. + +There was cruel slaughter again at the storming of Wexford, but it does +not appear that it was ordered by Cromwell. The defences having been +carried, the combat was renewed within the town by the townspeople, who, +it is stated, had provoked wrath by their piracy and by drowning a number +of Protestants in a hulk. The city had been summoned to surrender on fair +terms. + +Cromwell was at once called away to the war with Scotland. He left the war +in Ireland to be finished by Ireton and Ludlow, who gradually extinguished +organized resistance, leaving only something between guerilla warfare and +brigandage called "Toryism," a name presently transmitted to a great +political party in England which bore it as a name of honour, in +opposition to that of Whig, on every hypothesis equally humble in its +source. + +The two races and religions had fought for the land, and the Saxon and +Protestant had won. It is surely simple to suggest that the winner ought +to have invited the loser to take the prize, especially after such a +display of that loser's sentiments and intentions as the massacre of 1641. +Had it not been made fearfully clear that the two races and religions +could not dwell together in peace? The victorious Puritan drove the +Catholic into Connaught. The Catholic, if he could, would have driven the +Puritan into the sea. The original decree of "To Hell or Connaught," the +hateful sound of which still rings in Irish ears, seems to have been +somewhat mitigated as the wrath of the victor cooled. At all events the +sentence extended to landowners only, not to artisans and labourers, who +were to remain where they were and to be disciplined and civilized by +English masters. A great number of those who had fought on the losing side +were sent away to foreign service, ridding Ireland of a manifest danger +and forming the first instalment of the grand Irish element in the armies +of Catholic Europe. There was also a large deportation to Barbados, +including probably families left behind by the military emigration. This +was cruel work, the more so as there was terrible suffering in the +passage. The whole business was horrible and deplorable. But in passing +sentence on the winner we must remember what the loser, had he been the +winner, would have done. The shadow of an evil destiny was over all. +Deportation was not to slavery for life, but to terminable bondage, one +degree less cruel. + +To cast all on Cromwell is most unfair. He had nothing specially to do +with Ireland till he came to put an end to the war. He left it forever +when he had struck his decisive blow. He could no more have given back the +contested land to the Catholics than he could have turned the Shannon to +its source. The act under which the land had been forfeited in advance and +a loan on it raised had been passed by the unanimous vote of Parliament +and had received the assent of the king. The soldiers who held land-scrip +for their pay presented their claims. As little would it have been +possible for Cromwell, even if he had desired it, to license the +celebration of the Mass, which in Puritan eyes was a sign, not only of +idolatry, but of allegiance to a foreign power, that power the mortal +enemy, not of the Protestant religion only, but of the Protestant State. +With liberty of conscience Cromwell declared that he would not interfere. +This was something in an age when the rack and the stake of the +Inquisition were still at work and when Irish troopers in the service of a +Catholic power were butchering the Protestant peasantry of Savoy. If the +Nuncio Rinuccini had got the upper hand in Ireland, a retirement of heresy +into the sanctuary of conscience would scarcely have saved it from the +stake. Cromwell does not appear to have persecuted in Ireland or to have +given the word for persecution. + +The Protector united Ireland as well as Scotland to England, thus bringing +the factions under the control of a strong government, Ireland's only hope +of peace. Union assured her free trade with Great Britain and the +dependencies, an inestimable boon, not in the way of material wealth only, +but in that of commercial civilization, as its withdrawal afterwards +fatally proved. Her shipping was at the same time assured of exemption +from the disabilities of the Navigation Laws. The Protector sent her a +good governor in the person of his son Henry, who seems to have identified +himself with the welfare of her people. He sent her a liberal law reformer +in the person of Chief Justice Coke, proposing to himself to treat her as +a blank paper, whereon he could write reforms such as professional bigotry +debarred him from effecting in England. His mortal enemy Clarendon, after +dilating on the iniquities of the settlement, says, "And, which is more +wonderful, all this was done and settled within little more than two years +to that degree of perfection that there were many buildings raised for +beauty as well as use, orderly and regular plantations of trees, and +fences and enclosures raised throughout the kingdom, purchases made by +one from the other at very valuable rates, and jointures made upon +marriages, and all other conveyances and settlements executed, as in a +kingdom at peace within itself, and where no doubt could be made of the +validity of titles." If these material improvements were at first limited +to the domain and race of the victor, they would in time have spread. + +Cromwell's own letter to Sadler on the administration of justice in +Ireland breathes anything but the ferocity ascribed to him. About religion +he speaks in his unctuous Puritan way, but in a tone far from savage. +"First let me tell you, in divers places where we come, we find the people +very greedy after the Word, and flocking to Christian meetings; much of +that prejudice that lies upon poor people in England being a stranger to +their minds. And truly we have hoped much of it is done in simplicity; and +I mind you the rather of this because it is a sweet symptom, if not an +earnest of the good we expect."[1] + +His words on the social question in the same letter show tenderness of +feeling. "Sir, it seems to me we have a great opportunity to set up until +the Parliament shall otherwise determine, a way of doing justice among +these poor people, which for the uprightness and cheapness of it may +exceedingly gain upon them who have been accustomed to as much injustice, +tyranny, and oppression from their landlords the great men, and those that +should have done them right as (I believe) any people in that which we +call Christendom.... Sir, if justice were freely and impartially +administered here, the foregoing darkness and corruption would make it +look so much the more glorious and beautiful and draw more hearts after +it." This is not the language of hatred, much less of extermination. + +Critics of Cromwell fail to notice that his mind opened as he rose, +notably in the way of religious toleration. The Ironside had now become a +great statesman. "Savage" the writer of his domestic letters surely can +never have been. + +The representatives of Ireland in the Parliament of the Protectorate, it +is true, were nominees. A popular election on the morrow of the Civil War, +and with its embers still glowing, would have been out of the question. +The union of the Parliaments effected, and representation granted, popular +election would have come in time. Meantime, there was the sheltering and +controlling authority of the Protector and the Council of State. + +To charge Cromwell with having misunderstood the genius of the Irish +nation and wronged it by his policy seems absurd. There was, in reality, +no Irish nation. There was an island inhabited partly by the wreck of +Celtic tribes, partly by conquerors and colonists of another race, the two +races differing widely in character, speaking different languages, having +antagonistic religions, not alien only, but desperately hostile to each +other. Deadly experience had shown that, left to themselves, they could +not live at peace. There was no political union, no attachment to a native +dynasty, no tradition or sentiment truly national among the wreckage of +the septs. The religious bond, it is true, had been greatly strengthened +among them by the conflict, and formed something like a national tie. But +adaptation of his policy to Catholic character and sentiment could hardly +be expected of a Puritan chief in the age of the Spanish Inquisition. + +The European war between Catholicism and Protestantism, and the consequent +mingling of religious with political strife, were everywhere a fatal +stumbling-block to statesmanship in that day. It does not seem that +Cromwell dealt with the difficulty in England or Ireland less wisely and +liberally than did statesmanship elsewhere. Perhaps the greater share of +liberality was his. The signs of his personal inclination were certainly +on the liberal side. + + + + +VII + + +The death of the Protector before his hour, and the military anarchy which +ensued, brought on the Restoration. The Restoration brought claims on the +part of dispossessed Royalism for restitution in both countries. The +occupants of confiscated lands in Ireland, seeing what must come, had +under the leadership of opportunist politicians, such as Broghill and +Cork, worshipped with politic rapture the return of the Royal Sun. The +disinherited on the other hand clamorously pressed their claim to +restitution. To that claim honour bade and sympathy inclined Charles II. +to give ear. But the adventurers were a formidable body, and while their +professions were fervently loyal their hands were on their swords. Nor did +Protestant England, even in its hot fit of loyalty, love the Irish +Catholic or forget the massacre of 1641. There ensued a vast controversy, +desperately embarrassing to Clarendon, Charles's chief adviser, to Charles +himself no doubt an insufferable bore. Intrigue and corruption, in which +the possessors were strong, contended with argument in the fray. The +government at last took refuge in the appointment of a commission +instructed to decide claims to restitution on the principle of complicity +or non-complicity in the rebellion of 1641; a criterion rather difficult +of application, since Charles I. had on the one hand assented to the Act +of Forfeiture, and on the other hand by treating with the Confederates had +practically recognized their loyalty to the crown. The upshot was an Act +of Settlement with a supplementary Act of Explanation, under which the +possessors retained about two-thirds of the lands, the disinherited +getting the other one-third, eked out with scraps, which by escheat or +forfeiture for regicide were at the disposal of the crown. The Act of +Settlement was thenceforth in the eyes of the Protestant possessor the +great charter of proprietary right, to be upheld at whatever cost; in the +eyes of the dispossessed Catholic, the hateful muniment of proprietary +wrong, to be cancelled whenever he had the power. The net result of the +Act of Settlement and Explanation was that Ulster was left, as it remains, +a Protestant pale. + +The Anglican State Church recovered all its possessions and privileges, +and was once more planted on the neck of a Catholic people. It is sad to +learn that Jeremy Taylor, who, when under persecution, had eloquently +defended liberty of prophesying, as a bishop of the restored Irish +establishment defended that liberty no more. But how could a hierarch of +the State Church of Ireland fail to don its spirit with his mitre? + +The whole of the Protector's work was undone. The union of Scotland and +Ireland with England was broken. Ireland was again reduced to the state of +a dependency, and of a dependency unloved and unrespected, whose interests +were to be always sacrificed to those of the country which was the seat of +power. Of this she was soon made fatally sensible. Protectionism was the +creed of that dark age. Ireland as a fine grazing country had been doing a +profitable export trade with England in cattle, pork, bacon, and dairy +produce. The English grazier demanded of his Parliament protection against +the free importation of food, denounced by him as a "nuisance." On his +demand an act was passed prohibiting the trade. Good sense and the public +interest struggled hard. The debate was unusually fierce. Ominous +expressions of contempt for the Irish were heard, and led to a challenge. +The king had the good sense to disapprove the measure, but gave way, as he +was sure to do. The patriotic policy of the grazier triumphed. Irish fish +narrowly escaped prohibition at the same time. This was the first of a +line of prohibitive acts fatal to the commerce of Ireland and to her +commercial civilization. At the same time she came under the Navigation +Laws, which were fatal to her shipping trade. + +Ireland, however, had the good fortune to be during the greater part of +the reign of Charles II. under the government of that Duke of Ormonde who +had commanded for the king in the Civil War. The duke was a statesman, +like Clarendon and Southampton, of the old and honourable cavalier school, +untainted by the political profligacy or the social dissoluteness of the +men of the Cabal. He governed as impartially as the anti-Catholic laws and +his own strict Anglicanism would let him; did his best to keep the peace +between the factions, political and religious; promoted manufactures and +trade, encouraged and endowed education, founded a college of medicine, +organized a national militia. He heartily identified himself with Irish +interests, and opposed the Cattle Act with an energy and a force of +argument which entitle his memory to the respect of free traders. It is +the sad truth that of Irish history between the Conquest and the Union the +one bright period is the viceroyalty of Ormonde. + +Ireland unhappily, though her interests were out of the pale of English +care, was not out of the pale of English faction and revolution. The +Stuart brothers, plotting with their French patron the subversion of +English religion and liberty, looked to Catholic Ireland for help in their +plot. They cultivated the Catholic interest there, and against the law +promoted Catholics to office and command. Richard Talbot, lying Dick, +afterwards Duke of Tyrconnel, one of the lowest of their wonderfully low +agents, as well as about the most violent, appeared upon the scene. It was +probably by thwarting or refusing to promote this conspiracy that Ormonde, +a strict Protestant though of the Anglican school, and constitutional +though a monarchist, incurred temporary dismissal from his viceroyalty. +Possibly in the same quarter may be sought the explanation of the +mysterious attempt at murdering him by Blood, of the criminal connection +of the court with whom there can be little doubt. On the other hand, the +cruel anti-Catholic panic, created in England by the well-founded +suspicion of danger to Protestantism from Stuart intrigue with France +which gave birth to the Popish plot, extended its rage to Ireland. The +last and most pitiable of the innocent victims of that frenzy was the +Catholic Archbishop Plunket. + + + + +VIII + + +Signs of preparation for the Stuart attack on Protestantism and liberty +were visible in Ireland as well as in England in the last years of Charles +II. But the blow was suspended during the life of the Merry Monarch, who +preferred the calm of the seraglio to the stir of a great enterprise, and +did not want to go again upon his travels. With the accession of Charles's +fanatical and blundering brother, the crisis came. The Viceroy Clarendon, +a Tory of Tories, but an Anglican, was deposed from the viceroyalty, and +quitted Ireland with a stream of Protestant refugees in his train. Into +his place vaulted Dick Talbot, now Duke of Tyrconnel, drunk with the fury +of Romanizing and despotic reaction. A Catholic reign of terror set in. +Protestants were disarmed; driven from places of authority, political, +judicial, or municipal; practically outlawed, plundered, outraged, +compelled to fly for their lives. The country seethed with a general orgie +of insurrection and revenge. The people swarmed to the standard of +Catholic and agrarian revolution, rather than to that of the English +king, for whom they cared little and who cared little for them. Presently +came James, ejected from England, with the power of his French patron at +his back. Under him a packed Parliament repealed the Act of Settlement by +which the Protestants held their lands, proclaiming reconfiscation and +expulsion on a vast scale. Not satisfied with this, the Parliament passed +a monstrous Act of Attainder against a large portion of the Protestant +proprietary. Nor can it be assumed that the frantic hatred which inspired +this act would have confined itself to spoliation, for which the repeal of +the Act of Settlement might have pretty well sufficed. A long lifetime had +not yet passed since 1641. James, who was not an Irish patriot but an +English king out of possession, would have vetoed the Act of Attainder had +he dared. But he dared not. He even suffered himself in this case to be +divested of the royal prerogative of pardon. Another prerogative, that of +regulating the coin, he exercised by sanctioning a base issue on a large +scale, which, being made legal tender, completed the ruin of the +Protestant trader. + +But Protestantism, the stern Protestantism of the Calvinist, rallied on +its own ground, and behind the mouldering walls of Derry made against a +Catholic host one of the heroic defences of history, a worthy theme in an +after time for the most brilliant of historians. In the battle of Newtown +Butler, Protestantism again triumphed over odds. Succour at length came +from England. It came first in the person of the renowned Schomberg, whose +army, however, made up of raw recruits, ill supplied by fraudulent +contractors, and filled with disease by the moisture of the climate, +miserably rotted. At last the bonfires of jubilant Protestantism announced +that William of Orange had landed. On the Boyne he gained a small battle +but a great victory, which decided that the Protestant Saxon, not the +Catholic Celt, should be master of Ireland. James fled to the luxurious +asylum of his French master, and with him fled the last hope of the +Catholic cause. + +Once more, however, at Aghrim, the Catholic, under the command of the +French General St. Ruth, accepted the wager of battle in open field. He +fought well, and the fortune of the day wavered, when a cannon shot took +off St. Ruth's head. Protestantism owed its victory largely to a regiment +of French Huguenots exiled by the bigoted tyranny of their own king. + +All was over in the field. The irresistible Marlborough reduced Cork and +Kinsale. But in Limerick, by soldiers pronounced untenable, Catholicism +had its Derry. Its hero Sarsfield, by a daring march, cut off William's +siege artillery, and, after a fierce assault, gallantly repulsed, William +was fain to raise the siege. After his departure Ginkell again invested +the place, and Sarsfield, finding that the last hour of the last Catholic +stronghold had come, capitulated on terms. The military terms of the +surrender were strictly observed. The political terms, securing a measure +of religious liberty to Catholics, though endorsed by William in his wise +Dutch love of toleration, were repudiated by Parliament. The "violated +treaty of Limerick" was an ugly business, though there seems to have been +no protest at the time. But James had fled. The garrison of Limerick had +no status but a military one, to which surrender put an end. Politically +they were merely insurgents. Could any political terms made with them have +bound the sovereign authority of the Irish and British Parliaments in +dealing with their own citizens forever? Can Sarsfield have thought that +they did? + +A crowd of Irish women and children lined the shore at Limerick, watching +with tearful eyes the receding sails of the fleet which bore away their +husbands and fathers, the garrison of the last Catholic stronghold, to +service in foreign lands. The defenders of Limerick were thus exchanged +for the Huguenot exiles who had charged and conquered at Aghrim. Those +men, with many an exile from Catholic Ireland who followed in their track, +went to form the Irish brigade and to redeem on foreign fields battles +lost in their own land. + + + + +IX + + +In that mortal struggle, had the Catholic won, he would have deprived the +Protestant certainly of his land, perhaps of his life. The Protestant, +having won, proceeded at once to avenge and secure himself by binding down +his vanquished foe with chains of iron. Chains of iron indeed they were. +By the series of enactments called the Penal Code, passed by the Irish +Parliament with some assistance from that of England, the Irish Catholic +was reduced to helotage political and social, while measures were taken +for the extirpation of his religion. To crush him politically he was +excluded from Parliament, from the franchise, from municipal office, from +the magistracy, from the jury box, as well as from public appointments of +all kinds, and even from the police force. To crush him socially he was +excluded from all the higher callings but that of medicine, from the +bench, from the bar, and from the army. He was denied the armorial +bearings which denoted a gentleman. To divorce him from the land, he was +forbidden to acquire freehold or a lease beneficial beyond a certain +rate; he was debarred from bequeathing his estate; and his estate was +broken up by making it heritable in gavelkind. The gate of knowledge was +closed against him. He was shut out of the university; forbidden to open a +school; forbidden to send his children abroad for education. That he might +never rise against oppression, he was disarmed and prohibited from keeping +a horse of more than five pounds' value. He might not even be a gamekeeper +or a watchman. + +The law, without actually prohibiting the Catholic religion, provided, as +was hoped, for its extirpation. All priests were required to be +registered, and were forbidden to perform service out of their own parish. +All Catholic archbishops and bishops were banished, and were made +punishable with death if they returned, so that in future there could be +no ordinations. Monks and friars also were banished. Catholic chapels +might not have bells or steeples. There were to be no pilgrimages or +wayside crosses. Rewards were offered to informers against Catholic +bishops, priests, and schoolmasters, and their trade was lauded as +honourable service to the state. Marriage of a Catholic with a Protestant +was prohibited; to perform it was a capital offence; so was conversion of +a Protestant to Catholicism. Religious hatred outraged domestic affection +by enacting that if the son of a Catholic turned Protestant the +inheritance should at once vest in him, his father being reduced to a life +interest; that the wife of a Catholic turning Protestant should be set +free from her husband's control and entitled to a settlement; that a +Catholic could not be a guardian, so that, dying, he had to leave his +children to the guardianship of an enemy of their faith. + +Representatives of the government designated the Catholics officially as +"our enemies." The Irish Parliament was exhorted to put an end to all +distinctions except that between Protestant and Papist. To such a relation +between races under the same government history can scarcely show a +parallel, unless it be the case of the Moriscos in Spain. + +"It was," says Burke, "a complete system full of coherence and +consistency; well digested and well composed in all its parts. It was a +machine of wise and elaborate contrivance and was as well fitted for the +oppression, impoverishment, and degradation of a people and the debasement +in them of human nature itself as ever proceeded from the perverted +ingenuity of man." It was the panic rage of a garrison which had narrowly +escaped extermination, and less cruel than the treatment of the Huguenots +by the Catholic king at the instigation of the Jesuit and with the +approbation of the Catholic Church in France. The fires of the Inquisition +were still burning, and continued for some time to burn. If the British +Parliament shares the guilt of the Penal Code, twice had an army of Irish +Catholics been raised for the destruction of English liberties. When last +those liberties were in the extremity of peril, a force of Irish Catholics +had been encamped at Hounslow. Nor was Catholicism merely a religion. It +was allegiance to a power which claimed the suzerainty of Ireland, which +had launched the decree of deposition against Elizabeth, which, after the +rising of 1641, had sent its nuncio to the rebel council of Kilkenny. +These memories on both sides ought long ago to have been consigned to a +common grave. + +At the same time it was deplorable that the settlement of the Catholic +provinces after their reconquest should have been left to the Protestants +of Ireland, transported with rage and fear. The true course, had it been +possible, was the union of Ireland with England. Representatives of the +loyal districts of Ireland might have been called at once to the +Parliament at Westminster. The rest of the island might have been placed +under a strong government of pacification and settlement, till peace and +the reign of law had been thoroughly restored. It is needless to say that +such a solution could not even suggest itself to the mind of any statesman +at that time. + +In extirpating the Catholic religion the policy of the Penal Code failed. +To the faith which was their only comfort and sole redemption from utter +degradation the people more than ever clung. The priests braved the law, +celebrated mass in hiding-places, furtively ordained, several hands being +laid on at once that the man ordained might be able to swear that he did +not know who had ordained him. They taught in hedge schools, and, though +but coarsely educated themselves, preserved the scantling there was of +knowledge and civilization among the people. In their celibacy they had a +great advantage for such work. Interested conversions among Catholics of +the higher class, especially as passports to the bar, seem not to have +been uncommon. An old lady of an ancient line is said to have embraced +Protestantism avowedly against her conscience, saying that it was better +that one old woman should burn than that the estates of the house of +Tomond should go out of the family. But disinterested conversions there +were none. On the other hand Protestants in isolated settlements were +turned Catholic by social contagion. + +Other parts of the code took deadly effect. The Catholics generally ceased +to own land. Of their landed gentry, some went into exile. The people, +bereft of their natural leaders, sank into apathetic helotage and mute +despair. Neither in 1715 nor in 1745, when a pretender again unfurled the +banner of the House of Stuart, was there the slightest political movement +among them. Socially, the iron had entered their souls and they cowered +under the yoke of the ascendancy. Once, an informer having tendered a +Catholic the legal ten pounds for his pair of fine horses, the Catholic +drew his pistol and shot the pair. But this was a rare spark of +self-respect on the part of the helot. + +The cup of woe was not yet full. In England, with revolution principles, +the mercantile party had mounted to power, and commerce in those days was +everywhere ridden by the fallacy of protectionism, which killed the only +good articles in the Treaty of Utrecht, those opening free trade with +France. Ireland, the English protectionist regarded as a foreign country, +and a particularly dangerous enemy to his interest. The cattle trade +having been killed by the act of Charles II., the Irish had taken to the +export trade in wool and to woollen manufactures. The wool grown on Irish +sheepwalks was of the finest, and was eagerly purchased by France and +Spain. This industry also English monopoly killed by prohibiting the +exportation of wool to foreign countries and the importation of Irish +woollen goods into England. The same jealous rapacity seems to have +successively killed or crippled the cotton industry, the glove-making +industry, the glass industry, the brewing industry, to each of which +Ireland successively turned; English greed being bent, not only on +excluding the Irish competitor from its own market, but on keeping the +Irish market to itself. Ireland had been promised free enjoyment of the +linen trade, which Strafford had encouraged by promoting the growing of +flax while he discouraged the wool trade; yet even this promise Irish +financiers could accuse England of eluding by tricks of the tariff. +England needing more bar iron than she could produce, the importation of +bar iron from Ireland was allowed; but the consequence was a consumption +of timber for smelting which denuded Ireland of her forests. + +Cromwell's union would have secured to Ireland exemption from the +disabilities of the Navigation Laws. The Restoration imposed them. They +killed her trade with the colonies and killed her shipping interest at the +same time. "The conveniency of ports and harbours," said Swift, "which +nature has bestowed so liberally upon this kingdom, is of no more use to +us than a beautiful prospect to a man shut up in a dungeon." + +In all this Ireland was treated as a colony, meant only to be a feeder to +the imperial country. But her position was worse than that of the +colonies, in which commercial restrictions generally were loosely +enforced, and which, when strict enforcement was attempted by Grenville, +rose in arms. The colonies, moreover, were regarded with pride and +affection. Popish Ireland was regarded with contempt and hatred. + +The lawful trade in wool with foreign countries England had suppressed. +Its place was partly taken by a smuggling trade, for which the inlets of +the Irish coast afforded the best of havens, and which had the people +everywhere for confederates. Thus, in every line, religious, social, +educational, and commercial, the Irishman found the law his inveterate +enemy. Could he fail to be an inveterate enemy of the law? + +Cut off from manufactures and from trade, the people were thrown for +subsistence wholly on the land, and land for the most part better suited +for pasture than for tillage. For the land they competed with the +eagerness of despair, undertaking to pay for their little lots rents which +left them and their families less than a bare subsistence. On such a scene +of misery as the abodes of the Irish cotters the sun has rarely looked +down. Their homes were the most miserable hovels, chimneyless, filthy. Of +decent clothing they were destitute. Their food was the potato; sometimes +they bled their cattle and mixed the blood with sorrel. The old and sick +were everywhere dying by cold and hunger, and rotting amidst filth and +vermin. When the potato failed, as it often did, came famine, with disease +in its train. Want and misery were in every face; the roads were spread +with dead and dying; there were sometimes none to bear the dead to the +grave and they were buried in the fields and ditches where they perished. +Fluxes and malignant fevers followed, laying whole villages waste. "I have +seen," says a witness, "the labourer endeavouring to work at his spade, +but fainting for want of food, and forced to omit it. I have seen the +helpless orphan exposed on the dunghill, and none to take him in for fear +of infection. And I have seen the hungry infant sucking at the breast of +the already expired parent."