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+Project Gutenberg's A Popular History of Ireland V2, by Thomas D'Arcy McGee
+#2 in our series by Thomas D'Arcy McGee
+
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+Title: A Popular History of Ireland V2
+       From the earliest period to the emancipation of the Catholics
+
+Author: Thomas D'Arcy McGee
+
+Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6633]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on January 6, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A POPULAR HISTORY OF IRELAND ***
+
+
+
+
+This etext was produced by Gardner Buchanan with help from
+Charles Aldarondo and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A Popular History of Ireland: from the Earliest
+Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics
+
+by Thomas D'Arcy McGee
+
+In Two Volumes
+
+Volume II
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS--VOL. II
+
+
+BOOK VIII.
+(Continued from Volume I)
+
+CHAPTER   IV.--Sir Henry Sidney's Deputyship--Parliament
+               of 1569--The Second "Geraldine League"--
+               Sir James Fitzmaurice
+
+CHAPTER    V.--The "Undertakers" in Ulster and Leinster--
+               Defeat and Death of Sir James Fitzmaurice
+
+CHAPTER   VI.--Sequel of the Second Geraldine League--
+               Plantation of Munster--Early Career of
+               Hugh O'Neil, Earl of Tyrone--Parliament
+               of 1585
+
+CHAPTER  VII.--Battle of Glenmalure--Sir John Perrott's
+               Administration--The Spanish Armada--
+               Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam--Escape of Hugh
+               Roe O'Donnell from Dublin Castle--
+               The Ulster Confederacy formed
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--The Ulster Confederacy--Feagh Mac Hugh
+               O'Byrne--Campaign of 1595--Negotiations,
+               English and Spanish--Battle of the Yellow
+               Ford--Its Consequences
+
+CHAPTER   IX.--Essex's Campaign of 1599--Battle of the
+               Curlieu Mountains--O'Neil's Negotiations
+               with Spain--Mountjoy Lord Deputy
+
+CHAPTER    X.--Mountjoy's Administration--Operations in
+               Ulster and Munster--Carew's "Wit and
+               Cunning"--Landing of Spaniards in the
+               South--Battle of Kinsale--Death of O'Donnell
+               in Spain
+
+CHAPTER   XI.--The Conquest of Munster--Death of Elizabeth,
+               and Submission of O'Neil--"The Articles
+               of Mellifont"
+
+CHAPTER  XII.--State of Religion and Learning during the
+               Reign of Elizabeth
+
+
+BOOK IX.
+
+CHAPTER    I.--James I.--Flight of the Earls--Confiscation
+               of Ulster--Penal Laws--Parliamentary Opposition
+
+CHAPTER   II.--Last years of James--Confiscation of the
+               Midland Counties--Accession of Charles I.--
+               Grievances and "Graces"--Administration of
+               Lord Strafford
+
+CHAPTER  III.--Lord Stafford's Impeachment and Execution--
+               Parliament of 1639-'41--The Insurrection of
+               1641--The Irish Abroad
+
+CHAPTER   IV.--The Insurrection of 1641
+
+CHAPTER    V.--The Catholic Confederation--Its Civil
+               Government and Military Establishment
+
+CHAPTER   VI.--The Confederate War--Campaign of 1643--
+               The Cessation
+
+CHAPTER  VII.--The Cessation and its Consequences
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--Glamorgan's Treaty--The New Nuncio Rinuccini--
+               O'Neil's Position--The Battle of Benburb
+
+CHAPTER   IX.--From the Battle of Benburb till the Landing
+               of Cromwell at Dublin
+
+CHAPTER    X.--Cromwell's Campaign--1649-1650
+
+CHAPTER   XI.--Close of the Confederate War
+
+CHAPTER  XII.--Ireland under the Protectorate--
+               Administration of Henry Cromwell--
+               Death of Oliver
+
+
+BOOK X.
+
+CHAPTER    I.--Reign of Charles II.
+
+CHAPTER   II.--Reign of Charles II. (Concluded)
+
+CHAPTER  III.--The State of Religion and Learning in
+               Ireland during the Seventeenth Century
+
+CHAPTER   IV.--Accession of James II.--Tyrconnell's
+               Administration
+
+CHAPTER    V.--King James to Ireland--Irish Parliament
+               of 1689
+
+CHAPTER   VI.--The Revolutionary War--Campaign of 1639--
+               Sieges of Derry and Enniskillen
+
+CHAPTER  VII.--The Revolutionary War--Campaign of 1690--
+               Battle of the Boyne--Its Consequences--
+               the Sieges of Athlone and Limerick
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--The Winter of 1690-91
+
+CHAPTER   IX.--The Revolutionary War--Campaign of 1691--
+               Battle of Aughrim--Capitulation of Limerick
+
+CHAPTER    X.--Reign of King William
+
+CHAPTER   XI.--Reign of Queen Anne
+
+CHAPTER  XII.--The Irish Soldiers Abroad, during the Reigns
+               of William and Anne
+
+
+BOOK XI.
+
+CHAPTER    I.--Accession of George I.--Swift's Leadership
+
+CHAPTER   II.--Reign of George II.--Growth of Public
+               Spirit--The "Patriot" Party--Lord
+               Chesterfield's Administration
+
+CHAPTER  III.--The Last Jacobite Movement--The Irish
+               Soldiers Abroad--French Expedition under
+               Thurot, or O'Farrell
+
+CHAPTER   IV.--Reign of George II. (Concluded)--
+               Malone's Leadership
+
+CHAPTER    V.--Accession of George III.--Flood's
+               Leadership--Octennial Parliaments
+               Established
+
+CHAPTER   VI.--Flood's Leadership--State of the Country
+               between 1760 and 1776
+
+CHAPTER  VII.--Grattan's Leadership--"Free Trade" and
+               the Volunteers
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--Grattan's Leadership--Legislative and
+               Judicial Independence Established
+
+CHAPTER   IX.--The Era of Independence--First Period
+
+CHAPTER    X.--The Era of Independence--Second Period
+
+CHAPTER   XI.--The Era of Independence--Third Period--
+               Catholic Relief Bill of 1793
+
+CHAPTER  XII.--The Era of Independence--Effects of the
+               French Revolution in Ireland--Secession of
+               Grattan, Curran, and their Friends, from
+               Parliament, in 1797
+
+CHAPTER XIII.--The United Irishmen
+
+CHAPTER  XIV.--Negotiations with France and Holland--
+               The Three Expeditions Negotiated by Tone
+               and Lewines
+
+CHAPTER   XV.--The Insurrection of 1798
+
+CHAPTER  XVI.--The Insurrection of 1798--The Wexford
+               Insurrection
+
+CHAPTER XVII.--The Insurrection elsewhere--Fate of the
+               Leading United Irishmen
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.--Administration of Lord Cornwallis--
+               Before the Union
+
+CHAPTER  XIX.--Last Session of the Irish Parliament--
+               The Legislative Union of Great Britain
+               and Ireland
+
+
+BOOK XII.
+
+CHAPTER    I.--After the Union--Death of Lord Clare--
+               Robert Emmet's Emeute
+
+CHAPTER   II.--Administration of Lord Hardwick (1801 to
+               1806), and of the Duke of Bedford (1806
+               to 1808)
+
+CHAPTER  III.--Administration of the Duke of Richmond
+               (1807 to 1813)
+
+CHAPTER   IV.--O'Connell's Leadership--1813 to 1821
+
+CHAPTER    V.--Retrospect of the State of Religion and
+               Learning during the Reign of George III
+
+CHAPTER   VI.--The Irish Abroad, during the Reign of
+               George III
+
+CHAPTER  VII.--O'Connell's Leadership--The Catholic
+               Association--1821 to 1825
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--O'Connell's Leadership--The Clare Election--
+               Emancipation of the Catholics
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF IRELAND
+
+
+BOOK VIII.
+
+THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION.
+(Continued from Volume I)
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+SIR HENRY SIDNEY'S DEPUTYSHIP--PARLIAMENT OF 1569--
+THE SECOND "GERALDINE LEAGUE"--SIR JAMES FITZ-MAURICE.
+
+Sir Henry Sidney, in writing to his court, had always
+reported John O'Neil as "the only strong man in Ireland."
+Before his rout at Lough Swilly, he could commonly call
+into the field 4,000 foot and 1,000 horse; and his two
+years' revolt cost Elizabeth, in money, about 150,000
+pounds sterling "over and above the cess laid on the
+country"--besides "3,500 of her Majesty's soldiers" slain
+in battle. The removal of such a leader in the very prime
+of life was therefore a cause of much congratulation to
+Sidney and his royal mistress, and as no other "strong
+man" was likely soon to arise, the Deputy now turned with
+renewed ardour to the task of establishing the Queen's
+supremacy, in things spiritual as well as temporal. With
+this view he urged that separate governments, with large
+though subordinate military as well as civil powers,
+should be created for Munster and Connaught--with competent
+Presidents, who should reside in the former Province at
+Limerick, and in the latter, at Athlone. In accordance
+with this scheme--which continued to be acted upon for
+nearly a century--Sir Edward Fitton was appointed first
+President of Connaught, and Sir John Perrott, the Queen's
+illegitimate brother, President of Munster. Leinster and
+Ulster were reserved as the special charge of the Lord
+Deputy.
+
+About the time of O'Neil's death Sidney made an official
+progress through the South and West, which he describes
+as wofully wasted by war, both town and country. The
+earldom of the loyal Ormond was far from being well
+ordered; and the other great nobles were even less
+favourably reported; the Earl of Desmond could neither
+rule nor be ruled; the Earl of Clancarty "wanted force
+and credit;" the Earl of Thomond had neither wit to govern
+"nor grace to learn of others;" the Earl of Clanrickarde
+was well intentioned, but controlled wholly by his wife.
+Many districts had but "one-twentieth" of their ancient
+population; Galway was in a state of perpetual defence.
+Athenry had but four respectable householders left, and
+these presented him with the rusty keys of their once
+famous town, which they confessed themselves unable to
+defend, impoverished as they were by the extortions of
+their lords. All this to the eye of the able Englishman
+had been the result of that "cowardly policy, or lack of
+policy," whose sole maxims had been to play off the great
+lords against each other and to retard the growth of
+population, least "through their quiet might follow"
+future dangers to the English interest. His own policy
+was based on very different principles. He proposed to
+make the highest heads bow to the supremacy of the royal
+sword--to punish with exemplary rigour every sign of
+insubordination, especially in the great--and, at the
+same time, to encourage with ample rewards, adventurers,
+and enterprises of all kinds. He proposed to himself
+precisely the part Lord Stafford acted sixty years later,
+and he entered on it with a will which would have won
+the admiration of that unbending despot. He prided himself
+on the number of military executions which marked his
+progress. "Down they go in every corner," he writes, "and
+down they shall go, God willing!" He seized the Earl of
+Desmond in his own town of Kilmallock; he took the sons
+of Clanrickarde, in Connaught, and carried them prisoners
+to Dublin. Elizabeth became alarmed at these extreme
+measures, and Sidney obtained leave to explain his new
+policy in person to her Majesty. Accordingly in October
+he sailed for England, taking with him the Earl and his
+brother John of Desmond, who had been invited to Dublin,
+and were detained as prisoners of State; Hugh O'Neil, as
+yet known by no other title than Baron of Dungannon; the
+O'Conor Sligo, and other chiefs and noblemen. He seems
+to have carried his policy triumphantly with the Queen,
+and from henceforth for many a long year "the dulce ways"
+and "politic drifts" recommended by the great Cardinal
+Statesman of Henry VIII. were to give way to that
+remorseless struggle in which the only alternative offered
+to the Irish was--uniformity or extermination. Of this
+policy, Sir Henry Sidney may, it seems to me, be fairly
+considered the author; Stafford, and even Cromwell were
+but finishers of his work. One cannot repress a sigh that
+so ferocious a design as the extermination of a whole
+people should be associated in any degree with the
+illustrious name of Sidney.
+
+The triumphant Deputy arrived at Carrickfergus in September,
+1568, from England. Here he received the "submission,"
+as it is called, of Tirlogh, the new O'Neil, and turned
+his steps southwards in full assurance that this chief
+of Tyrone was not another "strong man" like the last. A
+new Privy Council was sworn in on his arrival at Dublin,
+with royal instructions "to concur with" the Deputy, and
+20,000 pounds a year in addition to the whole of the cess
+levied in the country were guaranteed to enable him to
+carry out his great scheme of the "reduction." A Parliament
+was next summoned for the 17th of January, 1569, the
+first assembly of that nature which had been convened
+since Lord Sussex's rupture with _his_ Parliament nine
+years before.
+
+The acts of this Parliament, of the 11th of Elizabeth,
+are much more voluminous than those of the 2nd of the
+same reign. The constitution of the houses is also of
+interest, as the earlier records of every form of government
+must always be. Three sessions were held in the first
+year, one in 1570, and one in 1571. After its dissolution,
+no Parliament sat in Ireland for fourteen years--so
+unstable was the system at that time, and so dependent
+upon accidental causes for its exercise. The first
+sittings of Sidney's Parliament were as stormy as those
+of Sussex. It was found that many members presented
+themselves pretending to represent towns not incorporated,
+and others, officers of election, had returned themselves.
+Others, again, were non-resident Englishmen, dependent
+on the Deputy who had never seen the places for which
+they claimed to sit. The disputed elections of all
+classes being referred to the judges, they decided that
+non-residence did not disqualify the latter class; but
+that those who had returned themselves, and those chosen
+for non-corporate towns, were inadmissible. This double
+decision did not give the new House of Commons quite the
+desired complexion, though Stanihurst, Recorder of Dublin,
+the Court candidate, was chosen Speaker. The opposition
+was led by Sir Christopher Barnewall, an able and intrepid
+man, to whose firmness it was mainly due that a more
+sweeping proscription was not enacted, under form of law,
+at this period. The native Englishmen in the House were
+extremely unpopular out of doors, and Hooker, one of
+their number, who sat for the deserted borough of Athenry,
+had to be escorted to his lodgings by a strong guard,
+for fear of the Dublin mob. The chief acts of the first
+session were a subsidy, for ten years, of 13 shillings
+4 pence for every ploughland granted to the Queen; an
+act suspending Poyning's act for the continuance of
+_that_ Parliament; an act for the attainder of John
+O'Neil; an act appropriating to her Majesty the lands of
+the Knight of the Valley; an act authorizing the Lord
+Deputy to present to vacant benefices in Munster and
+Connaught for ten years; an act abolishing the title of
+"Captain," or _ruler_ of counties or districts, unless
+by special warrant under the great seal; an act for
+reversing the attainder of the Earl of Kildare. In the
+sittings of 1570 and '71, the chief acts were for the
+erection of free schools, for the preservation of the
+public records, for establishing an uniform measure in
+the sale of corn, and for the attainder of the White
+Knight, deceased. Though undoubtedly most of these statutes
+strengthened Sidney's hands and favoured his policy, they
+did not go the lengths which in his official correspondence
+he advocated. For the last seven years of his connection
+with Irish affairs, he was accordingly disposed to dispense
+with the unmanageable machinery of a Parliament. Orders
+in council were much more easily procured than acts of
+legislation, even when every care had been taken to pack
+the House of Commons with the dependents of the executive.
+
+The meeting of Parliament in 1569 was nearly coincident
+with the formal excommunication of Elizabeth by Pope
+Pius V. Though pretending to despise the bull, the Queen
+was weak enough to seek its revocation, through the
+interposition of the Emperor Maximilian. The high tone
+of the enthusiastic Pontiff irritated her deeply, and
+perhaps the additional severities which she now directed
+against her Catholic subjects, may be, in part, traced
+to the effects of the excommunication. In Ireland, the
+work of reformation, by means of civil disabilities and
+executive patronage, was continued with earnestness. In
+1564, all Popish priests and friars were prohibited from
+meeting in Dublin, or even coming within the city gates.
+Two years later, _The Book of Articles_, copied from the
+English Articles, was published, by order of "the
+Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical." The articles
+are twelve in number:--1. The Trinity in Unity; 2. The
+Sufficiency of the Scriptures to Salvation; 3. The
+Orthodoxy of Particular Churches; 4. The Necessity of
+Holy Orders; 5. The Queen's Supremacy; 6. Denial of the
+Pope's authority "to be more than other Bishops have;"
+7. The Conformity of the Book of Common Prayer to the
+Scriptures; 8. The Ministration of Baptism does not depend
+on the Ceremonial; 9. Condemns "Private Masses," and
+denies that the Mass can be a propitiatory Sacrifice for
+the Dead; 10. Asserts the Propriety of Communion in Both
+Kinds; 11. Utterly disallows Images, Relics and Pilgrimages;
+12. Requires a General Subscription to the foregoing
+Articles. With this creed, the Irish Establishment started
+into existence, at the command and, of course, with all
+the aid of the civil power. The Bishops of Meath and
+Kildare, the nearest to Dublin, for resisting it were
+banished their sees; the former to die an exile in Spain,
+the latter to find refuge and protection with the Earl
+of Desmond. Several Prelates were tolerated in their
+sees, on condition of observing a species of neutrality;
+but all vacancies, if within the reach of the English
+power, were filled as they occurred by nominees of the
+crown. Those who actively and energetically resisted the
+new doctrines were marked out for vengeance, and we shall
+see in the next decade how Ireland's martyr age began.
+
+The honour and danger of organizing resistance to the
+progress of the new religion now devolved upon the noble
+family of the Geraldines of Munster, of whose principal
+members we must, therefore, give some account. The
+fifteenth Earl, who had concurred in the act of Henry's
+election, died in the year of Elizabeth's accession
+(1558), leaving three sons, Gerald the sixteenth Earl,
+John, and James. He had also an elder son by a first
+wife, from whom he had been divorced on the ground of
+consanguinity. This son disputed the succession
+unsuccessfully, retired to Spain, and there died. Earl
+Gerald, though one of the Peers who sat in the Parliament
+of the second year of Elizabeth, was one of those who
+strenuously opposed the policy of Sussex, and still more
+strenuously, as may be supposed, the more extreme policy
+of Sidney. His reputation, however, as a leader, suffered
+severely by the combat of Affane, in which he was taken
+prisoner by Thomas, the tenth Earl of Ormond, with whom
+he was at feud on a question of boundaries. By order of
+the Queen, the Lord Deputy was appointed arbitrator in
+this case, and though the decision was in favour of
+Ormond, Desmond submitted, came to Dublin, and was
+reconciled with his enemy in the chapter house of St.
+Patrick's. A year or two later, Gerald turned his arms
+against the ancient rivals of his house--the McCarthys
+of Muskerry and Duhallow--but was again taken prisoner,
+and after six months' detention, held to ransom by the
+Lord of Muskerry. After his release, the old feud with
+Ormond broke out anew--a most impolitic quarrel, as that
+Earl was not only personally a favourite with the Queen,
+but was also nearly connected with her in blood through
+the Boleyns. In 1567, as before related, Desmond was
+seized by surprise in his town of Kilmallock by Sidney's
+order, and the following autumn conveyed to London on a
+charge of treason and lodged in the Tower. This was the
+third prison he had lodged in within three years, and by
+far the most hopeless of the three. His brother, Sir John
+of Desmond, through the representations of Ormond, was
+the same year arrested and consigned to the same ominous
+dungeon, from which suspected noblemen seldom emerged,
+except when the hurdle waited for them at the gate.
+
+This double capture aroused the indignation of all the
+tribes of Desmond, and led to the formidable combination
+which, in reference to the previous confederacy in the
+reign of Henry, may be called "the second Geraldine
+League." The Earl of Clancarty, and such of the O'Briens,
+McCarthys, and Butlers, as had resolved to resist the
+complete revolution in property, religion, and law, which
+Sidney meditated, united together to avenge the wrongs
+of those noblemen, their neighbours, so treacherously
+arrested and so cruelly confined. Sir James, son of Sir
+Maurice Fitzgerald of Kerry, commonly called James
+Fitz-Maurice, cousin-germain to the imprisoned noblemen,
+was chosen leader of the insurrection. He was, according
+to the testimony of an enemy, Hooker, member for Athenry,
+"a deep dissembler, passing subtile, and able to compass
+any matter he took in hand; courteous, valiant, expert
+in martial affairs." To this we may add that he had
+already reached a mature age; was deeply and sincerely
+devoted to his religion; and, according to the eulogist
+of the rival house of Ormond, one whom nothing could
+deject or bow down, a scorner of luxury and ease, insensible
+to danger, impervious to the elements, preferring, after
+a hard day's fighting, the bare earth to a luxurious
+couch.
+
+One of the first steps of the League was to despatch an
+embassy for assistance to the King of Spain and the Pope.
+The Archbishop of Cashel, the Bishop of Emly, and James,
+the youngest brother of Desmond, were appointed on this
+mission, of which Sidney was no sooner apprised than he
+proclaimed the confederates traitors, and at once prepared
+for A campaign in Munster. The first blow was struck by
+the taking of Clogrennan Castle, which belonged to Sir
+Edmond Butler, one of the adherents of the League. The
+attack was led by Sir Peter Carew, an English adventurer,
+who had lately appeared at Dublin to claim the original
+grant made to Robert Fitzstephen of the moiety of the
+kingdom of Cork, and who at present commanded the garrison
+of Kilkenny. The accomplished soldier of fortune anticipated
+the Deputy's movements by this blow at the confederated
+Butlers, who retaliated by an abortive attack on Kilkenny,
+and a successful foray into Wexford, in which they took
+the Castle of Enniscorthy. Sidney, taking the field in
+person, marched through Waterford and Dungarvan against
+Desmond's strongholds in the vicinity of Youghal. After
+a week's siege he took Castlemartyr, and continued his
+route through Barrymore to Cork, where he established
+his head-quarters. From Cork, upon receiving the submission
+of some timid members of the League, he continued his
+route to Limerick, where Sir Edmond Butler and his brothers
+were induced to come in by their chief the Earl of Ormond.
+From Limerick he penetrated Clare, took the Castles of
+Clonoon and Ballyvaughan; he next halted some time at
+Galway, and returned to Dublin by Athlone. Overawed by
+the activity of the Deputy, many others of the confederates
+followed the example of the Butlers. The Earl of Clancarty
+sued for pardon and delivered up his eldest son as a
+hostage for his good faith; the Earl of Thomond--more
+suspected than compromised--yielded all his castles,
+with the sole exception of Ibrackan. But the next year,
+mortified at the insignificance to which he had reduced
+himself, he sought refuge in France, from which he only
+returned when the intercession of the English ambassador,
+Norris, had obtained him full indemnity for the past.
+Sir James Fitzmaurice, thus deserted by his confederates,
+had need of all that unyielding firmness of character
+for which he had obtained credit. Castle after castle
+belonging to his cousins and himself was taken by the
+powerful siege trains of President Perrott; Castlemaine,
+the last stronghold which commanded an outlet by sea,
+surrendered after a three months' siege, gallantly
+maintained. The unyielding leader had now, therefore, no
+alternative but to retire into the impregnable passes of
+the Galtees, where he established his head-quarters. This
+mountain range, towering from two to three thousand feet
+over the plain of Ormond, stretches from north-west to
+south-east, some twenty miles, descending with many a
+gentle undulation towards the Funcheon and the Blackwater
+in the earldom of Desmond. Of all its valleys Aharlow
+was the fairest and most secluded. Well wooded, and well
+watered, with outlets and intricacies known only to the
+native population, it seemed as if designed for a nursery
+of insurrection. It now became to the patriots of the
+South what the valley of Glenmalure had long been for
+those of Leinster--a fortress dedicated by Nature to the
+defence of freedom. In this fastness Fitzmaurice continued
+to maintain himself, until a prospect of new combinations
+opened to him in the West.
+
+The sons of the Earl of Clanrickarde, though released
+from the custody of Sidney, receiving intimation that
+they were to be arrested at a court which Fitton, President
+of Connaught, had summoned at Galway, flew to arms and
+opened negotiations with Fitzmaurice. The latter,
+withdrawing from Aharlow, promptly joined them in Galway,
+and during the campaign which followed, aided them with
+his iron energy and sagacious counsel. They took and
+demolished the works of Athenry, and, in part, those of
+the Court of Athlone. Their successes induced the Deputy
+to liberate Clanrickarde himself, who had been detained
+a prisoner in Dublin, from the outbreak of his sons. On
+his return--their main object being attained--they
+submitted as promptly as they had revolted, and this hope
+also being quenched, Fitzmaurice found his way back again,
+with a handful of Scottish retainers, to the shelter of
+Aharlow. Sir John Perrott, having by this time no further
+sieges to prosecute, drew his toils closer and closer
+round the Geraldine's retreat. For a whole year, the
+fidelity of his adherents and the natural strength of
+the place enabled him to baffle all the President's
+efforts. But his faithful Scottish guards being at length
+surprised and cut off almost to a man, Fitzmaurice, with
+his son, his kinsman, the Seneschal of Imokilly, and the
+son of Richard Burke, surrendered to the President at
+Kilmallock, suing on his knees for the Queen's pardon,
+which was, from motives of policy, granted.
+
+On this conclusion of the contest in Munster, the Earl
+of Desmond and his brother, Sir John, were released from
+the Tower, and transferred to Dublin, where they were
+treated as prisoners on parole. The Mayor of the city,
+who was answerable for their custody, having taken them
+upon a hunting party in the open country, the brothers
+put spurs to their horses and escaped into Munster (1574).
+They were stigmatized as having broken their parole, but
+they asserted that it was intended on that party to waylay
+and murder them, and that their only safety was in flight.
+Large rewards were offered for their capture, alive or
+dead, but the necessities of both parties compelled a
+truce during the remainder of Sidney's official career--
+which terminated in his resignation--about four years
+after the escape of the Desmonds from Dublin. Thus were
+new elements of combination, at the moment least expected,
+thrown, into the hands of the Munster Catholics.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE "UNDERTAKERS" IN ULSTER AND LEINSTER--DEFEAT AND
+DEATH OF SIR JAMES FITZMAURICE.
+
+Queen Elizabeth, when writing to Lord Sussex of a rumoured
+rising by O'Neil, desired him to assure her lieges at
+Dublin, that if O'Neil did rise, "it would be for their
+advantage; for there will be estates for them who want."
+The Sidney policy of treating Ireland as a discovered
+country, whose inhabitants had no right to the soil,
+except such as the discoverers graciously conceded to
+them--begat a new order of men, unknown to the history
+of other civilized states, which order we must now be at
+some pains to introduce to the reader.
+
+These "Undertakers," as they were called, differed widely
+from the Norman invaders of a former age. The Norman
+generally espoused the cause of some native chief, and
+took his pay in land; what he got by the sword he held
+by the sword. But the Undertaker was usually a man of
+peace--a courtier like Sir Christopher Hatton--a politician
+like Sir Walter Raleigh--a poet like Edmund Spencer, or
+a spy and forger like Richard Boyle, first Earl of Cork.
+He came, in the wake of war, with his elastic "letters
+patent," or, if he served in the field, it was mainly
+with a view to the subsequent confiscations. He was adroit
+at finding flaws in ancient titles, skilled in all the
+feudal quibbles of fine and recovery, and ready to employ
+the secret dagger where hard swearing and fabricated
+documents might fail to make good his title. Sometimes
+men of higher mark and more generous dispositions, allured
+by the temptations of the social revolution, would enter
+on the same pursuits, but they generally miscarried from
+want of what was then cleverly called "subtlety," but
+which plain people could not easily distinguish from
+lying and perjury. What greatly assisted them in then:
+designs was the fact that feudal tenures had never been
+general in Ireland, so that by an easy process of reasoning
+they could prove nineteen-twentieths of all existing
+titles "defective," according to their notions of the
+laws of property.
+
+Sir Peter Carew, already mentioned, was one of the earliest
+of the Undertakers. He had been bred up as page to the
+Prince of Orange, and had visited the Courts of France,
+Germany, and Constantinople. He claimed, by virtue of
+his descent from Robert Fitzstephen, the barony of Idrone,
+in Carlow, and one half the kingdom of Desmond. Sir Henry
+Sidney had admitted these pretensions, partly as a menace
+against the Kavanaghs and Geraldines, and Sir Peter
+established himself at Leighlin, where he kept great
+house, with one hundred servants, over one hundred kerne,
+forty horse, a stall in his stable, a seat at his board
+for all comers. He took an active part in all military
+operations, and fell fighting gallantly on a memorable
+day to be hereafter mentioned.
+
+After the attainder of John the Proud in 1569, Sir Thomas
+Smith, Secretary to the Queen, obtained a grant of the
+district of the Ards of Down, for his illegitimate son,
+who accordingly entered on the task of its plantation.
+But the O'Neils of Clandeboy, the owners of the soil,
+attacked the young Undertaker, who met a grave where he
+had come to found a lordship. A higher name was equally
+unfortunate in the same field of adventure. Walter
+Devereux, Earl of Essex (father of the Essex still more
+unfortunate), obtained in 1573 a grant of one moiety of
+Farney and Clandeboy, and having mortgaged his English
+estates to the Queen for 10,000 pounds, associated with
+himself many other adventurers. On the 16th of August,
+he set sail from Liverpool, accompanied by the Lords
+Dacre and Rich, Sir Henry Knollys, the three sons of Lord
+Norris, and a multitude of the common people. But as he
+had left one powerful enemy at court in Leicester--so he
+found a second at Dublin, in the acting deputy, Fitzwilliam.
+Though gratified with the title of President of Ulster
+and afterwards that of Marshal of Ireland, he found his
+schemes constantly counteracted by orders from Dublin or
+from England. He was frequently ordered off from his
+head-quarters at Newry, on expeditions into Munster,
+until those who had followed his banner became disheartened
+and mutinous. The O'Neils and the Antrim Scots harassed
+his colony and increased his troubles. He attempted by
+treachery to retrieve his fortunes. Having invited the
+alliance of Con O'Donnell, he seized that chief and sent
+him prisoner to Dublin. Subsequently his chief opponent,
+Brian, lord of Clandeboy, paid him an amicable visit,
+accompanied by his wife, brother, and household. As they
+were seated at table on the fourth day of then--stay,
+the soldiers of Essex burst into the banquet hall, put
+them all, "women, youths and maidens," to the sword.
+Brian and his wife were saved from the slaughter only to
+undergo at Dublin the death and mutilation inflicted upon
+traitors. Yet the ambitious schemes of Walter of Essex
+did not prosper the more of all these crimes. He died at
+Dublin, two years afterwards (1576), in the 36th year of
+his age, as was generally believed from poison administered
+by the orders of the arch-poisoner, Leicester, who
+immediately upon his death married his widow.
+
+It is apparent that the interest of the Undertakers could
+not be to establish peace in Ireland so long as war might
+be profitably waged. The new "English interest" thus
+created was often hostile to the soundest rules of policy
+and always opposed to the dictates of right and justice;
+but the double desire to conquer and to convert--to
+anglicize and Protestantize--blinded many to the lawless
+means by which they were worked out. The massacre of 400
+persons of the chief families of Leix and Offally, which
+took place at Mullaghmast in 1577, is an evidence of how
+the royal troops were used to promote the ends of the
+Undertakers. To Mullaghmast, one of the ancient raths of
+Leinster, situated about five miles from Athy in Kildare,
+the O'Moores, O'Kellys, Lalors, and other Irish tribes
+were invited by the local commander of the Queen's troops,
+Francis Cosby. The Bowens, Hartpoles, Pigotts, Hovendons,
+and other adventurers who had grants or designs upon the
+neighbouring territory were invited to meet them. One
+of the Lalors, perceiving that none of those who entered
+the rath before him emerged again, caused his friends to
+fall back while he himself advanced alone. At the very
+entrance he beheld the dead bodies of some of his
+slaughtered kinsmen; drawing his sword, he fought his
+way back to his friends, who barely escaped with their
+lives to Dysart. Four hundred victims, including 180 of
+the name of O'Moore, are said to have fallen in this
+deliberate butchery. Rory O'Moore, the chief of his name,
+avenged this massacre by many a daring deed. In rapid
+succession he surprised Naas, Athy, and Leighlin. From
+the rapidity with which his blows were struck in Kildare,
+Carlow, and Kilkenny, he appeared to be ubiquitous. He
+was the true type of a guerilla leader, yet merciful as
+brave. While Naas was burning, he sat coolly at the
+market cross enjoying the spectacle, but he suffered no
+lives to be taken. Having captured Cosby, he did not,
+as might be expected, put him to death. His confidence
+in his own prowess and resources amounted to rashness,
+and finally caused his death. Coming forth from a wood
+to parley with a party of the Queen's troops led by his
+neighbour, the Lord of Ossory, a common soldier ran him
+through the body with a sword. This was on the last day
+of June, 1578--a day mournful through all the midland
+districts for the loss of their best and bravest captain.
+
+While these events occupied the minds and tongues of men
+in the North and East, a brief respite from the horrors
+of war was permitted to the province of Munster. The Earl
+of Desmond, only too happy to be tolerated in the possession
+of his 570,000 acres, was eager enough to testify his
+allegiance by any sort of service. His brothers, though
+less compliant, followed his example for the moment, and
+no danger was to be apprehended in that quarter, except
+from the indomitable James Fitzmaurice, self-exiled on
+the continent. No higher tribute could be paid to the
+character of that heroic man than the closeness with
+which all his movements were watched by English spies,
+specially set upon his track. They followed him to the
+French court, to St. Malo's (where he resided for some
+time with his family), to Madrid, whence he sent his two
+sons to the famous University of Alcala, and from Madrid
+to Rome. The honourable reception he received at the
+hands of the French and Spanish Sovereigns was duly
+reported; yet both being at peace with England, his plans
+elicited no open encouragement from either. At Rome,
+however, he obtained some material and much moral support.
+Here he found many zealous advocates among the English
+and Irish refugees--among them the celebrated Saunders,
+Alien, sometimes called Cardinal Alien, and O'Mulrian,
+Bishop of Killaloe. A force of about 1,000 men was enlisted
+at the expense of Pope Gregory XIII., in the Papal States,
+and placed under an experienced captain, Hercules Pisano.
+They were shipped at Civita Vecchia by a squadron under
+the command of Thomas Stukely, an English adventurer,
+who had served both for and against the Irish Catholics,
+but had joined Fitzmaurice in Spain and accompanied him
+to Rome. On the strength of some remote or pretended
+relationship to the McMurroghs, Stukely obtained from
+the Pope the titles of Marquis of Leinster and Baron of
+Idrone and Ross; at Fitzmaurice's urgent request--so it
+is stated--he was named Vice-Admiral of the fleet. The
+whole expedition was fitted out at the expense of the
+Pope, but it was secretly agreed that it should be
+supported, after landing in Ireland, at the charge of
+Philip II. Fitzmaurice, travelling overland to Spain,
+was to unite there with another party of adventurers,
+and to form a junction with Stukely and Pisano on the
+coast of Kerry. So with the Papal benediction gladdening
+his heart, and a most earnest exhortation from the Holy
+Father to the Catholics of Ireland to follow his banner,
+this noblest of all the Catholic Geraldines departed from
+Rome, to try again the hazard of war in his own country.
+
+This was in the spring of the year 1579. Sir Henry Sidney,
+after many years' direction of the government, had been
+recalled at his own request; Sir William Drury was acting
+as Lord Justice; and Sir Nicholas Malby as President of
+Munster. Expectation of the return of Fitzmaurice, at
+the head of a liberating expedition, began to be rife
+throughout the south and west, and the coasts were watched
+with the utmost vigilance. In the month of June, three
+persons having landed in disguise from a Spanish ship,
+at Dingle, were seized by government spies, and carried
+before the Earl of Desmond. On examination, one of them
+proved to be O'Haly, Bishop of Mayo, and another a friar
+named O'Rourke; the third is not named. By the timid,
+temporizing Desmond, they were forwarded to Kilmallock
+to Drury, who put them to every conceivable torture, in
+order to extract intelligence of Fitzmaurice's movements.
+After their thighs had been broken with hammers, they
+were hanged on a tree, and their bodies used as targets
+by the brutal soldiery. Fitzmaurice, with his friends,
+having survived shipwreck on the coast of Galicia, entered
+the same harbour (Dingle) on the 17th of July. But no
+tidings had yet reached Munster of Stukely and Pisano;
+and his cousin, the Earl, sent him neither sign of
+friendship nor promise of co-operation. He therefore
+brought his vessels round to the small harbour of Smerwick,
+and commenced fortifying the almost isolated rock of
+_Oilen-an-oir_--or golden island, so called from the
+shipwreck at that point of one of Martin Forbisher's
+vessels, laden with golden quartz, some years before.
+Here he was joined by John and James of Desmond, and by
+a band of 200 of the O'Flaherties of Galway, the only
+allies who presented themselves. These latter, on finding
+the expected Munster rising already dead, and the
+much-talked-of Spanish auxiliary force so mere a handful,
+soon withdrew in their own galleys, upon which an English
+ship and pinnace, sweeping round from Kinsale, carried
+off the Spanish vessels in sight of the powerless little
+fort. These desperate circumstances inspired desperate
+councils, and it was decided by the cousins to endeavour
+to gain the great wood of Kilmore, near Charleville--in
+the neighbourhood of Sir James' old retreat among the
+Galtee Mountains. In this march they were closely pursued
+by the Earl of Desmond, either in earnest or in sham,
+and were obliged to separate into three small bands, the
+brothers of the Earl retiring respectively to the fastnesses
+of Lymnamore and Glenfesk, while Fitzmaurice, with "a
+dozen horsemen and a few kerne," made a desperate push
+to reach the western side of the Shannon, where he hoped,
+perhaps, for better opportunity and a warmer reception.
+This proved for him a fatal adventure. Jaded after a long
+day's ride he was compelled to seize some horses from
+the plough, in the barony of Clanwilliam, in order to
+remount his men. These horses were the property of his
+relative, Sir William Burke, who, with his neighbour,
+Mac-I-Brien of Ara, pursued the fugitives to within six
+miles of Limerick, where Fitzmaurice, having turned to
+remonstrate with his pursuers, was fired at and mortally
+wounded. He did not instantly fall. Dashing into the
+midst of his assailants he cleft down the two sons of
+Burke, whose followers immediately turned and fled. Then
+alighting from his saddle, the wounded chief received
+the last solemn rites of religion from the hands of Dr.
+Allen. His body was decapitated by one of his followers,
+that the noble head might not be subjected to indignity;
+but the trunk being but hastily buried was soon afterwards
+discovered, carried to Kilmallock, and there hung up for
+a target and a show. This tragical occurrence took place
+near the present site of "Barrington's bridge," on the
+little river Mulkern, county of Limerick, on the 18th
+day of August, 1579. In honour of his part in the
+transaction William Burke was created Baron of
+Castleconnell, awarded a pension of 100 marks per annum,
+and received from Elizabeth an autograph letter of
+condolence on the loss of his sons: it is added by some
+writers that he died of joy on the receipt of so many
+favours. Such was the fate of the glorious hopes of Sir
+James Fitzmaurice. So ended in a squabble with churls
+about cattle, on the banks of an insignificant stream,
+a career which had drawn the attention of Europe, and
+had inspired with apprehension the lion-hearted Queen.
+
+As to the expedition under Stukely, its end was even more
+romantic. His squadron having put into the Tagus, he
+found the King of Portugal, Don Sebastian, on the eve of
+sailing against the Moors, and from some promise of after
+aid was induced to accompany that chivalrous Prince. On
+the fatal field of Alcacar, Stukely, Pisano, and the
+Italians under their command shared the fate of the
+Portuguese monarch and army. Neither Italy nor Ireland
+heard of them more.
+
+Gregory XIII. did not abandon the cause. On the receipt
+of all these ill-tidings he issued another Bull, highly
+laudatory of the virtues of James Fitzmaurice "of happy
+memory," and granting the same indulgence to those who
+would fight under John or James of Desmond, "as that
+which was imparted to those who fought against the Turks
+for the recovery of the Holy Land." This remarkable
+document is dated from Rome, the 13th of May, 1580.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+SEQUEL OF THE SECOND GERALDINE LEAGUE--PLANTATION
+OF MUNSTER--EARLY CAREER OF HUGH O'NEIL, EARL OF
+TYRONE--PARLIAMENT OF 1585.
+
+We must continue to read the history of Ireland by the
+light of foreign affairs, and our chief light at this
+period is derived from Spain. The death of Don Sebastian
+concentrated the thoughts of Philip II. on Portugal,
+which he forcibly annexed to the Spanish crown. The
+progress of the insurrection in the Netherlands also
+occupied so large a place in his attention, that his
+projects against Elizabeth were postponed, year after
+year, to the bitter disappointment of the Irish leaders.
+It may seem far-fetched to assert, but it is not the less
+certainly true, that the fate of Catholic Munster was
+intimately involved in the change of masters in Portugal,
+and the fluctuations of war in the Netherlands,
+
+The "Undertakers," who had set their hearts on having
+the Desmond estates, determined that the Earl and his
+brothers should not live long in peace, however peaceably
+they might be disposed. The old trick of forging letters,
+already alluded to, grew into a common and familiar
+practice during this and the following reign. Such a
+letter, purporting to be written by the Earl of Desmond
+--at that period only too anxious to be allowed to live
+in peace--was made public at Dublin and London. It was
+addressed to Sir William Pelham, the temporary Lord
+Justice, and among other passages contained this patent
+invention--that he (the Earl and his brethren) "had taken
+this matter in hand with great authority, both from the
+Pope's holiness and King Philip, who do undertake to
+further us in our affairs, as we shall need." It is
+utterly incredible that any man in Desmond's position
+could have written such a letter--could have placed in
+the hands of his enemies a document which must for ever
+debar him from entering into terms with Elizabeth or her
+representatives in Ireland. We have no hesitation,
+therefore, in classing this pretended letter to Pelham
+with those admitted forgeries which drove the unfortunate
+Lord Thomas Fitzgerald into premature revolt, in the
+reign of Henry VIII.
+
+Sir John of Desmond had been nominated by the gallant
+Fitzmaurice in his last moments as the fittest person to
+rally the remaining defenders of religion and property
+in Munster. The Papal standard and benediction were
+almost all he could bequeath his successor, but the energy
+of John, aided by some favourable local occurrences,
+assembled a larger force for the campaign of 1579 than
+had lately taken the field. Without the open aid of the
+Earl, he contrived to get together at one time as many
+as 2,000 men, amongst whom not the least active officer
+was his younger brother, Sir James, hardly yet of man's
+age. Drs. Saunders and Allen, with several Spanish
+officers, accompanied this devoted but undisciplined
+multitude, sharing all the hardships of the men, and the
+counsels of the chiefs. Their first camp, and, so to
+speak, the nursery of their army, was among the inaccessible
+mountains of Slievelogher in Kerry, where the rudiments
+of discipline were daily inculcated. When they considered
+the time ripe for action, they removed their camp to the
+great wood of Kilmore, near Charleville, from which they
+might safely assail the line of communication between
+Cork and Limerick, the main depots of Elizabeth's southern
+army. Nearly half-way between these cities, and within
+a few miles of their new encampment, stood the strong
+town of Kilmallock on the little river Lubach. This famous
+old Geraldine borough, the focus of several roads, was
+the habitual stopping place of the Deputies in their
+progress, as well as of English soldiers on their march.
+The ancient fortifications, almost obliterated by
+Fitzmaurice eleven years before, had been replaced by
+strong walls, lined with earthworks, and crowned by
+towers. Here Sir William Drury fixed his head-quarters
+in the spring of 1579, summoning to his aid all the
+Queen's lieges in Munster. With a force of not less than
+1,000 English regulars under his own command, and perhaps
+twice that number under the banner of the Munster
+"Undertakers" and others, who obeyed the summons, he made
+an unsuccessful attempt to beat up the Geraldine quarters
+at Kilmore. One division of his force, consisting of
+300 men by the Irish, and 200 by the English account,
+was cut to pieces, with their captains, Herbert, Price,
+and Eustace. The remainder retreated in disorder to their
+camp at Athneasy, a ford on the Morning Star River, four
+miles east of Kilmallock. For nine weeks Drury continued
+in the field, without gaining any advantage, yet so
+harassed day and night by his assailants that his health
+gave way under his anxieties. Despairing of recovery, he
+was removed by slow stages to Waterford--which would seem
+to indicate that his communications both with Cork and
+Limerick were impracticable--but died before reaching
+the first mentioned city. The chief command in Munster
+now devolved upon Sir Nicholas Malby, an officer who had
+seen much foreign service, while the temporary vacancy
+in the government was filled by the Council at Dublin,
+whose choice fell on Sir William Pelham, another
+distinguished military man, lately arrived from England.
+
+Throughout the summer and autumn months the war was
+maintained, with varying fortune on either side. In the
+combats of Gortnatibrid and Enagbeg, in Limerick, the
+final success, according to Irish accounts, was with the
+Geraldines, though they had the misfortune to lose Cardinal
+Allen, Sir Thomas Fitzgerald and Sir Thomas Browne.
+Retiring into winter quarters at Aharlow, they had a
+third engagement with the garrison of Kilmallock, which
+attempted, without success, to intercept their march.
+The campaign of 1580 was, however, destined to be decisive.
+Sir John of Desmond, being invited to an amicable conference
+by the Lord Barry, was entrapped by an English force
+under Captain Zouch, in the woods surrounding Castle
+Lyons, and put to death on the spot. The young Sir James
+had previously been captured on a foray into Muskerry,
+and executed at Cork, so that of the brothers there now
+remained but Earl Gerald, the next victim of the
+machinations which had already proved so fatal to his
+family. Perceiving at length the true designs cherished
+against him, the Earl took the field in the spring of
+1580, and obtained two considerable advantages, one at
+Pea-field, against the English under Roberts, and a second
+at Knockgraffon against the Anglo-Irish, under the brothers
+of the Earl of Ormond, the recusant members of the original
+league. Both these actions were fought in Tipperary, and
+raised anew the hopes of the Munster Catholics. An
+unsuccessful attempt on Adare was the only other military
+event in which the Earl bore a part; he wintered in
+Aharlow, where his Christmas was rather that of an outlaw
+than of the Lord Palatine of Desmond. In Aharlow he had
+the misfortune to lose the gifted and heroic Nuncio, Dr.
+Saunders, whose great services, at that period, taken
+together with those of Cardinal Allen, long endeared the
+faithful English to the faithful Irish Catholics.
+
+The sequel of the second Geraldine League may be rapidly
+narrated. In September, 1580, the fort at Smerwick, where
+Fitzmaurice had landed from Galicia, received a garrison
+of 800 men, chiefly Spaniards and Italians, under Don
+Stephen San Joseph. The place was instantly invested by
+sea and land, under the joint command of the new Lieutenant,
+Lord Grey de Wilton, and the Earl of Ormond. Among the
+officers of the besieging force were three especially
+notable men--Sir Walter Raleigh, the poet Spenser, and
+Hugh O'Neil, afterwards Earl of Tyrone, but at this time
+commanding a squadron of cavalry for her Majesty Queen
+Elizabeth. San Joseph surrendered the place on conditions;
+that savage outrage ensued, which is known in Irish
+history as "the massacre of Smerwick." Raleigh and
+Wingfield appear to have directed the operations by which
+800 prisoners of war were cruelly butchered and flung
+over the rocks. The sea upon that coast is deep and the
+tides swift; but it has not proved deep enough to hide
+that horrid crime, or to wash the stains of such wanton
+bloodshed from the memory of its authors!
+
+For four years longer the Geraldine League flickered in
+the South. Proclamations offering pardon to all concerned,
+except Earl Gerald and a few of his most devoted adherents,
+had their effect. Deserted at home, and cut off from
+foreign assistance, the condition of Desmond grew more
+and more intolerable. On one occasion he narrowly escaped
+capture by rushing with his Countess into a river, and
+remaining concealed up to the chin in water. His dangers
+can hardly be paralleled by those of Bruce after the
+battle of Falkirk, or by the more familiar adventures of
+Charles Edward. At length, on the night of the 11th of
+November, 1584, he was surprised with only two followers
+in a lonesome valley about five miles distant from Tralee,
+among the mountains of Kerry. The spot is still remembered,
+and the name of "the Earl's road" transports the fancy
+of the traveller to that tragical scene. Cowering over
+the embers of a half-extinct fire in a miserable hovel,
+the lord of a country, which in time of peace had yielded
+an annual rental of "40,000 golden pieces," was despatched
+by the hands of common soldiers, without pity, or time,
+or hesitation. A few followers watching their _creaghts_
+or herds, farther up the valley, found his bleeding trunk
+flung out upon the highway; the head was transported over
+seas, to rot upon the spikes of London Tower.
+
+The extirpation of the Munster Geraldines, in the right
+line, according to the theory of the "Undertakers" and
+the Court of England in general, vested in the Queen the
+570,000 acres belonging to the late Earl. Proclamation
+was accordingly made throughout England, inviting "younger
+brothers of good families" to undertake the plantation
+of Desmond--each planter to obtain a certain scope of
+land, on condition of settling thereupon so many
+families--"none of the native Irish to be admitted."
+Under these conditions, Sir Christopher Hatton took up
+10,000 acres in Waterford; Sir Walter Raleigh 12,000
+acres, partly in Waterford and partly in Cork; Sir William
+Harbart, or Herbert, 13,000 acres in Kerry; Sir Edward
+Denny 6,000 in the same county; Sir Warham, St. Leger,
+and Sir Thomas Norris, 6,000 acres each in Cork; Sir
+William Courtney 10,000 acres in Limerick; Sir Edward
+Fitton 11,500 acres in Tipperary and Waterford, and Edmund
+Spenser a modest 3,000 acres in Cork, on the beautiful
+Blackwater. The other notable Undertakers were the Hides,
+Butchers, Wirths, Berklys, Trenchards, Thorntons, Bourchers,
+Billingsleys, &c., &c. Some of these grants, especially
+Raleigh's, fell in the next reign into the ravening maw
+of Richard Boyle, the so-called "_great_ Earl of
+Cork"--probably the most pious hypocrite to be found in
+the long roll of the "Munster Undertakers."
+
+Before closing the present chapter, we must present to
+the reader, in a formal manner, the personage whose career
+is to occupy the chief remaining part of the present
+Book--Hugh O'Neil, best known by the title of Earl of
+Tyrone. We have seen him in the camp of the enemies of
+his country, learning the art of war on the shores of
+Dingle Bay--a witness to the horrors perpetrated at
+Smerwick. We may find him later in the same war--in
+1584--serving under Perrott and Norris, along the Foyle
+and the Bann, for the expulsion of the Antrim Scots. The
+following year, for these and other good services, he
+received the patent of the Earldom originally conferred
+on his grandfather, Con O'Neil, but suffered to sink into
+abeyance by the less politic "John the Proud," in the
+days when he made his peace with the Queen. The next year
+he obtained from his clansmen the still higher title of
+O'Neil, and thus he contrived to combine, in his own
+person, every principle of authority likely to ensure
+him following and obedience, whether among the clansmen
+of Tyrone, or the townsmen upon its borders.
+
+O'Neil's last official act of co-operation with the Dublin
+government may be considered his participation in the
+Parliament convoked by Sir John Perrott in 1585, and
+prorogued till the following year. It is remarkable of
+this Parliament, the third and last of Elizabeth's long
+reign, that it was utterly barren of ecclesiastical
+legislation, if we except "an act against sorcery and
+witchcraft" from that category. The attainder of the late
+Earl of Desmond, and the living Viscount of Baltinglass,
+in arms with the O'Byrnes in Glenmalure, are the only
+measures of consequence to be found among the Irish
+statutes of the 27th and 28th of Elizabeth. But though
+not remarkable for its legislation, the Parliament of
+1585 is conspicuously so for its composition. Within its
+walls with the peers, knights, and burgesses of the
+anglicized counties, sat almost all the native chiefs of
+Ulster, Connaught, and Munster. The Leinster chiefs
+recently in arms, in alliance with the Earl of Desmond,
+generally absented themselves, with the exception of
+Feagh, son of Hugh, the senior of the O'Byrnes, and one
+of the noblest spirits of his race and age. He appears
+not to have had a seat in either House; but attended, on
+his own business, under the protection of his powerful
+friends and sureties.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+BATTLE OF GLENMALURE--SIR JOHN PERROTT'S ADMINISTRATION--
+THE SPANISH ARMADA--LORD DEPUTY FITZWILLIAM--ESCAPE OF
+HUGH ROE O'DONNELL FROM DUBLIN CASTLE--THE ULSTER
+CONFEDERACY FORMED.
+
+In pursuing to its close the war in Munster, we were
+obliged to omit the mention of an affair of considerable
+importance, which somewhat consoled the Catholics for
+the massacre at Smerwick and the defeat of the Desmonds.
+We have already observed that what Aharlow was to the
+southern insurgents, the deep, secluded valley of Glenmalure
+was to the oppressed of Leinster. It afforded, at this
+period, refuge to a nobleman whose memory has been most
+improperly allowed to fall into oblivion. This was James
+Eustace, Viscount Baltinglass, who had suffered imprisonment
+in the Castle for refusing to pay an illegal tax of a
+few pounds, who was afterwards made the object of a
+special, vindictive enactment, known as "the Statute of
+Baltinglass," and was in the summer of 1580, on his
+keeping, surrounded by armed friends and retainers. His
+friend, Sir Walter Fitzgerald, son-in-law to the chief
+of Glenmalure, and many of the clansmen of Leix, Offally
+and Idrone, repaired to him at Slieveroe, near the modern
+village of Blessington, from which they proceeded to form
+a junction with the followers of the dauntless Feagh
+McHugh O'Byrne of Ballincor. Lord Grey, of Wilton, on
+reaching Dublin in August of that year, obtained information
+of this gathering, and determined to strike a decisive
+blow in Wicklow, before proceeding to the South. All the
+chief captains in the Queen's service--the Malbys, Dudleys,
+Cosbys, Carews, Moors--had repaired to meet him at Dublin,
+and now marched, under his command, into the neighbouring
+highlands. The Catholics, they knew, were concentrated
+in the valley, on one of the slopes of which Lord Grey
+constructed a strong camp, and then, having selected the
+fittest troops for the service, gave orders to attack
+the Irish camp. Sir William Stanley, one of the officers
+in command, well describes the upshot, in a letter to
+Secretary Walshingham: "When we entered the glen," he
+writes, "we were forced to slide, sometimes three or four
+fathoms, ere we could stay our feet; it was in depth,
+where we entered, at least a mile, full of stones, rocks,
+logs and wood; in the bottom thereof a river full of
+loose stones, which we were driven to Cross divers times
+* * * before we were half through the glen, which is
+four miles in length, the enemy charged us very hotly
+* * * it was the hottest piece of service that ever I
+saw, for the time, in any place." As might have been
+expected, the assailants were repulsed with heavy loss;
+among the slain were Sir Peter Carew, Colonel Francis
+Cosby of Mullaghmast memory, Colonel Moor, and other
+distinguished officers. The full extent of the defeat
+was concealed from Elizabeth, as well as it could be, in
+the official despatches; but before the end of August
+private letters, such as we have quoted, conveyed the
+painful intelligence to the court. The action was fought
+on the 25th day of August.
+
+Lord Grey's deputyship, though it lasted only two years,
+included the three decisive campaigns in the South,
+already described. At the period of his recall--or leave
+of absence--the summer of 1582, that "most populous and
+plentiful country," to use the forcible language of his
+eloquent Secretary, Edmund Spenser, was reduced to "a
+heap of carcasses and ashes." The war had been truly a
+war of extermination; nor did Munster recover her due
+proportion of the population of the island for nearly
+two centuries afterwards.
+
+The appointment of Sir John Perrott dates from 1583,
+though he did not enter on the duties of Lord Deputy till
+the following year. Like most of the public men of that
+age, he was both soldier and statesman. In temper he
+resembled his reputed father, Henry VIII.; for he was
+impatient of contradiction and control; fond of expense
+and magnificence, with a high opinion of his own abilities
+for diplomacy and legislation. The Parliament of 1585-6,
+as it was attended by almost every notable man in the
+kingdom, was one of his boasts, though no one seems to
+have benefited by it much, except Hugh O'Neil, whose
+title of Earl of Tyrone was then formally recognized.
+Subordinate to Perrott, the office of Governor of Connaught
+was held by Sir Richard Bingham--founder of the fortunes
+of the present Earls of Lucan--and that of President of
+Munster, by Sir Thomas Norris, one of four brothers, all
+employed in the Queen's service, and all destined to lose
+their lives in that employment.
+
+The most important events which marked the four years'
+administration of Perrott were the pacification of Thomond
+and Connaught, the capture of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, and
+the wreck of a large part of the Spanish Armada, on the
+northern and western coasts. The royal commission issued
+for the first-mentioned purpose exemplifies, in a striking
+manner, the exigencies of Elizabeth's policy at that
+moment. The persons entrusted with its execution were
+Sir Richard Bingham, the Earls of Thomond and Clanrickarde;
+Sir Turlogh O'Brien, Sir Richard Bourke (the McWilliam),
+O'Conor Sligo, Sir Brian O'Ruarc, and Sir Murrogh
+O'Flaherty. The chief duties of this singular commission
+were, to fix a money rental for all lands, free and
+unfree, in Clare and Connaught; to assess the taxation
+fairly due to the crown also in money; and to substitute
+generally the English law of succession for the ancient
+customs of Tanistry and gavelkind. In Clare, from fortuitous
+causes, the settlement they arrived at was never wholly
+reversed; in Connaught, the inhuman severity of Bingham
+rendered it odious from the first, and the successes of
+Hugh Roe O'Donnell, a few years later, were hailed by
+the people of that province as a heaven-sent deliverance.
+
+The treacherous capture of this youthful chieftain was
+one of the skilful devices on which Sir John Perrott most
+prided himself. Although a mere lad, the mysterious
+language of ancient prophecy, which seemed to point him
+out for greatness, give him consequence in the eyes of
+both friends and foes. Through his heroic mother, a
+daughter of the Lord of the Isles, he would naturally
+find allies in that warlike race. His precocious prowess
+and talents began to be noised abroad, and stimulated
+Perrott to the employment of an elaborate artifice, which,
+however, proved quite successful. A ship, commanded by
+one Bermingham, was sent round to Donegal, under pretence
+of being direct from Spain. She carried some casks of
+Spanish wine, and had a crew of 50 armed men. This ship
+dropped anchor off Rathmullen Castle on Lough Swilly, in
+which neighbourhood the young O'Donnell--then barely
+fifteen--was staying with his foster-father, McSweeny,
+and several companions of his own age. The unsuspecting
+youths were courteously invited on board the pretended
+Spanish ship, where, while they were being entertained
+in the cabin, the hatches were fastened down, the cable
+slipped, the sails spread to the wind, and the vessel
+put to sea. The threats and promises of the astonished
+clansmen as they gathered to the shore were answered by
+the mockery of the crew, who safely delivered their prize
+in Dublin, to the great delight of the Lord Deputy and
+his Council. Five weary years of fetters and privation
+the young captives were doomed to pass in the dungeons
+of the Castle before they breathed again the air of their
+native North.
+
+But now every ship that reached the English or Irish
+ports brought tidings more and more positive of the
+immense armada which King Philip was preparing to launch
+from the Tagus against England. The piratical exploits
+of Hawkins and Drake against the Spanish settlements in
+America, the barbarous execution of Mary, Queen of Scots,
+and the open alliance of Elizabeth with the Dutch
+insurgents, all acted as stimulants to the habitual
+slowness of the Spanish sovereign. Another event, though
+of minor importance, added intensity to the national
+quarrel. Sir William Stanley, whose account of the battle
+of Glenmalure we lately quoted, went over to Philip with
+1,300 English troops, whom he commanded as Governor of
+Daventer, and was taken into the counsels of the Spanish
+sovereign. The fleet for the invasion of England was on
+a scale commensurate with the design. One hundred and
+thirty-five vessels of war, manned by 8,000 sailors, and
+carrying 19,000 soldiers, sailed from the Tagus, and
+after encountering a severe storm off Cape Finesterre,
+re-assembled at Corunna. The flower of Spanish bravery
+embarked in this fleet, named somewhat presumptuously
+"the invincible armada." The sons of Sir James Fitzmaurice,
+educated at Alcala, Thomas, son of Sir John of Desmond,
+with several other Irish exiles, laymen, and ecclesiastics,
+were also on board. The fate of the expedition is well
+known. A series of disasters befell it on the coasts of
+France and Belgium, and finally, towards the middle of
+August, a terrific storm swept the Spaniards northward
+through the British channel, scattering ships and men
+helpless and lifeless on the coasts of Scotland, and even
+as far north as Norway. On the Irish shore nineteen
+great vessels were sunk or stranded. In Lough Foyle,
+one galleon, manned by 1,100 men, came ashore, and some
+of the survivors, it is alleged, were given up by O'Donnell
+to the Lord Deputy, in the vain hope of obtaining in
+return the liberation of his son. Sir John O'Doherty in
+Innishowen, Sir Brian O'Ruarc at Dromahaire, and Hugh
+O'Neil at Dungannon, hospitably entertained and protected
+several hundreds who had escaped with their lives. On
+the iron-bound coast of Connaught, over 2,000 men perished.
+In Galway harbour, 70 prisoners were taken by the Queen's
+garrison, and executed on St. Augustine's hill. In the
+Shannon, the crew of a disabled vessel set her on fire,
+and escaped to another in the offing. On the coasts of
+Cork and Kerry nearly one thousand men were lost or cast
+away. In all, according to a state paper of the time,
+above 6,000 of the Spaniards were either drowned, killed,
+or captured, on the north, west, and southern coasts. A
+more calamitous reverse could not have befallen Spain or
+Ireland in the era of the Reformation.
+
+It is worthy of remark that at the very moment the fear
+of the armada was most intensely felt in England--the
+beginning of July--Sir John Perrott was recalled from
+the government. His high and imperious temper, not less
+than his reliance on the native chiefs, rather than on
+the courtiers of Dublin Castle, had made him many enemies.
+He was succeeded by a Lord Deputy of a different
+character--Sir William Fitzwilliam--who had filled the
+same office, for a short period, seventeen years before.
+The administration of this nobleman was protracted till
+the year 1594, and is chiefly memorable in connection
+with the formation of the Ulster Confederacy, under the
+leadership of O'Neil and O'Donnell.
+
+Fitzwilliam, whose master passion was avarice, had no
+sooner been sworn into the government than he issued a
+commission to search for treasure, which the shipwrecked
+Spaniards were supposed to have saved. "In hopes to finger
+some of it," he at once marched into the territory of
+O'Ruarc and O'Doherty; O'Ruarc fled to Scotland, was
+given up by order of James VI., and subsequently executed
+at London; O'Doherty and Sir John O'Gallagher, "two of
+the most loyal subjects in Ulster," were seized and
+confined in the Castle. An outrage of a still more
+monstrous kind was perpetrated soon after on the newly
+elected chieftain of Oriel, Hugh McMahon. Though he had
+engaged Fitzwilliam by a bribe of 600 cows to recognize
+his succession, he was seized by order of the Deputy,
+tried by a jury of common soldiers, on a trumped up charge
+of "treason," and executed at his own door. Sir Harry
+Bagnal who, as Marshal of Ireland, had his head-quarters
+at Newry, next to Fitzwilliam himself, profited most by
+the consequent partition and settlement of McMahon's vast
+estates. Emboldened by the impunity which attended such
+high-handed proceedings, and instigated by the Marshal,
+Fitzwilliam began to practise, against the ablest as well
+as the most powerful of all the Northern chiefs, who had
+hitherto been known only as a courtier and soldier of
+the Queen. This was Hugh O'Neil, Earl of Tyrone, another
+of Sir Henry Sidney's "strong men," with the additional
+advantage of being familiar from his youth with the
+character of the men he was now to encounter.
+
+O'Neil, in the full prime of life, really desired to live
+in peace with Elizabeth, provided he might be allowed to
+govern Ulster with all the authority attached to his
+name. Bred up in England, he well knew the immense
+resources of that kingdom, and the indomitable character
+of its queen. A patriot of Ulster rather than of Ireland,
+he had served against the Desmonds, and had been a looker
+on at Smerwick. To suppress rivals of his own clan, to
+check O'Donnell's encroachments, and to preserve an
+interest at the English Court, were the objects of his
+earlier ambition. In pursuing these objects he did not
+hesitate to employ English troops in Ulster, nor to
+accompany the Queen and her Deputy to the service of the
+Church of England. If, however, he really believed that
+he could long continue to play the Celtic Prince north
+of the Boyne, and the English Earl at Dublin or London,
+he was soon undeceived when the fear of the Spanish Armada
+ceased to weigh on the Councils of Elizabeth.
+
+A natural son of John the Proud, called from the
+circumstances of his birth "Hugh of the fetters,"
+communicated to Fitzwilliam the fact of Tyrone having
+sheltered the shipwrecked Spaniards, and employed them
+in opening up a correspondence with King Philip. This so
+exasperated the Earl, that, having seized the unfortunate
+Hugh of the fetters, he caused him to be hanged as a
+common felon--a high-handed proceeding which his enemies
+were expert in turning to account. To protect himself
+from the consequent danger, he went to England in May,
+1590, without obtaining the license of the Lord Deputy,
+as by law required. On arriving in London he was imprisoned,
+but, in the course of a month, obtained his liberty,
+after signing articles, in which he agreed to drop the
+Celtic title of O'Neil; to allow the erection of gaols
+in his country; that he should execute no man without a
+commission from the Lord Deputy, except in cases of
+martial law; that he should keep his troop of horsemen
+in the Queen's pay, ready for the Queen's service, and
+that Tyrone should be regularly reduced to shire-ground.
+For the performance of these articles, which he confirmed
+on reaching Dublin, he was to place sureties in the hands
+of certain merchants of that city, or gentlemen of the
+Pale, enjoying the confidence of the Crown. On such hard
+conditions his earldom was confirmed to him, and he was
+apparently taken into all his former favour. But we may
+date the conception of his latter and more national policy
+from the period of this journey, and the brief imprisonment
+he had undergone in London.
+
+The "profound dissembling mind" which English historians,
+his cotemporaries, attribute to O'Neil, was now brought
+into daily exercise. When he discovered money to be the
+master passion of the Lord Deputy, he procured his
+connivance at the escape of Hugh Roe O'Donnell from Dublin
+Castle. On a dark night in the depth of winter the youthful
+chief, with several of his companions, succeeded in
+escaping to the hills in the neighbourhood of Powerscourt;
+but, exhausted and bewildered, they were again taken,
+and returned to their dungeons. Two years later, the heir
+of Tyrconnell was more fortunate. In Christmas week,
+1592, he again escaped, through a sewer of the Castle,
+with Henry and Art O'Neil, sons of John the Proud. In
+the street they found O'Hagan, the confidential agent of
+Tyrone, waiting to guide them to the fastness of Glenmalure.
+Through the deep snows of the Dublin and Wicklow highlands
+the prisoners and their guide plodded their way. After
+a weary tramp they at length sunk down overwhelmed with
+fatigue. In this condition they were found insensible
+by a party despatched by Feagh O'Byrne; Art O'Neil, on
+being raised up, fell backward and expired; O'Donnell
+was so severely frost-bitten that he did not recover for
+many months the free use of his limbs. With his remaining
+companion he was nursed in the recesses of Glenmalure,
+until he became able to sit a horse, when he set out for
+home. Although the utmost vigilance was exercised by all
+the warders of the Pale, he crossed the Liffey and the
+Boyne undiscovered, rode boldly through the streets of
+Dundalk, and found an enthusiastic welcome, first from
+Tyrone in Dungannon, and soon after from the aged chief,
+his father, in the Castle of Ballyshannon. Early in the
+following year, the elder O'Donnell resigned the chieftaincy
+in favour of his popular son, who was, on the 3rd of May,
+duly proclaimed the O'Donnell, from the ancient mound of
+Kilmacrenan.
+
+The Ulster Confederacy, of which, for ten years, O'Neil
+and O'Donnell were the joint and inseparable leaders,
+was now imminent. Tyrone, by carrying off, the year
+previous to O'Donnell's escape, the beautiful sister of
+Marshal Bagnal, whom he married, had still further inflamed
+the hatred borne to him by that officer. Bagnal complained
+bitterly of the abduction to the Queen, charging, among
+other things, that O'Neil had a divorced wife still alive.
+A challenge was in consequence sent him by his new
+brother-in-law, but the cartel was not accepted. Every
+day's events were hastening a general alliance between
+the secondary chieftains of the Province and the two
+leading spirits. The O'Ruarc and Maguire were attacked
+by Bingham, and successfully defended themselves until
+the Lord Deputy and the Marshal also marched against
+them, summoning O'Neil to their aid. The latter, feeling
+that the time was not yet ripe, temporized with Fitzwilliam
+during the campaign of 1593, and though in the field at
+the head of his horsemen, nominally for the Queen, he
+seems to have rather employed his opportunities to promote
+that Northern Union which he had so much at heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE ULSTER CONFEDERACY--FEAGH MAC HUGH O'BYRNE--CAMPAIGN
+OF 1595--NEGOTIATIONS, ENGLISH AND SPANISH--BATTLE OF
+THE YELLOW FORD--ITS CONSEQUENCES.
+
+In the summer of 1594 the cruel and mercenary Fitzwilliam
+was succeeded by Sir William Russell, who had served the
+Queen, both in Ireland "and in divers other places beyond
+sea, in martial affairs." In lieu of the arbitrary exaction
+of county cess--so grossly abused by his predecessor--the
+shires of the Pale were to pay for the future into the
+Treasury of Dublin a composition of 2,100 pounds per
+annum, out of which the fixed sum of 1,000 pounds was
+allowed as the Deputy's wages. Russell's administration
+lasted till May, 1597. In that month he was succeeded by
+Thomas, Lord Borough, who died in August following of
+the wounds received in an expedition against Tyrone;
+after which the administration remained in the hands of
+the Justices till the appointment of the Earl of Essex.
+
+On the arrival of Russell, Tyrone for the last time
+ventured to appear within the walls of Dublin. His
+influence in the city, and even at the Council table,
+must have been considerable to enable him to enter the
+gates of the Castle with so much confidence. He came to
+explain his wrongs against the previous Deputy, to defend
+himself against Bagnal's charges, and to discover, if
+possible, the instructions of Russell. If in one respect
+he was gratified by a personal triumph over his
+brother-in-law, in another he had cause for serious alarm,
+on learning that Sir John Norris, brother of the President
+of Munster, a commander of the highest reputation, was
+to be sent over under the title of Lord General, with
+2,000 veterans who served in Brittany, and 1,000 of a
+new levy. He further learned that his own arrest had been
+discussed at the Council, and, leaving Dublin precipitately,
+he hastened to his home at Dungannon. All men's minds
+were now naturally filled with wars and rumours of wars.
+
+The first blow was struck at "the firebrand of the
+mountains," as he was called at Court, Feagh Mac Hugh
+O'Byrne. The truce made with him expired in 1594, and
+his application for his renewal was not honoured with an
+answer. On the contrary, his sureties at Dublin, Geoffrey,
+son of Hugh, and his own son, James, were committed to
+close custody in the Castle. His son-in-law, Sir Walter
+Fitzgerald, had been driven by ill-usage, and his friendship
+for Lord Baltinglass, to the shelter of Glenmalure, and
+this was, of course, made a ground of charge against its
+chief. During the last months of 1594, Mynce, Sheriff of
+Carlow, informed the Lord Deputy of warlike preparations
+in the Glen, and that Brian Oge O'Rourke had actually
+passed to and fro through Dublin city and county, as
+confidential agent between Feagh Mac Hugh and Tyrone. In
+January following, under cover of a hunting party among
+the hills, the Deputy, by a night march on Glenmalure,
+succeeded in surprising O'Byrne's house at Ballincor,
+and had almost taken the aged chieftain prisoner. In the
+flight, Rose O'Toole, his wife, was wounded in the breast,
+and a priest detected hiding in a thicket was shot dead.
+Feagh retired to Dromceat, or the Cat's-back Mountain
+--one of the best positions in the Glen--while a strong
+force was quartered in his former mansion to observe his
+movements. In April, his son-in-law, Fitzgerald, was
+taken prisoner, near Baltinglass, in a retreat where he
+was laid up severely wounded; in May, a party under the
+Deputy's command scoured the mountains and seized the
+Lady Rose, who was attainted of treason, and, like
+Fitzgerald, barbarously given up to the halter and the
+quartering knife. Two foster-brothers of the chief were,
+at the same time and in the same manner, put to death,
+and a large reward was offered for his own apprehension,
+alive or dead.
+
+Hugh O'Neil announced his resort to arms by a vigorous
+protest against the onslaught made on his friend O'Byrne.
+Without waiting for, or expecting any answer, he surprised
+the fort erected on the Blackwater which commanded the
+highway into his own territory. This fort, which was
+situated between Armagh and Dungannon, about five miles
+distant from either, served, before the fortification of
+Charlemont, as the main English stronghold in that part
+of Ulster. The river Blackwater on which it stood, from
+its source on the borders of Monaghan to its outlet in
+Lough Neagh, watered a fertile valley, which now became
+the principal theatre of war; for Hugh O'Neil, and
+afterwards for his celebrated nephew, it proved to be a
+theatre of victory. General Norris, on reaching Ireland,
+at once marched northward to recover the fort lately
+taken. O'Neil, having demolished the works, retreated
+before him; considering Dungannon also unfit to stand a
+regular siege, he dismantled the town, burnt his own
+castle to the ground, having first secured every portable
+article of value. Norris contented himself with
+reconnoitring the Earl's entrenched camp at some distance
+from Dungannon, and returned to Newry, where he established
+his head-quarters.
+
+The campaign in another quarter was attended with even
+better success for the Confederates. Hugh Roe O'Donnell,
+no longer withheld by the more politic O'Neil, displayed
+in action all the fiery energy of his nature. Under his
+banner he united almost all the tribes of Ulster not
+enlisted with O'Neil; while six hundred Scots, led by
+MacLeod of Ara, obeyed his commands. He first descended
+on the plains of Annally-O'Farrell (the present county
+of Longford), driving the English settlers before him:
+he next visited the undertaker's tenants in Connaught,
+ejecting them from Boyle and Ballymoate, and pursuing
+them to the gates of Tuam. On his return, the important
+town and castle of Sligo, the property of O'Conor, then
+in England, submitted to him. Sir Richard Bingham
+endeavoured to recover it, but was beaten off with loss.
+O'Donnell, finding it cheaper to demolish than defend
+it, broke down the castle and returned in triumph across
+the Erne.
+
+General Norris, having arranged his plan of campaign at
+Newry, attempted to victual Armagh, besieged by O'Neil,
+but was repulsed by that leader after a severe struggle.
+He, however, succeeded in throwing supplies into Monaghan,
+where a strong garrison was quartered, and to which O'Neil
+and O'Donnell proceeded to lay siege. While lying before
+Monaghan they received overtures of peace from the Lord
+Deputy, who continually disagreed with Sir John Norris
+as to the conduct of the war, and lost no opportunity of
+thwarting his plans. He did not now blush to address, as
+Earl of Tyrone, the man he had lately proclaimed a traitor
+at Dublin, by the title of the son of a blacksmith. The
+Irish leaders at the outset refused to meet the
+Commissioners--Chief Justice Gardiner and Sir Henry
+Wallop, Treasurer-at-War--in Dundalk, so the latter were
+compelled to wait on them in the camp before Monaghan.
+The terms demanded by O'Neil and O'Donnell, including
+entire freedom of religious worship, were reserved by
+the Commissioners for the consideration of the Council,
+with whose sanction, a few weeks afterwards, all the
+Ulster chiefs, except "the Queen's O'Reilly," were formally
+tried before a jury at Dublin, and condemned as traitors.
+
+Monaghan was thrice taken and retaken in this campaign.
+It was on the second return of General Norris from that
+town he found himself unexpectedly in presence of O'Neil's
+army, advantageously posted on the left bank of the little
+stream which waters the village of Clontibret. Norris
+made two attempts to force the passage, but without
+success. Sir Thomas Norris, and the general himself, were
+wounded; Seagrave, a gigantic Meathian cavalry officer,
+was slain in a hand to hand encounter with O'Neil; the
+English retreated hastily on Newry, and Monaghan was
+again surrendered to the Irish. This brilliant combat at
+Clontibret closed the campaign of 1595. General Norris,
+who, like Sir John Moore, two centuries later, commanded
+the respect, and frankly acknowledged the wrongs of the
+people against whom he fought, employed the winter months
+in endeavouring to effect a reconciliation between O'Neil
+and the Queen's Government. He had conceived a warm and
+chivalrous regard for his opponent; for he could not deny
+that he had been driven to take up arms in self-defence.
+At his instance a royal commission to treat with the Earl
+was issued, and the latter cheerfully gave them a meeting
+in an open field without the walls of Dundalk. The same
+terms which he had proposed before Monaghan were repeated
+in his _ultimatum_, and the Commissioners agreed to give
+him a positive answer by the 2nd day of April. On that
+day they attended at Dundalk, but O'Neil did not appear.
+The Commissioners delayed an entire fortnight, addressing
+him in the interim an urgent remonstrance to come in and
+conclude their negotiation. On the 17th of the month they
+received his reasons for breaking off the treaty--the
+principal of which was, that the truce had been repeatedly
+broken through by the English garrisons--and so the
+campaign of 1596 was to be fought with renewed animosity
+on both sides.
+
+Early in May the Lord Deputy made another descent on
+Ballincor, which Feagh Mac Hugh had recovered in the
+autumn to lose again in the spring. Though worn with
+years and infirm of body, the Wicklow chieftain held his
+devoted bands well together, and kept the garrison of
+Dublin constantly on the defensive. In the new chieftain
+of the O'Moores he found at this moment a young and active
+coadjutor. In an affair at Stradbally Bridge, O'Moore
+obtained a considerable victory, leaving among the slain
+Alexander and Francis Cosby, grandsons of the commander
+in the massacre at Mullaghmast.
+
+The arrival of three Spanish frigates with arms and
+ammunition in Donegal Bay was welcome news to the Northern
+Catholics. They were delivered to O'Donnell, who was
+incessantly in the field, while O'Neil was again undergoing
+the forms of diplomacy with a new royal commission at
+Dundalk. He himself disclaimed any correspondence with
+the King of Spain, but did not deny that such negotiations
+might be maintained by others. It is alleged that, while
+many of the chiefs had signed a formal invitation to the
+Spanish King to assume their crown, O'Neil had not gone
+beyond verbal assurances of co-operation with them.
+However this may be, he resolved that the entire season
+should not be wasted in words, so he attacked the strong
+garrison left in Armagh, and recovered the primatial
+city. According to the Irish practice, he dismantled the
+fortress, which, however, was again reconstructed by the
+English before the end of the war. Some other skirmishes,
+of which we have no very clear account, and which we may
+set down as of no decisive character, terminated the
+campaign.
+
+In May, 1597, Lord Borough, who had distinguished himself
+in the Netherlands, replaced Russell as Lord Deputy, and
+assumed the command-in-chief, in place of Sir John Norris.
+Simultaneously with his arrival Feagh Mac Hugh O'Byrne,
+was surprised in Glenmalure by a detachment from Dublin,
+and slain; he died as he had lived, a hero and a free
+man. O'Neil, who was warmly attached to the Wicklow chief,
+immediately despatched such succour as he could spare to
+Feagh's sons, and promised to continue to them the
+friendship he had always entertained for their father.
+Against Tyrone the new Lord Deputy now endeavoured to
+combine all the military resources at his disposal.
+Towards the end of July, Sir Conyers Clifford was ordered
+to muster the available force of Connaught at Boyle, and
+to march into Sligo and Donegal. A thousand men of the
+Anglo-Irish were assembled at Mullingar, under the command
+of young Barnewell of Trimbleston, who was instructed to
+effect a junction with the main force upon the borders
+of Ulster. The Lord Deputy, marching in force from
+Drogheda, penetrated, unopposed, the valley of the
+Blackwater, and entered Armagh. From Armagh he moved to
+the relief of the Blackwater fort, besieged by O'Neil.
+At a place called Drumfliuch, where Battleford Bridge
+now stands, Tyrone contrived to draw his enemies into an
+engagement on very disadvantageous ground. The result
+was a severe defeat to the new Deputy, who, a few days
+afterwards, died of his wounds at Newry, as his second
+in command, the Earl of Kildare, did at Drogheda. Sir
+Francis Vaughan, Sir Thomas Waller, and other distinguished
+officers, fell in the same action, but the fort, the main
+prize of the combatants, remained in English hands till
+the following year. O'Donnell, with equal success, held
+Ballyshannon, compelled Sir Conyers Clifford to raise
+the siege with the loss of the Earl of Thomond, and a
+large part of his following. Simultaneously, Captain
+Richard Tyrrell of West-Meath--one of O'Neil's favourite
+officers--having laid an ambuscade for young Barnewell
+at the pass in West-Meath which now bears his name, the
+Meathian regiment were sabred to a man. Mullingar and
+Maryborough were taken and sacked, and in the North, Sir
+John Chichester, Governor of Carrickfergus, was cut off
+with his troop by MacDonald of the Glens.
+
+These successes synchronize exactly with the expectation
+of a second Spanish Armada, which filled Elizabeth with
+her old apprehensions. Philip was persuaded again to
+tempt the fortune of the seas, and towards the end of
+October his fleet, under the Adelantado of Castille,
+appeared off the Scilly Islands, with a view to secure
+the Isle of Wight, or some other station, from which to
+operate an invasion the ensuing spring. Extraordinary
+means were taken for defence; the English troops in France
+were recalled, new levies raised, and the Queen's favourite,
+the young Earl of Essex, appointed to command the fleet,
+with Raleigh and Lord Thomas Howard as Vice-Admirals.
+But the elements again fought for the northern island;
+a storm, which swept the channel for weeks, drove the
+English ships into their ports, but scattered those of
+Spain over the Bay of Biscay. In this second expedition
+sailed Florence Conroy, and other Irish exiles, who had
+maintained for years a close correspondence with the
+Catholic leaders. Their presence in the fleet, the
+existence of the correspondence, and the progress of the
+revolt itself, will sufficiently account for the apparent
+vacillations of English policy in Ulster in the last
+months of 1597. Shortly before Christmas, Ormond, now
+Lord Lieutenant, accompanied by the Earl of Thomond,
+attended only by their personal followers, visited
+Dungannon, and remained three days in conference with
+O'Neil and O'Donnell. The Irish chiefs reiterated their
+old demands: freedom of worship, and the retention of
+the substantial power attached to their ancient rank.
+They would admit Sheriffs, if they were chosen from among
+natives of their counties, but they declined to give
+hostages out of their own families. These terms were
+referred to the Queen's consideration, who, after much
+protocoling to and fro, finally ratified them the following
+April, and affixed the great seal to O'Neil's pardon.
+But Tyrone, guided by intelligence received from Spain
+or England, or both, evaded the royal messenger charged
+to deliver him that instrument, and as the late truce
+expired the first week of June, devoted himself anew to
+military preparations.
+
+In the month of June, 1598, the Council at Dublin were
+in a state of fearful perplexity. O'Neil, two days after
+the expiration of the truce, invested the fort on the
+Blackwater, and seemed resolved to reduce it, if not by
+force, by famine. O'Donnell, as usual, was operating on
+the side of Connaught, where he had brought back O'Ruarc,
+O'Conor Sligo, and McDermot, to the Confederacy, from
+which they had been for a season estranged. Tyrrell and
+O'Moore, leading spirits in the midland counties were
+ravaging Ormond's palatinate of Tipperary almost without
+opposition. An English reinforcement, debarked at Dungarvan,
+was attacked on its march towards Dublin, and lost 400
+men. In this emergency, before which even the iron nerve
+of Ormond quailed, the Council took the resolution of
+ordering one moiety of the Queen's troops under Ormond
+to march south against Tyrrell and O'Moore; the other
+under Marshal Bagnal, to proceed northward to the relief
+of the Blackwater fort. Ormond's campaign was brief and
+inglorious. After suffering a severe check in Leix, he
+shut himself up in Kilkenny, where he heard of the
+disastrous fate of Bagnal's expedition.
+
+On Sunday, the 13th of August, the Marshal reached Newry
+with some trifling loss from skirmishes on the route. He
+had with him, by the best accounts, six regiments of
+infantry, numbering in all about 4,000 men and 350 horse.
+After resting a day, his whole force marched out of the
+city in three divisions; the first under the command of
+the Marshal and Colonel Percy, the cavalry under Sir
+Calisthenes Brooke and Captains Montague and Fleming;
+the rear guard under Sir Thomas Wingfield and Colonel
+Cosby. The Irish, whose numbers, both mounted and afoot,
+somewhat exceeded the Marshal's force, but who were not
+so well armed, had taken up a strong position at Ballinaboy
+("the Yellow ford"), about two miles north of Armagh.
+With O'Neil were O'Donnell, Maguire, and McDonnell of
+Antrim--all approved leaders beloved by their men. O'Neil
+had neglected no auxiliary means of strengthening the
+position. In front of his lines he dug deep trenches,
+covered over with green sods, supported by twigs and
+branches. The pass leading into this plain was lined by
+500 kerne, whose Parthian warfare was proverbial. He had
+reckoned on the headlong and boastful disposition of his
+opponent, and the result showed his accurate knowledge
+of character. Bagnal's first division, veterans from
+Brittany and Flanders, including 600 curassiers in complete
+armour, armed with lances nine feet long, dashed into
+the pass before the second and third divisions had time
+to come up. The kerne poured in their rapid volleys; many
+of the English fell; the pass was yielded, and the whole
+power of Bagnal debouched into the plain. His artillery
+now thundered upon O'Neil's trenches, and the cavalry,
+with the plain before them, were ordered to charge; but
+they soon came upon the concealed pitfalls, horses fell,
+riders were thrown, and confusion spread among the
+squadron. Then it was O'Neil in turn gave the signal to
+charge; himself led on the centre, O'Donnell the left,
+and Maguire, famous for horsemanship, the Irish horse.
+The overthrow of the English was complete, and the victory
+most eventful. The Marshal, 23 superior officers, with
+about 1,700 of the rank and file fell on the field, while
+all the artillery baggage and 12 stand of colours were
+taken: the Irish loss in killed and wounded did not
+exceed 800 men. "It was a glorious victory for the
+rebels," says the cotemporary English historian, Camden,
+"and of special advantage: for hereby they got arms and
+provisions, and Tyrone's name was cried up all over
+Ireland as the author of their liberty." It may also be
+added that it attracted renewed attention to the Irish
+war at Paris, Madrid, and Rome, where the names of O'Neil
+and O'Donnell were spoken of by all zealous Catholics
+with enthusiastic admiration.
+
+The battle was over by noon of the 15th of August; and
+the only effort to arrest the flight of the survivors
+was made by "the Queen's O'Reilly," who was slain in the
+attempt. By one o'clock the remnant of the cavalry under
+Montague were in full career for Dundalk, closely pressed
+by the mounted men of O'Hanlon. During the ensuing week
+the Blackwater fort capitulated; the Protestant garrison
+of Armagh surrendered; and were allowed to march south,
+leaving their arms and ammunition behind. The panic spread
+far and wide; the citizens of Dublin were enrolled to
+defend their walls; Lord Ormond continued shut up in
+Kilkenny; O'Moore and Tyrrell, who entered Munster by
+O'Neil's order, to kindle the elements of resistance,
+compelled the Lord President to retire from Kilmallock
+to Cork. O'Donnell established his head-quarters at
+Ballymoate, a dozen miles south of Sligo, which he had
+purchased from the chieftain of Corran for 400 pounds
+and 300 cows. The castle had served for thirteen years
+as an English stronghold, and was found staunch enough
+fifty years later to withstand the siege trains of Coote
+and Ludlow. From this point the Donegal chieftain was
+enabled to stretch his arm in every direction over lower
+Connaught. The result was, that before the end of the
+year 1598, nearly all the inhabitants of Clanrickarde
+and the surrounding districts were induced, either from
+policy or conviction, to give in their adhesion to the
+Northern Confederacy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+ESSEX'S CAMPAIGN OF 1599--BATTLE OF THE CURLIEU
+MOUNTAINS--O'NEIL'S NEGOTIATIONS WITH SPAIN--
+MOUNTJOY, LORD DEPUTY.
+
+The last favourite of the many who enjoyed the foolish,
+if not guilty, favours of Elizabeth was Robert Devereux,
+Earl of Essex, son of that unfortunate nobleman spoken
+of in a previous chapter as the "undertaker" of Farney
+and Clandeboy. Born in 1567, the Earl had barely reached
+the age of manhood when he won the heart of his royal
+mistress, already verging on threescore. Gifted by nature
+with a handsome person, undoubted courage, and many
+generous qualities, he exhibited, in the most important
+transactions of life, the recklessness of a madman and
+the levity of a spoiled child; it was apparent to the
+world that nothing short of the personal fascination
+which he exercised over the Queen could so long have
+preserved him from the consequences of his continual
+caprices and quarrels. Such was the character of the
+young nobleman, who, as was afterwards said, at the
+instigation of his enemies, was sent over to restore the
+ascendancy of the English arms in the revolted provinces.
+His appointment was to last during the Queen's pleasure;
+he was provided with an army of 20,000 foot and 2,000
+horse; three-fourths of the ordinary annual revenue of
+England (340,000 pounds out of 450,000 pounds) was placed
+at his disposal, and the largest administrative powers,
+civil and military, were conferred on him. A new plan of
+campaign in Ulster was decided upon at the royal council
+table, and Sir Samuel Bagnal, brother of the late Marshal,
+and other experienced officers, were to precede or
+accompany him to carry it into execution. The main feature
+of this plan was to get possession by sea and strongly
+fortify Ballyshannon, Donegal, Derry, and the entrance
+to the Foyle, so as to operate at once in the rear of
+the northern chiefs, as well as along the old familiar
+base of Newry, Monaghan, and Armagh.
+
+Essex, on being sworn into office at Dublin, on the 15th
+of April, 1599, immediately issued a proclamation offering
+pardon and restoration of property to such of the Irish
+as would lay down their arms by a given day, but very
+few persons responded to this invitation. He next despatched
+reinforcements to the garrisons of Wicklow and Naas,
+menaced by the O'Moores and O'Byrnes, and to those of
+Drogheda, Dundalk, Newry, and Carrickfergus, the only
+northern strongholds remaining in possession of the Queen.
+The principal operations, it had been agreed before he
+left England, were to be directed against Ulster, but
+with the waywardness which always accompanied him, he
+disregarded that arrangement, and set forth, at the head
+of 7,000 men, for the opposite quarter. He was accompanied
+in this march by the Earls of Clanrickarde and Thomond,
+Sir Conyers Clifford, Governor of Connaught, and O'Conor
+of Sligo, the only native chief who remained in the
+English ranks. In Ormond he received the submission of
+Lord Mountgarrett, son-in-law to Tyrone, and took the
+strong castle of Cahir from another of the insurgent
+Butlers. After a halt at Limerick, he set out against
+the Geraldines, who the previous year had joined the
+Northern league, at the instance of Tyrrell and O'Moore.
+Although the only heir of the Earl of Desmond was a
+prisoner, or ward of Elizabeth in England, James Fitzgerald,
+son of Thomas Roe, son of the fifteenth Earl by that
+marriage which had been pronounced invalid, assumed the
+title at the suggestion of O'Neil, and was recognized as
+the Desmond by the greater portion of the relatives of
+that family. Fitzmaurice, Lord of Lixnaw, the Knight of
+Glynn, the White Knight, the Lord Roche, Pierce Lacy of
+Buree and Bruff, the last descendant of Hugh de Lacy and
+the daughter of Roderick O'Conor, with the McCarthys,
+O'Donohoes, O'Sullivans, Condons, and other powerful
+tribes, were all astir to the number, as Carew supposes,
+of 8,000 men, all emulous of their compatriots in the
+North. Issuing from Limerick, Essex marched southward to
+strengthen the stronghold of Askeaton, into which he
+succeeded, after a severe skirmish by the way, in throwing
+supplies. Proceeding to victual Adare, he experienced
+a similar check, losing among others Sir Henry Norris,
+the third of those brave brothers who had fallen a victim
+to these Irish wars. In returning to Dublin, by way of
+Waterford and Kildare, he was assailed by O'Moore at a
+difficult defile, which, to this day, is known in Irish
+as "the pass of the plumes" or feathers. The Earl forced
+a passage with the loss of 500 lives, and so returned
+with little glory to Dublin.
+
+The next military incident of the year transpired in the
+West. We have spoken of O'Conor Sligo as the only native
+chief who followed Essex to the South. He had been lately
+at the English Court, where he was treated with the
+highest distinction, in order that he might be used to
+impede O'Donnell's growing power in lower Connaught. On
+returning home he was promptly besieged by the Donegal
+chief in his remaining castle at Colooney, within five
+miles of Sligo. Essex, on learning this fact, ordered
+Sir Conyers Clifford to march to the relief of O'Conor
+with all the power he could muster. Clifford despatched
+from Galway, by sea, stores and materials for the
+refortification of Sligo town, and set out himself at
+the head of 2,100 men, drafted from both sides of the
+Shannon, under twenty-five ensigns. He had under him Sir
+Alexander Radcliffe, Sir Griffin Markham, and other
+experienced officers. Their rendezvous, as usual, was
+the old monastic town of Boyle, about a day's march to
+the south of Sligo. From Boyle, the highway led into the
+Curlieu mountains, which divide Sligo on the south-east
+from Roscommon. Here, in the strong pass of Ballaghboy,
+O'Donnell with the main body of his followers awaited
+their approach. He had left the remainder, under his
+cousin and brother-in-law, Nial Garve (or the _rough_),
+to maintain the siege of Colooney Castle. O'Ruarc and
+the men of Breffni joined him during the battle, but
+their entire force is nowhere stated. It was the eve of
+the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and the first
+anniversary of the great victory of the Yellow Ford. The
+night was spent by the Irish in fasting and prayer, the
+early morning in hearing Mass, and receiving the Holy
+Communion. The day was far advanced when the head of
+Clifford's column appeared in the defile, driving in a
+barricade erected at its entrance. The defenders, according
+to orders, discharged their javelins and muskets, and
+fell back farther into the gorge. The English advanced
+twelve abreast, through a piece of woodland, after which
+the road crossed a patch of bog. Here the thick of the
+battle was fought. Sir Alexander Radcliffe, who led the
+vanguard, fell early in the action, and his division
+falling back on the centre threw them all into confusion.
+O'Ruarc arriving with his men at the critical moment
+completed the rout, and pursued the fugitives to the
+gates of Boyle. The gallant Clifford, scorning to fly,
+was found among the slain, and honourably interred by
+his generous enemies in the monastery of Lough Key. On
+his head being shown to O'Conor at Colooney, he at once
+surrendered to O'Donnell, and entered into the Northern
+Confederacy. Theobald Burke, the commander of the vessels
+sent round from Galway to fortify Sligo, also submitted
+to O'Donnell, and was permitted to return to the port
+from which he had lately sailed, with very different
+intentions.
+
+Essex, whose mind was a prey to apprehension from his
+enemies in England had demanded reinforcements before he
+could undertake anything against Ulster. It seems hardly
+credible that the 15,000 regular troops in the country
+at his coming should be mostly taken up with garrison
+duty, yet we cannot otherwise account for their
+disappearance from the field. He asked for 2,000 fresh
+troops, and while awaiting their arrival, sent a detachment
+of 600 men into Wicklow, who were repulsed with loss by
+Phelim, son of Feagh, the new Chief of the O'Byrnes.
+Essex was thrown into transports of rage at this new
+loss. The officers who retreated were tried by
+court-martial, and, contrary to his usually generous
+temper, the surviving men were inhumanly decimated.
+
+Early in September, the reinforcement he had asked for
+arrived with a bitterly reproachful letter from the Queen.
+He now hastened to make a demonstration against Tyrone,
+although, from some cause unexplained, he does not seem
+to have drawn out the whole force at his disposal. From
+Newry he proceeded northward towards Carrickfergus, with
+only 1,300 foot and 300 horse. On the high ground to the
+north of the river Lagan, overlooking Anaghclart Bridge,
+he found the host of O'Neil encamped, and received a
+courteous message from their leader, soliciting a personal
+interview. Essex at first declined, but afterwards accepted
+the invitation, and at an appointed hour the two commanders
+rode down to the opposite banks of the river, wholly
+unattended, the advanced guard of each looking curiously
+on from the uplands. O'Neil spurred his horse into the
+stream up to the saddle girth, and thus for an hour,
+exposed to the generous but impulsive Englishman, the
+grievances of himself and his compatriots. With all the
+art, for which he was distinguished, he played upon his
+knowledge of the Earl's character: he named those enemies
+of his own whom he also knew to be hostile to Essex, he
+showed his provocations in the strongest light, and
+declared his readiness to submit to her Majesty, on
+condition of obtaining complete liberty of conscience,
+an act of indemnity to include his allies in all the four
+Provinces; that the principal officers of state, the
+judges, and one half the army should in future be Irish
+by birth. This was, in effect, a demand for national
+independence, though the Lord Lieutenant may not have
+seen it in that light. He promised, however, to transmit
+the propositions to England, and within presence of six
+principal officers of each side, agreed to a truce till
+the 1st of May following. Another upbraiding letter from
+Elizabeth, which awaited him on his return to Dublin,
+drove Essex to the desperate resolution of presenting
+himself before her, without permission. The short remainder
+of his troubled career, his execution in the Tower in
+February, 1601, and Elizabeth's frantic lamentations,
+are familiar to readers of English history.
+
+In presenting so comprehensive an ultimatum to Essex,
+O'Neil was emboldened by the latest intelligence received
+from Spain. Philip II., the life-long friend of the
+Catholics, had, indeed, died the previous September, but
+one of the first acts of his successor, Philip III., was
+to send envoys into Ireland, assuring its chiefs that he
+would continue to them the friendship and alliance of
+his father. Shortly before the conference at Anaghclart,
+a third Armada, under the Adelantado of Castile, was
+awaiting orders in the port of Corunna, and England, for
+the third time in ten years, was placed in a posture of
+defence. The Spaniards sailed, but soon divided into
+two squadrons, one of which passed down the British
+Channel unobserved, and anchored in the waters of the
+Sluys, while the other sailed for the Canaries to intercept
+the Hollanders. At the same time, however, most positive
+assurances were renewed that an auxiliary force might
+shortly be expected to land in Ireland in aid of the
+Catholics. The non-arrival of this force during the
+fortunate campaign of 1599 was not much felt by the
+Catholics; and was satisfactorily explained by Philip's
+envoys--but the mere fact of the existence of the Spanish
+alliance gave additional confidence and influence to the
+confederates. That fact was placed beyond all question
+by the arrival of two Spanish ships laden with stores
+for O'Neil, immediately after the interview with Essex.
+In the summer or autumn ensuing, Mathew of Oviedo, a
+Spaniard, consecrated at Rome, Archbishop of Dublin,
+brought over 22,000 crowns towards the pay of the Irish
+troops, and a year afterwards, Don Martin de la Cerda
+was sent to reside as envoy with Tyrone.
+
+The year 1600 was employed by Hugh O'Neil, after the
+manner of his ancestors, who were candidates for the
+Kingship of Tara, in a visitation of the Provinces. Having
+first planted strong garrisons on the southern passes
+leading into Ulster, he marched at the head of 3,000 men
+into West-Meath, where he obliged Lord Delvin and Sir
+Theobald Dillon to join the Confederation. From Meath he
+marched to Ely, whose chief he punished for a late act
+of treachery to some Ulster soldiers invited to his
+assistance. From Ely he turned aside to venerate the
+relic of the Holy Cross, at Thurles, and being there he
+granted his protection to the great Monastery built by
+Donald More O'Brien. At Cashel he was joined by the
+Geraldine, whom he caused to be recognized as Earl of
+Desmond. Desmond and his supporters accompanied him
+through Limerick into Cork, quartering their retainers
+on the lands of their enemies, but sparing their friends;
+the Earl of Ormond with a corps of observation moving on
+a parallel line of march, but carefully avoiding a
+collision. In the beginning of March the Catholic army
+halted at Inniscarra, upon the river Lee, about five
+miles west of Cork. Here O'Neil remained three weeks in
+camp consolidating the Catholic party in South Munster.
+During that time he was visited by the chiefs of the
+ancient Eugenian clans--O'Donohoe, O'Donovan, and O'Mahoney:
+thither also came two of the most remarkable men of the
+southern Province, Florence McCarthy, Lord of Carberry,
+and Donald O'Sullivan, Lord of Bearehaven. McCarthy "like
+Saul, higher by the head and shoulders than any of his
+house," had brain in proportion to his brawn; O'Sullivan,
+as was afterwards shown, was possessed of military virtues
+of a high order. Florence was inaugurated with O'Neil's
+sanction as McCarthy More, and although the rival house
+of Muskerry fiercely resisted his claim to superiority
+at first, a wiser choice could not have been made had
+the times tended to confirm it.
+
+While at Inniscarra, O'Neil lost in single combat one of
+his most accomplished officers, the chief of Fermanagh.
+Maguire, accompanied only by a Priest and two horsemen,
+was making observations nearer to the city than the camp,
+when Sir Warham St. Leger, Marshal of Munster, issued
+out of Cork with a company of soldiers, probably on a
+similar mission. Both were in advance of their attendants
+when they came unexpectedly face to face. Both were famous
+as horsemen and for the use of their weapons, and neither
+would retrace his steps. The Irish chief, poising his
+spear, dashed forward against his opponent, but received
+a pistol shot which proved mortal the same day. He,
+however, had strength enough left to drive his spear
+through the neck of St. Leger, and to effect his escape
+from the English cavalry. Saint Leger was carried back
+to Cork where he expired; Maguire, on reaching the camp,
+had barely time left to make his last confession, when
+he breathed his last. This untoward event, the necessity
+of preventing possible dissensions in Fermanagh, and
+still more, the menacing movements of the new Deputy,
+lately sworn in at Dublin, obliged O'Neil to return home
+earlier than he intended. Soon after reaching Dungannon
+he had the gratification of receiving a most gracious
+letter from Pope Clement VIII., together with a crown of
+phoenix feathers, symbolical of the consideration with
+which he was regarded by the Sovereign Pontiff.
+
+A new Deputy had landed at Howth on the 24th of February,
+1600, and was sworn in at Dublin the day following. This
+was Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, afterwards Earl of
+Devonshire, a nobleman now in his 37th year. He had been
+the rival, the enemy, and the devoted friend of the
+unfortunate Essex, whom he equalled in personal gifts,
+in courage, and in gallantry, but far exceeded in judgment,
+firmness, and foresight. He was one of a class of
+soldier-statesmen, peculiar to the second half of
+Elizabeth's reign, who affected authorship and the
+patronage of letters as a necessary complement to the
+manners of a courtier and commander. On the 2nd of April,
+Mountjoy, still at Dublin, wrote to her Majesty that the
+army had taken heart since his arrival, that he had no
+fear of the loss of the country, but was more anxious
+for Connaught than any other Province. He deplored the
+capture of Lord Ormond by the O'Moores, but hoped, if
+God prospered her arms during the summer, either "to bow
+or to break the crooked humours of these people." The
+three succeeding years of peace granted to England--
+interrupted only by the mad _emeute_ of Essex, and the
+silly intrigues of the King of Scotland--enabled Elizabeth
+to direct all the energies of the State, which had so
+immensely increased in wealth during her reign, for the
+subjugation of the Irish revolt.
+
+The capture of Ormond by the O'Moores took place in the
+month of April, at a place called Corroneduff, in an
+interview between the Earl, the President of Munster,
+and Lord Thomond, on the one part, and the Leinster Chief
+on the other. Ormond, who stood out from his party, had
+asked to see the famous Jesuit, Father Archer, then with
+O'Moore. The Priest advanced leaning on his staff, which,
+in the heat of a discussion that arose, he raised once
+or twice in the air. The clansmen, suspecting danger to
+the Jesuit, rushed forward and dragged the Earl from his
+horse. Lord Thomond and the President, taking the alarm,
+plied their spurs, and were but too glad to escape. Ormond
+remained a prisoner from April to June, during which
+interval he was received by Archer into the Church, to
+which he firmly adhered till the day of his death. On
+his liberation he entered into bonds for 3,000 pounds
+not to make reprisals, but Mountjoy took vengeance for
+him. The fair, well-fenced, and well-cultivated land of
+Leix was cruelly ravaged immediately after Ormond's
+release--the common soldiers cut down with their swords
+"corn to the value of 10,000 pounds and upwards," and
+the brave chief, Owny, son of Rory, having incautiously
+exposed himself in an attack on Maryborough, was, on the
+17th of August, killed by a musket shot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+MOUNTJOY'S ADMINISTRATION--OPERATIONS IN ULSTER AND
+MUNSTER--CAREW'S "WIT AND CUNNING"--LANDING OF SPANIARDS
+IN THE SOUTH--BATTLE OF KINSALE--DEATH OF O'DONNELL
+IN SPAIN.