[2] There was an enormous amount of vagrancy +and mendicity, as there was in Scotland before the union. This was under +the government of the first of free nations, and in the era of Newton, +Addison, and Pope. + +Reduced to living like beasts, the people multiplied their kind with +animal recklessness. The result was fatal overpopulation, the pressure of +which, aggravated by occasional failures of the treacherous potato, could +be relieved only by the tragic remedy of emigration on an immense scale. + +Of the landowners, who might have had compassion on their serfs, many were +absentees; residence in Ireland, especially when agrarian war began, being +hardly pleasant. Their place was taken by the middleman, through whose +ruthless agency they extorted their rents and who frequently sublet, +sometimes even three or four deep, so that the cotter groaned under a +hierarchy of extortion. From the ranks of the middlemen were partly drawn +the upstart gentry, or squireens, a roistering, debauched, drinking, and +duelling crew, whose tyrannical insolence scandalized Arthur Young, +ruling with the horse-whip a peasantry cowering under the lash and +hopeless of redress by the law. The peasantry still largely spoke Erse, +another badge of their social inferiority, and a further barrier between +them and the ruling class. + +To the extortion of the middleman was added that, even more hated, of the +tithe proctor. The Protectorate had at all events relieved Ireland of the +Anglican State Church. That incubus the monarchy reimposed, and the +peasant was compelled out of the miserable produce of his potato field or +patch of oats, besides the exorbitant rent, not only to provide for his +own priest, but to pay tithe to a clergy whose mission was to extirpate +the peasant's religion. The Anglican bishoprics were rich. The rectories +for the most part were miserably poor, so that pluralism might be +necessary to make an income. But pluralism of the most scandalous kind +also prevailed, and we have a dean holding two groups of livings, fourteen +livings in all, one group twelve miles away from the other. Some of the +clergy, on the plea that there were no glebe houses for them, were drawing +their tithes in the pump room and at the card tables of Bath. Bishops were +sometimes non-resident as well as scandalously secular and inert. Most of +them were English, and appointed to keep up the English interest. There +were bright exceptions, such as Bolter, King, above all Berkeley, but they +were few. Swift could say of Irish bishops that government no doubt +appointed good men, but they were always murdered on Hounslow Heath by the +highwaymen, who took their credentials, personated them, and were +installed in their place. There have been worse institutions than the +State Church of Ireland; there was never a greater scandal. Even if +Anglicanism had been less alien to the Irish heart, what chance would such +missionaries as these have had against the devoted emissaries of Rome? +What must have been the feelings of the Irish peasant when of his crop of +potatoes, all too scanty for him and his children, the tithe proctor came +to claim a tenth part in the name of a Christian minister? + +There were prelates of a better stamp who sought to do well by the people. +Under their auspices were set up the chartered schools, to give poor Irish +children an industrial education. But the work of charity was marred by +bigotry. The children were taken from their Catholic parents and forcibly +brought up as Protestants, whereby the heart of the Catholic parent was +filled with anguish, and more bitter offence, it seems, was given than by +any other kind of repression. The schools at last became a sink of abuse, +inhumanity, and corruption. + +Rural Ireland was a recruiting ground for the armies of the Continent. On +some lonely hillside the recruiting agent reviewed the youth of the +neighbourhood, picked out the strong, the flower of the population, and +turned back the feeble to their miserable homes. + +If anything was to be done for the extension of Protestantism, union among +the Protestant minority was indispensable, and the enthusiasm of the +Calvinist, sombre as it was, might have had its attractions for the Celt, +as it had for the Celts of the Scottish Highlands, among whom it gave +birth to the hill preachers, and for those of Wales with whom Calvinistic +Methodism prevailed. But the bishops of the State Church hated the +Presbyterian even more bitterly than they hated the Catholic. After their +brief and hollow alliance with the Nonconformists, when their own interest +was threatened, they had speedily relapsed into High Anglicanism, and +under the not unsuitable leadership of the infidel Bolingbroke had taken +to persecuting Nonconformity in England. They extended the persecution to +Ireland, excluding by the Sacramental Test the defenders of Derry from +municipal office and military service. They imported the Schism Act, +forbidding Nonconformists to open schools. They threatened interference +with Presbyterian worship, Ireland having no Toleration Act. They disputed +the validity of Presbyterian marriage. They thus set flowing a stream of +Presbyterian emigration from the north of Ireland to the American +colonies. The stream was afterwards swelled by the rapacity of Lord +Donegal and other landed proprietors of Ulster, who, being owners of great +estates, when the leases of their tenants ran out, instead of renewing +them to the tenant, put them up to the highest bidder. Starving Catholics, +in the desperate competition for land, outbidding the Protestants, a +number of Protestant families were driven from their homes. The +consequence was, first, aggressive insurrection under the names of the +Heart of Oak Boys and the Steel Boys, ultimately emigration to America. +Thus the Church and the landlord between them were charging the mine of +American revolution. + + + + +X + + +Presently, too, inexorable nature made her voice heard, proclaiming that +Ireland, with its rich pastures and watery skies, was in the main not an +arable but a grazing country. There was a good market for meat. +Speculators began buying up land and throwing it into large grazing farms. +The cotter was ejected and driven to the bogs and mountains. This +overtaxed even a cotter's submission, and there broke out an agrarian war, +the most deadly perhaps in history, the canker and disgrace of British +government, protracted in varying phases and with fluctuating intensity +almost from that day to this. Companies of men, wearing white shirts over +their clothes, and thence afterwards called Whiteboys, harried the grazing +farms by night, and the stillness of the night air was broken by the +bellowings and moanings of hamstrung cattle. + +Irish outrage has been essentially agrarian, rather than religious. The +division of churches coincided generally with the social division. The +middleman was necessarily Protestant, since, under the penal law, no +Catholic could acquire a beneficial lease; and the antagonism of religion +and language emphasized and embittered that of class and interest. But a +Catholic generally suffered like a Protestant if he provoked the wrath of +the people. A Protestant settling in a Catholic district, if he was in any +way obnoxious, was especially liable to maltreatment. Later on there was a +hideous instance of this in the case of a Protestant schoolmaster settling +and opening his school in a Catholic district. He and his family were +mangled with horrible cruelty. + +Nor can it be said that the landlords as a class were the objects of +hatred and outrage apart from the agrarian quarrel. A landlord who resided +and did not oppress his tenantry, especially if he were affable, jovial, +and hospitable, was generally the object of a clannish affection, though +his mansion might be a "Castle Rack-rent" and his serious duties might be +very indifferently performed. + +The commercial restrictions and the Navigation Acts were fatal to the +prosperity of the whole island, while the penal inability of the Catholics +to invest could not fail to lower the value of land. This would be felt +by the conquering as well as by the conquered race and sect. Scotland, cut +off by the repeal of Cromwell's union from trade with England and the +dependencies, had so suffered commercially and industrially that she +swarmed with vagrants, and the ardent patriot, Fletcher of Saltoun, +proposed slavery as a remedy for the evil. The union, opening free trade +with England, brought commercial prosperity in its train. The English in +Ireland stretched out their hands to the British government for a union +like that which was being made with Scotland, and were coldly repelled. To +English protectionism the chief blame for the refusal no doubt is due. But +unwillingness to incorporate a large Catholic population may also have +played its part. Let the cause have been what it may, there is hardly +anything in the records of British statesmanship more deplorable than this +refusal of union to Ireland. Protectionism here again pleads the excuse of +universal delusion, and in no case is the excuse more needed. + +Moreover, the Protestants of Ireland, British in blood and, as lords over +a subject race in their own country, more than British in pride, were +denied the enjoyment of British freedom. A Parliament they had; but that +Parliament could legislate only by grace of the English council and of a +council named by the lord lieutenant in Ireland. Its control even of money +bills was not recognized, while the Crown had a hereditary revenue which +made it almost independent of Parliamentary grants. In the Upper House, +owing to the large absenteeism of lay lords, the bench of bishops, +nominees of the Crown and agents of the British interest, largely held +sway. Of the three hundred seats in the House of Commons more than half +were filled by nominees of the patrons of pocket boroughs, which the Crown +had been always creating at its will, and the nominations were sold like +common merchandise. The House, moreover, swarmed with placemen and +pensioners. The Parliament was elected for a whole reign, so as to be +scarcely responsible even to such a constituency as it had. The Irish +Parliament of George II. continued for thirty-three years. There was a +session only in every other year. The English House of Lords arrogated to +itself the jurisdiction of final appeal. The judges held only during +pleasure. There was no annual Mutiny Act. There was no Habeas Corpus. +There were large sinecures, instruments of corruption in the hands of the +government. The pension list, swollen beyond bounds, was a privy fund for +kings' mistresses and for jobs too dirty for the English list. The high +appointments, ecclesiastical, administrative, and judicial, were treated +as patronage by the English government and generally reserved for +Englishmen. The face of their king the Irish never saw. The viceroy +resided only during a small part of his term, and his place was filled in +his absence by lords justices who were often bishops, English themselves, +and bent above all things on securing the ascendancy of the English +interest. Three archbishops in succession practically ruled Ireland. +Presbyterians and other Protestant Dissenters, victims of episcopal +intolerance, had crying wrongs of their own. + +Union with England had been refused, and the protection of England being +no longer so manifestly indispensable to her garrison in Ireland as it had +been, a craving for self-government took its place. Molyneux, and after +him Lucas, alarmed and exasperated authority by writing in favour of the +independence of the Irish Parliament. But a far more potent artificer of +discord appeared in Swift, who, balked of preferment in England by the +wreck of his political party, exiled to a native land which he abhorred, +was eating his heart, and ripe for mischief, especially for any mischief +which could avenge him on the Whig government, above all on Walpole, its +chief, by whom it seems the path of this model Christian and pure writer +to a bishopric had been crossed. That a feeling of justice and of pity for +the sufferings of the Irish people, which Swift has vividly described, had +their place in his heart beside malice and vengeance, may be true; though +his sense of justice was not strong enough to prevent him, profane and +really sceptical as he was, from vehemently upholding the Penal Code and +the Sacramental Test; while his pity for the people led to no +philanthropic effort of a practical kind, and was not very tenderly +expressed in his satirical suggestion that they should appease their +hunger by eating their babies. His proposal to exclude English goods would +gratify his malice as well as his patriotism, and had it been adopted +would probably have led to a large increase of smuggling. + +One of the grievances of Ireland was that there was no Irish mint. A new +copper coinage was needed. The contract was given by the English +government to the king's mistress, and by her sold to Wood, a respectable +manufacturer. As the coinage was approved by Sir Isaac Newton, then master +of the mint, it can hardly have been very bad. But Irish jealousy cast +suspicion upon its character. Then rose a storm of popular fury, improved +by Swift into a whirlwind on which he rode in his glory. Swift's "Drapier +Letters" are monuments of his genius for pamphleteering, his intense +malice, and his freedom from the restraints of truth. They produced an +immense effect, made him the idol of Dublin for the rest of his days, and +forced Walpole to give way and call in the halfpence. Their author did not +mention among the evils of an English connection that he and the members +of his State Church were enabled by the support of the British power to +set their feet upon the necks of four-fifths of the Irish people and to +wring from the starving Catholic the income of the dean of St. Patrick. +The letters ranged far beyond the immediate occasion, and appealed +strongly to the growing desire of independence, which we may be pretty +sure that Swift, had he been nominated by Bolingbroke to an English +bishopric, would have fiercely opposed. The Parliament to which his +revolution would have consigned Ireland is described by himself as a den +of thieves of which he devoutly desired the extirpation. + +Presently there arose a patriot party in the Irish Parliament. It found a +leader in Flood, a man of solid ability and powerful in debate, while the +purity of his patriotism was not so clear. At Flood's side, or rather +perhaps, as the event proved, on his flank, there presently arose the far +more illustrious Grattan, whose purity and patriotism were unquestionable, +whose oratory was brilliant, his admirers thought divine. The objects +sought by the patriots were reduction of the duration of Parliaments, +control of money bills, an annual Mutiny Bill, Habeas Corpus, tenure of +the judges during life or good behaviour, reduction of the pension list, +exclusion of placemen and pensioners from the House of Commons, taxation +of the rents of absentees. On the first and most important point they +succeeded through a bargain with the Crown on the amount of the military +force. The duration of Parliament was cut down to eight years, that number +being preferred to seven, because it was only in alternate years that +Parliament sat. This was a very important change. War, with imperfect +success, was waged on the question of money bills. On the other points +reform made no way, the English government clinging obstinately to all its +powers and using its veto, while the lord lieutenant was able to avert a +crash by buying up a majority in the Irish Parliament. Taxation of the +rents of absentees, a measure very popular and much pressed, was vetoed +by the English government. The protest of the absentees against it was +evidently the work of Burke, whose patron, Lord Rockingham, had an estate +in Ireland. Burke argued that the double land-ownership was a link of +union between the two countries; which it might have been if the residence +as well as the proprietorship had been shared. The advocates of the tax +might have cited the original character of land grants to which feudal +service was annexed and which were forfeited by the failure of absentees +to perform it. Chatham supported the tax. For a moment, unhappily for a +moment only, his thoughts were turned to Ireland. A far greater service he +would have rendered his country by pacifying Ireland as he pacified the +Highlands than by his conquest of Canada, of which the loss of the +American colonies was the result. In the background there was a growing +sentiment in favour of independence, the flag of which was by Grattan +presently unfurled. + +It was not in Ireland as it was in England, where the regular party system +prevailed and the minority changed with the majority in Parliament. The +Castle called to the council whom it pleased, without regard to the +existence of a political connection among them, though it was, of course, +under the necessity of calling those who could bring it support at the +time. The party tie was accordingly very loose and connections were +shifting. Flood had no scruple in providing for himself, apart from his +friends, by acceptance of a rich sinecure under the government. Hely +Hutchinson, a free lance, could use his personal influence in forcing the +government to make him provost of Trinity College. + +For a time the Castle put itself into the hands of a junto of great lords +and owners of Parliamentary boroughs, who undertook to supply it with a +majority at the price of patronage and power. To break this ring and +restore the free action of government, an effort was made by the Lord +Lieutenant Townshend. But Townshend's boisterous energy, successful for a +time, in the end failed, and the Castle fell back into the routine of +government by intrigue and corruption, aided by viceregal dinners and +balls. + +Chatham's glory dazzled Ireland as well as England. But presently came the +quarrel ending in war, with the American colonies, whose commercial +grievances were the same in kind as those of Ireland, practically less +severe. Ireland at once showed sympathy with American revolt. Presently +the island was divested of troops by the demands of the war, and its +coasts were left open to the attacks of privateers. There was no national +militia. Under the leadership of Lord Charlemont a body of volunteers, +almost entirely Protestant, was raised and reached at last the number of +forty thousand. There was, no doubt, in the movement a good deal of claret +and fanfaronade. But it included the leading gentry, and for its purpose +was very strong. Formed ostensibly, at first really, for defence against +the Americans, it presently fell politically into their track and demanded +of the British government, now prostrated by misfortune in the war and by +the combination of European powers against it, first freedom from the +commercial restrictions, then legislative independence. North made +commercial concessions; he would have made them on a much more liberal +scale and possibly have satisfied the volunteers. But again monopolist +greed, strong in the commercial cities of England, vetoed, and Burke lost +his seat at Bristol for advocating the policy of free trade. The victories +of Rodney and Eliot, had they come in time, might have strengthened the +hands of the British government and saved it from an ignominious +capitulation. As it was, the British government surrendered at discretion. +First the commercial restrictions were swept away; then the legislative +supremacy of England, embodied in the Poynings Act and the Act of the +Sixth of George I., affirming the right of the British Parliament to +legislate for Ireland, was renounced. Flood, the patriot with a bend +sinister, insisted on pushing the humiliation of England still further and +compelling her by a declaratory act solemnly to bind her own hands for the +future, while Grattan, the patriot without reproach, took the more +generous line. Thus England underwent the deepest humiliation in her +history at the hands of an Irish party which owed its land, its +ascendancy, probably its very existence, to her protecting power. Such was +the condign punishment of a long course of ignorant, blundering, and +corrupt misgovernment, a punishment not the less calamitous and degrading +because it was deserved. + +So Grattan in the Irish Parliament was able, in a transport of rhetorical +rapture, to worship "the newborn nation," a nation which comprised a +fraction of the people of the country, the rest being still political +helots. Had he adored an uncontrolled Ascendancy, his deity would have +been real. + +The volunteers, having felt their strength, were inclined to vote +themselves permanent, overawe Parliament, and enforce Parliamentary +reform. Flood was so misguided as to take that line. But the incarnation +of violent counsels was the bishop of Derry, an English nobleman holding +an Irish bishopric, a most absurd figure, and probably half insane. His +Right Reverence avowed that he looked forward to blood. He paraded before +the door of Parliament in a coach and six, dressed in purple with long +white gloves and gold tassels depending from them, and with a guard of +horse, looking as if he meant to be king. But the Parliament was firm, and +Lord Charlemont and other sane leaders were able to control the body, +which was drawn, not from a Faubourg St. Antoine, but from the +property-owning class under aristocratic leading. Still revolutionary +excitement did not die. + +What was now the state of things? There were two independent Parliaments, +each with full powers of legislation, under the same Crown; that Crown not +being invested with authority to control and harmonize the action of the +two Parliaments, but being a Crown upon a cushion or little more. The +commercial and even the international relations of the two Parliaments +might point different ways. There might be a divergence on a question of +peace or war; one Parliament declaring for war, the other refusing to vote +the supplies. On general questions, such as commercial and criminal law, +opposition was possible to any extent; and considering the feelings +towards each other with which the partners set out, was not unlikely to +occur. Ireland might even refuse currency to English coin. The monarchical +link itself was not quite firm. On the question of the regency, when +George III. went mad, the two Parliaments did actually fly apart; the +Irish Parliament recognizing, while the British Parliament refused to +recognize, the claim of the Prince of Wales to the regency by virtue of +his birth. Only the king's recovery averted a collision. Adopted in haste +and in a rush of revolutionary ardour, the system was in fact unworkable +and must have ended in confusion. Grattan was unquestionably true to +British connection. But Grattan was not Ireland, and even he had led in no +very loyal attitude the defiance of the British Parliament on the regency +question. His statesmanship can hardly have been profound if he fancied +that the constitution of 1782 would work. + +It is moreover always to be borne in mind that this Parliament was the +Parliament of a Protestant ascendancy, representing not one-quarter of the +people of Ireland, and that with all its high talk of independence, it +still owed, and knew that it owed, to British protection its power, its +privileges, its political pelf, perhaps even the safe possession under the +Act of Settlement of lands on which the disinherited still cast a longing +and vindictive eye. + +How then was the policy of Ireland to be kept from breaking away from that +of Great Britain? The practical answer was, by corruption, the means of +which at the command of the Castle were, besides office, sinecures, some +of them very rich; commands in the army; pensions; bishoprics, with other +Church patronage; and peerages. The peerages, though lavishly created, +seem to have retained their value. The Parliament, the body on which +corruption had to operate, was a Parliament of rotten boroughs, the +nominations for which were sold in open market. The House of Commons +continued to swarm with placemen and pensioners, whose votes were at the +command of government. In the House of Lords the Anglican bishops were +strong. + +Appended to a report made to Pitt on the political situation in Ireland is +the following schedule of corruption:-- + + "H---- H----, son-in-law to Lord A----, and brought into Parliament + by him. Studies the law; wishes to be a commissioner of barracks, or + in some similar place. Would go into orders and take a living. + + "H---- D----, brother to Lord C----. Applied for office; but, as no + specific promise could be made, has lately voted in opposition. Easy + to be had if thought expedient. A silent, gloomy man. + + "L---- M----, refuses to accept L500 per annum; states very high + pretensions from his skill in House of Commons management; expects + L1,000 per annum. N.B.-- Be careful of him. + + "J---- N----, has been in the army and is now on half pay; wishes a + troop of dragoons on full pay. States his pretensions to be fifteen + years' service in Parliament. N.B.--Would prefer office to military + promotion; but already has, and has long had, a pension. Character, + especially on the side of truth, not favourable. + + "R---- P----, independent, but well disposed to government. His four + sisters have pensions; and his object is a living for his brother. + + "T---- P----, brother to Lord L----, and brought in by him. A captain + in the navy; wishes for some sinecure employment." + + + + +XI + + +There was no lack, say apologists of the Irish Parliament, of useful +legislation on subjects with which a landed gentry was qualified to deal. +There was a fatal lack of legislation on one momentous subject with which +a land-owning gentry ought to be qualified to deal, but from which the +Irish Parliament resolutely turned its eyes. For half a century before the +union, that body steadfastly abstained from inquiring into the causes of +disaffection among the peasantry. It even repressed a report upon the +subject which the chairman of the committee had begun to read. + +The condition of the peasantry was still horrible and heartrending. The +revolution of 1782, by loosening the fetters of trade, had brought +increase of prosperity to the merchant and manufacturer. It had brought no +relief to the tiller of the soil. A little before this Arthur Young had +travelled in Ireland and had been shocked at seeing the insolent despotism +of the petty country gentlemen, whom he called the vermin of the kingdom, +over their serfs; the horsewhip freely used, the serf not daring to lift +his hand in defence, the total denial of legal redress, since a justice of +the peace presuming to issue a summons would at once have been called out. +Landlords of consequence had assured Young that many of their cotters +would think themselves honoured by having their wives and daughters sent +for to the bed of their masters. He had even heard of the lives of people +being made free with. The middleman and the tithe-proctor were ruthless as +ever. To the payment of tithes a drop of bitterness had been added by the +exemption, through an abuse of political influence, of the grazing farms, +which left the whole burden of maintaining a hostile Church on the back of +the cotter. The peasantry, on the other hand, maddened by suffering, took +a fearful revenge on the oppressor or his agents. Agrarian murder and +outrage prevailed. There were cruelties worse than murder. Middlemen and +tithe-proctors were "carded"; that is, lacerated with boards full of nails +drawn down their backs, buried up to their necks in pits full of thorns, +made to ride on saddles stuck with spikes, their ears and noses cut off. A +clergyman was met riding in great agony with his head wrapped up; his ears +and cheeks were found nailed to a post. That the Irish when excited are +capable of dark atrocities is a feature of their character which it is +useless to disguise. Debility when excited is apt to be most cruel. The +trait showed itself plainly in the hamstringing of soldiers and the +houghing of cattle, as well as in the torturing of middlemen and +tithe-proctors. Law and police were paralyzed. The peasantry were one vast +conspiracy bound together by awful pledges, the betrayal of which was +death. No evidence could be obtained though there might be plenty of +eye-witnesses. Perjury in the common cause was no sin. + +It was supposed that the Whiteboys had their meetings in Catholic chapels. +But there is no ground for taxing the Catholic Church as a body with any +share in the criminal part of the movement. The Catholic clergy of Ireland +were then, as they are now, a peasant clergy, sympathizing with their +class. They depended on that class for their stipends. Some of them their +sympathy might betray into complicity, more or less active, with agrarian +crime. More of them might be guilty of failure to exert their religious +authority as ministers of the sacraments, the confessional, and death-bed +absolution, on the side of law. But their record on the whole appears to +have been as clear as, considering what persecution they had undergone, +and that the law was their enemy as well as the enemy of the peasant, it +was reasonable to expect. + +The mansion of an unpopular landlord became a besieged fortress. +Absenteeism of course increased. To a rather later date belongs the story +of an agent who, having complained to his absentee landlord that his life +had been threatened, received the reply, "Tell the villains that they need +not hope to intimidate me by shooting you." + + "I am well acquainted," said a statesman not oversensitive to popular + wrongs, "with the Province of Munster, and I know that it is + impossible for human wretchedness to exceed that of the miserable + tenantry of that province. I know that the unhappy tenantry are + ground to powder by relentless landlords. I know that far from being + able to give the clergy their just dues, they have not food and + raiment for themselves; the landlord grasps the whole. Sorry I am to + add that, unsatisfied with present extortion, some landlords have + been so base as to instigate the insurgents to rob the clergy of + their tithes, not in order to alleviate the distresses of the + tenantry, but that they might add the clergy's share to the cruel + rack-rents already paid. Sir, I fear it will require the utmost + ability of Parliament to come to the root of these evils. The poor + people of Munster live in a more abject state of poverty than human + nature can be supposed able to bear. Their miseries are intolerable; + but they do not originate with the clergy; nor can the legislature + stand by and see them take the redress into their own hands. Nothing + can be done for their benefit while the country remains in a state of + anarchy." + +The miseries might not originate with the clergy, but the popular wrath +did originate specially with the exactions of the tithe-proctor. Grattan +proposed commutation. But then the tithe of pasture agistment, as it was +called, could no longer have been evaded. That simple reform was put off +for more than a generation, with the most calamitous results. + +Dublin was gay, mansions rose, claret flowed, wit sparkled, the dance went +round. Nor was there lack of social polish or of culture of the classical +kind. On the other hand, there were extravagance, waste, and debt. Wild +and spendthrift characters appear among the leaders and mirrors of +society. Beauchamp Bagenal, as Sir Jonah Barrington tells us, "had visited +every capital of Europe, and had exhibited the native original character +of the Irish gentleman at every place he visited. In the splendour of his +travelling establishment, he quite eclipsed the petty potentates with whom +Germany was garnished. His person was fine, his manners open and generous, +his spirit high, and his liberality profuse. During his tour, he had +performed a variety of feats which were emblazoned in Ireland, and +endeared him to his countrymen. He had fought a prince; jilted a princess; +intoxicated the doge of Venice; carried off a duchess from Madrid; scaled +the walls of a convent in Italy; narrowly escaped the Inquisition at +Lisbon; concluded his exploits by a celebrated fencing match at Paris; and +he returned to Ireland with a sovereign contempt for all continental men +and manners, and an inveterate antipathy to all despotic kings and +arbitrary governments." + +Duelling was the social law. The attorney-general fought a duel; the +provost of Trinity College fought a duel. Refusal of a challenge was +social death. The viceroy's secretary, when challenged by a disappointed +applicant for place, deemed it necessary to go to the field of honour. +Robert Fitzgerald was so addicted to duelling that he wore a chain shirt +under his vest. + +What can have produced such characters? Was it anything in Irish blood or +air, or was it the absence of the commercial element with its sobering +influence? The story of Robert Fitzgerald, nephew of the bishop of Derry, +seems to bespeak a wild domestic despotism exercised by the squires. +Fitzgerald is said to have confined his father in a cave with a muzzled +bear. He put to death one of his household, for which, however, he was +hanged. The matrimonial adventurer from Ireland was also a figure well +known in the sister isle. + +Of intellectual fruit there was not much except oratory, pamphlets, and +pasquinades. Swift was an Englishman born in Ireland and banished to the +place of his birth. Burke's genius as well as his physiognomy was one-half +Irish, and his Irish half had its share in that splendid but mischievous +outburst, his essay on the French Revolution. His heart turned to Ireland, +and some of his best thought was given to her case. But he hardly belongs +to the Irish Pantheon. + +Oratory, both Parliamentary and forensic, flourished. Grattan, Flood, +Yelverton, Foster, Fitzgibbon (afterwards Lord Clare), Curran, are great +names in their different ways. Nor was the oratory all in the style +supposed to be Hibernian. Foster's style, for example, was grave and +weighty. So generally was that of Flood. + +In Parliament there were lively scenes. Grattan and Flood having parted +company in politics, and Flood having defamed Grattan, Grattan poured upon +Flood a furious torrent of the most personal invective; telling him that +his talents were not so great as his life was infamous; that he had been +silent for years and silent for money; that he might be seen passing the +doors like a guilty spirit waiting the moment at which he might hop in and +give his venal vote; that he was a kettledrum, battering himself into +popularity to catch the vulgar; that he might be seen hovering over the +dome like an ill-omened bird of night, with sepulchral note and broken +beak (Flood having a broken nose); and winding up by telling him in the +face of the country, before all the world, and to his beard, that he was +not an honest man. Flood retorted with equal fury, and a wild scene +ensued. It is not difficult to believe in the genius or the patriotism of +these orators; but it is difficult to believe in their unimpassioned +wisdom. + +The Penal Code had ere this lost much of its cruelty. Time, security, and +intercourse had softened the feeling of the Protestants against the +Catholics, whose passive loyalty had been proved by their inaction when +Great Britain was twice invaded by Stuart pretenders. The most odious +enactments of the code, those which involved personal degradation and +outrage on family affection, had fallen into desuetude or been evaded. +Protestant friends would hold land for a Catholic in confidential trust, +and ostensibly assume the guardianship of his children, leaving the real +guardianship to the kin. The attempts of informers to take advantage of +forfeitures were discouraged by the courts. Protestant fanaticism was +dying out everywhere except in rural Ulster, and was giving way among the +educated to indifference and even to scepticism. The spirit of Voltaire +was abroad. Chesterfield, as viceroy, brought it with him, laughing at +religious intolerance, and saying that the only Catholic of whom he was +afraid was the reigning beauty of Dublin. The whole system of the Catholic +Church, though still nominally subsisting only by connivance, was openly +and securely carried on. Conspicuous Mass houses were built. The Catholic +hierarchy and priesthood were forming friendly relations with a government +which had once designated all Catholics as enemies. Catholics of the upper +class educated in France came back from the land of the Encyclopaedists +tinctured with its liberalism. Catholics were admitted by connivance into +Trinity College. A central committee had been formed to guard Catholic +interests, which in the penal era would have been treason. After 1782, +relief bills were passed. Catholicism was recognized by law. All +restrictions upon the maintenance of the hierarchy, freedom of ordination, +or additions to the priesthood were abrogated. Catholics were made capable +of acquiring property in land, though under the guise of leases for nine +hundred and ninety-nine years. The Gavelling Act, passed to break up +their estates, was repealed. It was unfortunately too late to restore the +Catholic gentry, which had been decimated by the Penal Law. In 1783 a bill +was passed opening to Catholics the profession of the law in all its +branches and grades except the rank of king's counsel and the judicial +bench, repealing the law against the intermarriage of Catholics with +Protestants, that against foreign emigration, that making an Anglican +license necessary for schools, and that restricting the number of +apprentices permitted in Catholic trade. The laws against the possession +of arms and the exclusion from command in the army were left. Otherwise of +the Penal Code the political disabilities almost alone remained. + +The principal relief bill was introduced by Sir Hercules Langrishe, the +friend and correspondent on Irish politics of Burke, who pleaded the cause +of the Irish Catholics with all the vehemence of his nature, a measure of +sympathy with the religion probably mingling in his heart with love of +freedom and justice. Burke had less feeling for the grievances of +Protestant Dissenters or of Anglican clergymen liberally inclined, who +sought the relaxation of tests. He afterwards sent his son, whose ability +he fondly overrated, as his representative to Ireland, in the affairs of +which the aspiring youth meddled, and with farcical results. + +The Presbyterians of Belfast had before this been relieved of the Test Act +and their other religious bonds and humiliations. But the relief had come +too late to turn them into good friends of the Anglican Church or of +British connection. Revolutionary and republican sentiment had, with +religious scepticism, taken root in Belfast. + +The revolution of 1782 had not been democratic. The Volunteers were +property holders and their leaders were peers. But the withdrawal of the +Volunteers was not followed by political calm. Among the populace of +Dublin, especially, excitement continued and showed itself detestably by +hamstringing British soldiers. The cry was now for two drastic measures of +change: the political emancipation of the Catholics, and a reform of +Parliament substituting freedom of election for nomination and clearing +the legislature of pensioners and placemen. The two combined evidently +meant death to Protestant ascendancy and to oligarchy, both of which +naturally shrank from suicide. + +The struggle grew fierce, and now not only was the American Revolution +fresh in recollection, but the French Revolution, advancing with thunder +tread, was filling the minds of the people everywhere, and especially +those of the oppressed and suffering, with vague visions and hopes of +change. Even to the hovel of the Irish serf, a vague hope, not of a +society regenerated on the principles of Rousseau, but of deliverance from +the middleman, from the tithe-proctor, and from the English connection, +which he thought was at the bottom of all his sufferings, had begun to +make its way. + +Of reform, the leader was Grattan. Opposition to reform found a mighty +champion in Fitzgibbon, afterwards Lord Clare, a strong man, fearless as +he was able, and a very powerful speaker, but violent and overbearing, as +well as reactionary to a degree which charms the reactionary historian. +Fitzgibbon had a very coarse but rather effective shield-bearer in Dr. +Duigenan, the son of a Catholic farmer intended for the priesthood, but +captured by the Protestant clergyman of his parish. + +Grattan and the reform party failed to get admission for Catholics to +Parliament. They failed to purify the House itself by substituting free +election for nomination boroughs, or by the effective exclusion of +pensioners and placemen from the House. They succeeded in extending the +electoral franchise to all holders, whether Catholic or Protestant, of +forty-shilling freeholds. Unfortunately, they could hardly have done worse +than by giving political power to the mass without its natural leaders. +Protestant demagogues playing for the Catholic vote were certain to +appear. Another bad effect of the measure was the multiplication of cotter +holdings by land-owners who would absolutely control the cotter's vote. On +the other hand, to ask the Protestant oligarchy to part with its exclusive +possession of Parliament was to ask it, not only to resign power, but even +to cast a shadow on its property, for the Act of Settlement had hardly +even yet become perfectly sacred as the title-deed of proprietary right. +Not all the advocates of Parliamentary reform were in favour of Catholic +emancipation. Flood among others was opposed to it. + +Of the British government Pitt was now absolute master. Early in his reign +he had glanced at Irish politics and it seems had thought of union. But +the Channel was still wide and Irish government was still left to the +Castle. Pitt, however, had tendered Ireland a commercial agreement framed, +like his commercial treaty with France, in the spirit of the first +statesman who read Adam Smith. Introduced by him with great ability and at +first with general acceptance, his measure in the end was wrecked by a +combination of British protectionism, Whig faction, and Irish jealousy on +the subject of legislative independence; to the last of which Fox, carried +away by faction, scrupled not to appeal. Commercial union would have +strengthened the political connection, and by furthering commercial +prosperity might have done something to allay Irish discontent. Latterly, +Pitt's thoughts had been engrossed by the struggle with France. They were +now turned perforce to the political state of Ireland, which was evidently +becoming very perilous; at that time, unfortunately, with no happy result. + +The Whigs opposed to the French Revolution, Portland, Spencer, +Fitzwilliam, and Windham, had coalesced with Pitt without renouncing their +general principles, which they wished to apply to Ireland, regarding that +field, it seems, as especially their own. At their instance Fitzwilliam +was sent over as viceroy, believing, and it seems with reason, that he +bore Catholic emancipation and general reform in his hand; though he had +no written instructions, nor, it appears, any verbal instructions +sufficiently clear. He went hastily to work, opened his budget of +concessions prematurely, and too promptly brandished the besom of +administrative reform, dismissing from office one of the great +place-hunting house of Beresford, which by assiduous intrigue had filled +the public service with its nominees. The Beresford carried his plaint to +the headquarters of the Tory party in London, and told Pitt that +Fitzwilliam was turning out all the faithful supporters of the government. +What followed is still a mystery. There was a long, unaccountable, and +apparently inexcusable silence on the part of Portland, broken at last by +disclaimer, rebuke, and recall. Fitzwilliam, stung to fury at this +treatment, trampled on official rules and did serious mischief by his +publication of confidential letters betraying an incipient design of +union, which to Irish patriotism at that time was maddening. At the bottom +of all the misunderstanding and trouble was the king, into whose miserable +mind had been instilled, it appears by Fitzgibbon, the belief that by +consenting to Catholic emancipation he would break his coronation oath. +The two great Tory lawyers, Eldon and Kenyon, to their honour, told the +king the truth. It seems probable, however, that the union of the +coalition government was imperfect, as that of coalition governments is +apt to be, and that this may be the account both of the want of clearness +in Fitzwilliam's original instructions and of the strange silence, ending +at last in an abrupt dismissal, which ensued. + +Fitzwilliam left Dublin amidst passionate demonstrations of popular +disappointment and grief. His place was taken by Lord Camden, one of the +Tory section of the Pitt government, who came to face Irish rebellion +aided by Revolutionary France, while England, placed in extreme peril by +French victories and the secession of her allies, was struggling for her +life and was unable to afford military support to the government of +Ireland. + +Catholic emancipation and reform of Parliament, had Fitzwilliam been +allowed to grant them, would, Grattan thought, have averted the crisis. +They might have staved it off, but it would probably have come in another +form. That the new power thus called into being would be as loyal as +Grattan himself to British connection was a highly precarious assumption. +The course of the French Revolution would have not been stayed, nor would +the wild hopes which it excited have been extinguished. The aspirations of +Tom Paine's disciples at Belfast would not have ceased. The cotter's +hunger would not have been appeased nor would he have been reconciled to +the payment of tithe and Church cess. The blind hatred of British +connection as the supposed source of all evil to Ireland would have +continued to work. The State Church would at once have been attacked. The +Castle government, bereft of its two supports, nomination boroughs and +patronage, would inevitably have lost its hold. Chaos would then have +come. Material order might have been preserved by a sufficient military +force. Otherwise there was apparently nothing for it but union. + +In Presbyterian Belfast, hatred of the State Church and the English +government which supported it, bred by Episcopal intolerance, had +developed, especially among the young men, into rationalism and acceptance +of the doctrines, both religious and political, of Tom Paine. The +connection of sympathy with the exiles in America had been kept up, and +the spirit of the American was combined with that of the French +Revolution. Thus was formed the circle of United Irishmen. The professed +aim of this association, perhaps originally its real aim, was only the +reform of Parliament. But it soon became revolutionary, aiming at +independence of England and the foundation of an Irish republic, to be +brought about by the aid of revolutionary France. Its soul was Wolfe Tone, +a young man of talent, literary and practical, and of generous instincts, +wild, dissipated, recklessly adventurous, burning with hatred of England. +Other leading members of the circle were Jackson and Emmett. Most of the +set were plebeian. But there was one recruit from the aristocracy, Lord +Edward Fitzgerald, son of the Duke of Leinster, fired, like Lafayette, +with the enthusiasm of liberty, but distinguished and made an object of +sentimental interest only by his rank and by his tragical end. + +The outbreak was now imminent. Grattan, with his few steadfast adherents, +seceded from Parliament, where he had better have stayed to moderate as +far as he could the fury of repression. This he owed to the country on +which he had imposed the constitution of 1782, a system fraught, as he +might have seen, with disruption and capable of being worked only as it +had been worked, by Castle influence. The bond of loyalty to England, +which was strong in his own breast, he assumed to be general. Neither he +nor, with reverence be it said, Burke, excellent as the general principles +of both might be, correctly read the situation, which was one of a very +special kind. Burke's letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe on the subject of +religious emancipation is accounted one of the greatest of his works. But +Fitzgibbon might with reason have replied to it that of the real Irish +problem it offered no practical solution. It did not show how a national +Parliament of Ireland, with a great Catholic majority, and uncontrolled by +Castle patronage and influence, to which reform would have put an end, +could be kept in secure harmony with the Parliament of Great Britain. +Burke, however, now and then, glances timidly at the policy of union. +Grattan could think of nothing but his two Parliaments linked by eternal +affection. After Grattan's secession, the oligarchy closed its ranks, and +the Parliament thenceforth went thoroughly with the government, or even +beyond it, in the policy of repression. + +The Castle understood its danger. In Irish conspiracies the informer is +never lacking. Besides, there were Catholics, who though patriots, wishing +to avert civil war, communicated with the government, and furnished it +with information for that purpose. Among these may fairly be numbered +Arthur O'Leary, on whose connection with the government and acceptance of +a small pension from it, lately revealed, prejudice pounces as a proof +that the best reputed and most eminent of Irish Liberals was a rogue. +Arthur O'Leary wrote well, and the spirit of his writings was thoroughly +liberal as well as loyal. Nothing seems to have been expected of him +beyond general information of Catholic tendencies and movements such as +one who desired to avert civil war might honestly give. By its secret +intelligence the government was enabled at a critical moment to seize some +of the leaders of the conspiracy, while Lord Edward Fitzgerald met his +death in resisting arrest. + +The fire, smouldering everywhere, burst into a flame in Armagh, a +Protestant district into which Catholics had intruded by outbidding +Protestant holders of farms whose leases had expired. The Protestants, +banding together under the name of Peep o'Day Boys, proceeded to oust the +intruders, burning some of their houses. The Catholics combined for mutual +protection under the name of Defenders. Outrages were committed on both +sides. In a pitched battle, on a small scale, called the battle of the +Diamond, the Catholics were worsted and a number of them were killed. Many +Catholics were driven from their homes, and the fugitives spread through +the country the belief that the Protestants were bent on extermination. + +The United Irishmen, disciples of Tom Paine, cared nothing for the +quarrels of sects. But disaffection of any kind was grist to their +revolutionary mill. They coalesced with Defenderism, and by superior +intelligence got control of the movement, which they organized as an +expectant army of revolution. Their task was made easy by the habits of +conspiracy formed among the peasantry in the agrarian war. There were +secret oaths, passwords, military gradations of command. There were even +reviews under pretence of digging the potatoes of patriots who were in +prison. Everything was ready for a rising as soon as French succour should +appear. All the blacksmiths were making pike-heads, the young trees were +being everywhere cut down for the shafts. Muskets in plenty would come +with the auxiliary army from France. Wolfe Tone had visited Paris, of +which in its revolutionary phase he gives a lively picture, and received a +promise of aid; Hoche, with whom he had an interview, being eager for the +enterprise. + +Among the people generally the rebellion was agrarian rather than +religious, religious only as the Catholic peasantry believed that they saw +in Protestantism a badge of general enmity. But that belief made the war +between the sects internecine. It does not appear that any but a few of +the lowest and coarsest of the priesthood took an active part in the +rebellion. The order, as a whole, could hardly look with pleasure for the +conquest of Ireland by an atheist revolution. The French, in fact, had +they become masters of Ireland for a time, would probably in the end have +found themselves there, as in Spain, confronted by a hostile priesthood +carrying with it the people. + +In the extremity of danger, surrounded by gathering rebellion, Castle +government had now to strike or fall. It struck, practically proclaiming +martial law. But it was without the only safe means of military +repression. Of regular soldiers it had few. Those few behaved well. Some +of them earned by their conduct the blessings of the people. But in the +main repression had to be entrusted to yeomanry and fencibles, little +controlled by discipline, and infected, as a militia is always apt to be, +and as in this case they were in an extreme degree, by the passions of the +hour. These men, sent forth to disarm the people, in their search for +concealed arms burned, slew, pitch-capped, flogged without stint or mercy, +and turned a great district of the north and midland into a hell. The +people retaliated with equal atrocity where they had the power. A large +number of suspects were arbitrarily shipped on board the fleet, where it +was believed they helped by their infection to beget the mutiny at the +Nore. Lord Moira, a patriot Irish nobleman, protested vehemently in the +House of Lords, but his exaggeration and partiality broke the force of his +appeal. To control the excesses of repression and restore military +discipline, the gallant Abercrombie was put in command; but he lost his +self-control, reviled the troops in an imprudent manifesto, broke with the +government, and left matters worse than they had been before. + +In Ulster, fraternities of strong Protestants, which had existed +informally since 1689, were now formally organized as Orange Lodges. They +embodied an intensely sectarian feeling and committed their share of +outrages, but they lent the government powerful aid. + +Conspicuous among the ruthless agents of repression was the head of the +Beresfords, whose riding-house at Dublin was a daily scene of torture. +Conspicuous also was Judkin Fitzgerald, the field of whose operations was +Tipperary. Fitzgerald's apologists plead that his policy was successful. +It might be so, but the cause of public order does not gain in the end by +outraging that law of natural justice on respect for which public order +must ultimately depend. Fitzgerald, savagely flogging a man on whom he had +found a note in the French language, which not knowing French himself he +could not read, was presently assured by one who could read the note that +it was perfectly harmless. He nevertheless continued the torture of the +lash till the victim nearly expired. Such a case seems to defy apology. +Fitzgerald, however, was not only protected from question by an Act of +Indemnity, but rewarded with a title. On both sides all hearts were fired +with the satanic madness of civil war. + +French aid had been promised. To the unspeakable discredit of the British +admiralty, it came. An expedition which had long been in preparation under +Hoche was allowed to sail from Brest and unopposed to make the coast of +Ireland at Bantry Bay. A storm which prevented a landing, the bad +seamanship of the French, whose naval service had been shattered by the +revolution, and the separation of the frigate which had the general on +board from the rest of the fleet, saved Ireland from temporary conquest +and Great Britain from the consequences of that disaster. It is remarkable +that the peasantry in the neighbourhood of Bantry Bay received the +soldiers of the government well and shared their potatoes with them. Was +this loyalty or fear? Had the French landed, would the potatoes have been +still more hospitably shared? An expedition afterwards fitted out in +Holland, now a vassal of France, at the very crisis of the mutiny at the +Nore, was weatherbound till the mutiny was over and was then crushed by +Duncan at Camperdown. A small French force under Humbert afterwards +landed, and at Castlebar put the militia to shameful flight. But it was +presently surrounded by superior numbers and forced to surrender. There +were still some faint demonstrations, in one of which the arch-enemy of +England, Wolfe Tone, met his doom. He imprudently betrayed his identity to +his captors. His French commission availed him not. He escaped the gallows +by suicide. He was a genuine enthusiast, and he was at all events on one +of the only two practicable lines of action. Separation was the sole +alternative to union. But had Tone got the upper hand, with his fanaticism +and a savage peasantry thirsting for Protestant and English blood at his +back, the political millennium in Ireland, as in France, would have opened +with a reign of terror. + +Disappointed of aid from France, the rebellion took the field by itself. +There was a great rising in Wexford, headed by Father Murphy, a fighting +priest, a compound of Wat Tyler and John Ball, who gave himself out as a +supernatural personage, and persuaded the people that he could catch +bullets in his hands. The father showed a natural genius for war. His +peasants fought desperately, and the Irish pike proved a formidable weapon +in their hands. The rebels gained one or two successes in the field, and +took the city of Wexford. They perpetrated fiendish cruelties. At +Scullabogue they burned or butchered a barn full of Protestants. At +Wexford they dragged their prisoners to the bridge, stripped them naked, +hoisted them up on the points of their pikes, and threw them into the +river. At Vinegar Hill, a name of ghastly memory, the rebel headquarters, +a batch of Protestants was every day brought out after a mock trial to be +massacred. The people being here under priestly leadership, the character +of a religious crusade was given to their warfare, and every Protestant +was a mark for their murderous fury. On the other hand, Protestants in the +north who at the outset had been revolutionary, seeing the rebellion +assume the character of a Catholic crusade, passed to the side of +government and repression. One or two men of property were forced into +leadership by the rebels; otherwise property was entirely on the side of +the government. + +After Scullabogue, Wexford, and Vinegar Hill, there could not fail to be +a terrible outpouring of vengeance. It came in full measure, as we learn +from the correspondence of Cornwallis, a soldier of high distinction and +character, who was sent in place of Camden as viceroy to close the scene. +He is much afraid, he says, that any man in a brown coat who is found +within several miles of the field of action is butchered without +discrimination. The Irish militia, he says, are totally without +discipline, contemptible before the enemy when any serious resistance is +made to them, but ferocious and cruel in the extreme when any poor +wretches either with or without arms come within their power. In short, +murder appears their favourite pastime. The conversation of the principal +persons of the country all tends to encourage the system of blood, and the +conversation even at his own table, where he does all he can to prevent +it, always turns on shooting, burning, hanging. If a priest has been put +to death, the greatest joy is expressed by the whole company. "Who fears +to speak of '98?" said a patriot bard in other days. The answer