+
+The twofold operations against Ulster, neglected by Essex,
+were vigorously pressed forward by the energetic Mountjoy.
+On the 16th of May, a fleet arrived in Lough Foyle, having
+on board 4,000 foot and 200 horse, under the command of
+Sir Henry Dowcra, with abundance of stores, building
+materials, and ordnance. At the same moment, the Deputy
+forced the Moira pass, and made a feigned demonstration
+against Armagh, to draw attention from the fleet in the
+Foyle. This feint served its purpose; Dowcra was enabled
+to land and throw up defensive works at Derry, which he
+made his head-quarters, to fortify Culmore at the entrance
+to the harbour, where he placed 600 men, under the command
+of Captain Atford, and to seize the ancient fort of
+Aileach, at the head of Lough Swilly, where Captain Ellis
+Flood was stationed with 150 men. The attempt against
+Ballyshannon was, on a nearer view, found impracticable,
+and deferred; the Deputy, satisfied that the lodgment
+had been made upon Lough Foyle, retired to Dublin, after
+increasing the garrisons at Newry, Carlingford, and
+Dundalk. The Catholic chieftains immediately turned
+their attention to the new fort at Deny, appeared suddenly
+before it with 5,000 men, but failing to draw out its
+defenders, and being wholly unprovided with a siege train
+and implements--as they appear to have been throughout--
+they withdrew the second day, O'Donnell leaving a party
+in hopes to starve out the foreigners. This party were
+under the command of O'Doherty, of Innishowen, and Nial
+Garve O'Donnell, the most distinguished soldier of his
+name, after his illustrious cousin and chief. On the 28th
+of June, a party of the besieged, headed by Sir John
+Chamberlaine, made a sally from the works, but were driven
+in with loss, and Chamberlaine killed. On the 29th of
+July, O'Donnell, who had returned from his annual incursion
+into Connaught and Thomond, seized the English cavalry
+horses, and defeated the main force of the besieged, who
+had issued out to their rescue. From this affair Dowcra
+was carried back wounded into Deny.
+
+But treason was busy in the Irish camp and country among
+the discontented members of the neighbouring clans. The
+election of chiefs for life, always a fruitful source of
+bickering and envy, supplied the very material upon which
+"the princely policie" of division, recommended by Bacon
+to Essex, might be exercised. Dowcra succeeded in the
+summer in winning over Art O'Neil, son of Turlogh, the
+early adversary of the great Hugh; before the year was
+over, by bribes and promises, he seduced Nial Garve, in
+the absence of his chief in Connaught, and Nial, having
+once entered on the career of treason, pursued it with
+all the dogged courage of Ms disposition. Though his
+wife, sister to Red Hugh, forsook him, though his name
+was execrated throughout the Province, except by his
+blindly devoted personal followers, he served the English
+during the remainder of the war with a zeal and ability
+to which they acknowledged themselves deeply indebted.
+By a rapid march, at the head of 1,000 men, supplied by
+Dowcra, he surprised the town of Lifford, which his new
+allies promptly fortified with walls of stone, and
+entrusted to him to defend. Red Hugh, on learning this
+alarming incident, hastened from the West to invest the
+place. After sitting before it an entire month, with no
+other advantage than a sally repulsed, he concluded to
+go into winter quarters. Arthur O'Neil and Nial Garve
+had the dignity of knighthood conferred upon them, and
+were, besides, recognized for the day by the English
+officials as the future O'Neil and O'Donnell. In like
+manner, "a Queen's Maguire" had been raised up in Fermanagh,
+"a Queen's O'Reilly" in Cavan, and other chiefs of smaller
+districts were provided with occupation enough at their
+own doors by the "princely policie" of Lord Bacon.
+
+The English interest in Munster during the first year of
+Mountjoy's administration had recovered much of its lost
+predominance. The new President, Sir George Carew,
+afterwards Earl of Totness, was brother to that knightly
+"undertaker" who claimed the moiety of Desmond, and met
+his death at Glenmalure. He was a soldier of the new
+school, who prided himself especially on his "wit and
+cunning," in the composition of "sham and counterfeit
+letters." He had an early experience in the Irish wars,
+first as Governor of Askeaton Castle, and afterwards as
+Lieutenant General of the Ordnance. Subsequently he was
+employed in putting England in a state of defence against
+the Spaniards, and had just returned from an embassy to
+Poland, when he was ordered to join Mountjoy with the
+rank of Lord President. He has left us a memoir of his
+administration, civil and military, edited by his natural
+son and Secretary, Thomas Stafford--exceedingly interesting
+to read both as to matter and manner, but the documents
+embodied in which are about as reliable as the speeches
+which are read in Livy. Some of them are admitted forgeries;
+others are at least of doubtful authenticity. After
+escaping with Lord Thomond from the scene of Ormond's
+capture, his first act on reaching Cork was to conclude
+a month's truce with Florence McCarthy. This he did, in
+order to gain time to perfect a plot for the destruction
+of O'Neil's other friend, called in derision, by the
+Anglo-Irish of Munster, the _sugane_ (or straw-rope) Earl
+of Desmond.
+
+This plot, so characteristic of Carew and of the turn
+which English history was about to take in the next reign,
+deserves to be particularly mentioned. There was, in the
+service of the Earl, one Dermid O'Conor, captain of 1,400
+hired troops, who was married to lady Margaret Fitzgerald,
+daughter to the late, and niece to the new-made Earl of
+Desmond. This lady, naturally interested in the restoration
+of her young brother, then the Queen's ward or prisoner
+at London, to the title and estates, was easily drawn
+into the scheme of seducing her husband from his patron.
+To justify and cloak the treachery a letter was written
+by Carew to the _sugane_ Earl reminding him of _his_
+engagement to deliver up O'Conor; this _letter_, as
+pre-arranged, was intercepted by the latter, who, watching
+his opportunity, rushed with it open into the Earl's
+presence, and arrested him, in the name of O'Neil, as a
+traitor to the Catholic cause! Anxious to finger his
+reward--1,000 pounds and a royal commission for himself
+--before giving up his capture, O'Conor imprisoned the
+Earl in the keep of Castle-Ishin, but the White Knight,
+the Knight of Glynn, Fitzmaurice of Kerry, and Pierce
+Lacy, levying rapidly 2,000 men, speedily delivered him
+from confinement, while his baffled betrayer, crest-fallen
+and dishonoured, was compelled to quit the Province. The
+year following he was attacked while marching through
+Galway, and remorselessly put to death by Theobald Burke,
+usually called Theobald of the ships.
+
+Another device employed to destroy the influence of
+O'Neil's Desmond was the liberation of the young son of
+the late Earl from the Tower and placing him at the
+disposal of Carew. The young nobleman, attended by a
+Captain Price, who was to watch all his movements, landed
+at Youghal, where he was received by the Lord President,
+the Clerk of the Council, Mr. Boyle, afterwards Earl of
+Cork, and Miler Magrath, an apostate ecclesiastic, who
+had been the Queen's Archbishop of Cashel. By his influence
+with the warders, Castlemaine, in Kerry, surrendered to
+the President. On reaching Kilmallock, he was received
+with such enthusiasm that it required the effort of a
+guard of soldiers to make way for him through the crowd.
+According to their custom the people showered down upon
+him from the windows handfuls of wheat and salt--emblems
+of plenty and of safety--but the next day, being Sunday,
+turned all this joy into mourning, not unmingled with
+anger and shame. The young lord, who had been bred up a
+Protestant by his keepers, directed his steps to the
+English Church, to the consternation of the devoted
+adherents of his house. They clung round him in the street
+and endeavoured to dissuade him from proceeding, but he
+continued his course, and on his return was met with
+hootings and reproaches by those who had hailed him with
+acclamations the day before. Deserted by the people, and
+no longer useful to the President, he was recalled to
+London, where he resumed his quarters in the Tower, and
+shortly afterwards died. The capture of the strong castle
+of Glynn from the knight of that name, and the surrender
+of Carrigafoyle by O'Conor of Kerry, were the other
+English successes which marked the campaign of 1600 in
+Munster. On the other hand, O'Donnell had twice exercised
+his severe supremacy over southern Connaught, burning
+the Earl of Thomond's new town of Ennis, and sweeping
+the vales and plains of Clare, and of Clanrickarde, of
+the animal wealth of their recreant Earls, now actively
+enlisted against the national confederacy.
+
+The eventful campaign of 1601 was fought out in almost
+every quarter of the kingdom. To hold the coast line,
+and prevent the advantages being obtained, which the
+possession of Derry, and other harbours on Lough Foyle
+gave them, were the tasks of O'Donnell; while to defend
+the southern frontier was the peculiar charge of O'Neil.
+They thus fought, as it were, back to back against the
+opposite lines of attack. The death of O'Doherty, early
+in this year, threw the succession to Innishowen into
+confusion, and while O'Donnell was personally endeavouring
+to settle conflicting claims, Nial Garve seized on the
+famous Franciscan monastery which stood at the head of
+the bay, within sight of the towers of Donegal Castle.
+Hugh Roe immediately invested the place, which his relative
+as stoutly defended. Three months, from the end of June
+till the end of September, the siege was strictly
+maintained, the garrison being regularly supplied with
+stores and ammunition from sea. On the night of the 29th
+of September an explosion of gunpowder occurred, and soon
+the monastery was wrapped in flames. This was the moment
+chosen for the final attack. The glare of the burning
+Abbey reflected over the beautiful bay, the darkness of
+night all round, the shouts of the assailants, and the
+shrieks of the fugitives driven by the flames upon the
+spears of their enemies, must have formed a scene of
+horrors such as even war rarely combines. Hundreds of
+the besieged were slain, but Nial Garve himself, with
+the remainder, covered by the fire of an English ship in
+the harbour, escaped along the strand to the neighbouring
+monastery of Magherabeg, which he quickly put into a
+state of defence. All that was left to O'Donnell of that
+monastery, the burial place of his ancestors, and the
+chief school of his kinsmen, was a skeleton of stone,
+standing amid rubbish and ashes. It was never re-inhabited
+by the Franciscans. A group of huts upon the shore served
+them for shelter, and the ruined chapel for a place of
+worship, while they were still left in the land.
+
+While Hugh Roe was investing Donegal Abbey the war had
+not paused on the southern frontier. We have said that
+Mountjoy had made a second and a third demonstration
+against Armagh the previous year; in one of these journeys
+he raised a strong fort at the northern outlet of the
+Moira pass, which he called Mount Norris, in honour of
+his late master in the art of war. This work, strongly
+built and manned, gave him the free _entree_ of the field
+of battle whenever he chose to take it. In June of this
+year he was in the valley of the Blackwater, menaced
+O'Neil's castle of Benburb, and left Sir Charles Danvers
+with 750 foot and 100 horse in possession of Armagh. He
+further proclaimed a reward of 2,000 pounds for the
+capture of Tyrone alive, or 1,000 pounds for his head.
+But no Irishman was found to entertain the thought of
+that bribe. An English assassin was furnished with
+passports by Danvers, and actually drew his sword on the
+Earl in his own tent, but he was seized, disarmed, and
+on the ground of insanity was permitted to escape. Later
+in the summer Mountjoy was again on the Blackwater, where
+he laid the foundation of Charlemont, called after himself,
+and placed 350 men in the works under the command of
+Captain Williams, the brave defender of the old fort in
+the same neighbourhood. There were thus quartered in
+Ulster at this period the 4,000 foot and 400 horse under
+Dowcra, chiefly on the Foyle, with whatever companies of
+Kerne adhered to Arthur O'Neil and Nial Garve; with
+Chichester in Carrickfergus there were 850 foot and 150
+horse; with Danvers in Armagh, 750 foot and 100 horse;
+in Mount Norris, under Sir Samuel Bagnal, 600 foot and
+50 horse; in and about Downpatrick, lately taken by the
+Deputy, under Moryson, 300 foot; in Newry, under Stafford,
+400 foot and 50 horse; in Charlemont, with Williams, 300
+foot and 50 horse; or, in all, of English regulars in
+Ulster alone, 7,000 foot and 800 horse. The position of
+the garrisons on the map will show how firm a grasp
+Mountjoy had taken of the Northern Province.
+
+The last scene of this great struggle was now about to
+shift to the opposite quarter of the kingdom. The
+long-looked for Spanish fleet was known to have left the
+Tagus--had been seen off the Scilly Islands. On the 23rd
+of September the Council, presided over by Mountjoy, was
+assembled in Kilkenny Castle: there were present Carew,
+Ormond, Sir Richard Wingfield, Marshal of the Queen's
+troops, uncle to Carew, and founder of the family of
+Powerscourt; also Chief Justice Gardiner, and other
+members less known. While they were still sitting a
+message arrived from Cork that the Spanish fleet was off
+that harbour, and soon another that they had anchored in
+Kinsale, and taken possession of the town without
+opposition. The course of the Council was promptly taken.
+Couriers were at once despatched to call in the garrisons
+far and near which could possibly be dispensed with for
+service in Munster. Letters were despatched to England
+for reinforcements, and a winter campaign in the South
+was decided on.
+
+The Spanish auxiliary force, when it sailed from the
+Tagus, consisted originally of 6,000 men in fifteen armed
+vessels and thirty transports. When they reached Kinsale,
+after suffering severely at sea, and parting company with
+several of their comrades, the soldiers were reduced to
+3,400 men--a number inferior to Dowcra's force on the
+Foyle. The General, Don Jaun del Aguila, was a brave,
+but testy, passionate and suspicious officer. He has been
+severely censured by some Irish writers for landing in
+the extreme South, within fourteen miles of the English
+arsenal and head-quarters at Cork, and for his general
+conduct as a commander. However vulnerable he may be on
+the general charge, he does not seem fairly to blame for
+the choice of the point of debarkation. He landed in the
+old Geraldine country, unaware, of course, of the events
+of the last few weeks, in which the _sugane_ Earl, and
+Florence McCarthy, had been entrapped by Carew's "wit
+and cunning," and shipped for London, from which they
+never returned. Even the northern chiefs, up to this
+period, evidently thought their cause much stronger in
+the South, and Munster much farther restored to vigour
+and courage than it really was. To the bitter disappointment
+and disgust of the Spaniards, only O'Sullivan Beare,
+O'Driscoll, and O'Conor of Kerry, declared openly for
+them; while they could hear daily of chiefs they had been
+taught to count as friends, either as prisoners or allies
+of the English. On the 17th of October--three weeks from
+their first arrival--they were arrested in Kinsale by
+a mixed army of English and Anglo-Irish, 15,000 strong,
+under the command of the Deputy and President, of whom
+above 5,000 had freshly arrived at Cork from England.
+With Mountjoy were the Earls of Thomond and Clanrickarde,
+more zealous than the English themselves for the triumph
+of England. The harbour was blockaded by ten ships of
+war, under Sir Richard Leviston, and the forts at the
+entrance, Rincorran and Castlenepark, being taken by
+cannonade, the investment on all sides was complete. Don
+Juan's messengers found O'Neil and O'Donnell busily
+engaged on their own frontiers, but both instantly resolved
+to muster all their strength for a winter campaign in
+Munster. O'Donnell _rendezvoused_ at Ballymote, from
+which he set out, at the head of 2,500 men, of Tyrconnell
+and Connaught, on the 2nd day of November. O'Neil, with
+McDonnell of Antrim, McGennis of Down, McMahon of Monaghan,
+and others, his suffragans, marched at the head of between
+3,000 and 4,000 men, through West-Meath towards Ormond.
+Holy Cross was their appointed place of meeting, where
+they expected to be joined by such of the neighbouring
+Catholics as were eager to strike a blow for liberty of
+worship. O'Donnell reached the neighbourhood first, and
+encamped in a strongly defensible position, "plashed on
+every quarter" for greater security. Mountjoy, anxious
+to engage him before O'Neil should come up, detached a
+numerically superior force, under Carew, for that purpose:
+but O'Donnell, evacuating his quarters by night, marched
+over the mountain of Slieve Felim, casting away much of
+his heavy baggage, and before calling halt was 32 _Irish_
+miles distant from his late encampment. After this
+extraordinary mountain march, equal to 40 of our present
+miles, he made a detour to the westward, descended on
+Castlehaven, in Cork, and formed a junction with 700
+Spaniards, who had just arrived to join Del Aguila. A
+portion of these veterans were detailed to the forts of
+Castlehaven, Baltimore, and Dunboy, commanding three of
+the best havens in Munster; the remainder joined O'Donnell's
+division.
+
+During the whole of November the siege of Kinsale was
+pressed with the utmost vigour by Mountjoy. The place
+mounted but three or four effective guns, while 20 great
+pieces of ordnance were continually playing on the walls.
+On the 1st of December a breach was found practicable,
+and an assault made by a party of 2,000 English was
+bravely repulsed by the Spaniards. The English fleet,
+ordered round to Castlehaven on the 3rd, were becalmed,
+and suffered some damage from a battery, manned by Spanish
+gunners, on the shore. The lines were advanced closer
+towards the town, and the bombardment became more effective.
+But the English ranks were considerably thinned by disease
+and desertion, so that on the last day of December, when
+the united Irish force took up their position at Belgoley,
+a mile to the north of their lines, the Lord Deputy's
+effective force did not, it is thought, exceed 10,000
+men. The Catholic army has generally been estimated at
+6,000 native foot and 500 horse; to these are to be added
+300 Spaniards, under Don Alphonso Ocampo, who joined
+O'Donnell at Castlehaven.
+
+The prospect for the besiegers was becoming exceedingly
+critical, but the Spaniards in Kinsale were far from
+being satisfied with their position. They had been fully
+three months within walls, in a region wholly unknown to
+them before their allies appeared. They neither understood
+nor made allowance for the immense difficulties of a
+winter campaign in a country trenched with innumerable
+swollen streams, thick with woods, which, at that season,
+gave no shelter, and where camping out at nights was
+enough to chill the hottest blood. They only felt their
+own inconveniences: they were cut off from escape by
+sea by a powerful English fleet, and Carew was already
+practising indirectly on their commander his "wit and
+cunning," in the fabrication of rumours, and the forging
+of letters. Don Juan wrote urgent appeals to the northern
+chiefs to attack the English lines without another day's
+delay, and a council of war, the third day after their
+arrival at Belgoley, decided that the attack should be
+made on the morrow. This decision was come to on the
+motion of O'Donnell, contrary to the judgment of the more
+circumspect and far-seeing O'Neil. Overruled, the latter
+acquiesced in the decision, and cheerfully prepared to
+discharge his duty.
+
+A story is told by Carew that information was obtained
+of the intended attack from McMahon, in return for a
+bottle of _aquavitae_ presented to him by the President.
+This tale is wholly unworthy of belief, told of a chief
+of the first rank, encamped in the midst of a friendly
+country. It is also said--and it seems credible enough
+--that an intercepted letter of Don Juan's gave the
+English in good time this valuable piece of information.
+On the night of the 2nd of January, new style (24th of
+December, O.S.--in use among the English), the Irish army
+left their camp in three divisions, the vanguard led by
+Tyrrell, the centre by O'Neil, and the rear by O'Donnell.
+The night was stormy and dark, with continuous peals and
+flashes of thunder and lightning. The guides lost their
+way, and the march, which, even by the most circuitous
+route, ought not to have exceeded four or five miles,
+was protracted through the entire night. At dawn of day,
+O'Neil, with whom were O'Sullivan and Ocampo, came in
+sight of the English lines, and, to his infinite surprise,
+found the men under arms, the cavalry in troop posted in
+advance of their quarters. O'Donnell's division was
+still to come up, and the veteran Earl now found himself
+in the same dilemma into which Bagnal had fallen at the
+Yellow Ford. His embarrassment was perceived from the
+English camp; the cavalry were at once ordered to advance.
+For an hour O'Neil maintained his ground alone; at the
+end of that time he was forced to retire. Of Ocampo's
+300 Spaniards, 40 survivors were, with their gallant
+leader, taken prisoners; O'Donnell at length arrived,
+and drove back a wing of the English cavalry; Tyrrell's
+horsemen also held their ground tenaciously. But the rout
+of the centre proved irremediable. Fully 1,200 of the
+Irish were left dead on the field, and every prisoner
+taken was instantly executed. On the English side fell
+Sir Richard Graeme; Captains Danvers and Godolphin, with
+several others, were wounded; their total loss they stated
+at 200, and the Anglo-Irish, of whom they seldom made
+count in their reports, must have lost in proportion.
+The Earls of Thomond and Clanrickarde were actively
+engaged with their followers, and their loss could hardly
+have been less than that of the English regulars. On the
+night following their defeat, the Irish leaders held
+council together at Innishanon, on the river Bandon,
+where it was agreed that O'Donnell should instantly take
+shipping for Spain to lay the true state of the contest
+before Philip III.; that O'Sullivan should endeavour to
+hold the Castle of Dunboy, as commanding a most important
+harbour; that Rory O'Donnell, second brother of Hugh Roe,
+should act as Chieftain of Tyrconnell, and that O'Neil
+should return into Ulster to make the best defence in
+his power. The loss in men was not irreparable; the loss
+in arms, colours, and reputation, was more painful to
+bear, and far more difficult to retrieve.
+
+On the 12th of January, nine days after the battle, Don
+Juan surrendered the town, and agreed to give up at the
+same time Dunboy, Baltimore, and Castlehaven. He had lost
+1,000 men out of his 3,000 during a ten weeks' siege,
+and was heartily sick of Irish warfare. On his return to
+Spain he was degraded from his rank, for his too great
+intimacy with Carew, and confined a prisoner in his own
+house. He is said to have died of a broken heart occasioned
+by these indignities.
+
+O'Donnell sailed from Castlehaven in a Spanish ship, on
+the 6th of January, three clays after the battle, and
+arrived at Corunna on the 14th. He was received with all
+the honours due to a crown prince by the Conde de Caracena,
+Governor of Galicia. Among other objects, he visited the
+remains of the tower of Betanzos, from which, according
+to Bardic legends, the sons of Milesius had sailed to
+seek for the Isle of Destiny among the waves of the west.
+On the 27th he set out for the Court, accompanied as far
+as Santa Lucia by the governor, who presented him with
+1,000 ducats towards his expenses. At Compostella the
+Archbishop offered him his own palace, which O'Donnell
+respectfully declined: he afterwards celebrated a Solemn
+High Mass for the Irish chief's intention, entertained
+him magnificently at dinner, and presented him, as the
+governor had done, with 1,000 ducats. At Zamora he received
+from Philip III. a most cordial reception, and was assured
+that in a very short time a more powerful armament than
+Don Juan's should sail with him from Corunna. He returned
+to that port, from which he could every day look out
+across the western waves that lay between him and home,
+and where he could be kept constantly informed of what
+was passing in Ireland. Spring was over and gone, and
+summer, too, had passed away, but still the exigencies
+of Spanish policy delayed the promised expedition. At
+length O'Donnell set out on a second visit to the Spanish
+Court, then at Valladolid, but he reached no further than
+Simancas, when, fevered in mind and body, he expired on
+the 10th of September, 1602, in the 29th year of his age.
+He was attended in his last moments by two Franciscan
+Fathers who accompanied him, Florence, afterwards Archbishop
+of Tuam, and Maurice Donlevy, of his own Abbey of Donegal.
+His body was interred with regal honours in the Cathedral
+of Valladolid, where a monument was erected to his memory
+by the King of Spain.
+
+Thus closed the career of one of the brightest and
+purest characters in any history. His youth, his early
+captivity, his princely generosity, his daring courage,
+his sincere piety won the hearts of all who came in
+contact with him. He was the sword as O'Neil was the
+brain of the Ulster Confederacy; the Ulysses and Achilles
+of the war, they fought side by side, without jealousy
+or envy, for almost as long a period as their prototypes
+had spent in besieging Troy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE CONQUEST OF MUNSTER--DEATH OF ELIZABETH, AND
+SUBMISSION OF O'NEIL--"THE ARTICLES OF MELLIFONT."
+
+The days of Queen Elizabeth were now literally numbered.
+The death of Essex, the intrigues of the King of Scotland,
+and the successes of Tyrone, preyed upon her spirits.
+The Irish chief was seldom out of her mind, and, as she
+often predicted, she was not to live to receive his
+submission. She was accustomed to send for her godson,
+Harrington, who had served in Ireland, to ask him questions
+concerning Tyrone; the French ambassador considered
+Tyrone's war one of the causes that totally destroyed
+her peace of mind in her latter days. She received the
+news of the victory of Kinsale with pleasure, but, even
+then, she was not destined to receive the submission of
+Tyrone.
+
+The events of the year, so inauspiciously begun for the
+Irish arms, continued of the same disastrous character.
+Castlehaven was surrendered by its Spanish guard, according
+to Del Aguila's agreement. Baltimore, after a momentary
+resistance, was also given up, but O'Sullivan, who
+considered the Spanish capitulation nothing short of
+treason, threw a body of native troops, probably drawn
+from Tyrrell's men, into Dunboy, under Captain Richard
+Mageoghegan, and Taylor, an Englishman, connected by
+marriage with Tyrrell. Another party of the same troops
+took possession of Clear Island, but were obliged to
+abandon it as untenable. The entire strength of the Dunboy
+garrison amounted to 143 men; towards the end of April
+--the last of the Spaniards having sailed in March--
+Carew left Cork at the head of 3,000 men to besiege
+Dunboy. Sir Charles Wilmot moved on the same point from
+Kerry, with a force of 1,000 men, to join Carew. In the
+pass near Mangerton Wilmot was encountered by Donald
+O'Sullivan and Tyrrell, at the head of then remaining
+followers, but forced a passage and united with his
+superior on the shores of Berehaven. On the 1st of June
+the English landed on Bear Island, and on the 6th opened
+their cannonade. They were 4,000 men, with every military
+equipment necessary, against 143. After eleven days'
+bombardment the place was shattered to pieces; the garrison
+offered to surrender, if allowed to retain their arms,
+but their messenger was hanged, and an instant assault
+ordered. Over fifty of this band of Christian Spartans
+had fallen in the defence, thirty attempted to escape in
+boats, or by swimming, but were killed to a man while in
+the water. The remainder retreated with Mageoghegan,
+who was severely wounded, to a cellar approached by a
+narrow stair, where the command was assumed by Taylor.
+All day the assault had been carried on till night closed
+upon the scene of carnage. Placing a strong guard on the
+approach to the crypt, Carew returned to the charge with
+the returning light. Cannon were first discharged into
+the narrow chamber which held the last defenders of
+Dunboy, and then a body of the assailants rushing in,
+despatched the wounded Mageoghegan with their swords,
+having found him, candle in hand, dragging himself towards
+the gunpowder. Taylor and fifty-seven others were led
+out to execution; of all the heroic band, not a soul
+escaped alive.
+
+The remaining fragments of Dunboy were blown into the
+air by Carew on the 22nd of June. Dursey Castle, another
+island fortress of O'Sullivan's, had fallen even earlier;
+so that no roof remained to the lord of Berehaven. Still
+he held his men well together in the glens of Kerry,
+during the months of Summer, but the ill-news from Spain
+in September threw a gloom over those mountains deeper
+than was ever cast by equinoctial storm. Tyrrell was
+obliged to separate from him in the Autumn, probably from
+the difficulty of providing for so many mouths, and
+O'Sullivan himself prepared to bid a sad farewell to the
+land of his inheritance. On the last day of December he
+left Glengariffe, with 400 fighting men, and 600 women,
+children, and servants, to seek a refuge in the distant
+north. After a retreat almost unparalleled, the survivors
+of this exodus succeeded in reaching the friendly roof
+of O'Ruarc, at Dromahaire, not far from Sligo. Their
+entire march, from the extreme south to the almost extreme
+north-west of the island, a distance, as they travelled
+it, of not less than 200 miles, was one scene of warfare
+and suffering. They were compelled to kill their horses,
+on reaching the Shannon, in order to make boats of the
+hides, to ferry them to the western bank. At Aughrim they
+were attacked by a superior force under Lord Clanrickarde's
+brother, and Captain Henry Malby, but they fought with
+the courage of despair, routed the enemy, slaving Malby,
+and other officers. Of the ten hundred who left the shores
+of Glengariffe, but 35 souls reached the Leitrim chieftain's
+mansion. Among these were the chief himself, with Dermid,
+father of the historian, who at the date of this march
+had reached the age of seventy. The conquest of Munster,
+at least, was now complete. In the ensuing January, Owen
+McEgan, Bishop of Ross, was slain in the midst of a
+guerilla party, in the mountains of Carberry, and Ms
+chaplain, being taken, was hanged with the other prisoners.
+The policy of extermination recommended by Carew was
+zealously carried out by strong detachments under Wilmot,
+Harvey, and Flower; Mr. Boyle and the other "Undertakers"
+zealously assisting as volunteers.
+
+Mountjoy, after transacting some civil business at Dublin,
+proceeded in person to the north, while Dowcra, marching
+out of Derry, pressed O'Neil from the north and north-east.
+In June, Mountjoy was at Charlemont, which he placed
+under the custody of Captain Toby Caufield, the founder
+of an illustrious title taken from that fort. He advanced
+on Dungannon, but discovered it from the distance, as
+Norris had once before done, in flames, kindled by the
+hand of its straitened proprietor. On Lough Neagh he
+erected a new fort called Mountjoy, so that his
+communications on the south now stretched from that great
+lake round to Omagh, while those of Dowcra, at Augher,
+Donegal, and Lifford, nearly completed the circle. Almost
+the only outlet from this chain of posts was into the
+mountains of O'Cane's country, the north-east angle of
+the present county of Derry. The extensive tract so
+enclosed and guarded had still some natural advantages
+for carrying on a defensive war. The primitive woods were
+standing in masses at no great distance from each other;
+the nearly parallel vales of Faughan, Moyala, and the
+river Roe, with the intermediate leagues of moor and
+mountain, were favourable to the movements of native
+forces familiar with every ford and footpath. There was
+also, while this central tract was held, a possibility
+of communication with other unbroken tribes, such as
+those of Clandeboy and the Antrim glens on the east, and
+Breffni O'Ruarc on the west. Never did the genius of Hugh
+O'Neil shine out brighter than in these last defensive
+operations. In July, Mountjoy writes apologetically to
+the Council, that "notwithstanding her Majesty's great
+forces, O'Neil doth still live." He bitterly complains
+of his consummate caution, his "pestilent judgment to
+spread and to nourish his own infection," and of the
+reverence entertained for his person by the native
+population. Early in August, Mountjoy had arranged what
+he hoped might prove the finishing stroke in the struggle.
+Dowcra from Derry, Chichester from Carrickfergus, Danvers
+from Armagh, and all who could be spared from Mountjoy,
+Charlemont, and Mount Norris, were gathered under his
+command, to the number of 8,000 men, for a foray into
+the interior of Tyrone. Inisloghlin, on the borders of
+Down and Antrim, which contained a great quantity of
+valuables, belonging to O'Neil, was captured. Magherlowney
+and Tulloghoge were next taken. At the latter place stood
+the ancient stone chair on which the O'Neils were
+inaugurated time out of mind; it was now broken into
+atoms by Mountjoy's orders. But the most effective warfare
+was made on the growing crops. The 8,000 men spread
+themselves over the fertile fields along the valleys of
+the Bann and the Roe, destroying the standing grain with
+fire, where it would burn, or with the _praca_, a peculiar
+kind of harrow, tearing it up by the roots. The horsemen
+trampled crops into the earth which had generously
+nourished them; the infantry shore them down with their
+sabres, and the sword, though in a very different sense
+from that of Holy Scripture, was, indeed, converted into
+a sickle. The harvest month never shone upon such fields
+in any Christian land. In September, Mountjoy reported
+to Cecil, "that between Tulloghoge and Toome there lay
+unburied a thousand dead," and that since his arrival on
+the Blackwater--a period of a couple of months--"there
+were about 3,000 starved in Tyrone." In O'Cane's country,
+the misery of his clansmen drove the chief to surrender
+to Dowcra, and the news of Hugh Roe's death having reached
+Donegal, his brother repaired to Athlone, and made his
+submission to Mountjoy, early in December. O'Neil, unable
+to maintain himself on the river, Roe, retired with 600
+foot and 60 horse, to Glencancean, near Lough Neagh, the
+most secure of his fastnesses. His brother Cormac McMahon,
+and Art O'Neil, of Clandeboy, shared with him the wintry
+hardships of that last asylum, while Tyrone, Clandeboy,
+and Monaghan, were given up to horrors, surpassing any
+that had been known or dreamt of in former wars. Moryson,
+secretary to Mountjoy, in his account of this campaign,
+observes, "that no spectacle was more frequent in the
+ditches of towns, and especially in wasted countries,
+than to see multitudes of these poor people dead, with
+their mouths all coloured green, by eating nettles, docks,
+and all things they could rend above ground."
+
+The new year, opening without hope, it began to be rumoured
+that O'Neil was disposed to surrender on honourable terms.
+Mountjoy and the English Council long urged the aged
+Queen to grant such terms, but without effect. Her pride
+as a sovereign had been too deeply wounded by the revolted
+Earl to allow her easily to forgive or forget his offences.
+Her advisers urged that Spain had followed her own course
+towards the Netherlands, in Ireland; that the war consumed
+three-fourths of her annual revenue, and had obliged her
+to keep up an Irish army of 20,000 men for several years
+past. At length she yielded her reluctant consent, and
+Mountjoy was authorized to treat with the arch-rebel upon
+honourable terms. The agents employed by the Lord Deputy
+in this negotiation were Sir William Godolphin and Sir
+Garrett Moore, of Mellifont, ancestor of the Marquis of
+Drogheda--the latter, a warm personal friend, though no
+partizan of O'Neil's. They found him in his retreat near
+Lough Neagh early in March, and obtained his promise to
+give the Deputy an early meeting at Mellifont. Elizabeth's
+serious illness, concealed from O'Neil, though well known
+to Mountjoy, hastened the negotiations. On the 27th of
+March he had intelligence of her decease at London on
+the 24th, but carefully concealed it till the 5th of
+April following. On the 31st of March, he received
+Tyrone's submission at Moore's residence, the ancient
+Cistercian Abbey, and not until a week later did O'Neil
+learn that he had made his peace with a dead sovereign.
+
+The honourable terms on which this memorable religious
+war was concluded were these: O'Neil abjured all foreign
+allegiance, especially that of the King of Spain; renounced
+the title of O'Neil; agreed to give up his correspondence
+with the Spaniards, and to recall his son, Henry, who
+was a page at the Spanish Court, and to live in peace
+with the sons of John the Proud. Mountjoy granted him an
+amnesty for himself and his allies; agreed that he should
+be restored to his estates as he had held them before
+the war, and that the Catholics should have the free
+exercise of their religion. That the restoration of his
+ordinary chieftain rights, which did not conflict with
+the royal prerogative, was also included, we have the
+best possible evidence: Sir Henry Dowcra having complained
+to Lord Mountjoy that O'Neil quartered men on O'Cane,
+who had surrendered to himself, Mountjoy made answer--"My
+Lord of Tyrone is taken in with promise to be restored,
+as well to all his lands as to his honour and dignity,
+and O'Cane's country is his, and must be obedient to his
+commands." That the article concerning religion was
+understood by the Catholics to concede full freedom of
+worship, is evident from subsequent events. In Dublin,
+sixteen of the principal citizens suffered fine and
+imprisonment for refusing to comply with the act of
+uniformity; in Kilkenny the Catholics took possession of
+the Black Abbey, which had been converted into a lay fee;
+in Waterford they did the same by St. Patrick's Church,
+where a Dominican preacher was reported to have said,
+among other imprudent things, that "Jesabel was dead"--
+alluding to the late Queen. In Cork, Limerick, and Cashel,
+the cross was carried publicly in procession, the old
+Churches restored to their ancient rites, and enthusiastic
+proclamation made of the public restoration of religion.
+These events having obliged the Lord Deputy to make a
+progress through the towns and cities, he was met at
+Waterford by a vast procession, headed by religious in
+the habits of their order, who boldly declared to him
+"that the citizens of Waterford could not, in conscience,
+obey any prince that persecuted the Catholic religion."
+When such was the spirit of the town populations, we are
+not surprised to learn that, in the rural districts,
+almost exclusively Catholic, the people entered upon the
+use of many of their old Churches, and repaired several
+Abbeys--among the number, Buttevant, Kilcrea, and Timoleague
+in Cork; Quin Abbey in Clare; Kilconnell in Galway;
+Rosnariell in Mayo, and Multifarnham in West-Meath. So
+confident were they that the days of persecution were
+past, that King James prefaces his proclamation of July,
+1605, with the statement--"Whereas we have been informed
+that our subjects in the kingdom of Ireland, since the
+death of our beloved sister, have been deceived by a
+false rumour, to wit, that we would allow them liberty
+of conscience," and so forth. How cruelly they were then
+undeceived belongs to the history of the next reign; here
+we need only remark that the Articles of Limerick were
+not more shamefully violated by the statute 6th and 7th,
+William III., than the Articles of Mellifont were violated
+by this Proclamation of the third year of James I.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+STATE OF RELIGION AND LEARNING DURING THE REIGN
+OF ELIZABETH.
+
+During the greater part of the reign of Elizabeth, the
+means relied upon for the propagation of the reformed
+doctrines were more exclusively those of force and coercion
+than even in the time of Edward VI. Thus, when Sir William
+Drury was Deputy, in 1578, he bound several citizens of
+Kilkenny, under a penalty of 40 pounds each, to attend
+the English Church service, and authorized the Anglican
+Bishop "to make a rate for the repair of the Church, and
+to distrain for the payment of it"--the first mention of
+Church rates we remember to have met with. Drury's method
+of proceeding may be further inferred from the fact, that
+of the thirty-six executions ordered by him in the same
+city, "one was a blackamoor and two were witches, who
+were condemned by the law of nature, for there was no
+positive law against witchcraft [in Ireland] in those
+days." That defect was soon supplied, however, by the
+statute 27th of Elizabeth, "against witchcraft and
+sorcery." Sir John Perrott, successor to Drury, trod in
+the same path, as we judge from the charge of severity
+against recusants, upon which, among other articles, he
+was recalled from the government. Towards the end of the
+sixteenth century, however, it began to be discovered by
+the wisest observers that violent methods were worse than
+useless with the Irish. Edmund Spenser urged that "religion
+should not be forcibly impressed into them with terror
+and sharp penalties, as now is the manner, but rather
+delivered and intimated with mildness and gentleness."
+Lord Bacon, in his "Considerations touching the Queen's
+Service in Ireland," addressed to Secretary Cecil,
+recommends "the recovery of the hearts of the people,"
+as the first step towards their conversion. With this
+view he suggested "a toleration of religion (for a time
+not definite), except it be in some principal towns and
+cities," as a measure "warrantable in religion, and in
+policy of absolute necessity." The philosophic Chancellor
+farther suggested, as a means to this desired end, the
+preparation of "versions of Bibles and Catechisms, and
+other works of instruction in the Irish language." In
+accordance with these views of conversion, the University
+of Trinity College was established by a royal charter,
+in the month of January, 1593. The Mayor and Corporation
+of Dublin had granted the ancient monastery of All Hallows
+as a site for the buildings; some contributions were
+received from the Protestant gentry, large grants of
+confiscated Abbey and other lands, which afterwards
+yielded a princely revenue, were bestowed upon it, and
+the Lord Treasurer Burleigh graciously accepted the office
+of its Chancellor. The first Provost was Archbishop Loftus,
+and of the first three students entered, one was the
+afterwards illustrious James Usher. The commanders and
+officers engaged at Kinsale presented it with the sum of
+1,800 pounds for the purchase of a library; and at the
+subsequent confiscations in Munster and Ulster, the
+College came in for a large portion of the forfeited lands.
+
+Although the Council in England generally recommended
+the adoption of persuasive arts and a limited toleration,
+those who bore the sword usually took care that they
+should not bear it in vain. A High Commission Court,
+armed with ample powers to enforce the Act of Uniformity,
+had been established at Dublin in 1593; but its members
+were ordered to proceed cautiously after the Ulster
+Confederacy became formidable, and their powers lay
+dormant in the last two or three years of the century.
+Essex and Mountjoy were both fully convinced of the wisdom
+of Bacon's views; the former showed a partial toleration,
+connived at the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice, even
+in the capital, and liberated some priests from prison.
+Mountjoy, in answer to the command of the English Council
+"to deal moderately in the great matter of religion,"
+replied by letter that he had already advised "such as
+dealt in it for a time to hold a restrained hand therein."
+"The other course," he adds, "might have overthrown the
+means of our own end of a reformation of religion." This
+conditional toleration--such as it was--excited the
+indignation of the more zealous Reformers, whose favourite
+preacher, the youthful Usher, did not hesitate to denounce
+it from the pulpit of Christ Church, as an unhallowed
+compromise with antichrist. In 1601, Usher, then but 21
+years of age, preached his well-known sermon from the
+text of the forty days, in which Ezekiel "was to bear
+the iniquity of the house of Judah--a day for a year."
+"From this year," cried the youthful zealot, "will I
+reckon the sin of Ireland, that those whom you now embrace
+shall be your ruin, and you shall bear their iniquity."
+When the northern insurrection of 1641 took place, this
+rhetorical menace was exalted, after the fact, into the
+dignity of a prophecy fulfilled. After the victory of
+Kinsale, however, the Ultra Protestant party had less
+cause to complain of the temporizing of the civil power;
+the pecuniary mulct of twelve pence for each absence from
+the English service was again enforced at least in Dublin,
+and several priests, then in prison, were, on various
+pretences, put to death. Among those who suffered in the
+capital was the learned Jesuit, Henry Fitzsimons, son of
+a Mayor of the city, the author of _Brittanomachia_, with
+whom, while in the Castle, Usher commenced a controversy,
+which was never finished. But the terms agreed upon at
+Mellifont, between Mountjoy and Tyrone, again suspended
+for a short interval the sword of persecution.
+
+Notwithstanding its manifold losses by exile and the
+scaffold, the ancient Church was enabled, through the
+abundance of vocations, and the zeal of the ordained, to
+keep up a still powerful organization. Philip O'Sullivan
+states, under the next reign that the government had
+ascertained through its spies, the names of 1,160 priests,
+secular and regular, still in the country. There must
+have been between 300 and 400 others detained abroad,
+either as Professors in the Irish Colleges in Spain,
+France, and Flanders, or as ecclesiastics, awaiting major
+orders. Of the regulars at home, 120 were Franciscans,
+and about 50 Jesuits. There are said to have been but
+four Fathers of the Order of St. Dominick remaining at
+the time of Elizabeth's death. The reproach of Cambrensis
+had long been taken away, since every Diocese might now
+point to its martyrs. Of these we recall among the
+Hierarchy the names of O'Hely, Bishop of Killala, executed
+at Kilmallock hi 1578; O'Hurley, Archbishop of Cashel,
+burned at the stake in Dublin in 1582; Creagh, Archbishop
+of Armagh, who died a prisoner in the Tower in 1585;
+Archbishop McGauran, his successor, slain in the act of
+ministering to the wounded in the engagement at Tulsk,
+in Roscommon, in 1593; McEgan, Bishop of Ross, who met
+his death under precisely similar circumstances in Carberry
+in 1603. Yet through all these losses the episcopal
+succession was maintained unbroken. In the early part of
+the next reign O'Sullivan gives the names of the four
+Archbishops, Peter Lombard of Armagh, Edward McGauran of
+Dublin, David O'Carny of Cashel, and Florence Conroy of
+Tuam. On the other hand, the last trying half century
+had furnished, so far as we can learn, no instance of
+apostacy among the Bishops, and but half a dozen at most
+from all orders of the clergy. We read that Owen O'Conor,
+an apostate, was advanced by letters patent to Killala
+in 1591; that Maurice O'Brien of Ara was, in 1570, by
+the same authority, elevated to the See of Killaloe,
+which he resigned in 1612; that Miler Magrath, in early
+life a Franciscan friar, was promoted by the Queen to
+the Sees of Clogher, Killala, Anchory and Lismore
+successively. He finally settled in the See of Cashel,
+in which he died, having secretly returned to the religion
+of his ancestors. For the rest, "the Queen's Bishops"
+were chiefly chosen out of England, though some few
+natives of the Pale, or of the walled towns, educated at
+Oxford, may be found in the list.
+
+Of the state of learning in those troubled times the
+brief story is easily told. The Bardic Order still
+flourished and was held in honour by all ranks of the
+native population. The national adversity brought out in
+them, as in others, many noble traits of character. The
+Harper, O'Dugan, was the last companion that clung to
+the last of the Desmonds; the Bard of Tyrconnell, Owen
+Ward, accompanied the Ulster chiefs in their exile, and
+poured out his Gaelic dirge above their Roman graves.
+Although the Bardic compositions continued to be chiefly
+personal, relating to the inauguration, journeys, exploits,
+or death of some favourite chief, a large number of
+devotional poems on the passion of our Lord and the glories
+of the Blessed Virgin are known to be of this age. The
+first forerunners of what was destined to be a numerous
+progeny, the controversial ode or ballad, appeared in
+Elizabeth's reign, in the form of comparisons between
+the old and new religions, lamentations over the ruin of
+religious houses, and the apostacy of such persons as
+Miler Magrath and the son of the Earl of Desmond. The
+talents of many of the authors are admitted by Spenser,
+a competent judge, but the tendency of their writings,
+he complains, was to foster the love of lawlessness and
+rebellion rather than of virtue and loyalty. He recommended
+them for correction to the mercies of the Provost Marshal,
+whom he would have "to walk the country with half a
+dozen or half a score of horsemen," in quest of the
+treasonable poets.
+
+As this was the age of the general diffusion of printing,
+we may observe that the casting of Irish type for the
+use of Trinity College, by order of Queen Elizabeth, is
+commonly dated from the year 1591; but as the College
+was not opened for two years later, the true date must
+be anticipated. John Kearney, Treasurer of St. Patrick's
+Church, who died about the year 1600, published a Protestant
+Catechism from the College Press, which, says O'Reilly,
+"was the first book ever printed in Irish types." In the
+year 1593, Florence Conroy translated from the Spanish
+into Irish a catechism entitled "Christian Instruction,"
+which, he states in the preface, he had no opportunity
+of sending into Ireland "until the year of the age of
+our Lord 1598." Whether it was then printed we are not
+informed, but there does not seem to have been any Irish
+type in Catholic hands before the foundation of the Irish
+College at Louvain in 1616.
+
+The merit of first giving to the press, in the native
+language of the country, a version of the Sacred Scriptures,
+belongs clearly to Trinity College. Nicholas Walsh, Bishop
+of Ossory, who died in 1585, had commenced, with the
+assistance of John Kearney, to translate the Greek
+Testament into Gaelic. He had also the assistance of Dr.
+Nehemiah Donnellan, and Dr. William Daniel, or O'Daniel,
+both of whom subsequently filled the See of Tuam. This
+translation, dedicated to King James, and published by
+O'Daniel in 1603, is still reprinted by the Bible Societies.
+The first Protestant translation of the Old Testament,
+made under Bishop Bedel's eye, and with such revision of
+particular passages as his imperfect knowledge of the
+language enabled him to suggest, though completed in the
+reign of Charles I., was not published before the year
+1680. It was Bedel, also, who caused the English liturgy
+to be recited in Irish, in his Cathedral, as early as 1630.
+
+Ireland and her affairs naturally attracted, during
+Elizabeth's reign, the attention of English writers. Of
+these it is enough to mention the Poet Spenser, Secretary
+to Lord Grey de Wilton, Fynes Moryson, Secretary to Lord
+Mountjoy, and the Jesuit Father, Campian. Campian, early
+distinguished at Oxford, was employed as Cambrensis had
+been four centuries earlier, and as Plowden was two
+centuries later, to write down everything Irish. He
+crossed the Channel in 1570, and composed two books
+rapidly, without accurate or full information as to the
+condition or history of the country. The nearer view of
+Catholic suffering and Catholic constancy exercised a
+powerful influence on this accomplished scholar; he became
+a convert and a Jesuit. For members of that order there
+was but one exit out of life, under the law of England:
+he suffered death at Tyburn in 1581. Richard Stanihurst,
+son of the Recorder of Dublin, and uncle of Archbishop
+Usher, went through precisely the same experiences as
+his friend Campian, except that he died, a quarter of a
+century later, Chaplain to the Archdukes at Brussels,
+instead of expiring at the stake. His English hexameters
+are among the curiosities of literature, but his
+contributions to the history of his country, especially
+his allusions to events and characters in and about his
+own time, are not without their use. Stanihurst wrote
+his historical tracts, as did Lombard the Catholic and
+Usher the Protestant Primate, O'Sullivan, White, O'Meara,
+and almost all the Irish writers of that age, without
+exception, in the Latin language. The first Latin book
+printed in Ireland is thought to be O'Meara's poem in
+praise of Thomas, Earl of Ormond and Ossory, published
+in 1615. The earliest English books printed in Ireland
+are unknown to me; the collection of Anglo-Irish statutes,
+ordered to be published while Sir Henry Sidney was Deputy,
+was the most important undertaking of that class in the
+reign of Elizabeth.
+
+As to institutions of learning, if we except Trinity
+College, which increased rapidly in numbers and reputation
+under the patronage of the Crown, and the College of
+Saint Nicholas, at Galway--protected by its remote
+situation on the brink of the Atlantic--there was no
+famous seat of learning left in the island. In the next
+reign 1,300 scholars are stated to have attended that
+western "school of humanity," when the Ecclesiastical
+Commissioners despotically ordered it to be closed,
+because the learned Principal, John Lynch, "would not
+confirm to the religion established." But the greater
+number of the children of Catholics, who still retained
+property enough to educate them, were sent beyond seas,
+a fact with which King James, soon after his accession,
+reproached the deputation of that body. A proclamation
+issued by Lord Deputy Chichester, in 1610, alludes to
+the same custom, and commands all noblemen, merchants,
+and others, whose children are abroad for educational
+purposes, to recall them within one year from the date
+thereof; and in case they refuse to return, all parents,
+friends, &c., sending them money, directly or indirectly,
+will be punished as severely as the law permits. It was
+mainly to guard against this danger that "the School of
+Wards" was established by Elizabeth, and enlarged by
+James I., in which the great Duke of Ormond, Sir Phelim
+O'Neil, Murrogh, Lord Inchiquin, and other sons of noble
+families, were educated for the next generation. Early
+in the reign of James there were not less than 300 of
+these Irish children in the Tower, or at the Lambeth
+School,--and it is humiliating to find the great name of
+Sir Edward Coke among those who gloried in the success
+of this unnatural substitution of the State for the Parent
+in the work of education.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK IX.
+
+FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES I. TILL THE DEATH OF CROMWELL.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+JAMES I.--FLIGHT OF THE EARLS--CONFISCATION OF ULSTER--
+PENAL LAWS--PARLIAMENTARY OPPOSITION.
+
+James the Sixth of Scotland was in his 37th year when he
+ascended the throne under the title of "James the First,
+King of Great Britain and Ireland." His accession naturally
+excited the most hopeful expectations of good government
+in the breasts of the Irish Catholics. He was son of Mary
+Queen of Scots, whom they looked upon as a martyr to her
+religion, and grandson of that gallant King James who
+styled himself "Defender of the Faith," and "_Dominus
+Hiberniae_" in introducing the first Jesuits to the Ulster
+Princes. His ancestors had always been in alliance with
+the Irish, and the antiquaries of that nation loved to
+trace their descent from the Scoto-Irish chiefs who first
+colonized Argyle, and were for ages crowned at Scone. He
+himself was known to have assisted the late Catholic
+struggle as effectually, though less openly than the King
+of Spain, and it is certain that he had employed Catholic
+agents, like Lord Home and Sir James Lindsay, to excite
+an interest in his succession among the Catholics, both
+in the British Islands and on the Continent.
+
+The first acts of the new sovereign were calculated to
+confirm the expectations of Catholic liberty thus
+entertained. He was anxious to make an immediate and
+lasting peace with Spain; refused to receive a special
+embassy from the Hollanders; his ambassador at Paris was
+known to be on terms of intimacy with the Pope's Nuncio;
+and although personally he assumed the tone of an Anglican
+Churchman, on crossing the border he had invited leading
+Catholics to his Court, and conferred the honour of
+Knighthood on some of their number. The imprudent
+demonstrations in the Irish towns were easily quieted,
+and no immediate notice was taken of their leaders. In
+May, 1603, Mountjoy, on whom James had conferred the
+higher rank of Lord Lieutenant, leaving Carew as Lord
+Deputy, proceeded to England, accompanied by O'Neil,
+Roderick O'Donnell, Maguire, and other Irish gentlemen.
+The veteran Tyrone, now past threescore, though hooted
+by the London rabble, was graciously received in that
+court, with which he had been familiar forty years before.
+He was at once confirmed in his title, the Earldom of
+Tyrconnell was created for O'Donnell, and the Lordship
+of Enniskillen for Maguire. Mountjoy, created Earl of
+Devonshire, retained the title of Lord Lieutenant, with
+permission to reside in England, and was rewarded by the
+appointment of Master of the Ordnance and Warden of the
+New Forest, with an ample pension from the Crown to him
+and his heirs for ever, the grant of the county of Lecale
+(Down), and the estate of Kingston Hall, in Dorsetshire,
+He survived but three short years to enjoy all these
+riches and honours; at the age of 44, wasted with
+dissipation and domestic troubles, he passed to his final
+account.
+
+The necessity of conciliating the Catholic party in
+England, of maintaining peace in Ireland, and prosecuting
+the Spanish negotiations, not less, perhaps, than his
+own original bias, led James to deal favourably with the
+Catholics at first. But having attempted to enforce the
+new Anglican Canons, adopted in 1604, against the Puritans,
+that party retaliated by raising against him the cry of
+favouring the Papists. This cry alarmed the King, who
+had always before his eyes the fear of Presbyterianism,
+and he accordingly made a speech in the Star Chamber,
+declaring his utter detestation of Popery, and published
+a proclamation banishing all Catholic missionaries from
+the country. All magistrates were instructed to enforce
+the penal laws with rigour, and an elaborate spy system
+for the discovery of concealed recusants was set on foot.
+This reign of treachery and terror drove a few desperate
+men into the gunpowder plot of the following year, and
+rendered it difficult, if not impossible, for the King
+to return to the policy of toleration, with which, to do
+him justice, he seems to have set out from Scotland.
+
+Carew, President of Munster during the late war, became
+Deputy to Mountjoy on his departure for England. He was
+succeeded in October, 1604, by Sir Arthur Chichester,
+who, with the exception of occasional absences at Court,
+continued in office for a period of eleven years. This
+nobleman, a native of England, furnishes, in many points,
+a parallel to his cotemporary and friend, Robert Boyle,
+Earl of Cork. The object of his life was to found and to
+endow the Donegal peerage out of the spoils of Ulster,
+as richly as Boyle endowed his earldom out of the
+confiscation of Munster. Both were Puritans rather than
+Churchmen, in their religious opinions; Chichester, a
+pupil of the celebrated Cartwright, and a favourer all
+his life of the congregational clergy in Ulster. But they
+carried their repugnance to the interference of the civil
+magistrate in matters of conscience so discreetly as to
+satisfy the high church notions both of James and Elizabeth.
+For the violence they were thus compelled to exercise
+against themselves, they seem to have found relief in
+bitter and continuous persecution of others. Boyle, as
+the leading spirit in the government of Munster, as Lord
+Treasurer, and occasionally as Lord Justice, had ample
+opportunities, during his long career of forty years, to
+indulge at once his avarice and his bigotry; and no
+situation was ever more favourable than Chichester's for
+a proconsul, eager to enrich himself at the expense of
+a subjugated Province.
+
+In the projected work of the reduction of the whole
+country to the laws and customs of England, it is
+instructive to observe that a Parliament was not called
+in the first place. The reformers proceeded by
+proclamations, letters patent, and orders in council,
+not by legislation. The whole island was divided into 32
+counties and 6 judicial circuits, all of which were
+visited by Justices in the second or third year of this
+reign, and afterwards semi-annually. On the Northern
+Circuit Sir Edward Pelham and Sir John Davis were
+accompanied by the Deputy in person, with a numerous
+retinue. In some places the towns were so wasted by the
+late war, pestilence, and famine, that the Viceregal
+party were obliged to camp out in the fields, and to
+carry with them their own provisions. The Courts were
+held in ruined castles and deserted monasteries; Irish
+interpreters were at every step found necessary; sheriffs
+were installed in Tyrone and Tyrconnell for the first
+time; all lawyers appearing in court and all justices of
+the peace were tendered the oath of supremacy--the refusal
+of which necessarily excluded Catholics both from the
+bench and the bar. An enormous amount of litigation as
+to the law of real property was created by a judgment of
+the Court of King's Bench at Dublin, in 1605, by which
+the ancient Irish customs, of tanistry and gavelkind,
+were declared null and void, and the entire Feudal system,
+with its rights of primogeniture, hereditary succession,
+entail, and vassalage, was held to exist in as full force
+in England. Very evidently this decision was not less a
+violation of the articles of Mellifont than was the King's
+proclamation against freedom of conscience issued about
+the same tune.
+
+Sir John Davis, who has left us two very interesting
+tracts on Irish affairs, speaking of the new legal
+regulations of which he was one of the principal
+superintendents, observes that the old-fashioned allowances
+to be found so often in the Pipe-Rolls, _pro guidagio et
+spiagio_, into the interior, may well be spared thereafter,
+since "the under sheriffs and bailiffs errant are better
+guides and spies in time of peace than they were found
+in tune of war." He adds, what we may very well believe,
+that the Earl of Tyrone complained he had so many eyes
+upon him, that he could not drink a cup of sack without
+the government being advertised of it within a few hours
+afterwards. This system of social _espionage_, so
+repugnant to all the habits of the Celtic family, was
+not the only mode of annoyance resorted to against the
+veteran chief. Every former dependent who could be induced
+to dispute his claims as a landlord, under the new
+relations established by the late decision, was sure of
+a judgment in his favour. Disputes about boundaries with
+O'Cane, about the commutation of chieftain-rents into
+tenantry, about church lands claimed by Montgomery,
+Protestant Bishop of Derry, were almost invariably decided
+against him. Harassed by these proceedings, and all
+uncertain of the future, O'Neil listened willingly to
+the treacherous suggestion of St. Lawrence and Lord Howth,
+that the leading Catholics of the Pale, and those of
+Ulster, should endeavour to form another confederation.
+The execution of Father Garnet, Provincial of the Jesuits
+in England, the heavy fines inflicted on Lords Stourton,
+Mordaunt, and Montague, and the new oath of allegiance,
+framed by Archbishop Abbott, and sanctioned by the English
+Parliament--all events of the year 1606--were calculated
+to inspire the Irish Catholics with desperate councils.
+A dutiful remonstrance against the Act of Uniformity the
+previous year had been signed by the principal Anglo-Irish
+Catholics for transmission to the King, but their delegates
+were seized and imprisoned in the Castle, while their
+principal agent, Sir Patrick Barnwell, was sent to London
+and confined in the Tower. A meeting, at Lord Howth's
+suggestion, was held about Christmas, 1606, at the Castle
+of Maynooth, then in possession of the dowager Countess
+of Kildare, one of whose daughters was married to
+Christopher Nugent, Baron of Delvin, and her granddaughter
+to Rory, Earl of Tyrconnell. There were present O'Neil,
+O'Donnell, and O'Cane, on the one part, and Lords Delvin
+and Howth on the other. The precise result of this
+conference, disguised under the pretext of a Christmas
+party, was never made known, but the fact that it had
+been held, and that the parties present had entertained
+the project of another confederacy for the defence of
+the Catholic religion, was mysteriously communicated in
+an anonymous letter, directed to Sir William Usher, Clerk
+of the Council, which was dropped in the Council Chamber
+of Dublin Castle, in March, 1607. This letter, it is
+now generally believed, was written by Lord Howth, who
+was thought to have been employed by Secretary Cecil, to
+entrap the northern Earls, in order to betray them. In
+May, O'Neil and O'Donnell were cited to attend the Lord
+Deputy in Dublin, but the charges were for the time kept
+in abeyance, and they were ordered to appear in London
+before the feast of Michaelmas. Early in September O'Neil
+was with Chichester at Slane, in Meath, when he received
+a letter from Maguire, who had been out of the country,
+conveying information on which he immediately acted.
+Taking leave of the Lord Deputy as if to prepare for his
+journey to London, he made some stay with his old friend,
+Sir Garrett Moore, at Mellifont, on parting from whose
+family he tenderly bade farewell to the children and even
+the servants, and was observed to shed tears. At Dungannon
+he remained two days, and on the shore of Lough Swilly
+he joined O'Donnell and others of his connexions. The
+French ship, in which Maguire had returned, awaited them
+off Rathmullen, and there they took shipping for France.
+With O'Neil, in that sorrowful company, were his last
+countess, Catherine, daughter of Magenniss, his three
+sons, Hugh, John, and Brian; his nephew, Art, son of
+Cormac, Rory O'Donnell, Caffar, his brother, Nuala, his
+sister, who had forsaken her husband Nial _Garve_, when
+he forsook his country; the lady Rose O'Doherty, wife of
+Caffar, and afterwards of Owen Roe O'Neil; Maguire, Owen
+MacWard, chief bard of Tyrconnell, and several others.
+"Woe to the heart that meditated, woe to the mind that
+conceived, woe to the council that decided on the project
+of that voyage!" exclaimed the Annalists of Donegal, in
+the next age. Evidently it was the judgment of their
+immediate successors that the flight of the Earls was a
+rash and irremediable step for them; but the information
+on which they acted, if not long since destroyed, has,
+as yet, never been made public. We can pronounce no
+judgment as to the wisdom of their conduct, from the
+incomplete statements at present in our possession.
+
+There remained now few barriers to the wholesale
+confiscation of Ulster, so long sought by "the Undertakers,"
+and these were rapidly removed. Sir Cahir O'Doherty,
+chief of Innishowen, although he had earned his Knighthood
+while a mere lad, fighting by the side of Dowcra, in an
+altercation with Sir George Paulett, Governor of Derry,
+was taunted with conniving at the escape of the Earls,
+and Paulett in his passion struck him in the face. The
+youthful chief--he was scarcely one and twenty--was driven
+almost to madness by this outrage. On the night of the
+3rd of May, by a successful stratagem, he got possession
+of Culmore fort, at the month of Lough Foyle, and before
+morning dawned had surprised Derry; Paulett, his insulter,
+he slew with his own hand, most of the garrison were
+slaughtered, and the town reduced to ashes. Nial _Garve_
+O'Donnell, who had been cast off by his old protectors,
+was charged with sending him supplies and men, and for
+three months he kept the field, hoping that every gale
+might bring him assistance from abroad. But those same
+summer months and foreign climes had already proved fatal
+to many of the exiles, whose co-operation he invoked. In
+July, Rory O'Donnell expired at Rome, in August, Maguire
+died at Genoa, on his way to Spain, and in September,
+Caffar O'Donnell was laid in the same grave with his
+brother, on St. Peter's hill. O'Neil survived his comrades,
+as he had done his fortunes, and like another Belisarius,
+blind and old, and a pensioner on the bounty of strangers,
+he lived on, eight weary years, in Rome. O'Doherty,
+enclosed in his native peninsula, between the forces of
+the Marshal Wingfield and Sir Oliver Lambert, Governor
+of Connaught, fell by a chance shot, at the rock of Doon,
+in Kilmacrenan. The superfluous traitor, Nial Garve,
+was, with his sons, sent to London, and imprisoned in
+the Tower for life. In those dungeons, Cormac, brother
+of Hugh O'Neil, and O'Cane also languished out their
+days, victims to the careless or vindictive temper of
+King James. Sir Arthur Chichester received, soon after
+these events, a grant of the entire barony of Innishowen,
+and subsequently a grant of the borough of Dungannon,
+with 1,300 acres adjoining; Wingfield obtained the district
+of Fercullan near Dublin, with the title of Viscount
+Powerscourt; Lambert was soon after made Earl of Cavan,
+and enriched with the lands of Carig, and other estates
+in that county.
+
+To justify at once the measures he proposed, as well as
+to divert from the exiles the sympathies of Europe, King
+James issued a proclamation bearing date the 5th of
+November, 1608, giving to the world the English version
+of the flight of the Earls. The whole of Ulster was then
+surveyed in a cursory manner by a staff over which presided
+Sir William Parsons as Surveyor-General. The surveys
+being completed early in 1609, a royal commission was
+issued to Chichester, Lambert, St. John, Ridgeway, Moore,
+Davis, and Parsons, with the Archbishop of Armagh, and
+the Bishop of Derry, to inquire into the portions forfeited.
+Before these Commissioners Juries were sworn on each
+particular case, and these Juries duly found that, in
+consequence of "the rebellion" of O'Neil, O'Donnell, and
+O'Doherty, the entire six counties of Ulster, enumerated
+by baronies and parishes, were forfeited to the Crown.
+By direction from England the Irish Privy Council submitted
+a scheme for planting these counties "with colonies of
+civil men well affected in religion," which scheme, with
+several modifications suggested by the English Privy
+Council, was finally promulgated by the royal legislator
+under the title of "Orders and Conditions for the Planters."
+According to the division thus ordered, upwards of 43,000
+acres were claimed and conceded to the Primate and the
+Protestant Bishops of Ulster; in Tyrone, Derry, and
+Armagh, Trinity College got 30,000 acres, with six
+advowsons in each county. The various trading guilds of
+the city of London--such as the drapers, vintners,
+cordwainers, drysalters--obtained in the gross 209,800
+acres, including the city of Derry, which they rebuilt
+and fortified, adding _London_ to its ancient name. The
+grants to individuals were divided into three classes--
+2,000, 1,500, and 1,000 acres each. Among the conditions
+on which these grants were given was this--"that they
+should not suffer any labourer, that would not take the
+oath of supremacy," to dwell upon their lands. But this
+despotic condition--equivalent to sentence of death on
+tens of thousands of the native peasantry--was fortunately
+found impracticable in the execution. Land was little
+worth without hands to till it; labourers enough could
+not be obtained from England and Scotland, and the
+Hamiltons, Stewarts, Folliots, Chichesters, and Lamberts,
+having, from sheer necessity, to choose between Irish
+cultivators and letting their new estates lie waste and
+unprofitable, it is needless to say what choice they made.
+
+The spirit of religious persecution was exhibited not
+only in the means taken to exterminate the peasantry, to
+destroy the northern chiefs, and to intimidate the
+Catholics of "the Pale" by abuse of law, but by many
+cruel executions. The Prior of the famous retreat of
+Lough Derg was one of the victims of this persecution;
+a Priest named O'Loughrane, who had accidentally sailed
+in the same ship with the Earls to France, was taken
+prisoner on his return, hanged and quartered. Conor
+O'Devany, Bishop of Down and Conor, an octogenarian,
+suffered martyrdom with heroic constancy at Dublin, in
+1611. Two years before, John, Lord Burke of Brittas,
+was executed in like manner on a charge of having
+participated in the Catholic demonstrations which took
+place at Limerick on the accession of King James. The
+edict of 1610 in relation to Catholic children educated
+abroad has been quoted in a previous chapter, _apropos_
+of education, but the scheme submitted by Knox, Bishop
+of Raphoe, to Chichester in 1611 went even beyond that
+edict. In this project it was proposed that whoever should
+be found to harbour a Priest should forfeit all his
+possessions to the Crown--that quarterly returns should
+be made out by counties of all who refused to take the
+oath of supremacy, or to attend the English Church
+service--that no Papist should be permitted to exercise
+the function of a schoolmaster; and, moreover, that all
+churches injured during the late war should be repaired
+at the expense of the Papist inhabitants for the use of
+the Anglican congregation.
+
+Very unexpectedly to the nation at large, after a lapse
+of 27 years, during which no Parliament had been held,
+writs were issued for the attendance of both Houses, at
+Dublin, on the 18th of May, 1613. The work of confiscation
+and plantation had gone on for several years without the
+sanction of the legislature, and men were at a loss to
+conceive for what purpose elections were now ordered,
+unless to invent new penal laws, or to impose fresh
+burdens on the country. With all the efforts which had
+been made to introduce civil men, well affected in
+religion, it was certain that the Catholics would return
+a large majority of the House of Commons, not only in
+the chief towns, but from the fifteen old, and seventeen
+new counties, lately created. To counterbalance this
+majority, over forty boroughs, returning two members
+each, were created, by royal charter, in places thinly
+or not at all inhabited, or where towns were merely
+projected on the estates of leading "Undertakers." Against
+the issue of writs returnable by these fictitious
+corporations, the Lords Gormanstown, Slane, Killeen,
+Trimbleston, Dunsany, and Howth, signed an humble
+remonstrance to the King, concluding with a prayer for
+the relaxation of the penal laws affecting religion. The
+King, whose notions of prerogative were extravagantly
+high, was highly incensed at this petition of the Catholic
+peers of Leinster, and Chichester proceeded with his full
+approbation to pack the Parliament. At the elections,
+however, many "recusant lawyers" and other Catholic
+candidates were returned, so that when the day of meeting
+arrived, 101 Catholic representatives assembled at Dublin,
+some accompanied by bands of from 100 to 200 armed
+followers. The supporters of the government claimed 125
+votes, and six were found to be absent, making the whole
+number of the House of Commons 232. The Upper House
+consisted of 50 Peers, of whom there were 25 Protestant
+Bishops, so that the Deputy was certain of a majority in
+that chamber, on all points of ecclesiastical legislation,
+at least. Although, with the facts before us, we cannot
+agree with Sir John Davis that King James I. gave Ireland
+her "first free Parliament," it is impossible not to
+entertain a high sense of admiration for the constitutional
+firmness of the recusant or Catholic party in that
+assembly. At the very outset they successfully resisted
+the proposition to meet in the Castle, surrounded by the
+Deputy's guards, as a silent menace. They next contended
+that before proceeding to the election of Speaker the
+Council should submit to the Judges the decision of the
+alleged invalid elections. A tumultous and protracted
+debate was had on this point. The Castle party argued
+that they should first elect a Speaker and then proceed
+to try the elections; the Catholics contended that there
+were persons present whose votes would determine the
+Speakership, but who had no more title in law than the
+horseboys at the door. This was the preliminary trial
+of strength. The candidate of the Castle for the Speakership
+was Sir John Davis; of the Catholics, Sir John Everard,
+who had resigned his seat on the bench rather than take
+the oath of supremacy framed by Archbishop Abbott. The
+Castle party having gone into the lobby to be counted,
+the Catholics placed Sir John Everard in the Chair. On
+their return the government supporters placed Sir John
+Davis in Everard's lap, and a scene of violent disorder
+ensued. The House broke up in confusion; the recusants
+in a body declared their intention not to be present at
+its deliberations, and the Lord Deputy, finding them
+resolute, suddenly prorogued the session. Both parties
+sent deputies to England to lay their complaints at the
+foot of the throne. The Catholic spokesmen, Talbot and
+Lutrell, were received with a storm of reproaches, and
+committed, the former to the Tower, the other to the
+Fleet Prison. They were, however, released after a brief
+confinement, and a Commission was issued to inquire into
+the alleged electoral frauds. By the advice of Everard
+and others of their leaders, a compromise was effected
+with the Castle party; members returned for boroughs
+incorporated after the writs were issued were declared
+excluded, the contestation of seats on other grounds of
+irregularity were withdrawn, and the House accordingly
+proceeded to the business for which they were called
+together. The chief acts of the sessions of 1614, '15,
+and '16, beside the grant of four entire subsidies to
+the Crown, were an act joyfully recognizing the King's
+title; acts repealing statutes of Elizabeth and Henry VIII.,
+as to distinctions of race; an act repealing the 3 and 4
+of Philip and Mary, against "bringing Scots into Ireland,"
+and the acts of attainder against O'Neil, O'Donnell, and
+O'Doherty. The recusant minority have been heavily censured
+by our recent historians for consenting to these attainders.
+Though the censure may be in part deserved, it is,
+nevertheless, clear that they had not the power to prevent
+their passage, even if they had been unanimous in their
+opposition; but they had influence enough, fortunately, to
+oblige the government to withdraw a sweeping penal law
+which it was intended to propose. An Act of oblivion and
+amnesty was also passed, which was of some advantage. On
+the whole, both for the constitutional principles which
+they upheld, and the religious proscription which they
+resisted, the recusant minority in the Irish Parliament of
+James I. deserve to be held in honour by all who value
+religious and civil liberty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+LAST YEARS OF JAMES--CONFISCATION OF THE MIDLAND
+COUNTIES--ACCESSION OF CHARLES I.--GRIEVANCES AND
+"GRACES"--ADMINISTRATION OF LORD STRAFFORD.
+
+From the dissolution of James's only Irish Parliament in
+October, 1615, until the tenth of Charles I.--an interval
+of twenty years--the government of the country was again
+exclusively regulated by arbitrary proclamations and
+orders in Council. Chichester, after the unusually long
+term of eleven years, had leave to retire in 1816; he
+was succeeded by the Lord Grandison, who held the office
+of Lord Deputy for six years, and he, in turn, by Henry
+Carey, Viscount Falkland, who governed from 1622 till
+1629--seven years. Nothing could well be more fluctuating
+than the policy pursued at different periods by these
+Viceroys and their advisers; violent attempts at coercion
+alternated with the meanest devices to extort money from
+the oppressed; general declarations against recusants
+were repeated with increased vehemence, while particular
+treaties for a local and conditional toleration were
+notoriously progressing; in a word, the administration
+of affairs exhibited all the worst vices and weaknesses
+of a despotism, without any of the steadiness or magnanimity
+of a really paternal government. Some of the edicts issued
+deserve particular notice, as characterizing the
+administrations of Grandison and Falkland.
+
+The municipal authorities of Waterford, having invariably
+refused to take the oath of supremacy, were, by an order
+in Council, deprived of their ancient charter, which was
+withheld from them for nine years. The ten shilling tax
+on recusants for non-attendance at the Anglican service
+was rigorously enforced in other cities, and was almost
+invariably levied with costs, which not seldom swelled
+the ten shillings to ten pounds. A new instrument of
+oppression was also, in Lord Grandison's time,
+invented--"the Commission for the Discovery of Defective
+Titles." At the head of this Commission was placed Sir
+William Parsons, the Surveyor-General, who had come into
+the kingdom in a menial situation, and had, through a
+long half century of guile and cruelty, contributed as
+much to the destruction of its inhabitants, by the
+perversion of law, as any armed conqueror could have done
+by the edge of the sword. Ulster being already applotted,
+and Munster undergoing the manipulation of the new Earl
+of Cork, there remained as a field for the Parsons
+Commission only the Midland Counties and Connaught. Of
+these they made the most in the shortest space of time.
+A horde of clerkly spies were employed under the name of
+"Discoverers," to ransack old Irish tenures in the archives
+of Dublin and London, with such good success, that in a
+very short time 66,000 acres in Wicklow, and 385,000
+acres in Leitrim, Longford, the Meaths, and King's and
+Queen's Counties, were "found by inquisition to be vested
+in the Crown." The means employed by the Commissioners,
+in some cases, to elicit such evidence as they required,
+were of the most revolting description. In the Wicklow
+case, courts-martial were held, before which unwilling
+witnesses were tried on the charge of treason, and some
+actually put to death. Archer, one of the number, had
+his flesh burned with red hot iron, and was placed on a
+gridiron over a charcoal fire, till he offered to testify
+anything that was necessary. Yet on evidence so obtained
+whole baronies and counties were declared forfeited to
+the Crown.
+
+The recusants, though suffering under every sort of
+injustice, and kept in a state of continual apprehension
+--a condition worse even than the actual horrors they
+endured--counted many educated and wealthy persons in
+their ranks, besides mustering fully ninety per cent, of
+the whole population. They were, therefore, far from
+being politically powerless. The recall of Lord Grandison
+from the government was attributed to their direct or
+indirect influence upon the King. When James Usher, then
+Bishop of Meath, preached before his successor from the
+text "He beareth not the sword in vain," they were
+sufficiently formidable to compel him publicly to apologise
+for his violent allusions to their body. Perhaps, however,
+we should mainly see in the comparative toleration,
+extended by Lord Falkland, an effect of the diplomacy
+then going on, for the marriage of Prince Charles to the
+Infanta of Spain. When, in 1623, Pope Gregory XV. granted
+a dispensation for this marriage, James solemnly swore
+to, a private article of the marriage treaty, by which
+he bound himself to suspend the execution of the Penal
+laws, to procure their repeal in Parliament, and to grant
+a toleration of Catholic worship in private houses. But
+the Spanish match was unexpectedly broken off, immediately
+after his decease (June, 1625), whereupon Charles married
+Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV. of France.
+
+The new monarch inherited from his father three kingdoms
+heaving in the throes of disaffection and rebellion. In
+England the most formidable of the malcontents were the
+Puritans, who reckoned many of the first nobility, and
+the ablest members of the House of Commons among their
+chiefs; the restoration of episcopacy, and the declaration
+by the subservient Parliament of Scotland, that no General
+Assembly should be called without the King's sanction,
+had laid the sure foundations of a religious insurrection
+in the North; while the events, which we have already
+described, filled the minds of all orders of men in
+Ireland with agitation and alarm. The marriage of Charles
+with Henrietta Maria gave a ray of assurance to the
+co-religionists of the young Queen, for they had not then
+discovered that it was ever the habit of the Stuarts "to
+sacrifice their friends to the fear of their enemies."
+While he was yet celebrating his nuptials at Whitehall,
+surrounded by Catholic guests, the House of Commons
+presented Charles "a pious petition," praying him to put
+into force the laws against recusants; a prayer which he
+was compelled by motives of policy to answer in the
+affirmative. The magistrates of England received orders
+accordingly, and when the King of France remonstrated
+against this flagrant breach of one of the articles of
+the marriage treaty (the same included in the terms of
+the Spanish match), Charles answered that he had never
+looked on the promised toleration as anything but an
+artifice to secure the Papal dispensation. But the King's
+compliance failed to satisfy the Puritan party in the
+House of Commons, and that same year began their contest
+with the Crown, which ended only on the scaffold before
+Whitehall in 1648. Of their twenty-three years' struggle,
+except in so far as it enters directly into our narrative,
+we shall have little to say, beyond reminding the reader,
+from time to time, that though it occasionally lulled
+down it was never wholly allayed on either side.
+
+Irish affairs, in the long continued suspension of the
+functions of Parliament, were administered in general by
+the Privy Council, and in detail by three special courts,
+all established in defiance of ancient constitutional
+usage. These were the Court of Castle Chamber, modelled
+on the English Star Chamber, and the Ecclesiastical High
+Commissioners Court, both dating from 1563; and the Court
+of Wards and Liveries, originally founded by Henry VIII.,
+but lately remodelled by James. The Castle Chamber was
+composed of certain selected members of the Privy Council
+acting in secret with absolute power; the High Commission
+Court was constituted under James and Charles, of the
+principal Archbishops and Bishops, with the Lord Deputy,
+Chancellor, Chief Justice, Master of the Rolls, Master
+of the Wards, and some others, laymen and jurists. They
+were armed with unlimited power "to visit, reform, redress,
+order, correct and amend, all such errors, heresies,
+schisms, abuses, offences, contempts and enormities," as
+came under the head of spiritual or ecclesiastical
+jurisdiction. They were, in effect, the Castle Chamber,
+acting as a spiritual tribunal of last resort; and were
+provided with their own officers, Registers and Receivers
+of Fines, Pursuivants, Criers and Gaolers. The Court of
+Wards exercised a jurisdiction, if possible, more repugnant
+to our first notions of liberty than that of the High
+Commission Court. It retained its original power "to
+bargain and sell the custody, wardship and marriage," of
+all the heirs of such persons of condition as died in
+the King's homage; but their powers, by royal letters
+patent of the year 1617, were to be exercised by a Master
+of Wards, with an Attorney and Surveyor, all nominated
+by the Crown. The Court was entitled to farm all the
+property of its Wards during nonage, for the benefit of
+the Crown, "taking one year's rent from heirs male, and
+two from heirs female," for charges of stewardship. The
+first master, Sir William Parsons, was appointed in 1622,
+and confirmed at the beginning of the next reign, with
+a salary of 300 pounds per annum, and the right to rank
+next to the Chief Justice of the King's Bench at the
+Privy Council. By this appointment the minor heirs of
+all the Catholic proprietors were placed, both as to
+person and property, at the absolute disposal of one of
+the most intense anti-Catholic bigots that ever appeared
+on the scene of Irish affairs.
+
+In addition to these civil grievances an order had lately
+been issued to increase the army in Ireland by 5,000 men,
+and means of subsistence had to be found for that additional
+force, within the kingdom. In reply to the murmurs of
+the inhabitants, they were assured by Lord Falkland that
+the King was their friend, and that any just and temperate
+representation of their grievances would secure his
+careful and instant attention. So encouraged, the leading
+Catholics convoked a General Assembly of their nobility
+and gentry, "with several Protestants of rank," at Dublin,
+in the year 1628, in order to present a dutiful statement
+of their complaints to the King. The minutes of this
+important Assembly, it is to be feared, are for ever lost
+to us. We only know that it included a large number of
+landed proprietors, of whom the Catholics were still a
+very numerous section. "The entire proceedings of this
+Assembly," says Dr. Taylor, "were marked by wisdom and
+moderation. They drew up a number of articles, in the
+nature of a Bill of Rights, to which they humbly solicited
+the royal assent, and promised that, on their being
+granted, they would raise a voluntary assessment of
+100,000 pounds for the use of the Crown. The principal
+articles in these 'graces,' as they were called, were
+provisions for the security of property, the due
+administration of justice, the prevention of military
+exactions, the freedom of trade, the better regulation
+of the clergy, and the restraining of the tyranny of the
+ecclesiastical courts. Finally, they provided that the
+Scots, who had been planted in Ulster, should be seemed
+in their possessions, and a general pardon granted for
+all offences." Agents were chosen to repair to England
+with this petition, and the Assembly, hoping for the best
+results, adjourned. But the ultra Protestant party had
+taken the alarm, and convoked a Synod at Dublin to
+counteract the General Assembly. This Synod vehemently
+protested against selling truth "as a slave," and
+"establishing for a price idolatry in its stead." They
+laid it down as a dogma of _their_ faith that "to grant
+Papists a toleration, or to consent that they may freely
+exercise their religion and profess their faith and
+doctrines, was a grievous sin;" wherefore they prayed
+God "to make those in authority zealous, resolute, and
+courageous against all Popery, superstition, and idolatry."
+This declaration of the extreme Protestants, including
+not only Usher, and the principal Bishops, but Chichester,
+Boyle, Parsons, and the most successful "Undertakers,"
+all deeply imbued with Puritan notions, naturally found
+among their English brethren advocates and defenders.
+The King, who had lately, for the third time, renewed
+with France the articles of his marriage treaty, was
+placed in a most difficult position. He desired to save
+his own honour, he sorely needed the money of the Catholics,
+but he trembled before the compact, well organized
+fanaticism of the Puritans. In his distress he had recourse
+to a councillor, who, since the assassination of Buckingham,
+his first favourite, divided with Laud the royal confidence.
+This was Thomas, Lord Wentworth, better known by his
+subsequent title of Earl of Strafford, a statesman born
+to be the wonder and the bane of three kingdoms. Strafford
+(for such for clearness we must call him) boldly advised
+the King to grant "the graces" as his own personal act,
+to pocket the proposed subsidy, but to contrive that the
+promised concessions he was to make should never go into
+effect. This infamous deception was effected in this
+wise: the King signed, with his own hand, a schedule of
+fifty-one "graces," and received from the Irish agents
+in London bonds for 120,000 pounds, (equal to ten times
+the amount at present), to be paid in three annual
+instalments of 40,000 pounds. He also agreed that Parliament
+should be immediately called in Ireland, to confirm these
+concessions, while at the same time he secretly instructed
+Lord Falkland to see that the writs of election were
+informally prepared, so that no Parliament could be held.
+This was accordingly done; the agents of the General
+Assembly paid their first instalment; the subscribers
+held the King's autograph; the writs were issued, but on
+being returned, were found to be technically incorrect,
+and so the legal confirmation of the graces was indefinitely
+postponed, under one pretext or another. As evidence of
+the national demands at this period, we should add, that
+beside the redress of minor grievances, the articles
+signed by the King provided that the recusants should be
+allowed to practise in the courts of law; to sue the
+livery of their lands out of the Court of Wards, on taking
+an oath of civil allegiance in lieu of the oath of
+supremacy; that the claims of the Crown to the forfeiture
+of estates, under the plea of defects of title, should
+not be held to extend beyond sixty years anterior to
+1628; that the "Undertakers" should have time allowed
+them to fulfil the conditions of their leases; that the
+proprietors of Connaught should be allowed to make a new
+enrollment of their estates, and that a Parliament should
+be held. A royal proclamation announced these concessions,
+as existing in the royal intention, but, as we have
+already related, such promises proved to be worth no more
+than the paper on which they were written.
+
+In 1629 Lord Falkland, to disarm the Puritan outcry
+against him, had leave to withdraw, and for four years
+--an unusually long interregnum--the government was left
+in the hands of Robert Boyle, now Earl of Cork, and Adam
+Loftus, Viscount Ely, one of the well dowered offspring
+of Queen Elizabeth's Archbishop of Dublin. Ely held the
+office of Lord Chancellor, and Cork that of Lord High
+Treasurer; as Justices, they now combined in their own
+persons almost all the power and patronage of the kingdom.
+Both affected a Puritan austerity and enthusiasm, which
+barely cloaked a rapacity and bigotry unequalled in any
+former administration. In Dublin, on Saint Stephen's Day,
+1629, the Protestant Archbishop, Bulkley, and the Mayor
+of the city, entered the Carmelite Chapel, at the head
+of a file of soldiers, dispersed the congregation,
+desecrated the altar, and arrested the officiating friars.
+The persecution was then taken up and repeated wherever
+the executive power was strong enough to defy the popular
+indignation. A Catholic seminary lately established in
+the capital was confiscated, and turned over to Trinity
+College as a training school. Fifteen religious houses,
+chiefly belonging to the Franciscan Order, which had
+hitherto escaped from the remoteness of their situation,
+were, by an order of the English Council, confiscated to
+the Crown, and their novices compelled to emigrate in
+order to complete their studies abroad. A reprimand from
+the King somewhat stayed the fury of the Justices, whose
+supreme power ended with Stafford's appointment in 1633.
+
+The advent of Stafford was characteristic of his whole
+course. The King sent over another letter concerning
+recusants, declaring that the laws against them, at the
+suggestion of the Lords Justices, should be put strictly
+in force. The Justices proved unwilling to enter this
+letter on the Council book, and it was accordingly withheld
+till Stafford's arrival, but the threat had the desired
+effect of drawing "a voluntary contribution" of 20,000
+pounds out of the alarmed Catholics. Equipped partly
+with this money Stafford arrived in Dublin in July, 1633,
+and entered at once on the policy, which he himself
+designated by the one emphatic word--"THOROUGH." He took
+up his abode in the Castle, surrounded by a Body Guard,
+a force hitherto unknown at the Irish Court; he summoned
+only a select number of the Privy Council, and, having
+kept them waiting for hours, condescended to address them
+in a speech full of arrogance and menace. He declared
+his intention of maintaining and augmenting the army;
+advised them to amend their grants forthwith; told them
+frankly he had called them to Council, more out of courtesy
+than necessity, and ended by requiring from them a year's
+subsidy in advance. As this last request was accompanied
+by a positive promise to obtain the King's consent to
+the assembling of Parliament, it was at once granted;
+and soon after writs were issued for the meeting of both
+Houses in July following.
+
+When this long-prayed-for Parliament at last met, the
+Lord Deputy took good care that it should be little else
+than a tribunal to register his edicts. A great many
+officers of the army had been chosen as Burgesses, while
+the Sheriffs of counties were employed to secure the
+election of members favourable to the demands of the
+Crown. In the Parliament of 1613 the recusants were,
+admitting all the returns to be correct, nearly one-half;
+but in that of 1634 they could not have exceeded one-third.
+The Lord Deputy nominated their Speaker, whom they did
+not dare to reject, and treated them invariably with the
+supreme contempt which no one knows so well how to exhibit
+towards a popular assembly as an apostate liberal.
+"Surely," he said in his speech from the throne, "so
+great a meanness cannot enter your hearts, as once to
+suspect his Majesty's gracious regard of you, and
+performance with you, once you affix yourselves upon his
+grace." His object in this appeal was the sordid and
+commonplace one--to obtain more money without rendering
+value for it. He accordingly carried through four whole
+subsidies of 50,000 pounds sterling each in the session
+of 1634; and two additional subsidies of the same amount
+at the opening of the next session. The Parliament, having
+thus answered his purpose, was summarily dissolved in
+April, 1635, and for four years more no other was called.
+During both sessions he had contrived, according to his
+agreement with the King, to postpone indefinitely the
+act which was to have confirmed "the graces," guaranteed
+in 1628. He even contrived to get a report of a Committee
+of the House of Commons, and the opinions of some of the
+Judges, against legislating on the subject at all, which
+report gave King Charles "a great deal of contentment."
+
+With sufficient funds in hand for the ordinary expenses
+of the government, Strafford applied himself earnestly
+to the self-elected task of making his royal master "as
+absolute as any King in Christendom" on the Irish side
+of the channel. The plantation of Connaught, delayed by
+the late King's death, and abandoned among the new King's
+graces, was resumed as a main engine of obtaining more
+money. The proprietary of that Province had, in the
+thirteenth year of the late reign, paid 3,000 pounds into
+the Record Office at Dublin, for the registration of
+their deeds, but the entries not being made by the clerk
+employed, the title to every estate in the five western
+counties was now called in question. The "Commissioners
+to Inquire into Defective Titles" were let loose upon
+the devoted Province, with Sir William Parsons at their
+head, and the King's title to the whole of Mayo, Sligo
+and Roscommon, was found by packed, bribed, or intimidated
+juries; the grand jury of Galway having refused to find
+a similar verdict, were summoned to the Court of Castle
+Chamber, sentenced to pay a fine of 4,000 pounds each to
+the Crown, and the Sheriff that empanelled them, a fine
+of 1,000 pounds. The lawyers who pleaded for the actual
+proprietors were stripped of their gowns, the sheriff
+died in prison, and the work of spoliation proceeded.
+The young Earl of Ormond was glad to compound for a
+portion of his estates; the Earl of Kildare was committed
+to prison for refusing a similar composition; the Earl
+of Cork was compelled to pay a heavy fine for his intrusion
+into lands originally granted to the Church; the O'Byrnes
+of Wicklow commuted for 15,000 pounds, and the London
+Companies, for their Derry estates, paid no less than
+70,000 pounds: a forced contribution for which those
+frugal citizens never forgave the thorough-going Deputy. By
+these means, and others less violent, such as bounties to
+the linen trade, he raised the annual revenue of the kingdom
+to 80,000 pounds a year, and was enabled to embody for
+the King's service an army of 10,000 foot and 1,000 horse.
+
+These arbitrary measures were entirely in consonance with
+the wishes of Charles. In a visit to England in 1636,
+the King assured Strafford personally of his cordial
+approbation of all he had done, encouraged him to proceed
+fearlessly in the same course, and conferred on him the
+higher rank of Lord Lieutenant. Three years later, on
+the first rumour of a Scottish invasion of England,
+Strafford was enabled to remit his master 30,000 pounds
+from the Irish Treasury, and to tender the services of
+the Anglo-Irish army, as he thought they could be safely
+dispensed with by the country in which they had been thus
+far recruited and maintained.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+LORD STRAFFORD'S IMPEACHMENT AND EXECUTION--PARLIAMENT
+OF 1639-'41--THE INSURRECTION OF 1641--THE IRISH ABROAD.
+
+The tragic end of the despot, whose administration we
+have sketched, was now rapidly approaching. When he
+deserted the popular ranks in the English House of Commons
+for a Peerage and the government of Ireland, the fearless
+Pym prophetically remarked, "Though you have left us, I
+will not leave you while your head is on your shoulders."
+Yet, although conscious of having left able and vigilant
+enemies behind him in England, Strafford proceeded in
+his Irish administration as if he scorned to conciliate
+the feelings or interests of any order of men. By the
+highest nobility, as well as the humblest of the mechanic
+class, his will was to be received as law; so that neither
+in Church, nor in State, might any man express even the
+most guarded doubt as to its infallibility. Lord
+Mountnorris, for example, having dropped a casual, and
+altogether innocent remark at the Chancellor's table on
+the private habits of the Deputy, was brought to trial
+by court martial on a charge of mutiny, and sentenced to
+military execution. Though he was not actually put to
+death, he underwent a long and rigorous imprisonment,
+and at length was liberated without apology or satisfaction.
+If they were not so fully authenticated, the particulars
+of this outrageous case would hardly be credible.
+
+The examples of resistance to arbitrary power, which for
+some years had been shown by both England and Scotland,
+were not thrown away upon the still worse used Irish.
+During the seven years of Strafford's iron rule, Hampden
+had resisted the collection of ship money, Cromwell had
+begun to figure in the House of Commons, the Solemn League
+and Covenant was established in Scotland, and the Scots
+had twice entered England in arms to seal with their
+blood, if need were, their opposition to an episcopal
+establishment of religion. It was in 1640, upon the
+occasion of their second invasion, that Strafford was
+recalled from Ireland to assume command of the royal
+forces in the North of England. After a single indecisive
+campaign, the King entertained the overtures of the
+Covenanters, and the memorable Long Parliament having
+met in November, one of its first acts was the impeachment
+of Strafford for high crimes and misdemeanors. The chief
+articles against him related to his administration of
+Irish affairs, and were sustained by delegates from the
+Irish House of Commons, sent over for that purpose: the
+whole of the trial deserves to be closely examined by
+every one interested in the constitutional history of
+England and Ireland.
+
+A third Parliament, known as the 14th, 15th and 16th
+Charles I., met at Dublin on the 20th March, 1639, was
+prorogued till June, and adjourned till October. Yielding
+the point so successfully resisted in 1613, its sittings
+were held in the Castle, surrounded by the viceregal
+guard. With one exception, the acts passed in its first
+session were of little importance, relating only to the
+allotment of glebe lands and the payment of twentieths.
+The exception, which followed the voting of four entire
+subsidies to the King, was an Act ordaining "that this
+Parliament shall not determine by his Majesty's assent
+to this and other Bills." A similar statute had been
+passed in 1635, but was wholly disregarded by Strafford,
+who no doubt meant to take precisely the same course in
+the present instance. The members of this Assembly have
+been severely condemned by modern writers for passing a
+high eulogium upon Strafford in their first session and
+reversing it after his fall. But this censure is not well
+founded. The eulogium was introduced by the Castle party
+in the Lords, as part of the preamble to the Supply Bill,
+which, on being returned to the Commons, could only be
+rejected _in toto_, not amended--a proceeding in the last
+degree revolutionary. But those who dissented from that
+ingenious device, at the next session of the House, took
+care to have their protest entered on the journals and
+a copy of it despatched to the King. This second proceeding
+took place in February, 1640, and as the Lord Lieutenant
+was not arraigned till the month of November following,
+the usual denunciations of the Irish members are altogether
+undeserved. At no period of his fortune was the Earl more
+formidable as an enemy than at the very moment the Protest
+against "his manner of government" was ordered "to be
+entered among the Ordinances" of the Commons of Ireland.
+Nor did this Parliament confine itself to mere protestations
+against the abuses of executive power. At the very
+opening of the second session, on the 20th of January,
+they appointed a committee to wait on the King in England,
+with instructions to solicit a bill in explanation of
+Poyning's law, another enabling them to originate bills
+in Committee of their own House, a right taken away by
+that law, and to ask the King's consent to the regulation
+of the courts of law, the collecting of the revenue, and
+the quartering of soldiers by statute instead of by Orders
+in Council. On the 16th of February the House submitted
+a set of queries to the Judges, the nature of which may
+be inferred from the first question, viz.: "Whether the
+subjects of this Kingdom be a free people, and to be
+governed only by the common law of England, and statutes
+passed in this Kingdom ?" When the answers received were
+deemed insufficient, the House itself, turning the queries
+into the form of resolutions, proceeded to vote on them,
+one by one, affirming in every point the rights, the
+liberties, and the privileges of their constituents.
+
+The impeachment and attainder of Strafford occupied the
+great part of March and April, 1641, and throughout those
+months the delegates from Ireland assisted at the pleadings
+in Westminster Hall and the debates in the English
+Parliament. The Houses at Dublin were themselves occupied
+in a similar manner. Towards the end of February articles
+of impeachment were drawn up against the Lord Chancellor,
+Bolton, Dr. Bramhall, Bishop of Derry, Chief-Justice
+Lowther, and Sir George Radcliffe, for conspiring with
+Strafford to subvert the constitution, and laws, and to
+introduce an arbitrary and tyrannical government. In
+March, the King's letter for the continuance of Parliament
+was laid before the Commons, and on the 3rd of April,
+his further letter, declaring that all his Majesty's
+subjects of Ireland "shall, from henceforth, enjoy the
+benefit of the said graces [of 1628] according to the
+true intent thereof." By the end of May the Judges, not
+under impeachment, sent in their answers to the Queries
+of the Commons, which answers were voted insufficient,
+and Mr. Patrick Darcy, Member for Navan, was appointed
+to serve as Proculator at a Conference with the Lords,
+held on the 9th of June, "in the dining-room of the
+Castle," in order to set forth the insufficiency of such
+replies. The learned and elaborate argument of Darcy was
+ordered to be printed by the House; and on the 26th day
+of July, previous to their prorogation, they resolved
+unanimously, that the subjects of Ireland "were a free
+people, to be governed only by the common law of England,
+and statutes made and established in the kingdom of
+Ireland, and according to the lawful custom used in the
+same." This was the last act of this memorable session;
+the great northern insurrection in October having, of
+course, prevented subsequent sessions from being held.
+Constitutional agitators in modern times have been apt
+to select their examples of a wise and patriotic
+parliamentary conduct from the opposition to the Act of
+Union and the famous struggles of the last century; but
+whoever has looked into such records as remain to us of
+the 15th and 16th of Charles First, and the debates on
+the impeachment of Lord Chancellor Bolton, will, in my
+opinion, be prepared to admit, that at no period whatever
+was constitutional law more ably expounded in Ireland
+than in the sessions of 1640 and 1641; and that not only
+the principles of Swift and of Molyneux had a triumph in
+1782, but the older doctrines also of Sir Ralph Kelly,
+Audley Mervin, and Patrick Darcy.
+
+Strafford's Deputy, Sir Christopher Wandesford, having
+died before the close of 1640, the King appointed Robert,
+Lord Dillon, a liberal Protestant, and Sir William Parsons,
+Lords Justices. But the pressure of Puritan influence in
+England compelled him in a short time to remove Dillon
+and substitute Sir John Borlace, Master of the Ordnance
+--a mere soldier--in point of fanaticism a fitting
+colleague for Parsons. The prorogation of Parliament soon
+gave these administrators opportunities to exhibit the
+spirit in which they proposed to carry on the government.
+When at a public entertainment in the capital, Parsons
+openly declared that in twelve months more no Catholics
+should be seen in Ireland, it was naturally inferred that
+the Lord Justice spoke not merely for himself but for
+the growing party of the English Puritans and Scottish
+Covenanters. The latter had repeatedly avowed that they
+never would lay down their arms until they had wrought
+the extirpation of Popery, and Mr. Pym, the Puritan leader
+in England, had openly declared that his party intended
+not to leave a priest in Ireland. The infatuation of
+the unfortunate Charles in entrusting at such a moment
+the supreme power, civil and military, to two of the
+devoted partizans of his deadliest enemies, could not
+fail to arouse the fears of all who felt themselves
+obnoxious to the fanatical party, either by race or by
+religion.
+
+The aspirations of the chief men among the old Irish for
+entire freedom of worship, their hopes of recovering at
+least a portion of their estates, the example of the
+Scots, who had successfully upheld both their Church and
+nation against all attempts at English supremacy, the
+dangers that pressed, and the fears that overhung them,
+drove many of the very first abilities and noblest
+characters into the conspiracy which exploded with such
+terrific energy on the 23rd of October, 1641. The project,
+though matured on Irish soil, was first conceived among
+the exiled Catholics, who were to be found at that day
+in all the schools and camps of Spain, Italy, France and
+the Netherlands. Philip III. had an Irish legion, under
+the command of Henry O'Neil, son of Tyrone, which, after
+his death was transferred to his brother John. In this
+legion, Owen Roe O'Neil, nephew of Tyrone, learned the
+art of war, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
+The number of Irish serving abroad had steadily increased
+after 1628, when a license of enlistment was granted by
+King James. An English emissary, evidently well-informed,
+was enabled to report, about the year 1630, that there
+were in the service of the Archduchess Isabella, in the
+Spanish Netherlands alone, "100 Irish officers able to
+command companies, and 20 fit to be colonels." The names
+of many others are given as men of noted courage, good
+engineers, and "well-beloved" captains, both Milesians
+and Anglo-Irish, residing at Lisbon, Florence, Milan and
+Naples. The emissary adds that they had long been
+providing arms for an attempt upon Ireland, "and had in
+readiness 5,000 or 6,000 arms laid up in Antwerp for that
+purpose, _bought out of the deduction of their monthly
+pay_." After the death of the Archduchess, in 1633, an
+attempt was made by the Franco-Dutch, under Prince Maurice
+and Marshal Chatillon, to separate the Belgian Provinces
+from Spain. In the sanguinary battle at Avien victory
+declared for the French, and on their junction with Prince
+Maurice, town after town surrendered to their arms. The
+first successful stand against them was made at Louvain,
+defended by 4,000 Belgians, Walloons, Spaniards and Irish;
+the Irish, 1,000 strong, under the command of Colonel
+Preston, of the Gormanstown family, greatly distinguished
+themselves. The siege was raised on the 4th of July,
+1635, and Belgium was saved for that time to Philip IV.
+At the capture of Breda, in 1637, the Irish were again
+honourably conspicuous, and yet more so in the successful
+defence of Arras, the capital of Artois, three years
+later. Not yet strengthened by the citadel of Vauban,
+this ancient Burgundian city, famous for its cathedral
+and its manufactures, dear to the Spaniards as one of
+the conquests of Charles V., was a vital point in the
+campaign of 1640. Besieged by the French, under Marshal
+Millerie, it held out for several weeks under the command
+of Colonel Owen Roe O'Neil. The King of France lying at
+Amiens, within convenient distance, took care that the
+besiegers wanted for nothing; while the Prince-Cardinal,
+Ferdinand, the successor of the Archduchess in the
+government, marched to its relief at the head of his main
+force with the Imperialists, under Launboy, and the troops
+of the Duke of Lorrain, commanded by that Prince in
+person. In an attack on the French lines the Allies were
+beaten off with loss, and the brave commander was left
+again unsuccoured in the face of his powerful assailant.
+Subsequently Don Philip de Silva, General of the Horse
+to the Prince Cardinal, was despatched to its relief,
+but failed to effect anything; a failure for which he
+was court-martialed, but acquitted. The defenders, after
+exhausting every resource, finally surrendered the place
+on honourable terms, and marched out covered with glory.
+These stirring events, chronicled in prose and verse at
+home, rekindled the martial ardour which had slumbered
+since the disastrous day of Kinsale.