is, every +one who is not utterly lost to reason and humanity. These militia men, it +is to be borne in mind, were Irish, not English, and their murderous +enmity was the enmity of one section of Ireland to another. + + + + +XII + + +Pitt now resolved on a legislative union of Ireland with England and +Scotland, thus reverting to the policy of the Commonwealth. But union had +been the ideal of Molyneux, and since the revolution of 1782 it had found +many advocates, among them Adam Smith. An Irish government of sectarian +ascendancy and oligarchy combined, controlled, and held in precarious +subordination to the government of Great Britain by intrigue and +corruption, had ended in murderous and ruinous conflict of political +parties, social classes, and religious sects. In its realm people had been +refusing to eat pork because the swine might have fed on human flesh. +Foreign invasion had been invited. It had come, and only by repeated +miracles had Great Britain as well as Ireland been saved in the last +extremity of peril. Nor had that peril ceased. It was much to be deplored +that Pitt could not, like Cromwell and the Council of State, effect the +union by simply calling representatives of Ireland to the Parliament at +Westminster. Situated as Pitt was, he had, as Castlereagh laconically put +it, "to buy the fee simple of Irish corruption." The price he paid was +compensation in money to the owners of pocket boroughs and profuse grants +of peerages. The process was not edifying. Cornwallis, who had come at +once to put an end to havoc and to carry the union, having a strict sense +of honour, might well recoil from his task. Bribery with money has not +been brought home to the government, though in one case at least it has +been brought home to the opposition. From that stain the union is free. A +pretty large sum was needed to tune the press and for campaign expenses. +Pocket boroughs in those days were deemed property, and had been so +treated in Pitt's Reform Bill for England. The compensation paid the +owners of boroughs was not above the market price, and it was paid to the +opponents as well as to the supporters of the union; Lord Downshire, the +most powerful opponent of the union, as it happened, receiving the largest +sum of all. Foster, who made the greatest speech in Parliament against the +union, received seventy-five hundred pounds for his half share of a pocket +borough. In the absence of such compensation the owners of pocket boroughs +and the purchasers of seats for them would have been virtually bribed by +their private interest apart from any political consideration to oppose +the bill. Something was needed to induce a powerful and selfish oligarchy +to part with the field of its ascendancy and its ambition. For that +purpose the lavish creation of peerages was used. It cost the nation +nothing, and titles which had been openly used as bribes were not capable +of much degradation. Pitt is upbraided for not having taken the sense of +the nation by means of a general election. The sense of a nation of which +at least three-quarters were not eligible to Parliament! The sense of the +proprietors of nomination boroughs on the question of depriving them of +their property and its influence! The sense of a nation, the passions of +which had not had time to cool after a furious civil war, a civil war the +ashes of which still fiercely glowed and might by the excitement of a +general election have been fanned again into a flame! It is ever to be +lamented that the thing could not have been done in a simpler and less +questionable way. But it had to be done. Venality was venal, and, its +consent being necessary to the salvation of the state, had to be bought. +The purity of Pitt's motives or of those of his colleagues cannot be +questioned. The idea that he had provoked rebellion to make way for union +is a slander which only political frenzy could fabricate or believe. + +What was the feeling in Ireland at large it is very hard to determine. +There were addresses and declarations on both sides, but we cannot tell +how they were got up. Cornwallis made a canvassing tour. His opinion at +first was that Dublin was furiously opposed but the rest of the country +was favourable. This estimate changed as the struggle went on. Dublin, of +course, was the centre of excitement. At the outset it was the scene of a +riot. The capital could not like to lose the seat of government and the +social centre; nor could the Irish bar like the transfer of the supreme +jurisdiction to Westminster, or the severance of the Parliamentary from +the forensic career; the two, while Parliament sat in Dublin, having been +habitually, and often brilliantly, combined. Cork, on the other hand, was +flattered with the prospect of becoming a second Glasgow. It seems strange +that the Orangemen should then have been against the union, of which they +have since been the staunchest supporters. But they no doubt scented the +approach, with the union, of Catholic emancipation. The Catholic +hierarchy, headed by Archbishop Troy, was strongly for the union, and +unquestionably drew with it a large following both of clergy and laity. +The hope was undoubtedly held out of Catholic emancipation, possibly +accompanied by a provision for the Catholic priesthood, as a sequel to the +union; though no positive pledge was or could be given. At the same time +it is to be borne in mind that the general sympathy of a Catholic +priesthood would be with the British government as the chief antagonist of +an atheist France. The terrible tension of '98 had probably been followed +in many quarters by collapse and readiness to acquiesce in anything that +could hold out to life and property the protection of a strong government. +The "Annual Register" for 1802 says that at the first election of Irish +members to the United Parliament no supporter of the union lost his +election or was even upbraided on that account; that in the county of +Dublin alone did a candidate think his opposition to the union such a +claim to popular favour as to make it worth his while to allude to it; and +that some of the largest and most independent counties returned strong +supporters of the union. Cornwallis reports that in Dublin, the chief +centre of opposition, when at last the royal assent was given to the bill, +not a murmur was heard nor, as he believed, was there any expression of +ill-humour throughout the whole city. + +The Established Church of Ireland would be willing to support a measure +which, by identifying it with the English establishment, converted it from +the Church of a small minority into a limb of the Church of a great +majority, thus giving it a tenable ground of existence and a pledge of +support which it fondly hoped would never fail. + +The campaign of opinion, at all events, was conducted on both sides with +perfect freedom. There is no pretence for alleging that the union was +carried by military force. The affair at Dublin was a street riot, for the +repression of which it was necessary to call in the troops. Nothing like +military terrorism in fact is alleged. Twelve months before the passing of +the union, and in the middle of the struggle, Cornwallis said that "the +force remaining in Ireland was sufficient to maintain peace, totally +inadequate to repel foreign invasion." + +There were historic debates in the Irish Parliament. Grand speeches were +made in the nationalist and patriotic vein by opponents of the union. +Grattan, the author of the constitution of 1782, came in his volunteer +uniform to bedew its hearse with his oratoric tears. The dramatic effect +was enhanced by the bodily infirmity of the great patriot and orator, +which obliged him to speak sitting. Plunket put forth to the utmost those +powers of debate which led Lord Russell to pronounce him of all the many +speakers whom he had heard the most convincing. Foster produced a profound +effect by his mastery of commercial and financial detail, though in this +part of the field he had to contend with the supreme and unclouded +judgment of Adam Smith left on record in favour of union. As strong an +argument as any was that Ireland would be in danger of losing her leading +men, who would be drawn away to England. But absenteeism was already rife, +and was likely to be in the main diminished rather than increased by any +measure which made Ireland a happier abode. To the spirit of nationality +telling appeals could not fail to be made; but to what the nationality +amounted, whether it was nominal or real, of the heart or merely of local +boundary, had with terrible clearness appeared. In the speeches of the +opposition there seems to have been much more of political argument of a +general kind and of patriotic sentiment than of reference to the actual +working of the Constitution of 1782 and the consequences to which it had +led. + +Of all the opponents of the union on the high patriotic ground, the most +fervid was Plunket. "For my own part," he exclaimed, "I will resist it to +the last gasp of my existence, and with the last drop of my blood, and +when I feel the hour of my dissolution approaching I will, like the father +of Hannibal, take my children to the altar and swear them to eternal +hostility against the invaders of their country's freedom." It is to be +hoped that Plunket's children, if they took the oath, found absolution; +for the father soon afterwards, sitting in the united Parliament of which +he was a distinguished member, had so far changed his sentiments as to say +of the union; "As an Irishman I opposed that union; as an Irishman I avow +that I did so openly and boldly, nor am I now ashamed of what I then did. +But though in my resistance to it I had been prepared to go the length of +any man, I am now equally prepared to do all in my power to render it +close and indissoluble. One of the apprehensions on which my opposition +was founded, I am happy to say, has been disappointed by the event. I had +been afraid that the interest of Ireland, on the abolition of her separate +legislature, would come to be discussed in a hostile Parliament. But I can +now state--and I wish when I speak that I could be heard by the whole of +Ireland--that during the time that I have sat in the united Parliament I +have found every question that related to the interests or security of +that country entertained with indulgence and treated with the most +deliberate regard." + +Grattan too sat in the united Parliament enjoying a Nestorian dignity and +at first, Parliamentary reformer though he was, for a nomination borough. +He voted for one of those measures of coercion, the necessity for which +unhappily soon made itself felt. The most telling speech of all against +union in the Irish Parliament was that of Foster; and Foster too sat in +the united Parliament, was reconciled to Pitt, was by him made chancellor +of the Irish exchequer, and became a peer of the United Kingdom. + +The cause of the union in debate was pleaded by Clare and Castlereagh, +inferior to their opponents in eloquence, though Clare was a very +formidable speaker as well as a very strong man. + +Through the British Parliament the union was carried by overwhelming +majorities, though opposed by Grey, who afterwards, as prime minister, +became its firm upholder, and by Sheridan, far less sage than brilliant, +while Fox refused to attend the debates, throwing out a hint that he +preferred something in the way of federation; what, he did not say. In the +Irish Parliament at first the measure was defeated. It was carried at +length by dead-lift effort on the part of Clare and Castlereagh, who, +leading for the government, did unquestionably make unlimited and by no +means scrupulous use of such expedients as in those days were more freely +employed by governments to push vital measures through the House. That +such expedients should have prevailed is to be deplored as a stain on the +origin of the union. At the same time it proves the rottenness of the +assembly then on trial for its life. Nor should it be forgotten that on +the side of opposition to the union were arrayed purely local and personal +interests not more respectable in themselves than were the methods by +which their resistance was overcome. + +Let Irish patriots, when they bewail the extinction of the independent +Parliament of Ireland, remember that its last days had been marked by +eager support of the most ruthless and sanguinary measures of repression. + +No serious exception appears to have been taken to the political bargain +which gave Ireland one hundred representatives in the House of Commons +and thirty-two representatives, including four bishops sitting by +rotation, in the House of Lords. The party system has never been +constitutionally recognized, and it was not observed that the +representative peers, elected by their own order, would always be Tory, to +the total exclusion of the other party. About the fiscal bargain questions +are raised. These affect not the political issue. + +Viceroyalty, with Castle executive, was retained. This may be said to be a +relic of dependence. But the need of a separate administration +unfortunately has never ceased. When, in 1850, it was moved to abolish the +lord-lieutenancy, Ireland protested, and in deference to her veto the +measure was withdrawn. Ireland retained her separate judiciary and for +some time her separate department of finance. + +It was in regard to the religious question that the union was for the time +a failure. Pitt kept his word. He proposed Catholic emancipation to his +cabinet and pressed it on the king. He was foiled by the rogue and +sycophant Wedderburn, who for his personal ends played on the king's +morbid conscience and was aided in his work by the influence of two +archbishops, through whom a state church once more rendered its political +service to the nation. Pitt paid the debt of honour by resignation. It is +said that if he had persevered he would have prevailed, and the king would +have submitted, as he did in other cases, such as the acknowledgment of +American independence, the dismissal of Thurlow, the permission to Lord +Malmesbury to treat with France, the recall of the Duke of York, and the +admission of Fox to the government. But not one of these was a case of +religious conscience, nor in one of them had the king a great body of +national sentiment on his side, as he had, and knew that he had, in his +resistance to Catholic emancipation. He afterwards turned out the +Grenville ministry, which proposed to admit Catholics to military command, +and in so doing was manifestly sustained by the nation. After all, Pitt +must have known best what could be done with the king. That his +resignation was less of a sacrifice, because he thus escaped the necessity +of treating for peace with France, is conjecture, and does not affect the +actual propriety of his course. The king having in consequence of the +excitement been threatened with a recurrence of his malady, Pitt waived +the Catholic question for the king's lifetime, and, when called by the +extreme need of the country, returned to power on that understanding. He +would have done little good, and not have gratified the nation by driving +the king mad and transferring the government in the midst of the great war +to the Prince of Wales as Regent and the revellers of Carlton House. In +criticising the action of public men at this period, we must always bear +in mind the overmastering exigencies of the war. Pitt, though he waived +his principle on the subject of Catholic emancipation, never renounced it. +It passed to his pupil Canning, and within a generation prevailed. + +The only concession made at this time to the Catholics was the endowment +of Maynooth as a seminary for the Catholic priesthood of Ireland, cut off +from the seminaries of the continent by the war. + +Since the union, there has been much that was deplorable in the state of +Ireland and in the relations of the two islands, the main source of which, +however, as will presently appear, was not political. There has been a +hateful series of coercion acts. But there have been no Tudor hostings; +there has been no 1641; no 1689; no 1798. No fleet of an invader has +anchored in Bantry Bay. Belfast, once the seed-plot of revolution, has +prospered and been content. Two years afterwards revolution flamed up +again for a moment in the abortive rising of Emmet. Then it died down, to +break forth seriously, at least as civil war, no more. + +The union must be taken to have been a union in the full sense of the +term, putting an end to separate identity, not merely a standing contract +between two parties, each of which retained the right of enforcing the +contract against the other. On this understanding Parliament has acted, +and is likely again to act in the case of the representation, as well as +in the disestablishment of the Irish Church. The United Kingdom cannot be +hide-bound forever by the terms which, necessarily having reference to the +circumstances of its formation, must, like those circumstances, have been +deemed liable to change. + +It is unfortunate that no common name for the united nationality could be +found. "British" excludes the Irish, "English" both the Irish and the +Scotch, and separatist sentiment is fostered by the retention of the old +national name. + +Victory over the French Revolution and Napoleon was accompanied by an +ascendancy of Toryism, which kept Liverpool at the head of the government +for fourteen years. In this both islands fared alike. But the Cabinet was +divided on the subject of Catholic emancipation. Plunket, still a Liberal +though now a Unionist, showed his power as a debater in the Catholic +cause. Castlereagh and Canning were on the Liberal side. Emancipation was +carried in the Commons, thrown out in the lords, while old Eldon drank to +the thirty-nine peers who had saved the Thirty-nine Articles, little +thinking how soon he was to be smitten in the house of his friends. On +Liverpool's death there were a few months of Canning and a brief interlude +of Goodrich. Then power reverted to the Tory and anti-Catholic section of +the Liverpool combination, at the head of which were Wellington and Peel. +Peel, in whom hereditary Toryism was combined with natural openness of +mind and practical sagacity, as well as with supreme skill in +administration, seemed specially sent to carry England safely by the +bridge of Conservatism over the gulf between the old era and the new. He +had been one of the anti-Catholic section of the Liverpool government, and +in that character had been elected to Parliament by the clerical and then +Protestant University of Oxford. But he had administered Ireland for six +years; had seen the state of things there; had been impressed and shown +symptoms of a change of sentiment. He dealt liberally with Catholics in +the matter of patronage. He and Wellington now acquiesced in the relief of +the Dissenters by the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. Probably +they were hesitating on the brink of Catholic emancipation when they were +impelled by a new force. The Catholic cause had found for itself a +first-rate leader, organizer, and orator, Daniel O'Connell. + + + + +XIII + + +Daniel O'Connell, whose figure fills the next page in Irish history, was a +Dublin barrister who, having gained a unique reputation as a skilful or +more than skilful winner of verdicts, passed from the forensic to the +political field. He was of pure Irish blood, Irish in physiognomy, +typically Irish in character. Nature had endowed him with all the gifts of +a popular leader, bodily as well as mental; for he had a voice of +unrivalled power and compass as well as extraordinary tact in dealing with +the masses and skill in the conduct of agitation. His oratory was such as +never failed to tell with his Irish audience, while its violent +exaggeration, its disregard of truth and offensiveness of expression too +often excited the just resentment of those whom he assailed and repelled +all moderate and right-minded men. At the same time he knew how to play +the courtier, as he showed when George IV. visited Ireland. He entered +public life without the blessing of the veteran Grattan, who accused him +of setting afloat the bad passions of the people, venting calumny against +Great Britain, and making politics a trade. That his motives were mixed is +probable. But of his Irish patriotism there could be no doubt. O'Connell +was a most devout Catholic, enjoyed the hearty confidence of the +priesthood, and was able to make full use of its influence in calling out +and marshalling the people. He thus opened a new era in the history of +Irish agitation. In return, he supported the priesthood in its extreme +pretensions; notably in defeating a proposal for the admission of +Catholics to political power subject to securities for the loyalty of +their Church which conflicted with high priestly pretensions, though it +had been favourably entertained at Rome. It was on this point that he and +Grattan broke. O'Connell, with the aid of his priestly fuglemen, formed a +great Catholic association to overawe the government. On the other side, +the Orangemen, now heartily Unionist, rushed to arms. A fierce conflict +ensued in Ireland, with some danger to the peace. In the course of it the +Duke of York, heir presumptive to the Crown, electrified the country and +filled the heart of Eldon and true blue Protestantism with joy by a solemn +declaration that if he became king he would veto Catholic emancipation. +After trying his power by carrying some elections, O'Connell determined +to bring the conflict to a head by himself standing for Parliament in +defiance of the law by which, as a Catholic, he was excluded. He carried +his election for Clare against the candidate of the gentry by the votes of +the Catholic peasantry, the forty-shilling freeholders; the influence of +the Church with its sacraments being openly employed in his support. Peel +and Wellington now gave way and carried the admission of the Catholics to +Parliament, only tempering the shock to their Tory supporters by the +abolition of the forty-shilling freehold; no great blow to liberty, since +the only question was whether the forty-shilling freeholder should be the +tool of the landlord or of the priest. The refusal to O'Connell of the +rank of king's counsel, to which he had become eligible, was defended as +another sop to the Tories; but it really was a mark of resentment, very +unwise as well as undignified, though partly excused by the offensiveness +of O'Connell's bearing and language. It may have been unwillingness to +confess change of opinion that led Wellington and Peel to ascribe the +concession of Catholic emancipation to fear of civil war. O'Connell could +not have put into the field any force capable of making head against the +forces of the government, Ulster, the Orangemen, and the Irish gentry. He +was himself utterly unwarlike, and there was no foreign power to come to +his aid. The measure was a concession of right demanded not only by the +Irish Catholics themselves, but by a large party in England which included +the best intelligence of the country and the most powerful organs of the +press, without the help of which it could not have been carried. Unhappily +it was made to appear as a concession of fear. + +O'Connell's victory made him the idol and the master of Catholic Ireland. +A large revenue, called his "rent," was thenceforth raised for him by +annual subscription. On this his enemies did not fail to reflect. He +defended it as the necessary compensation for the sacrifice of a large +professional income to the service of the country. At his ancestral +mansion of Darrynane, on the wild, thoroughly Celtic, and Erse-speaking +coast of Kerry, the "Liberator" held a rustic court profusely hospitable, +amidst a circle of devoted adherents, with an open table at which as many +as thirty guests were sometimes seated; thus presenting probably the +nearest possible counterpart of the head of a great sept in the tribal +days. To Darrynane a pilgrimage was made by Montalembert, who fondly +hoped that he had found in its master that union of devotion to the +Church with liberty which was the ideal of the liberal Catholic school. + +Would Catholic emancipation pacify Ireland? Its authors expected that it +would. Even Macaulay appears to think that if the popular religion of +Ireland had been treated at the union as the popular religion of Scotland +was treated, all in Ireland, as in Scotland, might have been well. The +result was disappointing. The Irish cotter had voted and shouted for +Catholic emancipation at the bidding of the priests and the platform; but +what he wanted and hoped to get by a revolution of any kind was, not so +much political or religious change, as more oats and potatoes. His real +grievances were hunger and nakedness. To afford those myriads a +treacherous food, the behest of nature had been too much disregarded; +lands destined for pasture had been turned into potato and oat plots. The +millions, reduced to an animal existence, had gone on multiplying with +animal recklessness. The increase was greater since rebellion and +devastation were at an end. In this sense alone the consequences of the +union may be said to have been evil. The priest enjoined marriage on moral +grounds, perhaps not without an eye to fees. Between 1801 and 1841 +population increased by three millions. More than ever, the homes were +filthy hovels shared with swine, the beds litters of dirty straw, the +dresses rags, the food the potato, while there was frequent dearth and +sometimes famine. Eviction increased, since, the forty-shilling freehold +franchise having been abolished, the landlord cared no longer to multiply +holdings for the sake of votes. The land system, with its tiers of +middlemen, was as cruel as ever. Tithe, the most odious of all imposts, +was still collected in the most odious manner. As a consequence, peasant +Ireland was still the scene of a vast agrarian war waged by a starving +people against the landlord and the tithe-proctor. Arson, murder, carding +and mutilation of middlemen and tithe-proctors were rife. Victims leaping +from the windows of their burning houses were caught on pitchforks. The +nation was undergoing a baptism of lawlessness and savagery. All the +peasants were in the league of crime and screened the assassin. Law was +powerless. Prosecution was hopeless. Murder was committed in open day and +before a number of witnesses, all of whom, if brought into court, would +perjure themselves in the common cause. A deep impression had been made +upon Peel by the horrors of the agrarian war. He had been particularly +moved by a case showing the transcendent height which social passion had +attained. A party of Whiteboys entered a house in which there were the man +whom they came to murder, his wife, and their little girl. The man was in +a room on the ground floor. His wife and their little girl were in a room +above, with a closet, through a hole in the door of which the room could +be seen. The woman heard the Whiteboys enter and knew their errand. She +put the child into the closet, saying to her, "They are murdering your +father below, then they will come up and murder me. Mind you look well at +them and swear to them when you see them in court." The child obeyed. She +looked on while her mother was murdered. She swore to the murderers in +court, and they were hanged upon her evidence. + +The evil had reached such a height that society in Ireland was almost on +the point of dissolution. Ordinary coercion acts, of which there had been +a series, failed and the Liberal government of Grey was compelled to have +recourse to martial law. + +The tide of reform, however, which began to flow in 1830, before it ebbed, +brought to Ireland, besides her share in reform of the Parliamentary +representation, the opening of the municipal councils, which had been +universally close and corrupt, and after Catholic emancipation still +excluded Catholics. It brought commutation of tithe, a measure of immense +value, far too long delayed, which shifted the burden of payment from the +shoulders of the cotter to those of the landlord. It brought a poor law, +cruelly needed in the midst of multiplying evictions. Furthermore, it +brought in 1831-1833 the momentous gift of public education, national and +undenominational, in the inauguration of which the Anglican primate, +Archbishop Whateley, reconciling his advanced liberalism with his +anomalous position, took a leading part. Ireland thus in national +education preceded England by many years. Whateley had fellow-workers in +liberal Catholics, ecclesiastical as well as lay, but the weight of Roman +authority and influence was, as it always has been, and still is, against +free education. The State Church of the minority succeeded in repelling +attack; but it underwent some internal reform, including the suppression +of ten superfluous bishoprics; a sacrilegious act of the state which +helped to give birth to sacerdotal reaction at Oxford. After the abolition +of the tithe-proctor, the State Church had become less odious to the +people. The Castle administration was growing more liberal. +Lords-lieutenant tried to be fair in distribution of patronage. A Liberal +secretary, a man of mark, Drummond, warned the Irish landlords that +property had its duties as well as its rights. Peel, as Irish secretary, +had laid the foundation of the Irish constabulary, that noble force of law +and order which combines independent intelligence with the discipline of +the regular soldier. Drummond rendered a most important service by +completing the institution. The Irish constabulary has naturally in the +main been composed of Protestants. But the Catholic policeman in Ireland +has in a marked way resisted seditious influence and been true to the +government and his duty. The Irishman follows his commander. Attempts to +seduce Irish soldiers from fidelity to the colours seem to have generally +failed. + +O'Connell, with his following, helped to carry the Parliamentary Reform +Bill of 1832, which, in fact, could not have been carried without their +vote. He lent a general though not hearty or unwavering support to the +Whig ministry of Grey, which, though it paid him some deference, was too +strong to be under his control. But on the passing of a drastic coercion +bill directed against political as well as agrarian disturbance, there was +an angry rupture, and the Whigs became "base, bloody, and brutal," like +all others who crossed O'Connell's will. O'Connell was not handsomely +treated. His eminence as a lawyer, combined with his influence in Ireland, +entitled him to a high place. But his blustering violence, his unmeasured +vituperation, his venomous abuse of England, and the changefulness of his +moods made him a dangerous ally for any government. Cobden said, +"O'Connell always treated me with friendly attention, but I never shook +hands with him or faced his smile without a feeling of insecurity; and as +for trusting him on any public question where his vanity or passions might +interpose, I should have as soon thought of an alliance with an Ashantee +chief." + +The Melbourne and Russell ministry was weak and fain to lean on O'Connell +with his Irish brigade for support and to allow him a voice in +appointments, though it suffered greatly in English eyes by the alliance. +O'Connell shouted with joy when that government was snatched from death +and restored to a feeble existence by the refusal of the queen to change +her bed-chamber women on Peel's demand. But the advent of Peel to power, +with a strong government, filled him with rage and despair. The two men +had quarrelled in Ireland, a challenge had passed between them, and Peel +was the object of O'Connell's bitterest hatred. In principle the new +government was hostile to O'Connell, and its strength placed it wholly +beyond his influence. His power was threatened with extinction. His rent, +moreover, since there had been a lull in agitation, was rapidly falling +off, and he was in pecuniary distress. The last, some think, was not his +least urgent motive for embarking in another agitation. This time it was +for a repeal of the union, of which he had before only thrown out fitful +hints. He now raised the standard of repeal and issued his mandate to the +priesthood to call out the peasantry in that cause. The priesthood +joyfully obeyed. Monster meetings were held and were addressed by +O'Connell in his most violent strain, with ostensible respect for +constitutional methods, but with constant appeals to national hatred and +suggestions of military force. The priests consecrated the meetings and +the sentiments, celebrating Mass on the grounds. It is surely idle to +contend that a priesthood acting thus and having its centre in Rome is +only a Christian ministry, not a power of political disturbance. An +outbreak appeared to be at hand, when the government took direct issue +with the agitator by proclaiming a monster meeting which he had appointed +to be held at Clontarf; a scene suggestive of military force as it had +been the field of the great Irish victory. O'Connell, who, if he was not +pacific, was unwarlike, shrank from the conflict and called off the +meeting. The government followed up the blow by indicting the agitator for +sedition. There was a monster trial at Dublin, in the course of which, to +preserve the Irish character of the scene, the attorney-general challenged +the counsel on the other side to a duel. O'Connell was found guilty, but +the verdict was afterwards quashed on appeal to the House of Lords, for +irregularity in the panel, by the judgment of three Whigs against one Tory +and the independent Brougham, though it had been upheld by seven of the +nine judges to whom the case was referred. O'Connell was set free. But the +spell of his ascendancy had been broken. By shrinking from the appeal to +force he had forfeited the respect of the fighting section of his party. +The Conservative government was invincibly strong. O'Connell's health and +physical force had broken down. Thus ended the great Liberator's career. +He bequeathed his body to Ireland and his heart to Rome. There can be no +question about his devotion to either, whatever motives may have mingled +with his devotion to Ireland. Whether he did more good to the Irish cause +by his patriotism than harm by the passions which he excited and the +enmities he created, is a question about which different opinions have +been formed. His blind attachment to the Church, had he been victorious, +would have put Ireland under the control of a reactionary priesthood. + +For some time before his death, O'Connell, by shrinking from force, had +been losing the hearts and the adherence of a party of force on his own +side called "Young Ireland," a set of young men, some highly gifted as +journalists or poets, whose aim was not repeal but national independence, +and who in their organ, _The Nation_, preached rebellion and revelled in +the memory of '98. + +Peel, victorious, graced his victory by concession, to which indeed he was +heartily inclined. He saw that "Ireland was his difficulty," and wanted to +treat the problem as liberally as his following of Protestants and squires +would let him. He increased the grant to Maynooth, thereby constraining +Gladstone, by way of satisfaction to his former self, to go through the +form of resignation. He enabled the Catholic Church freely to receive +charitable bequests. Not venturing to throw open the fellowships and +scholarships of Trinity College to the Catholics, he founded for their +special benefit three undenominational colleges at Belfast, Cork, and +Galway, forming together a university with power of granting degrees. This +measure, excellent in its way, was but a partial success. The priesthood +looked with invincible suspicion on free science, while Catholic +professors of science, whom the Church might have trusted, were hardly to +be found. But Peel touched the real root of the evil, and pointed to +effective reform, when, in 1843, he issued a Commission of Inquiry into +land occupancy in Ireland and the condition of the peasant occupants. The +commission reported that the agricultural labourer of Ireland continued to +suffer the greatest privations and hardships; that he was still dependent +upon casual and precarious employment for subsistence; that he was still +badly housed, badly clothed, and badly fed; and that he was undergoing +sufferings greater than those of the people of any other country in +Europe. Some tentative motions followed, but there had scarcely been time +for the report of the commission to work, when the sentence of nature was +pronounced with awful distinctness in the form of a great famine with +pestilence in its train. The population of Ireland at this time was +probably double that which the island could happily bear. A precarious +subsistence was afforded by the potato, which, always treacherous, now +suddenly and completely failed. Peel, warned of impending calamity, at +once opened the ports for the importation of grain, then grasped the +occasion for the repeal of the Corn Laws, on the policy of which his own +mind had been undergoing change. His administrative power and that of his +colleagues would probably have done all that was possible to meet and +mitigate the disaster. But at the critical moment his government was +struck down by a conspiracy of Russell and the Whigs with the ire of the +Corn Law squires and the vengeful ambition of Disraeli. Russell, who took +his place, was far more an adept in party strategy than a master of +practical administration. There ensued a heartrending scene, the climax of +seven centuries of evil accident, maladministration, and Irish woe. + +"Famine advances on us with giant strides," wrote an official in the +August of 1846. "Towards the end of August," says Mr. T. P. O'Connor, "the +calamity began to be universal and its symptoms to be seen. Some of the +people rushed into the towns, others wandered along the highroads in the +vague hope of food. They plucked turnips from the fields, were glad to +live for weeks on a single meal of cabbage a day, feasted on the dead +bodies of horses and asses and dogs. There was a story of a mother eating +the limbs of her dead child. Dead bodies were discovered with grass in +their mouths and in their bowels; weeds were sought after with desperate +eagerness; seaweed was greedily devoured; so were diseased cattle and +diseased potatoes. Despair fell on all hearts and faces. The ties of +kindred in some cases failed, parents neglecting their children and +children turning out their aged parents. On the other hand, there were +stories of parents dying of starvation to save a small store for their +children. The workhouses, usually shunned, were overcrowded. In one, three +thousand persons sought relief in a single day. They crowded even into the +jails. Driven from the workhouses, people began to die by the roadside or +alone in their despair within their cabins. Roads and streets were strewn +with corpses. One inspector buried one hundred and forty bodies found on +the highway. The scenes inside the cabins were even more horrible; +husbands lay for a week in the same hovels with the bodies of their wives +and children. The decencies of burial were no longer observed. Then came +the plague, attacking bodies already weakened by hunger." "A terrible +apathy," says an eye-witness, "hangs over the poor of Skibbereen; +starvation has destroyed every generous sympathy; despair has made them +hardened and insensible, and they sullenly await their doom with +indifference and without fear. Death is in every hovel; disease and +famine, its dread precursors, have fastened on the young and the old, the +strong and the feeble, the mother and the infant; whole families lie +together on the damp floor devoured by fever, without a human being to wet +their burning lips or raise their languid heads; the husband dies by the +side of the wife, and she knows not that he is beyond the reach of earthly +suffering; the same rag covers festering remains of mortality and the +skeleton forms of the living, who are unconscious of the horrible +contiguity; rats devour the corpse, and there is no energy among the +living to scare them from their horrid banquet; fathers bury their +children without a sigh, and cover them in shallow graves, round which no +weeping mother, no sympathizing friends are grouped; one scanty funeral is +followed by another and another. Without food or fuel, bed or bedding, +whole families are shut up in naked hovels, dropping one by one into the +arms of death."[3] + +All the devices of government by relief work and in other ways to grapple +with the twofold calamity were palliatives and little more. The most +effective measure of relief was a vast emigration to the United States and +Canada, which also had its horrors. Thousands, already weakened by hunger +and suffering, succumbed to the hardships of the passage; another +multitude died on landing. Canada did all she could for the hapless +strangers cast upon her shore. But ship-fever followed the fugitives, and +graveyards were filled with their dead. It was reckoned that more than two +hundred thousand persons died on the voyage or on arrival at their +destination. Few Irishmen, however prejudiced against England, will deny +that the people of Great Britain and Canada showed unbounded sympathy with +Ireland in her affliction, and did their utmost for her relief. O'Connell +himself, while he criticised the measures of the government, allowed that +individual humanity and charity were abundant; that the noblest generosity +was evinced by multitudes of the English; and that if individual +generosity could save a nation, British generosity would do it. He said +that he was afraid of not finding words sufficient to express his strong +and lively sense of English humanity. To charges of English indifference +to Irish suffering, his words are a sufficient answer. + +Close upon the famine and pestilence came 1848, the year of European +revolution. Young Ireland, the party of force, did not fail to catch the +flame. Its organ, _The Nation_, cried, "It is a death struggle now between +the murderer and his victim. Strike! Rise, men of Ireland, since +Providence so wills it! Rise in your cities and in your fields, on your +hills, in your valleys, by your dark mountain passes, by your rivers and +lakes and ocean-washed shores! Rise as a nation!" _The Irish Felon_, a +journal still more advanced, was even more openly for war. But neither in +city or field, on mountain or in valley, by pass or shore, did the people +rise at the impassioned call. Young Ireland found at once that it was but +a knot of literary men whose appeals to national feeling, penned as they +were with vigour, might be read with sentimental pleasure but would rouse +nobody to arms. O'Connell's mastery of the people depended on the support +of the priesthood, given in a cause originally religious to that zealous +champion of the Church who, dying, bequeathed his heart to Rome. Young +Ireland was more revolutionary than Catholic, as the priests did not fail +to perceive. The desire of political revolution, apart from agrarianism, +was not strong enough to rouse the peasantry to arms, though they had +learned to hate England as the supposed source of their sufferings. The +people, moreover, had hardly recovered from the depression caused by the +famine. Young Ireland however raised its flag. Smith O'Brien, with a small +party, made a trial trip, appealing to the people of two or three places, +but met with no response. A farcical encounter with the police at the +house of widow Cormack on the bog of Boulagh, followed by the capture of +Smith O'Brien, was the end. The sentence of death passed on the leader of +the revolt was wisely commuted by the government. + +The famine had at least one good effect. It drew attention to the main +source of the evil in Ireland, which was agrarian and social, not +political and religious. But now it was supposed that the mischief lay in +the inability of the landlords, overwhelmed with debt, burdened with +family settlements, and crushed by the demands of the Poor Law, to perform +their duty to their tenants. To remedy this evil was created the +Encumbered Estates Court, with power to order the sale of encumbered +property on the petition of the creditors and give a clear title to the +purchaser. The policy seemed sound, yet the result was not good. The court +cleared out the old proprietors who lacked means to do their duty; it put +in their place a new class of proprietors who, having been induced to buy +the land on pure speculation, felt that they had no duty to do, and who, +unlike their predecessors, had no kindly tie to the people. The new owners +naturally proceeded to make the most of their purchase; and the way to +make the most of their purchase clearly was to sweep out the cotter +tenants and throw the land into large holdings. This some of them +proceeded to do, and the consequence was a period of evictions almost +vying in cruelty with the famine. Whole districts were cleared and relet +in large holdings. Cabins were being thrown down in all directions. A +thousand of them were levelled in one union within a few months, and the +inmates were cast out helpless, half-naked, starving, to go to the union +or perish. The cabins were burned that the people might not return to +them. The suffering and misery, says a reporter, attendant upon these +wholesale evictions, is indescribable. The number of houseless paupers in +one union is beyond his calculation. Those evicted crowd neighbouring +cabins and villages, and disease is necessarily generated. In April he +calculates that six thousand houses have been levelled since November, and +he expects five hundred more by July. Wretched hovels had been pulled +down, the inmates of which in a helpless state of fever and nakedness were +left by the roadside for days. While inspecting a stone-breaking depot, +the reporter observes one of the men take off his remnant of a pair of +shoes and start across the fields. He follows him with his eye, and at a +distance sees the blaze of a fire in the bog. He sends to inquire the +cause of it and of the man's running from his work, and is told that the +man's house had been levelled the day before, that he had erected a +temporary hut, and that while his wife and children were gathering +shell-fish on the beach and he was stone-breaking the bailiff fired it. +This incident was one of several which made a deep impression on Peel, who +would probably have moved with effect had he remained in power. Pages are +filled with pictures of this kind. Civilized Europe could show nothing +like it. It was almost enough to break forever the spirit of the nation, +certainly to implant the bitterest memories, and here the main cause was +misgovernment and bad law. + +Relief works were no cure, nor were they in themselves very rational, +since the people, unfed, half-clothed, and living in pestilential +mud-holes, were really too weak to work. Parliament so far interfered as +to pass an act requiring forty-eight hours' notice of eviction to the +relieving officers, prohibiting evictions two hours before sunset or +sunrise, and on Christmas Day and Good Friday, and prohibiting the +demolition of the house of a tenant about to be evicted. But this rather +throws a lurid light on the state of things than effects a cure. The +public even might have some reason to complain of the land-owner who +recklessly cast upon the poor rates or upon public charity the human +encumbrances of his land. + +Apart from overpopulation and its effects, the Irish land-law +unquestionably needed reform. The people, struggling with each other for +their sole means of subsistence, undertook to pay exorbitant rents, and +their improvements, if they made any, became without compensation the +property of the landlord. In Ulster, always exceptional, there prevailed a +certain measure of tenant-right, something like the English copyhold. In +Ireland the demand for tenant-right now began to be loudly heard. An +English Radical, Sharman Crawford, brought forward a measure in +Parliament, but without effect. For some years nothing effectual was done +in the way of reform. Palmerston, to whom power passed, though in foreign +policy he dallied with revolution, was conservative, especially on social +subjects, at home. "Tenant's right is landlord's wrong" was his judgment +on the agrarian question. On the Irish side there was no leader of worth +or force. Patriotism was in a trance, and the chronicler of the +Nationalist party indignantly proclaims that the cause was betrayed by a +series of low adventurers who embraced it as the way to preferment. "The +most common type of Irish politician," he says in his anguish, "in these +days was the man who entered Parliamentary life solely for the purpose of +selling himself for place and salary." "This," he adds, "was the golden +season, when every Irishman who could scrape as much money together as +would pay his election expenses was able after a while to obtain a +governorship or some other of the many substantial rewards which English +party leaders were able to give to their followers." The constituencies, +it seems, political feeling being at a low ebb, were ready to elect the +man who could bring them public pelf. Of the adventurers, the worst was +Sadleir, who, with his set, attempted to intrigue with the Peelites, and +who, being a financial swindler as well as a political schemer, became +bankrupt and committed suicide. So the cause of the Three F's--Fixity of +tenure, Free sale, and Fair rents--made no way. English Radicals in +Parliament stood all the time ready to move with the Irish on this +question or for Disestablishment; but the Irish members were taken up with +intriguing for places for themselves, for appointments of the sons of +their constituents to clerkships in Somerset House, or for a government +subsidy to the Galway Packet contract. Irish writers are bound to remember +that Englishmen were not responsible for the choice or character of Irish +members. They are bound also to remember the impression which the members +chosen by the Irish could not fail to make on English minds. The British +Parliament could not justly be said to be "deaf, blind, and insolently +ignorant," though it was not on the right track. It might be excused for +being a little deaf and blind to the appeals of "a motley gang of as +disreputable and needy adventurers as ever trafficked in the blood and +tears of a nation." + +From the time of the union to this time there had been, and long after +this time continued to be, a series of coercion acts, rendered necessary +by agrarian outrage. There were thirty-two enactments of this kind between +the union and 1844. It would have been almost better, had it been +possible, frankly to suspend the constitution while the true remedy was +being applied. + +Liberal leadership now devolved from Palmerston on Gladstone, thus +bringing on the political field a new and immensely powerful motive power. +Gladstone was in opposition. In his mind a natural, and under the party +system legitimate, desire of recovering power for his party and himself +perhaps mingled with a sincere though tardily formed conviction of the +injustice of such an institution as the State Church of a small minority +in Ireland. It was unfortunate that he, like Peel and Wellington, gave +fear of Irish violence as a motive for doing justice. After some +premonitory hints, he, in former days the great champion of state +religion, declared for disestablishment. His case was overwhelmingly +strong. Faint and feeble were the arguments on the other side. The +institution was an anachronism, an anomaly, and a scandal. Its past had +been miserable. It had made no converts; it had made many rebels. By its +tests and its intolerance it had divided the Protestant interest, sending +many a Presbyterian across the sea to fight for the American Revolution. +Its ministry had been jobbed, its character defiled, by unscrupulous +politicians. Of late, however, it had been greatly reforming itself, and +it had got rid of its tithe-proctors by the commutation of tithes. Its +clergy generally were now on friendly terms with the people. Its last hour +was by far its best. Vested interests were respected in the change, and +the unblest establishment glided quietly and safely into its new and +happier life as a purely spiritual church. Through the Commons the measure +passed with ease; through the Lords, like other great measures of change, +it was forced by fear. + + + + +XIV + + +From disestablishment of the Church Gladstone, now in the full swing of +his Liberalism, proceeded next year to reform the land system of Ireland. +Taking his cue from Ulster tenant-right, perhaps also from English +copyhold, he passed an act, the first of a series which, by giving +compensation for improvements and for disturbance, restricting eviction, +regulating rents, and furnishing to the tenant by government loans the +means of purchasing the fee, has gone far towards transferring the +ownership from the landlord to the tenant. Some of these measures have +virtually involved confiscation, notably in the case of purchasers under +the Encumbered Estates Act, to whom full ownership had been morally +guaranteed. + +Economically, the tendency, indeed the aim, of the land acts has been to +make Ireland a land of peasant proprietors. The social tendency of such +legislation is to the abolition of the gentry, of the value of whose +leadership to a people eminently in need of leaders, Gladstone, +personally ignorant of Ireland, might not be a competent judge. +Unquestionably, the relations between landlord and tenant called for +reform. The appropriation of the tenant's improvements by the landlord was +in itself plainly unjust, and the sweeping evictions yielded in cruelty +only to the famine. But for overpopulation the immediate remedy was +depletion. Had Gladstone said that the overpopulation was originally the +consequence of misgovernment and repression of industry which, reducing +the people to abject misery, had wrecked their self-respect and +self-restraint, he would have been emphatically right, and the fact cannot +be too constantly kept in mind. Gladstone might also have said with truth +that emigration was a mournful cure, though it transferred the emigrant to +a far happier land and lot. But the overpopulation having taken place, +whatever the cause, the only remedy was depletion. No expansion of +manufacturing industry, commerce, or mining adequate to the absorption of +the surplus population could be expected in time to meet the pressing call +for relief. Irishmen are sensitive on this point, but no disparagement of +the Irish race is implied in the recognition of the facts. Overpopulation +was not the fault of the people, but their misfortune. There has been a +very large migration of the Irish into England and Scotland as well as +into the colonies and the United States. + +Gladstone's measure, however, fell short of Irish expectation, which was +the three F's: Fixity of tenure; Fair rent; Freedom of sale. A land war +presently broke out and became combined with a struggle nominally for Home +Rule, really for separation from Great Britain. The political part of this +agitation, rebellion as it really was, had its main source and support, +not in Ireland, but in the Irish population of the United States. Even +before the famine there had been an emigration of Irish to America, so +large as by its political effects to alarm American patriotism and give +birth to the great Know-nothing Movement in defence of American +nationality. The Irish, being highly gregarious and unused to large +farming, settled in cities. When they went out to work on railways or +canals, it was in large gangs. They were drawn into the vortex of politics +and became the retainers of crafty politicians, who, in secret, smiled at +their simplicity. They fell almost invariably into the Democratic party. +The name may have attracted them; but the Democratic party was that of the +Southern slave-owner, who was glad to enlist the Irishman as his humble +ally at the North and to pay him out of the treasury of political +corruption. The rank and file of Tammany were largely Irish. O'Connell had +been nobly hostile to slavery. His kinsmen and admirers on the other side +of the Atlantic were, on the contrary, vehement supporters of slavery, and +jealous assertors of their superiority over the enslaved race. Such is the +tendency of the newly enfranchised. In the war between the North and the +South the Irish in New York rose against the draft and committed great +outrages, especially against the negro, among other things setting fire to +a negro orphan asylum. They were ruthlessly put down. After the famine, +emigration greatly increased. Family affection among the Irish is +beautifully strong, and the members of a family who had gone before sent +home their earnings to pay for the passage of those whom they had left +behind. It has been reckoned that the Irish have expended twenty millions +sterling in this way. With a passionate love of Ireland the American Irish +combined a still more passionate hatred of England as Ireland's tyrant and +oppressor. Invasion and destruction of England were their dream. Always +addicted to secret fraternities and natural adepts in conspiracy, they +formed associations for war on England; that of the Fenians and that of +the still more rabid and bloodthirsty Clan-na-Gael, whose utterances were +frenzies of hatred. Large sums were subscribed; Irish servant-girls, with +a patriotism which in any case was honourable to them, giving freely of +their wages. American politicians flattered the mania, and harvested the +Irish vote. The war bequeathed to the Fenians some regular soldiers, among +others, Mitchel, who had been conspicuous in the ranks of slavery. The +Fenians invaded Canada and overthrew a corps of Canadian volunteers, but +retired on the approach of regulars; a bad omen for their conquest of +England. Conquest of England the Fenians did not attempt, beyond a +farcical essay at Chester. But they helped greatly to kindle rebellion in +Ireland, to provide it with money, and to supply it with assassins. The +National League, the form which, in Ireland, political combined with +agrarian rebellion assumed, almost ousted the law and the queen's +government. It resisted the payment of rents. Those who opposed its will +were "boycotted," a term of which this is the origin. Sometimes they were +murdered. A stripling was murdered for having served a master who had come +under the ban of the League. A wife was mobbed on her way home from +viewing the body of her murdered husband. Lord Frederick Cavendish, the +Irish secretary, going to Ireland with the kindest intentions, and the +permanent secretary, Mr. Burke, were stabbed to death in the Phoenix +Park. Mr. W. E. Forster, distinguished by his humane efforts at the time +of the famine, was marked for assassination. At the outbreak of the +rebellion a policeman escorting Fenian prisoners had been murdered at +Manchester, and an attempt made to blow up Clerkenwell Prison, where a +Fenian was confined, had caused the deaths of twelve people and the +maiming of one hundred and twenty. Gladstone had made the mistake of +treating the alarm caused by those outrages as a motive for doing justice +to Ireland. The motive for doing justice to Ireland was justice. + +The assassination of Cavendish and Burke, it is right to say, was the act, +not of the Land League or of any conspiracy in Ireland itself, but of the +Invincibles, a club of frenzied Irish in the United States. By the Irish +leaders it was heartily condemned. That it was regarded with utter +abhorrence in the Irish quarters of English cities was denied by observers +at the time. Fierce and blind were the passions of those days. + +To repress what was in fact a rebellion fed by foreign aid, to uphold the +law, and rescue life and industry in Ireland from the lawless tyranny of +the National League, as it was called, the government, as was its plain +duty, sought and obtained extraordinary powers, and threw a number of the +leaders of the rebellion into prison. It was time, when loyal citizens +were joining the League for protection in their callings, which the +queen's government could no longer afford. When the Irish rose against the +draft in New York, the Americans shot down several hundreds of them +without process of law. + +In the British Parliament the "rebel" party, as Bright justly called it, +had found a leader of mark in Parnell, a man of great ability and force of +character, incisive and forcible, if not eloquent, as a speaker. He had +supplanted in the leadership Mr. Butt, a man of social sensibility and +refinement, unfitted for an aggressive part. The agitation under Parnell +combined agrarianism with repeal, thus giving the political part of the +movement a hold upon the people