+
+In the ecclesiastics who shared their banishment, the
+military exiles had a voluntary diplomatic _corps_ who
+lost no opportunity of advancing the common cause. At
+Rome, their chief agent was Father Luke Wadding, founder
+of Saint Isidore's, one of the most eminent theologians
+and scholars of his age. Through the friendship of
+Gregory XV. and Urban VIII., many Catholic princes became
+deeply interested in the religious wars which the Irish
+of the previous ages had so bravely waged, and which
+their descendants were now so anxious to renew. Cardinal
+Richelieu--who wielded a power greater than that of
+Kings--had favourably entertained a project of invasion
+submitted to him by the son of Hugh O'Neil, a chief who,
+while living, was naturally regarded by the exiles as
+their future leader.
+
+To prepare the country for such an invasion (if the return
+of men to their own country can be called by that name),
+it was necessary to find an agent with talents for
+organization, and an undoubted title to credibility and
+confidence. This agent was fortunately found in the person
+of Rory or Roger O'Moore, the representative of the
+ancient chiefs of Leix, who had grown up at the Spanish
+Court as the friend and companion of the O'Neils. O'Moore
+was then in the prime of life, of handsome person, and
+most seductive manners; his knowledge of character was
+profound; his zeal for the Catholic cause, intense; his
+personal probity, honour, and courage, undoubted. The
+precise date of O'Moore's arrival in Ireland is not given
+in any of the cotemporary accounts, but he seems to have
+been resident in the country some time previous to his
+appearance in public life, as he is familiarly spoken of
+by his English cotemporaries as "Mr. Roger Moore of
+Ballynagh." During the Parliamentary session of 1640, he
+took lodgings in Dublin, where he succeeded in enlisting
+in his plans Conor Maguire, Lord Enniskillen, Philip
+O'Reilly, one of the members for the county of Cavan,
+Costelloe McMahon, and Thorlogh O'Neil, all persons of
+great influence in Ulster. During the ensuing assizes in
+the Northern Province he visited several country towns,
+where in the crowd of suitors and defendants he could,
+without attracting special notice, meet and converse with
+those he desired to gain over. On this tour he received
+the important accession of Sir Phelim O'Neil of Kinnaird,
+in Tyrone, Sir Con Magennis of Down, Colonel Hugh McMahon
+of Monaghan, and Dr. Heber McMahon, Administrator of
+Clogher. Sir Phelim O'Neil, the most considerable man of
+his name tolerated in Ulster, was looked upon as the
+greatest acquisition, and at his castle of Kinnaird his
+associates from the neighbouring counties, under a variety
+of pretexts, contrived frequently to meet. From Ulster,
+the indefatigable O'Moore carried the threads of the
+conspiracy into Connaught with equal success, finding
+both among the nobility and clergy many adherents. In
+Leinster, among the Anglo-Irish, he experienced the
+greatest timidity and indifference, but an unforeseen
+circumstance threw into his hands a powerful lever, to
+move that province. This was the permission granted by
+the King to the native regiments, embodied by Strafford,
+to enter into the Spanish service, if they so desired.
+His English Parliament made no demur to the arrangement,
+which would rid the island of some thousands of disciplined
+Catholics, but several of their officers, under the
+inspiration of O'Moore, kept their companies together,
+delaying their departure from month to month. Among these
+were Sir James Dillon, Colonel Plunkett, Colonel Byrne,
+and Captain Fox, who, with O'Moore, formed the first
+directing body of the Confederates in Leinster.
+
+In May, 1641, Captain Neil O'Neil arrived from the
+Netherlands with an urgent request from John, Earl of
+Tyrone, to all his clansmen to prepare for a general
+insurrection. He also brought them the cheering news that
+Cardinal Richelieu--then at the summit of his greatness
+--had promised the exiles arms, money, and means of
+transport. He was sent back, almost immediately, with
+the reply of Sir Phelim, O'Moore and their friends, that
+they would be prepared to take the field a few days before
+or after the festival of All Hallows--the 1st of November.
+The death of Earl John, the last surviving son of the
+illustrious Tyrone, shortly afterwards, though it grieved
+the Confederates, wrought no change in their plans. In
+his cousin-germain, the distinguished defender of Arras,
+they reposed equal confidence, and their confidence could
+not have been more worthily bestowed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE INSURRECTION OF 1641.
+
+The plan agreed upon by the Confederates included four
+main features. I. A rising after the harvest was gathered
+in, and a campaign during the winter months, when supplies
+from England were most difficult to be obtained by their
+enemies. II. A simultaneous attack on one and the same
+day or night on all the fortresses within reach of their
+friends. III. To surprise the Castle of Dublin, which
+was said to contain arms for 12,000 men. IV. Aid in
+officers, munitions, and money from abroad. All the
+details of this project were carried successfully into
+effect, except the seizure of Dublin Castle--the most
+difficult as it would have been the most decisive blow
+to strike.
+
+Towards the end of August, a meeting of those who could
+most conveniently attend was held in Dublin. There were
+present O'Moore and Maguire, of the civilians, and Colonels
+Plunkett, Byrne, and McMahon of the army. At this meeting
+the last week of October, or first of November, was fixed
+upon as the time to rise; subsequently Saturday, the 23rd
+of the first named month, a market day in the capital
+was selected. The northern movements were to be arranged
+with Sir Phelim O'Neil, while McMahon, Plunkett, and
+Byrne, with 200 picked men, were to surprise the Castle
+guard--consisting of only a few pensioners and 40
+halbediers--turn the guns upon the city to intimidate
+the Puritan party, and thus make sure of Dublin; O'Moore,
+Lord Maguire, and other civilians, were to be in town,
+in order to direct the next steps to be taken. As the
+day approached, the arrangements went on with perfect
+secrecy but with perfect success. On the 22nd of October
+half the chosen band were in waiting, and the remainder
+were expected in during the night. Some hundreds of
+persons, in and about Dublin, and many thousands throughout
+the country, must have been in possession of that momentous
+secret, yet it was by the mere accident of trusting a
+drunken dependent out of sight, that the first knowledge
+of the plot was conveyed to the Lords Justices on the
+very eve of its execution.
+
+Owen O'Connolly, the informant on this occasion, was one
+of those ruffling squires or henchmen, who accompanied
+gentlemen of fortune in that age, to take part in their
+quarrels, and carry their confidential messages. That he
+was not an ordinary domestic servant, we may learn from
+the fact of his carrying a sword, after the custom of
+the class to which we have assigned him. At this period
+he was in the service of Sir John Clotworthy, one of the
+most violent of the Puritan Undertakers, and had conformed
+to the established religion. Through what recklessness,
+or ignorance of his true character, he came to be invited
+by Colonel Hugh McMahon to his lodgings, and there, on
+the evening of the 22nd, entrusted with a knowledge of
+next day's plans, we have now no means of deciding.
+O'Connolly's information, as tendered to the Justices,
+states that on hearing of the proposed attack on the
+Castle, he pretended an occasion to withdraw, leaving
+his sword in McMahon's room to avoid suspicion, and that
+after jumping over fences and palings, he made his way
+from the north side of the city to Sir William Parsons
+at the Castle. Parsons at first discredited the tale,
+which O'Connolly (who was in liquor) told in a confused
+and rambling manner, but he finally decided to consult
+his colleague, Borlase, by whom some of the Council were
+summoned, the witness's deposition taken down, orders
+issued to double the guard, and officers despatched, who
+arrested McMahon at his lodgings. When McMahon came to
+be examined before the Council, it was already the morning
+of the 23rd; he boldly avowed his own part in the plot,
+and declared that what was that day to be done was now
+beyond the power of man to prevent. He was committed
+close prisoner to the Castle where he had hoped to command,
+and search was made for the other leaders in town. Maguire
+was captured the next morning, and shared McMahon's
+captivity; but O'Moore, Plunkett, and Byrne succeeded in
+escaping out of the city. O'Connolly was amply rewarded
+in lands and money; and we hear of him once afterwards,
+with the title of Colonel, in the Parliamentary army.
+
+As McMahon had declared to the Justices, the rising was
+now beyond the power of man to prevent. In Ulster, by
+stratagem, surprise, or force, the forts of Charlemont
+and Mountjoy, and the town of Dungannon, were seized on
+the night of the 22nd by Sir Phelim O'Neil or his
+lieutenants; on the next day Sir Conor Magennis took the
+town of Newry, the McMahons possessed themselves of
+Carrickmacross and Castleblaney, the O'Hanlons Tandragee,
+while Philip O'Reilly and Roger Maguire razed Cavan and
+Fermanagh. A proclamation of the northern leaders appeared
+the same day, dated from Dungannon, setting forth their
+"true intent and meaning" to be, not hostility to his
+Majesty the King, "nor to any of his subjects, neither
+English nor Scotch; but only for the defence and liberty
+of ourselves and the Irish natives of this kingdom." A
+more elaborate manifesto appeared shortly afterwards from
+the pen of Rory O'Moore, in which the oppressions of the
+Catholics for conscience' sake were detailed, the King's
+intended "graces" acknowledged, and their frustration by
+the malice of the Puritan party exhibited: it also
+endeavoured to show that a common danger threatened the
+Protestants of the Episcopal Church with Roman Catholics,
+and asserted in the strongest terms the devotion of the
+Catholics to the Crown. In the same politic and tolerant
+spirit, Sir Conor Magennis wrote from Newry on the 25th
+to the officers commanding at Down. "We are," he wrote,
+"for our lives and liberties. We desire no blood to be
+shed, but if you mean to shed our blood, be sure we shall
+be as ready as you for that purpose." This threat of
+retaliation, so customary in all wars, was made on the
+third day of the rising, and refers wholly to future
+contingencies; the monstrous fictions which were afterwards
+circulated of a wholesale massacre committed on the 23rd
+were not as yet invented, nor does any public document
+or private letter, written in Ireland in the last week
+of October, or during the first days of November, so much
+as allude to those tales of blood and horror, afterwards
+so industriously circulated, and so greedily swallowed.
+
+Fully aroused from their lethargy by McMahon's declaration,
+the Lords Justices acted with considerable vigour. Dublin
+was declared to be in a state of siege; courts martial
+were established; arms were distributed to the Protestant
+citizens, and some Catholics; and all strangers were
+ordered to quit the city under pain of death. Sir Francis
+Willoughby, Governor of Galway, who arrived on the night
+of the 22nd, was entrusted with the command of the Castle,
+Sir Charles Coote was appointed Military Governor of the
+city, and the Earl, afterwards Duke of Ormond, was summoned
+from Carrick-on-Suir to take command of the army. As
+Coote played a very conspicuous part in the opening scenes
+of this war, and Ormond till its close, it may be well
+to describe them both, more particularly, to the reader.
+
+Sir Charles Coote, one of the first Baronets of Ireland,
+like Parsons, Boyle, Chichester, and other Englishmen,
+had come over to Ireland during the war against Tyrone,
+in quest of fortune. His first employments were in
+Connaught, where he filled the offices of Provost-Marshal
+and Vice-Governor in the reign of James I. His success
+as an Undertaker entitles him to rank with the fortunate
+adventurers we have mentioned; in Roscommon, Sligo,
+Leitrim, Queen's, and other counties, his possessions
+and privileges raised him to the rank of the richest
+subjects of his time. In 1640 he was a colonel of foot,
+with the estates of a Prince and the habits of a
+Provost-Marshal. His reputation for ferocious cruelty
+has survived the remembrance even of his successful
+plunder of other people's property; before the campaigns
+of Cromwell there was no better synonym for wanton cruelty
+than the name of Sir Charles Coote.
+
+James Butler, Earl, Marquis, and Duke of Ormond deservedly
+ranks amongst the principal statesmen of his time. During
+a public career of more than half a century his conduct
+in many eminent offices of trust was distinguished by
+supreme ability, life-long firmness and consistency. As
+a courtier of the House of Stuart, it was impossible that
+he should have served and satisfied both Charleses without
+participating in many indefensible acts of government,
+and originating some of them. Yet judged, not from the
+Irish but the Imperial point of view, not by an abstract
+standard but by the public morality of his age, he will
+be found fairly deserving of the title of "the great
+Duke" bestowed on him during his lifetime. When summoned
+by the Lords Justices to their assistance in 1641, he
+was in the thirty-first year of his age, and had so far
+only distinguished himself in political life as the friend
+of the late Lord Strafford. He had, however, the good
+fortune to restore in his own person the estates of his
+family, notwithstanding that they were granted in great
+part to others by King James; his attachment to the cause
+of King Charles was very naturally augmented by the fact
+that the partiality of that Prince and his ill-fated
+favourite had enabled him to retrieve both the hereditary
+wealth and the high political influence which formerly
+belonged to the Ormond Butlers. Such an ally was
+indispensable to the Lords Justices in the first panic
+of the insurrection; but it was evident to near observers
+that Ormond, a loyalist and a churchman, could not long
+act in concert with such devoted Puritans as Parsons,
+Borlase, and Coote.
+
+The military position of the several parties--there were
+at least three--when Ormond arrived at Dublin, in the
+first week of November, may be thus stated: I. In Munster
+and Connaught there was but a single troop of royal horse,
+each, left as a guard with the respective Presidents,
+St. Leger and Willoughby; in Kilkenny, Dublin, and other
+of the midland counties, the gentry, Protestant and
+Catholic, were relied on to raise volunteers for their
+own defence; in Dublin there had been got together 1,500
+old troops; six new regiments of foot were embodied;
+and thirteen volunteer companies of 100 each. In the
+Castle were arms and ammunition for 12,000 men, with
+a fine train of field artillery, provided by Stafford
+for his campaign in the north of England. Ormond, as
+Lieutenant-General, had thus at his disposal, in one
+fortnight after the insurrection broke out, from 8,000
+to 10,000 well appointed men; his advice was to take the
+field at once against the northern leaders before the
+other Provinces became equally inflamed. But his judgment
+was overruled by the Justices, who would only consent,
+while awaiting their cue from the Long Parliament, to
+throw reinforcements into Drogheda, which thus became
+their outpost towards the north. II. In Ulster there
+still remained in the possession of "the Undertakers"
+Enniskillen, Deny, the Castles of Killeagh and Crohan
+in Cavan, Lisburn, Belfast, and the stronghold of
+Carrickfergus, garrisoned by the regiments of Colonel
+Chichester and Lord Conway. King Charles, who was at
+Edinburgh endeavouring to conciliate the Scottish Parliament
+when news of the Irish rising reached him, procured the
+instant despatch of 1,500 men to Ulster, and authorized
+Lords Chichester, Ardes and Clandeboy, to raise new
+regiments from among their own tenants. The force thus
+embodied--which may be called from its prevailing element
+the _Scottish_ army--cannot have numbered less than 5,000
+foot, and the proportionate number of horse. III. The
+Irish in the field by the first of November are stated
+in round numbers at 30,000 men in the northern counties
+alone; but the whole number supplied with arms and
+ammunition could not have reached one-third of that
+nominal total. Before the surprise of Charlemont and
+Mountjoy forts, Sir Phelim O'Neil had but a barrel or
+two of gunpowder; the stores of those forts, with 70
+barrels taken at Newry by Magennis, and all the arms
+captured in the simultaneous attack, which at the outside
+could not well exceed 4,000 or 5,000 stand--constituted
+their entire equipment. One of Ormond's chief reasons
+for an immediate campaign in the North was to prevent
+them having time to get "pikes made"--which shows their
+deficiency even in that weapon. Besides this defect there
+was one, if possible, still more serious. Sir Phelim was
+a civilian, bred to the profession of the law; Rory
+O'Moore, also, had never seen service; and although
+Colonel Owen O'Neil and others had promised to join them
+"at fourteen days' notice," a variety of accidents
+prevented the arrival of any officer of distinction during
+the brief remainder of that year. Sir Phelim, however,
+boldly assumed the title of "Lord General of the Catholic
+Army in Ulster," and the still more popular title with
+the Gaelic speaking population of "The O'Neil."
+
+The projected winter campaign, after the first week's
+successes, did not turn out favourably for the northern
+Insurgents. The beginning of November was marked by the
+barbarous slaughter committed by the Scottish garrison
+of Carrickfergus in the Island Magee. Three thousand
+persons are said to have been driven into the fathomless
+north sea, over the cliffs of that island, or to have
+perished by the sword. The ordinary inhabitants could
+not have exceeded one-tenth as many, but the presence of
+so large a number may be accounted for by the supposition
+that they had fled from the mainland across the peninsula,
+which is left dry at low water, and were pursued to their
+last refuge by the infuriated Covenanters. From this date
+forward until the accession of Owen Roe O'Neil to the
+command, the northern war assumed a ferocity of character
+foreign to the nature of O'Moore, O'Reilly and Magennis.
+That Sir Phelim permitted, if he did not sometimes in
+his gusts of stormy passion instigate, those acts of
+cruelty, which have stained his otherwise honourable
+conduct, is too true; but he stood alone among his
+confederates in that crime, and that crime stands alone
+in his character. Brave to rashness and disinterested to
+excess, few rebel chiefs ever made a more heroic end out
+of a more deplorable beginning.
+
+The Irish Parliament, which was to have met on the 16th
+of November, was indefinitely prorogued by the Lords
+Justices, who preferred to act only with their chosen
+quorum of Privy Counsellors. The Catholic Lords of the
+Pale, who at first had arms granted for their retainers
+out of the public stores, were now summoned to surrender
+them by a given day; an insult not to be forgiven. Lords
+Dillon and Taafe, then deputies to the King, were seized
+at Ware by the English Puritans, their papers taken from
+them, and themselves imprisoned. O'Moore, whose clansmen
+had recovered Dunamase and other strongholds in his
+ancient patrimony, was still indefatigable in his propaganda
+among the Anglo-Irish. By his advice Sir Phelim marched
+to besiege Drogheda, at the head of his tumultuous bands.
+On the way southward he made an unsuccessful attack upon
+Lisburn, where he lost heavily; on the 24th of November
+he took possession of Mellifont Abbey, from whose gate
+the aged Tyrone had departed in tears, twenty-five years
+before. From Mellifont he proceeded to invest Drogheda;
+Colonel Plunkett, with the title of General, being the
+sole experienced officer as yet engaged in his ranks. A
+strongly walled town as Drogheda was, well manned, and
+easily accessible from the sea, cannot be carried without
+guns and engineers by any amount of physical courage.
+Whenever the Catholics were fairly matched in the open
+field, they were generally successful, as at Julianstown,
+during this siege, where one of their detachments cut
+off five out of six companies marching from Dublin to
+reinforce the town; but though the investment was complete,
+the vigilant governor, Sir Henry Tichburne, successfully
+repulsed the assailants. O'Moore, who lay between Ardee
+and Dundalk with a reserve of 2,000 men, found time during
+the siege to continue his natural career, that of a
+diplomatist. The Puritan party, from the Lord Justice
+downwards, were, indeed, every day hastening that union
+of Catholics of all origins which the founder of the
+Confederacy so ardently desired to bring about. Their
+avowed maxim was that the more men rebelled, the more
+estates there would be to confiscate. In Munster, their
+chief instruments were the aged Earl of Cork, still
+insatiable as ever for other men's possessions, and the
+President St. Leger; in Leinster, Sir Charles Coote. Lord
+Cork prepared 1,100 indictments against men of property
+in his Province, which he sent to the Speaker of the Long
+Parliament, with an urgent request that they might be
+returned to him, with authority to proceed against the
+parties named, as outlaws. In Leinster, 4,000 similar
+indictments were found in the course of two days by the
+free use of the rack with witnesses. Sir John Read, an
+officer of the King's Bedchamber, and Mr. Barnwall, of
+Kilbrue, a gentleman of threescore and six, were among
+those who underwent the torture. When these were the
+proceedings of the tribunals in peaceable cities, we may
+imagine what must have been the excesses of the soldiery
+in the open county. In the South, Sir William St. Leger
+directed a series of murderous raids upon the peasantry
+of Cork, which at length produced their natural effect.
+Lord Muskerry and other leading recusants, who had offered
+their services to maintain the peace of the Province,
+were driven by an insulting refusal to combine for their
+own protection. The 1,100 indictments of Lord Cork soon
+swelled their ranks, and the capture of the ancient city
+of Cashel by Philip O'Dwyer announced the insurrection
+of the South. Waterford soon after opened its gates to
+Colonel Edmund Butler; Wexford declared for the Catholic
+cause, and Kilkenny surrendered to Lord Mountgarret. In
+Wicklow, Coote's troopers committed murders such as had
+not been equalled since the days of the Pagan Northmen.
+Little children were carried aloft writhing on the pikes
+of these barbarians, whose worthy commander confessed
+that "he liked such frolics." Neither age nor sex was
+spared, and an ecclesiastic was especially certain of
+instant death. Fathers Higgins and White of Naas, in
+Kildare, were given up by Coote to these "lambs," though
+each had been granted a safe conduct by his superior
+officer, Lord Ormond. And these murders were taking place
+at the very tune when the Franciscans and Jesuits of
+Cashel were protecting Dr. Pullen, the Protestant Chancellor
+of that Cathedral and other Protestant prisoners; while
+also the Castle of Cloughouter, in Cavan, the residence
+of Bishop Bedell, was crowded with Protestant fugitives,
+all of whom were carefully guarded by the chivalrous
+Philip O'Reilly.
+
+At length the Catholic Lords of the Pale began to feel
+the general glow of an outraged people, too long submissive
+under every species of provocation. The Lords Justices
+having summoned them to attend in Dublin on the 8th of
+December, they met at Swords, at the safe distance of
+seven miles, and sent by letter their reasons for not
+trusting themselves in the capital. To the allegations
+in this letter the Justices replied by proclamation,
+denying most of them, and repeating their summons to
+Lords Fingal, Gormanstown, Slane, Dunsany, Netterville,
+Louth, and Trimleston, to attend in Dublin on the 17th.
+But before the 17th came, as if to ensure the defeat of
+then own summons, Coote was let loose upon the flourishing
+villages of Fingal, and the flames kindled by his men
+might easily be discovered from the round tower of Swords.
+On the 17th, the summoned Lords, with several of the
+neighbouring gentry, met by appointment on the hill of
+Crofty, in the neighbouring county of Meath; while they
+were engaged in discussing the best course to be taken,
+a party of armed men on horseback, accompanied by a guard
+of musketeers, was seen approaching. They proved to be
+O'Moore, O'Reilly, Costelloe McMahon, brother of the
+prisoner, Colonel Byrne, and Captain Fox. Lord Gormanstown,
+advancing in front of his friends, demanded of the
+new-comers "why they came armed into the Pale?" To which
+O'Moore made answer "that the ground of their coming
+thither was for the freedom and liberty of their
+consciences, the maintenance of his Majesty's prerogative,
+in which they understood he was abridged, and the making
+the subjects of this kingdom as free as those of England."
+Lord Gormanstown, after consulting a few moments with
+his friends, replied: "Seeing these be your true ends,
+we will likewise join with you." The leaders then embraced,
+amid the acclamations of their followers, and the general
+conditions of then: union having been unanimously agreed
+upon, a warrant was drawn out authorizing the Sheriff of
+Meath to summon the gentry of the county to a final
+meeting at the Hill of Tara on the 24th of December.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE CATHOLIC CONFEDERATION--ITS CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND
+MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT.
+
+How a tumultuous insurrection grew into a national
+organization, with a senate, executive, treasury, army,
+ships, and diplomacy, we are now to describe. It may,
+however, be assumed throughout the narrative, that the
+success of the new Confederacy was quite as much to be
+attributed to the perverse policy of its enemies as to
+the counsels of its best leaders. The rising in the
+midland and Munster counties, and the formal adhesion of
+the Lords of the Pale, were two of the principal steps
+towards the end. A third was taken by the Bishops of the
+Province of Armagh, assembled in Provincial Synod at
+Kells, on the 22nd of March, 1642, where, with the
+exception of Dease of Meath, they unanimously pronounced
+"the war just and lawful." After solemnly condemning all
+acts of private vengeance, and all those who usurped
+other men's estates, this provincial meeting invited a
+national synod to meet at Kilkenny on the 10th day of
+May following. On that day accordingly, all the Prelates
+then in the country, with the exception of Bishop Dease,
+met at Kilkenny. There were present O'Reilly, Archbishop
+of Armagh; Butler, Archbishop of Cashel; O'Kealy, Archbishop
+of Tuam; David Rothe, the venerable Bishop of Ossory;
+the Bishops of Clonfert, Elphin, Waterford, Lismore,
+Kildare, and Down and Conor; the proctors of Dublin,
+Limerick, and Killaloe, with sixteen other dignitaries
+and heads of religious orders--in all, twenty-nine prelates
+and superiors, or their representatives. The most remarkable
+attendants were, considering the circumstances of their
+Province, the prelates of Connaught. Strafford's reign
+of terror was still painfully remembered west of the
+Shannon, and the immense family influence of Ulick Burke,
+then Earl, and afterwards Marquis of Clanrickarde, was
+exerted to prevent the adhesion of the western population
+to the Confederacy. But the zeal of the Archbishop of
+Tuam, and the violence of the Governor of Galway, Sir
+Francis Willoughby, proved more than a counterpoise for
+the authority of Clanrickarde and the recollection of
+Strafford: Connaught, though the last to come into the
+Confederation, was also the last to abandon it.
+
+The Synod of Kilkenny proceeded with the utmost solemnity
+and anxiety to consider the circumstances of their own
+and the neighbouring kingdoms. No equal number of men
+could have been found in Ireland, at that day, with an
+equal amount of knowledge of foreign and domestic politics.
+Many of them had spent years upon the Continent, while
+the French Huguenots held their one hundred "cautionary
+towns," and "leagues" and "associations" were the ordinary
+instruments of popular resistance in the Netherlands and
+Germany. Nor were the events transpiring in the neighbouring
+island unknown or unweighed by that grave assembly. The
+true meaning and intent of the Scottish and English
+insurrections were by this time apparent to every one.
+The previous months had been especially fertile in events,
+calculated to rouse their most serious apprehensions. In
+March, the King fled from London to York; in April, the
+gates of Hull were shut in his face by Hotham, its
+governor; and in May, the Long Parliament voted a levy
+of 16,000 without the royal authority. The Earl of Warwick
+had been appointed the Parliamentary commander of the
+fleet, and the Earl of Essex, their Lord General, with
+Cromwell as one of his captains. From that hour it was
+evident the sword alone could decide between Charles and
+his subjects. In Scotland, too, events were occurring in
+which Irish Catholics were vitally interested. The contest
+for the leadership of the Scottish royalists between the
+Marquises of Hamilton and Montrose had occupied the early
+months of the year, and given their enemies of the Kirk
+and the Assembly full time to carry on their correspondence
+with the English Puritans. In April, all parties in
+Scotland agreed in despatching a force of 2,500 men, under
+"the memorable Major Monroe," for the protection of the
+Scottish settlers in Ulster. On the 15th of that month
+this officer landed at Carrickfergus, which was "given
+up to him by agreement," with the royalist Colonel
+Chichester; the fortress, which was by much the strongest
+in that quarter, continued for six years the head-quarters
+of the Scottish general, with whom we shall have occasion
+to meet again.
+
+The state of Anglo-Irish affairs was for some months one
+of disorganization and confusion. In January and February
+the King had been frequently induced to denounce by
+proclamation his "Irish rebels." He had offered the
+Parliament to lead their reinforcements in person, had
+urged the sending of arms and men, and had repeatedly
+declared that he would never consent to tolerate Popery
+in that country. He had failed to satisfy his enemies,
+by these profuse professions had dishonoured himself,
+and disgusted many who were far from being hostile to
+his person or family. Parsons and Borlase were still
+continued in the government, and Coote was entrusted by
+them, on all possible occasions, with a command distinct
+from that of Ormond. Having proclaimed the Lords of the
+Pale rebels for refusing to trust their persons within
+the walls of Dublin, Coote was employed during January
+to destroy Swords, their place of rendezvous, and to
+ravage the estates of their adherents in that neighbourhood.
+In the same month 1,100 veterans arrived at Dublin under
+Sir Simon Harcourt; early in February arrived Sir Richard
+Grenville with 400 horse, and soon after Lieutenant-Colonel
+George Monk, afterwards Duke of Albemarle, with Lord
+Leicester's regiment, 1,500 strong. Up to this period
+Ormond had been restrained by the Justices, who were as
+timid as they were cruel, to operations within an easy
+march of Dublin. He had driven the O'Moores and their
+Allies out of Naas; had reinforced some garrisons in
+Kildare; he had broken up, though not without much loss,
+an entrenched camp of the O'Byrnes at Kilsalgen wood, on
+the borders of Dublin; at last the Justices felt secure
+enough, at the beginning of March, to allow him to march
+to the relief of Drogheda. Sir Phelim O'Neil had invested
+the place for more than three months, had been twice
+repulsed from its walls, made a last desperate attempt,
+towards the end of February, but with no better success.
+After many lives were lost the impetuous lawyer-soldier
+was obliged to retire, and on the 8th of March, hearing
+of Ormond's approach at the head of 4,000 fresh troops,
+he hastily retreated northward. On receiving this report,
+the Justices recalled Ormond to the capital; Sir Henry
+Tichburne and Lord Moore were despatched with a strong
+force, on the rear of the Ulster forces, and drove them
+out of Ardee and Dundalk--the latter after a sharp action.
+The march of Ormond into Meath had, however, been productive
+of offers of submission from many of the gentry of the
+Pale, who attended the meetings at Crofty and Tara. Lord
+Dunsany and Sir John Netterville actually surrendered on
+the Earl's guarantee, and were sent to Dublin; Lords
+Gormanstown, Netterville, and Slane, offered by letter
+to follow their example; but the two former were, on
+reaching the city, thrust into the dungeons of the Castle,
+by order of the Justices; and the proposals of the latter
+were rejected with contumely. About the same time the
+Long Parliament passed an act declaring 2,500,000 acres
+of the property of Irish recusants forfeited to the State,
+and guaranteeing to all English "adventurers" contributing
+to the expenses of the war, and all soldiers serving in
+it, grants of land in proportion to their service and
+contribution. This act, and a letter from Lord Essex,
+the Parliamentarian Commander-in-Chief, recommending the
+transportation of captured recusants to the West Indian
+Colonies, effectually put a stop to these negotiations.
+In Ulster, by the end of April, there were 19,000 troops,
+regulars and volunteers, in the garrison or in the field.
+Newry was taken by Monroe and Chichester, where 80 men
+and women and 2 priests were put to death. Magennis was
+obliged to abandon Down, and McMahon Monaghan; Sir Philem
+was driven to burn Armagh and Dungannon, and to take his
+last stand at Charlemont. In a severe action with Sir
+Robert and Sir William Stewart, he had displayed his
+usual courage with better than his usual fortune, which,
+perhaps, we may attribute to the presence with him of
+Sir Alexander McDonnell, brother to Lord Antrim, the
+famous _Colkitto_ of the Irish and Scottish wars. But
+the severest defeat which the Confederates had was in
+the heart of Leinster, at the hamlet of Kilrush, within
+four miles of Athy. Lord Ormond, returning from a second
+reinforcement of Naas and other Kildare forts, at the
+head, by English account, of 4,000 men, found on the 13th
+of April the Catholics of the midland counties, under
+Lords Mountgarrett, Ikerrin, and Dunboyne, Sir Morgan
+Cavenagh, Rory O'Moore, and Hugh O'Byrne, drawn up, by
+his report, 8,000 strong, to dispute his passage. With
+Ormond were the Lord Dillon, Lord Brabazon, Sir Richard
+Grenville, Sir Charles Coote, and Sir T. Lucas. The combat
+was short but murderous. The Confederates left 700 men,
+including Sir Morgan Cavenagh, and some other officers,
+dead on the field; the remainder retreated in disorder,
+and Ormond, with an inconsiderable diminution of numbers,
+returned in triumph to Dublin. For this victory the Long
+Parliament, in a moment of enthusiasm, voted the
+Lieutenant-General a jewel worth 500 pounds. If any
+satisfaction could be derived from such an incident, the
+violent death of their most ruthless enemy, Sir Charles
+Coote, might have afforded the Catholics some consolation.
+That merciless saberer, after the combat at Kilrush, had
+been employed in reinforcing Birr, and relieving the
+Castle of Geashill, which the Lady Letitia of Offally
+held against the neighbouring tribe of O'Dempsey. On his
+return from this service he made a foray against a Catholic
+force, which had mustered in the neighbourhood of Trim;
+here, on the night of the 7th of May, heading a sally of
+his troop, he fell by a musket shot--not without suspicion
+of being fired from his own ranks. His son and namesake,
+who imitated him in all things, was ennobled at the
+restoration by the title of the Earl of Mountrath. In
+Munster the President St. Leger, though lately reinforced
+by 1,000 men from England, did not consider himself strong
+enough for other than occasional forays into the
+neighbouring county, and little was effected in that
+Province.
+
+Such was the condition of affairs at home and abroad when
+the National Synod assembled at Kilkenny. As the most
+popular tribunal invested with the highest moral power
+in the kingdom, it was their arduous task to establish
+order and authority among the chaotic elements of the
+revolution. By the admission of those most opposed to
+them they conducted their deliberations for nearly three
+weeks with equal prudence and energy. They first, on the
+motion of the venerable Bishop Rothe, framed an oath of
+association to be publicly taken by all their adherents,
+by the first part of which they were bound to bear "true
+faith and allegiance" to King Charles and his lawful
+successors, "to maintain the fundamental laws of Ireland,
+the free exercise of the Roman Catholic faith and religion."
+By the second part of this oath all Confederate Catholics
+--for so they were to be called--as solemnly bound
+themselves never to accept or submit to any peace "without
+the consent and approbation of the general assembly of
+the said Confederate Catholics." They then proceeded to
+make certain constitutions, declaring the war just and
+lawful; condemning emulations and distinctions founded
+on distinctions of race, such as "new" and "old Irish;"
+ordaining an elective council for each Province; and a
+Supreme or National Council for the whole kingdom;
+condemning as excommunicate all who should, having taken
+the oath, violate it, or who should be guilty of murder,
+violence to persons, or plunder under pretence of the
+war. Although the attendance of the lay leaders of the
+movement at Kilkenny was far from general, the exigencies
+of the case compelled them, to nominate, with the
+concurrence of the Bishops, the first Supreme Council of
+which Lord Mountgarrett was chosen President, and Mr.
+Richard Belling, an accomplished writer and lawyer,
+Secretary. By this body a General Assembly of the entire
+Nation was summoned to meet at the same city, on the 23rd
+of October following--the anniversary of the Ulster
+rising, commonly called by the English party "Lord
+Maguire's day." The choice of such an occasion by men of
+Mountgarrett's and Selling's moderation and judgment,
+six months after the date of the alleged "massacre,"
+would form another proof, if any were now needed, that
+none of the alleged atrocities were yet associated with
+the memory of that particular day.
+
+The events of the five months, which intervened between
+the adjournment of the National Synod at the end of May,
+and the meeting of the General Assembly on the 23rd of
+October, may best be summed up under the head of the
+respective provinces. I. The oath of Confederation was
+taken with enthusiasm in Munster, a Provincial Council
+elected, and General Barry chosen Commander-in-Chief.
+Barry made an attempt upon Cork, which was repulsed, but
+a few days later the not less important city of Limerick
+opened its gates to the Confederates, and on the 21st of
+June the citadel was breached and surrendered by Courtenay,
+the Governor. On the 2nd of July St. Leger died at Cork
+(it was said of vexation for the loss of Limerick), and
+the command devolved on his son-in-law, Lord Inchiquin,
+a pupil of the school of Wards, and a soldier of the
+school of Sir Charles Coote. With Inchiquin was associated
+the Earl of Barrymore for the civil administration, but
+on Barrymore's death in September both powers remained
+for twelve months in the hands of the survivor. The gain
+of Limerick was followed by the taking of Loughgar and
+Askeaton, but was counterbalanced by the defeat of
+Liscarroll, when the Irish loss was 800 men, with several
+colours; Inchiquin reported only 20 killed, including
+the young lord Kinalmeaky, one of the five sons whom the
+Earl of Cork gave to this war. II. In Connaught, Lord
+Clanrickarde was still enabled to avert a general outbreak.
+In vain the western Prelates besought him in a pathetic
+remonstrance to place himself at the head of its injured
+inhabitants, and take the command of the Province. He
+continued to play a middle part between the President,
+Lord Ranelagh, Sir Charles Coote the younger, and
+Willoughby, Governor of Galway, until the popular
+impatience burst all control. The chief of the O'Flahertys
+seized Clanrickarde's castle, of Aughrenure, and the
+young men of Galway, with a skill and decision quite
+equal to that of the Derry apprentices of an after day,
+seized an English ship containing arms and supplies,
+lying in the bay, marched to the Church of Saint Nicholas,
+took the Confederate oath, and shut Willoughby up in the
+citadel. Clanrickarde hastened to extinguish this spark
+of resistance, and induced the townsmen to capitulate on
+his personal guarantee. But Willoughby, on the arrival
+of reinforcements, under the fanatical Lord Forbes, at
+once set the truce made by Clanrickarde at defiance,
+burned the suburbs, sacked the Churches, and during August
+and September, exercised a reign of terror in the town.
+About the same time local risings took place in Sligo,
+Mayo, and Roscommon, at first with such success that the
+President of the Province, Lord Ranelagh, shut himself
+up in the castle of Athlone, where he was closely besieged.
+III. In Leinster, no military movement of much importance
+was made, in consequence of the jealousy the Justices
+entertained of Ormond, and the emptiness of the treasury.
+In June, the Long Parliament remitted over the paltry
+sum of 11,500 pounds to the Justices, and 2,000 of the
+troops, which had all but mutinied for their pay, were
+despatched under Ormond to the relief of Athlone.
+Commissioners arrived during the summer, appointed by
+the Parliament to report on the affairs of Ireland, to
+whom the Justices submitted a penal code worthy of the
+brain of Draco or Domitian; Ormond was raised to the rank
+of Marquis, by the King; while the army he commanded grew
+more and more divided, by intrigues emanating from the
+castle and beyond the channel. Before the month of October,
+James Touchet, Earl of Castlehaven, an adventurous
+nobleman, possessed of large estates both in Ireland and
+England, effected his escape from Dublin Castle, where
+he had been imprisoned on suspicion by Parsons and Borlase,
+and joined the Confederation at Kilkenny. In September,
+Colonel Thomas Preston, the brave defender of Louvain,
+uncle to Lord Gormanstown, landed at Wexford, with three
+frigates and several transports, containing a few siege
+guns, field pieces, and other stores, 500 officers, and
+a number of engineers. IV. In Ulster, where the first
+blow was struck, and the first hopes were excited, the
+prospect had become suddenly overclouded. Monroe took
+Dunluce from Lord Antrim by the same stratagem by which
+Sir Phelim took Charlemont--inviting himself as a guest,
+and arresting his host at his own table. A want of cordial
+co-operation between the Scotch commander and "the
+Undertakers" alone prevented them extinguishing, in one
+vigorous campaign, the northern insurrection. So weak
+and disorganized were now the thousands who had risen at
+a bound one short year before, that the garrisons of
+Enniskillen, Deny, Newry, and Drogheda, scoured almost
+unopposed the neighbouring counties. The troops of Cole,
+Hamilton, the Stewarts, Chichesters, and Conways, found
+little opposition, and gave no quarter. Sir William Cole,
+among his claims of service rendered to the State,
+enumerated "7,000 of the rebels famished to death," within
+a circuit of a few miles from Enniskillen. The disheartened
+and disorganized natives were seriously deliberating a
+wholesale emigration to the Scottish highlands, when a
+word of magic effect was whispered from the sea coast to
+the interior. On the 6th of July, Colonel Owen Roe O'Neil
+arrived off Donegal with a single ship, a single company
+of veterans, 100 officers, and a considerable quantity
+of ammunition. He landed at Doe Castle, and was escorted
+by his kinsman, Sir Phelim, to the fort of Charlemont.
+A general meeting of the northern clans was quickly called
+at Clones, in Monaghan, and there, on an early day after
+his arrival, Owen O'Neil was elected "General-in-Chief
+of the Catholic Army" of the North, Sir Phelim resigning
+in his favour, and taking instead the barren title of
+"President of Ulster." At the same moment Lord Lieven
+arrived from Scotland with the remainder of the 10,000
+voted by the Parliament of that kingdom. He had known
+O'Neil abroad, had a high opinion of his abilities, and
+wrote to express his surprise "that a man of his reputation
+should be engaged in so bad a cause;" to which O'Neil
+replied that "he had a better right to come to the relief
+of his own country than his lordship had to march into
+England against his lawful King." Lieven, before returning
+home, urged Monroe to act with promptitude, for that he
+might expect a severe lesson if the new commander once
+succeeded in collecting an army. But Monroe proved deaf
+to this advice, and while the Scottish and English forces
+in the Province would have amounted, if united, to 20,000
+foot and 1,000 horse, they gave O'Neil time enough to
+embody, officer, drill, and arm (at least provisionally),
+a force not to be despised by even twice their numbers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE CONFEDERATE WAR--CAMPAIGN OF 1643--THE CESSATION.
+
+The city of Kilkenny, which had become the capital of
+the Confederacy, was favourably placed for the direction
+of the war in Leinster and Munster. Nearly equidistant
+from Dublin, Cork, and Limerick, a meeting place for most
+of the southern and south-western roads, important in
+itself both as a place of trade, and as the residence of
+the Duke of Ormond and the Bishop of Ossory, a better
+choice could not, perhaps, have been made, so far as
+regarded the ancient southern "Half-Kingdom." But it
+seems rather surprising that the difficulty of directing
+the war in the North and North-West, from a point so far
+south, did not occur to the statesmen of the Confederacy.
+In the defective communications of those days, especially
+during a war, partaking even partially of the character
+of civil strife, it was hard, if not impossible to expect,
+that a supervision could be exercised over a general or
+an army on the Erne or the Bann, which might be quite
+possible and proper on the Suir or the Shannon. A similar
+necessity in England necessitated the creation of the
+Presidency of the North, with its council and head-quarters
+in the city of York; nor need we be surprised to find
+that, from the first, the Confederate movements combined
+themselves into two groups--the northern and the southern--
+those which revolved round the centre of Kilkenny, and
+those which took their law from the head-quarters of Owen
+O'Neil, at Belturbet, or wherever else his camp happened
+to be situated.
+
+The General Assembly met, according to agreement, on the
+23rd of October, 1642, at Kilkenny. Eleven-bishops and
+fourteen lay lords represented the Irish peerage; two
+hundred and twenty-six commoners, the large majority of
+the constituencies. Both bodies sat in the same chamber,
+divided only by a raised dais. The celebrated lawyer,
+Patrick Darcy, a member of the Commons' House, was chosen
+as chancellor, and everything was conducted with the
+gravity and deliberation befitting so venerable an
+Assembly, and so great an occasion. The business most
+pressing, and most delicate, was felt to be the
+consideration of a form of supreme executive government.
+The committee on this subject, who reported after the
+interval of a week, was composed of Lords Gormanstown
+and Castlehaven, Sir Phelim O'Neil, Sir Richard Belling,
+and Mr. Darcy. A "Supreme Council" of six members for
+each province was recommended, approved, and elected.
+The Archbishops of Armagh, Dublin, and Tuam, the Bishops
+of Down and of Clonfert, the Lords Gormanstown,
+Mountgarrett, Roche, and Mayo, with fifteen of the most
+eminent commoners, composed this council. It was provided
+that the vote of two-thirds should be necessary to any
+act affecting the basis of the Confederacy, but a quorum
+of nine was sufficient for the transaction of ordinary
+business. A guard of honour of 500 foot and 200 horse
+was allowed for their greater security. The venerable
+Mountgarrett, the head of the Catholic Butlers, (son-in-law
+of the illustrious Tyrone, who, in the last years of
+Elizabeth, had devoted his youthful sword to the same
+good cause,) was elected president of this, council; and
+Sir Richard Belling, a lawyer, and a man of letters, the
+continuator of Sir Philip Sydney's _Arcadia_, was appointed
+secretary.
+
+The first act of this Supreme Council was to appoint
+General O'Neil as Commander-in-Chief in Ulster; General
+Preston, in Leinster; General Barry, in Munster; and Sir
+John Burke as Lieutenant-General in Connaught; the supreme
+command in the West being held over for Clanrickarde,
+who, it was still hoped, might be led or driven into the
+Confederacy. We shall endeavour to indicate in turn the
+operations of these commanders, thus chosen or confirmed;
+leaving the civil and diplomatic business transacted by
+the General Assembly, or delegated to the Supreme Council,
+for future mention.
+
+Contrary to the custom of that age, the Confederate troops
+were not withdrawn into winter quarters. In November,
+General Preston, at the head of 6,000 foot and 600 horse,
+encountered Monk at Tymahoe and Ballinakil, with some
+loss; but before the close of December he had reduced
+Birr, Banagher, Burris, and Fort Falkland, and found
+himself master of King's county, from the Shannon to the
+Barrow. In February, however, he sustained a serious
+check at Rathconnell, in endeavouring to intercept the
+retreat of the English troops from Connaught, under the
+command of Lord Ranelagh, and the younger Coote; and in
+March, equal ill success attended his attempt to intercept
+Ormond, in his retreat from the unsuccessful siege of
+the town of Ross. Lord Castlehaven, who was Preston's
+second in command, attributes both these reverses to the
+impetuosity of the general, whose imprudence seems to
+have been almost as great as his activity was conspicuous.
+In April and May, Preston and Castlehaven took several
+strongholds in Carlow, Kildare, and West-Meath, and the
+General Assembly, which met for its second session, on
+the 20th of May, 1643, at Kilkenny, had, on the whole,
+good grounds to be satisfied with the success of the war
+in Leinster.
+
+In the Southern Province, considerable military successes
+might also be claimed by the Confederates. The Munster
+troops, under Purcell, the second in command, a capable
+soldier, who had learned the art of war in the armies of
+the German Empire, relieved Ross, when besieged by Ormond;
+General Barry had successfully repulsed an attack on his
+head-quarters, the famous old Desmond town of Killmallock.
+In June, Barry, Purcell, and Castlehaven drove the enemy
+before them across the Funcheon, and at Kilworth brought
+their main body, under Sir Charles Vavasour, to action.
+Vavasour's force was badly beaten, himself captured, with
+his cannon and colours, and many of his officers and men.
+Inchiquin, who had endeavoured to form a junction with
+Vavasour, escaped to one of the few remaining garrisons
+open to him--probably Youghal.
+
+In Connaught, the surrender of Galway, on the 20th of
+June, eclipsed all the previous successes, and they were
+not a few, of Lieutenant-General Burke. From the day Lord
+Ranelagh and the younger Coote deserted the Western
+province, the Confederate cause had rapidly advanced.
+The surrender of "the second fort in the Kingdom"--a
+sea-port in that age, not unworthy to be ranked with
+Cadiz and Bristol, for its commercial wealth and
+reputation--was a military event of the first importance.
+An English fleet appeared three days after the surrender
+of Willoughby, in Galway harbour; but nine long years
+elapsed before the Confederate colours were lowered from
+the towers of the Connaught citadel.
+
+In the North, O'Neil, who, without injustice to any of
+his contemporaries, may certainly be said to have made,
+during his seven years' command, the highest European
+reputation among the Confederate generals, gathered his
+recruits into a rugged district, which forms a sort of
+natural camp in the north-west corner of the island. The
+mountain plateau of Leitrim, which sends its spurs
+downwards to the Atlantic, towards Lough Erne, and into
+Longford, accessible only by four or five lines of road,
+leading over narrow bridges and through deep defiles,
+was the nursery selected by this cautious leader, in
+which to collect and organize his forces. In the beginning
+of May--seven months after the date of his commission,
+and ten from his solitary landing at Doe Castle--we find
+him a long march from his mountain fortress in Leitrim,
+at Charlemont, which he had strengthened and garrisoned,
+and now saved from a surprise attempted by Monroe, from
+Carrickfergus. Having effected that immediate object, he
+again retired towards the Leitrim highlands, fighting by
+the way a smart cavalry action at Clonish, with a superior
+force, under Colonels Stewart, Balfour, and Mervyn. In
+this affair O'Neil was only too happy to have carried
+off his troop with credit; but a fortnight brought him
+consolation for Clonish in the brilliant affair of
+Portlester. He had descended in force from his hills and
+taken possession of the greater part of the ancient Meath.
+General Monk and Lord Moore were despatched against him,
+but reinforced by a considerable body of Meathian
+Confederates, under Sir James Dillon, he resolved to risk
+his first regular engagement in the field. Taking advantage
+of the situation of the ground, about five miles from
+Trim, he threw up some field works, placed sixty men in
+Portlester mill, and patiently awaited the advance of
+the enemy. Their assault was overconfident, their rout
+complete. Lord Moore, and a large portion of the assailants
+were slain, and Monk fled back to Dublin. O'Neil, gathering
+fresh strength from these movements, abandoned his mountain
+stronghold, and established his head-quarters on the
+river Erne between Lough Oughter (memorable in his life
+and death) and the upper waters of Lough Erne. At this
+point stood the town of Belturbet, which, in "the
+Plantation" of James I., had been turned over exclusively
+to British settlers, whose "cagework" houses, and four
+acres of garden ground each, had elicited the approval
+of the surveyor Pynnar, twenty years before. The surrounding
+country was covered with the fortified castles and
+loop-holed lawns of the chief _Undertakers_--but few were
+found of sufficient strength to resist the arms of O'Neil.
+At Belturbet, he was within a few days' march of the
+vital points of four other counties, and in case of the
+worst, within the same distance of his protective fastness.
+Here, towards the end of September, busied with present
+duties and future projects, he heard, for the first time,
+with astonishment and grief, that the requisite majority
+of "the Supreme Council" had concluded, on the 13th of
+that month, a twelve-months' truce with Ormond, thus
+putting in peril all the advantages already acquired by
+the bravery of the Confederate troops, and the skill of
+their generals.
+
+The war had lasted nearly two years, and this was the
+first time the Catholics had consented to negotiate. The
+moment chosen was a critical one for all the three
+Kingdoms, and the interests involved were complicated in
+the extreme. The Anglo-Irish, who formed the majority of
+the Supreme Council, connected by blood and language with
+England, had entered into the war, purely as one of
+religious liberty. Nationally, they had, apart from the
+civil disabilities imposed on religious grounds, no
+antipathy, no interest, hostile to the general body of
+English loyalists, represented in Ireland by the King's
+lieutenant, Ormond. On his side, that nobleman gave all
+his thoughts to, and governed all his actions by the
+exigencies of the royal cause, throughout the three
+Kingdoms. When Charles seemed strong in England, Ormond
+rated the Catholics at a low figure; but when reverses
+increased he estimated their alliance more highly. After
+the drawn battle of Edgehill, fought on the very day of
+the first meeting of the General Assembly at Kilkenny,
+the King had established his head-quarters at Oxford, in
+the heart of four or five of the most loyal counties in
+England. Here he at first negotiated with the Parliament,
+but finally the sword was again invoked, and while the
+King proclaimed the Parliament rebels, "the solemn league
+and covenant" was entered into, at first separately, and
+afterwards jointly, by the Puritans of England and
+Presbyterians of Scotland. The military events during
+that year, and in the first half of the next, were upon
+the whole not unfavourable to the royal cause. The great
+battle of Marston Moor, (July 2nd, 1644,) which
+"extinguished the hopes of the Royalists in the Northern
+counties," was the first Parliamentary victory of national
+importance. It was won mainly by the energy and obstinacy
+of Lieutenant-General Cromwell, from that day forth the
+foremost English figure in the Civil War. From his court
+at Oxford, where he had seen the utter failure of
+endeavouring to conciliate his English and Scottish
+enemies, the King had instructed Ormond--lately created
+a Marquis--to treat with the Irish Catholics, and to
+obtain from them men and money. The overtures thus made
+were brought to maturity in September; the Cessation was
+to last twelve months; each party was to remain in
+possession of its own quarters, as they were held at the
+date of the treaty; the forces of each were to unite to
+punish any infraction of the terms agreed on; the agents
+of the Confederates, during the cessation, were to have
+free access and safe conduct to the King; and for these
+advantages, the Supreme Council were to present his
+Majesty immediately with 15,000 pounds in money, and
+provisions to the value of 15,000 pounds more.
+
+Such was "the truce of Castlemartin," condemned by O'Neil,
+by the Papal Nuncio, Scarampi, and by the great majority
+of the old Irish, lay and clerical; still more violently
+denounced by the Puritan Parliament as favouring Popery,
+and negotiated by Popish agents; beneficial to Ormond
+and the Undertakers, as relieving Dublin, freeing the
+channel from Irish privateers, and securing them in the
+garrisons throughout the Kingdom which they still held;
+in one sense advantageous to Charles, from the immediate
+supplies it afforded, and the favourable impression it
+created of his liberality, at the courts of his Catholic
+allies; but on the other hand disadvantageous to him in
+England and Scotland, from the pretexts it furnished his
+enemies, of renewing the cry of his connivance with
+Popery, a cry neither easily answered, nor, of itself,
+liable quickly to wear out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE CESSATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
+
+While the Confederate delegates, reverently uncovered,
+and Ormond, in hat and plume, as representing royalty,
+were signing "the cessation" at Castlemartin, the memorable
+Monroe, with all his men, were taking the covenant, on
+their knees, in the church of Carrickfergus, at the hands
+of the informer O'Connolly, now a colonel in the
+Parliamentary army, and high in the confidence of its
+chiefs. Soon after this ceremony, Monroe, appointed by
+the English Parliament Commander-in-Chief of all their
+forces in Ulster, united under his immediate leadership,
+of Scots, English, and Undertakers, not less than 10,000
+men. With this force he marched southward as far as Newry,
+which he found an easy prey, and where he put to the
+sword, after surrender, sixty men, eighteen women, and
+two ecclesiastics. In vain the Confederates entreated
+Ormond to lead them against the common enemy in the North;
+pursuing always a line of policy of his own, in which
+their interest had a very slender part, that astute
+politician neither took the field, nor consented that
+they should do so of themselves. But the Supreme Council,
+roused by the remonstrances of the clergy, ordered Lord
+Castlehaven, with the title of Commander-in-Chief, to
+march against Monroe. This was virtually superseding
+O'Neil in his own province, and that it was so felt, even
+by its authors, is plain from their giving him
+simultaneously the command in Connaught. O'Neil, never
+greater than in acts of self-denial and self-sacrifice,
+stifled his profound chagrin, and cheerfully offered to
+serve under the English Earl, placed over his head. But
+the northern movements were, for many months, languid
+and uneventful; both parties seemed uncertain of their
+true policy; both, from day to day, awaited breathlessly
+for tidings from Kilkenny, Dublin, London, Oxford, or
+Edinburgh, to learn what new forms the general contest
+was to take, in order to guide their own conduct by the
+shifting phases of that intricate diplomacy.
+
+Among the first consequences of the cessation were the
+debarkation at Mostyn, in Scotland, of 3,000 well provided
+Irish troops, under _Colkitto_ (the left-handed,) Alexander
+McDonnell, brother of Lord Antrim. Following the banner
+of Montrose, these regiments performed great things at
+Saint Johnstown, at Aberdeen, at Inverlochy, all which
+have been eloquently recorded by the historians of that
+period. "Their reputation," says a cautious writer, "more
+than their number, unnerved the prowess of their enemies.
+No force ventured to oppose them in the field; and as
+they advanced, every fort was abandoned or surrendered."
+A less agreeable result of "the cessation," for the court
+at Oxford, was the retirement from the royal army of the
+Earl of Newcastle, and most of his officers, on learning
+that such favourable conditions had been made with Irish
+Papists. To others of his supporters--as the Earl of
+Shrewsbury--Charles was forced to assume a tone of apology
+for that truce, pleading the hard necessities which
+compelled him: the truth seems to be, that there were
+not a few then at Oxford, who, like Lord Spencer, would
+gladly have been on the other side--or at all events in
+a position of neutrality--provided they could have found
+"a salve for their honour," as gentlemen and cavaliers.
+
+The year 1644 opened for the Irish with two events of
+great significance--the appointment of Ormond as Viceroy,
+in January, and the execution at Tyburn, by order of the
+English Parliament, of Lord Maguire, a prisoner in the
+Tower since October, 1641. Maguire died with a courage
+and composure worthy of his illustrious name, and his
+profoundly religious character. His long absence had not
+effaced his memory from the hearts of his devoted clansmen
+of Fermanagh, and many a prayer was breathed, and many
+a vow of vengeance muttered among them, for what they
+must naturally have regarded as the cold-blooded judicial
+murder of their chief.
+
+Two Irish deputations--one Catholic, the other Protestant
+--proceeded this year to the King, at Oxford, with the
+approval of Ormond, who took care to be represented by
+confidential agents of his own. The Catholics found a
+zealous auxiliary in the queen, Henrietta Maria, who, as
+a co-religionist, felt with them, and, as a Frenchwoman,
+was free from insular prejudices against them. The Irish
+Protestants found a scarcely less influential advocate
+in the venerable Archbishop Usher, whose presence and
+countenance, as the most puritanical of his prelates,
+was most essential to the policy of Charles. The King
+heard both parties graciously--censured some of the
+demands of both as extravagant, and beyond his power to
+concede--admitted others to be reasonable and worthy of
+consideration--refused to confirm the churches they had
+seized to the Catholics--but was willing to allow them
+their "seminaries of education"--would not consent to
+enforce the penal laws on the demand of the Protestants
+--but declared that neither should the Undertakers be
+disturbed in their possessions or offices. In short, he
+pathetically exhorted both parties to consider his case
+as well as their own; promised them to call together the
+Irish Parliament at the earliest possible period; and so
+got rid of both deputations, leaving Ormond master of
+the position for some time longer.
+
+The agents and friends of the Irish Catholics on the
+Continent were greatly embarrassed, and not a little
+disheartened by the cessation. At Paris, at Brussels, at
+Madrid, but above all at Rome, it was regretted, blamed,
+or denounced, according to the temper or the insight of
+the discontented. His Catholic Majesty had some time
+before remitted a contribution of 20,000 dollars to the
+Confederate Treasury; one of Richelieu's last acts was
+to invite Con, son of Hugh O'Neil, to the French Court,
+and to permit the shipment of some pieces of ordnance to
+Ireland; from Rome, the celebrated Franciscan, Father
+Luke Wadding, had remitted 26,000 dollars, and the Nuncio
+Scarampi had brought further donations. The facility,
+therefore, with which the cessation had been agreed upon,
+against the views of the agents of the Catholic powers
+at Kilkenny, without any apparently sufficient cause,
+had certainly a tendency to check and chill the enthusiasm
+of those Catholic Princes who had been taught to look on
+the insurrection of the Irish as a species of Crusade.
+Remonstrances, warm, eloquent, and passionate, were poured
+in upon the most influential members of the Supreme
+Council, from those who had either by delegation, or from
+their own free will, befriended them abroad. These
+remonstrances reached that powerful body at Waterford,
+at Limerick, or at Galway, whither they had gone on an
+official visitation, to hear complaints, settle
+controversies, and provide for the better collection of
+the assessments imposed on each Province.
+
+An incident which occurred in Ulster, soon startled the
+Supreme Council from their pacific occupations. General
+Monroe, having proclaimed that all Protestants within
+his command should take "the solemn league and covenant,"
+three thousand of that religion, still loyalists, met at
+Belfast, to deliberate on their answer. Monroe, however,
+apprised of their intentions, marched rapidly from
+Carrickfergus, entered the town under cover of night,
+and drove out the loyal Protestants at the point of the
+sword. The fugitives threw themselves into Lisburn, and
+Monroe appointed Colonel Hume as Governor of Belfast,
+for the Parliaments of Scotland and England. Castlehaven,
+with O'Neil still second in command, was now despatched
+northward against the army of the Covenant. Monroe, who
+had advanced to the borders of Meath as if to meet them,
+contented himself with gathering in great herds of cattle;
+as they advanced, he slowly fell back before them through
+Louth and Armagh, to his original head-quarters; Castlehaven
+then returned with the main body of the Confederate troops
+to Kilkenny, and O'Neil, depressed, but not dismayed,
+carried his contingent to their former position at
+Belturbet.
+
+In Munster, a new Parliamentary party had time to form
+its combinations under the shelter of the cessation. The
+Earl of Inchiquin, who had lately failed to obtain the
+Presidency of Munster from the King at Oxford, and the
+Lord Broghill, son of the great Southern Undertaker--the
+first Earl of Cork,--were at the head of this movement.
+Under pretence that the quarters allotted them by the
+cessation had been violated, they contrived to seize upon
+Cork, Youghal, and Kinsale. At Cork, they publicly executed
+Father Mathews, a Friar, and proceeding from violence to
+violence, they drove from the three places all the Catholic
+inhabitants. They then forwarded a petition to the King,
+beseeching him to declare the Catholics "rebels," and
+declaring their own determination to "die a thousand
+deaths sooner than condescend to any peace with them."
+At the same time they entered into or avowed their
+correspondence with the English Parliament, which naturally
+enough encouraged and assisted them. The Supreme Council
+met these demonstrations with more stringent instructions
+to General Purcell, now their chief in command, (Barry
+having retired on account of advanced age,) to observe
+the cessation, and to punish severely every infraction
+of it. At the same time they permitted or directed Purcell
+to enter into a trace with Inchiquin till the following
+April; and then they rested on their arms, in religious
+fidelity to the engagements they had signed at Castlemartin.
+
+The twelve-months' truce was fast drawing to a close,
+when the battle of Marston Moor stimulated Ormond to
+effect a renewal of the treaty. Accordingly, at his
+request, Lord Muskerry, and five other commissioners,
+left Kilkenny on the last day of August for Dublin.
+Between them and the Viceroy, the cessation was prolonged
+till the first of December following; and when that day
+came, it was further protracted, as would appear, for
+three months, by which time, (March, 1645,) Ormond informed
+them that he had powers from the King to treat for a
+permanent settlement.
+
+During the six months that the original cessation was
+thus protracted by the policy of Ormond, the Supreme
+Council sent abroad new agents, "to know what they had
+to trust to, and what succours they might really depend
+on from abroad." Father Hugh Bourke was sent to Spain,
+and Sir Richard Belling to Rome, where Innocent X, had
+recently succeeded to that generous friend of the Catholic
+Irish. Urban VIII. The voyage of these agents was not
+free from hazard, for, whereas, before the cessation,
+the privateers commissioned by the Council, sheltered
+and supplied in the Irish harbours, had kept the southern
+coast clear of hostile shipping, now that they had been
+withdrawn under the truce, the parliamentary cruisers
+had the channel all to themselves. Waterford and
+Wexford--the two chief Catholic ports in that quarter--
+instead of seeing their waters crowded with prizes, now
+began to tremble for their own safety. The strong fort
+of Duncannon, on the Wexford side of Waterford harbour,
+was corruptly surrendered by Lord Esmond, to Inchiquin
+and the Puritans. After a ten-weeks' siege, however, and
+the expenditure of 19,000 pounds of powder, the Confederates
+retook the fort, in spite of all the efforts made for
+its relief. Esmond, old and blind, escaped by a timely
+death the penalty due to his treason. Following up this
+success, Castlehaven rapidly invested other southern
+strongholds in possession of the same party, Cappoquin,
+Lismore, Mallow, Mitchelstown, Doneraile and Liscarroll
+surrendered on articles; Rostellan, commanded by Inchiquin's
+brother, was stormed and taken; Boghill was closely
+besieged in Youghal, but, being relieved from sea,
+successfully defended himself. In another quarter, the
+Parliament was equally active. To compensate for the loss
+of Galway, they had instructed the younger Coote, on whom
+they had conferred the Presidency of Connaught, to withdraw
+the regiment of Sir Frederick Hamilton, and 400 other
+troops, from the command of Monroe, and with these, Sir
+Robert Stewart's forces, and such others as he could
+himself raise, to invest Sligo. Against the force thus
+collected, Sligo could not hope to contend, and soon,
+from that town, as from a rallying and resting place,
+2,000 horsemen were daily launched upon the adjoining
+country. Lord Clanrickarde, the royal president of the
+province, as unpopular as trimmers usually are in times
+of crisis, was unable to make head against this new
+danger. But the Confederates, under Sir James Dillon,
+and Dr. O'Kelly, the heroic Archbishop of Tuam, moved by
+the pitiful appeals of the Sligo people, boldly endeavoured
+to recover the town. They succeeded in entering the walls,
+but were subsequently repulsed and routed. The Archbishop
+was captured and tortured to death; some of the noblest
+families of the province and of Meath had also to mourn
+their chiefs; and several valuable papers, found or
+pretended to be found in the Archbishop's carriage, were
+eagerly given to the press of London by the Parliament
+of England. This tragedy at Sligo occurred on Sunday,
+October 26th, 1645.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+GLAMORGAN'S TREATY--THE NEW NUNCIO RINUCCINI--
+O'NEIL'S POSITION--THE BATTLE OF BENBURB.
+
+Ormond had amused the Confederates with negotiations for
+a permanent peace and settlement, from spring till
+midsummer, when Charles, dissatisfied with these endless
+delays, despatched to Ireland a more hopeful ambassador.
+This was Herbert, Earl of Glamorgan, one of the few
+Catholics remaining among the English nobility; son and
+heir to the Marquis of Worcester, and son-in-law to Henry
+O'Brien, Earl of Thomond. Of a family devoutly attached
+to the royal cause, to which it is said they had contributed
+not less than 200,000 pounds, Glamorgan's religion, his
+rank, his Irish connections, the intimate confidence of
+the King which he was known to possess, all marked out
+his embassy as one of the utmost importance.
+
+The story of this mission has been perplexed and darkened
+by many controversies. But the general verdict of historians
+seems now to be, that Charles I., whose many good qualities
+as a man and a ruler are cheerfully admitted on all hands,
+was yet utterly deficient in downright good faith; that
+duplicity was his besetting sin; and that Glamorgan's
+embassy is one, but only one, of the strongest evidences
+of that ingrained duplicity.
+
+It may help to the clearer understanding of the negotiations
+conducted by Glamorgan in Ireland, if we give in the
+first place the exact dates of the first transactions.
+The Earl arrived at Dublin about the 1st of August, and,
+after an interview with Ormond, proceeded to Kilkenny.
+On the 28th of that month, preliminary articles were
+agreed to and signed by the Earl on behalf of the King,
+and by Lords Mountgarrett and Muskerry on behalf of the
+Confederates. It was necessary, it seems, to get the
+concurrence of the Viceroy to these terms, and accordingly
+the negotiators on both sides repaired to Dublin. Here,
+Ormond contrived to detain them ten long weeks in
+discussions on the articles relating to religion; it was
+the 12th of November when they returned to Kilkenny, with
+a much modified treaty. On the next day, the 13th, the
+new Papal Nuncio, a prelate who, by his rank, his eloquence,
+and his imprudence, was destined to exercise a powerful
+influence on the Catholic councils, made his public entry
+into that city.
+
+This personage was John Baptist Rinuccini, Archbishop of
+Fermo, in the Marches of Ancona, which see he had preferred
+to the more exalted dignity of Florence. By birth a
+Tuscan, the new Nuncio had distinguished himself from
+boyhood by his passionate attachment to his studies. At
+Bologna, at Perugia, and at Rome, his intense application
+brought him early honours, and early physical debility.
+His health, partially restored in the seclusion of his
+native valley of the Arno, enabled him to return again
+to Rome. Enjoying the confidence of Gregory XV. and
+Uban VIII., he was named successively, Clerk of the
+Chamber, Secretary of the Congregation of Rites, and
+Archbishop of Fermo. This was the prelate chosen by the
+new Pope, Innocent X., for the nunciature in Ireland: a
+man of noble birth, in the fifty-third year of his age,
+of uncertain bodily health, of great learning, especially
+as a canonist, of a fiery Italian temperament,--"regular
+and even austere in his life, and far from any taint of
+avarice or corruption,"--such was the admission of his
+enemies.
+
+Leaving Italy in May, accompanied by the Dean of Fermo,
+who has left us a valuable record of the embassy, his
+other household officers, several Italian noblemen, and
+Sir Richard Belling, the special agent at Rome, the
+Nuncio, by way of Genoa and Marseilles, reached Paris.
+In France he was detained nearly five months, in a
+fruitless attempt to come to some definite arrangement
+as to the conduct of the Catholic war, through Queen
+Henrietta Maria, then resident with the young Prince of
+Wales--afterwards Charles II.--at the French court. The
+Queen, like most persons of her rank, overwhelmed with
+adversity, was often unreasonably suspicious and exacting.
+Her sharp woman's tongue did not spare those on whom her
+anger fell, and there were not wanting those, who,
+apprehensive of the effect in England of her negotiating
+directly with a papal minister, did their utmost to delay
+or to break off their correspondence. A nice point of
+court etiquette further embarrassed the business. The
+Nuncio could not uncover his head before the Queen, and
+Henrietta would not receive him otherwise than uncovered.
+After three months lost in Paris, he was obliged to
+proceed on his journey, contenting himself with an exchange
+of complimentary messages with the Queen, whom even the
+crushing blow of Naseby could not induce to waive a point
+of etiquette with a Priest.
+
+On reaching Rochelle, where he intended to take shipping,
+a further delay of six weeks took place, as was supposed
+by the machinations of Cardinal Mazarin. Finally, the
+Nuncio succeeded in purchasing a frigate of 26 guns, the
+_San Pietro_, on which he embarked with all his Italian
+suite, Sir Richard Belling, and several Franco-Irish
+officers. He had also on board a considerable sum in
+Spanish gold, (including another contribution of 36,000
+dollars from Father Wadding,) 2,000 muskets, 2,000 cartouch
+belts, 4,000 swords, 2,000 pike heads, 400 brace of
+pistols, 20,000 pounds of powder, with match, shot, and
+other stores. Weighing from St. Martin's in the Isle of
+Rhe, the _San Pietro_ doubled the Land's End, and stood
+over towards the Irish coast. The third day out they
+were chased for several hours by two Parliamentary
+cruisers, but escaped under cover of the night; on the
+fourth morning, being the 21st of October, they found
+themselves safely embayed in the waters of Kenmare, on
+the coast of Kerry.
+
+The first intelligence which reached the Nuncio on landing,
+was the negotiation of Glamorgan, of which he had already
+heard, while waiting a ship at Rochelle. The next was
+the surrender by the Earl of Thomond, of his noble old
+castle of Bunratty, commanding the Shannon within six
+miles of Limerick, to the Puritans. This surrender had,
+however, determined the resolution of the city of Limerick,
+which hitherto had taken no part in the war, to open its
+gates to the Confederates. The loss of Bunratty was more
+than compensated by the gaining of one of the finest and
+strongest towns in Munster, and to Limerick accordingly
+the Nuncio paid the compliment of his first visit. Here
+he received the mitre of the diocese in dutiful submission
+from the hands of the Bishop, on entering the Cathedral;
+and here he celebrated a solemn requiem mass for the
+repose of the soul of the Archbishop of Tuam, lately
+slain before Sligo. Prom Limerick, borne along on his
+litter, such was the feebleness of his health, he advanced
+by slow stages to Kilkenny, escorted by a guard of honour,
+despatched on that duty, by the Supreme Council.
+
+The pomp and splendour of his public entry into the
+Catholic capital was a striking spectacle. The previous
+night he slept at a village three miles from the city,
+for which he set out early on the morning of the 13th of
+November, escorted by his guard, and a vast multitude of
+the people. Five delegates from the Supreme Council
+accompanied him. A band of fifty students mounted on
+horseback met him on the way, and their leader, crowned
+with laurel, recited some congratulatory Latin verses.
+At the city gate he left the litter and mounted a horse
+richly housed; here the procession of the clergy and the
+city guilds awaited him; at the Market Cross, a Latin
+oration was delivered in his honour, to which he graciously
+replied in the same language. From the Cross he was
+escorted to the Cathedral, at the door of which he was
+received by the aged Bishop, Dr. David Rothe. At the
+high altar he intonated the _Te Deum_, and gave the
+multitude the apostolic benediction. Then he was conducted
+to his lodgings, where he was soon waited upon by Lord
+Muskerry and General Preston, who brought him to Kilkenny
+Castle, where, in the great gallery, which elicited even
+a Florentine's admiration, he was received in stately
+formality by the President of the Council--Lord
+Mountgarrett. Another Latin oration on the nature of his
+embassy was delivered by the Nuncio, responded to by Heber,
+Bishop of Clogher, and so the ceremony of reception ended.
+
+The Nuncio brought from Paris a new subject of difficulty,
+in the form of a memorial from the English Catholics at
+Rome, praying that they might be included in the terms
+of any peace which might be made by their Irish
+co-religionists with the King. Nothing could be more
+natural than that the members of the same persecuted
+church should make common cause, but nothing could be
+more impolitic than some of the demands made in the
+English memorial. They wished it to be stipulated with
+Charles, that he would allow a distinct military
+organization to the English and Irish Catholics in his
+service, under Catholic general officers, subject only
+to the King's commands, meaning thereby, if they meant
+what they said, independence of all parliamentary and
+ministerial control. Yet several of the stipulations of
+this memorial were, after many modifications and
+discussions, adopted by Glamorgan into his original
+articles, and under the treaty thus ratified, the
+Confederates bound themselves to despatch 10,000 men,
+fully armed and equipped, to the relief of Chester and
+the general succour of the King in England. Towards the
+close of December, the English Earl, with two Commissioners
+from the Supreme Council, set forth for Dublin, to obtain
+the Viceroy's sanction to the amended treaty. But in
+Dublin a singular counterplot in this perplexed drama
+awaited them. On St. Stephen's day, while at dinner,
+Glamorgan was arrested by Ormond, on a charge of having
+exceeded his instructions, and confined a close prisoner
+in the castle. The gates of the city were closed, and
+every means taken to give _eclat_ to this extraordinary
+proceeding. The Confederate Commissioners were carried
+to the castle, and told they might congratulate themselves
+on not sharing the cell prepared for Glamorgan. "Go back,"
+they were told, "to Kilkenny and tell the President of
+the Council, that the Protestants of England would fling
+the King's person out at his window, _if they believed
+it possible_ that he lent himself to such an undertaking."
+The Commissioners accordingly went back and delivered
+their errand, with a full account of all the circumstances.
+Fortunately, the General Assembly had been called for an
+early day in January, 1646, at Kilkenny. When, therefore,
+they met, their first resolution was to despatch Sir
+Robert Talbot to the Viceroy, with a letter suspending
+all negotiations till the Earl of Glamorgan was set at
+liberty. By the end of January, on the joint bail, for
+40,000 pounds, of the Earls of Clanrickarde and Kildare,
+the English envoy was enlarged, and, to the still further
+amazement of the simple-minded Catholics, on his arrival
+at Kilkenny, he justified rather than censured the action
+of Ormond. To most observers it appeared that these
+noblemen understood each other only too well.
+
+From January till June, Kilkenny was delivered over to
+cabals, intrigues, and recriminations. There was an "old
+Irish party," to which the Nuncio inclined, and an
+"Anglo-Irish party," headed by Mountgarrett and the
+majority of the Council. The former stigmatized the latter
+as Ormondists, and the latter retorted on them with the
+name of the Nuncio's party. In February came news of a
+foreign treaty made at Rome between Sir Kenelm Digby and
+the Pope's Ministers, most favourable to the English and
+Irish Catholics. On the 28th of March, a final modification
+of Glamorgan's articles, reduced to thirty in number,
+was signed by Ormond for the King, and Lord Muskerry and
+the other Commissioners for the Confederates. These
+thirty articles conceded, in fact, all the most essential
+claims of the Irish; they secured them equal rights as
+to property, in the Army, in the Universities, and at
+the Bar; they gave them seats in both Houses and on the
+Bench; they authorized a special commission of Oyer and
+Terminer, composed wholly of Confederates; they declared
+that "the independency of the Parliament of Ireland on
+that of England," should be decided by declaration of
+both Houses "agreeably to the laws of the Kingdom of
+Ireland." In short, this final form of Glamorgan's treaty
+gave the Irish Catholics, in 1646, all that was subsequently
+obtained either for the church or the country, in 1782,
+1793, or 1829. Though some conditions were omitted, to
+which Rinuccini and a majority of the Prelates attached
+importance, Glamorgan's treaty was, upon the whole, a
+charter upon which a free church and a free people might
+well have stood, as the fundamental law of their religious
+and civil liberties.
+
+The treaty, thus concluded at the end of March, was to
+lie as an _escroll_ in the hands of the Marquis of
+Clanrickarde till the 1st of May, awaiting Sir Kenelm
+Digby with the Roman protocol. And then, not withstanding
+the dissuasions of Rinuccini to the contrary, it was to
+be kept secret from the world, though some of its
+obligations were expected to be at once fulfilled, on
+their side, by the Catholics. The Supreme Council, ever
+eager to exhibit their loyalty, gathered together 6,000
+troops for the relief of Chester and the service of the
+King in England, so soon as both treaties--the Irish and
+the Roman--should be signed by Charles. While so waiting,
+they besieged and took Bunratty castle--already referred
+to--but Sir Kenelm Digby did not arrive with May, and
+they now learned, to their renewed amazement, that
+Glamorgan's whole negotiation was disclaimed by the King
+in England. In the same interval Chester fell, and the
+King was obliged to throw himself into the hands of the
+Scottish Parliament, who surrendered him for a price to
+their English coadjutors. These tidings reached Ireland
+during May, and, varied with the capture of an occasional
+fortress, lost or won, occupied all men's minds. But the
+first days of June were destined to bring with them a
+victory of national--of European importance--won by Owen
+O'Neil, in the immediate vicinity of his grand-uncle's
+famous battle-field of the Yellow Ford.
+
+During these three years of intrigue and negotiation,
+the position of General O'Neil was hazardous and difficult
+in the extreme. One campaign he had served under a
+stranger, as second on his own soil. In the other two he
+was fettered by the terms of "cessation" to his own
+quarters; and to add to his embarrassments, his impetuous
+kinsman Sir Phelim, brave, rash, and ambitious, recently
+married to a daughter of his ungenerous rival, General
+Preston, was incited to thwart and obstruct him amongst
+their mutual clansmen and connections. The only recompense
+which seems to have been awarded to him, was the confidence
+of the Nuncio, who, either from that knowledge of character
+in which the Italians excel, or from bias received from
+some other source, at once singled him out as the man of
+his people. What portion of the Nuncio's supplies reached
+the Northern General we know not, but in the beginning
+of June, he felt himself in a position to bring on an
+engagement with Monroe, who, lately reinforced by both
+Parliaments, had marched out of Carrickfergus into Tyrone,
+with a view of penetrating as far south as Kilkenny. On
+the 4th day of June, the two armies encountered at Benburb,
+on the little river Blackwater, about six miles north of
+Armagh, and the most signal victory of the war came to
+recompense the long-enduring patience of O'Neil.
+
+The battle of Benburb has been often and well described.
+In a naturally strong position--with this leader the
+choice of ground seems to have been a first consideration
+--the Irish, for four hours, received and repulsed the
+various charges of the Puritan horse. Then as the sun
+began to descend, pouring its rays upon the opposing
+force, O'Neil led his whole force--five thousand men
+against eight--to the attack. One terrible onset swept
+away every trace of resistance. There were counted on
+the field, 3,243 of the Covenanters, and of the Catholics,
+but 70 killed and 100 wounded. Lord Ardes, and 21 Scottish
+officers, 32 standards, 1,500 draught horses, and all
+the guns and tents, were captured. Monroe fled in panic
+to Lisburn, and thence to Carrickfergus, where he shut
+himself up, till he could obtain reinforcements. O'Neil
+forwarded the captured colours to the Nuncio, at Limerick,
+by whom they were solemnly placed in the choir of St.
+Mary's Cathedral, and afterwards, at the request of Pope
+Innocent, sent to Rome. _Te Deum_ was chanted in the
+Confederate Capital; penitential psalms were sung in the
+Northern fortress. "The Lord of Hosts," wrote Monroe,
+"had rubbed shame on our faces, till once we are humbled;"
+O'Neil emblazoned the cross and keys on his banner with
+the Red Hand of Ulster, and openly resumed the title
+originally chosen by his adherents at Clones, "the
+Catholic Army."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+FROM THE BATTLE OF BENBURB TILL THE LANDING OF
+CROMWELL AT DUBLIN.
+
+The Nuncio, elated by the great victory of O'Neil, to
+which he felt he had personally contributed by his
+seasonable supplies, provoked and irritated by Ormond's
+intrigues and the King's insincerity, rushed with all
+the ardour of his character into making the war an
+uncompromising Catholic crusade. In this line of conduct,
+he was supported by the Archbishops of Dublin and Cashel,
+by ten of the Bishops, including the eminent Prelates of
+Limerick, Killalla, Ferns, and Clogher; the Procurator
+of Armagh; nine Vicars-general, and the Superiors of the
+Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augustinians. The
+peace party, on the other hand, were not without clerical
+adherents, but they were inconsiderable, as to influence
+and numbers. They were now become as anxious to publish
+the Thirty Articles agreed upon at the end of March, as
+they then were to keep them secret. Accordingly, with
+Ormond's consent, copies of the treaty were sent early
+in August to the sheriffs of counties, mayors of cities,
+and other leading persons, with instructions to proclaim
+it publicly in due form; upon hearing which, the Nuncio
+and his supporters of the clergy, secular and regular,
+assembled in council at Waterford, on the 12th of August,
+solemnly declared that they gave no consent, and would
+not, "to any peace," that did not grant "further, surer,
+and safer considerations for their religion, king, and
+country," according to the original oath of the Confederacy.
+
+The rupture between the clergy and the laymen of the
+Council was now complete. The prelates who signed the
+decree of Waterford, of course, thereby withdrew from
+the body whose action they condemned. In vain the learned
+Darcy and the eloquent Plunkett went to and fro between
+the two bodies: concord and confidence were at an end.
+The synod decided to address Lord Mountgarrett in future
+as President of "the _late_ Supreme Council." The heralds
+who attempted to publish the Thirty Articles in Clonmel
+and Waterford were hooted or stoned; while in Limerick
+the mayor, endeavouring to protect them, shared this
+rough usage. Ormond, who was at Kilkenny at the critical
+moment of the breach, did his utmost to sustain the
+resolution of those who were stigmatized by his name;
+while the Nuncio, suspicious of Preston, wrote urgently
+to O'Neil to lead his army into Leinster, and remove the
+remnant of the late council from Kilkenny. All that those
+who held a middle course between the extremes could do,
+was to advocate an early meeting of the General Assembly;
+but various exigencies delayed this much-desired meeting,
+till the 10th day of January, 1647.
+
+The five intervening months were months of triumph for
+Rinuccini. Lord Digby appeared at Dublin as a special
+agent from the King, to declare his consent to Glamorgan's
+original terms; but Ormond still insisted that he had no
+authority to go beyond the Thirty Articles. Charles
+himself wrote privately to Rinuccini, promising to confirm
+everything which Glamorgan had proposed, as soon as he
+should come into "the Nuncio's hands." Ormond, after a
+fruitless attempt to convert O'Neil to his views, had
+marched southward with a guard of 1,500 foot, and 500
+horse, to endeavour to conciliate the towns, and to win
+over the Earl of Inchiquin. In both these objects he
+failed. He found O'Neil before him in his county palatinate
+of Tipperary, and the Mayor of Cashel informed him that
+he dared not allow him into that city, for fear of
+displeasing the northern general. Finding himself thus
+unexpectedly within a few miles of "the Catholic Army,"
+10,000 strong, the Viceroy retreated precipitately through
+Kilkenny, Carlow, and Kildare, to Dublin. Lord Digby,
+who had accompanied him, after an unsuccessful attempt
+to cajole the Synod of Waterford, made the best of his
+way back to France; the Marquis of Clanrickarde, who had
+also been of the expedition, shared the flight of Ormond.
+Towards the middle of September, O'Neil's army, after
+capturing Roscrea Castle, marched to Kilkenny, and encamped
+near that city. His forces had now augmented to 12,000
+foot, and 1,500 horse; on the 18th of the month, he
+escorted the Nuncio in triumph into Kilkenny, where the
+Ormondist members of the old council were committed to
+close custody in the castle. A new council, of four
+bishops and eight laymen, was established on the 26th,
+with the Nuncio as president; Glamorgan succeeded
+Castlehaven, who had gone over to Ormond, as commander
+in Munster; while O'Neil and Preston were ordered to
+unite their forces for the siege of Dublin. The sanguine
+Italian dreamt of nothing less, for the moment, than the
+creation of Viceroys, the deliverance of the King, and
+the complete restoration of the ancient religion.
+
+O'Neil and Preston, by different routes, on which they
+were delayed in taking several garrisoned posts, united
+at Lucan in the valley of the Liffey, seven miles west
+of Dublin, on the 9th of November. Their joint forces
+are represented at 16,000 foot, and 1,600 horse--of which
+Preston had about one-third, and O'Neil the remainder.
+Preston's head-quarters were fixed at Leixlip, and O'Neil's
+at Newcastle--points equi-distant, and each within two
+hours' march of the capital. Within the walls of that
+city there reigned the utmost consternation. Many of the
+inhabitants fled beyond seas, terrified by the fancied
+cruelty of the Ulstermen. But Ormond retained all his
+presence of mind, and readiness of resources. He entered,
+at first covertly, into arrangements with the
+Parliamentarians, who sent him a supply of powder; he
+wrote urgently to Monroe to make a diversion in his
+favour; he demolished the mills and suburbs which might
+cover the approaches of the enemy; he employed soldiers,
+civilians, and even women, upon the fortifications,--
+Lady Ormond setting an example to her sex, in rendering
+her feeble assistance. Clanrickarde, in Preston's tent,
+was doing the work of stimulating the old antipathy of
+that general towards O'Neil, which led to conflicting
+advices in Council, and some irritating personal
+altercations. To add to the Confederate embarrassment,
+the winter was the most severe known for many years; from
+twenty to thirty sentinels being frozen at night at their
+posts. On the 13th of November, while the plan of the
+Confederate attack was still undecided, commissioners of
+the Parliament arrived, with ample stores, in Dublin Bay.
+On the next day they landed at Ringsend, and entered into
+negotiations with Ormond; on the 16th the siege was
+raised, and on the 23rd Ormond broke off the treaty,
+having unconsciously saved Dublin from the Confederates,
+by the incorrect reports of supplies being received,
+which were finally carried northward to Monroe.
+
+The month of January brought the meeting of the General
+Assembly. The attendance in the great gallery of Ormond
+Castle was as large, and the circumstances upon the whole
+as auspicious as could be desired, in the seventh year
+of such a struggle. The members of the old council,
+liberated from arrest, were in their places. O'Neil and
+Preston, publicly reconciled, had signed a solemn engagement
+to assist and sustain each other. The Nuncio, the Primate
+of Ireland, and eleven bishops took their seats; the
+peers of oldest title in the kingdom were present; two
+hundred and twenty-four members represented the Commons
+of Ireland, and among the spectators sat the ambassadors
+of France and Spain, and of King Charles. The main subject
+of discussion was the sufficiency of the Thirty Articles,
+and the propriety of the ecclesiastical censure promulgated
+against those who had signed them. The debate embraced
+all that may be said on the question of clerical
+interference in political affairs, on conditional and
+unconditional allegiance, on the power of the Pontiff
+speaking _ex cathedra_, and the prerogatives of the
+temporal sovereign. It was protracted through an entire
+month, and ended with a compromise, which declared that
+the Commissioners had acted in good faith in signing the
+articles, while it justified the Synod of Waterford for
+having, as judges of the nature and intent of the oath
+of Confederation, declared them insufficient and
+unacceptable. A new oath of Confederacy, solemnly binding
+the associates not to lay down their arms till they had
+established the free and public exercise of religion as
+it had existed in the reign of Henry VII., was framed
+and taken by the entire General Assembly; the Thirty
+Articles were declared insufficient and unacceptable by
+all but a minority of twelve votes; a new Supreme Council
+of twenty-four was chosen, in whom there were not known
+to be above four or five partisans of Ormond's policy.
+The church plate throughout the kingdom was ordered to
+be coined into money, and a formal proposal to co-operate
+with the Viceroy on the basis of the new oath was made,
+but instantly rejected; among other grounds, on this,
+that the Marquis had, at that moment, his son and and
+other sureties with the Puritans who, in the last resort,
+he infinitely preferred to the Roman Catholics.
+
+The military events of the year 1647 were much more
+decisive than its politics. Glamorgan still commanded in
+Munster, Preston in Leinster, and O'Neil in both Ulster
+and Connaught. The first was confronted by Inchiquin,
+at the head of a corps of 5,000 foot and 1,500 horse,
+equipped and supplied by the English Puritans; the second
+saw the garrisons of Dundalk, Drogheda, and Dublin,
+reinforced by fresh regiments of Covenanters, and fed by
+Parliamentary supplies from the sea; the latter was in
+the heart of Connaught, organizing and recruiting and
+attempting all things within his reach, but hampered for
+money, clothing and ammunition. In Connaught, O'Neil was
+soon joined by the Nuncio, who, as difficulties thickened,
+began to lean more and more on the strong arm of the
+victor of Benburb; in Munster, the army refused to follow
+the lead of Glamorgan, and clamoured for their old chief,
+Lord Muskerry; finally, that division of the national
+troops was committed by the Council to Lord Taafe, a
+politician of the school of Ormond and Clanrickarde,
+wholly destitute of military experience. The vigorous
+Inchiquin had little difficulty in dealing with such an
+antagonist; Cashel was taken without a blow in its defence,
+and a slaughter unparalleled till the days of Drogheda
+and Wexford, deluged its streets and churches. At Knocknos,
+later in the autumn (Nov. 12th), Taafe was utterly routed;
+the gallant _Colkitto_, serving under him, lamentably
+sacrificed after surrendering his sword; and Inchiquin
+enabled to dictate a cessation covering Munster--far less
+favourable to Catholics than the truce of Castlemartin
+--to the Supreme Council. This truce was signed at
+Dungarvan, on the 20th of May, 1648, and on the 27th the
+Nuncio published his solemn decree of excommunication
+against all its aiders and abettors, and himself made
+the best of his way from Kilkenny to Maryboro', where
+O'Neil then lay.
+
+The military and political situation of O'Neil, during
+the latter months of 1647 and the whole of 1648, was one
+of the most extraordinary in which any general had ever
+been placed. His late sworn colleague, Preston, was now
+combined with Inchiquin against him; the royalist
+Clanrickarde, in the western counties, pressed upon his
+rear, and captured his garrison in Athlone; the
+Parliamentary general, Michael Jones, to whom Ormond had
+finally surrendered Dublin, observed rather than impeded
+his movements in Leinster; the lay majority of the Supreme
+Council proclaimed him a traitor--a compliment which he
+fully returned; the Nuncio threw himself wholly into his
+hands; finally, at the close of '48, Ormond, returning
+from France to Ireland, concluded, on the 17th of January,
+a formal alliance with the lay members, under the title
+of "Commissioners of Trust," for the King and Kingdom;
+and Rinuccini, despairing, perhaps, of a cause so
+distracted, sailed in his own frigate, from Galway, on
+the 23rd of February. Thus did the actors change their
+parts, alternately triumphing and fleeing for safety.
+The verdict of history may condemn the Nuncio, of whom
+we have now seen the last, for his imperious self-will,
+and his too ready recourse to ecclesiastical censures;
+but of his zeal, his probity, and his disinterestedness,
+there can be, we think, no second opinion.
+
+Under the treaty of 1649--which conceded full civil and
+religious equality to the Roman Catholics--Ormond was
+once more placed at the head of the government and in
+command of the royal troops. A few days after the signing
+of that treaty, news of the execution of Charles I. having
+reached Ireland, the Viceroy proclaimed the Prince of
+Wales by the title of Charles II., at Cork and Youghal.
+Prince Rupert, whose fleet had entered Kinsale, caused
+the same ceremony to be gone through in that ancient
+borough. With Ormond were now cordially united Preston,
+Inchiquin, Clanrickarde, and Muskerry, on whom the lead
+of the Supreme Council devolved, in consequence of the
+advanced age of Lord Mountgarrett, and the remainder of
+the twelve Commissioners of Trust. The cause of the young
+Prince, an exile, the son of that Catholic queen from
+whom they had expected so much, was far from unpopular
+in the southern half of the island. The Anglican interest
+was strong and widely diffused through both Leinster and
+Munster; and, except a resolute prelate, like Dr. French,
+Bishop of Ferns, or a brave band of townsmen like those
+of Waterford, Limerick, and Galway, or some remnant of
+mountain tribes, in Wicklow and Tipperary, the national,
+or "old Irish policy," had decidedly lost ground from
+the hour of the Nuncio's departure.
+
+Owen O'Neil and the Bishops still adhered to that national
+policy. The former made a three-months' truce with General
+Monck, who had succeeded Monroe in the command of all
+the Parliamentary troops in his province. The singular
+spectacle was even exhibited of Monck forwarding supplies
+to O'Neil, to be used against Inchiquin and Ormond, and
+O'Neil coining to the rescue of Coote, and raising for
+him the siege of Londonderry. Inchiquin, in rapid
+succession, took Drogheda, Trim, Dundalk, Newry, and then
+rapidly countermarched to join Ormond in besieging Dublin.
+At Rathmines, near the city, both generals were surprised
+and defeated by the Parliamentarians under Michael Jones.
+Between desertions, and killed and wounded, they lost,
+by their own account, nearly 3,000, and by the Puritan
+accounts, above 5,000 men. This action was the virtual
+close of Ormond's military career; he never after made
+head against the Parliamentary forces in open field.
+The Catholic cities of Limerick and Galway refused to
+admit his garrisons; a synod of the Bishops, assembled
+at Jamestown (in Roscommon), strongly recommended his
+withdrawal from the kingdom; and Cromwell had arrived,
+resolved to finish the war in a single campaign. Ormond
+sailed again for France, before the end of 1649, to return
+no more until the restoration of the monarchy, on the
+death of the great Protector.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+CROMWELL'S CAMPAIGN---1649-1650.
+
+An actor was now to descend upon the scene, whose character
+has excited more controversy than that of any other personage
+of those times. Honoured as a saint, or reprobated as a
+hypocrite, worshipped for his extraordinary successes, or
+anathematized for the unworthy artifices by which he
+rose--who shall deal out, with equal hand, praise and blame
+to Oliver Cromwell'? Not for the popular writer of Irish
+history, is that difficult judicial task. Not for us to
+re-echo cries of hatred which convince not the indifferent,
+nor correct the errors of the educated or cultivated: the
+simple, and, as far as possible, the unimpassioned narrative
+of facts, will constitute the whole of our duty towards
+the Protector's campaign in Ireland.
+
+Cromwell left London in great state, early in July, "in
+a coach drawn by six gallant Flanders mares," and made
+a sort of royal procession across the country to Bristol.
+From that famous port, where Strongbow confederated with
+Dermid McMurrogh, and from which Dublin drew its first
+Anglo-Norman colony, he went on to Milford Haven, at
+which he embarked, arriving in Dublin on the 15th of
+August. He entered the city in procession, and addressed
+the townsfolk from "a convenient place." He had with him
+two hundred thousand pounds in money, eight regiments of
+foot, six of horse, and some troops of dragoons; besides
+the divisions of Jones and Monck, already in the country,
+and subject to his command. Among the officers were
+names of memorable interest--Henry Cromwell, second son
+of the Protector, and future Lord Deputy; Monck, Blake,
+Jones, Ireton, Ludlow, Hardress Waller, Sankey, and others
+equally prominent in accomplishing the King's death, or
+in raising up the English commonwealth.
+
+Cromwell's command in Ireland extends from the middle of
+August, 1649, to the end of May, 1650, about nine months
+in all, and is remarkable for the number of sieges of
+walled towns crowded into that brief period. There was,
+during the whole time, no great action in the field, like
+Marston Moor, or Benburb, or Dunbar; it was a campaign
+of seventeenth century cannon against mediaeval masonry;
+what else was done, was the supplemental work of mutual
+bravery on both sides. Drogheda, Dundalk, Newry, and
+Carlingford fell in September; Arklow, Enniscorthy, and
+Wexford in October; Ross, one of the first seaports in
+point of commerce, surrendered the same month; Waterford
+was attempted and abandoned in November; Dungarvan,
+Kinsale, Bandon, and Cork were won over by Lord Broghill
+in December; Fethard, Callan, and Cashel in January and
+February; Carrick and Kilkenny in March; and Clonmel,
+early in May. Immediately after this last capitulation,
+Cromwell was recalled to lead the armies of the Parliament
+into Scotland: during the nine months he had commanded
+in Ireland, he had captured five or six county capitals,
+and a great number of less considerable places. The terror
+of his siege-trains and Ironsides was spread over the
+greater part of three Provinces, and his well-reported
+successes had proved so many steps to the assumption of
+that sovereign power at which he already aimed.
+
+Of the spirit in which these several sieges were conducted,
+it is impossible to speak without a shudder. It was, in
+truth, a spirit of hatred and fanaticism, altogether
+beyond the control of the revolutionary leader. At
+Drogheda, the work of slaughter occupied five entire
+days. Of the brave garrison of 3,000 men, not thirty were
+spared, and these, "were in hands for the Barbadoes;"
+old men, women, children and priests, were unsparingly
+put to the sword. Wexford was basely betrayed by Captain
+James Stafford, commander of the castle, whose midnight
+interview with Cromwell, at a petty rivulet without the
+walls, tradition still recounts with horror and detestation.
+This port was particularly obnoxious to the Parliament,
+as from its advantageous position on the Bristol channel,
+its cruisers greatly annoyed and embarrassed their
+commerce. "There are," Cromwell writes to Speaker
+Lenthall, "great quantities of iron, hides, tallow, salt,
+pipe and barrel staves, which are under commissioners'
+hands to be secured. We believe there are near a hundred
+cannon in the fort and elsewhere in and about the town.
+Here is likewise some very good shipping; here are three
+vessels, one of them of thirty-four guns, which a week's
+time would fit for sea; there is another of about twenty
+guns, very nearly ready likewise." He also reports two
+other frigates, one on the stocks, which "for her
+handsomeness' sake" he intended to have finished for the
+Parliament, and another "most excellent vessel for
+sailing," taken within the fort, at the harbour's mouth.
+By the treachery of Captain Stafford, this strong and
+wealthy town was at the mercy of those "soldiers of the
+Lord and of Gideon," who had followed Oliver to his Irish
+wars. The consequences were the same as at Drogheda--
+merciless execution on the garrison and the inhabitants.
+
+In the third month of Cromwell's campaign, the report of
+Owen O'Neil's death went abroad, palsying the Catholic
+arms. By common consent of friend and foe, he was
+considered the ablest civil and military leader that had
+appeared in Ireland during the reigns of the Stuart kings.
+Whether in native ability he was capable of coping with
+Cromwell, was for a long time a subject of discussion;
+but the consciousness of irreparable national loss,
+perhaps, never struck deeper than amid the crash of that
+irresistible cannonade of the walled towns and cities of
+Leinster and Munster. O'Neil had lately, despairing of
+binding the Scots or the English, distrustful alike of
+Coote and of Monck, been reconciled to Ormond, and was
+marching southward to his aid at the head of 6,000 chosen
+men. Lord Chancellor Clarendon assures us that Ormond
+had the highest hopes from this junction, and the utmost
+confidence in O'Neil's abilities. But at a ball at Derry,
+towards the end of August, he received his death, it is
+said, in a pair of poisoned russet leather slippers
+presented to him by one Plunkett; marching southward,
+borne in a litter, he expired at Clough Oughter Castle,
+near his old Belturbet camp, on the 6th of November,
+1649. His last act was to order one of his nephews--Hugh
+O'Neil--to form a junction with Ormond in Munster without
+delay. In the chancel of the Franciscan Abbey of Cavan,
+now grass-grown and trodden by the hoofs of cattle, his
+body was interred; his nephew and successor did honour
+to his memory at Clonmel and Limerick. It was now
+remembered, even by his enemies, with astonishment and
+admiration, how for seven long years he had subsisted
+and kept together an army, the creature of his genius;
+without a government at his back, without regular supplies,
+enforcing obedience, establishing discipline, winning
+great victories, maintaining, even at the worst, a native
+power in the heart of the kingdom. When the archives of
+those years are recovered (if they ever are), no name
+more illustrious for the combination of great qualities
+will be found preserved there than the name of this last
+national leader of the illustrious lineage of O'Neil.
+
+The unexpected death of the Ulster general favoured still
+farther Cromwell's southern movements. The gallant, but
+impetuous Bishop of Clogher, Heber McMahon, was the only
+northern leader who could command confidence enough to
+keep O'Neil's force together, and on him, therefore, the
+command devolved. O'Ferrall, one of Owen's favourite
+officers, was despatched to Waterford, and mainly
+contributed to Cromwell's repulse before that city; Hugh
+O'Neil covered himself with glory at Clonmel and Limerick;
+Daniel O'Neil, another nephew of Owen, remained attached
+to Ormond, and accompanied him to France; but within six
+months from the loss of their Fabian chief, who knew as
+well when to strike as to delay, the brave Bishop of
+Clogher sacrificed the remnant of "the Catholic Army" at
+the pass of Scariffhollis, in Donegal, and, two days
+after, his own life by a martyr's death, at Omagh. At
+the date of Cromwell's departure--when Ireton took command
+of the southern army--there remained to the Confederates
+only some remote glens and highlands of the North and
+West, the cities of Limerick and Galway, with the county
+of Clare, and some detached districts of the province of
+Connaught.
+
+The last act of Cromwell's proper campaign was the siege
+of Clonmel, where he met the stoutest resistance he had
+anywhere encountered. The Puritans, after effecting a
+breach, made an attempt to enter, chanting one of their
+scriptural battle-songs. They were, by their own account,
+"obliged to give back a while," and finally night settled
+down upon the scene. The following day, finding the place
+no longer tenable, the garrison silently withdrew to
+Waterford, and subsequently to Limerick. The inhabitants
+demanded a parley, which was granted; and Cromwell takes
+credit, and deserves it, when we consider the men he had
+to humour, for having kept conditions with them.
+
+From before Clonmel he returned at once to England, where
+he was received with royal honours. All London turned
+out to meet the Conqueror who had wiped out the humiliation
+of Benburb, and humbled the pride of the detested Papists.
+He was lodged in the palace of the king, and chosen
+"Captain-general of all the forces raised, or to be
+raised, by the authority of the Parliament of England."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+CLOSE OF THE CONFEDERATE WAR.
+
+The tenth year of the contest of which we have endeavoured
+to follow the most important events, opened upon the
+remaining Catholic leaders, greatly reduced in numbers
+and resources, but firm and undismayed. Two chief seaports,
+and some of the western counties still remained to them;
+and accordingly we find meetings of the Bishops and other
+notables during this year (1650), at Limerick, at Loughrea,
+and finally at Jamestown, in the neighbourhood of Owen
+O'Neil's nursery of the first "Catholic Army."
+
+The Puritan commander was now Henry Ireton, son-in-law
+of Cromwell, by a marriage contracted about two years
+before. The completion of the Protector's policy could
+have devolved upon few persons more capable of
+understanding, or more fearless in executing it; and in
+two eventful campaigns he proved himself the able successor
+of the Protector. In August following Cromwell's departure,
+Waterford and Duncannon were taken by Ireton; and there
+only remained to the Confederates the fortresses of Sligo,
+Athlone, Limerick, and Galway, with the country included
+within the irregular quadrangle they describe. The younger
+Coote making a feint against Sligo, which Clanrickarde
+hastened to defend, turned suddenly on his steps, and
+surprised Athlone. Sligo, naturally a place of no great
+strength after the invention of artillery, soon after
+fell, so that Galway and Limerick alone were left, at
+the beginning of 1651, to bear all the brunt of Puritan
+hostility.
+
+Political events of great interest happened during the
+two short years of Ireton's command. The Assembly, which
+met at Jamestown in August, and again at Loughrea in
+November, 1650, made the retirement of Ormond from the
+Government a condition of all future efforts in the royal
+cause, and that nobleman, deeply wounded by this condition,
+had finally sailed from Galway, in December, leaving to
+Clanrickarde the title of Lord Deputy, and to Castlehaven
+the command of the forces which still kept the field.
+The news from Scotland of the young king's subscription
+to the covenant, and denunciation of all terms with Irish
+Papists, came to aid the councils of those, who, like
+the eloquent French, Bishop of Ferns, demanded a national
+policy, irrespective of the exigencies of the Stuart
+family. An embassy was accordingly despatched to Brussels,
+to offer the title of King-Protector to the Duke of
+Lorraine, or failing with him, to treat with any "other
+Catholic prince, state, republic, or person, as they
+might deem expedient for the preservation of the Catholic
+religion and nation." A wide latitude, dictated by
+desperate circumstances. The ambassadors were Bishop
+French and Hugh Rochfort; the embassy one of the most
+curious and instructive in our annals.
+
+The Duke expressed himself willing to undertake an
+expedition to Ireland--to supply arms and money to the
+Confederates--on the condition of receiving Athlone,
+Limerick, Athenry and Galway into his custody, with the
+title of Protector. A considerable sum of money (20,000
+pounds) was forwarded at once; four Belgian frigates
+laden with stores were made ready for sea; the Canon De
+Henin was sent as envoy to the Confederates, and this
+last venture looked most promising of success, had not
+Clanrickarde in Galway, and Charles and Ormond in Paris,
+taking alarm at the new dignity conferred upon the Duke,
+countermined the Bishop of Ferns and Mr. Rochfort, and
+defeated by intrigue and correspondence their hopeful
+enterprise.
+
+The decisive battle of Worcester, fought on the 3rd of
+September, 1651, drove Charles II. into that nine years'
+exile, from which he only returned on the death of
+Cromwell. It may be considered the last military event
+of importance in the English civil war. In Ireland the
+contest was destined to drag out another campaign, before
+the walls of the two gallant cities, Galway and Limerick.
+
+Limerick was the first object of attack. Ireton, leaving
+Sankey to administer martial law in Tipperary, struck
+the Shannon opposite Killaloe, driving Castlehaven before
+him. Joined by Coote and Reynolds, fresh from the sieges
+of Athenry and Athlone, he moved upon Limerick by the
+Connaught bank of the river, while Castlehaven fled to
+Clanrickarde in Galway, with a guard of forty horse, all
+that remained intact of the 4,000 men bequeathed him by
+Ormond. From the side of Munster, Lord Muskerry attempted
+a diversion in favour of Limerick, but was repulsed at
+Castleishen, by "the flying camp" of Lord Broghill. The
+besiegers were thus not only delivered of a danger, but
+reinforced by native troops--if the "Undertakers" could
+be properly called so--which made them the most formidable
+army that had ever surrounded an Irish city. From early
+summer till the last week of October, the main force of
+the English and Anglo-Irish, supplied with every species
+of arm then invented, assailed the walls of Limerick.
+The plague, which during these months swept with such
+fearful mortality over the whole kingdom, struck down
+its defenders, and filled all its streets with desolation
+and grief. The heroic bishops, O'Brien of Emly, and
+O'Dwyer of Limerick, exerted themselves to uphold, by
+religious exhortations, the confidence of the besieged;
+while Hugh O'Neil and General Purcell maintained the
+courage of their men. Clanrickarde had offered to charge
+himself with the command, but the citizens preferred to
+trust in the skill and determination of the defender of
+Clonmel, whose very name was a talisman among them. The
+municipal government, however, composed of the men of
+property in the city, men whose trade was not war, whose
+religion was not enthusiastic, formed a third party,--a
+party in favour of peace at any price. With the Mayor at
+their head, they openly encouraged the surrender of one
+of the outworks to the besiegers, and this betrayal, on
+the 27th of October, compelled the surrender of the entire
+works. Thus Limerick fell, divided within itself by
+military, clerical, and municipal factions; thus glory
+and misfortune combined to consecrate its name in the
+national veneration, and the general memory of mankind.
+The Bishop of Emly and General Purcell were executed as
+traitors; the Bishop of Limerick escaped in the disguise
+of a common soldier, and died at Brussels; O'Neil's life
+was saved by a single vote; Sir Geoffrey Gabney, Aldermen
+Stritch and Fanning, and other leading Confederates,
+expiated their devotion upon the scaffold.
+
+On the 12th of May following--seven months after the
+capture of Limerick, Galway fell. Ireton, who survived
+the former siege but a few days, was succeeded by Ludlow,
+a sincere republican of the school of Pym and Hampden--if
+that school can be called, in our modern sense, republican.
+It was the sad privilege of General Preston, whose name
+is associated with so many of the darkest, and with some
+of the brightest incidents of this war, to order the
+surrender of Galway, as he had two years previously given
+up Waterford. Thus the last open port, the last considerable
+town held by the Confederates, yielded to the overwhelming
+power of numbers and munitions, in the twelfth year of
+that illustrious war which Ireland waged for her religious
+and civil liberties, against the forces of the two
+adjoining kingdoms, sometimes estranged from one another,
+but always hostile alike to the religious belief and the
+political independence of the Irish people.
+
+With the fall of Galway, the Confederate war drew rapidly
+to a close. Colonels Fitzpatrick, O'Dwyer, Grace, and
+Thorlogh O'Neil, surrendered their posts; Lords Enniskillen
+and West-Meath followed their example; Lord Muskerry
+yielded Ross Castle, on Killarney, in June; Clanrickarde
+laid down his arms at Carrick, in October. The usual
+terms granted were liberty to transport themselves and
+followers to the service of any foreign state or prince
+at peace with the commonwealth; a favoured few were
+permitted to live and die in peace on their own estates,
+under the watchful eye of some neighbouring garrison.
+
+The chief actors in the Confederate war not already
+accounted for, terminated their days under many different
+circumstances. Mountgarrett and Bishop Rothe died before
+Galway fell, and were buried in the capital of the
+Confederacy; Bishop McMahon of Clogher, surrendered to
+Sir Charles Coote, and was executed like a felon by one
+he had saved from destruction a year before at Derry;
+Coote, after the Restoration, became Earl of Mountrath,
+and Broghill, Earl of Orrery; Clanrickarde died unnoticed
+on his English estate, under the Protectorate; Inchiquin,
+after many adventures in foreign lands, turned Catholic
+in his old age, and this burner of churches bequeathed
+an annual alms for masses for his soul; Jones, Corbet,
+Cook, and the fanatical preacher, Hugh Peters, perished
+on the scaffold with the other regicides executed by
+order of the English Parliament; Ormond having shared
+the evils of exile with the King, shared also the splendour
+of his restoration, became a Duke, and took his place,
+as if by common consent, at the head of the peerage of
+the empire; his Irish rental, which before the war was
+but 7,000 pounds a year, swelled suddenly on the Restoration
+to 80,000 pounds; Nicholas French, after some sojourn in
+Spain, where he was coadjutor to the Archbishop of Saint
+James, returned to Louvain, where he made his first
+studies, and there spent the evening of his days in the
+composition of those powerful pamphlets which kept alive
+the Irish cause at home and on the continent; a Roman
+patrician did the honours of sepulture to Luke Wadding,
+and Cromwell interred James Usher in Westminster Abbey;
+the heroic defender of Clonmel and Limerick, and the
+gallant, though vacillating Preston, were cordially
+received in France; while the consistent republican,
+Ludlow, took refuge as a fugitive in Switzerland.
+
+Sir Phelim O'Neil, the first author of the war, was among
+the last to suffer the penalties of defeat. For a moment,
+towards the end, he renewed his sway over the remnant of
+Owen's soldiers, took Ballyshannon, and two or three
+other places. Compelled at last to surrender, he was
+carried to Dublin, and tried on a charge of treason, a
+committee closeted behind the bench dictating the
+interrogatories to his judges, and receiving his answers
+in reply. Condemned to death, as was expected, he was
+offered his life by the Puritan colonel, Hewson, on the
+very steps of the scaffold, if he would inculpate the
+late King Charles in the rising of 1641. This he "stoutly
+refused to do," and the execution proceeded with all its
+atrocious details. Whatever may have been the excesses
+committed under his command by a plundered people, at
+their first insurrection--and we know that they have
+been exaggerated beyond all bounds--it must be admitted
+he died the death of a Christian, a soldier, and a
+gentleman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+IRELAND UNDER THE PROTECTORATE--ADMINISTRATION OF
+HENRY CROMWELL--DEATH OF OLIVER.
+
+The English republic rose from the scaffold of the King,
+in 1649; its first government was a "Council of State"
+of forty-one members; under this council, Cromwell held
+at first the title of Lord General; but, on the 16th
+December, 1653, he was solemnly installed, in Westminster
+Hall, as "Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England,
+Scotland, and Ireland." He was then in his fifty-fourth
+year; his reign--if such it may be called--lasted less
+than five years.
+
+The policy of the Protector towards Ireland is even less
+defensible than his military severities. For the barbarities
+of war there may be some apology, the poor one at least
+that such outrages are inseparable from war itself; but
+for the cold-blooded, deliberate atrocities of peace, no
+such defence can be permitted before the tribunal of a
+free posterity.
+
+The Long Parliament, still dragging out its date, under
+the shadow of Cromwell's great name, declared in its
+session of 1652, the rebellion in Ireland "subdued and
+ended," and proceeded to legislate for that kingdom as
+a conquered country. On the 12th of August, they passed
+their Act of Settlement, the authorship of which was
+attributed to Lord Orrery, in this respect the worthy
+son of the first Earl of Cork. Under this Act, there were
+four chief descriptions of persons whose status was thus
+settled: 1st. All ecclesiastics and royalist proprietors
+were exempted from pardon of life or estate. 2nd. All
+royalist commissioned officers were condemned to banishment,
+and the forfeit of two-thirds of their property, one-third
+being retained for the support of their wives and children.
+3rd. Those who had not been in arms, but could be shown,
+by a Parliamentary commission, to have manifested "a
+constant, good affection" to the war, were to forfeit
+one-third of their estates, and receive "an equivalent"
+for the remaining two-thirds west of the Shannon. 4th.
+All husbandmen and others of the inferior sort, "not
+possessed of lands or goods exceeding the value of 10
+pounds," were to have a free pardon, on condition also
+of transporting themselves across the Shannon.
+
+This last condition of the Cromwellian settlement
+distinguished it, in our annals, from every other
+proscription of the native population formerly attempted.
+The great river of Ireland, rising in the mountains of
+Leitrim, nearly severs the five western counties from
+the rest of the kingdom. The province thus set apart,
+though one of the largest in superficial extent, had also
+the largest proportion of waste and water, mountain and
+moorland. The new inhabitants were there to congregate
+from all the other provinces before the 1st day of May,
+1654, under penalty of outlawry and all its consequences;
+and when there, they were not to appear within two miles
+of the Shannon or four miles of the sea. A rigorous
+passport system, to evade which was death without form
+of trial, completed this settlement, the design of which
+was to shut up the remaining Catholic inhabitants from
+all intercourse with mankind, and all communion with the
+other inhabitants of their own country.
+
+A new survey of the whole kingdom was also ordered, under
+the direction of Dr. William Petty, the fortunate economist,
+who founded the house of Lansdowne. By him the surface
+of the kingdom was estimated at ten millions and a half
+plantation acres, three of which were deducted for waste
+and water. Of the remainder, above 5,000,000 were in
+Catholic hands in 1641; 300,000 were church and college
+lands; and 2,000,000 were in possession of the Protestant
+settlers of the reigns of James and Elizabeth. Under the
+Protectorate, 5,000,000 acres were confiscate; this
+enormous spoil, two-thirds of the whole island, went to
+the soldiers and adventurers who had served against the
+Irish, or had contributed to the military chest, since
+1641--except 700,000 acres given in "exchange" to the
+banished in Clare and Connaught; and 1,200,000 confirmed
+to "innocent Papists." Such was the complete uprooting
+of the ancient tenantry or clansmen, from their original
+holdings, that during the survey, orders of Parliament
+were issued to bring back individuals from Connaught to
+point out the boundaries of parishes in Munster. It cannot
+be imputed among the sins so freely laid to the historical
+account of the native legislature, that an Irish parliament
+had any share in sanctioning this universal spoliation.
+Cromwell anticipated the union of the kingdoms by a
+hundred and fifty years, when he summoned, in 1653, that
+assembly over which "Praise-God Barebones" presided;
+members for Ireland and Scotland sat on the same benches
+with the commons of England. Oliver's first deputy in
+the government of Ireland was his son-in-law, Fleetwood,
+who had married the widow of Ireton; but his real
+representative was his fourth son, Henry Cromwell,
+Commander-in-Chief of the army. In 1657, the title of
+Lord Deputy was transferred from Fleetwood to Henry, who
+united the supreme civil and military authority in his
+own person, until the eve of the restoration, of which
+he became an active partisan. We may thus properly embrace
+the five years of the Protectorate as the period of Henry
+Cromwell's administration.
+
+In the absence of a Parliament, the government of Ireland
+was vested in the Deputy, the Commander-in-Chief, and
+four commissioners, Ludlow, Corbett, Jones, and Weaver.
+There was, moreover, a High Court of Justice, which
+perambulated the kingdom, and exercised an absolute
+authority over life and property, greater than even
+Strafford's Court of Castle Chamber had pretended to.
+Over this court presided Lord Lowther, assisted by Mr.
+Justice Donnellan, by Cooke, solicitor to the Parliament
+on the trial of King Charles, and the regicide, Reynolds.
+By this court, Sir Phelim O'Neil, Viscount Mayo, and
+Colonels O'Toole and Bagnall, were condemned and executed;
+by them the mother of Colonel Fitzpatrick was burnt at
+the stake; and Lords Muskerry and Clanmaliere set at
+liberty, through some secret influence. The commissioners
+were not behind the High Court of Justice in executive
+offices of severity. Children under age, of both sexes,
+were captured by thousands, and sold as slaves to the
+tobacco planters of Virginia and the West Indies. Secretary
+Thurloe informs Henry Cromwell that "the Committee of
+the Council have authorized 1,000 girls and as many
+youths, to be taken up for that purpose." Sir William
+Petty mentions 6,000 Irish boys and girls shipped to the
+West Indies. Some cotemporary accounts make the total
+number of children and adults so transported 100,000
+souls. To this decimation, we may add 34,000 men of
+fighting age, who had permission to enter the armies of
+foreign powers, at peace with the commonwealth. The chief
+commissioners, sitting at Dublin, had their deputies in
+a commission of delinquencies, sitting at Athlone, and
+another of transportation, sitting at Loughrea. Under
+their superintendence, the distribution made of the soil
+among the Puritans "was nearly as complete as that of
+Canaan by the Israelites." Whenever native labourers were
+found absolutely necessary for the cultivation of the
+estates of their new masters, they were barely tolerated
+"as the Gibeonites had been by Joshua." Such Irish
+gentlemen as had obtained pardons, were obliged to wear
+a distinctive mark on their dress under pain of death;
+those of inferior rank were obliged to wear a round black
+spot on the right cheek under pain of the branding iron
+and the gallows; if a Puritan lost his life in any district
+inhabited by Catholics, the whole population were held
+subject to military execution. For the rest, whenever
+"Tory" or recusant fell into the hands of these military
+colonists, or the garrisons which knitted them together,
+they were assailed with the war cry of the Jews--"That
+thy feet may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies,
+and that the tongues of thy dogs may be red with the
+same." Thus penned in between "the mile line" of the
+Shannon, and "the four mile-line" of the sea, the remnant
+of the Irish nation passed seven years of a bondage
+unequalled in severity by anything which can be found in
+the annals of Christendom.
+
+The conquest was not only a military but a religious
+subjugation. The 27th of Elizabeth--the old act of
+uniformity--was rigorously enforced. The Catholic lawyers
+were disbarred and silenced; the Catholic schoolmasters
+were forbidden to teach, under pain of felony. Recusants,
+surrounded in glens and caves, offering up the holy
+sacrifice through the ministry of some daring priest,
+were shot down or smoked out like vermin. The ecclesiastics
+never, in any instance, were allowed to escape. Among
+those who suffered death during the short space of the
+Protectorate, are counted "three bishops and three hundred
+ecclesiastics." The surviving prelates were in exile,
+except the bedridden Bishop of Kilmore, who for years
+had been unable to officiate. So that, now, that ancient
+hierarchy which in the worst Danish wars had still
+recruited its ranks as fast as they were broken, seemed
+on the very eve of extinction. Throughout all the island
+no episcopal hand remained to bless altars, to ordain
+priests, or to confirm the faithful. The Irish church as
+well as the Irish state, touched its lowest point of
+suffering and endurance in the decade which intervened
+between the death of Charles I. and the death of Cromwell.
+
+The new population imposed upon the kingdom, soon split
+up into a multitude of sects. Some of them became Quakers:
+many adhered to the Anabaptists; others, after the
+Restoration, conformed to the established church. That
+deeper tincture of Puritanism which may be traced in the
+Irish, as compared with the English establishment, took
+its origin even more from the Cromwellian settlement than
+from the Calvinistic teachings of Archbishop Usher.
+
+Oliver died in 1658, on his "fortunate day," the 3rd of
+September, leaving England to experience twenty months
+of republican intrigue and anarchy. Richard Cromwell--
+Lambert--Ludlow--Monck--each played his part in this
+stormy interval, till, the time being ripe for a
+restoration, Charles II. landed at Dover on the 23rd of
+May, 1660 and was carried in triumph to London.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK X.
+
+FROM THE RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. TO
+THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE I.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+REIGN OF CHARLES II.
+
+Hope is dear to the heart of man, and of all her votaries
+none have been more constant than the Irish. Half a
+century of the Stuarts had not extinguished their blind
+partiality for the descendants of the old Scoto-Irish
+kings. The restoration of that royal house was, therefore,
+an event which penetrated to the remotest wilds of
+Connaught, lighting up with cheering expectation the most
+desolate hovels of the proscribed. To the Puritans settled
+in Ireland, most of whom, from the mean condition of
+menial servants, common soldiers and subaltern officers,
+had become rich proprietors, the same tidings brought
+apprehension and alarm. But their leaders, the Protestant
+gentry of an earlier date, wealthy, astute and energetic,
+uniting all their influence for the common protection,
+turned this event, which seemed at one time to threaten
+their ruin, to their advantage and greater security. The
+chief of these greater leaders was the accomplished Lord
+Broghill, whom we are to know during this reign under
+his more famous title of Earl of Orrery.
+
+The position of the Irish as compared with the English
+Puritans, was essentially different in the eyes of Ormond,
+Clarendon, and the other counsellors of the king. Though
+the former represented dissent as against the church,
+they also represented the English as against the Irish
+interest, in Ireland. As dissenters they were disliked
+and ridiculed, but as colonists they could not be disturbed.
+When national antipathy was placed in one scale and
+religious animosity in the other, the intensely national
+feeling of England for the Cromwellians, as Englishmen
+settled in a hostile country, prevailed over every other
+consideration. In this, as in all other conjunctures, it
+has been the singular infelicity of the one island to be
+subjected to a policy directly opposite to that pursued
+in the other. While in England it was considered wise
+and just to break down the Puritans as a party--through
+the court, the pulpit, and the press; to drive the violent
+into exile, and to win the lukewarm to conformity; in
+Ireland it was decided to confirm them in their possessions,
+to leave the government of the kingdom in their hands,
+and to strengthen their position by the Acts of Settlement
+and Explanation. These acts were hailed as "the Magna
+Charta of Irish Protestantism," but so far as the vast
+majority of the people were concerned, they were as
+cruelly unjust as the revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
+or the edicts which banished the Moors and Jews from the
+Spanish peninsula.
+
+The struggle for possession of the soil inaugurated by
+the confiscations of Elizabeth and James was continued
+against great odds by the Catholic Irish throughout this
+reign. Though the royal declaration of Breda, which
+preceded the restoration, had not mentioned them expressly,
+they still claimed under it not only the "liberty to
+tender consciences," but that "just satisfaction" to
+those unfairly deprived of their estates, promised in
+that declaration. Accordingly, several of the old gentry
+returned from Connaught, or places abroad, took possession
+of their old homes, or made their way at once to Dublin
+or London, to urge their claims to their former estates.
+To their dismay, they found in Dublin, Coote and Broghill
+established as Lords Justices, and the new Parliament--the
+first that sat for twenty years--composed of an overwhelming
+majority of Undertakers, adventurers, and Puritan
+representatives of boroughs, from which all the Catholic
+electors had been long excluded. The Protestant interest,
+or "ascendancy party," as it now began to be commonly
+called, counted in the Commons 198 members to 64 Catholics;
+in the House of Lords, 72 Protestant to 21 Catholic peers.
+The former elected Sir Audley Mervyn their Speaker, and
+the able but curiously intricate and quaint discourses
+of the ancient colleague of Kelly and Darcy in the
+assertion of Irish legislative independence, shows how
+different was the spirit of Irish Protestantism in 1661
+as compared with 1641. The Lords chose Bramhall, the
+long-exiled Bishop of Derry, now Archbishop of Armagh,
+as their Speaker, and attempted to compel their members
+"to take the sacrament" according to the Anglican ritual.
+The majority of both Houses, to secure the good-will of
+Ormond, voted him the sum of 30,000 pounds, and then
+proceeded to consider "the Bill of Settlement," in relation
+to landed property. The Catholic bar, which had been
+apparently restored to its freedom, presented a striking
+array of talent, from which their co-religionists selected
+those by whom they desired to be heard at the bar of the
+House. The venerable Darcy and the accomplished Belling
+were no longer their oracles of the law; but they had
+the services of Sir Nicholas Plunkett, an old confederate,
+of Sir Richard Nagle, author of the famous "Coventry
+Letter," of Nugent, afterwards Lord Riverston, and other
+able men. In the House of Lords they had an intrepid
+ally in the Earl of Kildare, and in England an agent
+equally intrepid, in Colonel Richard Talbot, afterwards
+Earl of Tyrconnell. The diplomatic and parliamentary
+struggle between the two interests, the disinherited and
+the new proprietory, was too protracted, and the details
+are too involved for elucidation in every part; but the
+result tells its own story. In 1675--in the fifteenth
+year of the restoration--the new settlers possessed above
+4,500,000 acres, to about 2,250,000 still retained by
+the old owners. These relative proportions were exactly
+the reverse of those existing before the Cromwellian
+settlement; a single generation had seen this great
+revolution accomplished in landed property.
+
+The Irish Parliament having sent over to England the
+heads of their bill, according to the constitutional rule
+established by Poyning's Act, the Irish Catholics sent
+over Sir Nicholas Plunkett to obtain modifications of
+its provisions. But Plunkett was met in England with such
+an outcry from the mob and the press as to the alleged
+atrocities of the Confederate war, and his own former
+negotiations on the continent, that he was unable to
+effect anything; while Colonel Talbot, for his too warm
+expostulations with Ormond, was sent to the Tower. An
+order of Council, forbidding Plunkett the presence, and
+declaring that "no petition or further address be made
+from the Roman Catholics of Ireland, as to the Bill of
+Settlement," closed the controversy, and the Act soon
+after received the royal assent.
+
+Under this act, a court was established at Dublin, to
+try the claims of "nocent" and "innocent." Notwithstanding
+every influence which could be brought to bear on them,
+the judges, who were Englishmen, declared in their first
+session, one hundred and sixty-eight innocent to nineteen
+nocent. Proceeding in this spirit "to the great loss and
+dissatisfaction of the Protestants," the latter, greatly
+alarmed, procured the interference of Ormond, now Lord
+Lieutenant (1662), in effecting a modification of the
+commission, appointing the court, by which its duration
+was limited to an early day. The consequence was, that
+while less than 800 claims were decided on when the fatal
+day arrived, over 3,000 were left unheard, at least a
+third of whom were admitted even by their enemies to be
+innocent. About 500 others had been restored by name in
+the Act of Settlement itself; but, by the Act of Explanation
+(1665), "no Papist who had not been adjudged innocent"
+under the former act could be so adjudged thereafter,
+"or entitled to claim any lands or settlements." Thus,
+even the inheritance of hope, and the reversion of
+expectation, were extinguished for ever for the sons and
+daughters of the ancient gentry of the kingdom.
+
+The religious liberties of this people, so crippled in
+property and political power, were equally at the mercy
+of the mob and of the monarch. To combat the war of
+calumny waged against them by the Puritan press and
+pulpit, the leading Catholics resolved to join in an
+official and authentic declaration of their true principles,
+as to the spiritual power of the Pope, their allegiance
+to the prince, and their relations to their fellow subjects
+of other denominations. With this intention a meeting
+was held at the house of the Marquis of Clanrickarde, in
+Dublin, at which Lords Clancarty, Carlingford, Fingal,
+Castlehaven, and Inchiquin, and the leading commoners of
+their faith, were present. At this meeting, Father Peter
+Walsh, a Franciscan, and an old courtier of Ormond's, as
+"Procurator of all the Clergy of Ireland," secular and
+regular, produced credentials signed by the surviving
+bishops or their vicars--including the Primate O'Reilly,
+the Bishops of Meath, Ardagh, Kilmore, and Ferns. Richard
+Belling, the secretary to the first Confederate Council,
+and Envoy to Rome, submitted the celebrated document
+known as "The Remonstrance," deeply imbued with the spirit
+of the Gallican church of that day. It was signed by
+about seventy Catholic peers and commoners, by the Bishop
+of Kilmore, by Procurator Walsh, and by the townsmen of
+Wexford--almost the only urban community of Catholics
+remaining in the country. But the propositions it contained
+as to the total independency of the temporal on the
+spiritual power, and the ecclesiastical patronage of
+princes, were condemned at the Sorbonne, at Louvain, and
+at Rome. The regular orders, by their several superiors,
+utterly rejected it; the exiled bishops withdrew their
+proxies from Father Walsh, and disclaimed his conduct;
+the Internuncio at Brussels, charged with the affairs of
+the British Isles, denounced it as contrary to the canons;
+and the elated Procurator found himself involved in a
+controversy from which he never afterwards escaped, and
+with which his memory is still angrily associated.
+
+The conduct of Ormond in relation to this whole business
+of the Remonstrance, was the least creditable part of
+his administration. Writhing under the eloquent pamphlets
+of the exiled Bishop of Ferns, keenly remembering his
+own personal wrongs against the former generation of
+bishops, of whom but three or four were yet living, he
+resolved "to work that division among the Romish clergy,"
+which he had long meditated. With this view, he connived
+at a meeting of the surviving prelates and the superiors
+of regular orders, at Dublin, in 1666. To this synod safe
+conduct was permitted to the Primate O'Reilly, banished
+to Belgium nine years before; to Peter Talbot, Archbishop
+of Dublin, John Burke, Archbishop of Tuam, Patrick
+Plunkett, Bishop of Ardagh, the vicars-general of other
+prelates, and the superiors of the regulars. This venerable
+body deliberated anxiously for an entire week, Father
+Walsh acting as ambassador between them and the Viceroy;
+at length, in spite of all politic considerations, they
+unanimously rejected the servile doctrine of the
+"Remonstrance," substituting instead a declaration of
+their own dictation. Ormond now cast off all affectation
+of liberality; Primate O'Reilly was sent back to his
+banishment, the other prelates and clergy were driven
+back to their hiding-places, or into exile abroad, and
+the wise, experienced, high-spirited duke, did not hesitate
+to avail himself of "the Popish plot" mania, which soon
+after broke out, to avenge himself upon an order of men
+whom he could neither break nor bend to his purposes! Of
+1,100 secular priests, and 750 regulars, still left, only
+sixty-nine had signed the Clanrickarde House Remonstrance.
+
+An incident of this same year--1666--illustrates more
+forcibly than description could do, the malignant feeling
+which had been excited in England against everything
+Irish. The importation of Irish cattle had long been
+considered an English grievance, it was now declared by
+law "a nuisance." The occasion taken to pass this statute
+was as ungracious as the act itself was despicable. In
+consequence of "the great fire," which still glows for
+us in the immortal verse of Dryden, the Irish had sent
+over to the distressed, a contribution of 15,000 bullocks.
+This was considered by the generous recipients a mere
+pretence to preserve the trade in cattle between the two
+kingdoms, and accordingly both Houses, after some sharp
+resistance in the Lords', gravely enacted that the
+importation of Irish beef into England was "a nuisance,"
+to be abated. From this period most probably dates the
+famous English sarcasm against Irish bulls.
+
+The act prohibiting the export of cattle from Ireland,
+and the equally exclusive and unjust Navigation Act--
+originally devised by Cromwell--so paralyzed every Irish
+industry, that the Puritan party became almost as
+dissatisfied as the Catholics. They maintained a close
+correspondence with their brethren in England, and began
+to speculate on the possibilities of another revolution.
+Ormond, to satisfy their demands, distributed 20,000
+stand of arms among them, and reviewed the Leinster
+Militia, on the Curragh, in 1667. The next year he was
+recalled, and Lords Robarts, Berkely, and Essex,
+successively appointed to the government. The first, a
+Puritan, and almost a regicide, held office but a few
+months; the second, a cavalier and a friend of toleration,
+for two years; while Essex, one of those fair-minded but
+yielding characters, known in the next reign as "Trimmers,"
+petitioned for his own recall and Ormond's restoration,
+in 1676. The only events which marked these last nine
+years--from Ormond's removal till his reappointment--
+were the surprise of Carrickfergus by a party of unpaid
+soldiers, and their desperate defence of that ancient
+stronghold; the embassies to and from the Irish Catholics
+and the court, of Colonel Richard Talbot; and the
+establishment of extensive woollen manufactories at
+Thomastown, Callan, and Kilkenny, under the patronage of
+Ormond.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+REIGN OF CHARLES II. (CONCLUDED.)
+
+For the third time, the aged Ormond, now arrived at the
+period usually allotted to the life of man, returned to
+Ireland, with the rank of Viceroy. During the ensuing
+seven years, he clung to power with all the tenacity of
+his youth, and all the policy of his prime; they were
+seven years of extraordinary sectarian panic and
+excitement--the years of the Cabal, the Popish plot, and
+the Exclusion Bill, in England--and of fanatical
+conspiracies and explosions almost as dangerous in Ireland.
+
+The Popish plot mania held possession of the English
+people much longer than any other moral epidemic of equal
+virulence. In the month of October, 1678, its alleged
+existence in Ireland was communicated to Ormond; in July,
+1681, its most illustrious victim, Archbishop Plunkett,
+perished on the scaffold at Tyburn. Within these two
+points of time what a chronicle of madness, folly, perjury,
+and cruelty, might be written?
+
+Ormond, too old in statecraft to believe in the existence
+of these incredible plots, was also too well aware of
+the dangerous element of fanaticism represented by Titus
+Oates, and his imitators, to subject himself to suspicion.
+On the first intelligence of the plot, he instantly issued
+his proclamation for the arrest of Archbishop Talbot, of
+Dublin, who had been permitted to return from exile under
+the rule of Lord Berkely, and had since resided with his
+brother, Colonel Talbot, at Cartown, near Maynooth. This
+prelate was of Ormond's own age, and of a family as
+ancient; while his learning, courage, and morality, made
+him an ornament to his order. He was seized in his sick
+bed at Cartown, carried to Dublin in a chair, and confined
+a close prisoner in the castle, where he died two years
+later. He was the last distinguished captive destined to
+end his days in that celebrated state prison, which has
+since been generally dedicated to the peaceful purposes
+of reflected royalty.
+
+Colonel Talbot was at the same time arrested, but allowed
+to retire beyond seas; Lord Mountgarrett, an octogenarian,
+and in his dotage, was seized, but nothing could be made
+out against him; a Colonel Peppard was also denounced
+from England, but no such person was found to exist. So
+far the first year of the plot had passed over, and proved
+nothing against the Catholic Irish. But the example of
+successful villainy in England, of Oates idolized,
+pensioned, and all-powerful, extended to the sister
+kingdom, and brought an illustrious victim to the scaffold.
+This was Oliver Plunkett, a scion of the noble family of
+Fingal, who had been Archbishop of Armagh, since the
+death of Dr. O'Reilly, in exile, in 1669. Such had been
+the prudence and circumspection of Dr. Plunkett, during
+his perilous administration, that the agents of Lord
+Shaftesbury, sent over to concoct evidence for the
+occasion, were afraid to bring him to trial in the vicinage
+of his arrest, or in his own country. Accordingly, they
+caused him to be removed from Dublin to London, contrary
+to the laws and customs of both Kingdoms, which had first
+been violated towards state prisoners in the case of Lord
+Maguire, forty years before.
+
+Dr. Plunkett, after ten months' confinement without trial
+in Ireland, was removed, 1680, and arraigned at London,
+on the 8th of June, 1681, without having had permission
+to communicate with his friends or to send for witnesses.
+The prosecution was conducted by Maynard and Jeffries,
+in violation of every form of law, and every consideration
+of justice. A "crown agent," whose name is given as
+Gorman, was introduced by "a stranger" in court, and
+volunteered testimony in his favour. The Earl of Essex
+interceded with the King on his behalf, but Charles
+answered, almost in the words of Pilate--"I cannot pardon
+him, because I dare not. His blood be upon your conscience;
+you could have saved him if you pleased." The Jury, after
+a quarter of an hour's deliberation, brought in their
+verdict of guilty, and the brutal Chief-Justice condemned
+him to be hung, emboweled, and quartered on the 1st day
+of July, 1681. The venerable martyr, for such he may well
+be called, bowed his head to the bench, and exclaimed:
+_Deo gratias!_ Eight years from the very day of his
+execution, on the banks of that river beside which he
+had been seized and dragged from his retreat, the last
+of the Stuart kings was stricken from his throne, and
+his dynasty stricken from history! Does not the blood of
+the innocent cry to Heaven for vengeance?
+
+The charges against Dr. Plunkett were, that he maintained
+treasonable correspondence with France and Rome, and the
+Irish on the continent; that he had organised an
+insurrection in Louth, Monaghan, Cavan, and Armagh; that
+he made preparations for the landing of a French force
+at Carlingford; and that he had held several meetings to
+raise men for these purposes. Utterly absurd and false
+as these charges were, they still indicate the troubled
+apprehensions which filled the dreams of the ascendency
+party. The fear of French invasion, of new insurrections,
+of the resumption of estates, haunted them by night and
+day. Every sign was to them significant of danger, and
+every rumour of conspiracy was taken for fact. The report
+of a strange fleet off the Southern coast, which turned
+out to be English, threw them all into panic; and the
+Corpus Christi crosses which the peasantry affixed to
+their doors, were nothing but signs for the Papist
+destroyer to pass by, and to spare his fellows in the
+general massacre of Protestants.
+
+Under the pressure of these panics, real or pretended,
+proclamation after proclamation issued from the Castle.
+By one of these instruments, Ormond prohibited Catholics
+from entering the Castle of Dublin, or any other fortress;
+from holding fairs or markets within the walls of corporate
+towns, and from carrying arms to such resorts. By another,
+he declared all relatives of known _Tories_--a Gaelic
+term for a driver of prey--to be arrested, and banished
+the kingdom, within fourteen days, unless such Tories
+were killed, or surrendered, within that time. Where
+this device failed to reach the destined victims--as in
+the celebrated case of Count Redmond O'Hanlon--it is to
+be feared that he did not hesitate to whet the dagger of
+the assassin, which was still sometimes employed, even
+in the British Islands, to remove a dangerous antagonist.
+Count O'Hanlon, a gentleman of ancient lineage, as
+accomplished as Orrery, or Ossory, was indeed an outlaw
+to the code then in force; but the stain of his cowardly
+assassination must for ever blot and rot the princely
+escutcheon of James, Duke of Ormond.
+
+The violence of religious and social persecution began to
+subside during the last two or three years of Charles II.
+Monmouth's banishment, Shaftesbury's imprisonment, the
+execution of Russell and Sidney on the scaffold, marked
+the return of the English public mind to political pursuits
+and objects. Early in 1685, the king was taken mortally
+ill. In his last moments he received the rites of the
+Catholic church, from the hands of Father Huddleston,
+who was said to have saved his life at the battle of
+Worcester, and who was now even more anxious to save
+his soul.
+
+This event took place on the 16th of February. King James
+was immediately proclaimed successor to his brother. One
+of his first acts was to recall Ormond from Ireland and
+to appoint in his place the Earl of Clarendon, son of
+the historian and statesman of the Restoration. Ormond
+obeyed, not without regret; he survived his fall about
+three years. He was interred in Westminster in 1688,
+three months before the landing of William, and the second
+banishment of the Stuarts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE STATE OF RELIGION AND LEARNING IN IRELAND DURING
+THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+Before plunging into the troubled torrent of the revolution
+of 1688, let us cast a glance back on the century, and
+consider the state of learning and religion during those
+three generations.
+
+If we divide the Irish literature of this century by
+subjects, we shall find extant a respectable body, both
+in quantity and quality, of theology, history, law,
+politics, and poetry. If we divide it by the languages
+in which that literature was written, we may consider it
+as Latin, Gaelic, and English.
+
+I. Latin continued throughout Europe, even till this late
+day, the language of the learned, but especially of
+theologians, jurists, and historians. In Latin, the great
+tomes of O'Sullivan, Usher, Colgan, Wadding, and White,
+were written--volumes which remain as so many monuments
+of the learning and industry of that age. The chief
+objects of these illustrious writers were, to restore
+the ancient ecclesiastical history of Ireland, to rescue
+the memory of her saints and doctors from oblivion, and
+to introduce the native annals of the kingdom to the
+attention of Europe. Though Usher differed in religion,
+and in his theory of the early connection of the Irish
+with the Roman Church, from all the rest, yet he stands
+pre-eminent among them for labour and research. The
+Waterford Franciscan, Wadding, can only be named with
+him for inexhaustible patience, various learning, and
+untiring zeal. Both were honoured of princes and
+parliaments. The Confederates would have made Wadding a
+cardinal; King James made Usher an archbishop; one
+instructed the Westminster Assembly; the other was sent
+by the King of Spain to maintain the thesis of the
+Immaculate Conception at Rome, and subsequently was
+entrusted by the Pope to report upon the propositions of
+Jansenius. O'Sullivan, Conde de Berehaven, in Spain,
+and Peter White, have left us each two or three Latin
+volumes on the history of the country, highly prized by
+all subsequent writers. But the most indispensable of
+the legacies left us in this tongue, are Colgan's "Acta
+Sanctorum"--from January to March--and Dr. John Lynch's
+"Cambrensis Eversus." Many other works and authors might
+be mentioned, but these are the great Latinists to whom
+we are indebted for the most important services rendered
+to our national history.
+
+II. In the Gaelic literature of the country we count
+Geoffrey Keating, Duald McFirbis, and "the Four Masters"
+of Donegal. Few writers have been more rashly judged
+than Keating. A poet, as well as a historian, he gave a
+prominence in the early chapters of his history to bardic
+tales, which English critics have seized upon to damage
+his reputation for truthfulness and good sense. But these
+tales he gives as tales--as curious and illustrative--rather
+than as credible and unquestionable. The purity of his
+style is greatly extolled by Gaelic critics; and the
+interest of his narrative, even in a translation, is
+undoubted. McFirbis, an annalist and genealogist by
+inheritance, is known to us not only for his profound
+native lore, and tragic death, but also for the assistance
+he rendered Sir James Ware, Dr. Lynch, and Roderick
+O'Flaherty. The master-piece, however, of our Gaelic
+literature of this age, is the work now called "The Annals
+of the Four Masters." In the reign of James I., a few
+Franciscan friars, living partly in Donegal Abbey and
+partly in St. Anthony's College, at Louvain, undertook
+to collect and collate all the manuscript remains of
+Irish antiquity they could gather or borrow, or be allowed
+to copy. Father Hugh Ward was the head of this group,
+and by him the lay brother Michael O'Clery, one of the
+greatest benefactors his country ever saw, was sent from
+Belgium to Ireland. From 1620 to 1630, O'Clery travelled
+through the kingdom, buying or transcribing everything
+he could find relating to the lives of the Irish saints,
+which he sent to Louvain, where Ward and Colgan undertook
+to edit and illustrate them. Father Ward died in the
+early part of the undertaking, but Father Colgan spent
+twenty years in prosecuting the original design, so far
+as concerned our ecclesiastical biography.
+
+After collecting these materials, Father O'Clery waited,
+as he tells us, on "the noble Fergall O'Gara," one of
+the two knights elected to represent the county of Sligo
+in the Parliament of 1634, and perceiving the anxiety of
+O'Gara, "from the cloud which at present hangs over our
+ancient Milesian race," he proposed to collect the civil
+and military annals of Erin into one large digest. O'Gara,
+struck with this proposal, freely supplied the means,
+and O'Clery and his coadjutors set to work in the Franciscan
+Convent of Donegal, which still stood, not more than half
+in ruins.
+
+On the 22nd of January, 1632, they commenced this digest,
+and on the 10th of August, 1636, it was finished--having
+occupied them four years, seven months and nineteen days.
+The MS., dedicated to O'Gara, is authenticated by the
+superiors of the convent; from that original two editions
+have recently been printed in both languages.
+
+These annals extend to the year 1616, the time of the
+compilers. Originally they bore the title of "Annals of
+the Kingdom of Ireland," but Colgan having quoted them
+as "The Annals of the Four Masters," that name remains
+ever since. The "Four Masters" were Brother Michael
+O'Clery, Conary and Peregrine O'Clery, his brothers, both
+laymen and natives of Donegal, and Florence Conroy of
+Roscommon, another hereditary antiquary.
+
+The first edition of the New Testament, in the Gaelic
+tongue, so far as we are aware, appeared at Dublin, in
+1603, in quarto. The translation was the work of a native
+scholar, O'Cionga (Anglicized King). It was made at the
+expense and under the supervision of Dr. William O'Donnell,
+one of the first fellows of Trinity, and published at
+the cost of the people of Connaught. Dr. O'Donnell, an
+amiable man, and an enemy of persecution, became
+subsequently Archbishop of Tuam, in which dignity he
+died, in 1628. A translation of the Book of Common Prayer,
+by O'Donnell, appeared early in the century, and towards
+its close (1685), a translation of the Old Testament,
+made for Bishop Bedell by the Gaelic scholars of Meath
+and Cavan, was published at the expense of the famous
+Robert Boyle. Bedell had also caused to be published
+Gaelic translations of certain homilies of Saint Leo and
+Saint John Chrysostom, on the importance of studying the
+holy Scriptures. The only other Gaelic publications of
+this period were issued from the Irish colleges at Louvain
+and Rome. Thence issued the devotional tracts of Conroy,
+of Gernon, and O'Molloy, and the Irish grammars of O'Clery
+and Stapleton. The devotional tracts, with their fanciful
+titles, of "Lamps," and "Mirrors," were smuggled across
+from Ostend and Dunkirk with other articles of contraband,
+and did much to keep alive the flame of faith and hope
+in the hearts of the Gaelic-speaking population.
+
+The bardic order also, though shorn of much of their
+ancient splendour, and under the Puritan _regime_ persecuted
+as vagrants, still flourished as an estate of the realm.
+The national tendency to poetic writing was not confined
+to the hereditary verse-makers, but was illustrated by
+such men as the martyred Plunkett, and the Bishops of
+Meath and Kerry--Dr. Thomas Dease, and Dr. John O'Connell.
+But the great body of Gaelic verse of the first half of
+this century is known under the name of "The Contentions
+of the Bards," the subject being the relative dignity,
+power, and prowess of the North and South. The gauntlet
+in this poetic warfare, was thrown down by McDaire, the
+Bard of Donogh O'Brien, fourth Earl of Thomond, and taken
+up on the part of Ulster by Lewy O'Clery. Reply led to
+rejoinder, and one epistle to another, until all the
+chief bards of the four provinces had taken sides. Half
+a dozen writers, _pro_ and _con_, were particularly
+distinguished; McDaire himself, Turlogh O'Brien, and Art
+Oge O'Keefe on behalf of the Southerners; O'Clery,
+O'Donnell, the two McEgans, and Robert McArthur on the
+side of the North.
+
+An immense mass of devotional Gaelic poetry may be traced
+to this period. The religious wars, the calamities of
+the church and of the people, inspired many a priest and
+layman to seize the harp of David, and pour forth his
+hopes and griefs in sacred song. The lament of Mac Ward
+over the Ulster princes buried at Rome, the odes of Dermod
+Conroy and Flan McNamee, in honour of our Blessed Lady,
+are of this class. Thus it happened that the bardic order,
+which in ancient times was the formidable enemy of
+Christianity, became, through adversity and affliction,
+its greatest supporter.
+
+III. Our Hiberno-English literature is almost entirely
+the creation of this century. Except some few remarkable
+state papers, we have no English writings of any reputation
+of an earlier period. Now, however, when the language of
+the empire, formed and enriched by the great minds of
+Elizabeth's era, began to extend its influence at home
+and abroad, a school of Hiberno-English writers appeared,
+both numerous and distinguished. This school was as yet
+composed mainly of two classes--the dramatic poets, and
+the pamphleteers. Of the latter were Bishop French, Sir
+Richard Nagle, Sir Richard Belling, Lord Orrery, Father
+Peter Walsh, and William Molyneux; of the former, Ludowick
+Barry, Sir John Denham, the Earl of Roscommon, and Richard
+Flecknoe,--the Mac Flecknoe of Dryden. It is true there
+appeared as yet no supreme name like Swift's; but as
+indicating the gradual extension of the English language
+into Ireland, the popular pamphlets and pieces written
+for the stage, are illustrations of our mental life not
+to be overlooked.
+
+Of the ancient schools of the island, after the final
+suppression of the college at Galway in 1652, not one
+remained. A diocesan college at Kilkenny, and the Dublin
+University, were alone open to the youth of the country.
+But the University remained exclusively in possession of
+the Protestant interest, nor did it give to the world
+during the century, except Usher, Ware and Orrery, any
+graduate of national, not to say, European reputation.
+In the bye-ways of the South and West, in the Irish
+colleges on the continent of Europe--at Paris, Louvain,
+Lisle, Salamanca, Lisbon, or Rome--the children of the
+proscribed majority could alone acquire a degree in
+learning, human or divine. It was as impossible two
+centuries ago, to speak of Trinity College with respect,
+as it is in our time, remembering all it has since done,
+to speak of it without veneration.
+
+Though the Established Church had now completed its
+century and a half of existence, it was as far from the
+hearts of the Irish as ever. Though the amiable Bedell
+and the learned O'Donnell had caused the sacred Scriptures
+to be translated into the Gaelic tongue, few converts
+had been made from the Catholic ranks, while the spirit
+of animosity was inflamed by a sense of the cruel and
+undeserved disabilities inflicted in the name of religion.
+The manifold sects introduced under Cromwell gave a keener
+edge to Catholic contempt for the doctrines of the
+reformation; and although the restoration of the monarchy
+threw the extreme sectaries into the shade, it added
+nothing to the influence of the church, except the fatal
+gift of political patronage. For the first time, the high
+dignity of Archbishop of Armagh began to be regarded as
+the inheritance of the leader of the House of Lords; then
+Brahmall and Boyle laid the foundation of that primatial
+power which Boulter and Stone upheld under another dynasty,
+but which vanished before the first dawn of Parliamentary
+independence.
+
+In the quarter of a century which elapsed from the
+restoration to the revolution, the condition of the
+Catholic clergy and laity was such as we have already
+described. In 1662, an historian of the Jesuit missionaries
+in Ireland described the sufferings of ecclesiastics as
+deplorable; they were forced to fly to the herds of cattle
+in remote places, to seek a refuge in barns and stables,
+or to sleep at night in the porticoes of temples, lest
+they should endanger the safety of the laity. In that
+same year, Orrery advised Ormond to purge the walled
+towns of Papists, who were still "three to one Protestant;"
+in 1672, Sir William Petty computed them at "eight to
+one" of the entire population.
+
+   "So captive Israel multiplied in chains."
+
+The martyrdom of the Archbishop of Dublin, in 1680, and
+of the Archbishop of Armagh in 1681, were, however, the
+last of a series of executions for conscience' sake, from
+the relation of which the historian might well have been
+excused, if it was not necessary to remind our emancipated
+posterity at what a price they have been purchased.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+ACCESSION OF JAMES II.--TYRCONNELL'S ADMINISTRATION.
+
+From the accession of King James till his final flight
+from Ireland, in July, 1690, there elapsed an interval
+of five years and five months; a period fraught with
+consequences of the highest interest to this history.
+The new King was, on his accession, in his fifty-second
+year; he had served, as Duke of York, with credit both
+by land and sea, was an avowed Catholic, and married to
+a Catholic princess, the beautiful and unfortunate Mary
+of Modena.
+
+Within a month from the proclamation of the King, Ormond
+quitted the government for the last time, leaving Primate
+Boyle, and Lord Granard, as Justices. In January, 1686,
+Lord Clarendon, son of the historian, assumed the
+government, in which he continued, till the 16th of March,
+1687. The day following the national anniversary, Colonel
+Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnell, a Catholic, and the
+former agent for the Catholics, was installed as Lord
+Deputy. Other events, connecting these with each other,
+had filled with astonishment and apprehension the
+ascendancy party.
+
+James proceeded openly with what he hoped to make a
+counter-reformation of England, and to accomplish which
+he relied on France on the one hand, and Ireland on the
+other. In both cases he alarmed the fears and wounded
+the pride of England; but when he proceeded from one
+illegality to another, when he began to exercise a
+dispensing power above the laws--to instruct the judges,
+to menace the parliament, and imprison the bishops--the
+nobility, the commons, and the army gradually combined
+against him, and at last invited over the Prince of
+Orange, as the most capable vindicator of their outraged
+constitution.
+
+The headlong King had a representative equally rash, in
+Tyrconnell. He was a man old enough to remember well
+the uprising of 1641, had lived in intimacy with James
+as Duke of York, was personally brave, well skilled in
+intrigue, but vain, loud-spoken, confident, and incapable
+of a high command in military affairs. The colonelcy of
+an Irish regiment, the earldom of Tyrconnell, and a seat
+in the secret council or cabinet of the King, were honours
+conferred on him during the year of James's accession.
+When Clarendon was named Lord-Lieutenant at the beginning
+of 1686, Tyrconnell was sent over with him as
+Lieutenant-General of the army. At his instigation, a
+proclamation was issued, that "all classes" of his
+Majesty's subjects might be allowed to serve in the army;
+and another, that all arms hitherto given out should be
+deposited, for greater security, at one of the King's
+stores provided for the purpose in each town or county.
+Thus that exclusively Protestant militia, which for twenty
+years had executed the Act of Settlement and the Act of
+Uniformity in every quarter of the kingdom, found themselves
+suddenly disarmed, and a new Catholic army rising on
+their ruins. The numbers disbanded are nowhere stated;
+they probably amounted to 10,000 or 15,000 men and very
+naturally they became warm partisans of the Williamite
+revolution. The recriminations which arose between the
+new and the old militia were not confined to the nicknames,
+Whig and Tory, or to the bandying of sarcasms on each
+others' origin; swords were not unfrequently drawn, and
+muskets discharged, even in the streets of Dublin, under
+the very walls of the Castle.
+
+Through Tyrconnell's influence, a similar revolution had
+been wrought in the exclusive character of the courts of
+justice, and the corporations of towns, to that which
+remodelled the militia. Rice, Daly, and Nugent, were
+elevated to the bench during Lord Clarendon's time; the
+Corporation of Dublin having refused to surrender their
+exclusive charter, were summarily rejected by a _quo
+warranto_, issued in the exchequer; other towns were
+similarly treated, or induced to make surrender, and a
+new series of charters at once granted by James, entitling
+Catholics to the freedom of the boroughs, and the highest
+municipal offices. And now, for the first time in that
+generation, Catholic mayors and sheriffs, escorted by
+Catholic troops as guards of honour, were seen marching
+in open day to their own places of worship, to the dismay
+and astonishment of the ascendancy party. Not that all
+Protestants were excluded either from town councils, the
+militia, or the bench, but those only were elected or
+appointed who concurred in the new arrangements, and
+were, therefore, pretty certain to forfeit the confidence
+of their co-religionists in proportion as they deserved
+that of the Deputy. Topham and Coghill, Masters in
+Chancery, were deprived of their offices, and the Protestant
+Chancellor was arbitrarily removed to make way for Baron
+Rice, a Catholic. The exclusive character of Trinity
+College was next assailed, and though James did not
+venture to revoke the charter of Elizabeth, establishing
+communion with the Church of England as the test of
+fellowship, the internal administration was in several
+particulars interfered with, its plate was seized in the
+King's name under plea of being public property, and the
+annual parliamentary grant of 388 pounds was discontinued.
+These arbitrary acts filled the more judicious Catholics
+with apprehension, but gained the loud applause of the
+unreasoning multitude. Dr. Macguire, the successor of
+the martyred Plunkett, who felt in Ulster the rising tide
+of resistance, was among the signers of a memorial to
+the King, dutifully remonstrating against the violent
+proceedings of his Deputy. From Rome also, disapprobation
+was more than once expressed, but all without avail;
+neither James nor Talbot could be brought to reason. The
+Protestants of the eastern and southern towns and counties
+who could contrive to quit their homes, did so; hundreds
+fled to Holland to return in the ranks of the Prince of
+Orange; thousands fled to England, bringing with them
+their tale of oppression, embellished with all the bitter
+exaggeration of exiles; ten thousand removed from Leinster
+into Ulster, soon to recross the Boyne, under very
+different auspices. Very soon a close correspondence
+was established between the fugitives in Holland, England,
+and Ulster, and a powerful lever was thus placed in the
+hands of the Prince of Orange, to work the downfall of
+his uncle and father-in-law. But the best allies of
+William were, after all, the folly and fatuity of James.
+The importation of Irish troops, by entire battalions,
+gave the last and sorest wound to the national pride of
+England, and still further exasperated the hatred and
+contempt which his majesty's English regiments had begun
+to feel for their royal master.
+
+Tyrconnell, during the eventful summer months when the
+revolution was ripening both in Holland and England, had
+taken, unknown even to James, a step of the gravest
+importance. To him the first intelligence of the
+preparations of William were carried by a ship from
+Amsterdam, and by him they were communicated to the
+infatuated King, who had laughed at them as too absurd
+for serious consideration. But the Irish ruler, fully
+believing his informants, and never deficient in audacity,
+had at once entered into a secret treaty with Louis XIV.
+to put Ireland under the protection of France, in the
+event of the Prince of Orange succeeding to the British
+throne. No proposition could more entirely suit the
+exigencies of Louis, of whom William was by far the ablest
+and most relentless enemy. The correspondence which has
+come to light in recent times, shows the importance which
+he attached to Tyrconnell's proposition--an importance
+still further enhanced by the direct but unsuccessful
+overture made to the earl by William himself, on landing
+in England, and before embarking in the actual invasion
+of Ireland.
+
+William Henry, Prince of Orange, now about to enter on
+the scene, was in 1688 in the thirty-seventh year of his
+age. Fearless of danger, patient, silent, impervious to
+his enemies, rather a soldier than a statesman, indifferent
+in religion, and personally adverse to persecution for
+conscience' sake, his great and almost his only public
+passion was the humiliation of France through the
+instrumentality of a European coalition. As an
+anti-Gallican, as the representative of the most illustrious
+Protestant family in Europe, as allied by blood and
+marriage to their kings, he was a very fit and proper
+chief for the English revolutionists; but for the two
+former of these reasons he was just as naturally
+antipathetic to the Catholic and Celtic majority of the
+Irish. His designs had been long gradually maturing, when
+James's incredible imprudence hastened his movements.
+Twenty-four ships of war were assembled at Helvoetsluys;
+7,000 sailors were put on board; all the veterans of the
+Netherlands were encamped at Nimeguen, where 6,000 recruits
+were added to their numbers. On the 5th of November, the
+anniversary of the gunpowder plot, "the Deliverer," as
+he was fondly called in England, landed at Torbay; on
+the 25th of December, James, deserted by his nobles, his
+army, and even his own unnatural children, arrived, a
+fugitive and a suppliant, at the court of France.
+
+A few Irish incidents of this critical moment deserve
+mention. The mania against everything Irish took in
+England forms the most ludicrous and absurd. Wharton's
+doggerel refrain of Lillibullero, was heard in every
+circle outside the court; all London, lighted with torches,
+and marshalled under arms, awaited during the memorable
+"Irish night" the advent of the terrible and detested
+regiments brought over by Tyrconnell; some companies of
+these troops quartered in the country were fallen upon
+by ten times their numbers, and cut to pieces. Others,
+fighting and inquiring their way, forced a passage to
+Chester or Bristol, and obtained a passage home. They
+passed at sea, or encountered on the landing-places,
+multitudes of the Protestant Irish, men, women and
+children, flying in exactly the opposite direction.
+Tyrconnell was known to meditate the repeal of the Act
+of Settlement; the general rumour of a Protestant massacre
+fixed for the 9th of December, originated no one knew
+how, was spread about no one knew by whom. In vain the
+Lord Deputy tried to stay the panic--his assurance of
+protection, and the still better evidence of their own
+experience, which proved the Irish Catholics incapable
+of such a project, could not allay their terrors. They
+rushed into England by every port, and inflamed still
+more the hostility which already prevailed against
+King James.
+
+In Ulster, David Cairnes of Knockmany, the Rev. John
+Kelso of Enniskillen, a Presbyterian, and Rev. George
+Walker of Donaghmore, an Anglican minister, were active
+instruments of the Prince of Orange. On the 7th of December
+the gates of Derry were shut by "the youthhood" against
+the Earl of Antrim and his Highlanders. Enniskillen was
+seized by a similar impulse of the popular will, and an
+association was quickly formed throughout Ulster in
+imitation of the English association which had invited
+over William, under the auspices of Lord Blaney, Sir
+Arthur Rawdon, Sir Clotworthy Skeffington, and others,
+"for the maintenance of the Protestant religion and the
+dependency of Ireland upon England." By these associates,
+Sligo, Coleraine, and the fort of Culmore, at the mouth
+of the Foyle, were seized for King William; while the
+Town Council of Derry, in order to gain time, despatched
+one ambassador with one set of instructions to Tyrconnell,
+and another, with a very different set, to "the Committee
+for Irish Affairs," which sat at Whitehall, under the
+presidency of the Earl of Shrewsbury.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+KING JAMES IN IRELAND--IRISH PARLIAMENT OF 1689.
+
+A few days after his arrival in France, James despatched
+a messenger to Tyrconnell, with instructions expressing
+great anxiety as to the state of affairs in Ireland. "I
+am sure," wrote the fugitive monarch, "you will hold out
+to the utmost of your power, and I hope this king will
+so press the Hollanders, that the Prince of Orange will
+not have men to spare to attack you." All the aid he
+could obtain from Louis at the moment was 7,000 or 8,000
+muskets, which were sent accordingly.
+
+Events succeeded each other during the first half of the
+year 1689 with revolutionary rapidity. The conventions
+of England and Scotland, though far from being unanimous,
+declared by immense majorities, that James had abdicated,
+and that William and Mary should be offered the crowns
+of both kingdoms. In February, they were proclaimed as
+king and queen of "England, France, and Ireland," and in
+May, the Scottish commissioners brought them the tender
+of the crown of Scotland. The double heritage of the
+Stuart kings was thus, after nearly a century of possession,
+transferred by election to a kindred prince, to the
+exclusion of the direct descendants of the great champion
+of "the right divine," who first united under his sceptre
+the three kingdoms.
+
+James, at the Court of France, was duly informed of all
+that passed at London and Edinburgh. He knew that he had
+powerful partizans in both conventions. The first fever
+of popular excitement once allayed, he marked with
+exultation the symptoms of reaction. There was much in
+the circumstances attending his flight to awaken popular
+sympathy, and to cast a veil over his errors. The pathetic
+picture drawn of parental suffering by the great dramatist
+in the character of King _Lear_, seemed realized to the
+life in the person of King James. Message followed message
+from the three kingdoms, urging him to return and place
+himself at the head of his faithful subjects in a war
+against the usurper. The French king approved of these
+recommendations, for in fighting James's battle he was
+fighting his own, and a squadron was prepared at Brest
+to carry the fugitive back to his dominions. Accompanied
+by his natural sons, the Duke of Berwick and the Grand
+Prior Fitzjames, by Lieutenant-Generals de Rosen and de
+Maumont, Majors-General de Pusignan and de Lery (or
+Geraldine), about a hundred officers of all ranks, and
+1,200 veterans, James sailed from Brest, with a fleet of
+33 vessels, and landed at Kinsale on the 12th day of
+March (_old style_). His reception by the Southern
+population was enthusiastic in the extreme. From Kinsale
+to Cork, from Cork to Dublin, his progress was accompanied
+by Gaelic songs and dances, by Latin orations, loyal
+addresses, and all the decorations with which a popular
+favourite can be welcomed. Nothing was remembered by that
+easily pacified people but his great misfortunes and his
+steady fidelity to his and their religion. Fifteen
+chaplains, nearly all Irish, accompanied him, and added
+to the delight of the populace; while many a long-absent
+soldier, now came back in the following of the king, to
+bless the sight of some aged parent or faithful lover.
+The royal entry into Dublin was the crowning pageant of
+this delusive restoration. With the tact and taste for
+such demonstrations hereditary in the citizens, the trades
+and arts were marshalled before him. Two venerable harpers
+played on their national instruments near the gate by
+which he entered; a number of religious in their robes,
+with a huge cross at their head, chanted as they went;
+forty young girls, dressed in white, danced the ancient
+_Rinka_, scattering flowers as they danced. The Earl of
+Tyrconnell, lately raised to a dukedom, the judges, the
+mayor and corporation, completed the procession, which
+marched over newly sanded streets, beneath arches of
+evergreens and windows hung with "tapestry and cloth of
+Arras." Arrived at the castle the sword of state was
+presented to him by the deputy, and the keys of the city
+by the recorder. At the inner entrance, the primate, Dr.
+Dominick Macguire, waited in his robes to conduct him to
+the chapel, lately erected by Tyrconnell, where _Te Deum_
+was solemnly sung. But of all the incidents of that
+striking ceremonial, nothing more powerfully impressed
+the popular imagination than the green flag floating from
+the main tower of the castle, bearing the significant
+inscription--"_Now or Never--Now and Forever_."
+
+A fortnight was devoted by James in Dublin to daily and
+nightly councils and receptions. The chief advisers who
+formed his court were the Count d'Avaux, Ambassador of
+France, the Earl of Melfort, principal Secretary of State,
+the Duke of Tyrconnell, Lieutenant-General Lord Mountcashel,
+Chief Justice Nugent, and the superior officers of the
+army, French and Irish. One of the first things resolved
+upon at Dublin was the appointment of the gallant Viscount
+Dundee as Lieutenant-General in Scotland--and the despatch
+to his assistance of an Irish auxiliary force, which
+served under that renowned chief with as much honour as
+their predecessors had served under Montrose.
+Communications were also opened through the Bishop of
+Chester with the west of England Jacobites, always numerous
+in Cheshire, Shropshire, and other counties nearest to
+Ireland. Certain changes were then made in the Privy
+Council; Chief Justice Keating's attendance was dispensed
+with as one opposed to the new policy, but his judicial
+functions were left untouched. Dr. Cartwright, Bishop of
+Chester, and the French Ambassador were sworn in, and
+writs were issued convoking the Irish Parliament for the
+7th day of May following.
+
+Intermitting, for the present, the military events which
+marked the early months of the year, we will follow the
+acts and deliberations of King James's Parliament of
+1689. The Houses met, according to summons, at the
+appointed time, in the building known as "the Inns of
+Court," within a stone's throw of the castle. There were
+present 228 Commoners, and 46 members of the Upper House.
+In the Lords several Protestant noblemen and prelates
+took their seats, and some Catholic peers of ancient
+date, whose attainders had been reversed, were seen for
+the first time in that generation in the front rank of
+their order. In the Lower House the University and a few
+other constituencies were represented by Protestants,
+but the overwhelming majority were Catholics, either of
+Norman or Milesian origin. The King made a judicious
+opening speech, declaring his intention to uphold the
+rights of property, and to establish liberty of conscience
+alike for Protestant and Catholic. He referred to the
+distressed state of trade and manufactures, and recommended
+to the attention of the Houses, those who had been unjustly
+deprived of their estates under the "Act of Settlement."
+
+Three measures passed by this Parliament entitle its
+members to be enrolled among the chief assertors of civil
+and religious liberty. One was the "Act for establishing
+Liberty of Conscience," followed by the supplemental act
+that all persons should pay tithes only to the clergy of
+their own communion. An act abolishing writs of error
+and appeal into England, established the judicial
+independence of Ireland; but a still more necessary
+measure repealing Poyning's Law, was defeated through
+the personal hostility of the King. An act repealing the
+Act of Settlement was also passed, under protest from
+the Protestant Lords, and received the royal sanction.
+A bill to establish Inns of Court, for the education of
+Irish law students, was, however, rejected by the King,
+and lost; an "Act of Attainder," against persons in arms
+against the Sovereign, whose estates lay in Ireland, was
+adopted. Whatever may be the bias of historians, it cannot
+be denied that this Parliament showed a spirit worthy of
+the representatives of a free people. "Though Papists,"
+says Mr. Grattan, our highest parliamentary authority,
+"they were not slaves; they wrung a constitution from
+King James before they accompanied him to the field."
+
+The King, unfortunately, had not abandoned the arbitrary
+principles of his family, even in his worst adversity.
+His interference with the discussions on Poyning's Law,
+and the Inns of Court bill, had shocked some of his most
+devoted adherents. But he proceeded from obstructive to
+active despotism. He doubled, by his mere proclamation,
+the enormous subsidy of 20,000 pounds monthly voted him
+by the Houses. He established, by the same authority, a
+bank, and decreed in his own name a bank restriction act.
+He debased the coinage, and established a fixed scale of
+prices to be observed by all merchants and traders. In
+one respect--but in one only--he grossly violated his
+own professed purpose of establishing liberty of conscience,
+by endeavouring to force fellows and scholars on the
+University of Dublin contrary to its statutes. He even
+went so far as to appoint a provost and librarian without
+consent of the senate. However we may condemn the
+exclusiveness of the College, this was not the way to
+correct it; bigotry on the one hand, will not justify
+despotism on the other.
+
+More justifiable was the interference of the King for
+the restoration of rural schools and churches, and the
+decent maintenance of the clergy and bishops. His
+appointments to the bench were also, with one or two
+exceptions, men of the very highest character. "The
+administration of justice during this brief period," says
+Dr. Cooke Taylor, "deserves the highest praise. With the
+exception of Nugent and Fritton, the Irish judges would
+have been an honour to any bench."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR--CAMPAIGN OF 1689--SIEGES
+OF DERRY AND ENNISKILLEN.
+
+When Tyrconnell met the King at Cork, he gave his Majesty
+a plain account of the posture of military affairs. In
+Ulster, Lieutenant-General Richard Hamilton, at the head
+of 2,500 regular troops, was holding the rebels in check,
+from Charlemont to Coleraine; in Munster, Lieutenant-General
+Justin McCarthy, Lord Mountcashel, had taken Bandon and
+Castlemartyr; throughout the four provinces, the Catholics,
+to the number of fifty regiments (probably 30,000 men),
+had volunteered their services; but for all these volunteers
+he had only 20,000 old arms of all kinds, not over 1,000
+of which were found really valuable. There were besides
+these, regiments of horse, Tyrconnell's, Russell's, and
+Galmony's, and one of dragoons, eight small pieces of
+artillery, but neither stores in the magazines, nor cash
+in the chest. While at Cork, Tyrconnell, in return for
+his great exertions, was created a Duke, and
+General-in-Chief, with De Rosen as second in command.
+
+A week before James reached Dublin, Hamilton had beaten
+the rebels at Dromore, and driven them in on Coleraine,
+from before which he wrote urgently for reinforcements.
+On receipt of this communication, the Council exhibited,
+for the first time, those radical differences of opinion,
+amounting almost to factious opposition, which crippled
+all King James's movements at this period. One party
+strenuously urged that the King himself should march
+northward with such troops as could be spared; that his
+personal appearance before Derry, would immediately
+occasion the surrender of that city, and that he might
+in a few weeks, finish in person the campaign of Ulster.
+Another, at whose head was Tyrconnell, endeavoured to
+dissuade his Majesty from this course, but he at length
+decided in favour of the plan of Melfort and his friends.
+Accordingly, he marched out of Dublin, amid torrents of
+April rain, on the eighth of that month, intending to
+form a junction with Hamilton, at Strabane, and thence
+to advance to Derry. The march was a weary one through
+a country stripped bare of every sign of life, and desolate
+beyond description. A week was spent between Dublin and
+Omagh; at Omagh news of an English fleet on the Foyle
+caused the King to retrace his steps hastily to Charlemont.
+At Charlemont, however, intelligence of fresh successes
+gained by Hamilton and De Rosen, at Cladyford and Strabane,
+came to restore his confidence; he instantly set forward,
+despite the tempestuous weather, and the almost impassable
+roads, and on the eighteenth reached the Irish camp at
+Johnstown, within four or five miles of Derry.
+
+It was now four months since "the youthhood" of Derry
+had shut the Watergate against Lord Antrim's regiment,
+and established within their walls a strange sort of
+government, including eighteen clergymen and the town
+democracy. The military command remained with
+Lieutenant-Colonel Lundy, of Mountjoy's regiment, but
+the actual government of the town was vested, first, in
+"Governor" Baker, and afterwards in the Reverend George
+Walker, rector of Donaghmore, best known to us as _Governor_
+Walker. The Town Council had despatched Mr. Cairnes, and
+subsequently Captain Hamilton, founder of the Abercorn
+peerage, to England for succour, and had openly proclaimed
+William and Mary as King and Queen. Defensive works were
+added, where necessary, and on the very day of the affair
+of Cladyford, 480 barrels of gunpowder were landed from
+English ships and conveyed within the walls.
+
+As the Royalist forces concentrated towards Derry, the
+chiefs of the Protestant Association fell back before
+them, each bringing to its garrison the contribution of
+his own followers. From the valley of the Bann, over
+the rugged summits of Carntogher, from the glens of
+Donegal, and the western sea coast round to Mayo, troops
+of the fugitives hurried to the strong town of the London
+traders, as to a city of refuge. Enniskillen alone,
+resolute in its insular situation, and in a courage akin
+to that which actuated the defenders of Derry, stood as
+an outpost of the main object of attack, and delayed the
+junction of the Royalists under Mountcashel with those
+under Hamilton and De Rosen. Coleraine was abandoned.
+Captain Murray, the commander of Culmore, forced his way
+at the head of 1,500 men into Derry, contrary to the
+wishes of the vacillating and suspected Lundy, and, from
+the moment of his arrival, infused his own determined
+spirit into all ranks of the inhabitants.
+
+Those who had advised King James to present himself in
+person before the Protestant stronghold, had not acted
+altogether, upon presumption. It is certain that there
+were Jacobites, even in Derry. Lundy, the governor, either
+despairing of its defence, or undecided in his allegiance
+between James and William, had opened a correspondence
+with Hamilton and De Rosen. But the true answer of the
+brave townsmen, when the King advanced too near their
+walls, was a cannon shot which killed one of his staff,
+and the cry of "No Surrender" thundered from the walls.
+James, awakened from his self-complacent dream by this
+unexpected reception, returned to Dublin, to open his
+Parliament, leaving General Hamilton to continue the
+siege. Colonel Lundy, distrusted, overruled, and menaced,
+escaped over the walls by night, disguised as a common
+labourer, and the party of Murray, Baker, Walker, and
+Cairnes, reigned supreme.
+
+The story of the siege of Derry--of the heroic constancy
+of its defenders--of the atrocities of De Rosen and
+Galmoy--the clemency of Maumont--the forbearance of
+Hamilton--the struggles for supremacy among its
+magnates--the turbulence of the townsfolk--the joyful
+raising of the siege--all these have worthily employed
+some of the most eloquent pens in our language. The relief
+came by the breaking of the boom across the harbour's
+mouth on the last day of July; the bombardment had
+commenced on the 21st of April; the gates had been shut
+on the 7th of December. The actual siege had lasted above
+three months, and the blockade about three weeks. The
+destruction of life on both sides has never been definitely
+stated. The besieged admit a loss of 4,000 men; the
+besiegers of 6,000. The want of siege guns in the Jacobite
+camp is admitted by both parties, but, nevertheless, the
+defence of the place well deserves to be celebrated, as
+it has been by an imperial historian, "as the most
+memorable in British annals."
+
+Scarcely inferior in interest and importance to the siege
+of Derry, was the spirited defence of Enniskillen. That
+fine old town, once the seat of the noble family of
+Maguire, is naturally dyked and moated round about, by
+the waters of Lough Erne. In December, '88, it had closed
+its gates, and barricaded its causeways to keep out a
+Jacobite garrison. In March, on Lord Galmoy's approach,
+all the outlying garrisons, in Fermanagh and Cavan, had
+destroyed their posts, and gathered into Enniskillen.
+The cruel and faithless Galmoy, instead of inspiring
+terror into the united garrison, only increased their
+determination to die in the breach. So strong in position
+and numbers did they find themselves, with the absolute
+command of the lower Lough Erne to bring in their supplies,
+that in April they sent off a detachment to the relief
+of Derry, and in the months of May and June, made several
+successful forays to Ballincarrig, Omagh, and Belturbet.
+In July, provided with a fresh supply of ammunition from
+the fleet intended for the relief of Derry, they beat up
+the Duke of Berwick's quarters at Trellick, but were
+repulsed with some loss. The Duke being soon after recalled
+to join De Rosen, the siege of Enniskillen was committed
+to Lord Mountcashel, under whom, as commander of the
+cavalry, served Count Anthony Hamilton, author of the
+witty but licentious "Memoirs of Grammont," and other
+distinguished officers. Mountcashel's whole force consisted
+of three regiments of foot, two of dragoons, and some
+horse; but he expected to be joined by Colonel Sarsfield
+from Sligo, and Berwick from Derry. The besieged had
+drawn four regiments of foot from Cavan alone, and were
+probably twice that number in all; and they had, in
+Colonels Wolseley and Berry, able and energetic officers.
+The Enniskilleners did not await the attack within their
+fortress. At Lisnaskea, under Berry, they repulsed the
+advanced guard of the Jacobites under Anthony Hamilton;
+and the same day--the day of the relief of Derry--their
+whole force were brought into action with Mountcashel's
+at Newtown-Butler. To the cry of "No Popery," Wolseley
+led them into an action, the most considerable yet fought.
+The raw southern levies on the Royalist side, were routed
+by the hardy Enniskilleners long familiar with the use
+of arms, and well acquainted with every inch of the
+ground; 2,000 of them were left on the field; 400 prisoners
+were taken, among them dangerously, but not mortally
+wounded, was the Lieutenant-General himself.
+
+The month of August was a month of general rejoicing for
+the Williamites of Ulster, De Rosen and Berwick had
+retreated from Deny; Sarsfield, on his way to join
+Mountcashel, fell back to Sligo on hearing of his defeat
+at Newtown-Butler; Culmore, Coleraine, and Ballyshannon,
+were retaken and well supplied; fugitives returned
+triumphantly to their homes, in Cavan, Fermanagh, Tyrone,
+and Armagh. A panic created by false reports spread among
+his troops at Sligo, compelled Sarsfield to fall still
+further back to Athlone. Six months after his arrival,
+with the exception of the forts of Charlemont and
+Carrickfergus, King James no longer possessed a garrison
+in that province, which had been bestowed by his grandfather
+upon the ancestors of those who now unanimously rejected
+and resisted him.
+
+The fall of the gallant Dundee in the battle of
+Killicrankie, five days before the relief of Derry, freed
+King William from immediate anxiety on the side of
+Scotland, and enabled him to concentrate his whole
+disposable force on Ireland. On the 13th of August, an
+army of eighteen regiments of foot, and four or five of
+horse, under the Marshal Duke de Schomberg, with Count
+Solmes as second in command, sailed into Belfast Lough,
+and took possession of the town. On the 20th, the Marshal
+opened a fierce cannonade on Carrickfergus, defended by
+Colonels McCarthy More and Cormac O'Neil, while the fleet
+bombarded it from sea. After eight days' incessant
+cannonade, the garrison surrendered on honourable terms,
+and Schomberg faced southward towards Dublin. Brave, and
+long experienced, the aged Duke moved according to the
+cautious maxims of the military school in which he had
+been educated. Had he advanced rapidly on the capital,
+James must have fallen back, as De Rosen advised, on the
+line of the Shannon; but O'Regan, at Charlemont, and
+Berwick, at Newry, seemed to him obstacles so serious,
+that nearly a month was wasted in advancing from Belfast
+to Dundalk, where he entrenched himself in September,
+and went into whiter quarters. Here a terrible dysentery
+broke out among his troops, said to have been introduced
+by some soldiers from Derry, and so destructive were its
+ravages, that there were hardly left healthy men enough
+to bury the dead. Several of the French Catholics under
+his command, also, deserted to James, who, from his
+head-quarters at Drogheda, offered every inducement to
+the deserters. Others discovered in the attempt were
+tried and hanged, and others, still suspected of similar
+designs, were marched down to Carlingford, and shipped
+for England. In November, James returned from Drogheda
+to Dublin, much elated that Duke Schomberg, whose fatal
+camp at Dundalk he had in vain attempted to raise, had
+shrunk from meeting him in the field.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR--CAMPAIGN OF 1690--BATTLE OF
+THE BOYNE--ITS CONSEQUENCES--THE SIEGES OF ATHLONE
+AND LIMERICK.
+
+The armies now destined to combat for two kings on Irish
+soil were strongly marked by those distinctions of race
+and religion which add bitterness to struggles for power,
+while they present striking contrasts to the eye of the
+painter of military life and manners. King James's troops
+were chiefly Celtic and Catholic. There were four
+regiments commanded by O'Neils, two by O'Briens, two by
+O'Kellys, one each by McCarthy More, Maguire, O'More,
+O'Donnell, McMahon, and Magennis, principally recruited
+among their own clansmen. There were also the regiments
+of Sarsfield, Nugent, De Courcy, Fitzgerald, Grace, and
+Burke, chiefly Celts, in the rank and file. On the other
+hand, Schomberg led into the field the famous blue Dutch
+and white Dutch regiments; the Huguenot regiments of
+Schomberg, La Millinier, Du Cambon, and La Callimotte;
+the English regiments of Lords Devonshire, Delamere,
+Lovelace, Sir John Lanier, Colonels Langston, Villiers,
+and others; the Anglo-Irish regiments of Lords Meath,
+Roscommon, Kingston, and Drogheda; with the Ulstermen,
+under Brigadier Wolseley, Colonels Gustavus Hamilton,
+Mitchelburne, Loyd, White, St. Johns, and Tiffany. Some
+important changes had taken place on both sides during
+the winter months. D'Avaux and De Rosen had been recalled
+at James's request; Mountcashel, at the head of the first
+Franco-Irish brigade, had been exchanged for 6,000 French,
+under De Lauzan, who arrived the following March in the
+double character of general and ambassador. The report
+that William was to command in person in the next campaign,
+was, of itself, an indication pregnant with other changes
+to the minds of his adherents.
+
+Their abundant supplies of military stores from England,
+wafted from every port upon the channel, where James had
+not a keel afloat, enabled the Williamite army to take
+the initiative in the campaign of 1690. At Cavan, Brigadier
+Wolseley repulsed the Duke of Berwick, with the loss of
+200 men and some valuable officers. But the chief incident
+preceding William's arrival was the siege of Charlemont.
+This siege, which commenced apparently in the previous
+autumn, had continued during several months, till the
+garrison were literally starved out, in May. The famished
+survivors were kindly treated, by order of Schomberg,
+and their gallant and eccentric chief, O'Regan, was
+knighted by the King, for his persistent resistance. A
+month from the day on which Charlemont fell, (June 14th),
+William landed at Carrickfergus, accompanied by Prince
+George of Denmark, the Duke of Wurtemburg, the Prince of
+Hesse-Darmstadt, the second and last Duke of Ormond,
+Major-General Mackay, the Earls of Oxford, Portland,
+Scarborough, and Manchester, General Douglas, and other
+distinguished British and foreign officers. At Belfast,
+his first head-quarters, he ascertained the forces at
+his disposal to be upwards of 40,000 men, composed of "a
+strange medley of all nations"--Scandinavians, Swiss,
+Dutch, Prussians, Huguenot-French, English, Scotch,
+"Scotch-Irish," and Anglo-Irish. Perhaps the most
+extraordinary element in that strange medley was the
+Danish contingent of horse and foot. Irish tradition and
+Irish prophecy still teemed with tales of terror and
+predictions of evil at the hands of the Danes, while
+these hardy mercenaries observed, with grim satisfaction,
+that the memory of their fierce ancestors had not become
+extinct after the lapse of twenty generations. At the
+Boyne, and at Limerick, they could not conceal their
+exultation as they encamped on some of the very earthworks
+raised by men of their race seven centuries before, and
+it must be admitted they vindicated their descent, both
+by their courage and their cruelty.
+
+On the 16th of June, James, informed of William's arrival,
+marched northward at the head of 20,000 men, French and
+Irish, to meet him. On the 22nd, James was at Dundalk
+and William at Newry; as the latter advanced, the Jacobites
+retired, and finally chose their ground at the Boyne,
+resolved to hazard a battle, for the preservation of
+Dublin, and the safety of the province of Leinster.
+
+On the last day of June, the hostile forces confronted
+each other at the Boyne. The gentle, legendary river,
+wreathed in all the glory of its abundant foliage, was
+startled with the cannonade from the northern bank, which
+continued through the long summer's evening, and woke
+the early echoes of the morrow. William, strong in his
+veteran ranks, welcomed the battle; James, strong in his
+defensive position, and the goodness of his cause, awaited
+it with confidence. On the northern bank near to the ford
+of Oldbridge, William, with his chief officers, breakfasting
+on the turf, nearly lost his life from a sudden discharge
+of cannon; but he was quickly in the saddle, at all points
+reviewing his army. James, on the hill of Donore, looked
+down on his devoted defenders, through whose ranks rode
+Tyrconnell, lame and ill, the youthful Berwick, the
+adventurous Lauzan, and the beloved Sarsfield--everywhere
+received with cordial acclamations. The battle commenced
+at the ford of Oldbridge, between Sir Neil O'Neil, and
+the younger Schomberg; O'Neil fell mortally wounded, and
+the ford was forced. By this ford, William ordered his
+centre to advance under the elder Schomberg, as the hour
+of noon approached, while he himself moved with the left
+across the river, nearer to Drogheda. Lauzan, with
+Sarsfield's horse, dreading to be outflanked, had galloped
+to guard the bridge of Slane, five miles higher up the
+stream, where alone a flank movement was possible. The
+battle was now transferred from the gunners to the
+swordsmen and pikemen--from the banks to the fords and
+borders of the river, William, on the extreme left, swam
+his horse across, in imminent danger; Schomberg and
+Callimotte fell in the centre, mortally wounded. News
+was brought to William, that Dr. Walker--recently
+appointed to the See of Derry--had also fallen, "What
+brought him there?" was the natural comment of the
+soldier-prince. After seven hours' fighting the Irish
+fell back on Duleek, in good order. The assailants admitted
+five hundred killed, and as many wounded; the defenders
+were said to have lost from one thousand to fifteen
+hundred men--less than at Newtown-Butler. The carnage,
+compared with some great battles of that age, was
+inconsiderable, but the political consequences were
+momentous. The next day, the garrison of Drogheda, one
+thousand three hundred strong, surrendered; in another
+week, William was in Dublin, and James, terrified by the
+reports which had reached him, was _en route_ for France.
+It is hardly an exaggeration to say, that the fate of
+Europe was decided by the result of the battle of the
+Boyne. At Paris, at the Hague, at Vienna, at Rome, at
+Madrid, nothing was talked of but the great victory of
+the Prince of Orange over Louis and James. It is one of
+the strangest complications of history that the vanquished
+Irish Catholics seem to have been never once thought of
+by Spain, Austria, or the Pope. In the greater issues of
+the European coalition against France, their interests,
+and their very existence, were for the moment forgotten.
+
+The defeat at the Boyne, and the surrender of Dublin,
+uncovered the entire province of Leinster, Kilkenny,
+Wexford, Waterford, Duncannon, Clonmel, and other places
+of less importance, surrendered within six weeks. The
+line of the Shannon was fallen back upon by the Irish,
+and the points of attack and defence were now shifted to
+Athlone and Limerick. What Enniskillen and Derry had
+been, in the previous year, to the Williamite party in
+the north, cities of refuge, and strongholds of hope,
+these two towns upon the Shannon had now become, by the
+fortune of war, to King James's adherents.
+
+On the 17th of July, General Douglas appeared before
+Athlone, and summoned it to surrender. The veteran
+commandant, Colonel Richard Grace, a Confederate of 1641,
+having destroyed the bridge, and the suburbs on the
+Leinster side of the Shannon, replied by discharging his
+pistol over the head of the drummer who delivered the
+message. Douglas attempted to cross the river at
+Lanesborough, but found the ford strongly guarded by one
+of Grace's outposts; after a week's ineffectual bombardment,
+he withdrew from before Athlone, and proceeded to Limerick,
+ravaging and slaying as he went.
+
+Limerick had at first been abandoned by the French under
+Lauzan, as utterly indefensible. That gay intriguer
+desired nothing so much as to follow the King to Prance,
+while Tyrconnell, broken down with physical suffering
+and mental anxiety, feebly concurred in his opinion. They
+accordingly departed for Galway, leaving the city to its
+fate, and, happily for the national reputation, to bolder
+counsels than their own. De Boisseleau did not underrate
+the character of the Irish levies, who had retreated
+before twice their numbers at the Boyne; he declared
+himself willing to remain, and, sustained by Sarsfield,
+he was chosen as commandant. More than ten thousand foot
+had gathered "as if by instinct" to that city, and on
+the Clare side Sarsfield still kept together his cavalry,
+at whose head he rode to Galway and brought back.
+Tyrconnell. On the 9th of August, William, confident of
+an easy victory, appeared before the town, but more than
+twelve months were to elapse before all his power could
+reduce those mouldering walls, which the fugitive French
+ambassador had declared "might be taken with roasted
+apples."
+
+An exploit, planned and executed by Sarsfield the day
+succeeding William's arrival, saved the city for another
+year, and raised that officer to the highest pitch of
+popularity. Along the Clare side of the Shannon, under
+cover of the night, he galloped as fast as horse could
+carry him, at the head of his dragoons, and crossed the
+river at Killaloe. One Manus O'Brien, a Protestant of
+Clare, who had encountered the flying horsemen, and
+learned enough to suspect their design, hastened to
+William's camp with the news, but he was at first laughed
+at for his pains. William, however, never despising any
+precaution in war, despatched Sir John Lanier with 500
+horse to protect his siege-train, then seven miles in
+the rear, on the road between Limerick and Cashel.
+Sarsfield, however, was too quick for Sir John. The day
+after he had crossed at Killaloe he kept his men _perdu_
+in the hilly country, and the next night swooped down
+upon the convoy in charge of the siege-train, who were
+quietly sleeping round the ruined church of Ballanedy.
+The sentinels were sabred at their posts, the guards,
+half-dressed, fled in terror or were speedily killed.
+The gun-carriages were quickly yoked, and drawn together
+to a convenient place, where, planted in pits with
+ammunition, they were, with two exceptions, successfully
+blown to atoms. Lanier arrived within view of the terrific
+scene in time to feel its stunning effects. The ground
+for miles round shook as from an earthquake; the glare
+and roar of the explosion were felt in William's camp,
+and through the beleaguered city. On the morrow, all was
+known. Sarsfield was safely back in his old encampment,
+without the loss of a single man; Limerick was in an
+uproar of delight, while William's army, to the lowest
+rank, felt the depression of so unexpected a blow. A week
+later, however, the provident prince had a new siege-train
+of thirty-six guns and four mortars brought up from
+Waterford, pouring red-hot shot on the devoted city.
+Another week--on the 27th of August--a gap having been
+made in the walls near Saint John's gate, a storming
+party of the English guards, the Anglo-Irish, Prussians,
+and Danes, was launched into the breach. After an action
+of uncommon fierceness and determination on both sides,
+the besiegers retired with the loss of 30 officers, and
+800 men killed, and 1,200 wounded. The besieged admitted
+400 killed--their wounded were not counted. Four days
+later, William abandoned the siege, retreated to Waterford,
+and embarked for England, with Prince George of Denmark,
+the Dukes of Wurtemburg and Ormond, and others of his
+principal adherents. Tyrconnell, labouring with the
+illness of which he soon after died, took advantage of
+the honourable pause thus obtained, to proceed on his
+interrupted voyage to Prance, accompanied by the ambassador.
+Before leaving, however, the young Duke of Berwick was
+named in his stead as Commander-in-Chief; Fitton, Nagle,
+and Plowden, as Lords Justices; sixteen "senators" were
+to form a sort of Cabinet, and Sarsfield to be second in
+military command. His enemies declared that Tyrconnell
+retired from the contest because his early spirit and
+courage had failed him; he himself asserted that his
+object was to procure sufficient succours from King Louis,
+to give a decisive issue to the war. His subsequent
+negotiations at Paris proved that though his bodily health
+might be wretched, his ingenuity and readiness of resource
+had not deserted him. He justified himself both with
+James and Louis, outwitted Lauzan, propitiated Louvois,
+disarmed the prejudices of the English Jacobites, and,
+in short, placed the military relations of France and
+Ireland on a footing they had never hitherto sustained.
+The expedition of the following spring, under command of
+Marshal Saint Ruth, was mainly procured by his able
+diplomacy, and though he returned to Ireland to survive
+but a few weeks the disastrous day of Aughrim, it is
+impossible from the Irish point of view, not to recall
+with admiration, mixed indeed with alloy, but still with
+largely prevailing admiration, the extraordinary energy,
+buoyancy and talents of Richard, Duke of Tyrconnell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE WINTER OF 1690-91,
+
+The Jacobite party in England were not slow to exaggerate
+the extent of William's losses before Athlone and Limerick.
+The national susceptibility was consoled by the ready
+reflection, that if the beaten troops were partly English,
+the commanders were mainly foreigners. A native hero was
+needed, and was found in the person of Marlborough, a
+captain, whose name was destined to eclipse every other
+English reputation of that age. At his suggestion an
+expedition was fitted out against Cork, Kinsale, and
+other ports of the south of Ireland, and the command,
+though not without some secret unwillingness on William's
+part, committed to him. On the 23rd of September, at the
+head of 8,000 fresh troops, amply supplied with all
+necessary munitions, Marlborough assaulted Cork. After
+five days' bombardment, in which the Duke of Grafton,
+and other officers and men were slain, the Governor,
+McEligot, capitulated on conditions, which, in spite of
+all Marlborough's exertions, were flagrantly violated.
+The old town of Kinsale was at once abandoned as untenable
+the same day, and the new fort, at the entrance to the
+harbour, was surrendered after a fortnight's cannonade.
+Covered with glory from a five weeks' campaign, Marlborough
+returned to England to receive the acclamations of the
+people and the most gracious compliments of the prince.
+
+Berwick and Sarsfield on the one side and Ginkle and
+Lanier on the other, kept up the winter campaign till an
+advanced period, on both banks of the Shannon. About the
+middle of September, the former made a dash over the
+bridge of Banagher, against Birr, or Parsonstown, the
+family borough of the famous _Undertaker_. The English,
+in great force, under Lanier, Kirke, and Douglas, hastened
+to its relief, and the Irish fell back to Banagher. To
+destroy "that convenient pass" became now the object of
+one party, to protect it, of the other. After some
+skirmishing and manoeuvring on both sides, the disputed
+bridge was left in Irish possession, and the English fell
+back to the borough and castle of Sir Lawrence Parsons.
+During the siege of the new fort at Kinsale, Berwick and
+Sarsfield advanced as far as Kilmallock to its relief,
+but finding themselves so inferior in numbers to
+Marlborough, they were unwillingly compelled to leave
+its brave defenders to their fate,
+
+Although the Duke of Berwick was the nominal
+Commander-in-Chief, his youth, and the distractions
+incident to youth, left the more mature and popular
+Sarsfield the possession of real power, both civil and
+military. Every fortunate accident had combined to elevate
+that gallant cavalry officer into the position of national
+leadership.
+
+He was the son of a member of the Irish Commons, proscribed
+for his patriotism and religion in 1641, by Anna O'Moore,
+daughter of the organizer of the Catholic Confederation.
+He was a Catholic in religion, spoke Gaelic as easily as
+English, was brave, impulsive; handsome, and generous to
+a fault, like the men he led. In Tyrconnell's absence
+every sincere lover of the country came to him with
+intelligence, and looked to him for direction. Early in
+November he learned through his patriotic spies the
+intention of the Williamites to force the passage of the
+Shannon in the depth of winter. On the last day of
+December, accordingly, they marched in great force under
+Kirke and Lanier to Jonesboro', and under Douglas to
+Jamestown. At both points they found the indefatigable
+Sarsfield fully prepared for them, and after a fortnight's
+intense suffering from exposure to the weather, were glad
+to get back again to their snug quarters at Parsonstown.
+
+Early in February Tyrconnell landed at Limerick with a
+French fleet, escorted by three vessels of war, and laden
+with provisions, but bringing few arms and no
+reinforcements. He had brought over, however, 14,000
+golden louis, which were found of the utmost service in
+re-clothing the army, besides 10,000 more which he had
+deposited at Brest to purchase oatmeal for subsequent
+shipment. He also brought promises of military assistance
+on a scale far beyond anything France had yet afforded.
+It is almost needless to say he was received at Galway
+and Limerick with an enthusiasm which silenced, if it
+did not confute, his political enemies, both in Ireland
+and France.
+
+During his absence intrigues and factions had been rifer
+than ever in the Jacobite ranks. Sarsfield had discovered
+that the English movement on the Shannon in December was
+partly hastened by foolish or treacherous correspondence
+among his own associates. Lord Riverston and his brother
+were removed from the Senate, or Council of Sixteen--four
+from each province--and Judge Daly, ancestor of the
+Dunsandle family, was placed under arrest at Galway. The
+youthful Berwick sometimes complained that he was tutored
+and overruled by Sarsfield; but though the impetuous
+soldier may occasionally have forgotten the lessons
+learned in courts, his activity seems to have been the
+greatest, his information the best, his advice the most
+disinterested, and his fortitude the highest of any member
+of the council. By the time of Tyrconnell's return he
+had grown to a height of popularity and power, which
+could not well brook a superior either in the cabinet
+or the camp.
+
+On the arrival of the Lord Lieutenant, who was also
+Commander-in-Chief, the ambition of Sarsfield was gratified
+by the rank of Earl of Lucan, a title drawn from that
+pleasant hamlet, in the valley of the Liffey, where he
+had learned to lisp the catechism of a patriot at the
+knee of Anna O'Moore. But his real power was much
+diminished. Tyrconnell, Berwick, Sir Richard Nagle, who
+had succeeded the Earl of Melfort as chief secretary for
+King James, all ranked before him at the board, and when
+Saint Ruth arrived to take command-in-chief, he might
+fairly have complained that he was deprived of the chief
+reward to which he had looked forward.
+
+The weary winter and the drenching spring months wore
+away, and the Williamite troops, sorely afflicted by
+disease, hugged their tents and huts. Some relief was
+sent by sea to the Jacobite garrison of Sligo, commanded
+by the stout old Sir Teague O'Regan, the former defender
+of Charlemont. Athlone, too, received some succours, and
+the line of the Shannon was still unbroken from
+Slieve-an-iron to the sea. But still the promised French
+assistance was delayed. Men were beginning to doubt both
+King Louis and King James, when, at length at the beginning
+of May, the French ships were signalled from the cliffs
+of Kerry. On the 8th, the Sieur de Saint Ruth, with
+Generals D'Usson and De Tesse, landed at Limerick, and
+assisted at a solemn _Te Deum_ in St. Mary's Cathedral.
+They brought considerable supplies of clothes, provisions,
+and ammunitions, but neither veterans to swell the ranks,
+nor money to replenish the chest. Saint Ruth entered
+eagerly upon the discharge of his duties as generalissimo,
+while Sarsfield continued the nominal second in command.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR--CAMPAIGN OF 1691--BATTLE
+OF AUGHRIM--CAPITULATION OF LIMERICK.
+
+Saint Ruth, with absolute powers, found himself placed
+at the head of from 20,000 to 25,000 men, in the field
+or in garrison, regular or irregular, but all, with hardly
+an exception, Irish. His and Tyrconnell's recent supplies
+had sufficed to renew the clothing and equipment of the
+greater part of the number, but the whole contents of
+the army chest, the golden hinge on which war moves, was
+estimated in the beginning of May to afford to each
+soldier only "a penny a day for three weeks." He had
+under him some of the best officers that France could
+spare, or Ireland produce, and he had with him the hearts
+of nine-tenths of the natives of the country.
+
+A singular illustration of the popular feeling occurred
+the previous August. The Milesian Irish had cherished
+the belief ever since the disastrous day of Kinsale, that
+an O'Donnell from Spain, having on his shoulder a red
+mark (_ball derg_), would return to free them from the
+English yoke, in a great battle near Limerick. Accordingly,
+when a representative of the Spanish O'Donnells actually
+appeared at Limerick, bearing as we know many of his
+family have done, even to our day, the unmistakable red
+mark of the ancient Tyrconnell line, immense numbers of
+the country people who had held aloof from the Jacobite
+cause, obeyed the voice of prophecy, and flocked round
+the Celtic deliverer. From 7,000 to 8,000 recruits were
+soon at his disposal, and it was not without bitter
+indignation that the chief, so enthusiastically received,
+saw regiment after regiment drafted from among his
+followers, and transferred to other commanders. Bred up
+a Spanish subject--the third in descent from an Irish
+prince--it is not to be wondered at that he regarded the
+_Irish_ cause as all in all, and the interests of King
+James as entirely secondary. He could hardly consider
+himself as bound in allegiance to that king; he was in
+no way indebted to him or his family, and if we learn
+that when the war grew desperate, but before it was ended,
+he had entered into a separate treaty for himself and
+his adherents, with William's generals, we must remember,
+before we condemn him, that we are speaking of an
+Hiberno-Spaniard, to whom the house of Stuart was no more
+sacred than the house of Orange.
+
+The Williamite army rendezvoused at Mullingar towards
+the end of May, under Generals De Ginkle, Talmash and
+Mackay. On the 7th of June, they moved in the direction
+of Athlone, 18,000 strong, "the ranks one blaze of scarlet,
+and the artillery such as had never before been seen in
+Ireland." The capture of Ballymore Castle, in West-Meath,
+detained them ten days; on the 19th, joined by the Duke
+of Wurtemburg, the Prince of Hesse and the Count of
+Nassau, with 7,000 foreign mercenaries, the whole sat
+down before the English town of Athlone, which Saint
+Ruth, contrary to his Irish advisers, resolved to defend.
+In twenty-four hours those exposed outworks abandoned by
+the veteran Grace the previous year, fell, and the
+bombardment of the Irish town on the opposite or Connaught
+bank, commenced. For ten days--from the 20th to the 30th
+of June--that fearful cannonade continued. Storey, the
+Williamite chaplain, to whom we are indebted for many
+valuable particulars of this war, states that the besiegers
+fired above 12,000 cannon shot, 600 shells and many tons
+of stone, into the place. Fifty tons of powder were burned
+in the bombardment. The castle, an imposing but lofty
+and antique structure, windowed as much for a residence
+as a fortress, tumbled into ruins; the bridge was broken
+down and impassable; the town a heap of rubbish, where
+two men could no longer walk abreast. But the Shannon
+had diminished in volume as the summer advanced, and
+three Danes employed for that purpose found a ford above
+the bridge, and at six o'clock on the evening of the last
+day of June, 2,000 picked men, headed by Gustavus Hamilton's
+grenadiers, dashed into the ford at the stroke of a bell.
+At the same instant all the English batteries on the
+Leinster side opened on the Irish town, wrapping the
+river in smoke, and distracting the attention of the
+besiegers. Saint Ruth was, at this critical moment, at
+his camp two miles off, and D'Usson, the commandant, was
+also absent from his post. In half an hour the Williamites
+were masters of the heap of rubbish which had once been
+Athlone, with a loss of less than fifty men killed and
+wounded. For this bold and successful movement De Ginkle
+was created Earl of Athlone, and his chief officers were
+justly ennobled. Saint Ruth, over-confident, in a strange
+country, withdrew to Ballinasloe, behind the river Suck,
+and prepared to risk everything on the hazard of a pitched
+battle.
+
+De Ginkle moved slowly from Athlone in pursuit of his
+enemy. On the morning of the 11th of July, as the early
+haze lifted itself in wreaths from the landscape, he
+found himself within range of the Irish, drawn up, north
+and south, on the upland of Kilcommodan hill, with a
+morass on either flank, through which ran two narrow
+causeways--on the right, "the pass of Urrachree," on the
+left, the causeway leading to the little village of
+Aughrim. Saint Ruth's force must have numbered from 15,000
+to 20,000 men, with nine field-pieces; De Ginkle commanded
+from 25,000 to 30,000, with four batteries--two of which
+mounted six guns each. During the entire day, attack
+after attack, in the direction of Urrachree or of Aughrim
+was repulsed, and the assailants were about to retire in
+despair. As the sun sank low, a last desperate attempt
+was made with equal ill success. "Now, my children,"
+cried the elated Saint Ruth, "the day is ours! Now I
+shall drive them back to the walls of Dublin!" At that
+moment he fell by a cannon shot to the earth, and stayed
+the advancing tide of victory. The enemy marked the
+check, halted, rallied and returned. Sarsfield, who had
+not been entrusted with his leader's plan of action, was
+unable to remedy the mischief which ensued. Victory
+arrested was converted into defeat. The sun went down on
+Aughrim, and the last great Irish battle between the
+Reformed and Roman religions. Four thousand of the
+Catholics were killed and wounded, and three thousand of
+the Protestants littered the field. Above five hundred
+prisoners, with thirty-two pairs of colours, eleven
+standards, and a large quantity of small arms, fell into
+the hands of the victors. One portion of the fugitive
+survivors fled to Galway, the larger part, including all
+the cavalry, to Limerick.
+
+This double blow at Athlone and Aughrim shook to pieces
+the remaining Catholic power in Connaught. Galway
+surrendered ten days after the battle; Balldearg O'Donnell,
+after a vain attempt to throw himself into it in time,
+made terms with De Ginkle, and carried his two regiments
+into Flanders to fight on the side Spain and Rome had
+chosen to take in the European coalition. Sligo, the last
+western garrison, succumbed, and the brave Sir Teague
+O'Regan marched his 600 men, survivors, southward to
+Limerick.
+
+Thus once more all eyes and all hearts in the British
+Islands were turned towards the well-known city of the
+lower Shannon. There, on the 14th of August, Tyrconnell
+expired, stricken down by apoplexy. On the 25th, De
+Ginkle, reinforced by all the troops he could gather in
+with safety, had invested the place on three sides. Sixty
+guns, none of less than 12 pounds calibre, opened their
+deadly fire against it. An English fleet ascended the
+river, hurling its missiles right and left. On the 9th
+of September the garrison made an unsuccessful sally,
+with heavy loss; on the 10th, a breach, forty yards wide,
+was made in the wall overhanging the river; on the night
+of the 15th, through the treachery or negligence of
+Brigadier Clifford, on guard at the Clare side of the
+river, a pontoon bridge was laid, and a strong English
+division crossed over in utter silence. The Irish horse,
+which had hitherto kept open communications with the
+country on that side, fell back to Six Mile Bridge. On
+the 24th, a truce of three days was agreed upon, and on
+the 3rd of October the memorable "Treaty of Limerick"
+was signed by the Williamite and Jacobite commissioners.
+
+The _civil_ articles of Limerick will be mentioned farther
+on; the _military_ articles, twenty-nine in number,
+provided that all persons willing to expatriate themselves,
+as well officers and soldiers as rapparees and volunteers,
+should have free liberty to do so, to any place beyond
+seas, except England and Scotland; that they might depart
+in whole bodies, companies, or parties; that if plundered
+by the way, William's government should make good their
+loss; that fifty ships of 200 tons each should be provided
+for their transportation, besides two men-of-war for the
+principal officers; that the garrison of Limerick might
+march out with all their arms, guns and baggage, "colours
+flying, drums beating, and matches lighting!" It was also
+agreed, that those who so wished might enter the service
+of William, retaining their rank and pay; but though De
+Ginkle was most eager to secure for his master some of
+those stalwart battalions, only 1,000 out of the 13,000
+that marched out of Limerick filed to the left at King's
+Island, Two thousand others accepted passes and protections;
+4,500 sailed with Sarsfield from Cork, 4,700 with D'Usson
+and De Tesse, embarked in the Shannon on board a French
+fleet which arrived a week too late to prevent the
+capitulation; in English ships, 3,000 embarked with
+General Wauchop; all which, added to Mountcashel's brigade,
+over 5,000 strong, gave an Irish army of from 20,000 to
+25,000 men to the service of King Louis.