and a force and a formidable extension in +Ireland which by itself it had never had. The Land League, becoming the +National League, almost supplanted the queen's government in Ireland. + +Parnell's avowed aim was the foundation of a peasant proprietorship. +Neither he nor any of his party seem to have cared to study +dispassionately the natural aptitudes of the country, and to satisfy +themselves whether it was capable of supporting the population which +disastrous events and sinister influences had accumulated upon it. Their +main object was political. It was, under the guise of repealing the union, +to sever Ireland from Great Britain. As an inducement to the peasantry to +support them in that attempt, they offered to transfer the property in the +land from the landlord to the tenant, though with a decorous promise of +indemnity. Mr. Parnell's name was English, and he had been educated at +Cambridge. It was understood that his bearing towards his Celtic +associates was high and that he was peremptory as well as absolute in +command. At his side was Mr. Biggar, whose great gift was unparalleled +effrontery. The two undertook to coerce the British Parliament by +obstruction. Had the British Parliament been itself, it would quickly have +asserted its dignity. But it was split into factions, upon the balance of +which Parnell and Biggar were able to play. Gladstone succumbed so far as +by an equivocal agreement, nicknamed the Kilmainham Treaty, to release +Parnell and his associates from prison. On the other hand, the +Conservatives coming into power struck the flag of the law by refusing to +renew the Crimes Act for the protection of loyalty in Ireland, while they +angled for the Parnellite vote by casting reproach on the conduct of a +lord-lieutenant who had done his duty. + +At the general election which followed, Gladstone went to the country, +appealing for a majority which should enable him to settle the Irish +question independently of Parnell. Parnell passed the word to all his +partisans, both in Ireland and in the Irish quarters of English towns, to +vote against the Liberals. They obeyed. Gladstone was defeated. Then he +who had denounced Parnell as wading through rapine to dismemberment; who +had proclaimed his arrest as a rebel to an applauding multitude at +Guildhall; who had thrown him and scores of his followers into prison; who +had never given to the nation a hint of his sympathy with Parnell's +agitation, suddenly turned round and coalesced with Parnell. He put forth +an apology for his conversion founded on the hidden workings of his own +mind. But what availed the workings of his own mind if all the time he was +carrying on the policy of repression, misleading the nation thereby? It is +true he might have pointed to the coquetting of the other party, or its +leaders, with the Parnellites. He might perhaps with more force have +appealed to his own unquestionably sincere sympathy with all who were +struggling for independence. His retrospective imagination was strong, and +having changed so much he had always present to his mind the possibility +of further change. It made his language sometimes capable of unforeseen +interpretation. + +The Liberal party was filled with astonishment, confusion, and dismay. But +the _Times_ stood fast and rallied the adherents of the union. To the +steadfastness and power of this great journal the defeat of Gladstone's +policy and the salvation of the union were largely due. Bright's refusal +to cast in his lot with the "rebel" party was also a heavy blow to +Gladstone. The political connection between the two men had been growing +close, and Bright might almost be said to personify justice to Ireland, as +to all the weak and oppressed. If there was a man who would have protested +against the sacrifice of Ireland to English interests it was John Bright. +Lord Hartington presented himself with unexpected vigour as a Unionist +leader. Gladstone was defeated in the House of Commons and still more +signally in the general election which followed, Conservative and Unionist +Liberals voting together on the special issue. In the contest Gladstone +lashed himself into fury, appealed to Separatist sentiment, not in Ireland +only, but in Scotland and Wales, to the prejudice of the masses against +the classes, of the uneducated against the educated and the learned +professions. He was fired with enthusiasm for the right. His instincts +were always high. But this did not make him a cool-headed statesman warily +dealing with a question which touched the life of the commonwealth. + +Now fortune played a strange trick. Parnell, the leader and mainstay of +the League, Gladstone's ally, was convicted of adultery. Adultery is not +political, but it was too much both for the Irish hierarchy and for the +nonconformist conscience. Parnell had to be dragged from the helm of the +Irish party, to which he clung with a frantic tenacity, such as proved him +after all to be, though a very remarkable, hardly a very great, man. + +Raised once more by another turn of fortune's wheel in the party game to +power, Gladstone again brought forward a Home Rule Bill. This time he, +with the help of the Irish members, pushed the bill through the House, +partly by closure, in a form already condemned by himself, giving Ireland +a separate Parliament for her own affairs, and at the same time retaining +her representation in the British Parliament, with power there to vote +upon all questions. The Irish delegation would have played, as in fact it +does now, for its own purposes, on the balance of British parties, and +baffled any attempt to enforce restrictions on the doings of its own +Parliament which the Home Rule Act might have imposed. The majority for +the bill in the Commons was forty-three, including eighty Irish members. +British members of the House of Commons who voted for the bill probably +reckoned on its being killed in the Lords. Killed it was there with a +vengeance. Gladstone appealed to the people against the Lords, but in +vain. Thus ended in disaster his wonderful career. His speeches on Home +Rule showed, like all his speeches, vast oratoric power, mastery of +details, clearness and liveliness in exposition. But weak points are also +apparent. The Irish Parliament cannot have been at once a sink of +corruption and an institution with which it was sacrilege to interfere. +The comparison of the union in criminality to the massacre of St. +Bartholomew must surely have made all hearers but the Irish smile. Upon +this subject the speaker raves, and generally he forgets that the mission +of reconciliation which he had undertaken would not be furthered by +opening old sores. The examples of Austria-Hungary and the connection of +Norway with Sweden, cited by him as proofs that a conjunction of two +Parliaments worked well, would be generally taken not as encouragements +but as warnings. The case of Norway and Sweden has since become a warning +indeed. The intricate machinery by which the speaker proposes to regulate +the action of his two Parliaments has too much the look of a speculative +structure elaborated without reference to the peculiar state of Ireland +and the forces to be encountered there. Of the force of the Catholic +priesthood, nothing is said. In fact, the political architect knew little +of the country with which he was dealing, having been in it only for three +weeks, and then not at a good point of view. + +Thus the Irish question, which the greatest among the public men of his +time had failed to settle, was once more thrown into the cauldron of party +strife. + + + + +XV + + +Looking back on these most melancholy annals, we shall find that for their +general sadness Nature is as much to be blamed as man. She did well in +placing at the side of a country rich in coal and minerals, destined to be +manufacturing, one of pasture to supply food. She made a fatal mistake in +peopling them with different and uncongenial races. War, in the age of +war, and conquest of the weaker by the stronger were sure to be the +result. For the form in which conquest came, the Papacy has partly to +answer. It used the sword of the Norman adventurer in this case, as it had +in the case of England, to crush religious independence and force all +churches to bow to its own dominion, while, as the wails of its own +partisans in the Becket controversy show, it was itself unworthy of the +sovereignty of Christendom. Of this Catholics are bound to take note, as +they are of the fact that the Papacy at a later day, by inciting the Irish +to rebellion on its own account, brought upon them no small portion of +their woes. The Norman conquest of England had incidentally the bad +effect of connecting the English monarchy with dominion in France, and +thus turning the forces of the English kings from Ireland, where they +might have ended the agony, to a field where they were much worse than +wasted. Things could not have taken a more unfortunate course than that of +a colony of half-civilized conquerors carrying on war with barbarous +tribes of a different race and tongue, yet without force to effect the +conquest. The invasion of Edward Bruce, with which England had nothing to +do, probably did further harm by breaking up whatever there was of +Anglo-Norman order and turning barons into chiefs of Irish Septs. Then the +Reformation, a European convulsion involving Ireland, and in the most +unfortunate way, since it identified Protestantism with conquest, +Catholicism with the struggle for independence, introduced another deadly +source of strife, and made Ireland the point of danger to England in her +desperate struggle for her own existence and the salvation of the +Protestant cause. Otherwise it seems not impossible that the Tudor +statesmen, with such a man as Burleigh at their head, might, as they +desired, have effected a peaceful settlement. Civilization, not +extermination, was their aim. The great Celtic rebellions of Shane +O'Neil, Desmond, and Tyrone, the last two Catholic as well as Celtic, +forced upon them the policy of extermination with all its horrors. The +rising and massacre of 1641 were the sequel. The vengeance of the victor +and the transplantation of the vanquished to Connaught were in their turn +the sequel of the rising and massacre of 1641. Of these again the rebound +was the Catholic rising of 1688, which, had it been successful, would have +ended certainly in the dispossession, probably in the expulsion, possibly +in the extermination, of the Protestants. English liberty and religion +were at the same time threatened by an Irish Catholic force encamped at +Hounslow. The Penal law was execrable; yet hardly more execrable than the +Great Act of Attainder. In later days Castle government by corruption was +vile; but it was the inevitable accompaniment of the constitution of 1782, +the work of Grattan and the Volunteers. Of the master evil of all, the +state of the masses of the Irish people, English protectionism must share +the blame with the penal laws. But protectionism was then the delusion of +the commercial world. Irish patriots were not free from it. To deal with +peasant distress was the immediate duty of the Irish Parliament, which +refused even to turn its eyes that way. Peasant distress, organized for +rebellion by a revolutionary party at Belfast, itself deriving its +inspiration from the American and French revolutions, produced the rising, +ever to be accursed and deplored, of 1798. + +Irish patriots are apt to talk of England as a single person or, rather, +fiend, actuated in her dealings with Ireland by hatred and contempt. +England is a nation divided into parties and swayed by varying influences +from time to time. The England of Peel and Gladstone is not the England of +the Georges, the Stuarts, the Tudors, the Plantagenets, or responsible for +the doings of those dynasties. In the evil days of her political history, +England, if she oppressed Ireland, also suffered herself. The Liberal +party in England did its best for Ireland, and if the Irish members had +been what they ought to have been and done what they ought to have done, +more rapid progress might have been made. As it was, Ireland shared the +great measures of Parliamentary and municipal reform which there had been +little prospect of her achieving by herself. She received the boon of +national and undenominational education about a generation before England, +and but for the reactionary influence of her own priesthood would have +received it in full measure. The same influence maimed as far as it could +the undenominational colleges. Nothing could be more deplorable than the +long series of coercion acts. But it was hardly to be expected that the +English government should strike its flag to assassination and boycotting, +or that the British nation would be moved to concession by the inroads of +American conspirators combined with domestic rebellion. It was about 1866 +that Guizot, talking of Ireland as he walked with an English guest, +stopped in his walk and said with an emphatic gesture, "The conduct of +England to Ireland for the last thirty years has been admirable." This, +before disestablishment, was too strong, as the English guest remarked at +the time; but as the judgment of a cool-headed foreign statesman, whose +course had not been one of unbroken harmony with England, it was likely to +be more just at least to the motives of England than the invectives of +O'Connell. + +Since the Union there has been no 1641, no 1688, no 1798. The two races +and religions have lived generally at peace if not in concord with each +other. The religious riots at Belfast are a very mitigated relic of the +religious wars of former days. Reform, though its advance has been slow +and fitful, has advanced. Within a generation from the date of the Union, +Catholic Emancipation was carried. The tithe-proctor did not very long +survive. Presently the State Church itself was abolished. Ireland shared +with Great Britain Parliamentary reform, to which the Irish oligarchy +could never have consented without political and social convulsion. Not +long afterwards came national education, bestowed on Ireland before it was +bestowed on England. None of these improvements would directly touch the +agrarian sore, the malignity of which was increased by the growth of the +Irish population under the reign of order, far beyond the power of the +land to maintain it. But relief has been given to famine, and strenuous +efforts have been made and are still being made to effect a radical cure. +Ireland has enjoyed free trade with Great Britain and with the whole +British Empire. Everything has been open to Irish merit and industry. +Millions of Irish and their children have found homes in Britain and the +colonies. To sever Ireland from Great Britain is still possible. To divide +the Irish from the British is not possible. In both islands and in all the +colonies the two races are now joined and cannot be put asunder. + +Besides, as has already been said, we must always bear it in mind that we +do not see the other side of Destiny's cards. Suppose Ireland had remained +the land of the Septs, would her lot certainly have been more happy? +Neither at the time of the Norman Conquest nor afterwards do the Septs +appear to have shown any tendency to a union such as would have given +birth to a national polity and its attendant civilization. For aught we +can see, they might have gone on indefinitely, like the clans of the +Scottish Highlands, in a state of barbarous strife fatal to progress of +every kind. Even their common interest in the struggle against the +Anglo-Norman invader produced no general or permanent union. The Brehon +law, which was their principal bond, had no executive force and was in +itself barbarous, not distinguishing public from private wrong. The Septs +warred upon each other not less savagely than the conqueror warred upon +them all. If anything like union came at last, it was not political but +religious, and brought with it a fatal share in the European war of +religions. Nor were conquests other than Anglo-Norman impossible. From the +Highlands and islands of Scotland came bodies of marauding adventurers +which might have been reenforced, and, in the North at least, have +prevailed. It is not certain that without the aid of John de Bermingham +and his Anglo-Normans, the Septs would have got rid of Edward Bruce. + +That the interest of Ireland should be regarded as subordinate to that of +Great Britain was the principle on which British politicians acted in the +days that are past. To the past this principle must now be and indeed has +been decisively consigned. That union, to be good for either party, must +be good for both, is the accepted basis of discussion. On the other hand, +it is not to be assumed that the aspirations of Irish politicians +naturally bent on carving out an independent field of action for +themselves, are entirely free from the bias of personal ambition or +identical with a dispassionate view of the interest of the Irish people. +Nor is it to be forgotten that Ulster is a part of Ireland. + +There are two questions, perfectly distinct and calling for separate +consideration, though they have become blended in the course and for the +purposes of the political agitation. One is economical, the other +political. + +The economical question is whether Ireland can support her present +population. Patriotic eloquence will not change her skies, or render it +otherwise than cruel to induce her people to stay in a land in which they +cannot make their bread. Instances there may be of barren soil made by +the loving industry of the small owner fruitful and capable of supporting +a large population; but the industry of the small owner, though it can +improve the soil, cannot alter the skies. What is to be desired is a +special report, calm and expert, upon this subject. Is Ireland generally +capable of being turned with advantage into an arable country? Can wheat +or grain of any kind be profitably raised there in face of the competition +of the great grain-growing countries such as that now opened, and bidding +fair to be opened over a much larger area, in the Canadian Northwest? The +small farmer to live must have something to sell. Is there reason to look +in any other direction than farming for a speedy extension of Irish +industries such as would provide bread sufficient for the population? Is +the water-power of Ireland, now that electricity has been developed, +likely to do what has been done for England by coal? Is the shipping +trade, for which the Irishman has had little opportunity of showing a +turn, likely to increase? These are questions which it is for economists, +not for politicians or patriotic orators, to decide. It is said that there +are tracts of land in Ireland still unoccupied and fit for occupation. If +there are, the survey will show the fact. Land purchase by government +subvention is a policy hardly to be pursued unless it is certain that its +results will not presently be reversed by nature. + +The worst part of emigration is that it carries away the pith and sinews +of a nation, taking the strong and leaving the weak, the aged, and +unsupported women. It is a pleasant proof, already noticed, of the warmth +of the Irish heart that there has been less of solitary and more of family +emigration in their case than in those of some other emigrating races. +After all, how has the earth been peopled, how have all the nations been +formed but by migration? + +To turn to the political question. The danger of insurrection has probably +passed away. Fenianism has been largely deprived of its trans-Atlantic +base, and can no longer look confidently to American sympathy for support +and supplies. The Irish vote has less power. Little at least was heard of +it in the last presidential election. Yet the political question is still +most serious, and presses urgently for settlement; a state of things +largely due to the division of parties in the British government which +showed its influence in the abandonment of the Crimes Act by the Salisbury +administration; in the Maamtrasna debate; and in Mr. Gladstone's sudden +coalition with Parnell; but above all in the votes of British members of +the House of Commons for Mr. Gladstone's second Home Rule Bill, giving +Ireland a Parliament of her own and representation in the British +Parliament at the same time. Parliament still has in it a body of Irish +members not only alien but hostile, avowing that their object is not to +aid in deliberation but to coerce, playing upon the balance of parties for +purposes of their own, degrading the assembly, and distracting the +councils of the nation. Nor is the source of this evil confined to the +constituencies of Ireland. There is in England and Scotland a large Irish +population, which, as was seen in the election of 1885, obeys the voice of +the Irish leaders and at their command votes inimically to the country in +which it lives and earns its bread. In Ireland itself, moreover, the +hell-broth of agitation is kept constantly seething to the inevitable +detriment of recuperative effort, which cannot do its full work without +security for the future. + +As the first step it should be calmly settled what are the specific +grievances under which Ireland labours, and which the Imperial legislature +cannot, but an Irish Parliament could, remove. Historic wrongs are past +remedy. Ireland has more than her share of representation in Parliament. +She has no established Church. If her priesthood would let her, she would +have a complete system of national education. Her land law is now far more +favourable to the tenant than that of the other kingdoms, and she has been +and still is receiving government subventions in aid of the tillers of her +soil which English and Scotch tenants do not receive and which would cease +if she became independent. Nothing is closed against her people. They have +the markets of the whole Empire. All its offices, patronage, and services +are perfectly open to them. So long as they will abstain from outrage and +murder, they enjoy all the personal privileges of British freemen. It +cannot be said that the law has been suspended for any purpose other than +the repression of outrage. If the ordinary law and government were very +bad, Ulster would hardly have prospered as it has done. If Castle +government is the grievance, abolition of it was offered to Ireland long +ago and was by her rejected. Let the existing grievances be specified, and +let it be seen whether Imperial legislation is incapable of redressing +them. The truth is that with the Irish leaders it has not been redress of +particular wrongs and grievances or the introduction of practical +improvements that has been the object of desire. Their aim has been to +create a nationalist feeling which should end in political separation. +Such has been the constant tenor of their appeals to sentiment and the end +to which their policy has really pointed. + +Suppose Ireland severed from Great Britain, what would be her lot? She +would then have to assume all the burdens and responsibilities of an +independent nation, including military and naval defence, as well as the +entire expense of a separate government. As she could not hope to vie in +strength with her powerful neighbour, she would be at that neighbour's +mercy; nor, considering the temper in which the parting would take place, +would occasions for quarrel be unlikely to arise. Ireland might have to +seek the protection and become the vassal of some foreign power. Irish +trade would no longer be free of British markets or of the markets of +British dependencies. Irish labour would no longer be free of the British +labour market. The Indian service and the Imperial services generally +would be closed against Irishmen. + +Nor would Ireland be entirely united in herself or perfectly set free from +the hated British influence. She would still have in her the men of +Ulster, Saxon and Protestant, antagonistic probably to the Catholic +majority, and if they were pressed in the unequal conflict, stretching out +their hands for aid to their fellow-Protestants and kinsmen in Great +Britain. + +A mere arm of the sea, such as that which divides Ireland from Great +Britain, is surely not enough in these days of improved navigation, to +form a bar to political union. The distance from London to Dublin is now +practically far less than it was a century ago from London to Edinburgh. +Nor does there seem any reason why salt water should be fatal. The Ionian +Islands are in the kingdom of Greece; so probably some day will be Crete. + +If Ireland were detached from Great Britain, into what hands would she +fall? The gentry would be extinguished. To excite popular hatred of them +as landlords has been the constant aim of the Nationalist leaders. There +would be a general repudiation of rent, which the Irish government and +judiciary would lack the will, while the British government and judiciary +would have lost the power, to prevent. The record of Irish landlordism is +not bright. Absenteeism has been a great evil, though the estates of some +absentees have been notably well managed. There have been hideously cruel +evictions, especially it seems on the lands purchased by speculators +under the Encumbered Estates Act. Landlordism, as mere drawing of rent, is +an evil. It is not desirable that any man should own land as a +non-resident or own more land than he can manage or superintend. The old +feudal law attaching service to lordship of land was sound in principle. +But if the Irish gentry would accept that principle, be resident, look +after their estates, and do their duty to their tenants, they would +probably be accepted by their people as social leaders, and they might +play that part with good effect. The life of the French peasant is not the +acme either of civilization or of happiness, even though we may make some +abatement from the picture presented by Zola in "La Terre." Unhappily the +tendency, even in England, seems to be towards the detachment of the owner +from his land and the abandonment on his part of every function save that +of receiving the rent and spending it, perhaps in some pleasure city or +abroad. The decadence of the agricultural interest in England is by some +ascribed to this cause. + +The gentry being no more, Catholic Ireland would at first fall into the +hands of the priesthood. The moral character of the Irish priesthood in +the opinion of impartial judges is high, as is that of the priesthood of +French Canada. In both cases ecclesiastical influence is strong, and in +both a population virtuous after the Catholic model is the result. The two +are probably about the best things that the Roman Catholic Church has to +show. But the Roman Catholic religion is mediaeval. The training of its +ministers inevitably shuts out light which would be fatal to mediaeval +belief. An Irish peasant lad, having been intellectually secluded for +seven years at Maynooth, comes out proof against the intellectual +influences and advancing science of his time. He is the mental liegeman +and the preacher of the Syllabus, which anathematizes freedom of thought +and claims for the Church dominion, not only over the soul but over the +body, such as was hers in the Middle Ages. He laid his ban on the Queen's +Colleges, and has discouraged and thwarted the extension of popular +education. In regard to education and intelligence, he has been in Ireland +what he has been in Spain and other countries subject to his sway. In the +sphere of industry and commerce the influence has generally been the same. +The religious ideal of life with its Church festivals and Saints' Days has +prevailed. In Ireland as in Canada the priest inculcates early marriages, +the effects of which may be morally good but are economically perilous. +The excessive conversion of the fruits of industry to the unproductive +purposes of the Church has already begun to call forth protests. + +The power of the Roman Catholic priesthood would be encountered by the +stalwart Protestantism of Ulster in the Parliamentary arena as it still is +sometimes in the streets of Belfast. It might presently find itself +encountered by another adversary, revolutionary Nationalism, the heir of +that party of force which broke away from the leadership of O'Connell, the +devout son of the Church, and was an object of well-founded suspicion and +aversion to the hierarchy of his day. The affinity of this element is to +the revolutionary party in other countries; and if, like the United +Irishmen of Belfast, it has been willing to act with allies devoted to the +Church, it is not itself devout, as the Church, if she comes to share +power with it, may be led to feel. + +The idea of unity of race as a basis of Irish nationality has little +support. In the North there is a strong and masterful Saxon element. There +must be a large Anglo-Saxon and English element in the old Pale. The men +of Tipperary, though characteristically Irish, are believed to be +descendants of Cromwellians. There is Huguenot blood. + +The revival of Erse as a national language is surely a patriotic dream. +How is it possible to revive a language all but dead, with no valuable +literature or wealth of printed books, in face of a language which has a +grand literature, is spoken by all the educated classes, indeed almost +universally, in Ireland, and is necessary for intercourse with Great +Britain. O'Connell, we are told, had no great sympathy with the revival of +Irish archaeology, and no sympathy at all with the project of reviving the +Irish language. He recognized the superior utility of the English tongue +as the medium of all modern communication, and saw without regret the +gradual disuse of Erse. Fancy and sentiment may prevail among a literary +class which nevertheless will hardly carry its patriotism so far as to +darken its own mind by unlearning English. + +"Ireland ought to be governed in accordance with Irish ideas." Such is the +current saying, and it sounds wise. But statesmanship would hardly act +upon it before taking measures to learn what ideas are peculiarly Irish +and whether they are features of national character, innate and indelible, +and not traces of historic accident or fancies instilled in the course of +political agitation. The perpetuation of weaknesses accidentally +contracted cannot be wise for man or nation. The political idea which +seems most characteristic is the tendency to personal leadership rather +than to self-government or constitutional rule. But this has been common +to all races in early times. It was fostered and prolonged by the +circumstances of Irish history. It could hardly be pronounced incapable of +modification by familiarity with free institutions. + +What would be the political constitution of an independent Ireland? How +would its form be settled? The political training of the people generally +since they came out of political thraldom has been agitation against +government and law; their only notion of rule has been personal. Nor is a +hierarchy friendly to political liberty. To set up a stable democracy in +Ireland, if that is the aim of the revolutionary party, would surely be an +arduous undertaking. + +All who look coolly into the matter apart from faction and its necessities +have pronounced that the choice lies between separation and legislative +union. Two Parliaments, two nations; so all wisdom says and so experience +before the Union proved. The forces which under Grattan's constitution +held the two Parliaments together in strained and precarious fellowship, +the nomination boroughs, the pension list, the sinecures, the peerages, +the bishoprics, would no longer exist. What is even more important, there +would no longer be an oligarchical and exclusionist Parliament in Ireland +dependent on British support for its ascendency, perhaps even for the +security of its lands. Antagonism would almost inevitably ensue; the more +surely as the partners would set out with the embitterment of a divorce. +Nothing apparently could avert collision; the result of which would be +repression, making the latter end worse than the first. + +The proposal of federation is surely preposterous. It would be necessary +first to cut the United Kingdom in two and create an Irish government in +order that negotiations for a federal union might be set on foot. But how +could there be a federation of two states, one of them enormously superior +in power to the other? What sort of deliberative assembly would the +federal council be? + +Another plan is to form a federation of the four nationalities, as they +are assumed to be, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; wrenching apart +the members of a great nation which have long been united and cancelling +the highest work of British statesmanship. Here again federation could not +work. England being so much the predominant partner, the result would +almost certainly be a perpetual league of the three minor powers against +her domination. The federal system is applicable only to a group of +tolerably equal States. The restoration of the Heptarchy with the addition +of Scotland, divided into Highland and Lowland, and the four provinces of +Ireland erected into States, would be a comparatively practicable system. +The present condition of the Federal system in the United States does not +encourage experiments of that kind. + +The mildest proposal of all is devolution; in other words, the concession +to Ireland of a larger measure of local self-government. This probably +would be readily granted to any extent compatible with supremacy of law +and security of life and property, which no government without abdicating +its plainest duty can forgo. Gradual extension of local self-government +would not entail any acute crisis or bring on any party conflict. The +Lord-lieutenancy, Parliament has already shown itself ready to abolish. It +was in deference to the wish of Ireland that it has been retained. The +only thing in the way of undue centralization of which, so far as the +writer remembers, his Irish friends complained, was the necessity of +carrying Irish causes to Westminster as the final court of appeal. +Whether concession on this point would be feasible it is for legal +authorities to say. + +However, it can hardly be doubted that in the course of this struggle a +sentiment has been cultivated among the people of Ireland for which it is +wise as well as kind in some way to provide satisfaction. The Irishman +being of lively sensibility and impressible through sight has never seen +the power which really governs him. A session or two of the Imperial +Parliament held at Dublin for the settlement of Irish questions would +probably have had a very good effect, but it was thought to entail too +much inconvenience. Would there be any objection to empowering the Irish +members of both Houses to sit annually at Dublin as a preparatory House of +Irish legislation framing bills to be commended to Parliament? There would +then be something in College Green. The experiment would involve none of +the difficulties or perils of a statutory division of the powers of +Parliament. It would be at first on the footing of an experiment, nor +would it preclude further concessions if further concessions should be +found needful. + +With the question of national character, social or industrial, and its +special requirements, I do not pretend to deal. It has been treated +systematically, perhaps for the first time, by an excellent authority, +Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett, in his "Ireland in the New Century." Of Irish +character a part may be aboriginal and fundamental. A part probably is the +result of historical accident more or less ingrained, and probably capable +of modification. I am told that Irish character has been even acquiring a +more serious cast since I watched the Tipperary steeplechases or stood on +the fair-ground of Ballinasloe. Not a little, so far as the masses are +concerned, is probably the work of a priesthood strongly and inherently +reactionary, which has exercised the same influence on the ideal of life, +character, mind, and industry here as in other Catholic countries. Ireland +is perhaps happy in having been cut off from the prodigious development of +luxury and dissipation which, as social writers tell us, has been taking +place on the other side of the Channel as well as from the domination of +the stock-exchange. She may in this way become a saving element in the +social character of the United Kingdom. + +Is it vain to hope that for the settlement of a question so vital party +may for one short hour suspend its war? What far-off object of +aggrandizement can be half so important as a contented and loyal Ireland. + + + + +AN ACCOUNT OF THE IRISH LAND CODE + +BY HUGH J. MCCANN, B.L. + + +The Irish landlord, poor as his circumstances were before the famine, was +in many instances reduced to sorer straits after the terrible scourge had +passed away. The good landlord, anxious to do his duty by his tenants, +helped them as far as his mortgages and other financial burdens would +allow. The tyrannical one, regardless of the sufferings of his victims, +sought to extract impossible rents from an unfortunate tenantry who had +scarcely the means of subsistence. The Encumbered Estates Act, it was +thought, would relieve the tension. It empowered a court specially +constituted for the purpose to order the sale of estates encumbered with +debt, on the petition of any person sufficiently interested as owner or +creditor. + +Landlordism, it was thought, would, by this act, be relieved of much that +made it tyrannical, even when it meant well. But the act was a failure. It +was worse. It was the means of wrecking many a fortune, and driving many +a proprietor to ruin. Men who, in hard times, were doing well for their +tenants and their country under difficult circumstances were driven from +the land. + +The act came into operation towards the end of 1849. A wild rush was made +by creditors to the court. Prices fell with amazing rapidity, and landed +property became a drug in the market. Valuable properties failed to +realize sufficient to meet the mortgages, and their owners were inevitably +ruined. + +A new class of landlord now appeared on the scene in the person of the +speculator, who bought up the bankrupt properties as they presented +themselves. The new proprietors had nothing in common with their tenantry. +They knew little of their needs and requirements and cared less. They had +but one interest and that was a commercial one. To make their properties +realize a good dividend on their outlay was their one concern, and up went +the rents accordingly. Such was the fate of the unfortunate tenants who +were allowed to continue as tenants of the new proprietor. This was bad +enough, but those that were given notice to quit were even more cruelly +wronged. Compensation for wrongful disturbance was not recognized in +Ireland in 1850, and tenant property amounting to three millions sterling +was sold to pay the landlord's creditors. + +Nothing could demonstrate more clearly how utterly rotten was the whole +land system in Ireland at the time. Landlord and tenant alike were in a +miserable plight. Rents fell heavily in arrear, and evictions were the +order of the day. The landlord played the bold game, struck hard, and +without mercy. The tenant sought protection in combination and conspiracy. +Such was the condition of Ireland when thoughtful men sought by +legislation to cure the crying evils of the time. Many remedies were +proposed between 1850 and 1860, but none of them reached the stage of +legislative enactment. In the latter year, however, Cardwell made an +attempt to place the law of landlord and tenant on a better footing. + +In spite of a good deal of opposition, government succeeded in placing two +important measures on the Statute Book, viz.: the Landed Property +(Ireland) Improvement Act, 1860, and the Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment +Act (Ireland) of the same year. By the former limited owners were enabled, +subject to judicial sanction, to charge the inheritance with the cost of +specified improvements, and to bind their successors for stated periods. +Agricultural leases for a period of twenty-one years or less could be +given by the limited owners without judicial intervention, but every +improvement lease required the sanction of the chairman of the county in +which the lands were situated. + +To tenants the right of compensation was granted for certain specified +improvements made by them, provided that before entering on the +improvements they made them the subject of an agreement with the landlord, +or had given notice of his intention to improve, and the landlord had not +notified his objection within a period of three months from receipt of the +notice. The principle of retrospective compensation was not, as yet, +admitted. + +The second act consolidated the existing law of landlord and tenant, and +made some important changes in procedure. + +The relationship of landlord and tenant, hitherto based on _tenure_, as in +England, was henceforth to be founded on _contract_. + +Before proceeding to examine its provisions, it might be well to point out +that the common law rights of Irish agricultural tenants were in the +absence of special customs governed since the reign of James I. by English +common law rules. The English system of land tenure was imposed upon the +country by virtue of conquest. But the circumstances of the two countries +were entirely different. + +In England the landlord owned the soil and everything on it. The dwelling +houses and out-offices, the farm roads, the drainage, were built by him or +his predecessors. He let a holding to a tenant as a going concern, and for +the holding so equipped he received rent. The relations between landlord +and tenant in England rested on a business footing. If the tenant did not +feel satisfied with his farm or his lot, he moved on. There were none of +the ties there, either of attachment or of interest, that existed in +Ireland. In Ireland the tenant or his predecessor provided, by his labours +or his savings, the whole equipment of the farm. His family for +generations back occupied the same plot, and he dearly learned to know and +love every stone and hedge about the place. In England the improvements +were effected by the landlord out of the rent paid him by the tenant, and, +of course, were legally his by the law of the land. In Ireland the +improvements, almost universally made by the tenant, became at common law +the property of the landlord, who was under no _legal_ obligation to +compensate the tenant for them on ejecting him from his holding. The +following extract from the report of the Devon Commission contrasts the +practice in the two countries very well. "The Commission finds on all +hands, it is admitted, that, according to the general practice in Ireland, +the landlord builds neither dwelling-house nor farm-offices, nor puts +fences, gates, etc., into good order before he lets his land to a tenant. +The cases in which a landlord does any of those things are the exceptions. +The system, however, of giving aid in these matters is becoming more +prevalent. In most cases whatever is done in the way of building is done +by the tenant, and in the ordinary language of the country +dwelling-houses, farm-buildings, and even the making of the fences are +described by the general word 'improvements,' which is thus employed to +denote the necessary adjuncts to a farm, without which in England or +Scotland no tenant would be found to rent it." + +What I have said represents the general, but, I should add, not the +universal, condition of things in Ireland at this time. + +In parts of the country, especially in Ulster, certain customs prevailed +which recognized that a tenant was something more than a rent producer. +They denied the right of the landlord to raise rents by reason of any +value added to the soil by the tenant's outlay. They recognized a right of +continuous occupancy by the tenant at a fair rent. This right, called +tenant right, became on some properties of immense value, and was often +sold by an out-going tenant at a price exceeding in value the fee simple +purchase of the holding. In Ulster more than anywhere else in Ireland the +custom was very widely prevalent, but was as yet without the sanction of +the law. + +But I have digressed from the Act of 1860. In dealing with the Act of +1870, what I have just said will be of importance. The Landlord and Tenant +Act, 1860, otherwise known as "Deasy's Act," is a voluminous measure of +one hundred and five sections which may be conveniently grouped into three +sections. The first deals with the _Contract of Tenancy_, the second with +_Surrenders and Assignments_, and the third with the _Methods of +Procedure_. Section three enacts that "the relation of landlord and tenant +shall be deemed to be founded on the express or implied contract of the +parties." The conduct of the parties may imply a contract of tenancy, +payment of rent being evidence, but not irrefutable evidence, of its +existence. + +Section four requires that "every lease or contract, with respect to +lands whereby the relations of landlord and tenant is intended to be +created for any freehold estate or interest, or for any definite period of +time, not being from year to year, or any lesser period, shall be by +_deed_ executed, or _note in writing_ signed by the landlord or his +agent." It is further provided that a tenant may, if there be no agreement +to the contrary, remove his fixtures within two months of its +determination by an uncertain event. Two covenants are implied in the +contract of tenancy by each of the parties thereto. The landlord by his +lease implies an agreement on the part of himself and his successors that +he has a good title to make it, and that the tenant shall have quiet and +peaceable enjoyment of his holding. + +The tenant agrees to pay rent, taxes, and impositions payable by the +tenant, and to keep the premises in good and substantial repair and +condition; and, secondly, to give up peaceable possession of the demised +premises in good and substantial repair and condition on the determination +of the lease, subject to any right of removal or of compensation for +improvements that may have lawfully arisen in respect of them, and to any +right of surrender in case of the destruction of the subject-matter of the +contract. + +_Surrenders and Assignments_ may be made (1) by deed, (2) by a note in +writing, or (3) by operation of law. + +Sections forty-five to one hundred and two deal with actions for the +recovery of rent and actions of ejectment. The most important provision is +that which provides that if a tenant has had a decree given against him in +an action of ejectment, he may be restored to his holding on applying to +the court within six months, and paying the rent with arrears and costs. + +Such are the main features of Deasy's Act. Beyond consolidating and +regularizing the existing law it achieved nothing. A decided advance, +however, was made in the Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act, 1870, which +was restricted in its operation to agricultural and pastoral tenancies. We +have seen how there existed in Ulster and other parts of the country +certain customs favourable to the tenant. To the Ulster custom, as it was +called, Ulster was indebted for exceptional prosperity. + +The contentment of its agricultural population was in strange contrast to +the seething discontent of the other parts of the country. Much of the +thrift and plenty that exists in parts of Ulster to-day can be traced back +to the exceptional treatment accorded to the tenants of Ulster long +before legislation came to the aid of their less fortunate brethren south +of the Boyne. The aim of the Land Act of 1870 was to place the latter +class in a similar position to the Northerns. The act legalized the Ulster +custom and similar usages. It gave tenants not subject to these a right to +be compensated for their improvements on quitting their holdings, and +guaranteed a measure of security by providing compensation for +disturbance. What is "disturbance" is a question for the court, and must +be decided on the facts of each particular case. + +Agreements not to improve the holding, or not to claim for improvements, +are declared void. If the holding be subject to the Ulster custom, there +is a general presumption that the improvements belong to the tenant. + +The term "improvements" shall mean in relation to a holding (1) any work +which, being executed, adds to the letting value of the holding, on which +it is executed and is suitable to such holding; and (2) tillages, manures, +or other like farming works, the benefit of which is unexhausted at the +time of the tenant quitting his holding. + +We have not proceeded far before it becomes apparent that to secure to the +tenant the full enjoyment of his own property was the line along which +land legislation was travelling. The Act of 1870 went some distance in +this direction. But the great advance was not made till ten years after, +when Gladstone proposed to establish a tribunal which would assess and fix +the property of the two partners in the dual ownership of land in Ireland. +The act recognized and legalized dual ownership. It created a partnership +between two parties whose interests were hostile. It was a great act, and +did incalculable good, but many years were not to elapse until it became +evident that a return to single ownership--but this time by the +tenant--was absolutely necessary. The endeavours to work dual ownership +irretrievably broke down. + +Both parties had little confidence in the Land Court established by the +Act of 1881. + +The landlord complained that his property was being confiscated; the +tenant believed that he was still paying rent on his own improvements. The +act was meant to give tenants fixity of tenure, fair rent, and free sale. +A new judicial body, the Irish Land Commission, with jurisdiction to hear +and determine all matters of law or fact arising under the act, was +established. The commission consists of three commissioners--one a +judicial commissioner and numerous assistant commissioners appointed by +the lord lieutenant for the time being with the approval of the treasury. +This is not the place to examine the provisions of this complicated +measure minutely, but as it is the foundation of much of the land +legislation that followed, it is important that its main provisions be +understood. + +The act distinguishes between "present" tenancies and "future" tenancies, +a "present" tenancy being "a tenancy subsisting at the time of the passing +of the act, or created before the first day of January, 1883, in a holding +in which a tenancy was subsisting at the time of the passing of the act, +and every tenancy to which the act applies shall be deemed to be a present +tenancy until the contrary is proved." + +A "future" tenancy means a tenancy beginning after the passing of the act. +The act applies only to agricultural and pastoral holdings. It gives +qualified powers to both "present" and "future" tenants to dispose of +their holdings for the best price they can get, or to mortgage them if +they think fit. + +Fixity of tenure was secured by enabling a tenant to convert his interest +into what is called in the act a _statutory term_. Such a term may be +created by an agreement between the landlord and tenant for an increased +rent, or by having a fair rent fixed, or by filing in court an agreement +for a judicial rent. A _statutory term_ can be created only in respect of +a "present" tenancy except when in regard to a "future" tenancy the tenant +has agreed with the landlord to an increased rent. The provisions as to +the fixing of a fair rent apply only to "present" tenancies. Section three +of the act gives a tenant power to dispose of his holding by bequest. +Perhaps the most important provisions of the act are those enabling a +landlord or tenant to have a "fair rent" fixed. + +Either party may apply to the court to have the rent made a _judicial +rent_. The court fixes this rent after considering all the circumstances +of the case, holding, and district, and having regard to the interests of +both parties. No rent shall be payable in respect of improvements made by +the tenant unless he has been already compensated for them by the +landlord. In the administration of the act the word "improvements" has +given rise to endless litigation. In the now famous case of Adams _v._ +Dunseath it was held that "improvements" meant improvement works and not +increased letting value. It was also held in a case affecting the same +holding that a tenant is entitled to "a fair return by way of annual +allowance in respect of the present capital value of his improvement works +which may be estimated by way of percentage on such capital value; and if +after making this percentage there is still a surplus of increased letting +value, it is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Land Commission to +determine whether, and in what proportions, such surplus shall be divided +between landlord and tenant." It was further laid down that the Land +Commission was to treat "the latent and dormant resources of the soil, as +let by the landlord to the tenant, as the property of the landlord, and +the development of those resources by the tenant as the act of the +tenant." + +This act was undoubtedly a great charter for the tenants and created +something like a revolution in Ireland. It contained many defects, and was +marred by many blemishes, but on the whole it was a masterly attempt to +settle the question. Like much of the land legislation for Ireland, most +of its shortcomings were due to a reckless disregard on the part of +British ministers for Irish opinion. Indeed, this was the cause of most of +the amending legislation that followed. + +Under the Act of 1881 "fair rents" were fixed for periods of fifteen +years, when they were again ripe for revision. Roughly speaking, the old +non-judicial rents were reduced by twenty per cent on an average to +convert them into first term rents. These again were further reduced by +twenty per cent on an average for the second term. This, of course, played +havoc with the landlord's income, and did not materially benefit the +tenant, the prices of the produce of whose farm was falling with even +greater rapidity. The experiment of dual ownership had been tried and was +found wanting; a return to single ownership was sought for by the series +of acts known as the Land Purchase Acts. + +It was not till 1885 that the experiment of land purchase was seriously +tried in Ireland, but it is right to say that the question first came +before the public in a practical form so far back as 1869 in the +discussions on the disestablishment of the Irish Episcopal Church. At that +time Mr. Bright proposed to increase the number of owners of land in +Ireland by allowing the glebe tenants to purchase the property attached to +the glebes. The idea was embodied in the Irish Church Act, and over six +thousand occupying owners were thus created. Under this act three-fourths +of the purchase money was advanced by the State, and the balance paid in +cash by the purchasers. The money was advanced by the State for +thirty-two years, the shortest period allowed by any of the acts. From the +tenant's point of view this act cannot be said to have been an unqualified +success. The price of land was high at the time, and the purchasers having +bought high sustained the whole burden of the sudden fall in the prices of +produce which almost immediately succeeded the conclusion of their +bargains. In 1870 and in 1881 there were embodied in the acts of these +years provisions to enable tenants to purchase their holdings; but the +procedure to be followed was made so complicated that the tenants did not +avail themselves of the purchase clauses to any great extent. The +insignificant number of sixteen hundred sales were completed under the two +acts. + +In 1885 a Conservative government came into power, and though their term +of office was of short duration, they introduced and passed a measure +which, by its marvellous and, I might add, its unexpected success, pointed +the direction and paved the way for all future legislation for the +settlement of the land problem in Ireland. Back to single ownership was +the keynote of the measure. Hitherto the credit or discredit of all +legislation on the land problem belonged to the Liberals. They strove to +make dual ownership a possibility. Conservative statesmen sought for a +settlement in the opposite direction. + +In sales under all the purchase acts from 1885 to the Act of 1903 all the +purchase money is advanced by the State to the selling landlord, and is +charged by the State to the tenant who purchases. The tenant repays the +amount borrowed or "advanced," to use the language of the acts, in annual +instalments, which instalments clear off not only the original "advance," +but the accumulated interest. + +Roughly speaking, the procedure is this. The landlord and tenant, having +agreed on a price, sign an agreement for sale, and file it with the Land +Commission, which body has the carriage, so to speak, of all purchase +transactions, as well as all other transactions under the land acts. The +holding is inspected by the Land Commission which, having been satisfied +that the land in question is security for the "advance," pay the purchase +money to the landlord and collect from the tenant the annual instalments +necessary to repay it to the State. + +The plan of the Act of 1885, better known as the Ashbourne Act from the +fact that it was Lord Ashbourne who introduced the measure to the lords, +was simple in the extreme, and to this is due, in no small measure, its +rapid success. It was easily understood by the people, and so popular did +it become that in three years the money provided by it was completely +exhausted. + +In 1888 a second bill was passed under which an additional sum of five +millions--this was the amount provided by the Ashbourne Act--was set aside +for purchase. Under the two measures 25,368 owners were created. + +"Almost from the start," writes Mr. George Fottrell (a gentleman well +qualified to discuss the question of land purchase in Ireland) in the +_Morning Post_, "the Ashbourne Act was a success. During the first five +years of its working, the 'advances' actually paid over by the Land +Commission to landlords amounted annually on an average to L1,250,000 +sterling. The 'applications' represented a considerably larger sum. By +1887 they had more than exhausted the L5,000,000 which had been voted by +Parliament for the Ashbourne Act, in 1885, and thereon a further sum of +L5,000,000 was voted. The scheme continued to work well; the +'applications' came in steadily but with no feverish haste, the largest +total sum applied for under the Ashbourne Act in any one year being in +1887 when it reached L3,700,000. In each of the next two years it reached +just two millions. In 1890 it had dropped to less than a million and a +half; in 1891 it was slightly in excess of that amount. By 1891 it was +plain that the second vote of five millions had been virtually absorbed, +and that Parliament must be applied to for further money. To cool-headed +people in Ireland it seemed that the obvious course was to ask for a small +grant, say of ten millions, so as to continue to test cautiously the +usefulness of an act which had so far worked well, while by the very +smallness of the grant keeping in reserve a check on the expansion of the +act if it should prove to work mischievously. + +"This course was not taken. In 1891 Parliament was asked to make a much +larger grant. Over thirty millions were voted, but coupled with conditions +which made the money useless." + +Mr. Balfour's act, the Purchase Act of 1891, was extremely complicated. +Under it Ireland was entitled to draw upon Imperial credit to the extent +of L33,000,000. The rate of interest payable by the purchasers was +substantially the same as under the acts of 1885 and 1888, the period of +repayment in the three cases being forty-nine years. + +But a change was made in the method of payment to the landlord. Previous +to 1891, he had been always paid in cash. Under the Balfour Act he was +paid in guaranteed land stock. There were many complicated provisions in +regard to the creation of a guarantee fund, an insurance fund, and other +safeguards. The complexity of the measure and the procedure under it, and +the consequent delays in completing any transactions in a reasonable time, +acted as a deterrent to intending purchasers and the act was virtually a +failure. At this point it is well, perhaps, to summarize the results of +the working of land purchase under the acts already dealt with. We have +seen that a total sum of (say) L44,000,000 was made available by the +various acts for land purchase. Out of this a total sum of L21,182,268 