+
+As the ships from Ireland reached Brest and the ports of
+Brittany, James himself came down from Saint Germain to
+receive them. They were at once granted the rights of
+French citizenship without undergoing the forms of
+naturalization. Many of them rose to eminent positions
+in war and in diplomacy, became founders of distinguished
+families, or dying childless, left their hard-won gold
+to endow free bourses at Douay and Louvain, for poor
+Irish scholars destined for the service of the church,
+for which they had fought the good fight, in another
+sense, on the Shannon and the Boyne. The migration of
+ecclesiastics was almost as extensive as that of the
+military. They were shipped by dozens and by scores,
+from Dublin, Cork, and Galway. In seven years from the
+treaty, there remained but 400 secular and 800 regular
+clergy in the country. Nearly double that number, deported
+by threats or violence, were scattered over Europe,
+pensioners on the princes and bishops of their faith, or
+the institutions of their order. In Rome, 72,000 francs
+annually were allotted for the maintenance of the fugitive
+Irish clergy, and during the first three months of 1699,
+three remittances from the Holy Father, amounting to
+90,000 livres, were placed in the hands of the Nuncio at
+Paris, for the temporary relief of the fugitives in France
+and Flanders. It may also be added here, that till the
+end of the eighteenth century, an annual charge of 1,000
+Roman crowns was borne by the Papal treasury for the
+encouragement of Catholic Poor-schools in Ireland.
+
+The revolutionary war, thus closed, had cost King William,
+or rather the people of England, at least 10,000,000 of
+pounds sterling, and with the other wars of that reign,
+laid the foundation of the English national debt. As to
+the loss of life, the Williamite chaplain, Storey, places
+it "at 100,000, young and old, besides treble the number
+that are ruined and undone." The chief consolation of
+the vanquished in that struggle was, that they had wrung
+even from their adversaries the reputation of being "one
+of the most warlike of nations"--that they "buried the
+synagogue with honour."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+REIGN OF KING WILLIAM.
+
+From the date of the treaty of Limerick, William was
+acknowledged by all but the extreme Jacobites, at least
+_de facto_--King of Ireland. The prevailing party in
+Ulster had long recognized him, and the only expression
+of the national will then possible accepted his title,
+in the treaty signed at Limerick on the 3rd of October,
+1691. For three years Ireland had resisted his power,
+for twelve years longer she was to bear the yoke of
+his government.
+
+Though the history of William's twelve years' reign in
+Ireland is a history of proscription, the King himself
+is answerable only as a consenting party to such
+proscription. He was neither by temper nor policy a
+persecutor; his allies were Spain, Austria and Rome; he
+had thousands of Catholics in his own army, and he gave
+his confidence as freely to brave and capable men of one
+creed as of another. But the oligarchy, calling itself
+the "Protestant Ascendancy," which had grown so powerful
+under Cromwell and Charles II., backed as they once again
+were by all the religious intolerance of England, proved
+too strong for William's good intentions. He was, moreover,
+pre-occupied with the grand plans of the European coalition,
+in which Ireland, without an army, was no longer an
+element of calculation. He abandoned, therefore, not
+without an occasional grumbling protest, the vanquished
+Catholics to the mercy of that oligarchy, whose history,
+during the eighteenth century, forms so prominent a
+feature of the history of the kingdom.
+
+The civil articles of Limerick, which Sarsfield vainly
+hoped might prove the _Magna Charta_ of his co-religionists,
+were thirteen in number. Art. I. guaranteed to members
+of that denomination, remaining in the kingdom, "such
+privileges in the exercise of their religion as are
+consistent with the law of Ireland, or as they enjoyed
+in the reign of King Charles II.;" this article further
+provided, that "their majesties, as soon as their affairs
+will permit them to summon a Parliament in this kingdom,
+will endeavour to procure the said Roman Catholics such
+further security in that particular as may preserve them
+from any disturbance on account of their said religion."
+Art. II. guaranteed pardon and protection to all who
+had served King James, on taking the oath of allegiance
+prescribed in Art. IX., as follows:
+
+"I, A. B., do solemnly promise and swear that I will be
+faithful and bear true allegiance to their majesties,
+King William and Queen Mary; so help me God."
+
+Arts. III., IV., V. and VI. extended the provisions of
+Arts. I. and II. to merchants and other classes of men.
+Art. VII. permits "every nobleman and gentleman compromised
+in the said articles" to carry side arms and keep "a gun
+in their houses." Art. VIII. gives the right of removing
+goods and chattels without search. Art. IX. is as follows:
+
+"The oath to be administered to such Roman Catholics as
+submit to their majesties' government _shall be the oath
+aforesaid, and no other_."
+
+Art. X. guarantees that "no person or persons who shall
+at any time hereafter break these articles, or any of
+them, shall thereby make or cause any other person or
+persons to _forfeit or lose the benefit of them_."
+Arts. XI. and XII. relate to the ratification of the
+articles "within eight months or sooner." Art. XIII.
+refers to the debts of "Colonel John Brown, commissary
+of the Irish army, to several Protestants," and arranges
+for their satisfaction.
+
+These articles were signed before Limerick, at the well
+known "Treaty Stone," on the Clare side of the Shannon,
+by Lord Scravenmore, Generals Mackay, Talmash, and De
+Ginkle, and the Lords Justices Porter and Coningsby, for
+King William, and by Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, Viscount
+Galmoy, Sir Toby Butler, and Colonels Purcell, Cusack,
+Dillon, and Brown, for the Irish. On the 24th of February
+following, royal letters patent confirmatory of the treaty
+were issued from Westminster, in the name of the King
+and Queen, whereby they declared, that "we do for us,
+our heirs, and successors, as far as in us lies, ratify
+and confirm the same and every clause, matter, and thing
+therein contained. And as to such parts thereof, for
+which an act of Parliament shall be found to be necessary,
+we shall recommend the same to be made good by Parliament,
+and shall give our royal assent to any bill or bills that
+shall be passed by our two Houses of Parliament to that
+purpose. And whereas it appears unto us, that it was
+agreed between the parties to the said articles, that
+after the words Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork, Mayo, or
+any of them, in the second of the said articles; which
+words having been casually omitted by the writer of the
+articles, the words following, viz.: 'And all such as
+are under their protection in the said counties' should
+be inserted, and be part of the said omission, was not
+discovered till after the said articles were signed, but
+was taken notice of before the second town was surrendered,
+and that our said justices and generals, or one of them,
+did promise that the said clause should be made good, it
+being within the intention of the capitulation, and
+inserted in the foul draft thereof: Our further will and
+pleasure is, and we do hereby ratify and confirm the said
+omitted words, viz., 'And all such as are under their
+protection in the said counties,' hereby for us, our
+heirs and successors, ordaining and declaring that all
+and every person and persons therein concerned shall and
+may have, receive, and enjoy the benefit thereof, in such
+and the same manner as if the said words had been inserted
+in their proper place in the said second article, any
+omission, defect, or mistake in the said second article
+in any wise notwithstanding. Provided always, and our
+will and pleasure is, that these our letters patent shall
+be enrolled in our Court of Chancery, in our said kingdom
+of Ireland, within the space of one year next ensuing."
+
+But the Ascendancy party were not to be restrained by
+the faith of treaties, or the obligations of the Sovereign.
+The Sunday following the return of the Lords Justices
+from Limerick, Dopping, Bishop of Meath, preached before
+them at Christ's church, on the crime of keeping faith
+with Papists. The grand jury of Cork, urged on by Cox,
+the Recorder of Kinsale, one of the historians of those
+times, returned in their inquest that the restoration of
+the Earl of Clancarty's estates "would be dangerous to
+the Protestant interest." Though both William and
+George I., interested themselves warmly for that noble
+family, the hatred of the new oligarchy proved too strong
+for the clemency of kings, and the broad acres of the
+disinherited McCarthys, remained to enrich an alien and
+bigoted aristocracy.
+
+In 1692, when the Irish Parliament met, a few Catholic
+peers, and a very few Catholic commoners took their seats.
+One of the first acts of the victorious majority was to
+frame an oath in direct contravention to the oath prescribed
+by the ninth civil article of the treaty, to be taken by
+members of both Houses. This oath solemnly and explicitly
+denied "that in the sacrament of the Lord's supper there
+is any transubstantiation of the elements;" and as solemnly
+affirmed, "that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin
+Mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the mass,
+as they are now used in the church of Rome, are damnable
+and idolatrous." As a matter of course, the Catholic
+peers and commoners retired from both Houses, rather than
+take any such oath, and thus the Irish Parliament assumed,
+in 1692, that exclusively Protestant character which it
+continued to maintain, till its extinction in 1800. The
+Lord Justice Sydney, acting in the spirit of his original
+instructions, made some show of resistance to the
+proscriptive spirit thus exhibited. But to teach him how
+they regarded his interference, a very small supply was
+voted, and the assertion of the absolute control of the
+Commons over all supplies--a sound doctrine when rightly
+interpreted--was vehemently asserted. Sydney had the
+satisfaction of proroguing and lecturing the House, but
+they had the satisfaction soon after of seeing him recalled
+through their influence in England, and a more congenial
+Viceroy in the person of Lord Capel sent over.
+
+About the same time, that ancient engine of oppression,
+a Commission to inquire into estates forfeited, was
+established, and, in a short time, decreed that 1,060,792
+acres were escheated to the crown. This was almost the
+last fragment of the patrimony of the Catholic inhabitants.
+When King William died, there did not remain in Catholic
+hands "one-sixth part" of what their grandfathers held,
+even after the passage of the Act of Settlement.
+
+In 1695, Lord Capel opened the second Irish Parliament,
+summoned by King William, in a speech in which he assured
+his delighted auditors that the King was intent upon a
+firm settlement of Ireland upon a Protestant interest.
+Large supplies were at once voted to his majesty, and
+the House of Commons then proceeded to the appointment
+of a committee to consider what penal laws were already
+in force against the Catholics, not for the purpose of
+repealing them, but in order to add to their number. The
+principal penal laws then in existence were:
+
+1. An act, subjecting all who upheld the jurisdiction of
+the See of Rome, to the penalties of a _premunire_; and
+ordering the oath of supremacy to be a qualification for
+office of every kind, for holy orders, and for a degree
+in the university.
+
+2. An act for the uniformity of Common Prayer, imposing
+a fine of a shilling on all who should absent themselves
+from places of worship of the Established Church on
+Sundays.
+
+3. An act, allowing the Chancellor to name a guardian to
+the child of a Catholic.
+
+4. An act to prevent Catholics from becoming private
+tutors in families, without license from the ordinaries
+of their several parishes, and taking the oath of supremacy.
+
+To these, the new Parliament added, 1. An act to deprive
+Catholics of the means of educating their children at
+home or abroad, and to render them incapable of being
+guardians of their own or any other person's children;
+2. An act to disarm the Catholics; and, 3. Another to
+banish all the Catholic priests and prelates. Having thus
+violated the treaty, they gravely brought in a bill "to
+confirm the Articles of Limerick." "The very title of
+the bill," says Dr. Cooke Taylor, "contains evidence of
+its injustice." It is styled "A Bill for the Confirmation
+of Articles (not _the_ articles) made at the Surrender
+of Limerick." And the preamble shows that the little word
+_the_ was not accidentally omitted. It runs thus:--"That
+the said articles, or _so much of them as may consist
+with the safety and welfare of your majesty's subjects
+in these kingdoms_, may be confirmed," &c. The parts that
+appeared to these legislators inconsistent with "the
+safety and welfare of his majesty's subjects," were the
+first article, which provided for the security of the
+Catholics from all disturbances on account of their
+religion; those parts of the second article which confirmed
+the Catholic gentry of Limerick, Clare, Cork, Kerry, and
+Mayo, in the possession of their estates, and allowed
+all Catholics to exercise their trades and professions
+without obstruction; the fourth article, which extended
+the benefit of the peace to certain Irish officers then
+abroad; the seventh article, which allowed the Catholic
+gentry to ride armed; the ninth article, which provides
+that the oath of allegiance shall be the only oath required
+from Catholics; and one or two others of minor importance.
+All of these are omitted in the bill for "The confirmation
+of Articles made at the Surrender of Limerick."
+
+The Commons passed the bill without much difficulty. The
+House of Lords, however, contained some few of the ancient
+nobility, and some prelates, who refused to acknowledge
+the dogma, "that no faith should be kept with Papists,"
+as an article of their creed. The bill was strenuously
+resisted, and when it was at length carried, a strong
+protest against it was signed by Lords Londonderry,
+Tyrone, and Duncannon, the Barons of Ossory, Limerick,
+Killaloe, Kerry, Howth, Kingston, and Strabane, and, to
+their eternal honour be it said, the Protestant bishops
+of Kildare, Elphin, Derry, Clonfert, and Killala!
+
+The only other political incidents of this reign, important
+to Ireland, were the speech from the throne in answer to
+an address of the English Houses, in which William promised
+to discourage the woollen and encourage the linen
+manufacture in Ireland, and the publication of the famous
+argument for legislative independence, "The Case of
+Ireland Stated." The author of this tract, the bright
+precursor of the glorious succession of men, who, often
+defeated or abandoned by their colleagues, finally
+triumphed in 1782, was William Molyneux, member for the
+University of Dublin. Molyneux's book appeared in 1698,
+with a short, respectful, but manly dedication to King
+William. Speaking of his own motives in writing it, he
+says, "I am not at all concerned in wool or the wool
+trade. I am no ways interested in forfeitures or grants.
+I am not at all concerned whether the bishop or the
+society of Derry recover the lands they contest about."
+Such were the domestic politics of Ireland at that day;
+but Molyneux raised other and nobler issues when he
+advanced these six propositions, which lie supported with
+incontestible ability.
+
+"1. How Ireland became a kingdom _annexed_ to the crown
+of England. And here we shall at large give a faithful
+narrative of the first expedition of the Britons into
+this country, and King Henry II.'s arrival here, such as
+our best historians give us.
+
+"2. We shall inquire whether this expedition and the
+English settlement that afterwards followed thereon, can
+properly be called a _conquest_; or whether any victories
+obtained by the English in any succeeding ages in this
+kingdom, upon any rebellion, may be called a _conquest_
+thereof.
+
+"3. Granting that it were a _conquest_, we shall inquire
+what _title_ a conquest gives.
+
+"4. We shall inquire what _concessions_ have been from
+time to time made to Ireland, to take off what even the
+most rigorous asserters of a conqueror's title do pretend
+to. And herein we shall show by what degrees the English
+form of government, and the English statute laws, came
+to be received among us; and this shall appear to be
+wholly by the _consent_ of the people and the Parliament
+of Ireland.
+
+"5. We shall inquire into the precedents and opinions of
+the learned in the laws relating to this matter, with
+observations thereon.
+
+"6. We shall consider the reasons and arguments that may
+be further offered on one side and t'other; and we shall
+draw some general conclusions from the whole."
+
+The English Parliament took alarm at these bold doctrines,
+seldom heard across the channel since the days of Patrick
+Darcy and the Catholic Confederacy. They ordered the book
+to be burned by the hands of the common hangman, as of
+"dangerous tendency to the crown and people of England,
+by denying the power of the King and Parliament of England
+to bind the kingdom and people of Ireland, and the
+subordination and dependence that Ireland had, and ought
+to have, upon England, as being united and annexed to
+the imperial crown of England." They voted an address to
+the King in the same tone, and received an answer from
+his majesty, assuring them that he would enforce the laws
+securing the dependence of Ireland on the imperial crown
+of Great Britain.
+
+But William's days were already numbered. On the 8th of
+March, 1702, when little more than fifty years of age,
+he died from the effects of a fall from his horse. His
+reign over Ireland is synonymous to the minds of that
+people of disaster, proscription and spoliation; of
+violated faith and broken compacts; but these wrongs were
+done in his name rather than by his orders; often without
+his knowledge, and sometimes against his will. Rigid as
+that will was, it was forced to bend to the anti-Popery
+storm which swept over the British Islands after the
+abdication of King James; but the vices and follies of
+his times ought no more be laid to the personal account
+of William than of James or Louis, against whom he fought.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE.
+
+The reign of Queen Anne occupies twelve years (1702 to
+1714. The new sovereign, daughter of James by his first
+marriage, inherited the legacy of William's wars, arising
+out of the European coalition. Her diplomatists, and her
+troops, under the leadership of Marlborough, continued
+throughout her reign to combat against France, in Spain,
+Germany, and the Netherlands; the treaty of Utrecht being
+signed only the year before her majesty's decease. In
+domestic politics, the main occurrences were the struggle
+of the Whigs and Tories, immortalized for us in the pages
+of Swift, Steele, Addison, and Bolingbroke; the limitation
+of the succession to the descendants of the Electress
+Sophia, in the line of Hanover; and the abortive Jacobite
+movement on the Queen's death which drove Ormond and
+Atterbury into exile.
+
+In Ireland, this is the reign, _par excellence_, of the
+penal code. From the very beginning of the Queen's reign,
+an insatiate spirit of proscription dictated the councils
+of the Irish oligarchy. On the arrival of the second
+and last Duke of Ormond, in 1703, as Lord-Lieutenant,
+the Commons waited on him in a body, with a bill "for
+discouraging the further growth of Popery," to which the
+duke having signified his entire concurrence, it was
+accordingly introduced, and became law. The following
+are among the most remarkable clauses of this act: The
+third clause provides, that if the son of an estated
+Papist shall conform to the established religion, the
+father shall be incapacitated from selling or mortgaging
+his estate, or disposing of any portion of it by will.
+The fourth clause prohibits a Papist from being the
+guardian of his own child; and orders, that if at any
+time the child, though ever so young, pretends to be a
+Protestant, it shall be taken from its own father, and
+placed under the guardianship of the nearest Protestant
+relation. The sixth clause renders Papists incapable of
+purchasing any manors, tenements, hereditaments, or any
+rents or profits arising out of the same, or of holding
+any lease of lives, or other lease whatever, for any term
+exceeding thirty-one years. And with respect even to such
+limited leases, it further enacts, that if a Papist should
+hold a farm producing a profit greater than one-third of
+the amount of the rent, his right to such should immediately
+cease, and pass over entirely to the first Protestant
+who should discover the rate of profit. The seventh clause
+prohibits Papists from succeeding to the properties or
+estates of their Protestant relations. By the tenth
+clause, the estate of a Papist, not having a Protestant
+heir, is ordered to be gavelled, or divided in equal
+shares between all his children. The sixteenth and
+twenty-fourth clauses impose the oath of abjuration, and
+the sacramental test, as a qualification for office, and
+for voting at elections. The twenty-third clause deprives
+the Catholics of Limerick and Galway of the protection
+secured to them by the articles of the treaty of Limerick.
+The twenty-fifth clause vests in her majesty all advowsons
+possessed by Papists.
+
+Certain Catholic barristers, living under protection,
+not yet excluded from the practice of their profession,
+petitioned to be heard at the bar of the House of Commons.
+Accordingly, Mr. Malone, the ancestor of three generations
+of scholars and orators, Sir Stephen Rice, one of the
+most spotless characters of the age, formerly chief-justice
+under King James, and Sir Theobald Butler, were heard
+against the bill. The argument of Butler, who stood at
+the very head of his profession, remains to us almost in
+its entirety, and commands our admiration by its solidity
+and dignity. Never was national cause more worthily
+pleaded; never was the folly of religious persecution
+more forcibly exhibited. Alluding to the monstrous fourth
+clause of the bill, the great advocate exclaimed:--
+
+"It is natural for the father to love the child; but we
+all know that children are but too apt and subject,
+without any such liberty as this bill gives, to slight
+and neglect their duty to their parents; and surely such
+an act as this will not be an instrument of restraint,
+but rather encourage them more to it.
+
+"It is but too common with the son, who has a prospect
+of an estate, when once he arrives at the age of one and
+twenty, to think the old father too long in the way
+between him and it; and how much more will he be subject
+to it, when, by this act, he shall have liberty, before
+he comes to that age, to compel and force my estate from
+me, without asking my leave, or being liable to account
+with me for it, or out of his share thereof, to a moiety
+of the debts, portions, or other encumbrances, with which
+the estate might have been charged before the passing of
+this act!
+
+"Is not this against the laws of God and man? Against
+the rules of reason and justice, by which all men ought
+to be governed? Is not this the only way in the world to
+make children become undutiful? and to bring the grey
+head of the parent to the grave with grief and tears?
+
+"It would be hard from any man; but from a son, a child,
+the fruit of my body, whom I have nursed in my bosom,
+and tendered more dearly than my own life, to become my
+plunderer, to rob me of my estate, to cut my throat, and
+to take away my bread, is much more grievous than from
+any other, and enough to make the most flinty hearts to
+bleed to think on it. And yet this will be the case if
+this bill pass into a law; which I hope this honourable
+assembly will not think of, when they shall more seriously
+consider, and have weighed these matters.
+
+"For God's sake, gentlemen, will you consider whether
+this is according to the golden rule, to do as you would
+be done unto? And if not, surely you will not, nay, you
+cannot, without being liable to be charged with the most
+manifest injustice imaginable, take from us our birthrights,
+and invest them in others, before our faces."
+
+When Butler and Malone had closed, Sir Stephen Rice was
+heard, not in his character of council, but as one of
+the petitioners affected by the act. But neither the
+affecting position of that great jurist, who, from the
+rank of chief baron had descended to the outer bar, nor
+the purity of his life, nor the strength of his argument,
+had any effect upon the oligarchy who heard him. He was
+answered by quibbles and cavils, unworthy of record, and
+was finally informed that any rights which Papists
+"pretended to be taken from them by the Bill, was in
+their own power to remedy, by conforming, which in prudence
+they ought to do; and that they had none to blame but
+themselves." Next day the bill passed into law.
+
+The remnant of the clergy were next attacked. On the 17th
+of March, 1705, the Irish Commons resolved, that "informing
+against Papists was an honourable service to the
+government," and that all magistrates and others who
+failed to put the penal laws into execution, "were
+betrayers of the liberties of the kingdom." But even
+these resolutions, rewards, and inducements were
+insufficient to satisfy the spirit of persecution.
+
+A further act was passed, in 1709, imposing additional
+penalties. The first clause declares, that no Papist
+shall be capable of holding an annuity for life. The
+third provides, that the child of a Papist, on conforming,
+shall at once receive an annuity from his father; and
+that the Chancellor shall compel the father to discover,
+upon oath, the full value of his estate, real and personal,
+and thereupon make an order for the support of such
+conforming child or children, and for securing such a
+share of the property, after the father's death, as the
+court shall think fit. The fourteenth and fifteenth
+clauses secure jointures to Popish wives who shall conform.
+The sixteenth prohibits a Papist from teaching, even as
+assistant to a Protestant master. The eighteenth gives
+a salary of 30 pounds per annum to Popish priests who
+shall conform. The twentieth provides rewards for the
+discovery of Popish prelates, priests, and teachers,
+according to the following whimsical scale:--For discovering
+an archbishop, bishop, vicar-general, or other person,
+exercising any foreign ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 50
+pounds; for discovering each regular clergyman, and each
+secular clergyman, not registered, 20 pounds; and for
+discovering each Popish schoolmaster or usher, 10 pounds.
+The twenty-first clause empowers two justices to summon
+before them any Papist over eighteen years of age, and
+interrogate him when and where he last heard mass said,
+and the names of the persons present, and likewise touching
+the residence of any Popish priest or schoolmaster; and
+if he refuse to give testimony, subjects him to a fine
+of 20 pounds, or imprisonment for twelve months.
+
+Several other penal laws were enacted by the same
+Parliament, of which we can only notice one; it excluded
+Catholics from the office of sheriff, and from grand
+juries, and enacts, that, in trials upon any statute for
+strengthening the Protestant interest, the plaintiff
+might challenge a juror for being a Papist, which challenge
+the judge was to allow.
+
+By a royal proclamation of the same year, "all registered
+priests" were to take "the oath of abjuration before the
+25th of March, 1710," under penalty of _premunire_. Under
+this proclamation and the tariff of rewards just cited,
+there grew up a class of men, infamous and detestable,
+known by the nickname of "priest hunters." One of the
+most successful of these traffickers in blood was a
+Portuguese Jew, named Garcia, settled at Dublin. He was
+very skilful at disguises. "He sometimes put on the mien
+of a priest, for he affected to be one, and thus worming
+himself into the good graces of some confiding Catholic
+got a clue to the whereabouts of the clergy." In 1718,
+Garcia succeeded in arresting seven unregistered priests,
+for whose detection he had a sum equal to two or three
+thousand dollars of American money. To such an excess
+was this trade carried, that a reaction set in, and a
+Catholic bishop of Ossory, who lived at the time these
+acts were still in force, records that "the priest-catchers'
+occupation became exceedingly odious both to Protestants
+and Catholics," and that himself had seen "ruffians of
+this calling assailed with a shower of stones, flung by
+both Catholics and Protestants." But this creditable
+reaction only became general under George II., twenty
+years after the passage of the act of Queen Anne.
+
+We shall have to mention some monstrous additions made
+to the code during the first George's reign, and some
+attempts to repair and perfect its diabolical machinery,
+even so late as George III.; but the great body of the
+penal law received its chief accessions from the
+oligarchical Irish Parliament, under Queen Anne. Hitherto,
+we have often had to point out, how with all its
+constitutional defects--with the law of Poynings, obliging
+heads of bills to be first sent to England--fettering
+its freedom of initiative;--how, notwithstanding all
+defects, the Irish Parliament had asserted, at many
+critical periods, its own and the people's rights, with
+an energy worthy of admiration. But the collective bigots
+of this reign were wholly unworthy of the name of a
+parliament. They permitted the woollen trade to be
+sacrificed without a struggle,--they allowed the bold
+propositions of Molyneux, one of their own number, to be
+condemned and reprobated without a protest. The knotted
+lash of Jonathan Swift was never more worthily applied,
+than to "the Legion Club," which he has consigned to such
+an unenviable immortality. Swift's inspiration may have
+been mingled with bitter disappointment and personal
+revenge; but, whatever motives animated him, his fearless
+use of his great abilities must always make him the first
+political, as he was certainly the first literary character
+of Ireland at that day. In a country so bare and naked
+as he found it; with a bigotry so rampant and united
+before him; it needed no ordinary courage and capacity
+to evoke anything like public opinion or public spirit.
+Let us be just to that most unhappy man of genius; let
+us proclaim that Irish nationality, bleeding at every
+pore, and in danger of perishing by the wayside, found
+shelter on the breast of Swift, and took new heart from
+the example of that bold churchman, before whom the
+Parliament, the bench of Bishops, and the Viceroy,
+trembled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE IRISH SOLDIERS ABROAD DURING THE REIGNS OF
+WILLIAM AND ANNE.
+
+The close of the second reign from the siege of Limerick
+imposes the duty of casting our eyes over the map of
+Europe, in quest of those gallant exiles whom we have
+seen, in tens of thousands, submitting to the hard
+necessity of expatriation.
+
+Many of the Meath and Leinster Irish, under their native
+commanders, the Kavanaghs and Nugents, carried their
+swords into the service of William's ally, the Emperor
+of Austria, and distinguished themselves in all the
+campaigns of Prince Eugene. Spain attracted to her
+standard the Irish of the north-west, the O'Donnells,
+the O'Reillys, and O'Garas, whose regiments, during more
+than one reign, continued to be known by flames of Ulster
+origin. In 1707, the great battle of Almanza, which
+decided the Spanish succession, was determined by O'Mahony's
+foot and Fitzjames's Irish horse. The next year Spain
+had five Irish regiments in her regular army, three of
+foot and two of dragoons, under the command of Lacy,
+Lawless, Wogan, O'Reilly, and O'Gara. But it was in France
+that the Irish served in the greatest number, and made
+the most impressive history for themselves and their
+descendants.
+
+The recruiting agents of France had long been in the
+habit of crossing the narrow seas, and bringing back the
+stalwart sons of the western Island to serve their
+ambitious kings, in every corner of the continent. An
+Irish troop of horse served, in 1652, under Turenne,
+against the great Conde. In the campaigns of 1673, 1674
+and 1675, under Turenne, two or three Irish regiments
+were in every engagement along the Rhine. At Altenheim,
+their commander, Count Hamilton, was created a major-general
+of France. In 1690, these old regiments, with the six
+new ones sent over by James, were formed into a brigade,
+and from 1690 to 1693, they went through the campaigns
+of Savoy and Italy, under Marshal Catinat, against Prince
+Eugene. Justin McCarthy, Lord Mountcashel, who commanded
+them, died at Bareges of wounds received at Staffardo.
+At Marsiglia, they routed, in 1693, the allies, killing
+Duke Schomberg, son to the Huguenot general who fell at
+the Boyne.
+
+The "New" or Sarsfield's brigade was employed under
+Luxembourg, against King William, in Flanders, in 1692
+and 1693. At Namur and Enghien, they were greatly
+distinguished, and William more than once sustained heavy
+loss at their hands. Sarsfield, their brigadier, for
+these services, was made mareschal-de-camp. At Landen,
+on the 29th of July, '93, France again triumphed to the
+cry, "Remember Limerick!" Sarsfield, leading on the fierce
+pursuers, fell, mortally wounded. Pressing his hand upon
+the wound, he took it away dripping with blood, and only
+said, "Oh, that this was for Ireland!"
+
+In the war of the Spanish succession, the remnants of
+both brigades, consolidated into one, served under their
+favourite leader, the Marshal Duke of Berwick, through
+nearly all his campaigns in Belgium, Spain and Germany.
+The third Lord Clare, afterwards Field-Marshal Count
+Thomond, was by the Duke's side at Phillipsburg, in 1733,
+when he received his death-wound from the explosion of
+a mine. These exiled Clare O'Briens commanded for three
+generations their famous family regiment of dragoons.
+The first who followed King James abroad died of wounds
+received at the battle of Ramillies; the third, with
+better fortune, outlived for nearly thirty years the
+glorious day of Fontenoy. The Irish cavalry regiments in
+the service of France were Sheldon's, Galmoy's, Clare's,
+and Killmallock's; the infantry were known as the regiments
+of Dublin, Charlemont, Limerick, and Athlone. There were
+two other infantry regiments, known as Luttrel's and
+Dorrington's--and a regiment of Irish marines, of which
+the Grand Prior, Fitzjames, was colonel. During the latter
+years of Louis XIV., there could not have been less, at
+any one time, than from 20,000 to 30,000 Irish in his
+armies, and during the succeeding century, authentic
+documents exist to prove that 450,000 natives of Ireland
+died in the military service of France.
+
+In the dreary reigns of William, Anne, and the two first
+Georges, the pride and courage of the disarmed and
+disinherited population abiding at home, drew new life
+and vigour from the exploits of their exiled brethren.
+The channel smuggler and the vagrant ballad-singer kept
+alive their fame for the lower class of the population,
+while the memoirs of Marlborough and Eugene, issuing from
+the Dublin press, communicated authentic accounts of
+their actions, to the more prejudiced, or better educated.
+The blows they struck at Landen, at Cremona, and at
+Almanza, were sensibly felt by every British statesman;
+when, in the bitterness of defeat, an English King cursed
+"the laws that deprived him of such subjects," the doom
+of the penal code was pronounced.
+
+The high character of the famous captains of these brigades
+was not confined to the field of battle. At Paris, Vienna,
+and Madrid, their wit and courtesy raised them to the
+favour of princes, over the jealousy of all their rivals.
+Important civil and diplomatic offices were entrusted to
+them--embassies of peace and war--the government of
+provinces, and the highest administrative offices of the
+state. While their kinsmen in Ireland were declared
+incapable of filling the humblest public employments, or
+of exercising the commonest franchise, they met British
+ambassadors abroad as equals, and checked or countermined
+the imperial policy of Great Britain. It was impossible
+that such a contrast of situations should not attract
+the attention of all thinking men! It was impossible that
+such reputations should shine before all Europe without
+reacting powerfully on the fallen fortunes of Ireland!
+
+
+
+
+BOOK XI.
+
+FROM THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE I. TO THE LEGISLATIVE
+UNION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+ACCESSION OF GEORGE I.--SWIFT'S LEADERSHIP.
+
+The last years of Queen Anne had been years of intrigue
+and preparation with the Jacobite leaders throughout the
+three kingdoms. At their head stood Ormond, the second
+and last _Duke_ of his name, and with him were associated
+at one stage or another of his design, Bolingbroke,
+Orrery, Bishop Atterbury, and other influential persons.
+It was thought that had this party acted promptly on the
+death of the Queen, and proclaimed James III. (or "the
+Pretender," as he was called by the partisans of the new
+dynasty), the Act of Succession might have remained a
+dead letter, and the Stuarts recovered their ancient
+sovereignty. But the partisans of the elector were the
+first in the field, and King George was accordingly
+proclaimed, on the 1st of August, at London, and on the
+6th of August, at Dublin.
+
+In Dublin, where serious apprehensions of a Jacobite
+rising were entertained, the proclamation was made by
+the glare of torches at the extraordinary hour of midnight.
+Two or three arrests of insignificant persons were made,
+and letters to Swift being found on one of them, the Dean
+was thought by his friends to be in some danger. But it
+was not correct to say, as many writers have done, that
+he found it necessary to retire from Dublin. The only
+inconvenience he suffered was from the hootings and
+revilings of the Protestant rabble in the street, and a
+brutal threat of personal violence from a young nobleman,
+upon whom he revenged himself in a characteristic petition
+to the House of Lords "for protection against the said
+lord." Pretending not to be quite sure of his assailant,
+he proceeds to explain: "Your petitioner is informed that
+the person who spoke the words above mentioned is of your
+Lordships' House, under the style and title of Lord
+Blaney; whom your petitioner remembers to have introduced
+to Mr. Secretary Addison, in the Earl of Wharton's
+government, and to have done him other good offices at
+that time, because he was represented as a young man of
+some hopes and a broken fortune." The entire document is
+a curious picture of the insolence of the ascendancy
+party of that day, even towards dignitaries of their own
+church who refused to go all lengths in the only politics
+they permitted or tolerated.
+
+It was while smarting under these public indignities,
+and excluded from the society of the highest class in
+his own country, with two or three exceptions, that
+Swift laid the foundations of his own and his country's
+patriotism, among the educated middle class of the Irish
+capital. From the college and the clergy he drew Dr.
+Sheridan--ancestor of six generations of men and women
+of genius! Doctors Delaney, Jackson, Helsham, Walmsley,
+Stopford (afterwards Bishop of Cloyne), and the three
+reverend brothers Grattan. In the city he selected as
+his friends and companions four other Grattans, one of
+whom was Lord-Mayor, another physician to the castle,
+one a schoolmaster, the other a merchant. "Do you know
+the Grattans?" he wrote to the Lord-Lieutenant, Lord
+Carteret; "then pray obtain their acquaintance. The
+Grattans, my lord, can raise 10,000 men." Among the class
+represented by this admirable family of seven brothers,
+and in that of the tradesmen immediately below them, of
+which we may take his printers, Waters and Faulkner for
+types, Swift's haughty and indignant denunciations of
+the oligarchy of the hour produced striking effects.
+The humblest of the community began to raise their heads,
+and to fix their eyes steadily on public affairs and
+public characters. Questions of currency, of trade, of
+the administration of justice and of patronage, were
+earnestly discussed in the press and in society, and thus
+by slow but gradually ascending steps, a spirit of
+independence was promoted where hitherto only servility
+had reigned.
+
+The obligations of his cotemporaries to Swift are not to
+be counted simply by what he was able to originate or to
+advocate in their behalf--for not much could be done in
+that way, in such times, and in such a position as his
+--but rather in regard to the enemies and maligners of
+that people, whom he exposed and punished. To understand
+the value of his example and inspiration, we must read
+over again his castigations of Wharton, of Burnet, of
+Boulter, of Whitshed, of Allan, and all the leaders of
+the oligarchy, in the Irish Parliament. When we have done
+so, we shall see at once how his imperial reputation,
+his personal position, and every faculty of his powerful
+mind were employed alike to combat injustice and
+proscription, to promote freedom of opinion and of trade,
+to punish the abuses of judicial power, and to cultivate
+and foster a spirit of self reliance and economy among
+all classes--especially the humblest. In his times, and
+in his position, with a cassock "entangling his course,"
+what more could have been expected of him?
+
+The Irish Parliament met in 1715--elected, according to
+the then usage, for the lifetime of the King--commenced
+its career by an act of attainder against the Pretender,
+accompanied by a reward of 50,000 pounds for his
+apprehension. The Lords-Justices, the Duke of Grafton
+and the Earl of Galway, recommended in their speech to
+the Houses, that they should cultivate such unanimity
+among themselves as "at once to put an end to all other
+distinctions in Ireland, but that of Protestant and
+Papist." In the same speech, and in all the debates of
+that reign, the Catholics were spoken of as "the common
+enemy," and all who sympathized with them, as "enemies
+of the constitution." But far as this Parliament was from
+all our ideas of what a national legislature ought to
+be, it was precisely at this period, when the administration
+could not be worse, that the foundation was laid of the
+great contest for legislative independence, which was to
+continue through three generations, and to constitute
+the main staple of the Irish history of this century.
+
+In the year 1717, the English House of Lords entertained
+and decided, as a court of last resort, an appeal from
+the Irish courts, already passed on by the Irish Lords,
+in the famous real-estate case of Annesley _versus_
+Sherlock. The proceeding was novel, and was protested
+against in the English House at the time by the Duke of
+Leeds, and in the Irish, by the majority of the whole
+House. But the British Parliament, not content with
+claiming the power, proceeded to establish the principle,
+by the declaratory act--6th George I.--for securing the
+dependence of Ireland on the crown of Great Britain. This
+statute, even more objectionable than the law of Poynings,
+continued unrepealed till 1782, notwithstanding all the
+arguments and all the protests of the Irish patriot party.
+The Lords of Ireland, unsupported by the bigoted and
+unprincipled oligarchy in the Commons, were shorn of
+their appellate jurisdiction, and their journals for many
+years contain few entries of business done, beyond servile
+addresses to successive Viceroys, and motions of
+adjournment.
+
+In their session of 1723, the ascendancy party in the
+Commons proceeded to their last extreme of violence
+against the prostrate Catholics. An act was introduced
+founded on eight resolutions, "further to prevent the
+growth of Popery." One of these resolutions, regularly
+transmitted to England by the Viceroy-proposed that every
+priest, arrested within the realm, should suffer the
+penalty of _castration_! For the first time, a penal law
+was rejected with horror and indignation by the English
+Privy Council, and the whole elaborate edifice, overweighted
+with these last propositions, trembled to its base. But
+though badly shaken, it was yet far from coming down.
+
+"Do not the corruptions and villainies of men," said
+Swift to his friend Delaney, "eat your flesh and exhaust
+your spirits?" They certainly gnawed at the heart of the
+courageous Dean, but at the same time, they excited rather
+than exhausted his spirits. In 1720 he resumed his pen,
+as a political writer, in his famous proposal "for the
+universal use of Irish manufactures." Waters, the printer
+of this piece, was indicted for a seditious libel, before
+Chief-Justice Whitshed, the immortal "_coram nobis_" of
+the Dean's political ballads. The jury were detained
+eleven hours, and sent out nine times, to compel them to
+agree on a verdict. They at length finally declared they
+could not agree, and a _nol. pros_. was soon after
+entered by the crown. This trial of Swift's printer in
+1720, is the first of a long series of duels with the
+crown lawyers, which the Irish press has since maintained
+with as much firmness and self-sacrifice as any press
+ever exhibited. And it may be said that never, not even
+under martial law, was a conspicuous example of civic
+courage more necessary, or more dangerous. Browne, Bishop
+of Cork, had been in danger of deprivation for preaching
+a sermon against the well-known toast to the memory of
+King William; Swift was threatened, as we see, a few
+years earlier, with personal violence by a Whig lord,
+and pelted by a Protestant rabble, for his supposed
+Jacobitism; his friend, Dr. Sheridan, lost his Munster
+living for having accidentally chosen as his text, on
+the anniversary of King George's coronation, "sufficient
+for the day is the evil thereof." Such was the intolerance
+of the oligarchy towards their own clergy. What must it
+have been to others!
+
+The attempt to establish a National Bank, and the
+introduction of a debased copper coinage, for which a
+patent had been, granted to one William Wood, next employed
+the untiring pen of Swift. The halfpenny controversy,
+was not, as is often said, a small matter; it was nearly
+as important as the bank project itself. Of the 100,000
+pounds worth coined, the intrinsic value was shown to be
+not more than 6,000 pounds. Such was the storm excited
+against the patentee, that his Dublin agents were obliged
+to resign their connection with him, and the royal
+letters-patent were unwillingly cancelled. The bank
+project was also rejected by Parliament, adding another
+to the triumphs of the invincible Dean.
+
+During the last years of this reign, Swift was the most
+powerful and popular person in Ireland, and perhaps in
+the empire. The freedom with which he advised Carteret
+the Viceroy, and remonstrated with Walpole, the Premier,
+on the misrule of his country, was worthy of the ascendancy
+of his genius. No man of letters, no churchman, no
+statesman of any country in any age, ever showed himself
+more thoroughly independent, in his intercourse with men
+of office, than Swift. The vice of Ireland was exactly
+the other way, so that in this respect also, the patriot
+was the liberator.
+
+Rising with the rise of public spirit, the great churchman,
+in his fourth letter, in the assumed character of _M. B.
+Drapier_, confronted the question of legislative
+independence. Alluding to the pamphlet of Molyneux,
+published thirty years before, he pronounced its arguments
+invincible, and the contrary system "the very definition
+of slavery." "The remedy," he concludes, addressing the
+Irish people, "is wholly in your own hands, and therefore
+I have digressed a little, in order to refresh and continue
+that spirit so seasonably raised among you, and to let
+you see, that, by the laws of God, of nature, of nations,
+and of your country, _you are, and ought to be, as free
+a people as your brethren in England_." For this letter
+also, the printer, Harding, was indicted, but the Dublin
+grand jury, infected with the spirit of the times,
+unanimously ignored the bill. A reward of 300 pounds was
+then issued from the castle for the discovery of the
+author, but no informer could be found base enough to
+betray him. For a time, however, to escape the ovations
+he despised, and the excitement which tried his health,
+Swift retired to his friend Sheridan's cottage on the
+banks of Lough Ramor, in Cavan, and there recreated
+himself with long rides about the country, and the
+composition of the Travels of the immortal Gulliver.
+
+Sir Robert Walpole, alarmed at the exhibition of popular
+intelligence and determination evoked by Swift, committed
+the government of Ireland to his rival, Lord Carteret--whom
+he was besides not sorry to remove to a distance--and
+appointed to the See of Armagh, which fell vacant about
+the time of the currency dispute, Dr. Hugh Boulter, Bishop
+of Bristol, one of his own creatures. This prelate, a
+politician by taste and inclination, modelled his policy
+on his patron's, as far as his more contracted sphere
+and inferior talents permitted. To buy members in market
+overt, with peerages, or secret service money, was his
+chief means of securing a Parliamentary majority. An
+Englishman by birth and education; the head of the
+Protestant establishment in Ireland, it was inevitable
+that his policy should be English and Protestant, in
+every particular. To resist, depress, disunite, and
+defeat the believers in the dangerous doctrines of Swift
+and Molyneux, was the sole rule of his nearly twenty
+years' political supremacy in Irish affairs. (1724-1742.)
+The master of a princely income, endowed with strong
+passions, unlimited patronage, and great activity, he
+may be said to have reigned rather than led, even when
+the nominal viceroyalty was in the hands of such able
+and accomplished men as Lords Carteret, Dorset and
+Devonshire. His failure in his first state trial, against
+Harding the printer, nothing discouraged him; he had come
+into Ireland to secure the English interest, by uprooting
+the last vestiges of Popery and independence, and he
+devoted himself to those objects with persevering
+determination. In 1727--the year of George the First's
+decease--he obtained the disfranchisement of Catholic
+electors by a clause quietly inserted without notice in
+a Bill regulating elections; and soon after he laid the
+foundations of those nurseries of proselytism, "the
+Charter Schools."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+REIGN OF GEORGE II.--GROWTH OF PUBLIC SPIRIT--THE
+"PATRIOT" PARTY--LORD CHESTERFIELD'S ADMINISTRATION.
+
+The accession of King George II. in 1727, led to no
+considerable changes, either in England or Ireland. Sir
+Robert Walpole continued supreme in the one country, and
+Primate Boulter in the other. The Jacobites, disheartened
+by their ill success in 1715, and repelled rather than
+attracted by the austere character of him they called
+King James III., made no sign. The new King's first act
+was to make public the declaration he had addressed to
+the Privy Council, of his firm resolution to uphold the
+existing constitution "in church and state."
+
+The Catholic population, beginning once more to raise
+their heads, thought this a suitable occasion to present
+a humble and loyal address of congratulation to the Lords
+Justices, in the absence of the Viceroy. Lord Delvin and
+several of their number accordingly appeared at the
+Castle, and delivered their address, which they begged
+might be forwarded to the foot of the throne. No notice
+whatever was taken of this document, either at Dublin or
+London, nor were the class who signed it permitted by
+law to "testify their allegiance" to the sovereign, for
+fifty years later--down to 1778.
+
+The Duke of Dorset, who succeeded Lord Carteret as Viceroy
+in 1731, unlike his immediate predecessor, refrained from
+suggesting additional severities against the Catholics.
+His first term of office--two years--was almost entirely
+occupied with the fiercest controversy which had ever
+waged in Ireland between the Established Church and the
+Protestant Dissenters. The ground of the dispute was
+the sacramental test, imposed by law upon the members of
+both Houses, and all burgesses and councillors of corporate
+towns. By the operations of this law, when rigidly
+enforced, Presbyterians and other dissenters were as
+effectually excluded from political and municipal offices
+as Catholics themselves. Against this exclusion it was
+natural that a body so numerous, and possessed of so much
+property, especially in Ulster, should make a vigorous
+resistance. Relying on the great share they had in the
+revolution, they endeavoured, though ineffectually, to
+obtain under King William the repeal of the Test Act of
+King Charles II. Under Queen Anne they were equally
+unsuccessful, as we may still read with interest in the
+pages of Swift, De Foe, Tennison, Boyse, and King. Swift,
+especially, brought to the controversy not only the zeal
+of a churchman, but the prejudices of an Anglo-Irishman,
+against the new-comers in the north. He upbraids them in
+1708, as glad to leave then--barren hills of Lochaber
+for the fruitful vales of Down and Antrim, for their
+parsimony and their clannishness. He denied to them,
+with bitter scorn, the title they had assumed of "Brother
+Protestants," and as to the Papists, whom they affected
+to despise, they were, in his opinion, as much superior
+to the Dissenters, as a lion, though chained and clipped
+of its claws, is a stronger and nobler animal than an
+angry cat, at liberty to fly at the throats of true
+churchmen. The language of the Presbyterian champions
+was equally bold, denunciatory, and explicit. They broadly
+intimated, in a memorial to Parliament, that under the
+operation of the test, they would be unable to take up
+arms again, as they had done in 1688, for the maintenance
+of the Protestant succession; a covert menace of
+insurrection, which Swift and their other opponents did
+not fail to make the most of. Still farther to embarrass
+them, Swift got up a paper making out a much stronger
+case in favour of the Catholics than of "their brethren,
+the Dissenters," and the controversy closed, for that
+age, in the complete triumph of the established clergy.
+
+This iniquitous deprivation of equal civil rights,
+accompanied with the onerous burthen of tithes falling
+heaviest on the cultivators of the soil, produced the
+first great Irish exodus to the North American colonies.
+The tithe of agistment or pasturage, lately abolished,
+had made the tithe of tillage more unjust and unequal.
+Outraged in their dearest civil and religious rights,
+thousands of the Scoto-Irish of Ulster, and the Milesian
+and Anglo-Irish of the other provinces, preferred to
+encounter the perils of an Atlantic flitting rather than
+abide under the yoke and lash of such an oligarchy. In
+the year 1729, five thousand six hundred Irish landed at
+the single port of Philadelphia; in the next ten years
+they furnished to the Carolinas and Georgia the majority
+of their immigrants; before the end of this reign, several
+thousands of heads of families, all bred and married in
+Ireland, were rearing up a free posterity along the slopes
+of the Blue Ridge in Virginia and Maryland, and even as
+far north as the valleys of the Hudson and the Merrimac.
+In the ranks of the thirteen United Colonies, the
+descendants of those Nonconformists were to repeat, for
+the benefit of George III., the lesson and example their
+ancestors had taught to James II. at Enniskillen and
+at Derry.
+
+Swift, with all his services to his own order, disliked,
+and was disliked by them. Of the bishops he has recorded
+his utter contempt in some of the most cutting couplets
+that even he ever wrote. Boulter he detested; Narcissus
+Marsh he despised; with Dr. King of Dublin, Dr. Bolton
+of Cashel, and Dr. Horte of Tuam, he barely kept up
+appearances. Except Sterne, Bishop of Clogher, Berkely,
+Bishop of Cloyne, and Stopford, his successor, he
+entertained neither friendship nor respect for one of
+that order. And on their part, the right reverend prelates
+cordially reciprocated his antipathy. They resisted his
+being made a member of the Linen Board, a Justice of the
+Peace, or a Visitor of Trinity College. Had he appeared
+amongst them in Parliament as their peer, they would have
+been compelled to accept him as a master, or combine
+against him as an enemy. No wonder, then, that successive
+Viceroys shrank from nominating him to any of the mitres
+which death had emptied; "the original sin of his birth"
+was aggravated in their eyes by the actual sin of his
+patriotism. No wonder the sheets of paper that littered
+his desk, before he sunk into his last sad scene of
+dotage, were found scribbled all over with his favourite
+lines--
+
+   "Better we all were in our graves,
+    Than live in slavery to slaves."
+
+But the seeds of manly thought he had so broadly sown,
+though for a season hidden even from the sight of the
+sower, were not dead, nor undergoing decay. With something
+of the prudence of the founder, "the Patriot party," as
+the opposition to the Castle party began to be called,
+occupied themselves at first with questions of taxation
+and expenditure. In 1729, the Castle attempted to make
+it appear that there was a deficit--that in short "the
+country owed the government"--the large sum of 274,000
+pounds! The Patriots met this claim, by a motion for
+reducing the cost of all public establishments. This was
+the chosen ground of both parties, and a more popularly
+intelligible ground could not be taken. Between retrenchment
+and extravagance, between high taxes and low, even the
+least educated of the people could easily decide; and
+thenceforward for upwards of twenty years, no session
+was held without a spirited debate on the supplies, and
+the whole subject of the public expenditure.
+
+The Duke of Devonshire, who succeeded the Duke of Dorset
+as Viceroy in 1737, contributed by his private munificence
+and lavish hospitalities to throw a factitious popularity
+round his administration. No Dublin tradesman could find
+it in his heart to vote against the nominee of so liberal
+a nobleman, and the public opinion of Dublin was as yet
+the public opinion of Ireland. But the Patriot party,
+though unable to stem successfully the tide of corruption
+and seduction thus let loose, held their difficult position
+in the legislature with great gallantry and ability.
+New men had arisen during the dotage of Swift, who revered
+his maxims, and imitated his prudence. Henry Boyle,
+speaker of the House of Commons, afterwards Earl of
+Shannon; Anthony Malone--son of the _confrere_ of Sir
+Toby Butler, and afterwards Chancellor of the Exchequer,
+Sir Edward O'Brien, member for Clare, and his son, Sir
+Lucius, member for Ennis, were the pillars of the party.
+Out of doors, the most active spirit among the Patriots
+was Charles Lucas, a native of Clare, who, from his
+apothecary's shop in Dublin, attempted, not without both
+talents, zeal and energy, to play the part of Swift, at
+the press and among the people. His public writings,
+commenced in 1741, brought him at first persecution and
+exile, but they afterwards conducted him to the
+representation of the capital, and an honourable niche
+in his country's history.
+
+The great event which may be said to divide into two
+epochs the reign of George II. was the daring invasion
+of Scotland in 1745, by "the young Pretender"--Charles
+Edward. This brave and unfortunate Prince, whose adventures
+will live for ever in Scottish song and romance, was
+accompanied from France by Sir Thomas Sheridan, Colonel
+O'Sullivan, and other Irish refugees, still fondly attached
+to the house of Stuart. It is not to be supposed that
+these gentlemen would be without correspondents in Ireland,
+nor that the state of that country could be a matter of
+indifference to the astute advisers of King George. In
+reality, Ireland was almost as much their difficulty as
+Scotland, and their choice of a Viceroy, at this critical
+moment, showed at once their estimate of the importance
+of the position, and the talents of the man.
+
+Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, a great
+name in the world of fashion, in letters, and in diplomacy,
+is especially memorable to us for his eight months'
+viceroyalty over Ireland. That office had been long the
+object of his ambition, and he could hardly have attained
+it at a time better calculated to draw out his eminent
+administrative abilities. By temper and conviction opposed
+to persecution, he connived at Catholic worship under
+the very walls of the Castle. The sour and jaundiced
+bigotry of the local oligarchy he encountered with _bon
+mots_ and raillery. The only "dangerous Papist" he had
+seen in Ireland, he declared to the King on his return,
+was a celebrated beauty of that religion--Miss Palmer.
+Relying on the magical effect of doing justice to all
+classes, and seeing justice done, he was enabled to spare
+four regiments of troops for the war in Scotland, instead
+of demanding additions to the Irish garrisons. But
+whether to diminish the influence which his brilliant
+administration had created in England, or through the
+machinations of the oligarchy, still powerful at Dublin,
+within ten days from the decisive battle of Culloden, he
+was recalled. The fruits of his policy might be already
+observed, as he walked on foot, his countess on his arm,
+to the place of embarkation, amid the acclamations of
+all ranks and classes of the people, and their affectionate
+prayers for his speedy return.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE LAST JACOBITE MOVEMENT--THE IRISH SOLDIERS ABROAD--
+FRENCH EXPEDITION UNDER THUROT, OR O'FARRELL.
+
+The mention of the Scottish insurrection of 1745 brings
+naturally with it another reference to the history of
+the Irish soldiers in the military service of France.
+This year was in truth the most eventful in the annals
+of that celebrated legion, for while it was the year of
+Fontenoy and victory on the one hand, it was on the other
+the year of Culloden and defeat.
+
+The decisive battle of Fontenoy, in which the Franco-Irish
+troops bore so decisive a part, was fought on the 11th
+of May, 1745. The French army, commanded by Saxe, and
+accompanied by King Louis, leaving 18,000 men to besiege
+Namur, and 6,000 to guard the Scheldt, took a position
+between that river and the allies, having their centre
+at the village of Fontenoy. The British and Dutch, under
+the King's favourite son, the Duke of Cumberland, were
+55,000 strong; the French 45,000. After a hard day's
+fighting, victory seemed to declare so clearly against
+France, that King Louis, who was present, prepared for
+flight. At this moment Marshal Saxe ordered a final charge
+by the seven Irish regiments under Counts Dillon and
+Thomond. The tide was turned, beyond expectation, to the
+cry of "Remember Limerick!" France was delivered, England
+checked, and Holland reduced from a first to a second-rate
+power upon that memorable day. But the victory was dearly
+bought. One-fourth of all the Irish officers, including
+Count Dillon, were killed, and one-third of all the men.
+The whole number slain on the side of France was set down
+at 7,000 by English accounts, while they admitted for
+themselves alone, 4,000 British and 3,300 Hanoverians
+and Dutch. "Foremost of all," says the just-minded Lord
+Mahon, "were the gallant brigade of Irish exiles." It
+was this defeat of his favourite son which wrung from
+King George II. the oft-quoted malediction on the laws
+which deprived him of such subjects.
+
+The expedition of Prince Charles Edward was undertaken
+and conducted by Irish aid, quite as much as by French
+or Scottish. The chief parties to it, besides the old
+Marquis of Tullibardine and the young Duke of Perth, were
+the Waterses, father and son, Irish bankers at Paris,
+who advanced one hundred and eighty thousand livres
+between them; Walsh, an Irish merchant at Nantz, who put
+a privateer of eighteen guns into the venture; Sir Thomas
+Geraldine, the Pretender's agent at Paris; Sir Thomas
+Sheridan, the prince's preceptor, who, with Colonels
+O'Sullivan and Lynch, Captain O'Neil, and other officers
+of the brigade, formed the staff, on which Sir John
+McDonald, a Scottish officer in the Spanish service, was
+also placed. Fathers Kelly and O'Brien volunteered in
+the expedition. On the 22nd of June, 1745, with seven
+friends, the prince embarked in Walsh's vessel, the
+Doutelle, at St. Nazaire, on the Loire, and on the 19th
+of July, landed on the northern coast of Scotland, near
+Moidart. The Scottish chiefs, little consulted or considered
+beforehand, came slowly and dubiously to the landing-place.
+Under their patriarchal control there were still in the
+kingdom about a hundred thousand men, and about one-twelfth
+of the Scottish population. Clanronald, Cameron of Lochiel,
+the Laird of McLeod, and a few others, having arrived,
+the royal standard was unfurled on the 19th of August at
+Glenfinin, where that evening twelve hundred men--the
+entire army so far--were formed into camp, under the
+orders of O'Sullivan. From that day until the day of
+Culloden, O'Sullivan seems to have manoeuvred the prince's
+forces. At Perth, at Edinburgh, at Preston, at Manchester,
+at Culloden, he took command in the field, or in garrison;
+and even after the sad result, he adhered to his sovereign's
+son with an honourable fidelity which defied despair.
+
+Charles, on his part, placed full confidence in his Irish
+officers. In his proclamation after the battle of Preston,
+he declared it was not his intention to enforce on the
+people of England, Scotland, or Ireland, "a religion they
+disliked." In a subsequent paper, he asks, "Have you
+found reason to love and cherish your governors as the
+fathers of the people of Great Britain and Ireland? Has
+a family upon whom a faction unlawfully bestowed the
+diadem of a rightful prince, retained a due sense of so
+great a trust and favour?" These and his other proclamations
+betrayed an Irish pen; probably Sir Thomas Sheridan's.
+One of Charles's English adherents, Lord Elcho, who kept
+a journal of the campaign, notes, complainingly, the
+Irish influence under which he acted. "The prince and
+his old governor, Sir Thomas Sheridan," are especially
+objected to, and the "Irish favourites" are censured in
+a body. While at Edinburgh, a French ship, containing
+some arms, supplies, and "Irish officers," arrived; at
+the same time efforts were made to recruit for the prince
+in Ireland; but the agents being taken in some cases,
+the channel narrowly watched, and the people not very
+eager to join the service, few recruits were obtained.
+
+The Irish in France, as if to cover the inaction of their
+countrymen at home, strained every nerve. The Waterses
+and O'Brien of Paris were liberal bankers to the expedition.
+Into their hands James "exhausted his treasury" to support
+his gallant son. At Fontainebleau, on the 23rd of October,
+Colonel O'Brien, on the part of the prince, and the
+Marquis D'Argeusson for Louis XV., formed a treaty of
+"friendship and alliance," one of the clauses of which
+was, that certain Irish regiments, and other French
+troops, should be sent to sustain the expedition. Under
+Lord John Drummond a thousand men were shipped from
+Dunkirk, and arrived at Montrose in the Highlands about
+the time Charles had penetrated as far south as Manchester.
+The officers, with the prince, here refused to advance
+on London with so small a force; a retreat was decided
+on; the sturdy defence of Carlisle, and victory of Falkirk,
+checked the pursuit; but the overwhelming force of the
+Duke of Cumberland compelled them to evacuate Edinburgh,
+Perth, and Glasgow--operations which consumed February,
+March, and the first half of April, 1746.
+
+The next plan of operations seems to have been to
+concentrate in the western Highlands, with Inverness for
+head-quarters. The town Charles easily got, but
+Fort-George, a powerful fortress, built upon the site of
+the castle where Macbeth was said to have murdered Duncan,
+commanded the Loch. Stapleton and his Irish, captured
+it, however, as well as the neighbouring Fort-Augustus.
+Joined by some Highlanders, they next attempted
+Fort-William, the last fortress of King George in the
+north, but on the 3rd of April were recalled to the
+main body.
+
+To cover Inverness, his head-quarters, Charles resolved
+to give battle. The ground chosen, flanked by the river
+Nairn, was spotted with marsh and very irregular; it was
+called Culloden, and was selected by O'Sullivan. Brigadier
+Stapleton and Colonel Kerr reported against it as a field
+of battle; but Charles adopted O'Sullivan's opinion of
+its fitness for Highland warfare. When the preparations
+for battle began, "many voices exclaimed, 'We'll give
+Cumberland another Fontenoy!'" The Jacobites were placed
+in position by O'Sullivan, "at once their adjutant and
+quarter-master-general," and, as the burghers of Preston
+thought, "a very likely fellow." He formed two lines,
+the great clans being in the first, the Ogilvies, Gordons,
+and Murrays; the French and Irish in the second. Four
+pieces of cannon flanked each wing, and four occupied
+the centre. Lord George Murray commanded the right wing,
+Lord John Drummond the left, and Brigadier Stapleton the
+reserve. They mustered in all less than five thousand
+men. The British formed in three lines, ten thousand
+strong, with two guns between every second regiment of
+the first and second line. The action commenced about
+noon of April 16th, and before evening half the troops
+of Prince Charles lay dead on the field, and the rest
+were hopelessly broken. The retreat was pell-mell, except
+where "a troop of the Irish pickets, by a spirited fire,
+checked the pursuit, which a body of dragoons commenced
+after the Macdonalds, and Lord Lewis Gordon's regiments
+did similar service." Stapleton conducted the French and
+Irish remnant to Inverness, and obtained for them by
+capitulation "fair quarter and honourable treatment."
+
+The unhappy prince remained on the field almost to the
+last. "It required," says Mr. Chambers, "all the
+eloquence, and, indeed, all the active exertion, of
+O'Sullivan to make Charles quit the field. A cornet in
+his service, when questioned on this subject at the point
+of death, declared he saw O'Sullivan, after using entreaties
+in vain, turn the head of the prince's horse and drag
+him away."
+
+From that night forth, O'Sullivan, O'Neil, and a poor
+sedan carrier of Edinburgh, called Burke, accompanied
+him in all his wanderings and adventures among the Scottish
+islands. At Long Island they were obliged to part company,
+the prince proceeding alone with Miss Flora McDonald. He
+had not long left, when a French cutter hove in sight
+and took off O'Sullivan, intending to touch at another
+point, and take in the prince and O'Neil. The same night
+she was blown off the coast, and the prince, after many
+other adventures, was finally taken off at Badenoch, on
+the 15th of September, 1746, by the L'Heureux, a French
+armed vessel, in which Captain Sheridan (son of Sir
+Thomas), Mr. O'Beirne, a lieutenant in the French army,
+"and two other gentlemen," had adventured in search of
+him. Poor O'Neil, in seeking to rejoin his master, was
+taken prisoner, carried to London, and is lost from the
+record. O'Sullivan reached France safely, where, with
+Stapleton, Lynch, and the Irish and Scotch officers, he
+was welcomed and honoured of all brave men.
+
+Such was the last struggle of the Stuarts. For years
+after, the popular imagination in both countries clung
+fondly to Prince Charles. But the cause was dead. As if
+to bury it for ever, Charles, in despair, grew dissipated
+and desponding. In 1755, "the British Jacobites" sent
+Colonel McNamara, as their agent, to induce him to put
+away his mistress, Miss Walsingham, a demand with which
+he haughtily refused to comply. In 1766, when James III.
+died at Avignon, the French king and the Pope refused to
+acknowledge the prince by the title of Charles III. When
+the latter died, in 1788, at Rome, Cardinal York contented
+himself with having a medal struck, with the inscription
+"Henricus IX., Anglae Rex." He was the last of the Stuarts.
+
+Notwithstanding the utter defeat of the Scottish expedition,
+and the scatterment of the surviving companies of the
+brigade on all sorts of service from Canada to India,
+there were many of the exiled Irish in France, who did
+not yet despair of a national insurrection against the
+house of Hanover. In the year 1759, an imposing expedition
+was fitted out at Brest under Admiral Conflaus, and
+another at Dunkirk, under Commodore Thurot, whose real
+name was O'Farrell. The former, soon after putting to
+sea, was encountered at Quiberon by the English under
+Hawke, and completely defeated; but the latter entered
+the British channel unopposed, and proceeded to the
+appointed _rendezvous_. While cruising in search of
+Conflaus, the autumnal equinox drove the intrepid Thurot
+into the Northern ocean, and compelled him to winter
+among the frozen friths of Norway and the Orkneys. One
+of his five frigates returned to France, another was
+never heard of, but with the remaining three he emerged
+from the Scottish Islands, and entered Lough Foyle early
+in 1760. He did not, however, attempt a landing at Derry,
+but appeared suddenly before Carrickfergus, on the 21st
+of February, and demanded its surrender. Placing himself
+at the head of his marines and sailors, he attacked the
+town, which, after a brave resistance by the commandant,
+Colonel Jennings, he took by assault. Here, for the first
+time, this earlier Paul Jones heard of the defeat of his
+admiral; after levying contributions on the rich burgesses
+and proprietors of Carrickfergus and Belfast, he again
+put to sea. His ships, battered by the wintry storms
+which they had undergone in northern latitudes, fell in
+near the Isle of Man with three English frigates, just
+out of port, under Commodore Elliott. A gallant action
+ensued, in which Thurot, or O'Farrell, and three hundred
+of his men were killed. The survivors struck to the
+victors, and the French ships were towed in a sinking
+state, into the port of Ramsey.
+
+The life thus lost in the joint service of France and
+Ireland, was a life illustrative of the Irish refugee
+class among whom he became a leader. Left an orphan in
+childhood, O'Farrell, though of a good family, had been
+bred in France in so menial a condition that he first
+visited England as a domestic servant. From that condition
+he rose to be a dexterous and successful captain in the
+contraband trade, so extensive in those times. In this
+capacity he visited almost every port of either channel,
+acquiring that accurate knowledge which, added to his
+admitted bravery and capacity, placed him at length at
+the head of a French squadron. "Throughout the expedition,"
+says Lord Mahon, "the honour and humanity of this brave
+adventurer are warmly acknowledged by his enemies." "He
+fought his ship," according to the same author, "until
+the hold was almost filled with water, and the deck
+covered with dead bodies."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+REIGN OF GEORGE II. (CONCLUDED)--MALONE'S LEADERSHIP.
+
+The Earl of Harrington, afterwards Duke of Devonshire,
+succeeded Lord Chesterfield in the government, in 1746.
+He was provided with a prime minister in the person of
+the new Archbishop of Armagh, Dr. George Stone, whose
+character, if he was not exceedingly calumniated by his
+cotemporaries, might be compared to that of the worst
+politicians of the worst ages of Europe. Originally, the
+son of the jailer of Winchester, he had risen by dint of
+talents, and audacity, to receive from the hands of his
+sovereign, the illustrious dignity of Primate of Ireland.
+But even in this exalted office, the abominable vices of
+his youth accompanied him. His house at Leixlip, was at
+once a tavern and a brothel, and crimes, which are
+nameless, were said to be habitual under his roof. "May
+the importation of Ganymedes into Ireland, be soon
+discontinued," was the public toast, which disguised
+under the transparent gauze of a mythological allusion,
+the infamies of which he was believed to be the patron.
+The prurient page of Churchill was not quite so scrupulous,
+and the readers of the satire entitled "The Times," will
+need no further key to the horrible charges commonly
+received on both sides of the channel, against Primate
+Stone.
+
+The viceroyalty of Ireland, which had become an object
+of ambition to the first men in the empire, was warmly
+contested by the Earl of Harrington and the Duke of
+Dorset. The former, through his Stanhope influence and
+connections, prevailed over his rival, and arrived in
+Ireland, warmly recommended by the popular Chesterfield.
+During his administration, Primate Stone, proceeding from
+one extreme to another, first put forward the dangerous
+theory, that all surplus revenue belonged of right to
+the crown, and might be paid over by the Vice-Treasurers,
+to his majesty's order, without authority of Parliament.
+At this period, notwithstanding the vicious system of
+her land tenures, and her recent losses by emigration,
+Ireland found herself in possession of a considerable
+surplus revenue.
+
+Like wounds and bruises in a healthy body, the sufferings
+and deprivations of the population rapidly disappeared
+under the appearance even of improvement in the government.
+The observant Chesterfield, who continued through life
+warmly attached to the country in which his name was
+remembered with so much affection, expresses to his
+friend, Chevenix, Bishop of Waterford, in 1751, his
+satisfaction at hearing "that Ireland improves daily,
+and that a spirit of industry spreads itself, to the
+great increase of trade and manufactures." This new-born
+prosperity the Primate and politicians of his school
+would have met by an annual depletion of the treasury,
+instead of assisting its march by the reduction of taxes,
+and the promotion of necessary public works. The surplus
+was naturally regarded, by the Patriot party, in the
+light of so much national capital; they looked upon it
+as an improvement fund, for the construction of canals,
+highways, and breakwaters, for the encouragement of the
+linen and other manufactures, and for the adornment of
+the capital with edifices worthy of the chief city of a
+flourishing kingdom.
+
+The leader of the Patriot party, Anthony Malone, was
+compared at this period, by an excellent authority, to
+"a great sea in a calm." He was considered, even by the
+fastidious Lord Shelburne, the equal, in oratory, of
+Chatham and Mansfield. He seems to have at all times,
+however, sunk the mere orator in the statesman, and to
+have used his great powers of argument even more in
+Council than in the arena. His position at the bar, as
+Prime Sergeant, by which he took precedence even of the
+Attorney-General, gave great weight to his opinions on
+all questions of constitutional law. The roystering
+country gentlemen, who troubled their heads but little
+with anything besides dogs and horses, pistols and claret,
+felt secure in their new-fledged patriotism, under the
+broad aegis of the law extended over them by the most
+eminent lawyer of his age. The Speaker of the Commons,
+Henry Boyle, aided and assisted Malone, and when left
+free to combat on the floor, his high spirit and great
+fortune gave additional force to his example and confidence
+to his followers. Both were men too cautious to allow
+their adversaries any parliamentary advantage over them,
+but not so their intrepid coadjutor out of doors, Apothecary
+Lucas. He, like Swift, rising from local and municipal
+grievances to questions affecting the constitution of
+Parliament itself, was in 1749, against all the efforts
+of his friends in the House of Commons, declared by the
+majority of that House to be "an enemy to his country,"
+and a reward was accordingly issued for his apprehension.
+For a time he was compelled to retire to England; but he
+returned, to celebrate in his Freeman's Journal the
+humiliation of the primate, and the defeat of the policy
+both of Lord Harrington, and his successor, the Duke of
+Dorset.
+
+This nobleman, resolved to cast his predecessor into the
+shade by the brilliancy of his success, proceeded to take
+vigorous measures against the patriots. In his first
+speech to Parliament in 1751, he informed them his Majesty
+"consented" to the appropriation of the surplus revenue,
+by the House of Commons, and a clause was added to the
+annual supply bill in the English Council, containing
+the same obnoxious word, "consent." On this occasion,
+not feeling themselves strong enough to throw out the
+bill, and there being no alternative but rejection or
+acceptance, the Patriots permitted it to pass under
+protest. But the next session, when a similar addition
+was made, the Commons rejected the supply bill altogether,
+by a majority of 122 to 117. This was a measure of almost
+revolutionary consequence, since it left every branch of
+the public service unprovided for, for the ensuing twelve
+months.
+
+Both the advisers of the King in England, and the Viceroy
+in Ireland, seemed by their insane conduct as if they
+desired to provoke such a collision. Malone's patent of
+precedence as Prime Sergeant was cancelled; the speaker
+was dismissed from the Privy Council, and the surplus
+revenue was withdrawn from the Vice-Treasurer, by a King's
+letter. The indignation of the Dubliners at these outrages
+rose to the utmost pitch. Stone, Healy, Hutchinson, and
+others of the Castle party, were waylaid and menaced in
+the streets, and the Viceroy himself hooted wherever he
+appeared. Had the popular leaders been men less cautious,
+or less influential, the year 1753 might have witnessed
+a violent revolutionary movement. But they planted
+themselves on the authority of the constitution, they
+united boldness with prudence, and they triumphed. The
+Primate and his creatures raised against them in vain
+the cuckoo cry of disloyalty, both in Dublin and London.
+The English Whigs, long engaged themselves in a similar
+struggle with the overgrown power of the crown, sympathized
+with the Irish opposition, and defended their motives
+both in society and in Parliament. The enemies of the
+Dorset family as naturally took their part, and the duke
+himself was obliged to go over to protect his interest
+at court, leaving the odious Primate as one of the
+Lords-Justices. At his departure his guards were hardly
+able to protect him from the fury of the populace, to
+that waterside to which Chesterfield had walked on foot,
+seven years before, amid the benedictions of the same
+people.
+
+The Patriots had at this crisis a great addition to their
+strength, in the accession of James, the twentieth Earl
+of Kildare, successively Marquis and Duke of Leinster.
+This nobleman, in the prime of life, married to the
+beautiful Emily Lennox, daughter of the Duke of Richmond,
+followed Dorset to England, and presented to the King,
+with his own hand, one of the boldest memorials ever
+addressed to a sovereign by a subject. After reciting
+the past services of his family in maintaining the imperial
+connection, he declared himself the organ of several
+thousands of his Majesty's liege subjects, "as well the
+nobles as the clergy, the gentry, and the commonalty of
+the kingdom." He dwells on the peculation and extravagance
+of the administration, under "the Duumvirate" of the
+Viceroy and the Primate, which he compares with the league
+of Strafford and Laud. He denounces more especially Lord
+George Sackville, son to Dorset, for his intermeddling
+in every branch of administration. He speaks of Dr. Stone
+as "a greedy churchman, who affects to be a second Wolsey
+in the senate." This high-toned memorial struck with
+astonishment the English ministers, who did not hesitate
+to hint, that, in a reign less merciful, it would not
+have passed with impunity. In Ireland it raised the hardy
+earl to the pinnacle of popular favour. A medal was struck
+in his honour, representing him guarding a heap of treasure
+with a drawn sword, and the motto--"Touch not, says
+Kildare." At the opening of the next Parliament, he was
+a full hour making his way among the enthusiastic crowd,
+from his house in Kildare street to College Green. In
+little more than a year, the Duke of Dorset, whom English
+ministers had in vain endeavoured to sustain, was removed,
+and the Primate, by his Majesty's orders, was struck
+from the list of privy counsellors.
+
+Lord Harrington, now Duke of Devonshire, replaced the
+disgraced and defeated Dorset, and at once surrounded
+himself with advisers from the ranks of the opposition.
+The Earl of Kildare was his personal and political friend,
+and his first visit, on arriving, was paid at Carton.
+The Speaker, Mr. Boyle, the Earl of Bessborough, head of
+the popular family of the Ponsonbys, and Mr. Malone, were
+called to the Privy Council. Lucas, exalted rather than
+injured by years of exile, was elected one of the members
+for the city of Dublin, and the whole face of affairs
+promised a complete and salutary change of administration.
+
+After a year in office, Devonshire returned to England
+in ill-health, leaving Lord Kildare as one of the Justices,
+an office which he continued to fill, till the arrival
+in September, 1756, of John, fourth Duke of Bedford, as
+Lord-Lieutenant, with Mr. Rigby, "a good four bottle
+man," as chief secretary.
+
+The instructions of the Duke of Bedford, dictated by the
+genius and wisdom of Chatham, were, to employ "all
+softening and healing arts of government." His own desire,
+as a Whig, at the head of the Whig families of England,
+was to unite and consolidate the same party in Ireland,
+so as to make them a powerful auxiliary force to the
+English Whigs. Consistently with this design, lie wished
+well to the country he was sent to rule, and was sincerely
+desirous of promoting measures of toleration. But he
+found the Patriots distracted by success, and disorganized
+by the possession of power. The Speaker, who had struggled
+so successfully against his predecessors, was in the
+Upper House as Earl of Shannon, and the chair of the
+Commons was filled by John Ponsonby, of the Bessborough
+family. The Ponsonby following, and the Earl of Kildare's
+friends were at this period almost as much divided from
+each other in their views of public policy, as either
+were from the party of the Primate. The Ponsonby party,
+still directed by Malone, wished to follow up the recent
+victory on the money bills, by a measure of Catholic
+relief, a tax upon absentees, and a reduction of the
+pension list, shamelessly burthened beyond all former
+proportion. Lord Kildare and his friends were not then
+prepared to go such lengths, though that high spirited
+nobleman afterwards came into most of these measures.
+After endeavouring in vain to unite, these two interests,
+the Duke of Bedford found, or fancied himself compelled,
+in order to secure a parliamentary majority, to listen
+to the overtures of the, obsequious Primate, to restore
+him to the Council, and to leave him, together with his
+old enemy, Lord Shannon, in the situation of joint
+administrators, during his journey to England, in 1758.
+The Earl of Kildare, it should be remarked, firmly refused
+to be associated with Stone, on any terms, or for any
+time, long or short.
+
+The closing of this important reign is notable for the
+first Catholic meeting held since the reign of Queen
+Anne. In the spring of 1757, four hundred respectable
+gentlemen attended by mutual agreement, at Dublin, among
+whom were Lords Devlin, Taafe, and Fingal, the antiquary,
+Charles O'Conor, of Balanagar, the historian of the _Civil
+Wars_, Dr. Curry, and Mr. Wyse, a merchant of Waterford,
+the ancestor of a still better known labourer in the same
+cause. The then recent persecution of Mr. Saul, a Dublin
+merchant, of their faith, for having harboured a young
+lady whose friends wished to coerce her into a change of
+religion, gave particular significance to this assembly.
+It is true the proceedings were characterized by caution
+amounting almost to timidity, but the unanimous declaration
+of their loyal attachment to the throne, at a moment when
+French invasion was imminent, produced the best effect,
+and greatly strengthened the hands of the Clanbrassils,
+Ponsonbys, Malones, Dalys, and other advocates of an
+enlarged toleration in both Houses. It is true no immediate
+legislation followed, but the way was prepared for future
+ameliorations by the discretion and tact of the Catholic
+delegates of 1757. They were thenceforth allowed at least
+the right of meeting and petitioning, of which they had
+long been deprived, and the restoration of which marks
+the first step in their gradual recovery of their civil
+liberties.
+
+In 1759 a rumour broke out in Dublin that a legislative
+union was in contemplation by the Primate and his faction.
+On the 3rd of December, the citizens rose _en masse_,
+and surrounded the Houses of Parliament. They stopped
+the carriages of members, and obliged them to swear
+opposition to such a measure. Some of the Protestant
+bishops, and the Lord Chancellor were roughly handled;
+a privy counsellor was thrown into the river; the Attorney
+General was wounded and obliged to take refuge in the
+college; Lord Inchiquin was abused till he said his name
+was O'Brien, when the rage of the people "was turned into
+acclamations." The Speaker, Mr. Ponsonby, and the Chief
+Secretary, Mr. Rigby, had to appear in the porch of the
+House of Commons, solemnly to assure the citizens that
+no union was dreamed of, and if it was proposed, that
+they would be the first to resist it. Public spirit had
+evidently grown bold and confident, and we can well
+believe Secretary Rigby when he writes to the elder Pitt,
+that "the mob" declared, "since they have no chance of
+numbers in the House, they must have recourse to numbers
+out of doors."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+ACCESSION OF GEORGE III.--FLOOD'S LEADERSHIP--
+OCTENNIAL PARLIAMENTS ESTABLISHED.
+
+George III., grandson of the late king, commenced, in
+October, 1760, at the age of two and twenty, the longest
+reign in British history. Including the period of the
+regency, he reigned over his empire nearly sixty years
+--an extraordinary term of royal power, and quite as
+extraordinary for its events as for its extreme length.
+
+The great movement of the Irish mind, at the beginning
+of this reign, was the limitation of the duration of
+Parliament, hitherto elected for the King's life. This
+reform, long advocated out of doors, and by the more
+progressive members within the House, was reserved for
+the new Parliament under the new reign. To this Parliament
+were returned several men of great promise, men of a new
+generation, nurtured in the school of Swift and Malone,
+but going even beyond their masters in their determination
+to liberate the legislature of their country from the
+undue influence of the crown and the castle. Among those
+new members were three destined to national celebrity,
+Dr. Lucas, Mr. Hussey Burgh, and Mr. Dennis Bowes Daly;
+and one destined to universal reputation--Henry Flood.
+This gentleman, the son of a former Chief Justice,
+intermarried into the powerful oligarchical family of
+the Beresfords, was only in his 28th year when first
+elected member for Kilkenny; but, in point of genius and
+acquirements, he was even then the first man in Ireland,
+and one of the first in the empire. For a session or two
+he silently observed the forms of the House, preparing
+himself for the great contest to come; but when at last
+he obtained the ear of his party he was heard to some
+purpose. Though far from advocating extreme measures,
+he had abundant boldness; he was not open to the objection
+levelled against the leader of the past generation, Mr.
+Malone, of whom Grattan said, "he was a colony-bred man,
+and he feared to bring down England upon Ireland."
+
+The Duke of Bedford vacated the viceroyalty in 1761, and
+Lord Halifax took his place. In the first parliamentary
+session, Dr. Lucas introduced his resolutions limiting
+the duration of Parliament to seven years, a project
+which Flood afterwards adopted and mainly contributed to
+carry. The heads of the bill embodying these resolutions
+were transmitted to London by the Lord-Lieutenant, but
+never returned. In 1763, under the government of the
+Marquis of Hertford, similar resolutions were introduced
+and carried, but a similar fate awaited them. Again they
+were passed, and again rejected, the popular dissatisfaction
+rising higher and higher with every delay of the reform.
+At length, in the session of 1767, "the Septennial Bill,"
+as it was called, was returned from England, changed to
+octennial, and with this alteration it passed into law,
+in February, 1768. A new Parliament the same year was
+elected under the new act, to which all the friends of
+the measure were triumphantly returned. The faithful
+Lucas, however, survived his success little better than
+two years; he died amid the very sincere regrets of all
+men who were not enemies of their country. At his funeral
+the pall was borne by the Marquis of Kildare, Lord
+Charlemont, Mr. Flood, Mr. Hussey Burgh, Sir Lucius
+O'Brien, and Mr. Ponsonby.
+
+Lord Halifax, and his chief secretary, Mr. Hamilton (known
+to us as "the single-speech Hamilton," of literary
+history), received very graciously the loyal addresses
+presented by the Catholics, soon after his Majesty's
+accession. In a speech from the throne, the Viceroy
+proposed, but was obliged to abandon the proposition, to
+raise six regiments of Catholics, under their own officers,
+to be taken into the service of Portugal, the ally of
+Great Britain. His administration was otherwise remarkable
+neither for its length nor its importance; nor is there
+anything else of consequence to be mentioned of his
+lordship, except that his nephew, and chief secretary,
+had the honour to have Edmund Burke for his private
+secretary, and the misfortune to offend him.
+
+During the government of the Marquis of Hertford, and
+his successor, Lord Townsend (appointed in 1768), the
+Patriot party contended on the ground of rendering the
+judges independent, diminishing the pension list, and
+modifying the law of Poynings, requiring heads of bills
+to be sent into England, and certified by both Privy
+Councils, before they could be passed upon by the
+legislature. The question of supply, and that of the
+duration of Parliament, being settled, these reforms were
+the next objects of exertion. When we know that the late
+King's mistresses, the Queen Dowager of Prussia, Prince
+Ferdinand, and other connections of the royal family,
+equally alien to the country, were pensioners to the
+amount of thousands of pounds annually on the Irish
+establishment, we can understand more clearly the bitterness
+of the battle Mr. Flood and his colleagues were called
+upon to fight in assailing the old system. But they fought
+it resolutely and perseveringly. Death had removed their
+most unscrupulous enemy, Primate Stone, during the Hertford
+administration, and the improved tone and temper of public
+opinion would not tolerate any attempt to raise up a
+successor of similar character. Lord Townsend, an old
+campaigner and _bon vivant_, was expressly chosen as most
+capable of restoring the old system of government by
+closeting and corruption, but he found the Ireland of
+his day very materially altered from the defenceless
+province, which Stone and Dorset had attempted to cajole
+or to coerce, twenty years before.
+
+The Parliament of 1769--the first limited Parliament
+which Ireland had seen since the revolution--proved, in
+most respects, worthy of the expectations formed of it.
+John Ponsonby was chosen Speaker, and Flood regarded,
+around him, well-filled benches and cheering countenances.
+The usual supply bill was passed and sent up to the
+castle, but on its return from England was found to be
+altered--15,000 men, among other changes, being charged
+to the Irish military establishment, instead of 12,000,
+as formerly. The Commons, resolute to assert their rights,
+threw out the bill, as had been done in 1753, and the
+Lord Lieutenant, protesting in the House of Lords against
+their conduct, ordered them to be prorogued. Prorogation
+followed prorogation, till February, 1771, the interval
+being occupied in closeting and coquetting with members
+of the opposition, in the creation of new places, and
+the disposal of them to the relatives of those capable
+of being bought. No one was surprised, when the Houses
+reassembled, to find that a bare majority of the Commons
+voted a fulsome address of confidence to the Lord
+Lieutenant. But this address, Speaker Ponsonby indignantly
+refused to present. He preferred resignation to disgrace,
+and great was the amazement and indignation when his
+friend, Mr. Perry, elected by a bare majority, consented
+to take the post--no longer a post of honour. In justice
+to Mr, Perry, however, it must be added, that in the
+chair as on the floor of Parliament, he still continued
+the patriot--that if he advanced his own fortunes, it
+was not at the expense of the country--that some of the
+best measures passed by this and the subsequent Parliament,
+owed their final success, if not their first suggestion,
+to his far-seeing sagacity.
+
+The methods taken by Lord Townsend to effect his ends,
+not less than those ends themselves, aroused the spirit
+and combined the ranks of the Irish opposition. The press
+of Dublin teemed with philippics and satires, upon his
+creatures and himself. The wit, the scholarship, the
+elegant fancy, the irresistible torrent of eloquence, as
+well as the popular enthusiasm, were against him, and in
+1772, borne down by these combined forces, he confessed
+his failure by resigning the sword of state into the
+hands of Lord Harcourt.
+
+The new Viceroy, according to custom, began his reign by
+taking an exactly opposite course to his predecessor,
+and ended it by falling into nearly the same errors and
+abuses. He suggested an Absentee-tax, which was introduced
+by Flood, but rejected through the preponderating influence
+of the landed aristocracy. In preparing the tables of
+expenditure, he had caused arrears amounting to 265,000
+pounds, and an annual increase of 100,000 pounds, to be
+added to the estimates. Moreover, his supply bill was
+discovered, at the second reading, to extend over _two
+years_ instead of one--a discovery which occasioned the
+greatest indignation. Flood raised his powerful voice in
+warning, not unmingled with menace; Burgh declared, that
+if any member should again bring in such a bill, he would
+himself move his expulsion from the House; while George
+Ogle, member for Wexford, proposed that the bill itself
+should be burned before the porch, by the common hangman.
+He was reminded that the instrument bore the great seal;
+to which he boldly answered, that the seal would help to
+make it burn the better. It was not thought politic to
+take notice of this revolutionary retort.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+FLOOD'S LEADERSHIP--STATE OF THE COUNTRY BETWEEN
+1760 AND 1776.
+
+England was engaged in two great wars during the period
+of Flood's supremacy in the Irish Parliament--the seven
+years' war, concluded by the peace of Paris in 1763, and
+the American war, concluded by the treaty of Versailles,
+in 1783. To each of these wars Ireland was the second
+largest contributor both as to men and money; and by both
+she was the severest sufferer, in her manufactures, her
+provision trade, and her general prosperity. While army
+contracts, and all sorts of military and naval expenditure
+in a variety of ways returned to the people of England
+the produce of their taxes, the Irish had no such
+compensation for the burdens imposed on their more limited
+resources. The natural result was, that that incipient
+prosperity which Chesterfield hailed with pleasure in
+1751, was arrested in its growth, and fears began to be
+seriously entertained that the country would be driven
+back to the lamentable condition from which it had slowly
+and laboriously emerged during the reign of George II.
+
+The absence of employment in the towns threw the labouring
+classes more and more upon the soil for sustenance, while
+the landlord legislation of the period threw them as
+helplessly back upon other pursuits than agriculture.
+Agrarian injustice was encountered by conspiracy, and
+for the first time in these pages, we have to record the
+introduction of the diabolical machinery of secret
+oath-bound associations among the Irish peasantry. Of
+the first of these combinations in the southern counties,
+a cotemporary writer gives the following account: "Some
+landlords in Munster," he says, "have let their lands to
+cotters far above their value, and, to lighten their
+burden, allowed commonange to their tenants by way of
+recompense: afterwards, in despite of all equity, contrary
+to all compacts, the landlords enclosed these commons,
+and precluded their unhappy tenants from the only means
+of making their bargains tolerable." The peasantry of
+Waterford, Cork, and other southern counties met in
+tumultuous crowds, and demolished the new enclosures.
+The oligarchical majority took their usual cue on such
+occasions: they pronounced, at once, that the cause of
+the riots was "treason against the state;" they even
+obtained a select committee to "inquire into the cause
+and progress of the Popish insurrection in Munster."
+Although the London Gazette, on the authority of royal
+commissioners, declared that the rioters "consisted
+indiscriminately of persons of different persuasions,"
+the Castle party would have it "another Popish plot."
+Even Dr. Lucas was carried away by the passions of the
+hour, and declaimed against all lenity, as cowardly and
+criminal.
+
+A large military force, under the Marquis of Drogheda,
+was accordingly despatched to the south. The Marquis
+fixed his head-quarters at Clogheen, in Tipperary, the
+parish priest of which was the Rev. Nicholas Sheehy. The
+magistracy of the county, especially Sir Thomas Maude,
+William Bagnel, John Bagwell, Daniel Toler, and Parson
+Hewitson, were among the chief maintainers of the existence
+of a Popish plot, to bring in the French and the Pretender.
+Father Sheehy had long been fixed upon as their victim:
+largely connected with the minor gentry, educated in
+France, young, popular, eloquent and energetic, a stern
+denouncer of the licentious lives of the squires, and of
+the exacting tithes of the parsons, he was particularly
+obnoxious. In 1763 he was arrested on a charge of high
+treason, for drilling and enrolling Whiteboys, but was
+acquitted. Towards the close of that year, Bridge, one
+of the late witnesses against him, suddenly disappeared.
+A charge of murder was then laid against the priest of
+Clogheen, and a prostitute named Dunlea, a vagrant lad
+named Lonergan, and a convicted horse stealer called
+Toohey, were produced in evidence against him, after he
+had lain nearly a year in prison, heavily fettered. On
+the 12th of March, 1765, he was tried at Clonmel, on this
+evidence; and notwithstanding an _alibi_ was proved, he
+was condemned, and beheaded on the third day afterwards.
+Beside the old ruined church of Shandraghan, his well-worn
+tomb remains till this day. He died in his thirty-eighth
+year. Two months later, Edward Sheehy, his cousin, and
+two respectable young farmers, named Buxton and Farrell,
+were executed under a similar charge, and upon the same
+testimony. All died with religious firmness and composure.
+The fate of their enemies is notorious; with a single
+exception, they met deaths violent, loathsome, and
+terrible. Maude died insane, Bagwell in idiocy, one of
+the jury committed suicide, another was found dead in a
+privy, a third was killed by his horse, a fourth was
+drowned, a fifth shot, and so through the entire list.
+Toohey was hanged for felony, the prostitute Dunlea fell
+into a cellar and was killed, and the lad Lonergan, after
+enlisting as a soldier, died of a loathsome disease in
+a Dublin infirmary.
+
+In 1767, an attempt to revive the plot was made by the
+Munster oligarchy, without success. Dr. McKenna, Bishop
+of Cloyne, was arrested but enlarged; Mr. Nagle, of
+Garnavilla (a relative of Edmund Burke), Mr. Robert
+Keating, and several respectable Catholic gentlemen, were
+also arrested. It appears that Edmund Burke was charged
+by the ascendancy party with having "sent his brother
+Richard, recorder of Bristol, and Mr. Nagle, a relation,
+on a mission to Munster, to levy money on the Popish body
+for the use of the Whiteboys, who were exclusively
+Papists." The fact was, that Burke did originate a
+subscription for the defence of the second batch of
+victims, who, through his and other exertions, were
+fortunately saved from the fate of their predecessors.
+
+Contemporaneous with the Whiteboys were the northern
+agrarians, called "Hearts of Steel," formed among the
+absentee Lord Downshire's tenants, in 1762; the "Oak
+Boys," so called from wearing oak leaves in their hats;
+and the "Peep o' Day Boys," the precursors of the Orange
+Association. The infection of conspiracy ran through all
+Ireland, and the disorder was neither short-lived nor
+trivial. Right-boys, Defenders, and a dozen other
+denominations descended from the same evil genius, whoever
+he was, that first introduced the system of signs, and
+passwords, and midnight meetings, among the peasantry of
+Ireland. The celebrated society of United Irishmen was
+the highest form which that principle, in our politics,
+ever reached. In its origin, it was mainly a Protestant
+organization.
+
+From the first, the Catholic bishops and clergy strenuously
+opposed these secret societies. The Bishop of Cloyne
+issued a reprobatory pastoral; Father Arthur O'Leary
+employed his facile pen against them; the Bishop of Ossory
+anathematized them in his diocese. Priests in Kildare,
+Kilkenny, and Munster, were often in personal danger from
+these midnight legislators; their chapels had been
+frequently nailed up, and their bishops had been often
+obliged to remove them from one neighbourhood to another
+to prevent worse consequences. The infatuation was not
+to be stayed; the evil was engrafted on society, and many
+a long year, and woeful scene, and blighted life, and
+broken heart, was to signalize the perpetuation of secret
+societies among the population.
+
+These startling symptoms of insubordination and lawlessness,
+while they furnished plausible pretexts to the advocates
+of repression, still further confirmed the Patriot party
+in their belief, that, nothing short of a free trade in
+exports and imports, and a thorough system of retrenchment
+in every branch of the public service, could save the
+nation from bankruptcy and ruin. This was Flood's opinion,
+and he had been long recognized as the leading spirit of
+the party. The aged Malone, true to his principles of
+conciliation and constitutionalism to the last, passed
+away from the scene, in the midst of the exciting events
+of 1776. For some years before his death, his former
+place had been filled by the younger and more vigorous
+member for Kilkenny, who, however, did not fail to consult
+him with all the deference due to his age, his services,
+and his wisdom. One of his last official acts was
+presiding over the committee of the whole House, which
+voted the American contingent, but rejected the admission
+of German troops to supply their place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+GRATTAN'S LEADERSHIP--"FREE TRADE," AND THE VOLUNTEERS.
+
+The revolt of the American colonies against the oppressive
+legislation of the British Parliament, was the next
+circumstance that deeply affected the constitutional
+struggle, in which the Irish Parliament had so long been
+engaged. The similarity in the grievances of Ireland and
+the colonies, the close ties of kindred established
+between them, the extent of colonial commerce involved
+in the result, contributed to give the American Declaration
+of Independence more importance in men's eyes at Dublin,
+than anywhere else out of the colonies, except, perhaps,
+London.
+
+The first mention made of American affairs to the Irish
+legislature, was in Lord Townsend's message in 1775,
+calling for the despatch of 4,000 men from the Irish
+establishment, to America, and offering to supply their
+place by as many foreign Protestant (German) troops. The
+demand was warmly debated. The proposition to receive
+the proffered foreign troops was rejected by a majority
+of thirty-eight, and the contingent for America passed
+on a division, upon Flood's plea that they would go out
+merely as "4,000 armed negotiators." This expression of
+the great parliamentary leader was often afterwards quoted
+to his prejudice, but we must remember, that, at the time
+it was employed, no one on either side of the contest
+had abandoned all hopes of accommodation, and that the
+significance of the phrase was rather pointed against
+Lord North than against the colonies. The 4,000 men went
+out, among them Lord Rawdon (afterwards Lord Moira), Lord
+Edward Fitzgerald, and many others, both officers and
+men, who were certainly no enemies of liberty, or the
+colonies.
+
+Some slight relaxation of the commercial restrictions
+which operated so severely against Irish industry were
+made during the same year, but these were more than
+counterbalanced by the embargo on the export of provisions
+to America, imposed in February, 1776. This arbitrary
+measure--imposed by order in Council--was so near being
+censured by the Parliament then sitting, that the House
+was dissolved a month afterwards, and a new election
+ordered. To meet the new Parliament it was thought
+advisable to send over a new Viceroy, and accordingly
+Lord Buckinghamshire entered into office, with Sir Richard
+Heron as chief secretary.
+
+In the last session of the late Parliament, a young
+_protege_ of Lord Charlemont--he was only in his
+twenty-ninth year--had taken his seat for the borough of
+Charlemont. This was Henry Grattan, son of the Recorder
+of Dublin, and grandson of one of those Grattans who,
+according to Dean Swift, "could raise 10,000 men." The
+youth of Grattan had been neither joyous nor robust; in
+early manhood he had offended his father's conservatism;
+the profession of the law, to which he was bred, he found
+irksome and unsuited to his tastes; society, as then
+constituted, was repulsive to his over-sensitive spirit
+and high Spartan ideal of manly duty; no letters are
+sadder to read than the early correspondence of Grattan,
+till he had fairly found his inspiration in listening
+enraptured to the eloquent utterances of Chatham, or
+comparing political opinions with such a friend as Flood.
+At length he found a seat in the House of Commons, where,
+during his first session, he spoke on three or four
+occasions, briefly, modestly, and with good effect; there
+had been no sitting during 1776, nor before October of
+the following year; it was, therefore, in the sessions
+from '78 to '82 inclusive, that this young member raised
+himself to the head of the most eloquent men, in one of
+the most eloquent assemblies the world has ever seen.
+
+The fact of Mr. Flood, after fourteen years of opposition,
+having accepted office under Lord Harcourt's administration,
+and defended the American expedition and the embargo,
+had greatly lessened the popularity of that eminent man.
+There was indeed, no lack of ability still left in the
+ranks of the opposition--for Burgh, Daly, and Yelverton
+were there; but for a supreme spirit like Grattan--whose
+burning tongue was ever fed from his heart of fire--there
+is always room in a free senate, how many soever able
+and accomplished men may surround him.
+
+The fall of 1777 brought vital intelligence from America.
+General Burgoyne had surrendered at Saratoga, and France
+had decided to ally herself with the Americans. The effect
+in England and in Ireland was immense. When the Irish
+Houses met, Mr. Grattan moved an address to the King in
+favour of retrenchment, and against the pension list,
+and Mr. Daly moved and carried an address deploring the
+continuance of the American war, with a governmental
+amendment assuring his Majesty that he might still rely
+on the services of his faithful Commons. The second
+Catholic relief bill, authorizing Papists to loan money
+on mortgage, to lease lands for any period not exceeding
+999 years--to inherit and bequeath real property, so
+limited, passed, not without some difficulty, into law.
+The debate had been protracted, by adjournment after
+adjournment, over the greatest part of three months; the
+main motion had been further complicated by an amendment
+repealing the Test Act in favour of Dissenters, which
+was, fortunately, engrafted on the measure. The vote in
+the Commons, in favour of the bill so amended, was 127
+_yeas_ to 89 _nays_, and in the Lords, 44 _Contents_ to
+28 _Noncontents_.
+
+In the English House of Commons, Lord Nugent moved, in
+April, a series of resolutions raising the embargo on
+the Irish provision trade; abolishing, so far as Ireland
+was concerned, the most restrictive clauses of the
+Navigation Act, both as to exports and imports, with the
+exception of the article of tobacco. Upon this the
+manufacturing and shipping interest of England, taking
+the alarm, raised such a storm in the towns and cities
+that the ministry of the day were compelled to resist
+the proposed changes, with a few trifling exceptions.
+But Grattan had caught up, in the other island, the cry
+of "free trade," and the people echoed it after their
+orator, until the whole empire shook with the popular
+demand.
+
+But what gave pith and power to the Irish demands was
+the enrolment and arming of a numerous volunteer force,
+rendered absolutely necessary by the defenceless state
+of the kingdom. Mr. Flood had long before proposed a
+national militia, but being in opposition and in the
+minority, he had failed. To him and to Mr. Perry, as much
+as to Lord Charlemont and Mr. Grattan, the militia bill
+of 1778, and the noble army of volunteers equipped under
+its provisions, owed their origin. Whether this force
+was to be a regular militia, subject to martial law, or
+composed of independent companies, was for some months
+a subject of great anxiety at the castle; but necessity
+at length precipitated a decision in favour of volunteer
+companies, to be supplied with arms by the state, but
+drilled and clothed at their own expense, with power to
+elect their own officers. The official announcement of
+this decision once made, the organization spread rapidly
+over the whole kingdom. The Ulster corps, first organized,
+chose as their commander the Earl of Charlemont, while
+those of Leinster elected the Duke of Leinster.
+Simultaneously, resolutions against the purchase of
+English goods and wares were passed at public meetings,
+and by several of the corporate bodies. Lists of the
+importers of such goods were obtained at the custom
+houses, and printed in handbills, to the alarm of the
+importers. Swift's sardonic maxim, "to burn everything
+coming from England, _except the coals_," began to
+circulate as a toast in all societies, and the consternation
+of the Castle, at this resurrection of the redoubtable
+Dean, was almost equal to the apprehension entertained
+of him while living.
+
+While the Castle was temporizing with both the military
+and the manufacture movement, in a vague expectation to
+defeat both, the press, as is usual in such national
+crises, teemed with publications of great fervour and
+ability. Dr. Jebb, Mr. (afterwards Judge) Johnson, Mr.
+Pollock, Mr. Charles Sheridan, Father Arthur O'Leary,
+and Mr. Dobbs, M.P., were the chief workers in this
+department of patriotic duty. Cheered, instructed,
+restrained within due bounds by these writings and the
+reported debates of Parliament, the independent companies
+proceeded with their organization. In July, 1779, after
+all the resources of prevarication had been exhausted,
+arms were issued to the several recognized corps, and
+the Irish volunteers became in reality a national army
+for domestic protection and defence.
+
+When this point was reached, Mr. Grattan and his friends
+took anxious council as to their future movements.
+Parliament was to meet on the 12th of October, and in
+that sweet autumnal month, Grattan, Burgh, and Daly, met
+upon the sea-shore, near Bray, in view of one of the
+loveliest landscapes on earth, to form their plan for
+the session. They agreed on an amendment to the address
+in answer to the royal speech, demanding in explicit
+terms "free export and import" for Irish commerce. When
+Parliament met, and the address and amendment were moved,
+it was found that Flood, Burgh, Hutchinson, and Gardiner,
+though all holding offices of honour and emolument under
+government, would vote for it. Flood suggested to substitute
+the simple term "free trade," and with this and one other
+verbal alteration suggested by Burgh, the amendment passed
+with a single dissenting voice.
+
+The next day the Speaker, Mr. Perry, who was all along
+in the confidence of the movers of the amendment, Daly,
+Grattan, Burgh, Flood, Hutchinson, Ponsonby, Gardiner,
+and the whole House, went up with the amended address to
+the castle. The streets were lined with volunteers,
+commanded in person by the Duke of Leinster, who presented
+arms to the patriotic Commons as they passed. Most of
+the leading members wore the uniform of one or other of
+the national companies, and the people saw themselves at
+the same moment under the protection of a patriotic
+majority in the legislature, and a patriotic force in
+the field. No wonder their enthusiastic cheers rang
+through the corridors of the castle with a strangely
+jubilant and defiant emphasis. It was not simply the
+spectacle of a nation recovering its spirit, but recovering
+it with all military _eclat_ and pageantry. It was the
+disarmed armed and triumphant--a revolution not only in
+national feeling, but in the external manifestation of
+that feeling. A change so profound stirred sentiments
+and purposes even deeper than itself, and suggested to
+the ardent imagination of Grattan the establishment of
+entire national independence, saving always the rights
+of the crown.