has +been expended, leaving about twenty-three millions still available. Under +all the acts up to and including that of 1891, 62,241 tenants purchased +their holdings, 6057 under the Church Act, 877 under the Land Act of 1870, +731 under the Act of 1881, 25,368 under the Purchase Acts of 1885 and +1888, and the balance of about 30,000 became purchasers by means of the +Act of 1891. + +Numerous and extensive as these operations were, it is satisfactory to +note, and it redounds to the credit of the Irish people, that Mr. +Wyndham, when introducing his Land Bill of 1902, was able to assure the +House of Commons that Irish Land Purchase had this one merit that the +State had incurred no loss under it and was exposed to no risk. In no case +did an Irish tenant break his bargain. There was no case of bad debt to +mention. + +One of the first stumbling-blocks to a tenant proposing to purchase under +the Act of 1891 was that he was unable to know, or even approximately +gauge, what was the actual sum he would have to pay, by way of annuity, +each year. This was a serious flaw, and helped more than anything else +perhaps to clog the wheels of purchase. This state of things, however, was +remedied by the Purchase Act of 1896, by which the maximum sum payable in +any year was an instalment at the rate of L4 per cent on the purchase +money, no matter at what number of years' purchase of his rent the tenant +might buy. Most of the cumbrous restrictions of the Act of 1891 were +removed, and once more the applications began to tumble in. In 1895-1896 +the applications received numbered less than half a million. In 1897-1898 +and in 1898-1899 they reached nearly two millions. A steady decrease then +set in, but on the whole purchase proceeded at a satisfactory pace. + +A strange condition of things now existed in Ireland, and a condition of +things that could not last. Here and there over the country there existed +a contented peasantry, the virtual owners of their holdings, paying a +reasonable annuity for a definite period to the State. If they had not the +sense of complete ownership, they had the very next best thing to it. They +knew that if they themselves were not the absolute owners of their +holdings during their lives, their children and their children's children +would be, and they set to work with a heart and a will to work and improve +their farms, knowing full well that the results of their labour would, at +last, be theirs, and could not be wrung from them by the whims or +exigencies of the landlord. On the other side of the fence, or river, the +tenant who had not purchased and, perhaps, could not purchase, for his +landlord would not sell, continued to pay a rent sometimes exorbitant, but +always higher than his friend the purchaser close by. Such was the +position of the tenant's side of the question. Now let us examine the +landlord's. + +Under the Act of 1896 the landlord was paid in government stock. Between +the years 1891 and 1896 government stock rose from 96 to 110. A premium of +ten per cent was a strong incentive to the landlord to sell. If he had an +estate worth L5000, he received in reality for it L5500, for he was +credited with L5000 stock which, sold on change, realized L5500 in cash. +In some cases, where the estate was mortgaged, the gain was even more. +This was gold finding for the landlord until the price of stock fell, +which it did and with a vengeance. Stock which in 1897 stood at 113 fell +in 1901 to 91. The fall again clogged the wheels, and the question once +again became the burning question of the hour. It is right to say here +that there were other forces at work which made the landlord anxious to +get out, if he could at all, on reasonable terms. The fall in the price of +produce continued, and the Land Commission, which had under the Act of +1881 twice revised the rentals, and reduced them each time by twenty per +cent on an average, were preparing for the third revision. The landlords +looked forward to 1911 with fear and trembling. With their estates mostly +heavily mortgaged, and the third revision at hand, they were as anxious as +the tenants, if not more so, that Parliament should step in to their +mutual aid. It did so in the Land Act of 1903. The introduction of this +measure was preceded by a conference of landlords and tenants, +representatives in Ireland which met in the Mansion House, Dublin, and +after five sittings reported as follows:-- + +"Whereas it is expedient that the land question in Ireland be settled so +far as it is practicable and without delay, + +"And whereas the existing position of the land question is adverse to the +improvement of the soil of Ireland, leads to unending controversies and +law-suits between owners and occupiers, retards progress in the country, +and constitutes a grave danger to the state, + +"And whereas an opportunity of settling once for all the differences +between owners and occupiers in Ireland is very desirable, + +"And whereas such settlement can only be effected upon a basis mutually +satisfactory to the owners and occupiers of the land, + +"And whereas certain representatives of owners and occupiers have been +desirous of endeavouring to find such basis, and for that purpose have met +in conference together, + +"And whereas certain particulars of agreement have been formulated, +discussed, and passed at the conference, and it is desirable that the same +should be put into writing and submitted to his Majesty's government, + +"After consideration and discussion of various schemes submitted to the +conference, we are agreed:-- + +"1. That the only satisfactory settlement of the land question is to be +effected by the substitution of an occupying proprietary in lieu of the +existing system of dual ownership. + +"2. That the process of direct interference by the State in purchase and +resale is in general tedious and unsatisfactory; and that, therefore, +except in cases where at least half the occupiers or the owners so desire, +and except in districts included in the operations of the congested +districts board, the settlement should be made between owner and occupier, +subject to the necessary investigation by the State as to title, rental, +and security. + +"3. That it is desirable in the interests of Ireland that the present +owners of land should not as a result of any settlement be expatriated, +or, having received payment for their land, should find no object for +remaining in Ireland, and that as the effect of a far-reaching settlement +must necessarily be to cause the sale of tenancies throughout the whole of +Ireland, inducements should, wherever practicable, be afforded to selling +owners to continue to reside in that country. + +"4. That for the purpose of obtaining such a result, an equitable price +ought to be paid to the owners, which should be based upon income. + +"Income, as it appears to us, is second term rents--including all rents +fixed subsequent to the passing of the Act of 1896--or their fair +equivalent. + +"5. That the purchase price should be based upon income as indicated +above, and should be either the assurance by the State of such income, or +the payment of a capital sum producing such income at three per cent or at +three and one-fourth per cent, if guaranteed by the State, or if the +existing powers of trustees be sufficiently enlarged. + +"Costs of collection where such exist, not exceeding ten per cent, are not +included for the purpose of these paragraphs in the word 'income.' + +"6. That such income or capital sum should be obtainable by the owners:-- + +"(_a_) Without the requirement of capital outlay upon their part, such as +would be involved by charges for proving title to sell. Six years' +possession, as proposed in the bill brought forward in the session of +1902, appears to us a satisfactory method of dealing with the matter. + +"(_b_) Without the requirement of outlay to prove title to receive the +purchase money. + +"(_c_) Without unreasonable delay. + +"(_d_) Without loss of income pending reinvestment. + +"(_e_) And without leaving a portion of the capital sum as a guarantee +deposit. + +"7. That, as a necessary inducement to selling owners to continue to +reside in Ireland, the provision of the bill introduced by the chief +secretary for Ireland in the session of 1902 with regard to the purchase +of mansion houses, demesne lands, and home farms by the State, and resale +by it to the owners, ought to be extended. + +"8. We suggest that in certain cases it would be to the advantage of the +State as insuring more adequate security, and also an advantage to owners +in such cases, if upon the purchase by the State of the mansion house and +demesne land and resale to the owner, the house and demesne land should +not be considered a security to the mortgages. + +"9. That owners wishing to sell portions of grazing land in their own +hands for the purpose of enlarging neighbouring tenancies should be +entitled to make an agreement with the tenants, and that in the event of +proposed purchase by the tenants such grazing land may be considered as +part of the tenancies for the purpose of purchase. + +"10. That, in addition to the income, or capital sum producing the income, +the sum due for rent from the last rent day till the date of the agreement +for purchase and the hanging gale should be paid by the State to the +owner. + +"11. That all liabilities by the owner which run with the land, such as +head-rents, quit-rents, and tithe-rent charge, should be redeemed, and the +capital sum paid for such redemption deducted from the purchase money +payable to the owner. Provided always that the price of redemption should +be calculated on a basis not higher, as regards annual value, than is used +in calculating the purchase price of the estate. In any special cases +where it may have to be calculated upon a different basis, the owner +should not suffer thereby. Owners liable to drainage charges should be +entitled to redeem same upon equitable terms, having regard to the varying +rates of interest at which such loans were made. + +"12. That the amount of the purchase money payable by the tenants should +be extended over a series of years, and be at such a rate, in respect of +principal and interest, as will at once secure a reduction of not less +than fifteen per cent, or more than twenty-five per cent on second term +rents or their fair equivalent, with further periodical reductions as +under existing land purchase acts until such time as the treasury is +satisfied that the loan has been repaid. This may involve some assistance +from the State beyond the use of its credit, which, under circumstances +hereinafter mentioned, we consider may reasonably be granted. Facilities +should be provided for the redemption at any time of the purchase money or +part thereof by payment of the capital or any part thereof. + +"13. That the hanging gale, where such custom exists, should be included +in the loan and paid off in the instalments to be paid by the purchasing +occupier, and should not be a debt immediately recoverable from the +occupier, but the amount of rent ordinarily payable for the period between +the date when the last payment fell due and the date of agreement for sale +should be payable as part of the first instalment. + +"14. That counties wholly or partly under the operations of the congested +districts board, or other districts of a similar character (as defined by +the Congested Districts Board Acts and by section four, clause one, of Mr. +Wyndham's Land Purchase Amendment Bill of last session), will require +separate and exceptional treatment with a view to the better distribution +of the population and of the land, as well as for the acceleration and +extension of these projects for migration and enlargement of holdings +which the congested districts board, as at present constituted and with +its limited powers, has hitherto found it impossible to carry out upon an +adequate scale. + +"15. That any project for the solution of the Irish Land Question should +be accompanied by a settlement of the evicted tenants' question upon an +equitable basis. + +"16. That sporting and riparian rights should remain as they are, subject +to any provisions of existing Land Purchase Acts. + +"17. That the failure to enforce the Labourers Acts in certain portions of +the country constitutes a serious grievance, and that in districts where, +in the opinion of the local government board, sufficient accommodation has +not been made for the housing of the labouring classes, power should be +given to the local government board, in conjunction with the local +authorities, to acquire sites for houses and allotments. + +"18. That the principle of restriction upon subletting might be extended +to such control as may be practicable over resales of purchasers' interest +and mortgages, with a view to maintaining unimpaired the value of the +State's security for outstanding instalments on loans. + +"And whereas we are agreed that no settlement can give peace and +contentment to Ireland or afford reasonable and fair opportunity for the +development of the resources of the country, which fails to satisfy the +just claims of both owners and occupiers, + +"And whereas such settlement can only be effected by the assistance of the +State, which, as a principle, has been employed in former years, + +"And whereas it appears to us that, for the healing of differences and the +welfare of the country, such assistance should be given, and can be given, +and can effect a settlement without either undue cost to the treasury or +appreciable risk with regard to the money advanced, we are of opinion that +any reasonable difference arising between the sum advanced by the State, +and ultimately repaid to it, may be justified by the following +considerations:-- + +"That for the future welfare of Ireland, and for the smooth working of any +measure dealing with the transfer of land, it is necessary:-- + +"1. That the occupiers should be started on their new career as owners on +a fair and favourable basis, insuring reasonable chances of success, and +that in view of the responsibilities to be assumed by them they should +receive some inducement to purchase. + +"2. That the owners should receive some recognition of the facts that +selling may involve sacrifice of sentiment, that they have already +suffered heavily by the operation of the land acts, and that they should +receive some inducement to sell. + +"3. That for the benefit of the whole community it is of the greatest +importance that income derived from sale of property in Ireland should +continue to be expended in Ireland. + +"And we further submit that, as a legitimate setoff against any demand +upon the State, it must be borne in mind that, upon the settlement of the +land question in Ireland, the cost of administration of the law and the +cost of the Royal Irish Constabulary would be materially and permanently +lessened. + +"We do not, at the present time, desire to offer further recommendations +upon the subject of finance which must necessarily be regulated by the +approval of the government to the principles of the proposals above +formulated except that, in our opinion, the principles of reduction of the +sinking fund in the event of loss to the State by an increase of the +value of money should be extended by the inclusion of the principle of +increase of the sinking fund in favour of the purchasers in the event of +gain to the State by decrease in the value of money. + +"Inasmuch as one of the main conditions of success in reference to any +land purchase scheme must be its prompt application and the avoidance of +those complicated investigations and legal delays which have hitherto +clogged all legislative proposals for settling the relations between Irish +landlords and tenants, we deem it of urgent importance that no protracted +period of time should ensue before a settlement based upon the +above-mentioned principles is carried out; that the executive machinery +should be effective, competent, and speedy, and that investigations +conducted by it should not entail cost upon owner or occupier; and, as a +further inducement to despatch, we suggest that any state aid, apart from +loans which may be required for carrying out a scheme of land purchase as +herein proposed, should be limited to transactions initiated within five +years after the passing of the act. + +"We wish to place on record our belief that an unexampled opportunity is +at the present moment afforded his Majesty's government of effecting a +reconciliation of classes in Ireland upon terms which, as we believe, +involve no permanent increase of Imperial expenditure in Ireland; and that +there would be found on all sides an earnest desire to cooperate with the +government in securing the success of a Land Purchase Bill, which, by +effectively and rapidly carrying out the principles above indicated, would +bring peace and prosperity to the country. + +"Signed at the Mansion House, Dublin, this third day of January, 1903. + + "DUNRAVEN (_Chairman_) JOHN REDMOND + "MAYO WM. O'BRIEN + "W. H. HUTCHESON POE T. W. RUSSELL + "NUGENT T. EVERARD T. C. HARRINGTON" + +It soon transpired that the idea of a conference between landlords' and +tenants' representatives was the government plan for laying the foundation +of the bill that they contemplated introducing as a government measure +later on. The tenants' representatives, who, in the then position of the +land question, with prices falling and the third revision term looming in +the distance, had all the trumps in their hands, were hopelessly +outmanoeuvred by the landlord section. + +The question to be discussed was largely a financial one, but still the +tenants had not a man of financial ability at the board. It is true the +members of the conference were nominated, and not selected by their +respective sides, though afterwards, for reasons easily understood, the +nominations were ratified by the parties concerned. But nominated by whom? +By a Captain Shawe Taylor, a personage popular with all parties, but in +this matter undoubtedly the agent of the government. The conference sat +five times, and all through the proceedings the nationalist +representatives were rubbing their hands with glee, for they thought the +millennium had come. + +The landlord party, on the other hand, were in nightly communication with +the Castle. Treasury experts were drafted over to Dublin, and no stone was +left unturned to secure for the landlords a measure which would satisfy +the most exacting. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. On the 3d +of January, 1903, the land conference issued its report. Clear-headed +politicians saw at once that the tenants had played the game and lost. +Every advantage or benefit that the landlord sought or claimed was secured +to him by this treaty, as it was afterwards styled, in terms that could +not be gainsaid. The tenants' clauses in the report were mostly pious +expressions of opinion, which were afterwards, when the Land Bill came to +be drafted, brushed aside, or quietly ignored. But all was not yet lost. + +The _Freeman's Journal_, under the able guidance of Mr. Thomas Sexton, in +a series of powerful articles, reviewed the whole position. It boldly but +temperately pointed out the defects in the conference report. It refused +to shout with the crowd. It could not see that much was gained. It clearly +saw that a great deal had been lost. The bill, a large and complicated +measure of eighty-nine clauses, was shortly afterwards introduced. It was +a great measure and aimed at the final settlement of the land question. +And, indeed, such an end, devoutly to be wished, would certainly have been +attained had the amendments pressed on the government during the passage +of the bill by the organ of the tenants been accepted and embodied in the +act. + +Clause after clause was closely examined, and the defects exposed by Mr. +Sexton in a series of articles, inspired if not actually written by him in +the _Freeman_. He had done much service for Ireland in the past, but I +doubt if his great abilities had ever been better applied than to the work +of examination, elucidation, and amendment of the Land Bill of 1903. + +His criticisms culminated in the publication of a schedule of amendments +which he claimed were necessary to the final settlement of the question. + +It is worth while now putting them on record, for they have a true +historical value. It is now seen in the working of the act, that the +acceptance of some of the amendments contained in the schedule materially +improved the bill, while the omission of the others explains the necessity +for still further legislation on the subject. + +The following is a summary of the amendments referred to:-- + +1. The rights of tenants under the Fair Rent Laws should be maintained +intact. + +2. No non-judicial tenant should be excluded from purchase by reason +merely of his tenure. Caretakers of holdings of which they had previously +been tenants should have the rights of tenants for the purpose of +purchasing such holdings. + +3. As a condition precedent to purchase, non-judicial rents and first term +rents fixed or agreed upon down to the end of 1896 should be reduced to +the average level, substantially of second term rents, and purchase should +not be transacted in the cases of non-judicial rents, or of such first +term rents, except upon this basis. + +4. The purchase system being voluntary, the compulsory limits of price in +this bill should be struck out. + +5. The aim of the system being to extinguish dual ownership and equal +treatment being essential both as between past and future transactions, +and also between the tenant who buys his holding and the landlord who buys +back his land sold by him to the State, no rent charge should be reserved. +Such a reservation would forever exclude the tenant from ownership, by +erecting a new and perpetual system of landlordism in the place of the +old. + +6. The rate of interest on consols being now two and one-half per cent, +the new guaranteed stock might be issued at two and one-half, instead of +two and three-fourths as proposed, and by this means the decadal +reductions, instead of being abolished as the bill provides, might be +allowed at the rate of eight per cent; or, at the option of the purchaser, +the period during which his annuity would be payable could be shortened by +about ten years. If the annuity rate were three and one-half, the +purchaser might be allowed to choose between decadal reductions at the +rate of eleven per cent, and a term of redemption shorter by nearly +twenty years than that prescribed in the bill. + +7. Sales of untenanted land, and, in particular, resales of demesne or +other land to vendors, should be subject to the needs of migration, of +enlarged holdings, and of making provision for evicted tenants, in the +case of each estate or district, and no evicted farm should be resold to +the vendor, or sold to a new tenant, if the evicted tenant, or his +personal representative, is willing to become the purchaser. + +8. The cost of improvement of estates and untenanted land, being charged +to every purchaser and repaid by his annuity, should be provided for as +part of the advances required for the purposes of this act, leaving the +reserve fund available to the estates commissioners for cases of +exceptional need. + +9. It is necessary to maintain the existing satisfactory condition that +the holding, or other land purchased, is to be sufficient security for the +repayment of the advance. + +10. The Purchase Aid Fund should be increased to not less than twenty +millions; and distributed either in inverse ratio to the number of years' +purchase in each case, or by a uniform grant of a fixed number of years' +purchase to every selling landlord. + +11. A term of years should be fixed in the bill, on the expiration of +which term the provisions for grants from the Purchase Aid Fund, resales +to landlords, and distribution of purchase money free of cost should cease +to operate. + +12. The subject of sporting and mineral rights calls for clear provision +dictated in the public interest, instead of the ambiguous, loose, and +inconclusive proposals which appear in the bill. + +13. It is requisite that the limit of advance to an evicted tenant be not +less than the ordinary limits; also, that provision be made for restoring +evicted tenants to their former holdings when vacant; for making +arrangements to that end when the holdings are occupied; and for stocking +the land. + +14. The cramping restrictions imposed on the congested districts board, +which have effectually prevented that body from dealing with the great +agrarian evil of the West, would not be removed or substantially +diminished by the meagre proposals of the bill; nor can the privations and +miseries endured in the congested districts be sufficiently abated in any +other way than by such a redistribution of grazing ranches as will provide +the people of those districts with land enough to yield them the means of +living. As the guarantee fund--now ample enough for every purpose--is +henceforth to apply alike to congested and other districts, and as +advances for land purchase are seen to be free from risk, and special +treatment is to be applied to congested estates throughout the country, it +is evident that the time has come for a uniform system of land purchase, +and that this is to be secured, either by investing the congested +districts board, for all the purposes of land purchase in their particular +areas, with powers corresponding to those of the estates commissioners, or +else by giving the estates commissioners jurisdiction for land purchase in +the congested districts, and authorizing the board to apply its income +wholly to its various other objects of expenditure. + +15. The proposals with regard to the Labourers' Acts are so trivial that +they cannot be amended. The government should be asked to appoint a +commission to inquire and report, this year, how the question may be +adequately dealt with; and a bill directed seriously to that end should be +passed into law next session. + +The Irish Land Act, 1903, otherwise known as the Wyndham Act, from the +name of the Irish chief secretary who introduced it, came into force on +the 1st of November, 1903. This is not the place to set forth its +provisions, but the principal advantages which accrue to a selling +landlord and a purchasing tenant availing of its provisions may be briefly +stated. The entire purchase money agreed upon is paid to the landlord in +cash. No part of the purchase money is retained as a guarantee deposit. +For the purchase of a single holding the limitations of preceding acts are +extended to L7000. + +The vendor of an estate shall receive in addition to the purchase money +from the tenants a bonus for his own immediate benefit. The landlord is +enabled to sell his demesne, and repurchase it at a profit. The landlord +may sell his estate direct to estate commissioners appointed by the act, +or to the congested districts board, and these bodies are enabled to +resell to the tenants after readjustment and partition of the holdings on +the estate if necessary. Enlarged powers of investment of purchase money +are conferred upon trustees. The principal advantages secured to the +tenant are as follows: At the end of sixty-eight and one-half years, a +tenant becomes owner in fee of his holding. As soon as the agreement to +purchase is signed, he ceases to be liable for rent. He is enabled to +repay the advance at the rate of three and one-fourth per cent of his +purchase money. (Though the reduction of the annuity rate from four per +cent under the previous act to three and one-fourth per cent under the +Wyndham Act is an undoubted advantage to a tenant, it is certainly to his +disadvantage that the amount set aside towards the sinking fund should be +reduced from one and one-fourth per cent and one per cent to one-half per +cent.) In congested districts the land commission, or congested districts +board, may purchase lands under certain conditions to enable them to deal +with the problem of congestion. + +The greatest blot on the measure is undoubtedly what is known as the +"Zones." The act provides that if the price agreed upon between the +parties allows a reduction of not less than ten per cent nor more than +thirty per cent on a tenant's existing rent, in the case of a second term +rent, and a reduction of not less than twenty per cent nor more than forty +per cent in the case of a first term tenant, the bargain _must_ be +sanctioned by the commissioners without inquiring whether the land in +question is security for the "advance." + +The result of this provision is that tenants have been wheedled or cajoled +into agreeing to bargains which they will find it difficult or impossible +to keep. The price of land became artificially inflated, and the average +of eighteen years' purchase paid for land in Ireland under the previous +Purchase Acts has been raised by five to seven years' purchase. It is +essential that free bargaining should be restored if purchase is to +proceed on sound economic lines. In spite of the efforts of the wisest of +their leaders, the Irish tenantry are rushing into bargains under the +Wyndham Act that may eventuate in dire consequences for themselves and for +the country. + +The importation of Canadian cattle when it comes will have a serious +effect on the Irish produce market, and a further decline in produce +prices may be expected. + +Will the Irish tenant be then able to discharge his liability to the State +and have sufficient margin for living? That is the question for the +future. The answer to it alone can settle whether we have yet reached +finality in the Irish Land Code. + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] Carlyle, Appendix, No. 17. + +[2] See Lecky, II., 216 _et seq._ + +[3] T. P. O'Connor, "The Parnell Movement," pp. 53, 54. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. + +Punctuation has been corrected without note. + +Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the +original. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Irish History and the Irish Question, by +Goldwin Smith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRISH HISTORY AND IRISH QUESTION *** + +***** This file should be named 34965.txt or 34965.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/9/6/34965/ + +Produced by Brian Foley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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