+
+The next day, the Houses, not to be outdone in courtesy,
+voted their thanks to the volunteers for "their just and
+necessary exertions in defence of their country!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+GRATTAN'S LEADERSHIP--LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIAL
+INDEPENDENCE ESTABLISHED.
+
+The task which Mr. Grattan felt called upon to undertake,
+was not _revolutionary_, in the usually accepted sense
+of the term. He was a Monarchist and a Whig in general
+politics; but he was an Irishman, proud and fond of his
+country, and a sincere lover of the largest religious
+liberty. With the independence of the judiciary and the
+legislature, with freedom of commerce and of conscience,
+he would be well content to stand by the British connection.
+"The sea," he said, in his lofty figurative language,
+"protests against union--the ocean against separation."
+But still, within certain legal limits, his task _was_
+revolutionary, and was undertaken under all the
+discouragements incident to the early stages of great
+constitutional reforms.
+
+Without awaiting the action of the English Parliament,
+in relation to free trade, a public-spirited citizen of
+Dublin, Alderman James Horan, demanded an entry at the
+custom house, for some parcels of Irish woollens, which
+he proposed exporting to Rotterdam, contrary to the
+prohibitory enactment, the 10th and 11th of William III.
+The commissioners of customs applied for instructions to
+the Castle, and the Castle to the Secretary of State,
+Franklin's friend, Lord Hillsborough. For the moment a
+collision similar to that which had taken place at Boston,
+on a not dissimilar issue, seemed imminent. A frigate
+was stationed off Howth, with instructions, it was said,
+to intercept the prohibited woollens, but Alderman Horan,
+by the advice of his friends, allowed his application to
+remain on the custom house files. It had served its
+purpose of bringing home practically to the people, the
+value of the principle involved in the demand for freedom
+of exports and imports. At the same time that this
+practical argument was discussed in every circle, Mr.
+Grattan moved in the House of Commons, in amendment to
+the supply bill, that, "At this time it is inexpedient
+to grant new taxes." The government divided the House,
+but to their mortification found only 47 supporters; for
+Grattan's amendment there were 170. A subsequent amendment
+against granting duties for the support of the loan fund,
+was also carried by 138 to 100.
+
+These adverse votes were communicated with great
+trepidation, by the Lord Lieutenant, to the British
+administration. At length Lord North thought it essential
+to make some concessions, and with this view he brought
+in resolutions, declaring the trade with the British
+colonies in America and Africa, and the free export of
+glass and woollens, open to the Irish merchant. A week
+later, similar resolutions were passed in the Irish
+Commons, and in February, 1780, "a free trade" in the
+sense in which it had been demanded, was established by
+law, placing Ireland in most respects, as to foreign and
+colonial commerce, on an equality with England.
+
+In February, the Viceroy again alarmed the British
+administration, with the reported movement for the repeal
+of "Poyning's law,"--the statute which required heads of
+bills to be transmitted to, and approved in England,
+before they could be legislated upon. He received in
+reply, the royal commands to resist by every means in
+his power, any attempted "change in the constitution,"
+and he succeeded in eliciting from the House of Lords,
+an address, strongly condemnatory of "the misguided men,"
+who sought to raise such "groundless jealousies," between
+the two kingdoms. But the Patriot Commoners were not to
+be so deterred. They declared the repeal of Poyning's
+act, and the 6th of George I., to be their ultimatum,
+and notices of motion to that effect were immediately
+placed on the journals of the House of Commons.
+
+In the early days of April, Grattan, who, more than any
+of our orators, except perhaps Burke, was sensitive to
+the aspects of external nature, and imbued with the poetry
+of her works, retired from the city, to his uncle Dean
+Marlay's house, Cellbridge Abbey, formerly the residence
+of Swift's ill-fated Vannessa. "Along the banks of that
+river," he said, many years afterwards, "amid the groves
+and bowers of Swift and Vannessa, I grew convinced that
+I was right; arguments, unanswerable, came to my mind,
+and what I then presaged, confirmed me in my determination
+to persevere." With an enthusiasm intensified and
+restrained--but wonderful in the fire and grandeur of
+its utterance--he rose in his place, on the 19th of the
+month, to move that "the King, Lords, and Commons of
+Ireland, are the only power competent to enact laws to
+bind Ireland." He was supported by Hussey Burgh, Yelverton,
+and Forbes; Flood favoured postponement, and laid the
+foundation of his future estrangement from Grattan; Daly
+was also for delay; Fitzgibbon, afterwards Lord Clare,
+Provost Hutchinson, and John Foster, afterwards Lord
+Oriel, resisted the motion. The Castle party moved in
+amendment that "there being an equivalent resolution
+already on the journals of the House"--alluding to one
+of the resolutions against Stafford's tyranny in 1641--a
+new resolution was unnecessary. This amendment was carried
+by 136 to 79, thus affirming the formula of independence
+adopted in 1641, but depriving Grattan of the honour of
+putting it, in his own words, on the record. The substantial
+result, however, was the same; the 19th of April was
+truly what Grattan described it, "a great day for Ireland."
+"It is with the utmost concern," writes the Viceroy next
+day to Lord Hillsborough, "I must acquaint your Lordship
+that although so many gentlemen expressed their concern
+that the subject had been introduced, the sense of the
+House _against_ the obligation of _any statutes_ of the
+Parliament of Great Britain, within this kingdom, is
+represented to me to have been almost unanimous."
+
+Ten days later, a motion of Mr. Yelverton's to repeal
+Poyning's law, as far as related to the Irish privy
+council's supervision of heads of bills, was negatived
+by 130 to 105.
+
+During the remainder of the session the battle of
+independence was fought on the Mutiny Bill. The Viceroy
+and the Chief Secretary, playing the game of power, were
+resolved that the influence of the crown should not be
+diminished, so far as the military establishments were
+concerned. Two justices of the peace in Sligo and Mayo,
+having issued writs of _habeas corpus_ in favour of
+deserters from the army, on the ground that neither the
+British Mutiny Act, nor any other British statute, was
+binding on Ireland, unless confirmed by an act of its
+own legislature, brought up anew the whole question. Lord
+North, who, with all his proverbial tact and good humour,
+in the House of Commons, always pursued the most arbitrary
+policy throughout the empire, proposed a perpetual Mutiny
+Bill for Ireland, instead of the Annual Bill, in force
+in England. It was introduced in the Irish House of
+Commons by Mr. Gervase Parker Bushe, and, by a vote of
+two to one, postponed for a fortnight. During the interval,
+the British authorities remained obdurate to argument
+and remonstrance. In vain, the majority of the Irish
+privy counsellors advised concession; in vain, Flood,
+who was consulted, pointed out the futility of attempting
+to force such a measure; it was forced, and, under the
+cry of loyalty, a draft bill was carried through both
+Houses, and remitted to England in June. Early in August
+it was returned; on the 12th it was read a first time;
+on the 16th, a second; and it was carried through Committee
+by 114 to 62. It was at this emergency the Volunteers
+performed the second act of their great drama of Ireland's
+liberation. A series of reviews were held, and significant
+addresses presented to Lord Camden (then on a visit to
+the country), Lord Charlemont, Mr. Flood, and Mr. Grattan.
+On the re-assembling of Parliament in August, when the
+bill was referred to, Mr. Grattan declared that he would
+resist it to the last; that if passed into law, he and
+his friends would _secede_, and would appeal to the people
+in "a formal instrument." A new series of corporation
+and county meetings was convened by the Patriot party,
+which warmly condemned the Perpetual Mutiny Act, and as
+warmly approved the repeal of Poyning's Act, and the 6th
+of George I.: questions which were all conceived to be
+intermixed together, and to flow from the assertion of
+a common principle. Parliament being prorogued in September,
+only threw the whole controversy back again into the
+furnace of popular agitation. The British Government
+tried a lavish distribution of titles and a change of
+Viceroys,--Lord Carlisle being substituted in December
+for Lord Buckingham--but the spirit abroad was too general
+and too earnest, to be quelled by the desertion of
+individuals, however numerous or influential. With Lord
+Carlisle, came, as Chief Secretary, Mr. Eden, afterwards
+Lord Auckland; he had been, with his chief, a peace
+commissioner to America, two years before, and had failed;
+he was an intriguing and accomplished man, but he proved
+himself as unequal as Heron or Rigby to combat the movement
+for Irish independence.
+
+Parliament was not again called together till the month
+of October, 1781; the interval being busily occupied on
+both sides with endeavours to create and sustain a party.
+Soon after the meeting, Mr. Grattan, seconded by Mr.
+Flood, moved for a limitation of the Mutiny Bill, which
+was lost; a little later, Mr. Flood himself introduced
+a somewhat similar motion, which was also outvoted two
+to one; and again, during the session, Mr. Yelverton,
+having abandoned his promised motion against Poyning's
+law, on news of Lord Cornwallis's surrender reaching
+Dublin, Flood took it up, moved it, and was defeated. A
+further measure of relief for Roman Catholics, introduced
+by Mr. Gardiner, author of the act of 1778, and warmly
+supported by Grattan, was resisted by Flood in the one
+House, and Lord Charlemont in the other. It miscarried,
+and left another deposit of disagreement between the
+actual and the former leader of the Patriot party.
+
+Still no open rupture had taken place between the two
+Patriot orators. When the convention of the volunteers
+was called at Dungannon for the 15th of February, 1782,
+they consulted at Charlemont House as to the resolutions
+to be passed. They were agreed on the constitutional
+question; Grattan, of his own generous free will, added
+the resolution in favour of emancipation. Two hundred
+and forty-two delegates, representing 143 corps, unanimously
+adopted the resolutions so drafted, as their own, and,
+from the old head-quarters of Hugh O'Neil, sent forth
+anew an unequivocal demand for civil and religious liberty.
+The example of Ulster soon spread through Ireland. A
+meeting of the Leinster volunteers, Mr. Flood in the
+chair, echoed it from Dublin; the Munster corps endorsed
+it unanimously at Cork; Lord Clanrickarde summoned together
+those of the western counties at Portumna--an historic
+spot, suggestive of striking associations. Strengthened
+by these demonstrations of public opinion, Mr. Grattan
+brought forward, on the 22nd of February, his motion
+declaratory of the rights of Ireland. An amendment in
+favour of a six months' postponement of the question was
+carried; but on the 16th of April, just two years from
+his first effort on the subject (the administration of
+Lord North having fallen in the meantime), the orator
+had the satisfaction of carrying his address declaratory
+of Irish legislative independence. It was on this occasion
+that he exclaimed: "I found Ireland on her knees; I
+watched over her with a paternal solicitude; I have traced
+her progress from injury to arms, and from arms to liberty.
+Spirit of Swift! Spirit of Molyneux! your genius has
+prevailed! Ireland is now a nation! in that new character
+I hail her! and bowing to her august presence, I say,
+_Esto perpetua!_"
+
+Never was a new nation more nobly heralded into existence!
+Never was an old nation more reverently and tenderly
+lifted up and restored! The Houses adjourned to give
+England time to consider Ireland's _ultimatum_. Within
+a month it was accepted by the new British administration,
+and on the 27th of May, the new Whig Viceroy, the Duke
+of Portland, was authorized to announce from the throne
+the establishment of the judicial and legislative
+independence of Ireland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE ERA OF INDEPENDENCE--FIRST PERIOD.
+
+The accession of the Rockingham administration to power,
+in 1782, was followed by the recall of Lord Carlisle,
+and the substitution, as Viceroy, of one of the leading
+Lords of the Whig party. The nobleman selected to this
+office was William Henry, third Duke of Portland, afterwards
+twice prime minister; then in the prime of life, possessed
+of a very ample fortune, and uniting in his own person
+the two great Whig families of Bentinck and Cavendish.
+The policy he was sent to represent at Dublin was
+undoubtedly an imperial policy; a policy which looked as
+anxiously to the integrity of the empire as any Tory
+cabinet could have desired; but it was, in most other
+respects, a policy of conciliation and concession, dictated
+by the enlarged wisdom of Burke, and adopted by the
+magnanimous candour of Fox. Yet by a generous people,
+who always find it more difficult to resist a liberal
+than an illiberal administration, it was, in reality, a
+policy more to be feared than welcomed; for its almost
+certain effects were to divide their ranks into two
+sections--a moderate and an extreme party--between whom
+the national cause, only half established, might run
+great danger of being lost, almost as soon as it was won.
+
+With the Duke of Portland was associated, as Chief
+Secretary, Colonel Fitzpatrick, of the old Ossory family,
+one of those Irish wits and men of fashion, who form so
+striking a group in the middle and later years of King
+George III. As the personal and political friend of Flood,
+Charlemont, and Grattan, and the first Irish secretary
+for several administrations, he shared the brilliant
+ovation with which the Duke of Portland was received, on
+his arrival at Dublin; but for the reason already mentioned,
+the imperial, in so far as opposed to the national policy,
+found an additional advantage in the social successes
+and great personal popularity of the new secretary.
+
+The critical months which decided the contest for
+independence--April and May--passed over fortunately for
+Ireland. The firmness of the leaders in both Houses,
+the energy especially of Grattan, whose cry was "No time,
+no time!" and the imposing attitude of the volunteers,
+carried the question. Lord Rockingham and Mr. Fox by
+letter, the new Viceroy and Secretary in person, had
+urged every argument for adjournment and delay, but
+Grattan's _ultimatum_ was sent over to England, and
+finally and formally accepted. The demands were _five_.
+I. The repeal of the 6th of George I. II. The repeal of
+the Perpetual Mutiny Act. III. An Act to abolish the
+alteration or suppression of Bills. IV. An Act to establish
+the final jurisdiction of the Irish Courts and the Irish
+House of Lords. V. The repeal of Poyning's Law. This
+was the constitutional charter of 1782, which restored
+Ireland, for the first time in that century, to the rank
+and dignity of a free nation.
+
+Concession once determined on, the necessary bills were
+introduced in both Parliaments simultaneously, and carried
+promptly into law. On the 27th of May, the Irish Houses
+were enabled to congratulate the Viceroy that "no
+constitutional question any longer existed between the
+two countries." In England it was proclaimed no less
+explicitly by Fox and his friends, that the independency
+of the two legislatures "was fixed and ascertained for
+ever." But there was, unfortunately, one ground for
+dispute still left, and on that ground Henry Flood and
+Henry Grattan parted, never to be reconciled.
+
+The elder Patriot, whose conduct from the moment of his
+retirement from office, in consequence of his Free Trade
+vote and speech in '79, had been, with occasional
+exceptions, arising mostly from bodily infirmity, as
+energetic and consistent as that of Grattan himself, saw
+no sufficient constitutional guarantee in mere acts of
+Parliament repealing other acts. He demanded "express
+renunciation" of legislative supremacy on the part of
+England; while Grattan maintained the sufficiency of
+"simple repeal." It is possible even in such noble natures
+as these men had--so strangely are we constituted--that
+there was a latent sense of personal rivalry, which
+prompted them to grasp, each, at the larger share of
+patriotic honour. It is possible that there were other,
+and inferior men, who exasperated this latent personal
+rivalry. Flood had once reigned supreme, until Grattan
+eclipsed him in the sudden splendour of his career. In
+scholarship and in genius the elder Patriot was, taken
+all in all, the full peer of his successor; but Grattan
+had the national temperament, and he found his way more
+readily into the core of the national heart; he was the
+man of the later, the bolder, and the more liberal school;
+and such was the rapidity of his movements, that even
+Flood, from '79 to '82, seemed to be his follower, rather
+than his coadjutor. In the hopeful crisis of the struggle,
+the slower and more experienced statesman was for the
+moment lost sight of. The leading motions were all placed
+or left in the hands of Grattan by the consent of their
+leading friends; the bills repealing the Mutiny Act, the
+6th George I., and Poyning's law, were entrusted to Burgh,
+Yelverton, and Forbes; the thanks of the House were voted
+to Grattan alone after the victory, with the substantial
+addition of 50,000 pounds to purchase for him an estate,
+which should become an enduring monument of the national
+gratitude.
+
+The open rupture between the two great orators followed
+fast on the triumph of their common efforts. It was still
+the first month--the very honeymoon of independence. On
+the 13th of June, Mr. Grattan took occasion to notice in
+his place, that a late British act relating to the
+importation of sugars, was so generally worded as apparently
+to include Ireland; but this was explained to be a mere
+error of the clerk, the result of haste, and one which
+would be promptly corrected. Upon this Mr. Flood first
+took occasion to moot the insufficiency of "simple repeal,"
+and the necessity of "express renunciation," on the part
+of England. On the 19th, he moved a formal resolution on
+the subject, which was superseded by the order of the
+day; but on the 19th of July, he again moved, at great
+length, and with great power of logical and historical
+argument, for leave to bring in an Irish Bill of Rights,
+declaring "the sole and exclusive right of the Irish
+Parliament to make laws in all cases whatsoever, _external
+and internal_." He was supported by Sir Simon Bradstreet,
+Mr. English, and Mr. Walshe, and opposed by Grattan, who,
+in one of his finest efforts, proposed a counter resolution,
+"that the legislature of Ireland is independent; and that
+any person who shall, by writing or otherwise, maintain
+that a right in any other country, to make laws for
+Ireland, _internally_ or _externally_, exists or can be
+revived, _is inimical to the peace of both kingdoms_."
+This extreme proposition--pointing out all who differed
+from himself as public enemies--the mover, however,
+withdrew, and substituted in its stead the milder formula,
+that leave was refused to bring in the bill, because the
+sole and exclusive right of legislation in the Irish
+Parliament in all cases, whether externally or internally,
+hath been already asserted by Ireland, and fully, finally,
+and irrevocably acknowledged by the British Parliament.
+Upon this motion Flood did not think it advisable to
+divide the House, so it passed without a division.
+
+But the moot point thus voted down in Parliament disquieted
+and alarmed the minds of many out of doors. The volunteers
+as generally sided with Flood as the Parliament had sided
+with Grattan. The lawyer corps of the city of Dublin,
+containing all the great names of the legal profession,
+endorsed the constitutional law of the member for Kilkenny;
+the Belfast volunteers did likewise; and Grattan's own
+corps, in a respectful address, urged him to give his
+adherence to the views of "the best informed body of men
+in the kingdom,"--the lawyers' corps. Just at that moment
+Lord Abingdon, in the English House of Lords, gave notice
+of a mischievous motion to assert the external supremacy
+of the English Parliament; and Lord Mansfield, in the
+King's Bench, decided an Irish appeal case, notwithstanding
+the recent statute establishing the judicial independence
+of the Irish courts. It is true the case had been appealed
+before the statute was passed; and that Lord Abingdon
+withdrew his motion for want of a seconder; but the alarm
+was given, and the popular mind in Ireland, jealously
+watchful of its new-born liberties, saw in these attempts
+renewed cause for apprehension. In opposition to all
+this suddenly awakened suspicion and jealousy, Grattan,
+who naturally enough assumed his own interest in preserving
+the new constitution to be quite equal to those who cast
+doubts on its security, invariably held one language.
+The settlement already made, according to his view, was
+final; it was an international treaty; its maintenance
+must depend on the ability and disposition of the parties
+to uphold it, rather than on the multiplication of
+declaratory acts. Ireland had gone to England with a
+charter, not for a charter, and the nation which would
+insist upon the humiliation of another, was a foolish
+nation. This was the lofty light in which he viewed the
+whole transaction, and in this light, it must be added,
+he continued to view it till the last. Many of the chief
+English and Irish jurists of his time, Lord Camden, Lord
+Kenyon, Lord Erskine, Lord Kilwarden, Judges Chamberlain,
+Smith, and Kelly, Sir Samuel Rommilly, Sir Arthur Pigott,
+and several others, agreed fully in Grattan's doctrine,
+that the settlement of '82 was final and absolute, and
+"terminated all British jurisdiction over Ireland." But
+although these are all great names, the instinct of
+national self-preservation may be considered in such
+critical moments more than a counterpoise to the most
+matured opinions of the oracles of the law. Such must
+have been the conviction also of the English Parliament,
+for, immediately on their meeting in January, 1783, they
+passed the _Act of Renunciation_ (23rd George III.),
+expressly declaring their admission of the "exclusive
+rights of the Parliament and Courts of Ireland in matters
+of legislature and judicature." This was Flood's greatest
+triumph. Six months before his doctrine obtained but
+three supporters in the Irish Commons; now, at his
+suggestion, and on his grounds, he saw it unanimously
+affirmed by the British Parliament.
+
+On two other questions of the utmost importance these
+leading spirits also widely differed. Grattan was in
+favour of, and Flood opposed to, Catholic emancipation;
+while Flood was In favour of, and Grattan, at that moment,
+opposed to, a complete reform of parliamentary
+representation. The Catholic question had its next great
+triumph after Flood's death, as will be mentioned further
+on; but the history of the Irish reform movement of 1783,
+'84, and '85, may best be disposed of here.
+
+The Reformers were a new party rising naturally out of
+the popular success of 1782. They were composed of all
+but a few of the more aristocratic corps of the volunteers,
+of the townsmen, especially in the seaports and
+manufacturing towns, of the admirers of American example,
+of the Catholics who had lately acquired property and
+recognition, but not the elective franchise, of the gentry
+of the second and third degree of wealth, overruled and
+overshadowed by the greater lords of the soil. The
+substantial grievance of which they complained was, that
+of the 300 members of the House of Commons, only 72 were
+returned by the people; 53 Peers having the power to
+nominate 123 and secure the election of 10 others; while
+52 Commoners nominated 91 and controlled the choice of
+4 others. The constitution of what ought to have been
+the people's house was, therefore, substantially in the
+hands of an oligarchy of about a hundred great proprietors,
+bound together by the spirit of their class, by
+intermarriage, and by the hereditary possession of power.
+To reduce this exorbitant influence within reasonable
+bounds, was the just and wise design to which Flood
+dedicated all his energies, after the passage of the _Act
+of Renunciation_, and the success of which would certainly
+have restored him to complete equality with Grattan.
+
+In the beginning of 1783, the famous coalition ministry
+of Lord North and Mr. Pox was formed in England. They
+were at first represented at Dublin Castle, for a few
+months, by Lord Temple, who succeeded the Duke of Portland,
+and established the order of _Knights of Saint Patrick_;
+then by Lord Northington, who dissolved Parliament early
+in July. A general election followed, and the reform
+party made their influence felt in all directions. County
+meetings were held; conventions by districts and by
+provinces were called by the reforming Volunteers, in
+July, August, and September. The new Parliament was to
+be opened on the 14th of October, and the Volunteers
+resolved to call a convention of their whole body at
+Dublin, for the 10th of November.
+
+The Parliament met according to summons, but though
+searching retrenchment was spoken of, no promise was held
+out of a constitutional reform; the limitation of the
+regular troops to a fixed number was declared advisable,
+and a vote of thanks to the Volunteers was passed without
+demur. But the proceedings of the Houses were soon eclipsed
+by the portentous presence of the Volunteer Convention.
+One hundred and sixty delegates of corps attended on the
+appointed day. The Royal Exchange was too small to
+accommodate them, so they adjourned to the Rotunda,
+accompanied by mounted guards of honour. The splendid
+and eccentric Bishop of Derry (Earl of Bristol), had his
+dragoon guards; the courtly but anxious Charlemont had
+his troop of horse; Flood, tall, emaciated, and solemn
+to sadness, was hailed with popular acclamations; there
+also marched the popular Mr. Day, afterwards Judge; Robert
+Stewart, father of Lord Castlereagh; Sir Richard Musgrave,
+a reformer also, in his youth, who lived to confound
+reform with rebellion in his old age. The Earl of Charlemont
+was elected president of this imposing body, and for an
+entire month Dublin was divided between the extraordinary
+spectacle of two legislatures--one sitting at the Rotunda,
+and the other at College Green, many members of each
+being members of the other; the uniform of the volunteer
+sparkling in the Houses, and the familiar voices of both
+Houses being heard deliberating and debating among the
+Volunteers.
+
+At length, on the 29th of November, after three weeks'
+laborious gestation, Flood brought before Parliament the
+plan of reform agreed to by the Convention. It proposed
+to extend the franchise to every _Protestant_ freeholder
+possessed of a lease worth forty shillings yearly; to
+extend restricted borough constituencies by annexing to
+them neighbouring populous parishes; that the voting
+should be held on one and the same day; that pensioners
+of the crown should be incapable of election; that members
+accepting office should be subject to re-election; that
+a stringent bribery oath should be administered to
+candidates returned; and, finally, that the duration of
+Parliament should be limited to three years. It was,
+indeed, an excellent Protestant Reform Bill, for though
+the Convention had received Father Arthur O'Leary with
+military honours, and contained many warm friends of
+Catholic rights, the majority were still intolerant of
+_religious_ freedom. In this majority it is painful to
+have to record the names of Flood and Charlemont.
+
+The debate which followed the introduction of this proposed
+change in the constitution was stormy beyond all precedent.
+Grattan, who just one month before (Oct. 28th) had that
+fierce vituperative contest with Flood familiar to every
+school-boy, in its worst and most exaggerated form,
+supported the proposal. The law officers of the crown,
+Fitzgibbon, Yelverton, Scott, denounced it as an audacious
+attempt of armed men to dictate to the House its own
+constitution. The cry of privilege and prerogative was
+raised, and the measure was rejected by 157 to 77. Flood,
+weary in mind and body, retired to his home; the Convention,
+which outsat the House, adjourned, amid the bitter
+indignation of some, and the scarcely concealed relief
+of others. Two days later they met and adopted a striking
+address to the throne, and adjourned _sine die_. This
+was, in fact, the last important day of the Volunteers
+as a political institution. An attempt a month later to
+re-assemble the Convention was dexterously defeated by
+the President, Lord Charlemont. The regular army was next
+session increased to 15,000 men; 20,000 pounds were voted
+to clothe and equip a rival force--"the Militia"--and
+the Parliament, which had three times voted them its
+thanks, now began to look with satisfaction on their
+rapid disorganization and disbandment.
+
+This, perhaps, is the fittest place to notice the few
+remaining years of the public life of Henry Flood. After
+the session of 1785, in which he had been outvoted on
+every motion he proposed, he retired from the Irish
+Parliament, and allowed himself to be persuaded, at the
+age of fifty-three, to enter the English. He was elected
+for Winchester, and made his first essay on the new scene,
+on his favourite subject of representative reform. But
+his health was undermined; he failed, except on one or
+two occasions, to catch the ear of that fastidious
+assembly, and the figure he made there somewhat disappointed
+his friends. He returned to Kilkenny to die in 1791,
+bequeathing a large portion of his fortune to Trinity
+College, to enrich its MS. library, and to found a
+permanent professorship of the Irish language. "He was
+an oak of the forest," said Grattan, "too old to be
+transplanted at fifty." "He was a man," said one who also
+knew him well, Sir Jonah Barrington, "of profound abilities,
+high manners, and great experience in the affairs of
+Ireland. He had deep information, an extensive capacity,
+and a solid judgment." In his own magnificent "Ode to
+Fame," he has pictured his ideal of the Patriot-orator,
+who finds some consolation amid the unequal struggle with
+the enemies of his country, foreign and domestic, in a
+prophetic vision of his own renown. Unhappily, the works
+of this great man come down to us in as fragmentary a
+state as those of Chatham; but enough remains to enable
+us to class him amongst the greatest masters of our
+speech, and, as far as the drawbacks allowed, among the
+foremost statesmen of his country.
+
+It is painful to be left in doubt, as we are, whether he
+was ever reconciled to Grattan. The presumption, from
+the silence of their cotemporaries, is, that they never
+met again as friends. But it is consoling to remember
+that in his grave, the survivor rendered him that tribute
+of justice which almost takes the undying sting out of
+the philippic of 1783; it is well to know, also, that
+one of Grattan's latest wishes, thirty years after the
+death of Flood, when he felt his own last hours approaching,
+was, that it should be known that he "did not speak the
+vile abuse reported in the Debates" in relation to his
+illustrious rival. The best proof that what he did say
+was undeserved, is that that rival's reputation for
+integrity and public spirit has survived even his terrible
+onslaught.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE ERA OF INDEPENDENCE--SECOND PERIOD.
+
+The second period of the era of independence may be said
+to embrace the nine years extending from the dissolution
+of the last Volunteer Convention, at the end of 1784, to
+the passage of the Catholic Relief Bill of 1793. They
+were years of continued interest and excitement, both in
+the popular and parliamentary affairs of the country;
+but the events are, with the exception of the last named,
+of a more secondary order than those of the previous
+period.
+
+The session of 1785 was first occupied with debates
+relating to what might be called the cross-channel trade
+between England and Ireland. The question of trade brought
+with it, necessarily, the question of revenue; of the
+duties levied in both kingdoms; of the conflict of their
+commercial laws, and the necessity of their assimilation;
+of the appropriations to be borne by each, to the general
+expense of the army and navy; of the exclusive right of
+the English East India Company to the Indian trade;--in
+short, the whole of the fiscal and commercial relations
+of the two countries were now to be examined and adjusted,
+as their constitutional relations had been in previous
+years.
+
+The first plan came from the Castle, through Mr. Thomas
+Orde, then Chief Secretary, afterwards Lord Bolton. It
+consisted of eleven propositions, embracing every division
+of the subject. They had been arrived at by consultation
+with Mr. Joshua Pim, a most worthy Quaker merchant, the
+founder of an equally worthy family; Mr. Grattan, Mr.
+Foster, and others. They were passed as resolutions in
+Ireland, and sent by Mr. Orde to England to see whether
+they would be adopted there also, the second Pitt, then
+Chancellor of the Exchequer, gave his concurrence, but
+when he introduced to the English Parliament _his_
+resolutions--twenty in number--it was found that in
+several important respects they differed from the Irish
+propositions. On being taken up and presented to the
+Irish Parliament, in August, the administration found
+they could command, in a full House, only a majority of
+sixteen for their introduction, and so the whole arrangement
+was abandoned. No definite commercial treaty between the
+two kingdoms was entered into until the Union, and there
+can be little doubt that the miscarriage of the Convention
+of 1785 was one of the determining causes of that Union.
+
+The next session was chiefly remarkable for an unsuccessful
+attempt to reduce the Pension List. In this debate,
+Curran, who had entered the House in 1783, particularly
+distinguished himself. A fierce exchange of personalities
+with Mr. Fitzgibbon led to a duel between them, in which,
+fortunately, neither was wounded, but their public
+hostility was transferred to the arena of the courts,
+where some of the choicest _morceaux_ of genuine Irish
+wit were uttered by Curran, at the expense of his rival,
+first as Attorney-General, and subsequently as Chancellor.
+
+The session of 1787 was introduced by a speech from the
+throne, in which the usual paragraph in favour of the
+Protestant Charter Schools was followed by another advising
+the establishment of a general system of schools. This
+raised the entire question of education, one of the most
+difficult to deal with in the whole range of Irish
+politics. On the 10th of April, Mr. Orde--destined to
+be the author of just, but short-lived projects--introduced
+his plan of what might be called national education. He
+proposed to establish four great provincial academies,
+a second university in some north-western county, to
+reform the twenty-two diocesan schools, so richly endowed
+under the 28th Henry VIII., and to affiliate on Trinity
+College two principal preparatory schools, north and
+south. In 1784, and again in this very year, the humane
+John Howard had reported of the Irish Charter Schools,
+then half a century established, that they were "a disgrace
+to all society." Sir J. Fitzpatrick, the Inspector of
+Prisons, confirmed the general impression of Howard: he
+found the children in these schools "puny, filthy, ill
+clothed, without linen, indecent to look upon." A series
+of resolutions was introduced by Mr. Orde, as the basis
+of better legislation in the next session; but it is to
+be regretted that the proposed reform never went farther
+than the introduction and adoption of these resolutions.
+
+The session of 1788 was signalized by a great domestic
+and a great imperial discussion--the Tithe question, and
+the Regency question.
+
+The Tithe question had slumbered within the walls of
+Parliament since the days of Swift, though not in the
+lonely lodges of the secret agrarian societies. Very
+recent outbreaks of the old agrarian combinations against
+both excessive rents and excessive tithes, in the Leinster
+as well as in southern counties, had called general
+attention to the subject, when Grattan, in 1787, moved
+that, if it should appear, by the commencement of the
+following session, that tranquillity had been restored
+in the disturbed districts, the House would take into
+consideration the subject of tithes. Accordingly, very
+early in the next ensuing session, he moved for a committee
+on the subject, in a three hours' speech, which ranks
+among the very highest efforts of his own or any other
+age. He was seconded by Lord Kingsborough, one of the
+most liberal men of his order, and sustained by Curran
+and Brownlow; he was opposed by Attorney-General Fitzgibbon,
+and by Messrs. Hobart, Browne, and Parsons. The vote was,
+_for_ the Committee of Inquiry, 49; _against_ it, 121.
+A second attempt, a little later in the session, was
+equally unsuccessful, except for the moral effect produced
+out of doors by another of those speeches, which it is
+impossible to read even at this day, without falling into
+the attitude, and assuming the intonation, and feeling
+the heartfelt inspiration of the orator.
+
+The Regency question was precipitated upon both Parliaments
+by the mental disorder, which, for the second or third
+time, attacked George III., in 1788. The question was,
+whether the Prince of Wales should reign with as full
+powers as if his father were actually deceased; whether
+there should be restrictions or no restrictions. Mr. Pitt
+and his colleagues contended successfully for restrictions
+in England, while Mr. Fox and the opposition took the
+contrary position. The English Houses and people went
+with Pitt, but the Irish Parliament went for an
+unconditional regency. They resolved to offer the crown
+of Ireland to him they considered _de_ facto their
+Sovereign, as freely as they had rendered their allegiance
+to the incapable king; but the Lord Lieutenant--the
+Marquis of Buckingham--declined to transmit their
+over-zealous address, and by the time their joint delegation
+of both Houses reached London, George III. had recovered!
+They received the most gracious reception at Carlton
+House, but they incurred the implacable enmity of William
+Pitt, and created a second determining cause in his mind
+in favour of an early legislative union.
+
+The prospect of the accession of the Prince to power,
+wrought a wonderful and a salutary change, though temporary,
+in the Irish Commons. In the session of 1789, Mr Grattan
+carried, by 105 to 85, a two months', in amendment to a
+twelve-months' supply bill. Before the two months expired
+he brought in his police bill, his pension bill, and his
+bill to prevent officers of the revenue from voting at
+elections, but ere these reforms could be passed into
+law, the old King recovered, the necessary majority was
+reversed, and the measures, of course, defeated or delayed
+till better times. The triumph of the oligarchy was in
+proportion to their fright. The House having passed a
+vote of censure on Lord Buckingham, the Viceroy, for
+refusing to transmit their address to the Regent, a threat
+was now held out that every one who had voted for the
+censure, holding an office of honour or emolument in
+Ireland, would be made "the victim of his vote." In reply
+to this threat, a "Round Robin" was signed by the Duke
+of Leinster, the Archbishop of Tuam, eighteen peers, all
+the leading Whig commoners--the Ponsonbys, Langrishes,
+Grattan, Connolly, Curran, O'Neil, Day, Charles Francis
+Sheridan, Bowes Daly, George Ogle, etc., etc.--declaring
+that they would regard any such proscription as an attack
+on the independence of Parliament, and would jointly
+oppose any administration who should resort to such
+proscription. But the bold and domineering spirit of
+Fitzgibbon--the leader of the Castle party, then, and
+long afterwards--did not shrink before even so formidable
+a phalanx. The Duke of Leinster was dismissed from the
+honorary office of Master of the Rolls; the Earl of
+Shannon, from the Vice-Treasurership; William Ponsonby
+from the office of Postmaster-General; Charles Francis
+Sheridan, from that of Secretary at War, and ten or twelve
+other prominent members of the _Irish_ administration
+lost places and pensions to the value of 20,000 pounds
+a year, for their over-zeal for the Prince of Wales. At
+the same time, Mr. Fitzgibbon was appointed Lord Chancellor,
+a vacancy having opportunely occurred, by the death of
+Lord Lifford, in the very midst of the prescriptive
+crisis. This elevation transferred him to the Upper
+House, where, for the remaining years of the Parliament,
+he continued to dogmatize and domineer, as he had done
+in the Commons, often rebuked, but never abashed. Indeed,
+the milder manners of the patrician body were ill suited
+to resist this ermined demagogue, whose motto through
+life was _audacity, again audacity, and always audacity_.
+The names of Wolfe, Toler, Corry, Coote, Beresford, and
+Cooke, are also found among the promotions to legal and
+administrative office; names familiar to the last generation
+as the pillars of the oligarchical faction, before and
+after the Union. To swamp the opposition peers, the Earls
+of Antrim, Tyrone, and Hillsborough were made Marquises
+of Antrim, Waterford, and Downshire; the Viscounts
+Glenawley, Enniskillen, Erne, and Carysfort, were created
+Earls of Annesley, Enniskillen, Erne, and Carysfort. Then
+Judge Scott became Viscount Clonmel; then the Lordships
+of Loftus, Londonderry, Kilmaine, Cloncurry, Mountjoy,
+Glentworth, and Caledon, were founded for as many convenient
+Commoners, who either paid for their patents, in boroughs,
+or in hard cash. It was the very reign and carnival of
+corruption, over which presided the invulnerable
+Chancellor--a true "King of Misrule." In reference to
+this appalling spectacle, well might Grattan exclaim--"In
+a free country the path of public treachery leads to the
+block; but in a nation governed like a province, to the
+helm!" But the thunders of the orator fell, and were
+quenched in the wide spreading waters of corruption.
+
+The Whig Club--an out-of-door auxiliary of the opposition
+--was a creation of this year. It numbered the chief
+signers of the "Round Robin," and gained many adherents.
+It exercised very considerable influence in the general
+election of 1790, and for the few following years, until
+it fell to pieces in the presence of the more ardent
+politics which preceded the storm of 1798.
+
+Backed though he was by Mr. Pitt, both as his relative
+and principal, the Marquis of Buckingham was compelled
+to resign the government, and to steal away from Dublin,
+under cover of night, like an absconding debtor. The
+Chancellor and the Speaker--Fitzgibbon and Foster, Irishmen
+at least by birth and name--were sworn in as Justices,
+until the arrival of the Earl of Westmoreland, in the
+ensuing January.
+
+The last two Viceroys of the decade thus closed, form a
+marked contrast worthy of particular portraiture. The
+Duke of Rutland, a dashing profligate, was sent over, it
+was thought, to ruin public liberty by undermining private
+virtue, a task in which he found a willing helpmate in
+his beautiful but dissipated Duchess. During his three
+years' reign were sown the seeds of that reckless private
+expenditure, and general corruption of manners, which
+drove so many bankrupt lords and gentlemen into the market
+overt, where Lord Castlereagh and Secretary Cooke, a
+dozen years later, priced the value of their parliamentary
+cattle. Lord Rutland died of dissipation at little over
+thirty, and was succeeded by the Marquis of Buckingham
+(formerly Lord Temple), the founder of the Irish Order
+of Chivalry, a person of the greatest pretensions, as a
+reformer of abuses and an enemy of government by corruption.
+Yet with all his affected superiority to the base arts
+of his predecessor, the Marquis's system was still more
+opposite to every idea of just government than the Duke's.
+The one outraged public morals, the other pensioned and
+ennobled the betrayers of public trusts; the one naturalized
+the gaming-table and the keeping of mistresses as customs
+of Irish society; the other sold or allowed the highest
+offices and honours of the state--from a weighership in
+the butter market to an earl's coronet--to be put up at
+auction, and knocked down to the highest bidder. How
+cheering in contrast with the shameful honours, flaunted
+abroad in those shameful days, are even the negative
+virtues of the Whig patricians, and how splendid the
+heroic constancy of Charlemont, Grattan, Curran, and
+their devoted minority of honest legislators!
+
+With Lord Westmoreland was associated, as Chief Secretary,
+Mr. Hobart, formerly in the army, a man of gay, convivial
+habits, very accomplished, and, politically, very unprincipled.
+These gentlemen, both favourites of Pitt, adopted the counsellors,
+and continued the policy of the late Viceroy. In
+pursuance of this policy, a dissolution took place, and the
+general election of 1790 was ordered. We have already
+exhibited the influences which controlled the choice of members
+of the House of Commons. Of the one hundred and five great
+proprietors, who owned two-thirds of the seats, perhaps a
+fourth might be found in the ranks of the Whig club. The
+only other hope for the national party was in the boroughs,
+which possessed a class of freemen, engaged in trade, too
+numerous to be bought, or too public spirited to be dictated to.
+Both influences combined might hope to return a powerful
+minority, and, on this occasion (1790) they certainly did so.
+Grattan and Lord Henry Fitzgerald were elected for Dublin,
+over the Lord Mayor and one of the Aldermen, backed by the
+whole power of the Castle; Curran, Ponsonby, Brownlow,
+Forbes, and nearly all "the victims of their vote" were re-elected.
+To these old familiar names were now added others
+destined to equal, if not still wider fame--Arthur Wellesley,
+member for Trim; Arthur O'Conor, member for Phillipstown;
+Jonah Barrington, member for Tuam; and Robert Stewart,
+one of the members for the County Down, then only in his
+twenty-second year, and, next to Lord Edward Fitzgerald,
+lately elected for Athy, the most extreme reformer among the
+new members. Arthur O'Conor, on the other hand, commenced
+his career with the Court by moving the address in
+answer to the speech from the throne!
+
+The new Parliament, which met in July, 1790, unanimously
+re-elected Mr. Foster, Speaker; passed a very loyal
+address, and, after a fortnight's sitting, was prorogued
+till the following January. The session of '91 was marked
+by no event of importance, the highest opposition vote
+seems to have been from 80 to 90, and the ministerial
+majority never less than 50. The sale of Peerages, the
+East India trade, the Responsibility (for money warrants)
+Bill, the Barren Lands Bill, and the Pension Bill, were
+the chief topics. A committee to inquire into the best
+means of encouraging breweries, and discouraging the use
+of spirituous liquors, was also granted, and some curious
+facts elicited. Nothing memorable was done, but much that
+was memorable was said--for the great orator had still
+a free press, and a home audience to instruct and elevate.
+The truth is, the barrenness of these two sessions was
+due to the general prosperity of the country, more even
+than to the dexterous management of Major Hobart and the
+Cabinet balls of Lord Westmoreland. There was, moreover,
+hanging over the minds of men the electric pressure of
+the wonderful events with which France shook the Continent,
+and made the Islands tremble. There was hasty hope, or
+idle exultation, or pious fear, or panic terror, in the
+hearts of the leading spectators of that awful drama,
+according to the prejudices or principles they maintained.
+Over all the three kingdoms there was a preternatural
+calm, resembling that physical stillness which in other
+latitude precedes the eruption of volcanoes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE ERA OF INDEPENDENCE--THIRD PERIOD--
+CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL OF 1793.
+
+Before relating the consequences which attended the spread
+of French revolutionary opinions in Ireland, it is
+necessary to exhibit the new and very important position
+assumed by the Roman Catholic population at that period.
+
+The relief bills in 1774 and 1778, by throwing open to
+Catholics the ordinary means of acquiring property,
+whether moveable or immoveable, had enabled many of them
+to acquire fortunes, both in land and in trade. Of this
+class were the most efficient leaders in the formation
+of the Catholic Committee of 1790--John Keogh, Edward
+Byrne, and Richard McCormick. They were all men who had
+acquired fortunes, and who felt and cherished the
+independence of self-made men. They were not simply
+Catholic agitators claiming an equality of civil and
+religious rights with their Protestant fellow-countrymen;
+they were nationalists, in the broadest and most generous
+meaning of the term. They had contributed to the ranks
+and expenses of the Volunteers; they had swelled the
+chorus of Grattan's triumph, and borne their share of
+the cost in many a popular contest. The new generation
+of Protestant patriots--such men as the Hon. Simon Butler,
+Wolfe Tone, and Thomas Addis Emmet, were their intimate
+associates, shared their opinions, and regarded their
+exclusion from the pale of the constitution as a public
+calamity.
+
+There was another and a smaller, but not less important
+class--the remnant of the ancient Catholic peerage and
+landed gentry, who, through four generations, had preferred
+civil death to religious apostasy. It was impossible not
+to revere the heroic constancy of that class, and the
+personal virtues of many among them. But they were,
+perhaps, constitutionally, too timid and too punctilious
+to conduct a popular movement to a successful issue. They
+had, after much persuasion, lent their presence to the
+Committee, but on some alarm, which at that time seems
+to have been premature, of the introduction of French
+revolutionary principles among their associates, they
+seceded in a mass. A formal remonstrance against what
+remained, pretending to act for the Catholic body, was
+signed by Lord Kenmare and sixty-seven others, who
+withdrew. As a corrective, it was inadequate; as a
+preventive, useless. It no doubt hastened in the end the
+evil it deprecated in the beginning; it separated the
+Catholic gentry from the Catholic democracy, and thrust
+the latter more and more towards those liberal Protestants,
+mainly men of the middle class like themselves, who began
+about this time to club together at Belfast and Dublin,
+under the attractive title of "United Irishmen." Whatever
+they were individually, the union of so many hereditary
+Catholic names had been of very great service to the
+committee. So long as they stood aloof, the committee
+could not venture to speak for _all_ the Catholics; it
+could only speak for a part, though that part might be
+nine-tenths of the whole: this gave for a time a doubtful
+and hesitating appearance to their proceedings. So low
+was their political influence, in 1791, that they could
+not get a single member of Parliament to present their
+annual petition. When at last it was presented, it was
+laid on the table and never noticed afterwards. To their
+further embarrassment, Mr. McKenna and some others formed
+"the Catholic Society," with the nominal object of
+spreading a knowledge of Catholic principles, through
+the press, but covertly, to raise up a rival organization,
+under the control of the seceders. At this period John
+Keogh's talents for negotiation and diplomacy saved the
+Catholic body from another term of anarchical imbecility.
+
+A deputation of twelve having waited this year on the
+Chief Secretary with a list of the existing penal laws,
+found no intention, at the Castle, of further concession.
+They were "dismissed without an answer." Under these
+circumstances, the Committee met at Allen's Court. "It
+was their determination," says Keogh, "to give up the
+cause as desperate, lest a perseverance in what they
+considered an idle pursuit might not only prove ineffectual,
+but draw down a train of persecution on the body." Keogh
+endeavoured to rally them; proposed a delegation to
+London, to be sent at the expense of the Committee;
+offered, at last, to go at his own charge, if they
+authorized him. This proposal was accepted, and Keogh
+went. "I arrived in London," he adds, "without any
+introduction from this country, without any support, any
+assistance, any instructions." He remained three months,
+converted Mr. Dundas, brought back with him the son of
+Burke as Secretary, and a promise of four concessions:
+1st. The magistracy. 2nd. The grand juries. 3rd. The
+sheriffs of counties. 4th. The bar. It was in this
+interview that Keogh, after obtaining Mr. Dundas's express
+permission and promise not to be offended, said to him,
+according to Charles Butler's account, "Since you give
+me this permission, and your deliberate promise not to
+be offended, I beg leave to repeat, that there _is_ one
+thing which you ought to know, but which you don't suspect:
+you, Mr. Dundas, know nothing of Ireland." Mr. Dundas,
+as may be supposed, was greatly surprised; but, with
+perfect good humour, told Mr. Keogh that he believed
+this was not the case; it was true that he never had been
+in Ireland, but he had conversed with many Irishmen. "I
+have drunk," he said, "many a good bottle of wine with
+Lord Hillsborough, Lord Clare, and the Beresfords." "Yes,
+sir," said Mr. Keogh, "I believe you have; and that you
+drank many a good bottle of wine with them before you
+went to war with America."
+
+On the return of Keogh to Dublin, a numerous meeting was
+held to hear his report. At this meeting, the fair promises
+of the English ministers were contrasted with the hostility
+of the Castle. The necessity of a strong organization,
+to overcome the one and hasten the other, was felt by
+all: it was then decided to form the Committee into a
+Convention. By this plan, the Catholics in each county
+and borough were called on to choose, in a private manner,
+certain electors, who were to elect two or more delegates,
+to represent the town or county in the general meeting
+at Dublin, on the 3rd day of December following. A
+circular, signed by Edward Byrne, Chairman, and Richard
+McCormick, Secretary, explaining the plan and the mode
+of election, was issued on the 14th of January, and the
+Catholics everywhere prepared to obey it.
+
+The corporations of Dublin and other cities, the grand
+juries of Derry, Donegal, Leitrim, Roscommon, Limerick,
+Cork, and other counties, at once pronounced most strongly
+against the proposed Convention. They declared it
+"unconstitutional," "alarming," "most dangerous;" they
+denounced it as a copy of the National Assembly of France;
+they declared that they would "resist it to the utmost
+of their power;" they pledged "their lives and fortunes"
+to suppress it. The only answer of the Catholics was the
+legal opinion of Butler and Burton, two eminent lawyers,
+Protestants and King's counsellors, that the measure was
+entirely legal. They proceeded with their selection of
+delegates, and on the appointed day the Convention met.
+From the place of meeting', this Convention was popularly
+called "the Back Lane Parliament." Above 200 members were
+present.
+
+The Convention proceeded (Mr. Byrne in the chair) to
+declare itself the only body competent to speak for the
+Catholics of Ireland. They next discussed the substance
+of the proposed petition to the King. The debate on this
+subject, full of life and colour, has been preserved for
+us in the memoirs of Tone, who, although a Protestant,
+had been elected Secretary to the Catholic Committee.
+Great firmness was exhibited by Teeling of Antrim, Bellew
+of Galway, McDermott of Sligo, Devereux of Wexford, Sir
+Thomas French, and John Keogh. These gentlemen contended,
+and finally carried, without a division, though not
+without a two-days' debate, a petition, asking complete
+and unrestricted emancipation. With the addition of the
+Chairman and Secretary, they were appointed as deputies
+to proceed to London, there to place the Catholic ultimatum
+in the hands of King George.
+
+The deputies, whether by design or accident, took Belfast
+on their way to England. This great manufacturing town,
+at the head of the staple industry of the north, had been
+in succession the head-quarters of the Volunteers, the
+Northern Whigs, and the United Irishmen. Belfast had
+demanded in vain, for nearly a generation, that its 20,000
+inhabitants should no longer be disfranchised, while a
+dozen burgesses--creatures of Lord Donegal--controlled
+the representation. Community of disfranchisement had
+made the Belfastians liberal; the Catholic deputies were
+publicly received with bonfires and ringing of bells,
+their expenses were paid by the citizens, and their
+carriage drawn along in triumph, on the road to
+Port-Patrick.
+
+Arrived at London, after much negotiation and delay with
+ministers, a day was fixed for their introduction to the
+King. It was Wednesday, the 2nd of January, 1793; they
+were presented by Edmund Burke and the Home Secretary to
+George III., who "received them very graciously;" they
+placed in his hands the petition of their co-religionists,
+and, after some compliments, withdrew. In a few days,
+they were assured their case would be recommended to the
+attention of Parliament in the next royal speech, and
+so, leaving one of their number behind as "charge
+d'affaires," they returned to Dublin highly elated.
+
+The Viceroy, on their return, was all attention to the
+Catholics; the Secretary, who, a year before, would not
+listen to a petition, now laboured to fix a limit to
+concession. The demand of complete emancipation, was not
+maintained in this negotiation as firmly as in the December
+debates of "the Back Lane Parliament." The shock of the
+execution of the King of France; the efforts of the secret
+committee of the House of Lords to inculpate certain
+Catholic leaders in the United-Irish system, and as
+patrons of the Defenders; the telling argument, that to
+press all was to risk all,--these causes combined to
+induce the sub-committee to consent to less than the
+Convention had decided to insist upon. Negotiation was
+the strong ground of the government, and they kept it.
+Finally, the bill was introduced by the Chief Secretary,
+and warmly supported by Grattan, Curran, Ponsonby, Forbes,
+and Hutchinson, Provost of Trinity College. It was resisted
+in the Lower House by Mr. Speaker Foster, Mr. Ogle, and
+Dr. Duigenan, an apostate, who exhibited all the bitterness
+of his class; and in the Upper House, by the Chancellor,
+the son of an apostate, and the majority of the lords
+spiritual. On the 9th day of April, 1793, it became the
+law of Ireland. "By one comprehensive clause," says Tone,
+"all penalties, forfeitures, disabilities, and incapacities
+are removed; the property of the Catholic is completely
+discharged from the restraints and limitations of the
+penal laws, and their liberty, in a great measure,
+restored, by the restoration of the right of elective
+franchise, so long withheld, so ardently pursued. The
+right of self-defence is established by the restoration
+of the privilege to carry arms, subject to a restraint,
+which does not seem unreasonable, as excluding none but
+the very lowest orders. The unjust and unreasonable
+distinctions affecting Catholics, as to service on grand
+and petty juries, are done away; the army, navy, and all
+other offices and places of trust are opened to them,
+subject to exceptions hereafter mentioned. Catholics may
+be masters or fellows of any college hereafter to be
+founded, subject to two conditions, that such college be
+a member of the University, and that it be not founded
+exclusively for the education of Catholics. They may be
+members of any lay body corporate, except Trinity College,
+any law, statute, or bye-law of such corporation to the
+contrary notwithstanding. They may obtain degrees in the
+University of Dublin. These, and some lesser immunities
+and privileges, constitute the grant of the bill, the
+value of which will be best ascertained by referring to
+the petition."
+
+It is true, Catholics were still excluded from the high
+offices of Lord Lieutenant, Lord Deputy, and Lord
+Chancellor. What was much more important, they were
+excluded from sitting in Parliament--from exercising
+legislative and judicial functions, Still the franchise,
+the juries, the professions, and the University, were
+important concessions. Their first fruits were Daniel
+O'Connell and Thomas Moore!
+
+The Committee having met to return thanks to the
+parliamentary supporters of the bill, their own future
+operations came also under debate. Some members advised
+that they should add reform to their programme, as the
+remnant of the penal laws were not sufficient to interest
+and attract the people. Some would have gone much further
+than reform; some were well content to rest on their
+laurels. There were ultras, moderate men, and conservatives,
+even in the twelve. The latter were more numerous than
+Wolfe Tone liked or expected. That ardent revolutionist
+had, indeed, at bottom, a strong dislike of the Catholic
+religion; he united himself with that body because he
+needed a party; he remained with them because it gave
+him importance; but he chiefly valued the position as it
+enabled him to further an ulterior design--an Irish
+revolution and a republic on the French plan. The example
+of France had, however, grown by this time rather a terror
+than an attraction to more cautious men than Tone. Edward
+Byrne, Sir Thomas French, and other leading Catholics,
+were openly hostile to any imitation of it, and the dinner
+at Daly's, to celebrate the passage of the act, was
+strongly anti-Gallican in spirit and sentiment. Keogh,
+McCormick, and McNevin, however, joined the United
+Irishmen, and the two latter were placed on the Directory.
+Keogh withdrew, when, in 1795, that organization became
+a secret society.
+
+The Bishops, who had cheered on, rather than participated
+in the late struggle, were well satisfied with the new
+measure. They were, by education and conviction,
+conservatives. Dr. Plunkett of Meath, Dr. Egan of
+Waterford, Dr. Troy of Dublin, and Dr. Moylan of Cork,
+were the most remarkable for influence and ability at
+this period. Dr. Butler of Cashel, and his opponent, Dr.
+Burke of Ossory, the head of the resolute old ultramontane
+minority, were both recently deceased. With the exception
+of Dr. James Butler, Bishop of Cloyne and Ross, who
+deserted his faith and order on becoming unexpectedly
+heir to an earldom, the Irish prelates of the reign of
+George III. were a most zealous and devoted body. Lord
+Dunboyne's fall was the only cause of a reproach within
+their own ranks. That unhappy prelate made, many years
+afterwards, a death-bed repentance, was reconciled to
+his church, and bequeathed a large part of his inherited
+wealth to sustain the new national college, the founding
+of which, ever since the outbreak of the French revolution,
+the far-seeing Burke was urging upon Pitt and all his
+Irish correspondents.
+
+In 1794, the Irish Bishops, having applied for a "royal
+license" to establish academies and seminaries, were
+graciously received, and Lord Fitzwilliam's government
+the next session brought in the Act of Incorporation. It
+became law on the 5th of June, 1795, and the college was
+opened the following October with fifty students. Dr
+Hussey, afterwards Bishop of Waterford, the friend of
+Burke, who stood by his deathbed, was first President;
+some refugee French divines were appointed to
+professorships; and the Irish Parliament voted the very
+handsome sum of 8,000 pounds a year to the new foundation.
+Maynooth, whatever its after lot, was the creation in
+the first instance of the Irish Parliament. We have thus,
+in the third century after the reformation, after three
+great religious wars, after four confiscations, after
+the most ingenious, cruel, and unchristian methods of
+oppression and proselytism, had been tried and had failed,
+the grand spectacle of the Catholics of Ireland restored,
+if not fully, yet to the most precious of the civil and
+religious liberties of a people! So powerless against
+conscience is and ever must be coercion!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE ERA OF INDEPENDENCE--EFFECTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
+IN IRELAND--SECESSION OF GRATTAN, CURRAN, AND THEIR
+FRIENDS, FROM PARLIAMENT, IN 1797.
+
+The era of independence which we have desired to mark
+distinctly to the reader's mind, may be said to terminate
+in 1797, with the hopeless secession of Grattan and his
+friends from Parliament. Did the events within and without
+the House justify that extreme measure? We shall proceed
+to describe them as they arose, leaving the decision of
+the question to the judgment of the reader.
+
+The session of 1793, which extended into July, was,
+besides the Catholic Relief Bill, productive of other
+important results. Under the plea of the spread of French
+principles, and the widespread organization of seditious
+associations--a plea not wanting in evidence--an Arms
+Act was introduced and carried, prohibiting the importation
+of arms and gunpowder, and authorizing domiciliary visits,
+at any hour of the night or day, in search of such arms.
+Within a month from the passage of this bill, bravely
+but vainly opposed by Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and the
+opposition generally, the surviving Volunteer corps, in
+Dublin and its vicinity, were disbanded, their arms,
+artillery, and ammunition taken possession of either by
+force or negotiation, and the very wreck of that once
+powerful patriot army swept away. In its stead, by nearly
+the same majority, the militia were increased to 16,000
+men, and the regulars from 12,000 to 17,000--thus placing
+at the absolute control of the Commander-in-Chief, and
+the chiefs of the oligarchy, a standing army of 33,000
+men. At the same period, Lord Clare (he had been made an
+earl in 1792), introduced his Convention Act, against
+the assemblage in convention of delegates purporting to
+represent the people. With Grattan only 27 of the Commons
+divided against this measure, well characterized as "the
+boldest step that ever yet was made to introduce military
+government." "If this bill had been law," Grattan added,
+"the independence of the Irish Parliament, the emancipation
+of the Catholics, and even the English revolution of
+1688, could never have taken place!" The teller in favour
+of the Convention Act was Major Wellesley, member for
+Trim, twenty years later--Duke of Wellington! It became
+and still remains the law of Ireland.
+
+Against this reactionary legislation we must credit the
+session of '93, besides the Catholic Relief Bill and the
+East India Trade Bill, with Mr. Grattan's Barren Lands
+Bill, exempting all newly reclaimed lands from the payment
+of tithes for a period of seven years; Mr. Forbes's
+Pension Bill, limiting the pension list to 80,000 pounds
+sterling per annum, and fixing the permanent civil list
+at 250,000 pounds per annum; and the excellent measure
+of the same invaluable member, excluding from Parliament
+all persons holding offices of profit under the crown,
+except the usual ministerial officers, and those employed
+in the _revenue service_. This last salvo was forced into
+the bill by the oligarchical faction, for whose junior
+branches the revenue had long been a fruitful source of
+provision.
+
+Parliament met next, on the 21st of January, '94, and
+held a short two-months' session. The most remarkable
+incidents of these two months were the rejection of Mr.
+George Ponsonby's annual motion for parliamentary reform,
+and the striking position taken by Grattan, Curran, and
+all but seven or eight of their friends, in favour of
+the war against the French republic. Mr. Ponsonby proposed,
+in the spirit of Flood's plan ten years earlier, to unite
+to the boroughs four miles square of the adjoining country,
+thus creating a counterpoise to the territorial aristocracy
+on the one hand, and the patrons of boroughs on the other;
+he also proposed to extend the suffrage to every tradesman
+who had served five years' apprenticeship, and gave each
+county _three_ instead of two members, leaving intact,
+of course, the forty-shilling freehold franchise. Not
+more than 44 members, however, divided in favour of the
+new project, while 142 voted against it! Had it passed,
+the parliamentary history of the next six years could
+never have been written.
+
+It was on this Reform bill, and on the debate on the
+address, that Grattan took occasion to declare his settled
+and unalterable hostility to those "French principles,"
+then so fashionable with all who called themselves friends
+of freedom, in the three kingdoms. In the great social
+schism which had taken place in Europe, in consequence
+of the French revolution of 1789-'91, those kingdoms,
+the favourite seat of free inquiry and free discussion,
+could not hope to escape. The effects were visible in
+every circle, among every order of men; in all the
+churches, workshops, saloons, professions, into which
+men were divided. Among publicists, most of all, the
+shock was most severely felt; in England it separated
+Burke and Windham from Fox, Erskine, Sheridan, and Grey;
+in Ireland it separated Grattan and Curran from Lord
+Edward Fitzgerald, Arthur O'Conor, Addis Emmet, Wolfe
+Tone, and all those ardent, able, and honest men, who
+hailed the French, as the forerunner of a complete series
+of European republics, in which Ireland should shine out,
+among the brightest and the best.
+
+Grattan, who agreed with and revered Burke, looked upon
+the "anti-Jacobin war," as a just and necessary war. It
+was not in his nature to do anything by halves, and he
+therefore cordially supported the paragraph in the address
+pledging Ireland's support to that war. He was a
+constitutionalist of the British, not of the French type.
+In the subsequent Reform debate he declared that he would
+always and ever resist those who sought to remodel the
+Irish constitution on a French original. He asserted,
+moreover, that great mischief had been already done by
+the advocates of such a design, "It"--this design--"has
+thrown back for the present the chance of any rational
+improvement in the representation of the people," he
+cried, "and has betrayed a good reform _to the hopes of
+a shabby insurrection_." Proceeding in his own condensed,
+crystalline antithesis, he thus enlarged on his own
+opinions: "There are two characters equally enemies to
+the reform of Parliament, and equally enemies to the
+government--the leveller of the constitution, and the
+friend of its abuses; they take different roads to arrive
+at the same end. The levellers propose to subvert the
+King and parliamentary constitution by a rank and
+unqualified democracy--the friends of its abuses propose
+to support the King and buy the Parliament, and in the
+end to overset both, by a rank and avowed corruption.
+They are both incendiaries; the one would destroy government
+to pay his court to liberty; the other would destroy
+liberty to pay his court to government; but the liberty
+of the one would be confusion, and the government of the
+other would be pollution."
+
+We can well understand that this language pleased as
+little the United Irishmen as the Castle. It was known
+that in private he was accustomed to say, that, "the
+wonder was not that Mr. Sheares should die on the scaffold,
+but that Lord Clare was not there beside him." He stood
+in the midst of the ways, crying aloud, with the wisdom
+of his age and his genius, but there were few to heed
+his warnings. The sanguine innovator sneered or pitied;
+the truculent despot scowled or menaced; to the one his
+authority was an impediment, to the other his reputation
+was a reproach. It was a public situation as full of
+conflict as man ever occupied, and we are not astonished,
+on a nearer view, that it led, after three years hoping
+against hope, to the despairing secession of 1797.
+
+A bright gleam of better things shot for an instant across
+the gloomy prospect, with which the year '94 closed for
+the country. Lord Westmoreland was recalled, and Lord
+Fitzwilliam, largely connected with Ireland by property,
+and one of the most just and liberal men in England, was
+to be his successor. The highest expectations were
+excited; the best men congratulated each other on the
+certain promise of better times close at hand; and the
+nation, ever ready to believe whatever it wished to
+believe, saw in prospect, the oligarchy restrained, the
+patriots triumphant, and the unfinished fabric of
+independence completed, and crowned with honour.
+
+This new reign, though one of the shortest, was one of
+the most important Ireland ever saw. Lord Fitzwilliam,
+the nephew of Lord Rockingham, the first to acknowledge
+the constitution of 1782, had married a Ponsonby; he was
+a Burke whig--one of those who, with the Duke of Portland,
+Earl Spencer, and Mr. Windham, had followed the "great
+Edmund," in his secession from the Fox-and-Sheridan
+majority of that party, in 1791. Pitt, anxious to conciliate
+these new allies, had brought them all into office in
+1794--Earl Fitzwilliam being placed in the dignified
+position of President of the Council. When spoken of
+for the Viceroyalty he wrote to Grattan, bespeaking his
+support, and that of "his friends, the Ponsonbys;" this
+letter and some others brought Grattan to London, where
+he had two or three interviews with Pitt, the Duke of
+Portland, and Lord Fitzwilliam. Better still, he made a
+pilgrimage to Beaconsfield, and had the benefit of the
+last advice of the aged Burke. With Pitt he was disappointed
+and dissatisfied, but he still hoped and expected great
+good from the appointment of Lord Fitzwilliam to the
+office of Viceroy. It seems to have been fully understood
+that the new Lord Lieutenant would have very full powers
+to complete the gracious work of Catholic emancipation:
+with this express understanding, Mr. Grattan was pressed
+to accept the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, but steadily
+declined; he upheld in that position Sir Henry Parnell,
+an old personal, rather than political friend, one of a
+family of whom Ireland has reason to retain a grateful
+recollection. He was, however, with Ponsonby, Curran,
+and others of his friends in both Houses, added to the
+Privy Council, where they were free to shape the measures
+of the new administration. At the King's levee, on the
+10th of December, when Lord Fitzwilliam was sworn in,
+the aged Burke, in deep mourning for his idolized son,
+attended; Grattan was so much spoken to by the King as
+to draw towards him particular attention; Mr. Pitt, the
+Duke of Portland, and other ministers, were present. All
+took and held the tone that complete emancipation was a
+thing settled: Burke congratulated Grattan on the event,
+and the new Viceroy was as jubilant and as confident as
+anybody, that the great controversy was at length to be
+finally closed under his auspices.
+
+On the 4th of January, Lord Fitzwilliam reached Dublin;
+and on the 25th of March he was recalled. The history of
+these three months--of this short-lived attempt to govern
+Ireland on the advice of Grattan--is full of instruction.
+The Viceroy had not for a moment concealed his intention
+of thoroughly reforming the Irish administration. On his
+arrival at the Castle, Mr. Cooke was removed from the
+Secretaryship, and Mr. Beresford from the Revenue Board.
+Great was the consternation, and unscrupulous the intrigues
+of the dismissed. When the Parliament met at the end of
+January, Grattan assumed the leadership of the House of
+Commons, and moved the address in answer to the speech
+from the throne. No opposition was offered--and it passed
+without a division. Immediately, a bill granting the
+Catholics complete emancipation--rendering them eligible
+even to the office of Chancellor, withheld in 1829--was
+introduced by Grattan. Then the oligarchy found their
+voices. The old cry of "the Church in danger" was raised,
+delegations proceeded to London, and every agency of
+influence was brought to bear on the King and the English
+cabinet. From the tenor of his letters, Lord Fitzwilliam
+felt compelled in honour to tell Mr. Pitt, that he might
+choose between him and the Beresfords. He did choose--but
+not till the Irish Parliament, in the exuberance of its
+confidence and gratitude, had voted the extraordinary
+subsidy of 20,000 men for the navy, and _a million, eight
+hundred thousand pounds, towards the expenses of the war
+with France!_ Then, the popular Viceroy was recalled amid
+the universal regrets of the people. The day of his
+departure from Dublin was a day of general mourning,
+except with the oligarchical clique, whose leaders he
+had so resolutely thrust aside. To them it was a day of
+insolent and unconcealed rejoicing; and, what is not at
+all uncommon under such circumstances, the infatuated
+partisans of the French revolution, rejoiced hardly less
+than the extremest Tories, at the sudden collapse of a
+government equally opposed to the politics of both.
+Grattan, than whom no public man was ever more free from
+unjust suspicion of others, always remained under the
+conviction that Pitt had made merely a temporary use of
+Lord Fitzwilliam's popularity, in order to cheat the
+Irish out of the immense supplies they had voted; and
+all the documents of the day, which have since seen the
+light, accord well with that view of the transaction.
+Lord Fitzwilliam was immediately replaced by Lord Camden,
+whose Viceroyalty extended into the middle of the year
+1798: a reign which embraced all that remains to us to
+narrate, of the Parliamentary politics of the era of
+Independence.
+
+The sittings of Parliament were resumed during April,
+May, and June, but the complete emancipation bill was
+rejected three to one--155 to 55; the debates were now
+marked, on the part of Toler, Duigenan, Johnson, and
+others, with the most violent anti-Catholic spirit. All
+this tended to inflame still more the exasperated feeling
+which already prevailed in the country between Orangemen
+and Defenders. Thus it came, that the High Court of
+Parliament, which ought to have been the chief school of
+public wisdom--the calm correcting tribunal of public
+opinion--was made a principal engine in the dissemination
+of those prejudices and passions, which drove honest men
+to despair of constitutional redress, and swelled the
+ranks of the secret political societies, till they became
+co-extensive with the population.
+
+The session of 1796 was even more hopeless than the
+immediately preceding one. A trade motion of Grattan's
+on the address commanded only 14 votes out of 140; in
+the next session his motion in favour of equal rights to
+persons of all religious creeds, obtained but 12 votes
+out of 160! From these figures it is clear that above a
+third of the members of the House no longer attended;
+that of those who did attend, the overwhelming and
+invariable majority--ten to one--were for all the measures
+of repression and coercion which marked these two sessions.
+The Insurrection Act, giving power to the magistrates of
+any county to proclaim martial law; the Indemnity Act,
+protecting magistrates from the consequences of exercising
+"a vigour beyond the law;" the Riot Act, giving authority
+to disperse any number of persons by force of arms without
+notice; the Suspension of the _habeas corpus_ (against
+which only 7 members out of a House of 164 voted)--all
+were evidences to. Grattan, that the usefulness of the
+House of Commons, as then constituted, was, for the tune,
+lost or destroyed. It is quite clear that he came to
+this conviction slowly and reluctantly; that he struggled
+against it with manly fortitude through three sessions;
+that he yielded to it at length, when there was no longer
+a possibility of resistance,--when to move or to divide
+the House, had become a wretched farce, humiliating to
+the country, and unworthy of his own earnest and
+enthusiastic patriotism.
+
+Under these circumstances, the powerless leader and his
+devoted staff resolved to withdraw, formally and openly,
+from further attendance on the House of Commons. The
+deplorable state of the country, delivered over to an
+irresponsible magistracy and all the horrors of martial
+law; the spread among the patriotic rising generation of
+French principles; the scarcely concealed design of the
+Castle to goad the people into insurrection, in order to
+deprive them of their liberties; all admonished the
+faithful few that the walls of Parliament were no longer
+their sphere of usefulness. One last trial was, however,
+made in May, 1797, for a reform of Parliament. Mr. George
+Ponsonby moved his usual motion, and Curran, Hardy, Sir
+Lawrence Parsons, Charles Kendall Bushe, and others, ably
+supported him. The division was 30 to 117. It was on this
+debate, that Grattan, whose mournful manner contrasted
+so strongly with his usual enthusiasm, concluded a solemn
+exposition of the evils the administration were bringing
+on the country, by these affecting words:--"We have
+offered you our measure--you will reject it; we deprecate
+yours--you will persevere; having no hopes left to persuade
+or to dissuade, and having discharged our duty, we shall
+trouble you no more, _and after this day shall not attend
+the House of Commons_." The secession thus announced was
+accomplished; at the general election, two months later,
+Grattan and his colleague, Lord Henry Fitzgerald, refused
+to stand again for Dublin; Curran, Lord Edward Fitzgerald,
+Arthur O'Conor, and others, followed his example. A few
+patriots, hoping against hope, were, however, returned,
+a sort of forlorn hope, to man the last redoubt of the
+Constitution. Of these was William Conyngham Plunkett,
+member for Charlemont, Grattan's old borough, a
+constitutionalist of the school of Edmund Burke, worthy
+to be named among the most illustrious of his disciples.
+
+In the same July, on the 7th of the month, on which the
+Irish elections were held, that celebrated Anglo-Irish
+statesman expired at Beaconsfield, in the sixty-seventh
+year of his age. His last thoughts--his last wishes, like
+his first--were with his native land. His regards continued
+fixed on the state of Ireland, while vision and faculty
+remained. His last efforts in writing and conversation
+were to plead for toleration, concession and conciliation
+towards Ireland. The magisterial gravity of Burke was
+not calculated to permit him to be generally popular with
+an impulsive people, but as years roll on, and education
+extends its dominion, his reputation rises and brightens
+above every other reputation of his age, British or Irish.
+Of him no less truly than powerfully did Grattan say in
+the Imperial Parliament, in 1815: "He read everything,
+he saw everything, he foresaw everything. His knowledge
+of history amounted to a power of foretelling; and when
+he perceived the wild work that was doing in France, that
+great political physician, intelligent of symptoms,
+distinguished between the access of fever and the force
+of health; and what other men conceived to be the vigour
+of her constitution, he knew to be no more than the
+paroxysm of her madness; and then, prophet-like, he
+denounced the destinies of France, and in his prophetic
+fury, admonished nations."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE UNITED IRISHMEN.
+
+Half measures of justice may satisfy the generation which
+achieves them, but their successors will look with other
+eyes, as well on what has been won as on that which is
+withheld. The part in possession will appear to their
+youthful sense of abstract right and wrong far less
+precious than the part in expectancy, for it is in the
+nature of the young to look forward, as it is of the old
+to turn their regards to the past. The very recollection
+of their fathers will stimulate the new generation to
+emulate their example, and will render them averse to
+being bound by former compromises. So necessary is it
+for statesmen, when they yield to a just demand long
+withheld, to yield gracefully and to yield all that is
+fairly due.
+
+The celebrated group known to us as "the United Irishmen,"
+were the birth of a new generation, entering together on
+the public stage. With few exceptions, the leading
+characters were all born within a few years of each other:
+Neilson in 1761, Tone, Arthur O'Conor and Lord Edward
+Fitzgerald in '62, McNevin in '63, Sampson and Thomas
+Addis Emmet in '64, and Russell in '67. They had emerged
+into manhood while the drums of the Volunteers were
+beating victorious marches, when the public hopes ran
+high, and the language of patriotism was the familiar
+speech of every-day life.
+
+In a settled state of society it would have been natural
+for the first minds of the new generation to carry their
+talents, gratefully and dutifully, into the service of
+the first reputations of the old; but Irish society, in
+the last years of the last century, was not in a settled
+condition; the fascination of French example, and the
+goading sense of national wrongs only half-righted,
+inflamed the younger generation with a passionate thirst
+for speedy and summary justice on their oppressors. We
+must not look, therefore, to see the Tones and Emmets
+continuing in the constitutional line of public conduct
+marked out by Burke in the one kingdom, and Grattan in
+the other. The new age was revolutionary, and the new
+men were filled with the spirit of the age. Their actions
+stand apart; they form an episode in the history of the
+century to which there may be parallels, but a chapter
+in the history of their own country original and alone.
+
+The United Irish Society sprung up at Belfast in October,
+1791. In that month, Theobold Wolf Tone, then in his 28th
+year, a native of Kildare, a member of the bar, and an
+excellent popular pamphleteer, on a visit to his friend
+Thomas Russell, in the northern capital, was introduced
+to Samuel Neilson, proprietor of the _Northern Star_
+newspaper, and several other kindred spirits, all staunch
+reformers, or "something more." Twenty of these gentlemen
+meeting together, adopted a programme prepared by Tone,
+which contained these three simple propositions: that
+"English influence" was the great danger of Irish liberty;
+that a reform of Parliament could alone create a
+counterpoise to that influence; and that such a reform
+to be just should include Irishmen of all religious
+denominations. On Tone's return to Dublin, early in
+November, a branch society was formed on the Belfast
+basis. The Hon. Simon Butler, a leading barrister, was
+chosen Chairman, and Mr. Napper Tandy, an active middle-aged
+merchant, with strong republican principles, was Secretary.
+The solemn declaration or oath, binding every member "to
+forward a brotherhood of affection, an identity of
+interests, a communion of rights, and a union of power
+among Irishmen of all religious persuasions," was drawn
+up by the Dublin club, and became the universal bond of
+organization. Though the Belfast leaders had been long
+in the habit of meeting in "secret committee," to direct
+and control the popular movements in their vicinage, the
+new society was not, in its inception, nor for three
+years afterwards, a secret society. When that radical
+change was proposed, we find it resisted by a considerable
+minority, who felt themselves at length compelled to
+retire from an association, the proceedings of which they
+could no longer approve. In justice to those who remained,
+adopting secrecy as their only shield, it must be said,
+that the freedom of the press and of public discussion
+had been repeatedly and frequently violated before they
+abandoned the original maxims and tactics of their body,
+which were all open, and above-board.
+
+In 1792, Simon Butler, and Oliver Bond--a prosperous
+Dublin merchant of northern origin--was summoned to the
+bar of the House of Lords, condemned to six months'
+imprisonment, and a fine of 500 pounds each, for having
+acted as Chairman and Secretary of one of the meetings,
+at which an address to the people, strongly reflecting
+on the corrupt constitution of Parliament, was adopted.
+In '94, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, one of the purest and
+most chivalrous characters of any age, was convicted, by
+a packed jury, of circulating the famous "Universal
+Emancipation" address of his friend, Dr. William Drennan,
+the poet-politician of the party. He was defended by
+Curran, in the still more famous speech in which occurs
+his apostrophe to "the genius of Universal Emancipation;"
+but he atoned in the cells of Newgate, for circulating
+the dangerous doctrine which Drennan had broached, and
+Curran had immortalized.
+
+The regular place of meeting of the Dublin society was
+the Tailors' Hall, in Back Lane, a spacious building,
+called, from the number of great popular gatherings held
+in it, "the Back Lane Parliament." Here Tandy, in the
+uniform of his new National Guard, whose standard bore
+the harp without the crown, addressed his passionate
+harangues to the applauding multitude; here Tone, whose
+_forte_, however, was not oratory, constantly attended;
+here, also, the leading Catholics, Keogh and McCormack,
+the "Gog" and "Magog," of Tone's extraordinary _Memoirs_,
+were occasionally present. And here, on the night of the
+4th of May, 1794, the Dublin society found themselves
+suddenly assailed by the police, their papers seized,
+their officers who were present arrested, and their
+meeting dispersed. From that moment we may date the new
+and _secret_ organization of the brotherhood, though it
+was not in general operation till the middle of the
+following year.
+
+This new organization, besides its secrecy, had other
+revolutionary characteristics. For "reform of Parliament"
+was substituted in the test, or oath, representation "of
+all the people of Ireland," and for petitions and
+publications, the enrolment of men, by baronies and
+counties, and the appointment of officers, from the least
+to the highest in rank, as in a regular army. The unit
+was a lodge of twelve members, with a chairman and
+secretary, who were also their corporal and sergeant;
+five of these lodges formed a company, and the officers
+of five such companies a baronial committee, from which
+again, in like manner, the county committees were formed.
+Each of the provinces had its Directory, while in Dublin
+the supreme authority was established, in an "Executive
+Directory" of five members. The orders of the Executive
+were communicated to not more than one of the Provincial
+Directors, and by him to one of each County Committee,
+and so in a descending scale, till the rank and file were
+reached; an elaborate contrivance, but one which proved
+wholly insufficient to protect the secrets of the
+organization from the ubiquitous espionage of the
+government.
+
+In May, 1795, the new organization lost the services of
+Wolfe Tone, who was compromised by a strange incident,
+to a very serious extent. The incident was the arrest
+and trial of the Rev. William Jackson, an Anglican
+clergyman, who had imbibed the opinions of Price and
+Priestley, and had been sent to Ireland by the French
+Republic, on a secret embassy. Betrayed by a friend and
+countryman, named Cockayne, the unhappy Jackson took
+poison in prison, and expired in the dock. Tone had been
+seen with Jackson, and through the influence of his
+friends, was alone protected from arrest. He was compelled,
+however, to quit the country, in order to preserve his
+personal liberty. He proceeded with his family to Belfast,
+where, before taking shipping for America, he renewed
+with his first associates, their vows and projects, on
+the summit of "the Cave Hill," which looks down upon the
+rich valley of the Laggan, and the noble town and port
+at its outlet. Before quitting Dublin, he had solemnly
+promised Emmet and Russell, in the first instance, as he
+did his Belfast friends in the second, that he would make
+the United States his _route_ to France, where he would
+negotiate a formidable national alliance, for "the United
+Irishmen."
+
+In the year in which Tone left the country, Lord Edward
+Fitzgerald, brother of the Duke of Leinster, and formerly
+a Major in the British Army, joined the society; in the
+next year--near its close--Thomas Addis Emmet, who had
+long been in the confidence of the promoters, joined, as
+did, about the same time, Arthur O'Conor, nephew of Lord
+Longueville, and ex-member for Phillipstown, and Dr.
+William James McNevin, a Connaught Catholic, educated in
+Austria, then practising his profession with eminent
+success in Dublin. These were felt to be important
+accessions, and all four were called upon to act on "the
+Executive Directory," from time to time, during 1796 and
+1797.
+
+The coercive legislation carried through Parliament,
+session after session--the Orange persecutions in Armagh
+and elsewhere--the domiciliary visits--the military
+outrages in town and country--the free quarters, whipping
+and tortures--the total suppression of the public press
+--the bitter disappointment of Lord Fitzwilliam's
+recall--the annual failure of Ponsonby's motion for
+reform--finally, the despairing secession of Grattan and
+his friends from Parliament--had all tended to expand
+the system, which six years before was confined to a few
+dozen enthusiasts of Belfast and Dublin, into the dimensions
+of a national confederacy. By the close of this year,
+500,000 men had taken the test, in every part of the
+country, and nearly 300,000 were reported as armed, either
+with firelocks or pikes. Of this total, 110,000 alone
+were returned for Ulster; about 60,000 for Leinster, and
+the remainder from Connaught and Munster. A fund,
+ludicrously small, 1,400 pounds sterling, remained in
+the hands of the Executive, after all the outlay which
+had taken place, in procuring arms, in extending the
+union, and in defending prisoners arrested as members of
+the society. Lord Edward Fitzgerald was chosen
+Commander-in-Chief; but the main reliance, for munitions,
+artillery, and officers, was placed upon the French
+Republic.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE AND HOLLAND--THE THREE
+EXPEDITIONS NEGOTIATED BY TONE AND LEWINES.
+
+The close of the year 1795 saw France under the government
+of the Directory, with Carnot in the cabinet, and Pichegru,
+Jourdain, Moreau, Hoche, and Buonaparte at the head of
+its armies. This government, with some change of persons,
+lasted from October, 1795, to November, '99, when it was
+supplanted by the Consular Revolution. Within the compass
+of those four years lie the negotiations which were
+carried on and the three great expeditions which were
+fitted out by France and Holland, at the instance of the
+United Irishmen.
+
+On the 1st of February, 1796, Tone, who had sailed from
+Belfast the previous June, arrived at Havre from New
+York, possessed of a hundred guineas and some useful
+letters of introduction. One of these letters, written
+in cipher, was from the French Minister at Philadelphia
+to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Charles Lacroix;
+another was to the American Minister in France, Mr.
+Monroe, afterwards President of the United States, by
+whom he was most kindly received, and wisely advised, on
+reaching Paris. Lacroix received him courteously, and
+referred him to a subordinate called Madgett, but after
+nearly three months wasted in interviews and explanations,
+Tone, by the advice of Monroe, presented himself at the
+Luxembourg Palace, and demanded audience of the "Organizer
+of Victory." Carnot also listened to him attentively,
+asked and obtained his true name, and gave him another
+_rendezvous_. He was next introduced to Clarke (afterwards
+Duc de Feltre), Secretary at War, the son of an Irishman,
+whom he found wholly ignorant of Ireland; and finally,
+on the 12th of July, General Hoche, in the most frank
+and winning manner, introduced himself. At first the
+Directory proposed sending to Ireland no more than 5,000
+men, while Tone pleaded for 20,000; but when Hoche accepted
+the command, he assured Tone he would go "in sufficient
+force." The "pacificator of La Vendee," as the young
+general was called--he was only thirty-two,--won at once
+the heart of the enthusiastic founder of the United
+Irishmen, and the latter seems to have made an equally
+favourable impression. He was at once presented with
+the commission of a _chef de brigade_ of infantry--a rank
+answering to that of colonel with us--and was placed as
+adjutant on the general's staff. Hoche was all ardour
+and anxiety; Carnot cheered him on by expressing his
+belief that it would be "a most brilliant operation;"
+and certainly Tone was not the man to damp such
+expectations, or allow them to evaporate in mere
+complimentary assurances.
+
+During the autumn months the expedition was busily being
+fitted out at Brest, and the general head-quarters were
+at Rennes. The Directory, to satisfy themselves that all
+was as represented by Tone, had sent an agent of their
+own to Ireland, by whom a meeting was arranged on the
+Swiss frontier between Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Arthur
+O'Conor, Dr. McNevin, and Hoche. From this meeting--the
+secret of which he kept to himself--the young general
+returned in the highest spirits, and was kinder than ever
+to his adjutant. At length, early in December, all was
+ready, and on the 16th the Brest fleet stood out to sea;
+17 sail of the line, 13 frigates, and 13 smaller ships,
+carrying 15,000 picked troops, the _elite_ of "the Army
+of the Ocean," and abundance of artillery and munitions
+of war. Tone was in the _Indomptable_, 80 guns, commanded
+by a Canadian, named Bedout; Hoche and the Admiral in
+the frigate _Fraternite_; Grouchy, so memorable for the
+part he played then and afterwards, was second in command.
+On the third morning, after groping about and losing each
+other in Atlantic fog, one-half the fleet (with the fatal
+exception of the _Fraternite_) found themselves close in
+with the coast of Kerry. They entered Bantry Bay, and
+came to anchor, ten ships of war, and "a long line of
+dark hulls resting on the green water." Three or four
+days they lay dormant and idle, waiting for the General
+and Admiral; Bouvet, the Vice-Admiral, was opposed to
+moving in the absence of his chief; Grouchy was irresolute
+and nervous; but at length, on Christmas day, the council
+of war decided in favour of debarkation. The landing was
+to take place next morning; 6,500 veterans were prepared
+to step ashore at daylight, but without their artillery,
+their military chest, and their general. Two hours beyond
+midnight Tone was roused from sleep by the wind, which
+he found blowing half a gale. Pacing the gallery of the
+_Indomptable_ till day dawned, he felt it rising louder
+and angrier, every hour. The next day it was almost a
+hurricane, and the Vice-Admiral's frigate, running under
+the quarter of the great 80-gun ship, ordered them to
+slip anchor and stand out to sea. The whole fleet was
+soon driven off the Irish coast; that part of it, in
+which Grouchy and Tone were embarked, made its entrance
+into Brest on New Year's day; the ship which carried
+Hoche and the Admiral, only arrived at La Rochelle on
+the 15th. The Directory and the General, so far from
+being discouraged by this failure, consoled themselves
+by the demonstration they had made, of the possibility
+of a great fleet passing to and fro, in British waters,
+for nearly a month, without encountering a single British
+vessel of war. Not so the Irish negotiator; on him,
+light-hearted and daring as he was, the disappointment
+fell with crushing weight; but he magnanimously carried
+Grouchy's report to Paris, and did his utmost to defend
+the unlucky general from a cabal which had been formed
+against him.
+
+While Tone was reluctantly following his new chief to
+the Meuse and the Rhine--with a promise that the Irish
+expedition was delayed, not abandoned--another, and no
+less fortunate negotiator, was raising up a new ally for
+the same cause, in an unexpected quarter. The Batavian
+republic, which had risen in the steps of Pichegru's
+victorious army, in 1794, was now eager to imitate the
+example of France. With a powerful fleet, and an unemployed
+army, its chiefs were quite ready to listen to any proposal
+which would restore the maritime ascendancy of Holland,
+and bring back to the recollection of Europe the memory
+of the puissant Dutch republic. In this state of affairs,
+the new agent of the Irish Directory, Edward John Lewines,
+a Dublin attorney, a man of great ability and energy,
+addressed himself to the Batavian government. He had been
+sent abroad with very general powers, to treat with
+Holland, Spain, France, or any other government at war
+with England, for a loan of half a million sterling, and
+a sufficient auxiliary force to aid the insurrection.
+During two months' stay at Hamburg, the habitual route
+in those days from the British ports to the continent,
+he had placed himself in communication with the Spanish
+agent there, and had, in forty days, received an encouraging
+answer from Madrid. On his way, probably to Spain, to
+follow up that fair prospect, he reached the Netherlands,
+and rapidly discovering the state of feeling in the Dutch,
+or as it was then called, the _Batavian_ republic, he
+addressed himself to the Directors, who consulted Hoche,
+by whom in turn Tone was consulted. Tone had a high
+opinion of Lewines, and at once proceeded with him to
+the Hague, where they were joined, according to agreement,
+by Hoche. The Dutch Committee of Foreign Affairs, the
+Commander-in-Chief, General Dandaels, and the Admiral,
+De Winter, entered heartily into the project. There were
+in the Texel 16 ships of the line and 10 frigates,
+victualled for three months, with 15,000 men and 80 field
+guns on board. The only serious difficulty in the way
+was removed by the disinterestedness of Hoche; the French
+Foreign Minister having demanded that 5,000 French troops
+should be of the expedition, and that Hoche should command
+in chief; the latter, to conciliate Dandaels and the
+Dutch, undertook to withdraw the proposal, and gracefully
+yielded his own pretensions. All then was settled: Tone
+was to accompany Dandaels with the same rank he had in
+the Brest expedition, and Lewines to return, and remain,
+as "Minister-resident" at Paris. On the 8th of July, Tone
+was on board the flagship, the _Vryheid_, 74 guns, in
+the Texel, and "only waiting for a wind," to lead another
+navy to the aid of his compatriots.
+
+But the winds, "the only unsubsidized allies of England,"
+were strangely adverse. A week, two, three, four, five,
+passed heavily away, without affording a single day in
+which that mighty fleet could make an offing. Sometimes
+for an hour or two it shifted to the desired point, the
+sails were unclewed and the anchors shortened, but then,
+as if to torture the impatient exiles on board, it veered
+back again and settled steadily in the fatal south-west.
+At length, at the end of August, the provisions being
+nearly consumed, and the weather still unfavourable, the
+Dutch Directory resolved to land the troops and postpone
+the expedition. De Winter, as is known, subsequently
+found an opportunity to work out, and attack Lord Duncan,
+by whom he was badly beaten. Thus ended Irish hopes of
+aid from Holland. The indomitable Tone rejoined his chief
+on the Rhine, where, to his infinite regret, Hoche died
+the following month--September 18th, 1797--of a rapid
+consumption, accelerated by cold and carelessness. "Hoche,"
+said Napoleon to Barry O'Meara at Saint Helena, "was one
+of the first generals France ever produced. He was brave,
+intelligent, abounding in talent, decisive and penetrating.
+Had he landed in Ireland, he would have succeeded. He
+was accustomed to civil war, had pacified La Vendee, and
+was well adapted for Ireland. He had a fine, handsome
+figure, a good address, was prepossessing and intriguing."
+The loss of such a patron, who felt himself, according
+to Tone's account, especially bound to follow up the
+object of separating Ireland from England, was a calamity
+greater and more irreparable than the detention of one
+fleet or the dispersion of the other.
+
+The third expedition, in promoting which Tone and Lewines
+bore the principal part, was decided upon by the French
+Directory, immediately after the conclusion of peace with
+Austria, in October, 1797. The decree for the formation
+of "the Army of England," named Buonaparte Commander-in-
+Chief, with Desaix as his second. Buonaparte consulted
+Clarke as to who he most confided in among the numerous
+Irish refugees then in Paris--there were some twenty or
+thirty, all more or less known, and more or less in
+communication with the Directory--and Clarke answered
+at once, "Tone, of course." Tone, with Lewines, the one
+in a military, the other in an ambassadorial capacity,
+had frequent interviews with the young conqueror of Italy,
+whom they usually found silent and absorbed, always
+attentive, sometimes asking sudden questions betraying
+great want of knowledge of the British Islands, and
+occasionally, though rarely, breaking out into irresistible
+invectives against Jacobinism and the English system,
+both of which he so cordially detested. Every assurance
+was given by the General, by the Directors, by Merlin du
+Douai, Barras, and Talleyrand especially, that the
+expedition against England would never be abandoned.
+Tone, in high spirits as usual, joined the division under
+the command of his countryman, General Kilmaine, and took
+up his quarters at Havre, where he had landed without
+knowing a soul in France two years before.
+
+The winter wore away in busy preparations at Havre, at
+Brest, and at La Rochelle,--and, which seemed mysterious
+to the Irish exiles--at Toulon. All the resources of
+France, now without an enemy on the Continent, were put
+forth in these preparations. But it soon appeared they
+were not put forth for Ireland. On the 20th of May,
+1798--within three days of the outbreak in Dublin, Wexford,
+and Kildare--Buonaparte sailed with the _elite_ of all
+that expedition for Alexandria, and "the Army of England"
+became, in reality, "the Army of Egypt."
+
+The bitterness, the despondency, and desperation which
+seized on the Irish leaders in France, and on the rank
+and file of the United Irishmen at home, on receiving
+this intelligence are sufficiently illustrated in the
+subsequent attempts under Humbert and Bompart, and the
+partial, ineffectual risings in Leinster, Ulster, and
+Connaught, during the summer and autumn of 1798. After
+all their high hopes from France and her allies, this
+was what it had come to at last! A few frigates, with
+three or four thousand men, were all that could be spared
+for the succour of a kingdom more populous than Egypt
+and Syria combined; the granary of England, and the key
+of her Atlantic position. It might have been some comfort
+to the family of Tone to have read, thirty years afterwards,
+in their American asylum, or for the aged Lewines to have
+read in the Parisian retreat in which he died, the
+memorable confession of Napoleon at Saint Helena: "If
+instead of the expedition to Egypt, I had undertaken that
+to Ireland, what," he asked, "could England do now? On
+such chances," he mournfully added, "depend the destinies
+of empires!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE INSURRECTION OF 1798.
+
+It is no longer matter of assertion merely, but simple
+matter of fact, that the English and Irish ministers of
+George III. regarded the insurrectionary movement of
+the United Irishmen as at once a pretext and a means for
+effecting a legislative union between the two countries.
+Lord Camden, the Viceroy who succeeded Lord Fitzwilliam
+in March, '95--with Mr. Pelham as his Chief Secretary,
+in a letter to his relative, the Hon. Robert Stewart,
+afterwards Lord Castlereagh, announced this policy, in
+unmistakable terms, so early as 1793; and all the official
+correspondence published of late years, concerning that
+period of British and Irish history, establishes the fact
+beyond the possibility of denial.
+
+Such being the design, it was neither the wish nor the
+interest of the Government, that the insurrection should
+be suppressed, unless the Irish constitution could be
+extinguished with it. To that end they proceeded in the
+coercive legislation described in a previous chapter; to
+that end they armed with irresponsible power the military
+officers and the oligarchical magistracy; with that view
+they quartered those yeomanry regiments, which were known
+to be composed of Orangemen, on the wretched peasantry
+of the most Catholic counties, while the corps in which
+Catholics or United Irishmen were most numerous, were
+sent over to England, in exchange for Scotch fencibles
+and Welsh cavalry. The outrages committed by all these
+volunteer troops, but above all by the Orange yeomanry
+of the country, were so monstrous, that the gallant and
+humane Sir John Moore exclaimed, "If I were an Irishman,
+I would be a rebel!"
+
+It was, indeed, impossible for any man, however obscure,
+or however eminent, to live longer in the country, without
+taking sides. Yet the choice was at best a hard and
+unhappy one. On the one side was the Castle, hardly
+concealing its intention of goading on the people, in
+order to rob them of their Parliament; on the other was
+the injured multitude, bound together by a secret system
+which proved in reality no safeguard against traitors in
+their own ranks, and which had been placed by its Protestant
+chiefs under the auspices of an infidel republic. Between
+the two courses men made election according to their bias
+or their necessities, or as they took local or general,
+political or theological views of the situation. Both
+Houses of the legislature unanimously, sustained the
+government against the insurrection; as did the judges,
+the bar, and the Anglican clergy and bishops. The
+Presbyterian body were in the beginning all but unanimous
+for a republican revolution and the French alliance; the
+great majority of the Catholic peasantry were, as the
+crisis increased, driven into the same position, while
+all their bishops and a majority of the Catholic
+aristocracy, adhered to that which they, with the natural
+tendency of their respective orders, considered the side
+of religion and authority. Thus was the nation sub-divided
+within itself; Protestant civilian from Protestant
+ecclesiastic, Catholic layman from Catholic priest, tenant
+from lord, neighbour from neighbour, father from son,
+and friend from friend.
+
+During the whole of '97, the opposing parties were in a
+ferment of movement and apprehension. As the year wore
+on, the administration, both English and Irish, began to
+feel that the danger was more formidable than they had
+foreseen. The timely storm which had blown Grouchy out
+of Bantry Bay, the previous Christmas, could hardly be
+reckoned on again, though the settled hostility of the
+French government knew no change. Thoroughly well informed
+by their legion of spies both on the Continent and in
+Ireland, every possible military precaution was taken.
+The Lord Lieutenant's proclamation for disarming the
+people, issued in May, was rigorously enforced by General
+Johnstone in the South, General Hutchinson in the West,
+and Lord Lake in the North. Two hundred thousand pikes
+and pike-heads were said to have been discovered or
+surrendered during the year, and several thousand firelocks.
+The yeomanry, and English and Scotch corps amounted to
+35,000 men, while the regular troops were increased to
+50,000 and subsequently to 80,000, including three
+regiments of the Guards. The defensive works at Cork,
+and other vulnerable points were strengthened at an
+immense cost; the "Pigeon House" fort, near Dublin, was
+enlarged, for the city itself was pronounced by General
+Vallancy, Colonel Packenham, and other engineer authorities
+dangerously weak, if not wholly untenable. A system of
+telegraphic signals was established from all points of
+the coast with the Capital, and every precaution taken
+against the surprise of another French invasion.
+
+During the summer assize, almost every considerable town
+and circuit had its state trial. The sheriffs had been
+carefully selected beforehand by the Castle, and the
+juries were certain to be of "the right sort," under the
+auspices of such sheriffs. Immense sums in the aggregate
+were contributed by the United Irish for the defence of
+their associates; at the Down assizes alone, not less
+than seven hundred or eight hundred guineas were spent
+in fees and retainers; but at the close of the term, Mr.
+Beresford was able to boast to his friend Lord Auckland,
+that but one of all the accused had escaped the penalty
+of death or banishment! The military tribunals, however,
+did not wait for the idle formalities of the civil courts.
+Soldiers and civilians, yeomen and townsmen, against whom
+the informer pointed his finger, were taken out, and
+summarily executed. Ghastly forms hung upon the thick-set
+gibbets, not only in the market places of country towns,
+and before the public prisons, but on all the bridges of
+the metropolis. Many of the soldiers, in every military
+district were shot weekly and almost daily for real or
+alleged complicity with the rebels. The horrid torture
+of picketing, and the blood-stained lash, were constantly
+resorted to, to extort accusations or confessions. Over
+all these atrocities the furious and implacable spirit
+of Lord Clare presided in Council, and the equally
+furious and implacable Luttrel, Lord Carhampton, as
+Commander-in-Chief. All moderate councils were denounced
+as nothing short of treason, and even the elder Beresford,
+the Privy Counsellor, was compelled to complain of the
+violence of his noble associates, and his inability to
+restrain the ferocity of his own nearest relatives--
+meaning probably his son John Claudius, and his son-in-law,
+Sir George Hill.
+
+It was while this spirit was abroad, a spirit as destructive
+as ever animated the Councils of Sylla or Marius in Old
+Rome, or prompted the decrees of Robespierre or Marat in
+France, that the genius and courage of one man redeemed
+the lost reputation of the law, and upheld against all
+odds the sacred claims of personal liberty. This man was
+John Philpot Curran, the most dauntless of advocates,
+one of the truest and bravest of his race. Although a
+politician of the school of Grattan, and wholly untainted
+with French principles, he identified himself absolutely
+with his unhappy clients, "predoomed to death." The genius
+of patriotic resistance which seemed to have withdrawn
+from the Island with Grattan's secession from Parliament,
+now re-appeared in the last place where it might have
+been expected--in those courts of death, rather than of
+justice--before those predetermined juries, besides the
+hopeless inmates of the crowded dock, personified in the
+person of Curran. Often at midnight, amid the clash of
+arms, his wonderful pleadings were delivered; sometimes,
+as in Dublin, where the court rooms adjoined the prisons,
+the condemned, or the confined, could hear, in their
+cells, his piercing accents breaking the stillness of
+the early morning, pleading for justice and mercy--pleading
+always with superhuman perseverance, but almost always
+in vain. Neither menaces of arrest, nor threats of
+assassination, had power to intimidate that all-daring
+spirit; nor, it may be safely said, can the whole library
+of human history present us a form of heroism superior
+in kind or degree to that which this illustrious advocate
+exhibited during nearly two years, when he went forth
+daily, with his life in his hand, in the holy hope to
+snatch some human victim from the clutch of the destroyer
+thirsting for his blood.
+
+In November, '97, some said from fear of personal
+consequences, some from official pressure in a high
+quarter, Lord Carhampton resigned the command of the
+forces, and Sir Ralph Abercromby was appointed in his
+stead. There could not be a more striking illustration
+of the system of terror patronized by government than
+was furnished in the case of Sir Ralph as Commander-in-
+Chief. That distinguished soldier, with his half century
+of services at his back, had not been a week in Dublin
+before he discovered the weakness of the Viceroy, and
+the violence of his principal advisers, the Chancellor,
+the Speaker, Lord Castlereagh and the Beresfords. Writing
+in confidence to his son, he says, "The abuses of all
+kinds I found here can scarcely be believed or enumerated."
+The instances he cites of such abuses are sufficiently
+horrible to justify the strong language which brought
+down on his head so much hostility, when he declared in
+his proclamation of February '98, that the Irish army
+was "formidable to every one but the enemy." These
+well-known opinions were so repugnant to the Castle
+policy, that that party held a caucus in the Speaker's
+Chambers, at which it was proposed to pass a vote of
+censure in Parliament on the General, whom they denounced
+as "a sulky mule," "a Scotch beast," and by other similar
+names. Though the Parliamentary censure dropped, they
+actually compelled Lord Camden to call on him to retract
+his magnanimous order. To this humiliation the veteran
+stooped "for the sake of the King's service," but at the
+same time he proffered his resignation. After two months'
+correspondence, it was finally accepted, and the soldier
+who was found too jealous of the rights of the people to
+be a fit instrument of their destruction, escaped from
+his high position, not without a profound sentiment of
+relief. His verdict upon the barbarous policy pursued in
+his time was always expressed, frankly and decisively.
+His entire correspondence, private and public, bears one
+and the same burthen--the violence, cruelty, and tyranny
+of Lord Camden's chief advisers, and the pitiful weakness
+of the Viceroy himself. Against the infamous plan of
+letting loose a lustful and brutal soldiery to live at
+"free quarters" on a defenceless and disarmed people--an
+outrage against which Englishmen had taken perpetual
+security at _their_ revolution, as may be seen in "the
+Bill of Rights," he struggled during his six months'
+command, but with no great success. The plan, with all
+its horrors, was upheld by the Lord-Lieutenant, and more
+than any other cause, precipitated the rebellion which
+exploded at last, just as Sir Ralph was allowed to retire
+from the country. His temporary successor, Lord Lake,
+was troubled with no such scruples as the gallant old
+Scotsman.
+
+Events followed each other in the first months of 1798,
+fast and furiously. Towards the end of February, Arthur
+O'Conor, Father James Quigley, the brothers John and
+Benjamin Binns, were arrested at Margate on their way to
+France; on the 6th of March, the _Press_ newspaper, the
+Dublin organ of the party, as the _Star_ had been the
+Ulster organ, was seized by Government, Lord Edward
+Fitzgerald and William Sampson being at the time in the
+office. On the 12th of March, on the information of the
+traitor, Thomas Reynolds, the Leinster delegates were
+seized in conclave, with all their papers, at the house
+of Oliver Bond, in Bridge Street, Dublin. On the same
+information. Addis Emmet and Dr. McNevin were taken in
+their own houses, and Sampson in the north of England:
+of all the executive, Lord Edward alone escaping those
+sent in search of him. This was, as Tone notes in his
+journal, on the ill news reaching France, "a terrible
+blow." O'Conor's arrest in Kent, Sampson's in Carlisle,
+and the other arrests in Belfast and Dublin, proved too
+truly that treason was at work, and that the much-prized
+oath of secrecy was no protection whatever against the
+devices of the Castle and the depravity of its secret
+agents. The extent to which that treason extended, the
+number of associates who were in the pay of their deadly
+enemies, was never known to the United Irish leaders;
+time has, however, long since "revealed the secrets of
+the prison-house," and we know now, that men they trusted
+with all their plans and hopes, such as McNally and
+McGucken, were quite as deep in the conspiracy to destroy
+them as Mr. Reynolds and Captain Armstrong.
+
+The most influential members of the Dublin Society
+remaining at large contrived to correspond with each
+other, or to meet by stealth after the arrest at Bond's.
+The vacancies in the Executive were filled up by the
+brothers John and Henry Sheares, both barristers, sons
+of a wealthy Cork banker, and former member of Parliament,
+and by Mr. Lawless, a surgeon. For two months longer
+these gentlemen continued to act in concert with Lord
+Edward, who remained undetected, notwithstanding all the
+efforts of Government, from the 12th of March till the
+19th of May following. During those two months the new
+directors devoted themselves with the utmost energy to
+hurrying on the armament of the people, and especially
+to making proselytes among the militia, where the gain
+of one man armed and disciplined was justly accounted
+equal to the enlistment of three or four ordinary adherents.
+This part of their plan brought the brothers Sheares into
+contact, among others, with Captain John Warneford
+Armstrong, of the Queen's County Yeomanry, whom they
+supposed they had won over, but who was, in reality, a
+better-class spy, acting under Lord Castlereagh's
+instructions. Armstrong cultivated them sedulously, dined
+at their table, echoed their opinions, and led the
+credulous brothers on to their destruction. All at last
+was determined on; the day of the rising was fixed--the
+23rd day of May--and the signal was to be the simultaneous
+stoppage of the mail coaches, which started nightly from
+the Dublin post-office, to every quarter of the kingdom.
+But the counterplot anticipated the plot. Lord Edward,
+betrayed by a person called Higgins, proprietor of the
+_Freeman's Journal_, was taken on the 19th of May, after
+a desperate struggle with Majors Swan and Sirr, and
+Captain Ryan, in his hiding-place in Thomas Street; the
+brothers Sheares were arrested in their own house on the
+morning of the 21st, while Surgeon Lawless escaped from
+the city, and finally from the country, to France. Thus,
+for the second time, was the insurrection left without
+a head; but the organization had proceeded too far to be
+any longer restrained, and the Castle, moreover, to use
+the expression of Lord Castlereagh, "took means to make
+it explode."
+
+The first intelligence of the rebellion was received in
+Dublin on the morning of the 24th of May. At Rathfarnham,
+within three miles of the city, 500 insurgents attacked
+Lord Ely's yeomanry corps with some success, till Lord
+Roden's dragoons, hastily despatched from the city,
+compelled them to retreat, with the loss of some prisoners
+and two men killed, whom Mr. Beresford saw the next day,
+literally "_cut to pieces_--a horrid sight." At Dunboyne
+the insurgents piked an escort of the Reay Fencibles
+(Scotch) passing through their village, and carried off
+their baggage. At Naas, a large popular force attacked
+the garrison, consisting of regulars, Ancient Britons
+(Welsh), part of a regiment of dragoons, and the Armagh
+Militia; the attack was renewed three times with great
+bravery, but finally, discipline, as it always will,
+prevailed over mere numbers, and the assailants were repulsed
+with the loss of 140 of their comrades. At Prosperous,
+where they cut off to a man a strong garrison composed of
+North Cork Militia, under Captain Swayne, the rising was
+more successful. The commander in this exploit was Dr.
+Esmonde, brother of the Wexford baronet, who, being betrayed
+by one of his own subalterns, was the next morning arrested
+at breakfast in the neighbourhood, and suffered death at
+Dublin on the 14th of the following month.
+
+There could hardly be found a more unfavourable field
+for a peasant war than the generally level and easily
+accessible county of Kildare, every parish of which is
+within a day's march of Dublin. From having been the
+residence of Lord Edward, it was, perhaps, one of the
+most highly organized parts of Leinster, but as it had
+the misfortune to be represented by Thomas Reynolds, as
+county delegate, it laboured under the disadvantage of
+having its organization better known to the government
+than any other. We need hardly be surprised, therefore,
+to find that the military operations in this county were
+all over in ten days or a fortnight; when those who had
+neither surrendered nor fallen, fell back into Meath or
+Connaught, or effected a junction with the Wicklow rebels
+in their mountain fastnesses. Their struggle, though so
+brief, had been creditable for personal bravery. Attacked
+by a numerous cavalry and militia under General Wilford,
+by 2,500 men, chiefly regulars, under General Dundas,
+and by 800 regulars brought up by forced marches from
+Limerick, under Sir James Duff, they showed qualities,
+which, if well directed, would have established for their
+possessors a high military reputation. At Monastereven
+they were repulsed with loss, the defenders of the town
+being in part Catholic loyalists, under Captain Cassidy;
+at Rathangan, they were more successful, taking and
+holding the town for several days; at Clane, the captors
+of Prosperous were repulsed; while at Old Killcullen,
+their associates drove back General Dundas' advance, with
+the loss of 22 regulars and Captain Erskine killed. Sir
+James Duff's wanton cruelty in sabring and shooting down
+an unarmed multitude on the Curragh, won him the warm
+approval of the extermination party in the Capital, while
+Generals Wilford and Dundas narrowly escaped being
+reprimanded for granting a truce to the insurgents under
+Aylmer, and accepting of the surrender of that leader
+and his companions. By the beginning of June the six
+Kildare encampments of insurgents were totally dispersed,
+and their most active officers in prison or fugitives
+west or south.
+
+By a preconcerted arrangement, the local chiefs of the
+insurrection in Dublin and Meath, gathered with their men
+on the third day after the outbreak, at the historic hill
+of Tara. Here they expected to be joined by the men of
+Cavan, Longford, Louth and Monaghan; but before the
+northerners reached the trysting place, three companies of
+the Reay Fencibles, under Captain McClean, the Kells and
+Navan Yeomanry, under Captain Preston, (afterwards Lord
+Tara,) and a troop of cavalry under Lord Fingal, surrounded
+the royal hill. The insurgents, commanded by Gilshine and
+other leaders, intrenched themselves in the graveyard which
+occupies the summit of Tara, and stoutly defended their
+position. Twenty-six of the Highlanders and six of the
+Yeomanry fell in the assault, but the bullet reached farther
+than the pike, and the defenders were driven, after a sharp
+action, over the brow of the eminence, and many of them
+shot or sabred down as they fled.
+
+Southward from the Capital the long pent-up flame of
+disaffection broke out on the same memorable day, May
+23rd. At Dunlavin, an abortive attempt on the barrack
+revealed the fact that many of the Yeomanry were thoroughly
+with the insurgents. Hardly had the danger from without
+passed over, when a military inquiry was improvised. By
+this tribunal, nineteen Wexford, and nine Kildare Yeomanry,
+were ordered to be shot, and the execution of the sentence
+followed immediately on its rending. At Blessington, the
+town was seized, but a nocturnal attack on Carlow was
+repulsed with great loss. In this last affair, the rebels
+had _rendezvoused_ in the domain of Sir Edward Crosbie,
+within two miles of the town. Here arms were distributed
+and orders given by their leader, named Roche. Silently
+and quickly they reached the town they hoped to surprise.
+But the regular troops, of which the garrison was chiefly
+composed, were on the alert, though their preparations
+were made full as silently. When the peasantry emerged
+from Tullow Street, into an exposed space, a deadly fire
+was opened upon them from the houses on all sides. The
+regulars, in perfect security themselves, and abundantly
+supplied with ammunition, shot them down with deadly
+unerring aim. The people soon found there was nothing
+for it but retreat, and carrying off as best they could
+their killed and wounded, they retired sorely discomfited.
+For alleged complicity in this attack, Sir Edward Crosbie
+was shortly afterward arrested, tried and executed. There
+was not a shadow of proof against him; but he was known
+to sympathize with the sufferings of his countrymen, to
+have condemned in strong language the policy of provocation,
+and that was sufficient. He paid with the penalty of his
+head for the kindness and generosity of his heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE INSURRECTION OF 1798--THE WEXFORD INSURRECTION.
+
+The most formidable insurrection, indeed the only really
+formidable one, broke out in the county of Wexford, a
+county in which it was stated there were not 200 sworn
+United Irishmen, and which Lord Edward Fitzgerald had
+altogether omitted from his official list of counties
+organized in the month of February. In that brief interval,
+the Government policy of provocation had the desired
+effect, though the explosion was of a nature to startle
+those who occasioned it.
+
+Wexford, geographically, is a peculiar county, and its
+people are a peculiar people. The county fills up the
+south-eastern corner of the island, with the sea south-east,
+the river Barrow to the west, and the woods and mountains
+of Carlow and Wicklow to the north. It is about forty
+miles long by twenty-four broad; the surface undulating
+and rising into numerous groups of detached hills, two
+or more of which are generally visible from each conspicuous
+summit. Almost in the midst flows the river Slaney,
+springing from a lofty Wicklow peak, which sends down on
+its northern slope the better known river Liffey. On the
+estuary of the Slaney, some seventy miles south of Dublin,
+stands the county town, the traveller journeying to which
+by the usual route then taken, passed in succession
+through Arklow, Gorey, Ferns, Enniscorthy, and other
+places of less consequence, though familiar enough in
+the fiery records of 1798. North-westward, the only road
+in those days from Carlow and Kilkenny, crossed the
+Blackstairs at Scollagh-gap, entering the county at
+Newtownbarry, the ancient Bunclody; westward, some twenty
+miles, on the river Barrow, stands New Ross, often
+mentioned in this history, the road from which to the
+county town passes through Scullabogue and Taghmon
+(_Ta'mun_), the former at the foot of Carrickbyrne rock,
+the latter at the base of what is rather hyperbolically
+called "the _mountain_ of Forth." South and west of the
+town, towards the estuary of Waterford, lie the baronies
+of Forth and Bargy, a great part of the population of
+which, even within our own time, spoke the language
+Chaucer and Spenser wrote, and retained many of the
+characteristics of their Saxon, Flemish, and Cambrian
+ancestors. Through this singular district lay the road
+towards Duncannon fort, on Waterford harbour, with branches
+running off to Bannow, Ballyhack, and Dunbrody. We shall,
+therefore, speak of all the localities we may have occasion
+to mention as on or near one of the four main roads of
+the county, the Dublin, Carlow, Boss, and Waterford roads.
+
+The population of this territory was variously estimated
+in 1798, at 150,000, 180,000, and 200,000. They were,
+generally speaking, a comfortable and contented peasantry,
+for the Wexford landlords were seldom absentees, and the
+farmers held under them by long leases and reasonable
+rents. There were in the country few great lords, but
+there was little poverty and no pauperism. In such a
+soil, the secret societies were almost certain to fail,
+and if it had not been for the diabolical experiments of
+Lord Kingsborough's North Cork Militia, it is very probable
+that that orderly and thrifty population would have seen
+the eventful year we are describing pass over their homes
+without experiencing any of the terrible trials which
+accompanied it. But it was impossible for human nature
+to endure the provocations inflicted upon this patient
+and prosperous people. The pitch-cap and the triangle
+were resorted to on the slightest and most frivolous
+pretexts. "A sergeant of the North Cork Militia," says
+Mr. Hay, the county historian, "nicknamed, _Tom the
+Devil_, was most ingenious in devising new modes of
+torture. Moistened gunpowder was frequently rubbed into
+the hair cut close and then set on fire; some, while
+shearing for this purpose, had the tips of their ears
+snipt off; sometimes an entire ear, and often both ears
+were completely cut off; and many lost part of their
+noses during the like preparation. But, strange to tell,"
+adds Mr. Hay, "these atrocities were publicly practised
+without the least reserve in open day, and no magistrate
+or officer ever interfered, but shamefully connived at
+this extraordinary mode of quieting the people! Some of
+the miserable sufferers on these shocking occasions, or
+some of their relations or friends, actuated by a principle
+of retaliation, if not of revenge, cut short the hair of
+several persons whom they either considered as enemies
+or suspected of having pointed them out as objects for
+such desperate treatment. This was done with a view that
+those active citizens should fall in for a little experience
+of the like discipline, or to make the fashion of short
+hair so general that it might no longer be a mark of
+party distinction." This was the origin of the nickname
+"Croppy," by which, during the remainder of the
+insurrection, it was customary to designate all who were
+suspected or proved to be hostile to, the government.
+
+Among the magistracy of the county were several persons
+who, whatever might have been their conduct in ordinary
+times, now showed themselves utterly unfit to be entrusted
+with those large discretionary powers which Parliament
+had recently conferred upon all justices of the peace.
+One of these magistrates, surrounded by his troops,
+perambulated the county with an executioner, armed with
+all the equipments of his office; another carried away
+the lopped hands and fingers of his victims, with which
+he stirred his punch in the carousals that followed every
+expedition. At Carnew, midway between the Dublin and
+Carlow roads, on the second day of the insurrection,
+twenty-eight prisoners were brought out to be shot at as
+targets in the public ball alley; on the same day
+Enniscorthy witnessed its first execution for treason,
+and the neighbourhood of Ballaghkeen was harried by Mr.
+Jacob, one of the magistrates whose method of preserving
+the peace of the county has been just referred to. The
+majority of the bench, either weakly or willingly,
+sanctioned these atrocities, but some others, among them
+a few of the first men in the county, did not hesitate
+to resist and condemn them. Among these were Mr. Beauchamp
+Bagenal Harvey of Bargy Castle, Mr. Fitzgerald of Newpark,
+and Mr. John Henry Colclough of Tintern Abbey; but all
+these gentlemen were arrested on Saturday, the 26th of
+May--the same day, or more strictly speaking, the eve
+of the day on which the Wexford outbreak occurred.
+
+On the day succeeding these arrests, being Whitsunday,
+Father John Murphy, parish priest of Kilcormick, the son
+of a small farmer of the neighbourhood, educated in Spain,
+on coming to his little wayside chapel, found it laid in
+ashes. To his flock, as they surrounded him in the open
+air, he boldly preached that it would be much better for
+them to die in a fair field than to await the tortures
+inflicted by such magistrates as Archibald Jacob, Hunter
+Gowan, and Hawtrey White. He declared his readiness to
+share their fate, whatever it might be, and in response,
+about 2,000 of the country people gathered in a few hours
+upon Oulart Hill, situated about half-way between
+Enniscorthy and the sea, and eleven miles north of Wexford.
+Here they were attacked on the afternoon of the same day
+by the North Cork Militia, Colonel Foote, the Shilmalier
+Yeoman cavalry, Colonel Le Hunte, and the Wexford cavalry.
+The rebels, strong in their position, and more generally
+accustomed to the use of arms than persons in their
+condition in other parts of the country, made a brave
+and successful stand. Major Lambert, the Hon. Captain De
+Courcy (brother of Lord Kinsale), and some other officers,
+fell before the long-shore guns of the Shilmalier fowlers;
+of the North Cork detachment, only the colonel, a sergeant,
+and two or three privates escaped; the cavalry, at the
+top of their speed, galloped back to the county town.
+
+The people were soon thoroughly aroused. Another popular
+priest of the diocese, Michael Murphy, on reaching Gorey,
+finding his chapel also rifled, and the altar desecrated,
+turned his horse's head and joined the insurgents, who
+had gathered on Kilthomas hill, near Carnew. Signal fires
+burned that night on all the eminences of the county,
+which seemed as if they had been designed for so many
+watch-towers; horns resounded; horsemen galloped far and
+near; on the morrow of Whitsunday all Wexford arose,
+animated with the passions and purposes of civil war.
+
+On the 28th, Ferns, Camolin, and Enniscorthy were taken
+by the insurgents; the latter, after an action of four
+hours, in which a captain, two lieutenants, and eighty
+of the local yeomanry fell. The survivors fled to Wexford,
+which was as rapidly as possible placed in a state of
+defence. The old walls and gates were still in good
+repair, and 300 North Cork, 200 Donegal, and 700 local
+militia ought to have formed a strong garrison within
+such ramparts, against a mere tumultuous peasantry. The
+yeomen, however, thought otherwise, and two of the three
+imprisoned popular magistrates were sent to Enniscorthy
+to exhort and endeavour to disperse the insurgents. One
+of them only returned, the other, Mr. Fitzgerald, joined
+the rebels, who, continuing their march, were allowed to
+take possession of the county town without striking a
+blow. Mr. Bagenal Harvey, the magistrate still in prison,
+they insisted on making their Commander-in-Chief; a
+gentleman of considerable property, by no means destitute
+of courage, but in every other respect quite unequal to
+the task imposed upon him. After a trial of his generalship
+at the battle of Ross, he was transferred to the more
+pacific office of President of the Council, which continued
+to sit and direct operations from Wexford, with the
+co-operation of a sub-committee at Enniscorthy. Captain
+Matthew Keogh, a retired officer of the regular army,
+aged but active, was made governor of the town, in which
+a couple of hundred armed men were left as his guards.
+An attempt to relieve the place from Duncannon had utterly
+failed. General Fawcett, commanding that important
+fortress, set out on his march with this object on the
+30th of May--his advanced guard of 70 Meathian yeomanry,
+having in charge three howitzers, whose slower movements
+it was expected the main force would overtake long before
+reaching the neighbourhood of danger. At Taghmon this
+force was joined by Captain Adams with his command, and
+thus reinforced they continued their march to Wexford.
+Within three miles of the town the road wound round the
+base of the "three rock" mountain; evening fell as the
+royalists approached this neighbourhood, where the victors
+of Oulart, Enniscorthy, and Wexford had just improvised
+a new camp. A sharp volley from the long-shore-men's
+guns, and a furious onslaught of pikes threw the royal
+detachment into the utmost disorder. Three officers of
+the Meathian cavalry, and nearly one hundred men were
+placed _hors de combat_; the three howitzers, eleven
+gunners, and several prisoners taken; making the third
+considerable success of the insurgents within a week.
+
+Wexford county now became the theatre of operations, on
+which all eyes were fixed. The populace gathered as if
+by instinct into three great encampments, on Vinegar
+Hill, above Enniscorthy; on Carrickbyrne, on the road
+leading to Ross, and on the hill of Corrigrua, seven
+miles from Gorey. The principal leaders of the first
+division were Fathers Kearns and Clinch, and Messrs.
+Fitzgerald, Doyle, and Redmond; of the second, Bagenal
+Harvey, and Father Philip Roche; of the last, Anthony
+Perry of Inch, Esmond Kyan, and the two Fathers Murphy,
+Michael, and John. The general plan of operations was
+that the third division should move by way of Arklow and
+Wicklow on the Capital; the second to open communication
+with Carlow, Kilkenny, and Kildare by Newtownbarry and
+Scollagh-gap; while the first was to attack New Ross,
+and endeavour to hasten the rising in Munster.
+
+On the 1st of June, the advance of the northern division
+marching upon Gorey, then occupied in force by General
+Loftus, were encountered four miles from the town, and
+driven back with the loss of about a hundred killed and
+wounded. On the 4th of June, Loftus, at the instance of
+Colonel Walpole, aid-de-camp to the Lord Lieutenant, who
+had lately joined him with considerable reinforcements,
+resolved to beat up the rebel quarters at Corrigrua. It
+was to be a combined movement; Lord Ancram, posted with
+his militia and dragoons at the bridge of Scaramalsh,
+where the poetic Banna joins the Slaney, was to prevent
+the arrival of succours from Vinegar Hill; Captain McManus,
+with a couple of companies of yeomanry, stationed at
+another exposed point from which intelligence could be
+obtained and communicated; while the General and Colonel
+Walpole, marched to the attack by roads some distance
+apart, which ran into one within two miles of Corrigrua
+camp. The main body of the King's troops were committed
+to the lead of Walpole, who had also two six-pounders
+and a howitzer. After an hour-and-a-half's march he
+found the country changed its character near the village
+of Clogh (_clo'_), where the road descending from the
+level arable land, dips suddenly into the narrow and
+winding pass of Tubberneering. The sides of the pass were
+lined with a bushy shrubbery, and the roadway at the
+bottom embanked with ditch and dike. On came the confident
+Walpole, never dreaming that these silent thickets were
+so soon to re-echo the cries of the onslaught. The 4th
+dragoon guards, the Ancient Britons, under Sir Watkyn
+Wynne, the Antrim militia, under Colonel Cope, had all
+entered the defile before the ambuscade was discovered.
+Then, at the first volley, Walpole fell, with several of
+those immediately about Ms person; out from the shrubbery
+rushed the pikemen, clearing ditch and dike at a bound;
+dragoons and fencibles went down like the sward before
+the scythe of the mower; the three guns were captured,
+and turned on the flying survivors; the regimental flags
+taken, with all the other spoils pertaining to such a
+retreat. It was, in truth, an immense victory for a mob
+of peasants, marshalled by men who that day saw their
+first, or, at most, their second action. Before forty-eight
+hours they were masters of Gorey, and talked of nothing
+less than the capture of Dublin within another week or
+fortnight!
+
+From Vinegar Hill the concerted movement was made against
+Newtonbarry, on the 2nd of June, the rebels advancing by
+both banks of the Slaney, under cover of a six-pounder--
+the only gun they had with them. The detachment in command
+of the beautiful little town, half hidden in its leafy
+valley, was from 600 to 800 strong, with a troop of
+dragoons, and two battalion guns, under command of Colonel
+L'Estrange; these, after a sharp fusilade on both sides,
+were driven out, but the assailants, instead of following
+up the blow, dispersed for plunder or refreshment, were
+attacked in turn, and compelled to retreat, with a reported
+loss of 400 killed. Three days later, however, a still more
+important action, and a yet more disastrous repulse from
+the self-same cause, took place at New Ross, on the Barrow.
+
+The garrison of Ross, on the morning of the 5th of June,
+when General Harvey appeared before it, consisted of
+1,400 men--Dublin, Meath, Donegal, and Clare militia,
+Mid-Lothian fencibles, and English artillery. General
+Johnson, a veteran soldier, was in command, and the place,
+strong in its well preserved old walls, had not heard a
+shot fired in anger since the time of Cromwell. Harvey
+was reported to have with him 20,000 men; but if we allow
+for the exaggeration of numbers common to all such
+movements, we may, perhaps, deduct one-half, and still
+leave him at the head of a formidable force--10,000 men,
+with three field-pieces. Mr. Furlong, a favourite officer,
+being sent forward to summon the town, was shot down by
+a sentinel, and the attack began. The main point of
+assault was the gate known as "three bullet gate," and
+the hour, five o'clock of the lovely summer's morning.
+The obstinacy with which the town was contested, may be
+judged from the fact, that the fighting continued for
+nearly ten hours, with the interruption of an hour or
+two at noon. This was the fatal interruption for the
+rebels. They had, at a heavy cost, driven out the royalists,
+with the loss of a colonel (Lord Mountjoy), three captains,
+and above 200 men killed: but of their friends and comrades
+treble the number had fallen. Still the town, an object
+of the first importance, was theirs, when worn out with
+heat, fatigue, and fasting since sunrise, they indulged
+themselves in the luxury of a deep unmeasured carouse.
+The fugitive garrison finding themselves unpursued, halted
+to breathe on the Kilkenny bank of the river, were rallied
+by the veteran Johnson, and led back again across the
+bridge, taking the surprised revellers completely
+unprepared. A cry was raised that this was a fresh force
+from Waterford; the disorganised multitude endeavoured
+to rally in turn, but before the leaders could collect
+their men, the town was once more in possession of the
+Bang's troops. The rebels, in their turn, unpursued by
+their exhausted enemies, fell back upon their camping
+ground of the night before, at Corbet hill and
+Slieve-kielter. At the latter, Father Philip Roche,
+dissatisfied with Harvey's management, established a
+separate command, which he transferred to a layman of his
+own name, Edward Roche, with whom he continued to act
+and advise during the remainder of this memorable month.
+
+The summer of 1798 was, for an Irish summer, remarkably
+dry and warm. The heavy Atlantic rains which at all
+seasons are poured out upon that soil, seemed suspended
+in favour of the insurgent multitudes, amounting to
+30,000, or 40,000 at the highest, who, on the different
+hill summits, posted their nightly sentinels, and threw
+themselves down on turf and heather to snatch a short
+repose. The kindling of a beacon, the lowing of cattle,
+or the hurried arrival of scout or messenger, hardly
+interfered with slumbers which the fatigues of the day,
+and, unhappily also, the potations of the night rendered
+doubly deep. An early morning mass mustered all the
+Catholics, unless the very depraved, to the chaplain's
+tent--for several of the officers, and the chaplains
+always were supplied with tents; and then a hasty meal
+was snatched before the sun was fairly above the horizon,
+and the day's work commenced. The endurance exhibited by
+the rebels, their personal strength, swiftness and agility;
+their tenacity of life, and the ease with which their
+worst wounds were healed, excited the astonishment of
+the surgeons and officers of the regular army. The truth
+is, that the virtuous lives led by that peaceful peasantry
+before the outbreak, enabled them to withstand privations
+and hardships under which the better fed and better clad
+Irish yeomen and English guardsmen would have sunk
+prostrate in a week.
+
+Several signs now marked the turning of the tide against
+the men of Wexford. Waterford did not rise after the
+battle of Ross; while Munster, generally, was left to
+undecided councils, or held back in hopes of another
+French expedition. The first week of June had passed
+over, and neither northward nor westward was there any
+movement formidable enough to draw off from the devoted
+county the combined armies which were now directed against
+its camps. A gunboat fleet lined the coast from Bannow
+round to Wicklow, which soon after appeared off Wexford
+bar, and forced an entrance into the harbour. A few days
+earlier, General Needham marched from Dublin, and took
+up his position at Arklow, at the head of a force variously
+stated at 1,500 to 2,000 men, composed of 120 cavalry
+under Sir Watkyn Wynne, two brigades of militia under
+Colonels Cope and Maxwell, and a brigade of English and
+Scotch fencibles under Colonel Skerrett. There were also
+at Arklow about 300 of the Wexford and Wicklow mounted
+yeomanry raised by Lord Wicklow, Lord Mountnorris, and
+other gentlemen of the neighbourhood. Early on the morning
+of the 9th of June the northern division of the rebels
+left Gorey in two columns, in order if possible to drive
+this force from Arklow. One body proceeding by the coast
+road hoped to turn the English position by way of the
+strand, the other taking the inner line of the Dublin
+road, was to assail the town at its upper or inland
+suburb. But General Needham had made the most of his two
+days' possession; barricades were erected across the
+road, and at the entrance to the main street; the graveyard
+and bridge commanding the approach by the shore road were
+mounted with ordnance; the cavalry were posted where they
+could best operate, near the strand; the barrack wall
+was lined with a _banquette_ or stage, from which the
+musketeers could pour their fire with the greatest
+advantage, and every other precaution taken to give the
+rebels a warm reception. The action commenced early in
+the afternoon, and lasted till eight in the evening--five
+or six hours. The inland column suffered most severely
+from the marksmen on the _banquette_, and the gallant
+Father Michael Murphy, whom his followers believed to be
+invulnerable, fell leading them on to the charge for the
+third time. On the side of the sea, Esmond Kyan was badly
+wounded in the arm, which he was subsequently obliged to
+have amputated, and though the fearless Shilmaliers drove
+the cavalry into and over the Avoca, discipline and
+ordnance prevailed once again over numbers and courage.
+As night fell, the assailants retired slowly towards
+Coolgreney, carrying off nine carloads of their wounded,
+and leaving, perhaps, as many more on the field; their
+loss was variously reported from 700 to 1,000, and even
+1,500. The opposite force returned less than 100 killed,
+including Captain Knox, and about as many wounded. The
+repulse was even more than that at Ross, dispiriting to
+the rebels, who, as a last resort, now decided to
+concentrate all their strength on the favourite position
+at Vinegar Hill.
+
+Against this encampment, therefore, the entire available
+force of regulars and militia within fifty miles of the
+spot were concentrated by orders of Lord Lake, the
+Commander-in-Chief. General Dundas from Wicklow was to
+join General Loftus at Carnew on the 18th; General Needham
+was to advance simultaneously to Gorey; General Sir Henry
+Johnson to unite at Old Ross with Sir James Duff from
+Carlow; Sir Charles Asgill was to occupy Gore's bridge
+and Borris; Sir John Moore was to land at Ballyhack ferry,
+march to Foulke's Mill, and united with Johnson and Duff,
+to assail the rebel camp on Carrickbyrne. These various
+movements ordered on the 16th, were to be completed by
+the 20th, on which day, from their various new positions,
+the entire force, led by these six general officers, was
+to surround Vinegar Hill, and make a simultaneous attack
+upon the last stronghold of the Wexford rebellion.
+
+This elaborate plan failed of complete execution in two
+points. _First_, the camp on Carrickbyrne, instead of
+waiting the attack, sent down its fighting men to Foulke's
+Mill, where, in the afternoon of the 20th they beat up
+Sir John Moore's quarters, and maintained from 3 o'clock
+till dark, what that officer calls "a pretty sharp action."
+Several tunes they were repulsed and again formed behind
+the ditches and renewed the conflict; but the arrival of
+two fresh regiments, under Lord Dalhousie, taught them
+that there was no farther chance of victory. By this
+affair, however, though at a heavy cost, they had prevented
+the junction of all the troops, and, not without
+satisfaction, they now followed the two Roches, the priest
+and the layman, to the original position of the mountain
+of Forth; Sir John Moore, on his part, taking the same
+direction, until he halted within sight of the walls of
+Wexford. The other departure from Lord Lake's plan was
+on the side of General Needham, who was ordered to approach
+the point of attack by the circuitous route of Oulart,
+but who did not come up in time to complete the investment
+of the hill.
+
+On the morning of the appointed day, about 13,000 royal
+troops were in movement against the 20,000 rebels whom
+they intended to dislodge. Sir James Duff obtained
+possession of an eminence which commanded the lower line
+of the rebel encampment, and from this point a brisk
+cannonade was opened against the opposite force; at the
+same time the columns of Lake, Wilford, Dundas, and
+Johnson, pushed up the south-eastern, northern and western
+sides of the eminence, partially covered by the fire of
+these guns, so advantageously placed. After an hour and
+a half's desperate fighting, the rebels broke and fled
+by the unguarded side of the hill. Their rout was complete,
+and many were cut down by the cavalry, as they pressed
+in dense masses on each other, over the level fields and
+out on the open highways. Still this action was far from
+being one of the most fatal as to loss of life, fought
+in that county; the rebel dead were numbered only at 400,
+and the royalists killed and wounded at less than half
+that number.
+
+It was the last considerable action of the Wexford rising,
+and all the consequences which followed being attributed
+arbitrarily to this cause, helped to invest it with a
+disproportionate importance. The only leader lost on the
+rebel side was Father Clinch of Enniscorthy, who encountered
+Lord Roden hand to hand in the retreat, but who, while
+engaged with his lordship whom he wounded, was shot down
+by a trooper. The disorganization, however, which followed
+on the dispersion, was irreparable. One column had taken
+the road by Gorey to the mountains of Wicklow--another
+to Wexford, where they split into two parts, a portion
+crossing the Slaney into the sea-coast parishes, and
+facing northward by the shore road, the other falling
+back on "the three rocks" encampment, where the Messrs.
+Roche held together a fragment of their former command.
+Wexford town, on the 22nd, was abandoned to Lord Lake,
+who established himself in the house of Governor Keogh,
+the owner being lodged in the common jail. Within the
+week, Bagenal Harvey, Father Philip Roche, and Kelly of
+Killane, had surrendered in despair, while Messrs. Grogan
+and Colclough, who had secreted themselves in a cave in
+the great Saltee Island, were discovered, and conducted
+to the same prison. Notwithstanding the capitulation
+agreed to by Lord Kingsborough, the execution and
+decapitation of all these gentlemen speedily followed,
+and their ghastly faces looked down for many a day from
+the iron spikes above the entrance of Wexford Court House.
+Mr. Esmond Kyan, the popular hero of the district, as
+merciful as brave, was discovered some time subsequently
+paying a stealthy visit to his family; he was put to
+death on the spot, and his body, weighted with heavy
+stones, thrown into the harbour. A few mornings afterwards
+the incoming tide deposited it close by the dwelling of
+his father-in-law, and the rites of Christian burial, so
+dear to all his race, were hurriedly rendered to the
+beloved remains.
+
+The insurrection in this county, while it abounded in
+instances of individual and general heroism, was stained
+also, on both sides, by many acts of diabolical cruelty.
+The aggressors, both in time and in crime were the yeomanry
+and military; but the popular movement dragged wretches
+to the surface who delighted in repaying torture with
+torture, and death with death. The butcheries of Dunlavin
+and Carnew were repaid by the massacres at Scullabogue
+and Wexford bridge, in the former of which 110, and in
+the latter 35 or 40 persons were put to death in cold
+blood, by the monsters who absented themselves from the
+battles of Ross and Vinegar Hill. The executions at
+Wexford bridge would probably have been swelled to double
+the number, had not Father Corrin, one of the priests of
+the town, rushing in between his Protestant neighbours
+and the ferocious Captain Dixon, and summoning all present
+to pray, invoked the Almighty "to show them the same
+mercy" they showed their prisoners. This awful supplication
+calmed even that savage rabble, and no further execution
+took place. Nearly forty years afterwards, Captain Kellet,
+of Clonard, ancestor of the Arctic discoverer, and others
+whom he had rescued from the very grasp of the executioner,
+followed to the grave that revered and devoted minister
+of mercy!
+
+It would be a profitless task to draw out a parallel of
+the crimes committed on both sides. Two facts only need
+be recorded: that although from 1798 to 1800, not less
+than _sixty-five_ places of Catholic worship were demolished
+or burned in Leinster, (twenty-two of which were in
+Wexford county), only _one_ Protestant Church, that of
+Old Ross, was destroyed in retaliation; and that although
+towards men, especially men in arms, the rebels acted on
+the fierce Mosaic maxim of "an eye for an eye and a tooth
+for a tooth," no outrage upon women is laid to their
+charge, even by their most exasperated enemies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE INSURRECTION ELSEWHERE--FATE OF THE LEADING
+UNITED IRISHMEN.
+
+On the 21st of June, the Marquis Cornwallis, whose name
+is so familiar in American and East Indian history,
+arrived in Dublin, to assume the supreme power, both
+civil and military. As his Chief Secretary, he recommended
+Lord Castlereagh, who had acted in that capacity during
+the latter part of Lord Camden's administration in
+consequence of Mr Pelham's illness; and the Pitt-Portland
+administration appointed his lordship accordingly, because,
+among other good and sufficient reasons, "he was so unlike
+an Irishman."
+
+While the new Viceroy came to Ireland still more resolute
+than his predecessor to bring about the long-desired
+legislative union, it is but justice to his memory to
+say, that he as resolutely resisted the policy of torture
+and provocation pursued under Lord Camden. That policy
+had, indeed, served its pernicious purpose, and it was
+now possible for a new ruler to turn a new leaf; this
+Lord Cornwallis did from the hour of his arrival, not
+without incurring the ill-concealed displeasures of the
+Castle cabal. But his position gave him means of protection
+which Sir Ralph Abercromby had not; he was known to enjoy
+the personal confidence of the King; and those who did
+not hesitate three months before to assail by every abusive
+epithet the humane Scottish Baronet, hesitated long before
+criticising with equal freedom the all-powerful Viceroy.
+
+The sequel of the insurrection may be briefly related:
+next to Wexford, the adjoining county of Wicklow, famous
+throughout the world for its lakes and glens, maintained
+the chief brunt of the Leinster battle. The brothers
+Byrne, of Ballymanus, with Holt, Hackett, and other local
+leaders, were for months, from the difficult nature of
+the country, enabled to defy those combined movements by
+which, as in a huge net, Lord Lake had swept up the camps
+of Wexford. At Hacketstown, on the 25th of June, the
+Byrnes were repulsed with considerable loss, but at
+Ballyellis, on the 30th, fortune and skill gave them and
+their Wexford comrades a victory, resembling in many
+respects that of Clough. General Needham, who had again
+established his head-quarters at Gorey, detached Colonel
+Preston, with some troops of Ancient Britons, the 4th
+and 5th dragoons, and three yeomanry corps, to attack
+the insurgents who were observed in force in the
+neighbourhood of Monaseed. Aware of this movement, the
+Byrnes prepared in the ravine of Ballyellis a well-laid
+ambuscade, barricading with carts and trees the farther
+end of the pass. Attacked by the royalists they retreated
+towards this pass, were hotly pursued, and then turned
+on their pursuers. Two officers and sixty men were killed
+in the trap, while the terrified rear-rank fled for their
+lives to the shelter of their head-quarters. At
+Ballyraheene, on the 2nd of July, the King's troops
+sustained another check in which they lost two officers
+and ten men, but at Ballygullen, on the 4th, the insurgents
+were surrounded between the forces of General Needham,
+Sir James Duff, and the Marquis of Huntley. This was the
+last considerable action in which the Wicklow and Wexford
+men were unitedly engaged. In the dispersion which
+followed, "Billy Byrne of Ballymanus," the hero of his
+county, paid the forfeit of his life; while his brother,
+Garrett, subsequently surrendered, and was included in
+the Banishment Act.
+
+Anthony Perry of Inch, and Father Kearns, leading a much
+diminished band into Kildare, formed a junction with
+Aylmer and Reynolds of that county, and marched into
+Meath, with a view of reaching and surprising Athlone.
+The plan was boldly and well conceived, but their means
+of execution were deplorably deficient. At Clonard they
+were repulsed by a handful of troops well armed and
+posted; a combined movement always possible in Meath,
+drove them from side to side during the midweek of July,
+until at length, hunted down as they were, they broke up
+in twos and threes to seek any means of escape. Father
+Kearns and Mr. Perry were, however, arrested, and executed
+by martial law at Edenderry. Both died bravely; the priest
+sustaining and exhorting his companion to the last.
+
+Still another band of the Wexford men, under Father John
+Murphy and Walter Devereux, crossed the Barrow at Gore's
+bridge, and marched upon Kilkenny. At Lowgrange they
+surprised an outpost; at Castlecomer, after a sharp
+action, they took the town, which Sir Charles Asgill
+endeavoured, but without success, to relieve. Thence they
+continued their march towards Athy in Kildare, but being
+caught between two or rather three fires, that of Major
+Mathews, from Maryboro', General Dunne, from Athy, and
+Sir Charles Asgill, they retreated on old Leighlin, as
+if seeking the shelter of the Carlow mountains. At
+Killcomney Hill, however, they were forced into action
+under most unfavourable circumstances, and utterly routed.
+One, Father Murphy, fell in the engagement, the other,
+the precursor of the insurrection, was captured three
+days afterward, and conveyed a prisoner to General Duff's
+headquarters at Tullow. Here he was put on his trial
+before a Military Commission composed of Sir James Duff,
+Lord Roden, Colonels Eden and Foster, and Major Hall.
+Hall had the meanness to put to him, prisoner as he was,
+several insulting questions, which at length the
+high-spirited rebel answered with a blow. The Commission
+thought him highly dangerous, and instantly ordered him
+to execution. His body was burned, his head spiked on
+the market-house of Tullow, and his memory gibbeted in
+all the loyal publications of the period. On his person,
+before execution, were found a crucifix, a pix, and
+letters from many Protestants, asking his protection; as
+to his reputation, the priest who girded on the sword
+only when he found his altar overthrown and his flock
+devoured by wolves, need not fear to look posterity in
+the face.
+
+Of the other Leinster leaders, Walter Devereux, the last
+colleague of Father Murphy, was arrested at Cork, on the
+eve of sailing for America, tried and executed; Fitzgerald
+and Aylmer were spared on condition of expatriation;
+months afterwards, Holt surrendered, was transported,
+and returned after several years, to end his days where
+he began his career; Dwyer alone maintained the life of
+a Rapparee for five long years among the hills of Wicklow,
+where his adventures were often of such a nature as to
+throw all fictitious conceptions of an outlaw's life into
+commonplace by comparison. Except in the fastnesses
+frequented by this extraordinary man, and in the wood of
+Killaughram, in Wexford, where the outlaws, with the last
+stroke of national humour, assumed the name of _The Babes
+in the Wood_, the Leinster insurrection was utterly
+trodden out within two months from its first beginning,
+on the 23rd of May. So weak against discipline, arms,
+munitions and money, are all that mere naked valour and
+devotion can accomplish!
+
+In Ulster, on the organization of which so much time and
+labour had been expended for four or five years preceding,
+the rising was not more general than in Leinster, and
+the actual struggle lasted only a week. The two counties
+which moved _en masse_ were Down and Antrim, the original
+chiefs of which, such as Thomas Russell and Samuel Neilson,
+were unfortunately in prison. The next leader on whom
+the men of Antrim relied, resigned his command on the
+very eve of the appointed day; this disappointment and
+the arrest of the Rev. Steele Dickson in Down, compelled
+a full fortnight's delay. On the 7th of June, however,
+the more determined spirits resolved on action, and the
+first movement was to seize the town of Antrim, which,
+if they could have held it, would have given them command
+of the communications with Donegal and Down, from both
+of which they might have expected important additions to
+their ranks. The leader of this enterprise was Henry John
+McCracken, a cotton manufacturer of Belfast, thirty two
+years of age, well educated, accomplished and resolute,
+with whom was associated a brother of William Orr, the
+proto-martyr of the Ulster Union. The town of Antrim was
+occupied by the 22nd light dragoons, Colonel Lumley, and
+the local yeomanry under Lord O'Neil. In the first assault
+the insurgents were successful, Lord O'Neil, five officers,
+forty-seven rank and file having fallen, and two guns
+being captured; but Lumley's dragoons had hardly vanished
+out of sight, when a strong reinforcement from Blaris
+camp arrived and renewed the action, changing premature
+exultation into panic and confusion. Between two and
+three hundred of the rebels fell, and McCracken and his
+staff, deserted by their hasty levies, were arrested,
+wearied and hopeless, about a month later, wandering
+among the Antrim hills. The leaders were tried at Belfast
+and executed.
+
+In Down two actions were fought, one at Saintfield on
+the 7th of June, under Dr. Jackson--where Colonel Stapleton
+was severely handled--and another and more important one
+at Ballynahinch, under Henry Munro, on the 13th, where
+Nugent, the district General, commanded in person. Here,
+after a gallant defence, the men of Down were utterly
+routed; their leader, alone and on foot, was captured
+some five or six miles from the field, and executed two
+days afterwards before his own door at Lisburn. He died
+with the utmost composure; his wife and mother looking
+down, on the awful scene from the windows of his own house.
+
+In Munster, with the exception of a trifling skirmish
+between the West-Meath yeomanry under Sir Hugh O'Reilly,
+with whom were the Caithness legion, under Major Innes,
+and a body of 300 or 400 ill-armed peasants, who attacked
+them on the 19th of June, on the road from Clonakilty to
+Bandon, there was no notable attempt at insurrection.
+But in Connaught, very unexpectedly, as late as the end
+of August, the flame extinguished in blood in Leinster
+and Ulster, again blazed up for some days with portentous
+brightness. The counties of Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon and
+Galway had been partially organized by those fugitives
+from Orange oppression in the North, who, in the years
+'95, '96, and '97, had been compelled to flee for their
+lives into Connaught, to the number of several thousands.
+They brought with the tale of their sufferings the secret
+of Defenderism; they first taught the peasantry of the
+West, who, safe in their isolated situation and their
+overwhelming numbers, were more familiar with poverty
+than with persecution, what manner of men then held sway
+over all the rest of the country, and how easily it would
+be for Irishmen once united and backed by France, to
+establish under their own green flag, both religious
+and civil liberty.
+
+When, therefore, three French frigates cast anchor in
+Killalla Bay, on the 22nd of August, they did not find
+the country wholly unprepared, though far from being as
+ripe for revolt as they expected. These ships had on
+board 1,000 men, with arms for 1,000 more, under command
+of General Humbert, who had taken on himself, in the
+state of anarchy which then prevailed in France, to sail
+from La Rochelle with this handful of men, in aid of the
+insurrection. With Humbert were Mathew Tone and Bartholmew
+Teeling; and immediately on his arrival he was joined by
+Messrs. McDonnell, Moore, Bellew, Barrett, O'Dowd, and
+O'Donnell of Mayo, Blake of Galway, Plunkett of Roscommon,
+and a few other influential gentlemen of that Province--
+almost all Catholics. Three days were spent at Killalla,
+which was easily taken, in landing stores, enrolling
+recruits, and sending out parties of observation. On
+the 4th, (Sunday,) Humbert entered Ballina without
+resistance, and on the same night set out for Castlebar,
+the county town. By this time intelligence of his landing
+was spread over the whole country, and both Lord Lake
+and General Hutchinson had advanced to Castlebar, where
+they had from 2,000 to 3,000 men under their command.
+The place could be reached only by two routes from the
+north-west, by the Foxford road, or a long deserted
+mountain road which led over the pass of Barnagee, within
+sight of the town. Humbert, accustomed to the long marches
+and difficult country of La Vendee, chose the unfrequented
+and therefore unguarded route, and, to the consternation
+of the British generals, descended through the pass of
+Barnagee, soon after sunrise, on the morning of Monday,
+August 27th. His force consisted of 900 French bayonets,
+and between 2,000 and 3,000 new recruits. The action,
+which commenced at 7 o'clock, was short, sharp, and
+decisive; the yeomanry and regulars broke and fled, some
+of them never drawing rein till they reached Tuam, while
+others carried their fears and their falsehoods as far
+inland as Athlone--more than sixty miles from the scene
+of action. In this engagement, still remembered as "the
+races," the royalists confessed to the loss, killed,
+wounded, or prisoners, of 18 officers, and about 350 men,
+while the French commander estimated the killed alone at
+600. Fourteen British guns and five stand of colours
+were also taken. A hot pursuit was continued for some
+distance by the native troops under Mathew Tone, Teeling,
+and the Mayo officers; but Lord Roden's famous corps of
+"Fox hunters" covered the retreat and checked the pursuers
+at French Hill. Immediately after the battle a Provisional
+Government was established at Castlebar, with Mr. Moore
+of Moore Hall, as President; proclamations addressed to
+the inhabitants at large, commissions to raise men, and
+_assignats_ payable by the future Irish Republic, were
+issued in its name.
+
+Meanwhile the whole of the royalist forces were now in
+movement toward the capital of Mayo, as they had been
+toward Vinegar Hill two months before. Sir John Moore
+and General Hunter marched from Wexford toward the Shannon.
+General Taylor, with 2,500 men, advanced from Sligo
+towards Castlebar; Colonel Maxwell was ordered from
+Enniskillen to assume command at Sligo; General Nugent
+from Lisburn occupied Enniskillen, and the Viceroy,
+leaving Dublin in person, advanced rapidly through the
+midland counties to Kilbeggan, and ordered Lord Lake and
+General Hutchinson, with such of their command as could
+be depended on, to assume the aggressive from the direction
+of Tuam. Thus Humbert and his allies found themselves
+surrounded on all sides--their retreat cut off by sea,
+for their frigates had returned to France immediately on
+their landing; three thousand men against not less than
+thirty thousand, with at least as many more in reserve,
+ready to be called into action at a day's notice.
+
+The French general determined if possible to reach the
+mountains of Leitrim, and open communications with Ulster,
+and the northern coast, upon which he hoped soon to see
+succour arrive from France. With this object he marched
+from Castlebar to Cooloney (35 miles), in one day; here
+he sustained a check from Colonel Vereker's militia,
+which necessitated a change of route; turning aside, he
+passed rapidly through Dromahaine, Manor-Hamilton, and
+Ballintra, making for Granard, from which accounts of a
+formidable popular outbreak had just reached him. In
+three days and a half he had marched 110 miles, flinging
+half his guns into the rivers that he crossed, lest they
+should fall into the hands of his pursuers. At Ballinamuck,
+county Longford, on the borders of Leitrim, he found
+himself fairly surrounded, on the morning of the 8th of
+September; and here he prepared to make a last desperate
+stand. The end could not be doubtful, the numbers against
+him being ten to one; after an action of half an hour's
+duration, two hundred of the French having thrown down
+their arms, the remainder surrendered, as prisoners of
+war. For the rebels no terms were thought of, and the
+full vengeance of the victors was reserved for them. Mr.
+Blake, who had formerly been a British officer, was
+executed on the field; Mathew Tone and Teeling were
+executed within the week in Dublin; Mr. Moore, President
+of the Provisional Government, was sentenced to banishment
+by the clemency of Lord Cornwallis, but died on shipboard;
+ninety of the Longford and Kilkenny militia who had joined
+the French were hanged, and the country generally given
+up to pillage and massacre. As an evidence of the
+excessive thirst for blood, it may be mentioned that at
+the re-capture of Killalla a few days later, four hundred
+persons were killed, of whom fully one-half were
+non-combatants.
+
+The disorganization of all government in France in the
+latter half of '98, was illustrated not only by Humbert's
+unauthorized adventure, but by a still weaker demonstration
+under General Reay and Napper Tandy, about the same time.
+With a single armed brig these daring allies made a
+descent, on the 17th of September, on Rathlin Island,
+well equipped with eloquent proclamations, bearing the
+date "first year of Irish liberty." From the postmaster
+of the island they ascertained Humbert's fate, and
+immediately turned the prow of their solitary ship in
+the opposite direction; Reay, to rise in after times to
+honour and power; Tandy, to continue in old age the
+dashing career of his manhood, and to expiate in exile
+the crime of preferring the country of his birth to the
+general centralizing policy of the empire with which he
+was united. Twelve days after the combat at Ballinamuck,
+while Humbert and his men were on their way through
+England to France, a new French fleet, under Admiral
+Bompart, consisting of one 74-gun ship, "the Hoche,"
+eight frigates, and two smaller vessels, sailed from
+Brest. On board this fleet were embarked 3,000 men under
+General Hardi, the remnant of the army once menacing
+England. In this fleet sailed Theobold Wolfe Tone, true
+to his motto, _nil desperandum_, with two or three other
+refugees of less celebrity. The troops of General Hardi,
+however, were destined never to land. On the 12th of
+October, after tossing about for nearly a month in the
+German ocean and the North Atlantic, they appeared off
+the coast of Donegal, and stood in for Lough Swilly. But
+another fleet also was on the horizon. Admiral Sir John
+Borlase Warren, with an equal number of ships, but a much
+heavier armament, had been cruising on the track of the
+French during the whole time they were at sea. After many
+disappointments, the flag-ship and three of the frigates
+were at last within range and the action began. Six hours'
+fighting laid the Hoche a helpless log upon the water;
+nothing was left her but surrender; two of the frigates
+shared the same fate on the same day; another was captured
+on the 14th, and yet another on the 17th. The remainder
+of the fleet escaped back to France.
+
+The French officers landed in Donegal were received with
+courtesy by the neighbouring gentry, among whom was the
+Earl of Cavan, who entertained them at dinner. Here it
+was that Sir George Hill, son-in-law to Commissioner
+Beresford, an old college friend of Tone's, identified
+the founder of the United Irishmen under the uniform of
+a French Adjutant-General. Stepping up to his old
+schoolmate he addressed him by name, which Tone instantly
+acknowledged, inquiring politely for Lady Hill, and other
+members of Sir George's family. He was instantly arrested,
+ironed, and conveyed to Dublin under a strong guard. On
+the 10th of November he was tried by court-martial and
+sentenced to be hanged: he begged only for a soldier's
+death--"to be shot by a platoon of grenadiers." This
+favour was denied him, and the next morning he attempted
+to commit suicide. The attempt did not immediately succeed;
+but one week later--on the 19th of November--he died from
+the results of his self-inflicted wound, with a compliment
+to the attendant physician upon his lips. Truth compels
+us to say he died the death of a Pagan; but it was a
+Pagan of the noblest and freest type of Grecian and Roman
+times. Had it occurred in ancient days, beyond the
+Christian era, it would have been a death every way
+admirable; as it was, that fatal final act must always
+stand between Wolfe Tone and the Christian people for
+whom he suffered, sternly forbidding them to invoke him
+in their prayers, or to uphold him as an example to the
+young men of their country. So closed the memorable year
+1798, on the baffled and dispersed United Irishmen. Of
+the chiefs imprisoned in March and May, Lord Edward had
+died of his wounds and vexation; Oliver Bond of apoplexy;
+the brothers Sheares, Father Quigley, and William Michael
+Byrne on the gibbet. In July, on Samuel Nelson's motion,
+the remaining prisoners in Newgate, Bridewell, and
+Kilmainham, agreed, in order to stop the effusion of
+blood, to expatriate themselves to any country not at
+war with England, and to reveal the general secrets of
+their system, without inculpating individuals. These
+terms were accepted, as the Castle party needed their
+evidence to enable them to promote the cherished scheme
+of legislative Union. But that evidence delivered before
+the Committees of Parliament by Emmet, McNevin, and
+O'Conor, did not altogether serve the purposes of
+government. The patriotic prisoners made it at once a
+protest against, and an exposition of, the despotic policy
+under which their country had been goaded into rebellion.
+For their firmness they were punished by three years'
+confinement in Fort George, in the Scottish Highlands,
+where, however, a gallant old soldier, Colonel Stuart,
+endeavoured to soften the hard realities of a prison by
+all the kind attentions his instructions permitted him
+to show these unfortunate gentlemen. At the peace of
+Amiens, (1802), they were at last allowed the melancholy
+privilege of expatriation. Russell and Dowdall were
+permitted to return to Ireland, where they shared the
+fate of Robert Emmet in 1803; O'Conor, Corbet, Allen,
+Ware, and others, cast their lot in France, where they
+all rose to distinction; Emmet, McNevin, Sampson, and
+the family of Tone were reunited in New York, where the
+many changes and distractions of a great metropolitan
+community have not even yet obliterated the memories of
+their virtues, their talents, and their accomplishments.
+
+It is impossible to dismiss this celebrated group of men,
+whose principles and conduct so greatly influenced their
+country's destiny, without bearing explicit testimony to
+their heroic qualities as a class. If ever a body of
+public men deserved the character of a brotherhood of
+heroes, so far as disinterestedness, courage, self-denial,
+truthfulness and glowing love of country constitute
+heroism, these men deserved that character. The wisdom
+of their conduct, and the intrinsic merit of their plans,
+are other questions. As between their political system
+and that of Burke, Grattan and O'Connell, there always
+will be, probably, among their countrymen, very decided
+differences of opinion. That is but natural: but as to
+the personal and political virtues of the United Irishmen
+there can be no difference; the world has never seen a
+more sincere or more self-sacrificing generation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+ADMINISTRATION OF LORD CORNWALLIS--BEFORE THE UNION.
+
+"Nothing strengthens a dynasty," said the first Napoleon,
+"more than an unsuccessful rebellion." The partial
+uprising; of the Irish people in 1798 was a rebellion of
+this class, and the use of such a failure to an able and
+unscrupulous administration, was illustrated in the
+extinction of the ancient legislature of the kingdom,
+before the recurrence of the third, anniversary of
+the insurrection.
+
+This project, the favourite and long-cherished design of
+Mr. Pitt, was cordially approved by his principal
+colleagues, the Duke of Portland, Lord Grenville, and
+Mr. Dundas; indeed, it may be questioned whether it was
+not as much Lord Grenville's design as Pitt's, and as
+much George the Third's personal project as that of any
+of his ministers. The old King's Irish policy was always
+of the most narrow and illiberal description. In his
+memorandum on the recall of Lord Fitzwilliam, he explains
+his views with the business-like brevity which characterized
+all his communications with his ministers while he retained
+possession of his faculties; he was totally opposed to
+Lord Fitzwilliam's emancipation policy, which he thought
+adopted "in implicit obedience to the heated imagination
+of Mr. Burke." To Lord Camden his instructions were,
+"to support the old English interest as well as the
+Protestant religion," and to Lord Cornwallis, that no
+further "indulgence could be granted to Catholics," but
+that he should steadily pursue the object of effecting
+the union of Ireland and England.
+
+The new Viceroy entered heartily into the views of his
+Sovereign. Though unwilling to exchange his English
+position as a Cabinet Minister and Master-General of
+Ordnance for the troubled life of a Lord-Lieutenant of
+Ireland, he at length allowed himself to be persuaded
+into the acceptance of that office, with a view mainly
+to carrying the Union. He was ambitious to connect his
+name with that great imperial measure, so often projected,
+but never formally proposed. If he could only succeed in
+incorporating the Irish with the British legislature, he
+declared he would feel satisfied to retire from all other
+public employments; that he would look on his day as
+finished, and his evening of ease and dignity fully
+earned. He was not wholly unacquainted with the kingdom
+against which he cherished these ulterior views; for he
+had been, nearly thirty years before, when he fell under
+the lash of _Junius_, one of the Vice-Treasurers of
+Ireland. For the rest he was a man of great information,
+tact, and firmness; indefatigable in business; tolerant
+by temperament and conviction; but both as a general and
+a politician it was his lot to be identified in India
+and in Ireland with successes which might better have
+been failures, and in America, with failures which were
+much more beneficial to mankind than his successes.
+
+In his new sphere of action his two principal agents were
+Lord Clare and Lord Castlereagh, both Irishmen; the
+Chancellor, the son of what in that country is called a
+"spoiled priest," and the Secretary, the son of an
+ex-volunteer, and member of Flood's Reform Convention.
+It is not possible to regard the conduct of these high
+officials in undermining and destroying the ancient
+national legislature of their own country, in the same
+light as that of Lord Cornwallis, or Mr. Pitt, or Lord
+Grenville. It was but natural, that as Englishmen, these
+ministers should consider the empire in the first place;
+that they should desire to centralize all the resources
+and all the authority of both Islands in London; that to
+them the existence of an independent Parliament at Dublin,
+with its ample control over the courts, the revenues,
+the defences, and the trade of that kingdom, should appear
+an obstacle and a hindrance to the unity of the imperial
+system. From their point of view they were quite right,
+and had they pursued their end, complete centralization,
+by honourable means, no stigma could attach to them even
+in the eyes of Irishmen; but with Lords Clare and
+Castlereagh the case was wholly different. Born in the
+land, deriving income as well as existence from the soil,
+elected to its Parliament by the confidence of their
+countrymen, attaining to posts of honour in consequence
+of such election, that they should voluntarily offer
+their services to establish an alien and a hostile policy
+on the ruins of their own national constitution, which,
+with all its defects, was national, and was corrigible;
+this betrayal of their own, at the dictate of another
+State, will always place the names of Clare and Castlereagh
+on the detested list of public traitors. Yet though in
+such treason, united and identified, no two men could be
+more unlike in all other respects. Lord Clare was fiery,
+dogmatic, and uncompromising to the last degree; while
+Lord Castlereagh was stealthy, imperturbable, insidious,
+bland, and adroit. The Chancellor endeavoured to carry
+everything with a high hand, with a bold, defiant,
+confident swagger; the Secretary, on the contrary, trusted
+to management, expediency, and silent tenacity of purpose.
+The one had faith in violence, the other in corruption;
+they were no inapt personifications of the two chief
+agencies by which the union was effected--Force and Fraud.
+
+The Irish Parliament, which had been of necessity adjourned
+during the greater part of the time the insurrection
+lasted, assembled within a week of Lord Cornwallis'
+arrival. Both Houses voted highly loyal addresses to
+the King and Lord-Lieutenant, the latter seconded in the
+Commons by Charles Kendal Bushe, the college companion
+of Wolfe Tone! A vote of 100,000 pounds to indemnify
+those who had suffered from the rebels--subsequently
+increased to above 1,000,000 pounds--was passed _una
+voce_; another, placing on the Irish establishment certain
+English militia regiments, passed with equal promptitude.
+In July, five consecutive acts--a complete code of
+penalties and proscription--were introduced, and, after
+various debates and delays, received the royal sanction
+on the 6th of October, the last day of the session of
+1798. These acts were: 1. The Amnesty Act, the exceptions
+to which were so numerous "that few of those who took
+any active part in the rebellion," were, according to
+the Cornwallis' correspondence, "benefited by it." 2. An
+Act of Indemnity, by which all magistrates who had
+"exercised a vigour beyond the law" against the rebels,
+were protected from the legal consequences of such acts.
+3. An act for attainting Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Mr.
+Harvey, and Mr. Grogan, against which Curran, taking "his
+instructions from the grave," pleaded at the bar of the
+House of Lords, but pleaded in vain. (This act was finally
+reversed by the Imperial Parliament in 1819.) 4. An act
+forbidding communication between persons in Ireland and
+those enumerated in the Banishment Act, and making the
+return to Ireland, after sentence of banishment by a
+court-martial, a transportable felony. 5. An act to compel
+fifty-one persons therein named to surrender before 1st
+of December, 1798, under pain of high treason. Among the
+fifty-one were the principal refugees at Paris and
+Hamburg-Tone, Lewines, Tandy, Deane Swift, Major Plunkett,
+Anthony McCann, Harvey Morres, etc. On the same day in
+which the session terminated, and the royal sanction was
+given to these acts, the name of Henry Grattan was, a
+significant coincidence, formally struck, by the King's
+commands, from the roll of the Irish Privy Council!
+
+This legislation of the session of 1798, was fatal to
+the Irish Parliament. The partisans of the Union, who
+had used the rebellion to discredit the constitution,
+now used the Parliament to discredit itself. Under the
+influence of a fierce reactionary spirit, when all merciful
+and moderate councils were denounced as treasonable, it
+was not difficult to procure the passage of sweeping
+measures of proscription. But with their passage vanished
+the former popularity of the domestic legislature. And
+what followed? The constitution of '82 could only be
+upheld in the hearts of the people; and, with all its
+defects, it had been popular before the sudden spread of
+French revolutionary notions distracted and dissipated
+the public opinion which had grown up within the era of
+independence. To make the once cherished authority, which
+liberated trade in '79, and half emancipated the Catholics
+in '93, the last executioner of the vengeance of the
+Castle against the people, was to place a gulf between
+it and the affections of that people in the day of trial.
+To make the anti-unionists in Parliament, such as the
+Speaker, Sir Lawrence Parsons, Plunkett, Ponsonby and
+Bushe, personally responsible for this vindictive code,
+was to disarm them of the power, and almost of the right,
+to call on the people whom they turned over, bound hand
+and foot, to the mercy of the minister in '98, to aid
+them against the machinations of that same minister in
+'99. The last months of the year were marked besides by
+events already referred to, and by negotiations incessantly
+carried on, both in England and Ireland, in favour of
+the Union. Members of both Houses were personally courted
+and canvassed by the Prime Minister, the Secretaries of
+State, the Viceroy and the Irish Secretary. Titles,
+pensions and offices were freely promised. Vast sums of
+secret service money, afterwards added as a charge to
+the public debt of Ireland, were remitted from Whitehall.
+An army of pamphleteers, marshalled by Under-Secretary
+Cooke, and confidentially directed by the able but
+anti-national Bishop of Meath, (Dr. O'Beirne,) and by
+Lord Castlereagh personally, plied their pens in favour
+of "the consolidation of the empire." The Lord Chancellor,
+the Chief Secretary and Mr. Beresford, made journeys to
+England, to assist the Prime Minister with their local
+information, and to receive his imperial confidence in
+return. The Orangemen were neutralized by securing a
+majority of their leaders; the Catholics, by the
+establishment of familiar communication with the bishops.
+The Viceroy complimented Dr. Troy at Dublin; the Duke of
+Portland lavished personal attentions on Dr. Moylan, in
+England. The Protestant clergy were satisfied with the
+assurance that the maintenance of their establishment
+would be made a fundamental article of the Union, while
+the Catholic bishops were given to understand that complete
+Emancipation would be one of the first measures submitted
+to the Imperial Parliament. The oligarchy were to be
+indemnified for their boroughs, while the advocates of
+Reform were shown how hopeless it was to expect a House
+constituted of _their_ nominees, ever to enlarge or amend
+its own exclusive constitution. Thus for every description
+of people a particular set of appeals and arguments was
+found, and for those who discarded the affectation of
+reasoning on the surrender of their national existence,
+there were the more convincing arguments of titles,
+employments, and direct pecuniary purchase. At the close
+of the year of the rebellion, Lord Cornwallis was able
+to report to Mr. Pitt that the prospects of carrying the
+measure were better than could have been expected, and
+on this report he was authorized to open the matter
+formally to Parliament in his speech at the opening of
+the following session.
+
+On the 22nd of January, 1799, the Irish legislature met
+under circumstances of great interest and excitement.
+The city of Dublin, always keenly alive to its metropolitan
+interests, sent its eager thousands by every avenue
+towards College Green. The Viceroy went down to the Houses
+with a more than ordinary guard, and being seated on the
+throne in the House of Lords, the Commons were summoned
+to the bar. The House was considered a full one, 217
+members being present. The viceregal speech congratulated
+both Houses on the suppression of the late rebellion, on
+the defeat of Bompart's squadron, and the recent French
+victories of Lord Nelson; then came, amid profound
+expectation, this concluding sentence:--"The unremitting
+industry," said the Viceroy, "with which our enemies
+persevere in their avowed design of endeavouring to effect
+a separation of this kingdom from Great Britain, must
+have engaged your attention, and his Majesty commands me
+to express his anxious hope that this consideration,
+joined to the sentiment of mutual affection and common
+interest, may dispose the Parliaments in both kingdoms
+to provide the most effectual means of maintaining and
+improving a connection essential to their common security,
+and of consolidating, as far as possible, into one firm
+and lasting fabric, the strength, the power, and the
+resources of the British empire." On the paragraph of
+the address, re-echoing this sentiment, which was carried
+by a large majority in the Lords, a debate ensued in the
+Commons, which lasted till one o'clock of the following
+day, above twenty consecutive hours. Against the suggestion
+of a Union spoke Ponsonby, Parsons, Fitzgerald, Barrington,
+Plunkett, Lee, O'Donnell and Bushe; in its favour, Lord
+Castlereagh, the Knight of Kerry, Corry, Fox, Osborne,
+Duigenan, and some other members little known. The
+galleries and lobbies were crowded all night by the first
+people of the city, of both sexes, and when the division
+was being taken, the most intense anxiety was manifested,
+within doors and without. At length the tellers made
+their report to the Speaker, himself an ardent
+anti-Unionist, and it was announced that the numbers
+were--"for the address 105, for the amendment 106," so
+the paragraph in favour of "consolidating the empire"
+was lost by one vote! The remainder of the address,
+tainted with the association of the expunged paragraph,
+was barely carried by 107 to 105. Mr. Ponsonby had
+attempted to follow his victory by a solemn pledge binding
+the majority never again to entertain the question, but
+to this several members objected, and the motion was
+withdrawn. The ministry found some consolation in this
+withdrawal, which they characterized as "a retreat after
+a victory," but to the public at large, unused to place
+much stress on the minor tactics of debate, nothing
+appeared but the broad, general fact, that the first
+overture for a Union had been rejected. It was a day of
+immense rejoicing in Dublin; the leading anti-Unionists
+were escorted in triumph to their homes, while the
+Unionists were protected by strong military escorts from
+the popular indignation. At night the city was illuminated,
+and the patrols were doubled as a protection to the
+obnoxious minority.
+
+Mr. Ponsonby's amendment, affirmed by the House of Commons,
+was in these words:--"That the House would be ready to
+enter into any measure short of surrendering their free,
+resident and independent legislature as established in
+1782." This was the _ultimatum_ of the great party which
+rallied in January, 1799, to the defence of the established
+constitution of their country. The arguments with which
+they sustained their position were few, bold, and
+intelligible to every capacity. There was the argument
+from Ireland's geographical situation, and the policy
+incident to it; the historical argument; the argument
+for a resident gentry occupied and retained in the country
+by their public duties; the commercial argument; the
+revenue argument; but above all, the argument of the
+incompetency of Parliament to put an end to its own
+existence. "Yourselves," exclaimed the eloquent Plunkett,
+"you may extinguish, but Parliament you cannot extinguish.
+It is enthroned in the hearts of the people--it is
+enshrined in the sanctuary of the constitution--it is as
+immortal as the island that protects it. As well might
+the frantic suicide imagine that the act which destroys
+his miserable body should also extinguish his eternal
+soul. Again, therefore, I warn you. Do not dare to lay
+your hands on the Constitution--it is above your powers!"
+
+These arguments were combated on the grounds that the
+islands were already united under one crown--that that
+species of union was uncertain and precarious--that the
+Irish Parliament was never in reality a national
+legislature; that it existed only as an instrument of
+class legislation; that the Union would benefit Ireland
+materially as it had benefited Scotland; that she would
+come in for a full share of imperial honours, expenditure
+and trade; that such a Union would discourage all future
+hostile attempts by France or any other foreign power
+against the connection, and other similar arguments. But
+the division which followed the first introduction of
+the subject showed clearly to the Unionists that they
+could not hope to succeed with the House of Commons as
+then constituted; that more time and more preparation
+were necessary. Accordingly, Lord Castlereagh was authorized
+in March, to state formally in his place, that it was
+not the intention of the government to bring up the
+question again during that session; an announcement which
+was hailed with a new outburst of rejoicing in the city.
+
+But those who imagined the measure was abandoned were
+sadly deceived. Steps were immediately taken by the Castle
+to deplete the House of its majority, and to supply their
+places before another session with forty or fifty new
+members, who would be entirely at the beck of the Chief
+Secretary. With this view, thirty-two new county judgeships
+were created; a great number of additional inspectorships
+and commissioners were also placed at the Minister's
+disposal; thirteen members had peerages for themselves
+or for their wives, with remainder to their children,
+and nineteen others were presented to various lucrative
+offices. The "Escheatorship of Munster"--a sort of Chiltern
+Hundreds office--was accepted by those who agreed to
+withdraw from opposition, for such considerations, but
+who could not be got to reverse their votes. By these
+means, and a lavish expenditure of secret service money,
+it was hoped that Mr. Pitt's stipulated majority of "not
+less than fifty" could be secured during the year.
+
+The other events of the session of '99, though interesting
+in themselves, are of little importance compared to the
+union debates. In the English Parliament, which met on
+the same day as the Irish, a paragraph identical with
+that employed by Lord Cornwallis in introducing the
+subject of the Union, was inserted in the King's speech.
+To this paragraph, repeated in the address, an amendment
+was moved by the celebrated Richard Brinsley Sheridan,
+and resisted with an eloquence scarcely inferior to his
+own, by his former _protege_ and countryman, George
+Canning. Canning, like Sheridan, had sprung from a line
+of Irish literateurs and actors; he had much of the wit
+and genius of his illustrious friend, with more worldly
+wisdom, and a higher sentiment of personal pride. In very
+early life, distinguished by great oratorical talents,
+he had deliberately attached himself to Mr. Pitt, while
+Sheridan remained steadfast to the last, in the ranks of
+the Whig or liberal party. For the land of their ancestors
+both had, at bottom, very warm, good wishes; but Canning
+looked down upon her politics from the heights of empire,
+while Sheridan felt for her honour and her interests with
+the affection of an expatriated son. We can well credit
+his statement to Grattan, years afterwards, when referring
+to his persistent opposition to the Union, he said, he
+would "have waded in blood to his knees," to preserve
+the Constitution of Ireland. In taking this course he
+had with him a few eminent friends: General Fitzpatrick,
+the former Irish Secretary, Mr. Tierney, Mr. Hobhouse,
+Dr. Lawrence, the executor of Edmund Burke, and Mr.,
+afterwards Earl Grey. Throughout the entire discussion
+these just minded Englishmen stood boldly forward for
+the rights of Ireland, and this highly honourable conduct
+was long remembered as one of Ireland's real obligations
+to the Whig party.
+
+The resolutions intended to serve as "the basis of union,"
+were introduced by Mr. Pitt, on the 21st of January, and
+after another powerful speech in opposition, from Mr.
+Grey, who was ably sustained by Mr. Sheridan, Dr. Lawrence,
+and some twenty others, were put and carried. The following
+are the resolutions:--
+
+1st. "In order to promote and secure the essential
+interests of Great Britain and Ireland, and to consolidate
+the strength, power, and resources of the British empire,
+it will be advisable to concur in such measures as may
+tend to unite the two kingdoms of Great Britain and
+Ireland into one kingdom, in such manner, and in such
+terms and conditions as may be established by acts of
+the respective Parliaments of his Majesty's said kingdoms.
+
+2nd. "It would be fit to propose as the first article,
+to serve as a basis of the said union, that the said
+kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland shall, on a day to
+be agreed upon, be united into one kingdom, by the name
+of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
+
+3rd. "For the same purpose it would be fit to propose,
+that the succession to the monarchy and the imperial
+crown of the said United Kingdom, shall continue limited
+and settled, in the same manner as the imperial crown of
+the said Great Britain and Ireland now stands limited
+and settled, according to the existing law, and to the
+terms of the union between England and Scotland.
+
+4th. "For the same purpose it would be fit to propose
+that the said United Kingdom be represented in one and
+the same Parliament, to be styled the Parliament of the
+United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; and that
+such a number of Lords, spiritual and temporal, and such
+a number of members of the House of Commons, as shall be
+hereafter agreed upon by the acts of the respective
+Parliaments as aforesaid, shall sit and vote in the said
+Parliament on the part of Ireland, and shall be summoned,
+chosen, and returned, in such manner as shall be fixed
+by an act of the Parliament of Ireland previous to the
+said union; and that every member hereafter to sit and
+vote in the said Parliament of the United Kingdom shall,
+until the said Parliament shall otherwise provide, take,
+and subscribe the said oaths, and make the same declarations
+as are required by law to be taken, subscribed, and made
+by the members of the Parliaments of Great Britain and
+Ireland.
+
+5th. "For the same purpose it would be fit to propose,
+that the Churches of England and Ireland, and the doctrine,
+worship, discipline, and government thereof, shall be
+preserved as now by law established.
+
+6th. "For the same purpose it would be fit to propose,
+that his Majesty's subjects in Ireland shall at all times
+be entitled to the same privileges, and be on the same
+footing in respect of trade and navigation in all ports
+and places belonging to Great Britain, and in all cases
+with respect to which treaties shall be made by his
+Majesty, his heirs, or successors, with any foreign power,
+as his Majesty's subjects in Great Britain; that no duty
+shall be imposed on the import or export between Great
+Britain and Ireland, of any articles now duty free, and
+that on other articles there shall be established, for
+a time to be limited, such a moderate rate of equal duties
+as shall, previous to the Union, be agreed upon and
+approved by the respective Parliaments, subject, after
+the expiration of such limited time, to be diminished
+equally with respect to both kingdoms, but in no case to
+be increased; that all articles which may at any time
+hereafter be imported into Great Britain from foreign
+parts shall be importable through either kingdom into
+the other, subject to the like duties and regulations,
+as if the same were imported directly from foreign parts:
+that where any articles, the growth, produce, or manufacture
+of either kingdom, are subject to an internal duty in
+one kingdom, such counter-vailing duties (over and above
+any duties on import to be fixed as aforesaid) shall be
+imposed as shall be necessary to prevent any inequality
+in that respect; and that all matters of trade and
+commerce, other than the foregoing, and than such others
+as may before the Union be specially agreed upon for the
+due encouragement of the agriculture and manufactures of
+the respective kingdoms, shall remain to be regulated
+from time to time by the United Parliament.
+
+7th. "For the like purpose it would be fit to propose,
+that the charge arising from the payment of the interests
+or sinking fund for the reduction of the principal of
+the debt incurred in either kingdom before the Union,
+shall continue to be separately defrayed by Great Britain
+and Ireland respectively; that, for a number of years to
+be limited, the future ordinary expenses of the United
+Kingdom, in peace or war, shall be defrayed by Great
+Britain and Ireland jointly, according to such proportions
+as shall be established by the respective Parliaments
+previous to the Union; and that, after the expiration of
+the time to be so limited, the proportion shall not be
+liable to be varied, except according to such rates and
+principles, as shall be in like manner agreed upon previous
+to the Union.
+
+8th. "For the like purpose, that all laws in force at
+the time of the Union, and all the courts of civil or
+ecclesiastical jurisdiction within the respective kingdoms,
+shall remain as now by law established within the same,
+subject only to such alterations or regulations as may
+from time to time as circumstances may appear to the
+Parliament of the United Kingdom to require."
+
+Mr. Pitt, on the passage of these resolutions, proposed
+an address stating that the Commons had proceeded with
+the utmost attention to the consideration of the important
+objects recommended in the royal message, that they
+entertained a firm persuasion of the probable benefits
+of a complete and entire Union between Great Britain and
+Ireland, founded on equal and liberal principles; that
+they were therefore induced to lay before his Majesty
+such propositions as appeared to them to be best calculated
+to form the basis of such a settlement, leaving it to
+his wisdom in due time and in proper manner, to communicate
+them to the Lords and Commons of Ireland, with whom they
+would be at all times ready to concur in all such measures
+as might be found most conducive to the accomplishment
+of that great and salutary work.
+
+On the 19th of March, Lord Grenville introduced the same
+resolutions in the Lords, where they were passed after
+a spirited opposition speech from Lord Holland, and the
+basis, so far as the King, Lords, and Commons of England
+were concerned, was laid. In proroguing the Irish Houses
+on the 1st of June, Lord Cornwallis alluded to these
+resolutions, and the anxiety of the King, as the common
+father of his people, to see both kingdoms united in the
+enjoyment of the blessings of a free constitution.
+
+This prorogation was originally till August, but in August
+it was extended till January, 1800. In this long interval
+of eight months, the two great parties, the Unionists
+and the anti-Unionists were incessantly employed, through
+the press, in social intercourse, in the grand jury room,
+in county and city meetings, by correspondence, petitions,
+addresses, each pushing forward its own views with all
+the zeal and warmth of men who felt that on one side they
+were labouring for the country, on the other for the
+empire. Two incidents of this interval were deeply felt
+in the patriot ranks, the death at an advanced age of
+the venerable Charlemont, the best member of his order
+Ireland had ever known, and the return to the kingdom
+and to public life of Lord Charlemont's early friend and
+_protege_, Henry Grattan. He had spent above a year in
+England, chiefly in Wales and the Isle of Wight. His
+health all this time had been wretched; his spirits low
+and despondent, and serious fears were at some moments
+entertained for his life. He had been forbidden to read
+or write, or to hear the exciting news of the day. Soothed
+and cheered by that admirable woman, whom Providence had
+given him, he passed the crisis, but he returned to
+breathe his native air, greatly enfeebled in body, and
+sorely afflicted in mind. The charge of theatrical
+affectation of illness has been brought against Grattan
+by the Unionists,--against Grattan who, as to his personal
+habits, was simplicity itself! It is a charge undeserving
+of serious contradiction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+LAST SESSION OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT--THE LEGISLATIVE
+UNION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
+
+When the Irish Parliament met for the last time, on the
+15th of January, 1800, the position of the Union question
+stood thus: 27 new Peers had been added to the House of
+Lords, where the Castle might therefore reckon with safety
+on a majority of three to one. Of the Lords spiritual,
+only Dr. Marlay of Waterford, and Dr. Dixon of Down and
+Conor, had the courage to side with their country against
+their order. In the Commons there was an infusion of some
+50 new borough members, many of them general officers,
+such as Needham, and Pakenham, all of them nominees of
+the Castle, except Mr. Saurin, returned for Blessington,
+and Mr. Grattan, at the last moment, for Wicklow. The
+great constitutional body of the bar had, at a general
+meeting, the previous December, declared against the
+measure by 162 to 33. Another powerful body, the bankers,
+had petitioned against it, in the interest of the public
+credit. The Catholic bishops, in their annual meeting,
+had taken up a position of neutrality as a body, but
+under the artful management of Lord Castlereagh, the
+Archbishops of Dublin and Tuam, with the Bishop of Cork,
+and some others, were actively employed in counteracting
+anti-Union movements among the people. Although the vast
+majority of that people had too much reason to be disgusted
+and discontented with the legislation of the previous
+three years, above 700,000 of them petitioned against
+the measure, while all the signatures which could be
+obtained in its favour, by the use of every means at the
+command of the Castle, did not much exceed 7,000.
+
+The Houses were opened on the 15th of January. The Viceroy
+not going down, his message was read in the Lords, by
+the Chancellor, and in the Commons, by the Chief Secretary.
+It did not directly refer to the basis laid down in
+England, nor to the subject matter itself; but the leaders
+of the Castle party in both Houses, took care to supply
+the deficiency. In the Lords, proxies included, Lord
+Clare had 75 to 26 for his Union address: in the Commons,
+Lord Castlereagh congratulated the country on the
+improvement which had taken place in public opinion,
+since the former session. He briefly sketched his plan
+of Union, which, while embracing the main propositions
+of Mr. Pitt, secured the Church establishment, bid high
+for the commercial interests, hinted darkly of emancipation
+to the Catholics, and gave the proprietors of boroughs
+to understand that their interest in those convenient
+constituencies would be capitalized, and a good round
+sum given to buy out their perpetual patronage. In
+amendment to the address, Sir Lawrence Parsons moved,
+seconded by Mr. Savage of Down, that the House would
+maintain _intact_ the Constitution of '82, and the debate
+proceeded on this motion. Ponsonby replied to Castlereagh;
+Plunkett and Bushe were answered by the future judges,
+St. George Daly and Luke Fox; Toler contributed his farce,
+and Dr. Duigenan his fanaticism. Through the long hours
+of the winter's night the eloquent war was vigorously
+maintained. One who was himself a distinguished actor in
+the struggle, (Sir Jonah Barrington,) has thus described
+it: "Every mind," he says, "was at its stretch, every
+talent was in its vigour: it was a momentous trial; and
+never was so general and so deep a sensation felt in any
+country. Numerous British noblemen and commoners were
+present at that and the succeeding debate, and they
+expressed opinions of Irish eloquence which they had
+never before conceived, nor ever after had an opportunity
+of appreciating. Every man on that night seemed to be
+inspired by the subject. Speeches more replete with talent
+and energy, on both sides, never were heard in the Irish
+Senate; it was a vital subject. The sublime, the eloquent,
+the figurative orator, the plain, the connected, the
+metaphysical reasoner, the classical, the learned, and
+the solemn declaimer, in a succession of speeches so full
+of energy and enthusiasm, so interesting in their nature,
+so important in their consequence, created a variety of
+sensations even in the bosom of a stranger, and could
+scarcely fail of exciting some sympathy with a nation which
+was doomed to close for ever that school of eloquence which
+had so long given character and celebrity to Irish talent."
+
+At the early dawn, a special messenger from Wicklow, just
+arrived in town, roused Henry Grattan from his bed. He
+had been elected the previous night for the borough of
+Wicklow, (which cost him 2,400 pounds sterling), and this
+was the bearer of the returning officer's certificate.
+His friends, weak and feeble as he was, wished him to go
+down to the House, and his heroic wife seconded their
+appeals. It was seven o'clock in the morning of the 16th
+when he reached College Green, the scene of his first
+triumphs twenty years before. Mr. Egan, one of the
+staunchest anti-Unionists, was at the moment, on some
+rumour, probably, of his approach, apostrophising warmly
+the father of the Constitution of '82, when that striking
+apparition appeared at the bar. Worn and emaciated beyond
+description, he appeared leaning on two of his friends,
+Arthur Moore and W. B. Ponsonby. He wore his volunteer
+uniform, blue with red facings, and advanced to the table,
+where he removed his cocked hat, bowed to the Speaker,
+and took the oaths. After Mr. Egan had concluded, he
+begged permission from his seat beside Plunkett, to
+address the House sitting, which was granted, and then
+in a discourse of two hours' duration, full of his ancient
+fire and vigour, he asserted once again, by the divine
+right of intellect, his title to be considered the first
+Commoner of Ireland. Gifted men were not rare in that
+assembly; but the inspiration of the heart, the
+uncontrollable utterance of a supreme spirit, not less
+than the extraordinary faculty of condensation, in which,
+perhaps, he has never had a superior in our language,
+gave the Grattan of 1800 the same pre-eminence among his
+cotemporaries, that was conceded to the Grattan of 1782.
+After eighteen hours' discussion the division was taken,
+when the result of the long recess was clearly seen; for
+the amendment there appeared 96, for the address 138
+members. The Union majority, therefore, was 42. It was
+apparent from that moment that the representation of the
+people in Parliament had been effectually corrupted; that
+that assembly was no longer the safeguard of the liberties
+of the people. Other ministerial majorities confirmed
+this impression. A measure to enable 10,000 of the Irish
+militia to enter the regular army, and to substitute
+English militia in their stead, followed; an inquiry into
+outrages committed by the sheriff and military in King's
+county, was voted down; a similar motion somewhat later,
+in relation to officials in Tipperary met the same fate.
+On the 5th of February, a formal message proposing a
+basis of Union was received from his Excellency, and
+debated for twenty consecutive hours--from 4 o'clock of
+one day, till 12 of the next. Grattan, Plunkett, Parnell,
+Ponsonby, Saurin, were, as always, eloquent and able,
+but again the division told for the minister, 160 to
+117--majority 43. On the 17th of February, the House went
+into Committee on the proposed articles of Union, and
+the Speaker (John Foster) being now on the floor, addressed
+the House with great ability in review of Mr. Pitt's
+recent Union speech, which he designated "a paltry
+production." But again, a majority mustered, at the nod
+of the minister, 161 to 140--a few not fully committed
+showing some last faint spark of independence. It was on
+this occasion that Mr. Corry, Chancellor of the Exchequer,
+member for Newry, made for the third or fourth time that
+session, an attack on Grattan, which brought out, on the
+instant, that famous "philippic against Corry," unequalled
+in our language, for its well-suppressed passion, and
+finely condensed denunciation. A duel followed, as soon
+as there was sufficient light; the Chancellor was wounded,
+after which the Castlereagh tactics of "fighting down
+the opposition," received an immediate and lasting check.
+
+Throughout the months of February and March, with an
+occasional adjournment, the Constitutional battle was
+fought on every point permitted by the forms of the House.
+On the 25th of March, the Committee, after another powerful
+speech from the Speaker, finally reported the resolutions
+which were passed by 154 to 107--a majority of 47. The
+Houses then adjourned for six weeks, to allow time for
+corresponding action to be taken in England. There was
+little difficulty in carrying the measure. In the Upper
+House, Lords Derby, Holland, and King only opposed it;
+in the Lower, Sheridan, Tierney, Grey, and Lawrence
+mustered on a division, 30 votes against Pitt's 206. On
+the 21st of May, in the Irish Commons, Lord Castlereagh
+obtained leave to bring in the Union Bill by 160 to 100;
+on the 7th of June the final passage of the measure was
+effected. That closing scene has been often described,
+but never so graphically, as by the diamond pen of Jonah
+Barrington.
+
+"The galleries were full, but the change was lamentable.
+They were no longer crowded with those who had been
+accustomed to witness the eloquence and to animate the
+debates of that devoted assembly. A monotonous and
+melancholy murmur ran through the benches; scarcely a
+word was exchanged amongst the members; nobody seemed at
+ease; no cheerfulness was apparent; and the ordinary
+business, for a short time, proceeded in the usual manner.
+
+"At length, the expected moment arrived: the order of
+the day for the third reading of the bill for a 'legislative
+union between Great Britain and Ireland' was moved by
+Lord Castlereagh. Unvaried, tame, cold-blooded, the words
+seemed frozen as they issued from his lips; and, as if
+a simple citizen of the world, he seemed to have no
+sensation on the subject.
+
+"At that moment he had no country, no God, but his
+ambition. He made his motion, and resumed his seat, with
+the utmost composure and indifference.
+
+"Confused murmurs again ran through the House. It was
+visibly affected. Every character, in a moment, seemed
+involuntarily rushing to its index--some pale, some
+flushed, some agitated--there were few countenances to
+which the heart did not despatch some messenger. Several
+members withdrew before the question could be repeated,
+and an awful, momentary silence succeeded their departure.
+The Speaker rose slowly from that chair which had been
+the proud source of his honours and of his high character.
+For a moment he resumed his seat, but the strength of
+his mind sustained him in his duty, though his struggle
+was apparent. With that dignity which never failed to
+signalize his official actions, he held up the bill for
+a moment in silence. He looked steadily around him on
+the last agony of the expiring Parliament. He at length
+repeated, in an emphatic tone, 'As many as are of opinion
+that THIS BILL do pass, say _ay_! The affirmative was
+languid, but indisputable. Another momentary pause ensued.
+Again his lips seemed to decline their office. At length,
+with an eye averted from the object he hated, he proclaimed,
+with a subdued voice, '_The, AYES have it_.' The fatal
+sentence was now pronounced. For an instant he stood
+statue-like; then indignantly, and with disgust, flung
+the bill upon the table, and sank into his chair with an
+exhausted spirit. An independent country was thus degraded
+into a province. Ireland, as a nation, was extinguished."
+
+The final division in the Commons was 153 to 88, nearly
+60 members absenting themselves, and in the Lords, 76 to
+17. In England all the stages were passed in July, and
+on the 2nd of August, the anniversary of the King's
+accession, the royal assent was given to the twofold
+legislation, which declared the kingdoms of Great Britain
+and Ireland one and inseparable!
+
+By the provisions of this statute, compact, or treaty,
+the Sovereignty of the United Kingdom was to follow the
+order of the Act of Succession; the Irish peerage was to
+be reduced by the filling of one vacancy for every three
+deaths, to the number of one hundred; from among these,
+twenty-eight representative Peers were to be elected for
+life, and four spiritual Lords to sit in succession. The
+number of Irish representatives in the Imperial Parliament
+was fixed at one hundred (increased to one hundred and
+five); the churches of England and Ireland were united
+like the kingdoms, and declared to be one in doctrine
+and discipline. The debt of Ireland, which was less than
+4,000,000 pounds in 1797, increased to 14,000,000 pounds
+in '99, and had risen to nearly 17,000,000 pounds in
+1801, was to be alone chargeable to Ireland, whose
+proportionate share of general taxation was then estimated
+at 2-17ths of that of the United Kingdom. The Courts of
+Law, the Privy Council, and the Viceroyalty, were to
+remain at Dublin, the cenotaph and the shadows of
+departed nationality.
+
+On the 1st day of January, 1801, in accordance with this
+great Constitutional change, a new imperial standard was
+run up on London Tower, Edinburgh Castle, and Dublin
+Castle. It was formed of the three crosses of St. Patrick,
+Saint Andrew, and Saint George, and is that popularly
+known to us as "the Union Jack." The _fleur de lis_, and
+the word "France," were struck from the royal title,
+which was settled, by proclamation, to consist henceforth
+of the words _Dei Gratia, Britanniarum Rex, Fidei Defensor_.
+
+The foul means by which this counter revolution was
+accomplished, have, perhaps, been already sufficiently
+indicated. It may be necessary, however, in order to
+account for the continued hostility of the Irish people
+to the measure, after more than sixty years' experience
+of its results, to recapitulate them very briefly. Of
+all who voted for the Union, in both Houses, it was said
+that only six or seven were known to have done so on
+conviction. Great borough proprietors, like Lord Ely and
+Lord Shannon, received as much as 45,000 pounds sterling
+in "compensation" for their loss of patronage; while
+proprietors of single seats received 15,000 pounds. That
+the majority was avowedly purchased, in both Houses, is
+no longer matter of inference, nay, that some of them
+were purchased twice over is now well known. Lord Carysfort,
+an active partisan of the measure, writing in February,
+1800, to his friend the Marquis of Buckingham, frankly
+says: "The majority, which has been bought at an enormous
+price, must be bought over again, perhaps more than once,
+before all the details can be gone through." His lordship
+himself, and the order to which he belonged, and those
+who aspired to enter it, were, it must be added, among
+the most insatiable of these purchased supporters. The
+Dublin _Gazette_ for July, 1800, announced not less than
+sixteen new peerages, and the same publication for the
+last week of the year, contained a fresh list of twenty-six
+others. Forty-two creations in six months was a stretch
+of prerogative far beyond the most arbitrary of the
+Stuarts or Tudors, and forms one, not of the least
+unanswerable evidences, of the utterly corrupt
+considerations which secured the support of the Irish
+majority in both Houses.
+
+It was impossible that a people like the Irish,
+disinterested and unselfish to a fault, should ever come
+to respect a compact brought about by such means and
+influences as these. Had, however, the Union, vile as
+were the means by which it was accomplished, proved to
+the real benefit of the country--had equal civil and
+religious rights been freely and at once extended to the
+people of the lesser kingdom--there is no reason to doubt
+that the measure would have become popular in time, and
+the vices of the old system be better remembered than
+its benefits, real or imaginary. But the Union was never
+utilized for Ireland; it proved in reality what Samuel
+Johnson had predicted, when spoken of in his day: "Do
+not unite with us, sir," said the gruff old moralist to
+an Irish acquaintance; "it would be the union of the
+shark with his prey; we should unite with you only to
+destroy you."
+
+In glancing backward over the long political connexion
+of Ireland and England, we mark four great epochs. The
+Anglo-Norman invasion in 1169; the statute of Kilkenny
+decreeing eternal separation between the races, "the
+English pale" and "the Irish enemy," 1367; the Union of
+the Crowns, in 1541, and the Legislative Union, in 1801.
+One more cardinal event remains to be recorded--the
+Emancipation of the Catholics, in 1829.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK XII.
+
+FROM THE UNION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND TO THE
+EMANCIPATION OF THE CATHOLICS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+AFTER THE UNION--DEATH OF LORD CLARE--
+ROBERT EMMET'S EMEUTE.
+
+The plan of this brief compendium of Irish history obliges
+us to sketch for some years farther on, the political
+and religious annals of the Irish people. Having described
+in what manner their distinctive political nationality
+was at length lost, it only remains to show how their
+religious liberties were finally recovered.
+
+The first striking effect of the Union was to introduce
+Catholic Emancipation into the category of imperial
+difficulties, and to assign it the very first place on
+the list. By a singular retribution, the Pitt administration
+with its 200 of a House of Commons majority, its absolute
+control of the Lords, and its seventeen years' prescription
+in its favour, fell upon this very question, after they
+had used it to carry the Union, within a few weeks of
+the consummation of that Union. The cause of this crisis
+was the invincible obstinacy of the King, who had taken
+into his head, at the time of Lord Fitzwilliam's recall
+from Ireland, that his coronation oath bound him in
+conscience to resist the Catholic claims. The suggestion
+of this obstacle was originally Lord Clare's; and though
+Lord Kenyon and Lord Stowell had declared it unfounded
+in law, Lord Loughborough and Lord Eldon were unfortunately
+of a different opinion. With George III. the idea became
+a monomaniac certainty, and there is no reason to doubt
+that he would have preferred abdication to its abandonment.
+
+The King was not for several months aware how far his
+Prune Minister had gone on the Catholic question in
+Ireland. But those who were weary of Pitt's ascendancy,
+were, of course, interested in giving him this important
+information. The minister himself, wrapped in his austere
+self-reliance, did not volunteer explanations even to
+his Sovereign, and the King broke silence very unexpectedly,
+a few days after the first meeting of the Imperial
+Parliament (January 22nd, 1801). Stepping up to Mr. Dundas
+at the levee, he began in his usual manner, "What's this?
+what's this? this, that this young Lord (Castlereagh)
+has brought over from Ireland to throw at my head? The
+most Jacobinical thing I ever heard of! Any man who
+proposes such a thing is my personal enemy." Mr. Dundas
+replied respectfully but firmly, and immediately
+communicated the conversation to Mr. Pitt. The King's
+remarks had been overheard by the bystanders, so that
+either the minister or the Sovereign had now to give way.
+Pitt, at first, was resolute; the King then offered to
+impose silence on himself as regarded the whole subject,
+provided Mr. Pitt would agree to do likewise, but the
+haughty minister refused, and tendered his resignation.
+On the 5th of February, within five weeks of the
+consummation of the Union, this tender was most reluctantly
+and regretfully accepted. Lord Grenville, Mr. Dundas,
+and others of his principal colleagues went out of office
+with him; Lord Cornwallis and Lord Castlereagh following
+their example. Of the new Cabinet, Addington, the Speaker,
+was Premier, with Lord Hardwicke as Lord-Lieutenant of
+Ireland. By the enemies of Pitt this was looked upon as
+a mere administration _ad interim_; as a concerted
+arrangement to enable him to evade an unfavourable
+peace--that of Amiens--which he saw coming; but it is
+only fair to say, that the private letters of the period,
+since published, do not sanction any such imputation. It
+is, however, to be observed, _per contra_, that three
+weeks after his formal resignation, he had no hesitation
+in assuring the King, who had just recovered from one of
+his attacks brought on by this crisis, that he would
+never again urge the Catholic claims on his Majesty's
+notice. On this understanding he returned to office in
+the spring of 1804; to this compact he adhered till his
+death, in January, 1806.
+
+In Ireland, the events immediately consequent upon the
+Union, were such as might have been expected. Many of
+those who had been instrumental in carrying it, were
+disappointed and discontented with their new situation
+in the empire. Of these, the most conspicuous and the
+least to be pitied, was Lord Clare. That haughty,
+domineering spirit, accustomed to dictate with almost
+absolute power to the Privy Counsellors and peerage of
+Ireland, experienced nothing but mortification in the
+Imperial House of Lords. The part he hoped to play on
+that wider stage he found impossible to assume; he
+confronted there in the aged Thurlow and the astute
+Loughborough, law lords as absolute as himself, who soon
+made him conscious that, though a main agent of the Union,
+he was only a stranger in the united legislature. The
+Duke of Bedford reminded him that "the Union had not
+transferred his dictatorial powers to the Imperial
+Parliament;" other noble Lords were hardly less severe.
+Pitt was cold, and Grenville ceremonious; and in the
+arrangements of the Addington ministry he was not even
+consulted. He returned to Ireland before the first year
+of the Union closed, in a state of mind and temper which
+preyed upon his health. Before the second session of the
+Imperial Parliament assembled, he had been borne to the
+grave amid the revilings and hootings of the multitude.
+Dublin, true to its ancient disposition, which led the
+townsfolk of the twelfth century to bury the ancestor of
+Dermid McMurrogh with the carcass of a dog, filled the
+grave of the once splendid Lord Chancellor with every
+description of garbage.
+
+On the other hand, Lord Castlereagh, younger, suppler,
+and more accommodating to English prejudices, rose from
+one Cabinet office to another, until at length, in fifteen
+years from the Union, he directed the destinies of the
+Empire, as absolutely, as he had moulded the fate of
+Ireland. To Castlereagh and the Wellesley family, the
+Union was in truth, an era of honour and advancement.
+The sons of the spendthrift amateur, Lord Mornington,
+were reserved to rule India, and lead the armies of
+Europe; while the son of Flood's colleague in the Reform
+convention of 1783, was destined to give law to Christendom,
+at the Congress of Vienna.
+
+A career very different in all respects from those just
+mentioned, closed in the second year of Dublin's widowhood
+as a metropolis. It was the career of a young man of
+four-and-twenty, who snatched at immortal fame and obtained
+it, in the very agony of a public, but not for him, a
+shameful death. This was Robert, youngest brother of
+Thomas Addis Emmet, whose _emeute_ of 1803 would long
+since have sunk to the level of other city riots, but
+for the matchless dying speech of which it was the prelude
+and the occasion. This young gentleman was in his 20th
+year when expelled with nineteen others from Trinity
+College, in 1798, by order of the visitors, Lord Clare
+and Dr. Duigenan. His reputation as a scholar and debater
+was already established within the college walls, and
+the highest expectations were naturally entertained of
+him, by his friends. One of his early college companions
+--Thomas Moore--who lived to know all the leading men
+of his age, declares that of all he had ever known, he
+would place among "the highest of the few" who combined
+in "the greatest degree pure moral worth with intellectual
+power"--Robert Emmet. After the expatriation of his
+brother, young Emmet visited him at Fort-George, and
+proceeded from thence to the Continent. During the year
+the Union was consummated he visited Spain, and travelled
+through Holland, France, and Switzerland, till the peace
+of Amiens. Subsequently he joined his brother's family
+in Paris, and was taken into the full confidence of the
+exiles, then in direct communication with Buonaparte and
+Talleyrand. It was not concealed from the Irish by either
+the First Consul, or his minister, that the peace with
+England was likely to have a speedy termination; and,
+accordingly, they were not unprepared for the new
+declaration of war between the two countries, which was
+officially made at London and Paris, in May, 1803--little
+more than twelve months after the proclamation of the
+peace of Amiens.
+
+It was in expectation of this rupture, and a consequent
+invasion of Ireland, that Robert Emmet returned to Dublin,
+in October, 1802, to endeavour to re-establish in some
+degree the old organization of the United Irishmen. In
+the same expectation, McNevin, Corbet, and others of the
+Irish in France, formed themselves, by permission of the
+First Consul, into a legion, under command of Tone's
+trusty aid-de-camp, McSheehey; while Thomas Addis Emmet
+and Arthur O'Conor remained at Paris, the plenipotentiaries
+of their countrymen. On the rupture with England Buonaparte
+took up the Irish negotiation with much earnestness; he
+even suggested to the exiles the colours and the motto
+under which they were to fight, when once landed on their
+own soil. The flag on a tricolour ground, was to have a
+green centre, bearing the letters _R.I.--Republique
+Irlandaise_. The legend at large was to be: _L'independence
+de l'Irlande--Liberte de Conscience_; a motto which
+certainly told the whole story. The First Consul also
+suggested the formation of an Irish Committee at Paris,
+and the preparation of statements of Irish grievances
+for the _Moniteur_, and the semi-official papers.
+
+Robert Emmet seems to have been confidently of opinion
+soon after his return to Dublin, that nineteen out of
+the thirty-two counties would rise; and, perhaps, if a
+sufficient French force had landed, his opinion might
+have been justified by the fact. So did not think, however,
+John Keogh, Valentine Lawless (Lord Cloncurry), and other
+close observers of the state of the country. But Emmet
+was enthusiastic, and he inspired his own spirit into
+many. Mr. Long, a merchant, placed 1,400 pounds sterling
+at his disposal; he had himself, in consequence of the
+recent death of his father, stock to the amount of 1,500
+pounds converted into cash, and with these funds he
+entered actively on his preliminary preparations. His
+chief confidants and assistants were Thomas Russell and
+Mathew Dowdall, formerly prisoners at Fort-George, but
+now permitted to return; William Putnam McCabe, the most
+adventurous of all the party, a perfect Proteus in
+disguise; Gray, a Wexford attorney; Colonel Lumm of
+Kildare, an old friend of Lord Edward Fitzgerald; Mr.
+Long, before mentioned; Hamilton, an Enniskillen barrister,
+married to Russell's niece; James Hope of Templepatrick,
+and Michael Dwyer, the Wicklow outlaw, who had remained
+since '98 uncaptured in the mountains.
+
+In the month of March, when the renewal of hostilities
+with France was decided on in England, the preparations
+of the conspirators were pushed forward with redoubled
+energy. The still wilder conspiracy headed by Colonel
+Despard in London, the previous winter, the secret and
+the fate of which was well known to the Dublin leaders
+--Dowdall being Despard's agent--did not in the least
+intimidate Emmet or his friends. Despard suffered death
+in February, with nine of his followers, but his Irish
+confederates only went on with their arrangements with
+a more reckless resolution. Their plan was the plan of
+O'Moore and McGuire, to surprise the Castle, seize the
+authorities and secure the capital; but the Dublin of
+1803 was in many respects very different from the Dublin
+of 1641. The discontent, however, arising from the recent
+loss of the Parliament might have turned the city scale
+in Emmet's favour, had its first stroke been successful.
+The emissaries at work in the Leinster and Ulster counties
+gave besides sanguine reports of success, so that, judging
+by the information in his possession, an older and cooler
+head than Robert Emmet's might well have been misled into
+the expectation of nineteen counties rising if the signal
+could only be given from Dublin Castle. If the blow could
+be withheld till August, there was every reason to expect
+a French invasion of England, which would drain away all
+the regular army, and leave the people merely the militia
+and the volunteers to contend against. But all the Dublin
+arrangements exploded in the melancholy _emeute_ of the
+23rd of July, 1803, in which the Chief-Justice, Lord
+Kilwarden, passing through the disturbed quarter of the
+city at the time, was cruelly murdered; for which, and
+for his cause, Emmet suffered death on the same spot on
+the 20th of September following. For the same cause,
+the equally pure-minded and chivalrous Thomas Russell
+was executed at Downpatrick; Kearney, Roche, Redmond and
+Howley also suffered death at Dublin; Alien, Putnam,
+McCabe, and Dowdall escaped to France, where the former
+became an officer of rank in the army of Napoleon; Michael
+Dwyer, who Lad surrendered on condition of being allowed
+to emigrate to' North America, died in exile in Australia,
+in 1825. Others of Emmet's known or suspected friends,
+after undergoing two, three, and even four years'
+imprisonment, were finally discharged without trial.
+Mr. Long, his generous banker, and James Hope, his
+faithful emissary, were both permitted to end; their
+days in Ireland.
+
+The trial of Robert Emmet, from the wonderful death-speech
+delivered at it, is perfectly well known. But in justice
+to a man of genius equal if not superior to his own--an
+Irishman, whose memory is national property, as well as
+Emmet's, it must here be observed, that the latter never
+delivered, and had no justification to deliver the vulgar
+diatribe against Plunkett, his prosecutor, now constantly
+printed in the common and incorrect versions of that
+speech. Plunkett, as Attorney-General, in 1803, had no
+option but to prosecute for the crown; he was a politician
+of a totally different school from that of Emmet; he
+shared all Burke and Grattan's horror of French
+revolutionary principles. In the fervour of his accusatory
+oration he may have gone too far; he may have, and in
+reading it now, it is clear to us that he did press too
+hard upon the prisoner in the dock. He might have performed
+his awful office with more sorrow and less vehemence,
+for there was no doubt about Ms jury. But withal, he gave
+no fair grounds for any such retort as is falsely attributed
+to Emmet, the very style of which proves its falsity. It
+is now well known that the apostrophe in the death-speech,
+commencing "you viper," alleged to have been addressed
+to Plunkett, was the interpolation many years afterwards
+of that literary Ishmaelite--Walter Cox of the _Hibernian
+Magazine_,--who through such base means endeavoured to
+aim a blow at Plunkett's reputation. The personal reputation
+of the younger Emmet, the least known to his countrymen
+of all the United Irish leaders, except by the crowning
+act of his death, is safe beyond the reach of calumny,
+or party zeal, or time's changes. It is embalmed in the
+verse of Moore and Southey, and the precious prose of
+Washington Irvine. Men of genius in England and America
+have done honour to his memory; in the annals of his own
+country his name deserves to stand with those youthful
+chiefs, equally renowned, and equally ready to seal their
+patriotism with their blood--Sir Cahir O'Doherty and
+Hugh Roe O'Donnell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+ADMINISTRATION OF LORD HARDWICKE (1801 TO 1806),
+AND OF THE DUKE OF BEDFORD (1806 TO 1808).
+
+During the five years in which Lord Hardwicke was Viceroy
+of Ireland, the _habeas corpus_ remained suspended, and
+the Insurrection Act continued in force. These were the
+years in which the power of Napoleon made the most
+astonishing strides; the years in which he remodelled
+the German Empire, placed on his head the iron crown of
+Lombardy, on his sister's that of Etruria, and on his
+brother's that of Holland; when the Consulate gave place
+to the Empire, and Dukedoms and Principalities were freely
+distributed among the marshals of the Grand Army. During
+all these years, Napoleon harassed England with menaces
+of invasion, and excited Ireland with corresponding hopes
+of intervention. The more far-seeing United Irishmen,
+however, had so little faith in these demonstrations that
+Emmet and McNevin emigrated to the United States, leaving
+behind them in the ranks of the French Army, those of
+their compatriots who, either from habit or preference,
+had become attached to a military life. It must however
+be borne in mind, for it is essential to the understanding
+of England's policy towards Ireland, in the first twelve
+or fourteen years after the Union, that the wild hope of
+a French invasion never forsook the hearts of a large
+portion of the Irish people, so long as Napoleon Buonaparte
+continued at the head of the government of France. During
+the whole of that period the British government were kept
+in constant apprehension for Ireland; under this feeling
+they kept up and increased the local militia; strengthened
+garrisons, and replenished magazines; constructed a chain
+of Martello towers round the entire coast, and maintained
+in full rigour the Insurrection Act. They refused, indeed,
+to the Munster magistrates in 1803, and subsequently,
+the power of summary convictions which they possessed in
+'98; but they sent special Commissions of their own into
+the suspected counties, who sentenced to death with as
+little remorse as if they had been so many hydrophobic
+dogs. Ten, twelve, and even twenty capital executions
+was no uncommon result of a single sitting of one of
+those murderous commissions, over which Lord Norbury
+presided; but it must be added that there were other
+judges, who observed not only the decencies of everyday
+life, but who interpreted the law in mercy as well as in
+justice. They were a minority, it is true, but there were
+some such, nevertheless.
+
+The session of the Imperial Parliament of 1803-'4, was
+chiefly remarkable for its war speeches and war budget.
+In Ireland 50,000 men of the regular militia were under
+arms and under pay; 70,000 volunteers were enrolled,
+battalioned, and ready to be called out in case of
+emergency, to which it was proposed to add 25,000
+sea-fencibles. General Fox, who it was alleged had
+neglected taking proper precaution at the time of Robert
+Emmet's _emeute_, was replaced by Lord Cathcart, as
+Commander-in-Chief. The _public_ reports at least of this
+officer, were highly laudatory of the discipline and
+conduct of the Irish militia.
+
+In May, 1804, Mr. Pitt returned to power, as Chancellor
+of the Exchequer and Prime Minister, when the whole Pitt
+policy towards Ireland, France, and America, was of course
+resumed; a policy which continued to be acted on during
+the short remainder of the life of its celebrated author.
+
+The year 1805 may be called the first year of the revival
+of public spirit and public opinion after the Union. In
+that year Grattan had allowed himself to be persuaded by
+Fox, into entering the Imperial Parliament, and his old
+friend Lord Fitzwilliam found a constituency for him, in
+his Yorkshire borough of Malton. About the same time,
+Pitt, or his colleagues, induced Plunkett to enter the
+same great assembly, providing him with a constituency
+at Midhurst, in Sussex. But they did not succeed--if they
+ever attempted--to match Plunkett with Grattan. Those
+great men were warm and close friends in the Imperial as
+they had been in the Irish Parliament; very dissimilar
+in their genius, they were both decided anti-Jacobins;
+both strenuous advocates of the Catholic claims, and both
+proud and fond of their original country. Grattan had
+more poetry, and Plunkett more science; but the heart of
+the man of colder exterior opened and swelled out, in
+one of the noblest tributes ever paid by one great orator
+to another, when Plunkett introduced in 1821, in the
+Imperial Parliament, his allusion to his illustrious
+friend, then recently deceased.
+
+Preparatory to the meeting of Parliament in 1805, the
+members of the old Catholic Committee, who had not met
+for any such purpose for several years, assembled in
+Dublin, and prepared a petition which they authorized
+their chairman, Lord Fingall, to place in such hands as
+he might choose, for presentation in both Houses. His
+lordship on reaching London waited on Mr. Pitt, and
+entreated him to take charge of the petition; but he
+found that the Prime Minister had promised the King one
+thing and the Catholics another, and, therefore, declined
+acceding to his request. He then gave the petition into
+the charge of Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox, and by them
+the subject was brought accordingly before the Lords and
+Commons. This debate in the Commons was remarkable in
+many respects, but most of all for Grattan's _debut_.
+A lively curiosity to hear one of whom so much had been
+said in his own country, pervaded the whole House, as
+Grattan rose. His grotesque little figure, his eccentric
+action, and his strangely cadenced sentences rather
+surprised than attracted attention, but as he warmed with
+the march of ideas, men of both parties warmed to the
+genial and enlarged philosophy, embodied in the interfused
+rhetoric and logic of the orator; Pitt was seen to beat
+time with his hand to every curiously proportioned period,
+and at length both sides of the House broke into hearty
+acknowledgments of the genius of the new member for
+Malton. But as yet their cheers were not followed by
+their votes; the division against going into Committee
+was 336 to 124.
+
+In sustaining Fox's motion, Sir John Cox Hippesley had
+suggested "the Veto" as a safeguard against the
+encroachments of Rome, which the Irish bishops would not
+be disposed to refuse. Archbishop Troy, and Dr. Moylan,
+Bishop of Cork, gave considerable praise to this speech,
+and partly at their request it was published in pamphlet
+form. This brought up directly a discussion among the
+Catholics, which lasted until 1810, was renewed in 1813,
+and not finally set at rest till the passage of the bill
+of 1829, without any such safeguard. Sir John C. Hippesley
+had modelled his proposal, he said, on the liberties of
+the Gallican Church. "Her privileges," he added, "depended
+on two prominent maxims: 1st. That the Pope had no
+authority to order or interfere in anything in which the
+civil rights of the kingdom were concerned. 2nd. That
+notwithstanding the Pope's supremacy was acknowledged in
+cases purely spiritual, yet, in other respects, his power
+was limited by the decrees of the ancient councils of
+the realm." The Irish Church, therefore, was to be
+similarly administered, to obviate the objections of the
+opponents of complete civil emancipation.
+
+In February, 1806, on the death of Pitt, Mr. Fox came
+into power, with an uncertain majority and a powerful
+opposition. In April, the Duke of Bedford arrived, as
+Viceroy, at Dublin, and the Catholics presented, through
+Mr. Keogh, a mild address, expressive of their hopes that
+"the glorious development" of their emancipation would
+be reserved for the new government. The Duke returned
+an evasive answer in public, but privately, both at Dublin
+and London, the Catholics were assured that, as soon as
+the new Premier could convert the King--as soon as he
+was in a position to act--he would make their cause his
+own. No doubt Fox, who had great nobleness of soul,
+intended to do so; but on the 13th of September of the
+same year, he followed his great rival, Pitt, to the
+vaults of Westminster Abbey. A few months only had
+intervened between the death of the rivals.
+
+Lords Grey and Grenville, during the next recess, having
+formed a new administration, instructed their Irish
+Secretary, Mr. Elliot, to put himself in communication
+with the Catholics, in relation to a measure making them
+eligible to naval and military offices. The Catholics
+accepted this proposal with pleasure, but at the opening
+of the session of 1807, in a deputation to the Irish
+government, again urged the question of complete
+emancipation. The bill in relation to the army and navy
+had, originally, the King's acquiescence; but early in
+March, after it had passed the Commons, George III.
+changed his mind--if the expression may be used of him
+--at that time. He declared he had not considered it at
+first so important as he afterwards found it; he intimated
+that it could not receive his sanction; he went farther
+--he required a written pledge from Lords Grey and
+Grenville never again to bring forward such a measure,
+"nor ever to propose anything connected with the Catholic
+question." This unconstitutional pledge they refused to
+give, hurried the bill into law, and resigned. Mr. Spencer
+Perceval was then sent for, and what was called "the
+No-Popery Cabinet," in which Mr. Canning and Lord
+Castlereagh were the principal Secretaries of State, was
+formed. Thus, for the second time in six years, had the
+Catholic question made and unmade cabinets.
+
+The Catholics were a good deal dispirited in 1805, by
+the overwhelming majority by which their petition of that
+year was refused to be referred to a committee. In 1806,
+they contented themselves with simply addressing the Duke
+of Bedford, on his arrival at Dublin. In 1807, the
+"No-Popery Cabinet," by the result of the elections, was
+placed in possession of an immense majority--a fact which
+excluded all prospects of another change of government.
+But the Committee were too long accustomed to
+disappointments to despair even under these reverses.
+Early in the next session their petition was presented
+by Mr. Grattan in the Commons, and Lord Donoughmore in
+the Lords. The majority against going into committee was,
+in the Commons, 153; in the Lords, 87. Similar motions
+in the session of 1808, made by the same parties, were
+rejected by majorities somewhat reduced, and the question,
+on the whole, might be said to have recovered some of
+its former vantage ground, in despite of the bitter,
+pertinacious resistance of Mr. Perceval, in the one House,
+and the Duke of Portland, in the other.
+
+The short-lived administration of Mr. Fox, though it was
+said to include "all the talents," had been full of
+nothing but disappointment to his Irish supporters. The
+Duke of Bedford was, indeed, a great improvement on Lord
+Hardwicke, and Mr. Ponsonby on Lord Redesdale, as
+Chancellor, and the liberation of the political prisoners
+confined since 1803 did honour to the new administration.
+But there the measures of justice so credulously expected,
+both as to persons and interests, ended. Curran, whose
+professional claims to advancement were far beyond those
+of dozens of men who had been, during the past ten years,
+lifted over his head, was neglected, and very naturally
+dissatisfied; Grattan, never well adapted for a courtier,
+could not obtain even minor appointments for his oldest
+and staunchest adherents; while the Catholics found their
+Whig friends, now that they were in office, as anxious
+to exact the hard conditions of the Veto as Castlereagh
+himself.
+
+In truth, the Catholic body at this period, and for a
+few years subsequently, was deplorably disorganized. The
+young generation of Catholic lawyers who had grown up
+since the Relief Act of '93 threw the profession open to
+them, were men of another stamp from the old generation
+of Catholic merchants, who had grown up under the Relief
+Act of 1778. In the ten years before the Union, the
+Catholic middle class was headed by men of business; in
+the period we have now reached, their principal spokesmen
+came from "the Four Courts." John Keogh, the ablest,
+wisest and firmest of the former generation, was now
+passing into the decline of life, was frequently absent
+from the Committee, and when present, frequently overruled
+by younger and more ardent men. In 1808, his absence,
+from illness, was regretted by Mr. O'Connell in an eloquent
+speech addressed to the Committee on the necessity of
+united action and incessant petitions. "Had he been
+present," said the young barrister, "his powers of
+reasoning would have frightened away the captious
+objections" to that course, "and the Catholics of Ireland
+would again have to thank their old and useful servant
+for the preservation of their honour and the support of
+their interests." It was a strange anomaly, and one which
+continued for some years longer, that the statesmen of
+the Catholic body should be all Protestants. A more
+generous or tolerant spirit than Grattan's never existed;
+a clearer or more fearless intellect than Plunkett's was
+not to be found; nobler and more disinterested friends
+than Ponsonby, Curran, Burroughs and Wallace, no people
+ever had; but still they were friends from without; men
+of another religion, or of no particular religion, advising
+and guiding an eminently religious people in their struggle
+for religious liberty. This could not always last; it
+was not natural, it was not desirable that it should
+last, though some years more were to pass away before
+Catholic Emancipation was to be accomplished by the union,
+the energy and the strategy of the Catholics themselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+ADMINISTRATION OF THE DUKE OF RICHMOND (1807 TO 1813).
+
+Charles, fourth Duke of Richmond, succeeded the Duke of
+Bedford, as Viceroy, in April, 1807, with Lord Manners
+as Lord Chancellor, John Foster, Chancellor of the
+Exchequer--for the separate exchequer of Ireland continued
+to exist till 1820--and Sir Arthur Wellesley as Chief
+Secretary. Of these names, the two last were already
+familiar to their countrymen, in connection with the
+history of their own Parliament; but the new Chief
+Secretary had lately returned home covered with Indian
+laurels, and full of the promise of other honours and
+victories to come.
+
+The spirit of this administration was repressive,
+anti-Catholic and high Tory. To maintain and strengthen
+British power, to keep the Catholics quiet, to get
+possession of the Irish representation and convert it
+into a means of support for the Tory party in England,
+these were the leading objects of the seven years'
+administration of the Duke of Richmond. Long afterwards,
+when the Chief Secretary of 1807 had become "the most
+high, mighty and noble prince," whom all England and
+nearly all Europe delighted to honour, he defended the
+Irish administration of which he had formed a part, for
+its habitual use of corrupt means and influence, in
+arguments which do more credit to his frankness than his
+morality. He had "to turn the moral weakness of individuals
+to good account," such was his argument. He stoutly denied
+that "the whole nation is, or ever was corrupt;" but as
+"almost every man of mark has his price," the Chief
+Secretary was obliged to use corrupt influences "to
+command a majority in favour of order;" however the
+particular kinds of influence employed might go against
+his grain, he had, as he contended, no other alternative
+but to employ them.
+
+With the exception of a two months' campaign in Denmark
+--July to September, 1807--Sir Arthur Wellesley continued
+to fill the office of Chief Secretary, until his departure
+for the Peninsula, in July, 1808. Even then he was
+expressly requested to retain the nominal office, with
+power to appoint a deputy, and receive meanwhile the very
+handsome salary of 8,000 pounds sterling a year. In the
+wonderful military events, in which during the next seven
+years Sir Arthur was to play a leading part, the
+comparatively unimportant particulars of his Irish
+Secretariate have been long since forgotten. We have
+already described the general spirit of that administration:
+it is only just to add, that the dispassionate and resolute
+secretary, though he never shrank from his share of the
+jobbery done daily at the Castle, repressed with as much
+firmness the over-zeal of those he calls "red-hot
+Protestants," as he showed in resisting, at that period,
+what he considered the unconstitutional pretensions of
+the Catholics. An instance of the impartiality to which
+he was capable of rising, when influenced by partisans
+or religious prejudices, is afforded by his letter
+dissuading the Wexford yeomanry from celebrating the
+anniversary of the battle of Vinegar Hill. He regarded
+such a celebration as certain "to exasperate party spirit,"
+and "to hurt the feelings of others;" he, therefore, in
+the name of the Lord-Lieutenant, strongly discouraged
+it, and the intention was accordingly abandoned. It is
+to be regretted that the same judicious rule was not at
+the same tune enforced by government as to the celebration
+of the much more obsolete and much more invidious
+anniversaries of Aughrim and the Boyne.
+
+The general election which followed the death of Fox, in
+November, 1806, was the first great trial of political
+strength under the Union. As was right and proper, Mr.
+Grattan, no longer indebted for a seat to an English
+patron, however liberal, was returned at the head of the
+poll for the city of Dublin. His associate, however, the
+banker, La Touche, was defeated; the second member elect
+being Mr. Robert Shaw, the Orange candidate. The Catholic
+electors to a man, under the vigorous prompting of John
+Keogh and his friends, polled their votes for their
+Protestant advocate; they did more, they subscribed the
+sum of 4,000 pounds sterling to pay the expenses of the
+contest, but this sum Mrs. Grattan induced the treasurer
+to return to the subscribers. Ever watchful for her
+husband's honour, that admirable woman, as ardent a
+patriot as himself, refused the generous tender of the
+Catholics of Dublin. Although his several elections
+had cost Mr. Grattan above 54,000 pounds--more than the
+whole national grant of 1782--she would not, in this
+case, that any one else should bear the cost of his last
+triumph in the widowed capital of his own country.
+
+The great issue tried in this election of 1807, in those
+of 1812, 1818, and 1826, was still the Catholic question.
+All other Irish, and most other imperial domestic questions
+were subordinate to this. In one shape or another, it
+came up in every session of Parliament. It entered into
+the calculations of every statesman of every party; it
+continued to make and unmake cabinets; in the press and
+in every society, it was the principal topic of discussion.
+While tracing, therefore, its progress, from year to
+year, we do but follow the main stream of national history;
+all other branches come back again to this centre, or
+exhaust themselves in secondary and forgotten results.
+
+The Catholics themselves, deprived in Ireland of a
+Parliament on which they could act directly, were driven
+more and more Into permanent association, as the only
+means of operating a change in the Imperial legislature.
+The value of a legal, popular, systematic, and continuous
+combination of "the people" acting within the law, by
+means of meetings, resolutions, correspondence, and
+petitions, was not made suddenly, nor by all the party
+interested, at one and the same time. On the minds of the
+more sagacious, however, an impression, favourable to such
+organized action, grew deeper year by year, and at last
+settled into a certainty which was justified by success.
+
+In May, 1809, the Catholic Committee had been reconstructed,
+and its numbers enlarged. In a series of resolutions it
+was agreed that the Catholic lords, the surviving delegates
+of 1793, the committee which managed the petitions of
+1805 and 1807, and such persons "as shall distinctly
+appear to them to possess the confidence of the Catholic
+body," do form henceforth the General Committee. It was
+proposed by O'Connell, to avoid "the Convention Act,"
+"that the noblemen and gentlemen aforesaid are not
+representatives of the Catholic body, or any portion
+thereof." The Committee were authorized to collect funds
+for defraying expenses; a Treasurer was chosen, and a
+permanent Secretary, Mr. Edward Hay, the historian of
+the Wexford rebellion--an active and intelligent officer.
+The new Committee acted with great judgment in 1810, but
+in 1811 Lord Fingal and his friends projected a General
+Assembly of the leading Catholics, contrary to the
+Convention Act, and to the resolution just cited. O'Connell
+was opposed to this proposition; yet the assembly met,
+and were dispersed by the authorities. The Chairman, Lord
+Fingal, and Drs. Sheridan and Kirwan, Secretaries, were
+arrested. Lord Fingal, however, was not prosecuted, but
+the Secretaries were, and one of them expiated by two
+years' imprisonment his violation of the act. To get
+rid of the very pretext of illegality, the Catholic
+Committee dissolved, but only to reappear under a less
+vulnerable form, as "the Catholic Board."
+
+It is from the year 1810 that we must date the rise,
+among the Catholics themselves, of a distinctive line of
+policy, suited to the circumstances of the present century,
+and the first appearance of a group of public men, capable
+of maintaining and enforcing that policy. Not that the
+ancient leaders of that body were found deficient, in
+former times, either in foresight or determination; but
+new times called for new men; the Irish Catholics were
+now to seek their emancipation from the imperial government;
+new tactics and new combinations were necessary to success;
+and, in brief, instead of being liberated from their
+bonds at the good will and pleasure of benevolent
+Protestants, it was now to be tested whether they were
+capable of contributing to their own emancipation,--whether
+they were willing and able to assist their friends and
+to punish their enemies.
+
+Though the Irish Catholics could not legally meet in
+convention any more than their Protestant fellow-countrymen,
+there was nothing to prevent them assembling voluntarily,
+from every part of the kingdom, without claim to delegation.
+With whom the happy idea of "the aggregate meetings"
+originated is not certainly known, but to O'Connell and
+the younger set of leading spirits this was a machinery
+capable of being worked with good effect. No longer
+confined to a select Committee, composed mainly of a few
+aged and cautious, though distinguished persons, the
+fearless "agitators," as they now began to be called,
+stood face to face with the body of the people themselves.
+The disused theatre in Fishamble Street was their habitual
+place of meeting in Dublin, and there, in 1811 and 1812,
+the orators met to criticise the conduct of the Duke of
+Richmond--to denounce Mr. Wellesley Pole--to attack
+Secretaries of State and Prime Ministers--to return thanks
+to Lords Grey and Grenville for refusing to give the
+unconstitutional anti-Catholic pledge required by the
+King, and to memorial the Prince Regent. From those
+meetings, especially in the year 1812, the leadership of
+O'Connell must be dated. After seven years of wearisome
+probation, after enduring seven years the envy and the
+calumny of many who, as they were his fellow-labourers,
+should have been his friends; after demonstrating for
+seven years that his judgment and his courage were equal
+to his eloquence, the successful Kerry barrister, then
+in his thirty-seventh year, was at length generally
+recognized as "the counsellor" of his co-religionists
+--as the veritable "Man of the People." Dangers, delays
+and difficulties lay thick and dark in the future, but
+from the year, when in Dublin, Cork and Limerick, the
+voice of the famous advocate was recognized as the voice
+of the Catholics of Ireland, their cause was taken out
+of the category of merely ministerial measures, and
+exhibited in its true light as a great national contest,
+entered into by the people themselves for complete civil
+and religious freedom.
+
+Sir Arthur Wellesley had been succeeded in 1810 in the
+Secretaryship by his brother, Mr. Wellesley Pole, who
+chiefly signalized his administration by a circular
+against conventions, and the prosecution of Sheridan and
+Kirwan, in 1811. He was in turn succeeded by a much more
+able and memorable person--_Mr_., afterwards Sir Robert
+Peel. The names of Peel and Wellington come thus into
+juxtaposition in Irish politics in 1812, as they will be
+found hi juxtaposition on the same subject twenty and
+thirty years later.
+
+Early in the session of 1812, Mr. Perceval, the Premier,
+had been assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons,
+by Bellingham, and a new political crisis was precipitated
+on the country. In the government which followed, Lord
+Liverpool became the chief, with Castlereagh and Canning
+as members of his administration. In the general election
+which followed, Mr. Grattan was again returned for Dublin,
+and Mr. Plunkett was elected for Trinity College, but
+Mr. Curran was defeated at Newry, and Mr. Christopher
+Hely Hutchinson, the liberal candidate, at Cork. Upon
+the whole, however, the result was favourable to the
+Catholic cause, and the question was certain to have
+several additional Irish supporters in the new House
+of Commons.
+
+In the administrative changes that followed, Mr. Peel,
+though only in his twenty-fourth year, was appointed to
+the important post of Chief Secretary, The son of the
+first baronet of the name--this youthful statesman had
+first been elected for Cashel, almost as soon as he came
+of age, in 1809. He continued Chief Secretary for six
+years, from the twenty-fourth to the thirtieth year of
+his age. He distinguished himself in the House of Commons
+almost as soon as he entered it, and the predictions of
+his future premiership were not, even then, confined to
+members of his own family. No English statesman, since
+the death of William Pitt, has wielded so great a power
+in Irish affairs as Sir Robert Peel, and it is, therefore,
+important to consider, under what influence, and by what
+maxims he regulated his public conduct during the time
+he filled the most important administrative office in
+that country.
+
+Sir Robert Peel brought to the Irish government,
+notwithstanding his Oxford education and the advantages
+of foreign travel which he had enjoyed, prejudices the
+most illiberal, on the subject of all others on which a
+statesman should be most free from prejudice--religion.
+An anti-Catholic of the school of Mr. Perceval and Lord
+Eldon, he at once constituted himself the principal
+opponent of Grattan's annual motion in favour of Catholic
+Emancipation. That older men, born in the evil time,
+should be bigots and defenders of the Penal Code, was
+hardly wonderful, but a young statesman, exhibiting at
+that late day, such studied and active hostility to so
+large a body of his fellow subjects, naturally drew upon
+his head the execrations of all those whose enfranchisement
+he so stubbornly resisted. Even his great abilities were
+most absurdly denied, under this passionate feeling of
+wrong and injustice. His Constabulary and his Stipendiary
+Magistracy were resisted, ridiculed, and denounced, as
+outrages on the liberty of the subject, and assaults on
+the independence of the bench. The term _Peeler_ became
+synonymous with spy, informer, and traitor, and the Chief
+Secretary was detested not only for the illiberal sentiments
+he had expressed, but for the machinery of order he had
+established. After half a century's experience, we may
+safely say, that the Irish Constabulary have shown
+themselves to be a most valuable police, and as little
+deserving of popular ill-will as any such body can ever
+expect to be, but they were judged very differently during
+the Secretaryship of their founder; for, at that time,
+being new and intrusive, they may, no doubt, have deserved
+many of the hard and bitter things which were generally
+said of them.
+
+The first session of the new Parliament in the year 1813--
+the last of the Duke of Richmond's Viceroyalty--was
+remarkable for the most important debate which had yet
+arisen on the Catholic question. In the previous year,
+a motion of Canning's, in favour of "a final and
+conciliatory adjustment," which was carried by an unexpected
+majority of 235 to 106, encouraged Grattan to prepare a
+detailed Emancipation Bill, instead of making his usual
+annual motion of referring the Catholic petitions to the
+consideration of the Committee. This bill recited the
+establishment of the Protestant succession to the crown,
+and the establishment of the Protestant religion in the
+State. It then proceeded to provide that Roman Catholics
+might sit and vote in Parliament; might hold all offices,
+civil and military, except the offices of Chancellor or
+Keeper of the Great Seal in England, or Lord-Lieutenant,
+Lord Deputy, or Chancellor of Ireland; another section
+threw open to Roman Catholics all lay corporations, while
+a proviso excluded them either from holding or bestowing
+benefices in the Established Church. Such was the
+Emancipation Act of 1813, proposed by Grattan; an act
+far less comprehensive than that introduced by the same
+statesman in 1795, into the Parliament of Ireland, but
+still, in many of its provisions, a long stride in advance.
+
+Restricted and conditioned as this measure was, it still
+did not meet the objections of the opponents of the
+question, in giving the crown a Veto in the appointment
+of the bishops. Sir John Hippesley's pernicious
+suggestion--reviving a very old traditional policy--was
+embodied by Canning in one set of amendments, and by
+Castlereagh in another. Canning's amendments, as summarised
+by the eminent Catholic jurist, Charles Butler, were to
+this effect:--
+
+"He first appointed a certain number of Commissioners,
+who were to profess the Catholic religion, and to be lay
+peers of Great Britain or Scotland, possessing a freehold
+estate of one thousand pounds a year; to be filled up,
+from time to time, by his Majesty, his heirs, or successors.
+The Commissioners were to take an oath for the faithful
+discharge of their office, and the observance of secrecy
+in all matters not thereby required to be disclosed, with
+power to appoint a Secretary with salary (proposed to be
+five hundred pounds a year), payable out of the consolidated
+fund. The Secretary was to take an oath similar to that
+of the Commissioners.
+
+"It was then provided, that every person elected to the
+discharge of Roman Catholic episcopal functions in Great
+Britain or Scotland should, previously to the discharge
+of his office, notify his then election to the Secretary;
+that the Secretary should notify it to the Commissioners,
+and they to the Privy Council, with a certificate 'that
+they did not know or believe anything of the person
+nominated, which tended to impeach his loyalty or peaceable
+conduct;' unless they had knowledge of the contrary, in
+which case they should refuse their certificate. Persons
+obtaining such a certificate were rendered capable of
+exercising episcopal functions within the United Kingdom;
+if they exercised them without a certificate, they were
+to be considered guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable to
+be sent out of the kingdom.
+
+"Similar provisions respecting Ireland were then
+introduced."
+
+"The second set of clauses," says Mr. Butler, "was
+suggested by Lord Castlereagh, and provided that the
+Commissioners under the preceding clauses--with the
+addition, as to Great Britain, of the Lord Chancellor,
+or Lord Keeper, or first Commissioner of the Great Seal
+for the time being, and of one of his Majesty's principal
+Secretaries of State, being a Protestant, or such other
+Protestant member of his Privy Council as his Majesty
+should appoint--and with a similar addition in respect
+to Ireland--and with the further addition, as to Great
+Britain, of the person then exercising episcopal functions
+among the Catholics in London--and, in respect to Ireland,
+of the titular Roman Catholic Archbishops of Armagh and
+Dublin,--should be Commissioners for the purposes
+thereinafter mentioned.
+
+"The Commissioners thus appointed were to take an oath
+for the discharge of their office, and observance of
+secrecy, similar to the former, and employ the same
+Secretary, and three of them were to form a quorum.
+
+"The bill then provided, that subjects of his Majesty,
+receiving any bull, dispensation, or other instrument,
+from the See of Rome, or any person in foreign parts,
+acting under the authority of that See, should, within
+six weeks, send a copy of it, signed with his name, to
+the Secretary of the Commissioners, who should transmit
+the same to them.
+
+"But with a proviso, that if the person receiving the
+same should deliver to the Secretary of the Commission,
+within the time before prescribed, a writing under his
+hand, certifying the fact of his having received such a
+bull, dispensation, or other instrument, and accompanying
+his certificate with an oath, declaring that 'it related,
+wholly and exclusively, to spiritual concerns, and that
+it did not contain, or refer to, any matter or thing
+which did or could, directly or indirectly, affect or
+interfere with the duty and allegiance which he owed to
+his Majesty's sacred person and government, or with the
+temporal, civil, or social rights, properties, or duties
+of any other of his Majesty's subjects, then the
+Commissioners were, in their discretion, to receive such
+certificate and oath, in lieu of the copy of the bull,
+dispensation, or other instrument.
+
+"Persons conforming to these provisions were to be exempted
+from all pains and penalties, to which they would be
+liable under the existing statutes; otherwise, they were
+to be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor; and in lieu
+of the pains and penalties, under the former statutes,
+be liable to be sent out of the kingdom.
+
+"The third set of clauses provided that, within a time
+to be specified, the Commissioners were to meet and
+appoint their Secretary, and give notice of it to his
+Majesty's principal Secretaries of State in Great Britain
+and Ireland; and the provisions of the act were to be in
+force from that time."
+
+On the second reading, in May, the Committee of Parliament,
+on motion of the Speaker, then on the floor, struck out
+the clause enabling Catholics "to sit and vote in either
+House of Parliament," by a majority of four votes: 251
+against 247. Mr. Ponsonby immediately rose, and, observing
+that, as "the bill without the clause," was unworthy both
+of the Catholics and its authors, he moved the chairman
+do leave the chair. The committee rose, without a division,
+and the Emancipation Bill of 1813 was abandoned.
+
+Unhappily, the contest in relation to the Veto, which
+had originated in the House of Commons, was extended to
+the Catholic body at large. Several of the noblemen,
+members of the board, were not averse to granting some
+such power as was claimed to the crown; some of the
+professional class, more anxious to be emancipated than
+particular as to the means, favoured the same view. The
+bishops at the time of the Union, were known to have
+entertained the idea, and Sir John Hippesley had published
+their letters, which certainly did not discourage his
+proposal. But the second order of the clergy, the immense
+majority of the laity, and all the new prelates, called
+to preside over vacant sees, in the first decade of the
+century, were strongly opposed to any such connexion with
+the head of the State. Of this party, Mr. O'Connell was
+the uncompromising organ, and, perhaps, it was his course
+on this very subject of the Veto, more than anything
+else, which established his pretensions to be considered
+the leader of the Catholic body. Under the prompting of
+the majority, the Catholic prelates met and passed a
+resolution declaring that they could not accept the bill
+of 1813 as a satisfactory settlement. This resolution
+they formally communicated to the Catholic Board, who
+voted them, on O'Connell's motion, enthusiastic thanks.
+The minority of the Board were silent rather than satisfied,
+and their dissatisfaction was shown rather by their
+absence from the Board meetings than by open opposition.
+
+Mr. O'Connell's position, from this period forward, may
+be best understood from the tone in which he was spoken
+of in the debates of Parliament. At the beginning of the
+session of 1815, we find the Chief Secretary (Mr. Peel)
+stating that he "possesses more influence than any other
+person" with the Irish Catholics, and that no meeting of
+that body was considered complete unless a vote of thanks
+to Mr. O'Connell was among the resolutions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+O'CONNELL'S LEADERSHIP--1813 TO 1821.
+
+While the Veto controversy was carried into the press
+and the Parliamentary debates, the extraordinary events
+of the last years of Napoleon's reign became of such
+extreme interest as to cast into the shade all questions
+of domestic policy. The Parliamentary fortunes of the
+Catholic question varied with the fortunes of the war,
+and the remoteness of external danger. Thus, in 1815,
+Sir Henry Parnell's motion for a committee was rejected
+by a majority of 228 to 147; in 1816, on Mr. Grattan's
+similar motion, the vote was 172 to 141; in 1817, Mr.
+Grattan was again defeated by 245 to 221; in this session
+an act exempting officers in the army and navy from
+forswearing Transubstantiation passed and became law.
+The internal condition of the Catholic body, both in
+England and Ireland, during all those years, was far from
+enviable. In England there were Cisalpine and Ultramontane
+factions; in Ireland, Vetoists and anti-Vetoists. The
+learned and amiable Charles Butler--among jurists, the
+ornament of his order, was fiercely opposed to the no
+less learned Dr. Milner, author of "The End of Controversy,"
+and "Letters to a Prebendary." In Ireland, a very young
+barrister, who had hardly seen the second anniversary of
+his majority, electrified the aggregate meetings with a
+new Franco-Irish order of eloquence, naturally enough
+employed in the maintenance of Gallican ideas of church
+government. This was Richard Lalor Shiel, the author of
+two or three successful tragedies, and the man, next to
+O'Connell, who wielded the largest tribunitian power over
+the Irish populace during the whole of the subsequent
+agitation. Educated at Stoneyhurst, he imbibed from
+refugee professors French idioms and a French standard
+of taste, while, strangely enough, O'Connell, to whom he
+was at first opposed, and of whom he became afterwards
+the first lieutenant, educated in France by British
+refugees, acquired the cumbrous English style of the
+Douay Bible and the Rheims Testament. The contrast between
+the two men was every way extreme; physically, mentally,
+and politically; but it is pleasant to know that their
+differences never degenerated into distrust, envy or
+malice; that, in fact, Daniel O'Connell had throughout
+all his after life no more steadfast personal friend than
+Richard Lalor Shiel.
+
+In the progress of the Catholic agitation, the next
+memorable incident was O'Connell's direct attack on the
+Prince Regent. That powerful personage, the _de facto_
+Sovereign of the realm, had long amused the Irish Catholics
+with promises and pledges of being favourable to their
+cause. At an aggregate meeting, in June, 1812, Mr.
+O'Connell maintained that there were four distinct pledges
+of this description in existence: 1. One given in 1806,
+through the Duke of Bedford, then Lord-Lieutenant, to
+induce the Catholics to withhold their petitions for a
+time. 2. Another given the same year in the Prince's
+name by Mr. Ponsonby, then Chancellor. 3. A pledge given
+to Lord Kenmare, _in writing_, when at Cheltenham. 4. A
+verbal pledge given to Lord Fingal, in the presence of
+Lords Clifford and Petre, and reduced to writing and
+signed by these three noblemen, soon after quitting the
+Prince's presence. Over the meeting at which this indictment
+was preferred, Lord Fingal presided, and the celebrated
+"witchery" resolutions, referring to the influence then
+exercised on the Prince by Lady Hertford, were proposed
+by his lordship's son, Lord Killeen. It may, therefore,
+be fairly assumed, that the existence of the fourth pledge
+was proved, the first and second were never denied, and
+as to the third--that given to Lord Kenmare--the only
+correction ever made was, that the Prince's message was
+delivered verbally, by his Private Secretary, Colonel
+McMahon, and not in writing. Lord Kenmare, who died in
+the autumn of 1812, could not be induced, from a motive
+of delicacy, to reduce his recollection of this message
+to writing, but he never denied that he had received it,
+and O'Connell, therefore, during the following years,
+always held the Prince accountable for this, as for his
+other promises. Much difference of opinion arose as to
+the wisdom of attacking a person in the position of the
+Prince; but O'Connell, fully persuaded of the utter
+worthlessness of the declarations made in that quarter,
+decided for himself that the bold course was the wise
+course. The effect already was various. The English Whigs,
+the Prince's early and constant friends, who had followed
+him to lengths that honour could hardly sanction, and
+who had experienced his hollow-heartedness when lately
+called to govern during his father's illness; they, of
+course, were not sorry to see him held up to odium in
+Ireland, as a dishonoured gentleman and a false friend.
+The Irish Whigs, of whom Lord Moira and Mr. Ponsonby were
+the leaders, and to whom Mr. Grattan might be said to be
+attached rather than to belong, saw the rupture with
+regret, but considered it inevitable. Among "the Prince's
+friends" the attacks upon him in the Dublin meetings were
+regarded as little short of treason; while by himself,
+it is well known the "witchery" resolutions of 1812 were
+neither forgotten nor forgiven.
+
+The political position of the Holy See, at this period,
+was such as to induce and enable an indirect English
+influence to be exercised, through that channel, upon
+the Irish Catholic movement. Pope Pius VII., a prisoner
+in France, had delegated to several persons at Rome
+certain vicarious powers, to be exercised in his name,
+in case of necessity; of these, more than one had followed
+him into exile, so that the position of his representative
+devolved at length upon Monsignor Quarrantotti, who,
+early in 1814, addressed a rescript to Dr. Poynter,
+vicar-apostolic of the London district, commendatory of
+the Bill of 1813, including the Veto, and the Ecclesiastical
+Commission proposed by Canning and Castlereagh. Against
+these dangerous concessions, as they considered them,
+the Irish Catholics despatched their remonstrances to
+Rome, through the agency of the celebrated Wexford
+Franciscan, Father Richard Hayes; but this clergyman,
+having spoken with too great freedom, was arrested, and
+suffered several months' confinement in the Eternal City.
+A subsequent embassy of Dr. Murray, coadjutor to the
+Archbishop of Dublin, on behalf of his brother prelates,
+was attended with no greater advantage, though the envoy
+himself was more properly treated. On his return to
+Ireland, at a meeting held to hear his report, several
+strong resolutions were unanimously adopted, of which
+the spirit may be judged from the following--the concluding
+one of the series--"Though we sincerely venerate the
+supreme Pontiff as visible head of the Church, we do not
+conceive that our apprehensions for the safety of the
+Roman Catholic Church in Ireland can or ought to be
+removed by any determination of His Holiness, adopted or
+intended to be adopted, not only without our concurrence,
+but in direct opposition to our repeated resolutions and
+the very energetic memorial presented on our behalf, and
+so ably supported by our Deputy, the Most Reverend Dr.
+Murray; who, in that quality, was more competent to inform
+His Holiness of the real state and interests of the Roman
+Catholic Church in Ireland than any other with whom he
+is said to have consulted."
+
+The resolutions were transmitted to Rome, signed by the
+two Archbishops present, by Dr. Everard, the coadjutor
+of the Archbishop of Cashel, by Dr. Murray, the coadjutor
+of the Archbishop of Dublin, by the Bishops of Meath,
+Cloyne, Clonfert, Kerry, Waterford, Derry, Achonry,
+Killala, Killaloe, Kilmore, Ferns, Limerick, Elphin,
+Cork, Down and Conor, Ossory, Raphoe, Clogher, Dromore,
+Kildare and Leighlin, Ardagh, and the Warden of Galway.
+Dr. Murray, and Dr. Murphy, Bishop of Cork, were
+commissioned to carry this new remonstrance to Rome, and
+the greatest anxiety was felt for the result of their
+mission.
+
+A strange result of this new _embroglio_ in the Catholic
+cause was, that it put the people on the defensive for
+their religious liberties, not so much against England
+as against Home. The unlucky Italian Monsignor who had
+volunteered his sanction of the Veto, fared scarcely
+better at the popular gatherings than Lord Castlereagh,
+or Mr. Peel. "Monsieur Forty-eight," as he was nicknamed,
+in reference to some strange story of his ancestor taking
+his name from a lucky lottery ticket of that number, was
+declared to be no better than a common Orangeman, and if
+the bitter denunciations uttered against him, on the
+Liffey and the Shannon, had only been translated into
+Italian, the courtly Prelate must have been exceedingly
+amazed at the democratic fury of a Catholic population,
+as orthodox as himself, but much more jealous of State
+interference with things spiritual. The second order of
+the clergy were hardly behind the laity, in the fervour
+of their opposition to the rescript of 1814. Then--entire
+body, secular and regular, residing in and about Dublin,
+published a very strong protest against it, headed by
+Dr. Blake, afterwards Bishop of Dromore, in which it was
+denounced as "pregnant with mischief" and entirely
+"non-obligatory upon the Catholic Church in Ireland."
+The several ecclesiastical provinces followed up these
+declarations with a surprising unanimity, and although
+a Vetoistical address to His Holiness was despatched by
+the Cisalpine club in England, the Irish ideas of Church
+government triumphed at Rome. Drs. Murray and Milner
+were received with his habitual kindness by Pius VII.;
+the illustrious Cardinal Gonsalvi was appointed by the
+Pope to draw up an explanatory rescript, and Monsignor
+Quarrantotti was removed from his official position. The
+firmness manifested at that critical period by the Irish
+church has since been acknowledged with many encomiums
+by all the successors of Pope Pius VII.
+
+The Irish government under the new Viceroy, Lord Whitworth
+(the former ambassador to Napoleon), conceiving that the
+time had come, in the summer of 1814, to suppress the
+Catholic Board, a proclamation forbidding his Majesty's
+subjects to attend future meetings of that body issued
+from Dublin Castle, on the 3rd of June. The leaders of
+the body, after consultation at Mr. O'Connell's residence,
+decided to bow to this proclamation and to meet no more
+as a Board; but this did not prevent them, in the following
+winter, from holding a new series of Aggregate meetings,
+far more formidable, in some respects, than the deliberative
+meetings which had been suppressed. In the vigorous and
+somewhat aggressive tone taken at these meetings, Lord
+Fingal, the chief of the Catholic peerage, did not concur,
+and he accordingly withdrew for some years from the
+agitation, Mr. Shiel, the Bellews, Mr. Ball, Mr. Wyse of
+Waterford, and a few others, following his example. With
+O'Connell remained the O'Conor Don, Messrs. Finlay and
+Lidwell (Protestants), Purcell O'Gorman, and other popular
+persons. But the cause sustained a heavy blow in the
+temporary retirement of Lord Fingal and his friends, and
+an attempt to form a "Catholic Association," in 1815,
+without their co-operation, signally failed.
+
+During the next five years, the fortunes of the great
+Irish question fluctuated with the exigencies of Imperial
+parties. The second American war had closed, if not
+gloriously, at least without considerable loss to England;
+Napoleon had exchanged Elba for St. Helena: Wellington
+was the Achilles of the Empire, and Castlereagh its
+Ulysses. Yet it was not in the nature of those free
+Islanders, the danger and pressure of foreign war removed,
+to remain always indifferent to the two great questions
+of domestic policy--Catholic Emancipation and Parliamentary
+Reform. In the session of 1816, a motion of Sir John
+Newport's to inquire into the state of Ireland, was
+successfully resisted by Sir Robert Peel, but the condition
+and state of public feeling in England could not be as
+well ignored by a Parliament sitting in London. In
+returning from the opening of the Houses in January,
+1817, the Regent was hooted in the street, and his carriage
+riddled with stones. A reward of 1,000 pounds, issued
+for the apprehension of the ringleaders, only gave
+additional _eclat_ to the fact, without leading to the
+apprehension of the assailants.
+
+The personal unpopularity of the Regent seems to have
+increased, in proportion as death removed from him all
+those who stood nearest to the throne. In November, 1817,
+his oldest child, the Princess Charlotte, married to
+Leopold, since King of Belgium, died in childbed; in
+1818, the aged Queen Charlotte died; in January, 1820,
+the old King, in the eighty-second year of his age,
+departed this life. Immediately afterwards the former
+Princess of Wales, long separated from her profligate
+husband, returned from the Continent to claim her rightful
+position as Queen Consort. The disgraceful accusations
+brought against her, the trial before the House of Lords
+which followed, the courage and eloquence of her counsel,
+Brougham and Denman, the eagerness with which the people
+made her cause their own, are all well remembered events,
+and all beside the purpose of this history. The unfortunate
+lady died after a short illness, on the 7th of August,
+1821; the same month in which Ms Majesty--George IV.
+--departed on that Irish journey, so satirized in the
+undying verse of Moore and Byron.
+
+Two other deaths, far more affecting than any among the
+mortalities of royalty, marked the period at which we
+have arrived. These were the death of Curran in 1817,
+and the death of Grattan, in 1820.
+
+Curran, after his failure to be returned for Newry, in
+1812, had never again attempted public life. He remained
+in his office of Master of the Rolls, but his health
+began to fail sensibly. During the summers of 1816 and
+'17, he sought for recreation in Scotland, England and
+France, but the charm which travel could not give--the
+charm of a cheerful spirit--was wanting. In October,
+1817, his friend, Charles Phillips, was suddenly called
+to his bed-side at Brompton, near London, and found him
+with one side of his face and body paralyzed cold. "And
+this was all," says his friend, "that remained of
+Curran--the light of society--the glory of the forum--
+the Fabricius of the senate--the idol of his country."
+Yes! even to less than this, was he soon to sink. On
+the evening of the 14th of October, he expired, in the
+68th year of his age, leaving a public reputation as free
+from blemish as ever did any man who had acted a leading
+part, in times like those through which he had passed.
+He was interred in London, but twenty years afterwards,
+the committee of the Glasnevin Cemetery, near Dublin,
+obtained permission of his representatives to remove his
+ashes to their grounds, where they now finally repose.
+A tomb modelled from the tomb of Scipio covers the grave,
+bearing the simple but sufficient inscription--CURRAN.
+Thus was fulfilled the words he had uttered long
+before--"The last duties will be paid by that country on
+which they are devolved; nor will it be for charity that
+a little earth will be given to my bones. Tenderly will
+those duties be paid, as the debt of well-earned affection,
+and of gratitude not ashamed of her tears."
+
+Grattan's last days were characteristic of his whole
+life. As the session of 1820 progressed, though suffering
+from his last struggle with disease, he was stirred by
+an irresistible desire to make his way to London, and
+present once more the petition of the Catholics. Since
+the defeat of his Relief Bill of 1813, there had been
+some estrangement between him and the more advanced
+section of the agitators, headed by O'Connell. This he
+was anxious, perhaps, to heal or to overcome. He thought,
+moreover, that even if he should die in the effort, it
+would be, as he said himself, "a good end." Amid--
+
+   "The trees which a nation had given, and which bowed
+    As if each brought a new civic crown to his head,"
+
+he consulted with the Catholic delegates early in May.
+O'Connell was the spokesman, and the scene may yet be
+rendered immortal by some great national artist. All
+present felt that the aged patriot was dying, but still
+he would go once more to London, to fall, as he said,
+"at his post." In leaving Ireland he gave to his oldest
+friends directions for his funeral--that he might be
+buried in the little churchyard of Moyanna, on the estate
+the people gave him in 1782! He reached London, by slow
+stages, at the end of May, and proposed to be in his
+place in the House on the 4th of June. But this
+gratification was not permitted him: on the morning of
+the 4th, at six o'clock, he called his son to his bed-side,
+and ordered him to bring him a paper containing his last
+political opinions. "Add to it," he said, with all his
+old love of antithesis, "that I die with a love of liberty
+in my heart, and this declaration in favour of my country,
+in my hand."
+
+So worthily ended the mortal career of Henry Grattan. He
+was interred by the side of his old friend, Charles James
+Pox, in Westminster Abbey; the mourners included the
+highest imperial statesmen, and the Catholic orphan
+children; his eulogium was pronounced in the House of
+Commons by William Conyngham Plunkett, and in the Irish
+capital by Daniel O'Connell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+RETROSPECT OF THE STATE OF RELIGION AND LEARNING
+DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III.
+
+Before relating the decisive events in the contest for
+Catholic Emancipation, which marked the reign of George IV.
+we may be permitted to cast a glance backward over the
+religious and secular state of Ireland, during the sixty
+years' reign of George III.
+
+The relative position of the great religious denominations
+underwent a slow but important revolution during this
+long reign. In the last days of George II., a Chief-Justice
+was bold enough to declare that "the laws did not presume
+a Papist to exist in the kingdom;" but under the sway of
+his successor, though much against that successor's will,
+they advanced from one constitutional victory to another,
+till they stood, in the person of the Earl Marshal, on
+the very steps of the throne. In the towns and cities,
+the Catholic laity, once admitted to commerce and the
+professions, rose rapidly to wealth and honour. A Dublin
+Papist was at the head of the wine trade; another was
+the wealthiest grazier in the kingdom; a third, at Cork,
+was the largest provision merchant. With wealth came
+social ambition, and the heirs of these enfranchised
+merchants were by a natural consequence the judges and
+legislators of the next generation.
+
+The ecclesiastical organization of Ireland, as described
+in 1800 by the bishops in answer to queries of the Chief
+Secretary, was simple and inexpensive. The four archbishops
+and twenty bishops, were sustained by having certain
+parishes attached to their cathedrals, _in commendam_:
+other _Cathedraticum_ there seems to have been none.
+Armagh had then 350 parish priests, Tuam 206, Cashel 314,
+and Dublin 156: in all 1126. The number of curates or
+coadjutors was at least equal to that of the parish
+priests; while of regulars then returned the number did
+not exceed 450. This large body of religious--24 prelates,
+nearly 3,000 clergy--exclusive of female religious--were
+then, and have ever since been, sustained by the voluntary
+contributions of the laity, paid chiefly at the two great
+festivals of Christmas and Easter, or by customary
+offerings made at the close of the ceremonies of marriages,
+baptisms, and death. Though the income of some of the
+churches was considerable, in the great majority of cases
+the amount received barely sufficed to fulfil the injunction
+of St. Patrick to his disciples, that "the lamp should
+take but that wherewith it was fed."
+
+The Presbyterian clergy, though in some respects more
+dependent on their congregations than the Catholics were,
+did not always, nor in all cases, depend on the voluntary
+principle for their maintenance. The Irish Supply Bill
+contained an annual item before the Union of 7,700 pounds
+for the Antrim Synod, and some other dissenting bodies.
+The _Regium Donum_ was not, indeed, general; but that it
+might be made so, was one of the inducements held out to
+many of that clergy to secure their countenance for the
+Legislative Union.
+
+The Established Church continued, of course, to monopolize
+University honours, and to enjoy its princely revenues
+and all political advantages. Trinity College continued
+annually to farm its 200,000 acres at a rental averaging
+100,000 pounds sterling. Its wealth, and the uses to
+which it is put, are thus described by a recent writer:
+"Some of Trinity's senior fellows enjoy higher incomes
+than Cabinet ministers; many of her tutors have revenues
+above those of cardinals; and junior fellows, of a few
+days' standing, frequently decline some of her thirty-one
+church livings with benefices which would shame the
+poverty of scores of continental, not to say Irish,
+Catholic archbishops. Even eminent judges hold her
+professorships; some of her chairs are vacated for the
+Episcopal bench only; and majors and field officers would
+acquire increased pay by being promoted to the rank of
+head porter, first menial, in Trinity College. Apart from
+her princely fellowships and professorships, her seventy
+Foundation, and sixteen non-Foundation Scholarships, her
+thirty Sizarships, and her fourteen valuable Studentships,
+she has at her disposal an aggregate, by bequests,
+benefactions, and various endowments, of 117 permanent
+exhibitions, amounting to upwards of 2,000 pounds per
+annum." The splendour of the highest Protestant dignitaries
+may be inferred from what has been said formerly of the
+Bishop of Derry, of the Era of Independence. The state
+maintained by the chief bishop--Primate Robinson, who
+ruled Armagh from 1765 to 1795--is thus described by Mr.
+Cumberland in his _Memoirs_. "I accompanied him," says
+Cumberland, "on Sunday forenoon to his cathedral. We
+went in his chariot of six horses attended by three
+footmen behind, whilst my wife and daughters, with Sir
+William Robinson, the primate's elder brother, followed
+in my father's coach, which he lent me for the journey.
+At our approach the great western door was thrown open,
+and my friend (in person one of the finest men that could
+be seen) entered, like another Archbishop Laud, in high
+prelatical state, preceded by his officers and ministers
+of the church, conducting him in files to the robing
+chamber, and back again to the throne. It may well be
+conceived with what invidious eyes the barely tolerated
+Papists of the city of Saint Patrick must have looked on
+all this pageantry, and their feelings were no doubt
+those in some degree of all their co-religionists
+throughout the kingdom."
+
+The Irish Establishment, during the reign of George III.,
+numbered among its prelates and clergy many able and
+amiable men. At the period of the Union, the two most
+distinguished were Dr. O'Beirne, Bishop of Meath, an
+ex-priest, and Dr. Young, Bishop of Clonfert, a former
+fellow of Trinity College. As a Bible scholar, Dr. Young
+ranked deservedly high, but as a variously accomplished
+writer, Dr. O'Beirne was the first man of his order. His
+political papers, though occasionally disfigured with
+the bigotry natural to an apostate, are full of a vigorous
+sagacity; his contributions to general literature, such
+as his paper on _Tanistry_, in Vallency's _Collectanea_,
+show how much greater things still he was capable of. It
+is not a little striking that the most eminent bishop,
+as well as the most celebrated Anglican preacher of that
+age, in Ireland (Dean Kirwan), should both have been
+ordained as Catholic priests.
+
+The national literature which we have noted a century
+earlier, as changing gradually its tongue, was now mainly,
+indeed we might almost say solely, expressed in English.
+It is true the songs of "Carolan the Blind," were sung
+in Gaelic by the Longford firesides, where the author of
+"the Deserted Village" listened to their exquisite melody,
+moulding his young ear to a sense of harmony full as
+exquisite; but the glory of the Gaelic muse was past.
+He, too, unpromising as was his exterior, was to be one
+of the bright harbingers of another great era of
+Hiberno-English literature. When, within two generations,
+out of the same exceedingly restricted class of educated
+Irishmen and women, we count the names of Goldsmith,
+Samuel Madden, Arthur Murphy, Henry Brooke, Charles
+Macklin, Sheridan, Burke, Edmund Malone, Maria Edgeworth,
+Lady Morgan, "Psyche" Tighe, and Thomas Moore, it is
+impossible not to entertain a very high opinion of the
+mental resources of that population, if only they were
+fairly wrought and kindly valued by the world.
+
+One memorable incident of literary history--the Ossianic
+outbreak of 1760--aided powerfully though indirectly in
+the revival of the study of the ancient Celtic history
+of Scotland and Ireland. Something was done then, by the
+Royal Irish Academy, to meet that storm of Anglo-Norman
+incredulity and indignation; much more has been done
+since, to place the original records of the Three Kingdoms
+on a sound critical basis. The dogmatism of the unbelievers
+in the existence of a genuine body of ancient Celtic
+literature has been rebuked; and the folly of the theorists
+who, upon imaginary grounds, constructed pretentious
+systems, has been exposed. The exact originals of
+MacPherson's odes have not been found, after a century
+of research, and may be given up, as non-existent; but
+the better opinion seems now to be, by those who have
+studied the fragments of undoubted antiquity attributed
+to the son of the warrior Fion, that whatever the modern
+translator may have invented, he certainly did not invent
+Ossian.
+
+To the stage, within the same range of time, Ireland gave
+some celebrated names: Quinn, Barry, Sheridan, Mrs.
+Woffington, Mrs. Jordan, and Miss O'Neill; and to painting,
+one pre-eminent name--the eccentric, honest, and original,
+James Barry.
+
+But of all the arts, that in which the Irish of the
+Georgian era won the highest and most various triumphs
+was the art of Oratory, What is now usually spoken of as
+"the Irish School of Eloquence," may be considered to
+have taken its rise from the growth of the Patriot party
+in Parliament, in the last years of George II. Every
+contemporary account agrees in placing its first great
+name--Anthony Malone--on the same level with Chatham and
+Mansfield. There were great men before Malone, as before
+Agamemnon; such as Sir Toby Butler, Baron Rice, and
+Patrick Darcy; but he was the first of our later succession
+of masters. After him came Flood and John Hely Hutchinson;
+then Grattan and Curran; then Plunkett and Bushe; then
+O'Connell and Shiel. In England, at the same time, Burke,
+Barre, Sheridan, and Sir Phillip Francis, upheld the
+reputation of Irish oratory; a reputation generously
+acknowledged by all parties, as it was illustrated in
+the ranks of all. The Tories, within our own recollection,
+applauded as heartily the Irish wit and fervour of Canning,
+Croker, and North, as the Whigs did the exhibition of
+similar qualities in their Emancipation allies.
+
+Nothing can be less correct, than to pronounce judgment
+on the Irish School, either of praise or blame, in sweeping
+general terms. Though a certain family resemblance may
+be traced among its great masters, no two of them will
+be found nearly alike. There are no echoes, no servile
+imitators, among them. In vigorous argumentation and
+severe simplicity, Plunkett resembled Flood, but the
+temperament of the two men--and Oratory is nearly as much
+a matter of temperament as of intellect--was widely
+different. Flood's movement was dramatic, while Plunkett's
+was mathematical. In structural arrangement, Shiel,
+occasionally--very occasionally--reminds us of Grattan;
+but if he has not the wonderful condensation of thought,
+neither has he the frequent antithetical abuses of that
+great orator. Burke and Sheridan are as distinguishable
+as any other two of their contemporaries; Curran stands
+alone; O'Connell never had a model, and never had an
+imitator who rose above mimicry. Every combination of
+powers, every description of excellence, and every variety
+of style and character, may be found among the masterpieces
+of this great school. Of their works many will live for
+ever. Most of Burke's, many of Grattan's, and one or two
+of Curran's have reached us in such preservation as
+promises immortality. Selections from Flood, Sheridan,
+Canning, Plunkett and O'Connell will survive; Shiel will
+be more fortunate for he was more artistic, and more
+watchful of his own fame. His exquisite finish will do,
+for him, what the higher efforts of men, more indifferent
+to the audience of posterity, will have forfeited for them.
+
+It is to be observed, farther, that the inspiration of
+all these men was drawn from the very hearts of the people
+among whom they grew. With one or two exceptions, sons
+of humble peasants, of actors, of at most middle class
+men, they were true, through every change of personal
+position, to the general interests of the people--to the
+common weal. From generous thoughts and a lofty scorn of
+falsehood, fanaticism and tyranny, they took their
+inspiration; and as they were true to human nature, so
+will mankind, through successive ages, dwell fondly on
+their works and guard lovingly their tombs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE IRISH ABROAD, DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III.
+
+The fond tenacity with which the large numbers of the
+Irish people who have established themselves in foreign
+states have always clung to their native country; the
+active sympathy they have personally shown for their
+relatives at home; the repeated efforts they have made
+to assist the Irish in Ireland, in all their public
+undertakings, requires that, as an element in O'Connell's
+final and successful struggle for Catholic Emancipation,
+we should take a summary view of the position of "the
+Irish abroad."
+
+While the emigrants of that country to America naturally
+pursued the paths of peace, those who, from choice or
+necessity, found their way to the European Continent,
+were, with few exceptions, employed mainly in two
+departments--war and diplomacy. An Irish Abbe, liked the
+celebrated preacher, McCarthy--or an Irish merchant firm,
+such as the house of the same name at Bordeaux, might be
+met with, but most of those who attained any distinction
+did so by the sword or the pen, in the field or the
+cabinet.
+
+In France, under the revolutionary governments from '91
+to '99, the Irish were, with their old-world notions of
+God and the Devil, wholly out of place; but under the
+Consulate and the Empire, they rose to many employments
+of the second class, and a few of the very first. From
+the ranks of the expatriated of '98, Buonaparte promoted
+Arthur O'Conor and William Corbet to the rank of General;
+Ware, Alien, Byrne, the younger Tone, and Keating, to
+that of Colonel. As individuals, the Emperor was certainly
+a benefactor to many Irishmen; but, as a nation, it was
+one of then: most foolish delusions, to expect in him a
+deliverer. On the restoration of the Bourbons, the Irish
+officers who had acquired distinction under Napoleon
+adhered generally to his fortunes, and tendered their
+resignations; in their place, a new group of Franco-Irish
+descendants of the old Brigades-men, began to show
+themselves in the _salons_ of Paris, and the Bureaus of
+the Ministers. The last swords drawn for "the legitimate
+branch" in '91, was by Count Dillon and his friend Count
+Wall; their last defender, in 1830, was General Wall, of
+the same family.
+
+Though the Irish in France, especially those resident at
+Paris, exercised the greatest influence in favour of
+their original country--an influence which met all
+travelled Englishmen, wherever the French language was
+understood--their compatriots in Spain and Austria had
+also contributed their share to range Continental opinion
+on the side of Ireland. Three times, during the century,
+Spain was represented at London by men of Irish birth,
+or Irish origin. The British merchant who found Alexander
+O'Reilly Governor of Cadiz, or the diplomatist who met
+him as Spanish ambassador, at the Court of Louis XVI.,
+could hardly look with uninstructed eyes, upon the lot
+of his humblest namesake in Cavan. This family, indeed,
+produced a succession of eminent men, both in Spain and
+Austria. "It is strange," observed Napoleon to those
+around him, on his second entry into Vienna, in 1809,
+"that on each occasion--in November, 1805, as this day
+--on arriving in the Austrian capital, I find myself in
+treaty and in intercourse with the respectable Count
+O'Reilly." Napoleon had other reasons for remembering
+this officer; it was his dragoon regiment which saved
+the remnant of the Austrians, at Austerlitz. In the
+Austrian army list at that period, when she was the ally
+of England, there were above forty Irish names, from the
+grading of Colonel up to that of Field-Marshal. In almost
+every field of the Peninsula, Wellington and Anglesea
+learned the value of George the Second's imprecation on
+the Penal Code, which deprived him of such soldiers as
+conquered at Fontenoy. It cannot be doubted that even
+the constant repetition of the names of the Blakes,
+O'Donnells, and Sarsfields, in the bulletins sent home
+to England, tended to enforce reflections of that
+description on the statesmen and the nation, and to
+inspirit and sustain the struggling Catholics. A powerful
+argument for throwing open the British army and navy to
+men of all religions, was drawn from these foreign
+experiences; and, if such men were worthy to hold
+military commissions, why not also to sit in Parliament,
+and on the Bench?
+
+The fortunes of the Irish in America, though less brilliant
+for the few, were more advantageous as to the many. They
+were, during the war of the revolution, and the war of
+1812, a very considerable element in the American republic.
+It was a violent exaggeration to say, as Lord Mountjoy
+did in moving for the repeal of the Penal laws, "that
+England lost America by Ireland;" but it is very certain
+that Washington placed great weight on the active aid of
+the gallant Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Southern Irish
+troops, and the sturdy Scotch-Irish of New Hampshire.
+Franklin, in his visit to Ireland, before the rupture,
+and Jefferson in his correspondence, always enumerates
+the Irish, as one element of reliance, in the contest
+between the Colonies and the Empire.
+
+In the immediate cause of the war of 1812, this people
+were peculiarly interested. If the doctrines of "the
+right of search" and "once a subject always a subject,"
+were to prevail, no Irish emigrant could hope to become
+--or having become, could hope to enjoy the protection
+of--an American citizen. It was, therefore, natural that
+men of that origin should take a deep interest in the
+war, and it seems something more than a fortuitous
+circumstance, when we find in the chairman of the Senatorial
+Committee of 1812, which authorized the President to
+raise the necessary levies--an Irish emigrant, John
+Smilie, and in the Secretary-at-war, who acted under the
+powers thus granted, the son of an Irish emigrant, John
+Caldwell Calhoun. On the Canadian frontier, during the
+war which followed, we find in posts of importance, Brady,
+Mullany, McComb, Croghan and Reilly; on the lakes,
+Commodore McDonough, and on the ocean, Commodores Shaw
+and Stewart--all Irish. On the Mississippi, another son
+of Irish emigrant parents, with his favourite lieutenants,
+Carroll, Coffee, and Butler, brought the war to a close
+by their brilliant defence of New Orleans. The moral of
+that victory was not lost upon England; the life of Andrew
+Jackson, with a dedication "to the People of Ireland"
+was published at London and Dublin, by the most generally
+popular writer of that day--William Cobbett.
+
+In the cause of South American independence, the Irish
+under O'Higgins and McKenna in Chili, and under Bolivar
+and San Martin in Colombia and Peru, were largely engaged,
+and honourably distinguished. Colonel O'Conor, nephew to
+Arthur, was San Martin's chief of the staff; General
+Devereux, with his Irish legion, rendered distinguished
+services to Bolivar and Don Bernardo. O'Higgins was hailed
+as the Liberator of Chili. During that long ten years'
+struggle, which ended with the evacuation of Carraccas
+in 1823, Irish names are conspicuous on almost every
+field of action. Bolivar's generous heart was warmly
+attached to persons of that nation. "The doctor who
+constantly attends him," says the English General, Miller,
+"is Dr. Moore, an Irishman, who had followed the Liberator
+from Venezuela to Peru. He is a man of great skill in
+his profession, and devotedly attached to the person of
+the Liberator. Bolivar's first aide-de-camp, Colonel
+O'Leary, is a nephew of the celebrated Father O'Leary.
+In 1818, he embarked, at the age of seventeen, in the
+cause of South American independence, in which he has
+served with high distinction, having been present at
+almost every general action fought in Colombia, and
+has received several wounds. He has been often employed
+on diplomatic missions, and in charges of great
+responsibility, in which he has always acquitted himself
+with great ability."
+
+That these achievements of the Irish abroad produced a
+favourable influence on the situation of the Irish at
+home, we know from many collateral sources; we know it
+also from the fact, that when O'Connell succeeded in
+founding a really national organization, subscriptions
+and words of encouragement poured in on him, not only
+from France, Spain, and Austria, but from North and South
+America, not only from the Irish residents in those
+countries, but from their native inhabitants--soldiers
+and statesmen--of the first consideration. The services
+and virtues of her distinguished children in foreign
+climes, stood to the mother country instead of treaties
+and alliances.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+O'CONNELL'S LEADERSHIP--THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION--
+1821 TO 1826.
+
+At the beginning of the year 1821, O'Connell, during the
+intervals of Ms laborious occupations in court and on
+circuit, addressed a series of stirring letters to "the
+People of Ireland," remarkable as containing some of the
+best and most trenchant of his political writings. His
+object was to induce the postponement of the annual
+petition for Emancipation, and the substitution instead
+of a general agitation for Parliamentary reform, in
+conjunction with the English reformers. Against this
+conclusion--which he ridiculed "as the fashion for January,
+1821"--Mr. Shiel published a bitter, clever, rhetorical
+reply, to which O'Connell at once sent forth a severe
+and rather contemptuous rejoinder. Shiel was quite content
+to have Mr. Plunkett continue Grattan's annual motion,
+with all its "conditions" and "securities." O'Connell
+declared he had no hope in petitions except from a reformed
+Parliament, and he, therefore, was opposed to such motions
+altogether, especially as put by Mr. Plunkett, and the
+other advocates of a Veto. Another session was lost in
+this controversy, and when Parliament rose, it was
+announced that George IV. was coming to Ireland "on a
+mission of Conciliation."
+
+On this announcement, Mr. O'Connell advised that the
+Catholics should take advantage of his Majesty's presence
+to assemble and consider the state of their affairs; but
+a protest against "connecting in any manner the King's
+visit with Catholic affairs," was circulated by Lords
+Fingal, Netterville, Gormanstown, and Killeen, Messrs.
+Baggott, Shiel, Wyse, and other Commoners. O'Connell
+yielded, as he often did, for the sake of unanimity. The
+King's visit led to many meetings and arrangements, in
+some of which his advice was taken, while in others he
+was outvoted or overruled. Nothing could exceed the
+patience he exhibited at this period of his life, when
+his natural impetuous temperament was still far from
+being subdued by the frosts of age.
+
+Many liberal Protestants at this period--the King's brief
+visit--were so moved with admiration of the judicious
+and proper conduct of the Catholic leaders, that a new
+but short-lived organization, called "the Conciliation
+Committee," was formed. The ultra Orange zealots, however,
+were not to be restrained even by the presence of the
+Sovereign for whom they professed so much devotion. In
+the midst of the preparations for his landing, they
+celebrated, with all its offensive accompaniments, the
+12th of July, and at the Dublin dinner to the King--though
+after he had left the room--they gave their charter toast
+of "the glorious, pious, and immortal memory." The
+Committee of Conciliation soon dwindled away, and, like
+the visit of George IV., left no good result behind.
+
+The year 1822 was most remarkable, at its commencement,
+for the arrival of the Marquis of Wellesley, as
+Lord-Lieutenant, and at its close, for the assault
+committed on him in the theatre by the Dublin Orangemen.
+Though the Marquis had declined to interfere in preventing
+the annual Orange celebration, he was well known to be
+friendly to the Catholics; their advocate, Mr. Plunkett,
+was his Attorney General; and many of their leaders were
+cordially welcomed at the Castle. These proofs were
+sufficient for the secret tribunals which sat upon his
+conduct, and when his Lordship presented himself, on the
+night of the 14th of December, at the theatre, he was
+assailed by an organized mob, one of whom flung a heavy
+piece of wood, and another a quart bottle, towards the
+state box. Three Orangemen, mechanics, were arrested
+and tried for the offence, but acquitted on a technical
+defect of evidence; a general feeling of indignation was
+excited among all classes in consequence, and it is
+questionable if Orangeism, in Dublin, ever recovered the
+disgust occasioned by that dastardly outrage.
+
+The great and fortunate event, however, for the Catholics,
+was the foundation of their new Association, which was
+finally resolved upon at an Aggregate Meeting held in
+"Townsend Street Chapel," on the 10th of May, 1823. This
+meeting had been called by an imposing requisition signed
+with singular unanimity by all the principal Catholic
+gentlemen. Lord Killeen presided. Mr. O'Connell moved
+the formation of the Association; Sir Thomas Esmonde
+seconded the motion; Mr. Shiel--lately and sincerely
+reconciled to O'Connell--sustained it. The plan was simple
+and popular. The Association was to consist of members
+paying a guinea a year, and associates paying a shilling;
+a standing committee was to form the government; the
+regular meetings were to be weekly--every Saturday; and
+the business to consist of organization, correspondence,
+public discussions, and petitions. It was, in effect, to
+be a sort of extern and unauthorized Parliament, acting
+always within the Constitution, with a view to the
+modification of the existing laws, by means not prohibited
+in those laws themselves. It was a design, subtle in
+conception, but simple in form; a natural design for a
+lawyer-liberator to form; and for a people strongly
+prepossessed in his favour to adopt; but one, at the same
+time, which would require a rare combination of
+circumstances to sustain for any great length of time,
+under a leader less expert, inventive, and resolute.
+
+The Parliamentary position of the Catholic question, at
+the moment of the formation of the Association, had
+undergone another strange alteration. Lord Castlereagh,
+having attained the highest honours of the empire, died
+by his own hand the previous year. Lord Liverpool remained
+Premier, Lord Eldon Chancellor, Mr. Canning became Foreign
+Secretary, with Mr. Peel, Home Secretary, the Duke of
+Wellington continuing Master-General of the Ordnance. To
+this cabinet, so largely anti-Catholic, the chosen organ
+of the Irish Catholics, Mr. Plunkett, was necessarily
+associated as Irish Attorney General. His situation,
+therefore, was in the session of 1823 one of great
+difficulty; this Sir Francis Burdett and the radical
+reformers at once perceived, and in the debates which
+followed, pressed him unmercifully. They quoted against
+him his own language denouncing cabinet compromises on
+so vital a question, in 1813, and to show their indignation,
+when he rose to reply, they left the House in a body.
+His speech, as always, was most able, but the House, when
+he sat down, broke into an uproar of confusion. Party
+spirit ran exceedingly high; the possibility of advancing
+the question during the session was doubtful, and a motion
+to adjourn prevailed. A fortnight later, at the first
+meeting of the Catholic Association, a very cordial vote
+of thanks to Plunkett was carried by acclamation.
+
+The new Catholic organization was labouring hard to merit
+popular favour. Within the year of its organization we
+find the Saturday meetings engaged with such questions
+as church rates; secret societies; correspondence with
+members of both Houses; voting public thanks to Mr.
+Brougham; the penal laws relating to the rights of
+sepulture; the purchase of a Catholic cemetery near
+Dublin; the commutation of tithes; the admission of
+Catholic freemen into corporations; the extension of the
+Association into every county in Ireland, and other more
+incidental subjects. The business-like air of the weekly
+meetings, at this early period, is remarkable: they were
+certainly anything but mere occasions for rhetorical
+display. But though little could be objected against,
+and so much might be said in favour of the labours of
+the Association, it was not till nearly twelve months
+after its organization, when O'Connell proposed and
+carried his system of monthly penny subscriptions to the
+"Catholic Rent," that it took a firm and far-reaching
+hold on the common people, and began to excite the serious
+apprehensions of the oligarchical factions in Ireland
+and England.
+
+This bold, and at this time much ridiculed step, infused
+new life and a system hitherto unknown into the Catholic
+population. The parish collectors, corresponding directly
+with Dublin, established a local agency, co-extensive
+with the kingdom; the smallest contributor felt himself
+personally embarked in the contest; and the movement
+became, in consequence, what it had not been before, an
+eminently popular one. During the next six months the
+receipts from penny subscriptions exceeded 100 pounds
+sterling per month, representing 24,000 subscribers;
+during the next year they averaged above 500 pounds a
+week, representing nearly half a million enrolled
+Associates!
+
+With the additional means at the disposal of the Finance
+Committee of the Association, its power rose rapidly. A
+morning and an evening journal were at its command in
+Dublin; many thousands of pounds were expended in defending
+the people in the courts, and prosecuting their Orange
+and other enemies. Annual subsidies, of 5,000 pounds
+each, were voted for the Catholic Poor schools, and the
+education of missionary priests for America; the expenses
+of Parliamentary and electioneering agents were also
+heavy. But for all these purposes "the Catholic Rent,"
+of a penny per month from each associate, was found
+amply sufficient.
+
+At the close of 1824, the government, really alarmed at
+the formidable proportions assumed by the agitation,
+caused criminal informations to be filed against Mr.
+O'Connell, for an alleged seditious allusion to the
+example of Bolivar, the liberator of South America; but
+the Dublin grand jury ignored the bills of indictment
+founded on these informations. Early in the following
+session, however, a bill to suppress "Unlawful Associations
+in Ireland," was introduced by Mr. Goulburn, who had
+succeeded Sir Robert Peel as Chief Secretary, and was
+supported by Plunkett--a confirmed enemy of all extra-legal
+combinations. It was aimed directly at the Catholic
+Association, and passed both Houses; but O'Connell found
+means "to drive," as he said, "a coach and six through
+it." The existing Association dissolved on the passage
+of the act; another, called "the _New_ Catholic
+Association," was formed for "charitable and other
+purposes," and the agitators proceeded with their
+organization, with one word added to then--title, and
+immensely additional _eclat_ and success.
+
+In Parliament, the measure thus defeated was followed by
+another, the long-promised Relief Bill. It passed in the
+Commons in May, accompanied by two clauses, or as they
+were called, "wings," most unsatisfactory to the Catholic
+body. One clause disfranchised the whole class of electors
+known as the "forty-shilling freeholders;" the other
+provided a scale of state maintenance for the Catholic
+clergy. A bishop was to have 1,000 pounds per annum; a
+dean 300 pounds; a parish priest 200 pounds; a curate 60
+pounds. This measure was thrown out by the House of Lords,
+greatly to the satisfaction, at least, of the Irish
+Catholics. It was during this debate in the Upper House
+that the Duke of York, presumptive heir to the throne,
+made what was called his "ether speech"--from his habit
+of dosing himself with that stimulant on trying occasions.
+In this speech he declared, that so "help him God," he
+would never, never consent to acknowledge the claims put
+forward by the Catholics. Before two years were over,
+death had removed him to the presence of that Awful Being
+whose name he had so rashly invoked, and his brother,
+the Duke of Clarence, assumed his position, as next in
+succession to the throne.
+
+The Catholic delegates, Lord Killeen, Sir Thomas Esmonde,
+Lawless, and Shiel, were in London at the time the Duke
+of York made his memorable declaration. If, on the one
+hand, they were regarded with dislike amounting to hatred,
+on the other, they were welcomed with cordiality by all
+the leaders of the liberal party. The venerable Earl
+Fitzwilliam emerged from his retirement to do them honour;
+the gifted and energetic Brougham entertained them with
+all hospitality; at Norfolk House they were banqueted in
+the room in which George III. was born: the
+millionaire-demagogue Burdett, the courtly, liberal Lord
+Grey, and the flower of the Catholic nobility, were
+invited to meet them. The delegates were naturally cheered
+and gratified; they felt, they must have felt, that their
+cause had a grasp upon Imperial attention, which nothing
+but concession could ever loosen.
+
+Committees of both Houses, to inquire into the state of
+Ireland, had sat during a great part of this Session,
+and among the witnesses were the principal delegates,
+with Drs. Murray, Curtis, Kelly, and Doyle. The evidence
+of the latter--the eminent Prelate of Kildare and
+Leighlin--attracted most attention. His readiness of
+resource, clearness of statement, and wide range of
+information, inspired many of his questioners with a
+feeling of respect, such as they had never before
+entertained for any of his order. His writings had already
+made him honourably distinguished among literary men;
+his examination before the Committees made him equally
+so among statesmen. From that period he could reckon the
+Marquises of Anglesea and Wellesley, Lord Lansdowne and
+Mr. Brougham, among his correspondents and friends, and,
+what he valued even more, among the friends of his cause.
+Mr. O'Connell, on the other hand, certainly lost ground
+in Ireland by his London journey. He had, unquestionably,
+given his assent to both "wings," in 1825, as he did to
+the remaining one in 1828, and thereby greatly injured
+his own popularity. His frank and full recantation of
+his error, on his return, soon restored him to the favour
+of the multitude, and enabled him to employ, with the
+best effect, the enormous influence which he showed he
+possessed at the general elections of 1826. By him mainly
+the Beresfords were beaten in Waterford, the Fosters in
+Louth, and the Leslies in Monaghan. The independence of
+Limerick city, of Tipperary, Cork, Kilkenny, Longford,
+and other important constituencies, was secured. The
+parish machinery of the Association was found invaluable
+for the purpose of bringing up the electors, and the
+people's treasury was fortunately able to protect to some
+extent the fearless voter, who, in despite of his landlord,
+voted according to the dictates of his own heart.
+
+The effect of these elections on the empire at large was
+very great. When, early in the following spring, Lord
+Liverpool, after fifteen years' possession of power, died
+unexpectedly, George IV. sent for Canning and gave him
+_carte blanche_ to form a cabinet without excepting the
+question of Emancipation. That high spirited and really
+liberal statesman associated with himself a ministry,
+three-fourths of whom were in favour of granting the
+Catholic claims. This was in the month of April; but to
+the consternation of those whose hopes were now so justly
+raised, the gifted Premier held office only four months;
+his lamented death causing another "crisis," and one more
+postponement of "the Catholic question."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+O'CONNELL'S LEADERSHIP--THE CLARE ELECTION--EMANCIPATION
+OF THE CATHOLICS.
+
+A very little reflection will enable us to judge, even
+at this day, the magnitude of the contest in which
+O'Connell was the great popular leader, during the reign
+of George IV. In Great Britain, a very considerable
+section of the ancient peerage and gentry, with the Earl
+Marshal at their head, were to be restored to political
+existence, by the act of Emancipation; a missionary, and
+barely tolerated clergy were to be clothed, in their own
+country, with the commonest rights of British subjects
+--protection to life and property. In Ireland, seven-eighths
+of the people, one-third of the gentry, the whole of the
+Catholic clergy, the numerous and distinguished array of
+the Catholic bar, and all the Catholic townsmen, taxed
+but unrepresented in the corporate bodies, were to enter
+on a new civil and social condition, on the passage of
+the act. In the colonies, except Canada, where that church
+was protected by treaty, the change of Imperial policy
+towards Catholics was to be felt in every relation of
+life, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, by all persons
+professing that religion. Some years ago, a bishop of
+Southern Africa declared, that, until O'Connell's time, it
+was impossible for Catholics to obtain any consideration
+from the officials at the Cape of Good Hope. Could there
+be a more striking illustration of the magnitude of the
+movement, which, rising in the latitude of Ireland, flung
+its outermost wave of influence on the shores of the
+Indian ocean?
+
+The adverse hosts to be encountered in this great contest,
+included a large majority of the rank and wealth of both
+kingdoms. The King, who had been a Whig in his youth,
+had grown into a Tory in his old age; the House of Lords
+were strongly hostile to the measure, as were also the
+universities, both in England and Ireland; the Tory party,
+in and out of Parliament; the Orange organization in
+Ireland; the civil and military authorities generally,
+with the great bulk of the rural magistracy and the
+municipal authorities. The power to overcome this power
+should be indeed formidable, well organized and wisely
+directed.
+
+The Lord Lieutenant selected by Mr. Canning, was the
+Marquis of Anglesea, a frank soldier, as little accustomed
+to play the politician as any man of his order and
+distinction could be. He came to Ireland, in many respects
+the very opposite of Lord Wellesley; no orator certainly,
+and so far as he had spoken formerly, an enemy rather
+than a friend to the Catholics. But he had not been
+three months in office when he began to modify his views;
+he was the first to prohibit, in Dublin, the annual Orange
+outrage on the 12th of July, and by subsequent, though
+slow degrees, he became fully convinced that the Catholic
+claims could be settled only by Concession. Lord Francis
+Leveson Gower, afterwards Earl of Ellesmere, accompanied
+the Marquis as Chief Secretary.
+
+The accession to office of a prime minister friendly to
+the Catholics, was the signal for a new attempt to raise
+that "No-Popery" cry which had already given twenty years
+of political supremacy to Mr. Perceval and Lord Liverpool.
+In Ireland, this feeling appeared under the guise of what
+was called "the New Reformation," which, during the summer
+of 1827, raged with all the proverbial violence of the
+_odium theologicum_ from Cork to Derry. Priests and
+parsons, laymen and lawyers, took part in this general
+politico-religious controversy, in which every possible
+subject of difference between Catholic and Protestant
+was publicly discussed. Archbishop Magee of Dublin, the
+Rev. Sir Harcourt Lees, son of a former English placeman
+at the Castle, and the Rev. Mr. Pope, were the clerical
+leaders in this crusade; Exeter-Hall sent over to assist
+them the Honourable and Reverend Baptist Noel, Mr. Wolff,
+and Captain Gordon, a descendant of the hero of the London
+riot of 1798. At Derry, Dublin, Carlow, and Cork, the
+challenged agreed to defend their doctrines. Father
+Maginn, Maguire, Maher, McSweeney, and some others accepted
+these challenges; Messrs. O'Connell, Shiel, and other
+laymen, assisted, and the oral discussion of theological
+and historical questions became as common as town talk
+in every Irish community. Whether, in any case, these
+debates conduced to conversion is doubtful; but they
+certainly supplied the Catholic laity with a body of
+facts and arguments very necessary at that time, and
+which hardly any other occasion could have presented.
+The Right Rev. Dr. Doyle, however, considered them far
+from beneficial to the cause of true religion; and though
+he tolerated a first discussion in his diocese, he
+positively forbade a second. The Archbishop of Armagh
+and other prelates issued their mandates to the clergy
+to refrain from these oral disputes, and the practice
+fell into disuse.
+
+The notoriety of "the Second Reformation" was chiefly
+due to the ostentatious patronage of it by the lay chiefs
+of the Irish oligarchy. Mr. Synge, in Clare, Lord Lorton,
+and Mr. McClintock at Dundalk, were indefatigable in
+their evangelizing exertions. The Earl of Roden--to show
+his entire dependence on the translated Bible--threw all
+his other books into a fish pond on his estate. Lord
+Farnham was even more conspicuous in the revival; he
+spared neither patronage nor writs of ejectment to convert
+his tenantry. The reports of conversions upon his lordship's
+estates, and throughout his county, attracted so much
+notice, that Drs. Curtis, Crolly, Magauran, O'Reilly,
+and McHale, met on the 9th of December, 1826, at Cavan,
+to inquire into the facts. They found, while there had
+been much exaggeration on the part of the reformers, that
+some hundreds of the peasantry had, by various powerful
+temptations, been led to change their former religion.
+The bishops received back some of the converts, and a
+jubilee established among them completed their reconversion.
+The Hon. Mr. Noel and Captain Gordon posted to Cavan,
+with a challenge to discussion for their lordships; of
+course, their challenge was not accepted. Thomas Moore's
+inimitable satire was the most effective weapon against
+such fanatics.
+
+The energetic literature of the Catholic agitation
+attracted much more attention than its oral polemics.
+Joined to a bright army of Catholic writers, including
+Dr. Doyle, Thomas Moore, Thomas Furlong, and Charles
+Butler, there was the powerful phalanx of the _Edinburgh
+Review_ led by Jeffrey and Sidney Smith, and the English
+liberal press, headed by William Cobbett. Thomas Campbell,
+the Poet of Hope, always and everywhere the friend of
+freedom, threw open his _New Monthly_, to Shiel, and
+William Henry Curran, whose sketches of the Irish Bar
+and Bench, of Dublin politics, and the county elections
+of 1826, will live as long as any periodical papers of
+the day. The indefatigable Shiel, writing French as
+fluently as English, contributed besides to the _Gazette
+de France_ a series of papers, which were read with great
+interest on the Continent. These articles were the
+precursors of many others, which made the Catholic question
+at length an European question. An incident quite
+unimportant in itself, gave additional zest to these
+French articles. The Duke de Montebello, with two of his
+friends, Messrs. Duvergier and Thayer, visited Ireland
+in 1826. Duvergier wrote a series of very interesting
+letters on the "State of Ireland," which, at the time,
+went through several editions. At a Catholic meeting at
+Ballinasloe, the Duke had some compliments paid him,
+which he gracefully acknowledged, expressing his wishes
+for the success of their cause. This simple act excited
+a great deal of criticism in England. The Paris press
+was roused in consequence, and the French Catholics,
+becoming more and more interested, voted an address and
+subscription to the Catholic Association. The Bavarian
+Catholics followed their example, and similar communications
+were received from Spain and Italy.
+
+But the movement abroad did not end in Europe. An address
+from British India contained a contribution of three
+thousand pounds sterling. From the West Indies and Canada,
+generous assistance was rendered.
+
+In the United States sympathetic feeling was most active.
+New York felt almost as much interested in the cause as
+Dublin. In 1826 and 1827, associations of "Friends of
+Ireland" were formed at New York, Boston, Washington,
+Norfolk, Charleston, Augusta, Louisville, and Bardstown.
+Addresses in English and French were prepared for these
+societies, chiefly by Dr. McNevin, at New York, and
+Bishop England, at Charleston. The American, like the
+French press, became interested in the subject, and
+eloquent allusions were made to it in Congress. On the
+20th of January, 1828, the veteran McNevin wrote to Mr.
+O'Connell--"Public opinion in America is deep, and strong,
+and universal, in your behalf. This predilection prevails
+over the broad bosom of our extensive continent.
+Associations similar to ours are everywhere starting into
+existence--in our largest and wealthiest cities--in our
+hamlets and our villages--in our most remote sections;
+and at this moment, the propriety of convening, at
+Washington, delegates of the friends of Ireland, of all
+the states, is under serious deliberation. A fund will
+erelong be derived from American patriotism in the United
+States, which will astonish your haughtiest opponents."
+
+The Parliamentary fortunes of the great question were at
+the same time brightening. The elections of 1826, had,
+upon the whole, given a large increase of strength to
+its advocates. In England and Scotland, under the influence
+of the "No-Popery" cry, they had lost some ground, but
+in Ireland they had had an immense triumph. The death of
+the generous-hearted Canning, hastened as it was by
+anti-Catholic intrigues, gave a momentary check to the
+progress of liberal ideas; but they were retarded only
+to acquire a fresh impulse destined to bear them, in the
+next few years, farther than they had before advanced in
+an entire century.
+
+The _ad interim_ administration of Lord Goderich gave
+way, by its own internal discords, in January, 1828, to
+the Wellington and Peel administration. The Duke was
+Premier, the Baronet leader of the House of Commons; with
+Mr. Huskisson, Lord Palmerston, in the cabinet; Lord
+Anglesea remained as Lord Lieutenant. But this coalition
+with the friends of Canning was not destined to outlive
+the session of 1828; the lieutenants of the late Premier
+were doomed, for some time longer, to suffer for their
+devotion to his principles.
+
+This session of 1828, is--in the history of religious
+liberty--the most important and interesting in the annals
+of the British Parliament. Almost at its opening, the
+extraordinary spectacle was exhibited of a petition signed
+by 800,000 Irish Catholics, praying for the repeal of
+"the Corporation and Test Acts," enacted on the restoration
+of Charles II., against the non-Conformists. Monster
+petitions, both for and against the repeal of these acts,
+as well as for and against Catholic emancipation, soon
+became of common occurrence. Protestants of all sects
+petitioned for, but still more petitioned against equal
+rights for Catholics; while Catholics petitioned for the
+rights of Protestant dissenters. It is a spectacle to
+look back upon with admiration and instruction; exhibiting
+as it does, so much of a truly tolerant spirit in Christians
+of all creeds, worthy of all honour and imitation.
+
+In April, "the Corporation and Test Acts" were repealed;
+in May, the Canningites seceded from the Duke's government,
+and one of the gentlemen brought in to fill a vacant seat
+in the Cabinet--Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, member for Clare--
+issued his address to his electors, asking a renewal of
+their confidence. Out of this event grew another, which
+finally and successfully brought to an issue the century-old
+Catholic question.
+
+The Catholic Association, on the accession of the
+Wellington-Peel Cabinet, had publicly pledged itself to
+oppose every man who would accept office under these
+statesmen. The memory of both as ex-secretaries--but
+especially Peel's--was odious in Ireland. When, however,
+the Duke had sustained, and ensured thereby the passage
+of the repeal of "the Corporation and Test Acts," Mr.
+O'Connell, at the suggestion of Lord John Russell the
+mover of the repeal, endeavoured to get his angry and
+uncompromising resolution against the Duke's government
+rescinded. Powerful as he was, however, the Association
+refused to go with him, and the resolution remained. So
+it happened that when Mr. Fitzgerald presented himself
+to the electors of Clare, as the colleague of Peel and
+Wellington, the Association at once endeavoured to bring
+out an opposition candidate. They pitched with this view
+on Major McNamara, a liberal Protestant of the county,
+at the head of one of its oldest families, and personally
+popular; but this gentleman, after keeping them several
+days in suspense, till the time of nomination was close
+at hand, positively declined to stand against his friend,
+Mr. Fitzgerald, to the great dismay of the associated
+Catholics.
+
+In their emergency, an idea, so bold and original, that
+it was at first received with general incredulity by the
+external public, was started. It was remembered by Sir
+David De Roose, a personal friend of O'Connell's, that
+the late sagacious John Keogh had often declared the
+Emancipation question would never be brought to an issue
+till some Catholic member elect stood at the bar of the
+House of Commons demanding his seat. A trusted few were
+at first consulted on the daring proposition, that
+O'Connell himself, in despite of the legal exclusion of
+all men of his religion, should come forward for Clare.
+Many were the consultations, and diverse the judgments
+delivered on this proposal, but at length, on the reception
+of information from the county itself, which gave strong
+assurance of success, the hero of the adventure decided
+for himself. The bold course was again selected as the
+wise course, and the spirit-stirring address of "the
+arch-Agitator" to the electors, was at once issued from
+Dublin. "Your county," he began by saying, "wants a
+representative. I respectfully solicit your suffrages,
+to raise me to that station.
+
+"Of my qualification to fill that station, I leave you
+to judge. The habits of public speaking, and many, many
+years of public business, render me, perhaps, equally
+suited with most men to attend to the interests of Ireland
+in Parliament.
+
+"You will be told I am not qualified to be elected; the
+assertion, my friends, is untrue. I am qualified to be
+elected, and to be your representative. It is true that
+as a Catholic I cannot, and of course never will, take
+the oaths at present prescribed to members of Parliament;
+but the authority which created these oaths (the
+Parliament), can abrogate them: and I entertain a confident
+hope that, if you elect me, the most bigoted of our
+enemies will see the necessity of removing from the
+chosen representative of the people an obstacle which
+would prevent him from doing his duty to his king and
+to his country."
+
+This address was followed instantly by the departure of
+all the most effective agitators to the scene of the
+great contest. Shiel went down as conducting agent for
+the candidate; Lawless left his Belfast newspaper, and
+Father Maguire his Leitrim flock; Messrs. Steele and
+O'Gorman Mahon, both proprietors in the county, were
+already in the field, and O'Connell himself soon followed.
+On the other hand, the leading county families, the
+O'Briens, McNamaras, Vandeleurs, Fitzgeralds and others,
+declared for their old favourite, Mr. Fitzgerald. He was
+personally much liked in the county; the son of a venerable
+anti-Unionist, the well-remembered Prime Sergeant, and
+a man besides of superior abilities. The county itself
+was no easy one to contest; its immense constituency (the
+40-shilling freeholders had not yet been abolished), were
+scattered over a mountain and valley region, more than
+fifty miles long by above thirty wide. They were almost
+everywhere to be addressed in both languages--English
+and Irish--and when the canvass was over, they were still
+to be brought under the very eyes of the landlords, upon
+the breath of whose lips their subsistence depended, to
+vote the overthrow and conquest of those absolute masters.
+The little county town of Ennis, situated on the river
+Fergus, about 110 miles south-west of Dublin, was the
+centre of attraction or of apprehension, and the hills
+that rise on either side of the little prosaic river soon
+swarmed with an unwonted population, who had resolved,
+subsist how they might, to see the election out. It is
+hardly an exaggeration to say that the eyes of the empire
+were turned, during those days of June, on the ancient
+patrimony of King Brian. "I fear the Clare election will
+end ill," wrote the Viceroy to the leader of the House
+of Commons. "This business," wrote the Lord Chancellor
+(Eldon), "must bring the Roman Catholic question to a
+crisis and a conclusion." "May the God of truth and
+justice protect and prosper you," was the public invocation
+for O'Connell's success, by the bishop of Kildare and
+Leighlin. "It was foreseen," said Sir Robert Peel, long
+afterwards, "that the Clare election would be the turning
+point of the Catholic question." In all its aspects, and
+to all sorts of men, this, then, was no ordinary election,
+but a national event of the utmost religious and political
+consequence. Thirty thousand people welcomed O'Connell
+into Ennis, and universal sobriety and order characterized
+the proceedings. The troops called out to overawe the
+peasantry, infected by the prevailing good humour, joined
+in their cheers. The nomination, the polling, and the
+declaration, have been described by the graphic pen of
+Shiel. At the close of the poll the numbers were--O'Connell,
+2,057; Fitzgerald, 1,075; so Daniel O'Connell was declared
+duly elected, amidst the most extraordinary manifestations
+of popular enthusiasm. Mr. Fitzgerald, who gracefully
+bowed to the popular verdict, sat down, and wrote his
+famous despatch to Sir Robert Peel: "All the great
+interests," he said, "my dear Peel, broke down, and the
+desertion has been universal. Such a scene as we have
+had! Such a tremendous prospect as is open before us!"
+
+This "tremendous prospect," disclosed at the hustings of
+Ennis, was followed up by demonstrations which bore a
+strongly revolutionary character. Mr. O'Connell, on his
+return to Dublin, was accompanied by a _levee en masse_,
+all along the route, of a highly imposing description.
+Mr. Lawless, on his return to Belfast, was escorted
+through Meath and Monaghan by a multitude estimated at
+100,000 men, whom only the most powerful persuasions of
+the Catholic clergy, and the appeals of the well-known
+liberal commander of the district, General Thornton,
+induced to disperse. Troops from England were ordered
+over in considerable numbers, but whole companies, composed
+of Irish Catholics, signalized their landing at Waterford
+and Dublin by cheers for O'Connell. Reports of the
+continued hostility of the government suggested desperate
+councils. Mr. Ford, a Catholic solicitor, openly proposed,
+in the Association, exclusive dealing and a run on the
+banks for specie, while Mr. John Claudius Beresford, and
+other leading Orangemen, publicly predicted a revival of
+the scenes and results of 1798.
+
+The Clare election was, indeed, decisive; Lord Anglesea,
+who landed fully resolved to make no terms with those he
+had regarded from a distance as no better than rebels,
+became now one of their warmest partisans. His favourite
+counsellor was Lord Cloncurry, the early friend of Emmet
+and O'Conor; the true friend to the last of every national
+interest. For a public letter to Bishop Curtis, towards
+the close of 1828, in which he advises the Catholics to
+stand firm, he was immediately recalled from the government;
+but his former and his actual chief, within three months
+from the date of his recall, was equally obliged to
+surrender to the Association. The great duke was, or
+affected to be, really alarmed for the integrity of the
+empire, from the menacing aspect of events in Ireland.
+A call of Parliament was accordingly made for an early
+day, and, on the 5th of March, Mr. Peel moved a committee
+of the whole House, to go into a "consideration of the
+civil disabilities of his Majesty's Roman Catholic
+subjects." This motion, after two days' debate, was
+carried by a majority of 188. On the 10th of March the
+Relief Bill was read for the first time, and passed
+without opposition, such being the arrangement entered
+into while in committee. But in five days all the bigotry
+of the land had been aroused; nine hundred and fifty-seven
+petitions had already been presented against it; that
+from the city of London was signed by more than "an
+hundred thousand freeholders." On the 17th of March it
+passed to a second reading, and on the 30th to a third,
+with large majorities in each stage of debate. Out of
+320 members who voted on the final reading, 178 were in
+its favour. On the 31st of March it was carried to the
+Lords by Mr. Peel, and read a first time; two days later,
+on the 2nd of April, it was read a second time, on motion
+of the Duke of Wellington; a bitterly contested debate
+of three days followed; on the 10th, it was read a third
+time, and passed by a majority of 104. Three days later
+the bill received the royal assent, and became law.
+
+The only drawbacks on this--great measure of long-withheld
+justice, were, that it disfranchised the "forty-shilling
+freeholders" throughout Ireland, and condemned Mr.
+O'Connell, by the insertion of the single word "hereafter,"
+to go back to Clare for re-election. In this there was
+little difficulty for him, but much petty spleen in the
+framers of the measure.
+
+While the Relief Bill was still under discussion, Mr.
+O'Connell presented himself, with his counsel, at the
+bar of the House of Commons, to claim his seat as member
+for Clare. The pleadings in the case were adjourned from
+day to day, during the months of March, April, and May.
+A committee of the House, of which Lord John Russell was
+Chairman, having been appointed in the meantime to consider
+the petition of Thomas Mahon and others, against the
+validity of the election, reported that Mr. O'Connell
+had been duly elected. On the 15th of May, introduced by
+Lords Ebrington and Duncannon, the new member entered
+the House, and advanced to the table to be sworn by the
+Clerk. On the oath of abjuration being tendered to him,
+he read over audibly these words--"that the sacrifice of
+the mass, and the invocation of the blessed Virgin Mary,
+and other saints, as now practised in the Church of Rome,
+are impious and idolatrous:" at the subsequent passage,
+relative to the falsely imputed Catholic "doctrine of
+the dispensing power" of the Pope, he again read aloud,
+and paused. Then slightly raising his voice, he bowed,
+and added, "I decline, Mr. Clerk, to take this oath.
+Part of it I know to be false; another part I do not
+believe to be true."
+
+He was subsequently heard at the bar, in his own person,
+in explanation of his refusal to take the oath, and,
+according to custom, withdrew. The House then entered
+into a very animated discussion on the Solicitor General's
+motion "that Mr. O'Connell, having been returned a member
+of this House before the passing of the Act for the Relief
+of the Roman Catholics, he is not entitled to sit or vote
+in this House unless he first takes the oath of supremacy."
+For this motion the vote on a division was 190 against
+116: majority, 74. So Mr. O'Connell had again to seek
+the suffrages of the electors of Clare.
+
+A strange, but well authenticated incident, struck with
+a somewhat superstitious awe both Protestants and Catholics,
+in a corner of Ireland the most remote from Clare, but
+not the least interested in the result of its memorable
+election. A lofty column on the walls of Deny bore the
+effigy of Bishop Walker, who fell at the Boyne, armed
+with a sword, typical of his martial inclinations, rather
+than of his religious calling. Many long years, by day
+and night, had his sword, sacred to liberty or ascendancy,
+according to the eyes with which the spectator regarded
+it, turned its steadfast point to the broad estuary of
+Lough Foyle. Neither wintry storms nor summer rains had
+loosened it in the grasp of the warlike churchman's
+effigy, until, on the 13th day of April, 1829--the day
+the royal signature was given to the Act of Emancipation
+--the sword of Walker fell with a prophetic crash upon
+the ramparts of Derry, and was shattered to pieces. So,
+we may now say, without bitterness and almost without
+reproach, so may fall and shiver to pieces, every code,
+in every land beneath the sun, which impiously attempts
+to shackle conscience, or endows an exclusive caste with
+the rights and franchises which belong to an entire People!
+
+
+
+End of Volume 2 of 2.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Popular History of Ireland V2
+by Thomas D'Arcy McGee
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A POPULAR HISTORY OF IRELAND ***
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